Spikenautica

by PhysicistBrony

Chapter 16: Fluttershy's Flashback

Fluttershy was close to getting the last water pipe properly aligned when Applejack shouted behind her. "Hey, are ya almost done? Ah need to get back ta waterin' the plants." Fluttershy let out a quiet "eep" and jumped, smacking her head on another pipe right above her. "Ouch," Fluttershy whispered under breath while keeping her tears at bay. She slowly extracted herself from the wall and looked at Applejack.

"Um, I'm almost done, but I still need a minute, uh, if that's okay with you." Fluttershy said, hoping Applejack would wait a little bit longer. Applejack looked a little annoyed at how long it was taking, but understood why something like this couldn't be rushed. "It's alright Sugarcube, ahm just eager to get back to work is all. Take yer time. Don't want nothin' to be out of place or broken." Fluttershy inwardly sighed in relief, glad that Applejack wasn't going to yell at her or be mad.

Fluttershy then crawled back into the wall so she could finish aligning the pipes and tightening them into place. As she worked, she started reflecting on the reasons why she was even allowed to come with. She thought that the main reason was because Twilight might have requested it, otherwise somepony else might have been chosen in her place. She had to take a crash course in simple maintenance, such as pipe alignment and rewiring, just so she could legally qualify for a low level maintenance job.

Soon enough, Fluttershy was done tightening the pipes, allowing water to smoothly flow through them. She quickly wormed her way back out of the wall and replaced the panelling to its rightful place. "Okay Applejack, it's all fixed. You should be able to get back to watering the plants." Fluttershy said, turning to her friend. "Thank ya so much. Celestia knows how bad those pipes might have gotten without you fixin em. I guess I'll be getting back to work then. See ya later Sugarcube." Applejack said as she trotted off, eager to get back to work.

Fluttershy smiled and turned back towards the maintenance crew quarters and started walking. She quickly arrived and started to put away her tools when somepony else walked in, ready to start their shift. Fluttershy turned to walk away from the locker when she bumped into the pony. "Oh dear, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to run into you." Fluttershy said, cringing behind her mane, waiting to be yelled at. "Oh goodness, I must apologize, I was so lost in my thoughts I didn't even see you. My name's Speedy Screwdriver. What's your name?"

Fluttershy looked at the pony before her. She was a light red unicorn mare with a purple and blue mane. She was wearing a similar outfit to Fluttershy, but had a badge stating she was the maintenance crew manager. "Oh, um, my name is Fluttershy. I'm so very sorry for running into you." She said, almost dropping to a whisper. Speedy looked at Fluttershy and noticed just how shy and scared she was.

"Don't worry about it. I am just as much at fault as you are. If even more at fault than you are. I walked into you while you were turning around." Speedy said, hoping to put the scared pegasus at ease. She could visibly see Fluttershy relax a bit, but could tell she was still nervous. "Well, I don't know about you, but I need my tools so I can go fix some broken pipes down the hall. Got a call in from Applejack about it."

Fluttershy looked up in confusion. "Um, I already took care of that though?" She suddenly got a very worried look on her face. "Oh no! It's broken already, isn't it? I just knew I wouldn't be able to fix it." Fluttershy said, sinking to the floor in shame. Speedy quickly moved over to hug Fluttershy. "Hey, calm down. I got the call almost 10 minutes ago and because I didn't see anypony fixing it, I thought it hadn't been done yet. If you said you fixed it, I believe you fixed it. Do you want me to go make sure that it's secured properly?"

Fluttershy slowly nodded, so Speedy then walked out of the room to go check the pipes. Fluttershy slowly climbed back to her hooves and started towards her locker again to double check if her tools were in their proper places. After a couple of minutes, Speedy came back with a grin on her face. "Well, from the looks of it, everything is just fine. If I didn't know better, I would say you've been doing this for years." Fluttershy blushed at her comment and hiding behind her mane bashfully, while also grinning internally at the fact she could secure pipes like a pro.

Speedy then walked over to her own locker and started to pull out a few different tools to get ready for her shift. As she started pulling tools out, Fluttershy decided it would be a good time to leave and take a break. As Fluttershy walked out, she bid farewell to Speedy Screwdriver and started for Sugarcube Cafe to get lunch. Just as she was walking in, Rainbow Dash blew through the door, quickly said something to Pinkie, and was back out the door in ten seconds flat.

After getting over her dizziness from having the air around her distorted, she walked up to Pinkie to order her food. "Well hiya Fluttershy, what can I get you?" Pinkie asked, seemingly not as super energetic as usually. "Oh, can you, um, make me a hayburger and hayfries for lunch? I didn't get that big of a breakfast this morning because one of the toilets got busted and I had to go fix it."

Pinkie looked at Fluttershy in shock. "Don't you know how important breakfast is?! You can't just skip out on the most important meal of the day! I am going to make you that hayburger and hayfries with something extra." Fluttershy was suddenly worried about what sort of thing Pinkie was going to add to her meal. "Oh, um, you don't have to do that for me." Pinkie suddenly picked up Fluttershy and put her into a seat and then rushed into the back to make Fluttershy's food.

Fluttershy sat in silence for a minute, unsure as to what had just happened. Suddenly Pinkie Pie was standing next to the table that was magically covered with Fluttershy's order and a rainbow colored cupcake. "See, I told you I would get you something extra with your order! This cupcake is one of my bestest creations yet, probably better than the chimmy-cherry-changa, if I do say so myself, which I'm not sure if I do." Pinkie suddenly had a curious look on her face as she looked at Fluttershy. "Can you try my new cupcake to see if it's better than the chimmy-cherry-changa?" Pinkie asked with as much politeness as possible and adorable puppies eyes that only a heartless monster couldn't fall for.

Of course, Fluttershy fell for it because she isn't a heartless monster, so she grabbed the cupcake and slowly took a bite out of it. Her mouth was then taken aback by the sudden burst of cherry, orange, banana, lime, blueberry, and grape flavors that exploded into her mouth. Fluttershy quickly scarfed down the rest of the cupcake, then gave Pinkie a sheepish look, because not a lot of ponies just scarf down food in front of another pony and don't feel embarrassed. Pinkie started back, unfazed by Fluttershy's scarfing of the cupcake. "Soooo, what do you think? Is it better than the chimmy-cherry-changa?"

"Um, well, the chimmy-cherry-changa isn't bad, but it only has the cherry taste, but this has so many different flavors in it. I would say that the rainbow cupcake is a little bit better than the chimmy-cherry-changa." Pinkie Pie then grinned and ear to ear grin with wide open eyes. "Oh, yay! This is great! I have to make sure the Cakes have access to the recipe when-" Suddenly Pinkie's tail twitched, followed by her front right hoof shaking, followed by a full body shudder.

"Uh, Pinkie? What Pinkie Sense was that?" Fluttershy asked in concern. Pinkie was also very concerned about this new combo, because she had no clue as to what it was about. "Hmmm, I don't know. Maybe you should go make sure everything is ok with Twilight." Pinkie said with a very serious expression. She then turned back into her normal energetic self with a big grin. "Well, I have a cake to bake. Can you tell me what if anything is wrong once you check?" Fluttershy nodded, then walked out of the Cafe with intentions of returning to finish her lunch.

As she started towards the Bridge to talk to Twilight, the ship started to violently shake, knocking Fluttershy off balance. She quickly stood up, just to cringe back at the sound of sirens wailing all across the ship. She heard the Captain announce that everypony should make their way to the life pods immediately. She quickly took off for the life pod bay and climbed into the nearest life pod once she arrived. She quickly pressed the launch button and sent herself hurdling into the planet's atmosphere.

Author's Note:

So I noticed my first dislike, so if whoever gave that is trading this or somepony reading this doesn't like something, before you just dislike, let me know what you don't like and I'll see if I can do something about.

Comments

[Green-Venom]

One thing i notice is that for some reason someone/pony almost never waits for another person to arrive, although the life pod has two seats.

[PhysicistBrony]

10662065
Well, given the fact that A) Ponies have a herd mentality, so they were thinking of just running away from danger because others were, and B) They were kind of pressed for time.

If you were on a boat that was sinking, would you wait for other to get to the life boat, only to have yourself blown up, or leave on the boat because there are plenty of others that people can take.

[Green-Venom]

10662931
The life pod has 2 seats. Even i can wait for 1 more person.

[PhysicistBrony]

10663225
Well, okay yeah, I do think it's stupid, but in the game, most of the life pods had only 1 person, because some people are selfish, so I'm basing it off of that. Otherwise I think around 50 ponies might have survived.

[Green-Venom]

10663773
True

[midnight arrow]

this is really good

[PhysicistBrony]

10674048
Thanks

[DerpTape]

My only experience with Subnautica is through the excellent NEEBS Gaming series where they role played one survivor talking to a customer help line throughout it. A high bar to meet for entertainment value, but I am interested in seeing where Spike goes.

[The Sandwich Guardian]

Might wanna rewrite the end of this chapter. She said before she didn't eject on purpose. She auto ejected and left the other pony behind.

[PhysicistBrony]

10700286
Which chapter did she say that? I can't seem to find it.

[Black--Soul]

Is Fluttershy sorry for the lauch button?
She put it under so mutch pressure