“Pansy? Pansy the Commander is here," the brown Earth Pony called inside very gently.

The fragile blue Pegasus turned her head toward the door after he did, her ears springing up straight. When she sees that it is in fact Commander Hurricane, her formerly timid face very visibly brightens up. However, when she sees Skasis soon after, timid shyness rapidly takes her back over, sending her whole body through a single convulsive shiver and leaving her right front hoof considerably trmebling.

“Oh, hi Commander. What are you doing down here?” Pansy greeted Commander Hurricane, with a voice Skasis found more hushed than any Hearth’s Warming Eve play had ever portrayed.

“It’s good to see you again . . . sister. I miss having you as my Officer’s Attendant,” Hurricane greeted Pansy as well, and with a tone more gentle than Skasis would have otherwise thought she was capable of using.

Skasis was left with bulging eyes for a minute after the Commander’s two sentences. The two of them being related had never been anywhere in the historical record.

Pansy’s face lit up again for a few seconds upon hearing from her sister that she did miss her. “O-oh, likewise, I wish you could visit more often; I do miss you. Although I can’t say the same about my time serving," she fell into a more stressful tone at the end, the kind anypony would find themselves using when they recalled bad memories.

“I know," the Commander said back, allowing her head to hang in regret and her voice to express the same sentiment.

Commander Hurricane approached the bed, stopping just past the bottom left corner. She passed by another pony, a mare Skasis had not initially seen at first, but one that was unmistakably Smart Cookie.

Smart Cookie kept looking from the Commander to Skasis for a moment before she spoke for the first time since they’d come in. “I due beg of you to pardon me, Commander, Sir, but might we know who our other guest is?” she asked.

“This Skasis Paradigm,” the Commander began to introduce in her own manner, “a Unicorn who reportedly gave remarkable medical treatment to one of my Lieutenants and his son. He created medicines that they swallowed: one treating nausea and the other relieving pain. And . . .” she paused only to turn her head to him, “he claims to be able to treat and relieve anxiety as well.”

All three of the others grew the reactionary hopeful expressions that one would expect.

“Is this true?” Smart Cookie asked with a voice brimming with hope as well.

“Oh please say it is so!” the Earth Pony stallion asked in the same.

“Y-yeah, I can give relief for it,” Skasis answered them. “A-and if I know the cause I could also treat it so that it will be suppressed completely," he added.

After he had confirmed what the Commander had said, Private Pansy’s eyes even began to glow a little, and she raised her head up above the cautious lowered position she’d kept it in.

“I brought him here with me to help you,” Hurricane told her sister.

“Well, I wouldn’t think any of us know anything about doctoring with magic, but if anything can help Pansy I’m all for it,” Smart Cookie announced her own support, followed swiftly by her brother, the Earth Pony stallion, Grain. “Anything, yes. Please, sir Skasis, my . . . our dear Pansy has been suffering too much from this. Take this away from her, please . . .” he all but begged.

Skasis looked from one pony to another, all looking at him, and leaving him feeling quite pressured and uncomfortable.

“I’ll do as best as I can,” he said, hoping it would be enough for them to hear, despite how unconvincing he knew he must sound. He walked slowly over to the bedside, next to the Commander. She held an intense stare on him; he could feel it even without ever turning to his side to look.

“Private Pansy?” he tried to greet in as hushed of a normal room-voice as he could.

“Y-yes?” her reply came jarred with a nervous stutter.

“S-so what exactly is the problem?” he asked, "what symptoms is the anxiety manifesting itself in?”

Pansy looked timidly at both her mate, Grain, and her sister. They both nod once at her, her mate with an encouraging smile and her older sister with a slow blink.

She went ahead and tried to explain what she could, but her voice was exceptionally unsteady, “I . . . um, I-I just feel afraid . . . all the time. Anything sudden scares me so bad it’s . . . it’s just terrifying. I feel sick to my stomach all the time, and i-it gets worse the more frightened I am. And my hooves, and sometimes my wings . . . they’re always shaking now. I-I-I can’t sleep, and its—it’s . . . I can’t think of anything else right now. I’m sorry.” She tucked her head closer in when she apologized, as if she were actually cowering.

“It’s all well, sweet flower,” Grain said to her with such tangible compassion.

Skasis was completely unresponsive for a few seconds, leading the Commander to question him.

“So?” she asked him.

“This is bad," he began to say, at a quiet level loud enough for only her to hear. “It’s . . . a lot more severe than I was expecting. There’s an underlying cause here somewhere, it’s most likely,” he paused for a second to sigh and spend a moment biting his lower lip, “a really sever Norepinephrine imbalance in the synapses of her neurons . . . but I can’t say that with any certainty.”

The Commander spoke back to him in an equally quiet, though extremely stern manner, “I don’t have time for your doubt right now. You said you could treat anxiety, and you are GOING to give her whatever treatment you can for it. Is that understood?”

“Yes Sir," he agreed to attempt to give her the reality she was demanding from him.

“Now, is there anything you still think you can do?” she asked for specifics.

“Uh-I never said there wasn’t," he answered with a minor air of condescention he was unable to keep out of his responding voice. “I was just noting how severe her anxiety is. I can still give her some kind of Benzodiazepine and that should suppress it pretty heavily, but if I could actually determine the underlying cause I could give her something intended for long-term treatment as well," he went on in explanation.

“But you can still treat her?” she questioned again, for her own reassurance. Skasis saw what he thought was an actual pleading look in her eyes, behind their unyielding militaristic coldness.

“Yes Sir," he said, but then felt just the slightest urge to say something a level more, “I promise you.”

“Sir, please pardon my intrusion on you and the Commander, but . . . what can you do for Pansy?” Grain asked him.

“Uh-yes, I’m going to give her a Benzodiazepine, I just have decided whether Lorazepam or Alprazolam,” Skasis replied simply, too busy thinking on which would be better at that moment to spend further time explaining.

“Ah . . . and what might that be?” Smart Cookie asked.

“Is it that some kind of Unicorn-enchanted herbal remedy?” Grain asked as well.

“N—nno, this is something different," he answered them briefly.

Skasis turned to Private Pansy and made his best effort continue to speak as calmly as possible, and even to add the same kind of warmth to his voice he had with the Lieutenant’s son, despite it still feeling horribly awkward to him.

“Private Pansy, I’m gonna perform some alchemy . . . magic. It’s going to make some loud noise and a small amount of something that looks a lot like lightning. It’ll probably be scary, so I just wanted to let you know beforehoof in case you want to cover your ears or shut your eyes," he told her, feeling a flush of heat under his fur at trying to force himself to sound as he wanted.

“O-oh, thank y-you Doctor Skasis,” Pansy replied with a grateful, but still ever-timid smile.

“I’m not a doctor," he muttered to himself.

Pansy flopped her ears down against the sides of her head and pressed down on them with her hooves. She still left her eyes a little way open though, somewhat curious as the others were.

Skasis turned his head to the side, not wanting to perform anti-thermodynamic energy-driven alchemical synthesis right in front of her. His horn lit and his Lagoon-Blue aura spun around it rapidly. In mid-air in front of his face a sequence of literal light waves ripple down a massless shape, each passing making the air more opaque until they cease at the formation of a stereotypical orange plastic medication bottle.

As he continued to leviate the open bottle, Skasis scooped a tiny amount of lose dirt with his hoof and held it in front of himself. As he did, his horn’s aura flared briefly as alchemical lighting flashes and flickers out from the dirt. The four other ponies watched on, all amazed though with one not expressively showing it, all having already observed a strange transparent orange bottle appear from nothing and now observing dirt being electrocuted into miniscule white bars lowering into the bottle.

“There. You see these?” he said, floating one just in front of her for her to see.

Skasis turned his head back to Pansy, who actually was sharing in the others shock as opposed to terror. She nodded her head weakly after a few seconds.

“You can take one of these whenever the anxiety really feels the worst, but just never any more than four in one day. Whenever you take one it’s probably going to make you feel tired and if you’re moving around at all you’ll feel a little slow, but that’s it, alright?” he asked after instructing her.

Pansy repeated her weak nod.

“Oh yes th-thank you so much. I wouldn’t mind the rest one bit actually. Um . . . can I have one now? W-w-would that be ok?” she asked very shyly. Skasis nodded back with one a genuine smile.

“I would assume you want water,” Skasis began saying, casting an indicative look to Pansy’s mate mid-speech, “to swallow it with?

“Oh, of course. Here, don’t worry,” Grain acknowledged immediately and grabbed a cup off the table.

He welled up enough water to fill a small wooden cup and carries it over to his wife.

“Here," he said gently, handing it to her.

Pansy took the cup. Her hooves tremored as she holds it, making visible ripples across the water’s surface. She took in a sip and Skasis levitates on of the tiny pills over to her. She reached out a wing and held the tiny white bar on one of her sturdiest feathers and then brought it up to her muzzle. Swallowing it took a few seconds for her, needing to sum up the will to allow everything down though she instinctually feared choking on the little object.

“How long until your treatment has any effect?” the Commander demanded from him shortly after.

Skasis exhaled through pursed lips for a second before answering. “Not long,” he said, “really, most tranquilizing agents act pretty fast.”

“Tranquilizing?” the Commander then asked, raising an eyebrow.

“A powerful drug meant to calm,” Skasis took the time to explain for her, “even if she were terrified and screaming right now just one or two of those would calm her down almost completely. Though taking two would put her or anypony else to sleep for hours, but taking one before she goes to bed should make her tired enough . . . tired and calm enough to finally get some sleep.”

The Commander relaxed her look to her normal one placid sternness and nodded her head once.

“Do you feel any better, sweet flower?” Grain asked Pansy.

“Ahh-I don’t think he meant that stuff would work THAT fast, Grain,” Smart Cookie said.

The Commander simply held a flat, irritated expression.

“O-oh . . . of course,” Grain corrected himself, slightly embarrassed, “I’m sorry Sir Skasis. Um, if you two are going to be here for long we should at least offer you some lunch, or at least perhaps tea.”

Skasis is reminded of the fact that he hasn’t actually enjoyed tea in months, not since he first got dragged off into adventuring with his friends Shooting Star, Cobalt and Sundial.

“Oo, tea would be awesome," he answers back.

“You’d like some? Of course, I’ll set a pot of water over the fire. Smarts? Pansy? Would either of you like some?” he asked the two of them. “No thanks Grain, I think I’ll just make myself a sandwich,” Smart Cookie answered, heading over to the table herself.

“Oh yes please,” Pansy requested with a kind smile.

“Um . . . and you, Commander?” Grain asked the armored Pegasus with an obvious, fearful hesitation.

The Commander responded with a horse-snort. “Tea is for ponies who need their nerves settled,” She said, and then narrowed her eyes. “There is nothing that unsettles mine,” she declared.

“Of . . . course, I apologize. I never meant for that to mean anything of the sort," he said, backing away and walking off to make Skasis and Pansy their cups.

Skasis was left to find Commander Hurricane glaring at him with a patheticizing expression. He looked away and let his head half hang after a few seconds, taking his fifth hurtful insult from her that day. It was clear in her eyes right then, at his acceptance of tea she’d viewed him as weak . . . or rather, more so than she likely already had. It truly felt as if she had torn him half apart in just the few hours since he had met her.

On the bed, Private Pansy slowly began to sit up, drawing Smart Cookie’s and the Commander’s attention.

“Pansy? Are you feeling better? You haven’t been able to get up all day,” Smart Cookie asked, brimming with anticipation.

Grain turned around from boiling water over the fire in the fireplace, wearing an equally hopeful look.

“I feel much better actually,” Pansy confirmed, and went on. “M-my stomach isn’t anywhere near as queasy as it was earlier. And,” her words were broken by a gasp as she held out a hoof in mid-air, “my hooves . . . t-they’re barely shaking anymore.”

Everypony’s eyes widened, with the exception of Skasis. The Commanders even swelled open, albeit not as much as the other two, but they still did hint at astonishment all the same.

“Do you really feel better?” Grain asked, stepping closer and seeming ready to burst with joy.

“I still feel anxious, I-I can tell,” Pansy admitted, “but . . . I just feel so much more relaxed right now, and it’s like it’s getting better every minute.”

Grain let his mouth open in a gigantic smile. He came back over to the bed and wrapped Pansy in a slow and gentle hug.

Skasis even smiled, lightly. He took a few steps forward and assumed Grain’s place in front of the fire, using his magic to enhance it and make the flames all lap towards the bottom of the pot. The water came to a boil swiftly afterward, right as Skasis turned his head to see the Commander approaching him.

“This is almost miraculous,” she confessed, to Skasis’s surprise. “She’s been suffering for so long, and it’s only ever gotten worse . . . and for some part because of me. But you’ve done this? And, in just minutes?” the Commander kept going on, still in temporary disbelief.

“Benzodiazepines are extremely reliable. But, like I said, it’s only giving her relief. With this she’ll just have to take one whatever times of the day she’s feeling the worst. If I were capable of confirming what I’m pretty sure is the underlying cause, I could give her something she would only have to take once a day and she would never have to feel unnaturally anxious or terrified ever again," he said the same as he had earlier.

“Try," she ordered him.

“What?” he responded.

“You said with certain magic you can see inside a pony and find what’s really wrong with them. So do it," she ordered again.

“Uh-I told you, I can’t. I’m not CAPABLE of it," he tried to affirm himself.

She just responded with her nearing-signature unimpressed glare. “Words of a quitter, and whiners and lazy recruits who don’t want to put in the effort of holding more responsibility than they already have," she stated bluntly.

Skasis ended up displaying more frustration and distress on face than he even remembered feeling anytime at all in the immediate past.

“So which one is it? I already know you’re a whiner, and judging by the fact that you said you stopped attempting this when you failed to experience success I’d say you’re quitter too. So then, is it JUST those two? Or is it all three?" she asked, unimpressed and impatient.

“I . . .” Skasis couldn’t even respond to her anymore.

Skasis clenched his teeth at his wordloss. After a few seconds of staring straight into the Commander’s ever-challenging eyes, he found himself walking over to the bedside again.

He sighed once before speaking to Pansy,"here, I’m going to try something, magic again, if that’s alright?”

She looked around at the others cautiously first before she said responded on her own, “I-if you think you need to Doctor Paradigm. Just tell me if it’s going to be loud again.”

Skasis shook his head. “No, not this time, I’m just going to try to see. Just . . . don’t move, not much at least," he told her. Pansy sat as still as she could, while Skasis closed his eyes for a moment to think. He debated over and over with himself how to approach this. How was he supposed to see the inner functionings of a complex biological organism? He knew what a large number of the chemical processes that were occurring are, almost all of them really, so should he just think of them all at once and try a vast overlap?

Skasis opened his eyes again, having made up his mind. He lifted his head until his gaze was level with Pansy’s and began to light his horn. His aura swirled around it, this time welling juts up from its base and off the point of it, like flames coming up from a log.

He kept as many neurochemical reactions in his mental focus as he could, and he found himself able to see them within her one by one, more and more at a time. But, he hit a breaking point and came to the same magical impasse as before. He struggled on with it, even to the point of sweating, but made no progress.

After several minutes, exhaustion forced him to give up.

“I tried, I couldn’t maintain the intravision," he said, panting.

“O-oh that’s ok,” Pansy assured him with genuine kindness, “I’m sure you tried your best. I still feel much better anyways. Thank you for making me that . . . whatever it was.”

“Alprazolam. I’m sorry I couldn’t do it," he apologized again.

“That’s quite alright,” Smart Cookie joined in assuring him, “we’re all just grateful that you could help Pansy at all, let alone by as much as you did, and as fast as you did.”

“Yes, do believe us Sir Skasis, this is already wonderful,” Grain even added gratefully as well.

But then the Commander’s voice broke the attitude of the moment, “Is that IT? Is that all the effort you can give?”

Everypony in the open-room cabin turned to her with confounded faces.

“What?” was the only reaction Skasis could verbalize.

“Is that all you do, attempt anything for a few minutes of failure and then completely resign?” she furiously questioned him.

Skasis was at an utter loss for words . . . again.

She then exploded into a brief, scolding rant, “you don’t turn around and fly back to base when there’s a storm in your way; you go over it, you go around, or you go through it if you have the skill, courage and discipline for it. Pathetic!” She gave off another horse-snort as she finished.

What little self-worth Skasis had even still had was caving as Commander Hurricane just walked away toward the fireplace with a vivid expression of disgust. Skasis stared at the floor for a solid few minutes, lost in his internal fragmentation and strengthening sense of worthlessness.

Eventually he looked back at Pansy, who still sat up at the bed’s edge, now looking over her sister with rather saddened eyes.

Skasis looked right at her one more time, beginning to light his horn, some sudden desperate need to prove himself to the Commander driving him.

"What am I missing?” he thought to himself, “why do fail this every time!?”

Skasis ran over everything he knew about Biochemistry in his mind, until something finally struck him. The thought raced through his waking mind of the joining of the three tribes happening in the time period around him, and of the massive Legion-scale cooperation of trillions of cells in every body of every living organism. Only then was his mind able to lift itself from its single-lensed view of the individual biochemical processes at their pure, macromolecular level. Instead, now it lifts to the point he can see the perfectly ordained order that it all, every process, and cell, every chemical reaction, fit and amounted to.

As his mind perceived Biology and life for what it is, his horn glows and his aura shifts to something more like a lunar halo. Slowly, he looks into Private Pansy’s head, and he finally sees.

“I know what’s wrong; I was right!” he said.

Skasis could see the entirety of her neurons. The Norepinephrine imbalance looked so blatantly obvious now, the absence of the calm-inducing neurotransmitter even shining a bright alarm red as if to alert anypony who could see to the fact that something was wrong.

“Pardon?” Smart Cookie asked, reestablishing her attention.

“I can see it, the Norepinephrine deficiency . . . it’s so obvious,” Skasis responded, still observing.

“Wait, what do you mean you know what’s wrong?” she asked, “I thought those little . . . things you gave to her were already making her better?”

Skasis corrected her, of course, “I said they were reliving her symptoms, not getting rid of the problem itself. But, now I should be able to give her something that can.”

Without warning, Skasis turned his head to the side and began to conjure another plastic bottle, this time and opaque white one. The pills that he transmuted from the dirt that time were larger red capsules, all falling into the levitating bottle. Throughout it all Pansy only reacted with a mild start, the Alprazolam producing its significant calming effect in her already.

“And what is this you’re making now?” the Commander suddenly asked, having returned from the fireside.

“Venlafaxine,” Skasis said, without losing focus.

Skasis examined the capsules carefully and then telekinetically screwed on the bottle cap.

“I hope you don’t me asking for all of our pardons here, but ah . . . I don’t think any of us are gonna know what any of these are, despite you saying what they’re called and all,” Smart Cookie admitted on the group’s part.

Skasis didn’t hesitate whatsoever in laying out an extensive explanation for them, albeit an intentionally simplified one. "It’s a Seretonin and Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitor. We call them anti-depressants. They correct the neurotransmitter levels in the brains of ponies who take them, which seriously reduces the levels of depression and anxiety that they can experience beyond what’s caused by just personality, or what should be generally normal, though normal can vary," he told them.

Private Pansy looked out at the new bottle floating in the air, and glanced down at her cup of water.

“Um . . . should I swallow one of these now, Doctor Paradigm?” she asked Skasis.

“I’m not a doctor,” he corrected, “and no. You NEED to take this with food, although it’s fine if you drink water as well, obviously," he instructed her just enough.

Pansy looked over to request something of her husband, but he already knew.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make you a Dandelion and Sunflower sandwhich right now then,” Grain promised and went over to their table to begin doing so.

Pansy smiled so sincerely after Grain had walked off. “Oh thank you Grain,” she said very quietly, not intending to be but still being heard by Skasis and Commander Hurricane, “you’ve been so caring and patient with me.”

“So, ah-Sir Skasis, how often does our Pansy have to swallow one of these ven—lala-flex . . . things,” Smart Cookie asked.

“Venlafaxine. Just once a day. It will probably take a couple weeks for it to work since it has to slowly build a consistent presence in her system. But once it does, she should feel just fine, whatever’s normal for her or was normal before all of this started,” Skasis explained further.

Pansy looked surprised. “Just one?” she asked.

“Yup,” was the whole of his response.

The Private’s face lit up so much, and she took the bottle in her hooves almost marvelled at it.

The Commander took keen notice of Pansy’s gladdening disposition . . . and she finally felt something inside she’d wished to for the longest time: she felt relief.

“Oh, Doctor Paradigm? W-what if they run out?” Pansy suddenly asked.

Before he gave an answer, Skasis thought about the fact that he has been left behind by the TARDIS’s two occupants, and that he had no idea of when . . . or any guarantee that they would ever be coming back for him.

“I’ll make more," he told her, decided to do such for her sake, on the chance that he might not be around to be of help again.
Skasis re-levitated the bottle and casts an enlargement spell on it. Then he begun transmuting more and more Venlafaxine capsules, filling a larger and larger plastic medical bottle.

“I’ll go ahead and give you as many as I can make before my energy burns out," he said as he kept on.

Mentioning his magical energy supply stabbed Skasis with a with blind-siding sorrow, forcing it upon him to remember what he had managed to forget amidst the chaos and emotional turmoil of the past few hours: his familiar, his pet hawk, and by all means to him, his brother, Himmel . . . was still two thousand years ahead in time from him, back in present-day Equestria.

It took him a moment to be able to speak again, but he did. “. . . it’ll be enough. I can probably make at least a few hundred; that’s several months’ worth of pills."

Skasis kept on manufacturing Private Pansy’s medication until he his current magical energy was completely spent, having made over three-hundred capsules and enlarged the bottle to the size of a gallon jug.

Grain finished making both Pansy’s sandwich and hers and Skasis’s tea soon after.

They remained for a while longer. The Commander talked personally with Private Pansy, both of them reminiscing on past events that the Private admitted she had been terrified during. The Commander removed her helmet and saluted the Private first, as opposed to the other way around, her own manner of showing, Skasis guessed, when she truly valued somepony.

All the meanwhile, all Skasis sat next to the fireplace, enjoying the smell of wood smoke and sipping hot tea.

***

The Commander led the way down the walking path away from Pansy and Grain’s home. Once they had gone about a two-minute walk away, she came to an abrupt stop and turned about to face Skasis.

Skasis halted, remaining about two meters from her. He assumed she was going to speak, since when she grabbed hold of him to fly him down to the Private’s home she did it without warning.

“Skasis," she addressed him in such a calm manner, though her voice was still naturally hard. But right then . . . her manner speaking sounded almost personal.

Skasis’s eyes widen a little at this instance of her calling him by his first, actual name. She looked right back at him and in an instant, she relinquished all the intensity that he had thought her face naturally bore.

The Commander shut her eyes and dipped her head as she removed her helmet. She kept one forehoof on the ground while the other held her helmet down at knee level. As soon as her helmet was off and out of the way, she raised her head back up and opened her eyes once more.

Skasis found himself gradually, and unexpectedly taken aback by how striking he found her appearance to be. Never had he even cared to look at mares before in any manner of seeing attractiveness; there has never been anything stand-out-ish about any he met in his mind. But the Commander . . . he was finding her, somehow, in that moment . . . attractive. But, somehow it felt like it was because . . . unlike EVERY mare from his time, and many still in this period . . . she was not a Pretty Pony.

Her face was scarred across her left cheek, her left ear had a completely ripped-out tuft, the scrumple of her nose was some permanent infracture, her eyes were a dim and bland shade of browned yellow practically the same color as urine. And her mane, her mane was in no way styled, in no way kept, and on top of both her hair was short.

The emerging feeling was so unknown to Skasis that he did even initially turn red or feel a cold sweat like what suspected should have been normal.

The Commander then spoke. “You’ve done me a great favor and service. It’s been so long since I’ve even seen my sister as happy as she got today. On top of that, the knowledge you possess, and the way you were so able to cure her of something I thought was an incurable ailment was—remarkable, to say the least. Thank you for everything you’ve done for her,” she said.

Skasis’s only reaction was his mouth beginning to drift open in subtle shock.

She kept going, “and, regarding you specifically, the resolve and ability you showed to persevere against the odds of failure and overcome your own perceived lack of capability is to be commended. I honestly wouldn’t have expected such qualities in a Unicorn not too long ago . . . but you’ve proved me wrong. This may not have been combat, but what you showed was the drive of a real soldier. So from now on, under most circumstances, I’ll treat you like one. You’re welcome to salute me if you wish.”

Skasis’s eyes at that point were practically shimmering with all the Commander had just said. He didn’t immediately understand right then and there. In all the hours since she had met him, she had all but destroyed and torn him apart and coldly pointed out more than half of his flaws with deadly precision. But here she is thanking him, calling his medical skills remarkable, and commending him on the change within himself that he had just made? Who was she, this armored, red Pegasus mare?

He hesitantly saluted her, and she placed her helmet on the ground to free her right hoof to return the favor. He relaxed his foreleg after she did hers, and she donned her helmet once more. When she opened her eyes again with her helm on, all the intensity of her face from hours before returned.

“Now listen to me very carefully Prissy Hooves,” she said to him, seriousness rising swiftly in her voice, “I’m taking back to my cloud fort for the purpose of interrogation.”

Skasis’s heart dropped.

“I’m well aware neither you nor your two comrades are emissaries. The three tribes haven’t even used emissaries between each other since our unity upon the founding of our new land. Your disguise was poor, whatever kind of spies you might be,” she said, eyes continuing to narrow until the moment after she’d finished speaking, when she looked away briefly and looked like she was thinking in reflection.

“After what you’ve done for me, I’ll be so kind as to interrogate you myself, and assure you that it will be entirely verbal, and that I won’t torture you,” she told him, pausing once to lean in exceptionally close, and with more narrowed eyes than Skasis had yet seen from her, “unless I decide you mean harm to the three tribes.”

Skasis, a minute ago awestruck, a moment ago stunned, was then emotionally vaulted over into the status of terrified, but still remained composed as the Commander grabbed hold of him from above and flew them both away into the sky.

Author's Note

Well, this is the longest installment yet, double the last one's length. Hope it's not too long for anypony.

Hopefully you're reading these down here because you've already read the actual chapter above, otherwise spoilers;

So yes, once again I'll reiterate myself that Commander Hurricane is a mare, and I actually do believe I'm the only one who's developed a view of Private Pansy having been her sister. Ironically, you may find, I didn't actually write the story with that being the case, it was actually more recently when I was reviewing it that I began to develop that idea in particular and felt a strong drive towards implementing it as fanfictional reality.

Hope all can enjoy