When I was a kid my grandpa used to tell me about the past before the great unity, he told me that back in 2551 planet earth was united under a single government known as 'Earth gov', he told me it was because of overpopulation that the UN decided to make such a bold move, over the past years earth have been under a lot of chaos, a lot of countries objected to unite under a single rule but thanks to common sense, the hostilities ended and the human race began what many called 'The golden era'.

a lot have changed since the great unity, religions were such a trivial matter that no one cared who believed in what anymore, technology became so advanced that space travel to the moon cost just a bit more than a bus ticket, not to mention all the colonies we established across the milky way, everyone seemed to be happy.

How wrong we were…

The year now is 154 AU(after unity), earth is a mess, with no resources left to sustain ourselves humans sought salvation in other planets, unfortunately space travel between galaxies took at least a decade and the lack of resources from neighboring planets didn't help, so… Earth gov came up with a plan so risky and bold that it was kept secret from the press… dimensional travel!

It was called 'Project last haven', it was simple enough but so dangerous that it required the 'Flying Aces', an elite military Special Forces that specialized in militaristic space travel and combat, each solider was given a fully equipped spacecraft to fly across dimensions and find a suitable place for humanity to claim, I say spacecraft but it really was an entire space station, early tests with unmanned probes showed that solid communication between dimensions were possible but it also meant one way trip, desperation and loyalty were so much to bear that the 'Flying Aces' agreed to what was surly a suicide mission.

I was one of them, my name is Benjamin Cross, I'm 23 years old but despite my young age I was considered to be one of the best soldiers the army could spare, a handful of comrades and I were inside an elevator going down under area 51, when the doors opened we saw seventeen spacecraft in a circle, in front each spacecraft was an opened portal, I gulped hard, I may have been an elite solider but I was still the youngest, we marched as one towards an elevated stage and upon reaching it came to a halt, there on the stage stood probably the most powerful men in this planet, governor Georg Kelso and near him the general Alexander Blake, we all saluted and crossed our arms

behind our back in a military fashion.

"Men…" started George to speak to the microphone, "…We now face a threat far greater than anything we anticipated… ourselves… We were too greedy, too blind to see the truth in front of us and now we pay the price, your willingness to fight against our cruel fate will be remembered and praised, beyond those portals lies lands full of possibilities, let your eyes witness the horizon of a newer and brighter future ."

After president Kelso stepped back, General Blake steeped forward to speak as well, "Gentlemen! You've been trained for three years for this mission, failure is not an option! You may not be able to come back but we'll remain in constant contact through your spacecraft's inter-dimensional communicators, good luck boys."

"SIR YES SIR!" was our response and immediately after that each solder went to his designated spacecraft, I was escorted to spacecraft 2, the UNA(United Nations Alliance) new hope, after running a full system check and receiving the last green light I went to personally check my favorite machine, the matter manipulator, the very peak of human engineering, it held the ability to break down any material to an atomic level and even reconstruct the atoms themselves, thus, making sure we'd have almost unlimited supplies should we land on a poor world in terms of minerals.

Now, you probably ask yourselves why haven't humanity used the matter manipulators to resupply, it's because in order to power a small matter manipulator found on spacecraft it would take two fully operational reactors, thankfully each spacecraft is powered by two self-sustaining nuclear fusion reactors and even then it's strictly forbidden to use the matter manipulator while in mid-flight.

After that I took a glance at my munitions, one tungsten blade, a cryo pistol and a pulse rifle, standard military equipment with a few modifications I made.

Making sure I have everything I need I sat inside the cockpit and initiated a launch sequence, I could feel the engines coming to life as the spacecraft left the surface, I looked from my window to see that some already flew into the portals, I switched from window view to screen view the throttled forwards, inch by inch the spacecraft entered the portal until it was completely sucked by it, what I saw next was like being high on at least five different types of drugs at the same time, so much vibrant colors that I was half tempted to look away but my gut told me it was a bad idea, especially when flying into the unknown.

About twenty minutes later of psychedelic travel I decided to switch to auto-pilot and strap my RIG on(Resource Integration Gear, another marvel of human engineering), the suit was composed of two gloves tipped at the end with sensors and a small screen on the back of the glove to provide a full diagnostics to any new materials I may come across, a pair of reinforced boots with booster thrusters, completely closed (and smelly) helmet that provided normal, night and infra-red vision with a HUD on the screen and of course a full air tight body suit, it wasn't the most comfortable suits but it got the job done, for combat, survival and endurance during repair and outer diagnostic in vacuum environment, this suit was praised for its multi-functional purposes.

And not a moment too soon... After checking the last visor on the helmet I was flung into deep space and to a whole new dimension, I took the sit once more and established a connection between the spacecraft and my RIG, for a good half an hour I drifted seemingly aimlessly in space, that's of course until something caught my eye, a star way out in the distance blinked, meaning there was another object orbiting it, after a small debate with myself I readjusted the current course towards the star system, hoping the object was a large moon or if I'm really lucky, a planet.

After a quick FTL jump to the designated star I watched in awe when I realized what I saw defied physics to the core, what I saw was not a planet orbiting a star but rather a star orbiting a planet! I had to write this down in my entry log.

ENTRY LOG # 1

This is a celestial marvel far greater than anything humanity ever discovered, A STAR ORBITING A PLANET! I tried to search through the archive that could explain this bizarre phenomenon but found none.

For a few minutes I just stared at this beautiful sight, speculating a few wild explanations to what I saw, than I decided to fly the spacecraft into an orbiting course around the planet while carefully avoiding the sun's gravity in the process.

After successfully entering a solid orbit around the planet I sent two probes, one was headed straight down to scan the atmosphere and the other was circling the planet in order to map out the geographical terrain as well as scanning for minerals.

…

Two earth days has passed, in that time I studied the weird sun phenomenon even further, I discovered to my surprised that the day and night cycle was identical to earth, I was half surprised to discover that a single moon orbited the planet as well, seeing how strange and well-coordinated the two celestial objects cycled around the planet.

…

The probes were back with surprising results, the probe I sent down to the surface of the planet showed that the planet's atmosphere was composed mostly out of oxygen with low levels of Co2, meaning it was probably breathable even without the helmet, the probe I sent to scan the planet from orbit showed me that the planet's terrain was stunningly similar to earth as well, one major difference though is the amount of precious materials found on the near surface of the planet, we're not talking a few kilometers deep but rather a few meters and even centimeters! But to top that I discovered something even more thrilling, the planet's surface contained flowing water and vegetation! Meaning there has to be life on the planet and maybe even intelligent life forms.

I'm smiling as I type these last few words, I always wondered what it would be like if planet earth was visited by aliens but to be on the other side was even more exciting, the shuttle I was preparing moments before is now ready for launch, to end this log on a high note I'm gonna quote the famous words of Neil Alden Armstrong as he landed on the moon for the first time: "This is one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind!"

ENTRY LOG # 1 END

I entered the shuttle bay feeling both nervous and excited, if this planet contains intelligent life I would represent our entire species and if it's not we could still use it to expand our control even beyond dimensions, I was half way to the shuttle when the computer booted up.

STRARTING MATTER MONIPULATOR TEST RUN

"What? I never authorized a test sequence, Computer! Cancel last command!" I ordered firmly.

UNAUTHORIZED, TEST SEQUENSE WILL CONTINUE AS PLANNED

That's not good, if the computer starts the matter manipulator test sequence protocols, the reactors will overload, there's no time to manually disconnect the matter manipulator so I was forced to return to the cockpit and preform an emergency landing.

I sat down inside the cockpit and redirected the UNA new hope to a reentry trajectory.

WARNING, POWER MALFUNCTION, REACTORS OVERHEAT AT TWENTY FIVE PRECENT

Dammit! It would take too much time for a conventional reentry, I ran out of options instead of one, I mentally prepared myself as I brought the nose of the UNA new hope's nose straight down and accelerated, in the past, reentry to an atmosphere of a planet with such a sharp angle would mean agonizing death by heat but thanks to technology, modern spacecraft could perform that kind of 'Stunts' thanks to inner-outer space divider module, with it the inner sections of spacecraft are not affected by almost any drastic change in the outer environment but it was still a risky move only to be performed under emergency.

WARNING, POWER MALFUNCTION, REACTORS OVERHEAT AT FIFTY PRECENT

"Come on, come on, just a little longer." The surface of the planet got closer and closer every second, at current speed I'll land in less than five minutes, I hoped I'll survive this landing because if I crush the UNA new hope into the planet's surface I'll cause a massive radiation leak that will ensure the total annihilation of life across the entire planet.

WARNING, POWER MALFUNCTION, REACTORS OVERHEAT AT SEVENTY FIVE PRECENT

When I was about ten kilometers from the surface I straightened the UNA new hope and used the hover thrusters to decelerate, I was sweating heavily when the first wave of heat from the engine room came down, it was nerve racking and stressful to say the least, I was about fifty meters from the surface when I pulled the emergency power shut down lever and caused the entire ship to fall.

...

the landing was… rough, it could've gone better but then again, it could've gone a lot worse, I booted up the computer and ran system check protocols, thankfully none of the essential equipment got damaged but as far as flight goes, this ship will be grounded until I'll manually repair it, I thought at what happened moments before, somehow the computer started a matter manipulator test run mid-flight, there's at least a dozen protocols that need to be overridden in order to do that, but I digress, I landed relatively safely and I'm ready to explore this vast new world.

I grabbed my tungsten blade and the cryo pistol and opened the spaceship's door hatch, what I saw completely caught me by surprise, bright blue sky, white clouds and grass! Lush green grass as far as the eye can see, it seemed that I landed in an open field, looking at the scenery I couldn't help but wonder if I left earth at all but reality struck as  ton of bricks, "there's no way this is earth, we killed mother nature long ago." I took a handful of grass blades with my glove, needless to say, the sensor beams were quick to act, running across the grass and scanning every bit of it, after the scan was completed I turned my hand and looked at the screen, "indeed grass it is, to think that there's a planet so similar yet so different than ours."

My excitement reached its peak when I saw movement nearby a small river, a bird! An actual bird! I ran back to the ship and grabbed a few sunflower seeds from my food supply, I approached the bird slowly, when he turned around to face me I stopped, I lowered my hand and offered him the seeds, a few moments passed but he eventually hopped on my hand and ate the seeds with renewed vigor, he didn't seem to bother when the sensor beams scanned him, if fact, he looked as if enjoying this kind of attention, I allowed him to rest on my shoulder when I looked at the monitor at the back of my hand, he was a carbon based life form.

At this point I sat near the river, trying to grasp the magnitude of my findings, a planet with similar features as earth, occupied by carbon based life forms, for a moment I thought if there are intelligent life forms that resemble humans, I shoved the thought to the back of my mind when I heard something out in the distance, I turned on my RIG's camouflage system, rendering me invisible and followed to the source of the sound, I climbed a little hill that revealed something I wished to witness ever since arriving to this world, a settlement!

I saw movement in there but I was too far away to see clearly, I used my integrated binoculars, then I saw them… the aliens, they stood on four legs or should I say hooves, they had 'Manes' and 'Tails' and looked a lot like ponies except for the fact that these 'Ponies' had much more vibrant color schemes, their facial expressions were considerably more vivid then ponies on earth and they all looked at my direction with mixed expressions of confusion and horror(If expressions in this land held the same meaning as on earth), I looked behind and immediately mentally kicking myself, my abrupt arrival to this planet was not unnoticed, a pillar of smoke came all the way from the sky to the UNA new hope, I turned around to see a few dots in the sky closing in on my location so I ran back to the UNA new hope, closed the hatch and blocked all windows.

"Dammit, I should have been more careful!" I yelled at myself, I turned on screen mode in order to better assess the situation I'm in, these ponies were different than the ones I saw back in the small settlement, they possessed wings and looked awfully similar to pegasi in Greek mythology, I looked closer at the screen, they talked to each other in an unknown language, the one in the middle had a cyan colored fur and rainbow colored mane and tail, I watched in awe as I saw the aliens circling the ship, they were soon accompanied by the rest of the townsfolk, it was fascinating to see how they herd around my ship, I had to write this down…

ENTRY LOG # 2

First contact was not as I expected, my sudden arrival forced me to retreat to the UNA new hope and stay there, just until the initial shock I caused to the locals fade, I waited patiently in the ship for a few days and studied the locals each time they came to the spaceship, occasionally coming out in the early mornings to study the locals from a distance discreetly, the aliens looked shockingly like ponies from earth but with distinctive differences;

One – Their color schemes were a plenty and varied from pony to pony, I've yet to understand the leverage of it though, how can an entire species that sticks out like a sore thumb could rise and become dominant, surely they would be considered easy prey but I digress.

Two – The difference between males and females are again, much more vivid, males are bulkier and slightly larger whilst females have more distinct curves and… eyelashes? Not sure if the letter a valid indication.

Three – their social structure consists of stable economy, their currency is this golden coins I've been calling 'bits' from a lack of better name, they also seem to have building that serves them for education, meaning they are intelligent, the structures are made mainly out of wood and straw with gravel roads, I've been trying to find the equivalent era on earth that best suits this world, the middle age was my best guess.

Four and probably the most interesting – I divided these ponies to three sub species, there are the winged ponies or pegasi, their abilities consist flying (of course) and weather control (?), I've seen them sometimes simply 'grab' clouds and move them around, my guess is that clouds on this world have different qualities than ours, the second and probably the least interesting are the regular ponies or 'earth ponies' since they resemble ponies from earth the best, earth ponies are more adapt to manual labor and have much stronger muscles, but the third sub species is what interested me the most, horned ponies or 'Unicorns', it seems that they have abilities I could only describe as 'magic', I saw them use telekinesis and teleport, it still confuses me as to how they have such advances technology, it took mankind decades to create the standard military telekinesis modules and local teleportation is still only a dream.

I spent the next four days inside my spaceship but it wasn't boring at all, each day, six ponies, females by the looks of it came at noon and waited in front of the ship, I wasn't sure for what purpose, did they know I was in there? The answer to this question was a big fat yes, each day the left me a basket of baked goods, of course I scanned the food thoroughly before consumption and later I would scan myself for any short or long term side effect, luckily nothing happened, just amazingly good food.

Today is the fifth day and I decided to finally greet the mares face to face, let's hope they really are kind and not just luring me out for some kind of trap.

ENTRY LOG # 2 END Next Chapter: Contact Estimated time remaining: 22 Minutes