Star Pony (alternative title Ponynauts)
Chapter One: Fly Me to the Moon!
Chapter One – Fly me to the moon!
The young Unicorn mare lay in her bed snoring loudly. If she had been sharing her room with another pony said pony would have done anything in attempts to shut her snoring up. However she had her own room and didn’t need to worry about disturbing anypony. In fact her room had been made sound proof after the neighbors had put in complaints about the noise. So despite her loud snoring everypony was safe and sound. The windows were dark to block out any unwanted sun, but it still allowed her to see out. A clock floating an inch above the nightstand showed the time to be 9:58am a couple minutes before she had to wake up.
“Jupiter…” A sleepy young dragon said coming through the doorway just as the door slid out of the way. He was met by the loud snoring, but he was unfazed. Growing up with Jupiter had made him immune to her loud snoring. “It’s time…time to wake up,” he said shaking the young unicorn mare.
“Five more minutes…” the young unicorn mare whined turning over.
“We’ve got to go meet your grandmother for lunch remember?” he said and jumped quickly back when the young unicorn mare launched out of her bed.
She glanced at the clock. “Why didn’t you wake me up sooner?” she said urgently teleporting into her bathroom. Stepping on the round squishy circle, a cylinder rose around her and turned opaque. The cylinder filled with liquid and a bubble formed around the unicorn’s snout. Metallic arms rose through the liquid and scrubbed her down. Before she ran out of oxygen the cylinder drained the water allowing her fresh air. Then she was enveloped by air coming from every direction. The air caused her dark purple and blue mane and tail about. Finally the air stopped and allowed the cylinder to drop into the ground. Walking out the young Unicorn mare brushed her mane and tail and then rushed back out of the bathroom.
“You aren’t late!” said the little green and white dragon. “We still have another three hours until we have to be there!” he said grabbing the young mare’s tail to stop her.
The young mare turned to look at the little dragon. Instead of complaining like she normally did she just trotted over to her desk. Sitting down on yet another squishy circle on the ground it quickly rose out of the ground. Settling in the form of a chair with two touch pads in the shape of fore hooves it beeped letting Jupiter Sparkle know it was there. A sleek computer rose out of the desk a chirped as it turned on. A little round sliver stick rose out of the desk and a little ball popped out of the top.
Moving her fore hooves onto the pads she maneuvered the cruiser around the screen until it settled on the password lock. The little ball on top of the stick synced with her eyes and followed their movements as she entered the password. The computer chirped again and a soft woman’s voice came through, “Welcome, how may I assist you?”
“Direct me to the magic academy founded by Elements of Harmony website,” she said plainly. The desktop changed to the apple browser searching for the website she had mentioned. Within seconds a website came up with six different cutie marks around a six pointed star and in the middle was crystal tree. Then it was soon covered up by a page showing information and directing pages for the Elements of Harmony Academy.
“What are you doing?” the little green and white dragon asked sitting on the edge of her bed.
“Checking over my grades and classes,” she said scanning the page.
“It’s summer vacation and you don’t qualify for any summer classes,” the little dragon said looking her over. “In fact you could advance pass two levels if you wanted to!”
“What if I said I didn’t want to advance those two levels because I don’t want to be special?” she gave him such a look he knew the conversation was done with.
“Fine,” he groaned and rolled his eyes. Jupiter Sparkle was always hesitant to admit that she was already special. She had been special the moment she was born and there wasn’t anything she could do to change the fact. Ever since she was a little filly all she wished she could do was blend into the background and be forgotten. “You know I could name half a dozen Beings in this city alone that would kill to have what you have.”
Jupiter sighed and flipped to another website. This time the seemingly edgeless computer screen displayed a forum with colors so bright she almost had to cover her eyes. Disproportional little Ponies with huge eyes, small noses, and round lips popped up on her screen. She had to throw the young dragon a glare over her shoulder when she heard a snicker. “What?”
“You’re still into that?” he laughed leaning back on her bed.
“There’s nothing wrong with it!” she swished (yes swished) around in her chair to face him.
“I know, but it’s for little fillies! Sure that show came out when you were a little filly, but its original audience has already moved on,” he gave her a look when she motioned towards the sleek computer screen. “Don’t give me that speech either.”
“Some of the original audience is still there and the show even has older viewers. With the CPN revamping the show for the newer generation it is expected to draw in even more viewers of all ages and Beings. So it is perfectly justifiable that I can still be interested in the show,” she swished (yes again) back around. “What about that crush you have on Madam Diamonds?”
His scaly green cheeks turned a rosy red. “I had a crush on Madam Diamonds. Notice the past tense there,” he said indignantly.
Jupiter Sparkle chuckled and continue to scroll through the forum until she switched over to NeighTube to catch up on her subscriptions.
“Did you lock the entrance to the apartment door?” Jupiter Sparkle asked as she and Thorne stepped out on the Hovering Runway. She was busying herself with strapping on the lime green hood to keep her mane down. The three hours had passed and it was time for them to leave. However they still had a good half hour to spare thanks to Jupiter’s inability to be late.
“Yes,” Thorne said pulling on a skin tight flexible exoskeleton. He handed a noticeable larger and looser one to Jupiter. She grabbed it in her faint green magic aura as she waited for Thorne to lock the hovering runway door behind them. He motioned for her to put it on and when she had it snug around her Thorne pressed a button on the side causing Jupiter to jump. “Sorry I recently had Crystal do the bi monthly check up on the flight suits. She managed to squeeze the max speed up four notches,” Jupiter couldn’t help but smile at the stupid small grin he had on his face.
“Speak techy to me,” Jupiter said in a slow silky voice.
Thorne’s face lit up. “Don’t make me do it again! I can fry your coat off!”
Jupiter just laughed. “Come on, I don’t want to keep grandmother waiting.” Thorne was grumbling as he came up beside her, but she could see the anticipation in his face. “Let’s do it. Thorne press the buttons,” she said. She began to share the anticipation with him.
Thorne placed a talon on the smooth chrome buttons on her flight suit and his own flight suit. Giving both of the buttons a firm press he quickly withdrew his talon to let it fall to his side. Both of them felt the flight suits pull them a few inches of the ground as it checked the surrounding area to see if it was safe to release the wings. When the suits check confirmed it was safe they landed safely back on the ground. Throne looked towards Jupiter Sparkle and she gave him a wicked grin with a nod. Grabbing her hoof they both threw themselves of the hovering runway with a loud scream.
With their own screams billowing around them the flight suits ruptured and let out a scream. Within seconds two large mechanical wings sprouted from their backs. Lime green transparent feathers sprouted from Jupiter’s wings. Transparent dark purple thin membranes unfurled themselves from Thorne’s wings. Soon their wings caught the wind and hoisted themselves back up to a safe altitude and a steady flight pattern.
Jupiter glanced over to Thorne and laughed openly at his wild expression. “Never gets old does it?”
“Never,” Thorne said.
After a few minutes of clear flight they came into a stream filled with all types of Beings and Ponies. There was a black Earth Pony mare with a white mane riding on the back of an adult Dragon. Looking to her left Jupiter saw a whole flock of nearly transparent Butterfly Ponies. Must be a circus or something in the city. Got to remember to ask Wilde Surprise about that. Jupiter thought. Thorne saw a few Pegasi flying together in the stream. He nearly gave a girlish scream when he saw a Changeling flying beside a slender kind looking Pegasus mare.
“Oh,” Jupiter said seeing the Changeling. “Looks like that one decided to go against his Queen’s order. I wonder how many are in the city now.”
“Approximately five hundred,” said a familiar cheery voice beside Jupiter.
“Rainbow Crash!” Jupiter said seeing the rainbow maned Pegasus stallion flying beside her. “I haven’t seen you in an Alicorn’s age!”
Rainbow laughed and brought Jupiter into a tight hug. “It seems the egghead has gotten bigger, have you been working out like I told you?”
“If you count sitting in her squishy chair and playing on her computer, then yes,” Thorne said with a mischievous grin.
Rainbow laughed showing off pearly white teeth. Two on either sides of his mouth were sharp and pointed and had a little tube in them. Rainbow had gotten some Batpony genetics from somepony along his family tree. Neither of his parents or siblings had any noticeable Batpony genetics. “You need to exercise, girl. Then maybe you can join in on the fun stuff.”
Jupiter rolled her eyes. “I’m more of a brainiac than I am a jock,” the metallic wings pumped themselves to keep up with Rainbow. They monitored the muscles in her back in order to read where she wanted to go and how fast. “Maybe if you were more of a brainiac you could get into the Elements of Harmony Academy,” she said smartly.
Rainbow just smirked and glided alongside her on his back. “Girl I could get into that academy just by showing them my family tree. Isn’t that what you did?”
Jupiter pinned her ears back and flew ahead of him leaving him to fly beside Thorne. He got into motion beside Throne and sighed. “Still a touchy subject?”
“Still a touchy subject,” Thorne said crossing his arms over his chest as his wings flew him towards where Jupiter’s grandmother and his godmother lived.
“I don’t get why it’s a touchy subject with her. What I mean is everypony knows who she is, what’s the big deal?” Rainbow said watching Jupiter’s tail flap in front of him.
“It’s a big deal with her,” he said protectively. “Because she doesn’t want to be seen as special when she’s been special all of her life. So look at it from her view point. She finally gets the chance to move out on her own and to a place where her family tree doesn’t matter all that much and she finally gets to build up her own life. Her biggest worry is somepony will recognize who she is and ruin it all for her. How would you feel?”
Rainbow was quiet for a moment and then he grunted. “I understand. She’s a brilliant filly who needs a chance to be recognized for her own talents not what some family tree says,” he watched Jupiter Sparkle flying ahead of him and sighed. “I just wish she’d realize that it isn’t bad having a lineage like what she has. She is the granddaughter of a princess after all.”