//------------------------------// // Planning Stage // Story: Finding Space // by dancing mop //------------------------------// Pinkie's workshop had undergone a transformation. Most of the junk had been cleared away to the sides of the room, and in the center, a large conference table had been set up, with a blackboard off to one side. Pinkie, Twilight, and Rainbow Dash sat at three of the dozen or more chairs at the table, adjacent to the blackboard. Twilight banged a gavel on the table, announcing, "Hear, hear! The first meeting of the Equestrian Space Exploration Organization has now come to order." Seeing her pink friend's hoof waving enthusiastically in the air, she asked, "Yes, Pinkie, do you have something to add?" "I move to change the name." "What!? Pinkie, what's wrong with the name?" "It's all stuffy and official-sounding and boring. I think we should call it something fun, like..." Pinkie assumed a thoughtful expression, folding her hooves and tapping one on her chin, before springing back into her trademark grin. "The Big Equestrian Space-A-Palooza!" "Pinkie, that's-" "I move to rename this club the Big Equestrian Space-A-Palooza! Do I hear a motion to second?" Pinkie asked, grinning and leaning in close to Rainbow Dash, who remained unfazed. "Pinkie, I'm not gonna second that motion." Rainbow said, crossing her hooves in front of her in annoyance. "Awww, why not?" "Cuz it's not a cool enough name. Plus, why are we doing all the motioney-secondey stuff? We're not a government!" Rainbow demanded, throwing her hooves in the air in impatience. "Rainbow," Twilight chided her friend, "We want to set precedent. This...group...council...board...thing will likely be the governing body responsible for all matters pertaining to space exploration and exploitation." "Ooh!" Pinkie cried excitedly, "We'll be in charge of all the parties!" "Heck, we'll be in charge of everything!" Said Rainbow, "I call being Princess!" "Ooh, and I'm Executive Vice President!" "Vice president? I'm not a president, though." "Twilight can be President. We can rule together, and you'll just have all the ceremonial duties." "Hey! No, I take it back! I'm gonna be Supreme Dictator!" "Girls!" Twilight shouted, rapping the table with a hoof. "I don't think we need to worry about that just yet. Besides, I will be in charge." "What?! No way!" "Aww, why?" "Because, you two have spent the whole meeting whining and arguing about who should have what title." She shrugged, "And besides, I'm already a princess. Maybe this is what I'm supposed to be in charge of." "You know what? Maybe we should worry about this when we have some other ponies to boss around." Said Rainbow, gesturing to the rest of the near-empty table. "You're right." Said Twilight, "Our priority should be getting to a team together to help us. I can use the Royal Treasury to offer up paid positions within the organization." "Ooh, ooh! I can give them cupcakes! Ponies'll do anything for a Pinkie Cupcake!" "I'll just use my natural wit and charm to recruit volunteers." Said Rainbow Dash with a smirk and a toss of her mane. "Very well!" Twilight announced, "That will be our task during the week. We'll meet back here next week, at the same time, and bring along any ponies we can recruit. It'll be just like a homework assignment!" She finished with a squeal of glee. "Um, yeah. A homework assignment," Said Pinkie with a forced grin, while Rainbow Dash made outrageous wretching sounds and pretended to gag. "That'll be...fun." "Well," said Twilight, feigning obliviousness to her friends' lack of enthusiasm, "Now that that's decided, we should start thinking of ways to put all these ponies to work. Do we even know how we're going to make our spacecraft fly?" In the silence that followed, all three ponies found themselves awkwardly looking to the others for an answer. Eventually, Rainbow Dash tentatively raised a hoof. "Rainbow, you have an idea?" Twilight asked with glee. "Uh, yeah. Kinda." Clearing her throat, she continued, "What if we put a bunch of cannons on a little airtight pod thingie? That way, we can get a pony up to space without having to fly themself. We can shoot it up with one of the cannons, and down with another. I know it sounds kinda crazy, but If we build it right, I think we can make it work, and cannons were the only thing that worked up in space." "Hmmm," Said Pinkie Pie, thoughtfully stroking her chin, "It does sound crazy. But a good kind of crazy! I think it could work, if we were reeeeally careful about how much powder we put in the cannons, and put them in juuuust the right places." "I...guess." Said Twilight. She shrugged, and continued, "Well, it's not like we have any other ideas. We will have to figure out a way to slow the craft down, too, but I'm sure having a few more minds to think about it with will help." "Good thinking, Dashie." "Thanks. I guess I'm just that smart." Twilight rolled her eyes and smiled. "Anyway, we should probably get to work on that as soon as next week. We need to get a space probe into orbit, perhaps with a magical construct on board, so we can use it to collect scientific data. We have to know what we're dealing with before we go back up there ourselves." "Hey, good thinking, Twilight." "Thank you, Pinkie. You know, we should probably decide on a name for our group before we start recruiting ponies to work for us." "Pinkie's Splendiferously Spacey Party Club?" "No." "The Radical Space Flyers' Squadron?" "Uh, no." "The Equestrian Space Administration?" "Ooh, Pinkie, that's not bad!" "How about The Equestrian Space Council? It's just the three of us right now, anyway, so we're kinda like a secret-council-type thing." "Yeah! And it's not like we're really administering anything, either." "That's not exactly what that word means, Pinkie," Said Twilight, "But that is a pretty catchy name. And it...somewhat...describes our role accurately." She nodded, picking up her gavel, "Very well! The first meeting of the Equestrian Space Council has now come to a close!" Bang!