One week after discovery.
Guiding Wing watched through his scrying orb as a pegasus strike team advanced on the Unicornian arms depot. It was clearly meant to be a forward supply center for their western front, but they had positioned it close enough for small groups of pegasi to reach it undetected. If successful, the team he'd sent would capture the facility and Pegasopolan forces would be able to claim the surrounding territory, not to mention that the cache of magical equipment stored there would be invaluable for research and development.
A knocking sound brought Guiding Wing back to his immediate surroundings. He withdrew from the orb and looked around his office in the New Pegasopolan capitol building. "Yes, come on," he called. A young unicorn mare pushed the door open and stepped inside, wearing the NP-Sci uniform, but with even more of the patriotic wings-and-sky-blue decor than was standard regulation. This was hardly unexpected of a unicorn in New Pegasopolis, or anywhere in the Pegasopolan empire, given the inherent distrust most pegasi held towards their kind. Even Guiding Wing couldn't help but cast a suspicious gaze towards her as she entered.
The mare hastily—and somewhat clumsily—bowed. "Commander, sir," she began, "I work with the Grand Observatory, sir, and we've made-"
The pegasus cut her off with a long-suffering sigh. "Miss..." he trailed off, eyeing her. When she did not immediately provide her name, he continued, "Young miss, I have a nation to command and a war to fight. I suggest you discuss star-gazing with a pony more concerned with frivolity than myself."
"N-no, sir, you don't understand... We think we've found Discord..." She winced, her voice squeaking on the final word. As she'd expected, the Commander gave her an incredulous look for a moment before bursting into laughter.
That continued for a brief moment that she felt was closer to an eternity, while the most powerful pegasus in the world laughed in her face and she could do nothing but shuffle her hooves awkwardly. At last, he stopped laughing and turned back to her. "What's your name, young mare?"
"Crystal Clear, sir."
"Crystal Clear. Well, Miss Clear, I'm not sure how you've managed to get in my office, but I'm confident you're not speaking on behalf of the Grand Observatory. Tell me, are you even employed there?"
"Yes, sir!" she raised her voice defensively before wincing and lowering it again and speaking in a rushed breath; "Last week, we finished a thaumospectrographic rendering—a magic scan—of an area in space. We identified a solar system emitting enough magical energy to saturate space for light-years around. There are no unidentified objects or celestial phenomena in the system; the only physical abnormality we could detect... is that the star itself orbits one of its planets." Once she'd finished speaking, Crystal unbuckled her saddlebags and levitated several sheets of paper—copies of various maps and graphs—onto the Commander's desk. The blatant display of magic earned a frown from him, but she felt reassured to see him looking contemplative at least.
At length, he turned his attention from the papers and back to her. "Discord is a myth. Nothing more."
"Sir, he is a myth because all we've had are stories. Now, we might not have definite proof that he exists, but the scientific community can hardly deny that this is strong evidence in favor of the theory. A powerful leader with near-infinite magical power. He manipulated the sun and moon in impossible ways, moving them as he pleased whenever the whim struck him. Now we see a sun being moved in an impossible way, and inconceivably large amounts of magical energy being poured out in the process. Is it not conceivable that when Discord left, he went there? To that solar system?"
Guiding Wing shifted in his chair, grumbling slightly. "I'll admit, it is an interesting theory, Miss Clear." Her face lit up in time for him to finish, "But there's a war on." He took a final glance at the pages before pushing them back towards her. "We cannot divert resources from R&D or the military to support this, and Civil funding is stretched thin already. Do what you can with what you have."
Crystal gave a feeble nod, collected her papers—by mouth this time—and turned to leave. She paused halfway, bit her lip, and steeled herself. "I'm sure, sir, that the Unicorns will be eager to make up for losing the Moons Race. No doubt they've already learned about this phenomenon." She continued on her way out of the room, but as she pushed the door shut, she risked a glance at the Commander.
He looked furious.
One week, two days after discovery.
A three-tone alert rang through the speakers of the Pegasopolan Enyo-Base One (PEB-1), repeating several times. Captain Thatch Roof moved cautiously through the low-gravity environment toward the command center. He should have been there already—it was his hour for personal communications usage—but he'd needed to help Stem Bolt fix a burst pipeline near the oxygen scrubber. Now he was running late.
After making his way past the hydroponics dome and crew quarters, he reached the Command and Communications Center. Stepping up to the primary communications gem, which had been linked to a much larger stone that transmitted the signal back to Eris, Thatch sat down and pressed a hoof to the array. His brother, Slant, would be the only pony available today, so Thatch thought of him.
The gem lit up, and before the pegasus could get a word out, he heard Slant saying, "Holy horseapples, Thatch, you're not going to believe what's in the paper today!"
"Wait, hold up, we can talk news later. How's Rosewater doing?"
"Yeah, you too," Slant rushed out, obviously not paying attention. "But seriously, listen. Commander Wing held a press-conference last night. He's starting an initiative to send a manned ship to another solar system! You've gotta get in on that!"
Thatch Roof was so surprised by this news that he accidentally withdrew his hoof from the gem and broke the connection. He sat there for a moment, thinking, before he restored it. "Slant, are you sure this is genuine news?"
"Yeah, it's in the Pegasopolan Daily! And I don't think it's just political maneuvering either; he says the folks at the Grand Observatory found a solar system with conditions similar to what Eris's were rumored to be under Discord's rule."
"Well... Alright, I'll make some calls. If this is legitimate, it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Thanks, Slant."
"I'm always here for you, bro. Good luck!" The gem darkened again as the connection terminated.
Thatch Roof leaned back in his chair, staring up through the glass dome at Eris. He could just see the other moon, Bellona, beginning to rise over the eastern horizon. After a moment of admiring the view, he shifted again to reach the intra-base communications gem. He pressed it, and heard the speakers overhead crackle. "Powder, make sure everything's green in silos eleven through fifteen. We were having some power-flow problems the other day, and we need to be sure the missiles are ready to go at a moment's notice. I've just got word that things down below might be heating up."