Ralph Kerman and Pigdon Kerman moped around, retrying communication over and over. The spire of an antenna shot radio waves into the deep blackness of space, to the unresponsive satellites. The boys inside the deployment bases rearranged the satellites, pointing them toward whatever they thought was Kerbin in the night sky.
The base drills ripped into the ground, looking for some substance their computers recognized as "Koel". Aluminum and iron were abundant, and scarcely collected. The raw metals were piled near the coast, where the team of engineers began stabbing and poking at the metal, beating it and putting sphere shaped pieces on brown poles. The engineering foreman, Jack Kerman, had some disagreements with Ralph, leading to the antenna being ripped off of one the bases for the jet they were constructing.
Over the loud hum of the drills and the bickering of a team of engineers and communication officials, a group of 12 odd figures approached during the fleeting sunset.
"I believe her!" A chipper, pink little pony exclaimed.
"I just don't see how it's possible. There's nothing beyond the sun and the moon." The pink maned pony's bookish and intellectual friend responded.
The rainbow maned pegasus was furious. "What do you mean by that? Do think I wanted to burn off my awesome fur?" The pegasus responded to her own question, "No!"
The purple mess of genuis summarized what she had been told moments prior, "So let me run through this. You met paint can-headed, green, tiny minotaurs that crawled out of a metal skeleton that blew itself up..."
"Uh-huh."
"And you followed it into the extreme outer atmosphere..."
"Yep."
"And passed out on top of one of the bones...
"Yeah, just about."
"And burned the fur on your forehooves off. After you woke up, you flapped your wings almost to Ponyville and collapsed on top of Sugarcube Corner." She finished.
"You can leave that last part out, thanks." Rainbow Dash blushed. "So," Rainbow remembered her original proposition, "can you get Princess Celestia and Luna and like, 4 guards to come with me and check it out?"
"Probably not. You've been reading too many Daring Do novels lately."
"Gee, thanks for your help, egghead." Rainbow turned around with the bitter taste of defeat in her mouth.
Rainbow closed the door behind her with her eyes closed as she walked to Sugarcube Corner. She needed something sweet to counter the foul taste of a failed attempt. Pushing the door open, Pinkie Pie jumped up and exclaimed, "I can help!"
"GAAH! Pinkie! Where'd you come from?" Dash yelled out in surprise.
"My mommy and daddy, silly!" She smiled, her cheerful face stuck in an endless, mile-wide grin.
"That's not what I mea-- How'd you get here so fast?"
"I walked!" Pinkie's unimpaired, flawless reasoning failed to catch onto Dashie.
"Uhhh... Alright? So what do you mean you can help?"
"I have friends in business, ones really good at figuring out where ponies are going to so that I can plan super-duper amazariffic suprise parties!" Pinkie gave an unnerving, but infectious grin to one of her best friends.
"That's kinda creepy, Pinks," Dash regained her ability to coherently speak, "So where are these ponies?"
"Everyone in the shop, silly!"
The three spies lowered their newspapers and seven more stopped their bland and fake conversation to wave at Rainbow. Rainbow shrank at the prospect of these people being enlisted in the E.S.A. as all ten badges slapped against tables in the bakery.
A quiet, "Eeep." came from the brave pony.