"Well, all these days of going at it night-and-day without sleep is really making me tired..." Danny said.

"I know, son." Ed said. "But were gonna get there! I know for a fact that he lived in this rural area just outside the city somewhere..."

"So, does he have a little shack out in the middle of nowhere or something?" Danny asked.

Ed sighed. "No, that li'l cunt's got a house that's bigger than any one man needs in his life! And he's got a big metal lockbox o' cash stashed away in his basement!"

Danny's eyes went wide.

"You mean... he's making a lot of money with his art!?" He asked. "That's messed up! I should be getting money like that from a career in sports! How does he even do it!?"

"You tell me!" Ed said. "I'm guessin' he just rips off people who are too stupid to understand fair pricing!"

In truth, the real reason Kyle made a lot was because he basically devoted full-time hours to painting, and was able to breeze through them fairly quickly thanks to the years of practice he has had with Photoshop and Paint.NET over the years.

"But no matter what... that little bitch is gonna get his end of the gun!" Ed said.

"Yeah!" Danny acknowledged. "So, how far now?"

"Not far..." Ed responded, getting a careful look at the layout of the area.

"Okay, got your suitcase packed up, Lyra?" Kyle asked.

Lyra nodded. "Uh-huh, but remind me... what is it we're doing again?"

“We're gonna be driving out to Cape Canaveral to watch the Shuttle launch!” Kyle said.

"Uh..." Lyra uttered, looking lost. "...what does that mean? Sorry, you humans have some things I don't know about..."

Kyle explained that the Space Shuttle was a spacecraft, a vehicle capable of launching from the ground with enough thrust to exit the atmosphere and enter the circular gravitational loop around the planet, called the orbit.

Space Shuttle Arbiter was going to be lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center on the following day to begin the mission STS-173, to deliver a crew and cargo to the International Space Station. The Shuttle was fitted with two modules in its payload bay; one would serve as an orbital habitat module for the crew, containing life support systems, secondary computer systems, additional rest and recreation space, and a second toilet, and the other was a cargo logistics module that stored additional consumables, water, science equipment, ThinkPad laptops, and other necessary cargo to deliver to the ISS.

After the retirement of the outdated Shuttles Atlantis, Discovery, and Endeavor back in 2011, newer models, which were to be designed for beyond-orbit travel to Mars one day, were commissioned by NASA for the Space Transportation System program, and these comprised of Carthage, Pursuer, Vanguard, and the one that would be launched the next day, Arbiter.

"So... they go up into the sky, and go around the world?" Lyra asked. "How does that work? Isn't the world... a flat plate or something?"

Kyle chuckled. "Sadly, that's what a lot of people still believe even today. But actually, Earth, the planet we are on, is a sphere; a huge ball. If you just kept going in one direction nonstop, you would eventually come back to where you started, from the other direction. It's just so big that you can't tell it's spherical, and gravity pulls everything to the center of the planet, which is its center of mass."

"Oh, right..." Lyra said in realization. "...I remember being taught something like that in Kindergarten back in Equestria... something about Equestria being a continent on the planet 'Equus' or something..."

They continued to pack, Jan rushing into and out of the house to the van to pack the suitcases, two coolers of food and drinks, chairs, umbrellas, sunscreen, and anything else they would need.

"Make sure you two bring water with you on the ride as well!" Jan said.

"Okay, Mom!" Kyle responded.

Kyle continued to gather his belongings that he would bring for the trip... but he noticed Lyra moving a bit sluggish with a gloomy expression.

"What's the matter, Ly?" he asked.

Lyra sighed. "In just three days... I have to go back to Equestria..." she said.

Kyle frowned as he listened.

"And then, our time together will really be over!" Lyra said. "I don't know about this, Kyle... I don't know if I can live without you!"

"I know..." Kyle said, getting saddened at the idea as well. "...but what can we do? How can we have a stable relationship with unstable dimensional rules?"

"What if..." Lyra began, pondering. "...what if I could convince Celestia that I want to stay as a human and stay here with you forever?"

Kyle bit his lower lip. "...I don't know how that could work out. It might not be a good idea, because in this world, you've got no parents... no driver's license... no Social Security number... no birth certificate... no school transcripts... I mean, all that together means you basically don't exist."

"So? What's the big deal about that?" Lyra asked.

"Well, you can't lie about any anything in your life to people hiring you for something like a job, because they run background checks. And, in your particular case, you can't tell them the truth, either! Nobody would take you seriously if you went 'Hi, I'm Lyra Heartstrings, a Unicorn pony from the magical kingdom of Equestria!' That's definitely a one-way ticket to the nut house! And finding out that you're just a Jane Doe will be a bigger problem!" Kyle said.

"He's right." Jan said. "There's no feasible way you could live here without the government giving us a lot of trouble. They would know that you had ties with us, and then they would be asking us a ton of questions that would be impossible for us to answer..."

While they continued to discuss this, they had not bothered to look at the television in the living room, which was still on. The channel was FOX News, and was covering a very peculiar story...

"Police in the Atlanta region are warning civilians to be on the lookout for two escaped inmates." the female reporter said. "They are Edward and Daniel Richardson, who, coincidentally, are father and son who have both recently escaped from a penitentiary in the outskirt of Atlanta, where the son, Daniel, was serving a four-year sentence for felony assault with a deadly weapon, and the father, Edward, for a number of felony charges, including breaking and entering, attempted murder, attempted burglary, and resisting arrest.

"Police have had no leads as of yet on the two escapees, but urge civilians and Neighborhood Watch to be on the lookout, and to keep their families and homes safe, as these two men have been declared 'short-tempered and prone to violence with little provocation'. For your FOX News Alert, this is Penny Shepherd."

In the foyer, the three occupants of the house had decided to dispel the matter for now, and carry on with their trip.

"Okay, I've already made a reservation at the hotel for later tonight. If we leave soon, we should be there on time..." Kyle said.

"We should be set to go here real quick..." Jan said.

"Sounds like this is gonna be pretty awesome!" Lyra said. "I've never seen a spacecraft launch before!"

Meanwhile... Ed and Danny had finally found Kyle's Mansion.

"So, that's it?" Danny asked, shocked. "Jeez... he lives like a douche!"

"Yep. But that's gonna change real fast... because he's gonna see what happens when you disrespect me, disregard my heavenly advise, and make up some bullshit to land me in jail!" Ed said.

Danny nodded, smirking.

"I say we build a jail from an old cement building, lock him up, and only give him a little food and water at a time, so he suffers for the rest of his stupid-ass life!" he said.

They started to approach the house, being careful to avoid being spotted, up until they were in the blind spot behind the wall of the place. The cameras might have seen them, but Kyle and the others were too busy to check them. However, they happened to take note of something right as Kyle and some thin, white-haired girl came out with him and left some more items in the car.

"This is gonna be exciting!" Kyle said. "Been awhile since we last had a trip, huh baby?"

"Oh, I'm looking forward to it, honey." Lyra responded.

The two kissed for a moment, just before going back inside to grab the remainder of their items.

Danny's jaw dropped at the sight of this.

"How that shitbag get a hoe!?" he asked, shaking his head. "Bet twenty dollars he date-raped her, and she was okay with it or something!"

"And... that other woman... that was Jan!" Ed said, furiously biting his lip. "Bitch thinks she can walk out on an awesome man of a man like me... leaving me without enough income... and leaving her runt with me, which was sorta nice since he would do work for me... but still..."

"It looks like they're going on a trip. Why don't we... tag along with them?" Danny suggested.

Ed pondered for a moment, but then smiled evilly. "...Good, son. That'll catch them outside of the comfort of their little-ass home!"

The two then hopped the gate and made a break up the driveway to the vehicle, quickly opening the trunk before the Schaeffers or Lyra would return and see them. The trunk was effectively clear, since Jan loaded all of the luggage into the far-back seat of the van, as well as two in the middle row, leaving the remaining seat for Lyra. They simply jumped right in, and closed the door.

At that moment, the three house occupants emerged, Kyle closing and locking the door behind him. He had enabled the security system to alert him on his phone if there were any intruders, just in case. With that, the three got into the car and Kyle revved up the engine.

"Alright, who's ready to watch a giant, airtight plane shoot up into space?" he asked enthusiastically.

"I am!" Jan responded.

"Ditto!" Lyra added.

Without anymore delay, the trio took off... but not alone. Ed and Danny remained laying in the trunk... all with the three up front unaware that they were even there...

Author's Note

I was recently contacted on Skype by a Wattpad user by the name of "NathanIgoJr", who has written a series of stories that are pretty interesting, and some are kinda funny! I want more stories like these to be brought to people's attention, so... SHOUTOUT TO "NATHANIGOJR"!