Astral sighed as he poked his fork at the tomatoes Strawberry had offered them. They had gone in the house about an hour ago, to avoid the approaching rains, and Strawberry put together a simple lunch of vegetables and boiled grain meal. In that time, a certain member of their party had been completely silent, her expression sunken and hollow as she stared at the lockbox in front of her.
The storm had started a good while ago, and was starting to wind down as Astral and Strawberry ate in uneasy silence around the alicorn. A plate was set in front of her as well, but she never even looked up at it.
"Twi-" Astral started, only to be cut off by a purple hoof raised to wave off his words. He nodded and turned back to his meal. Whatever he had to say, it was clear she didn't want to hear it. "Berry?" He set his fork down and nodded towards the door.
The pink mare stole one last glance at the quiet alicorn and nodded. She pushed her own bowl towards the middle of the rusty table, then made her way to the door. Astral followed, and they left Twilight alone in the empty house.
They stood together under the eaves as the light, finishing rain fell beyond. And, as Astral closed the door from the outside, he looked over at Berry. "Why didn't you tell us?"
The mare shifted uncomfortably.
Astral walked away from the door, hooves sticking in the mud. There was a garden bench nearby, dry in the shade of a propped up solar panel, so he headed for that. "The way you were talking about your family earlier, it made us think that..."
"They were alive?" Berry finished for him. She walked over and sat down on the bench before Astral, eyes on the ground the whole time. "Sorry."
"Don't apologize to me." Astral sat down next to her. "Twilight's the one who's hurt by all this. Is there a reason you wanted us to think your family was alive?"
Berry shook her head. "I wasn't trying to trick you. It's been so long since I've really talked to anyone, I guess I didn't realize how it sounded." She looked up at Astral. "You know, I never knew my mom, but Grandma would always talk about her like that, like she was still with us. She would even go out and talk to her stone sometimes. When I asked her about it, Grandma told me that mom was never really gone, as long as somepony remembered her, and because I was still around."
The mare looked back down. "Grandma always knew what to say to make me feel better. She could make anyone feel better when they were sad. When she died, Granpa did his best to cheer me up, but it usually went the other way."
"Then, think of something to cheer up Twilight." Astral crossed his hooves. The moment the words came out of his mouth, he realized it probably wasn't possible.
"I'm not sure how to." Berry Took a slow breath and let it out with a sigh as she looked towards the house. "It's been five or six years since Granpa died, I haven't really spoken to anypony besides the computers. I think the best I can do is apologize for lying to both of you."
Astral shook his head. "Apologize to her. I'm just a pilot. I have no stake in this."
The mare shook her head. "Yes you do." She pulled her gaze from the house and looked up at Astral. "You forget that I've watched you. You care, and not just about about her. You care about what happens to this planet."
Astral shrugged. "I'd have to be a pretty cold-hearted bastard to want an entire planet to die."
Berry shook her head and looked away. "You won't admit it, but that's not the only reason."
"I won't?" Astral looked down at her again, noticing for the first time that her mane wasn't as dirty as he thought it was. Sure it was a mess, but most of the dirt brown color was from streaks of natural color. He had seen that before. It couldn't be, could it? The color was the same, but it wasn't possible. "Where'd you get that brown in your hair?"
"Hmm?" She pulled on her mane to look at it. "Changing the subject? Granpa said it came from my father, but I never knew him, and he and grandma never talked about him."
"I wasn't trying to change the subject," Astral sighed. "I was just distracted."
Berry blinked. "By what?"
"I have family on this planet." Astral leaned back on the bench. "The last of my family as far as I know, even if they don't know or care about me."
Berry twisted her mouth into half a pout. "You keep changing the subject."
"Yeah, I do. Just bear with it a while." Astral started looking around. "Berry, do you have anything I can write with?"
She glanced around. "I have a laser pen in the house, or some charcoal out here, but anything with ink dried up years ago. Why?"
"The charcoal, where is that?"
Berry pointed to the house. "Around back, there's a covered fire with a large kettle."
"Thanks." Astral hopped off the bench and ran around the small house.
As soon as he was out of sight, Strawberry started laughing. He reminded her of her grandmother, always moving from one thing to another, thinking things through and acting before anypony else had a chance to catch up.
"Ah shoot! That's hot!"
The sudden shout made her jump, but she quickly started laughing even harder. He's a unicorn, but he must have reached his hoof into the pot. It looked like he was the type to take action before anypony had a chance to think it through, including himself.
She started kicking her hooves as she waited for him to come back. This was kind of nice. It was the first time anypony had ever actually visited the house. The purple one seemed really upset that she couldn't meet grandma, but it was still nice to have somepony around.
She thought about what Astral said a few moments ago. Maybe she could do something to cheer her up? Grandma would probably make pancakes at a time like this, but making flour was so time consuming that Strawberry hadn't bothered to grind any of the wheat she had grown.
Before she could think of any alternative cheer-bringing methods, Astral came back around the house. He went to the door and scribbled something on it with the charcoal he held in his magic. After that, he walked over to the bench where the pink mare waited. "Let's go."
Strawberry straightened up and stopped her idle kicking. "Where?"
"Into town." Astral tossed the charcoal onto the bench next to her. "There are ponies I need to talk to, and I need to know how much water your filter can produce in a day."
"No." Strawberry shook her head, "I can't go in to town, they hate me."
"No, they don't hate you, they don't even know you. They hate an idea." He lifted a hoof to her mane, pulling a loose lock away from her face and smiling at the streak of dull color in the pink. "And this can explain everything to the right pony."
"She's waking up."
"It's about time. Here, let me get by... wait, don't-"
There was a crinkly thud and a muttered, "oops," as something fell to the ground.
"-do that."
Sparrow blinked in the darkness. She couldn't see the source of the voices around her, but she recognized them. They were the voices of children, two foals from the village, and one from the stars.
"Sorry, Mr. Dance," a young colt's sheepish voice apologized.
There was a sigh, and the young healer from off world corrected him, "Dancer, not dance. And don't worry about it, you can't really hurt these with just that."
"Ok," the young colt answered happily.
"But don't touch anything else," Radio quickly added, "not everything here is as sturdy."
Sparrow brought a hoof to her head, shedding the blanket she didn't know covered her.
"Wait, you might not want to-"
The middle aged mare found a cool damp cloth resting over her eyes and pulled it away. Regret for that action came quick as light stabbed at her, making her throw her hooves over her face as a shield.
A weight on her shoulder rolled her back, and the cloth was quickly replaced, bringing soothing darkness again. "You'll want to leave that on for a while. A phase pistol works by causing a phase shift, energy waves attenuated one hundred and eighty degrees to whatever energy source they act upon. If the weapon is strong enough, this can cause the breakdown of the energetic bonds between atoms, at a stun setting, it causes a disruption of the electrical impulses that keep the body functioning. Your nerves are all on edge because they were temporarily deprived of all signals. They have to readjust, especially the optic nerve."
"Stun setting?" Then, she failed. "Hunter-" She felt a pull on her hoof. It took her a moment, but she soon realized that Radio was holding it.
"He's not here." The blanket was pulled up to her chest, and Radio tucked her in like a foal. "But you are, and so are ponies that need you."
"Who needs somepony like me? Who can't even atone for her actions?"
"You wanted to kill yourself to make up for what happened to Hunter." It wasn't a question, or even an accusation, just a statement. The young Pegasus was quietly, his tone more solemn than Sparrow had ever heard it. "I think I can understand that." There was a pause, and the mattress she laid on shifted as somepony leaned against it. "I didn't tell you this earlier, but when I was Silver-mane's age, I lost my mother. I was hurt, and she nearly died protecting me. She's been... asleep, ever since then, and every day, I wish it was me laying there instead of her. Sometimes, I think the only reason I never tried to hurt myself was because I still had my sister, somepony who needed me as much as I needed her."
There was another shift, and a warm weight settled against Sparrow's side.
"There are ponies here who need you," Radio continued. "Silver-mane and Sunbeam lost their parents, so did a lot of other foals. They have nopony to take care of them. I hope you don't mind, but I told them that you would." When Radio spoke next, it wasn't to Sparrow. "You two keep an eye on her, ok? I need to go check on another patient."
Down the stairs, Radio crashed into an empty bed. He used it as a support to lower his weight to the floor. He was doing his best to put on a brave face for the foals upstairs, but holy crap that hurt. A surreptitious scan, performed while younger eyes were distracted, showed that his leg wasn't entirely broken, but still had a hairline crack. As long as he didn't do anything overly stressful, like, oh say, walking, it would heal on its own in a matter of hours. One of the perks of being the result of a military genetic manipulation program, he guessed.
Access to proper medical equipment would be a better perk. Even having his second bottle of self-setting spray polymer to make a cast would make his recovery a lot more comfortable, but for some reason, Astral and Twilight locked the shuttle before going AWOL. They had better be ready for a flank-kicking when they get back from wherever they ran off to.
Radio looked up with a groan as the hospital door slammed open. He forced himself up on his good leg when he saw the grey unicorn that opened it. "Speak of a Wirran..." He scoffed at Astral, but when he saw the pink pony behind him, his expression softened. It was somepony he didn't recognize, and that meant she hasn't been treated yet. "Aw, hell, another patient?"
"No, she's fine." Astral looked down at the colt's front hooves, noticing that one was hovering just off the floor. "What did you do to your leg?"
"I broke it," Radio stated, "matter of fact. And guess what, you locked the shuttle."
"No, I didn't." Astral looked back at the pony following him. "Unlock the shuttle."
"But," she started to protest.
"No," Astral cut her off with a pointing hoof. "Unlock the shuttle now, no arguments. We won't leave without you."
"Promise?"
Astral nodded. "Yes, I promise."
With a squint, the short mare peered into the captain's eyes. "Berry promise?"
Astral blinked. "What?"
"Cross my heart and hope to fly, run a laser 'cross my thigh." The pink mare pantomimed her statements, drawing an 'x' over her heart with a hoof, flapping her front legs like wings, and finishing up by slapping across her cutie mark.
Astral stared at her for a moment. "That sounds painful."
She nodded. "It is."
"Sure, whatever, I've been through worse." Astral sighed. "I Berry Promise."
She looked at him expectantly.
"I hope you're not waiting for me to do the motions."
She looked down quickly. "Oh, um, no, I'm not." As quickly as she had dropped her gaze, she lifted it and stared at Radio. "Um..."
Radio flicked his ear as he waited for her to finish her sentence, but the words never came. Five seconds later, he scratched his cheek. Ten seconds later, he sighed. Fifteen, and he decided to stop waiting. "What? Do you need something? And who are you anyway? How are you not sick?"
She answered the question immediately. "My name is Strawberry Gingersnap Pie, and I'm not sick because I filter my water and grow my, uh, my own food in itty bitty pots." She then pointed at the little communication device strapped around the Pegasus's good wrist. " Can I borrow that?"
"Huh?" Radio shook his head. Forget the obvious lie of filtering her water; there was no technology on this planet capable of filtering the coolant from water. Forget the obvious lie that she grew food in tiny pots; hydroponics tech was similarly absent. What is with the way she pronounced the word, 'gingersnap?' She used the guttural, 'guh,' sound for the first syllable. Weird. Radio shook his head again. "Sure," he said, taking the radio off with his teeth, "why not? I've got extras." He tossed it to her, and she caught it, fumbling only slightly. "My name's Radio, by the way."
Berry giggled as she started examining the communication device. "So this is Radio's radio?"
"We'll have time for puns later," Astral butted in. "Radio, where's Tekrin?"
The colt nodded over his shoulder, to the door leading to the previous doctor's sleeping quarters. "In there, but he's still recovering from-"
Astral didn't bother letting him finish. "Berry, join me as soon as you're done." He looked over at Radio. "You take a break, fix your leg if possible. That's an order."
"No, duh." Radio his eyes. "I was actually considering a nice jog instead."
Astral didn't take the bait as he headed for the door. He let the pegasus quietly rant about his, 'infinite wisdom,' as he slipped into Tekrin's darkened room, shutting the door behind him.
He blinked a few times. The room was almost completely dark. No candle's lent their flickering light, no oil lamp glowed steadily, there was only a faint rim of white surrounding the heavy tarp secured over the room's only window.
"Who's there?" Inquired a voice in the dark.
Astral focused on his magic. For the second time in years, he forced the aura to coalesce into visible energy, casting a soft white light into the shadows. He saw Elder Tekrin in a bed. The old pony winced at the sudden brightness, but pulled his hoof away from his eyes when he saw its cause.
"You," he said, slowly raising himself up to lean against the headboard.
"Yeah, me." Astral scoffed. "You never bothered to ask my name."
The elder's head leaned back until it rested against wood. His movements were awkward, jerky, as his muscles adjusted to receiving commands again. "Have you done what I asked?"
Astral found a table in the middle of the room, and several candles on top of it. He focused his magic on the wick. He couldn't summon flames at will, but even he could generate enough focused heat to- The candle made a soft noise as its wick burst into gentle flame, releasing smoke and a faint cinnamon scent. "I actually wanted to talk to you about that."
As he closed his eyes against this new light, Tekrin pulled the sheet off his chest and rubbed at a perfectly square bald spot shaved into his side. "While I was unconscious, that brat of yours decided to get my treatment over with. Didn't bother to ask if even I wanted it."
"Yeah, that sounds like him." Astral walked over to the bed.
Tekrin recovered enough to open his eyes, and fixed them on Astral. "And what of you? Have you completed your task?"
"Ah, yes. I wanted to talk to you about that. The witch of the lake?" Astral asked in mock surprise. "She's out in the waiting room. I've been introducing her to everybody." A startled Tekrin tried to sit up, but Astral pushed him back down. It was a light push, but Tekrin hissed in pain, addled nerves still overly sensitive from the phase pistol's jolt. "You'll get to meet her in a minute. You'll like her, she's like the granddaughter you never had."
Weak as he was, the old pony grabbed Astral and pulled him face to face. "You dare mock my family?"
"Oh, that's rich, coming from you." Astral pushed away from him with ease. "You used to love it when ponies mocked your family. Especially your brother. Remember? Your misguided, technology-loving, human-obsessed brother?"
Tekrin froze. "Who are you? How do you know so much about my brother?"
"I know about more than your brother. I also know that you had a son, a year or two younger than Sparrow, and that something happened to him almost thirty years ago." Astral lit another candle, making the elder wince. "I also know that you pretty much forbade talking about him." Astral lit another candle. "What's the story behind that? I heard he was a troublemaker, aggressive and manipulative tail-chaser, wanted your job, didn't give a tar rat's ass what he had to do to get it, the usual."
Tekrin looked at the ceiling before Astral could light the last candle on the table. "He was killed, by the witch of the lake. What good does it do to bring up his shortcomings now?"
"I only bring him up because he died thirty years ago."
"Twenty-nine years, and three months, to the day tomorrow. For all his problems, he was still my son."
"That's interesting, the witch of the lake that I found is only twenty-eight years old." Astral shrugged. "Must be a coincidence, let's talk about something else. Did Hawk have any distinguishing features? Brown flecks in his hair like every pony else in the family?" Tekrin's head jerked towards Astral, who scratched his temple. "Oh, wait, the brown fades as you get older, for males anyway."
Tekrin stared at the unicorn, shaken by his inexplicable knowledge of his family. "Who are you? How do you know his name?"
Astral shook his head. "You don't even recognize me, do you?"
The door squeaked open.
Astral stood up as Berry walked in. He waved her over and motioned for her to sit next to the bed. "Strawberry, I want you to meet somepony. This is Elder Tekrin, he runs this colony."
The elder went pale. "It can't be," he whispered, "all this time..."
Berry bowed her head nervously. "Um, it's very nice to meet you, Mr. Tekrin."
"Mr. Tekrin? Eh, it's a little formal." He pat the pink mare on the shoulder and looked over at the elder. "Don't you think, Uncle?"
Tekrin gasped, the unicorn's identity finally clicking. "Astral?"
Astral gave a weak smile. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"
"You survived."
"Obviously," Astral sneered. "No thanks to you forcing me out into the galaxy, hurt and alone with a damaged ship and no fuel."
Tekrin shook his head, all fight and anger slipping away as he pushed himself away from the bedframe. "I never meant to force you away." He reached out and touched the grey unicorn lightly, just to make sure he was really there. "You are all that remains of my brother. As much as we clashed, he and I were still family. If anything, I wanted you to stay. But, I can't regret what happened now. Not only were you spared our illness, but you brought salvation back to us."
Berry looked back and forth between them. "Wait, you two are related?"
"Yes." Astral looked down at her. "And so are you." He nodded towards Tekrin. The elder's eyes were wide with shock, and the expression of surprise on his face was a dramatic contrast to the rough scowl Astral remembered. "This is my uncle, your grandfather."