Why Ponies Aren't in Space

by Raptor

Episode 2: Threats; Chapter 1: Research & Development

Episode II: Threats
Chapter I: Research & Development

---

Sir...?
What.
...Is... this a bad time, sir...?
...
...What's that you're--
--No. No... it's not a bad time... What is it?
...Is that--?
--Yes. Yes it is. Do you want to make something of it?!
...Sir, you know how--
--Do you REALLY want to start something...?!
...No.
Then tell me what it is you want and be on your way.
...Yes, sir. The diagnostics you ordered reported perfect condition. Nothing out of the ordinary.
...Good. Dismissed.
...
Alpha to Carapace. Respond.
Carapace at your beck and call, sir!
Have the 'Haetri-vaertsth Agents inspect the thistraeii'ir division.
By your orders.
I would prefer them to not know of our conversation...
Deceiving the obnoxious it'vat't-kkit'th? I'm liking this conversation already. What do you need?
...There's something I want you to do...

---

Four Weeks Later

Star Gazer hastily flipped through the pages, scanning each one with unnatural speed for the fifth time. When the pages ran out, he slammed the notebook closed, and his eyes halted. He stood there for a moment, thinking. Then, he frowned, glanced down at the book, then back up. "...Fascinating," he whispered simply. He pushed the book to the side and looked over the other documents. Blueprints, sketches, notebooks... all of different devices. Devices that weren't supposed to be released to the world. Some of which were never given the chance. For better or worse...

They were the past four designs of the minds who wished to go up to the stars. Classified top secret, they were for Gazer's eyes only, along with his design team, and the royal authorities, of course. Gazer looked at each one once more. Sky Watcher's combustion rocket... Violet Shine's "Orbital Carraige" levitation system... Spark Wing's Extreme Distance Flight Suit, and the anonymous unicorn stallion's "Magicka-Burn" rocket.

Gazer found the last one to be the most interesting. It was like a combustion engine... with pure magic energy as fuel. Combine that with Violet's levitation coils... Gazer frowned. His own system was still more efficient. But he made a mental note to test the "Magicka burn" later.

There was a knock on the door. Gazer shook his head and looked around the room. He was in a small, cramped office with stone gray walls with metal beams stretching along them in a skeletal manner. The single lamp suspended from the ceiling in the middle of the room swayed back and forth, creaking lightly. The dusty metal shelves in the back of the room were nearly vacant, while the wooden desk in the middle was littered with notebooks, binders, papers, and scrolls. In front of Gazer, in the darkest corner of the room, was the faintest shape of a door, from which the knocking had come from.

It was so dark... anything could be at that door.

Gazer cleared his throat. "Come in," he said. The door slowly opened, and for some reason, Gazer felt a sense of relief when he saw that it was only Crystal Sky. "Ah, Crystal," he said, smiling. "What can I do for you?"

Crystal looked around the room at the scattered papers strewn over the desk and on the floor. "Are you busy...?" she asked rather quietly.

"Of course," he replied. "I'm always busy. It's me we're talking about." He started sifting through the papers. "But what's up?"

"I can come back later..." she muttered, backing up slightly.

"You can, but I'll still be busy later. I told you, I'm always busy. What do you need?"

"Well, I was just wondering... what the heck are you doing, exactly...?"

"I'm sifting."

Crystal facehoofed. "I mean, what are you doing with all this? What's your plan, here?"

"Oh, well... we're going to build another spacecraft."

Crystal narrowed her eyes. "Well, yes, I got that, but... Why...? What for?"

Gazer paused. "Well... that part's complicated." Gazer struffed his saddlebag full of different papers, scrolls, blueprints, and journals before trotting past Crystal, who followed him out the door. The tunnel they were walking through led to a large chamber that was filled with loud construction noises- sawblades cutting through metal and plastic, welders sparking, workers shouting, and magic twinkling. As the two ponies trotted towards the noises, Sky continued her questions.

"You're not planning on getting past the Warden, are you?" she asked.

"I don't think I could if I wanted to!" Gazer replied, raising his voice over the nearby drill activating. They came to a smaller section of the chamber, the rest of it blocked off by large construction equipment. Around them were several contruction ponies of all types; Earth ponies operating the heavy machinery, unicorns holding materials in place, and pegasi working on things from all angles. "I also don't think it would be the best move, given our position!" The two continued on their way, ducking beneath equipment and brushing past workers, shouting over the noises.

"And what exactly is our position!?" Sky continued.

Gazer hopped over a pony whose legs were sticking out from under a machine. He looked back at her. "Grounded!" he called out simply.

"Then what is the best move if we're grounded!?" Crystal was blocked by two workers carrying a metal beam. She extended her wings and fluttered over the crowd, meeting Gazer on the other side.

"Get ungrounded!" he said as he walked past the wall of equipment and into the rest of the large chamber. They were standing on a balcony, overlooking large groups of workers tampering with big clusters of equipment. While they weren't as close to most of it, it was still loud. "That has to be the first step before we do anything else!"

"So what the next step, with this!?" Crystal asked him, nodding towards the center of the room. Gazer looked up at what she was motioning towards, and smiled. "You're not planning to threaten the Warden again, are you!?"

"Oh, no!" Gazer replied. "I'm just levelling the playing field, is all!" The two ponies looked at the massive structure in the room-- an enormous metal skeleton of an airship with a closed off ceiling and no balloons, sporting wings with holes reserved for dual engine-like machinery, with patches of metal on and within the structure.

"You're crazy, you know that!?" Crystal said.

"Thank you!" Gazer chirped.

\v/\V/\v/

The two princesses of night and day walked through the main hall, the stain-glass windows shining colorful light on the floor. They said nothing, but they both knew what was on their minds. They passed by each window-- each story. The rise of Discord, the first fall of Discord, the second fall of Discord, the Changeling invasion of Canterlot, the delivery of the Crystal Heart... so on and so forth. Finally, Celestia broke the silence.

"Are you sure this is the best course of action, Luna?" she asked quietly, concern in her voice.

"It is the best option we have," Luna replied. "And I trust Dr. Gazer."

"As do I," Celestia agreed, "but this is a bold move. Things could get very dangerous. I'm not sure if we should devote so many resources to this... gamble." Luna said nothing. "Not to mention, if we lose, many lives may suffer."

"I am aware of this, sister," Luna said, looking up at her. "But the doctor knows what he is doing."

Celestia gave a slight smile. "You really trust him, don't you?"

"Gazer is no fool," Luna said sternly. "If anyone knows how to make a safe and smart gamble, it is he."

Celestia looked forward, and her smile disappeared. "But what is his plan?" she asked. "He says he wants to avoid confrontation, yet it looks like he plans on threatening them."

"Do you agree with him?" Luna asked. Celestia looked at her sister for clarification. "Do you believe that ponykind must expand beyond the sky?"

Celestia sighed and stopped in her tracks, looking up at a blank stained-glass window. "I believe that we are happy here," she said. "Where we are, now. In Equestria. We have plentiful resources, little to no enemies, poverty, or crime, and don't suffer from overpopulation. We have no reason to expand." She looked at her younger sister with saddened eyes. "So why should we risk devastating war to do so...?"

Luna looked down. The answer to that was difficult to understand, but Luna had somewhat of an idea. "Perhaps..." she began. She looked back up at her sister. "...Perhaps it is because we are supposed to. Perhaps we need to, but we just don't know why yet." She looked out the window, at the endless sky behind it. Celestia followed her gaze. "...Perhaps it is our destiny."

\v/\V/\v/

Gazer and Crystal trotted along the metal floor, passing by the noisy equipment. "I still don't understand how you think we can stand up to them!" Crystal shouted.

"Simple!" Gazer called back. Although both of them knew nothing was ever simple when it came to the strange stallion. "We have a strong sense of magic!" They managed to exit the maze of machinery, and Crystal hovered over to him, landing at his side. They continued walking toward an area with large papers posted on boards and lying on desks. "The Warden keep us earthbound because they don't want us in space for some reason. I believe that reason is because they're afraid of us."

"Afraid of us?" Crystal raised an eyebrow at him. "With their kind of technology? They must have been in space for years! That means they have much more experience then we do."

"Experience, yes," Gazer looked at her. "Magical prowess, no. When you were on their ship, did you even once see one of them use magic...?"

Crystal opened her mouth, but then stopped. She looked off in a different direction for a moment, then looked back at Gazer. "No, actually. I never have. They just use their claws to interact with things."

"Right! They have opposable claws. They don't need innate magic, like ponies. Sort of like griffons or dragons. They may be able to harness magic through arcane arts or technology, but they don't have a unicorn's ability to alter it directly."

"But how do we use that to our advantage?" The two walked up to the desk, where a big, brown earth pony with a blonde mane was sifting through papers, glaring down intently through his spectacles. Two cream-colored mares stood in the corner, bickering over what looked like a blueprint.

"To answer that question, I'd like you to refer to my good friend, Mr. Rusty Gears." Gazer stopped and motioned to the earth pony, who looked up and smirked at the mare, taking of his glasses. He nodded.

"Ma'am," he greeted, holding out a hoof. Sky shook it.

"He's the Chief Engineer of this project," Gazer explained. "I had the ideas, but he helped me get it to work."

Gears frowned. "Hey, some of these ideas are mine, too."

"I know," Gazer said, walking around the desk. "Care to share with the mare?" He chuckles. "Heheheh... Ah, rhyming."

Sky rolled her eyes. "So, what did you come up with, Mr. Gears?" she asked.

"The structure of the vessel, mainly."

"Oh?"

Rusty nodded. "Star was never really good with structure and architecture, so I was able to get his design to work."

"By that he means he rewrote my design entirely!" Gazer called from one of the walls, where he was examining a blueprint.

Rusty shrugged. "Made it work, didn't I?" He puts a hoof down on the desk in front of him, which has the overall design of the ship laid out on it. "I made it so it could easily fly in and out of atmosphere without damage, as well as sustain a decent amount of stress." He looks over to Gazer. "Star's design would've torn itself apart as soon as it tried to re-enter the atmosphere!" he said a little loudly. Gazer just looked at him with a half-lidded expression and walked over.

"Impressive," said Crystal.

"Yes, yes, very," Gazer said hastily. "But tell her about what you did regarding the magical network."

Rusty blinked. "About what? Magical network? That wasn't me, Star, that was Sparklight." He points behind him at a yellow and blue unicorn mare.

"Oh..." Gazer stared at her. "...Right. Heh..."

Rusty pointed to his forehead. "Do I have a horn on my head? I'm a technical engineer, dude, I dunno jack about magic--"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it." Gazer said, ushering Crystal to follow him. She smiled, shaking her head, and followed.

The two approached the yellow mare, and before Gazer could say anything, she addressed them: "Hello, doctor."

"Hey, Sparklight. I'd like you to meet--"

"Hello, Crystal," the mare interrupted.

Crystal smiled. "Hello, Sparklight. How have you been?"

Sparklight shrugged and turned to her. "Can't complain. Been working around a lot of noisy machinery, but I've gotten a lot done."

Gazer glanced between them. "Oh. You know each other?"

"Well, we both spend a lot of time in the castle..." Crystal explained.

Gazer shrugged. "Well, alright. That makes things simpler. Why don't you tell her about the magical network, Spark?"

The yellow mare nodded. "Gladly. We've figured out a way to pool unicorns' magic together into the very construct of the ship, almost as a way for them all to use it as one."

Crystal's eyes widened slightly as she raised an eyebrow. "Really? I thought everypony's magic was separate, so that it can't be influenced easily by another. Like, with levitation and stuff."

Sparklight nodded again. "Naturally, yes. But some ponies have been able to 'combine' their magic through meditation. However, the process requires time, practice, and a close relationship between the casters-- and it isn't even very practical to begin with." She motioned to an open book she was examining before they interrupted. There were several sketches of an object and multiple unicorn-shaped figures with several lines connecting them in various places on their heads, captioned with arcane symbols. "When combined with just a little technology and enchanting, however, we were able to make a connection."

"So what exactly would this do?"

"Help focus magical energy," Gazer chimed in. "Help control the ship. There'll be one pilot, and normally one pony controlling such a large object would be extremely taxing and inaccurate. So, with the help of spreading the strain over a bunch of other minds, the pilot will be able to control the ship precisely and comfortably."

"I see... does this mean the crew will be entirely unicorn?"

Gazer shook his head. "Not necessarily. We only need about five unicorns to support the network, but the ship needs to be run by more then that. We're not being discriminatory here."

"Oh. That's good..." Crystal murmured.

Gazer paused. "Wait, why?" He smirked. "Did you want to be part of the crew?"

Crystal's eyes darted away. "Well... m-maybe..." She looked up at him. "I'm still not sure what its mission exactly is," she whispered. Gazer nodded in understanding and smiled at Sparklight, who nodded back at him.

After a while of walking around the facility and talking about the ship, Gazer stood on the platform next to Sky, looking upon his work. "...Do you really think you could do it...?" Sky asked suddenly.

"Do what?"

"...Go to war." Sky looked up at him with a blank but serious expression. Gazer stared back at her. "That is what this is for, isn't it...?" She motioned to the ship.

"It's not..."

"Not what? Built for war? Then why are you putting weapons on it...?"

"...We're not putting weapons on it."

"You think I'm stupid?" Crystal snapped. "I know what that is." She pointed to a long, metal rod jutting out of a swiveling chassis resting near the ship, being worked on by three ponies. "The magical network can be used like a unicorn's mind. That rod is a horn. But not just any horn-- one optimized for a specific spell."

"...It's just for show."

"You really think the Warden are going to be intimidated by that...?" Crystal's voice softened.

"...Actually, I do." Gazer looked at her with a determined expression. "Like I said before, they detain us because they're afraid of our capabilities." He then shifted his gaze over to the ship. "When they see this... they may question if their whole mission was really worth it."

"You're that confident in your assumptions...?"

"...I'm not assuming. You know I don't do that." Sky looked at him doubtfully, and he looked right back at her. "I need you to trust me on this. Please."

After a few moments of hesitation, Crystal nods.

As the two walk off, neither of them notice a lamp up in the rafters flicker and die.

Author's Note:

And so begins Act II! I'll admit, this chapter was mostly headcanon. I hope it was at least interesting. Sorry it took so long. Hopefully I'll be able to update more frequently. I know this fic isn't really known for that, (and neither am I, really,) but I'll do my best. Thanks to those who kept this dusty ol' book in your favorites, hoping it would one day update.
Until next time.

See you at Ragnarok,
--Raptor

Comments

[Ariel Schnee]

Sounds like the Warden need to be paid a visit by a certain pony in a blue box who is called the Doctor.^_^