What was Found
The following document has, as of the 2030th year of our Princess, been declassified.
The information regarding the ‘Daemon Vessel Incident’ (colloquially referred to as Hell Ship) has been reviewed and shared with the rest of the Equestrian Science Community, as well as the members of various other communities including Universities and social science groups.
The document that is attached is a text version of Commander Looking Glass’ audio logs.
AS SPOKEN BY COMMANDER LOOKING GLASS:
April 21 2015 e 1: The ship, named “Celestai,” was spotted on radars today. The finding of this ship was brought to my attention by one of the ponies in my Intelligence department.
At first, I thought he had been mistaken. I thought maybe the equipment was bugged, or maybe it was just picking something else… I don’t know. But sure enough, that was not the case. My technicians explained to me how our radar system worked and assured me that they were accurate. There was no mistake; this was the Celestai.
Now the thing about the appearance of this deep space vessel was that there was no plan for it to return. No, instead the mission of this vessel was to, and I’m quoting from the mission statement given by Luna herself, to “Explore the unknown first hand, and colonize.”
Yes, I admit that the idea that us ponies could colonize another planet was quite an enthralling one. But what struck me as odd about the sudden appearance of the mentioned vessel was the implication that this ‘Celestai’ was a non-return ship. The ship was never meant to return home. It doesn’t even have the proper landing gear, but rather a special landing unit designed for rough and irregular terrain. I found this exclusion to be quite a bold statement. I mean, what if something had gone wrong early in the launch phase or something happened that required the ship to return home for adjustments? But it didn’t. It had long since passed the point of no return… So when the stallion approached me, waving a printout of the radar’s readings, I was shocked to say the least.
I have spoken to each member of my science department, and nopony seems to have a clue as to why this ship had suddenly returned after three years away from home.
I’ll have to see what happens with this turn of events. More is sure to come in the following months. Commander Looking Glass out.
June 30th 2015 e 1: We have just given up on establishing communications with the Celestai today. As we had expected, each attempt to contact the ship was met with no response. Though I certainly had hoped there would be somepony to pick up on the other side, I was not at all surprised when nopony did.
Fittingly enough my subordinates have affectionately named the ship “Ghost.” This name made even more sense after I was informed of an unsettling fact given to me by one of the ponies in the intelligence department. Now I’m not going to begin trying to understand the mathematics behind this scientists explanation, but what the pony had found basically said this: The time they had been gone and the rate in which they were moving now meant that they could have reached their intended coordinates.
I find this particularly disturbing because this meant that they had made it all the way to the new world they were headed to, a world that we have conclusive and positive information about. It seemed that there would be no reason for their return. Why would they just pack up and leave? Based on the information our top scientists had gathered on the planet, it was more than suitable for life and had in fact been covered in vegetation and water. The atmosphere was similar to our planet’s atmosphere. I cannot imagine what would cause them to turn their backs, a most suicidal move.
According to our calculations, the Celestai would make contact with Equestria with in next two months. Commander Looking Glass out.
September 12 2015 e 1: Our ghost ship landed, or more of crashed today. We had estimated the exact landing time down to the second so that we could have a mass countdown together. It had been an exciting moment I must admit. Everypony had become attached to the story of the Ghost ship.
Also, I bet the media would be having a hay day with this story, especially with the involvement of our Princess Luna. We would be handing the ship over to her once my team had finished with it so that she could gather information for herself.
Anyways, as is customary for any falling satellites and other bodies, we are to let the ‘dust settle,’ so to speak. We will investigate the crash tomorrow. The perimeter has already been secured by Luna’s personal guard. I hadn’t realized that she was on the security detail on this. Oh well. We will see what tomorrow brings us. Commander Looking Glass out.
September 13 2015 e 1: I strongly considered not recording about my experience on the ship for I fear that the images may never go away. But… I am however obligated to document anything of note.
I knew before I went on the ship that I would be walking into a graveyard. They could not have survived for that long obviously. Food would have run out long before they made it home. But they did their best…
On second thought, maybe I won’t continue recording on this today.
Looking Glass Out.
September 15 2015 e 1: I haven’t been able to sleep the past two days. The images, sweet Celestia, the images, they won’t stop. I think that talking about it will be the only way to help deal with this. And besides, my superiors say that my thoughts on the Hell Ship are almost as valuable as recovering the ship itself.
So here I am, talking to myself in these stupid Captain’s logs. This is the part where I’m supposed to mention any revelations of importance. Now what’s important about this vessel full of dead ponies? I’ll tell you: Not a goddess damned thing, that’s what!
But, again, my superiors insist that I at least give a description of the Celestia forsaken ship. Fine. Here’s their description.
As expected, we found the bodies of no more and no less then ten ponies. Well we found most of the body. Actually in some cases, all we were able to find were bones scattered about the ship. It appeared as if three of the ten ponies had been cleared of skin and viscera, leaving not much more than oxidized bone remains. The fates of the other ponies were not as… underwhelming, but yet still just as unsettling. At least they still had all their skin intact, with the exception of one who had been missing his left foreleg. It had appeared that these seven had died of malnutrition except maybe the amputee, who is suspected to have bled to death.
As to the skeletons, my scientists seem to be convinced as to only one possible conclusion. Cannibalism. Now they aren’t able to tell if they were murdered or were killed somehow else, or were killed voluntarily, but honestly that doesn’t make a difference, this crew was driven to, and I shudder to even speak it again, cannibalism.
So there, that’s what we found on the ship. I’m… going to try to get some sleep. My technicians will be the last to leave the ship after scanning the computers for information. Looking Glass out.
September 16 2015 e 1: One of the technicians from the ship approached earlier today and handed me some… unfortunate info as to what caused this mess.
The pony told me that when he checked the ship’s computers, the programmed coordinates were different than the ones given by the space program. They… were sent to the wrong place. They must have arrived at the coordinates and found nothing, no planet, no… anything!
Oh Celestia forgive me, that was my job. I was responsible for making sure something like this wouldn’t happen. I am the cause of their death. Its… my fault.
I think, I think… I am going to resign from my position as Commander. I cannot be trusted with this job.
This is Commander Looking Glass signing out for the last time.