THREE WEEKS LATER
DAY 321
MAINTENANCE EVA #217
“Alsted to MC, radiator panels check out,” said Alsted as he closely examined the heat radiators for the reactor. “Wiring is running at full capacity, heat radiation estimated at 2000C. Next up: external cameras.” Alsted drifted from handhold to handold on the side of Horizon, sparing his precious EVA fuel. He moved his hand in front of an external camera, and seeing that it didn't move, opened the camera control panel. “Cameras four and seven have disconnected wires, plugging them back in now,” he said on the radio as he plugged them back in. Instantly the camera pointed at him. “Cameras check out,” he said as he continued down. Next was the external check of the warp drive. “STD drive in perfect condition, negative energy and exotic matter levels nominal. We should be able to make an emergency jump out if necessary almost immediately.” The final item on the day's checklist was simple; the engines and fuel tanks. As Alsted approached the fuel tank, he noticed something strange. His suit's uplink showed excess life support usage in the crew cabin. “Must be a faulty circuit,” he said as he continued his rounds.
When he arrived at the engine bell, he noticed a small dent. “Goddamn micrometeorites; if we fired this engine now, it'd probably explode.” He took out a spare panel of metal, removed the damaged section of engine, and replaced it with a new sheet. He then looked over the fuel tanks and noticed various punctures in the outside. “This ship could really use some micrometeorite armor,” he thought to himself as he patched up the holes. “Maintenance rounds complete, returning to airlock,” he said to Mission Control.
“Roger, Alsted. Be advied; possible life support malfunction in crew deck, overuse has been detected. Make sure you wear your suit when you investigate it.”
“Will do,” said Alsted as he slipped into the airlock and waited for the room to pressurize.
Eventually, the inner door opened, and Alsted floated through. He went straight through the door labeled “Crew Bunk,” but found himself into the kitchen. The door that said “Airlock” was also in a different place than it had been when he had left. “Oh, hell.” he said to himself before he started searching through every room.
He soon found the Life Support Control room, but found to his surprise that everything checked out; something – or someone – was just in the crew quarters, using up the oxygen reserve. Alsted sighed and went to the emergency locker, noticing something scratched on the wall:
"DISCORD WUZ HERE"
Horizon's emergency locker was quite simple; it was a separately pressurized room with access to escape pods, rations, and medical supplies, as well as weaponry in case one of the crew members turned violent. The latter was what Alsted decided to take, choosing a taser and a knife. He crept out of the locker with his helmet lights on and turned off the ship's lighting. He peered into the kitchen, the control room, and the crew quarters and could find nothing. All of a sudden, an alarm started blaring. “WARNING: ANTIMATTER DEFICIENCY DETECTED. DEPLOYING SOLAR PANELS. SHUTTING DOWN TIER 1 NONESSENTIAL SYSTEMS.”
“Well, shit. No more TV.” said Alsted as he went over to the computer. "What?! There's thirty-five missing kilograms!” he shouted in surprise. He then went over to the comms console and tried to call Jebediah, instead settling for a short message; “Situation Critical; missing antimatter; respond ASAP.”
It was a beautiful day on the surface. Not a cloud was visible in the sky, and the town was peaceful and calm. The twitter of the birds in the trees and the sunrise over the golden meadow both only added to the natural beauty. Off in the distance, the city of Canterlot stood precariously over a ledge, seeming as if ready to totter off and come crashing down at any second. Directly opposite, one could see the vast expanse of the Everfree Forest as far as the eye could see. The sun slowly crested the mountains behind Canterlot and its rays illuminated the land, including directly on Jebediah's eyes. “Oh, goddamnit,” he said as he woke up. As he woke up, he heard the telltale beep that meant a message had arrived. “Probably Mission Control asking about mission objectives,” he said to himself as he groggily walked down the steps. “They'd better not – Oh...” he said as he saw the text of the message. “Well, shit.” He quickly typed a response to the message, and as he was about to hit send, something knocked on the door. “One sec!” he shouted as he pressed the key. He opened the door and started to say, “How may I help you, sir?” but stopped mid-sentence as he looked at what stood before him. It was an abomination that defied explanation; it appeared as if some child had maliciously taken parts from various animals and glued them together. “What in the name of all that is holy are you?” he asked.
The creature simply smiled in response. "I would tell you, but I'll be taking that," it said before taking the taser Jeb had instinctively drawn and turning it into an umbrella, leaving Jeb with a face of shock and awe.
"Well, anyway, do you happen to know anything about a fellow named Discord?"
The creature smiled again. "You mean me?"
"Wait, so you're the one who took the antimatter from the reactor? Get back here!" shouted Jeb.
"Toodles!" said Discord as he floated up into the air.
“What do you mean he's one of the 'good guys'?” Jeb asked Twilight over breakfast.
“He used to be malicious and intent on chaos, but we reformed him to make him good.”
“First off,” Jeb said, “that sounds like brainwashing. Second, how does stealing – and I mean stealing, without permission or anything – not count him as a bad guy? Especially when he's stole enough power to destroy Equestria.”
Twilight almost spat her food all over Jeb's face. “What? Enough power to destroy Equestria?”
“Yeah, I thought I said that when we began this discussion.”
“I thought you were just 'ranting' again.”
Jeb sighed before deciding on a plan. “I'll be on the communicator with someone; do not interrupt me, please, or this entire operation might be a bust.” He then proceeded to walk out of the room. Twilight just sat and wondered if he was going to get himself killed.
“All I'm asking for is access to an observation satellite, looking for any sort of suspicious evil lair. Anything that could point to this guy,” he said to the mission controller.
“Hmmm... Now that I think about it, we may have a place that somewhat fits the bill. There's a strange formation a few hundred kilometers west of you with what appear to be towers and various mechanisms. At first we though it was just a few oddly located stones, but now seems like a good time to investigate. However, unless you're up for a multi-week rover trip, the only to get there is to fly, and your crewman used up the fuel that was reserved for that.”
Jeb thought for a moment, and seeing no conclusion, closed the connection. He sat contemplating. If he were to use the plane anyway, there wouldn't be enough fuel to make orbit, and not only would the plane become unusable to them, the natives would get access to state of the art spacecraft technology. If he were to take a rover, the entire region might be incinerated before he even got close. And he couldn't just do a suborbital hop; fuel was far too precious. He sat for a while thinking until Twilight burst into the room.
“Hi; I couldn't help but overhear your plan, and while I think it's incredibly stupid, I have a friend who might be able to help you.” she said.
Jeb shrugged; what other option did he have? He followed Twilight as she led the way to her friend's house, and was somewhat surprised at who they ended up meeting. “You?” said Jeb, recognizing the cyan coat.
“Oh, hi Twilight! I see you brought a friend,” said Rainbow Dash as she descended off from the cloud. “I heard you might need a favor from me?” she said to Jeb.
“Well, yeah. I need you to fly me out all the way to...” Jebediah pulled out a map and pointed to a specific location. “...right here.”
Rainbow Dash looked at the map for a few seconds before sighing. “It's a bit far, but I can take you there. I can't make any guarantees about getting back, though...”
Jeb simply said, “When do we start?”
Jeb sifted through the items in the library, trying to find his items. He went into the crate he'd brought from the lander and found a combat knife he'd secretly snuck onto the ship. He also found a taser, and a box of rifle ammo. He went into the closet and took out the rifle as well as his GPS transponder. He took a red strip of cloth and tied it around his head. When he finally emerged, he was wearing a knife, taser, and rifle ammo on his belt, a rifle slung across his back, a dirty red bandana, a leather jacket with matching black shirt, a pair of jeans, and a transponder stuck to his shoe.
Rainbow Dash was waiting outside the library for him, and was obviously annoyed at how long it took him to get ready. “I've been waiting out here for half an hour!” she complained.
“Shut up and let's get moving,” was all Jeb said.