A New World Discovered

Space, the final frontier, and the voyage of untold discoveries. Certainly, the vast void of the inky blackness and stars has many names attributed to it, and is the source of many stories of the unknown. And this is one of those stories.

Flashing into existence from a small spec of light in the far off distance, a ship appears amongst the darkness, the ship itself is rather sizable in scale, roughly bigger than a fighter jet but despite its size the spacefaring craft has only one living occupant. The pilot is a young man who is just in his early twenties, has fair skin, a head of somewhat shaggy black hair and pair of calming dark brown eyes. As the craft just floats there in the vast void of space, the pilot was leaning over the dashboard of his ships cockpit, eyes looking at something with a mixture of awe, curiosity, with a hint of confusion sprinkled in.

And the object of the young man’s attention was the lone planet within this system which looked like his own world of Earth, but there was a fairly and drastic difference between Earth and this new planet, and that detail was the fact that this sole planetoid has both celestial bodies orbiting and encircling itself, with the sun being the same size as the moon instead of being a colossal ball of fire! The mere sight of this lone planet having not only a small sun orbiting it with its lunar counterpart, was making the pilot’s head fill with so many questions on how this planetary system even functions.

“Fascinating!” was the only thing the young man could say as he continues to stand there, and simply marvel at the planet and its odd celestial format.

“Out of the four other planets that I’ve been assigned, this is by far the most unique looking one so far.”

A ring from the ships dashboard pried his attention from the planet, and over to the communication hub of the dashboard where a holographic image of a ringing phone was jingling. Taking a seat in the pilots chair the young man turned to where the phone image was, and after pressing a button, the phone image turned into a small 1ft tall image of a middle-age woman with long wavy dark red hair, with a pair of black glasses nestled on her nose, while wearing a snazzy business woman’s dress with the top left slightly more open.

“Good morning Johnson.” The woman said to the pilot in a friendly tone.

“Good morning Miss. Henrietta”. The pilot replied.

“I’ve just arrived at the coordinates satellite Christ transmitted to us.” the young man, Johnson as he’s named, said as he makes a quick glance to the floating satellite just a yard away from his ship. “And, wow, this new planet it discovered is definitely a unique one.”

“Well I’m glad you approve John.” Henrietta chortled before adjusting the glasses perched on her nose. “Now, onto the task at hand. We need you to document this planet and what resources it has, and see if its suitable for colonization.”

“Understood. But why would Central want to establish a settlement out here?” the pilot said as he looks over to a different part of his console, and brought up a 3D render of the current system he was in. “As far as my celestial map shows, this lone planet is the only one in this entire system. Not to mention, this planet is really out of the way of anything.”

“It may be too far out to establish colonization, but Central still wants data if this world could be inhabited by humans, if the situation arises.” Henrietta said to John, who just shrugged his shoulders as he slouches into his seat.

“Very well. But aside from my usual mission goals, do you have any special tasks you want me to try and undergo this time?” Johnson asked as he got more comfortable in his chair, while the older woman tapped her chin with a finger as she thought for a moment.

“Nothing is coming to mind right now, but if I figure something out, I’ll give you a call.” Henrietta replied, before she looked at the young man with a more concern expression. “But Johnson, if you decide to go down to the planet, be careful. The last thing we need is to send out a rescue party, especially since your almost a month away from the nearest Frontier settlement.”

“Trust me Henrietta, this time I plan to say ship-side. Last thing I need is to tangle with another two-headed t-rex that shoots electricity from its mouths.”

A shiver ran down the young man’s spine as he rubbed his left arm. Just the thought of the undulating, and fleshy twin-headed monstrosity that was chasing him, and shooting lightning blasts out of its two mouths. Where he ended up getting trapped in a cave that was able to keep him safe, until he was rescued. Luckily, he wasn’t to injured, but he did had to have his left arm be replaced with a prosthetic.

“Very well, but if you do go down, be careful.”

“I will.”

John and Henrietta exchanged a few more words for a bit before the transmission ended. Turning back to face the planet John continued to just simply observe the odd planetoid, intrigued at how such a solar system could actually function. After about twenty or so minutes of just marveling at the sight, John arose from his seat of the cockpit, and made his way to the main haul of the ship where a console sat on the right side, with a large screen in the center, and four small screens on the sides. Taking a seat the console booted up, and showed various displays of various forms. On the main console John began to fiddle around with the system, going through a few files before stopping on one that was labeled ‘Lucky’.

“Alright Lucky, time to get to work. And see what this unique planet has in store for the two of us.”

Once the file was opened and John continued to work, at the very back of the ship a large pod was being moved from one side to another, before being shot out. The pod soared through the void traveling at incredible speeds, following a set course to the planet’s surface. Upon entering the upper atmosphere, the pod had begun to heat up and start sparking with fire, even as it reached the lower atmosphere the pod still burned like a comet as it continued to soar through the air towards its destination.

~~~~~

Canterlot, the capital city of all Equestria, and the central icon of the pony race. This grand city has been standing on top, or more accurately to the side, is Canterlot Castle. This glorious structure is the home to Princess Celestia, the matriarch of the pony race, and is the thousand year ruler that has guided Equestria into the era of peace it is now thoroughly enjoying.

And it’s the castle where one would find a particular adolescent unicorn mare.

Twilight Sparkle was a pony gifted in the ways of magic and the arcane arts, from transfiguration, levitation, and even to the more complex spells like teleportation. And aside from the ways of magic, the lavender unicorn was as a gifted and well-learnt scholar as she was sorceress, devouring the contents of any books, scrolls, tablets, anything that had written words on them, and storing them within her vast mental facilities. In fact if one would asker her, she could quote any book she has read down to the letter, from front to back, and get everything down. Twilight was also an avid researcher of various subject matters, and looked forward to the challenges of expanding her knowledge, while utilizing all the information she has to solve any problems that face her. However this gifted mare is plagued with a few, handicaps.

Because of her scholarly ways and preferring books to actual company, the unicorn was not known for socializing with other ponies, aside from the princess who was her teacher. Another handicap that plagues the mare was that she can get wrapped up into such small things, or things that most ponies would think are not important, such as legends of yore. And it was actually one of these long forgotten tales of old that has the unicorn in a panicked state, but her flustered state of being had only reached another new height, when she saw something.

It was rather early in the morning, and Twilight had decided to read a book outside to enjoy the nice weather. But the book the unicorn had was not a typical book. The book was about old pony lore, and the one that has the unicorns attention was the legend of ‘the Mare in the Moon’, and it read that sometime in the future—which Twilight had concluded was today—and would cast eternal darkness upon the world as revenge on princess Celestia, for being locked away on the moon for the past one-thousand years. After the unicorn had read a book that foretells a returning evil, the unicorn made a mad dash towards her living quarters within the castle’s walls, but as she was galloping something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention.

“What is that?” Twilight said as she saw…a fireball soaring far off in the distance, before disappearing over the vast horizon. The unicorn then dug out the old book she had just read mere moments ago, and started flipping through its pages at a rapid pace, eyes scanning over the text as they flash by.

“There was no mention of any fiery projectiles indicating her return.” Twilight muttered under her breath before looking to where she last saw the fiery comet.

“I should probably inform the princess of this along with what I found about, her.”

Twilight then stuffed the book back into her saddlebag, and continued her gallop towards her living quarters. Where she would further her investigation into, whatever topic has her in such a worried state.

~~~~~

Several more minutes of flying and eventually the pod ceased being covered in flames as it closed in onto where its flight path ended. Upon reaching its destination the pod has slowed down with the aid of some backwards thrusters slowing its trajectory, and switched over to automated pilot mode and flew across the air towards the secluded clearing in a dense forest. The pod then came to a stop just above the clearing, where thrusters underneath the craft helped it lowered itself to ground level without any major issues, where it landed on a patch of grass as small animals ran away in fright. Touching down onto the ground the pod went silent for a few minutes, but then sharp hissing sounds erupted from the craft as the front portion of the pod opened. As the pod’s front hatch opened, sunlight that shun through the forest canopy shined down upon the pod, and at the sole object that lies within it…as it began to move.

Background Music: Song of Healing – the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCdlZGnmgHs.

Stepping out of the pod was a fairly large, quadrupedal, robot with a wolf-like like design. Its body is primarily grey and silvery steel in coloration, with a few dark blue markings. On top of its canine-like head is a large sphere that has a light blue sheen to it. once it had stepped half-way out of its pod the mechanical canine began to observe its surroundings for a bit, before deciding to fully emerging from its pod, as it did so if someone would to look upon the machine, they would be able to see an insignia on the left side of its torso, while its right-side has the word R.E.C.O.N #7 etched onto it. While the mechanical canine continues to observe its surroundings, bits of its body starts to fidget as its internal systems start to fully boot up and get its equipment operational.

On its shoulder blades two missile pods turn on their axels, making sharp turns every so often, as well as opening their flaps before closing them. below the pods were fixed gun muzzles that were adjusting their muzzles and giving a few clicks. the sides of the machines body has six small vents, three on each side, in where they release sharp quick bursts of pressurized air. The paws of the robotic mutts began flexing each of their four digits, digging their sharp bladed nails into the ground. The orb on its head appears to be non-movable, but under the glass, the camera that made up the ‘eye’ was scanning everything around the mechanical wolf from the trees, to the grass, and other details of the forest landscape.

From the back of the mechanical beast, just behind the main torso body plate, a small hatch opened and closed a few times, but upon the third check a small mechanism emerged from inside of the wolf’s body and launched a small drone out. After being launched the drone sprang to life, wings from its side folded out, the back had what looks like tail feathers spread out.

The drone then started to fly about the clearing rather fast, zipping around just to test out its own systems and see if its functioning properly. And after a minute of flying around the drone returned to the mechanical wolf, diving back into the launcher before the mechanism withdrawing into the metal canine.

After the drone had return to the robotic wolf, the metal canine raised its head up and actually began taking in snorts of air through the small vents on its muzzle, which actually look like nostrils. In fact if a person was standing next to the machine, it would sound like it was taking in heavy breaths through its nose. After giving the air a few sniffs, and after all of its systems have fully booted up, and all of its equipment was now functioning, The mechanical canine started to canter out into the wilderness. Ready to explore this new world that Humanity has found on the very edge of the galaxy.