The Equestrian Event

“I was just a student back then,” Jay said, staring off at the wall. “‘Master as many trades as you can. It's your best chance at making it in life.’ That’s what I was always told. I suppose that, in part, it was true. Engineering, programming, chemistry, and whatever else was available at the college. I studied any profession that was in demand at the time. Of course, with all that education came loads of bills.” Jay paused and let out a snicker, shaking his head.

“So, I enlisted in the EGSM. The Earth Government Space Marines. With my field of study being so wide, I had the choice of being assigned wherever I wanted. The sensible thing to do would have been to stay on planet. But an opportunity opened up that seemed too good to be true.”

Luna sat in silence, not wanting to break Jay’s flow.

“Interstellar travel had already been around for decades, but Earthgov always thought we could do better. A prototype ship was being developed in orbit and the corps was looking for recruits who were as smart as they were stupid to be a part of the project.” Jay chuckled. “I guess I was at the top of their list.” Jay looked at Luna and noticed the confusion in her eyes.

“I suppose I’m getting a bit technical,” Jay said. “I guess I can try to a explain in simpler terms.” He tapped his foot on the floor and continued.

“Where I come from, there is no such thing as magic. There may be a belief, but the closest we ever came to the mystic arts was science. And oh, how we loved our technological pursuits. I can only guess that the reason your own technology is so scattered in development, other than the fact that we are worlds apart, is because of your ability to use magic.”

“You mentioned a ship,” Luna said. "One that could travel among the stars? How is that possible?”

“They weren’t ships in the traditional sense,” Jay explained. “More of a vessel. Ones that are made out of metal and have wings or engines instead of sails. Think of…” Jay struggled to find a proper comparison, then snapped his fingers.

“Think of a firework. A rocket. You’ve seen one before, right?”

“Yes,” Luna said, visualizing the object. “We use them at celebrations.”

“You know how it uses fuel to propel itself upward?” Jay continued. “How it has fins or wings to stabilize it? A spaceship is very similar. Only, it doesn’t explode. Well… Not intentionally anyway.”

“You travel with... rockets?” Luna asked, baffled by such an idea.

“It’s more complicated than that,” Jay sighed. “But essentially, yes. That’s how normal spaceships worked. You just pointed them where you wanted to go and watched them fly at a fraction of the speed of light. Pretty fast, but they still took a long time to even reach another solar system.”

“And what of this new ship?” Luna asked. “The one your ‘Earthgov’ wanted to build?”

“The EGSM had already been experimenting with Alcubierre drive engines.” Jay lay down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. “They were designed to allow ships to effectively bend the fabric of space itself. This would mean a ship could travel at faster than light speeds by practically pulling space around itself in order to move.”

“That sounds impossible,” Luna said.

“Not quite,” Jay said. “A few prototypes had been deemed successful, but as I said before, Earthgov wanted only the best. So, development began on a ship outfitted with a redesigned Alcubierre drive engine. They called it a ‘Shock Point Drive.’ It was capable of traveling at incomprehensible speeds with little to no fuel consumption. The new ship was outfitted with the latest in sensor arrays, weapon technology, and all the bells and whistles that they could find. Trillions of dollars worth of resources spent on a single ship.” Jay laughed and sat back up.

“I think they just wanted to see if it could be done. Regardless, when they finished the ship, they realized that they would need a specialized crew to fly it.”

“And they chose you?” Luna asked.

“I was the first one assigned to it. By that time, I had already spent most of my career on other ships as active military. Occasionally I worked with smaller crews, but often by myself. Good thing I had practice, though. As it turned out, they didn’t get a chance to hire anyone else.”

Jay stood up and began to pace around the room, his hands on his hips.

“Everyone had already heard the news about the Marker that had been found a few years before. It was lying dormant at the bottom of the ocean for billions of years, waiting to be discovered. It came into Earthgov’s possession shortly after and it wasn't long before they recognized it as a potential source of infinite energy. The world's biggest battery. Why the Marker wasn’t active at first, I’ll never know. But whatever Earthgov did to it… It turned it back on.”

Jay stopped talking and scratched at his throat.

“I was in outer orbit when I got the alert. The Marker’s signal had been activated a few days before and Earthgov waited too damn long to tell anyone. They thought they could contain it, but they had no idea how far the signal would reach. No idea of the power they were dealing with.”

Jay flashed a quick look at his watch as he continued pacing.

“In the event of emergency, the official order was to scramble all priority assets. When the panic began to spread, they grabbed the most expensive stuff first. My ship was programmed to jump to a set of predetermined coordinates. Some outpost just off the Kuiper Belt.” Jay let out a single laugh, more mocking than humorous.

“Unfortunately, that plan went to Shitsville pretty quick. The SP drive malfunctioned and dropped me off at the ass end of the universe. It took me awhile to get it fixed. Three days, at least. When I finally did get it working again, I made my way back home. When I got there though, all I found was…”

Jay sat back down on the bed and let his head hang. When he looked back up at Luna, he began to speak in his upbeat and normal voice once again.

“So, I downloaded every available piece of intel Earthgov had compiled on the Marker from their data network. There was no one around to tell me not to, so I didn’t find too much trouble in cracking the system. There were a few military supply ships still in orbit. Why they were unoccupied and fully stocked... I have no idea. Call it a blessing, I suppose. With all that, I was on my way to the outer colonies.”

“I’m so sorry, Jay,” Luna said, a cloud of empathy covering her face. “I can’t imagine what that must be like.”

“Eh, I got over it,” Jay said.

A jolt of astonishment passed through Luna at the statement. Shear indifference to such a loss was bizarre, heinous even.

“What did piss me off though, -” Jay raised a finger indignantly into the air “- is that a month later, I find a colony with another Marker on it. Yeah! Turns out Earthgov’s ingenious plan was to make as many copies of the original Marker as they could. I guess they didn’t learn after the first time. Not only that, but where do they decide to build the damn things? Why, only on worlds with high populations! And, wouldn't you know it, Markers tend to produce higher energy readings when there are more lifeforms available. Dumbasses.”

“What happened to the colony?” Luna asked.

“I didn’t stick around long enough to find out,” Jay said indifferently. “Once my sensors started picking up Marker signal spikes, I got out of there. Left a message saying that others should do the same.”

“When we first met, you said you came here to study rocks,” Luna said, narrowing her eyes. “Was that a lie?”

“Not really,” Jay said. “In fact, I spent the majority of my time in that cave trying to figure out how this Marker was destroyed. I’ve never seen one in this state. It’s smashed to pieces, but somehow it's still active.”

“You only mentioned two of the Markers that you found,” Luna said. She shifted in her seat. “What of the other ten?”

“I was listed as dead, had no purpose, and practically unlimited resources at my disposal,” Jay stated. “So, being the practical thinker I was, I learned everything I could about the Markers. How to find them, how they behaved, and even, how to stop them.”

“You did all this by yourself?” Luna asked. She was beginning to sense that Jay wasn’t telling her something. “It couldn’t have been easy.”

“There was no one else to do it,” Jay said. “Luna, I left Earth eleven years ago. I’ve had a lot of time to practice.”

He let out a long sigh and rubbed his eyes.

“So, what do you think? A bit of a better explanation than that shitty abridged version I gave you back at the mine?”

“That’s one way of putting it,” Luna said. She pursed her lips in thought. “But, how did you arrive here in Equestria?”

“Funny story actually,” Jay said. “I hadn't come across a Marker signal in over a year, let alone an original one. In fact, very few of the Markers I found were originals, as opposed to Earthgov copies. Including the one here in Equestria and on Earth, I’ve only come across four Markers of alien origin.” Jay bent over and dusted off the top of his boots.

“Seeing as I had no clear objective at the time, I decided to do a little experimenting with the SP drives. I had never attempted random jumps before and seeing as I was fully stocked on supplies for two more years, I thought, ‘What the hell? Lets see what pressing every button does.’ Of course, it wasn't as easy as that. Long story short though, I finally managed to program jumps randomly with no adverse effects. At least... none that I know of.”

Jay examined Luna briefly before shaking his head, as if he was dismissing some ill conceived notion.

“Anyway, about seven months ago, I complete a jump. And then, out of nowhere, I hear it.” He raised a hand in the air and waved his fingers. “That familiar ping of a Marker signal. It was so faint, too. I ran a systems check to make sure that my sensors weren’t out of tune. Sure enough, they were right. Eventually, I traced that little echo all the way here.”

Stretching his arms above his head, Jay let out a small groan.

“Rather than land in what was potentially hostile territory, I decided to run a preliminary scan of the terrain. And, surprise, surprise, what do I find? An intelligent race of magical, technicolor horses. Who, might I add, seem to speak perfect English and have a world that seems to be pulled right out of a fantasy book. Now, when I saw this, the first thing I do is run to the medbay to determine if I had contracted some form of deep-space dementia. After I ran every diagnostic check I could, a thought occurred to me. If the Shock Point drive could move space and time itself, was it possible it could create a dimensional rift? A door to a parallel universe? Or had I simply dove so deep into uncharted territory, that I just so happened to find a skewed reflection of my own world?”

Jay propped his chin of his fist, contemplating the situation for a moment. He then shrugged his shoulders when no explanation came.

“Whatever the case, it doesn’t matter. I’m here now. You know that I’m here, so I might as well do what I came to do and stop the Marker.”

A heavy silence fell like a shroud over the room, neither individual speaking a word. Finally, Luna cleared her throat.

“Well then,” she began. “I thank you for that... in depth explanation. It gives me a little more insight to where your motivations lie.”

“Happy to help in any way I can,” Jay said. “Speaking of which, as your newest informant, what is it that you want me to do?”

“Find the Marker and whoever is responsible for stealing the Codex,” Luna said. “Do whatever you have to.”

“Should be easy enough,” Jay laughed. "I'll be sure to get right on it."

“I believe you mentioned that you had some inquiries of your own, did you not?” Luna asked.

“Right,” Jay said, snapping his fingers. “I’ve been meaning to ask, what the hell is up with the astronomy around here?”

“Excuse me?” Luna asked, confused by the question. “I don’t believe I follow.”

“Ever since I got here, my ship has had one hell of a time maintaining a proper orbit,” Jay continued. “It seems to need calibration every hour, as if the rotation of the planet isn’t consistent. Not to mention all this talk of, ‘lowering and raising the sun.' I was having a little trouble wrapping my head around it.”

“What do you mean?” Luna asked. She could hear her feathers rustle as she shifted her wings.

“Okay, look,” Jay said, pulling out his notebook and pen. He quickly drew a rough diagram of the solar system, with the sun located at the middle and the planets surrounding it.

“This is you,” Jay said as he pointed at the third planet from the sun. “A perfect distance for life to exist; not too hot and not too cold. Now, calculations from my sensors show that your solar system is indeed, a Copernican system. That means, you orbit the sun, as opposed to the sun orbiting you. Which, quite frankly, is both impractical and impossible for a planet of this size.”

“Your point... being?” Luna asked, waiting for the human to conclude his theory.

“You and Celestia control the day and night cycle of the planet, correct?” Jay asked, to which Luna nodded her head.

“If neither of you were to ‘raise’ the sun, what would happen?”

“It would remain night,” Luna stated.

“But only for this side of the planet,” Jay said, pointing a finger at Luna. “It is my thought that, for whatever reason, your planet cannot maintain a proper rotation on its own. It defies all known laws of physics, as rotation of a planet is key for a properly functioning ecosystem. When either of you changes the sun’s position in the sky, you’re not moving the sun, you’re rotating the planet! That’s why my ship’s orbit is out of whack. It’s also why you need to control the moon in such a precise manner.”

“That’s an interesting theory…” Luna said, thinking about what the human had just said. “But, it sounds like you already have your mind made up as to how this all works. Why are you asking me about it?”

“Oh, I just wanted to share the theory with you,” Jay said, closing the notebook. “See what you thought.”

“Is that it then?” Luna asked, preparing to stand up.

“Actually, there is one more thing,” Jay said. He reached into his bag and pulled out a small black device.

“This is a communications earpiece,” Jay explained, holding the device out for Luna to see. “I want you to take it. That way, I can contact you at any time. A little easier than meeting face to face. It will beep and flash blue when I call.”

Luna rose to her feet and placed her cloak back over her shoulders. She took the device and held it up for examination. It was cylindrical in shape, with a soft cone cap at one end.

“All you have to do if you want to talk is put it in your ear and speak,” Jay said.

“Thank you,” Luna said. “Was there anything else?”

“That should be everything,” Jay said. He walked over to the door and opened it.

“Very well then,” Luna said as she trotted past the human. Stopping in the hallway, she turned to face him one last time.

"Your ship... The one you came here in. What is its name?"

"She was never christened," Jay said. "But, she was nicknamed 'The Songbird' by the engineering team, after the sound her engines make."

Luna smiled at that. Using her magic, she lifted her hood over her head and made her way down the hall.

“Goodnight, Jay."

“Goodnight, Luna,” Jay replied before shutting the door.

Now standing alone in the room, he let the silence flow over him. Noticing how dark it was, he walked over to the nightstand and turned on the lamp. Able to see again, Jay turned his attention to his bag. Taking a moment to dig through it, he found what he was looking for: a small, black rectangular device with a glass screen.

He pressed a button on the back of the device, resulting in the screen illuminating much of the room. After swiping his finger across the screen a few times, he placed the device to his ear and began to speak.

“Ice, did you catch all of that?” he asked.

“Yes sir,” the device said, projecting a voice from the speaker that was held to Jay’s ear. The voice sounded like it belonged to a young woman, almost childlike in nature.

“Conversation successfully recorded.”

“Good,” Jay replied, sitting down on the bed and kicking off his boots. “Title it, ‘Audio Log: Four Thousand Five Hundred Twenty-Six.’ And give me a report on the signal strength.”

“Marker signal is growing at a rate of approximately two point six percent per hour. Signal strength will reach the level of ‘BROKEN VEIL’ within twelve hours,” the voice said.

“Noted,” Jay said. He looked at his watch and took a deep breath. “Signing off.”

Jay pressed the button on the back of the device again and the screen went dark. He tossed it back into his bag and lay down on top of the sheets. Closing his eyes, he began to whistle his familiar tune.

“What’s the name of the song?”

The thought ran through his head over and over again, with no answer to be found.

“I could have sworn it started with a ‘p.’”