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IT'S RAINING SCOOTALOOS

Honesty time: this is where things start to get a lot more unpolished and vague. The further in we get, the more time I figured I had to work on it, so these scenes weren't as scripted-out as, say, the ghost story. (In fact, the next part has very few specific moments and is more of an outline of things I wanted to establish leading up to Nightmare…though the Nightmare event itself is almost fully scripted, to the point that I may make it its own part. We'll see!)

So with that said, my notes don't pick up again until they're back on the airship to head home again, with the group patiently waiting to dock back at the Crystal Empire State Building. Applejack and Rainbow are bored, while Rarity happily knits away and Fluttershy is half-asleep (she was so spooked by Spike's story that she never went into sleep mode). Pinkie is bouncing off the walls, and Twilight and Spike are trying to contain her.

This might have been shown on the trip over, depending on what was asked, but if not then it would've been introduced here: docked airships are maintained by little worker robots, frequently seen climbing or flying over the surface of stationed ships inbetween flights. Their small size allows them easy access to hard-to-reach areas, and they perform minor maintenence, clean out debris that may have gathered during the flight, and take note of any problems that may need to be addressed further. They're little swarms of industrial adorableness!

o hi scootaloo how u doin

This wasn't planned out in much detail, but at some point in here, the group would notice one of them losing her balance and falling off a ship — a tiny orange bot who seems like she's having trouble flying back up…

Rainbow, being Rainbow, immediately flings herself out the window (that glass was not up to safety standards!) to catch the poor thing before she gets smashed against the floor. Seriously, does nobody maintain proper operating procedures around here?

catch that scoots!

Of course, this isn't the first time Scootaloo's fallen; she has more than her share of dinged-up or replaced parts from accidentally meeting the floor too fast. Falling off a ship isn't uncommon for these bots, especially for one whose propellor can't carry her very well! But this is the first time someone's bothered to catch her, let alone jumped out a window to do it.

So hey, Scoots, what do you think of your daring rescuer?

~* scootaloo vision *~
RAINBOW: Hey, kid, you okay?

oh no

she's awesome

Rainbow swoops down with the star-struck Scootaloo, ready for applause! Unfortunately, she finds a very angry dock manager instead.

This leads into quite a lot of fighting; the dock manager is furious over the broken window, Twilight is furious that Scoots' propeller does not meet basic flight-capability requirements, and Rarity is furious because she dropped her knitting.

RARITY: [ANGRILY KNITTING] Well, I at least —
knit two, purl two, c4b, c4f, purl two, knit one…
— consider this to be just as APPALLING —
purl four, c3b, purl two, c3f, purl four…
— as everyone else's complaints, and I think —
knit one, purl two, c4b…
— it should be treated just as seriously!
C4b, purl two, knit two…

geeze Rarity just…just put it down for a second, it's okay, I promise.

Anyway, their argument is interrupted by the Crystal Guards, who've come out to escort the disembarking passengers inside for questioning.

Wait, what?


A CRIME MOST PERPLEXING

PINKIE: Wowie! I can't even see the end of this line!
TWILIGHT: What's going on? It's never been this bad…
APPLEJACK: [muffled disapproval from inside of Pinkie's hair]

Everyone — minus Scootaloo, who's off being scolded by the dock manager (don't worry, she'll be back!) — is shuffled in to the already-overcrowded port, where all anybody knows is that there was some kind of security incident and no one is being allowed to leave until things are sorted out. Somewhere in here Shining notices Twilight and pulls her and her bots aside. Not just because of nepotism, but he thinks she might be able to help.

He brings them into the back, where Twilight is shocked to see Celestia — so this is where she was! — and we finally meet the Locational Optimization Volt System! Or, as she's better known: Cadance.

CADANCE: Oh! Twilight!
CELESTIA: Hello!

Cadance was built by Celestia as a solution to the messy, often guesstimated navigational issues of the island. She makes the flight plans, coordinates the Clousdale ships, and generally keeps things running smoothly via her antenna, the range of which is amplified by the Crystal Heart System (implanted on her back). Because she's so important to the navigation of the island, she's kept at the top of the Crystal Empire State Building under guard.

candy candy

(What about her and Shiny? Uh, well…

TWILIGHT: Ha ha, yes, you're all very funny. That would be SO unprofessional.

[in the background, Shining and Cadance VERY STUDIOUSLY avoid each other's eyes. Celestia floats serenely in place.]

…This was going to be covered more later in the Sombra/Chrysalis arc, so it's brushed off for now.)

Anyway, Shining explains that a few hours ago, someone broke into the upper rooms of the Building. They made it into the employee-only areas with no fuss — probably using a key reported stolen from one of the guards yesterday — but only Shining and a few others have the keys to the topmost floor where Cadance works, so the intruder melted the lock and tripped the alarm. The guards arrived soon after, but whoever it was had already fled.

(A few of you noticed the key being stolen during Pinkie's montage — good catch! :D)

They went into immediate lockdown, but it's not something they've had to do in over a decade, and it turns out that this can be difficult in, y'know, a major airport. It's quickly devolved into a big embarrassing disarray that's taking up way too much of the guards' attention, and Shining suspects that the intruder's already long gone anyway. He's brought Twilight (and friends) in partly to save her from that whole mess, and partly to see if she can help figure things out — nothing was damaged or missing, except for a couple of old files that aren't valuable in the slightest. Why would anyone take those?

After some discussion and investigating — and a little help from the readers! — they realize that the files contain some of Celestia's notes from building Cadance…but it's only superficial nonsense, nothing that could help someone build another Engine or Heart or anything. Blueprints for body design, notes on hair rooting, sloper drafts…not that Celestia isn't proud of her work, but those were kept here as reference for the maintenance crews; all the interesting (and trade secret-y) stuff is locked up back at the University.

They also find some drips of the green acid-like liquid that was used on the lock, which Celestia identifies as appearing to have been based off of a corrupted Element. Remember how sometimes, when an Element is created with negative emotions, it can have unpredictable results? Yeah, occasionally you get things like this. It's definitely corrosive, whatever it is; it ate through that lock in seconds, and is working its way through the floor.

Celestia suggests that Twilight take a sample for study, but otherwise, they seem to have hit a dead end in the investigation proper. While she's here, though, Twilight takes the opportunity to show off her bots and all the progress she's made on her assignment!

They're all the very best of friends, right bots?

…Right?

seriously rarity put that down

Twilight is offended at their lack of enthusiasm, in typical grumbly-Twilight fashion. Celestia (being Celestia) just laughs and gives her student some vague, wise-sounding advice about how her experiment is going wonderfully, and she can't wait to see what good friends they'll become!

TWILIGHT: But…we ARE friends! Aren't we? That's what I made them to be…How much more friendship do I need?!
CELESTIA: [possibly just quoting the fortune cookie she had at lunch] Ah…well, I think that's something all of you will discover together.

After that unhelpful nugget of…wisdom?…Celestia asks Twilight to keep her updated on what she finds out about the mysterious corrupted Element, and bustles off to be annoyingly vague somewhere else.

So this all ends on a bit of a sour note, with the theft still unresolved and our main group a bit mad at each other — Twilight's annoyed because Celestia won't give her a clear answer on this strange assignment, and the bots have been getting increasingly put off by Twilight's bossiness and insistence on treating their relationship like a project. (Spike is standing around awkwardly and hoping no one calls on him to have an opinion on this whole mess.) Nobody's really happy tonight!

Except for two people, way down underneath the Crystal Empire State Building… >>1198337

Upvotes at import: 103 | Stars at import: 69
Posted previously at: 2016-07-11T12:47:56 | Posted previously by: Yoshimon1