Cold Scales

by Konatra

Here

"Soooory, c'mon I said I went too far already!" Spines made a steady advance to...somewhere away from Ivy with a hurried step. Already her mind was shoving those images away from her memory. "It was just a joke okay?" Ivy was only a cautious step behind her with a look of genuine worry, she didn't think about the new girl's threshold when it comes to the horrors of reality, it has been a while since she interacted with anyone and just wanted to have a bit of fun. She made a move to put a hand on Spines' shoulder to try to comfort the scared girl-

Spines kept up her stride away from her fear until she hear the sound of something slumping behind her like a sack of potatoes...she didn't want to look back but the sound was too familiar to a body- "YAAA!" Spines couldn't suppress her shock seeing the form that was once Ivy on the ground in a growing pool of deep red viscous liquid. In a haste, she tugged on the stem-like head protrusion to easily drag Ivy out from the stuff but the more she dragged away the more she realized the liquid was pouring out from Ivy's mouth and eyes. Spines didn't know what to do, not like she could stop the 'bleeding?' in any way. Before she could think of anything else two units appeared from around a corner in a rush. The two passed by her and dived down to Ivy, in unison they unhooked some tools from their slim bodies like building blocks and quickly created a basic form of a stretcher.

Spines made a move to try to assist but one of the two made a quick but light swipe at her hand. "Worry not, it is now in our hands" He assured as they finished setting Ivy up, Spines couldn't believe the liquid was still pouring out without stopping, Ivy made several agonized grunts and twitches. A third unit came from another end of the hall, this one holding out several devices that seem medical in nature. The two units hoisted her up while the third injected some oddly colorful vials into her arms and neck multiple times. This went on for a minute or two until the last, right in her left eye. Once that all went through the copious amount of dark liquid suddenly sparked to life and in a shocking move all flooded back inside the alien being despite it being impossible for one to hold in that much liquid. Ivy was compulsing heavily the entire time until the end of it, the soldiers kept her arms down the entire time. Spines could only stare on in horror.

___

About an hour passed since that moment and now here Spines stood against a wall in the only medical room in the entire ship rebuilt in a rush to accommodate the newly infirmed General. Said General was lying in her bed with what could be said to be several dozens of IV tubes running into her body in various locations from the upper torso, arms, and head. Ivy finally had a moment of clarity from the whole mess to now talk with Spines. "Yeah, I forgot why I was in that tube in the first place after all this time." She said weakly but still with a hint of mirth.

"What...was all that?" Was the only thing Spines could think of.

Ivy thought for a moment, remembering a rather brutal memory. "I got a little cocky on a mission, was a big one too. Lot of big players were involved and I was leading an important task, thought I could do it all on my own...then I took a bad step...or maybe I was just outmatched..." Ivy sighed a little, wincing as she did so. "Got hit really bad by someone you don't want to get hit by, look here" Ivy didn't even need to point at it for Spines to now see the gaping cavity in Ivy's chest. Surely that wasn't always there before right?? It looked really bad, something in between a gouge and burn but somehow still sizzling and pulsing, Spines could see some unknown organs in there, some looked torn open. "I was hiding it by growing some extra skin over it, tho years in the pod made it numb for a bit until I finally remembered...yeah as you can see I'm dying fast here." Spines nodded grimly, she knew already from this damage but just didn't want to confirm it.

"Any normal day I could just heal something like this right up in seconds, but this bile continues to burn slightly faster than I can regenerate, the pod kept us both still, we were in a warzone so I was shipped into storage for safety until we could get back and do some real operation. Started to realize I was in that thing for way too long, agony in absolute silence. Thing is my species is rather good at staying in one place for what could be forever, so I went into hibernation once I realized no one was coming for me. I'm happy to see the ship still mostly intact, I assumed we lost and I was all that was left, floating in an infinite void waiting for the death of the universe..." She closed her eyes in an attempt to hold back some welling-up tears. "Even...even if this is the end for me...thank you for waking me up one more time" She shuddered. Spines tried to say something meaningful but found Ivy had stopped moving or interacting.

"Hey...Ivy??" Before dread could really set in a medical unit came before her to quell the fear "General Ivy is stable for now, she will continue to live in this state for some time...issue is the many mixtures we are using to replicate her species's complex biology have gone expired a very long time ago. Us using them here was a shot in the dark that is working for now thanks to Ivy's sturdy resilience. But she won't last forever. The vials boost her regeneration in many areas that keep the bile in a stalemate, but any number of things can go wrong at any moment."

With that information Spines was free on her own once again, it seemed nobody would stick around her for long. She didn't get any real answers out of Ivy either. She only knew her for a small amount of time but could tell she couldn't even come close to her mysterious power or skills and to think something out there managed to do that to her only forced her to remember just how violent the world outside her own was.

Still, even with all this going on she forced herself to think about just how big the universe was. The enemy in her world was gone for good and the one friendly but slightly dubious character Ivy was now indisposed of. Control was back in her claws, it seemed the wors-

___

Out in the reaches of space, beyond to solar system that Equestria inhabited, opened multiple portals in reality. Out of these portals stepped out several figures shadowed by the starless void, quickly one of them began scanning the surrounding bleakness with a high degree of speed. The other figures scanned too until a few moments in one pinpointed the source of the errant signals. Yes...the one planet that appeared only a sand grain to them at this distance. "Here," one said in a gruff commanding voice.

"Prepare for collection detail."

___

-t was behind her. Spines nodded with a slight smile.