//------------------------------// // Chapter 1- it's not easy to leave the planet // Story: Twilight's odyssey // by Ixioxp //------------------------------// Twilight slowly walked towards the throne room.Even after being princes for soo many years she still was scared. From what she read in the letter Celestia was angry with her new "project" and the amount of money she requested. She could understand that but if Celestia was summoning her for an audience she was really angry. As twilight got cold sweet from her thoughts spike said "Twilight is everything ok, what even was in that letter that made you so scared" Twilight looked at spike twitching "Celestia" she gulped "summoned me for an audience" spike looked at her questioningly "that much I know but why are you scared it's not the first time" as he said it twilight got closer to him her eyes widening "spike, Celestia called me because of the project what if she got angry or maybe she will take my castle or she will banish me to the moon for insulting her!-"as she started to list all worst-case scenarios spike grabbed her with both of his claws "twilight calm down, do you really think that Celestia would call you just because she got angry and if she would want to say no she would just write a letter with a simple "no" " Twilight slightly calmed down "thank you spike" as she said it they stopped. in front of them was a big golden door. Twilight after performing the breading exercise she learned soo many years ago opened the door walking towards Celestia sitting on her throne "how do you do Twilight, please let us go to better place for talking," she said standing up from her throne "I hope that my sudden invitation hasn't scared you Twilight" Twilight looked at her while a drop of sweat dripped from her forehead "I'm great Princes and Not at all" "not at all," she said as she looked away. Celestia grinned at her pupil "good to hear that twilight," she said as she was going through a back door "do you need a special invitation or are you going to go with me," she said "NO NO NO I'm coming," Twilight said quickly catching up to Celestia, which chuckled at twilight's response. Right now the three of them were sitting in one of the many Celestia's chambers siping tea which spike made with tea leaves and tea set provided by Celestia. As Twilight finished drinking her tea, Celestia put her down "tea tastes much better since I dropped sugar for arsenic, I would never believe that it was soo sweet" with twilight almost dropped her 5000-year-old teacup as she started to contemplate " was asking for more money that insulting" "ach... don't worry Twilight there are some perks from being an alicorn, but spike would be better if he would clean his hands after sweetening or tea" he was already doing this "Soo twilight tell me, why, why do you want to build next observatory you already have the best one in Equestria," Celestia said this already knowing twilights answer "because of the clouds and atmosphere blocking of the light of the dimmer stars" Celestia took another sip of her tea in congratulations for her deduction of twilights needs, which made twilight cringe, "so my student, simply said, you want to see stars beater" Twilight looked at her not knowing is she serious or not "Yes That's the point" "but you know that no matter what you still not going to see all of them" Twilight looked at her not sure in which direction does this talk goes "I know but-" she was interrupted "So what do you think about building a station beyond the atmosphere, and more concretely rater that just looking at the stars why not go there" as Celestia said it Twilight jaw dropped "What are you, suggesting Princes?" Twilight said with unsure voice, Celestia lowed to tease her pupil "I'm suggesting what you heard, a space program, with full government support but what most important under your 100% control" with those words twilight jaw dropped even lower "bu-ut are you sure I d-don't know if I can take this responsibility" Celestia grimed "Twilight my faithful student" she looked deep into her eyes "I'm sure, you have been ponyville's ruler for last 3 elections and de-facto you abolished democracy there" Twilight shifted in her seat "No! I didn't" Celestia glanced at her with an accusing manner "welllll maybe a little..." as Twilight said this an amused smirk appeared on Celestia's face "good Twilight, you will have an unlimited amount of funds, but I expect you to make a sub-orbital flight in a year," Celestia said this just to give Twilight an additional motivation and apparently it worked. Twilight stood from her seat and said "I won't disappoint you Princess" after she said it as she teleported herself to her castle to start working on her new appointment "Take care of her spike and please, keep her from not sleeping all night" after few seconds she added "you can use the balcony if you want" Spike turned to her as she stopped him from trying to navigate through the labyrinth-like castle. It's been few mounts since the talk with Celestia, Twilight spent most of her time commanding the best crafts-ponies in building the space centre and in modernising ponyville so it could support the centre. Her second main work involved studying aerodynamics and formulating an "solidified magic theory" so the new rockets could have some more advanced propulsion that hot air or simple telekinetic battery engines used by aeroplanes as both of them wouldn't work in no atmosphere scenario. At the same time, spike tried to fulfil his part of the job by keeping twilight from going insane like the time she tried to travel through time, but apparently twilight learned her lesson back then, even with so many new responsibilities she would still hang on with her old friends, she would even sometimes take rainbow dash for a daylong balloon rides, at times when she got her wings broken which started acquiring more often over time, but still twilight's life wost mostly focused on her goal. Perfectly on the deadline, everything was finished, lunch pad, mission control, well-tested rocket... It was finally the time. Twilight was ready, she was sitting in her rocket in a space suit of her own design with slight touches from rarity "all systems nominal" she said again not believing what she was about to do "WE ARE READY PRINCES TWILIGHT... THIRTY SECONDS TO LAUNCH ... " she sighted at the robotic voice of the intercom, she still needed to work on this "please during this mission doesn't call me princess, I'm the blind one here," she said looking at her artificial horizon and her little magically-reinforced window her only insight into the outside world. "YES PR- TWILIGHT ... TWENTY SECONDS TO LAUNCH ... Twilight imagined the thousands of ponies looking at the television or even more of them just listening to a radio, everybody waiting for the magical words which would signal that their beloved Princes embarked for a journey to where nopony ever was. "TEN SECONDS TO LAUNCH"a voice said twilight constantly trembling and shifting in her seat "STARTING COUNTDOWN... NINE... EIGHT... SEVEN... SIX..." twilight placed one of her trembling forehowes on the lever which controlled trust and another one on the bottom which would start the engines, the robotic voice spoke again "FIVE... FOUR... THREE" Twilight wasn't like that since the day of her entry exam, her coat drenched from her sweat, her howes trembling, her heart beating like she ate an entire bag of coffee. "TWO... ONE..." Twilight started to freak out, what if the fuel won't break down into pure magic, or what if she lifts off but the rocked exploded not just would she be a failure but she would be probably dead, but she can't die... right... "ZERO, LUNCH" Twilight got herself together and pulled the lever as it hit the max trust she quickly pressed the "lunch" bottom. After a longest second in Twilight's life, a great force pushed her to the seat "LIFT OFF" She did it, all of her thoughts left her head leaving only one... happiness "TWILIGHT TRUST DOWN TO 1/2 AND CHANGE THE ANGLE" Twilight pushed the lever to said position and looked at the artificial horizon, a yellow dot appeared, she quickly adjusted her angle using the gyroscopes and fins on the side of the rocked. the flight took few minutes of adjusting angles and jettisoning of stages of the rocket until the voice spoke "TWILIGHT WE HAVE ORBIT" she quickly turned off the engines as she said " Congratulations guys you all did a great job" as she said this she could hear cheers and hoofs clapping, twilight smiled she picked up the camera with her magic and she attached the save cable to her back, she opened the hatch, with a swiss all the air got out she removed the belt that kept her attached to her chair, she could feel herself slowly drifting off in 0-G environment " committing EVA," she said and waited for a few second until mission control spoke "REAQUEST ACCEPTED... TAKE THE CAMERA IT'S A HISTORICAL MOMENT!" she quickly grabbed one of the handles pushing herself out of the ship, she just watched as she looked through the camera, what she saw was stunning, below her was entire Equestria all she could hear through radio was single "WOW" she didn't have anything more to say, she could only imagine everyponies faces as they saw the same through the TV with that view as an inspiration she said "we may command the world, we may be its masters but still, we will always be just fleas" Twilit turned the rocked to decelerate and with few seconds of full thrust, rockets trajectory was perfectly going through the higher atmosphere just enough so the pod would slow down without heating up to fast, with this twilight cut off the last stage leaving just the command module and a heat shield one of the few elements of the ship that had nothing to do with magic, she gave the last glance at the stars and she said to herself "I will come back to you my dears". after an hour twilight started feeling the drag created by the atmosphere slowing her down she waited thinking "there's nothing to fear... there's nothing to fear..." but still no matter how many times she repeated those four words her breathing got faster and she could fell her sweat on tips of her hair until she heard the robotic voice of the radio "TWILIGHT, OPEN THE PARASHOUTS" as the mission control said she did, the drag increased and after few seconds out of nowhere she could feel herself being pushed with such force that she that she would puke but after few seconds she was good. she was falling like this for some more time until she heard her pod hitting the ground she heard the radio "TWILIGHT...SHOULD I CALL YOU PRINCES NOW? " Twilight sighed and said "if you really want to" after she said that she opened the hatch, she was in the middle of the dragon lands "PRINCES PLEASE CONFIRM YOU POSITION" she looked at the console, she gives them her coordinates and close the hatch. she relaxed and waited for extraction.