21 - A Useful Monster
Days of Wasp and Spider
by Luna-tic Scientist
=== Chapter 21 (remastered): A Useful Monster ===
The big wall screen was covered with a dozen data panes; tables of numbers, complex particle trajectories, volumetric energy diagrams and several scratch pads filled with equations. The panes moved and flickered as the oversized processor crunched through the data, the only constant a 'secure connection' symbol in one corner.
Vanca paced the floor in front of the screen, pausing every so often to adjust one of the equations and restart the simulations running in the background. She was lucky; unlike many who worked in the sciences, as long as she had her data, any space could become a work area. Thus, after she'd finally been allowed to leave the wrecked Institute facility, she'd retreated back to her home and isolated herself from the outside world, trying to build a theory that explained what had happened.
It was now early morning, nearly two days after the incident, and she'd not left her apartment or slept for more than a pawful of kiloseconds in the last hundred or so. The room was dark, her own mate -- Arturor, a scientist working on another section of the accelerator -- had long ago retired to the sleeping den; he'd done his best to help her, but it wasn't his speciality. In the end he'd recognised her growing irritation and left her to it.
The Academician paused for a second in her thoughts, feeling a little guilty. This one really doesn't know why Arturor has stayed with her all this time, she thought. She knew she wasn't the most pleasant of people, especially when under stress, but he'd not complained when she'd shouted at him, just given her the space she needed. Vanca doesn't deserve that one. She'd make it up to him, right after she got to the bottom of this...
Anything other than her work faded from her mind, and Vanca's thoughts turned back to the cluttered wall screen.
The screen went blank, all her kiloseconds of work vanishing to be replaced by the Hive Police logo. A quiet tone sounded, and Vanca snarled something vicious, slapping the mute control with one paw. This did little good, as the door chime played again, this time at twice the volume. All the house lights came on at full brightness. Arturor said something from the den, but his voice was blurred with sleep and Vanca couldn't pick out the words.
"Police override," she said angrily, "Vanca will deal with this." She ignored the startled yelp and sudden sounds of movement from the other room. She'd been half expecting this; she'd been indirectly responsible for a huge amount of damage. Can't be an arrest though, she thought, they'd have just opened the door. That would be the next step; they'd already overridden the apartment's systems. She stamped over to the door, hitting the release key with enough force to make her paw sting.
If looks could kill, her glare would have reduced the Person in the corridor to a charred skeleton. As it was, the officer merely blinked and took a step back, the wings of the gryphon standing next to him flicking out slightly in surprise. Vanca took a moment to rein in her anger, then stepped out into the corridor. "What does this one want?" she said.
"Academician Vanca?" the police officer, a young looking male, said.
Vanca watched the coloured lights dance over his visor. "As if the Officer doesn't have Vanca's image to paw. What does this one want?"
"This one must come with the Officer, she is needed--"
"Out of the question! Vanca isn't going anywhere."
The gryphon, white head feathers slowly relaxing, held up a portable display in answer, the slab of crystal showing an image of the Synod seal. Vanca scowled at the creature, then snatched the panel, pressing a thumb pad against the sensor strip and typing in her passcode. The machine authenticated her and showed her a validated order from the Department of Science and Thaumatology. She swallowed her anger; this had legal authority, and if she didn't follow it she'd be arrested and dragged along anyway.
The Officer saw the look on her face and smiled weakly. "The department tried to contact Vanca, but she appears to have disabled the remote override," he said. "This one is sure that is a technical fault, after all, deliberately removing that function is a crime."
"Quite. Give this one a hundred seconds and she will be ready."
===
Salrath looked blearily at the wall screen and read the text of her report for what seemed like the twentieth time. It looked okay, but her well honed paranoia -- now very close to the surface since she'd missed the last dose of her medication -- made her find fault with everything. This is terrible, she thought, but Salrath is sick of it. With a stroke of one paw she sent the document off into the electronic void, destined for the board that would no doubt decide her future based on what she should have done, rather than what she actually did.
What made it worse was that her little ploy with the servitor had come to nothing; she'd reviewed the hangar security cameras and questioned Flysoldat Gunnulf until he'd gotten snappish with suppressed anger at having to answer the same questions over and over again, but there was nothing out of the ordinary there. The servitor was angry, yes, but had operated well within the normal range. She half wished she'd actually ordered the gryphon to be obstructive, but such a command would reveal her own motives. Just commandeering the gryphon would probably get her into enough trouble as it was.
She closed her eyes and stretched, arching her back away from the chair and using both paws to scratch through the fur where her duty vest stopped. After sitting for so long at the desk, the feeling of claws through her fur was almost ecstasy, and she pushed the chair back, determined to hit the gym -- or a bar, or something -- to take her mind off what would be coming down the pipe when the review board was ready for her. She was half way across the room when there was the ping of a priority call from her console.
Salrath paused, mind already working through a punishing exercise routine, one ear cocked towards the desk. This one has had enough of this place, she thought angrily, taking one more step before slumping and turning around. Her eye caught the name of the caller, and she muttered a curse. Orgon, so soon? There's no way Salrath's report has been read already, she thought, frowning at the blinking light and wondering if she could claim ignorance.
She glanced up at the camera in the corner of the room. Little chance of that, she thought. The ubiquitous security system was part of the access control mechanism; anyone in the Pit was tracked and identified at all times by the computer cluster. It would know exactly where she was, the data only a request away from someone like Orgon.
Decisively, she reached out with one claw and stabbed at the accept button, using her other paw to smooth down her whiskers. "Yes, Sector Chief. How can this one help you?"
"The Agent is thanked for her report," he said mildly, "tell this one; do you still harbour suspicions about the servitor? This one has noticed that any such references are not present in Salrath's document.
The Agent tensed inside. How had Orgon managed to wade through all that text so quickly? Was he some kind of machine? Her paranoia, prone to accelerating down unlikely avenues, especially when she was sleep deprived, threw up other examples consistent with such a theory. In fact, if she could make a few alterations to her issue shock rod, it would be a simple matter to prove-- She realised that the Sector Chief had raised an eyebrow at her, something that for him was tantamount to banging on the desk and shouting.
"No, Sector Chief. Salrath--" The Agent rubbed the underside of her muzzle nervously, mouth opening and closing a few times. "--knows that she sometimes is prone to intuitive leaps not necessarily supported by solid evidence..."
Both of Orgon's eyebrows were raised now, and he cocked his head to one side in a gesture for her to continue.
Salrath sighed, knowing that her cause was as good as lost. "The Agent is currently investigating a theory that the servitor may have lost its conditioning as a result of trauma it received about a megasecond ago." Under the desk her paws curled into fists, claws digging into the tough pads. Salrath could disappear, drop everything and hide. She has no desire to spend the rest of her gigaseconds in a secure hospital.
"That is very... interesting, Agent Salrath." Orgon drummed his claws on his desk and stared at her. "Send this one what you have. Now."
Salrath twitched, expecting to have been sneered at or, knowing Orgon's methods, kept talking while a team from Internal Affairs came for her. Fumbling, she called up what records she'd uncovered, taking the Sector Chief through her scanty evidence; Korn's actions, the behaviour of the servitor at the training ground, the look on its face when it had thought it had fooled Salrath.
When she was finished, Orgon stared at her for a long time. "This is why the Agent pulled the gryphon out of the Military's custody? For use as a stalking horse?" He smiled slightly at his own unfunny joke. "It is a bit thin, but considering the circumstances..."
Salrath felt like screaming at him; it was only the fact that they were in different rooms that stopped her from reaching forward and shaking Orgon until he started to make sense.
"There have been some developments, and this one thinks that Salrath and the Flysoldat may be the best people for a little task that needs to be done..."
===
Half a kilosecond later, Vanca stepped back into the corridor. The Officer looked distinctly relieved to see her; he looked like he'd been pacing the floor, while his gryphon 'associate' was obviously more experienced, and had simply laid down a few lengths away to keep an eye on her door. She scowled at both of them -- the Officer looked relieved, while the gryphon just looked bored -- and impatiently gestured for them to lead on.
As they strode down the passage, Vanca watched the heavyset hindquarters of the gryphon, his long, black-tipped tail swaying in time with his steps. The creature had close to the same mass as a servitor, but without the tall, slender build of that species. This individual had the typical heavily muscled frame, made larger still by the bulky equipment harness and an array of pouches and objects attached to it.
Never did trust those things, she thought. She was familiar with ponies, but gryphons were something else. Lacking the magical conditioning of the servitors, they were only kept in line by training and the certain knowledge of severe punishment if they didn't obey. The problem was that this obedience training was competing with their predatory nature and the type of work they did. Perhaps that is it; Vanca is in the presence of another carnivore, one big enough to turn her into prey.
At the end of the corridor was the bank of lifts; they had no problems getting a car to themselves, obviously everyone else was of the same opinion as Vanca. Three floors down and they were at the parking bay, the Officer's aircar parked half on the walkway. Moving so he could keep an eye on Vanca, the gryphon climbed onto the flat back of the vehicle, clipping his harness to anchor points and hunkering down behind the cab section.
Vanca glared back into that flat, predatory stare, but in the end she dropped her gaze, climbing into the passenger compartment with the Officer. Glancing at her, he raised one paw to bang twice on the roof, nodded at the thump in return, then flicked on the warning strobes and accelerated into the traffic stream. Whatever she thought of his experience, there was nothing wrong with his driving -- it was just unfortunate that the police budget didn't stretch to inertial compensation for its vehicles.
Pulling the restraint straps a little tighter, Vanca waited until they'd pulled into one of the main transit routes and were barrelling along the emergency vehicle lane, straight down the middle of the wide tunnel. "Where is the Officer taking this one?" she asked.
"The secure communications facility at this one's station is being made available," he said, attention focused on the other vehicles flashing past.
Vanca's brow wrinkled at that. What kind of conference would require that level of security? she thought, inwardly cursing the loss of her secured comms bracer; obviously whoever wanted this meeting didn't trust her home screen's systems. She resisted the urge to ask the Officer who wanted to talk to her. There's no way this one knows anything, she thought, probably just the closest unit. She settled back against the restraints, unsatisfied.
The station was of medium size, responsible for a dozen levels and perhaps half a million People. Despite the time, the place was still busy. The Officer escorted her through the bustling corridors and into a small room with a conference table up against a single large wall screen. He then left her alone, closing and locking the door behind him. Vanca sat in one of the plush chairs, placing a paw on the table's sensor pad. The room's systems recognised her, and she entered her security codes to complete the process.
The screen came alive, showing the face of a male who looked vaguely familiar. "Academician Vanca?" he said, "please hold for the Councillor."
Vanca sat back in the chair and folded her arms. "Vanca is dragged all this way, just to be kept waiting," she muttered, "this had better be good." Despite her bad mood, her mind was whirling, sorting through the reasons Indutu would need to speak to her like this. It can't be because of the accelerator, Vanca has already been put on notice for that particular disaster, she thought.
The screen cleared, showing an image of the Councillor sitting behind a similar sized desk, although his was of polished stone covered with leather, rather than the slab of electronics and glass she sat at. Apart from that little incongruity, the illusion was very good; it was as if she sat in the same room as him, rather than hundreds of kilolengths apart. Unlike the last time she'd spoken to him, he was impeccably groomed, but with the air of someone under great stress. Something is very wrong, she thought, the fur on the back of her neck standing up.
Nodding in greeting, Indutu didn't waste time with pleasantries, correctly reading the irritation on Vanca's face and knowing the Academician didn't care for them anyway. "The Synod has decided to shut Vanca's research program down," he said, nervously fiddling with a small comms terminal.
For an instant she went cold, then the fury bubbled over and she surged up out of the chair, paws clenched. "What! After the results Vanca's group has reported, how dare the Synod be so short-sighted -- the damage to the accelerator is a small price to pay for the potential--"
Indutu slammed one paw down on his table with a hard crack. "This has nothing to do with that!" he shouted, cutting her off. "Baur Hive has convinced the World Court that we've contravened the Security Council rules on weapons research. They will be sending Audit teams, and your project--"
"Preposterous!" Vanca shouted back, "there's nothing Vanca's group has done that has any weapons potential. The pulse damage is nothing that couldn't be done with a nuclear pumped thaumic weapon."
"And what about the changes to Celestia?" Indutu demanded.
"Has the Councillor gone insane, what changes to the sun?"
Indutu looked at her, amazed. "Has Vanca not spoken to any of her colleagues in the last few days?"
"Do you think this one has time to waste on such things? Does the Councillor not realise that Vanca has been rather busy?"
In reply, Indutu did something to a control panel beneath his desk, causing a shared workspace to appear on the wall screen. Vanca fumed silently while he fumbled his way through some computer network, before calling up a document, the title page vanishing before she had a chance to read it.
"This is a summary prepared by the Strategic Threat Defence Group. Watch," he said, waving one paw at the inset window, which had changed to show the view from some high flying aircraft.
Vanca leaned forward, interested despite herself. The time/date stamp and the angle of the sun showed it was mid morning, other than that the view was nothing more than a monotonous shot of high altitude sky, a near indigo against the painfully white clouds below. One of the moons was visible near the top of the image, a pale sliver crescent that marked it out as Luna. The video played forward at high speed, then slowed to one tenth normal. The Academician was just about to ask what she was supposed to be seeing, when the image went black.
For an instant she thought the video feed had failed, but the time stamp continued to advance. The landscape came back, not in colour, but with the greyscale of an image intensifier. Vanca's mouth dropped open, then the screen went a pure white, fading back to its original colours after another few frames. Something moved at the top of the video, attracting her gaze, but when she looked it was only the moon. Only the moon, she thought, a chill ran down her spine. She reached for her own controls, rewinding the video and starting it again, this time watching Luna. The landscape went dark, lit by the moon, then the moon went out. The sunlight came back, followed by the moon a second or so later. She played the last bit again, counting the number of frames it took the moon to reappear after the landscape brightened.
The conclusion was inescapable. "Is this supposed to be funny?" she said in a dangerous tone. "Why is the Councillor wasting this one's time with these childish pranks?"
Idutu laughed, raising his paws and rubbing his eyes. "It is real. That video is from a defence reconnaissance drone. Indutu can show you others; external security cameras, data from the network of Celestia observatories -- even from public news footage, although they don't know what they have and Security has been busy suppressing it. Did the Academician notice the time?"
She looked back at the paused video; the time was very similar to... She called up her own half-completed report on the incident. The time of the servitor's electrothaumic pulse wasn't quite the same, but had occurred almost a hundred seconds earlier. Vanca relaxed slightly, then froze as she worked out the exact time difference. No, it can't be! she thought. Ninety four point one seconds, the time taken for light to make the round trip to Celestia and back. The moon's delayed reaction made perfect sense; the light path length was different, so it was seen to go dark at a different time.
Indutu had been watching her face; he saw the look of shock and knew he had her convinced. "There is more; this is a plot of solar output for the last megasecond." The video was overlaid by a simple graph, showing a horizontal line that was almost completely flat, apart from two sharp, negative spikes. The first was near the end of the trace, obviously matched to the incident on the video. The other, right at the start, was much smaller.
Vanca's paw moved like she was in a dream, slowly manipulating the controls to expand the data window and manipulate the scale. Now she could see what she'd expected to see, the random short term fluctuations in Celestia's output turning the flat line into a thick bar of noise. The dip was very obvious, well over a hundred times the noise level. That's almost five percent of the average, she thought, not enough to notice unless the data is examined.
She opened links to the Institute's database, calling up her own files and checking when the servitor had been at the training ground. The time lag was a little different, but it was close. Vanca nodded unconsciously. The sun was below the horizon, the servitor was a little further away, she thought. The Academician leaned back and stared at Indutu, feeling a grudging respect for how he'd convinced her to take this outrageous conclusion seriously without having to call up half the scientific establishment.
"This discovery is--" she started, then couldn't continue and waved her paws helplessly.
"Dangerous," he said. "We did not notice the first event; the first this one heard of it was in the statement from the World Court Security Council. Baur Hive has accused us of a research violation and is demanding an immediate audit. They claim Lacunae is building a super weapon." He scowled at the scientist, jabbing at her with one manicured claw. "Which Vanca has!"
"The opportunity here is incredible," Vanca said carefully, ignoring the accusation. "We must learn all we can."
The Councillor was already shaking his head, even before she finished speaking. "The Synod has denied it, of course, but the rhetoric coming out of the Court is not promising and this may not suffice. The program is terminated immediately and all the subjects will be euthanized. If the Institute is audited, not only will we lose secrecy, but they may find cause for sanctions and further investigation."
Vanca clenched her teeth, but said nothing. The World Court was the ultimate arbiter, only involved when things had the potential to go very badly wrong for everyone. This one guesses that accidentally putting out the sun would be pretty bad, she thought grimly. Every Hive contributed to the Court, but these days it was pretty independent. It was almost like a seventh Hive, except unlike the others it had Luna as its territory. Decisions were expected to be abided by, and compliance was checked by skilled multi Hive auditing teams.
Refusal to let a team inspect a facility would generally result in sanctions, but the Court had a mechanism to enforce its rulings if required. It had no standing military -- that was forbidden -- but it didn't need one. What it did have was a mass driver big enough to encircle the whole moon. Complete overkill for any surface target, this machine was able to throw a thousand tonne projectile fast enough to punch kilolengths into the crust, deep enough to strike at any facility. The World Court called it the 'Luna Kinetic Driver', but everyone on the ground just called it the Hammer.
Mere threat of the thing was normally enough, but it had been used. Once to end the Three Day War between Lacunae and Baur -- surgical strikes against both sides' command centres -- and once to sterilise an experimental nanotech centre operated by Saro Hive.
There were checks and balances, of course. No Hive wanted the Court to get too powerful, for that would completely remove their sovereignty. Use of the Hammer required four out of the six Hives to be in agreement, and the installations on Luna required regular shipments of food, fuel and certain critical spare parts. Frequent inspections, coupled with the absence of any servitors, prevented the Court from becoming self-supporting. No one liked the World Court, but they all knew they needed it, borne as it was from the constant warfare of the People's early history.
"Is Vanca allowed to keep the data generated so far?"
"Yes, but that is all. Security tells Indutu that they can reliably hide the data, but everything else must go."
Vanca's mind raced as she tried to think of a way out of this problem, a way to save something from this disaster. Without these results she would be ruined; everything would be classified at the highest level and she'd never get to publish anything. She needed something to show for all the damage she'd caused. "Does the manner of the servitor's euthanization matter?"
Indutu narrowed his eyes at the slightly odd question. "What does the Academician have in mind?"
"A way to at least duplicate the results sometime in the future, when all this is forgotten. What Vanca wants to do is this..."
The scientist outlined her plan, and the politician gave his permission.
===
Orders were waiting for Fusion when the pair returned to the corral, the facility hub's attention light flashing frantically. Gravity stood at her shoulder while she read them, obviously intending to make sure she followed them to the letter. Getting some time alone to think had been impossible; Gravity wouldn't let her leave the vicinity of the corral and had tailed her everywhere. To make matters worse, her new prosthetic had attracted pitying looks wherever she went, far more than the simple dressing ever had. Feeling self-conscious, Fusion had taken to draping part of her mane over that eye, in the vain hope it would stop the unwelcome attention.
The rest of the evening was a strained affair, with Fusion forced to eat a portion of the Master's food along with the rest of her family. She finally managed to escape her sister's watchful eye when Gravity went to use the shelter's dispose-all.
Making her own excuses to her parents, she slipped off into the darkness with a silent half glide, half gallop, then used her magic and a long grass stem to make herself sick somewhere out of sight. That unpleasant business over, she rushed back only to find Gravity staring at her suspiciously. She made no comment about her actions, and her sister said nothing in return. A few kiloseconds later, a gentle chime from the facilities hub announced it was time to sleep. Fusion struggled to find peace, plagued by her own worries and a set of nightmares that seemed to be breeding themselves up into a full sized herd.
The following morning seemed to fit Fusion's mood. The weather team had been permitted to shepherd one of their smaller cloud systems over the corral and its surrounding orchards and food crop fields. The rains were soft and steady, carefully metered out to soak the ground without wasteful runoff. Even the area the rain fell was controlled; the corral sat at the centre of the cloud system like the eye in the middle of a hurricane, a patch of drizzle surrounded by real rain.
Fusion awoke to the fine mist collecting on her eyelashes and fur, dusting her with an iridescent layer of droplets. She only felt it where her coat was thin, around her face and muzzle; the longer guard hairs on the rest of her body kept the water from soaking through to her skin. Blinking the drops from her eyelashes, the white mare stood carefully and took a few steps away from the rest of her family, then fanned her wings vigorously to shed their collected moisture.
Gravity joined her for a quick breakfast, the mare silent and looking like she'd had as little sleep as Fusion. She refused to meet her sister's eye, and the pair ate quickly before taking to the skies and heading for Fusion's appointment.
The Institute for Anomalous Physics was a large place; she'd only managed to damage one of the many facilities it had that were dotted around the horizon spanning ring of the research accelerator. The site they'd been ordered to report to was one she was familiar with; it was there she'd received her initial training. Fusion couldn't really understand why they'd want her there, of all places. As far as she knew she'd exhausted all the research opportunities afforded by the lower powered equipment it had to offer.
Orders were orders, though, and the pair of ponies flew quickly through the carefully controlled rainstorm, only climbing to a clear altitude when they escaped from under the clouds. The rest of the flight was uneventful, the bright sunshine and fast moving air drying their fur rapidly. Like many research sites, this one was close to the surface to allow easy access for heavy machinery during the construction phase, and had retained its own access shaft. This was nowhere near as large as the one at the Security Hub, being only twenty lengths across and a hundred or so deep.
Fusion joined the 'in' flight line for servitors, a shallow, low altitude arc that turned into a steep spiral as it entered the vertical shaft. The pony entry point was a five length square hole set in the side of the pit, about half way up from the big cargo doors at the very bottom. Here they had to wait while Fusion was taken through the manual registration process, the mare having to manipulate a tethered thaumic sensor while a camera matched her iris pattern, horn profile and general appearance to its database. This was the process she'd skipped the first time she'd destroyed her communicator, having been brought in the back of a Security floater.
Finally the system accepted she was who she claimed to be and issued her with a temporary communicator, this one a slim necklace and studded with water-clear crystals. Fusion was a little surprised at this; the issue comms units were supposed to be really quite tough, so the fact that the gate machinery had a ready supply of spares must mean this wasn't an uncommon occurrence. How many other ponies are being put through this kind of aggressive magical testing? Fusion thought. Perhaps the fact that I've damaged another one won't be viewed with too much suspicion?
Her new communicator whispered instructions from a point inside her head, telling her where she was supposed to go. Their destination was part of the Institute's biochemical section, one of a suite of rooms used to examine servitors after some of the more exacting experiments. This location was familiar to the mare; she'd spent more than a few kiloseconds in these rooms, especially at the start of her training.
Fusion felt her throat go dry as she considered why they'd want to have both her and Gravity examined. I've been through a lot, so it makes sense to look at me, but why Gravity? The mare, now trotting smartly down one of the central corridors, nearly stumbled as she realised what that reason must be. They know I succeeded with Gravity's training, and they want to compare us both, she thought, starting to feel ill. They'll put us into a thaumic scanner and order us to demonstrate the new technique.
They'll see that we're not Blessed.
The door to the examination room opened at their approach and Fusion walked in. Inside were Academician Vanca, looking even more angry than normal, Student Korn, who appeared nervous, and Animal Scanner, who stood stock still in one corner and had the blank expression of a pony didn't want to be noticed. The room was just as Fusion remembered it; a bank of computers and signal hardware along the left wall, storage compartments and big freezers on the right, all framing the fat torus of a thaumomagnetic resonance imager on the wall opposite the door.
It was at this point that Fusion noticed that she was alone; Gravity had hesitated at the door, apparently transfixed by the T-MRI machine and its ring of robot arms. An impatient gesture from Vanca and the blue mare jumped forward like she had been stung, moving quickly to stand next to Fusion, but keeping her head lowered to avoid looking at the big machine.
"Was the servitor's training successful?" Vanca asked Gravity.
Fusion tensed inside, waiting for Gravity's answer. Her sister hadn't reported her, but if she was going to say anything, it would be now, when faced with a live Master. She started her telekinesis magic with a whisper of power, too faint for the glow to be noticed in the lab's bright lighting. The magic neutralization spell hovered like a ghost in her mind, the pattern half complete and ready for use at a moment's notice. Gravity first, the mare thought, hardening her heart against what she might have to do, she's the greatest immediate threat. Blow all the electronics and teleport away. Her resolve faltered a little when she remembered the unobtrusive presence of Animal. Take him too; remove his Blessing and hold him prisoner until he can be convinced to join me.
Then there was Vanca and Korn. What am I going to do with them? she thought, shrinking away from the obvious solution. Vanca... Vanca had enough pony blood on her paws that Fusion suspected she might be able to kill the Academician. No, I will not start this with a deliberate murder. Decision made, Fusion felt for the sun, reaching for it like she might have reached for a door latch with out actually opening the door. Now I just need to manage a mass teleport over multiple kilolengths without turning everypony into puree, she thought, but somehow the idea of using such an untried spell seemed to be perfectly acceptable under the circumstances.
"Yes, Master," the mare replied, staring at her hooves.
Vanca didn't seem to notice her strange behaviour, instead turning to Fusion. "This pony may have received an excessive dose of radiation during the last test; it will be treated so as to maintain its health."
Fusion almost laughed out loud with relief, the tension bleeding away with the Academician's words.
There was obviously no suggestion of this being optional. As if the order had been directed at him, Animal Scanner stepped forward to present an injection gun, already primed with a vial of milky fluid. Eying him nervously, Fusion obligingly tilted her head to give him easier access to the large jugular vein running down the side of her neck. There was the feeling of something cold being sprayed on her throat, then a sting as the needle went in.
"This will make it easier," he said, so softly that she barely heard it, pulling the injection gun away and dropping the used needle into a small biohazard container.
For a second the stallion's words didn't register, then Fusion's eyes widened and she flicked her gaze to his face. Animal's expression was filled with sadness and compassion. "No!" she shouted, plucking the injector from his magical grasp, intending to see what she'd been given. The small machine slipped from her grip as her magic seemed to drain away, and was caught in a red glow from an obviously prepared Animal before it could hit the floor.
"Sister? What's wrong?" Gravity asked, stepping forward hesitantly, then freezing at a glare from Academician Vanca.
Fusion stood there on trembling legs, feeling her strength and balance evaporate. She tried to reply, tried to beg her sister to run or fly or smash her way to freedom, anything but stay in this trap. Her head drooped, mouth moving but no sound emerging from her lips. Fusion groped desperately for her connection to Celestia, but it kept sliding away from her, the little flickers of light that played over her horn fading rapidly to darkness. A cold numbness was spreading from her throat, filling her head and body with ice. She stumbled, wings thrashing uncoordinatedly as her legs gave way, only saved from falling over by the gentle pressure of Animal's magic.
Fusion's vision was still sharp and there was nothing wrong with her hearing and, despite the drugs in her blood, she had no trouble recognising the lanky shape of Agent Salrath as she strode into the examination room. A gryphon followed her, bulky with the combat armour of a Security trooper. She'd seen this one before as well; he'd been one of those guarding Random and the herd of foals.
The Agent nodded at Vanca, then gestured to the gryphon. "The servitor Gravity Resonance TP5325 will follow this trooper and obey its orders."
"Yes, Master," Gravity said in a high, fragile voice, unable to take her eyes from the sight of the limp body of Fusion hanging in Animal's blood-red telekinetic field.
The gryphon padded forward to stand facing the blue mare, then shoved the pony roughly to get her moving. "Follow me," he said in a harsh voice tainted with malice. The pair departed, heading out the door and down the corridor to parts unknown.
Machinery hummed and the lower four arms around the T-MRI unfolded to receive Fusion, Animal holding her in place so the restraints could close around her at knee, ankle, hip and withers. Her wings were folded shut and kept closed by wide, elastic straps. A fifth arm clamped around her head, her horn slotting into a crystal lined sheath. The drugs had disconnected her from her magic and muscles, but did nothing to still her desperate panic as the cold metal gripped her tightly.
Salrath bent over to look in the white mare's eye. "Excellent," she said with a toothy grin, placing one clawed paw on Fusion's head.
Above the mare the upper arms unfurled, the complex tooling at their tips moving like the mouthparts of tethered insects as they went through their self-test routines. She could feel everything; the heaving of her chest against the restraints, Salrath's hot breath against her cheek, the sharp pin-pricks of the Agent's claws where they pressed against her skull.
Then the Agent leaned even closer, lowering her voice to the barest whisper. "The pony had me fooled for a while, but Salrath knows what you are now." Her grin widened still further and she glanced up at the waiting robot arms. "One last thing. The Synod has decided to terminate this line of research; after the machine has finished with you it will start work on your kin."
Her last hope extinguished, Fusion screamed and thrashed inside the prison of her body; it was as if she had been wrapped in chains and thrown in to a pit filled with water. Nothing she did caused the slightest ripple on the surface.
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One of my prereaders has said there's no way he'd want to be one of the main characters in anything I write. I wouldn't either.
2512447
I´d take it over some other options. ^.^
Honestly... at this point Celestia/Fusion has it coming, she's far to trusting. Instead of smacking her stupid sister down, she lets her sister push her into compliance... NOW she's about to be euthanized. I hope Salrath finally bites it soon, though she makes for a good antagonist, she needs to die. Granted, unless you decide to simply 'end' the fic like the aborted April 1st alt-chapter, we all know she will survive this, somehow...
Still... dumb cliffhanger!
2512447
I can agree with that statement.
Great chapter. I continue to really like the culture you've given the diamond dogs. It breathes and feels organic in a very believable way.
Salrath needs to die. Again.
2512447 id rather be in this then Murky Number Seven or any other FoE fic
Holy shit, you end it like that and now I have to wait 2 weeks to read what comes out of it? I hate you, you know.
2512447
A key component of most stories in conflict.
A key component of a non-Sue character is that the character must sometimes lose.
Thus, to be a protagonist is to suffer. Usually also to triumph, but the suffering cannot be denied.
Looking forward to more, especially as Gravity finds herself agreeing more with her sister at an exponential rate.
Aaaaaaaaaaaah!!!
Please help Celestia! (and Luna too!)
So I'm guessing this is the beginning of the real conflict now. Especially since Fusion gets physically locked in her own body.
2512447
You remember what we talked about when you messaged me after my post to your April Fool's chapter? Yeah... It's back, with a vengeance. You left us here and now my mind can't help but come up with increasingly horrible scenarios that I know I can't rescue Fusion from...
I just have one request. Please don't make your story a 'bad end.'
And to think I was looking forward to a nice relaxing evening of reading fanfiction.
Oh gods.
You are a terrible, TERRIBLE individual and I hate you because this is the most evil cliffhanger I've had to deal with in forever.
2513056 I don't know. In M#7 they were at least being openly controlled. The control here is much more insidious.
I'm just clinging to the hope that this will end well because it isn't tagged sad.
25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6vnmqtCoS1ruwb3wo1_400.png
And so Ends Fusion Pulse, the pony who learned too much.
Will Gravity be next? Will Salrith get what she deserves?
Oh why, why the evil cliffhangers! How could you use such a dirty move!...o-o
Somehow I don't believe you'll let Fusion end like that there has to be something? Intervention, but from who?
Also, a question. Does this all, in your mind, end in Equestria as we know it?
This story finally updates again and I get left with this?
I think we should seriously consider banning cliffhangers.
...nah.
Still, this one was just evil.
2512778
One way or another, it's not a mistake she'll make again...
2512849
Thank you! I'm trying to give this thing as 'real' a world as I can, so it's good to know it's working for you.
2513769
I remember; you'll also remember my thoughts about stories like that.
2514632
I believe in accurate tagging (with the exception of the April chapter!).
2517081
But how would I ever end another chapter!? Also, I'd take exception to the 'finally', except that it's really a compliment.
2516399
It does, although I might not get that far with this fic (it's already way longer than I thought it would be). You should at least see the seeds being planted. Be aware that I started this during S1, so there may be a bit of drift!
===
Thanks for all the comments everyone!
2517176
I appreciate the reassurance. I tend to empathize with grizzly fates far too much, and right now Celestial is facing one of the worst I can imagine.
On a lighter note, since you've built up an entire pre-Equestrian civilization there must be remnants in the modern pony times. With all the magic available, especially when Discord spends some time in power, it seems possible that someone could survive in one of any variety of magical stasis-type effects. I've been pondering what would happen if one of the Blessed ponies was found at a dig site turned to stone/glass/metal/etc and then had the transformation dispelled.
2517466 Not a problem, I understand completely.
There are bound to be relics left, so it's something I've thought about. Imagine...
You'd wake up, surrounded by malformed versions of your species. No Masters, no high technology. The first moments would be critical; do you panic and run, desperately searching for your owner? A modern pony couldn't stop you (I always envisioned my ponies having Twilight grade magic and more) -- what happens if you find a clan of modern diamond dogs? What do they do with you (aside from the obvious)?
Obviously a better (for the survivor!) story would be a quick visit to Celestia/Luna followed by a history lesson. Adjustment would be dependent on how long you'd been Blessed, and personal experiences. I suspect a journey to visit modern DDs would be inevitable.
2519925
A visit from either Princess could actually create more problems. Depending on when you got frozen/whatever the conflict may have been ongoing. At that point the DD's might have passed around images of the rebellion's leaders in the hopes that it even recently-freed ponies would be too afraid to help just from their latent conditioning. Imagine waking up, civilization is gone, and the ones you think are directly responsible for all your ills are now in charge.
2520088
And there I was thinking you would prefer the refugee to have a better time of it!
That's probably inevitable, given the connection to the labornet. Also, any pony preserved in that way is likely to be from near the end of the (as yet unwritten or planned!) war, part of a bunker's survival stores, so would likely have special instructions for such a 'total war' situation. Or not, thinking about it; the DDs live in a state of cold war, there will be stocked bunkers scattered around the place, already with their frozen teams of servitors...
Also: it's 0730 here and I've just got to work -- what time zone are you in?
2520219
That's why I'm assuming a better story would come from a non-com Servitor. A security pony might jump first and with intent to kill, but a non-com might fight only to get away and allow for a better continuing story. And who says I'm not willing to put characters through the wringer? I'm just gun-shy about stories that start out with epic build up and then end gruesomely.
And Eastern US, so 2:45 am. I have problems making myself go to sleep on time. Speaking of which... Zzzzzzz.
YAY! UPDATES TO MY FAVORITE STORY!
i have a question: is this supposed to be set 1000 years in the past? i hope it is, because it raises some interesting questions.
will this end up with celestia throwing her sister to the moon?
i know that this was written long before the information was made available to us, but on eqd it said that faust had wanted to write something about celestia and luna 1000 years ago. this puts an interesting twist on it, to say the least.
and, btw, the technology ponies use in the series today seems very low tech compared with what is featured here. if this was a thousand years ago, then did ponies go through a regression of technology? i want you to carefully explain that to us later on.
and where is sombra?
2527187
Nope, waaaay before that. I've not set a specific date, but given that it would have to be long enough for all the Master's tech to be lost/decay, it's probably at least a thousand years before NMM.
The 1000 years thing is interesting though -- look at all the stuff that happened around that time; NMM and Sombra. Got to think something big was going on then.
2527279
No, he really didn't. I pitched it to him as a 'fantasy techno thriller', where all the creatures are from legend (the DDs I called 'werewolf-like'). After he saw fimfiction his words were 'I didn't know horse stories were a thing'.
When you think about it, it's not that surprising -- the only place on FiMfic it says My Little Pony is right at the bottom in small print, and if you didn't know about the fandom, you'd never make that leap.
It helps that the story is fully self contained, written so that you need to know nothing about the show. I've been passing it on to others I work with, as an experiment...
2529810
I'd better apologise now; it's going to hurt when you have to slow down to the rate I write the thing!
I come from a hard SF background, so this was the only way I could 'believe' it would work (the alternative was a true diskworld with a painted crystal dome kind of affair). More is revealed a few chapters further on from where you are, but it's not much of a spoiler to confirm your assumption.
This started in S1? I really doubt it'll ever pop up in-story as anything more than a whisper of a hint, if even that, but I'm curious if you've come up with some way to incorporate Twilight's canon Alicornication into your headcanon for this story? Because I've thought about that a bit, lol. If Celestia and Luna are connected to the Sun and Moon respectively, and that allows them to be super-ponies, and Twilight gets to be one now too (no actual evidence yet in canon that Twilight gets to be ageless etc.), it'd be for a similar connection to Magic, right? Magic, which her studies have shown is heavily tied to Friendship, aka Harmony, and the source of which being the Pattern? I like the idea of Twilight basically being 'The One'. Like the Pattern is learning about friendship, lol. That it's universe isn't just a playground for it to experiment with it's capabilities and then dispassionately consider destroying just to start from scratch because it's bored.
[Edit] Or maybe she'd just get a connection to one of those metaphysical machine that keep the universe running and which follow the commands known as 'magic'. That'd still be a helluva thing to be connected to like that. Sounds kind'a dangerous, actually... sun breaks, life has it a helluva lot harder. Metaphysical machine breaks, the universe itself corrupts and potentially fails altogether. Both are bad, but one is decidedly worse.
2527297 and discord! dont forget best pony!
that would havre been so awesome!
alright, thanks. at least i can be reasonably certain this wont end with lunas imprisonment. yay!
oh, btw: your little "joke" was awesome! took a lot of guts and some serious cajones! not to mention a ton of time and effort. nothing but respect for you there. and the ideas presented there are deep. the way in which you just went about destroying everything you had set up was unnerving; it seemed to have happenned with such apparrent ease and was so utterly believeable that one cannot help but realize the true nature of just how precarious the situation is for our protagonists. and good job with the korn scene. is that a clone of fusion? where did the filly come from? if it was, how many failed attempts did he go through? a harrowing line of questions, one that warrants a story in itself.
and id like you to elaborate on the decoy the chaotic thing sent out. what was that? was it the discord we know of today? was it...PINKIE PIE?!?!?!
2531854
Yes, right at the tail end of S1, if I remember correctly.
I have a mechanism for alicornication (like Discord, it just falls out of the story, or at least, it will do). As for Twilight -- is there any evidence for her getting superpowers? Cadance doesn't seem to have any (inspiring love could just be a unicorn/magical talent). Having said that, Luna and Celestia appear a bit feeble anyway -- my going in assumption was that they have god-like powers, something not really born out by the show (they never seem to use them, anyway!).
As as aside -- the Pattern is in the Diamond Dogs, they are the its experiment (one that's been manged by Chaos), so from that point of view, ponies are irrelevant.
Now I have caught up... and been left with a cliffhanger. I will wait... impatiently.
2532183
Thank you, glad you liked it. The decoy was part of Chaos, not really a 'person', but who knows what it could have grown into. It, or something like it, could easily be responsible for PP 'powers'.
The filly was Fusion's clone; it might be interesting to do that story at some point.
2532427 oof. sorry i brought it up. i hate sadfics.
why are you thanking me? for my compliment? no, my friend; you earn those from me with your hard work, or buy them from me with great writing and brilliant ideas. and when it comes to those who seek to earn them, some have called me a slavemaster, and when it comes to those who seek to buy them, some have told me that my "prices", per se, were those of a highway robber. but the thing you have here, open and available for "trade", as it were, is worth quite a treasure of compliments. you deserve them. you earned and bought them in equal measure. never thank someone for what you have earned. its not like im giving you compliments for no reason after all. now, to questions.
if the Chaos thing was destroyed somehow, would that not mean an end for order as well? in the creation story, you said yourself that the orderly world had been created within a sphere, something that kept Chaos out but was powered by it-someplace where the Order/Pattern thing could rest and grow stronger, and run its experiments.
now, if fusion comes to realize the true nature of the thoughts that were not her own, and where they came from, and what else Chaos was doing in the world around her, wouldnt she work against it? would she ever come to realize that the creation stone things had power over it, and would she ever think to gather them up to use against chaos? she very well could- i mean, in canon, its what she did with Discord. that would, no doubt, be cool to watch happen- to say nothing of what would go down between her, the dogs, the ponies, and even with the griffons.
but those arent the real questions. the true question is, if she managed to defeat Chaos, wouldnt that cause her to inadverdently bring an end to order as well?
On one hand, argh, I hate parts like this!
On the other hand, well, every single character aside from Celestia/Luna/Discord is going to end up perishing somehow...
Unless you go with an awesome Mass Alicorn Ascension thing, which would be cool and much happier than genocide. Although my actual hope is that what happens is something like Discord unleashes a mass devolution virus, which results in the modern DDs, and all the other alicorns becoming the three races of today, while Celestia/Luna remain intact due to their massively increased power levels conferring immunity.
Mostly I don't want to see mass death, because in many ways it feels at odds with where the story is building, even with the dystopian society as-is.
2532631
Well. I've never been told off for saying 'thank-you' before!
Anyway, strictly speaking I'm thanking you for the information, not just the compliment. You've told me that you understand the intent behind the chapter, something that is always useful for me to know. The same applies to any speculation and or questions you have -- they reveal where I may have failed to be sufficiently clear.
...and thank you for the compliment.
===
Most of this batch of questions can be answered easily: there is a difference between 'chaos' (general disorder, in this case the quantum foam at the bottom of space-time) and 'Chaos' (the entity that is manipulating events for its own benefit). So the destruction of Chaos will have no effect on the bubble (although the inhabitants would be happier!).
2532422
There tends to be a lot of those. I think it's a union rule or something. Also, assuming the comment times reflect where you were in the story, I must have comprehensively destroyed your day. Excellent!
Yeesh, away for a few days, now I'm late for the party.
A party?
.... no Pinkie, not that kind of party.
Aww
*ahem* As I was saying. Another engrossing chapter, things are developing worryingly quickly for our protagonists; still logically, but faster than I had anticipated. I figured Salrath would do something that forced Celestia to tip her hoof moving to help the foals, but that there'd be at least a little time for things between Celestia and Luna to settle a bit.
Instead, they have suddenly reached a critical point while Luna's mindset is still very much in flux. That said, I can see a couple plausible (to me) paths out.
I don't see Celestia just powering through it. It doesn't really fit the vector of the problem (disabling drug) or nature of the fic (gritty, realistic).
Option 1: Luna realizes what the DD's intend, and takes action. She's got the power to get the job done, if inelegantly. She doesn't have the ability to teleport or neutralize the blessing, so the dogs, gryphons, and Animal Scanner will all be an obstacle. That's not a step to take lightly, and I'm concerned about her resolve.
Luna's initial response to Vanca's question was encouraging, in that respect, but I'm not convinced that she's seen enough to push her over the edge. As well, the DD's have separated the two, removing the most dramatic and convincing proof of their plans for Celestia. That said, it's still possible for the situation to play out in such a way that their intentions are made clear, and spurs Luna to ride to the rescue.
Looking forward, this would resolve Luna's loyalty quandary quite decisively, as well as keeping teleportation up Celestia's sleeve and folks guessing about celestial connections.
Option 2: The sun goes out. We've seen a few hints that the sun's response to Celestia's state is not always exactly subtle. Even dismissing the alternate ending, the brief blackout is still telling. If the drug cuts of Celestia's magic connection, it's possible the sun will respond the same way. I imagine that the news would be passed along a little more quickly this time, and they might realize it might not pay to be too hasty/irreversible in their actions.
The scan may still reveal that she's removed her blessing, but it's plausible for them to be wary of messing with her neurology by reinstating it until they understand the situation a bit better. They may just settle for heavy guard and/or magic suppression. In this case they have an inkling of what she can do, but they may still underestimate her. Of course when her magic comes back, so does teleportation, which should make for a fun surprise. Depending on what they choose to do, things could get quite complicated.
Looking ahead, this route severely raises the stakes, and kicks the rebellion off in high gear. Sadly, it'd use up the surprise of her teleport ability, but on the plus side, she'd be aware of the implications of her celestial connection, and realizing her importance would force the DD's to treat her with a certain degree of care. Not that I doubt them (particularly Salrath) to find some way to be complete and utter bastards about it.
Anyhow, this has gotten way too long. Um. Thanks for the good chapter, may I have another?
2536156
I burn through on average 100k words a day or more. I've just about run out of good long stories to read on here. I guess maybe I should get off my butt and write something to distract me...
2536880
If you do, it will distract you. Writing this has certainly annihilated my spare time. Got any you'd recommend?
2536159
No, never late; fashionably on time.
Thank you for the analysis/speculation; immensely valuable to see this while I hammer the next chapter into shape. Lots of good stuff there -- some of it even matches what's coming up!
Next chapter due on the 16th...
Might be interested to know: your option two starts off close to what I had originally planned for 'April'; Fusion dies on the operating table and the sun goes out. Utter panic on the surface, but they don't realise the reason until it's too late. If anything, it was intended to be even grimmer than the one I wrote, with Salrath surviving (for a while, anyway).
2536148 ah! ok, i think i see now. thanks! ill be awaiting the next chapter with an open mind, and reading it very closely when it comes out. youve created a very interesting little world- that, and i like student korn. good job.
Is it weird that since the beginning I've wanted to read "Vanca" as Vança"?
Also, this cliffhanger is actually making me physically nauseous with tension. I'd like you to appreciate that.
2545846
Having done the research to find out what that means -- it's a 'voiceless palatal frictive'... now all I need to understand is what that means!
So 'Van-sa' rather than 'Van-ka' (which is how I say it during editing sessions). I think.
On similar lines: I'm doing some work for a guy in Germany, who's surname is Korn. I have to bite my tongue every time I speak to him.
...and I do appreciate you pain. Really, really appreciate it.
I used to be a nice person before I found pony; now I think I'm becoming a bit of a sadist.
Would this be a good time to announce a personal crisis and put the fic on hiatus?
Not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet, but have you read Anthem by Ayn Rand by any chance? There are some pretty big similarities in the thinking of Fusion and Anthem's main character, and other similarities in the society itself.
Also, I just picked this fic up a couple days ago after having it sit in my 'to read' list for months, I'm SOOO glad I did. Excellent work.
2547518
Your face when: http://www.myfacewhen.net/view/4653-bueno
I think I'd have a "want it need it" style breakdown if you went on a hiatus. Why, damn you! Why did I get so invested in your characters?!
2547974
Not one I've read; although it's on Gutenburg (and now on my phone), so I'll have a look. Thanks for your comment, glad you are enjoying the show!
2552563
Oh Luna, another one with a basement and a sledgehammer
That picture's pretty accurate though.
I shouldn't joke about such things, having just had a couple of fics I was following go on hiatus (to add to the hundred or so that have just vanished without trace). It gets a bit disheartening at times.
2552826
Night's Favored Child, Want Me Need Me Love Me, Trixie to Bellatrix, Embracing the Darkness... I don't think my heart could take being hurt again...
Oh my GOD!
GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.
This cliffhanger, man. This freaking cliffhanger.
I made this my first fic to catch up on after being gone from Fimfiction for a month, and THIS is where it stops?!
2519925
This would make an amazing sequel.
Hell, I could imagine a whole slew of spin-off fanfics based in this 'universe', exploring what would happen if relics from the past showed up in modern Equestria.
2527297
So, I suppose that would imply that those old stories of the Three Tribes and the Paleopony Period are just lies told by the Sisters? That alone would be a very interesting story, of how Celestia and Luna have basically erased the true history of the past to keep their ponies safe from the terrifying truth. Perhaps Twilight discovers something from the true past, and Celestia tries to explain to her why those things were hidden.
I like to imagine that behind the pink and rainbows, there really is a lot of dark things going on which the Sisters keep secret. I mean, there's the whole Tartarus thing, and the memory of Celestia even having a sister being nearly lost before Twilight discovered the truth (watch the first episode, the mane six are clearly surprised that Luna is Celestia's sister), not to mention the fact that Celestia apparently never told anyone about the Crystal Empire. She told Twilight that "few know it ever existed", even though logically it was a major city-state with diplomatic ties to Equestria long before Sombra conquered it. Why did Celestia cover up its existence retroactively like that? Clearly, there is more going on in the history of Equestria than anyone knows.
I'm excited for more!
2557345
I am a bad pony.
It's one of the things I've got on my 'to do' list, but I dare not start until Wasp is finished (to paraphrase: Celestia's put me here to do a certain number of things before I die; I'm so far behind that I'm probably immortal), unless I can fit it into a short.
Prehistory: I think there's enough time for almost anything to happen; from what I remember there's no C/L around (yet they do have them on their flag...) -- a thousand years is a long time (and I've probably underestimated the time it would take the Masters civilisation to decay by quite a lot, especially for massive structures -- and most of their works are underground and immune to weathering). The stories are just that, the truth twisted by centuries until they no longer represent what happened; for what ever reason the Princesses keep quiet about it.
In my headcanon, L/C leave the ponies (because of [REDACTED]) to their own devices, fading into legend until they are needed again (ie the survival of ponykind depends on cooperation between the breeds), then kick starting the formation of modern Equestria
Has anyone done a decent take on what happened at that '1000 years ago' point? Everything seems to be going wrong at that point (Sombra, Discord, NMM), which implies an epic confrontation. Headcanon again: It's all Discord's fault, stirring up trouble (Sombra) and contaminating Luna. I bet you could tie in the creation of the Changelings as well (they strike me as a weaponised pony subspecies, perfectly built for causing chaos). I'm going to blame Discord for that too.
You may have guessed that I don't subscribe to the 'playful trickster' theory!
hi hi
I can't imagine that Fusion Pulse is in any immediate danger. After all, I suspect that if they wanted to, they could have killed her already. And if they re-bless her, I have to wonder if it would makes as much of a difference as they think, since with her newfound understanding, I'm not sure if the innate guilt which the blessing requires to function is going to work the same way in her mind as it did before.
Anyway, I get the impression that they're about to put her on ice. Either removing her magic or putting her in a crate until the whole mess blows over. Although, even if I'm right, I'm not sure if Gravity Resonance knows any better.