*Flick.*
The next page of the book about... something or other flipped over to the side in a wave of purple energy. The book was currently around two-thirds read, but that was a ballpark. The current reader was lazily viewing through it much slower than she normally would. Not out of injury or disability, but well, laziness, to be frank.
*Flick.*
Despite the reduced speed, she still easily outpaced most if not all creatures who read in Equestria, and probably held a record for it. If there was such a thing. Her eyes skimmed over most of it, half-closed and barely taking in any of the text, mostly just looking for stimulation.
*Flick.*
Her rump was in the terrible state of just too comfortable to bother moving, and just uncomfortable enough to fidget. She was not in a bad mood, but not in a great one either. She was, to put it gently, apathetic at the moment. Nothing interesting had happened for months, and it was seeming that Equestria may finally have permanent, or at least extended, peace.
*Flick.*
Boring drivel. Both the peace and this book. It was something about quantum magical properties, a thesis she had seen enough to recite it if she was an infant. She didn’t really process it, no, it was more along the lines of gliding her eyes along the pages and searching for something to be worried or excited about.
*Flick.*
But she supposed that was her life in a nutshell, now. Peace, happiness, friendship. It was all well and good, but some mares need some kind of action every once in a while. To go from world-dominating villains every week to not even a peep for months was a drastic change.
*Flick.*
And she hated it.
A slightly paler unicorn walked in, rubbing her eyes. They were slightly red, indicating she had less sleep than she might’ve desired, but just enough to be grumpy over. She spoke to the alicorn slouching in the chair, her voice tired with a touch of concern.
“Heya Twilight.”
Twilight Sparkle barely lifted her head in response, but kindly added a bored slur. “’Sup, Starlight. How was your nap?”
Starlight Glimmer rubbed her eyes a little more aggressively, and rolled her shoulders a bit. “I was having a nice dream about- well, something nice, and I was just getting comfortable, when... Well, I’m not sure what it was. It felt strange.”
Twilight finally snapped shut the book of eternal drab and looked to her former student fully. “Strange? Nothing strange happens anymore. What happened?”
Starlight put her hoof to her chin in though for a moment. “It was something... interfering with my magic aura. It wasn’t really harming it, just passing through and sort of distorting it.” To demonstrate, she picked up the book that Twilight had been previously skimming. She had no difficulty raising it, but the book wobbled around, as if a strong wind were blowing through the castle.
Twilight was partly excited about something potentially dangerous and partly concerned over Starlight’s issue. “Do you think you might have Clover Distortion Syndrome?”
The unicorn shook her head firmly. “No, I’ve already had it, and I know the signs. Something is making this wobble, and it’s definitely not me.”
Curious, the princess tried her hoof at lifting the empty glass of coffee sitting on the table in front of her. She had no trouble in lifting it, but the cup too jiggled around in her aura. Her brow furrowed.
“So it’s not dangerous, just weird? That sounds like a discovery!” Twilight’s eyes brightened at the potential history she could uncover.
Starlight immediately brought her back down to reality. “But, we don’t know the source of it. For all we know, it-”
Suddenly both of them shivered, as their magic was somehow both attracted by and repulsed by something outside the castle. Something in the sky, to be specific. Once the shiver weakened, they both rushed to the nearest window and tried to gain a look at the cause.
Their magic helped locate the disturbance, and they could feel exactly where it was. The problem was...
It was beyond the planet’s atmosphere.
Both of them looked at each other in confusion, before Starlight spoke up with a shaky voice. “It’s in space? But I thought only the stars and moon were there. They’ve never messed with our magic, so why now?”
Twilight shrugged, but her face remained concerned. “I’m not sure it’s a star or a planet, or even a moon. But if anypony knows what it is, it’s Princess Luna.”
She was about to fetch Spike and send a letter requesting Luna to visit them, when said princess teleported into the castle directly behind them, together with a slightly grumpy Celestia.
Luna, for her part, looked very ecstatic about something. Perhaps the object. Her voice boomed slightly more than was bearable by the crystal of the castle, and it was filled with enthusiasm.
“Friends! We hath discovered a strange object, interfering with our magical auras! It seems to be located somewhere in the night sky!”
After their ears finished ringing, the two decided to speak at a reasonable, non disabling level. “Umm, Princess Luna, I understand you’re excited, but... maybe the middle of the night isn’t the best time to use that voice?”
Luna managed to look confused for a moment before changing into regret. “Oh, we are so sorry, friends! We merely desired to share our discovery with you!”
Twilight tapped her ear a few times before deciding she wouldn’t need surgery for it. “Actually, we were about to send a letter asking you to come over. I guess you beat us to the hoof, huh?”
Starlight didn’t really listen to the royalty, and instead her ears swiveled along with her head to the sky. What could possibly be making such interference that alicorns who raised the Sun and Moon were affected? It didn’t seem dangerous, but then, cutie marks hadn’t seemed dangerous until her only friend was sent away and she grew up into... well, herself. It probably wouldn’t be a repeat of that, but she wasn’t eager to find out.
Meanwhile, Celestia was sharing similar thoughts, albeit slower and more sluggish thanks to her untimely awakening. If the object came from outer space, or even deep space, there’s really no telling what it could be. Lulu had seen many different phenomena while on her “vacation” to the moon, but she hadn’t seen everything. Could it be their parents somehow returning? No, they were powerful, but they still never disturbed even a normal unicorn’s magic, let alone hers. Discord being Discord? Perhaps, but she found it unlikely, considering he was now reformed. Maybe a magic storm in deep space? That seemed probable until she remembered that magic didn’t exist everywhere, and the vacuum of space was not a good candidate.
Really, the only explanation seemed to be some kind of astronomical anomaly that Luna hadn’t seen yet. It didn’t seem to harm them, so it probably wasn’t actively dangerous. And it remained constant, so it seemed foalish to assume somepony was deliberately messing with them. An asteroid with a strange substance? Maybe, but it would have to be awfully large, and Luna couldn’t see it even viewing it from the Moon.
So... what was it?
Her stupor was shattered by the night princess elbowing her for attention. “Tia, are thou alright? You seem to be in deep thought, which has never ended well.”
Celestia simply nodded. “I am, Lu, I’m just curious. I believe it has to be something from deep space, otherwise you would’ve noticed it earlier, and found what it actually was.”
Luna looked out the window in longing. “Well, no need to wait! It may distort our magic, but it does not weaken it. We should be able to pull it to the ground and examine it.”
Celestia raised an eyebrow. This seemed rather rash. “Pull it towards us? I understand you want to see it in detail, but that doesn’t really strike me as a good idea.”
Luna blew a raspberry. “Tia, we can handle it. And if not us, Discord. And if not then, the Elements of Harmony. I don’t care if it messes with magic. We can destroy it if need be.”
Luna’s confidence seemed to rub off on her, despite her hesitation. She sighed in resignation. “I see, Luna. If you believe we should do this, I’ll go along.” She then nudged the night princess with her wing playfully. “But if some space creature comes down and eats us, I’ll be very cross. I might even give you a stern talking to.”
Lulu cantered over to the open window. “Yes, yes, we are responsible for our actions. We understand, Mom.”
Celestia merely rolled her eyes and joined her sister.
Over on Starlight’s side, her paranoia was swiftly starting to fill her with dread where none existed. She was on the verge of hyperventilating, while Twilight was standing next to her, hoof on her back and following her own instructor with an elegant rolling of the eyes.
“Starlight, relax. You took down a Changeling Queen with no magic, and helped save somepony who would’ve covered the land in darkness. You can handle some weird space thing.”
Starlight did not, in fact, relax. It lessened her breathing, but she was still... worried? Yes, we’ll call it that. “But Twilight, I, I’ve never seen something like this! Even Princess Luna doesn’t know what it is, and she made stars! How can we defeat it if we don’t know what it is?!”
Twilight resumed her eyes’ journey to the other side of her head, and snorted. “Firstly, Luna does not and never has made stars. She just moves them. It’s just like how Celestia didn’t make the Sun. Second, when did you ever know what you’d be dealing with?”
Starlight finally managed to stop shaking, and return to a fairly normal breathing pace. “I guess... I guess you’re right. I’m just scared, Twilight. It’s not from Equestria, and it messes with our magic, and...”
“Cozy Glow literally stole our magic, but we overcame that. Stop freaking out.”
The unicorn looked back at the princess with a smirk. “You mean stop Twilighting?”
Twilight merely scowled.
Starlight had enough control now to stand proper, and flipped her mane around. “Let’s see what the Princesses are doing.”
Twilight nodded, and the two shuffled over to the sisters, whose horns were currently glowing. They were both slightly sweating, and looked deep in concentration.
Twilight was the first to speak. “What are you doing?”
Luna didn’t look back at her, but her glare carried over well enough in voice. “Bringing it to us. What else did you think?”
Twilight appeared less than pleased by this particular revelation. “Bringing it here? I’m sorry Princess, but I th-”
Celestia stopped her with a wave of the hoof. “At ease, Twilight. I already discussed this with my sister. Either we discover it together, or she takes and examines it when we’re not aware of it.”
Twilight pouted.
Starlight, meanwhile, trotted up next to the blue alicorn. “Um, Princess, mind if I help out?”
Luna shook her head lightly. “Indeed. The faster we see what this is, the better.”
Starlight nodded, and focused her magic to grab whatever the sisters were aiming at.
Twilight, with no room left for argument, huffed and lit up her horn to help as well. Her magic wobbled like it had earlier, but still trailed over to whatever the others were dragging.
When she made contact with the object, she shivered again. It still didn’t hurt, but the distortion was back full force. It felt like her magic was on a rollercoaster- a shaky wooden one. She had to put in every amount of focus she could to avoid a surge. And looking at the other three, she could tell by their expressions that they were having the same issue. It wasn’t hard to bring the thing down, per se, but awkward. It seemed like it wanted to reach them, but was taking the slowest and most ridiculous route possible.
After enough faffing around with their auras, the four managed to get the object into a proper descent. It was free to plummet back down to the planet without its path waving around. There was just one problem.
“It is too far out. It’s going to burn up,” Celestia summarized rather nicely.
Luna wore a frown. “It can’t be that far from Equiss. Even the moon is only a few hundred miles away, and the sun a couple thousand at its most.”
Celestia shook her head. “This is much further. It could be tens or hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of miles. By the time it gets here, it’ll be nothing but charred remains. Even bedrock wouldn’t survive reentry from that distance.”
Starlight seemed to be the only one confused. She looked back at the others with her brow sufficiently bent. “Wait, why is that a bad thing? If it gets destroyed and the interference stops and our magic turns back to normal, isn’t that better?”
Twilight nudged Starlight with her hoof and frowned. “If the source is destroyed, we’ll never know what it was, and we won’t be prepared if more come, or if it... gets worse.”
All of the four shuddered at the thought of magical pain. It was second perhaps only to having muscles rip apart.
Starlight wiggled her head around to rid herself of that thought. "So, how are we supposed to make it... not explode?"
They all looked at Twilight, who thought for a few moments before deflating, her face drooping. "I'd try to shield it with magic, but it could just as easily harm it. I think that... I think that we just have to hope for the best."
They unanimously looked down at the ground in worry, before again all looking back up to the object's vague direction. They knew where it should be, but there was another question unanswered.
Celestia was the one to solidify this into words. "Do we know where it'll be landing? I don't need a space monster flying into a civilized area."
Luna draped a wing over her sister's back. "Do not worry, sister. With its current path, it'll land a few miles out from Sweet Apple Acres. Rather conveniently close, but far enough that we don't need to worry about anypony else investigating it until tomorrow."
Starlight and Celestia grumbled as one. "I think we'd like to wait until tomorrow."
Luna silenced their complaints with a mighty warrior pose. "Nay, good friends! We shall not wait for the morn! We shalt discover this beast now and silence it forevermore!"
Twilight gently tapped on Luna's shoulder and just looked at her. Said princess looked herself over a bit, then blushed and returned to a normal pony stance. "We, um, I mean that we should not waste time, correct?"
The group collectively shared a subdued giggle, but silence took hold soon after. After several moments of awkwardness, Twilight decided to ask something of her own.
"Excuse me, Princess Luna, but what do you mean 'waste time'? We can't do much until the thing actually hits the ground, and I doubt trying to make it faster is either an effective or good idea."
Luna lost a tad bit of her excitement, knowing she'd be forced to wait. "Tia, do you know how much longer it'll take?"
Celestia flicked on her magic, and closed her eyes, seemingly scanning something in the sky. She puffed it out a minute afterward. "Seems to be moving slow enough that it'll take around five to ten minutes. Not that much time."
Luna decided to wear the mask of a filly, and whine incessantly. "But Tiaaaaa, I wanna see it nooooowww!"
Tia was rather amused by this little display. "What is the matter with you tonight? I try to wake you up a minute before your alarm and you sleep like a rock, yet you seemingly have enough energy to act like a child?"
Luna dropped the expression for a second to roll her eyes aggressively at her sister. "You seem to forget I am nocturnal, Tia. You find your wild side during the day, mine at night."
Celestia huffed at her sibling. "I do not have a 'wild side'. I simply enjoy events of more energy time to time."
"Whatever you say. Of course, we all know who really released Discord, don't we? Wanted your playmate again?" Luna vibrated her eyebrows in a completely not suspicious way.
Celestia for her part looked completely mortified and froze in place. She didn't deny it, though.
Before the conversation could start going... somewhere else, Starlight's mouth exploded. "Ohwowthatsoundsreallycoolbutuhit'stimetogowereallyshouldheadoutbye!" She tried to streak out the door, but failed to see the devious and cunning table that was completely obvious, and she was swiftly sabotaged.
Twilight facehoofed, and lifted Starlight back up onto her hooves- or at least, as best she could with her weird magic. Starlight actually ended up on her back or side multiple times, before the personal student of Princess Celestia decided it'd be a good idea to simply go and help her up by herself.
The unicorn shook her head in a daze, before realigning her eyes enough to look sheepish. "I, uh, may have been a little too eager."
Thankful that the tone had moved away from her, Celestia strolled over to the pair. "You are correct, however. The object currently sits in the ground, but thankfully it has not harmed anypony in the area. It did not start a forest fire, either."
Twilight stayed with Starlight a tad longer to ensure she wouldn't fall over, before approaching her mentor. "So, should we go then? I can feel its exact location. It isn't exactly hiding."
Celestia nodded to them all vaguely. "We shall. Unless Lulu has something else to whine about?"
Luna hopped over to the rest of the group in a very adult way, be assured. "I do not whine, sister. I simply have occasional grievances."
"If that's all then?" Group nod. "Then let us depart."
They disappeared in a flash of white magic.
A few moments later, a very tired and grumpy dragon came sauntering downstairs, his nightgown still draping him.
All he found was a scorch mark on the floor, and various books and tools scattered all over the room and floor.
Which he would have to clean up.
"WHAT THE-"
The group instantly flashed back into existence, burning a few unlucky trees in the process.
All the alicorns present stretched their wings out, while Starlight simply waited awkwardly.
She stood for a few moments, before actually taking in the strange object. Her eyes widened. "Umm, you might want to see this..."
They all stopped their stretches to pay attention to her concern, and collectively shared in her amazement.
The object seemed to be completely unscratched from its reentry. It had a couple black marks, but nothing that would permanently damage it. It was incredible.
More incredible, however, was the object itself. It was humongous, easily as big as a manticore, or perhaps beyond that. It was entirely metal, or appeared so. It had two gigantic struts the size of Luna facing away from each other, but both attached to a central core. The struts gave off an incredible amount of heat for something metal, enough that the four dared not step closer for fear of burns. Facing opposite the struts, there was an extremely thin spine, with a strange flashing device on the end. Remarkably, none of these outliers appeared damaged, despite their visible thin structure.
There was an absolute swath of different lights and boxlike devices on the creation- for it was certainly not natural -none of which the group could even begin to guess at the purpose of, save for one covered with glass. That one appeared to be a camera, though none they'd ever seen or likely ever would again. There was a large hole on the struts side, ridged and conical. If Twilight had to guess, she'd assume it was some way of transporting on or off of it, but that was baseless.
On the other side, a large dish shape surrounded a smaller bulb, which constantly emitted a faint static sound. There were no visible devices on the dish- unless the bulb counted -and it appeared to be mostly solid metal. But there was something about that bulb...
Starlight brightened. "That's it! That thing on the dish! That's what's messing with our magic! Hold on, lemme blast it." She charged up her horn and prepared to incinerate the object. She fired...
...And her magic merely bounced off of it, leaving not so much as a light mark. Besides the magic residue, there was no sign she'd even hit it.
She received a whap on the back of her head. When she looked behind her in annoyance, Luna was glaring at her. "That was incredibly rash, Starlight Glimmer. If not for the creation's inherit anti-magic shielding, you would've just destroyed perhaps the most important thing we've ever seen in space. I doubt you'd be proud of that."
Now the princess was being stupid. Starlight returned the glare, though with less anger and more annoyance. "And why wouldn't I? We'd have gotten rid of a source of trouble, and did it efficiently and cleanly. And who are you to hit me?!"
Luna leaned closer to her, and her mouth stretched into a nasty snarl. "Do not t-"
Twilight hushed the both of them, and pointed to something glinting under the struts. "Luna, Starlight, Celestia, look. It's shiny. Kind of like gold? I think... I think we should try to get it."
Starlight rolled her eyes. "And how exactly? It's so hot that my fur would singe just by smelling it. And my nose. And my everything. There's no way we can grab it, neither with hooves or with magic. It'll just slip out of our auras."
Celestia tapped her hoof to her chin for a minute while the others argued, and finally came to an idea, and her hoof stretching out excitedly. "I can cast a heat-resist spell! I'm already more resistant than anypony besides a dragon because of my connection to the sun, and a spell should make it so basically nothing besides direct lava contact can burn me."
Luna did not look like she approved of that. "Tia, are you certain? The device interferes with magic, and if the shield fails..."
Celestia shook her head vigorously. "I'm sure. The creation does mess with magic, but only when applied as force. Telekinesis works but shakily, while our teleportation was completely normal. A shield protects, not applies, so I'll be fine."
Starlight cocked an eyebrow at that explanation. "I'm not the smartest in magic terms, but that doesn't sound... very safe. Or smart. Or really anything close to a good idea."
Without any warning, Celestia cast the spell and walked over to the object, much to her sister's disdain and Twilight's shock. The shield seemed to work as it should; her fur wasn't even slightly burnt, much less herself. Of course, while it protected her from harm, it did not make the heat itself go away, and so she could feel it full force. She sweated enough that she actually felt light-headed. The thing was so hot that just being near it was starting to dehydrate her. She needed to act fast before this became a serious problem.
She approached the shiny piece of the craft, and inspected it as much as she could. It was mostly hidden by the rest of the object, but she could make out vague squiggles and lines, and some shapes she assumed were drawings, as they were much too deliberate to be natural. That, and the gold which the block appeared to be was perfectly cut into a cube, which she had never seen without hoofwork. It seemed to be bolted on to the struts, and was buried far beneath everything else. It seemed the creators intended to protect it long-term, which was certainly not easy to do in space.
She wasn't entirely certain on how to remove it without damage, as the bolts seemed too intricate for her hooves, and magic would likely slip off. Thus, she was left with only one option, or one to her.
She'd need to bite the bolts off. Yes, it'd be painful and would risk damaging the plaque (as it seemed to be on further inspection), but she couldn't really do much else besides stare at it, and that wasn't helping any. So, with a strength enchantment on her jaw and several moments of mental preparation, she started gnawing at the bolts.
Thanks to the heat shield, it didn't scald her, but it certainly didn't make it comfortable. They were surprisingly tough even with the strength boost, so she needed a full minute or so of biting for each one to weaken them enough to slide off normally. There were numerous bolts, so she'd be there for a good ten minutes, at least.
Over with the other three, Starlight and Luna had long since stopped their anger towards each other and instead seemed concerned with Celestia's head movements and how much time she was taking. They thought to ask what exactly was going on, but Luna figured that anything needing that much focus from her sister would be worth leaving alone, and she said as much to Starlight. They contended themselves with shifting their weight from one leg to the other, worry etched onto their muzzles.
Twilight was not as composed. She was sweaty, shaky, and gnawing at her hooves in an attempt to stop worrying.
It wasn't helping.
She knew in her head that Celestia would certainly be able to handle herself against whatever may attack, but that same head then ran through the events of Chrysalis' invasions, Tirek's assault, Cozy Glow's infiltration...
She curled into a ball and rocked herself around.
Celestia herself finally finished with the last bolt, and just in time for the enchantment to run its course. Her teeth and jaw were slightly sore, but it was much better than simply breaking them like a foal. Having removed its securements, the plaque still didn't fall off the object. This was to her benefit though, as she could pick it up with one hoof without worrying over it falling. Strangely, while the thing around it was steaming, the block itself was barely room temperature. She'd find a magic explanation, but magic seemingly didn't exist near this craft, so that was out.
Shrugging and deciding it could wait until later, Tia brought the plaque over to the rest of the group, and lifted a decently sized rock over to set it against. She finally let down the heat shield, and her horn cooled off at its leisure. With the four moving into seated positions to see it accurately, they finally had a good scrutiny of the block.
To say it was "weird" would be to imply it could ever be normal. There were various lines and figures around it, many of which made no sense on first sight. There were two circles connected to each other with a line and a smaller dash under it, a series of circles, one with rings, and most incredibly small save for a very large one, an arrow with something very strongly resembling the craft leading off of it, a mess of lines all pointing to one singular core, and most bizarrely, a drawing of two creatures, one with more defined muscles, a raised arm, and some dangly features in between its legs, and the other with large protrusions from its chest(?), longer head hair, and a rounder figure, but missing those same dangling bits, and no gesture.
All in all, it was definitely some sort of message. The only problem was that they has no idea what it meant.
Twilight clapped her hooves together and spoke first. "Well, considering I'm sure none of us can identify this-" a round of nods, "-then I think we should take this back to the castle, where I have, well, a library and lighting. It should make this a lot easier."
They all agreed and gathered together for a teleport, when Starlight halted. "Wait, would a teleport work in it? It might damage it, or make it disappear, or-"
Without warning, Celestia teleported said block from the rock to her waiting foreleg, and smirked at the unicorn. "It's fine, Starlight. If magic harmed it, you'd have destroyed it when you blasted the whole thing. It's safe."
Starlight raised a hoof and opened her mouth to argue, then silently trodded over when she couldn't think of anything.
And so, the group zapped away for the second time a day.
Back at the castle, Celestia promptly plopped the plaque onto a waiting table that hadn't burnt, and they sat down to look at it in better lighting, while Twilight grabbed a long line of astronomical, mathematical, magical- look, she brought over a lot of books. Pretty much anything that wasn't fantasy or mythology or children's, though after a bit of thought, she grabbed much of the mythology section too. With the mountain of literature thusly created, she relaxed with the other to pore over the strange design.
A blue princess piped up. "I think we should start with the circles attached to each other. It seems the simplest, and would take the least time to figure out."
They collectively nodded, and moved the block to show the circles in better lighting.
In better detail, they could see that the circles weren't just attached, but also had lines within and protruding from them. But even with this, none could find their purpose off the top of the head. A series of random guesses flowed from all but Twilight, who hastily searched everything she believed might be relevant.
"It could be a national symbol. It looks strange, but it's not the worst one."
"No, it looks too deliberate. They'd go with something easier to make and commercialize. This must be some kind of display or diagram."
"Or an alphabet, for all we know. They might be showing us their communication system. Maybe they connect a giant pipe between two planets and travel across?"
"That's not a bad guess, actually. But it doesn't explain the other lines, or the dash under it."
"That's true. Hmm."
"Uhhh...reproductive diagram?"
"Ew, don't put that thought in my head. And I don't think so, anyway. No reproductive organs are that perfectly shaped, and I hardly believe they'd be the same for both genders."
"Why does it have to be 'both'? They could have one, or three, or five, or seven thousand. We don't know aliens."
"Who says they're aliens?"
"Literally nothing else on this planet has ever made something this advanced. Even Starswirl would be completely lost on this."
"Speaking of which, shouldn't we contact him?"
"No, I doubt he'd have much to say. These creators have no magic, and that's really his only field."
"Good point."
At that moment, Twilight set one of her books, called Magical Quanta And You, onto the table, and looked to the rest.
"You think they could be magicon spheres?"
While they were skeptical of this, their looks asked Twilight to elaborate. "Well, the circles are 'connected', but what if they aren't? We've used lines to show distance and measurement before, it could be the same. Might make sense, actually, since even if magic doesn't exist outside our planet, we've found magicon spheres even in distant asteroids, so it must be universal, or at least very common. And if it's common, any other intelligent race would probably find it, even if it's called something different.
"Magicon is the simplest element and the most common. It reacts with basically any other element, but especially itself, and fuses to become magibek. The process of this makes our sun radiate the heat it does. They'd probably find this in their own star. It seems likely to me because the lines are almost exactly what we use to indicate the hyperfine thaum differences, and if they know about magicon, they'd know about that. So I believe this is their unit of measurement, or at least one of them, and those are magicon spheres, in the process of becoming magibrek."
They all stared at Twilight, both impressed and slightly afraid of her science-mode explanation. Celestia was the first to voice her thoughts. "This, dear Twilight, is why you are the smart one. I was about to suggest they might be warring countries, but yours makes so much sense that it's scary."
Luna added in. "I agree, Twilight Sparkle. I cannot think of an idea better than this, so that is what we shall assume. Using that notch as measurement makes the rest much easier, as well. A measure of what, I cannot be certain, but we will treat it as length or distance, unless that proves to be too absurd." Group nod.
Starlight finally spoke, having not wanted to intrude with something she thought stupid. Reproduction? Really? "Maybe we should do the circles on the bottom next. They seem simple, and the arrow we can actually recognize." Nod.
They then turned their attention to the line of circles on the bottom of the plaque, which included a very large one, many small ones, and one with a line through it.
Celestia tapped her hoof in thought while staring at the large one, Starlight scrutinized the one with the line, and Twilight simply looked over the whole, while Luna was now the one to retrieve books.
"It could be different elements. Like how they have a diagram of magicon."
"Maybe, but I don't think so. We've never seen a thaum to have a line, or which I believe may be rings. And thaums do not vary that much in size. At most, they are a few nanothaumic lengths different in diameter."
"Maybe a series of nation flags?"
"Same issue with the magicon above. Even the zebras, with all their organization and perfection, have an asymmetrical flag, and nothing round on it. I doubt they'd make flags so simple and so easily mixed up."
"And there's that arrow. I'm not sure what that means. I'd think it's direction, but for all I know it's some giant structure they've created. They made this, so I'm not sure what their limits might be."
"Reproductive diagram?"
Stares.
"Sorry."
Luna then returned with a list of Equiss system planets and a globe of their own. "I believe it is their home star system."
They all turned to her, Tia with interest, Starlight with confusion, and Twilight with understanding.
Starlight spoke first. "Star system? But the Sun is much bigger than Equiss, and according to this drawing, theirs is puny. It'd be too small and too close to even heat them properly."
Luna shook her head. "I don't think it is literal. They wanted us to see the general layout, not the specifics. They had limited space to create the message on this block, it saves space. Besides, we even do this with our own astronomy books. None of the planets are to perfect scale, there simply isn't enough room."
Twilight nodded along with Luna, and added her own thoughts. "And look at the line. It's probably actually rings, since nothing in nature on a small scale has rings. The only things we've seen with them are mass-thaum planets, and if it's a star system, that would make a lot of sense. Plus the circles are all slightly misaligned, which I believe is supposed to indicate their jagged orbits."
Tia contributed her own thoughts. "But what of the arrow? If it is truly a star system, then an arrow simply couldn't be anything natural. It's either an artificial structure or a direction, neither of which seem likely to me."
Luna pointed to the end of the arrowhead with her hoof. "Look at it. It is starting from one of the planets, and leading off to the object that I very much think is what we found. Any disagreement on that?"
They all shook their heads. They at least could agree that the geometric object was what had crashed onto their world. It looked too similar to be a coincidence.
"Then I believe they launched this craft off of their home, and this arrow is leading to the direction it took into outer space."
Twilight's eyes immediately brightened. "Wait, then we could follow the arrow to find them! We'll finally discover aliens, and meet with them, and-"
Celestia made sure to cut her off fast, with a hoof swipe. "Twilight, by the time we arrive, they might not be there, or there might be a completely different species than sent this message. Judging by the material, I'd say they expected this to survive thousands of years, longer than us. You don't make something like that unless you intend not to be around much longer."
When Twilight deflated, Tia patted her on the back, and pulled her closer with a wing. "Don't be so mopey, Twilight. We have no space vehicles anyway, I doubt we'd meet them anytime soon regardless. I admire your enthusiasm, but perhaps we should see what they had to say, rather than see if they'll say more."
Twilight just solemnly nodded and returned to looking over the block in front of her.
"The more I hear, the more I think it really is a star system, and probably theirs. Do we all agree on this?"
Luna and Twi nodded, but Starlight was currently smushing her face into the table and holding her hooves over her ears. "Why am I even here? You're all much smarter than I am. I can only do magic, and that won't help here. I know nothing about astronomy or space or stars or whatever. And I barely know about thaum mechanics."
Twilight scooted over to pat Starlight much the same as her mentor just had. "Starlight, it's fine. You don't need to be smart to be clueless. We don't know any more about this than you. All we can do is guess on what it might mean with what we do know. And everypony can help with guesses."
The unicorn sighed in exasperation, but got back to analyzing the block regardless, a hint of a smile trying to invade her face. "So, maybe the weird line thingy next?"
This time, no one had any guesses. Celestia was blank, Luna could only stare at it, and Twilight shrugged.
"...Maybe it's a rep-"
"NO!'
Starlight shyly shrank back down in her seat.
Celestia's face jumped up in excitement. "Maybe it's a religious symbol?"
Luna snorted. "Of course you'd think that. You always see yourself as a goddess."
Celestia glared at her sister. "Our mother is the only divine being, we both know that. Now shut it and seriously think about it."
Luna did such. "It could be. I honestly can't think of anything better."
Twilight, however, did not seem so convinced. "I'm not sure about that. They're all pointing to something at different lengths, and it looks like they're using the measurement from the magicon spheres. I'd say it's distance, but I have no idea what could be that close."
Starlight grumbled in resignation. "I'm going with religion. Anypony else?"
A round of nods.
"So, we have one thing left."
They did, indeed, and it was by far the strangest.
The drawing of the two figures had staggeringly more detail than any other on the plaque, and the image of the device was behind them. One was raising its arm, while the other was stagnant.
Twilight spoke up. "I feel like, with the detail, it really can't be anything besides the ones who made this, right? It would make sense to send an image of what you look like, so you can be identified a lot easier."
The others seemed to agree, so she continued. "And with the thing behind them, I think it's supposed to be for scale. We see how big it is, so we know how big they are. At least in general. In which case, they're huge."
Starlight shivered. "Definitely. That thing was the size of a timberwolf, and these drawings are almost as big. I wouldn't want to anger them, friendly or not."
"The one on the left has its hand raised and it looks sort of distant, but its face seems rather soft. Maybe it's their kind's greeting?"
Celestia nodded. "That makes a lot of sense, actually. If we were to message another, I'd include a visual greeting so they'd know what to expect, and not interpret it as a sign of hostility or anger. A greeting seems logical. But why does the other not say hello?"
Luna added her own thoughts. "Well, perhaps the other is submissive? They are shorter and softer, with less muscle. Perhaps they are the caretakers, and the other one is the dominant gender. It reminds me of the buffalo. Their males are large and often in command, while the females are much smaller and server a supporting role."
"That's assuming that the males are the physically strong ones. Maybe they're like manticores where the females are stronger to take care of offspring."
"Who's to say they even have 'male' and 'female'? We're assuming they have genders at all. That might not be true. These could be genetic variants, or a slave race, or... well, literally anything."
"That's true, but it makes it easier on us. I'd rather not think of intimate relations with anything besides those two genders. I'm not judging, it's just hard to comprehend."
"Um, speaking of intimate relations... You think that the dangly thing and bulges are, uh... 'Equipment'?"
They all blushed at Twilight's suggestion, but nodded to it anyway, since it did make the most sense.
Naturally, Starlight needed to add her own thoughts. "Reproductive diagram?"
Sigh. "Yes, reproductive diagram."
Twilight picked her head off the table and rolled it around. "I guess that's everything. Everything I can think of."
Celestia continued afterward. "So they sent us an image of magicon spheres, which I'll assume is for mutual scientific communication if nothing else, along with a measurement unit I couldn't ever fathom, a diagram of their star system and the planet they occupy, a symbol of religion, and themselves to scale, with a greeting."
Celestia then smiled, her warmth invading the room. "Considering they trusted us with their location, appearance, and knowledge, and sent us a 'hello', I'd say I can trust them well enough. We may never meet these creatures, but they had the technology to send weapons or armies across space, and instead sent us an intellectual challenge and friendliness. If they ever arrive, they're welcome here. Do you agree, Luna?"
Her sister nodded, the same smile plastered on her snout. "Yes, I do. They could've blasted us with anti-magic weapons and destroyed all of Equestria, but they simply tried to communicate the best they could, across language, culture, space, and time. I'd say we're lucky they didn't send something worse. I doubt our magic could fight the incredible power they have. I'd like to meet them... but preferably from a safe distance."
Starlight joined in the discussion, the smiles becoming infectious. "Yeah, I'd share my friendship lessons with them. I mean, they probably couldn't read them, but I'm sure with how smart they are, they'd get the idea. Still not sure why'd they send something like religion in the middle of science, though."
Luna shrugged. "Maybe it is scientific, and we simply have not discovered it yet. Remember, they managed to send a metal device the size of a manticore across space we can't even see, and delivered a perfectly intact message including magical quanta. It likely has something to do with the measurement unit, but until we advance a few more centuries, I doubt we'll ever know what it is."
Celestia stretched her wings out once again. "Well, I'm going to take this back to Canterlot for more ponies to analyze. I'm going to see if we can get more opinions on it. Have a great night, you two!"
With that, the sisters flashed back to their palace, leaving Twilight and Starlight.
The unicorn then yawned, and stretched herself. "Well, I'm going back to bed, since I don't seem to be having magic interference anymore. Not sure why, but I'm not complaining. Good night, Twilight."
Twi waved off her friend as she slinked back to her room for a rest, but remained in the room for a few moments, before walking over to the window.
She looked longingly into the night sky, her eyes sad and bright at the same time.
"Even if we never meet, even if we never see or hear or touch each other..."
"I just want you to know, I count you as a friend."
The End
Author's Note
Well, that happened. It was nice writing something I actually wanted to, instead of something I came up with on the spot. Thus is the longest one-shot I have yet written.
Before you go raving about the "100 mile moon" and "1000 mile sun", I am fully aware that in reality, stars and moons are vastly further than that. Our own moon is 239k miles, and the Sun is a whopping 93 million miles. I am aware of this ridiculous difference, but I figure with the combo of magic and cartoon logic, they could manage that.
Also, I don't care.
News flash: this is the Pioneer probe, and Pioneer DID NOT HAVE THE GOLDEN RECORD.
I'm sick of saying that.
