Time carried on; a whole two months passed Skasis by from that day he’d been enlisted. He’d gotten more set into his routine than most any other before. Living in the clouds had begun feeling so natural that he’d even had two close calls with forgetting to recast his cloud-walking spell every three days. Luckily it wasn’t a spell that just instantly ceased, the caster always had a thirty-second grace period once the spell began to wear off, long enough to notice oneself clearly sinking slowly through whatever cloud they were standing on. In fact, Skasis got so used to his new circumstance-forced life, that he actually began to go almost whole days without wondering when or whether The Doctor and Derpy would ever come back for him. Only when he thought of Himmel now, did his mind wander.

***

Skasis trotted across the clouds with Lieutenant Stratomane, both having just returned from another of Skasis’s ground excursions, or deployments, as the Commander referred to them. During the past two months he had been taken on numerous such deployments, usually for the length of a day, and when not, he’d been regimented into doing “rounds”, checking into each of Pegasopolis’s infirmaries one at a time each day and putting his Pharmacology knowledge and Pharmaceutical abilities to use as needed.

The two of them were passing by one of the young-flyer training grounds when the Lieutenant, and then Skasis because of him take notice of a young filly with an extremely glum look on her face, in front of whom the apparent flight-training instructor who was in the midst of speaking to what appeared to be her parents. He was talking whilst wearing a visibly unimpressed expression, and all the while the little filly’s parents, the father more so than the mother, continuously cast sternly disappointed looks at her.

The Lieutenant only took a second to make his decision: he deviated from their path and walked over to the group, Skasis following by default.

“And after all that was finished,” the instructor was saying to them, practically exhaling frustration, “I decided to stop trying for the day and just LET her do basic wing exercises, but then she just kept saying she couldn’t even do those!”

“I had a bad feeling she was going to be a disappointment from the start,” the father said through a cold sigh, “she was never anywhere near as active as any of the other foals, and she ALWAYS—”

“What exactly is going on here?” the Lieutenant inquired as he and Skasis approached.

Everypony turned to see Skasis and the Lieutenant approaching. The filly gave a wide-eyed look of surprise at the presence of a unicorn, but the others had apparently all heard of him by that point.

“Nothing to be bothered with,” the instructor tried to assure the Lieutenant, “just another WEAK little filly destined to join the other cloud-grounded fillies and colts.”

“And we’re the last of our families on both sides,” the filly’s mother said, distraught, “we were hoping so desperately that she wouldn’t turn out with anything wrong with her . . . but now this has to come about.”

“I suppose we can always try to have another foal,” her husband offered the suggestion, though even he didn’t sound too keen on it.

Right at that, Skasis witnessed something he has never seen before in the Lieutenant up to that point. The LIEUTENANT was actually becoming visibly angered, and very, very much so.

“Is this your display of concern for your child, soldier? Or is she the same to you as your armor and helmet are? Because that’s what your attitude suggests to me, and I do NOT find it at all appropriate for a parent of any race and any rank!” The Lieutenant vented his outrage, his voice climbing in volume with each sentence.

“This is a matter between the filly, her parents and myself, you have no responsibility and no authority to—” the flight instructor had just begun to say, until he recognized the Lieutenant just too late.

“I am Lieutenant Stratomane, Head of Commander Hurricane’s evening guard squadron! Who the hay are you!? A flight instructor: don’t even try to convince me your rank is anything above Sargent,” the Lieutenant’s words bit into the instructor fiercely.

The instructor took a second to respond, and did so slowly and with a bitter expression. “. . . Sargent ThunderHead, Sir,” he said to the Lieutenant and saluted him.

“Ah . . .” the filly’s father began to voice, uncertain if the Lieutenant wanted their identities as well. At the Lieutenant’s turning of his attention to him, the father went ahead and spoke, “gh-Captain VelvetCloud, S-Sir!” he said with a salute.

The filly’s mother then stepped forward and spoke up as well, “Breeze VelvetCloud, formerly Corporal, de-commissioned for maternity, Sir.”

The Lieutenant nods a few times, looking one pony to the other, intentionally making them hold their salutes for longer than what would have been a normal time.He saluted them back, and they all lower their hooves.

Meanwhile, Skasis had taken notice that the little filly was breathing rather heavily, and wheezing frequently as well.

He walked over to her, able somewhat now to ignore the gazes of the other ponies that were suddenly drawn to him. Since his arrival he had been able to adapt to the feeling of eye pressure more than other things, since he frequently found himself under it. Dealing with little fillies and colts . . . not so much, he still felt extremely awkward talking to them, particularly in trying sound “parently nice or gentle”. Still, his stupid, and ever further magnetizing moral compass wouldn’t allow him to ignore them.

“Hey. Hey, are you feeling ok?” he asked her the question he obviously already knew the answer to, just to get her attention. It wasn’t exactly at the absolute forefront of his mind, but he did sound distinguishably less awkward when he tried to speak gently to her than when he’d first tried with the Lieutenant’s son two and a half months ago.

“Yeah, I’m just—” she was stopped by the need to wheeze before she could go on, “. . . it hurts, and it’s hard to—” she was interrupted yet, again, now by a sudden episode of coughing.

“What hurts?” Skasis asked, though he already knew the answer.

“My . . .” she answered him, though she had to stop first for a deep, struggling breath, “my thwoat, and-and . . .” she tried to finish her sentence, but ended up wheezing again, as well as not being able to find the word she wanted. She ended up just poking her chest with her hoof, not knowing the name for it, but still obviously wanting to tell Skasis.

“Your chest? Both your chest and your throat hurt, and it’s hard to breathe?” Skasis asked, letting her assure him that his presumption was already correct, which she did via rapid nodding. She seemed so thrilled either that Skasis had gotten it right or that somepony finally cared, or both, not really caring about his awkwardness.

Skasis places his own hoof against the filly’s chest, and then leans in with an ear to it quickly before leaning back out to examine with his Life Sight for the final confirmation, and he discovers exactly what he already suspected.

“She’s just weak; she can’t tolerate flying,” herr father declared with some audible disdain.

“She’s asthmatic,” Skasis corrected him, and with an edgy tone.

“She needs to be grounded,” the instructor declard to the lieutenant.

“She NEEDS Cortico Steroids, Skasis interceded again, growing swiftly agitated.

“And just who are you, ground stallion?” Breeze suddenly questioned him.

"HE is Private Skasis Paradigm, Medical Officer an Emissary, under the direct command of Commander Hurricane," the Lieutenant suddenly broke in on her, "HE has been given full medical discretion by the Commander to treat whomever he deems in need the treatment he can provide. HE may be the lowest rank in Her Military, but right now his authority far overrides every feather bristle of your husband’s, this Sargent’s, and yours if you still had any. Is that understood, Ma’am and soldiers?”

All three of them responded in synchronisity, “yes Sir!”

Skasis looked back at the situation behind him, but the Lieutenant nodded him back to the filly in front of him, so he proceeded with his intention.

His horn lit and alchemical lightning fired, beginning a collective transmutation, transforming the Hydrogen and Oxygen from the clouds, along with the Nitrogen ever present in the air and the Carbon from his own breath to synthesize a decent floating quantity of Cortico Steroid powder, and larger, separate bubble of Albuterol aerosol next to it.

He deliberates how to contain each, wanting to make a twist-back inhaler for the cortico-steroid powder like they were usually given in, as well as a shake-puff one for the albuterol, but not sure whether he had enough magical energy in him right then to pull those off. The debate lasts a decent twenty seconds that seem an hour, and Skasis makes up his mind, just as with the Lieutenant’s son, and just as with Private Pansy, he has to try.

A new wave of alchemical-spell lightning appears, but this time become quickly concentrated, and then slowly focused into a set of rhythmic ringwaves of light. Skasis has to force hard, obliterating the atoms’ fundamental order completely and forcing them to alter their lattices, proton counts, and phasial structures, until he finally formed a lavender, sliding twist-back inhaler around the powder.

When he finally released his focus, he found the little filly staring up amazed at everything she has just watched before her. It wasn’t exactly an uncommon sight at this point. Then he floated the inhaler carefully over to her.

“Here; just slide this over,” Skasis explained to the filly, showing her how to use the special inhaler, “bite down on this right here, and breath in really really fast. Ok? And then with this one just shake it up, and push down on the top while you bite here and breathe. Ok?”

The little filly looked back and forth from the half-awkwardly gentle-smiling Skasis to the two inhalers, and then nodded her head a couple times. She did exactly what Skasis said, and sucks in the Cortico Steroid powder and Albuterol, right after which she couldn’t help but giggle, and tell him, “they taste yummy!”

Skasis genuinely laughed in response to that. “Yeah . . . yeah they do,” he agreed.

Skasis knew he needed to drive in a necessary point, but also knew how he sounded when usually does, so he tried his best to be nice about, forcing himself to consciously remember that she was just a little filly.

“Sulfur, now listen to me, I’m really sorry if I sound mean, but DO NOT do that with this unless you start to feel like you did today, or unless I come and tell you too. OK?” he explained to her, and she nodded with a confirming smile when he asked. Then he began to go on, “Sorry to sound mean, but—”

Skasis was abruptly stopped by the little filly suddenly hugging him, or at least hugging as high of him as she can reach, which was his lower chest.

“You’re a nice pony,” she said to him.

“. . . What?” was all he could pull together to say.

She looked up at him, blinking. “You just wanna help,” she spoke her interpretation of him.

Skasis just stared back down at the little yellow Pegasus filly wrapping her arms around his forelegs, and was set into self-reflection.

“Now,” the Lieutenant suddenly spoke, looking right at Sulfur’s parents, “the two of you, listen to ME, very carefully. You are follow whatever medical instructions Private Paradigm gives you for her. Is that at all clear?”

“Yes Sir!” the two of them gave a synchronized, compliance response, though strictly out of military discipline.

“You are dismissed,” he said to the flight instructor.

“Sir!” the instructor confirmed and saluted before he turned and flew off.

“And as for you,” the Lieutenant began, throwing his head back over to the filly’s father specifically, “I BETTER see a change in your attitude towards your daughter. I hope THAT is more clear than anything.”

Velvetcloud held the Lieutenant’s gaze for an extended moment, until he visibly swallowed his pride for that instant to allow himself to answer. “. . . Yes Sir,” he said.

“Private,” the Lieutenant addressed Skasis finally.

Skasis had gone from self-reflection to observation of the Lieutenant’s unusual display of assertive authoritarianism. It wasn’t common sense, which Skasis did not have a normal assortment of, but the fundamentals he remembered his one and only Psychology course that inclined him toward the conclusion that the Lieutenant was an extremely caring parent, and thus projectingly concerned for this filly as well, as Skasis remembered how caring the Lieutenant was with his own son and the only time how spoke sternly to Skasis was with matters concerning foals.

Nevertheless, at the Lieutenant’s address, Skasis broke away from the little filly’s embrace, doing so rather roughly, but not enough for Sulfur Cloud to care.

“Alright,” Skasis explained to the two of them, “this is a Cortico Steroid inhaler. I just showed her how to use it, and it’s really quite simple anyways. She need to breathe in from it any and every time a constriction of her airways gets triggered.” “What happened to her today,” Skasis added on immediately, not even waiting for the confused looks he expected. Both parents gave delayed nods of comprehension.

"You should also probably have her breathe in some right after she wakes up every morning, just to be safe. I’m kind of depleted of intrinsic vitalitarionic energy right now, so I can’t make her any more till another time, and she’ll need more; Asthma can’t be cured, it can only be alleviated, so she’ll have to always have one to have one . . . at least so long as I’m here, but I’m pretty sure at this point I won’t ever be leaving . . ." he explained to them also, and then started including his own thoughts in his words.

“What?” each of them said, one right after the other.

“Nothing,” Skasis answered with a single head shake, “just . . . you’ll need to come and find me in a week or so, both so I can do a follow up on her and since by then I should be fully recharged so I can make her at least a half dozen more.”

“Is that it, Private?” the Lieutenant asked Skasis

“Yeah,” Skasis confirmed, at which the Lieutenant turned back to the two parents again. “Very well then, you two are dismissed,” he said.

As the family of three and the pair of two turn to part from each other, a realization of a problem suddenly strikes Skasis. He came to the full understanding that he just gave Sulfur Cloud a plastic inhaler, and many, many other ponies plastic bottles almost two millennia before plastic should even exist. His chest pinced in tight for an instant, driving him to do the only immediate thing he could think of to begin to correct the situation.

He spun around to catch the young filly before she and her parents left.

“Hey!” he called out and moved quickly over to the three of them. “Hey, hey, can I ask you a favor?” he asked only Sulfur Cloud, who of course nodded rapidly and gleefully. So, Skasis explained carefully to her, “every time you’re done with one of these,” he paused and surrounded the inhaler with his horn’s aura just to emphasize, “make you give it back to me whenever you see me, OK?”

“OK,” she said, still with a smile.

“Ah, what’s your name?” he asked her as kindly as he could sound.

“Sulfur Cloud!” she gleefully spouted out.

The way the little filly beamed up in delight as she told him . . . even Skasis found it too adorable not to smile. “I’m Skasis,” he said nicely, and actually reached out a hoof to place on top of her head for a second.

Author's Note

Sorry I couldn't get this up last night when I uploaded the 4th chapter of Drug Dust. I was already 3am East Coast Time when I uploaded that, and I wanted to get SOME sleep, and be able to make it to the hotel's breakfast restaurant this morning. Can't wait for BronyCon to begin tomorrow!

Here we have another time skip in the story, this time a decent jump by two months.

We also have a cute little filly, because everypony loves adorableness, who understands something about Skasis that adults seemingly don't, and that Skasis himself hasn't even really considered about himself.

Enjoy everypony, please and for real though if any of you are here at BronyCon COME SAY HI or something :)