It has been almost fifty years since Equestria's first rocket. Not content with merely expanding to the stars, Equus has since consolidated their efforts into URSA - the Unified Royal Science Agency - to discover if ponykind is truly alone in the galaxy.
Unfortunately for the crew of a lone freighter, they find themselves unwittingly answering URSA's question when their freighter crashes on an alien world teeming with life. Staying put and waiting for rescue would have been easy, except for one small problem: they're not the only intelligent life on this planet.
Stranded and with no guidebook to fall back on, things can only go so well for them before they start falling apart.
About updates: Unwitting Pioneer is going to be my first story ever that I hope to complete, so expect updates to take a while to complete!
Also, thanks to the following people for their help in this endeavor of mine:
Mixtape; for giving me encouragement, Chyre; for their pre-reading help, Anon3mous1 and M127; for their help in turning the description and blurb from incoherent ramblings into something that I would never have been able to come up with.
Equestrian spaceships making first contact? I don't think I've read that one before. 👀
9909125
I'll do my best to not disappoint!
hyped
9910326
Thank you for your honest feedback!
9910401
Owo
And then they realize they crashed in New Jersey... "WE'RE DOOMED!!! OH FAUST, WE'RE SO F'D!! EVERYPONY TAKE YOUR RAINBOW FRIENDSHIP CYANINDE PILLS BEFORE SNOOKIE FINDS US!!"
New Jersey's terrifying reputation has spread far and wide among all galaxies...
I'm hooked so far. One thing I might mention is that the shift from Astral to Nights POV and back is a bit abrupt - it took me a minute to switch gears at that part.
9925850
Noted! I'll do less of that next time!
Well, starship crashing, marooned on an unknown planet, no sure help on the way and the MC character shutting down, it's on a good start so far, looking forward to see more of this story. Keep up the good work.
Astral's kind of a bitch.
A radio transmitter broadcasting a simple, but clearly artificial, signal shouldn't be hard to cobble together.
They just need a power source, an oscillator, a rectifier, an amplifier, and an antenna. The components are pretty simple and should be found in their electronics in abundant quantities.
If they can find some clear quartz crystals to shape to a desired size which they can use to modulate the frequency production, they're good to go!
I'll use magical telepathy to mind-mail them this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_oscillator
Damn that fic is starting to remind me of Rimworld . Next thing you know they are harvesting a Prisoner's lung to replace their's that got crushed by a mad Squirrel. Really starting to appreciate the thing.
9910928
100% agree with that!
9910326
I rather remember some movies from back in the '60s of a version of Jules Verne-type stories that featured steampunk spaceships--nice dark wooden panels with their brass fittings.
Yeah, those were so cool! That style really would do amazingly well in the Equestrian space program!
9976730 Soon, I shall rule New Jersey... and then the world!
Which will become New Jersey...
9964949
Like Alondro said. And that said, most of all that should still be inside the ship as part of their comm system where it would have been better protected from getting crushed in the crash.
The only things that should need replacing are the antenna, transmission line that feeds the signal from the final amplifier to the dish, and perhaps any passive components that might be required to modify the signals at the antenna--such as band pass filters that were mounted on the dish.
Most of that last set wouldn't necessarily be needed for transmitting outgoing distress signals, but are more useful for picking out weak signals from background noise on the receiver--not essential for calling for help, but they are rather useful to let you know if and when help should ever arrive--(also such might be useful let you know where to point the dish rather than hoping someone will pick up an omnidirectional broadcast).
9979316 They also need some coconuts... as we all learned from "Gilligan's Island" that coconuts are an ESSENTIAL part of any electronic equipment!
9980734
Indeed!
Gosh I forgot that thing even existed , good to see it's still a thing , and a good one at that !
10084649
I guess I need to update more then! D:
We need to escalate this thing! Quickly!
(throws in 50 government agencies who all show up simultaneously and start fighting over which one gets to dissect the aliens)
Glad to see it's still alive there's not enough good Space Adventures
