Chapter 6

Fluttershy and Nate were diligently at work in the compact lab, currently stuffed away in a basement area. After weeks and weeks of recovering scrap metal, and experimenting with the some of the native materials and rocks, they had discovered that they could create a rocket using the left over metal, and a possible fuel source was found in the mysterious ore. Unfortunately they had to burn it, so the whole thing was iffy. The space craft they would create would not be large enough, or have even close to the capacity needed to get them off the planet. But, it could be used to check for something that Nate and Bromley had been talking about in secret lately. If only not to raise false hopes among others about more survivors being out there, they had decided to keep it to themselves. They wanted to see if Josh had survived the explosion. The chances weren’t the highest, but the captain was sure he saw him get in an escape pod.

It was decided that, in the mean time, Nate, Bromley, Evan, Twilight, and Rainbow Dash would go on a small space expedition. They salvaged several space suits, and converted two of them  to be pony-friendly. They also created a small pod, that would suit their services. It was probably a one use only pod, and wouldn’t last more then a few hours in space. Also, they added wing holes in one of the suits to accommodate Rainbow Dash. It would be her that would retrieve Josh, if they somehow stumbled upon him that is.

The three people would be on every window of the small pod, looking for him. Fluttershy had figured out an engine that used a propeller. It would shoot matter and fuel out the back and the propeller would hit it, creating propulsion. It was quite an amazing feat from the shy pony. After about thirty test runs and twenty eight failures, they were ready to begin their search. The main problem in the test runs being that the matter either damaged the propeller, or the propeller couldn’t hit enough matter to launch the rocket.

Twilight packed enough food for two meals for six ponies. Fluttershy was following Nate around nervously. He was putting a few welding tools in the toolbox, just in case.

“Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” Fluttershy asked quietly, looking up at Nate with worried eyes. They seemed almost wet, as if she were about to cry at the thought of the human she had grown so accustomed to, leaving.

“Of course!” he said, kneeling down in front of her. A sharp bit of the rock dug into his knee and he made slight wincing movement but held his knee in place.

“B-but what if something goes wrong?” she asked. She was honestly scared and her eyes grew red from withholding tears that were growing in amount with every passing second.

“Then... then...” Nate started, trying to think of something positive to say, “Then... then I guess we’ll have to enjoy this moment we have now.” He hugged her suddenly, feeling like this was the last time he would see the pony, which was a somewhat depressing thought. Even though she was just a pony, she did bring out feelings in him as if she were human. He knew that people used to make special relationships with horses, close to what some might call companionship, and this put his mind at ease. She put her hooves over his shoulders, closed her eyes and let one or two of the tears flow. They let go of each other, and Nate leaned down to kiss the little pony, but was interrupted. Just then, Evan ran over and picked up Nate in an enormous bear hug, forcing Nate to pull back, and allow the furiously blushing Fluttershy to faint.

“I’m going to miss you Nate! I promise I’ll come back down safely!” Evan had Nate hoisted above his head.

“I’m going with, you... stupid... asshole!” Nate shouted, straining for breath.

“Right...” Evan put Nate down and sprinted over to Bromley. “Bromley I’ll miss y...” He was going to say more, but the fist that was shot after a harsh glare sent him tumbling the other way.

Applejack watched them and after Evan finished his silliness, he began hoisting a few final observation tools into the ship.

“Ev- Sugar cube?” she managed, walking up to him almost nervously.

He looked down from the ship at her. A smile cracked on his face. He already knew what she was going to say. It did bother him a smidgen that she was using the name his mother had for him so many years ago.

“You’ll get back fine, right?” she said, walking up the makeshift ramp to him, still looking up at him.

“Yes.” he said plainly, falling to his ass with a grunt, and surprising her. He set the things next to him, ignoring Nate’s angry reprimanding to be careful with his equipment. The smile was still on his face, and he was now on eye level with Applejack. He didn’t like feeling above her, and she might behave differently if she felt submissive.

“You sure?” she said, resting her head on his shoulder now. He grinned even wider at the

action, and stared deep into her eyes as he said his next words.

“I’m sure.” he said, slowly putting his arm around her. “I’ll miss you Applejack! You’re like one of the family now! I promise I’ll come home safe!” Evan began to act as if he were crying. Then sat up straight with a happy face on as Bromley began speaking.

“Come on you love birds.” Bromley called over to them oh so tactfully, motioning towards Nate and Evan. Nate quickly kissed Fluttershy’s forehead and ran up to the ship, and Evan hugged Applejack tightly and she trotted down the ramp. Rainbow Dash nuzzled her best friend briefly, then joined Bromley. She fluttered up next a window, and grinned at the ponies outside in a strangely completely carefree way. Fluttershy flew up to the window to wave goodbye once more, and carried Applejack so she could too. Nate waved back a little teary eyed, and the ship began humming to life. Evan looked over at Bromley and Rainbow Dash and rolled his eyes with a huge smile on his face. The two grinned at him, sharing his sentiment. He suddenly realized how indifferent the captain and Rainbow were to this situation. Maybe the adventure loving pony didn’t mind having her life put at stake, but Bromley was the calculating sort, and didn’t like chancing things. Then again, he was the same apathetic Bromley that he had known in middle school. Maybe he was just insane. Evan chuckled at the thought that his friend could be insane. Bromley just didn’t seem like the type to be put in a straight jacket. No, he was the sociopath, not the lunatic. That sounded about right.

“Blast” off was slow. Very slow. Slower than even a bike would go. Evan had the urge to make a ringing sound, as if he were a bell on aforementioned bike. Once they hit orbit, though, which took forever, they turned off the engines and drifted a bit. Nate and Bromley were going over some calculations with Twilight. The piece of paper the three were hovered over was covered with a strange scrawl of numbers. They needed to figure out the general area that Josh could possibly be in. Evan was playing tag with Rainbow Dash. He would vault himself off walls and take stabs with his fingers at Rainbow Dash’s head. She would try to fly after him but she soon found out that wings didn’t work in space. She lost sight of him and heard a small chuckle. Soon after she felt a hard poke in the back of the head and Evan flew overhead and Rainbow Dash shouted;

“Get back here so I can pummel you!” She launched herself off the floor and towards Evan, nailing him in the chest with her bony head. He flew over and down to where Twilight, Bromley, and Nate were working. He landed in the middle of the table and quickly apologized. His eyes widened as the Captain calmly grabbed a hold of his shirt.

Meanwhile, back down on the planet, the ponies decided to make themselves busy. Rarity began making food for the night, and Applejack kept her mind off of Evan by tilling the ground with her hooves. In her wild blonde mane, she had always kept seeds. So she planted what she could, in hope that crops would begin to grow. She based what seeds to plant off of what season it had been when they left Equestria. She planted tomatoes, corn, and celery, along with a few of her apple seeds. Besides the work she was doing, she was still thoroughly worried about that insane boy, that was now miles above her. “Did he really mean that I was part of the family? And what family? Did he have a big ol’ family like the apple family? Did he just mean the inferred family that the three of the humans had?” As she covered up the last seed she realized that planting had done nothing to ease her thoughts. She went to her room and stared out the window, still remembering the trail that the slow moving rocket had left. A thought came to her. A day dream of sorts, about what Evan could possibly be doing up there. For some reason he was buff, and in the Captains chair. Then she realized that in the scene, the captain was lying dead on the floor, as were Nate and Rainbow dash. Evan rose from his chair and walked slowly towards Twilight. Before she could witness the gruesome scene she was imagining, a knock came at her door.

“AJ, darling, are you alright in there? You sound as if you’re screaming into a pillow,” came Rarity’s voice.

“Oh yeah... uh... I’m fine. I just had a bad dream.” Applejack yelled through the door, her half truth bothering her immensely.

“You shouldn’t take nap in the middle of the day darling. It’s bad for your complexion.” Rarity’s hooves sounded off as she walked away. Applejack went back to her bed and sat down. Evan wouldn’t kill everyone up there, would he? He really was the only one that they really NEEDED to get back, as the pilot. A tear fell from her nose and she realized that she had become so confused and frustrated that she had begun crying. Evan would come back fine, as well as everyone else. She knew it.

“Bromley, this was an acciden- AH!” Bromley picked Evan up the shirt and threw him back over to where Rainbow Dash was waiting with a playful smirk on his face. She tossed Evan back by putting her back hoofs against the wall and swinging him by his shirt with her teeth. Bromley kicked Evan back calmly, then turned to his coworkers. They continued to mull over the problem, while Bromley occasionally made an movement to toss back Evan. “GOD! The nostalgia!” Came Evan’s scream, as memories of middle school flooded back to him. He often enjoyed the games of Evan pong that happened. They were not staged with malicious intent, but more as a nice release for all of them. This game of Evan pong continued between them until the scientists and the mathematically savvy captain came to the conclusion that the escape pod would’ve had a trajectory no more than two degrees to the left of the crash’s flight pattern. Nate quickly estimated, and drew a diagram on a new sheet of paper. With the new chart as their guide, Twilight used her magic to stop Evan in mid flight, and told him to change their direction to fit the picture.

The Captain called out a few orders to split tasks between everyone. Rainbow Dash kept watch out the windows and looked for any type of debris, while Evan was forced to do his job and take over the steering. Nate continued to make calculations, while Twilight focused on keeping the vessel entirely protected. Bromley himself stepped back and began separate diagnostics of the tether they had made to allow Rainbow to recover the escape pod. They turned the engines back on and directed themselves through orbit for about thirty minutes. Suddenly Rainbow Dash called out to everyone.

“I see something!” Came her excited tone. Nate rushed on over to the window and gave affirmation that the object was, indeed, a pod that looked exactly like one of the ones off their old ship. It was roughly two hundred meters away from where they had predicted. Sadly, their restraining cord for Rainbow Dash was only one hundred meters long, so they were going to have to break out of orbit. The only downside to that was that there was no guarantee they could go back without tearing their ship to shreds AGAIN. If that happened though, they wouldn’t be living through it. They needed to try though, no one was willing to let a living being die.

Twilight casted a spell of shielding, and held it there. Evan took them out of orbit, and even the captain released a long breath when it was clear they were safe. It took roughly an hour for them to get to Josh. Each and every tweak of the controls was risky, and had to be calculated before doing anything. The tension rose, but the captain had made his call. They were saving Josh. They were finally ready to send Rainbow Dash off. They released the cyan blue pony from an air sealed chamber, Bromley sending her a reassuring smile while she drifted out, which was one of the first smiles she had ever seen from him. It took her about twenty minutes to figure out flight in zero gravity outside of a spaceship. Soon Nate’s voice came over a headset inside the suit, telling her what to do. She followed his orders with care, much to his surprise, and was able to reach Josh fairly easily. She grasped the edge of the pod between her hoofs, and they began to reel her in. The captain quietly issued orders while this was happening. “Slow down a bit,” Or “Hurry it up a little.” were commonly heard phrases. Rainbow Dash was safely pulled back, and Nate was fitted into a suit efficiently. They let him out, and he pulled Rainbow Dash in, then used the tether previously attached to the pony to tie the escape pod to the outside of their ship. He made sure to take a look inside though, through the window on the outside.

Nate could see his friend, and he breathed a sigh of relief into his helmet. Thankfully, Josh was in cryogenic sleep, so the months of absolutely NOTHING shouldn’t have effected him too negatively. He reentered the ship, telling everyone that they had successfully rescued their old friend. Evan triangulated the ship in the correct direction afterwards. They piloted themselves over their home base and re-entered the atmosphere (which took no less than four hours). The craft kept groaning, but the shield spell kept it in one piece. Twilight, at this point, was straining, her mane damp with sweat. The captain could be encouraging when he wanted to though, and she kept the shields on until they began landing. That was less than smooth, due to the landing gear burning up in the atmosphere, which was due to the captain's premature order to deply them. He had growled a bit to himself, realizing a bit too late what that would do. They landed roughly, but thankfully Rarity had seen them come in through the sky, and had ran up. She didn’t know what possessed her to do it, but she ignored the ship and focused her magical energy on keeping the pod behind it safe. When the run down ship landed, leaving a massive crater, the pod gently settled down next to it. The door refused to open on the main ship though, and now Rarity and Twilight were completely drained of energy.

“God, why did you tell me to let out the landing gear? Idiot move.” Came Nate’s irritated voice.

“Yeah, CAPTAIN? Why did you? Huh?” Came Evan’s slightly mocking tone. He laughed at the captain loudly, but then felt a chill go up his spine. Everyone outside could hear odd sounds of running footsteps inside the pod shortly after, and then silence.

“Okay, you asked for it you bastards.” said Bromley suddenly, in an overly strained voice.

“W-wait! Bromley calm down! Bromley!” Evan’s voice blared out of the metal,

“Put me down! Dammit Bromley!” and mingled with Nate’s. The ponies, who had surrounded the crashed pod as soon as it landed, stepped back just in time. The hatch door suddenly detached completely from the ship, and Nate and Evan came flying out with it, both landing with a loud thud. Evan broke out into laughter, while Nate just shook his head in disbelief. Bromley had just used both of them respectively as battering rams to open up the sealed door.

Everypony greeted the returning heroes with glee. Business need to though first. Twilight asked Applejack to push the pod to her room. It was massive and round, so Applejack had to roll it back using her hind legs. They stuffed it in Twi’s room, which was barely large enough. They had caught two small spheres on the way back into the planet’s atmosphere, an orange one going on about space, and a blue one talking about how they should take him back so he could apologise to “her”, but they paid little attention to them. They appeared to have input sockets in their “backs”, which also seemed to have some function. Nate attached one to one of the computers left from their shuttle, and put the orange one in the spaceship, simply to satisfy it for the moment. He gave them little thought after that.

They had left in the morning and returned in the  middle of the night, so Applejack and Fluttershy didn’t rest easily.  Applejack was the first to emerge from Twilight’s room after observing the pod for a small amount of time. Hurriedly, she looked for her favorite human.

“Evan!” Applejack shouted excitedly, trotting up to the fellow. She leaped up to him and into his arms. He held her there in a tight hug. She was not normally one to worry about somebody as much as she did, but Evan was different, for some reason. She had never really attached herself emotionally to anypony before. At least not like this. She felt secure around Evan. Sure, he wasn’t the most sane being ever, and her daydream earlier did not help the feeling at all, but nonetheless, he was protective and that’s what she needed in a possible mate.

“Hi there.” He replied. He snuggled into her and she allowed him to. He really liked this pony, but he also didn’t want to tie himself down to anyone, or rather, anypony, for now. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad. She helped him feel sane. It was a unfamiliar, but a welcomed feeling. Perhaps becoming attached to his pony wouldn’t be a bad idea after all. He decided silently that he would have to talk to Bromley about it. Bromley seemed quite attached to Rainbow Dash, and Nate appeared to just see Fluttershy as an assistant or friend. He may also talk to Rainbow Dash about what she felt towards Bromley. It was unlikely, but it may help him decide what he wanted to do faster.

“Nate! I missed you!” Fluttershy said, flying up slowly and wrapping her forelegs around his shoulders. He hugged her back. She knew that he was pretty emotionally unstable, but she still enjoyed his company. He was a lot more sane than the other two humans. He was also much calmer, and much more sane. At least in her opinion. She also knew that he was much more generous and caring most of the time than the other two. He was nice. And that’s exactly what she felt she needed out of somepony. What role he would play in her life, she was unsure of at this time.

“I missed you too.” He said, nuzzling her. He carried her inside, then began organising their sketches and plans for the future. He liked the quiet, calm pony. Sure, she was a bit too curious about some things, and was not quick to act with violence, but that’s a good thing sometimes. He needed something there to calm him down whenever he went off. She was a sort of relaxer for him. He would actively deny it, but that’s why he liked keeping her around. Getting angry was easy in apocalyptic situations. Well, not with Fluttershy around. He smiled when he glanced out the door and saw her pass.

Evan and Bromley were engaged in a less than comfortable conversation about the ponies and what relationships with them could be like. They were intelligent beings, able to think just as well as humans could. One could perhaps consider them humans enclosed in a small horse body. The conversation continued as they walked down the main hallway and into the planning room.

Rarity was going on about how dirty everything always was, and Pinkie was just being Pinkie. She kept yelling at rocks to be quiet, and about some person she saw, but as many would know, it was probably just her being crazy.

Except it wasn’t.

“So what are you guys up to?” a different voice said, originating behind Evan and Bromley.

“And that’s why it’s totally fine to... wait weren’t you listening?” Evan said, thinking that Bromley was just trying to be funny.

“Why would I say ‘you guys’?” Bromley said, turning around.

“Hey!” The person said, forcing Evan and Bromley to leap from their seats and hit the ground. They backed away slowly.

“Who the hell are you!?” Evan shouted between gasps.

“How the hell did you get behind me?!” Bromley looked offended that his ninja skills had been thwarted.

“I call myself Keenan. The other people around here call me Urrrghnngfood.” he said, mimicking a zombie. Evan and Bromley simply nodded, still confused as to how Keenan got there.

“Who’s Urghngfood?” Nate said passing by, hearing that last comment. He did a double take when he saw the third person there, and verified that he was still himself. He walked up to the person and grabbed his face, also making sure that he was a separate, real, legitimate, entity. He then decided that now would be an appropriate time for the double take he was skeptical on doing, due to the fact that he could have been hallucinating, which would have made a double take double take worthy. Keenan bowed to them and made to leave, but Bromley tripped the guy. He rolled back to his feet easily and turned back to the captain, who shot a question out.

“How did you get here?” Keenan grinned at Bromley’s question and began his epic tale.

“Years ago, on Earth, I was helping an arms dealer. He oftentimes put in orders, and I had the connections in order to help him. I knew guys practically everywhere, and people liked that I knew so many people, so I was highly respected. I was the king of all the middle men basically. I’m sure you understand. All three of you look to be fairly... Illegal. Anyway, unfortunately that all went to pot when .. Well some issues came up. I failed with some diplomacy and a couple of my friends began to war. So I had to get out. They followed, and I had to leave the planet. I smuggled myself as a stowaway, on one of the first body export ships, and made it off planet.” Bromley stopped him there by raising his hand.

“How did you survive? The zombies would of eaten you as soon as you touched down. I do believe that you could sneak on board, seeing as I didn’t sense you, but zombies are numerous.” Bromley questioned him professionally, trying to get all the information.

“I am a master of stealth because of my occupation, and I had several surgeries when I

was really rich for a period of time. Anyway, because of these, I actually do not smell of anything. I am scentless. Therefore, the zombies couldn’t sense me when they came back to life, and I was able to avoid getting eaten for years. The occasional zombie would become aware of me, but they are pretty gullible you know? Anyways, I’ll just be... going...” Keenan finished his story with a grin and made to leave, but the Captain stopped him once again. Nate had moved in front of the door, and didn’t budge even when Keenan nudged him.

“You are on my property right now. My crew has taken possession of the area, and you have no right to be here unless I authorize you.” Bromley blandly voiced. Keenan twitched a little at the words. “But... I need more people. We need more people. So if you would like to stay, you are welcome to; if you can make yourself useful around here. Most people in your... Field of work, tend to be jacks of all trades. So I’ll trust that you will be a valuable asset. Do you wish to join us?” Though everything sounded formal, the Captain was dealing with business officially, and Nate and Evan were used to this routine. Kennan accepted his offer with a bow, and went off to introduce himself to the odd community beginning to form on this piece of shit planet.

Nate decided to ask Evan to spar again, but Evan was a little preoccupied with introducing himself and Bromley, who was still stunned, to the new guy. The sparring between them had begun mostly because attacks were more common than not anymore.

The attacks occurred in higher concentration during high noon. This made the fights more... odorous. But it was also easier. Heat causes meat to rot much more rapidly, so the things were already sort of loosened up before the undead humans got to the house. On top of that, the zombies were more visible against the red ground. Their pale skin was also slightly reflective. So, considering these factors, and the amount of combat skill between everybody, this “threat” to their survival wasn’t very... well, threatening. Keenan actually brought a very useful fighting style to their group. He carried a metal pole, used much like a bow staff, and easily tore through the zombies with Evan and Bromley at the front lines. Nate would calmly follow with the blunt ends of the guns, keeping the ponies safe from any zombies that managed to get through. The ponies still sort of sat on the side lines, but Evan had spotted Bromley experimenting with Rainbow Dash (not like that you dirty perverts). He was teaching her to fight and use her assets and thankfully she had trained enough on Equestria to already be plenty strong enough. The only thing he really had to teach her was how to apply her power, much like he did. Because of this, Evan began tutoring Applejack. He taught her via anatomy, where the weak points of humans were. Where flesh would separate from the body, and where their small sense of balance originated from.

Ranged weapons were still not optional, but they were making fast progress as far as technology goes, so who knows? Maybe, one day, they’ll create space cannons. The sky is the limit. Not even the sky. The UNIVERSE is the limit.

A/N EpicFailFTW1528: WOOO! CHAPTER 6! Not that exciting. Meh. Anyways, we would like some cover art for the story. Please?