The New Era for Equus

by Robert Emerald Fountain

Attack of the Draconians

Over the following year, Equus kept a constant eye out for trouble to determine whether the Draconians were approaching their area, but they never picked up the signals on radar.

On Earth that winter in Inkopolis and Splatsville, it was the day before Squidmas, the most exciting holiday. Callie and Marie had arranged for their family to get together at Callie’s house. They were both excited to see each other’s parents again and their kids were excited to open their gifts together. They had been unable to get together the year before. This was because of schedules and since their kids had gotten sick at the time.

As they all arrived at the door, Callie and Michael greeted everyone as they came in. There were hugs and kisses for everyone, especially Lizzie and Taylor. After all of the presents were under the tree, it was time for dinner. A recent weather report had said there was the possibility of a large snowstorm that night, so Callie and Marie had decided to serve the turkey early in case of a power outage. Their parents understood and were proud that the girls were being prepared for anything unexpected. Also, Taylor’s teeth were strong enough at this point for him to eat solid food. So he was able to eat some of the turkey as well as Lizzie.

After a tasty meal, and some yuletide wishes, it was time for bed. After Lizzie and Taylor were changed and put in their pajamas, Callie and Marie tucked them in before joining Michael and Andrew. Since Lizzie and Taylor had not seen each other recently and the next day was a special holiday, Callie and Marie agreed to let their children sleep together. After Taylor and Lizzie were laid in the crib, they quickly cuddled up with each other for warmth before Callie and Marie laid the blankets over them. The Squid Sisters smiled at each other before winding up a music box with a soothing lullaby, turning off the lights and closing the door. Once everyone had laid down, they drifted off to sleep. They were excited about what their gifts would be tomorrow.

Little did anyone in Inkopolis know there was something happening that night that would shake the world. Not even the citizens in Splatsville knew what was about to happen.

**

At midnight, everyone was fast asleep when Callie, Marie, Michael, and Andrew got a rude awakening when they heard a loud high-pitched sound blaring outside over the strong wind in the snowstorm. After hearing it a second time, they realized it was the siren for an air-raid and they jumped out of bed. As they started running to the living room, the lights went out, indicating the storm had knocked out the electricity. After reaching the window and yanking back the curtains, they saw the faint outlines of aircrafts through the snow flying over the outskirts of Inkopolis and heard the sound of bombs going off. Gasping, they realized they were under attack. Without hesitating, they put on headlamps and their winter coats before rushing to wake their parents up. Their parents were sharing a room and were roused from their sleep upon hearing the door banging open.

“Girls, what’s going on?”, asked Sally in a startled voice as everyone rubbed their eyes and she took off her sleep mask.

“AIR-RAID, WE’RE BEING BOMBED!”, screamed Callie and Marie in unison.

Their parents jumped up and started running to the back door. Everyone scrambled outside and ran through the snow towards the shelter that Flurry Heart and the Young Six had built for them the year before. All of a sudden, Michael and Andrew had a terrible thought cross their minds. They realized their most precious family members were missing and they were horrified.

“WAIT, THE KIDS!”, they shrieked.

“YIKES!”, cried Sally as she threw her hands over her mouth.

“WE CAN’T LEAVE THEM!”, shrieked Michael and Jerome.

“MY GOODNESS!”, wailed Iris.

“KEEP GOING! WE’LL GET THEM!”, hollered Marie as she and Callie twirled around to run back inside.

As they ran towards the hallway, Callie heard the sound of another bomb falling. It sounded as if the bomb was going to strike across the road.

“MARIE, GET DOWN!”, shrieked Callie as she grabbed Marie by the arm and pulled her to the floor.

The bomb landed hard and the light from the blast lit up the entire room. The shockwave from the blast rattled the window and caused several of Callie and Michael’s keepsakes and family pictures to fall off of the wall and drop to the floor. After the explosion stopped, they stood back up and continued running to get their kids. In the nursery, Taylor and Lizzie had been startled awake by the loud noises from the bombs and they were scared to death. Shaking, they hugged each other tightly.

“MAMA!”, cried Taylor.

“MOMMY, HELP!”, screeched Lizzie.

Callie and Marie heard their kids’ fearful cries and threw the door open. After running into the nursery and grabbing thick warm blankets out of the dresser, they ran over to the crib, lowered the side rail, and scooped their sweet little angels up.

“We’ve got you, our angels.”, they said quietly as they wrapped the kids snugly in the blankets and rushed back outside.

The Squid Sisters were halfway to the shelter when they suddenly tripped over the tips of their slippers. Taylor and Lizzie slipped out of their arms as they fell face-first into the snow. Since the snow was fairly deep, the kids landed softly only three feet away. As Callie and Marie started to get up, they heard their babies scream. Bolting upright, they looked in the direction where the screams were coming from and saw something running into the distance.

“TAYLOR! LIZZIE!”, they shrieked as tears welled up in their eyes.

The snow was falling so heavily that they couldn’t see very far, even with their headlamps. So they continued running to the shelter. When they got inside, they only saw Michael and Andrew. They looked petrified and dizzy.

“WHERE ARE OUR PARENTS?”, asked Callie in a state of panic.

“They were taken by something. Our headlamp batteries were dying and we couldn’t see too well. Suddenly we heard what sounded like a blast of energy and a light flashed behind us. Then we heard them cry out in pain as if they’d been hit by an electrical shock. We turned around to see them go limp and collapse into the snow. Before we could drag them inside, we saw what looked like an alien grab them and then kick us backwards. We fell through the door and hit our heads on the steps.”, said Andrew shakily.

Callie and Marie burst into tears. After closing the door, they hugged their loves tightly and cried their eyes out. As their tears subsided, they waited in the shelter until morning. Exiting the shelter, they saw it was not snowing anymore and the aircrafts were long gone. Without hesitating, they hurried inside and turned on the news.

“This is a major emergency. Both Splatsville and Inkopolis have been bombed by unidentified aircrafts. An earlier call from DJ Octavio says he and some of his soldiers tried to fight off the attackers, but they all got injured. What’s worse is that our defense turrets got frozen up before last night’s snowstorm. The perimeter defense was not finished thawing them out when the storm hit, so they couldn’t shoot back.”, said Shiver.

“That explains why we didn’t see any blasts fly from the ground into the air.”, said Andrew.

Marie knew that they had to tell everyone that their parents and kids were taken.

“Callie, we need to call the news station and tell them what happened to us.”, she said.

Callie gave her a thumbs-up and ran to the phone. Seconds later, they could hear the phone ringing at the news station.

“Shiver, hang on one second. We have a caller.”, said Frye as she stepped off the camera to answer.

Moments later, Frye came running back to give the startling news she had just received.

“This just in. We’ve received a frightening phone call from the Squid Sisters. Their parents and children were captured last night during the attack.”, she shrieked.

“My goodness!”, cried Shiver as she and Big Man jumped in shock.

“Until further notice, both cities must remain on high alert until this terrible crisis has been averted. This is Deep Cut, signing off.”, said Frye.

“What are we going to do? We can’t just sit here.”, said Andrew.

“You’re right, Andrew. We need to assemble the Squidbeak Agents and track down the attackers.”, replied Callie.

Two hours later, the agents were assembled along with Pearl, Marina, Octavio, and some of his troops. They spotted three of the aircrafts approaching and immediately opened fire. They splattered tons of ink onto the aircraft in the front, but the other two were further back and out of range. Callie managed to splash some ink from her roller into the front aircraft’s engines. With the ink clogging the engines, the aircraft came crashing into the ocean. The other two aircrafts were not hit, but they realized the potential of getting brought down too. This led the pilots to make a drastic decision that they should flee.

“SERVES YOU RIGHT!”, shouted Marie crossly as the aircrafts left.

Callie and Agent 4 rode out to the crashed aircraft in a boat and towed it to land. Opening the cockpit, everyone saw that the crew had drowned after the crash. They could tell this because the window was broken and the cockpit was flooded. After pumping the water out, they started examining the crew members for any signs of who they were. The only insignia they found was a patch on the uniforms. They did not recognize this, but they knew how they could find out.

“We agreed to be possible allies with Equus last year. One of their space stations is in orbit. Why don’t we call them?”, suggested Octavio.

“That’s a good idea, Octavio.”, said Agent 3.

They quickly contacted the space station and explained everything to Daring Do. She was startled.

“We tried to take them down, but they avoided our shots. They soon got so close that they managed to hit us with an electromagnetic pulse and knock out our power. We finished getting our systems back online just twelve minutes before you called.”, she replied.

“Can you please get us a direct link to Flurry Heart? We need to tell her we need help.”, requested Marie.

“Stand by. I’ll put you on hold.”, said Daring Do as she prepared to call Equus.

**

On Equus, Hearth’s Warming Eve was only a week away when Flurry Heart received an urgent call from the space station.

“Sector Seven to Canterlot! THIS IS A CODE RED! DO YOU COPY?”, shrieked Daring Do.

“This is Queen Flurry Heart. What’s happening?”, asked Flurry.

“Callie and Marie have called for help. Earth is under attack.”, explained Daring Do.

When Flurry heard the Squid Sisters mentioned, her eyes grew large.

“PATCH ME THROUGH! NOW!”, she yelled.

Daring Do nodded and switched Flurry over to a live channel with the Squidbeak Splatoon. Callie and Marie had tears in their eyes and they looked petrified.

“Thank goodness your orbital patrol answered our call. We need your help.”, choked out Callie.

“Alright Callie, take a deep breath and tell me what happened.”, said Flurry.

Callie stopped to calm down and dry her tears, then she explained what happened the night before.

“We had gotten together with family for a winter holiday here. We were fast asleep last night when a siren blared and startled us awake at midnight. Looking out the window, we saw aircrafts through last night’s snowstorm. THEY WERE DROPPING BOMBS! Jumping out of bed, we woke up our parents and started running to our shelter when Michael and Andrew realized we had forgotten our children. We ran back inside to get them. They were scared to death, screaming for us, and crying their eyes out when we ran into their nursery to get them. After quickly wrapping them in blankets, we ran back outside to join everyone when we suddenly tripped over the tips of our slippers and fell face-first into the snow. Our sweet little angels slipped from our grasp and landed in the snow too.”, she said.

“Couldn’t you just pick Taylor and Lizzie back up and continue running to the shelter?”, asked Flurry out of confusion.

Marie shook her head.

“As we got up, we heard our babies scream as something grabbed them and took off into the darkness. The snowstorm was so heavy that we couldn’t see, even with our headlamps. When we got to the shelter, we realized our parents were gone too. Andrew and Michael were terrified. They said a bright light flashed behind them and then our parents collapsed, as if they had been hit by electricity. Before they could pull them out of harm’s way, something grabbed our parents and then kicked Andrew and Michael down.”, she said.

Flurry Heart went pale as a ghost.

“Were you able to find out who did this?”, she asked.

“Just this morning, Callie and I assembled the Squidbeak Agents to confront the attackers and we encountered some of them. After shooting one of them down, we spotted a patch on their uniforms but didn’t understand it. Take a look.”, said Marie as she held up the flag patch that they found after towing the ship to the camp.

Flurry saw the patch and suddenly gasped.

“NOT GOOD!”, she cried.

Flurry put her microphone on mute for a moment and summoned the Young Six. They rushed to the throne room and Flurry turned the microphone back on. The Young Six were shocked to hear what Callie and Marie had to say.

“You were attacked?”, screeched Silverstream.

“Your parents and your kids were taken?”, shrieked Yona.

Callie and Marie nodded and held up the patch they had shown Flurry Heart. The Young Six couldn’t believe their eyes.

“That symbol belongs to an alien race we encountered before we came to you. They’re called the Draconians, and they invade any planet with intelligent life. That might be why they tapped into our ships. They were looking for a planet to invade.”, said Sandbar as he had a flashback.

“Why would you show them where we are?”, asked Agent 3 in annoyance.

“It was an accident, Agent 3. They didn’t know the Draconians had tapped into their ships until they were returning home. By that point, it was too late. The Draconians must have been planning their invasion as the Young Six were coming back here to Equus.”, said Flurry.

Agent 3 quickly calmed down and then apologized for chastising them.

“Is there any way you can help us?”, asked Marie.

“I’m glad you asked me, Marie. We have some other allies who retired a few years back. It’s not too late to have them come back. We’ve also trained some new soldiers for our fleet recently. We will be there as soon as possible.”, replied Flurry.

Callie acknowledged Flurry’s response and the call was ended. Then Flurry turned to the Young Six.

“We need to call in the PAW Patrol and the Disney Fleet. It’s time for them to come out of their retirement with us.”, she explained.

Sandbar agreed and they all started opening the communication channels to contact their allies.

**

In Adventure Bay, Ryder and the pups were about to go to bed for the night when the light to indicate a call started flashing.

“Incredible timing.”, said Chase with an annoyed sigh.

“Chase, I know how you feel. It’s not fun to get an emergency call this late at night, but we must persevere.”, said Ryder as he tapped the Accept button.

Flurry Heart and the Young Six appeared on the screen.

“Good evening. What’s so important that it couldn’t wait till morning?”, asked Ryder with a yawn.

“Listen, I’m sorry that I had to interrupt your night-time routine, but we have a major emergency. Do you remember the possible new allies we told you about last year?”, said Flurry Heart.

“Are you referring to the Inklings and the Octarians?”, asked Marshall.

“Very good, Marshall.”, said Smolder.

“What about them?”, asked Skye.

“Callie and Marie were together with family for a winter holiday when they were startled awake by the air-raid sirens in the middle of the night. Draconians were bombing their home city. Apparently, they saw them as a target for invasion. What’s worse is that their parents and kids have been captured. Only their husbands, Michael and Andrew, were not captured. They need our help.”, said Flurry.

Hearing this startled both Ryder and the pups to the point that they were not sleepy anymore.

“I suspected that we would have to come out of our retirement with you. I just didn’t expect it to be like this. We’ll meet you in orbit around the Earth.”, said Ryder.

Flurry acknowledged and Ryder assembled the Cat Pack with the PAW Patrol to get ready for space flight. They boarded the Space Patroller and took off.

**

Everyone in the Disney Fleet was at their main base to remember the missions they had participated in. Millie and Melody were giving their mom a tour as a birthday present when the alarm sounded in the communication room.

“Girls, what’s that noise?”, asked their mom.

“Mom, that’s the alarm for a distress call. We’d better answer it, because we might have a mission for the first time after 17 years.”, said Millie.

Their mom knew what they were talking about from past missions. She gave them a kiss before wishing them luck for the upcoming mission. Millie ran to the controls and hit the button to answer the call while Melody called out over the intercom that a distress call had arrived.

“This is Millie.”, she said.

“This is Flurry Heart. I guess Melody’s getting everyone together.”, replied Flurry.

Millie nodded and everyone came running into the room in only seconds.

“Word of a distress call is something we haven’t heard in a while.”, said Mickey.

“I know you are retired, but an emergency has come up and we need you to come out of retirement.”, said Yona.

After Flurry had explained the situation, everyone was shocked.

“Their parents were taken?”, screeched Minnie.

“Their children too?”, shrieked Donald as he grabbed his head in alarm.

“I’m afraid so, you guys. Meet us in orbit above the Earth. We’ve already contacted the PAW Patrol.”, said Flurry before hanging up.

“LET’S MOVE OUT!”, yelled Mickey.

They rushed to get their space suits on and quickly got strapped in their seats on the bridge to launch. Once they were in space, they set their star coordinates and rendezvoused with everyone to prepare for battle.

**

Flurry Heart decided that since there was the possibility of battle, the Alicorn would be the proper ship for this mission. Once the Young Six were in their space suits, they gathered all of their new soldiers and got them on the shuttle. After taking off and docking on the Alicorn, they set off for Sector 7. When Daring Do spotted them, the Disney Fleet, and the PAW Patrol on radar, she informed the Squidbeak Splatoon.

“Daring Do to Squidbeak Splatoon. All three fleets have arrived in orbit. They are coming in to land.”, she said.

Callie acknowledged what she was told and she shone a spotlight to indicate where they were. Since it was already sunset, the fleets saw the spotlight easily. All of the ships touched down in the water near Inkopolis and then the main soldiers took smaller shuttles to the base camp. After introducing the other fleets to Callie, everyone started setting a plan for how to rescue the kids and Callie and Marie’s parents. Flurry Heart was confused why Pearl and Marina were with them since they were not agents.

“Marina is one of our best hackers. She once helped me save Inkopolis from a strange Artificial Intelligence built inside a statue. Pearl, on the other hand, is a very loud singer. If we end up in a dispute with the enemy, she will know how to give them a pain in the ears.”, said Agent 8.

“That’s perfect. We’ve reprogrammed one of the taps that the Draconians planted in order to figure out where they are.”, said Smolder.

Silverstream gave the tap to Marina who attached it to her laptop in order to find where the Draconians had set up shop.

“I’ve located them. It seems they have constructed some sort of base on one of the distant islands. That’s the only facility I can find with their technology. There is a holding area on the north side of the island, and that must be where Callie and Marie’s parents are along with their kids.”, said Marina after a few minutes.

Callie and Marie were excited to hear this. Soon, everyone started planning how the rescue would be carried out. It was now only a matter of time before they would be reunited with their parents and their babies.