My Starbound Ponies

Days had turned into weeks before Twilight and Spike even began to work on their ship. They had found that getting supplies was the most... tricky aspect of their task. Each time they dwelled underground for ores to turn into usable metal, their results would differ. On one occasion, Spike and Twilight had managed to mine a decent amount of ore. This lead to hours melting them all down to create some usable materials. On another occasion, the two would spend a couple of days underground with nothing to show for themselves except a handful of coal and tons upon tons of cobblestone.

Something else happened on the days that were spent collecting needed materials. The duo happened to discover one of the planet's fauna. It was a peculiar thing. It seemed to be almost spherical in shape and was made of a springy material that allowed it to jump incredibly high for something of that size. What the two of them soon realized was that for this little guy to jump so high, there had to by a lot of force behind it. Their theory was proven correct as the orange creature, having noticed the two staring at it, launched forward at the duo. Spike had been quick enough to dodge out of the way before the blur of orange rammed into him. Twilight wasn't so quick on the draw and received her punishment for her slow reaction time.

Her breath had left her body quicker than it ever had before as the orange creature slammed into her chest. Luckily, her chest plate had taken much of the attack. Though Twilight still felt the force of the creature driving out all the precious oxygen within her body. The next thing she knew was that she was on the ground with her vision slightly blurred. She didn't know how long she had been laying on the ground before Spike helped her to her feet. "W-what...? Where...?" Twilight tried to ask between deep breaths. Her lungs had not yet taken in enough of air to where she could pronounce complete sentences. Spike soon caught on to what the purple unicorn was trying to ask and pointed towards a giant scorch mark on the ground. Twilight could see the burnt remains of the creature that had attacked her. The smell of burnt flesh and liquids that Twilight had no idea of tortured her nostrils the longer she stayed there. The two had retired to their base for the rest of the day.

After that encounter, the two continued to quickly gather as much of their resources as possible. They had much more encounters with the same species as before as well as different ones. Twilight's most favorite one was a creature that could naturally produce music. She had wanted to study its biology on numerous occasions, but lady luck was never on her side. She had also find out that these creatures could travel in packs and at the center of that pack was a mother. An enormous, very protective, mother. Twilight thanked her ability to be able to teleport every night before she went to sleep since then.

Now, the two were working on fixing their ship. While Spike worked on repairing the outside of the ship, Twilight worked on fixing the communications. Thanks to the breathing apparatus that Twilight had made, Spike was about to work on the hull of the ship without worried too much about suffocating in the vacuum of space. Though Twilight still had to cast a protective spell around him. Even if he wasn't going to suffocate, there was still other risks of him being exposed to space.

Spike wasn't known for his repair skills back in the academy, but he likes to think that his skills have improved a lot. Well, improved enough as to where they would have to worry about a stray piece of space debris punching a hole in their ship. Spike teleported into the ship and saw Twilight still working on the ship's console. "You know, you could have gone through the airlock," said Twilight. Spike sat in the co-pilot seat before responding to her.

"I know, but I like teleporting. It makes me feel like I'm using magic," he said. He looked at the unicorn's expression and quickly spoke again. "No, Twilight. I don't want to hear your twenty-page essay about the 'natural energy field manipulation theory' for the fourth time," he said, quickly defusing the long speech that was coming. Spike then relaxed into his seat as Twilight continued to work on the console. After about fifteen minutes, she was able to finish her work. It wasn't a pretty repair job, but she fixed it enough to where their communications were back online and the A.I system was rebooting. Though A.I system was rebooting at a snail's pace. No, it wasn't even a snail's pace. A snail could have circled the entire planet the two were on twice before this thing could reach five percent completion.

"How about we try and search for someone to contact?" Spike suggested. Twilight nodded as she began to scan around for a friendly ship they could contact. Both of them had their hopes that they could reach someone as well as have them speak a language that they could understand. It wasn't long before two small *bings* alerted the two that two ships were close enough to the point of communication. The two looked at the information on the ship that they were able to find.

There were one cargo ship and two smaller ships flying alongside it. But what caught the dragon and unicorn off guard was that they were Apple Family ships. Both Spike and Twilight had let out a sigh of relief that, out of all things that they could find out here, it was the Apple Family the found. The Apple Family was known throughout most, if not all, of the galaxy for their apples, apple-based products, and their willingness to help. Twilight quickly sent a distress signal and the two waited in silence for a response.

The two watched the screen and monitored the ships movements. The three ships had continued to drift through space for a while. "Did it reach them?" Spike asked.

"They are in the range of our communications and the signal should have sent without any hindrance," answered Twilight, " Maybe they're debating on who is gonna come get us?"

"Well, they are Apples. It's not like them to turn down a request to help unless they were they're doing business or need to get back to their farm. But even then they should have at least contacted us by now or some..." Spike was cut off when a ringing sound emanated throughout the ship. Looked at the monitor, he saw that one of the ships was trying to contact them. They immediately answered the call and the face of an orange pony with blonde hair came into view. A brown stetson laid upon her head.

"Howdy ya'll. Name's Applejack. What seems to be the problem? " she asked. Twilight and Spike practically beamed with delight at the sight of another being that didn't try to eat their entrails for lunch.

"Well, Applejack, I'm Twilight Sparkle and my ship received a lot of damage and we've been stuck on this planet for a couple of weeks. Do you think you can give my friend and me a ride to the nearest repair station?" Twilight said, her eyes shined with hope.

"Ah see. How badly damaged is your ship?" Applejack asked.

"Most of our outer hull was damaged, but I was able to fix it for the most part, " said Spike, " Our engines and thrusters have been through Tartarus and back. Not to mention our warp drive is completely dead." As Spike finished his last sentence, Applejack visibly winced.

"Ooookay. That is bad. The crystal fuel for the drive is probably shot too. Getting those the crystals around these parts are gonna cost yah an arm and a leg, " Applejack said, as she rubbed the back of her head, "Ah can give ya'll a ride, but we'll have to come back for your ship. Ah don't have the equipment to tow other ships through space and The Winona is full of cargo right now." Twilight and Spike thanked the orange pony profusely. "Nah, ain't nothing to it. Ah'll be there in a few minutes." With that, Applejack canceled the call and the duo waited for their orange savior to get them.

The inside of The Winona was very comfortable. There was a kitchen area stocked with enough food that it could feed a group of four for about two months, give or take a few days. There was a small recreational room just under the kitchen area. In it were a ping-pong table, a pool table, an intergalactic television set, and an oak table with a decent amount of board games on it. The duo of Spike and Twilight were soon lead to the cockpit where they met Applejack's big brother Big Macintosh, a stallion of few words. Finally, the two were led to the housing area.

There were three rooms and each contained two beds. Further down the hall was a community shower. Applejack insisted the two take it for a spin. Twilight nervously chuckled as she volunteered to go first. Spike nodded and went into one of the rooms to wait for his turn. Applejack followed him. She had some questions for him. "So, how did yall's ship end up so banged up and how did ya'll get here?" she asked, "This is basically one of the backroads to the Interstellar Trading Center. Not many people travel this parts."

"Well, there was this... thing... that attacked our planet," Spike started,"But it didn't seem like it wanted us to leave. So after getting smacked around a lot, I managed to jump us to some unknown spot. But that was a few weeks ago..." Spike seemed to stop for a bit as the gears in his head began to turn. He and Twilight had been lost on a planet with no communication to any other inhabited planet or anyone else. The mystery of what happened to his home planet could be answered right here and now. "Hey, have you heard anything about EQ 4368 in the past few weeks?" he asked. He visibly saw the orange pony wince at the mention of the planet.

"Do ya'll really want to know?" Applejack asked. Spike held his head in his hands and sighed.

"Listen, at this point, I just want to know," Spike said sadly, "Just give it to me straight and I'll worry about telling Twilight." Applejack nodded.

"Ah heard about it on a news channel one day. EQ 4368 was found to have been destroyed," said Applejack, "There have been reports that there are refugees that have crash landed on other planets and some have made to some safe places. Nobody really knows what caused the planet to explode." Spike groaned loudly. Applejack drooped her ears. "Did you have any family living there?" she asked.

"No, I was a planetary transfer student to E.S.A. So my family, or whats left of it, is on Dragonia-4. EQ 4368 wasn't my real home planet, but I treated it like it was. So, to find out that it's gone forever is... heartbreaking," Spike said, the tears that he had been holding back finally burned their way through to the surface and where now rolling down his cheeks."Twilight on the other hand though..." Spike answered. His attention turned towards the door. The sound of a muffled shower still running down the hall. An eerily silence filled the room the dragon and cowgirl for what felt like forever. It was Applejack to finally decided to break the silence. She stood up from one of the beds she had been sitting on and made her way to the door.

"ah need to go check on the cargo. Holler at me over the intercom if you need anything," she said, "Oh and Spike..." The dragon lifted his head up to meet her gaze. She nearly felt the pain behind those emerald eyes of his. "... Ya'll have my condolences." Spike nodded his head before he placed his head in his hands again. The door to the room closed and Applejack's footsteps soo began to fade. The young dragon was alone with his thoughts for the moment. He constantly asked questions to himself. Did any of their friends survive the planet's destruction? If they did, are they okay? More questions came to the surface and more demanded to be answered, but Spike didn't have the answers they wanted. The only question that Spike had the vaguest idea of answering.

"How am I going to tell this to Twilight?" he asked himself.