Find Her, Stay With Her

That night, Ed and Danny were waiting in the general area of the hotel for Kyle and his family to come back. They were still not sure, however, about what happened earlier that day.

"I don't know why they vanished after that blinding strobe..." Ed said.

"...Maybe they were taken by aliens?" Danny suggested.

"Don't go stupid on me like Kyle, son..." Ed said. "...ain't so such thing as aliens!"

"Maybe they suddenly disintegrated! Or maybe they passed into another dimension! Or maybe--" Danny said before getting cut off.

"Give it a rest, Danny." Ed said. "Whatever that was, it was probably some weird trick or somethin' for them to get away from us. I'm sure they'll be back soon..."

Danny yawned. "...Can't we do it in the morning? I'm tired..."

Ed sighed. "...Fine. We'll get up bright and early tomorrow, wait for them to check out, and then we'll give 'em what's coming to 'em!"

With that, the two made their way back to their temporary shelter in the aqueduct.

The Soyuz had undocked from the ISS, and was now slowly making a descent towards Earth. Once they had gotten far away enough from the station, Kyle assumed manual control of the spacecraft and used the cold gas thrusters that surrounded the exterior of the Soyuz to orient themselves in the proper trajectory for reentry; the spacecraft was essentially "flying" backwards.

"From the look of the GPS... we are right at the one-eighty mark on the other side of the planet from Florida. We're gonna need to eject the Orbital and Service Modules in order to achieve stable aerodynamics when we enter the atmosphere. From there, we'll be running on just the batteries in the Descent Module." Kyle said over his helmet radio.

"But will we make it to the ground in one piece?" Jan asked.

Kyle sighed. "Depends on the heat shield..." he said.

At that moment, they were picking up an emergency frequency on the Soyuz radio. Curious, Kyle adjusted the dial to get a clearer link and make out the voice a little better.

"...ISS to Soyuz, do you copy...?" came a man's voice.

"We're not gonna answer them." Kyle said. "We can't let them hear our voices. All this will be heard by NASA, ESA, Roscosmos, and JAXA, and they could trace it back to us."

"...Repeat, ISS to Soyuz, respond immediately...!" came the voice again.

Kyle continued to make adjustments to their course, running the burn that would slow them down and reduce their altitude, putting them far behind the space station, eventually losing radio communication. After which, he began to adjust their course in a way that would make the descent ideal for landing in the general vicinity of Florida.

"What are we gonna do once we get down there? How will we get back to the hotel?" Lyra asked.

"First, we run." Kyle said. "We destroy this space-lemon and get the hell outta Dodge! After that, we'll need to head for any nearby city or town... and I guess we'll just have to call an Uber driver or something (and I'll be sure to give the driver five stars, because we're decent people)."

The Service Module was depleted, and the burn had concluded. They were now at an ideal reentry velocity.

"Okay... beginning separation." Kyle said, looking through the manual and pressing buttons on the panel.

After a few moments, there came a few loud bangs just outside of the spacecraft, as if someone struck the upper hatch with a sledgehammer. The two outermost module of the Soyuz separated, as well as the periscope, leaving only the middle Descent Module.

"Now... we are going to do something that has, to my knowledge, never been done before." Kyle said.

"What's that?" Jan and Lyra both asked.

"We're gonna hope that we touchdown... without any help from Mission Control. We're going to attempt reentry all on our own." Kyle responded.

"I just hope this thing stays together... something tells me it's not gonna be a smooth ride back down." Lyra said.

At that moment, they all heard something strike of the Soyuz with a loud ping. Lyra briefly took off her restraining harness to look out of it.

"Uh, Kyle..." she said. "...wh-what are all those... dots in the distance? They're getting closer--woah! One just passed, and it looked like a piece of metal!"

Kyle's eyes went wide. "Shit... Kessler Syndrome."

"What Syndrome?" Jan asked.

"Kessler Syndrome..." Kyle said. "...it's from collision of meteoroids or artificial satellites in Earth's orbit, which creates more debris with each object they hit in a chain reaction, traveling many times faster than a high-speed bullet relative to the velocity of the ISS or the Chinese station, Tiangong."

"Is it gonna hit us?" Lyra asked.

Kyle sighed. "...We'd better pray we can get under it before it catches us!"

After contemplating for a moment, Kyle pressed a button on the Soyuz control panel, which uplinked his helmet radio to the spacecraft's computer, and another button which looked like a red circle amidst other recording options like the ones on a DVD player.

“This is Kyle Schaeffer, recording from the Soyuz Descent Module in the event of death upon reentry.” Kyle began. “I am a stowaway aboard the Space Shuttle Arbiter on the mission STS-173, as is my mother, Jan Rhodes-Schaeffer, and my wife, Lyra Heartstrings-Schaeffer. Yes, her name is Heartstrings, because she is a Unicorn, in human form, from Equestria. As it turns out, the universe of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, is in fact, real. And that contact with this other world is possible through both advanced quantum and magic means.

"She is only to be here for one week, after which time, she will revert back into her pony form. Once that happens, the ruler of Equestria, Princess Celestia, will come to retrieve her... and I intend to be there to truly bid her farewell. But whether or not we live or die... it doesn't matter. As long as I'm with the two people who I care about most in this world... I'll be happy either way."

Kyle stopped the recording, and Jan and Lyra both looked very confused.

"What are you doing, Kyle?" Jan asked.

"Are you trying to give us away?" Lyra asked.

"It's just in case... anything happens." Kyle said. "If we touch down safely, we'll destroy it all."

The Soyuz was beginning to shake a bit, and they were starting to feel themselves being pulled backwards into their seats as the drag was slowing the capsule down. There was a visible conical air stream surrounding the Descent Module as it was entering the exosphere. It continued for several minutes, and the light outside was starting to slowly turn orange, and the shaking was getting more intense, as well as the G-forces they were experiencing.

"Okay..." Kyle began. "...get ready. This is gonna be a bumpy ride on the way down! We'll either be alive or dead in the next ten minutes by the time we make it to the ground. From our trajectory on the GPS... we'll be right around Florida when we either touchdown or splashdown."

A field of plasma began to form around the heat shield of the capsule as its temperature had reached a sufficient point. A trail of fire began to follow soon after, surrounding the Soyuz. The three inside all had their hearts pounding, and were still under the gradually-amplifying force that was pulling them back into their seats.

They began to lose altitude at a quickening rate, and soon enough, they began to pass over America.

Some kids were having a sleepover and playing games in their back yard that evening. They were being quite energetic and rampant... up until they saw something in the sky.

"Hey, look at that!" a girl said, pointing up at the sky.

All of them looked up to see a bright streak shooting across the sky... it was the Soyuz capsule containing Kyle, Jan, and Lyra, making its descent. But to the children, it was something else...

"A shooting star!" a boy said, turning to the girl. "You get to make a wish!"

The controls were becoming a bit unresponsive. Kyle was trying to control the roll of the Soyuz, but it was not working in the way it was supposed to, and it was very slow to respond. Plus... the entire panel was flickering, the screens were glitching, and there were sparks flying out of the machine. A rapid beeping noise was also coming from it.

"It's no good! The computer's overheating!" Kyle said.

"What are we gonna do!?" Lyra asked.

The three of them sat anxiously, Kyle fiddling with the unresponsive controls, trying to correct their roll, but it was not working.

Wait... Kyle thought. ...maybe my... ability... can get us down safely. Instead of the controls... I'll use the very thing that has gotten me out of SO MUCH shit before...

Immediately, Kyle closed his eyes and tried his best to achieve concentration, despite the immense turbulence of the Soyuz. It took quite a bit of tuning out, but he was able to put himself into a hypnotic state, invoking his power, and focusing on the capsule, as well as his mother and his wife, using his psychic eye.

The heat shield was burning off of the Soyuz reentry capsule, and it was at a temperature higher than it was designed for, given how fast and steep they were coming into the atmosphere. The plasma was now so hot that it was creating a white-hot dome at the front of the heat shield that was too bright to look at up close... but no doubt created some amazing spectacle down below.

A man was driving home from work in the city back to the suburban region that he lived in after working a late shift. It was just a typical drive, as usual...

...But then he saw a streak of light in the sky as he was driving. He sat forward in his car a bit to look at it more clearly as it passed.

The G-forces were becoming overbearing at this point. All three of the spacecraft's occupants could hardly do so much as lift their heads. However, one of them was not phased by the situation.

Kyle was still focusing with instinct on Jan, Lyra, and the Soyuz... but his intense concentration was making him clench his teeth and squint his closed eyes. Veins began to pulse in the side of his head.

Regardless, he was still invoking his power... and it slowly began to guide the Soyuz towards the desired location...

Lyra happened to glance over at him, and became curious as to why he had his eyes closed and stopped using the controls... but, using her magic, she was able to sense strong energy he was giving off.

Ah... he must be using his 'human power' again... she thought.

There were some people having a nighttime barbecue in a park just outside of a downtown city area. They were all drinking, talking, laughing, and listening to music. Generally, they were having a good time. But...

...Their joy turned into a mixture of awe and shock at what they saw next. One by one, the party members spotted the blinding light with a trail in the sky heading straight towards the point zenith to them, at an incredibly high speed.

"Woah..."

"What is that...?"

"Holy crap...!"

They kept their eyes on the Soyuz as it flew overhead, creating a subtle, but sudden bang moments after passing them due to it going far beyond the speed of sound.

They were losing speed, as well as altitude, and now they would simply arc into the general Florida area. With a little luck, they would be back near Cape Canaveral.

Kyle was still in a meditative state, his eyes closed, immensely focusing with his sixth sense... but he got a sudden nosebleed, two crimson streams running down either side of his face inside of the helmet.

Suddenly, they all began to get a sensation of weightlessness; their descent had equated to Earth's gravitational acceleration, and the heat shield was now cooling.

Kyle sensed this, and opening his eyes, he reached for the flashing button that would open the chute, but it was difficult, because even in freefall, his arm felt like a lead weight. He was however, able to push the button. Each stage of parachute opened one after the other, usually with several seconds in between each stage. Eventually though, the main chutes opened, and the capsule descent slowed immensely.

Two pilots were flying a commercial airplane through the night sky above the Eastern Seaboard, heading West. They had been absently staring at the sky ahead of them, monitoring their route and the radar... up until they noticed something moving towards them on the radar. They were looking around, but could not see it.

Eventually though, they managed to spot something descending right ahead of them; the Soyuz with the parachute deployed.

"What the...?" one pilot uttered.

They did not have time to turn away from it, and were forced to hope that it would descend past them.

"Jesus fuck!" one copilot shouted as he feared they were going to get tangled in the parachute.

Fortunately, it passed them, and they continued on their course as normal.

"Shit!" both pilots said simultaneously, exasperated that they narrowly avoided a collision.

Jan and Lyra, despite being completely shocked, were both relieved that they were able to survive atmospheric reentry. Regardless, the Soyuz computer was still glitching and making warning beeps, as well as sparking.

"...I... I think we made it..." Jan said.

"Yeah..." Lyra said. "...good job, Kyle!"

"...Ahh..." Kyle sighed, just before he tipped his head backwards as he fainted.

Jan sat more upright, still bound by her harness in a laying position.

"Kyle? Honey, are you okay?" she asked.

Lyra knew what had happened, but she was afraid that Jan would not believe her if she told her.

"...I think he'll be okay." Lyra said.

"Uh... there's blood running out of his nose!" Jan said, somewhat squeamish.

"It'll be fine! I'm sure he just had a panic attack or something..." Lyra said.

She realized how much it probably took for him to ensure that they would be alright.

He's probably never had to invoke that much energy before... Lyra thought. ...and all for your mother and me. Oh, Kyle, sweetie... you're the best a mare could ever ask for!

"...Soyuz in the Blind, this is Houston..." came a voice on the spacecraft's radio. "...We have confirmed your location on radar, and we are dispatching helicopters to your location right now... Soyuz in the Blind, please confirm identity..."

Lyra and Jan's hearts skipped a beat at the sound of the radio over their helmets' PA.

"Well... we need to wake up Kyle before we touch down!" Lyra said. "And then we gotta run!"

The Soyuz was making its final descent towards an open, grassy area. At this point, the overheated computer had sparked sufficiently to ignite a fire inside of the capsule, and it began to fill with smoke. When the craft was three meters above the ground, it fired the soft-landing jets, concealed by the heat shield that jettisoned before the parachute opened, creating a strong jolt that pulled the three back into their seats... and this was enough to wake up Kyle.

"...Uh... unnnnggggh..." Kyle groaned, blinking his bloodshot eyes.

"Kyle!" Lyra said. "Oh, good! You're up! C'mon! We've landed! Let's get out of here!"

Lyra turned the lever for the hatch on the side of the capsule, but then she stopped.

"Wait, what am I doing? I still have MAGIC!" she said.

Immediately, she teleported them outside of the Soyuz, leaving behind the spacesuits inside, and they were visible once again. Kyle was struggling to stay upright, swaying uncontrollably. Right as he was about to fall, Jan and Lyra caught him.

"Kyle, are you okay?" Jan asked.

"...Y-yeah..." Kyle responded, wiping the blood off of his face. "...just... just the G-force..."

"Well... we're finally back on the ground!" Lyra said. "Now let's get back to the hotel!"

"Wait..." Kyle said, lifting his head up at the Soyuz, which was becoming smoky in the crimson-flickering portholes.

He narrowed his eyes at the spacecraft, which had its parachutes subtly tugging it as they were blowing in the wind.

"...send that space-lemon to oblivion, Ly! Leave no trace of us...!" Kyle said.

Lyra shrugged. "I thought the fire would do it just fine... but okay!"

Her eyes glowed amber for a moment, as did the Soyuz... and then it disintegrated into ash.

"Okay... let's go!" Kyle said.

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Lyra said, her eyes glowing once again.

In an instant, all of them vanished in a flash of light. Lyra had teleported them back to the hotel, leaving literally nothing for the NASA helicopters that were closing in the location right at that very moment...