//------------------------------// // Chapter One: Leaving Orb-it // Story: WWC: Spaced Out // by Chris-Cross13 //------------------------------// The air is calm and cool in the late hours of the night. The moon has rose to its peak height, a beacon for the midnight. Equestria is awash in a soothing slumber, most of the land is in a deep sleep and enjoying dreamland. However, one single place is still lit up and alive with movement. Off a bit from Ponyville, a single building is still lit up: Supernova’s Observatory. Inside, the stallion is busy prepping a few devices and positioning his small telescope to focus on the lunar surface. This work would be boring for him, yet Supernova is not alone. Off to the side, looking quite anxious and a bit nervous; Princess Luna stares as Supernova keeps at his quick tempo of working. “Is everything almost ready?” The princess asks with increasing impatience. Supernova chuckles at her words. Though he realizes the situation at hoof is important, he has the upmost confidence that everything will be fine. “Not to worry, Princess Luna; all I need to do is make the final calculations and adjustments and wait for the final component. Then, everything should be set and ready!” He hollers as he writes some numbers down on the piece of paper in front of him. Luna sighs at his answer. “That's great, Nova.” She says as she glances out a nearby window at up at her glorious bright moon. She looks at the satellite with worry. “I must figure out what is going on up there!” She shouts back to Nova. Nova turns and nods. “I understand, Princess Luna. We will get to the bottom of this feeling that you have with the moon.” He says. Luna frowns a little at his answer. “It’s not just a feeling, Nova.” She looks back up at the moon. “It’s… It’s like an instinct. I KNOW something is going on up there, and it’s not good.” She walks away from the window as the stallion looks on; stopping all his work to stare at her with concern. “When I first felt this… instinct back when I rose the moon a week or so ago, I thought nothing of it. But as the days went on and it got stronger and stronger… I thought it would drive me to near madness!” Luna puts her forehooves to her head and shuts her eyes, simulating the force and pain of this gut feeling inside her. Supernova nods again, understanding the princess’s plea. “Fear not, Princess Luna. We will uncover the truth, not to worry!” The unicorn proclaims with a forehoof up high. Luna nods at his exclamation; giving her a bit of assurance that the problem, whatever it is, will be found and solved. As Supernova goes back to his work, a sudden knock is heard at the door. The black unicorn immediately gets up from his work and rushes to the door with excitement. “Ah! That must be the final part I need!” He says as he runs past Luna. Skidding to a stop, he quickly opens the door and smiles at the outside world. “Ah, wonderful! I’m glad you could make it, Christian!” On the other side of the door, a very aggravated looking Christian stares annoyingly into the eyes of the unicorn. His eyes were low and a bit bloodshot due to the late hour of the night, tired at his interruption of sleep. With a yawn, he addresses the unicorn: “You BETTER have a good reason for waking me up and making me come here at this hour of the night.” The human growls while quickly flicking his wrist upward, casting a bright orange orb in his hand. He glances inside the building to see Princess Luna standing off to the side. “Hey Luna.” He says, losing his mad expression for a split second to say hello to Supernova’s special guest. “Hello Christian.” She answers with a soft smile. Christian then swiftly returns his attention to the scientific unicorn in front of him. Supernova rubs the back of his neck in awkwardness with a forehoof as the human stares him down with malicious intent in mind for the unicorn. “Sorry for the rude awakening, Christian.” He says, nervously. “However, this is for an important task. You did bring it, didn’t you?” Nova asks with a sudden urgency. Christian crushes the spell with his right hand and puts his other hand into his left pocket and quickly pulls out a black orb. “Of course I brought my portal device.” He says with an obvious tone. “Question is, why do you need it so badly?” Nova’s horn glows a light blue, as does the portal device in Christian’s hand. In seconds, the orb is whisked to Supernova’s side. He grins as he stares at the device. “It’s the final component I need.” He says as he goes to turn back to his work. “Final component for what?” A peppy voice asks from behind the unicorn. Supernova is caught off by this new voice and turns around to see the source of this new voice. From outside the door frame and to Christian’s side; two pink hooves appear and a pink, poofy haired pony pops out from nowhere: Pinkie Pie. “Umm, pardon me, Christian; but what is Pinkie doing here?” Nova asks. “She’s the only pony I know that A: Stays up at this time of night and B: Can give me something to keep ME up at this time of night.” The human says plainly. Pinkie’s full body comes into view as she nods rapidly. “Sugar keeps the body awake!” She shouts happily. Supernova stares at the pink anomaly with concern. “…Right.” Nova says, a bit concerned at her behavior as usual. “Also, she can help me with my new skill.” Christian says. This comment throws off the two ponies in the room. “New skill?” Luna questions. “I thought Rarity was teaching you how to fight, no?” “She is.” Christian says while entering the observatory, with Pinkie bouncing in behind him. This makes the two ponies even more confused. “Wait… You got ANOTHER new skill already?!” Supernova exclaims. Christian gives him a nod. Supernova’s eyes widen in awe. “I’m amazed, Christian. You just got your fighting moves a week ago!” Christian shrugs. “Hey, it’s not my fault I’m getting these abilities quicker. Blame the girls, they’re the ones that accidentally gave them to me in the first place.” He comments. Nova laughs a bit at the explanation. “Anyway,” Luna jumps in. “What is your new ability and how did you get it?” She asks, interested in the human’s new, unknown ability. Christian leans up against a wall as he recalls how he got this new skill. “Well,” He says with a sigh. “It was a day ago. I was in physical education class with Dee-Dee and Tristan back home. Our class was playing baseball outside on the field…” One day earlier… “Man, I’m getting sick of baseball!” Tristan complains from Christian’s left as they stand around in the outfield behind third base on one of Somewhere High School’s baseball diamonds. For once, the weather was actually nice for a week, so baseball was the sport of choice for Christian’s P.E. class. Christian and Dee-Dee hear the moan and take a quick glance at each other as they roll their eyes simultaneously. “Tristan, you get bored of everything after a week.” Christian points out. “I’m surprised you’re not bored of going to you-know-where every day.” “Because that place is interesting.” Tristan replies bluntly. “Oh please, Tristan; you have the attention span of a goldfish when it comes to sticking with one activity.” Dee-Dee comments with a small laugh. Christian agrees with his girlfriend; laughing at her insult to Tristan. Tristan frowns and growls at his friends, but cannot help but smile at them. “And I guess you do have a point with this ‘baseball” thing.” She adds after her laughing has subsided. “No one in our class besides, like, seven of us; can hit a ball far into the outfield.” Christian nods, but suddenly spots the new batter on the other team. A very audible sigh is heard from him. Dee-Dee and Tristan look at Christian with confused looks, curious as to what made him annoyed. “Speaking of which…” He points his mitt toward home plate. “Look who’s up.” The other two do what Christian has instructed and glance down field. “Oh shoot, it’s Blake!” Tristan exclaims. “Start backing up!” He says to his two friends. Dee-Dee nods and slowly starts taking a few steps backward with Tristan. Christian rolls his eyes again and sighs. Even though Blake was the star of the school’s baseball team, he hadn’t hit any home runs in a while. Christian turns to face his two friends who were looking like a bunch of newbie secret agents trying to tiptoe backwards to not been seen. “Oh come on you two!” He shouts at them. “We’ll be fine! Blake told me the other day that last season was his worst yet. That ball won’t be coming anywhere near us, let alone the outfield… Meanwhile at home plate, Blake was just hitting the bat against his heel to knock off some dirt and dust. Getting into his batting stance, he glares right into the eyes of the pitcher, who was absolutely petrified. Everyone knew Blake hit a baseball like a semi-truck hits a squirrel; so the entire field (minus behind third base at the moment) was sweating and shaking with how powerful this will be and how far it will fly. Blake himself knows that even though last season wasn’t particularly good for his record, his practice and workout sessions over the summer definitely gave him a boost. He was ready for that ball this time. The pitcher, with a loud gulp, hurls a change-up directly down home plate – Just the type of ball Blake was anticipating. With a powerful swing, Blake smashes the ball with a mighty THWAK! The ball becomes a bullet as it goes into a line drive… Straight towards third base. Blake sees where the ball is heading, and doesn’t even motion to run. “Well… dad gum it.” He mumbles with hesitant fear. Back by third base, Christian is still explaining why Blake is not an issue. Dee-Dee and Tristan have focused their line of sight back to their friend, not knowing of the events that just occurred… “Anyway, we would also hear that stupid baseball coming a mile aw-“. Christian suddenly stops mid-sentence. Dee-Dee and Tristan grow confused and somewhat scared looks as they examine their frozen friend. “Hey, Christian!” Tristan whistles and waves a hand in front of his face. “You alright, dude?” Christian does not respond. Instead, he is focusing on a new… feeling inside of him. Almost like some sort of heightened awareness. Christian feels like something is coming toward him, and the hair on the back of his neck is… somewhat twitching. It’s almost like getting a sudden chill on one’s spine, but WAY more intense. “Move.” He whispers to his friend’s. Dee-Dee and Tristan give each other a quick “The heck did he just say?” glance to each other before looking back at Christian. “Huh?” Dee-Dee responds. Suddenly, Christian’s right eye violently twitches seemingly from nothing. This makes Christian gain a face that looked like a deer frozen in headlights. “MOVE!” Christian shouts as he turns around to see a white and red sphere making a beeline for his face. Dee-Dee and Tristan quickly jump out of the way just in time to see a baseball about to collide with Christian’s jaw. Yet something else happens. Christian suddenly bends over backwards quicker than a cheetah after a gazelle. Like a scene ripped out of The Matrix, Christian’s entire world slows down as he sees himself bend at almost a ninety degree angle; watching this missile of a ball going over his body. Confused and shocked as to what the heck is going on, Christian quickly lifts up his left hand; secured inside of his mitt; and thrusts it in front of the flight path of the ball. The ball smashes into Christian’s mitt, the force of which starts making his entire body tilt even further backwards. Quickly realizing this, Christian launches his feet in front of him and his torso underneath himself – performing a backflip. As he lands right side up onto the ground, he sighs in relief. That ball almost took his head off! “Wow! That was close right gu-“. He glances up at his two friend’s; who are just staring at him in disbelief at what just occurred in front of him. They saw Christian narrowly dodge a baseball going seventy miles an hour, bend backwards like a professional gymnast, and then perform a perfect backflip; something Christian has never done; and land it PERFECTLY! In fact, EVERYONE on the field was shocked at what they just saw. The only difference with Dee-Dee and Tristan however, is that they just realized what really happened. As everyone stares down Christian, making Christian himself glance nervously at everyone’s shocked expressions; Dee-Dee leans in toward Christian. “Uhh, I think a new ability just kicked in.” She whispers. “Ya think?” He harshly comments with a glare at his girlfriend. He looks back toward the bystanders and raises his mitt into the air. “Uhh, that’s an out, right?” He comments to everyone with a nervous laugh. “And so, yea; that’s the gist of what happened. Needless to say, that escapade was hard to explain to everyone. Afterward, I said it was some sort of involuntary reflux, and everyone bought it.” Christian finishes his story and waits for a response from Luna or Nova. The other two ponies are very intrigued by his newfound ability. “Interesting.” Supernova says while examining the human’s body. “So, it seems that you have acquired increased agility and heightened reflexes. It’s perplexing how you’ve gotten two abilities this time.” He mentions. “It’s not weird, Nova!” Pinkie shouts with a jump. “These two abilities come with each other! It’s really one ability: You can’t get the ability to bend like a gymnast without knowing what’s coming at you first!” “I mean that makes sense to me.” Christian says with a shrug. “Is that weird? Because she has been making a lot more sense recently.” He points out. Supernova shakes his head and sighs, returning to his work. As he does a small smile forms on his face. “Yes Christian, it is weird. That pony making sense has to mean something is wrong.” Pinkie suddenly bounds toward Nova, right up to his table. “Or it’s the author just trying to make my abilities interesting!” She says with a smile. Supernova drops what he is doing and points to the pink pony with a forehoof. “See what I mean? That doesn’t make sense.” “Actually… It sort of… kinda… did.” Christian says quietly. “Whatever.” Supernova rolls his eyes and resumes his work. Christian walks up behind him and glances at his work. Supernova seems to be reconstructing Christian’s orb. The human is curious at his manipulation of his portal tool. “Uh, hey Supernova; what do you need my orb for anyway?” He asks. Supernova smiles at the question. “Well you see Christian, Princess Luna has been getting this ‘instinct’ as she calls it about the moon for a while now. With your orb and a spell that Twilight helped me with, we shall be able to upgrade your orb in order to reach Luna’s moon.” Christian’s jaw drops at his explanation. Going into space has always been something of a dream for him. However, a lot of things were missing from the whole ‘space’ equation that Supernova has left out. “Wait a second, Supernova;” Christian says, “Don’t we need space suits to… you know… BREATHE AND SURVIVE!” His booming voice echoes throughout the observatory. Pinkie jumps in front of the loud human and smiles. “Don’t worry, Christian! We don’t need those things! If Luna could survive up there for one thousand years, I’m sure we’ll be fine!” She shouts with glee. Christian laughs nervously, going into space with no gear didn’t sound ‘fine’ to him. He glances over to Princess Luna, who is staring at the moon with a look of anxiety and determination. Curious at her mood, Christian walks over to her. “Hey, Luna?” He asks, concerned. The alicorn, startled by him, looks at Christian eye to eye. “You okay?” Luna responds with a sigh and a somber shake of the head. “I am not okay, Christian.” She looks back at the white satellite in the night sky. “Something is up there. Something big.” She looks at Christian with a fierce inferno in her eyes. “I MUST find out what it is!” Christian nods at her request and stares up at the moon with her. “Don’t worry, Luna. Whatever it is up there, it better be ready for a fight.” “Yea! We’ll show that moon whose boss!” Pinkie shouts from behind the two of them. The two look back at the pink pony and smile. “Pinkie, I question so much about you.” He says with a sigh. “That’s why you’re my favorite.” He and Luna walk towards her. Supernova, meanwhile, is surrounding numerous tools and parts with a cyan glow. The orb in front of him is half open and parts are scattered all over his desk. In a matter of seconds, the parts and tools converge onto the orb and make a variety of clanks, clings, and bangs. The three ponies look at each other, confused as to what the mad yet genius scientist is doing. Suddenly, the sounds stop and Supernova steps away from his work. With a satisfied grin, he exhales and levitates the onyx colored orb into the air next to him. “IT IS DONE!” He turns around and shows the orb to the three bystanders. The ponies simultaneously cock their heads at the portal device. What exactly did Supernova do to it? “Great!” Pinkie shouts. “What did you do?” She says, very confused. Supernova laughs at her expression. “Well Pinkie, with a lot of help from Twilight. I have managed to upgrade the orb’s capabilities! Now, we can go to outer orbit around Equestria; and if we really wanted to, Earth.” A series of “Ahhhh’s” are heard from the trio. “Now then Princess Luna…” He says while bringing the orb close. The orb suddenly lights up. “Please set destination.” The orb says. Supernova chuckles at the voice. “The moon” He replies. The orb lights up at his command; prompting the unicorn to drop the device to the floor. The orb starts to flash rapidly, each flash of light going in quicker succession than the last. Supernova’s grin turns into a mad-looking smile as the orb’s lights start glowing brighter and brighter, making the two ponies and the human in the room start backing up slowly from the object. A more seconds pass as the orb suddenly unleashes a vortex of colors from its top. The three bystanders stare at the portal in disbelief and uncertainty. “So,” Christian starts as he walks around the portal. “How do we know this will actually send us to the moon?” Supernova takes no notice to the question as he levitates some sort of scanner off of his desk and starts adjusting its various dials. “Simple,” He says, approaching the portal. “We go into the portal and find out.” The scanner starts to hum slightly as it powers up. “And that thing is for… what exactly?” Christian comments while heading towards the portal. “Just for any odd fluctuations in the activity of the portal. We don’t need anything getting destabilized during transportation now do we?” He answers. Christian shrugs with an understanding look and stares back at the new portal. “Well, this ought to be interesting… If it works, that is.” “Oh relax, Christian. The portal should work fine! After all, the two smartest ponies in Equestria worked on the new spell!” He says while examining the outside stability of the portal with the scanner. “Then there is no time to waste.” Luna says calmly as she pushes Christian aside and walks into the portal with a disgruntled yet determined look on her face. Christian stares as the alicorn vanishes into the portal with a shocked look frozen on his face. “Snap.” He says, realizing how serious Luna is about the whole situation. “Well, we better go after her. C’mon Pink!” He shouts as he dives into the portal. Pinkie nods and bounds after the human seconds later. Supernova laughs at the display as he remains the last one in his observatory. He sighs as he looks at the colorful gateway. “Let’s see what in Equestria awaits us on the other side.” He mumbles to himself as he slowly walks into the gate and after the other three. The portal closes behind him, leaving the observatory in a quiet and undisturbed state against the dark midnight sky.