"Pinkie, isn't this a little, um, much?" I asked softly, looking at the banner as she unrolled it.

"Congratulations on Surviving an Alien Attack and Saving All of Ponyville from Disaster and Recovering Nicely and Dating Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy and Getting Your Cutie Mark! I'm Sorry I Accidentally Poisoned You and Covered You in Acid and Hurt Your Leg!" I stared blankly at the easily fifteen meter long banner. Oh. She wasn't joking about that.

"Well that's, uh, long?" Sweetie Belle offered hesitantly.

Scootaloo sighed and asked, "How are we supposed to fit this thing in one room?"

That was a very good question. The only way I saw that would even remotely work was... "Wrap it around the walls, of course! This is as compact as I could manage," Pinkie explained, far faster than I could manage. She worked all this out ahead of time, didn't she?

The inside of Sugarcube Corner had emptied out considerably after it closed, obviously, leaving just Pinkie, the Crusaders, and Derpy. Oh, and myself. It felt even friendlier now that all the ponies left, but that might have been simply my dislike of crowds talking.

"We can handle it, Pinkie. You and Derpy get to decorating the tables," I assured, smiling and nodding to my fellow Cutie Mark Crusaders. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo beamed at me, but Sweetie Belle was still staring down at the elongated banner.

I tilted my head at her before lowering myself closer to her level. She must have seen the motion, as she jumped slightly and looked over at me instead. "Oh, sorry! Did I miss an instruction?" she asked hesitantly.

I shook my head, of course. "Nope. I was just concerned. You okay?" I tried to keep my voice as gentle as possible.

She looked back at the banner before nodding. The head motion was barely perceptible, however, and not entirely convincing. I started to question her further, but she cut me off with, "Did you really stop the creature in the forest?" I raised an eyebrow at the unexpected line of questioning, but figured it was just practice for tomorrow.

"The creature foalnapped me. After I heard all the bad things it wanted to do to Ponyville and my friends, I couldn't let it get away. All I did was stop it until Princess Luna got there, though. She got rid of it," I explained simply, making sure to stick to the official story while not technically lying. Sweetie Belle could fill in the parts that had already been elaborated anyway, and I couldn't say any more with Derpy here.

Sweetie Belle frowned and shook her head, however. "But you got hurt real bad, didn't you? I mean, a couple fillies at school said you were foolish and probably wouldn't make it," she continued, sounding surprised over something. Wait, what? Why would those kinds of rumors be going around?

"No way, Sweetie! We told you not to believe what Diamond Tiara was saying. Mender's really tough and Rainbow Dash herself said that he's awesome, so he'll be fine!" Scootaloo defended suddenly, surprising me.

Sweetie giggled and shook her head, however. "No, no. You know I don't really believe those two. I know Mender's amazing. It's just, well, he's only been in Ponyville a few weeks, right? Why did he get himself hurt for all of us?” she questioned.

I stared at her for a moment, surprised. I’d not been anticipating this kind of question at all. How did I answer something like that? My mind flashed back to the hatred I’d felt for Nirru. She wanted to hurt my friends and all these innocent ponies. I remembered asking myself how she could hurt these innocent ponies that had done nothing to her. It didn’t make any sense to me. At the time, all I wanted was to make her suffer. I wanted her to suffer for what she’d put me through and what she wanted to do to my friends, just to get at me. A slow yawn came over me a second later, completely unstoppable in its formation.

It was like a slow blink. I didn’t remember closing my eyes, but they gradually opened to greet the cool breeze across my face. A forest met my gaze, a dense fog settling in along the ground. I felt light headed as I slowly looked around. This was… A massive tree stood behind me, easily twice as large as any of its neighbors. It looked ancient, like it had taken root eons ago. It felt as much a part of the glade I now found myself in as the rocks and dirt.

I suddenly felt sleepy as I shifted my gaze down the trunk of the massive tree. My eyes locked onto a shape at the base, however, and I limped over to where it was. While walking, my mind idly wondered where the metallic clink of my brace was, but I didn’t really feel like checking my leg. Prudentia lay in the grass at the base of the tree. It felt as old, if not older than the surroundings, and I sighed.

My hoof extended out and touched the surface of the book. “Are you sure?” was suddenly asked to my right in a feminine voice. It was familiar. Had someone asked me that before? “It’s okay. It’s not too late,” the voice continued softly. I shifted, and then looked slowly to my right to behold a small, unicorn filly I’d never seen before. Her coat was a simple blue in color, and her short mane had copper and gold colorations to it. Her tones were hard to see through the fog, though. Her extremely long tail slid along the grass as she took a step forward, eyes still closed.

“Are you sure?” she asked again, quieter this time.

My attention shifted back to the book and my eyes softened. The lock was popped open. I don’t remember it being undone the last I looked, but it probably didn’t matter. Slowly, I reached downwards again and opened the front cover of the book, it neatly sliding open to roughly the middle. A blank, white page greeted me. I sighed weakly and flipped backwards, finding nothing but absence of anything at all. My mind felt fuzzy as I shook my head.

"Please. Try to remember. Are you sure?" the little filly asked again, sounding sad. I stared blankly at the words that drifted onto the page. "I'm so lonely," they spelled out. A leaf drifted down and landed on the book, lightly accenting the page with its shadow. I looked up at the tree again, branches swaying in the wind and shading the entire grove with its canopy. Ancient. A guardian. It wasn't a bad way to spend eternity.

"Wake up."

My eyes opened again, suddenly finding myself exactly where I had been standing prior in Sugarcube Corner. Wait, what? What the hell just happened?!

Sweetie giggled and shook her head, however. "No, no. You know I don't really believe those two. I know Mender's amazing. It's just, well, he's only been in Ponyville a few weeks, right? Why did he get himself hurt for all of us?” she questioned.

I stared blankly at her. Hadn't she asked that already? No, I was probably wrong. Still, I knew what my intent was. It was true. I'd done nothing but run away and put up half a fight when I absolutely had to. But if nothing else, that night taught me something that was truly valuable to me.

"I've done a lot of running. But I'm starting to realize how lucky I really am. That night, something threatened everything I've come to adore and love over the last month. Everypony is amazing here, and I'd never want to go anywhere else again. Now that I admit that to myself, I can say that I'm not going to run from that. I'll do anything I have to in order to protect everypony I care about," I explained, smiling down at her softly.

Sweetie's eyes shivered a little as she watched me, a timid smile creeping across her face. Finally she outright grinned and pounced forwards, hugging me gently around the right foreleg. I laughed and pulled her tighter, gently wrapping my right foreleg around her back and giving her a squeeze. That's right. I'm not going to run from Equestria, no matter what. If Nirru wanted to destroy these wonderful ponies, nothing would stop me from tearing her apart. I'm sorry, Keela. If it truly came down to her or Equestria, the choice was already made.

"See? Mender's awesome. Rainbow Dash is always right," Scootaloo chirped, giving her little wings a flutter as she hopped closer to us.

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes behind her but kept smiling, following Scootaloo at a much slower pace before sitting down next to her. Pinkie nodded rapidly in agreement with everything, however, adding, "Things are gonna change for you, Mender! This party is the start of something good, and I'm going to make sure it's done how you want it!"

I gave Pinkie a pleased nod before standing up again. "All right, then. First step, I guess, is to make sure we actually get the decorations up," I admitted, grinning at the fillies in front of me. Scootaloo returned the grin while Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle started giggling.

"Good idea! I'll help put the ribbons up along the ceiling!" Derpy said, nudging her chin upwards for emphasis.

Pinkie shivered before hopping up onto her hooves again, apparently reaching her limit for sitting still. "Right! I'll decorate tables!" she announced, zipping off before anypony could even acknowledge the statement. I chuckled and nodded down at Apple Bloom specifically.

"Okay then. Apple Bloom, you're on bottom. Sweetie's next, and Scootaloo stands on her back and operates the staple gun. Ladder formation!" I declared. All three fellow Crusaders saluted me before hopping up onto my back. I braced myself, forming visible barriers up along my back to help them get into position and hold them there as I slowly shifted towards the wall to the left of me.

Finally, the tower of fillies was completed, and I glanced upwards towards the top, giving Scootaloo a nod before passing up the tools and moving one end of the banner into position using my barriers. My magic was going to get a workout today!

* * * * *

“Pinkie, are you sure you put the streamers under the counter?” I asked, opening the sixth door with only two left to go. Why she stored party supplies under the cashier island counter is beyond me, but I wasn’t one to question Pinkie’s judgment. We were almost done anyway, so I wasn’t in any particular hurry.

High-pitched giggling was my reply. My mental warning flags went off and I peeked over the counter at the pink mare, giving her a skeptical glance. Her mental link showed nothing but dancing hard candies and balloons, so I didn’t have anything to go off there. She pretended to still be fussing with the last table, but I saw her tail swaying back and forth in amusement. Slowly, I lowered myself again, hyper-alert now. Raising a frontal shield, I opened the last two counter doors at the same time. To my surprise, the last one had a large tub of streamers in it. Well huh. I guess she was being honest.

Smiling finally, I hauled the tub out from under the counter, and then lifted it into the air with a jerk of my barrier magic. The second I looked up and leveled my head off with the counter, there was a flash of green. Everything disappeared into warm, wet, sticky pink an instant later as something latched onto my face!

My scream was high-pitched and drawn out as I flailed away from the counter, totally blinded with nothing but pink wetness all over my vision. What the hell?! Something was eating my face! Laughter exploded out from Pinkie and two smaller voices an instant later. I tripped in my mad stumble backwards and ended up rolling across the floor, trying to get my hooves up and pry whatever it was off me.

“Aaah! Mender, are you okay?” I heard Sweetie Belle ask, voice following me as I rolled across the floor. I finally managed to pry part of the thing off my face and could see sideways off my right side. Pulsating holes greeted me, and I shivered, trying to get the thing off me even faster. Ew! It didn’t appear to be doing damage, but I didn’t know if it was about to spray acid or lay eggs in my nose or something. The door to the shop opened in my vision as I rolled passed, yelping. Twilight gave me a bewildered, skeptical look as I scooted past on the floor in front of her.

“Uh, why is Gummy stuck to Mender’s face?” she questioned as Sweetie finally caught up with me and began helping pry the thing’s mouth open. Gummy?! That sounded remarkably like a proper noun, which probably meant it was a bad idea to activate my barriers and start slicing. Subtly, I powered down my left foreleg and focused instead on getting my back legs up to pry alongside Sweetie Belle.

After a good five seconds, the two of us managed to pull the thing off. A moderately sized alligator greeted my newly restored vision, and I stared at it, bewildered. Why was there an alligator in the sweets shop?! “Gummy wanted to say hello, is all! Mender, this is Gummy. Gummy, this is Mender! Don’t worry. He doesn’t have any teeth!” Pinkie introduced, gesturing back and forth between us.

My ears flattened back and I glared at her. “I gathered. My face is still attached, after all. What is it?” I asked. A second later, I mentally realized my mistake.

“He’s an alligator, Silly!” Pinkie pointed out, giving me a happy and nonchalant nod. Scootaloo started snickering behind her as I smacked my forehead with a hoof. If Pinkie noticed, she was oblivious. I took the time to wipe the alligator spit off my face.

Twilight giggled lightly and shook her head. “Gummy is Pinkie’s pet alligator. He stays here with her. All six of us have pets,” she explained calmly after I’d recovered. I sat down again and gave her a questioning look. So Pinkie had an alligator, and I knew Rarity had Opalescence, the cat. Fluttershy had LOTS of pets, technically, and I didn’t know about the others.

“Sis has Winona. She’s ah darn good dog,” Apple Bloom answered for me, smiling politely now that she was done laughing at my misfortune. I frowned at her, but nodded thereafter.

“I believe you’ve met Opal, Rarity’s cat. Fluttershy takes care of a lot of animals, but Angel Bunny is her own. Uh, kinda,” Twilight continued, blinking afterwards as she seemed to hesitate momentarily. Kinda?

Pinkie giggled and nodded along before I could ask, adding, “Yup! Dashie has a turtle!” Wait, what?!

The incredulousness must have been extremely apparent on my face, as Twilight started snickering again. “Tortoise. Don’t let Fluttershy hear you call it a turtle. Oh, and I enchanted a gyrocopter blade and strapped it to his shell. Tank is now a flying tortoise,” she elaborated.

My head hurt a little bit, but I just nodded along and resisted twitching. I didn’t know why she’d pick one of the slowest animals in existence, but there was probably an interesting and lengthy story behind it. I made a mental note to ask her about it later. “That only leaves you, Twilight. I’ve never seen any pets around the library,” I pointed out, giving her a questioning look.

She gave a start, and then tilted her head at me. “What do you mean? Owlowiscious has been there the entire time. Sure, he only comes out at night, usually, but he’s always there with me,” she questioned, looking a little concerned. Wait, what?! I stared hard at her, but couldn’t detect that she was kidding. Seriously? Wait, why did she name him Owlowiscious?! Five syllables were a bit much!

“I, uh, haven’t seen him? What is he?” I inquired, starting to get a little paranoid.

“He’s an owl, Silly! Couldn’t ya tell?” Pinkie asked, hopping in place next to me with light bounces. I ignored the fact that she wasn’t there a moment ago.

Owlowiscious? Ah, then it was a play on words. Owl-owiscious? That sounded somewhat close to Aloysius, which was Latin. Oddly enough, they had Latin here, so that might not be that far off. It made me wonder why they did have Latin here in the first place, but Twilight shook her head and just gave me a soft smile in return, making me decide to just consider it later. “I’ll introduce you to him when we get back tonight. I was actually going to see how the decorations were coming along, but you being here too saves me a step afterwards,” she chirped, nodding twice in my direction.

I snickered and shook my head. “I’m glad I’m convenient for you, then?”

Predictably, she scowled, and I smirked at her playfully. She finally gave up and pouted as she stood and walked past me instead, causing Pinkie to start giggling mirthfully. Twilight’s tail flicked up at the last second, however, and whapped me across the muzzle. I was blasted with all sorts of distinctly Twilight smells and my mind momentarily faltered, along with my legs as I stumbled. The lavender unicorn gave me a knowing smile over her shoulder before following Pinkie towards the newly set up treat table. What the hell was that?! There was something extremely different about that smell I just picked up. I stared, dumbfounded, at her for a moment before Sweetie Belle gave me a soft nudge.

“Are you okay, Mender? We need to finish the balloons,” she reminded, looking up at me with a little bit of concern. I swallowed, and then glanced past her just in time to watch Derpy attempt to blow up another balloon in the background. It deflated as soon as she stopped exhaling, and filled her mouth back up with her own air a moment later, bulging her slightly crossed eyes out.

“Er, yeah. Let’s go give Derpy a hoof, then,” I suggested. Scootaloo was watching the gray pegasus with a confused expression, but nodded as I got closer.

Derpy stopped her attempts and glanced over at me with a smile when she saw me. I nodded back, and she offered me one of the balloons to inflate. I chuckled. This was going to be a long night. Taking the balloon into my mouth, I inhaled sharply through my nose, then systematically inflated it. Once it reached full size, I used a dozen or so microbarriers from my right hoof to tie it off. How did a normal pony do this? How did Pinkie Pie do this?! There had to be a trick to it for them. Maybe they had some sort of device they used to tie the balloons off? Either that or Pinkie was really just that good with her tongue. A moment later, I decided that sounded wrong. Then I decided to just stop thinking about Pinkie's tongue entirely.

"Oooh, awesome!" Derpy cheered as I presented her with the tied off balloon. Scootaloo gave me a smirk and slid the entire box of them over. Damn it.

* * * * *

Night had long since fallen. I stared blankly out into the darkness through the window for a long moment before closing the shades. With every curtain and shade in the library now pulled, I let myself relax slightly. It was strange how on edge I felt whenever ponies who didn't know 'me' could be watching. Was it a subconscious reaction from knowing the truth about myself?

Twilight had returned to the library after the decorations had been put up, and I’d elected to go with her. The CMC of course followed along, despite how late it was getting. Still, neither Twilight or I could honestly say no to those fillies when they looked so downright adorable. Pinkie had come along too, as the only way we could get her to let us leave in the first place was to just let her keep walking and talking about the party as we left. Naturally, she ended up back at the library with us, too.

"So the party's starting at six tomorrow night, right?" I heard Twilight ask in the background. She'd be able to check off her double-checked checklist of checking when the party was now. I mentally chuckled as I turned around again, smiling.

Pinkie Pie nodded enthusiastically from the couch, mane bouncing rapidly. "Yup! It's going to be huge! Not as big as if I could have gotten the town hall, of course, but still massive! That's why we decorated the outside, too. Dashie says we're gonna have great weather tomorrow!" Pinkie rambled for a moment, swaying back and forth.

Rarity sat politely next to her, deftly shifting her floating teacup away from the sways of Pinkie's mane almost subconsciously. She’d arrived about twenty minutes ago, looking for Sweetie Belle, and made the mistake of sitting down for tea. "It's going to be quite important, I admit. It’s a pity that Prince Shining Armor and Princess Cadence said they couldn’t attend," she lamented properly. Shining and his wife. It still felt weird that he asked me to call him that. Still, I hadn't met Cadence yet. Twilight said she was nice, though. Not that it wasn't blatantly obvious to consider an Alicorn representing love to be nice or anything.

"Well, our parents are going to be here, too. Shiny probably wants to see them as much as I do. Although I'm a bit nervous," Twilight admitted, causing my smile to widen.

"I already promised not to throw up or bleed on them, Twilight," I reminded, giving her a smirk as I sat down next to the table.

Sweetie Belle started giggling as she peeked out from under the table at me with a playful expression. My lowest right tentacle formed, shooting out and snagging her before she could retreat, earning a happy yelp from the little filly. The lowest one on the other side extended and went in from the other angle, nabbing Scootaloo as well, who was also hiding under there.

"Ha! These are still so cool!" Scootaloo muttered as I flipped her upside down. She grabbed the tip of the tentacle and started kneading it like dough. She didn't even flinch when upside down, interestingly enough. I wondered if it was a pegasi thing. Rainbow also seemed to be able to instinctively be aware of her spatial movements. I guess it made sense.

Sweetie burrowed into the coil of tentacle I had wrapped around her and nuzzled against it. She was adorable, even if I still saw it as a little creepy. "They're soft and warm! I don't see how anypony wouldn't like these," she pointed out, trying to pull her lower half up into the coil, too. She gave a happy squeak as I lifted her over my head and set her on the coils rolling out of my back. I thought it was the other way around. Why did she like them so much?

"Something about too many limbs tends to freak ponies out?" I guessed, taking a shot in the dark.

"Ah. It is ah might creepy. Not ta be offensive, o' course. But Ah'm gettin' used ta it," Applejack spoke up, wandering down the stairs from the bathroom. I’d forgotten she was here. She showed up with Rarity, also looking for a missing and curfew breaking little sister. She watched me with the two fillies for a moment before giving a weak smile. Talking to her still felt awkward. She held herself back and watched every word she spoke like a hawk, which felt beyond unnatural. I gave her my best attempt at a smile before her sister landed on my back behind Sweetie Belle.

Stumbling, I'd at least managed to stabilize myself using two tendrils before she hit, having just enough warning from the proximity sensors. I could have thrown up armor, but I knew it was Apple Bloom and didn't want her to have a rough landing. She bounced off the coils before snickering and getting tangled up next to Sweetie Belle, who was sitting somewhat like Spike usually did.

"Apple Bloom! Yer not supposed ta jump from tha loft," Applejack scolded, frowning at her on my back.

"Eh, it's fine, Applejack. My balance wasn't on my bad leg, and the tendrils are soft," I assured, walking closer to the farm mare with the load of fillies I found myself with. She'd come wandering over to Pinkie's before we left to see where her little sister was. She found her, but also found me, which seemed to make her nervous. At least she felt a bit more relaxed now, and had followed us back to the library to discuss the party plans.

Rarity coughed finally to regain the attention before continuing with, "Regardless, Mender will be on his best behavior, I'm sure. He's a perfect gentlecolt so you hardly have to worry about him making a good impression."

My cheeks warmed a little at her compliment, but Twilight smiled over at me and shook her head. "No, no. That's actually not what I'm worried about. I'm just a bit concerned about my father, is all. He's a bit of a stickler for tradition, and didn't react well when Shiny told him about the mind magic," my fillyfriend explained, shifting back to Rarity. As badly as I felt for her, I was pleased she trusted me. No, she was proud of me. That was enough.

"I don't see what the big deal is. They're just her parents. Mine are boring," Scootaloo complained, rightside up now and lowering herself to me with a bit of wing propulsion.

"He wants ta make ah good impression. He'll pobably be marryin' Twilight an' Fluttershy in tha future, so havin' their parents like him is good, right?" Apple Bloom pointed out quietly on my back, leaning over Sweetie Belle to do so. Come to think of it, Fluttershy hadn’t said anything about her parents at all.

I snickered and nodded back at her before wrapping them in more tentacles for support and hopping up on the sofa next to Twilight. She gave me a soft smile as I lay down next to her and let the fillies go. Sweetie and Apple Bloom stayed on my back, however.

"It'll be super awesome, don't worry! They'll be so amazed by the party that they won't even have time to get cranky. Then they'll like you being with Mender, and you won't have to worry anymore!" Pinkie reasoned, somehow managing to sound totally logical while flailing her arms about like a bird trying to take off.

Twilight hesitated for a moment before cracking a smile and nodding to her overly excited friend. "Yeah. I'll be happy after tomorrow goes smoothly. I'm sure my mom will love you, but it's just Dad I'm worried about," Twilight admitted, looking over at me again.

I returned her smile, but before I could say anything, a light tugging went off inside of my head along with a tiny ringing noise in my inner ears. Oh! "Mender, is this a good time? I need to talk to you. Tug back once for yes, twice for no," I heard Keela ask. She sounded relaxed, so it probably wasn't anything major, but normally I didn't like to keep her waiting for long. If this were a phone company, her long distance expenses would be murder.

Twilight must have noticed me suddenly zone out. Pinkie's tail twitched lightly and she perked up, watching me instead. "Ooooh! Who's that talking?" she asked curiously. Out loud, I noticed. Of course, she knew everypony here already knew about me.

"Keela?" Twilight asked, a little more business-like but with those curious undertones still.

I nodded and gave Keela a light tug back, shifting my left eye to a projector. Scootaloo stopped spinning on the legrest next to me the instant the projection danced out into the center of the room. Keela herself faded into place over the coffee table and gave a start as she glanced around. Given our connection, it was fairly easy to project the room and occupants into her mind as well. After the connection was established, I tried out the new technique I had been working on and enabled the audio uplink too.

"Hey, Keela. Sorry for the audience. Meet my other friends I've told you about," I gestured, shifting my right forehoof to the couch across from me.

Keela recovered fast and smiled, bowing politely to the three ponies on it. Rarity had shifted to surprised but extremely courteous a moment later, returning a soft nod of her head. Pinkie had simply been curious, and now she added vibrating and grinning to the mix as she watched the Keldarian eagerly. Applejack appeared unsure, but gave the female a calm nod when she saw the polite gesture. It was interesting watching everypony's reactions. A bow was somewhat universal, it would seem.

"We have Pinkie Pie on the right; the one excitedly vibrating. The ever-elegant Rarity is in the middle. Last, but definitely not least, we have Applejack on the left. Note the signature Stetson," I continued, earning a giggle from Pinkie, a puff up and nod from Rarity, and a skeptical smirk from Applejack. I felt a little uneasy introducing them like that, but their reactions gave me a bit more confidence.

"It's nice to meet you all. I'm Keela, Mender's, um, well..." she suddenly trailed off with the hesitation, looking back at me with a turn in place.

I shook my head, however, seeing where she was going. "You're my friend, Keela. You're not responsible for what your sister did," I reminded. Her elongated ears drooped a little, but she nodded.

"Nirru," Applejack muttered, giving a light shiver of her shoulders as she got a far away look.

Keela nodded as she rotated back around to face Applejack. "Yes, Nirru is my sister. She doesn't treat me like one anymore, but she still is. I'd not realized how far she had let herself fall, and I wish I'd noticed sooner. Still, for what it's worth, she's absolutely terrified of you, Applejack," the Keldarian explained gently. I felt bad for her. She'd lost her sister over this, even if I didn't kill her.

Applejack snorted and shook her head. "Only cause Ah kicked her flank. Ah made ah big mistake that day an' don't intend ta make it again. Ah was only protectin' Mender," she excused. She shouldn't feel badly for what she did to Nirru. If it was any consolation, I did a whole lot worse.

"Oh, I know. She fears Mender even more after what happened, trust me. I'm happy you helped him. That all of you are here for him. It's amazing," Keela said. I detected a slight hint of sadness in her voice, but she covered it up well. She started to turn when she halted suddenly, eyes locking onto Scootaloo who was sitting on the legrest of the sofa. She'd shifted backwards and partially behind me at this point, watching the Keldarian carefully.

Her vision shifted as I moved my head to the side with a nod, showing the two other fillies sitting on my back and watching carefully. "The pegasus is Scootaloo. These two are Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom," I introduced, patting each filly on the head with a tendril tip as I named them.

By the time I looked back over at Keela, however, her eyes had softened dramatically and were shivering slightly. "Oooooh, they're adorable!" she squealed, grabbing her hands against themselves and pushing them to her chest. Twilight giggled at the reaction, and I couldn't help but agree wholeheartedly.

"What?! I'm not adorable!" Scootaloo denied instantly, seemingly forgetting she'd been nervous a moment ago in light of the horrible indignation. She crossed her forelegs over her chest and looked away, pouting.

Keela just squealed louder though, earning a facehoof from Scootaloo and laughter from Apple Bloom. "They are just angels! You didn't tell me you mated already, Mender! Wait, what's the gestation period for a pony?" Keela suddenly asked, confusing herself.

I almost fell off the sofa. Twilight's eyes bulged out next to me as her mouth dropped. Pinkie burst into laughter at almost the same instant. "Jess wha?" Sweetie Belle asked, sounding confused above me somewhere. I ceased noticing as I buried my face into the cushion, heat radiating from it. A moment later, I remembered to point the projector at least out onto the coffee table again. Suddenly, I wondered if it might be a good idea to start carrying around an ice pack or something. Was this much blushing really healthy for me?

"Ah, about eleven months..." Twilight murmured after a moment's hesitation, sounding more than a little embarrassed. Oh. Well, it made sense that they'd have their estrus cycles in the spring and fall then. The foals would be born into at least a little bit of warm weather, which probably helped. Maybe that was how it developed, biologically?

"Oh! So, not his. Ah, sorry," Keela apologized sheepishly. I coughed lightly.

Scootaloo tilted her head in my peripheral vision, but Apple Bloom started snickering again. "O' course not. Mender ain't our daddy. Applejack's mah sister," she explained upon calming a bit.

"Oooh, that's what we're talking about!" Sweetie Belle finally chimed in, followed by, "No, I'm Rarity's little sister." I saw her little white hoof point over my head and towards Rarity, who gave a polite nod on the couch and smiled towards Keela.

Both turned to Scootaloo, who just shrugged idly. "Eh, I wish Mender was my dad! He's way cooler," she admitted. I blanched, eyes widening drastically.

"Scootaloo! You should respect your parents!" Rarity lectured, frowning towards the orange filly.

Twilight coughed abruptly, cutting everypony off before this could spiral any further into a nosedive. "Uh, not to distract from the topic, but was there a reason that you wanted to talk to us, Keela?" Twilight reminded, tilting her head towards the floating, somewhat translucent Keldarian. Oh yeah!

"Oh, well, originally I was only intending to talk to him real quick. I'm really glad I got to meet all of you, though," Keela assured, brushing her pink hair back and out of the right side of her face before rotating to face me again. "What I wanted to tell you was that the research documentation and Ventosus Lacuna are ready to be sent out. The energy buildup we needed to power another FTL Transfer finished an hour ago. Sorry it's taken so long, but it's really hard to gather enough power out here in dark space."

I shook my head and smiled at her. "It's no problem, Keela. When are you going to transfer it over?" I inquired curiously.

"Anytime you're ready. Again, I'm limited to within twenty meters of you," she reminded.

"You were pretty accurate with it before. Could you drop them onto the coffee table?" Twilight offered, gesturing towards it with her right forehoof.

Keela swallowed hesitantly but nodded. "Have shielding up around the table. I'm not entirely sure what Ventosus Lacuna is going to do. I've never technically sent an unassigned Aegis Artifact over before. Mender's book was already linked to him, so it didn't put up any resistance," she warned, before turning and typing at something we couldn't see.

"Wait, what do ya mean, resistance? Is she sendin' over somethin' livin'?" Applejack asked, suddenly sounding wary.

I sighed and lifted Prudentia off my left side, holding it up with a tendril. "Aegis Artifacts apparently have limited awareness. I'm not sure if you'd call it a consciousness, but they can react to things around them by themselves. This is Prudentia, my Aegis Artifact," I explained. Saying that it was 'mine' felt strange. The book seemed to hum pleasantly when I said its name out loud, oddly.

Sweetie Belle nudged it carefully with a hoof while I focused on forming an Aegis Barrier around the coffee table. Distortions drifted along the surface of the book wherever she touched, and she giggled at the sensation. It probably felt like static electricity to her. The book started feeding me biometric information on the little filly, but I ignored it completely.

Twilight surprised me by leaning past the book and brushing her horn along my forehead while I concentrated, instructing, "After you finish the Aegis Barrier, pass the link over to me. I'll charge it with my energy." Whoa. Well, that was probably overkill, but better safe than sorry in this situation, I supposed. I gave her a smile and nod, tossing her the link at the same time through our shared forehead connection.

"Oooh, you're fast at making barriers," Twilight purred, winking at me as she backed off and began to focus. I blushed again and coughed, much to the amusement of both Keela and Pinkie.

"Of course he's good at barriers! He only fell short of the mastery position and an instructor level because he was too lazy to take the tests!" Keela pointed out, grinning.

I glared at her, memories of him deciding not to take the test flaring up with her mention of it. "Okay, from what I can remember, he didn't take the tests because he felt he could help more in the field," I defended, idly wondering if it was me I was defending or him.

"Oh! A very noble aspiration! You've always been a gentlecolt, then?" Rarity inquired, giving me a rather devious looking smirk. Okay, she was laying it on thick intentionally. I knew her enough to know that she always curled her mouth up like that when she was teasing, at this point.

"It's all just a show, of course. I'm secretly a bad stallion who's into breaking hearts," I added sarcastically, rolling my eyes.

Rarity grinned, but Applejack snorted before she could comment. "Puhlease! Yer tha straightest arrow Ah've ever seen. Ya might not be as honest as me, but Ah know fer ah fact that ya'd never do us harm," she refuted, giving me an unflinching yet skeptical stare. Twilight appeared unfazed by the entire topic. Either that or she wasn't paying any attention to us.

"Mender's not an arrow, AJ! You're just being silly now. He's a klutzy stallion with shiny armor and lots of limbs! Sooooooo much cooler than an arrow," Pinkie corrected, rolling upside down and smiling at me while waving. I smirked at her antics and shook my head.

"He's not a klutz. He just has a gravitational pull and absurdly bad luck," Twilight appended calmly, relaxing her magic when the barrier was almost six times as thick as I had it. Yeah. Way overkill. Oh, and she was also very right.

Sweetie Belle, apparently growing bored with the ripples from the book, slid down my foreleg and plopped next to me on the couch. "Gravity? What does a gravity pull thingy mean?" she asked curiously.

I paused, blinking again as all attention focused on me, Twilight apparently content with letting me talk instead. But how should I best explain this in ways they would understand?

"Uh, really big objects have a pull towards them called gravity. The ground is massive and keeps us all stuck to it because it's so big," I explained, glancing at the other two to see if they were comprehending as well.

Scootaloo seemed only vaguely interested, but Apple Bloom swapped over to where Sweetie had been before and nodded down at me. "We learned that in Miss Cheerilee's class!" she assured. Well, that made things easier.

"Well, I have a pull, too. It's not as strong as the ground's, but it's enough to make things fall towards me if they're already falling. Or if they're not doing anything and can roll," I explained.

Twilight nodded at that, then turned to Pinkie. "Pinkie! Ball emergency!" Huh?

Pinkie perked up and nodded rapidly before ducking under the couch and coming out with a rubbery, blue ball a few seconds later. Wait, what?! Twilight had blue balls hidden under her couch? Wait, something sounded off about that thought.

"Here ya go!" Pinkie offered, tossing the ball over the Aegis Barrier. Twilight caught it in her magical field before lightly setting it down on the surface of the barrier.

I nodded after she got it stable, and then looked back down at Sweetie. "To explain it simply, I used to look a lot like Keela does. That's what my old race looks like. After I got turned into a pony, however, something happened and I became a lot bigger than I am now. With magic, I'm able to stay small, but sometimes my gravity thinks I'm still really big," I tried to explain.

Sweetie Belle tilted her head, but I extended my right foreleg towards the ball, lowering the dial on my gravitational limiter. Sweetie's eyes widened as her bangs started drifting sideways slightly towards me. Twilight gave me a questioning glance as well, then looked back at the ball as it slowly started rolling towards me of its own accord, obviously having no other forces apart from air friction acting upon it. My internal mass was easily able to overcome that, however, and soon the ball picked up speed before rolling right off the barrier.

"Cool!" Pinkie chimed in, beaming at me.

"Whoa! It suddenly feels like I'm being pulled towards you!" Scootaloo exclaimed, giving me a somewhat uneasy look. Oh yeah. Being a pegasus, she was probably far more aware of gravity.

I snickered then shook my head. "Sorry. I'll turn it down a bit," I apologized, dialing my gravity compressor back up. One of these days I should see if there's a repair diagnostic for it. If I could fix the damage the short during the warp caused, I could totally nullify my extra density.

"You can control the effect?" Twilight asked curiously, giving me a surprised stare.

My ears lowered a bit, but I gave her a soft smile in return, reminding, "I'm part robot, remember? It's as easy as turning a dial. Mine's busted, however, so I can't fully suppress it."

Twilight's eyes softened and she momentarily looked guilty over something, but Keela cut in before she could speak. "You could probably fix it, given your capabilities. Anyway, the coordinates are plugged in and the device is primed. I triple-checked the equations, but it should be accurate down to a couple millimeters," she assured hesitantly. The gloom clung to me a bit, but I threw up a mask over my emotions and gave her a nod.

"We're ready on this end, then. Release when ready," I instructed.

Keela hesitated only for a second before hitting a button on the console we couldn't see. Light exploded from above the coffee table, and everypony in the room winced. Out of instinct, I threw a barrier in front of both groups of ponies. Keela gave out a yelp over the connection and ducked a bolt of energy. The link was momentarily disrupted, but flared back to life mere seconds later. "It's eating up too much energy! It's fighting the transfer!" Keela called out over the deafening hum given off by the reaction. Two familiar looking prismatic wings expanded slowly out over the table.

My mind scrambled to think of anything that might be different that we hadn’t thought of between the book and the sword. It was obviously not connected to this reality, so it probably was acting as if she were simply trying to banish it. With a limited, reaction based intelligence, there had to be a way to fix that! Thinking hard, I realized there was really only one way to ‘help’ from this side. The book had a link to me. Maybe if I grounded the energy from the sword as well on this end, it would ease the transfer!

My back flexed, tendrils gently shoving Apple Bloom off me as I hopped off the couch. Twilight looked over at me in surprise, mouth opening to say something as I formed a barrier above the Slipstream wings inside of the shield. She didn’t get a chance to start before I brought the thin barrier down into the center of the Slipstream emanation.

The jolt of energy rippled through me instantly, causing my muscles to clench up as it passed through me and into the floor. The connection happened instantly, rooting the effect to this side just like the book was. Banking on the blade having the same reaction as Prudentia, I shouted out, “Ventosus Lacuna!”

For a moment, the blade pulsed. Then it was as if a ribbon of fire danced across my mind along my connection to the barrier I made. The orb of light and energy expanded outwards from the partially phased in blade, crushing into the sides of the barriers we’d set up for it. For a moment, I saw a single eye opening up and looking right at me in my mind. The Slipstream effect exploded a moment later, snapping my connection barrier in half and blasting me backwards into the couch…