SL-5: Love, Fluff, and Thunder

by RadBunny

Chapter Six: Stars and Stormclouds

Sassi could barely contain her excitement.

I can’t wait to see his face.

Birthdays weren’t something she had ever really celebrated that much, but Flask had always made the occasion at least a bit pleasant. Astral’s family hadn’t made a huge deal of it either.

But as his special somepony, Sassi wasn’t about to let today pass by without a simple gift. Sure, they’d have some cake later. But that wasn’t the focus.

The day had been fairly standard; relaxing with Astral and watching a movie or two. He must have suspected something, but little did he know Sassi had planned this for a good month or two.

Thankfully, a certain purple alicorn owed her. Well, sort of. There weren’t too many strings to pull for this.

“Ok, Sas. What’s going on?” Astral sighed as he was led into the Observatory. The massive telescope was shut down, and the fairly vast space was partitioned off into various study areas for work and, occasionally, tours put on by the stallion.

“What’s going on, is your present. You didn’t think we’d just have some cake, did you?”

“If you wanted to kiss me blindfolded, I wouldn’t complain,” the stallion mused. “Or are we saving the blindfolds for later?”

Sassi gave him a shove, the stallion catching himself and cackling.

“Do I need to get a spray bottle?”

He made a zipping motion with his hoof, then stood still as Sassi gently pressed against his chest with a shoulder.

“Alright. Ooooone second,” she said, rummaging through a pile of innocent cardboard boxes. The gift wasn’t hidden in them, of course, but the large safe in the floor under said boxes.

She pulled out the wrapped item; a thick square about the width and breadth of a nightstand.

“Alright! You can take it off.”

Astral did so, blinking as he looked at Sassi. She was concealing her excitement rather poorly.

“Aww, a square? You shouldn’t have,” he chuckled, the mare rolling her eyes.

“Oh, just open it!”

Carefully setting the item down, Astral slowly undid the pine-needle patterned wrapping paper. “Oooooh what is this?” he muttered, seeing a picture of some stars starting to be revealed. “This looks…wait.”

His eyes darted down to the bottom of the picture frame, the Thestral all but tearing off the wrapping paper with a flurry of motions.

“S-sas?” Astral whispered, eyes locked onto the baseplate of the framed photograph. “W-what is this?”

“You’re the first outside of the science team and the Princess to get a look,” Sassi said with a wide grin. “That is the first set of high-resolution photos from the Bubble Space Telescope, Mark 2. They focused on a specific part of the sky where there wasn’t anything visible like the old model did. There’s a digital frame in there too. You just need to promise not to show it to anyone else until they officially release it next month. I haven’t seen it, actually.”

Scooting over to sit at Astral’s side, Sassi saw his forelimbs shaking as he gently propped up the massive photograph. The mare couldn’t help but gasp; innumerable dots spread out across the black expanse.

“There’s…so many stars,” she whispered, a familiar feeling creeping into her chest. “It’s like that video you showed me. But there’s so many!”

The stallion at her side began to cry, gesturing to the image with a shaking hoof.

“Not stars, Sas,” he whispered. “Galaxies.”

The mare’s jaw dropped, and Astral gently retrieved the smaller digital frame from the package. He pressed the crystal and electronic datapad, eyes widening as he saw a few options. His hoof tapped one of the small buttons, and the room immediately brightened.

Spread out above the two Thestrals, thousands of galaxies spun around them; a rendering of the new photograph.

Tears ran down Astral’s face as the Thestral looked around in wonder, his hoof tightly grasping Sassi’s. After a few moments, he pulled her into a deep, passionate kiss that made the mare’s wings flare. Parting briefly, she had barely taken a breath before he kissed her again, this time a gentle, chaste gesture as he gently held her hoof.

Pulling back, Astral reached up to gently rest a hoof against Sassi’s cheek, a wide smile on his face.

“Thank you, Sassi,” he whispered, pulling her into a tight hug. “Thank you so much.”

“Happy birthday, Astral.”

The stallion didn’t try to stem the tears that flowed down his cheeks. Sassi hugged him close, the two of them cuddling next to each other as they continued to look at the galaxies whirling above them.

As Astral gazed on both the stars, and the love of his life, a single thought cemented itself in his mind.

He knew exactly how to ask Sassi to marry him.

---

“The second mysterious death continues to baffle local authorities. The only identifiable markings from the body were dental records and DNA samples. As with the prior victim, a suspected cause is an illicit spell matrix…”

Sassi shook her head as she walked out of the shop.

Another death?

Such things were rare in Equestria. Less so in the Gryphon Empire. But this was just…odd. Then again, a magical spell could easily liquefy a body if it was tuned wrong. And with crystal matrices being used in everything from electrical power to recording a song, there were bound to be weird events.

She knew it was being investigated, and that every abnormality didn’t mean a worse-case scenario. Yet it still made her fur prickle.

Ugh.

It was one of many reasons she and Astral had been training. They had enrolled in multiple tactical courses, learning how to work together in a more formal structure. Sassi already knew the basics from the Silo and their training programs, and Astral had his experience as a guard. But having to run courses in a more formal setting let them iron out the kinks, learning how each of their styles blended.

Astral had been unsettled, but he had pushed through it- he had wanted to push through. He knew that to ignore it all would just make it worse. And sure enough, after the first few weeks, the two of them were tearing through the combat courses like butter. It was liberating to have Astral know how she’s act in a combat situation outside of the Silos. If she swung a gun to the left, he knew to move- and vice versa.

She had also learned his affinity for long-ranged engagements, as well as how he used the shotgun side saddles. Yes, they had fought together in the Silos. But there was a big difference between close-quarters combat against a horde, and pretty much every other engagement.

Now, they took a day-long course every week or two just for fun. Somehow, it just brought them closer.

We’ll get through this.

Meandering into a shop, Sassi immediately grinned at seeing her stallion browsing the shelves. It was an old antique store, the building joined with a more modern business front. But, like in many cases, the interesting stuff was in the back.

“Concealment spell ran out?” Astral asked, his own armored form shrugging.

“Yep. But eh, creatures are going to have to get used to us. And Twilight telling them to leave us alone carries some weight,” Sassi mused. “Find anything neat?”

He held up an item, and the mare’s face immediately lit up.

“And that’s yet another reason I love you,” Astral chuckled. “I hold up an antique bayonet, and you smile.

She gave his shoulder a bump, not able to resist a giggle.

“Love you too,” the mare added, looking at the knife a bit closer. “It’s a third generation of this type, I think. The markings are a bit worn though.”

“Indeed. You’re spot on. It’s about four decades old, third generation,” a gentle voice chimed in.

A large blue and grey stallion walked over, white mane making his yellow eyes stand out from behind some spectacles.

“Sorry to intrude. But it’s rare I get visitors who both are interested in the items and know what they’re talking about,” the stallion said with a friendly nod. “Dusty Gear; I’m the owner of the shop. Been in my family for generations.”

“Well, it’s quite a lovely one,” Sassi said kindly. “I’m a bit of a military-minded mare myself.”

Dusty chuckled, waving a hoof at a rather old television crackling away in the corner.

“I imagine so! I’ve seen you and Astral on the news,” he said. “I won’t pry. Doesn’t matter who you are. If my shop can make someone happy with these odds and ends, then that’s good enough for me.”

He nodded to the pair, meandering to a small area behind a counter with an older-style cash register.

“I won’t bother you. Feel free to stop in; I usually get shipments once every two weeks, give or take. And I put the older stuff on sale if it has been sitting on a shelf for a while!”

The two Thestrals waved to Dusty, meandering back onto the streets after perusing the shelves for a bit.

Thankfully, the next pony to recognize them was a friendly face.

“Astral! Sassi!” Gold Mint said with a cheerful grin. “I won’t interrupt. I just hope everything has been working out well?”

Astral couldn’t help but smile. The Mayor was the pony who had leveraged the delivery of their land and the observatory, after all.

“It has been much nicer without having to worry about where we’ll live. I can’t thank you enough for the observatory and…well, everything,” the stallion admitted.

“Ditto. The paperwork would have been a nightmare.”

Gold waved away both of the Thestral’s words good-naturedly. “Think nothing of it! It was the least I could do after, well, everything,” he said, looking to the ground awkwardly. It was an expression many ponies and creatures had. Sympathy, but unable to relate to what the pair had endured.

“Regardless, I’m just glad I…” the stallion’s words drifted off, Gold letting out a groan at seeing some ponies in the distance. “Oh great, there’s the attendance for this afternoon’s meeting. More minutia,” he muttered, then brightening back up. “I won’t keep you both. Take care!”

The Mayor trotted off, leaving two chuckling Thestrals in his wake.

“He’s always amusing,” Astral chuckled. “Kind of scatterbrained, but he did get us our house.”

Sassi smiled, nudging his side with hers as the two of them walked along a side street.

“I agree. He means well though, and that’s more than most.”

She fished out a small crystal from her saddlebags, tapping the arcane creation and summoning a portal. It was a simple hop through, and they were at their home.

“Y’know, Astral,” Sassi said softly after the two shed the armor and relaxed on the couch. “Visiting your parents actually went well. About as well as it could have gone.”

“Really?” the Thestral’s ears perked up, but Sassi felt the anxiety immediately hum through their link.

“Your mom cares. It was…interesting.”

“She cares? That’s a first,” Astral muttered rather bitterly. He knew deep down it wasn’t true, but the sentiment was the same.

“Not at all. I just think she’s really, really lousy at knowing how to show it, and knowing how to adjust to what’s going on. Like realizing their son would be miserable if he followed in their hoofsteps.”

“You’re not going to tell me the specifics?”

She snuggled up underneath his wing, shaking her head.

“Not yet. Just like you wouldn’t tell me the specifics about talking with my dad.”

The mare let out a squeak as Astral flopped over, wrapping his arms around her middle and grinning. She pursed her lips in the best attempt to pout, but utterly failed as Astral gently kissed her nose.

“That’s fair enough,” he chuckled. “But now we’ve got time for an afternoon nap.”

“I never liked naps,” Sassi grumbled, poking Astral’s chest. “But I have to say you make them a lot more appealing.”

The mare’s eyes then narrowed as she saw Astral yawn.

“You need a nap. Not me.”

“Both?”

She couldn’t resist the cheerful chirp of her stallion, Sassi reaching down to kiss him.

“Fine. We both can snooze for a bit. And then we can make smoothies.”

“Not a bad day…”

---

Dusty Gear flipped the sign on the shop to “closed”, the older stallion looking down at his shaking hooves.

He hated this. But what could he do? The anger did nothing, and the frustration just gave him heartburn. Any rebellious thoughts had long since died out. It wasn’t for a matter of wanting. But he couldn’t risk it. It wasn’t just about him.

“I did what you asked,” the shopkeeper said, looking at an old security camera in the corner of the shop. The device slowly turned to look at him, red light blinking. “But I won’t do anything more. I’ll activate the camera for you whenever they come back- but nothing else. Haven’t they suffered under your hoof enough?”

The camera looked away, and then the device slowly panned back. It eventually locked onto the stallion, lenses focusing on the pony with a soft whirring.

“I…” his voice failed him, Dusty looking at the wooden floor. “Alright. I know my role. I’ll let you know if they come back again, as we agreed. Just leave me be. Please.”

The recording light on the camera switched off, and the shopkeeper slumped to the floor in defeat.

“Who was that, Dusty?” A lime-green mare asked as she poked her head around the corner, orange eyes shining with concern. He had never lied to her about this. With a single word, the mare would know exactly who he had been talking to.

“Just…work.”

Dusty leaned into the hug from his wife. He only wished it quelled the despair in his heart.