Twilight Gets a Puppy
Season 6
By TDR
Gauntlet of Firestone,
prologue.
[One month after the royal Canterlot Astrologers Guild went on strike.... again... Mid fall, Ponyville, Seshat]
“Alright that looks good. Are you sure the other towers are calibrated?” Sunset asked.
“Look I supervised the damn things going up, everything is to the specs you gave.” Aria snapped.
“My crews did exactly what you told us, so if there is an error it is on your end.” Saturnia added.
“Look can you blame me for being nervous here. Aside from a few tests this will be the first time this has been fired up fully. I've got it routed through the table here as so far I've only been able to build the two PCs with the parts I can get here. My tablet's not powerful enough to be a hubcap. and I've not even got it rigged to use the tablet's frequency just yet anyway.” Sunset offered.
“I don't think it's called a hub cap.” Aria pointed out.
“Do I look like I had time to go to computer engineering school while I was over there? “Sunset offered.” Hell, with how many years you were there didn't you get a computer engineering degree?”
“Field changed too fast and money was always fairly tight for us. I took courses of stuff that was mostly stable. With a different curriculum every month and with how fast computer stuff was changing I didn't have the time or cash to take that many classes. Particularly with how stupid pricey they got.” Aria explained.
“School was expensive?” Saturnia questioned.
“Not so much public schools for kids, though those were getting there as the people in charge cut funding to them, but college was almost a scam at the end with how expensive everything was and how hard it was to get a grant or a loan.” Aria grumbled.” Just while I was there it went from being able to get a job with minimum wage and pay for your tuition and other things, to needing to work four or five jobs just to afford the books, let alone the classes."
"That is ridiculous. How did anyone get the training they needed to to be productive members of society if school was behind a paywall?" Saturnia frowned.
"Most didn't, they worked menial jobs until their bodies gave out then either died, had to go on welfare, or became homeless. I met quite a few people like that my first few months there." Sunset frowned. "Any way if we keep talking about all the problems that place has we'll be here for weeks."
"Agreed." Aria muttered. "Keep in mind though Sunset what you saw was the end result, we watched it happen real time. That sort of slow building suffering didn't help anyone."
"Alright, I've got four things to send through today, a standard text, a file, a image file and a live audio file. Moon Dancer is on the other end and knows to respond back." Sunset offered.
"So what's the hold up?" Saturnia questioned.
"I'm trying to think of the best line to send through on the first text of this new system." Sunset frowned.
"If you do that stupid Wazzzzup thing I will tear the system down myself." Aria grumbled
"Tempting but no, this is a momentous occasion. I had several choices, I needed something important and impressive. I was just choosing which one." Sunset hummed as she typed something in. The other two looked at the message and sighed.
"So you asked Rahs." Saturnia smiled.
"So I asked Rahs." Sunset chuckled as she hit send.
[Crystal Empire]
Moon Dancer looked at the screen with Cadence, Shining Armor and Chrysalis looking over her shoulders as Sunburst tried to keep the foals from destroying the system.
"So what's the message?" Chrysalis asked. "What did Sunset send?"
"All the worlds a stage, and all the mares and stallions merely players. They have their exits and entrances; and one in their time plays many parts." Moon Dancer read.
"She asked Rahs." Shining Armor confirmed.
"Seems so." Moon Dancer replied sending the confirmation message back.
[Ponyville]
"Alright. they got it. response time is acceptable levels for the Beta test." Sunset nodded. "Alright time for the data dump."
"The Sparkle's book?" Aria asked.
"Yep." Sunset offered and hit send." Just the prologue though, Moon Dancer has to check through it for errors and that was the quickest thing."
The sound of hooves drew the attention of the three to the two mares entering into the room Starlight and Tempest entered and looked around curiously.
"Well she's not in here." Tempest frowned." Did you check the lab?"
"There is no way in Tartarus I am going near that lab." Starlight shook her head, “Besides I thought she would be here. Have any of you seen Twilight?"
Sunset frowned. "Come to think of it no, and she was interested in seeing this set up. Got confirmation on the file. I'm sending the image file now."
"Picture of Rahs?"Aria sighed.
"Of course. An image immortalized in history." Sunset cackled. "More points to me for this one."
"Come to think of it i figured Rahs or Spike would be here to see this, Spike was rather interested in it too." Saturnia offered. ”Something about being able to play O&O with Shining again.”
"Hmmm, Seshat have you seen any of them?" Tempest asked.
"All three of them left at the same time this morning. About five am. I am not sure where they were going but Twilight was mad about something and Spike almost seemed to be sleep walking. Rahs was simply worried." Seshat offered. "They headed for the train station, but past that i don't know."
"That's worrying." Starlight muttered.
"Yeah, but this could be a Celestia prank, and i want nothing to do with that." Saturnia offered.
"Fair enough." Tempest frowned. "I was going to check in the the Guard post anyway, I over heard talk about a few ponies that were supposedly missing, including a couple of foals."
"Hmm. Let us know if you find anything out Tempest." Saturnia offered. "I'll see if we can't put together another Changeling search party if there is an issue."
"Right." Tempest offered trotting off.
"Okay so this is the last thing, a live audio file. Moon Dancer's going to time the song as she receives it and I'll time it here. That should let us know any lag issues."
Aria looked at the record." This is the one you picked? Not much a fan of pop, but it's not bad."
"There's far too many similarities between worlds, including the music. The one from the other world was sung by a male, but this one was based off a short lived music career of Spitfire's. But here we go." Sunset smiled clicking the mic on and starting up the record player.
"It's nine o five and you're listening to 904FM, some of the hits some of the time. SAVE FERRIS!" Sunset called before she set the record needle down letting the song play.
The scope of Equestrian technology is horribly inconsistent, and downright frustrating to understand
Even for streaming audio, it doesnt take much more power than a decent graphing calculator? A Pi Pico is monstrously powered. Yet no smartphone these days could evn consider it because the OS is so horrifically inefficint?
Is Twilight going to see if images being transmitted can contain Haycart objects?
Spike in the Dragonlands as Spike Sparkle is going to be Very Intresting indeed.
Good thing its on a totally different continent?
I suggested the classic 'Hello World'.
Sleepwalking? Now that's interesting mention.
Wait a minute, dare I hope I would see the Dragon Twilight participating too?
I wonder if spitfire is working today.
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Its magic they dont got to explane it
And now, we get started on the "Gauntlet of Fire" analogue. Yeah, could certainly understand Sunset's frustrations concerning human school. Also appreciated Aria's input there.
How much do you want to wager that Apple Bloom is also going to be coming along on this trip? Hopefully Spike will be able to explain to Apple Bloom that Ember is his niece before she gets too jealous to give him a chance to explain himself.
Anyway, definitely looking forward to more of this.
Welp, Spike is going to get to meet some of his extended Family. His Brother, not sure if full or half, and his Niece. Makes you wonder how this Goblet of Fire Will go with Ember being an Apex and Spike being a Demigod
Wait, as the son of the Dragon god, wouldn't he be ineligible to participate or that's more reason for him to be recognize as the proper dragon lord?
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The Current Dragon Lord is also the son of the Dragon God. Dragons don't give a shit. neither does Bleu
I don't know about anyone else but I find it to be appropriate.
Considering what they're working on
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Fair, so Torch knows that lil pipsqueak is his brother?
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Dunno. Spike might just mention it in the most Give No Fucks Matter of Fact way possible.
I think you meant to say career and not carrier.
I love the Spitfire video. I'm glad you included it.
I know spike is with applebloom but.. if There are any interests in either ember or smolder, this fic will become way more interesting and better
In this humble persons opinion
Good song choice
Great chapter. America has really many broken systems... Healthcare and Education should be better availabel!
Smart
Okay, that needs to be looked into
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As you do. Even in canon, Spike is the personification of "Gives No Fucks."
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Never mind that, Torch finally gets to meet the 'fearsome dragoness' Twilight Sparkle. I do wonder if any of the girls Spike met before will be showing up.
In any case, so starts one of stories I was looking to the most this season (along with The Times They Are A Changeling which I'm interested to see how that one plays out with how different the Changelings are portrayed here vs. canon).
That song reference at the end... Top shelf!
If you wanted to go with the classics, “What hath Faust wrought?” would have been a good one (Samuel Morse’s, “What hath God wrought?”), but Equestria already had the telegraph so that was probably already used.
God of drama has infinite power.
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Times are a changeling IS the part I am most excited for. I am also interested in the changelings here vs Canon.
The question is what kind of creature was Eileen and how did she(he?) feel about the song? And what's their relation to Spitfire/the band?
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What's an Apex in this story, again?
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Apex is the grand child of a god. They are mortal but they are born the best their race can produce. And they only go up from there. A properly motivated apex can and have fucked with gods and held their own. The two best known apex in this story are Thunderbolt. The griffon that was freed with the empires return and Angel Bunny who is known to make honey badgers give a shit.
I don’t know why but I some reason expected the song to be the Rick roll lol.
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And then generation five happens and throws everything for a loop
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Actually, no. It brings everything up to speed in an understandable fashion...minus the art of internal combustion of course
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Well actually i think Sprout monster truck had combustion engine sound to it
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...censored me
"Hello World" is traditional.
So how long until Discord or Sonata sends out a rickroll? Well this could get interesting and I hope Ember and if she shows up Smolder look at Spike as a younger sibling and not as a love interest, much to Rahs’s displeasure because it is not creating any drama.
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Seconded
Given that Sunset does seem to know quite a bit about modern meme culture from her time in the human world and is currently inventing the internet, I have to wonder how long it will be before she makes a reference to the Metal Gear Rising Revengeance memes. The "My source is that I made it the fuck up." meme would fit well with her character.
Awesome story and one of the things I like about the story is your interpretation of Celestia it's honestly the best if not one of the best representations I see of her
Finally caught up today.
*Watches video*
And that's why Spitfire is no longer allowed to have coffee.
God damnit, now I'm going to have that song and video stuck in my head for the rest of the day, possibly the rest of the week.
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Ya know, by this point I'd expect the theme song to have wildly and drastically changed, Cus to be honest, the original theme song really doesn't much match what the show your writing is. There are so many new and different characters, the original characters have also changed quite a bit, and not to mention that the actual timeline of events is also different. Any idea what the theme song could have changed to?
Ayyyyy. That's a good one, ngl.
Spitfire’s Day Off was one of the first bits of fan content that got me hooked. Good times…
Nice choice of song, but they still missed the opportunity to make the first song a Rickroll.
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Pinkie has rickrolled everyone enough in this series
One the internet are made, it will be glorious ♡