The moon shone brightly in the sky over Canterlot, serving as a beacon of light in the otherwise dark skies to those who gazed upon it. The Princess of the Night herself sat on the balcony of her room in the Royal Castle, watching what many considered the most obvious representation of her domain ride high into the star-filled night sky. Many also saw it as a source of inspiration, and for others, represented the sharp contest of the two sisters who ruled Equestria – but for Princess Luna, it was all that, the crown of the night sky, and the prison which for millennia she had existed on as a prisoner.
Off in the distance, Luna heard timberwolves howl to the moon, almost as if they were crying their most sincere respects for the alicorn. Several distant replies from others rang out in the still night. She resisted the urge to howl back.
A grin appeared on the dark alicorn's face. A princess howling at the moon. The Princess of the Moon, of all things, howling at the moon. That was amusing.
Her smile faded as she pondered how it would be a great deal less amusing if the marauding paparazzi ponies that seemed to line the gates of the castle happened to get photos of her doing such a silly thing, and end up on the covers of Canterlot tabloid magazines overnight. Such an image would last for centuries. Equestria had grown a lot more assertive of itself and liberal over the millennium she was gone – now a pony wouldn’t even get banished for libelous words in the tabloids about the monarchs.
No, today, such an issue would be resolved with a class action civil suit for a ridiculously large number of bits to the Royal Treasury. Not that the tabloids wouldn’t make double that figure with an image of a howling Luna. She mentally reminded herself to tell Shining Armor to politely dispatch a few guards to discourage these opportunistic photographers from getting too comfy in their places along the gates. It wasn’t that Luna disliked the members of the paparazzi individually, but she certainly disliked their mentality that the public had a right to know everything that was going on at the Castle at all times.
The cogs in her mind started to work, the very beginnings of an idea forming in the Princess of the Night's mind; prompting her to to her feet, and walked though her spacious room in deep thought; down the long foyer towards her sister’s room. Guard ponies stationed strategically down the hallway came to full attention as she passed, and she returned the customary nod as respectful recognition.
She stopped at Princess Celestia’s door, and rapped at the chamber door.
“Sister? Its Luna, may I enter?”
The reply was immediate.
“Of course, Luna. Come in.”
She used her magic to depress the door knob, entered and closed the door behind her. The co-ruler of Equestria was sitting on the floor, surrounded in small stacks of paperwork, and a small collection of books. Several pieces of parchment were before her, one of which Celestia was rapidly writing on, before signing with a flourish and looking up at her sister.
“Reviewing amendments to next season’s tax code?”
Luna levitated a well-worn yellow book over from its place before the seated princess, entitled A Foal’s guide to Economics, confirming her suspicions. It also suggested that ‘Tia knew the subject matter less intimately than she let on. She figured it would be best to rib her about it later.
“Yes, I was. I received the summary from the Treasury about the unexpectedly large surplus of bits this year. Next year, the tax rate will be several percentage points lower for certain income brackets. I’ll have it on your desk tomorrow for you to have a read over and sign into law if you agree. Also, speaking of law, I thought you had Night Court tonight?”
Luna raised an eyebrow as her older sister not so subtly took the book back with her magic and stored it improperly upside down in on her bookshelf with the binding facing the back. This was golden material that she really needed to gently gibe her sister with sometime soon.
“Sister, I scheduled this night off weeks ago. The court can wait one more night. I was simply enjoying a rather beautiful night from my balcony to my thoughts. It’s always a delightful sense of rediscovery when you remember how pleasant it really is. But I actually had a few very intriguing things occur to me while looking at the moon.”
The Princess of the Sun continued to levitate papers, books, and her writing supplies to various corners of her room, as she replied, attention at least mostly directed on Luna.
“Oh? Like what?”
“Equestria has come a long, long way from a millennium ago. You did a wonderful job, sister, in my…absence, to bring about a freer, greater and more innovative Equestria. But we’ve taken our ponies so far, and still they mull about, doing mundane things. Oh, sometimes we have them preparing for royal visits, have them attending social events like that of the Grand Galloping Gala – which I should note, I find amusing that it is still going since you seem to think so lowly of it. Tia, the one thing we haven’t done is pushed out ponies to strive to achieve something great.”
The darker alicorn paused for effect, before continuing.
“What if we could show ponies that there was more happening within their borders than just the on-going of politics, the Royalty, and major social events? It would help the average Equestrian establish a different expectation of the normality and become more ambitious. It will help Equestria advance.”
Celestia tilted her head almost imperceptibly, a little tic that the slightly older princess did when properly intrigued.
“I’m not actually sure. What do you propose?”
“Well, there is one idea that comes to mind that I really like. Putting ponies on the moon.”
Celestia recoiled slightly, blinked in surprise, and gave Luna a slightly apprehensive look. Luna immediately realized her misspeak, and immediately moved to amend it.
“Rather, put ponies on the moon through magic and science. Equestrian knowledge has far surpassed that of our wildest initial expectations, and it’s time we helped our ponies begin to realize their potential moving up among the stars.”
Celestia simply maintained her wary gaze for a few more seconds, before giving a tentative nod.
“I see what you mean. Its an intriguing idea... I think I know a pony who can talk with to determine how we should go about this.”
Luna laughed, resulting in the white maned princess giving her a dubiously quizzical look.
“You really do consult Twilight Sparkle for everything, don’t you?”
"The Princesses wants what, now?" Applejack drawled in surprise, dark rings under her eyes.
The other ponies comprising the Elements of Harmony voiced their assent in various intonations, except Fluttershy. Fluttershy politely refrained from any outburst at all, and shrunk a little at the loud ruckus. They were all tired and a little irritable at this early hour, except Pinkie Pie, who had been oddly wide awake and packed when Twilight had gone to get her. She’d offered them tea, to which every pony gratefully accepted and quickly downed.
Twilight had gathered her five closest friends together in the early hours of the morning in the Ponyville Library, after Spike received a letter from the Princesses that had requested their presence in Canterlot immediately for undisclosed reasons. She had been immediately woken up and informed by Spike, who she then asked to assume the position of (Acting) Librarian of Ponyville temporarily. Spike had muttered, and went back to sleep; slightly disappointing Twilight with his lack of enthusiasm, though she had to consider being informed in the wee hours of the morning was correspondingly at fault for this. She’d even written him a to-do list for all the library chores, and a quick and partially comprehensive guide to what to do if something happened to the library which she had written when gathering up everypony.
“The Princesses want to see us immediately about something of the utmost importance to Equestria,” Twilight started, before getting cut off immediately.
“Ooh! Is it a party? Do the Princesses need a Party for all of Equestria? I can do a party that big! Well, with you all to help me, I can! But I can’t quite pull one off all by myself with what I have in my party wagon; there is a lot of baking involved, and even I didn’t think that, even though I should have! And even though I’m me, I can’t be everywhere in Equestria at once to make sure everypony is having fun and enjoying muffins and cupcakes and party games, and I don’t think I have enough confetti; but I ca-“ Applejack placed her hoof in Pinkie Pie’s mouth mid-sentence, with a noticeably unamused look on her face, before nodding at Twilight to continue.
“The Princesses didn’t say what they wanted exactly, just requested us at the Royal Castle. They even sent a chariot to pick us up," Twilight paused and looked out the window.
"...which seems to have just arrived. I don’t know anything else, girls. But I want to know, so let’s get going.”
The Elements of Harmony collectively started out of the library, filing past Twilight at the door. She stopped Pinkie, pointed directed a foreleg at the wagon the pony was hitched to. The pink pony pouted and resignedly unhooked herself from the party wagon, muttering disjointedly, before joining the rest of the rest of the group in a gleaming gold chariot with two pegasi of the Royal Equestrian Air Guards at the helm.
Rainbow Dash had already popped her head out the front window and begun chatting excitedly away to the guards ponies, who honestly seemed happier not to converse as they started to gain speed, but did so out of equal measures of politeness and inability to escape their predicament. The pegasi pulling the chariot quickly had it airborne, leaving Ponyville behind them. Pinkie Pie began to talk about how the Princesses would doubtless want an Equestria-wide party, leaving Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack and Twilight looking at each other wide-eyed, begging silently for a quick flight.
The six ponies hastily made their way from the carriage onto the steps leading up into the entrance foyer for various reasons as soon as it had landed in Canterlot.
“It was great to meet you, Flounder and Meander! Catch you guys later,” Rainbow Dash called out to the two pegasi hitched to the royal chariot. They had warmed up to Rainbow after a five minute period of pained attempts to converse and listening in on the pink pony’s long winded tirade on the logistics of an Equestria-wide party, before finding common ground on the subject of flight (which was entirely unpredicted given the pegasi had that as a shared natural ability). The two guard pegasi nodded, and in unison, raised their wings and pushed off into the morning sky.
The rest had politely listened to Pinkie for the entirety of the trip, and would have been happy to go the day without the word ‘party’ used in any context.
A blue unicorn in guards armour trotted up to the group of mares regaining their bearings, and asked them to follow him. Twilight led the group behind their guide, with Rainbow Dash lazily flying above them. The small group arrived in the throne room, with both Princesses seated atop cushions in the centre of the room. All bowed respectfully to the reigning monarchs.
“Princesses, I present Miss Twilight Sparkle and company,” the unicorn formally introduced.
“Thank you, Lieutenant Bestow. You and the guards may leave us,” Luna instructed.
The group remained quiet as the guardsponies vacated the crown room, took up post outside the door, as the thick double doors closed behind them with a muted thunk.
Twilight wasted no time to begin asking questions.
“Princess Celestia? Princess Luna? You called us to the Castle pretty early in the morning…what’s wrong? Is there a situation requiring the Elements of Harmony? Oh no, we forgot to bring ou-”
Princess Celestia raised a foreleg to silence Twilight, who immediately ceased talking.
“Oh, Twilight, just because you are summoned to the Castle on short notice doesn’t mean there is always an imminent danger in the land. In this case, we had urgent things we wanted to discuss with you and your friends.”
“We want to put ponies on the Moon,” Luna deadpanned.
The ponies gasped in horror at Luna’s announcement. Rainbow Dash forgot to flap, and fell flat on her face, perturbed look plastered onto it as she got to her feet; unsure on how to react to defend her friends. Luna sighed, and gently applied a hoof to her forehead.
“No, no – we don’t want to send ponies to the moon as banishment. We want to find out a way to send ponies to the moon without magical teleportation there.”
The collection of ponies stared at Luna in varied degrees of incredulity. Twilight was the first to react, a grin beginning to appear on her face. An avid member of academia, as well as an equally enthusiastic reader of science fiction novels, she was familiar with the very idea and concepts behind that of travel beyond the atmosphere. And here was an open forum to share her ideas before the most powerful people who had the authority to make it happen.
“Flight beyond the atmosphere is possible. There is a definite thinning of atmosphere at higher altitudes, as Rainbow will readily attest to in regards to difficulty in flights at extremely high altitudes. It is perfectly reasonable to conclude that it will eventually taper to nothing. However, that corresponds to a lack of propulsion, as wings require air for friction to provide propulsion. But if you had a quick enough velocity outside of the atmosphere of this planet, you can literally ‘fall’ around it; thanks to gravity. Another issue we have is that you need oxygen for sustaining life in an atmosphere-less environment. Theoretically, you could just use a sealed, pressurized vessel to contain ponies and use tanked oxygen, but how do you propel such a vessel? Wings certainly won’t work at that point-”
Her analysis was interrupted by the most unexpected of ponies.
“Why not use explosions! They work for confetti; they would make things go fast! Oooh, you could do rockets, bu-“ Pinkie’s outburst was silenced by Rainbow Dash’s hoof in her mouth.
Twilight blinked, moving to dismiss Pinkie’s well-meaning but useless interjection, before grasping what she had said. And did a double take at the brilliance of the suggestion that had not previously occurred to her.
“Pinkie, you are a genius!”
Pinkie spat out Rainbow’s hoof and quickly rebuffed her compliment. Rainbow looked unenthused as she wiped her foreleg on Pinkie's pelt.
“Nuh-uh, just saying what came to mind.”
Luna cleared her throat.
“What do you mean, Twilight Sparkle?”
The lavender unicorn smiled cryptically and began to explain, even as Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity and Applejack looked bewildered at the course of the conversation; Princess Celestia watching her presentation with equal parts thoughtfulness and amusement.
“If there was a rocket large enough, we could launch that very rocket with several ponies aboard up beyond the atmosphere; we’d be dealing with a chemical rocket with propellant and an oxidizer allowing for decreased weight and additional thrust. The rocket will have to be staged, so that it sheds the larger, heavier and powerful stages at the bottom as they run out of fuel to move onto the smaller, more efficient upper stages. We also have to make sure that the crew has life support talismans aboard to keep them alive, and all we need to do is calculate an intercept trajectory with the moon to put them around it, and then we can get the ponies down to land on the surface…and then hopefully takeoff again to return home safely. But there is so much that can go wrong…but there is so much that can go right…so much to solve and get done though…” the unicorn trailed off, lost in thought.
Luna nodded in understanding, and looked pointedly as her sister. Celestia beamed at her star pupil and her friends.
“My clever ponies, I’ll start the paperwork immediately to authorize Royal Treasury funds to the Equestrian moon project. Congratulations, Twilight Sparkle: I would like you and the Elements of Harmony to ensure that this happens. You’ll need to design and arrange for the construction and means of getting there and back, testing, training ponies to go into space, and everything that goes with.”
Twilight and her friends bowed deeply before the two alicorns.
“Sister, I think we should give them a guest suite given the early hour. We woke them at an early hour, and I think they have a long day ahead of them”
Celestia called for a guard, who appeared in the form of an earth pony who immediately trotted in through the crown room doors. The Princess of the Sun’s mention of their lack of sleep had caused the weariness they had been holding at bay so well to suddenly jump them, and all six mares were now sporting heavy-lidded eyes. The guard was instructed to show them their room, which the guard bowed, and lead the Elements of Harmony from the throne room, down a corridor, up a flight of stairs, down several more corridors before arriving at the room. The guard fumbled with the door, key in his mouth for several moments, before the door was unlocked to reveal a spacious room with a single large bed. No pony particularly cared about sharing, thanking the guard as he shut the door, and simply taking up a spot on the bed to catch a few precious hours of sleep.
They would doubtlessly have a very long day ahead of them.
