Cryo-7

by Metal Pony Fan

Ships, Space Stations, and Teleports

"Rise and shine, freeloader!" Silver Shaker's shout was immediately followed by cruel laughter.

They were short notice for Coffee to grab hold of his hammock. He barely got his eyes open before being shaken around. Not that it helped when the strings holding him up got cut.

The head side string was cut first, and Coffee's chin hit the deck with only a thin layer of canvas for a cushion. Before he could groan, or roll off the cot, the tail side string was cut.

He fell awkwardly on his hind legs, trying to twist so his rump hit the floor instead of hooves or joints. He was not successful. And he had plenty of time to contemplate his twisted left leg as he was dragged upright by the scruff of the neck.

"Good morning, boss," Coffee said cheerfully as he was slammed into the side of a cold storage locker. "What can I do for you?"

The other three ponies in the kitchen glanced over, but went back to work quickly. This was a common occurrence.

"It's still evening," the unicorn grumbled, "and you've got work to do."

There were two possibilities that Coffee could think of for Silver Shaker to come wake him up personally. Either he was pissed off, and wanting to blow off some steam by beating down somepony who can't fight back, or given his quiet grumbling...

Coffee smiled. "She cute?" The pegasus quickly found himself pressed face first into the side of the storage locker. At least he knew his guess was right on the money. There had been an order at the bar for a nice tall glass of not sleeping alone tonight, courtesy of the one pony on board that could be legally, if barely so, prostituted. A second-class citizen outside most legal jurisdictions doesn't have much going for him by way of legal protections, as evidenced by the misshapen side of the refrigerator. "You should rotate the appliances, boss. This one's dented to match my face."

Coffee braced himself for an unpleasant impact, but it never came.

"You're lucky," Silver Shaker sighed. "Guests usually don't like it when bloody you up first." With a smirk, he added, "then again, some like to do it themselves."

"Great," Coffee groaned as he was released from the unicorn's magical grip.

"Clean up, and head to room fourty-seven. She paid for the whole night."

"Gee, a whole night in a real bed?" Coffee rubbed his neck. "Almost makes it worth having to lay some ugly unicorn nag, huh?" Coffee was expecting magic again, not the hoof that cracked across his face. By the sting, he was pretty sure it drew blood. The magic followed pretty quickly. His face was slammed back into the familiar depression on the storage locker two or three times. "Break that," Coffee shouted amid his pummeling, "and the cheese will go bad!"

A thoroughly angered unicorn slammed the pegasus to the floor.

He punched coffee in the face before flipping him over, and pinning him to the ground. His face was red and every muscle was tensed and bulged with rage and hatred. Standing over him, magic pressed to the back of his neck, he whispered, "I am about two wrong words from snapping your neck and stuffing you in that storage locker to rot. Understood?"

For a moment, Coffee pondered his answer. Glancing over at the chefs, he wondered if they would report his murder if he decided to mouth off one last time. Silver Shaker was getting angrier with him lately. He was getting angry faster, too. Probably because he wasn't getting the response he wanted out of his abuse.

If Coffee could have, he would have shrugged. The current threat of arcane curb stomp made that impossible. It was getting harder to play scared, or go along with the unicorn's schemes anymore. He had accepted his fate long ago, and now, even his purpose here was slowly dying. Steel Catch's new policies had decreased the number of Pegasi trying to smuggle themselves offworld. It had been months since the last one.

Coffee smiled thinking about it. A teenaged filly, maybe the same age he was when he tried, had set up an electronic jammer to hide her lifesigns, and stowed herself in a crate with a spacesuit and a transmitter. Her plan was to jump ship at the next space station, and play dead until the ship left, then call for a rescue. She was smart, and had a very good chance of making it, as the crew was too small to handle all the cargo they had by themselves.

Coffee only found her because Silver Shaker's idiot brother hated having to do cargo inspections, and knew he could intimidate the pegasus into doing it, and not telling anypony. If only he knew that his forged signature had helped nearly four hundred pegasi leave Tirassa, sometimes in groups, once as many as twenty at once, what would he think?

Coffee sighed. He didn't want to die until he saw the fallout to come, should Silver Shaker ever learn how stupid his brother really is. "Yes, sir."

"Good answer, for you," Silver Shaker growled. "I was almost hoping to finally be rid of you." The unicorn released his magic, and walked away. "Have one of the cooks patch you up before you go."

"Thank you, sir," Coffee groaned weakly. He glanced over at the three unicorn chefs, who were already drawing lots to determine who got stuck with the task. It happened often enough that he had made a nice little set of sticks for the guys to use, a kindness apparently lost on them. "A little help here?"

"Best two out of three?" He heard one of them whisper.

"Guess not," he mumbled.

---

With a sigh, a freshly patched up Coffee hit the button on the door. The pleasant chime sounded, and he waited for the answer. He didn't know if it would be a voice, saying that the door was unlocked, or somepony opening the door. He braced himself for the latter. Unfortunately, it wasn't always the most attractive mares that purchased his time.

But, he couldn't prepare himself for the face he saw this time. His eyes teared up when he saw her. His knees buckled when she smiled at him. "Remember me?"

He rushed in, closing the door behind him as he grabbed her. The most beautiful pony he had ever seen, made that much more beautiful by the years since he had last seen her. "How?" He asked as he wrapped the petite unicorn in hooves and wings, touching as much of her as possible, holding her as tight as he could without hurting her. "I thought your flight license was revoked after they caught me. I... They told me, that you..." He stopped and stared at her, making sure he wasn't hallucinating in the dim light. He wasn't, though. The soft face, pale blue eyes, and peach coat were all hers. "I love you."

"Aw." She blinked away tears of her own as she reached up to wipe away his. "You big softy. I told you, didn't I? That I wouldn't rest until I found you again?"

He nodded, closing his eyes. "You did. You told me that nothing would stop you."

She closed her eyes and grabbed him, burying her face in his neck. "Coffee... Say my name, please? I've waited so long for this moment. I want to hear you-"

"Cream," he interrupted her, hoof on her chin, "look at me."

She let him pull her face up from his chest, relishing the touch she had longed for. "Coffee and Cream, together again?" She grabbed his hoof, if only to remind herself that this moment was really happening. "I love you, Coffee. I love you, and I'm so sorry I took so long to make it back."

"I thought you were dead." Coffee shook his head. "They told me that you fell into depression after losing your flight license. That you committed suicide. So many times, I was ready to join you. But, to see you again? I would have waited another nine years if I had to."

"No, no more waiting, Coffee, for either of us." She smiled as she looked up at him. "We can leave tonight."

He blinked. He almost didn't believe his ears. "How?"

"I have my own ship now. It's small, but it has a slipstream drive. Took me all these years to save up for." She shrugged. "And, I had to fake my death, and make a fake identity to get my flight license back, but none of that will matter once we make it to the Galactic Assembly. I even found a place that takes in ponies escaping their home planets. We can start over," she glanced down, steeling herself for the next word, "together."

"Together..." Coffee was silent for a moment, letting it all sink in. He never dared to dream that this day would come, yet here it was. There was only one thing left, something that had haunted his dreams for nearly a decade. "Cream?"

Her eyes lit up hearing her name again. "Yes?"

Those eyes twisted Coffee's gut. They were the same as he remembered, blue as mid-morning sky. They were the same ones he saw every night, in faint ephemeral moments before waking up to his nightmare. Whatever he was planning to ask was forgotten as he stared. "I've missed you so much."

Those eyes were suddenly much closer. It took Coffee a second to realize it, but Cream had jumped up. He was shocked still by the grasping hooves on either side of his neck. He watched in disbelief as she closed the gap between them, closing her eyes as she kissed him.

Cream held on for dear life, refusing to let gravity pull her away from this embrace. But, she didn't need to worry about that. She breathed in sharply as hooves wrapped around her midsection, pulling her closer. As he returned the kiss, she let herself relax. She didn't realize how tense she was, how nervous she was about this. It had been so long. So much could have changed in that time. But, not this. Not them.

Coffee felt her slump into him, hooves relaxing their grip. He was careful to keep supporting her, careful not to break their kiss. He didn't want this to end. Their first kiss since the day she sealed him in that cargo container. His first in nine years, despite the nature of some of his work. Of all the unicorns that bought and paid for him over the years, not one had kissed him. Very few had even tried to.

She broke away first, out of breath from what was really too short of a kiss. Leaning against him, she let out a long, exhausted sigh. "It's been so long, Coffee."

"Yes," the pegasus agreed, holding her to him. He used one hoof to brush her mane back, clearing his view of her eyes. Nine years ago, they had come up with the plan to leave Tirassa by smuggling him in the cargo of the ship Cream was serving on as a co-pilot. If they had succeeded, they would have been in neutral territory in two days, with a brief stop at a trade depot on the third. They would have both jumped ship at that time, never looking back. "Too long."

She nodded, head still resting against his chest. "All because the captain stopped here to fix a damn malfunctioning food synth." She closed her eyes again, letting herself feel the rise and fall of Coffee's breath. "That won't happen this time. Are you ready?"

"Always." Coffee swept his hoof through her mane again, stopping to scratch at the tiny bump on the side of her horn. It was so small, you could barely see it. Aside from her, he was the only pony who even knew it was there. "We'll have plenty of time to catch up, far away from here."

"Yes," she agreed happily, "far, far away." With a deep breath, she pushed herself away, looking up at the stallion with grim determination. "Coffee, I want you to know, if we get caught, I'm going to fight this time. I don't care what happens, but I will use all the magic I have to make this happen. I'm ready to die fighting this time."

"It won't come to that," he reassured her. He left out that they would both die in that situation, but he was sure she already knew that. "What's the plan?"

She walked over to the bed, and pulled an old pad from under the sheets. "Look," she said, holding it up with a brief smile, "it's the same one. Anyway, I just ran the slipstream calculations. They're loaded and checked with the computer on my ship. If we can get to a window where I can see my ship, I can teleport us aboard, and we can be out of the system before anypony can do anything to stop us."

Coffee nodded quickly. This was it, now or never for him. His freedom, and the mare he loved, or most likely, death at the hands of his narcissistic debtor-owner-pimp. Not much reflection was needed to make the decision. "Where are you docked? Do you have a plan for dealing with the docking clamps?"

"I installed a secondary airlock before leaving the planet. The surface the clamps are secured to is held on with plastic bolts. It should shear off the moment we engage the engines." She pulled up a picture of the station on the pad. "I'm docked here," she pointed to one of the smaller docking arms, "all the way at the end to maximize visibility."

"You'll have a clear line of sight from the bar," Coffee pointed out the location. "And nopony will question either of us being there."

She looked it over, nodded, and took a deep breath. "Let's do this."

Coffee nodded back, and headed for the door. Opening it, he peeked head out into the hall. There was a pair of earth ponies he didn't recognize walking down the hall, probably just normal station traffic. They would have to deal with more and more of that as they approached the bar. "This way ma'am," he said to Cream, tossing her a wink, "the bar is this way."

"It better be," Cream scoffed as she followed him out into the hall, hiding a smile.

Coffee did his best to keep his face neutral as well. Right now, they were just two ponies headed for the bar. He had served as a tour guide enough times it was one of his primary jobs. Nopony would give him a second glance.

Except for one pony. And they passed him at the first intersection with another hallway. He was quite a ways down the hall, and Coffee kept his head locked forward in the hopes he hadn't been seen. "Heads up," he whispered to the mare beside him, "that was the boss."

"Did he see?" she whispered back.

Coffee glanced back as Silver Shaker rounded the corner behind them. "Yes," he said simply as he looked back forward.

"Is something wrong with the room?" He called out in a friendly tone reserved for customers.

Cream glanced back, then at Coffee, before realizing how suspicious that might seem. "N-no," she answered nervously, "I'm just not drunk enough to, you know, go through with it. I was having him show me to the bar."

"I'll show you." He started over with a smirk. "You wouldn't want everypony to know that you hired him, would you? A pretty mare paying for-" The look of anger on Cream's face stopped the other unicorn in his tracks. At first, he attributed it to his attempted teasing, but the longer he saw her next to Coffee, the more familiar she seemed. "It can't be... They said you killed yourself."

She looked back at Coffee. Their cover was blown. "Sorry."

He didn't bother to respond. They had one chance to get out of this. While the other stallion was still surprised, he leapt into action. Stretching muscles he worked hard and secretly to maintain, he launched into a backflip over the other pony, giving his strong wings a violent flap to twist himself around. His hoof caught Silver Shaker's horn just as it was lighting up, striking it like a whip.

The unicorn stumbled from the impact, spell disrupted. Coffee landed beside him and threw his weight into a sideways leap, ramming his shoulder into the unicorn's side. He was able to slam the disoriented stallion into the wall, knocking the wind out of him. Then, with aother leap, straight up, with another flurry of wings and feathers, he dropped a spinning kick on the unicorn's head.

He turned back to Cream as Silver Shaker crashed to the deck. "This way," he started off in the other direction, "the lounge is closer."

With a nod, she followed him, catching up as he broke into a run. "I'm sorry you had to do that."

"Don't be," he shot back, "I've wanted to do that for years."

---

Twilight dragged her peg across the board, popping it into place among the shifting holes in the game board. Her peg lit up, as did a series of others, before emitters on either side of the board shot a color-shifting beam of light through them. The beam bounced around the board, redirected by the pegs until the two beams met. "Karno," she said triumphantly, a smug smile on her face, and a pile of chips in front of her. "Pay up."

The four other ponies at the table groaned. Two unicorns, and two earth ponies started counting out their losses as the Twilight started clearing the pegs for another round.

"Count me out," said one of the unicorns, as he handed over his last three chips. "I know when I'm beat."

"As do I," agreed one of the earth ponies. Only, he still had a few chips left after handing over five.

The second earth pony, the orange mare named Kat, shrugged as she offered two chips of her own. "House can't back out until round twenty. This is only what?" She checked the counter on her chip tray. "Fourten? Six rounds left." With a sigh, she added, "this is the first time I've been steamrolled this badly."

"Wish I could say the same," replied the last unicorn at the table. Astral had less than half as many chips as Twilight, but more than anypony else who had gone up against her. "Did you ask me to teach you to play just to humiliate me? Or was there another reason?"

Twilight shrugged as she held her hoof out, motioning for Astral to clear his debt. "I really never played this game before. But, it is easier than I expected."

Astral squinted at her, searching for signs of deception. He kept that up as he counted out ten chips, stacked them, and slid them over. He rolled his eyes as she gleefully added them to her own neatly arranged stacks. "Really?" he asked with a sigh. "You are enjoying this way too much."

"Maybe," she shrugged as she pushed her chips towards Kat. "I think I'll cash out now." She glanced over at Astral's meager pile, then slid it forward as well. "And this."

"Hey!" Astral pulled his chips back.

"You want to keep losing?" Twilight asked with a smirk.

"No." Astral rolled his eyes, pointing at a table a short distance away where they were playing poker. "But, maybe I want to try one of the other games?"

"Ooh! I actually know that one." Twilight grabbed a couple chips. "Cash out the rest, and I'll find us a seat."

With a sigh, Astral pushed the chips towards Kat. "What she said, I guess."

"Sure thing." The earth pony started counting up the winnings, stacking chips in stacks of ten. "Your, um, mare-friend? She's pretty good at this," she said, clearly impressed by the amount won in such a short streak.

"Oh, she's-" Astral caught himself about to correct her, and silently corrected himself instead. He glanced over to where Twilight was scoping out card games. He had to remind himself that she was in fact his mare-friend. "She's good. Surprised me, that's for sure."

While Astral was distracted, Kat pulled a small card out of her chip tray. She keyed in commands on a screen hidden near her drink, then held the card out to Astral. "Here you are," she waved the card to get the unicorn's attention, "four hundred and eighty-nine chips, minus three for the card, but you can keep loading it up."

"Huh? Oh." Astral turned back, and took the thing with a nod. He looked it over, noting the clip on the back, and the simple display with the number 486 on it. "Thanks."

"The clip is for your hair." She pulled back her mane near her neck, showing a similar card only orange to hide against her fur. "And tell your mare-friend, she doesn't have to cash in the chips if she doesn't have many." She held one up. "These are currency. They'll spend just as well on the surface. The card is just more convenient."

Astral nodded his understanding and gave the card another look. It was then that he noticed the grey and blue coloring. Clipped to his mane like she showed, it would be nearly invisible. "You just happened to have one my color?"

"Not at all." The earth pony slid open the access door on her tray, and tilted it towards the unicorn. Inside were many different colored plastic plates. "I have the fronts and backs in different colors, and assemble them as needed. I made it your colors because she has pockets to put it in, but you don't, so you're more likely to use the clip."

"Yeah," he agreed with a shrug. "Well, thanks. This definitely beats trying to tote five hundred chips around."

She nodded happily. "No problem. Let me know if you have any other questions, or, you know, if you'd like to play Karno again."

"I will. Thanks." Astral clipped the card to his mane as he walked away from the table. When he caught up to Twilight, she was standing in an open area of the floor, looking at several available game tables. "Did you know, these chips are actually the currency around here? I wasn't on the surface long enough to actually handle money last time, but that's kind of neat."

Twilight smiled, giving him a smug glance out of the corner of her eye. "I didn't know that." She leaned over as he fiddled with the thing clipped to his mane, and whispered, "did you know, she was flirting with you?"

Astral looked up quickly. "Who was?" He glanced behind him, and saw Kat waving, big smile on her face. Astral awkwardly waved back. "Oh."

Twilight smiled smugly. "She's crushing, big time."

Astral pressed his lips together as he straightened up, standing next to Twilight. "I'm going to hear about this, aren't I?"

"You bet," she answered. "Were you always this much of a charmer?"

"I honestly couldn't tell you," he replied with a shake of his head. "I wouldn't even have realized what she was doing if you didn't point it out."

"The oblivious type," Twilight mused. "It's not your fault. She was pretty subtle about directly asking if I was your mare-friend."

"Which, you are," Astral replied, "right?"

Twilight shrugged. "If you're alright with being my colt-friend. I mean, we kind of talked about this earlier."

Astral shrugged back. "Yeah, but we didn't really come out and say it like this."

"No," she agreed. "We didn't."

Astral looked over as she trailed off. She was watching the tables, eyes scanning the room like earlier. Only, there was a little less focus in them now. She wasn't searching for a game, she was merely observing them. Taking in the hustle and bustle from a distance. He joined her, passively watching the ponies gambling. Winning, losing, struggling, giving up, eating, drinking, talking.

"Kind of disgusting if you think about it," he said quietly.

"I was thininking sad," she answered in kind. "What do you think would happen if I took this jacket off?"

"Aside from a few heart attacks?" Astral stepped closer to her. "I don't know." He bumped into her side. "I know it's bothering you."

She smiled, and bumped him back. "You aren't going to tell me to focus on the mission?"

"No, because that would make me a hypocrite." With a shrug, he added, "maybe, after the mission's over, we can convince Steel Catch to speed up his plans. Or, at least convince one or two officials to stay out of his way?"

Twilight nodded slowly. "Think we could win enough at Karno to pay off Coffee's debt?"

"Maybe," Astral chuckled. "You were pretty good at it."

She shrugged. "Kinesthetic Avoidance Relative to Non-fixed Objects. Not that hard, really."

"Wait, it's an acronym?" Astral looked back at the Karno table, immediately regretting it as Kat waved happily again. "Oh, she is crushing on me, isn't she? Anyway, I've played Karno since I was a kid. I've never heard or read any mention of it being an acronym anywhere."

"Really? Well, it seems to be a modification of a visualization tool I designed after the final codification of the laws of kinesthetic avoidance before we left Equestria. If it's that old, maybe the acronym got lost to time?"

Astral stared at her for a moment. "You're saying you invented it?"

Twilight thought for a moment before answering. "Yes." She considered it a moment, then continued, "my version used crystals and captured essence of fox-fire. It was a training tool to safely teach the principles of kinesthetic avoidance to young unicorns. It became much more useful as the first slipstream drives were being developed."

"I don't follow," Astral admitted. "What is kinesthetic avoidance?"

"Well, there's two types," Twilight answered. "There's relative to non-fixed objects, and relative to fixed objects. Basically, it's how unicorns can teleport without materializing inside of walls and things. It's also how the slipstream navigates between gravity wells."

Astral's eyes went wide. The whole game just clicked in his head. "That... Those... It's a slipstream calculation?!" He looked back in frustration, forgetting the pony at the Karno table again. Predictably, she waved. "When you make diverting play, it functions like adding a gravity well. Like adding a star to the navigation chart. If you can predict the effect that would have on a slipstream... Dammit! Twi, you just ruined the game for me."

She gave him a smirk. "Or, maybe, we'll be able to play on the same level now." With a sigh, Twilight looked around again. "Maybe, after the mission, we can just sneak Coffee off the station with us? It seems like he has it worse than the pegasi on the surface."

Astral tapped her side to get her attention. "Somehow, I feel he wouldn't wait that long."

When Twilight glanced over, Astral was pointing towards the entrance of the lounge. Following his indication showed her the large group of ponies running down the hall. Coffee was in the lead, followed closely by a cream colored unicorn that was sending random bursts of fireworks back behind her, forcing another unicorn and several earth ponies to duck or swerve to avoid them. "Somehow, I agree."

"It's about to get hectic in here," Astral warned. "Ready?"

"You bet," Twilight replied. "Let's keep it low key, we don't want them to know which side we're on."

As the frantic chase reached the lounge, the unicorn doing the chasing bellowed, "Somepony shoot them!"

"There's your cue," Twilight told Astral.

"Right," he answered, "already on it." His eyes were scanning the room, passing over patrons and servers in shocked stillness, looking for those moving to respond to orders. He found one near the large bay window, a security guard scrambling for his weapon as he straightened up in his chair.

Astral's magic reached out, finding its target before the guard's hoof could. His weapon discharged before he could make it out of his chair, and pointed down like it was, blasted one of the legs out from under him. He crashed to the ground as Astral searched for more.

He found one more on the other side of the lounge, already moving towards open space so he could get a clear shot. His weapon was still holstered though, and Astral's magic reached out again. He pointed the weapon up and fired, blowing a blue bolt of ionic energy into a ceiling light, and raining sparks down on the hapless guard.

That got ponies screaming. To their credit, there was no mass panic just yet, but a few scattered shrieks, and a general lack of desire to hang around the gunfire and explosions.

Astral didn't see any other guards, and the first one was still searching for his weapon after his fall. Twilight was heading to cut off Coffee's pursuers, but hung back just out of the way as Coffee and the unicorn ran past.

Now in the center of the lounge, Coffee's companion turned around, charging a large pyrotechnic spell. Twilight recognized it as a spell that would be loud, flashy, and of limited stopping power. But, it gave her a good opportunity to act.

Twilight waited until she launched it, and leapt out from behind a table, screaming, "Watch out!" She threw a forcefield up around Silver Shaker and what seemed to be kitchen crew. When the fireworks hit the forcefield, the ponies were treated to a grand light show, and a deafening example of what could have happened to them. Luckily, the crackle of the force-field made it seem far worse than it really was.

"Oh, my gosh! What was that?" Twilight asked in her best shell-shocked tourist impression. She offered the confused unicorn mare a wink and smile before walking over to the forcefield she placed. "Are you guys all right? Anypony hurt? Oh, my gosh, I just saved you guys."

"Yes, thank you," Silver Shaker said quickly, "now lower this, so we can stop them!"

"Huh?" Twilight looked up. "Oh, uh..." She made a show of running her eyes over every edge of the forcefield as if looking for a weak spot. "Yeah, that ought to go away on its own in a minute or two."

"What?!"

"Three at most," she amended happily. "I just know how to put 'em up. Never got the hang of taking them down."

Silver Shaker very clearly wanted to yell at Twilight, but he still believed her to be an average customer. "Then stop them!"

"Who?" Twilight turned around and looked around. "Oh! Them?" She pointed at Coffee and his unicorn companion as they ran for the bay window. She looked back for confirmation. "Those two?"

The unicorn behind the forcefield was seething. "Yes," he said, working very hard to control his anger, "them."

"Ok," Twilight replied with a smile. She turned back as the unicorn mare reached Coffee and looked out the window. She then looked back at Silver Shaker. "What should I do to stop them? I've never done this before."

You could almost hear the veins popping in his forehead. "Just use another forcefield!"

Twilight gasped like she hadn't thought of that, then turned back to her new targets. She placed a forcefield directly behind them, a square of magical energy a meter and a half tall, and the same wide. It didn't reach the ceiling, and there was enough room to march a dozen ponies around on either side. But that didn't even matter, because the female unicorn teleported herself and Coffee away shortly after that.

"Huh." Twilight glanced back at Silver Shaker. "I don't think it worked."

Everypony has a limit, and that was his."No fucking kidding!" He screamed at Twilight through the forcefield. "You dumb bitch!" He grabbed the nearest pony by the collar of his white coat, and tore into the pocket with his hoof. "Bastard clocks me in the horn and thinks he can get away?" In frustration, he tore the pocket free, fumbling for the little silver device that fell out. Once it was in his hooves, he shouted into it, "Silver Shaker to ops! Are any vessels attempting to leave the station?"

"One, sir," came the answer, "it just broke free of the docking clamps. Attempting contact now."

"Don't bother," he growled. "Shoot it down! Computer override, hostile vessel in proximity. Authorization, one-three-seven, Dartmouth, Epsilon. Execute!"

"Sir?"

"Voice match, confirmed," issued another voice from the small communicator. "Executing."

"Crap!" Twilight ran to the window, look of panic on her face as the station shook from the launch of several missiles. Everypony in the lounge saw her light her horn, only for the sight to be washed out by the light of several simultaneous explosions.

As the light returned to normal, Twilight looked over at the only source of sound in the room. The voice issuing from the communicator expressed confusion while reporting back to Silver Shaker. "Sir? The vessel has just made a slipstream jump."

Looking straight at Twilight, Silver Shaker held up the communicator. "And our missiles?"

"All destroyed, sir. They seem to have hit some kind of forcefield."

There is a point in anger where violent rage reaches an end, but the underlying anger increases, where a seemingly rational mind calmly decides that the best way to deal with that anger is murdering someone. That is what Twilight saw looking at Silver Shaker. "Astral?" She shouted, not taking her eyes off her newest enemy. "Time to go!"

"No argument here!" He had managed to take both guard's weapons, but a third had returned from the restroom, and they were locked in a standoff. Astral didn't know if the blasters were lethal or not, but he didn't want to find out the hard way. And he wasn't about to pull the trigger on this shaking, chubby earth pony colt trying to do his job. "Sorry," Astral said, lowering his weapon, "I surrender. Catch."

He tossed the weapon to the guard, who naively tried to catch it. Astral tackled him, sending them both sprawling. He tossed all three blasters away from them as they fell, and was back on his feet well before the colt.

"I really am sorry," he apologized, and floored the guard with a right hook. "Twi! Exit plan?"

She ran past him. "This way!"

He was hot on her hooves, as she headed out the back of the lounge. This put them in a short hallway with three doors, labeled mare's, stallion's, and staff. "The bathrooms?!"

"You have a better idea?" She shot back. "I'd love to hear it." She crashed into the door to the mare's bathroom, shoving it open and running in.

Astral was right behind her, slamming the door shut when he saw one of the guards enter the hallway. He braced himself against the door, waiting for an impact that never came.

Instead, the guard knocked. "Um, excuse me? Could you come out of there? That's the mare's restroom."

Astral's jaw fell open. "You kids are not cut out for this!"

"That's what my mom says," the guard admitted. "I'll prove you both wrong, now come out so I can arrest you!"

"All right, I'm opening the door, don't regret this." He threw the door open, and hit the guard, a young unicorn, with a haymaker to the chin. Astral winced as his hoof hit, wiping away the colt's triumphant smile. He had the door closed again by the time the guard hit the floor. "Twi, I'm starting to feel like the bad guy here."

"Put up with it a few more seconds, I'm almost ready."

Astral turned around to see her standing at the sinks. There were five of them below a panoramic viewpoint that offered a breathtaking view of the planet below. "What the hell?! The stallion's restroom has one sink and crumpled feathers scratched into the walls!"

"What's a crumpled feather?" Twilight asked without taking her eyes off the planet.

"Do you know what a swastika is?"

"Can't say I do."

Astral shrugged. "Lucky you. They're kind of the same thing."

Completely ignoring him, she sighed. "Well, I'm ready. I hope you are too."

Astral gave the door a worried glance before leaving it. He walked over to Twilight, and looked out the window next to her. "Ready for what? What are you staring at?" All he saw out the viewport was Tirassa. He suddenly felt very worried. He glanced over at Twilight, and noticed that she had an intense look of concentration on her face, and her horn was starting to light up. "Oh, hell no."

Comments

[cheetored20]

OOO are we about to get a cover image drop? Also pretty neat fight scene.

[Thatguywiththeface]

Evacuate the pegasi out, glass the planet after.

[Blaster M]

Twi shows her true power... long range teleport go!

[Dragon of Shadows]

"Oh, hell no."

OH HELL YA!!!!!

[FallenFromGlory]

Well, that was quite the read. This has just become one of my favorite stories on this site. Thank you for doing such an incredible job.

[godofthunder4242]

So the biggest problem with this story is the thumbs up button goes out when I try and hit it again. Clearly this is some sort of flaw with the system.

[Timuri]

Glad to see Coffee escape that hellhole. Now it's super-long range teleport time!