The Wonderbirds... are... UP!

Obviously, this story is based on actual events leading up and during to the Apollo 11 landing, but it also references a number of other space-related events and icons. As a thank-you to everyone who's been following along so far, here's a bonus chapter to mark the actual anniversary of the lunar landing, which discusses the references in the story (both to actual events and fictional sources).

The Wonderbirds...are... UP!

• The story's title is obviously a reference to the Thunderbirds catch phrase ("Thunderbirds are GO!").
• It's also an in-story reference to MLP's flying team, the Wonderbolts... who are themselves inspired by the real-world Blue Angels / Thunderbirds flying teams.
• It's also a reference to every heartfelt catchphrase from a television or movie series, from Star Wars' "May the Force Be With You" to Galaxy Quest's "Never Give Up... Never Surrender" -- that repeated phrase which starts out sounding hokey, and by the end of the story has taken on a life and meaning of its own for the fandom.

The Movie Marathon

• Pick your favorite multi-episode serial/series: Space Patrol, Tom Corbett, Captain Video, Flash Gordon, Buck Rodgers, Doctor Who, Star Trek, Star Wars, etc. The "Wonderbirds" are simply a reference to that one favorite sci-fi book, TV, or movie series that you recall most fondly from your childhood, and would willingly stand up for even today, based on how it fired your imagination when you were a child.
• And if you haven't sat up all night in a theater movie seat, watching sci-fi film after sci-fi film, and then walking out bleary-eyed into the sunlight, wanting to sleep all day like Princess Luna, then...well... you haven't done that. But it's worth doing, at least once.
• Birdies/Birders -- Trekkies vs. Trekkers, the debate about which is the "preferred" name for the fandom is eternal, except for one thing: the thing the other fans call themselves is always less cool somehow...
• Nellie Hoofstrong -- this is a straight-up ponification of Neil Armstrong, though the character also represents the main hero of any space expedition, real or imaginary: the heroic, larger-than-life captain/commander figure.
• A meta-reference here is the disappointment many of us felt when parents/family/friends told us that "that sci-fi stuff" is a waste of time, because it's made up and not real. Of course it's not. But our dreams are real, and the things that fire our imaginations are no less valuable, simply by being fantasy.
• Oh, and by the way, in writing this, I fully expected someone to be silly enough to try to remind me: "Hey, dummy! You know spaceflight and the Moon landings are real, right?" Look, I lived through this stuff, so I know it's real. The point is to ask: what if something so essential to what we think of as "the modern world" was in fact fantasy-movie material, to the point that parents would warn their kids not to get too wrapped up in it? What if something as concrete as a trip to the Moon was impossible... unless you have an alicorn Princess or two willing to lend a hoof? And how would it change the ponies' perspective on themselves and their world, if it was suddenly made possible, by royal fiat?

A Royal Petition

• Rainbow's "We choose to go to the Moon," response to Luna's question is, obviously, a reference to JFK's announcement of the space program. Whether you view it as a stirring call to action or political sleight-of-hand to draw attention away from issues at the time, it's important to remember a time when an American President could actually commit the country to a project like this, and have it then become a reality... not like the "jam tomorrow" promises we get today of landings on the Moon or Mars, which are forgotten almost as quickly as they're announced.

Crew Assignments

• "If any pony can science the hay out of this, it's you!"

This is a reference to "The Martian", though put through the family-friendly laundry a bit. * "... and that means that to anyone on board, falling at the same rate as the ship, it would seem like there was no gravity on board at all... wait a second..."

You gotta love Twilight: from zero to General Relativity in ten seconds flat!

* Rainbow Dash is Neil Armstrong, and Spike is Buzz Aldrin during the trip to the Moon, then he switches over to being Michael Collins during the landing itself. And Pinkie Pie? She's channeling the lighter side of all the early astronauts, from Mercury to Gemini to Apollo. Rarity doesn't represent a specific astronaut here, but in a sense she represents the progressive, inclusionary nature of Equestria's space program. And Gummy... he's Gordo the squirrel monkey, Laika the dog, and all the other animal test pilots who've helped pave the way (willingly or not) into space. * Fluttershy as Capcom -- I was looking for some role that everyone's favorite butter-colored animal-lover could handle, so what better position to give her than the astronaut on the ground who relays messages to/from the capsule? And who also serves as a kind of ground proxy for the concerns of the astronauts in space, having personally been there before. * And Applejack is Gene Kranz, the Flight Director for Apollo 11. Her no-nonsense approach and Southern twang seemed perfect for the role (even though Kranz was actually from Ohio originally).

Space Training

• The Wonderbolts seemed perfect to manage the intensive training program undertaken for any spaceflight. And many of the tests involved are true to life, like the centrifuge, the hyperbaric chamber, the underwater suit training, and the "zero-G" flights, though astronauts use an airplane flying a parabolic arc to simulate zero-G (which in physical terms is essentially the same as sky diving, except the plane is doing it with you...)
• "Everything! On short notice! And BACKWARDS!"

This isn't space-related, but I thought it was a good gag. There's an old saying: Ginger Rogers had to do everything Fred Rogers did, but on short notice... and backwards... in high heels. * "Embedded in the block was a strip of newsprint. Leaning closer, Rainbow could see it was a cartoon strip... a Wonderbirds cartoon strip."

This is a reference to an actual incident from Ray Bradbury's childhood. It was Buck Rogers comic strips, and he tore them up, but basically the point is the same: you can be cool to others, or true to yourself -- and the latter is usually the saner option. * "And they weren't printing the strip any longer, so I was HOL."

Horseapples Out of Luck, of course. What did you think it stood for? * "We're all Birdies in the Wonderbolts..."

This is totally made up, but I thought it appropriate that a professional flight team like the Wonderbolts would take to heart a fantasy reference to themselves. * "Rainbow had immediately exercised commander's prerogative and dubbed the craft the Pegasus..."

Yeah, I know the CM was called Columbia, and the LEM was called Eagle for Apollo 11, but I allowed Rainbow's ego a small amount of license here, in order to avoid an unnecessary multiplicity of names.

Heroes and Ambassadors

• This chapter, more than any other, is what I wrote this story for -- to show that the astronauts were not just test pilots or space-jockeys, but also ambassadors of our dreams... and there are reasons for going to the Moon that somehow never get into the official budgets and reports, but are nevertheless just as important.
• "This is unreal! We haven't even been to space yet, and we're already famous!"

This is from the early Mercury program, where the astronaut candidates had this experience, of being talked up in the press long before they ever went to space. * "Okay, look. I'm Nellie Hoofstrong, commander and explorer. Rarity, you're Madame Huru, unicorn mage and Mistress of Mysterious Powers. Spike, you're Buzby Parsec, bravest co-pilot alive, who can fly anything with a throttle! ... Pinkie... you're Engineer Hoof Wrench. You can fix anything!"

I made up most of these names on the spur of the moment, but my primary source was the Filmation cartoon series Fantastic Voyage, which had nothing to do with Isaac Asimov's novel of the same name apart from the conceit of shrinking a crew of explorers and their craft to microscopic size.

• "Buzby Parsec" is a reference to Busby Birdwell from Fantastic Voyage, and also a punnish reference to Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story.
• "Madame Huru, Mistress of Mysterious Powers" is a reference to "Guru, Master of Mysterious Powers" from Fantastic Voyage, and also a sound-alike callout to Commander Uhura from Star Trek.
• and "Engineer Hoof Wrench" is clearly Scotty from Star Trek, but also the miracle-working mechanic from any series, like Tech Sergeant Chen from Galaxy Quest, or Kaylee Frye from Firefly.
  • "We give them what they want from us: their heroes, live and real and talking to them."

When you're a kid, this is why you go to Sci-Fi conferences: to meet your heroes from the screen in person... and then you discover the very different, very distinct personalities of the actors/actresses who portray them, and it's kind of an eye-opener. * "Sure, Your Highness! Well, as you can see it's a multiple-stage rocket..."

Rainbow here is any engineer, trying to figure out how to explain the miracles of technology to the holders of the purse-strings. (Thankfully, this is a children's show, so I could avoid the really old joke about asking how astronauts go to the bathroom in space.) * "And what is it that's up there, on the Moon?"

The eternal question: why waste money on space, when there are so many problems here on the ground? One answer is an expression variously attributed to Faraday or Ben Franklin: "What use is a newborn baby?" There's always a debate over the cost and value of a space-program, and in particular of sending human astronauts when remote landers could do the job, but the thing to remember is that it's not a zero-sum game. Investing in space is a way of convincing ourselves that the impossible is possible -- that all the other problems are solvable too, given the will and the dollars.

There's a line from the series Babylon 5 that sums it up nicely: "See, in the last few years, we've stumbled. We stumbled at the death of the President, the war, and on and on. And when you stumble a lot, you start looking at your feet. Well, we have to make people lift their eyes back to the horizon, and see the line of ancestors behind us, saying, "Make my life have meaning." And to our inheritors before us, saying, "Create the world we will live in.""

After all, if you're going to ask people to "think of the children", you'd better be ready to invest in something truly worthy of those children's dreams... * "The Wonderbirds..." she whispered, "... as cultural exports."

Yeah, China and India are catching up to Hollywood, and the tail is beginning to wag the dog in China's case, but for a while now, we've been exporting culture to willing consumers in other countries. And you never know what people from another country will take to heart from your culture. (Don't believe me? Read up on the peculiar Swedish tradition of Kalle Anka.)

Launch Day

• "That was something the movies never showed... how much waiting there was in a launch..."

True story. Spaceflight is very dull, then really exciting, then very dull. Some things never change. * The "Spellcasting" station is obviously made up, but the other flight controller stations are true-to-life. And I couldn't not do the Wynona joke for the FIDO station, it was too good to pass up. * "Let's light this candle!"

A reference to Alan Shepard, first American in space, reacting to having sat in his Mercury capsule for hours waiting for launch, after delay after technical delay. * The flight time to Equestria's Moon is somewhat abbreviated compared to an actual lunar flight, but that was because I didn't want to force Celestia and Luna to remain awake (or trading off the spell baseline) for upwards of a week. * "Okay, but no funny business out there..."

Spacewalks in the Gemini space program were serious business, but also thrilling for the astronauts involved, which sometimes led to a bit of high spirits and clowning. Pinkie's just acting out what any self-respecting astronaut might like to do, if they knew they could get away with it...

Breathless

• "The radio fell silent, as they passed around the far side of the Moon."

Michael Collins, alone in Columbia during the lunar landing, reported being struck by the solitude of being out of radio contact, but was actually more concerned about the safe return of his fellow astronauts. * "Hey, look!" he called. "There's Equus!"

One of the two iconic moments here: the first sight of Earthrise over the Moon's surface, which was the origin of the "big blue marble" perspective of our planet. And indeed, taking that iconic photograph wasn't on the official schedule, but the astronauts did it anyway, to our eternal benefit. * "Something went clunk."

And here's the other iconic moment. Well, I couldn't get away without having some kind of Apollo 13-like near-disaster here. But the point wasn't just to put our heroes in peril, it was also to point out that risk (and tragedy) is part of the game, and we can't back away from it. We have to accept it, and push through it, since facing and surviving it helps define us as individuals, and it's part of what makes the journey worth taking.

As a side note, the cause of the Apollo 13 incident was a rupture of an oxygen tank during a routine "cryo-stir" operation on the outward leg of the flight. Since I wanted the Pegasus's emergency to take place in lunar orbit, I assumed for the sake of the story that the Equestrian ship's design requires a transfer of power from CM to LEM, e.g. to "wake up" onboard systems and get the craft ready for separation. This doesn't reflect the actual engineering of the Apollo spacecraft, it's a fictional conceit.

The Mare on the Moon

• "Thirty seconds, Dashie!"

This is pretty much a straight transcript of the Apollo 11 landing, with a few minor liberties to translate it to "pony-space". The thirty seconds reference is Buzz Aldrin letting Neil Armstrong know that they have thirty seconds of fuel left before the no-return point where they'll have to abort. * "That's... one small step... for a pony,"

Another endless controversy: whether the "a" was simply lost in transmission. Not taking a side here, I simply allowed for that possibility for the sake of the narrative. * "Let me take a moment to describe this to ya..."

This is pretty much a straight retelling of the Neil Armstrong's description of the plaque on the Lunar Lander's descent stage. * "Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie..."

... and this is President Nixon's congratulatory call to the astronauts. Note that I'm saying nothing about Celestia's politics here, she's just the closest analogue to a President that Equestria has. * "We'll never be able to come back here again."

After 47 years, we still haven't gone back, and Rainbow is basically expressing the sadness of that fact, the sense that things this grand get done once, and never again. Hopefully we'll have the will and means (governmental or commercial) to correct that within our lifetimes.

The True Wonderbirds Amongst Us

• "When they removed their helmets, Rainbow noticed an odd, gunpowdery odor in the air..."

This was something noticed by the astronauts who landed on the moon, and is an interesting case in point of something that wouldn't have been noticed by an automated lander not specifically designed to detect it. It might seem a small thing, but little observations like this, put together, are where big discoveries come from. * "Annnnd... GOODNIGHT, MOON!"

Yeah, that's a reference to the children's book. I needed something appropriately Rainbow Dash to say at this moment. * "What have you two been up to, all this time?"

Poor Rarity... roped into this entire spaceflight mainly so we could have this one gag. * "They waited tensely, squashed in their seats by the deceleration, as flames licked threateningly about the windows, and thunderous roaring and banging sounded all around them."

The tensest part of spaceflight is usually landing, because it's the one time you really have to trust that physics works. Remember the Space Shuttle? Which basically became an eighty-ton glider during re-entry and landing, so it had to get it right the first time? * "Once again, it was a flat, astral signature in the blue dome of the daytime sky, no more corporeal than a reflection in a bucket of water."

This is a reference to an old Zen koan, "No Moon, No Water". The reflection of the Moon in the water is a metaphor for the illusion of understanding that we normally walk around with. It's not until the bottom falls out of the bucket, and the illusion drops away, that we find ourselves lifting our eyes to the actual Moon itself, and really understand what it was we were missing all along. * "It wasn't quite like the Throne Room scene..."

I was specifically thinking of the scene at the end of Star Wars: A New Hope, but any space mission ought to have an appropriately regal ceremony like this to conclude it. * "the Wonderbirds 50th Anniversary Movie Marathon was being given one final and private showing."

It's not quite a proper Mystery Science Theater 3000 reference, but it's close. * "... having that merciless yardstick, to eternally measure one's dreams by."

We all have to live with the fact that a journey to the Moon isn't just an aspiration, it's an historical fact... and hope that it won't remain solely in the history books forever!

And that's it. Thanks for reading, everypony! For now... this is Commander Rainbow Dash... blasting off...