Interlude: Mission 10: Unfinished Business
Dragonfly wiggled the throttle, wondering if she could somehow set it to one hundred and five percent. The ship, even stripped down as it was at liftoff, wasn’t rising off the ground nearly fast enough to suit her, and her sole mission goal required all the speed she could get, as soon as she could get it.
Of course, if Cherry Berry hadn’t been on the other side of Equus after her flight, Chrysalis would have been in the seat. Or maybe not; this was a minor mission, just clearing up the last contract before their first serious, coordinated attempt at orbit. The queen might not want to sully her hooves with an unimportant flight. Give it to the backup pilot. It gives her something to do.
Granted, any flight was a good flight, but Dragonfly wanted more of a rush. Yes, the rocket had started to accelerate faster, but it wasn’t really shoving her back in the seat. The ride was too gentle. It was, well, kind of boring.
“Ten, Horseton,” Chrysalis said over the communications link, “pitch over ten degrees east.”
“Ten copies pitch ten degrees east.” Dragonfly pushed the stick to the right, watched the markers on the ball shift, and re-centered it again.
“Ten, Horseton.” Chrysalis’s voice had a touch of exasperation in it. “That was south, not east. Remember where the north line is on the ball.”
“Oops. Sorry.” Yeah, sorry, but not much. Who cared? This ship was going up and coming down, not really going anywhere.
Sure enough, Chrysalis confirmed, “It doesn’t matter much, Ten. It just means the flight will be a little shorter, that’s all. Coming up on target speed.”
Really? Dragonfly looked, and sure enough, the acceleration had picked up a bit more. The ride was so smooth compared to her first flight that it almost wasn’t flying at all. “I see it, Horseton. Throttling back to hold at five-forty.” There, the upper end of the speed required for the test- and just in time, too, as the ship crossed twelve thousand meters. Immediately a light winked yellow, then green. “Flea test reads successful, repeat green light on Flea test.”
“Horseton copies good Flea test,” Chrysalis said, adding not quite softly enough for the microphone not to catch it, “and about time.”
Dragonfly looked at her gauges. She still had more than a quarter of the fuel remaining for the Swivel, plus the Flea itself, whose thrust had been metered almost to nothing to make it suitable for deceleration and return.
You know what? There’s nothing else on the list. I’m going to do what I want.
“Throttling back up to full,” she announced, doing so and noting with satisfaction that with most of its fuel gone the Swivel was doing a decent bit of pushing now.
“Ten, Horseton; what are you doing?” Chrysalis asked.
“You and Cherry got to go to space,” Dragonfly said. “It’s my turn, and I think I’ve got the fuel.”
“Ten, we don’t have mission planning for a space trajectory,” Chrysalis said. “You get down here right now.”
“Don’t worry about me, my queen!” Dragonfly said cheerfully. “I’ll be all right!” She looked out the window and saw streamers of hot compressed atmosphere rushing past the nose of the capsule. “But maybe I’d better slow down just a little, and pause before I light up the Flea. Getting a bit warm in here.”
“You do that, Ten,” Chrysalis said. “And stand by while I talk with the boffins and make sure we can get you back.”
The final trajectory was very similar to the one Chrysalis had flown, but lower and shallower. Dragonfly got about three minutes above atmosphere, and she enjoyed every moment of them.
“Ten, Horseton, get back in your seat,” Chrysalis ordered. “Young lady, I said get back in your seat!”
“Whee! This is fun!” There wasn’t much extra space in the capsule, but in free-fall it turned out to be a lot more than the designers had originally expected. “This is even better than the wind tunnel! Who cares about the wind tunnel? This is the real Fun Machine!” She did cartwheels, somersaults, barrel rolls, even the backstroke. She bounced from one side of the capsule to the other, heedless of the voice in her ears.
“Dragonfly, you just re-entered atmosphere,” Chrysalis said sternly. “Get back in your seat and buckle up right this minute, or there won’t be anything left of you for me to punish later! I mean it!”
Dragonfly paused in her cavorting, noticed the altimeter, and sighed. “I guess you’re right,” she said, carefully easing herself back into the chair and snapping the harness buckle together. “But it’s just so much fun up here! You know how it is!”
“Yes, I do,” Chrysalis said. “I also remember how the ride back down was. Now get on your retrograde, switch the SAS back on, and stay alert.”
“Yes, my- I mean, copy, Horseton,” Dragonfly responded. After performing the requested maneuver, she added, “You know, the reaction wheels work really well with the Flea on the capsule. Makes ship balance almost perfect.”
“The what?” Pause. “Ten, Horseton; haven’t you decoupled that Flea engine yet?”
“I don’t want to,” Dragonfly said. “I think I can bring it home.”
“I wish you wouldn’t,” Chrysalis said with the kind of feeling no changeling could truly fake. “Leaving aside the fact that you’ll hit the ocean like a brick with it on, I hope after this mission never to see a Flea again so long as I should live. Get rid of it. Over.”
“But I really think I can do it.”
The speed of the ship, which had gradually increased even as flames began to lick around the sides of the capsule, was now beyond the fastest speed recorded on Chrysalis’s descent and still accelerating. “This is a command from your flight controller, the bull who designed your rocket, and your Queen all together,” Chrysalis said. “Dump. That. Engine. Now. Do you copy, Mission Ten?”
Dragonfly sighed. “Ten copies,” she said. “Besides, the air’s making steering it a bit squirrely anyway.” She hit the staging button, letting the Flea tumble before her for a few moments.
And then, to her horror, she saw it square in the middle of her hatch window, flying by close enough for her to count the rivets on the rocket casing. “OH MY F-“
And then it was gone, behind her, having missed the capsule by less than two meters.
“Um… Horseton? This is Mission Ten,” Dragonfly said weakly. “For future reference, ditching a stage directly in front of you is a bad idea. As in potential Bad Day stupid. Something, um, to remember.”
“So long as we all learn something from this, Ten,” Chrysalis said dryly.
But ditching the engine had accomplished its goal. Without the weight, and with the broad, rounded heat shield pointed directly into the wind of the thickening atmosphere, the ship began to slow. Gradually Dragonfly felt herself gain weight… and more weight… and then a whole lot of weight. “Three gees of deceleration… four gees… five gees…” Even uncomfortable as it was, Dragonfly grinned. This was what rocket flights should be like! The feeling of hard acceleration, hard deceleration, weightlessness in between! The blackness closing in at the edges of her vision, well, that was bonus!
And then, all too soon, it was over, as the ship passed below six hundred meters per second, the gravity load lessened, and the sea began coming up very, very, very fast. But, Dragonfly grinned, not fast enough. Too bad, oh Pale Horse, you aren’t getting me today. At two hundred eighty meters per second, at thirty-five hundred meters altitude, she hit the parachute switch, lying back as she heard the ropes slither out and the canopy deploy.
“Chutes deployed at thirty-five hundred,” she announced. “See? That was a whole five hundred meters higher than yours, my- er, Horseton! I really could have brought that Flea back! Plenty of room to spare!”
On the other end of the communication, Queen Chrysalis groaned, removed her headset, and slumped forward on the capsule communicator workstation.
The tragic thing, she thought, is that Dragonfly is one of my most level-headed and responsible changelings…
MISSION 10 REPORT
Mission summary: Test that cursed Flea!
Pilot: Dragonfly
Flight duration: 8 min. 28 sec.
Contracts fulfilled: 1
Milestones: none
Conclusions from flight: This is why only Cherry and I should be allowed to fly.
MISSION ASSESSMENT: A BIT TOO SUCCESSFUL, ACTUALLY
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Oh, Chryssy's going to wish Dragonfly didn't make the that comment about the "real" Fun Machine. The whole hive's going to want to go up now. Good for keeping them motivated, bad for keeping them grounded and doing critical work while they're there.
I get cold sweats at words like 105% and definitely at Go With Throttle Up.
I was watching live
As for coming back with the solid fuel rocket on the heat shield, nice shout out to Alan Shepard and the Mercury flight with the faulty heatshield indicator.
While the Flim Flam bros are busy bringing TV to the masses, I wonder which collection of hair dressers are using styling products and storm lanterns to build their Blue Streak attempt?
... Poor Chryssie, no wonder she's so irate if she has to deal with that kind of brain trust every day of her life.
I loved how she switched to mom mode for a moment. And d'awwww, she does care.
How brave..... Dragon fly is gonna pay for that little stunt...
this story is oh so amusing, cant wait for more
...
also is there going to be a "minmus"?
7249269 I was sorely tempted, but probably not. There's no hint of anything like Minmus in the cartoon, the closest thing being the four stars in the first episode that "aid in her escape."
Having caught up, I can only say that this is one of the best humorous stories I've read in a LONG time.
It also sort of makes me want to play Kerbal Space program... but not enough to pay what they're asking for it.
(I own over 3000 games. It would, if nothing else, be unfair to every other developer to break my "$5 or less... $7.50 or less if I'm obsessed" rule when I could just play another sandbox/challenge game from my collection that I've been neglecting lately instead, such as TIS-100, SimFarm, Spacechem, Railroad Tycoon 2, Mini Metro, The Incredible Toon Machine, Prison Architect, OpenTTD, etc.)
7252591 There is an advalible demo, bit outdated and there have been complaints from some older players regarding a few parts having been left out, but it should give you a taste.
7253548
That wouldn't really help.
If I don't like it, I still want to collect it as a significant game once the price drops low enough.
If I do like it, it'll just make sticking to my principles (waiting for the price of the full game to drop) more painful.
7258435
No problem. Just send me a reply once it's done so I get an e-mail notification.
If Cherry Berry were voiced, what would she sound like?
7258338
It might be that they have to carry someone else with them, as a test for multi-pony capsules, in which case Blueblood is probably the most expendable member of the nobility that we know about.
7258454 Pics fixed, but updated author note will wait until I've slept. It's 4 AM and I've only been home an hour after driving through three states...
7258665 Cherry Berry gets a line or so of voice just before New Fluttershy dumps the garbage wagon onto her and Bon-Bon. It's late, I'm tired, I can't remember the episode name right now, but doubtless you can.
7259859
I would have thought that they would be stealing more during documentary filming.
7259921 They've got their current scam and are focused on keeping it flying, at least long enough for them to cash out profitably.
That said, Occupant -did- keep them out of the VAB storage areas, so the brothers never got a good look at the guts of any rocket parts. And particularly they never saw the insides of, or plans for, the electronic calculating devices George Bull is working on...
7272804 The Crystal Empire program isn't likely to last much longer as an independent entity, true. It began as a patriotic thing, from the ground up, and Cadence felt she had to go along with it. (Plus Shining Armor is absolutely bananas over the whole rocket ship thing, the big geek.)
That said, they're pretty much doomed to polar or high-inclination orbits, which is why Cadence's space flight ended up splashing down not far over the horizon from Horseton Space Center...
7272850
Presumably their efforts are headed by Chief Designer. Also, if the Crystal Empire and Equestria joined forces in the space race, it would be interesting to have a rivalry between the heads of the two branches similar to Korolev and Glushko.
7272850 Not that polar orbits don't have their uses- they do gurentee that you'll pass over every point on the planets surface, given enough time.
This story is a blast. Granted the fact that the rockets are too small is bugging me a bit, but that's just a general shortcoming of KSP (unless you fix it with a mod) in my highly technical eyes. I feel like using the changelings as substitutes for kerbals is really working out great and fits in perfectly with the rest of MLP, and the setup also lets you add in some interesting external conflicts which is really paying off. My one gripe is that having the footnotes scattered around the story makes them hard to keep open in a second tab, and having to jump around the story frequently leads to unwanted spoilers, especially because they frequently come right after the big, attention grabbing mission report at the end of each flight which is basically guaranteed to spoil the entire mission with even a passing glance.
Also, I do have one small request. I would very much like to see Rainbow's reaction to her near-death experience because I feel like such a powerful life-altering moment really deserves some direct attention. Her whole worldview was basically turned on its head by the harsh realization that there is really not much she can do in a lot of circumstances because unlike the stunt flying she is used to, most of the life and death decisions are in the hands of the designers and ground team rather than the one actually flying. She may have deluded herself into thinking her own awesomeness was enough to make her invincible before, but that harsh reality check will have shattered that illusion and forced her to seriously rethink things. Even if Rainbow isn't the focus of the story, I feel like it is really worth exploring that aspect to some extent because of how hard it will hit her personally, and depending on how you do it you could also do some interesting things with Twilight as well, although I feel like her growth has already been accomplished very effectively by what she almost did to Cherry and Chrysalis.
Finally, since I'm on the subject of Bad Days, I'm curious to see how that eventually happens. I know you said you won't be killing off Cherry or Chrysalis, but figuring out how to do spaceflight is very dangerous business and there are a lot of separate programs trying to do it simultaneously which significantly increases the risk of a deadly accident. When you throw in the possibility of deadly ground tests like Apollo 1 and the general risk of deadly accidents when working with volatile chemicals like rocket fuel or heavy equipment like rocket parts which can easily kill characters who never set foot in a rocket, it is basically guaranteed that someone is going to get killed before anyone makes it to the moon. There are a lot of different ways you could take that which can lead to all sorts of different outcomes and storylines, so I'm definitely interested in seeing what you actually do whenever you decide to pull the trigger on that one.
I humbly ask for permission to use the location of Horseton in my own story( AS A REFERENCE). It would make a great and comedic moment. changelings of the future stumbling across the changelings first steps into space. Then after seeing it asking "How in the name of the queen-mother did we not kill ourselves off with this?"
7344679 You're welcome to do so, if you like. I don't really see myself as having contributed anything other than the name; the space center is essentially the layout from Kerbal Space Program, and in my mind Horseton is the cajun-pony village Applejack and Apple Bloom deliver pies to in "Somepony to Watch Over Me."
7346529 what you have contributed is a great moment of comedic glory for changelings and the first bumbled attempts at spaceflight. I intend to write in a reference showing the "command group" in a photo as a tribute.
Mind you my story places way way in the future in an alternate timeline. But I love throwing in little nods to other stories I like.
I just read it all, and dang its amazing!
I need more of that kind of fic, well written with great characterization and good plot :D
I hope you will not abadon this fic.
7419730 I started the thing during a slow time in my business, and now things are busy. As it is, I'm between one-third and halfway through writing the next chapter.
7421286 When the Franklin Mint and the like make commemorative chess sets, the entire back row of each side is a different character. For example, the Star Trek chess set doesn't have two Scottys.
The more applicable question in this case would be, who is the eighth pony? (Assuming, of course, that Equestrian chess is western chess as opposed to shogi or some alien game parallel.
To ease your mind, the white pieces would be:
Queen's Rook - Celestia
Queen's Knight - Fluttershy
Queen's Bishop - Applejack
Queen - Twilight Sparkle
King - Rarity
King's Bishop - Pinkie Pie
King's Knight - Rainbow Dash
King's Rook - Luna
Pawns - Spike
Job opening for new backup pilot?
Oh wow. She Got Away With It, like, five times over.
I have read this chapter!
7247541
By this, I assume you are speaking of the Challenger mishap?
I loved the "OH MY F-" moment.
Note to self: Bored Changelings are obviously the second most destructive entity in existence, after anti-matter. As such, any in-flight downtime must be filled with tests or other time-occupying exercises.
8878272
And the third most destructive is my voice at full volume.
Wink wink nudge nudge
at some point I thought the mission would end in disaster
eyup, when playing KSP, i always turn the ship at least a little before detaching.
Short but very sweet.
Lucky Dragonfly get away with a scare
and later a scolding of her Queen 
I hope to see the changelings as a society develop, grow their population to be at least somewhat comparable to ponies, modernize their government and raise their education... and other commie stuff.
11353269 We should both live so long.
Seriously, that level of change would be well beyond the scope of this story even without Chrysalis in charge.
The print edition picture at the end really makes me want them in the online edition.
Imagine tossing *that* picture on the viewscreen of a party that wants to ... "acquire" a spaceship and go off...
11593079 "She looks like she's having fun! And it can't be that tough if she's the one doing it!"
I guarantee you those thoughts went through a lot of changeling minds at that time.
Oh, boy, Dragonfly is going to be in for it once she gets back to Horseton. Even with her Almost Having a Bad Day there, I don't think Chrysalis is going to let her off easy for being so reckless. At least she had fun in space...but now, as others have pointed out, everyling is going to want to go up there.