Fate Has Ordained

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Six years ago Equestria's first manned mission to the lunar surface, Excelsior 7, ended in abject tragedy. Six years later a pair of young astronauts have been sent to provide closure.

Inspired by the Safire memo.

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Comments ( 11 )

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dart157

dart157 #1 · Oct 31st, 2023 · 6 · ·

Overall a great story, I particularly enjoyed the flashbacks to the previous mission, and the inclusion of a rendition of the Apollo 11 “fate has ordained” speech. Not too many people know about that.

Also I enjoy that you avoided having the astronauts come across Nightmare Moon. That trope has been done so many times and I’m honestly tired of it.

Griffonheart2012

Griffonheart2012 #2 · Nov 1st, 2023 · 4 · ·

It was a nice sad oneshot. Rip brave space ponyos.

Clawfoot

Clawfoot #3 · Nov 1st, 2023 · 3 · ·

"I only heard that he left the space program and then withdrew from public life."

Was that a typo? Or did they forget that Malt was a mare due to the lack of interest and time?

*keeps reading* Malt switched genders mid story, hell of a special talent.

But seriously, a short and bitter tale and an excellent story.

Blade Star

Blade Star #4 · Nov 1st, 2023 · 4 · ·

A postscript from the actual speech:

AFTER THE PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT, AT THE POINT WHEN NASA ENDS COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE MEN:
A clergyman should adopt the same procedure as a burial at sea, commending their souls to "the deepest of the deep," concluding with the Lord's Prayer.

Damn, that's cold. To think that they'd just cut the feed and leave them to die in that horrible silence. I'm honestly surprised they didn't have something like a cyanide capsule, just in case.

Gyro Pony

Gyro Pony #5 · Nov 1st, 2023 · 4 · ·

You addressed the red herring of "princess powers" moving ponies to and from the moon, while keeping the story alive and flowing.

Nicely done
So many other stories simply avoid that elephant in the room.

Emil

Emil #6 · Nov 2nd, 2023 · 3 · ·

11737363
Yeah. I would've expected that it'd be up to the astronauts when to sign off, rather than just cutting the feed. But my guess is that if the astronauts asked for it, someone in Houston would have kept the connection going as long as physically possible, orders from the White House be damned.

samble

samble #7 · Nov 4th, 2023 · 2 · ·

11737363
If I remember right, Carl Sagan said they were given cyanide capsules, but the astronauts as late as Apollo 13 said this was not the case, and the Apollo 11 survival kit did not contain enough medications (and not enough for a lethal dosage) to cause death.

Fortunately (I guess?), death by the vacuum of space, if a helmet was removed, would not be a drawn out affair — with multiple sources saying you'd lose consciousness without a helmet in 10-15 seconds, and you'd die within maybe two minutes. It's likely the "suffering" mentioned here is more so mental/emotional shock and hurt from basically being abandoned and then cut off from contact than being in long-term agony.

Edit: Vsauce has part of a video discussing the "Moon Landing Disaster" speech and what would happen if the Apollo 11 crew was stranded. Link here, starts about 9:25.

Stellar_