Chapters Trouble for the PAW Patrol
Five hours earlier…
One evening in Adventure Bay, Ryder was working on his ATV in the Lookout’s garage when he suddenly heard the alarm go off for an incoming call. Running upstairs, he saw four calls coming in at the same time. The first one he answered was from Liberty in Adventure City.
“This is Ryder. Go ahead, Liberty.”
“Ryder, I need some heavy assistance here in the city. A fire has broken out in a large hotel where Humdinger is serving his sentence as a steward. According to him, he was informed by the front desk that several power-strips on the third floor got overloaded and began sparking before the power could get turned off. He got out fine and alerted me, but there are still several guests trapped inside. The front doors have collapsed and the fire is trying to jump to other buildings on either side.”
The next call was from Everest.
“Ryder, I need help up here. Two skiers are trapped at the top of the mountain and there is a snowstorm raging. I’m on my own; because Jake broke his leg yesterday while snowboarding. The skiers are trapped because the lift has malfunctioned and stopped working.”
The third call was from Rex.
“Ryder, this is Rex. The volcano in my area has erupted violently and lava is coming towards several nests where dinosaurs have their eggs. I need help calming the dinosaurs and keeping the lava away from the eggs.”
The last call came from Tracker.
“Ryder, I am dealing with a potentially toxic problem in the jungle here. There are polluters dumping toxic waste into the main river. Carlos is sick and unable to help me.”
Ryder was startled by all four of these calls. Without hesitating, he pulled out his data-pad and called the other six pups. They had just finished a late evening game of ball when their tags began to flash.
“Ryder needs us.”, they all said together.
Ryder proceeded to activate the flashing red light atop the Lookout to indicate the emergency was serious. When the pups saw this, they began to run faster.
“That can only mean trouble.”, Marshall said worriedly.
They rushed onto the elevator and got in line to get in uniform. Once they had reached the top, they stepped off and sat down in front of the screen.
“PAW Patrol ready for action, Ryder Sir.”, said Chase.
“Thanks for hurrying, pups. This is possibly going to be the hardest mission we’ve ever had. We have received four calls from Liberty, Tracker, Rex, and Everest at the SAME TIME.”, Ryder said in a state of worry.
“WHAT? ALL FOUR CALLS AT ONCE?”, shrieked the pups together.
“First of all, Liberty called in a fire at the hotel where Humdinger is serving his arrest sentence as a steward. He alerted her HIMSELF about what happened. Multiple power-strips on the third floor got overloaded and sparked before the power was cut. Also, the doors have collapsed and trapped guests inside. Marshall, I need you to get inside there and rescue the guests. Show Liberty how to operate your water cannons so she can shoot at the flames. Skye, I need you to tag along and provide aerial support to get water on the roof. Rubble, you must use your tools to prop the door frame up so Marshall can get inside.”
“I’m fired up.”, replied Marshall.
“Rubble on the double.”, replied Rubble.
“Let’s take to the sky.”, replied Skye.
As they set off getting ready, Ryder explained the remaining calls.
“Next up, Rex called in a volcanic eruption in his area. The lava is headed towards several dinosaur nests and the dinosaurs are panicking. Zuma, I need you to take your hovercraft and use explosives to divert a river so it stops the lava. Rex will work on calming down the dinosaurs.”
“Ready, set, get wet!”, Zuma crowed.
“The third call is from Tracker. He has spotted polluters in his area and they are dumping toxic waste into the river. Carlos would help him, but he’s sick right now. Rocky, I need you to help him stop the dumping and then clean up the spill.”
“Green means go.”, said Rocky.
“Chase, you and I have the last call. Everest informed me of two skiers trapped at the top of the slopes in the mountains. We need to help her get them out. Jake can’t help her because he broke his leg yesterday while snowboarding. You will ride with me since your cruiser isn’t yet modified for snowy environments.”
Chase understood and he followed Ryder down the pole to Ryder’s ATV. As they left, Ryder contacted Mayor Goodway about what was happening and to send for help if they were in trouble. He gave her a data-pad that showed the progress of each group’s mission. This was equipped with a CALL button in case all four groups were downed. After Mayor Goodway acknowledged what Ryder had told her, Ryder and the pups set off on their missions.
**
In Adventure City, firefighters in the area were battling the flames to keep them from jumping to other buildings when the pups arrived at the scene. Marshall deployed the out-riggers on his fire truck for stability before raising the ladder. After telling Liberty how to use the water cannons and hose, he gave some heat-resistant clothes to Humdinger.
“Rubble will need you to hold up the door frame until he positions the braces properly.”, he explained as Humdinger put on the suit.
“I can’t argue with that, Marshall. I wouldn’t be a proper hotel steward if I wasn’t helping the guests.”, Humdinger replied as he put the gloves on.
Marshall attached a water tank to Skye’s helicopter and she flew above to smother the flames on the roof. Once Rubble had secured the braces to the doors, which was hard work, he began making his way back to his rig to move it. Unfortunately, he had inhaled smoke while securing the braces and he blacked out. He had also parked too close to the heat and his rig’s engine was getting too hot. In an act of kindness, Humdinger grabbed Rubble, placed him in the driver’s seat on his rig and then pushed his rig away before it reached the point of exploding. Then, he flagged down Marshall as he rushed a guest out of the hotel. When Marshall ran over, Humdinger told him that the wind was about to pick up.
“Marshall, this is Skye. I need to refill my water tank.”
“Copy that, Skye. Be careful, because Humdinger has just told me that the wind is picking up.”, he replied to her.
Skye acknowledged and flew for the waterfront. She was able to refill, but her return was jeopardized. As she flew back, she hit turbulence and ended up flying into a jet-stream. Her engine began to stall, but she got it going again. However, she was not fast enough to get the engine running. She was still spinning and was about to crash. To avoid hurting herself, she ejected. What she didn’t know was that the spinning had caused her helmet to fall off. She hit her head, which knocked her unconscious, and scraped her front paws on the ground. Her helicopter knocked over Liberty’s motorcycle before slamming into a streetlight post.
Marshall had just freed the last guest in the hotel when he had to make a run for the doors. He was out of oxygen and had to hold his breath. He ended up tripping over a broom handle and fell on his stomach. A ceiling tile fell on his head and knocked him out before he could stand up again.
Outside, Liberty was doing her best to keep the fire contained when a balcony railing broke loose. She scrambled down the ladder to get away, but the railing hit the ladder and sent her flying across the road. She hit her head against the outside of another building and then fell to the ground, breaking all of her legs and passing out.
**
In the dinosaur jungle, Zuma got right to work placing the explosives. He set one at the base of a tree and then formed a line that ran to a point in front of the lava flow. Once the explosives were detonated, the water began to flow perpendicular to the lava. Suddenly, Zuma heard a cry for help.
“ZUMA!”
It was Rex. Zuma turned on his sonar and rushed towards Rex’s signal. He soon found him hanging onto a vine for dear life at the river’s edge.
“Rex, what happened?”, Zuma asked.
“A mama triceratops accidentally kicked me into the river. She was in too much panic. I struck an exposed tree root first and my wheelchair broke loose. Then I fell into the water. My wheelchair got washed away and I grabbed the vine.”, Rex explained nervously.
Zuma deployed his life-belt and pulled Rex out of the water. He then started heading for where the dinosaurs had been led, but they were too close to the lava flow for too long. They reached a safe location, but soon passed out from heat exhaustion.
**
In the rainforest, Rocky’s sensors picked up high levels of hazardous chemicals. Putting on a gas mask, he ventured deeper until he found Tracker holding his breath near the ancient ruins.
“Tracker, put this on.”, he said as he tossed him another gas mask.
Tracker put the mask on and started breathing normally. After climbing into the spare seat in Rocky’s garbage truck, he directed Rocky towards the dumpers.
“STOP! YOU’RE GOING TO KILL THE PLANTS AND ANIMALS HERE!”, they yelled.
Instead of stopping, the dumpers pulled out tranquilizers and started shooting at them. Rocky turned around to get away, but the darts pierced his tires and hit him and Tracker in the back. They crashed into a tree after Rocky passed out and lost control.
**
In the mountains, Ryder turned his ATV into a snowmobile and he and Chase sped through the snowstorm until they met Everest at Jake’s snowboarding resort. After letting them inside for a cup of cocoa, Jake explained that they would only be able to get 80% of the way to the trapped skiers in their vehicles.
“Wait, why’s that?”, asked Chase.
“Recently, Jake and I have spotted large cracks opening up in the mountain face. In mountaineering terms, these giant cracks are referred to as crevasses. They are often covered over by snow and hard to notice. The snow over them will not hold the weight of our vehicles. Since the skiers are 400 feet up the mountain, we can only ascend 320 feet on wheels.”
Not wanting to take chances, Ryder agreed and they headed back out to go up the mountain and free the skiers. Before leaving, he told Jake to watch for a signal flare. This would mean he and the pups were in trouble. After going up 320 feet, they draped snow shields over their vehicles and then Ryder tied 2 ropes to his climbing harness. One rope was tied to Chase and the other was tied to Everest. He also had 2 ice picks to probe the ground for cracks. They reached the summit after 45 minutes of traipsing through the snowstorm. At the top, they spotted the skiers, who were up to their knees in snow. While Ryder and Chase dug them out with snow shovels, Everest examined the lift mechanism to see what caused it to stop.
“Ryder, I found the cause of the malfunction. A fuse has blown. There are replacements in the toolbox inside.”, she called over the wind.
After putting away the snow shovels, Ryder ran inside to grab a replacement fuse while Chase and Everest led the skiers to the lift seats. After Ryder had replaced the fuse, he radioed Jake to restart the lifts. In a flash, the lifts began moving again and the skiers were taken back down to safety. Ryder and the two pups started back down the mountain to get back to their snowmobiles. He made sure to stop every few feet to check for cracks. He easily found two crevasses and led the pups around them, and then they continued on. After 20 more feet, Ryder probed a spot and it felt solid, but it suddenly collapsed under his feet when he stepped onto it. He fell feet first into the snow and realized that his body weight had opened up a crevasse. This one was covered by six inches of snow and one inch of ice. He began trying to stab his ice picks into the snow to catch himself, but it was no use. He soon reached the edge and he couldn’t stab anymore.
“FALLING!”, he screamed to Chase and Everest.
“RYDER, NO!”, they shrieked upon hearing him.
Before the ropes went taut, or tight, they started trying to dig into the snow in hopes of catching him. However, once the ropes went taut, their paws slipped through the powder until they got to the edge and slipped under the snow. Ryder felt the ropes go taut, and then he felt them go slack after a minute. Realizing this meant neither Chase nor Everest was able to catch him, his eyes welled up with tears. They flailed around in hopes of catching a point on the crevasse wall, but Ryder dropped his ice picks and Chase struck the wall so hard that he broke his back right paw. After falling 60 feet, they landed softly on a snow-covered ice bridge. More snow fell into the crevasse and covered their legs, trapping them. An hour later, both Chase and Everest had passed out from hypothermia, and Ryder was starting to black out as well.
**
Before Ryder had completely passed out from his hypothermia, he shot the flare to alert Jake that he, Chase, and Everest were in trouble. Jake saw the flare and radioed Mayor Goodway to tell her that Ryder, Chase, and Everest were in trouble. Without hesitating, Goodway looked at the data-pad that Ryder gave her and saw that the other pups were in trouble too. Knowing they were all in trouble, she sent out a call for help.
Upon arriving in the city, Smolder began to smell the smoke from the fire. She led the way to the scene where firefighters were keeping the buildings on either side wet to keep the flames from jumping. Pinkie spotted Liberty, Skye, and Rubble outside, but she did not see Marshall. Sandbar saw someone with the same description that Goodway had used to identify Humdinger. Running over to him, he asked where Marshall was.
“He had gone inside to rescue any guests that were trapped. He has not come back out. My guess is that he ran out of breathing oxygen and passed out.”, Humdinger replied.
Since Yona had a large amount of strength, she had carried medical supplies and two oxygen tanks to the site. Smolder rushed inside the hotel since she was acclimated to hot temperatures and didn’t need to wear protection. After spotting the red from Marshall’s firefighter uniform under three ceiling tiles, she radioed Yona for help getting the ceiling tiles off of him. Yona quickly put on a heat suit and rushed to break the tiles apart. Once Marshall was freed, they looked at his air gauge and confirmed that he was out of oxygen. Yona radioed Sandbar to get an air tank ready as they picked Marshall up and started rushing back out. Once they had gotten out, Pinkie led the firemen inside to put out the flames on the main floor. The fire was finally extinguished 20 minutes after they had arrived.
After Yona had put oxygen masks on Marshall and Rubble and Smolder had bandaged Liberty and Skye, it was time to return to Adventure Bay. Pinkie and Sandbar put the pups in the back of an ambulance that Smolder had driven to get to the city while Yona helped to load the pups’ vehicles into a trailer that was later hitched to the ambulance. They soon left the city and made their way to the Harmony so the pups could be placed in the medical bay. Once the four pups were placed in beds, their vehicles were taken to the Lookout to be repaired.
Applejack and Rainbow knew that they would possibly need to airlift Rocky’s garbage truck out of the woods; so they used a helicopter to get to the rainforest. As soon as they got out, they were hit by the fumes from the toxic waste. Putting on gas masks, they snuck up on the dumpers.
Applejack spotted a large tree in a position where it would fall on the dumpers’ tanker truck if kicked correctly. She rushed over and kicked as hard as she could. The tree fell down and smashed the front end of the tanker and startled the dumpers. Rainbow kicked them down and then locked them in shackles after closing off the hose valve while Ocellus poured a cleaning fluid in the river to neutralize the toxins.
After the tree was moved, Applejack tied a rope to the tanker and dragged it to a clearing for authorities to pick it up while Ocellus helped Rainbow secure a cable to Rocky’s truck. Once Rocky and Tracker were strapped in seats on the helicopter, Applejack joined Rainbow and Ocellus and they flew back to the Lookout as officials came to arrest the dumpers. Rocky’s truck was placed in its spot for repairs while Rocky and Tracker were taken to the medical area on the Harmony .
On the way to the dinosaur jungle, Fluttershy and Rarity discussed what the best way would be to slow down the lava flow. Rarity decided that if vent holes were created on the opposite side, the lava would stop coming towards the nests and go in the other direction instead. Silverstream was put in charge of rescuing Zuma and Rex while Fluttershy calmed down the dinosaurs.
After landing their helicopter, Rarity put on a heat suit and headed towards the back side of the volcano to plant charges for making the vent holes. Once the vents had been created, the lava stopped flowing towards the nests and Fluttershy finished calming down the dinosaurs. Silverstream radioed in that she had found the pups.
“I have found Zuma and Rex. They are 30 yards behind where the dinosaurs are consolidated. However, a medical scan on Rex indicates he is a paraplegic, which means he cannot move his back legs. Both of them are dehydrated and have passed out from heat exhaustion.”, she said.
Rarity and Fluttershy acknowledged the call and flew above Silverstream. They dropped a basket and a magnet in order for Silverstream to get both the pups and Zuma’s hovercraft out of the woods. She got into the basket herself once the pups were in the basket and Zuma’s hovercraft was hooked up to the magnet. Zuma’s vehicle was not damaged, so it was taken back to the Lookout while the two pups were taken to the medical wing on the Harmony .
Upon hearing from her aunt that they were doing a mountain rescue, Flurry quickly started getting some winter gear together and putting it on the helicopter. As they got close to the mountains, they felt the air get colder. After landing near Jake’s resort, they put their coats on and talked to Jake about who they were and why they had come. Jake explained what had happened and told them to be careful. Twilight nodded and they started flying upwards towards where Ryder and the pups were.
The snowstorm had already stopped before they arrived, so they were able to search much faster. Gallus started looking for openings in the ground and he soon found a large crack in the snow. Shining a light into the crack, he looked down with binoculars and he spotted the blue from Chase’s police uniform.
“HERE THEY ARE!”, he called.
Twilight and Flurry looked up to see him waving from where he had found the crevasse. After rushing over, Twilight set up a winch on an ice-screw. Gallus rappelled into the crevasse and started digging away the snow with his talons. After assessing that all three had moderate hypothermia, Chase had broken his back paw, and Ryder had broken his right hand, he radioed up for a tether line to be dropped. When the line came down, Gallus attached the line to Ryder after unclipping the ropes tied to Chase and Everest.
Ryder felt the line pulling up on him and he managed to get his eyes open. In the dim light, he saw Gallus pulling Chase and Everest out of the snow, but he thought he was hallucinating. As he was lifted higher, he passed out again. Gallus flew up and out of the crevasse with Chase and Everest held in his talons once Twilight had said that Ryder was clear.
“Let’s get them warm before it’s too late.”, said Flurry.
Twilight agreed and they found Ryder and Everest’s vehicles under their shields. After using the vehicles to get back to the resort, they loaded Ryder’s ATV onto the helicopter and quickly put the three in heated sleeping bags after splinting Chase’s paw and Ryder’s hand. Then they took off and flew back to the Harmony . Now that Ryder and all of the pups that were involved had been rescued, it was time to get them back in good health.
After getting the medals, Twilight and her crew decided to surprise Ryder and the pups with a vehicle that would allow them to perform rescues in space. It took a while, but they had soon finished the craft. It was absolutely ENORMOUS and had custom cabins for each of the pups, including the Mighty Twins and the Cat Pack. Since the ship was larger than the PAW Patroller , her hangar was constructed underwater.
When the ship was finally finished, the hangar doors were opened one night and the ship was raised up on hydraulic jacks to reveal it to everybody. Ryder, the pups, the Cat Pack, and the Mighty Twins were floored when they saw the ship and how large it was. Twilight and her crew were standing on top of the ship when it was raised up.
Twilight dropped a large sign to christen the ship as the Space Patroller and Rainbow set off some fireworks to celebrate. Everyone clapped and cheered when they saw how marvelous the ship was.
“If we ever need to call you in to help us with a mission, this ship will get you to us. Her main computer is already programmed with the coordinates to our home planet of Equus.”, Twilight said as she gave everyone a tour of the ship.
Ryder was ecstatic that this was being given to him. He greatly thanked Twilight and her crew for giving them this ship before they boarded the Harmony and took off to return home to Equus.
As Mickey and his crew sped further and further through deep space, their radar picked up a collapsing star about to go supernova. When Daisy calculated that there was no way to evade the explosion, Mickey called out to Donald.
“SHIELDS UP!”, he yelled.
Donald started to raise the shields, but he was too late. The star exploded and the first wave of energy hit the Disneystar . The shield generators were shorted out and the systems were overloaded. Suddenly, the warp drive’s power went off the scale and the ship began flying faster. Everyone could feel the g-force increasing and pulling them backwards in their seats.
“MY THROAT FEELS LIKE IT IS BEING SQUEEZED LIKE A SODA CAN!”, groaned Melody through her gritted teeth.
“MY EARS ARE RINGING!”, cried Millie.
“I THINK I’M GOING TO BE SICK!”, screeched Minnie.
Soon, the g-force was too much for anyone to bear and all of the crew members began to pass out. Toodles got shorted out by the energy wave, but his emergency reboot kicked in and he woke up. What he saw was the last thing he ever expected. Everyone was unconscious, all of the controls had caught fire, and the bridge’s main lights had shattered from overloading. He initiated a Red-Alert and then signaled the computer to engage the Emergency-Stop on the warp drive. The jolt from the Emergency-Stop roused everyone from their coma and the screaming alarm brought them back to their senses.
“Why isn’t the fire-suppressant gas kicking in?”, Millie asked out of frustration as she hurriedly typed in the gas’s deployment code several times.
“The pump is functional, but the lines are melted. The gas can’t get to the bridge.”, said Melody as she looked at their console’s LED screen and noticed a warning had come up.
“We’ve reached a planet with breathable air, but our orbit is rapidly decaying.”, cried Daisy as she looked at their position on her console.
“Not only that, but our radio’s fried from that energy wave.”, said Goofy sadly.
“ALL HANDS, ABANDON SHIP! WE’RE SCRUBBED!”, Mickey yelled frantically.
Everyone unfastened their seatbelts and began running to the escape pod launch bay. Since Toodles was programmed to track the pods, his heat shielding hatch was sealed shut so he wouldn’t be destroyed on re-entry.
**
On the E S S, Neighsay was making his rounds when an urgent alarm came in. When he ran to the main computer, it said “PROXIMITY ALERT: STARSHIP IN DECAYING ORBIT”. Knowing this was an emergency, he tried to contact the ship, but he got a notification that the radio was not working on the ship. Frantically, he called to Canterlot.
“Equestrian Space Station to Canterlot. Emergency Alert!”, he said over the radio.
“This is Twilight. Go ahead, Neighsay.”, replied Twilight.
“Your Highness, a starship has appeared in orbit and is decaying rapidly. Unfortunately, the ship’s radio is broken, so I can’t contact the crew.”, explained Neighsay.
Twilight acknowledged the report and she looked at the ship’s path to determine its crash site. The path showed the final impact would be in the center of the Everfree Forest. Since the area was close to Zecora’s hut, she radioed her.
“Zecora, this is Twilight Sparkle. A starship is going to crash in the forest near your place. I suggest you find a far spot to avoid getting hurt.”
Zecora called back and accepted what Twilight had said.
**
After Mickey and his friends had put their space suits back on, they got into their escape capsules and launched as they entered the atmosphere. Their ship was spinning as it plummeted to the ground, so the escape pods were sent in different directions. None of them landed in the same place. Also, Professor Von Drake had not shielded the escape pods’ hatch mechanisms to withstand the heat of atmospheric entry. So the mechanisms became overheated and melted, fusing the hatches shut.
As the Disneystar plummeted closer to the ground, she struck the tops of several trees before touching down in the Everfree Forest and skidding to a halt in the dirt. The heat from the flaming engines started a raging fire. The fire was intensified when the fuel tank ruptured and began leaking. Luckily, Spitfire saw the flames and dispatched several weather ponies to bring rain clouds over the forest to put out the fire. Once Twilight got word that the forest fire was put out, she rushed to her castle to assemble her friends along with Starlight and Flurry Heart.
Twilight and her friends gathered in the map room to discuss what they should do.
“I think we should investigate the crash site. Maybe we can talk to the crew to find out where the ship came from.”, suggested Rainbow Dash.
“I agree with her, Aunt Twilight. We will not figure anything out unless we go to the ship.”, added Flurry.
Everyone else agreed and they set off for the forest. Following the trail from when the ship touched down, they reached the crash site in a matter of minutes. Night was falling, so they made sure to bring headlamps.
“Twilight, look here. It appears that this ship is called the Disneystar .”, said Rarity.
Twilight nodded and led everyone to the front of the ship. However, she felt heat radiating from the window over the bridge, so she led them to a side hatch and Applejack used her strength to get it open. Once they got inside, they turned their lights on and followed signs on the wall to reach the bridge. Fluttershy felt the heat through the door and grabbed a fire extinguisher from a holder on the wall. Once the doors were forced open, she blasted fire retardant until the flames were out. Once the cloud had settled from the fire retardant, they were shocked at what they found. There was nobody in any of the seats. The crew had vanished.
“Where’s the crew?”, asked Starlight.
“Yeah, where are they?”, asked Pinkie.
After Rainbow had broken open the windows and created gusts of wind to blow away the fire retardant powder, she spotted a dimly lit screen on one of the consoles.
“Look at this screen.”, she called.
Flurry ran over to look at it. The text on the screen said: “All escape pods launched”.
“Aunt Twilight, this screen says all of the ship’s escape pods have been launched. The crew must have evacuated before the ship crashed.”, she told Twilight.
“You know, Twilight, that makes perfect sense. If the crew had not evacuated, they would have either been killed or severely injured in the crash.”, said Rarity.
“Rarity’s right.”, said Fluttershy.
Twilight looked near the front of the bridge and found a sealed compartment door that was split down the middle. The text on the door said it was heat-resistant. Prying open the door, she found a large disc-shaped device inside that was still powered up and glowing brightly.
“Let’s take this device back to my castle. Maybe it contains the information we need in order to find this ship’s crew.”, she said.
They left the wreckage and headed back to Twilight’s castle. They had no idea that the device they found was Toodles, nor did they know that they would find the crew as soon as the device was powered up.
The next morning, Twilight and Flurry examined the round device they had found on the Disneystar’s bridge. When they found the main power switch, they turned the device on. When they saw two smaller discs jut out on either side to resemble mouse ears, they realized this was some kind of robotic drone. Soon, a face appeared on the main disc and the drone began to speak to them.
“My name is Toodles. Who are you and where is this place?”, asked the drone.
“My name is Twilight Sparkle. This is my niece, Flurry Heart. You are in the land of Equestria on the planet Equus.”, Twilight replied.
“Thank you, Twilight. I need to run a sonar sweep to locate the crew members from the Disneystar . They evacuated before the ship touched down.”, Toodles explained.
Flurry led Toodles outside and he flew high into the air. Releasing an energy wave, he scanned the entire area and intercepted the tracking signals from all seven escape pods while gathering the topography and layout of the land as well. Once he had come back down, Twilight brought her friends together and they met up in the map room. Once the Cutie Map was showing the layout of Equestria, Toodles projected an overlay that depicted where the crew members had landed.
**
The crew’s locations were as follows:
Mickey Mouse: Forbidden Jungle
Minnie Mouse: Mount Everhoof
Donald Duck: Griffonstone, Exact location unknown
Daisy Duck: Froggy Bottom Bogg
Goofy: White Tail Woods
Millie Mouse: North Luna Ocean
Melody Mouse: Changeling Kingdom
**
Twilight radioed the details to Neighsay. He dispatched probes so that the capsules could be located precisely. When the results came back, Twilight was nervous. Some of the escape pods had landed in treacherous areas.
“Why don’t we call in Ryder and his pups?”, asked Rainbow.
“Good idea, Dash.”, chimed in Applejack.
Twilight sent Flurry Heart to the radio tower in the Everfree Forest to transmit the call to the PAW Patrol. The call was sent, and now they had to wait for Ryder and his pups to arrive.
When the call came to the PAW Patrol, all of the pups and the Cat Pack were having a sleepover at the Lookout the previous night. However, rather than the call coming in the evening like the four from Liberty and the others, the call from Equus reached the Lookout right at dawn. So, everyone ended up getting a rude awakening when the alarm went off that a call had come in. Fortunately, they were used to getting calls at times like this, but it was not very common. Ryder walked into the main room to answer the call.
“This is the Lookout. Ryder speaking.”, he said sleepily with a yawn.
“Did I wake you up? I’m sorry, Ryder. We have an emergency here on Equus. A starship crashed last night and we have just now found out where the crew’s escape pods have landed. We may need your help extracting them all. Better safe than sorry.”, explained Flurry.
“Acknowledged. We may be a while, but we will get there.”, said Ryder.
Once all of the pups and the cats had fully woken up and had something to eat for breakfast, Ryder told everybody to suit up. After getting in uniform, Ryder gave Mayor Goodway a data-pad in case emergencies came up while they were gone and they boarded the Paw Patroller after it had been transformed for water travel.
“PAW Patrol and Cat Pack ready for action, Ryder Sir.”, said Chase.
“Thanks for letting us wake up completely before having us get in uniform.”, said Marshall.
“You’re welcome. Here’s what was in the call. There is an emergency on Equus. The ponies who saved our lives two months ago need our help. A starship has crashed and the crew ejected. they don’t know how severe the rescues will be, so they have called us in as backup.”, Ryder explained.
“DOES THIS MEAN...?”, Skye started excitedly.
“Yep, we’re going into space again.”, Ryder answered as the PAW Patroller began moving across the water.
The PAW Patrol had already used the Space Patroller for three space rescues in the past month. Once they reached the dock that was connected to the hangar, everyone disembarked and took the elevator down to the access bridge. They stopped part-way down to be put in their space suits. Once they were strapped in their seats and the access bridge had been retracted, Ryder began the pre-launch checklist.
“Alright everyone, listen up. Give me a go/no-go for launch.”, he said.
“Boosters go.”, said Marshall.
“Airframe go.”, said Skye.
“Telemetry go.”, said Tracker.
“Guidance go.”, said Chase.
With all four systems showing green, Ryder initiated the launch sequence. The pups and the cats counted down until booster ignition.
“Fifteen.”, said Chase.
“Fourteen.”, said Marshall.
“Thirteen.”, said Skye.
“Twelve.”, said Rocky.
“Eleven.”, said Rubble.
“Ten.”, said Zuma.
“Nine.”, said Everest.
“Eight.”, said Tracker.
“Seven.”, said Tuck.
“Six, go for main engine start.”, said Ella.
The engine valves opened and began spewing fuel to prepare for ignition.
“Five.”, said Rex.
“Four.”, said Liberty.
“Three.”, said Wildcat.
“Two.”, said Rory.
“One.”, said Leo.
“IGNITION!”, cried Shade.
The fuel was ignited and everyone felt a massive amount of shaking as the thrust built up. They had gotten nauseated and threw up the first time they had launched, but now they were used to this. The Space Patroller was soon released from the launch clamps and began rising into the sky. Once they had cleared the atmosphere, the gravity core kicked in and everyone was able to walk. During the launch, the systems were designed to temporarily shut down. After they had come back on, Ryder started preparing for their trip to Equus.
“Navigation.”, he said to Tracker.
“Coordinates set.”, Tracker replied.
“Hazard Avoidance.”, Ryder said to Marshall.
“Clear.”, replied Marshall.
“Helm.”, Ryder said to Chase.
“Ready.”, Chase replied.
“Skye, activate warp drive engines on my mark.”, Ryder said.
“Standing by.”, Skye replied as she put her paws on the switches.
“Five, Four, Three, Two, One, MARK!”, said Ryder intently.
Skye pushed the switches forward and the engines fired off. The Space Patroller shot deep into space, bound for Equus. This was only their second time using the warp drive and doing a rescue in deep space, so they passed out after the sudden acceleration. Luckily, Twilight had programmed the warp drive to disengage when the Space Patroller was twenty miles from the destination. This gave Ryder, the pups, and the Cat Pack more than enough time to wake up and get reoriented.
**
Neighsay was monitoring all of the frequencies on his screens because Twilight had instructed him to watch for the Paw Patrol and notify her when he made contact. When the Space Patroller appeared on radar, he called out to them.
“Space Patroller , this is the Equestrian Space Station. Do you copy?”, he asked.
“This is Ryder aboard the Space Patroller . We read you loud and clear E S S.”, Ryder replied.
“Acknowledged, you are cleared for atmospheric entry.”, said Neighsay.
Once Ryder had entered the atmospheric corridor, Neighsay contacted Twilight.
“Twilight, the Space Patroller is entering the atmosphere.”
Twilight was quick to acknowledge what he had told her and she guided the ship to a landing area that had been built on the south side of the Everfree Forest. After leading everyone to her castle, Twilight explained who was where and that there was the possibility that she and her friends would need help from Ryder and the pups. Upon seeing that one of the pods had landed in water, Ryder indicated that Zuma would need to help with that one. He said this because there was the potential that the pod could sink underwater.
Since Mickey was the Captain on the Disneystar , he was chosen to be rescued first. Ryder suggested having Tracker on this mission since the Forbidden Jungle looked huge on the map. Twilight agreed and she brought Rainbow and Fluttershy to go with her. Once they had their radios working, they set off for the jungle. The trip to the Forbidden Jungle was extremely dangerous because a rainstorm was passing over the south regions of Equestria when they started. Upon reaching the outskirts, Twilight said to be careful and watch out for hostile critters. As they entered the woods, Ryder noticed it was very tight with his vehicle. So he opted to walk towards the location in the woods where Mickey had been spotted on radar.
“Ryder, do you hear that?”, asked Tracker as they got close.
Ryder put a hand to his ear and listened closely. After concentrating for a moment, he heard a high pitch beeping sound. Realizing what this was, he called to Twilight over his headset.
“Twilight, I think we have a lead on how to find Mickey more accurately. Tracker has heard the sound of an EPIRB or Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon. This device is used by boaters who need saving. An EPIRB transmits a radar signal that the coast guard uses to find them.”, he said.
“Copy that, Ryder. I was about to say that Rainbow spotted something on top of the canopy. We are going in for a closer look, and we think it is the parachutes.”, she replied.
Ryder acknowledged and followed the ponies based on the yellow on their safety vests. Sure enough, they found a spot where the parachutes were clearly tangled in the trees. The ends of these parachutes were attached to a capsule with a window in the hatch. Ryder climbed up the tree to look in through the window and sure enough, he saw a large mouse inside wearing a red space suit. The nametag said Mickey Mouse and allowed everyone to confirm it was him. However, the hatch would not open, even after Ryder banged on the window to wake Mickey up and told him to depressurize the capsule.
When Twilight looked closer at the seam between the hatch and the rest of the pod with a flashlight, she saw that it looked like the hatch was fused shut. Luckily, Rainbow had brought some cutting tools that the dragons had designed. She told Mickey to cover his eyes and then she started cutting open the hatch with a plasma torch. Once the hatch was freed, Twilight used her aura to remove it and then Mickey opened his helmet and took off his seatbelt.
“I knew someone would find Toodles.”, he said.
Fluttershy had brought a medical scanner to check for injuries. When she scanned Mickey, the results came up perfect.
“You have no injuries, Mickey.”, she told him.
Mickey followed Ryder and Tracker out of the woods and then got in the back of Tracker’s jeep for a ride back to Twilight’s castle.
On the way back, Twilight radioed Mickey to tell him that another group was going after Minnie at the same time.
“Where did she land?”, he asked.
“She landed near the peak of the tallest mountain in the world. It’s extremely cold where she landed, so she will not want to open her helmet.”, Twilight explained.
Mickey agreed and they soon reached Twilight’s castle.
**
During Mickey’s rescue; Flurry assembled Skye, Everest, Chase, and Rory to go with her to Mount Everhoof and rescue Minnie. Skye expanded her helicopter to fly everyone to the Crystal Mountains while Flurry grabbed some tools to open the hatch on Minnie’s escape capsule. A severe snowstorm was ravaging Mount Everhoof, so all five needed to wear heavy coats to stay warm. Once everyone was ready, Skye took the yoke and they took off in her helicopter. Arriving at the foot of the mountain, Flurry explained the plan.
“Skye, you and Rory will wait here until we get to Minnie and open up her escape pod. Chase, Everest, and I will ascend to where Minnie is and then call you on radio. According to the signal that Toodles intercepted, she is halfway up. Since this is a cold place, we need to have heated blankets ready because we will likely all be shivering.”, she said.
“Understood, Flurry.”, said Skye and Rory together.
Since Everest was trained in traversing snowy terrain more than Flurry, she was allowed to lead. The trek up the slopes was treacherous and took two hours. Luckily, Flurry had a radar tracker that was locked in on the EPIRB on Minnie’s escape pod. When they got to a flat spot, the signal was strong and only fifteen feet east of them. Even with their warm clothes, all three were shivering profusely. Nevertheless, they headed east and spotted the orange safety stripes on Minnie’s pod. It was partially buried in the snow. Everest and Chase’s paws were numb from the cold, but they quickly got to work digging the pod out while Flurry contacted Skye.
“Skye, this is Flurry Heart. We have reached Minnie. Get above us and get ready.”
Skye acknowledged Flurry’s call and flew upward until she was directly above them. After digging away the snow, Everest lit a flare so Skye could see them. Flurry looked in the window and saw Minnie inside. She was awake and her teeth were chattering. She seemed to be very cold and her helmet’s visor was broken.
“Is the heater broken in your suit and in your pod?”, Flurry asked loudly over the wind.
“Y-Yes, th-they are b-broken. I c-c-can’t get my hatch open either.”, Minnie said before sneezing from being so cold.
“Stay back. I’m going to cut the hatch open.”, said Flurry as she pulled out her plasma cutter.
Once the hatch was open, Minnie unbuckled her seatbelt and jumped out into the snow. Skye had already dropped a rescue basket at this point. Everyone got in as Rory lowered a magnet to pick up the escape pod. Once the basket was hoisted up, Flurry helped Minnie get out and everyone wrapped themselves in blankets.
“All clear, Skye.”, said Chase as Flurry shut the helicopter door.
Skye flew back towards Twilight’s castle and then landed so everyone could get out. Mickey was waiting outside when Minnie got out of Skye’s helicopter and once she was out, she ran over and crushed him in a hug. The sun was starting to set when Twilight led everybody inside. She said they would save everyone else tomorrow. Ryder agreed and everyone laid down to sleep.
During both rescues, Applejack and Pinkie had managed to get through to the other five awaiting rescue with Toodles helping them. Millie sounded desperate because water was beginning to leak into her pod. Zuma assured her that they’d try to save her before she sank, but they could not guarantee anything.
The next morning, everyone met together to decide who would go where. Rainbow Dash and Skye volunteered to head for Griffonstone to save Donald. Ryder decided to take Zuma and Rex to Froggy Bottom Bogg to save Daisy. Fluttershy went with them because she had been there before. Finally, Marshall and Applejack chose to take Tuck and Ella to White Tail Woods to extract Goofy. Later that day, Rainbow, Twilight, Ryder, Skye and Zuma would go to the North Luna Ocean to save Millie while Chase would go with Rarity and Starlight to save Melody in the Changeling Kingdom.
**
There was no time to take the train to Griffonstone. So Rainbow took to the air and told Skye to follow in her helicopter. Rainbow had contacted Gilda in advance to let her know they were coming. She was waiting when they arrived in the area.
“Have you seen anything drop down from the sky in the past two days?”, Rainbow asked.
“As a matter of fact, yes we have. We saw something come down on three red parachutes and get blown towards the abyss. The parachutes have come loose, so we don’t know if what was attached has come off or not. Whatever the case, we need to hurry.”, Gilda answered.
“Let’s go, we have no time to lose.”, said Rainbow.
Leading the way to the abyss, Gilda told Rainbow and Skye to put on headlamps. When they got to the chasm, Gilda threw ropes down and Rainbow told Skye to drop the magnet from her helicopter. As all three rappelled into the darkness, Gilda saw something she didn’t recognize.
“Dash, what’s that orange thing?”, she asked.
Rainbow couldn’t see too well either, so she asked Skye to magnify with her goggles. Skye nodded and barked to activate her goggles. When she identified the orange as a safety mark on Donald’s escape pod, all three of them began moving closer until they heard a loud beeping sound. Skye suspected it was the EPIRB, but they weren’t sure until they reached the capsule and saw the light flashing on it.
“You were right, Skye. That beeping sound we’re hearing is the radar beacon.”, said Gilda.
Once they were close enough to the hatch, Gilda carefully knocked on the window because the rock was weak in this chasm. Donald knocked back to signal he was okay. Skye attached her magnet to the capsule and signaled the winch to reel it up. At the surface, Rainbow pulled out a plasma cutter and carefully cut the hatch open.
“Thanks for saving me. I’m not hurt, just shaken up really bad.”, Donald explained as he took off his seatbelt and moved over to Skye’s helicopter.
Skye got back behind the yoke and followed Dash back to Twilight’s castle.
**
Once Ryder, Rex, and Zuma were ready to head for Froggy Bottom Bogg, Fluttershy sat next to Zuma in his hovercraft. When they reached the bog, Ryder and Zuma set their radar systems to maximum in order to find Daisy’s capsule. Initially, the EPIRB showed up on their radar screens, but it disappeared after a few minutes.
“Daisy’s signal is gone!”, yelped Zuma.
“WHAT?”, asked Ryder and Rex out of shock.
“It was here just a minute ago, and now it’s stopped.”
Fluttershy had an idea.
“I will fly up to look from above. If I see anything, I will radio you.”, she said as she got out of the spare seat in Zuma’s hovercraft.
Ryder gave her a thumbs-up and Fluttershy took off. She looked around for a minute and then spotted the orange from Daisy’s parachutes. She radioed where she was after touching down and transmitted her signal to Ryder. When they got to her, they saw that the hatch had been broken off the capsule and Daisy was not inside. Ryder looked at the damage and determined that the parachutes must have been late to open and the hatch was hit so hard that it broke off on impact with a tree that appeared to be missing some branches.
“Looks like the impact damaged the EPIRB. I’m surprised it lasted this long before it died.”, said Rex.
Fluttershy took off again and started hollering for Daisy. After a moment, she saw a cloud of orange smoke and flew towards it.
“FOLLOW ME!”, she yelled.
Ryder nodded and they started riding after her. When they stopped, Daisy was onto a vine for dear life because she was stuck in quicksand. There was a smoke canister next to her.
“A little help here, please?”, she asked frantically.
Zuma threw a lifebelt to her and she caught it with her left hand. She was holding her right hand close to her chest, which implied she was injured. Once she was pulled out, Ryder helped her to her feet.
“My parachutes were delayed and I landed too hard. My hatch was broken off and I was thrown out. I hit my arm on a rock and broke it before I tried to find my way out of here. Then I found myself sinking. When I heard you yelling for me, I quickly lit my orange smoke can.”, she explained as Ryder splinted her right arm.
“At least you’re alive. We’re saving the rest of your friends now.”, Fluttershy explained.
As Fluttershy flew Daisy back to Twilight’s castle, Ryder and Zuma attached cables to the escape pod and towed it out of the bog.
**
As Marshall’s group was getting ready to rescue Goofy, a radio call came from Spitfire. She was desperate.
“This is an emergency. When the escape pod in the White Tail Woods touched down, it started a spot fire. We were able to put it out in the beginning, but the embers got blown by a gust of wind, starting a larger fire that is now raging uncontrollably. It’s so large that we don’t have enough rain clouds to put it out.”, she said.
“Marshall, we need to MOVE!”, screamed Applejack.
Without hesitating, Marshall gathered the Mighty Twins and had them ride with him while Applejack rushed to the forest. Sure enough, the fire there was raging out of control. While Marshall started blasting water at the flames; Ella grew to a large size and started stomping out the embers to make sure the fire would not start again. Once the fire was out, Everyone started moving further into the woods until they found Goofy’s capsule. His escape pod had gotten hung up in the trees and was dangling from a thick branch.
“I’m raising my ladder to get him down.”, said Marshall.
Once the ladder was raised up, Applejack started trying to open the hatch. Surprisingly, the heat from the forest fire had loosened the hatch to the point that it popped off after Applejack kicked it only once. Goofy got out and climbed down the ladder to the ground While Applejack worked on getting his pod down from the tree limbs. Goofy was not injured, and he followed Applejack and the pups back to Twilight’s castle.
**
Pinkie and the Cat Pack were monitoring the radar to check for anything that might get in the way of the rescues. During the three rescues that took place earlier in the day, the weather showed clear. However, as everyone was gearing up to rescue Millie and Melody, a storm warning came up over Millie’s location and the seismic sensor near the Changeling Kingdom started picking up strong vibrations. An urgent radio call from Neighsay confirmed their worries.
“This is Neighsay. I see a thunderstorm building up over the North Luna Ocean and there is an earthquake starting near the Changeling Kingdom.”
As Ryder, Zuma, and Skye were prepping equipment to rescue Millie, Minnie ran over to them.
“Take me with you. I want to help with saving one of my nieces.”
Zuma agreed and gave her a diving suit.
“We are leaving in about 30 minutes. I suggest you get changed.”, he said.
Minnie rushed inside Twilight’s castle to put the suit on and then rejoined outside. Once Twilight and Rainbow were ready, Zuma loaded his hovercraft onto Skye’s helicopter and they took off to fly northwest to the ocean. They flew into the rain halfway to Millie’s location, but they soon reached the capsule. After dropping down onto the water, Zuma raced over to the capsule to attach safety floats, but the capsule was sinking too fast. Ryder came over to Zuma on his jet-ski and told him to go underwater and attach the floats before the capsule sank too far while he and Minnie got Millie out. Minnie radioed her niece and told her to hang tight.
“We’re coming to get you out. Hold your breath.”, she said.
Once all three had their air receptors in their mouths, they submerged and Zuma started attaching floats while Ryder cut the hatch open. Millie had to hold her breath because she had said earlier that her helmet was broken from being banged around during reentry. Once the hatch was open, Minnie gave Millie her auxiliary receptor in order to breathe until they got to the surface. Twilight and Rainbow were wearing life-jackets and were ready to grab the two when they came up.
When Minnie and Millie came to the surface, both of them took the receptors out of their mouths. Millie started to cough from how long she had to hold her breath. Nevertheless, she and Minnie swam over to Twilight and Rainbow who flew them back to land. As they were flown back, Ryder and Zuma finished attaching floats and towlines to Millie’s escape pod in order to get it to the surface so Skye could grab it with her magnet. Once they were back on land, they headed back to Twilight’s castle.
**
As Rarity and Starlight were getting ready with Chase and Rubble, Neighsay radioed in that the earthquake in the Changeling Kingdom had ended. Just then, Thorax called in with some worrisome news.
“I have located Melody. She is right at the edge of the fissure created by the quake. I have asked her to stay still and not shift her weight. If she falls in, I have no idea how deep she will go.”
“Copy that, Thorax.”, said Starlight.
Once everyone was ready, they set off for the southeast. Thorax met them at the outskirts of the kingdom and led them to Melody’s capsule. Being careful to not make the capsule fall over the edge, Chase attached cables from Rubbles vehicle so he could pull it back away from the fissure. Once the cables were hooked on, Rubble put his rig in reverse and backed up to pull Melody away from the crack. Suddenly, the ground cracked further from the weight of Melody’s capsule and the capsule began pulling Rubble towards the fissure. Luckily, his wheels had enough traction to grip on the ground and he managed to pull the capsule back up and get it clear of the fissure’s edge. After Starlight had cut the hatch open, Melody took off her seatbelt and jumped down. Chase helped Rubble get the capsule onto a trailer and everyone headed back to Twilight’s castle.
“MELODY!”, yelled Millie as they were reunited.
“MILLIE!”, yelled Melody in return.
The twins crushed each other in a hug and shed tears of joy while Ryder and the pups loaded their vehicles back up. Then, everyone headed inside to talk about what had happened and how the ship would be repaired.
The following morning, Neighsay came down on a shuttle to Twilight’s castle so he could be with everyone during the explanation of where Mickey and his friends came from and how they ended up at Equus.
“We did not know we would end up here. We were simply doing a simple test flight of our new starship, the Disneystar .”, Mickey explained.
“Then what was it that happened to your ship that resulted in you getting here?”, Neighsay and Twilight asked in unison.
Donald spoke up.
“All we know is we were testing our warp engines when our scanner picked up an exploding star. We could not avoid the shockwave, so Mickey had me put the shields up. Unfortunately, we were too late. The star exploded and the first energy wave hit the Disneystar before the shields had even reached 50%. Everything went ballistic after that. The warp engines got overcharged and we passed out from g-force. When we woke up, all of our controls were on fire and we were in a decaying orbit around the planet. After that, we evacuated and landed in the places where you found us.”, he said.
"Any idea why your hatches got fused shut?”, asked Neighsay out of confusion. “That’s not supposed to happen.”
Minnie thought for a second. She was the ship’s main engineer, and remembered when Von Drake warned them about the capsules’ hatches.
“Our ship’s designer told us that the hatches’ mechanisms were not yet shielded to take the heat from atmospheric reentry. So, when we ejected, we were at a point when the high temperature melted the mechanisms. That’s why the hatches got fused.”, she explained.
“We will help repair your ship so you can return home and tell your Professor about what happened.”, said Twilight.
Mickey accepted the offer and the Disneystar was taken to a hangar to be repaired. Once the controls had been fixed and rewired to proper working order, the escape pods were modified with heat-resistant hatch mechanisms that would not melt. The warp engines were rebuilt since they had been destroyed in the crash-landing. Ryder and the pups helped out with the repairs to make sure everything worked right and soon the ship was restored to its former glory. The power core was also modified to make sure it would not get overloaded by energy waves anymore. Once all of the repairs were finished, Mickey and his friends suited up for their return journey home. Twilight took time to record the star coordinates of where they came from in case they wanted to visit at any time.
After Ryder and his crew accepted Mickey’s gratitude for saving them, the Space Patroller was launched and they returned to Adventure Bay. There were only two emergencies that came up while they were gone, but they were minimal. Mickey and his friends thanked Twilight and her friends and Flurry for saving them and then they boarded the Disneystar to go home. The ship lifted off and shot through space until they returned home. Professor Von Drake was shocked by their story, but he was also pleased that they returned home safely.
One year after rescuing both the Paw Patrol and the visitors from Disney, Flurry Heart became the new ruler over the Crystal Empire after Cadence retired. She was getting acclimated to her new role as leader when a scroll came to her from Canterlot.
**
Dear Flurry Heart,
I have had a recent idea cross my mind. I have decided that our new allies from Adventure Bay along with Mickey and his crew should be trained for piloting their own starships, and they should receive war training. You never know when you will need to defend yourself. I am putting you in charge of the training.
Yours sincerely,
Aunt Twilight Sparkle
**
Flurry knew that this would not be an easy task, but she and Twilight both knew that she was experienced in leadership and knew how to direct a mission. So she accepted and appointed some officials to take her place while she was carrying out the training. She boarded the train and set off for Canterlot. Meeting her aunt in the throne room, she listened carefully to what Twilight had to say.
“The easiest way to carry out the starship training is to use simulators. We already have enough from when we modernized Equestria. The war training will be different, depending on the individuals. Ryder along with Mickey and his friends can be trained for both space battles and hand-in-hand combat. The pups and the cats, on the other hand, can only be trained for space battles. Regardless, I know you can get them trained well enough so they are ready for anything.”, explained Twilight
Flurry was quick to reply.
“You can count on me, Aunt Twilight. I will make sure they do not miss anything. Also, I might be able to train the pups and the cats for hand-in-hand battles by using weapons mounted in their backpacks that are triggered by a mouthpiece.”, Flurry replied.
“There’s my brave niece.”, Twilight said with a warm smile.
Flurry took a bow and headed to the communications tower in Canterlot.
Ryder and the pups were playing ball when a tone sounded to indicate an incoming call.
“This is Ryder, go ahead.”
“Ryder, this is Flurry Heart. Aunt Twilight has decided to give you guys some training for solo space piloting and for space battles. The training starts in two weeks. We are training our other allies as well.”, said Flurry.
“That sounds great. We will get there as soon as we can. Our ship is being refueled right now, but we will take off once we are finished.”, Ryder replied.
The Space Patroller was finished with refueling four hours later. Once Ryder had gotten word to the Cat Pack, everyone got together and took the elevator down to the hangar. Once all systems were confirmed nominal, the ship took off and Ryder set a course for Equus. Since this was not an urgent mission, there was no need to use the warp engines. This meant that everyone could enjoy the scenery and beauty of space during the trip.
**
Mickey had gathered his crew together for a space exploration and had already taken off when they received the call from Flurry.
“This is Mickey. Go ahead Flurry Heart.”, he said.
“It looks like you were getting ready for a space flight of some sort. I can tell this because you are wearing your Captain’s uniform and your friends are seated around you.”, said Flurry.
“You would be correct. We were about to begin a space exploration when you called in.”, Mickey confirmed.
“Perfect timing then. Aunt Twilight has decided to give you and your friends some extensive training in solo space piloting and in space battles. The training begins in two weeks, so there is no need to rush. The Paw Patrol is being trained as well, so you will see each other again.”
Mickey and his friends were excited about seeing Ryder and the pups again. They set their course for Equus and set the ship to autopilot. This was a more relaxed flight, so they had time to take in the beauty of space and enjoy the view out the windows.
As both of the ally ships made their way to Equus, they appeared on each other’s radar screens.
When both ships came close enough to each other, they established contact.
“Space Patroller to Disneystar . It’s great to see you guys again.”, said Ryder.
“Same goes for us, Ryder. At least this time we are not in danger and needing rescue.”, replied Minnie.
Soon, they arrived in orbit around Equus and Twilight radioed Flurry.
“Both ships have come up on radar. Get to the training area and send them the location.”, she said.
Flurry acknowledged and made her way to the training site. Once Neighsay had cleared the allies for atmospheric entry, they descended to the ground and landed safely. They disembarked on land vehicles and followed a mapped out route to the training area where Flurry was waiting for them. After driving through dense woods for an hour, they reached a clearing where the Harmony was docked. Flurry opened the gate and led them to a large elevator platform that took them underground to a massive complex with its own barracks for the allies. Once everyone had set out their supplies in the barracks, they grouped back together and Flurry spoke to them.
“This way please. Training starts next week, and there is a lot you need to know.”, she said as she opened the doors to a meeting room.
Both groups of allies followed her and then took seats around the room. Once everyone was seated, Flurry Heart took the floor and spoke to them.
“This is the training center where all members of the Equestrian Fleet were brought to gear up for space travel, search and rescue, and battle. When you all were here last year, we looked over your records and saw that all of you have rescue training. There are two stages of training that you will go through while you’re here. Stage one involves learning how to pilot your own starship. Stage two involves scenarios where you must battle other ships in space. All of you with hands will be given a third stage where you must learn how to defend yourself in hand-in-hand combat with weapons, whereas the pups and the cats will do hand-in-hand with voice-activated weapons in their backpacks. All of the training for starships will be done with simulators that project real life images on screens around you. Above all, when going through starship battle training, you will be in simulators next to each other so you can work as a team.”
Everyone understood the parameters that Flurry had just stated. The pups and the cats understood why they would be unable to go through weapons training. After Flurry had given the rundown of everything they would expect in their training, she released them to get some sleep because the training would start early the next morning. They headed to the barracks and laid down for the night.
At 6:00 AM the next morning, Flurry got everyone up to begin their training for space flight. Leading them to the meeting room, she started with an explanatory portion to get everyone introduced to how a personal starship worked.
“There are several components to a personal ship. Some of the critical pieces are the engines, the wings, and the cockpit. Later on, you will learn how to open the wings and fire weapons in battle.”, she explained as she talked the group through the basics of a starship.
After leading them to the simulator room, she had each of the members get in a chamber and get situated to begin the session. What she left as a surprise was that there were scanners in the chambers that would tell the consoles to automatically arrange themselves to each individual’s personal taste. After the hatches were shut on the chambers, each of the allies began with the launch sequence. First, they were given a guided set of instructions on how to power up their ship, and then how to start the engines. Following the instructions was a snap and they were given further instructions on how to fly the ships. Skye did not need as much instruction for the flight since she always flew a helicopter, but she did learn how to deploy and fire weapons.
Everyone else was nervous in the beginning, but they quickly caught on and were able to ace the simulations after only four days. When Flurry looked at the results, she was impressed and knew that they were now ready to take on the next stage of the training. She congratulated everyone on their successes and then told them what was next.
“You have tomorrow off since you have been training hard for the past four days. The next day is when you will start the battle phase of your training.”, she explained.
Everyone acknowledged what she had told her and then she opened up a pathway to the battle simulators. The chambers here were closer to each other and had cameras and microphones so the occupants could see and speak to each other. Taking note that the battle phase would be more sophisticated, the allies headed back to the barracks and turned in for the night.
After a day to chill out from the hard training they had received on piloting their own ships, it was time for the new allies to learn the basics of space battles. Everything started with an introduction to wings and the different types of weapons on starships. After getting seated in the meeting room, Flurry started explaining how the wings could change position in a battle scenario.
“In battle terms, the wings are referred to as “Strike Foils” or “S-Foils”. So, if the wings need to be opened; you must say to lock S-Foils in attack position. This basically means to open your wings. As this simulation shows, the wings on one of our fighter ships are comprised of two sets of three pieces. Two pieces on each set are hinged. When the wings open up, the two pieces on the top and bottom will swivel 30 degrees up or down.”, she said.
Everyone was shocked at her description of how the wings would open up for battle. They were about to learn how many weapons they would have in their arsenal to use in battle.
“The main weapon is your lasers. They will deal significant damage to an enemy, but they are not the only weapon you have. Other weapons you have include missiles, torpedoes, and electromagnetic pulses, or E M P’s.”, explained Flurry Heart.
“That’s quite a spread. We might be able to take down anything that gets in our way.”, said Daisy.
“Don’t overestimate yourself, Daisy. You must also keep a close eye on your shields. If they get too low, you will have to pull away to recharge. Otherwise, you will be killed when your ship is destroyed.”, said Flurry.
Hearing this made everyone nervous, but it also told them that keeping tabs on their defenses was critical. They were ready to begin training for battle in space.
Once everybody was ready to begin their war training, Flurry led them to the simulators and they got inside. After powering up, they took in a warning from Flurry before starting the simulation.
“This training will be harder than your previous sessions. It is likely that you will have more failed missions during this. I know this because it happened to me and anyone else who went through this training. I will be in a simulator myself to keep an eye on each of you.”, she explained.
Having acknowledged the heads-up, everyone started by learning how to properly open their wings.
“Lock S-Foils in attack position.”, Flurry instructed after everyone had spotted the switch that opened and closed their wings.
As the wings opened in the simulation, all of the trainees watched an LCD that displayed their ship’s orientation and status. They also saw an indication of their wings’ position. When the wings were fully opened, the position on the LCD changed to indicate that the wings were in attack position. After everyone had opened their wings, they followed Flurry’s ship to a target range where they had to shoot a certain number within a time limit. This would have been easy, but they had to watch for each other’s laser blasts in order to avoid being shot down as they were flying. The flight portion of this was easy for Skye, just like the previous portion of the training, but the addition of weapons made this a lot trickier for her. Nevertheless, she caught on quickly and everyone finished the target shooting before the time ran out.
“Good work, everyone. Now it’s time to focus on moving targets. In the next phase of this, you will be shooting at enemy ships. Also, this will be a team effort. So, you will be helping each other to avoid getting shot down.”, Flurry explained as the screens flashed up the words: Mission Complete.
When the next simulation started, they were already in space and their wings were open. This mission involved watching radar more frequently and communicating with each other. Once they had armed their weapons, they started getting enemy readings on their radar. They opened fire in a flash to take out the enemies, but this simulation was more intricate than they anticipated. The enemies were quick to avoid their attacks and they even shot back. Some of the enemy fighters snuck up and tried to shoot them down from behind. Minnie and Ryder were the first to notice this.
“Skye, watch out. You’ve got one on your tail.”, Ryder called out.
“Mickey, I’ve got one chasing me.”, Minnie called out.
“Copy that, Minnie. I’m coming to help you out.”, Mickey replied.
Skye desperately tried to get away from the fighter that was behind her, but she was having little to no success. At one point, her shields were lowered to 50% before Ryder managed to alert Chase that Skye was in trouble. Chase rushed over and shot down the enemy. Mickey distracted the fighter who was pursuing Minnie, and then dropped a bomb to take it out. The first battle simulation was one of several that had to be completed before they were deemed ready, and it only took two days to complete. It took place in open space to make it easy, but the others would have obstacles that had to be dodged so no-one would crash.
These simulations took a whole week to complete without any flaws because many of the trainees ran into obstacles while evading the enemies or they’d be shot down before their shields were recharged. They also fell victim to each other’s E M P’s due to being too close. However, they learned from their mistakes and soon passed all of the simulations with flying colors.
“Congratulations everyone. You are now ready for battle in space. It is now time to train you for hand-in-hand combat.”, said Flurry as everyone got out of their simulator chambers.
The next morning, Flurry led everyone to a large room that resembled a gymnasium. There were mats and replica weapons neatly arranged around the room, and there were smaller side rooms that housed what looked like helmets and replicas of guns.
“What are the side rooms used for, Flurry?”, asked Donald.
“Good question. Those rooms are where you will be trained for ground battles. The easiest way to do that is with Virtual Reality, or VR equipment.”, she replied.
As the days passed, those with hands dueled with paintballs, fake swords, hardened rubber gloves, and their hands alone. The pups and the cats practiced with their paws and wrestled each other. They all wore helmets so they wouldn’t bite each other. In the VR areas, they wore the helmets to see what the scenario was that they were going through. Flurry even designed props for the pups and the cats to use so they’d be equipped with guns as well. These props involved a rubber piece held in the mouth that acted as the trigger. In order to fire the weapons, they would squeeze the rubber in their teeth.
After six days in the gym, Flurry could tell that everyone was doing spectacularly with the hand-in-hand training. The next day, she said that they had all passed the training exercises and were ready to present themselves to Twilight.
After leaving the training area, everyone boarded the train to Canterlot and gave the news to Twilight that they had passed their training exercises.
“Well done to all of you. Now that you have been trained for space piloting and for war, I think you are now ready for anything that might get in your way.”, she said.
All of the allies took a bow and then returned to their ships for their journey home. Once they were home safely, they continued their normal lives while keeping an ear to the radio for anything that would necessitate utilizing the skills they had been trained for. At the same time, they built their own ships and kept them at the ready. They even did their own missions to practice taking off for real and for landing, along with shooting down targets to better their weapon skills. So far, they had not needed to take down any real enemies, but they never knew when they would have a surprise attack.
Capture of the PAW Patrol
Three years after getting their new allies trained, Twilight and Flurry brought Twilight’s friends and the Young Six to the Harmony ’s dock to keep them up to speed on their skills, and their Disney allies had come to Equus for a vacation. They had come on personal ships instead of the Disneystar so they could test their new warp drives to ensure they worked properly. Everyone was doing well when an update call came in from the PAW Patrol.
“Adventure Bay to Equus. This is Ryder.”, he said.
“Go ahead, Adventure Bay. This is Twilight.”, Twilight replied.
“We have just gotten a call for a space rescue. Listen to this.”, said Ryder.
**
“This is Star-lab. We are having a rapid depressurization near the storage module. The area is isolated, but we don’t know how long the seal will hold.”
**
“What’s the Star-lab?”, asked Rainbow.
“Star-lab is a recently constructed space station. We trust the message because it sounds like a crew member, but we don’t know how a depressurization could be happening this early. The station’s construction was finished just last week. We are gearing up to investigate. If this is legitimate, it could mean something was not assembled properly. However, we still have suspicion that this may be sabotage.”, said Chase.
“Who would sabotage an entire space station?”, asked Twilight.
“I’m not sure. Most of our rivals are in custody, and Humdinger is on parole. If the officer noticed anything suspicious, it would be reported.”, said Ryder.
“Well, whatever the case is, be careful.”, said Fluttershy.
Ryder acknowledged and they continued to gear up.
**
After they had finished gearing up for the space rescue, Ryder led everyone to the PAW Patroller and set it for water travel. Arriving at the hangar for the Space Patroller , they put on their space suits and boarded their personal ships instead. Ryder had suggested this in order to take their personal ships on their first official mission. After lifting off, they ascended into space and located the Star-lab. Skye tried to get close to the station, but the air flow was too much and she had to fly sideways. To compensate, she zoomed in with her suit’s visor and confirmed the breach in the station’s hull.
“Skye to Ryder. The hull breach is present, but you might want to take a look at it.”, she radioed.
“Copy that, Skye. I’m bringing Rubble to repair the station. I have everyone else on lookout for any threats.”, he replied.
When Ryder and Rubble arrived, they saw what Skye was talking about. The breach was HUGE. What was more was that the metal was punched inward on one side and outward on the other side in a straight line. As Rubble pulled the bent metal flaps back and welded them together to seal the leak, Ryder took pictures of the breach and called to Chase.
“Chase, take a look at these pictures. The breach is double sided in a straight line and it is HUGE. I think something really big hit the station.”, he said as he sent the snapshots.
“I see it, Ryder. However, my scanners don’t show any asteroids that may have passed through, so I am worried if this was a lure to bring us up here. I wonder if something was shot at the station.”, Chase replied.
Ryder became suspicious if Chase was right. On a hunch, he called the space station’s crew.
“Star-lab, this is Ryder from the PAW Patrol. Did you feel anything before the alarm went off to signify a hull breach?”, he asked.
“We hear you, Ryder. Yes, we felt a large jolt before the alarm sounded and we saw what looked like a giant metal ball flying out of our range of vision. However, We don’t know where it came from.”, replied the station’s Commander.
“Your deduction is correct, Chase. The Commander reported that they felt a jolt before the alarm went off and they saw a metal ball fly out of their sights.”, said Ryder.
Once Rubble had finished sealing the leaks and the pressure was stabilized, Ryder and Rubble returned to their ships and they regrouped with the rest of the members. Suddenly, they got an alert on their displays. It said: “PROXIMITY ALERT: Ship Approaching!”
“SHIELDS UP!”, shouted Ryder.
He did not know they had waited too long.
As the Paw Patrol started to raise their shields, Ella spotted a cannon lowering from the unidentified ship and charging up. Running a scan, she realized it was bad news and called to Ryder.
“Ryder, I’ve got a bad feeling about this! The unidentified ship is actually a space station and is aiming an electromagnetic pulse at us!”, she shrieked.
“BRACE YOURSELVES!”, Ryder shouted to everyone.
Chase quickly scanned the station itself and gave Ryder some bad news.
“RYDER, CONDITION RED! I have identified the shape of the station. It’s a top hat.”, he said before all of the systems went dead.
Ryder felt his heart jump in his mouth. Humdinger was supposed to be on parole. The pulse caused sparks to fly from everyone’s controls and knock them out. Hearing the sound of their ships powering back up awakened everyone and they looked around with flashlights after getting off their ships.
“Grab your weapons. We’d better prepare for company.”, said Ryder as he pulled a plasma rifle from the weapons locker on his ship.
The pups and the cats complied and grabbed their blasters before joining Ryder. When the hangar door opened, they spotted Humdinger’s nephew, Harold, with a weapon of his own. Ryder managed to shoot and stun Harold before he had a chance to open fire. Rushing out of the hangar, they started looking for a way to escape. However, they quickly realized that time was short. They passed a screen that indicated sleep gas was being released.
After running for a while, they ran into Humdinger’s kittens. Chase started sneezing uncontrollably due to his cat allergy and he passed out before he could get away. As they ran, Ryder made a recording that described their situation. They soon reached a section of Humdinger’s space station that contained a lineup of airlocks. An alarm began blaring and the doors began to slam shut and trap them. Ryder tripped over the tip of his boot and was not fast enough to get up before the door trapped him. Seeing that Marshall had made it through, he called out to him.
“MARSHALL, FIND AN ESCAPE CAPSULE AND SHOOT THE DISC TOWARDS EQUUS!”, Ryder yelled as he threw the recording disc to him before the door shut.
Marshall nodded and then put on his oxygen mask. He didn’t care if he was clumsy or not. He just knew he had to send the call for help. Reaching an escape pod bay, he activated the manual override and threw the disc into it. After starting the launch sequence, he ran as fast as he could. He soon ran out of air and passed out from the gas.
When Ryder woke up, he was all alone in a dark shadowy room and his boots were stuck to the floor. Humdinger walked in with a snarl in his eyes.
“You’re supposed to be on parole!”, Ryder hissed.
“True, but I grew sick and tired of it. I killed my parole officer and devised a plan to get rid of you and your pups and cats.”, Humdinger replied as he pulled a lever on the wall.
Ryder quickly realized he was standing on a hydraulic platform because part of the floor began to move downward, taking him with it. When the platform stopped, the magnets in it shut off and released Ryder’s shoes. However, he was too deep to climb out of the chamber he had been lowered into. Something that looked like smoke suddenly filled the chamber and forced Ryder to shut his eyes. As the air slowly became cold, Ryder felt something taking hold of his arms and legs. As his teeth began to chatter, they were suddenly frozen in place along with his limbs. Moments later, he could not feel anything anymore.
Chase woke up to the feeling of cold air around him. He was bound to a wall in a circular room and all of the other pups and the cats were in the room with him. Their suits had been stripped off, all the way down to their fur. He was the only one who had woken up because the sleep gas wore off from him faster. As he looked around, he saw that everyone’s paws, including his own were locked in ice-covered shackles. He was startled to see frost forming on his fur and he began to shiver. The sound of his teeth chattering woke everyone else and they started to struggle with the shackles.
“It’s s-s-so c-c-cold in here.”, sputtered Skye before she sneezed.
“Y-You s-s-said it, S-Sk-kye.”, said Zuma.
Panicking, Liberty called out to Chase.
“W-W-What d-do we do n-now, Ch-Chase?”, she asked as she started to get lightheaded.
Chase was shivering too much to answer. Eventually, they all blacked out from hypothermia.
From the control room, Harold and his uncle watched with evil grins as the pups and the cats all froze in the cold room.
**
At the base on Equus, the Disney Fleet was visiting to get an up-close look at their allies’ equipment. Everyone was eating supper when the emergency siren began to blare. They all jumped out of their chairs and Twilight ran to answer the alarm. Mickey and his friends had never heard the siren go off, so they covered their ears at how loud it was.
“Is this a fire drill?”, Mickey asked in confusion.
Once Twilight had stopped the alarm, she explained the alarm while Flurry Heart opened a communication channel that Neighsay had established on the “Priority-One” frequency.
“That alarm tells us that there is a sudden emergency that we need to respond to right away.”, she said.
Once Flurry had secured the channel, everyone gathered at the screen.
“What’s so sudden that you had to utilize the “Priority-One” frequency?”, Flurry asked.
“I spotted a capsule coming towards Equus and I retrieved it through E V A. The contents were startling. The entire PAW Patrol has been captured.”, he said frantically.
“WHAT? HOW?”, asked Minnie in an alarmed voice.
“Here’s the footage from the disc I found in the capsule. Take a look.”, said Neighsay as he switched over to the recording on the disc.
“Ally Forces, this is Ryder! We need help, NOW! The call we received about the damaged space station was real, but it was used as a lure to ensnare us in a trap! Former Mayor Humdinger has built his own space station and disabled our ships! We did not know we were captured until we woke up after he pulled us on board with a tractor beam. Come to our aid at star coordinates X: 44, Y: 62, Z: 79 as soon as you get this call! HURRY!”, cried Ryder in a panicked voice.
“How is that possible? He told us last year that Humdinger was released on parole. If the parole officer noticed anything suspicious, it would have been reported.”, asked Twilight out of confusion when the footage ended.
“I don’t know how it was possible. Whatever the reason, you need to get there and stop him before it’s too late. There’s no knowing what he is planning.”, Neighsay replied nervously.
“Acknowledged, we are on our way.”, said Mickey.
“That’s the spirit, Mickey. Let’s get suited up and get going.”, said Twilight.
In only 12 minutes, everyone was in their space suits, on-board their personal ships and taking off. After setting the star coordinates, they set warp drive to maximum and shot towards the station. Arriving in range, they raised their shields and armed all of their weapons to prepare for their attack.
Saving Everyone from Humdinger
When the ships began appearing on Humdinger’s radar, he began to get very upset.
“Oh no you don’t.”, he said to himself as Harold powered up the defenses.
“Lock S-Foils in attack position.”, said Twilight as she opened her wings.
Everyone followed suit and began opening their wings as well as raising their shields. Once they had accelerated to attack speed, all of the defense turrets began firing at them.
“SPLIT UP!”, yelled Mickey.
Everyone broke out of formation and began firing back. They were quick to take out a lot of the turrets. Flurry Heart scanned the station to locate the hangar where Ryder’s ship was and quickly found it. The hangar was located above the brim at the bottom of the station. The turrets were all on the brim, except for one. The only turret that wasn’t on the brim was the one that fired the Electromagnetic Pulses. That one was underneath the station because Ryder’s report indicated that the turret was lowered down. When Millie spotted the turret being lowered down to shoot at them, she had other ideas.
“You’re not going to disable us!”, she said as she readied a missile.
When the missile was launched, her ship was pushed back. Regardless, the missile struck the turret and destroyed it as Harold was starting to charge it up.
“Uncle, I think these allies are trained in the same way Ryder and the Paw Patrol are. They just shot down the E M P turret and are taking out the other turrets with ease.”, Harold said worriedly.
Humdinger began to get worried that his nephew was right.
“Raise shields.”, he finally said.
He didn’t know that Flurry Heart had shot a tap onto the station in order to listen in. She began to scan the ship in order to find the main shield generator. She readied a missile equipped with a drill once she found the generator. Firing the missile, it began to penetrate deep into the bowels of the space station. It detonated upon reaching the shield generator and took it out. The explosion rattled the entire structure, throwing Humdinger and Harold off of their feet.
“UNCLE, RED ALERT! WE’VE LOST OUR SHIELD GENERATOR!”, Harold cried.
Humdinger banged on the console as he screamed in rage, accidentally arming the most powerful turret on the entire station.
“DANGER! VAPORIZER ONLINE!”, said a mechanical voice from the computer.
This was a massive laser that could vaporize multiple space ships in one single blow. When he realized the turret was powering up, he tried to shut it off, but he had banged so hard that the controls for it were broken.
“Aunt Minnie, look. There’s a turret emerging from the top of the station. My analysis says it’s designed to vaporize all of our ships in a single blast. We need to take it out.”, shrieked Melody.
“Affirmative, Melody.”, replied Minnie.
She radioed the information to Twilight who immediately flew up to the turret and aimed a special weapon at it. When the weapon was deployed, it acted as a saw and cut the turret off, sending it into the atmosphere where it burned up and exploded.
“All wings, prepare to board. I’m about to open the hangar where Ryder’s ship is being held.”, Flurry reported.
At this point, all of the defense turrets had been destroyed, so everyone grouped back up around her and they began flying towards the station.
As everyone began closing in on the hangar, Mickey noticed what looked like a shield over the opening in the hangar.
“Flurry, this is Mickey. I see a shield covering the hangar. My analysis indicates that we cannot get through it. However, I have spotted the generator for the shield. I am going to shoot it out. Once it’s open, we will not have long to get inside. I have a feeling there will be an emergency hatch that will close up when the shield is breached.”, he said over radio.
“Go for it.”, Flurry replied.
Mickey opened fire and took out the generator to disable the shield. Once the shield was opened, everyone accelerated to get inside before the hatches closed. Once they had landed, they grabbed their handheld weapons and rushed to get off their ships. Harold ran into the hangar to confront them, but Twilight fired a stun blast from her horn to knock him out. Once he was unconscious, Millie ran over to restrain him. After tying a blindfold over his eyes, covering his mouth with tape, and tying his hands behind his back with rope, she smashed his headset to cut off communication between him and his uncle. Remembering that Humdinger had used sleeping gas to stop Ryder in his tracks, they kept their helmets closed and set their air supply to recycle the carbon dioxide into oxygen. This way, they would not run out of air and suffocate.
“Let’s find the ship that he and his uncle used to get up here. We can put him there.”, suggested Donald.
Twilight and Flurry agreed and they found the ship in only minutes. They encountered Humdinger’s kittens along the way and stunned them as well. After strapping him in one of the seats and putting the kittens in a cage, they knew it was time to save Ryder, his pups, and the cats.
After meeting back up in the hangar, Twilight and Flurry started establishing a plan to save everyone and eliminate the station.
“How will we do that? We don’t have a map of the space station.”, asked Mickey.
“We snatched Harold’s map when we restrained him. Also, we grabbed an access card and took a snapshot of his eyes. On the way to the ship, we passed doors locked by a retina scanner.”, explained Twilight.
After everyone had taken notes on the map, Twilight searched for Ryder and the pups and cats. She spotted their radar signals but had a feeling that their uniforms had been taken off. After sending a probe to find the pups and the cats based on body heat instead of radar, she spotted them all chained to the walls of a super-cooled room. After confirming they were still alive by using the probe’s medical scanner, she and Flurry established how they would rescue everyone.
“Alright, here’s what we will do. Donald and Daisy, I want you to find and activate the self-destruct for the space station. Take Harold’s keycard and the snapshot of his eyes because I am sure it will be a restricted area. Also, jam the doors shut after you leave because Humdinger may try to stop the sequence. Mickey, come with Flurry and I to save Ryder. Everyone else, go to where the probe is and unfreeze all of the pups and cats. Get them warmed up enough that they can pilot their ships.”, Twilight said.
Everybody accepted their assignments and they split up to rescue everyone.
Twilight, Flurry, and Mickey followed Ryder’s tracking signal until they reached a door that led into a dark, cold, shadowy room. Setting their suits to keep them warm, they opened the door and turned their headlamps on in order to see. Their lights fell on a dark-colored block of some sort that was hung on one of the walls. Running over to it, they looked at the block and noticed parts of Ryder’s outline including his hands. His lips were wide open, his teeth were gritted, and his eyes were shut tightly as if he was either cold or in severe pain. Twilight looked at one side of the block and noticed what looked like switches, but she didn’t know what to do. She had Flurry and Mickey look for clues and they found one in a flash.
“I’ve got something, Aunt Twilight. Ryder is encapsulated in a flash-frozen compound of carbon and some type of gas. This is apparently called “carbonite”. Don’t ask me where or how Humdinger got his hands on this. According to this schematic, the compound is held inside a frame with those switches on it. There are two switches that need to be moved. The first one is a lock that will allow you to move the second. The second switch will initiate a mechanism that will send high-frequency waves through the carbonite matrix to melt it. Mickey and I will stand ready to catch Ryder in case he is unable to stand on his own.”, said Flurry as Mickey showed Twilight a schematic of the block.
Twilight nodded and Flurry got in position with Mickey to catch Ryder in case he collapsed. Twilight saw the first switch and twisted it to unlock the second switch. After sliding the second switch, some of the lights on the side of the frame went out. Seconds later, Ryder’s outline began to glow orange.
“IT’S WORKING!”, yelled Mickey.
Moments later, the membrane began to melt away from Ryder and turn to gas. Ryder felt the heat radiating around him and his hands were able to relax from the position they had been in. When his mouth was able to move again, he exhaled quickly and then took a deep breath in a relieved way as if he had just surfaced from water. His legs were tingly for a second and he fell forward but Mickey and Flurry caught his shoulders.
“Easy, Ryder. We’ve got you.”, Flurry said as Ryder began to cough.
“I’m alright. I looked at my watch before I was frozen and took note of the time. I was frozen around 2:45 PM. Since my watch says 4:30 PM, I was only frozen for 1 hour and 45 minutes.”, said Ryder as his legs woke up and he stood up.
“Do you know why Humdinger did this to you?”, asked Mickey.
“He grew tired of being on parole and killed his officer. Before freezing me in that stuff, he said he was planning to kill us.”, Ryder explained as the four left the chamber.
“HE DID WHAT?”, Twilight shrieked.
“GOODNESS GRACIOUS!”, yelped Flurry.
Mickey explained that Daisy and Donald were looking for the station’s self-destruct mechanism and everyone else was freeing the pups and the cats as they went back to the hangar. Along the way, more sleep gas was released, so Ryder quickly sealed his helmet and drew his laser-handgun to set it for stun. They ran into Humdinger and got into a small shootout. Hiding behind corners, they would fire and try to hit him as they got closer to him. Several times, either Mickey or Ryder would grab something off the floor and throw it at Humdinger to force him back, but they missed and hit the walls. Eventually, Ryder was close enough that he jumped out and stunned Humdinger with a single shot without having to stall and aim. When Humdinger dropped unconscious to the floor, Ryder blew across the barrel on his laser-gun before putting it back in its holster on his belt.
“Point-blank range.”, said Twilight in amazement.
“Good shot, Ryder.”, said Mickey.
Ryder thanked Mickey and they dragged Humdinger to his ship where Harold was fighting to get out of his seat and strapped him in his own seat next to him. After closing the hatch, they ran to the main hangar where Ryder’s ship was along with everyone else’s.
**
Daisy and Donald rushed through the station’s hallways until they reached one that led into Engineering. Inserting Harold’s keycard into a slot and pressing the snapshot of his eyes over a scanner, they opened the door and hurried inside.
“Daisy, this is Mickey. We have Ryder and have gotten Humdinger onto his own ship.”, said Mickey over headset.
“Good work, guys. Donald and I have reached Engineering. We are certain that the self-destruct mechanism is in here.”, she replied.
As they looked around, Donald saw a red handle that had Emergency Only printed on it. Pulling the handle, he released a panel on the wall next to it. In this panel were two larger levers. He and Daisy each pulled one and they released a panel door in the floor. Opening this panel, they saw the words Emergency Detonation System written on the inside of the door. Following the instructions for the SCUTTLE procedure, Donald entered a code and released four bolts that he and Daisy screwed into threaded holes. They pulled up on the bolts to extend the fixtures and then flipped switches behind small doors. Seconds later, a digital voice sounded over the space station’s intercom speakers as an alarm began blaring and lights began flashing.
“Danger! The emergency destruct system is now activated. The space station will detonate in T-Minus: 10 Minutes. The option to override automatic detonation expires in T-Minus: 5 minutes.”, said the voice.
“Twilight, this is Donald. Daisy and I have armed the self-destruct.”, said Donald over radio as he and Daisy left the Engineering section and welded the door shut with a metal rod and an acetylene torch.
“We heard the warning over the speakers. Good work, you two. Now make your way to the hangar where we entered.”, said Twilight.
Daisy acknowledged and they ran as fast as they could until they reached the hangar.
Three minutes before the self-destruct alarm began sounding, Minnie found a closet where the pups’ and the cats’ uniforms had been thrown. She scooped them into a bag and joined the group at the door where Twilight’s probe was located. The door was coated in ice, so they had to pry it open after entering the unlock code. Inside the room, they saw all of the pups and cats shackled to the wall and covered in frost. Goofy spied a control panel on the wall and set the thermostat to heat up the room and thaw everyone out. Hot air began flowing into the room in a heartbeat and melting the ice everywhere. Once the shackles were defrosted, the pups and the cats began waking up.
“We’re saved!”, cheered Skye.
Millie started opening the shackles and getting everyone down as Minnie and Melody started pulling everyone’s uniforms out. As the pups and the cats were getting redressed, the alarm sounded and prompted everyone to get redressed faster. Once everyone was dressed, Minnie called out to them.
“COME ON! WE DON’T HAVE A SECOND TO LOSE!”, she shouted.
It took a while to get back to the hangar, but they soon made it and started boarding their ships. As they ran, a second voice sounded over the intercom system.
“The option to override detonation procedure has now expired! The space station will automatically destruct in T-Minus: 5 minutes.”, said the voice.
Arriving in the hangar, the pups and the cats ran to their ships and started getting ready to evacuate.
Humdinger was awakened by the second warning and by Harold kicking at him repeatedly.
“NO, NO, NO!”, he shouted.
After waking up completely, he pulled the tape off of Harold’s mouth.
“Uncle, it’s too late. We have to abandon the station, or else we will die.”, said Harold sadly.
Realizing his nephew was correct, Humdinger began powering up their ship and opened the hangar doors after depressurizing. Little did he know that Twilight had gone devious and removed his fuel crystal and smashed it.
**
Ryder was the last to board his ship. He closed his helmet and started the depressurization sequence to equalize the environment. After boarding his ship, he called out to everyone.
“Here we go everyone, we’re getting out of here.”, he said over headset.
The emergency hatch that had closed to keep the pressure earlier opened automatically when the sensors verified equal pressure. Once it was open, Ryder led everyone out.
**
Humdinger was about to start the engines when Harold noticed a warning symbol on the console.
“Uncle, the engines are not working. The fuel crystal is missing.”, he said.
Humdinger was annoyed and he reluctantly disembarked to find a fresh one. He grabbed one from a storage barrel and put it in place before getting back on board and finishing the power-up sequence. They left the station just in the nick of time, but they were not fast enough to escape the destruct radius. When the station exploded, a piece of shrapnel hit their ship and sent them into a spin as they entered the reentry corridor. During descent, they passed out from the g-force before crashing in the ocean.
**
After Ryder had led everyone to a safe landing area, they took off their space suits and started watching for Humdinger’s ship so they could confront him and his nephew. Millie spotted the ship through her binoculars and then stated bad news to everyone.
“I think they were hit. Their ship is spinning out of control and headed for the water.”, she said.
Twilight took to the air and quickly calculated where the ship would land so that Zuma and Ryder could tow them to shore. Once the ship touched down, Ryder and Zuma attached towlines, pulled the ship to the beach, and then opened the main hatch to extract everyone. They knew that the process after this would not be pretty.
After extracting Humdinger, his kittens, and Harold from their ship, Ryder instructed Chase to leave the kittens in the cage and put handcuffs on Harold and his uncle. Chase proceeded to do so and then Humdinger and Harold were woken up with smelling salts.
“You are both under arrest for kidnapping us, attempting to kill us, and for endangering the Star-lab space station.”, Chase said firmly with a growl.
The two were taken to a holding area to await trial the next morning. While they were in the cell, Harold explained what he had gone through to his uncle.
“They were too fast to take me down, Uncle. One second I am ready to shoot at them for intrusion, next second I am tied up, blindfolded, gagged, and strapped in my seat on our ship.”, he said bitterly.
“I can’t believe Ryder managed to hit me with a stun blast at point-blank range. Also, one of those allies must have sabotaged our ship by removing the fuel crystal in order to slow us down from escaping. We thought we had the element of surprise when we caught the Paw Patrol, but then those allies outsmarted us.”, Humdinger said angrily.
**
Before everyone laid down for the night, Mayor Goodway came to the Lookout to discuss the charges that should be pressed against Humdinger and Harold in court.
“I’m glad to see you’re all okay Ryder. When you didn’t return after repairing the new space station, I began to worry.”, she said.
“They were taken by surprise and captured by Humdinger, Your Honor.”, said Twilight.
“How is that possible? His parole officer would have reported it.”, asked Mayor Goodway.
“Before he froze me in suspended animation, he told me himself that he had killed his parole officer.”, explained Ryder.
“Why did he do that?”, asked Goodway.
“Apparently, he grew tired of being on parole and under such restrictions.”, said Mickey.
“Understood, but I am not sure what the proper way would be to issue consequences. If they’re put in jail, the kittens could possibly break them out.”, replied Goodway.
“I’m one step ahead, Your Honor. We have special equipment that can brainwash whatever it is used on. We will use that and brainwash the kittens. We have also confiscated Humdinger’s cat whistle so he can’t attract them anymore.”, replied Flurry Heart.
Mayor Goodway was impressed by Flurry’s description. After the meeting was finished, everyone laid down to rest up for the court meeting the next day.
Humdinger and Harold were taken to court the next morning to stand trial for what they had done when they captured Ryder and his group. When everyone took their seats, Mayor Goodway started by stating all of the charges that Humdinger was pressed with.
“Humdinger, you are found guilty of murdering your own parole officer. Both you and your nephew, Harold, are guilty of kidnapping Ryder and the PAW Patrol, and attempting to murder them. You are also guilty of endangering civilians on the Star-lab space station by shooting at them. Finally, you deceived the PAW Patrol in order to capture them.”, stated Goodway.
Both Humdinger and Harold were very worried. Goodway had just stated charges on everything they had done. Ryder, along with Twilight and Mickey spoke next to explain the verdict they had decided on.
“Sir, all three of us decided last evening that the harshest consequence is that you must be placed in jail for life. Also, your kittens will not be with you. Instead, they have had their memories with you erased. They will be adopted by new owners.”, said Twilight.
When Humdinger and Harold heard all of the results, they broke down in tears. Regardless, they followed Chase out to the enlarged version of his police cruiser and got in the back. Before closing the doors, Minnie got in and sat across from Humdinger and Harold, holding a plasma-rifle to warn them not to try anything that would impede the trip. The doors were closed and Chase drove to a maximum-security prison facility that was located many miles away from any civilization. This prison was also where all other enemies of the Paw Patrol were taken after they were caught, tried, and found guilty. Both Humdinger and Harold were led to their cells with an officer both in front of them and behind them at the same time. After being led to their cells, which were nowhere close to each other, both Harold and his uncle were locked up.
“We’ll take it from here, Ryder.”, said one of the prison officers.
Ryder, Chase, and Minnie gave the officer a salute before they returned to Adventure Bay. Upon returning, Mickey told them something surprising.
“Mayor Goodway is arranging a ceremony for all of us. Our fleet, you and the entire PAW Patrol, and Twilight’s fleet will be recognized tomorrow.”, he explained.
All three of them were excited about this and they began to get ready before getting some sleep.
The next day was spent getting ready for the recognition ceremony of all members of the alliance. Along with the citizens of Adventure Bay, citizens of Adventure City were present as well. At sunset, it was time for the ceremony to begin. All of the members of the PAW Patrol along with the allies were lined up in front of a large stage set up in the town square of Adventure Bay. Mayor Goodway hung a medal around each of their necks and then told them to turn and face the audience.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, the unbroken alliance of the PAW Patrol, Equestria, and Disney. Let’s hear it for them!”, hollered Mayor Goodway.
The audience erupted with clapping, cheering, and yelling: “ALLIES!”. During the applause, Mayor Goodway pressed a button to start a giant fireworks display that lit up the sky while all of the allies waved at everyone. The story was in all of the news headlines the next day. Multiple reporters interviewed the fleets about their histories and how the fleets met each other, whether it was through being rescued or helping with rescuing another fleet. All three fleets continued helping each other for years to come until the time came for some of the members to retire. Regardless of how much time passed, all three fleets remained as a legend for all three of the home-worlds and they established days to remember the fleets being formed.
Sixteen years later…
Flurry Heart had just been crowned the new ruler over all of Equus after Twilight had died from cancer. Previously, she had become the Crystal Empire’s new ruler when Cadence retired. Cadence had died nine years after retiring when she caught a bacterial infection. Twilight's friends had also died at this point from various causes. Rainbow had crash-landed in the middle of a forest fire, Pinkie and Applejack had died from old age, Rarity had gotten an untreatable infection in her horn, and Fluttershy's wings gave out as she flew over the ocean one day, causing her to crash into the water and drown. Two days after Twilight had been pronounced, both Ryder and Mickey were given a sad message that led them to bring their groups with them to Equus.
**
Dear Allies,
Aunt Twilight developed cancer two months after Humdinger was put in jail. She has been on medications to treat it for 14 years and she had surgery to remove the cells three months ago. However, the doctors did not realize that the cancer had gotten close to reaching her other organs. She started feeling sick recently and was told that the cancer had reached her heart and she had very little time left to live. I have already been the ruler of the Crystal Empire for fifteen years after my mother retired, but then nine years after retiring, she died from a bacterial infection. Aunt Twilight’s last wish was for me to unite Equestria and the Crystal Empire into a single nation. I request all of you to be present at the memorial.
Signed,
Flurry Heart
**
At the service, all of the allies stood behind Flurry Heart and were dressed formally. They each shared their own memories from their time with Twilight as soldiers and rescue responders. As the ceremony was brought to its close, the allies gave a salute as Twilight’s casket was placed in a mausoleum built for all of the princesses. After the ceremony ended, everyone left in silence and the allies boarded their ships to return home.
Two weeks later; The Young Six had just finished a set of training exercises to keep their space skills in top condition when the bell rang at the door to their barracks. The postal service pegasus had a single scroll for them from Flurry Heart.
**
Dear Young Six,
I request your presence in Canterlot for a new mission that will test all of your skills in space exploration.
Signed,
Queen Flurry Heart
**
The six immediately boarded a train to Canterlot after dressing in their finest uniforms. Arriving in the throne room, they knelt before Flurry Heart on the carpet.
“You may rise.”, said Flurry.
“Your Highness, you said in your letter to us that you had a new mission for us.”, said Sandbar.
“That is correct, Sandbar.”, replied Flurry.
“May we hear it?”, asked Smolder.
“Right this way, please.”, said Flurry as she led the Young Six to a conference room in the palace.
Once everyone was seated, Flurry started a power-point to explain the new mission.
“As you all know, Aunt Twilight and my mom split up an accessible portion of the universe into seven sections when the space exploration campaign started before we got involved with Disney and the PAW Patrol. However, only two of the sections were fully mapped out. The campaign was put on hold due to budget cuts, but we have recently been able to raise enough for you to restart and finish it. The two sections that we mapped successfully were where the PAW Patrol and the Disney Fleet were based, so they were able to help with those areas. Each of the remaining five sections has a space station, so you will go to each one and then split up. Sandbar, you will monitor your friends’ progress in sections 3 and 6 as they split up to map 20% each. Once a section is fully mapped out, you will regroup and travel to the next space station. After all five sections are charted, you will return home to Equus so the information can be added to the star-charts.”, she said.
Once the presentation was finished, everyone accepted and Flurry explained how they would reach the space stations.
“You will use the Harmony to reach the space stations and then each of you will take your personal ship in order to map out the sections.”, she explained.
After receiving the specifications for their new mission, the Young Six began gearing up. Yona, Smolder, Silverstream, Ocellus, Sandbar, and Gallus loaded their ships on to the Harmony via remote control and then they started waiting for the right weather conditions to launch. They opted to send the Harmony into space ahead of time so it could be stocked for their mission in order to avoid complications. This meant they would board by using a shuttle when the time was right.
Two weeks later; the weather was optimal for the shuttle to be launched to meet up with the Harmony . The Young Six got into their space suits and proceeded to board their shuttle. Once the hatch was sealed, everyone started getting seated and strapped in. Once the countdown began, they all braced for the intense shaking they would feel.
The engines were ignited and the shuttle left the pad in only seconds. Once they had cleared the atmosphere, the shuttle was switched to auto-pilot to dock on the space station where the Harmony was. After moving from the shuttle to the Harmony , the Young Six got seated to start their mission. The docking clamps were released, and the Harmony was set in motion to the first destination: Sector 3. The PAW Patrol had helped with mapping Sector 1 and the Disney Fleet had helped to map out Sector 2, so the Young Six would be mapping sectors 3 through 7.
Upon arriving at the Sector 3 space station, the Harmony was docked and Sandbar headed to the communication wing. Everyone else boarded their personal ships and set off to begin their mapping mission.
As Gallus piloted his ship into his portion of Sector 3, he picked up three galaxies. In order from closest to farthest, the galaxies were called Veridia, Amargosa, and Talaria.
Reaching the Veridia galaxy, he started charting every single planetary body for position and even sent probes down to check environments. Several of the planets were gas-giants, but Gallus also found habitable planets where Equus could establish bases. There were some planets that were both inhabited and uninhabited that had poisonous atmospheres. Exploring these planets required Gallus to keep his space suit sealed at all times while he was charting.
There were also some inhabited planets with a similar atmosphere to that of Equus. All of the inhabitants that he met were friendly and welcomed him to their worlds. Some did not speak English, but Gallus had brought equipment with which to translate the natives’ language so it could be comprehended. Gallus even told the inhabitants about his home-world, which was intriguing to them.
Amargosa and Talaria were similar and had a few uninhabited planets. Some were difficult to explore due to dangerous terrain. For instance, there were two planets where lava was almost everywhere and the rain-water was heavily acidic. Some of the other planets were all water and the only structures were either under the water or on gigantic metal support legs anchored on the seafloor.
Once Gallus was certain that he had mapped his section out completely, he made his way back to the space station.
**
When Ocellus scanned her area, she found only two galaxies, called Lemuria and Ludus. Ludus was the closest galaxy, so she headed there first.
The Ludus galaxy had hundreds of gas-giants which were all different. Some of the planets even changed color, so she made sure to take gas samples from each planet for research in the future. Although, there were some planets with solid landmasses. She explored those carefully to avoid disturbing the environments. Half of these planets had environments similar to those of Equus and had breathable air. All of the other planets were full of caves where the inhabitants lived underground. All of the inhabited planets were welcoming and the residents gladly donated samples of their resources for experimentation.
In Lemuria, there were more solid planets than any other type. One-third of these planets were forested. However, the wood from the trees was different in hardness from planet to planet. On some worlds, the wood was so soft that it could be cut with only a knife, whereas other planets had tree wood that required a laser to cut it. The inhabitants here gladly gave her some samples from trees they had recently harvested. One-sixth of Lemuria was gas-giants and did not show any signs of life, so Ocellus moved on after charting the planets’ positions.
Half of the remaining planets were mountains everywhere. There was nothing to collect from these planets except for photographs and written information. The remainder of the planets were all ice planets. Life did exist, but there were noticeable differences. On half of these planets, the inhabitants were acclimated to the sub-zero temperatures. The other planets had heated buildings that the inhabitants lived in. If going outside, they would need to put on heavy clothes. Some of these ice worlds had liquid nitrogen for their oceans. Ocellus had brought a special thermos for this, so she was able to collect a sample.
Once she was certain that she had not missed anything, she made her way back to the space station.
**
Silverstream’s portion of Sector 3 involved systems called Thule, Agartha, and Hyperborea.
Ninety percent of Thule was filled with planets that did not have an atmosphere. The inhabitants were able to survive in the vacuum of space. Silverstream was sure to take notes that if the planets here were ever colonized, then pressurized outposts would need to be built. The remaining 10% was mountainous worlds that did not have any flat areas to land a starship without sustaining heavy damage. Silverstream opted to remain flying while charting these planets.
Agartha was filled completely with lush plant worlds. The smell of nectar from the flowers on these planets was sweeter than any kind of honey that Silverstream had ever tasted on Equus. She was even given plant samples to research. Some of the planets were so huge that they had to be shrunk down with a shrink ray in order to store them. On a couple of planets, the natives were generous enough to give samples of the honey and molasses they produced.
Hyperborea was the most treacherous system she explored in her area. All of the planets here were together as one giant mining operation. Smoke from the constant explosions in the mines made it difficult to see, and the substances that were being mined were highly radioactive. Silverstream had made sure to bring special receptacles to store these metals and liquids, and she did not take her space suit off in order to avoid getting radiation poisoning.
Once Silverstream had charted every star and planet in her part of Sector 3, she headed back to the space station.
**
Smolder’s part of Sector 3 consisted of the systems Delta, and Zulu. As she got close, a scan told her that the planets in Zulu would be hard to chart.
In the Delta system, she came across something she had never seen in her life. Equus may have been modernized, but every single planet here was inhabited by complete nerds. These planets had technology unlike anything that had been created on Equus, so the workers gave her some pieces of equipment as well as copies of some of the blueprints for their best inventions. Smolder thanked them warmly and left with a grin. She could not wait to share these designs with Flurry.
In the Zulu system, Smolder’s flight skills were tested to the ultimate level. 80% of the planets were in tight orbits around black holes. She had to watch how close she got in order to avoid getting pulled in. Nevertheless, she still managed to get pictures taken and samples collected from the planets that were in safe areas. Although, some of these inhabitants were not very friendly and didn’t like outsiders. In those cases, Smolder kept her distance and cloaked her ship so they would not see anything. One planet involved her having to go scuba diving in order to carry out the mapping. She enjoyed that planet because she learned a lot about how to pressurize vehicles for extreme depths underwater. She took many notes so she could tell Flurry Heart as much as possible.
After making sure she had not missed anything, Smolder returned to the space station to regroup with her friends.
**
Yona’s portion of Sector 3 consisted of the Alpha, Juliet, and Tango systems.
In the Alpha system, Yona came across numerous worlds where the inhabitants constantly trained for war. They were impressed that someone had come to visit and gladly gave some of their time for Yona to make recordings of some of their best battle tactics for close-combat, water, air, and in space. She even took lessons from some of the inhabitants.
In Juliet, she encountered tons of agricultural worlds that produced more fruits and vegetables than she had ever seen. She was given samples of each and every bit of produce, along with labels since some of the names were hard to produce. Yona even received recipes for how to mix the juice from each crop and make interesting drinks.
Tango was another story. This system worked in conjunction with Juliet to produce different types of candies on 25% of the planets. The other planets had all of the resources that were necessary to make said candies, even cocoa for chocolate. Some of these planets had plants that actually grew candy that you could eat after picking it. Yona had a sweet tooth, but she resisted eating too much because she did not want to get sick during the mission. She took lots of pictures and wrote multiple logs to document what the planets looked like both from space and on the ground. These were some of the most colorful planets she had ever seen.
She had charted everything in her part of the sector in about three weeks. Once all was said and done, she returned to the space station.
Once everyone had returned to the space station, they talked about what they had seen and what kind of terrains they encountered on the planets they examined. Sandbar quickly logged everything in a holographic map that showed the portion of the universe around Equus. After undocking from the station and leaving Sector 3, they flew on the Harmony to the space station in Sector 4. The scanners indicated that this sector was larger than Sector 3, so it possibly would take longer to map out. Nevertheless, they docked on the space station and talked to the Commander, which was Spike. He had some shocking news for them.
“This sector may look large on the scanners, but there aren’t as many planets as there were when the campaign was first started. Massive solar flares in almost all of the systems have completely obliterated the planets. All of the remaining planets are in a single solar system. You can still chart the locations of all of the stars, but you will have very little to record for planetary life. Sandbar, I suggest you take part in the mapping for this sector as well.”, explained Spike.
Sandbar accepted what Spike had said and they set off.
In this sector, Gallus would be mapping the grass planet “Floria” and the water planet “Aquarius”. Arriving on Floria, Gallus was met by incredible breathtaking sights. The planet was split into four quadrants, each of which was always a single season that would never change.
There was only plant life on Floria, so Gallus only had to use his camera and take pictures. The mere fact that all four seasons were present at the same time in different areas was something he never expected. He knew that Flurry Heart would be impressed to hear about that.
When he both landed on the planet and left the planet, he did not fire his main engines when he was close to the ground. This was because he did not want to disturb the plant life. Instead, he used an energy coil on his ship that allowed it to float as if it was weightless. He had a great time mapping out Floria, and everything was peaceful during the time he took.
Aquarius on the other hand was filled with hundreds of different forms of marine life. He used his scuba gear for 80% of the exploration. Sometimes, he would be in pitch black and need to use his flashlight, but that was no big deal. He took pictures of many of the marine creatures, some of which were similar to those on Equus. There were also many places that were home to land creatures typically found in swamps and rivers. Once he had successfully mapped out both Floria and Aquarius, he returned to the space station.
**
Ocellus’ assignment was to map a cavernous planet called “Cavius”. Prior to beginning this area, she had been warned that Cavius would be almost pitch-black in the caves. She would need a headlamp. Landing on the planet, she spread her wings and descended into the dark caves. Spike had also warned her that seismic activity was common, so he advised her to bring explosives if she ever got trapped. She eventually figured out that all of the caves were one massive network with different entrances and exits.
Some parts of the caves were filled with water, but it was nothing she had to worry about. In other areas of the caves, she found giant crystal formations. Knowing this was an exciting find, she took pictures and even chiseled off pieces from the crystals to bring home for research. The patterns she saw in the rock formations were unlike anything she had ever seen. She also took pictures of these patterns in the rock. There were two earthquakes that trapped her, but she was able to blast herself out.
Even though she had found the crystals and the interesting patterns in the rock, she found no life on Cavius. Once she was certain that she had not missed any places, she left the caves, boarded her ship, and returned to the space station.
**
Sandbar was assigned to map a mechanical world called “Mekkai”. As he entered the atmosphere, he saw lights everywhere. The only inhabitants on Mekkai were robotic and they welcomed him after showing him a place to land. He was advised not to take his helmet off because there were heavy amounts of radiation from the power plants. Sandbar did not need to modify his suit, since it was lead-lined to protect him.
The power plants were all consolidated in one area, but Sandbar was unable to get a close-up view. This was due to the fact that the radiation was much stronger. So much so that his suit would not be able to shield him. To improvise, he raised the shields on his ship and flew over the power plants to get an aerial view. As a gift from the inhabitants, he was supplied with blueprints for ways he could upgrade his ship and any other ships that were with him. He was also given the specifications for how to build new weapons for war. He accepted everything he was given and left once he was finished mapping out all of the areas. After he had closed the shields, he decontaminated his ship and returned to the space station.
**
Silverstream was tasked with mapping out a star-shaped planet called Popstar. Aside from its shape, Popstar was practically identical to Equus. Silverstream took many pictures and even met some of the inhabitants, one of which was a pink ball named Kirby. He did not speak English, but there were other inhabitants who explained an interesting ability he had. If Kirby were to swallow something with a special purpose, he would gain an ability that was related somehow. For instance, if he swallowed a torch, he would be able to breathe fire. One of the other inhabitants was a masked swordsman named Meta Knight. He said that his past was a secret, so Silverstream chose not to ask him.
Silverstream came across a castle at one point, and met the king who lived there. His name was King Dedede, and he was a greedy king. Since Silverstream was only mapping and exploring the area, Dedede made an exception and she told him where she came from and what her mission was. Dedede was impressed by her description of how she and her friends had been tasked with mapping out parts of space.
One particular forest was home to a talking apple tree named Whispy Woods. Prior to going into the forest, Meta Knight warned her that all of the trees were identical, thus making it difficult to navigate. So she tied a long length of rope to her space suit before going into the woods. Reaching the center, she met Whispy and explained her mission. Whispy was blown away by her description and he wished her luck after giving her some of his apples.
There was also a tall mountain with a cave, but Silverstream was cautioned by Meta Knight to not get too close. A huge and very aggressive bird named Dyna Blade lived in the cave and she would stop at nothing to protect her chicks. At one point while Silverstream was looking out over the land, Dyna Blade flew out of her cave and almost sent Silverstream falling to the ground. Luckily, Silverstream knew how to fly and she avoided hitting the ground after taking a few rushed snapshots of Dyna Blade.
Once she was certain that there were no areas left uncharted, Silverstream left Popstar and flew back to the space station.
**
Smolder was assigned to map out a fiery planet called “Hotbeat”. Even though she was used to extremely high temperatures, this was something else. Spike said she would need to wear a heat-resistant suit and raise her ship’s heat shields to avoid burning up. When she entered the atmosphere, her external thermometers registered temperatures in the thousands. She knew that heat like this would cook her alive, so she did not hesitate to keep her heat shield up. After finding a safe place to land, she put on the helmet to complete her heat suit, and she began to chart the planet. Everywhere she looked, she saw rivers and lakes of lava. Since the temperatures were so high, Smolder suspected that nothing could possibly live safely on Hotbeat.
Even with her heat suit on, Smolder still broke out in sweat from how hot the planet was. Luckily, she knew to swap out the coolant for her suit with liquid nitrogen. This prevented the suit from melting or getting burned. She had to escape from three volcanic eruptions while she was mapping, but she was fast and managed to get away.
**
Yona would be mapping a cloud planet called “Skyhigh”. She was told in advance that the planet would be very windy, so she made sure to set her engines to a high level of power in order to fly against the strong gusts. There was no place to land on the planet, so she carried out the mapping while flying her ship. Upon entering the atmosphere, her ship’s humidity gauge registered a very high reading. This meant there was a lot of moisture on Skyhigh.
The planet was uninhabited, but Yona documented that the possibility existed to construct research bases. This would allow for the study of weather patterns since there were always clouds. She had to deal with wind at least 4 times, but she accelerated greatly to resist the strong gusts. Once she was certain that she had not missed any part of the planet, she headed back to the space station.
After reuniting on the space station, everyone exchanged word of what they had found and they logged all of the data in the map computer. As they prepared to undock, the space station’s crew wished them luck with mapping Sector 5. They did not understand what the crew meant at first, but they found out at the next space station.
“You will need to be very alert at all times here. Some of the probes we have sent out have been destroyed or seriously damaged. It seems that the planets here are home to some hostile and unfriendly creatures.”, warned the Commander, which was Rainbow Dash’s old friend Gilda.
Everyone felt their skin crawl, but they knew they had to map the area no matter what. So they started gearing up for the mission. As they were gearing up, Gilda let them in on something that they didn’t expect.
“This sector only has two planets, each with its own sun, and they are enormous. They are called Draconia and Merlin 5. I recommend you all go to both as a whole group. Have your weapons ready at all times to defend yourselves.”, she explained.
“Acknowledged.”, said Sandbar as he closed his helmet.
Once all of the ships were ready, they set off for the first planet.
Draconia was the closest planet to the space station, so the Young Six decided to go there first. Their radar showed that the planet was 20,000,000 miles in diameter, so it would take a long time to map out. As they entered the atmosphere, they picked up strong readouts of cities and technology. Before finding a place to land, they took note of the fact that they saw numerous starships waiting to be launched. They took pictures of some of the cities and the ships because the design was like nothing they had ever seen in their life. There were several places where there weren’t any large cities, and this revealed that Draconia was a swamp planet. This meant they had to land carefully in order to avoid sinking in quicksand.
After touching down safely, they grabbed their weapons and disembarked. They did not know they had been seen. As they made their way to the outskirts of one of the cities, they heard the sounds of laser blasts behind them. As they turned around, they spotted a Draconian patrol. These aliens had four arms, spikes on their heads, and three eyes. Before the Young Six could shoot back and defend themselves, the soldiers shot blasts that knocked them unconscious.
When the Young Six woke up, they were chained in a prison cell. They quickly realized that they’d been captured by the Draconians. One of them came into the cell a few minutes later and unchained them from the wall.
“You’re coming with me.”, he hissed.
The Young Six had no choice but to follow him into a large room where another Draconian sat on a throne and wore a head-dress.
“I am Draconian Emperor Koval. Why are you here?”, he asked angrily.
Sandbar spoke up to explain their mission.
“We are explorers on a mission to map part of the universe surrounding our home planet.”, he said.
“If you are mapping space, then I want you to give us the location of where you live.”, hissed Koval.
Sandbar recognized the tone in Koval’s voice. The tone implied that Koval was seeking a planet to invade.
“By NO means are you invading our home planet.”, he yelled back as he and his friends were marched out of the room.
“We’ll see about that.”, said Koval.
That night, Ocellus realized she still had her power to transform. She turned herself into a bear with razor-sharp teeth and chomped the chains on everyone’s shackles. After Yona kicked down the door, they tackled the Draconian guard and raced out of the dungeon. Once outside, they fled into the forest. They realized that another guard on patrol had spotted them because a light shone on them as they were running. Luckily, the guard lost them in the dense forest. In the woods, they met some other Draconians who did not act hostile. They were being kind to them. One of them was named Leon.
“I overheard that you guys are mapping space. Am I right?”, he whispered.
Sandbar nodded his head and this group led them underground into a cavern. Leon proceeded to explain what was going on.
“Ever since Koval became Emperor, he has been forcing our friends to invade any planets with intelligent life. All we know is that he is retaliating against someone for some reason. We have tried to find out, but all we do is get caught. Some of us have escaped his clutches and hidden in these caves, while others have been forced into his army. We will help you map out the planet and make sure you get away safely.”, he said.
Leon explained that the patrols were constant and the Young Six had to time their camera shots carefully by disguising them in the sounds from creatures roaring or when thunder cracked during rainstorms. Draconians could apparently hear a camera flash from up to 200 feet away, meaning they had powerful ears. With only 20% of them not in the army, the odds of not getting captured again were extremely low. The next morning, the Young Six were led by Leon’s group of rogues to a hidden facility where their ships were. It turned out that Koval had ordered their ships to be impounded. Luckily, they got their weapons back. Leon had grabbed them before the guards could come back and get them after impounding the ships. The Young Six were grateful that they got their supplies back, but they were also concerned whether they would be able to get their ships back and finish their mission.
At dawn the next morning, the Young Six shot at the guards outside the impound garage and stunned them. Once all of the guards were out cold and the cameras were destroyed, Leon ran up to the door and began cutting around the frame with a plasma torch. After the doors were cut open, The Young Six quickly boarded their ships and took off after removing some pieces that had been placed on the exterior to keep them in lockdown. Leon led the way to an area where they could start mapping. They flew to a high altitude and began charting the topography and architecture. Over the course of six weeks they managed to chart out 2/3 of the planet.
After that, they were spotted by a patrol. Refusing to let themselves be captured again, the Young Six began to raise their shields. As their shields went up, the patrol ships opened fire and hit some of the cannons. These cannons were among the Young Six’s main arsenal, but they had plenty of other weapons to use. They fired back and succeeded in taking down the patrol. As they finished mapping out the planet, they got a radar signal that another patrol was coming to take them down.
This patrol was twice the size of the first one, and the Young Six knew they would have a hard time unless Leon and his group helped them. He accepted their request and his group joined them in the sky. They took down most of the ships, but Leon had missed a critical part of the last upgrade that the Draconians had added to their ships. This upgrade allowed the ships to fly lightning fast in tight situations. His ship’s engines were hit and he was headed into a steep dive. The Young Six knew that he was flying too fast and the trees were too dense in the area to make an emergency landing.
“GET OUT OF HERE! FINISH YOUR MISSION!”, he yelled over the radio.
As the Young Six flew higher until they reached space, they watched Leon’s radar signal disappear from their screens. They thought he was dead, but then he radioed back and said he survived.
“I ejected from my ship before I crashed, but I’ve been arrested for rebellion. Good luck on the rest of your mission.”, he said before his radio cut off.
The Young Six performed a spacewalk to fix their cannons and then they flew on to reach Merlin 5.
**
Gilda had said Merlin 5 was not as treacherous of a planet as Draconia, but the Young Six still had to be careful. Merlin 5 was a rainforest planet with very lush plant life and 2,500,000 miles in diameter. So, it was only 1/8 of Draconia’s size. Also, the majority of the probes that were sent out from the space station had been sent here. Only one probe had been sent to Draconia. After landing in a fairly concealed portion of the forest and cloaking their ships, the Young Six pulled out their mapping equipment and cameras to begin charting the planet. This planet looked friendly, but the Young Six quickly found out they were wrong after taking pictures of several trees, birds, and other animals. A patrol cruiser arrived and the crew started loud-hailing them with orders to leave the planet.
“Can’t we discuss this face-to-face?”, asked Sandbar.
The cruiser landed and one of the Merlinians disembarked. She was snarling. She had four eyes, two horns on her head, two arms with six fingers on each hand, and two legs with four toes on each foot. Her name badge said “Trinity”.
“Listen up! We Merlinians do NOT like outsiders. Anyone who dares step foot on our world is tracked down and then brainwashed so that they will remember absolutely NOTHING!”, she shouted.
“What if we told you we are on a mission to map out regions of space?”, Silverstream asked firmly.
“That’s irrelevant, young lady. We don’t want our existence to be known by anyone. Even the Draconians dare not step foot here. We forced them to leave and ordered them to forget ever seeing us after they were done.”, yelled Trinity.
Yona shot a stun blast at Trinity in annoyance and the Young Six fled deeper into the woods. They continued mapping while the patrol attempted to chase after them. Luckily, the trees were so thick that the patrol lost them. It took five days to map the planet, and they were almost back to their ships when Trinity’s patrol spotted them again. She fired a weighted net to pin them down and then she got off the cruiser and pulled out a metal rod with a flashing light on one end. The Young Six didn’t know what this thing was, but they figured it would make them forget seeing the planet when the light flashed. The Young Six closed their helmets and shut their eyes to resist the flash, and it worked. Trinity became enraged and said they were under arrest for trespassing. In retaliation, Smolder opened her helmet for a split-second to breathe a fireball and destroy the net. Once the net was burned to pieces, everyone stood back up and quickly boarded their ships. Trinity ordered their ships to be seized with restraining beams, but the Young Six were too fast and put their shields up. As they rocketed into the sky, Trinity’s temper exploded and she threw her helmet on the ground. She returned to the capitol and went to her father, who was the planet’s ruler. He was not pleased that outsiders had escaped with knowledge of their planet.
When everybody returned to the space station, the crew members were grateful.
“It’s amazing that you are still in one piece. Although it looks like some of your ships were damaged during the exploration.”, said Gilda.
“You got that right. We were shot at during our escape from Draconia, but some of them protected us, having rebelled against their ruler. They were arrested, but gave us enough time to get away.”, said Yona.
“Not to mention, we were almost arrested and brainwashed for trespassing when we were mapping out Merlin 5. Thankfully, we got away.”, said Smolder.
Gilda advised that they repair their ships properly before proceeding to Sector 6, and the Young Six agreed. Sandbar radioed Flurry Heart that they were going to be delayed because of repairs and she understood. Once the repairs were complete, the Young Six boarded the Harmony and undocked to head for Sector 6. Little did they know that the Draconians had placed radar taps on their personal ships when they were impounded. After docking, they heard something pleasing from the station’s Commander, which was Applebloom.
“Gilda informed me that you had a rough time in Sector 5, but you are unharmed. This sector will be your easiest one.”, she said.
**
Sandbar chose to sit out charting Sector 6, so he stayed on the space station. Gallus proceeded to chart out a galaxy with two solar systems. The first one had eight planets that were all oceans. None of these planets could sustain life. Two of them had acid in the water, while the rest did not have enough plants to provide breathing oxygen. All of the planets had thick layers of clouds that blocked out the sunlight, so it was always dark. On the planets that did not have enough plants to produce oxygen, both the atmosphere and the water were heavily poisonous. Two of these planets had heavy concentrations of radioactive elements, so Gallus made sure to raise his shields to avoid contamination.
The second solar system was comprised of six planets that all had strange magnetic fields. In order to chart out these planets, Gallus had to magnetize his boots because the fields wanted to push him away, as opposed to a regular planet’s magnetic field that would pull him down. These planets were metal all the way through and contained mines for the metals that made them up. These metals were like nothing Gallus had ever seen, so the inhabitants were happy to donate samples to him for research when he returned to Equus.
Once Gallus had fully mapped out all of the planets and any stars in the vicinity, he returned to the space station.
**
Ocellus flew deeper into the sector than Gallus and came across a single planet called Soria filled with intelligent life. Everyone on this planet was very tech-savvy. She wondered why the Draconians had not invaded this world, but she soon found a startling answer when she met the planet’s ruler, Mariel.
“We were at war with Draconia twenty years ago, but we favored brains over brawn and defeated them easily. Koval’s father, Soran, was at the front lines and killed during the final battle. Koval vowed to retaliate against us someday. He has been trying to find other planets to invade in hopes of building a larger and more powerful army to avenge Soran’s death.”, she explained.
Ocellus was floored by Mariel’s report. She took note of all of this in order to tell Flurry Heart once she and her friends had returned to Equus. This also worried her that the Draconians had possibly tapped their ships. However, when she looked, she did not see anything that was not present before the mission began. Once she had mapped out the planet completely and charted all of the surrounding stars, she returned to the space station.
**
Silverstream was charting a group of six planets that were filled with lush plant life, forests, and deserts. Clouds were usually very light and rain was not heavy on the grassland planets. The picturesque view extended for miles in the wide open plains. Rivers flowed peacefully and at a steady pace to distribute moisture throughout the soil so nothing ever dried up. Inhabitants here included deer, elk, bison, prairie dogs, and many more herbivores.
The forested planets had tons of trees and several mountain ranges. Birds screamed through the trees in the forests and snakes were seen multiple times, so Silverstream had to watch her step to avoid getting bitten. She saw many different types of deciduous life here, such as bears, eagles, macaws, hawks, and wolves. She made sure to stay out of harm’s way in order to map out all of the planets completely.
On the desert worlds, Silverstream had to make sure she had a lot of water to avoid dehydration. She also had to mark her ship’s position on a GPS and use a compass to make sure she did not get lost. Temperatures easily exceeded 100 degrees, and she had to wear sunscreen during the day to avoid getting sunburned. Thankfully, she did not get lost on any of the planets and she stayed well hydrated. On two of the planets, she extracted water from cacti and even picked prickly pear fruits for food. It was a pretty view, but very hot.
Once she was certain that every square inch was mapped out on all of the planets, she charted out the stars and then returned to the space station.
**
Smolder’s assignment for Sector 6 was to map a giant planet made entirely of water. A bubble surrounded the planet to provide a breathable atmosphere before Smolder dove underwater. She touched down in a hangar on a landing platform atop a giant underwater structure.
As she approached the platform, she contacted the planet’s inhabitants in order to request landing permission. This involved stating her name and her purpose for coming. The inhabitants granted her the permission to explore right before opening the hangar for her to touch down. Once she had landed, she closed the hangar door to prep her ship for mobility under the water. She wore her scuba gear in case of a hull breach and if her ship was too large for tight squeezes.
After switching her ship to move on wheels, she rolled onto an elevator platform at the hangar’s rear and was lowered down below the water’s surface. Once she confirmed being ready, the hangar technicians flooded the chamber and equalized the pressure so her ship wouldn’t be crushed. After the hatches were opened, Smolder piloted her ship through the crystal-clear water, taking pictures of many different types of fish, sharks, whales, and many other types of marine life. Some of the hot-water vents that she photographed were in places she could not reach while inside her ship. So she had to put on her diving helmet and take her camera outside with her. This gave her a great opportunity to use her scuba gear and it was surely a great time for her to go swimming on the mission. When she was finished mapping, she swam back to her ship and slowly ascended to the surface so she wouldn’t get “the bends”. After surfacing safely and flying into the sky, she returned to the space station.
**
In Sector 6, Yona was mapping two large snow worlds. Being a yak, she was used to cold temperatures, so she did not need to wear any heavy clothes outside. However, that was the standard procedure at home. These planets were another story. They were five times colder than Yakyakistan. She had to wear heavy coats, a scarf, and goggles on both of the planets. At least twice, she reached an altitude in the mountains where she could not breathe without using an oxygen tank. One of the planets was called “Nitrogenia”. On this planet, she learned from the locals about how to properly climb with sherpas. She was experienced in mountain climbing from living in the mountains, but this gave her some new knowledge to add in case she ever took on a climb that was more serious than what she was used to. She was also taught how liquid nitrogen could be used in battle situations to freeze enemies in their tracks.
The other planet was called “Cryo”. Here, she learned about battle tactics in snowy environments. The Cryonians were generous enough to give demonstrations for multiple styles of snow battle. They even gave her copies of blueprints for some of their snow vehicles, so that she could form a squadron for use in snowy areas, no matter where the battle took place. She thanked the Cryonians and the Nitrogenians warmly for giving her this new knowledge for snow battle and mountaineering. Both planets had their fair share of mountains, areas to build storm shelters, blizzards, and glaciers. She experienced heavy snowstorms on both planets. Some of which made it almost impossible to see where she was going.
Once Yona was confident that she had not missed any spots on either of the planets, she charted the stars and returned to the space station.
After regrouping on the space station, everyone shared their findings with Sandbar. After loading the information into the Harmony’s computers, they boarded their personal ships and flew down to the Earth. After entering the atmosphere, they dropped their landing gear and touched down safely.
They remembered Daring Do saying that the air on Earth was safe to breathe, so they only carried their mapping equipment when they deployed small shuttles from their ships. Once they were in the air, they started looking for the signs of life that Daring Do had mentioned. They did not need to search for long. They found two cities on the Earth, called Inkopolis and Splatsville, which were a great distance from each other. The main citizens in these cities walked on two legs and had hair that resembled the tentacles of either a squid or an octopus. During a time when they had landed near Inkopolis, they interviewed some of the citizens and learned that they were called Inklings and Octarians. There were other species too, but they only gathered the basic information on them, such as anatomy. For the most part, they learned about the history of both cities, in addition to how the planet’s original inhabitants were wiped out from rising water levels.
As they came close to arriving at Splatsville during a heavy thunderstorm, they spotted a car speeding to what appeared to be a hospital. However, the rain was falling fast and the vehicle soon had to slow down until the driver pulled over and safely came to a stop without crashing.
“I volunteer to see if they need help.”, said Smolder over the radio.
Sandbar acknowledged and the rest of the group continued to look around and chart the terrain in the area.
After converting her shuttle for mobility on land, Smolder put on her rain jacket, rushed to the vehicle, and met the two Inklings that were inside. The inkling in the passenger seat was female and was groaning in pain as she breathed heavily and clutched her bulged and swollen stomach.
“Are you two okay?”, asked Smolder over the rain after the driver opened his door.
“My name’s Michael. We’re not hurt, but we are a little shaken from our car skidding. We’re in a hurry to get to the hospital. My wife, Callie, is in labor.”, said the driver desperately as he stepped out.
“Oh my goodness gracious! I’ll be right back.”, said Smolder as she turned to run back to her shuttle.
Smolder came running back to Michael’s car in less than two minutes. She had a wheeled stretcher with her and helped Michael get Callie onto it after opening the passenger side door. In the meantime, Ocellus began to get concerned about what was happening with Smolder. To check on her, she called her via radio.
“Smolder, this is Ocellus. What’s going on?”, she asked nervously.
“Ocellus, I can’t talk right now. I have two Inklings that are about to be parents.”, said Smolder as she and Michael rushed Callie to the shuttle.
Once they were on-board and the doors were shut, Smolder opened a compartment labeled “Emergency Medical Supplies”. She proceeded to change into scrubs and then had Michael help her put a medical gown on Callie. After Smolder opened a platform that resembled a hospital bed, she had Callie put on a hairnet and then move from the stretcher to the bed. After Callie had wriggled her way off the stretcher and onto the bed, which was painful for her, Smolder opened a cabinet in the medical compartment that contained the necessary tools for childbirth. Michael helped Callie stay calm while Smolder propped her legs up, covered her abdomen with a medical blanket, and readied an ultrasonic apparatus after putting on nitrile gloves and a hairnet.
As Smolder moved the ultrasound wand over Callie’s stomach, she looked closely at the screen to make sure that a normal delivery would be safe. Upon seeing that nothing was wrong, she turned back to face Callie, who was now in excruciating pain and starting to grit her teeth in order to cope.
“Has your water already broken?”, Smolder asked.
Callie shook her head as if saying no. Smolder proceeded to grab a pair of forceps and then carefully pierced the amniotic sac with the pointed tip. Once the membrane was ruptured, everyone heard a splash as warm fluid spilled out from under the medical blanket. When the fluid stopped, Smolder reached down between Callie’s legs.
“Callie, get ready to push.”, she said intently.
Callie held Michael’s hand nervously and then began to push once Smolder had said she was ready. With each push, Callie squeezed her eyes shut and groaned in pain.
“Callie, you are doing good. Give me one last push.”, said Smolder after three pushes.
Callie was already sweating profusely from the last three pushes. As she gave the last push, pain shot through her like lightning, and she screamed loudly in AGONY. She screamed so loud that everyone’s ears were ringing, including her own. After giving the final agonizing push, Callie felt a large relief and she lowered her head back as she began breathing heavily. Seconds after the pain had stopped, she and Michael gasped and looked up as they heard their child let out its first cry.
“Congratulations you two. It’s a boy.”, said Smolder as she pulled the squirming newborn inkling out from under the blanket for Callie and Michael to see.
Tears of happiness began to pour from both Callie and Michael’s eyes and they crushed each other in a hug.
“He’s just beautiful.”, Callie choked out through her tears.
“Michael, would you like to cut the cord?”, asked Smolder proudly as she held out a pair of surgical scissors to him after clamping the little baby’s umbilical cord.
“Yes please!”, said Michael through his tears as he reached out with his hand shaking.
Once Michael had calmed down, he took the surgical scissors in his right hand and cut through the cord with three firm squeezes to separate the placenta from his newborn son. As soon as Michael had cut the cord and given the scissors back to Smolder, he and Callie began clapping through their tears. Moments later, Smolder wrapped the newborn snugly in a baby blanket after cleaning him off and putting a diaper on him.
After handing Callie her newborn son, Smolder changed back into her crew uniform. Then she opened the hatch and told Michael to follow her in the car. Michael nodded, dried his tears, and ran back outside. Once he had started his car’s engine and turned on the headlights, Smolder closed the shuttle’s door, ran to her seat and started the shuttle’s engine to drive to the hospital.
“Callie, only a doctor can assess your baby’s health. I’m not certified as a doctor, so I don’t have the required equipment to do so.”, Smolder said as she stepped on the gas and began driving.
“I understand.”, said Callie as tears continued to pour from her bright-gold eyes.
After radioing the hospital to give them a heads-up, Smolder noticed the rain was starting to let up. Arriving at the hospital’s emergency entrance, she opened a ramp on her shuttle in order to wheel Callie to the orderlies waiting outside. Before the orderlies wheeled Callie inside, they moved her to another stretcher so Smolder could keep hers. As Callie was wheeled into the hospital with Michael walking alongside her, Smolder radioed her friends.
“Guys, you may want to see this. Lock in on my position and meet me.”, she said.
“Copy that, Smolder. Ocellus relayed your news to us.”, replied Sandbar.
Everyone else arrived after converting their shuttles to drive on land. They were waiting inside when two of the orderlies, a female octoling Pediatrician named Mitzi and a male inkling nurse named Garett, came out to meet them. At this point it had been 25 minutes since Smolder had helped Callie give birth to her son.
“Is one of you named Smolder?”, asked Mitzi.
Smolder raised her talons.
“Would all of you like to see Callie?”, asked Garett.
Everyone nodded and Mitzi led them to the room where Callie was. She was lying back and lovingly cradling her son, who was now sleeping but still bundled up in warmth. Michael was sitting next to Callie in a chair and filling out paperwork for their son’s birth certificate, and they both had warm smiles on their faces. Callie was still crying her eyes out from being overjoyed after giving birth to her little squid.
“His name’s Taylor.”, said Callie through her tears.
“He’s full-term as well. Eight pounds, nine ounces, 18 inches long, and perfectly healthy.”, added Michael as he finished filling out the paperwork and gave it to Mitzi.
Everyone walked closer to see Taylor and their faces softened to the point of tears when they saw how cute he was.
“Smolder, how would you like to hold Taylor again?”, asked Callie through her sniffles as she held her son out to the kind orange dragon.
“I would be happy to hold him once more.”, answered Smolder through her tears as she extended her arms and took hold of Taylor.
After Smolder had taken the little baby into her arms and looked down at him, she began to smile warmly. Here she was, cradling the same little baby inkling whom 25 minutes ago, she had helped Callie give birth to. Taylor partially opened his eyes and smiled at the Young Six, which allowed them to see he had inherited the gene for Michael’s bright-red eyes. After drying her tears and giving Taylor back to Callie, Smolder pulled out an instant camera.
“Smile.”, she said.
Callie’s tears subsided as she and Michael looked towards Smolder while continuing to hold smiles on their faces. Smolder clicked the shutter twice to take two pictures. She gave one of the two pictures to Callie and Michael as a memory while she held onto the other.
A few minutes later, the Young Six left the hospital and got back on their shuttles to resume mapping out the Earth. As they passed over the oceans, they spotted a few islands but made sure not to get too close. By sunset, they had mapped out the entire world and they returned to the space station to get ready for heading home.
Finishing the Mapping Mission
Two months after mapping Earth, the Young Six were ready to return home to Equus. As they finished making sure their systems were primed, they received a video call from Callie.
“This is the Harmony . Go ahead, Callie.”, said Sandbar.
“I’d like you to meet someone.”, she replied.
“Stand by. We’ll put you on our main view-screen.”, said Silverstream as she transferred the call to the bridge’s viewer.
When the live feed was transferred to the main view-screen, Callie appeared to be visiting someone. They could tell this because they saw another male inkling in the background but didn’t recognize him. Callie was also cradling Taylor in her arms and rocking him gently. Taylor was wrapped snugly in a red blanket and sleeping soundly while sucking on his pacifier.
“I want to thank Smolder for helping me give birth to Taylor. Also, I want you to meet my cousin Marie, and her sweet little daughter Lizzie.”, said Callie as another inkling sat down on the couch next to her while holding a little girl with sapphire-blue eyes and wearing pink overalls.
Marie said hi to the Young Six, and Lizzie waved as she cooed with a cute smile on her face.
“Hey Marie, how old’s Lizzie?”, asked Ocellus out of curiosity.
“Three months before Taylor’s birth, she turned two.”, said Marie.
For a moment, the second male inkling walked up to the camera and introduced himself as Marie’s husband Andrew.
The Young Six proceeded to explain to both Callie and Marie who they were and what they had been doing. Then, Callie and Marie explained who they were and that they were music stars. The Young Six were shocked.
“We just finished our mission and it is time for us to head home.”, said Sandbar.
“It sounds like you’ve had an interesting mission. We hope to see you again someday.”, said the Squid Sisters.
The Young Six acknowledged and continued checking their systems as they prepared to go home.
Daring Do was shocked by all of the information that the Young Six had gathered from Earth. She knew that Flurry Heart would be excited to meet the inhabitants. Sandbar knew this too and had written down everything they would tell her.
After waiting a few weeks on-board the space station for a clear path to Equus, it was time for the Young Six to go home. They began strapping into their seats after sealing the hatch and then set their course. After the docking clamps were released from the Harmony, Sandbar started going through the checklist to make sure they were ready.
“Okay guys, listen up. Give me a status report.”, he said.
“Course is set.”, said Gallus.
“Path to Equus is clear.”, said Ocellus.
“Personal ships are locked in secure.”, said Silverstream.
“Warp drive is fully charged.”, said Smolder.
“Engines are ready to fire.”, said Yona.
“Then let’s go home.” said Sandbar.
After counting down, Yona hit the switch to set the ship in motion. The engines fired off and the Harmony shot through space, bound for Equus.
From the ground on Earth, Callie, Michael, Taylor, Marie, Andrew, and Lizzie watched as the ship flew out of their range of vision in the night sky. Taylor and Lizzie cooed in amazement as they watched the ship fly off into deep space.
“They’re headed home.”, said Callie.
“I hope they come back again someday.”, said Marie.
During the flight back to Equus, the Young Six scanned their ships to prep them for decontamination. The scanners picked something up for all six ships attached to the main computers. Taking a look, the Young Six found the taps that the Draconians had placed. It turned out that the taps were cloaked in the beginning and the scanners shorted out the cloaking devices.
“Those sneaky Draconians!”, hissed Smolder.
“If they’ve been tracking us, then it’s time to stop it. They will not know where we come from.”, said Sandbar as he removed the tap from his ship.
After all six taps were removed, five of them were placed in the Harmony’s incinerator to be destroyed and the sixth one was turned off. Little did anyone know that the Draconians were now planning an invasion of Earth.
**
Thorax worked with the orbital patrol that watched for any ships or possible hazards approaching Equus. Whenever he saw a signal appear on radar, he would analyze it so he knew what was coming. As he was making his rounds, the alarm sounded to indicate a tracking signal coming on radar. He ran to his station and quickly identified the tracking identification as the E S S Harmony . Excited that the Young Six were finally home, he radioed Flurry Heart.
“Orbital Patrol to Canterlot. The Harmony has just appeared on radar.”, he said.
Five seconds later, a call from the Harmony confirmed what Thorax had said.
“E S S Harmony to Canterlot. We’re home. All five remaining sectors have been mapped out for addition to the star-charts.”, said Sandbar.
“Copy that, Harmony . You are clear for landing in the Everfree Forest.”, she said.
After the Harmony had touched down, Flurry stood ready to greet the Young Six as they disembarked.
“Welcome home, you guys. I will get the information added to the star-charts on the double.”, she said.
“We have a surprise for you, Your Majesty.”, said Smolder.
“What would that be?”, asked Flurry.
“In Sector 7, we mapped out a planet with friendly life that is excited to meet more of us from Equus.”, said Sandbar.
“However, Sector 4 had fewer planets than expected. According to Spike, most of the planets were destroyed by powerful solar flares.”, Ocellus said sadly.
“Sector 5 was not an easy place to get through. The Draconians tried to find out where we came from and they tapped our ships. Luckily, we found the taps and destroyed most of them before we got home. We powered off the last one to reprogram it. The inhabitants of Merlin 5 tried to brainwash us, but we resisted.”, said Silverstream.
After Flurry added the information to the star-charts, the Young Six told her everything they had learned when mapping the planet where Inkopolis and Splatsville were located. Flurry was proud that Smolder assisted Callie with the birth of her son. All of the knowledge was intriguing to her and she accepted their idea to return to Earth and prep the citizens for defense against attacks.
“I agree. We should arrange a time to go there. It would also be nice for us to form an alliance with them for war, should those times come back.”, she said.
Over the next few weeks, a mission was laid out to return to Sector 7 so that the Squidbeak Agents and any others willing to defend could be trained. This mission required a larger starship, called the Alicorn , to be constructed. It took three months for the Alicorn to be constructed and for all of its systems to be tested. Once all of the training equipment was prepared, the time had come. The Alicorn was launched and the crew set off.
**
When the Alicorn arrived in orbit above Earth, Daring Do sent a digitally written message to the Squid Sisters that the Young Six had returned. Callie quickly responded, saying that they needed to be quiet since their babies were sleeping. Daring Do relayed this to Flurry and they proceeded with their landing sequence. After landing on the edge of the ocean, Flurry and the Young Six made their way to Marie and Andrew’s house. Callie and Michael were there as well, along with four other Inklings that were older than them.
“These are our parents.”, said Callie quietly.
Flurry Heart understood why there were two sets of parents since Callie and Marie were cousins. Callie’s parents stepped forward first and introduced themselves. Her mom had long blue tentacles and her dad had short black tentacles and goggles.
“I’m Callie’s mother, Sally Ammonite.”, said her mom.
“I’m her father, Jerome Cuttlefish.”, said Callie’s dad.
Then it was time for Marie’s parents to introduce themselves. Her mom had a long yellow tentacle that hung down the left side of her head and yellow eyes. Her dad had short gray hair and wore a cap.
“I am Marie’s mother, Iris Ammonite.”, said Marie’s mom.
“I’m her father, Michael Cuttlefish.”, said Marie’s dad.
“Pleased to meet you all.”, said Flurry Heart as she shook hands with all of them.
“They’ve already met Taylor and Lizzie. We put them down to take a nap before you got here.”, said Marie.
“They’re such cute little buttons.”, said Iris with a warm smile.
“Callie and Marie have told us about you guys and how you were on a mission to map areas of space. That must’ve taken some serious bravery.”, said Michael.
“You would be right. It did take bravery and courage to complete that mission. Not to mention, I was the one who helped Callie give birth to Taylor.”, said Smolder.
“That’s what she told me and Jerome. Well done.”, said Sally.
Callie said she noticed that a larger ship had been used to come for the visit, but she didn’t understand why.
“We heard that you are skilled in combat on the ground. We have come to train you in three new fields of combat. They are underwater, air, and space. We have also come to build some shelters and defense turrets in the area in case your world is attacked. This way, you will be protected and you can defend yourselves from enemies.”, explained Flurry Heart.
Everyone was floored by this. Neither Callie, nor Marie knew what to say. Moments later, they turned to their parents.
“Keep an eye on the kids please. We’re taking our new friends to meet the Agents.”, said Callie.
Their parents nodded and then the Squid Sisters led Flurry and the Young Six to the Squidbeak base camp. On the way, they said they had good news and bad news. Flurry asked for the good news first.
“Our grandfather, Craig Cuttlefish, signed a peace treaty with DJ Octavio two weeks ago, thus ending our conflicts with the Octarians. This means they’re joining forces with us to keep our world safe.”, said Callie.
“What’s the bad news?”, asked Smolder.
“Grandpa caught pneumonia two days ago and is in the hospital. We’re afraid that his time is almost up.”, Marie said sadly.
At the base camp, Flurry and the Young Six met the Captain and Agents, 3, 4, and 8, along with two of their friends, Pearl and Marina. After explaining what the training would focus on, the Young Six started running everyone through training exercises until they were ready to try the real thing. Once the Squidbeak Agents had built ships for themselves, they were taught how to take off and land properly before flying into space and shooting targets. They learned how to set targets, open and close their wings, and how to navigate while in space until Flurry decided they were ready. During the training, Callie and Marie would go home each night so they could be with their kids.
After the Agents were trained for water and air, it was time to build the defense turrets. They were placed strategically so that all areas of both cities were well-guarded. Once the training was finished, Flurry and the Young Six built underground strongholds where citizens could take shelter during an attack. In total, the training and construction of the turrets and shelters took only seven weeks, which was quite fast. The Young Six were able to achieve this because they were well-trained and everyone was a fast learner. After this, Callie got a call from her dad that said she and Marie needed to come to the hospital right away. Their grandfather had lost the battle against his sickness and was slowly dying. They rushed to his room and knelt down on both sides of the bed. With his last breath, Craig spoke to Callie and Marie.
“Girls, I am proud of you for doing so well in the Squidbeak Splatoon. I know you’ll continue to do the right thing. I wish you good luck for the future.”, he said weakly before his eyes slid shut.
Callie, Marie, their parents, and their children burst into tears. They knew he had been suffering from his old age, but now he was finally at peace. After the memorial, Callie decided that the Squidbeak Splatoon should no longer be top-secret. Marie, the Captain, and the other Agents all agreed and they put out an advertisement. They had numerous Inklings and Octarians fill out enlistments, and all of them were accepted.
Once an Air-Force and a Navy were formed, the Young Six personally trained specific Inklings and Octarians to work the defense turrets. They succeeded and were certified in only four days. Once it was established that the world was ready to defend against unexpected attacks, Flurry and the Young Six left to return home to Equus. After returning, they sent word to the PAW Patrol and their allies in the Disney Fleet to update them on their progress and that they’d made new friends to possibly recruit as allies.
Over the following year, Equus kept a constant eye out for trouble to determine whether the Draconians were approaching their area, but they never picked up the signals on radar.
On Earth that winter in Inkopolis and Splatsville, it was the day before Squidmas, the most exciting holiday. Callie and Marie had arranged for their family to get together at Callie’s house. They were both excited to see each other’s parents again and their kids were excited to open their gifts together. They had been unable to get together the year before. This was because of schedules and since their kids had gotten sick at the time.
As they all arrived at the door, Callie and Michael greeted everyone as they came in. There were hugs and kisses for everyone, especially Lizzie and Taylor. After all of the presents were under the tree, it was time for dinner. A recent weather report had said there was the possibility of a large snowstorm that night, so Callie and Marie had decided to serve the turkey early in case of a power outage. Their parents understood and were proud that the girls were being prepared for anything unexpected. Also, Taylor’s teeth were strong enough at this point for him to eat solid food. So he was able to eat some of the turkey as well as Lizzie.
After a tasty meal, and some yuletide wishes, it was time for bed. After Lizzie and Taylor were changed and put in their pajamas, Callie and Marie tucked them in before joining Michael and Andrew. Since Lizzie and Taylor had not seen each other recently and the next day was a special holiday, Callie and Marie agreed to let their children sleep together. After Taylor and Lizzie were laid in the crib, they quickly cuddled up with each other for warmth before Callie and Marie laid the blankets over them. The Squid Sisters smiled at each other before winding up a music box with a soothing lullaby, turning off the lights and closing the door. Once everyone had laid down, they drifted off to sleep. They were excited about what their gifts would be tomorrow.
Little did anyone in Inkopolis know there was something happening that night that would shake the world. Not even the citizens in Splatsville knew what was about to happen.
**
At midnight, everyone was fast asleep when Callie, Marie, Michael, and Andrew got a rude awakening when they heard a loud high-pitched sound blaring outside over the strong wind in the snowstorm. After hearing it a second time, they realized it was the siren for an air-raid and they jumped out of bed. As they started running to the living room, the lights went out, indicating the storm had knocked out the electricity. After reaching the window and yanking back the curtains, they saw the faint outlines of aircrafts through the snow flying over the outskirts of Inkopolis and heard the sound of bombs going off. Gasping, they realized they were under attack. Without hesitating, they put on headlamps and their winter coats before rushing to wake their parents up. Their parents were sharing a room and were roused from their sleep upon hearing the door banging open.
“Girls, what’s going on?”, asked Sally in a startled voice as everyone rubbed their eyes and she took off her sleep mask.
“AIR-RAID, WE’RE BEING BOMBED!”, screamed Callie and Marie in unison.
Their parents jumped up and started running to the back door. Everyone scrambled outside and ran through the snow towards the shelter that Flurry Heart and the Young Six had built for them the year before. All of a sudden, Michael and Andrew had a terrible thought cross their minds. They realized their most precious family members were missing and they were horrified.
“WAIT, THE KIDS!”, they shrieked.
“YIKES!”, cried Sally as she threw her hands over her mouth.
“WE CAN’T LEAVE THEM!”, shrieked Michael and Jerome.
“MY GOODNESS!”, wailed Iris.
“KEEP GOING! WE’LL GET THEM!”, hollered Marie as she and Callie twirled around to run back inside.
As they ran towards the hallway, Callie heard the sound of another bomb falling. It sounded as if the bomb was going to strike across the road.
“MARIE, GET DOWN!”, shrieked Callie as she grabbed Marie by the arm and pulled her to the floor.
The bomb landed hard and the light from the blast lit up the entire room. The shockwave from the blast rattled the window and caused several of Callie and Michael’s keepsakes and family pictures to fall off of the wall and drop to the floor. After the explosion stopped, they stood back up and continued running to get their kids. In the nursery, Taylor and Lizzie had been startled awake by the loud noises from the bombs and they were scared to death. Shaking, they hugged each other tightly.
“MAMA!”, cried Taylor.
“MOMMY, HELP!”, screeched Lizzie.
Callie and Marie heard their kids’ fearful cries and threw the door open. After running into the nursery and grabbing thick warm blankets out of the dresser, they ran over to the crib, lowered the side rail, and scooped their sweet little angels up.
“We’ve got you, our angels.”, they said quietly as they wrapped the kids snugly in the blankets and rushed back outside.
The Squid Sisters were halfway to the shelter when they suddenly tripped over the tips of their slippers. Taylor and Lizzie slipped out of their arms as they fell face-first into the snow. Since the snow was fairly deep, the kids landed softly only three feet away. As Callie and Marie started to get up, they heard their babies scream. Bolting upright, they looked in the direction where the screams were coming from and saw something running into the distance.
“TAYLOR! LIZZIE!”, they shrieked as tears welled up in their eyes.
The snow was falling so heavily that they couldn’t see very far, even with their headlamps. So they continued running to the shelter. When they got inside, they only saw Michael and Andrew. They looked petrified and dizzy.
“WHERE ARE OUR PARENTS?”, asked Callie in a state of panic.
“They were taken by something. Our headlamp batteries were dying and we couldn’t see too well. Suddenly we heard what sounded like a blast of energy and a light flashed behind us. Then we heard them cry out in pain as if they’d been hit by an electrical shock. We turned around to see them go limp and collapse into the snow. Before we could drag them inside, we saw what looked like an alien grab them and then kick us backwards. We fell through the door and hit our heads on the steps.”, said Andrew shakily.
Callie and Marie burst into tears. After closing the door, they hugged their loves tightly and cried their eyes out. As their tears subsided, they waited in the shelter until morning. Exiting the shelter, they saw it was not snowing anymore and the aircrafts were long gone. Without hesitating, they hurried inside and turned on the news.
“This is a major emergency. Both Splatsville and Inkopolis have been bombed by unidentified aircrafts. An earlier call from DJ Octavio says he and some of his soldiers tried to fight off the attackers, but they all got injured. What’s worse is that our defense turrets got frozen up before last night’s snowstorm. The perimeter defense was not finished thawing them out when the storm hit, so they couldn’t shoot back.”, said Shiver.
“That explains why we didn’t see any blasts fly from the ground into the air.”, said Andrew.
Marie knew that they had to tell everyone that their parents and kids were taken.
“Callie, we need to call the news station and tell them what happened to us.”, she said.
Callie gave her a thumbs-up and ran to the phone. Seconds later, they could hear the phone ringing at the news station.
“Shiver, hang on one second. We have a caller.”, said Frye as she stepped off the camera to answer.
Moments later, Frye came running back to give the startling news she had just received.
“This just in. We’ve received a frightening phone call from the Squid Sisters. Their parents and children were captured last night during the attack.”, she shrieked.
“My goodness!”, cried Shiver as she and Big Man jumped in shock.
“Until further notice, both cities must remain on high alert until this terrible crisis has been averted. This is Deep Cut, signing off.”, said Frye.
“What are we going to do? We can’t just sit here.”, said Andrew.
“You’re right, Andrew. We need to assemble the Squidbeak Agents and track down the attackers.”, replied Callie.
Two hours later, the agents were assembled along with Pearl, Marina, Octavio, and some of his troops. They spotted three of the aircrafts approaching and immediately opened fire. They splattered tons of ink onto the aircraft in the front, but the other two were further back and out of range. Callie managed to splash some ink from her roller into the front aircraft’s engines. With the ink clogging the engines, the aircraft came crashing into the ocean. The other two aircrafts were not hit, but they realized the potential of getting brought down too. This led the pilots to make a drastic decision that they should flee.
“SERVES YOU RIGHT!”, shouted Marie crossly as the aircrafts left.
Callie and Agent 4 rode out to the crashed aircraft in a boat and towed it to land. Opening the cockpit, everyone saw that the crew had drowned after the crash. They could tell this because the window was broken and the cockpit was flooded. After pumping the water out, they started examining the crew members for any signs of who they were. The only insignia they found was a patch on the uniforms. They did not recognize this, but they knew how they could find out.
“We agreed to be possible allies with Equus last year. One of their space stations is in orbit. Why don’t we call them?”, suggested Octavio.
“That’s a good idea, Octavio.”, said Agent 3.
They quickly contacted the space station and explained everything to Daring Do. She was startled.
“We tried to take them down, but they avoided our shots. They soon got so close that they managed to hit us with an electromagnetic pulse and knock out our power. We finished getting our systems back online just twelve minutes before you called.”, she replied.
“Can you please get us a direct link to Flurry Heart? We need to tell her we need help.”, requested Marie.
“Stand by. I’ll put you on hold.”, said Daring Do as she prepared to call Equus.
**
On Equus, Hearth’s Warming Eve was only a week away when Flurry Heart received an urgent call from the space station.
“Sector Seven to Canterlot! THIS IS A CODE RED! DO YOU COPY?”, shrieked Daring Do.
“This is Queen Flurry Heart. What’s happening?”, asked Flurry.
“Callie and Marie have called for help. Earth is under attack.”, explained Daring Do.
When Flurry heard the Squid Sisters mentioned, her eyes grew large.
“PATCH ME THROUGH! NOW!”, she yelled.
Daring Do nodded and switched Flurry over to a live channel with the Squidbeak Splatoon. Callie and Marie had tears in their eyes and they looked petrified.
“Thank goodness your orbital patrol answered our call. We need your help.”, choked out Callie.
“Alright Callie, take a deep breath and tell me what happened.”, said Flurry.
Callie stopped to calm down and dry her tears, then she explained what happened the night before.
“We had gotten together with family for a winter holiday here. We were fast asleep last night when a siren blared and startled us awake at midnight. Looking out the window, we saw aircrafts through last night’s snowstorm. THEY WERE DROPPING BOMBS! Jumping out of bed, we woke up our parents and started running to our shelter when Michael and Andrew realized we had forgotten our children. We ran back inside to get them. They were scared to death, screaming for us, and crying their eyes out when we ran into their nursery to get them. After quickly wrapping them in blankets, we ran back outside to join everyone when we suddenly tripped over the tips of our slippers and fell face-first into the snow. Our sweet little angels slipped from our grasp and landed in the snow too.”, she said.
“Couldn’t you just pick Taylor and Lizzie back up and continue running to the shelter?”, asked Flurry out of confusion.
Marie shook her head.
“As we got up, we heard our babies scream as something grabbed them and took off into the darkness. The snowstorm was so heavy that we couldn’t see, even with our headlamps. When we got to the shelter, we realized our parents were gone too. Andrew and Michael were terrified. They said a bright light flashed behind them and then our parents collapsed, as if they had been hit by electricity. Before they could pull them out of harm’s way, something grabbed our parents and then kicked Andrew and Michael down.”, she said.
Flurry Heart went pale as a ghost.
“Were you able to find out who did this?”, she asked.
“Just this morning, Callie and I assembled the Squidbeak Agents to confront the attackers and we encountered some of them. After shooting one of them down, we spotted a patch on their uniforms but didn’t understand it. Take a look.”, said Marie as she held up the flag patch that they found after towing the ship to the camp.
Flurry saw the patch and suddenly gasped.
“NOT GOOD!”, she cried.
Flurry put her microphone on mute for a moment and summoned the Young Six. They rushed to the throne room and Flurry turned the microphone back on. The Young Six were shocked to hear what Callie and Marie had to say.
“You were attacked?”, screeched Silverstream.
“Your parents and your kids were taken?”, shrieked Yona.
Callie and Marie nodded and held up the patch they had shown Flurry Heart. The Young Six couldn’t believe their eyes.
“That symbol belongs to an alien race we encountered before we came to you. They’re called the Draconians, and they invade any planet with intelligent life. That might be why they tapped into our ships. They were looking for a planet to invade.”, said Sandbar as he had a flashback.
“Why would you show them where we are?”, asked Agent 3 in annoyance.
“It was an accident, Agent 3. They didn’t know the Draconians had tapped into their ships until they were returning home. By that point, it was too late. The Draconians must have been planning their invasion as the Young Six were coming back here to Equus.”, said Flurry.
Agent 3 quickly calmed down and then apologized for chastising them.
“Is there any way you can help us?”, asked Marie.
“I’m glad you asked me, Marie. We have some other allies who retired a few years back. It’s not too late to have them come back. We’ve also trained some new soldiers for our fleet recently. We will be there as soon as possible.”, replied Flurry.
Callie acknowledged Flurry’s response and the call was ended. Then Flurry turned to the Young Six.
“We need to call in the PAW Patrol and the Disney Fleet. It’s time for them to come out of their retirement with us.”, she explained.
Sandbar agreed and they all started opening the communication channels to contact their allies.
**
In Adventure Bay, Ryder and the pups were about to go to bed for the night when the light to indicate a call started flashing.
“Incredible timing.”, said Chase with an annoyed sigh.
“Chase, I know how you feel. It’s not fun to get an emergency call this late at night, but we must persevere.”, said Ryder as he tapped the Accept button.
Flurry Heart and the Young Six appeared on the screen.
“Good evening. What’s so important that it couldn’t wait till morning?”, asked Ryder with a yawn.
“Listen, I’m sorry that I had to interrupt your night-time routine, but we have a major emergency. Do you remember the possible new allies we told you about last year?”, said Flurry Heart.
“Are you referring to the Inklings and the Octarians?”, asked Marshall.
“Very good, Marshall.”, said Smolder.
“What about them?”, asked Skye.
“Callie and Marie were together with family for a winter holiday when they were startled awake by the air-raid sirens in the middle of the night. Draconians were bombing their home city. Apparently, they saw them as a target for invasion. What’s worse is that their parents and kids have been captured. Only their husbands, Michael and Andrew, were not captured. They need our help.”, said Flurry.
Hearing this startled both Ryder and the pups to the point that they were not sleepy anymore.
“I suspected that we would have to come out of our retirement with you. I just didn’t expect it to be like this. We’ll meet you in orbit around the Earth.”, said Ryder.
Flurry acknowledged and Ryder assembled the Cat Pack with the PAW Patrol to get ready for space flight. They boarded the Space Patroller and took off.
**
Everyone in the Disney Fleet was at their main base to remember the missions they had participated in. Millie and Melody were giving their mom a tour as a birthday present when the alarm sounded in the communication room.
“Girls, what’s that noise?”, asked their mom.
“Mom, that’s the alarm for a distress call. We’d better answer it, because we might have a mission for the first time after 17 years.”, said Millie.
Their mom knew what they were talking about from past missions. She gave them a kiss before wishing them luck for the upcoming mission. Millie ran to the controls and hit the button to answer the call while Melody called out over the intercom that a distress call had arrived.
“This is Millie.”, she said.
“This is Flurry Heart. I guess Melody’s getting everyone together.”, replied Flurry.
Millie nodded and everyone came running into the room in only seconds.
“Word of a distress call is something we haven’t heard in a while.”, said Mickey.
“I know you are retired, but an emergency has come up and we need you to come out of retirement.”, said Yona.
After Flurry had explained the situation, everyone was shocked.
“Their parents were taken?”, screeched Minnie.
“Their children too?”, shrieked Donald as he grabbed his head in alarm.
“I’m afraid so, you guys. Meet us in orbit above the Earth. We’ve already contacted the PAW Patrol.”, said Flurry before hanging up.
“LET’S MOVE OUT!”, yelled Mickey.
They rushed to get their space suits on and quickly got strapped in their seats on the bridge to launch. Once they were in space, they set their star coordinates and rendezvoused with everyone to prepare for battle.
**
Flurry Heart decided that since there was the possibility of battle, the Alicorn would be the proper ship for this mission. Once the Young Six were in their space suits, they gathered all of their new soldiers and got them on the shuttle. After taking off and docking on the Alicorn , they set off for Sector 7. When Daring Do spotted them, the Disney Fleet, and the PAW Patrol on radar, she informed the Squidbeak Splatoon.
“Daring Do to Squidbeak Splatoon. All three fleets have arrived in orbit. They are coming in to land.”, she said.
Callie acknowledged what she was told and she shone a spotlight to indicate where they were. Since it was already sunset, the fleets saw the spotlight easily. All of the ships touched down in the water near Inkopolis and then the main soldiers took smaller shuttles to the base camp. After introducing the other fleets to Callie, everyone started setting a plan for how to rescue the kids and Callie and Marie’s parents. Flurry Heart was confused why Pearl and Marina were with them since they were not agents.
“Marina is one of our best hackers. She once helped me save Inkopolis from a strange Artificial Intelligence built inside a statue. Pearl, on the other hand, is a very loud singer. If we end up in a dispute with the enemy, she will know how to give them a pain in the ears.”, said Agent 8.
“That’s perfect. We’ve reprogrammed one of the taps that the Draconians planted in order to figure out where they are.”, said Smolder.
Silverstream gave the tap to Marina who attached it to her laptop in order to find where the Draconians had set up shop.
“I’ve located them. It seems they have constructed some sort of base on one of the distant islands. That’s the only facility I can find with their technology. There is a holding area on the north side of the island, and that must be where Callie and Marie’s parents are along with their kids.”, said Marina after a few minutes.
Callie and Marie were excited to hear this. Soon, everyone started planning how the rescue would be carried out. It was now only a matter of time before they would be reunited with their parents and their babies.
Planning the Rescue Mission
In order to see what they would be up against, Chase sent a drone to survey the island and it revealed some possible complications. The island had defense turrets on all sides to shoot down anything that posed a threat. The main power station was well-protected and the backup generators were in a separate area. Since the sun was setting, everyone decided to sleep and then lay out the plans in the morning. After breakfast, Marina gave her ideas on how to knock out the electricity.
“It looks like we can take out the main generators and stall for time by blocking the gate to the backup area. The backup generators must be activated from a terminal in the same room as them. In order to reach that area, the technicians must go through an underground tunnel and climb a ladder through a hatch in the floor. If we blow up the main generators correctly, the rubble will weigh down the hatch.”, said Marina as she showed the power plant schematics.
“That’s perfect, Marina. The longer their power is out, the better. We need all the time we can get in order to save our parents and our kids.”, replied Callie.
Knowing that Callie was right, Marina proceeded to examine the holding area. The schematic showed that the entire facility was underground and the roof was a tinted glass dome. The entrances were underground as well. In the way of where everyone was, Callie’s parents were in cells 1-Q and 2-E on sub-level 4-R, Marie’s parents were in cells 8-P and 9-L on sub-level 7-G, and Taylor and Lizzie were in cells 5-Y and 6-J on sub-level 3-S. All of the floors were guarded heavily and the staff were on constant patrol duty.
“If the holding area is that secure, how are we going to save our parents and our sweet little angels without being seen?”, asked Callie nervously.
“Back before we retired, we developed a special formula for sleep-inducing gas. It is formulated to knock out anyone or anything that breathes it in. It is EXTREMELY concentrated and travels through air ducts like wildfire. For perspective, just shooting two canisters of this into an office building will knock EVERY SINGLE WORKER unconscious. Pressurized suits and gas masks are the only two ways to avoid inhaling the gas by accident. Your parents and kids will pass out too, but we’ll wake them up after extraction.”, explained Ryder as he pulled out a six-barreled launcher and a metal container with a sleep symbol on it.
“That’s a good idea to knock out the guards. My only concern is how we will get to the holding area and get away quickly. It’s not like you could walk or run. That island’s in the middle of the ocean, and it’s HUGE.”, said Marie in a worried voice.
“We’ve got that covered, Marie.” said Mickey.
Marie noticed he had put on a yellow safety vest and was putting on ear-protectors. Confused, she shrugged to indicate she didn’t know what he meant. Moments later, everyone heard a loud roaring sound. They spotted a giant black aircraft flying towards the base camp. It looked similar to a plane, but had smaller wings with rotors built in. Mickey gestured for Agents 3 and 4 to follow him and they picked up weighted blocks, called chocks, on the way. As the craft came in to land, Mickey found a flat spot near the camp with no obstructions and then he pulled out two orange rods. Waving the rods, he guided the aircraft to the ground. Once the craft had touched down, the two agents ran underneath and positioned the chocks under the landing gear. Once the engines were shut down, Minnie got out and they returned to meet back up with everyone.
“How’s this for transportation?”, she asked.
“GENIUS!”, crowed Callie and Marie.
Minnie told Skye and Chase that they would be in the cockpit while she and Mickey would be two members of the crew dropping into the holding area. After running them through a quick simulation and telling them about aircraft marshalling signals, Minnie and Mickey were certain that Skye and Chase were ready to fly the rescue craft. Ryder was on the crew as well to deploy the sleep gas, while Agents 3, 4, and 8 made up the other half. Everyone would wear black suits to blend into the darkness. After everyone accepted their roles, Mickey turned to Smolder.
“I need you to marshal the craft for takeoff and landing. Come with me.”, he explained.
Smolder followed Mickey over to the aircraft and Mickey showed her how to use the marshalling wands. Along with showing that they lit up in orange for use at night, Mickey explained the motions that Smolder would be using.
“You may have seen that I wore ear-protectors when I was bringing in Minnie. Due to how loud the rotors are, you wouldn’t want the noise to hurt your ears.”, said Mickey.
Smolder understood Mickey’s instructions and then put on a safety vest to get ready. Once everyone was prepared, it was time to begin the rescue mission.
Rescuing the Squid Sisters' Families
As Ryder, Mickey, Minnie, and the three agents were putting on their black suits to blend into the darkness, Octavio and two of his troopers readied a missile to fire at the generators. As they set up the missile on its launcher, one of the troopers, a twintacle octotrooper named Grax, explained that the Draconians would not see this missile on their radar. One reason was that this was a stealth missile, and the other reason was that the Draconians didn’t know all of the technology that existed. Once the target was locked, they started the firing procedure. At the point of firing, Octavio called out to everybody.
“Cover your ears!”, he shouted.
Once everyone had covered their ears, Flurry Heart yelled out that they were ready. Octavio hit the firing switch and the missile took off. Six minutes after Marina started tracking the missile on her laptop, the power plant schematics all changed to show that the power had been knocked out. Just then, Callie realized she and Marie had left something that Mickey and Minnie would need while rescuing Taylor and Lizzie. They rushed back to Callie’s house and then returned ten minutes later with two backpacks. Mickey recognized the backpacks in a flash.
“Let me guess. Taylor and Lizzie are babies.”, he said.
“You got it.”, said Marie.
Upon hearing the confirmation, Minnie realized that this was changing supplies for the kids. She and Mickey took some of the supplies out of the backpacks and put it in their rescue packs’ front pockets for easy access.
“We don’t know if they will be stinky when you reach them, but better safe than sorry.”, said Callie.
Several hours later, it was time to go. Once Marina checked the security footage on the backup power station and confirmed the hatch was still blocked by wreckage, the rescue crew put on their waist harnesses and began boarding. Chase and Skye were clad in special suits as well. They were wearing high-altitude pressure suits in case of a sudden depressurization. Once the hatch was sealed, and Skye had turned on the headlights, Smolder turned on the lights in her marshalling wands and held both up to tell Skye she was ready to signal them. Yona and Gallus stood ready to pull out the chocks on either side of the craft. The first motion that Smolder made was to tap her ear-protectors to tell Skye to establish communication. All of the headsets were “VOX”, or voice-activated.
“Command, this is Rescue-1, performing a radio check.”, said Skye over headset.
“This is Command. I hear you loud and clear, Skye.”, replied Pearl.
Pearl gave Callie a thumbs-up and Callie radioed Smolder that the radio was working. After that, Smolder waved one of the wands over her head in a twirling motion, telling Skye to start the engines. The engines purred to life and the rotors began to spin. Once they had reached full speed, Smolder called out to Gallus and Yona.
“PULL CHOCKS!”, she shouted over the loud engines.
Gallus and Yona grabbed the ropes on the chocks and pulled backwards until the weighted blocks were clear. They waved to Smolder that the chocks were out and then Smolder performed the next motion. She held the wands above her head with their tips touching and slowly pulled them apart to say that the chocks were removed. After Skye got ready to take off, she watched as Smolder waved the wands backwards and forwards, signaling her to proceed. The rescue craft lifted off and Skye set her course for the Draconian base.
As Callie and Marie watched the rescue craft’s tail lights disappear from view, they said a prayer that nothing would go wrong.
For Skye, the ocean seemed to go on forever until the base’s tracking beacon appeared on her radar. As she flew closer to the island, she watched to see if the defense cannons would shoot at her. When they didn’t fire, she radioed Pearl.
“No response from perimeter defense. We’re inside Draconian airspace.”, she reported.
“YES!”, cheered Callie and Marie in a loud whisper.
As Skye flew over the island, Ryder joined her and Chase in the cockpit for a few minutes. They couldn’t see much with only the headlights, so it was time to switch viewing modes.
“Switching to night-view.”, said Chase as he flipped a switch.
The headlights shut off and the windshield began to show outlines of all of the buildings on the island. Checking a compass, Ryder confirmed they were flying northeast. A pointer appeared on the left side of the window that identified the holding complex’s domed roof.
“There it is.”, he said.
Skye looked over and spotted the pointer. Then she started to turn left as Ryder turned around to rejoin with his crew-mates.
“Command, this is Skye. We have a visual on the holding complex. Beginning final approach.”, she said over the radio.
“Masks on.”, said Ryder as he rejoined the other crew-mates.
Everyone took off their helmets and started putting on their gas-masks. Once they had tightened the straps and the masks were snug, they put their helmets back on and switched on their headlamps. Skye put the craft on autopilot for a minute so she and Chase could attach oxygen hoses to their masks; and then she took manual control again. Once they were all ready, Mickey pulled a lever to open the hatch as they started getting closer to the dome. As they came over the dome, Skye slowed the craft to a stop and switched on a light under the craft while Ryder called to the base camp after picking up his gas gun.
“Command, this is Ryder. I’m about to deploy the sleep gas. We’ll confirm once we’re inside.”, he said.
He shot three canisters which smashed through the dome and dropped out of sight. Then he started a timer that counted down until the gas had taken effect before swapping out his gas launcher for a laser rifle that was set on stun. At the same time, Mickey unhooked tether lines on winches from the craft’s ceiling. When the timer reached zero, Ryder spoke to the crew.
“Get ready to drop.”, he said as everyone started clipping the winches to their harnesses.
Once everyone was tethered to a winch, Mickey counted down from three on his fingers. When he reached zero, he opened his hand back up and waved it as if he was giving a salute. Then, two at a time, everyone jumped out of the door in one-second intervals and started dropping through the smashed window. After touching down on the floor, they started looking around to make sure the guards were out cold.
“Clear!”, said Minnie as she looked and saw that the guards near her were all down and motionless.
“Clear!”, said Agent 8 as she looked around and saw the same thing.
“Command, we’re inside. All guards are down.”, said Ryder.
Mickey looked around and saw they were on the lowest floor in the complex. A sign on the wall said they were on level 3-S. There were four levels above, but the sign said that the next two sub-levels were 7-G and 4-R. He motioned for everyone to split up into three pairs. He and Minnie were saving Taylor and Lizzie, Agents 3 and 8 were saving Iris and Michael, and Agent 4 was teamed with Ryder to save Sally and Jerome.
“We’re splitting up. Proceeding to targets.”, said Minnie over the radio.
As she and Mickey started searching for Taylor and Lizzie, everyone else ascended to the higher levels. On sub-level 7-G, Agents 3 and 8 made their way to cells 8-P and 9-L. After cutting open the doors with lasers, they found Michael and Iris chained to their beds. Pulling out lockpicks, they broke open the shackles and picked up the two Inklings. Struggling with the weight, they carried Michael and Iris down to sub-level 3-S. The plan was for everyone to meet back up where they touched down and then Chase would drop a gurney for Callie and Marie’s parents.
“Marie, this is Agent 8. Your parents have been extracted and they’re secure.”, said Agent 8.
“Good work, Agent 8.”, replied Marie.
On sub-level 4-R, it was another story. When Ryder and Agent 4 arrived at cells 1-Q and 2-E, they saw that the cells were empty. However, they saw footprints on the floor and followed them up to sub-level 5-T, which was the complex’s cafeteria. They spotted Sally and Jerome at one of the tables and face-down in trays. Giggling, Ryder called to Callie.
“Callie, it looks like we spoiled your parents’ dinner. They’re face-down in their meal trays.”, he said.
Both Callie and Marie cracked up laughing. Nevertheless, Ryder and Agent 4 pulled Sally and Jerome up and cleaned their faces off before carrying them down the stairs to the meetup point. To Ryder’s surprise, Sally and Jerome hadn’t fully passed out. When he and Agent 4 laid them on their backs to clean the food off, he saw that Sally’s eyes were wandering a bit. When she saw the word “Rescue” on Ryder’s suit, she smiled and spoke quietly to Jerome. Agent 4 heard what she said.
“We’re saved, my dear.”, she said before they fell asleep completely.
“Callie, your mom just saw us and realized they’re being rescued.”, said Agent 4.
“YAY!”, cheered Callie as she clapped her hands.
After reaching the meetup spot, Ryder called to Chase and Skye.
“Chase, both Callie’s parents and Marie’s parents are secure. Drop the gurney.”, called Ryder over headset.
“Here it comes.”, said Chase as he started the winch.
“Mickey, Minnie, this is Callie. How is the search going for our kids?”, asked Callie.
Mickey said the search was going well. Luckily for the two of them, Taylor and Lizzie’s cells were right next to each other. They had just gotten to the doors when both of them picked up a bad stink and started to gag. This startled Callie and Marie.
“MICKEY, MINNIE! Are you two alright?”, asked Callie.
Mickey coughed for a second and then he radioed back.
“We’re okay, but we just caught a whiff of something that stinks really bad.”, he said.
“If the stink is coming from the kids themselves, we may need to change their diapers. It’s a good thing we brought special tools to trace odors to their point of origin.”, said Minnie as they pulled out two wands.
Once these wands were switched on, they started flashing red intermittently. As they entered, the wands started flashing faster. Once the wands were aimed straight at the kids, the lights stopped flashing and stayed lit. Mickey and Minnie turned their wands off, covered their cameras with their hands, and paused the footage.
“It’s as we suspected. Taylor and Lizzie need to be changed. It’s a good idea you sent the supplies with us.”, said Minnie.
A few minutes later, Mickey and Minnie resumed their live footage. At this point, Lizzie and Taylor were still fast asleep, but they were now wrapped in warm blankets and had pacifiers in their mouths. They reached the meetup spot as the gurney was reaching the floor. In concern that Taylor and Lizzie would slip out of the gurney, Mickey and Minnie just held them in their arms. Once Callie and Marie’s parents were strapped in the gurney, everyone reattached their tether lines and Ryder called to Skye.
“All clear, Skye. Bring us up!”, he said.
Everyone was on-board the rescue craft and closing the door when Marina heard a crashing sound in the backup generator room. Looking at the camera, she saw that the technicians had managed to get the hatch open. Frantic, she called to Skye.
“Base to Rescue-1. The Draconians are about to power up the reserve generators. You need to get out of there. HURRY!”, she said.
“Don’t worry, Marina. This craft has a cloaking device that will make us invisible.”, said Minnie.
Skye engaged the cloak before the Draconians turned on their spotlights to look for intruders. The cloaking device also silenced the engines, which allowed them to escape without being heard.
On the way back to the Squidbeak base camp, Skye turned on vacuum pumps to blow the sleeping gas out of the rescue craft and replace it with regular air so nobody would pass out after taking their masks off. Once the air was clear, Skye turned the pumps off.
“You’re clear to take masks off.”, she said after she and Chase had taken theirs off.
After everyone took their gas-masks off, Mickey pulled out an injection device that was filled with a reviving serum. Once he had given it to everyone they’d rescued, he had immediate results. Everyone started waking up and they saw the Agents’ faces. Knowing that the agents were friendly, nobody panicked. Twenty minutes later, they were arriving near the base camp. Skye radioed in and Pearl called out to Smolder.
“Rescue craft on approach. Get ready.”, she said.
Smolder nodded and put on her ear-protectors. Gallus and Yona followed her to the landing area so they could get the chocks ready. As the craft came into view, Smolder turned her marshalling wands on and held them up. Motioning the wands carefully, she guided the craft to the ground until it had touched down.
“INSERT CHOCKS!”, she yelled to Gallus and Yona.
Once the chocks were in place, Smolder held the wands over her head and slowly moved the tips towards each other to tell Skye that the chocks were inserted. Then, she swept one of the wands horizontally in front of her neck, telling Skye to cut the engines. Once the engines had stopped and there was silence, Skye opened the hatch and everyone got off. Callie and Marie were waiting behind the hatch when Skye opened it, and they ran to their parents when they got off. At that point, tears began to spill from their eyes. Crushing their parents in hugs, they cried their eyes out and kissed them. Moments later, Mickey and Minnie got off the aircraft with Taylor and Lizzie in their arms. When they saw Mickey and Minnie carrying the kids off the craft, Callie and Marie released their grip on their parents and rushed over. They still had tears in their eyes.
“Are our kids alright?”, Marie asked through her tears.
“Safe and sound, you two.”, whispered Minnie as she and Mickey handed Callie and Marie their babies.
Taylor and Lizzie had gone back to sleep during the flight. Callie and Marie instantly took their angels into their arms and kissed them on the forehead. Taylor and Lizzie woke up when they felt their mothers’ lips touch them. Then they burst into tears of happiness that they were back with their family. As the tears were running, Callie and Marie unwrapped Taylor and Lizzie slightly so they could hug each other.
**
Now that the rescue was complete, Callie and Marie led everyone back to Callie’s house for the winter celebration. Taylor and Lizzie loved the presents they got, and Callie and Marie’s parents got to meet the Paw Patrol and the Disney Fleet. Once everyone had quieted down, Flurry Heart pulled out a document that declared the Squidbeak Splatoon would become allied with all three fleets. Callie and Marie were excited by this, and they, along with Octavio, signed the document to form a permanent alliance with Equestria, the Paw Patrol, and the Disney Fleet. It was at this moment that they all realized what had happened during the last days.
“We have just declared war against Draconia. It will take everything we’ve got in order to beat them.”, said Flurry Heart.
Callie and Marie nodded their heads in acceptance. The following morning, they made a guest appearance with Deep Cut to announce the Declaration of War. Everyone who had enlisted the previous year began gearing up.
**
At the Draconian Base, things were a different story. The base’s General, Jared, became enraged upon hearing from the guards that all of their hostages were gone. In a state of fury, he called to Koval.
“WHAT? THEY’VE BEEN RESCUED?”, screamed Koval angrily.
“I’m afraid so, Your Majesty. We didn’t know this until we woke up. According to the guards, the rescuers shot something through the roof that released a gas which caused all of us to pass out. Then, the hostages were taken away.”, explained Jared.
Neither Jared, nor Koval, knew that the Squidbeak soldiers would be coming in the morning.
**
The following day, Jared’s troops were preparing for another hostage run when they suddenly heard the loud booming of cannons firing. Looking outside, they spotted the Squidbeak Navy arriving at the island. Then, they saw the shots from the lead ship strike their defense turrets and blow them up, splattering ink all over the ground in the process. These turrets were remote-controlled, so nobody was killed.
Minutes later, Jared heard from a guard that someone demanded to see him. Reluctantly, he stood up and followed the guard to the main entrance. Upon arrival, he saw the Squid Sisters. They were ANGRY. After Callie readied her Splat Roller and Marie pulled out a Splat Charger and pointed it at Jared, the Captain marched up to him. Snarling, she handed him a sealed envelope. Feeling skittish, Jared opened the envelope and read what was inside. After reading what the letter said, he lowered his head in defeat.
**
Dear Draconian Leader,
You have opened fire on us and kidnapped the family members of my top two agents. As punishment, you are hereby BANISHED from our world. We have also issued a Declaration of War against you for this. Since you attacked first, we will return fire. You had best defend yourselves from us and our allies.
Signed,
Squidbeak Captain
**
Callie made the gesture that she was watching and Jared was led back to his post. He announced over the intercom that they were being forced to leave the planet. After they had packed up, dismantled their base, and blasted off, they returned home. Koval was even angrier that his squadron had been forced to leave. Part of this was due to the fact that Jared was his best General. Nevertheless, they started preparing to defend themselves for an attack from the four fleets.
After accepting the fact that war had been declared against the Draconians, the Squidbeak Splatoon began gearing up. Callie and Marie were making sure they were with their children as long as possible before they set off for the battle. Inklings and Octarians were putting on their space suits, prepping their weapons, getting ready to board shuttles to their lead ship, the “SS Inkblazer ”, and prepping personal ships if they had one.
Deep Cut announced that the battle would be legendary and sent their greatest prayers that they would not be defeated. At the same time, the Equestrian Fleet, the PAW Patrol, and the Disney Fleet were getting ready for the battle. Everyone knew that this battle would be a dangerous one. They knew there was the possibility that they would die if anything went wrong.
Everyone knew tomorrow was when they’d be shipping out, so they all laid down to get plenty of sleep.
The next morning, it was time to get off the ground and head for Draconia. Callie and Marie gave their children one last kiss before preparing to blast up to the Inkblazer and their kids waved at them as they were getting on their shuttle. Two hours later, it was time to launch. All of the ships blasted off and made their way until they reached space. All of the shuttles in the Squidbeak Splatoon docked on the Inkblazer until everybody was on-board. Once everybody was accounted for, it was time to make the Draconians pay for their crime.
“All fleets report in.”, said Flurry Heart.
“Space Patroller standing by.”, said Chase.
“Disneystar standing by.”, said Mickey.
“Inkblazer standing by.”, said Callie.
“Warp speed in ten seconds.”, said Flurry.
“Ten.”, said Chase.
“Nine.”, said Mickey.
“Eight.”, said Callie
“Seven.”, said Silverstream.
“Six.”, said Liberty.
“Five.”, said Minnie.
“Four.”, said Marie.
“Three.”, said Smolder.
“Two.”, said Ryder.
“One.”, said Donald.
“ENGAGE!”, cried Flurry.
The engines fired off with a loud BANG and the ships shot towards the planet. Arriving in orbit, they set their cloaks and began descending on smaller ships. As they started prepping their weapons and equipment, Flurry Heart spotted a green light flashing in the distance. Smolder saw the light as well and realized the pattern was morse code. Pulling out a pad of paper and watching the light, she looked at a signal chart and recorded what was being flashed.
“We’re being signaled. The light is blinking out the words: “Come Here”.”, she said to everyone over her radio.
Flurry sent her and the Young Six to make sure this was not a trap. They investigated the source and saw a familiar face from when they were mapping the year before.
“It’s Leon and the others who are not following Koval.”, Smolder reported after a minute.
“That’s great to hear, Smolder. Bring them over to us.”, replied Flurry.
Once everyone had met Leon and heard the story he had for them, Ryder was disturbed. He agreed that Koval needed to let go and keep going with life. They had landed in a remote area of the planet where patrols rarely searched, so they were safe. The soldiers split up and started making their way to the outskirts of Draconia’s capitol. Not only was the capitol where the Emperor’s palace was located, but it was also where the launching area was for space battles. It was now or never.
Night was falling on Draconia by the time the soldiers reached the capitol, so everyone had an advantage. Octavio had hacked into the Draconians’ mainframe and found that the fleet would be getting ready in the morning. This meant that everyone had to place counter-measures to slow down their enemy. The Squidbeak soldiers blasted ink into the engines on all of the spaceships so the Draconians could not try to take off and invade planets, and Marshall set up a device that spewed fire when a laser was broken because the Draconians were known to get startled when fire appeared out of nowhere.
**
The next morning, everyone got in position and started priming their weapons. When the space crew boarded their ships and tried to launch, the engines wouldn’t start since the Squidbeak soldiers had clogged them with their ink. The fire nozzles began spewing when a land crew started driving towards a gate that led into the woods. With both of these groups caught off guard, it was easy for everyone to swoop down and stun them with their plasma lasers. Jared received word of this and informed Koval.
“This is impossible. How can they have gotten here without being seen.”, he wondered.
Jared suspected that the attackers had come during the night, but he wasn’t certain. What he did know was that the air-force was untouched, so it was possible to defend from the sky. Koval sent orders to begin flight procedures, but Octavio knew this from tapping into his mainframe. He sent a digital message to everyone that they needed to get airborne. Everyone boarded personal ships and took off.
“Lock S-Foils in attack position.”, said Flurry over radio.
Everyone opened their wings, armed their weapons, and began shooting once the Draconians came up on their radar. Many of Koval’s best soldiers were flying and trying to defend their world, but they had no idea how well trained these attackers were. They all suffered from broken windows and damaged engines, to wings being shot off and ruptured fuel tanks. Some of the Draconians had to eject from their ships because they were about to blow up. The area over the woods was in a pattern that none of the Draconians would die if shot down. They would only be knocked unconscious.
**
The combined forces of Equestria, the Squidbeak Splatoon, the PAW Patrol, and the Disney Fleet eventually forced the Draconians’ hand in retreating. However, Ryder ended up getting targeted by a guided missile near the end of the battle. He ejected from his ship before the missile hit, but his parachute got tangled between two trees. Luckily, he was able to cut himself free and climb down. He retrieved his ATV from the crash site and then everyone started closing in on Koval’s palace. Along the way, they grabbed some of the Draconians and shackled them as hostages. When they reached the palace, they held their weapons at all entrances and exits, ranging from windows to doors and concealed openings.
“Your Majesty, the attackers have reached the palace and they have taken hostages. We are trapped here.”, said Jared.
Koval became worried. If his soldiers were down and he couldn’t get out, he could not do anything. Regretting that he sent Jared to begin an invasion of Earth, Koval broke down in tears as he ordered the white flag to be raised.
Inside the palace, Koval said something to his guards that they didn’t expect.
“Let them in, and don’t resist. I surrender.”, he said through tears.
Jared was shocked, but he opened the doors and allowed Flurry Heart, the Squid Sisters, Ryder, and Mickey to enter. Chase was with Ryder and carrying handcuffs in his pup-pack.
Callie and Marie stepped forward and asked Koval why he had attempted to invade. The answer they received was selfish.
“Twenty-one years ago, I was in battle on the planet Soria. We were simply trying to form a colony there, but the Sorians did not care. My father, Soran, was killed during the battle. Ever since then, I have been trying to invade planets with intelligent life in hopes of forming an army large enough to fight back.”, explained Koval.
At that point, Ryder and Chase stepped forward to arrest Koval.
“Emperor Koval of Draconia, you are under arrest for invasion, kidnapping, and interruption of peace.”, said Chase intently as Ryder put the handcuffs on him.
Koval lowered his head and was led to the dungeon in his own palace to be locked up. A new leader for Draconia would be chosen in the morning.
The next day, it was time to select the new ruler. After getting up and having breakfast, the leaders met together to determine the new ruler of Draconia. They also met with Koval to explain a deeper reason why he was so dialed in on trying to avenge his father’s death. Flurry Heart quickly took the floor to tell him what was going on.
“You let past memories of losing your dad get in the way of ruling your home world. One must not let their emotions run their life. In other words, you must learn how to control your feelings and not let them control you. I have met with the other leaders and we have settled on the conclusion that you will not be imprisoned for the rest of your life. However, you will be giving up your title as Emperor and passing it on to someone else who will start a new era of peace.”, she explained.
“I understand, Queen Flurry Heart of Equus. I am deeply sorry for trying to find out where you lived in order to invade.”, he replied.
“You should also tell that to us.”, said Callie with a strict voice.
Koval nodded and turned to the Squid Sisters.
“I am sorry for sending my troops to capture your parents and children and try to invade your home world.”, he said to both Callie and Marie.
The Squid Sisters shook hands with Koval as a way of forgiving him and accepting his apology. Just then, Koval indicated something surprising.
“The standard amount of time for an Emperor here is 18 years. I held on an additional 3 years because I was so hung up on avenging my father’s death.”, he explained.
The decision was made to pass the torch to Leon and bring an end to Draconia’s fierce plans to invade all of the planets in the universe. Everyone was in favor of the idea and the ceremony was held the following week.
Leon walked proudly to the front of the throne room where Koval stood ready with the Emeperor’s headdress. When Leon reached the dais, he knelt down and Koval walked to him.
“All hail Emperor Leon!”, yelled Koval as Leon stood up when the headdress was placed on his head.
Leon turned to face the audience and everyone clapped and cheered.
“As my first decree, I declare that our era of invasion is now officially over. We will now enter a new era of peace and learn to respect other races.”, called out Leon.
Everyone clapped even more, and then Leon announced that a trip would be made to Soria to apologize for attempting to colonize without permission. The decision was agreed on and a crew was formed.
After the conflict with Soria was taken care of, everyone knew it was time to head home. Arriving back on Earth, Callie and Marie made a report that the war against the Draconians was over and peace had been achieved. They returned home and were reunited with their families, continuing their normal lives as if the crisis had never happened. However, they set out a plan in secret to visit Equus after several years once both of their kids had matured enough.
The PAW Patrol and the Cat Pack returned to Adventure Bay where they continued their careers saving lives and the Disney Fleet retired completely. They continued their normal lives and other citizens took their places as space explorers. Flurry Heart and the Young Six returned home to Equus where they resumed their normal lives as well. They had no idea that Callie and Marie were planning a family trip to visit Equus.
In the far reaches of space, some inhabited planets gave up on their strict policies, such as Merlin 5. When the Young Six had first mapped them, they did not want them to spread knowledge, but they eventually opened up and allowed explorers to come. In the end, the universe was made a better place.
Surprise Visit after 12 Years
Twelve years after the end of the war against Draconia, it had been a month and a half since Taylor’s 13th birthday. He was doing very well in school and so was his cousin Lizzie. Their families had met up at Callie’s house when their parents gave them some surprising news.
“We have something to tell both of you.”, said Callie.
“What’s that, Mom and Aunt Marie?”, asked Taylor.
“For Squidmas, we are going as a family to the planet Equus. Your gift is the opportunity to meet Queen Flurry Heart along with six friends of hers.”, said Marie.
“Who are they, Mom?”, asked Lizzie.
“We knew you’d ask that, Lizzie. She’s a winged unicorn. The last time we saw her was 12 years ago when the world was attacked by an alien species.”, answered Callie.
“Both of you were babies when this happened. You, along with our parents, were captured by a group of these aliens. Luckily, three of our fellow agents, along with some other friends of Queen Flurry, rescued you all.”, added Marie.
Taylor and Lizzie felt their skin crawl and they shut their eyes. Images flashed in their brains of what their moms had just told them. They saw themselves in a dark room and lying on their backs. They heard loud sounds and then they heard screams that sounded like their own voices, only different. When they opened their eyes, they were sweating lightly.
“Are you two alright?”, asked Callie.
“We just remembered a small part of what you told us. We were lying in bed together and out like lights when something shook the crib and roused us from sleep. Then we heard loud explosions outside. Then we started screaming and crying out for you. That’s all we remember.”, said Taylor.
Callie was shocked.
“That’s exactly what happened. We were awakened a siren before the explosions and then we ran to the window just in time to see the bombs landing and going off. We woke our parents up and had almost reached a shelter out back when Marie and I realized you were still inside. We grabbed you and ran back out, but then we tripped and dropped you into the snow. An alien from the species grabbed you before we got up, but we couldn’t see. Our parents were gone when we got to the shelter. After calling for help, we had three sets of soldiers come to rescue you along with the agents. Flurry Heart and her friends were one of the groups.”, she said.
Callie went to her and Michael’s room, and got a photo album from the time that the Draconians had attacked and brought it to show to Taylor and Lizzie along with their parents. When she showed them the group picture after everyone was rescued, Taylor and Lizzie were beyond words.
“I don’t believe this. They all teamed up to help you save us?”, said Lizzie in a shocked voice.
Callie and Marie nodded and then gave their kids a hug and a kiss.
“It was very brave of both you and Marie to participate in that group effort.”, said Sally.
“Thanks, Mom.”, said Callie as her mom gave her a kiss on the cheek and her dad gave her a hug.
“In fact, son, take a look at this orange dragon. Her name is Smolder.”, Michael told Taylor as he pointed to Smolder in the picture.
“She looks familiar to me, Dad, but I don’t know why.”, said Taylor as he scratched his head while looking at the picture.
“She helped me give birth to you. Later that day, after the doctors had assessed your health, I let her hold you. Then, she took two pictures of your dad and I in the hospital. She gave one to us and kept the other.”, said Callie as she turned back in the album to the picture that Smolder had taken after Taylor’s birth.
When Taylor looked at the picture, he shut his eyes as another flashback popped in his mind.
“I remember part of that day. I heard you say her name and ask if she wanted to hold me, and she said yes. Seconds later, I opened my eyes and smiled at her and all of her friends.”, he said.
“That’s right.”, said Michael as Callie put the album away.
“Were you planning on the four of us coming as well?”, asked Iris after Callie came back.
“That’s right, Mom.”, said Marie.
Everyone was excited about going to space. So far, only the Squid Sisters had gone when the Draconian War took place. They started packing to get ready and then took a train and a helicopter to the launching area. The craft they would be using was docked in space, so they had to take a shuttle. It was night when they arrived at the pad, so the kids didn’t know they were actually on top of a giant floating structure in the middle of the ocean.
When the sun came up, Taylor and Lizzie looked around and saw that there was water everywhere. Callie and Marie explained why this was. The launchpad was on a platform anchored to the ocean floor. They could not see this when they arrived because they got there at night and it was raining. One thing that stood out was that they could not eat anything before takeoff, but the workers at the pad explained that.
“You would not want to get sick during the launch. To prevent that, you’re not given any food before takeoff.”, explained one of the technicians.
After putting on orange jumpsuits and getting their luggage onto the shuttle, everyone started boarding. After Callie, Marie, their parents, Andrew, Michael, Taylor, and Lizzie were strapped in their seats, the hatch was buttoned up and the shuttle started to tilt back. After 10 seconds, the shuttle was standing vertically and everyone was lying on their backs, including the shuttle’s crew. It was at this point that the countdown began. When the timer reached zero, the engines fired and everyone felt the intense shaking as the shuttle lifted off and started climbing into the sky. During the ascent, both Taylor and Lizzie began to feel a little bit uneasy. When the loud roar and massive vibration from the engines stopped, and all was still, everyone felt as if they were floating.
“Wow!”, whispered Marie’s dad.
“Oh my gosh.”, giggled Iris.
“This feels weird, sweetie.”, Callie’s parents said to her.
Taylor and Lizzie felt as if they were about to throw up. Spotting sickness bags in the pockets on the backs of their parents’ seats, they each grabbed one and got them opened in a flash. Callie and Marie heard the sound of their children’s ink splashing into the bags and then the crinkling as the bags were closed. Taylor coughed for a second and Lizzie let out a sigh of relief.
“You two alright?”, asked Marie.
“We are now. I think we just got motion sickness.”, said Taylor after he stopped coughing.
“We know what that’s like. We threw up the first time we went into space.”, said Callie.
Three minutes later, the shuttle docked on the space station where the excursion craft was and the shuttle’s gravity core was activated so they would not be floating anymore. After throwing away the sickness bags and getting their luggage, everyone started proceeding to their excursion ship, the Inkstar .
Prior to undocking from the space station, everyone changed out of their jumpsuits and into space suits in case of depressurization. Once the hatches were closed, the Squid Sisters took the controls and undocked the Inkstar from the space station. After setting the star coordinates for Equus, it was time to fasten seat belts. As Marie charged up the warp engines, Callie told everyone what the ride was going to be like.
“We are going to be pulling some serious g-force when we are flying from our solar system to that of Equus. Marie and I have experienced this from the war, so we’re used to it. Since none of you are used to it, it is perfectly fine if you pass out.”, she said.
When the engines fired off, everyone was yanked back in their seats. Luckily, nobody passed out from the sudden acceleration. Everyone thought it was interesting to fly past the stars at such incredible speeds. Once they got close to Equus, Marie pulled back on the warp switch to slow the ship down. The sudden decrease in speed left both Callie’s parents and Marie’s parents dizzy for a second. Taylor had double vision, and Lizzie ended up with a minor headache. These conditions subsided quickly. As they moved closer to Equus’ orbit, they got a call on the radio.
“Orbital Patrol to unidentified spacecraft. Please identify yourself.”, said Thorax.
“This is Callie from the Squid Sisters aboard the Inkstar . We are here on a surprise visit for Flurry Heart.”, answered Callie.
“Acknowledged, you are clear for atmospheric entry. Also, you picked a good time to come. Flurry’s birthday is tomorrow.”, replied Thorax.
Callie and Marie were excited to hear this. Their visit would be a surprise gift for Flurry Heart. They continued proceeding to enter the atmospheric corridor. As they got close, they warned everyone about what was to come. They were about to go through one of the most dangerous phases of space flight.
“Atmospheric entry is an extremely dangerous procedure. As we penetrate the atmosphere, friction creates a superheated plasma around the ship, cutting off radio contact. We have a thermometer to keep track of our temperature and make sure we don’t get too hot by coming in too steep. If that happens, we would be vaporized and our ship would burn up.”, explained Marie as the ship began to enter the atmosphere on Equus.
True to her words, flames appeared around the ship and the outside temperature jumped way up. The only thing anyone could do at this point was hold their breath. After three minutes, the temperature dropped back down as they came into clear air. The main engines were reignited and Callie took the controls to fly over the land in order to find a safe area to land. They had heard from Flurry Heart in the past about places where landing was not safe, so she made sure not to go near those areas. Once they had found a landing area where no-one would see them, they touched down and then got off the ship. After pitching tents for the night, everyone got into their pajamas and got ready to go to bed. Before fully going to sleep, Andrew and Michael suggested stargazing for a while. Lizzie and Taylor loved stargazing, so they joined their dads outside and looked at many different constellations that they had not seen from Earth. In fact, they had both learned about astronomy in school, so they were able to chart where the sun for their solar system was.
In the morning, everyone got dressed and boarded a train to Canterlot after having breakfast.
Upon arriving in the capitol of Equestria, the Squid Sisters and their family headed to the royal palace and explained to the guards who they were and why they had come. One of the guards said that she would present them as one of Flurry Heart’s gifts when the party started. Everyone agreed and they waited in a side room for the party to begin. Once everything had begun, the guard announced to Flurry Heart that she had some special visitors as a present.
“Who might that be?”, she asked.
Even the Young Six didn’t know about the Squid Sisters coming. Little did the Inklings know that the former allies had come to the party as well. The doors were opened and the Squid Sisters walked proudly into the room with their parents and kids following them. Flurry, the PAW Patrol, the Disney Fleet, and the Young Six were flat-out astonished. After the ten Inklings were seated at the table, Flurry came over to them.
“It’s been twelve years since I last saw you.”, she said.
“Are these, Taylor and Lizzie?”, asked Silverstream in a shocked voice.
Taylor and Lizzie smiled and nodded their heads.
“My goodness, you have grown a lot since we last saw you.”, said Gallus.
Sally and Iris explained that none of them realized today was Flurry’s birthday until Thorax told them as they arrived in orbit the night before. Flurry understood them completely and welcomed them to Equus. After the party was finished, each of the Young Six gave them a tour of their homelands. Flurry was last since she grew up further north in the Crystal Empire. After the tour of Equus was finished, the family went with the PAW Patrol to see where they came from and then with the Disney allies to see their home as well. Once they had seen where everybody had come from, they knew it was time to head home. So they packed up, boarded the Inkstar , fired the warp engines, and returned to Earth. After landing, they all went home and continued their normal lives for many years to come and they lived happily ever after.
After Celestia and Luna had passed the torch, Twilight decided that Equestria and the lands beyond should be brought into a modern era.
The modernization involved building motorized vehicles, setting up orbital space stations, sending remote-controlled probes to look for possible signs of life, training soldiers for war in hostile environments, and constructing large ships with engines designed for movement faster than light.
The process had many drawbacks in its early stages, such as depressurizations on space vehicles, weapon failures, and miscalculations when sending out the probes for the first time. However, these problems were soon ironed out and the future looked bright.
**
Five years after modernizing the world, Twilight received a letter from Neighsay that the EEA was being reorganized to more than just ponies. Starlight Glimmer took his place as leader and several representatives from around the world took the other seats on the board. Neighsay applied to work as the operator on an orbiting space station that scanned for any emergencies that could approach Equus while his comrades retired.
Little did anyone know that Equus was about to get a message from an unexpected place and the Main Six were about to get called out for a tough mission.
Neighsay was changing back into his jumpsuit after finishing his E V A to check for any problems with the space station from the last solar flare when an alarm sounded from the PDA on his utility belt. When he looked at the alarm specifications, he raced to the communications room and listened to what was being received by the computer. After listening to the transmission twice, he opened a direct channel to Twilight.
“Equestrian Space Station to Canterlot. Princess Twilight, this is Neighsay. Do you read me?”
“I hear you loud and clear. What’s happening up there?”, asked Twilight.
“Listen to this transmission. It came in after I had finished my E V A.”, he replied.
**
“If anybody picks this up, please help us. Eleven emergency responders have gone on missions and I have lost contact with them. They were responding to disasters around the world.”, said a female voice.
**
Twilight was shocked.
“I don’t like the sound of that.”, she replied.
“Me neither. I think you and your friends should respond to this.”, said Neighsay.
“Any idea where this came from?”, Twilight asked.
“Good question; I have traced this message to a communications tower on the far side of the galaxy.”, said Neighsay.
Twilight gathered her friends, the Young Six, and Flurry Heart to explain what they were in for. There were no objections and everyone boarded the new version of the Harmony after Twilight had appointed Cadence to fill in for her in Canterlot. The first version of the ship couldn't land on planets and was required to remain in space; but this new version was the opposite.
When Twilight and her friends along with Flurry Heart and the Young Six were seated on board the Harmony , they set coordinates to take them to the origin of the message that Neighsay had intercepted. After firing the warp engines, they reached the planet in only an hour. After landing, they found Mayor Goodway and introduced themselves.
“Thank goodness someone picked up my call for help.”, she said.
“No problem, Mayor. What’s going on?”, asked Twilight.
Mayor Goodway proceeded to explain who Ryder and his pups were and the missions they had been called for that night. Upon hearing the intensity and that Ryder and all ten pups were in trouble, Flurry Heart felt her skin crawl. Twilight formed up with her crew and determined who should go where.
“Gallus, you and Flurry will come with me to save Ryder, Chase, and Everest in the mountains. Ocellus, go with Applejack and Rainbow to the rainforest to stop the toxic spill and save Tracker and Rocky. Smolder and Yona, go with Sandbar and Pinkie to the city. Stop that fire and save Liberty, Skye, Rubble, and Marshall. Silverstream, you go with Fluttershy and Rarity to save Rex and Zuma and stop the lava.”
Everyone agreed and they started preparing the equipment they would need for their rescues. Once everybody was ready, they split up and set off to save the PAW Patrol.
When Ryder woke up again, he was lying on his back in what looked like a hospital bed and Chase and Everest were on two more beds on either side of him, with Chase on the left and Everest on the right. Heated blankets had been laid over all three of them, Ryder had a splint glove around his right hand, and Chase had his back right paw held in traction. With his left hand, Ryder reached out and petted Chase on the head. They both smiled at each other weakly before going back to sleep from the anesthetics that they were receiving through their intravenous lines.
Liberty and Skye were next to each other in another room with their legs held in traction as well. Marshall and Rubble were on oxygen masks for a while due to their smoke inhalation, but they were later just waiting for their friends to recover. Tracker and Rocky were quick to recover from the tranquilizers, but they had severe headaches from crashing into the trees when they were in the rainforest. Zuma was on an intravenous drip to keep him hydrated and he was also recovering from inhaling gases from the lava. Rex had been taken into surgery.
In the operating room, Twilight and Flurry looked at x-rays to see if his hind legs could be restored, and they determined it was feasible if they were careful and extremely precise with their movements. After picking up the scalpel with her aura, Twilight took a deep breath and began the incision. After a few minutes, she got to Rex’s backbone and carefully opened it up to access the spinal cord. Once the spinal cord was exposed, Flurry used her magic to figure out which nerves needed to be treated so they would work again. Once the nerves were treated, she used an electrical probe to stimulate the nerves. To her amazement, Rex’s back legs were able to move.
“Let’s close him up.”, she whispered to Twilight.
After using their magic to instantly heal Rex, they wheeled him into a recovery room.
When Rex woke up, he felt something different. He was able to move his back legs. He had not been able to do so until now. When Ryder came to see him after he and Chase were healed, he was shocked as well. Once everyone was back to normal, Twilight and all of her crew members introduced themselves to the PAW Patrol.
“Thank you all for saving our lives.”, said Ryder.
“Rex, the restoration of your hind legs is our gift to you.”, said Flurry Heart.
Once everyone had gone back outside to Adventure Bay, Ryder got a call from Mayor Goodway. When he heard what she had to say, he turned to Twilight.
“Mayor Goodway expects your presence for a special ceremony.”, he said.
Twilight and her crew were led by Ryder to the Town Hall where Mayor Goodway presented them with medals for their lifesaving skills and for saving Ryder and the pups.
Two months after rescuing the PAW Patrol, all was going well in Equestria. Little did anyone know that they would be making some new friends soon. A starship crew which consisted of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Daisy and Donald Duck, Goofy, Minnie’s twin nieces, Millie and Melody, and Professor Ludwig Von Drake’s robotic mouse drone Toodles were gearing up for a test flight of their new ship, which had just been christened the Disneystar . This ship was designed two years ago with the intent on travelling long distances in short amounts of time. Mickey was the crew’s Captain and they were all quarantined prior to the launch to avoid catching germs before getting suited up. On the day of the launch, the white-room technicians helped them into their suits and then everyone put their helmets on.
“We are going to have a beautiful ride.”, Mickey said to Clarabelle.
“I’m sure you will, Mickey.”, she replied as Mickey latched his helmet.
Once everyone was ready, they followed illuminated arrows on the floor until they had boarded an elevator. The elevator took them up to a pressurized glass walkway that led to the main hatch on the side of the Disneystar . Once the pressure was equalized, the seven members walked proudly down the walkway with reporters and newspaper photographers clapping and cheering as they made their way to the ship. Once the hatch was sealed, Mickey and his friends were cleared to take off their space suits since the ship’s interior was sterilized and free of germs. After changing out of their space suits and into their crew uniforms, they made their way to the cockpit where Toodles was already plugged into the main computer.
“Sixty seconds to takeoff. Access bridge retracted.”, said Von Drake over the ship’s intercom.
Mickey and his friends fastened their seatbelts and prepared to launch into space.
**
50 seconds later…
Alarms began to blare outside as the ship’s engines started powering up. When the engines fired off, the noise was so loud that Millie and Melody covered their ears. Once enough thrust had built up, the launch clamps opened up and the ship began to move upward from the pad. After the Disneystar had ascended far enough, Mickey and his friends took control and piloted the ship higher into the sky until they had cleared the atmosphere.
“We’re in space.”, Mickey said to Von Drake over radio.
“Well done, Mickey. I hope this test flight goes well for you. I wish you all good luck.”, replied the Professor.
“Toodles, charge the warp drive when ready.”, Minnie said.
“Warp drive charged and ready.”, Toodles replied thirty seconds later.
“Engage!”, said Mickey.
The warp engines fired off and the ship began flying through space at a powerful speed. Little did anyone know that their test flight was about to be jeopardized.
Once the collected information was logged in the star maps, the Harmony was undocked from the space station and the Young Six headed to Sector 7. Arriving at the space station, they received some shocking information from the Commander, which was Daring Do.
“Supposedly, this solar system was home to an intelligent species. Shockingly, the space station we are on was pre-existing. We just had to repair it and create an artificial gravity generator. The planet we are orbiting is called Earth, and it was our first destination to map out. We had just started mapping when we heard that the budgets were cut. All of the information we managed to gather is that there is friendly life on the planet and the air is safe to breathe. Due to the budget cuts, we did not have the opportunity to scout for cities or technology. There are seven other planets besides Earth and its moon. They are called Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.”, she explained.
“We will save Earth for last. Right now, we need to map the other seven planets.”, said Sandbar.
Daring Do acknowledged Sandbar’s plans and the Young Six proceeded with the final leg of their cosmic mission.
Gallus decided to map out Earth’s moon along with Mars. He started with the Earth’s moon. Daring Do made sure to warn him that the gravity would be less since the moon was smaller than Earth. He acknowledged and proceeded to land. He touched down slowly in order to secure a soft landing and then deployed his rover.
As he sped along the surface, he took hundreds of pictures. He came across six structures with a flag next to them in different places. Each one had a name plate that said who came to that spot. He was unable to tell what the flags looked like, because they had faded from many years of exposure to sunlight. At three of the sites, he found rovers, but their batteries were dead. His rover had a solar panel with which to recharge the batteries. Once he had visited all of the craters and rock formations, along with taking samples, he returned to his ship and lifted off to head for Mars.
On Mars, Gallus noticed that anything he had with him weighed only 1/3 of what it would weigh normally. As he traversed the planet, he found what appeared to be several mechanical devices and probes that had been sent long ago. Some of these machines were either badly broken or completely destroyed. Not wanting to risk breaking anything, he only took pictures. Dust storms happened four times during his trek, but he had secured his ship firmly so it wouldn’t get flipped over and damaged. At one point, he found what looked like an enormous volcano, but a seismic scan said it was only dormant and not going to erupt anytime soon. After confirming that he had charted all of the landscape on Mars; Gallus returned to his ship, launched, and returned to the space station.
**
Ocellus chose Uranus and Neptune as her destinations to map out. Both of these planets appeared bluish in color and did not have any solid landmasses except for their moons. Since these two planets were mostly gas, Ocellus charted them from her ship. Daring Do had said there weren’t any reports of what the moons were named, so Ocellus only took note of the number of moons instead. Her sensors showed that Neptune was mostly composed of helium, hydrogen, and sulfur with traces of methane. Looking through her ship’s telescope, she saw some very faint rings that appeared to be made of small rock fragments. She sent a probe down to analyze the atmosphere and its anemometer indicated that this planet was EXTREMELY windy. There was also ice below the clouds, but the constant wind kept it from drifting into space. She sent the probe deeper and found that there was indeed a core to Neptune, made of ice and rock, that seemed to be exactly the same size as Earth. In the process of locating the core, she found that there was water, ammonia, and methane ice below the main atmosphere.
Uranus was similar, but it was slightly different in color. It was a bluish-green color. Her ship’s computer identified this to be the result of the methane in the atmosphere absorbing red light. She saw the rings more clearly than the rings around Neptune due to the fact that these rings were composed of larger particles. These were mainly rocks and large pieces of ice. The inner rings were darker and more difficult to see. Ocellus had to use a night-vision function in her telescope in order to see these rings. They were so dark that she noted they looked similar to charcoal. What really stood out is that the rings were vertical. She had no idea why this was, nor did Daring Do when Ocellus returned to the space station after making sure she had not missed anything.
**
Silverstream picked her destination to be Saturn. The swirling and rolling gases on this planet were indicated by a probe she sent down to be at a pressure high enough to crush, melt, or vaporize her ship if she tried to land. Her probe was destroyed since its shields failed after a few hours, but she knew this from the get-go. Similar to what Ocellus had reported about Uranus and Neptune, Saturn’s atmosphere was mostly composed of hydrogen and helium. Silverstream saw on her scanner that Saturn had almost 90 moons, and she was astonished by the different colored clouds that appeared as stripes around the planet in various shades of brown, gray, and yellow.
She saw many rings around Saturn that were clearly visible. They were made of ice chunks and rocks that had been smashed by the magnetic field and coated with dust and other substances. Some of these chunks were close to being as big as a house, while some were even bigger and close to being the size of mountains. She noted all of this in her logs before confirming that she had missed nothing. Once she was certain that all of her notes were accurate, she left Saturn and returned to the space station.
**
With Mercury and Venus being the closest ones to the sun, Smolder volunteered to chart them. These two planets would be blistering hot, so she readied her heat suit and swapped out the cooling-water with liquid nitrogen. Mercury was filled with craters, similar to Earth’s moon as Sandbar said. Whenever the sun was beating down, the surface reached a scorching 800 degrees Fahrenheit. However, there was no atmosphere to hold in all of that heat. So the temperature plummeted to a bitter-cold negative 290 degrees Fahrenheit when the sun had gone down. On some parts of the planet, the sun would rise briefly, set quickly, and then rise again. Temperatures and high levels of radiation from the sun led Smolder to say that it was impossible for life to be possible without extreme protection on Mercury.
Venus was another story. This planet was hotter than Mercury since it was heavily wrapped in clouds and covered with thousands of small volcanoes. The hottest temperature reached 900 degrees Fahrenheit. The clouds were mostly composed of sulfuric acid, and there were high levels of carbon-dioxide which had a corrosive effect at surface levels. This was due to the fact that the CO2 was both very hot and at high pressure at the same time. Luckily, both Smolder’s suit and her ship were designed to be resistant to atmospheres like this. She had to watch her step in order to avoid stepping or falling in the boiling rivers of lava. Once Smolder was certain that she had mapped out Venus completely; she lifted off and returned to the space station around Earth.
**
Yona chose to map the largest planet, Jupiter. Her sensors said that the magnetic field was 20 times stronger than Earth’s, so she kept her distance. Only with her telescope could Yona see Jupiter’s very faint rings of dust. She also sent a probe to measure the wind speed inside a huge red spot on Jupiter’s surface. Her readings from the anemometer registered about 270 MPH, which told her it was a raging storm, similar to a hurricane. Yona was also successful in calculating that Jupiter was bigger than any other planet in this entire solar system. Other readouts from her probes indicated strong pressure and heat levels could destroy a spaceship if it tried to land on Jupiter, meaning it was impossible to establish a research outpost. This was also confirmed when her probes showed that Jupiter had no defined surface. What she could tell was that there were plumes of sulfur and phosphorous-rich gases that rose from Jupiter’s interior layers. Combined with a very fast rotation that lasted only 10 hours each, creating jet-streams, these clouds were separated into dark bands and bright belts across very long stretches.
Jupiter had many moons, one of which had a crust made of solid ice. Yona explored this moon, called Europa, to see what secrets it held. She had to use a superheated drill to pierce through the ice, because it was harder than granite. 10 miles under the ice, she found a raging ocean of water, that held the possible elements to sustain life. She opted to not search for life, because she didn’t know how long it would take until her drilled hole froze shut. Also, she had to avoid geysers when landing. Luckily, she landed on Europa without being hit by flash-frozen water from the geysers, and she left in the same manner. This involved taking tight maneuvers, but she was unscathed in the end. A quick analysis of Jupiter’s magnetic field showed that Europa was squeezed and stretched as it orbited, which led to the water being in constant motion under the ice.
After Yona had taken all of the pictures she needed, she flew back through the asteroid belt and returned to the space station. She and her friends were now ready to explore Earth.