Ad Astra Per Derpy Aspera

by SparklingTwilight

Chapter 10: Second-String Candidates and a Derpy Option

Derpy left the hospital, blank-faced, cradling her belly and speaking to her husband. "Bleeding stopped. He's gone..."

Doctor Hooves hugged her softly. "You don't need to worry about the program. I'm sorry if you worried."

"This doesn't happen because of that... they say. It's... just something that happens. Hormones. I'm marred... Happens to all sorts of ponies. We don't talk about it. It's not your fault. We can hope. We can be good. But this happens."

Doctor Hooves wept.

Derpy blinked dry eyes above caked tear lanes. "I want... I want to save a life," she said.

"Unnecessary," Doctor Hooves said through his sobs. "We have new candidates. They can complete the mission. You are recovering."

"Give me two days. You need that time anyway. It won't be a delay."

"You have been away from the rockets. The technology has changed. We have two-way radios now! Probably... I suppose that won't matter much... but other technology changed--it's. I am so sorry," he paused. "What about the risk and Dinky--"

Derpy swallowed, "What does Dinky say?"

"She's too young to have an--"

"Excuse me," Derpy pushed away from Doctor Hooves and stared into his eyes. "Ask Dinky what she thinks. She's older than I was when I was on my own."

Doctor Hooves' eyes stared past Derpy, to her side.

"I help when I can. The pony who's out there suffering, she didn't bring this on herself."

"She did a loop-de-loop around the moon," Doctor Hooves said.

"But if everything else went right, she would have reached Marred?"

Doctor Hooves bit his lower lip.

"It's our responsibility, then. I can do this."

"You can breathe better in low oxygen environments than anypony. But we cannot outfit you with sufficient water and provisions. You will be--you will be drifting--especially if we cannot arrange a third rescue rocket to pick you up."

"Neither rain nor sleet nor dead of night will stop the mailmare in her journey. That's my day job, Dear," Derpy insisted. "I'm used to hardship. I've done the Yakyakistan mail route. Trudged across the peaks. Braved the Everfree forest. I can do this. I'm not sure the others can. They're talented. They're skilled. But they aren't high altitude ponies."

"I--of course, there are points to be considered."

"Ask Dinky."

"And that will make it fine? You'll put that on her conscience?"

"She'll say she understands, not that I should go, but that I need to."

"This isn't a religious thing, is it, Dear? I know you spoke with those donkeys about The Way and--"

"No," she shook her head. "Although that is an interesting belief. This is about equinanity."

"Okay," he hugged her. "I'll make the preparations... but if you aren't cleared health-wise," he looked at her belly. "Then you will not go. Without your health, you will be unable to rescue anypony."

---

Doctor Hooves returned to Mission Control.

"There is a new option, Mrs. Harshwhinny," he turned to the Operations Director.

"New technology?"

He shook his head. "We bring back Derpy."

Mrs. Harshwhinny made a disgusted face. "She was rejected. And isn't she pregnant?"

"At least one pregnant mare made an important flight that saved lives."

"Marathon," Harshwhinny said.

"Yes."

"She also died after the journey."

"Her foal was born."

"You don't value your wife much, do you, Doctor Hooves?"

His face went red and his limbs trembled. "Excuse me, Mrs. Harshwhinny? Did I not hear something highly offensive just now?"

She stepped back.

"Excuse me? I suppose--believe--understand that I did not hear such a thing," his voice raised, louder and sharper. Roseluck approached him from behind and placed a hoof on his shoulder. He shook it off and reflexively kicked back. Roseluck narrowly avoided his hoof.

"I did not hear some meddlesome government agent whose assistance I did not request and who does not know a fraction of the practicalities involved in strapping a canister of explosive-fuel on her back and propelling herself high into the sky at the risk of herself and her loved ones because she wants to bring hope and inspiration--because she knows she has skills other ponies lack--because she is brave and kind and good and wants to save other ponies' lives. And this is HER OWN CHOICE."

"And it's the government's choice to reject her. We don't need a pegasus with her record of accidents endangering herself or others."

"You need to consider her as an option. There's a ponynaut in space--who the other candidates are not going to be able to save because they have barely been able to demonstrate they're able to take care of themselves."

---

Vapor Trail heaved into a bucket.

"How much alfalfa did you eat last night?" Thunderlane asked her.

"Dry--bleh--heaves."

"I thought you were a high altitude pony?"

"I've got... altitude sickness. I can breathe up high, but I get dizzy. Especially if I ascend too fast--urk!"

"This is really not the right assignment for you."

"No--urk--it isn't."

Thunderlane patted the nape of her neck.

Not too far away, Blaze was speaking with Mrs. Harshwhinny and hoofing over a sack of bits. Mrs. Harshwhinny disappeared into her office and Blaze walked off the path to wait. Mrs. Harshwhinny called out to her and Blaze turned, then twisted an ankle.

Medical ponies raced to treat her. "Sounds like a sprain," a paramedic commented.

"It's broken. I heard a snap." Blaze asserted, even and emotionless--her trademark cool.

Ponies gathered, and Mrs. Harshwhinny took the lead in controlling the crowd. "Now, now, nothing you can do here will help. We don't want to crowd our ponynaut, or else she may get even more injured." She patted Blaze's hoof, and the two shared a knowing glance. Then, Blaze was carted away in a stretcher.

"I guess I'm your only option," Thunderlane commented to Mrs. Harshwhinny. "Got the practice rocket ready?"

"Indeed we do, but there's still some more training that needs to be understood."

"Let's get it over with," he said. "The sooner I do, the sooner I'm a big darn hero rescuing Lightning Dust. Oh, Flash, that'll be an irony. She talks such a big game with her Washouts being safer and more clever than the Wonderbolts, then she gets herself stuck in the middle of nowhere because she's a showoff, and she's farting herself off course. Classic Wonderbolt washout material," he chuckled.

"Fine," Mrs. Harshwhinny said, "Let's go over a few items concerning rocketry safety--disconnections and trajectories. You don't want to end up in the same situation."

She led Thunderlane away, and then turned stock-still and said, "Princess," with a nod to the Princess of the Crystal Empire who had alighted before her.

"Where's Twilight?" Princess Cadance asked. "I'm ready to help."

---

The first problem was the test happened ten hours before Thunderlane was scheduled to go up. They were too close to zero hour where no matter how fast they went, they weren't likely to reach Lightning Dust before her water reserves gave out.

The second problem was someone had either sabotaged the test rocket, or something was wrong with it. It exploded only a few thousand feet up. Thunderlane didn't disconnect himself in time. Princess Cadance, observing in the air, raced to save him as he spiraled out of control. Shrapnel and fiery matter struck him and Cadance. She wrapped him up in her wings, protecting him with a magic bubble, and they hurtled into the ground, triggering a shock-wave and a collapse of an overhanging arch--which cracked the bubble. Hours later, the two, gravely injured, were pulled from rubble by Twilight Sparkle, and neither were ponynaut candidates anymore.

"We need to shut this program down," Twilight Sparkle said, eyes rimmed black, hooves massaging her temples.

"And lose Lightning Dust?"

"There isn't anypony else who's qualified to save her. Spitfire and Vapor Trail both washed out for health reasons. We could contact the griffons, maybe, but that's mad. They've been sabotaging us constantly--probably were behind the exploding rocket."

"Have you asked Discord?" Moondancer suggested.

A grinning draconequus manifested himself, a tiny umbrella in one claw and a scale model rocket in another. "No, no, no," he shook his head. "I've been observing and I cannot possibly assist you with this trifle."

"It's a pony's life," Twilight glared.

"Excuse the flippancy," Discord frowned. Then he oriented himself upside down. "I'm trying to flip my heart about this situation. But, see: I cannot go to space."

"Why not? You've got amazing powers."

"I do. I do!" He magicked up a bouquet of roses shaped like smiling faces. "But you need to realize there's a creature in space that will all-too-soon make her appearance if I pop up, so to speak."

"If it's a danger, that's nothing new. It won't be the first time we cleaned up one of your messes."

Discord, manifesting a pork pie hat, shook his head. "I am the danger. I am the one who knocks... sometimes. And I herald the danger other times. This is a danger with more power than me. Death. The destroyer of worlds. When she is aroused, she will batter us into smithereens."

"I find this hard to believe--"

"Ask Fluttershy," Discord blinked out. Almost immediately, he returned, manifesting his life-partner, a tan pegasus pony not known for her skills in flight. "Fluttershy? Dear?" He asked.

She looked up at him.

"Done transporting those fish?"

"Not all of them made it...", she sighed.

"Really? I could have sworn I didn't misplace them..."

"Discord?" Twilight forced an even smile. "We don't have a lot of time."

"Yes. Fluttershy, Dear. Haven't I shown you memories of Cosmos? And didn't I tell you why I don't go into space."

She nodded. "It was scary."

"Fine," Twilight bit her lower lip. "If Fluttershy says so, then I won't press you Discord.... But... Fluttershy's afraid of everything!"

"Not as much as I used to be!" Fluttershy clarified.

Discord snapped his claws together and Fluttershy disappeared. He sighed. "Regardless, Twilight... I can't do it. I'm afraid. Trading one pony for dooming everypony. You and your friends are powerful, Twilight, and good. But Cosmos is pure malice. She's eaten worlds. Coated me in silver and made me announce her depredations for a century--did absolutely despicable things. I only captured her due to a fluke. Won't happen again, no, no, nope!" Discord blinked out of existence, leaving behind a shrieking plush Discord toy that thankfully also de-materialized several minutes later.

Tacitly, the ponies present shared glances, and they moved on to other topics and never spoke of the Discord interlude again.

"There is one pony." A frowning Doctor Hooves said. "Our test pilot."

"But Mrs. Harshwhinny rejected her."

"She has more hours of test flight than anypony."

"But she was rejected by the rubric--"

"That rubric was fashioned by somepony who knows nothing about rocketry or space."

Twilight Sparkle bit her lower lip. "But isn't Derpy... pregnant?"

"She was." Doctor Hooves sighed.

"I'll have to bring a present--"

Doctor Hooves slightly shook his head.

"Oh," Twilight Sparkle understood. "I'm so sorry.... We couldn't ask her to fly this mission."

"Doctors cleared her. I tried to dissuade her. But she's right. She's our only shot at this rescue."

"You're confident?" Twilight said.

Doctor Hooves nodded.

"She's confident?"

He nodded again.

Twilight tapped a hoof against the table a few times. "Fine. Do it. Send me the forms. I'll approve."

Author's Note:

Reference for Cosmos at this link.

Question for Readers: It's obvious that Derpy's probably going to space. But how's Derpy going to get back?

Comments

[owlicious]

Question for Readers: It's obvious that Derpy's probably going to space. But how's Derpy going to get back?

Hopefully, they'll get back by both returning on a trajectory close enough to home for a third group to rescue them later. Maybe the species will finally cooperate for the rescue, but I assume ponies would have reasonable plans that didn't rely on external help, so I don't know. (Alicorn/other help? Finishing another rocket?)

---

I had the idea for the below non-canon edit picture of the concept of Derpy being trapped on Marred, for the events before chapter ten, for non-serious memes, etc.

"We just don't know what went wrong"

(Below: Twilight seeing Derpy on Marred, edited for Marred to be much closer than the Moon to make the test pilot easier to see)
images2.imgbox.com/0f/b9/4udNSAV7_o.png

And for just Derpy (edit of this) on Marred with the current cover art of the red planet. The red planet is from NASA's 3D model of mars, and use of their images for non-commercial purposes with attribution are generally allowed by their guidelines.

images2.imgbox.com/55/e9/GzVXGVMD_o.png

[owlicious]

Question for Readers: It's obvious that Derpy's probably going to space. But how's Derpy going to get back?

Edit: Oh, I missed the part in Chapter 5 about oxygen, as well as the oxygen Device having finite resources in Chapter 6: Lightning Dust Continues / Twilight Tries / Spitfire Doesn't Make the Grade.

After an eventful couple of hours of blurry adjustments and several removals of her helmet to squint and check the bearings, Lightning Dust stared straight at Marred and used the Device to suck in oxygen, processed from space hydrogen and converted into something more palatable. Her Device still had enough chemicals remaining. She'd still be fine. And, if she didn't sleep, she could process oxygen from the floating space particles--for a while anyway.

---

Original comment from when I thought the issue was fuel and the Device was magic is below:

I've been assuming all launches were from ground level, so I think it's mostly a matter of saving fuel for the launch to Marred and back.

• Most likely, positioning the moon for a gravity assist in a way that does keep the flight plan (then moving it away once the ponynaut starts moving away from the moon, from a distance where it's safe enough to do so), since the story's setting mention it does have enough gravity for an assist

• They'd save fuel if there was a way for Twilight to teleport or accelerate the rockets before the launch, but if they called Discord then she probably can't, e.g. if it was sent to the moon (spells to transform items, seal them inside other items, reduce effects of gravity, etc.).

  Even for helping with launch it from within Equus, Discord might be trying to avoid leaving any traces of his chaos magic whatsoever, for any being like Cosmos that might exist and be capable of sensing chaos magic (Dark forest hypothesis)

• Or to have Twilight teleport into space to meet them there for a boost/refueling on leaving, if that's possible
• (Unlikely given the show and the overall story genre/theme) Or to use boosts to magic such as Elements of Harmony or Grogar's Bewitching Bell, though the first is only ever used when there's a danger facing Equestria, and the latter could be stolen, misused, or seen as a provocation to other countries after what Cozy Glow, Tirek and Chrysalis did. (and potentially the same problem with powerful magic artifacts and beings like Cosmos)

• Joke answer: I don't expect it to be staying on Mars and farming potatoes (or bringing lots of rations) like in (The Martian) because there's no way to bring a space habitat, and nothing about farming was mentioned, and I assume Marred would be uninhabitable for long periods and equipment problems would quickly occur.

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