Spike and Fluttershy both stood inside the life pod wearing their new radiation suits. "Um, I-I'm not sure about this Spike." Fluttershy whispered. "Come on, you can do this Fluttershy. It won't be that scary once we start." Spike said calmly, trying not to scare Fluttershy even more. Slowly, Fluttershy began to climb out of the hatch with Spike swiftly following.
Once in the water, Spike swam in front of Fluttershy and attempted to show her how to paddle underwater. Just as she was about to move, a Peeper swam right in front of her and she started trying backpedaling to escape from it, but didn't succeed in more than an inch or two of backwards movement. Spike swam over and grabbed Fluttershy's hoof and dragged her to the surface. "Fluttershy, you can't scream and run from every fish you see. Besides, you already know about Peepers. Why were you so scared of it?." Spike asked. "O-oh, um, i-it was bec-cause I didn't s-see it there." Fluttershy said while shaking from the jump scare given to here by the Peeper.
"Ok, well now that we are above water, do you think you can show me how well you swim on the surface?" Spike asked, hoping she could at least swim above water. "Um, ok. I think I can swim decently above water." Fluttershy said as she began to swim around. "Ok, at least she can swim above water. That should make teaching her below water swimming easier." Spike thought as Fluttershy slowed her swimming. "Ok, it's good to see you can swim on the surface because that means it should be easier to learn to swim below water. Not that I would have a problem teaching you to swim above water." Spike quickly added.
"Ok, let's try to swim underwater. Your fins should make it easier to swim rather than just using your hooves." Spike said as he slowly started to go under the water. Fluttershy soon followed him, both forgetting the fact that they couldn't talk to each other. "Ok Fluttershy, try moving your leg like this." He said as he moved his arm to his side and went from in front of him to his side, propelling himself forward. "Um, I can try." Fluttershy then copied his motion and moved forward a little bit.
Spike then motioned for Fluttershy to surface to get more air. "Ok, so you can swim like that, but you need to work on how much power you put behind your stroke." Spike said after pulling off his mask. "Oh, I think I can try that." Fluttershy said as she started putting on her mask to go below again. As they went back under, Spike was watching Fluttershy to make sure she could at least swim well enough to practice on her own. He eventually signaled for Fluttershy to swim back to the life pod and climbed inside to wait for her.
"So," Spike said after Fluttershy climbed in, "I'm going to head back out for that silver you need. If you want, you can keep practicing, but you don't have to if me not being here will make you uncomfortable." "Oh, I think I might wait for you to get back so I can prepare the rest of the parts for when you get back." With that, Spike opened up the bottom hatch and climbed out, leaving Fluttershy to prepare the radio pieces.
Spike then climbed into the Seamoth and began to pilot it towards the Grassy Plateaus to find the sandstone deposits. After about four minutes, Spike was at the edge of the Grassy Plateau, ready to search. He then remembered the shark thing that lived there and was hoping he could find sandstone away from the sand the sharks dug in. He also decided on a whim to name them "Sand Sharks" due to their hunting strategy involving digging through the sand.
"Oh geez," Spike thought, "I'm starting to sound like the PDA." He then started searching the different columns of rock for deposits, but only found limestone deposits, except for one sandstone deposit that had a piece of lead inside. "Wow, thanks for the lead that I don't need anymore." Spike then climbed into his Seamoth, drove over to a nearby cave system, and began to venture inside.
After a few minutes he needed to turn on his lights because it was so dark. As he went deeper, he saw a purplish glow coming from deep within the cavern. Once he reached his max depth, he noticed the glow was coming from big purple mushrooms. "Artificial structure detected somewhere within this cave system." His PDA stated as he got close to the mushroom.
"Wait, you're telling me that somepony built a base all the way down here? That seems like way too much trouble. What if it's other survivors! I need to come back here later." These were all running through Spike's head as he started swimming back to his Seamoth after he realized he couldn't stay in the cave long. He then began to ascend out of the cave and started to search for more sandstone.
After he drove towards another column, Spike began to search around for sandstone while also keeping an eye out for Sand Sharks. After a quick search, he found a gram total of two silver, one gold, and one titanium. After he climbed into the Seamoth, he began to drive back home when the sand underneath him suddenly burst and a sand shark tore a small chunk out of the right side of the Seamoth. It wasn't enough to stop Spike, but he knew he would have to repair it after he got back to the life pod.
After another four minute journey, Spike soon pulled up to the life pod and climbed out. He quickly assessed the damage on the life pod and decided that after a quick use of the repair tool it would be fine. After doing the aforementioned action, Spike collected a few fish for dinner after having been gone so long. He climbed into the life pod to find Fluttershy sifting through the storage unit and grabbing a fish to cook.
"Hey Fluttershy, I'm back." Spike said while putting a fish through the fabricator. "*EEEEEK* Spike, don't scare me like that," Fluttershy said while trying to calm her rapid heart rate, "You know how easily scared I am."
"Sorry," Spike said sheepishly, "I didn't mean to scare you. I was just letting you know I was back." Fluttershy quickly calmed down and looked at Spike. "It's ok, I just wasn't expecting you to be back just yet. Oh, are you hungry? I was just about to cook some food for myself." Fluttershy said, not noticing the cooked fish Spike had just made.
"Um, I thought it was obvious I was hungry. I did just cook a fish." Spike said with a deadpan expression on his face. "Oh, um, sorry. I didn't notice." This time, it was Fluttershy's turn to feel sheepish. "It's alright Fluttershy. You were busy trying to calm yourself after I scared you. It's nothing to apologise for." Spike said reassuringly. "So, how about we eat and then you can finish those portable radio's while I tell you about my own discovery."