"Where the hell have you been?" Twilight demanded.
Astral tapped his horn against the mylar bag floating beside him. "Shopping, obviously." He walked over and sat next to her on the bottom step of the shuttle's loading stairs. "So, any news?"
"No," she she wrinkled her nose in displeasure, "nothing yet. Ugh! This wait is killing me!"
Astral shrugged. "What did you expect? Complex political negotiations like this take time. Just be glad the discussion is happening at all." He reached into the foil bag and pulled out a second, smaller bag. He then offered that bag to Twilight. "Here, eat one of these and wait."
"What is it?" Twilight peeked into the bag. Inside, there was an assortment of small boxes, pouches and sealed baggies. Some were plastic, some were foil or tin, and a few were paper. The only common factor was that everything in the bag was covered in bright, bold colors. "Is this candy?"
"Yeah." Astral shrugged again. "It's just something that I do. Every planet I visit, my last stop is a candy shop. At least, it is when I can afford it." He reached into the bag and took out a package of candy. "Every planet has unique tastes, and even the regions of a planet can have drastically different foods. I just load up on candy because it lasts longer than most unprepared foods." With a smile, astral examined the candy he held. It was a small cardboard box, made to look like a jewelry box. "Unsurprisingly, the candy here seemed to follow a common theme."
He opened the box and held up the candy within. It was a necklace, made of simple cotton string clad in spaced out sections of large, transparent sugar crystals. The multi-hued gems caught the sunlight about as well as any of the crystal spires covering the planet, each one sparkling like well cut a diamond.
Twilight started laughing. "Rock candy? I guess that makes sense." She reached into the bag and looked away, blindly grabbling through the packages of sweets. She drew one out at random, a plastic pouch. She examined it carefully. "Well that's boring, this is just a lollipop."
Astral looked over. "Oh, that was one of the most popular items at the store. They were cheap too, so there's a bunch of them in there."
With a sigh, Twilight opened the package and stuck the pop in her mouth. "Ooh!" She spit it out in surprise, barely managing to catch it in her magic before it hit the ground. "Wow, that was... um, unexpected." She looked down at the package again. The flavor of the pop was listed, but she had assumed that the word, 'cool,' preceding 'surberry,' was only there for marketing reasons. "It's cold. Was it refrigerated?"
Astral shook his head. "Nah, the shopkeeper said they react to the water in saliva. There's also warm ones, fizzy ones, and a few others."
"Oh." Twilight carefully stuck the pop back in her mouth. After a few seconds of contemplation, she concluded, "It's actually kind of refreshing."
"Those are all yours then." Astral bit down one the gems on his candy necklace. The foal's size of it made it impossible to wear as intended, so he settled for dangling it over his hoof. "Say, can I ask you something?"
Twilight rifled through the bag of candy, reading all the labels. "Sure," she said around the lollipop, "why not?"
Astral crunched his candy between his teeth for a bit before asking, "How close were you to this Rainbow Dash?" Twilight didn't respond immediately, but Astral could hear the change in her breathing. "If you don't want to answer, that's fine."
"No, it's not that." Twilight slumped her shoulders. "It's just..." She sighed and shook her head. "I already told you about the elements, right? Well, the elements only worked because the six of us were friends. And, after everything we went through over the years, the other elements were pretty much the best friends I could ever hope to have."
Astral stared at the candy necklace, idly picking out which crystal to eat next. "Sorry, I shouldn't have brought that up." He decided on a bright, cherry red crystal and went to bite it, but stopped short. He lowered the hoof holding the treat and looked over at Twilight. "Did any of the elements have a pink coat or mane?"
Twilight stiffened. "Two of them. Why?"
Astral set both of his bags down on the steps between them. "I've been looking over that report Rock Duster gave me. The hairs he found, the ones with the unique trace radiation? They were pink, but they were too badly damaged to determine whether they came from the coat or mane."
Twilight brought a hoof to her head. "What kind of damage?"
"Nothing major," Astral reassured. "It just got crushed in the hinge. There was no evidence of any other damage. Just..." He scratched his neck. "The analysis showed that the hairs have been caught in that hinge for at least fifty years."
"I should have known." Twilight brought her other hoof to her head. "This changes everything, Astral. The pods are being opened, that wasn't supposed to be possible. How many ponies are out there, right now, in a world they know nothing about? And who knows how long some of them have been out for? There are hundreds, if not thousands of years in play here.What if-" She dropped her hooves. Her lollipop fell out of her mouth and bounced off the shuttle step as she stared blankly ahead. "What if one of my friends died waiting for me to find them? Rainbow almost did, so that might mean..."
"Hey!" Astral grabbed another pop from the candy bag and tossed it at Twilight, making her jump as it pinged off her head. "Don't waste the candy, and don't waste tears on ponies that aren't dead yet."
Twilight looked at the candy as she fumbled to catch it. "But, it's-"
With a sigh, Astral held up a hoof to stop her. "Look, until we find out otherwise, the earliest a Cryo chamber has been opened is fifty years ago. And, unless Mac was the last one, not all of them have been opened. That means, unless every single pony on your ship met with an unfortunate accident or illness, most, if not all, of them are still alive."
Twilight stayed quiet, so Astral continued, "Also, there was some information in that report on some soil that was stuck to the Cryo chamber. It's a bit crazy, but I recognized the mineral profile, and it matched one of the planet's in the ship's log. We're headed for Sevus, Serus' sister settlement."
"Sorry." Twilight twirled the new lollipop around slowly. "That must bring up some bad memories."
"A few." Astral shrugged. "Sevus is kind of a weird planet. It was settled by a group that split from the Serus agricultural expedition just over a century ago. While Serus was a farming planet where technology was kind of minimalized in favor of hard work and ingenuity, Sevus rejected technology outright, and often with a violent passion." Astral stopped for a moment, spinning the edible jewelry around his hoof. "Before Serus was destroyed, Sevus was completely dependent on us for supplies and transportation. My father used to run cargo for them when he wasn't busy. After what happened with the Celestials though..."
After a few seconds of nothing but the sound of the breeze, Twilight prodded him on. "If we're going there, I need to know as much as I can about them. Please, continue."
"Yeah." Astral violently bit down on another piece of his candy necklace-turned-bracelet, shattering the sugary gem with a loud crunch. After that, he was quiet for a moment, sitting as still as the tranquil blue sky above them. "You know, my parents didn't make it off Serus. I was, I don't know, ten? Give or take a few years. All I had left after that day was my father's ship, and everything my parents had taught me about running the family business. I was alone, drifting through space with a ship full of survivors, and Sevus was the closest planet. So, I headed there." He made a sound that was half laugh, half angry snort. "Know what those bastards said when I landed?"
Twilight shook her head silently.
Astral sighed and laid back over the stairs, weight supported by the points of the steps. "Damn, this is uncomfortable." He didn't move though. He just laid there, looking up. After a few breaths, he looked over at Twilight. "They said we brought it on ourselves. Said it was our foolish love for the unnatural that caused our demise. And that the Celestials were the manifestation of that unnatural power."
With a groan, Astral propped himself up. "I was just a kid, lost both of my parents, and I went to the only place I knew of, the only place I thought I might find safety. But, there was no sympathy there. I refused to destroy my father's ship, so I was unwelcome. A few other refugees, most of them, really, gave in and destroyed what little they had left, all so they could stay. But I couldn't. I left. As fast as I could, I got out of there, taking nothing but my ship."
The unicorn chuckled and lifted himself back up to a sitting position. "I'm getting off topic here. Anyway, last I heard, after taking in the Serus survivors that bought into their anti-tech view, Sevus closed itself off from the rest of the galaxy."
"I guess there won't be a warm welcome for us then."
"No, probably not. Show off those wings of yours, and you'll probably get us all stoned."
Twilight blinked a few times. "Stoned?"
"You heard me right." Astral pulled his maned back, revealing a small scar hidden at the hairline. "Their hatred of technology extends to weaponry, so they form mobs with trusty old torches and pitchforks. I caught a few rocks when they chased me off that first time."
Twilight leaned over to see, supporting herself on her front hoof. When she leaned in a bit more, her hoof hit the second bag. Whatever was in it was hard and solid, with sharp edges like machined steel. Twilight nudged the bag open to look inside.
What she saw made her grab the bag by the top and pull it away from Astral. "No! No, we are not bringing this with us." She twisted the top of the bag in her magic and tied it up tighter than a snake coiled around a rat. "I don't even know where you got it, but it is going back. Now!"
"What?!" Astral dropped his hoof and looked over at her. A quick glance at the step between them showed them that she wasn't securing the candy. The grey stallion groaned. "Twi, just give that back."
"No. We are not bringing this to Sevus." Twilight held it out away from him. "I'm returning this to the store. Just tell me where you got it."
Astral crossed his hooves and gave the bag a good twist with his magic, snapping the flimsy foil just below Twilight's hoof. He caught it before it hit the ground and levitated it to his side. "Hear me out before you chew me out."
Twilight pointed at the bag. "Only if you can give me one good reason for bringing that to a planet full of defenseless ponies."
He scoffed, shaking his head as he reached into the bag. "I didn't get this for Sevus." He pulled out a shiny weapon, a large revolver made of chromed steel with a black composite grip. The barrel was heavily reinforced by a slotted rail running its length, and the iron sights housed three small, tritium-filled glass bars for visibility. He flipped the chamber open, giving it a good spin for twilight to see. "It only has five shots. This would be useless against a crowd. Besides, not every pony on Sevus is bad. They may be misguided, but I knew some of them. They're good folks, just scared and unsure of how to deal with it." He stopped the spinning chamber and closed it up carefully. "No, this thing's meant for the planet after that, Picus IV. It's an abandoned world, a swamp planet whose only visitors are hunters, survivalists, or suicidal ponies in search of a bloody death. That monster Radio told us about? It was a hydra. And Picus IV is the only place to find those."
"It's been a while since I've seen a hydra. If anypony could take on one of those and win, it was Rainbow." Twilight tossed her fragment of twisted mylar in the candy bag. "Fine, you can keep the gun. And next time, I'll try to let you explain before I assume that you're a worse pony than I think you are."
"Uh, thanks. I guess..." Astral stuck the weapon back in the bag. "If it makes you feel any better, you can hold onto it. My holster is sewn into the lining of my jacket after all."
"Only if it's unloaded." Twilight pulled the jacket open to look for the holster. "My wings are kind of squished in here and I don't want to set it off."
"That's a pretty good idea. At least until we get the right holster for this model." Astral pulled the other side of the jacket open and slid the revolver into what looked like a hidden pocket. Five centimeters of the handle stuck out. "Or I'll just sell the gun after we leave Picus. It is a bit oversized."
"You think?" Twilight pulled Astral's hoof away from the jacket so it could hang free. "What's this thing weigh? Two kilograms?" She fidgeted with the jacket, adjusting it to compensate for the added weight. "Why didn't you just get the same type you had? That one was a little smaller at least."
"They didn't carry it. And this one's only one and a half, according to the dealer." Astral reached over And adjusted the jacket for her. "There, just try not to think about it, and you should get used to it pretty quickly."
"I'm not sure." The alicorn zipped the jacket up part way to keep it from sliding around. "This is pretty heavy. Couldn't you just trade this in for an energy weapon of some kind? The newer col-tech epp lasers only weigh two hundred grams."
"Well, I don't really like energy weapons." Astral shrugged. "Besides, These old things are much more durable than they seem. You don't have to constantly replace the battery packs and condensers like you would with an energy weapon. And there's no emitter fiber to melt, I read that was a problem in those EPP lasers."
Twilight shook her head. "Only in vaccuum, because of the coolant pumps construction. And the new models fixed that. The company even offered an upgrade that could be used to fix the old ones."
"And how would you know that?" Astral asked. "You don't strike me as the sort of pony who needs to keep a weapon, much less an underpowered self defense laser."
Twilight chuckled nervously. "Well, I don't, but what about Mac? or anypony else we find? If they help us with our search, and we have to investigate dangerous planets like Pipus-"
"Picus," Astral corrected her.
"Right." Twilight scratched at her mane. "Anyway, it can get boring, sifting through information, waiting for responses, and hoping each new lead will turn out better than the last. To kill time, I've been doing research on the sort of things we might need to equip ourselves with for different kinds of missions."
Astral raised an eyebrow. "What kind of missions?"
"Search and rescue," Twilight answered with some hesitation. "Mostly, I tried to think of all the possible ways to recover a pod. Somtimes I would get a little crazy with it. One time, I figured out the best way to recover a pod from the bottom of an ocean using only three ponies and a thousand bits worth of gear." She giggled. "I omitted the part about the cryo chamber and used it as part of a lesson, and one of my students ended up using it on an archaeological expedition."
"Did it work?"
"The technique worked fine. But the student destroyed the reputation of a major tourist location after discovering that the crashed warship they used as a hotel was actually the ejected sewage treatment facility from a four hundred year old space station."
"Ugh. Tough luck, but they should've checked " Astral removed the rest of the bag's contents, half a dozen small, black cylinders. He stuffed all but one of them into the various pockets of his jacket. "Here, let me show you how to load that thing."
He reached inside the jacket for the pistol only to have his hoof slapped away. Twilight glared at him and pulled the pistol out with her magic. "How many times am I going to have to tell you to watch the hooves."
"Sorry, sheesh." Astral plucked the revolver from the air and held it in front of him. "First, you push this button to unlock the cylinder, then you can use this lever to flip it out." He demonstrated the action twice. After that, he offered the pistol back to Twilight. "Here. You try, but be careful. I've seen what your magic can do to steel."
Twilight's horn lit up as she applied her magic, enveloping the revolver in a purple glow. It twitched a few times, but didn't open. "How much pressure can I put on this lever? It's on there pretty tight."
"It shouldn't be giving you any resistance at all." He leaned in to watch the gun closely. "Try it again?" Once more, the revolver twitched and shook. "There." Astral pointed at the cylinder lock button. "You have to hold that down while you pull the lever." Twilight tried again, and the cylinder slid open with a satisfying click. "Perfect. Now, if this was a reload, there would be empty casings in here. See that little knob in the very center? It's connected to the ejector rod. Pull on that until it catches, and the casings will fall out."
Twilight followed the instruction. Then, she held the knob out while asking, "Now what?"
"Like this." Astral nudged the barrel of the gun skyward. "That way, the casings don't get in the way. Now, let go of the knob and point the barrel at the ground."
She let go of the knob, and the rod sprung back into the cylinder. Then, she angled the weapon towards the ground. "This all seems needlessly complicated."
"Well, it is a human weapon. It wasn't designed for hooves or magic." He lifted one hoof and gave it a little wave. "A human can do everything up to here one handed." He used that hoof to pick up the last of the black plastic cases. He flipped it over, showing her the blue "x" on the bottom, accompanied by red letters reading, ".454 Anti-Matériel." He focused his magic on it, surround it in a pale white aura. "It's been a while since I made my magic visible, but you can at least see what I'm doing this way." He pulled the top and bottom of the case apart, revealing five red-tipped bullets arranged in a circle. "This is called a full moon clip. It's a type of speed loader. Stick it like so, and pull like this, and the gun is loaded." He unloaded the revolver with his magic and stuck the bullets back in their case, sealing the box up like it was before. "Now, you try."
"Astral, why do you use a weapon like this?" Twilight lowered the weapon and loaded it as he had shown her. One of the bullets had stayed lodged in the loader, so she unloaded and tried again. "Even if you don't like energy weapons, there are a lot of alternatives. Maybe one meant for ponies? Even a curaxxan design would probably be easier to use."
Astral took the revolver from her once she was able to successfully load it a few times. "Now, you just close this up like so, firmly, but carefully. You don't want to snap it, or swing it shut. That can warp the arm that holds the cylinder. There, this gun is now loaded and ready to go."
"Astral, you haven't answered my question."
With a sigh, the grey unicorn unloaded the revolver and packed the speed loader back up. "My mother used to use weapons like these, back on Serus. Her hobby was competitive shooting." He offered the empty pistol for Twilight to put away, and stuffed the speedloader into an exterior pocket. "She was the one who taught me how to handle them."
Twilight placed the revolver back in the hidden holster. "Why would your mother use human weapons?"
Astral shrugged. "Probably because she was a human?" He looked down at his hoof. He was still wearing the candy necklace, so he he bit off another crystal. "You know," he said through a mouthful of sugar, "she had a bit of a sweet tooth, too." He looked down and swallowed the half-chewed rock. "Her name was Anne. Ponies would joke that she was named after Annie Oakley, a famous gunslinger from earth."
"What hap..." Twilight stopped herself in the middle of her question. "No, never mind."
"What happened to her? That's what you wanted to ask, right?" Astral leaned back, debating whether or not to tell her. "I guess I don't mind talking about it. It might be better if somepony besides me knows what happened too." He sighed and packed what was left of his candy back in its box. "Rainbow sounds like the kind of pony my mother would have been friends with. They were both willing to put down their lives for their children. Rainbow against a hydra, and my mother against a Celestial."
Twilight's wings twitched under the jacket, and she suddenly felt very self-conscious about them. "Please tell me you didn't..."
"See it?" Astral looked away from her. "Of course I did. That Celestial ran her through on his horn. He was aiming for me, but she jumped in at the last second." Astral started shaking. "It was like a nightmare. Everything was on fire, burning. Even the things attacking us. It was like the Celestials were burning up from the inside out, and everything they touched caught on fire." He brought a hoof to his face as tears started to flow. "Mom was no different. She screamed when the flames started to burn her chest, but only for a second. After that, she fought her way to the wall, where she kept one of her old guns on display. The celestial stabbed her again, in the back. But, she just kept going, loading that old shotgun. She turned around, and he stabbed her again. This time, she grabbed him by the mane. Her hand, it just, burst into flame, but she held him there long enough to put the gun to his head."
Twilight reached out a hoof, slowly, unsuredly aiming to set it on his shoulder. Whether in consolation, or reassurance, she didn't know, but she felt it was the only thing she could do. If there were words appropriate for this situation, she didn't know them.
At the slightest brush, Astral recoiled from her like a stray cat without the hiss. Teeth clenched, he whispered, "Don't." After a few seconds, his glare softened and he looked down. Then, without warning, he punched the step hard enough to send waves of pain through his recently repaired shoulder.
He choked back the pained scream he wanted to let out and clutched at the pain with his good hoof. He let himself fall to his side, curling up away from everything. Twilight instinctively wanted to reach out again, but forced herself back. Instead, she sat there silently, waiting for him to say something.
Surprisingly, she didn't have to wait long. "Sorry," he said quietly, going against every expectation she had of him. He stayed there, lying on his side with the stairs digging into his ribs, but kept talking. "I know you didn't have anything to do with Serus, or the Celestials, but, for now at least, you're a reminder. When I see you, your wings, some small part of me sees flames." After a moment of silence, he added, "The worst part is, Every so often, I forget. With your wings hidden, you look like a normal unicorn. A beautiful one at that, like an angel. And that makes the hell I have to see even worse." After a little more silence, Astral propped himself up with a hollow laugh. "Listen to me, crying about my past. I must sound like a cheesy soap opera."
Twilight moved closer to him. While he was still facing away from her, she wrapped her hooves around him at the shoulders. "No, you sound like somepony who's been hurt and alone for too long. I can understand what that feels like." She pulled him a little tighter. "If my wings cause you pain, I can keep them hidden. It's my fault that you got involved in this, so I can do that much at least."
Astral didn't move. He looked down at the purple hooves in front of I'm. He reached up and rested his own hoof against them. "Thanks, but you don't have to. Whatever I may feel or say, I'll honor my promise to help find your friends."
Twilight smiled. "Then I should be the one thanking you." She loosened her grip and moved to pull away from the hug.
But, Astral held her there by the hooves. This feeling, the gentle warmth and support of another, how long had it been? He slowly let go of her, letting her pull away.
"Astral," she asked cautiously, "are you okay?"
He shook himself back to the present and glanced back. "Yeah, sorry. I kind of got lost in thought there."
Twilight raised an eyebrow. "You? Thinking?"
Astral smirked at her. "Oh, yeah, it's great. You should try it some time.". A short, breezy silence blew between them before they both started laughing. Astral wiped at his eyes. " Thanks, Twi. I needed that." He took a deep breath and kept wiping away until all his tears were gone. "I need to finish my story."
Twilight shook her head. "You don't have to."
"Yes I do." Astral looked up at the sky. "I've never told anyone before, and I may not tell anyone else. But I want to make sure you hear the whole thing."
The purple alicorn nodded solemnly. "Then, I would be honored."
Astral nodded back. "Thank you." He sighed. "I guess I'll just jump right back into it. My mother blew that Celestia's head off. That's probably the biggest reason behind my choice of weapon. They were effective, even though energy weapons were worth cold shit against them. Too bad we all found that out too late." He picked up his hoof and looked at the bottom of it. There was an oddly shaped scar there, a roughly square area with five lines radiating out where the fur had been burned away, never to grow back. "As she fell, my mother reached out to me. She held my hoof and looked me in the eye as she died. She smiled at me, and with her last breath, she said her last word."
Twilight leaned forward. "What did she say?"
Astral smiled and looked over at Twilight. "Live." He put his hoof down. "I'd like to say I did a good job of doing just that, but I'm not sure anymore."
"You look pretty alive to me."
Astral nodded. "I've survived. There's no disputing that. But since I joined you on this quest... I don't know. I feel like I found something that I didn't know I should have been looking for. Thing is, I'm still not sure what it is. Friends, purpose, adventure, I don't know. I have friends, or acquaintances at the very least. I have a purpose, a mission I want to complete like you do. And I've had more than my share of adventures, some of which I'd rather not repeat."
"Maybe, what you found was support?" Twilight shrugged. "I know you said that you have friends, but, according to Silver, every record of you that exists shows that you work alone. You've never taken on crew, never performed missions that involved teamwork, things like that." She smiled softly. "It's a shame too. You're not bad at working with others. I'd go so far as to say you're a natural leader. You assess situations quickly, and you care about what happens afterwards. I think that's an admirable quality to have."
Astral stared over at her. "Support, huh?"
She nodded. "I'll make you a deal. You give me your support, help me find my friends, and I'll give you mine. I will help you with your mission, and..." She winced, as though the thought of saying the next words were painful. "And... It's hard for me to let go sometimes. I'm relatively used to being in charge. Or, at least, in control of my immediate surroundings. But, I'd be willing to let you take the reins, metaphorically speaking of course. While we're on missions away from Canterlot, I'll follow your orders... Captain."
"Oh, come on!" Astral and Twilight nearly jumped out of their fur as Radio yelled at them from the top of shuttle. "Nopony said anything about a chain of command!" With a groan, he jumped down to the ground. "It's too late for me to rethink this anyway."
"How long were you up there?" Astral demanded.
"Eh..." The colt tilted his head to the side. "Let's just say," he straightened up, standing as tall as he could, "I heard enough to know that I'll be okay with following orders as well." He gave Astral a crisp, clean salute. "Permission to come aboard, Captain?"
Astral returned the salute with a smile. "Granted."
"Thank you, sir!" Radio launched himself into the shuttle, bypassing the stairs completely. He then laid down at the top of the steps and sighed in contentment. "Oh, it's so nice to be out of the sun." He cleared his throat. "Okay, two questions. How much room do I get on the main ship? I need to know how much stuff I can bring with me. And, do you have anymore of the cool grape pops? My body runs a bit hotter than the average pony's and laying on that roof didn't do me any favors."
"Where have I heard that before?" Astral dug into the candy bag. "It looks like the only other cooling pop left is root beer."
"Even better." Radio clapped his hooves. "Toss it up."
Astral levitated it up to him, surprising the colt with the lack of aura.
"Nifty trick," Radio said as he grabbed the lollipop with his wing. He spun it around in his feathers and unwrapped it. He put the pop in his mouth, then straightened the wrapper out and started folding it with his wing. He folded it into neat squares twice before flicking it into the candy bag. "That's my trick. Not the only one, but the only one I can demonstrate without breaking something."
Astral picked the wrapper out of the candy bag and put it in the empty bag that once held the pistol. "Now that we're getting more ponies, I think we need to hold some sort of meeting- No, a briefing, so we can all be on the same page about what our mission is, and what abilities each of our crew has."
Twilight nodded. "That's a good idea. There are still things I haven't told you about, but they shouldn't be all that important for the immediate future."
"You mean about the COC?" Astral asked. "It would have been nice to know we had public backing at the galactic level, but it probably won't do us any good where we're going."
Radio yawned and stretched out. "Well, since I'm the newest member of the team, I guess I'll go first. You two already know who you are." He held the lollipop in his wing. "My name is Radio Dancer, I am mostly a Pegasus, and I am seventeen years old. I have a twin sister named Ribbon Dancer, who is mostly a unicorn, and a telepath. I think you've met her. Well, she's better at fighting than I am, even if I am a little more prone to it. We're about evenly matched in athletic ability, though I have the obvious mobility advantage. We both decided to study medicine after mom got hurt. She is in the process of completing an internship now, but I've already completed all my schooling and have been working as a doctor for the last two years."
Twilight held up a hoof to stop him. "Why are you giving us Ribbon's information? And, I think we should wait for Mac to get here before we do this. That way we don't have to do it twice."
"Oh!" The Pegasus pointed his pop at her. "I was supposed to tell you that he isn't coming. In exchange for letting me free, Furia is getting to borrow two Starswirl-class battle cruisers until the new defenses are fully tested. But, they don't arrive until tomorrow, or later, so the suits asked for a guarantee gesture of goodwill. Mac volunteered to play hostage."
Twilight stood up quickly. "What?!"
"Calm down." Radio put his pop back in his mouth. "They originally asked for you. Besides, that gryphon, President Coriander Jones, he made it clear that no orbital defense system in the universe would protect them if they betrayed his trust." The colt chuckled. "I like that guy."
Twilight chewed her lip for a moment, then sat back down. "I'll leave it to him then. Mac's always been good at dealing with other ponies. He really would have been helpful on Sevus though. He grew up running a farm with almost no industrial technology whatsoever."
Astral groaned. "Yeah, that does sound like it would be helpful. Think we can pawn Jasper off as a replacement? Doesn't he have to stay here anyway?"
"Won't work." Radio waved his pop around in circles. "Jasper works for the Canterlot government. The whole point of this good will gesture is to see if they can trust the COC. They want one of you."
"Again with the COC." Astral shook his head. "I've heard the name before, but I'm not exactly clear on what it is."
"Most ponies aren't," Twilight responded. "I think you should ask Celestia to explain it when we get back to Canterlot. She would be able to do a much better job at it than I would."
Astral sighed. "Fine, I'll do that."
Radio was on his back, letting head hang upside down out over the stairs. He lifted his hoof once the talking was over. "Osu! Back to me!" He rolled over. "And by the way, I'm giving you guys information on Ribbon because I think she'll want to be part of this mission as soon as she finds out about it. Meaning, the next time you guys you see her and try not to think about it."
Twilight smirked. "For your information, I happen to be telepathically immune. I can also use a spell to confer that immunity on others for a limited time."
The colt nodded, impressed. "Not bad. I'm immune too, but I can't do much by way of magic."
"Well, of course not. You're a Pegasus." Twilight blinked. "Wait. Much?"
Radio shrugged. "Anyway, if you'd prefer, I can stick to talking about myself. That way Ribbon can tell you about herself. She'd probably like that. She likes to talk."
Astral nodded his agreement. "I've noticed."
"Most ponies don't give her the chance to." Radio chuckled. "They're idiots though, Ribbon is a better pony than of them. She'd never say that though. She'd never even think it." He sighed. "One of these days, she needs to toughen up and fight for herself."
Astral raised his hoof and broke the silence. "Captain's turn, I guess. Name, Astral Plane. Age, twenty-eight. Occupation, freelance pilot. I've worked almost every job a freelancer can work. I'm good with firearms, and staying alive. I can run a ship, and keep it running, on my own. The last two ships I've owned and operated had recommended crews of thirty and two hundred. In terms of magic, I fall short of most unicorns in terms of power. On top of that I only know a few spells. Aside from basic telekinesis, the three most useful are a diagnostic spell for electronic devices, it's a bit limited, but it can be used to detect hidden surveillance devices. A heat spell. I can't do fireballs, but I can generate enough heat for soldering and cooking. And the largest spell I know is a special type of forcefield. I can't stop solid objects, or energy, or protect stuff with it, but I can contain the atmosphere in a wide area in the event of a hull breach or airlock malfunction."
Twilight scratched her chin. "You'll have to teach me that force field spell. It might be useful for more than one pony to have that ability as a backup." She exhaled slowly. "And... It's my turn. Ok, um, my name is Twilight Sparkle. My age is somewhere in the neighborhood of six thousand three hundred and fifty years, but if you don't count the time spent in Cryogenic storage, I'm about twenty-seven. I am an alicorn, bearer of the element of magic, former Princess of Equestria, and personal protégé of Princess Celestia.."
Radio nodded. "Twilight, twenty-seven, some kind of royalty, the rest made no sense. What's an alicorn? Are you referring to the combination of wings and horn?"
"Oh, right." Twilight smiled sheepishly. "An alicorn is what we used to call ponies who are all three types of pony. You can have a unicorn with wings, or a horned Pegasus, but they aren't necessarily alicorns. Alicorns are a combination of the traits and magic of all three pony types. Your father, Rock Duster, seems to have become an alicorn, at least genetically, and it passed on to you and Ribbon. You have a bit of all three types, even if one is more dominant than the rest."
The colt chuckled. "Cool. It's nice to have a term other than Trifecta gene for it. Glad I asked. But, what does that mean exactly? We're all considered supersoldiers because of our genetics. What are other alicorns like?"
Twilight exchanged an uncomfortable glance with Astral. "Well, it's kind of complicated, but generally, alicorns are more powerful than regular ponies. The combination of powers strengthens all of them. Depending on the pony, some more than others. My own powers are mostly magic-based, since I used to be a unicorn. I can perform a wide variety of spells, and have a great deal of power to back them up. But I tend to get carried away and burn through my magic pretty quickly. There are too many spells and stuff for me to list now, but I'll list a few." She cleared her throat and counted them out. "One, I can survive vacuum for three days. Two, I can telepathically send messages. Three, Gravitic mines. Four, mild anesthesia. Five, minor blessing, now known as immunorecovery boost level one. Six, teleportation, I'm pretty good with this one. Seven, Fireballs. Eight, electrical-"
"Ok," Astral interrupted, "even with the abbreviated list, we'll be here forever. We'll just assume there's a ninety percent chance that you know any given spell. Or we'll just ask you if we need any specific magic done."
Twilight squinted at the unicorn. "Did I mention that I can turn ponies into potted plants?"
Astral stared at her. "Can you turn them back afterwards?"
Twilight stared back. "Why don't you find out?"
Radio chuckled. "I know I don't want to find out. So, you never answered my question. How much room do I get on the main ship?"
Astral pointed at the shuttle. "For now, this is the main ship. There are bunks in the back." He pointed at Twilight. "She..." He glanced over at her and slowly lowered his hoof. "She provided it. My ship got a little wrecked in a fight with a black market smuggler."
The colt stood up. "Tough luck. Mind if I give myself a tour?"
"Go ahead." Astral waved him on. "It shouldn't be locked."
"Thanks." Radio ran to the front and opened the door. As he looked over the controls, he let out a long, low whistle. "She was getting on to you over a handgun? This thing has enough firepower to level a city." He then ran to the back, opening the door to the sleeping quarters. "Ok, kitchen, restroom, fold out table, half a dozen teeny-tiny, cramped beds. I can work with this. So, there are two duffel bags and a milk crate back here, I'm guessing that's you guys's stuff." He walked back up to the hatch. "Is it ok if I bring along two duffel bags of my own? I've got some medical gear that might come in handy."
"Ok." Astral shrugged and looked over at Twilight. "We've got enough room for a few-" A violent gust of wind drowned out the rest of his words. When he looked back up the stairs, Radio was gone. A quick scan of the skyline revealed his rainbow-edged form heading away from them at high speeds. Astral sighed. "Looks like we just picked up an interesting new crew member."
Twilight picked another candy out of the bag, some sort of wafer bar with pink frosting and sugar crystals sprinkled on like sparkling snow. She broke it in half and offered part of it to Astral. "Here's hoping we pick up a few more."
With a smile, the unicorn took the offered sweet. "I'd drink to that."