What a marvel of engineering this vehicle is, ready to be filled with 4,000 tons of fuel and to fire it's 10 engines to blast off into orbit. The life support systems and navigation systems that hundreds of smart ponies worked on. They all worked together to construct this beautiful rocket. If all goes to plan, this whole space program will finally be announced to the public, it will be in every newspaper. A picture of these three tall cylinders taped together will be on the front and everypony will hear of it. And I have the task of piloting it into it's first launch, I also have the grueling task of coming up with a name for the rocket.
I look out the large window by the large hallway that many important ponies walked by to enter the secret launch control room. I stare at the rocket. This thing can kill me, if the launch doesn't go to plan, I can become toast. I can't think like that, this mission is going to be successful, and if it isn't. Well, this is bigger than me, if this rocket doesn't work, then they'll design and build a new one. Anyways, this is bigger than me, one life. Who will miss me?
"Hey Twilight, have you come up with a name yet? The launch should be in two days" asked an excited Princess Celestia
"I haven't". It's a tradition that the first pilot to ride the rocket names it, and this is the biggest rocket yet, and the first time we're going to attempt a flyby of the moon, and once the moon lander is done, that will be sent on this very rocket. Well technically, it won't. This rocket is going to crash into the ocean, most of it. Rocket reusability is hard, and if we want to continue the pace we are don't have enough time to even consider it. The design however, all the blueprints will be used to build multiple of these rockets to send ponies to the moon, to explore and find her.
"Twilight, you're overthinking it, any name you come up with will be a great name, and it will be the name that many repeat in the future, with awe and inspiration. No pressure!" Celestia said with a wink as she walked off
So much for no pressure.
I head out of the building and climb into my autocarriage. The autocarriage is a fairly new invention, it's like a normal carriage but it does not require a horse to pull it, instead an engine pushes the carriage wherever I please. I modified mines to be faster than everypony elses. One day we will have flying automobiles I bet, and then even the pegasus will be traveling by automobile. But for now, it's a luxury for the ponies that make good money, so they get to places faster.
Celestia is lowering the sun, and then she raises the shattered moon. The moon that 3 years ago, mysteriously rose from the sky split in two. That was when Celestia started the space program, to understand. There has been many theories, some think Nightmare Moon is going to attack, the moon is cursed, or that this is all a hoax and the moon isn't real. The silly ones are fun to hear sometimes.
It's a beautiful night out, I'm in no hurry to get home. I climb out of my autocarriage and lay on the grass next to the parking lot. I look up at the stars. Maybe I should call the rocket shooting star? No that's to generic. I look at the shattered moon. That rock is bigger that the whole continent of equestria, and yet something was able to split it into two. What dangers hide out there in space? Is equestria in danger of the same fate? I stand up and extend my wings. I'm going to fly home to my library in canterlot tonight.
High in the sky, in the puffy clouds I can barely see because it's dark. The view above is much more interesting. Maybe I should call the rocket Skysoarer? No, that's a downgrade from a moonrocket. Should I just call it moonrocket? That's a really simple name even kids won't forget that. I don't like it
I'm overthinking this name, what else is there to think about? The future? I think about that too much. How about the past?
It was early in the morning, the sun wasn't even up yet, but the pony that controls the sun was. My teacher and the pony think the world of, my role model, etc, was in my room and she wanted to show me something.
"Come on Twilight! Wake up I need to show you something!" She screamed
"Celestia?" I asked really confused but also with a yawn
"Come quick, we don't have much time" said the ruler of equestria
I followed her out of my dorm room and into the hallway. I followed her to her personal autocarriage.
"Where are we going Celestia?"
"I'm bringing you to see a highly secret project. We've been working on it for two years now. You'll see once we arrive my faithful student"
"That's when the moon broke" I almost whispered to myself. Celestia glanced at me for a moment
I stayed silent after that, I thought I was dreaming. It was pretty odd that Celestia showed up at my room so early and now she wants to show me a secret project? What is going on?
It seemed like we were out in the middle on nowhere, I couldn't see a single building or pony around. What could possibly be this important and why would Celestia choose me to show her secret project to? What if there isn't a secret project? Is she going to leave me in the middle on nowhere? Did she regret letting me into the school even though I failed my entrance exam? I'm not the best at magic but certainly I'm not bad enough for her to want to dispose of me, that would be silly anyways. She could just kick me out of the school. No need for an elaborate scheme to rid of me.
I wake up to a bright light, I must have fallen asleep. We are now in a city? I've never seen this place before. There's a big fence surrounding all the buildings, the front gate opens and we drive through.
"Where are we?"
"My student, don't question, just watch"
I follow her to a tall grey bulding. We enter a small room and the door close. There's an odd feeling that the room is moving.
"Why is the room moving? What is going on?"
Celestia giggled, "This is an elevator. It's like stairs, but faster and better"
The doors open again, and now we are in a different room. It's dark in the room, I could only make out boxy silhouettes around the room. in the middle of the room is a door to a balcony. Celestia walks towards the balcony.
"Come Twilight, quick, you don't want to miss this"
I arrive and look out the balcony, I see what looks like huge train tracks and a weird figure on a pad on the train tracks. It's moving slowly. The figure seems like two cylinders stacked on each other, with the bottom one being twice and wide as the upper one. On the top of the cylinder is a cone with a window on it? On top of it all is what looks like a water tower?
"Twilight, you are very smart, we could use your intellect here. What we're doing here is very hard, we can use every scientist, engineer, pilot we can get. Right now we need a pilot willing to climb on top of that space rocket, and blast off into orbit around our planet"
I've been a pilot for 2 months now, and have also been an alicorn for 2 months. I haven't ridden on a rocket yet, only 13 ponies have. 11 ponies have made it to orbit and back safely. The statistics could be worse, and it's not a bad way to die. You already gave your life for the name of science and exploration, dying is just a part of it. I'm not sure if I would even die now that I am an alicorn. No alicorn has taken an explosion to the face. Maybe I will tomorrow.
I still haven't come up with a name, I'm gonna be seeing Celestia today, I have to have a name for her. How could I fail at something so simple like a name. This is like that magic exam all over again.
I hate magic, it's totally unpredictable. Science however, always follows the rules. If something acts unexpectedly, it's because there's a rule I don't know yet. With magic, no one knows why things happen, and we can't really study it, because it doesn't always react the same way. It's night out still, I don't sleep much because there's no time to rest.
I look up at the sky, and at the moon. I know what I will call the rocket. Moongaze
It's launch day, Moongaze is ready for launch and the weather couldn't be better. This is a historical day for science, but it will not be celebrated by anymore ponies that ones in the mission control room. You can't tell everypony about a dangerous and experimental launch of a new space vehicle, if the public witnessed an accident the reaction would not be pretty. However, if this launch is a success, moongaze will be public, and all of equestria will know that ponies will visit the stars.
I arrive to the launch pad by helicopter, it's on an island very far out. I have my pressure suit on and I'm ready to climb into Moongaze's space capsule at the very top of the rocket. I'm about to ride these flaming tubes to orbit and around the globe. Moongaze is very tall, it has to be because it takes a lot of energy to get enough payload into orbit to make it to the moon. Moongaze first stage consists of 8 heavy F8 engines and also two heavy solid fuel rocket boosters. 10 engines total firing at once. The second stage only consists of 4 smaller J4 engines. The same engines will be used to speed up to an encounter of the moon outside of equestria's orbit.
Back when I was an engineer, I pitched many ideas for moon rockets. They didn't look like moongaze, most of then infact were spaceplane designs or designs that would allow the first stage to be reusable. No solid fuel rocket boosters or pointy capsules. I can't help but imagining futures where you could fly multiple missions in a week with reusable rocket. That would be beautiful.
The inside of Moongaze is quite roomy, it has room for 8 ponies, which is how much we plan to land on the surface of the moon, along with plenty of cargo for stuff we might need, which we will worry about once the moonlander is finished. I'm in the space capsule which will never touch the moon, it will stay in orbit ready for us to rendezvous and return back to equestria for a water landing.
2 minutes to launch. Huh, maybe I left the stove on back home? I hope the food is good, I'll be in space for a full day. I'm gonna have to eat the weird space food. I tried some of it and their not too bad, but I think I'll get tired of it, especially on longer voyages.
T-minus 30 seconds. I'm ready as I'll ever be, ready for these engines to start and lift me up
Ignition sequence start. Will I lift off? If I die will it be a quick death?
LIFTOFF!! RIght away, I feel the g forces as I accelerate off the ground. The rocket is loud, very loud. The noise is mesmerizing. All is going well, out the window I see the ground go further and further. Everything is running well and it seems this will be a success after all
If something goes wrong during ascent, The emergency abort engine in the capsule will light and bring me as far away from the boosters as fast as possible. The liquid fuel engines in the center core can be shut off remotely, but the solid rocket boosters however, can't shut off and don't care if it's still apart of the rocket they will fire and fire until there is no fuel.
The first stage has been firing for 80 seconds and is almost ready to ditch the solid fuel rocket boosters. All system are running well and out the window I can see all of equestria. We are in space now, but there's still a lot of work left to get into orbit. I'm waiting for the solid fuel boosters to finally be jettisoned
Suddenly the rocket is steering offcourse, we are tilting to the right, something is going wrong. all of a sudden all the of the my controls are reading lower pressures and then I hear an explosion. I have to remain calm, there's nothing I can do. I look out the window down at the boosters, and I hear the explosive bolts that separate the boosters fire, but the boosters is still attached. We are not making it to orbit today, now the rocket is sideways and I'm pushed to the side. I need to abort, why isn't the emergency abort triggering?
I wake up, I feel a lot of pain in my hips and my head. I'm still in the capsule, but I don't feel any acceleration. I survived. I need to see where I landed. I open the hatch and see a bunch of trees. Apple trees?
I really hope I'm still in Equestria, for all I know I could be on the other side of planet. Wait a minute, Equestria doesn't have anything on the side of the planet. We checked with those suborbital reconnaissance missions. Well, atleast I won't starve, plenty of apples here to eat, and... well it's all apples. I don't see any tree without apples in it around here, this is weird. Did I land in a farm? I climb out of the capsule, "OOWWW!!". The capsules hot to the touch and I feel like I have some brocken bones. Is this how I die? A slow death surrounded by apple trees? Of all things.
It's a hot day, and it doesn't help that I'm next to a burning hot capsule that saved my life. I need to get under a tree for shade. I can barely move. I push forward a couple meters and look back at the capsule. It looks rough, that landing must have been strong. What's that next to it? It's getting closer, A mare? She's orange, and.... and...
"Are you an alien?" asked a small yellow pony with a red mane, turning her head in curiosity. "Apple Bloom! That's kinda rude ain't it!?!?" screamed an orange pony, she's older that the yellow pony and has a yellow mane. They must be related. "Sorry about that. Are you okay? You passed out after you climbed out you're, uhhhh, Carriage thingy" She asked. "I'm ok" I said.
"You sure? Do you feel any pain?"
"I'm fine, I need to get back to." I can't tell her about the rocket, it's top secret!
"I need to get back to my home"
"Not like this you don't. I can't let you leave my barn here when you can't even walk" She said raising her eyebrow.
"I can walk mister lady sir, I don't need you're help" What did I just say?
"What did you just call me"
I stand up and slowly limp towards the barn doors. I need to find my way home, a helicopter is gonna come any moment and pick me up any moment now, I know it.
"What is she doing? We're trying to help her" Applebloom asked.
"Some ponies just don't listen I reckin, she must've hit her head really hard"
I'm gonna make it, everything hurts, but it won't matter once I'm in a hospital back at the camp, they'll have me back on a rocket in no time. So close, it smells like poop here, fresh air atlast. I fall to the floor, I can't do it.
"Mis mam sir" She reached out her hoof
"let us help you"
We're inside her house now, Drinking tea. Apple tea, go figure.
"What is you're name anyways?" I asked
"My name is Applejack, and this here is Applebloom, my sister!" Applejack said with a big smile
"Oh, well, thanks Applejack and Applebloom for, helping me"
"Don't mention it. Say, What even is that thing you were in, I've never seen anything like it. Is it a pegasus autocarriage by any chance" Asked applejack. Both Applejack and Applebloom staring at me wide eyed.
"That, is a...." Have they noticed I'm an alicorn yet? I can't tell them it's a top secret space vehicle now can I?
"Can you gals keep a secret?"
"My mouth is shut!" Said Applebloom
"Mine's is too" Said Applejack
I'm silent for a moment. How do I even word it? I could just lie and say its an experimental pegasus autocarriage that I crashed. I don't like to lie.
"That was a capsule, for a rocket"
"A what?" asked Applebloom
"A rocket, it goes to space. I was on a mission, A secret mission. It's important you all don't tell anypony ok. Celestia would kill me" I said
"Space!! I told you she's an alien Sister!" said Applebloom
"Applebloom! Aliens come from other planets, this pony here ain't no alien. Say, Princess Celestia? I knew she was up to something, I keep seeing these streaks of smoke up in the sky, it ain't normal. She don't tell us nothing" Said Applejack
"Trust me, she wants to tell everypony, but, It could jeopardies the whole program. Nopony wants to hear of a rocket crashing and exploding. It's really hard stuff, everything has to go perfect, or we crash and sompony could die. Someponys have died. We need to make some sense out of the moon tearing in half. We have to go there and possibly save equestria from what danger split the moon in two" I said, Applejack and Applebloom both at a loss of words
"Ok, so Celestia is sending ponies to space, and keeping it all a secret. You almost died because of it. There's gotta be another way" said applejack
"What is you're name by the way, forgive me for not asking sooner"
"My name is Twilight Sparkle"
"Twilight Sparkle, that's a nice name. Twilight, you can live here in my house until you recover and even after that, but it's up to you wither you want to go back to the rocket place. I don't think it would be good for you to go back there, they almost killed you, you're life is more important than anything else, more important than the moon"
"Thank you, really I mean it. Thank you so much for your hospitality" I yawn
"You must be so tired you poor thing, make yourself at home, you can sleep in Applebloom's room" Applejack said
"Huh?" Applebloom asked
