Chapter Seventy Six: Critical Failure
Sassi immediately galloped towards the door, checking before everything was clear. Swiftly locking it, the mare quickly made her way down the hall. The second helmet would alert her if any creatures tried to sneak in.
The infrared worked perfectly but Sassi made sure to have snagged a flare just in case the electronics fizzled out again. It was a quick but cautious trot to the fuse box, nothing impeding Sassi’s path. Nothing had changed. No motion alarms, not a single thing out of place.
Turning the corner, Sassi clicked the helmet lights on to get a better view of the fuse box.
Her heart stopped.
The fuse box was a blackened mess. There were new fuses that were burned and fried, tendrils of foul smoke wisping into the air. But across the entire machine, a massive gash had torn it nearly in half. There weren’t any switches to flick.
“Scan for available power grids. Anything we can hook the healing crystals up to.”
‘Scanning.’
The minute of scanning felt like an hour.
‘No active, sufficient power sources detected. The electric grid in this area has suffered catastrophic damage.’
Sassi dared to trot at the end of the hall, glancing this way and that but finding no change in status, nor anything new.
“Then how do we power the healing crystals?”
There was a pause, far too long for the advanced AI.
‘Unknown. Searching for alternatives.’
Sassi quickly made her way back to the hospital wing. Surely there had to be something! It was a simple matter to re-barricade everything, and the mare toyed with the idea of strapping Astral to her back and galloping as fast as she could.
And yet that could kill him. There was no guarantee she’d even find a medical bed, let alone a working one.
“Can he be healed with just the crystals in his body? Maybe not power the entire medical bed for a time?” She asked, pacing back and forth as the counter ticked down faster.
‘Negative. Supplemental healing spells are insufficient. Primary user needs additional, full-saturation spell treatment before relying solely on supplemental crystals and armor systems. Movement at this stage will increase user destabilization.’
Sassi felt the hot, painful tears of frustration welling up, but she forced them down. The timer ticked down methodically, Sassi's eyes frozen to the counter. She could hear her heartbeat thudding, her breath quickening.
What do I do!?
There was nothing in Sassi's training repertoire that could help. No improvising could bring power to the healing crystals. The power grid was well and truly dead.
And Astral would likely follow.
She refused to accept that thought even as the inevitable dread loomed, a tidal wave of painful acknowledgment that was edging closer. The mare galloped out, the RASP AI scanning from the destroyed entrance to Silo Two.
She ran past the fuse box again, venturing further down the hall as the AI continued its work.
Nothing.
Silo Three was enormous. There might not be a new power grid anywhere even close to them, let alone a functional medical bed. They might not even be near the main shaft of the facility for that matter, lost in a maze of side corridors and wings.
And the AI said I can't even move him.
Returning to Astral's side, the mare watched as the minutes counted down, her mind frantically spinning in circles. There were no options left.
Tears of frustration and fear finally broke past her defenses, moisture trickling down her cheeks. All her training, strength, and durability meant nothing. Sassi's limbs began to shake as the counter dropped into the final minute.
"Is there any way to power the medical systems?" she whispered.
'Negative. Continuing to search for alternatives with experimental subroutines.'
The counter hit zero, and the healing crystals surrounding Astral flickered, finally shutting down with a soft hum. The armor's reactor kept the crystals adhered to Astral’s skin powered, but it wasn't enough. All it did was prologue the inevitable.
Astral was mercifully asleep, but the stallion's breathing became slowly more labored. The vitals monitor in the helmet began to shift from blue to orange. A dangerous red tint then began to creep onto the screen. The display began to flash a warning.
The tears were flowing freely down Sassi's cheeks as she hopped up onto the medical bed. The helmet was set aside, projecting the vitals and other displays into the air. She wrapped her forelimbs around the unconscious stallion. His life was draining away and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
The one pony to make me feel like I’m more than just an experiment, and he’s going to die.
"Please...save him," Sassi whispered, her sides shaking with sobs as she hugged Astral close. "What more do you want from me?"
Her cries to the so-called Harmony of Equestria had never been answered. The tales of the Elements, a tree that grew a consciousness; it all was nothing more than foals-stories to her. A fantasy for ponies who grew up in a world far away from this one.
If this Harmony existed, it never had cared about her. Why would it now?
Never in Sassi's darkest moments had her prayers, her pleading been answered. She had stopped asking after years of tearful begging. She hadn’t expected anyone's help long ago. That included some mystical Harmony or any of the Princesses. They never had helped her. Even their influence was poisoned by the Silos.
And yet Sassi knew that if there was anyone that could hear her...
"H-how much more do I have to give?" Sassi whispered, rocking Astral back and forth. His breathing was slowing. "Just when I started to have hope, you're taking that away from me too."
A thought canceled out everything else. It was like someone had just yelled in Sassi's ear.
‘Hug him, as tightly as you can.’
Even knowing it was just her own, desperate wants, Sassi didn't care. The thought came again, and the mare didn't see a reason to do anything else but listen.
Sassi's limbs shook as she hugged Astral, wanting nothing more than for him to just open his eyes. There was nobody else to hear her cries. But she wished more than anything to be wrong about that.
"Whatever you want, just take it. Don't let him die. Don't take away the pony I love,” Sassi whispered. “I can’t do anything else for him.” Tears obstructed the mare’s vision, her lips trembling. “I heard the Princess say it once, even if I didn’t believe it; friendship is magic. Is that enough?”
She pulled Astral closer.
“Whatever I need to give to save him, take it. Please, just don't leave me alone again."
If not for her heightened abilities, Sassi would have missed it. A single flash of something in the room, an after-image that could have just been the reflecting emergency lights.
An ethereal mare had only looked at her briefly, a horrified, sorrowful expression on her face before bowing her head.
Sassi was then distracted by a soft *pop*. Two metal, pinecone-like objects emerged from the RASP reactor backpack as the AI's voice erupted from the discarded helmet, the displayed vitals starting to pulse.
'Alternate power source detected. Explicit consent registered. Experimental subroutines tested and online.
Changeling Dynamos activating.'
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Never failing to leave me on the edge of my seat with nearly every chapter.
11330383
The title of this chapter, heh....story of my life
In all seriousness, the storytelling is soooo good! The characters are written so well, it makes me feel like we are a part of the story. Can't wait for the next chapter!
11330393
Glad you enjoyed it!
That last line..
Totally not ominous at all.
11330432
Ominous, or hopeful?
Ah yes, the reactor backpack. Kept forgetting to ask how it could draw power from Limbo before then. I wonder... did the company hire races other than just ponies... or experimented on the rest of creaturekind?
If I remembered correctly, Limbo was used to power the backpack reactor. I worry that these two could be pulled into Limbo just like the Pony of Shadows incident?
11330433
Fair point. Time to insert the LOVE.
11330553
It took me until this post to realize what the power source actually WAS. I wonder if this will be:
1.) Harmless, but subject to Sassi's emotional fluctuations, thus making her emotional state more important to the plot.
2.) Very short range, and maybe with a time limit of some sort, leading to her having to get him moving now or in 48 hours or something. Sorta like the "handcuffed together" plot in some movies. Except instead of being enemies he is just almost useless. For bonus points the generators themselves could be delicate and need unobstructed line of sight to Sassi.
3.) Draining on her like Chrysalis's feeding was on Shining Armor. The love connection is true, but experimental machines aren't as good as biology.
4.) Not quite as many "amps" as the previous power source.
Or some combination of the above.
Also, was the alicorn Faust, or just an "astral projection" of Cadance?
11330572
Will have to seeeeeee! (All are good ideas, btw.)
And you'll find out eventually who it was....
11330553
11330528
I mean, the company clearly didn't care about ethics....
Aha! Now it makes sense. I'm sure it won't have any long-term consequences at all too!
11330654
11330600
Oh dear, I hope you don't mean Level Of ViolencE
11330572
That was a projection of Harmony as she appeared canonically in seasons 8 and 9. She has fully projected herself as Twilight Sparkle before. In this case young Twilight Sparkle since this is well after seasons 8 and 9.
(Wondering how I realized that this it's because she was praying to the elements of harmony of which the tree of Harmony is the origin of and projection is of the tree of Harmony)
11330600
I was certainly not wanting, let alone expecting spoilers.
Also, thank you for the compliment.
11330771
That does seem more likely... didn't really think it was Cadance, and now that you remind me "Harmony in the image of Twilight" is much more likely than "Faust".
11330955
Very good at the end there.
Sassi offered the exact combination of words and emotions to buy more time.
She's the only pony who could have done this (Astral's own family feel more revulsion than love for him), and this is the only point in time she would have been able to do this (she only just accepted her own love for him).
Your writing this far offered the perfect combination of setup and execution to make this sudden reveal feel plausible. Almost telegraphed, even.
We've been seeing the kind of biotech the company develops, and we've already seen that the AI routinely withholds crucial or secret functionality until some key phrase or authorization is offered.
11331111
I love how you picked up her acceptance part; there's multiple journeys going on in the Silo's, and not all of them are related to distance.
Good chapter, no issues of note.
I see we’re doing some deus ex harmony this round.
11331159
Well considering a Harmony is practically the only thing that is a God in the world. I count Discord, Celestia, Luna, Twilight, Cadence, and Flurry all as on God level and possibly even Gods but we've seen that they can get hurt you know the saying "if you make God bleed"
This was quite cheesy before you just dropped a whole wheel on it.
I'm not complaining btw... I love both the literal and the metaphorical cheese.
I also love the dynamic of changelings.
11331159
11331779
I did warn readers about the fluff....
HOW IS THIS STILL GOING?! I stopped reading at chapter 62 to binge the rest of the story, since it seemed the end neared. BUT WHERE IS THE END?!
11331973
Oh. We've still got another Silo to tackle.
11331973
Timeless: 13ch
Sunspots: 24ch
Cure for a Toxin: 50ch
Welp... at this rate Sub Level Five will be around 100+.
Sooo...
11332137
That...I swear it wasn't intentional. Things just get more complicated! That said, this story has much shorter chapters (1-2k) vs the others, which are 6-9k monsters. SL-5 is more episodic, if that makes sense. So far its turned out pretty darn well!
11332035
11332137
I have to brave all the cliffhangers again noooo
11332206
Cliffhangers, yes. But know the adventure isn't slowing down any time soon! Goodness, Astral and Sassi still You really thought I'd tell you? Come now. I think you'll enjoy it all regardless!
11332206
But it's part of the fun, eh?!
AHHHH EVERYONE IS SUDDENLY UPDATING!!! I can't keep up!
Also...
Changeling Dynamos?
11332188
Well..It could have been two books if you made beginning of SL-5 a new beginning. His victory was a logical "full stop" for first one.
11332137
FOE rivaled this until now, especially Somber's books. Blue Destiny is still ahead by chapter number.
11334471
11334579
That's a very good point.
11334471
I would wager it makes energy from emotion.
Harmony had answered!
11432329
One could draw that conclusion indeed...
What is this, some kind of Love-Powered generator? I wonder how many changelings would've been needed to make such a thing...
Edit: Did not even take 13 seconds for me to come back to this comment after glancing two paragraphs into the next chapter... I know this because it says this comment was posted exactly 13 seconds ago.
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