I stirred awake to the sound of my phones alarm app. I had set the alarm to a song my friend Vinyl made. “Hello World” it was called and woke me with a smile. I stretched my hooves and bobbed my head to the beat. Carefully stepping over Dashie I made my way downstairs in our newly built wooden house. I looked out of the window and saw the others starting to wake as well. I stepped outside and took in the fresh, clean, and rosy air. The brisk chill of the morning breeze wove into my coat and mane. A smile was wide on my face as I turned to Puzzle Piece as he emerged from his house.

“Good morning Puz!” I waved to him, “What you gonna do with that pickaxe?”

“Pinkie and I are going rock farming! We might need some protection though if you wanna come along!” he exclaimed to me from his front door as Pinkie came from behind him and gave him a great big hug. Puzzle kissed her on the forehead and the pink pony muzzled him back. She pulled his red hat away and slapped on some night vision goggles for cave mining.

“You got your flashlight?” Pinkie whipped a flashlight from her mane and flipped it on, pointing into Puzzle's NVGs and blissfully unaware in her playful manner.

“OWW! IRNV FLASHLIGHT! IT'S LIKE EATING GLASS CEREAL!” Puzzle took off the goggles and started to rub his hurt eyes.

“OOPS! Sorry sorry! I forgot those were on!” Pinkie picked up the dazed unicorn and dusted him off, “Hehe...”

“I see birdies,” Puzzle regained his footing and I helped him up.

“Sure, I'll tag along,” I had my revolver holstered in my uniform as I got dressed. I didn't skip a beat as we explored westward. I had them follow me to a cave that I found during my hunting trip with Dashie. It was a deep cave and from inside I could hear the cries of Scythetails.

“Oo! This is super duper a-okay for rock farming! Daddy Pie told me to look for caves juuust like this one! With lots of scary monsters inside!” Pinkie's bliss brought a smile to my face. Puzzle backed away from the cave entrance and I gazed at him.

“What? You scared?” I teased.

“N-no! Why would I b-be?” he shook a little.

“Pfft! Pussy, watch this! Pinkie, giggle at the ghosties!”

“When I was a little silly and the sun was going dooowwn!” we both started to sing as we made our way in, “The darkness and the shadows they would always make us froown!”

“I'd hide behind some cover, to what I thought I saw! But my sergeant said that wasn't the way to face your fears at all!” I added my lyrics.

“Then what is?” Puzzle asked as he cowered.

“HE SAID: Buster you gotta stand up tall! Learn to face your fears! You'll see that you can kill 'em with your pistol and make them disappeeeearr!” I nonchalantly noticed a Scythetail sneaking up on Puzzle, “Load! Cock! BOOM!”

I shot the beast dead and it collapsed, “Soo! Headshot on the Scythetail! Stab 'em in the heart-FAIL!”

“This guy's kinda creepy!” Puzzle sang too as he was chased by one of them.

“Wait till he sees my Kukri!” I stabbed the Scythetail dead in it's tracks.

“This one's kinda squeeky!” Pinkie pulled her head from the jaws of one just in time in her usual playful manner.

I jumped onto its back and slit its throat, “Now he's lookin' sleepy!”

“And tell that dumbass alien to take a hike and just piss off and if he thinks he can kill us just say WAPOW and blow his face off and the sheer thought of it just makes you wanna!” Pinkie and I put our arms around Puzzle and continued to sing, “Laaaaaaauuuuuuugggggh!”

“Hahahahaa! Oh Puzzle, you underestimate us,” our outburst of song pretty much cleared the cave of any hostile creatures. Pinkie was holding her flashlight up for Puzzle to see in front of us. Pinkie stopped as she sensed some ore nearby with her Pinkie sense.

“Oo! Oo! Oo! Right there! Right there! Look at all that copper! And not that far in either, we can still see the light of the entrance!” She pointed up and shined her light onto the deposit. Puzzle got out his manipulator and formed a platform out of dirt to reach the ceiling to mine out the ore. As he did Pinkie and I kept watch of our left and right flanks. I had a head torch and could see much of my surroundings as my eyes adjusted to the light. Puzzle chipped away and stored the eight pieces of ore inside his saddlebags. It was Pinkie's turn to mine out some of the dirt at our feet. She dug up three pieces of coal, one bit of copper, and two bits of iron, plus some cobblestone for later on.

As we trotted back to New Ponyville we stumbled upon a new species of more peaceful alien. They were large and furry with bushy tails and a zigzaging camouflage pattern of peace and brown. The most striking feature was their heads: it was shaped like a snail shell with an external skull. The largest bottom head had a neutral look to it and the other sections of the skull shell had eyes that gave it a 360 degree view. It was very docile, and Pinkie even gave it a hug. The alien smiled and lead us to its cave where its family was. One was just patrolling the outside and looked to be female. Inside the cave was most likely their son, digging up some dirt and looking at us with curiosity. We decided to call them Shellhead Yetis, they were playful, intelligent, and surprising welcoming. Pinkie noticed a few more bits of coal ore, six of them, on the ceiling and one piece of copper on the cave floor. When she picked at it with the pickaxe the aliens started to help by digging up the dirt around it. Apparently they didn't like the look of the ore as they refused to turn to it. I found that odd, so I told Puzzle and Pinkie to turn off their lights. My assumption was correct as a bit of sunlight glared into one of their eyes reflected off the copper and the Shellhead started to beat the bit of ore mercilessly.

“Oo! Thanks a bunch mister Shelly!” she picked the crumbled rock and placed in in her bag, “See you later and have fun! Hehe!”

“Quick thinking Buster,” Puzzle looked at me.

“Rule of thumb for big muscly creatures: they really, REALLY like shiny things... Or they hate the living shit out of them for blinding their eyes. And seeing as how those Yetis have a ton of eyes, I was right!” I came off a little smug, but Puzzle nodded in respect as I might have just saved all three of us.

Back in New Ponyville I noticed a new flagpole erected with the banner of Equestria flying high. I gave it a firm salute and was greeted by Twilight.

“Nice of you to get up early and start off strong! How's the rock farming Pinkie Pie?”

“Oh! You're gonna love this!” She spilled the contents of our bags onto the ground and darted back and forth at all the individual items, “Ten bits of copper! Nine pieces of coal! And two bits of iron!”

“Not bad for a first mining attempt, good job Pinkie!” Twilight stuffed the ore into a chest and hovered it over into my house, “Sky Buster, since your expertise in weaponry is the highest among the group I want you to see what you can do with all the ore we picked up.”

“Cool! Finally I get to some fun smithing. How are the crops?” I turned to the farm and noticed long stalks of rice, wheat, and big apple trees.

“Very good! I just helped Applejack finish the windmill for our flour. No more hoof-cranked bread for us!”

“Yippee! Oh, also,” I dug into my bags and pulled a few more rice plants, “I found some more rice on the other end of that alien building I came across the other day.”

“That's great! I'll have AJ plant those right away. Any! Could you help Sky plant more of the rice he found?” Twi waved to her German husband who was tilling the soil.

“One moment Princess! I have yet to finish turning the dirt,” AnY was standing upright and using a hoe to till the soil. Once he finished I handed him my rice plants and with a little alicorn magic we flooded the rice field, “Phew! There we go.”

“Thanks Any. You'll get to eat my cooking soon enough! That rice is gonna grow like crazy with earth pony enchantment,” I patted him on the back.

“Ja, I wonder if you can make sushi out of alien fish here.”

“I saw some in a pond the other day. Haven't gotten a chance to scan them to be edible though. I'll see what I can do after my job for the day is done. I've got some ore to melt down,” I looked around and saw everyone else having a good time. Kim was taking shifts with Antony and Rainbow to watch over the town for any hostile aliens. I came back to the front of my house and noticed Ink Rose drawing in her sketchbook while on a bench next to our well. She was starting up a new comic and I could see that she was not only recording our ventures in written form, but also drawn out as well.

“Hello there Buster,” she greeted me as I turned to the sight of my newly built furnace and crafting station right outside my house.

“Good morning Ink Rose. Keeping busy I see?”

“Yup, I got done early with last night's reports to I figured I'd draw a new comic series! What do you think?” she showed me her work in progress. One of her highlights was a page of Dash and I exploring the strange alien building.

“Looks nice,” I sat on the ground and fired up the bellows of my furnace, the warm heat making us toasty and comfortable in the cold morning air.

“Can you tell me about what happened yesterday? I'd love to know what amazing adventures you've had,” she smiled and watched some of the embers float off into the air.

I told her everything I did yesterday and he wrote it down in her notepad. The inside of my furnace glowed softly and the fires danced inside. I took the bags of ore at my feet and carefully stuffed the iron in first. The two pieces of ore melted and formed a single ingot of iron. I used some metal tongs to grab the molded piece and put it aside to cool. Then the copper next, enough for five bars. Ink Rose stared on quietly.

“Where'd you learn how to make it like that?”

“I was a mercenary remember? And sometimes I had to make my own bullets and weapon parts on the fly. I like to do this as a hobby given the chance but never really had the equipment to do it. Right now I'm heat treating the iron so it doesn't become too brittle. We're gonna need more though, but it's a start,” I finished heat treating the iron and placed it in a pile to the side. Next is the copper, which I made into kitchenware and crafted a cooking table to boot. Now it's party time.

With my matter manipulator I placed the table inside my house and looked at the ingredients I had with me. It was almost lunch time and I wanted to make everyone something nice. Let's see, I had wheat, bread, rice, carrots, apples, and alien meat to work with. Those rose pedals from the trees were also edible, and I expected as much. I got it! I'll do a little bit of barbecue. Carrot dogs, alien burgers for the meat lovers, and petal sandwiches. I began to work on the doughs as they would be the ones that took the most time to prepare. Once the breads and buns were almost done I started with the fillers. I ground up the leftover Scythetail meat from yesterday with my matter manipulator and formed it into patties. It was a delicious animal. Tasted vaguely gamey with a mix of pork and beef to taste, textured like that of pork with a green color that faded to a juicy red when cooked. I fried it over the top of my furnace with a copper frying pan and the savory smell filled the colony. Everypony knew I was cooking lunch. I slid the burgers off onto some glazed clay plates Tommy had made for me while I was out. Working fast and efficiently I cut the loaves and buns. The omnivorous of the bunch gathered first to the lunch line. KP, Ink Rose, AnY, Twi, Pinkie, and Rainbow were the first in line, in that order.

Kim smiled as I slid an alien burger onto her plate, “Thanks dude!”

“No, thanks for watching my ass in the last three wars. Hope you like that burger!”

“Smells delicious! Hopefully we can get some Nacos soon,” she flew back up to her sniper tower and watched the road that lead into town as she bit into her burger. Ink came up to me awaiting her meal.

“Pretty pwease?” she asked in a high pitched cutesy tone.

“I know how much you like burgers. We've got more than enough to feed everypony so help yourselves!” I served her the sandwich and she took her seat on the bench near my crafting center. Her eyes widened in delight at the juicy, meaty patty of that red/green tint. Her reaction put a smile on my face and I wondered how well it did taste. I had forgotten to try it before serving the others. By the time I was done Applejack and Digi rolled into the scene with a small cart full of... APPLE CIDER.

“Hoo wee! Just got done making the first batch of the famous Apple Family Apple Cider! Drink up everypony!” AJ and Digi started to hand out wooden mugs of much appreciated foaming cider. I traded him a carrot dog for a mug and all of us gathered around. I took my place near Rainbow Dash and put one arm around her.

“Everypony! I'd like to make a toast!” Twilight held up her mug in hoof and smiled, “We have traveled far, braved the rigors of flight into space, and now I am honored to say that each and every one of you has done a fine job in their parts to forge New Ponyville as our first colony in the stars. May our future ventures take us higher! To the stars everypony!”

“TO THE STARS!” everyone cheered and we drank up. I looked to my burger and finally got a chance to bite into it. It was as delicious as I expected it to be. Sweet, savory, juicy, meaty, and tender. Even without toppings or condiments this was a meal fit for a Princess. Between the hard apple cider and this omnipotent masterpiece of a burger; I think I'm good...

That afternoon we set out to explore more of the planets surface. Again, Kim and Tony Pony were left to guard the now fortified town, now fenced in with a large cobblestone wall, taken from our mining expedition and the repurposed materials from the alien bunker. The makeshift sniper perches now turned into fully protected battlements, built so expertly like that of Twilight's old castle with the matter manipulators. Our exploration party was a four pony team consisting of myself, Digi, AJ, and AnY. Digi wanted to collect dirt samples and other scientific research beyond our town. Which was a perfect opportunity for me to train AnY on proper self defense. I recruited AJ into the search team because of her already strong fighting skills and cowgirl background. She never told Fluttershy this but she owned a gun back home to stop any stray Timber Wolves from romping around her farm. It was only after the incident with Spike where she took the problem seriously enough to get herself a firearm. She brought with her that very same revolver, Little Macintosh, named after her brother. The grip was fashioned to fit into her mouth, unlike my own revolver which I grasped with my right wing to shoot using my feathers like fingers. Her's had a small rifle scope mounted on top for added precision and fired .44 magnum wadcutters, unlike mine which was only a .357 magnum standard issue. I felt a little “inadequate” compared to her weapon of choice. We ventured west for an hour or two and found that the trees changed from brilliant giant roses to thorny dark blue trees with equally giant flowers of four dark petals. The ground had small dark blue bushes and tiny flowers of matching color. It was an odd, but sweet scent unfamiliar to me or anyone in our group. AJ glanced at them.

“My my, these are quite something huh Digi?” Applejack touched the bark and felt its strange texture.

“I'm gonna have to collect some samples of this tree. I think I'm gonna call it a Fourthorn for reference,” he approached and started to scrape some bark with the manipulator. I flew up to dislodge a giant petal and it floated to the ground like a large blanket, covering them both. I laughed.

“Sky Buster! What ya'll doin' up there?”

“You wanted to collect some samples didn't you Digi! That one should do you good!” I looked from the top of the tree to see a large metallic structure military in nature. My eyes widened and I flew back down, “Guys, I think you should see this!”

“You're a dick Sky, how do I know this isn't one of your usual pranks?” Digi scanned the giant petal and took more samples of it. Curious as he was, he started to eat a bit of it as he found it to be edible, “What the apple fucck? That tastes like a wet potato chip.”

“Hold on! Let me taste!” I stopped my train of thought and ripped off a piece. He was right! I could dry this up for some salty snacks for later, “Well, I'm stuffing as much of this leaf into my bags. But where was I? Oh yeah! I found a metallic structure just beyond this hill. It doesn't look welcoming.”

“I'm not sure we should check that out,” AnY spoke up as we walked to the top of the hill, “After all, what purpose does a metal building have other than to protect something inside of it. It could be booby trapped you know.”

“AnY, you know me... When there's a risk, there's a reward. I ain't concerned about the risk, just the reward!” I replied half-jokingly as we looked at it from a distance, “But I'm not gonna put the three of you in danger. I'll scout it alone and signal if I need help. I know my limits.”

I should have kept my big mouth shut. The ensuing result was our party being jumped by a pair of tracked autonomous drones that pursued us relentlessly, armed with pulse machine guns that had enough force to shoot clean through the trunk of one of the Fourthorn trees. As I flew up to dodge its fire, thankfully very inaccurate fire, Applejack took one of them out with her .44 magnum from a distance. I started to notice that these drones were damaged by wear and tear from years of neglect. Their shielding systems tried to repel our bullets only to fail upon impact. We destroyed one of the drones and the other ran out of battery for its guns. AnY gave the last one a firm buck and it fell back on its side. I flew down and started to rip out the wiring and stuff the contents into my bag.

“What in tarnation are these things?”

“They're drones AJ. I think I can reprogram them to help defend the town if we managed to repair at least one using the spare parts from the other. Sky Buster how are you doing?” Digi turned to me as I was beating the other drone with a stick.

“ARE YOU DEAD YET! ARE YOU DEAD YET! ARE YOU DEAD YET!” I looked at the machine. Comically the LCD screen that served as its face flashed a sad frowny face. I felt a little sorry for it.

“Sky, stop beating the shit out of it you dickwad,” Digi gazed at me and stuffed the two wrecks into his bags.

“Those things tried to kill us, wouldn't you wanna beat it to death?” I replied like a smartass.

“You saw it, that thing had feelings. Which is why I'm gonna keep them and repair them to make it our pet,” he was a little angry at me.

“Well-maybe it had feelings... OR! It could be a psychological weapon to put you at ease so that thing can blow your brains out. But if you managed to reprogram it then I'm okay with it that way.”

“Are we done yet? I think the building is clear,” AnY stood at the door to the futuristic bunker.

“Let me scan it to make sure,” Digi gave it a examination with his portable scanner, “It's clear. Looks like they were guarding a treasure chest inside.”

“LOOT!” I dashed in and found the chest on the second level. I opened it to find ten pieces of coal and a bunch of that alien money, “Aww fuck! What is this shit?”

“Coal for the naughty boy I presume?” Digi rubbed in the karma.

“Shutup...” I closed the chest and stuffed the contents in my bag for now, my face contorted with the deepest frown of unamusement.

We continued our ventures west and found a deep system of underground caves beneath us. Within were the eerie sounds of alien animals, some of which I doubt were friendly. It was then that we stumbled on a new alien, a large ape-like creature with a snowy white coat and ice anthers for a tail. It was extremely odd.

“Is it just me, or does that look like a Pokemon?” Digi assessed the creature, “It looks highly territorial and dangerous. We should stay clear.”

“I second both statements,” we sneaked by them and proceeded onward. The cave system we found was going to be valuable for mining. Digi stopped in front of us and scanned at the ground.

“Hold up, I think I found the reason why those petals tasted like potato chips. Check this out!” he dug at the ground with one hoof and unearthed the familiar root vegetable. We stood in surprise.

“Lemme see that!” AJ gently swiped the potato from his hoof, “Eeyup! That's a spud alright! And not one of them alien ones too!”

“That is strange. First Sky Buster finds white rice of all things-”

“I'm Asian! What do you expect!” I joked. Digi couldn't help but laugh along with us.

“Second, we have just found a batch of potatoes in a middle of an alien planet lightyears away from Equestria,” AnY added, “I'm starting to wonder about our state of existence. Though I am not going so far as to agree with our friend Lyra back home to be a human groupie.”

“I think I've seen enough let's head back guys.”

“I'm with ya on that one Digi!” AJ trotted close to him and Digi gave her a hug.

“Let's go bitch,” I turned to AnY.

“Oh haha,” AnY rolled his eyes, “At least I helped to destroy those drones after our little incident.”

“Yeah, but at least I was the only one in actual danger. Those things never shot at you,” I replied.

“Well, that's teamwork then,” AnY looked forward.

“Hold it right there!” suddenly we were surrounded by six strange hairless bipedal creatures, humans... I was taken by surprise and had no time to unholster my revolver. They had strange digital blue camouflage uniforms that could make them completely invisible, optical camouflage, “Hold on, they're... Ponies... Or at least I think they are.”

Their leader was a light brown skinned male wearing a blue military helmet and glasses. Holographic images floated on the lenses as he eyed us back and forth.

“Holy crap Lyra is gonna shit her brick if she was here,” I commented.

“Shut up, just hand us the goods and we'll be on our way,” one of them aimed his assault rifle at me, it was a futuristic looking version of an AK-47 with the magazine in the back instead of the front.

“Fucking god dammit!” One of their members with a pale face and black hair started to walk away.

“Oh come on Nick!” their leader turned to him, “We have to loot them to survive We can't just ask for fucking handovers you know!”

“No. I'll take their shit, but I want nothing to do with ponies. Unless of course they are literally baby horses that aren't some flash animated technicolor BS,” the guard turned his back to us.

“Fine! Just guard the rear then,” the leader let him have his way.

“Fair enough,” he retreated into the bushes to cover them.

“I'll handle this,” AnY stepped up to the plate. Now I realize the full extent that his diplomatic skills would come into play, “Hallo there! I am ze AnY Pony! Surely we can strike a compromise to our situation. We have more than enough food to go around!”

“Mira what do you think?” the leader turned to one of the two females of their group, the one with silky brown hair and blue eyes.

“Sure, I guess. I mean, I could trade some food.”

“What could we possibly trade? We've got nothing!” he lowered his weapon and rolled his eyes, “And they're horses! What kind of food do you think they eat?”

“Fruit,” she shows a stockpile of different fruits to their leader, “I was saving these for emergencies. But we can't live off of these.”

“I guess we can trade after all. Squad, at ease,” they all lowered their weapons and my heart lifted in relief. I highly underestimated AnY.

“Phew, Luna's asshole AnY, you saved us,” I pat him on the shoulder.

“Think nothing of it,” he winked, “Now, can we trade with these?”

AnY flashed the alien money that we had been carrying around with us all the time. The humans nodded to each other and smiled.

“That will do nicely...” I was still surprised that they spoke our common language. I swear to Celestia, Lyra would be rubbing it in our faces right now about Ancient Humans.

“Great! How much are you willing to sell all of that for?” AnY started to barter.

“Mira, it's your fruit,” their leader returned to the rest of their group.

“Not all of it. But I can give you two things of grapes, a single container of coralcreep, five bananas and three kiwi. For all that I'll take about 150 pixels,” she started to lay out the fruit for AnY.

“Hold on there, I'll have to scan the alien looking fruit for any toxins,” Digi came up with his scanner on the container. Sure enough it was toxic, “Coralcreep is toxic to us.”

“Ah, okay then. How's about the other fruit you offered?” AnY examined the odd multicolored fruit and gave it to Digi to scan, deeming it edible.

“All the other fruit would come down to 120 pixels,” Mira took away the Coralcreep.

“He wants the Avesmingo. What in the world do we need that for, we need the money. Throw in fifty pixels for that fruit,” the leader pointed to the Avesmingo. I had to question the price of it, but kept my mouth shut.

“If you say so. We'll throw in two of those for a total of 170 pixels,” Mira handed us the fruit as AnY made the transaction.

“Danke, that means thank you in German,” he stuffed the fruit into his saddlebags.

“German?!” the leader of the humans recoiled back.

“Ich kenne. Sprichst deutsch,” Mira replied back with a smile. AnY's eyes widened. They went back and forth in in German. I spoke up when they were done.

“Hold on a minute, we speak the same languages, but we're aliens in each others eyes. How the hell is this possible?”

“And why is your voice the same as mine?!” their leader recoiled again, I just now noticed his familiar tone.

“I didn't notice that until now...” I dug at the ground with one hoof.

Now that the tension eased, Nick and his leader started some back and forth shenanigans. I offered my hoof of friendship.

“Do you guys have a place to stay?”

“Not really. We've been darting from planet to planet in search of a new home. Our old home planet was destroyed,” he sighed heavily.

“If it's anything, we cleaned out that metal building over the hill over there. You guys can stay there and be our neighbors. We'll help you out,” I put out my hoof, “What's your name?”

“Troy. Troy Gambino. My second in command is Nick, you've already met Mira,” he shook my hoof and shouldered his bullpup rifle, “Nick! Come say hi!”

“Hell nah! I ain't dealing with any space ponies. It's bad enough that Earth was wrecked,” he turned our back to us. I saw a futuristic plastic looking rifle on his back with a glowing magazine on the side.

“Excuse him, he doesn't like aliens. I'm more open minded though. The girl with the bandana and sniper rifle is my girlfriend, May, and the two other guys are Rex and Alex.”

“Hey,” each of them waved to us. The girl walked up to us and started to hug me.

“OH! He's so cute can we keep him Troy?” May was squeezing me.

“H-Hey! No touchy! I've got a wife you know!”

“No May, he's a sentient lifeform that should be respected. Let him be, he is not a pet,” Troy rolled his eyes and poked her to let go.

“If ya'll are done, we need to get back before the sun goes down!” AJ trotted back with the others. I followed and told the humans the location of our town, just east beyond the caves in a clearing of the rose forest.

We came back to town exhausted as we unloaded our cargo: two drone wrecks, Fourthorn petals, a few potatoes, coal, grapes, bananas, kiwis and those strange Avesmingo fruits. I gave the fruits to AJ and she placed them in a magic powered refrigerator for safe keeping. With a little bit of relaxation I took the one of the Avesmingos and sliced a few pieces off. With each slice a different smell lifted into the air. I tried a small piece and it tasted like passion fruit. As I chewed the flavor changed to that of watermelon, then guavas, then finally mango as I swallowed. I took another piece just to make sure, this time it alternated between blackberries, lemon, oranges, and maple syrup. I was amazed at this alien fruit! It would be a challenge to make a dish from this, as it consistently changed flavor as you chewed. I spit out the seeds and placed them on a copper plate to the side. I'll give them to AJ in the morning. We had leftover barbecue for dinner and went to bed shortly after.