Chapter 5 - A World in a Bottle in a Ship Part 2/4
The promised pizza arrived fairly promptly once an order with the top five topping choices had been argued out. The real surprise was how it had arrived. Sunset was once again left smirking at everyone’s wide eyed expressions as the three buzzing machines - each easily the size of a small chariot - descended towards them.
That began the first round of questions soon after they had dropped off the recognizable pizza boxes and side drinks on a pallet, only pausing for Sunset to verify her identity to one using a small pad on an extendable arm.
“They work a bit like an autogyro. Well, similar principles at least. You all saw those whirling circles on the ends of those six arms right? Well each one of those is just a set of spinning wing blades. They just have an internal power source instead of needing to be towed up by a pegasus or dropped off somewhere high,” she explained nonchalantly. “That and a small fraction of the intelligence Alas has to navigate.”
Naturally that gave way to questions about what an autogyro was, which Sunset elected to ignore and leave to the Equestrian ponies to explain. She was seemingly more interested in setting out the pizza and drinks on a couple of cleared workbenches with the help of a couple of drafted guards and maids.
Fortunately, the excitement for hot food was more than enough to distract everyone from their question for the moment. A moment which led Cadance to observing Sunset collapsing into a chair, hidden away and alone next to some bulky, long, tarpaulin covered object, looking absolutely exhausted.
Glancing back at the pile of pizza and the collection of paper plates and cups, she decided to do her old acquaintance a favour. No one protested when their Princess nudged in ahead of the que and started piling up two plates worth of food, in spite of any apparent unfairness.
When Cadance approached, Sunset seemed not to notice her, leading to a brief awkward pause. Gently Cadance cleared her throat and a glance of suspicion was promptly shot her way.
With a gentle smile she simply spoke, “Here,” and offered up the second plate.
Blinking away her surprise, Sunset took the plate with a sigh and a small smile. “Thanks.”
Awkwardly grabbing a stool and bringing it close she sat with her and the two began to quietly eat. Conversation not coming so easily as hoped, Cadance took to people watching; carefully studying her transformed subjects as they all awkwardly tried not to make a mess of eating their food. Uncertainty, thoughtfulness and curiosity were all abundant, which she was thankful for opposed to the alternatives of fear and despair. She had had enough of that back in those catacombs while bargaining with Sombera.
“So, you’ve been busy,” Sunset eventually spoke up. “Crystal Empire huh? And I thought I was the ambitious one, Empress Mi Amore Cadenza.”
Quickly pushing her surprise aside at Sunset starting the conversation, Cadance rolled her eyes and huffed dismissively at the playful jab.
“I don’t hold the title of Empress, just Princess, Sunset. The Crystal Empire is, well, barely much more than the one city now days. The name is a holdover from a time long since passed. But… I suppose you are right. I have been busy.”
“Yeah. Got married, conquered a whole new country, held the Equestria games there, then went and squeezed out an alicorn foal to add the impossible cherry on top the improbable cake,” Sunset listed out humorously.
Cadance glanced slyly at the mare before adding to the list, “My wedding was also crashed by an invasion of shape shifting emotional vampires. And participated in a musical number with a bed ridden Discord. But I suppose those are just details.”
“You’re kidding,” Sunset said back, blinking owlishly at the now confidently grinding Cadance, who merely pointed towards Thorax. “Okay, you’re not kidding. How the tartarus did I miss that?”
“I suspect… because the Canterlot Times doesn’t deliver subscriptions this far outside of Equestria’s borders,” Cadance commented innocently after a moment of thought. Sunset’s deadpan glare was exactly what she was aiming to provoke.
“The Times? Are you kidding?” she asked, bristling with exaggerated anger. “No way I would pay bits for that sensationalist and elitist trash. And I was reading through the newspapers, the respectable ones, in the archive.”
“Oh? So that framed article of them accusing you of launching a coup against the crown and nobility was stolen then?” Cadance continued, now feigning an astonished gasp.
“Damn straight it was! Straight from Celestia’s breakfast table,” Sunset asserted with mock outrage.
The two fell into a giggle fit a moment later, knowing full well the sorts of stories that frequently worked their way into the newspaper that pretended to be so much more distinguished then it actually was.
“Ugh, seriously, I accidentally set some drapes on fire and those rumour mongers jumped straight over arson to treason,” Sunset complained, recalling one of many rumours that had run amuck back in her day.
“To be fair, you really annoyed the editor’s nephew in law earlier that week. Namely by emptying a bowl of custard over his head,” Cadance reminded her with a titter.
That reminder only prompted further aggravated nostalgia from Sunset’s past. “Oh now he totally deserved that! Narcissistic twat wouldn’t take no for an answer. Then pretending otherwise, as if I couldn’t hear him boasting to all his friends about taming the ‘wild flaming flower of Celestia’s bosom’. The prat was almost literally asking for it, tempting fate with a lie like that in public, at a party I was actually attending.”
“Wait what? Celestia’s bosom?” Cadance asked, struggling to contain her laughter. “I hadn’t heard that one before.”
Suddenly Sunset’s amusement evaporated. “Yeah. One of those rumours were going around back then. About me being Celestia’s secret love child or something,” Sunset explained bitterly.
Cadance’s expression similarly sobered. Silently she cursed herself for trotting right into that minefield of a topic.
“Uh, miss Sun Shims?”
Both mares immediately snapped their heads to look down towards where a young child with mixed strawberry pink, golden blond hair and deep green eyes was shackally standing, looking up at the pair nervously.
“Ah, y-your highness,” the child added hesitantly with a clumsy bow, one that promptly sent her off balance.
“Woah there!” Sunset called out as she lunged forward to catch the girl before she fell, catching her beneath the shoulders and gently pulling her back to her feet. “Heh, I don’t think Cadenza here minds if you pass up on the courtly manners until you all adjust better. And it’s Sunset. Miss Shimmer if you really gotta be formal. Please don’t.”
The gentle if slightly awkward smile from Sunset fortunately did plenty to reassure the now blushing child.
“S-sunset. Uh, we were wondering if… is your big metal friend okay?”
“Huh?” Sunset boggled in confusion for a moment before looking over at where the child was now pointing to see Atlas hanging in his maintenance frame. Looking back and around to see some of the other children near by peeking around the edge of a work bench, she could only chuckle. The way they were holding their hands in fists while making little nervous gestures was particularly adorable.
Cadance likewas couldn’t help but giggle a little.
“Don’t worry. Atlas is fine. It’s just recharging, or resting if you like,” Sunet explained happily enough. “But it’s not my friend exactly. More of a pet really. If you like I can teach you guys how to give him orders later.”
That seemed to intrigue the other children to edge out closer a little more.
“Yes, it’s alright to come out,” Cadance encouraged. “Sunset is an old friend of mine after all.”
The comment once again got Cadance an odd, slightly suspicious look from Sunset but she refrained from questioning Cadance.
“Yeah… I only smack around people my own size or bigger, and only if they deserve it. Old king smoggy certainly counts.”
The silly name got a few chuckles and smiles out of the small group.
“So, what do you little gang of monkeys want?” Sunset asked teasingly.
“Wha- we’re not monkeys!” one young boy - or former colt - objected loudly.
“Yes you are. Humans are just funny looking monkeys and we’re all human,” Sunset continued to tease with a growing smirk. She swiftly cut herself off however when she caught a couple of them looking frightened and moist-eyed. “For now. Don’t worry, like I said it’s not permanent. Until then… there’s perks. Like hands. Humans are scary good at climbing you know, and there’s plenty of trees around. Swimming too, surprisingly enough. Uh, but don’t go doing that without supervision yet.”
The uncertain platitudes Sunset was now awkwardly sprouting seemed to somewhat help… but not entirely. The shaky smile that was steadily growing more forced certainly did not.
So Cadance decided to step up and pull her out of her own rut.
“Sunset’s quite right. This isn’t something we wanted, but it is an opportunity to learn new things. We’ll get home in time but until then we can make the best of the situation, even have a little fun. If we’re all lucky we might make some new friends too,” Cadance added, giving them all a more natural smile and wiggling her fingers at them. “Speaking of which, I’m sure you all came here for more than one question. What did you want to ask?”
Hesitantly one young boy with grey hair streaked with bright blue waddled forward a step or two and began to ramble bashfully. “Oh, uh, well, some of the grownups were talking all about how this was impossible and stuff and maybe it was some kind of trick but they don’t think the princess, uh, you your majestyness could be tricked by something obviously fake and… and we’re all just kinda confused.”
Sunset butt in with a grunt, and a mouth half full of pizza much to Cadance’s dismay. “Gona’ havta be a bi’ more sp’cific.” She thankfully did not take another bit after swallowing. “I mean, there’s a lot of stuff here I can imagine you got questions about, so got to start somewhere.”
“Sunset, please don’t talk with your mouth full,” Cadance chided.
Sunset merely levelled a blank stare at Cadance… before poking her tongue out at her. Their audience of children broke out into scandalised gasps and giggles not more then a second later. Meanwhile Sunset just took another large bite of pizza while keeping her eyes locked on Cadance.
The Princess couldn’t suppress the sigh and role of her eyes, but could not hold back a smile either when she caught sight of the children’s amusement.
“Really, you would think you were raised in a barn, not a castle with manners like that,” Cadance huffed with pretend annoyance, nose pointed skyward.
“Clearly you’ve never seen Celestia when she thinks she’s alone with a pile of cakes,” Sunset argued back before cringing and pretending to shiver. “There are some things that cannot be unseen Mi-mo.”
“Then lets not discuss that,” Cadance replied curtly, ending the mock bickering so she could turn her attention back to the children, a kindly expression replacing her show of snootiness. “So, what was the matter exactly?”
“Uh, well, Miss Crystal Drops kept saying that Equis wasn’t a ball but a big flat plate and the stars were just big gems floating up there like the sun and moon,” their little leader said hesitantly.
“Mhum, and Mr Bronzer said that wasn’t true and it was one big flat plane that goes on forever,” the one boy with the grey blue hair said. “Oh, and like, the night sky was just a sort of curtain with holes in it and those were what stars were.”
“Yeah, and then Miss Drops was all, like, well if it goes on forever where does the sun and moon go when the Princesses lower them!” another former filly added exuberantly, clearly wondering the same thing herself.
“Uhuh! And then Miss Amythis Polish said that means we must be in some place like Tartarus because this is all so impossible,” the fist continued. “A lot of them started looking kinda worried after that.”
As they talked Sunset grew increasingly disgruntled. “Yeah, bet they also said the moon wasn’t real and was just a hologram, and Nightmare Moon was an inside job,” she snarked quietly before straightening up and abruptly launching herself forward and up onto one of the work table in the middle of the room.
“Alright! Listen up!” Sunset called out loudly, scowling lightly at the crowd.
Immediately every eye in the room was on her. Most nervously considering her angry tone, but Shining and a few others were more cautiously waiting for misbehaviour.
“I’ve heard there’s been a lot of talk about how everything I’ve said is a bunch of Minotaur crap,” Sunset accused the crowd collectively, sweeping her gaze over many of them. “But I’m not going to tell you you’re wrong, I’m going to teach you you are. Then, when we got time, I’ll show you you’re wrong just to drive the point home. So! Lets get started! First of all, we don’t live on bucking Equis. That name was invented by a stuck up society of Unicorn Nobles who preached that pony kind had inherited the earth and all upon it. They even actively advocated for the slavery of so called lesser species. Given your history, might want to think twice about using it. The proper term is Cunabula Harmonia, or Cradle of Harmony if you don’t like ancient Pegasus fancy speak. Now, onto gravity and orbital mechanics one oh one…”
The ensuing lecture was informative to say the least, including a fun little demonstration where she recruited a few guards into holding out a blanket and left a large bal representing a sun in the centre weighing it down then let the children take turns throwing marbles representing planets around it to give a crude facsimile of how gravity and orbits worked. Apparently it wasn’t very accurate given it was a force that allegedly operated on at least four dimensions, and was more of a pulling force then the pushing force one imagined when picturing a blanket of space-time pressing down on you, but gave a good impression of how things worked practically speaking.
Then she bounced onto how this entire place could probably be built and where that much metal could probably be found. The answer she delivered was naturally delivered as disturbingly as possible.
“You see, Stars don’t live forever. They sure live a long time, longer than even Celestia has been alive for but they eventually burn out. But they don’t just smoulder into nothing, no. They Explode!” she announced with a grin and wide-spread arms. “This throws bits of rock and metal and dust and gas all over the place! Some of this has enough gravity to attract other bits to each other which draws in more and more stuff and if there’s enough, the gravity starts crushing all that gas together and they light up with something called nuclear fusion. The rest though, kinda settles into an orbit around the new star. Sometimes you get enough to make a planet, one made out of dirt or a great big ball of gas. But a lot of stuff is left sort of just… floating around. Asteroids, meteors, or shooting stars if you like. Stuff you can mine,” she explained smugly, having happily mimed out all the crushing and swirling motions associated with it.
Of course, she was not done yet. Sunset just had to elaborate on how they mined in space, in her own disturbingly intriguing style.
“Smaller ships, mining ships, that extend an array of spider-like limbs around the asteroid. Then! Like some sort of deep sea jellyfish it extends a membrane around the asteroid as if extending its stomach around it to digest it… which is kinda what it’s really doing when you think about it. It makes the place safer for people to go out and start mining the asteroid, pulling it apart and feeding it to the furnaces of the mining ship. Maybe they’ll use a few explosive to break it up if it’s a tough one,” she happily explained, mimicking the enveloping with one hand over a fist and the explosion likewise with a mimed boom. “That said, if they really need the raw materials they’ll just eat entire worlds instead.”
Naturally the first horrified question was how.
“Oh! I am so glad you asked,” Sunset exclaimed in a singsong voice and a giddy grin. “You see, humans learnt to create artificial suns a while ago. They actually use special bottled up stable ones to power this ship. But to crack a world apart? They use special short lived ones that unleash all their energy in one, brief explosion! They still need a lot of them to do something so titanic as break apart a planet, but the rewards tend to be worth it as often the more valuable and heavier metals they want have sunk into the core of the planet while it formed. Denser stuff being heavier and all that.”
She finished up with a pleased smile, eyeing the now uneasy looking crowd. “But don’t worry. They wouldn’t do something like that to Cunabula Harmonia. They’ve only ever done this to barren, airless, lifeless rocks and the fleet has never needed to do it anyway. They’re crazy, not evil. Something like that would be a reprehensible crime of the highest level. Not to mention a waste of good real estate. And just impractical now I think about it, takes a long time to set something like that up.”
“Oh? And dare I ask why you have not suggested procuring a few of these weapons to use against our enemies?”
The uneasy crowd once again turned their attention to the speaker, an extremely disgruntled - but now also curious - Sombera who had been glaring daggers at Sunset for her whole speech.
“Because, using such things as weapons have consequences,” Sunset replied without hesitation, voice becoming stern and entirely down to business. “Ones beyond just the immediate destruction they cause. You of all ponies should understand power comes at a price. That’s what we have the opportunity to gain here. The power to create and destroy in astounding measure. The price to gaining that power, is the time it takes us to learn how to use it… and more importantly the consequences of doing so. The Earthlings are here now, but there were times when they almost weren’t. They learnt their lesson, now we don’t have to.”
Sunset let the uneasy atmosphere sit for a moment before turning and jumping off the table she had been using as an improvised stage.
“Anyway, that’s enough questions and lectures for now,” she called back grumpily. “I have an appointment with some cold pizza and my bed.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.03 seconds
Total duration
1,027 users online
1,391,560 hits today, 2,244,100 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
This was a good chapter, thanks
sad Alderaan noises
While this is generally a fun little chapter (with only one major technical issue: nukes are nowhere near up to cracking planets), you were right to be concerned about the lecture. It wasn't bad, but it was kind of a waste of time. It would have been much more productive if you'd brought in the audience more, and that also would have been a great way to start fleshing out some secondary characters you plan to make use of later (Thorax immediately comes to mind since leaving him a changeling seems to imply you have plans for him).
Alternatively, you could have reduced the lecture to a throwaway line at the end and shifted the focus of the chapter to the conversation with Cadence since the wait for pizza is a great excuse to trickle new characters in at opportune moments. This would have been a better way to dig into the characters and start building their relationships since the small group setting gives you more of a back and fourth, although the flipside is that the narrower focus does further split the group into main characters and background ponies.
That said, I do want to reiterate my lead-in. This chapter is functional as is, so there's no need to do a major revision. There's certainly nothing wrong with making changes if it's bothering you, but this isn't a critical chapter so it might be best to call this a lesson learned and move on.
11699248
joeydevilla.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/alderaan-shot-first.jpg
You seem like a 40k fan. Well, I want to ask a question. Have you ever heard of the nuns of battle?
11699260
11699291
Yes, although I'm not sure what they have to do with this.
11699658
Absolutely, you've highlighted some crucial aspects here that support the feasibility of this colonization mission. First, let's delve into the technology aspect. The fact that they possess the ability to harness stars as power sources and generate artificial gravity is indeed a testament to their advanced knowledge. In light of this, constructing a city-sized spaceship becomes a relatively straightforward endeavor. Comparatively, the Death Star, a planet-sized weapon, was a colossal feat of engineering. A colonization vessel, designed solely for habitation and not destruction, need not reach the same scale.
Consider this: the settlers embark on this journey fully aware that it's a one-way trip until they establish the essential infrastructure to support their return. This concept mirrors the spirit of the classic Western narrative, where pioneers ventured into the unknown, often with no expectation of immediate return. The caravan analogy is apt, as they're essentially transporting everything required for survival to a new frontier.
Moreover, in terms of security, it's reasonable to assume that a ship of this magnitude, presumably American, would provide a level of self-defense for its occupants. Even Sunset, an alien among them, has a robot protector, underscoring the notion that safety is a paramount concern.
With nearly limitless power at their disposal, the possibilities for ship design are boundless. Imagination and functionality are the sole constraints. Disassembling the ship into separate parts, akin to Saturn's rings, could indeed prove the most effective approach. This ingenious design not only capitalizes on the technology they possess but also serves as a visual reminder of their pioneering spirit in this grand venture.
P.s
Continue the good work. This is in my top five even at where it is now of science fiction / fantasy stories on this website.
11404523
It's a small lecture, about the right length I'd say.
A few paragraphs after this point are in italics, looks like a formatting error.
An interesting choice of a title from Cadie here - or it's just a comma missing, which makes it a little confusing.
That's some inventive form of treason, tossing entire cars around like that - or entire carriages, given the original meaning of that term. The crown and nobility would be very surprised. Well, that, or it could be a mistype of "a coup". Either way works, really.
"lucky", "friends too"
"Minotaur"
"Denser"
11699706
That is an amusing point. Regardless of what the author said earlier, this is more of a wagon train to the stars than any mainstream IP. There's a whole convoy of ships (wagons) making a long, difficult, and dangerous journey to a new world (area of the country) they know very little about to settle and build a new life or die trying because giving up and going home isn't really an option.
The only minor issue I take with your comment is that Sunset clearly has motive to acquire extra firepower and little respect for the law, so while Atlas is certainly indicative of the kind of weapons humanity has available to it, it isn't necessarily indicative of what's widely available to civilians.
11700234
"I believe it's quite evident that Sunset somehow managed to infiltrate this world's military or marines without any official documentation or background history, implying that she has a powerful supporter. Given this, it's reasonable to assume that she has access to a certain level of weaponry. However, as you mentioned, even acquiring items from the black market may not suffice in the long run. What they truly need is a strong backer, preferably human. Assuming this is an American ship and the Second Amendment is still in effect, if Sunset is allowed to carry a robot armed with a plasma blaster, it's reasonable to expect that citizens can carry at least one or two laser gunner pistols legally."
The bigger problem which I'm interested in seeing solve is how in the hell is sunset going to get official papers for all these people. I'm assuming that IDs or something better than those exist now and everyone who's walk the board on the zip was accounted for from my imagination. At least 30 people or more on the spaceship. The only person I think that is useful and espionage is thorax and even then, I assume that most people have a way to suss out imposters.
11678405
Sorry if it seems like I've been giving you the silent treatment. You've just given me a lot to think over and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I really don't know what to tell you because I don't know what you want to find here.
But to do my best to explain my reasoning, certain aspects of Star Strider's design have always been set in stone for story and a few plot reasons. Having a large, open cylindrical habitat that echos Rama from the book by the same name was always the plan. Having a non-rotating outer shell is also kind of needed for a few scenes down the line. As for why the ship is designed this way, well the main reason is long term comfort. If you can't travel at FTL speeds you're going to be spending years, decades even travelling between stars. Submarine like conditions are just not feasible for long term sanity. Maybe two cylinders is too much but... I don't know, I have kinda sold myself on the design now. Helps with mitigating torque with the non-rotating outer shell at least. And there was also the matter of rotating structures apparently having the tendency to
As for the motivations of the people on board, well they're not just colonists but explorers, visiting worlds no human has ever seen or experienced before beyond some grainy long range telescope pictures. They don't want to go back to Earth and the Sol system, the want to see the next new thing, or settle down and build it (or find it when it comes to more long term, deeper exploration of various planetary bodies). In a sense, Star Strider and her fleet are not just colony ships in the sense that they're founding new colonies, but they are themselves a colony. The cylinder can't just spin down because there are still people living their lives in there.
I also absolutely agree with you regarding where the main engines should be. I imagine two of them as it stands, symmetrically arranged in line with the two habitat cylinders.
As for scale, I would probably rate this as almost closer to the Warhammer side of things in the sense of a small but substantial start up with plans for growth. Except colonies are built for self-sufficiency and comfort as opposed to extracting resources en-mass to fuel a never ending war effort, and how fast they grow is up to them. Star Fleet's ethics and semi-utopian living standards, mixed with the industrial scale and might that comes with a civilisation of billions that didn't shoot itself in the foot with some sort of world war 3.
11699260
Anyway, moving on a bit. I'll be honest I wanted to slip planet-cracking in here somewhere for the fun of it, and Sunset is exaggerating a good deal. I imagine it's only really done with planetoids and moons, and only after all easy resources have been extracted by more conventional means. It's a sensationalist factoid.
As for characters, I guess that's where I'm struggling. Inventing new characters out of whole cloth feels awkward when I don't have solid plans for them yet. Yet I've given myself a nice pool to draw from. I kinda want to make a gang of kids wondering off on their own side adventure at some point due to boredom while the adults panic and try to track them down, but no solid plans yet. Might also be fun to play with crystal ponies and their cultural identity a bit, seeing as they have a new place to draw ideas from. The way I see it, Sombra largely tore a lot of that down in favor of self aggrandisement.
I don't think I'll seriously re-vamp this chapter. Maybe I'll edit in some appearances from yet to feature original characters at some point but you're right when you said it's serviceable. Just hope it doesn't seem too fillery.
11700234
Hehe, while I will affirm you're on the right tracks with Sunset being a naughty girl doing a lot of things she shouldn't in the name of ambition, she's also aware of the consequences of breaking the rules and so sticks to the legally grey as much as possible.
11699706
I… probably should have mentioned this but when Sunset says bottled up stars? Well she’s talking about fusion reactors. That said, a sufficiently advanced fusion reactor would give you unlimited energy from a practical standpoint.
And just to clarify, no, they don’t have artificial gravity exactly speaking. They have spin gravity. Which is arguably cheating. We can do this right now if we wanted, but, well, half the point of going to space right now is to do science experiments in zero G environments, so no point expending the effort.
As far as weapons go, I’m thinking it’s mostly a hobby for most people. Utopian living standards means little crime as there’s no desperation to make ends meet, therefor little crime and less regulation of weapons. In theory. Maybe. Not sure how well it would work out IRL but I’m channelling my Trekie side as far as a more advanced, more enlightened humanity goes. That said there’s still paranoia for many and adrenaline junkies that get their fixes from making this explode. Or melt. Or disintegrate from a ruthless rain of lead. Will explore that side of things a little later.
So yeah, other than that I think you’ve hit the emotional nail on the head in regards to frontier spirit. Though I don’t like comparing it to the colonisation of North America because, well, there’s a lot of baggage attached. Like the fact there were already people living there. Who were killed for it.
11700362
You know… I have the details of Sunset’s backstory planned out, but not how it’s revealed yet. Need to work on that. I will say she hasn’t joined any military organisation but she has been fooling around with taking advantage of other civil services and the perks they offer for joining.
As for scrounging together documentation for all her new roommates, oh boy is that a fun chapter I’m already writing. Suffice to say, Star Strider and the fleet has been in space long enough for many many people to have been born upon her, leave, get lost, get found again or be created from some deranged genius who took up cloning that there’s just about enough leeway for a couple of hundred people to appear and not be immediately noticed if they keep their heads down.
And thank you for the warm words of encouragement. Only hope I can live up to them.
11699248
...wait. Did I accidental make a star wars reference?
With how many deliberate quotes or paraphrases I've been throwing in I guess I shouldn't be surprised I managed one accidentally.
11700084
Thanks again for the unofficial proof-reading. All tidied up now thank you.
And I'm sure Sunset would be quite happy to claim that title!
...or would she? Spoilers~
One would expect at this point in development humans are not baseline humans, right? At the very least basic immunity to desease and simple genetic enchancment would become standard, or rather, built-in. Not to mention implants, bionic limbs, brain-computer interface, personal assistants and nanotech.
Because, we already have the very basics right now. Surely, advanced space faring civilization would not have a lopsided tech tree.
Right, author? Or is this another case of "warp drives, monochrome TVs"?
11702832 Oh my oh my! What an idea!
I have to say the answer is undoubtedly, Spoilers~
But I also think you might need to go back and read the first couple of chapters once more. I did leave a few hints.
...would be the two most obvious examples. I have drawn some inspiration from Cyberpunk settings here.
Anyway, thanks for the interest. Hope you enjoy everything to come too~
11704043
I believe the collision of early-industrial society of ponies with a old-style philosophy against ultra-futuristic human world to be the main interest point of the story. Naturally, i also expect that futuristic philosophy and extremely wide range of stories must have widened Sunset's mind quite a bit.
I also expect normal conflict sources to be of a non issue on human side. Considering how wasteful (or rich) they are presented to be, fighting over resources for most individuals might be more effort than worth. Although inter-species war (with aliens) will always be a thing, i guess.
Might be fun to add some religious ponies in the mix, and see their reaction to stuff humans come up with.
Explore some of adaptation issues from point like going from work to easy life, addiction to entertainment stuff. Maybe have ponies interact with humans over the internet, with funny situations and actions.
That said, i mostly see mostly-utopian human society, from how it presented now. If you were really inspired by cyberpunk... Things will be far more action-oriented and dark in the shadows. Although i would myself prefer more psychological approach, because i don't like meshing ponies with violence.
You can of course go for either, or both.
The way i see it, in a good story, while humans change ponies, ponies have to change something in humans too. At least solve some problem through their nature. But it's just an overall idea i would like to see.
Anyway, i'm quite intrigued right now, so i'll follow along. You're doing great!
11704591
Oh, don't you know it~ I really do want to make exploration a big theme of this story, not just physically but in terms of ideas and society. Not sure how well I'm going to live up to that aspiration but... well, I'm going to try.
And when I say cyberpunk inspirations it's probably more post-cyberpunk, or even solarpunk. I love the aesthetics and the exploration of technology but the more dystopian aspects like mega-corps and rampant late-stage capitalism. Might throw in some issues regarding identity and technology addiction though.
I'll admit there's going to be some violence later down the line, but it also isn't going to be too central. I think. Nothing graphic at the very least. No one is going on a self righteous psychotic killing spree against the aliens for daring to hurt the cute, perfect, little ponies.
As for how ponies will effect the Earthlings on a personal level... I'll admit I'm going to have to think on that a bit more. The ponies are hardly going to be agentless but... yeah, I think I have an idea of how to do it. Or at least one way. Need to go write that down. Thanks!
I will never leave fimfiction. I'll be here till it's dying breath leaving updoots and silly comments on wonderfully creative storys like yours.