Mission Log:
Day 9 - 8:00
Alright, I'm about to head outside with our box of stuff from home. I hope you all don't mind that I'm commandeering a sample container for this, because I'd like to keep the package these ponies provided. So, after much deliberation with the crew, here's the final tally:
-One star-chart of the region surrounding this star-system. I feel confident providing this information, despite the possibility that they could use its perspective to calculate the coordinates of our own star, because it's clear that these ponies are not advanced enough to do anything with the information. Scans in orbit showed no artificial satellites, and honestly, their military is walking around in plate armor. Don't worry.
-One high-capacity dioptase gemstone, spherical-cut, roughly point-five hooves diameter. They can probably infer from the fact that we've made it here, but this should demonstrate that we have advanced energy-storage capabilities.
-One rock core sample, which we've just finished digging up this morning. This was actually Lime's idea, and I think it's excellent. They've probably seen our drill running by now, and providing them with this should hopefully demonstrate that our interest is scientific in nature.
-A freeze-dried carrot-cake meal, still sealed. They shared some of their food with us, it's only fair that we do the same. Plus, Noise was happy to see this go.
-My copy of Nicker Tesla's autobiography. I'd initially planned on using Sun Shoo's instead, but I don't want to give them the wrong idea about us if they managed to translate it. Much better that the first words they read in our language be about the pursuit of knowledge instead of the art of war.
-One photo of the Guiding Wing on the launchpad.
-Two ounces of Patch's blood. She volunteered, of course. If they have the means to analyze it, they'll at least be able to determine how closely our species are related. We're also including the needle and an empty vial.
That's all. We'll have to see what they make of it.
Mission Log:
Day 9 - 8:30
Crystal and I walked a hundred meters or so away from the ship, and the winged unicorn from before flew up to greet us. Unaccompanied, this time, which I'm hoping was meant as a show of good faith. I lowered the sample container to the ground, bowed politely, and waited for her to put it on her back. Then we parted ways.
Personal Log:
Crystal Clear
Day 9 - 8:45
That. Was. Amazing!
It was crazy when the captain went out and met that mare the first time around, and especially when he told us what she looked like up close with the horn and all, but... Wow! I just met an alien!
Personally, I think everypony else is being way too uptight about this mare. If this crew were anypony else, I'd say they're just afraid of anything with a horn—that's been my experience with most pegasi. But... I think that even if they've accepted that not all unicorns are inherently bad, the thought of having a unicorn and pegasus combined is just different enough to bring back that prejudice. I'm hopeful that it'll work out, and that everypony will find common ground.
I also have to mention, for what it's worth, I think that mare was as excited about the meeting as I was. I swear her whole body was grinning when the captain set the container on the ground and she picked it up.
I wonder if she's a scientist like me...
Personal Log:
White Noise
Day 9 - 18:00
Leaving the transmitter offline again today. Not a whole lot I can do at the moment.
Mission Log:
Day 10 - 10:25
I've just realized, I haven't seen their guards circling over that forest at all this morning. I wonder whether they've decided we mean no harm and are relaxing their patrols now... I'm sure they've got somepony stationed on ground level along the treeline to keep an eye on us covertly, or at least that's what I would do, but it certainly seems they're not making a point of it anymore.
Mission Log:
Day 12 - 14:00
Just making a note that there's still been no word from the locals since I gave them our first-contact gift basket. I suppose that makes sense, though; we gave them a lot of things that they might require time to study. Hay, they might still be in transit to labs somewhere else on the planet.
Personal Log:
Crystal Clear
Day 13 - 11:30
Well, I mentioned a couple days ago that I gave up on actually sifting the dirt sample properly and settled on picking out the bits of crystal with my magic. After finishing that and running some basic tests, I've found something pretty impressive. A single fragment, maybe two centimeters in length, one in width and height, is capable of holding a magical charge level comparable to a high-density spodumene gem fifty times its size. I can't identify precisely what material these crystals are, but they're nothing like what we've got on Eris. I'll need to test whether they can hold the charge for long periods of time, but so far the results are promising.
Just imagine what we could do with materials like this! Storage capacity has been the limiting factor in so many technologies for decades now. With enough of these crystals, and the means to charge them, we could jump-start dozens of research fields. If these are just littering the surface of this planet, then I'm ready to see what we find further down.
Mission Log:
Day 14 - 18:30
I am really not sure how to explain what happened today.
I was helping Lime clear the drill when he spotted the pegacorn approaching, and this time accompanied by an elderly unicorn mare wearing glasses. Glasses was carrying a couple of papers with her, and after the pegacorn said something, she began to speak. Up until now, I've not heard anything that sounds remotely like Erisian coming from these ponies, and I'm still not quite sure that I have, but... Some of the words she used sounded remarkably similar to our own.
She began holding up drawings on her sheets of parchment, and naming them. A picture of fire, and then 'flamma.' A picture of a mountain, and then 'altis'. Some of their writing, and then 'lingua.' Almost none of the words the mare said were our actual words for the object, but there were clear associations between some of them.
It completely baffles me as to how they could guess the pronunciation or even the meaning behind any of those words with access to only a single book. I've said very little to them, and it's fundamentally impossible that they could derive sounds from what are effectively arbitrary symbols to them. Nor, if they could, why their attempts at translation were so... I don't even know the word for it.
It seemed as though they knew words from our language and wanted to verify that knowledge, but didn't know how to form any coherent thoughts. I'm not a linguist, but that seems completely backwards. If you're decoding a language for the first time, how can you identify the meaning of individual words without context before you understand any sort of grammatical construction? It sounds like what foals do when they study old languages, but they're only able to do it because they're staring at a book that provides direct translation from the old to the new.
...Hang on.
Mission Log:
Day 14 - 20:15
You all ready for this? Hold onto your horseshoes...
Actually, the dramatic buildup is probably pointless. I'm sure somepony smarter than me at Mission Control realized this within minutes of reading my previous message. Regardless, I talked to the crew, and White Noise pointed out that 'altis' and 'lingua' are actual words from Ancient Common, which I barely remembered was even ever a language. After that revelation, I listed off as many others as I could remember her saying and Noise verified that they were mostly actual words as well. I never saw the point in studying a millenia-dead dialect only spoken for the dozen or so years after the Scattering before everypony broke off into separate groups, but if my suspicion is right, then I'm sure glad that Noise did study it.
It'd be crazy to pretend that them speaking what sounded like Ancient Common is just a coincidence, but the alternative—that they're somehow familiar with the language already—seems equally crazy. The book I gave them certainly wasn't written in the dead language, and there's no way they could have derived those words from it. The best way I can think to test this... is to do exactly what they did. We're sorting out a few different pictures and objects we can use, based on what little Noise remembers of the year he studied it, and then I'll head out there with him and basically do what the locals did.
This seems so bizarre, and moronic, and pointless. There's no way these ponies could have ever developed the same language we used to speak. Still, the evidence is there, so even if it's a waste of time, I can't ignore this.
Mission Log:
Day 15 - 11:45
Success!
I mean, sort of. White Noise and I went outside, and were met by the same two mares. Noise used the Ancient Common words for about twenty different things and provided examples of each, and the mare who spoke yesterday seemed to recognize all but one. It was incredible. I really hope someone back home is making better sense of this than I am.
Unfortunately we didn't pack a phrasebook, and Noise doesn't remember a huge amount, but having what is evidently a common language will hopefully help to bridge the gap. After he'd finished, I asked if he could communicate a willingness to work with these ponies more tomorrow, and to do so on our ship. He says it's far from correct, but that he hopefully conveyed the message, "first sun more language on boat".
...If that's any indication, I suspect most of the heavy lifting on this project will be done by the locals.
Mission Log:
Day 16 - 19:30
The same two mares showed up again, and this time and brought a text written entirely in Ancient Common, along with what appears to be a textbook to learn Ancient Common for ponies who already speak the local language. They spent most of the day working with Noise to establish further common linguistic ground. Using the dead language as a medium, the three of them prepared a relatively long list of words in our language next to their Ancient translations. Since the natives evidently have a working knowledge of that language, they'll hopefully be able to cross-reference between our list and the books we've given them and use the context to help learn even more.
Also, today was the first day the pegacorn and her companion really got close to the ship, let alone entered it. You could tell they were completely awestruck when they got close, and remained that way for several hours after climbing aboard. It got a bit cramped so I had most of the crew outside during the day, working on whatever they could. We let the two of them explore as much as they wanted, but there were a few points where I had to warn them away from messing with certain things. Glasses nearly stuck her hoof in the reclamation port, but thankfully Noise had the foresight to teach me the Ancient Common word for danger.
The pegacorn seemed especially interested in the ship's gemstone conduits, and cast what Crystal later told me were a series of discernment and detection spells.
Personal Log:
White Noise
Day 25 - 13:15
Just a quick note while I grab a bite to eat. Not a whole lot new since this morning's entry, but when I got up a minute ago, the pegacorn actually asked me for carrot cake. In Erisian. I guess now we know they have poor taste.
Thousands of kilometers north of White Tail Woods, beyond the borders of Equestria and even the Crystal Empire, Yakyakistan was partying. In an effort to reciprocate recent efforts from Princess Twilight to generate good will between their peoples, Prince Rutherford had ordered a traditional Yakyakistani banquet. Princesses Celestia and Luna were both in attendance.
Following the main course, the guests were invited to explore the palace and mingle. Celestia had taken the opportunity to find a quiet room and read the latest correspondence from her former student.
Dear Princess Celestia,
Our work in translating the alien language is progressing quickly, thanks to what is clearly a direct link between it and Old Equestrian. Rosetta and I still have a long way to go before we're able to communicate any sort of complex ideas, but our cooperation with their linguist and my team's efforts to translate their books are providing us with a growing list of deciphered words.
We still have no answers about why our languages seem to share a common history, nor why the blood sample they provided is nearly a perfect match to ours. One of the more extreme theories I heard at the camp was that they're from a civilization that seeded this planet thousands of years ago and left us behind. Apart from the obvious reasons why that's unlikely, and the fact that they seemed just as surprised to meet us as we were to meet them, everything I've seen of their ship and equipment so far looks like they're here to study rocks and not to make contact with anypony.
Regardless of their original plans, it's clear that these ponies are putting significant effort towards being able to speak with us. I can barely wait until that day comes, because these ponies have so much to teach us. The technology on their ship is like nothing I could have ever dreamed of, and all of it is relying on such a small amount of magical energy to function that we'd normally consider it negligible. I'm grateful for your confidence in my handling this matter, and look forward to your return.
Yours faithfully,
Princess Twilight Sparkle
Smiling faintly at the sentiments conveyed, Celestia tucked the letter away in her spell of holding and turned towards the exit just in time to see Luna walking past and speaking amiably with a griffin emissary. She would have been content to let her pass, but Luna noticed her and halted, calling out, "Sister! Join us!"
Celestia trotted up and greeted her sister briefly with a hug before turning to the griffin and inclining her head respectfully. "Sir Clauws, it is a pleasure to see you again."
"Likewise, Princess. Your sister has been most kind in indulging an old griffin and his silly old stories."
Luna shook her head. "Nonsense. Clauws was just telling me about the year that he participated in his people's Great Hunt, and was actually permitted by their king to partake in the quarry after it was slain. It seems a most exciting game!" She paused, frowning in thought. "Do you think your king would permit a pony to join in this quest when next he holds it?"
"It is rare for such to happen, but I imagine he would make an exception for-"
The griffin's words were cut short as a thunderous booming sound rocked the palace and the towering glass windows lining the exterior of the hall all exploded inwards at once. Celestia flared her wings instinctively to shelter her two companions from the falling fragments, but raised a shield around all three of them a split-second later.
The danger and cacophony of the falling glass ended quickly, but the booming sound continued to repeat, growing in frequency until it became a steady roar. Celestia looked down the length of the hall in both directions, slowly lowered her shield, and stepped up to the window to look out.
In the distance and several kilometers above the ground, an object flashed across the sky trailing a massive river of flames, vanished out of sight, and re-appeared from the same direction as before. It moved so quickly that it appeared as simply a line of fire stretching across the sky, and Celestia required a time dilation spell to tell otherwise.
Luna stepped up to the window, casting a concerned gaze at the mare by her side. "Sister, what is it?"
"Something friendly, we may only hope."