The mission control team of the Vision One had discovered an alarming and somewhat amazing sight-- somehow, six dogs and ten ponies had somehow snuck aboard the Vision One, and they were now they were walking across the surface of the moon, having the time of their lives.
Of course, the Vision One team had no idea of their presence on the shuttle until now, and now, they needed to decide what needed to be done about the situation at hoof here. “How does something like this happen?” Bill Wolfson broke the silence after a few moments. “And more importantly, how on earth,” said Pi, bewildered and worried, “are we going to bring them home?”
“Yeah,” Bill agreed as Dr. Finkle and Carl approached, “leaving six puppies and ten ponies on the moon… it’s not real good for PR.”
“No, it is certainly not. We could run an ad campaign. Let me see…” Dr. Finkle faked thinking for a few moments. “Fly with us, we launched six poor innocent puppies and their pony companions into space and then bid them farewell for eternity.”
“The point is,” Pi said, irritated that Dr. Finkle would think such a thing, “we can’t leave them there!”
“How do you plan on coaxing a bunch of moronic animals into a spacecraft from 228,536 miles away?” Dr. Finkle asked with a smirk. That left the mission control team to try and think of a solution to get these poor innocent creatures home…
…especially before they wandered too far from the shuttle.
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“Uh… guys?” Sunny looked around after their walk to realize that one of the members of the group was missing. “Where’s Buddha?”
“I thought he was right behind me,” Seashell looked around until she spotted Buddha over on a nearby hillside. “Oh… there he is!”
Turns out, Buddha was meditating to himself on that hillside, with a perfect view of planet Earth in the distance. The others approached and sat either beside him or behind him, staring out at the view of the planet that the Buddies, Spudnick and Night Star called home.
Buddha was the first to speak after a moment of silence. “A view that will change your perspective forever.”
“This is totally unreal!” Pipp said, snapping a few pictures for their relatives back in Equestria. “This one’s for my boy, Sasha,” Spudnick said to himself. But it wasn’t but a few seconds later that B-Dawg had a thought. “Yo, dawgs? I hate to crash the party but… how we gonna get home this time?”
“B-Dawg’s got a point-- the last time one of us tried to pilot that shuttle,” Misty said, “we almost crashed it!”
“And no one back home knows where we are, and we don’t know how to get hold of them,” Hitch agreed. “So… what happens now?”
“Well… I’m not exactly sure, but we have to do whatever it takes to help the Buddies, Spudnick and Night Star get back to Earth,” Sunny said before starting to try and possibly think of a plan. “We just need to think.”
However, it wasn’t but a few seconds later that they began to hear a voice from inside their helmets. “Galactic Ponies and Canines! Do you read me?”
Turns out, this was Pi’s pet ferret Gravity doing the talking, but Glory whipped her head around in panic. “Does anypony else hear that?”
“Dawgs…” B-Dawg muttered,a bit frightened by this new voice speaking to them. “I-I think I hear an alien…”
“Dude, there’s no alien,” Mudbud dismissed the thought immediately. “It must be mission control!” Night Star realized, overjoyed. “They must know we’re here!”
“I’m Gravity,” the voice spoke again, “Mission Commander's assistant. Who are you ponies and doglings and how in the universe did you get on board the Vision One?”
“I'm dogmonaut Spudnick, Russian Space Agency,” Spudnick introduced. “And this is Night Star and these are the Buddies and their Equestrian friends.”
“We got on at the Russian space station,” Night Star interrupted. “These, guys, uh… they saved our lives.”
“We got on at Vision Headquarters,” Rosebud added. “A field trip gone awry.”
“All we want now,” said Peach Fizz, “is to go back home to our friends and families.”
“Well, no need to worry,” Gravity said. “I can help you guys get back to Earth.”
“Dude, are we over-stoked to hear a voice from home,” Mudbud said with a smile just before Gravity spoke again. “The Vision One will be departing for Earth in 15 minutes and 32 seconds. So head back to the spaceship before your oxygen is depleted and get ready for lunar lift off.”
“You heard Gravity, ponies!” Zipp told her friends, new and old. “Let’s get off this moon and get our friends back to Earth!”
And so, with the ponies taking the lead, the group began to head back to the shuttle to prepare themselves for heading home.
XXXXXXXX
Gravity released his paw off of the communication button and turned back toward the mission control team, with Pi trying to think of a solution. “Until we get the puppies and their friends home safely, we keep this quiet, okay?” he asked the rest of the team. “I mean, I need full confidentiality on this. If this story were to leak, it would spread like wildfire and that would cause irreparable damage to Vision Enterprises.”
However... this statement gave Dr. Finkle a brand-new idea to sabotage the ship's launch... even if it meant putting the lives of a few animals and ponies at stake.
As she looked at the camera feed again, Astro noticed the dogs and ponies going back onboard, much to her bewilderment and somewhat relief. “Uh, guys, guys! The, uh, d-dogs and their friends! They’re going back on board!”
“Well,” said Pi, “let’s launch before they decide to go exploring again. All right people, we know the drill. Boosters are a go, V-1 is a go for lunar launch.”
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The ponies and the Buddies took off their space helmets and once again took their seats when Glory caught sight of a command on her touchpad next to her seat, causing her to get a sudden idea. “Sunny… do you think I can use the robot arm to get a space rock souvenir for Buddha’s owner and my dad? I have a feeling they would love a piece of the moon to call their own.”
“Glory, that’s such a sweet idea,” Sunny smiled. “Go for it!”
Glory nodded and put on a pair of Vectra glasses before activating the robot arm. “Time to bring back a couple of souvenirs.”
So, the robot arm moved closer and closer to the ground before Glory eventually closed the claw, grabbing a couple of small rocks in its grasp.
Just the right size for souvenirs, no less.
As Glory finished her work with the robot arm, Gravity spoke to the group again through the speakers of the shuttle. “We will be out of communication with you for approximately 12 minutes while you circle the backside of the Moon.”
“Roger, Gravity,” Misty nodded. “We’ll be in contact with you soon.”
As soon as this was said, Astro activated lunar lift-off, and the shuttle lifted off the surface of the moon and into the skies once again.
XXXXXXXX
“All right, we're back in business,” said Pi, turning to the rest of the team. “Now, let's get these puppies and ponies safely home.”
However, Dr. Finkle knew that he had a lot more work to do in order to ensure that this really WAS a one-way trip…
…and make sure that the ponies and their friends were going to be stranded in space forever.