It had been one week since Princess Cadence died from pneumonia. It was time for her daughter, Flurry Heart, to take her place on the throne. The trumpets blared as Flurry walked proudly up the aisle in the gathering hall in Canterlot. Her Aunt Twilight’s dragon, Spike, was waiting with the crown held in his claws. When Flurry reached the front of the aisle and stepped up, Spike placed the crown in her mane. Flurry turned to face the audience and flared out her wings. Fireworks went off as the celebration commenced, and the Wonderbolts performed an aerial show for everyone who attended that night.
Flurry gave her first decree the next day.
“It is time for Equestria to be brought into the 21st Century. We will start building motorized vehicles and training soldiers to use advanced weaponry for combat and defense.”
Over the course of the next 12 years, vehicles were built, tested, and mass-produced until a group of scientists made the choice to begin exploring the universe and chart the space around Equus. Queen Flurry Heart approved their plan and the scientists formed EASE, the Equestrian Agency of Space Exploration.
The first group of missions was called Pegasus and was geared towards testing equipment. The Cosmos program involved going to the moon to study its natural resources and eventually constructing a base on the surface. The third program, Astro, involved travelling further and exploring many more planets in the galaxy and learning how to travel long distances in short amounts of time. The first two missions had exquisite results and over 200 planets were charted. The crew members on the first mission learned quickly how to design engines that were capable of propulsion at speeds faster than light. Little did the third crew know that Equus was about to enter a period of war against a mysterious entity.