"Blast it all." A heavy folder was tossed aside as the lab head turned away from it. "We get a taste of magic and they think it can solve anything."

Sunburst peered at the folder curiously, but his eyes soon flicked to his boss. "What are they asking for?"

The man waved at the discarded folder. "Apparently the Great Satellite Crash? There's like a 60% chance something caused it. Some living thing. 'Some creature', as ponies like to call it." He folded his arms over one another. "They're hoping we in magic dev can make up something for defense the next thing they send up there."

Sunburst frowned at the idea. "Hm. Up above the sky, right?" He'd seen some writing about it. "That is tricky. We could..." His boss was eyeing him with intense interest. "Um, I mean, we could put a shield around them, something that doesn't stop radio." He rubbed the side of his head, avoiding the patch that connected his artificial ear to the world. "But if we don't know what or who is the problem, it might not be strong enough."

"Exactly what I'm afraid of. What's even the point of putting a shell on it if we don't know what it's protecting against? It's like putting on a helmet and hoping that's enough safety." He threw his hands up briefly. "But they want it. Can you even blame them? Satellites are a big deal. Not having any was a situation we thought we left behind."

Another engineer close by raised a pen. "What about some lasers? We got those right?"

Sunburst squeaked at the idea. "Technically yes, but what would a laser that's not being aimed be good for?" Not that the idea of zapping anything with a laser sat poorly with the pony. "Do we want to go right to violence?"

The debate went on.

He was home, nice and safe. But it wasn't as quiet as normally it had been. A Secret Service agent sat in the corner, watching.

Two teens were playing videogames on his television. The boy was winning, from the grumpy expression the hybrid of a human female was giving.

Their parents were with him, seated on the couch or in front of it facing them. Paul's vacation had turned out to be less relaxing than he had hoped for originally. "You don't have to stay in the middle of this," Paul noted to the gathering in his home, human and not. "I really do appreciate you lending a hand in the middle of the madness, but we're home. You have lives to live."

Mobile rolled her eyes at his attempt to shoo her. "That isn't how that works." She poked at Paul lightly. "Something is going on. Something big. The satellites were taken out, hear about that?"

"Hard to miss." They had all watched it, together, on that TV. The news had played, reporting on that event diligently. "I don't know how... They must be going nuts." But it wasn't his job anymore. And he couldn't ask. Well, he could ask, but he couldn't expect an answer anymore. "But how does that end up with... This?"

"Ah ha!" Swift Swim had apparently turned things around, standing triumphantly, at least in the game, over her downed opponent. "Hey, Mister Goldstein, want to play next?"

Paul smiled a little. His life had become far more noisy, but... it was also less lonely. "You're alright, hanging around some man with a mysterious past, who is also a changeling?"

Tim shrugged softly. "I was attacked, by something. I'll take a friendly shapeshifter over whatever that was. Besides, I hear changelings are pretty nice."

Mobile bobbed her head in agreement. "Brightly colored and bright of heart. Lovable things, I hear." She considered Paul critically. "You aren't nearly so colorful."

Paul was a human. At least he looked like one. He was one of those far more often than anything else. "Look, if you're all comfortable..." Not a complaint came up. "I'm alright sharing. But don't you have work?"

"Work I can get to with a lot less stress." Mobile rose up to all four. "Knowing they're in a safe place, with caring people. Paul, thank you, so much." She reared up to give him a sudden hug. "Leaving them alone is just not a thing I want to do right now."

A new, larger, family unit had formed.

"It takes three years." The president was facing a storm of cameras, watching her every move. "We have the technology, but building them is not an overnight process. We didn't have a warehouse full of spares. This isn't normally a thing you need that many spares of."

Her fingers tightened out of sight on the lectern. "We have no proven source of the destruction, but are investigating thoroughly. This is not a mistake that can be repeated." It wasn't her fault. There was nothing she could have done in her time as president that would have changed what happened, but she would take that blame.

Thus was a president's fate. "We will update you as details arrive." Cameras flashed and questions rose in an anxious roar. The public demanded answers. A pity she had few to offer.

Twilight inclined her head, her magic moving her telescope along for the ride. "Interesting..." A floating quill made notes diligently. A loud snap brought her attention away. The quill had broken. "Drat..." Well... It was time to try something new. She opened a box and reached inside, plucking out a ballpoint pen. "Let's see how this works."

She was soon making marks with the new instrument. "Huh." And back to stargazing she went. "Hm."

"What are you looking at?" Spike was there, ascending the stairs from below. "You don't get this excited every time."

"Something attacked." Twilight leaned back, raising a hoof to the sky past her telescope. "The humans are very upset. They put things up in the sky, and something took them out, destroyed them. What would do that?" She looked over her shoulder at Spike. "Dragons don't fly that high, do they?"

"Not that I know of." Spike shrugged a bit helplessly. "Never saw it myself."

Twilight tapped a hoof on the ground. "Well, we don't have the human Internet, so it's time to return to the basics."

"Read a book?"

"Precisely!" She went over to grab Spike with an arm, hugging him gently. "You know me too well. I'm going to head to the Canterlot library. Celestia's store of knowledge may have the clue we need. Wanna come with?"

Twilight and Spike flew off to read some other books, and maybe find an answer.

Tirek grabbed Grogar by the bell. "While she's off getting into trouble with the humans, why aren't we using this more? What's the point of getting it to not use it."

Grogar shoved Tirek back with ease despite the difference in size. "All in good time, and this is a fine time... With the humans blinded and distracted, we can strike. We just have to do it where they aren't paying attention. So that's your assignment." He sneered at Tirek. "Get me a list of kingdoms with the least human contact."

Tirek groaned at the job assigned him. "Fine, if it gets us moving." And he stormed off with an angry swish of his tail.

Chrysalis sat next to Grogar with a smug grin. "You're welcome to congratulate me again."

"I will do no such thing." Grogar twisted his head towards her. "Those things, what you got to attack the humans. Can you contact them again?"

"What for?" Chrysalis raised a brow, and did not answer the question.

"That you even have to ask." Grogar grunted, walking away from her. "They lashed out at the humans and were not dashed to a thousand pieces. They are an ally I would like to count on my side. Can you or can't you?"

Chrysalis sighed softly. "Probably. Is there something you want me to tell them?"

"Hm." Grogar was just as capable of not answering the question asked. "Nothing, for now. I just want to be sure you can reach them. That may become important, later."

"Creatures are finding new job opportunities." A window sprang open, two of them, one showing a pegasus at the front of a ship, wings flapping as they pointed the way forward. Another showed a hippogriff in a command room, pointing at a map with a big smile. "With better innate sense of direction, they're filling in for our missing GPS and enjoying the cash that comes with it." The sound of a cash register jingle played.

"The Great Cable has resumed work." Another boat appeared, replacing the other windows. "They estimate Equestria will be back online in a matter of weeks."

A new window, showing an engineer. "They're going to love it. A big fat fiber optic line will give them more bandwidth than they even know what to do with. Equestria and America will be a second away, through the Internet."

"Excitement is high in Equestria. They had grown to enjoy the connection even at slower satellite connections. The idea of it returning, but better, has their ears pricked."

A new window sprang open with a grinning mare. "I'll finally be able to see that last episode!" It was the same mare from the other broadcast. "And even faster? You humans are wizards!" She placed her hooves somewhere on the camera, past the lens? "Why do you keep denying that you're full of magic?!"

"Though people continue to wonder about the missing satellites, others have their eyes forward to the future!" An image of the globe appeared, showing that line under the sea touching Equestria, spidering out onto a brilliant web of connectivity. "In related news, the pentagon promises more eyes on the sky."

A new window, showing a stern faced general. "This is completely unacceptable. We will not allow such attacks on American property, and without consequences?" The man grunted in obvious annoyance. "We will make sure that never happens again. Anyone. Anything that thinks it can attack America without consequences... Just to make it clear, we are capable of defending against menaces to us in the sky. They may have caught us by surprise, but that'll only work once."

"In other news, a first! Running for a senatorship, a complete newcomer." An image showed Cozy waving with a bright smile at a cheering crowd. "Running on the democratic ticket, Cozy Glow's motto is 'An Outside View For Modern Problems.'" The image showed Cozy Glow actually saying her statement to eagerly watching supporters. "Leaning into her lack of political experience, she's leveraged her fresh face to win backers to her side and could win the purple district she's running in blue at the rate she's going."

The image was replaced with a question mark. "Which brings up a question as popular as she is. What is she?" An image of a pony appeared under the question mark. "She isn't a pony." A random lady appeared beside the pony. "Or a human." A line appeared between the two. "A hybrid? To talk about the possibilities, we brought..."

Chrysalis set a holed hoof over her face. "That damned brat did it." She applied her other hoof. "After all that effort!"

"What are you moaning about?" Grogar approached with a stern step. "Your favorite 'show' get cancelled?"

"Worse." Chrysalis waved at the news segment that had gone on past that part. "Cozy Glow's running for the human senate." She smirked suddenly. "Fool."

"Fool? That sounds like a success." Grogar scowled at Chrysalis. "What are you not sharing?"

"A senator, I looked them up, when making my moves." Chrysalis crossed her arms. "They can't make any decisions on their own, only vote and shout and argue. Powerful, but compared to the president? So much less power in only person. At least she didn't go for a representative. Ugh, worthless."

Grogar smiled maliciously. "Sounds like she needs a manager. Good thing I know just who to send."

Chrysalis did not like the way she was being looked at.

Author's Note

Politics! Also space dragons, but they don't know about that yet.

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