Project Friendship

The Right Ponies, Part 1 - By Zearfox

The Cobalt-blue, Cyan-maned unicorn colt with an image of a globe on his flank galloped down the long, carpeted hallway; the clopping of his hooves against the marble floor resonating throughout the corridor, echoing along with his panting breath against the walls and the row of windows flanking his left, the intermittent light they cast illuminated the expression of both urgency and importance on his face like a slow strobe light. Running past the multitude of identical, ornate oak doors flanking his right, his destination was at the very end of the corridor. This was a matter of extreme importance, this intelligence was of the highest urgency and as such he had to report to the Royal Alicorn Sisters directly, even if it meant running to the other side of the palace. Not decelerating in the slightest, he reached his destination, swung the ornate door open with his magic as he grounded to a sudden halt and stuck his head into the meeting.

“It’s called the Talon!” He cried to the seated ponies

“We know, Diplo,” called an orange Pegasus colt with a white mane from the table, a slight tinge of irritation in his voice, “Sit down.” He gestured a hoof to a vacant place at the table.

This meeting was being held in what was known as the Emergency Planning Room. This was the room intended for emergency meetings of imperative national importance that were not an immediate threat to Equestria. Such as a serious international development, or an economic meltdown. Either of the Royal Sisters, high-ranking advisors or certain ministers could call for a meeting. It was a dimly lit, rectangular windowless room with white walls and wooden trim. At one end was a large projector screen, flanked on either side by the vertically hung Equestrian flags like guards of honour. The image of what appeared to be a grainy reconnaissance flight photo was projected on it. In the room’s centre and taking up most of the space was a large, rectangular table, a projector set in the centre. Seated around the table were important ministers, military officials and advisors, all suddenly turned to the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs who had just burst in and was now being seated between the head of the Army, who was the Orange pony and a Lavender Unicorn who was neither a minister, official nor advisor, but was in the meeting nonetheless. On the other end of the meeting room were the portraits of the two Alicorns, hung on the wall above two seating places. Sat beneath the portraits, like they were seating arrangements at a dinner table,was the subjects of the paintings themselves: Princesses Celestia and Luna, co-rulers of Equestria.

“Ah, welcome, minister Matt.” Came the calm, sweet voice of Celestia, like a host inviting a guest. “Please, be seated. The head of EI6 was giving us a presentation on this development. Please, Mr Blunt. Continue.”

The grey, visibly sleep-deprived yet fully awake unicorn Colt with a thinning, chestnut mane and Cutie Mark of a stack of documents standing at the front of the room turned his attention from the now-seated minister to the Princess. “Thank you, your highness.” He now spoke to the table as a whole.

“Alright, now as I was saying, approximately 72 hours ago, high-altitude Recon Pegasi photos spotted activity at the Mithkonur Cosmodrome; The Griffins’ largest missile test facility. Usually…all we see are just several rockets being brought out to launch pads…” he pointed on the photograph to several clusters of circular objects, highlighted in red which were military rockets, scatteredthroughout the photo at what were clearly launch pads surrounded by fuelling vehicles and other service craft. “…However…” the Colt continued, his horn glowed with a grey light, the projector doing the same and a button was pressed, moving to the next slide, which was another grainy photo of the same site. “…with this round we noted something unusual. Unlike previous times where we always saw multiple rockets, this time there was only one.” He pointed to a lone rocket highlighted in red, standing completely on it’s own at a launch pad far from the Main buildings. The entire site was devoid of any other sign of missile activity save for this lone missile. It was also considerably bigger than any of the rockets on the previous slide. “What’s worse, it looks bigger than anything they’ve launched before. This was worrying enough. Then, approximately 11 hours ago we detected a launch from the Cosmodrome. Tracking it, we saw the rocket kept going higher, and higher, it wasn’t making the parabolic flight of an ordinary Missile test. We tuned into a radio frequency we detected emanating from the path of the rocket, moving extremely fast over 150 miles in altitude…and it didn’t come back down like the rest of the rocket. Two hours ago the Griffin Premier made it public in a radio speech to his people. Here’s the signal we detected.”

A tape recorder next to the projector glowed, a button on it pressed. The recording it played was a beeping; a simple, yet contextually frightening beeping.

When the tape stopped, the head of EI6 breathed a deep sigh of despair. “Fillies and Gentlecolts, they did it. The Griffins managed to put a satellite, Talon-1 in orbit and is now flying over our heads.” The entire room was silent, not with respect but with shock. Some eyes were still on the tape recorder, transfixed with horror at the implications.Once attention turned back to Blunt, he stated once more, “this of course does raise frightening possibilities. If they can put the Talon Satellite in orbit, what’s next? Another satellite? A bomb? THE bomb?!” The Colt was alarmed at those last words; it was a very frightening possibility. If they could put something in orbit, it meant the Griffins could strike any target on the planet. “How did this happen?! How did we let them get ahead of us in rocket research? This is an extremely alarming situation which we cannot stand for!” The pony was about to begin again, but was interrupted by a calm and almost motherly voice.

“Thank you, Mr. Blunt. Very informative.” The cream alicorn gestured him to his seat, which he took after switching the projector off, knowing he had said enough. The Princess now spoke to the table. Her horn glowed and a dimmer switch was turned up to full, the room once more brightly lit. “While I will admit this is surprising, I highly doubt they would actually have the gall and the foolishness to actually put anything like that in orbit. All our missiles are now within range of every square mile of Griffin territory. To do such an act would be so utterly provocative they would not dare as we can at the push of a button reduce their entire arsenal to radioactive rubble.”

The cream alicorn chuckled a little, letting out a small smile. “This, my Ministers, isn’t necessarily an act of provocation, but I think more of an act of one-upmanship.”

“One-upmanship, your majesty?” The Deputy of Foreign Affairs asked, his head tilted in confusion and turned to the princess.

“What I mean is that they’re simply trying to show they’re better than us, by beating us to putting something in orbit. The answer is simple; we must beat them at their own game. If they’re going to take one record, we have to take the next. The answer is pretty simple, we need to put a Pony in orbit.” The Princess smiled with her eyes closed at those last few words, ready to see the effects of the bombshell she dropped before opening them.

Everyone in the room was stunned at her proposition. She gave a small smile again; she loved getting a reaction from her stuffy politicians in this manner. It never failed to amuse her.

The secretary of Defence now spoke, the Olive Drab earth pony turned to the princesses. “Your highness, sending a living pony into orbit and bringing him back alive? Isn’t that…well, a little dangerous? I mean, where do we even begin with the technical challenges of that: There’s the launch, the rocket not blowing up, the g forces, life suppo-…”

The princess raised a hoof to silence him, ready to speak once again. “If we take that kind of attitude, we’re never going to achieve anything, now are we? Rest assured I am fully aware of such challenges, and we have been doing theoretical studies on the concept. Luna…” the Alicorn turned to her co-ruler seated next to her, the greyish purple princess turned to her sister. “…You’ve been heavily involved in the Equestrian Aeronautics Advisory Committee, you’re personal project. Your colts and fillies have done studies on the possibility, am I right?”

The Moon Princess nodded, smiling in a hint of pride at both her work and that of her ponies at EAAC. “Yes Tia, we have. We have assessed that it is technically possible,” she placed a hoof to her chin in thought,“as for the various issues we have theoretical solutions to almost all of them. However, if we are to move ahead to practical development of a Pony in space, I do recommend we at least prove we can put a satellite up first. We’ve done studies to this as well, but we will require expansion of the Bureau. Currently we’re only doing missile development, if we’re to add this project to our list we’ll need more ponies, more facilities…” Her horn glowed and an old, but well cared for and maintained Abacus levitated in front of her, the beads clicking away as the Moon Goddess did her calculations, “…Basically more funds.”

The treasurer, a gold-furred, silver-mane with coins marked on his flank Earth Pony’s ears twitched, he knew where this was going.

“Mister Bullion, I believe we have the money for this, do we not?” The princess asked the minister, a hopeful smile on her face.

“Well…yes we do. We have been running a budget surplus for a few years now, so our public debt’s actually been quite healthy, having built up substantial reserve. Also, with Prince Blueblood now having abandoned his royal title and material possessions and became a monk, we might actually have the money for this.”

A soft laughter spread around the table, the utter embarrassment of the Royal Family was no longer there to needlessly spend countless Bits on frivolous things beyond anypony’s imagination ever since he had that epiphany in his stay in Ponyville, vowing to give up his material life and joining a Monastery in the mountains. It was a big relief for the Treasury, no longer with money being drained like an insatiable siphon. The auction-off of his belongings after he left also recouped a fair portion of his expenses, although there were a few things, such as the extensive gallery of portraits of himself, that could not find a buyer (The frames earned quite nicely, though)

“And as for Pony Capital,” Celestia turned to the Lavender Unicorn mare seated next to the Foreign Affairs Deputy, “Twilight Sparkle, you’ve been doing a lot of studies on the field of rocketry and orbital mechanics…”

The Unicorn turned to her mentor, she had been nervously quiet throughout the meeting, feeling a bit overwhelmed at the gravity of everything around her. It was the first time she had attended this kind of meeting, which was a coincidence as she was visiting Canterlot from Ponyville with her friends. “Yes, Princess…” she felt a little like Fluttershy, shrinking a little from the meeting. “I’ve been doing a lot of studies; it’s quite fascinating to take in. I’ve read the works of Tsiolkoltsky, von Bronc and many other pioneers and theorists…” she was getting excited at the prospect, but realised there was one huge thing she lacked for such an endeavour, “…but Princess it’s all theoretical, I don’t have any practical experience building rockets.”
The princess gave the warm smile she always presented to her faithful student. “That’s quite alright Twilight, Luna and her team of scientists do have the practical knowledge. There’s a first time for everything. In any case what I need more from you are your organisation skills. Naturally, such an expansion of the EAAC will require reorganisation, and I can’t think of anypony better for the job. Your theoretical knowledge will give you a good foundation as well, my faithful student”

“So…” Twilight started hopefully, “…does that mean…”

The Princess stood up, her majestic stature now towering over the meeting as she spoke to her prized pupil. “Twilight Sparkle, I want you to be Project Manager for our Pony in Space project. You will report directly to Princess Luna, who is Director of the EAAC and will oversee a team of scientists and engineers.”

A wide grin had spread over Twilight’s face, but was promptly dropped at a heartbreaking realisation. “But Princess, what about my studies on Friendship? My home in Ponyville, and…” she paused a bit as the worst of that proposition was realised, “…all my friends?”

The Royal alicorn already knew the answers, and was more than happy to give them. “My Faithful Student, I think this will be a great addition to your study of Friendship. Being a project manager means to lead a huge team of people, I think you can see how that will further your studies. As for your current location in Ponyville and your friends, you need not worry. The Primary Space Centre of the EAAC is actually within Flying Chariot’s distance of Ponyville. If you’re willing to commute daily to the Centre, and I am willing to provide transport, you won’t have to abandon your friends.”

Twilight could barely contain her excitement. The Princess had such trust in her student that she was assigning her a job in a project of national importance, and she would be involved in her area of expertise: Organisation. Ever since the Winter Wrap Up fiasco, Twilight had yearned for another leadership role;one with more responsibilities. To put her organisation skills to good use gave her the best feelings of satisfaction she could ever feel. Now she was getting just what she yearned, and her friends and Ponyville need not be sacrificed.

She could barely contain it in a room full of politicians. “Thank you Princess Celestia! Y-you will not be disappointed!” Inside her mind, however, was the same filly from all those years ago, hopping about in a circle shouting, “yes yes yes yes yes…” in unbound excitement when she was first made Celestia’s Protégé.

“Tia,” the Blue Alicorn sat next to her sister called up, “What should we call the project?”

“How about…” The White Alicorn was looking at her practically beaming student, “Project Friendship?”

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The Friendship 5

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The Right Ponies, Part 2 - By Zearfox

“Remind me again, what I am I supposed to say to her?” inquired the paper white and maned Pegasus to his partner for clarification. He was a little uncomfortable, but used to working in his white suit-and-tie getup that went down to his flank, obscuring his cutie mark. It was both a matter of habit, and personal preference to work in a suit as a civil servant, even if he was flying all the way from Canterlot, his beating wings breaking a bit of a sweat underneath the blackness.

His partner, Kevin was the splitting image of him, paper white Pegasus and suit-and-tie down to flank-length. With a tinge of irritation at obviously repeating himself several times, he responded “I told you already; say we are looking for the best flyers in all of Equestria to become Ponynauts. It’s an extremely dangerous and risky mission, and as such it won’t be held against her in any way, shape or form.”

His questioned answered, the first Pegasus, named Martin now had another one, one of genuine curiosity. “And why are we after this particular Pegasus? I mean, she’s a weatherpony for crying out loud, and there’s a million of them from more towns than I have feathers.”

Kevin could only roll his eyes, “look, this name was one of the top priority names on Princess Celestia’s shortlist, and for Celestia’s sake this is the same weatherpony that did the Sonic Rainboom. I’m pretty sure that’s a good rea-”

He was suddenly cut off by the sound of a terrific whoosh coming up from behind them, passing over their heads and racing out before them faster than their ears could swivel to track the sound. In its wake was a brief but violent disruption of air, nearly shaking both Pegasi out of controlled flight like an airborne wake trail. Regaining control, they saw that whatever it was also left a beautiful rainbow streak in the sky, which quickly faded in its path as it turned upwards, heading vertically into the high Troposphere and into the distance

“What was that?” asked Martin, slightly shaken.

Kevin was slightly dazed by the blur as well. “I’m not sure…” Shrugging it off, he returned to the mission at hoof.“ Whatever, we’ve got a certain Weatherpony to find and offer.” With that, not another word was spoken as the two civil servants made their way to the Skies over Ponyville.

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The familiar crackle sparked in the Cyan Pegasus’ ear, her attention now focused on both the sound from her wireless earpiece and the Cirrus clouds she was busy handling. She was the only weatherpony up at this altitude; no other Pegasus on the team could breathe, let alone fly this high at 31,000 feet. It was deathly quiet, the sounds of her rapidly beating wings being the only sound. It was also very cold, with each exceptionally deep breath in being followed by a deep breath out that made it’s own miniature cloud. The air was so thin most Pegasi wouldn’t be able to get the lift, yet she was an exception. After all, one does not trot about calling themselves “The Best Flyer in all of Equestria” for nothing.

“Spectrum, this is Delta Leader. Spectrum this is Delta Leader. Progress report on Ultra-high Cirrus, over.” crackled the earpiece to her.

The Pegasus quickly replied. “Delta Leader, this is Spectrum. Just finishing up here on one last Cirrus cloud, give me fifteen minutes, over”

The crackly voice of her Team Leader sounded again in her ear “Copy that. Also another thing, you got visitors. There are two ponies here that want to see you about something. Over”

“Copy that. Can it wait it a little longer? I’m almost done up here.” Rainbow was understandably a little annoyed at having to abandon her high-altitude post, considering to get up here she needed first to take a huge running (or more accurately flying) start, accelerating and gaining as much momentum as possible. All that momentum was then used to boost her upwards, suddenly turning 90 Degrees and heading straight for the Zenith. It wasn’t difficult; it was just a little tedious to do all over again for a 15-minute job.

“Affirmative, just don’t take too long. They’re not in a particular hurry, but they look official. Hurry it up, then,” the crackle sounded once more.

15 minutes later, Rainbow had descended from her near-inhospitable perch to the far more comfortable low-altitude cloud structure that was Ponyville’s main weather office. It was here that Ponyville’s weather patterns were drawn up and weatherpony operations coordinated. Rainbow sighted the landing pad to the building’s North, and there were already 3 pegasus ponies on the pad, awaiting her arrival. Two were white and dressed in full suits; the other was Hazelnut-brown and beige-maned. Her cutie mark was of a sun obscured by a cloud and was not as formally dressed as the other two.Rainbow knew the brown pony, but the other two were strangers to her. Slowing down on her approach, just before landing she flared out her wings, giving that last bit of lift before her hooves made contact and her wings could be retracted.

“Ah, there you are Rainbow,” called out Partial Skies, Delta Team Leader. She then turned to the two black suits.

“Gentlemen, this is Rainbow Dash. Rainbow, this is Kevin and Martin. They’re apparently from the Equestrian government”
Kevin stretched out a hoof to shake, only to give a brief shudder when he felt her hooves: they were ice cold and amazingly not frozen solid (no wonder she was blue, he thought). It was understandable, her having just descended from the highest Cirrus clouds but surprising all the same.

“Miss Dash, pleasure to meet you.” Kevin greeted in an enthusiastic voice. “I’ll get to the point: We’re looking for the best fliers in all of Equestria to be pilots for our latest project. Have you heard of Porject Friendship?”

“You mean the program to put a Pony in space? Hell Yeah! Heard from my friend Twilight back when we were in Canterlot last month, and two weeks ago they made the announcement in the square about opening tryouts.” Rainbow liked the idea; it would be like a whole new dimension of flying, to fly ten times higher than any pony before and had considered applying.

“Then what you probably haven’t heard is that there’s also actually a shortlist of Prime Candidates. This is shortlist of known excellent flyers who’d be great for the mission, thus we’re going around making sure these candidates sign up.”
Rainbow could only beam with pride, they were practically heaping a dump truck of praise on her, and it showed she had made a name for herself if she was on the list. “So what you’re saying is, you need to make sure the best flyer in all of Equestria…” she couldn’t help but give her wings a flap at the words, “…signs up for your dangerous, experimental project to send a Pony into space?” her words were dripping with pride.

Martin responded this time, in a tone that emphasised it’s importance. “Of course you know what this entails, don’t you? We’re going up against the Griffins. That means the candidate elimination tests will be brutal, the training highly demanding, and the mission itself is extremely risky and dangerous. You’ll be riding atop an experimental rocket, into the unknowns of space, where we have absolutely no idea what could happen. No one’s ever done this before and we only want the best of the best. It’ll be a competition amongst thousands for a hoof-full of places. It’s hazardous, extremely hazardous…” Martin placed a good deal of emphasis on those last words, “…as such nothing will be held against you if you willing refuse…”

Those words excited Dash, to the point where here wings rose an inch or two. She liked the idea of competition, the idea of a challenge and the idea of danger. Most of all, she loved the idea of being the best. “Sounds Dangerous and Difficult,” responded the weatherpony with a smirk. “I’m you’re mare. Count me in,” she beamed with pride.

It had been 3 weeks since the Recruiter ponies had met her. Rainbow had since undergone quite possibly the longest, most extensive and sometimes downright unusual or even frightening series of medical examinations. One of the most disturbing she can remember was when they injected this weird needle in the root of her left wing. “There’s nothing to worry about,” the doctor said, “nothing at all…” he then turned a machine on. What followed was the weirdest sensation she had ever felt, like she had lost total control over the wing and the needle had taken over. It sprung out, fully erect, and then began to flap. Completely unconsciously her wings flapped as the doctors blithely looked on. The flapping grew faster and faster, she felt as if it was about to pop right out of its socket. Just as the fear of wing ripping clean out was getting all the more real, the doctor ordered his assistant to turn it off. From a flapping noisemaker her wing went completely limp, and the doctor pulled out the needle. Without a hint of emotion he said the test was done and she could call in the next candidate. Rainbow would never forget walking out of that plain white examination room, surrounded by those almost unpony doctors, her wing the sorest she had ever felt.

Now, from the thousands who applied to be Equestria’s first Ponynaut, the rigorous physical examinations had reduced the pool to about 20, herself included. The next tests were supposed to narrow the field down to about 5 ponies; they would be the ones to become Equestria’s first corps of Ponynauts.

The 20 candidates were at the Equestrian Medical Research Institute in Canterlot. They were seated on opposite sides of a table in one of the institute’s many research rooms. In front of each of them was a wide glass pipe, the bottom half filled with water, with a ping-pong ball floating on top. Leading from the bottom of the tube was a rubber hose connected to a mouthpiece. Near the top of the tube, surrounding its circumference were two bands of red tape, about two inches apart.

“Step forward and take your seats” nonchalantly called out the white nurse pony. Her mane was grey and her cutie mark was that of a hypodermic needle. 20 ponies, all pegasi, did as they were told.

She repeated her lines as if off a script, “the ball must be kept between the two lines for as long as possible. You will take one breath only, and blow into your mouthpieces to achieve this.” Each pony instinctively grabbed their mouthpiece and held it in their mouth.

“The record is 105 seconds, you may begin…now.” A timer, a symphony of 20 bubbling tubes and 40 deeply filled lungs immediately started. The soft bubbling of water was the only sound in the room as each pony was focused on keeping that ball between the lines as long as possible from the power of their breath.

30 seconds in, and all the candidates were still bubbling away…

40 seconds in, all candidates were still keeping their nitrocellulose spheres between the two lines…

45 seconds in, and some of the candidates were beginning to struggle; their balls began to waver between the lines and they were running out of breath.

At 51 two candidates were out of breath, they spat out their mouthpieces in defeat as another fell within seconds.

By 58 seconds only 12 ponies were left, many were now struggling to keep their lungs blowing, another pony admitted defeat.

All this while, Rainbow had been calmly blowing into her tube, without the slightest look of effort, her tube calmly bubbling away as her eyes were on the timer clock. She was going to break that record. The best flyer in Equestria had an amazing lung capacity; it’s the reason she could work so high on the Cirrus clouds.

The number of still bubbling tubes was beginning to dwindle, as the clock reached the 80 second mark Rainbow was only focused on two things: The ticking timer and the struggling Ivory Colt in front of her, his baby blue mane was frazzled and his face contorted in effort as he was approaching the limits of his lungs. His ball began to dip, to which he responded in a desperate effort to beat the clock. His eyes were now closed in concentration; he was using every bit of effort he could to keep his lungs working.

At 96 seconds the Colt gave up, panting to get his breath back. Rainbow merely gave a small smirk as she was going strong. Surely she was the only one left, and would have taken a look around the table had she not been so focused on the clock. “…101...102…103…” she thought to herself, she could already taste that new record.

Rainbow spat out the mouthpiece in victory, the clock now past the 105-second mark, and a big grin on her face at her achievement. “Hah! 107 seconds, top tha-…” her boasting was cut short by the sounds of bubbling, it was still audible in the room. Turning to her left, at the far end of the table, her heart sank. Two ponies were still going strong, their tubes still making that sound which meant she would not hold the record. One was a yellow mare with an orange, flame-coloured mane she immediately recognised as one of the Wonderbolts she knew personally: Spitfire, squad leader and all around nice pony. She had thanked Rainbow for saving her, her squad and Rarity during the Best Young Flier’s Competition; Spitfire even recognised Rainbow at the Grand Galloping Gala and tried to spend some time with her, if it wasn’t for those other guests constantly mobbing Spitfire and Soarin’ for photographs.

However, opposite Spitfire was a gray, blonde-maned mare that Rainbow recognised as well. The blonde mane, the gray coat, the bubble cutie mark, and the lazy eye…it was unmistakable.

Just then, at 111 seconds Spitfire spat out her mouthpiece, exhausted. A second later the Grey mare finally admitted defeat as well. After gaining back their breaths, Spitfire extended a hoof to her competitor in a friendly gesture. “Spitfire, Wonderbolt”

The blonde pony took her hoof, responding in a bubbly voice. “Derpy Hooves, Mailmare!” she giggled.

Rainbow turned to face the colt in front of her, and extended her hoof as well. “Hi, name’s Rainbow Dash, Ponyville Weatherpony.”

The white colt took her hoof, smiling back at her. “My name’s Cumulus, Wonderbolt.”

Somewhere inside Rainbow’s head was a fangirl squeal. She was talking to a Wonderbolt, albeit one she hasn’t seen before, but a Wonderbolt nonetheless.

Her eyes widened and she couldn’t help but sound excited, “Oh my gosh, you’re a Wonderbolt?! Awesome, I’m a huge fan and…I’ve never seen you before in a performance, but it’s so awesome to meet you!”

Cumulus chuckled, “well, reason I don’t do many performances is that I’m usually behind the scenes. I’m actually one of the choreographers for our shows; I come up with and rehearse our flight patterns, then leave it to the others to perform”
Rainbow’s eyes lit up. “Wow, that is so…awesome. Your routines are amazing, and you come up with them?”
“Well, some of them anyway,” he chucked. “You’re not too bad yourself, those are some lungs you got.”

(Control yourself Rainbow, try not to sound like too much of a fangirl)

The two of them then turned to the far end of the table, where Spitfire and Derpy were also casually chatting as they regained their breath. “Rainbow, do you know that Grey pony?” asked Cumulus.

“Yup, that’s Derpy Hooves. I know her, she’s actually the PonyvilleMailmare.”

Cumulus was intrigued, “where the heck did she get that lung capacity?”

Rainbow put her hoof to her chin, thinking. “Well, when you’re a busy mailmare who has to carry heavy packages, I guess you build up the stamina.” She gave a shrug, obviously clueless to how the mailpony’s lungs were so gifted.

“Hey Cumulus, how’d you do?” called an excited, approaching voice that was familiar to Rainbow Dash.
Cumulus turned around to see a familiar, very pale Azure pony with a navy Blue mane. “Soarin’, there you are! 96 seconds,could’ve been better.”

Soarin’ was excitable as Rainbow remembered him from the Gala. “Hey, better than mine, only 92 seconds.”
His attention was then suddenly turned from his comrade to the Cyan pony opposite the table whom he instantly recognised. “Hey! You’re the pony who saved my pie, Rainbow…Thrash, is that right?”

Rainbow sniggered and eyerolled, it was only understandable since Soarin’ and Spitfire were constantly being mobbed away he didn’t memorise her name. “Actually, it’s Crash...I MEAN Dash!” she quickly corrected, darn Freudian Slips.

“Thanks again for my pie, I really enjoyed it.” He stretched out a hoof in greeting. Rainbow couldn’t believe it; she was speaking to two Wonderbolts today, and without a mob of people to compete with. She eagerly accepted the greeting, struggling not to break into a squeal.

Over the next few weeks, the 20 candidates were subject to exams that tested their physical and mental limits. There were tests of their acceleration limits in which they were subject to rocket sleds, ejector seats and large centrifuges. There were tests of their physical strength limits with various exercise machines. Tests of their spatial awareness involved induced disorientation in simulated spacecraft that was rotated in all 3 dimensions, of which they had to regain control over. The sensitivity of their senses were also tested to their limits by placing them in chambers and having to detect a particular tone while blasted with a cacophony of other noises, maintaining concentration on a particular point on a screen surrounded by intentionally confusing background imagery as well as tests of their sensitivity to heat. Tests of their stamina involved both running and flying laps continuously or in particular patterns. It seemed that just about any form of test the scientists could come up with was being thrown at them. In addition to all that, there were even more medical exams after medical exams after medical exams. The doctors seemed to probe just about any orifice, X-ray just about any part of their body, examine medical records that went all the way back their birth as foals…it could quite rightly be concluded as the most extensive series of medical examinations in pony history.

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Soarin’ was flying back to his house in Cloudsdale, accompanied by Cumulus. Luna’s moon had begun to rise, and today’s tests had been particularly brutal: A series of tests of their stamina, involving flying in complex patterns that left them exhausted and dizzy, then immediately landing to perform a series of mentally strenuous tasks. After that were both pulmonary and bowel examinations and more time in the centrifuge. Soarin’ was barely able to fly, he was fighting to keep his wings flapping and to keep flying in a straight line.

“Oh, Celestia…I don’t think I can handle much more of this, Cumulus…” he said weakly.

“Me neither, I really hope they’ll decide they’ve done enough tests soon. I don’t even want to think about what they’ve got in store for us tomorrow,” he was just as fatigued as Soarin’, and was looking forward to his bed.

Lacking the energy, the two Wonderbolts continued to fly without another word towards their cloud houses. As Soarin’s house came into view Cumulus peeled away, heading North towards his own residence. Soarin’ touched down in front of his door and pushed it open. Completely exhausted, he trotted awkwardly through his house; the only thing on his mind was his bed upstairs. Climbing what felt like a mountain, he finally arrived on the first floor landing. Without another thought he climbed into his cloud bed and collapsed, the puffy mattress the only solace he found that day.

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“…and I say that’s reason enough to not include her,” retorted the lab-coated grey unicorn, deep in argument with his colleague.

The tangerine, also lab-coated earth pony breathed a sigh before resuming his point. “Look, she’s an excellent candidate, probably the best. She’s performed above average in just about every test we’ve thrown her in, her stamina is phenomenal, her g-force tolerances are some of the highest of the candidature, her spatial awareness is remarkable considering she’s managed to right the spacecraft in more scenarios than any other pilot. The only area that might be an issue would be her vision, and even that’s amazingly satisfactory. Are you going to hold her vision against every other aspect that makes her quite possibly the best candidate we have?” he finished, regaining his breath after such a speech.

“She’s not even on the Primary Candidate list…” contested the unicorn.

The Earth Pony was about to start once more but was interrupted by the hoofs of the boss, the head hancho entering the room. As a certain Lavender unicorn approached them, obviously overhearing their argument, she took a look at the stacks of folders on the tables, the mess of notes among the folders, and the two ponies who were arguing; a single, open folder was located between them.

“Ah! Miss Sparkle!” exclaimed the Grey Unicorn, surprised by her appearance. “What are you doing here?”

Twilight gave a subtle smile, “well, I head a bit of an argument happening, and thought I’d see what’s up. So what are you two on about?”

The tangerine unicorn spoke up, “we were having a disagreement over one of the candidates that we felt should be part of the Ponynaut corps. It’s the third one in here,” he pointed to the open folder.

Twilight’s hoof glowed with a purple light along with the folder between the two scientists. It hovered, and then flew towards Twilight as she levitated it to read its contents. There were five documents, each the summary of a candidate along with their photo paper-clipped to their respective sheet. Taking a look at each sheet, she could see why they were chosen as she skimmed their summaries. Arriving at the third candidate, she skimmed it a little more thoroughly before looking up to the two scientists.

“Are you sure her vision’s the only potential issue she has?” asked Twilight.

The tangerine pony spoke up again. “Yes, she has performed above average in every other test apart from vision, and even then her vision is satisfactory to meet our requirements,” replied the scientist, eager to get his point across.

It was the Grey unicorn’s turn to speak up, “the thing is we have other candidates who have far better vision and still perform above average in other respects. Also, she’s the only one of the 20 who isn’t on the prime candidate list.”

Twilight turned to the grey unicorn with a look of contempt. “Are we going to hold that against her? Don’t you remember why it was opened up to the general public: The Prime Candidates were only those who’ve made a name for themselves. The open candidature was to find an undiscovered gem…” Twilight turned back to the folder, reading some of the points made,

“…and judging from her performance we’ve certainly found a gem.”

Twilight shut the folder and levitated it back to the table, the grey unicorn now silent. “I have final say over the candidates,” she begun with an important tone, specifically addressing the unicorn. “Now, I expect to see the summaries of all twenty candidates on my desk tomorrow morning. I’ll decide who the Friendship 5 will be then.” She let out a yawn, obviously tired since it was so late. “Lock up the office when you’re done, I’m going home.” The Project Manager trotted out of the office and into the corridor, turning right to the chariotpark, eager to head back to Ponyville.

The grey unicorn turned to his tangerine colleague. “How in Equestria did she become such a capable candidate anyway, not being on the prime candidate list?”

The Earth pony raised a hoof to his chin in thought, “I guess when you’re a mailmare who’s still willing to deliver in hurricane conditions, you build up the stamina, the spatial awareness, the excellent flying ability and just about everything else she excels at.”

“She can’t fly straight!” the Unicorn protested

“Celestia knows,” shrugged the other, “all I know is at the hands of a set of controls she flies better than any other candidate.”

-----------------------------------------

“Oh dear,” came the slightly disappointed tone of the brown earth pony. Looking down at his tray he just removed from the oven, he placed it on the counter and gave a sigh at the burnt muffins. “Guess I’m not as good at baking as your mum is,” he said with a chuckle.

Far from being disappointed, the lilac unicorn filly smiled back at her surrogate father. “It’s ok Uncle Whooves, nobody can bake muffins as good as Mommy.”

Whooves lowered his head and nuzzled the filly. He really did appreciate the bubbly personality she shared with her mother.

“Thank you, Dinky. I was just hoping to surprise her when she got ho-“

Right then the sound of knocking interrupted the two of them. “Ah! Speaking of whom…” He got up and trotted to the front door, to reveal one extremely fatigued and exhausted Grey Pegasus Pony on the doorstep. She was on the verge of collapse, and the flight home must have drained the last of her energy.

He let out a short gasp in shock, “Derpy, what happened to you?!” She was however too tired to respond. Without a word, Whooves slung one of Derpy’s front hooves over his shoulder, and slowly walked her over to the couch. She could hardly sit up, and the two ponies merely looked at each other in silence, one eager to know what happened, the other too worn out to give an answer.

Whooves broke the silence with a dejected piece of self-blame, “oh, I should have picked you up in the TARDIS. I knew I should have…”

Derpy, no longer standing now had the energy to respond. “It...It’s ok, Whooves. I said I wanted to fly back home…this is my burnt muffin…”

Whooves gave a soft chuckle; “speaking of burnt muffins…me and Dinky had a fun day today, after we covered your deliveries, of course.”

At the mention of her daughter she suddenly sat up. “Where’s my little muffin?”

As if on cue, an excited, bubbly voice came from the kitchen, “Mommy!” followed by the rapidhoofsteps of an excited filly, who immediately received a nuzzle from her tired mother.

Whooves had to pry Dinky away from the Pegasus after a few minutes, who was clearly too exhausted to handle her excitable filly. “Dinky, your mum’s had a long day today. C’mon, let’s get to bed,” which was promptly followed by a disappointed “awwww.”

Once Dinky was all tucked in, he returned to the ground floor. Derpy was still on the couch, watching a news report that was specifically on the Ponynaut selection. The black and white television was showing various clips of the 20 candidates, her included during their training while a voiceover narrated the events.

“…every possible form of physical and mental examination. It is considered to be the most extensive and brutal series of tests ever devised by ponykind, to find the most capable pilot to face any eventuality in space. The 20 have been selected from tens of thousands of candidates, and of them only 5 will join Equestria’s first Ponynaut Corps.”

The clips that flashed by left Whooves stunned and fixated at the screen. A pony was strapped to an ejection seat that was suddenly shot up its guide tower. Another pony was being whirled in a centrifuge, the life draining from his face as he succumbed to the G-forces. Derpy herself was next, floating in a tank of ice-cold water while some scientists were timing her. Another was in a pony-sized gyroscope being rotated in every axis by a set of controls at his hooves.

Derpy was now fast asleep, and now he had an idea why she came home so exhausted today. She had mentioned the tests and examinations, but never in much detail. Now he knew what she was going through. He switched the television off and placed a blanket over the sleeping Pegasus, before heading upstairs to retire for the night himself.

A week later, a press conference was hastily organised. It was to be presented by EASA, the now reformed EAAC that was being tasked to put a pony in space. The media knew what this was all about. It had been 3 months since the final 20 were narrowed down, 4 since the program was announced. Today Equestria would learn who were their first Ponynauts: The Friendship 5.

At the rostrum, before a sea of press ponies armed with cameras, notebooks and pencils ready to fire at will was the EASA Director herself. Princess Luna stood before the hungry press; the tension in the air could be cut with a knife. The Princess cleared her throat, and every pair of eyes in the audience was at once trained on the speaker.

“Fillies and Gentlecolts. Today you are about to see a proud moment in Equestria history,” she paused as the occasional flash bulb went off. “Behind this curtain, are the five ponies who will venture where no pony has gone before; like Coltlumbus before them, they will venture into the unknown as explorers. We have put these five ponies through every test imaginable, and concluded they have the right stuff, they are The Right Ponies.”

The reporters were now all standing up, hooves primed on their camera triggers like racers awaiting the starting gun.

“Without further ado, I give you the Friendship 5 Ponynauts!”

On cue the curtains raised and revealed the five to the world.

“Spitfire!…Cumulus!…Rainbow Dash!…Soarin’!…and Derpy Hooves!”

They were seated on a long table, smiling and beaming for the cameras. As Luna called out their names, each stood up to the strobe light of flashbulbs, the crackling of camera shutters, and the deafening applause of hundreds of stomping hooves.

Amongst the cheering crowd and press, Rainbow’s five friends were applauding her; Pinkie was wearing a foam finger and screaming in delight. “Go Dashie! Go Dashie!!” she yelled over the cacophony of noise. Next to her, Fluttershy of all ponies was jumping up and down, amazingly shouting louder than the Party Pony. “SHE DID IT! SHE’S A PONYNAUT!! WHOOOO!!!”

Somewhere else in the crowd was a brown Time Lord, an excited lilac filly perched on his head to get a better view. “Yay, Mommy! Yay!” she repeatedly cheered.

The brown Earth Pony shed a single tear. “Well Done, Love…” he muttered, “…well done…”

---------------------------------------------

Far North of the press conference in Equestria, a lone rocket stood on the test stand at a top-tier security missile base. Blackened by the night, it was a gargantuan cylinder 90 feet high, surrounded by four tapering booster rockets that skirted two-thirds the height of the core stage. Capping off the top was a conical fairing protecting its payload. On the ground, a pair of griffins, the last technicians had just descended from the umbilical tower, and were boarding the last truck to clear the exclusion zone.

Minutes later, in a reinforced bunker a safe distance away, a clawed finger pressed a button to start the flow of hundreds of gallons of toxic, deadly and extremely hazardous Fuming Nitric Acid and Hydrazine. The deadly fuel, nicknamed “Devil’s Venom” by its engineers flowed into the combustion chambers of the five engines. Upon contact, the volatile chemicals instantly ignited to release enormous heat and pressure, the herculean thrust that would get the rocket off the ground.
High above the engines, sealed in a small, hastily constructed capsule a terrified life started to bark in panic as her prison shook with asudden and relentless earthquake. The dog had no idea she was going to be the first creature in orbit.

{Author’s note: The following speecheshave been translated from Griffish for your convenience}

“Thrust level on all engines 100%…umbilical tower clear…” called the Griffin technician in the mission control bunker.
The silent night mere seconds ago was now filled with the deafening roar of the engines and the flare of the exhaust gases lit the launch pad like an orange beacon; everything was going according to plan.

“Launch!” commanded the technician, and three enormous steel arms that had been straining to hold the rocket to the ground fell away with the crack of explosive bolts. The gargantuan rocket, no longer restrained slowly lurched into the night sky.

From the bunker it was like a star rising into the night. By 40 seconds after liftoff it was nothing more than a faint point of light high in the sky. The rocket and its terrified occupant would soon be accelerated to tremendous speeds to be the second object to orbit the Earth, another triumph for the Griffin Union.

Another technician in the bunker was watching the rocket’s telemetry, “thrust is nominal, rocket is on predicted trajectory, all is well.”

Unbeknownst to the technicians watching their monitors, not all was well. The rocket’s rapid acceleration through the atmosphere was causing it to shake, and the shaking was getting worse by the second; within the rocket’s fuel tanks, the deadly chemicals were beginning to slosh…

The first signs of trouble began to appear on their monitors around 51 seconds.

"Accelerometers show high unpredicted rapidly varying G-forces on all axes."

The vibrations were beginning to take their toll; the guidance system was struggling to keep the now slithering rocket and it’s constantly shifting centre of gravity on course.

“Rocket is deviating from programmed trajectory!”

The hydrazine tank, unable to take the strain of the sloshing fuel, began to leak at its joints.

“Hydazine tank pressure falling!”

Above it, the Nitric Acid tank was also straining under the rapidly changing loads, something was going to give. That something was a pipe, already weakened by its corrosive contents. The pipe fractured from the pressure and vibrations and a spray of corrosive, red, fuming acid rained down on the lower tank.

“Acid tank pressure rapidly falling!”

The acid made contact with the leaking Hydrazine, and within seconds it was all over. The hypergolic propellants instantly ignited in a tremendous explosion that tore through the entire rocket like tinfoil. The dog occupant atop the rocket never knew what killed her.

Once it dawned on him, a dejected technician confirmed it. “Contact with Talon-2 has been lost, we have confirmed explosion…”

Immediately the focus shifted in the room from the rocket loss to collecting data. They would have to fix whatever went wrong with their launch. No doubt the ponies further south were already well on their way to developing their own rocket and launching their own satellite. The Griffins would have to step up their game if they were to stay ahead of their hoofed counterparts.

The Space Race was on.