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Forgiveness Pending

by Kiroberos

Chapter 49

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It's amazing how time sort of slipped together and blurred when nothing noteworthy or distinctive was happening. Further, the more awareness one gave to the actual process of time's passage, the slower it seemed to go. Yesterday had been one of those blurs after I woke back up and helped Rainbow get Scootaloo out of the tree she was hanging in via her parachute. They practiced for a surprisingly long time, honestly, so it was no surprise that her wings finally gave out. Rainbow bid me farewell for the night after securing the tired and sleeping Scootaloo to my back, and I headed back towards the cabins.

By the time I'd arrived, of course, Spike, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom were sleeping. Big Mac gave a soft smile as he saw me walking up with the missing Crusader, apparently having anticipated her being with me. The two of us got her into bed, I gave Tank his supper and evening bath water, and then I, too, lost consciousness, leaving Big Mac as the only still functioning member of our little group. He'd been writing some sort of letter before bed, but I didn't pay much attention. Probably just to AJ as to update her.

Now, time had ground the other way. Despite the rather interesting name for the disks, there wasn't a huge amount of data on them in that file. Well, their overall function was well documented, and so were various commands I could give them, but there was a surprising lack of the 'how' and ‘why’ parts of what they did present. The data they were passing to me, combined with 'nanites' in the title, didn't bode well. Tiny machines measured on the nano-scale were drifting through my bloodstream right now, actually. They were responsible for my hyperactive regeneration and immune system, along with most of the biorhythmic data I could take on myself. Given the rather similar comparison to what I could pick up on Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie, I could only assume, really. Did the disks introduce nanites to their system? If so, what did they do? If they didn't stop at just taking readings, I had a feeling we'd have a bigger problem coming up.

Out of pure paranoia, I kept a secure lockdown on my connections to the girls. Encryption and passkey, not to mention firewall and active scanning. At this point, until I figured out the extent of the connection, I didn't want anything passing through that line without my explicit permission. It only made matters worse in the fact that they didn't use conventional radio or psionic channels, as far as I could tell. There appeared to actually be my race's magic involved in supporting the link. Wonderful. Because a mixture of magic and technology never caused problems before.

I rolled my eyes idly while flipping to the next page. At this point, the manual was projected out my right eye and I was reading it with my left, 'physically' flipping the pages. After the sixtieth page, I had started to get a bit of eyestrain reading it right off my display adapter, I discovered. This was far gentler for me. I wasn't exactly concerned with ponies finding me, regardless.

Glancing up again, I took in my hidden view of the lake. The sky was somewhat clear today and actually had a bit of sun starting to peek over the horizon and across the water. A thin mist hung over the entire body of water as the air rapidly heated up, and I smiled at the early morning sensations. It was cooler this time of day, and I felt far more comfortable without the sun glaring down on me. No offense to Tia, of course. It was in my name, after all. I was more of a night pony. The hidden bluff I rested on was nicely covered by thick foliage and was partially into the tree canopy, so I couldn't be spotted from the air, and they'd be very hard pressed to see me from the lake. I could see them, though.

Speaking of, my eyes locked onto the two foals playing in the water still. They'd come by a good twenty minutes earlier, and seemed to be enjoying the water. They were much too far away for me to see anything apart from their colors without bothering to magnify my vision, but one of them looked vaguely like the filly that was with the Crusaders during the accident. What was her name? Pinch?

Also too lazy to peek into my database to verify that, I shifted my attention back down to my reading. I had a lot of data to weed through before I saw Twilight again, and she was expecting me to get this done. A part of me oddly felt better, however, knowing I had my sensors and occasional visual peek at the foals. They weren't accompanied by anypony, and after what happened the first day here, I realized that if I could make a difference, I definitely wanted to. If something did happen and they needed help, I was in a position to provide just that on extremely short notice. That, and get a message back to the other adult ponies quite quickly.

Smirking, I glanced over at my only other companion again, remembering I wasn't technically alone. Tank was smiling gently while watching me read, seemingly perfectly content with lying in the shade and relaxing. I made sure he was nice and washed up this morning, and picked out some choice greens for him to eat alongside my surprisingly large breakfast. After the last two days of driving myself quite hard, I discovered my appetite had skyrocketed!

The next page showed the start of chapter sixteen, entitled 'Root Commands'. Everything I grasped so far looked rather zealous for just information gathering. Sampling, I understood, but there was also mention of manipulation of both bodily processes and energy pools. In other words, manipulation of the magic and bodies of those that touched the disks. Who made these, and for what purpose?! Worse yet, what would happen if I registered all six of them? The code for their processing and sampling was open to me, and I'd already thoroughly examined it, but the root coding and signal manipulation was black boxed on me. Thankfully, it was just a partition, and I was in the process of breaking down its encryption right now, but I still didn't like things hidden from me.

My eyes widened as I skimmed through the index of the chapter. Root commands appeared to be orders directly to that black box. It sent 'root' level commands to the disks themselves, instructing them to... do things to the hosts, as they put it. Basic things were there, such as localized sampling of tissue and biorhythm data, and reading different types of energy outputs, of course. It went beyond just scanning, however. My ears flattened backwards against my head and I glared at the page, rapidly flipping past the scans and going directly to the 'orders' I could give.

It went into something about producing and storing various chemicals, and apparently one of the commands was introducing them in either localized or system-wide amounts. The chemicals were indexed separately, and listed, unfortunately, by their formula. I cursed myself for not knowing proper chemistry, apart from the basics of engineering. For probably the thousandth time, I caught myself wishing I'd taken medical training.

The second of three direct manipulations listed was electric in source. That appeared to be physical nerve manipulation, and it actually appeared to have interface capacity. I was even less comfortable with the sounds of that, and didn't particularly agree with the idea of physically controlling the hosts' movements. Twilight was going to have a field day with this.

The third was energy manipulation, the only non-physical variant. The amount of commands was staggering, however, and this appeared to be the 'main' purpose of the disks, I decided. The commands were focused on taking samples, and then mixing them across the disks to try to figure out how they interacted with each other, for some reason. I could only guess that Doctor Kyliona had found something to do with the way the Element Bearers interacted. Could it be hinting at the Elements of Harmony themselves? Honestly, I knew next to nothing about the actual titular power source. The fact that she called it our race's only hope kept running through my head, and I groaned, sighing as I read on. Once I got the black box cracked open, the first thing I was going to do was find a way to nuke all of these options and commands.

Cracking sounds distracted me, and I perked my head up again, ears swiveling as I checked on Tank. He hadn't moved from his position, however, and was slowly turning his head in the direction of the offending noise as well. My scanners went active, and I easily picked out the two fillies wading through the underbrush at the bottom of the cliff. Outline profiles began running on them as I frowned and waited.

"Are ya sure he's around 'ere somewhere? Why would he be way out 'ere in tha first place?!" I heard muttered in a distinctly Apple Bloom voice from the rear filly. I switched the profile to just matching for her and got a ninety-seven percent positive, which was the best I could hope for at this distance. On a hunch, I ran the other two fillies against the lead pony, and got a positive, ninety-four percent match on Scootaloo.

There was a soft snort, followed by, "I'm not. It's just something I noticed yesterday. The wings he gave me have a disk on the front of my chest that holds my parachute in place like a harness. It glows slightly brighter the closer I get to him," she revealed. Oh, the harness brace I put in to cushion against g-shock. Clever filly! That doubled as the signal feedback to me, so it would get just slightly brighter the closer she got. I double-checked my magic signal, and it did indeed show her extremely close to me in that direction.

"Really? So we could'a wandered out 'ere fer no reason whatsoever?" Apple Bloom asked, annoyance shifting into her tone. I smirked and stood up, slipping quietly towards the cliff edge to peek over at them.

Scootaloo rolled her eyes and turned around at that, giving Apple Bloom a frustrated glare. "You're the one who agreed to find him. Got a better idea? I just hope this works, or all of this will be a waste of time," she groaned, looking to her left again towards the lake.

"She's our friend, Scoots! Ya gotta trust her. She says she wants ta properly apologize-like, an' has ah way ta smooth things over, so she does. She ain't dumb," Apple Bloom defended, stomping her right forehoof down as emphasis afterwards. Heh, both of them being out here in the first place was a testament to their loyalty. They must be talking about Sweetie, then. Guessing they weren't going to ambush me or anything weird, I decided it was rude to further eavesdrop.

Scootaloo sighed and nodded, looking a little glum for a moment. It was rapidly replaced with surprise and panic as I snagged her torso with a tentacle, wrapping it around her in an instant and yanking her upwards. Apple Bloom whipped back around at the surprised squeaking noise, then gave a start when she saw her friend no longer in front of her where she was a moment ago.

The orange filly stopped struggling after I pulled her up to the cliff level. She stared at me for a moment before smirking and nodding, relaxing inside the tentacle wrap. A moment later, I grinned and launched another down, just as the filly on the ground looked upwards instead.

Apple Bloom yelped but didn't dodge quick enough, being snatched up in my tentacle as well and hauled upwards. She didn't fight, however, pushing a tentacle away from her long enough to look at it, then smile. Heh, not only was she stronger than Scootaloo, I noticed a more level head about her.

"Okay, Ah take it all back. Ya know yer stuff, Scoots," she admitted upon touching down on the cliff surface next to me.

Snickering, I nodded to the little pegasus in question, setting her down as well. "Finding me like that was indeed clever. You're very observant, Scootaloo," I complimented gently.

"Just Scoots, please! You're awesome in my book, especially after giving me these! That means I'll let you use my nickname," she decided, opening her wings up and displaying the radiating jet extensions with a grin. Apple Bloom rolled her eyes.

I smiled softly to her and nodded, happy that it made her happy, anyway. "You've been behaving with them, right?" I asked, a light stern tone to my question.

She threw me a salute and nodded. "Apple Bloom can confirm, Boss! Short flights only with rests in-between. I've also stayed low to the ground, just in case!" she relayed. I peeked back at AB as well, who nodded twice and smirked at her friend.

"Very good! I'm proud of you, Scoots. With your loyalty, you'd make Rainbow proud. I'll put in a good word later for you," I offered, smirking as she puffed up almost instantly and beamed. It was easy to make her happy, but she was oh so adorable when grinning.

Apple Bloom snickered at her for a moment before nodding and shifting to face me again, sitting down gently on the rocks. "Ah'm ah bit jealous, honest. Ya think it would be possible ta work somethin' up like that fer me, too? Maybe runnin' faster, or kickin' stronger or somethin'?" she asked, sounding hopeful.

I hesitated, and then tilted my head towards her, considering it. Earth Ponies had the same magic pools as everypony else, if I recall. Muscle enhancement for speed and strength would actually be easier than the wings, enchantment-wise. What made the wings insanely complex were the micro-jets hooked up into the muscle nervous control. Oh, and the backup emergency systems for the parachute and chest support. Plus, if Rainbow got any faster, I might have to install heat shielding...

A moment later, I carefully nodded to her before explaining, "A lot of the same issues would be involved, but I could make an enchantment that enhances your muscles and dermal layer, yeah."

"Dermal?" Scootaloo asked, tilting her head as well as she looked between us.

Extending my right foreleg up, I nudged my skin lightly with my other hoof. "Dermal is your skin. I'd make you stronger, faster, and tougher. The only issue is, like Scootaloo, the only way I have to power it is your internal magic supply. You'll get tired a lot faster, and might pass out if you're stubborn and overuse it," I explained, warning her the same way I did Scootaloo.

Apple Bloom didn't stop grinning, however, and nodded twice. "Yeah, Scoots was explainin' ta me! She said it gets easier tha more ya do it, or somethin'?"

Smiling again, I nodded to her. "Yeah, training up your magic pool is like training any other muscle. The more you use it, the bigger your pool gets. Overuse will make your whole body sore, though, and it gives actual magic users nosebleeds and headaches from the tension," I elaborated. Both fillies were surprisingly interested, and I realized I might be onto something here. Still, it worried me a bit if this got out.

"Oh, and don't tell anypony else about this, okay? Everypony is going to want this sort of thing if it becomes public knowledge," I deduced, frowning to myself. Apple Bloom looked momentarily bleak, but Scootaloo just nodded and waved her right forehoof towards me in assurance.

The little filly opened her mouth to comment, when all of my focus was suddenly shifted directly to the right. My ears whipped around as I picked up a very, very light clicking noise, followed by a mechanical whirling sound from quite a distance to my right. Er, what was that?!

Both fillies stopped and gave me a questioning stare as I turned my head to the right. The noise stopped instantly and I frowned. That sounded remarkably like a camera. That other colt's had sounded the same, except his had an additional flash noise. Hesitantly, I scanned the thicker clusters of greenery near where my little ledge joined the rest of the woods, eyes picking up a slight glimmer that rapidly moved out of view. A reflection of light. A lens?

"We have company, and not of the nice sort, I don't think. Stay here," I ordered to the two fillies, lifting my left foreleg up and forming a barrier in a hemisphere around them. I doubted the glint was a rifle scope, but I wasn't about to risk their lives on an assumption.

"Aaah, be careful, Mender!" Apple Bloom hissed, scanning the plants as well, a frantic light dancing in her eyes. Tank, whom I accidentally neglected to put in the barrier, took to the air a moment later, light buzzing noise only temporarily distracting me.

Nodding to Apple Bloom, I slowly made my way towards the edge of the area before calling out, "I know you're out there. Do you want to talk?" It was a long shot, but being civil was preferred.

I waited. Lightly, I heard a bee buzzing a few yards away. Quiet bird chirps joined somewhere behind me. Frowning, I scanned the area where the glimmer of light had come from again, widening my eyes as I picked up a hasty but subtle movement underneath the larger bush in the area. A shift, and something brown sliding along the dirt. Skin? No, it was a little shiny. Manufactured?

My systems flared to full processing an instant later as something ducked out of the bush. The dark green colored pony shape whipped its foreleg sideways as it dove out of the hiding spot, and a blast of powdery smoke came up out of nowhere. My eyes narrowed, cybernetic muscles shooting down my legs in the same instant before I took off, avoiding the smoke and kicking off a tree to the other side of it, giving a wide berth. Something round glimmered where the smoke came from as I dove sideways, setting warning flags off in my head. Coming out of my hasty roll, I sliced with a thin energy blade up and out at a forty-five degree angle, tracing a line across the object in an instant before tearing after the pony. I heard the explosion behind me prematurely go off in the background, and a few chunks of shrapnel bounced off my flank armor as I ran. Low-grade shrapnel explosive using some sort of rock salt or something. It was meant to stun or slow me, probably. What the hell was with this pony?!

By the time I righted myself and had gotten running, I saw the mysterious pony almost forty yards ahead of me, flowing golden brown mane whipping chaotically in the wind. Damn, they could run! No wings, I noticed instantly. Picking up speed, I sprinted after them to catch up, forcing sharp breathing from my mouth. My target must have heard me, and picked up speed a moment later, dodging between two trees and sliding down the embankment into the valley. The light sound of rotary blades came from behind me, signaling that Tank was following, but I ignored him in light of leaping past the two trees and just falling the entire way to the ground below.

They glanced back a heartbeat later, and I noticed genuine surprise on their face when I smashed into the ground on all four hooves and didn't even stop, kicking up dirt before leaping towards them again. The sight of widened, light gold eyes greeted me, and more importantly, no horn. At this range, I noticed the body structure was light and slim, with only moderate muscles and definitely a focus of mass balanced between the front and back of the body. A mare?

She dove sideways instead, rolling out of the way before bolting along the face of the embankment we'd just leapt off, going deeper into the woods. I slid before kicking sideways and rolling after her to keep my momentum, hot on her hooves and definitely not going to lose her in the woods. She had saddlebags as well, and I counted on them slowing her down. Something loose hung around her neck from a strap, but I couldn't tell what it was at this speed. She was damn fast, and it was all I could do to keep up without fully transforming my legs. That would definitely tell her something was up, however. I marked it down as a last resort in case I needed to prevent her escape.

The woods opened out suddenly into a clearing, barely noticed at the speed we were running. She dropped suddenly out of viewpoint. I saw it coming and fell sideways, feeling the wind shoot over my fur as I rolled past both her lashing out back legs. She hopped away again as I spun to my legs, skidding to a stop as she made a sideways whipping motion with her head. Her posture righted itself into a spread out stance, and the glitter of metal was in her muzzle. Some sort of mouth handle attached to a quarter meter of blade. Interesting. I didn't realize they had weapons like that. The handle itself also looked strange, and I remained wary as she slowly paced sideways, keeping herself wide and ready to dodge.

"Knock it off. I just want to talk to you. You don't have to run away or attack me," I growled, shifting my dermal armor up near the surface under my skin. Not exactly wanting to hurt her wasn't mutually exclusive to not wanting to get stabbed by a psychotic mare, so I was better safe than sorry.

"Mhack ohf!" she snarled back a moment later, eyes narrowing at me.

I blinked. "Uh, what?" I asked, raising an eyebrow to her. Her glare shifted to a deadpan expression instead, mixed with mild annoyance. Her jaw unclenched a moment later, and she shifted her tongue visibly over the handle of the blade.

"I said, back off. Stop chasing me," she corrected, flicking the blade back into guard an instant later and slowly starting to shift backwards herself.

Figured that's what she said. Frowning, I kept the same two-meter distance between us, slowly shifting forwards instead. "I'm not attacking you. You attacked me. But I can't let you run away either until I talk to you," I warned, sticking to the honest approach. I pretended Applejack was on the sidelines applauding.

The mare gave a frustrated snarl through the blade instead of answering. Her rear legs snapped back at the same time. Widening my eyes, a flash of memory suddenly reared up. I was much, much too young. Day after day, it was all the same. It just got worse, of course. In order to eat, we had to grab and pull off a collar tag. It didn't matter from whom. If ours got pulled off instead, it was fifteen lashings with a studded paddle. I learned fast, and still felt the burning sensation of the red streaks across my lower back. My stomach rumbled as the targets dwindled. Barely any tags left.

A flash of insight. Selfishness. Hatred. Maybe even a bit of defiance. A mock chase later past the instructor set everything up. I pounced. The fellow blue blur dodged, of course, which set it up perfect as our captain turned to watch. Spinning sideways, I lashed out at the instructor's tag instead.

Captain Tym didn't let me even fully extend my arm. His left paw only flicked me sideways, sending me crashing through several training dummies. Of course, he thought it was hilarious. That night, I got supper. The next day, he started training me himself.

My hoof hit the bundle of muscles in the corner of her jaw and kept going, hooking under the hilt and whipping the knife sideways as I rolled under her lunge. She hit hard on her shoulder and rolled with a startled yelp, me flipping back up to my hooves an instant later. She came out of the roll with another flick of her head. For a split second, I anticipated another knife, but rapidly tossed myself sideways just in case. I'd been wrong.

Tiny and thin, like a pencil, the steel bolt flicked past my shoulder an instant later, and I kicked off the ground as I rotated to the left. My left shoulder now facing downwards, I checked her in the chest with my full weight before she could flick the second of three bolts down into the tiny mouth crossbow. She gasped as I landed on her, but rapidly rolled backwards, kicking me off at the same time. I landed, her crossbow latched firmly in my teeth before I bit down, snapping through the wood and tearing the string off an instant later with a low growl.

She looked more than startled, and whipped something off the side of her saddlebag an instant later. My eyes widened, but I closed them an just before the blast of smoke hit me dead on. My proximity sensors flicked up a heartbeat later, just in time to see her book out of the clearing like her tail was on fire. Damn it!

Okay, the straightforward approach wasn't working. My nanites came alive and started processing the smoke that now covered me. It wasn't just for covering things, I noticed, as several irritants and a light nerve agent were picked up in the residue. So, kinda like the tear gas we used to use in my old dimension. Shrugging, I set them to work sucking up the dust while I put a filter over my eyes and nose, hopping up again and flicking myself into the air with two fast tendrils. Instead of chasing her this time, I moved into the treetops, rapidly slipping from branch to branch and following behind her with quick and quiet tentacle flings. The last time I'd used this was against Nirru. Overkill for this mare, but she was really starting to annoy me. The irritation surprised me, but I just chalked it up to having a rather bad day since she showed up.

Dirt flaking off me, I dashed to the side and kept a light distance, watching as she slowed down and looked over her shoulder again, cautiously cantering to the left as she looked. She was skilled, but not a professional. At least not according to my squad based tactics.

I slipped closer, watching as she slowed to a halt and looked around rapidly, her chest heaving like crazy. No, she didn't hold herself like a soldier. A scout, maybe? It felt like her training was more revolving around not being detected than outright combat. Training. She worked for somepony, and had been watching me. Those fliers! My eyes narrowed as she dropped a few more points on my personal karma meter. If she worked for whoever was behind that, I definitely couldn't let her escape.

"Ha... wow. Okay, his leg... must be injured still. Uh... transmission!" she suddenly whispered to herself, hastily tossing her saddlebags off and digging through the right one. Transmission? My ears perked up as my eyes zoomed in more.

The crystal array she pulled out of the saddlebag was pretty looking, variants of green and light blue gems all woven together in a practical looking, silvery stand. It was compact, and looked vaguely like a satellite dish, honestly. A communication device?

A moment later, the case around her neck hit the forest floor, too, hastily opened back up to reveal a similar device to what I saw when I got here. That must be a camera that ponies use! Damn it. She took pictures of me? Oh, the tentacles! My eyes narrowed as I slipped one tree closer, right above the clearing she was in now. She hesitated, looking the device over before giving a weak groan.

"Uh, energy crystal! Uh, where did I put them?!" she muttered, rapidly checking the other bag. She was panicking still. Her mind probably was picturing my recovery and running after her again, and I smirked. I'd not felt this way since Nirru, and my long tongue licked out along my lips, tasting along my grin. I'd forgotten that it was fun, too.

My body shifted the second she moved to the left, ducking into the bag. My tentacles braced out below me, not a single scrape sounding out upon landing, and I slipped them back inside of me in an eyeblink. My hoof reached out, lightly brushing the device of crystal and taking a quick scan. There was no energy in it at all. Good.

A smirk twisting up at the corner of my lips, I tipped the device over and pushed my right forehoof against it, watching her curiously from less than half a meter away. She grinned as she pulled out a glowing crystal, and then rotated to face me. The expression faltered in less than a second, and I almost swore she'd accidentally swallow the thing as her eyes shot open. Her heartbeat skyrocketed, bursts of blood rushing through her veins as I watched her pupils slowly shrink. Fear. Panic. She reeked of it, and it was delicious. I grinned to her as my hoof pushed down, crushing her device in half in an instant and snapping the metal under my strength.

"Injured leg, huh?" I inquired playfully a moment later. She yelped and spit out the energy crystal, lashing out with a hoof. It was pointless of course, and I just felt her blow hit the organic metal in my cheek. She screamed in pain as her hoof rebounded, barely jarring my head to the side. My smile didn't falter as I slowly walked forward still. A whimper sounded out, and then she glared up at me again and lashed out with the other hoof to my neck this time.

There was a cracking noise, and it didn't come from me. She gasped and leaped backwards away from me, landing into a stumble as her left foreleg gave away under her weight. Now she was just being stupid. I snickered, a light whispering dancing through me that I barely acknowledged. She did smell really good. Making her pay a little for everything she just put me through wouldn't take too long, would it?

"S-Stop! Please, no! Don't kill me, I give up!" she exclaimed, limping backwards as I continued slowly strutting forwards, that familiar stirring inside as her delicious words reached me.

"Shouldn't you have thought of that before trying to kill me instead?" I suggested playfully, grinning wider as her look of horror set in and she fell backwards, trying to crawl away from me. It would be so easy to grab her with tentacles, but I held them in reserve with what little willpower I could muster. She smelled so good!

I pounced instead, landing on her prone form as she screamed, trying to feebly shove me off. Her strength was shot, however, and I was much too heavy now that I'd released quite a bit of muscle from subspace into myself. Inhaling softly, I smelled along her collarbone, and she froze instantly, eyes shivering and widening as I held her there. "Oh... oh no, please. I, um..." she whispered, slowly looking back up at me instead. She really did smell good. She was in heat too, as expected.

"What? You told me not to kill you," I pointed out softly, smile widening as she swallowed and nodded, rolling over onto her back, letting her forelegs drop to her chest and spreading her back legs. Submitting just like that? That wasn't any fun.

My eyes narrowed, but something nagged at the back of my mind. No, I didn't want to be weak. I didn't want to keep being a pansy doormat that everypony walked all over! But wait. What? No, I didn't want to hurt her! My eyes snapped open an instant later and I inhaled sharply, sitting back up again. She scrambled up and out from under me immediately, shifting to a confused expression instead of anger. Wait, what was I just doing?! Why did I...?! Why had I even considered doing that to her?!

"G-Get away from me! Wait, no... Y-Your eyes??" she asked, looking stunned as she shoved herself away from me, sliding into a sitting position again. I was jarred backwards, not really feeling it as confusion shot through me. No, I wasn't supposed to listen to that voice! I wasn't a monster like she said.

The buzzing noise shifted loud enough for me to no longer be able to subconsciously ignore it at the same time my proximity sensors fired off. Oh. Oh hell. "Duck!" I shouted to her, head whipping to the left and lashing out just an instant too slow.

"Hu-?" was all she got out before a tortoise came in at high velocity and rebounded off the side of her head. I saw her lurch sideways, head whipping painfully into her left shoulder as her eyes went vacant with shock, and she hit the ground on that side, unmoving. Uh oh.

Slowly, I shook the murky feeling out of my skull and edged closer to her. "Uh, Miss? Are you okay?" I tried asking, noticing a bit of blood coming from the right side of her head. She didn't respond, or move, and I swallowed, scrambling forwards and feeling her neck.

Exhaling softly, I relaxed as I felt the heartbeat, and noted the slow breathing. She was just knocked out, then. "Uh, thanks, Tank. I, um, really didn't know what to do there," I muttered, deciding the judgment call on his part was probably actually the wisest path. Sure, she'd wake up with a whopping headache, but at least I, um, stopped. I swallowed weakly and stared down at her for a second before slowly shaking my head. Damn it. My view shifted to the book connected to my left side still, tucked between saddlebags. What was wrong with me?!

I felt the bubble I'd left the fillies in disrupted, but I didn't care at that point. All I could manage to do was sit there and stare down at her. There was nothing in my cybernetic programming to cause that. What did that mean? Slowly, that cold ache drifted back into my chest, and I crushed my eyes closed, staring at her having started to cause physical pain. All I could manage was a painful swallow, and it felt like the truth was sucked down with the lump in my throat. It reverberated through me, and I hated every ounce of it. It was me. Nirru had been right. Parts of me were monstrous after all. The admission left me with nothing but that oh so familiar hollow ache, and I suddenly felt lost again. Confused. For the first time since so long ago on Fluttershy's couch, I suddenly thought about it, and realized I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. Everything had been a reaction, hadn't it? I'd been forced to just keep moving and reacting to things as they came up. My only 'plan' so far, if one could call it that, was to get a job as an engineer and enchanter.

I heard them run into the clearing a little before the wind danced past and brought their smells to my nose. Still, I couldn't open my eyes yet. I'd see the monster I was turning out to be if I did. I had two mares interested in me even, yet that beast on the inside almost... I shivered, but halted myself soon after, scared to even move. Two mares. That thought should bring happiness and a warm elation, shouldn't it? Then why was I absolutely terrified?! It came down to the realization that I had no idea what I was doing. I'd found myself in a position of surprisingly unwanted authority, doing a job I hadn't wanted to begin with, and holding responsibilities for other ponies when I could barely ensure my own safety, let alone that of anypony else! What was I doing?!

"M-Mender, are ya okay?" was asked, the soft yet uncertain drawl reverberating through me, having no consideration for my mindset.

That... That was a good question. I decided she probably meant physically, which apart from dozens of cybernetic additions, was true. I was healthy, and my leg was healing still. I'd sustained no damage. The answer obvious now, I slowly shook my head negative, refusing to open my eyes.

"No. I'm really not. Uh, I'm not hurt, it's fine..." I whispered, my own voice feeling foreign, and I coughed to suddenly clear the hoarseness gathered around my vocal cords.

"Whoa! You so kicked her flank! What was she even doing out here?!" Scootaloo asked softly, apparently deciding that was all that mattered, and that the unconscious mare was more interesting. Her wording caused me to wince, regardless.

After a moment, I shook my head and finally opened my eyes again, correcting her with, "Actually, I was trying really hard not to hurt her. I'm, well, I'm not a monster. I don't want to be a monster. Uh, Tank was technically the one that knocked her out." It felt like an excuse, and left a bitter aftertaste in my mouth. My tongue recoiled, and I rubbed it against my teeth for a moment to drive the feeling away.

Tank hovered in, breaking orbit around my head to land gently in front of me and start the extremely slow process of nodding in agreement. I smiled down at him and returned it preemptively, gently patting him on the head. My red-maned friend moved into my viewpoint and ducked down, face next to Tank so she could peek up and at my eyes, however.

"Mender, yer not ah monster. Ya tried ta not hurt her, so relax. What was she doin' out 'ere?" she asked softly, shooting me an assuring smile. I swallowed, but couldn't manage to look away from her, forgetting how adorable she could be sometimes. As much as it burned in my chest, I realized that meeting her eyes was probably, well, better for me than avoiding them.

"She was taking pictures of me in secret. From her extreme reaction, I'm guessing she either works for, or is an associate of the ponies who printed those smear fliers last week. I should, well, probably get her back to the camp and put her under arrest. Spike should be able to send a letter to Tia and let her know about what happened," I reasoned, my head clearing a bit to the point where I could finally consider what to do. Apple Bloom's gentle smile burned its way into my mind, and I felt myself relax a little. She trusted me. That must mean I wasn't a bad pony, right? I stopped, and that had to mean something! Even if the temptation was there and, uh, something seemed to take over, it didn't succeed. I didn't hurt the mare. That was the important part, wasn't it?

Deciding Fluttershy would say yes and hug me, I smiled down at the little filly and nodded. Her grin widened and she returned it before trotting over to Scootaloo instead, finally letting me free of her subtle spell. I suddenly realized that I was a total sucker for adorable foals. What would it honestly be like with my own to take care of? I blushed lightly, thinking back to what Fluttershy said, and decided it was best to immediately drive it out of my mind for now. Heh.

I sighed and turned back to the fallen mare, contemplating a way that we could actually get her back to the camp. Suddenly, I realized that this was almost a perfect use for alteration. Smiling, I gestured towards the woods, after walking up to the two fillies. "I have an idea for getting her back to the camp. Could both of you go gather as many sticks and branches as you can find? I'll start the enchantment," I requested. They both saluted, and I nodded back...

* * * * *

It was more than a little awkward wandering back into camp, admittedly. Many ponies were giving me strange stares, but that much I was used to. What I wasn't used to was being followed by a spider abomination made of wood, with a mare tied to the top. Still, it was easier than carrying her all this way myself. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo both walked proudly to either side of me, chests puffed up as they assisted me in making my first ‘arrest’. I honestly didn't think it was that significant, but if they were pleased, I was happy.

Nurse Redheart saw me coming before Spike did, who was talking to her. Tank pulled out of his usual orbit around me, and drifted over to the dragon as he turned around, wondering what Redheart was giving the shocked and disturbed stare to. His expression shifted to startled, but with a bit of jaded mixed in. I resisted snickering, but was cut off by Big Mac and Carrot Top just as I got over to where Spike and Redheart were.

"Whoa, who's the mare, Mender? Heh, ya catch her off in the woods growing from a bush or something?" Carrot asked, smirking and winking to me.

Coughing lightly, I muttered, "Actually, you don't know how accurate that was. But no, nothing like that. She's actually under arrest," I explained, glancing back at my captive to make sure she was still secured.

All three ponies present widened their eyes a little, but to my surprise, Spike looked more amused instead as he perked up. "Whoa! Dude, I didn't think you were going to actually use that capacity! What did she do?" he asked, walking up closer and peeking up at her. Her coat was considerably dirtier now, and her mane was disheveled, sticks sticking out here and there.

"Wait, you can make arrests?" Carrot asked, tilting her head towards me.

I started to nod towards her, but Nurse Redheart cut me off and nodded as well, adding, "Yes, he technically holds the position of a secondary captain in the royal guard, but he's more a researcher. This must be a special case." Her observations were just as sharp as ever, I noticed.

Smiling, I nodded to her. "Yeah, related to me in this case. We caught her taking pictures of me in the forest from hiding. She ran when confronted, then tried to use force to escape. Uh, Tank was actually the one to subdue her," I explained, stepping back as Redheart shifted up, lifting the mare's head, then wincing at the bruise on her temple.

"Wait, there were paparazzi all the way out here?" Carrot asked, shifting to surprise instead as she too got a closer peek.

Big Mac raised an eyebrow, however, and stayed back. "Eenope. If'in she used force, an' considerin' she was all tha way out 'ere, Ah'm guessin' she's workin' fer those ponies that made tha fliers last week, an'-" he started guessing, before suddenly widening his eyes and holding his right forehoof over his mouth. Huh?

Carrot Top's demeanor changed instantly, and I literally watched her expression twist into one of rage instead. Her right ground into the dirt in a slow pawing motion before she grabbed the mare's nape with her teeth and yanked her off the top of my makeshift platform. Oh, oh hell.

"Carrot, stop! I already subdued her, and she's going to be arrested," I spoke up, stepping past the rapidly retreating Nurse Redheart.

The orange-maned earth mare shifted a glare back at me before spitting my captive back onto the grass. "Oh, I'm so not letting her off the hook that easy! They're nothing but a bunch of dirty rats, hiding in the shadows and trying to nip at you while you're not looking! They don't deserve sympathy!" she growled, surprisingly vehement as she turned her gaze back to the mare on the grass.

My eyes widened as her hoof rose, and I hopped forwards. My right foreleg hooked around hers as she brought it down, and I stopped it a few centimeters short of smashing into the fallen mare's skull. Damn, she was strong! The muscles activated along my foreleg as Carrot attempted to yank her leg back, and I held it there, rigid.

"Hey! Why are you stopping me from... How are you so strong?!" she asked, shifting from anger to surprise the second she realized she wasn't getting her leg back.

"He's right, Carrot. Ya don't wanna drop yerself down ta their level. We gotta do things proper an' civilized, right? 'sides, ya shouldn't hit ah pony that can't fight back, anyways," Big Mac spoke up, walking to her other side and gently pulling her backwards a little. Seeing him with the situation under control, I relaxed and let her foreleg go. She looked a mixture of bitter and guilty before sighing and hesitantly withdrawing her hoof.

There was a weak groan from the forest green mystery mare, and then she sighed, startling me as I looked back at her. Her light gold eyes stared back, not at me this time, but Carrot. "He's that strong because he's a monster that's going to destroy us all. He's just pretending to be a pony," she whispered, sounding rather raspy in tone.

My eyes widened as the blood slipped from my head, letting a cool chill sink down my spine. Monster? How much did she know about me?! Carrot reacted far differently than I had anticipated, however. Instead of asking what she was talking about, she snapped back to attention at the mare with a snarl and glare before diving forwards again, both forehooves whipping into a stomp. I barely managed to extend a barrier across the mare before Carrot brought both forehooves solidly into it. I winced as it exploded into light and a distorted ripple. The farm mare only screamed in rage before laying into the barrier with a flurry of blows, actually causing the mare to widen her eyes and shrink back away from her.

Big Mac wrapped both forelegs around Carrot Top's barrel a second later, however, physically lifting her up and away from the now terrified mare. A little dizzy, I withdrew my barrier and rubbed at my temples from the exertion. I'd not been prepared to defend against such a ruthless rage like that!

"W-Why?! Why didn't you just let her hit me?" my captive asked, looking over at me with what appeared to be genuine shock.

"Because he isn't a monster, Stupid!" Scootaloo spoke up instead, giving a little hop towards the mare and spreading her stance out, wings flaring up with light as the little filly narrowed her eyes.

Apple Bloom nodded rapidly, also frowning at her before adding, "It's true! He tried ta talk with ya tha whole time! Ah saw it. You were tha one that attacked him an' wouldn't listen."

Sighing, I nodded gently to her, looking up again and away from the filly to each side of me. "I'm placing you under arrest, of course. I've no intention of hurting you, or letting you get hurt, and I only want you to cooperate and answer our questions," I explained. Slowly, she closed her muzzle again and stared blankly at me for a long moment. I took that as the first sign of that whole cooperation thing, as she wasn't trying to stab me again. Turning, I looked over at Spike, who grinned and had already taken out a scroll from, well, somewhere. Efficient and overly prepared. I could definitely tell Twilight raised him!

"I got it. I'll send the letter to Princess Celestia, explaining the situation. Anything extra I should add?" he asked, starting to write on the parchment.

Frowning, I considered it. I had no idea how to actually make an arrest in this dimension, and didn't know how it differed from my old world. It was already different from being a ranked officer and dismissing soldiers, which would have been my only experience in the matter.

"I'm not sure. You should mention she's injured and should be treated with care, probably. Uh, is it too much to ask if you could look her over, Redheart?" I asked, looking back at my white and pink friend. She smiled softly and perked up as I turned, shaking her head before walking over to the confused looking mare.

"But, they said you were an alien, and would destroy everything we loved," my confused captive muttered, frowning at me and completely ignoring the nurse looking her head over.

Another snarl came from the still pissed off looking Carrot Top. "Maybe if you stepped out of the shadows and gutters for long enough, you'd see that maybe, just maybe, you're an idiot!" she oh so politely pointed out. The darker colored mare shrunk down a little and flattened her ears back away from the seething farmer, which I honestly didn't blame her for. Even with her fighting skills, I had a fairly solid guess going that Carrot would stomp her flat into the dirt with pure rage. She was kinda like a berserker... I immediately decided to never, ever tell the mare herself that.

"It's true. It's a smear campaign. I would have thought you'd understand as much, as you look like a fairly intelligent mare. Mender is a gentlecolt, for the most part," Redheart chirped, giving the mare a wink afterwards as she applied a soft rag to her forehead, dampened with water. To my surprise, the mare winced lightly but then blushed, looking back over at me with a more skeptical, appraising look instead.

"I, well, admittedly a few things didn't add up, based on what they told me. I mean, aliens helping us? It was supposedly an alien that attacked that night. Why would another alien defend us at the same time?" the mare questioned, frowning to herself before wincing again as Redheart applied cleaning agent to the cut. Note to self, never get hit by Tank without my armor on. He apparently could generate a good amount of force behind that shell.

Scootaloo rolled her eyes before adamantly defending with, "Mender's nice, no matter what anypony says! He's done so much for all of us, and really just wants to be treated like normal. Why do you want to hurt him for that?!" That was a good point, but the mare was lied to. Manipulated. I wanted to know who was behind that instead, and why they were so intent on destroying any life I tried to make for myself here. What had I done to deserve their ire? That was the question. Also, they seemed convinced I was an 'alien' as well, even if I wasn't entirely sure if they knew what they were talking about.

"I, um, think I might have made a mistake. Look, I don't actually belong to whatever organization they do. I'm an independent scout and surveyor down on my luck, and they offered me a 'lot' of bits to get pictures of you doing, well, anything weird or potentially incriminating. Failing that, I was to get pictures that could be easily doctored to show those instead. I'm obviously not going to do that anymore, of course. Uh, I'm Snapshot, by the way," my newly identified captive explained. She shifted her saddlebags up along her flank at the same time, revealing a cutie mark of a camera with a flare of light coming from the flash. Interesting.

Sighing, I nodded wearily. An organization was involved then, and apparently they were well funded. Wonderful. "Okay, Snapshot. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions, then?" I asked softly, attempting to straighten my posture and appear polite. I heard a cracking along my lower back as I did so, and winced at the light throb that shot through me. Apple Bloom started snickering, and I shot her a glare. She returned her best 'innocent angel' expression before hopping around behind me. She was such a brat sometimes. It was funny how I was getting to know them quite a bit better due to this little 'vacation'.

Actually, now that I thought about it, this was kind of a really crappy vacation so far. "Uh, of course! Um, could you answer something real fast first? Are you really an alien? Those tentacles looked really realistic and, um, that would be really cool!" Snapshot suddenly spouted out really quickly, eyes widening and dancing a little with a somewhat creepy level of energy. Er, what?! She sounded surprisingly excited about the prospect, seemingly coming out of nowhere with it.

Carrot Top lifted a single eyebrow towards me for a moment as I swallowed nervously. She looked away a second later and back at Snapshot instead. "Does it matter if he is or not? He's proven he's nice, and way more forgiving than I am. He did stop me from beating your sorry flank into the dirt, then using you as a washboard," she pointed out, surprising me on so many counts that I just gave up keeping track. As a side note: ow. That sounded amazingly painful.

Snapshot apparently agreed with me and paled significantly, shrinking down and away from the exceptionally hostile farmer. This vacation was now getting even worse. I sighed and prepared for the worst, asking Snapshot a few questions on the side while waiting for Spike to finish the letter.

* * * * *

Staring up at the sky watching the chariot fly off, I couldn't help but wonder why I couldn't just enjoy this little 'vacation,' so to speak. It was kind of unfair how nothing ever seemed to go exactly as planned, but at least I was getting used to it. The guards had shown up to pick up Snapshot only twenty minutes after Spike sent out the letter. Tia had written back a private letter, indicating that catching the mare would indeed help the investigation, and warned me that she desired to pull me away to Canterlot in the future to privately discuss the affairs, apparently deciding that Spike's flames could be intercepted or something. I didn't know anything about it, of course, so I just went along with it.

"You always have such eventful days, Mender," Redheart added from her position next to me, a snicker following. I rolled my eyes, and then glanced back over at her as she tested my foreleg's range of motion. "The good news is, the exercise you gave your leg didn't do any harm whatsoever. Your other ability must protect it while active?" she guessed, slipping vague again because Big Mac and Carrot Top were still here. Big Mac knew, of course, but Redheart didn't know that he knew. Oddly, Carrot didn't seem to care one way or the other. She was either strangely easygoing, a seemingly popular Apple Family trait, or incredibly jaded from her life in Ponyville, which seemed to be hit with a disaster of insane proportions at least twice a season.

"Trust me, I wish I didn't. I just wanted a proper vacation out of this. I'll be happy if the rest of it is uneventful, anyway-" I started to complain.

Carrot Top's hoof found my muzzle a second later, stopping me in mid-sentence by pushing my jaw closed. I blinked at her, but she winced and shook her head. "Drat! I was hoping to stop you before you got it all out! Never, ever say anything like that, Mender! It's called tempting fate, which is a fickle mistress and loves to call your bluffs," she warned, nodding twice afterwards in a sagely manner.

I raised an eyebrow to her, but snickered after my muzzle was released. "I didn't peg you as the superstitious type," I admitted, tilting my head a second afterwards. They technically had magic here, however, some of which apparently ran quite wild in nature. Maybe she was on to something?

"Normally I'm not. I leave the superstitions to the flower mares. That one, however, is the only one I adhere to. Just pretend you're in a book or story. What happens to somepony in a story the second they say something like that?" she asked, eyes narrowing a little.

Swallowing, I sighed and admitted, "Normally they doom themselves to exactly the opposite of what they want happening." That didn't always happen in real life, of course. Honestly, what I physically said had little to no bearing on what actually happens to me. I'd probably be just as screwed if I'd simply remained silent.

Scootaloo started snickering, but Big Mac nodded as well, which surprised me a little bit. "Good advice, Ah reckon," he decided, followed by, "Even if ya don't believe in that sorta thing, keepin' ah positive mindset has ta subconsciously help ya do better an' relax more." That was, well, actually pretty good advice. Further, it just added to my case file about Big Mac actually being extremely intelligent behind all that stoic silence!

Smiling towards him, I nodded confirmation. He certainly seemed to be a master at taking things as they came. It took me a moment to realize it, but I decided that I definitely admired the stallion. Strong of mind, body, and will, he was quite impressive, honestly. Then I wondered what would happen if I gave him the muscle and stamina enchantment I was considering giving to Apple Bloom, and shuddered. No, watching him uproot trees with a kick would be far too mentally scarring for me. He makes do just fine on his own, obviously. There was really nothing practical I could think of for him using such magic. I mean, maybe to haul an entire orchard worth of apples to Canterlot in an hour or less?

"Well, I think I'm going to take a bit of a breather after all that excitement. A walk along the river, maybe," I muttered, standing up after Redheart released my foreleg.

The nurse nodded to me and gestured at my shoulder, adding, "Your range of motion still isn't what it should be along your shoulder. I'm guessing there's damaged tissue along there still due to taking the brunt of the damage. Try doing light stretches with it once you find a spot to rest, and I'll look it over tomorrow for a bit of physical therapy." That was indeed the part where the 'tear' happened. It didn't really surprise me in the least that it was the slowest to recover.

"We'll look after him, don't worry," Scootaloo assured, beating her right forehoof against her chest as she puffed up a bit in her sitting position.

Apple Bloom started to snicker at her before suddenly gasping, eyes extending fully. "Oh no! Sweetie! We forgot about her. We were out lookin' fer Mender because she wanted ta smooth things over an' was settin' up somethin'," she suddenly exclaimed, causing Scootaloo's eyes to widen as well. Oh, well, that was only forty or fifty minutes ago, not including however long it took them to find me in the first place.

"She probably thinks we ditched her! Come on, Mender! We gotta take you to her," Scootaloo requested, hopping up and gesturing the other direction from the lake, upriver this time, but further east of their 'dam' location.

"Can I come, too? I've finished the letter back to Princess Celestia, and am kinda bored," Spike asked cautiously.

Safety in numbers, so to speak. Normally not the case with me, and I probably shouldn't say that out loud, but being terrible at social interactions, having another pony, er, drake there as morale support even, would be nice. "Sure. Both you and Tank can come along," I agreed. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom looked at each other somewhat skeptically, but Scootaloo shrugged a moment later, earning a nod from her friend. Having apparently reached some sort of silent conclusion, both fillies rotated and headed towards the direction indicated earlier.

Spike gave them a curious stare as they trotted off at a brisk pace, and I mimicked the shrug to him before turning and crouching down for a moment. I felt his weight settle on my back before standing up again and following the fillies, running for a bit in order to catch up. The telltale sound of rotary blades followed me, of course. Oddly, I kinda felt 'better' with Spike and Tank there. I wasn't really sure why. Something about the entire thing seemed weird to me, but I couldn't place the source of the apprehension. Catching up to the two fillies, the five of us continued our hastened pace in hopefully the direction of Sweetie Belle. Now just watch them get us lost...

Next Chapter: Chapter 50 Estimated time remaining: 38 Hours, 51 Minutes
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