My Little Kerbals: Space is Magic

by Volgar The Mighty

Chapter 1: We Have Touchdown

My Little Kerbals: Space is Magic

Chapter 1: We Have Touchdown

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Jebediah Kerman pushed the throttle stick up. "Starting transfer burn now," he said. Bill, Bob, and Jebediah were sitting in foldable seats looking "up." To Jeb's left sat Bill with controls in front of both. Inbetween them was a screen. Superior to them sat Bob with gauges and readouts in front of him. Windows were spread around the capsule with a hatch off to the side. A red light started flashing to his left. He pressed a button below it, and the light stayed lit.

"Come in, Explorer Team One. This is Mission Control. Do you read me?" a feminine voice boomed over the speaker system.

"Loud and clear, Jenny. And might I say you sound fine this... Morning?" Jeb responded.

"Afternoon, and thanks... I think. Anyway, this mission isn't purely scientific like the previous ones, and a lot is riding on your success."

"A lot is always riding on my success." Both Bill and Bob facepalmed. "And what? Are there aliens on the other side of this wormhole thing?" Jebediah started laughing.

"Yes." Jebediah stopped laughing. "Now, we've picked a good landing spot near some settlements. Please try to make a good first impression. The new Office of Alien Relations wants to hear good news from you three."

Bob looked over towards Jeb. Raising his voice, he said "Don't worry, you can count on us."

"I'm sending a photo of the landing site." Clicking could be heard, then the screen lit up. On it was a picture of a green valley with a forest and settlements. In the center at a flat plains area, a purple target marked the landing area. "As you can see, you will be near at least two settlements with a larger one to the west. The one to the south seems to be a small rural town and there's another town against the base of that mountain to the east. There's also a strange weather phenomenom to the north and a large forest surrounding most of the southern half of the valley."

Bill nodded his head. "Thanks, Jenny. Anything else we need to know?"

The sound of paper shuffling could be heard over the comms system. "Yes, we're currently scrapping together a video of world leaders saying hello as a greeting package. Expect it to be sent within a month. Use the P. C. U. to show them it."

Jeb looked out the window to his right and peered at a city in the night lit up like a lightbulb. "Is that all?"

"One last thing. The Director wants us to take as many precautions as possible here, so we've made a few additions to the lander for safety. We've added parachutes to the heat shields so they hopefully won't put anyone or anything in danger. You MUST remember to activate them."

Jeb waved his hand. "Don't worry, this is me we're talking about."

Jenny sighed before saying "Good luck." The red light blinked out. The silence echoed throughout the capsule for a few seconds.

Bill looked at Jeb. "You aren't going to remember, are you?"

"I'm sure everything will be fine."

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About Another Year Later

Princess Luna ran down a white marble hallway. Floating in a blue aura next to her was a folder full of papers. The night sky was visible in the stained glass windows. She turned right down a new hallways. At the end stood a set of double doors with a sun inlaid on them. On either side, guards in golden armor stood as still as statues. "TIAAAAAAAAAA!" she screamed as she barreled towards the doors. Before she could crash into the doors, the guards flung open the doors. Once inside, she turned on the lights. As the doors closed behind her, she ran over to the large round bed. "Celestia, wake up!" she said as she shook the large white pony who was trying to sleep under the red covers.

Celestia slid an eye open, glaring at Luna. "Luna, why are waking me up--" She looked at the gold alarm clock sitting on her mahogany nightstand. "--two hours before dawn?"

"I detected another object, sister, and this one's much larger."

The white alicorn crawled out from under her covers. She sighed as she shook her head. "Oh Lulu, you know I care deeply about you, but I still think your overreacting about this false star."

"I am not!" She opened the folder and brought out a rough sketch of the probe. "Look, it is clearly designed to imitate my stars. The front reflects light from the sun or moon and this back part along with these sticks must be some sort of magical pushing device. And the worst part is it's resistant to magic!"

"Luna, not only does this 'magical pushing device' not exist, the fact it's resistant to magic would stop such a device from working in the first place. And how could they put something into space? That would require massive amounts of magic, maybe even more than either of us, especially if this new one is so large."

"I don't know how they did such a thing, but they clearly have. And I will find whoever is responsible for this crime."

Celestia rubbed her forehead with her hooves. "I'm glad you're trying to learn more about our subjects, but I don't think guards looking for 'suspicious activity pertaining to the night sky' is the correct way to go about it. In fact, didn't you bring in somepony a month ago because he was talking while looking through his telescope and he had a green coat?"

Luna looked down, her cheeks blushing and ears hanging. "I had read those comics about green ponies from space the day before."

Celestia groaned and rubbed her eyes. "Look, I'm sure whatever this is about will reveal itself soon enough. But I need to go back to sleep, so why don't you try to learn more about this new one and you can tell me all about it later."

Nodding her head, Luna starting to walk out of the room. "You're right, sister. Clearly this newer one will have more proof of this evildoer's plans written all over it."

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After separating from the interplanetary stage, the lander streaked through space and into the atmosphere. It flew past the terminator into the early dawn light. Flames licked across the glowing heat shields, turning the lander into a smoking fireball. The craft slowed down and the flames vanished.

Jebediah looked at the navball to see the retrograde marker centered. "Still going straight. Releasing heat shields." He pressed a button and a small green light above it flashed red for a second before turning green again.

Bill stared at Jeb for a few seconds. As he stared, he asked "You forgot to prime the heat shield's parachutes, didn't you?"

Jeb stopped moving. "Uhh... No?"

Bob turned around and screamed "Jeb! What if they hit something? Or worse, someONE?"

Jeb pressed a few buttons before responding. "I'm sure everything will turn out alright."

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"It is not 'alright' you peasant! You were supposed to trim my bushes before I woke up!" a white unicorn with a golden mane and tail screamed at a cowering brown earth pony. Behind him was an exquisite mansion made of the finest marble. He stood on the entrance pathway surrounded by beautiful flowers and green bushes.

"I'm sorry, Prince Blueblood, your highness. But my wife needed to get to a hospital, she's very sick," the earth pony whimpered.

"I don't care if who was sick, my bushes were to be trimmed by dawn, and since you can't seem to do that, you're fired!" Prince Blueblood pointed to the main road with his hoof. The gardener hung his head and sulked back home.

Blueblood watched as he left. He turned around to walk back in when the sound of breaking stone and scraping metal fell to his ears. He looked up to see a burnt metal disc sticking out of his bedroom wall on the second floor. He stood there, his mouth agape and his eyes popping out of his skull. Out of nowhere, two more crash into his mansion. Some of the roof cracked and collapsed; stone chunks rained down into the yard.

Prince Blueblood turned around to run to the castle, but was immediately cut off when another blackened disc crashed into the ground. Stone and dirt flung into the air. Blueblood lay prone on the ground with his hooves covering his head. As the dust settled, he stood back up, hyperventilating and looking to the sky with wide eyes for more objects. Seeing nothing, he looked back down and realized he was covered in filth. Small pebbles, dirt, and chunks of grass were spread throughout his coat, mane, and tail. His eyes rolled up into his head and he fell to the ground.

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Parachutes slowed the lander as it descended towards the ground. The landing lights turned on and the landing legs folded out. Below lay flat green fields sparsely decorated with trees. A pond could be seen off in the distance. As the craft continued falling, the parachutes opened up completely, beginning the final stage of descent. The engines roared to life, slowing the lander to a safe speed.

Jeb watched the radar altimeter as it slowly dialed down. When it landed on zero and the craft shook, he immediately shut off the engines. "Gentlemen, we have touchdown," he said. He checked the fuel gauges and noted that, thanks to the parachutes, very little fuel was used. He walked over to the hatch and carefully unlocked and opened it. Making sure no parachutes were in the way, he pressed the 'lower ladders' button. After waiting for the process to complete, he climbed down onto the soft grass.

Bill, Bob, and Jebediah repacked the parachutes, extended the antennae and solar panels, and brought out the P. C. U. They set it on a tripod in front of the lander and prepared the greetings video. They took a few minutes to observe the scenery, noting its uncanny resemblance to home. After a while, Jeb noticed two large specks dive to the ground from the east. He watched as the two chariots, one dark and the other white and being pulled by pegasi of respective colors, land a short distance from them.

Jeb pointed at the spectacle. "Hey guys, look! They have flying horses!"

At that moment, more pegasi landed nearby, all wearing armor. The chariot pullers unhitched themselves from their cargo. Out of the chariots stepped two more pegasi, one white and the other blue, but these horses also had horns and were wearing royal regalia instead of armor.

Noticing they were half surrounded and Bill was hyperventilating, Bob looked to Jebediah and said "I think the aliens ARE the flying horses."

Author's Note:

New chapter! The story is proceeding and things are tense. Luckily, none of Prince Blueblood's undeserving servants were harmed in the writing of this chapter. Sadly, neither was Blueblood... Oh well, I'll see if I can get him next time (assuming there's a next time).

Also, in case you missed it, I added a little intro to the prologue a few days ago, so if you haven't, check up on that (though it isn't needed to understand the story).

Next, turns out Jebediah would have trouble tanning on Laythe as the max temperature there is 43 degrees Fahrenheit. I'll have rewrite some of the scene to make everything work out. Expect it to update in a few days, but the next chapter will have a notice just in case you miss it.

Finally, turned out Christmas was a little busier for me than I thought it would be, so I didn't finish the new cover art. Expect that to also update in a few days.

Volgar The Mighty launching off.

P. S. Considering Kerbin's similar flora to Earth, I'm also giving it similar fauna. We don't share mythology though, so they don't know what pegasi and unicorns are.

Comments

[rcman914]

YES YES YES YES YES

[Cunt_Crusader]

Yay!

[FattBoy94]

Bill! Stop freaking out! They are a (mostly) peaceful race! And Jebediah! Stop being stupid!... Bob, keep doing what you are doing. You are the only (relatively) smart Kerbal on board.

[Colt Vulpes]

That was great -- especially what happened to Prince Blueblood!

[RedvsBlue327]

Well, glad to see the Kerbals treat safety just as seriously on an alien world as they do on their home planet.

[Cj9806]

i'm still trying to figure out how i didn't think of this

[BenRG]

Luna scowled at the three little green men brought to her by her batpony guards. "Aliens! You were to have suffered a punishment most foul for your defilement of our sacred night! However! It has come to our attention that you have given my dissolute nephew a scare that he'll never forget. For this, all your crimes are pardoned and we are having a special medal struck for your services to all ponykind!"

Jeb turned to Bill. "See, I told you that I could talk our way out of this!"