Centuries after Twilight earns her wings she presently leads a large arm of the Equis Space Program. She sent out two shuttles to study the effects of long term space journeys on the average pony mind; long flights that could go for years just weren't done except with special trained astronauts.

Shuttle Two runs into a problem a few weeks out and they need to figure out why and what to do about it.

Note: while I, hopefully, start out with a tragic horrifying note it will not retain it.