One Small Step for a Filly...
“Alright final checks I need a stay no stay on CMC-1 we are t-minus 60 seconds and counting!” said Sweetie Belle, standing attentively in the middle of an impossibly complex and high-tech room filled with glowing computer monitors and detailed charts.
“Let’s go through the list, CAPCOM?”
“We are go-flight”
“Surgeon?”
“Go-flight.”
“Booster?”
Apple Bloom was furiously filing through various computer readouts and informatics in a valiant effort to answer her friend on time
“It’s a go-flight.”
“Control?”
“Um... That’s a go-flight here too.”
Sweetie Bell turned around to face the large and rather impressive main display in the front of the room. The actual rocket displayed on the monitors was far less than impressive. Her eager form expressed regality in the foremost. Standing an impressive foot and a seven inches the small white unicorn had several errant crumbs sticking to her chin after a hurried breakfast and drool currently leaking out of the side of her mouth. Regality in the foremost!
“Alright little fillies, you better sit down and buckle up because this is going to be a bumpy ride!” The small white filly stamped her hoof on the ground resulting in a rather ineffectual “plink”. “It wouldn’t hurt none to be just a little original,” Apple Bloom thought to herself cringing a little bit inside.
~~
Scootaloo sat alone in the captain seat of the ‘CMC-1,’ the groans and creaks of distressed steel and whirring motors created a symphony that only served to intensify her growing anticipation.
“We are a go on this end, how are you feeling captain?”
A combination of anxiety and excitement swelled in Scootaloo’s throat, her response, half caught in her mouth sounded strange and croaky.
“All signs are good, readings are clear.”
Sweetie Bell’s friendly voice from mission control was somewhat reassuring to Scootaloo, the childlike tone sounded like it had extensive experience with deep space flight. Reassuring as it may be however there was no denying this was one of their more daring cutie mark crusader escapades to date. -Excluding Cutie Mark Crusaders, medieval weapons experts, of course- If the idea of three fillies trying to send their something into space, much less their friend, wasn’t scary enough, there was also the rather questionable condition of the rocket itself. A loose combination of one bathtub, some glass, wood, steel, and copious amounts of half dried glue constituted the “capsule”. This upper portion sat atop a tower of sheet metal, fuel tanks, pipes, and errant wires. The loose pieces of tape hanging off the sides only served to inspire even greater confidence.
“Initiate final countdown,” Sweetie Bell radioed over. The time for backing out was officially gone now and all that lay between her and the goal was a bumpy ride and a couple thousand miles of cold soul sucking space. “Just like Diamond Tiara’s last birthday party,” Scootaloo thought to herself.
“10”
“9”
“8”
“7”
Scootaloo could hear the valves and gasses hissing and groaning as they slowly came to life.
“6”
“5”
The instruments and dials in the cockpit were starting to come awake moving wildly from end to end as they calibrated and started to function. one by one they steadied themselves, each one coming to rest in their correct place.
“All instruments are giving a green light, we are still go-flight,” Apple Bloom said, rapidly checking monitor after monitor.
“Begin ignition sequence!” “4”
“3” “all engines running!”
“2”
“1”
For a split second everything went quiet, all the dials stopped moving and everything around her ceased. Then suddenly a massive roar shook the entire craft and an incredible thrust of energy forced Scootaloo into the back of her seat.
~~
“Smack!” The trunk of the apple tree swayed under Applejack’s powerful kick, and several apples quickly fell from the tree rewarding her efforts. Applejack smiled to herself, that was the last tree for the day and now she had some free time to herself, a commodity not often had by a busy farm pony. The sweat that lightly glistened on her coat spoke of a long day of dedicated physical work. Perhaps she could enjoy a warm bath at home before eating supper and retiring to bed. Rarity would be proud.
The growing smile on her face was cut short remembering that the bathtub had been stolen last week along with the hot water heater, and half of the spare pipes in the barn. They had contacted the sheriff several times but every time he came to investigate Granny Smith would seem to fall into a panicked state telling Applejack that he need to leave or “THAT’S NOT MY SPECIAL CIDER OFFICER! I WAS FRAMED!” Needless to say there was never any progress made in the case.
Always the optimist however Applejack noted that while there was a still a thief with rather questionable taste on the loose, her sister Apple Bloom and friends had also managed to largely stay out of trouble as of late. To say those three had a knack for getting into trouble would be to say Twilight Sparkle is partially fond of books. In fact she had no idea just how much time the Cutie Mark Crusader’s shenanigans had occupied until they had stopped. As she now came to realize nearly every day contained several instances of “Sorry mam’ promise they won’t shoot your garden with crossbows again.” or “No miss mayor i swear I won’t let them build any more torture racks.“ Lately however by some act of Celestia there were no such misdemeanors hanging over her head, her sister and compatriots had been almost non-existent for the past several days. Save for meals and sleeping they seemed to be constantly out running somewhere. She did catch one of them trying to run off with a welding torch a few days ago, what they needed with it Celestia knows.
At that thought puzzle pieces in Applejack’s mind started to come together. Perhaps the busyness of her life had kept her from seeing it before, or maybe it just wasn't as obvious then, the missing items, welding, and the virtual disappearance of Apple Bloom and her cohorts. As the realization finally came to her a low and distant rumble shook the ground.
Pupils dilated Applejack’s mind raced with the endless scenarios those three could be engaged in, and the mortal peril they could be facing, and how much it would cost to fix! Sudden movement caught her right eye interrupting her thoughts, and as she looked over her gaze met with the towering column of flame accelerating toward the heavens.
Quietly she whispered to herself, “They are so gonna get it.”
~~
“We cleared the tower! Announced Sweetie Bell over the radio to Scootaloo.
“O2 stats are holding and cabin pressure is good, Fuel is burning at the optimal rate, we are right down the middle.” Apple Bloom said.
The display in the room was now focused on what now looked like a trail of bright orange fire rapidly gaining altitude.
“Oaky Scootaloo give us the readouts from your end.” The little orange pony could hardly lift her head high enough to see all the dials with all the shaking and jarring.
“A-a-all s-s-stats are g-g-good and I am c-coming up on f-f-five g’s.” She watched as the g-force meter slowly climbed.
“6g’s.” Scootaloo was starting to feel heavier and heavier as she watched the needle move closer and closer to the red zone.
“7g’s.” “Come on Scoots, keep it together! Let’s make sure all that silly training paid off” she thought to herself. Indeed the last few days had been filled with the so called “advanced space pressures training” as Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom labeled it. This “training” mostly consisted of tying Scootaloo to the outside edge of a merry-go-round and spinning her as fast as their little hooves could muster. Needless to say there were some meals rather unpleasantly revisited during that experience.
“8g’s!” Scootaloo called out again over the radio her voice now audibly strained.
“Um, I’m getting some strange readings from the fuel tanks” Apple Bloom broke in. “Left rear tank’s pressure is droppin’ at 10 psi per second and I’m losing the correspondin’ thruster.” Sweetie Bell’s brow narrowed in concentration trying to assess the latest report. An abort now could save her friend’s life, but then again she had caught Scootaloo trying to steal her carrot sticks at lunch the other day. decisions, decisions.
“Commander Bloom what is your recommendation?” Sweetie said.
“Dang it Sweetie I’m a filly not a systems engineer!” She replied hotly.
“Aww Haystack! I just lost gyroscopic control, we need to call an abort now, she is flyin’ blind and on top of that we might even have a leak!” “There is no choice now”, Sweetie thought “revenge must wait.”
“ABORT! ABORT! I repeat Abort mission! Large system failures, get out of there Scoots!” Sweetie Belle said, her high squeaky voice just about the most commanding and reassuring thing in Equestria.
"R-r-roger! Abort!" Scootaloo replied. On the monitor a small jet of flame from the tip of rocket jettisoned Scootaloo’s capsule and while it slowly started to lose momentum the rocket soared on disappearing into space and along with it, hundreds of bits of illegally obtained rocket fuel
~~
Applejack could feel sweat running down her face, running as quickly as her legs would carry her. The rocket must have come from the north east section of the farm, nopony goes there often because there aren’t any apple trees, just some left over land that never got used and some pine groves, the perfect spot for such clandestine operations her sister and her friends were usually engaged in.. The pines were thick but after a few minutes she broke into a wide clearing. The ground was smoldering and black and most of the surrounding trees had their outer branches stripped away and burned. A large metal scaffold glowing red from the heat towered above the center of the grove, loose wires and hoses hanging out of it continuing to spew unknown gasses.
“APPLEBLOOM! SWEETIE BELL?!” “ARE YOU GIRLS THERE?!” she tried to conceal it but it was not hard to decode that she was in a state of panic. Suddenly she spied a door hidden behind a few trees and just outside of the clearing. She ran up to it, opened it and ran down a large set of stairs leading to what could only be the control hub of the operation. Now this area may be at the edge of the Apple Family’s property but she was well acquainted with the land and this had most assuredly not been here before, she was certain. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, there was a large door with an insignia depicting the words
“Cutie Mark Crusaders Space Program.” across a background of stars,
“no,no,no, please no” Applejack thought to herself. Opening the door her eyes flew open wide, an array of machinery and technology the likes of which Equestria had never seen was laid out in front of her and in the center of it, two of the fillies in question. Entering the room Applejack mentally counted the number present.
“one... two…. no, no oh no, where is Scootaloo!” Applejack was horrified, a large central monitor was solid black with the words “ABORT_MULTIPLE_SYSTEMS_COMPROMISED” displayed in bold red across the middle.
Suddenly a crackle came through the radio.
”Jettison burn was good, I am clear and I have a good chute, cabin pressure still holding, bathtub is solid.” The third filly was safe. Applejack let out a sigh from the corner of the room, loud enough to announce her presence to the two fillies. They both jumped in surprise from Applejack's sudden appearance
“Um…” Apple Bloom just realizing they had been discovered was having a hard time focusing on the task at hand, with her sister looking angrier and angrier by the second. “Um give me a readout on your coordinates please, over” Apple Bloom said tentatively keeping a nervous eye on Applejack.
“I’m currently seeing North 120 degrees 12 minutes and West 132 degrees 47 minutes, over” Applejack, now beet red, was well beyond reason,
“um if you give me a second to calculate wind shee…”
”WHAT IN CELESTIA’S GREEN EARTH MADE Y’ALL THINK IT WAS AH’ GOOD IDEA TO BUILD A ROCKET AND TRY TO SEND SOMEPONY INTO SPACE!“ There is a line between sisterly admonition, anger, and unbridled rage, the three fillies had walked up to the line stomped it into oblivion and ran past it as far as they could giggling all the way.
"Um…. One small step for a filly… hehe” Apple Bloom said with a worried grin hoping maybe a small joke could help the situation, it most assuredly didn’t.
“NOT TO MENTION SCOOTALOO COULD HAVE BEEN …” Applejack trailed off at the end, shuddering at the possible consequences of their actions. It would be ironic though the one Pegasus who couldn't fly, ending up, well um.
“oh no sis Scootaloo will be fine in fact she’s going to land right outside Ponyville if my calculations are correct!” “if your calculations are!..." Applejack's face contorted into a mixture of confusion and rage until finally settling on extreme frustration, "alright we are going to find Scootaloo and once we do we are all going to have a loooong talk about this do ya understand!?” Applejack yelled pointing accusatory hoof in their direction. The two fillies looking visibly beaten bowed their heads and said "we understand." Hopefully it would go easier than the cutie mark crusader covert intelligence extractor talk, that one took forever.
~~
Lyra was having a beautiful day, after finishing work early she decide to go eat lunch in the park seeing as though it was quite sunny and warm. Within a few weeks fall would be upon them again, and with it, a new chill in the air, so taking advantage of the good weather was first priority. She was just about to bite into a delectable looking ice cream bar when a large shadow drifted over the park blocking the warm sun. If there were any pegasus capable of sleeping on the job half the time and somehow never getting fired it was Rainbow Dash. Irritated, she looked up to the sky to see the cloudy perpetrator who had so brutally accosted her sunshine only to see that whatever it was, was not a cloud at all. About 300 feet above her head a massive red and white parachute held aloft a small metal capsule drifting lazily to earth. Seeing the strange craft descending, something clicked, she knew the day she had always feared had come, she knew too much they were going to take her away! All her years on alien research had put her on their radar and now she was too much of a threat! But she wouldn't go down without a fight, no sir-e, if she was going down, then they would be coming with her!
The capsule descended into the park shattering the small wooden bridge unlucky enough to be directly below the path of the behemoth and came to rest partly submerged in the water of the creek below. Everypony was frozen in terror, everypony but lyra. Though terrified she knew her time had come, and knew what she had to do. The parachute gently fluttered to the ground a few feet from the capsule and for a moment all was still. What seemed like hours passed until a gentle shuffling could be heard from inside the steel exterior indicating the living entity still inside. Lyra slowly walked toward the scene, her heart racing and blood flooded with adrenaline. The writing and symbols on the exterior seemed vaguely familiar but that was no doubt an alien tactic used to confuse the enemy, one she would not fall for. A grinding noise slowly started growing and the small metal hatch started to slowly move. The only thing separating this infernal creature and all of beautiful Equestria was that small hatch which was now sliding away while a dense fog of gasses spilled out onto the creek below. The gasses would most likely kill her if the creature didn't, Lyra thought slowly inching closer and closer to the pod. But that was not the concern at the moment, she was going to save Equestria from this horrid creature at all costs.
Slowly out of the wall of opaque fog spilling from the capsule a spherical head emerged. Like evil itself giving birth to a beast of lore the creature spilled out into the day. The entire monstrosity was clad in a type of dense white cloth covered with a variety of multicolored hoses and wires, the head a shiny sphere lacking all facial features was supported by a grotesquely small body and four tiny legs. Whatever tortured planet gave rise to such a repulsive creature was anyone's guess. Lyra stood focused on her target, now within attacking distance, Poised on her hind legs she was like a wire pulled taut, a lion ready to pounce at the slightest trigger
"That's one small step for a filly, one..." "DIE YOU ALIEN SCUM!" The creature’s foul words were cut off as the turquoise pony, fulfilling her life destiny, launched herself into the air arcing gracefully into otherworldly fiend. The alien creature tried to react but was no match for the crazed beast of a pony bent on destruction. Lyra's front hooves came down hard on the alien, the spherical head shattering against her hooves and the side of the capsule. Now broken, an opaque fog poured out, no doubt the lifeblood of the alien creature as it reached the end of its mortal life. A grin slowly spread across Lyra's face as she realized her victory.
“Lyra Heartstrings, Savior of Equestria” she thought to herself, she liked that title, it fit her. Thinking on what lauds her heroics would bring upon her Lyra re-positioned herself to deliver the final death blow. Slowly and triumphantly she reared up on her hind legs aiming her front hooves to deal maximum damage.
"LYRA STOP!" Applejack was yelling, running towards Lyra two small fillies in tow.
"STOP LYRA, THAT’S SCOOTALOO!"
“No! Applejack must be mistaken, she had researched these creatures, studied the abduction patterns, this had to be.... oh no..“ She thought as her eyes slowly drifted back to the alien creature.
The gasses now gone, all that remained was a rather dazed looking filly sitting half submerged on the edge of the creek, pieces of her helmet floating around her. Lyra was horrified as she thought to herself,
"I can't go through this for a fourth time!"
Author's Note
This is a test piece mainly to better my own writing. If you think it is good like it, and if you think it sucks tell me why. Constructive criticism highly encouraged.
