//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1: The beginning 
// Story: Spikenautica 
// by PhysicistBrony 
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As Spike strolled through the halls of the Aurora, he let his mind wander. He let random thoughts just come and go as he strolled to his destination. One thought that kept popping into his head was the conversation he had with Pinkie Pie. He was still confused about what she had meant.

A sudden wailing alarm broke Spikes train of thought. It took him a second, but he suddenly realized what the alarm meant. Something bad happened and the ship needed to be evacuated immediately. Spike took a quick look at the nearby sign and say the he was heading in the right direction. He then began running toward the life pod bay.

Quickly running down the hall, Spike's only objective was to reach the life pod. Nothing else mattered at the moment, just reaching that pod and getting off the ship. After hopping inside, he peaked out of the hatch to see if anypony else was scrambling towards his life pod. Suddenly, the Aurora began to shake and he slipped off the ladder and hit the floor with a thud. He quickly stood up and flung himself into one of the seats and began the ejection process. He quickly strapped himself in and pressed launch. As his life pod begins hurtling towards the planet, he looks out of the top hatch to get one last look at the Aurora.

Suddenly a massive green beam connects with the Aurora, causing it to explode and blast chunks of the ship in all directions. Spike's life pod begins to shake violently from the shockwave and almost immediately after the shaking began, the fire extinguisher flew off the wall, followed by a panel on the wall. Spike's eyes widened in fear as the panel and fire extinguisher shot around the life pod. Before he could even comprehend what was about to happen, the panel flew at his face, knocking him unconscious.

Spike slowly opens his eyes, head pounding and ears ringing. He groggily looks around and sees a blinding orange light. His eyes shoot open when he smells smoke and realises his life pod is on fire. He frees himself as quickly as possible to grab the fire extinguisher and quickly puts out the fire. "Man, that could have destroyed the life pod," thought Spike.

Spike pulls out his PDA and begins to power it up."This PDA is booted up in emergency mode. It's purpose is to help you survive on an alien planet," Spike hears the PDA say. "You have suffered mild head trauma. This is considered to be an optimal outcome," the PDA states. 

"Well at least I didn't die," Spike says to himself. He proceeds to examine the life pod for any breaches. Aside from some scorch marks, he sees nothing of concern and is satisfied with the condition of the life pod. He decided he might as well see what the area around looks like. "Can't hurt to see my surroundings," Spike mutters.

Spike proceeds to open the top hatch of the life pod and climb out. After climbing out, he is in shock at the huge thing of metal sticking out of the water in the distance. "The Aurora suffered extreme hull damage from an unknown source. Zero life signs detected," the PDA tells Spike. Spike could hardly believe that the Aurora was even able to be damaged, no less destroyed.

"Ok, well it looks like there is no land anywhere nearby, so I might as well see what I've got in the life pod." Spike says as he starts to climb back into the life pod. After opening the onboard storage compartment, he found some water bottles, some nutrient blocks, some flares, and a wetsuit. After finding the food and water, Spike realized how thirsty he was, so he immediately drank a bottle of water to quench his thirst.

After a quick examination of the wetsuit, he realised it was made for a pony, not a dragon. "Well, it's a good thing the fabricators are designed to turn any wetsuit into a wetsuit suited for any species" Spike muttered to himself. He grabbed the wetsuit and put it through the fabricator to make it for a dragon. "Well, I guess it's time to get my feet wet," Spike thought to himself after he put on the suit.

Spike opened the bottom of the hatch and was greeted by a giant eyeball staring up at him."AAAAGH!" Spike yelled while jumping back, "What is that thing?!" The fish quickly swam away, but Spike wasn't sure if he wanted to get into the water with that thing. "Well it's either that or I can die of dehydration, so I guess I'll join the fish," said Spike. He quickly hopped in and looked around, noticing that the fish had swam away, but saw just as many weird looking fish swimming just out of his reach. He quickly decided to head back inside and check what his fabricator could make.

After going through his fabricator, he realized that he was going to need some titanium before he could build anything. He quickly departed and looked around, but only found metal salvage that came off of the Aurora as it crashed. After bringing back all the salvage he could get his claws on, he sighed with frustration at the fact all he could find was old metal. He quickly remembered that the metal salvage could be broken down into titanium. He proceeds to start breaking down the salvage until he had so much titanium he couldn't hold it all.

"I regret grabbing all that salvage," Spike thought, "Now the storage compartment is almost full of titanium." After consulting the fabricator again, he came to the conclusion he would need some batteries to make some more tools. After embarking from the life pod, he went to go looking for copper and some colorful, acidic mushrooms. Little did he know, there was a giant figure slowly becoming aware of his presence.