My little space engineers, space survival guide.

by Szalhi

Chapters

• Space. The beginning.
• prologue.
• Chapter 1 Not going to die. (log 1)
• chapter 2 You're going to die someday
• chapter 3 Scavenge, scavenge, scavenge

Space. The beginning.

Space. The one place that if a species manages to reach, it knows its life is worth existing. Lots of species are there. Some aren't. But there are some who have just started.

In the near future. Ponies discovered this new technology. This technology brought them the ability of space travel. The space age has begun for them. But when a technology has been discovered, there has to be a pony there to test it. This pony is Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight Sparkle became the the first pony to travel into space. But not only travel into space, but return alive. This was a big accomplishment. But up there they made a big discovery. Magic doesn't work. Magic is powered from the atmosphere of equestria. Outside, no magic exists in space. They had to overcome this and managed to.

Now Celestia has established a new Group of ponies. Space engineers.  

prologue.

Rainbow Dash awoke. Now what do you do when you wake up at a time that's unknown? Do you feel you have trouble sleeping? Or are you glad that you still have time to sleep? In space that's not an easy answer. What if the clocks went down? There wouldn't really be telling what time it really is. Never the less, it's normally time to go.

"Rainbow Dash, you're late!" boomed over the p.a making Rainbow Dash jump off her bed. "Oh sorry this is set to p.a"

Rainbow Dash moaned. She did this everyday she didn't know if Twilight actually meant to do it.

"Am i actually late?"

"You'll make it if you get up now. It's just normal to get up 15 minutes earlier." replied twilight now speaking over frequency in her room.

"Why do i have to go?" moaned Rainbow Dash.

"Because you're our finest engineer so we're sending you to station 2. That's why. You agreed."

"Ok ok i'm up."

Twilight cut off the frequency as Rainbow Dash got up from her bed. The air tasted stale but Rainbow Dash got used to it. But to go back down to equestria and breathe air there. That would be everyone's dream.

Rainbow Dash fitted her suit which didn't actually take a while. Rainbow Dash usually tries to see how fast she can don it everyday. One time she actually managed to rip it while trying.

She trotted down to the Hangar where her ship would be waiting along with the others.

"Is this really my ship? Looks like a bunch of junk"

"You picked this ship Rainbow Dash. It's what your getting. No changes" growled Twilight.

"Yeah yeah, i was being sarcastic"

"Didn't sound like it."

"You're the smartest one here twilight. You should of known that i was being sarcastic"

"Well if you were to arrive on time in about, say, 2 days, you should be leaving around now.

Rainbow Dash looked around the hangar to find about 5 different ships that looked way better than this one.

"Can't i choose one of those?"

"If they weren't on the list, than you're obviously not getting them."

"ok..." moaned Rainbow Dash entering the ship. The ship was nothing special. Just a standard issue ship that accomodates lots of features that may be needed.

"t minus, 20 seconds"

"TWILIGHT THIS IS NOT ONE OF THOSE OLD FASHIONED SHIPS FROM 20 YEARS AGO."

"Yeah yeah, i was just kidding, you're fine to go when you're ready. I'll be with you all the way. Not literally."

Rainbow Dash turned on the reactors and unlocked the landing gears. She would only have to pilot it for a while before the Auto pilot came in to use.

"See you on the far side."

"Well you won't be able to see us..." replied Twilight.

"Don't you understand quotes?"

"That was not a... Whatever..."

The ship flew out of the hangar with a roar and made it's way to station 2.

"You're going the wrong way!" shouted twilight over the frequency.

"Woops, having to much fun here, you know, the first few minutes of liftoff?"

30 minutes passed and the auto-pilot was engaged.

"Checking systems is the most boring thing ever."

"You know i have the ability to check the systems also?" said Twilight over the intercom.

"I'mma go into cryo-sleep now."

"Make sure it wakes you up in 12 hours. You need to perform checks every 12 hours."

"12 HOURS?, i thought it was 1 day..."

"I never said that, it's 12 hours and it's going to stay 12 hours."

"Well i guess i'll see you in 12 hours" moaned Rainbow Dash entering the cryo-pod in the medbay.

Rainbow Dash awoke 12 hours later.

"That was fast. It's like i literally climbed in here 1 minute ago. I don't actually remember the last time i went into cryo-sleep though"

"3 years ago. That's when you went into cryo-sleep to visit uranus."

"That trip was terrible, Uranus is the most boring planet ever. And the most funny."

"I didn't think it was boring."

"OF COURSE YOU DIDN'T TWILIGHT."

"Twilight, what would happen if i were to never come back?"

"What you mean if station 2 captures you and breaks frequency with us?"

"Something like that. I don't want it to happen"

"It shouldn't happen"

Suddenly from the corner of Rainbow Dash's eye, she spotted an asteroid.

"Oh look an asteroid... AND IT'S COMING RIGHT AT ME."

Rainbow Dash leapt for the controls as the asteroid was approaching her. Or she was approaching it...

"It won't budge!"

"What's wrong Rainbow Dash?"

"We're in collision for an asteroid and i don't know what to do! The controlls aren't budging"

"Rainbow dash..."

That's all she heard. It was over. They were going to fast and collided with the asteroid.

Everything went black.

Chapter 1 Not going to die. (log 1)

Rainbow Dash awoke to find herself in a "poorly made" ship. She had no idea how she got here. After a few minutes passed by, she got her senses together and tried to work things out.

How am i still alive? I swear i should be dead by now. Dash walked around the medium ship inspecting the systems.

Great, The reactor's not going to last forever. I haven't died from the crash and now i'm going to suffocate to death when all the power goes out, at least the gravity still works

Rainbow Dash realised that she used half of her energy and that she was definitely going to die faster. Her first response was to check the medbay for power.

Well i'm screwed. The med-bay's down so it means i'm down. Might as well drift off into space. Or something that could kill me now, hey wait

Dash found a hole in the wall that showed her that she was currently stuck to an asteroid. Climbing out of the ship she discovered that the asteroid was much bigger than she thought.

Hmm, Might as well check out this asteroid before i die in the worst possible way ever.

Right at that moment, out of the corner of her eye, she saw something that happened to catch her eye.

"WHAT THE BUCK IS THAT?"

Dash went back inside and got her Drill. This thing could be useful.

Maybe i shouldn't go, maybe it's something worse than dying of suffocation... no. I should go.

Dash turned on her jet-pack and went over to where she last saw the object.

"Is... is that... URANIUM? Gosh Dash, Maybe you shouldn't of given up this easily knowing there's some power right here"

Rainbow Dash turned on her drill and started mining the uranium.

Wait, even if i do get power, I don't have the iron to fix the med-bay. The assembler works but that's about it. Oh well, i might find iron around here

"A HAH. I knew there would be iron here. Although iron is actually more common than other minerals..."

Dash started space dancing like the goose she is. Now who the heck space dances when they're probably about to die?

DASH STOP FREAKING SPACE DANCING AND FIX THAT MED-BAY.

She stopped dancing and looked a bit embarrassed. Not that you get embarrassed when no one else is around.

"I'M NOT GOING TO DIE. THANK YOU MYTHICAL LORD AND SCREW YOU ASTEROID. Maybe you should of thought before smashing into me if you have uranium"

chapter 2 You're going to die someday

You know when you think you're going to die but you don't? You're going to die one day. But you'll never know when it happens. You could get very sick but somehow not die. You could collapse in the middle of nowhere dead. That's exactly how i felt when i woke up from that asteroid collision. Sometimes you think you're dead when you're not. But that's just how things are. But you're life is worth living and it's there for a reason.

The moment i found the uranium was the most happiest moment of my life. Uranium is like the most important substance to living in space. Without uranium there's nothing to power life support. You could try solar panels but you have to find a strong light. It's just amazing how things just happen to go your way. Sure you crashed into an asteroid but you can fix that. You can fix your ship, you can go back home. But sometimes you can't just instantly go back home. It may take 1 day. It may take 50 years. You shouldn't give up on everything. You should at least try to survive.

It happened to be lucky that the refinery wasn't damaged. The refinery is what removes excess rock from the mineral. I don't think the reactor would like more than uranium in it. Getting the med-bay back on meant i could recharge my suit energy and live longer. But you can't live forever. Some time that uranium is going to go. You can't just hangout here. You've got to do something.

"The joy of fresh air. Reminds me of my time back in equestria as a wannabe wonderbolt."

I still remember the days where i used to dream of being a wonderbolt. That all changed. Space and engineering is all that is up to me now. That's what put me into my doom, but also kept me alive. Life isn't perfect but it's just there.

When i spotted the uranium i also spotted some iron. Iron is the second most important thing to life in space. That's the main source for most of the materials that are used in construction. With that iron i could start fixing up the ship. Or i could go and build a new ship. It wasn't easy to say that i wanted to build a new ship. But it's safer to fix up the ship i have so i can get home quicker. But sometimes you don't have the resources you need on one asteroid. You need to explore other asteroids.

"Why can't everything be on this one asteroid?"

It just can't ok? I learnt all this after my troubles in space. That is probably the meaning of life.

chapter 3 Scavenge, scavenge, scavenge

Sometimes space seems like the most dangerous place ever. Well it is. But it's also the most beautiful place ever. It may look like complete void, actually that is what it looks like but the fact that you could drift through space forever discovering beautiful things is what makes space even more beautiful. But when you're in a tricky situation, you don't notice the beautiful things around you. You just need to relax. And relax is what I did. Even though you may say it's a waste of precious life support, you need to relax or you'll be too stressed to live.

I didn't know if I was going to get back to Equestria alive, yet if I was going to make it out of this asteroid. But it doesn't matter if you don't, as long as you try. But you can't try if you're scared. If you're scared you can't do anything. So don't be scared. Be brave.

I was already a good space engineer at the time so I could build the necessity's to survive in space. But when you have to scavenge supplies, it's harder to do stuff. You don't always have everything you need and it may be hard. And that's what I had to do, scavenge. Scavenge, scavenge, scavenge.   You don't think I could've been at the space station, perfectly safe, building cool stuff instead of sitting there, slowly dying and building boring stuff where you may not even have the materials for?

Nevertheless, you're stranded in space, you've got to accept that, but how you suck it up and scavenge? That's what I DIDN'T do. I didn't scavenge. I thought I had all the supplies I needed. I focused so much on fixing the ship I didn't realise that I didn't have enough materials in the first place and I was pretty much low on energy and all my uranium was used up. So I was going to die. I wouldn't have enough power to drill some uranium and make it back alive. I was stupid. But if you make a stupid mistake you don't give up. You get out there, and you fix that mistake. You go outside. Shout to the nearest star "I NEED SOME SOLAR POWER OVER HERE." and you get that power. You don't hold back on yourself, you don't give up and you don't die. You made one mistake and you fix it. You learn from that mistake.