Transmission

[TRANSMISSION]

Another night spent working on the project.

Wires of copper bent into coiled shapes, perfectly circular runes charged to full magical capacity, readings taken from the charts connected to every important portion of the machine.

A yelp, and a single drop of red smeared itself onto a wire. Reflexes kicked in a matter of milliseconds later, sending the hoof rocketing towards a nearby panel of wood. The energy provided by this hoof rattled the machine, no doubt knocking some parts out of their meticulously designated positions, unknown to the pony at the time.

A grunt, and a light illuminated a nearby window, straightening the machine on the desk with the smallest scrape. Was it really practical to be working at such late an hour? A glance at the timepiece told her it was exactly thirty nine minutes and twelve seconds past the witching hour.

She sighed, gazing at the machine with bleary eyes. How long had she been doing this? Long enough, anyhow. It was far past the time she usually went to bed.

As she turned to leave, a noise came from the machine. It wasn’t the tock of a rune left sitting still for too long, nor a tick from the timepiece, but a different sort of sound. Like a vinyl record on a gramophone, crackling and popping. It was simple, so simple, but the fact that it was coming from the machine she had built had made it all the better.

A grin of unadulterated happiness spread onto the pony’s features, lighting the room up better than Celestia herself could.

-

Twilight Sparkle had gathered her six friends and assistant into the library with a hastily stated “come to the library the project is done” reason. Each one of them looked at the cylindrical machine resting on the table in the middle of the foyer with a different emotion on their face. The most outstanding were Rainbow Dash’s air of aloof interest, earlier stating that she needed to get somewhere quickly, possibly for a nap, and Pinkie Pie, who had a hoof stuffed in her mouth from the former because of the fact that she simply would not stop talking.

Applejack had simply cocked an eyebrow in the air, looking between the mass of wires and wood like it was a machine that had crawled out of the local clockmaker’s basement. In fact, that was where Twilight Sparkle had acquired most of the parts. Rarity was more focused on the hodgepodgedness of it, thinking to herself of ways to make it look more pleasing. Fluttershy simply sat on the floor, mind swimming with possibilities over just what kind of aliens they would meet.

A clink from behind the machine, and the mare of the hour herself emerged, mane going this way and that, a pair of goggles over dreary red eyes, and a set of tools floating behind her. Rarity looked unnerved by how cheerful Twilight looked, but it had been something the mare had been working on for the past two months. Certain things could be forgiven.

Forgiven with an hour at the spa, that is.

“I see you’re all here,” she stated, matter-of-factly. “Before you ask questions, girls, I need you to be quiet. It took me a very long time to get this ready, and more time to get it tuned in.”

The seven of them nodded, confusion growing on their faces save for Spike. Applejack was the first to ask a question. “What exactly are we lookin’ at?”

Twilight sighed. “It’s a subspace receiver connected to a radio. It’s very complicated to explain, but the simplest I can say is that it’s got a very long range for picking signals up.” A grin then split her face, the third in the past hour. “It’s been done before, but no pony has ever gotten anything useful.”

Rarity spoke next. “Are you going to say what I think you’re about to say?”

Before any of them could react, Pinkie Pie bounded into the air, temporarily rewriting the laws of the universe to work in a comical manner. “Aliens!”

Twilight and Spike nodded in unison. “I’m not going to go into explanations for anything, save that you listen closely.” A hint of giddiness crept into her voice, but it left soon after. “We’re going to be listening to aliens, but I doubt they'll speak our language.”

Spike butted in at that moment. "Still, you never know."

Pinkie got free of the hoof gagging her thirty nanoseconds after. "They could speak Griffon!"

Eyes were pointed in her direction, soon leaving after a certain cyan hoof once again shut her up.

Without another word, Twilight turned to the machine and pressed a single button down. A click, and the room was filled with the popping of static. It cleared seconds later.

-

“Till-Dusk, I have received your distress signal. Please respond.”

-static-

“Till-Dusk, I repeat, I have received your distress signal. Please respond.”

“-r- y-- the--? He-p u-! W--e ----ing ou- of suppl--s! I-- th- o--y one sti- wa-----. The res- have gon- int- Stas--. I- se--ing --o th- blu---int- of th- shi-.”

“Till-Dusk, I am on approach from port-rear-upper relative vector at one hundred meters per second relative to your position and decelerating.”

“-nk you.”

“Not a problem. It’ll be thirty seconds until docking on port-rear-upper relative. When I’ve docked, remove all passengers and transfer them to my ship.”

“Thank you! I thought we were all going to die!”

“Hopefully that doesn’t happen for a good long time.”

“Just... thank you. Thank you so much!”

“Like I said, not a problem. Just doing my duty.”

“I’ll get everyone woken up. When are you docking?”

“Fifteen seconds and closing. Best get moving.”

“Alright. I’ll get to it.”

-

The group looked at the radio in surprise after the transmission ended.

“Were those aliens speaking Equestrian?”

All seven of them turned to each other, confusion highly evident on their faces save for Twilight Sparkle, who was very near to acquiring the powers of Pinkie Pie in the ways of suddenly breaking into song. Were the song to come to fruition, it would've been about the aliens, and any possibilities it may have been.

It did not come to fruition, save for the mare giddily bouncing up and down, grin going from ear to ear.

In the pregnant pause of three seconds that followed, Fluttershy was the first to speak up.

“W-well, that one alien was helping the others... w-with the thing that happened. Oh I hope none of them were hurt!”

The rest of them were silent. A rescue mission conducted by a complete stranger to the aliens onboard the Till-Dusk. That wasn't what they expected.

Another pause.

“What did we just listen to?”

They looked to the sky, seeing a twinkle.

Pinkie Pie grinned. Oh she would have a party to plan, and no language barrier to worry about!

The last words were from Spike. "Will they have rayguns?"

Not a single set of eyes met him.