It was the 22nd Century. Decades before, a vicious Cold War had threatened every life on Earth. After an arduous period of recovery, the world had finally united to support a mission of peace. The intrepid crew of the science vessel The Radiant Hope had become the first known Earthly Creatures to arrive at the distant world of Saturn. Their historic voyage was an international effort of cooperation broadcast around the globe. This work is a first-hoof retelling of those historic moments as recounted by the ship's pilot, Jupiter Rising. The words herein stand as her perspective on the historical record. They are shared with the intention to shed light on this incredible adventure and preserve its details for future generations.
This is a six chapter short story in my own Victory Universe. It was written and submitted for a Science Fiction Contest, where it won an award for "Best Use of the Voyager Recording". This is a self-contained work. No prior reading is required.
Wow, the buildup from the beginning to the scene where the stallion first appeared on the ship in the spaceship had me on the edge of my seat! Good stuff! Also, Knowledge is Magic it seems
Looking forward to reading more in the Victoryverse!
11170500
I'm glad you like it! I'm looking forward to writing more!
And yes, I suppose knowledge can indeed be magic!
Thanks for commenting!
ooh, really love the implications that "Theologian" has here. right up my alley!
it really is! great bit of a mundane accident causing an unexpected result, giving this world and its happenings a more realistic feel.
a great start! Odyssey definitely has the feel of a canon Princess, with all of the weight of being an immortal magical goddess-queen while still very much able to participate in adventures at the frontiers of Equestria as a down-to-earth equal to her colleagues. and the setup of what i take to be the mystery central to the story, the unexpected signals from Titan, being glossed over by the main characters, who come into the story with their own goals and expectations. hitting that home with the message from Mission Control was a great touch.
sucks.
with a fic of original characters in an original setting far removed from the context of the canon Equestria we know, there was a lot of exposition to get through in order to get us readers up to speed with the technical parameters of the characters' situation, not to mention their own backgrounds, skills, and fears that they are bringing to it. i was very impressed with how well this passage managed to communicate so much of this information in a dialogue that felt natural, providing just enough context for the in-world details for the reader to keep up without feeling overwhelmed. i was impressed!
and i didn't mention it before but replacing "man" in standard English phrases with "mare" will never fail to tickle me, so i'm loving this
so true!
aww, loved this bit! very equine
haha, love this banter
very well-executed action sequence, this!
from a physics perspective, a literal reading of Celestia's powers does seem to be very out of proportion with the abilities of, well, every other source of magical energy in Equestria. really fun to explore this, and to see a science-minded pony's perspective of it growing up under Her Equestria, if only for a moment
a very classic SF feel, of realizing the ship's buoyancy and using it to escape.
aww, adorable!
ah, a lovely bit of poniness here, very fun. also, very mysterious!
very amusing that this is how Jupiter rules out the hypothesis of having been in a giant mouth
loving these dramatics. Jupiter is so fun!
oof, that is creepy!
hey it's the title of this fic! but yes, both a reference to the real-world Voyager recording
well, that is not very cash money of them!
always a thing to be careful around. for what it's worth, i did not get any weird vibes from what i read, and a non-con tag was the furthest thing from my mind. and seeing what gets put in that tag around here, oof! even in your original version i think you'd have been better off without the tag but with a warning about an unapproved face-sucking and a tying-up of a shark pony, if you wanted to cover all your bases. (though honestly, that is going above and beyond what is expected by the average fic reader, i think!)
and yes, very interesting developments in this chapter! can't wait to see where this goes
dang, that is rude!
love it
would hate for this guy to find out about French, or German, or any other language that uses the same pronoun for second person plural and formal second person singular!
very fun perspective of a character from a genderless society
now this gets into what it actually means to magically absorb a language. where does the instant understanding of concepts end?
as someone who misses being in university, this is my dream!
a very fun contrast to the earlier theme of historical moments passing without sayings of such gravity being uttered
it really is fascinating, the little slices of Prince Razorfin's world and culture feels oddly like Equestria's Equestria: a lot of bizarrely coïncidental cultural overlap (degree programs), a sense of species- and feudalism-inflected whimsy in their titles and social structure, and a complete absence of certain concepts and societal issues (in this case, all of gender). in that way, i do find it very fitting as a first encounter for the Equestrians. nicely done!
steampunk space pirate shark ponies, what a concept! also, civilizations being able to begin space travel at a technology level much lower than what we humans needed reminds me of Turtledove's "The Road Not Taken", which is exactly the kind of stuff i love
love the flipped perspective on this, as well as casually calling belief in Celestia's powers being "religious"
really love the Chekov's saliva being picked up here
ooh, a nice deduction
that explains the Prince lingering on the name earlier, very nice
yay, Princess titles!
love the name! also makes me think of Culture ship naming conventions
hehehe, Celestite
very poetic! and a very classic SF ending that also merges well with the lessons and themes of MLP itself. really loving seeing Odyssey continuing on the alicorn tradition of turning foreign species into pony allies through the magic of friendship, or in this case, mutual self-interest and diplomacy.
really loved the tale overall, and how well it sold me on its original characters and settings so far removed from the canon setting, while still retaining a lot its elements, and even more impressively, its themes and feel. Jupiter and Odyssey and their interactions were an absolute delight, and i loved how the resolution brings up so many intriguing questions about the past as well as exciting possibilities about the future, which is really an excellent way for a science fiction story to end.
it is heartbreaking to see that this fic got little attention on its first go, an artifact of being a long OC story from an unknown author, and i hope that did not discourage you from your plans. i really loved the read, and can tell that you are a very skilled writer, and am excited to see what else you might have in store. thank you so much for writing this!