Chapter VII
Contact
Vinyl snapped awake to the sound of somepony knocking on her door. She groaned and considered ignoring it, until she remembered that there was no actual door to her bedroom. Her eyes drifted open to reveal dark-stained marble walls. She puzzled over this at first, but then the memory of the past night bucked her out of bed.
Stumbling on hooves that weren’t quite ready for movement, she made her way to the door of the small room and thrust it open to find a bleary-eyed Flash Sentry waiting for her. “Is it time?”
Flash let out a long yawn and righted his helmet before nodding. “The princess wants us to meet her in the astronomy room of the East tower. You ready?”
Scratching her head and brushing back her wild mane, Vinyl ended up yawning as well. “Yeah, the sooner the better. Lead on.”
Vinyl’s hooves were like lead. She walked alongside Flash, head low as she tried to stretch her back. She noticed that he maintained the proper stance of a guard, but by his face she suspected he would collapse at any second.
“How much sleep did you get last night, Flash?”
“Three hours,” he grumbled. “After you nodded off, I had to go apologize to Little Caster for abandoning her on Princess Cadance’s doorstep right when it was time for her to go off duty. Wasn’t pretty.”
She winced at this revelation. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” He waved a dismissive hoof. “I’m expected to be able to take a few long nights in my line of work.”
She shook her head. “You didn’t have to stay up with me all night long.”
“You were scared,” he replied. “I wasn’t just gonna leave you alone with your thoughts.”
Vinyl blushed and glanced away. “I wasn’t scared.”
“Bull, you were borderline panicked.”
She huffed and refused to look his way. “I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.”
Flash shrugged. “We all say something like that.”
They continued the walk in silence, Vinyl not daring to admit that she was glad he’d stuck around until she’d fallen asleep. It had been a long and painful night. She’d almost broke down on more than one occasion. Not for the first time, Vinyl began to wonder when it was that Adi had become so important to her.
Her mind began to circle through the usual thoughts. Maybe it wasn’t that Adi was so important, but perhaps it was what Adi represented. Then what did she represent? It could be the opportunity to save somepony. Maybe Vinyl just wanted to do something special for a change and make a difference. Perhaps she wanted to be important to somepony.
Or perhaps she just didn’t want to come home to an empty apartment.
She hated that particular thought. As always, she shoved past it to more pleasant alternatives.
Adi was her friend, and she didn’t want her friend to come to harm. That was the best reason, wasn’t it? The most likely, the most reasonable. Yet Vinyl wasn’t used to the idea of friends. Aside from Velvet, she’d never really had one… and Velvet seemed in her mind something more akin to a long-known acquaintance, a pony she knew since her school days who happened to be working at the bar of the club she applied to work for years later.
But maybe Velvet qualified.
Yet Vinyl didn’t get scared when she couldn’t talk to Velvet after a few days. So what was the difference between her and Adi?
The circle came round again.
“Hey.”
She glanced up to find that they were climbing up stairs. How long had she been wrapped up in her thoughts?
Flash tapped her on the head. “You fall asleep walking?”
Vinyl shook off his hoof and rubbed her eyes. “No, just thinking.”
“Right.” He let out another long yawn. “We’re almost there.”
“Good.” She glanced around, taking in the dim surroundings. They were in a circular staircase rising up a thick column. There were no windows, no indication that they were approaching a destination. “How high are we, and how do you know how high we are?”
“Pegasus instincts.” He flapped his wings, perhaps for emphasis. “This is the tallest tower in the castle. Judging by our elevation—” he tapped the side of his head, “—we’re probably up to the fifteenth floor or so. The tower’s got seventeen.”
They passed by a solid oak door, which Vinyl peered at for the sake of having something other than marble to see. “Astronomy room, top of the tower. Makes sense.”
“You’ll wanna be careful in there,” Flash told her. “The astronomy room is akin to Princess Luna’s personal study, and she babies her equipment. Ya break it, ya bought it… after a few moons in a dungeon, that is.”
“Got it, I’ll be careful.”
The staircase ended at a pair of large doors, on which Flash knocked.
“Come in.”
He pushed a door open. “Your highness, Miss Scratch has arrived.”
Vinyl stepped in to find a wide, open room with only the central column acting as a support. The exterior was nothing more than a circle of wide, open windows. Telescopes of varied sizes stood scattered about the exterior, all aimed at the sky; tables covered in boxes with lenses and strange objects sat at strategic locations; spare equipment was stored on shelves; star charts were set on stands depicting a variety of constellations. Vinyl noted at least a half-dozen bookshelves filled with tomes on what were almost certain to be astronomical data. The soft shine of morning’s first light filtered through the room.
Princess Luna stood at one of the tables, studying a large telescope lens in her magic. Her face was so close it was a wonder her eye didn’t touching the glass. “Ah, Miss Scratch. You are just in time.”
As Vinyl continued her curious scan of the room, Luna very slowly set the lens down in a velvet-lined box, which she closed with equal caution. She turned to Vinyl with a broad smile. “The station will be cutting off their service for an hour. It will begin soon.”
“Really?” Vinyl bounced forward, all weariness fading from her mind. “That’s great! I can’t thank you enough, Princess.” She dropped into a quick bow.
“The gratitude is returned,” Luna replied. “I’ve had quite the educational night thanks to your interruption. It has been a wonderful break from the tedium of the past few months.” She turned to point to a nearby table. “Your radio is there. I took the liberty of having its internal parts replaced and upgraded where necessary, if that’s alright.”
Vinyl bounded to the radio and lifted it in her magic. She examined it from all sides, yet apart from some clearly new screws in the bottom it didn’t seem at all different. “That’s wonderful! Thank you very much, your highness.”
The door began to creak closed, but Luna’s voice piped up. “Ah-ah, you will stay, Mr. Sentry.”
“Oh.” Flash stepped back into the room with a nonplussed expression. “But I have to report for duty, your highness.”
Luna waved her hoof. “At the moment, your duty is to stay here.”
Flash exchanged a questioning look with Vinyl, but let the door close behind him. “As you command, Princess.”
Vinyl wondered about this turn of events, but decided she had more important issues at hoof. “Princess, do you think you could locate Adi?”
“Absolutely.” Luna sat opposite Vinyl with a smile. “I’ve been through a crash course of the technology involved, and have already tested a spell for just that purpose. It will be easy to determine a general direction once the two of you begin speaking.” Her expression grew somber. “Of course, this assumes your friend will be on the radio at all.”
“She’ll be there,” Vinyl insisted. “She’s got to be!”
“So we shall see.” Luna glanced towards the rising sun. “The frequency should be open now. Let us try.”
Vinyl cast a fretful look towards Flash, who gave her a firm nod. With a sigh, she reached for the microphone. “Alright, Adi, please be there.”
She flipped the power switch.
Adi’s quiet, lost voice arose from the speaker, clearer than it had ever been before. “—here. I’m still here. Please, Vinyl, come back. Please.”
Vinyl let out a sigh. She kept still for a couple seconds, just letting the relief wash over her, but finally raised the mic. “I’m here, Adi.”
“Vinyl! Oh, thank God!”
She shot a smile at Luna, who only stared at the radio intently. “Sorry, Adi, some things happened beyond my control and—”
Adi’s voice rose in a shout. “Don’t ever do that to me again! Do you have any idea how scared I was?”
Vinyl winced and turned the volume down slightly. She thought on the last twenty-four hours and blushed. “Oh believe me, I do.”
“No, you don’t,” Adi whispered. “I th-thought I was alone again. Don’t do that to me, Vinyl, please. I can’t take being alone anymore.”
“I know.” Vinyl glanced at Luna once more, who had taken on a grim frown. “That’s why I rushed to get help as fast as I could.”
“Good. Th-that’s good. Promise me you won’t ever leave me like that again.”
Vinyl held the microphone in both hooves, her chest tight. “I promise. I’ll be here, Adi. You don’t know how worried I was when I couldn’t find you.”
A long pause. “You were worried?”
“Yeah, I really was.” Vinyl glanced towards Flash, who smiled in a way that was almost glowing. She coughed and shook herself. “Anyway, I’ve accelerated our plans.”
Adi sniffed. “I don’t follow.”
“You remember me talking about meeting Princess Luna, right?” Vinyl glanced at the princess, who was leaning over the table and listening carefully. “I sorta barged into the Night Court so I could ask her for help.”
“You did? You didn’t get in trouble?”
Vinyl grinned. “Nope, though I probably should have. She’s here, right now, listening to us.”
“She… she is?”
The microphone floated over the radio, Vinyl waving encouragingly to Luna. “Would you like to talk to her, Princess?”
Luna blinked and studied the mic for a couple seconds, but at last took it in her magical grip. “Hello, Miss Adi.”
“Oh! Is this the princess?”
“It is indeed.” Luna nodded. “You should feel honored to have a friend in Vinyl, who was willing to risk a lot more than she knows to come speak to me.”
Vinyl’s eyes widened and she looked to Flash. He raised his hoof to his cheek and mouthed, 'She’s kidding.'
“I am honored, and more appreciative than you can imagine,” Adi replied. “After two years alone…” There was a long silence. “Well, I’m just glad she’s back. Um, I don’t mean to be rude, but are you really a princess?”
“Indeed I am.” Luna’s lips shifted for a few seconds, her eyes growing hard. “I hope, for your sake, that you truly are not aware of my history.”
Adi’s response was hurried. “I apologize, I did not mean to insult. I’ve simply never spoken to a princess before.”
The princess sighed. “I was referring to my thousand years of exile and isolation on the moon.”
“A thousand years? Vinyl failed to mention that part of the story.”
Vinyl flinched.
Luna’s gained a deadpan look. “I don’t blame her. I am about to cast a spell that will let me determine your general direction from us, so I’ll leave you in your friend’s capable hooves for the moment.”
“I’m sorry, princess,” Vinyl said as she hurriedly took the proffered microphone. “I didn’t think she’d take it that far.”
“It could be that she actually believes her own story,” Luna admitted, though her tone was humorless. “Or she could have no shame. One way or another, we will locate her.” Her horn dimly shined, her eyes focusing on the radio.
Vinyl licked her lips, her stomach twisting at the look in the princess’s eye. She glanced to Flash, who was currently making a good showing of looking anywhere but at the two of them.
She brought the microphone to her lips. “Adi, you’re gonna get me thrown in a dungeon before this is all over.”
Adi sighed. “Vinyl, I appreciate whatever you did that lets us talk, but how am I supposed to believe such a crazy story?”
Vinyl facehoofed. “She’s right here, y’know.”
“A thousand years? You can’t even live that long, Vinyl.”
“Well she can, and if you don’t shut up about it I’m liable to spend the rest of my life on the moon.”
“And how are you even supposed to breathe on the moon?” Adi asked. “You already told me your people don’t have space flight, so you can’t expect me to believe you’ve got some moon colony.”
Vinyl groaned and rubbed her eyes. “It’s called magic. Beyond that I don’t think anything else needs to be explained.”
Adi scoffed. “I already told you, I don’t believe in magic.”
Vinyl glowered at the radio. “Y’know, I went through a lot of trouble to start talking to you again. It’s been less than ten minutes and you’re already trying to debate me.”
It took a moment for Adi to respond. “You’re right, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to, I just… well, I guess we should change topics.”
“Yeah, sounds like a good—” Vinyl blinked; the microphone had been jerked from her magical grip. She looked up to find Luna staring with wide eyes at the radio. “Hey, what gives? Eh… your higness.”
Luna didn’t say anything for several long seconds.
Adi’s voice rose through the speaker. “Vinyl? You there?”
The princess spoke into the mic. “Miss Adi, I need a moment with your friend.”
“Oh, of course.”
The mic rested on the tabletop as Luna focused ever more intently on the radio. She mumbled under her breath and her horn faded in and out several times. Vinyl shifted and glanced at Flash, who shrugged.
At last Vinyl leaned forward. “Umm, Princess Luna?”
“Just a moment, please.” Luna continued her staring contest with the radio for several seconds, but finally her horn dimmed. “Sweet merciful me.”
Vinyl scratched the back of her head. “So… did you locate Adi?”
Luna’s nod was slow, almost robotic. She pressed a hoof to her chin, wide eyes shifting in deep thought.
“Great!” Vinyl clapped her hooves and offered a nervous smile. “So we can find her and disprove her theory, right?”
“Not exactly.”
Shoulders sagging, Vinyl gave the radio a forlorn look. “What do you mean?”
Luna leaned over the table. “I mean I can’t disprove her story, Vinyl. I mean the signal is coming from… up.”
“Up?” Vinyl cocked her head. “What do you mean, up?”
In response, Luna raised a single hoof and pointed at the ceiling.
Vinyl followed its direction uncomprehendingly, then gaped at the princess. “Up?”
Luna gave another slow nod. “Up.”
The silence was intense. Vinyl could almost feel her logical foundations crashing down around her, and she found herself short of breath. She looked to Flash, but he only gaped at them with wide, uncomprehending eyes.
“Y-you…” Vinyl fiddled with her hooves. “Are you sure you cast the spell correctly?”
“It is a very simple spell,” Luna said, “and I cast it a dozen times. Yes, Miss Scratch, I am certain.” She took the microphone in her dark aura. “Miss Adi, this is Princess Luna. Do you have a full name, and if so, may I know it?”
Adi’s voice rose from the speaker. “My full name? I’m not sure you can pronounce it.”
Luna’s response was quick. “Indulge me.”
“O-okay, then. My full name is… Adhiambo Longstaff.”
“Adhiambo Longstaff.” The princess had no difficulty with the pronunciation. “Could you tell me where you are now?”
“Where? I… well, that is…”
Luna shook her head. “Are you drifting? In orbit, perhaps?”
A gasp rose through the speaker. “Y-you… drifting. I’m drifting.”
“Give me a moment.” Luna thrust the microphone into Vinyl’s waiting hooves and went to a trio of star charts.
Vinyl stared at her, then at the mic. Her mind was still running in random directions and her breathing came in slow gasps. At last she raised the microphone. “Adi, I… Holy horseshoes, is this really happening?”
Adi began crying. “D-do you believe me, Vinyl? Do you believe me now?”
“I am so sorry.” Vinyl clutched the microphone in one hoof and her chest in the other. She felt as though somepony had torn out her heart. “Oh Goddess, I am sorry! I didn’t know, I… I…”
“I know,” Adi whispered. “I w-wouldn’t have believed me, either.”
Vinyl opened her mouth to speak, but the microphone was abruptly stolen from her hooves. She looked up to find Luna, still wide-eyed, standing over her. “Miss Longstaff, Luna. Can you control the speed and direction of your ship?”
Adi sniffed. “Yes, I d-do have some control of it, but no place to go.”
“Okay, this is good.” Luna turned to gaze at her star charts once more. “I might be able to find you.”
Vinyl’s jaw dropped as her mind got lost trying to process Luna’s words.
Adi’s voice was loud over the speaker. “Really? Can you do that?”
“Maybe.” Luna’s lips curled up in a smile and her eyes sparkled. “There’s a chance. It might take months or even years, but I think I can find you. With some tweaking of the magic I should be able to get a general direction.”
“But that’s…” Adi’s voice shook. “B-but I’m just a tiny dot to you. Princess, how could you possibly—”
Luna turned back to the radio, her voice firm. “If you’re close enough that we can hear you on the radio in real time, you’re close enough that we can see you with a telescope. It may take months to locate you and triangulate your position, but if you track your movements for us I think we’ll be able to identify you.”
Adi was silent for some time. “And then I could… I could go to Equestria?”
Vinyl’s ears perked. She gazed at Luna, who returned the look with an expression of wonder.
“Yes,” Luna whispered. “Yes, I believe it is possible.”
Sobbing arose from the speaker. Luna smiled and spoke once more, keeping her tone soft. “Miss Longstaff, I understand this is a big moment for you. Please, take some time for yourself. I need to consult with Vinyl and make preparations.”
Adi made no attempt to answer. She just kept sobbing. Vinyl longed to grab the microphone, but she held back and waited for Luna to speak.
Luna set the mic to the table and exhaled a long, steadying breath. “Miss Scratch, you may have made the most incredible discovery of the age.”
Flash had come closer to listen in. “Can you really get her to our world, Princess?”
“It may take a very long time,” Luna replied, “but yes, the possibility certainly exists.”
“I can’t believe this.” Vinyl pressed a hoof to her churning stomach. “When she told me she was an alien, I just thought… well, y’know, who the buck believes something like that?”
“Nopony can fault you for your doubt,” Luna said, setting a hoof to her shoulder. “Now is the time to make up for it. I would like for you to remain at the castle until we have arranged a plan for Miss Longstaff’s journey. I will need to inform the other princesses and the right individuals in the astronomical community.”
“I’d be happy to help.” Vinyl blushed and rubbed her hooves together. “I, uh, don’t know anything about astronomy, though.”
Luna offered a warm smile. “You are Miss Longstaff’s friend. She trusts you. You will be our official liaison; I want you present whenever we need to speak with her. More scientific minds will handle the work, you just act as Miss Longstaff’s… assurance.”
Vinyl cocked her head as she tried to take this in. “So I’m holding her hoof?”
“Something like that.” Luna turned to Flash. “You will be working with Miss Scratch, acting as her escort.”
Flash sputtered, his cheeks going pink. “B-but your highness, I am a guard of the Crystal Empire! I would need to formally request—”
“I have already discussed things with Cadance,” Luna declared. “Judging by what she has already told me about you, I doubt she will mind a temporary change in your posting.”
“R-really?” His ears lowered with his head and his cheeks only burned brighter. “What did she s-say about me?”
Luna’s smile grew wry. “That is private.”
“Hold on.” Vinyl raised her hoof, catching the attention of both of them. “What the hay do I need a guard for? Err, princess.”
“I’ve got to second that one,” Flash said.
“There are many reasons,” Luna replied with confidence. “Making sure you make it to the appropriate meetings on time, for example.”
“Hey!” Vinyl stomped. “What makes you think I’ll be late?”
Luna gave a hmmph and smirked. “You’ll also have to be kept from going places you shouldn’t within the castle.”
Vinyl sulked. “What the hay? Do I have some kind of record?”
The smirk broadened. “Every pony has a record, Miss Scratch, and I assure you that I have seen yours.” Vinyl’s eyes grew wide, but Luna pressed on before she could formulate a response. “Further, it will be Mr. Sentry’s duty to keep you from harm.”
“I can handle myse—” Vinyl’s lips clamped closed against her will, and after a few seconds of struggling with her jaw she finally sulked and glared.
Flash shifted from hoof to hoof, his eyes darting to each mare over and over again. “I’m not sure I like this idea. Any guard would do, right?”
“But you went out of your way to help Miss Scratch,” Luna said. “You know her personally and you are a fan of her music. You are also an exemplary guard, if Cadance may be considered a reliable source of such information. I trust you will take it upon yourself to watch over her in every way.”
Flash’s eyes grew as wide as Vinyl’s felt. “H-how do you know so much about us?”
“I didn’t just spend the night researching radio technology, Mr. Sentry.” Luna smiled at him. “Like my sister, I prefer to know who I am dealing with in advance.”
Vinyl shook her head forcefully and discovered that her jaw was free to move again. “I really don’t think this is necessary!”
Luna laughed and winked. “What is that phrase I’ve heard in these modern times? Oh, yes: ‘suck it up.’” She turned for the door. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a lot of work to do, starting with making sure the radio station is moved to another frequency. I will advise Princess Cadance to speak with you on this matter soon, Mr. Sentry.”
Vinyl shared a miffed, wide-eyed look with Flash. As the door closed, she asked, “What just happened?”
“I think we’re stuck together,” he replied with equal uncertainty. “I don’t get it; who am I supposed to be protecting you from?”
Adi’s voice rose from the speaker. “V-Vinyl?”
She hurried to sit at the table and grab the microphone. “I’m here, Adi.”
“Th-thank you,” Adi whispered. “Thank you for talking to me. Thank you for setting this up. I… I can’t…”
Vinyl shushed her with a warm smile. “It’s okay, Adi. You don’t have to say anything.”
“I’m g-going to have a home.” Adi choked down a sob. “I’m going to get out of this damn tin can. I could n-never thank you enough.”
“I know. I don’t know what to say… or think.” Vinyl rubbed her mane back and leaned against the table. She took slow breaths. “I’m trying to take it all in. I’m… I’m really confused.”
She felt Flash’s hoof on her shoulder, and looked up to find him smiling down at her. He gave a small nod. Vinyl stared at him for a moment, and then felt something unusual within her. It was like a pleasant warmth in her chest, a sense that things were going… right.
She turned back to the microphone. “Adi? I get it now.”
It was a few seconds before Adi responded. “Get what?”
“You haven’t been telling me everything,” she said. “Because you knew I wouldn’t believe.”
Adi said nothing.
Vinyl turned and took Flash’s hoof, forcing him to sit down next to her before turning back to the radio. “Adi, why are you on that ship? Please, let me know what happened.”
More silence. Vinyl began to wonder if Adi would respond at all.
“There was a sickness.” Adi’s voice was hollow, her words coming slowly. “I was a mechanic working with a contractor for NASA. I didn’t listen to news or anything, so I don’t know where the illness started. I know half of Europe was infected by the time I started paying attention.”
Flash leaned towards Vinyl. “Europe?”
She shushed him with a wave of her hoof, listening intently to Adi’s shaky breathing.
“By that time, the sickness was in the U.S. and people were starting to get scared. We started calling it the Super Flu. Super-contagious, super-hard to get rid of, super-painful. Vaccines didn’t work, modern medicine was useless. Some thought it was a type of bioweapon, if you believe in conspiracy theories. Then…”
She was silent for a time. Vinyl and Flash shared uncertain glances.
“Then something changed. I don’t know what it was. The virus went from being painful to lethal almost overnight. I heard that millions died in Europe alone within a couple weeks. The sickness was coming. We all knew it.”
A long, tremulous sigh rose from the speaker.
“That’s when we decided to take The Journey, the ship I’m on, and leave Earth. There were twenty-one of us initially, and we were acting against orders, so we had to move in secret. It took two months to make preparations, and some died trying to get to their families. Mine… mine was already gone by then.”
Vinyl chewed her lip and fought against the tightness in her throat. “Adi, I—”
“Let me finish!”
She clamped her jaw closed and held the microphone in a firm grip.
“S-sorry… I just… let me get it out.”
Another pause.
“It was Immerson who screwed up. He told the wrong family members, who came to believe the ship could hold dozens of crewmembers. We had a mob on our hands.”
Adi began to cry, but it was subdued. “I… I had no choice. Curtis, Takenaka and LeMay had been arrested, the sickness was spreading through like a wildfire and was already at Cape Canaveral. Hundreds of people were trying to break through the fence. I w-waited as long as I could, I really did. I didn’t even know how to fly the damn thing, but I saw Paredes get shot making his way to the ship. He was the last pilot, I d-didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know where the others were. The fence was failing, the base was in chaos.”
She sucked in a long, shaky breath. “So I started the engines and took off. I let the autopilot get me above the atmosphere. I should have waited a little longer, but I was so scared. I didn’t even properly buckle myself in, and the ride knocked me out. By the time I woke up, I was in orbit.
“I spent three months listening to the radio. Listening as my world died. By then, the lights in all the cities had gone out. By the end of the fourth month, the radio gave me nothing but static. My home was gone, and even if I knew how to land the ship there was no way I’d survive on the surface. So I… I figured out the controls and left. That’s what the ship was designed for, after all; interstellar exploration.
“It’s not like I had any better options.”
Silence. Vinyl stared at the radio, slowly releasing the breath she’d been holding. “Adi, that’s…”
“Something,” Flash finished for her. She glanced over to see him staring at his hooves with wide, shifting eyes.
She held the microphone to her lips. “Adi, we’ll get you here. You’ll find a new home in Equestria, I promise.”
Adi’s response came slowly. “A-are you sure, Vinyl? What if I c-can’t survive there? What if—”
“You listen to me,” Vinyl snapped. “You are going to make it to Equestria. You’re going to see our world, you’re going to make a home for yourself, and we are going to finally meet face to face. It’s going to happen, Adi.”
“But what if—”
“Shut it.” Vinyl stood and glared at the radio. “Don’t you dare argue with me on this! The princesses will makes it happen, and I’m going to be there. I’ll be with you, Adi, every step of the way. Okay? So… so believe it, because it’s true.”
Adi remained silent. Vinyl tapped her hoof impatiently. “Okay?”
“Okay,” Adi whispered. “I… I trust you, Vinyl. I’ll believe.”
“Good.” Vinyl sat, her entire body slumped over the table. “Good. You’d better, or else I’ll kick your tail when you get here.”
Adi gave a weak chuckle. “You’re one of a kind, Vinyl. Thank you.”
A small smile graced Vinyl’s lips. Her eyes were blurred by moisture. “Anytime.”
She looked to Flash, who watched her with a smile of his own. She set a hoof to his shoulder. “I don’t know why Luna pinned you to me… but I’m glad.” She rubbed her eyes and looked to the radio. “I d-don’t wanna do this alone.”
“You won’t.” He patted her hoof and rubbed her back. “Neither of you.”
Vinyl sniffed and returned his smile, that warm feeling back in her chest. She glance to the radio, then back at him, then raised the microphone. “Hey, Adi?”
“Y-yeah?”
“I’ve got a guy I’m stuck with, Luna’s orders. I think I should introduce you.” She thrust the mic in Flash’s startled face. “Say hello, Bolt Butt.”
Well done. This chapter... it's beautiful!!!
Victory!!!
Well... almost. Close enough. I think I've got a new favorite chapter. Again.
I have problems buying the concept of a super-sickness which can wipe out eight billions of people with no survivors.
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Thanks!
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Do you really think I'd stop? I'm glad you approve of the reveal, now that it's finally out there.
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I can think of one that's coming near the end you might approve of even more.
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I will only point out that Adi only has knowledge of what she can see and hear on the radio. It's always possible that there are actually survivors, but how is she to know that from her position? Having said that, I will acknowledge that her not knowing is a plot device.
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Meanie.
Now I just want to read the whole thing even more.
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5516995 Mean meanie-pants.
Actually a mass pandemic plague is possible. It requires certain factors but a plague could kill enough of mankind to send the survivors back into the middle ages. Remember your killing farmers, engineers, scientiest, techs. Kill the right ones and in the right chain and you have no power or food and your all alone with no help surronded by dead bodys. Things go downhill from there.
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Fairly said I thought from text that the disease is similar to one from "Plague Inc" game in successful play. Looks from the comment I'm wrong.
5517198 Even if there was a 99.99% lethality (the highest I can remember was around 96% short of a bioweapon) you are still with a hair short of a million people worldwide surviving. That is before environmental/medical/etc counting for deaths as well. So with a very extreme spread there would still be around 250,000 people left on the planet. I'd give 50/50 odds on humanity surviving or not at that stage. The 2014 variant of ebola was running around a 50% lethality in modern countries, and that is a BSL-4 virus. Humanity is stupidly resilient sometimes.
Even if it was only 90% lethal, odds are there would be very few if any people left with the knowledge to run a high power uhf/vhf transmitter, let alone a repeater with high enough wattage to be received in orbit. So either way, as far as she'd know the world would be dead.
On the topic of the story, I can't believe I didn't thumbs up yet. I fixed that.
Damn, that was dark. Hope there would be some secret government bunker underground, peoples still holding on, developing vaccines.
I hope this is seen all the way through, this needs a proper resolution.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf2bObJGFkg Rabies, nearly 100% deathrate if you don't get the shot before it starts to affect you. Of course even with an extremely high death rate you would still have people like those doomsday prepper types who are prepared for something like it, many even having their own small bunkers and supply caches to survive. And the government would likely have a few places to hole up some people as well.
5525511 Yeah, BUT rabies isn't incredibly easy to transmit. Yes it is able to travel through blood and saliva, but it still needs to get into someone for infection. Something air or water borne would have much easier method of transmission. Even then, municipal water supplies would take care of the vast majority of the virus and wells would be damn near impossible to infect regularly. Airborne has a similar set of problems, mainly air currents, solar radiation, etc. Outside the heart of a major city, airborne transmission is much harder. Once you are in a rural area it is damn near impossible outside of sharing a car with someone.
Biowarfare is both easier and harder than people think.
This chapter was wonderfully done and for once I didn't cry (I have been crying for the majority of the small/short space fanfics that I read). Oh, I felt the feels plenty at the reveal and following conversation, but no tears. I noticed that you, PaulAsaran, posted this chapter a day earlier ahead of schedule, thank you for the treat!
Best of luck, stay healthy, and update soon!
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Okay you say that it is possible to push a radio to transmit around the world. Okay. I have no knowledge if this is true or not. I would not be surprised if it is possible.
Researching ...
Links
AM/FM radio waves
Geostationary Image/diagram from wiki
After doing some research into radios, HAM radio + space, and space stations/shuttle craft, I've come to these conclusions:
1. You can use a HAM radio to speak to someone at a distance of the International Space Station (410-418 km), but only for a ~10 minute window since the ISS has a 92-93 minute orbital period.
2. Let me set up these images so that I can explain my other and previous thoughts. Though you must assume that all of the limited physics I am typing about is with the fact that their Equestrian earth has the same mass and shape as our Earth, planet.
I didn't know that the images you could post in the comments had to be from the internet, so here's a dropbox link for the rar file of the diagrams I made for the explanation. I would suggest that you unpack it and follow along with my explanation, though I know you don't trust me enough for that. I completely understand, it's the internet (shrugs). So I'll also try to explain as is.
image 1: Okay, Vinyl is a dot on the planet and will stay in one place. Adi will be the dot in space.
Get yourself a blank piece of paper and draw a circle. Place a dot on the surface of that circle. That will be Vinyl. Now place another dot above Vinyl's location. This will be Adi.
image 2: Now if Adi is above Vinyl, she can talk with her, but if she was on the other side of the planet Adi would not have Line of Sight (LoS) to communicate with Vinyl, or at least not without help. Well then you'll say, but you can send a radio signal around the Earth! Yes, you can do that, but A: you need to use the ionosphere with specific conditions of which I do not know, B: our target is an object in space, not another radio on the opposite side of the planet's surface, and C: I think this proposed plan would take more power than it would to speak to a spacecraft above the initial location.
Draw a straight line from Adi to Vinyl. Now draw another dot of Adi on the opposite side of the circle. Draw a line from Adi's dot to the edge and intercept past the rim of the circle, yet do not go through the circle itself. Do this for both sides of the circle. Now draw a line from Vinyl's location that intercepts with Adi's transmission lines. Where the two lines intercept = where the communication satellite has to be for Adi's signal to reach Vinyl.
image 3: Now we're going to talk about Vinyl's angle to obtain communication with Adi.
The ISS has an orbital period of 92.7 minutes. For this explanation and the sake of simple math, we are going to make it an even 90 minutes as well as making the Earth a perfect 360 degree circle/sphere. 360/90 = 4 degrees per minute. If you only have a 10 minute window to talk to the ISS: 10*4 = 40 degrees. Your HAM radio can speak to anything in that 40 degree angle at the height of the ISS (410 km). Yet to be in geosynchronous orbit around Earth you must be orbiting at almost 36,000 km, a little over 22,000 miles. That's over 80 times the height of orbit the ISS is currently at! Now I don't know if this is true or not, but I assume that the larger the distance you want to talk to someone = more power needed for a clear transmission. I'm probably wrong. Though if my thought process is true then that means that the 40 degree angle that Vinyl can transmit to Adi is smaller than it really is.
Okay, for this one you need a ruler, a compass, and a protractor. Draw an X-Y axis with 4 inches from the center. Use your compass and place your metal point at the center of the axis and draw a 3 inch radius circle. Choose one of the radius lines and place Vinyl upon the circle. Now use your protractor: center it on the center of the earth and 90 degrees aligned with Vinyl. Mark where the 70 degree and 110 degree and then draw a straight line from those marks to the center of the earth.
3. Vinyl and Adi are able to speak to each other at hours at a time, let's assume an average of 4-6 hours. This means that Adi is farther up than the ISS, yet it isn't confirmed that she is in geosynchronous orbit. And like I mentioned in my last comment, if Adi is just in orbit there should be days or periods of time in which Adi and Vinyl cannot speak to each other because Adi is on the other side of the planet.
4. In this chapter, all Luna says is that Adi is 'up.' Not to the horizon or in the middle of the Earth, but up. If the author writes in the next chapter that Luna tries the 'location/directional' spell again at a different time of the day and it is still 'up,' then we can assume that Adi is in geosynchronous orbit within approximate 40 degree angle.
So, not only is Adi extremely lucky to be in geosynchronous orbit above Canterlot, but also to be in Vinyl's 'angle' of transmission.
(scoffing) Man, I haven't done of these long comments in awhile ... it's tiring.
Best of luck, stay healthy, and safe.
-Sky66
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Sky66,
Nice analysis of the science of radio propagation. I'm a radio ham (it's not capitalized) and I had a few comments.
> Okay you say that it is possible to push a radio to transmit around the world.
This is absolutely true. In fact, when ionospheric conditions are good, you can talk worldwide with the energy equivalent of a Christmas tree light bulb.
1. You can use a HAM radio to speak to someone at a distance of the International Space Station (410-418 km), but only for a ~10 minute window since the ISS has a 92-93 minute orbital period.
> Well then you'll say, but you can send a radio signal around the Earth! Yes, you can do that, but A: you need to use the ionosphere with specific conditions of which I do not know,
There's a simple why Vinyl isn't using the ionosphere to talk to Adi- radio waves which are refracted by the ionosphere bounce back to the planet and are not available to talk to space. If Vinyl's signal bounces off of the ionosphere, it will continue to do so and not suddenly start passing through it. How do radio hams deal with this? Primarily, ionospheric "transparency" is a function of frequency- low frequencies bounce back and high frequencies pass through. (This is actually very fortunate, as low frequencies require long antennas and putting a 100-foot long antenna on a satellite would be a serious pain.) So we just use high enough frequencies to punch through when we want to use a satellite, the moon, etc.
> I assume that the larger the distance you want to talk to someone = more power needed for a clear transmission.
Signal strength does indeed fade as 1/r^2 where r is the distance but with a decent receiver design, signal strength is not the problem if you are talking to a satellite in geosynchronous orbit. Some hams use the moon as a reflector and that DOES take enormous power, but that's largely because so little of the power reflects back. Over truly astronomical scales, the inverse-square power law DOES start to test radio technology. NASA solves this problem with REALLY BIG antennas. Look up the Deep Space Network to see what I mean.
By the way, if anypony is inspired to learn more about ham radio, shoot me a message. I really enjoy my hobby and have mentored more than a dozen other students in the past ten years that I've been into it. :-D
...And this entire time I was waiting for somepony to realize they were talking on what essentially is a public radio frequency, one that has been advertised to the public as a radio station to tune into.
Welp, so much for secrecy about first alien contact.
Heh. Maybe they can pull a reverse "War of the Worlds".
Either that, or Adi might have a few ten-thousand-or-so new friends to talk to.
A great story, looking foreward to more!
I really like how the story actually takes its time. Even after Vinyl talks to "the alien-prank girl" for the first time, it takes a whole lot of time before she even goes back to talk to her again, leaving plenty of time to flesh things out.
The second thing I really like here is, how there is no cliché "complete rejection" or "pretending to believe" - instead, Vinyl is upfront and honest: "I don't believe you, but I'll play along and listen to what you have to say".
YES. A refreshing take on the "X doesn't believe Y" story-scenario!
...Of course, when Luna cast her direction-confirmation spell, things could've easily gone wrong.
or
or
I have done my critique of Frequency! Find it here.
Did Luna just take her own name in vain?
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Yes, yes she did.
5695206 Oh great now im thinking about some video game monster skulking around in the foggy darkness making that noise when it detects prey. (a Disturbed video game? Hell Iron Maiden did one.)
It's funny. I didn't realize how much I was holding my breath through out this chapter until I realized I needed air. Very intense and keeps getting better.
that scene there.. too intense.. it almost brought me to tears. I really felt shiverry reading through it all. I'm crying on the inside for adi, both in joy for the hope she's feeling and sadness for the rawness of her pained emotion
I really dont want to post more of these comments and be interrupted from my reading but time and time again i get overwhelmed by the beauty of this story that i need to let off some feels. Definitely one of the best reads out there.
I just hope adi gets a happy ending or i swear to all that can be sweard to that i will... i will... *Screams in a pillow*
Gotcha.
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And the original Quake has Nine Inch Nails as both the soundtrack and and a type of ammo.
I think it's fair to say that any author worth their weight in salt has troubles formulating plot advancement. Heavens know my own work fails to shine on that regard. Handling turning points in any story can be a messy affair, and handled less-than-gracefully.
That's why I'm going to favorite and thumb this story right here, right now.
That was perfect. Some authors would sugar-coat it. Others still would bumble. But you did it just like ripping off a band-aid. It hurt, oh how it hurt watching Vinyl put herself at wit's end, but just like that initial sting, it passed; gone as quick as it came. And just like the relief from a days-old healing aid being removed, the story feels...
Comfortable. Maybe a little sore, and the wound is there, but oh the relief I felt...
Wondrous. I read onward anxiously.
I almost feel bad for saying this, no I do feel bad. First let me say this is a brilliant piece of work. It had me engaged almost from the start. I love it, and I'm going to finish it.
However, if Adi's ship is close enough for her to talk in real time, Adi should be able to see Equestria, and certainly it's sun. Even from the moon, which is 400000 km away, or one and a third light seconds, the Earth is visible as a sphere four times as big as the moon from Earth. A round trip message to the moon takes almost three seconds. Delays in radio messages become noticable at about one tenth of a second or 30000 km, within geostationary orbit. So Adi's ship has to be closer than that, in orbit around Equestria to stay in range as long as she has.
There's also the 'Earth is dead' thing. You could have set up pretty much the same cicumstances if the ship had been successfully launched, and was doing it's long duration exploration mission when something killed all of the crew except for Adi. Make it some sort of life support malfunction and have her be a life support tech who was the only one in the sealed hydroponics deck when it happened. Anoixia doesn't have symptoms, you just keel over, and a pure nitrogen atmosphere for ten minutes would kill everyone deader than the pyramids.
They were already heading for the Equestria system, and since she's not flight crew, she wouldn't have any way to change the ship's trajectory. It put itself into orbit, and then shut down. If the drive system didn't have a visible flare, it's possible it's arrival would have gone unnoticed, even if it's only 30000 klicks up. She'd be stuck there, unable to move, unable to pilot a shuttle down to the surface, only abkle to keep herself alive and radio for help.
I still love the story, I just don't like stories where the writer kills off a planet just to set up a plot point when other less apocalyptic disasters would so the same job.
Probably the point were the virus got in Madagascar and/or Greenland.
It's been an interesting read so far so of I go to the next chapter!
6146352 But not supervirus can infect Greenland or Madagascar! I've tried hundreds of times on Pandemic!
5516175 First of all, why? Second, it didn't kill everyone, Adi survived.
5516175 It's not an impossibility though, I mean the Black Plague killed 50 million plus people during the 14th century in Europe, over half the population. If a person were to get infected today he would "need immediate treatment and should be given antibiotics within 24 hours of the first symptoms to prevent death." - Wikipedia.org
Even then there's no guarantee he would be cured. "Currently, there is no commercially available vaccine against plague in the United States." - Medicine.net
(I did my homework! Are you proud of me yet mom?!)
Your morbid plague tidbit of the day, good sir! Enjoy!
Hm, so with what Adi's saying she's clearly English-speaking and Europe, Africa, and (presumably) Asia all had cases. Her listening to radios go silent in orbit makes all of Earth appear dead, but is it? Admittedly, it's a little unclear. Surely there's some pockets of survivors left that Adi just couldn't have known about, and they simply just don't have radios back together. What would be the case here?
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I was very intent on leaving this nebulous, in case I ever wanted to write a sequel addressing the topic. I like to leave openings like this for potential sequels and side stories, even if I have no intention of developing them at the time. After all, sometimes I just get the urge.
Reading this again in 2020, 7 months into the Coronavirus and social distancing.
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