In a secluded desert, far away from prying eyes lies Equestria's most secretive facility. So secretive that even Equestria's government doesn't know what goes on there.
Welcome to Cape Coltaveral, headquarters of the Bureau of Atmospheric Experimentation and the topic of the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Fanfic Our First Steps, written by Mrakoplaz. Where we follow the ponies behind Equestria's space program with the goal of launching a pony into orbit.
But a grand task like this never was easy and the staff and crew at Cape Coltaveral are in for a long struggle fighting setbacks and accidents to achive their dream.
Our First Steps provides examples of the following tropes:
- Breather Episode: Part 9
- Deus ex Machina: A literal one. At the end of Part 8 Celestia saves the day.
- Distant Finale
- Fire-Forged Friends: Most of the Cosmodrome staff become this. especially the ones that stay after they lose government funding and most leave.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: At the end of Part 8 Zvezda remarks that if this was a story she'd want her money back.
- Magitek: Some of Equestria's technology works like this. The space program on the other hoof avoids using magic so that pegasi and earth ponies can operate the rockets and not just unicorns.
- Muggle Power: Part of the motivation of the designers is to assert that Earth ponies can do more than simply farm.
- Noodle Incident: Alluded to by Celestia as what, in the distant past, rearranged the landscape to the point where "Cape" Coltaveral is landlocked.
- The Political Officer: While there are commissars, they're very different from the usual portrayal of this trope. Commissars simply provide security and protect sensitive information.
- Shout-Out:
- Apart from shout outs to movies like The Right Stuff and Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise, there are numerous allusions to various works on the subject and to the American and Soviet space programs.
- There are also references to space filksongs like Surprise!
, Hope Eyrie, and Fire In The Sky.
- Shown Their Work: The author displays a lot of knowledge on the subject.
