//------------------------------// // Welcome Home! // Story: Houston, We're Coming Home // by EpicBG //------------------------------// Buzz watches in awe as he sees Neil return from the barren wasteland of darkness with a small pony walking by his side. Floating around her is several large rocks, each shrouded in a bright blue glow. She waves to him and he gawks back at her, stupefied. Neil motions for her to stop, he taps his hand on a silver plaque which reads, “HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON JULY 1969, A.D. WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND” Neil then points to the Earth behind them. Luna nods, and telepathically says, “Let us aboard thine metal contraption, we are so very cold.” Luna drops the moon rocks on the floor in a small stack. She turns around to close the hatch, but Neil frantically waves his hands and shakes his head as best he can inside of the encumbering suit. Luna raises her brow, then silently sighs and trots into the ship. “We’ll talk later.” Buzz says to Neil through the microphone. An hour and forty-three minutes pass while Neil and Buzz do various experiments such as testing soil, searching for water, and finding any additional life. The reinforced metal door silently slams shut behind them when they return and take their helmets off. “We art glad that thee hast listened to our pleas for help.” Luna looks at Neil, and then glares at Buzz. “Thou, on the other hoof…” She scoffs and turns her head upwards. “Hey,” She ignores him. “Hey, uhm…” “Thou may call us by our title: Princess.” Buzz rolls his eyes and looks at the pony. “Princess,” he begins. “How was I supposed to know that you were stranded on the moon? I mean, we’ve never been here before.” He moves his arm out towards one of the plexiglas window. “, And it’s not exactly what any of us Earth-folk would call… survivable.” “Thou dost have a point, however we still wish for an apology, Human.” Luna raises her right hoof up into the air and closes her eyes. Buzz looks to Neil, who is stifling back his laughter. “I hate you so much right now…” He murmurs to himself before kneeling down and planting a kiss on the frozen cold hoofshoe. When he brings his head back, he realizes that his lips are stuck to it and says as best he can, “Uhm, a little help, Princess?” Luna opens her eyes and, much to her surprise, sees Buzz stuck to her hoof. She smiles before her horn glows and giggles when Buzz yelps in pain. “How’d you do that?!” “With our magic…?” Buzz’s eye twitches. “What do you mean ‘magic’, that’s not possible! Magic does not exist! You are not supposed to be possible! STOP BEING IMPOSSIBLE! AGH!” Buzz grips his head in agony as he tries to sort through his pained thoughts. “And what are we going to do about the extra weight, huh, Neil? The ship was designed for two people and some moon rocks, not two people, a pony, and some moon rocks.” “Take less rocks?” Neil suggests. “I don’t think you understand! We. Can. Not. Bring. Her. Home. She is an alien, and she’ll cause nothing but problems back home! She is extra weight that we simply can’t carry!” “Shut up! Just give me a goddam moment to think! There has to be a way that we can do this, we can’t just leave her there! Luna is much more important than these stupid rocks!” Neil kicks the stack of moon rocks next to him. “Just because it was designed for two people doesn’t mean it’s incapable of holding more than that.” “You’re insane if you think that we can get back to Mike, and even if we can, we don’t know how everybody back home will react! Do you realize how paranoid everybody is?” “What is the worst that could happen?” Neil says with a scoff. “They cut her open, and take a look at her insides.” “That will not happen, we can take care of ourselves.” “Buzz, just listen to me. I’ve got a gut feeling that this’ll work out. Please believe me?” “Fine, but if we don’t make it, I’m not hesitating to eat you when we run out of food.” Neil couldn’t tell if Buzz was kidding or not. “Speaking of food, let’s go get dinner – beef stew or cream of chicken soup?” Luna looks at Neil with a combination of shock and confusion in her eyes. “Thine kind eats… chicken and bovines?” “Uhh… you don’t?” “How could thee! Those were living creatures, with feelings, and –“ “Luna. Humans are omnivorous. That’s just the way we are. We could be purely vegetarians like ponies, but it isn’t as easy.” “What dost thee mean by ‘easy’?” “Meat is just easier to get.” “We feel it is going to be very difficult to adjust to thine outlandish culture… have thee anything to eat that is not meat?” Neil and Buzz both shake their heads. “Ugh.” ----- With all of the noises, barely any of the three get any sleep. "Tranquility Base, Tranquility Base, Houston. Over." Neil eagerly answers, "Good morning, Houston. Tranquility Base. Over." “Tranquility Base, it’s time to rendezvous with Colombia. Get yourselves together, over. “Tranquility rogers.” “I can’t believe we’re actually doing this. If we don’t make it…” Buzz says. “Three. Two. One. Ignition! We’re on our way, Houston.” “Roger that Eagle, you’re lookin’ good.” Under Neil’s careful hand, he guides the LEM upwards from the lunar surface and Mike successfully re-docks it with the Colombia. Neil, Buzz, and Luna climb out of the Eagle and into the Colombia, it’s a very tight fit with all of the stuff, but they manage. Mike guides the CSM to sling around the moon, using its gravity for forward momentum to get back to Earth. Mike performs a burn to escape the moon’s orbital pull and looks at his side towards Luna. She smiles at him and says, “It is nice to see you in person, Michael.” “You too, Luna. Though, you’re a bit smaller than I thought you’d be.” Mike says jokingly. “So, you’re a Princess, Luna? How did that come to be?” Mike asks. “Long ago, our s-sister and us…” Luna begins to trail off. She takes a deep breath through her nose to try and stop the oncoming torrent of tears from forming in her eyes. In no time, the memories are dripping down her face and floating around the ship for all to see. Mike wraps his arm behind her neck, and pats her back caringly while gently rocking side to side as if consoling a small child. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to -“ He tilts his neck towards the ceiling, indicating a cupboard to Neil. Inside of the cupboard were stacks of grey cubes. Neil turns around to look at Mike, who was nodding slowly. Inside of the bag was a brick of brittle, tricolored, freeze-dried ice cream. “It’s all my fault,” Luna moans. “She probably hates us now.” “Who?” Mike courageously implores. Luna sniffs back tears and says in a near whisper, “Our sister, ‘Tia.” Neil wraps his spare arm around Luna to further comfort her. The tears cease into quiet sniffles as Luna opens her eyes. “Dost thou know how long it has been since we have last heard the voice of another? Been hugged? Eaten something? Breathed air?!” Mike tightens his grip around Luna as she begins getting louder, then she whimpers into his shoulder. Luna looks up to him to see shaking his head side to side. “We do not either.” ----- Some time the next day, Neil and Luna are sharing the generous supply of neapolitan flavored astronaut’s ice cream with each other while Mike is comfortably sitting in his pilot’s chair. Luna likes vanilla, but doesn’t mind strawberry. Neil has always liked old-fashioned chocolate. Buzz groans as he finally comes to. “How was the nap, sleeping beauty?” Mike taunts. He gets a grunt as an answer. Buzz floats over to Neil and Luna, grabs an unopened foil covered brick of freeze-dried ice cream, and looks at Luna intently before cracking the cube into bite sized pieces. “Hey.” “Hello.” “I - I wanted to say that I’m sorry,” he takes a deep breath. “For everything.” Buzz looks down to hide his face in shame. Luna’s horn glows cyan and she teleports the short distance into Buzz’s arms. “We whole-heartedly accept thine apology, Buzz.” “Oh, uh, one thing, Luna? “ “Hmm?” “You’ve gotta’ cool it with that ‘magic’ of yours, ‘cause when we come back to earth, your looks alone are gonna’ be enough to scare some people. No offense, but you don’t entirely look like you belong on earth.” ----- A boom shakes the entire ship as the service module detaches from the CSM. “Hey, take your seats, everybody. We’re about to hit the atmosphere, and it’s gonna get bumpy, and kinda’ hot.” Luna cringes at the mention of heat. With there only being three seats, she uses her magic to restrain herself to the floor while Buzz and Neil leap into their seats and click on the restraints. The temperature had gotten fairly hot for the three astronauts, their brows beginning to form thin layers of sweat. For Luna, the heat was excruciating compared to the frigid moon temperatures she had been forced to endure for so long. Luna screeches in pain all the way down. When the shuttle splashes into the water, she stops and gasps desperately for air. The hatch opens, revealing a flimsy orange boat. Luna flew out of the ship, eager to stretch her wings and feel fresh air for the first time in thousands of years. A man in a black diver suit falls backwards into the water, his eyes bug out of his goggles in surprise; Luna giggles and pulls him out, she shutters at the familiar sensation of cold water. “Hi.” She says. The man waves a gloved hand to her, then pulls Mike out of the now cooled hatch. “Luna, please try to be more careful.” Mike shouts up to the ecstatic mare. Her wings gracefully cut through the air, entrancing Mike. “We apologize, we suppose that we lose control of ourselves for a moment. It just feels so wonderful to be back, even if everything is so very different.” Luna follows the statement with a backflip through the air. The helicopter lifted up the astronauts one by one, waiting inside of it was a, older, well-suited gentleman with a not-so-subtle comb-over. “Gentlemen, and, uh, pony… welcome home!” They all shake hands and hooves while the helicopter roars overhead, cutting through the sky. In a minute’s time, they land on a large naval ship and are rushed into the medical wing for examination. Buzz, Neil, and Mike are all checked out and deemed well. Neil sees Luna’s horn glow when one of the many people in white scrubs holds up an empty needle in his hand. “Luna, let them do whatever they want. They will not hurt you, I promise!” A brief screech echoes down the metal corridors of the ship, and Neil hears Luna shout in an unbelievably loud voice, “HOW DARE THEE! WE ARE A PRINCESS AND DEMAND TO BE TREATED AS SUCH!” ----- After coming to the conclusion that Luna isn’t dangerous, she is placed in the quarantine along with the other three astronauts. “Luna, see that man over there?” Buzz points to a man wearing a black suit and red tie. “He’s our president, kind of like a king.” Luna nods. “Hello, boys and… alien!” “Hello, Mr. President.” Luna pushes Mike’s head away from the window and inspects President Nixon. “Take us to your leader, earthling!” Luna smiles and giggles as the three astronauts behind her cringe. “I am the leader, sweetie.” “Oh. Our name is Luna, by the way. Not ‘Alien’!” Mister Nixon nods. The president looks towards the microphone, and says, “Welcome home everybody! First, I’m sorry to have to say this, but you’re going to have to stay in there for quite a while. We don’t know what else could have been hiding up there on the moon.” He looks down at the window and smiles to Luna before going on with his speech. ”Well, this bites. I wonder we going to be in here?” Buzz whispers. ”We do not know, however there may be a way that we can fix that.” Luna’s aqua rimmed eyes close shut in focus; her horn’s glow encompasses the small room in bright blue – blinding Neil, Mike, and Buzz. A second later the hatch creeks open and a man in a suit reaches his arm in to help Luna out. “Luna, what did you just do?!” Neil asks, his voice cracking on ‘what’. “Time travel spell, we big thee not to panic.” She telepathically broadcasts to the three men as she flies into the air, buzzing around happily. “Wait, what?! No, I’m not letting this one slide.” Buzz says. “Aw, fewmets… Fine, thee hast gotten us. It was not really a time travel spell. We simply… altered all of our perception of time to make the time pass faster. No harm hast been done, we assure thee. Art thee happy now?” The three men each say a different variant of ‘yes’ aloud. ”Good.” Luna hovers in between Buzz and Neil as they all slowly work their way towards a large helicopter. She declines a ride in it and instead opts to fly alongside the metal contraption. “Just watch out for the blades.” The pilot says. Luna looks up at the sharp metal slivers and stretches her wings again before taking to the sky. ------ The convertible hums with life underneath Luna and Neil. Posters above that read ‘Welcome home!’ line the crowded New York streets as multicolored confetti rains from the sky. Luna sits in the back seat with an enormous smile plastered on her face while she’s waving at the people sprinting to keep up with their car’s moderate pace. Children line the streets, some sitting down on the sidewalks, others hoping up and down in excitement – everybody is grinning ear to ear. The sound of clapping and a catchy tune played by the deft hands of uniformed marching bands echoes down the streets as people (and automobiles) from all walks of life crowd the streets – men in business suits, dancing cheerleaders, teenagers wearing dirt laden T-shirts, and official looking police officers. When the people begin to thin out, Neil bends forward and whispers something into the driver’s ear while brandishing a tenner. The driver wordlessly nods after grabbing the bill out from Neil’s hand; the car turns down a side street, leaving behind the virtually dead parade. With a screech, the car comes to an abrupt stop outside of a small building. A red flashing sign reads ‘OPEN’ in big, welcoming letters. Neil and Luna both take seats on opposite sides of a booth seat table. When the waitress comes by, Neil orders a tuna melt for himself, and watches as Luna eyes the floating menu in front of her. “Uhm… a garden salad? Please.” Luna points at the picture of a salad. The blonde waitress jots down the orders on a small notepad with a pencil and walks away towards the counter to deliver the small slip of yellow paper. Other people at the diner watch as ’The Alien’ levitates a forkful of salad into her mouth. “What?” she asks. They all look away, trying to avoid eye contact with her entirely. Luna looks to Neil with her lip quivering in a pout. Neil shrugs. “Give it some time.” He smiles before finishing the last bite of his sandwich. The speakers overhead cut out into static before beginning to play a song that piques Luna’s interest. Neil recognizes Frank Sinatra’s deep baritone voice and begins humming along to the song. Fly me to the moon Let me play among the stars Let me see what spring is like On a-Jupiter and Mars In other words, hold my hand In other words, baby, kiss me Luna places the fork down, as she’s just about to take another bite; her dark coat turns pink in a bright blush when she hears the lyric. Neil closes his eyes, and adjusts his hat to cover his eyes before singing along quietly in deep mumbles. Fill my heart with song And let me sing for ever more You are all I long for All I worship and adore In other words, please be true In other words, I love you By now, Neil’s singing aloud surprisingly well. Luna listens to Neil and Frank Sinatra’s voices intertwine into an amazing duet-like piece. Fill my heart with song Let me sing for ever more You are all I long for All I worship and adore In other words, please be true In other words, in other words I love you Neil and Luna laugh as the song comes to an end. Neil leaves enough money on the table to cover the check, and a generous tip for the polite, young waitress. ----- A/N: No, I am not shipping Luna, do not even say it! I know that you’re thinking it! What lovely but absolutely ridiculous sentiment! [/Chryssie]