For the Benefit of Yaks

Chapters

If There is Nothing New Under the Sun…
You Will Not Go to Space Today
Ԁ∩ ᗡNƎ SIH⊥
Per Aspera
Ad Astra

If There is Nothing New Under the Sun…

“… and now it’s kind of like a race between Equestria and the eastern minotaurs to get a pony stuck in space so we can find out if there’s anything new over the sun. Isn’t it great?” Pinkie Pie beamed.

Rutherford gave her an unimpressed look from across the hut. “Hmm… Yaks not sure what ponies think so great about ‘space’ thing. Ponies and minotaurs not climb every mountain yet like yaks; why ground and sky not big enough?”

Pinkie tapped her forehooves together. “Well… Twilight says it’s because space has special properties that we can’t find anywhere else and that it would ‘further our understanding of the cosmos’ to go to space and then the moon to see what they’re like; Dashie says it’s just more adventure-y when you go somewhere that nobody else has been.” She glanced around the room, leaned in, and spoke in a softer voice. “But I happen to know that she also wants to find out whether Luna was literally banished to the moon and lived there for a thousand years.

“As for the minotaurs…” Pinkie shrugged, “Twilight says it’s really political but they basically want everybody to see that they’re big and strong like Equestria after they joined together into the Union of Minotaur Maze Republics.”

“I still have question about pony idea to go to space. Yaks know pegasus and dragons not able to fly to top of big mountains. How ponies think they get to space?”

“Twilight says we need a special vehicle for that, because going to space isn’t just as simple as going up anyway. We have to go sideways a lot, too.”

“That not make sense. Space not sideways. Sideways just mountains.”

“That’s why you go up first, silly. Up a lot, past the mountains, then sideways, and bam” – Pinkie punched one forehoof into another – “you’re stuck in space. That’s what Twilight thinks will happen, at least.”

Rutherford snorted. “Ponies silly. What about ‘gravity’? It what make yaks heavy. How pony not just fall back down?”

“Twilight says we need to get into ‘orbit’, and she used a lot of really big words to describe it but I figured out that it just means you got up and went sideways so much that you keep missing the ground forever.”

“That not sound hard…” Rutherford touched a hoof to his chin thoughtfully for a moment. “Yaks can do that. Maybe without vehicle at all.”

“Well Twilight said going to space is like a really tall mountain where the air gets really cold and hard to breathe at the top—”

“Hah!” Rutherford boomed. “Yaks strong. Yaks climb all mountains. Maybe ponies need yaks to go to space for them if ponies have trouble breathing. Yaks very warm, too. Yaks not have these problems.”

“You do have a point,” Pinkie replied. “But I still think you have to bring some air with you.”

“This matter settled,” Rutherford said as he stood up. “Yaks not let silly ponies and minotaurs leave them behind on ground. Tell ponies that yaks go to space! Yaks also figure out how to go to moon. Yaks tell everyone what it like after.”

Rutherford fixed his gaze on Pinkie. “Pink Pony, as Honorary Yak, you also invited to watch yaks go to space.”

Yaks Declare Intent To Land on the Moon

Eyewitness reports say yaks are raining down from the mountains in failed attempts to throw each other into orbit. (more on p.9)

Both Equestria and the UMMR had been surprised at the yaks’ announcement that they would run their own space program, a reaction that, in Twilight’s case, had quickly been replaced with a mixture of horror and concern as the implications sunk in. She agreed that Pinkie might as well serve as a ‘liaison’, which Pinkie inferred meant that Twilight was encouraging her to spend time with the yaks in the hopes that some measure of safety might rub off on them. Pinkie figured Twilight also secretly wanted to learn from the yaks’ attempts even though she outwardly denied that it could even be a possibility when Pinkie told her that yaks would be happy to help and that secrecy wasn’t necessary.

About a week after her first conversation with Prince Rutherford, Pinkie Pie found herself back in Yakyakistan. The yaks had promised a launch attempt later that evening using new technology.

The first things to stand out when she stepped through the gate to Rutherford’s village were the buildings. They didn’t resemble huts so much as large cabins now. There were also quite a few more yaks roaming around, some of which hauled large quantities of stone and other building materials. One of the yak guards at the gate had been assigned to lead her to Rutherford’s building.

After she and Rutherford had caught up on how each other had been, Rutherford brought up more recent events. “I have subscription to newspaper from Crystal Empire. Yaks know that ponies making fun of us even though yaks know kicking and throwing not work. Yaks try that for learning.”

Pinkie gave a chuckle and waved a hoof dismissively. “Oh, yeah. Those silly press ponies make up their mind before they know everything sometimes. They’ll change their tune when you get to space.”

“Newspaper not have tune.”

“It’s an expression. Just don’t worry about them.”

Rutherford nodded. “Yaks still work on organizing themselves. Yaks not have big goal that yaks not able to smash like this before. Many yaks not used to change. Some yaks unhappy, say that I break with old ways.”

Rutherford puffed up his chest. “That not important though. Already, smart-yaks have thought of new way to go to space. It even involve some stomping. Yaks try it in couple of hours, when sun not so bright. Pink Pony come. I have one of smart-yaks agree to tell Pink Pony how it work. After, Yaks have celebration snacks.”

Pinkie giggled. “Okie dokie lokie!” With that, she hopped after Rutherford.

Pinkie Pie found herself looking at blueprints for what she thought might have passed for a massive party cannon, save a few important modifications. In the back of her mind, she discounted the notion that yaks knew what ‘safety’ really was as she inspected the flames drawn at the bottom.

“Yaks learn that yaks can store energy of fire in liquid like this. When liquid release energy, it become like air with power of many dragons. Yaks launch at angle to go sideways and up at same time. Yaks also aim away from mountains.” The engineer pointed at something in the middle of the structure. “Yak inside capsule here will go very fast when yaks remove pins. Pins keep liquid from releasing energy so yak only go to space when all yaks ready.”

“So what’s that, exactly?” Pinkie asked, pointing to a circle drawn within the capsule. There were several adjacent numbers that seemed to describe it.

“That space-yak. We use sphere in calculations to make math easier.”

Pinkie nodded. “Okay. That makes sense.”

The engineer continued. “If anything break, ponies not tough like yaks. Yaks ask Pink Pony to watch from building with other officers. Command building have great view.”

In person, the launch structure really did look kind of like her party cannon. It was long, angled sideways, and probably built to withstand one heck of an explosion on the inside. On the outside, yaks were stomping on a half-dozen bellows. The yaks seemed quite happy with their work.

As for the “strong building”, she had been directed to a small bunker that appeared to be made out of concrete a few hundred meters away from the launch structure. It seemed pretty far away, but she figured the yaks knew what they were doing and put it there on purpose. She did have a good view of the launch structure, though, through the open window. Rutherford and a few other yaks were already there when she arrived, and one of the yak officers told her that if anything unexpected happened, everyone was supposed to duck.

“Yaks started fire earlier. I hear liquid absorb almost all fire energy it can now.” Rutherford said, and straightened his stance and held a hoof out to the side. One of the officers passed him a can attached to a string. Rutherford held it to his mouth. “YAKS AT READY!”

Pinkie Pie realized that several of the yaks nearby had similar communication devices.

“Space-yak report ready,” replied one officer.

“Pin-yaks report ready to pull out pins,” another one said.

“Good,” Rutherford boomed back. He offered the can to Pinkie and smiled. “Pink Pony get honor of countdown.”

“Eeeeee awesome! I love counting down for important things!”

Pinkie cleared her throat, and in her yak-iest voice, began. “Ten— no, too long. THREE…

“TWO…”

All the yaks present visibly tensed.

“ONE...”

The excitement and pressure of the moment threatened to put her in overdrive, but if she called out early, the yaks might get confused. They did like music, after all, and they certainly knew what a rhythm was.

But Celestia’s Frown it felt like forever.

“LAUNCH!”

“Pin yaks report all pins pulled!”

Pinkie watched the launch structure intently. For the next moment, nothing seemed to happen. The yak engineer said it’d be like that, though, unless something broke. They had a pool of superheated water, so when the capsule started moving from the pressure, there would be more room for it to turn into steam which would make more pressure; so, as Pinkie understood it, the water was basically exploding and it wouldn’t sound like much until the capsule reached the end of the barrel. If it was anything like her party cannon, it would be loud.

That thought did not prepare her for what happened next. The space capsule came out fast enough that she could have missed it if she’d blinked. Large white clouds trailed it for quite a distance, with more and more angrily billowing out of the launch structure every moment.

Then came the ‘boom’. Pinkie found it unbelievably loud… and surprisingly hot. She thought it might be what a dragon’s roar sounded like if you took the whole roar and crammed it into one instant. No, more like several dragons’ roars. As soon as it came, it subsided into a low rumbling that only lasted for a couple of seconds. The wave of heat subsided about as quickly, but everything started to feel unusually humid.

“Space-yak going up,” called one officer.

“Space-yak going sideways very fast,” called another.

“Ooohh so exciting!” Pinkie Pie pulled out a pair of binoculars and focused in on the speck they were all watching. After what felt like mere seconds, but the rational sliver of her mind suggested was probably actually a couple of minutes after launch, she couldn’t make out the speck anymore.

“So how do we know if the space-yak made it to space?” she asked.

“That easy,” Rutherford replied. “Space-yak come back if not stuck in space. If space-yak not come back, space-yak in space. Pink Pony come: yaks have celebration snacks while yaks wait!”

The space-yak watched as the ground rushed closer through the peephole window in the side of her capsule. The launch had taken place just a few minutes prior. By the way things looked – namely, that ground rushing up already – she hadn’t come nearly as close to reaching space as anyyak had hoped.

The capsule met the ground about as peacefully as could be expected for a massive projectile travelling at terminal velocity. That is to say, bits of ground went flying violently in every direction while the capsule did its best not to crumple in on its passenger, made complete with a low-key, bone-jarring boom.

On inspection, the latch for the capsule hatch had clearly bent beyond use. The space-yak shrugged it off, turned around, and kicked at it, blowing the whole hatch and some of the surrounding metal off with her first strike.

She stepped through her improvised open-hatch into the fresh crater. Beyond the radius of said crater where the soil had been piled up, the space-yak noticed a bunch of little green shreds scattered around. Some of them were still falling from the air. She glanced around to see if she could still make out the mountains of Yakyakistan. Instead, she saw long rows of green plants stretching out for some distance and a little tan pony staring at her in horror.

“My cabbages!”

You Will Not Go to Space Today

Newspapers in Equestria leapt on the opportunity to start a controversy over whether the Yaks would win the space race. Few ponies could believe that the yaks had already made such significant progress and fewer ponies still took those that did seriously. Twilight, for her part, just did her best to bury her resentment that the yaks were getting so much attention with their rushed, haphazard attempt to go to space for the purpose of protecting their ego. The race between Equestria and the UMMR was totally different and the yaks had no part in it.

A week after the launch, while slurping down a local griffon shop’s soup of the day, Twilight spat “Space-smashed Cabbage!” across the table when Pinkie told her that the yaks had developed a “fire-stomping powder” that they were going to use next.

Word got out that the UMMR had conducted a test only days after the yaks, probably to keep from appearing too far behind. It would have worked out better for them if the rocket hadn’t exploded on the launchpad. There hadn’t been any injuries, given that the rocket was small and unmanned, save the UMMR’s reputation.

Equestria’s own plans had advanced more steadily, with dedicated facilities for research, development, and launches well under way at Horseshoe Bay. Twilight did respond to the other nations’ activities by announcing that while the Equestria’s space program might not be as exciting yet, the Equestrian Space Administration had plans for a more efficient, easily reusable spacecraft that would give them much more freedom to reach the moon in the long run.

It had been only a month since she had last visited, and Yakyakistan continued to surprise Pinkie with its rapid development. The yaks themselves behaved about the same, but Rutherford showed her several new buildings set far enough to be out of sight of Rutherford’s village. They were clearly built to be much sturdier than the cabins and huts that made up the village.

“That place where smart-yaks experiment to make new things like firestomping powder and yak-metal,” Rutherford told her. “Ponies probably not survive in that building. Lots of stomping and explosions.”

As if to prove his point, one of the research building’s sides chose that moment to have a hole blasted in it; several smoking yaks flew out with the rest of the debris.

Unperturbed, Rutherford nodded to a different building. “Other one there place where yaks make parts for rocket. First, yaks take best ore yaks mine from mountains. Then yaks smash ore. Yaks melt ore that survives into metal. Then yak enchanters give yak-magic to metal. This makes metal strong like yak. Smart-yaks still making yak-metal better. Big building there where we take best yak-metal parts to make rocket.”

Pinkie Pie glanced back to see the smart-yaks brushing themselves off and heading back into the research building, then bounced along with him as they made their way towards Mission Control for that day’s launch. Rutherford told her about their work with firestomping powder and how their first attempt exploded on the launchpad.

“Not yak plan for rocket to explode like that. Yaks find rocket bits in nearby valleys. That when I decide we need smart-yaks work on yak-metal too.”

“You know the ponies launched a ‘spaceplane’ last week, and that didn’t work out so well either,” Pinkie said.

Rutherford glanced at her and raised an eyebrow.

“The air got too thin before the spaceplane got fast enough so it stalled out and had to land again. Twilight says it was still a good learning experience. So, maybe you could try…” Pinkie paused a moment. “... smaller explosions? But, like, more of them!”

Rutherford snorted. “That nonsense to yak ears. Still, I know better. I already tell yaks to consider new explosions if new metal not work.”

Pinkie cocked her head a bit as she bounced alongside Rutherford. “Huh. I didn’t really expect to hear you say that. ‘Cause, you know—”

“Ponies only think yaks SMASH.” Rutherford nodded, then sighed. “Also some yaks not happy with how I run things now. Some yaks say I go soft and not good leader. That okay with me. Most yaks understand like I that old ways not always solve new problems no matter how important we think old ways are. I take old ways forwards with yaks, not live in old ways only.”

“Well I think you’re doing a great job being a leader and a yak.”

As they left the Research and Development complex behind, Rutherford started to tell her about a griffon that tried to sell them “Space-smashed Cabbage!” and how the yaks who tried it could tell it wasn’t smashed from orbit like he had claimed.

Once they had arrived at Mission Control, Rutherford had shown Pinkie around and introduced her to the rest of the team. She noted a lot of similarities between the yaks’ team and the roles within Equestria’s own unfurling space program, though she doubted that Twilight would assign anypony as “Chief Snacks Officer”. It sounded like a good idea to have one, though, so Pinkie decided she’d take on the role when she got back to Equestria.

Rutherford made a point of showing her their improvements to the intercommunication system. Instead of simply using stringed cans, the strings had a special metal in them and Rutherford explained how the cans took words and used special metals and crystals to turn it into a magic pulse that traveled through the special metal strings, and also how it could receive a pulse and turn it back into words.

Rutherford had clearly been excited about how it worked, but Pinkie only understood enough to know that it worked like a can on a string still, only it worked faster and farther.

As the set time for their launch approached, Pinkie pulled out a pair of binoculars to watch the rocket with, against the advice of several nearby yaks. The rocket sat so far away, though, she didn’t see how anypony could tell what was going on otherwise. From where she stood, a rocket that Rutherford had told her was almost as tall as Twilight’s castle looked like it couldn’t have been larger than the tip of an arrow.

“This Chief speaking,” Rutherford said into his can. “All yaks report status.”

Pinkie listened as, one by one, the yak officers reported in ready, from ordnance to snacks, and the space-yak herself.

“Is that the same space-yak?” Pinkie quietly asked.

“Is same yak this time. Not always need to be,” Rutherford replied, holding his can to the side. “Yakyakistan have many yaks train as space-yaks. Most female, because they just as strong and smaller. Smart-yaks say that make rocket go higher.”

Then Rutherford turned back to his can. “All yak ready. Begin countdown.”

Pinkie put up her binoculars. Over the can, she heard the countdown, which started a little higher than she would have liked. “Five” Would have been alright, but “Ten” was agony. She started at the rocket and wondered how something so still and inanimate could perform such an exciting feat as leaving their atmosphere.

“… three… two… one…”

Pinkie Pie’s whole world turned white and she dropped her binoculars as the light stabbed at her eyes.

“Yak rocket have ignition!”

As the yaks around her cheered and stomped their hooves, Pinkie frantically rubbed her eyes and tried to fix them back on the launch. An unreasonably massive fireball had taken the rocket’s place and a fiery smoke trailed the rocket itself, which appeared to be leaving as quickly as a Rainbow Dash confronted with the possibility of filling out weather paperwork all day.

Pinkie didn’t see a sonic rain— flameboom, and the ground explosion didn’t fit the bill; she had thought it happened if you went fast enough, but now she wondered if it was just a pegasus thing.

Then Pinkie caught movement near the ground. The cloud left by the explosion hadn’t expanded too far, but there was a curious wave of dust particles jumping off the ground headed out from the explosion in every direction she could see.

“That doesn’t look too good.”

“Pink Pony no worry. Building strong. That just sound.” Rutherford assured her. “Pink Pony best plug ears. Sound be here soon.” He offered her a set of earplugs and then put in his own pair.

The loudest earthquake Pinkie had ever been in started a brief moment later. She figured any dragon would have been embarrassed to follow that roar, and that comparing the rocket explosions to dragon roars wouldn’t hold up anymore if the yaks kept using bigger explosions.

After it had subsided, mostly, Rutherford started asking various questions of the Mission Control team. He told Pinkie that the rocket had another stage, and it should explode soon, pushing the rocket even more. Sure enough, there was a little pop of color in the distance a moment later, and the officers in the control room cheered. After that, the yaks determined that the rocket was unharmed and on track. Much more than that, they couldn’t say until they retrieved the rocket and its own collection of information.

“Smart-yaks also working on way to talk to space-yak after launch. They say it difficult and yaks might need cooperation of other nations for it to work when rocket in space for long.” Rutherford relaxed his shoulders visibly. “Anyway, yaks on ground not able to do anything more now. We watch rocket fly and wait for it to land.

“Also look like yaks need new place to launch,” he said, after a glance out of the window. “Big cracks in ground and avalanches in distance.”

He shrugged it off and gestured towards the door. “Pink Pony join us for snacks again?”

Pinkie, a little shocked by the last several minutes of commotion, finally reverted to her chipper demeanor. “Oh, absolutely!”

Ԁ∩ ᗡNƎ SIH⊥

Underdogs Rising: Yaks Reach Space First

Experts at the Horseshoe Bay Tracking Center confirmed today that a yak rocket launched yesterday morning did, in fact, reach an altitude of about 120,000 meters, well above the boundary between Gaia’s atmosphere and space, estimated to be 100,000 meters. This just a week before EQSA’s spaceplane takes flight a second time, a flight that Twilight Sparkle promised will take a pony to space. (more on p.7)

Equestrians in Spaaace!

Equestria makes history by performing what Twilight Sparkle called, “Not quite an orbit.” Spitfire and Soarin’ became the first Wonderbolts not only to go to space, but also to circumnavigate the world in less than one day. Experts explain that the spaceplane made it across the boundary of space, but did not have enough thrust to achieve a proper orbit. After reentry, the spaceplane made its way from beyond western Equestria back to a safe landing at Horseshoe Bay. (more on p.4)

The Heat is On: UMMR Rocket Tests

Equestrian diplomats to the UMMR and several griffon information brokers confirm that the Labyrinthines launched three unmanned rockets last Monday. While one of those launches ended in a spectacular fireball, experts from Horseshoe Bay’s R&D division say, “The Labyrinthines’ liquid-fueled engines are otherwise dangerously well-developed.” If the Labyrnthines can work out a couple of kinks and assemble a larger rocket, Equestria might just see the UMMR steal its chance to achieve the first true orbit around Gaia. (more on p.2)

Hey, Pinkie, I’m super grateful we have you as EQSA’s Chief Snacks Officer. As you know, we were in that spaceplane for hours flying back and I’m so glad we had enough snacks for the whole trip. I especially liked the little wrapped pies.

Thanks a bunch,
—Soarin’

Three months had passed since the yaks’ notable firestomping powder rocket, which had landed in Griffon territory. Shortly thereafter, it became almost normal for the newspaper to contain updates about UMMR and Equestrian experiments and test launches. Tensions were as high as they’d ever been between Equestrian and the UMMR, to say nothing about the fact that the yaks were working on their own program and hadn’t told anybody what they were up to. Anybody other than Pinkie Pie, at least, whose explanations of what they were doing didn’t help, either, as any Equestrian could guess that the yaks’ plans included “bigger explosions”, “more explosions”, and “strong materials that break less with more exploding”.

In those three months, as Pinkie found out when she returned to Yakyakistan, the yaks had been quite busy. Their Research and Development complex had grown from a couple of buildings to a large campus. Signs posted around it stated “ONLY YAKS BEYOND THIS POINT”, a warning reinforced by the state of the campus already. Rutherford took her to a nearby cliff ledge where she could get a good look from father away.

Rutherford pointed out a cluster of buildings and told her the smart-yaks were synthesizing new propellants in that region. Clouds of smoke rose from those buildings, punctuated by the occasional bang of a small explosion. Rutherford pointed to a different cluster of buildings where they were testing new materials to use in their rockets. Those buildings also smoked and periodically exploded.

“Smart-yaks doing great job,” Rutherford concluded.

From her vantage point, Pinkie could make out that the yaks walking across the campus wore yellow and orange safety vests. She approved of the fact that the yaks had even tried that much to improve workplace safety, even if it was a little ineffective towards the real hazards of their workplace.

As they turned away to make their way back to the village, a brief flash of light from behind illuminated the ground ahead and a split-second later, Pinkie heard an especially large bang.

Pinkie hesitated. “Isn’t that, like, an emergency? Or… even a bit of a problem?”

Rutherford didn’t appear phased at all. “No problem. That just mean smart-yaks have good news for me later.”

After that, Pinkie Pie got to sit in on a meeting Rutherford had with several of his chief officers. She learned that the yaks had just recently attempted another launch, which she missed because she had been so busy managing the snack supplies for Horseshoe Bay. Pinkie apologised and promised that she would make it for the next one. Rutherford assured her that it wasn’t a big deal because, apparently, it had been a failure.

One yak reporting that, while there appeared to be no defects at fault, the explosives had simply blown apart the rocket casing. Even the launch silo they had built for it had cracked. “Yak-metal smart-yak team say with better gems, they make enchantment circles better for stronger yak-metal,” another yak officer reported. “We get them crystals from deep in mountains that good. Already have yak-magic in them, even. Smart-yaks say new metal batch look strongest.”

“That good,” Rutherford said. “What about new rocket design? Rocket use explosion power better like I say it need to?”

A new yak replied, “Rocket design smart-yaks think they have way to make explosions push rocket longer, yes. Also can hold bombs for explosions while flying. Work together with plate to make rocket go very far this time. Maybe to moon. Top of rocket have liquid for explosion that last long time. This make landing on moon easier. Smart-yaks also tell me they have new fuel concept. That what make big explosion earlier. Yaks not know details yet. Maybe new fuel available for next rocket.”

Rutherford nodded. “That leave one problem, then. New silo need built. I think silo need be built deep in mountain. That keep explosion in no matter how big explosion is.”

Pinkie tried to pay attention. The logistics of smashing a massive hole into a big mountain certainly sounded like an exciting topic, but after spending several cumulative weeks with the yaks in the last six months alone, Pinkie had already heard plenty of smashing-related conversations, and found it a little too easy to nod off.

Per Aspera

Dear Prince Rutherford,

I'm sorry I haven't visited in a while and I won't make it to Yakyakistan's next launch. You probably already heard that there was sort of a big accident during Equestria's last mission where one of the spaceplanes broke apart in flight. My friend Rainbow Dash was one of the pilots and while I'm super glad they are both okay, they did get really banged up.

Twilight thinks it happened because they used adapted and reinforced parts designed for airships instead of special parts made specifically for spaceplanes so they weren't reliable enough and there could have been a mistake in the process. She's worried that she won't be able to continue the space program because a lot of ponies think it'll cause more disasters.

So I really hope you have a super good time and everything goes great next week. I need to stay in Equestria and support my friends.

Have a blast!
—Pinkie Pie

Everybody heard about the disaster. Two more EQSA spaceplane launches. The first, reused and adapted from earlier tests, barely scraped its way into orbit. A couple of days later, the UMMR launched a manned mission to space, putting a Labyrinthine in orbit for several hours before a successful reentry. One week after the first spaceplane launch, Equestria rolled out a new spaceplane, built from scratch, with much more advanced engines.

Everypony in the nation, at this point, watched the space race closely. After the capabilities the minotaurs had demonstrated with their launch, the ponies of Equestria were on edge, but Equestria’s next launch was going to clearly mark their place as leader of the race. Everypony wanted to watch. Several major cities had set up projection crystal relays to display the occasion for the public in major parks and town squares.

Ponies the nation over cheered as the Philomena took off and cheered again when the engines switched from the low-altitude turbine engine to the pair of new magitech thrusters. Nopony would forget the moment when, seconds later, the force of the new engines tore off one of the craft’s wings at the base, sending the rest of the spaceplane into a devastating spin that further tore it apart.

In mere seconds, everypony watching had gone from ecstatic to praying that the Wonderbolts really could recover from the worst of spin-outs… if either of the pilots had even survived.

Yak Greetings to Pink Pony.

I very busy with last mission, so not reply to Pink Pony soon like good friend. Yaks have good launch. New self-stomping metal fuel work great. Biggest explosion I seen in life so far. Good that we launch from mountain silo. I wish you also there to see. After, crystal ponies complain about 'radiation' and dust clouds, but not as bad as they say.

Space-yak go to space like we want, but not land on moon. Smart-yaks know moon move, but not very good at making rocket aim for moon with curves that gravity makes. Space-yak miss moon instead. Space-yak come back at very steep angle and get very hot in rocket, but space-yak okay. Rocket not okay. Rocket was smashed to pieces.

I meet with smart-yaks after and we discuss ways to make calculations right. Very hard to make calculations right when you first yaks to go to space. Not have wisdom of ancestor yaks to help. Then Purple Pony leader come to Yakyakistan to ask for help. Purple Pony tell yaks that pony metal not good for spaceplane and ask for yak-metal. Purple Pony also offer help with space calculations.

I think of Pink Pony letter where Pink Pony tell me Pink Pony sad because friend hurt. I say friend of Pink Pony is friend of Yaks. Now friend of yaks hurt. I sure yaks able to make space calculations right without pony help. I agree to pony deal because it take less time and pony friends need yak help. Now we have smart ponies stay and help and send metal back for ponies to make spaceplane safe. I promise Pink Pony friend not get hurt again because weak metal.

Now problem solved. Yaks hope Pink Pony come back soon.

Yaks still go to moon first.

—Rutherford

Twilight had a hard time in her fight to keep the space program afloat, but securing support from the yaks had saved it from the worst of fates. The fact that they needed those same facilities to provide their own support to the yaks in return had helped. Under the supervision of one-too-many oversight committees, the Equestrian Space Program started to design its mission to the moon using the most advanced materials, thrusters, and procedures that were available. A sense of hushed excitement slowly crept back into the dampened mood of the nation.

So Far, Yet So Close

As Equestria doubles down on its commitment to land a pony on the moon, rumors that the UMMR has taken a loan from the Griffons to spare no expense for their own mission to the moon have started circulating. With the yaks’ last attempt demonstrating beyond a doubt that they have the power, this race to the moon may be too close to call until its final hours. (more on p.2)

Ad Astra

The news quieted down before too long. None of the nations performed any publicity stunts or launches. At best, word got out of an engine test here or the completion of some important part there; for the most part, though, everypony just waited to see who would finish first.

Opposition to Equestria’s continuation of their space program settled down after Rainbow Dash went on record (against the advice of Twilight) for obscenely calling out the protestors for putting their heads in the wrong places and that she wouldn’t hesitate to step up and be a pilot again.

Almost a month-and-a-half later, Pinkie Pie got a short letter from Rutherford, requesting her presence in Yakyakistan. She and her friends all knew what it meant: The yaks were actually going to launch first. A team of calculators had been assigned to help the yaks out, but beyond hypothetical scenarios and the specifications of the rocket, they weren’t any more privy to when the yaks were going to launch than anypony else. It hadn’t been too much of a surprise, though; they had to acknowledge that Yakyakistan had industrialized in an alarmingly short span of time.

When Pinkie arrived in Rutherford’s home village, she found herself in the middle of the largest yak celebration she’d seen. Hundreds of yaks wandered through the village and thousands more had set up camp around it. Everything had been decorated with a mix of Yakyakistan colors and space-themed everything. She could make out at least one source of music somewhere out of sight and the smell of warm yak-pastries filled the air.

On her way to Rutherford’s building, Pinkie Pie passed a field of yak children playing with stomp rockets; one yak strapped themselves to a rocket and their friends stomped on a pad as hard as they could to see how far they could launch the “space-yak”. It looked like a lot of fun, but she knew there would be an ample supply of excitement to come.

Rutherford was in the best mood Pinkie had ever seen him in. All of the yaks were, really.

“I solve tension with Grumpy yaks,” he explained. “Grumpy yaks that were upset yaks might forget old ways. I get best idea I had in while. I tell grumpy yaks that yaks have big festival on day of launch. I let grumpy yaks help all yaks celebrate old ways at same time we make new ways. There a lot of stomping. Yaks even make music that make yaks think of space. All yaks happiest I seen. Today very big for yak history.”

Pinkie ruffled the hair on his head. “See? I knew you were a good leader.”

Rutherford shook her off, but he couldn’t hide his smile. “Anyway, there still lot of work to do for launch. Yaks try to launch in couple hours when everything ready.”

This time, Pinkie found out, they would be watching from Rutherford’s village. Supposedly, the launch would be grand enough to see from several mountains away, but Pinkie really didn’t see how they could be so sure.

“Three!”

Thanks to their limited cooperation with Equestria, the yaks also had wireless communication crystals and loudspeakers.

“Two!”

Not that they needed those for a countdown. Pinkie Pie estimated that there were some ten thousand yaks counting in unison.

“One!”

Pinkie suddenly figured out why “several mountains away” was, arguably, still a little too close for comfort. What must have been the explosion from the yaks’ new fuel flashed brighter than the sun, casting the entire village in the eclipse-like shadow of the mountains.

This time, Pinkie expected the shockwave, though she hadn’t decided whether trading off the rush of adrenaline for several seconds of unconsciously tensing every muscle she could in preparation was worth it. In the meantime, the yak-rocket shot above the mountains, closely followed by plasma still dispersing from the explosion and at least a dozen house-sized boulders. Fortunately, the boulders’ arc stayed a lot lower than the rocket’s, and they disappeared from sight after a peek over the mountains.

Then there was another blinding flash, for which Pinkie was thankful for the sunglasses that had been so widely passed out during the festival. That would have been the rocket’s second detonation, of which there would be many more as it ascended. For the next dozen or so seconds, the yak-rocket periodically exploded, with its lower half bouncing up rapidly in response to each explosion before re-extending away, kind of like an exploding pogo stick.

Then the sound of the first explosion reached her. Even around the mountain, the sharp crack of it bespoke violence of a scale that Pinkie could scarcely imagine. It felt as though all of Gaia started to rumble in response. Pinkie was no stranger to excitement, but, as the sounds of the subsequent explosions caught up, she couldn’t deny that the idea of hiding in a dark corner somewhere tempted her. Every hair on her body started to stick up as she tried bottling up her feeling of unease.

On the other hoof, what the yaks had just accomplished was amazing and she wouldn’t miss it for the world even if she had known what to expect.

Eventually it subsided into a tolerable, dull roar. Pinkie Pie wondered how it could still shake the ground so much before she realized that thousands of yaks were still cheering and stomping.

Pinkie made her way inside Mission Control and sat down next to Rutherford while they all monitored the data coming in from their tracking stations. Once the yak-rocket had started drifting to its orbit altitude, Rutherford took a moment to warn her that going to the moon, as they’d found out from their last attempt and the pony calculators had confirmed, would take a while.

“A while” as in days.

Pinkie wasn’t sure what would get to her first: the excitement of making history lasting several days, or the tedium of taking so long to make history.

The crowd cheered and stomped again when the Mission Control announced that the yak-rocket had achieved a stable orbit and would soon be initiating its transfer to a lunar orbit.

Soon after, Mission Control announced that the transfer had been initiated and everything looked good.

The festival continued the entire time, which gave Pinkie something to distract herself with during the long spans of time between mission activity. Not that she could do much when something was happening. Most of that time passed in a blur, possibly induced by the quantity of yak sweets she consumed while partying.

That is, until one fateful moment. The space-yak landed on the moon, by then under the scrutiny of the UMMR and EQSA, without incident. The space-yak took some pictures, packed up a few moon rocks, verified that they did not, in fact, taste anything like cheese, stomped around a bit, and prepared to return to Gaia.

That’s when the yaks hit a snag.

The next words that Twilight would hear from Pinkie Pie were, “Horseshoe Bay, we’ve had just a teensy bit of a problem here.”

EQSA scrambled to finish its own preparations in time to mount a rescue mission. The space-yak had verified that too much fuel had been consumed during landing for the upper stages to return to Gaia. At best, she could make it back into a lunar orbit.

By Pinkie’s account, the situation was dire: There were only enough snacks left on board to last for 3 days.

Naturally, Twilight took this both less and more seriously than Pinkie, taking the stance that snacks weren’t that critical, but being stuck in space was no joke. Equestria’s spaceplane was currently the only other space-faring vehicle known to be complete, or at least nearly so.

The mood of Equestrians across the nation most closely resembled “collective eye-rolling” as word got out that the Equestria’s attempt to go to the moon would be replaced by a rescue mission for the yaks. Nonetheless, it would still be a matter of pride for the mission to go off without a hitch.

While their own planned launch had been just around the corner, they had to make modifications to the plan and spaceplane to make it possible to attach it to the yak’s capsule. Twilight also called for a real-time communication link to be set up between Horseshoe Bay and Yakyakistan, to facilitate the cooperation that would be necessary for a rendezvous.

One-and-a-half days after Yakyakistan had urgently contacted Equestria for assistance, the Chroma rolled out onto the runway, once again capturing the eyes of the nation.

The Chroma’s engines fired up in their low-altitude mode and the spaceplane raced across the runway, tearing through the air with a dreadful roar, and lifted off with ludicrous speed.

Crystal projectors across the nation soon switched to the views that nearby observational airships had to offer, as the Chroma drew closer and closer to the point of switching to its high-altitude mode. Everypony at Mission Control held their breath as the spacecraft approached supersonic speeds, the point at which the Philomena had broken up previously. The tension broke as the Chroma passed the threshold; ponies everywhere watched in amazement as the Chroma’s engines each caused their own sonic rainboom and started to leave a prismatic trail in their wake.

The Chroma switched engine modes after about another minute and the prismatic trails faded out as it approached the edge of space. Twilight explained to anypony who would listen that this had to do with the lack of an atmosphere for the pegasus magic used in the engines to refract through, though at that point only Mission Control had any visual on the spacecraft, and even that wouldn’t work after the spaceplane left orbit.

The Chroma achieved an orbital trajectory shortly thereafter. In order to reach – and then retrieve – the space-yak within the next thirty-six hours, it burned its engines far longer than the mission to the moon had originally called for; between limited mana reserves and the time crunch, there wouldn’t be any way to work in a moon landing.

On the other hoof, securly attaching the Chroma to the yak capsule required one of crew to perform the first orbital spacewalk.

Twilight ordered her team to take a break as the Chroma began its 16-hour drift to the moon. As restless as everyone involved was, pony or otherwise, there just wasn’t anything they could do but wait.

Rutherford had tried to hide any embarrassment from letting Pinkie persuade him into asking the ponies for help so quickly, but she could tell that it was there. Pinkie didn’t have much luck reassuring him that the stakes were high enough that not even a yak would think twice about it, at least, not until the Chroma had rendezvoused with the yak-rocket.

Pinkie Pie got to listen in on the conversation between Horseshoe Bay, Spitfire (who performed the spacewalk) and the space-yak, who would also be performing a spacewalk to assist. Everything had started off fine, but Spitfire reported difficulty in lining up the temporary struts, because they sometimes got a bit stuck on surfaces she had accidentally brushed them against. The space-yak had better luck holding the struts in place, to the extent that she didn’t have to hold them in place after setting them. Spitfire even reported that the struts appeared to be, to her bewilderment, firmly attached before she had even bolted them down.

Rutherford cheered up a bit when a pony admitted that yaks put things together hard enough that bolts became “a precautionary measure”.

Spitfire cut the struts off after the transfer, seeing as the Chroma couldn’t possibly reenter Gaia’s atmosphere while still attached to the yak-rocket capsule. The capsule still had plenty enough fuel to deorbit after the Chroma had performed the transfer and capture burns entirely. The space-yak offered fresh-baked cookies from her last batch of dough before the two spacecraft parted ways to land in their respective nations. As the Chroma waited to come around to perform its deorbit burn, Spitfire and Blaze teased Soarin' – the unfortunate soul who was CAPCOM at the time – by describing their warm fluffy texture with the perfect amount of vanilla extract as they ate.

Pinkie could feel Twilight’s disapproval all the way from Yakyakistan. On the other hoof, fresh-baked cookies were really tasty, so Pinkie thought cookie ovens should always be involved in long spaceflights.

By the end of the hour, both spacecraft and their crew had been safely recovered. Only the yaks had moon rocks, though, a fact which did not slip by Twilight. Considering access to the first moon rocks and the potential economical advantages to more fully integrating the yaks’ technologies – after refining them, of course – and resources, Twilight decided to trade in the favor Equestria had surely gained by rescuing their yak and still officially recognizing that yaks were the first to the moon. She formally proposed that the Yakyakistan and Equestrian space programs merge together.

Having explored space first, as he set out to do, Rutherford declared that Yakyakistan would be happy to work with its pony friends in the future.

Two weeks after Equestria successfully recovered the space-yak from lunar orbit, the Labyrinthines launched their mission to the moon. The UMMR’s Titan – which dwarfed any other spacecraft – took a crew of four Labyrinthines to the moon. Parting with their usual secrecy, the UMMR released recordings of the behemoth rocket’s launch and dozens of photos taken on the moon.

Featured among them in the released packet, a picture that showed one Labyrinthine standing beside a flag they had planted, with the Titan lander in the background. Along with this, the Labyrinthines included a statement for the other nations, informing them that the UMMR claimed the moon as its own territory.

Author's Note

Now with a "Story Notes" blog post.