//------------------------------//
// BONUS CHAPTER: Letter Home 
// Story: Voyage's End 
// by The DM 
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Dear Princess Celestia and Luna

My time in the Sol system has been incredible, to say the least. Humanity, as they call themselves, is a species of highly evolved primates who have been around for just about two hundred thousand years. I spoke to one of the humans over the radio for quite some time. His name was Damien Torres, a human male from the planet Mars. I naturally wanted to know what happened to his homeworld, to which he was very understanding.

Damien told me that almost fifteen thousand years ago, a comet was predicted to pass through their solar system. Sadly, this comet was projected to hit their homeworld within fifteen years. With only a decade to save their entire civilization, the humans worked nonstop to build massive vessels to carry them to the next closest planet; Mars.

Now, the planet Mars already had a small population living on its surface, with even more humans living in orbital habitats. But moving and housing almost ten billion humans was going to present quite a challenge. By using a technology called “terraforming”, they reshaped the planet Mars and made it suitable for them to live on. Though that was only a short term solution. 

Mars did not have the infrastructure to handle this many new settlers so quickly, so the technology to travel farther into the galaxy was made a top priority. After only ten years, the first warp drive was created, just in time for Earth to be devastated by the comet. Three billion people perished in the cataclysm, which also left the planet uninhabitable for centuries to come. With a new sense of perspective and purpose, the humans launched countless exploration missions into the cosmos to try and discover even more worlds to colonize.  

Twenty years after the loss of their homeworld, humanity had colonized five planets in total; Mars, Alpha Centauri, Glise, Rylon, and Dormastic. These five planets formed what Damien called the “Core Worlds”. Today, over a dozen planets are populated by humanity, with plans to expand to even more worlds as they are discovered. 

Funny enough, the humans had already discovered our world and had it listed as a possible place for future colonization. However, after I told Damien that it was our homeworld, he assured me that it would be removed from the list of candidates, and moved to the list of inhabited worlds. 

All in all, I have very much enjoyed my brief time with the humans. Damien said that he was eager to return home and inform his people that first contact has been made. I can’t help but shake the feeling that we are on the precipice of a new age in Equestria. What we do and say here will echo through time and history for millennia to come. 

Yours Faithfully, 
Twilight Sparkle