We don't go to Sub-Level Five

by RadBunny

Chapter Thirty Eight: Gravity of the Situation

“Antigravity spells?” Astral asked, the two carefully pushing through the floating debris. The floor was mostly open, head-height cubicles spread out over a hoofball field-sized distance.

“Yep. Usually localized to objects or a select area. Usually. So…we’ll just hope the stuff above us doesn’t fall.”

Looking up, Astral saw a series of clear glass testing rooms, the same that usually held the research floors. He was fairly certain these shouldn’t be floating. The rectangular rooms were located high above his head along with innumerable bits of broken and sharp glass.

“Oooook.”

“Just…stay behind me. I’m a bit more durable than you. I can endure being thrown across the lab if a spell glitches.”

The fact Sassi was being deadly serious made Astral swallow nervously.

“Sounds good.”

The giant floor looked like the inside of a dirty snow globe. Papers, desks, chairs, and computers either hovered in place or floated along predetermined paths. Astral had a feeling Discord would have liked it.

He nearly ran into Sassi, the mare stopping.

It was easy to see why. The floor was simply gone. No lights, no rubble, simply a large rectangle of nothing.

“Can we go around?” he asked, Sassi shaking her head.

“This is the main hallway. If we backtracked, there’s only a small maintenance tunnel that leads to the switch reset board. I’m not sure if we’d even fit, and I don’t want to try and squeeze through somewhere with no way to retreat.”

The mare picked up a piece of non-floating concrete, casually tossing it into the air.

It floated.

With a simple hop, Sassi jumped up to about head height and promptly stayed there.

“See? Perfectly fine,” she said. Her eyes abruptly widened at seeing some magical sparks flicker across the room, the mare freezing as she almost began to hyperventilate. She shook herself out of it, but Astral was far too focused on the dark pit to notice.

“Nooooooo,” Astral said vehemently, shaking his head, “nope nope nope!”

“W-well, you can stay there, and I’ll float across the pit of eternal nothingness to reset the switches,” Sassi said, regaining control with only a brief stammer as she calmly tossed more debris and watched them float across the chasm and continue.

“I both like that idea and hate it at the same time,” he grumbled.

“Seriously. I’m more magically resistant than most ponies, and the antigrav spell affects me fine. You’ll float like a feather! We…”

Sassi paused, flipping up her visor and meeting Astral’s gaze.

“Astral. Jump. Now,” she hissed, angling her body to bring her guns to bear on something.

Without a second thought, Astral jumped as high as he could, wings pumping downward for extra thrust.

Smacking into a floating desk, he let out a soft groan as Sassi visibly relaxed, looking up at him.

“What was it? Skitter?” he asked, the mare shaking her head.

“I don’t know. It didn’t look right,” she muttered, trepidation carrying over the radio. “It was like…I’ve never seen that before. A bare, clawed arm reached out of the vent back there. The head didn’t have any skin either. Just three eyes without pupils in a triangular skull. The moment I started to aim, it ducked back into the vent without a sound.”

“A modified Skitter maybe?”

“Maybe. All I know is that nothing I’ve seen or read about matches it. That makes me nervous, because I knew just about every experiment in this Silo, even if it was just by name and description. So, let’s get moving to reset these switches. I’ll see about tossing a grenade into that vent before we pass by it again.”

With a flap of her wings, she propelled herself forward.
“Just fly normally, Astral! About half as much power as you usually would use,” she called out.

Astral nodded, swallowing nervously and trying not to think about the pit of eternal nothingness in front of him.

Ok, half power. Half-

“AAAAAAAH!”

Sassi ducked instinctively as Astral went rocketing past her, the Thestral letting out a surprised yell that made her snicker despite the circumstances.

“Astral? Just fly normally. The spell is pretty widespread,” She managed to say, struggling to not laugh as the poor stallion spun in the air. He latched onto a floating chair, and while she couldn’t see his eyes, she could feel his glare.

“I was! I just took off!”

“Oh. Uh, so I guess my magical resistance is a lot more than I thought? The spell is on overdrive for you.”

“Ok. So small flaps.”

“Small flaps indeed.”

Barely moving his wings, Astral made his way over to Sassi, visor flipping up as his wide eyes looked at her.

“That was both exhilarating and horrifying,” he grumbled. “My stomach feels like it’s…urg…”

“Antigravity does a number on normal ponies. I’m used to it. Well, sort of. I did a few sessions of training in case things went haywire,” Sassi explained. “I’m surprised you haven’t thrown up.”

“Probably nothing left.”

“Perhaps, but hey, you’re ok. Just don’t look down.” He did, of course. Astral’s eyes immediately met Sassi’s, the amused mare having flipped her visor up.

“I said not to look.”

---

“Yes, you did. I regret not following your advice,” the Thestral admitted, wide eyes making Sassi nearly laugh again.

“Just follow me, Astral. We’ll float over to the left side of the lab. Even if the spell fails, we’ll land on solid ground.”

“S-sounds good.”

She could tell the stallion was shaken. Then again, looking down into literal darkness while floating would do that, even if they could fly. Sassi wasn’t going to dwell on the fact that a gravity spell would yank them towards the ground…or the hole of darkness.

“Just focus on me, Astral.”

“Can do.”

He was still clearly nervous. That didn’t change as they floated over the black rectangle, Sassi frowning as the tiles looked clearly out of place.

“Let’s not land just yet. Keep floating and following me.”

“Ok.”

She heard him take a few deep breaths; Astral had likely spotted the warped tiles too.

“Just focus on something else,” Sassi mused, a bit of a cheeky smirk sliding onto her face, “like if you’ll kiss me on our first date or the second.”

The mare almost froze in shock, her mouth completely having run away with her thoughts. A bright blush now burning on her cheeks. Had she just said that?!

I never had these breaks in concentration before. This could end badly. Losing focus at a time like this.

Astral’s stunned silence made Sassi panic. She felt her mental wall slam back into place. That wasn’t something she should be thinking about. She couldn’t think about that. It was just setting herself up for a bigger fall.

But she wanted to. So much. Yet every instinct and past experience-

“You’re making a lot of assumptions there, about who kisses who first, Sassi.”

The stallion’s cheeky but slightly-shaky reply back made Sassi’s thoughts flatline into a warm, pleasant glow. Her heart raced, the two of them finally landed on some solid-looking tile. Astral smiled as his visor flipped up.

“I think we have to get past the ‘who hugs who’ stage first though,” he said with a continued grin. “I appreciate the distraction though. It certainly worked.”

It was such a simple exchange. Sassi had heard plenty of simple, flirty conversations that mirrored this one a dozen times out on her missions. She had always blown it off.

So why were tears now welling up in her eyes? This was supposed to be normal- but that was the answer to the question. It wasn’t normal here, such things didn’t-

“Hey, Sassi?” Astral asked softly, walking to stand next to her. She looked over to him, and the mare felt her mind being torn down two paths. The simple, genuine affection in Astral’s gaze made her want to hug him and never let the stallion go.

And yet every instinct was yelling at her to put as much space between and the potential threat as possible. He was a threat to her normal, to what should-

She shook her head, wincing as an almost physical pain jolted across her head.
“I…” No more words came. It was just like the sensation a few minutes ago that made her stammer and freeze. The room had abruptly felt familiar. A horrible, sickening feeling as the magical sparks had been identical to before.

Every hair tingling with a restraining spell.
The whine of mechanical arms, syringes angling towards-

“Sassi? May I…?” he asked, raising a hoof. It would have been comical if not for the concern in Astral’s eyes, the Thestral clearly wanting to help.

He wasn’t touching her without asking, and that made the threat assessment of him fragment. Why was he-

She felt herself nod, and the gentle touch on the shoulder immediately grounded the mare. It was almost a physical relief, the tension leaving her shoulders. The loop of thoughts vanished, and Sassi felt her logic start to return.

All from a touch. You’re really starting to crack, girl.

That thought made Sassi’s throat close.

No. They’ve always been there. I’m a broken vase hiding inside a concrete ball. I’ve just never dealt with it. How could I?

“I guess being ‘normal’ is still rough, huh?” Astral asked. He was a smart pony, easily putting two and two together. Of course, he could tell when she was struggling, not that it wasn’t obvious.

“I want it to be easy, so much. But it just…” A few more words, but then nothing.

“We’re still trapped down here. I don’t think we’re going to be getting a lot of normal. I can try my best to-”

“No, Astral. This isn’t on you,” she managed to say. “This is all on me. I’m trying to move too fast, but I don’t have another option. Just keep being you, and don’t fall into that pit.”

The stallion gave her shoulder a tentative squeeze, then retracting the hoof with a firm nod.
“I can do that. No plans on going anywhere, especially into that freaky thing,” he added with a toss of his head towards the bottomless pit.

She took a few deep breaths, gesturing to the nearby hallway that led into the solid rock face.
“The good news is that the switches are in there. So, we’re almost halfway done.”

Walking inside, the two followed the hallway to a familiar door, the untouched interior looking oddly out of place. The switches were flipped without issue, and Sassi then trotted to open the door. Just before she touched the doorknob, the entire room shivered.

“…that’s not good, is it?” Astral asked.

“Probably not.”

Sassi opened the door, looked around, and promptly shut it again.
“So, I have good news and bad news.”

Astral felt his left eye twitch.
“Which is…?”

Gesturing to the door, Sassi sat down with a huff.
“Well, the good news is that since this room houses sensitive electronic equipment, it’s more heavily shielded than most.”

“And the bad news?”

Sassi opened the door, and Astral’s stomach dropped.
“The bad news is that we’re now facing the lab on the opposite side of this one,” she said grimly. “Whatever weird magic was going on, it rotated the room completely around to the opposite end of the floor.”

Astral barely heard her; all he could focus on were the floating plasma-ball entities and complete lack of a floor.

“Oh.”

Author's Note:

Credit to Witchery for the idea of a magical lab!

Time for some topsy-turvy times...

Comments

[Witchery]

Glad to contribute!

Poor Sassi is barely holding it together here. God forbid what she'd do if anything actually happened to Astral.

[RadBunny]

11136296

Yeah, she's....going through a rough time indeed. Basically having to deal with trauma while trying to escape. Astral's a lifeline for sure.

[Screw]

This tantacle monster seems smarter than the necromorphs. I'd imagined if she was vented, her name would be Sussi Baka. On a side note, I was hoping (not) to find similar easter egg to Dead Space's 1 chapter naming; "ASTRAL IS DEAD".

I wonder how the surviving team is doing. I hope nothing too horrible happens before they group up.

[RadBunny]

11136967
It's a new something for sure...

And here's hoping. They seemed safe.

[Skulljack17]

Looking up, Astral saw a series of clear glass testing rooms, the same that usually the research floors. He was fairly certain these shouldn’t be floating. The rectangular rooms were located high above his head along with innumerable bits of broken and sharp glass.

Feels like a word is missing, in or on these floors. Just in time for a twisty mess, both emotionally and spatially!

[RadBunny]

11695149