His delicate pattern of energy was vibrant, but tangled badly in places. Cindy and I worked in quiet tandem to start picking through them and setting them in even rows that let them flow freely from one to the next. As they were liberated, they moved with a motive power all their own. It seemed the mind was far from a static place, and they flowed into, past, and around one another seemingly at random.

We ran into a denser knot and agreed quietly that we should see how Hope was holding up before we went further. We came up for air, so to speak, to find Hope trembling in our grasp, tears running down his face. I gently stroked over his spine. "Are you alright? Do you want us to stop?"

Hope shook his head. "I'm not alright, but it's not your fault. I just remember some things now, and I wonder if I deserve being here." He rubbed at his tears with his fetlocks as he sat up.

Dust Kicker snorted softly. "I led a group of soldiers on an anti-humanity agenda." She thrust a hoof at Neon. "And it was her nation! I'm not sure what you could have done that even rates."

Hope quirked a smile. "You have a point there. When things fell apart, I, uh, tried to make a fallout shelter of sorts. I locked myself in my basement with a few friends and all the supplies we could gather, and tried to wait it out." He rubbed behind his neck. "When we saw the ponies wandering around through a window, we figured it was more a zombie thing than a radiation thing, so we gratefully started using the tap water, which wasn't a good idea. My boyfriend turned first."

Dust perked an ear. "You were gay?"

Hope quivered. "I don't remember... I just know it was a guy, and I liked him a lot. I can't even see myself. It's still so jumbled. I got scared, and so did my other friend. With one of us becoming a pony and trying to get after us, we broke apart. I... just abandoned him and ran." He put a hoof to his head. "I don't even know if he's alright, or alive... I feel terrible, but I ran and ran, even as the infection slowly stripped away at me. I became what I am today, a unicorn stallion." He sank to his belly. "At least I'm a better pony than I was a friend to him. We... We locked him into the basement. He probably died of thirst, and we did it. I killed him. I could have just let him wander around, he might have turned out alright..."

Sandra put a hoof on Hope's head. "It was crazy. You didn't know better, no one did... Only saints acted differently." She glanced towards me when Hope buried his face. I knew what she was saying. I stayed with her even when I thought I was clean and knew she was changing.

With a little sigh, I gathered up Hope. "Look, its done. None of us are perfect. You've worked damn hard to make this world a better place, you can't tear yourself apart for a mistake someone who isn't even entirely you anymore made."

Neon looked to Dust Kicker. "This is why all new converts were to be kept in constant company. I didn't make up that rule for fun."

Dust rolled her eyes. "I didn't say every rule you made didn't make sense. If they hadn't, I wouldn't have been following you. You ran a tight ship, and most of the people under you are better off for you being there."

Neon perked up with a smile. "You mean that?"

Dust sat up. "Dear god above, do you need my approval?"

Neon scuffed at the ground but had a canny smile on her snout. "It wouldn't hurt, my fine minion."

Dust turned away from her with an angry snort. "Bloody hell. Every time I start to think you might be a normal person under it all."

Hope suddenly sat up. "You're not done, are you? Go on."

Cindy wrinkled her snout. "Are you sure that's a good idea? We've already dug up such painful memories for you."

Hope tapped at his chest. "I want all of it, good and bad. I want to, at least, remember the person I killed. He deserves that much at least."

He looked determined. I glanced at Cindy, who nodded back at me. We gathered him up close and descended into the maze of lines that lurked within him. I could hear voices, but the focus on the realm of energy was too intense to risk a peek.

"It's unsettling." Was that Neon?

"There is a reason she is our leader, our 'princess' as they call it."

"Sure sure, but the way they're both just kind of... ugh."

"Nevermind that a moment. Is the reunited family doing alright?"

"Alright? Never better. They love this place, military or not. Can't much blame them, with them being accepted as they are, pony or not, compared to where they just came from."

I turned away from their conversation mentally and refocused on the work ahead of me. Every thread was a horribly mangled mess with several others, and extracting them was a slow process at best. Sometimes they'd wriggle right back into the tangle, putting our efforts back, but we wouldn't give up easily.

Our awareness lurched back to the physical world. Dusk Hope fell to the ground only to scramble away. He curled up, hooves at his head and eyes squeezed shut.

Cindy frowned softly. "This is going to take more work than I thought, and I was already pretty sure it would take a lot of work."

Sandra settled beside Hope and snuggled against him. "Forget the work, can't you see he's in pain? Are you alright, Dusk?"

Hope rolled around to face Sandra and buried his face in her fur. "It hurts... It's the worst headache I ever had... I'm sorry."

Dust Kicker trotted over and grabbed Hope by the scruff, pulling him away only to curl around him herself. "Stupid stallion, there's no shame in finding surgery painful, even if it's, what, magic surgery, still surgery."

Hope sat up against Dust and kissed her cheek. "You're right, of course... Um, should I be asleep for this so I don't squirm around?"

Cindy shook her head, but I did the talking. "If you were asleep, this would probably wake you up. Unless we drugged you, and that would mess with the mess we're fixing. Are you sure you want to do this?"

Hope looked to Dust with a hopeful smile. She sighed and hugged him tightly. "I won't let you go."

With the two curled together, I set my hands on Hope's head, and we slipped back in. We could feel where the knot throbbed with his likely headache and tried to soothe it by working on the agitated threads, freeing them. Each pulsed angrily at first, but quickly calmed down, and soon the space seemed peaceful again.

"It's alright. Just be tough, like I know you are."

Cindy's presence seemed to seep into the knot and push a few threads out from inside as I pulled carefully on the outside. The end was coming closer to us. They flared with a fresh fury and we could dimly hear the whimpering of our patient, but he didn't run, and we didn't stop.

I wasn't sure how much time had passed, but the weave seemed as smooth as it should be. The threads flowed and swirled as they wanted to without knotting up in one another. There were frayed edges and crimped bits, but there wasn't much more we could do for those, just wait for them to heal, if ever they would, on their own.

We pulled back to the 'real' world to find Dusk was a mess of tears, but he was asleep in Dust Kicker's hooves. She looked up as we came to and nodded slowly. She said nothing, but there wasn't much to say. We rose up and I whispered, "I'll get us all some food."

Slipping out of the room and navigating the halls, we came across a soldier, a human one. He looked at us in suprise, then fascination. "Are you the not-feral feral one?"

Cindy took hold of a hand to point at ourselves. "That's us. We're safe. We won't hurt you."

He nodded timidly and glanced around. "What if... just talking in theory here, but what if someone wanted that?"

I raised a shaggy brow. "You want to be hurt?"

"No, god, I mean to be infected?"

Cindy was with me in confusion. "Are you sick with something?" I remembered back to the general we cured with ponydom. "You look healthy."

He quickly waved it off. "Hey, just in theory, right? Uh, not sick though. Let's just say someone wanted that, for the sake of wanting that."

I rubbed behind my head with uncertainty. "Well I guess we'd have to talk to the boss first. Just going and infecting someone, even if they asked, would probably get us in huge trouble, and maybe shot a few times. Do you know where the kitchen is? My friends are waiting for dinner, and me too."

He hiked a thumb down a hallway. "I'll show you the way." He turned and began to lead us forward. "So have you done that?"

"Done what?" asked Cindy.

"Infected people? That's what ferals like to do, right?" He laughed, a nervous little chuckle that sounded far from sincere.

I thought back to all the time we'd been around, but only one infection came to mind, no wait... "There was one man that was going to be killed for not becoming a pony. We turned him into a pony rather than that. At least it was the kind he wanted."

He glanced over his shoulder. "You can control that?"

Cindy nodded. "If we're there at the time of infection, we have a lot of control over how it proceeds, but we still won't change you without your commander's permission."

He cringed at her calling out of his graceless ploy and turned back around. Soon we arrived at the cantina. We got a few trays for ourselves and our waiting friends, and got back to our room without difficulty. The soldier didn't follow us back, perhaps losing his nerve, or having something else to do.

When we stepped inside, we saw Hope was sitting up blearily and leaning against Dust Kicker. Neon perked up at our entry, perched as she was against Sandra. "Found everything alright?"

We set the trays down where they could be reached and we took ours with us as we settled down and began eating the slop. It wasn't as good as the stuff made in the last town. That had been home made, and this was clearly designed for keeping soldiers moving. "Nothing too bad, though i think one of the soldiers wants to go pony. He didn't say why, but he wasn't subtle about the hope."

Neon smirked. "I can't blame him. Who wouldn't rather be a pony?" She extended a hoof as if to show it off. "We are a magnificent species."

Dust Kicker rolled her eyes. "Humans have their advantages."

Sandra snorted gently. "We still are humans, just with a lot more fur. Maybe our kids will be able to say they're entirely pony, but I haven't forgotten what it's like to be human, and it's a part of me."

Neon settled back and pulled one of the trays over. "Fine, but I'm not missing the past very much."

Cindy looked to Dusk. "Feeling better? Remember more now?"

Dusk Hope gave a shaking nod. "I... yes. I'll share after we eat..." He sounded quiet and subdued. I hoped it wasn't too bad.

Author's Notes:

Hope, really? Another chapter just to get to the bottom of you? You are a mysterious pony, just like your typos.