Yaks are one of the most durable sapient species on the planet, a fact in which they take pride. They have colonized mountains towering beyond the reach of even dragons’ wings. They smash the toughest objects the mountains have to offer for fun. They don’t settle for second place.
Naturally, they didn’t take it lightly when they heard of Equestria’s plans to explore beyond the sky.
Rocket scientists beware: Heresy dwells within.
My thanks to Bugsydor and Akouma for some idea-bouncing and proofreading. Similarly, big thanks to Rocket Lawn Chair for making an awesome cover. Turns out, there's not a lot out there that includes yaks and rocket science.
My entry for FanOfMostEverything's Imposing Sovereigns II contest under The New: Prince Rutherford.
Now with a French translation! (Credit: Acylius)
(Optional Epilogue. Read the story first.)
Makes sense to me. (Note: link is to extremely necessary context)
Ohh! This reminds me of that Random Card Rocket Yaks thing!
Also by you, IIRC! Continuations are cool!
That was god damn brilliant. Hilarious, terrifying, and fascinating all at once, and the visual spectacle is superbly written. Yaks best at space. XD
Mmm.
Space Yaks are awesome!
This was great!
So, the Space-Yak is named Blaze? Fitting!
----
Typos:
Pinkie persuade from into [?]
Sorain
9933125
Typos fixed, and: https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/Blaze
(And then I edited this comment because I can't spell "typo".)
YAKS NO LIKE CABBAGES! (Do they?)
The Changeling Space Program had better watch out.
Should they train Yona for space? She's very small--for a yak--but just as strong.
Lousy minotaurs!
When Yaks said Space Yak was spherical, my immediate first thought was, I hope she was female.
After all.
First you need a spherical Cow.
Then I thought. Cant be Yona, she is at school, so why not cousin Yolo.
Unless they want to use her other coisin first. Yoyo.
After all, her other cousin is too busy on her singing tour. Yono.
And tramping around the launch site, is their mother. Yoma?
I can tell after the first chapter (actually,about a quarter of the way through the first chapter) that this is gonna be one of my all-time favourites!
Great writing filled with a lot of exciting and evocative imagery. I find myself wishing that there was a stronger closer of some kind that would wrap your thematics up a little more tightly (neither the canon nor the optional epilogue quite did it for me) but I very much enjoyed myself nonetheless.
Yaks after my own heart!
9933269
I am aware of my bad habit of having rather open-ended endings. To be fair, this is hardly the end of their space-based shenanigans… just the part that I cover with the given prompt.
We should have done that in 1969. There'd be half a dozen countries and coalitions with permanent moon bases by now, I'm sure.
Errol the Dragon got into space first?
Given that she was Pinkie Pie, this told her just how desperate Twilight was to avoid needless yak deaths. Or at least needless major yak ouchies.
"Other yaks say is cost of adherence to prompt. Those yaks eat funny-colored lichens."
Pinkie nodded. "The blue ones taste like causality!"
"Celestia's Frown" is such a perfect Pinkie swear.
And that poor, poor cabbage farmer. His anguish resonates across the multiverse.
9933179
Depends. Are they yak cabbages?
Yeah, when your species can survive the kinds of breakneck experimentation that would kill lesser sapients, your scientific progress can proceed by leaps and bounds. And explosions. Lots of explosions.
"ore that survives" may be the best yakism that I've ever encountered.
"Cabbage a lie! YAKS DESTROY!"
Having a Chief Snacks Officer just proves that yaks have their priorities straight.
A smashing story.
... Please tell me the yaks aren't recreating Project Orion.
Now there's the spirit of friendly scientific competition I can get behind. Less so the radiation. At least it's yak strontium in their bones.
Magnificent stuff. The epilogue settles one of the larger gaps in all of this: The absence of Luna. It's her moon they're aiming for, after all. Getting some kind of input from her regarding the space race would've been nice.
Still, a fantastic tale of the yaks' Great Leap Upward. Thank you for a great read, and best of luck in the judging.
First thought: "That's a really weird and clunky name for the minotaur kingdoms. I'm not sure how I feel about it."
After seeing the acronym: ".....you beautiful genius."
Oh good, that's important.
Yak telecom tech is apparently some of the most advanced on the planet, surprisingly and horrifyingly enough.
I see no problems with this reasoning.
Oh, wow, they really *do* have the best telecoms.
That'll happen when you buy your stuff from Jebediah Ponyman's Rockets and Discount Pool Supplies.
Dammit, I'm not even done with the first chapter and I can already tell there's no way my fic is beating this. I can't get upset, though, as I'm too busy laughing.
9933627
... I think they are.
*Smashes like button repeatedly*
*favs*
*realizes there is more than one chapter*
*makes popcorn*
I really really enjoyed that. UGH I'm bad at reviews it made me feel warm and fuzzy inside.
I would have like to have seen some more details in a lot of places. In fact I kind of want to fanfic RD's crash and the space rescue myself.
Anyway, that was sweet and exciting and educational and... yeah. Good.
9934721
I had just a bit of a time crunch, given how things went for me IRL. I did have the potential for side-stories in mind; there are definitely opportunities for them and the like to flesh things out more, and the accident is one such place I had in mind specifically.
9934728
I know a lot about time crunches and contests, yeah. I posted mine on Friday but I had to cut tons of planned material and the epilogue to get it in under 15K.
Anyway, just let me follow you then. 
9933214 Not quite right. First start with spherical yak of uniform density...
9933627 The Yaks aren't recreating Project Orion. Honest. Well, mostly honest.
What a charming story! This felt exactly like what the MLP equivalent of the space race would be: a whimsical, fun-fueled re-imagining of historical events with just enough tension and stakes to not turn the whole thing into a joke. I also really appreciated the little character moments between Pinkie and Rutherford. That tied it all together really nicely.
As others have pointed it, it does feel rushed in places. This is mitigated somewhat by the narrative device of using newspapers and other media to relay the information in much the same way the nation at large would've received it, but I still wanted a bit more details in some places. And the ending was a bit lukewarm in terms of finality, but that hardly even factors into my enjoyment of it.
This was a fantastic ride that I'm glad I could experience. Thanks for writing it!
"In hindsight, naming our first space plane after a bird known for spontaneously dying was probably a bad omen." – Twilight Sparkle
This is the best story I have read in a long while. Thank you!
Like watching The Right Stuff all over again.
Yaks are so very Best, and it makes me really happy to see stories like this demonstrating that
The ending did feel a little underwhelming, as others have said, but this was a damn good ride. I was impressed by how tense it got close to the end, given how compact a story it was.
Luna is going to KILL them.
9932977
.....Add it.
THE Yak engineer.
9970197
Fixed; thanks!
9970085
Well, I sort of did? My helpers and I agreed that, given the structure of the story as written for the contest, it didn't fit in the actual story pages. A lot of things didn't, given that I had to get this out in time for the contest. Until I update this or make a side-story or something that conflicts with it, though, the "optional" epilogue is basically what happens next.
9970316
.....How long until you plan a Sequel?
9933740
That was the bit that felt the most off to me. I mean, I understand rapid progress of technology is required for the story we're being told here, but that kind of progress seemed implausible... Until I remembered ponies have telephones already. I'm still not sure the Smart Yaks would be willing to copy technology from other races since Yaks Best At Everything, but possibly the scientifically-minded yak is willing to modulate that slightly?
9972412
See, it feels right to me because it feels like they've probably missed a lot of otherwise reasonable tech advances because they've been relying on magic in those areas. Why would ponies bother researching mechanical phones when they have magic?
Also, I assume Smart Yaks have a long and storied history passed down around the water cooler of "Blatantly Stealing But Convincing Prince(ss) <Whoever> That We Made It Better With Yakitude So It's Fine."
Equestria, UMMR, hell the rest of
EquusGaia better pray long and hard that the Yaks do not discover Project Orion9933627
I was thinking the same thing too last chapter.
Pulsed nuclear detonation practically screams "Yak"
9970316
Idea for a sequel. The DRAGON Space Program.