The astronauts were floating.
Landing just a few miles from Horseton, the splash zone was one that had been cherry-picked from a host of others because it was midday and the sun was directly overhead. Normal protocol about waiting for the rescue ships was thrown into the abyss. as soon as the ship stabilized and achieve buoyancy everyone shredded their makeshift suits and dunked into the water, simply basking in the sun.
“This feels so nice,” Mark said, his worries feeling as if they were being washed away with each gentle wave that hit them and the landing capsule. The only complaint he had about the reentry was as soon as they hit the troposphere, the whole room had glowed and changed. The beds shifted into an upright position and closer together as the room shrunk, giving him whole new respect for sardines since he was squished between Fireball and Starlight. “Reminds me so much of long summer days spent at the beach and wasting the day away.”
“Considering how the last two years of our lives were spent, screw protocol.” Cherry Berry said, visions of cherries dancing in her head as she watched a few clouds lazily drift above them before looking at her crewmates. “If anypony is going to take the heat for us not waiting in the capsule, I will take full responsibility.”
“You know we won't let you do that bossmare,” Dragonfly said, giggling as the water flowed through the holes in her legs and hooves. “You didn't hear any of us try to talk you out of it, right? We're all to blame. So there."
“Fine,” Cherry grumbled, then her whole demeanor changed as she looked back up to the sky. “Hard to believe that a simple mission took such a drastic turn, but you know what? Even with the trails we faced, I wouldn't trade it for anything.”
“Same here,” Starlight said, a small smile threatening to cross her face. “I mean, we all learned how to do without magic. That really puts things in perspective, you know? This whole planet is full of magic, full of life, and having to do without it shows just how much we take everything for granted.”
“Just like my ability to fly,” Spitfire said, doing an inspection on her primary feathers as the urge to take off continued to build. She knew that she couldn't in her current state, but the urge was there nonetheless. “Being grounded left me feeling… helpless. Ever since I was a filly I strived to be a leader, a strong mare others could look up to and be a good role model to those ponies. Being grounded for so long gave me a whole new level of respect for Earth Ponies. That being said, I see now
why you wanted to fly so badly Cherry, it is a feeling of being free since you can't fly on your own.”
“I think we all grew together as well,” Fireball said, stopping Cherry from repeating one of her most famous, trademarked answers. “We became closer than we were when we left Equus, and triumphed over every challenge we faced.”
“We also picked up a new friend,” Dragonfly said, smiling at Mark as she swam over to him. “He taught us how to use new technology, a new language, and helped keep us alive by sharing his food supply. Even with me having to use… ‘methods’ I'm not proud of, I wouldn't trade him for anything in either world.”
“That sounds… slightly romantic.” Starlight said, causing Dragonfly to turn a lovely shade of crimson. “Do you love Mark?”
“What?!?!” Both Mark and Dragonfly said, the human now having the same shade as Dragonfly's cheeks. They opened their mouths at the same time, but Dragonfly was quicker to speak up. “Me? Love Mark? You can't be serious Starlight! He is a monkey, a well trained one but still a monkey!”
“Oh come on,” Mark said, a grin crawling across his face like a spider on a web. “There is no need to be so cruel. You are a lovebug, and lovebugs have to love, so I can tell you love me.”
"He has a point," Starlight smirked, giving Dragonfly a light boop on the snoot. "So I guess I am right."
“I love lots of things!” Dragonfly said, now desperately trying to crawl her way out of the situation she was cornered in. “I love Sojourner. I love My Queen. I love playing Pink Mare. I love the sun shining down on us right now, and I absolutely adore Personal Space Invader. However, if you think I love Mark, you can take that idea and shove it up your-”
“Careful Dragonfly, denial is a dangerous emotion to let loose." Dragonfly froze as Chrysalis’ voice caused each of the crew, even Mark, to gulp as they turned their heads. The changeling queen looked at them with an unnerving grin from atop the capsule, clearly enjoying the scene in front of her. “Under normal circumstances, each of your hides would be in hot water for climbing out the capsule and not waiting for the ship, but these are less than normal circumstances now aren't they?”
“How are you even here?” Mark asked, lifting himself halfway out the water by using the capsule door as leverage. “When we hit the lower atmosphere, the room shrank, and I don't see Twilight or any other drones anywhere either.”
“Twilight and a select few, including Lucky Cricket and Fiberus, are in a separate capsule about a kilometer and a half from here,” Chrysalis said, motioning in a vague south-southwest direction with a hoof. “It was unanimous agreement that I come and check on you, and to see how Twilight's developmental capsule design held up. Judging by the looks of things, everything was a success.
The capsule itself is safe to land, considering that the Concordia is such an impressive feat of engineering that it is to stay in space. The capsule has sensors on the outside of the hull, and once above a certain altitude, it expands into a full-sized environment that has thrusters to help guide it back to the Condcordia docking bay. Although I suggest you hurry up and get back inside, I see the recovery ship approaching on the horizon.”
Looking in the same direction as Chrysalis, the crew members saw the vague outline of a ship approaching, growing bigger with each passing second. Scrambling up the ladder and back into their seats, they waited patiently for rescue and to finally be back on fertile soil. Chrysalis, who was standing outside the now-closed capsule, brought magic into her horn and each astronaut could feel themselves now being fully dry and no longer smelling of salt water as Chrysalis teleported away.
“That was nice of her,” Mark said, being caught off guard as he felt the capsule shift, a bright emerald green glow filling each window as they were hoisted on board. “Dragonfly, is she normally this kind, or is it because she sees herself gaining something as a result?”
“My Queen is playing nice, and I think I know what it is,” Dragonfly said, an unreadable hint of something being weaved into her tone like a silky spider web. “Treating you well makes her look good. Working with Twilight does the same thing. No offense to bossmare, Starlight, or Spitfire, but a vast majority of ponies are stupid in regard that they can't see it even though it is right in their muzzles.”
A quick dismissive “none taken” gesture of the three ponies’ hooves prompted Dragonfly to continue. “Don’t be surprised if you get constantly asked the same questions over and over by the press, not only about yourself but also how you are being treated.”
“I'm not worrying about it Dragonfly,” Mark said, the capsule now sitting on the deck of a large barge, dozens of reporters with cameras furiously recording and taking pictures. “Besides, you're home.”
The cave song, with each of who had sung it had collectively named ‘Home’, fired back to life and as it did the magic overtook them once more to raise their voices to the heavens with a different tune.
“Home is where the heart is,” Mark began, a smile forming on his face. “And it is so easy to miss...”
“Yet you're always home,” Dragonfly chimed in. “When you're with family and friends…”
Starlight was the next to add to the verse as the magic guided her. “Our journey has taken us to places far, met new friends and raised the bar.”
Spitfire was next. “Now we spread our wings…”
Cherry Berry used it as her cue, in the processes cutting off Starlight. “Grow new things…”
Fireball's voice added some deep bass, strengthening the flow between the astronauts. “Learn new trades, and dodge Death’s blades… We have had to take each Sol in stride but after all this time..”
“We are home, we are home!
No longer, will we roam!
We are home… we are home!”
Starlight. “Our journey has taken us to places far, and seen things quite bizarre…”
(“We are home…”)
Cherry. “The magic of life, the rules we bent, to survive that hellish planet…”
(“We are home…”)
Fireball. *Learned to drive a cool rover, with lots of ground to cover…”
(“We are home..”)
Spitfire. “With a magic battery on my back, the fearsome storm was attacked.”
(“We are home…”)
Dragonfly. “Through all the adventure and all the thrill, there was still one thirst we had to fill. Tired, sore, weak, and weary, we still had our mission to carry. Our fortunes could’ve changed on the drop of a dime, but after all this time…”
“We are home… we are home!
No longer, will we roam!
We are home… we are home!”
Mark. “It feels so good to finally be free, with that burden gone from me.”
(“We are home…”)
Mark. “I still have another leg ahead, then I can put this adventure to bed...”
(“We are home…”)
Mark. “There is still much to learn, things to do. Places to discover and trials to get through. However, none of that matters at the end of the day, because when it's done I can say…”
“We are home… we are home!
No longer, will we roam!
We are home… we are home!”
(Oh-oh-oh)
“We are home… we are home!
No longer, will we roam!
We are home… we are home!”
“We are home… we are home
We are home… we are home”
The magic started to fade from the six astronauts, but it still had a profound effect on those who were standing on the ship deck. Each changelings’ chitin had a waxed sheen, their wings sparkling like the finest gems. As for the ponies who were recording on their television cameras, a joyous sensation that lifted up their spirits filled their bodies to the core like a perfect jubilee. Ponies and changelings, even those watching from their homes, stomped their hooves in thundering applause.
“Welcome home,” A changeling, wearing a spotless white vest that was as pure as snow, said, waving at the astronauts inside the capsule. “And as for you Mark, welcome to Equus, my name is Occupant and am the Flight Controller for the Changeling Space Program. Once you all clear quarantine, I am going to have personal arrangements made to make sure your time here is as joyous as possible.”
“Occupant?” Mark said, raising his eyebrow in a questionable manner. “No offense, but that sounds more like a job than a name. Are you related to Dragonfly by any chance?”
“I am!” Occupant said, a grin on his face that Mark found goody due to the drone’s bucktoothed fangs. “Everybuggy in the hive is related, considering My Queen laid us. She can be a bit of a demanding mother at times with that she asks us to do, but beneath that hard shell she loves us all. As for my name, I love to work, and I'm My Queen's personal letter ling in addition to Flight Controller.”
“How long before we reach the shore?” Spitfire said, nosing her way to the window. “I want to get out and fly around the skies a bit.”
“You can once your quarantine is over,” Occupant said, avoiding the rock-hard glare Spitfire was giving him. “As for how long, it will be about thirty minutes. Another recovery ship, led by Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and von Brawn, are going to pick up the other capsule and return with them later. Right now, the top priority is for you to get in full quarantine as fast as possible.”
Different species have different needs. It was well known that ponies were mainly herbivores, dragons were mineravores, griffins were carnivores, and changelings were emotivores. Mark, being a human and omnivore, had a vastly different system, but the basic fundamentals were the same. The skeletal system formed the body's form, muscles and organs kept the body alive, and the immune system kept the invaders at bay.
Unfortunately, for each astronaut, the last was fighting a full-scale biological war.
Nearly two years of wallowing in each other's filth (literally) to keep the soil well fertilized for their precious cave farm had exposed their bodies to numerous bacteria and viruses. The low gravity on Mars had been their only safety net, due to their metabolisms and bodies undergoing severe atrophy from being in those conditions for so long, and their immune systems had no ability to do more than contain the worst of the spreading invaders, unnoticed due to them not posing any harm.
Happenchance the changeling threw a monkey wrench in the state of things. She was one of, and some in both the Changeling Space Program and Equestrian Space Agency claimed the best, maids that the Horseton center had. She loved her position, and when Chrysalis offered her to join along in making the rescued astronauts’ beds, the young drone couldn't stop chirping for joy. The day before takeoff for the Concordia, however, she had caught a strain of cold that had no trouble passing between Eques species.
Against her better judgment, she hid the fact she was sick from Chrysalis, and set about doing the task she had been brought along for. All went well, mainly due to her being isolated from everyone else on board, but it unraveled due to a tiny sneeze while changing the linens during the astronauts’ dinner time. The minuscule droplets carried the virus into the air and soon had entered each of the astronauts. At the time, still above the atmosphere, their immune systems tried to fight but still could not get the upper hand.
Now back in sustained full gravity, their immune systems finally seized a chance to eradicate the virus. Ramping up production of white blood cells and antibodies to track down and eliminate this threat had unfortunate side effects: their temperatures spiked as their bodies grew weaker.
What complicated matters, in Mark's unique case, was that during those brief periods of time being exposed to the magic field generator small traces remained locked in his fat deposits. With the cold being Equus in origin, if he had not been exposed then he would have been fine, but the invaders detected the magic as they continued their assault and interpreted Mark as being an Equusite himself.
So, as the shore came into view, the astronauts had no idea their day was about to be flipped on its head.
It was late evening by the time the ship containing Queen Chrysalis and Twilight returned to the Horseton Space Center. Both were exhausted, and the lack of a proper meal all day combined with slightly rough seas had both in no mood to deal with surprises. However, after a quick decontamination shower and clean bill of health, they found one in the conference room. Sitting at the table were several ponies, and a lone changeling, that they had not expected to see again.
“Welcome back,” Inquisitor Sparkle said, motioning to the two empty seats opposite her and the rest of the visitors. “First of all, congratulations on the rescue and recovery, the knowledge learned will vastly improve our own protocols back in my dimension. However, the point of our visit is something else entirely, and it deals with the Sparkle Drive.”
“The Sparkle Drive?” Twilight said, her and Chrysalis taking their seats as confusion took over both of them. “What about it? I haven't had the chance to extract the data from it, let alone analyze it.”
“Ah, but that is the thing about it,” Nightmare Moon said, giving Twilight a slight grin that had meaning only the two of them knew, one that Twilight loved. “We took the liberty to look over the footage taken from the Angel 18 probe while we were waiting for you to return, and found something astonishing. The calculated speed the Phoenix was traveling after launching off Mars was FTL…”
“FTL…” Chrysalis stammered, her own wide-eyed expression matching Twilight's. “That means…”
“Faster than light...” Twilight said, finishing Chrysalis’ sentence. A few, silent seconds passed that only the sound of the wall clock interrupted, until everything wrapped itself like a nice Hearth's Warming bow and snapped Twilight out her stupor. “Wait for a second, how could you have reviewed the footage? We were only in space for a few days before jumping to rescue them, and you all weren't here when we left.”
“We arrived the day after you left, unknowingly of course, in hopes that we give a status update on our own space races.” Chrysalis the Jungle Queen said, leaning back in her chair. “Seeing as we had nothing else to do, it was decided that we were going to stay and watch. As soon as the full scale of the signal came through, Inquisitor Sparkle started doing the math on just how fast they were going.”
“I couldn't believe it at first,” Inquisitor Sparkle said, pushing a sheet of calculations across the table for Twilight to look over. “But after five times checking it verifies. For that, I say congratulations, and that you should receive a nice payday once it is officialized. The fact the Sparkle Drive can achieve such speeds will vastly improve the reach for the stars.”
“There is one problem though,” Sunset Shimmer, who was sitting in the corner while chewing on a haystalk, said as she got up. Adjusting her jacket, modified to fit as a unicorn, she trotted over with a poise that carried a sense of warning. “Each universe, including my own, loves space. I don't know the specifics of this rescue mission, nor do I want to know them since I just came to the deliver the probe that dropped in my Fluttershy's backyard, but if what you say is true then there are implications.
There is a saying in my universe, and it applies here. It goes ‘as technology advances, the world gets smaller.’ Let's say the Sparkle Drive does go FTL, but what does that mean for Princess Luna, or even you Nightmare Moon? The vastness of space that you two cherish will become significantly less vast. What would take multiple lifetimes, and several stasis, to get to could be reached in a few years.”
“Noted point,” Nightmare said, having a strange peacefulness on her face that none of them were expecting. “It does make it smaller, but even I can't see the outermost edges of my grand sky. So, it does take away some of the awe and splendor, but it also fuels the sense of adventure. The adventure, little pony, far outweighs the other factors. She might not admit it, but during several talks with this world's Luna, I could tell she shares the same idea I have.”
“I will believe it when I see it.” Chrysalis dryly answered. “Considering she threw a fit about us doing a flyby without permission, I doubt that she has that mindset.”
“Tell me something,” Nightmare Moon said, her slitted pupils glaring daggers into Chrysalis’ own. “If somepony walked into your hive and into your throne room, without permission, and started doing as they pleased would you throw a fit?”
Chrysalis, remembering the very first time that Cherry Berry came to the hive, said nothing. However, reflecting back on the moment the changeling way of life was turned on its head, she would consider Cherry Berry a friend if she was into the pony way of bonding. The fact she considered it bothered her, but she decided that was for another time.
“Wise answer,” Nightmare said, bringing Chrysalis out her reflection as she laid down a blueprint. “Now, can you please help me understand why my subjects laughed when I told my engineers I wanted this built?”
One by one, each mare looked at the blueprints, and after looking at them the same gut-wrenching laughter came out their muzzles.
“W-what is that?!” Chrysalis the Jungle Queen asked, using the table to help keep her upright. “You wanted them to build a moon that looks like a disco ball? What purpose could that possibly be used for other than throwing the world's largest disco party?”
“It is not a disco ball, and it is not a moon.” Nightmare fumed, a spell daring to be let loose from her horn. “It is a space station, and I like the look since it is inspired by my moon.”
“Calm down girls,” Twilight said, her own giggles starting to subside. “We all have different tastes, and if that is her’s then we can't judge her creativity. The last thing we need right now is a magic fight when there are astronauts in quarantine.”
“It seems that I arrived at the right time then,” Fiberus said, entering the room with a ragged step caused from exhaustion. “The others on the medic team are in a full-blown panic right now because of the fact all six astronauts are currently running a fever and sneezing. Oh, and Skip Town is in the ICU for burns caused by Fireball sneezing on him and burning through his suit.”
“He deserves that,” Chrysalis grumbled, nopony daring to ask what the poor drone did to deserve such horrible pain. “Just pump him full of morphine and ship him back to the hive to recover. As for the astronauts, how did they get so sick so fast? Do you think that one of them was sick and it finally metabolized?”
“I highly doubt that, My Queen,” Fiberus said, taking the liberty to sit in the chair Twilight had vacated. “Tests show they have a nasty strain of the common cold, but it is a specific strain that can easily jump between species. Makes me wonder if anybuggy onboard the Concordia was sick when we picked them up.”
“That's impossible,” Chrysalis said, staring down the poor doctor who was shaking in his seat under the intense glare. “Especially since all transfers are checked on a weekly basis before and during the mission.”
“Unless the culprit got sick after the checkup, and hid the fact they were sick before liftoff,” Fiberus said, his pupiless eyes widening as the pieces started to fall into place. “Wait, who all had access to the medical pod while we were in space besides me?”
“It was a very select list,” Chrysalis said, anger starting to boil as she realized who the culprit was. “The only one besides you, me, Twilight, and Lucky was Happenchance. Do you know where she is now?”
“She is still in space Chrysalis,” Twilight said, her own anger threatening to take control. “Remember, it was decided after we met back in your office that she come back next week on the next transfer shuttle.”
“This is bad, very, very bad,” Fiberus said, looking between the two rulers while mentally figuring who he would be safer going against. “Not only for her own well being, but also the entire Concordia crew. In addition, I’m going to give you both a daily antibiotic just to be on the safe side. You both passed your physicals, but that doesn't mean something won't come up in a few days.”
“Damn that blasted drone,” Chrysalis fumed, storming for the doorway. “I am going to make sure she pays for her foolishness!”
“If she doesn't, I get the scraps if she lets me,” Twilight said, Sunset holding the alicorn back as she attempted to calm down. It took several long, tense minutes, but Twilight finally managed to get her temper back under control. “Now, if you all will excuse me, I got a press conference to prepare for that not only will change the space race, but also the exploration of the stars.”
Without another moment of thought, Twilight teleported away.