Cryo-7

by Metal Pony Fan

Where? Behind the Pony? It is the Pony!

Three days later.

"Last one! Ready on those ropes!" Astral braced his shoulder against the massive cage and started pushing. "Heave!"

The three other ponies lined up beside him pushed as well. The cage, five times as tall as any of them, and a little larger wide and deep, squealed on damaged casters. With their combined efforts, it slowly inched towards a track along the wall. Two more ponies guided five heavy ropes so they wouldn't entangle anypony as they dragged along behind the cage.

Once it reached, Astral and the others backed away. "Lock it down!" the grey unicorn shouted.

A young pegasus, maybe seventeen, who had been sitting idly by, chatting with the two armed ponies seated at the cargo Bay's entrance, flew up to the top of the cage. Once there, he busied himself with latching together the mechanical arms that would tether the cage to the track. It took longer than it should. He cursed at the one mechanical arm that stuck in place, smacking it with his hoof until it latched onto the cage's transport hook.

Once that was complete, a much older pegasus with similar colors flew up and checked it out, testing each joint. Once he was satisfied, he gave Astral a quick salute with his wing before flying down. The younger pegasus didn't follow.

Astral motioned him down. "You can ride it after we finish the transfer."

The colt looked back at the track. On one side, there was a docking port, leading to a much nicer, newer cargo ship awaiting the last of a delivery. On the other side was another cage, one of a series of them integrated along the cargo bay wall. And, the only one not currently empty.

The creature within was long and lithe, canine in form but for two long tentacles trailing from its jawline. Its body was covered in glistening bronze scales, as mobile as fur, rippling in the light with every breath it took. It watched, still as death in its cage. Golden eyes, narrowed in anger, focused on the loudest of its captors.

"Why?" the colt asked, "It's not like that thing can get out, and we've already loaded seven of them."

Astral sighed. "Fine," he motioned to the older pegasus, who hit a switch to move the cage along the track, "you can ride it over, but you are not staying on top of there during the transfer. That is an alpha female Tana'bin snake-wolf. The subservient males we already loaded are prills in comparison."

"It's just a dumb animal," the colt scoffed. "What's it gonna do, pick the lock?"

Astral shook his head. "You're worse than Radio." He grabbed the colt by the mane, and dragged him off the cage, forcing him to flap his wings to keep from falling. He pulled him down to the floor, and away from the cage. "You wanna get yourself killed," he glared at the colt, "do it when I'm not in charge." He pointed at the old pegasus. "Go wait next to your grandfather, and stay out of the way."

The colt slunk away as Astral turned his gaze on the Snake-wolf. Its tentacles twitched, but it made no other movement.

"He's meaner 'n the captain," the colt muttered when he reached his grandfather.

"No, he ain't," the old pegasus answered with a laugh. He scratched his greying beard with a wingtip. "First, he's right, he is in charge now, so don't talk back. Second, he's protectin' us all right now. That beast ain't a mindless dog like the others. Look at her, watchin' us work. She knows who's in charge. In her mind, he's the one responsible for bein' in that there cage. Should she get loose, she's goin' after him first."

The colt glanced back at Astral. He kept eye contact with the snake-wolf as he shouted orders, and there was no fear in either set of eyes. To the colt, Astral's expression was unreadable, cold awareness. But the monster's eyes clearly conveyed its anger. "Gramps, who is this guy? He's not even crew, why would the captain put him in charge of all this?"

The old pegasus smirked. "Ya know those bedtime stories I used to tell ya? Ya had a favorite, right?"

"Yeah!" The colt answered enthusiastically, his question forgotten for the chance to talk about his personal hero, "Yardrin! Because he was real, and a total bad-ass. He was only my age when he became a hunter, and he quickly became one of the best. It was even rumored he was part monster himself. He was also the first pony ever to decline initiation into the Order of Tamers. Then, he was exiled, and nopony really knows why. Some say he-"

Whap!! The old pegasus slapped his descendant across the back the head with his wing. "If ya paid that much attention in school, ya wouldn't be working here!

The colt grabbed his head. "So I like history better 'n science, it's not a crime!"

"Celebrity gossip ain't history," the elder retorted.

"Whatever." The now pouting colt looked away. "Why even ask me about the Yardrin?"

"You said nopony knows what really happened." The old pony leaned in, whispering like the mutineers of old, "he does."

"Really?" The colt's voice dropped to match his grandfather's whispers, though his excitement steamed higher. "He was there? He saw the Yardrin get exiled?"

Hoof met face as the grandfather let out a long miserable groan. "I work my flank off for decades," he mumbled, "raising my boy to be a doctor. And he repays me by raising this?" He stomped the hoof down. "He is the Yardrin! Beastmaster of Tana'ahklan! Hero of Jegoyo square!"

"I wasn't a hero," Astral said calmly. His eyes never left the Snake-wolf. "It was a long time ago. I was young, stupid, and reckless. And I wish everypony would just stop bringing it up." He glanced back. "And keep it down, you're agitating her."

"Looks the same to me," the colt offered.

Astral nodded slowly. "We've already established that you know nothing, and need to shut up. This just confirms it."

The colt opened his mouth to reply, but his grandfather beat him to it. "My daughter in law was there, at Jegoyo square."

The colt forgot about Astral's slight against him, and focused on his grandfather. "Mom was? Her... her accident, it was really..."

"She was shopping," the grandfather shrugged, "picked the wrong market, got hurt by a monster. Could have been worse. She could have been killed, but she told me about a hunter that ran into the swarm, with nothing but a stick to save everypony."

Astral scratched the back of his neck. "Um, shotgun, not stick."

"I could have never been born," the colt breathed in realization. "If mom had died..." He looked up at Astral. "I owe you my life."

The unicorn frowned. "Um..."

"Hey moron!" Shouted another worker. "That was ten years ago! You're seventeen!"

The colt went red in the face as his coworkers bust into laughter. But, he was granted reprieve almost immediately. The click of a relay ended all laughter.

Astral spun around, magic swirling white around his horn as he crafted a pencil sized cylinder from the glowing aether. "Who did that?" He demanded, keeping his voice normal volume.

All eyes were on the Snake-wolf, ears perked at the sudden change in atmosphere. It started to look around, the most it had moved in nearly an hour. All eyes, pseudo-canine and pony, settled on the door of the cage, the door that had just popped open.

"Somepony, please tell me the transport cage is locked in place."

"Negative," came an almost whispered answer, "the actuators aren't responding. I'm going to try locking the main cage again."

Astral's eyes went wide at that last suggestion. "Wait, don't!"

It was too late. The pony at the control panel had flipped the switch to run the main cage lockdown procedure. Only, the door didn't lock in place like it was supposed to. It groaned and clicked in place, faulty mechanisms making a terrible grinding noise until they shut themselves off with the loud click of the locking relays.

The Snake-wolf stared at the door. So much noise! It stood up slowly, taking cautious sniffs at the sudden change in its environment.

"Ready on the ropes," Astral ordered calmly. "Tranq team, stand by. Fire if it gets close to anypony besides me."

The two guards, standing at attention since the sudden shift in tone, answered in unison. "Yes, sir." One crouched in place, shouldering his weapon, the other headed for higher ground, climbing the ladder to the top of the feed storage before taking up a similar stance.

"Good, good, get the transport cage open." Astral motion to the team on the ropes, once the transport pen's door started lifting. Five ponies started pulling, and the transport pulled closer to the main cage. They were less than half a meter apart, but they couldn't leave any gap for the beast to-

The Snake-wolf charged forward, ramming the door to the cage. The impact sent the main door open, and shoved the transport cage back by several meters. The poor ponies on the ropes cried out in pain as their hooves suffered friction burns from the speed of the line's pull. One lost a tooth as the knotted end whipped across his face.

One earth pony, his grip on the rope tighter than his grip on the floor, was yanked towards the gap between cages. That gap where the now enraged Snake-wolf was recovering from the impact.

Astral ran forward as the bristling mass of scales turned it's head towards the dazed earth pony. After a deep breath, he blew into the magic rod he created. The warbling, whistling noise that escaped it was faint to pony ears, but it froze the Snake-wolf in place.

It howled in pain, giving Astral time to pull the earth pony up. He stared blankly at the unicorn, blood dripping from where his head hit the floor of the cargo bay.

"Run!" Astral shouted at him, hoping the simple command, and a shove in the right direction would get through to him.

It did, and he stumbled away, but the Snake-wolf regained it's senses faster. It lunged for him and Astral, aiming to scarf down both in one swoop.

Its jaw snapped shut, teeth gnashing together on open air just short of Astral's head. Snarling, splattering the unicorn with foul-smelling spittle, the Snake-wolf stepped back. Its mouth twitched as it gagged on the magic grasping the scent-sensing tendrils lining its throat.

Astral gripped the sensitive cilia and twisted. The Snake-wolf vomited as it retreated, a vile golden substance that sizzled on contact with air. Astral forced the creature back towards the holding cage, it's door fully open and waiting.

"Whap!!"

One of the Snake-wolf's tentacles lashed out, striking Astral across his front right quarter. He staggered back. His concentration broke, like the skin at the center of the large welt rising across the side of his neck, and he lost his grip on the beast's scent tendrils.

Roaring, the Snake-wolf snapped at him again, and Astral lunged forward, under the jaws that wanted to tear him in two. He reared up. He buried his horn into the soft flesh behind its chin, just before the monster's throat. And as it reared back, howling in pain, he blew into his whistle with every last bit of air he could summon. It cowered as he desperately worked his lungs. The Snake-wolf retreated from the sound, and straight into the back of the transport cage.

The transport gate slammed down, and so did the whistle. It hit the floor and shattered into shards of light, as if it was made from luminant glass, then faded away. Astral fell to his haunches, light-headed from the expended air and magic, shaking from the adrenaline. "Is it locked?" he asked as he gasped for air.

"Locked!" Answered the pegasus colt, helping his grandfather at the console. "Secure and ready for transfer procedure."

"Then do it!" Astral stood up with a groan. "I am through dealing with these things."

"Yes, si-" The colt glanced back, and what he saw froze the words in his throat. He turned back, focusing on the console. "He really is the Yardrin," he whispered to his grandfather.

"Of course he is, you dolt," the grandfather whispered back. "Do you know any other pony that changes like that when facing a monster?"

Author's Note:

Sorry for the delay. Last minute Christmas orders kept me busy these last few weeks. I'll be back on a weekly update schedule for a while, and am working to start adding artwork to each chapter. I'm falling out of practice with my art, and trying to use up some old pens and markers.

Edit: I just noticed I forgot to upload this week's art, fixing now. I'm not putting it in the story because it was from an old draft where Astral was alone in the cargo bay.

Comments

[HURTBOTPEGASUS9]

8562933
It criminal how few likes the story has. Though part of the problem I think is the mono chromatic cover art isn't very attention grabbing. Even now with my love of this story, I can't tell what the image is suggesting and takes a minute to make out what I'm looking at. I know I've over looked it in the past before solely because of that picture.

[Metal Pony Fan]

8631545
One of the things I am working to remedy. I'm hoping to have something by the next update. If you blow this one up, it's just a ball point pen doodle of Twilight and Astral on some Alien Planet.

[Blaster M]

This is totally not a scene from Jurassic Park

[Metal Pony Fan]

8631689
It totally is.

[HURTBOTPEGASUS9]

Update?

[Metal Pony Fan]

8724676
On the way. I'm just fixing some continuity issues for the next 10 chapters. It should be next weekend, I'm hoping.

[HURTBOTPEGASUS9]

8726269
It's great to have another chapter after so long, but I'm finding "Where! Behind the Pony! It is the Pony!" a more odd/random story after reading "I made Her an Offer She Quickly Refused" than before. We find out Astral is something called the/a Yardrin, but how/why did he wined up shipping dangerous animals. Who are these other ponies? Are they Patch's crew? ( Nevermind that he is saving live ) What is he doing there is the first place (as oppose to doing something else). Last we read about Astral, he was having a "slice of life" moment with Twilight and next chapter with no lead in to it we got dropped in the middle of Jurassic Park with these snake-wolfs.

[Timuri]

heh Major Jurassic Park vibes with the cargo bay scene, only this time the person in charge didn't allow someone to take a foolish chance. If that colt had still been on top of the cage when the snakewolf charged it, he'd have probably fallen right into her jaws.

[56]

regained it's senses faster

it's door fully open and waiting.

its

[Snowkitsune]

8905197
Shooot herrrrr