Cryo-7

by Metal Pony Fan

Back to the Raft

"Astral! Astral, wake up! Captain, can you hear me?"

Astral groaned as he fumbled around for the buttons on the communicator. "Calm down, Radio, what's the emergency?"

"No emergency, really, but-"

"Can it wait then?" Astral pushed himself up with a grunt. He fell asleep leaning against the table, and he would be paying the price in terms of a sore back and shoulders for the rest of the day. "I don't think the girls are up yet."

"I'm up!"

"I meant Twilight and Fluttershy, Berry." Astral yawned. "But good morning."

"Oh, ok, good morning." There was a slight pause, then the earth pony hissed into the communicator, "don't trust Radio if he gives you something called ice cream, it's a trick!"

"It wasn't a trick," Radio countered. "That's just what happens when you don't take care of your teeth. If you just tried it again, you might like it."

Astral sighed. Right now, he felt more like their babysitter than their captain. "Radio, what did you do?"

"Nothing," the colt protested. "I gave her a bowl of ice cream, and she ate it too fast. It wasn't my fault. And I would have known about the cavity if she would have let me check her teeth first."

So, they wanted him to play mediator. Fine. Astral stretched out, pleasantly surprised by the lack of pain from his cuts. "Berry, I'm sure Radio didn't mean to hurt you. He just gets things out of order sometimes. If you tried ice cream, and ate it real slow, I'm sure you'd like it." He cleared his throat. "Radio, is that all you were calling about?"

"No," came the annoyed reply. "Give me a break, I wouldn't have bugged you unless it was something big."

"Then what is it?" Astral asked, starting to losing his patience.

"You can come back on board. Berry's done absorbing the vaccine, and has antibodies in her system."

"What?" That was good news, but what happened to the original estimate? "How long have I been asleep?"

"We've been out of contact for a bit under six hours. I ran the blood work exactly nine hours after administering the vaccine, and there was no trace of the modified virons. That's about as long as it would take a healthy dragon to create antibodies, but it's a tiny bit on the fast side for a pony."

"But we are clear to come aboard." Astral clarified. "We'll be on our way in a few minutes. Have Berry scan the path between us and the shuttle for lifesigns. Start with us and work back, notify me of anything large, or any groupings of smaller signals. Astral out."

Astral rolled over, groaning as he stood up. Then he ran over to the sleeping area and pulled back the curtain. "Twilight!"

In a flurry of yellow and pink, he was slammed to his back before he could say anything else. Wincing in pain, he offered an awkward smile to the pony snarling down at him. "We really need to stop meeting like this."

Fluttershy sat up quickly, remembering Astral as she woke up a little more fully. She rubbed her eyes and looked back at the sleeping mat where Twilight was just starting to wake. "Ruh- Real," the pegasus whispered as the alicorn yawned.

"Yes, real." Astral pick himself up. "And we're going to take you somewhere safe, somewhere you won't have to worry about being attacked by wild monsters. Would you like that?"

She looked back at him, mane falling over her red eye leaving only her blue one visible. And that one was starting to fill with tears. She shut them tight and nodded quickly. "S-Suf, ru-real."

Astral offered a better smile this time, genuinely happy to be part of this moment. He looked over at Twilight as she started to sit up. "Who's the sleepy head now? Radio just called. We're clear to go back aboard, and Berry's scanning the path back so we shouldn't run into any trouble."

---

"What was that about not running into trouble?" Twilight growled.

"Oh, shut up," Astral growled right back.

Fluttershy just growled.

Astral clicked the communicator to automatic. "Berry? I thought you were scanning for lifesigns. What happened?"

The three of them were backed up tail to tail, surrounded by a trio of what could only be called golems. Heavyset, hunched like reptiles standing on their hind legs and covered in moss and stony plates, they blended in with the terrain until they stood up, instantly surrounding the ponies. Their short, clubby tails twitched in anticipation, and their heads swayed back and forth as they circled their quarry.

"What do you mean?" The pink pony's voice crackled with static. "I am scanning. Did something happen to the communicator? It sounds like it got dropped."

Astral slowly drew his revolver, careful not to make any sudden movements. "Berry, we're surrounded by hungry looking stone creatures."

"Um, well, they aren't giving off lifesigns then, because I only see the three of you, and you're almost here. Hold on, I'm going to switch scanner modes."

"I'm sure they'll wait patiently," Astral replied. "In the meantime, Twi, can't you just vaporize them like you did with the construction drones on the Philomena?"

"Not without igniting the atmosphere and turning everything within a few kilometers into scorched carbon." She glanced back at Astral out of the corner of her eye. "There wasn't any oxygen on the Philomena at the time." She looked back at the circling creatures. She could almost swear she saw gills moving on their necks. "I may be able to take them out with fireballs and gravity mines, but I won't be able to attack more than one at a time. I don't think the others will stand still while their comrade bursts into flames."

Astral nodded. "So we have to time it right and make a run for it the moment-"

Fluttershy dropped the bundle of spears she was carrying, undoing the bindings and flinging one at the largest creature in one smooth motion. The twisted wood and metal lodged itself in the golem's single eye. She ran forward as the monster writhed silently, incapable of crying out. Her wings grasped four more spears, and she transfered one to her mouth as she ran.

The other golems moved to protect their injured leader. Twilight launched several small fireballs at one, and Astral started firing at the other.

Fluttershy twisted around, coiling like a spring before throwing the spear into her golem's chest with form and strength few ponies could match. Her weapon buried itself between two large bony plates, leaving what seemed like splinter sticking out of the giant creature.

Twilight flew at her target as it tried to bat away the swirling balls of flame around it. She passed it unseen, attaching several gravity mines to its back without it even noticing.

Astral's monster took three shots to its bony plates without damage. The unicorn made sure the thing saw him when he fired the fourth shot. Its attention drawn, Astral started to lead the creature away from the other fights.

Fluttershy leapt as the golem lashed out at her, launching herself over it and flinging a spear straight down into its head. She landed behind the creature, immediately striking at its legs with a wide slashing motion. Tendons severed with a loud snap, and Fluttershy dodged the creature's clubbed tail as it fell. By the time it hit the ground, Fluttershy was on top of it, stabbing her last two spears into the center mass of the tail club.

Astral had drawn his monster far enough away. He doubled back, putting himself between the golem and the other fights and put his last round into its eye. He then reloaded with ammo he hadn't been expecting to use, depleted uranium rounds with fused Tanerac cores, meant for punching through ship hulls and disabling automated attack systems like drones and turrets. Oddly enough, these rounds were common on Furia, and the cheapest ones available. Astral fired one shot at the golem's chest. The shot kicked back like a Terellian pack mule, but the bullet punched a hole straight through its target as if the monster was made of wadded up paper. Astral wasted no time emptying the revolver of the remaining four rounds. One in the head, one in each leg, and the last in the lumpy tail.

There was no change until the last round. The creature may have been angered by the other shots, but it kept moving. One round through the tail stopped it cold. Astral walked back slowly, reloading with another clip of the same ammo. The creature crashed to the ground, limp and lifeless. Their brains are in their tails!

Astral ran towards the last standing golem. Twilight was circling it, barely dodging its strikes as she attacked with fireballs, gravity mines dozens of times stronger than she used on him, and spears of ice. "Twi!" Astral yelled. "Get back!"

She looked back, and almost got smacked out of the air. Point taken, she flew towards him, leaving the golem to chase her. The last gravity mine, on the creature's leg, triggered, rooting the leg in place as the monster bounded after the alicorn.

"Berry!" Astral shouted into the communicator. "Raise the shields!"

"What?"

Astral dove to the ground and braced the revolver against his legs. "Just do it!" He sighted down the barrel mounted sights as the monster fell towards him. "Berry?"

"Done! Shields are up!

Astral pulled the trigger.

The shot tore straight through the golem, entering the head and exiting the tail. Astral stayed crouched, ready to fire again, but the creature didn't move again. After a few seconds, he stood up and looked over at the largest fallen golem.

Just in time to see Fluttershy bite into its neck and tear a chunk of meat and skin out from between its armor.

She chewed it just enough to swallow it, moving on to the next bite quickly, like a predator that needed to beware of scavengers. She was almost through with her third mouthful of grey-blooded flesh when she saw Astral watching her. Her eyes went wide, and she looked down quickly, staring at the blood-soaked ground as she realized how her actions would look to other ponies.

Astral started towards her. He saw her scrape at her mouth with her hooves, trying to wipe away traces of her rapacious meal. He picked up his pace when he saw her cutting her hooves on her own fangs, grabbing her hoof as soon as he got close enough. " Fluttershy, " he kept his voice as calm and even as he could, "come on, we need to keep moving."

Twilight joined them after finishing her inspection of the other golems. "Everypony okay? I'm pretty sure these things are dead. I'm also pretty sure they're some kind of fish."

"Yeah," Astral answered. "We should get going, just in case there are-"

"Astral, Astral," Berry's panicked voice came through clearly now, "something just hit the shields! It was small, fast, and faintly radioactive! If the shields weren't up, it might have put a hole in shuttle!"

"Relax, Berry, that's why I told you to put the shields up." He looked over at Twilight. The alicorn was staring at him like he was crazy. "What? I made sure the shields were in place before I pulled the trigger."

"Astral," Berry continued, only slightly calmer, "there was some sort of electromagnetic disturbance in your area. It was interfering with the scanners, but it's gone, and I still can't detect any lifesigns except you three."

Of course not, Astral sighed. "Berry can you scan for that distortion? It seems that there are creatures here that can hide from sensors."

"Um, Uncle Astral?" There was a long pause from the communicator. "I scanned for that distortion. And, here's one headed straight for the shuttle. A big one. Like, real big."

Astral pointed at Fluttershy. "You, grab the rest of your spears." He pointed at Twilight. "You can make shields right? Be ready to put one around us if we end up using the shuttle's weaponry. But both of you stay behind me so I have a clear shot. Understand?" Both mares nodded. Astral nodded back with a smile. "Let's go!"

Fluttershy ran to her bundle of spears and took flight after grabbing them, weaving through the branches above Astral and Twilight as they ran through the trees and underbrush. She sniffed the air, smelling a familiar scent, and bark out a warning to the other two ponies.

Astral heard it and looked up at her as his intercom sprang to life. "Uncle Astral! Small concentration of lifeforms ahead. Seven, no, eight signals, ranging from thirty to ninety kilograms."

"Small fry," Astral muttered. "Fluttershy! Get down here with us!" He looked behind him. "Twi, if you prepared eight fireballs, could you pass four of them to me to launch?"

"I think so." Twilight spared a brief glance as Fluttershy set down next to them, effortlessly switching from flying to running. "Why?"

"Do it and fall back a little!" Astral pushed himself a little faster. The fireballs he asked for appeared in front of him within seconds. Each roiling lump of energy was surrounded by a thin pink shield, and when grabbed them, he heard a faint, echoed, "good luck."

He didn't have time to respond. He could hear another set of hooves from up ahead, telling him exactly what he was facing. He headed for the largest bush he could see, the one that offered the best cover, and leapt over it. Once on the other side, he spun, and sure enough, the centipede hiding there started hissing. He launched his first fireball at it, turning most of it and its hiding place to ash.

He scanned the nearby trees for movement, knowing their tactics now. There! He launched his fireball at a tree much farther away than he would have expected, nailing the trap and leaving a scorched outline on its hiding place. They must have caught the bugs by surprise, because the rest of the pack started crawling down trees much farther ahead than he planned for.

Whatever. He glanced back then ran straight through them, taking out the largest ones with his last two fireballs. The rest dropped to the ground behind him.

Twilight and Fluttershy were far enough back to see it all and be prepared for their part. Twilight launched her fireballs one after another. Much hotter than the ones she gave Astral, they turned each centipede into a steam explosion. She took out three of the centipedes, but the misjudged the movements of the last and hit the tree behind it.

The bark exploded, looking the same as the centipedes, and Twilight didn't see the one she missed until it reared up to attack her. She was running straight for it!

Before she could even try to stop, Fluttershy shot past her, snarling. She rammed her shoulder into the tree with enough force to crack the centipede in two at the torso, striking out with her wing to launch the mass of flailing legs away. The pegasus was running again before Twilight even caught up.

"Fluttershy!" the alicorn called forward, "That was great, thanks for the save!"

Twilight couldn't see it, but Fluttershy smiled to herself as she ran, blushing at the first compliment she had received in years.

Up ahead, they could see Astral stopped in front of the shuttle. Past him, they couldn't see much of anything. Was the forest always that dark? Even though it was night, the proximity of Picus II and III gave the appearance of twin moons, and lit the night quite well. Twilight looked up. Oh.

The light of the neighboring planets was blotted out by a towering golem. It lumbered through the clearing towards the shuttle, fitting perfectly in the corridor between trees barely as tall as it was.

"Get in the shuttle!" Astral shouted. "As big as it is, maybe it doesn't even care about us!"

Twilight nodded and ran for the shuttle. "What about you?"

He drew his pistol. "Be ready to teleport me in, but not until I say so."

"You're crazy!" Twilight stopped. You could feel the rumble of each step the golem took, and it was stronger with each one. "It's right on top of us, and you want to play cowboy?!"

Astral looked back at her. "If it moves to attack the shuttle, I can distract it. I have fourteen depleted uranium rounds left, that should anger it enough to let you guys take off."

"And leave you here?" Twilight stomped towards him. "If anything, I should be the one staying. You're the pilot, and I have a better chance of surviving."

"We're seriously arguing over over who gets to fight the giant monster?" Astral groaned. "What part of, 'teleport me in,' did you not hear? You should know me well enough to know I'm not a big fan of suicide missions."

Twilight looked back at the golem. "Well, it doesn't matter now."

Astral looked up as well. The creature was close enough to strike at them if it wanted to, the featureless arms hanging by its side were more than long enough to reach them.

Fluttershy walked over to Astral and Twilight and made a noise, just a random sound to get their attention. When they looked over, she shook her head. She sat down and watched the monster calmly, without the bristling she displayed while facing the smaller golems.

"Fluttershy," Twilight sat next to her friend. "Are you telling us not to worry about it?"

Fluttershy looked over at her and nodded.

"Astral," Twilight looked back.

"I know," he said without looking away from the golem. "If it was going to attack us, it would have."

A massive foot clad in stone plates came down a few meters ahead of them and off to one side. A few seconds later, the other foot fell beside them, leaving a crater large enough to set the shuttle in. Two more rumbling steps, and the golem was past them, ignoring them completely.

Things were silent for a moment as the colossal being kept walking away, until Fluttershy spoke up in her broken, grunting voice. "Ai-ghu-ul," she said softly, watching the golem leave.

The monster stopped. It turned, not completely, but enough to look at them with its one eye.

Fluttershy waved her hoof over her head a few times, and the golem answered by waving back once, knocking several trees over in the process. It then continued on its way, headed for a destination only it knew.

Twilight walked over to her friend, resting her hoof on the shoulder not covered in crushed centipede. "You haven't changed, Fluttershy, not a bit."

"Uncle Astral?" Berry seemed relatively calm given how close they all came to being stepped on.

"Yes?" Astral responded. "What is it, Berry?"

"There seems to be several more of those creatures following the big one. I count at least five more disturbances, and they're all headed this way. It's hard to be sure, but they look to be the same size as the one you encountered earlier."

"Understood. Open the shuttle, we're coming in." He walked over to Twilight and Fluttershy. "I hate to break up this tender moment, but we're getting out of here. More of those things are on the way, and I'm guessing the small ones aren't so tame."

Twilight nodded her understanding. "Fluttershy, we need to-"

The yellow pony's eyes were glued to the shuttle. There, at the top of the stairs, a shock of colors held her eyes. "Rah-bo!" She launched herself at Radio, who was standing just inside the shuttle's open door, tackling the colt. After a second or two, there was another shout from the beastly pegasus. "Peh-kee!"

Astral and Twilight ran up the steps as Berry screamed. Inside the shuttle, Radio was collapsed in a bug-gut and twig covered heap. Closer to the back, Fluttershy was squeezing Berry and shaking her around in a bear hug even a grizzly would envy. She snuggled into the terrified earth pony, oblivious to the fact that she was transferring her accumulated battle debris to Berry's coat.

"Help me," Berry pleaded quietly when she saw Twilight. "Why does this pony have fangs?"

"It's ok, Berry," Twilight reassured her. "She's just happy that she's not alone anymore."

Fluttershy stopped shaking her pink captive. She looked at Twilight with concern. "Bah...ree?" She slowly dropped the earth pony, giving her a closer inspection. Only now did she notice the size difference, the extra color in the mane, and the differing cutie mark. This was not the pony she remembered, this was not Pinkie Pie. Fluttershy backed away until she hit a chair, looking to Twilight for an explanation. "Peh-kee?"

Astral stepped forward, cutting off anything Twilight might have said. "This is Pinkie's Granddaughter. She's a relative of mine, kind of like my niece, and she was helping us look for you." He glanced back at Twilight. "Not now," he whispered, for her ears only, "not yet."

Berry looked up at the towering yellow pony, working up the courage to speak. "Um, were you friends with my grandma?"

Fluttershy looked down with an inquisitive grunt. She appraised the earth pony for a moment, she certainly looked much like her friend. "Fruhn." She nodded, adding another grunt.

Berry smiled weakly. "I'm sorry for screaming then." She scraped some of the goo off her coat, naively assuming it to be mud. "Uncle Astral called you Fluttershy. Grandma told me all sorts of stories, were you the shy pet keeper?"

"No," Radio shook his head as he recovered from being bowled over by the monster pegasus. "My mom told me stories too, she's too much of a bad-ass to be Fluttershy. This has to be Spitfire."

Fluttershy blinked at Radio for a second, then started laughing. It was an unsettling, snarling noise, barely recognizable as laughter. She pointed at the colt. "Noh Rah-bo. Rah-bo Foh. Rai- bo ha Foh?"

"Two of them," Astral added, Nodding towards Radio. "He has a twin sister."

Fluttershy smiled, fangs gleaming in the cabin light as tears touched her eyes. "Rah-bo muh-uh... udd...er."

While everypony's attention was on Fluttershy and Radio, Astral slipped off to the cockpit. Using the pilot's controls, he quickly closed the hatch, brought up the ladder, and warmed up the engines for liftoff. As soon as they were ready, Astral took the shuttle up. He piloted it slowly, making the ride as smooth as possible. He parked the shuttle several tens of meters above the treeline, scanning the forest below for the colossal golem's electromagnetic signature.

He double checked the location when he found it, not believing it at first. After a moment, he just accepted it and turned the sensors back to automatic. He leaned back in his chair. The golem was heading for the spot where Fluttershy killed the hydra. Given her farewell to the stony monster earlier, he could only assume she was feeding her pet. He chuckled to himself. It looked like they just added another interesting character to the crew.

As he readied a course for orbit, he glanced over at the copilot's screen. There, under a blinking indicator, was a little note, "tell Astral." Curious, Astral pulled it up on his own screen. The memo was linked to a subspace sensor readout of a powerful signal, far too powerful to be natural. Whatever it was was too far away to identify, but with subspace scanners, that meant several lightyears away.

Astral pulled up the subspace scanners, checking to see if the mysterious signal had grown any closer. It had. Astral leaned forward. It was less than three lightyears away. That would put it in the nearest star system, Cyphus, a dead system save for several terraforming candidates and the research outpost studying them.

He pulled up the signal details, seeing if he could identify it. A little filtering, and he found that the signal was simple embedded text, "Galactic Assembly - Emergency Medical Transport - Solomon's Ring." That was a ship's registrar, description, and name. It was followed by a serial number which provided additional information, the ship was registered on earth, seven years ago, by the Dos Aery Shipyard, yadda yadda. All interesting information to somepony, but not to him. The only thing he need were the last twelve digits, the subspace communications settings.

He punched in the settings and opened a channel. "This Astral Plane, piloting a COC personnel transport shuttle, calling the Solomon's Ring, come in Solomon's Ring." He slipped into the customary formality of internship communication with ease. It was something every pilot learned, when communications were spotty, slow, enunciated words sometimes made the difference between a legible message and a jumbled mess. "Message repeats. This is Astral Plane, calling the Solomon's Ring. Come in Solomon's-"

"This is Solomon's Ring, answering Astral Plane. Please come in."

"I read you Solomon's Ring, loud and clear."

"Please state your location, com settings, and reason for contact."

"Location is Picus IV, low atmosphere. Com setting," Astral checked his console, "1748-2057-9364. Reason for contact is to report a medical situation on planet Sevus."

"Adjusting Com parameters now, do you have holographic display capabilities?"

"Affirmative, Solomon's Ring." He keyed in the holographic display. A secondary data stream appeared in the audio signal, and a tap of a control turned it into a picture of the Ring's communication officer. He didn't recognize the species, some sort of large, pastel, beetle-like being with a name tag affixed to its carapace. Astral zoomed in a little. "I can see you clearly, Cathy."

"I can see you clearly as well, Mr. Plane." The voice was female, indistinguishable from a human's or a pony's, despite coming from between mandibles that gave the centipedes a run for their money. "We are currently preparing to respond to a distress call from planet Sevus. The originator was a Miss Sparkle. She also listed her ship as a COC transport shuttle."

"It's the same shuttle," Astral confirmed. "Miss Sparkle is our, um, Official COC representative. I'm just the pilot. We have other crew members as well. We could use safe berthing while we sort out everything that's happened to us."

"Understood." The beetle pressed several controls in front of her, apparently typing something into her computer. "Picus is close enough for us to make a stop en route to Sevus. Please wait near the coordinates I am sending. Are medical services required?"

"We have sustained minor injuries, but our medical officer can handle it."

"Understood. Would your medical officer also be willing to provide additional information on what transpired during your visit to Sevus?"

"Of course." Astral nodded once. "He can provide information regarding the illness plaguing the planet's inhabitants. He can also outline the emergency treatments he organized for the inhabitants."

Cathy nodded. "We will reach the Picus system in approximately three hours. In the meantime, will you be willing to speak with our captain? Any information you provide can only aid us."

"Certainly. Patch me through, and I'll tell him what I-" Before he could finish, Cathy's spotted shell was replaced by a bearded human with spots running down either side of his face, tracing his neatly trimmed hairline and short triangular beard. His slightly greyish skin suggested he wasn't completely human, and when he turned to relay an order to someone off screen, his long, trailing earlobes, and the glowing spots running their length, confirmed it.

"Captain Plane, I presume?" His voice was deep and dignified, carrying an undertone that human vocal chords couldn't possibly produce. "I am Halifax Nova, Captain of the Solomon's Ring. I understand you put boots on the ground on Sevus? Or hooves, in this case."

"Yes, sir." A quick check of the shuttle's database showed that Radio had uploaded all his scan information and wrote summaries like he was asked. With a little more experience, that colt was going to become a medical officer that captains would fight over. "I can send you our medical officer's records, but in summary, the water table has become contaminated by Glycodexrin. It's causing respiratory issues in the entire populace, but a temporary treatment regimen has been put in place."

Captain Nova typed as he listened to Astral's explanation. "Were you able to ascertain the source of the contamination?"

"No." Astral sent the records via coded data burst. "We scanned for concentrations of the compound, but it seems to be evenly spread through every body of water on the planet, including the oceans."

"That is quite pervasive, far more so than you would expect from a natural phenomenon."

"I agree, but what is there to gain from attacking a small outpost of ponies who reject technology? The planet has no great mineral wealth, no strategic importance, and any plant or animal life has been decimated by the toxin."

The humanoid nodded sagely. "It could be a test run," he suggested, "or perhaps not an attack at all. Artificial disasters can happen by accident as well. Either way, we shall learn more when we begin our investigation. I will pass along the data. It will help my crew's preparations immensely. You have my thanks, Captain."

When Captain Nova's image blinked out, he was still typing.

Comments

[xoid]

It was bittersweet to see Fluttershy “reunited” with Pinkie and Rainbow only for her to realise that they weren’t who she thought they were but that they were their descendants.

[Metal Pony Fan]

7770839 Whoops!

[Timuri]

While 'feral' may not be a good term for Fluttershy, she did have to basically become a wildmare...and somehow underwent a partial transformation into a much more predatory form of pony. Still, ponies are already omnivores even if they seem to prefer to avoid meat, and if Flutters has primarily been hunting those rock-golem fish...well, fish is a very light but still highly nutritious meat. Likely ideal for a pony.

[GeorgeOfTheJungle]

8903097
She's stuck halfway between Fluttershy and Flutterbat. It explains how she's become semi-feral and why she's got a red eye and a bat wing.

[Joural]

I'm really curious if the speech inpediment is from lack of use or from physical mutation.

Still, good to see at her core, Fluttershy hasn't changed.

[Metal Pony Fan]

9356275
My idea was that it was a little of both. The sluggishness in choosing words, trying to remember how to say them, is from lack of use. The hissing, and having some pronunciation issues is because of the physical changes. She has to be careful around those fangs.