//------------------------------// // Chapter Twenty Four: Rest and Revelations // Story: We don't go to Sub-Level Five // by RadBunny //------------------------------// Stopping in the hallway, Astral carefully put Sassi down, shedding his armor as he looked at her expectantly. “So, how do we do this?” he asked. “I know there are medical supplies in the main room here; there’s an IV bag too? Along with more foam and a dressing for your wound?” Sassi nodded at that, slightly speechless as she looked at the stallion. The Thestral in front of her was a very different one; an individual who almost seemed familiar. A soldier, not the glorified security secretary who had first met the mare. She tried to ignore the warm fluttering in her chest at the sight. “The IV bag is on the right side; it’s sealed, but we can do that after…I’m out of this armor,” the mare said, clearly not wanting to think about that process. Not that Astral blamed her in the slightest. “First, we need to rise all this blood and gore off me from what, ten hours ago? However long. The excess foam will dissolve in warm water, but an extra injection of the stuff wouldn’t hurt since it has antibiotic properties. Then just a basic set of gauze bandages for the puncture wound.” “Right. No stitches, bad idea,” Astral mused. “Ok, so first we’ll get you clean and set up on your bed? Couch?” “Couch probably.” “Couch it is. Let’s do one thing at a time. First is to take a reading in case you need another injection.” A blood-contaminate scanner from one of the many stockpiled medical kits indicated only a slightly-elevated reading of seven-point-five. They had time. On the plus side, Sassi found that she could move a bit more of her limbs despite the reading. The downside was that they were clearly shaking against her will. Yet she saw nothing but understanding in Astral’s gaze, or at least as much as he could understand. Getting the armor off was fairly easy, Sassi standing in the hallway as Astral got the water running. She hated the fact that fear now ate at her every thought. The stallion literally just carried her through a collapsing silo and freakish creatures, and she was worried about what he’d do. Astral didn’t seem to show an inkling of annoyance at her doubts. Despite clear exhaustion radiating from the hours upon hours of stress, along with a now slight limp on his right-rear leg, the Thestral remained cheery as he carried her into the shower and stepped off to the side. “Would zhee mademoiselle like the shampoo?” The abrupt posh accent radiating from Astral made the mare turn her head in shock- as much as she could at least. Despite being utterly exhausted, sore, and near collapse, the Thestral managed to make her smile and, for a moment, completely forget their current circumstances (shower and otherwise.) “W-what?” “Zhee mademoiselle is getting zhee spa rinse, yes?” Astral continued, somehow perfectly nailing the Canterlot snootiness mixed with the accent from some of the better-known spa ponies. Sassi had been above ground enough to know that accent at least. “Just a rinse. Just to get the main stuff off,” she managed to say, a rebellious smile twitching at her face. “Zhee rinse it is!” Astral calmly began to rinse Sassi down, the previous tension having mostly evaporated. She found herself smiling, both out of the fact that warm water was amazing, and the fact the stallion had managed to kill her fears with a simple silly accent. It was still there, but every passing moment that flew by continued to erase the remnants. Even if it was a silly gesture, it was something that distanced Astral from the ‘what if’ archetype Sassi had expected. As the soap suds came off, Astral’s heart abruptly froze for a beat in shock. He didn’t hesitate long, continuing to rinse the mare off. But the stallion couldn’t help but stare for a second at the dozens of scars crisscrossing Sassi’s body. Across every limb, up her shoulders, and down her back the grey scars were visible as if a foal had drawn a skeletal stick figure on the mare. “It wasn’t voluntary.” Sassi’s words echoed in his mind, and Astral had to swallow an emotional lump in his throat. He caught the other Thestral’s gaze for a split second, a clear, guarded, and expectant look in her eye as if Sassi assumed he’d say something. All he could do was shake his head, the stallion clenching his jaw to stop the emotional lump from misting his vision. The thought that anyone, let alone a filly had to go through this… It was too much for him to comprehend at that moment. His reaction seemed to make Sassi pause, genuine surprise in her eyes as Astral didn’t say anything or let his gaze linger. “Oh, zhee seaweed scented conditioner iz magnifique!” His accent immediately made her demeanor soften once again, Astral pushing it all out of his mind. A few minutes later, and Sassi found herself rinsed off, the stallion watching where he put his hooves. His gaze was on her chest wound; the foam having dissolved. “Ok, let’s get you on the couch,” he said, accent clearly on hold for now. “No more posh pony?” she asked, finding that she could not so much walk as much as lean-and-drag her hooves as Astral supported her. There was very little of the guarded edge Sassi commonly had with her demeanor, an odd, almost curious manner taking its place in which she watched Astral. “Nope, serious time now, unless the posh-pony helps,” he said, making sure she was comfortable before retrieving one of the many stockpiled medical kits. “Ok, foam first,” he remarked, half to himself and half to Sassi. A quick re-application of the material and bandage was the final step, the stallion placing the kit back, returning with an IV stand and packaged bag. “I haven’t put an IV in before,” he admitted. “That’s fine; just read the instructions. These are fancy self-injecting ones. All you have to do is press the button and line it up,” she explained. “Seriously?” Astral muttered, looking over the very basic instructions with a huff. “Wow, nothing like normal hospitals. So, this is the right one, correct?” “Yep. That’s the antivenom. Why the IV version is such an ugly shade of tan, I don’t know. But a single bag will be more than enough. A lovely cocktail of antivenom, booster, and antibiotics.” Following the instructions, Astral put the odd metal and crystal contraption on Sassi’s left forelimb, the device resembling a bunch of crisscrossed silverware. A simple spell illuminated the primary vein, and all Astral had to do was line up a projected line with it and press a button. “And now you press the other button to clamp it to my arm,” Sassi explained, nodding in approval as he did so. “Tada! One IV for me. Now we wait.” “Anything else you need?” The question made Sassi stare, the mare shaking her head. “You have done more than enough, Astral,” she said, finding a bit of a lump in her throat. “More than pretty much anyone else ever has. If I could have a ration bar and bottle of water within reach, I’ll be fine. You need to rest.” Quickly putting the requested items next to her, Astral meandered into the shower himself, washing off the grime and blood splatters. The stallion found himself zoning out, barely believing they had made it. Did I really do all of that? He wondered. The thrill of pride in his chest seemed to confirm it, but it almost seemed like a daze. The painkillers were dulling the ache in his rear leg, so that was a plus. Something must have twisted when he was running. He hadn’t even noticed. Toweling off, the stallion downed some water before snagging his usual blanket, dragging it over to Sassi. “In case you need it,” he murmured, the world starting to become fuzzy. He retrieved the spare blanket Sassi had given him, curling up with it on the adjacent couch with a long sigh. A bed inside a dark room all alone didn’t sound the most appealing at the moment. He dozed off within moments, vaguely hearing Sassi’s voice whisper to him. “Thank you, Astral, for everything.” Sassi wasn’t able to sleep, not that she didn’t want to, but the previous excitement certainly had her adrenaline pumping. Unlike Astral, she hadn’t been running all over the place. So, she lay there, safe, and let herself take a few deep breaths. The IV will handle the venom and any infection along with the foam. We’ve got enough supplies for a while even without Silo One. She mused. The AI was only in control of that one Silo, as far as I know, and the escape map indicated we’d have to go through Silo Two and Three anyhow. Of course, that was all later, mainly after she recovered. It was also after she figured out how in the world to see Astral now. Her previous way of thinking didn’t work. He wasn’t just a pony to be ordered about or seen as a total liability. He was something else. On first meeting him, the stallion had been a clear risk factor. He had collapsed at the security station and been way over his head. While a nice change to the routine, he was still just a pony Sassi put in the ‘civilian’ category, guard training or not. The fact he froze had fully convinced the mare he’d be dead before he even got close to her security station. But now? Sassi frowned, reaching over with her mouth to pull the blanket over her with a sigh. Now, that view was simply outdated, to say the least. He had just literally carried her to safety and killed multiple Skitters on the way, and that was just the start of it. There was a lot more to Astral than she originally thought, perhaps more than he originally knew. And then there was how he acted. I told him about the experiments, and he didn’t see me differently. He saw the scars and didn’t say anything. He almost looked like he was about to cry. And in the shower, he didn’t do anything. He tried to make me forget how scared I was- but without any other motive. Why would somepony care that much? How could they? …about me? Astral clearly had no idea how much that meant to her. His initial reaction of shock, genuine anger, and empathy to learning about her past had thrown Sassi completely off guard. Sure, she knew logically that’s how a pony would react above ground to her admittance. But when you grow up with only one kind of reaction, anything outside of that was jarring. In this case, it was in a very good way. The fact he hadn’t said anything about her scars only solidified the oddity. Most everyone commented on those, which led to the next conundrum. The ‘pretty’ comments. It didn’t make sense. Almost every casual interaction Sassi had grown up with ran completely counter with what this stallion indicated. She wasn’t a pretty mare. Sassi had come to terms with that. The modifications, how creatures looked at her, treated her, made it clear Sassi wasn’t a likable pony in many of the ways that she wanted to be, most of the ways. That was what her life had told her. Yet Flask had never confirmed those views, quite the opposite. He had worked hard at trying to convince her otherwise. But as her dad, it was hard to take some of his comments to heart. Now there was Astral. Now it wasn’t just one, but two ponies directly countering decades of opposing viewpoints. Sassi just didn’t know what to believe. It was hard enough to not admit to herself that she found herself liking the stallion more and more. That thought made Sassi suppress a groan. So much for that. Not admitting it at least. The fact she wasn’t having a stressful rebound from the entire shower experience was testament enough. She should be a nervous wreck after that; and yet there was a simple, odd calm. Astral had done exactly what he had said he would do. No motives, no sneaky glances or gestures, simply helped. It was so strange, so odd and out of place in Sassi’s world. Sassi found herself eager for when Astral woke up. Not just for the companionship, which was a significant part of it, but even more for him to keep proving her wrong. It was so new, so inviting to have the constant fears blown away time and time again. It was almost like discovering a new world, a new land, or knowledge. Previous pillars of what she knew to be true simply vanished, allowing something new to grow. She wanted to tell him everything. Lay it all out just to watch him dash the mountain of fear to dust. The mare now felt something that scared her more than the Skitters as she curled up in a ball, her heart fluttering with a rare warmth. Hope. That was something she hadn’t had for a long time. It scared the mare how much she wanted to hold on to it, even though such an emotion had been dashed to pieces time and time again. Yet this stalwart stallion had given Sassi something she thought had been lost, something she hadn’t even been sure was worth trying to believe in again. As soon as I can move, I’m hugging you, Astral.