Breaking the Barrier

by The Deathsinger

To the library!

“But nopony-” Twilight starts.

“Yea, I know that nopony has ever gone into space before. And that most of the people who study it say that it’s impossible. But since when have I turned down an opportunity to prove myself? I retort.

“Rainbow, you’re as stubborn as a mule. But, I guess as your friend I will help you in any way I can.” Twilight sighs in resignation.

“Thanks a lot! So, how do you think I should get started?” I do a few loops of joy before settling back down to get to business.

“Your first steps should be to read up on what other ponies have written on the subject. From there, you should study their methods, and start trying some small scale experiments,” Twilight concludes.

“That doesn’t sound too hard. Got anything here I can check out?”

“I have a few things; there are already very few publications on the subject, so as you can imagine not many of them have ended up here. I try to keep an eye out for rare stuff but I only have so much time-”

“As fascinating as this is, I would really like to get started.” I break Twilight out of her rambling.

“Right, of course.” Twilight concentrates for a moment to bring a few dusty tomes out of the depths of the book stacks, managing to find three that would be of use.

“Start with these, and please come to me if you have questions. I still remember when you were beating your head against a wall for days over inequality equations, but it only took a quick second for me to explain it better than the book.”

“I know,” I call behind me as I dash out the door, looking forward to finally getting a solid start on my goal.

* * * *

“Are you sure about this?” Twilight asks, looking apprehensively at the miniscule rocket I built.

"Of course I am. I've double checked everything, at worst the thing won't even get off the ground," I explain as I secure the motor in place.

"Even still, I think that we should get back a little, or at least behind something solid." Twilight states, still seeming unconvinced.

"Oh relax, will you. I told you this thing is totally safe. Besides, this is black powder, so this thing isn’t going to go boom unless I totally bucked up the mixture, which I didn’t. And even if I did, it’s not that powerful” I set the rocket down on its makeshift launch pad and back up a little.

“Ok Twilight, ignite on my mark. Three, two, one, mark!”

Twilight casts the needed spell to get the chemical reaction started. There are other ways, but this is easiest and the most convenient. I can hear the rocket sputter on the pad, and then shoot off upwards. It takes an alarming turn a few meters into the air and starts flying back to us.

I make a dive to avoid the runaway rocket, and hear Twilight do the same. The rocket crashes harmlessly into the ground, skidding to a stop in a short track of upturned dirt and pebbles.

“Safe, huh,” Twilight mutters.

“Hey, all I said was that it wasn’t going to explode. How should I have known that it would do that?” I give Twilight a look, frustrated that this first test was, for the most part, a failure. “It taking off means I got the mix right. Now I just need to fix the little flip over problem.” I pick up the still warm, twenty centimeter tube and make my way back to the library.

A few hours later, Twilight comes down to the library basement to find me poring over a flight dynamics book for pegasi.

“Hey Twi, I was thinking about today’s test. I think that if we had some type of wings to the body, it might stop it of doing those wild maneuvers on us.”

“Rainbow, can we need to talk.”

I push the book away and turn to her. “What about?”

“Helping you out with this has been really fun, and a challenge at times, but there’s a lot of things that I need to do. And truth be told, I’ve kinda been neglecting most of them to help you.” Twilight sits down on the bench opposite me.

“What are you saying Twi?” I’m not sure where she’s going with this, but I don’t like my hunch.

“What I’m saying, is that I think I need to let you do this on your own. I’ve done a lot to help you, but I can’t continue to ignore my other duties like this. I’ll still be there to help you, just not nearly so often.” Her words sting, but I should have expected this. She’s been doing so much to help; I’m surprised this didn’t happen sooner.

“You shouldn’t be ignoring your primary duties just for my sake, so I understand.”

“Thank you, and don’t worry; I’m sure that with a little more work you won’t even need me anymore.” She lays a hoof on my shoulder, her tone is almost sad in a way.

“Nah, don’t say that. I could always use another set of hooves to help out.” I rush to disagree with her.

“The other thing that we need to talk about is getting your own space to research and build. Judging from today’s test, things could get very, flammable from here on out. So I think it would be a good idea for you to find someplace that would be a little better suited to this kind of experimentation.”

“Ya know, that’s a really good idea! I could get someplace with tons of room, and secluded so I don’t hurt anypony…” I blather on for a few more minutes before Twilight stops me and excuses herself, saying that she has research to do herself.

I go back to the reading I was doing, my heart high, and my expectations higher. I got a really good feeling about the things to come.

I get a notepad and sketch out a new design for the fuselage, trying to incorporate the shape of pegasus wings into the current design would be hard due to the size. So I start scaling things up until I find something to work with. I then grab a notepad to do the quick computations to find out how much extra powder would be needed to lift the weight. I stop for a moment, glance down at the notepad, and grin. A few months ago, multiplication like this would make my head spin. And now? Now I don’t even bat an eyelash.

With a rough idea in mind, I start fabricating the pieces. Twilight, for some reason she has yet to explain, has a decent woodshop set up here in the basement, so I avail myself of the tools and set to work. It’s surprisingly easy to work with on wood, so I learned very quickly.

* * * *

I step back to look at my hoof-work. The fuselage measures forty centimeters in length, twenty five wide. The whole thing weighs in just over two kilograms. I do a few tests to check the fit of the motors, and everything checks out good.

The weather for tomorrow is going to be perfect for launches, so I spend some extra time to prepare three more rockets and two more motors for each.

With no preparation left, I leave the library for my house. Tomorrow, once finished with all the launches, I’ll go see the local real estate agent. I’m sure he has something that would fit my needs nicely.

Once I land at my house, I drop my saddle bags at the toe of my bed and then flop down onto the fluffy surface. I breathe a sigh of relief; it’s been a long day, and this rest will do me some good.

* * * *

I awake from my peaceful sleep to the feeling of the sun’s soft glow across my fur. I groan as I pull myself out of bed. I buck’en hate mornings. My usual morning wakeup takes far longer than this, but the motivation of today’s testing serves to help me get a move on.

I make myself some breakfast as I go over my plan for today. Right after this I’ll pick up the supplies from Twilight, and head to the launch site first thing. Once finished there I’ll head over to the real estate agent and talk to them about getting my own place to work. I’d use my house, but I don’t really have the space. And it would be way too inconvenient to haul all that stuff back and forth.

With breakfast now eaten, I grab my bags and set off for Twilight’s library. It’s still early morning, and the leftover fog sticks to my wings as I glide through the air. It’s a short flight, so within a minute or two I arrive at the library. Twilight gave me a key a little while back to the bulkhead that leads directly to the basement, so I use it to gain entrance without disturbing her.

Once inside, I set to work gathering up all the things I'm going to need for the launch. The motors I place into my saddlebags, and the rockets themselves go into a sturdy wooden holder that I made for them. I do one final check to make sure that I don't forget anything, and then set off for the launch site, locking the door behind me.

On the way to the site, I'm surprised to see Pinkie up and about.

"Hey there Pinkie, what'cha doing up this early?" I ask.

"Well, I knew something really cool was gonna happen today, 'cuz I got a knee twitch itchy back eye flutter nose twitch. Which would normally mean that there was going to be something new today, but I also then got a twitchy tail right after that. So there will be something new and its going to fall from the sky! Ohh, I just can't wait to find out what it is...."

I let her bounce around and ramble for several minutes. After a long time of dealing with Pinkie, you realize that once she starts rambling there is no stopping her, so it's best to just let her run out of steam.

"So then I was like, 'Dandelions huh, count me in!'"

I think I missed something important.

"As cool as it is talking with you Pinkie, I really need to get going." I excuse myself from the conversation.

"I don't have anything to do now though." She looks crestfallen. "Ohhhh, idea! What if I just came with you?"

"Well..." Pinkie is fun to be around and all, but she gets on my nerves after a while. Although, some company could be nice. "Sure, why not."

"Yay! This is gonna be so much fun."

* * * *

I normally fly to the site, but with Pinkie here I’m forced to slow down my pace a great deal. I still use my wings, but I’m barely above a slow hover. The trip still seems to pass by at a rapid pace though, as Pinkie's voice has a melodic quality to it that lulls me into a trance.

“What’s this thing?” I am pulled out of my daze by Pinkie’s question. She is gesturing to a little rig that I had placed on the ground a while ago.

“That, is a LSE, or ‘launch stability enhancer’. At least, that’s what Twilight calls it. I just call it the thing that makes the rockets go straighter.” I explain.

“What’s a rocke-”

“You’ll see in a second,” I cut her off.

I prepare the first of the rockets by placing it into the gap in the stabilizer. If Twilight’s theory is correct, by having the rocket be tethered to something for a second or two should help keep it straight.

“Alright, you ready for this?” I grin wide as I prepare to light the fuse. Since Twilight isn’t here I have to use means that are more conventional, but less reliable. If I cut the fuses right, it should give me enough time to back away before the motor ignites.

“You bet’cha!” Pinkie calls back. “What exactly am I ready for again?”

“This!” I strike a piece of flint against a piece of metal and watch as a few sparks catch the end of the fuse. I make a dash for Pinkie’s location and stare intently as the fuse burns down.

“Any second now…” I say, transfixed on the glowing and sparking fuse.

With a whoosh and a rattle, the motor ignites sending jets of out the back as it shoots skyward. Within just a few second of leaving the guide rod, the rocket leans over so its wings are level with the ground. It remains level for only a few second more before flipping over several times then crashing into the ground. Not the best way it could have gone, but it could be worse.

I repeat the launch with the remaining rockets, all of them follow suite with the first. I start to wonder if it’s the wings that are causing the problem, but if they may still fix the problem as well. I’ll have to make up several more designs and test them out.

“So um, what was the point of this, Dashie?” Pinkie’s question brings me out of my thoughts.

“What? Oh, the point is, uh…” Do I really want to tell her about the dream? Ah what the hay, I’ve already told Twilight and she took it well, so I might as well tell her too.

I regale her of the dream that I’ve been having, as well as my goal now.

“Oh wow, I can’t wait for you to get that award. I’m going to throw the biggest party when you do!” Pinkie bounces away, presumably to start plans for the party.

I sigh and gather up the remains of the rockets. I can’t use the second set of motors I prepared since these things are banged up so bad. But at least I know have them for the next set. I drop off the rockets and the assorted things that go with them in a pile under my house, deciding to take care of them later. With that done, I make my way to the real estate office.

* * * *

I fly out of the office and give a whoop of joy. As it turns out, I own more of the land around my house than I thought. So I still have plenty of room and didn't even need to spend a single bit! So, once this is all over and I get that award, I figure I can build some kind of training area there like the Wonderbolts have.

With thoughts of what is to come drifting through my head, I decide to get today’s work over with now. It’s supposed to be bright and shiny, so I can whip that up no problem. It only takes a few minutes before there is not a cloud in the sky over all of Ponyville.

Now that the boring stuff out of the way, I focus back on the much cooler stuff like remaking those rockets. I have an idea for the look in my head; I just gotta sketch it out real quick.

All I really need at my new location for now is a bench, so I move down something that I had in my attic and get to sketching. Within a few minutes I have several ideas on paper. From the concept drawings, I start doing up technical sheets on every aspect of the rocket. It’s not a simple task, as there is so much math involved. The winglets, what I named the small wings, have to be proportional in size as well as mass to the length and mass of the fuselage; the calculations for all of this takes a significant amount of time.

I do, after a good hour or two, finish with the math portion. With that done, I move on to the build phase. This is one of the easier parts, as I’ve always been pretty ok with building stuff. Sure it’s usually a little rough around the edges, but it works. I move back to the Library basement for this, as that’s where all the tools are for woodworking. Twilight comes down when I am halfway through to give a quick check up on me. She gives her congratulations on finding a good place to use as a workshop. She also agrees to let me move all the tools back to my place, as she doesn’t have a use for them.

Twilight assists with a few pieces before moving back upstairs. With her help I’m able to finish much sooner than I would have on my own. Huh, I may even be able to do another launch today, that’d be sweet.

I look over the materials I have and realize that I’m correct; if I move quickly I will have just enough time before the end of the day to make one more launch. With a bit of a mad rush I manage to gather up everything I need and head back to the site.

On site, I lay the first of my next series of prototype rockets into the guide rod and affix the motor in its place at the bottom. I prep another fuse and wrap it around the part of the motor that sticks out the end of the rocket. This time the fuse is much shorter, partly due to a mistake when I was cutting them earlier, but mostly due to me cutting it even shorter since the last set of fuses I had burned for way too long.

I once again strike the flint against another rock and step back as the sparks fall on the edge of the fuse. I wait with bated breath as the measured cloth burns down toward the inevitable end.

Bang!

I bring my wings up in front of me to cover myself from the blast; but something large forces me off my hooves. A sickening crack followed by shards of pain all over my wings and legs accompany me as I fall to the ground.
Well ponyfeathers. I may have made a small mistake when I was making up the last set of motors.

I take a breath to try and calm my nerves, but my legs refuse to stop shaking. I give my body a visual inspection.

Both wings are riddled with small splinters from the explosion, rivulets of blood run off through my feathers. If that’s not bad enough, my right foreleg feels far worse for wear. I think it may be broken.

I do my best to pick the splinters out of my wing, since it’s my only way to get to the hospital right now. And from the pain now shooting up leg, I think my suspicions of it being broken are true.

I manage to lift myself off the ground and limply fly to the hospital. Nurse Redheart is not shocked to see me at first.

“From the looks of you, I guess you tried a new trick again didn’t you.” The nurse sighs. “Wait a second, are those splinters?”

“Yea… Not a trick this time…” I fill her in on the important details, not quite telling the whole truth. I tell her that I had heard about what happens when you mix a couple chemicals together, and wanted to see if I could make something fly with it. Thankfully, she buys the cover story. I’d tell the truth, but I’d rather not have to go into detail about the rather embarrassing last several months again.

“You really should know better, playing with stuff like this is quite dangerous,” she scolds as she looks over my wounds.

“I know. I’ve done it right a couple times; I just messed up this once!” I shoot back.

“It only takes one time to mess everything up for good.” Her words force me into dumbstruck silence.

She finishes her examination and treats my wounds. For the most part, I got away ok. My wings are fine, I just need to let them rest for a little bit to keep the blood flow low. My leg took the worst of it, getting a hairline fracture and bruised in several places. I’ll have to let go easy on it for a week or two, but I should be ok.

I go back to the site, both to clean up and to see what I can recover. I spot a leftover piece of the motor laying on the ground. I pick it up and place it in my saddle bags, figuring that once I get back I can figure out how I messed up the mixture. Because I would really rather avoid this again if I could.