//------------------------------// // Rocket // Story: We are the Silence // by Deltazero //------------------------------// Chapter 1: Rocket The weather in Ponyville today was simply marvelous today. The birds were singing, a calming breeze was blowing through, the sun was shining overhead, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. On any other day as beautiful as this, most ponies would be sitting outside at a café table, talking about the latest gossip, or playing some sort of outdoor sport. However, something else was catching the eyes of the citizens of Ponyville today. Twilight Sparkle, personal protegé of Princess Celestia, smartest and most talented unicorn in Ponyville (perhaps in all of Equestria), was happily trotting through Ponyville Square, headed towards her library home. But it wasn’t this cheery, young unicorn that everyone was staring at. It was the... thing... that was floating right behind her, being levitated by Twilight’s magic. Nopony had ever seen such a strange object before, and nopony could even begin to describe it. However, Twilight continued to go about her business, smiling happily as she walked down the streets of Ponyville, ignoring the curious stares of everypony around her. She finally reached the large, hollowed-out tree situated near the edge of town that was her home. Using her front hoof, Twilight pushed the front doors and trotted in. The first thing she saw as she entered was the main library room, filled with thousands of books placed amongst hundreds of shelves. In the middle of the room a certain, purple dragon was sweeping up some dust on the floor with a dustpan and broom. “Hey Twilight!” said Spike, as the purple unicorn entered their home. “I just finished cleaning the main room and it should be-” He stopped in mid-sentence, and the smiling face he was wearing just a second ago changed into one of confusion. “Um, Twilight...? Why is there a rocket engine outside our house?” Sure enough, a large, metallic, roughly cone-shaped object was sitting right in front of the library, as if it had been there all their lives and belonged there. It was far too big to fit through their front door, and about half the size of their house. A few ponies living near Twilight and Spike were sticking their heads out of the windows of their homes, wondering what this massive object was doing here. “Oh! You actually know what it is?” remarked Twilight. “Everypony was staring at me today, as if they had no idea what a rocket engine was!” She walked across the main room and headed towards the door that led to their basement. “Well, I don’t think anypony has ever seen a rocket before, let alone a rocket engine...” noted Spike. He stared at Twilight as she headed downstairs, looked outside at the rocket engine again, then quickly followed Twilight to the basement. “I guess so,” thought Twilight, “but then how do you know what a rocket is?” “You made me read that book entitled ‘Theoretical Travel Beyond the Stars’, remember?” said Spike, sighing with annoyance as he remembered how long and tedious that book had been. “Actually, that’s just what I’ve been experimenting on recently,” said Twilight. She reached the bottom of the stairs leading to the basement, then flipped a nearby switch located on the wall. Immediately, light flooded the previously pitch-black room, revealing something that very few ponies could ever hope of seeing in real life. “Is that... a rocket!?” asked Spike, as he joined Twilight. “Correct!” cheered Twilight. “A+ for you today!” Spike didn’t seem to care much about his imaginary grade of the day. “H-how did this rocket get here? And how’d the basement get so big!?” demanded Spike, as he suddenly realized that the ground he and Twilight were standing on, which was once the floor of the basement, was now just a small ridge. This ridge ran right around the rocket, which was so big Spike guessed that even if he cloned himself a hundred times his clones wouldn’t be able to reach around the circumference of the rocket. Peering down, Spike saw that the rocket was pretty tall, too. At the ledge he and Twilight were standing at, the tip of the rocket was right in front of them. Down below, the bottom of the hole seemed miles away from where they were. “I dug a pit in our basement to create a rocket base,” explained Twilight, “and I’ve been working on this rocket for almost a year now.” “When did you get all this stuff? I never noticed you building this before!” “Remember that time travel spell I learned back when my future self visited me?” asked Twilight. “Well, I studied some more and refined it so that I can use it multiple times and stay in the past for as long as I want! I would go back into the past, purchase some parts, then teleport back to the house with them. I would spend a few hours working on the rocket, then stop once I reached the present again. So it would seem like I had been gone for only a few minutes, when really, I had been working underground for hours!” “Impressive trick,” thought Spike, “but why did you have to bring that gigantic engine with you just now? Couldn’t you have teleported back here?” “That engine is the main engine,” said Twilight. “The other engines were smaller and easier to teleport. But the main one is too big, and I couldn’t teleport it over. So I figured that I may as well carry it with me normally.” “But I bet you sparked a lot of attention outside. Wouldn’t ponies be investigating our house now?” “Well it’s alright, the main engine is the last part to put in!” said Twilight. “By the time ponies begin to flood our house, this rocket will be UP, UP, AND AWAY!!” Twilight shouted that last part rather loudly, and her voice echoed throughout the underground rocket base. “So, you intend on flying to outer space?” questioned Spike. “Well I don’t know,” shrugged Twilight. “I guess I’m just testing to see if it’s possible to make a rocket that can escape the planet’s atmosphere. Space travel will have to come later.” “But you never seemed that interested in rockets and such before,” noted Spike. “Your special talent is magic, isn’t it? After all, your cutie mark isn’t a rocket.” “Yeah, but-” “And couldn’t you just make a spell that creates a bubble that contains air, shields you from the sun, keeps you warm while up in space, and reduces the effect gravity has on you?” asked Spike. Twilight just stood there, staring at her friend. Two things shocked her. One was that Spike, whose intelligence was average but not exceptional, gave Twilight a concept even she never thought of before. The other was that Spike’s questions didn’t really have a good answer. He was right; since when had she become so obsessed about rockets? She had read books about rockets before when she was little, but her interest in them only went so far as to playing with toy rockets. Never had she actually dreamt of building a rocket before. Her interests and dreams had always been in magic. So why was she building a rocket? “Well anyways, I don’t want to distract you from your work. I’ll be upstairs, making some snacks for us, okay?” said Spike. With that, he began climbing the stairs again, and left Twilight alone in the basement. Twilight walked over to a control panel covered with blinking lights, mysterious buttons and levers, and flashing screens. She pressed a few controls, and the ceiling above her began to split in two. Slowly, sunlight from above managed to slip in between the growing crack, illuminating the basement even more. The ceiling finished retreating, revealing a large hole in the ground right next to the library. Several onlookers outside began running away, as if the hole would continue to expand and engulf them. The purple unicorn teleported herself outside, next to the rocket engine that was still sitting in front of her doorstep. Using her magic, she levitated the machinery and suspended it above the hole leading to the underground cavern. Very carefully, she lowered it into the ground, letting it sink slowly down the hole. Finally, after about a minute, the engine reached the floor at the very bottom, and Twilight deactivated her telekinetic grip on the engine. Quickly, she teleported back inside and began closing the hangar doors above. Twilight began the ascent back up to the main room in the library. When she got there, Spike had already finished preparing a couple snacks that consisted of tea and cupcakes. The refreshments sat on the main table, looking rather appealing and alluring to Twilight. After all, she had just dragged a rocket engine across Ponyville. She quickly sat down in front of the table and began devouring the cupcakes. Spike soon came over from one of the side rooms and began pouring tea for the two of them. Twilight levitated her tea cup and took a sip, then turned to Spike. “Spike,” said Twilight, “why am I building a rocket?” “You said you wanted to see if-” began Spike. “Yeah, I know what I said,” interrupted Twilight, “but I’ve never been so interested in rockets that I would want to build one!” “Well rockets are related to science, and all of Equestria knows how devoted you are to science,” reasoned Spike. “You’re so into science that I bet if you weren’t a unicorn, you’d still be the smartest pony ever!” Twilight blushed at the praise. “Thanks Spike, but that doesn’t explain anything. I mean, sure I’m interested in science, but it doesn’t mean I’m doing every science project possible. In fact, building rockets would probably be the last project I’d take on!” “Whatever the reason, it doesn’t really matter. You’re building a rocket.” “Now that I think about it, I’d probably get arrested for making a rocket without the government’s permission!” thought Twilight. “Probably,” said Spike. “So if you knew you could’ve potentially gotten into trouble with the government, why did you build the rocket in the first place?” “I have no idea,” said Twilight, “but this project should come to a halt. Even though it’s so close to being completed, I’d rather not go to jail or get fined millions of bits.” “Well, whatever works for you,” said Spike. “I better write a letter to Princess Celestia soon,” thought Twilight. YOU WILL NOT WRITE THE LETTER. Twilight and Spike gasped at the sudden third voice that had sounded. The two of them quickly turned to face the source of the voice. In the corner of the main room stood one of the strangest, scariest, and creepiest ponies they had ever seen. The pony’s entire skin was pale, all hair on its body completely gone. It also had no mane upon its head, which was slightly elongated upwards, making the pony several inches taller than an average pony. It had eyes, but they were sunken deep in their sockets, and its mouth was nonexistent. “W-who are you!?” stuttered Twilight. WE ARE THE SILENCE. The creature, despite having no mouth, spoke slowly in an unnaturally low and guttural voice. Even though it wasn’t shouting, its ghastly appearance and menacing voice scared Twilight and Spike silly. “W-what d-do you w-want?” asked Spike, also stuttering. YOU WILL CONTINUE THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE ROCKET, demanded the creature. “Why!? So I can get myself arrested or something!?” shouted Twilight. “Well tough luck! I am going to dismantle the rocket right now! Come on Spike!” She motioned the dragon to follow her back down to the basement. Quickly, they ran towards the door leading to the rocket base. Twilight and Spike suddenly stopped in front of the door. “Wait, what are we doing here?” asked Spike to Twilight. “No idea,” said Twilight. “I... remember we were eating our snacks, and then I said something about getting in trouble with the government.” “Oh yeah,” remembered Spike. “We were going to go downstairs and dismantle the rocket.” “Yeah, but all of a sudden, I have the feeling that I should continue constructing the rocket,” thought Twilight. “Me too,” said Spike. “I don’t know anything about rockets, but right now, I feel like building something!” “Same, but we really should dismantle that rocket,” sighed Twilight. “We could get into serious trouble with the government. I better write a letter to Princess Celestia to ask for the government’s to build this thing.” YOU WILL NOT WRITE THE LETTER. Twilight and Spike gasped at the sudden third voice that had sounded. The two of them quickly turned to face the source of the voice. In the corner of the main room stood one of the strangest, scariest, and creepiest ponies they had ever seen. The pony’s entire skin was pale, all hair on its body completely gone. It also had no mane upon its head, which was slightly elongated upwards, making the pony several inches taller than an average pony. It had eyes, but they were sunken deep in their sockets, and its mouth was nonexistent. “W-who are you!?” stuttered Twilight. WE ARE THE SILENCE. The creature, despite having no mouth, spoke slowly in an unnaturally low and guttural voice. Even though it wasn’t shouting, its ghastly appearance and menacing voice scared Twilight and Spike silly. “W-what d-do you w-want?” asked Spike, also stuttering. YOU WILL CONTINUE THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE ROCKET, demanded the creature. “Why!? So I can get myself arrested or something!?” shouted Twilight. “Well tough luck! I am going to dismantle the rocket right... now...” Twilight’s sentence trailed off, and the fear in her eyes suddenly became confusion. “Wait, haven’t I said that before?” “S-said what?” asked Spike, still staring at the creature with fear. “This whole situation has happened before, hasn’t it?” asked Twilight, addressing the creature. “I can’t fully remember it, but I have this feeling of déjà vu.” The creature stood silently in the corner, staring at the unicorn. “I’ve seen you before, too!” added Twilight. “I’ve seen you so many times before, haven’t I? I remember meeting you, and yet... I don’t.” YOU WILL FINISH BUILDING THE ROCKET, replied the creature unhelpfully. “N-no! I can’t! I must stop building!” Twilight quickly turned around to head to the basement door, Spike following her. The two of them stopped in their tracks. “What are we doing...?” asked Twilight. “We were having our snack just now, right?” said Spike. “Right, right,” said Twilight, nodding slowly. “Well, I’m afraid I’ll have to cut our snack time short, Spike. I have to complete that rocket.” “Good luck!” cheered Spike, as Twilight headed downstairs.