Even the Strong Need Help

"Lieutenant Fire, sometime after dinner tonight, could you come to my quarters? I... need help with something. Something that might be better discussed in private."

That'd pretty much been the entire exchange Slam Fire had shared with Thunder Strike when they were in the mess hall, setting down to their evening meal. Short, concise, to the point, and leaving her absolutely filled with far more questions than she was comfortable in admitting to.

Thunder had asked her for help. That much had already been clearly established. And therein laid the problem; Thunder never asked for help.

For better or worse, for whatever reason, be it due to stubbornness or embarrassment or some other factor they weren't seeing, he wasn't in the habit of asking any of them to help him with anything he had going on. As they'd all found out the hard way, he'd rather work himself to death, than do anything to suggest he wasn't able to pull his own weight. Even if he was working well above his weight class.

So she really didn't know just what she'd gotten herself into, when she'd agreed to come by and see what was up. What sort of development could actually motivate him to ask for help, if even a steady diet of back-to-back shifts wasn't enough to do the trick?

"Thunder, please be alright," she mumbled to herself as she trotted along towards her destination, hoping that she wasn't about to walk into something that was really bad.

His quarters were easy enough to find. Although once she got there, she felt hesitant about actually announcing herself and disturbing whatever might be going on inside.

But she was a guard, just like he was. Guards didn't let unease stop them. So with that fact in mind she reached out and firmly knocked at the door.

There was an odd sense of relief felt when he actually opened the door, letting her see for herself that he really was alright at the moment. Which may or may not've motivated her to cross the threshold of the room and hug him on the spot.

"Are you alright, Lieutenant Fire?" he asked, seemingly firmly rooted to the spot and unresponsive to the surprise embrace he'd been subjected to.

"Yeah, I'm alright," she replied quickly as she let him go. "I just thought- er... never mind what I thought, it's not important."

Right now she'd rather not get into what sort of intrusive thoughts might've been entering her mind on the way over. That was another discussion for another day. Right now there were more pressing issues to discuss.

"So, what was it you wanted to discuss in private?"

The bland, neutral look that Thunder had been wearing just a moment ago took on a somewhat more serious tone in response to her question. He didn't say anything at first, merely ushering her inside the room with him.

Once she actually was inside the room, he slowly shut the door behind her, and turned the lock with such care it was almost impossible to hear it click. He then looked to his left, and then to his right, almost like he suspected somepony might be in the room with them. Only once he was certain that it was just the two of them, did he finally turn his attention back to her.

"How's your back, Lieutenant Fire? Are you still in pain, or having trouble walking?"

It was an odd question to warrant such secrecy. But maybe he was simply warming up to what point he was trying to get to.

"It's just fine now. Why?"

"... How would you like some time off, to rest and recuperate?"

She found herself blinking in confusion. That question was even odder than the first one.

"Thunder, I'm not sure I understand. What exactly are you getting at?"

"What I'm about to say... it can't leave this room. It has to stay between the two of us," he explained.

Now she was starting to feel a bit concerned about the direction this was going. But she needed more information to go on in order to determine how to proceed.

"Nopony's getting anything out of me," she assured him.

It seemed to be enough to satisfy him, as he nodded in response, and took one last look around the room, before turning back to face her again.

"I... have an assignment. But it's unlike anything that I've ever done before. And I'm left uncertain if I can do it," he admitted reluctantly, looking like it pained him to even have to say the words out loud. "Her Highness wants me to go to Ponyville for a vacation. Could you go in my place, and I'll stay here and cover your shifts while you're away?"

There had been way more in that sentence to unpack than she'd really been prepared for. It took her a minute or so, to fully make sense of what he was saying, and what he was asking her to do.

On the one hoof, some additional paid time off would definitely be a good thing. But on the other hoof...

"I just don't think I can do that, Thunder," she replied and slowly shook her head. "Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the offer and all. But this is something that I just can't do. If anypony could use a vacation and time away from the palace, it'd definitely be you."

"What if I said that I didn't want to go?"

"I'd believe it," she replied and nodded her head. "And then I'd ask why, and hope that the pony who I know has my back, would trust me enough to give a full explanation as to why he wants somepony else to go on vacation in his place."

She hadn't wanted to put him into that sort of position. Calling his loyalty into question felt like a scummy, underhoofed move to pull on him. But at the same time, she didn't have a clue on what else she could actually do to get a straight answer out of him. And right now she needed something more to go on than whatever he might try to pull to insist there was nothing the matter.

He looked at her with an expression that was just plain unreadable for her, before ultimately giving a brief nod.

"When Her Highness said I was going on vacation, I headed to the library to read up on the matter so I'd know what was expected. But what little information I could find there was sorely lacking, and just left me with more questions than answers," he stated uneasily. "The only thing I know for certain is that a vacation involves time spent away from work, and being on medical leave doesn't count. But other than that, I don't have a clue what I'm supposed to be doing. And the more time I spend thinking about what I'll need for being away from the palace for an extended period, the more I realize just how unqualified I am for this assignment; we weren't trained for anything like this back at the Academy. I'm not going to be able to perform these duties in a satisfactory manner."

She listened as Thunder talked. And the more she listened to what he had to say, the more she felt the urge to frown in dislike. His own words did nothing but demonstrate just how badly he needed this vacation for his own good. Even as he tried to keep the anxiousness out of his voice, it was still painfully obvious just how uneasy he was.

"Thunder. Look at me," she spoke up in a firm tone, halting him in mid-rant before he could make himself anymore anxious. "Take a breath before you hyperventilate. Make it a deep one, you could use it."

He nodded and complied, doing as he was told.

"Good boy. Now then, I need you to follow along and pay attention to what I have to say, alright? A vacation isn't like a duty assignment. It's not something that you have to carry out, and even if it was, it's not something that anypony would ever actually fail in."

He didn't say anything in response, but at least he looked like he was actually paying attention.

"Look, let's sit down, alright? It's been a long day, and I don't feel like being on my hooves anymore than I have to be right now."

She eased herself onto the couch in the room, thankful to finally take some weight off of her hooves and just let them rest. Thunder followed suit, but only once she'd already been seated. Almost like he was taking his cues from her, due to not knowing what he should do on his own. She hoped that wasn't actually the case, but right now that was a different discussion for another time.

Along with how he seemed able to stand for long stretches without any apparent signs of discomfort. That was just plain unnatural...

"In all the years we've known each other, I've never known you to back down from an assignment, even if you were unqualified for performing it. So what makes this so different, that it's actually got you doing something out of character and asking to swap?"

"The thought of being so far away from the palace for an undetermined length of time is... uncomfortable to think about," he admitted, the tone of his voice heavy in reluctance even as he spoke. "The last time I was that far away from the palace was during my time at the Academy. Before that it was back in Clydesdale Valley. Until my trip to Canterlot General just a few days ago, I haven't set hoof off of palace grounds in over seven years."

Slam nodded as she listened to what he was saying, it more or less lining up with what'd already been found out during the investigation. For all intents and purposes his entire existence seemed confined to the palace and...

...

Wait. Could it be that...

"Hey, Thunder," she spoke up, "tell me something. Have you ever given any thought to off-site housing before? Maybe getting your own apartment away from the palace?"

He shook his head in response. "A Royal Guard's place is at their position of assignment."

"Alright, but... you do know you're only required to work here and not actually live in the barracks full-time, right? That you can come and go as you please during your off-hours when you're on your own time... right?" she asked him.

"It's never come up before," was all he had to offer up in response.

Slam frowned in response, not liking that answer one bit. But what could she really do about it? If he was being serious, and she really didn't have any reason to believe he wasn't, then the implications were disturbing.

"You'll have to excuse me, but I just find that really hard to believe," she stated. "Thunder, you know that not every guard who works here, lives here. Haven't you ever wondered what they do when they clock out for the day and leave? About where they go when they're gone for a weekend? Don't you ever wonder why others don't show the same level of, er... focus... that you do?"

He shook his head in response. "Lieutenant-"

"Slam."

"... Slam, if the other Royal Guards wanted me to know about what was going on with them beyond the palace grounds, they would tell me themselves. If they choose not to, then it's obviously none of my business, and it's really not my place to be interrogating them as if they've done something wrong. So long as they do the job they signed up for, then it really doesn't matter what they do away from here."

"Uh-huh," she replied skeptically. "Thunder, listen. I'm not trying to be mean or anything, but you sound like you're afraid of the outside world; to the point you don't even want to hear about what goes on outside these walls."

It would be hard to not notice the full-bodied flinch that'd happened in response to his hearing the A-word.

"A Royal Guard isn't afraid," he recited weakly in protest to the accusation being leveled against him.

"No, it's 'A Royal Guard doesn't succumb to fear' there's a difference," she pointed out. "Look, it's alright if you don't wanna do something, there's nothing wrong with that. A lot of the work we do involves doing stuff we might not wanna do. But whether or not you want to, this is something that you need to do for your own good. So just go out and do it. You can always come back afterwards. And who knows, you might just be a better guard because of it."

"How?"

Slam suddenly found herself freezing in place as her brain tried to process how to respond to the question, and idly wishing she'd put more thought into what she'd been saying at the time. How was she supposed to respond to that one, without sound like an idiot in the process?

Maybe she should... wait, she had something that could work.

"Well... have you ever done anything like blacksmithing before?"

Thunder shook his head in response.

"Well it's sort of like that. Before I became a guard I did a summer internship program for a blacksmith. I was a bellows jockey, keeping the coals burning hot," she explained. "I learned a lot during that time, like the concept of tempering."

"Tempering?"

She nodded. "When a smith forges a sword, there's a crucial element called heat treating. They'll heat the entire length of the blade until it's positively glowing from its time in the fires, and then quickly plunge it into a trough of oil to rapidly cool the whole structure. This causes the steel to undergo a molecular change and become extremely hard like a file; you'll actually hear a file skating across the surface if it's done right. Steel like this will hold an edge like nopony's business.

"But it's also extremely brittle in this state; it'll actually shatter like an icicle if it's struck against something hard. Obviously that's no good to anypony. Enter the tempering process, where the hardened blade is heated up to a much lower temperature over a longer period of time and quenched again to alleviate the internal stresses that make it so brittle. This produces a tough steel, it won't hold as sharp an edge for as long as hard steel would under use, but it's stronger and won't break under the strain of being used. Instead of snapping in two, it'll flex and return to form."

One look over at him, told her that she currently had his full attention. That he was listening and paying attention to what she was saying.

"You're a good guard, Thunder, but you're like an untempered blade that's at risk of breaking, and I had the backache to prove it. You spend so much time focusing on being a guard, you haven't left anything for yourself. You need time away from this job, to get some perspective and understand there's more to life than just living in the barracks and working sixteen hours a day. A vacation is like tempering and... ugh, I'm getting so confused in trying to compare metaphors, I don't even know what I'm trying to say!"

Everything had sounded so much better inside her head, before she'd actually spoken it out loud and started comparing him to a piece of equipment like she had.

She let out a long, frustrated/exasperated sigh as she held her head in her hooves. This wasn't going at all like she'd hoped it would.

"When I found you in the showers that morning, I was scared. Terrified actually. I didn't know what'd happened, I didn't know if you were still even alive, I didn't even know if you were gonna die before I could get you to the infirmary... I wasn't really thinking at that point, just reacting when I hauled your heavy ass up on my back and galloped as fast as I could, fueled by fear and adrenaline. And then when we found out about why it happened..."

She sucked in an uneasy breath as she sat herself back up to look at him again.

"You don't wanna go on vacation and be away from the palace. Fine, I get that. But do it anyway, please? If not for yourself, then do it for us? Do it for the rest of the guards, so we're not worrying about you dying from the strain you put yourself under from trying to work, please? Can you do that for us?"

The look on his face was suggesting he was hearing something that he hadn't been prepared to hear, and was having trouble comprehending it for himself.

He eventually nodded, though it was slow and not particularly enthusiastic, but it'd been a nod of agreement regardless.

"I can... I can do that," he eventually replied as he continued with the nod. "It was never my intention to worry anypony with my actions."

"Yeah, well, almost dying will tend to do that," she muttered. "Now, do you mind my asking a question? Why me? There's a lot of other hardworking ponies here, why'd you ask me? Why not, I dunno, somepony like Sergeant Kowalski to let him know there's no hard feelings over what happened? He'd probably love a trip to Ponyville."

"His being a Sergeant means my asking him to go in my place could be construed as abuse of my authority, by ordering a subordinate to do something that I was tasked with doing," he explained. "You're the only pony here that I could ask on this matter; we're both the same rank, so it wouldn't be inappropriate, and you were directly injured because of my own negligence. It was the only decision I could come to that felt appropriate."

There was a lot of guilt to be had in there. Guilt and a whole lot of other stuff to sort out and unpack. But she wasn't a therapist, so she'd leave that for somepony else to deal with.

"Well, I still appreciate the offer, even if it wouldn't work," she told him. "Let's face it, Thunder, you and I aren't exactly similar looking. You might be able to pull that off with some other guards that blend into the background, but all of my assignments are pretty high-visibility. Even if I did swap with you, you'd kinda stick out like a sore hoof if you tried standing in for me."

Thunder didn't immediately respond to her stating the obvious fact about the situation. He just sort of sat there, looking deep in thought, as his horn started glowing. A bright flash of light and a few blue sparkles later, and the next thing she knew, she was looking at herself. Thunder was gone from the couch, and in his spot was what looked like a mirror replica of her visage just sitting there, looking back at her.

"Nopony would even know the difference," her double stated in a voice that was far too deep to be her own.

"Take that ridiculous disguise off!" she laughed in response, the absurdity of hearing Thunder's voice coming out of her face being far too much for her to bear with a straight face.

The imposter said nothing, before its body disintegrated, with strands of blue light shining through as the image was essentially unwound, with tendrils of magic being unwound and essentially sucked back into Thunder's horn.

Well now, that little demonstration of his had certainly answered a few questions that she and some of the others had about his work habits, like how he could cover for others without anypony noticing. But at the same time it just raised a lot more questions. And right now she didn't feel up to getting into them; not at this late hour.

"Okay, the fact you know how to do that is kind of cool. But I'm still not trading with you, though," she told him. "But what I will do, is give you another reason to go to Ponyville."

That one seemed to have his attention as he sat there, looking back at her.

"You're taking money with you, right? Pick me up a bottle of Sweet Apple Acre's hard apple cider. The red label variety. Bring that back and I'll call the whole matter of my sore back square and consider it closed. How's that sound?"

She distinctly heard the muttering of him repeating what she'd requested, before finally nodding in response.

And then a knock at the door could be heard, interrupting where the conversation could've gone after that.

She looked back at him, but got no indication of his knowing who might be at the door. And before she even had time to think about going to see who it was, he was already getting up off the couch to go and do it himself. Leaving her to trail behind if she wanted to see for herself.

A cute pegasus mare with black-rimmed glasses and a bob cut to her mane, standing on the other side of the door while carrying a tray of what looked like food on her back, wasn't what she'd been expecting to see.

"Hey, Thunder," she greeted in a very friendly -almost familiar- tone as she stepped inside the room without even waiting to be invited. Only then to stop in mid-speech as the two of them made eye contact. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you had company."

"I guess we're in the same boat. I wasn't exactly expecting Thunder to be having any company tonight," Slam replied. "Thunder, you wanna make some introductions so we're not just standing around all awkward-like, or should we go ahead and do it ourselves?"

"Oh, right," he replied, only just now seeming to realizing the position he was in. "Ah, Doily, this is Lieutenant Slam Fire. She's the one who found me in the showers, and got me to the infirmary. If it weren't for her, I'd likely be dead right now."

Slam cleared her throat in response to the assessment. Even if it might've been technically accurate, it was still uncomfortable to hear it just being laid out in such a casual manner.

"Lieutenant Fire, this is Doily. She's my friend."

"Well now I'm a little hurt, dude. Aren't we friends, after everything we've been through together?" Slam asked, wholly unable to resist the impulsive urge in light of his statement.

It was only after she presented the question, did she regret doing so. The look on his face was enough to tell her that he'd taken it as being a serious question, rather than one being delivered in jest.

"I don't know how to answer that question," he admitted. "I'm not familiar with what the proper procedure is, when it comes to being friends with others. I only learned for myself last night that Doily and I are friends. And even then, it was only after Her Highness had commented on the matter that I knew. If she hadn't done such, I still wouldn't know about that fact for myself."

Doily's contribution to the discussion was a simple nod of agreement/confirmation.

Slam really didn't like the implications of where this discussion were going. And while part of her wanted to get confirmation on what she was hearing, another part of her really didn't want to find out that he hadn't had any friends while growing up. Suspecting it was bad enough, but that sort of thing was just going to be too depressing to hear get confirmed in his matter-of-fact way of doing things.

So she took a different route, and stepped closer to hug him again.

"Well, now you've got two friends," she told him as she held tight to him.

Doily nodded in agreement with the statement, before setting the tray on her back down on the floor, and stepping over to join in, with Thunder quickly finding himself the recipient of a group hug.

"This is the part where you're supposed to hug us back, you goof," she heard Doily whisper none too quietly.

It was only then that the statuesque stallion between them showed any signs of life, and shifted his stance in a manner that allowed him to reciprocate and return the hug, wrapping a foreleg around each of them.

For a while the three of them just sat there in companionable silence, none of them really feeling all that inclined to break the relative peace that the moment had to offer them. Even Thunder seemed more physically relaxed than he had been previously.

"You know, our ice cream is gonna turn into a melted mess if we stay like this for too long," Doily idly commented.

"Ice cream?" Slam asked.

"Yeah. More specifically, a whole quart of cookie dough ice cream this time around," Doily replied with a grin that couldn't be seen due to her sitting on the other side of Thunder's beefy frame.

"Friends and ice cream all in one night. You lucky bastard," Slam smirked up at him playfully, "I gotta say, Thunder, this is a side of you I haven't seen before. And I kinda like it."

"You should've been here last night when he got his first introduction to ice cream. Now that was a sight to behold," Doily laughed while patting Thunder's back with her wing closest to him.

All the while, Thunder continued to just sit there between them, not saying a word as if he were oblivious to what they were saying, even as he relinquished his hold on them.

Once his forelegs were back on the ground, Doily walked around him to better meet her face-to-face.

"Do you wanna stay for ice cream, Lieutenant?"

Slam contemplated the question. And in truth she really had no objection to the idea of just sitting down, kicking back, and relaxing with these two to the tune of some frozen sugary goodness. She had been asked, and Thunder didn't look like he had any objections to the idea. Based on what she'd seen so far, he might even be appreciative of having some additional company. And his room did have an amazing view of the Canterlot skyline. The three of them could just stretch out on the couch and watch the world go by until late into the evening.

But at the same time...

"I'm good," she replied, "I just came by to help a friend with his jitters about being away from home. You two go on and have fun. I appreciate the offer, though."

"Oh? Well, okay then," Doily replied, almost sounding disappointed by the development as she spoke. "Just one thing before you actually go."

Slam hadn't expected Doily to just suddenly move in and hug her like she had. But she wasn't exactly going to object to it either.

"Thanks for saving the big lug."

Something in that short exchange had made her suddenly feel uncomfortable. Way more uncomfortable than it really should've.

Thunder and his matter-of-factly way of saying how he would've been dead without her had been one thing. She'd been working with him long enough to -more or less- become accustomed to his deadpan manner of delivery. But Doily was another matter, with how she'd seemingly taken the whole thing in stride and was as cool as a cucumber at hearing how close he'd come to dying.

"Y-yeah, no problem," she replied. "A-anyway I should get going, I need to get some stuff taken care of. So... bye then."

She quickly excused herself before slipping out of the room, leaving the two of them alone and to their own devices as the door shut behind her.

"Huh," was all Doily could get out as she tried to process everything. "That was kinda odd. Is she okay?"

"I really don't know," Thunder admitted, sounding like he wanted to sigh but was doing his best to resist the urge to do so. "I think finding me in the showers like she did, might've put more stress on her than was initially believed."

"Could be," Doily acknowledged and nodded while he was in the process of making his way over to the room's desk to quickly scribble something on a piece of paper. "So. Big day tomorrow. How're you feeling?"

"I've been trying not to think about that particular question," he admitted as he turned back around to face her again. "Venturing into that sort of territory is... less than desirable."

Now it was Doily's turn to want to sigh, while trying to resist that urge. She'd hoped that last night had helped loosen him up, even if just a little bit, but right now he seemed just as guarded as he ever was.

"You wouldn't like reporting the palace was full of changeling infiltrators either, but you'd still do that anyway," she commented.

She wasn't a therapist. She was a washed out psychology student working as a maid at Canterlot Palace. She knew that. But at the same time, in this particular case, she had to remind herself of that fact.

At the moment he looked like he wanted to say something in response, but then thought better of it and opted to simply close his mouth again.

"Thunder, listen. Just in case you didn't know it already, there's nothing wrong with friends sharing things about themselves. But if you really don't feel like talking about what's going on, I'm not gonna try and force anything out of you. I just came by to spend the evening with a friend, and introduce him to a new flavor of ice cream that he never got to experience while growing up," she explained.

If he didn't want to tell her about what was going on, then that was all there was to it. It was ultimately his prerogative, and as his friend she'd simply respect that.

"Now. We've got a quart of ice cream to split between us before all is said and done. Are you in?"

He contemplated the question, before nodding in response.

"Good. Grab a spoon off the tray and let's get to scooping, because it's not gonna eat itself."