//------------------------------// // (Chapter 3) A Science Lesson and a Headache // Story: SE-1: Awakening // by Metro A-5 //------------------------------// "Well Lightning Dust you might want to make yourself comfortable this might take awhile." Lightning Dust shifted in her seat. General Luna continued. "Before we talk option three you need to hear some background information. 20 years ago Equestrian archaeologists discovered ruins deep inside the Ever-Free forest. Not that much inside was worth investigating except one thing. A giant metal ring. Most of the writing in the ruins was either erased or damaged. The only word that was readable was Stargate. Which is the adopted name of the ring. At the time Princess Celestia ordered the Wonder-Bolts to extract the ring and move it to a unmarked location." "General where is this unmarked location?" Lightning Dust asked. "Unless you pick option three, you will be limited to the information regarding the subject and if you should release this information, myself and the Wonder-Bolts will denied any connections or truths to your story. Do you understand?" Lightning Dust nodded. "Anyway the Princess asked the Wonder-Bolts if they would be interested in researching and examining the ring. And of course they eagerly agreed to. Weeks past by and not that much progress was made, only that the interior part of the ring was movable. The science team believe that the spinning was related to the symbols that lined up along the inner circle. We had thought that we had reached a dead end, but one scientist suggested that it was merely missing a power source to function," Luna sighed and turned around in her chair and looked out the window. "General is something wrong?" "Well later after the power idea, we confirmed the gate only needed a power source. So we manged to supply power to the gate. It's inner circle began to rotate and what appeared to be lights started lighting up around the outer circle. We assumed the worst and sent in an armed squad of Wonder-Bolts. When every light was lit up around the Stargate something formed in the center of the ring. It looked as if a pool of water was contained in the Stargate. For minutes nothing happened until something came from the wall of water." Luna paused. Lightning Dust became enveloped in the story and didn't want the General to stop. "What happened!? Please continue!" Luna recalled in her mind what happened the day the Stargate activated. The security of Equestria was almost compromised. She knew that Lightning Dust would never really know the dangers of having a hostile swarm aliens in the base. If the changelings had been successful they might have gained power in Equestria, but the real concern would be the safety of it's citizens. However if Luna continued to talk to Lightning Dust, eventually she would have to show her the gate herself. But Lightning Dust was thinking more about the creatures instead of the danger that they presented. But she needed to know at least some possible dangers that exist when working with the Stargate. And with consideration Luna finished the encounter story. "At first it appeared as if nothing but darkness was poured from the gate. However it soon separated into little tiny creatures that immediately made hostile contact. The room was filled with too much fighting, so I ordered a contingency plan to seal off the base and release knock-out gas in hopes of incapacitating the creatures from doing anymore harm. However they escaped back through the Stargate, and we were left to receive a hefty dose of our own medicine." "What happened next Ma'm?" Lightning Dust asked with a huge amount of curiosity in her voice. "Ever since the gate's first activation the Wonder-Bolts discovered how to use the Stargate to travel to other planets. So we have organized several operations to several worlds in hopes of finding a way to defend ourselves from any alien intruders that might want to take over or destroy Equestria." "So have the Wonder-Bolts discovered anything useful from this "super gate" that you have locked away in some military base?" A grin spread across Luna's face. "I'm sorry Lieutenant but that's classified information." She had never got to use that phrase on anypony since she started working at the academy. Annoyed, Lightning Dust asked another question. "So what does that make Equestria?" The General didn't understand. "What exactly do you mean?" Lightning Dust placed her hooves around her head. "So what I understand is that we're just some other world that sits among hundreds of others?" "Technically hundreds of thousands of worlds, but yes we are merely one among others." Luna pointed out. "So how come no space ships just swing by and take over this world!?" Lightning Dust stood up from her seat getting concerned and overexcited. The questions already began to annoy Luna. She never had this much trouble getting Stargate teams 20 years ago. Back then everypony was willing to serve Equestria in hopes that new things would help the country. "Lieutenant!" said Luna with a raised voice. "Sit down!" Lightning Dust complied and sat back down and cross her hooves in front of her. A quiet sentence left from her mouth. "Sorry Ma'm" "Okay Lightning pay close attention, and i'll show you how an alien space ship can't simply take us over." she raised her left hoof. "Okay, here is us," then she raised her right hoof. "And this is planet X, which can sustain life like here in Equestria." She looked at Lightning Dust. "Lieutenant guess how long do you think the space is between these two worlds?" Lightning Dust shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know um...8,000 miles." Luna shook her head. "Lightning that is completely incorrect, and might I add really far off." Lightning waved her hoof. "So how far is planet X?" The General lowered her hooves. "350 light years exist between Equestria and Planet X." "Um General, 350 is a lower number than 8,000" Lightning noted. Luna picked up Lightning Dust's file; which was still on the desk and began flipping through it and stopped on the education page. "I didn't know astronomy was your weakest subject. You nearly failed that class." Lightning turned her head. "I needed to take that class in order to graduate. But needless to say it wasn't exactly the most interesting subject." Luna sighed. "Okay let me ask you this. Do you know how long a mile is?" The Wonder-Bolt shook her head. "That I do know." Luna continued. "Alright, well we've measured that light can travel 186,282 miles.....a second." Lightning turned her head back to Luna. This time with eyes wide open. "Really!? That many miles a second!" Lightning Dust quickly began to think off all the uses of flying at 186,282 miles a second. "Anyway that's how fast light travels. The definition of a light year is the amount of time light takes to travel a distance in one year. So Lightning," Luna rested her head on her hoof. "Think of all the seconds in a year then multiply that by 186,282. And that's how many miles light travels in one year." Lightning Dust started to shake her head in disbelief. "No, no way that's possible!" "Lieutenant now take that honk of a number and multiply that by 350." "General Ma'm! Th-that's...." Luna noticed Lightning Dust trying to do the math in her head. She smiled again, Lightning's math scores weren't that top notch either. Lightning threw her hooves in the air. "A really big number!" Lightning's brain really stared to hurt. "General what was the point of this exactly?" Luna smiled. "Because the closet aliens that could take over Equestria are 350 million light years away. So we're not exactly worried about any space ships Lieutenant. However they are not to be ignored." "Why?" Luna raised her hoofs again. Lightning wasn't ready for another space lesson, she barely recovered from the last one. "General do we need to do this again?" The General chuckled. "Don't worry this is much easier to understand. Now lets say that both of these planets have Stargates. And that alone makes that ability to travel between the two worlds a cinch now th-" Lightning Dust interrupted. "Uh Ma'm?" Luna lowered her hands and nodded her head for her to continue. "Um.... how does the Stargate work?" "One second Lieutenant." Luna began looking through the drawers in her desk. Lightning could her looking for something. "Dammit! where did I put- ah! here it is." Luna arose from behind her desk with a slinky. And again Lightning looked confused again. "Now Lieutenant do you know what a worm hole is?" Lightning Dust soon had stress written all over her face. Luna set the slinky on the desk and picked up a piece of paper. "Planet X?" Lightning Dust asked. "Not yet," Luna smiled. "Think of this paper as the plane in which all planets and stars exist upon. They can be above the paper, below the paper. Height doesn't height and distance in outer space because space is relative to perspective." Luna placed the paper on the desk and motioned Lightning Dust to come over and look. "Let's say you want to get from one end of the paper to the other. You could just simply travel in that direction. However if a wormhole is created in space," Luna folded the paper and held the two ends together. "The distance is reduced because the wormhole branches the two ends together. Do you understand Lightning?" "I.....think I do." Lightning began scratching her head. "Between you and me Lieutenant I still don't completely understand it so the chances of me being wrong are probable." Shock and confusion ran over Lightning's face. General Luna preceded with the lecture. "Now here is where the Stargate comes into play." Luna threw away the folded paper and grabbed another piece of paper and this time the slinky. Once again she laid the paper on the desk and placed the slinky at one end. "Okay, this end with the slinky is our world and the other end of the paper is planet X. Now we don't know where wormhole naturally occur, but the Stargate is special. It creates them on the spot. For a limited time it can connect to any other Stargate within our galaxy." "Whoa now! our galaxy?" Luna sighed. "Lightning Dust I only have so much time today. She ran her hoof through her mane thinking how much she had already told Lightning Dust and wondered if she would even retain this information. "Anyway when two Stargates connect," Luna dragged the slinky to both ends of the paper. "One must simply walk through one gate and they will appear at the other gate that is connected. Either way, wither wormhole or Stargate the distance between the two points are significantly reduced. So scientifically a wormhole is created but the Stargates function like portals." Luna took in a long breath. "Sooooo.....what do you think?" Lightning Dust closed her eyes and tried to imagine what the General had just told her. None of it seemed possible. She opened her eyes then started to laugh. "Ma'm, I don't want to sound out of line but are you yanking my hoof?" Lighting Dust was smiling but looked way more confused, than she did seven minutes ago. "Lieutenant I am being completely honest with you, I could never be humorous with something like this." Luna didn't want to have Lightning Dust leave, she wanted her for the Stargate project. Lightning Dust clapped her hooves together. "Alright let me run through this again because I may have miss understood something," Lightning Dust leaned back in her chair. "So somewhere in the wide world of Equestria there is a base with a device that is capable of traveling to other worlds. Am I correct?" Luna made a nervous smile and nodded her head. "Excellent!" Lightning Dust started pacing around the room. "And that the Wonder-Bolts have organized these operations for multiple years. And the many missions that are carried out on these other planets?" "You're two for two Lieutenant" "Okay and one last thing," Lightning sat back down in her chair. "Why did you tell me this, and how is this related to option three?" "Because we think the creatures from Planet X are trying to take Equestria and we need to check and make sure that's not the case." Lightning started to overreact. "So you want me to go to Planet X and perform a reconnaissance and scouting mission that nopony has ever ventured to, which basically means that i'm walking blind and unaware of whats out there?" Lightning laughed. Ma'm I don't know how you could not joke with this!" "Lightning don't be ridiculous," Luna paused to think of the right words to use. "....you won't be going in alone." "And that's supposed to make me feel better!?" "Getting back to the point Lieutenant this is your option three. I want you to be apart of the Stargate program. The new team I'm forming needs ponies capable of performing scouting missions in unknown territory. I believe that you would do a good job," Luna leaned towards Lightning Dust and narrowed her eyes. "Let me point this out though. You ether take this job now or you leave this office and act as if this conversation never happened." Luna rested back against her chair. "So what do you chose?" Lightning Dust weighed her options. If the General was telling the truth then she would visit other planets and get to experience them first hand. However if she says no, then her rank and her squad will be pulled, unless she leaves the academy; like she originally intended. She also thought of the General's story on how aliens over ran the base. Their might be other aliens that react like the ones in the story. Their might come a time where she might not make it back to Equestria, but this was an opportunity that she did not want to waste. Lightning Dust quickly stood out from her seat and saluted. "General! Permission to join Equestria's Stargate program!" Luna looked at Lightning Dust and smiled.