"Yagh!" Astral's hooves jumped to his snout as he was abruptly woken by something touching his face. They bumped into something on the way, and he latched onto it on instinct.
"Um, Astral?"
The unicorn opened his eyes. The dull throb of an oxygen deprivation headache greeted him with the dim light as he stared into Twilight's eyes. A tint of blush was barely visible on her face. "Uh..." He glanced down at the hoof he held, it's purple color bright against his dull grey. He stared at it for a moment, brain waking slower than his body had. "What's... um..." He brought his hoof to his neck, letting go of hers. The movement was effortless, alerting him to the absence of his spacesuit. "What's going on?"
"I was hoping you knew." Twilight worked her way up, then stretched out with a groan, ending up with her hooves on her horn. She looked around after that, noting that they were in what seemed to be a storage closet. The lights were pretty dim, and the previous contents were shoved towards the back wall to make room for the mats that she and Astral occupied. Plus, one empty one. Cans of water sat next to the mats for them. "I think I used too much magic."
"Fluttershy," Astral said suddenly, memory slowly coming back to him, "what happened to her? Is she ok?"
"Relax," Twilight reassured him, letting her hooves fall to her sides, "you saved her. I teleported you both back to the station. I just wish I remembered what happened after that." With another groan, she rolled over and started pushing herself up. "I'm exhausted. One more teleport shouldn't have knocked me out like that."
Astral started to sit up as well, having considerably more difficulty with it than she did. He propped himself up on one hoof and took a breather before trying to complete the motion. Twilight moved to his side to help him. "I shot the guy," Astral commented, "but he was still moving when I blacked out. Last thing I remember, he was trying to strangle me."
"Oh." Twilight looked down, wincing at the memory of what she saw. "Oh, no." She looked back up at Astral. "Please tell me you shot him in the neck with the big gun."
Astral shook his head with a slow, compact movement to avoid causing himself undue pain. "I hit him in the chest with the last round I had for my pistol. He had the revolver."
She nodded stiffly. "We need to find Fluttershy, now."
"Um, OK," Astral hesitantly agreed, following her to the door on shaky hooves after ripping an oxy patch off the side of his neck.
Twilight hit the panel next to the door, flicking the lights off.
"Oops." Twilight tapped the panel again, bringing the lights back, but at full power this time. "That's better. I must have hit the wrong-" She glanced over at Astral, and the horrified expression on his face stopped her words cold. "Astral, what's wrong?"
He wrapped his hooves around her, holding her tight as he let out a shaky breath. "Don't do that," he whispered, "please, don't that again."
"Um, OK?" The alicorn brought her hoof up to the shoulder her head was pressed to, resting it in his fur with a sigh. This was the third time she leaned against him like this. She chewed her lip as she debated telling him that she was starting to get used to it. "Astral-"
"Sorry!" He jumped back, clearing his throat as his hooves fell back to the floor. He fidgeted his hooves in embarrassment. "Sorry, it's just, um... I'm sorry."
"No, Astral, it's not.. I just..." Twilight tried to smile as he opened the door and he all but ran past her. She failed miserably and settled for holding back tears as she stepped out into the medical bay. "Thank you for holding her hoof," she whispered after him.
Medical was strangely empty as the two ponies left the closet. Only a few seriously injured patients slept on scattered mats, watched by two bipedal volunteers. Aside from them, the only two creatures standing were at the entrance to the surgical bay. One was a young tawny gryphon in armor, and the other was a yellow pegasus that towered intimidatingly over him as she sat before the door, unmoving.
"M-ma'am," the poor guard stammered, "could you, um, please return to your mat? Your crewmate is in good claws. James is an excellent doctor, and your own medical officer is helping him."
Fluttershy didn't respond.
As Twilight got closer, she realized that Fluttershy wasn't as unmoving as she appeared. She rocked back and forth with every breath, and her mouth moved as she repeated something to herself over and over so that only she could hear it.
Twilight inched up beside her friend, carefully watching. "Fluttershy?"
For a moment, her movement stopped, and so did her breath. "He hurt me," the pegasus said in a soft, dispassionate voice. Her tone was cold, even, no emotion, no pain. "That light... it hurt." She started rocking again. "Over, and over, and over."
"Fluttershy, it's over." Twilight watched for a moment, saw the tears running down her face. She reached a hoof out.
The moment it touched fur, Fluttershy snapped. With a vicious snarl, she snapped her wing and hoof out, shoving Twilight away. The gryphon guard grabbed her other hoof, and was rewarded by being thrown headfirst into the nearest wall. Astral ran forward, but thought better of it when she spun to face him.
"He hurt me," she growled, slowly advancing on him as he backed away. "Hurt Mac. Hurt you." She turned away just as violently as she had turned on him in the first place. "Hurt everypony!" She paced back and forth, slinking and growling like an angered jungle cat. "Kill. Tried to kill. Wanted to. Kill me. Kill you. Kill everypony. Wanted to! I didn't. Didn't want to. Had to." She let out a loud snort. "Had to. Didn't want to. Had to. Didn't want to."
The next time Fluttershy turned around, she walked right into a pair of outstretched purple hooves. Twilight wrapped her in a hug, fully expecting to be tossed away again. Instead, the pegasus stopped. She cried. The tears ran down her face in unbroken rivers of grief and remorse as she stood perfectly still.
Then, she screamed.
"He's waking up," Said a quiet, feminine voice.
"That's good," whispered back another. "Why are you crying?"
Mac opened his eyes to blinding white light. Before him, the fuzzy outlines of two young mares looked down at him. All his pain was gone, and he could feel a warm, gentle wind ripple through his fur. He closed his eyes again. "Aw crap, Ah died."
The two mares looked at each other. "Uh..."
Radio switched off the hair dryer he was using to warm the nutrient gel on the stallion's left side. "Say that when the painkillers wear off." The colt looked over the farmer's back at James. "I think this is as good as it's going to get over here. A lot of this glass was molten when it hit him, so he'll probably need a couple weeks for it to work its way out."
"Not unexpected." The gryphon looked up from his screen and rubbed at his eyes. "It seems my attempt to repair his kidney was only minimally successful. Kidney function is severely compromised. It's no longer in danger of telluric necrosis, but function is still at less than ten percent."
"May as well not even have it," Radio sighed, holding the hair dryer out to his sister's coworker, Lilybelle, if he remembered right. "Do you have facilities for prepping a donor organ?"
The older nurse nodded. Odd to think she was a few years older than him, and he was telling her what to do. And, she was about two centimeters taller him. "It's in storage, but we have a regeneration tank sufficient for individual organs."
"The problem with that becomes stem cells," James pointed out. "Growing a kidney from what's left of his will take at least seven micrograms, preferably fourteen. We have precisely three micrograms left in cold storage from Minuette's umbilical cord. It will take weeks to requisition more from the surface. It might be faster to just transfer him to another hospital."
"That's not a problem," Ribbon interrupted. Her eyebrows furrowed, and she looked down at their oversized patient. "And you aren't dead, stop moping. She's outside waiting for you. You can tell her yourself as soon as we finish up here." Ribbon tried to ignore the tortured wailing that only she heard, and added, "Be strong for her, she's going to need you." She shook her head and looked back up. "What was I saying?"
"Stem cells aren't a problem," Mezzo reminded her from the corner of the room, where he was staying out of the way.
"Right," she flashed a smile in his direction, "thanks!" She cleared her throat. "Radio and I can donate some."
James chuckled. "Ribbon, Adult stem cells aren't the same as those harvested from the umbilical cord. While still useful, as a pony ages, they become less flexible in terms of-"
Radio held his hoof up to stop him. "Look, dude, can I call you dude? There's no point in lecturing either of us on regenerative medicine. No offense, but she knows what she's talking about this time."
"This time?" Ribbon demanded. "And don't be so rude."
Radio looked over with a shrug. "What?"
James smirked as he crossed his claws. "Of course..." He stared down at Radio. "Rock Duster's been holding out on me."
Radio answered the smile with one of his own. "Score one for the genetically modified freaks, eh?"
"Maybe," the gryphon mused. He raised an eyebrow at the colt as his grin turned evil. "Bone marrow?"
Radio's smile fell flat. "Dammit."