//------------------------------// // Chapter Fifty Two: Torn // Story: We don't go to Sub-Level Five // by RadBunny //------------------------------// The new creature ate its fill within a few minutes, then slowly crept off with the tell-tale clicks every so often. The two ponies stayed dead silent under the desk as the noise lessened but didn’t completely vanish. The numbers on their helmets flashed; less than two minutes remained for the filters. Sassi had shown Astral how to change them before they left the apartment. But to say it was more difficult in the current circumstances was an understatement. A toxic environment swap was possible, but obviously a bit more tricky. Giving his hoof a final squeeze, Sassi waved a hoof, pointing at herself to catch Astral’s attention. With a smooth motion, she popped out one of the filters and swapped a new one in. The mare depressed a small tab on the side of the mask, her exhaled breath purging any contaminants that snuck in before taking a clean breath. She mimed again the exact place you had to press to snap the filter out, slowly setting the spent filters down and away from them with barely a sound. His hooves shaking, Astral managed to swap out the first filter. As he went to slot the second in, his grip slipped, the new filter falling to the ground only to be caught by Sassi a hair’s breadth from the tiled floor. She shook her head, carefully putting the filter in his helmet as the counter reset to ten minutes. Astral’s heart was pounding in his ears, but at least it was easier to breathe. Whatever the gas was, it saturated the helmet filters far beyond their capacity. Those are our only spares. They stayed still for another minute, Sassi then gesturing for Astral to stay put. Another motion and she indicated the direction of the electrical reset switches. It was a clear enough plan, and Astral hated to agree. With her heightened senses, Sassi could navigate to the electrical room and back far easier if he didn’t stumble around. Especially with that thing still here. Astral nodded firmly, taking slow, deep breaths to try and stop the panic from rising as Sassi vanished into the fog. Hurry back, Sassi. The mare crept along the halls, hooves barely missing nudging some metal debris. Whatever the creature was, it was on the far end of the floor towards the elevators. Her goal was simple; disengage the elevator lockouts and hopefully get rid of this poisonous gas. The fact the creature seemed unaffected by the same gas that killed a Skitter was a troubling bit of information. What further unnerved Sassi was how panicked Astral had been. Something had gotten to him; that was a question for later. Finding the room was easy, as was engaging the various disconnects. Even if the contents of the floor varied, the electrical room was generally in only one of a few places. Frowning from behind her visor at the obnoxiously red switches, Sassi scanned over the available options. There were a lot of things wrong here. Contaminant warnings, pressure drops. The entire floor was a mess. While the primary and secondary fans were offline, one thing did remain functional; an air conditioning sub-grid. A few switches later, and the gas began to every-so-slowly drop, vented to…well, hopefully, a decontamination chamber. But as long as it wasn’t here, that was ideal. She quickly made her way back to Astral. The last thing the mare wanted to do was leave him alone if that thing came back, especially since the fog wouldn’t be masking them anymore. A surprisingly strong wave of relief washed over the mare as she found the stallion right where she had left him. “It’s gone,” he whispered. “Heard it tear open an elevator door.” “Let’s get out of here then, in case that changes,” Sassi said, reaching down and giving her friend’s still-trembling hoof a firm squeeze. “You doing ok?” “I’ll manage. Let’s get out of here.” Sure enough, one of the elevator doors was torn from its mounts; the Thestrals piling into the farthest one away from that. As they dropped down to a new floor, Sassi flipped up her visor as the air read all clear. “Well, that was obnoxious,” she muttered, pausing the elevator before the doors opened. “So, what’s up?” His visor flipping up, Astral’s face was a rather unnatural, pale color. “I’ll be ok in a second,” he said, “I just found out a new fear. So…yay.” She let out a half-amused huff. “The gas? Or being hunted by whatever that thing was?” Slumping down to sit and breathe, Astral waved a hoof. “I’m used to being hunted. Kind of has been the ‘thing’ since I got here,” he admitted with a mirthless chuckle. “But hunted with the gas? Not being able to see more than a hoof in front of me? It just triggered something. No idea why.” “Well, we’ve all got our weird glitches. Take a few deep breaths; the air is fine here.” Within a few moments, Astral was back to normal, the stallion standing with a stretch. “That was unpleasant,” he admitted. “Thanks.” “For…?” “Not making fun of me? Saving my flank by going through the fog? Want me to pick?” Despite his voice shaking, it was clear Astral was quickly getting back to normal, the rather wry smirk twitching at his face giving Sassi a clue enough for that. “I wouldn’t make fun of you. But, you’re welcome.” As the door opened, Astral added a final little quip. “And…the hoof thing.” Sassi let out a snort at that. “Well, I’m glad it helped.” “…we should do that more often.” The mare’s face lit up in a blush, Sassi glaring at him with pursed lips as a cheeky grin dawned on Astral’s face. “You’re not-I wouldn’t mind-just…” the words jumbled together in her mouth, Astral looking rather pleased with himself. “Dispatch a freaky creature without batting an eye, but mentioning holding hooves is your weakness?” “You are impossible,” she growled in frustration, failing to hide the smile on her face as they sealed their helmets again. The two entered another ruined office, this one with a mostly destroyed section with what looked like explosive craters. Rubble was piled here and there, only the more distant cubicles intact. Whatever had happened here had long since ended; black scorch marks having marred the tile, the ceiling caving in here and there. “This explains the busted pipes maybe?” Astral suggested. “Perhaps. But head on a swivel. Whatever happened here was for a reason, and we can just hope that reason is long gone, or dead,” Sassi said. They angled towards a familiar door; the electrical room. A few piles of rubble were mounded nearby along with some destroyed, partially-burned furniture. The abrupt lack of any sound other side of soft hoofsteps and distant, dripping water made Sassi’s fur crawl. “Flip the switches, then on we go,” she whispered. The rubble to their left abruptly erupted, an alien roar echoing around the floor. It happened too fast for Astral to track. The rubble abruptly being shaken off, the Guard that had been hiding underneath the lightweight drywall lurched up and swiped at Sassi. It heaved its bulk into the swing, intending on crushing the smaller mare if it missed. Ducking the blow, Sassi skidded to the right, hoof whipping out a combat knife. She swung around to the side of the creature, using the knife embedded in its arm as a leverage point to swing onto its shoulder. Three close shots to the Guard’s head from the shotguns, and the creature thudded to the ground. Astral had barely aimed by the time the Guard was leaking gore across the floor. He stared, wishing he could have seen more than a blur of movement. “Stars above, Sassi,” he said, the mare letting out a huff. “Got lucky that time. I can take them or the Skitters down if it’s close quarters. Long-range is harder,” she remarked, cleaning off the knife. “But, like, whoa. You-” Astral was nearly knocked off his hooves as the second Guard announced its presence by dropping from the ruined ceiling. How it had been hiding up in the interstitial space, he had no idea. The stallion fired a salvo of shots, all but one of them shattering against the ceramic-like bone armor. The final shot tore into the creature’s wrist. It blew off the Guard’s clawed hand, the creature roaring as it swiped at the stallion, missing by a hair. Sassi galloped forwards, ducking under a swipe and trying to climb on the creature’s back again, out of reach of the larger forelimbs or smaller arms. The Guard abruptly rolled, nearly crushing the mare as it landed a blow with its bloodied stump of an arm. Metal screeching, Sassi dodged another strike, armor sporting a new gash across her chest. The Guard moved, and then lunged in the opposite direction. A fake-out. Sassi arched her back, serrated bone nicking the underside of her helmet. The follow-up strike earned a few shots at the Guard’s face, but none of them managed to connect outside of digging into the collarbone. Another fake-out strike with two separate lunges, and the Guard nearly tore Sassi’s forelimb off with a swipe, the creature lumbering forwards. With the mare jumping clear, Astral unloaded his entire shotgun magazine. Over a dozen shots tore into the Guard’s fleshy areas, one nicking the creature’s head as an armored arm was brought up as a shield. His guns clicked empty, Astral reloading as Sassi charged in. The mare seemed enraged. The torn-off bandage from her forelimb dangled from the Guard’s claws, the stallion wondering if her behavior was a way of coping with the pain from the burn. Before he had reloaded, Sassi had managed to climb onto the Guard’s back, knife slicing off the smaller arms with ease. With a rather furious snarl, the mare shoved a grenade into the creature’s mouth, yanking the pin out as she backflipped onto the floor. Another slice with the knife, and the Guard tumbled backward, its hip tendons severed. The meaty *WUMP* made the floor shake, the grenade blowing the Guard’s head into mist that coated the ceiling. Sassi cleaned the knife on a bit of drywall, letting out a snort as she sheathed it, waving to Astral. “That was a smart one,” she said. “It was unnerving, yeah,” he agreed. “But my gosh, you just shoved a grenade down its throat! That. Was. Awesome!” Sassi smirked, a blush on her cheeks as the two entered the security station which housed the electronics, this room a bit larger than the others. Closing and locking the door, Astral glanced looked over to Sassi as she flipped the various switches. “There. Now on to the…Astral?” she began to say, voice trailing off as the stallion stared at her, visor flipped up. The stallion calmly gestured towards her, clearly not sure what to say. His expression was calm, simple curiosity shining in his eyes. “So…?” Sassi looked down, and a lead weight settled into her throat. The barcode on her forelimb was fully visible. “When were you going to tell me?” Twilight asked. Flask Heat didn’t meet her gaze as he sat next to her in the conference room. “I knew those deletions were intentional. When were you going to tell me about her?” “You mean about what she is?” Flask asked, the Princess nodding. The pony sighed, shaking his head. “When it wouldn’t matter. The longer it was concealed, the more ponies and creatures could cement the idea she was normal. I knew you’d discover it. But I assume it’s just you, and maybe a few others who know?” “Some of the data analysts figured it out. You were sloppy,” Twilight admitted, “but it will spread.” Flask sighed in relief at that. “The broadcasts are already going out. That was my goal, to have her story in the public before anyone knew. That means she can have a normal life, that her past is a mere afterthought rather than the first thing on everyone’s minds. To them, now she’s a normal pony who was hurt, instead of being an experiment in everyone’s eyes from the start. That was the goal.” His words were laden with nothing but love, and Twilight let out a soft chuckle. “I want to be mad at you, but you clearly have done this all out of the betterment for Sassi. Can you be a bit more transparent with me now though? I need to know the specifics. I certainly am not going to hold it against you, but I think the major issues are now on the table?” Expression hardening, the pony nodding firmly. “Indeed they are. What you’ll find in the files is nothing but evidence of my sins. I didn’t delete that.” The stallion’s jaw trembled. “I am guilty of far more than you know, Highness.” “Perhaps. But your current actions may speak far louder than your past.” Flask could only stare, brow then furrowing in thought. After pausing for a moment to think, Twilight looked at Flask curiously, the hint of a smile on her face. “I am curious. Choosing Astral was a big step indeed, taking this new revelation into account. Why him? You explained it to me before, but this adds another layer to trusting him.” Flask was quiet, a flicker of fiery hope igniting in his eyes. “Because the right pony in the wrong place can make all the difference,” Flask said softly. “Especially to Sassi.”