Fifteen years after Twilight was crowned Equestria’s new ruler, Flurry Heart had become great friends with the Young Six. Equus had been modernized as well and several probes had been sent to search for possible life-sustaining planets in the far reaches of space. Out of the ten probes that were commissioned to be launched, only five of them located any planets. The others got destroyed by asteroid strikes and exploding stars. An Orbital Patrol was also started and Starlight was elected as the Chief.
The five planets that were located were called Ludus, Merlin 5, Earth, Agartha, and Hyperborea. Flurry and the Young Six decided to explore these planets manually and map them all out, so they approached Twilight with their plans.
“We will build ourselves a ship and go to each planet to map them out. Also, the ship will have stasis pods for when we must traverse long distances. Some of the planets are extremely far apart and we will need time to relax in between them and on the trip back home to Equus.”, explained Flurry.
“I find favor in your plans and hereby approve your mission. You may start immediately.”, said Twilight.
Flurry thanked her aunt and the seven friends got right to work on building their ship, which was christened the Alicorn when it was completed. This ship had a fully functioning bridge and plenty of weapons to protect the crew in any emergency. The stasis pods consisted of a glass tube that opened and closed with hydraulics and would fill with water. In order to breathe the crew members would wear oxygen masks inside the pods. The pods were hardwired to the main computer. If the proximity sensor was tripped or a call was coming in, a signal would be sent in a flash to wake up the crew. The ship also had a full medical bay on board if any crew members were injured on the mission. This was not a small ship, however. She had to be constructed on a space station after the individual pieces were built on the ground. This particular space station was the same one that the Orbital Patrol used as its base. The ship’s construction took nine months, but the mission was given the green light once all of the systems were thoroughly tested and proven to be in perfect working order.