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Forgiveness Pending

by Kiroberos

Chapter 78: Chapter 77

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"Come on. You know you wanna. We pay you two bits apiece, and you ensure we pass the course. It's just homework," reached my ears, earning a light twitch as they swiveled to face the sound. Ugh. Not those jerks again!

Sliding forward while adjusting my saddlebags, I made sure they didn't scrape the wall as I peeked around the corner. Sure enough, two larger mares and a stallion had a first year cornered against a wall. She was shaking, and obviously felt threatened, which was exactly what they wanted for their 'deal'.

"B-But, that's against the rules! We could all get kicked out if..." she started to protest, shrinking down a little while stammering, the dust from the brick wall turning her whiter coat a dull gray.

The larger mare grinned at that and slammed her hoof into the bricks right next to the smaller mare's head, earning a squeak and shiver. "We're not gonna get caught, so relax. Trust me, things won't be pleasant for you if you say no," she reminded. I'd heard enough. These punks were toast.

Slipping my saddlebags off, I pushed them against the wall before sliding and breaking into a sprint around the corner, jaw clenching as I felt the magic surge forth. The big mare heard the sudden noise of my hooves as I flat out sprinted towards them and managed to look to the left, eyes widening.

"Oh ponyfeathers! It's Gem! Run!" she managed to yelp out. The dark brown stallion to her left didn't even know what hit him as he turned. My horn lit up and blasted his left leg out from under him with a shot of telekinesis. As he fell, I jumped and used his face as a springboard, easily flattening him into the dirt as I leaped through the air.

The bigger mare had started to run, but wasn't prepared for me body-checking her an instant later. I hit hard, but she hit a lot harder, and with me on top of her gut. The air exited her lungs in an instant and I rolled, sliding off her on the other side, pushing the rest of the air out of her with my body weight as she started coughing painfully. A flash of light danced across me an instant later, and I looked up just in time to feel the force of a mallet hit my face.

My magic activated instinctively, knocking the blast of energy away from my head even as I spun from the impact, a bit of blood hitting the dirt under me. I managed to keep my balance as I slid and turned just as the third mare actually tried levitating me off the ground, trying to haul me up helplessly into the air and away from her 'buddy' I'd just flattened. Idiot!

Never, ever try focusing on levitating a target in a fight. Especially not a unicorn who happened to be an expert at harmonization! Smirking as I wiped the blood from my mouth, my horn flared up just as she tried to haul me upwards. I fired the high intensity sonic vibration right into the channeling point for her spell an instant later. She screamed, clutching both sides of her skull with her forehooves, entirely forgetting that she was standing prior. She planted her face into the ground an instant later, collapsing like a bag of soggy carrots. Ha!

I smiled over at the smaller mare, who sat there with a stunned expression on her face, jaw dropped at me. What? She never see a mare kick that much flank before? "You okay?" I asked her, turning to face her fully. Okay, yeah, I was awesome. That probably sounded totally cool. Hey, she was kinda cute, too. Her disheveled mane was a soft green in color and ran to about her shoulders. The color complimented her teal eyes quite well, too.

"Gemstone Weave!" I heard shouted out in a very, very familiar voice, and everything sunk around me. Horseapples!

Turning, I gave a sheepish smile to the older mare glaring at me and storming over, hauling my school saddlebags alongside her with her magic. Well, that would have been awesome, had I not gotten caught teaching the bullies a lesson. Again... The headmistress of the academy simply tossed my bags to me before ordering, "Nurse, then my office. Now, Gemstone." Gah!

* * * * *

"So? That's only like your... What? Third time? I think you get six offenses before you have to appeal to the board!" Ether Pulse chirped, being his usual wiseguy self. I rolled my eyes and shot him a glare around my cheek bandage. He knew me better than that, though, and only smirked down at me, brushing his silvery mane away from his cyan eyes. He had a dark blue coat and was a bit taller than I was, which didn't take much given that I had been the class runt. My father's martial teaching more than made up for it, and I knew he'd be proud of me regardless! He always said that sometimes it was worth getting into trouble if it meant doing the right thing.

Sighing, I corrected, "Fourth time they caught me. Ninth time I've flattened some bullies. It's always the same thing. Some petty ponies picking on a smaller mare or stallion for some stupid reason. I'd love to see them try to pick on me!" I glared at nothing in particular until he started snickering and gave me a new target. Not that he ever felt threatened by me.

"They did, remember? Your first offense was after you skipped their faces off a brick wall. After that, they started running from you," he pointed out skeptically. Heh. He did know how to cheer me up, regardless. Sadly, he continued with, "You're just lucky your grades are so high, or you probably would have been asked to appear before the board already. Seriously, Gem. I know it makes you angry, but you have to just report them. Scare them off if you want, but just let them run away!" He had a pleading undertone that always stung, and I huffed, looking away from him finally. Honestly, I knew he just had my best interest at heart. That made it impossible to actually get angry with him. It just felt like that was doing nothing!

Sighing, I relented and nodded towards him a moment later. "Yeah, yeah. I'll give it a shot next time. At least they got suspended for trying to cheat, and put in front of the board. Mandatory therapy might teach them some proper manners," I muttered, getting him to nod and relax.

A second passed, and he idly scratched his chin for a moment. Eh? "So, was she at least cute?" he asked a second later, grinning.

"Ether!" I yelped, feeling the heat shoot up to my cheeks. It was one thing after another!

* * * * *

I ran into that mare again, of course. Hard to believe that she was in my advanced magic manipulation and theory class, despite being so young. She has to be at least a few years shy of myself, given her appearance. To my surprise, she actually remembered me and willingly came up to thank me for saving her three days ago. Of course, the bandage on my cheek might have jogged her memory, but I guess I couldn't expect everypony to be like me. As a rule of hoof, if I didn't write it down, it didn't get remembered for more than five minutes. It made classes really hard, but only made me try even harder! My dad believed in me!

Her name was Auraprism, or just Aura for short. Her Cutie Mark was a glowing prism splitting a ray into three, which was rather fitting and quite pretty to boot. She was a light specialist, focusing on crystal manipulation to refract and reflect, so we hit it off big time. A lot of my own work was focused on crystal vibration and sound theory, so we literally were both working with the same materials.

Now, of course, we were studying intensely for our final comprehension essays, which was our last chance to influence what our instructor thought of our learned abilities. It was three days from now, when we'd sit down in the classroom and get two hours to write up an exhaustive summary of the past semester and everything we learned. Thankfully we could bounce ideas off each other quite naturally. If he passed me, I'd only be one semester away from graduating with honors! Which was good. I had to graduate before they kicked me out for kicking flank first, and asking questions later.

"Okay, so following his pattern, he always discusses the physical properties of Equus' various magical crystals. After that's covered for two weeks, their magical aura properties are detailed, alongside how they interact and can relay through each other. That said, we can both at least structure our essays the same. Isn't chronological ordering a good thing?" she asked, tilting her head to the side and watching me as she lay on my dorm bed.

Lazily, I had flopped on my back across the carpet and continuously swayed my hooves back and forth in the air above me. Planning out the essay was good, yeah. That didn't stop it from being really, really boring, though. "I dunno, Aura. That sounds so predictable and boring. We should do something to make ours stand out more! He's got, like, twelve of these to read this year, and I don't want to bore him to tears," I groaned out, flailing a little faster in frustration.

Aura smiled and giggled at that, her voice gentle and soft. I felt a fluttering sensation in my tummy and shivered lightly, managing to keep it to myself. Over the two months I'd known her, I'd been growing steadily more attached to her. It didn't take Ether's persistent teasing to make me realize I was falling for her.

"Not everything needs to be exciting, Gem. Isn't it enough to impress him with your knowledge? This paper is only supposed to prove what we learned, not be a script for a play or something," she pointed out, ability to reason as sharp as usual. Arg!

"I know, I know! It's just so boring to write like that! I'd rather be doing experiments or research, not writing about experiments and research. I don't even know what I'm going to be doing when I graduate!" I complained, kicking violently at the air as if I'd just caught it stealing candy from a foal. It was a pity that not every problem could be solved by kicking it in the face.

To my surprise, Aura was quiet after that for an unusual amount of time. Slowing my assault on my invisible target, I glanced over at her, only to note her deep in thought. She must have seen the movement of my head, as she perked a second later, looking back up at me carefully. The light was surprisingly bad in my room as we'd been too lazy to light a candle yet, but I could have sworn I saw her blushing lightly.

I didn't have time to think on it, however, before she asked, "Have you thought about next semester? Um, I know your roommate is graduating and you need one..." Oh, right. I was rooming with a gryphon from Prance who was studying rune crafting. She was headed back home during Hearths' Warming break and I needed to find another roommate. I'd forgotten all about it!

"Gah! I totally forgot! Now I'm probably going to have to post on the searching board for a roommate. It's probably too late to ask around," I wondered out loud, annoyed at myself again. Of course! The moment I don't write something down...

My friend rapidly shook her head, however, before suggesting, "I, um, I have a private room, if you remember. It's still got two beds in it, though, and a private bath. If you wanted, well... I mean, you could room with me!" The last part was rapidly spat out and I raised an eyebrow over at her curiously. Her eyes were closed and her cheeks were definitely flushed at this point. It was always easier to tell when a lighter coated pony was blushing. Although she was really, detrimentally shy, which was why she had the private room. No, Gem. Don't jump to conclusions. She was an amazing friend and maybe felt safe around me enough to offer.

Trying to put on my best warm smile, I softly asked, "Are you sure, Aura? I don't want to impose, and I know you like a place where you can just escape to." It was true. We'd talked about her panic attacks, and I tried to be as supportive as I could for her.

She only smiled and nodded twice, however, before quietly muttering, "If it's you, then yes. You really calm me down anyway." That I hadn't been expecting at all, and I felt a soft heat slip into my cheeks. She smiled as well and slid off the bed a moment later. I barely managed to dive forward before she planted her face into the carpet. Exhaling gently as the light unicorn landed on me, I blinked before she wrapped her forelegs around my torso and added, "Thank you! I was trying to figure out how to ask you for days and I was so scared that you'd actually remember about the room and ask somepony else before I could or that you'd say no or..."

I held a hoof up to her muzzle to silence her before she made herself pass out from the run on statement. She just gave me a sheepish smile instead, and I squeezed her to me. "Relax. Ya know you don't have to worry about saying anything to me," I reminded softly.

A long moment passed with her giving me a hesitant stare, and I slowly lifted an eyebrow to her. Her eyes slammed shut at that, and I gave a start at the movement. Instead, she pushed her face into my chest and just nodded into my hug. Finally, she managed to mumble a muffled, “Thank you… Um, can I ask you something?”

* * * * *

Yawning, I slipped back into the dorm room after my early morning energy wavelengths class. I was not a morning pony in the slightest, but thankfully it was my only class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I usually went right back to bed afterwards. Moving past our small kitchen and into the main part of the room, I noted that would be a little different today.

Aura was exactly where I'd left her this morning, still snoring lightly. She didn't have classes until two in the afternoon on Tuesdays and Thursdays, making me beyond jealous. Of course, she shared my first class every other weekday at noon, which was the earliest she had to get up for. I'd come to the conclusion that she was actually far smarter than me, purely based off that. Still, no complaints in the slightest.

She was still lying on my bed, her legs and hooves twitching lightly in her dream and making her look even more adorable than usual. Last semester, after she asked me to move in with her for the remainder of the break as well, I'd quickly learned she was also deathly afraid of loud noises, such as the thunderstorm we had last night. A cute mare crawling into bed with me was beyond okay for me, but I thankfully had enough common sense, even when woken up at four in the morning, to not say that to her. She might not realize I was joking and I didn't know how she'd handle it. Hmm. Was I joking?

Staring at her for a few more seconds, I smiled as I watched her messy locks slowly drift with her breathing against her muzzle. She was more than adorable, of course, but first and foremost, she was an amazing friend. I wanted to support her as best I could. Of course, Ether teased me mercilessly about the new development, but I'd expected as much. His ways were more than predictable to me after being friends with him for the better part of a decade. I just called him jealous, which he also agreed to, of course.

Lying down near her on my bed and staring up at the underside of the upper bunk, I contemplated writing another journal entry before trying to sleep some more. I'd been writing a bit less in it since this semester began, which made me feel a little guilty somehow. I didn't know why, but it felt like I should try to get my thoughts down as much as I could. What was I afraid of?

I couldn't answer that, of course, but grabbed my journal from my bedside stand anyway, lifting it with my magic. Might as well. At least it would relax me before trying to sleep more. I knew I was getting tenser, lately. Not having any job lined up for after I graduated was bothering me. I knew I should be focusing more on trying to look into it, but every time I tried, I got scared. Honestly, I didn't want this to be my last year in school. I didn't feel ready for being an adult yet.

Aura made a soft humming noise in her sleep next to me, and I smiled again. She talked about it with me already, and didn't want me to leave her alone, even after I graduated. She'd said that ever since we became friends, the bullies had been leaving her be, too, which she thought was really weird. It honestly amused me, up until Ether mentioned to her that I had a 'reputation' for beating the tar out of mean bullies. Of course, she lectured me instead. Hum.

Did I see myself staying with her, even after I graduated in two months? The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to throw caution to the wind and just say yes. She wanted to move into an apartment for her next year, and stay with me until she graduated. Of course, I asked her what her plans were for afterwards, curious at her extremely fast attachment to me, but she'd been vague and non-committal. Did she like me as more than just a friend? I blushed lightly and contemplated just asking her, but it would probably give the timid mare a heart attack. Of course, getting us both a few drinks first might help, but we couldn't bring alcoholic beverages back into the dorm and I didn't trust myself to get us back here while tipsy. Last time I'd apparently fired off a few gravity spells while wandering, and woke up to find myself halfway up the side of a four-story building with fireponies attempting to use a ladder to get me down. Dad had laughed for hours... Ugh.

I made the mental note to try hinting at her feelings again later, once she was back from class for the day. Until then, I slipped my journal open to my bookmark halfway through, and recorded my thoughts dutifully.

* * * * *

Smiling towards Aura, both of us relaxed and put away our textbooks. It had been a very interesting class on interaction of energy in crystals, but the sheer volume of notes I had to take had given me a headache. Still, if I used anything other than my magic to write, it was useless as I could never read it later. This would be so worth it, though, as I'd have complete and legible information to study later for my mid and final essays.

Just as we were standing up and slipping our saddlebags on, the professor called out with both our names, however. Ah! I jumped, almost scaring Aura half to death as she shivered, then quickly turned around to face the professor with me. "Hold a moment, you two. I'd like to speak with you both after class," he informed. What?! I hadn't been in trouble even once since that incident when I met my now roommate! We intentionally made sure we were writing original and different papers, doing individual research. There's no way we could be in trouble over that!

Auraprism looked downright terrified as the ponies filtered out the door. Her legs shook under her and her eyes darted back and forth hesitantly until I bumped up next to her and rubbed the side of her right foreleg. "Relax. I don't think we're in trouble, Aura," I whispered in as self-assured voice as I could muster, considering I was doubting it myself. Our professor, a middle-aged stallion with chocolate brown fur and a black mane and tail, gave away no particular expression either way as he passively watched his students leave. That didn't tell me much, though, as he was rarely seen expressing much of any emotion at all.

The doubt melted gently away a moment later, as the professor turned and smiled towards us as the last mare left the room. "Sorry about this, but I have to talk to you two in particular, due to a request from above that I received. You two are the absolute pinnacle of my students, so I've selected you to offer this to," he explained, carefully straightening out his dark blue tie against his suit coat. He was smiling at us!

Aura let out a squeak, exhaling as I knew she was instantly relieved. She was thankfully much faster at reacting than I and quickly responded with, "T-Thank you, Professor Crystal Watch." She added a little bow of her head and slight bending of her forelegs to it, giving off an amazingly formal feel before he chuckled carefully and held a hoof up to us.

"It's quite fine. You two have earned it. First, I have to ask, have either of you two considered what you're doing after graduation? Your fields match very well with each other, and there's a good chance you'll find yourselves working together," he pointed out, further confusing me. He knew we were roommates and got along well, but mentioning future jobs made me uneasy. Of course, I hadn't given a drop of thought towards it, being my usual procrastinating self, which probably didn't help much.

A soft but surprisingly deep chuckle came from the door before either of us could answer, drawing both our gazes. My breath caught as I locked onto a medium sized stallion walking in. His coat was a dark brown in color, with an even darker black mane, contrasting with a silver streak that ran through it, slightly off center. Standing out completely, however, were his brilliantly golden-amber eyes, almost seeming like two small suns as they locked onto me. He studied me with a calculating coldness that his smile didn't convey, and the sensation mixed with the one produced by his immaculately preserved suit of dark blue, giving me an overall sensation of professionalism. To my more immediate surprise, however, was the Royal Guard insignia worn proudly against his right, muscled shoulder. Hello!

"You don't need to frighten them by playing up the opportunity, Watch. What he's offering to you is a job, I believe. Oh, unless of course I have the wrong day?" the mysterious stallion spoke, glancing back over at our professor that he'd calmly referred to by a casual name.

My jaw almost fell off when the professor openly laughed at that, then shook his head. "Hardly. Although you are late, Bastion. As usual. You're lucky you're not my student anymore, or I'd mark you down. It probably wouldn't hurt your grades, but I know you like everything at a hundred percent," he jabbed, actually joking with his now revealed prior student. Bastion?

"Ha! I'm still your student, Watch. I have a hundred years to go before I catch up with your theories on crystal infusion. That's why you're already on the team, of course. Oh, but my manners are poor today," Bastion suddenly remembered, looking back to us instead. At least Aura looked as mesmerized as I did a moment ago. "I'm sorry for being rude, Ladies. My name is Bronze Bastion. I believe you two are the crystal researchers I've heard so much about?" he inquired, amazingly polite and well-spoken. Of course, I wasn't one to buy into traditional stereotypes for Earth Ponies, or anything really.

Aura fidgeted and didn't say anything, so I stepped up instead and nodded for her. "I'm not sure what you've heard, and we're not graduated yet, but both of us are crystal researchers in training, essentially. I work with sonic, and she's light spectrum," I explained, gesturing to my roommate in reference.

Finally snapping out of it, Aura bowed politely at my gesture and added in a formal tone, "Ah, yes! I'm Auraprism, and this is Gemstone Weave." Oh, right. Names. They were important, too. Bastion smiled and nodded, however, as if knowing them already.

"Yup! You're the two most talented crystal engineers in the school, and work very well together as a team. I'm here representing a new... Well, let's call it an initiative from the Princess herself. She's gathering a team of ponies to work on something. It's a full job, and will start almost immediately. Allowances are made, of course, for your education. Your professor's already on the team, even," he explained in length. His left foreleg lifted up and snapped to the side, and a mechanical sound rang out as two folders were carefully shunted from the sleeve of his suit, and then fanned out in front of his hoof. Ah! Was he an inventor of some sort?

The folders were extended to us, and we both took one with our magic. The mechanism holding them up let each go as we grabbed them, then folded back up into his sleeve with a whirling click noise. Our professor gave him a smirk, but he remained merely smiling, looking to us instead. "Bear in mind, those folders contain only the public disclosed information. This initiative, in its bulk, is secret. I can't tell you more until you agree to the job opportunity, of course," he warned a moment later. Ah, that made sense.

I stared at the folder with a healthy air of reservation. There was a simple triangle with a circle around it at the top, and under that, written with simple text, was, "BEID Initiative". I had no idea what that stood for, and had never seen their logo before. Weird. Although he did say it was a new thing.

Our professor nodded as Aura and I flipped the folders open. "Bronze Bastion here is one of my most talented pupils I've ever had the honor of teaching. He's the technical engineer that's in charge of the entire construction behind the project, which is over half of the main goal. All three of us would be working directly underneath him," he narrated as I looked over the first page. Heh, there was a naughty comment in there, but it wouldn't be appropriate for me to mention out loud. Still, I felt my cheeks heat up a little bit as I looked the information over, trying to distract myself.

The first page did indeed have the royal seal on it, not that I doubted his word. Our names were also listed, proving that he did indeed know us prior, and giving me a sudden sinking sensation of how real this was. The rest of the members had been blacked out, minus Bronze Bastion and Crystal Watch, listed as Head Engineer and Lead Harmonization Researcher, respectively. Harmonization? When dealing with crystals, that was a generic phrase that referred to how they interacted with the air around them, and nearby crystals.

"It's not even listing what it's about. There's also no end of term date for the initiative. This isn't a project, is it?" Aura asked a moment later, startling me. What? What else could it be?

Bastion smirked and shook his head, however. "Clever mare. I'm technically not supposed to indulge this information, but I wish to clear the air. This isn't a short-term project. This is a new branch of government being formed, taking in the best ponies from very specific fields to achieve a long-term response plan. Princess Celestia herself has issued our charter, and obviously, this is not a decision to make li-" he started to explain. It reeked of awesomeness and adventure, however. Yeah, done deal.

"Oh yes! We're so in. Where do we sign up?!" I promptly interrupted. Bastion blanked out his expression and stared at me, surprise dancing behind his eyes.

"W-We are?!" Aura asked a heartbeat later, her tone that familiar mix of shock and horror I so loved. She was so adorable when scared witless!

Still, this wouldn't do. Spinning, I pulled her closer and looked directly into her eyes, giving her a start. "Aura! Can't you smell it?!" I asked incredulously. Being adorable, she actually tried to sniff the air before I interrupted again with, "Adventure! This could be history in the making here, and we have a chance to be a part of it! Can't you feel your Cutie Mark singing at the chance? This is fate!"

Logically, she stared at me like I was crazy, of course. Bastion promptly broke out into laughter...

* * * * *

Things hazed in and out as I groaned, lifting my left forehoof up to rub at my head. Disorientation hit me first, and I suddenly realized I wasn't entirely sure where I was, or how I'd gotten here. A throb went through my skull, and I momentarily wondered who'd smacked me with something heavy.

"Finally! Looks like Gemstone, the destroyer of worlds, has awoken," Aura's voice sounded out behind me somewhere, causing another scream of agony to dance through my head alongside her volume. Aww, ponyfeathers... The party!

Shuddering, I sat up as she slid into bed next to me with a clear glass of cold water. I managed to rasp out a thank you as I took it with my hooves and immediately downed half of it, earning an eye roll. She promptly continued with, "I can't believe you! First you sign us both up for this super important position, and then you get yourself totally hammered at the founding party! Why are you doing this to me?!"

I hissed and winced as she started up again literally right next to my ear, then managed to shush her. She waited patiently for a moment as I finished letting my head spin and fell back down onto my mattress. "Look, I'm sorry, Aura. It was a tense midterms. You know that. We have a lot riding on these classes, not just our work for BEID. Besides, we already impressed all the big, uh, important ponies there. We solved the joint harmonization problem over last weekend, no?" I suggested, trying to remind her of the good stuff.

She gave me a blank stare, and then reminded, "You drank over half of the apple cider they had at the party. I'm pretty sure you should be dead right now." Psh, details! Oww. My own mental voice was too loud, I quickly realized.

"Hey, that wasn't just any apple cider. That was Apple Family Cider! It was totally worth it. I have a high alcohol tolerance. I think I got it from my dad," I corrected, waving off the result. There wasn't even any collateral damage!

"Alcohol tolerance isn't... Ugh, no, never mind. You also rotated a half a dozen garden statues around and moved them about so it looked like they were, um, m-mating!" she squeaked out, halting as I held both hooves to my ears and shivered again. Heh, okay, now I wish I could remember that. That sounded awesome!

Sadly, she cut me off again before I could ask for more details on it. "Then, you ran around calling me 'DewPrism' when I tried to catch you, claiming I was some sort of nefarious evil from another existence! I don't even know what a 'DewPrism' is!" she squeaked out. Huh. Neither did I, but it sounded awesome!

"Hey, I know you're Aura, and I'm better now. Relax. From the sounds of it, I at least didn't cause any collateral-" I started to assure.

Her eyes narrowed a little, and I froze. She only let her anger show around me, I noticed. Honestly, I kinda took it as a compliment. "Collateral damage? Oh, I wasn't done yet. Bastion tried to catch you after you set fire to the cider you couldn't manage to drink. Something about never sharing the glory? You ended up tripping him and kicking him in the face!" she continued. Ah! Aaahhhh! Oh no, oh no, oh horseapples! I'd hurt Bastion?!

"Figured that would get you if nothing else. Somehow, he was still nice enough to escort both of us back to the dorm. I couldn't tell, but I think you tried to 'thank' him by licking his coat. Whatever you were trying to do, it didn't work and you ended up throwing up into his pocket. He's probably never going to talk to us again now," she tossed on, effectively body checking me while I was down. Oh Celestia, could it get any worse than this?!

Shuddering, I swallowed before asking, "Um, please tell me that was it. I didn't destroy anything here, did I?" My damage deposit was already twice as high as normal! I didn't need this stress...

Aura' eyes softened and she slowly shook her head before admitting, "No. You didn't destroy anything else. Although, um, I hadn't gotten to the kiss part yet." I froze, eyes widening at that bit of new information. Okay, so it did get worse. I kicked his flank, vomited on him, and then attempted to kiss him. Bastion really wasn't going to talk to me again....

"Please tell me he's just mad at me? This isn't your fault at all, Aura," I whispered, lowering my head down to the sheets. Ugh. Why did I have to get her involved, too?!

There was a soft exhale before she giggled in amusement. Oh? "Actually, he took everything amazingly well. If anything, he thought it was hilarious. We still have our jobs," Aura assured as I looked back up at her. Oh thank you! Exhaling, I nodded towards her, but she quickly added, "And it wasn't him that you kissed. Um, it was me."

My heart had just recovered, and back over into the ice water it went. I froze as I looked up at her, that faint smile still on her expression. Okay, she wasn't running away or screaming, so knowing Aura, she wasn't upset about it. "Um, I-I'm sorry, Aura. Uh, I..." Honestly, I suddenly realized I had no idea what to say. Was I really sorry? Only that I couldn't remember it.

Her flush brightened substantially as she shook her head. "No, um, I didn't mind," she quickly assured, looking down and away from me as a bolt of heat danced into my own face. Oh...?

"You didn't? Um, how was it?" I hesitantly asked, guessing that it had probably been her first kiss.

Her expression shifted a little sour and she muttered, "It tasted awful. You should really brush your teeth. Especially after throwing up." I smirked, recognizing her attempt to switch the topic. Oh no she didn't. Nodding, I hopped up instead and headed towards our small bathroom that was connected to our bedroom.

She gave me a curious glance as she rotated to watch me. "Uh, wait, what are you doing? Why are you brushing your teeth now? I almost have breakfast ready. You might as well wait until-" she started to ask.

I held my hoof up to her and shook my head, smirking, however. "Breakfast can wait. Gotta brush my teeth so you can get a proper first kiss instead," I explained. Predictably, her eyes widened almost as fast as the pink shifted to red in her cheeks. Her mouth opened, but she suddenly hesitated, and I waited for a moment.

No negative came, and she quickly closed her mouth again and somehow managed to blush even harder. I grinned and winked to her before trotting into the bathroom instead. Tonight should be an interesting journal entry!

* * * * *

Slowly, I shuffled along behind Aura and Ether, the smells and sights around me barely even registering to my senses as we walked. I hadn't expected him to get on the project as well, given he was an Aura Magic major and they had only recruited five students from our university. Although, now that I'd seen the full scope of the project that was spearheading the organization, it all fell so neatly into place. What had I gotten us into?

Our tasks were two fold. Aura and I were to work in tandem to hook up a visual and audio 'receiver' to the massive, mother of all crystal computational engines that our professor was designing. With it, we could manage a controllable 'viewpoint' for our vision, and navigate around where the focal point for the machine was. Despite being senior level work, that was the easiest part. Professor Watch confided his honest speculation in us at that point, however, explaining our second task and what he estimated it would be. That was the real kicker.

It turns out, our 'focal point' is far, far from being local. It's come to Princess Celestia's attention, through a pattern in a series of rather strange and mysterious events, that our dimension is drifting closer to some other dimension, and that we're getting close enough to actually have items and spaces 'bleed through' into ours, and vice versa. Our point for our strange machine is in that dimension instead. So yeah. This is crazy, but there wasn't any refuting the Princess of the Sun.

Thus, the Bureau of Extradimensional Investigation and Defense was formed. 'BEID' for short. Our goal was twofold as well. Investigate into the nature of the dimensions, including the one we were rapidly linking with, and figure out if it was safe for all of Equus or not. If it wasn't, we were to come up with a way to defend ourselves or stop the process. Easy, right?

The actual investigation part wasn't our responsibility, thankfully. Reading situations wasn't one of my strong suits. Aura and I were in charge of putting together the machine and crystal array that would interface with the Professor's and show the sound and images his gave us. Ether's additions to our machine were to give information back to the Professor's device and tell it where to move the 'viewpoint' on the other end. That would have been our introductory jobs had Professor Watch not included us in his end of the machine as well. For instructional reasons, of course.

The theories he had casually explained totally blew me out of the water, but what everything came down to was surprisingly easy to grasp. He was essentially using a spike to punch through the barrier between our worlds and 'peek' through. It was nowhere near that easy, of course. His theories indicated that both light and sound would be required to fully 'meld' through the barrier, but only when encapsulated in some sort of aura subspace that Ether was rambling on about. I didn't get it that well, but the results were clear. Through the collection of light, sound, and energy inside of the pocket, we were simulating a pony! It took, what he theorized, was the 'mind' of a pony to be projected off into an inverted resonance field in order to reach the other dimension. As in, tossed off into a singularity, then flung into nothingness. Obviously, a normal pony couldn't live through that, which is why we were making a machine that could make a magical spell that could pretend to be a pony and let us see and hear what was on the other side. Honestly, it made my head spin just thinking about it. I couldn't even fathom why we needed a sapient will in order to push through the dimensional barrier in the first place.

"Equus to Gem! The nice mare asked you what you wanted," Ether suddenly called out, snapping me back to attention as I looked up again. The lunch mare giggled and nodded to me as she gestured to her food trays again. Oh, right. Lunch.

Giving a frown, I pushed my headache back, along with the free-floating computations and theories, and looked the food over. Nothing looked good, of course, as I had no appetite whatsoever. "Uh, give me a double-decker daisy sandwich, hold the onion. Oh, and maybe a side of pickles," I finally decided after a full ten seconds of staring. None of it looked good, but I knew I could seriously pack it in! I was a growing mare.

Aura giggled at that, both of them having waited for me to get done ordering and getting my food before heading along after the line. These were nice, new facilities, and surprisingly well staffed for our first day here. We even got our own rooms, although Aura and I were using hers back at the university until this semester was completed. Then we both graduated, more than likely with honors. Yeah, the social deviant who picked fights and the mare who was two years younger than she should be. That'll teach 'em for holding stereotypes against us! Well, mostly me. Aura had been expected to excel the entire time.

"You've been quiet all morning, Gem. Are you okay?" Aura asked timidly as I caught up with her again. She added a soft nuzzle into my cheek as I fell in next to her, and I smiled, exhaling softly. Ether gestured to us as we caught up, and had already found a table in the small dining hall the facility had, connected to the kitchen and lunch line.

Both of us headed over to the table, and I frowned while walking. "This just... It's a lot to take in, is all. Plus, are we really going about this the right way?" I asked, swallowing the stiffness in my throat.

"This again?" Ether asked skeptically, leaning back in his chair as we both sat down. He gestured absently upwards before reminding, "You know that what we're going to be doing is important, Gemstone. Plus, it's all according to Princess Celestia's wishes herself. How much more 'okay' do you need it to get?"

I shook my head, knowing all that already. Having to intentionally lie to my Dad, right to his face, had sucked. Something that felt that terrible could never be 'right', even if the Princess herself walked up and said it right to me personally. Heh, I sort of wondered what she'd really do if she knew the doubts I harbored.

"Lying to ponies is never right, Ether. This... I can't comprehend how pretending we're a new type of glasses manufacturer is going to help anypony," I groaned, smacking my nose into the table. The jarring sensation actually went a ways towards clearing my head.

Aura frowned at that, then carefully lifted my head up and rubbed my snout with her hoof, as if silently telling me I should stop doing that. I resisted chuckling at her usual level of adorableness. Ether, of course, wasn't satisfied, though. "So what are we supposed to tell them? 'Oh, by the way, there's an alien dimension that's partially merging with our own that might contain unimaginable horrors that wish to eat us. We're trying to figure it out, but frankly, we don't have a clue.'? There would be mass panic!" he exclaimed, glaring at me.

I glared back, and then retorted, "Yeah, if you word it like an idiot like that, there might be. Or you could actually tell them what we know. There might also be a friendly race on the other side looking for peaceful contact! Or there might be absolutely nothing in the other dimension and we're wasting our time! That's only one negative outcome and two not. You're the one who's panicking."

His return glare was icy at best, and he shoved his food back in front of him, resuming eating and saying nothing. That was his usual defense when I was right. Cold shoulder, then pout until it blew over. Jerk.

"Please stop fighting, you two. There's nothing we can do about it either way. Princess Celestia decided to keep it secret for now, probably until we get more information," Aura reasoned, logical as usual. Ugh. Couldn't she just take my side for once?

Ether huffed lightly before rolling his eyes. "Finally, somepony sees the logic. We can't just-" he started to repeat.

Aura rapidly shook her head, however, surprising him and drawing my curious glance up towards her. "N-No! You're wrong, too, Ether. Both of you are wrong. Princess Celestia's specific orders worded it as 'remaining secret for the time being'. Keeping it a secret forever is indeed bad. Revealing what we know before we can confirm anything is foolish. So, um, you're both wrong!" she explained, before slipping into a hesitant silence. Ether gave her a surprised yet vacant stare, and I blinked twice as she started to fidget under the awkward silence.

I couldn't help it. I started laughing a moment later. That was the most assertive I'd seen her, and she was absolutely adorable doing so! I didn't even care that she called me foolish. Ether blinked once and looked over at me laughing before starting to chuckle himself, then join in. Yeah, that's just how we were, I guess.

"W-What's so funny?!" Aura squeaked, blushing now as she rapidly looked back and forth between us.

"Heh, us," Ether replied, smirking over at me for confirmation.

Giving a rare giggle, I nodded and looked back towards Aura. "Oh, and you're adorable when you're assertive. You should do it more often," I tacked on, causing her to flail as her face shifted from pink to red. Deciding she couldn't blush anymore, I shrugged and leaned in, kissing her right on the snout in front of a now smirking Ether.

It was stored away in the back of my mind, though. No, I didn't care. Even if nopony ever needed it or saw it, I was going to write down everything I could and put it into my journal. I had to, if only for my own conscience.

Next Chapter: Chapter 78 Estimated time remaining: 18 Hours, 32 Minutes
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