Princess Twilight Sparkle sits on her throne in front of the camera. The background is a banner of six elements of harmony.
Twilight clears her throat and starts to talk:” This is Princess Twilight Sparkle of the Republic of Equestria.”
She pauses, and looks away from the camera, nods to someone, then turns back and resumes:” Roughly a millennium ago, we started to explore the true nature of our power, what we used to call magic.”
The image on the screen dissolves to a few clip of ponies’ daily life. A unicorn holds some boxes telekinetically. She puts the boxes down and teleports away in a bright flash. A group of Pegasus flies in formation and create a giant rainbow in the sky after a sonic boom. A building collapses, but a magic shield protects everyone from the falling debris…
“Magic gives unicorns abilities of telekinetic, shielding, teleportation and other capabilities... Princess Celestia and Luna, the two most powerful alicorns in Equestria, were the ruler of our nation at that time. I studied magic from Princess Celestia, and discovered a new type of magic, the Magic of Friendship. Sounds superstitious right?” Twilight chuckles.
“Yeah... At the same time, some ponies started another approach of understanding of our world, science. Lead by an earth pony called Doctor Whooves, ponies started to learn the world beyond magic. Why would an object unaffected by Magic fall down to the ground, why would boats float on the water even without the help of magic, why a metal pillar without magic reinforcement will buckle under certain load...”
The scene fades to another series of records: An aircraft takes off; ponies defeat a giant creature with cannons and missiles; a earth pony with a wonder bolt power armor flies with the help of a jetpack…
“Through the study of science and technology, we build machines allowing everyone to fly without magic, helping them defending themselves from harmful creatures, and giving them super strength.” Twilight continues. “However, with all those fancy inventions, the power harnessed from science is still no match for magic. two hundred years ago, with the development of quantum mechanics and nanotechnology, we Discovered that the magic is actually na...”
The images and sounds are suddenly disrupted, only noises are shown on the screen.
Tap tap… Sivath knocks the console, but there are still only noises on the screen.
Meanwhile, some other scientists start gathering around the Sivath’s console and the probe computer core.
“Hey, is that the artifact we intercepted yesterday?”
Sivath does not answer. His eyes are still staring at his console, trying to filtrate out the rest of the message from the buzzing mess.
Someone in the crowd replies:“ Yeah, I heard that little thing flew at high sub-light speed and our pilot almost crashed our ship on it.”
“Nah, it’s not a Little Thing… That’s only a core, the rest of it are still in hangar bay.” Thunder corrects him.
“What a catch... And what took Inspections so long to get it here?”
“Not a clue, our safety officer locked that thing up in a tank wrapped with three layers of tri-titanium and thought it was an alien virus or something... By the way, Sivath, how do you get your hooves on it?”
“They checked it for three days and found nothing. So they finally let me do it under our Inspectors’ supervision.” Sivath points at the camera in the corner of the ceiling.
When they are talking, the image on the screen becomes clearer. Although there is still interference in the sound, the crowd can still distinguish Twilight’s voice from background noises.
“We are finding a way to evacuate our planets. Our best scientists and engineers are building a generation ship, but we are running out of time. We have only 2 years left until the planets become uninhabitable… We launched this probe wishing someone may receive this message. It is not only a distress call but a preservation of our civilization. We estimated that by the time anyone can find it, we would all be extinct for centuries... This Probe… archive… We wish…”
The data in the computer core is certainly corrupted. Statics take over the message again.
“A fifty-thousand-year-old distress beacon? That’s...” The fellow scientists start discussing.
“Fascinating, right? But why are they ponies like us? Aren’t we evolved on the Equestria several Millions of years ago?” Some pony questions.
“Does that mean ponies are immigrants?”
“It can’t be…” Obviously the thought makes people uneasy.
“Maybe they are aliens?” Thunder Flare whispers.
“The chance that there’s an alien race taking ponies’ form is so little, besides they speak same language as we do. May I also remind you that the energy signature of the probe matches our old technologies?” Sivath disagrees.
“There is a great chance that ponies are from thousands of light years away.” Sivath continues. “If it is real…”
“Well it is NOT!” A strong voice echoes in the room.
It is Cooper, the Inspector. He just walked into the lab:” Obviously, someone stole the original artifact for some purpose and replaced it with a fake replica. The ship is now taken over by the United Nation and you will stop what you are doing immediately. Each one of you will be interrogated until we are clear the case. From now on, no one is allowed to get on or off the ship. Is that clear?”
The crowd seems to be shocked. Everyone looks at each other not knowing what is going on.
Bashir follows Cooper stepping into the Lab:” The Captain just authorized a command transfer to us. The situation is now under control. Please stay calm until we catch the thief.”
Sivath does not believe what the inspector just said, he argues:” But this is impossible. I cannot detect any variance in the artifact's micro-structure. This is exactly the same one in appearance as the one retrieved three days ago. Also, there is no indication that...”
Cooper will not let Sivath to finish:” That is why you are our major suspect.”
“Security, escort Mr. Sivath to his quarter and confines him there.”
Thunder Flare steps forward, trying to protect Sivath:” That is nonsense, there is no way Sivath would do that...”
Bashir waves his hoof:” Him as well.”
“Hold!” Thunder yells at the security team. “You… You don’t have a warrant!”
Cooper seems to be prepared for this. He slowly takes out a tablet with a National Emblem on it:” In fact, I do. Issued minutes ago. Don't even think about trying anything, thieves... For the rest of you, return to your own quarters, or if you need someone to escort you like those two...”