Delta's Hope

(Delta POV)

I quickly trotted till I was walking alongside Orion as he was stroking his chin in thought. I was still somewhat irked how he seemed to brush off the fact that he is now stranded here on Equis and with me keeping him as a slave. I didn’t mean for it to come off like that, but looking back on my choice of words, it seemed that way now. But that aside, I couldn’t understand this guy at all. He lands on an alien planet, gets knocked out by me, and is given the choice to be a slave or a lab experiment. All while maintaining a calm demeanor, to which he responds with, “I’ve been trained for stuff like this.” How could any creature just expect that? And that brings us back to how he willingly accepted the fact that he will never see his home again. His whole life ruined in seconds, and all he can think about now is holding up his end of the deal; a deal he was forced to accept. ‘Why does this piss me off so much anyway?’ I needed an answer. “Okay, that’s it.” He turned to look at me with a confused look. “How are you okay with any of this?” I asked with a hint of frustration. “You just found out that you're stranded here with no means of going home or seeing your family again. Literally everything you had was ripped away from you, leaving you with nothing.” As I spoke, my voice began to sound angrier for some reason. “You’ve lost your home, your family, your future, everything has been stolen from you! And yet you brush it off like it’s no big deal, all with a smile on your face!” My heart started to beat faster as I started to scream. “Tell me why!”

Once I had finished screaming at him, I was huffing and breathing heavier. I glared at him waiting for my answer that I needed to know for some reason, but I wasn’t sure why. He didn’t say anything at first. All he did was stare at me as I huffed and puffed. But for a moment, his eyes had a look on them, like he was feeling sorry for me. Or maybe it was something else. It was so brief, I couldn’t recognize it. He took a deep breath and rubbed the back of his head while he hummed for a moment. “What else am I supposed to do?” He asked in a calm tone while giving me a neutral look. “What good does sitting around and moping do for me?” I was taken aback when he answered my question with one of his own. “Most of what you said was true. I lost pretty much everything: my friends, the world I called home, and my family.” His lips slowly curled into a warm smile as he held up one of his fingers. “But there is one thing you were wrong about; something I didn’t lose.”

“A-and what’s that?” Why was I scared to hear his answer, all of a sudden?

With a bigger smile, he answered. “My future.” I had nothing to say. I just stood there, baffled by what he said. How can he say that he still has that? “Don’t get me wrong, I’m still depressed about not being able to go home or see my family. But feeling sorry for myself, wallowing in self-pity, and disappearing won’t get me anything. All that will really do is drag me down as I try to pick up the pieces of my life. And that whole part about having lost my future, yeah, that’s where you're wrong.” He moved one of his hands over his chest and took a deep breath. “So long as I’m still breathing and can see tomorrow, I still have a future. It’s only when one has truly given up on moving forward does their future no longer exist.” He smiled and looked to the sky, which was nice and clear now. “I know if my parents were here, they would tell me to keep on living and to try to make the best of what I can.”

‘How? How can he be like this?’ I asked myself as I looked down at the ground beneath my hooves. ‘He went through almost the same thing I did, if not worse. And yet, somehow, he can stay calm.’ The more I thought about it, the more I felt confused. He talks about having a future despite all that has happened, or the fact that he’s not as free as he believes to be. “You really think you have a future here?” I asked as I looked back at him, and in turn, he looked back to me. “Did you forget about how you’re the only one of your species here? You are quite literally alone in this world. And you're stuck with me basically as my slave. If you were to leave here, there is no guarantee you won't be captured and sent to a lab to be put into a cage and experimented on.” Why am I trying to put him down? Why do I feel the need to remind him of his position here? “How can you still be okay with wanting to help me when I’ve given you no other choice? Don’t you hate me? Aren’t you angry that you are being forced to stay here as some kind of work monkey?”

He just stood there, unmoving, staring at me like a deer in headlights. That was only for a moment before he stepped closer to me and kneeled down in front of me. It was really intimidating how he stared at me with those brown eyes of his, like the eyes that belonged to some kind of predatory beast. When he raised his hand up to me, I flinched and closed my eyes, thinking he was going to strike me. Instead, I felt it lightly rub the top of my head, lightly ruffling my mane. When I opened my eyes, I could see that same warm smile from earlier. “You and I both know you don’t see me as a slave. If you did, you wouldn’t have given me a chance to call home, or let me out of the cage you put me in, which you only did out of self-defense since you didn’t know if I was friendly or not.” His fingers lightly dug into my scalp as he gently started to scratch it. I hate to admit it felt pretty damn good. “As for your crude demeanor and foul language, I’ll chalk it up to the rough life you’ve had so far.”

My eyes shot wide open as he said that. How could he have known I had a rough life? I never once talked about that since he’s woken up. “H-how?”

The corner of his lips dropped for only a split second, but I definitely saw it as he tried to play it off with a cough into his hand after taking it off my head. “I’ve been around the block long enough to see all the signs.” He stood back up and stretched his arms out, letting out a satisfied sigh. “Now back to why I want to help you. It’s really more of a sense of self-preservation, really. Seeing as you’ll be my current caretaker here, by making your life easier, I’d be doing the same thing for myself. Similar to when a child helps pay the rent with their parents, it helps ease the stress of living for not just the parents, but for the child as well.” He twists and turns his upper body in a series of stretches, getting a few bones to pop. “So in order for me to make my time living here better, I need to help improve your own. It’s what’s known as a symbiotic relationship. We both help each other in order to get ahead in life.”

He rolled his arms around in circles before finally cracking his fingers. “Does that answer all of your questions, or did you have some more to ask?” When I didn’t say anything, he just shrugged. “Okay then. Now, in order for me to help you out, I’ll need to know more about this world. More specifically about its technological advancements.”

I only had one thing to say at this point. “You are so fucking weird.”

(Orion POV)

After our deep conversation, Delta went back to being her slightly grouchy self, which I had no problems with. We then talked about this world's technology and how advanced it is. Turns out it’s not that far behind Earth’s. They had rockets that could go into space, but have yet to land on the moon due to, and I’m quoting what Delta told me, “Because the princess said not to.” Yeah, I’m not sure why, and neither does anyone, or as Delta would correct me, “anypony'' else knows why the princess forbids it. Other than that, they were slightly behind in some other things. They had video games, but the most advanced games were still pixelated, and they didn’t have cell phones yet. They also have guns, which Delta had and showed one to me, leaving me confused since theirs are designed just like the ones back home. How do they even pull the trigger, let alone hold them up without fingers? I’ll worry about that later. They also have cars, which weren’t as advanced as our own, but they weren’t as ancient as the ones from the 1800s, they were like the cars from the early 2000s. They do have the internet, so that would be a great help. If Delta had a computer, that is. I got a general idea of her financial state when I looked around the place she called home. ‘I’ve got my work cut out for me.’

“Okay, so we need to make something that is sure to bring in a lot of money, but given the lack of resources we have, we can’t go into anything too complicated.” I paced around the middle of the junkyard while not moving too far from the cinderblock I was attached to. Delta told me that she got by from selling junk that would be dumped around here. This wasn’t the main junkyard, apparently, and that was a few miles away from here. That’s where she goes to get most of the stuff to sell, meaning we had access to some kinds of resources. The only problem I had now was trying to figure out what to make. The last thing I need is for us to try and pitch an item that someo- er, somepony has already made. And without access to the internet, I couldn’t look up more information on this world, which meant my only source of information was Delta. ‘Let’s think. What kind of item to make? It has to be something that will not only increase our cash flow, but also her reputation as well. The more she is well known, the more ponies will take her seriously and pay her more attention when she is trying to sell something.’

I remembered the advice my friend Shin would give me in times like this. I sat down, folded my legs, and took a moment to meditate and clear my mind. ‘This world seems to hold some similarities to Earth in both technology and a bit in politics. Both of which are crucial for what I should aim to make.’ I then remembered the gun Delta showed me. ‘They also have a form of military as well, so that could be another deciding factor as well.’ That’s when it hit me. Something that was used on my world for both military purposes and for fun. I turned to Delta with a smile. “Hey, Delta, do you guys have drones on this planet?”

She quirked her brow, which was a good sign in my opinion. “Like the kind of bees?”

That only solidified my theory. “I’m gonna need a piece of paper and a pencil to make a list of things I’m gonna need you to find.” She wasn’t keen on me giving her orders, but after a moment, she walked into her trailer and came back out with the stuff I asked for. Taking into account the stuff I know about this world, I was able to make my list.

I handed her the list once I was finished and she looked at me with a skeptical look. “What are you gonna make with all this?”

“It’d be easier for me to explain once I finally finished making it.”

She rolled her eyes and sighed. “Whatever. Now,, I want you to go back into your cage until I get back.”

I couldn’t help but groan. “Really? After the emotional bonding we just did?”

She grunted and huffed. “First off, we didn’t do any ‘emotional bonding’ like you say.” She used her wings to act as fingers to make air quotes. “I was having a moment of weakness and you were my emotional punching bag to vent to. That’s it. Second, I don’t trust you not to try and run away, so it’s the cage whenever I’m gone or at night.”

She pointed for me to go back into the hanger where my cage was. I groaned, seeing as there was no changing her mind. “Ugh, fine. But could you at least leave me something to read while you're gone? Boredom can be hazardous to my health, you know. And you wouldn’t want that, would you?” I playfully bat my eyelashes, trying to look innocent.

She glared at me before marching into her trailer. I could hear her moving stuff around before something came flying out the door slamming into me, and boy was it heavy. “Here, now get back to the cage.”

When I looked down at what she threw at me, I saw it was a large book with the words “Equestrian History” written on the front, causing me groan. “Ugh, a history book? Really? Don’t you have any magazines or something with pictures to read?”

“CAGE, NOW!!” She screamed as she pulled out the taser.

“Alright, I’m going!” I scurried onto my feet with the heavy ass book in my arms as I ran to my cage. “Would it have killed her to say please?”