Quasar

by kleia

Rating: everyone
Tags: Science Fiction, Spitfire, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Sad
Length: 2735

The final logs of lost astronaut Spitfire have finally been recovered. What they reveal is a horrifying truth yet to come.

Spitfire was Equestria's first, and only, astronaut. She had been deemed lost in space nearly a year ago. Her voice logs have finally been recovered. Equestria falls silent as they are played over the radio for all to hear, breath held. This event was later known as The Great Silence.

Qua·sar - /ˈkwāˌzär/ - noun 

a massive and extremely remote celestial object, emitting exceptionally large amounts of energy, and typically having a starlike image in a telescope. It has been suggested that quasars contain massive black holes and may represent a stage in the evolution of some galaxies.

This story was written for the dialogue only contest .
UPDATE: I placed 4th! Lets gooo!!

Featured from June 5th to June 6th! Thank you!!

Cover art is by me!
Background image in it credit to here.
Full size cover image here!

Thank you to TrustMeFam, greythegriffon, swordtune, Lord Necrogen, and Rewan Demontay for pre-reader, analyzing, correcting, changing, commenting on, and editing this!

Published 2024-06-04 00:00:01 UTC
Last updated 2024-06-04 00:00:01 UTC

Log One

"Is this thing on? Ow! That microphone squealing is going to be the death of me. What I get for tapping on it! Ha!

"Oh! There's a red light blinking! I assume that means it's recording?

"Hello Equestria! This is the captain of the SS Ursa Major, Spitfire, speaking! I can't wait to share my discoveries with you all over my adventure here in space! So far, it’s been breathtaking; Equus is beautiful from up here, and I hit orbit a few hours ago.

"Take off was terrifying but exhilarating; this spaceship is incredible! I even have an entire research station on board! Princess Twilight, you'd love this.

“My research will involve a wide range of topics. Things like how one maintains plant growth in zero gravity, space walks, and if substances like oxygen can be synthesized in the void of space. In the event that Equus becomes no longer habitable, we need ways to survive off planet, so my work is pretty important!

“As the years go by, I’ll be sure to broadcast my research and tell you all what else I see in this vast galaxy! I’m sure that I’m bound to see some astronomical wonders out here. Comets, meteors, the like.

“Oh! Speaking of, I’m going to be up here over the upcoming total solar eclipse! That will be fascinating to witness from the ship! I’ll be sure to take plenty of pictures to send back for the papers!

“Anyway, I’d better rest up. Sorry my first log was so short, but I’ve got a full day tomorrow of research and settling in here. Spitfire, Captain of the SS Ursa Major—out!”

Log Thirty

“Hello Equestria!

“Are you proud of me? I’m on time now! I’ve finally gotten in the habit, haha! Anywho, I’ve got some fun research to share! Princess Twilight, I know you’re listening, so get ready to take your notes.

“I have some groundbreaking new discoveries from up here! As I mentioned, I am currently researching how plants grow in zero gravity. While I’d initially thought there wasn't a difference, it turns out there is! I say that because at first, it wasn’t noticeable. The changes were minuscule during the first stages of growth, but began to manifest quite rapidly. Physically, they grow more efficiently. After some trial and error, I’ve managed to use the zero gravity to encourage the seedlings to grow larger, at significantly faster rates.

“The long and short of my understanding is that the lack of the downward force of gravity allows the plants to use less energy on reinforcing their stems, which promotes faster growing, larger plants to thrive. So, out here in space, if we ever needed to live in such a place, we could grow our crops far more efficiently! Once we figure out the perfect positioning and spacing ratios, we’d get it down to the centimeter and grow our food at a significantly faster rate than on Equus!

“L̷̬̽O̴̡͝S̴̡̉ --…”

“That being said, there appear to be a few visual changes displayed besides the thinning stems, but none of too much importance thus far. I’m not one-hundred-percent sure just yet, but I believe that something has changed with how they photosynthesize. It’s so fascinating how much of a difference is made just growing them in zero gravity, right?

“That’s all I have for now, but it’s some pretty solid research. I have a few photos of the plants and other general space photos to send on down to Equestria—you’ll see them in the papers soon!

“Spitfire, Captain of the SS Ursa Major - out!”

Log Seven Hundred and? I don’t know… I lost track…

“I’m not even sure that these are still reaching you, Equestria. It’s been a full year now, since I left our system, drifting aimlessly through space. I can’t even see our galaxy anymore. All alo –

“Hello? This is Spitfire! I’ve somehow inter—

“Supplies are running low. The plants I was curating didn’t make it. It turns out that this method of growth isn’t viable –

“This is Spitfire! I’ve somehow intercepted my own log! Please! I need you to listen! –

“Spitfire… the doomed… ou-

“If what I was told by Princess Twilight is true, you need to leave Equus now! Take the ships and go! It’s not viable long term, but plant growth is not only possible, it can be accelerated, we can sustain for long enough to figure out a better way! I’ve seen it with my own eyes! I was right about the quasar!

“That quasar is about to collapse in on itself! You have to believe me! Please! Get off that doomed planet!

“Please!

“You need to go now. I can’t explain how or why I’ve been able to do this. But I know it’s been years since I stopped being able to communicate with Equestria. I’ve … survived a black hole. Some way, somehow. The theory that they’re wormholes must be true.

“Ahh! I need to stop talking about this kind of stuff! That quasar is going to explode and consume everything that surrounds it in a radius so big, this might even be the end of the universe as we know it!

“Go! I’ll be watching from up here. Wherever here is…

“ …

“ …

“ … … … …………………….”

Log Four

“Ahem! Sorry I’m a little late, dear listeners. Today is the solar eclipse, and I’m coming to you live t-minus 3 minutes from the eclipse’s peak. My launch was considered with this special event in mind, and it’ll be a historical first to describe to you listeners what I’m seeing.

“Don’t worry! Plenty of photos will be posted in the newspapers nationwide, as I plan on sending tons down to you on Equus. How fascinating is this, Equestria?!

“Oh! It’s starting! Would you look at that, a huge shadow is spreading over the western half of Equestria! Alright, let’s get these pict— Shoot! Didn’t mean to drop that… well… I guess it was more of a push and it floated off…

“Okay! Now I have my camera … aaaand… ah, ooh, yeah, that's a good one! There, photos taken! Those will be sent down for newspaper publishing — expect to see those photos later this week. I can’t wait for you all to see them!

“H̴͙͛̎E̴͎͘͝-̴̪͑ -- ...”

“Anyway, there isn’t too much else to report on, just remember: don’t look directly at the eclipse! You can and will damage your eyes permanently. Trust me, you don’t want to do that.

“Spitfire, Captain of the SS Ursa Major—out!”

Log One Hundred and Twenty Four

“Hello Equestria, this is Spitfire speaking! Well… who else would be speaking? It is … just me after all.. Heh…

“I won’t lie to you folks… It gets a little lonely up here. So… Thank you for listening. It makes me feel that much closer to you all back at home. I’m nearly halfway through my first year out here. Please, keep sending me your messages! I appreciate each and every one.

“Anywho, I’ve been doing more plant research and have started taking space walks. The view when you’re really out there, instead of inside the spacecraft is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, my camera wouldn’t work outside the spacecraft. But, just imagine the photos I send down without a pane of glass in front.

“Just the other day when I was space walking to inspect the exterior of the ship, I got to see a comet go by! For those who don’t know, a comet is similar to a meteor, but they usually have brilliant bright tails that come in all sorts of beautiful shades! These colors are due to solar wind and radiation sweeping away gas and dust from the nucleus of the comet, often forming two or more separate tails. How cool is that?

“I have a plant research update for you all, too! The larger they get, the more you have to reposition them to encourage the increased growth rate and size. But… something is odd… I’m not sure what’s causing it exactly, but the plants have started to lean. Even when I reposition them, I find them leaning again later on, and it's affecting their growth in the long term.

“My other research has proven fruitless thus far. I was provided some very interesting methods to attempt to create synthetic oxygen, but there hasn’t been any progress at all. I’ve given it attempt after attempt, magic, science, and even mashups of both. Nothing has led anywhere… I’ll have to get back to you later on that front. I’d expect an update within a couple of months. Research and growth take time, after all!

“Spitfire, Captain of the SS Ursa Major - out!”

Log Two Hundred and Forty Five

"Hello Equestria, and beyond it seems! Captain Spitfire coming in with some new experiment updates!

"I've made a breakthrough with the synthesized oxygen! As it turns out, magic is amplified out here; I just wasn't using it right! How did I come to this conclusion? Well, I was working with my plants, repositioning and propping them up from the unusual leaning they have continued to show.

"I was gently straightening them out with garden stakes, when one of the items I was sent with—a crystallized font of magic—fell. Like, to the ground! This was baffling because, obviously, I'm in zero gravity! So how'd that crystal fall to the ground?

"Like I mentioned earlier, magic is amplified up here, and after some studying, I’ve discovered that it's almost like it created a small field of gravity around itself affecting the objects around it, but instead of it being the gravitational center, it's almost like this crystal made its own center of gravity elsewhere!

"Studying it further, it’s also affected the oxygen molecules around it — the ship is reading a higher concentration of oxygen now compared to when I first left, far more than the plants could have created alone! Isn't that crazy! What an incredible discovery.

"I should tell you all, as I'm sure you have been able to guess, my mission up here has a purpose — I'm not just deep in space for fun and games. I've been granted permission to share some details with you all by my friends down at the Dash Space Program. It's more than just research for the sake of it, we’re constructing kind of a... a Doomsday plan, for lack of better description. Basically, we're seeing if living in space on a large scale is doable—it's why I'm experimenting with plants and their growth, and finding efficient ways of synthesizing breathable air. You couldn't see it then, but I made air quotes when I said inorganic. Anywho, if things go to, well, horse shit, in Equestria, and Equus is no longer liveable, we’d need to be able to live out here long-term. It’s why my three year expedition through the cosmos was dreamed up.

“A sort of… contingency…”

"Anyway, enough depressing talk, that's all I have to share for today. Catch you all back on the ground in a few years, yeah?

"Spitfire, Captain of the SS Ursa Major, out!"

Log Three Hundred and Seventy Five

“Hello everypony, Spitfire here.

“So… I’ve figured out why the plants were leaning, and it’s rather grim. Something is causing the SS Ursa Major to veer off course. I suspect that an unseen celestial body within our solar system has a more powerful gravitational pull than Equus and her moon. I thought I was going crazy when Equus looked smaller, but I looked over the course outline. I’m off course. Way off course. By my estimates, I’ll have permanently left the orbit of Equus in three days. I don’t know how long my signal will last.

“I… ahem…

“C̴’̴m̷o̷n̴,̴ ̷d̶o̴ ̴s̷o̵m̸e̸t̷h̵-”

“...

“I don’t know what to do… I’ve weighed nearly all of my options, but the strength of whatever is tugging me away is too much…

“My thrusters weren’t built with fighting against anything in mind. Maybe I can boost them somehow, those fonts are really powerful, in an explodey way…

“...

“Three days… I have three days to figure something out, before I’m really out of options. I can do that…

“Okay, I won’t be making any logs for these next few days, I need to pour everything I have into this. I’ve got an entire laboratory created by the brightest minds in Equestria, what can’t I do… Mom, dad, I’ll see you soon, okay? I bet you can see me from down there, can’t you, so near yet so far…

“Spitfire, Captain of the SS Ursa Major, out… See you on the ground…?”

Log Seven Hundred and? I don’t know… I lost track…

“I’m not even sure that these are still reaching you, Equestria. It’s been a full year now, since I left our system, drifting aimlessly through space. I can’t even see our galaxy anymore. All alone in this suffocating nothing…

“Supplies are running low. I only have so much time left. The plants I was curating didn’t make it. It turns out that this method of growth isn’t viable for an extended period of time. I’ll be joining them soon I suppose…

"Hello? Can you hear me? It's Spitfire! I've intercepted this — !"

“But … I have a theory on what’s pulling me away. There is a theory … heh … that galaxies, like ours, may evolve into what’s called a Quasar. To the naked eye or a telescope — they look like any other star, but really, they’re high-energy celestial beings that used to be galaxies with hyper-dense black holes in the center.

“No! I need to try again! I'll break through and intercept..."

“That’s the most I’ve theorized thus far. At the very least, I’d believe a black hole.

“Spitfire… the doomed… out.”

???

"If you're hearing this, I am long gone from the world I knew.

"I don't know what happened to me. All I know is that I went off course. WAY off course.

"In an instant, I had survived a wormhole.

"Everything mixed and pushed together; colors, sounds, sensations.. The universe around me warped like I could never hope to describe.

"The whole ship was roaring and shaking, throwing me from wall to wall. All I could do was try and block it out, closing my eyes and covering my ears. I didn’t realize until later I’d been screaming.

"Then …

"Then it just went silent…

"The alarms and shuddering stopped. Everything stopped. When I opened my eyes, I was ... back in orbit?

"I made it back to Equestria …

"But ... something isn't right... and I can't put my hoof on what.

"If you could live in the Equestria I'm living in…

"It's like I'm a spectator…

"A spectator who's consumed by this all knowing fear that if I take this space suit off, I'll die.

"...

"...

“You see… everything has been me. It feels like I’ve been in this space forever. I’ve spent countless hours, or years figuring out how to navigate here, and it’s unlocked something… otherworldly. I began to dip my being into the past, little by little. The plants dying, the font crystal falling, the disturbances on my logs, little things here and there. It was all me, me now, or then, or to come? I don’t know. I just want to go home, to turn back the clock… Maybe if I change enough, I can undo what’s been done.

“Maybe it sounds selfish. Trying to force the universe to take me home. Even if it's not me, it can be some other me, from some other time. If she can just go back, with the knowledge to save everyone… It might take millions of tries, but one of them has to work, right?

“But… the longer I try, the more of myself I continue to lose.

"I hope my attempts at intercepting my own logs worked …

“I hope they were able to escape like I told them to do…

"I hope my Equestria is safe…

"Whatever that means… I can’t recall anymore....

“...

“...

“Out.”

Author's Note

To be continued...

I hope you enjoyed and that I did a pretty decent job at trying my hand at a mind-fucky scifi space story.