//------------------------------//
// Hit the Hammer on the Head 
// Story: Cryo-7 
// by Metal Pony Fan 
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Ribbon Dancer cried as she held her hooves to her head.  The wrench she had clubbed the red pony with lay forgotten in front of her.  "That hurt!  I know that hurt!"  She looked up.  The red pony was watching her passively, like nothing had happened.  "Why didn't that work?"

Blood trickled down the giant's forehead.  "Yer a unicorn."

"So?" She yelled.  She couldn't hear anything.  "What does that have to do with anything?  And how did you know my initials?"  There was no immediate answer.  There should have been one.  He should have answered her as soon as the question was asked.  She couldn't hear his thoughts.

"Ah didn't mean nothin' by it."  He scratched at his neck.  Then he noticed the red liquid dripping from his head.  He wiped a bit of it away with his hoof.  "Ya just reminded me a' somepony."

"My mom..."  Ribbon rubbed her head furiously.  "My mom says that all the time.  Can you please put some ice on that?"  She whined quietly.  "Or take a painkiller?  Something?"

The red pony tilted his head to the side.  To him, this unicorn was acting more than a little weird.  "Yer mom's name, it ain't Rainbow Dash by any chance, is it?"

Ribbon shook her head.  "It's June Bug.  Now will you please go get that taken care of?"

"Thanks fer yer concern miss, but Ah've got work ta do."  He gestured towards the apparently unconscious Astral.  "Ah'm s'posed ta bring this fella ta meet somepony."

"I don't believe you!"  Ribbon stomped a hoof.  She couldn't hear any other thoughts either.  The crowd around them was silent to her.  "My head hurts too much for me to tell if you're lying, so I don't believe you."  She pointed at Astral.  "Why did you knock him out, huh?  You were kidnapping him, confess!"  She wobbled a bit, and groaned.  "And please do something about your head."  The young unicorn looked over as somepony stepped up beside her.  It was a familiar red and green mare.  "I got him, nurse Growl.  Are you going to arrest him?"

The elder mare leaned close to Ribbon.  "I should arrest you," she hissed through clenched teeth.  "As amazing as your abilities may be, you need to wait until you see the whole picture."   Growl straightened up and tossed her mane back with a quiet huff.  She then addressed the uniformed red pony with a tone of respect few ever received from her.  "Sir, I apologize for any trouble Ribbon Dancer may have caused you.  She's young, inexperienced, and prone to jumping into action based on incomplete information."

"What?" Ribbon's head ping-ponged between the two ponies.  "Why are you being so nice to him?"

"Ribbon," the elder mare responded pleasantly, "I'm going to assume that blow to his head has addled your senses.  Otherwise, you would know..."  Growl looked over, and any trace of pleasantry faded like mist.  "He works for the freakin' president, you numbskull!"

"Ah do?"  The red pony cleared his throat.  "Ah mean, of course Ah do."  He nodded slowly, almost as if to convince himself of it.  "The, um, white gryphon?  With the, uh, black stripe by his eye?"

Growl squinted at him.  "Coriander Jones?"

"Oh.  Is that his name?  It didn't come up when Ah talked to him."

Growl sighed and shook her head.  "You're lucky he vouched for you."

He nodded.  "Eeyup."

"Wait!  Wait."  Still clutching her head with one hoof, Ribbon forced her way between the two older ponies.  "You expect me to believe that the president, our president, the same gryphon who personally led the ground attack on Chorios Three because he 'had nothing better to do,' has thugs who go around abducting ponies and knocking them out?"

Growl planted her hoof and spun around, bumping Ribbon out of the way with her hip and knocking the unicorn to a sitting position.  "Go ice your head, and ask me that when your powers return."

The big red pony held up a hoof between the two mares.  "It's alright, Ah'm sure she's just a right bit confused."  Then he muttered to himself, "Ah know Ah am."  He cleared his throat and looked over at Ribbon.  "Ah ain't a thug."

She pointed at him.  "That's exactly what a thug would say."

He opened his mouth to respond, but sighed instead.  Then he scratched his mane.  "Ah guess yer right about that.  But, Ah didn't knock 'im out.  He made a break for it and knocked his head 'gainst a beam."  He pulled a small device from his pocket and held it out to Ribbon.  "Then Ah used this on him."

The unicorn warily moved forward to inspect the offered device.  It looked like the business end of a neural disjunction unit, but she had never seen a portable one before.  She looked up with narrowed eyes.

The red pony shrugged.  "Ah was only tryin' to zap his leg, keep him from runnin'," but Ah kinda missed."  He gestured towards Astral.  "He's still awake, Ah think."

Without taking her eyes off him, Ribbon backed up towards Astral.  When she was next to him, she glanced down.  The grey unicorn's eyes were open and focused on her, but other than a steady rhythm of breathing, he was as still as the crystal spires of her home planet.  "Astral, what happened?"

His eyes looked over at the red pony, then back at Ribbon.

The young mare shook her head.  "I can't hear you right now."  She looked around the shuttlebay,searching for an all but forgotten companion.  "Lily!  Are you in here?"

"Yeah,"  Lilybelle called out.  She trudged over to them from where she had been vomiting in a trash bin.  "I'm here."

Growl raised an eyebrow as the other mare approached.  "You've been skipping out on your training program, haven't you."

For a moment, Lilybelle considered lying, but she was too tired to think up a good excuse.  "It won't happen again, Nurse Growl."

The older mare nodded.  "I'll make sure of that, personally."  She looked over at the uniformed earth pony.  "If you have no objections, Lilybelle will restore your charge to a mobile state."

The red pony shook his head.  "No objections here."

"Good."  Growl looked over at Ribbon.  "As for you..."  the elder made walked up to her, and looked down.  She towered over the young unicorn and spoke softly.  "I'll remand you into your father's custody, but you will return to your quarters, and you will stay there until I decide on a suitable punishment for your actions."

Ribbon took a step back.  "But, I..."

Growl rolled her eyes and pointed at the red pony.  "Assault."  She pointed at the dropped wrench.  "Theft."  She then pointed at her right ear.  She had a small earring in that ear, but Ribbon knew it wasn't just a decoration.  "And, if I am to believe my security staff, creating a public nuisance, hazardous conduct in construction zones, trespass in restricted areas, and..."  She glanced over at Lilybelle, but only for a moment.  "Ribbon, I'll be holding you responsible for destruction of materials and property as well."

Ribbon took another step back.  "But, I..."

Growl waved Ribbon's father over and took a step forward, closing the distance the younger pony created.  "If the next words out of your mouth are anything besides, 'sorry,' and, 'goodbye,' I'll throw you in the brig."  

Ribbon stared up at the older pony.  Even without her telepathy, she could tell that she was serious about her threat.  The rainbow-colored unicorn looked over at the pony she failed to save.  "I'm sorry, Astral, I have to go."

Her father put a hoof on her shoulder.  "Let's move, kid."

Ribbon looked up in surprise.  Kid was the family code used when there was something important happening.  She gave Astral one last apologetic glance before following her father away from the rest.  She waited until they were out of earshot before speaking.  "Dad, what's going on, why'd you use the code?"

The earth pony stopped and stared at her for a moment.  "Your telepathy got scrambled, didn't it?"  She nodded, and he continued.  "I thought as much.  Anyway, Growl gave me access to a security terminal.  While you were talking, I was checking the passenger manifests of the shuttles."

"Did you find anything?"

"Not much."  He shrugged.  "Well, not about that red pony, but I found the information for his shuttle, specifically, the passenger list and schedule.  It's a private shuttle, and there's only one passenger listed, Astral Plane.  But, he's listed for a departure today, and a return trip tomorrow.  Assuming old red's the pilot, Astral will be just fine."

Ribbon looked down.  "That's good, but...  Dad, that red pony..."  She stopped and looked around, tugging at her mane as she made sure no pony would hear her.

Her father noticed, and pulled her aside to a small alcove.  "What is it?  What's bothering you?"

Ribbon looked at her hoof.  A few brightly colored strands had come out from her pulling and stuck to her sky colored fur.  "He knew about mom."

It was three breaths before he spoke again.  "Are you sure."

Ribbon nodded.  "I can't hear anything but this ringing in my ears, but the image was there.  When he looked at me, he saw her.  And, he knew her name."