Log of the UNS Twilight Sparkle
25th May, 2481
Salamis
Blinking Lights rapped his knuckles nervously on the Admiral’s door. He’d never been allowed in here before.
“Come in,” came the reply, and the indicator turned green. Taking a quick breath to calm himself, he gestured the door open.
Fleet Admiral Sunset Shimmer was at her desk, reading crew reports. Behind, her desk was filled with star charts scrolling slowly past and across the wall.
“The Captain wanted you to know, the other ship changed course. They’ve slowed down, and if we–”
Without looking up, Sunset coughed pointedly.
“Er, sorry, ma’am. They’ve burned retrograde to bring them into an approach to Salamis, and if we’ve read their intentions correctly they’ll enter a stable orbit around Eritheia in 181 hours.”
“We'll make a sailor of you yet. Eritheia’s the fourth moon, right? Can we plot a matching course?”
“The astrogation team are on it right now. They want to avoid getting too close to Salamis’ north pole, they say its radiation levels are too high.”
“They’re probably right.” Sunset glanced away from her pad to look at the sailor. “Is there still no signal from the other ship?”
“None that we can decode through the interference, ma’am.”
“Well, keep trying. Is that everything, Ensign?”
Blinking Lights paused. “Um.”
“Yes?”
“May I... Permission to ask you a personal question, ma’am?”
Sunset frowned slightly as she put her pad down. “Go ahead, Blinking Lights. Shut the door though.”
He turned and waved his hand sideways to close the door. Turning back he said, “I was wondering why you keep that antique in your room, ma’am.”
Sunset turned to look at the mirror, itself locked in a reinforced glass case. The many broken shards of the mirror were suspended in the air in front of it, as if caught in the moment it shattered.
“It’s a reminder of an old friend,” she said. “Somepony I haven’t seen in a very long time.”
“It looks centuries old,” he said, walking over to it.
“It is. Older, probably. It was once part of the plinth of a statue that stood outside my own high school. Before that, who knows?” She saw confusion on the young sailor’s face. “That was long before holographic tagging was invented, you understand. So much information from that era is lost.”
Blinking Lights crouched down to look at the rotten rectangular object resting at the bottom of the case. It had a circular symbol on top, or once had. “What’s that?”
“It’s a book. No, really, that’s what books looked like when they were made of paper. Of course it used to be in much better condition, but years of love and worry have worn their way through it.”
“What's it about?”
“It was a journal that I shared with my mentor.”
“Really? It's… quite hard to imagine you having a mentor, ma'am. You've been with us for so long. At the academy they showed us some of the old 2D footage of you right there at the birth of the U.N.F.” Blinking Lights knew he shouldn't be talking so freely with the Admiral, but she had a disarming, amiable tone.
Sunset knelt beside him and touched her fingers to the glass. “I thought the same thing of my own mentor once. She was immortal, brilliant, flawless. But nobody's perfect.”
Sunset walked into the astrogation room, nursing a fresh cup of coffee. She gestured the door closed with a wave of her foot behind her, and casually dismissed the salutes.
“What’s new this morning, gentlemen?”
“No change in course since yesterday, ma’am,” replied Geodesic, bringing up a view with curved, coloured lines. “The alien craft is due to begin orbit insertion in 106 hours, with completion pegged for 4.5 hours after that.”
“Does that mean we know their course?”
“We've narrowed it down. Once we see exactly what orbit they settle into we can plot a course to match.”
Focal Length added, “Of course, they may not choose to burn the same way we do. It’ll be interesting to see how they do it.”
“Physics is the same the universe over,” said Sunset. “Magic aside, chances are she’ll have solved most things the same way I did.”
“Most likely, ma’am. Er... ‘she’?”
“The alien craft. Vessels are typically called ‘she’, are they not?” Sunset took a sip of her coffee.
“We do have a better picture of her, ma’am,” said Focal Length. “Resolved from the drones we launched yesterday, effective aperture 50 kilometres.” He brought up a still image of a spacecraft, slightly blurry, its bow pointing nearly towards them. “You can see her basic shape a lot clearer.”
“I can’t really tell the scale from this. How big is she?”
“About 1.3 kilometres long, and a similar wingspan. It’s longer than us, but about the same volume. Can’t speak for its mass yet. As we thought, there are manoeuvring thrusters here and here on the wingtips, presumably for reaction control.”
“And this protrusion at the front?” asked Sunset.
“That looks to be carrying instrumentation.”
Geodesic pulled up a spinning 3D interpretation of it. “I think it makes it look like a hummingbird.”
“It’s an elegant design, really, though it would never get through committee.”
“You never know,” said Geodesic. “It might, if there was a war. That has a tendency to make the stuffed shirts more willing to think outside the box.” He waved his hands in the shape of a dumpy rectangle, the basic design of all U.N.F. ships.
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” said Sunset.
“Admiral on the bridge!”
“At ease, Captain,” said Sunset as she strode onto the upper bridge. “The Twilight Sparkle’s yours. I’m just along for the ride.” She took up station next to the Captain’s chair.
Captain Silent Running relaxed back in his chair. “Lieutenant, astrogation report.”
“Sir. Adjustments are complete, we’re lined up for the burn. In a little under 7 hours we’ll settle into a high orbit around Eritheia. Then we’ll start the manoeuvres to rendezvous with the alien craft, which will take about 18 hours.”
“How close can you get us, Lieutenant?” asked Sunset.
“The flight plan should take us to matching orbits approximately 5 kilometres apart. We can sidle closer if they seem friendly.”
Sunset whistled. “Not bad for a 40 light year journey.”
The Captain chuckled. “This ship’s not like the ones you used to fly.” He turned to his right. “Comms, how are the first contact protocols?”
“As ready as they’ve been for three hundred years, sir,” replied Handshake from the comms desk on the lower level. “We’re itching to finally try them out. I just hope they’re willing to talk, or that university education will have been wasted.”
“Don’t worry, they’re friendly,” said Sunset. “Or at least, they used to be.”
The Captain gave her a funny look. “I’m still amazed you were able to navigate us here to meet them. How did you do it?”
“I spent a lot of time looking at the stars, Captain,” replied Sunset, looking out at the broad panoply displayed across the curved walls, floor and ceiling. Nearly dead ahead, orbiting the gas giant Salamis and its moons that were only visible as tiny dots on the view, was a little labelled marker indicating the other craft’s position. It wouldn’t be visible to the naked eye until they were nearly alongside it.
Silent Running shook his head. “Cryptic as ever. That used to drive the whole crew nuts.”
A shout from the lower deck of the bridge drew their attention. Lieutenant Handshake called out, “Sir! We’ve got a laser signal!”
“What does it say?”
Handshake stood over his station, working frantically. “Looks to be a standard opening protocol bundle, sir. Pi, e, various constants. Looks like they use base 8. A basic alphabet run down, though of course we can’t see the glyphs yet. And a multi-format greeting. Honestly it’s a lot like ours. There's a raster after that...”
“What does the greeting say?” asked the Captain. “Can you translate it with what they've given us?”
Lieutenant Handshake scribbled across several displays simultaneously as he worked to interpret the alien data. Everyone on both bridge levels was turned in their seat, eager for an answer. “That’s the funny thing, sir. The greeting is in English, as well as their own language. It says they’re from the... Equestrian Union, gives the name of the ship, and then it says ‘May you live in harmony’. The identifier is...”
He stood up straight, looking in awe at the eternally young woman with the red and yellow hair.
“Go on, Lieutenant,” said the Captain.
“It says... the ship’s called the EQS Sunset Shimmer, sir.”
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This minific has been promoted to its own story because there's more coming soon.
Gee wonder who sent out that ship. Sadly ship that don't enter and exit the have no need for aerodynamics so being boxy makes sense.. Wonder if the Sunset Simmer has planetary landing capacity
8091949
Nobody on the human side, including Sunset Shimmer, really knows what the Sunset Shimmer is capable of. It's unlikely, though. The sort of engines you need for landing and take-off are very different from the sort of engines you need for interstellar travel.
There's more science detail in the writing bible, if you're interested.
Falling back into her old lingo after all that time, eh, Sunny?
8092029 absolutely and while it doesn't fly well the wings on the Space shuttle does provide some lift.
A lot of scifi stories the interestellar ships don;t land they use space stations or shuttles to embark and disembark passengers. This is your story so its upto you how that all works
So was the ship named for Princess Twilight (as the E.Q.S Sunset Shimmer seems to be for Sunset) or in memory of the human Twilight Sparkle (who probably played an important role in advancing science)?
Don't think I've seen a fic with EQ Earth and Equestria in the same universe, just very far apart. I'm curious to see what else might happen.
8093276
When the funding committee asks, it's the latter.
This is interesting... i'd like to see a lot more :D.
8093473 There will be more. Very soon.
Very nice. I look forward to future fics in this setting.
Goosebumps. I need moar!
Wonderful! Even more Scifi stories! The premise is pretty interesting already, though I still have no clue where it might be heading. Sunset Shimmer, Immortal Alicorn of Mankind, leading humanity ito the stars in an effort to find a friend. I dare say anything could happen.
I liked this. It's to the point while simultaneously establishing a history, fluffy without becoming irreverent, and the entire overarching friendship angle felt bang on for canon. I'll look forwards to more in the universe.
So thanks for that.
I'm glad I read this.
Would love to see where the other stories go.
...where no mare has gone before. I could not help myself.
Definitely, a worthwhile read that's going into my favorites shelf. It sounds like a good first chapter of a long and epic space opera. I checked the bible, and I thought about possibly writing for this - but I have a bit too much on my plate right now.
I look forward to seeing any developments for this - and reading the other story when I have the time. This has promise.
-GM, master of bunny shoes.
This was just.. amazing, in such a short pan managing to get so much information out there, and still have it be a solid story. The idea of Equestria and Earth being different planets rather then in different dimensions is odd and do prefer it the other way, but it works well enough for the story. Sets up a lot of mystery, what happened to the portal, how did Sunset get so high in power, what is Equestria like now, just, a lot of stuff, all set up quick, and a focus on one big event, told simply.
Just some really amazing writing and setting up a rather unique verse with things that can be explored that I’m eager to see where this goes.
I believe I remember this fron a Writeoff. In any case, love the concept and the fact that there's more to this setting. I may need to join in at some point.
Edit:
Wait, never mind, now I remember when I saw it. Pay no attention to the derp behind the curtain.
8234657
Um... be careful where you... ouch. Are you okay? Hey, wait, come back, you've still got it wrapped around...
Damn. I needed that curtain.
I don't think they're just friends.
As Kris Overstreet and Jordan179 can attest, I'm a bit of a sucker for good pony sci-fi. I can now add you to that list. Well done.
Canon Moves On: Forgotten Friendship has Jossed Sunset wings.
Else, a good enough bit.
D'aww, this story's really heartwarming, and despite how much I want to see the scene continued, it ends at a perfect moment.
Wow. Yes, I love some pony sci-fi, and this has a lot of amazing ideas in a very short number of words.
I started wondering if this gas giant Salamis and its moons might form a certain pattern when seen from the right distance. Something like this: img.ecosia.org/390x,sc/https://res.cloudinary.com/teepublic/image/private/s--RN3PcIPW--/t_Preview/b_rgb:191919,c_limit,f_jpg,h_630,q_90,w_630/v1446249173/production/designs/316425_1.jpg
I don't think that ended up being quite where you were going, but it was still a fun idea.
Also, I love the implicit love spanning centuries on both sides here.
10488657
Ha! No, it's in Libra when seem from Earth.
Hey! If you're still checking this story, is the group for the Admiral Shimmer-Verse still up? And if so, could you link to it? I haven't been able to find it.
11339139
Sure here is is:
https://www.fimfiction.net/group/212248/admiral-sunset-shimmer
11339266
Thanks!
You can has review!
Oho. So she already knows who they're meeting. I guess she was looking for a way to get home.
Oh, that's clever. I like it
So now I'm wondering when exactly the mirror shattered. Is the ship named after the Equestrian Twilight Sparkle, or after SciTwi?