Exploration

by Tangle

Rating: everyone
Tags: Science Fiction, Adventure, Alternate Universe, Human
Length: 1715

Little beeping boxes have been landing on Equestrian soil for the last few months. Where did they come from- and, more importantly, are they dangerous?

The human race has ingenuity, that's for sure. We're surprisingly good at being greedy, stealing things, and generally being jerks. However, on January 2, 2052, that all changes. The Coalition forms out of a single accord- an alliance of freedom and peace. Somehow, we've done it- everyone is prosperous, and so the world is prosperous. Friendship and sharing are comparatively (to earlier governments) very highly valued. Suddenly, a black hole appears in the L4 gravity stability point between the Earth and the Moon, nearly ruining a nearby research base. It turns out to be a wormhole- the (at least before now) theorized loop in spacetime- and it leads to a world both very much like and very different from our own.

Starlight Shine is a young unicorn living in Pranceton City, a university town just to the south of Manehattan. She studies the skies for a living, and one day she sees something unlike nearly anypony's dreams: A new dot in the night sky that wasn't announced beforehand. Upon closer inspection, the little star turns out to be something very, very different…

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-05-12 22:40:05 UTC

Discovery

In 2053, Humanity was going strong. The year before, the few remaining nations had finished uniting under one banner: That of the Community, the largest nation of its kind(which, specifically, was a freedom-based government). Humanity had relaxed and prospered for a change, and everyone was happy. Then, a wormhole appeared. The first of its kind, and a surprisingly stable one. Using the space travel technology that allowed probes to operate on their own, a few little AI-powered vehicles, named Discovery and Curiosity respectively, had been sent through. Their missions were to see whatever was on the other end.

Discovery revealed very, very much. It was a planet, with a star and a moon-like object orbiting it. The planet appeared to have as much mass as the Earth, with the Stellar and Lunar objects having half as much mass. The size corresponded to the mass. None of this was naturally possible, at least when one considered our own reality. However, the two objects having half as much mass at least partially balance the system. Then, the probe turned back towards the wormhole, and recorded footage. The stars were moving. Once again, an impossibility. Then, we got the biggest shock of all: The star glowed slightly brighter and moved forward with a burst of inertia. The star seemed to have just about the right amount of fusion to heat and light the planet, yet it seemed to have the spectrum of a G2 star: the same as our own sun. The star moving would certainly stabilize it a small bit more, especially if the moon moved as well. Just as we made our conclusion, the moon did. Then, the probe figured out its course. It was heading for the planet at a trajectory that would capture it in a decaying orbit, albeit a quickly decaying one, if it didn't move. Its heat shield was firmly strapped on, so it kept going. The probe achieved orbit a day later. What we got from the probe was breathtaking- Another habitable planet, and so soon! The planet, like Earth, had the lustre that even a terraformed body simply couldn't hope to achieve. The continents were arranged in such a format that they were easy to remember. The high strength cameras trained down- and captured a city on the surface. It was on a mountain, but not on the top-it hung off the side in such a way that an Earthly version would collapse. The planet had the same gravity as Earth, so it must've had some other way to.

Starlight Shine was a pony who looked to the skies every night. Mostly she saw stars in their ever-changing constellations. However, sometimes she would find something a bit more interesting: a meteor or a comet. Now, however, she saw something different near the horizon. A rectangular or perhaps cylindrical object, with what seemed to be a bell at the likely back and a small dome-like object at the front. It extended a small...thing, like a proboscis with a ball at the end. The ball started blinking between red, green, and white. Strangest of all, it seemed to be moving! Most stars were moved every night, and Princess Luna shared her star movements to help determine proper motion, but this was moving FAST! It moved ever closer to the horizon. She grabbed for her telescope camera and took a picture, but with the speed of it she wasn't able to get a picture that wouldn't be believed as just a faked photo before it crossed the horizon. Perhaps more would come...

Curiosity discovered even more, having a reentry-capable heatshield. It followed the same path as Discovery (the wormhole trajectory, at standard orbital speed, took it on the same path) and got into orbit. It was made to deorbit a fair bit away from the city (though still on the same continent), for safety. Unfortunately, it turned out that it was to land near a smaller city, likely inhabited by the same creatures...

When it landed, we encountered one of the creatures. It was clearly quadrupedal, and had pastel coloring all over it. It had a horselik Despite the fact that they looked very much unlike them, we decided to call them "pseudo-ponies." She raised a hoof and... touched the glass of the camera. The audio of the camera was switched on, and we received the words "..at are you?" before her ...horn appeared to glow. The camera feed was tinted blue, and presumably due to the assumed telekinesis the camera and the probe failed.

The idea of more coming was proven true in just a few days. Another one appeared in the sky. However, she was quick enough to get some pictures this time. It looked like the previous one, but wider, flatter, more aerodynamic, and with two smaller bells on the sides. The shape turned and two short blasts of flame burst out of the bells. Perhaps this used some sort of dragonfire propulsion system? The idea had certainly been used for some airships before, but it was fairly expensive. Where did this little... Sky Ship come from? Suddenly, the back of the ship popped off, revealing a curved shield-like surface similar to the one seen on the other ship. As she watched, the ship descended. As it began to catch flame, she decided to watch from the camera. It seemed to survive the intense flame shrouding it, and as it descended it stopped burning and the two aerodynamic parts popped off. They had small parachutes deploy on them. The craft dropped, a parachute deployed, and the shield popped off. 3 legs deployed and it kept falling. It seemed to be heading for a spot near her own house. When she looked out the window, she could see it descending, so she decided to walk to its landing site.

When she reached it, it looked very strange. It was made of metal and glass. However, none of its parts were made of materials she recognized. She took it to a materials scientist, and they said that it was made using an experimental material- plastic. It appeared to become damaged by magic, so she sent it to a museum for analysis via standard earth pony mail, writing:

Dear Sirs or Madams of the Equestrian Aerospace museum,

It appears I have found an experimental flying object. I assume it was manufactured by non-ponies, for it fails in the presence of unicorn magic. I do not know where exactly it came from, for it appeared in the sky and used dragonflame-like engines (which dropped off later on) to land near my own home. I hope you are able to discern who made it and where it came from.

Sincerely, Starlight Shine

The little craft was returned via the same mail service about a week later. The return letter came up with the same conclusion she had, that they had no idea where it came from.

Communications

After Curiosity's resounding success (though it could have survived a while longer...), we got to work on figuring out how exactly the TK worked. As best we could figure out, the TK lowered the radiation capability of the plutonium in the small power generator. Therefore we would have to use solar panels or batteries for the probes before we could get to an understanding. The probe Friendship was launched 2 weeks after, using a similar format as Curiosity. However, it had more batteries and solar panels. It also had a small plutonium generator, that, upon discovery of a TK field, would turn off, which would allow the "chat" panel to be enabled.

Another day, another telescope session. As she looked around, she hoped for another ship. Then, she saw it. It had already entered the atmosphere. Thankfully, it was nearly sunset. She strolled out to it and saw it was fairly different from the other. It had the word Friendship written on it in large white letters. It was likely its name, but how could it be written in Equestrian Standard? She picked it up with her magic, and a small screen moved slightly and a projector displayed a typewriter-like keyboard on the ground. A small stick popped out, presumably for pressing on the keyboard keys. She brought it home and saw that the screen displayed, "awaiting query..."

She typed in the word "hello" and letters began to appear...

COMMUNITY SHIP S.E.S FRIENDSHIP

CHAT LOG

user: Hello?

GC: Hello! Glad to see you can type English as well as speak it.

user: English?

GC: Should have expected you didn't call it the same thing. What do you call it?

user: Equestrian Standard. What's your name, where did you come from, and how the heck did you get this thing here?

GC: That's certainly an interesting alternative to the word... My specific name is Andrew Starmburg. I come from another planet, and honestly we don't know for sure. Essentially, a hole appeared in the sky and it turned out we could send things through it. We used rockets and-

user: Rockets?

GC: Propulsion devices that move things by burning 2 things together which expel flame and create thrust.

user: I think I've heard of one of those. Not very often used though, burns too hot. I'll answer my own questions: I'm Starlight Shine and I live in Pranceton City, Equestria.

GC: I believe the command for changing the name there is /us-nm: [your name].

EXECUTING COMMAND...

Starlight Shine: Much better! Now, let's see: Which other planet do you come from?

GC: We call it Mars, but my race hails from its sister planet, named Earth. We orbit a star fairly similar to yours. Also: Can you point the camera on this out the window? We'd like to see your night sky.

Starlight Shine: Okay. Just telling you: Princess Luna changes the stars every night, so they change very often. I'm one of those in charge of writing them down.

GC: Wait, what?

IMAGE SENT

WARNING: LOW BATTERY POWER, SHUTTING DOWN