September 5, 1977 12:56:00 UTC
Space Launch Complex 41 Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, United States
Voyager 1. A space probe bring sent to space by NASA. Its objective is to explore the outer reaches of our solar system. On this fateful day, its mission begins. It will travel the vast reaches of space to satisfy humanity’s thirst for knowledge. Attached to the space probe, is a record, carrying a message about our civilization to the stars.
The countdown hit 0, and the sleek rocket lifted off with a thundering explosion, carrying the space probe off into space. The bottle has been thrown.
As the people in the control room cheered, no one stopped for a moment to think, where this little piece of machinery would go, what it will encounter, and who will read the message in the bottle. Who will flip through the book that has sent to the stars?
December 14, 1980
Voyager 1.The space probe sent to explore the outer planets of our solar system has completed its mission. Yet it continues on, soaring past them into the unknown. What will this probe find, years after its launch?
August 25, 2012
Voyager 1, after nearly 40 years from its launch has been the first man-made object to leave the Solar System. It has made the immense journey, from its creator’s home planet, to the beginning of interstellar space. It continues to beam back information to its creators, as they continue to yearn for more knowledge. But soon, its power source will run out.
April 14, 2027
It has been 50 years after the launch of Voyager 1. It has come a long way, traveling the millions of miles from its home planet to meet interstellar space. But the end is near. Its power source has nearly run dry. Then, as if it has a mind of its own, it musters the last bit of its power source to send back one last sliver of data, back to its creator’s home planet, as an attempt to satisfy its creator’s thirst for knowledge.
Then, the probe’s remaining instruments shut down, one by one, as it relegates itself to wandering the cosmos for eternity.
But is it going to wander forever, undisturbed? What, or who will it encounter?
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Many, many years later
The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and there was not a single cloud in the sky. Today seemed like the perfect day to just kick back and relax.
A certain weatherpony was doing just that.
“Ah…this is the life.” sighed Rainbow Dash. She flipped over and faced the sky, bathing in its warm gaze. “No work for the next week, the Wonderbolt tryouts are in a few days, nothing could ruin this week.”
Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud rumbling coming from the sky above her. Her eyes shot open and she saw a large fiery object hurtling directly towards her cloud. She laid there, absolutely dumbfounded.
The rumbling got louder and louder, the object came closer and closer, when it hit her that a large burning object was hurtling towards her.
She bolted, narrowly avoiding being bludgeoned by the object. Behind her, she heard the sound of the thing colliding with the ground. She was knocked right out of the sky by the rather large and violent explosion and landed head first into the ground below.
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When Rainbow Dash finally pulled her head out of the dirt, she was hit with a blast of dust. She turned around and was met with the sight of a giant crater, filled with smoldering material. Whatever was standing there when the thing impacted the ground was obliterated.
Only one sentence could sum up Rainbow Dash’s feeling at the moment.
“That…was…AWESOME!”
After her little moment of celebration, she wondered to herself, “What was that?”
Only one way to find out. Rainbow landed next to the smoldering wreck of the foreign object. It was something that she had never seen before.
It appeared to be some kind of box, with the remains of some kind of dish attached to the side of it. A few melted and twisted beams were still attached to the box, and there was some kind of camera laying mangled a few feet away.
“What in the name of Celestia is that?” She thought aloud.
Rainbow Dash walked around the object, taking in as much as she could. She could barely make out letters on the side of the object. She wiped off the dirt covering a large blue emblem with four letters in the foreground.
‘NASA’.
“Nasa? Never heard of it.”
She continued to search the object and the crater surrounding it, but found no information on the thing’s origin or what the thing even was. At least until she found a curious looking disc buried under a charred piece of metal.
She pried the disc from the crevice and lifted it up to the sun.
“It’s a record. What’s a record doing in there?”
The disc glittered and shined in the sun, and adorned on the front of it was four words:
‘The Sounds of Earth’.
It made absolutely no sense.
“Earth? Like dirt? Dirt can’t make sounds.” Rainbow Dash put her head against the crater wall in an attempt to figure out what dirt would sound like.
“Since it’s a record, I might be able to play it.” She said. “Twilight has a record player, I’m gonna go see her.”
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If anyone did not like to be interrupted, it was Twilight Sparkle.
“Rainbow Dash, don’t mess with me today! I’m on the verge of creating the most powerful telescope ever made!”
“C’mon Twilight! There was a giant thing that fell from the sky! You think I would make this up?”
“Ok, fine, the record player is in my bedro-.”
Rainbow Dash began to zoom into the house, when she felt the record being yanked out of her grasp.
“Hold on a second. Let me see that record.” Twilight lifted a magnifying glass to the record.
After a few minutes of inspecting, she spoke.
“Well if I knew any better, this record is made of pure gold.”
“What?!” Rainbow grabbed the record. “Pure gold?! Either whoever made this had too many bits on his hooves or this is really important!”
“Just play it, we might learn something from it.” Twilight said, loading the record onto the record player.
The record started spinning and the two ponies listened intently. After a few moments of silence, an unfamiliar voice with a strange accent spoke up.
“As the Secretary General of the United Nations, an organization of the 147 member states who represent almost all of the human inhabitants of the planet Earth. I send greetings on behalf of the people of our planet. We step out of our solar system into the universe seeking only peace and friendship, to teach if we are called upon, to be taught if we are fortunate. We know full well that our planet and all its inhabitants are but a small part of this immense universe that surrounds us and it is with humility and hope that we take this step.”
The two ponies opened their mouths, but were interrupted by the record before anyone could say anything.
A collection of voices speaking in unfamiliar languages were heard, each speaking one after another. After the talking subsided, a collection of musical pieces played, ranging from the familiar classical, to an alien upbeat piece. Finally the record stopped spinning, and the sound ceased.
The message in the bottle has finally been read.