Cryo-7

by Metal Pony Fan


Keep Your Friends Close,

Astral woke up in a crater. The smoking ruins of some sort of building surrounding him. Beyond the rim of the crater, probably four or five meters out, several angry pegasi glared at him. One of them stood with with his hooves at the very edge of the destruction, clearly the leader.

He stood up slowly. There was no pain, and a quick check showed that his coat was spared the scorching around him. He also saw that he was alone in the crater. Where was Twilight?

The lead pegasus stepped into the crater. "Just couldn't stand it, could you?"

Astral looked back at him. He was younger than Coffee, and a lighter shade of brown. His walnut colored mane had green streaks in it, and his grey eyes were filling with tears. His teeth ground together as he stared in anger.

Astral swallowed hard, realizing the pony was angry at him. For what, Astral had no idea, but he had a feeling he was about to find out.

"Answer me!" The pegasus demanded, stomping his hoof. "Is it so wrong for a pegasus to own something in this city? My restaurant was nothing but a shack compared to any other around here. Why do you care?"

Astral swallowed hard, taking a closer look at the debris around him. They were in a back alley, between large buildings of glass stone, in the remains of a wooden hut. His restaurant? There was enough power in that teleport to destroy a small building? "No, this isn't..."

"Shut up!" The pegasus stamped his hoof. "You've been threatening me for weeks. But this... You could have hurt my customers, my friends, all to get at me?"

"No!" Astral shook his head. This wasn't good. He was surrounded, with no weapon and no escape plan, by ponies he couldn't hope to outrun. "This was an accident. A teleport that went wrong."

He scoffed at Astral's explanation. "And now you think I'm stupid? Today is the last! That was carved on my door this morning. You're just making excuses because you were caught. What sort of teleport has the power to destroy a building? Or creates blue lightning? We only had time to get out because we ran from the lightning."

"Something went wrong. There was another pony with me," Astral explained, "a purple mare. We teleported from a space station in orbit. Where is she?"

"If she was here, she left before the explosion." He spat on the ground. "Coward."

"Take that back!" Astral clamped his mouth shut. He didn't even think before saying that. "She isn't a coward," he continued a bit more calmly, "and this was an accident."

The pegasus lifted his head as sirens sounded in the distance. "Then they'll find that a unicorn perished in this accident."

"Oh, crap," Astral muttered as the pegasus launched himself forward.

The unicorn stepped back and right, dodging the punch aimed at his head. Back and left to dodge the follow-up. The pegasus was in flight and still punching, so Astral resorted to launching stones from the ground. With every step back, a stone hit the pegasus in the hoof, pushing him deeper into every swing.

He grew angrier with every miss, and once Astral was backed against a wall, he raised both hooves for a vicious strike. Astral jumped forward, ducking under the pegasus, and grabbing him by the tail.

Astral tucked and rolled, pulling the pegasus by the tail, and slamming him onto his back. Another pegasus tackled Astral, and the unicorn grabbed his new attacker as they rolled. The sirens were growing louder. Astral pinned him down, noticing the similar color scheme, and shouted out, "Will all of you just stop?!"

Most of them did, but the pegasus that first attacked him squared up with him, scraping his hoof on the ground. He snorted in anger. "Let go of my brother."

Astral looked straight at him. "And then you attack me again? You know what?" The unicorn stepped back. "Go ahead! I don't care how bad this day is going, I am not taking a hostage."

The angry pegasus rushed forward, and pulled his brother away from Astral.

Astral pointed his hoof skyward. "What do you think is going to happen when those sirens get here? Whose side do you think they're going to take? They are getting damn close." The pegasi outside the crater exchanged glances and started running off. Pretty soon, it was just Astral and two light brown pegasi. "I'm sorry about your restaurant, but it truly was an accident."

The younger one, the brother that Astral had pinned earlier was trying to drag his brother away, whispering things to him. The only words Astral made out were, "It's not worth it," repeated over and over.

It didn't persuade the older brother. He stood unmoving, keeping Astral firmly centered in his gaze.

"Gah!" Astral stomped his hoof in frustration. The sirens were growing louder. If they didn't leave now... "I swear, on my father's wings, this was an accident!"

That got both ponies' attention.

"Your father?" asked the younger brother, turning to look at Astral, eyes as green as the streaks in his brother's mane. "A pegasus?"

Astral shook his head. "A night pony. You might call them a thestral?"

"A bat-wing?" The younger brother was definitely taking over the conversation. "I thought they were wiped out, centuries ago, during the war."

"He wasn't from this planet, and neither am I." The sirens were painfully loud now. Even if they ran, there was no chance they wouldn't be seen. "Look, it's too late to run. I can get us away from here safely, but you have to trust me."

The older brother seemed to have calmed down a little, but he was still suspicious of Astral's motivation. "And why should we trust you?"

"Because, my friend-" Astral looked skyward. The full weight of the situation was settling in. "Because, the mare I love is out there, somewhere, and she's hiding her wings."

The sirens were nearly deafening by now, and the sound of hovercars could be made out among them. There was no more time to argue. Emergency responders would be on top of them in seconds. Whether that meant fire suppression, rescue teams, medical crews, or a police force, was anypony's guess.

"Start digging," Astral commanded, throwing himself at a pile of broken boards and tossing them aside.

The brothers exchanged glances, realizing the plan immediately.

"Is anypony in there?!" shouted the older brother.

The younger one started digging near Astral. "You should stand back," he whispered, "use your magic, and leave the physical labor to us, it will be more believable."

"My magic's crap," Astral answered quietly, "and I'm already covered in dirt." A glance towards the alley entrance showed an armored vehicle landing. Astral stopped working to wave them down. "Help! There may still be ponies trapped!"


A slender earth pony stood in front of Astral, clad in scuffed and dirty ballistic armor. Her coat was teal-blue, but faded to white at her hooves. One of which was held out towards the unicorn. "Thanks again, Mr. Plane. I'm glad we didn't find anypony in the rubble, but your efforts here were still greatly appreciated."

Astral shook the police chief's hoof, smiling nervously. "No problem, Chief. I couldn't just do nothing."

The earth pony sighed miserably, running a hoof through her darker teal mane. "If only there were more unicorns like you around." She indicated the cordoned off crater. "This is the first pegasi-owned business in the capitol. And, I'm sure you felt the residual magic in there. Hell, I felt it, and I'm an earth pony. Somepony didn't want this place to exist."

Astral nodded slowly, looking back at the crater. "Yeah... How are you going to track them down?"

She shrugged. "Well, we took a scan of the magic, with any luck, we can match it to a member of one of the groups that has been threatening this place. Though, to be honest, the gang we had pegged most likely to carry out an attack got busted yesterday, buying and transporting mining explosives without a license. Last member was picked up this morning, tagging pegasi owned buildings with threatening messages."

Astral looked back at her. "Did Flinch get to tell you? He had some graffiti on his door this morning. This is the last day, or something like that?"

"Today is the last," she corrected. "The same message has been popping up all over town. Flinch and Scratch both gave statements, but neither of them saw anything useful. They were too busy getting customers out." She sighed as she stared at the crater. "And now, I'm going to be forced to arrest them because of this city's messed up vagrancy laws."

"Wait, what?!" Astral glanced back. The two pegasi were picking a few small items out of the rubble with the help of a burly unicorn with speckled green fur. "Why?"

"They lived in that restaurant." She waved over a red earth pony who seemed to be filling out reports near one of their two armored aircars. "Red, get them an evidence bag or two for their things." As he nodded and ducked into the aircar, she turned back to Astral. "The mayor instituted strict laws regarding homeless pegasi in response to the Chairman's new policies. If they can't find a place to stay by curfew, I'll have to arrest them."

"Sounds like you don't agree with the mayor."

"I don't," she snorted. "We're a heavy response team. We're supposed to protect this city from everything the regular forces can't handle. Hostage situations, terrorist attacks, not picking up down on their luck pegasi."

Astral chewed it over. "Then, if you don't mind me asking, why does that duty fall to your team?"

"Because," she shrugged, "I volunteered for it. It earned me a bad rep with the local pegasi, but I know I treat the ones we pick up better than most departments would."

Astral nodded. "Well, what if they stayed with me? I'm in town for business, and staying at a hotel uptown. I'm sure they won't mind."

"Oh," she said excitedly, "is it the Overlook? I love that place. The rooms are huge."

"Yeah, I think that's it" Astral agreed. "Company's putting me up, so it's a big room, even has a small kitchen."

"Well, I'll let you talk it over with Flinch and Scratch, but I have no objections. And if the hotel does, just tell them they're your personal chefs. It's a common job in this city, and one of the few that are legally protected."

Astral nodded. "Good to know. I'll go see if they're ok with it."

The chief nodded as he walked away. She returned to the lead aircar. Everything here was as sorted as she could manage, and it would be up to an investigations team from here. She just had to file her reports and keep the site secure until they got here.

She sat down in the driver's seat, and put on a radio headset. On the console beside her steering column, she pulled up the communications screen. "This is Hurt One, to Headquarters. Repeat, Heavy Response Team One, to Headquarters."

"This is Headquarters," answered a voice through the headset, "go ahead Hurt One."

"Situation Secure. Requesting investigation at documented location PT One-zero-two. Threats made against the pegasi at this location have culminated in a magic-based explosive attack. One building destroyed, no major injuries."

"Any displaced pegasi?"

The chief rolled her eyes. That was hardly a priority right now, was it? "Negative, HQ. All victims have accommodations for the night. Scans of the perpetrator's magical signature will be uploaded in a few minutes, please run them against members of the Earth Alliance and Hoof's Down."

"Roger that." There was a pause, and the dispatcher whispered, "Sorry, the super was standing over my shoulder. You know how he feels about the issue. Should we compare the magic to the members of Wingless Dawn?"

The chief shook her head. "Shouldn't be necessary. This blast was too large for a time-delayed spell, and they've been in custody since yesterday."

The voice over the headset suddenly spoke softer. "You mean, they haven't told you?"

"Told me what?"

"Wingless Dawn was pardoned, by the mayor himself, nearly two hours ago. Some clerk found the permit for the explosives, and somepony from the Hard Hoof Mining company was saying they were contractors."

"Contractors?!" The chief kicked the steering column. "They're an ex-military splinter group! Two of their founding members were arrested in Cagro for trying to roast a pegasus over a fire. Burned their wings off with a welding torch!"

"It was brought up, but... They said it was rogue action by those two individuals."

"Bullshit!"

"Ma'am, I agree with you, but there's nothing you can do about it. They are staying as the mayor's guests for tomorrow's business conference. He also gave us a priority assignment. Two ponies messed up a bar belonging to a friend of his on one of the space stations. They're supposedly anti-government, but I couldn't find any real information about them."

Her screen popped up a pair of pictures, standard visitor id's for Interplanetary tourists. First one was a purple unicorn, and the second... The chief looked out the window. Astral Plane, grey coat and dark blue mane. He was over talking to Flinch and Scratch.

She looked back at the screen. The eye color was wrong. His eyes were yellow, bright, golden yellow, not blue like in the picture. But, everything else was correct, even the name. "What did they do? You said they messed up a bar, what does that mean? Did they trash the inside? Break a window? Blow it up? Knock over a bottle of wine? What?"

"I'm not sure. I couldn't find any official reports. It can't be anything too bad, the station hasn't even filed their daily report yet... Huh."

"What is it? Did you find anything?"

"Well, not really, um, but... I just checked my travel app, and the station has a whole bunch of one-star reviews in just the last few hours. And, lots of complaints about the owner."

"Huh." The chief looked back out the window. Flinch and Astral were shaking hooves while Scratch loaded his and his brother's things into the bags Green gave them. "Well, put the info on our desks, and we'll look it over when we get back."