Planetshine's Space Odyssey Book 1

by thekittenarmy

Rating: teen
Tags: Science Fiction, Bon-Bon, Profanity, Adventure, Derpy Hooves, Slice of Life, Crossover, Alternate Universe, Lyra, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Other
Length: 16310

Planetshine, Equestria's greatest astronaut, sets off on a space odyssey to places unknown.

Set after the events of Equestrian Aerospace.

Planetshine is on Duna, roving around in her mobile base/rover. A message comes in about the discovery of 5 new planets, and another one comes in with a new astronaut. She wants to conquer them, but that would make her travel to places unknown to Equestria.

Note: Not all in space.
Profanity tag for light profanity.

Published 2018-08-30 09:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2018-09-10 11:27:26 UTC

A Great Canyon

The roving across Duna took a little while, but we found a little geological feature, a huge canyon. I thought I saw it from orbit somewhere, right above the equator but not exactly north of where the rocket landed, but I guess I was wrong with where the canyon was.

I said to the other ponies on board, 'I'm going to go out for a while, I want to look at the canyon from the edge.' I put on my spacesuit and put on the brakes of the rover, and then I opened up the door to the greenhouse, which was also a passage to the airlock that would let me outside.

Once I went out, I climbed down the girders, which acted pretty nicely as ladders for some reason. My hooves held on tight, and then I let go, landing perfectly on all 4 hooves. I carefully walked over to the edge of the canyon, still not that used to the gravity. I then leaned over a little to see what was in the canyon, leaning further and further, until accidentally falling down.

I realised my mistake as soon as my hooves slipped, I couldn't flap my wings in the spacesuit, and I only had a jetpack on. I started to panic but then started to calm myself down, realising that I had my jetpack on. 'My jetpack,' I thought, 'I could fly on Duna, but does it work?' There was only one way to know if it would work on gravity higher than the moon, which it was designed for, and that was to try it.

I started to use my jetpack, trying to get myself out of the canyon. The jetpack worked, pretty nice actually, and I was able to ascend a bit, so that got me thinking, can I charter the bottom of the canyon. I tried to make the decision, either go down or return to the rover. I was known to make stupid decisions before, a few times actually, but going down into the canyon would be pretty cool.

I made what could be the most stupid decision ever, and that was to descend down into the canyon. I contacted the rover, 'I'm going down in the canyon.'

Lyra replied when I was descending down, basically falling down and not using my jetpack to help me slow down my descent, in theory, using up less fuel in my jetpack. When I thought was a good time to slow down my descent, but I then realised that it was too late for that, hitting the ground pretty quickly. I hurt my front left hoof upon landing. The throbbing pain didn't come out, but once it did, I cried out in pain, regretting the decision of going down the canyon.

Now I had to get out of the canyon, but I couldn't fly or use my jetpack. The only way I could get out of this was to try to find my way out. I saw a slope that would let me get out on my right, so I started to walk that way, contacting Lyra at the same time. 'Lyra, turn the rover left and drive that direction, I hurt my hoof really badly and I can't use my jetpack, so that's my only way out,' I said.

'Whey don't I drive down into the canyon from that slope?' she replied.

'Oh yeah, what was I thinking? Use the target option on the rover and set me as the target, so you would know where I am.'

'Never new that, see you when I get there.'

I now just had to wait, but the only problem was I didn't know how long I had to wait for, and my stomach felt like it needed some food. I was very lucky I modified my spacesuit to have a storage area that I could store some food or drinks, but I would use that only for emergencies or something like that.'

I waited for about an hour, but no sign of Lyra, so I contacted her one more time. 'Lyra, where are you, it's been like an hour or something like that,' I said, very worried about the situation I was in.

'I'm nearly there, 5 more minutes or so,' she responded with a very confident voice.

'Mkay, just don't take too long.'

I busted out the food, and since my spacesuit also allowed for hoof movement in the body part of the suit, I could eat the food in my spacesuit. I started to eat a carrot, something I randomly had in the food pouch. I didn't know I had that in there until now, usually, it would be potato crisps or something like that.

5 minutes passed, and no sign of Lyra, so I waited a bit more. The place started to look a bit hazy, and it looked like there was going to be a storm coming, but I could see the rover just in time, and then it came for me. Lyra parked it right near me, and I climbed in, closing the door on the way in. I then took off my spacesuit and looked at my hoof. It was much better now but it was bruised, so I applied bandages to keep the pain at bay while I do whatever I do usually.

The dust storm was swirling more, and more dust started to fill the air around the rover. I was now in full control of the rover, and I drove it to a little cave-like shelter I saw when I was down in the canyon waiting for Lyra. From that point on, Dr. Whooves and Bon Bon started to do some farming work in the greenhouse area, which they harvested some sweet potatoes and planted some seeds for other plants like flowers and cabbages. The seed supply in the rover was huge, able to sustain us for more than a year just on food alone from the greenhouse.

I then was getting bored of waiting for the storm to end, so I wanted to go out for a while to have a rest. I put on only my helmet this time, not putting on my spacesuit to go outside. I only had my high altitude flight suit and an oxygen tank on my back. The suit I was wearing was the usual suit I wear, orange in colour and modified again by myself. I was great at modifying spacesuits, but I can't make the spacesuits or design them as I had no idea how to.

My flight suit was able to keep me from depressurisation, which was very useful for flights indeed. The suit would not protect me if I was doing a spacewalk, as the air pressure would be a zero. The suit was rated for 200 pascals, which was enough for Duna's atmosphere of about 600 pascals, which meant I was safe from suffocating. The other ponies flight suits were rated at 800 pascals, quadruple mine, meaning that they had to still wear their spacesuits unlike me.

I went out, grabbing a chair along the way. The rover had a spare chair that anypony can use, it was foldable and it could be carried pretty much everywhere. I unfolded the chair once I was on the ground, setting it up like I would if I was on a beach vacation. When I laid down on the chair, I had an incoming message from the space center that there was another astronaut that finished training and passed her assessment. Her name was Starry Night.

From what I heard from the message, Starry Night was a dark blue pegasus, just like me, but she had different wings which looked like part mechanical wings from the photo of her they gave me. I contacted the space center, 'How is she doing? Is she good at things like piloting?'

I had to wait for a long time, not because the ponies at the space center didn't want to reply but radio waves would need about 8 minutes for a trip to Equestria, and then 8 minutes back, that is if it was traveling at the speed of light. I waited for the 16 minutes, but it was more like 20 minutes for some reason. This time, I heard a new voice, 'Planetshine, it's me, Starry Night, I'm the new astronaut, well, more of a scientist really.'

I replied back, still knowing that it would take a long long time for the message to get back home. I replied, 'I'm seeing forward to see you in the flesh, well, after a long long time of traveling back to Equestria, and other stuff on Duna.'

Bon Bon then contacted me telling me that she would come out. I responded to her, 'Bon Bon, listen up ok. My flight suit has been modified to cope with the Duna atmosphere, you will need a spacesuit if you want to come out.'

She listened to me, and when she came out, I chuckled at her, looking ridiculous in her spacesuit. I only had an oxygen tank on my back which could refine CO2 into oxygen, as I strapped on an oxygenator to it. It was very easy to do, all I had to do was to ask for a small oxygenator and duct tape it on, also making a hole and fitting a tube on it to make it actually work. For electrical power, I had solar panels on it so it wasn't any problem at all.

Bon Bon, in her bulky spacesuit, also had a foldable chair, which she struggled to unfold it. I had to help her, as the spacesuit restricted a lot of movement while I had no problems with movement. Once the chair was all down and all good, I went back into the rover, telling everypony else to get out and play around in our shelter so we could wait out the dust storm.

The others put on their spacesuits, Lyra doing it easily as she could use her magic, helping the others do the same. Derpy stumbled a lot trying to do so, even with Lyra's help, but that was somewhat rectified when she started to do it herself, having better coordination. Some of them were just jealous that I was able to be out on my flight suit, but it wasn't my fault I couldn't modify other's suits, the administration just denied it.

We waited for the storm to end, which only took about an hour or so. Once the storm ended, we climbed into the rover and started to drive around the canyon, eventually getting out of it. From that point on, we roved around Duna, chartering most of the planet, exploring the poles and planting flags on the north and south poles.

Ike

After a long long time of just driving around, using our map to navigate back to the rocket, which is more of a lander now. We finally got there, boarding it one by one. Once we were boarded, and there was a Duna to Equestria transfer window, I started up the nuclear engines.

The nuclear engines then started to spew radiation on the surface, barely getting over 1 TWR. The rocket slowly went up, slowly, but still going up. 'I have no idea about the radiation that the NERVAs are giving out,' Dr. Whooves said to me, worried about the engines.

'Nothing bad, it's actually not very bad, those engines don't spew out that much radiation,' I replied to him, feeling very confident.

The rocket flew up slowly, and being pretty aerodynamic, Lyra started to do a quick gravity turn. The other ponies wanted Lyra to do the piloting, as I would do an extremely low pass and do the most dangerous stunts. The rocket finally got into orbit after a long time. When it was in orbit, the delta-V reading was over 2000 m/s, enough for an Ike encounter and landing.

Me, being the pony that I am, wanted to do a landing on Ike too. There was enough delta-V to get there, get there, land, and get back to Equestria. I took over Lyra's spot and started to do a burn to Ike. 'What are you doing Planetshine?' Lyra asked me.

'Ike,' I replied, 'There's enough delta-V in this to get to Ike and back to Equestria.'

Lyra was a bit surprised that I knew all that. The burn took not too long but did take a while because of the bad TWR. Once we were on a trajectory to Ike, everypony started to relax. I got out some food out and started eating it. Some other ponies also started eating food, just like me but looking more civilised.

After the huge wait, we were finally there, at the periapsis of the hyperbolic orbit, I started the capture burn. I then chose a good landing spot, and this time, it was a crater that had a pretty low elevation. Doing the deorbiting burn, we were on a trajectory to the surface of it.

I put on my spacesuit when it was still flying, and when it was near the ground, I started to do the landing burn. The radiation spewed out the nozzles, providing about 1.9 TWR, slowing down pretty nicely. With that burn, I started it as late as possible, deploying the landing legs. The rocket, which was now a lander, touched down at 2 m/s.

I busted out the door as soon as we landed, the others still putting on their suits. I then grabbed my flag and planted it on the surface. The surface was a little different than the one on the moon. While looking pretty much the same as the moon, it was much harder. I had to shove it in the ground, one of the chipped ground hitting me very hard. 'Far out cunt,' I thought in my head at that time.

The others then came out, looking at the landscape of the moon. After a little while, we had to go, as the Duna to Equestria transfer window would end in 2 days. I throttled up the NERVAs, getting it on an escape trajectory to a Duna orbit. The rocket was in an elliptical orbit of Duna, and when I was at the periapsis, I started up the engines to do an ejection burn to Equestria.

The ejection burn also made us have an Ike encounter, meaning that we could see the moon again. The moon acted as a thing to do a gravity assist off of, making it so that we saved only about 10m/s. The 10m/s didn't matter much, as after the burn, the rocket had about 400m/s delta-V left, enough for lots of mid course corrections.

A Long Journey Home

'You have to be serious,' I complained, 'Why is this going to take so long again.'

I didn't like long waits. In fact, I hated them, but we had to get home. I thought to myself for a while, thinking about the speed of light. The speed of light was very fast, able to go to the moon in about 1 second, and reaching Duna in a possible time of just over 3 minutes.

The wait of getting back home really sucked, but at least I had my fellow astronauts, who were great companions and boredom killers. I was able to talk to them, but that was really only in a small space, which also fucking sucked. I've organised some things for the trip, such as going on EVAs for fun and whatnot.

'Everypony, listen up,' I called out, 'I will put this rocket into a collision course with Equestria.'

There was a 10m inflatable heat shield that would protect us, which I think was a better idea than the ablative ones, as they offer more protection. The others then went with their businesses while I went on a spacewalk for the sake of it. There weren't any other things to do, but I just had to do it, getting extremely bored.

From that point on, I did whatever I would usually do on a trip, lots of recreational snacking, exercising, whatever. 'Everypony, the window looks like it has a crack in it,' I heard Lyra say. That grabbed my attention and Dr. Whooves was the first one to respond.

'Show me,' He said.

Derpy smashed into the walls of the command pod, confused a bit, 'What's happening?'

Bon Bon then joined in the conversation, 'Where?'

I was the last one to join in, 'Fix it already.'

'How do we fix it?' Bon Bon asked.'

'Duct tape,' I replied.

'Where is it?' Dr. Whooves asked.

I facehoofed, 'Are you serious, you don't even know where it is? Ugh, let me do it.'

I grabbed the duct tape from the cupboard that stored some random but useful stuff. It was invented by the legendary Wernher Von Braun. It proved itself very good for sealing things up, even to stop leaks in a spacecraft, like broken windows. It used to be called space tape, but it proved useful in normal ponies' lives, so it was late named duct tape for some reason.

I could see the planet, and traveling at about 1000m/s when we entered the SOI. The sun orbital speed was about 10000m/s, but the orbital velocity difference was about 9000m/s so 1000m/s was the entering velocity of Equestria's SOI. I waited for a while, thinking of a good time to ditch the engines.

When we were at about 80000m, I ditched the engines and inflated the heat shield. When we entered the atmosphere, I waited for a while to see the reentry effects that were visible from the command pod. The engines disintegrated into thin air, but in this case, basically nothing. We were all fine, the heat shield shielding us from all the reentry heat.

The heat shield also slowed us down plenty, making us all endure 15Gs of deceleration for a while in the thicker atmosphere, but we could easily endure it. The heat shield then slowed us down enough to deploy the drogue chutes and then the parachutes.

There were 2 drogue chutes and 4 parachutes, which was plenty for any landing on Equestria. This time, we landed in the middle of nowhere, in a desert south of Equestria. I peeked out the window, nothing to be seen. 'We are sending transponders to pick you up,' Gene said through the radio.

It was a long wait to have the transponders arrive, but they arrived finally. We didn't have missions for a long time so we were given a long long holiday.

A Different Equestria

We finally got transported back to the space center after a long wait for the transponders to do so. Every pony took naps until we got there. We then went outside, and the space center changed by not a bit, but a lot. The VAB especially, the last time I saw it, it wasn't as large.

All the other ponies just left the space center, but I remained for a while. I went into the administration building. It looked more futuristic to me, and it was definitely nice to look at. I asked Gus where Starry Night was. Gus was the head of operations, but he also somehow knew everything that was going on at the space center. 'In the astronaut complex, I think, she's in there with Silverstream and Sandbar watching TV,' he said.

I was a little confused with what he called a TV. I have never heard what a TV was, but I knew if I didn't go in the astronaut complex, I wouldn't even come in contact with one. I entered the building, seeing it for the first time in more than a year, maybe two, or so, the interior looked so different. There were remote controlled things and high tech things, and I thought communication systems were very high tech.

I looked to my right, and on the couch, I saw Starry Night, Sandbar, and Silverstream. Sandbar told me to join them watching TV. The TV was mounted to the wall, and it was huge. There was a display that showed colour instead of the green and grey LCDs of the screens in command pods. I joined them on the couch, sitting down like I usually would.

'Why are you in your flight suit?' Starry Night asked curiously. This was her real first time talking to me, other than the time on Duna.

'Used to it, I'm too lazy to take it off and put it on sometimes,' I replied, 'I got one question for you too, why are your wings so different?'

'My wings? It's what pretty much all pegasi have nowadays. These are part bionic wings, and it lets you fly better.'

I looked at my wings, 'Ehh, I'm really good at flying anyways.'

'Nice, you should start to relax now, watch the TV you know.'

I stared at the TV, dazzled at how pictures were just moving and the advancement in technology in just two years. I couldn't believe Equestria was able to evolve technology so quickly, it just confused me. After a while of watching, everypony and one hippogriff got off the couch and started to do their own things. 'Starry Night, what are you good at?' I asked her.

'Lots of things, especially science, I just love it.'

'Oh, that's nice, I like to pilot spacecraft, but the thing I like the most is to do stunts in space, last time I did one was a low pass under 10m above a ledge on the moon.'

He brohoofed me, and then we talked about more things. He told me so much about the 2 year period of Equestria's advancement in tech. When we were all done with that, I went into my room, which still was in tip-top condition even after 2 years. When I said I would go to my room, she told me to call her Starry instead of her full name.

I took off my flight suit, ready to modify it again. This time, I would make something for my wings, add a better thermal control system, and make it modular. I first had to go to the spaceplane hanger to get the parts so I could actually modify it. I grabbed a newer thermal control unit, tiny solar panels, and navigation illuminators.

Once I was done, I trotted over to my room and started to modify the suit. I took off the old thermal control unit, which meant cutting it off. I then put on an attachment node and tested the thermal unit. The thermal unit wasn't as large as the old one and ran more efficiently. The efficiency of it was so much better than the old one, only requiring one-tenth of the power as the old one.

The next thing I did was put on attachment nodes on the back. It wasn't that big and they were very flexible, meaning that I could put on a solar panel, which was also flexible, unlike to the old ones. I loved the new technology, so I added more things to my suit.

I then put on a few navigation illuminators on the front right hoof. The illuminators were not modular, but they were able to be turned on and off with a flick of a switch, and they weren't very heavy or anything like that. When I was finished with that, it was nighttime, meaning I was going to sleep.

I woke up pretty late the next day and started to modify my suit a little more, putting a little digital screen on the left hoof. The little screen would be a little gizmo that I could look at the time with or communicate with others with. I had to go to the mission control building to get the little screen and some computer electronics. The computer electronics were highly sophisticated, as a tiny processor could do tasks that a big computer would do 2 years ago.

I walked into my room again, this time Silverstream greeted me, 'Planetshine, what are you doing?'

I replied, 'Nothing really, just modifying my flight suit.'

'Can I see it?'

'Sure, come in my room and you'll see.'

I led Silverstream in my room. My room was in sort of a mess from yesterday because of the flight suit modifications and whatnot. I started to implant it on the suit and having a basic knowledge of computers already, I put in a battery to power it. The chip worked, and now I just needed software to run on it.

I knew how to program software a little bit, so I made it into a basic watch. The next thing I did was to test it. I asked Silverstream, 'Do you want to test the suit?'

'Yeah, what will happen?' she enthusiastically replied.

'Simple, follow me.'

I led her into the spacesuit testing chamber in my junkyard, which was pretty close from the space center. My junkyard supplied spacecraft parts and other random items, such as old technology and train wheels. The spacesuit testing chamber was used for testing any spacesuit that has been made.

I put in my flight suit in there, and I programmed it to perform the necessary tasks, such as leakage of air or failure of the suit. The test would need about 6 hours to complete, and I let Silverstream press the big green button to start it. We then went out of the chamber, and Silverstream suggested that we go to Ponyville.

Silverstream and I flew a race to Ponyville to see who was the faster flier, and of course, I won. My first impression of Ponyville when I saw it was that it looked similar to what it used to look like 2 years ago, but it looked more, modern. The roofs of the houses looked flatter and the town hall was under reconstruction.

'This looks pretty nice, I'm going to my own home, see you at the space center tomorrow or something, I feel like staying here today,' I said to Silverstream.

'Then I'll be going,' she replied, 'The others on the space station are coming back home today.'

I flew down and landed on the ground of Ponyville. Some other ponies greeted me, asking about my space travels. I told them the most simple thing ever, and that was that it was fun being on another planet, but boring sometimes too. They also wanted my autograph for some reason. I didn't know how to respond to that, but I did it anyway.

I then trotted over to my home, which I haven't been in more than 2 years already. I was living in the space center for a long long time already, and I missed my home in Ponyville, even if I only lived there for a few months. When I opened the door, my fellow astronauts surprised me, even sort of frightening me with the surprise party.

'We knew you were going back home,' Bon Bon said to me, 'So we thought a party would be the best thing to do after our first interplanetary mission.'

'Thanks for the party,' I replied.

I joined in on the party, there was Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich who organised it, Vinyl Scratch who was playing the music, and my old friends from Cloudsdale when I was a filly. I couldn't believe my old friends would come to the party. Upon meeting them, I realised they also had part bionic wings, just like Starry Night.

'Rainbowshine, Sia?'

'Planetshine, don't be emotional, we only haven't met in like forever,' Rainbowshine cheering me up from the emotional moment.

There were tears forming in my eyes, I haven't seen them for 2 years, very long for me at least. The one I miss the most was Sia, who I didn't see much since a long time ago when I was at the friendship festival, which she let me and Rainbowshine backstage for a while. That was the last time I saw her in the flesh.

We partied for a long time until night time, which Princess Luna would raise the moon. I didn't have much belief in Princess Luna controlling the moon and Celestia controlling the sun, but maybe the princesses may have controlled Equestria's spin. The party was amazing, with the new tech, there were lots of lights and a bass cannon that you could hear the wubs smashing into you.

When the party was all done, everypony went off to their homes, but Sia and Rainbowshine didn't leave, they wanted to have a sleepover party with me secretly. That was a good time to ask them questions about their lives in the 2 years I was gone, and them asking me about my 2 years in space.

'Planetshine,' Sia asked, 'How was your time in space, also, I forgot to show you something I got for you.'

'What is it?' I replied very curiously.

'A TV!' she joyfully said, 'Just wanted something new for you in your home, it's a bit outdated.'

'No problem, so, how's your singing career and how's your time creating rainbows?'

'Oh great, though the pay isn't the highest, Sia's going great, her songs are getting better every time I attend the concerts,' Rainbowshine blurted out before Sia could say anything.

We then continued on with the conversation, talking about mostly my adventures in space and on Duna. I told them everything that happened, including me falling in a canyon and me modifying spacesuits. We then slept until the next day. All three of us woke up very late that day, and then spent the whole day together, just like old times.

We went shopping, relaxing in the spa, flying competitions and signing autographs, Sia and I that is. Rainbowshine did want to be like us, being well known in Equestria, so she wasn't jealous at all. I had no idea why she wasn't jealous, it just didn't make sense to me.

The experience that day was really just the best ever, but seeing a different Ponyville was just hard for me to imagine. Ponyville's shops have changed, and some of the signs are now neon. But after all that, I still had one question in my mind which I didn't ask my old friends.

'Why do you guys have half bionic wings?'

They answered quite quickly, 'Fly better, that's it really.'

'Umm, ok.'

Author's Note

A space odyssey doesn't mean not being on Equestria for extended amounts of time.
Gizmo idea from Artemis by Andy Weir. (I love that author)
Sia used for reasons.

Here is a little gift from me.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1AjdoIJ_xUTWwhSTsyuRFrZ0fcS8TKmF3
(Stock KSP mobile base)

Songbird Serenade's Concert

I opened up the window of my room and then flew out of it, shutting it on the way out so that I don't wake any other pony up. Gus saw me flying out, and called for me, 'Planetshine, I got some news for you!'

'Coming,' I shouted back,' What's the news.'

'There is going to be a new mission to Eve, it's in 3 days, and the engineers in the VAB are still fine-tuning the rocket to get there.'

'Cool, can I go there?'

'You're already on the roster, as the administration know you would definitely go on the mission.'

'Any other ponies?'

'Silverstream, Sandbar and Starry Night.'

'Ok, anyways, I'm going Cloudsdale today to meet Rainbowshine.'

'Good travels!'

I flew south, to Ponville first to tell the other astronauts that I would be going to Eve, the purple looking planet that had the really thick clouds. Everypony was surprised that I was going to another planet all in one week. It sounded very hectic, but I could manage it.

The next thing I did was to find Cloudsdale. Rainbowshine told me that Cloudsdale was north-west of Ponyville at the time, and so I traveled that direction. I finally got to Cloudsale, I headed for the weather factory, which was where Rainbowshine worked. I busted in, flying towards Rainbowshine, who was pouring in a mixture to make rainbows.

She was nearly done with her job today, and she told me to wait until she was done with her job. I had to wait a long time, getting bored after a while, but after she completed her job, she was able to go out for some fun. She asked me a question, to begin with, 'Why are you in your spacesuit?'

'Not bothered to take it off and on, anyways, it's a flight suit, not spacesuit.'

'Oh, I get it, so anyways, I got some news for you, Sia is performing tonight!'

'Hey, that's nice, I'm up for another mission in 3 days, this time to Eve.'

'Space travel, I just don't get it.'

'Me too, but I like it.'

We walked out of the factory and flew over to Rainbowshine's home. When I entered, I was amazed by the new technology in her home, the last time I was in her home, it looked primitive compared to now. 'Hey, Rainbowshine, just asking, but how did the new tech come to be like this?' I asked her.

'I'm not exactly sure, but I think it's from another dimension, Princess Twilight and I think Sunset Shimmer ported the tech to here in Equestria.'

'So you're saying all the new tech is from another dimension.'

'Yeah, I guess so.'

She walked up to her living room table. There were two tickets to Sia's performance tonight in Cloudsdale. 'Uh, Rainbowshine, what song is she performing?'

'Chandelier, I think.'

I knew Chandelier, it was one of her most renowned songs, well, all of them are, but Chandelier was very renowned. We spent time at Rainbowshine's home, watching TV for a while and then taking a few pictures. When It was nearly night, and Princess Luna would raise the moon, or spin Equestria, I'm not too sure, we went out of her house. The concert was held in the Cloudsdale stadium, pretty weird place to even hold a concert.

We flew over, I saw lots of ponies, even earth ponies and unicorns. I pondered to myself how they were able to stand on clouds, but it was probably just magic. I wasn't very good at magic, well, it's sorta obvious if you're not a unicorn or alicorn. We flew over to the entrance, which we handed in our tickets. It took a while to find the best seats possible, but we finally found one.

Some other ponies around me were looking at me. I didn't know why they did that, but it was either my flight suit I was wearing or it was because I was a famous astronaut. The next thing that happened was the Lyra and Bon Bon came, somehow walking on clouds. I flew up, yelling out, 'Lyra, Bon Bon, here!'

Hey heard me, and they squished in beside me with Rainbowshine. 'Why are you here?' Bon Bon said, 'I thought you would be at the space center doing stuff.'

'I have a personal life too,' I complained.

'We already know,' Lyra replied.

After a while of waiting, Sia finally got on the stage. The stadium can be easily modified to become anything really, for plays, for concerts, anything, because clouds can be easily manipulated to suit needs. Usually, the stadium's interior would be having cloud rings or pillars.

'Fillies and gentlecolts,' the speakers announced, 'Please welcome Songbird Serenade.'

I still had problems with her name, Songbird Serenade, maybe it was me getting too used to calling her by her real name Sia. The music started, and she started singing in her sweet singing voice. My voice was coarser and not as nice as her's. The first verse was great, the props kicking into action.

Party girls don't get hurt
Can't feel anything, when will I learn
I push it down, push it down

I'm the one "for a good time call"
Phone's blowin' up, they're ringin' my doorbell
I feel the love, feel the love

One, two, three, one, two, three, drink
One, two, three, one, two, three, drink
One, two, three, one, two, three, drink

Throw em back, till I lose count

Then the chorus came, which really showed off her voice.

I'm gonna swing from the chandelier, from the chandelier
I'm gonna live like tomorrow doesn't exist
Like it doesn't exist
I'm gonna fly like a bird through the night, feel my tears as they dry
I'm gonna swing from the chandelier, from the chandelier

After the song was complete, everypony cheered, and all four of us went backstage with nopony noticing. Rainbowshine and I carried Bon Bon and Lyra under the stadium and backstage. There, security guards looked at us, asking why we were doing that, but then Sia came in.

She said to the security guard, 'Don't need to matter with them, Rainbowshine and Planetshine are my friends.'

Sia then let us backstage and let us see the props and under her signature wig. I've already seen what's under her wig, but it was the first time backstage that I've seen it. Her real mane wasn't long enough to cover part of her face, so she used a wig to do so. We talked about lots of things, especially our daily lives.

For the next three days, I spend it all in Cloudsdale, sleeping with Rainbowshine, then flying over to the space center with her on the third day.

Author's Note

How the rainbows are made is not shown for obvious reasons. And I just had to put in things from real life. Chandelier because I was just listening to it when I was writing this chapter.

Eve

I was with Rainbowshine, flying over to the space center for another mission. I saw the space center approaching when I saw something else, the rocket. The rocket was huge, about 50% bigger than the one to Duna. Silverstream, Sandbar and Starry Night were all there, in their flight suits.

Their flight suits were the exact same as the types 2 years ago. Mine was the only one that was different. We climbed up the stairs at the launchpad after I said goodbye to Rainbowshine. The stairs took a very long time to climb up, but then, I flew up to the enterance, carrying Sandbar at the same time.

We boarded the rocket, the command pod the same as the one used for the Duna mission, with a hitchhiker storage container under it. When I was flying, Starry Night asked me something, 'When did you have parts for your wings in your flight suit?'

There was only one way to answer it, 'I modded it.'

When we were in the command pod, all seated, we were told about Eve again. Eve was a planet that was covered with purple. The atmosphere is extremely thick, about 5 times thicker than Equestria's, and seeing into it was near impossible, but surveys say that there are oceans and land.

The lander for this mission was kept as light as possible, with a service bay that contained seats. The ascent stage would use Vector engines and asparagus staging for maximum efficiency, as the rocket would have to carry it into orbit around Equestria.

The rocket was going to be launched in 5 minutes at 10 am exactly. The engines lit up at 10 seconds before launch and the launch clamps unclamped at T-0 seconds. The TWR of the rocket was very high, so it shot up. We had to literally endure 2G acceleration, which wasn't that hard to endure.

I started the gravity turn early, as the rocket looked very aerodynamic. I then realised that there was an autopilot option, which I have never seen before. The autopilot option was a little hard to use, but I quickly learned how to use it. I used it to point the rocket prograde, which was what I had to myself the last times I piloted the rocket.

It was very convenient for me, as the autopilot module could get me to Eve without any manual control. It was, for me, one of the most useful things ever, though sometimes manual piloting would be better. The autopilot module detached the side boosters and got the rocket to orbit.

I was curious about the autopilot module, so I asked mission control, 'Was this autopilot thingy supposed to do all the work?'

This time, Gus was in mission control, and said, 'Yes it is, it's very sophisticated you know,'

'Mhmm.'

The transfer burn would take place using a hyperefficient nuclear stage as the ascent stages were all used up. The nuclear engines now had much more thrust, having 180kN of thrust instead of the absurd 60kN. It even having a higher specific impulse at 1200 instead of 800.

The transfer burn was done very quickly, instead of the very long burns of the Duna transfer, and that was not because Eve was closer to Equestria. After all that was done, it was smooth sailing to Eve or coasting in space to Eve. Now we just had to wait, which would be going into stasis chambers for the time in space.

Purple Place

We all went out of stasis after a long long time, only a year of being in stasis. I could barely see Eve, the planet only being a purple fleck. We were in the gravity well of Eve, which was bigger than Equestria's, with gravity scans from above showing its gravity. The gravity of Eve was about 1.7 times of Equestria's.

The nuclear engines then fired up when the rocket, or transfer stage, was near the periapsis of 100000m. Atmospheric scans from the rocket showed that the Karman line for Eve was 90000m, 20000m above Equestria's. The burn took a while, but we were in a circular orbit instead of an elliptical one.

The next thing was to survey for landing spots and log down the geographical features of the planet. I had no idea to do it but Silverstream knew exactly what to do. Sandbar also knew what to do but he wasn't as good as Silverstream at it. After a whole day of orbiting around Eve, as in 24 hours, we were all done with the surveying,

The surveys told us that there was a few mountains, one that's very close to the equator that has an elevation of about 8000m from what we could see from the scans. Silverstream and I boarded the lander, which used 4 Vector engines in an asparagus setup to ascend, with 4 Spark engines to get into orbit.

After boarding, I undocked the lander from the mothership, which in this case was the transfer stage. I then fired up the Vectors just for a quick deorbit to land at the mountain. I had to make it so that the patched conics show that the lander would overshoot the mountain by a lot.

It took a while to get into the atmosphere, but when the lander went below the Karman line, I deployed the massive 10m inflatable heat shield. The heat shield did a great job of slowing the lander down, and it definitely protected me and Silverstream from the immense reentry heat that was produced by the atmospheric pressure.

Waiting for a while and enduring lots of extreme deceleration, we finally were able to see the surface. The surface was very purple, very purple, even the oceans. The lander was going to overshoot the mountains I was trying to get too, so I deployed the drogue chutes early, trying to lose speed.

The drogue chutes were kind of risky to deploy in such a thick atmosphere at 200m/s, but it worked, and it slowed us down to 150m/s, just enough to not overshoot the mountain. After what felt like an eternity to fall down to Eve's surface, I deployed the parachutes which definitely slowed the lander to unimaginable speeds.

The lander continued to descend at a snail's pace, making us wait for 5 minutes at least to be able to get all the way to the ground, which in this case was the mountain summit. When the 5 minutes were up, and we landed, I quickly put on my spacesuit, as my flight suit, even though able to withstand the pressure, couldn't resist the heat.

Silverstream was doing some experiments and scans while I was putting on my spacesuit. The scans picked up showed that the temperature on the surface was at an average of 130 degrees Celcius outside, but the spacesuits were rated to over 300 degrees, so no problems with an EVA. My flight suit was rated to 150 degrees though, so I might test it if it would keep me from boiling.

I had to get on and off with the ladders, as wearing a spacesuit meant that she couldn't use my wings, which obviously wasn't something that was good. The 1.7 times gravity meant that my legs weren't used to it, which meant it was a little hard for me to stand, the gravity feeling like it was crushing me. The immediate next thing I did was to do the planting of the flag, which was obvious that I had to do because it was a tradition with astronauts already.

The flag planting this time was a lot easier than the ones on Minmus, the moon, or Duna. The ground felt softer than the other celestial bodies, easily being penetrated by the flagpole. Since at that time was also nearly sunset, I decided to stay outside to look at the sunset on a mountain. When the sunsetted, it was super pretty, the green atmospheric haze contrasting the purple on Eve.

I went into the lander after a bit of climbing up, which wasn't the easiest thing to do, flying was definitely easier than that. 'Silverstream, go out, the sun is setting,' I told her when I got in, taking off my spacesuit so I could try Eve with my flight suit instead.

When I took off my spacesuit, I opened the airlock, and there it was, I was outside on Eve with my flight suit. It definitely felt a bit hotter without my spacesuit but it still didn't feel very hot. The flight suit was keeping me alive, even in extreme conditions, that is with a helmet on, and an oxygen tank and a thermal control unit. Silverstream was the next one out, with her spacesuit on.

We watched the sunset together, and took some photos at the same time, transmitting them to the space center at the same time. The next thing was to get back on the lander, as we would have to go in a few minutes. The optimal time for a rendezvous with the transfer stage would be in about 5 minutes, so we had to get going.

Silverstream and I got into the lander and quickly started up the 4 vector engines. I throttled them, and the lander quickly shot off Eve's surface with more than 3 TWR. The first fuel tanks were quickly depleted, so I decoupled them quickly, still pointing the now rocket straight up instead of tilting because of the toxic atmosphere and the higher gravity.

I then decoupled the other 2 vector engines when we were a good way up its atmosphere. The next thing was to fire up the 4 Spark engines that would get us all into orbit. The command pod that we were in was below a 2.5m fairing, which contained some of the fuel that the engines used, the others were below the command pod.

When we were finally out of the atmosphere and were in a stable orbit, I started to plan the rendezvous with the transfer stage while Silverstream was just snacking. I then saw a little button called rendezvous autopilot, which was definitely very useful, somehow working and having a rendezvous with the transfer stage in a matter of minutes.

When the now not so much of a lander intercepted the transfer stage, I manually docked it instead of using the autopilot, doing it in a matter of seconds as I was also an expert in orbital rendezvous and docking. The thing now was to transfer back to Equestria and not to mention waiting for a transfer window, which was shit.

I instead of waiting like everyone else, went into stasis, making an alarm for when the transfer stage enters Equestria's SOI. After a long time, we were finally entering Equestria's SOI. I woke up, feeling extremely cold, and saw the others waiting for me in the command pod. 'How long has it been?' I asked, feeling a little dizzy.

'5 years, and before you ask, it was because of the autopilot accidentally failing. Sandbar had to manually control it and without a transfer window, had to wait 5 years,' Starry Night told me.

I went up to the command pod, and upon seeing the others, I had a shock. They looked older than before, unlike me, I didn't age. 'Why do you guys look old?'

'Well, its a long story, but in short terms, the other stasis chambers also stopped working, the one that you were in was working so you were all fine and all that,' Sandbar said. 'We had to wait 5 years without passing the time, also, do you like my beard?'

'Oh, that's nice, uhh, let me check something.'

I looked into a small mirror mounted on the wall. 'Yep, still look the same and sound the same from 5 years ago,' I thought.

The next thing I did was wait, and also burn radial in so that we would be in a collision course with Equestria. I started it a bit later, putting the ship on a collision course. I waited a long long time for it to get below the Karman line. After a day of waiting, I decoupled the transfer stage and the hibernation module from the command pod.

The command pod glided through the atmosphere, the heat shield glowing white hot, re-entering at 4000m/s. The ablative material on the heat shield had no problems withstanding the shock heating, and we landed with 2 parachutes somewhere near the space center. The landing was all luck, not even tuning the orbit so that we would get there.

Author's Note

Forgot to say, the command pod had 4 seats.

Changes (in Equestria after arrival)

Well, we all crawled out of the command pod, one by one, not even injured a bit. After all, it was a pretty soft landing, to say the least, but it didn't feel as soft as the one at Eve, not entirely sure why. Starry Night was the first one to get out of the command pod then Sandbar, Silverstream, and I was last.

Silverstream spotted the space center, 'Space center is over there!'

'Let's fly there!' I commanded.

Silverstream grabbed Gallus up and we all flew there, leaving the command pod where it landed. When we were there, we saw something very different. The runway was rebuilt, the spaceplane hanger enlarged by quite a bit, and the research department looking better than ever.

Everyone walked into the administration building, telling the administrators that we were back from the Eve mission. They approved of the mission and asked one thing to me, 'Planetshine, why do you look younger than the others?'

There was no other way to answer the question but to say this, 'Well, its a long story, but I went in stasis and somehow the other stasis chambers broke or something and I am now 5 years younger than them.'

'Well that's just strange, but all you astronauts will be assigned holidays for the next few months, until the next mission. Feel free to come back to the space center, and don't forget to rest well after that mission I know that was hectic.'

We all trotted out the administration building, a little bit tired. 'Starry Night, Planetshine,' Sandbar said to us, 'We will be going to Mount Aris for the holiday, see you guys until the next mission.'

'Ok, we'll be going to the astronaut complex,' I replied back.

Starry Night and I trotted to the astronaut complex, which was all void of any ponies or creatures. I ran into my room while Starry just sat on the couch starting to watch TV. The inside of the building didn't change much, I couldn't see too much of a difference other than the things mounted on the walls. My room looked the exact same, barely touched, but definitely cleaned by the janitors or it would be full of cobwebs by now.

I took off my flight suit and started to do more work on it. I really wanted my suit to be perfect so that wearing it outside every day or even on other planets wouldn't be a problem. When I took it off, I flew out the window, getting parts from the spaceplane hanger and from my junkyard.

I got back a better thermal unit and better suit material. Now I realised that modifying the suit would be a problem, but making a whole new one wouldn't. I was pretty much now an expert at this as I've modified mine a several times already. I decided that a fur tight suit would be best for movement, so I went with that.

The next few steps were to basically fit everything together, using nylon and cotton to make the inner layer and using a newly discovered fabric that was very strong and extremely pressure-resistant while not restricting movement at all. I then attached the thermal module, a modular flashlight this time, and no gizmo, because I was too lazy to do that.

I then flew out of my window and went to my junkyard to then test it, realising that I spent hours making the suit. When I reached the junkyard, I realised that it was all new, now not having parts all being thrown in a huge pile, but more in an orderly fashion. This wasn't what I expected but I just went to the spacesuit testing device and set it to be a vacuum and test it overnight.

I was surprised that Starry didn't come up in my room for the whole day, maybe he was just minding her own business. I went down the stairs, but I couldn't find Starry. I went into her room, not there. I then went into the kitchen, and there she was, cooking up dinner.

I asked her, 'What are you cooking?'

'Making, not cooking.'

'Ok?'

'Hayburgers!'

The hayburgers that she made weren't the best, but it was pretty good to say the least, especially not having actual real food for 6 years, even if a lot of it was me in stasis. I then slept early, as I had a long day tomorrow. The next day, I flew out of my window again, not even alerting Starry Night. For some reason, I feel like flying out the window was a trademark of me.

I flew over to the junkyard, which I still couldn't believe that the managers sorted all of the parts and whatnot into sections. I went into the spacesuit testing chamber and read the results. It somehow worked, maybe it was me being a pro at that, but I wasn't fully sure about that.

I just couldn't believe the results I saw, the suit actually withstanding no a vacuum and extreme temperatures. I think I just revolutionalised the spacesuit, or maybe not, it was only mine that I was able to modify, the space center administration had to approve stuff and whatnot.

I then put it on. I didn't even know how the feeling of it was, it was extremely comfortable. It felt like I wasn't even wearing anything, the movement was all fluid and it did a great job of insulating temperatures, meaning that the thermal control unit was less useful.

I trotted out, then flying. Flying was easier than before, not needing to flap my wings as much. My tail was also covered pretty nicely, but it had to be tied up, which I didn't mind as I can barely feel it. I then went back to the astronaut complex at the space center, entering it. 'Starry, I'm back from my junkyard.'

'Planetshine?' she asked, 'Did you get a new suit again?'

'Uh, yeah, why?'

'Nothing, do you want to go to Ponyville later today?'

'Sure, that would be great, I haven't been there for a while now, it's been a long time.'

I cooked up lunch later, then going to Ponyville. It was the afternoon, and we were ready to head to Ponyville. We flew a bit, and we finally got there after a few minutes of flying fast. It was definitely faster than the Friendship Express, which would get from Ponyville to Canterlot overnight, which was very very slow compared to flying, after all, it was for the ponies who wanted to sleep in Ponyville and wake up in Canterlot. I then landed softly, my wings gliding me to the ground.

There, I noticed something straight of the bat, Ponyville was different again, this time more modern. The signs were mostly digital, there were electricity poles routing electricity everywhere, but the buildings remained the same. A few ponies greeted us, warmly welcoming us to the town, and then Pinkie Pie jumped in front of us.

'Hey, welcome to this town, you new here?' she abruptly shouted in our faces.

I replied pretty quickly, 'No, I live here but I haven't come here in more than 5 years.'

'What! That will be a welcome back party for you two!'

'Not Starry, she's from Cloudsdale, I'm from here.'

'Ohh, I get it, WELCOME BACK PARTY!!!'

Pinkie threw a huge party for us, inviting everyone in Ponyville. There were not just ponies, but there were dragons, griffins, hippogriffs, even changelings. I knew there had to be those creatures, and I was expecting them, as the School of Friendship was all about teaching friendship to all creatures, pony or not.

The party went on for a while, and I definitely enjoyed it, now I just wanted to explore Ponyville again, just like the time I moved here. To put the party extreme would be a huge understatement, it was EXTREME and crazy as hell. There was total chaos on the streets and ponies holding out phones taking photos. Yes, there was something called a phone, and how did I know it, I asked a pony that had one what it was.

When the party was finally over, I was free to explore the town again. I first went to my home, with Starry of course. When we entered, I saw the state of my home, absolutely disgusting. There were insects, cobwebs, and dust everywhere, not including tons of mold. I had to clean all that shit up, even if I didn't want to.

I first had to get equipment to clean it up, so I went to the local shops to buy some cleaning equipment. There was apparently something called a vacuum, which would suck in the dust and other nasty things in my home, so I bought it. It only cost 20 bits, but since I was a famous astronaut, I had lots of them, so I bought it outright. I also saw a phone, and since lots of ponies had one, I thought I would buy one too.

The phone was supposedly running an operating system called Android, which I have never heard of, but after a while of mucking around, I quickly got used to using it. I then saw something that came with it, something called earphones. They were supposed to fit in your ears instead of headphones, which would fit on your ears. I started to use them, and they weren't that bad at all, sounding pretty well.

I flew home carrying the vacuum. It was a bit heavy but I got it home after a while. 'Starry! I got something.'

She was in my home dusting the place when I brought in the vacuum. I flew up to the electrical pole that was hanging over my house and started to do some electrical work. I was no expert at it, but I knew basic electrical things like powering things with batteries or an external electricity source.

I cut out the protective layer of the electrical circuit, and accidentally touching it a few times, I hooked up something that would let me get free electricity, which did count as sort of stealing but I didn't really care about that. 'I all done, you can now use the vacuum, I'll do the mold cleaning work.'

The next thing I realised instantly was that my suit protected me from the electrical currents, which I wasn't surprised at all. I went into my house, starting to clean the mold. There weren't any mold problems specifically towards my house, but after several years, it's really just bound to happen.

The cleaning took ages to do, but it finally was done after hours and hours of pure cleaning, making it look like new. I now just needed to get some new things, futuristic ones to be exact. I let Starry do all that, while I just stayed in my home, playing on my phone for a bit. All I knew was that Starry was outside buying things, but I didn't know what.

After a long time of waiting, I started to think about what she was doing. Then, I saw her come into the room, carrying tons of items into my home. There were things like fridges, which were a new way to store food, a computer, and lots more. There was no way that all of that was going to fit, but after a long time, we managed to finally to get them all in, somehow fitting it in.

I started to go out, putting my phone into my pocket that was on my chest. I liked that pocket, it was pretty nice to have it for keeping little things. I still had my earphones in for some reason, I didn't know why but I liked it being able to not only play music but to hear things around myself while doing so, unlike headphones, which muffles all outer sound.

The feeling of going outside was very strange, and since it was nighttime already, Ponyville looked very new. There were lights everywhere, well, not everywhere but it lit up all the streets. There were neon lights that were subtle but did make a difference. There were even ponies in restaurants, which was pretty strange at night, as that only really happened in Manehatten. Didn't I mention that the ponies also changed a bit.

Old Friends

'Planetshine,' said somepony that was at the door, knocking on it.

'Coming!' I shouted across the house. It was a new day, still in the morning, my hooves sore from yesterday's house renovation. I opened the door slowly, looking out at the pony, uhh, pegasus, that was outside. To my surprise, it was my old friend, now only 5 years older while I wasn't.

It was Rainbowshine, Sia not there. I had tears flowing down my eyes, and so was her's. She hugged me very hard, feeling like that she was breaking my back. She was very curious about one thing, and that was why I looked the exact same as 5 years ago. It was very obvious that she looked older, but for me, I looked, and was, the exact same age as a long time ago.

'How old are you, it has been so long and you're still not at all older looking,' she asked, looking at me.

'Stasis, you know, the cryogenic stuff that freezes you and stops aging and helps pass the time,' I replied.

'Ohh, I get it, you're so lucky.'

The next thing that she wanted to know was about the Eve mission, and what happened during it, and why it took more than 5 years, and why I was still wearing my flight suit.

'Flight suit, so I like wearing it, and it's comfortable. Eve mission, so its a very long story,' I quickly answered.

'Tell me all of it!' she demanded.

I started telling her everything, which actually didn't take a long time to tell all of it, as I didn't live through that 5-year long transfer that Starry, Silverstream, and Sandbar had to endure. 'Starry, come out, Rainbowshine wanted to know about you during the 5-year long transfer.

She walked out, and seeing Rainbowshine, she started to explain the 5 year transfer time. Not bothering to actually explain it, she just explained it in one word, boring. Rainbowshine asked for more, but Starry just didn't want to tell her everything as she wasn't bothered at all, so she said, 'Don't think you want to know, every single day was the exact same, eat food, get bored, do some random things, sleep, get bored.'

She nodded her head, somehow taking in everything that she said. Rainbowshine then invited us to another Sia concert, which was great for us, as we needed some actual leisure time. This time, she was going to perform in Canterlot, and lots of ponies from all over Equestria were going there to just watch it instead of watching it on the TV. The time of her performance was tonight, at 9 pm.

The next few hours were just trotting around Ponyville and flying to Cloudsdale for the sake of it and watching a Wonderbolt performance. I thought about the Wonderbolts, still admiring them, but this time there were different ponies, but hey, they were just as good as the old ones. After the performance, we left for Canterlot.

Going to Canterlot was a different story. Rainbowshine wasn't very good at flying, and her part bionic wings were not very powerful as it got old. I still had my natural wings, and I didn't age, meaning that I was able to carry her easily, so I carried her all the way to Canterlot after about 2 thirds of the way there.

I dropped her down after a while, landing on her hooves. I hovered down slowly and seeing Canterlot for the first time in years, was surprised a lot. It was modernised, looking like Manehatten but also didn't because of the architecture. The architecture of Canterlot was more traditional while Manehatten's was mostly just flat and rectangular.

We ate at a restaurant, one that was not rated by Zesty Gourmand, as all of those restaurants were mostly the same and didn't have very good food. The restaurant we ate at was called the Tasty Treat, which somehow tasted very very good, much better than the ones that Zesty rated. When we went out, it was time for Sia's concert, the song called Alive.

We tried to get to the front, but couldn't find a spot to stand, so we did something that somehow nopony else did, and that was to fly above the other ponies. Sia then went on the stage after a few minutes of us waiting and started singing.

I was born in a thunderstorm
I grew up overnight
I played alone
I played on my own
I survived

She still had her sweet voice that everypony liked, this time not as soft as the last one. The next thing that happened was dancers bursting out on the stage out of nowhere, Sia then flying a bit, perching on a little rod that had a microphone on it. Then the chorus came.

I'm still breathing, I'm still breathing
I'm still breathing, I'm still breathing
I'm alive
I'm alive
I'm alive
I'm alive

Her voice was definitely different, but it was pretty subtle, but nopony else realised it, so I guess it was just me or was it really different? Not bothering to ponder it myself, as the answer was pretty obvious, we went backstage without anypony noticing, sneaking back, but it was more like flying backstage.

Sia greeted us and asked me something, 'I can't believe you came to this concert after more than 5 years, how was your trip to Eve?'

'Uhh, good?' I replied, a little nervous.

'So, what are you two up to anyways.'

'Oh, we're just doing whatever we want, you know, because we can,' Rainbowshine added.

'Great you two, want to come with me with the tour of Equestria, I'm performing everywhere in Equestria starting here in Canterlot.'

'We'd love to come!' I shouted, Rainbowshine looking at me confused why I shouted.

'Count me in,' Rainbowshine said.

So we took off on the journey. The travel time to Ponyville was a long long time, overnight actually, Sia falling asleep on the friendship express before any of us, officials guarding us. The set was transported via other means of transport, freight trucks actually. The freight trucks were supposed to travel on roads, which I couldn't see, but there were bound to be a road somewhere.

'Wake up all of you, we're in Ponyville finally,' Sia nudging us telling us to wake up. 'I'm performing I think tonight, you can look at the concert via the backstage, just peek through the curtains, nopony would notice.'

'What song?' Rainbowshine asked Sia.

'Elastic Heart.'

From what I have known from Sia yesterday was that Elastic Heart was one of the newer songs that she wrote, and she was going to perform it tonight. The officials disembarked the train, the set half assembled when we saw it near the town hall after we disembarked. Ponies were gathering around us, asking for autographs and hugs from Sia, leaving Rainbowshine and I just waiting for the ponies to leave. At least Rainbowshine and I didn't get jealous, I was famous already and Rainbowshine got very well known for being friends with me and Sia.

Tour of Equestria

We all went to my house, for the time being, waiting for when the concert would begin. She was supposed to stay in a hotel but she preferred to stay at my house, talking about things and eating lunch. 'So, you excited for tonight,' Sia asked, looking at us without her wig on. Rainbowshine and I got used to her wearing her wig all the time, so having it off for her was a little strange.

'Yeah, obviously, what would you think? It's sort of obvious, anyways, it's even more exciting to be able to watch from backstage,' I said to her.

'What she said,' Rainbowshine added.

We then watched TV, Sia preparing for the concert, rehearsing the song for us.

Well I've got thick skin and an elastic heart
But your blade it might be too sharp

I still can't get over her sweet sweet voice, mine was a little rough while Rainbowshine's wasn't as soft as her's. I admired her voice, and so did Rainbowshine. The next thing that happened was that Starry Night opened the door, walking in calmly carrying a few stuff. 'Planetshine, did you see Songbird Serenade come in town?' she asked.

'She's here,' I replied. Starry opened the door a little more, and upon looking in, she was shocked to see Sia at my house, rehearsing for today's performance. She then tuned in with us, listening to Sia rehearse for tonight's concert. Then a message came in, from the space center. The message read.

Planetshine, you are chosen to fly a 3.2-ton rocket to Gilly (Eve's moon) in one month.

Everypony read it, shocked to see that I was going on another mission. Yes, I know I was a great pilot, but seriously, flying a 3.2-ton rocket by myself to Gilly was just ridiculous.

We waited for tonight, can't wait at all for Sia's concert, especially if we were viewing from backstage, a privilege that a normal pony would never have. When it was nighttime, and Princess Luna raised the moon or rotated Equestria, whatever that was true. The stage was all set up, ready for Sia to perform there.

We trotted over to the stage, waiting for a bit until all preparations were complete, the props all set up. We peeked from the curtains, just enough to see her sing but not enough to have other ponies see us, and believe me, some of them have great vision. Sia went on the stage after a few words spoken from the loudspeaker, 'Fillies and Gentlecolts, Songbird Serenade.'

She started singing, her voice a little autotuned to suit the environment she was in.

And another one bites the dust
But why can I not conquer love?
And I might've got to be with one
Why not fight this war without weapons?

Starry, Rainbowshine and I peeked at her, looking at her actions, the other ponies backstage just staring at us thinking that we were just absolutely crazy, even though we weren't. Then the chorus came, which definitely showed off her vocals, now I finally know what her secret was, there was no way I could match that when I sing.

Well I've got thick skin and an elastic heart
But your blade it might be too sharp
I'm like a rubber band until you pull too hard

All the ponies cheered when the show finished, and I flew out, hugging Sia tightly, also cheering her at the same time. The ponies that were cheering were not surprised at all, as they knew I was Sia's friend, and so was Rainbowshine, who joined us later.

All three of us went backstage, later preparing for the next part of the tour, which wasn't Cloudsdale but the Crystal Empire. I had never been there, and from the photos I've seen, it looked absolutely beautiful, having a type of symmetry that seemed perfect, the streets, not the buildings.

Princess Cadence and filly Flurry Heart welcomed us, just like the other ponies, and knowing all of us, except Rainbowshine, she gave all of us a tour of the place. The place really stood out, the place fully made out of crystals, something I would never expect, even though I've learned about it when I was a filly.

Sia was going to sing Titanium, a collab song with a not very well known stallion called David, who would be here to do the DJ work. She performed it tonight, Rainbowshine, Starry and I backstage for the whole time. When the Crystal Empire was all done, we then went to Cloudsdale, then Manehatten, Mount Aeris, and even turned into seaponies going to Seaquestria. It was definitely a great tour.

Author's Note

Next: 3.2t rocket to Gilly.

3.2t to Gilly

Author's Note

Because delta-V is important in this one and it was one of my best missions.

3.2t to Gilly

I woke up to the sunshine or light that shined through the water, and waking up, I realised I was still a seapony, still in Seaquestria, about to leave it to go back to Equestria. I swam up to Terramar, and Rainbowshine, Starry and Sia went up as well and swam onto land. Terramar then put his hoof on his necklace, which turned us all into ponies and him into a hippogriff.

We said thank you, and I realised something, the Gilly mission was tomorrow. I thought of it just then, as such perfect timing was very strange, almost to the point of being impossible, maybe it was just a coincidence, or it was a time traveler, there was just no explanation.

I thought of something, either spend the night at the space center for tomorrow's mission or to stay at Mount Aris and rush to the space center. I decided to play safe, which I never do at all, but I didn't want the administration yelling at me. The administration was rough on the outside but had golden hearts, but they would never show it, maybe other than Gus.

I flew to the space center, Starry and Rainbowshine following, Sia staying behind as she needed to perform at Mount Aris, wishing us a goodbye. It took a while to fly, but we finally got there. What I saw on the launchpad was a tiny rocket, about 3 times larger than me but extremely small compared to the other rockets Equestria Aerospace built. Maybe they were just tight on their budget, but that was hardly the case.

I was shocked at the rocket, pondering to myself if I was dreaming, how was I going to get to Gilly like that, it just didn't seem possible, but something like that could always be possible. The rocket had a single Panther engine for the ascent, with a Spark engine to get it into orbit. From what I have heard, it uses a new type of propulsion, ion propulsion.

Ion propulsion was a very new and experimental technology, having extremely high efficiency but having very low thrust, about 1kN, and runs on xenon gas and electricity. I walked over to the administration building, signing in and declaring I was ready for the next mission. Then Gus walked in and started to explain the mission to me.

He explained everything, even to the minute details of the moon I was going to land on, such as the gravity. From what he explained, the moon had almost to the point that there was no gravity and some information about the ion engines. They were very efficient in space and all that, but when they are in the atmosphere, their thrust goes down significantly, barely able to propel anything.

It was 8:50, and the launch was going to commence at 9 am. The loudspeakers called out, 'Planetshine, please report immediately to the launchpad.'

I knew I had to go right away, so I said farewell to my friends, then making my way over to the launchpad, ultimately boarding the tiny rocket. I waited for a while, doing checks and going in that small and not very luxurious command pod, which was basically a chair in a fairing that had a door. I was discouraged by the interior, but if this works, it would be a great step for all ponykind.

The launch counted down, my eyes shut, breathing in and out, calming down myself. I started up the Panther engine that would get me up, turning on the afterburner to build up speed, and the launch clamps unclamped the rocket. The rocket didn't have more than 1 TWR to get off the surface, but an initial boost meant that I could ascend with more than 1 TWR.

The rocket first accelerated slowly, but after a while, the Panther engine kicked in, accelerating me up to extreme speeds, also slowly doing a gravity turn just to gain horizontal speed as my rocket had very low aerodynamical drag. The rocket ran out of liquid fuel when it was traveling over 1200m/s, more than Mach 3 with an afterburning turbofan, I couldn't believe it.

I decoupled it, now only having a single Spark engine to accelerate me all the way to orbital velocity. The engine ran out of fuel when I was in a suborbital trajectory, but I could use the ion engine to get me all the way to orbit, as the burn would only take an all-time low of 10m/s because of my very horizontal ascent.

Now it was just time for me to wait until the burn that would get me to Gilly, which was very very complicated. The burn would make me have a gravity assist off of the moon, getting me on a trajectory to Eve, which I would aerobrake in so I could get into an orbit into it. From that point on, I would do a very small course correction to get to Gilly.

I started the burn when it was time to, splitting the burn into 3 burns at periapsis to maximise fuel usage, which was known as the Oberth effect. The burns took quite a while, but after doing the final one, I was on a trajectory to the moon. Just after the burn, I would have to fine tune it, and since it didn't have any autopilot, I had to do it all by myself, tweaking it for a long time instead of relaxing.

Now that I was on a trajectory to the moon and then onto Eve with a periapsis of 75000m, I was ready to go into stasis. There were no stasis chambers in the rocket, but instead, the command pod, which was a fairing, would be the stasis chamber. I know it sounds strange but the controls were built to withstand very low temperatures of space and stasis chambers. I went into stasis and set the time for when I would arrive at Eve.

Asteroid pretending to be a moon

Well, I'm at Eve, nearly entering the atmosphere when I woke up, confused for a sec. I went in stasis for half a year already, I can't believe what's going to happen when I return to Equestria. I pointed the rocket prograde, so the fairing would absorb all the heating from the atmosphere, great to say the least. The fairing then proved to be very temperature resistant, able to withstand temperatures over 2500 degrees Celcius.

I was captured into a stable orbit a while of aerobraking, but on a near perfect trajectory to Gilly's orbit line, only needing a small inclination change and mid-course correction totaling up to 30m/s delta-V. I burnt a tiny little bit at apoapsis to raise my periapsis to over the Karman line, which took only 0.1 m/s, so it was too insignificant to count it as a burn.

I went into stasis again, realising that I had to wait a long long time, another orbit actually, to perform the inclination change, which sucked because it meant waiting, but at least I could be in stasis. And you might be asking about how there is still electricity, that's because there are 2 solar panels on the side of the rocket that provide sufficient power.

When I got to the descending node, which was at apoapsis, it only took 28 m/s delta-V, a lot considering I only had 370m/s of it left, which meant I needed to do an EVA landing and get back to Equestria in that slim amount. I then did the 2.1m/s mid-course correction, which would put me on a trajectory that was exactly on the orbit line of Gilly. I now realised that I had to wait for about 600 orbits around Eve to get a good encounter, which totals up to about 1200 days, which was about 3.5 years, which is why I hate my life, but at least I can be in stasis.

The years passed, and the perfect encounter came, and so I woke up from stasis, ready to get out of the rocket to do an EVA landing on Gilly. I had to decelerate to get into a Gilly orbit, which only needed 60m/s of my delta-V meaning that I would have about 30m/s left to correct any errors during the Eve to Equestria transfer. I've also received word from the space center that another astronaut joined, called Flamerider.

Later, another message came in, and that was Starry Night and Flamerider, along with all the other astronauts are going to Dres, a dwarf planet that seems to have extreme geological features, but infrared photos show that it looks very boring. They were going to fly the Dresliner, an experimental spaceplane that would carry 60 ponies to Dres and back with no refueling.

The time came to get into an orbit around the moon, which looked more like an asteroid to me. The asteroid-moon was just a boring old rock, but it has been predicted that it has come from another star system and has captured into an orbit around Eve, nopony knows.

When I was in a stable orbit, traveling at an all-time fast speed of about 30m/s to actually orbit it, I prepared to do the EVA landing. I put on my helmet and my EVA pack/jetpack and went out. The view of the asteroid, uh, asteroid, really started to come in. The moon had many bumps on it, making it look unstable to stand on, as it felt like I would slip a lot.

I did a deorbit burn with my jetpack, later landing in a suicide burn with it. When I was on the ground, Gilly looked much bigger from orbit, the rocky surface showing it had a lot of rocks on it, sitting there perfectly still. I grabbed a surface sample for the space center's research department to analyze, as an interplanetary rock would be worth a lot.

I was now ready to go, even though I've brought a flag. There was no way I was going to plant a flag on such a small celestial body that has barely any gravity, not to mention a rocky hard ground. All I did on the surface was to take a few selfies and a few photos on the landscape.

I turned on my jetpack, jumping first and using it to accelerate me to my rocket, which was still in orbit. It didn't take long for me to catch up to it, only really fine-tuning it a bit but I had enough delta-V in my jetpack to just brute force it anyway. The rendezvous with the rocket didn't go very well, but when I got in, I started the ion engines so I could get into an orbit of Eve.

The orbit really wasn't that good, needing a little bit of a manoeuver to get the periapsis all the way down to 90025m, 25m above its atmosphere. Now I just had to wait for a suitable transfer window to Equestria, meaning I had to wait about 100 days for one, time for going into stasis again.

I'm awake again, ready to do the ejection burn, but first I had to do a burn to get my apoapsis right at the edge of Eve's SOI so that I could make the delta-V usage be slightly lower. The ejection burn had to be timed precisely, as the delta-V I had left was going to be barely enough to get back. When I was finally done with the burn, I was on a trajectory to Equestria, the periapsis about 120000m, meaning a little deep space manoeuver had to be performed.

I then went into stasis to past the time, and the deep space manoeuver took only about 0.1m/s and left me with only 2m/s delta-V left. I crossed my hooves, praying that the patched conics were showing the right trajectory. I then went back into stasis, waiting for when I get to Equestria.

I was at Equestria after about 100 days in stasis, waking up when I was about 1 minute away from entering from the atmosphere, meaning that I could decouple the ion engines and reenter with no problems. I didn't need to care about what I pointed the rocket to, as the fairing and its base was very heat resistant. I went into the atmosphere, the craft slowing down substantially because of the atmosphere.

When it was time to deploy the parachutes at about 5000m off the ground, I deployed the fairing, leaving me exposed. I was falling at about 200m/s, the fairing-base slowing me down and providing lots of drag with a reaction wheel forcing it to face up. I then deployed the 2 drogue chutes, which was plenty to slow me down to a slow enough speed to touch down.

I landed in a barren desert, calling for transponders to fetch me. Anyways, the others were back about a week ago, so I wasn't going to be alone.

Galaxy Diver and Scouter

Author's Note

Galaxy Diver and Scouter are my own creations and named by my friend.

Galaxy Diver and Scouter

Well, another day and another mission to somewhere I have no idea of, as this time the administration told me, Flamerider and Starry Night to somewhere else that's not in the solar system. I had never seen anything from outside the solar system, other than maybe the stars. The ponies in charge said that this time it would be an SSTO that I would be flying, and so was the other two flying.

We all flew to the space center, later the other astronauts came, running to the space center like mad ponies. The administration told us that we would be flying 2 different SSTOs to the destination, one called the Galaxy Diver and the other called the Galaxy Scouter. The Galaxy Diver was a huge SSTO, capable of carrying more than 60 ponies, while the Galaxy Scouter was a tiny little SSTO, but had extreme range, and was capable of only holding one pony in a service bay, which wasn't that bad really.

For some dumb, but also a not-so-dumb reason, I chose the Galaxy Scouter, I wasn't sure why, but I just did it for the sake of it. The two spaceplanes were going to fly tomorrow, great, we were going to another star system tomorrow in SSTOs and not rockets, which I think is pretty weird.

Well, we are all prepared for the mission to the new planet, or moon, whatever it's called which is in another star system. I went into the spaceplane hanger, eager to see the planes. The first thing that struck me was the Galaxy Diver, which was absolutely huge, as in it looked like there was no way to actually fit it in the hanger. The next thing I saw was the Galaxy Scouter, which was tiny compared to the monstrous Galaxy Diver.

The next thing that happened was that the loudspeakers called out for the other ponies to report to the spaceplane hanger to board the Galaxy Diver, but for me, it would be the Scouter. Then Silverstream came up to me and handed me something. She handed a shard that she had, but it wasn't the one she had, it was another of its kind. It was a necklace, and she told me that she gave it to me for inspiring she and her friends to space travel.

I accepted it, having no idea of what it was, and if I was able to turn into something else like a seapony. I asked Silverstream, 'Silverstream, how are you supposed to use this thing?'

'Simple, just hold it with your hoof and think of something that you want to be, and you'll turn into that,' she replied. 'Oh yeah, it can transform you into lots of things, so be careful about what you think you want to be.'

'Ok, let me try something,' I answered. I held it in my hoof and wished to be something, which in this case was a seapony for some reason. There was a blinding light that popped around me, and I was a seapony. I then quickly turned back into myself, also creating a blinding light.

I felt that the thing was very cool, and then Silverstream told me one other thing, and that was to keep it on and not lose it, as it was one of the last ones in existence. After that, the other ponies came in, ready to board the Galaxy Diver. The pilots of the Galaxy Diver were Lyra and Starry Night. Starry would be the pilot, as she also showed great ability to fly planes. I boarded the tiny Galaxy Scouter, which looked seriously minute.

I didn't really know how to my ship's controls, but it took no time at all to find all the controls and get a feel for it. The chair wasn't the comfiest, but it certainly was better than some. I also forgot that the Scouter's cockpit was a service bay furnished with only a chair. The others had luxury first class seats while I got this, but at least the Scouter was much more technologically advanced.

The Diver was the first to be taxied out of the hanger, onto the runway, but it had a few problems doing so because of its huge size. My little spaceplane was extremely easy to do so, having a small footprint meant that it small landing gear, which had great steering.

The Diver was going to launch first, while I would do it after it launches. The Galaxy Diver was very slow to accelerate, but it got into the air, and it was coasting along ground level to gain speed, eventually pitching up and going to space, at least that was what I could see. I launched later, doing a different ascent profile. I had one RAPIER engine at the back of my craft, which provided a shit load of thrust.

My craft accelerated extremely fast, later turning on the ion engines to get into orbit. I set up my orbit so that it was as close as possible to the Karman line, about 70050m. The Galaxy Diver then got into orbit after a few minutes, waiting for me to rendezvous with it. The rendezvous wasn't very hard, easily getting an intersect with it. I then piloted the Scouter into the cargo bay, docking with it later.

I did an EVA and went into the Galaxy Diver. The Diver's interior was pure luxury, having real facilities and a huge storage for food and a large battery bank, using solar panels and RTGs to recharge it. I made my way to the other ponies and creatures. They were just playing games in zero G, which seemed very fun, so I joined in.

Lyra and Starry started to do the transfer burn to Eve, which would then get into a rendezvous to Equestria and put it on a resonance orbit to Equestria, basically the normal KEKKJ route. The KEKKJ route this time would make it so that it would get a gravity assist to a trajectory that would fling us all the way out of the solar system, but still in the sun's SOI. Once that was complete, the Galaxy Diver would use 2 more Jool assists to fling us all the way to Alpha Centauri, but not without some fine tuning.

'Well, we have a long way to go guys,' Lyra anncounced.

Interlude: Flight Suit

I was back at the space center after a bit of flying. Now I just had to get to my junkyard to retrieve my suit after testing. When I got there and got my suit back, I put it on immediately, just to stop the hassle of carrying it to the space center with my hooves, which aren't very easy to carry things with. Sometimes, I just wish I was a unicorn.

The flight suit now felt just as comfortable as the last one, maybe more comfortable because of the wing compartments letting me move my wings. I then started to fly, and it actually worked. Now I could fly with the suit on, and not be earthbound like the earth ponies would. It took a bit of time to get used to flying, but once I got used to it, I was just as good with flying when I didn't have it on.

I then tested the suit, turning on the illuminators, which were basically torches. They worked very well, creating a strong beam of light. The gizmo also worked well, and the test chamber said that the flight suit would protect me from the same level of pressure, at 200 pascals.

I liked the modified suit, gearing it up a little bit with flat graphene batteries that I found in the junkyard. They fit perfectly on my hind legs and they were flexible, meaning that they could bend. They also proved to be pretty durable, with an estimated 12 hours on battery with the flashlight on and the gizmo running. The batteries also charged extremely fast.

I then flew from my junkyard to the space center, going in the astronaut complex. Starry Night greeted me and asked about my newly modified suit, 'Is that a flashlight and a screen on your flight suit?'

'Yep, that's a built-in flashlight and that's a gizmo, at least that's its name for now.'

Interlude: Interstellar Discovery

Author's Note

NOT FROM PLANETSHINE'S PERSPECTIVE

Interlude: Interstellar Discovery

'Linus,' a scientist said, 'We have found something absolutely groundbreaking.'

'What is it?' Linus asked, 'Is it just a new planet discovered?'

'No, no, no, something entirely different, we have evidence that there are more solar systems in space.'

'Hmm? No way, how do you know that?'

'Gilly, the surface sample Planetshine gave us signifies that the moon is from another star system.'

'What could it be, a star system, which one?'

'From all the information that we have, it could be a system called Alpha Centauri, one that is about 5 light years away from us.'

'Hmmm, interesting, we need to study more of it, send the probes.'

The space center sent up 2 probes, which were more like telescopes, and found something strange. The space telescope found a star, but the star had a strange thing near it. The thing was round and looked like another planet. The planet also had a smaller dot near that, and it looked like another planet, but it was more of a moon that could well support life.