//------------------------------// // Unexpected Company // Story: Equus' Unexpected Future // by Robert Emerald Fountain //------------------------------// Four weeks after the modernization was finished, everything was running like clockwork. Late one evening, Twilight had taken her friends, Flurry Heart, and the Young Six to go stargazing on a hill at the edge of Ponyville. As they were looking up at all of the constellations, they got a call from Thorax on the communications space station. “Twilight, this is Thorax. I have spotted two starships appearing in orbit. One is badly damaged and is already entering the atmosphere. The ship’s tracking signal says it is not the Inkstar, so that means it is not the Squid Sisters and their children. The other ship seems to have been shooting at it but it did not shoot at me. That second ship had put out a scanning wave a minute ago and is now leaving the area. Keep an eye out for the first ship to see if you are able to spot it.”, he said. Twilight acknowledged the message and sent word to Celestia and Luna via radio. Minutes later, Luna saw what looked like a shooting star, but a closer look through binoculars revealed this was the ship that Thorax had seen. The Main Six tracked it to Froggy Bottom Bog where it touched down and skidded to a halt. The engines were still red-hot, which resulted in fires being started. Rainbow Dash rushed to Cloudsdale to inform Spitfire that several rain clouds were needed to put out a large fire. Once the rain clouds had been taken to the crash site and the fire was extinguished, Twilight and her friends began searching the ship for survivors. They found no-one on board, but they did notice that all of the ship’s escape pods had been jettisoned. In one part of the ship, they found eleven vehicles which they promptly extracted and moved to a secure area for storage. They had also seen a red-white-and blue symbol that consisted of a badge and what looked like a paw print on the ship’s exterior, but didn’t know what to make of it. Flurry Heart had taken a recording of the ship as it came down from the sky and played it back slowly to look for the pods, but there was too much fire around the ship to see which way the pods had gone when they were released. However, Twilight wondered if the pods were jettisoned before Flurry started recording. Unknown to Twilight and her friends; one of the crew’s members had landed in the Everfree Forest. ** Millions of miles away, on a planet similar to Equus, there existed a group of rescue-trained dogs, called the PAW Patrol. Ryder, the group’s ten-year-old leader, and most of the pups had recently finished a massive rescue mission and were getting ready for bed. However, their biggest enemy, Mayor Humdinger, had been spotted acting suspiciously two days ago with his kittens and his nephew Harold. In the event that they would need to escape, Ryder had sent the Patrol’s largest vehicle, the PAW Patroller, to a giant barge in the ocean that they had built six months ago in order to launch into space for newer missions that took place in zero-gravity. They had trained for these missions by going underwater. By now, they had already carried out four successful space missions. Ryder was about to lay down when the alarm system at the Lookout began to BLARE! “WHAT NOW?”, asked Chase with an annoyed growl as the loudly screaming alarm woke him up along with the other pups. Ryder looked at the computer screen and immediately became hysterical. “RED ALERT! Pups, get in space suits and hustle to the launch barge transport, NOW!”, he cried over the intercom as he sent a signal to transform the Paw Patroller into its space mode. In a FLASH, all of the pups began rushing to get into their space suits. Rex did not need any help getting into his suit. To begin with, he was a paraplegic, but now he could walk without assistance. This was because he’d recently had surgery to restore his hind legs. “Ryder, what’s happening?”, yelped Marshall when Ryder came running down the stairs as he finished locking the right glove on his suit. “We’ve got to get out of here. Humdinger is charging towards the Lookout. A scan indicates that he is heavily armed and may be trying to kill us.”, said Ryder in a shaky voice. This startled all of the pups at the Lookout and they started moving faster to get suited up. Once they had all confirmed that they were secure, they got on an elevator that would take them underground to the transport car. After boarding, they got a call from Tuck and Ella. “Ryder, Humdinger is firing on the Lookout. From what we can see through our binoculars, he’s got MISSILES!”, they shrieked. “LET’S GO!”, yelled Ryder as they heard the blasts overhead. As the ceiling began to crack under the rubble’s immense weight, Ryder hit the switch to engage the transport car’s rocket engine. As the car began speeding down the track, the pups saw on a video feed as the wreckage from Humdinger’s attack on the Lookout came crashing to the ground. This made them burst into tears for a moment, but they quickly refocused on escaping the evil mayor. Little did they know that Humdinger had seen the transport’s headlights go speeding through the underwater portion of the tunnel that led to the launch barge. “Harold, track those lights with your binoculars and find out where they are going.”, he said with a snarl. “Uncle, they are headed for a structure in the ocean, and it seems the PAW Patroller is standing upright on the top platform as if ready to blast into space.”, Harold quickly replied. “Not on my watch.”, Humdinger replied angrily as he transformed the vehicle into its jet form. After boarding the PAW Patroller; everyone started the launch sequence. Ryder was about to begin the countdown when Skye stopped him. “I have a red light. Give me a second to check it out.”, she said. Just then, Wild Cat appeared on one of her monitors. “Skye, you don’t have a second to spare! Humdinger is headed your way as I speak! We just saw him transform his vehicle into a jet and take off!”, he mewed in a panicked voice. “I can confirm that, Wild Cat!”, yelled Chase as he spotted Humdinger’s signal on the radar. As Humdinger flew closer to the launch barge, he lined up a targeting reticle with one of the support legs in order to launch a missile designed to create a seismic shock. Harold pulled the trigger and the missile fired off. The missile detonated when it struck the support leg and the barge’s lights were shorted out by the shockwave. At the same time, the shockwave weakened the ocean floor under the barge. Humdinger, Harold, and the kittens began laughing maniacally when the shockwave was released and the barge began to sink. “Skye, what’s taking so long? We’ve got to get out of here!”, screeched Liberty desperately as the Paw Patroller began to lean backwards and to the left. “Liberty, we went over the systems for the space mode TWELVE TIMES with a fine-bristled brush prior to the first space mission. If there are any problems with the launch, we could end up a fireball.”, Skye said in a state of worry. “Skye, Liberty is correct. WE’RE SINKING! If we don’t launch in the next thirty seconds, we’re DEFINITELY going to be a fireball.”, said Rocky as he looked at his screen and examined the seafloor’s integrity decreasing. “Here he comes again. He’s charging up a second weapon and is aiming STRAIGHT at us! Everest, can you blind him long enough for us to take off?”, shrieked Chase. “I’m on it.”, said Everest as she activated one of the barge’s automated defense turrets. The turret locked in on Humdinger’s jet and sprayed a mist of icy vapor that covered the main windshield in frost. Humdinger immediately started flying in another direction to avoid crashing, which bought the pups the time they needed. Seconds later, one of the PAW Patroller’s bracing arms became overstrained and broke off. “WE’RE TILTING! 10 degrees off axis and climbing fast.”, said Tracker. “ALL CLEAR! It was just the indicator light on the fuel pumps. Must've burned out again.”, Skye said in relief as the red light turned green. “RYDER, PUNCH IT!”, yelled Chase. “HERE WE GO!”, said Ryder as he slammed the launch button to ignite the engines. The engines fired off and propelled the PAW Patroller upward from the launchpad right in the nick of time. Had Ryder been any slower, the engines would have been too close to the water to fire successfully. Humdinger had just finished defrosting his windshield as the PAW Patroller ascended into the night sky and the barge continued sinking to its watery grave. “Argh!!”, he shouted. “No!”, growled Harold. Once the PAW Patroller had broken through gravity and gotten into space, Ryder engaged the artificial gravity and started scanning for a place to hide from Humdinger so they could sneak back at a later time. He found a planet with a similar atmosphere and set a course to go there. However, after going to warp speed, Chase picked up Humdinger’s radar signal again and remembered when they found out he had a space form as well. “Ryder, he’s transformed his ship and is chasing us. We need to raise our shields!”, he wailed. Before Ryder could put up the shields, Humdinger opened fire and took out the warp engines along with both of the ship’s wings. The PAW Patroller was left spinning out of control near the planet and her orbit was rapidly decaying. When Ryder looked at the ship’s status, his heart sank. They were caught in the planet’s gravity and unable to get high enough to avoid falling. “ABANDON SHIP!”, he shouted. He and the pups ran to their escape pods as the PAW Patroller started to begin atmospheric entry. Since the ship was spinning, the pods initially went in different directions, but most of them soon got together in a group. Chase and Ryder’s pods were delayed because the ship was spinning too fast. They ended up getting hit by shrapnel, which led to them getting separated from everyone else. The damage also led Chase’s pod to open up early after he had cleared the hottest phase of reentry. He got ejected, and his pup-pack’s parachute deployed to slow his descent; but he was out cold from the massive amount of g-force. Ryder did not pass out during reentry, but he was thrust forward so hard that he felt as if his neck had caught fire. As his pod glided to the ground, he got worried about landing in rough forest. So he popped open his hatch and clipped his parachute’s rip-cord to the door. Unfortunately, as he jumped, his helmet fell off as he glided over the trees and into a desert area. His right arm hit a ledge, and pain shot through him like lightning. “No pain, no gain.”, he said to himself with a groan. Seconds later, he hit his head on another ledge and everything went black. Then, Harold and his uncle put out a scanning wave to see if Ryder and the pups had survived. “Looks like they’re dead. My scanners aren’t picking up their life signals.”, said Humdinger as he ran the wave. He and Harold cackled in an evil tone as they left, thinking they had succeeded in getting rid of the PAW Patrol. Little did he and his nephew realize that they were wrong. During the atmospheric entry, everyone got banged around inside their pods which damaged their bio-monitors and shorted them out, tricking Humdinger into THINKING they were all dead. The empty ship glided to the ground and touched down in a muddy area. Fires broke out from the intense heat, but a rainstorm passed through and put the fires out. Miraculously, neither the pups’ personal vehicles, nor Ryder’s ATV, were damaged or destroyed in the crash. When Chase regained consciousness an hour and a half later, he was hanging from a tree. His parachute was tangled in the branches and he was 7 feet off the ground. He barked to disconnect his pup-pack in order to free himself, and then he fell to the ground. Unfortunately, his front right paw landed sideways and got sprained. Limping through the woods, Chase headed towards the lights in what appeared to be a town. It was the middle of the night, so he had his flashlight turned on. He tripped over an exposed tree root and landed on his face, which resulted in him getting a nosebleed and a nasty bruise on his forehead. Nevertheless, he continued running until he emerged from the forest. Since his suit’s GPS was damaged, he didn’t know where he was. “Ryder, this is Chase. Do you copy?”, he asked after switching on his radio. He got nothing but static. “Skye? Rubble? Marshall? Anyone?”, he asked out of desperation as tears came to his eyes. Still, he only got static. “DRAT! My radio’s out! I’d better find someone who can help me.”, he said to himself as he began to cry. Spotting what looked like a castle, he broke into a sprint. As he reached the doors, he began to feel lightheaded from dehydration. Once he reached the doors, he was dizzy and near the point of passing out. He reached up and knocked weakly on the door before everything turned completely black. ** Twilight was asleep in her room when Spike ran in. “Twilight, wake up. Someone just knocked on the door.”, he whispered. Twilight got up, put on her robe, and walked sleepily to her castle’s front doors. Opening the door, she saw a German Shepherd dog lying unconscious in front of her. “Poor thing.”, said Twilight as she pulled the dog inside. Rolling the dog on its back, she saw a nametag that said Chase. She saw the bruise on Chase’s forehead and his bloody nose, which caused her to realize that she needed to get him to the hospital. Taking off her robe and spreading her wings, she scooped Chase up and flew to the Ponyville Hospital. Chase was admitted at once. The doctors hooked him up to a heart monitor, put a breathing tube down his throat, started an intravenous line to give him fluids, stopped his nosebleed with ice, and bandaged his head and his paw. Twilight hoped that she could get answers by morning about who he was. She also noticed that Chase had the same paw print symbol on part of his suit, so she hoped he could shed some light on the ship that she and her friends had seen earlier.