Space Horse

by TheMajorTechie

Rating: everyone
Tags: Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Science Fiction, Other, Slice of Life, Alternate Universe, Human
Length: 9857

Gadget has finally completed her portal back to Equestria. Except... that's not where the portal leads.

I've overcome thieves, crazy name calling, hordes of children, and a mildly drunk professor. I've messed with hardened criminals for the sake of not being bored. I can shapeshift, levitate, and teleport any object I please, and I'm still a mere filly. I think. (I should probably look up the average lifespan of ponies, but there's probably gonna be huge differences.)

Sooo... yeah, surprisingly intelligent sapient tiny horse shenanigans aside, I'm pretty confident in my current quest to find my home.

BUT WHY THE HECK AM I IN A SPACE STATION?!

This sequel is gonna most likely be shorter than Lab Horse, considering as to how it's essentially a bridge story to fill the gap between Lab Horse and the next story. of which I'm still deciding the name of. :scootangel:

Cover art is a combination of the starfield I created for the original cover art, and a drawing of Gadget that Grim_Grin drew for me.

Published 2017-04-04 15:10:02 UTC
Last updated 2017-06-28 22:14:35 UTC

Ranell: Supply problems

Author's Note

Now you get to start hearing Ranell's side of the story! :rs:excite:

Ranell: Supply problems

I kinda like how Gadget has her own little device that she can write all her thoughts and feelings into, even if they do often get out of hand. Personally, I've just got this diary that I've kept all my life. I mean, sure, I'm already halfway through the entire thing, but it's something. Right?

I know it's a bit weird to reference an old book series, but as the main character of a certain series states, "This is a journal. Not a diary."

It's also a bit weird to write like this, because before today, I just treated it like a normal diary, with a whole "Dear Diary" and all, but sometimes, tossing a book opened up to a page is much easier than speaking to someone directly.

Wooo... I can feel the meds wearing off again. Excuse me while I take some more to keep myself from losing control of myself.

Alright, I'm back. Now, since Gadget and Delmar are both kinda... trapped, up in some decommissioned space station, I'd assume that there'd likely be leftover rations, or some sort of backup supply. But even though I'm pretty set on that idea, I know that there'd probably be very little, if any at all, for the two of them to last off of.

And there is the supply problem. We not only have to source additional parts to repair the damaged portions of the portal, but we have to do it in time to be able to set additional coordinates, lock onto whatever tracking beacon they're gonna build up there, and open the portal again.

I can tell that this'll lead to quite a few sleepless nights for me. I'm just gonna get some sleep before I can't.

Log 4105: Life on the Z.S.S.

Author's Note

Don't mind me while I attempt to paint a realistic picture of life on a space station based off of nothing but NASA's livestreams and some documentaries. :twilightsheepish:

Log 4105: Life on the Z.S.S.

Well, it's not everyday when you see a scientist who's never touched Space Station controls manage to reactivate a transmitter, let alone bring most of the station's functionality back online. I wonder how many people down at NASA are freaking out right now over our new(old) "Zombie Space Station"?

Anyways... yeah, Delmar was able to reconfigure the transmitter to link to the same base station that my tablet's linked to, and proceeded to stream all of the stats about the station down to the lab. Hopefully, Ranell can get 'em to sync it up soon. I'm starting to feel hungry, and I don't think another bag of decades-old space-jerky will help. Even if it's teriyaki flavored...

On the other note, apparently the bathrooms up here work faaar differently than the ones down on Earth, since they can't have liquid water. Instead, it's just sort of a suction pod thing. I don't wanna talk about it.

So yeah, for the past few days we've been eating dusty rations from the leftover storage bins, and drinking recycled water in little packs that look like those juice pouches.

Mild annoyances aside, however, it's actually breathtakingly beautiful from up here. Both Delmar and I have been spending hours lately just kinda floating near the windows, staring out into the never-ending space outside. And on the occasions where we see an Earth-rise? That just blew me away. Delmar said that he'd seen one before in a video, but seeing it in person to him, was like gazing up into the sky as a child. It's just... just mindblowing.

And since we've already brought the Z.S.S. (I like the name Zombie Space Station) back to a functional state, as well as handled the tracking beacon, there's pretty much nothing else to do but wait for the portal.

I'm just gonna stare out into the abyss again. I like it.

Log 4106: Cliche meteor(s) is cliche

And of course the first thing we get after reconnecting with ground base is a meteor shower warning. Hold on, I'ma go out and fling those rocks. They're weightless to me up here, anyways, though it's their momentum that I'll have trouble with.

Delmar's doing the best to use whatever little maneuverability this thing has to dodge at least a few of the oncoming meteoroids, but like I said before, I think I'll have to handle quite a few of them myself.

Got my spacesuit on, and I'm ready to do some ping-pong with giant space rocks!

...

...

...

Of which, there don't appear to be any giant space rocks.

It's just... dust.

Like, lots of dust.

...

Actually, more like fine grains of sand and a few pebbles.

They call these meteors?!

I'm just gonna go back inside.

Log 4107: Biiiiig whopper

I awoke to what sounded alarmingly like whooshing air, and my horror, that was evidently exactly what the sound was. Delmar's still asleep though, so I'm gonna have to investigate myself.

Hoo boy.

How do I put this? Our supplies are dwindling, some metallic shards punctured some of the thinner parts of the station, and just from eyeballing it, I can see that there's still a field of debris floating around here.

...

I just realized that much of this might actually be the direct result of Delmar and I being dumped here by the portal. When we first exited the portal into here, the pod we were in pretty much blew an entire chunk of the station outwards, and chances are, during our orbital period, it might've hit some other rusting satellite, and so on and so forth until it created this cloud of junk. Of which, we're unfortunately just about to head right back into.

Yeah, I'm gonna patch those holes up before we run through that cloud. I don't want the holes to widen even more, since we're already losing oxygen as it is.

And on top of that, I can see the big whopper coming near, too-- an entire freakin' solar panel is chilling in there, and it looks like it might've been the counterpart to the one I can see attached just outside the window where I am.

I'm torn right now between setting up a shield, or repairing the holes, both are time consuming, but--

Alright, Gadget. We're gonna open up a monodirectional portal soon to ship food and supplies through. Do you have any requests on what you need?

Just in time! I'll need an arc welder, some sheet metal, something other than mummified beef jerky, and a large net.

A large net?

I'ma do some space farming.

What?

You don't get it, do you?

Nope. What's space farming?

Eh, you wouldn't know, anyways. I actually just came up with it. Go out in a space suit, and grab whatever random junk happens to be floating past. Y'know?

Yeeeeaaaahhhh... that's gonna be hard to do considering how most everything is gonna be whizzing past you at lethal speeds.

Oh. Oh yeah. Right.

Yeah. So you were saying something about welding and sheet metal?

Yup. We've got some holes here, and from the looks of it, we're gonna be colliding with a piece of our own solar panel set in a few minutes.

Geez, that doesn't sound good. Isn't there any way to maybe divert it or something?

Not really. You did just say that everything is probably flying around at so-called lethal speeds.

I guess. Well, I'll be forwarding the request to the other guys down here to see what they have to say about it.

Now that that's done and over with, I guess I can worry about the holes a bit later. The junk's getting pretty close, and I should probably be trying to block it or whatever. The only problem is, the only stuff I could use around here to make a shield from are all things that would easily shred upon contact with high-speed projectiles, and--

"Gadget!" Delmar suddenly entered the room, shouting as he struggled to stop himself from floating past, "Take a look at the monitors on the console's camera. Now."

Warning: Accelerator has detected an unusually short deceleration time. Please consult manufacturer for reconfiguration if this is in error.

Author's Note

Props to Boulder and Da Fennec for figuring out what this chapter was pretty much gonna be before I even wrote it.

Horrible coughing fits aren't making writing any fun at all. :pinkiesick:

Log 4108: Damage assessment

Urgh... that was a really big hit we took there...

I opened my eyes to find that the only reason why Delmar and I are even alive right now is due to the fact that each room is separated by an airlock, and apparently this room closed itself off during the collision. Either that, or I just didn't notice Delmar closing them before impact.

Either way, from the looks of it, that hit sent us a bit off-course, judging by the different view that I can see now. We're just kinda floating out here with no set course, or even a plan of action...

Our only links to ground base are through my tablet, and whatever the heck it was that Delmar fixed, and a one-way portal that still doesn't seem to have spat anything out yet.

Whoopie.

Welp, I guess I'd better go out again and fix that giant gash through the front of the next room over. Can't have too much oxygen leakin-- oh wait, there's still those tiny holes... darnit... and I thought that living in Space would be cool.

Looks like my tablet took a bit of a beating as well. From the looks of it, I'm pretty sure the impact not only knocked both Delmar and I out cold, but it likely sent this thing flying across the room. I can even see the plastic skid mark on the wall from here.

Oh well. Ranell can pick this damage report off of my tablet. I'm gonna wait here until some sheet metal arrives so I can actually do some repairing before something else happens.

Log 4110: Vacuum packed space food tastes terrible.

Seriously, it does. The jerky that Delmar and I have been sharing for the past few days was okay, but I'm pretty sure that it was just because we were starving. As for the first shipment of food... yuck.

Also, it seems like the portal isn't able to move alongside the Z.S.S. either. When it opened up today for the first delivery, it appeared beside the impact zone of the solar panel incident, and quickly spat out it's contents before phasing out beside the capsule, on the other side of the station. I guess it'll just remain in the same location or something, and maybe we just receive deliveries whenever we pass it?

Actually... no.

Why?

Don't forget, not only is your self-proclaimed "Zombie Space Station" shooting around the Earth, but the Earth itself is also orbiting the sun as well.

Oh yeah. Right.

The only reason why it didn't spill the shipment out into space was because we're currently able to move the portal's coordinates just barely fast enough to keep up with around 80% of the Earth's orbital speed.

Alright. So... how are the deliveries gonna work from now on?

With how we're currently pinpointing the location of the portal using tracking lasers, the portal will just be destroyed and re-rendered every few days. We don't have the power requirements to constantly move the rendering, which is why we can't move it fast enough.

Oh. Um... okay. Also, one more thing, Ranell.

Yeah?

Can you not send something that tastes like mummified cabbages next time?

sorry about that. We were worried more about how the portal would function with a moderately large load. It seems stable enough, but--

Just get to the point, Ranell.

We kinda forgot about the food part of the shipment until the last second. Let's just say that dehydrated salad probably isn't the best choice to send.

Psh. Yeah. Seriously. This stuff is gross. Even Delmar can't stand the smell when we opened the bag, and he told me that he was a part time janitor as a teen.

As for the supplies, I've already went ahead and patched the place up with them. Besides that though, there's not really anything else to do, so Delmar and I kinda started an improvised game of volleyball using the roundest thing we could find-- a tire. (Though, I don't know how or why there'd be a tire up here. Maybe for rovers or something?)

Log 4113: Satelite harvesting

Y'know, it's always nice when you get a grant from the UN to harvest dead satellites while you're trapped on a recently revived space station. It really helps to grab parts with a steel cable net as they pass by, since it kinda ends up counting as free parts for us to use.

In total we reeled in 5 1/2 TV satellites, a GPS unit's transmitter, and a few bits of old telescope models.

All in all, I'd actually have to say that we were pretty successful for the first time, considering how all we did was weld some piping and nets together and stick it on the outside.

Right now, I'm using the combined antennae of everything we hauled in to try and improve our transmission quality back to ground base. Sure, it requires quite a bit of bending and adapting, but it's at least something to do while we're bored.

Food is still meh.

Log 4117: FIRING THE LASERS!

Let's just say that, for the past few days, I've been pretty bored. Let's also take into account the fact that Delmar and I now had a huge scrap pile of parts available for the two of us to use for pretty much anything we wanted. On top of that, for no apparent reason, Ranell (or whoever shoved the box through the portal yesterday) left a high-power flashlight in with our rations.

Now, leaving it at that, let's also consider the fact that there were quite a few imaging satellites that we dragged in, or at least pieces of them. The massive telescopes they contain have extremely precise lenses, as well as mirrors that are engineered to be as flawless as physically possible.

Guess who just built a mini death-ray?

Obviously, since I'm not exactly one to bring doom upon the world, I naturally began testing it by firing at a few hunks of rubble that were passing by. Naturally, due to the lack of Oxygen, there wasn't any smoke or burning whatsoever. Instead, when I had my back towards the Sun, the additional sunlight combined with the flashlight pretty much melted through anything that was half an inch thick or less. Thicker objects took a bit longer, but considering how powerful the Sun's rays are up here compared to down on Earth, I'm not surprised at how short it took for the melting to begin.

Delmar, being obviously happy at the fact that we now had a way to avoid damage from certain objects, happily allowed me to keep my mini death-ray tethered to an empty spot in the storage bay. So far, we've already destroyed a few unsalvageable bits of junk in our way, allowing for me to not have to go out and patch holes every day.

Besides, the spacesuits that Ranell sent us aren't exactly meant to be used every day, at all times anyways. I'm just glad that I don't have to use my airtight suit combined with random bits of junk anymore. That thing seemed like it would fall apart at any moment.

Ranell: Price Wars and Recruitment

Urgh. It's probably not the best for me to not have slept for the past three and a half days, but someone's gotta show some dedication. The same's gone for a lot of the other guys here, and since we've long outlasted coffee, we've pretty much moved onto playing screeching noises through the internal network all day long.

Why? Because we've found out that the launch set for three days from now was cancelled by it's reserver, and now the company's released an auction for that spot. Naturally, since everyone these days wants a vacation hotspot, the bid ended up starting at just around a million or so. We've been trying all we could to scrape together cash to place a bid, but every time we do, some rich butthead just one-ups us, and sometimes even bumps the price even higher on purpose.

But hopefully, with our most recent bid of a crazy-high six million, we'll be able to get a spot for ourselves.

For now though, I've been sending out messages and advertisements asking for volunteers to man the shuttle up to Gadget and Delmar, but so far, none of the people who've entered meet the qualifications.

I just hope that they're doing well up there.

Author's Note

Ranell hasn't been reading Gadget's logs recently. :trollestia:

Log 4120: The incredibly boring life of doing absolutely nothing because you're stranded in a hunk of metal that's rocketing through space at high speed

As you can probably tell from what this log's titled, I'm bored. Most of the big problems that were around when Delmar and I first got here were pretty much solved or destroyed entirely using various little *ahem.* gadgets that we made.

And yes, I've gotten to the point of which I am now using puns for entertainment. Yay me.

...

...

...

Aaaand Delmar's watching Spaceballs again. Even though that thing's old as heck. Meh.

I mean, sure, I could probably get away with incinerating a bit of the junk we've been collecting for the past week or so, but I doubt that Delmar would agree with using a high-powered laser to light things on fire in the same room we've been living in.

Y'know what I mean? Yeah. Okay.

...Geez, I'm talking to myself, aren't I?

Ranell: S.S. SpaceFart setting course!

Alright. So apparently SpaceLiner has a sense of humor. We won the auction last night with a bid of just around $20,000,000, but considering how much funding we're getting to get the portal going correctly, I highly doubt that it'll put that much of a dent in our budget.

And yes, I forgot the fact that we're getting public funding. We already returned all of the donations back to the people who sent them, along with a complimentary "I helped! (kinda)" t-shirt.

So now it boils down to finding someone to man the ship. It's currently set to launch tomorrow, since the original launch date had already been pushed back multiple times by the auction. That means that... well, if we don't find anyone soon enough, it might end up being me that's sent up to rescue Gadget and Delmar. After all, out of all of the scientists in here, I'm the only one who knows how to even remotely pilot anything, even if it's just from a flight simulator that I've played during times of inactivity.

If not, there's at least always the autopilot function to fall back on... so... I hope that we can find someone soon...

One more thing: along with the name, the shuttle itself is actually wrapped in a UV-resistant, heat-resistant layer of Beans&Clouds imagery.

Author's Note

Beans&Clouds is actually something that currently doesn't turn up anything on Google. :trollestia:

Log 4121: Rescued by... Ranell?

Hey Gadget, just an FYI, I'm coming later today to pick you up.

Ok... WAIT WHAT?!

Does 8 p.m. suit you? Or should I go later just to drag Delmar from his sleep?

Ranell... what are you freakin' talking about?!

I'm just messing with ya. Though, I am getting ready right now to be sent up in a shuttle to safely bring the two of you down.

Yeah, you'd better get us down safely. Also, about that comment about dragging Delmar from his sleep...

What?

With how many packs of instant coffee powder you've been shoving through that daily delivery portal, I think he's gonna need rehab to stop eating the powder dry. He hasn't slept for the past few days, and all he does is sit and stare at the Z.S.S. monitor setup, even if it's blank.

Um...

Gotcha. XD

I'm just gonna... put my suit on now.

Okay.

ALRIGHT, WHO THE CRAP THOUGHT IT WAS FUNNY TO GIVE US A FARTING BEANS ROCKET?!

"Gadget? Open up, please."

"Ranell?" I asked, looking around for the boy. "Where are you?"

Ranell thumped on the one remaining functional airlock bay, his voice echoing from the console speaker. Funnily enough, Delmar really is sleeping right now.

Alrighty then... let's see here...

"DEPRESSURISING AIRLOCK 93-2." blinked across the monitors.

Okay then. Seems to be working just as well as the last time we tested it.

"UNLOCKING AIRLOCK 93-2"

"AIRLOCK 93-2 NOW SHUTTING"

"AIRLOCK 93-2 IS NOW PRESSURIZED TO CABIN LEVELS"

"AAAAAAY!"

"WAIT WAIT--" Ranell reached a shaky arm towards a grab bar. "--Remember? Muscle control issues? I've been getting better at controlling it over the past few weeks out of necessity, but there's always a chance that something crazy might happen."

Oh yeah. I actually forgot entirely that he had that problem.

"So... uh, do we just hop into the shuttle now or something?"

Ranell shook his head. "This shuttle isn't designed to dock with cargo bay airlocks like the one this space station has. I've had to carefully anchor it to an area where it wouldn't damage anything important if it drifts."

I shrugged. "Fair enough. Should I just float Delmar into there, or should I wake him up by cramming this foil onto his forehead?"

"Just wake him up normally. We don't have time," Ranell replied as he made his way towards our stash of things sent through the portal. "Have you tried on the new suits we sent you?"

I nodded.

"Has Delmar?"

Another nod.

"Good. Though, it's gonna be hard to get him into that thing if he's still sleeping."

I grinned. "Sleeping? That won't be a problem..." quietly, I picked up the foil ball, inching up to the scientist.

"No, Gadget. I said wake him up normally."

Fine. I'll just pinch him or something.

"We're going on a trip, in our favorite rocket ship, soaring through the skies, Litt--"

"You know, I can hear that."

"The rockets on the ship go zoom zoom zoom, zoom zoom zoom, zoom zoom--"

Ranell fiercely whipped around in his seat to glare at me a second time. "Be glad that we're in autopilot," he seethed as he slowly turned back.

Geez, I haven't seen him this agitated before. Probably all the craziness going on...

Author's Note

Don't forget, the conversations between Gadget and Ranell have been pretty much entirely through a satellite-based version of texting, so naturally, emojis. XD

Also, we're now entering part 2 of Space Horse, which will once again focus back on topics from Lab Horse while I plan out a draft for the next iteration. :scootangel:

Log 4122: Square One

Ugh. I really should stop waking up like this whenever I'm in some sort of space vehicle. It reminds of of waking up confused in space.

Wait. Where are we?

I see water, more water, even more water... and apparently I'm drenched in... saltwater? Welp. I'm sure glad that this tablet's waterproofed... not to mention the fact that it's easily hidden pretty much anywhere now as long as I cloak it properly.

Crap. Um... there's gravity, so we're back on Earth, but I'm not entirely sure if we're on actual ground.

"Ranell?" I called out, lifting myself from the seat, "Hello? Anyone?"

Nothing.

"Delmar?"

No reply.

Cautiously, I began to climb towards the cockpit, fearful of what I could encounter. Suddenly, I felt the entire shuttle jerk back a bit, sending me tumbling back into the seats.

"ONE, TWO, THREE, TUG!"

The shuttle lurched another couple inches.

"ALRIGHTY, OPEN 'ER UP AND GET THE LASS OUT!"

Hm... I think I'd better disguise myself...

There. That's better.

I opened the ceiling hatch of the shuttle, climbing out carefully to avoid falling into what I assume is the ocean. Delmar and Ranell were watching nearby on a beach, and as for the shuttle, a group of burly men were slowly but surely dragging it onto a dock.

"Ah. Awake now, are ya?" laughed a man wearing a bandanna, "You's boyfriend over there told meh that you was sleepin' in their sinkin' ship."

"Wait, sinking?" I returned in surprise, glancing back towards the shuttle. "Couldn't they have brought me out themselves?"

Ranell stuffed his hands in his pockets nervously. "We tried to, but... by the time we were able to get the raft inflated, the shuttle had already begun to fill a bit with seawater, so we thought that it'd be best to shut the hatch and flag down a fishing boat or something. I promise you that we didn't try to abandon the shuttle or anything. Ask Delmar if you want his side of the story. He'll say the same."

I looked to Delmar, who was already nodding.

"So, where are we, anyways?"

Ranell shrugged. "Honestly, I'm not all that sure. All I know is that somewhere along the line I must've accidentally disabled autopilot or something, 'cause the ship's dash told me that we missed the landing pad by a few hundred miles.

"Why didn't I feel anything when the shuttle hit the water?" I asked, turning back towards said shuttle. "Oh."

So apparently, Ranell managed to screw up autopilot, but at the same time deploy enough parachutes to look like we killed a swarm of jellyfish.

Author's Note

Woo hoo! We've gone from stranded in space to stranded on a fishing island! (Though I'm not naming any specific location. 'Yknow, just to keep it vague for the sake of vagueness.)

Log 4123: It's a good freakin' thing I've got a tablet with a solar charger.

'Cause seriously. I don't like the idea of using a payphone that's been rusting for the past century to try and reach an internal Comm Line back at the lab... or headquarters... or whatever it is that they named it.

Alrighty then... Oh wait. i don't have contacts to anyone else at the lab.

Um...

I probably should've listened to the Comm guidelines for the list of numbers.

At least Ranell probably knows a couple. I hope.

TEXT OBFUSCATED--USER REQUEST
REASON: SENSITIVE DATA

Alrighty then. So from what he's said, we're gonna be back home by the end of the week. The unexpected landing put a massive dent in our budget to pay damage fees to SpaceLiner, (even though it was partially their fault-- you shouldn't have a "Disable Autopilot" button in a place where you can bump it), and now they have to figure out where the heck they can get a small plane or a helicopter. All I know is that we'll be off of here soon. Maybe.

Author's Note

Considering how the passage of time in this has been tracked by log numbers, even I have no idea what day it is in the story anymore. :rainbowhuh:

Log 4124: Boating Home

Author's Note

I took the time to comb back through the series to see if I ever left any mentions of the date. Nope. I forgot entirely that I wanted to keep the date vague on purpose, and only say that the rest of the logs after the first one took place "Eleven Years Later".

Welp. I have no idea when the weekend is in this story then. :facehoof:

Log 4124: Boating Home

Alrighty. The boat arrived today, so I've got to start turning my focus back on the portal to Equestria while this boat I'm on brings me from wherever I was back to home.

Speaking about the boat... it's certainly no yacht by any means, nor is it some shoddy sailboat that looks like it came from a junkyard. Ranell, Delmar, and I were rescued by a bunch of our guys in a rented speedboat, contrary to our expectations of waking up to a helicopter or a small private plane or whatever.

Bleh. Anyways, aside from missing my expectations with the boat, I guess I'll be returning to watching over the progress of things while the portal's being worked on. After all, along with finally being "home" again, part of our funding deal was that we'd also have to attempt to open trade relations with Equestria when I arrive, which is partially why Delmar is likely coming with me as well. The other reason why he's coming might be because he doesn't appear to like living on this planet anymore. I'm not sure where I heard that, though. It's just a rumor.

Either way... once the first portal is built, in order to open proper trade we also have to be able to scale the size of the portal to a proportion that would allow for mass transit and high capacity shipments, meaning that the portal design that's currently being used will need to pretty much be scaled up to monstrous proportions.

It's always nice to feel the ocean breeze blowing in your face. The saltiness in the air, the crashing waves, there's quite a bit to enjoy out in the ocean when you're not panicking about being stranded. (That is, aside from seasickness. Delmar seems to always be the unlucky one these days.)

With our current speed, I'm pretty sure that the island we were on is probably just one sitting near the mainland of whatever country, 'cause we've pretty much been at cruising speed the entire time, and a trip from the middle of the ocean at this speed would take us days to return. That being said, I've noticed that Ranell seems to be letting himself loose quite a bit more often as well, laying back on the seats and such when normally he just kinda bundles himself up out of fear that he might lose control of himself and lash out at something again. He's talked before about stuff like his hand attacking himself or something like that, and honestly, I'd rather not see that. I'm just glad that he's getting more and more under his own control these days with the help of his meds... and perhaps a bit of stealthy muscle tweaking on my part in the late hours. Besides, isn't nerve rewiring basically just biological circuit design in a way?

Meh.

Log 4125: Plane ride of ultimate contemplation

Author's Note

What do you do when you're on a long, boring plane ride? OVERTHINK EVERYTHING! :pinkiecrazy:

Some of this stuff Gadget's gonna talk about may or may not be spoilers for the next story.
Can you guess which one it is?

Log 4125: Plane ride of ultimate contemplation

Freakin' geez. That sure took awhile to get back here. Either that, or I've just slept so long that it's now the next day.

Oh. It's the next day.

Welp. We're at an airport now, so I'm assuming that we're gonna be on a couple hours' flight back to wherever the lab is, and then I'm gonna continue the ever-boring task of trying to get the portal to work.

And speaking of the portal... earlier today, before I started this log, I got a message noting that we were able to open a relatively stable two-way portal again, but this time to not-space. Yeah, yeah, I know, the wording's stupid, but you can't blame the filly for not knowing the words, alright? (Even if said filly has been living in a scientific environment her whole life...)

Now, here come the big questions that've been on my mind lately: What if Equestria isn't all that it's said to be? Who ever said that an entire reality would be dictated by a mere TV show, one that's been dead and gone for the past half a century, for that matter? How would this supposed "Equestria" react to a filly and an old man popping out of a portal that appeared out of nowhere?

And what if Equestria isn't even close to how it's been depicted in the show? What then? This entire project's funding stems from the idea of opening trade relations with one of the most accepting markets ever seen. If Equestria's anything but that, all of the money we've been given for this would immediately be sucked dry, and many of us would be left on the streets.

After all, the only way we've been able to pinpoint what universe this portal's gonna link to is to use material from said universe. Namely, me. If it turns out that I just happened to pop out here as a pony, and originally came from some wacko universe where top hats are eaten like fries or something, then I doubt that the portal would even be considered again. Besides, it was already hard enough to use traces of my DNA to locate a host universe this time around, but how are we to know that it's even the right one?

If you ask me, the only way to tell would be if I had mysteriously gone missing from that universe as a very young foal, and hadn't returned since.

I wonder what my parents would be like? I mean, sure, they're probably gonna be overjoyed at my return and all, but I wouldn't be the same filly as the one they lost. I've grown up here, on Earth. I've got my own life, and heck, I probably have a completely different name from the one I was given at birth. In fact, I'm tempted to wonder if I was even a pony at all back there, since with how the Equestria Girls movies depicted inter-universal portals as--

"Would you like some snacks?"

"--ways tooooo.... what?"

The flight attendant raised a brow, and asked me again. "Would you like a snack? Something to drink, perhaps?"

Oh. Right. We're on a passenger flight to avoid wasting money on a private jet. I nearly forgot that I've been staring blankly ahead for the past like, 15 minutes. And in my human disguise, as well.

Delmar raised a hand. "I'll have some peanuts." He said, "And let's have a soda for my granddaughter."

I turned to Delmar, mouthing "seriously?" to him as he handed me a can of generic cola.

"Hey, next time, you try to come up with a cover in under a second." Delmar whispered back, "You'd probably come up with the same answer."

Meh. Fair enough.

Log 4126: Back to work

Alrighty then, back to work now! Or is it... 'Ugh... back to work now?'

Either way, I really wanna see what progress has been made so far on the Portal. I know, I know... Ranell's already given me a bit of news on what's happened earlier on at times, but sometimes you just gotta see it for yourself.

Hmm. I can certainly tell that the portal's bigger than before, but I can't tell if it's functioning yet... We'll get around to that later.

It seems like there's also been some work done on upcoming diplomatic relations, judging by the various posters, pamphlets, etc. sitting in the corner of the portal room. It seems like the team's just about ready to jump on any government they encounter, considering as to how their paychecks are relying entirely off of whether or not they're able to establish any sort of trade.

Aaaanyhow... as for me, there's once again not all that much to do, which, if you remember, is, or was, pretty much the entire reason why I kinda broke a few weeks back.

I'm just gonna go and see what there is to do.

Log 4128: Breaking News

Huh. That sure didn't take long...

The data breach, I mean.

Like, whoever stole it must've been some sort of evil genius, considering as to how they've already got their own working prototype.

Did I mention that somehow, they've managed to grab a bunch of the offline files, as well? 'Cause that means that there's only one way that they've stolen the data, which seems to be from the inside.

Now, I fully trust Ranell and Delmar, considering as to how they're the ones who've been helping to construct the original portal, so at least those two are ruled out of this...

As for the prototype, we were able to detect its existence by the means of tracking the access history of the breached files, not to mention simply reading the freakin' newspaper.

Geez, whoever's doing this is either extremely determined to get it done their way, or they want to do something on the other side of the portal...

I have no idea.

Also, I'm hungry. I'll probably grab lunch in a bit.

Log 4129: Snooping

Alrighty then. Quick bagel breakfast, check. Juicebox, check. Tablet, check. Super-awesome epic skills, check.

We're gonna go snooping today. Ranell and Delmar are running my job for today, so I've now got the time to look around and see if I can find any clues as to who's been stealing copies of the files, as well as building their own portal.

First of all, the networked files seemed to obviously be streamed, as made apparent by the crazy flurry of alerts that the firewalls have been barfing out. I'll start with a simple IP tracking...

...

...

Oh. So apparently every accessed file within the past half a month has been on localhost... that is, the server itself is pulling files. Welp. That only makes the case even more suspicious, considering how only people on the project have access to this thing.

Unless...

Nope. No tunneling I can detect, no proxies, VPNs, etc. etc... so yeah, I'm pretty sure now that someone is doing this while noone else is looking.

I can't do any fingerprint dusting, either, since obviously others have already used the system since the breach. I'll have to maybe set up a keylogger or a camera or something, and watch throughout the night. That is, if the perpetrator happens to be some sort of night-lurker. Taking that the file copying was logged during daytime hours, I'm pretty sure that it wouldn't be someone coming in at night.

Either way, security cameras aimed directly at the server console should do the trick.

Log 4130: Dr. Hagen... THIEF?!

Author's Note

Didn’t see that coming, did ya? :trollestia:

Hagen is painfully oblivious.

Have a big block of dialogue.

Log 4130: Dr. Hagen... THIEF?!

Okay... I’ve got security cameras lining the perimeter, and hopefully, by tomorrow, I’ll be able to--

Hey Gadget, it’s Dr. Hagen.

Um... Hi? How’d you reach me this way? I thought that only Ranell--

The kid told me how to send you a message directly. He’s a smart cookie, that one.

So, why did you want to contact me? It’s not like there’s anything important to do, unless, y’know, you need me again to test some random pain meds or something again.

I noticed that you were building a portal.

...

...

What.

Yeah. I was able to source some parts from this “Acme, Inc.” place, and started building a prototype for you.

But... but how did you even get the data sheets?!

Oh, those? Delmar and Ranell agreed to grant me access to the server room if anything happened again.
That way, no matter where you’re sent, work can still continue smoothly.

WAT.

Not too long ago I came in overnight to see what the progress on the portal was without having to distract everyone else, but when I noticed how little progress there had been with it, I decided to take on the challenge myself,
and formed my own team to help.

Why didn’t you tell me?!

I thought Delmar and Ranell told you?

...

I’ll take that as a no. Well, if you’d like to, you can stop by anytime. We’re kinda running out of space in the spare lab to keep this thing, so maybe you can bring it back sometime.

Also, I still can’t believe that my guys over here were able to pull off building the portal’s framework as well as they did. ‘Cause... y’know, we’re mostly a medical testing group and stuff...

Hello?

You still there?

Log 4140: Portal V.2

“Alrighty then. Take two on the portal mission, do we have clearance to advance?”

”Yup. Portal state is active, little to no signs of instability. Transport rails and associative electromagnet propellant mechanism has been cleared for use.”

“Delmar?”

“Wh-huh?”

”Good enough, old man.”

I can’t believe this is happening...

“Ranell, are the thrusters initialized properly?”

”Yup.”

In the short time of only a few months...

THRUSTERS ONLINE.

INITIALIZING SHIELD ROUTINE

READY FOR PILOT INPUT.

We’ve pulled off the impossible...

I eyed the launch controls on the shuttle’s dashboard. Avoiding the fiasco that was my accidental trip into space, there’s now an additional autopilot override switch, complete with traditional controls.

Though one plainly obvious button still stood out among the rest.

“You got the anesthesia?”

Nevermind. Delmar’s already out cold.

...

...

...

THRUSTERS ACTIVE.

Launching in <10 seconds.

...

...

5

4

3

2

1

Activating electromagnetic field. Please remain seated.

Log 4103: Space

The HUD in my helmet tells that around a day has passed since we arrived. I still feel like we're floating... somewhere...

Slowly, with a groan, I opened an eye. It was just as I feared... the portal led us to the wrong location, and from the looks of it, that wrong location is a freakin' space station.

Ugh.

From the corner of my eye, I can see that Delmar's also quite awake as well-- and clearly panicking. I highly doubt that he expected to wake up floating upside-down with a book on his head, anyways. I'd panic too, if I were him.

I turned back around to take a look from the viewfinder on the controls.

OOoooooh crap.

So, y'know how we were ejected from the portal at a high velocity? And how the portal misled us into a space station? Those mice survived because they were small enough to not disturb the portal, and also able to breathe in the space station... whatever it's called. As for our capsule thingy, that was apparently a bit too big. I'm rotating the viewfinder all around, but I see no signs of any portal. On top of that, we apparently accidentally crushed a large portion of this particular room in the station from the velocity of our capsule.

I have a feeling that we've just screwed ourselves over. Hold on, I'm pretty sure that if we're in space... wouldn't it still be possible to contact satellites?

Lemme check... disable airplane mode, re-enable network connections, and... connected!

Um... Ranell?

Hey. Wait, I thought that you'd be disconnected when you reached Equestria!

Yeah... about that.

Please don't tell me that you exited in the Everfree Forest.

Nope! We collided with a space station!

Okay the--WHAT?!

I highly doubt that it's the ISS though. I don't really see anyone onboard either, so this is either an under-construction model, or it's a derelict old thing. Idunno. I don't see any sort of labeling or branding here.

Here... just turn on your video feed for a moment. I don't feel like snooping into your tablet's controls right now to do it myself.

Sure.

Okay then. Just point the camera at the viewfinder's screen now. I don't need to see Delmar there doing the chicken dance of crazy.

Heh. Okay.

Wow... yeah, most of this room is just gone.

Let's just ignore the destruction for now and focus on HOW THE CRAP I'M GONNA GET HOME.

Well... the portal collapsed on itself back here, but we could try to reopen a smaller one in the meantime to send supplies.

Yeah, do that, I guess. It's two-way, if I remember correctly. Right?

Yes, I can probably get a cleanroom cleared out to send and receive items using the portal.

Good, 'cause I'm feeling hungry, and I'm pretty sure that Delmar needs, like, a tranquilizer or something.

Also Gadget, you may want to repair the damage in the meantime.You'll be up there until we can either send a shuttle, or until we're able to create a more stabilized portal.

Ain't that obvious.

Yup. I'ma go get the team rounded up to go over plans and stuff, since you're not exactly here anymore to direct anyone.

I turned to Delmar, who had somehow went from freaking out back to being perfectly chill, reading the same book. That man clearly has had problems ever since the whole me-on-the-news fiasco practically jump-started him a mid-life crisis.

Well... I guess that I could try welding our capsule to the remaining intact pieces of the space station, considering as to how the portion we apparently crushed is literally shattered, into millions of pieces.

So yeah. Delmar and I are probably gonna be trapped up here for a little while. I'd might as well take a look around the place, considering how I've already got an airtight suit on anyways. Obviously, it's still gonna be dangerous though. Which is exactly the reason why I've got a force-field up and running already. It's actually pretty easy to make one, anyways. All you have to do is levitate and hold the material of the force field in a static position, or at least relative to the position of what the field is meant to protect, and--

"Alright... Gadget? How the f*** did we get here?"

Huh. Delmar finally realized what was going on without freaking. That's always nice.

Now then, on to the work I've gotta do now.

I unclasped the seat belts, and slowly tumbled/floated towards the exit hatch. My space-suit was already on anyways, and just for good measure, when the airlock releases, I'm gonna be trapping a bubble of air inside my force-field for good measure. Delmar worriedly watched as I entered the air-lock. I turned around, staring straight into his face.

I proceeded to shrug, and cram my hoof onto the airlock button, and careened out the back of the capsule.

It's kinda relaxing, in quite a weird way, to just slowly float away from it all. Nothing dramatic, mind you. Just slowly, slowly, drifting away.

Oh yeah, rope. Eh. I can levitate myself. Kinda like how Starlight Glimmer did it in the episodes, too. From what I can tell, she just pretty much formed a solidified shell of air around herself, using it as a moldable pocket to carry herself in. Though, in my case, it was literally just harvesting nearby bits of destroyed space station, and creating a hardened shell that I could bounce myself off of. 'Cause with such a small amount of air available in my bubble, solidifying and holding that in place would be disastrous.

Okay, so I've now come over onto the space station side, and holy freakin' geez, is this thing big. Now that I think about it, this might actually be a section of the decommissioned old ISS, from before they built and launched the new and improved model. Sweet!

Now then, onto the welding.

Author's Note

Do y'all think that I should continue color-coding messages between Gadget and Ranell from now on?

Gadget's text is normal black, while Ranell will be this blueish-purple.

Log 4104: Shuttle Talk

Author's Note

It's quite hard to write this story compared to the original Lab Horse. Why? Because they're in a closed environment, so there's much less to work with. I can't have the crazy shenanigans that happened in Lab Horse occur in Space Horse, simply because they're suddenly separated from the rest of the world.

Log 4104: Shuttle Talk

Well, the welding I did last night went pretty well. I'm not able to personally tell anymore on what time it is, aside from the clock on my tablet. And I'm sure glad that I can charge said tablet entirely off of my own abilities.

Now then. I'm getting a bit distracted. Aside from welding the place back together using nothing but telekinesis to create enough friction to heat things up, there's also the problem of establishing communications with a ground base. I can already communicate using my tablet, but they wouldn't be able to pinpoint my location, which means that the portal would very likely open again in the middle of nowhere.

Delmar's awake as well. He's been looking into the various consoles and controls available, and I'm pretty sure that he's already got a bit of functionality going.

Hey, Gadget. You okay?

Yeah, why?

Just wondering. Do you have any way to create some sort of tracking beacon for us to map the portal to? We kinda need to send you guys food and stuff still.

I guess. I'll tell Delmar.

Okay. Also, it's gonna be much easier if we send a shuttle up to dock at the station and bring you back, since creating the portal again might result in an even worse outcome than last time.

Like?

Like as in you don't travel fast enough before it collapses, and you end up getting cleanly sheared in half.

Ouch. Yeah, how long would the shuttle take, anyways?

Erm... we don't have the funding to build our own shuttle, but we can probably send you a commercial SpaceLiner rocket.

SpaceLiner?

Yeah, they're a small-scale space tourism company nearby that rents out their shuttles when no-one else is using them. The rockets they use have hydrogen fuel cells, too, so you don't have to worry about fuel explosions.

Ahem. Hydrogen.

Oh yeah. Right. One of the volatile elements out there.

Just tell me how long it'll take for them to get up here.

I'm not entirely sure. From the looks of it, they've already got a backlog of touring sessions. It's probably gonna be a few weeks.

Fine. Just make sure we don't die up here.

Ranell: Sheet Metal and Shuttles

Seems like Gadget and Delmar got a pretty big beating from the collision. From what I've read, Gadget's essentially waiting for nothing but sheet metal and other supplies, so I guess I'll try to speed things along over on my side.

Of course, there's also the whole deal going on with trying to find a cheap and reliable shuttle service to rescue Gadget and Delmar. Space-X has a huge backlog of launches for the next year at the least, and our current pick, SpaceLiner, still won't have any open spots for the next week and a half.

We could also attempt to downsize even further and just use a cheap unmanned shuttle, but it would be much harder to work out a flight path than to simply have a driver guide the shuttle like they normally do with the commercial models.

There's also the problem of a rendezvous point. Even if we do choose a commercial 'craft, we'd still be limited to a small number of meetup locations, due to the orbits of satellites and such all occurring so close to each other. In that case, we'd have to wait for a certain point in time to properly launch and meet with the space station, and wait once again for another opportunity to return.

...And this is why most tourist shuttles just fly low-Earth. Close enough to space, but very little conflict over paths.

What I'm saying is, there's just no simple way to rescue Gadget and Delmar. They're stranded in a hard-to-reach place, and we're down here, literally waiting for an available time to open up just to fire a tin can into the sky.

I guess I'll just get back to preparing our first delivery...

Log 4118: Space Pinball

Huh. Turns out that not only does the mini death-ray destroy things, but if I reduce the power output of the light, it starts to ever so slightly push things as well.

Now, I'm not saying that Delmar and I have been playing Space Pinball with a mini version of the mini death-ray, but... yeah, we've been playing Space Pinball with a mini mini death-ray. Obviously, we've got strong eye protection to shield us from the low power laser, but it's actually quite fun trying to use nothing but the force of light to move a ball of tinfoil around the room.

Essentially, the tinfoil acts as a solar sail, and since it's such a small and light object, and the laser is focused on a single point on it, it makes for a pretty fun game of bouncing tinfoil balls off of random objects.

I still haven't heard any word on progress on the portal, however.

At least the food is decent this time.

Author's Note

What could've happened to Ranell? Mob attack? Earthquake? All nighters that have required for him to now listen to TV static to stay awake because coffee has no effect anymore? :pinkiecrazy:

Log 4119: Just some pondering...

Lately, I've begun to think about what Equestria might be like... After all, pretty much the only thing I have to go off of at the moment are old episodes and the occasional re-run that I've caught off a passing TV satellite.

One does have to wonder... what might've happened in Equestria since the last episode? Would it be entirely nonexistent, the lack of a show and storywriters dooming its theoretical existence to an eternity of nothingness?

Okay, okay. Yeah, I know, this is probably getting too deep. I guess this is just what happens when the only guy around to talk to is one who's been watching sitcoms streamed from ground base all day. Delmar, I'm lookin' at you. Ahem. but yeah, space pinball and tire volleyball tend to get boring after the first few hundred matches, so we've both kinda gone off and done our own things. Me, of course, sitting down and thinking about the possible world I might find myself in later on.

Like, what if Equestria has gone through its own version of the Industrial Revolution by the time I arrive, and so everyone there is just all steampunk-y and stuff? Or if Equestria doesn't even exist anymore, and I end up in some warring faction in the middle of a bloody struggle?

Or, what if it's just a normal, everyday, run-of-the-mill, garden-variety Equestria, and nothing crazy happened?

Meh. Too boring.

I gotta go now.

:P

Well that conversation was sure short.

Log 4127: Of COURSE there's a data breach.

'Cause who else would want full control of potential trade relations with Equestria then a band of no-gooders who just want to fill their pockets with other people's suffering?

Now, I'm not gonna name any specific groups, considering how these guys were able to get past more proxies and firewalls than I can count on my hooves...

... Actually, that's not really all that much. Uh, more than the hairs on my tail?

EITHER WAY... We're now dealing with a group that may potentially build their own portal for the sake of ransacking Equestria. At least, that's what I've been assuming for a while.

Currently, my main question is, why? I mean, sure it's possible that they may have the technical knowledge to completely redirect the portal to a different universe, but the odds of them getting to the one they want is very slim if they don't have anything originating from the aforementioned universe.

But... yea, there's not much we can do right now except to trace whatever digital "fingerprints" the culprits may have left behind, but if these guys are professional, like as in, "digital mercenary" special, than we're pretty much screwed.

At least even though they grabbed large portions of our databases, they don't have the complete set of work. 'Cause y'know, sometimes, keeping a few files offline saves you quite a headache.

Log 4135: Status update

Starting automatic logging function. Reason: User inactivity.

...

Subject found.

Establishing neural connection...

...

...

25%

...

...

...

50%

75%

Connection denied. Reason: User intervention.

...

...

...

Manual logging enabled by the user.

Okay then. I should really start getting into the various functions of this thing. The last thing I need is an autolog of me when I’m having some weird dream of some sort or whatever.

Aaaaannnnyways... since I’m on this now already after what felt like a strange zap to the head, I’ll just go ahead and give a full status update of what’s been going on.

First of all, with the whole clueless Hagen incident, we’ve managed to settle the dispute of our supposedly “stolen” IP with “New Age Pharmameuticals, LLC”. That is, Hagen’s parent company decided to cooperate in full with our own to avoid a lawsuit. After all, might as well begin branching into an entirely new plane of reality if you want to grow your business, right?

So, yeah. Aside from what looks to be a possible merger due to the close collaboration associated with the mess I was in before, as well as the fact that we’ve got a secondary portal to compare our own to as sort of a “Mark-2” prototype, things seem to be going well.

We’ve gotten a relatively stable balance running on both portals, using one to experiment and the second to improve, and so far, the portal itself is rated to be stable up to about the size of my head... Not that I found that out personally or anything. Noone’s allowed near the portal during test operations, so I’ve just figured that out from the test results.

Welp. That’s pretty much all for now, so I guess I’ll just get back to work.