//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: Breaking the Barrier // by The Deathsinger //------------------------------//               The conversation with Celestia finished soon after. Dusk and I obviously agreed, so we ended up getting ferried off to where we would sleep that night, since apparently our contact with the outside world will be severely limited for the duration of the project. According to Celestia, my friends and the weather team back in Ponyville would be filled in, to varying degrees, on why I will be missing.               “Do you really think we can do it?” Dusk’s voice brings me out from my inner ramblings.               I have a heavy sigh before responding. “I’m not entirely certain. But I do know one thing for sure; I’m going to give it my all. If I end up not succeeding, I want to know that I did absolutely everything I could have.”               “I admire your spirit; I just wish I could find the same strength.” Dusk gives a glum smile before turning over in his bunk. “Goodnight.”               I consider his words for a minute before following suit. I reach over to the one small lamp in the room and shut it off, wishing him a goodnight as well. * * * * I awake half expecting last night to have been some crazy dream, that I’m back at the hotel and I’d face another agonizingly boring train ride back to Ponyville. But when I open my eyes to see the sterile white stucco ceiling of the barracks-like wing of the facility that I feel asleep in last night, I know that this is no dream. I’m really going to do it; I’m going to be in space. The thought brings a wide grin to my tired face. At least, I assume that the plan is to have a pilot. For all I know, they have some crazy machine to do it for them, or some kind of spell. I sincerely hope not though. A loud snore drags my attention to the sleeping stallion across the room. I stand and walk to him, giving his foreleg a hard nudge. “Hey, sleepyhead, it’s time to get up. We got work to do.” For once, its morning and I don’t feel like I’ve just run a marathon. “Uhhg, five more minutes ‘s all I want” Dusk grumbles, pulling the pillow over his head to cover his ears. “Sorry, but if I have to get up now, you do too.” I grab the blanks in my teeth and give them a good yank. Dusk is already asleep again. I have a plan for this though. I grab rear legs with a light touch, careful not to wake him up. Once I have a good enough grip, I pull backwards far enough to start to drag him off the bed. Dusk shoots upright, trying to grasp onto the bed, its frame, but failing to find purchase. I continue to drag him completely off the bed, he makes a soft thud as he connects with the floor. “You know, you could have just nudged harder…” Dusk grumbles again, standing from his crumpled position on the floor. “Yea, but this was way more fun.” I fail to hide the giggle that comes from the look Dusk gives me. “Come on, we should head out to that kitchen that they showed us yesterday. I’m starving!” I leave Dusk behind me to get some food. When I arrive, I find the mare from yesterday; I think Sequence is her name, poking around in the kitchen cabinets. "Whatcha making?" I ask "Huh, what? Oh. I don't know really. Just figured I would look around until something seems good." “Well, I know what I’m having. Let me know if you want some.” I step past the mare and start to get the things together to make pancakes.               In a few short minutes the smell of cooking food fills the room, making my stomach give off a loud growl. I hear shuffling down the hallways, and soon see Dusk tripping through the door.               “Are you ok?” Sequence asks.               “Just fine,” he murmurs. “Mornings are really not my thing.”               “So, what are we doing today?” I grab myself a plate as I dish up the fluffy pancakes.               “I expect that Fairweight and I will be briefing both you two and the other two that are being brought on. Since Fairweight and I are the only ones left from the original staff, we’ll be directing all of you on your various tasks.” Sequence informs.               “Can’t wait.” I hear Dusk mutter.               “We were selected because of our prowess in several fields of study. You’re lucky that you are even allowed to stay here, let alone be let anywhere near our design plans.” Her words make my blood boil, but I refuse to follow the urge to tackle her. I can’t mess this up; if it means getting into space, then I’ll have to learn to deal with this pony.               “Of course, of course.” Dusk puts his hooves up in mock defeat.               Sequence shakes her head and goes back to preparing her food. Dusk and I share a glance before we do the same.               Breakfast is finished soon after, so we all clean off our dishes and head to the briefing room with Sequence leading the way. The walk is considerably shorter than I would expect, considering the size of this place.               Once we make it to the room, Dusk and I find seats around the large circular table in the middle. The rest of the room’s dreary interior is covered by absolutely nothing, save for a set of large chalkboards on each wall.               Fairweight comes through the same door I did as soon as we sit down.               “Morning everypony, to start off today, we’re going to finalize our mission goals, as well as put together a rough game plan for the coming months. First however, allow me to introduce the rest of the staff.” Fairweight beckons with his hoof at the open door.               In walk two ponies, one earth and another unicorn.               “This is Ignition,” The earth pony nods. “And this is Mercury,” the unicorn makes a subtle bow. “They are absolute experts in chemistry and higher math, respectively. Any questions?” Fairweight turns to look at our little group at the table.               I raise my hoof. “Yea, I got one. Define ‘higher math’.”               “I am well versed in many areas, ranging from vector calculus to trigonometry and everything in-between.” Mercury boasts.               Mostly satisfied with his answer, I nod to Fairweight.               “Right, any other questions? No? Good; let’s get down to it then.”               Fairweight breaks long enough to let Ignition and Mercury join us at the table.               “Last night, Celestia finally decided to brief me on the specifics of our goal. It’s a tall order, but I know we can do it.” He picks up a piece of chalk and draws a crude circle on the board in front of us. “This is our planet.” He gestures to the circle before drawing a second circle slightly farther out. “This second circles represents the point at which there is no more air; or ‘space’.”               He then draws an ellipse around the second circle, the top of the ellipse dips ever so slightly down into the second circle. “This is, theoretically, our goal. The third shape represents an ‘orbit’. Our theory is that you can fall so fast that gravity can’t pull you down fast enough and you miss the planet. Any questions so far?”               “Why an ellipse? And why have it dip into the atmosphere?” A murmur of agreement accompanies Dusk’s question.               “While it’s not likely to happen, it’s possible that whatever we use to propel the craft may fail. If it does, this will ensure that it will eventually be brought back.” Fairweight’s answer is laced with a hint of worry. “And the ellipse is because we want the ship to dip in and out of the atmosphere, if it is continually inside it the craft will slow down too fast.”               “I assume this ‘craft’ will be crewed?” I anxiously wait out the short pause before the answer to my question.               “Yes, there will be a pony inside.” The forlorn way that Fairweight answers kills bit of my enthusiasm.               “You do know how much fuel it’s going to take to get up there, right?” Ignition asks.               “Mercury has run the calculations, and she says that it is possible. It’s just going to be quite big.” Fairweight explains.               “Quite big? The thing is going to be larger than the Royal Castle!” An exasperated Ignition replies.               “That’s an exaggeration and you know it.” Fairweight chastises. “Yea, but not by much” Ignition mutters. “Dusk Inferno here says that he has developed a new fuel. Care to shed some light on it?” All eyes turn to the black pegasus after Fairweight’s question.               “Of course. It’s a zinc-sulfur combination, fairly powerful; makes quite the fireball when it goes off. However, there is a draw back; the burn rate is very high.”               “How high are we talking?” Ignition pushes.               Dusk cringes before answering. “Two meters per second.”               Ignition places a hoof to her forehead, and the rest of us lean back in surprise.               “That settles that then. It’s far too quick to be usable; it’s out of the picture.” Ignition states with a firm slam of his hoof on the table.               "So, our one and only lead just turned out to be a dud. Great." I mutter.               "Yea, that option is a bust. But come on; think outside the box a little. In a short span of dedicated time, I came up with a radically new kind of fuel that works. What’s to say that six talented ponies can’t come up with something else in an even shorter amount of time?” Dusk grins as he finishes his question.               “That’s-” Ignition pauses for a moment, a wide smirk plays across her features. “A very good point. And thinking about it, even if it’s just us two,” she gestures to Dusk and himself. “I’m sure we could come up with something.”               “You both obviously are thinking around the same lines, so I’m going to have you two start working on this immediately. I want a report on your progress on my desk by the end of next week.” Fairweight nods to exit, signaling the duo to get to work right away.               As the two stallions leave, Fairweight turns his attention to Mercury. “I believe you also have a few suggestions.”               “I do.” The mare stands and walks to the foremost blackboard. She starts sketching out a rough cone shape. “I had difficulty falling asleep last night, so I was thinking about the design of the control area or ‘capsule’. The shape should be aerodynamic, as it will save us fuel; however it also needs to be light. Preferably under three tons, but that may cause an issue.”               Mercury takes a breath before continuing. “Through small scale testing with the help of Ignition, I’ve seen that after a certain speed an object moving through the atmosphere is heated. It’s unclear as to exactly how much the heating will affect the design process, but it should be kept in mind. That is all” After her speech, Mercury sit back down at her spot.               “Alright, since you’ve already done so much with this, I’m going to have you work on the capsule design. Let me know as soon as you have come up with something.” Fairweight instructs before gesturing for her to leave as well.               “Looks like that just leaves us. What’s left?” I ask, looking to Sequence and Fairweight.               “For now, were going to be jumping back and forth between helping the other two groups, as well as acting as the construction group for any mock-ups or prototypes. If any of you show an exceptional aptitude toward any of these projects, you’ll likely be moved there. In the meantime, Rainbow Dash, you’ll be working with Ignition and Dusk; since you already have experience with working on solid fuel. Sequence, you will assist Mercury, and I’ll jump back and forth between the two. These positions will likely switch around until a better fit is found. Dismissed!”               With Fairweight’s shout echoing about the room, Sequence and I stand to move off to our positions. * * * *               Unsurprisingly, the chemical testing lab is quite a ways away from the rest of the facility; especially the common areas. In fact, it’s on the exact opposite of the complex to be exact. By the time I reach the lab it’s been a good forty five minutes since being dismissed.               “Fairweight keep you in overtime or something?” Ignition chides.               “Hey, it’s a long way! And these hallways are tiny; no way I’m going to risk crashing headlong into a wall by flying.” I retort, taking a defensive stance.               “Oooh, look at you; got a regular voice of reason here.” Ignition chuckles.               “Oh come on! You don't even know me.” In the quick break in conversation, Dusk points me to a closet that contains splash-proof coats.               “True, but I know your type. Brash, but usually with the skills to back it up; almost always a braggart too.”               “Whatever.” I turn from the grinning mare to address Dusk. “What are we working on first?”               “Right now, we’re trying to isolate chemicals that may make the reaction that we want when combined properly. It’s tedious, but we’re making progress.”               “Alright, just tell me where to start.”               Dusk gestures to a bookcase that sits on the table we are next to. “Pick a book and start looking through it. Find anything that has explosive or flammable properties.”               The next several hours are spent leafing through book after book. After such time, the words blur together, and so many technical terms is making my head ache. We all agree to take a break and try out a few ideas. * * * *               “Ok, light it on one; three, two, one.”               Foosh!               Flames spit out of the small dish inlayed in this metal table. The arks of blue light lick against the ceiling, leaving long black stripes.               “Okay, so combining black powder and my zinc sulfur mix was a really bad idea. How much was that again?” Dusk stands shakily from his cover behind a thick metal shield. We all follow suit and come out from behind our cover.               “Thirty grains of black powder, four grains of zinc and eight grains of sulfur.” Ignition states, the dreamy look on her face as she stares at the smoldering ashes of the failed propellant is more than a little disconcerting.               “Heh, I take it you’re a fan of big flames?” Dusk asks, a grin forcing its way up.               “Huh? Oh, yea I am. Always have been; I like explosions more though. In fact, got my cutie mark from mixing my own black powder back in elementary. Fun times.”               Dusk and I share a look of ‘and she was picked why?’ before getting back to work. * * * *               After two months of long days and longer nights, after countless trials, most of which ended horribly, we have a breakthrough. What we have come up with is a complex mixture of several chemicals, namely ammonium percolate, powdered aluminum, and iron oxide. We even had to develop a binding agent to hold the thing together that would burn at the same rate as the rest of the fuel.               Another change is our location. As soon as we realized we were getting close to creating a working mixture, we started looking for test sites. There was absolutely nothing useful within several hundred kilometers of Canterlot.               Because of this, we ended up having to spend a week moving all of our supplies far away to the west where it’s all just sprawling planes. With such large amounts of flat area, and nopony anywhere near us, we were given the freedom to experiment with more volatile substances; which is one of the reasons we were even able to come up with what we have.               A tap on my shoulder brings me out of my memories.               "Equestria to Rainbow, you in there?" Dusk nudges me in the shoulder again.               "Wuh- oh, yea. Sorry, just thinking about some stuff." I reply back, not putting much thought into my response.               I see him raise an eyebrow. "I see. anything you care to share?"               "Not really." is my curt reply.               Dusk sighs and puts a hoof to his face. "Well, you should start paying attention. Ignition just gave the signal, so the first test launch should start in just a few minutes."               I thank him and give a wave of dismissal. I glance around my office before following suit and leaving through the open door. Never would I ever have thought that I would actually have an office of any kind, but I guess that's what happens when you get motivated for something. No matter what, I'm going to do this. I can only imagine what it's going to be like, the first pony in space; everypony will know my name. I grin as I make my way to the test site.               Two hundred meters to the west of the complex, lies a stone inlayed launch area. So far it has not seen any use, but that is about to change. When I arrive, I see Dusk and Mercury fiddling with the test rocket.               The metal cylinder stands a meter tall, and fourteen centimeters in circumference. Four thin, blade like fins sit near the bottom of the rocket. The trailing edge of the fins sits out past the body.               Out of sight inside the nosecone lies a vast array of sensors. Accelerometers, to altimeters, to barometers, and a few more that I can’t remember the names of. For the most part, I haven’t been clued in on their function. I’ve been told that all I need to know is that without the data that they will gather, things are going to take a lot longer.               I breathe a silent wish that this all goes according to plan. If it doesn’t we have a heap more to do, and we just don’t have the time. We are already pushing as fast as we can with such a small amount of labor.               “Ok, I’m putting in the electrical leads, stand back everypony.” Mercury calls out. We all move to stand behind the large slabs of stone that were set up for just such a purpose.               “Everypony ready? Okay; activation in three, two one…               Mercury flips the sole switch sitting in front of her, and then nothing happens.               “Well ponyfea-” I start.               Out of the corner of my eye I see Mercury fiddle with the cable that leads out from the ignition block, and as soon as her hoof touches it the rocket sputters to life.               In a whoosh of red flame and a billowing plume of grey smoke, the rocket shoots off toward the sky. In just a few seconds the rocket becomes a small dot somewhere off in the sky.               “Dash, Dusk, get up there!” Fairweight calls out.               We both nod and immediately take to the skies. The next part of the plan is to have Dusk and I fly up nice and high, and see if we can spot the rocket on its way back down. If we can find it, we should be able to tell how well the materials held up.               Dusk and I hover back to back, scanning the horizon for any sign of the rocket.               A few minutes later, Dusk takes off in a seemingly random direction, but he calls over his shoulder to explain. “I see it I see it!” he repeats the phrase as I follow, hot on his hooves.               As we get closer, I see it as well. A tiny glinting silver dot falling rapidly out of the sky. We both increase our pace to make sure that we don’t lose it. I start to feel a burning sensation in my wings. I glance to my right to make sure Dusk is still with me, but I just see open sky. I look back and see why.               In my haste, I completely left Dusk in the dust. His form is merely a vaguely pony shaped dot. I push past the pain to pick up the pace some more. There is no way I’m going to let this rocket out of my sight, if we can’t get the data off those sensors that this test was almost meaningless.               I see the rocket finally come to a rest in the middle of an open field. I give one last burst of speed before flaring my wings at the right moment to come in for a hard landing right next to the tube. My knees buckle as they, along with the rest of my legs, absorb the force of my landing.               Dusk comes down on the other side of the rocket a little bit later.               “Took ‘ya long enough” I smirk;               Dusk rolls his eyes. “Well sorry from saving my strength; we still have to fly back you know.”               “Yea, I know. I still get plenty of juice left.” I flex my wings to show him.               “Right…” Dusk nods his head in a ‘yea, sure’ kind of way.               “Might as well start heading back. Can you actually carry this thing, or do you need my help?” Dusk asks.               In response I hover over to the rocket and press it up under me with my hooves, then take off back toward the facility at the highest speed I can manage.               I chance a glance back and see Dusk struggling to catch up. I grin and press forward, determined to get there before him.               I, of course, succeed in doing so. I come to a hover right next to the launch pad and drop off the now spent rocket.               Right after I set down and back off Mercury and Fairweight swarm over to the nosecone, popping it off in a synch. Fairweight removes a small perfect cube and runs off to get the information from it.               We repeat this process four more times, each time reusing the same tube. The fins have to be replaced after the third launch, but other than that the frame holds up nicely.               By the time that the last rocket is brought back, I’m just about out of energy and the sun is almost set. I leave Mercury and Fairweight to examine the data off the sensors, heading instead for the personnel section of the facility. I could really use a shower; and a nap.