The Filly Who Walked on the Moon
The final countdown to liftoff was about to begin. Scootaloo strapped herself in her seat, and prepared for the moment she has been waiting for her entire life. She could not see, but outside, many yards away, there was a huge crowd of ponies cheering and waving their miniature flags at her, wishing her good luck on her journey.
The countdown was over. The cockpit shook Scootaloo with fury, and the exhaust from the bottom of the rocket spitted out fire. The force of gravity pushed her back, and the rocket flew from the launch pad. Scootaloo could not hear anything except for the roar of the engines, and the rapid shaking almost made her breakfast climb their way out for air, but she fought through it.
From outside, the crowd was in an uproar when the rocket ship lift itself from the ground. As the rocket continued to fly into the heavens, adults placed their young ones on their shoulders, making sure that they will not miss this piece of history. For the first time in ponykind’s existence, thanks to the advances of science and technology, a pony was being sent to the moon.
The rocket created a cloud of exhaust that trailed upward. Inside the ship, Scootaloo tightly gripped to her seat for dear life. The force of the launch was trying to throw her chair. This was nothing like the training simulation she had to go through.
To Scootaloo’s relief, the fierce shaking ceased, and the cloudy blue sky changed into a black background filled stars. She attempted to climb back to her seat, but to her surprise she float around the cockpit. Scootaloo giggled in excitement when she realized that she was in zero gravity. She floated to a red button that was next to the steering wheel and pressed it.
“Mission Control, this Scootaloo,” she said. “I am now in zero gravity. I’m waiting for the approach of the moon.”
Before she knew it, a grey celestial body came into view. Scootaloo sat herself on her seat and put on her seatbelt. She pressed, pushed, and pulled an assortment of buttons, switches, and levers. She pushed the steering wheel forward, and set the rocket ship to the course of the moon. As she drew closer to the lunar surface, she sealed her little head with her space helmet and grabbed an oxygen tank.
“Scootaloo to Mission Control, I am nearing the lunar surface,” she said as she held on to the steering wheel. “Preparing for immediate landing!”
She flipped a few more switches and pressed some buttons, and her rocket ship slowly landed on a flat area of the moon. She unstrapped herself from her seat and opened the door. “Mission Control,” Scootaloo said, “I am now on the lunar surface. Preparing for space walk.”
Scootaloo climbed the ladder from her ship to the surface of the moon. Once she made sure that she would not make any movements that might make her float away, she took a moment to admire the magnificent scenery. As far as the eye could see, there were rock formations and mountains, similar to the ones on earth, but devoid of grass and life. From the corner of her eye, the sun was shining in front of the black backdrop of the sky like a white orb.
“Whoa,” Scootaloo said to herself. “Mission Control… you guys should really see this. This place is awesome! It’s like something from a sci-fi movie!”
Scootaloo was so distracted by the natural beauty of the moon, she forgot about a very important thing she needed to do. Something clicked in her mind, and she came back to her senses. She reached into her pocket of her spacesuit and pulled out a little thin object the size of an ink pen. Scootaloo turned the pen sideways and pressed a little black button on the center. As fast as you can say “Bob’s your uncle,” the pen turned into a pole with a blue flag, containing the symbol of the sun and moon together as one - the flag of Equestria.
“That’s one small step for a pony, one giant leap for ponykind,” Scootaloo said proudly. She planted the flag of Equestria on the moon. In the future, and for all eternity, whenever a pony - or an alien - passes the moon, they will look at that flag as a constant reminder that Equestria called dibs on the moon first.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” Scootaloo said to herself. She pulled out a remote control and pressed a button. From the bottom of her spaceship, a box was carried down under it. For a moment, the metallic cube was motionless. Four wheels appeared on each side of the cube, and on the top of it a long metal neck emerged. Lens popped out from the neck and metal cube rolled toward Scootaloo. “Hey FriendBot, ready to explore the moon?”
FriendBot created a series of beeping and whooping sounds, indicating that it was saying “yes.” Scootaloo and FriendBot walked and rolled side by side while Scootaloo held a detector on her hoof. FriendBot scanned the area with a green laser, making sure they would be safe on their mission.
“There doesn’t seem to be anything dangerous on the moon,” Scootaloo said. “It just boring and dead. What did you find, FriendBot?”
FriendBot scanned a pile of rocks with a green light. Inside itself, it was determining which of the rocks was the special rock it was supposed to find. Metallica arms came into sight, and grabbed a medium size, dark-grey crystalize rock. FriendBot presented it to Scootaloo, who held the detector over it. “Wow, a real moon rock!” A hatch opened on FriendBot and the machine inserted the rock inside itself. “Come on, let’s look for more stuff!”
Venturing further into the deepest parts of the moon, the environment began to resemble a great canyon in the far western part of Equestria. Scootaloo and FriendBot have not found anything unusual while they were there, except for strange looking rocks.
“I’m bored,” Scootaloo said. FriendBot responded with a unique sequence of whistles and beeps. “Rocks are okay, but I want to find something huge, and bizarre.” Scootaloo sat on her hindquarters and gazed at the mountain ranges that surrounded her.
Suddenly, beeping and whooping noises were formed by FriendBot, and by the nature of their sound patterns, the machine detected something far away. A satellite dish rose from FriendBot and pointed to the direction of interest. “What is it, FriendBot?” Scootaloo asked. The robot beeped and whooped and lead the pegasus to the very important spot. “Hey, wait for me!”
What she saw almost caused her to lose her balance. FriendBot led Scootaloo to a giant crater the size of Ponyville. Half of an asteroid was the centerpiece of it all, sunk into the ground on the moment of impact. Scootaloo tried to form words to express her feelings, but she was too mesmerized by the amazing image.
FriendBot rolled down steadily to the humungous asteroid with Scootaloo in tow. To her, being inside the crater felt like being inside the belly of a giant beast from mythology, and the more she took another step toward the asteroid, less sunlight could get through.
“This is so cool!” Scootaloo finally said. “Mission Control, we found a crater! A really big humungasaurus crater!”
FriendBot scanned the area around the half-asteroid, then whistled when it found the right spot. An arm appeared from behind and transformed into a pickaxe, and proceeded to dig through the giant space rock. Scootaloo searched inside her pocket for another pen, and this time the pen transform into a pickaxe as well. The pony and the robot spent a good chunk of lunar time picking away the asteroid.
“... Found anything yet?” Scootaloo asked FriendBot. The tone of the robot’s communication signals were of a low frequency. “Me neither,” Scootaloo responded. They managed to dig a hole inside and outside of the asteroid, but they could not anything of value. Scootaloo rested herself by leaning on her pickaxe, and FriendBot set himself on sleep mode.
She sat on her hindquarters, but the ground did not feel right. Scootaloo furrowed her brow when she inspected the surface again, and oddly enough it felt hollow. She picked at the spot with her axe a few times before the ground crumbled entirely. Scootaloo did not time to run and fell through the hole, tumbling down the long dark tunnel.
FriendBot set itself on active mode only to find that Scootaloo was missing. It scanned the center for any sign of her, but there were none. The satellite dish appeared again, and detected the hole Scootaloo made. An arm came out and transformed into a flashlight, but the light itself was unable to break through the darkness. The only option available for FriendBot was to go down the hole and search for Scootaloo.
Scootaloo was in a daze after tumbling several feet under the asteroid. She wanted to rub her head, but realized that she was wearing a helmet. Trying to shake the pain off her head, she pressed a button on her chest pad. “Mission Control… I’m trapped inside a tunnel of some kind.” Scootaloo twisted a knob on the top of her helmet and turned a flashlight on. The flashlight was not enough to illuminate the hall of the tunnel, but at least she could see where she was going.
FriendBot entered the bottom of the tunnel, and scanned the walls for its pony companion. Sensors indicated that Scootaloo was here and was not far. Using the satellite dish it detected her at least several miles from the spot FriendBot was standing. The robot’s wheels carried it to Scootaloo’s location.
The satellite dish appeared again, detecting a noise from behind. Green light scanned the darkness again, but no signs of life was detected. The dish disappeared and FriendBot was back on track on Scootaloo’s trail. A rock fell on the ground, the cracking sound echoing and vibrating off the walls, and once more FriendBot released its satellite dish. The robot detected a small percentage of life, but not enough to stay alert, but kept the satellite dish up just in case.
From the thick blackness of the tunnel, FriendBot detected a mysterious, unearthly sound. The robot activated its voice detector and set its flashlight to the direction the sound came from. The sound was heard again, and the voice detector told FriendBot that there is life in the tunnel… and it was not friendly.
A clicking sound echoed through the tunnel and FriendBot set itself to defense mode. The clicking noise turned into low screeches, coming from every direction of the tunnel. FriendBot backed away from the darkness… only to be cornered by a pair of menacing red eyes.
Scootaloo had no idea where the tunnel would end. She tried to push the thought out of her mind, but it was a safe bet that she was lost. She pulled out her detector to examine the area she was in, but to her disappointment there was no signal. “Dang it!” she cursed to herself. Scootaloo pressed the button on her chest pad, reporting: “Mission Control, I’m stuck in this tunnel with no way out, and I can’t find FriendBot anywhere.”
She held her detector again, hoping this time she’ll find a way out. The device in her hoof pointed her toward the thickness of the darkness. She refused to go, but if the detector was showing her a way out then she had to go through with it. “Here goes nothing.”
The light from Scootaloo’s helmet created a semi-clear path through the blackness, but the filly was not sure of what direction she her device was taking her. What if all this time she was just walking in circles? If only FriendBot was here, she thought to herself.
A faint crackling noise startled her, and Scootaloo turned her head to cast light on whatever it was that made the noise. “Hello? Who’s there?” she called to the blackness. Scootaloo held her detector to the blackness, but there was no sign of life. She returned to the path she was walking, but kept her eyes on all directions.
Scootaloo traveled deeper into the tunnel, but there was still no sign of a way out. What made the situation worse than before was her detector finally picked up signals on life forms. She shivered in her spacesuit, and pressed the button on her chest pad. “Mission Control… I’m scared.”
A loud thump made Scootaloo jump in her spacesuit. She backed away, while at the same flashing her light in every direction. “Hello? Please answer me!” she pleaded.
One step back would prove to be her unlucky step, as she found herself falling through a hole in the ground. On impact, her flashlight broke. Luckily, the scientists equipped her chest pad with a spare flashlight. She flipped the switch and light came on.
Scootaloo wished she had not done that.
Three green giant lizard-like monsters, with razor sharp teeth and piercing red eyes stood before her. They were the size of adolescent dragons, and they could not take their eyes off her.
They snarled and lick their scaly lips, and crept closer to the frightened little astronaut. Scootaloo took as many steps back as she possibly could, hoping and praying for an escape route. Sadly, she bumped on to another one of the reptilian monsters. The one behind her show her its teeth and growled.
“Nice monster,” she said. “Good monster.” The four monsters formed a circle around Scootaloo, in which point there was no hope for escape. “Please don’t eat me.” As the reptilians trapped her, Scootaloo closed her eyes, and hoped to be eaten quickly.
What she did not expect was the familiar sound of electronic beeping and whooping sounds.
FriendBot flashed its light at Scootaloo, who was completely bewildered to see it after long periods of separation. The filly looked up at the reptilian creature, whose face changed from threatening to indifference.
“I believe this thing belongs to you,” it said with its bass-like voice.
Scootaloo could have sworn that monster just spoke to her, in complete sentences no less. After having her mouth hanging open in astonishment, she shook her head to make sure she was not seeing - or hearing - things.
“Wait… you can talk?”
“Of course we can,” the monster said. “We have had at least a thousand years of practice. I’m Cotuklek. Over there are my brothers - T’qula, Renoak, and Bragnolk. We’re Reptilian Snare Beasts.”
“Reptilian Snare Beasts?”
“Yeah, but we prefer Reptilians - it’s short and sweet. We’re from the planet Reptilia, but we’ve been stranded on the moon for a thousand years after our spaceship crashed landed,” Cotuklek said. “Apparently someone thought West was East.”
“Sorry, my bad,” Renoak said sheepishly.
“... Why were you guys growling at me?”
“Oh, well, that’s how we say hello in Reptilian,” Cotuklek said. “And of course, showing your teeth is a sign of hospitality.”
“And licking your lips?”
“Our lips get dry very easily. It’s what happens if you’re born with scales.”
“... So you guys have been living under the moon for a thousand years?”
“Well, yeah… although, we weren't the only occupiers. We arrived around the time some blue horse thing came up here, but she seemed pretty upset out about something, so we kept our distance,” Cotuklek explained.
“Are you ever planning on getting back home?” Scootaloo asked.
“... We don’t know. We’ve been so comfortable up here… or down here in this case, that we really don’t see a reason going back home. It’s complicated.”
“Oh. In that case, do you know a way out? I’m lost.”
“Sure, follow us,” Cotuklek said. Scootaloo and FriendBot followed the reptiles as they led them out of the tunnels. Needless to say, this has been the strangest day of her young life.
“My name’s Scootaloo by the way,” she said.
In a matter of no time at all, the Reptilians led Scootaloo and FriendBot to freedom. The sun was still bright on the black starry dome above, and Scootaloo was very pleased to see the outside world again. “I just want to thank you guys for helping us out,” she said. “Are you sure you don’t want a ride home?”
“Nah, our home is a billion light-years away,” Cotuklek said. “It would take you a long time to get there. Besides, Reptilians age pretty slowly, so you’ll probably get to our planet by the time you’re… 119.”
“Don’t you miss your family and friends?”
“Not really, we’re content with living an eternity of solitude on the dark side of the moon. But you, everyone in your planet is expecting you home. You know how dangerous is it going up into outer space, and not knowing if you’re going to return home in one piece?”
Scootaloo turned around and locked her eyes at the blue marble in the sky. After giving more thought to Cotuklek’s words, she decided that she has had enough adventures to last her a lifetime.
“Well… thank you for everything.”
“Don’t sweat it, kid.”
Scootaloo gave Cotuklek a hug, then waved to his three brothers. When all was said and done, FriendBot led Scootaloo out of the crater and back to base, and from there Scootaloo would return home back to earth.
“She’s a sweet kid,” Cotuklek said.
“Mission Control, this is Scootaloo. I’m preparing to return to the earth,” she said through the intercom. She pressed buttons, flipped switches, and pulled levers, and the rockets ignited, hovering her space shuttle from the surface of the moon.
Just as the shuttle was leaving the moon, the phone ranged inside the cockpit. Scootaloo picked it up and answered it. “Hello?”
“Scootaloo, this is Princess Celestia,” she said from the other line. “I just wanted to let you how proud I am of you. This is an historic day for all of ponykind. Everypony, including your family and friends will be waiting for you down on earth.”
“Yes ma’am, and thank you!”
The shuttle launched itself out of the moon, and set the course to earth. With each passing second the moon became smaller and smaller, then Scootaloo pressed some more buttons.
She was approaching the earth’s atmosphere at a rapid speed. At the right altitude she set the timer for five minutes. “This is it, FriendBot,” she told the robot. FriendBot was sitting next to her in the passengers’ seat.
The pony and robot strapped themselves in their seats as the countdown on the main computer was almost complete. When the timer read 00:00, they were sealed in the cockpit, and the cockpit ejected from the main shuttle. The ejected part of the ship fell from a thousand feet from the air, but a parachute deployed from the top, landing the cockpit safely in the ocean where Royal Guards in ships waited for her.
In Canterlot a parade was held in Scootaloo’s honor. Everypony from the four corners of the earth witness the safe return of Equestria’s first astronaut. Even more so that the Royal Sisters declared July 25 a national holiday. During the height of the celebration, the Princesses gave Scootaloo and FriendBot golden medals for their bravery.
A golden chariot took Scootaloo and FriendBot back home to Ponyville, and the pressure from the space mission departed from her when she saw her house. When she let herself in, she was puzzled to see that the entire house was dark. “Hello? Anypony here?” She flipped the switch, and when the lights came on, ponies appeared at out of nowhere, yelling “Surprise!” A banner hung on the wall that displayed the text “Welcome Home Scootaloo!”
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash and her friends, Miss Cheerilee and her entire class (excluding Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon), and Scootaloo’s mother were present. Pinkie Pie held an enormous cake, and the centerpiece was a rocket ship. “Welcome back, Scootaloo!” the party guests said in unison.
“Wow… for me?” Scootaloo said, trying to wipe the tears from her eyes.
“Of course, squirt!” Rainbow Dash. “We were worried about you up there! We’re glad you made it back in one piece!”
“How’s my little hero?” Scootaloo mother said giving her a kiss on the cheek.
“I’m doing great mom! Look what I got!” Scootaloo displayed the medals she and FriendBot received from the Royal Sisters for their heroic efforts. Needless to say, everypony stared in awe.
“Scootaloo, you went to the moon and came back safe and sound! What are you going to do next?” Pinkie asked.
“Something I always wanted to do ever since I came home.”
Scootaloo ran up to her room and shut the door, leaving the party guests scratching their heads. They checked to see if she was okay, but chuckled at the sight of the filly collapsed on her bed with her eyes closed, snoring. Just happy to see her back home, her friends and family decided to leave her be. She can always eat her cake later.