This story is a sequel to The Eagle Is Sealed
While Luna spends her time chatting with the three astronauts onboard Columbia on the three-day trip back to Earth, the humans still on the planet have to deal with the fallout her appearance has caused. Unfortunately for Charlie, that fallout starts for him as Soviet interest .
Now they're after him. He'll have to avoid, evade, and straight-up fight the full might the Soviet spy machine can bring to bear upon one man. Hopefully it'll be enough to keep him out of their clutches.
For if they can't have him, they'll do their best to make sure no one else can, either.
Featured (briefly) 9/23/14!
Sequel here!
Chapters (18)
Well, this certainly looks like it's going to be fun. Can't wait for more, especially as this looks like it'll be much longer than the others.
Ah good. I was wondering when this would come out, and here it is.
I first pick up on this when I heard the reading (I cannot remember how to spell the name, but it was said as "applesauce") and so far, I love it.
*Squee*
i.imgur.com/hSYG3kZ.gif
Unless there were Russian spies in NASA during the Apollo 11 mission, and they tapped the phone line, I find it hard to believe that they already are in that car. I understand that the line may have been tapped before when Nixon first called.
Bad move luna is pretty much a goddess
I really do not understand this. The American space program was wide open; anybody who cared to know how it worked could find out easily. The Russians would know that Charlie Duke's expertise on aliens is coming from about an hour or so working as CAPCOM in Mission Control, i. e. next to nothing. The only difference between him and Gene Kranz is that Charlie had the live mike to Columbia and Eagle.
I just do not see the KGB blowing its assets to have agents get on the grounds of Johnson Space Center and kidnap Charlie Duke, triggering an international incident during the Cold War, for such a limited asset as Charlie.
3963135
I fully agree. This seems more along the lines of someone being an impatient dick used to having his orders obeyed. You don't have to be Russian to be a short tempered asshole.
Also, I would love to see a longer then normal chapter, with Luna having the Cold War and how it came about explained to her. You have to go back to World War 1 at least for it all to make sense.
Good thing they have three days to get to earth.
LULU Y U go A`WAY FROM TA MOONI
EUHEUHAUEHUAEHAUEHAE neds moer
So the story won't focus on Luna from now on?
excellent excellent. I love your creation of the thought process. The transition of just copy pasting an entire language from someone, associated memories and all, with no real personal context, has been very well expressed in all its advantages and disadvantages.
What about starting with short chapters and slowly make them longer by a certain amount of words? could you do that?
like and favorite
I am not completely sure what you plan to do, however I am confident in your ability to accurately follow a logical set of steps. I am actually quite amazed that you have been able to follow a set of logical steps. Many people would crumble over the amount of research needed and the number of perspectives and minds you would have to account for.
I gotta see where you take this.
Got no real preference, as long as quality holds like it is. And yay for Michael Collins!
3963135 Yeah, he wouldn't be able to say much more than 'she speaks english, is a winged unicorn and telepathic'.
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And miss the flight? Come on, at this point Charlie is probably at least a Presidental Cabinet level VIP. They don't 'miss flights'. Those get goverment owned private aircraft (usually USAF operated) to fly them on official business. If they have to fly commercial? Someone calls ahead and the plane doesn't leave till they are aboard.
3963071 Nope. Not a deity. Not saying I don't like her - I do.
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The concept of what a god and deity is isn't the same from one person to another.
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That would be Applesaws. And yes, his reading was awesome.
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Consider this: He's one of exactly two assets that has had any experience with aliens, period. And they're both American, so even that pitiful bit of experience is theirs. And the Soviets didn't exactly encourage ridiculous things like xenology (whoops!), so America has a vast edge on theoretical aliens, too.
Plus, Charlie is, notwithstanding all of this alien business, a reserve astronaut and member of the US military. As an astronaut, he has access to a not-inconsiderable amount of sensitive or classified information himself about the American space machine and the gadgets, doohickeys, and machinery that makes it work.
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This story won't, because, well, reading three days of American and world history exposition to Luna wouldn't be very fun or interesting. And the trip back isn't all that interesting, either, except for reentry.
No, the drama for these three days is on Earth. Once Luna gets down to the planet though-- hoo boy, just you wait.
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This was a personal challenge to me-- as an avid lover of history, I knew a good deal of this already, and once I saw how popular this was, there was no way I was giving it up because "Oh, the research is too hard!" Nope, not this brony here. I love althist, and writing an althist fanfic is pretty much what I enjoy doing in my free time anyway.
3965610 Exactly. Charlie's first inkling something is going on. It'll be explained more fully later, I assure you.
3966812 No, still doesn't work for me. One hour is still only one hour- and it's not even firsthand experience. Even your point about him being an astronaut doesn't hold water; there are plenty of Apollo-era astronauts who would be easier to grab, at their homes outside the JSC perimeter. Risking nuclear war- or, at minimum, revealing that they have a spy well-placed enough to listen in realtime to a secured line from the White House to NASA- for one measly hour of experience would be a phenomenally stupid thing to do. Even if he succeeds, the KGB agent who ordered this would be sent to the gulag as soon as he got home.
Okay, this is great, I really enjoy the chapters. Just wondering, though. How could any secret agent of the KGB get to mission control so quickly without the anybody noticing them as the government would have probably put mission control in lockdown after the discovery. They would also have guards to escort Charlie Duke to the car in hand. That's the only problem I have about the story, the goverment is so open to the media, but that's not how the goverment was back then, they were very quiet about what they did. Good job otherwise.
Well, I guess the suspense will be murdering me... slightly... I should be fine in a few hours. Anyway, I'm really enjoying this series so far, so thanks for writing something so fun.
I'd rather have short chapters often, as long as they are meaningful in themselves. I have too many fics updating irregularly with huge chapters on my tracking list, it makes for nice surprises, but it would be nice to have something a bit more regular too
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First, technical speak is 'Officer,' as someone from Russia employed by the KGB. 'Agent' is for those said 'Officers' hire to get information or perform tasks.
Second, yes, an hour is FAR too little time for an actual operation to go through. Let's just say, a junior KGB agent got a little too eager about this opportunity, and threw something together.
There are old spies, and there are bold spies, but there are no old bold spies. Especially not stupid ones.
nice way to prep luna about human nature and love collins reaction to seeing luna for the first time
aint no space sickness in this place lol
ending is hilarious
I wonder why the above quote was even necessary in that paragraph, the Revolutionary War was one of the few times that we were both completely in the right, and tried everything possible to settle peacefully. Surely Luna isn't suggesting that she would have had a problem if the Crystal Ponies declared their independence from Sombra. And why is slavery and racism such a big deal to her? Ponies were the same way before Hearth's Warming.
Heh... That ending is amusing. Probably what my reaction would be in his place. Anyway, this story series has been sitting at the very beginning of my 50+ Read Later list... so yeah. Finally got around to reading it, and I am not disappointed. In fact, I am impressed. I think it is slightly unrealistic for them to just lecture her on US history from the getgo on, at least, without noting that they have SOME kind of reference material at the very least. I'm definitely going to look forward to more of this. Especially Luna giving the brief of her origins and country. Great options for hugs/d'awws.
Wow. Luna has some hard lessons about Earth history ahead of her. I'm afraid of how she'll react to some of the atrocities in history, the one connected to WW2 the most obvious shocker for her. Although I imagine her answer for 'how did the species survive' will be answered by the first person who can give her an answer of the approximate global rate of human reproduction, not counting the annual death toll. That'll blow her mind.
Also, loved that last line.
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If I had to guess, I would say Luna passes off the pre-Equestrian era as a time of ignorance. Even Spike said there was no harmony, only hatred. I think perhaps it shocks her that America was a slave nation because of the liberal ideals Americans espoused. If the US is supposedly such an enlightened nation committed to freedom, why then does the barbaric practice of slavery remain? That's just my take on it.
Anyways, I look forward to seeing how they try to explain communism to her. I can also see her joining the anti-war movement when she sees people in the US as appalled at the bloodshed as she is.
3972635
You know there are ponies, a species that are naturally herborvorous and gentle if left alone, unlike humans that are omnivours that had to fight for not only food, but also survival. They are on a planet whose enviroment they can control unlike our world where it can be peacful and viloent at the saem time. In addation, Spike said their was conflict, he never said there was war. So there is a reason for Luna to be shock as even pre-equestria war could amount to nothing compare to humans as their is little information and since it is a child show, they are stated to being not as bad.
I may go so far to state it would be comparing a early Galdiator Matchs to a Roman War, and not the matches that Hollywood try to give off as the truth. I mean the actual fights where death is very rare since the older the gladiator live, the more money they can make off them. There was a reason why lion eating hertics were popular. It was the only moments there was blood instead of the gashes in battle.
Well good job in the story, keep up the good work.
Saying flat out that we're violent to me sounds like "heads up, killing isn't exactly uncommon".
Also, tell me someone drops the world population bomb.
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3973025
While it is true that the three tribes were racist and distrustful of each other and from the sound of it there were fights over the ever decreasing amount of food taking place, under no circumstance did unicorns start whipping earth ponies in order to make them work faster to grow food, nor did Commander Hurricane have an earth pony village slaughtered in order to gain their resources.
Despite the tensions and mutual hatred of each other, all three tribes treated the members of the other two pony races as ponies (admittedly ones they wanted nothing to do with) and not as 'things'. Once you start thinking of people as things, you've set yourself down a very dark path. It says a lot about the three tribes that all of them separately believed that discovering a new, greener land was a better idea then fighting amongst themselves for what little remained of their homeland.
This when compared to 'People living in a city that my holy book deems holy on the other side of the world don't worship the same god that I do, death to the heretical swine!' was the diving force behind hundreds of wars worth of holy wars.
Oh gods, wait until Luna discovers human religion. That's going to be FUN!
eee politics
Luna is going to cause so much trouble. You don't even know.
Balance of power? Mutually assured destruction? I can move the moon. There is a third superpower now.
3973340
I think your taking the play to be a far more accurate historical representation than it really was. Remember, this was something that foals were meant to watch, and in some cases even participate in. Perhaps I'm just projecting Earth history onto Equestria, but I believe most Earth Ponies lived as serfs. Those who didn't were cowed by the idea of the Pegasi messing with their weather, or the Unicorns messing with the night/day cycle.
I just thought I'd mention that any conversation between the moon and earth would have a 1.5 second delay due to the speed of light. This is small, but quite noticeable.
It's a four day trip.
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Not to mention all the hell that's going to be raised when someone goes on TV and says "Sorry Christians, the Pagans were right. Power to the moon Goddess!'
Like beating an angry bear with a stick.
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3974000
I can move moons, my sister can move suns.
Yeah, I think Equestria just went a lot higher on the 'Do Not Disturb' scale.
Should tag this as a sequel, dude. I only discovered this from the popular stories box.
A bit simplistic retelling but it would take hours to explain the intricacies of the global and internal politics and economics that led to both the Revolutionary War and the War Between the States. Furthermore, I think I'm right in saying that, to this day, historians are divided as to the real facts of these events. Too much has been clouded by time, nationalism and the inevitable fact that the dominant tale is always that of the victor.
Just to let you know that it took a couple of hours for Eagle to fly to Columbia, although they wanted it done as quickly as possible, so as not to tax the life support and power systems. I'm sure that, with an unanticipated 'passenger', they would have tried shave off even more time to the rendezvous and docking!
>hurr. we be soviets, we be evil greater than nazis. durr. now you die, kapitalist swine!
3974000
well, at least she's a tangible proof of her own existence. and she's awesome and kinda cute.
Neil Armstrong isn't quite accurate when he says that all U.S. wars other then the Civil were due to outside threats to the U.S. The U.S. was the aggressor in the Mexican-American War and Spain was not threatening the U.S. before the Spanish-American War.
I love it!
3973025
Wow. Those ancients were sure hardcore.
Unless you’ve suddenly changed the setting from the last two then take off the bloody crossover tag; this is an AU, not a crossover.