Cryo-7

by Metal Pony Fan

Out, But Not About, or Videophone Home

"He should wake up in a few minutes." The doctor picked up the pad clipped to the side of Astral's hospital bed and held it out for Twilight. "The police said you were his emergency contact, could you fill in his medical history for us?"

Twilight looked down at the pad. It was bulkier than the ones she was used to, and showed a long form with spaces to fill out. Medical paperwork was the same everywhere it seemed. Looking over the various fields, Twilight started shaking her head. "I'm sorry... It won't be complete."

"Anything helps," the doctor reassured. She gestured to a pair of chairs near the door. "Why don't we sit down, and I'll walk you through it. What's your relationship with the patient?"

"It's... complicated." Twilight took her jacket off as she walked over to the chair. She glanced back when she noticed that the doctor didn't follow.

The pale blue unicorn was staring. It took her a moment, but she broke her eyes away. "I'm sorry. They told me, but it's still kind of amazing. I was asleep when everything was happening on the news, but that means I'm here working now, so... Were you born like this?"

Twilight shook her head before climbing into the chair. Her mane felt weird tied back like it was. "I was a unicorn, like Steel Catch. I completed an ancient spell and became an alicorn, much like what happened to him yesterday." She pulled the hairband out of her mane, letting it flow in the nonexistant wind. Her tail, not to be left out, broke the multiple elastic bands she had used to restrain it. "The rest of this should be temporary, but I'm not sure."

The doctor nodded slowly, glancing around and gathering up the broken hairties so they could be deposited in a wastebasket. She then reached into a pocket of her scrubs and pulled out a hoofful of new ones. "In case you tire of looking like the model in a shampoo commercial."

Twilight smiled, and tried not to laugh. "You're reacting... differently to this than some ponies I've run into."

"That explains the jacket and hairties." The doctor sat down in the chair beside Twilight. "I'm a doctor, it's my job to heal anypony that comes through the doors, doesn't matter who, or what they are." She shrugged. "And, my father was a pegasus, I think. My family is in the antigrav business, large, rich, politically connected, and not one of them ever talks about him or my mother. My grandfather supports anti-pegasus groups like the one that caused yesterday's mess, for all I know, he gave them that station, and I was never treated like part of the family. So, what other explanation is there?"

Twilight shook her head. "I don't know. I'm used to all ponies being equals. My planet had its tribal issues, but it was a millenia before I was born. To me, they were nothing more than stories to remind ourselves how good things were. And now, with the Galactic Assembly, there are so many different species living together peacefully, that this planet seems horribly broken to me."

The doctor smiled. "It might be. But I think we've taken the first step towards fixing things."

"I hope so," Twilight agreed. "There are too many good ponies on this world."

The doctor nodded. "Thanks. You know, I didn't realize you were from off-world until you mentioned it, are you both from the Assembly?" Twilight nodded, and the doctor started entering information into the pad. "So, he had access to more advanced medical technology, and a wider vaccine range than we have, but probably hasn't had specific local vaccinations. That's good, see? You're already providing useful information. Has he had any other surgeries recently? Or exposure to unusual magic or radiation?"

Twilight winced. "A few weeks ago. He wast stabbed in the shoulder during a battle in irradiated space. He had surgery to fix the shoulder, and he took preventative measures for the radiation."

The doctor raised an eyebrow. "Don't most spaceships already have radiation shielding?"

Twilight shrugged. "We were outside the ship at the time."

"Oh, I see." The doctor added some more notes. "You were with him then? Preventative measures mean medication and a shielded spacesuit, I'm guessing? Who were you fighting?"

"Each other," Twilight admitted, offering a sheepish smile when the doctor glanced up. "It's how we met."

The doctor stared for a moment. "Well, it sounds exciting at least." She glanced down at the pad. "So, vacuum exposure?"

"Not then, but about a week and a half ago we..." Twilight's eyebrows pulled together. "We had another space battle, and he was exposed to vacuum long enough to lose consciousness."

The doctor saw her expression and frowned. "How often do you two get into space battles?"

"Once a week?" Twilight replied with a shrug. She realized that was probably quite a bit more often than the average, but it wasn't like she had any say in the frequency of things attacking them whilst in space. "Last one was about a day before we reached Tirassa."

The nurse was starting to look more than a little worried. "Who do you keep fighting?"

"Well, this last battle was just monsters from the dark dimension, but the other two were space pirates."

"And, yesterday you get caught up in an attempted coup."

"It hasn't been quiet, that's for sure. Oh, and I was being held prisoner on that weather platform. They were attempting psychological torture before the fighting broke out."

"The bastards." The doctor shook her head. "Well, I don't think any of this information is going to help now. Now, this is just a guess, but you two won't be sticking around long enough to finish his physical therapy, will you?"

Twilight shrugged. "Honestly, I'd like to get him back to the doctor on Canter Delta. Nothing against you, but he has access to better surgical equipment."

"I'm sure," the doctor sighed. "Well, maybe we can start importing some of that equipment if we can make peace with the Assembly. And your friend won't need any more surgery, luckily." She brought up some annotated images on the pad, a photo of Astral's side before his surgery, and the ct scan of the same view. She pointed to the ct first. "You see this shadow between these bright spots? Here, in his shoulder? This is the wound tract where he was shot. The oblique angle let the bullet ricochet off the bone here, and exit the back of his shoulder in one piece. It's a deep wound, but there was no irreversible damage. If the angle was different, it probably would have fragmented and spread the damage, or it could have hit the artery here." She pointed at the photo next. "You can see here where the bullet tumbled along his side, under his vest, leaving only superficial wounds, before entering his hip." She pointed back at the ct, at another bright spot. "And, this is where the bullet came to rest, before hitting the bone. It nicked a tendon, but didn't sever it, so we were able to reinforce it after we laprascopically removed the projectile. We used the best equipment and materials available to us. He'll need some special care, but he should completely recover."

"What sort of care?" Twilight asked. "Whatever it is, I'll make sure he gets it."

"I'll get you a chart. He'll be on an antibiotic to prevent infection. And, for a few days, he'll need complete bed rest, no weight on his right legs, no walking around, things like that. Then, he can start walking, but only for short periods of time, and he should walk next to somepony, as he'll be prone to falling until the muscles heal completely. We'll get you a mobility chair in case he needs to move around any more than that. There are also excercises and stretches to make sure everything heals right. He'll need to start the stretches for his hind leg right away so the tendon we worked on doesn't tighten up. Think you'll be able to handle that?"

"I'll take care of it." Twilight nodded and looked over at Astral. The poor pony was drooling as he slept, and Twilight couldn't help but chuckle. "He took that bullet for me. It's the least I can do."

"Good." The doctor nodded. "Follow the instructions, and he'll be walking in two or three weeks, and good as new in a month or so." The doctor entered a few last notes into her pad, placing the order for the antibiotics, and making note that the patient may not stay at the hospital for recovery. "So, we have extra security around this wing of the hospital, and the rooms for everypony involved are under fake names for security reasons. Given what happened, the chairman wants us to be vigilant in case somepony wants to take revenge. If you leave, this room is under the name Potato Chip.

Twilight stared at the floor a moment. "That's fine, I don't plan on-"

"I'll take some chips," Astral mumbled, smacking his lips. "My mouth feels weird."

"Good, he's up." The doctor looked over at Twilight. "I already checked his vitals when I first came in, everything was fine. I'll bring some juice you can give him, he'll be thirsty. Oh, and until the anaesthesia wears off, he might not realize how bad he's hurt. Keep him from getting up."

Twilight nodded quickly before standing up. "Thank you." She walked over to the bed. "Astral? How are you-"

He was very slowly waking, and still smacking his lips, feeling his tongue stick to the roof of his mouth, making funny faces every time.

"They've got you on strong stuff, I see." There was a roll of paper towels on the stand beside the hospital bed, and Twilight grabbed a few and wiped the drool off Astral's face as he rolled his head around.

He opened his eyes. They were glazed over, and their regular blue was ringed with just a hint of yellow. "Ohhh... You..."

Twilight stopped and smiled at him. She just realized that they were yellow the entire time on the weather station, and it brought to mind the conversation they had after the fight on Patch's ship. He didn't let it show, but was he afraid the entire time? "Astral..."

He licked her hoof, and smacked his lips again, killing any emotional words of thanks Twilight was preparing. "Why aren't you grape flavored?" He muttered quietly before yawning and rolling over.

Twilight stared at his back, hoof still stretched out with the paper towels. "Astral?"

The unicorn lifted his head off the pillow, but was still facing away from her. "Twilight? Where are you? I don't see you."

Twilight shook her head and mopped up what she could of the pillow before walking around so Astral could see her. They had him hopped up on some heavy crap.

"Oh, hey!" Astral smiled at her, a big happy grin aided by whatever he was doped up on. He blinked and moved his head back and forth like he couldn't get his eyes to focus. "Sorry about last night, I didn't recognize you. I think it's the painkillers. I shouldn't have licked your hoof."

Shaking her head, Twilight leaned against the bed. His sense of time was gone, too. "Astral, that was ten seconds ago."

He yawned, and closed his eyes. "What was ten seconds ago?"

"When you licked my hoof."

"Gross. Why would I do that?" His head flopped down onto the pillow, ears drooping.

"Did you just fall asleep again?" Twilight carefully touched his hoof, but the unicorn didn't react. "Astral?"

He shook, snorting, gasping, and opening one eye as he woke up. "Oh, good morning, Twi. Thanks for visiting me every day. I like your new haircut."

Twilight chuckled as he lifted his left hoof and moved it along with her mane's gentle waving. "What did they give you?"

"I don't know, maybe that's what they're calling you about?" He opened his other eye. "Wow, you're even prettier in color."

"Huh?"

Astral stared at Twilight, alternating which eye he had open every few seconds. "Yeah, you're pretty both ways, but I like the colors better."

"Wait a minute..." Twilight leaned in close, looking at Astral's eyes. "Are you colorblind in one eye?"

"Yup, completely monochromatic." He yawned again. "I thought you knew."

"No, I didn't. You never said anything. Colorblindness in one eye isn't usually possible."

"It is for Chimeras. Or if you bump your head." He picked his head up, and bonked his nose against hers because he misjudged the distance. "You know, you're just as pretty as Cooly, she wouldn't be happy about that."

Twilight stared at Astral for a moment. She had heard the name Cooly a few times now, but Astral never told her more. She was obviously somepony important to him. But, as curious as she was, she didn't want to take advantage of Astral's condition by asking about it. She would ask later, when he was in his right mind again. "Thank you Astral, that means a lot to me."

Astral nestled his head back into his pillow. "You would have liked her. They used to live next door, but they're all gone now. She was all I had left. But I said something terrible and she hates me now. I'll try not to say anything bad to you, Twi, so you won't hate me like she does. I don't want to be alone again."

Twilight reached up and brushed his mane back. "Don't worry, you won't be."

Astral smiled and rubbed his face against her hoof. "I got bit by a rockbee once. Pain was shared, and not so bad. And it's not polite to ignore calls. Answer your buckin' pad," he muttered as he fell asleep again.

"You're lucky you have an excuse right now," Twilight sighed. She pulled the thin hospital blanket up and tucked him in. "Sleep it off, and then we shall discuss your use of language, good sir."

He snored.

Twilight shook her head before walking away. She was just happy he was ok, even if he was completely loopy on pain meds. She knew how dangerous Astral's chosen weapon could be. She had seen Eckrt's brains splattered on a crate in front of her. It had freaked her out a great deal, and many days passed before she could fall asleep without reliving the moment, but Astral may have saved her life by taking his. She had used a lot of magic protecting herself from the first explosion, a second could have left her unable to escape the Philomena.

Would that be the case now? Twilight looked down at her hoof. Powerful magic still coursed through her. She was waiting for it to fade, to weaken, so she could return to normal, but it seemed to be holding steady. All the spells that brought her close to magical exhaustion before would be no issue in this state. She could probably perform them all at once and only feel slightly tired.

It was actually a little frightening. This was not a normal amount of magic, even for her. It felt similar to the elements of harmony. But they were lost when Celestia reforged them and wielded them against Nocteryx in Equestria's final battle. And the elements' power didn't last like this.

But, it was under control. There were plenty of times in her life where she had called on powers beyond her control, but this was not one of them. It felt right, it felt natural, and it was well within her capacity to control. Perhaps she had just taken the next step in her growth as an alicorn?

Speaking of Alicorns, she should probably check in with Steel Catch and Miss Kettle. They were new to this, and she was in a unique spot to offer advice to newly ascended alicorns. They were both supposedly here in the hospital with the rest of those wounded on the weather platform. She would just have to find somepony who knew where they were.

Or, did she? He would be the strongest magic in the building, aside from her. Miss Kettle would be close behind that. She could probably find them both with a simple scrying spell.

So, she took a breath, called on her magic, and a brief moment of concentration later, and Twilight knew where he was. Two floors above, and a few rooms over. Miss Kettle was a few rooms away from him. Their magics disturbed the natural flow of magic in the area, and by quite a bit, leaving Twilight to guess that they were practicing, trying to figure out the extent of the changes. Miss Kettle's quickly disappeared, after a brief surge, teleported away? But the Chairman's magic didn't.

With a self-satisfied smile, she grabbed her jacket and tossed it across her back. It would suffice to hide her wings from the casual observer, and by this point, she was starting not to care. Ponies would be staring at her mane, and she wasn't about to spend another twenty minutes stuffing her mane and tail into hairties only for them to snap again.

She was walking towards the door when she felt her jacket buzz. "Wait a minute," she muttered as she she started digging through the pockets. She eventually found the source, her pad, the little scroll of electronic parchment. It vibrated with a hum like a mosquito.

Astral wasn't merely mumbling nonsense earlier. She was being called, and needed to answer her pad. She unrolled it, but it stopped vibrating. She had missed the call. And according to the ink-looking display, she had missed several more. Eight hundred and four of them to be exact. All from the same pony.

"Silver!" How was she even calling? Tirassa wouldn't be connected to the Galactic Assembly's Subspace Network. Nor should they be connected to any data or communication services that her pad would recognize.

Twilight hit the callback icon. However Silver was trying to reach her, maybe it would work both ways.

When the call finally connected, Twilight was surprised to see that it wasn't Silver who appeared on screen. Rendered in harsh strokes of ink was a serious looking pony, clad in armor, standing twice as tall as a pony should. "Princess?!"

Celestia gasped, bringing a hoof to her mouth as she saw Twilight. There was no sound coming through the pad, and it seemed there was no atmosphere around the alicorn. Behind her, streaks and flashes of light played through a void of black india ink. It looked suspiciously like the view out the window of a ship in the middle of a slipstream jump. Celestia smiled at the younger alicorn, tears falling from her eyes only to be whisked back and obliterated by the impossible speeds and quantum shift of exiting the slipstream.

Twilight saw her say something. It was a short sentence, three words, and then the video disconnected. It reconnected a moment later, to the pony Twilight was originally expecting. The unicorn was drawn on screen in gentler crosshatching, perhaps due to the lighting in the room around her.

"Silver!" Twilight was glad to see a familiar background behind the unicorn. "What's going on? Where is the princess? Is she in space right now?"

"Twilight?! Oh, thank goodness!" The blind unicorn felt for, then hugged her screen. "Pretend that was you. What the hell happened? I was digging deeper into Tirassa, hoping I could find information that could help us, and I found you! For sale! On the black market! Did somepony kidnap you? Celestia rushed off as soon as we found out, she's on a ship headed for the planet, and she brought the most powerful subnet relay we could get our hooves on. And, yes, she is on the outside of the ship, it was her idea. Oh, I'm so glad it's you, I was expecting to have to negotiate for your release."

"I'm fine, Silver," Twilight reassured her, "a lot happened. There was a fight on the space station, so we teleported to the surface, but there was a group hijacking high power teleports with a gravity well generator and a spell matrix, they were the ones who were going to sell me, and that group was involved with a group that was trying to overthrow the chairman, and there was an attempted coup, and we crashed a weather platform into a historic mansion."

Silver frowned. "I'm going to blame Astral. He has been a bad influence on you since day one."

"This wasn't his fault," Twilight quickly defended, looking over at the sleeping unicorn. "He... Astral was shot."

"No way! Is he ok? What happened?"

"He pushed me out of the way, and took a bullet because of it. He's out of surgery, and recovering, but he'll be out of commission for weeks, and I'm going to stay with him, and help him through it."

"Ok, yeah, you have to." Silver brought a hoof to her forehead. "Damn, and I was worried about you going to the monster world. At least there weren't any monsters this time."

Twilight wasn't sure if she should correct her misconception. There were monsters on the way to the planet, and on the planet itself. She was, of course, including her captors in the count with the Salt-thing and the shadow beasts, especially that old mare who ran the show. "All that matters is that everypony's safe now. I can't wait to get back to Delta and spend time with everypony without getting shot at."

Silver pressed her lips together, snout scrunching up. "Mmh..."

Twilight saw the expression, and groaned. "What is it? I can take it."

"Berry's been kidnapped."

"What?!"

"Calm down, Radio's gone after her. We think she sent him her coordinates, and he went after her right away. But... he kind of attacked the president's security detail, and stole his shuttlecraft to do so."

"And Cori still let him go?" Twilight nodded quickly. "I'm going to have to thank him for that. Where is he now, and who's with him?"

"Twi, nopony's with him. When I said he attacked them and stole the shuttle, I mean, he took down every last one of Jones' security detail, and made off with the shuttle. He disabled all tracking devices, outflew the entire Canterlot Police Force, and didn't tell anypony where he was go..." Silver trailed off, and picked up her tactile pad. Her hoof had brushed against it, and it seemed she had a new message, from Radio. "Huh." She ran her hoof over the braille letters, reading it as quick as she could so she could relay it to Twilight. "Nevermind, Berry's fine. Radio, too. It seems there was some sort of misunderstanding with a major bounty hunting group. The princess of the White Flags personally assures their safety, but they will be remaining at their base for a while."

"Really?!" Twilight sighed loudly, relieved that it was that particular group involved. "I've heard about the White Flags. They're pretty famous, aren't they?"

"Yes, they are," Silver confirmed. "But, they usually only go after the worst of the worst, why would they kidnap Berry?"

"Her grandfather was some big space pirate," Twilight explained, not realizing how much of an understatement that was. "It had to have been that. Is everybody else all right at least?"

"Oh, um... Fluttershy, and Big Mac, are recovering from being poisoned. Last I heard, they were still unconscious."

"Poisoned!" Twilight's hooves were grasping her pad so tight, that regular parchment would have already torn. She's gone for a week, and one of her friends gets kidnapped, one commits several felonies, and two more are poisoned. "Who would... Why?"

"I am about to visit the pony responsible," Silver cracked the joints in her hooves. "He's been arrested on an unrelated charge, some financial fraud thing. I've also been told the drug was originally intended for Berry, so I arranged for the stallion responsible to slip through the cracks in the system for about an hour. I'll let you know what I find out."

"Don't take it too far," Twilight cautioned. "If everypony's ok, hurting him won't help any. I'm standing on a planet that was ready to tear itself apart because it never learned that lesson."

"I don't plan on hurting him," Silver reassured, "Just scaring him a little."

"Well, let me know what happens. I'll bring Astral back to Delta. Let Mac and Fluttershy know I'll be there soon."

"Actually..." Silver tapped her hooves together, unsure if she should tell Twilight what she had found out. "Um, I have some new leads on missing cryo-chambers."

"Oh." Twilight winced. Her obligations were pulling her in different different directions. "Send me the details, I'll bring Astral back, and set off as soon as soon as he's settled."

Silver shook her head. "I'm afraid it's time sensitive."

"Of course it is," Twilight groaned, "how sensitive?"

"A historical auction house listed an ancient cold-storage unit among a sale lot of retired museum pieces, so I checked into it, and sent them a picture of your chamber. They confirmed that it is nearly identical."

"Great! What's so time sensitive about that?"

"It gets auctioned off this weekend, and they won't won't hold it, or accept bids over subnet."

"What?! You just told them that there's a pony in there! Are they really going to auction off a pony?"

"That's exactly what I said! They had a lawyer tell me that the chamber has been in the posession of museums, without being opened, for at least the natural lifespan of the average pony. Without proof that a pony is in there, the auction house is under no obligation to ammend their plans for for it. We are welcome to inspect the piece before the auction, but any further communication is to take place in person, with a lawyer present, no recording devices, and all the standard legalese bullshit."

"Did you tell them about the little viewport hatch?"

"I tried. Got an automated response saying all further communications are to take place in person, lawyer present, blah, diddy-blahda, yaddda."

"So, somepony has to go stop them." Twilight nodded. "Why can't it ever be as easy as saying, 'Hey, that's a friend of mine, can I have them back, please?'"

"I don't know. You would think our galaxy would be civilized enough for that, but I'm beginning to think society is just a fragile veneer stretched thin over the struggles and baser natures of creatures that can never truly understand each other." With a smirk, she added, "knowing history's deleted scenes doesn't help."

"I've almost been shot at enough to agree with you, sad as that may be." Twilight sighed wearily. "So, who's going? I can bring Astral if I have to, but only if there's absolutely no chance of this turning into a fight. He needs time to recover."

"It shouldn't be complicated. It's a well known auction house, dealing mostly with museum relics and private art collections. And, despite being closer to you than to Canterlot, it's well within the borders of the Galactic Assembly. And all you need to do is go there, open the thing, let the pony out, and then, who cares if they sell the chamber?"

"Silver, you know there's no way it's going to be that simple."

"We can hope, can't we?"

"Yeah," Twilight conceded after chewing her lip a moment. "I will hope that it goes according to plan. How do I get there? Do I take the ship Celestia's on?"

Silver shook her head. "That ship isn't actually stopping at Tirassa. Assembly ships aren't actually allowed to land on Tirassa, or dock with their stations. I don't know if that's changing now, but we just bribed them to make a flyby. Celestia's planning on literally jumping ship when she gets there tomorrow."

"Then, what do I do for transportation?"

"I don't know. I have no way of finding ships for hire, or for sale, on Tirassa. You're going to have to figure that out for yourself." Silver frowned as her tactile pad played a chime. "That's early," she muttered, "Twilight, I'm going to have to let you go, I have to make another call. I'll send the information I have, and I may have another lead soon, so take care of this one quick. Ok? Good luck, bye."

Twilight nodded quickly. "Ok, bye, thanks, Silver, I appreci-" The screen went black before she could finish. The alicorn frowned, but chalked it up to the other mare being in a hurry.

She was about to roll up her parchment pad when it switched back to Celestia.

Knowing the other alicorn couldn't hear her, Twilight waved. Celestia waved back with a smile, then pointed at Twilight. After a moment, the solar alicorn decided that wasn't enough to get her point across, and gestured to her own mane, waving gently despite the speeds she was travelling at without so much as a windshield.

Twilight nodded her understanding. She wasn't surprised that Celestia noticed. As far as Twilight knew, up until now, only Celestia and Luna had manes like that. Hers must have been a surprise. She lit her horn with magic, but without casting a spell. She held the glow, then held up her hoof, and moved the glow from her horn to her hoof, and then to her wings, which she held up so they would hopefully be in frame.

Celestia nodded, smiling in pride. And she repeated the same three words she did earlier before cutting the call.

Twilight smiled as she rolled up the pad. It looked like their little spat was over. It would be nice to see her in person, and apologize for blowing things out of proportion. And also, maybe she could hear that short sentence in person. And, she would respond with a similar sentence, one with a single word added. "I love you, too."

"Thanks," Astral mumbled in his sleep.

Comments

[-newt-]

Each chapter, this story just gets better and better. It's incredible!

[Valkyrie]

I cannot put into words how happy I am this is getting updated again (even if it is only my assumption that this is a beginning of another bunch of updates like last time).

Finding transportation might be either complicated or, more likely, as easy as asking the chairman for keys to one of his rides. I wonder if Astral is going to be grumpy about being stuck in a wheelchair (gravchair?).

[Lerris]

Sweeet

[Metal Pony Fan]

10155880
Those bursts of updates happen because I generally write a chapter, realize it's 20,000 words, and jumps around too much, then split it into 2-4 chapters. This should be a burst of at least 3, with the next update in the next few days. Largest I did so far became 8 separate chapters, one of which was still 17,000. I jump around a lot in my writing process so that I write something everyday. If I'm not feeling the current chapter, I'll work on something a little later, then come back. So, there are about 128,000 words for future chapters, and it's just a matter of connecting them.

[Metal Pony Fan]

10155877
Thank you.

[Metal Pony Fan]

10117448
For clarification on lore,(I'll limit this to what has been revealed in story) I started writing this about season 4-5-ish? So Imagine if at that time, Ponykind was given an ultimatum, that the planet's final battle was on the way. They made the Cryo-ships over 3-5 years, devoting literally every resource, and uniting every race on the planet to that goal, then sealed everyone up and launched The seven Cryo-ships. At the very end, Celestia gave one last ditch effort to save the planet, ultimately failing, but succeeding in destroying Nocteryx, before following after the cryoships in the Philomena.

[Metal Pony Fan]

10134733
We've got a lot of ships, yes. A major theme of the story is how life is always moving forward, with or without you. And you are correct on 6 relationships formed since start of story.

1 - Astral and Twilight (New ship 1)
2 - Radio and Stormy (New ship 2. A spark, but torn apart by Radio's heroic misdeeds)
3 - Ribbon and Mezzo (New ship 3)
4 - Mac and Fluttershy (Old relationship, reunited)
5 - Jasper and Silver (Old relationship, They were a couple on Serus before it was destroyed.)
6 - Growl and James (Old Relationship, "Baby It's Cold Inside" is the chapter with the backstory, I think.)
7 - Softy and Anna (New ship 4. We'll see more of them, and whether their relationship can stand the strain of the dragon ritual's linking)
8 - Lily and Pipsqueak (New ship 5. They were actually the first ship of this story! Ribbon spilled the beans for him while running out of medical.)
9 - Berry and Blue???(New ship 6? Stay tuned to find out)
10 - Radio's temporary dorm neighbors
11 - Pinkie and the Space Pirate Norland
12 - Coffee and Cream
13 - Rarity and Blueblood
14 - Eckrt and Vizor (Tragic ending though, one last score was one too far.)

This is only characters that actually appear in story, though a few more were mentioned. If I forgot any, please remind me. This list will be expanding within the next few chapters.

[Xarmar13]

10156543
Perhaps in time, maybe Steel and Kettle. There may be a bit of an age difference but when both are alicorns, they may learn in time that age would be irrelevant for them.

[Equinox3141]

10156650
idk, I think I'm feeling more of a ship with Red and Kettle. Catch seems more like a mentor figure than anything

[xoid]

10156504

there are about 128,000 words for future chapters

Hot damn! Best news I’ve received for some time.

[SQA]

Just blew through reading the entire story so far in about twelve hours: I'm loving this! Keep up the good work.

[Timuri]

The theme of this chapter is excellent timing!

This way Twilight isn't going to be freaking out about Berry getting snatched, Radio already went off prematurely on that. Rarity may want to see Twilight, but having her friend show up to wreck her home is not how she would want that.

This also prevents Celestia from going 'Planetary Siege Unit' on Tirassa, since she was going to hit the world like a nuke if she thought Twilight was still about to be sold.

[The Chronicler]

He licked her hoof, and smacked his lips again, killing any emotional words of thanks Twilight was preparing. "Why aren't you grape flavored?" He muttered quietly before yawning and rolling over.

Astral asking the important questions.