Chapter 3 – Return of an Old Friend

"We told you not to do that!" Rainbow Dash nearly shouted.

"I was going to catch a toad!" Breeze, a unicorn only a few years younger than Blade said. He, like his brother, was gray in color, but his mane and tail were both unkempt at best. He had recently changed their color, letting the roots grow a bit, the rest was a dark shade of blue that only complimented the black natural roots, and a nice sky-blue stripe going straight down the middle of both sides of his head and tail. He also had a scar that ran down his left eye, though it looked as if it had been deep, his blue eyes were both in perfect condition.

"For what?" Rarity, a pure white mare with curly purple hair asked in disgust.

"Nothing!" he said quickly and looked around like he had been caught in the middle of something he shouldn't have been doing. Rainbow just chuckled.

"It was a prank he was going to pull on Blade." Pinkie Pie, a very pink mare with a poufy mane and tail called out in a carefree tone.

"PINKIE!" Breeze called out, and let his face hit the table.

"Was I not supposed to say that?" Pinkie asked in shame.

"When was the last time you announced your prank?" Applejack, and orange earth pony with a blond mane and tail wearing a light brown cowgirl hat, asked in her southern drawl.

Pinkie placed her hoof to her mouth in genuine thought. "Why are we here?" Spike, a baby purple dragon with green spikes on his back and tail, asked.

"I'd like to know that too." Twilight Sparkle asked. Twilight was a young alicorn, newly given wings from being just a unicorn. Her purple mane was styled in just the right way to have flat bangs and a light purple stripe running through the middle of it next to a pink highlight stripe. She turned slowly to Discord as she spoke.

"Hey, I may have just saved someone by getting everypony together." was his defense.

"Ugh!" Blade said, and set the device on the table, "We intercepted a message from outside the planet's gravitational reach." and nodded towards discord, "If you'd please?"

With a smile, Discord used one of his claws to touch the device, and it turned on.

"If this message is received, then I hope you kn…(static)… Rainbow Dash, I would really appreciate it if…(Static)…Rainbow, I need you on this. If you remember me, it's…(static)…and I need your help." it said, more of the message clearer than before.

"The message is for me!" Rainbow said as Discord pulled his claw from the device, "Why does that voice sound so familiar?"

"Oh, oh. Can I help?" Discord suddenly said.

"Uh, what did you have in mind?" Breeze asked.

"Oh, just a little something I've been saving!" he said, and snapped again, one of the horns on his head turned to a small satellite dish, and he reached down to the screen, actually plucking the wave lines from the screen of the device.

That was when Breeze finally saw it, "Dude where did you get that?!"

Blade watched as Discord played with the dish on his head and stretched and played with the actual waves in front of him. "Princess Riida found it while salvaging one of the wreckages from the Genesis Ark." he said and Discord smiled with glee.

"I got it!" the draconequus said and grabbed the message before placing it back into the device.

"If this message is received, then I hope you know or are familiar {snort} with Rainbow Dash, I would really appreciate it if you'd tell the Ice Cream Colored Pegasus {snort} this message. 'Rainbow, I need you on this. If you remember me, it's Tusks from the Genesis Ark Race Track. {snort} I've got a problem and I need your help." the machine said clearly.

"Wait…Tusks!" Rainbow asked.

"Discord," Twilight said in surprise and pride, "You read my book!"

"Oh, don't think I'm pranking you all, I still haven't gotten past the second chapter!" Discord said in response, "It's a lot of exposition to get through. But so far not bad."

Twilight in defeat set her head down on the table, she was sure somepony had actually read through it by now. "If it really is Tusks, then how do I get ahold of him?" Rainbow asked in a slight panic.

"We use the EX40." Breeze said as he looked over the device using his magic to turn it around.

"EX40?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah, it's not just for receiving messages and radio, it was one of the original prototypes for the Genesis Ark's handheld long-range threat and detection scanners. If we can boost the signal, we might be able to contact Tusks on his route to us so he knows where to land so that we can talk to him properly." Breeze told the group.

"Even if we boost the signal, it's going to take some pinpoint aiming just to get it to him, any deviation might tip off whatever or whoever is following him if he's in danger." Blade said.

"What would cause him to look for me in the first place?" the colorful mare asked.

Both Blade and Breeze shrugged, "Tusks' race has always been a weird one, they have very few festivals and a lot of competitive activities like they enjoy slamming heads and horns together." the younger of the two said.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they made their neighboring planets angry and now, he's coming to ask you and Jetwing for assistance." Blade said.

"Or maybe he's putting a team together for…a contest?" Breeze guessed.

"That would be cool, a contest on a different planet?" Rainbow Dash said in excitement.

"Would your magic be able to help us with this?" Twilight asked as she turned to Discord.

Discord placed his eagle claw to his beard and stroked it, "I suppose I could try something." was all he said.