//------------------------------//
// The Windows to Your Room 
// Story: Cryo-7 
// by Metal Pony Fan 
//------------------------------//

"Knock knock," Twilight said as the automated door swished open to an empty room.  "Mr. Catch?"  Twilight poked her head in, but didn't see anypony.  The door opened on its own, so she assumed that meant it was unlocked.  Perhaps Catch left in the time it took her to make it here?

"Ah, it's you."  The air in the corner rippled, as the chairman dropped his cloaking spell and stepped out into the room.  "I apologize, I felt a scanning spell lock onto me earlier, but didn't realize the source."

"You felt that?"  Twilight winced.  She just made a pony that had an attempt on his life think that somepony was out looking for him.  "I'm so sorry, I didn't think you would."  She gestured to his hiding place.  "That wasn't an illusion, was it?  It was an actual light bending spell.  Given what happened yesterday, I'm guessing your magic is tied to nature?  To ecological, geological, and meteorological energies?"

"A surprisingly accurate assessment," Catch admitted.  "Forgive me, we have not been properly introduced."  He extended a hoof.  "I am Steel Catch."

She took the offered hoof, gave it a shake.  Why couldn't they have skipped to this part upon arrival?  "Twilight Sparkle."

Catch gave a nod.  "As chairman of Tirassa, I welcome you, and apologize for the hardships you've been forced to endure.  Speaking of which, is your friend all right?  I understand he was seriously injured, shot with a projectile weapon."

"He's... recovering, at least."  It could have been much worse, but that was little consolation.  "How are Dinky and Ditzy?  Are they still here in the hospital?"

The chairman shook his head.  "I teleported them to a safe house with some of my most trusted guards."  He looked towards the windows, and sadly sighed, "they will be safer away from me for the moment."  He managed a smile when he looked back at Twilight.  "I am grateful for your help in rescuing them.  I don't know what I would have done if...  If anything had happened to either of them."

Twilight found herself smiling back.  "I only got to the chance to speak with her for a while yesterday, but Ditzy said you were a kind-hearted stallion."

"She did?" Catch asked quickly, then cleared his throat.  "I mean, I'm not surprised.  She is more than generous with compliments."

"Only when they're deserved," Twilight pointed out.  "From what she told me, and the way she spoke of you, I get the feeling you two have grown pretty close."

"Anypony would when you live in hiding under the same roof.  Not that it helped.  I felt keeping her nearby would allow me to protect them, and I have failed in that task.  We finally find Ditzy, and now they both have to go into hiding again.  Start it all over again, somewhere else.  It isn't fair to them.  They shouldn't be tied to Tirassa's troubles, or suffer for its past."

Twilight nodded her agreement.  "I could take them back to the assembly with me.  A lot of our friends have been released from their cryo-chambers, and we're finding more all the time.

The suggestion clearly stung, but Catch forced himself to swallow the protest rising in his throat.  "Yes," he forced out instead, "That might be best."

"Oh, wow, you really don't want them to go."  Twilight had seen this too many times, a pony faced with the prospect of leaving somepony behind.  "I sort of suspected, but you and Ditzy were more than just close, weren't you?"

"Yes," the stallion confessed, "what started as mere historical interest has not stayed that way.    Ditzy and I fell prey to discussions long into the night.  It didn't take long for our talks of history to grow shorter, or for the nights to grow longer."  He took a long breath, bringing his hoof to cover his eyes.  "But, as much as I want them to stay here," his voice cracked, "I can not have them be in danger because of me.  So, take them, and take them quietly.  I will provide you a ship, Slipstream capable, old by your standards, but one of the most advanced on Tirassa.  It will see you safely back to the Galactic Assembly."

"I know this is hard," Twilight put a reassuring hoof on his shoulder, "but it's noble of you to put their safety first.  We should talk with them, and see..."  She glanced out the window.  "Um, do you think she might have something to say about that?"

Catch shook his head.  "Whether she does or not, she has Dinky's safety to consider."

"Good point, but..."  Twilight squinted at something out the window, growing fast from the horizon.  Her eyes went wide as she realized what it was.  "She's got something to say!  Down!"

She grabbed Catch, and shoved him out of the way as the window exploded inward.  She wasn't fast enough to avoid the projectile, a grey pegasus, one aimed right at her.  The impact blasted Twilight back as she absorbed the mailmare's excess kinetic energy.  Twilight landed outside, through the automatic door, well down the hallway, where security immediately drew their weapons on her.

Believing her to be the source of the abrupt chaos, one of the guards tackled her as she tried to stand.

Inside the room, Ditzy brushed herself off and marched up to Steel Catch.  "Don't you dare teleport me again while I'm in the middle of a sentence!"

"On the ground!  Stop resisting!"

"Ditzy!"  Catch was torn between heading to help Twilight, and giving the pegasus before him the attention she demanded, "what are you doing here?  That bunker was-"

"Grab her wing!  I said stop resisting!

Catch looked back towards the door as it slid shut, but before he could head for it, Ditzy jabbed her hoof into his chest, pushing him back.  "I don't care about the bunker!  You locked Dinky in your office, and left her there for hours, alone, and then when you finally get us all back together, you teleport us to some underground bunker?  We're both scared!  And worried about you!  What is going on?"

"Tase her!"

Catch gasped in alarm, and tried to edge past.  "Ditzy, I'm sorry, but I-"

"Yaaaaghh!"  Twilight's scream from the hallway filled the room, making both Catch and Ditzy flinch in surprise.  They scrambled away from the door as it opened, allowing a flying earth pony through.  The security guard, presumably launched, and not flying under his own power, landed hard on the hospital bed, and Twilight entered the room dragging a second one with her wing.  Her fur stood on end, and two coiled wires dangled from barbs stuck in her shoulder.  She shivered, a shaky twitchy movement, then shouted, "Somepony get these out of me, right now!"

Steel Catch ran to comply, carefully unhooking the barbed wires from her skin.  "Sorry," he told the other alicorn, before shouting to the slowly recovering guards, "Stand down!  These are my guests."

"But, the window..."  The guard on the bed made it up, safety glass crunching harmlessly underhoof.  He took a glance out the opening to the Tirassan sky, and his protest died in his throat.  He had seen the broadcast yesterday.  Anything that could pose a threat to the chairman as he is now would be far beyond his meager ability to even help with.  And, he should have realized this purple winged unicorn would be on the same level.   He was a part time hospital security guard, not a soldier.  Not that soldiers would stand a chance either.  "Yes, sir," he headed for the door, pausing only long enough to grab his coworker, "sorry, sir."

Twilight lowered her head as he walked by her.  "Sorry about throwing you."

The guard stopped in his tracks, looking over.  He wasn't sure what he expected, but it wasn't that.  This one was the offworlder, right?  From close up, he could tell, she was even more powerful than Catch right now.  The magic radiated off of her, flowed through her mane, and he could feel it washing over him.  Nothing on this planet could compare, nopony on this planet stand against her, but... she was sorry.  And she was, it wasn't a hollow apology, she meant it.

"Thank you, ma'am."  The guard blinked before continuing his walk out the door.  Were there more ponies like this across the galaxy?  How much is there out beyond the confines of Tirassa?

"Hey, where are you going?"

The guard shook himself from his thoughts long enough to look back at his coworker, several meters behind him.  He had walked well past his post.  Where was he going?  He caught another glimpse of the purple mare before the door to the chairman's room closed once again, and quickly looked back forward.  He still didn't know where he was going, but he knew he was going, and that would have to be enough.  "I'll have them send somebody to take over for me."