Stuck on Earth

by The Unremarkable Author

The Sun Rises

A new dawn was brought and the land of the unknown was cast into light. The storm from the night before had ceased, leaving only overcast. A gentle breeze cast itself across the environment, creating a subtle whisper. Connie was sitting at the table eating breakfast. She was hunched over slightly, a few veins were visible in her eyes.

Fail Safe walked past Connie and began rummaging through the supplies. "Hey, did you make the coffee?" he said without looking up.

"Nope."

"What do you mean nope?" Fail Safe said, bringing his gaze up to meet Connie's.

"I mean I didn't make coffee."

"Why?" Fail Safe said, a frown stretched across his face.

She shrugged. "There's no coffee to begin with." she took another mouth full of cereal. "Apparently the maniacs back at home thought it was a good idea to send us here without coffee." She swallowed and continued. "At this point I'm just trying to stay awake."

Fail Safe began rummaging through the bags again. "Do we have caffeine pills or tea at least?"

"We don't have tea, at least to my knowledge. I skimmed through the supplies a little while ago, I might've missed something." She took another mouthful of food. "As for the caffeine pills? I don't know."

Fail Safe was still looking through the supplies when Deep Thought got up. He sat across from Connie. "You look like shit." Deep Thought said.

"I feel like shit."

Deep Thought let out a soft chuckle. "Did you not sleep?"

"No, I slept. Just not for very long, that's all." She explained. "If I can get some caffeine in my system, that'd help a bunch." She smirked. "Or alcohol."

"You're a pegasus. You can't handle your alcohol well."

Connie leaned her head back slightly, a small smile spread across her face. "Yeah, I know."

"So where's the coffee?"

Fail Safe had buried his head inside the bag. "Working on it." He piped up.

Deep Thought looked back towards Connie. "Wouldn't it be pretty easy to find the coffee?" He said in a hushed voice. "I thought we were organized."

Connie shrugged. "We are organized." She said before taking another mouthful of food. "For whatever reason, the ponies back home thought it'd be a good idea to not pack coffee or tea." She swallowed. "Or at least I haven't found any. Fail Safe is looking for caffeine pills."

Deep Thought rubbed the back of his neck with a fore-hoof. "Eh, I guess it's better than nothing." He leaned forward slightly. "Couldn't we just ask Leading Edge?"

"Yeah, I guess we could." She looked towards the lump in the sleeping bag. "We have an emergency, Lea!"

"Uh-huh, right." Leading Edge said and then yawned. "What's wrong?"

"Really? That's it?" Connie said. She rolled her eyes and then spoke. "God, you are boring." She pushed away her empty bowl and then stood up. "No one packed coffee or tea. Can you contact command and get them to supply us with this precious nectar?"

Lea's head popped out of the sleeping bag. "Why did you call it..? You know what, I don't care." he said tiredly. "Uh, yeah. I'll tell them." He sighed and then climbed out of the bag. "Just give me some time to wake up."

Deep Thought turned to Connie "What do you do in the team again?"

She smirked. "If you're trying to spark a conversation, it's working." She shifted her position slightly. "I don't care either way. If we ever need to do any recon, I'm the one to do it." She extended her wings and flapped them gently a few times. "Doesn't help much if my wings are restricted by the armor."

"I know." Lea said. "Once Deep Thought] gets those results back we can take the wing gloves off."

Deep Thought gave a sheepish grin. "Yeah, I'll get back to that." He said before trotting off to his lab.

Connie turned to Leading Edge "So what now?"

"Huh? Oh." He walked to the radio station. "We're still going to proceed with the mission as scheduled." He sat back on his haunches and started fiddling with the controls. "Headquarters? This is Leading Edge, am I receiving?" He waited about a minute before turning his head to Connie. "Didn't you attach the high gain antenna with Deep Thought?"

"Yeah, we did." She said while walking towards the station. "I'm no tech wiz, so there is a possibility that we messed something up." She looked at the back of the station and started inspecting the connections. "Uh, no. The antenna is connected."

"Huh, weird." Lea started. "I guess I'll do a full system scan. That should find any problems with it." He fiddled with the controls and shortly afterwards a screen lit up with several columns, each displaying green text. Leading Edge's eyes flicked across the columns. He brought his hooves to the keyboard and started typing. His brow furrowed. "Why the fuck isn't this working?" He muttered to himself.

---

"The genetics tests have been completed." Deep Thought said. "From what I've seen, the microscopic lifeforms on this planet are completely incompatible with our genome."

Lea looks up from what he was doing. "Out of curiosity, what do you mean by completely incompatible?"

"We're all made up of cells, right? Those cells have DNA in them. DNA uses a four letter alphabet to store information about who and what we are. Each letter is represented by a specific molecule that has some very interesting properties. I won't go into detail about what those properties are. Am I making sense?"

"Yes."

"Well, the alphabet on this planet is completely different from the one's back home. It'd be like having two factions that each have their own language. They just wouldn't be able to communicate."

Leading Edge looked thoughtful for a moment. "Your analogy doesn't perfectly match up with the situation, but I see what you're getting at. Does that mean we'd be safe without the gas masks and wing gloves?"

"You'll be fine without them, but you should still bring them with you."

"Oh yeah. Of course." Lea said. "I just wanted to know if I could actually use my wings."

"Oh, I understand. I hate wearing these gas masks as much as the next guy." He smirked. "I'm just glad we don't have to wear it whenever we do our expeditions."

Lea laughed. "You're not the only one with pro-" he said before being cut off.

"I think we have a problem." Connie announced.

"Uh, what kind of problem are we talking about here?"

"I checked our comm systems. They're all working." She said.

"Thats.. fine, actually. How is that bad?" Leading Edge asked.

"If our communication systems are working, we should be able to contact command. However, we can't. So that means only one thing."

"What's that?"

"The portal closed."

"What do you mean the portal closed?" Leading asked, pacing. "Maybe we're out of range?"

"Well, on the way to the camp sight, we were still able to communicate with command even without the high gain antenna. No, we are well within the range of that antenna. If it weren't working, we'd know because we'd still be able to contact command with our standard antennas." Connie stated.

"What about command's communication systems? They could've broken, right?"

Connie shook her head. "Nope, I've thought of that too, even if something managed to break, their systems are chock full of redundancy. Even if one of their systems failed, they have several more."

"But what if-" Lea said before swiftly being cut off.

"Please, save your questions. I know what you're going through right now. Even though you outrank me, it's still important that I tell you what's going on in that head of yours." Connie laughed lightly. "I could've used a different word to describe out situation, but.. eh" She shrugged. "I guess I just don't care enough to be creative with my wording."

"So that's it then?" Leading Edge said while pushing a hoof through his already disheveled mane. "We're fucked then? We haven't even been on this planet for a day and we're already stuck!" Connie was about to say something, but Lea continued. "I've heard of ponies experiencing a pleasant calm when they're in the face of death, but I'm not experiencing any of that right now. My fucking heart is beating out of my chest!"

"That's because you're not going to die", Connie explained. "You're going through denial right now and you're trying to make sense of it. It's that simple." She finalized.

Leading Edge looked up towards Connie, who was standing next to him. "You're not helping."

She smirked. "I tried."

"Well, your efforts haven't bared fruit yet." He began tracing a circle on the table with a hoof.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, it's hasn't been confirmed if the portal is closed or not." Connie offered.

Leading Edge's breathing slowed slightly. "S-so we'd head to the portal then..? We'd go to the portal and see if it's open?" His eyes wide. "If it's closed we're fucked. If it's open, we get coffee."

Connie chuckled. "I'm glad to know you have your priorities straight." She looked towards a few trees that began to rustle in the wind. "And yes, that is what we're going to do. We're going to go to the portal and confirm it."

---

With their stomachs full, saddlebags secured, and minds clouded, they stood together. They were looking towards the treeline; their minds occupied with possibilities of what is to come and what has come already. If the portal were closed, what would they do? If it were open, would they proceed as scheduled? That question was so simple yet so difficult to answer.

What would they do? The thought bounced off of the inner walls of their skulls like a pinball crashing, striking, smashing, and flying about. Although they were all seasoned veterans, the thought that they were trapped in an unfamiliar world alone threatened to rip the anchors that tethered them to sanity.

They stood in silence, as if the mere act of speaking would shatter the calm serenity that they were so desperately trying to latch onto. Only the sound of rustling leaves atop the trees could be heard, as if even nature itself held its bread for the group of strange equines.

One of the equines lifted their hoof, hesitated, and then began walking, the team followed suit. They were in their protective gear again, but decided to not wear the masks or wing gloves. Only one member, Fail Safe, had a gas mask on. The other members gave quizzical looks. "Why are you wearing your gas mask?"

"Why aren't you wearing yours?" Fail Safe tested.

Connie picked up her pace until she was next to Fail Safe "Well, Deep Thought said it was safe and that there wasn't any way that it could effect us."

Fail Safe scoffed. "He says a lot of things, but I'll be fine with wearing this mask for a little while longer. It's bearable to wear and I'm liking my chances right now."

Connie chuckled. "What do you mean chances? We're not going to die!"

"I'll let time be the judge of that." Fail Safe stated. "I would've hoped Healing Touch was smart enough to wear hers too."

"I'm right here!" Healing Touch exclaimed.

"I know you're right there, I just don't care what you think about me." Fail Safe stated plainly.

Connie ducked to avoid a branch. "Guys, please! We've got a lot to deal with right now and I don't think we need more to deal with."

A brief silence was cast upon the team. Healing Touch spoke. "Fail Safe started it."

Connie raised an eyebrow. "How'd that work when you were in school?"

Healing Touch opened her mouth, as if to reply, but bit back her reply. Fail Safe stifled a laugh. With nothing but small talk, the entire team eventually found themselves with nothing to say. The only things that could be heard were the sounds of grass crunching beneath their hooves and the gentle sound of wind weaving through the grass and trees.

To the west, dark clouds covered the horizon. It had been getting colder as time went on, and the smell of damp soil had made its presence known.

"What's up with the weather in this place? Don't they have pegasus that handle their weather?" Connie asked. After a moment of silence, she turned to her side. Deep Thought was staring at her. "What?"

In a slow and cautious tone, he spoke. "I'd like you to think long and hard about what you've just said."

Connie frowned. "Really?"

"Yes, really." Deep Thought said, looking towards the top of a hill. "The portal should be right up there."

"I'll have to remove the cloaking spell. I feel the magic from here." Fail Safe said, smiling.

The team crested the hill, stopping near what they said was "where the spell was." Fail Safe's horn lit and a beam of light shot towards the air, striking something unseen by their eyes. The air rippled and warped before popping like a bubble. Where a doorway into a laboratory used to stand, nothing stood. There was no portal, it was gone.

Comments

[Boof Man]

Proceed please

[The Unremarkable Author]

8417777
I will.