HST-1; Equestria (Equus - 01)

by Darkswirl

Rating: everyone
Tags: Alternate Universe
Length: 1012

Among Luna's night sky, a single star does not answer her...

Have you ever wondered what, if anything, lies beyond our reach?

I do. I've wondered what life is like outside our own world and realm of influence.

Do the creatures that may live beyond us control their own Sun and Moon? Does it move on their own accord, as Twilight Sparkle has noted through her telescope?

Such mysteries that the universe hides from us we can possibly never understand.

And this alien object only serves to increase my curiosity…

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-11-25 20:28:45 UTC

It Fell From The Sky...

There are many questions we ask ourselves during the day; ones we may not even remember nor realize we had asked ourselves.

But I remember, and do realize, what I wonder.

Such as, why can't I control all the beautiful stars within my night sky?  What's keeping me from using all to form wonderful constellations and murals?

This question's answer had eluded me for all of my life until I took a pause from Night Court one night to simply gaze up into the heavens, wondering about the universe and all it's mysteries.

My sister's pupil, Twilight Sparkle, is an aspiring astronomer who has accurately concluded that some stars outside of my reach do not appear to be influenced by other variables- much like how our own can be proven by the irregularities in it's travel around the planet.

Rather, these stars are on a set course that never varies or slows.  This had baffled me even after I proved her right.

Why?  How? ...Possibly, who, or what?

So many questions that will most likely remain unanswered, even in my long lifetime, but some light was shed that night as a meteorite fell from my sky.

Of course, I would only learn later that it was not, in fact, a space rock.  Surprisingly enough, it was made almost completely out of metal and seemed to have been constructed.

An entire week was spent trying to secretly move the contraption to the castle under the guise of night.

It was incredibly large, and relatively intact- measuring roughly twenty-one and three quarters of a hoof in length and weighing over twenty-four thousand, five hundred barrels!

Whatever had managed to set this thing into space itself must have been incredibly powerful, as even my sister and my power's combined could barely budge it!

With the giant, cold, metal beast sitting quietly within Canterlot Castle, I spent many mornings when I should have been sleeping touching the object and whispering to it in awe.

This was the key to all of my questions- of that I was sure -, but how to fit it into the lock?

The device was a simple metal, hollow tube with twisted and broken arms protruding on either side of it like the letter 't'.

Whatever had been attached to the ends, if that were the case, was long gone from the object.

Inside the tube was a single, horridly cracked mirror that showed my face and all my feelings of wonder and curiosity.  A little before that was a circular indent running around the tube in a full spin- another place for a mirror long gone.

Mirrors?  Was this some form of a gigantic telescope?  If so, why the need for such a powerful tool, and why send it into space?

The metal contraption teased and poked at my mind, but ran from sight every time I turned to confront it.

Running my hooves idly along the outside, I found that the tube reminded me much of the modern cheese graters- another question, but no answer.

Why?

What had compelled the creatures who made this- and I was positive that the thing had been made -to make it so rough to hold?

Were they giants with large hands that needed the grip in order to hold the telescope?  Or had the device simply been damaged on it's way here, from wherever it came from?

I remember from my imprisonment how meteors used to bump against and plow into my moon, damaging the surface in the form of craters that would leave future generations staring up at her in awe.

My hoof stopped suddenly, finding a smooth spot amongst the protruding metal.

"HST - 1", read the bold, black letters along the side.

Yet another question that would remain unanswered: Why was I able to read it?  Perhaps I was simply misreading it, or had whatever built this been studying us and our language?

Was this a message for us, for me, that we are not alone as we may think?

Then again, perhaps it was just a coincidence; that we shared the language of a distance civilization we had never met before.

I spent weeks more attempting to repair the device to use it in order to see what its creators saw.

The mirror was the easiest after the smith's had the measurements, but fixing the shell was another task entirely.

It seemed that the creators of this object were so far ahead of us on a technological level.

Another, three letter word: Why?

Ponykind had never needed to advance to such lengths in order to solve our problems.  So what had happened to the makers of the metal telescope that caused them to develop such finely crafted tools- tools that were incredibly common in our own society!

It drove me mad, having nothing to go on with except the telescope.  So many possibilities existed, and we would never have a definite answer!

Perhaps the telescope was of religious significance?  Was there only one, and it had been lost?  How had it been lost, if at all?

Or was it part of an advanced weapon, of which Ponykind could never recover from if fired upon by it?

...Perhaps it was a message, after all?  A warning, that if we ever did enter space as a species, we should not interfere with the doings of the tube's creators?

Or was it a message of peace, whose meaning I could not decipher?

Still, perhaps it is a gift- a test, to see if we are capable of repairing the object and using it as its creators once did?

I sat for a long time, simply staring into the tube and the mirrors, studying my face and features.

Was it a metaphorical test?  As in, not a feat of physical or societal ability, but rather mental?  Was I supposed to see within myself and find something?

The endless questions began to drive me mad to the point were Celestia had to step in and remove me from the device for a full month before I had calmed down.

But I still had questions.