//------------------------------// // Chapter 9: Derpy Space Program // Story: Ad Astra Per Derpy Aspera // by SparklingTwilight //------------------------------// Derpy was in more pain than she had ever been in. And then it passed. She looked down and saw blood, clotted up like a ripe fruit, and something else. She faded in and out of consciousness, and remembered how she'd helped the space program. Doctor Hooves set taut lines for the catapult. "I have placed titanium-entwined restraints here--" "Titani-what?" she asked. "Titanium, my dear Derpy." She smiled at the affectation even though the Doctor called many of his friends 'dear'. Still, for Derpy, it felt special when those words were directed at her. "Minotaurs processed this magical physical matter and I acquired it by trading something they considered of equal value. It is extremely strong. Its tensile strength should provide you power to travel sufficiently aloft, if aimed at a particular angle. And that is why we are atop this hill." Derpy looked around the green fields, then back at the catapult. She tugged at the leather straps of her head padding. "This smells like cow," she commented. "The straps also came from minotaurs." "Oh," she nodded. The Doctor, who may not have known, didn't tell her how minotaurs flayed criminals and processed them into useful materials. Derpy only achieved the edge of the troposphere and flew away when her vertical motion was arrested. "Was it what you expected?" she asked. Doctor Hooves pondered. "We're going to need auto-propulsion." Doctor Hooves sought investment and received it. And he developed a rocket. A powerful blast of energy that could propel a pony to great heights. Derpy Hooves strapped a rocket to her back. "This is fine. It weighs less than my afternoon postal run!" "Capital!" Doctor Hooves smiled and shook her hoof. The flashbacks were coming out of order. Derpy leaned forward and listened to the Doctor pontificate. It was the first time they tested, loaded high on hot chocolate, a dash of honey mead, and special muffins. Dinky was away at a sleepover with Featherweight and his parents knew where to find Derpy if anything went wrong. And Doctor Hooves knew where to find Dinky if anything happened to Derpy. Still, she'd been vacillating on whether to take the risk for a while. She'd watched the test rockets go up and blow up. The last few hadn't though. Derpy was smiling. She finished her last chewy muffin and she whispered, "I'll do it." "What, Dear?" "I'll do it! Dear..." "... what?" "What you've got out back. The prototype." "The Super-Tensile Device for Star-Launching." "Yep!" Derpy stumbled to her feet, then she flapped her wings and raced to an open window, and flapped through it. "Last one there's a spoiled muffffffffin!" "We should wait until we're not so... wired," Doctor Hooves said. "I can fly away if it launches bad. You said it needs a pegasus!" "Think of Dinky," Doctor Hooves recalled Derpy's daughter. Derpy sniffed. "You said this was safe. And you needed me tonight. Me." "Very well," Doctor Hooves blinked. "I'll operate the bellows." Soon, he was jumping up and down on the bellows, pumping tension upon tension into the trampolinelike Super-Tensile Star-Launching Device. "Now, stand perfectly still until I'm done inflating this and, oops." The Doctor dropped something and accidentally unlatched the hook with his shoulder as he bent down to retrieve it. He looked back up and Derpy was gone. The Super-Tensile Star-Launching Device decompressed and its occupant had ascended high into the sky with an "Ooops!" "Bother!" The Doctor smacked one of his hooves against his forehead, according to what he later told Derpy. "I really should have given her this altimeter." He clutched his dropped tool and peered into the darkness where he couldn't see much of anything. "Also, I need to add some lighting to flood the area with luminescence. Flood lighting. Yes... Yes." After she made her way back, the two of them laughed over the mishap and they repeated the experiment several days later with an altimeter. Even though Derpy's launch had fallen far short of their goal, the point of the testing was to determine just how high she could be launched with these particular mechanics--to take the concept as far as it could go and then to iterate. A sort of trebuchet was tried, and Derpy, violently propelled, ascended and vigorously flapped her wings to attain angled liftoff but the added boost just wasn't enough. Eventually, the Doctor settled on rockets. Chemical combustion. Many of his rockets exploded ignominiously--thankfully without a pony strapped to them. Derpy's conception of what happened was fragmented, informed by Doctor Hooves' recollection and her own mind knitting together the interstices. Doctor Hooves' friend Roseluck managed procurement. Her time working in the flower shop with her sisters had schooled her in supply and demand. She slicked back her blood-red mane and stuck her snout in the air. "No, Doctor," her whiny voice asserted. "Nothing on market is stronger than the minotaurs' titanium. I'll have them send three of their purest dalmatian-forged pieces." "Isn't that a type of diamond dog?" "Right. Dalmatian diamond dogs are the finest titaniummongers." "Fascinating. How do you know?" "Floral merchants travel and pick up wonderful tchotchkes, from Tamagotchis to tiddlywinks to titanium and all kinds of kitsch. Somepony has to make arrangements." "I see, I see. How did I ever come to be so blessed to have you at my side?" "Because you're such a kind, handsome stallion," she winked. He beamed and went back to his work. She rolled her eyes, then strolled over and stroked his hindquarters. "You're going to be the envy of everypony when you perfect this project. It's your best." "No, no, no." He shook his head. "The Time Altering Really Dashing Interdimensional Separator is my capstone. But it doesn't work." "This is a better use of your time." "If only we had access to radium..." "But we don't have that... hypothesized element, regardless of whatever bizarre news my sisters passed to you, so let's focus on what works." "Griffon scientists are working on it--" "And they'll never trade their research away. It's all smoke and mirrors." "They're working with Kirinia. We need to see about testing kirin-powered rockets--" "Focus, Doctor. It's time to test your solid-fueled rockets on a pony. Distractions are your bane. Really, you're helpless without me. I cannot fathom why you wasted time with that pegasus testing launch concepts that made absolutely no sense. If I'd been back from my trip, you'd have saved months." "I needed to understand the alternatives. And their mechanics. Are you ready to test?" "No, no, no," Roseluck backed away. "You should bring her back and have her try it." "Who?" "Your blonde test dummy." Doctor Hooves hadn't related Roseluck's precise words, but Derpy suspected Roseluck must have called her that, since she heard her whispering the joke on other occasions. "Derpy!" he nodded. "If something goes wrong, she can fly away. I can't." "An excellent point. Rocketry will provide all ponies the power of flight. But, in these initial tests, we should focus on simplicity. With pegasi pilots, we need worry less about fail-safes like parachutes." "Precisely. I'll get the materials ready." Doctor Hooves hummed and prepared the rocket, strapping it around Derpy's belly and indicating where she could tug to release the equipment. "Okay!" "If anything feels wrong after ignition--tug and detach. Understand?" "Yessir!" Derpy answered in her oft-peppy tone, which always played an octave or two higher when she was near him. Doctor Hooves ignited the wick and raced back to a bunker he prepared. Roseluck joined him there and offered a helmet. "Ingenious," Doctor Hooves commented. "What?" Roseluck asked. "A helmet. I wouldn't have thought--" "Dr. Bore didn't insist on proper safety accoutrements? I remember quite clearly from our University... We attened a few years off from eachother, but still." "The tester should also be wearing one..." Doctor Hooves ignored Roseluck's comment. "She's a pegasus. Shouldn't be a problem." Derpy, hanging in a harness pointed up, hummed as she waited. Doctor Hooves placed the helmet on his head and Roseluck donned hers. After a ding, Doctor Hooves tugged the chain to detach harnesses, which if still attached at the point of ignition could tear apart the test pilot when restraints pulled down while the rocket forced up. Ignition came with a roar. Derpy shot up and the harnesses detached with perfect timing. And the rocket fizzled. Derpy flapped her wings and alighted on the ground, rocket still strapped to her back. "Doctor! I don't know what when wrong--" she said just as the rocket's backup ignition activated, and she went hurtling horizontally. Foliage whipped past and, with her keen pegasus vision, she glimpsed a copse of trees distantly ahead but approaching more rapidly than was safe. She beat her wings and strained for elevation. She succeeded in slightly altering the trajectory and felt the ragged foul kiss of a branch against her belly. She ascended a bit, then the rocket's fuel exhausted and she detached the rocket and made her way back, bleeding and holding her belly. Roseluck volunteered to help her to Nurse Redheart. Doctor Hooves studied data and made his edits. When he wasn't brainstorming, Doctor Hooves visited Derpy in the hospital and cared for her daughter, taking her to school and playing with her until the hospital knit up and discharged Derpy. The scratches had mostly been superficial, but Derpy had lost more blood than ideal--to the extent that losing any blood could be called ideal--and had required a transfusion. Doctor Hooves had gladly given. He was quite compatible with Derpy, it turned out. After emerging from her treatment and spending a few weeks focusing on time with her daughter, Derpy returned in time to try Doctor Hooves' next iteration, the Rocket Mark II, complete with a cushion-padded helmet tested by the rambunctious Cutie Mark Crusaders in a demolition derby--with iterations worn during the event and tossed to be battered in the center of the rink. He also added a fail-safe for the launch. If the harness did not automatically detach, the rocket wouldn't ignite. "You were lucky!" he told Derpy. "You could have been torn apart. I ran the numbers and even miniscule environmental factors could have interfered with my timing in pulling apart the harness restraints." "I'm sure you did the best you could!" "Yes," Doctor Hooves sighed. "And thankfully, you survived. But, ideally you will thrive! I promised Dinky." "That's great." Derpy smiled. "Yes, we'll conduct our experiment safer and slower this time." The next rocket also blew up. Derpy miraculously was propelled into the air while the launch pad was obliterated. She flew clear and although surrounding trees were covered in shrapnel, she had nary a scratch. "We should develop a suit to absorb shrapnel and detritus...", the Doctor speculated. "Not only because of explosions but because space may be dirty. We do receive meteorites. And space is pregnant with asteroids. Yes, yes, you've given me an excellent idea, Derpy." He hugged his test pilot. Roseluck, as usual, sighed and nodded. "Can you provide me the list of materials to source?" "Yes, yes, of course," Doctor Hooves stumbled over to her, and they went over the necessities. Derpy went home and tucked Dinky into her bed, humming a lullaby. "Is Doctor Hooves going to be taking care of me in the future?" "I'll be here for you, Dear. It was just a silly accident--I have them all the time." "Sure, mom," Dinky said. Derpy kissed her daughter on her brow. "I think he likes you." "Does he?" Derpy whispered and backed out of the room, then placed a hoof over her trembling heart. Derpy woke up in a hospital, feeling empty and medicated. She felt her belly and closed her eyes. Something terrible had happened. She'd live. She had a lot to live for. Good deeds to do.