The test bed for Joe L*****’s spaceship technology looked exactly like a stereotypical flying saucer. It had a disc-shaped hull, and had all the features of something otherworldly and alien.

Except it was a fraction of the size.

Joe was working in his insulated workshop, his long dark hair flowing behind him. His eyes were obscured by a pair of welding goggles. It was all a bit of a cliché, really.

Sparks flew about the space as Joe welded a plate to the car-sized disc. Smoke arose from the joint that he was working on.

He cracked a wry smile that could seem almost demonic in the moody light given off by the welding torch.

Joe lifted the torch off of the joint, and raised it up, turning the cut-off valve with his other hand.

“Ex-tra-ord-inary,” he enunciated softly.

Joe walked to a nearby workbench that had an open briefcase with joysticks, screens, along with a number of switches, buttons, lights, and other doohickeys. He grabbed a key from his pocket, inserted it into a lock, and turned it. The computer flared to life, and wirelessly connected to the prototype.

He flipped the master power switch, and the dynamo inside the disc began to spin up, building a massive electric charge. For a moment, the device vibrated with energy, and suddenly, the disc jolted into the air, plowing right through the supposedly reinforced steel ceiling.

“Yes!” Joe screamed excitedly.
He was simply too rabid with happiness to notice the new hole in his roof.
“Full power! Incredible!”

He tweaked the joystick to the right, and the disc softly hovered to his left, just as planned.

“Okay, let’s fire up the ER Bridge capacitors. Maybe we’ll jump 10 feet in altitude to test.”

Joe entered some coordinates into the console, pressed a confirmation button, and then flipped a protective cover over a switch entitled ‘Einstein-Rosenberg Jump Bridge’. The capacitors charged for a moment, and then he engaged the switch.

The disc wobbled for a second, then disappeared in a spectacular spherical ripple. The console’s status screen flashed red.

CONNECTION LOST

“Okay… I just need to wait now.”

He waited. He waited for hours. The disc never returned, and the connection stayed silent.

“Oh Zecora, thank you for the wonderful tea,” Twilight mused over a ceramic cup.

“You are welcome for the tea, my friend and purple pon-y,” The creative zebra said in rhythm.

Twilight sat in silence, and Zecora went to clean up the dishes they had used.

“You know, Zec-”

WHAM!

A loud noise startled Twilight and Zecora, who ran outside to find a silver, cone-shaped hunk of metal fly out of the ground, and land 10 feet away from the hole it exploded from.

“What in Celestia’s name…” Twilight said, and then approached the device.

“Be careful my little pony, for you know not what it could be.”

Twilight stepped over the hole it had erupted from, and looked closely at the silver hull. It had only one externally visible feature. A small block of text inlaid on the shell.

Twilight had one reaction to this.

“What.”