The Crystal Empire: A Little Talk

“Hey, sir. You can’t be here.” Ginger Remedy called out to the white stallion looming over Brave Storm’s body. His large build was hard to read, but it looked threatening at first. But when Ginger Remedy was close enough to see his face, it was clear harm was the furthest thing from his mind.

“Let me help her,” the stallion demanded.

“She’s infected. We can’t let civilians come into contact with her.” Ginger Remedy stood his ground, flaring his wings instinctively in some intimidation display. But the stallion wasn’t a common creature and wouldn’t find his pathetically small wings threatening. And he wasn’t going to mistake the markings on his wings for the eyes of a larger predator.

“Nopony else came!” the stallion snipped, his red eyes glaring down at the bat pony. “Let me help.”

Ginger Remedy sucked his teeth. He didn’t want to concede to the angry stallion’s demands, but he had a point. Trying to talk him down first and getting him to agree on the same task wasn’t the priority here. Besides, he could use the stallion’s muscle to pick up where he lacked.

“You’re right.” Ginger Remedy agreed, bringing his voice to a less authoritative tone to calm the stallion. “Help me load her onto this stretcher.”

The stallion nodded and set to work, gently prodding at Brave Storm with his nose. She was slow, but it looked to be purposeful as her legs were steady. With the stallion’s help, she crawled her way onto the stretcher and shifted so that the crystal growths weren’t digging into her chest. Brave Storm offered the stallion a loving smile and the stallion rubbed his nose against her forehead.

“Do we drag this?” the stallion asked, tilting his head. The stretcher was lowered all the way to the ground, but the wheels were visible. Ginger Remedy pressed against a lever and slowly the stretcher unfolded and raised, bringing Brave Storm with it.

“We’re going to do some lab work. Test your blood.” Ginger Remedy explained the basics to Brave Storm as he pushed the stretcher to a building loaded with the necessary equipment. “See if there’s any underlying reason why you fainted.”

“Okay,” she acknowledged, lazily looking at the sky as she passed by.

“Are you scared of needles or having your blood drawn?”

“No.”

“Okay, mister… uh… you-” Ginger Remedy gestured to the stallion.

“Gold Standard.”

“Mr. Standard-” the stallion winced “-help her to the bed, please. Don’t let her go too fast.”

Brave Storm, with little effort required on other ponies’ ends, rolled across her cot and into the bed. She had enough experience being brought to a bed from her time with the Knights of Equestria to know the general procedure. She sat quietly, holding out her preferred foreleg to get test samples drawn from as Ginger Remedy took her blood pressure. 

Gold Standard eyed the operation with attentive eyes. Brave Storm smiled at him as the brain fog began to lift. Brave Storm watched as Ginger Remedy wrapped a tourniquet around her leg, shaved a patch of hair, rubbed said patch with alcohol, and drew blood. She hated the smell of the alcohol it made her feel dizzy.  Ginger Remedy explained a few things to her that went over her head and left. 

“Hi,” Brave Storm began.

“Hey,” Gold Standard responded.

“Gold? I want to tell you something. About what was bothering me lately.” Brave Storm tapped her hooves together.

“You don’t have to tell me now. We can wait until we’re home. Like I promised.” Gold Standard reached his hoof over. She should have stopped him from touching her. But she wanted it, so she allowed him to rest his hoof on hers.

“I don’t know if I’ll get to talk about it later.”

“Please don’t talk like that.” Gold Standard’s voice quivered as he looked pleadingly into her eyes. “I’ll get you out of here. You don’t deserve this.”

“Nopony deserves this.” Brave Storm interjected. Gold Standard dropped his gaze, his head falling between his hooves. But not before Brave Storm could see the welling tears. She ran a hoof over his mane, stopping before the point it transitioned into his ridge. The mare had noticed he would twitch if his ridge was touched specifically and always tried to avoid doing so.

“I think I want to take our relationship further. Maybe not… marriage- not yet. But you know, talking about it. Where we see ourselves going.” Brave Storm told him when the silence had lasted too long. “I was nervous because I had issues going too fast or being too clingy in the past. And I wasn’t sure how to bring it up because there are a lot of… heavy questions to ask. I didn’t know how you’d react and I really like- er, love you.”

“I love you, too, Brave Storm.” Gold Standard pulled his head back up. “I promise we’ll talk about this. At home. With the blanket. And a dinner I accidentally burnt a little.”

“I’d like that.” Brave Storm presses her head against his.

 

“Ginger Remedy.” Gold Standard addresses the young bat pony who had helped Brave Storm. He was eating dinner by himself over a book. His hood was down, revealing the row of crystals that had landed him in the quarantine zone.

“Gold Standard,” he answered back and realizing he should leave snark at the door, added. “How can I help you?”

“How can I get her out of here?”

“Unfortunately, we are on lockdown. Travel in and out of The Empire has been restricted.” Ginger Remedy cooly explained. Being in caretaker mode all day had exhausted him. “While you and other’s not showing signs of infection might be able to return to Equestria, the confirmed infected certainly won’t be.”

“I’ll do whatever it is that needs to be done. Just tell me.” Gold Standard pawed at the ground with a hoof. Ginger Remedy had to suppress an eye roll. Rich types.

“The quickest way for all of us to be allowed to leave is if we can get a cure for the crystal infection. Put some funding towards that and we can research it better, understand it, and go from there.” 

“I’ll get it done.” Gold Standard snorted.

“Also, if you can get more food shipped our way, that would help a load, too.” Ginger Remedy added as Gold Standard slipped away.