• Member Since 15th Feb, 2012
  • offline last seen Nov 24th, 2017

Rust


Out at sea, rockin' steam dreams and pilot valves... Deuces.

E

Looking back, she witnesses the entirety of her world in the window. A single dewdrop of oceans and forests and mountains and storms, just floating there, hushed and still. She squints through an eye, placing her hoof upon the glass. It completely covers the receding planet.

And in that instant, she's alone.


Featured by Seattle's Angels!

Chapters (1)
Comments ( 80 )

Damn you, it's past midnight...


*starts reading*

EDIT: I really liked this. This could easily be the melancholic beginning or ending of a far longer story. Too bad it says Completed.
Gonna sleep now, bye!

Very...cool.

4259460 wherever you are that is.

Not sure what I just read, but I liked it anyways.

came to mind immediately with this title and after reading it.

I love this, I want more.

She's dying?:fluttercry:

Rocket maaaaaaare, burning out her fuse up here alone... I actually had to look up the lyrics to make this comment, because everthing after "rocket man" is damn near unintelligible.

Also, Rust, you have once again proved your superiority in the field of baddass horse stories. You should do more of these one shots based off of hit songs. Perhaps "In the Navy" by The Village People would fit your current situation.

Makes me curious as to what the events before/after launch are like. Nice little one shot, if I say so myself.

So what inspired this, Rust?

4259537
They're all dying. Some just faster than others.

Better to go out with bang.

But where is she going? What does she have? Too many questions, a sequel must be made. If you want to, that is.

4259987

She's going boldly where no mare has gone before, of course!

...Wait, we're still at square one, dang it!

This is what the first trailer for Interstellar will be like. Typical Christopher Nolan.

:twilightsmile:/10

Oh god...th-this was--hnnggg...

...GRRAAAAH!!!! WHY DO I HOLD IT IN?!? *Bawls*

I loved the feels that this fic gave me, and I give this a favourite!

4261351
Definitely inspired writing this. Want to see it soooo bad.

Ya did good, Rusty boy. You almost evoked a tear out of me. Wonderful work. :fluttercry:

Gig

Damn, now I know what my Kerbals feel when I send them to a mission without any hope to return. You managed to bring some sensations in that cold heart of mine. Well played sir. :pinkiesad2:

Prepare for LikeFall
i.imgur.com/UFQhckU.gif
...probably should have put heat shields on that...

4263142
Nah she's terminal. Gonna die in a few years. Decided to go out on her own terms.

4263130
Except for Jebediah. The only thing Jeb likes more than a successful launch is a catastrophic failure of a launch.

Gig

4263394

So true. He's the badS.

You know what this reminds me of?
To The Moon.

4263225 But she's going to land somewhere else before that! Right? RIGHT? RIGHT?! Perhaps if we all wish... I mean, it worked for the Doctor...

Also:

I instantly thought of this, and couldn't help but be amazed at how well it fit in while reading it...

Beautiful one-shot. Dem feels...:fluttercry:

Comment posted by Pony With A Box deleted Apr 21st, 2014
Comment posted by Pony With A Box deleted Apr 21st, 2014

Burning up the mountain side on a rocket sled on rails.

Hyperion Launch system.

Icaros Vehicle.

Just like the Black Arrow project, many Booster programs are thrown away and forgotton.

Buck Rogers in the 25th centuary?

An astronomically good one-shot, but then I'm a wee bit of a space nut so then I would enjoy it. Bittersweet but hopeful.

Damn...that was emotional.:ajsleepy:

Aand now I don't want to play Kerbal Space Program again... Poor Kerbals, so many of them end up being the victims of a gravity slingshot instead of landing... One of them accidentally the sun "-WE DO NOT TALK ABOUT THE FATE OF {DATA EXPUNGED}"

Well that's emotional.....

*slow claps in awe*

This was good, but I would have liked a bit more backstory. I feel like the story could have been better for me if there was a reason for her going into space. I didn't like not knowing the why.

4259711 What if air is poisonous and it just takes ~80 years to kill us?
i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/205/876/keanuexpression.jpg

4268919 Well, my research shows there's neither of those :pinkiesad2:

Damnit, I ended up reading this despite the Sad tag. Needed more depth, but what you did provide was good.

Personal coda

"You're sure this is genuine, Director?"

"Mr Secretary General, every radio telescope that could focus on the correct part of the sky agrees that the object transmitting the signals decelerated from thirty percent of light speed in a few hours. Even optical telescopes managed to pick up a visible trail, spectroscopic analysis was... inconclusive. Physicists at CERN are still arguing over exactly what the various particle detectors pointed at it picked up. Best estimates, the power output of this vehicle is greater than all of earth's power generation facilities, and no-one has even a theory on how it could be doing it."

"And the signals it's sending?"

"Prime numbers, simple maths... it's not that disimilar to various first contact protocols researchers all over the world have been developing for years. The Office for Outer Space Affairs is co-ordinating an effort to create a medium for translation using various university server farms across the world. It's manouvring to intercept earth at minimal velocity, presumably to go into orbit, so there's no real choice but to acknowledge it. We're already creating a reply package, but we haven't sent anything yet. It knows we're here from our general radio broadcasts, but we're waiting on the approroval of the Assembly before sending it."

"I'll see that you get it. You're right that ignoring it is not an option. And I find one thing comforting, that their first impulse is to talk."

&&&

Stellar came awake, her third awakening since leaving Equestria. The first system had been a barren place, nothing but bare rocks Luna would have ignored as worthless and a single giant planet with a hydrogen atmosphere that orbited it's sun in a few weeks. The second, a more promising place was a binary system with a distant companion and another 'gas giant' orbiting the largest star that had a bright ring and a vast system of moons, two of which had oxygen atmospheres and vegetation, but no signs of intelligence. The laser impulses encoding her discoveries were probably only now reaching Equestria.

She'd spent precious time slowing down and orbiting the inner one after the automated probes she'd sent ahead had showed it's atmosphere was marginally more hospitable. She'd used the lander and been the only pegasus to ever fly it's skies, drink it's waters, soar over forests with luminous leaves that made the Everfree look like a hobby garden. Her illness wouldn't impair her physically for at least another year, and she prayed that she'd be able to do it again before she ended up confined to the ship.

She went through the routines of restoring herself, Zebrican potions and more recent scientific methods restoring her vitality. Only once she was fully compos mentis did she emerge from the sleep capsule to float out into the hut sized command deck. She pulled up the initial reports from the automated monitoring systems and froze, drifting in front of the control console. Another habitable planet, and more than that radio communications, a vast amount of radio communications and a host of artificial satellites that made the number orbiting the Equestria seem small.

Automated routines had put the capsule into an intercept vector with the planet and started sending first contact signals. Translation spells would require face to face contact with the beings who inhabited it, but purely thaumo-electronic devices, though slower, could work on long range transmissions. This would be the first ever test of Princess Sparkle's thaumo-heuristic translation matricies. They hadn't replied yet, but they hadn't had that long to do so.

She wondered what they would look like. Magical sensors hadn't detected anything like a magic mirror network, or indeed any magic at all. It seemed impossible that an advanced species was completely without magic, but it seemed to be a fact. If only there was a way of sending images by radio... An illusion spell activated, generating a projected display of a new signal, her own first contact sequence repeated back at her. She flicked her wings to move forward and touch the control runes around the perimeter. Thaumo-electronic valve arrays lit up as the signals were fed into the on-board computer. It weighed as much as the rest of the capsule put together, and was the most advanced of it's kind in Equestria.

All she could do now was wait, listen to the audio broadcasts from the world ahead, and watch it as she decelerated into orbit. Many of the transmissions couldn't be resolved into anything meaningful, but there were plenty of voices. Her ears twitched as she cycled through them, flicking her wings to remain stationary while she turned the control dial. Alien voices, angry voices, happy voices, teaching voices, discussing voices, the words might be meaningless, but the emotions came through, amazingly pony-like.

What would they be like, these strange new beings? Considering the variety of intelligent life on Equus, their physical forms could be almost anything. But the thing that made them people was what they thought, felt, dreamed. Would they welcome her,or be scared of her? If only she could understand one thing about them... Her hoof released the dial as the sound of dozens of the alien voices emerged from the speaker, singing in harmony and backed by a triumphal pean of music.

Stellar teared up as she realised that whatever else, these beings understood harmony. That was as good a basis to start from as any, and while there might be difficulties, she was now sure that they they could be overcome. But that was for later. For now she just floated and listened as what the beings on the planet ahead would call 'Beethoven's Ninth Symphony' swirled around her.

4269496
Now that's a spicy meat-a-ball!

Seriously, though, that shit feels top notch. This was a tentative foray into sci-fi, and it seems I've still a lot to learn.

:pinkiegasp::fluttercry:

reactiongifs.us/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/slow_clap_citizen_kane.gif

Dear Celestia, this needs to see the feature box YESTERDAY! Bravo!!!

FULL. LENGTH. GODDAMN. STORY. NOW.

I think it's gonna be a long, long time....

4271421
Maybe someday. Won't start another long one until I've finished the others.

4270199 I was just playing riffs on your excellent work. This was kind of freestyled rather than being well thought out. I felt that it needed more than her leaving. My idea was that the tech level was sort of sixties NASA plus magic. The only break out techs were the interstellar drive and cold sleep, the first of which needs to be magically powered.

Also, all the First Contact stories based on Earth I've seen written, all the good ones involve the USA as the primary contact point. However, First Contact is the responsibility of the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs. America would undoubtedly be involved, but as a part of an international effort. I just wanted to see something that acknowledged that.

If this inspires you to write more, that would be excellent.

4272371


It's funny because you think you have a choice.

ME BEFORE READING STORY!!

Ah, what a beautiful day on FIMFiction! The writers are working, fanfics are updating, and Rust has made a new story! I wonder what it'll be lik-

ME AFTER READING STORY!

....
Someone get me the tissues, I'm about to cry like a bitch.

"The Princess thinks I didn't get to hug you enough before you got on the rocket, so I'm here now. I can't hug you through a microphone, though! Silly Princess."

I thought this was supposed to be [Sad], not [Diabetus]!

"I will... I'm gonna miss you so much, baby. Never forget I love you, okay?"

..... Why did she say it like that? Th-Their going to see each other when she lands.... Right?

One day. Not anytime soon, but... something fatal like you have... not something for her yet.

:fluttercry: Wait... Does that mean?

And in that instant, she's alone.

She throws the switch before she can stop herself. Somewhere behind her, the reactor screams. Stars streak across the cockpit. Everything's hot and bright and unimaginably dense.

Stellar Lights breathes a deep breath as the computer begins to cycle in the gas. She won't feel a thing. Not as the temperature drops, not as her body slips into a deep, deep sleep.

It's going to be a long ride.

:fluttershbad:

It does!

Take my upvote, ya son of a bitch!

(Also, on a sidenote, surprised at the lack of Double Entendre jokes like in your last Sad-Fic.

Also, were you by any chance listening to Space Oddity by any chance while writing this?)

God dammit, I didn't think I would cry like this. T_T

GG, Rust. GG.

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