Into the Unknown - Discovery

"Are you absolutely sure you want to take this journey?" The doctor asked, "Once you leave there are no guaranties that you shall ever return."

I didn't even have to think before answering him, "Yes, there’s nothing left here for me."

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Over the last few months, I have been interning at a NASA observatory, and together with many scientists, we found a far off planet (actually in another galaxy altogether) that seems to be fully inhabitable. What the scientists in the room don't realize is, I have seen this place before. It goes by the name of Equestria. Or at least that what I believe anyway.

My name is John Steelwall, Just your average seventeen year old boy who likes video games and hates school. The only difference I seem to have from a lot of Kids my age is my obsession of a certain television series. My Little Pony was something I have been watching for about a year now, and secretly of course, I liked it a lot. A few months ago I had managed to get and exiting offer to join the NASA team to search among the stars for another inhabitable planet as an intern. Being I liked stars a ton I guess it was automatic that I really loved the Alicorn Luna.

My school had a unique internship program, and had helped me find out that NASA had been working on something huge for a very long time. I was only told that there was a project that, if succeeded, would allow us to get close up images of the stars in another galaxy. Since it was top secret, I want told anything else until they decided to take me on as an intern.

Hundreds of pages of secrecy contracts later....

"Welcome to the team!" Tim Alregson, head of the deep space division, exclaimed. "We don't usually take on kids so young, but you seem to have a great interest in other worlds. Now I can finally show you what we have been working on.

"For the past ten years, NASA has been launching very special satellites up into space and sending them extremely far away from earth. But they have been programmed to stop at a certain location." He motioned to a map.

"Each one closer than the last and last week the closest one finally came to a stop near the outside of Earth’s gravity. As well as the fact that we have just completed the last piece to this plan. The Univex IGTS (Inter Galaxy Tele-Scope)." He finished his monologue just in time for me to walk into a room and see the massive creation.

"So, lemme guess, the satellites all reflect and magnify an image across one another until it goes into the telescope?" I question.

"The satellites position themselves yes, but what you see in the picture isn't actually an image coming through the Univex completely. The Univex fires a very large and extremely powerful forces of light out and that bounces through all the obstacles off the satellites, which each add as much light as possible. When it finally reaches a destination, whatever bounces back gives us a crude image."

"Can I give it a try?" I ask.

"We actually think we've found a good subject planet outside of the Milky Way galaxy that seems to have its own sun and moon. Why don't you look and tell us if you can see anything." he states the last bit jokingly, knowing I won’t find more than they already have.

"Well what are we doing standing around? We've got planets to explore!" I said with an excited grin on my face.

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"Ah good evening Tim, I wasn't expecting to see you so soon after that last air and space meeting we had last month" said Dr. Harold Culnich. "Feel free to look, but I am heading home for the night. You’re welcome to stay as long as you want. I'll notify the night guard." And with that he walked out the front door and I saw him having a quick word with the guards at the small building in the road.

"It’s going to be a long night so we best get started." Tim said.

After Tim had been finicking with the Univex for several hours He told me; "Pull that large lever down on that wall to the left." After pulling it, the very large dome roof started to whir and rotate slowly, revealing the night sky to the Univex.

Tim said, "There everything is set up, and the proper coordinates have been entered. I think you should get a first look since it’s your discovery."

I thanked him and sat down on the chair in behind the Univex and peered in to the looking piece. Normally, all the computers were on and the image was displayed on a large screen, but that would have taken much longer to set up. At first I didn't see much of anything, I saw the dot but it was blurry. I turned a few knobs to focus in on it. "Can you drop a few more plates in?" I asked, and Tim put in a three more of the magnifying plates.

When I focused in again I could see the night sky, the whole field of the Univex was filled with an image I never thought I would ever see in real life. I could see the land and water of the planet, but what surprised me more than the fact that I could see water at all was the shape the land mass was in. It looked to me like a map I'd only seen once before, on MY Little Pony. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, not only was it another planet, but it was my favorite world, my fantasy world that could never actually exist and yet here it was, staring me in the face. "Uuuuh, Tim I think you'd better come take a look at this!"

He gave a slight chuckle, thinking I was joking when I told him I thought the planet was fully inhabitable. He was smiling as he sat down to take a look, but once he saw what was in the small eye piece, his whole expression changed from amused to amazed. Several minutes of him staring at the image open mouthed later he finally spoke. "Do you realize what you have discovered? If this planet actually has oxygen and that’s actually water, then we could have just found another planet to live on!"

We spent the rest of the night looking at the planet and discussing the opportunities that mankind could have if this was real, but I never revealed to him that I had a high suspicion that something, or somepony had already inhabited this planet. But that was for another day.

At around six o' clock in the morning Dr. Harold walked in and saw us still excitedly talking about this new discovery. "What’s so important that it kept you to up and talking all night long?" he asked.

I went and put my hand on his shoulder, "We've discovered an inhabitable planet." I said through dreary eyes, at which point he burst out laughing.

Tim said nothing, because he was too tired, but raised his arm and motioned for the Doctor to sit and look in the scope. We both watched as he did so and take a look at what we were talking about. To me is like De Ja Vu, as the Doctor looked, his laughter started to fade away and was replaced by an exited realization that we weren't joking around.

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I was now eighteen, and it had been several months since our discovery. I wasn't an intern anymore, but was still working with Tim. We were working with Dr. Harold Still, but now, due to the discovery, I was getting paid (and well above minimum wage I might add). NASA was preparing to start its work on the largest venture in the history of space travel, and was in the process of designing a nuclear powered rocket, capable of sustaining the lives of two people for more than 20 years. The reason: MISSION EQUESTRIA, well that’s what I call it anyway.

The trip in this rocket was supposed to take around 10 years and only two people could go due to it costing around 750 million dollars per person. And the best part: I was one of those two people! Ya, that are right, I was sitting in a room right now being offered the opportunity to go to PLANET X.

"Are you absolutely sure you want to take this journey?" The head of the space program asked, "Once you leave there are no guaranties that you shall ever return."

I didn't even have to think before answering him, "Yes, there’s nothing left here for me."

NASA was completing the rocket way ahead of schedule, and we had to endure the large amount of tedious testing and training that was need to survive in such a rocket all the way to the planet.

This rocket had many extra droppable canisters of fuel that would be used to gain speed. After we sling around several planets, the last being the farthest out, we should be able to travel above the speed of light itself.

I believe that the reason the picked me, was only because picking anyone older the I was, would have half their life over by the time we arrived at our new home

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"5"

"4"

"3"

"2"

"1"

"Huston, we have lifted off"
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"John! Look out!” Tim yelled as a the midway space satellite we were in the process of launching was hit by a large asteroid and was hurtling directly for me. Tim gave a hard tug on my life line and pulled me out of the way just in time, the satellite only missing me by a few inches. We were supposed to launch a mid-way satellite in order to keep in contact with earth, but getting a huge piece of machinery correctly out of the ship while moving at speeds close to the speed of light, doing so was a difficult task. There was no stopping, we were on a direct course for planet X and could not stop due to the lack reverse thrusters. During about the first year of our trip, we had used the gravity of planets, and some of our limited fuel to slingshot and gain tremendous amounts of speed, never seen before in human history.

The radio was crackling as we sped towards space, "God Speed to the both of you." The crackling stopped. They could watch us with Univex, but all radio contact had been lost

It has been 11 months since we left Earth, and NASA had finally lost contact. We had failed to eject the satellite properly and now we were on our own forever, no going back. The only thing we could do now was wait until it was time to launch the lander and arrive on Equestria, oops I meant planet X.

Just one more planet to sling around. Then shit would get interesting.

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I opened my eyes and Tim yelled, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" at which point I flew out of my bed and floated around the room until bumping my head into the ceiling. Did I mention that spending two years in anti-gravity sucks? Ya it does.

"Dammit Tim don't do that!" I jokingly yelled at him. Over the past two years we had become good friends, and I had gotten him to lighten up a bit on the whole geeky science thing.

"Sorry, But it’s your 20th birthday! I thought I'd have a little surprise party for you" he said.

Eight more long and boring years until the ejection form our temporary anti-gravity home, and onto our new one: an unfamiliar world that I hoped would contain what I had been dreaming of for the past year.

"Tim? There’s something I need to tell you."

"What is it? Are you mad about the surprise party? I knew you didn't like surprises!" He looked angry with himself.

"No, it’s about this planet we're going to, I kinda, well, believe I know more about it then all the researchers." I said wondering just how to tell him I might know exactly what lay ahead.

"Well of course you do, you've spent more time looking through that Univex then anyone!" he said, relieved it wasn't about the party.

"No I mean that when I first looked through that Univex that night, what I saw, wasn't the first time I've seen this world. And I know it sounds crazy, but I might know exactly what type of creature’s lives here, at least I hope." I glanced over at him and saw he was chuckling a bit.

"How could that be possible, no one’s ever been here and the Univex won't go close enough for us to see individual things?" He stated, still amused.

I pulled his Ipad and showed him a picture from the Univex, and then I pulled out my Ipad and showed him a picture I had gotten off the internet. Dated back to one year before we had discovered the planet. "Then how is this possible?" I showed them side by side.

"You’re lying. You just drew that map and dated it the wrong year on purpose." He was getting angry now.

"If I am correct, then the inhabitants of this world are....... Ponies, well at least that’s the main race, and they all live in a country called Equestria. It's ok if you don't believe me, because when I first saw this world I didn't believe me either." I was now beginning to wonder how much I would be laughed at if I was wrong.

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Over the years that followed, Tim and I had our disagreements, although I was slowly pushing the idea of Equestria onto him. Being we had almost nothing to do in this very large cylinder I call home, I had forced him to watch all the episodes of the television series My Little Pony and he had started to realize the similarities that this show had to the information we had gathered from looking at the planet.

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Several Birthdays later...

"On my mark" Tim said.

"3"

"2"

"1"

"Release!"

I had gotten Tim to change of landing objective to near where I thought Ponyville would be. We were now hurdling towards the planet that could only be described as Beautiful. We had been orbiting it for 2 days now and I had seen sparkles of gold in the mountains where I thought Canterlot would be.

As we started to enter the outer atmosphere, a layer of wind began to form around the capsule, and the leading edge began to glow red. The shuttle was still going too fast, but it seemed like the air was about the same as earth. Looking out the front window I rapidly saw the ground approaching, but then I lost focus for a few seconds as I glanced left of the field we had chosen to land upon. All of my hopes and wishes were granted as I saw the neatly placed rows of apple trees stretching for miles in every direction around this open field. I was brought back to reality as Tim yelled through the mic: "Why do the colors look so..... Unshaded?" and I answered, "Because this is the world I was hoping we would find. Everything I told you is true!" no response.

We slowed down dramatically and pulled up in time for the front tires to gently touch down on the soft grass, coming to a stop in front of the orchard. Tim got out of his seat and went over to get prepared to leave the craft, beginning to put on his space suit. He opened small door I hadn't noticed before, "Here take this", he said tossing me a rather large pistol.

I tossed it back to him and said, "I won't need it." and opened the main hatch, only to be tackled by Tim as he frantically tried to get it closed again. But the only thing that happened when I had released it was a small hiss in pressure change.

I told you that you don't need to worry, I know more about this place then you think." I said, brushing myself off as he gave me a very angry stare.

"You could have just killed us both!" he yelled.

"Just trust me on this one ok?" I stated and I began to climb the ladder down to the surface.

It was oddly quite considering we had just landed a massive ship next to where I believed Ponyville should be, and I was starting to have doubts on whether or not ponies did exist at all. Tim and I started down the small trail leading through the woods. My doubts were replaced by fear when I saw something I recognized; the Cutie Mark Crusader club house. Only, instead of being high up in a tree, it was upside down on the ground and smashed to pieces.

"Wow", Tim said, "What do you think caused this?"

I gave him a concerned look, "I don't know but we'll find out as soon as we get into Ponyville."

"You don't still believe you know what exists on this planet, do you?" He said, in a joking manner.

"Yes, I wasn't sure at first, but that tree house belonged to three small fillies named Scootoloo, Sweetie Belle, and AppleBloom. But something’s very wrong, do you smell smoke?" I looked around and saw several small ails of smoke rising into the air. In the direction of Ponyville! I took off running.

As we crested the next hill I still couldn't see the town, but what I did see made me even more nervous, Fluttershy's cottage, was a frozen block of ice apart from where the fire had been left to burn and caught the right half of the house on fire. It was a frightening sight; a half burnt half frozen house. I hadn't seen one before, but there were only two things that could have caused this. And since it wasn't raining chocolate milk form cotton candy clouds, it couldn't be Discord. It had to be the Windigoes. We heard a shrill scream resonate out across the landscape; coming from the direction we were headed.

"Come on! Somepony needs our help!" I yelled over my shoulder as I took off running for the next hill.

Though I knew Tim was just as worried about this as I was, I heard him say, "You’re really getting into this whole pony thing already."

Unfortunately for me, the first proof I had to show Tim that ponies existed in this world almost killed me. As we ran to the top of the next hill I heard something that sounded like rushing air, and then a loud crash as something impacted the ground three feet left of where I stood.

When the dust finally cleared, I looked back at what had almost killed me. It was a frozen block of ice, wait no, it was a frozen block of ice with a pony inside! Whom I immediately recognized as Derpy Hooves.

I picked up a rock and carefully started chipping away at the ice block, glancing over at a wide eyed Tim. "Stop Gawking and hurry up and help me chip this ice away before she suffocates and dies!" I was getting very worried that we didn't have enough time.

I took one more gentle hit, and a crack spread over the remaining ice we hadn't chipped off. With a loud crack, the ice shattered and fell on the ground, leaving one very relieved, very cold, and very breathless pony behind.

After a few minutes, she looked up with a terrified look, "More monsters!" She screamed and took off running in the direction we had come from.

"What the hell is going on around here? It's like the world is ending!" Tim said.

If he knew anything about Equestria Like I did, then he would have known that the world had almost ended exactly twice in the last six years. One being the return of Nightmare moon, and the other being Discord. The Changeling invasion wouldn’t really have ended the world, just cause major havoc.

One thing that I wasn't expecting was that since this was the first time we had really stopped to look around, I noticed Tim. No. That’s not possible. "Hey Tim? Do I look any different to you?"

He glanced over, and then did a double take. "Dude what the hell. Do I look ten years younger as well?"

"Actually, since we were going at almost exactly the speed of light, I think we only appeared to age while doing so, but coming back into reality, we have become our old selves because no time has actually passed." I was quite happy with my theory, and it made a lot of sense to, while making easier to take in. I'M STILL EIGHTEEN! YES!

Right back to the burning town. "Well I guess we should probably follow that pony." I said to Tim, who also realized that we had changed the subject of the fact that innocent people were in danger.

And so we set off to find Derpy and the others.

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End of chapter one