Ever so slowly, my eyes opened up to greet the warm morning light. At first I was concerned, of course. As the light had slipped through my previously closed e

yelids, it was so much warmer than usual. It both felt comfortably warm, and looked far more earthy and vibrant. I woke up in a pleased mood, of course, which probably helped significantly. It had gone far better than my admittedly kind of dour imagination had predicted.

Then, as my eyes focused, fully open again and ready to meet the outside world, everything went completely wrong. No, the sun had not inexplicably changed its hue and heat output! Of course, had I been more awake, I might have wondered at my logic there. No, the orange shade of light wasn't from the window at all, but reflecting off the very vibrant coat of Applejack, who lay mere centimeters in front of me, snout almost touching mine. They hadn't moved me at all?!

To further compound my horror, I quickly observed that the heat wasn't from the sun at all, but instead came from the seven other bodies in remarkably close proximity to me. Fluttershy was practically on top of me, snuggled between Applejack and me, her head coming about halfway up my barrel. Thankfully she was on her back... Twilight's foreleg was draped over me, still hugging me from behind, and I saw the telling glimpses of Rainbow snuggled up behind Applejack, head also on the pillows. Rarity was curled up against Fluttershy's hip, still in physical contact from using the yellow mare as a relay into the dream. Spike must have used Rarity as a relay, then, as he was right up against her chest, being held gently by the mare with his face close to hers. Right, she had to use her horn to connect him, if I remembered correctly. Pinkie snuggled happily into Fluttershy's other side, and my back legs were tangled up in her fluffy, curly mane. Great!

Wait, no, I was getting distracted! How was I going to get out of this pile of ponies before any of them, namely Applejack, Rainbow, or Rarity, woke up? Why hadn't Fluttershy or Rarity moved me prior to falling asleep?! They could have avoided this entire awkward scenario! A dozen horrible outcomes flashed through my mind, ranging from a group gang beating, to simply being arrested for some sort of 'Cuddling Without Consent' misdemeanor. In the process of having my small heart attack, the worst came to pass. As slowly and sleepily as I had, Applejack's eyes opened up, looking right into mine from point blank range. Crap. I considered raising my subdermal armor, but that might hurt her hoof as she beat on me.

There was a touch of surprise that danced through her eyes, but I could almost feel the memories coming back into her at this range. The surprise was gone a moment later, replaced by a softer expression. Then it was my turn to be surprised! She instead slipped forward and under my chin, lightly pressing into my neck and resting there. Was she trying to lure me into a false sense of security? I doubted it at this point, not because I had the slightest clue what was going on, but from concluding that the Element of Honesty probably wasn't capable of such a devious trap.

Instead, she quietly whispered into my mind. "Thank you, Mender." I waited for a second, but nothing else came from her. For fixing something that I had caused in the first place, that had ended up tormenting her? That didn't seem like something I should be thanked for.

She snorted on the inside, pushing her muzzle into my shoulder and finally getting me to reluctantly wrap my forelegs around her. It felt strange hugging her in just a friendly manner, feeling the warmth of her fur along my chest, and the small shiver she gave out a second later. "No, Mender. Ah can feel yer real feelin's now more than ever, since ya activated tha link. Yer as lost an' confused as tha rest o' us dealin' with all this, ain't ya?" she inquired with a playful up-tone towards the end, again impressively softly for somepony who had been just introduced to the link communication. Wait, did she just call me ‘lost and confused’?

I lifted up an eyebrow to that, but she just smirked. Ha! "You're a confusing mare, Applejack. Thanking me, then playfully insulting me in the next thought," I pointed out, smiling silently. Better than punching, though. Her punches hurt almost as much as her kicks!

"Psh! Ah imagine all mares are confusin' 'til ya get ta know 'em. Ah'm rather simple, actually. Ah appreciate who ya are, an' what ya did fer me, is all. At least part o' what she said in tha dream was true, Mender. How do ya make up fer goin' against everythin' ya stand for, an' murderin' ah pony who didn't deserve it?" she asked, finally admitting what the real issue was.

Frowning again, I relaxed as she settled against me again. "What do you mean, 'everything you stand for?’" I asked her, feeling Fluttershy stir lightly against my hip, but not wake.

A hoof dragged softly down my chest, and she shivered yet again. "Ah'm tha Element of Honesty, but Ah let mah anger cloud mah judgment. Ah didn't believe ah single thing ya said, despite you actin' weird fer somepony caught doin' wrong. Plus yer story was crazy! Somepony tryin' ta lie wouldn't have even tried it," she pointed out. I barely resisted actually laughing at that one. Yeah, I had to admit, claiming Twilight was actually an alien from another dimension probably sounded totally crazy.

She smiled a little bit at that, anyway, but quickly continued with, "Regardless, Ah couldn't tell that you were tellin' tha truth, an' she was lyin' through her teeth. She's right. Ah even disabled ya fer her. Ya died from mah wounds. Ah gave ya ta her on ah silver platter. What kind o' Element of Honesty am Ah?!" Her mental voice was getting strained, and I knew it wouldn't be long before it woke Fluttershy up.

"You're the Element of Honesty who believed her friend over the crazy stallion with mental health issues whom you barely knew a month. The fact that I was telling the truth isn't important. You stood up for your friend in her perceived time of need," I tried to point out. She looked up at me, expression a tense frown rather than showing any kind of relief.

"Ah killed ya! How can you just ignore that?! Plus, yer mah friend, too!" she stubbornly and adamantly reminded. Uh...

It only took her half a second to shift into a guilty look, lifting both hooves to her muzzle as she realized she'd actually shouted that. The pony pile quickly jerked to life, Pinkie kicking twice before just rolling back over again, being probably the only still sleeping member. Fluttershy squeaked and sat up at the same time Rainbow sleepily looked over Applejack's form at me. Twilight slipped two hooves carefully around me from behind, not startled at all, however. I suddenly realized she'd been listening the whole time! Rarity thankfully didn't comment on Applejack's position, too busy blushing softly as she realized Spike was still snoozing in her forelegs from last night. Ah, scratch that. Two members who didn't wake up from that. Impressive!

Rainbow sighed a moment later, flopping back down onto the pillow instead. Huh. I anticipated a significantly different reaction upon catching me hugging Applejack. “We just got you out of that nightmare, AJ. You don’t have to relive it now…” she muttered, sounding a bit disheartened.

Applejack recovered quickly, frowning instead as she dropped her forehead back to my shoulder. "It ain't me tryin' ta relive any of it. Ah just don't want Mender thinkin' that it's his fault all that happened," she quickly corrected. Oh, right. She had already admitted to more needing to forgive herself than having me forgive her. Of course, Twilight had been right, too. I was angry about it all. I didn't know how much, but knew I didn't want to hurt any of them for it, regardless.

Fluttershy definitely woke up at that, rotating around and moving more onto me instead. Rarity and Pinkie were forced to rapidly relocate as their pillows, Fluttershy's hips, moved away on their own. "Mender, it's not your fault at all. You couldn't have known what was happening," the yellow mare reminded, lightly kissing my stomach, just under my rib line.

"I should have been more vigilant, Fluttershy. My lax behavior enabled the nightmares to happen in the first place," I tried to explain.

Applejack instantly snorted at that, interrupting with, "If yer gonna try ta say that, Ah should first point out that mah downright horrifyin' behavior got ya kicked through ah window, yer leg torn off, an' then got ya killed. If ya gave me a few months o' nightmares fer it, Ah'd consider it maybe even fer tha window thing. But ya didn't even mean ta, an' it was barely ah fraction o' that time." Wait, what? It wasn't... No, this was totally different than what she did! I didn't hold any of that against her! Nopony would have believed me. Even Rainbow, the Element of Loyalty herself, doubted it. Although, she at least double-checked after getting a doctor.

Twilight interrupted my jumbled thoughts with a sigh behind me, pushing her muzzle up into my mane for a moment before pulling me a bit closer to her. I went with the flow and just let her hold me from behind, Applejack relaxing as she watched us. Finally, the lavender mare added, “What happened isn’t as important as both parties coming to terms with it, and feeling like they’ve made amends. I can hardly see this as Mender’s fault apart from him maybe taking more precautions, but that’s easy to say in hindsight.” I exhaled weakly and lay my head back down on the pillow instead, unwilling to put more energy into thinking about it. Instead, my eyes shifted to the scanner I had running on the side, indicating twelve percent. Soon.

To my amusement, Fluttershy slumped over following me, slipping down between Applejack and me. Pinkie crawled up next to us and flopped down across our hips, resuming her use as a pillow shortly after. Thankfully Rarity didn’t follow this time, instead sitting up and absently holding the still sleeping Spike to her chest as she stared off into space. This had gone from feeling scary, to just lazy if anything. Applejack stared down at me for a second before closing her eyes softly.

“Ah wanna make this up ta ya. Everything Ah did wrong needs amends. If it eventually feels like Ah’ve done enough, than Ah think Ah can finally be at ease. It might never happen, but… Ah think we can go back ta normal after ah while. Even if Ah never feel like Ah’ve ‘fixed’ what Ah did, we can still at least heal,” she finally stated. It wasn’t a question so much as her finally admitting what she wanted from the start. She looked at me curiously, and I gave her a small nod in return. She immediately slumped her shoulders and flopped forward into my chest instead, giving out a tired sounding sigh as Rainbow readjusted, slipping back against AJ’s back rather easily.

“So if I let you, you’ll let us help you heal, too? Twilight and Fluttershy, too, as they said they wanted to ‘make it up to me’ as well,” I suggested, just getting everything out into the open at once.

Applejack hesitated, but nodded finally, watching me intently. I ‘felt’ Twilight smile faintly through the link before adding her nod in as well, then appending, “Yes, we do want to make up what happened over Estrus to you as well. But I think you also need to let out that anger, Mender.”

I froze in an instant, eyes widening as I went rigid against the pillow. She… She wanted me to, right now? She just openly said that right here?! My breath must have caught, as I was suddenly distinctly aware of the ‘sensation’ of at least four other mares snapping onto that statement and my reaction at the same time.

Applejack’s eyes shot back to fully open in an instant and snapped onto me mercilessly, her expression becoming more somber as she asked, “Anger? Mender…”

Their stares were too harsh in just that instant, and I slipped down further into the pillows, covering my eyes with my front hooves. Why now? Why did she have to tell them that right now? Fluttershy slipped up me further and kissed my chest softly, and I shivered. I couldn’t retreat, even. She was reminding me that I was still here.

“Mender, just tell them. Tell us again,” Twilight requested softly, from so close behind my head that I gave a start when she spoke. Tell them? Just like that? That cold anger frozen so far below the surface wasn’t a casual topic for tea and cakes. It was an exercise in illogical selfishness. It made me want to scream and cry and lash out and hit things in a pathetically childish manner until I got all that anger out of me. But that wasn’t how adults acted. If I stopped to figure it out, given how long I was frozen in a block of ice in another dimension, I was over two hundred years old. Acting like that would be a disgrace. But at the same time, I’d technically only been removed from the ice for… Actually, I didn’t know how long I’d been ‘awake’ prior to warping to Equestria. I only had memories of the last month and change at best.

A light sigh from behind me snapped me back into reality. If I wasn’t moving fast enough for her, why didn’t she just tell them all herself? That’s what she wanted, right? The thought shot through me like a bolt of lightning, and I felt her wince, backing up slightly as I shivered again. Applejack swallowed uneasily in front of me, instead suggesting, “Twilight, if he doesn’t want ta talk about-“ No. I didn’t want this to be about me again. I was tired of this being me just running away again.

“I’m angry. It’s there, and it’s disgusting,” I interrupted her with, sharper than I intended. She wanted me to say it, then fine, I’d say it. The silence was thick hanging over me, but I continued regardless with, “I’m angry at a lot of things. I’m angry at Twilight and Fluttershy for going behind my back and in an emotional fit, making such an important decision without me. Even in that small moment, it feels like they left me behind and I’m never going to be exactly equal. So many ponies know about it, given the herd and marriage office’s protocol of apparently posting each private hookup in a few hundred point font outside of their building like a giant gossip column.” I spit it out like the taste was disgusting, and felt Fluttershy recoil slightly off me. I didn’t move my hooves to look. No, she wanted this, and what Twilight wanted, Twilight got.

I continued into the now toxic feeling of silence, filling it with my even more poisonous feelings in my words. “I’m angry at Applejack and Rainbow Dash, too, for thinking I was a monster capable of abusing the mare I said I cared so much about and not even giving me a hesitant second to try to explain myself, instead attacking me and putting all of us in danger. I’m angry that I lost my only hope of being normal there, and even further disgusted that it was all a lie anyway, even if it hadn’t happened. The pony I thought I’d finally started to become friends with, and the other that I’d been through all of that adventure with had abandoned me and gave me to her instead.” It just kept coming, bits of ice raining down in my mind. Yeah, I was weak. Yeah, it was all an excuse and pathetic. That was me, and I didn’t feel like hiding anymore.

“I’m angry at Keela as well, for stopping me from at least getting what little revenge I could grab for myself. I wanted to make her sister hurt so badly for what she did to me. What she had said she was going to do to you all. It was revenge. I wanted her to suffer like I did. I wanted to hit her again and again and again and not stop screaming and crying until I passed out…” It just continued, my voice raising as I went on. My hooves were wet. No. Stopping now wasn’t possible.

There were moments when I felt like there was a sword hanging over me. Normally it was that healthy air of caution that told me to stop, but at some points in your life, I guess you just have to laugh and keep charging. “I’m not angry at Nirru. I hate her. The only thing that stopped me from killing her that night was Keela begging me not to. Begging me. I wanted to so bad that I could taste it. She’d hurt me. She had destroyed everything I had wanted to be and hurt ponies I cared about. She threatened to kill you all. I wanted to destroy her. For revenge, and for threatening everypony,” I whispered, feeling like I was choking on ice at this point. I’d slipped past anger and shot right into hatred. It was something I didn’t think ponies even knew about. They wouldn’t understand or even grasp it. Because as much as I wanted to be, and dreamed of it, I wasn’t a normal pony. I could never be a normal pony. Even if it wasn’t for the cybernetics and that writhing monster inside of me, I was tainted. My very memories had things that a pony should never experience. Fluttershy showed me that much.

Which brought me to the last one. I hoped Twilight was delighted by now. “And most of all, above and beyond all of this, I’m angry with myself. In every instance that I’m upset over, there are logical reasons for it happening. Keela just wanted to save her sister. Applejack and Rainbow Dash of course chose to believe who they thought was their friend over me, the crazy stallion babbling about aliens and doppelgangers. Twilight and Fluttershy love each other and just got carried away over an extremely hormonal period of time, and sent out the letter by accident. It’s all… There’s no reason for me to be angry at all, but even with the logic right there, I can’t just make it all go away. It disgusts me, and makes me realize that I probably couldn’t have been a normal pony, even without knowing what I do now. I don’t even deserve to be here…” With that, I hit a brick wall. There was just nothing else inside for me to say, despite that urge to just scream at the top of my lungs and smash the walls down until it passed. There were no guards up, and I knew they all realized exactly how I was feeling. Well, Rarity could probably make an educated guess anyway, and I didn’t know if my whining had woken Spike up or not. The dead silence certainly wasn’t giving me any hints. Maybe they’d all left in the middle and I’d been talking to myself? I smirked bitterly inside at that thought, but knew they were all still right here.

There was nothing but the cold silence now, nopony daring to even breathe. I knew this would happen. What had she been trying to accomplish by unveiling all of this disgusting trash to them all when they were finally having a happy moment? It was a pointless pile of circular logic and seething, childish emotion. How did she expect to manage any of it?

“Mender…” Applejack’s voice shot through the air like a bolt of lightning and I jerked at the sudden sound that wasn’t my own egotistical voice. I suddenly realized I was shaking and hadn’t noticed, keeping my eyes covered up and holding the wetness back as best I could. Maybe if I couldn’t see them, they couldn’t see me? Sound logic, in comparison…

She hesitated, of course, freezing the second she said something and realized she had no idea what she was going to continue with. Was there anything to say, really? The soundest answer was to simply say to hell with it and go get breakfast. Forget any of this ever happened. Why had she done this? To ‘help’ me? I felt her hoof touch against the back of my neck and bristled, moving away from it quickly. She pulled back in an instant and whispered, “I… Mender…” She didn’t have the slightest clue what to say.

I pulled my back legs up, sliding into a ball as I shook my head. This was a waste of their time. “Just go. All of you, just leave. Go get breakfast or something…” I managed to get out, fighting to talk through what felt like my throat swelling up.

“No, Mender, we need to-“ Twilight started to continue. No, I was done doing what she wanted for now. She got her way and got me to tell them all. Could she not be content with just that?

“Just go!” I snapped out, shuddering again as I pulled myself into a tighter ball. Why wouldn’t my legs stop shaking?!

There was another long moment of silence before I felt movement all around me, the bed shifting around. “Come on, Twi,” I heard Applejack order, before the last form right behind me was pulled off the bed forcibly. Good. Just leave. Everypony needed to leave.

Soon, there was just nothing. The door was closed at some point, I thought. I couldn’t remember, but double-checked that each and every link from me was as off as I could get them. No more. They didn’t need to feel this from me. She got her way, so she should be happy. There was nopony close enough to hear me or see me or even know I was here. They were halfway to the dining room. I was alone.

I just let it all go. Dark tentacles shot out of my body, whipping to the shades and closing each and every one around me. I barely plunged the room into darkness in time before I let out a wail. Over and over again I just screamed and shouted, kicking at the pillows and flinging them against the walls. I just let it go, and stopped caring as everything distorted and my targeting system went totally haywire. There was nothing here for me to murder, so what did it matter?

Everything fell away into the blind, dark rage. I have no idea how long it all washed over me. Eventually, I just got tired and fell over against the carpet, panting and crying. I was a little foal again and throwing a tantrum was all I could do to stop from exploding. Finally, that stopped too as I just lay on my side, staring into the dark room. Not even she bothered to show up. Maybe it was self-evident enough to not need mocking this time? Or she just knew that I’d tear her apart almost instantly. For a long while, I just stared into the scarred cracks of my left hoof. Who was I, really…?

It was all such a mess. Sighing, I tucked the sheets back under the pillows and straightened them back out. Leave it to me to throw a tantrum like a foal, then immediately feel badly about it afterwards like a pansy instead. How I managed to muster up the balls to attack a Grosh ship head on was way beyond me.

Having finished the bed, I looked around the room again. For having looked like a small tornado had hit it, everything was now in almost spotless condition. My tentacles had cleaned up the scattered items nicely, and my Alteration magic had repaired the actually broken stuff. Oh, and the gashes in the walls and bed. And the chandelier I tore off the ceiling. Getting it back up there had been a real pain! I tapped the crystal disk on the wall and smiled as it lit back up, scattering illumination throughout the room. Now success on an engineering job; that felt gratifying, however.

Peeking both directions when I exited the tower, I was pleased to note that nopony was in the general vicinity. I was sort of worried that half the guard force would have investigated the sounds of the rampage. Of course, they probably would have gotten here minutes ago if that were the case. More likely, this area of the castle was merely quarantined until the royal exorcist got here. Regardless, I straightened up my saddlebags and headed towards the main entry hall.

I was starting to wonder if my dry and slightly bitter sarcasm was accurate by the time I'd gotten to the main body of the castle and still not seen anypony. I didn't dare turn the links back on to see where everypony was. Even intentionally blanking my thoughts, Fluttershy or Pinkie were still capable of noticing me. I kind of wanted to find Fluttershy first to apologize for my rather disgusting behavior. Then came Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and I guess Twilight, in that order. Uh, assuming one of the first two didn't kill me. Again. No, wait, that was bitter again. I really needed to work on that.

I peeked around the corner of the hallway leading around behind the huge room that served as the main dining room. Two guards were posted by the back doors, and I exhaled softly in relief. Okay, so I wasn't in some parallel, empty dimension or something. I think that might have been a worse hell than my old one. They turned and glanced at me for a moment before resuming staring straight ahead. Huh. Well, no warrant had been issued for me, then.

I contemplated the merits of a hermit lifestyle in the Everfree while walking down to the two guards. "Uh, the halls seem kind of empty. Did I miss a memo or something?" I asked the closest one. Of course, would they actually tell a random pony that wandered up to them in the hall?

"Yes, sir. While you were resting in the back tower, Princess Celestia called for a meeting with the Elements of Harmony prior to their breakfast. They're meeting behind us in the main dining room with a full contingent of guards," he promptly explained. Oh, right, I was a guard lieutenant now. Wait, they had more than one dining room here? Wait, no, that wasn't the important question.

"Is there an emergency?" I asked quickly, powering up my internal generators just in case.

He shook his head, however, assuring, "No, sir. All is well. I don't know the details, but I believe the Princess simply wishes to discuss the return trip. You are welcome to go in, if you wish." Oh. Well, that brought about an awkward option. Of course, I was significantly less likely to be murdered in front of the Princess. There was that. Plus, my curiosity was getting the better of me.

"Thank you very much for the information. I think I will peek, at least." I spoke as I slipped past them, nodding to their salutes. Of course, leave it to me to walk in on a conversation.

"But Discord has been behaving. Why do we need them, Princess?" I heard Twilight ask, sounding surprised. Need what? Thankfully I was hidden out of sight by one of the barriers the cooks usually organized food behind.

Princess Celestia sounded much calmer as she explained, "The Elements of Harmony may be required in the future by DReg. This actually has nothing to do with Discord. I'll also be sending along a specific book from the Canterlot Archives in a few days for you, Twilight." Oh! She was sending the actual Elements back with us? Idly, I wondered what exactly they were stored in. Probably some sort of reinforced lockbox or something. I momentarily amused myself picturing them in some sort of ridiculously visible glass case like a museum piece and barely resisted chuckling out loud.

"A book?!" Twilight asked, far too quickly to be merely curious. Heh. She'd never change, although that wasn't all bad. I decided eavesdropping was bad, however, and slipped forward around the barrier. Well, time for the fireworks.

Tia was sitting facing away from the barrier and didn't see me at first, further explaining with, "Yes, it's an important book containing an unfinished spell towards its end. I'd like you, and possibly Mender to take a look at it and-" Twilight winced at my name seconds before I moved into sight around the barrier. Her eyes widened rapidly, causing Tia to trail off and glance my way instead.

"Oh! Good morning, Mender. I trust you are feeling better from your bug?" she inquired politely. Bug? They must have told ponies I was just a little sick. Tia's warmer smile oddly told me she suspected otherwise, however.

Their expressions were completely mixed as I glanced past. Rarity and Pinkie were unique, both smiling towards me, the former's sad while the latter was just warm. Fluttershy held just about as surprised an expression as Twilight, although the lavender unicorn was quickly shifting to horrified. Applejack and Rainbow looked incredibly guilty instead, which only served to frustrate me more. This was exactly why I hadn't wanted to tell them in the first place! My irrational and immature emotions were better off buried where nopony could ever see them. But no, she insisted that this was better.

I didn't linger regardless, rotating to face Tia before nodding. "I'm a little better now, thank you. Don't let me interrupt," I excused, before slipping over and sitting a little bit behind Rarity on the right side of the group. I noticed Princess Cadance and Shining Armor to the left as I walked, Shining giving me an absent nod, but Cadance frowning towards me before glancing past towards Twilight instead.

Tia waited patiently for me to sit down before continuing with, "It's largely decided regardless. The Elements of Harmony shall return to Ponyville with their Bearers. They may stay at the library with you, Twilight. The book will take longer to release, as it's currently being refurbished as we speak. I shall send it to you later, Twilight." Well it did make sense to keep the powerful magic artifacts near the ponies who could use them. Why were they even here to begin-

I froze as I spotted the very artifacts in question to the right of Tia. They sat in a ridiculously visible glass case, proudly displayed like some sort of museum exhibit. There wasn't even a lock on the cover! From everything I had heard about them, these were supposed to be artifacts of nigh unlimited power! Even the Aegis Artifacts, which were, for the most part, several orders of magnitude less powerful than the Elements were kept in a vault on lockdown when not owned. Well, uh... Glancing to my left, I noted the book and sword strapped to my saddlebag harness. Was strapping your artifacts to an Eldritch Abomination better or worse than a vault?

Twilight snapped out of it a second later, fully facing Tia again. "Ah, yes, your highness. I don't know if I'm capable of completing a spell that Starswirl the Bearded couldn't, but I'll try my very best!" she assured quickly. Who? Wait, if I asked that, we'd be here until tomorrow.

The princess of the sun smiled warmly towards Twilight and nodded. “I have no doubt that you’ll manage just fine, my student. Now relax. I believe we’ve been neglecting breakfast until now, and should get to that,” she suggested with a bit of amusement to her voice, standing up from her slightly elevated area that contained the Elements and heading past the actual Element Bearers and towards the table behind me. Sweet! My stomach made a quiet gurgle of appreciation at her suggestion, and I rotated, following after her.

Spike seemed of equal mindset and followed after me, giving me a nod and smile as he caught up to my left side. Oh, right. He’d slept through all that. Somehow… I nodded back, returning his smile as best I could. I had to apologize still, but it was better to wait until everypony sat down instead. Pinkie and Shining Armor joined me rapidly at the table as well, Spike to my immediate left, Shining to his, and Pinkie across from Spike. To my surprise, Tia sat down across from me instead, giving a pleased smile as she settled her much larger form at the table.

It didn’t take a second for me to realize that, awkwardly enough, we were the only ones that had approached the table. Twilight hesitated, staring back at me, then looking over at Rarity as the pearly unicorn shrugged and walked towards the table as well. Applejack and Rainbow shot hissed whispers back and forth for a second before both turned and looked my way as well. Yeah, this wasn’t awkward at all.

“Oh? Is something the matter, my little ponies?” Tia inquired in mild surprise before looking back towards me skeptically. I sighed and just turned to stare down at my plate instead. Cadance finally shifted off the wall and walked to the table as well to sit next to her husband.

“Is something the matter, Mender? They’re all looking at you,” she inquired, sounding slightly suspicious. Of course, after my first meeting with her, I fully anticipated my impression on her to be ruined. Maybe I was right?

Twilight gave me a start by hopping forward immediately, quickly yelping, “No! It… Don’t make him try to explain it. It was my fault! I pushed him into revealing a secret before he was ready, and he got angry with us.” That wasn’t entirely accurate, but I supposed it would do.

To my left, Spike let out a snort, then snickered. “That’s a good one, Twi! Mender never gets angry at anypony, though,” he pointed out incorrectly. Rarity dropped her thankfully still empty cup, and the four remaining mares over to our right froze almost in unison. Whoops. Spike looked surprised by the reaction and shot them a questioning glance before asking, “Uh… right? Wait, did you really get mad at them?”

“I… was more mad at myself. Also, I wanted to wait until everypony was sitting down, but… I’m sorry. I acted like an immature foal throwing a tantrum, and I apologize for the behavior,” I said instead, forcing myself to look over at the mares. I was a bit confused as Fluttershy’s eyes expanded in size a bit, including her pupils. She took a moment to cringe to herself before flat out sprinting towards the table.

My eyes widened instead as she crashed into my chair, causing Spike to yelp as I landed on him, now carrying a very frantic Fluttershy. He then tipped and crashed into Shining, who flared his horn up and locked his chair to the floor, protecting the now snickering Cadance from also getting flattened.

“No, Mender! You were angry with us for a good reason. We shouldn’t have made you tell your secrets. That was terrible! We… please, forgive us,” she quickly apologized, voice dwindling the longer it went on.

Twilight disappeared in a flash of light, again abusing her apparent mastery of teleportation magic and winking across the room almost instantly, reappearing on the other side of the shivering ball of fur I now held. “Fluttershy, it wasn’t your fault. I was the one who decided to try to get him to tell, and blurted out the start of it,” she pointed out. I suppressed the tiny spike of annoyance in myself before remembering I hadn’t activated the links again anyway.

After a moment of helping Spike tip our chairs back into position, Shining lifted an eyebrow towards the two mares next to me before asking, “Uh, should I ask what happened?” Heh. Why not? They at least weren’t even part of the secret that already got revealed to the ones it would hurt most.

“Sure. Why not? They got me to admit to my illogical and absurdly immature anger that I keep buried inside of me, most of the time,” I explained idly, shifting my plate around on the table as a distraction while continuing with, “Even though I know they have their reasons and that they were honest and even justified mistakes, I still can’t just write off being angry with Applejack, Rainbow, Twilight, and Fluttershy.” It was a summary, but it certainly sped up the process.

Tia surprised me by smiling softly at that and lifting her cup up, sipping at the tea I hadn’t seen her pour. By the soft, rooty smell, I guessed it was something herbal. She set it down a brief moment later, somehow managing to draw all our attention at once with the rather simple motion. “Thank you for sharing that, Mender, even though you didn’t have to. I realize the sensation now. However, I believe you’re actually more confused about the anger, no?” she suggested, looking back to me again. Eh? Confused…

I nodded a second later, gathering what she meant by that. “It seems immature. Applejack and Rainbow were justified in their suspicion of me, knowing me for very little time compared to their friend, Twilight. The fact that they were incorrect isn’t really relevant compared to them wanting to protect who they thought was their friend, as I told them before,” I explained, nodding over to them instead. Tia, of course, appeared to understand immediately, but Cadance frowned a bit.

“Are you talking about the incident before your abduction? When that dimensional entity pretended to be Twilight?” she inquired tentatively. I was kind of impressed with her ability to avoid specifics and remain diplomatic.

Applejack flattened her ears back at that but nodded, appending, “An’ where Ah kicked him through ah window an’ killed him. Might as well not mince yer words. Ah know what Ah did.” A familiar sounding bitterness was in her voice that I recognized from myself. Oddly, I felt a little better hearing it. If a normal pony could sound like that, too, maybe I was a step closer to that than I gave myself credit for?

“We’ve gone over it before. You thought I was hurting Twilight, then I tried to attack her with a weapon. You were only defending her, and you know it,” I reminded, more to make sure Cadance knew the whole truth, rather than just AJ’s version of it. The orange mare scowled at me again, but knew the argument at this point. Both of us blamed ourselves rather than each other, and I knew she was stubborn enough to not change her mind. Actually, I was pretty stubborn about it, too.

“Even though you can justify it, however, you do still feel hurt that she didn’t even try to hear you out, right?” Tia asked out of nowhere. My eyes widened a little, but I swallowed the sensation fast and glanced back towards her for a moment. She smiled pleasantly towards me, but I knew she’d already gotten her answer. There wasn’t much one could do when trying to trick out a few thousand year old physical goddess. Well, close enough to a goddess that I didn’t dare argue semantics.

I sighed, admitting, “Yes. I understand ‘why’ she didn’t give me a chance, but that doesn’t stop me from being bitter that she didn’t. I haven’t been here in Equestria for long at all, and I get that I’m not that trustworthy yet. Everything is happening so fast that I can barely keep up, and I really just want the other dimension to leave me in peace… I don’t think that’s going to happen, though.” No, it wasn’t the last I’d seen of that dimension. Keela was still working on sealing the hole. Twilight was still working on finding a safe way to break Keela’s link. Until those two things were done, there wouldn’t be any relaxing for me.

Rainbow puffed up at that, taking to the air again and hovering over next to Applejack as the orange mare walked over. “Admitting that is fine, Mender! We’re tougher than you think we are, and can take it. Now that we know there’s a definite problem there, we can meet it head on!” she declared quickly, smirking at me instead. Head on? I got a mental image of her firing herself towards me out of a giant slingshot into a massive head-butt, and my forehead gave a sympathy throb. That didn’t exactly sound pleasant. Twilight lifted an eyebrow up at her, but turned to look back at me instead a second later.

“Uh, as violent as that sounds, she is right, Mender. You admitting to being angry gives us something to work towards. Helping you through the pain in this case and doing what we can to make it up to you. You’re helping us at the same time to equally forgive ourselves, right?” she pointed out, logic as sharp as usual. It was what Tia had already pointed out. She’d just neglected to clarify what I could do to help them forgive themselves. It was beyond weird, however, to consider me making them feel bad as helping.

Shining glanced back and forth between the two of us before raising an eyebrow again. Huh? “I get that much, having read the report. Why are you angry with Twilight and Fluttershy, though?” he asked, tilting his head a bit. Uh…

Fluttershy winced against me, and Twilight shot him a disbelieving stare. “Seriously?” she asked, immediately pointing out, “Didn’t you see the huge announcement at the herd office? What about the argument with Dad? Or the discussion at dinner the other night? I screwed up and kind of formed the herd with just Fluttershy and myself over Estrus, leaving Mender out of it! Why wouldn’t he be mad at us?!” Her voice got progressively louder until she was stomping her hooves back and forth in irritation. An errant spark of magic shot up her, and I watched one of her mane’s stray locks pop out to the side from the static electricity. Oh, so that’s how that happened.

He backed up slightly with his head, and then frowned. “Twily, calm down! Seriously, I thought you three were already okay with that. I mean, isn’t he a part of the herd now? You fixed it,” he pointed out gently. I could have sworn I saw Twilight’s eye twitch slightly, but Cadance cleared her throat softly instead.

“Dear, I believe that just correcting him being in the herd isn’t what she’s referring to when she says it isn’t resolved. It’s a blow to the trust he put into their relationship, which has to be built back up again. You know that’s a long process,” she softly reminded. His expression softened as well and he nodded gently. Oddly, that got Twilight to relax a little as well.

“Ah, yes. A similar, although lighter in tone, situation. I believe Mender knows that hormones can cloud judgment, and realizes sending the letter out was an accident, right? However, it’s hard not to feel betrayed by the situation,” Tia pointed out, making an interesting comparison. I considered both situations to be ‘justified’, yes. But even if I found them so, I was upset that it hadn’t been different. Both situations ‘hurt’ me because I wasn’t as trusted or important as I’d thought I was prior. Trust, and importance.

It took me a moment to notice they were all looking at me as I thought about it. Blinking, I blushed lightly and looked away, suddenly feeling self-conscious at all the focus. Still, my feelings were right there. “I guess. It makes sense now, however. Applejack didn’t trust me as much as I’d thought, or hoped she did. Neither did Rainbow. I also wasn’t as important to Fluttershy and Twilight as I’d thought. At least not enough for them to fully consider their actions. Both… of my issues stem from me thinking more of myself than what was actually correct,” I pointed out, realizing that during my stay in Equestria, I’d actually gotten somewhat egotistical. Was I ‘justified’ in expecting myself to be more trustworthy and important to the ponies I’d barely known a month at that point?

As I anticipated, Twilight and Applejack both gave a start at that comment, but Tia lifted her hoof up and shook her head slowly. “He is right. It’s incredibly hard to figure out how important or trusted you are to others. There is a fine line between being optimistic, and assuming far too much credit for yourself. However, there are also problems with guessing you mean too little to ponies, Mender,” she warned me gently. Ah, well, yeah. If I just assumed they didn’t trust me at all, or thought I was a total loser, I’d be doing exactly what that fake Nirru wanted me to. Burning all my bridges and becoming obsessed with only looking out for myself.

Twilight rested her head against my right hip, however, and nodded into me, her horn lightly poking me in the waist and feeling weird. “I’m sorry, Mender. We didn’t intend to make you feel less important to us. I panicked for two days straight after realizing the letter I’d left the form in was gone. Um, I don’t handle stress well, I know. I’d come up with all sorts of situations with you leaving us and never speaking to us again and that’s when I realized exactly how important you are to me. That made me even more panicked when I realized I’d screwed it up again. I thought that would be the final straw,” she admitted, pushing a bit more firmly into my hip. Fluttershy was almost synched up with her, pushing a bit harder into my chest at the same time as I held her against me on the chair. The image of Twilight grinning psychotically down at me from the ceiling when I opened the door popped back into my head, and sent a light shiver down my spine. Matching that up with what she just said, however…

Applejack also nodded at that, and then snickered. I lifted an eyebrow towards her, but she quickly explained, "Ain't many things that makes Twilight freak out quite like that. Ah'd say yer pretty important ta her." Twilight's face heated up against my fur and she glanced back at AJ instead with a glare. Heh. Instead of going in a circle again, however, Rarity finally cut in, having been silent up until now.

"Applejack and Rainbow Dash feel they've betrayed Mender's trust, as do Twilight and Fluttershy. Mender feels like he's magnifying the issues by overestimating his value to us. Pinkie, Spike, and myself desire to help smooth everypony's relationships again, and now that everything is out in the open finally, I feel we can each begin the process of healing. Going back and forth between the same issues and stubbornly refusing to accept things as they are, however, will get us nowhere," Rarity spoke, calmly and properly addressing each of us as she made a strange sort of third party observation. Well, it was true. Sometimes all this frustration and drama accumulated, and it felt like I was more beating my head into a wall repeating the same arguments while nopony bothered to listen. Of course, I didn't want them to blame themselves either. Ugh. It really was a vicious circle of trying to take the blame from each other.

She wasn't done, however, continuing a moment later with, "Frankly speaking, I feel that this is a major step in the right direction. Fluttershy and Twilight have realized how important Mender is to them, and Rainbow Dash and Applejack have admitted to also needing to forgive themselves."

"I did?" Rainbow asked, a mildly annoyed tint to her voice. Uh...

Fluttershy timidly looked up from me before adding, "Um, not to disagree or anything, and especially not to argue but, um, Mender has always been really, really important to me. I, um, just wanted to let him know that." For a moment, she seemed to address the statement towards the now very confused looking Rarity, but perked up a second later and turned around to me again, smiling softly.

I returned her smile hesitantly, not sure what to make of all that. I always sort of knew she felt closer to me than Twilight. Rarity coughed lightly again regardless, and continued with, "Anyway, Mender himself has admitted to his feelings now and is on his way to understanding them. All in all, this has been a good thing for us. We can help each other now, rather than continue going in circles trying to figure things out. That said, however, continuing on an empty stomach would be unwise. We should eat immediately to rectify this!"

I suddenly got the sneaking suspicion that entire little speech, while quite pretty, was all an elaborate ploy to get breakfast served finally. Tia nodded towards her regardless with a smile and clapped her hooves together twice. I was a little surprised by three servants coming out of seemingly nowhere behind the barricade with three large trays of steaming goodness. They weren’t back there when I was there a few minutes ago! I hadn’t even heard the door open…

Twilight blinked once, looking momentarily caught off guard before looking to her right and simply hopping into the chair there. To my further surprise, Fluttershy simply rotated around in front of me and rested her back and wings against my chest, apparently content to stay right where she was to eat. This would normally make eating nightmarish for me, but thankfully I had my own magic. I was simply glad she didn’t seem horribly upset at me for what I’d blurted out during my tantrum.

There was a momentary jostle across the entire table as I turned on all the links again, and five mares all jumped in surprise, Fluttershy almost falling out of my lap. Tia lifted an eyebrow over at the right end of the table, and then apparently realized that all five had jumped at once, looking back to me instead. I averted my gaze from hers, and she smirked suddenly. What?! It might not have been me!

“Oh, I could have so much fun with those links,” Tia lamented a moment later, giggling to herself. My turn to smirk then, although Twilight felt more surprised by the comment. Empathy started flowing back in, with Fluttershy first, then the further away mares mere heartbeats later. It was a disheartening sensation as I felt them all still various levels of tender or unnerved.

Fluttershy leaned back further against me and rested her head sideways just under my chin, her right ear twitching from the contact against my fur. “We felt what you felt, Mender. Um, it was like feeling Applejack’s dream. It’ll take a little bit to recover from that, but I, well, we all really want to help you get through it, too,” she softly spoke, directly into my mind this time.

“It’s more than just me suffering from everything that happened, but thank you, Fluttershy. Look after yourself, too, though,” I reminded softly into her psyche, squeezing her a bit tighter. I felt her blush and heat up as she pushed into my chin with her muzzle, as if afraid I’d let her go if she didn’t try her hardest to hug me.

I felt Applejack smile weakly at that, then nod. “Tha promise still stands. Ya let us help with yer feelin’s an’ do stuff fer you, an’ we’ll let ya help with ours. Eventually, Ah think… thing’s will return ta normal, even if Ah doubt we’ll ever feel like we’ve done enough,” she reminded. I remembered what she’d said. Just because they found out that I had a ton of immature anger inside of myself didn’t change what I agreed to, and I nodded.

“Us too, Mender,” Twilight reminded, followed with, “We don’t feel like we’ve done enough for you yet either. We didn’t experience what Applejack did, but we still want to help you.” Her inner voice sounded a little worried, and I watched her stare blankly at her plate in front of her on the table. Slowly, the closest food cart shifted around our end of the table, stopping behind Rainbow, who was to her right.

Mentally shaking my head, I warned, “That’s just going to take time, Twi. I really do want to trust you two fully again, but… I can’t just force my subconscious to accept that. I get little, nagging doubts in the back of my mind sometimes…”

Dash finished picking out what looked like several rather tasty pancakes with syrup and butter, then the cart moved on to Twilight, who turned to greet the nice looking mare who was pushing it. I relaxed, just holding Flutters against me and closing my eyes. That slow, ebbing headache was dissipating now, finally. I attributed it to the stress of all the drama, and Fluttershy was known to be excellent stress relief just to be around, so it made sense. With her, I also never felt like I was imposing, interestingly enough. Like right now, it felt like she was just sucking up the attention I was giving her like a sponge, basking in it almost. I partially attributed that to her feeling badly over what I’d said, although she had been getting closer and closer to me lately.

“Aww. You two are adorable,” I suddenly heard from my right. A glance showed me that the cart mare had caught up with us and pushed her tasty smelling goodies behind my chair. Fluttershy perked and opened her eyes at that, blushing softly as she spotted the mare as well, which of course only made her more adorable.

I smiled and nodded towards her, rotating in place to give Fluttershy more of a view of the cart’s contents to peruse while I peeked at the pancakes. Dash had a good idea, and I was already fairly certain I was going to go for them, but the omelets looked pretty appetizing, too!

My train of thought was totally disrupted at the sound of a slamming door, and a somewhat high pitched, continuous squealing noise. Huh. That was either a very large pig getting sucked into one of the laundry ducts in the hallway, or…

A very dirty looking Snapshot sprinted into the room a second later, flailing about and spreading bits of dirt everywhere while squealing loudly. Ah, yes, she was my second guess. Tia gave her a bewildered look as she finally skidded to a stop, and then crashed under the end of the table. Applejack jumped and Rainbow’s wings flailed as she squeaked, both mares backing away from the table as there was a light bump, then scampering noise. Uh… Twilight, who was starting to eat prior to this, lit her horn up and levitated the chair she was sitting on, moving it away from the table as I saw the blur of motion shoot past where she was. I tipped back as well, narrowly avoiding the dark green blur myself as I casually rested the back of the chair against the food cart.

Spike yelped as Snapshot popped up right in front of him instead. Thankfully she grabbed his chair to stop him from falling over, and then shot him a wink before turning to me instead. “Ah! Sorry I’m late, Mender! Uh, I mean, Boss! I just spent, like, seven hours in a tree, and lost track of time. It was so worth it, though! You gotta see these,” she quickly explained, lifting her rather large camera bag up and setting it down on top of the table for me, next to my plate. Wait, she’d started working for me already? Wait, no, I had a better question first.

“Uh, why were you squealing?” I asked, reaching up and pulling a decently sized twig out of her golden-brown mane, behind her right ear.

“Huh? Oh, I turned my tail wrong and poked myself in the butt with a twig,” she muttered absently as she slipped the cover off the camera and popped open the development case. Aforementioned tail swished back and forth while she worked, dislodging the mentioned twig as well as smacking Spike twice in the face before he lifted his arms up to block it, looking a bit annoyed. Uh…

Fluttershy moved her toast and bowl of cereal out of the cart, placing it on our plate carefully before smiling and nuzzling me, apparently totally ignoring Snapshot there. “Your turn, Mender. What do you want?” she asked softly, ears rotating to point at me as I smirked at her.

“You’re adorable, you know that? Uh, right. Actually, those pancakes looked really good. Could I get a couple of those with some of the toast?” I asked politely, smiling back at the cart mare, who was still giving uncertain glances at the slightly crazy green mare behind me now, somewhere. She jumped slightly as I spoke to her, but smiled and nodded afterwards, her horn lighting up and lifting two pancakes and another set of toast out. I gave a happy nod and took them gently out of the air, my own edged blue fields of force expanding over them and securing them before I moved them over Fluttershy’s head and onto the plate next to her toast.

The cart mare squeaked in surprise, then watched with fascination as I set the food down. “Oh, it’s true, then! You really do have your own magic,” she observed. Still smiling, I absently nodded towards her before rotating around with Fluttershy again, who giggled as I moved her into a better position. This was kind of silly, but I wasn’t going to complain.

“Oh yes, he does! It’s quite fascinating, too! It seems to work off an entirely different principle than Unicorn Magic! It’s far more focused, with the effects and movements predetermined before he even casts the spell. I’m still studying how the two different types of magic interact, though,” Twilight chirped in, mind totally locking onto the topic and honing in like a predator to prey. I caught her smiling towards me, however, and glanced directly at her, raising an eyebrow. She blushed immediately and looked away again, wiggling her hooves as she suddenly realized what she was doing. The cart mare simply giggled, however, and trotted past us to meet up with the cart coming from the other way, having just served Shining Armor. Uh oh! Would they have a cart duel then to decide who would get to serve Spike? I suddenly pictured them both glaring at each other and moving in at ramming speed behind me.

Tia, however, interrupted Twilight’s embarrassment and my imagined mortal tray combat with a giggle herself. “I admit, I’m very interested in the results of the magic comparison. I also wonder if Mender can teach other ponies to use his type of magic. It would be an interesting thing to find out at some point,” she reasoned. I’d never thought about that. Was it possible for somepony else to cast Keldarian spells?

“Oh, that would be interesting indeed! We should test that next after we figure out the Keela thing, Mender!” Twilight agreed enthusiastically, ears perking up as she glanced quickly back over at me.

I snickered at her eagerness and nodded, but Rarity coughed lightly, drawing our attention again to her position next to Tia. “That is indeed good, but I don’t suggest just giving up on the trust exercises. I really think they’ll help you, Twilight,” she reminded gently. The lavender unicorn sighed and looked away from her for a moment before slowly nodding, and I felt a momentary pang of guilt. She obviously didn’t like doing them, so if I could just figure out a way to get myself to trust her without…

Tia perked at the mention of that, asking, “Oh, I forgot about that. Did my sleep mask help out with those?” I froze, eyes widening almost as fast as Twilight’s. Rarity got a light shade of pink in her cheeks before averting her eyes away from the Princess next to her, who was looking confused now instead. Oh, right! We hadn’t told Rarity where we had gotten the ‘blindfold’ from.

“Oh, right… uh… Maybe I could, um, pay you for a new one?” I suggested politely, Fluttershy pausing mid bite of toast to look horrified, the sensation of suddenly realizing what we were talking about shooting down the link from her.

Tia stared blankly at me for a moment, and I shifted awkwardly. “New one? But… that was a hoof woven sleep mask passed down through three generations of great rulers and made from the blessed fur given freely from the now extinct Jackalopes,” she murmured. My blood froze as my eyes widened at that. Oh… oh hell. I’d just cut through it with my magic! Okay, we’d tucked it back in the costume bag, so all I had to do was go and get it back, then use a bit of Alteration magic to repair the cord! It wouldn’t be-

A spike of annoyance shot from Twilight, who gave Tia a skeptical stare. Fluttershy felt confused instead before murmuring, “Um, but Jackalopes aren’t extinct. I have a family living near my cottage.” Huh? Tia of course burst into a small fit of laughter, as did Rainbow and Pinkie from both sides of the table, who’d obviously been listening in.

“Oh, wow. Your face was priceless, Mender. No, I picked it up last season at a clothing vender by the docks. Relax,” Tia admitted, still giggling. I glared at her for a moment as I felt the hammering of my heart slowly relax. Damn it!

Snapshot, who had prior been digging through her case and totally ignoring us, gave out a squeal of happiness and slid three pictures onto the tablecloth next to our plate. Oh? “I found them! Princess Celestia gave me the idea of scouting out around the alley where they recruited me to see if I could find any activity. Yesterday I went to the area again, but it was still clean as a whistle. Of course, I then realized that they knew I’d been caught, so why would they use the same alley to try recruiting somepony else? Soooooo, I got onto the overlook for town square and hid in a big tree that went out over the cliff while nopony was looking! From there, I was able to keep an eye on not one, but four other potential alleys that were prime recruitment areas. It didn’t look like I’d have any luck at all, but look what happened this morning!” she rapidly explained, getting close to matching Pinkie for speed of speech.

Fluttershy, Twilight, and I glanced at the pictures at the same time, the lavender mare leaning against me to peek over at them curiously. The first one showed just a slightly zoomed out shot of a dark alleyway between what looked like a pizza shop and a comic book store of some sort. Ah, she probably took a zoomed shot of each alley so we could place where they were. It was surprisingly clean given what I thought of when I imagined an ‘alley’ of a city. The second showed a darker shape towards the back of the alley, intentionally hiding in the shaded out area behind one of the larger dumpsters. The third picture was by far the most interesting, however.

Snapshot had zoomed in the shot quite a bit, probably switching out her lens by the looks of the different number on the upper right. The darker shape had moved out slightly, and was very clearly giving a large envelope to a reasonably well-dressed stallion. The larger stallion in question wore what looked like a rugged variation of a climbing harness with protective layers under it, and the notes Snapshot had written on the edge of the photo actually identified the make and model of the equipment he was wearing. There was a closer magnification on the envelope as well, managing to clarify a large, circular symbol with a triangle inside, and impossible to make out writing around the circumference. Damn.

Rotating that one around, I slid it over towards Tia instead. She set her tea down gently and floated the picture up off the table, giving it a good examination. I looked over at Spike and noticed he had a set of toast now, and none of the serving ponies were anywhere to be seen, their carts left carefully lined up a little ways from the left end of the table. Huh. They disappeared just as stealthily as they got here. I momentarily imagined grappling cables from the ceiling as they zipped back up while hanging upside down. Heh.

“Confirmed. That’s BEID’s symbol. That proves it. They’re still active, and the ones behind recruiting Miss Snapshot…” Tia confirmed a moment later, floating the picture back over to me. I gestured over towards Shining instead, and she shifted it his way while Twilight frowned.

“Who was the stallion in the picture with the BEID agent? Do we know yet?” she asked softly, looking back over at Snapshot, who was checking the rest of her pictures.

The green mare frowned before lightly shaking her head. “I have a better shot of the stallion in here somewhere, but I didn’t identify him yet. His gear is climbing equipment with support harnesses, and there were zip flaps on his back for wings. The lumps under them indicated he’s probably a pegasus, which would normally have no use for climbing equipment unless it’s just a hobby. The only other reason would be grappling himself to the side of a cliff for a better viewpoint over a very specific area, probably with a high magnification telescopic lens,” she concluded, making an impressive series of deductions. She might have even been in a similar situation, I reminded myself.

“Like the lower Dragon Mountains,” Twilight offered, narrowing her eyes at the pictures. Oh. That big range of mountains a dozen miles or so northwest of Ponyville?

Tia absently nodded, adding, “Highly likely. A magically enhanced telescopic lens could see detailed images of Ponyville from there,” she reasoned. Damn. They might be able to spy on us without even being in town that way.

Shining finally spoke up a moment later, however. “I’m going to run the stallion’s image past our record ponies. We might be able to get a positive match that way and keep an eye out for him. This is the alley near the Enchanted Comics shop, no? We should investigate it for clues…” he suggested. Ah!

“No. Don’t send a full squad. Dress somepony up as a janitorial staff and have them investigate while picking up the garbage from the bins I saw in the picture. We don’t want to alert them that we’re potentially on to some of their recruitment areas. We might be able to get more information if we can keep watching from afar,” I warned, quickly remembering pointers from my other self’s black ops days. Sometimes it was better off not to immediately arrest a target and lock down an area. Valuable information could be learned by just tailing them for a while instead, usually.

Snapshot perked at that and nodded rapidly. “Awesome idea! I volunteer to keep an eye on the alley while your agent peeks around. If I move over a tree, I should be able to see the whole thing with my strongest camera lens,” she offered, wiggling back and forth excitedly at the concept. Wow, she was really earnest in her desire to help! Tia smirked, however, and shook her head.

“Not your strongest anymore, Miss Snapshot. I took the liberty of getting some specialized lenses for you to use, special order. These are purely for investigating things for Mender, mind you,” she warned, giving a powerful stare towards the now frozen green mare, who rapidly started nodding. I could see the faint glow from her collar at this point, and realized exactly how serious this all was. I doubted it was ‘standard’ procedure to recruit an agent and limit her normal freedoms as a citizen for the duration of an investigation. Although with the group we were dealing with…

Snapshot seemed reasonably unshaken after Tia’s gaze left her, and smiled over at me instead. I returned a nod and added, “Good job, though, Snapshot. Could you stick around town then for a few more days until the local operation there is completed? Getting images of the area and any evidence found would be useful.”

To my lack of surprise, she threw an immediate salute towards me, tossing in, “Yes sir, Boss! I’ll get lots of detailed pictures, then send word to you in Ponyville.” I noticed she puffed up when saying that, and wondered if she wasn’t exactly used to praise. Snickering, I nodded to her in a calmer manner, hoping it might rub off a bit.

“Relax, Snapshot. And you can just call me Mender, really,” I offered, feeling actually ‘older’ when she called me ‘Boss’, oddly. It felt so stuffy.

She giggled but nodded towards me, before perking again and digging back into her bag. “That’s right! I wrote down the full specs on that stallion’s gear, and the color gradient information my enchanted lens gave me. Never thought I’d need that enchantment, but I guess it was useful for this! Uh… lemme see…” she muttered, digging back into her bag. I moved out of the way of her tail before shrugging and trying a bite of my pancake that Fluttershy suddenly lifted to my mouth. Right! I should be eating…

Fluttershy seemed more than pleased with the thought of personally feeding me each bite, which was strange, but I wasn’t about to deny her anything. She managed to get a bite of her toast in between each of mine, so it was all good. It took Snapshot a good three minutes to find the paper she wrote the information down on regardless, and she let out a low groan when she finally pulled it out.

“No! I forgot to record the reference numbers for those saddlebags he was using! Wait, it should still be on the picture…” she muttered to herself, slipping back into her rather messy and chaotic pile of photos and digging out the one with the stallion turned to face the camera. Ah, that was a better shot of him! She had more notes written on that, and grinned at them. “Yup! Got it! Now where’d my pencil go…?” she asked to herself, looking back over at her camera bag. Oh hell. She was possibly the worst organizer I’d ever seen.

“Don’t,” I told her before pulling my left saddlebag and explaining, “I have a pencil in here you can use. Twilight should really organize your stuff sometime.” Snapshot gave me a sheepish grin, while Twilight herself heard her name and looked over to see what I was talking about. Her eyes bugged out as she suddenly spotted the inside of Snapshot’s camera case, and unadulterated horror and disgust shot down her link to me. Ha! Thought as much.

“How do you find anything with it like that?!” she rapidly asked, earning a confused glance from Snapshot as I popped my front left saddlebag open. The pencils were on the inside, along the back of the bag in the built-in loops, I already knew. They were jostled a little bit, and I momentarily raised an eyebrow before remembering I’d never re-sorted these two bags after I got horrifically squashed by the huge cello case. Right. I pulled a pencil out and tossed it onto the table regardless, snapping Snapshot out of it and earning a smile from her. I snickered, and then started to close the bag again when something white caught my eye.

On top of the bag, folded carefully with a small clip over one corner, was a slip of paper. Lifting an eyebrow up at it, I floated it out of my bag and examined it carefully. I didn’t have anything like this in my bags. What was it? Flipping it over, I saw my name printed across the top of it in an obviously mechanical font. Typewriter? Larger printing press blocks?

Twilight gave it a curious glance as I set it down on the table and used my magic to slide the clip off the corner. “What’s that, Mender?” she asked softly, watching as I folded it open.

“I dunno. It was a piece of paper that was in my saddlebag,” I explained, quickly realizing that a typed message was on the inside.

It was finely printed, definitely by some sort of typerwriter if I had to guess correctly. It read, “Investigate the bread loaf bakery, corner of third in the docks side of town. Watch it particularly during the hours of one and three in the morning. Their shipments randomize their deliveries between those time periods. Good luck.” It was signed as, “A Friend”, and that was that. I blinked and reread it twice, Twilight starting to frown at it. Tia gave me a curious glance over her tea cup on my third read-through, and I noticed everypony at the table was watching me, equally interested. Oh, right.

“Uh, you might want to read this…” I suggested, sliding the mysterious note over to Tia instead…