Keep a pony with it at all times to be ready to talk 78%
It wasn’t like they were in any kind of rush—crops would take time to grow with only hydroponics. They might very well be talking to one of the Signalers, wherever the message was actually coming from.
Twilight occupied herself helping around medical when she could, and when there was nothing there to do, tinkering around the probe. It couldn’t be coaxed into communicating again, no matter how polite she was—but she could surround it with equipment that would let them monitor what it was doing.
Was it trying to communicate along other spectrums? Only one—a band of the radio spectrum so low she wasn’t sure how a tiny antenna could produce it. The signal was attenuated, and directed straight down at the planet below. IT seemed to be firing only once every orbital period. Like we’re orbiting around a control station. Maybe there was more life down there than it had first appeared—hidden bunkers perhaps, or otherwise underground ecosystems. Maybe the life down there was of a form she couldn’t see, and was actually thriving.
That last thought was not comforting. A civilization that thrived on the corpse of one that built cities and orbital rings would probably want for Equestria what they had created here. A desolate, near-lifeless place.
Except for the single square of life, uncannily preserved near the equator. This was not where the signals were coming from, though the Equinox’s own sensors could pick up faint EM readings from around it. Possibly low-power radio transmissions, or the evidence of working machines. Maybe that’s our invitation.
The soil there looked healthy, and the green grass and gravity would do wonder for her crew’s morale. But landing on an alien planet would be an unacceptable risk, unless they could verify conditions were safe first.
So Twilight ordered the preparation of another probe—a real one this time, not something to be gutted and replaced with unknown alien computers. They fired down at the planet on their next pass.
The whole crew gathered together to watch—except Pinkie Pie. The earth pony never left medical, and from Fluttershy’s description was rarely awake for more than a few minutes at a time. But she hadn’t died, which was the important part. So far as anyone could tell, she was healing.
The probe passed through the atmosphere without incident, and they all watched from the bridge as its camera flickered briefly under the stress of a hard landing. Its parachute blew, and another few minutes later, they got confirmation it had landed.
Mechanical eyes sent back images of green grass, and gently swaying trees with faintly purple leaves. There were flowers in the distance, though the bushes were hard to make out from the low angle of the rover’s eyes.
“Is our friend doing anything?” Twilight asked. Spike had brought the whole thing up here on a rolling cart, no longer connected to the portable computer or the database. It hadn’t protested at being moved, so…
“No sign,” Spike said, his voice distant and a little hopeless. “Must still be thinking.”
“How are the bio readings, Fluttershy?”
The pegasus shifted behind the science console. “Looks like… good temperature, oxygen is a little low, but enough so long as no pegasus flies too high. No sign of… hostile bioagents. I’ve told it to take soil and plant samples, see if the microbiome will be hostile. But even if I don’t find anything, we’ll probably need to transport samples back and test them against some cell cultures. And that still won’t be proof it’s safe, just a stronger suggestion. We’re flying in someone else’s sky, Twilight.”
“I know,” she frowned, rising from her chair. “Applejack, I want you looking at the nearby structure. See what you can tell me about the ponies who built it.” She rose. “Spike…” she didn’t even finish, just waved a wing at the probe, riding the lift down. There was no more direction the probe needed from her, and apparently no response from the machine they’d built. Not yet.
But it was about noon now, ship time. And every day at noon was when she visited Pinkie.
Medical had been transformed halfway into a prison, with a section divider of clear plexiglass isolating a single cot and the space around it from everything that could be touched. The walls had been scribbled on with marker, or else needed a good wash near the bottom.
Pinkie Pie herself lay on her belly on the cot, with enough tubes and wires running into her to make it seem like she were an organ of the Equinox itself. Her scars were… gross, but at least they weren’t leaking pus anymore.
“Hello Pinkie,” Twilight said, opening the little slot near the empty counter and sliding a foil-wrapped packet inside. “I brought you something sweet.”
It was her weekly dessert ration—for several weeks from now. She was running low, would have to start stealing from her friends if she wanted to give Pinkie any more. There’d be no more shortbread for Twilight, not for the rest of the voyage.
But she couldn’t think of any other way to get through to her friend. When all else had failed… what was left?
Pinkie Pie opened one eye pulling the foil close. She didn’t unwrap it properly, but held it down and tore it with her mouth. The two dried crackers inside were hardly the sort of thing Pinkie could’ve made herself—but they were sweeter than paste.
“Twilight,” Pinkie said, with a mouth full of cracker. “I thought you wouldn’t come.”
Twilight froze, stiffening in her seat. Her friend had sounded… almost like herself. Like the dreary, drained version she sometimes became. But at least she wasn’t insane.
“I come every day, Pinkie,” she said, forcing her voice to stay calm. She managed—but her heart raced so loudly that Pinkie could probably still hear it.
“Yeah,” Pinkie said, closing her one eye and stretching out on the cot. “I guess so.”
“Are you… okay, Pinkie?”
“No.” The earth pony didn’t hesitate. “It hurts everywhere. I think I’m more stitches than pony right now. And when Fluttershy gives me the drugs, everything kinda… goes out of focus for a while. I wish you’d tell her to stop. I don’t need to sleep forever…”
1. Stop the anti-psychotics and release pinkie from mental-health arrest. Pinkie Pie has obviously recovered enough to be part of the crew again, but she’s still badly hurt. Not keeping her in a cell will do as much for her healing, even if she can’t actually leave the medical bay.
2. Ignore the request. As tempting as it is to listen to Pinkie’s own assessment of her mental health, Fluttershy is her doctor and she knows what she’s doing. I can inform Fluttershy of this conversation, but I shouldn’t override her.
3. Begin reducing her dose, but don’t release her from confinement. Maybe Fluttershy missed her recovery, but we shouldn’t jump to letting her out all at once. She’s as much a danger to herself as others if we let her out too soon.
(Certainty 210 required)
My vote goes to reduce the dose. If she starts going crazy again, the dose can be increased back to normal while she is still controllable, cause let's be honest, it's Pinkie, enough said.
9335864
Yea, and it is not safe to go cold turky from most meds.
Reducing the dose for sure. Nothing wrong with upping it again if she begins deteriorate again.
We should give her a chance to piece herself back together mentally and she wont be able to do that if we keep her drugged.
I really hope she doesn't deteriorate again...
I think it is best to leave it up to the medical pony. let flutters decide.
Having been on anti-depressants for a while I know that going cold turkey from any mentally affecting drug is not good. gradual reduction to see how she handles, or keep her on them.
It sounds like we're going to be hanging around for a while anyway waiting to see if anything happens. No reason not to reduce the dose step by step, making sure Pinkie's adjusted before dropping it again.
I’d go for the option of “Make Fluttershy aware of the situation and ask her expert medical opinion.”
That option being missing, I’d go with lowering of the dosage.
I say reduce the dose. One, yeah, it's a better and safer idea, because it'll make it easier to deal with Pinkie going crazy again (if she does), and two, because it's probably dangerous to just outright take her off of the drugs. It's called withdrawal symptoms.
That's definitely more lucid than she was to begin with... though that might be because of the antipsychotics. Still, let's start racheting them back. Obviously not a dead stop; you just don't do that with something that affects brain chemistry, and that's speaking from experience.
This could be a very positive sign, but it's best to approach it cautiously. We don't want Pinkie going frantic again.
"leaking puss" should be "leaking pus" and "desert ration" should be "dessert ration".
Option three. I know what I'm like when I'm off my meds. Not good.
I don't fully trust Pinkie right now, but she's a lot better than when she first woke up. Reduce, but don't drop the mess entirely.
I have had family who’ve been prescribed antipsychotics. The self-assessment of a schizophrenic person is next to useless in determining how well they are. They will almost always insist they are fine and don’t need medication. Poor Pinkie here has schizophrenia secondary to brain damage. She is, by definition, not fine. Coming out of cryo seems to entail a sort of advanced regenerative therapy, which may restore some measure of healthy brain function over time. It may be heartless, but I’d go with Option 2. Fluttershy knows what she’s doing. Don’t taper off unless you’re sure it won’t negatively affect her recovery.
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If you step past the initial phrasing to the full description though, the "ignore the request" option is exactly what you were looking for. Here it is again:
As tempting as it is to listen to Pinkie’s own assessment of her mental health, Fluttershy is her doctor and she knows what she’s doing. I can inform Fluttershy of this conversation, but I shouldn’t override her.
And when you get right down to it, if the doctor doesn't think it's a good idea to start reducing Pinkie's drugs after having the conversation described to her, is it really a good idea to override her? The votes here quite often seem to lean towards the middle option, but the middle of terrible and good can sometimes be terrible too, and I think this might be one of those times.
9336030
Hmm. You’re correct in that being what it says. I read the options and don’t remember seeing that. Odd. Must just be blind. Oh well.
It is interesting to see how many people always go for the "middle option". I assume it is just something humans like to do. But damn people you wanted a DOCTOR to wake up and now you are overriding her opinion, no matter how gradually.
Doctors should be left to doctor, unless you are a doctor who knows how to doctor better.
3
The answer is clear here, Flutters is a medic, let her do her medic stuff. Pinkie isn't very aware of her state, drugged to the bones, and barely awake. Of course she thinks she's fine, that's what brain damage does.
No matter how gradually, cutting drugs is cutting drugs. We asked Fluttershy to manage her, we can't backtrack now. (Also, think about the morale. A bitter doctor is something you don't want, especially your own doctor, even more if she's one fourth of the entire crew)
Seems like the order of the options on the vote page are a bit mixed compared to how they're ordered here. Maybe I'm just seeing it wrong. I'm actually concerned that I might have voted wrong because of it.
Though I would choose Fluttershy's opinion on the subject. This is not Twilight's area of expertise. Though asking Fluttershy's opinion on what happened can't do any harm. The drugs might simply be allowing Pinkie to think more clearly by slowing her down and allowing her to think. Taking her off the drugs cold turkey could have make her reaction even worst then before and slowly taking her off her dose without Fluttershy's medical opinion and expertise could put them all in danger if no one knows what Twilight is doing behind there backs.
I gotta feel for Pinkie. She went through hell and the drugs are not making her feel better, just making her feel nothing.
She need to be gradually weaned off of the drugs so she can start to feel like herself, the first step to recovery.
#3 for me. (with the goal of totally stopping the drugs as soon as possible)
Hmm I don't know what kind of drugs she is getting and if they work RADICALLY differently form our anti-psichotics... but you can't quit cold turkey on those... they would REALLY mess up the neurochemistry.
What I mean is that the first option is incredibly bad if they are standard drugs.
IF it means releasing her and reducing the dose in a controlled manner with the aim of stopping, well I can be after that.
To all of the people voting to reduce the dose... you do realize you are literally voting to override the actual doctor? Twilight isn't a qualified medical practitioner, she should have no authority over Pinkie Pie's dosage.
Try self-medicating IRL, I'm sure it will go wonderfully. Lowering the dose without running it by Fluttershy first might end horribly.
The strawpoll even points out Fluttershy knows what she's doing and shouldn't be ordered to change anything.
For all we know, Fluttershy may choose to have Pinkie weaned off of the drug once notified of the situation. She should not be ordered to do so simply because Twilight thought it was a good idea. Again, not being an actual doctor.
I feel like the poll doesn't match the options. Don't order anything, inform Fluttershy, let her do her job.
9336354
It does, but I don't know if people are reading them very carefully. It will be interesting to see what happens if "lower the drugs" wins... which it seems likely to.
Doctor would naturally reduce dosages when she feels it's safe to do so. There's no rush while we wait, and she's apparently lucid enough for light interrogation anyways.
Let Fluttershy decide, she is the doctor after all. Option 2.
First ask the Medic it's safe to reduce the anti-Psycotics. Pinky will probably be addicted to pain meds when She is finally healed enough and that's going to be a pup of a female timberwolf to get her off of.
But you never drop Brain chemistry drugs cold turkey. That way lies Dianne.
Finally got caught up, wow, what a story! Is it based on anything in particular, it certainly seems somehow to have a tang of Asimov about it. Will be watching this to see how it progresses. I agree with Sweetblue, Fluttershy is the doctor, get her advice, don't override what she thinks about Pinkie's condition unless you have a compelling reason or know something she doesn't, even then, check with her first and at least know what might be the outcome.
And have a thumbs up!
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If this were anyone else, I'd agree without a second thought... but it's PINKIE PIE. For all we know, her "insight" is informing her here, and ignoring that is dangerous. That doesn't mean that you're wrong though, which is why I'm going Option 3 instead of 1.
9336584
It's not based on anything, but Asimov is one of my favorite writers, so he's certainly inspired the tone for a story like this. Sortof optimistic, yet dangerous future only a stone's throw away.
I agree with Train Dodger. Fluttershy is the medic. Trust the medic to know what needs to be done. I vote to keep Pinkie on the drugs.
Medical officer can probably override the captain in this situation if it calls for it.
That said, given the stakes and the importance of the mission, they have got to get some answers out of Pinky. The mission is more important than the lives of anybody or everybody on that ship.
I was the 210th vote. I almost missed it, but i dont regret it because a couple weeks ago a friend of mine on discord killed himself. He gave his accounts to his girlfriend and she asked me to play a game with her. She always muted her microphone because she supposedly was mute and unable to speak. Well she didnt mute it today and I didn't hear a woman's voice. I heard my friend's. He faked his death, but I couldn't be happier. If I had read and voted sooner, I might still think he was dead.
Not a doctor can always suggest things to a doctor, they can ask the doctor to please do it not do something. But they should never order a doctor. Even if a doctor is wrong, there is a lot smaller chance that the doctor is working than someone who is not a doctor.
Where there's life, there's hope.
This is a rough choice since I feel like we could easily kill Pinkie if we get it wrong. 3, I suppose.
I disagree with the commenters saying that the expert opinion is almost sacrosanct. There is plenty of room in which the experts will disagree and I don't think it would be out of character for Fluttershy to be a bit of an overprotective doctor (hesitant to dial back meds). However, I don't like Option 3's implication that Fluttershy "missed" Pinkie's seeming recovery.
It hasn't been discussed in these comments that I noticed, but there's a classic problem with schizophrenics and the like going off their meds because "I'm okay now". Then they stop taking the pills and they aren't okay. Pinkie's self-assessment is indeed not to be trusted but she has information that we need to know, and she might actually be okay. If a crew this small can muster anything in the vicinity of "close observation" of the patient, I would be surprised if the risk of a modest reduction in dosage was great.
And I've finally caught up after my short break! Seem like quite a few things happened while I was away.
I've voted on the older chapters if only for posterity. It may not actually do something, but there's a sense of satisfaction to be found.
9337020
Hey quick question, what in hell?
9338869
Another question to add into yours: What the fuck?
9409609
To continue this: What does this fucking mean?
Option 3: Reduce the dose.
Pinkie seems to be recovering, but I have to be cautious for the sake of the crew and the ship. We want Pinkie back, but we have to make sure it is the Pinkie we all remember.