The Next Morning …
As Chase’s senses started to come back, he could hear something beeping and he felt something in his mouth. When he opened his eyes, he saw that he was lying on his back in what seemed to be a hospital bed. To his left was a heart monitor and a breathing apparatus. When his eyes followed the hose from the respirator, he realized it ran to his mouth. He also spotted wires running from the heart monitor to electrodes on his chest. He also felt something wrapped around his head and figured it was bandages, and he saw that his sprained paw was splinted. When the nurse came in a few minutes later, Chase spoke to her after the breathing tube was removed.
“Where am I?”, he asked.
The nurse was quick to respond.
“You’re in a hospital, recovering from injuries you sustained last night. I will inform the one who brought you in that you’re awake.”, she said.
Ten minutes later, Twilight showed up as Chase was being checked out.
“Chase, I’m glad to see you’re awake.”, she said.
“How did you know my name?”, Chase asked in shock.
“You were wearing a nametag when I found you outside my castle’s doors last night.”, replied Twilight.
Chase slapped himself in the face for forgetting that. Nevertheless, he followed Twilight to her castle so he could explain who he was and what was going on.
It was late in the evening when Twilight assembled her friends to hear Chase’s story. After Chase had explained who he was and about the PAW Patrol as a whole, Twilight and her friends were amazed. When he was explaining how he and the other pups, along with Ryder, had gotten to Equus, everyone perked up their ears.
“Wait, back up! DID YOU SAY YOU WERE CHASED HERE AND SHOT DOWN?”, shrieked Fluttershy.
Shaking nervously, Chase nodded his head. For a moment, the room was silent. Then Twilight finally spoke up.
“Goodness gracious! We will help you find your fellow pups and then we will team up with you to save Ryder.”, she said.
Chase was overwhelmed to hear this. Twilight and Flurry Heart were ready to go two hours later. They boarded a rescue helicopter and took off to search for the rest of the pups.
**
Skye and the rest of the pups had touched down in the Galloping Gorge. They had exited their escape pods and made a small base camp. Unlike Chase, they only had the bruises from being banged around during atmospheric entry. Rocky had the brilliant idea to transmit Morse Code by removing the tracking antenna from his pod and attaching it to Marshall’s suit radio. Marshall’s radio was the only one aside from Chase’s that did not get smashed during reentry, so it was fully intact except for the microphone having been ripped off. This meant they heard Chase call out to them the night before, but they could not respond.
**
Prior to takeoff, Twilight gave Chase a pair of night-vision goggles so he could search for anything regarding his comrades’ whereabouts. As the helicopter flew over Equestria, Chase looked back and forth and zoomed in and out multiple times to keep an eye out for any signs. Unfortunately, it was too dark to see anything, even with the goggles on. Flurry was keeping an ear to the radio in case the pups were trying to call out for help. As they flew over the Galloping Gorge, she heard a high-pitched noise that was painful to hear through her headphones. Screaming in pain, she took off her headset to let her ears readjust.
“What’s the matter?”, asked Chase.
“I was hearing a high-pitched sound that hurt my ears.”, Flurry replied.
“Try putting it on speakers. That might be better.”, said Chase.
Flurry said that was a good idea and unhooked her headset to allow the sounds to play directly. Chase heard four sets of beeps. They were as follows: short-short-short-short, short, short-long-short-short, and then short-long-long-short. He listened to the sequence twice and then realized what he was hearing before pulling out a Morse Code chart.
“That’s Morse Code, a series of short and long pulses we learned about a while back. Centuries ago, it was used for communication. They’re transmitting the word HELP.”, he explained.
Flurry put her headset back on and called out on all frequencies to alert the pups that they were receiving the SOS.
“We are receiving you. Please shine a light to indicate your position so we can pick you up.”, she said.
Skye and the other pups heard Flurry’s voice and began cheering. Then Liberty pulled out a signal flare from her pup-pack and lit it.
Chase spotted the bright glow from the flare and hollered to Twilight.
“They’re right below us!”, he crowed.
Twilight turned on the helicopter’s spotlight and shone it straight down onto the pups. Then, Chase took off the night-vision goggles and got into the helicopter’s rescue basket. After putting on a safety harness to avoid falling out, he nodded to Flurry and she pressed the button to lower him. When Chase reached the ground, all of the pups quickly gave him a hug as they climbed into the basket.
“Bring us up.”, he said over headset to Flurry.
Once he and the other pups were hoisted up and on the helicopter, Twilight flew back to Ponyville and led them to her castle where they would stay until they could get their ship fixed.
After the pups had gotten their vehicles back, everyone started searching for Ryder’s tracking signal on radar. Tracker soon found his signal in the Badlands, but it was very weak. Twilight suggested carrying out the rescue at night so that heat would not be an issue. Chase and Marshall agreed to this and boarded Skye’s helicopter that evening. After Skye took off, they flew to pick Ryder up.
Arriving in the area, Chase turned on his spotlight and immediately saw Ryder. He was lying face-down on the ground with his parachutes out behind him. When Skye touched down, Chase and Marshall rushed over to Ryder and started checking for injuries. Marshall’s x-ray lens revealed something that worried both him and Chase. Ryder’s right shoulder was dislocated, his left ankle was sprained, he had suffered from whiplash, and he had a minor bruise on his forehead. Skye brought a gurney over and helped Chase and Marshall lift Ryder up so he could be put in. Once Ryder was strapped in the gurney, Chase bandaged his forehead and Marshall splinted Ryder’s arm after pushing his shoulder back into position. Then, Chase helped Marshall put an orthopedic shoe on Ryder’s left foot to hold his ankle still, and to put a c-collar around his neck to brace his head.
After Ryder was on-board the helicopter, Skye took to the air and flew back to Twilight’s castle. When Ryder woke up the next morning, he saw the splint on his arm and felt the tight gauze on his head. He also felt a c-collar around his neck, which gave him a startle. He started trying to take off the collar, but then he heard someone yell out.
“RYDER, STOP! YOU WERE SWOLLEN LAST NIGHT!”
Looking to his left, Ryder saw that Chase was sitting next to him, and he quickly calmed down.
Twenty minutes later, Marshall came in and examined Ryder’s injuries with his x-ray lens.
“Your arm and your ankle are still healing, but the damage could have been worse.”, he said as he removed the c-collar.
“Chase, you said I was swollen when I tried to take off the collar. What did you mean by that?”, Ryder asked Chase.
“You’d suffered from whiplash. We put the collar on you to keep your neck still.”, Chase explained.
“Chase will lead you to the one who rescued us.”, said Marshall.
Since Ryder only had one hand free, standing up was tricky, so Marshall pulled a table over for Ryder to push himself up with. After getting up, Ryder followed Chase to the throne room and met Twilight who told him what had happened and where he was.
“My name’s Twilight Sparkle. You’re on the planet Equus. We were told that you were shot down after being chased by someone.”, she said.
“That’s correct, Twilight. I would rather tell you the whole story once our ship is fully repaired. Other than that, I’m glad we survived the crash.”, Ryder replied.
“I’m glad too. Once your ship is fully repaired, I hope to learn from you about where you are from.”, Twilight replied.
Ryder’s arm and ankle were healed after only three days, because Twilight had given him an accelerated healing serum. Twilight and her friends began helping Ryder and the pups repair the PAW Patroller so they could get home when the time was right. She advised that they not launch straight after the repairs because Thorax had been tracking a meteor shower for the past week. As the repairs took place, Twilight and her friends also trained Ryder and the pups on how to defend themselves in space and how to fly individual ships. When the PAW Patroller’s radio was repaired, Ryder sent a written message to secretly inform Tuck, Ella, and the Cat Pack that they were still alive. Twilight also reminded Ryder to wait before launching, since the meteor shower was coming any day now.
Two weeks into the repairs, Twilight got a call from Thorax. He had spotted YET ANOTHER starship in orbit, and it was damaged from a solar flare. The crew was calling for help.