Login

Forgiveness Pending

by Kiroberos

Chapter 53

Previous Chapter Next Chapter

"Yes, we assure everypony that there was no danger to be concerned of! It was a misunderstanding between ourselves and our friend, and there is nothing to be concerned about! We humbly apologize for this confusion and interruption of your slumber," Luna continued to announce, being lit up by a few magical unicorn light spells, and lanterns carried by those less magically adept.

Exhaling, I remained leaned against a cabin wall a half-dozen meters away from her. My right foreleg hooked around and cradled a small, orange filly against my chest while my left slowly and gently rubbed her stomach. Scootaloo's wings were tucked up against her back and she seemed content enough to just lie there, letting the combination of the medicine and my energy-coated hoof work magic on her stomach.

Nurse Redheart, sitting awkwardly a meter to my right, assured her, "Just rest, Scootaloo. A combination of being sensitive to the loud noise and the potent grape juice you had in your stomach set you off, but the medicine should start working in a few minutes." Aforementioned grape juice, diluted by the rest of her stomach contents and masked by the dim light, had looked amazingly like blood, and I had all but sprinted back to Redheart with her, easily putting aside my prior tiff.

"Mmm, Mender's hoof is... Awesome! I'm gonna... If this keeps up, I'm gonna fall asleep..." Scootaloo murmured softly, causing me to smile gently down at her. She was even more adorable with that peaceful smile on her face, and her eyelids lightly fluttering every time she shifted a little in position. Urges stirred lightly in me, drawing an invisible line around myself where I wouldn't let anything hostile come within, willing to tear limbs off in order to make sure she was safe. I knew she wasn't my own, but that faint urge was present anyway. I guess I really was geared towards protection.

Luna's talking droned on, independent ponies approaching to give her quiet whispers. She was probably lucky most of them hadn't even heard what she said, only concerned that there was an Alicorn blasting out Royal Canterlot Speech in fury at twenty three hundred hours. Redheart sighed and looked back up at me a few seconds later, again making me aware that the awkwardness had resumed now that I knew Scootaloo was going to be perfectly fine. "Um, like I said, uh, I'm sorry, Mender. That got out of hoof and, well-" she muttered, apologizing for the second time since also discovering Scootaloo would be fine.

I shook my head, however, still looking down at the little filly in my forelegs. "As I said, I know you were only joking. Just please, I'd really like to just be with Twilight and Fluttershy for a good while before considering any other arrangements, okay? I'm sorry for snapping earlier, but I've been on edge for a bit and haven't had a chance to calm down yet," I explained quietly, keeping my voice low as Scootaloo's breathing softened, becoming more regular.

Redheart nodded rapidly and pawed at the ground with a hoof for a moment, seeming like she wanted to say more about something. My peripheral vision picked up a large, red figure, however, and looked up and to the left as Big Mac wandered into our location. "They're all put ta bed now, but sleep'll be ah while, Ah think. Everything okay down 'ere still?" he asked calmly upon getting into range, right to the point, as usual. He'd gotten Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Spike back inside our cabin, telling Luna and I to go on ahead and explain things. I elected to keep Scootaloo with me, so I could use my technique on her tummy until the medicine started working.

"Yeah. Between Mender's magic and my medicine, Scootaloo will be fine. They'll kick in after a few more minutes and keep her stomach settled through the night so she can get some sleep. She should be fine by morning," Redheart informed, smiling softly at the large stallion.

He gave a polite nod before looking back over at me, the tired expression shifting to a soft smile after a moment. Noticing the attention, I glanced back up at him, raising an eyebrow. Most of my attention was focused on properly using my hoof and making sure I didn't use too little or too much magic. Had I missed something again?

"Sorry. Ya just had ah familiar lookin' expression on yer face. Mah pa used ta get it all tha time when Ah saw him holdin' Apple Bloom. It was comfortin' ta see," he explained, apparently guessing at my confusion.

"Comforting?" I asked, thinking I knew the expression he was referring to, but I wasn't entirely sure at his choice of wording.

Big Mac nodded before considering his words for a moment, never one to place a careless statement out, I noted. "Well, o' course it's ah pleasant memory. Happier times an' all, even if tha present ain't all that bad. But seein' ya give it just reassures that yer just as much pony as tha rest o' us. Ta be honest, it was ah small concern Ah used ta have," he revealed, adding a nod onto the end afterwards. He knew it didn't need an apology as pretty much everypony had that thought, it would seem. I literally got dumped here from the sky apparently from nowhere. Frankly, their hospitality to such an individual was already beyond amazing. They'd have been totally justified in locking me up and studying me after I ran my head into a rock and knocked myself out like I did.

"I'm not a pony, but I have every desire to be. So, um, thank you for just accepting me as close enough?" I returned, managing a smile up at him as he nodded.

"Yer pony enough fer Equestria. It already decided that, proof bein' in yer mark an' tha plants listenin' ta ya. Simple 'nough ta decide after that. Who am Ah ta argue against such ah decision?" he pointed out simply, surprising me with such a direct outcome. He didn't have any convoluted reasoning involved, nor did he avoid the facts. It was refreshing to deal with, after all the drama of the last day or so.

Nurse Redheart perked up at that, looking back towards the large stallion before inquiring, "You had him do Communal, and it worked?" Oh yeah, she was an Earth Pony, too. For some reason, her profession just seemed to lend itself better to that of a unicorn, which I guess I had subtly saw her as all along. It was kind of strange to consider.

"Sure as tha sun risin'. He's ah natural, due ta his magic trainin', Ah suspect," Big Mac said after a moment's hesitation, closing his eyes and gently sitting down again. He looked tired, and I wondered if I should suggest he go back and try to get some sleep.

Redheart smiled and nodded, looking more pleased than anything by the news. "I'm glad for that. You don't need to be concerned about it, Mender. Equestria itself has accepted you as a pony. Isn't that good enough?" she asked, still keeping her voice down even though Luna was doing an amazing job of totally drowning us out, even with her 'quiet' voice. Although I suppose in court, one had to have a loud voice in order to be heard throughout.

"Everypony seems to have come to that conclusion, even the two Princesses. I'm... Well, I wouldn't say that I don't have doubts, but I'm a lot more accepting of it now than before. It will be awhile and there are still issues, but... I'm just happy that Tia and Luna are letting me stay here after all," I whispered, exhaling gently as I sagged backwards against the building again. If I had been forced to go back to that hell... I'd have found a way to kill myself first, even if I had to launch myself into the sun to do it.

Redheart looked pleased, but Big Mac seemed to consider it all before slowly nodding. "Ah don't think we're quite in tha clear yet with everything, but yer ah stallion o' yer word. Ya really mean ta see this through, right?" he asked quietly, a certain amount of cryptic apprehension to his voice.

I stared at him for a long moment before asking, "Gut feeling?" His nod answered well enough, and I swallowed lightly. Redheart looked nervous as well as she directed her attention to me again. I felt a little chilly suddenly, the filly in my forelegs suddenly seeming so distant. Carefully, I managed a slow nod, committing myself to the unspoken duty.

"Even if I didn't feel like I belonged here, or consider this my real home... Even if I could leave and somehow find a better place, not only are those two here, but I also owe Equestria a debt," I whispered, suddenly afraid of my own voice. It was true. I didn’t think I would have found myself anywhere else. Maybe this was another chance? Of course, that also implied that I had been lost before, and wasn't anymore. No, I still felt lost, but maybe just a little closer now?

Big Mac frowned lightly, and Redheart's stare felt awkward and uncertain, but I only shivered as I looked up again towards the large, red stallion. "You don't have to doubt me. To answer fully, I'll personally stop at nothing, and do anything it takes to make sure this land and all its inhabitants are safe. I promise that," I added, my free forehoof lightly scraping along the ground as I felt empty again, like every time I told a secret or revealed something. The scariest part was that I was getting used to the sensation, like the beast was getting closer and closer to the surface, and I didn't care. Maybe some things were worth it? If something like Nirru ever came here again, it would suffer for its transgressions.

"We should get Scootaloo back to the cabin so she has a proper bed to rest in," I suggested after neither of them said anything for a good fifteen seconds.

"Mender," Redheart muttered weakly. Ignoring her, I walked past after nudging Scootaloo onto my back, the newly disguised belt buckles helping pull her up and 'clasping' by themselves around the two of us as I walked. Luna was handling this, and I was tired. The rest of the night could go to hell. It was bedtime.

This time I didn't hear hoofsteps following me as I trudged back towards the cabin up the hill with my small charge. If they didn't want to help, so be it. I had to do pretty much everything else major by myself, and I didn't see it changing anytime soon. Silently swallowing the lump in my throat, I headed off into the dark without them.

* * * * *

Staring up into the sky, I watched the clouds drift lazily overhead. It had been there for barely a hundredth of a second. There was a flickering and band of numeric data that shot across in the sky. Well, in all likelihood, it had been across my eye sensors instead. I stared intently at the spot for a good minute before lowering my gaze again. My passive scanner was still running in the background, and I felt the light tingling in my left hoof. I'd programmed it to do that when it found weird code to hook into in my list of running processes. Physical sensations didn't register on my sensors, skipping my computer parts and going straight to my brain if they weren't deemed 'painful' or 'threatening'.

Lovely. Another thing to look into later. My body was a mess of black boxes, I noticed. The one for the control of the disks was finally cracked open, and I had full control over all of the root-level commands for them. For some reason, I hesitated when considering just deleting them all. Of course, logically I didn't know what the disks were capable of, so if they started doing something on their own, it would be a good idea to have those functions in me still. It's not like I was going to use them to control any of the ponies, of course.

Beyond potential hardware errors, things were starting to look up a bit for me. Independence was always a good thing, and I was a step closer with my own income source. Hopefully, that would get a nice boost due to the newly completed schematics at my side. They detailed a lovely ceiling-based sweets delivery system and were tucked carefully into my notebook. The book I bought before leaving Ponyville, of course, not the unopened, finicky, extremely powerful, extra-dimensional one. It was weird thinking of myself owning things, honestly. I had a nice sketchbook for schematics, an extra-dimensional blade of almost infinite sharpness, a sturdy set of saddlebags, my Crusader cape, a powerful eldritch book of unknown origin and powers that came from my original self and seemed to be possessed by several distinct spirits, and a lovely box of wooden pencils. Oh, and the little white filly familiar that was seemingly hell bent on maintaining, at most, a three meter radius orbit from me at any given time.

Sighing, I yet again reminded myself that living, sapient creatures weren't possessions. The urge to stake my claim on things was a bit new to me, and I contributed it to a falling out of my old social queues. Maybe I was overcompensating due to suddenly having all these freedoms? I shifted my gaze down to the little unicorn filly, who still lay barely a meter in front of me, eyes locked onto mine. Unlike how I was so used to seeing her before, her expression was blank now, and there was no glimmer in her eyes. Pain did that, I realized, and again I felt like this was one of the worst possible outcomes to all of this. She'd been lying there for an hour, insisting on silently floating any drawing tool I needed to me from my bag. Her small amounts of magic could barely lift the heavier tools, but she didn't hesitate, which disturbed me on many levels. It felt like it was all my fault that she was like this.

"Sweetie, I don't need help anymore. Don't you want to go play with Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Spike?" I offered yet again, gesturing to my left towards the lakeshore. After recovering and waking up early this morning, she had insisted on following us, not in an energetic manner as usual, but by simply trailing us wordlessly, no matter how much the other two fillies tried to get her to leave us alone for a day. She felt almost empty, and I regretted being so hostile to her last night. I shouldn't have let my temper slip.

Her eyes listlessly drifted to her right, enough to glance over at the three playing in the water. Apple Bloom bobbed along the surface rather adeptly, already knowing how to swim. The energy danced along her limbs as she moved, flicking the water with ease and sending her jutting in rough bursts. The little orange filly, meanwhile, hovered about in a tight orbit, taking opportunities to dive bomb her friend. It became a strange game of cat and mouse, with Scootaloo hunting the only swimming target, and the flying dragon and tortoise combo trying to pounce Scootaloo. Spike had taken at least twelve dunks so far, leaping from his flying platform and missing the fast little filly in the air. He seemed to love it, though, so who was I to note otherwise? Their laughter was nice to hear, and almost a constant vibration to the air, a welcoming disruption to the otherwise quiet day.

My small, forced familiar slowly looked back at me, looking more tired than before, as if the action of rotating her head had used up significant energy from her small body. I tried to add incentive to the mix, offering, "I'll give you a neat horn enchantment I've been thinking up. It should magnify your levitation ability." It had been an idea I'd been cooking up since Apple Bloom asked for her enchantment. Twilight and I had discussed the fundamental differences between our two styles of magic, which was the source for this little idea.

"I'm fine here. I need to show you that I can behave," she whispered quietly, the first time she'd spoken in more than two and a half hours. A part of me got cold inside, and I decided I couldn't deal with this anymore. No, it was time for drastic measures.

Sweetie Belle frowned ever so slightly as I stood up without warning. The frown deepened as I walked towards her with purpose, keeping my eyes locked firmly on hers. She slipped from her stomach to lying on her side as I got closer, probably a subconscious gesture of uncertainty. It revealed a good deal of her stomach, which would also be an act of submission, and I smirked, my target suddenly revealed in plain sight. Sweetie's eyes widened drastically as I lunged.

All three of the others stopped their playful game and looked our way with confused expressions as Sweetie's squeals suddenly exploded into the air. Apple Bloom was the first to grin, I noticed. Sweetie thrashed violently, trying to swat at my forelegs with all four of her own as she burst into copious laughter. The lashes of energy coming off my hooves 'programmed' to dance along her skin like feathers and blades of grass, each a thousand times better than what I could do with my own hooves as I mercilessly assaulted her tummy with the tickling sensations!

"Aaah! N-No! Haha! Stop, Mender! Ah! I give up! Eeeeeeeeee!" she managed to squeak out, trying to scoot away from me on the ground while laughing. Scootaloo came out of nowhere an instant later, bumping me sideways and snatching up Sweetie, hauling her a good three meters away from me with her wing jets.

"I'll save ya, Sweetie!" she announced boldly, smirking up at me with a certain cocky expression on her face.

The little white filly gasped for air, bursts of laughter still coming from her as she wiggled in her friend's grasp. "Ha... Ha! Thanks, Scoots! I can't... Ha... I can't breathe!" she giggled out.

"Oh really? Then who will save you?" I asked to the orange filly. Her eyes widened as I slid past her, breaking from my sudden springing hop with my back legs as I rotated. She started to follow me to the side, wings opening to do another burst to escape with her friend, but my right forehoof connected with her side a split second faster.

"Eeeeeeeeee! No! Ah, I'm sorry! Mercy!" Scootaloo squealed, flailing to get away as I pounced just her instead, pushing both glowing hooves into her stomach now as she desperately kicked, bursts of energy going across the ground in chaotic and haphazard directions, dirt and grass going with.

Sweetie managed to hop back to her feet, her horn glowing again a moment later and wearing a smile this time, much to my delight. "I will, obviously! We fillies need to stick together!" she announced. Oh, is that how it was going to be? A very soggy Apple Bloom ran up at the same time, grinning at me and taking a stand next to her friend.

"Heck yeah! Can ya handle all three o' us, Mender?" she asked, the energy from her new enchantments drifting up her legs and coating most of her chest at the same time.

"Two of you. I guess boys get to stick together too, then!" Spike shouted from above. My eyes widened and I didn't get a chance to look up before he descended onto a very surprised looking Apple Bloom. And thus began a battle never seen before on the shores of that lake...

* * * * *

Okay, so bringing magic and enchantments into play was probably a terrible and irresponsible idea on my part. I'd be damned if it wasn't amazingly awesome, though! Of course, Spike and Sweetie had been totally outclassed from the start, and I ended up calling ceasefire for almost twenty minutes to give them both an enchantment as well. Sweetie got the horn modification to magnify her magic I'd already promised her. With Spike, I had to get a little creative, however. It turns out, dragons also have that internal magic, so my energy source was compatible from the start. His claws were really useful, however, and I ended up attaching energy threads to each of them, rear claws included. After a bit of practice, he could extend them about two meters and properly grab or tie things up using them, which was good enough for our purposes. Things got way out of hoof fast, of course.

After getting carried away and flinging Apple Bloom a good sixty meters across the surface of the lake in a laughing ball of energy armor, I decided that maybe this was a bad idea. Thirty minutes later, we were an indistinct pile of wet fur and scales lumped a dozen meters from the lake, all panting in the shade. Well, most of us were wet. Sweetie managed to stay amazingly dry, given that she was responsible for shore bombardment, and her defenses were almost foolproof with her magic to help her.

"So awesome..." Scootaloo muttered after a long break of silence. Her tiny wings were splayed across the right side of my barrel as she lay out on top of me. I barely felt her there as I rested tiredly on my left side. Both Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were curled up against my chest and stomach, respectively, and my right foreleg limply lay over Apple Bloom. So tired! Keeping up with foals took a tremendous amount of energy, but I was quite content. The ache was there in the left foreleg, but nowhere near as bad. Which was a bit of a good thing, as the small farm filly now used it as a pillow.

"We so gotta do this more often," Spike muttered from behind me, still propped up against my back, it felt like. I didn't so much mind being a piece of furniture. I was kinda the biggest one here, so it wouldn't work nearly as well in reverse.

"The lake's open all season, and is used for skating in the winter," Sweetie informed softly, as if hinting at a plan. It made sense that the cabins weren't just used during estrus. Skating, though? That rang a small bell, but I couldn't place it. My database opened up on the side and I tossed it into a search. The little filly carried on, though, voice shifting wistful instead with, "Oh, it's so pretty in the winter with all that ice on it! We should go skating then."

My search results popped up a fraction of a second later. "Ice skating is moving on ice by using ice skates. It can be done for a variety of reasons, including exercise, leisure, traveling, and various sports. Ice skating occurs both on specially prepared indoor and outdoor tracks, as well as on naturally occurring bodies of frozen water, such as lakes and rivers." Huh. I looked at the pictures of the skates, tail hooks, and tail anchors the Keldarians used in trick skating and shuddered. Me going across a plane of ice on thin blades at high speeds sounded like a remarkably poor idea.

Scootaloo snickered happily, and I felt her nod against my side. "Yeah! I've been practicing, and I bet I can even beat AB now!" she boasted proudly. Apple Bloom was good at skating?

The boast went unanswered for a good five seconds before I opened my eyes and looked down at the small filly on my leg. Scootaloo was peeking at the same time, and we both saw the filly sound asleep, very light snores coming from her. I smirked for a second before lying back down.

"Eh, we'll run it past her when she wakes up..." Scootaloo acknowledged, a twinge of annoyance in her tone.

"Has she tried getting her Cutie Mark in skating yet?" I asked, wondering if there was a reason for her being so skilled at it.

Sweetie let out a momentary hum, but shook her head against my tummy after a moment's consideration. "We've been skating lots during the winter just for fun. We hang out even when not doing official Crusader stuff for our Cutie Marks. She hasn't gotten one yet," she explained softly. What were the odds she had a more specific Cutie Mark in skating, then? Doubtful. It was hard to imagine a pony who was only good at one specific type of spin or something. They seemed more general than that.

"Nah. She's an Earth Pony, and most of them are really good at skating, for some reason," Scootaloo tossed on, sounding more wistful finally rather than annoyed.

Snickering, I idly raised my right foreleg into the air, holding my hoof up. "Not this one. I can almost guarantee that I'd spend more time on my head than hooves should I try that," I concluded, without even needing to hesitate.

Scoots started snickering in amusement, and I heard a light giggle from Sweetie as well. Spike just scoffed, though. "No worse than me, dude. Ponies are so not happy when you sneeze while skating and melt a big hole in the ice. I'm just glad they got Derpy out of the water before she got hurt. Felt real bad after that one," he muttered, sighing warily at the thought. Yikes! Derpy had really bad luck, which was starting to feel quite similar.

"Derpy didn't even get sick! I swear she's half Earth Pony," Scootaloo muttered, finally lying back down against my side. Was that possible? I didn't think they could get 'half' phenotypes like that. At least, I hadn't seen any so far. Actually, now that I thought about it, I hadn't seen any sort of mutation or variation in genome anywhere, which was rather astounding. Ponies didn't even seem to mention any long established diseases or syndrome. Call me paranoid, but magical manipulation started to look more and more likely.

"I still felt bad. She didn't even get angry with me! At least she let me help her with mail deliveries for a month," Spike protested, relaxing a little further against my back.

Another giggle sounded from Sweetie, followed by, "Don't let anypony tell you that you're not a nice dragon, Spike. I'm sure Sis sees it, too." I almost felt his temperature shoot upwards after that, and smiled to myself at how cute he could be sometimes. Still, despite being a totally different species, I think he was the male I had the most in common with. We had similar outlooks on things. I'd have to ask him about this 'rampage' thing he mentioned earlier when I got him alone. Maybe I could draw more similarities yet.

The conversation wound down as the breeze slowly drifted over us. Lightly, I heard Sweetie's breathing deepen as well after a minute or so, plus a light snoring started up behind me. I just smiled, staring up at the sky. It was peaceful, really. One day, I wouldn't mind having little ones of my own, I don't think.

Although that brought up a good question. I had the 'parts' down there that were compatible, to my knowledge, but was it possible for me to actually impregnate a mare? It had come up before on the trip here, but I'd never looked into it, despite blundering across the manuals for my own body while looking for the disks. Well, they weren't so much manuals, but a bizarre sort of note journal that was flagged with biological functions in my filtering functions.

Taking advantage of the down time, I clicked it open in my head and displayed the file in my eyes, taking a peek at it. Scootaloo stirred a little but remained staring up at the sky with her wings folded over my side, resting on her back. She didn't feel like she was asleep, but it felt like she wanted some time to think, which I was more than happy to allow.

The series of notes read like a journal, detailing growth patterns, formation, and activity, each entry with a highly accurate date. From everything inside, it was insinuated that I was grown inside of a breeding tube rather than a Keldarian, which didn't necessarily surprise me. What did tweak my interest a bit was that it was specially made just for me, and a size category larger than the standard. Weird. Did they grow me to full adult all at once or something?

A light cricket noise sounded off, and I snapped back to attention in an instant, double-checking all my proximity detectors and passive motion scanning. Nothing was tripped, and I exhaled softly. Hum. My focus shifted back to my reading and I turned the page, the document heavily detailing every formation of the embryo. Was there something unique about me? I didn't think they'd go to this length in order to document the growth unless they were anticipating something.

My eyes widened a little of their own accord as the details got more and more separated from what I had been expecting. Tail extension, muzzle expansion, eye socket growth, hip joint displacement... None of it was in line with the basic Keldarian anatomy class I had taken as my other self. The next page caused my breath to snag. It went into great detail about hoof formation. Shit.

Light laughter, and a smiling feline face as I ran unsteadily towards her, causing her to giggle in amusement. The loud noises my hooves made against the metal hurt my ears, but she looked so happy. I hopped upon reaching the end of the table and the female stood, grinning as she caught me into a hug and cheered.

My eyes widened as I snapped out of the sudden, extremely vivid memory, mouth hanging open a little. They didn't... But... I had never been a Keldarian! They grew me as a Pony! The numb sensation receded across my skull and I suddenly found a light smile starting to expand across my muzzle. This was my body. I'd always been a pony. They just added things to me, was all. I was a pony!

Only my ultimate respect for the foals and dragon sleeping around me stopped me from squeaking happily in elation, a perfect tribute to Fluttershy if I'd ever heard one. But despite the extremely pleasing news, it actually left a dozen questions in its wake, with 'why' and 'how' being among the highest. I had a sneaking suspicion it had to do with that 'specimen' mentioned earlier. But that face! That female.

It dawned on me. I knew her. She was familiar! My eyes started to widen again when my proximity alarm went off for the disk tracking. I came so close to groaning in frustration, but just sighed instead and checked it. Not that I needed to, because I knew there was only one signal that would be approaching in the first place, let alone that quickly and in a straight line.

Rainbow surprised me by gliding in over the other side of the lake, barely reaching proper flight speeds as she just let the currents take her. Further, her eyes were closed completely, which seemed a little risky given the fact that she was really close to the treetops. Wait...

Popping my display up again, I noticed her heart rate was slowed, and her breathing regulated. Further, the link was displaying a feedback effect from the host. But that would only happen if she was... It clicked. She was actively 'pinging' my connection. She found me using the link.

Her eyes opened again as she must have felt herself close, and they shifted downwards and locked onto us on the shore. Wonderful. What did she want now? Her heartbeat lost its focus and sped up as she saw me raise my head. Apprehension. I knew the effects of it before she even needed to get into empathy range.

Scootaloo hadn't been sleeping after all, and glanced back at me as I raised my head. Following my line of sight, she saw Rainbow a second later and stiffened before suddenly flipping to her hooves again. Huh? "Crusaders! Wake up!" she announced out loud suddenly, causing me to wince at the sudden sound after so much silence.

"Eh? Why wake them?" I asked as both fillies stirred and slowly looked up from their rests, looking a little bleary eyed. Unsurprisingly, Spike remained asleep, despite having been whacked by Scootaloo's wing as she spun. Now he tipped over and continued snoring lightly on his side, just rolling away from the noise a little.

"Rainbow," Scootaloo explained as she got their attention, and I couldn't tell whom it was directed at. The effect was unquestionable, however. Sweetie Belle's eyes widened as she looked in the direction Scootaloo's wing gestured in, and Apple Bloom just groaned and rotated to her hooves again, standing upright in front of me.

Rainbow looked slightly surprised as she drifted in and lightly landed about a half dozen meters away from the lakeshore. I sat up more fully and stared at her, unsure exactly what she wanted and not knowing what to say in the first place, but Scootaloo and Apple Bloom both stepped forwards instead, moving in-between Rainbow and me.

"What are ya doin' 'ere, Dash? Didn't ya cause enough problems yesterday?" the yellow filly asked, sounding a bit hostile, honestly.

"Uh, look, I just want to talk to him, okay?" the cyan pegasus explained, folding her wings back up lightly and taking a few steps in my direction. As she tucked her wings in, I noticed that, oddly, she was wearing a set of saddlebags. I'd never seen her with anything of the sort before, and it looked out of place on her.

Scootaloo shook her head, however, extending her left wing out fully to block Rainbow's path, the energy expanding the wing several fold and almost touching Apple Bloom's side. Her friend didn't look so passive, however, and slammed the ground with her right hoof, causing a tremor to extend all the way over to where I was, the energy expanding up her foreleg and showing the intricate magic array along her skin.

"No! We promised not ta let ya anywhere near Mender until he says so an' ya apologize proper like! Ah'm not gonna go back on mah word," Apple Bloom warned, spreading her stance out a bit. They were serious about that?

"I'm sorry, Rainbow, but yeah. This isn't how I wanted things, but you're just not yourself," Scootaloo muttered softly afterwards, lowering her head a little bit, then shaking it.

Dash looked more than a little surprised as she glanced at the two of them, then looked past over at me. Sweetie Belle slowly stood up, looking uncertain, but her horn started to glow regardless, disks of light expanding off it and sliding up along the line of light that came almost a meter off the tip of it, more repeatedly forming at the base as the old ones left.

Rainbow stared at us for a moment before sighing, her eyes softening as her body sagged a little. Oddly, I couldn't smell her estrus from here, not really smelling much of anything, which was a big difference from yesterday. "That's, um, what I came to do, okay? I do want to apologize to Mender properly," she revealed, sounding a little on the stressed side. Her eyes were bloodshot as well, hinting that last night wasn't the most pleasant for either of us.

Slowly, I managed to get to my hooves, simultaneously drawing everypony's attention in an instant. Rainbow hesitated as I limped a little bit closer to her, my left leg giving a weak throb of protest at its interrupted rest. Closer now, I saw that Rainbow's coat appeared to actually be brushed, startlingly enough. Further, her mane was combed lightly, managing to still be in her loose style, but definitely holding straighter than normal. A light, flowery scent drifted from her once I was within two meters, and I raised an eyebrow, causing a light blush to shift to her cheeks. Her eyes remained locked with mine, however, despite seeing mine roaming over her form.

"Rarity?" I guessed, locking eyes with hers again. A light smirk shifted onto her muzzle and she nodded gently.

"I was, uh, bothered by what happened yesterday. It was throwing off my practicing, of course, so I had to do something about it! I went to Rarity to ask for, well, professional advice on how to apologize to a stallion without any of the mushy stuff like flowers or chocolate," she explained quietly, rolling her eyes towards the practicing part.

I tried really hard not to snicker, but she shot me a somewhat knowing glare a second later and continued with, "Well, I didn't want to admit why we'd had the fight! She guessed it was with you, anyway. If you want any of your secrets to remain secret, don't visit that mare! Regardless, she told me quite a few ideas, one of them being to make myself proper and presentable. This is the end result." I was surprised, regardless. She seemed sincere in her desire to apologize, if she let Rarity go this far. Another look showed me the normally boisterous mare definitely had a 'gorgeous' side to her, even if it was downright primal in appearance. This time she fussed as I looked her over, the pink in her cheeks turning red instead as she looked away, flattening her ears back a bit.

"You don't have to stare!" she squawked, looking mildly annoyed. I saw something else in her eyes, however, complimenting the spike in her heartbeat.

"If you didn't want me to stare, why did you bother getting 'presentable' in the first place?" I inquired in mild amusement, gesturing towards her coat with my left foreleg. Scootaloo started snickering, framed by a particularly loud snore behind me from Spike.

Rainbow somehow got even redder, and I started to wonder if she should lie down before she passed out. "H-Hey! Rarity tried to do even more, but I fended her off with her own dress fitting! Look, this isn't easy for me and, um, I really just want to be forgiven, okay?" she squeaked out, causing me to sigh. There went the playful sensations.

"Why? So you can feel better and get on with your practice for the race?" I inquired softly, my ears dropping a bit. At my tone shift, Scootaloo swallowed weakly and looked back to Rainbow, while Apple Bloom shifted back up to fully guarded, glaring at the mare. Rainbow's eyes widened rapidly as her head spun back to me, her back leg shifting backwards slightly as if to retreat. This was stupid, and I didn't even know why she had come in the first place.

Her frown started to come back, but my eyes snapped to a glare instead. "No, be honest, Rainbow. Why are you here? You have your wings still. I didn't remotely disable them or anything out of spite, so your practicing should be fine. You have the safety guards in the wings still, as I'd never disable those. What more do you want? You don't need me for anything else, so why are you here?" I asked, cutting off whatever crap she was undoubtedly about to spill out, covering her every intention with excuse after excuse.

At that, Rainbow's expression fell and she looked away, the blush leaving her cheeks. A pang of guilt went through me, but I smashed it down angrily. No, on some level, the fake Nirru was right. I did let ponies walk all over me. "I came to apologize, Mender. Not because I want something, but because I care about you and it hurts when you're angry with me," she muttered, staring hard at the ground instead. My expression softened a little and I sighed, not having expected her to actually admit her feelings.

"Is it really so hard to just tell me that? You send a lot of mixed signals and it's, well, frustrating sometimes," I admitted, feeling myself cool a little with each exhale.

Rainbow continued staring at the dirt for a moment before slowly nodding and sliding her head forwards. The saddlebags unhooked from her stomach and slid over her head, landing on the ground with a loud and unmistakable clinking noise of metal on metal in mass. Bits. "I brought as many as I could carry. All I could think about is what you said last night. Not just to me, but..." she whispered before looking up slightly at Apple Bloom as well. I frowned, but she shook her head and continued regardless with, "You were right. There, I said it. I was only thinking of myself instead of both you and AJ. Plus, I've done a whole lot of taking advantage of your friendship. Every plan I have to 'help' you seems to help me even more, and, well-"

"Rainbow, look-" I started to interrupt.

She held up her hoof, however, and rapidly shook her head. "N-No! I can't take advantage of you anymore. I don't even know where to begin guessing how much your special training would normally cost, but just, well, take these! If you need more, I'll have to go back and-" she cut me off, starting to look flustered as her eyes got watery. What she was doing suddenly dawned on me. Not because it was obvious, but because it was familiar. Value substitution. Well, I'd probably regret this later, but I sure as hell wasn't going to let her go down this path. Step one, get her to shut up.

Yes, a part of me liked her like she wanted, but she was only trying to lie to herself. Paying me wouldn’t make her feel any better, as her feelings would still be there. Her rose colored eyes widened as I slipped forwards and wrapped both forelegs around her, cutting off her denial and making her freeze instantly. A few seconds passed before backed up a bit again and opened my eyes. Hers were wet now as she slowly closed her surprised muzzle, features softening rapidly.

"W-Why? But this wasn't..." she whispered, not seeming to notice the tear slip down her right cheek. All the signs were there. I'd seen it a lot, and even fell victim to it myself. Well, my other self did, anyway.

"Trying to pay me won’t make your feelings go away, Rainbow. It's just another form of running away. You can't run from any of us anymore, not just Applejack or myself. I'm going to tell Fluttershy and Twilight about both you and Sweetie, and about everything I've suggested to you two," I warned quietly, trying to sit as straight as I could. I had the indescribable sensation that if I slouched even slightly, I'd fall over and pass out from tiredness. It all seemed to suck into me all at once.

She stared at me for a moment before lowering her head again and nodding weakly. "I'll accept any punishment they want to give, so long as we're still friends afterwards," she accepted, sagging a little.

"They're not going to punish you for being true to your feelings, Dash. I won't let them. But you have to realize that being in a herd is an interwoven experience. I've discovered this. Every member cares for every other one. Could you honesty care for Twilight and Fluttershy like you care for me?" I suggested, if only to get her to consider the aspect of what she said she wanted, compared to what she actually wanted.

So many soldiers did the same thing as a coping mechanism. If you attach value to something and pretend long enough, it becomes an excuse even for yourself. With her trying to pay me for my services, it distracted from the real reason she was feeling bad, and the reason I was helping her in the first place. But that didn't make either reason go away, no matter how much she tried to pay me. Buying off your conscience usually didn't work so well. Just like no amount of good notions and deeds would ever make up for the fact that I personally ended a few billion innocent lives. Pretending it was paying it off one at a time was idiotic.

Rainbow just stood there, staring down at her saddlebags with her legs shivering lightly. Another tear slid down the other cheek and she winced at the sensation, suddenly turning around and away from us all. I actually heard Scootaloo swallow, but I walked forwards regardless, brushing my right hoof along the shivering mare's left shoulder.

"No! Don't look at me! This is... It's so pathetic!" she spat out, shifting away and not letting me see her face. Her voice steadied itself once we couldn't see her expression anymore.

"Rainbow, calm down," I muttered, trying to feed as much 'understanding' as I could through the link.

She sagged a little, and then rapidly shook her head. "No... No! Get out of my head, Mender!" she shouted instead, whirling around and swatting my foreleg away hard enough to knock it back into my muzzle. I was more than a little surprised by the sudden movement, my head spinning as I tried to shake it clear. "You knew it wouldn't work all along, didn't you?! Why? Why did you set me up thinking you liked me back when you knew it wouldn't work?!" she screamed, stepping back into the water now and sending a spray out backwards from her hind leg.

"Why would I do that, Rainbow? All I want is for everypony to get along," I muttered, holding my hoof to my muzzle and wincing as I looked back up at her, my armor folding into place under my skin, just in case. Pity it was too late for my lip. I sighed as I drew back blood on my hoof.

The cyan mare glared at me, shaking still on her hooves as tears continued down her cheeks freely now. "You knew all along that this wasn't going to work. I can't have both of you! Why did you let me think that I could for so long?!" she demanded, voice breaking again as she stomped her foreleg down, imprinting the sand with a mold of her hoof.

"I don't know that, Rainbow! It's not up to either of us, and you know that! You can't just make ponies feel a certain way," I reminded, voice rising finally as well. She was just looking for somepony to blame and targeting me for it. No, not this time. I wasn't going to let her walk all over me.

The snoring had stopped behind me, and I heard a rather groggy sounding, "Huh? Wha? What's going on?" Apple Bloom and Scootaloo slipped to each side of me at the same time, looking furious and uncertain respectively.

"S-Shut up! You're just trying to get my hopes up again! What is it, funny to you?! Talk to them all and get them to understand what's going on! You can make them understand!" There was a hint of desperation to her voice, and I suddenly felt sick. I wouldn't be making anypony do anything. Ever. Her trying to suggest it, no, order it...

"Talk to them yourself, Rainbow. But if you try to bully anypony into anything, I'll stop you myself," I warned, feeling my anger rising again. All I could see was her trying to make Fluttershy agree to the idea. I felt my face heat up as Rainbow let out a frustrated shout, her wings bursting open.

She ran into me a second later and bowled both of us into a sharp rotation, managing to momentarily land on top of me with a hoof to each of my shoulders. My armor was up now and I didn't feel a thing, this time. Red. It wasn't just symbolism, I realized, as I rarely got angry enough to notice it, but it flashed into my mind like an impulse. A bolt of rage as my back hit the sand. In a frustrated scream, through that haze of frustration and anger towards the mare, I hit her.

It was instant. She was on top of me one second, and in the next, my right foreleg collided with her left side. Then she wasn't on top of me anymore, but instead sent flying into a loose roll off to my left somewhere. My eyes widened as I stared at the hoof in front of my vision, the anger falling away into an ocean of ice water in my mind a second later. I hit her.

Nopony else seemed to even register it as Rainbow hit the sand with a weak yelp. Apple Bloom was over me in a heartbeat, clearing the distance in two bounds before landing on and physically holding the full sized mare to the ground with her front legs. "Stay away from him!" she shouted at point blank range down onto the fallen mare. Oh, oh hell. I tried to get to my feet as Scootaloo ran past after Rainbow. Sweetie was there a second later, a boost of magic helping me up as she hugged into my left side.

"A-Are you okay, Mender?!" she asked, sounding scared. My scans lit up as I looked over to Rainbow instead, noticing her just lying there.

She winced, however, at the sound of the shout, and then tried to limp up to her hooves again. Apple Bloom shoved her back over, however, moving her a little further away from me with a slide. "No, just stay there and stop attacking him!" she ordered, backing away from the mare.

Rainbow's left side was swelling a little, and my scan showed a half dozen ruptured blood vessels under the surface. No internal damage apart from that, and I swallowed weakly. I hit her! My eyes watched the skin puff a little and discolor as she gasped and managed to sit up finally, tucking her left foreleg up against her side and looking back up at me instead. Her eyes burned into me like fiery lances and I shivered, wanting to run away myself. There was no anger there, however, only surprise.

"I... Ugh. What am I doing?" she whispered suddenly, closing her eyes again and shaking her head. What? Her question confused me, but I was suddenly distracted as my scan fired off again. Every vein in her side started slowly shifting, slipping back together again and merging back into normal. Oh. At the same time, I saw the swelling start to actually reduce as the bio-signals from her reported medication being released into the affected tissue. There really were nanites inside of her. They were repairing her side.

"I h-hit you. Are you okay, Rainbow?!" I asked, unsure of what was going on and even less sure of what was going through her head. A very confused looking Sweetie Belle followed after me as I slowly walked towards the mare and hostile looking Apple Bloom.

She stopped, and then looked up at me with a slightly incredulous stare. "Well, it hurts, and you hit like a train, but yeah. I've had way worse injuries from crashes. I kinda hit you first, regardless," she muttered, exhaling weakly and brushing her right forehoof down her leg.

"Can we please stop attacking each other now?" Scootaloo asked hesitantly, standing between the two of us with her wings fanning out, apparently ready to move in case that was a no.

Slowly walking up, I folded my armor deeper into the surface again, relaxing as the stiffness it caused rolled off my muscles. "I'm sorry, Rainbow. I didn't mean to hit you. I just got mad," I murmured, looking down at her when I finally got within a meter or so.

Apple Bloom looked less than understanding of the situation, however. "This is stupid! Ah've half ah mind ta go get mah sister right now an' have her fix all this in an instant," she growled, followed up with, "You've done nothin' but hound Mender an' cause all sorts o' problems fer him all week, an' now he's bleedin'!" The last part shot up in octave as her eyes widened, looking back to me. Huh? Oh, the lip.

I lightly licked at the cut, tasted that oh so familiar metallic taste along my tongue, and sighed. It had run down my chin at this point, and about halfway down my neck in a red line. Rainbow's eyes bugged out, but I just shook my head towards her, wincing at the sudden yelp from the tiny unicorn next to me. "It's just a nick. Nothing major, really. I'll have it repaired in a minute or so," I assured, pretty much pointlessly, I decided. Sweetie Belle had already entered freak out mode, and galloped back towards our basket, grabbing some of the napkins we were going to use for lunch and running back with them.

"This will help the bleeding stop!" she yelped, neatly folding the napkin and pushing the flat of it onto the cut. Sighing, I just smiled down at her and nodded, letting her do her thing if it made her feel better.

"Please don't tell AJ. Um, I won't bug Mender again this vacation. I'm really sorry," Rainbow muttered, looking rather glum as she sat there in the sand.

Apple Bloom, having migrated a little closer to me after the discovery of my superficial injury, shot a glare back over at her in a heartbeat. "Ya should be sorry! Just tell Sis about yer feelin's an' get it over with! Stewing over it like this can't be ah good thing," she oh so wisely pointed out. Well, it was extremely obvious that it wasn't a good thing, though. I noticed I started to use myself as a measuring stick of how skilled a pony was at observations. If they noticed more than I did, that at least put them beyond a blind and deaf pony who was actively distracted by a hive of bees landing on their head, anyway. Okay, it couldn't hurt to get a few more example thresholds in there.

"I pick the worst times to go to sleep..." Spike muttered, finally walking up and sitting down next to Apple Bloom while giving me a questioning stare.

Rainbow frowned and started to open her mouth again, doubt slipping down the link rather readily, when Tank drifted in and ever so lightly, almost lovingly in fact, skipped off her head. She blinked under the rocking sensation, and then smiled weakly as the tortoise landed next to her.

I held my hoof up to Apple Bloom, however, shaking my head. Talking when an inexperienced unicorn used magic to push a wad of paper onto your mouth was tricky, I had discovered. "Just leave her be about it. She has a plan to confess after the race coming up, either publicly or in private later. She just has to steel herself for that point," I finally managed to say, almost getting the napkin shoved up my nose as Sweetie tried to keep up with my mouth moving. Her level of movement overcompensation was impressive.

Rainbow stared at me for a moment before frowning and giving a slow but determined nod of her head. "Yeah. I promise to tell her then. I have to! You're right, I can't keep doing this. Freaking out is so uncool," she groaned, wracking her forehead with her left forehoof. Tank slowly edged his head forwards and gave her a soft nuzzle to her other foreleg, and I smiled at the two of them.

"Then that's all you need to focus on. It's partially my problem, too, obviously, so I'll help you talk to them and explain things if you'd like. But before you can even begin that, you need to tell Applejack," I pointed out. Blatantly telling the farm mare that Rainbow had a problem because she wanted to have both of them join 'my' herd would be amazingly confusing for her if we reversed the order involved!

Rainbow apparently realized as much and smirked at me, nodding. I relaxed a little, pleased to see happiness on the mare's face again. Well, happiness that didn't revolve around her punching me repeatedly in the face. Could you punch with a hoof? Or were they all called kicks? Bucking, maybe?

"Yeah, having your help to explain things would really help. I doubt it'll work anyway, because you're right. I don't have feelings for Fluttershy and Twilight like you do. Just you, which isn't really what a herd should represent. I just don't know what to do about it, and I so don't want to hurt anypony's feelings!" she elaborated, relaxing a little and going into thought.

Sweetie Belle relaxed a little as well after the bleeding stopped and withdrew the napkin, gently folding over the red spot. I watched her for a second before smiling and extending my right foreleg across the other side of her. Her eyes widened as I gently pulled her over in front of me and gave her a soft hug from behind. "I understand. We'll cross that bridge after you talk to Applejack, of course. Patience, Rainbow. I'll also need to talk to Twilight and Fluttershy about Sweetie as well," I listed, building the mental checklist even as I talked. Sweetie tilted her head back and smiled up at me with a soft blush on her cheeks. I nodded and smiled back, giving her a light squeeze and rubbing her shoulder with my forehoof. She looked beyond content, closing her eyes and just resting her cheek against my leg, letting herself be hugged. I still didn't know how exactly to consider her. She was too young for me to think of her like an eligible mare, and too old for me to consider her a foal or daughter. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom were more like little sisters to me, but I didn't feel that with Sweetie Belle, either. It was rather confusing.

Rainbow looked just as overwhelmed, really, and I suddenly realized that we were rather similar in problems. She was supposed to be an embodiment of loyalty itself, but now she was struggling with being loyal to her friends and being happy. She'd have to hurt somepony she cared for if she wanted to be with both of us. Potentially, it would end even worse and Applejack wouldn't forgive her for it.

I was torn as well. I'd never assumed she was interested in me, just keeping the fact that she was more than a little attractive to myself, harmlessly. I was perfectly fine with Twilight and Fluttershy! Hell, more than fine. Shocked and equally delighted to be a part of such a loving herd, if they'd have me. Then my very thoughts betrayed me and strayed, deciding that wanting Rainbow, too, was totally fine. I sickened myself, but the damage had been done already and I absolutely had to explain things to Twilight and Fluttershy. I wondered idly if Rainbow was as torn up as me, or if she was more the type to hide it even from herself?

The cyan mare looked curiously over at Apple Bloom instead, however. Her eyes traced the runes that shimmered along the filly's legs, and I raised an eyebrow towards her. "Oh, idea! Seeing as you gave them all enchantments, too, how about we all practice with them?" Rainbow offered suddenly, completely and totally off topic. Yup, definitely one of the 'hide it from herself' types, of the distraction variety, I noticed.

"Hey, ya didn't get forgiven yet!" Apple Bloom cut in, shifting back to an annoyed glare.

Spike lightly raised his claw up, drawing my attention over to him as I sighed. "Uh, yeah. Still no clue what's going on," he reminded weakly. Yup, this was going to be a long day... Again...

Next Chapter: 2013 Hearth's Warming Short Estimated time remaining: 35 Hours, 49 Minutes
Return to Story Description

Login

Facebook
Login with
Facebook:
FiMFetch