Consciousness stirred. That fundamental spark of awareness. With it came a sensation of waking up from a long nap. I felt old and dried out, immediately aware of how stiff my muscles were. But there was a new feeling, wasn't there? Or more accurately, there was a lack of something. That urgent sensation. It took me a moment to realize it, but it was gone.

Smiling, regardless that my body felt like one big, bandaged bruise, I opened my eyes. I felt the pupils in each eye contract sharply at the light and winced. Several seconds of adjustment later and the sunlight from a brand new morning greeted me through the window. I appeared to be alone in a very familiar looking clinic room.

Equestria. I was still alive? For once in my rather short life so far, I just took the moment to relax and let in the light.

It took a good five minutes or so of daydreaming before I got down to the business of testing muscles. Oddly enough, despite the massive levels of bandages, I seemed to be reasonably intact. My muscles were stiff and cold but oddly lacked the soreness I was anticipating. Even my forelegs could be moved properly again.

A little perturbed, I wondered why I was so heavily bandaged. Did I have bad burns? Was my skin missing? I decided confidently against taking said wrappings off. Unlike unwrapping a gift that's contents were to be celebrated, I preferred my squishy insides to stay well, inside. Instead, priority quickly dictated that I needed to pee and I rolled to get out of bed.

Oh for the love of all that is right and just in the world! That redefined bad idea! Rolling over caused the series of IVs to be pulled from my neck and forelegs, and not in the gentle and happy manner in which a cute nurse would remove them. Wincing, I couldn't halt damnable gravity in time and tried to make my dead drop off the side of the bed as graceful as possible.

And it's a stone-filled stomach flop with half rotation! The crowd goes wild! I decided I must still be significantly underweight as the noise of me planting my face into the wooden floor was still rather quiet; not unlike dropping a wet sack of potatoes onto cement. I winced and shook my head. Well, I was off to a great yet predictable start and it had only been my first meter or so of spatial movement.

Groaning lightly, I shakily stood up off the ground and tested my leg muscles. They held, thankfully. It would be kind of embarrassing to die two feet from a hospital bed via starvation. Things were looking up! I took a tentative first step and felt a light tugging in strange areas. Huh. Muscle atrophy, maybe? I wasn't a medical expert so I had no idea what could cause tugging like that.

Step two had me writhing on the ground in agony. Again. Son of a bitch! Next time, check for catheter in sensitive bodily orifices prior to accidentally stepping on the connected tube while walking! Burning sensations in awkward places came forth and I groaned again. Okay, so if I had one of those things in me, I must have been here quite a while then.

After checking myself for bleeding, I discovered that the catheter was one of the 'soft' variants. Okay, so it mainly hurt because I twisted it sideways before yanking it out. That made a little more sense and I felt considerably better. No blood was usually a good thing in my experience.

I resumed my walking, now at a hobbling pace with the newly acquired stinging sensation between my back legs. The bandages were stiff as well so I took things slow and careful as I headed towards the door. That's when I heard voices.

"But how am I supposed to plan a party if I don't know where it is?" whined a very distinct Pinkie voice. And the voices were familiar. That was even better.

"Jus' hold yer horses, Sugar Cube! Doesn't he have ta wake up first?" replied the unmistakable Applejack. My heart soared. I was actually alive! And in Equestria still!

"But, but, but, decorations!" Pinkie continued.

A light snickering came next. Wait, that snicker sounded distinctly unlike the other two voices. "Can't ya just load it into your cannon, Pinkie? That would be way cooler anyway," the voice suggested. Rainbow Dash! Wait, she was talking about me and it wasn't vindictive or cursing my very name? I had expected her to be angry after my forced teleportation of her. I sighed weakly. Even if she was, I still couldn't apologize. I don't regret making sure she got out safely. She had a dream here and somepony to share it with. I didn't have much of anything, only having been here a week prior. Oh wait, I still didn't really have anything. My few friends were probably mad at me for the 'almost dying' and 'lying to them' things. Hopefully in that order, anyway.

"Oh, yeah! I forgot about that. It's portable, too!" Pinkie exclaimed, lightening up instantly and throwing a sizable wrench into my moping.

"Ah've been meanin' ta ask ya how yeh go about doin' that, by tha way," Applejack mentioned suddenly, sounding curious.

Rainbow Dash snorted. "She's Pinkie. Seriously, 'nough said," she replied simply. Sadly, having spoken to the pink mare myself, I had to agree.

"Aww! Dashie knows me so well," Pinkie cooed, sounding almost flirty.

Applejack laughed and made a clicking noise. "Ah think it's one o' those things ah shouldn't ask 'bout, ah guess," she finally admitted.

"Didn't Twilight try that once?" Rainbow asked.

"Oh! Yuppers. Then the bees and Derpy happened. Oooh, and the hydra!" Pinkie shot back, sounding excited.

Well, that sounded exceedingly unpleasant. The universe is protective of its secrets, I suppose. Either that, or Pinkie Pie is some sort of reality warper with a sense of humor. "Yeah. Let's just hope she wants to come to the party. She still sounded kinda upset the last I talked to her," Rainbow commented. What? Twilight was upset with me? My heart sank a little. Oh yeah, I did kind of lie about coming back and she had to haul me to safety using her magic. She was probably more than 'kinda' upset.

"Still? Fer cryin' out loud. It's Princess Celestia. She's not gonna do anything rash," Applejack grumbled. P-Princess Celestia?! My eyes widened. I had upset her and she sold me out to the Princess? Oh no. Images of slave labor camps on the moon came to mind as I started to panic. Surely, I could still apologize?

"Oooh, but the Princess said she'd come to the party! Doesn't that mean Twi will probably come anyway?" Pinkie theorized. Everything started to add together. I felt my pupils contract as panic set in. I'd never seen anything to do with these princesses yet. If they were some form of shadow op government and I just offended a prime operative, what was my punishment going to be? Wait, didn't that make all of the Elements of Harmony agents of the princesses? My eyes widened as I realized Pinkie never said what kind of party it was. If party was a code word for execution, I was in serious trouble.

It was time for action, then. Looking around the room, I rapidly noticed that there were only two exits. The door obviously led into the hallway, where the agents of death were waiting. That left just the window. All right then, here we go! Hopping up on my bed, I slid the window open and peeked outside. Crap. It was a side window, which meant it opened onto the street. Far too late to withdraw my action now, I ignored the confused glances tossed my way and tried to kick off the bed to hurl myself out the window.

Alas, this was only partially successful. The bandages around my legs were way too stiff to get a proper thrust going. The bed went one direction and I went the other at greatly reduced speeds. This managed to get, well, most of me out the window. Oh, and cause those aforementioned sensitive areas to smash into the window frame, making an explosion of agony to dance up my spine as I smacked against the outside of the building with my chest. I heard a rolling sound and a crash from inside as well. Oh, the bed was on wheels. Go figure. I contemplated the errors of my escape attempt while hanging upside down by my back legs. That could have gone so much better.

"Moon Mender?" I heard a soft, yet innocent sounding voice from somewhere in front of me. Twisting my head, I managed to see a very familiar white unicorn filly running up to me, purple and pink mane bobbing rapidly.

"Oh uh, hey, Sweetie Belle. Nice day, huh?" I tried to distract, voice cracking towards the end due to disuse.

She stopped a meter or so in front of me and tilted her head. "Um, yeah. Do you need help or something?" she asked quietly, looking perplexed. I was probably an amusing sight, wrapped up like a mummy and hanging from a window.

"What tha hay's goin' on in 'ere?!" I heard a very distinct Applejack shout from behind me. Oh crap!

Kicking with my forelegs against the side of the building, I managed to vault myself off the window frame, flip once, and land gracefully on my butt outside. Sweetie Belle dove aside to avoid my descent and winced as I smashed into the ground.

"Ow! Sorry, Sweetie Belle! Gotta go," I apologized rapidly, before getting up and hobbling around the back of the building, wincing the entire way. Damn these bandages!

She looked surprised but stood up again and followed after me. "Wait, where are ya going?" she asked as I took off across the street. Aside from being a tad stiff and now sore in uncomfortable places, I found that I could move as if uninjured, oddly. Why was I wrapped up, then? Stupid bandages! They were more of a hinder than a help at this point.

"Wha?! Horse apples! Where'd he go?" I heard Rainbow Dash exclaim loudly back at the clinic.

I dove into an alley between two houses and into a large pile of leaves I found, making sure to bury myself as best I could. There was no time to get away. Much to my surprise, I felt someone messing with my tail a few seconds later. Oh no! It was outside of the pile still.

Even more surprising, they tucked it inside and covered it up. I saw a single leaf moved from my right eye, and Sweetie Belle smiled down at my panting form. "You must be hiding from AJ and Rainbow, right? I'll help!" she declared, looking like she was enjoying herself. This wasn't hide-n-seek! My life was on the line, here.

"Shhh. I need to get away from them. I need time to think," I whispered. She smiled and nodded, resuming covering me up with leaves. A short ten seconds later, I felt something tiny and warm push up against my chest as she slid in and covered herself as well, going dead silent.

Both of us held our breath as hoofsteps could be heard suddenly outside, walking across the harder dirt. Oh crap! How close were they? The hoofsteps stopped out on the street, three meters away or so. I felt Sweetie Belle go rigid and I swallowed, trying to control my breathing.

"Wha? Tha hoof prints stop on tha edge o' the grass 'ere. He musta gone off between tha houses, an' towards tha woods?" I heard Applejack reason, thankfully incorrectly.

"How'd he get so fast? Dang. I'll take to the air and see where he is," Rainbow returned, before I felt a light breeze. Thank goodness she wasn't closer or she might have blown away my hiding spot!

A merry giggling followed, with, "Maybe he's playing a game? Like tag or hide-n-seek? That would be really fun after being cooped up in that room for so long!"

"Who knows with that crazy stallion. Why'd he go an' run away, anyway? Ain't it custom ta say yer playin' one o' those games before jus' bookin' it outta there?" Applejack asked, sounding skeptical.

Pinkie snickered in amusement. "It's fun either way. Maybe he just wants some alone time?" Pinkie offered in a surprisingly lucid observation. The distinct sensation of her staring right at me suddenly came into being. Uh oh.

"But why run away? He could'a jus' said somethin', right?" Applejack questioned.

"I dunno. Let's go peek in the forest! We can't turn him down if it's hide-n-seek!" Pinkie declared as if it were a universal law.

There was a light, accented groan followed by, "Ya really are kinda random sometimes, ya know that, right?"

My blood turned to ice and it felt like my heart stopped as Applejack walked towards our hiding spot slowly, hoofsteps getting closer and closer albeit muffled by the grass. Time seemed to drag forever at that singular moment. It felt like an eternity but she finally passed us by. I watched the tip of her tail stir some leaves at the edge of our pile as she went.

Thankfully, my eyes were amber instead of blue like the rest of my color scheme! Blending in might be a little harder otherwise. I turned my visible eye forwards again. Then I froze as I saw Pinkie Pie looking directly at me. She wore a fascinated smile and surprised me by winking rather than sounding the alarm. Instead, she returned to her prior closed-eyed smirk and pounced past, following Applejack.

"Do you think we can find him before Rainbow?" she asked in a gleeful manner as she disappeared from vision. What happened? Whose side was she on?

"Oh, yer on! Ah'll hound him down in no time," Applejack agreed, suddenly sounding excessively competitive. Whoa! Was she always like that, or was it Rainbow bringing it out in her?

"But you're a pony, Silly! You'd need to bark more if you were a hound," was the last thing I heard before the voices disappeared at a surprisingly fast pace. Sweetie Belle and I didn't dare move for a good ten minutes, however.

---

The forest along the outskirts was peaceful, anyway. It was a chilly, Fall day and the leaves were beginning to drift off the trees. I vaguely recalled them changing colors before the incident, and I tried to gauge how long I'd been asleep. Now the sun slowly drifted towards the horizon, nightfall coming. I estimated it had been about four or so in the afternoon when I woke up. On further estimate, that made it now close to six o'clock.

"So you're worried about Twilight being mad at you?" Sweetie Belle asked, still tucked against my chest and emitting a diabetes-inducing level of cuteness. Both of us were packed into a small pocket we found under a few roots of a large tree. You'd have to be practically on top of us to see us from the air and we were only visible from a meter long segment on one side at ground level. However, it was rather nippy outside. I was kind of glad the little filly had followed me, as she was considerably warmer than I was. Maybe I had lost a lot of blood? Oh, and the company was nice, too. I made a mental note to not refer to friends as space heaters in the future.

I whispered back, "Yeah. I overheard them talking about how upset she is."

Sweetie giggled. "I don't think they meant mad. She visited you, like, almost every day. You probably just worried her. Fluttershy, too," she explained.

"I'm just worried after they mentioned Celestia," I muttered quietly.

"Ooh! Princess Celestia? Does she want to see you or something? She was here the day of your incident, but didn't get a chance to talk to you then. Uh, well, obviously," she enlightened, almost managing to confuse herself towards the end.

My mind skipped a few gears. "Wait, she was here?" I asked, feeling like the blood drained from my face.

Sweetie Belle giggled whimsically. "Yeah, she helped Twilight pull you back. Twilight is a little, well, sad because of that, I think," she explained, frowning a little in concern.

"Er, why? She didn't want me back?" I asked, swallowing a tad painfully.

It earned me a gentle shove to the chest. "No! She was just sad that she might not have been able to with just herself, I think. She never said directly. I just saw it in her eyes, really," Sweetie corrected, looking a little distracted in memories.

It dawned on me that there were indeed multiple definitions of 'upset'. I frowned and considered it. Well, ultimately, I probably just made an idiot of myself again. The best thing to do would be to simply slink over to the library and apologize directly to Twilight. If she says I'm clear with Princess Celestia, then I go and apologize to Fluttershy, who was the next most bothered by my attempted martyrdom. And then everypony else. That was a lot of apologies!

"I think you were really nice, though. Sis says you're a dying breed, or something like that, but I think you're honest and kind. I don't really understand but you saved Equestria even if it meant almost dying, didn't you?" Sweetie Belle interrupted, knocking me out of my planning and earning a choked back gag of surprise.

"Oh, no, no! I'm no hero, Sweetie Belle. We, well, we don't know how much danger Equestria was ever in, but I didn't want to take the chance. I'm," I muttered, trailing off and realizing the base facts.

Sweetie tilted her head and looked back up at me from her curled up position. I sighed and shook my head. "I'm just me. I'm not important enough. I mean, risking all of Equestria just for me? If I did that, even if the threat came to nothing, I doubt I could ever live with how selfish that would be," I continued, wondering if anypony was that important.

My friend and tree hiding companion smiled and nodded gently. "You're still important to your friends. But I think I see why Sis likes you. Although it makes her say more and more mean words about Prince Blueblood," she muttered, suddenly looking a tad annoyed.

I frowned, still attempting to process my own feelings alongside the dribble of new information the little filly constantly surprised me with. "Prince Blueblood?" I asked hesitantly. I hadn't realized there were any male rulers.

"He's a jerk. He made Rarity really upset at the Gala a while back after she was all set to, oh, what did she call it? Court him? I have no idea what that means, but oh was she mad!" Sweetie explained, shuddering.

"Are there two princes, as well? Sorry, I don't know much about your lifestyle here and didn't read anything about him in the book Twilight gave me," I asked, trying not to sound stupid.

She giggled however and nodded. "That was the first I'd heard of him, too, don't worry. He doesn't have wings like the princesses, so I doubt he's as powerful," she muttered, smiling up at me innocently.

"The princesses are pegasi?" I questioned, tilting my head. So much for equal representation.

"They have horns too. They're really pretty, with their flowing manes and beautiful jewels. I really, really like their manes," she cooed, swaying happily.

Both horns and wings? I hadn't heard of such a being, but it certainly sounded convenient. "So they can fly and cast spells as well? Wow," I muttered, impressed.

Sweetie Belle nodded happily. "Yeah. They're so amazing! I mean, Princess Celestia raises the sun each day! Her magic is so strong," she agreed, sounding a tad jealous as she looked up at her tiny horn.

"Oh don't worry, Sweetie Belle. I'm sure one day you'll be able to um, wait..." I muttered, trailing off as my brain slowly tried to shift from first gear to cheese. "T-The sun?!" I almost screamed, blood feeling like ice cubes.

Sweetie Belle looked surprised but nodded rapidly. "Yeah, she raises the sun each day. Princess Luna raises the moon each night. Why?" she asked, as if it were natural.

"B-But it's a massive... How?! Does she rotate the planet or? Even that, it-it's insane!" I muttered, my fragile mind starting to twist in upon itself. I'd heard of powerful magic back on my own world but this was just madness!

Sweetie Belle giggled and shook her head. "She raises the sun as her sacred duty. She's Equestria's ruler, alongside her sister. What's so strange?" she asked innocently.

My head gave a throb of protest and I suddenly felt exceedingly sore all over. Of course, I had just gotten a lot of exercise. "I-I guess. Um, do you think you could h-help me get to Twilight's library?" I asked her weakly, deciding it was best for my sanity to just not think about it.

She smiled and nodded. "Sure. I didn't really wanna do the dumb errand I was on anyway and Rarity will understand if it's to help you out," she reasoned, a light scheming expression dancing across her face.

I smirked as I saw her grin. "Naughty little filly. Does Rarity know you're this devious?" I asked her in amusement.

"Devi-wha?" she questioned, tilting her head towards me.

"Oh, sorry. It means sly, or tricky," I relayed. Sometimes I forgot she was a young filly. She was very patient and mature for her age, it seemed. She was probably more of a mediator for Scootaloo and Applebloom.

She perked and giggled, shaking her head. "Nah. She thinks I'm a paperweight most of the time. But she's a nice big sister, don't get me wrong. Just, well, frustrating," she muttered, sitting up and looking a tad exasperated.

I nodded and smiled, trying to sit up, too. I immediately smashed my skull into the underside of our tree nook, and winced. Sweetie snickered in amusement before shaking her head at me. She was probably used to me bashing my skull into things by now.

"Do you have any siblings?" she asked curiously after a few moments.

Frowning as I struggled to squeeze out from under the tree, I rapidly realized I had no idea. "Um, I can't remember. It, well," I muttered before lowering my eyes. Her curious smile shifted to a concerned frown, but I shook my head. "There's a lot I don't remember still, is all. I might have, but I dunno."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot about what happened," she apologized, looking down slightly. Did she really know to begin with? Part of me was glad she was so young. The concept of genocide was probably blunted on a lack of understanding. This world didn't need such concepts and I wasn't about to introduce them.

I placed a bandaged hoof on her cheek and gave her a gentle brush, lifting her head up again. She gave me a questioning look until I smiled and shook my head. "I'm glad I can stay in Equestria and not have to leave anywhere. You ponies are wonderful, without a doubt. Anything beyond that... It's all right," I assured her softly.

She smiled, eyes softening before nodding and reminding, "We'd best get to the library. I'll keep watch ahead of you until we get there."

Wise. Rainbow was probably still in the sky and who knew about Applejack. I didn't know where Pinkie stood still, so that was kind of like rolling a die. Of course, Sweetie Belle was probably right. This was all a misunderstanding, more than likely. I guess I'd find out once getting back to Twilight.

Slowly, as I was quite tired and sore at this point, I headed after the little unicorn filly as she rolled across the ground 'stealthily'. She tumbled from tree to tree ahead of me, peeking out around the sides cautiously. I didn't have the heart to interrupt her playtime with the fact that her jolting motions were probably far easier to spot from the air. Thankfully my bandages were now far from white after all the dirt and grass got involved and were fairly good camouflage.

Regardless, town was actually only a quarter of a mile away and we made it back within ten minutes or so, at my current stunted pace. Sweetie Belle slunk along between a natural alley leading up to a side street. We'd have to slip between the two houses and across the street in order to reach the library. She 'scouted' ahead, striking me as a little obvious with her ninja poses, but she was way too cute to tell off.

I slipped behind a dilapidated, retired rain barrel while she slipped closer to the street to peek around. That was a fairly obvious choice as she was far less suspicious looking than a walking lump of dirty bandages. Still, I felt a little bad that she was putting her own neck out for me.

Sadly, she didn't quite make it to the street before freezing. My eyes widened and I dove into the overturned barrel instead, peeking through a crack in the bottom of it. It was probably the crack that earned its retirement.

Sweetie Belle slowly started to back up into the alley but it was too late. The orange earth mare with the blonde mane had already spotted her and trotted over. Crap!

"Oh, hay there, Sweetie Belle! Yer lookin' mighty dirty, ha ha! Can ah talk ta ya fer a minute or two?" Applejack asked, sounding friendly enough. I started running escape plans through my head just in case.

Sweetie laughed nervously alongside her, and nodded. "Well yeah uh, I mean no, wait, I don't mind of course!" she hastily returned. I made a mental note that the filly was terrible under pressure, for future reference.

"Hmm. Are ya all right? Come ta think of it, yer Sis mentioned that ya were missin' a few minutes ago. Hour's late fer ah shoppin' trip, she reckon'. Where have ya been?" Applejack asked, getting a concerned look on her face. Oh no. Sweetie Belle was getting in trouble because of me!

"Oh, well... I saw a frog that was lost. So I had to g-get it back to its stream, of course!" she rapidly lied. Ug. It had to be a frog?

Applejack momentarily looked confused, but it didn't last long. Her eyes narrowed as she lowered her face to the little filly. "Yer actin' awfully suspicious, Sweetie Belle. Ya haven't happen'd ta see Moon Mender around, have ya?" she questioned, eyes scrutinizing the unicorn filly's every movement.

I couldn't let Sweetie Belle get in trouble over me. My mind rapidly tried to think of a way out when I felt the light pulse in my left, front hoof. What was that? Extending my awareness to it, I lifted the bandaged hoof up to my face inside the barrel. It was only lightly wrapped, with tufts of light blue coat coming out from around the edges of the bandage. Did that mean it was in better shape? I felt out what that pulse was and was surprised at the ease of scanning my system. The magic flowed through me gentler now, as if water going through carved grooves, rather than trying to splash around rocky crags. To my curiosity, it drew easily into my left hoof; far easier than anyplace else in my body. A memory stirred in me. This hoof?

Sweetie Belle backed up, bumping against the front of the barrel. "I, well, I haven't seen him. W-Why?" she asked weakly, averting her eyes.

"Ya don't seem surprised he's up an' about. Yer not fibbin', are ya Sweetie?" Applejack asked, advancing again.

No! I had to do something. This hoof! A flash of pained memory slipped through my skull as images of it splitting into the shape of the creation symbol and igniting came forth. Ignoring them, my mind pushed the magic forwards as if muscle memory. Alteration. It was basic magic that focused on changing things. As an engineer I'd been really good at it. Still, I didn't have much to work with. A master blacksmith can only do so much with crude iron. The hoof began to glow as the symbol carved into it lit up with my magic. The bandages unwound themselves and drifted away from each side in midair, causing me to smile. They had been touching the symbol, so I could use magic on them! I could use magic on things that touched the symbol.

"Um, well he, uh," Sweetie continued to stutter.

"Ya have seen him then! Where is he? Ya know what bad, lyin' fillies get," Applejack warned.

I pushed the symbol into the old wood of the barrel. The magic was there. Not the same as a unicorn's and nowhere near as strong as Twilight's in any sense, but it was uniquely mine. My mind touched upon the symbol on my hoof and flooded out into the wood and iron of the barrel alongside lines of magic. Gravity, inertia, thrust, motion... All of these things needed to be modified.

"Ah! B-But Applejack, I just wanted to," Sweetie Belle muttered weakly.

Applejack just started to step forwards and lean closer when the barrel I was in exploded into movement. I popped out of the top of it as it split in half, the tightly woven boards that made up the sides coming undone and expanding rapidly into a platform and six crude legs. The orange mare looked more than a little startled as I changed the barrel. Taking advantage of her surprise, I sprung forwards using the walking platform and scooped Sweetie Belle up off the ground just as she was starting to turn to look. She yelped, but I nudged her behind me as the top of the barrel folded partially back around us, forming a protective shell.

"No! I can't let you punish Sweetie Belle. She was only trying to help me," I warned, scowling at the gawking Applejack.

Not giving her time to recover, I folded the top back around us and ordered the platform down the street at full speed. Six 'legs' made of iron and wood carried us like a giant beetle towards the library. "Whoa! Cool!" Sweetie muttered as she looked closer at my glowing hoof pressed against the boards. I kept my breathing under control and slowly focused on dodging surprised ponies as I headed for the library.

"Sorry! Excuse me! Coming through!" I called out as I swerved and trotted around the clusters in the street. They seemed largely surprised at my makeshift transportation, but were oddly not that panicked. Of course, I was going out of my way to miss them and apologize so they probably assumed there was little danger. Or they were so jaded by the normal happenings in town that they really didn't care about a reasonably non-violent one.

"Mender! Hold up ah bit, would ya! Ah just wanna talk ta ya!" Applejack shouted, as I heard a galloping noise from behind me.

Damn she was fast! Our platform angled itself down as it sped up, leaping up a hill and making a break along the final stretch for the library. "Will ya wait up?!" I heard her shout, more irritated now. An impossibly powerful impact hit the right back leg a second later, splintering the wood as if it were twigs and causing us to spin violently. Sweetie yelped but I caught and steadied her with my right hoof, forcing more energy through my left. We leapt after one full rotation, using the energy of her kick to propel us at the door. Two tiny shields formed in the platform's outstretched right 'leg' and I spun them as they contacted the door handle.

The door popped open in the same instant we crashed into it. I kept a firm grip on the door as we slid across the now familiar wooden flooring. Pivoting, we rotated as the door reached maximum angle and I used our backwards rotation to slam the door shut. Focusing, I rapidly started engaging every lock I could find on the door.

"Alright, alright! You don't need to slam the door. I'm coming!" I heard a rather annoyed sounding Twilight call out from upstairs. Oops. I rotated the platform around while peeking through the crack in the front, just in time to see Twilight come down the stairs. She gave us a look of shocked horror shortly before her horn started glowing. Uh oh…