William woke without warning.

The dream that had whisked through his eyes only moments ago was already long gone, not even the faintest trace of a memory in its place. He blinked sleeplessly, taking a deep breath through his nostrils and tugging his wrists to touch the cotton blankets to ensure that they were still there. For a wild instant he was fearful that he was alone, but Eris's soft, slow snore directly in front of him drew him out of reverie, and he resisted the sudden urge to kick her off of the mattress and tell her off for not sticking to her own bedding. Instead he quietly sighed as he glowered at her back, covering his eyes with his pink hooves and shutting out the misty early morning sunlight filtering in through the windows.

It had been a dream, assuredly. It felt like a memory, but it must have been a dream.

Remember me.

Just a dream.

Journal of William Zachariah Klaskovsky

New World, Day Four

I feel like there's something awful inside me.

Today is the day.

Not yet. It's not ready yet. I can't do it here, it has to be somewhere safer first. I can't risk getting caught and losing everything I've worked for. I just have to set the conditions and everything will play out exactly as planned. Just one more ingredient. This has to work.

If not, I am afraid that I may have to find another solution to remove this 'Iron Will' from the equation.

It's going to work. I've planned for everything.

Tomorrow, Mother is mine again.

William slipped silently out of bed, the cold floor creaking a little beneath his hooves.

It was far too early in the morning to be properly awake, but William was no closer to sleeping than he was an hour ago. Determined that it wouldn't hurt to be a little ahead of schedule, he promptly set about preparing. The saddlebag was packed with everything that he would need in under a minute, leaving him standing a little short of breath in the dark room.

William gave one look back to the slowly, peacefully rolling shoulders of the draconequus comfortably beneath the blankets before turning abruptly away, readjusting the straps on his bag before leaving.

Within moments, he was wordlessly back at the bedside to give her a silent peck on the forehead, and whisked away once more.

William forced himself to breathe normally, the tightness in his chest growing again.

Everything is going to be fine, he insisted to himself several times, and twice aloud.

“Y'alright?”

The sound of Lyra's voice as he walked past the kitchen nearly caused him to bolt out of his skin, and he skittered across the floor before regaining balance.

“Ah!” he cleared his throat, eyes wide as he stared at the bedheaded mare quietly sipping coffee at the table. “G-good morning! I-I didn't expect anyone else to... to be up, at this hour...”

“I'm usually up early,” Lyra nodded before patting the seat beside her warmly. “You realize your first day at school isn't until tomorrow, right?”

“What?” William blinked, his mind going horridly blank before it finally dawned on him that his saddlebag wasn't exactly inconspicuous. “Oh-oh! Yes, of course; school, silly me, I really should get a calender.”

“I'd tell you to take your coat off and relax,” Lyra joked as she magically poured another cup of coffee as he awkwardly forced himself to sit across from her. “But I think yours is attached.”

“You'd be surprised,” he muttered darkly, too quietly for her to hear.

They sat in calm silence for a little while, the only noise the chirruping of the birds outside the kitchen window. After a long, slow stretch of silence, Lyra finally spoke.

“I don't feel right,” she said quietly, pouring her third cup. She circled an invisible spot on the table with her hoof, staring down. “About not telling Bonnie about all that weird stuff yesterday.”

“I thought it would sound too crazy?” William had given his mug a couple of polite sips, but took firm hold of it in vain hopes that he could hide behind the porcelain to halt the conversation.

“No doubt,” Lyra sighed. “Plus, she's definitely going to wonder why you're permanently grounded.”

William almost said 'you could lie,' but instead it came out as “You don't have to ground me, then...”

Lyra gave him a single exasperated look that for some reason made him extremely uncomfortable.

“... Is that right.”

“I-I did apologize,” William cleared his throat uneasily, the sudden fear that Eris would round the corner before he could slip away suddenly striking him.

“Not exactly what you'd call compensation for attempted murder,” she quipped.

“You know who he is.” William frowned.

“I saw one colt beating up another one,” Lyra met his gaze evenly.

“What he is, then.”

They both looked into their mugs at that, neither capable of meeting the other's gaze.

“... Yeah,” Lyra said softly at last, looking forlornly out the window to her side as the morning sun graced the day. It left her head framed in an oddly warm silhouette of sunlight, but William was too far gone staring into the murky drink to bother noticing.

“Miss Lyra,” William coughed into one hoof awkwardly, forcing himself to look up at her only to realize that she had been watching him closely.

“Yes?”

“I... just wanted to thank you again,” he nodded once. “And, well... in-in case Moth-”

William's voice seemed to falter and fail as she looked across at him, calmly stirring another lump of sugar into her drink.

“... Yes?” Lyra dipped her head a little, waiting for him to continue. For some odd reason the things he wanted to say seemed to have gotten all jumbled up with what he didn't, and the tightness in his chest had moved to his throat.

“Nevermind!” he hopped up with a too wide smile, readjusting his saddlebag before making for the door. “Just being silly; I'm off to the park, please don't send Eris after me once she wakes up, she snores something ter-”

His words were cut off once again as he found himself being magically tugged by the straps away from the door, dragged in a ludicrous fashion back to the kitchen, where Lyra sat with an unamused expression.

“... Yes?” he asked innocently.

“Not happening,” she deadpanned. “You're grounded for life, remember?”

William swallowed hard, the ferocious rumbling in his stomach returning.

“... Indeed,” he replied sourly as she released him from her mystical grip.

“We can go to the park later,” his head perked up a bit. “Under extremely close supervision.”

“Don't worry about cabin fever,” Lyra grinned after a while of his sullen silence. “Everypony's still going out tomorrow night, remember?”

“Who 'member what?” Eris poked her sleepy head around the corner, oblivious to the desparing groan of William as his 'foolproof' plan collapsed around his pink ears.

“The... thing,” Lyra rolled her hooves slowly for emphasis. “... Tomorrow night? That we all got invited to?”

William froze for a second, peeling his forehead off the table long enough to stare at the unicorn.

“Ho-hold on, you mean the invitation from Princess Luna?” William frowned. “Even if we did decide to go, I thought-”

“What, thought I'd just send you two off to Canterlot?” Lyra scoffed once, kindly offering the blearily blinking Eris a mug of steaming brew, which her nostrils lingered over happily. “Without any supervision, just whisk you off without anypony to watch you?”

“Well-” William started.

“What kind of guardian would I be then?” she grinned. “I can't just send you off to some big old castle, nopony's that heartless.”

William didn't seem to have a reply. In fact, he didn't seem to be moving anymore at all.

“Don't get too comfy!” Lyra beamed, her unusually bubbly energy returning.

“Why?” Eris asked bluntly, almost afraid of the answer.

“Because we're all going to do something extra special today!” the mare brushed a lock of mane from her eyes. “Oh, you're going to love it, we'll have so much fun!”

“Okay, now, I'm worried,” Eris turned uneasily to William, who only shrugged. “What's she on about?”

“Pack your bags, buckos!” Lyra almost cheered. “Because today, we're going hiking!”

The resounding silence was almost deafening.

“... Guess you're already one step ahead of the game,” Lyra nodded to William's saddlebag with a sly wink.

“Hiking,” Eris repeated in dim disbelief, ignorant of the fact that the coffee she had been pouring was long since overflowing.

“I know, it's gonna be great!” Lyra wriggled in her seat with a giggle. “Come on, give me a 'hiking, yeah!”

There was a dull thud as William's forehead hit the table once again.

The tick, tick, tick of the worn wooden clock on the wall filled the room with a dreadfully loud noise. Yolk wished she could stuff her ears with cotton to keep it out, but likely wouldn't do any good; she could hear it even when she covered her ears, she could feel time slowly crawling past.

“... Y'alright?”

Yolk ignored the boy in the bed, her eyes remaining firmly on the surroundings through the library's window. She occasionally wished that the library's owner would simply show up finished early with the little drake behind her and leave this problem to her.

You're a big mare. Solve your own puzzles.

“Fine,” the unicorn lied, pushing her glasses further up and pretending they were misty from memory alone. “What else can you tell me?” Yolk pried, not bothering to look back at him.

“It's all I got.”

“Surely you must know something else,” she frowned hard, looking at him sternly through her spectacles, but Neil showed no emotion whatsoever.

“I hardly remember half the shit that happened to me. I can't keep track of all the other poor bastards, and you shouldn't expect me to.”

“You will watch your language, kindly,” Yolk White magically 'adjusted' the blankets atop him until they were painfully tight, strapping his body firmly to the bed. “A simple yes or no would have sufficed.”

“Bullshit,” Neil ignored the next tightening of the blankets, though it was becoming increasingly difficult to breathe. “If that were true you would have stopped asking the first time I said I don't know.”

“You're sure that you didn't see my brother?” she drew close, her voice dropping to hardly a whisper. “I mean, maybe Discord-”

“I – don't – know,” Neil put heavy emphasis on every syllable, his brows furrowed deeply. “I don't know what happened to your stupid brother, and I don't care.”

Yolk met his cold almond eyes with her vibrant emerald ones, never blinking.

“... You realize, of course,” she stated slowly. “That the impending mind wipe you are required doesn't have to happen just yet. If you were to provide helpful information, that is.”

“... I wanna talk to Twilight again,” Neil shifted uncomfortably, unable to free himself from his downy prison.

“Did you not hear me?” Yolk tapped one hoof impatiently on the bedside. “In exchange for information.”

“What do you care?” he spat. “You could just double cross me at the last second after you get what you want and mind wipe me anyway.”

Yolk paused.

“I could,” she answered dangerously. “Or I could take a little... peek into your head, just to make sure you aren't lying about anything.”

“They'd know,” Neil said too swiftly. “You wouldn't, you'd be found out-”

“You asked what I care,” Yolk inspected the bottom of her hoof closely, staring down at the boy from the corner of her eye. “I just lost my career, my dignity, and two years of my life. All I care about now is finding my baby brother, and making sure he's safe.”

Neil tried to inch further back into the pillows to retreat from the downright bloodthirsty glare that the mare leveled at him.

“I will break rules, regulations, laws, and if I have to, you. I just broke reality itself, don't think you're any more important, or that I'll even hesitate. And I swear to you, there is nothing - nothing that is going to stand in my way of getting him back. Do you understand?”

Neil breathed heavily through his nostrils, meeting her icy stare with his own.

“... You know,” he said quietly after a bit. “In different circumstances, I might have found you really goddamn sexy.”

“Do you want to be wiped?” Yolk White snapped.

“Only if you're into that,” Neil shrugged halfheartedly.

Yolk ground her teeth in fury, one of her eyes beginning to twitch. She moved as if she were going to hit him, but pulled her hoof to the ground and withdrew to the window, her watchful gaze monitoring all under the sun as silence grew once again.

“You could have just broken into my head from the beginning.”

“... Sorry?” Yolk said over her shoulder, lost in thought.

“You could have just done that right away,” Neil mused aloud, struggling to free his arms from the blankets. “You didn't have to bother negotiating. You could have just taken whatever information you wanted and left, and nobody'd be any the wiser.”

Yolk said nothing.

“What, so you've got some complex or something?” he asked, though she still didn't turn around. “You have to threaten and interrogate me because it makes you feel big?”

Still Yolk said nothing.

“Hey! Look at me when I'm talking to you!”

The blankets suddenly became much too tight, and Neil felt the breath suddenly pushed out of his chest like air from a balloon.

“You have twenty-four hours,” Yolk readjusted her glasses emotionlessly, turning on the spot and marching out the door. She paused at the door, not turning back again. “I would suggest that you... remember something within that time frame. That is all. Good day.”

And with that, Neil was left alone once again.

He lay fuming in the bed, glowering up at the ceiling as his thought mulled together.

He hated feeling trapped. That was the general consensus amongst the noise in his head, and what a cacophony. There was simply no way to ignore it, it filled his eyes and ears every time he closed his eyes. Neil let out a long, slow breath through his nose, hateful thoughts drifting away surprisingly quickly. He rubbed his eyes miserably until spots appeared, but it did nothing to sate the noise. He just had to think. However, he refused to simply roll over and give into the situation. He was cleverer than that.

I'm cleverer than all of them put together is what I am. Two heads are better than one.

They would regret doing this to him. They would regret trying to take away what little he had. They would regret leaving him alo-

He then felt remarkably, incredibly, extremely stupid, because it then occurred to him that, yes, it wasn't the first time he was left alone.

And the simple fact that they'd left him alone at all.

Neil inwardly kicked himself and immediately began fiercely wriggling out with all his might, the grin on his lips possibly the first genuine one he'd had in years as a magnificent plan began to form.