//------------------------------//
// Cheers! 
// Story: Cryo-7 
// by Metal Pony Fan 
//------------------------------//

"This stuff smells funny."  Berry set her glass down and leaned over to smell Pip's glass.  Then, she leaned over to smell the glass being set in front of the human technician sitting on the other side of her.  It was the same.  "Is it supposed to smell like that?"

Pip looked down at his drink.  He took a sniff, decided he didn't quite trust his nose alone to make the judgement, and took a small sip.  With a shrug, he lowered his glass.  "Seems like beer to me.  Somethin' a touch off with it?"

Berry set her chin on the bar, peering into the amber liquid.  "I guess not.  Never tried it before."

"Really?"  Pip shrugged again.  "Right, well, order whatever you like.  Mrs.Punch has got stuff from the far reaches a' the galaxy.  And it doesn't have to be alcohol, she's got different kinds a' juice, sodas, elixers, and even some potions."  Under his breath he added, "I just wish she offered some type of food.  Who drinks without snacking?"

Berry glanced around the small bar, at the rest of the crew.  A varied group of souls she just met today.  There were just over twenty of them, and she didn't even get all their names yet.  This was the team tasked with implementing her vision, and turning the empty cargo bay into Philomena's new docking bay.

A human woman with hair as pink as hers.  A male curaxxan with scales to match.  Three gryphons, a dragon, four more humans, some sort of walking rock, who was very polite when speaking, and a whole bunch of ponies.  Most of them stallions about Pip's age, but there were a few older mares and stallions.  The onnly thing that they all had in common were the drinks in front of them.

Berry looked back at Pip, scooping up the drink.  "If everypony else is having this, I'm having this!"

Everyone gave a cheer, startling the pink pony.  But seeing as they immediately started knocking back their drinks, Berry decided to do the same.  She regretted it immediately.  She took a big swig, eyes going wide as she swallowed the harsh liquid. She was already on the second mouthful by the time she was able to lower the glass.

Trapped between not wanting to swallow the stuff, and not wanting to spit it back in the cup, she braced her hooves on the bar.  Her face soured as she realized she didn't have a choice.  She forced it down, coughing lightly.  "Is it supposed to taste like that?"

Pip, meanwhile, had downed half his pint, and lowered his glass as he raised an eyebrow.  He smacked his lips, looking down at his glass.  "Tastes normal ta me.  Maybe yours got mixed up with another drink?  Let me see."

Berry happily handed over the glass, and Pip took a careful sniff.  "Can't tell," he shrugged, "Let's get you a new one, be sure about it."  As Pip flagged down the bartender, the sentient stone-being walked up to the bar beside him.



Rough and grey, he was shaped like a human, with a stocky grey body clothed only in denim overalls.  He was tall enough to rest his chin on the bar as he watched the bartender running back and forth.  His, "eyes," slight depressions on his roughly spherical head were the only facial features other than his mouth.  "Another!"  He shouted, a smile on his surprisingly expressive mouth and holding his empty glass high above his head.  With a laugh, he leaned back, mouth open, and dropped the glass in.  A few seconds of crunching away preceded him swallowing with a sound like a trash compactor.  "And a mineral water," he amended his order.

Pip glanced down at Berry's drink, letting out a silent, "huh," as he found an efficient, win-win solution to the current situation.  "Oy.  'Ere ya go Flint."  He tossed the glass as the walking pile of grey granite started to turn.  "Catch."

Flint turned, head tracking the glass, and hopped up.  He snatched it from the air in one big bite, only spilling a little as the mug shattered in his mouth.  He then landed with a solid clang against the deck.  "Much obliged," he said with an exaggerated bow, before turning back to the bartender.  "If at all possible, could you pour that mineral water in a metal cup?  I fear I'll be filling up on glass before too long."

The pinto stallion leaned and whispered to his pink guest, "Lucky bloke's the only who gets snacks around here."

"You still want the beer?" Asked the bartender, slamming a fresh mug under the tap.

Pipsqueak quickly raised his hoof.  "No, but we'll take it."  As his hoof fell, he slapped Flint on the shoulder.  "Thanks, mate."  He turned back to say something to Berry, but caught sight of something beyond her, and scrambled out of his seat.  "Excuse me a moment."

"Um, sure," Berry said as she watched him go.

Flint quickly took the young stallion's seat.  "Good evening, Miss Pie," he said with a nod, holding out his stubby, flattened, hand.  It lacked fingers, but a small stone sat roughly where a thumb would be, floating disconnected from the rest of him.  "We didn't get a chance to speak earlier."

Berry looked down at the offered limb, slightly surprised that he was even talking to her.  There sure were lots of friendly things in the galaxy.  "We didn't," she agreed, and held her hoof out.

He gave it a shake, his touch far more warm and delicate than his appearance would lead you to expect.  "You are related to the finder," he said quietly, reverently, "aren't you?"

Berry blinked.  "Huh?"

Flint glanced around, making sure no one was around.  The human on the other side of the pony had wandered off to talk to some of the other techs, and the bartender was still busy with orders, so he leaned in and whispered, "King Norland."

Berry's eyes went wide.  The bartender started over towards them before she could say anything.  She waited for him to deposit her fresh beer and Flint's mineral water, and scooped hers up, taking a big swig.  It tasted just like the last one, but it was better than the dryness in her mouth right now.  "King?!"

Taking a smaller sip of his mineral water, and nibbling the rim of the stainless steel mug, Flint shrugged.  "Am I mistaken?"

The earth pony rested her hooves together on the bar.  "I don't think so," she answered quietly.  "My grandfather's name was Grinparch Norland.  I...  I guess there's a lot I don't know about him."

Flint nodded.  "You have a similar resonance.  That's how we see, electromagnetic resonance.  Any of my people would recognize you. Please, do not hesitate to request my help, should you ever need it."

Before Berry could ask him to clarify, he bowed out of his seat, vacating it for the returning Pipsqueak.  He had another pony with him, a pale pink unicorn with a blue mane and faint, fuzzy grey spots.  "Sorry for runnin' off like that," he offered hastily.  "Berry, Flint, this is Lilybelle.  Lilybelle, this is Berry, our new boss at the moment, and Flint, one of our zero-g repair techs."

"And the only one that doesn't require a suit," Flint added as he held out his hand.  "It's a pleasure to finally meet the mare that's got our Pipsqueak tangled like string."

Lily stifled a laugh for the pinto pony's sake, and offered her hoof for a shake.  "I'm sure that's an exaggeration."

"Not at all," Flint responded.  "He's been talking about the angel of medical since he first started welding the new doors and windows in.  And he hasn't been able to keep his head on straight a whole shift since ya started talking to him.  And you should hear what-"

"Okay!"  Pipsqueak shoved himself between his girlfriend and his co-worker.  "That's enough, Flint, thank you."  He kept a smile plastered on his face as he covertly kicked the laughing golem in the shin until he started to wander away.  "Anyway, Berry here is the one in charge of the new project.  We're converting a cargo bay into a spacedock for Mr. Plane's cargo ship, and then we'll be repairing that, too."

Lily nodded, smiling at the tint of red on the colt's face.  "Isn't he cute when he's embarrassed?" she asked Berry.

Berry looked at the pinto pony, realizing she wasn't exactly sure what constituted cute when it came to a stallion.  But Lily seemed to think he was, and Pipsqueak seemed to really like her.  "He did say the other day, that he got a girlfriend, and it was the best time of his life."

Lilybelle couldn't hold back the laugh anymore.

Pipsqueak buried his face in his hooves as his mare-friend laughed, a beautiful sound to be sure, but at his expense.  "Et tu, Berry?"

The earth pony's head tilted slightly.  "Hem?"

"Sorry, Pip, but I think thats absolutely adorable."  The nurse cleared her throat.  "Berry, was it?  I don't think we've properly met yet, but Mac's been telling me about you during his daily appointments.  He said you were amazingly brave during the attack."

Berry shrugged.  "I didn't want to die."

Lilybelle blanched, gasping sharply as she winced.  "I- I'm sorry, maybe I shouldn't have brought it up."

Berry glanced at the unicorn, then turned back to her drink.  She took a sip, slowly growing used to the hearty, grainy flavor under the bitter bite.  "It's fine," she said with another shrug.  "I didn't want to die, so I fought back.  It's only natural."  She took another sip to fill the silence as she tried to piece her words together.  She wasn't used to holding conversations.  "I could have fought better, or fought back sooner, if I wasn't so scared.  Mac would have been better off if we didn't have to run away like we did."

"I'm sure you did all you could," Pipsqueak said confidently.

"Yeah," Lilybelle agreed.  "I heard you destroyed two of those robot weapons, and fought with the mastermind behind the attack before you two escaped.  That's pretty amazing."

"Two of them," Berry muttered, a murderous stare leveled at the bubbles in her drink, "next time, I'll destroy them all."

The nurse and the welder exchanged wide-eyed glances.  "Uh, yeah," Pipsqueak chuckled nervously, "with any luck it'll never come up again.  So," he said loudly, hoping to change the subject, "Berry, you were telling me about the computer repairs, that there was something special about the circuitry?"

"Huh?"  The pink pony looked up from where she had been scowling into her drink.  "You mean the crystalline component integration around the magical crossovers?  Or the unexplained redundancies in the internal sensors and communications systems?"

Pip heaved a quick sigh of relief as her anger dissipated, replaced by her normal earnest curiosity.  "How about the redundancies?  I get the crystal components, since almost all the computers we had back in Equestria had some sort of crystalline-magical integration.  But I don't see why a ship needs two full sets of internal sensors that are completely separated from each other."

Berry nodded her agreement.  It was an intriguing set up, for sure.  "We'll find out once we get the main computer online."

"You think we'll be able to find a manual?  Maybe schematics?"

Berry nodded slowly.  "Something along those lines.  The computer should be able to tell us the rest."

"Can't wait," Pipsqueak glanced at the bar, noticing that the beer he left was gone.  It most likely left with Flint a moment ago.  "Say, Berry, why don't you get Flint to introduce you to everypony?  We're all gonna be working for you, so it'd be good for everypony to get to know you a bit."  He glanced back at the crow, then leaned in, and whispered, "and when ya find him, tell him he owes me a beer."