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// Chapter 17: Dark thoughts 
// Story: Spikenautica 
// by PhysicistBrony 
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Give up… that's all Spike wanted to do. He felt like he couldn't carry on any longer and that the death of his friends was too much for him to handle. Their deaths were a burden he felt like he was carrying alone. He knew he wasn't truly responsible for their deaths, but he thought about all the many ways he could've prevented at least one of their deaths. He could have gone back to help Twilight get to a life pod and she would still be alive with him, not dead and eaten by a sea monster. He could have run back to Rarity and helped her, but he instead chose to run away and leave her for dead, a selfish action, no doubt, but he had been focused on his own survival. So much for always being a friend to Twilight and the others. Some friend he was

Then again, Fluttershy made it. He didn't help her, but here she was, comforting him in his weakest moment when he should have been there for her. He had managed to save at least one of his friends. He had helped her and supported her when she needed it most, and he couldn't give up now. Though, what would be the point of going on, just to suffer the same fate as Pinkie Pie or Twilight? They could both just give up and let the fish have another meal. Though they probably wouldn't be able to eat Spike all that well, given his almost impenetrable scales, but he could still let them try. It would be a much faster death than dying from old age surrounded by fear, water, and paranoia.

Just then, Spike noticed a flash of red in the darkness of the habitat. He slowly looked up, not sure what to expect. "Maybe it will be a warning about how the habitat is going to collapse and crush us both." Spike thought, not sure if it was wishful thinking or just his tired mind not realizing that would mean death. Luckily, or unluckily, depending on how Spike decided to look at it, it was not an emergency light. What it was instead was the light on the radio, meaning a message had come in. Spike thought for a second and decided it would be best not to answer it, lest it be another life pod that would lead them to the death site of more friends. He just leaned back into Fluttershy's hug and tried to sleep some more, but the flashing red light made it rather difficult.

Eventually, Spike fell back into a heavy slumber, only for Fluttershy to wake up shortly thereafter and notice the flashing red light. Though she decided against standing up just yet, mostly because if she got up, she would wake up Spike. She was also afraid that the message would lead them towards another destroyed life pod and dead pony. She felt as though the only reason she was continuing on was to help Spike get through this. Not that she would have gone and killed herself, no, she didn't have the guts for that. What she would have done is stopped caring about her safety and would have probably gone into dangerous areas hoping a fish would eat her while she had her back turned.

The more she thought about it, the more she began wondering why none of her other friends had survived. Applejack would've been able to help him with gardening and keeping the mean fish at bay. Twilight might have had a couple of breakdowns, but she could have used her magic to help Spike survive. She didn't know if Rainbow Dash had died or not, but even she would have been able to help because she had a lot of practice flying, so she could fly pretty far around to look for islands. Pinkie Pie would have been able to cheer up Spike when he was down and she could cook very well. Even Rarity could have helped Spike, though most of her help would have been emotional, because Celestia forbid Rarity get her mane a little wet instead of dying.

All she had been was a burden. She hadn't even been able to swim that all that well until he spent time and taught her. He took time out of his agenda to go get fruits for her to eat because she didn't like the taste of fish. He had decided to sleep on the floor of the life pod instead of her, and when she did, he went out and risked his life to try and make her comfortable. All she had done for him was damage the Seamoth, waste his time on swimming lessons, consume the food and water he went out and gathered, and bothered him with all of her fears. She was older than him for crying out loud! She was supposed to take care of him, not the other way around.

Fluttershy was quickly snapped out of her very dark thoughts by the sound of her rumbling stomach, which apparently decided to have a conversation with Spike's, because his stomach growled shortly after. Turns out skipping a meal can cause somepony to become very hungry. Fluttershy then decided it was time to get up, because dying from starvation when it was avoidable was not how she felt like going out. She started to stand, but was held in place by Spike, who muttered something like, "What's the point?" before slipping back into the realm of dreams.

Fluttershy looked at Spike, curious about what he had meant by that. She started to lightly shake Spike, attempting to wake him up. "C'mon Spike, it's time to wake up and eat." Fluttershy whispered into his ear. Spike quickly mumbled about wanting more time to sleep in. Fluttershy tried again, shaking him lightly and whispering slightly louder, "Spiiike. It's time to wake up." He then replied with, "Twilight, reshelving can wait. I'm tired." followed by light snoring. Fluttershy decided it would probably be best if she just laid him down while she got something to eat.

She slowly managed to get him to loosen his grip, then laid him down on his bed and made her way into their garden room. She then started to pull some of the fruits out and replant the seeds, that way they wouldn't run out of food. She then made her way back to her bed and started eating the fruits, being careful as to not have any of the juice fall onto the sheets. Celestia knew how hard it would be to wash a fruit juice stain off of her blankets without soap. "Wait," Fluttershy thought with disgust, "Without soap, how are we supposed to have clean sheets and blankets? The saltwater of the ocean will only ruin the sheets."

With that on her mind, Fluttershy slid to the floor to eat her fruit, that way there was zero risk of dirtying her sheets. As she ate, Fluttershy stared at the blinking light, almost hoping it would stop through sheer mental power, but knowing it wouldn't actually turn off until she had answered it. So she finished her food, stood up, and walked over to the machine to answer it. As she pushed the button, she turned down the volume on it so that Spike wouldn't get woken up by it. The poor baby dragon had been having a really tough time dealing with the death of their friends, not that Fluttershy wasn't, but she knew that death was just another stage in the circle of life.

The radio then started playing a pre-recorded message from another life pod in the area. "Hello? Anypony there?" Fluttershy didn't recognize the voice, but whoever it was a stallion, but didn't sound very alarmed, more confused than anything else. "Uh, if anypony is receiving this, my sister and my life pod crashed down into what looks like a forest made entirely of sea kelp, but it's way too big to be from Equestria. I'll see if I can attach the coordinates to this message, so if there aren't, blame it on my lack of skill with these things. That was always more of my sister's thing." A noise is heard in the background and another voice mumbled something that Fluttershy couldn't make out, but it did in fact sound feminine.

"Ok, the coordinates should be attached to the message. My and my sister are doing fine, but really don't like the sea kelp, so if you have a better area, could you come get us? Heck even if you don't, some company wouldn't hurt, so just come here and we can all help each other. That would be greatly appreciated. Well, uh, goodbye then, and good luck with your own survival if you don't come for us." A voice is heard in the background yelling at the speaker. "Ok ok jeez, just come for us please. I don't think I can stand being stuck with my sister as the only other pony on the Celestia forsaken planet. Don't get me wrong, I love her and all, but interacting with only one other pony can drive a stallion crazy." The message then ends, followed by Fluttershy's PDA downloading the coordinates of the life pod.

"Well, if they are really as well off as they say, then they should still be alive. I'll go get them while Spike's sleeping." Fluttershy then quickly wrote a message on Spike's PDA stating why she left the habitat and took both the Seamoth and the Seaglide. As she climbed into the Seamoth, she got a little concerned about whether or not the other ponies would still be alive when she got there. She was depending on their survival, mostly because she didn't want to have to find the dead bodies of somepony she might have seen on the Aurora, and because it might raise Spike's spirit to know that somepony else had survived.

She then started to make her way towards the coordinates, listening to the soft him of the Seamoth's propeller and the water zooming past the window. She found the hum to be rather relaxing and started to unwind. As soon as Fluttershy thought the trip would be peaceful, a roar loud enough to shake her Seamoth, cut through the water and caused her to jump as high as the Seamoth would allow her. She quickly spun the Seamoth around, but didn't see the cause of the roar, so she turned the right direction and continued on her way trying to get to the coordinates as fast as possible.

As she got closer to the coordinates, paranoid thoughts began to float through Fluttershy's mind. "What if that message was from a week ago and now a big scary sea monster ate them?! What if the kelp is poisonous and they died from that?! What if-" Fluttershy's thoughts were soon cut off by the splash of orange and white in a landscape of green. Fluttershy was surprised to see the life pod was fully intact, if not sunken, but was even more surprised by the familiar face that greeted her when she approached the life pod. To say that the other pony was surprised to see Fluttershy would be like saying that Twilight could cast a spell. Very underrated descriptions of the true potential of the statement.