Friendship Drive Charging...

by Connie Spaceplone

Chapter 13: Honor Your Ancestors

"Personal log, Commander Pinwheel, stardate 982756.2.

We spent a few more days on Turner's World, engaging in the extended festivities we were able to participate in. Despite enjoying myself tremendously in the company of my ship, I cannot help but feel a disconnect from the events we are celebrating..."
"Pinwheel? Who are you talking to?" I wondered out loud.
He looked around for a while, pretending to be momentarily disoriented.
"Oh, wrong crossover. Nevermind then," he said dismissively before returning his attention to his drink again.
I giggled. "Oh, commander, you're so silly sometimes." I was pleased about the fact that our personalities matched so well. It makes life easier on both of us.

"Did you mean that though? About you not relating to the cause of this celebration? You seemed to enjoy yourself though. And don't worry, I am still listening to everything you have to say."

"Yes. I mean. These are events that happened almost 1,500 years before I was born. I am well aware of the historical background of the two sisters, but the way ponies lived was so different back then. Back when ponykind was still limited to a single planet. The stars we travel to as part of our day job must have felt infinitely more distant back then. And it's not just the distance between the stars. Even the planets in our own solar system were unreachable back then. Are we even the same civilization? Ponies were inventing stories about aliens living on Bucephalous and how they would invade Equus. [1]
No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that one day ponies would be flying to the stars in real life, as part of a large fleet. To think that all of that was possible was beyond the imagination of the time. And yet it has come true. Now, in this era, with access to faster than light technology. The entire Galaxy feels like a neighbourhood. We can reach any star and explore new worlds. But the past... the past feels so different that I cannot really relate to it. I think of it as a different world, and it seems to be a very far away place indeed."
"That's an interesting perspective you've taken. It is something I thought about as well. But there is a lot to learn from the past, and it helps shape the future. We need to understand the past to know what kind of future we want. Do you think the old ways will disappear completely? Or will they simply be remembered and honored?"
"I don't know. I hope the latter. I would love to see a world where the ancient traditions of the Pony race continue. Where ponies are not seen as backwards, but rather, as a wise and noble people who had a way of doing things that was best for them. A way of living and thinking that paved the way for the modern age."

I replied, "Maybe you would enjoy a visit to the Propulsion History Museum in Sirius. They have a large exhibition chronicling the history of our spaceflight efforts. It's an educational experience for anypony interested in learning about the early days of space exploration.
And the tour guides are extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic. They even have interactive exhibits where you get to pilot an early spaceship with the Mk. I Friendship Drive, reenacting the first test flight of this method of FTL."

"Sounds great! I'll take you up on that offer!" Pinwheel exclaimed.

We walked back to my shipself and boarded.
Pinwheel took the pilot's seat and brought up the galaxy map on his console, entering 'sirius' into the search box.
I did the necessary calculations while lifting off. With Turner's world behind us, my pegasus commander pressed the respective buttons on the controls and I announced "Friendship Drive Charging"

The cockpit filled with a faint humming sound. The hum grew louder, and the magic of my FSD opened the aperture into hyperspace. The bright flickering light as we pushed into the membrane separating normal space from hyperspace filled the cockpit. And then we were underway.

Pinwheel smiled at me, and I returned the smile with a grin. He reached out to caress my avatar's head. I felt a soft, gentle touch on my neck. I leaned into him, letting his hooves brush against the softmetal plating on my neck.
Despite choosing a gentle, slow, hyperspace current to Sirius, we soon arrived at our destination. The trip was uneventful, and at a superficial glance, the system seemed rather barren.

Sure, it was interesting from an astronomy point of view. A Type-A white star and a white dwarf sharing a barycenter. A Gas giant orbiting the barycenter, and a lone telluric planet with hot surface temperature and active volcanism was orbiting the white dwarf. But it didn't seem to have much in terms of pony colonization. But that one planet, named "Lucifer", was home to the Propulsion History Museum.

As we approached the planet, and got close to the surface, the museum came into view. It was an impressive sight. A large collection of buildings inside a huge biodome to keep the atmospheric conditions comfortable on the otherwise searingly hot planet.
Receiving clearance and being guided through the airlock, I landed in the parking area, and the two of us disembarked. We entered the visitor building, where we were greeted by a friendly receptionist. She was a unicorn with a blue mane and tail, wearing an outfit that looked like it was made out of some kind of shiny material.
"Hi there! Welcome to the Sirius Propulsion History Museum! My name is Moonbeam and I will be your tour guide today! Please, follow me this way. And don't worry about the high temperatures. We have plenty of air conditioning in here."
We looked around and saw several other groups of visitors being welcomed by other tour guides.
Moonbeam led us into a corridor where there were restored originals, replica, photographs of all the machines ponies invented to fight gravity.
"This here is a model of the first powered and controlled heavier-than-air flying machine. It was built by two earth pony sisters.[1] This is a reproduction of the original prototype.

Moonbeam looked at my avatarself, saying, "You're a Constellation XT-Class freighter, right?. The distance flown during the first flight of this machine was actually shorter than the length of your shipself, but it was the beginning of a long line of progress."

I looked at the photograph of a mare lying on the flyer, controlling it completely exposed to the weather. Disbelievingly I asked, "And ponies used this to travel around equus?"

"Oh, no!" Moonbeam replied with a laugh. "This was at a time when ponies still used trains for long distance travel. Though you wouldn’t call it that. It was not until a few decades later that flight within Equus' atmosphere became available to the general public. That's why we have this exhibit. To show how far we've come."

Moonbeam led us ahead to a model that was dated almost half a century later. It was a machine with large, fixed wings, rows of windows, and four engines mounted under the wings.

"This is what commercial aviation looked like back in the day. It was developed by a Pegasus named Sprocket, who had the idea of making the flight experience as enjoyable as possible. And it's called an airplane! It was able to go halfway around equus in less than 18 hours."

"Eighteen hours for a trip on the same planet? Surely you can't be serious!" Pinwheel exclaimed. The loudness of his voice made a few other ponies visiting the museum turn their heads and stare.

"No, I'm Moonbeam. Sirius is the name of the star this planet is orbiting. And yes, that's how slow travel was back in the day. And remember. it was still limited to the same planet."
Pinwheel sighed. He said, "Well, I guess it makes sense. I just never thought about it that way before. But now that I think of it, it's pretty amazing. The speed at which the old ponies have advanced. In a hundred years, I can't even imagine."

"That's true. Speaking of which, we have skipped a bit on the space science side." Moonbeam walked back a bit and led us to the left side of the corridor, where all the exhibits relating to rocketry that were being developed at roughly the same time as the airplanes were displayed.
"Here is a display on the early rockets. What nopony expected back then, one of the largest contributors to innovation in the race to put a mare on the moon was Queen Chrysalis of the changelings." [2]

"Queen Chrysalis?" I asked.

"Yes, she was the first to ever send a rocket into orbit. The Changelings had large amounts of wealth that they were able to use to put some of the brightest engineers from various species from all over equus under contract in the early days of the space race. The Changeling Space Program was quite successful, and it gave them a leg up on the rest of the pony world. But it also brought about some friction between the two races. Some of the best minds of both sides were working together, and sometimes the rivalry between the groups would lead to insane risks being taken on the missions. And that led to many accidents during the program."

My attention was caught by a black-and-white photograph of a stallion standing next to a stack of papers that was so tall he had to stand on his hindlegs to reach the top of the stack.[1]

Moonbeam explained, "That was the lead software engineer for the computers used in the early space program. That stack of paper is a printout of all the software written by Mr. Haymilton and the other programmers in the team.

"Huh." Pinwheel commented. "I didn't know they put stallions in such important positions back then. I thought that was a mare-dominated society."

Moonbeam replied, "Oh, there are some male ponies that have worked in these roles, but mostly it was the females who were hired to do this work.
The computers back then used something called core-rope-memory, where a copper wire was woven by hoof through or around a magnet to encode data.”

We walked along the exhibits of the innovations in technology, with Moonbeam apparently being knowledgeable of even the most nuanced details of each technology.
We stopped at an exhibit of the second generation personal computer with a monitor and keyboard. It was a clunky, bulky device, but it did have one obvious thing in common even with computers today, 1000 years later: the MIDI port.

Moonbeam explained, "One of the first peripheral connection standards to be developed for computers was MIDI. Since musical ability is so ubiquitous in ponies, with ponies spontaneously deciding to sing together and everypony magically knowing the words, there was already a demand for a way to connect digital instruments to the PC when the device first became available to the market. The fact that it was a standard connector made it easy for other devices to be connected. MIDI ports were even standard on the PC's mainboards. No extension cards needed. Over time, the MIDI protocol was extended with additional features and truly became the universal connector." Moonbeam faced me and continued, "And since many devices use magic both for signalling and power, and music is an excellent conductor for magic - pun intended - the choice was obvious."

Moonbeam walked over to a replica of an ancient Yamareha dhx-7 keyboard. Despite its age, I still recognized the Cable and plug. It was the very same thing that connected my processor stack to all my systems, actuators, thrusters, FSD. Moonbeam picked up the plug and held it towards me, "Want to try communicating with the ancient device?" I opened the maintenance port on my avatarself's head and Moonbeam plugged in the cable.
I was surprised how easy and straightforward communication with the old device was.
"How does that feel?" Moonbeam asked.

"It feels like I'm talking to myself." I said.

"If you want to try something fancy..." Moonbeam began.

"Bypass on Port 3, channel 7?" I suggested with a grin.

Moonbeam nodded. I established the MIDI signal bypass so that signals sent by the MIDI keyboard would be forwarded directly to the devices in my avatarself. Moonbeam experimentally pressed a few keys, and various RCS thrusters on my avatarself turned on. I giggled at the funny feeling of having my thrusters activate just like that
Moonbeam looked at Pinwheel and asked, "Do you want to try?"

Pinwheel shrugged and answered, "Sure. Why not." And he too tried pressing a couple of keys.
He closely observed the responses of my thrusters, and he went on to play more complex chords. Then, after checking that there was enough free space, he asked me, "Can you enable your HFMP and float up a bit?"
I agreed, and floated up a bit. Pinwheel tried the keys some more, making me float left and right, and slowly maneuvering me back to the resting position. Then he played a quick and intricate progression of chords, manipulating my thrusters in a way that I executed an elegant barrel roll. I had to land again after that because I was laughing too much. This was great fun.

After disconnecting me and calming down, we went on to the other exhibits in the museum.
Moonbeam was also explaining the first experiments with faster-than-light propulsion.
"This is a model of the first warp drive. It was developed by a mare named Skyfall. The model here only had a capacity to accelerate to 1.3c."

I looked at the model. It was a small ship with a single large engine at the rear.

Moonbeam continued, “There is a very complex mathematical formula involved. It uses the laws of physics to calculate the exact position that the ship should be in after passing through the warp field. It's not like a spaceship that accelerates just by pushing out particles in the other direction. It's an entirely different kind of flying, altogether."

"It's an entirely different kind of flying." Pinwheel and I repeated in unison.

Moonbeam continued explaining all the exhibits to us, including the one depicting the first extrasolar colonies, and of course, the dreaded friendship-scurvy complex and the development of the sentient ship AI.
Eventually, we arrived at the interactive Friendship drive exhibit.

Moonbeam explained to me, "In this virtual experience reenacting the first successful test flight of the Friendship Drive, you will take on the roles of Glitter Trail and her test pilot Spurwing."

She attached a small device onto Pinwheel's head and a cable to the data port on my avatarself's skull.

She explained, "These will override your senses with the virtual experience. It will auto-disconnect after 42 minutes tops, but the experience usually finishes faster than that. I will be guiding you through the process."

Pinwheel stated firmly, "Auto-Disconnect. Good. So we are not doing a holodeck episode. That's the most boring plot device."

We sat down in reclining chairs and Moonbeam activated the device. I didn’t know how it was for Pinwheel, but the device needed active participation from my side to start working. Otherwise my EZE would just discard the cable’s inputs as sensor noise.

Consciousness process switching to runlevel 4. Auto-Disconnect in 41 minutes and 47 seconds.
I felt the environment fade away, leaving only myself sitting in the chair. The chair seemed to float in the darkness.

I felt a tingle as the brainwave patterns of the system analyzed my thoughts.
I could no longer feel the connection to my shipself. Instead, I was a ship of an ancient design that had been retrofitted to carry a Friendship Drive. The ship was a prototype, meant for testing purposes.

The avatarself that part of my consciousness inhabited also looked different. Just like this prototype ship. I approached the unfamiliar-looking pony in the pilot's chair. "Pinwheel?"

The pony looked at his own body. Or hers, rather. "Wow. this is wild." He said, looking around the cockpit.

"I'm glad we're able to do this."

"Me too," I replied.

The space in the cockpit was much more cramped than my cockpit. Not only was it much smaller, but there were wires lying around and telemetry devices just plugged into any holes that were available.

Pinwheel looked out of the cockpit window of this ship, "Well, that here is Equus. We seem to be in a drydock in orbit around it. And that's the Moon in the distance. At least I think it’s supposed to be the moon? I don’t know, it looks kinda weird with the lights from half of the major cities missing. But then again, what else would it be?”

A holographic projection of Moonbeam appeared. She asked "How are things going in there? You two settled in?"

"Yeah, thanks for setting everything up." Pinwheel responded.

Moonbeam continued, "Good. I've just finished with the preparations. It's time to get started. clamps released. When you're ready, start moving forward on the stick and press the button.”

Pinwheel carefully pushed the thrust lever forward and "my" engines responded, gradually accelerating us out of the drydock.
As we exited the drydock, a small dot on the starfield was marked by the window glass HUD.

The apparition of Moonbeam explained, "The first test flight was just a short hop between Equus and Cadenza."

The second planet of our ancestral home solar system.

Mass: 0.815 Equus masses
Radius: 6050 kilometers
Atmospheric pressure: 90 bar
Surface temperature: 460°C
Distance: 5.97 light-minutes

"Okay, let's see what happens." Pinwheel said and adjusted our heading towards Cadenza while also accelerating further.

Moonbeam instructed me, "Alright, 'Glitter Trail', begin Friendship Drive pre-initialization sequence."
I obeyed and experimentally read the sensor inputs of the FSD systems. But something was way off. I said, "Hey, Moonbeam, there must be something wrong with the simulation." She seemed to smile knowingly, but let me continue.
"Well, first of all it feels like the number two injector assembly is plugged in using an inverted magic current sensor using an open cycle system connector. No FSD could possibly open a stable hyperspace aperture like that."
Moonbeam responded reassuringly, "You mean, no modern FSD could open a stable aperture like that. You are wearing a historically accurate piece of equipment. That's just how ships used to roll back in the day."

“Wait. You’re telling me it’s *supposed* to work like this? Who designed this? This thing is a deathtrap! And the lubricant mixes with the fuel and…”

I looked puzzled, and she explained. "The FSD prototype didn't have the advanced safety features and efficient fuel transfer systems that you modern ships do. They had to make due with a lot less fancy tech. Just wait until you use the valve controlling the secondary coolant reserve canister."

Hesitantly, I tried the controls she mentioned and immediately recoiled in disgust. I may have used an expletive at that point. "Oh this is just revolting! I feel violated!"

Moonbeam just laughed and said, “Yes, that's the reaction all you modern ships have to this technology. How did ponies ever manage to leave Equus, right? But remember, if it wasn't for intrepid ponies taking risks with this new technology, you wouldn't even exist right now. The Friendship Drive has been responsible for more technological progress than any other single invention in the history of ponykind. But If you would like to abort the virtual experience..."

"No, It's alright. I'll get over it." I replied, also starting to see the amusing side of this.

Moonbeam narrated, "After travelling a distance of 2574 kilometers, Glitter Trail and Spurwing activated the FSD"

We continued the indicated distance, and Pinwheel, or rather 'Spurwing' gave the command to charge the Friendship Drive.

"Friendship Drive Charging" I announced. And a hum rising in pitch began sounding. The exterior part of the FSD dome began emitting a red glow.
Controlling the beams of light took a lot more effort than I was used to, and most of the energy poured into opening the hyperspace aperture seemed to vanish in the process.

"Don't worry, just keep doing your best." Moonbeam encouraged. "You're almost there!"

The hum got louder, and the light emitted by the FSD increased in intensity.
And then, suddenly, the aperture was open and I pushed us inside. The array of data recorder devices scattered in the cockpit began blinking, beeping, and printing furiously. At least the bright pulsating light as we pushed through the barrier was familiar. It filled the cockpit and I was sure it could be seen from the surface of Equus.

"Hang on!" Pinwheel exclaimed as he grabbed onto his chair and braced himself.
And just like modern trips through hyperspace, the distance to Cadenza was suddenly compressed by a great amount.

The ride through the miasma currents was slightly more turbulent than it should have been, and the sails equipped on this prototype were inadequate to counteract the forces involved. but we saw the image of Cadenza steadily approaching. The flight lasted 5 minutes and 37 seconds, but it felt longer than that.

Moonbeam continued, "Glitter Trail collapsed the hyperspace bubble at an indicated distance of 352 meters from Cadenza."

I collapsed the hyperspace bubble when the distance compressed by hyperspace reached the specified amount.

"After returning to normal space, Glitter Trail turned around to look back at Equus", Moonbeam continued.

We emerged in orbit around Cadenza, now with the increased orbital distance from the planet again in normal space. We took a moment to 'catch our breath' and take in the view of the dense beige clouds of the planet.

Moonbeam repeated with more emphasis, "Glitter Trail turned around and looked at Equus."

"Oh, right. sorry" I turned around and looked back at that pale blue dot. I zoomed in the view of the cockpit glass, so that Pinwheel could see it clearly as well.

"Exactly 21.5 seconds later, they saw a twinkling light in the orbit of Equus. The light from the same pulsating effect that they made when they entered hyperspace only catching up to them now. Dozens of monitoring satellites in orbit around Cadenza observed the same thing, proving that despite the apparently slow movement speed in hyperspace, the Friendship Drive was a viable method of faster-than-light travel."[3]
We waited, and indeed, a faint pulsating light appeared in the exact same location above Equus where we entered hyperspace.
"Well done! Congratulations! You did it! I'm pulling you out of the simulation now." Moonbeam said.
Consciousness process switching to runlevel 3...
I felt my senses return to my avatarself and looked around. "Wow, that's some virtual reality."
Pinwheel smiled. "Yes, well, I've never experienced anything like this before."
I immediately reconnected the ethermind telepresence to my shipself. And Pinwheel was stretching his wings, also glad to be his usual self again.

“That was surreal. Of course, the Friendship Drive I am equipped with is an evolution from the same technology. So the Mk. I was kind of familiar, but yet so very different.”

We thanked Moonbeam for the tour and the experience. We spent some more time looking at the other exhibits at the museum before returning to the hangar where my shipself waited.
I said, "So, what do you think? I thought it went pretty good."
Pinwheel replied, "Yeah, I learned a lot about the history of ponies and how the ponies of old connect to our modern age. At least on the technology side of things.”

“Didn’t you also learn about their culture?”

“Now that you mention it - I think I did. They had endless patience when using old things, but zero patience when waiting to try new things. Never yielding to the unknown, as they said. And in that regard, they are no different from us.”

Comments

[Average Helper]

A very interesting chapter! Always neat to see history ponified. I love the little anthropological details: a stallion doing programming among Equus' mare-dominated society, ponies' musical disposition leading to MIDI becoming their Universal Serial Bus, etc.

Perhaps I missed something obvious, but I can't seem to find these marked footnotes:

Ponies were inventing stories about aliens living on Bucephalous and how they would invade Equus. [1]

It was built by two earth pony sisters.[1]

My attention was caught by a black-and-white photograph of a stallion standing next to a stack of papers that was so tall he had to stand on his hindlegs to reach the top of the stack.[1]

What nopony expected back then, one of the largest contributors to innovation in the race to put a mare on the moon was Queen Chrysalis of the changelings." [2]

Dozens of monitoring satellites in orbit around Cadenza observed the same thing, proving that despite the apparently slow movement speed in hyperspace, the Friendship Drive was a viable method of faster-than-light travel."[3]

[Draco Dei]

Moonbeam led us ahead to a model that was dated almost half a century later. It was a machine with large, fixed wings, rows of windows, and four engines mounted under the wings.

Skipping over the pedal-powered Earth Pony helicopter in favor of paralleling humanity's growth I see. Note that Cherry Berry (I think that is the name...) is seen piloting one (Testing Testing 1 2 3) not just "she who must not be spoken of in the same breath as 'Laws of Physics'".

Is that a nod to "Changeling Space Program" later?