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// Chapter 20-1: The Aurora 
// Story: Spikenautica 
// by PhysicistBrony 
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After the decision was made, everypony decided it would be a good idea to wait until the next day to go to the Aurora. Everypony was feeling tired from all the work, except Fluttershy, so they decided to go to sleep. They doubled up on beds, with Spike and Fluttershy sharing one bed while Swift and Speedy shared the other. After a restful night's sleep, everypony woke up, only to discover Spike had rolled off the bed in his sleep.

"Well, I guess we were all really tired if I managed to roll off the bed and none of us woke up." Spike said, amused how even he hadn't woken up after hitting the hard, metal floor. They all got a bit of a laugh from it, but were soon enough eating breakfast and talking about how they were going to get to the Aurora. The main part of the discussion revolved around everypony's positioning.

Fluttershy wanted to pilot the Seamoth, but so did Speedy. Swift wanted to at least have the Seaglide to use. The ongoing theme for positioning was that Spike would be swimming, as having appendages to make scoops would allow him to naturally swim the fastest, because they all knew hooves didn't allow for very fast swimming. They eventually decided on having Speedy drive the Seamoth, have Swift hang onto the antenna on the back of the Seamoth, Fluttershy would use the Seaglide, and Spike would swim as fast as he could. They figured Spike would arrive later than they did, so they planned to stay at their landing site on the front end of the Aurora.

Once they had positioning all figured out, they began packing the rations into the Seamoth. Spike had decided that his rations would go with them because he didn't want to be weighed down by the food. They then began packing tools, including flashlights, repair tools, scanners, and survival knives. After the Seamoth was sufficiently loaded, everypony got into position and Fluttershy, Speedy, and Swift were on their way to the Aurora while Spike began the long swim there.

Spike knew that he would lose sight of the others shortly after their trip began, so he made sure that Speedy had a radio with her so she could relay information back to him. Like where any predators were and if they were getting delayed. As Spike was swimming, he heard a small roar, but looked down and saw one of the sharks from the Grassy Plateau was hunting a variety of fish. He didn't see any reason to concern himself with that, so he kept on swimming.

The swim was mostly uneventful up until he started nearing the Aurora. As he got closer, the water changed drastically from a clear blue sea to a brown, murky water, almost as if somepony were constantly shifting tons of sand on the seafloor. He ended up having to surface so he could see the Aurora, and soon realized he was way closer to the back than he had intended to be. He quickly corrected his course and began swimming, staying near the surface of the water so he wouldn't get turned around.

He noticed that it was considerably later in the day than he thought it would be by the time he arrived. As he got closer to the front of the ship, he felt himself shaking and a horrible groaning noise came from his right. He quickly looked over and saw a wall of metal. He then thought about how the groaning noise could have been something shifting in the Aurora, but the idea that the entire ship might fall apart on top of them scared him.

Spike started swimming as fast as he possibly could, hoping to get to the landing site soon. He quickly reached the gap in the front of the ship and swam inside. He spotted the Seamoth parked just in the water line and saw three pony shaped figures throwing what looked like giant four legged spiders. He suddenly realized that it was Swift, Speedy, and Fluttershy fighting off the spider-like creatures from the floating island. It looked like Swift and Speedy were fending them off with the survival knives, but there were still a couple that slipped past and tried to get to Fluttershy.

As soon as he knew that they were in trouble he began swimming even faster to try to help them.When he got to the scuttling creatures, he immediately grabbed them and tossed them further up the ship. He then blew a small blast of fire at those remaining, and watched as they quickly scurried off, desperate to avoid being roasted alive. As the last of the spider things disappeared, Spike turned to his fellow survivors and asked how long they were under attack.

Swift decided he would tell Spike, as Speedy was occupied with comforting a very scared Fluttershy. "Well, when we got here, everything looked fine, minus the fires and debris. We parked the Seamoth and we started to get everything unpacked from it, when one of those creatures decided to come over and investigate. We had my sis throw it back to where we saw it come from. It then went back and found a bunch more to attack us with. We've been fighting them off for almost 15 minutes . . . I don't think that we could have lasted much longer without you."

Once Swift was done debriefing Spike about how unloading went and how well they held off the spider things, they both went to comfort Fluttershy to make sure they were ready to continue further into the ship. As they approached, they saw Speedy hugging and quietly talking to Fluttershy in an attempt to calm her down. Speedy appeared to be doing a decent job of calming Fluttershy down, although it was still clear how shaken up she was.

Spike walked up to her and started to talk to her. "It's OK Fluttershy. You're safe now. They won't be coming back anytime soon. None of them will hurt you while I'm around. None of us are going to be hurt by them. I know you're scared, but we do have to get moving so we are less exposed to the elements." Fluttershy nodded and slowly got up, not making a sound the entire time.

They all began to grab the supplies that they needed for venturing inside and sorting out who needed what. Spike and Speedy were in charge of the flashlights. Speedy and Fluttershy were in charge of the repair tools. Swift and Spike carried the rations for everypony. Lastly, Fluttershy and Swift carried the scanners. After they made sure they were properly geared up, they mentally prepared themselves to begin the trek into the Aurora.

The start of the trek began with climbing up the slope of metal that curved around to a doorway. As they were climbing up, they noticed a couple of small crates that appeared to be openable. Spike made a slight detour to see if he could open the crate. To his and everypony else's surprise, the crate soundlessly opened up, revealing a nutrient bar. Spike grabbed the nutrient bar and talked with the others, deciding that they would open any other crates they found.

They continued the climb, occasionally seeing a spider thing crawl under some metal or scurry away from them, in fear of the purple and green one. Fluttershy was shaking almost the entire walk up slope, fearing one of the spider things would attack them. Spike noticed this and put his hand on her side, causing her to "eep" and look over to see Spike. She slowly called down, but was still worried about the spiders attacking her.

After a five minute hike, they made it to the top of the slope, only to notice that the only way to reach the door was by crossing over a fallen support beam. They all had uneasy feelings about crossing it, but they all knew they would have to. Fluttershy felt the most at ease out of all of them once she remembered she could just fly over the gap, and that if she fell, Speedy would catch her. Swift was the first to cross over, then Fluttershy, followed by Speedy, meaning Spike was the last one to cross over. As he was about to walk across, he heard Fluttershy shouting at him to turn around.

Spike whirled around and came face to face with five of the spiders ready to attack him. Spike momentarily froze, allowing either the bravest or the dumbest spider to leap at him. Spike quickly threw his arms up, hoping he could stop it from hitting his face. The spider then clamped onto his arm and bit down. Spike noticed a slight pinch, but was otherwise relatively unaffected. 

Now that Spike knew he wasn't in danger, he noticed something odd about this particular spider. It seemed that it was covered in giant green polka dots, even over what looked like its eye. Though Spike thought the weirdest part was that the dots seemed to move and shift. Spike was very unsettled by the look of it, so he quickly pulled it off and tossed it away. He then blew another small thing of fire at the spider, causing them to scurry away in fear.

Spike then turned back to the beam and quickly crossed over it. Once he got to the other side, he was swiftly tackled by Fluttershy. "Oh goodness, I thought you were going to get hurt! Are you ok? I thought I saw one of them bite you! Do we need to stop to look at the wound?" Fluttershy managed to force out in a single breath. It was eerily similar to how Pinkie Pie could have an entire conversation in one breath. Spike assured her that he was fine. He explained how they couldn't get through his scales, but he did have a small rip in his suit that would need repairing.

Once Fluttershy had a good look at the spot Spike was bitten, she assured everypony that his scales were in fact unpierced. They continued walking towards the door, only to notice that the flames they thought were near the door were actually in the door frame. "Well now how are we supposed to get through?" Speedy asked, unable to see a way around the problem. Spike and Swift started looking around, but Swift was the one who spotted the fire extinguisher near some debris.

"Hey, that fire extinguisher might be of some use." Swift said, walking over to it and picking it up in his mouth. He then stepped in front of the fire and began dousing the flames with monoammonium phosphate to put it out. After he was sure the fire was smothered and it was safe to move through, he set the fire extinguisher to the side, finally able to talk again, "Well now that that's out of the way, we can continue onward."

Everypony gathered back together and trekked into the ship, only to stop at a T-shaped hallway. Left seemed to go down into the ship while the right seemed to go to a small commander's room, but it was blocked by fire. They all decided that stopping in the commander's room would be first, then they would go further into the Aurora. Spike turned around and went back for the fire extinguisher and grabbed it. He then walked over to the flaming doorway and started drenching the fire with monoammonium phosphate. After the fire was extinguished, Spike tossed the now empty fire extinguisher into the corner to be forgotten about.

Everypony decided it would be Spike and Speedy that went into the room to explore because of how small the room was. After they went inside, Speedy immediately ran over to the console in the back of the room and began downloading the message on it. Spike started looking around and found a couple of batteries, an abandoned PDA, and a poster of a PRAWN suit. He grabbed all of the batteries and the poster, but only moved the info from the PDA to his own. After looking through the files, the only one worth noting was the "Note to Self" file, which contained the password for the Cargo Bay 3 doors.

"Hey Speedy. How's that terminal coming along?" Spike asked, curious about what was on the console.

"I just finished downloading the files on here. I'm just gonna shut it down now and be done with it. Did you find anything useful?" Speedy responded, just as she powered down the terminal, saving the ship's power and extra 0.00000000001% total power withdrawal.

"I found three batteries, a poster of a PRAWN suit, and a PDA with the code for the door leading to Cargo Bay 3." After that, they left the room to see what Swift and Fluttershy had been doing. Turns out there had been an abandoned PDA in the hallway they hadn't noticed along with a broken Propulsion Cannon they scanned for the blueprint. Once they gathered up all of their loot, they continued down the last section with a sign labeled "CARGO BAY 3".

Once they got to the end of the hallway, they encountered their next problem, debris blocking the pathway. Most of the debris was smaller stuff, like a bench or a crate, but it was the ginormous crate that made up the majority of the blockage. "Well how are we going to get around this one?" Swift asked, hoping somepony else had an idea. They all thought for a minute before Spike formulated a plan.

"So, what if Fluttershy flies onto this big crate and I help lift Swift and Speedy up there, and then you guys pull me up?" The plan seemed like it would work, so everypony got into their positions. Fluttershy flew up to the top of the crate and waited for Swift and Speedy. The first problem they encountered was how they would position themselves to allow Spike to lift them. The first idea they tried was stacking a crate onto a bench and using it like stairs, but Spike would stand next to the crate to assist in getting the other two ponies up.

That's where they encountered the second problem. Spike just simply wasn't tall or strong enough to lift a pony over his head efficiently. Try as he might, he couldn't seem to lift Swift or Speedy up enough to have Fluttershy grab them. They decided they would have Swift help the others up and then he would get pulled up. This method worked a lot more efficiently than the original plan. Once it came time to lift Swift up, Speedy used her magic to pull him up while Spike and Fluttershy grabbed his hooves and pulled.

Soon enough, Swift was also on the crate and they were ready to move on. Luckily, the side of the crate facing the Cargo Bay had a ramp made from various crates and desks that they could walk down. After a short walk, they came to a locked door requiring a four digit pin to enter. Spike pulled out his PDA and looked back into the "Note to Self" file from before. He then typed the numbers 1-4-5-4, and the door slid open with a slight hiss, "Viola,"  Spike said with a big grin on his face, "We can now continue onward."