The Golden Record

SEPTEMBER 5TH 1977, CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION – UNITED STATES

3,

2,

1.

We have ignition

Lift off!

A Titan IIIE rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 41 of Cape Canaveral Air force base. On board was Voyager 1, a space probe being sent by NASA to study the outer solar system.

As the people in the control room cheered, they had no idea of who, or what this little probe would encounter well after it had lost contact with Earth.

===

Sometime far, far in the future

3 Young fillies sat outside their clubhouse in a large red tent.

“Cutie mark crusader campers, It has a nice ring to it.” said a small orange filly

“I wonder if this 'll be the thing that we finally get our cutie marks on. I've got a good feeling bout it.” Said the yellow filly sitting next to the campfire.

“Don't bet on it, remember our last attempt?” Said a white filly sitting in the tent.

“Ugh, don't remind me please, Hang gliding? What were we thinking?”

The yellow filly opened her mouth to speak, but she was stopped by a loud whining noise coming from the sky. All three of the fillies looked up to see a massive fiery object hurtling directly towards their campsite.

“RUN!” Screamed the yellow filly

The equines didn't need to be instructed further. They all ran from the campsite as fast as their little legs would carry them.

There was a large explosion behind them as the object collided with their campsite, reducing it to rubble. The 3 ponies were thrown forward by the particularly violent explosion and landed face first in a patch of grass.

===

Applejack awoke to the sound of an explosion coming from the direction of her sister's clubhouse.

“Oh no, please don't let this be another dangerous attempt at a cutie mark” She said, running out the door and in the direction of the clubhouse

Applejack sprinted through the foliage of Sweet Apple Acres desperately. She busted through one last fern. What she saw took her breath away.

Simply put, her sister's campsite was now a crater. The clubhouse had been left untouched but the area where Applejack had helped her younger sister pitch a tent was now a smoldering wreck of rock and ash.

“Wha- Wha- What in Equestria 'appened here?” Said Applejack, in a state of utter confusion.

“Applejack! Applejack!” Screamed Applebloom, darting towards her sister, her two friends following close behind.

Applejack picked up Applebloom and hugged her.

“Little sis' I thought ya were a goner after hearing that explosion”

“We were just sittin' here, discussing cutie marks and all of a sudden we hear a whining noise, we look up and there's this huge fireball coming towards us”

“It was pretty cool” commented Scootaloo.

“But what was it?” Asked Applejack.

“No clue” said Applebloom.

“Well, let's see then” said Applejack, cautiously approaching the smoldering crater with the three fillies curiously following behind.

Applejack looked down into the crater to see a huge object lying in the center. It was like nothing she had ever seen before. It consisted of a large black box like structure and a huge white dish. There were several long beams and what appeared to be a large futuristic looking camera laying mangled beside it.

“What in Equestria is that?” She thought out loud

Applejack and the three fillies walked up next to the mysterious object. Applejack could make out some sort of wording on the side, she wiped off the dirt covering it to reveal a blue emblem containing 4 letters

NASA

“NASA?”

“I dunno anything by that name sis” said Applebloom.

The search continued. The four ponies searched the entire crater, not finding a scrap of information pointing to what the thing was or where it had come from, but that soon changed upon a discovery by Scootaloo.

“Hey guys, look at what I found” said Scootaloo, holding up a round gold disc.

The other three ponies turned towards Scootaloo.

“It's a record” said Scootaloo, Proudly showing off her new find.

“Hey, what's it say on the front?” asked Sweetie Belle.

Adorned on the front of the record were three words

The Sounds of Earth

“Earth, you mean like dirt? Dirt doesn't have a sound” Said Sweetie belle, holding her ear down to the ground in an attempt to figure out what earth sounded like.

“What could that mean, The Sounds of Earth?” Said Scootaloo.

“Well, I think we might find out if we play this, Applejack do we have a record player?” Said Applebloom.

“I'm afraid that ours broke awhile ago, Twilight has one though.”

And so, a young student of the princess Celestia was awoken that night by 4 very excited ponies, wanting to use her record player.

===

“It's 1 AM! Is this some sort of joke?” Asked Twilight.

“We're not kiddin' Twi, It's some sort of huge box thing that crashed by mah sister's clubhouse, we got this here record from it and were wondering if we could play it.”

“You do realize how improbable that story sounds” said Twilight.

“Twilight, I'm the element of honesty; Would ah lie to my closest friend?”

“Ugh, Fine! The record player is by the entrance to the kitchen.”

Applejack and the cutie mark crusaders scrambled over to the record player and started to load up the record.

“Wait a minute, let me see that record” said Twilight, grabbing the record with her magic.

After a few seconds of inspecting the record, Twilight spoke up.

“If I didn't know any better I'd say that this is gold plated” said Twilight.

“What?? That must be one important record” said Scootaloo

“The question is, who gold plates a record? And why?” Said Twilight.

“Beats me, lets just play it” said Applejack, grabbing the record and putting it on the player.

The record started spinning up and all five ponies listened to what it had to say. After a few seconds, a voice with a very strange sounding accent started playing.

“As the Secretary General of the United Nations, an organization of the 147 member states who represent almost all of the human inhabitants of the planet Earth. I send greetings on behalf of the people of our planet. We step out of our solar system into the universe seeking only peace and friendship, to teach if we are called upon, to be taught if we are fortunate. We know full well that our planet and all its inhabitants are but a small part of this immense universe that surrounds us and it is with humility and hope that we take this step.”

Twilight's mouth dropped, but she was interrupted by the record before she could say anything.

A collection of voices in languages foreign to the 5 ponies were heard, with their native tongue being spoken every few minutes or so. After the talking had ceased, several different musical pieces were played before the sound from the record finally came to a cease.

Voyager's time capsule had finally been intercepted.