Skasis’s cup of tea was empty and disintegrated, and his eyes were hollowed out of a pony’s normal life while his eyelids hung just ever so slightly with weakness. the rest of his face too reflected his internal conflict not knowing what to feel after all he has just heard, but still wanting to feel something for her.

The Commander’s eyes were closed and her face aiming a minor portion downward. She remained so for a full-lengthed minute after finishing the recollection of her life up to that point. After a minute, she raised her head back up the short distance to normal level and reopened her eyes in full, though only to a calm, hardened expression, not to her full natural glare.

“. . . What kinds of things do you ponies allow to happen to each other?” he asked after she had opened her eyes again.

“Life is harsh, Prissy Hooves. It may not be so where and when you come fom . . . and I’m more glad at the idea of this hopeful . . . and peaceful future you speak of than I’ve been at the delivery of any other news I’ve ever received, be it truth,” she answered him.

“I wish I could show it to you,” he said, after a moment, “I-I really do . . . it’s just . . . I couldn’t remove you from now, from this time, you’re too important. But, it’s like I can’t even do anything . . . I don’t even know how this happened in the first place, but I’m pretty damn sure there’s nothing I could ever do about it,” he ended, resigning inside to his fate time-stranding.

“I see sharing my personal past with you was a mistake, it’s permitted the return of your former attitude of incompetence,” she responded, that particular response being much to Skasis’s surprise.

“Wh-uh . . . no,” Skasis started up, “this has nothing to do with me doubting myself, what I was . . . what happened to me, there’s no Unicorn spell of any arcana powerful enough to do . . . not for any pony, not even an Alicorn could go back in time, only look and observe, and even that would only last for a few seconds as long as they could hold it.”

“Then just HOW do you propose that this came to be?” she sternly demanded.

“Ach-I don’t—know!” Skasis said all he could for an immediate response, impairment coming over him from the rising social anxiety.

She looked at him in a greyed judgement, seeing that he was telling her the truth while who she is kept driving her to demand more out of him. But she waited for him; she knew him, by now.

“Look, I’m really smart. Not . . . as much I used to arrogantly credit myself for, but I don’t how this possibly could have happened,” he affirmed, with admittance.

“I’m well aware,” was all the response he got.

He took the harsh bluntness of the retort as he’d come to be able to, accepting it as her genuine form of compassion.

“I won’t question you any further for information you don’t have,” she told him, rising up and turning half-way in the direction of her private quarters before looking back over at him.

“You are relieved of any responsibilities tomorrow,” she suddenly said, “except for the requirements of an emergency. However, there will be NO acquisitioning of extra rack time on your part. Am I clear, Prissy Hooves?”

“Sir,” he responded, with and immediate, sharp nod.

She nodded her head back extra slowly and seemed to almost unknowingly keep it down for length of time much longer than normal, an entire five or so seconds. Her loose, messy, greasy, unkept and frazzled hair fell down as much as it could with its lack of length, forming a mess of a shape that could only resemble a short-bristled chimney Swiffer.

Skasis, of course, was rather amused by it, although he’ well enough learned to restrain himself from displaying humor around her . . . especially any involving her, not that he exactly found or believed himself really capable of being humorous anyways. Still, he couldn’t help but stare, at least until she lifts her head back upright and turned away to her quarters once and for all.

He went to his own, suddenly finding himself more and more un-at-ease as he does. All he was able to do for the next hour was fight with himself inside, his heart desperately trying to overpower his fear and self-doubt, and his heart still losing.

***

Skasis trotted with a content, belonging smile across the still-unmolded clouds of the Western edge of Pegasopolis. He wore a satchel bag slug over one side marked with an ancient version of the universal medical symbol. His fur has never appeared so messy: formerly sweaty, and greasy with follicle oil. His eyes though, his eyes were gleaming with a true feeling of content . . . of belonging.

As he walked along toward the edge of the conglamoration of cloud structures that made up the city itself, and a familiar little grey colt come bounding up to him. Skasis recognized him right away as the Lieutenant’s son, Soot Blizzard.

“Mr. Unicorn!” the young Pegasus cheered in thrill at the sight of Skasis.

Some ways behind the little colt Skasis could see his father, walking with Soot’s mother, both unable to avoid a smile at their foal’s thrill upon seeing his solidified hero.

“Hey Soot!” Skasis tried to greet Soot welcomingly without, honestly putting in effort to not come off awkward. He still felt like he sounded it though, and probably always would.

“What did you just do? What did you just do?” Soot all but jumped out of his own hooves begging to know.

“Ah, I gave some Lorazapam to cloud artisan who almost fell over the edge with an injured wing since he started having a panick attack right afterward,” Skasis told him.

“What’s Loras-pama?” the little colt asked, trying his best to pronounce the strange word.

“Ahh-ha-ha-ha—just h’about the most powerful tranquilizer you can take,” Skasis answered him through a nervous laugh.

“What’s a tran-quilizer?” Soot went on at the helm of his curiosity.

“Uh nevermind,” Skasis went with ending the chain of questions for the moment, realizing it would likely be endless. It left Soot looking confused as to why Skasis wouldn’t tell him any more, but right at that moment his parents reach the two of them.

“He still regards you as his greatest hero,” the Lieutenant told Skasis as he and Soot’s mother reached the Unicorn and their son.

Skasis actually produced a faint smile where he would have once cringed or remained indifferent six months ago just after or before his arrival.

“Yeah! I wanna be a medic too! Please please please please please teach me stuff? You have to teach me everything!” Soot blared out, quicklky becoming enthusiastically demanding.

“And,” the Lieutenant said, casting his eyes at his son indicatively, “that’s why we’re all out here today.”

“Looking for me?” Skasis immediately interpreted.

Sunrise, the Lieutenant’s wife, answered Skasis after giggling for a moment at her son’s behavior. “Stratus was given the entire day off as leave, but as soon he arrived home little Soot wouldn’t let him rest until we agreed to come and find you.”

Soot was tossing his head back and forth from Skasis to his parents and back again with unbound enthusiasm. “So can I?”

“Perhaps if you request permission from your superior officer correctly he might grant it to you,” the Lieutenant suggested to his son with a strong, leading tone.

Soot instantly threw his head back to Skasis and his hoof up to his head’s side in imitation of a salute. “Corporal Unicorn, Sir! Soot Blizzard requesting permission to . . .”

“Accompany,” his father inserted for him at his sudden trouble.

“. . . Accompany you for training porpoises Sir!” Soot then finished on his own, Skasis’s eye twitching almost unnoticeably at the specific mispronunciation of the word purpose. Though Soot’s father corrected the colt for something else.

“That’s Corporal Paradigm, Soot,” he said, leaving a look of alarm to shoot through his son’s face.

“Oops-no! Sir, Corporal Paradigm, sir, I’m sorry . . . sir!” Soot made the most verbally uncoordinated correction of himself that only came as terribly amusing to the three adults around. His parents, even, barely withhold their laughter, ending up giggling in a manner with their mouths still closed. Skasis was completely unable to escape either, and had to burst out in a snickering laugh that soon turns into a full-blown regular one.

Soot seemed almost unphased and just maintained his salute until the laughing subsided, his face mostly just still showing anticipation and hopeful thrill.

“So? What do you say, Corporal?” the Lieutenant asked.

“It’s fine. That’d be—I guess kind of awesome if he follows me around for a while,” Skasis agreed to it, much to Soot’s sudden, explosive delight.

Soot sprung right up from his spot and went about sporadically jump-flapping around Skasis in circles. “YEAH! Yeah! Yeah! This is gonna be the best day ever!”

“Watch your conduct, young Pegasus!” his mother scolded him out of it eventually, after the first few seconds.

Soot came to a halt in mid-jump and dropped back down. “Sorry Mom . . .” he responded with that universally unmistakable, slow-worded speech fillies and colts resorted to whenever their parents forced them to do something. That much truly did amuse Skasis, the fact that even now, two thousand years in the past that was still, or rather was already prevalent.

“You’re perfectly fine with us leaving him with you then?” the Lieutenant asked a second time just to be sure.

“Yeah, that’s definitely fine,” Skasis assured him.

“He’s in your charge and under you care then, young Corporal,” Sunrise told Skasis as she and Stratus turned to leave.

“Yes ma’am,” Skasis responded with a sharp nod as the two of them continued off, lightly hovering away.

“He actually knows when ma’am is appropriate to use?” Sunrise asked her husband as their voices faded out with the growing distance.

“So! Where are we going and what are we doing?” Soot wasted no time whatsoever in asking once his parents were out of his immediate sight.

Skasis paused in a stare out of the sudden awkwardness he felt from being left alone a child, however Soot interpreted it differently. “Sir!” he corrected himself, or at least believed he was doing so. Even Skasis couldn’t avoid a fleeting laugh at it, suppressed as he may have kept it. He started walking off in the direction he had needed to, and Soot moved with and next to him in perfect instance, taking the first few second to watch Skasis’s hooves closely until he could match his steps so they were each moving the same hoof at the same time.

“Well I Was on my way to the southcloud medic’s unit,” Skasis finally started to answer Soot as they went, “and obviously now you have to come with me as well.”

"Do I get to do anything?" the questions from Soot just kept coming and coming.

***

Skasis and Soot enter into the South Medical cloud, the same medical unit that Skasis was first brought to demonstrate his treatment capabilities when he’d first been stranded over six months ago. The lengthy room of the bedded care unit was actually only two thirds full, which was an uplifting, but unusual sight. Almost all of the pegasi who were conscious in the unit took an immediate, surprised notice to the presence of Soot, unused to seeing little fillies or colts except for those who had children of their own who visited them.

“Who are all they?” Soot asked as they kept moving.

“Soldiers of the Recon Corps,” Private Healed answered without looking at first, though after a second she looked over her shoulder with curiosity, realizing it wasn’t Skasis’s voice she’d just heard. One ear tilted sideways and her head a few degrees with it at the site of the little soot-grey colt following Skasis into the medical cloud.

“They’re well-trained soldiers that go out and explore parts of this new land that we still haven’t seen yet,” Skasis explained to Soot, able now after half a year to speak plainly of things that weren’t yet known in the time he now lived in without his former condescending tone, no longer making it sound as if it should be obvious.

“Coooool,” Soot reacted with expectable wide eyes.

“. . . Yes, well,” Briskly had to comment about those particular three, “despite how strictly they were trained, that doesn’t seem to keep some of them from making decisions that are both irrational and stupid!” She threw a scolding look at a row of three rather young stallions infirmed on the left side of the room. Skasis looked cautiously with the expectation of some kind of retaliation, but to his surprise they all actually just displayed a set of guilty grins and smiles, which only left Skasis having to ask, “And these ideas were? . . .”

She went ahead and explained, but not without an extrodinarily aggravated expression. “These three found a massive waterfall somewhere up northwest of the Albaneigh dale, and dared each other all to lock their wings to their sides, and jump into the water to fall down over the edge!”

“Is hitting water really hard,” Soot Blizzard suddenly piped up to ask, “cause they all have broken bones?”

The Private and Skasis both gave an astounded look at the little colt now standing in between them looking from soldier to soldier.

“W-why, uh yes, it is as a matter of fact,” the Private answered him, recovering from the shock of the little colt’s deduction.

“Exactly point seven four times the impact resistance of the common compact dirt you’d hit if you slammed into the ground,” Skasis added just to confirm.

“The same thing, basically,” Briskly said with a roll of her eyes.

“In this case. What exactly ARE their conditions?” Skasis asked the Private.

“The two on either side of the one in the middle both had compound fractures of their right forelegs. I pressed the bones back inside the legs and set them as fit as I could and sutured the open wounds where they’d punctured out closed,” she stated, then amplified the stressing of her words as she went over the middle soldier. “The MIDDLE one here managed . . . managed to come back with greenstick fractures on three of his cervical vertebrae . . . it’s only a relief that his spinal chord didn’t rip.”

Skasis looked over to the Private to find her appearing genuinely concerned for the first time. Beyond that though, after the first few seconds which would have been perfectly normal to stare at a worrisome patient, she kept looking on at the young soldier in the middle with something in her eyes Skasis found all too familiar.

“What are you giving them?” he asked, at which she snapped out of it and answered him, “The topshelves, initially, and now the first downs.”

She’d been unable to memorize all of the names of the endless medications Skasis kept the unit and every other supplied with, so she’d come to refer to each by its place on the shelves that held its group.

“OxyCodone, now down to Vicodin, that’s good,” he confirmed to himself. “What about center here?” Skasis pointed a hoof at the one soldier in between the other two.

“I . . . I have him on the topshelves still, but he is down to only needing the smaller ones from the far right,” she answered, the earlier concern from her look carrying over into her voice.

That’s pretty fast to drop past Hydromorphone and Morphine for an injury that sever,” Skasis commented aloud, and narrowed his eyes by a margin for a second. “Don’t let him go down any further,” he suddenly told her.

The Private’s nod to that was swifter than Skasis thought he’d ever seen out of her.

She moved on to keep leading them until Soot suddenly become enamored with speaking to a soldier from his father’s former unit and the two of them are left alone in the aisle along the room’s center and she immediately turned about to him.

“Corporal Paradigm, do you th-is he going to be able to recover?” Briskly Healed asked the instant she turned to Skasis, twice as much concern leaking into her voice as the minute before.

She motioned to indicate the soldier in the middle of the group of three they had left, though she didn’t need to.

“Yeah, he’ll be able to come back from that,” Skasis told her, then sharply shifted his tone of voice, “just DON’T let him move his head for at least another twelve weeks.”

Skasis’s ending tone was very stressing and stern, leaving her wide eyed and nodding with affirmative confirmation that she understood the severity of the condition that soldier was in. She couldn’t help herself but to glance over at him one more time. She wanted to look longer than a single instant, but she couldn’t . . .

“You, middle-bed, state your identity, soldier,” Skasis ordered the stallion Briskly Healed kept looking at.

“Sir! Corporal Falcon Dive, Sir!” the incapacitated soldier promptly responded.

The Corporal was incredibly careful to make sure the only movement made by his head was that of his jaw. Skasis gave Private Healed an look that could have held a smile were straight lips not Skasis’s natural disposition.

“Falcon Dive . . .” he caught Briskly Healed whispering to herself.

Skasis couldn’t avoid feeling a heavy tang of envy that arose inside him. Although on its counterbalance he hoped the Private would at least try to approach Falcon Dive in a manner of openly admitting feelings . . . something he knew was beyond the realm of him ever being able to do with Commander Hurricane.

Author's Note

Alright, here's finally another chapter of Hurricane Paradigm for those few that like it. I know this one's a little short and sparse, or at least feels it, but I promise that's because the next chapter is going to be . . . let's just say BIG and settle on that, and I don't mean just in terms of the next chapter's length either, I really mean Content, which also means it will probably be lengthy.

Well, 3:51 AM my time (Alaska time zone), so once again, I'm out.