Delta's Hope

(Delta POV)

I sat on the cloud, watching Orion clutching his throat and gasping…for the last three minutes. I knew he would have been dying from our world’s atmosphere the moment his visor broke, but I wanted to see how long it would take for him to realize he was fine. ‘I wonder if I have enough time to go make some popcorn.’ I continued to watch as he rolled on the ground, clutching his neck like an overly dramatic Canterlot unicorn. ‘Maybe I should help him. He may not have many brain cells left if he keeps this up…Well, assuming he has a brain if he’s acting like this.’

I hopped off the cloud and used my wings to push it up, sending it back to the sky. I walked over to his body and took a moment to consider my action. Even with him struggling around like how he is, I couldn’t see his face. ‘If his anatomy is like a minotaur, then I swing here.’ With a sweep of my hoof, I kicked him right in the groin.

The effects were immediate as he sat up and screamed. “AAAAAHHHHHHH!!” He started to roll around the ground in a circle while clutching his groin. He writhed in pain for a good while before sitting up and glaring at me. I was now able to get a look at his face. It was kind of flat compared to a pony’s muzzle, his nose small in comparison. Even his eyes, which were a chocolate brown. And it didn’t look like he had any fur at all. He reminded me of a hairless monkey. “What the fuck was that for!?” He screamed right in my face, causing me to fold back my ears.

I quickly shoved him back so he wasn’t in my personal space. “You were gasping like a retarded fish out of water for over three minutes! If the air wasn’t breathable to your kind, you would have already been dead, dumbass!”

His scowl quickly disappeared as he cocked his head back before taking a deep breath and letting out a slow exhale. “Huh. Well what do you know? I can breathe properly.” He slowly moved his hands up to grip his helmet and turned it before pulling it off his head, and I could see he wasn’t completely hairless. He had short, light brown hair, a similar color to his eyes. He took another deep breath and repeated this process a few times. “The air here is almost that of Earth’s, but way cleaner. How very interesting.” His smile was brief before he glared at me again. “I still want to know why you hit me in the groin. That hurt like hell, you know.”

“Well maybe if you weren’t acting like an overdramatic baby earlier, then I wouldn’t need to.” I rolled my eyes while holding my head. “I mean really, how long would you have kept doing that had I not kicked you?”

He turned his head away and sighed. “Ugh, forget it.” He threw his hands up in defeat.

“I’m still surprised the thing broke after just from you facepalming.” I added as I looked at some of the broken shards on the floor.

“To be fair, it did manage to remain intact after it, along with the rest of my body, got sucked through a blackhole. And need I remind you how it took most of the blow when you hit me with that flashlight last night?” He added some snark with that last part, to which I rolled my eyes. “At least I don’t have to worry about running out of oxygen now. Hell, I wasn’t sure how much reserved air was left in the capsule…” He stopped for a moment before his eyes widened. “Shit, the capsule! I need to go make sure that it’s still worAAHHHH!” Just as he was about to sprint over to his capsule, his feet got tangled up in the rope to his makeshift ball and chain, causing him to fall face first onto the ground. I may or may not have cracked a grin at that as I watch him slowly struggle to get back up. “Ugh. I forgot about this stupid thing.” He stood up and dusted his body before picking up the cinder block with little effort before walking back to the hanger.

I had placed his capsule in the corner of the hanger and had it covered with a large tarp in the event I receive any unwanted or unexpected guests. Last thing I want is for somepony coming in and try to steal it or tell somepony else about it. I watched as Orion set down the concrete block before he pulled off the tarp. I’ll be sure to make him put it back on when he’s done. The door was still open when he walked inside, and I opted to just wait outside.

It was about a few minutes before he came back out with a metal box and a gloomy look on his face. He pulled the block along to the side of the capsule while carrying the metal box under his arm. He set the box down and opened it, pulling out a few tools, some of which looked similar to what we have here on Equis. He used the tools he pulled out to open a metal hatch that was on the capsule. The door opened in a way that blocked me from seeing what he was doing. “Can I borrow that flashlight from earlier?” He asked in a slightly depressed tone while extending his hand out. I was skeptical about handing him a blunt object, but given he lifted the stone block that I attached to his leg with ease, it didn’t really matter.

I went to my workbench to grab my flashlight and gave it to him. “Thanks.” I saw a small amount of light shining onto the floor as he turned it on. For a while, he stood back there doing who knows what, but when I looked at his hand that was holding the door open, I could see it trembling a bit. After a moment, he stepped back, letting me see his face, along with a look of dread. He closed the hatch gently, turned around to lean against the capsule, and slowly slid down till he landed flat on his plot. His head dropped and he clasped his hands together. He stayed like that for well over three minutes before he threw his head back, slamming it into the capsule. “Looks like I’m stuck here forever.” His eyes looked like his life had just been shattered right before him, a look I’m all too familiar with. “The circuits and fuses that connect to both the battery and distress beacon are completely fried.”

“So? Can’t you just fix them?”

He shook his head in defeat as he looked up to the ceiling. “I would need to replace the parts that were destroyed, and something tells me this planet doesn’t have the parts I need that wouldn’t cost a lot of money. And even if I were to have everything I needed, it would take me well over a month to make them.”

“Okay, so you’ll be stuck on Equis for a while. That doesn’t mean you can’t try and get back home.” Again, he shook his head.

“It would be too late by then.” Raising his head off the capsule, he quickly slammed it back against it. “If I were able to get the beacon back and running, ‘if’ being the key word there, the deadline would have passed, and command will register me as KIA.” I was surprised by that, but it still didn’t make sense why his home world would do such a thing. “You’re probably wondering why my world would do such a thing, aren’t you?” I honestly felt a bit shocked that he somehow read my mind just now, making me wonder if he could have done that the whole time. “The reason being is, during my last transmission, I mentioned the blackhole that sucked me up. And if command was listening, and I know they were, then they would have initiated code Countdown.”

“What’s that?”

“In the event one of us has our distress signal cut off at any point or if we don’t do our daily data log transmissions, the command starts a countdown. If we don’t set up our beacon within forty-eight hours, we are considered dead. And because of Earth’s current condition, they can’t afford to take a chance of coming out here to try and find me. So even if I do get the beacon up, they won’t be looking for it by then. Plus, there is the fact that the blackhole might have sent me so far in space that the beacon probably wouldn’t be detected.” His head lowered to rest on his knees as he curled his legs up to sit in a fetal position. For a while, he remained silent and unmoving. I could barely see his chest moving as he breathed.

After a while, he took a deep breath and raised his head before standing up and brushing his pants of any dirt. “Well, there’s no point in moping now.” He turned to me with a genuine smile. “So, I believe we made a deal. Since you held up your end by letting me try and call home, it’s my turn to help you now.”

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t caught off guard by his sudden change in attitude. A moment ago, he looked like he was about ready to give up on life, but now here he is with a smile on his face. “Are you bipolar or something?” He cocked his head to the side, looking confused. “Don’t give me that look! You know exactly what I mean! A minute ago, you just found out that you weren’t gonna be able to go home and it looked like your life was ruined! Now here you are, giving me a smile while worrying about holding up our deal!? What the hell!?” I wasn’t sure why this bugged me so much. But I felt something similar to envy just now, and I don’t even know why.

“Hmm.” Orion hummed as he moved his hand to hold his chin like he was deep in thought. “Well, what good is it gonna do me to mope? It won’t, honestly. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still upset by the whole thing, and I still have some regrets. But at this point, there is no reason to allow that to weigh me down. I’m still alive and well, and though I may have hit rock bottom, that leaves me with one option.” He gave me another smile as he held up a finger and pointed upward. “Because I’ve hit rock bottom, the only other place for me to go is up, and keep on living.”

Something about what he said struck a chord with me. I was angry, I was sad, and I was confused. I just sighed and shook my head, “You really are a dumbass, you know that?” I looked back at him, seeing that same smile from before. “Well, since you already tried to phone home, I guess we better see how you’re gonna help me make money like you promised.”

He nodded his head, leaned down to pick up the cinderblock, and walked past me. “I am a man of my word, after all. So let’s do a bit of investigating of this world of yours. I want to see how far your species has come in terms of tech. Once I have an accurate idea, then can we get to work.”

I was left standing there, still in a bit of a daze by his attitude. I shook my head as I followed behind him. “What have I gotten myself into?”