//------------------------------//
// The Golden Record 
// Story: The Golden Record 
// by Pitro 
//------------------------------//


The Golden Record


North of Ponyville, only an hours walk away, the owner of a building of specific design, stayed awake, while the town was slumbering peacefully. The building though old, constructed before the owner or his parents were born, was built to last a millennium. The interior of was very similar to the wooden library of Ponyville, except instead of being made of wood, it was made of stone. It had one large open area, with many alcoves and spaces dug into the walls, acting as surrogate rooms for the resident.

The occupant, though he would never admit it, was incredibly jealous of the citizens of Ponyville, only for the fact that they were sleeping.

Need sleep.

The weary eyed stallion glanced out of his window, catching the first few, beautiful seconds of dawn. Heavy bags had formed under his eyes, and all he could think about was the unfamiliar embrace of a good night sleep. Insomnia plagued this workaholic, and it had been nearly a week since the last time he fell asleep. It didn't help that because of his job, he could only sleep through the day, when the wildlife of Equestria wouldn't shut up and when the sun wouldn't go away. Eventually, after mulling over it for a difficult, straight minute, he decided to do one more.

One more star.

This determined pony was Orion. Renowned astronomer, famous for his constellation, and his personal quest to map every star in the night sky. It was a noble task of course, and was a testament to his abilities as an astronomer and a scholar. His name would be written in history, he'd be showered with money and mares. That wasn't why he was doing this though; he yearned for a challenge, and more importantly, he really wanted to show them stuck up Canterlot nobles that doubted him he could do it.

But recently, the drive to keep going was fading. He had become accustomed to the notion that this endeavor wasn't worth the hassle. However, every time the thought came to his front if his mind, he stuffed it back to its dark depths.

After persistently forcing his heavy eyes to stay open, he proudly grinned when the coordinates of the last star of the night were written down in his tome. His huge, steel cased, magically protected tome. Nothing wrong with be cautious, he drowsily mused. Just as he was about to take his eye away from the eyepiece and go and try again at sleeping, a bright light in the corner of his eye caught his rapidly fleeting attention. The light was much closer than a star, and was moving fast, brushing across the tops of chilly clouds.

Orion, intrigued by this, trudged to the nearest window to observe with his own, exhausted eyes.

Halfheartedly, he craned his neck around to see a beautiful, orange, blazing ball, burning its way through the sky, embers defiantly breaking off and immediately extinguishing in the crisp morning air. He shrugged it off, calling it a pretty sight, but he wasn't awake enough to admire it in all its beauty. Just as he turned to go to bed, he gave the comet one last glance before hitting the hay for good.

Oh no.

For sone reason he couldn't fathom, the comet's trajectory sharply turned and was heading straight for the observatory. Wide eyed and wide awake, Orion acted in the same way the strongest and most courageous minotaur would.

Panic.

In a terrified frenzy, he shoved everything of value into the largest container he could carry and sprinted to the exit, praying that cowering behind the nearby hill was enough protection. He charged at his door, unhinging it and splintering it beyond repair. With no door to stand in his way, the terrified stallion burst out of the observatory, running for a moment before stopping. Ignoring his instinctive decision to flee for one second, he glanced back up at the sky. If his, inaccurate guess was correct, he had a few fleeting moments to run before this burning rock explosively crashed into his observatory.

Then he froze in his place, with the comet still bearing down in him. His bag was light. It contained many valuables, like his favorite novels and favorite biographies, his lucky uranium chunk, but it still felt light. It still felt like it was missing something that gave his life meaning. Orion felt his heart touch the dirt as he realized what he didn't do. He didn't pick up the tome containing fours years work, something the biggest dolt in Equestria would do.

Really? The one time I leave the stupid thing unchained to my hoof, a meteor is going to burn me to Tartarus. Just once Celestia, once, can you be nice to me?

His sorrow stricken train of thought left him, give or take, no time left before the meteor hit, most likely burning him to a pile of ash. With every last ounce of his strength, he ran as fast as he could to the safety of the hill, but made it only out of his front yard before the comet landed with deafening crash. He heard a spine chilling clang of metal and a booming crack of stone.

Orion, doubting he was still alive, blinked a few times, then sheepishly glanced around at his surroundings, then down at himself. He wasn't a white ghostly figure standing above a smoldering heap of powder. It looked like he was okay, and when he went to look over his shoulders at his saddlebags, they did too.

Orion's heart was pounding. He not only was dangerously near the crash site of a comet, he survived it without a scratch. A feat he doubted Celestia could do. The surviving without a scratch part, not the surviving. There was no doubt in his mind an immortal could survive.

Then his heart abruptly stopped, and lunged itself into his throat. Just because he was fine didn't mean the observatory was, or his work. Legs shivering, sweat dripping from his forehead, he turned to face what he expected, was a crater.

No way.

To his never ending delight, and unlimited source of surprise, the observatory wasn't a smoking crater, devoid of any evidence of his work. It was still there, stoicly staring up at the slowly disappearing night sky, like always. Like a drunk parent at a family get together, Orion danced like a fool. After being hit with a meteor, his house came out on top, leaving the fray with only a hole in the roof. With a thin, tower of smoke floating out of the hole. With a pungent smell of burning coming from the building.

Uh oh.

Orion, and all of wisdom decided against enchanting his tome with a spell to prevent fire damage. Instead he chose the 'anti-theif' package, only he could open it, hold it, or if he ever grew a horn, perform any magic on it. The unicorn at the library was more than happy to add the fireproof package enchantment for free, but him and his stupid compulsion to always be on the clock, took the tome and ran as soon as possible.

The stallion bolted inside, smashing the remains of his door to shavings underhoof as he did, only to lay his eyes upon, no fire?

Well, no big fire. Just a few embers and dwindling flames were dotted about the room.

None of his possessions were affected by the meteor, which lay in ruins in the center of the observatory, but was glowing red from the heat of entry. Ignoring the fallen star, crashed into the middle of his home, he sighed when he saw his tome, under a pile of scattered sheets of paper, by his unharmed telescope. Like it was his beautiful baby, Orion cradled the book with his hooves, and after the clumsy job of unlocking its metallic layer, began inspecting each page for any damage. He flicked over each side, thoroughly checking for any signs of damage, but saw something else.

It may have been caused by his lack of a warm bed in, when he thought about it, six days, but he was convinced the images before him were more than real.

Scribbles and sketches of constellations morphed into faces, laughing at him. He saw years of hard work and sacrifices, years of set backs and false breakthroughs, years of loneliness and regret. All thrown away into a dumb job no one really cares about. Sorrow overcame the stallion, he just sat on his haunches dumbstruck. His brain was right, why did he have to keep ignoring it.

This was pointless.

Immense exhaustion overcame him, causing him to fall like a sack of hammers onto his face, and into a deep slumber.




When he finally woke up, Orion had no idea how long he'd been sleeping for. He collapsed in the early hours of the morning, and woke up at midday. Considering he hadn't slept in a while, he could only guess at to how many days he slept through. Filled with aches and groans, he lifted himself to his hooves, ignoring the cries of every muscle in his body telling him to stay down.

As he glanced around the observatory, his attention focused on the steel box on the floor between his hooves. There was an odd feeling that it had just been in danger. Then he remembered. Orion peered over the ledge to see the damage caused by the freak disaster.

It was minimal, a few cracked, charred and on fire spots of stone, but the fires were dwindling. However, the most terrifying sight of all, was what caused the damage. A wise man once said about a comet, 'It'll burn up in our atmosphere and what's ever left will be no bigger than a Chihuahua's head.' This was not the case.

Because this was not a comet.

In his home, surrounded by roaring flames, at least that's what he thought he saw, was a soot covered dish with three large protrusions coming together from the center of the dish. From the underside of the dish, was a small, cubic box with a hatch on one side. The whole thing was beaten up badly on its descent, many obvious snaps and burns covered the hunk of metal. The tip of the three protrusions almost met, but the three spikes abruptly ending merely inches away from each other.

Naturally, Orion was cautious of it. He had never seen anything like it. None of his books had diagrams of anything similar, nor had he seen anything resembling it in the hundreds of hours he spent, studying the sky, where the enigma originated.

After staring at the machine, for almost five straight minutes, the metal contraption clunked, and the panel shot open. It groaned as it swayed from side to side in the draft it created. Keeping his distance, Orion cautiously prowled towards the hunk of metal, each groan or creak send shivers all through his body. He reached the scrap heap, every fibre in his body screaming at him to turn and run, and the panel slammed shut when a harsh gust shot through the building. Soot that caked the door, crinkled and fell, revealing something.

Three letters. An 'N', two 'A's and an 'S', emblazoned in front of a blue starry sky. Above the letters was a name, maybe? 'Voyager 2'.

"NASA?" He said out loud to no one in particular. "Voyager two?"

Those four letters stood out the most. They meant nothing to him. No committee, or science division, or magical society or book club he had ever read of, heard of or saw of was named 'NASA'. There was a 'C.A.S.A.', The Canterlot Association of Scientific Advancement. Still wary of what was inside, and confused by the letters, Orion carefully tugged at the hatch and peered inside.

A golden record case. One of those vinyl records musicians were obsessed with, but plated gold. On one side, etchings and scribbles, lines, squares, circles... And what looked like wave forms. On the other side...


'The Sounds of Earth'


'United States of America'


'Planet Earth'


So. Many. Questions. And only one pony had the best chance of answering them.




Three thuds on the door broke Twilight from her well deserved time alone. "Spike!" She called out, to no avail, and quickly remembered he went out to help Rarity collect more gems, as they were easier to find at night. No way in Tartarus would Twilight allow either of them to go after the diamond dog incident, especially at night! But, much to Twilight's annoyance, Big Macintosh, Applejack and Rainbow Dash offered to make sure no pesky diamond dogs showed up. Seriously considering giving whoever was knocking on her door a piece of her mind, Twilight places her book to the side and went to answer it. It was already dark for Celestia's sake!

"You!"

"Me?"

Out of breath and sweating, a pony she could vaguely remember was standing on the other side of her door, accusingly pointing his hoof at her face. "Yes, you! You personally know Princess Celestia, right?"

"Yes, she's my mentor. But, I'm sorry, I don't quite remember you. We've met before haven't we?" Her naturally friendly demeanor seemed to calm the frenzied stallion for just a moment, his panting paused, before he rudely barged past her.

"I need you bring Celestia here so she can answer some questions I have." The pony had mean bags under his eyes, and expectantly stare at Twilight, making her feel incredibly uneasy. "Oh! My name? It's Orion. Now are you gonna bring her here or what? I got a ton if questions only she could answer." Rarely had a pony asked for a favor so they can speak with Celestia, through letters or in person, and his question caught her off guard.

"Questions about what? I'd prefer I don't disturb her and bring her to Ponyville over nothing." As soon as she finished talking, the stallion brought out a sparkling golden disk from his saddlebags, and gently placed it on the floor.

"This is not 'nothing'."

Twilight enveloped the startling golden circle in her magic to inspect it closer. She looked at the panting pony with so much doubt and confusion, she couldn't help herself when one of her skeptical eyebrows was raised. When he nodded at her to continue, she began to inspect the case, sighting the scribbles and shapes first.

"Well, these inscriptions are telling you how to play a record. I think Pinkie Pie has something that could do that for you. And this..." Her brow furrowed when she flipped it over, and she felt her scholarly curiosity peak. "'The United States of America'? 'Planet Earth'? I've never heard of those before." And she was telling the truth.

There wasn't a city or town in Equestria named that, there wasn't a city or town in the griffin kingdom named that, and there was definitely not a town or city named that in the dragon lands. Some of the closet planets that orbited nearby stars were named, but to her knowledge, not named 'Earth'. Twilight's mind started racing, thinking about 'The United States of America?', was it once not united? Where is it? What were the ponies from there like? Were there ponies there? Do griffins or diamond dogs or dragons live there? Or something else entirely? A species never seen before? Is this species a peaceful species? Does this species know about Eques-

"Miss Sparkle? Are you okay?"

Startled, Twilight jumped back from the stallion tipping his head to the side, gawking at her, concerned for her well-being. For, what was almost an entire minute, Twilight stared into empty space near a baffled Orion, engulfed in her own thoughts. Never before had he seen a pony be fine one moment, then the next go into a comatose state. Normally, Twilight could think about things of this level of importance and still continue a conversation with a friend, however this time, for the first time, she completely lost track of what she was doing. In front of a stranger!

She coughed into her hoof, her face burning hot. "Sorry, that um, I was just thinking." Again she involuntarily coughed into her hoof, and sheepishly smiled at her guest, who awkwardly looked away. "So," the unicorn placed an unconvincing brave smile on her face, ignoring the burning sensation on her cheeks, "where did you get this? I've never seen anything like it."

Without a word, Orion opened the door to the library and walked to the left, out of view from the unicorn inside. A few seconds passed, when the sound of dirt being dug started to louder in Twilight's ears. When he returned, Twilight gained the same questions as he, burning questions that only Celestia could answer. Tied to Orion's barrel with a soot covered, rough rope, a great, white, burned dish with a cube at the bottom of the disk dug its way through the dirt. He explained he waited until night to drag it into town, as he wanted very few to know about it. It took some time, but eventually, they were able to get the contraption in the library through the balcony doors, as it was too big to fit through the front door.

Still panting and sweating, Orion lay on his back, on the edge of falling asleep while Twilight paced her way around the metal enigma in her home. The letter to the Princess had already been sent; Twilight learned how to send letters to Celestia for occasions just like this one, but never told the little drake for fear of making him feel, unnecessary. Already, a track around the mysterious hunk of metal was starting to form as she waited for Celestia. Every inch of the heap of metal raising her scientific curiosity to levels unrivaled by anything before.

What was it? What was the purpose of the dish? If he was telling the truth, Orion mentioned that the box at the bottom held the record case, so its purpose was obviously to transport the record. What did the acronym, 'N.A.S.A.' stand for? Why was it named 'Voyager 2'? Was there a Voyager 1? How old was it? Why was it created? And the biggest and brightest question, where was its origin? Her snoozing acquaintance, before he collapsed told her 'it came from space'. Whether that was a fatigue caused babble or the truth was another question entirely. Nonetheless, this was the biggest mystery in Equestrian history.

And they hadn't listened to the record yet.




"Hey Twilight, Princess Celestia and Orion!" As cheerful and bubbly as ever, Pinkie burst through the library door, wheeling in her pristine record player. Even when the night had reached the midway point of its cycle, and when every pony in Equestria was sound asleep, Pinkie somehow managed to have the energy a raging manticore could never compete with. "I brought my record player like you asked!"

"How does she know my name?" Orion whispered into Twilight's ear, eliciting a giggle from her. Awake yet almost about the doze off again, Orion had been woken up by Twilight when the Princess arrived. It took a lot of convincing from Twilight, and only a 'I trust her' from Celestia for him to accept another being in the know. It wasn't like he had a choice.

"Don't worry, she's harmless." 

"That still doesn't make me feel better."

With the case, carefully levitating close to her chest, Twilight approached the player, which Pinkie was nonchalantly leaning on. Her breath was lost after her first hoof step towards it, as was Orion's and Celestia's, who was as curious as her subjects. The Princess of the Sun herself, had truly never seen anything like this before, and she was the oldest, er, I mean, wisest and er, most knowledgeable pony in Equestria.

When she was only a hoof's lengths away from the record player, the gentle tapping of his hoof steps behind her alerted her to their approach. To her right, Orion, a pony she could barely remember his name an hour ago smiled at her. Through the short venture the two ponies had, Twilight felt closer to stranger. On her left, her mentor, her teacher, her oldest friend, gave her the same reassuring smile. The same smile she gave her throughout her life. The same smile she gave her when she defeated Nightmare moon, when she defeated Discord, when she defeated Chrysalis. The smile that told her she was right behind her. A tear formed in her eye as she looked up at the Princess, tears already in hers.

"Even though I have no idea what's going on, this is really nice." Choking on her words, Pinkie sniffed as she glanced at each of them. Celestia lightly giggled when the earth pony pulled out a tissue from nowhere are loudly blew into it.

Without saying a word, Orion lifted up the needle, waiting for the record to be placed on its rightful throne.

"Shall we do this Twilight?" The pony to her left asked. A solemn nod, and a caring grin was her answer. The case opened with a satisfying sound of metal scraping against metal. Just as they expected, the record itself was coated, or made of gold. More than likely coated, as lifting it with her magic was easy. Heavy, loud thuds of her heartbeat filled Twilight's ears as the disc was placed in the center of the player.

It span beautifully, glimmering sparkles resembling stars in the sky covered the golden disk.

"Twilight, your majesty. Shall I proceed?" With a hoof still on the needle, Orion, no longer feeling tired or exhausted, asked the student and her teacher, upon his face an excited grin lay.

"Ready!"

"I am ready, Orion."

He replied with a nod, and let go of the needle.