“Thanks for coming over, Aquafrost,” a moderate crimson mare said, a faint smile on her muzzle as she yawned. “I still can’t believe I didn’t see that burst of magic heading my way. Thought for sure my wings would help me avoid it in time.”

“Come on now, Crimson Sprite. Sure, you’re one of the fastest pegasi here at the facility, but even you have your limitations.” Aqua sat down next to the bed her friend lay in. “I mean, that doesn’t make you slow. That spell was just fired at the wrong time and wrong place.” She turned to face Patchy, who stood over by the infusion pump as he kept watch over the device. “Speaking of injuries, how is she looking, Patchy?”

“All vitals haven’t changed, so she’s in good health.” He smiled. “She’s lucky it was only her shoulder the magic beam nicked. Anywhere further below and we might have called for a surgical procedure to fix the wound.”

Aqua sighed, wiping her brow as she chuckled a little. “Well, that’s good to know.”

“So how long do I have to stay in this room? I’d rather be out of this place and back with my team as quick as possible,” Crimson asked.

Patchy looked at her for a moment, rubbing the back of his head. “I’m sorry to say, but you’ll be in here for another few hours or more. Protocol dictates that--”

“Seriously?” The pegasus mare rubbed her head and sighed. “Alright… I’ll stay here as long as it's needed. But if you tell me to wait another couple of hours, nurse, then I’m getting out of here.”

“Duly noted.” Patchy nodded and returned his attention to the pump.

Aquafrost smiled as she turned her gaze to the pegasus. “Well, I need to get going. I promised another friend I’d visit them. Hope you get better, Crimson.”

“Thanks, Aqua. Glad to always spend time with my favorite captain.”

She couldn’t help but giggle as she walked out of the room. Closing her eyes, she activated her magic and disappeared in a flash of pale scarlet light. She reappeared only seconds later next to Crystal Rune’s door. She knocked first and then called through the door, “Hey, Crystal? You in there? It’s me, Aquafrost.”

Hearing no response, she raised an eyebrow and tilted her head. A faint noise caught her attention. “Crystal… is everything okay in there?” Something wasn’t right. She should have responded already. Twisting the knob on the door, she began to slowly open it. “Crystal…”

An odor struck her first; Aqua recoiled at the terrible smell. A red liquid slowly trickled towards her. Her heart beat faster as she looked up, and she screamed at the sight of the unicorn mare. “Crystal!” She stood back, covering her mouth with her hooves at the pool of blood that surrounded her.

She watched as Crystal slowly began opening her eyes, looking up with tear-filled eyes. “A-Aqua… please, h-help me…”

Aqua turned the switch by the door to the right, shutting off the magic inhibitors, and quickly ran into the room. She gagged at the blood beneath her hooves and kneeled at the injured mare’s side. Gently as she could, she wrapped her hooves around Crystal’s side, who yelped at the excruciating sensation that throbbed at her side. “Crystal… where does it--” She gasped at the large gash in her side. ‘What… what happened? What kind of sick pony would do this?’

“Okay… it’s okay,” Aqua murmured as she activated her magic, trying her best to calm Crystal Rune down as she ran a bloody hoof through the unicorn’s mane. She focused the energy on where the wound was to bring a healing spell from the back of her mind. Slowly, the flesh repaired; Crystal flinched and squirmed at the uncomfortable sensation.

It was unreal to think that somepony would attack a patient in the medical wing. What type of pony would do such a thing? She could only ascertain that somepony in this facility was responsible; the only other ponies that could get in here were a doctor and Patchy but those two were never violent. But if the doctor had brought a guard in and sought to “convince” her to talk, then why would the executives and director allow such a thing to happen? She closed her eyes and decided to save the question for later.

But there was something else she needed to ask. “Crystal… who did this to you? What is it that they want so badly?”

Crystal closed her eyes. “I… I told you how I ended up on the ship. They wanted to know what I was doing… if I took anything. I thought they wanted to know… who I was. I swore to them that I stole nothing… I really didn’t.”

“Your past?” It was a question that had escaped her mind last time, one that Crystal brought back up. “I… I know this isn’t the best of times. But… can you tell me what you did before ending up on the freighter, Nostromo?”

The unicorn mare opened her eyes slightly, breathing a ragged gasp of air. “I was a mercenary, in charge of m-my own team. There were three others… I lost all of them on my last mission. It was when I and another mare snuck into one of Neighland’s facility. They all died because of some… c-creature.” She coughed up a storm, blood trickling down the side of her mouth. “And b-before that… I went to… Celestia’s Gifted School for Unicorns.”

“You… studied there? I… I’d say you're lucky.”

“L-lucky? I lost the meaning of f-friendship there, thanks to another pony. I left after graduating and n-never came back.” Crystal coughed again, staring up into Aqua’s eyes. “You’re… the only other pony I t-talked to after realizing how important it was again.”

“That’s… I-I’m glad you remembered how important it is.” Aqua stopped moving her hoof through Crystal’s mane and glanced away.

“W-what about you? How did you come to work at a… place like this?” Aqua looked away, a little surprised by the question.

“I… A stallion--one of my friends, Blazing Ash--came to recruit me. They had heard about how much I knew about the pony body, so I became one of the scientists here at the facility.” She frowned and looked away. “As for how I became so knowledgeable on the anatomy of the pony’s body… I was diagnosed with anemia at eight years old, which led to my heart failing on me. I finally had a donor for my heart transplant, and ever since that day, I began learning more about why my heart quit.”

“So… w-why did you become a guard? You c-certainly don’t look the part.” Crystal groaned after speaking, closing her eyes.

Aqua brought her hoof lower, cupping Crystal’s left cheek as she regained that sad smile. “Blazing Ash helped me… I learned how to use this spear here thanks to him.” She nodded to the weapon located on her right side. “It took me a while but I figured out how to finally wield it.” Looking to the other mare’s barrel, she dispelled her magic after seeing that the wound had finally closed. “There… are you alright?”

Crystal reopened her eyes and smiled. “Th-thank you… Aquafrost. You’ve…saved my life.”

“I… I didn’t want you to die. I was afraid that you were going to.” Aqua rubbed her eyes with a free hoof as she sniffled. “I’m so glad that you didn’t... because I… I-I…”

“Why… is it because I’m your friend?” Crystal tilted her head slightly.

“N-not just that. But… I really care about you. After you shared with me about what you experienced on the ship… and that you lost the meaning of friendship. I thought… that you might need somepony to be there for you… somepony you could talk to.”

“Wait… are you saying that you love me?”

Aqua blushed, hesitantly meeting her gaze as she smiled. It was something that Crystal had never really given much time to ponder about the idea behind that type of relationship. It was another idea that she worried that it would hurt her all over again, like what had occurred with Sunset Shimmer. But there was something else about Aquafrost: she was kind, caring, and gentle but she didn’t appear to be that helpless.

Although the thought of her being with mares had crossed her mind a few times, she had her worries about how it would go. But maybe she could give Aqua a chance and see how this would go. Crystal reached a hoof up, cupping Aqua’s muzzle with a hoof. “Aqua… thank you.”

Aqua shuddered as she felt Crystal wrap her forelegs around her. She returned the favor, tears trickling down her muzzle. “Crystal… I’m so sorry… I wasn’t here for you when they were--”

“You’re here now… I th-thank you for that.” Crystal smiled and closed her eyes.

“Here…” Aqua wrapped her hooves around Crystal, bringing her close and hugging her. “You lost a lot of blood… just let me help you.” Aqua quietly picked up the mare and brought her over to the bed. Pulling away, she murmured, “I’m going to go deal with something. Then I’ll be back to get you out of here, okay?”

Crystal nodded. Aqua encased the blood in a pale scarlet aura and dissolved it into mist, then closed the door. Looking down to her hooves, she furrowed her brow in disgust of the blood.

“Hey Aqua!” She quickly looked to the door, switching the magic inhibitor on before turning to face Sparkdust. “Hey, I was just hoping to catch… you…”

Spark’s eyes widened as she hurried past Aqua. “Hey, hey, what’s going on, Aquafrost? Whose blood is that?”

“Crystal Rune’s. The doctor questioning her brought in a guard to force her to talk. I thought that Mr. Neighland wouldn’t allow such an act to happen.”

“Wait, why would they do that? It’s against protocol to hurt the prisoners in unnecessary or excruciating treatments.” Sparkdust quickly caught up with her friend walking by her side.

“Yeah, well, I’m going to get to the bottom of this. If Neighland ordered this to happen, then I don’t know if I can work here anymore.” Aqua stared straight ahead as she trotted onward.

Spark glanced away. “Hey, I may have signed up for learning how to be a proper guard, but if they’ve done something like this, then you can count me in.”

Aqua nodded. She was going to get answers and see if Bishop had allowed this. If he had, she was going to have a long talk with him.