Chapters The Golden Record. Messages From Earth, including 115 images and and innumerable recordings, such as greetings in 55 different languages, all spoken by the species that was hopeful enough to think that they could communicate across light-years of empty space.
The original recordings was carried by advanced spacecraft, called 'Voyager', 1 and 2. These craft were designed to fly through the endless expanse of the cosmos, eventually shutting down and lying dormant for whomever may find them.
But decades after they were launched, when they were far past the solar system of their origin, the third Voyager mission was made. It carried a Golden Record as well. However, this mission would not be launched, but rather sent, through an artificial wormhole, to one specific planet. You may know it as Equus, but the species who created the record (humans, as they were called) assigned it a boring, scientific name. Kepler 50-31b, while a boring name, was accurate and better for filing than 'Equus' was. It was named as such because it was discovered by the Kepler 50 satellite (launched in the year 2050). Normally, this wouldn't matter, it would just be another name on a list of exoplanets, as humans didn't have the ability to traverse the great distance that separated planets. But this one had unusually high concentrations of organic molecules, and now humans did have the capability to traverse the light-years, due to one amazing discovery.
50 years ago, sometime in the 2020s, a scientific discovery at the Large Hadron Collider was made. Now, mind you, the humans of that era thought themselves very smart, so when this discovery disproved the widely accepted 'Big Bang Theory', everyone was floored. Now, being as smart as they thought they were, the 'Rainbow Gravity' theory was immediately brought forth and found to be accurate and true. The universe was indeed infinite, and it was a lot easier to create a miniature black hole than everyone thought it was (the collider had done just that, but according to the Big Bang Theory, it should have been impossible, obviously making that theory false).
But after the initial shock wore in, everyone realized the true magnitude of this. They had created a black hole!! Was it perhaps possible to create a, a wormhole?? Surely if they could rip a hole in space-time, they could bend it to their will as well.
And now we arrive at the year 2078, where the third 'Voyager' mission began. The name was mostly symbolic, yes, but that did nothing to lessen the greatness of its mission. To travel to Kepler 50-31b, otherwise known as Equus.
What it found, well, you'll have to sit down for this story.
"T-minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. We have passage through the wormhole, ladies and gentleman! We have successful passage!" boomed a voice from the loudspeakers. The room full of physicists, engineers, an rocket scientists exploded with applause and cheer.
A couple of day earlier, the Voyager 3 spacecraft was launched towards the WORMCAST ( or Wormhole Creation Station), and today it had successfully passed through the wormhole. If all went well, it would arrive at the planet Kepler 50-31b, and transmit signals through the wormhole over the next week. However, scientists were unsure if the wormhole could remain open, and if the prove could operate on its own. To ensure the mission would be a success no matter what, the craft carried with it a Golden Record, with many more images and sounds than the original. Hopefully, any intelligent life on that planet would discover it.
Kepler 50-31b was chosen for the high concentration of organic compounds it had. This indicated life, possibly intelligent life. That was all the humans knew of it, really, besides the fact it was covered by an unusually thick dust cloud.
How did they know this? Simple, they analysed the sunlight passing through the the atmosphere of the planet (from that planets own star, of course) and used a chemical telescope for molecular analysis. However, this planet was roughly 16000 light years away, so whatever life did exist at the time the sunlight the humans saw shone on it's surface, well, that life could very well be long gone.
But the humans hoped. If Voyager 3 did find something, then a human crew would be sent to begin a colony.
Let's hope the ponies are on board with that idea, shall we?
XXXX
Twilight Sparkle woke on a pleasant morning in Ponyville. No monsters attacking, no emergency friendship problem or major (minor, really, considering how much ponies overreact) political dispute, nope, everything was perfect.
You've probably noticed that her life is quite hectic if 'no monster' equals 'good day'.
"Spike! Wake up! Time to get to work!" Twilight got out of bed and shook the sleeping dragon with her magic.
"Huh?! What?!" Spike said, surprised at his rude awakening, "What work do we have today, Twi?"
"I gotta read Starswirl's The Alicorn Empire and Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorn's new treatise on the possibility of creating alicorns through the magic of friendship!" she said, quite annoyingly.
Spike paused and rubbed his head. "And why must you do that, Twi?"
"If you can just willy-nilly create alicorns out of thin air, then the whole idea of an Alicorn Empire breaks down!" she said, again quite annoyingly.
"Wouldn't be outta thin air, it would be outta friendship!" argued Spike, "Think of it like the Elements granting you princess-hood; you would've earned it!"
Twilight pursed her lips and rolled her eyes. "Fine, Mr. Grumpy Dragon, maybe we'll have breakfast first and then talk about the fall of Equestria." she said (quite annoyingly).
Spike sighed, relieved. Twilight was a really good friend, but when something trivial like this came up, she was just consumed by insanity. Not really insanity, but it seemed that way to Spike when he just woke up.
"Let's go to Sugarcube Corner, then," he said.
Twilight and Spike walked out of the treebrary and into the peaceful atmosphere of Ponyville. The pegasi had made the weather partly cloudy with slight breezes periodically blowing in. Perfect for a walk through town.
Twilight began to take in her surroundings and calm down a bit, while Spike began to wake up from the refreshing morning air. The pair greeted the flower ponies, were always up early, and Spike stopped for a spell to smell the sweetness of the roses they were watering. He began to whistle a catchy tune, and Twilight smiled at her friend's charming demeanour. Sure, they might be real grumpy in the morning, but just walking through pony paradise lifted her spirits right up.
Until a black hole randomly appeared in the sky.
Twilight was appreciating the beauty of the sunrise when the whole sky was thrown out of balance by the appearance of the black hole. At least, that's what Twilight initially thought it was, until a craft emerged from the it. A large, strange craft, seeming to be in distress, as it swerved chaotically through the sky and attempted to eject a parachute, but was left with a torn piece of rabid attached to some rope. Twilight and Spike, and indeed the whole of Ponyville, were frozen in shock as up the craft continued through the sky, narrowly missing buildings until it crashed, horribly, on the edge of the Everfree Forest.
Spike gulped. "Um, Twi? What was that?"
Twilight's eyes had grown huge. Her mouth was moving but she wasn't saying anything.
"Twilight!" yelled Spike.
"I-it was a craft. And it came from-" Twilight gulped, eyes still very wide, "a Starswirl-Clover Bridge." She looked her assistant in the eye and said, very seriously, "That thing is alien."
A short time later, they had gathered the other Elements to go see what it was. Seeing the six walking towards the wreckage really calmed the other townsfolk down. After all, they stopped an almighty spirit of chaos, why not some alien?
That's what Twilight was hoping it was, anyway. Just some small little alien.
The thing had crashed near Fluttershy's cottage (thankfully she was at the spa with Rarity when it did crash), and all the animals she usually took care of we're frightened off by it.
"I hope none of my sweet animals was hurt," said Fluttershy.
"Don't worry, Flutters, I'll kick any alien's flank I see coming from that thing!" replied Rainbow Dash.
The group of friends continued talking in this manner, wondering what the craft was, exactly. Twilight did not engage in the discussion, being far too consumed in her own speculation of its origin. From what they could see of it (part of it was in a hole), it had a large and advanced radio dish (those are usually used only in Manehatten), and strange landing gear. But as Twilight looked carefully along the craft, she spotted something else, something golden.
"A record?!" she exclaimed.
"What was that, darling?" Rarity turned towards Twilight.
"Look! Right there!" Twilight pointed her hoof towards the golden record.
All seven gathered there gazed at it, silently contemplating what it could mean, and why it was there. Until Pinkie broke the silence with a huge gasp.
"Alien music! What do you think it is?? Dubstep?? Rock?? Polka?? Punk opera?! OMG, Vinyl would love this!!" Pinkie dashed off, and about five seconds later returned with a visibly shaken Vinyl Scratch.
"Lookie! It's a record! From an alien spaceship!" she exclaimed happily.
"Um, Vinyl, you have some really advanced sound equipment right?" said Twilight, much more subdued than Pinkie, "Could we play the record on it?"
Vinyl nodded her head and smiled, then motioned for them to follow her. She walked slowly, head nodding slowly and headphones leaking snippets of the music she was playing. Twilight and others followed, after Twilight carefully detached the record from the craft.
She studied it as they walked. She could feel every engraving with her magic, and she was fairly sure she knew what they meant. On the record were several pictures, a few of which gave instructions on how to play the recording, and how to...well....do something else with it. It appeared to be some method of extrapolating images from the record. All these were binary code, clever, as any sufficiently advanced race would have knowledge of binary. This made Twilight sure the it was alien, except for one perplexing detail....
"I think this is in Equish, girls," announced Twilight.
"Um, not criticizing ya or anything, but how in the hay is a alien recordin' in our language?" Applejack, and the others, looked at Twilight, confused by her announcement.
"Look, see? This is in Equish." Twilight pointed to some lettering on the front of the record.
It was indeed in Equish. It was labaled The Sounds Of Earth , though what that meant was a mystery to the ponies. Diamond Dogs or Earth ponies, perhaps?
"Whoa whoa whoa, hey, if that's in Equish why's there all these weird pictures of the record on the record? Doesn't make much sense, Twilight," said Rainbow Dash.
"They may not have thought that whoever found this would speak it," Rarity stepped up and asked, "Do you think it's recorded in Equish, too?"
"Yes, I do, and Vinyl's advanced sound system will allow to analyze it in-depth," answered Twilight.
They finally arrived at Vinyl's house. She lived with her sister Octavia, and they had the house split right down the middle, one side ultra-mod and the other traditional. Vinyl's best equipment was in the basement, however, so that was where they ended up.
Twilight carefully placed the record on the turntable and lowered the needle onto it. She deduced from the cover that the correct speed was about 3.6 seconds for one rotation, and she adjusted the table accordingly. Just when she was about to start it, she paused and gasped.
"I forgot my note-taking folder!!! And I didn't send a letter to Celestia!! SPIKE!!" she shouted.
"I'm right here, Twi," said Spike, annoyed by her overreacting, "Here's the parchment, and quill."
Twilight calmed down and started the record. A very low quality recording was heard.
All the ponies (and one dragon) shushed each other softly as they listened to the first words (in Equish, just as Twilight thought). It was utterly silent as the last words of the first message faded away, ' it is with humility and hope that we take this step'.
Twilight stopped the recording. "That was-" she smiled and wiped the beginnings of a tear from her eye, "that was truly inspiring. Just...beautiful. They must be an amazing race."
"Yeah, these, um, 'humans of Earth' abound pretty cool," said Rainbow, "Seeking only peace and friendship, yeah, that's my kinda aliens."
"They must love parties if they love friendship!! Hope one of them comes here!" said Pinkie excitedly.
"There's probably more information on here about that, "answered Twilight, "I mean, how did they travel using a wormhole? There must be an explanation."
XXXX
Back on Earth, the atmosphere of the space center had changed dramatically. The last signal the craft sent was a message of distress. Apparently the wormhole had disrupted the nuclear power core, causing a severe crash. There were several images captured, however, showing a very colorful and seemingly organic landscape. But this left the scientists more confused than proud.
Only three images were visible. One showed a blue sky, another a forest. Both of these were confusing enough, but the last one.....well, the scientists were stumped.
"Um, guys?" One of them finally broke the silence, "Are those........ponies??"
They listened to the whole record. Twice. Vinyl and Octavia said they loved the music, well, Vinyl just nodded and smiled when Octavia said she loved the music. Fluttershy said she loved the nature sounds, and everypony generally agreed that the 'humans' had made an excellent first impression.
Twilight finally got a letter off to the Princesses, and was currently trying to extrapolate images from the recording.
"What I don't understand is how they speak the same language!" said Twilight as she continued to calculate the images.
"Uh huh, Twi. It's a mystery," said Spike, clearly very bored.
"It is! It makes ZERO sense. And the nature sounds, too!"
"Why don't you ask Lyra? She says she knows all about 'humans'."
"That's just some dusty old-" Twilight gasped and spun around, "Myth!!"
"Uh, what?"
"The old myths! Starswirl and the humans! I never gave them much thought; that's why I didn't remember it in the first place! But Lyra," Twilight gasped again and smiled widely, "She knows all about them! Read every single one!" Twilight gallopped out of the room, with an annoyed Spike right on her hooves.
"Lyra! Lyra Lyra Lyra!" Twilight gasped, out of breath, "I gotta talk to you about humans."
"Why? Thought you said its 'just a myth'."
"Well, uh, I was wrong," Twilight said with a grin, "now c'mon, we gotta-"
"Wait, hold your horses and back up!" Lyra leaned in, eyes full of hope, "y-you believe in humans now?"
Twilight smiled again and said, "I think I have something you'd be very interested in."
XXXX
"This is incredible! Amazing! It's the biggest scientific breakthrough in all of history!" Lyra had just finished listening to the record.
"I know, I know," Twilight calmed the excitement of the green unicorn, "So, what can you tell me about these 'humans'?"
"Oh, well uh, we first heard about them from Starswirl the Bearded's ancient journals. You know of his theory about Starswirl-Clover Bridges,right? Well he actually figured out how to create them using magic! And he used it to travel to another world, light-years away."
"He described the species, 'humans', as small, hairless minotaur/monkey hybrid things. Well, he didn't use those exact words, but you get the idea. They were supposed to have genius inventions and innovations, but lacked really strong harmony like in Equestria. They always fought wars, a very violent race, Starswirl said they were."
"So he tried to teach them. He taught them a little Equish, and some good governmental philosophies. I think he said something about a republic? Like to some tribe or something . They didn't have magic or anything, so he couldn't help them that much. But he could give them things. He used magic to change the evolution of the planet. Apple trees, and tameable animals and cows, all from Starswirl messing with natural history. They told stories about him. Stories of unicorns, and pegasi too. He was something of a god to them."
"So that's how they speak Equish! Why their culture is so similar to ours! We must've influenced them through the centuries," said Twilight.
They continued to talk in a nerdy way about the small details of this discovery until Twilight remembered a very odd detail about the night the craft appeared.
"Um, you said they didn't have magic, right?" asked Twilight, and Lyra nodded, " But the craft appeared through a wormhole. How could that be possible without magic!?"
Mind you, ponies don't have all the fancy tech humans have, so this is a perfectly legitimate question. The humans, after detecting miniature black holes in the LHC, figured that after ripping holes in space, it would be a simple matter to bend it to their will, right?
Well, wrong, because it wouldn't be until 2068 that the first successful wormhole was created, and the first detection of miniature black holes was in the 2020s. But the important thing is that they managed to do it.
XXXX
"We cannot honestly say that we discovered alien ponies! " A group of human scientists were arguing about the recent discovery, "There must be a malfunction on the probe."
"Oh really? And what sort of malfunction would cause this?! It's not like they're from a cartoon or anything!" said one scientist, "These are real pictures from a real planet!"
"We can't make that conclusion, because we know that the probe messed up somehow. It should have sent more than three pictures, and those pictures should not have anything to do with Earth. Something went wrong. " responded a quieter, calmer individual.
"I think we should keep a lid on the discovery and send a real expedition," said one scientist.
"I would agree, as the probe seems to have malfunctioned from the core reacting to radiation from the wormhole. With sufficient protection, a human could go through. But it would cost too much to send one up to WORMCAST with all the nesecarry shielding." an engineer replied.
"It won't cost too much when we tell them we discovered aliens. Do it'"
The first scientist sighed. "The alien thing may not be true, but it'll get us the funding we need. Do it," he said, "And I guess they do kinda look like cartoon characters."
300 years later....
Pony and human relations are better than ever before. There was once only trade between the two races, but now it can truly be said that they are friends. Both sides have gained much knowledge. Ponykind has learned of the larger side of science, the study of stars and galaxies, while humans learned much about subatomic physics (through magic, technically a form of nanotechnology).
Princess Twilight Sparkle Sat upon her throne and reflected these developments. She remembered the day humans had first contacted them. It is was entirely unintentional, and surprising to both parties. It was both mind blowing and completely logical when Twilight revealed that they had met before.
Spike was just a baby then. Twilight smiled at the memories of her of her friends. Applejack as old as Granny Smith had ever been now. Rainbow Dash was the most respected member of the Wonderbolts, only ever training the best of the best. The others lived life as they always had, even getting marriedd and watching their kids grow up.
The humans were different. One generation would last only about 100 years, though that number slowly grew. It really was amazing how two races so different, yet so similar, could form friendships across the galaxy.
As was said in the golden record,
"We step out of our solar system into the universe seeking only peace and friendship."
