Carefully, I flipped to another page and scanned in the well-drawn pictures. The details were exact, taken by a mare who definitely had a mind for the scientific and knew exactly what to record. There were easily a hundred diagrams in the journal in between her actual entries, plus contact details of every single founding member. She wasn't kidding when she said she was going to record everything.

Of course, I was really just moving through the motions of scanning to keep my mind busy. I'd not been prepared for reading that in the least. It pulled me in, and now it was four in the morning, and there was no way I could sleep. The sheer weight of what I hadn't realized I'd lost was staggering now. It never really registered before this. Mother. My mom.

I felt my eyes getting wet again and quickly pushed it back out of my mind. No, there was nothing I could do for her. Still, I'd never felt so alone before. The light flickered softly in the gas lamp next to me, and I shivered, drawing the covers up a little bit closer to me. Her journal sat in my lap, having not been opened again since that day. Tia had kept it in pristine condition and hadn't even looked in it. At least according to her. Which means she probably had no idea as to the extent of the information in it, including how the dimensional tunneling device functioned.

My eyes drifted to the picture next to me. Gemstone Weave. She looked so happy nuzzling up against my dad, Bronze Bastion. He was grinning, too, and now I realized it was Auraprism who had taken the shot. There was another of the three of them together standing in front of a new hot tub, presumably taken by Ether Burst. The second, almost identical one had him slipping into the shot from the side, horn glowing as he held the camera up and dove to try to make it into the picture. Heh.

My eyes drifted to my mom again, and I exhaled weakly. She was torn away from her herd, cast into an impossibly faraway place, and she died there, alone. Coupled with the medical reports on the 'specimen' I also had, it looked like she fell from quite a distance and intentionally shielded me using her body. She died so I would live. The impulsive mare who didn't even know what she wanted to do after graduating made that choice.

Damn it. I wiped my eyes again, and then snarled to myself in frustration. It was difficult to manage that anger mixed with loss. Like the other anger I suffered from, there was nothing to attack. Celestia was partially to blame, but she wasn't omniscient. There was no way I'd attribute it to her.

That left the only ones possible to blame being the Keldarians and Grosh. I hated most of them already, and couldn't do much with that. I couldn't go back and pull her back through the tear. That was the only way I could fix it now, and it was impossible. So all of that anger just balled up inside of me with no place to go, and made me feel even worse. Maybe a part of me was just being a spoiled little foal screaming how it wasn't fair at all and something like that shouldn't be allowed to happen to good ponies. Even Equestria could be harsh and unforgiving, it would seem.

Wiping the moisture from my eyes again, I stared blankly at the journal in my lap. I felt like I knew her personally after reading it, but I didn't know her at all. She'd wanted to meet me, and the feeling now was very mutual. It didn't even stop there, either. I'd never meet my father or other mother either. Both had passed away of old age long before I returned to Equus. They never knew I had survived, and had gone their entire lives severed from my mom and me. There was no closure there, and at this point, it was impossible to get.

Softly, I closed the book and slipped it back into the plastic wrapper I'd fabricated for it. This was all I had of her. Of all of them. I had to preserve it. These were the only bits and pieces I knew of that involved my parents at all. And insight into the original BEID project, of course. And Ether Pulse. It was a bit strange that after her talking about him helping build the hot tub in the journal, he just ceased being mentioned at all. He was my mom's best friend, but suddenly he just stops being a part of her life, and she doesn't even mention why. No, it was beyond strange...

A gentle knock came to my door, and I frowned, sensors lighting up as my eyes shifted towards it. An assassin probably wouldn't bother knocking, but who knew? Nurse Redheart didn't wait for permission, and slowly opened the door a moment later to peek in. Oh, right. If I was in the hospital, she was mandated to be on duty at all times. I felt kinda bad about it, but she said it got her away from her lonely apartment, and assured me that the staff rooms here were 'swanky', whatever that meant. The way she said it, I assumed it to be positive.

"Ah, you are awake, then," she muttered, mostly to herself. At least, there wasn't any question in there anyway.

"You could have waited for permission. I might not have been decent," I warned, placing the book on my nightstand on top of Prudentia. Purdue sent an inner confirmation that bad things would happen to anything attempting to hurt the book, and I smiled. Good girl!

Redheart smirked at that, of course, before reminding, "We're usually naked, Mender. In fact, you're nude right now. So am I, except for this hat." She gestured up to it at the same time, letting herself into the room fully and shutting the door. If this were a soldier's holovid, I so knew where it was going. Wait, no, I would have known from the second she opened the door, actually.

"Stallions have needs, Redheart. I've been away from my herd a full twenty hours now, after all!" I retorted in faux shock and surprise. She gave a slight blush to that one, but continued grinning as she hopped up, then sat down on the end of my bed. That idly made me wonder why ponies had such large beds. Did they just like having the space? Lying flat as I was, my hooves didn't even reach where she was sitting! Well, actually, that was probably a good thing. Her sitting on my hooves via that bouncing flop she just did might have broken my ankles, and extended my hospital stay. Maybe that was her goal, though?

"True! But that only gives me incentive to not even knock next time," she pointed out, giving me a playfully lewd wink.

Okay, I laughed at that one. "Ah, there's the shameless flirt I know and adore. Although, uh, sorry. I got carried away reading and, well, didn't pay attention to the time," I continued, just getting the inevitable over with. Surely the real reason she was visiting was to lecture me on the health benefits of a good night's sleep.

She sighed instead, and I felt uncertain as she looked over at the book. Her eyes slowly shifted back to me, and softened slightly as she reached forward with her left hoof, leaning over me. Eh? I felt her brush along my left cheek and frown before pulling her hoof back and looking at it. Oh.

"I figured you'd lost track of time. But you don't have to hide your emotions, Mender. You read the whole thing, cover to cover, didn't you?" she inquired knowingly, looking back up at me fully. She looked honestly tired in the faint orange light of the lamp next to the two books. Something was a bit sad about the whole situation, but a twinge of irony settled in my chest.

"I... Don't know what to do with the feelings. But it's okay, Redheart. I know you have a lot on your plate, too, especially with being forced to stay at the hospital when I'm here," I redirected, admittedly still feeling bad about that whole situation.

The nurse stared at me for a moment before a soft smile played across her lips and she lowered her head. "You're still stuck on that. You know, that's the fastest way to tell a real gentlecolt from a stallion who's just acting to try to get some attention. You're really torn up over something you did to 'inconvenience' me. You wouldn't keep bringing it up if you weren't," she pointed out.

I gave her a blank stare for a moment before sighing and averting my eyes. It was only the… fourth time I’d mentioned it! Damn her. She didn't have to just bluntly point out how much of a pansy I was like that, though. Not that I thought it was 'weak' to care about others, but I'm sure some of the others out there did. She continued a moment later after my hesitation, with, "There's a solution, however. You feel bad, I feel bad, and neither of us wants to 'burden' the other by venting. The obvious solution is to either bottle it up, which helps neither of us, or both let it out at once, which helps both of us. I'll go first."

"Can you really just decide something like that by yourself?!" I asked, but she only smirked and kept right on going anyway. She was really hard to deal with sometimes.

"I'm a twenty-four year old mare who works in a very demanding occupation. I'm essentially married to my job, which was okay while I went through extra schooling, but... Admittedly, I'm really lonely these days. Cheerilee tried setting me up with a few stallions and mares, but nothing has really 'clicked' so far, you know? That's one of my biggest fears. It's more than just romance. Being alone is scary. Kinda silly and foolish thing to worry about, but..." She trailed off with that and I frowned. This was one of those moments where I knew I was supposed to say something, but I drew a blank. There wasn't much that I could say within the realms of 'mostly sane' that would make her feel better.

A painfully slow three seconds passed with me tensing sharply before she started giggling faintly. "You're so much fun to watch awkwardly shift about," she admitted, grinning towards me in a decidedly impish manner. I reeled, but she quickly elaborated a moment later. "I wasn't lying about any of that, though. I'm not as 'grown up' as ponies believe. That unsure little foal in me who was scared to sleep through a thunderstorm without her big brother or parents never quite went away," she spoke, softer this time and sounding fully tired rather than amused. I relaxed at that, at least knowing what she was talking about now.

"I don't think anypony is as grown up as they let on, Redheart. Being alone is scary, I know. I've actually not been alone practically the entire time I've been here, so I've gathered that ponies are far more, well... They're a lot more social than the race I used to identify with, I'll leave it at that. But with that in mind, being alone is all the more scarier," I pointed out, at least using my observations so far. That and the touching. Ponies were a lot more comfortable with just friendly touching and hugging. That was a bit strange, too.

She smiled softly at me afterwards, and then mildly surprised me by lying down on her right side at the foot of my mattress, closing her eyes tiredly for a moment. Had I woken her up with my light? I knew I was in the special observation room just so she could have the bed that was in the other, attached room. She hesitated, opening her mouth for just a moment before smiling again, as if suddenly thinking of something funny.

"So that's the reason. No, I can't believe that's the only thing. Seeing you by yourself in here when I first looked in reminded me so much of my brother. He's the loner type, but always seemed so sure of absolutely everything he did. Maybe it takes the foreign memories and experiences, but no, I like to think that it's just part of your character, Mender. If I were in your position, I'd be freaking out so badly that they'd put me in the hospital just for that," she admitted, snickering after that last part.

I blinked, not entirely sure if that was a compliment or not, but I shrugged it off nonetheless. "Being crazy helps. At least, it makes things more interesting," I commented, earning a more cheerful laugh that time.

"You're not crazy. That's an ugly word. Let's call you... Unique. You're unique," she declared, earning a raised eyebrow from me before she smirked and shook her head, then brushed the rogue pink bang out of her eyes. "No, no, let me finish. You're a unique stallion. Yes, a stallion. All of the important bits are pure pony, and what's added in can be useful, but it doesn't define you. Further, you're suffering from what we call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Retroactive Amnesia, and Social Anxiety Disorder. Bad experiences can leave lasting scars in the mind, too, Mender. Those heal, especially for you, far slower than the rest of your body." I felt calmer throughout her explanation, and sighed after she stopped talking. Well, she was right there. I healed really, really fast.

Momentarily, I reached back and touched my shoulder, indicating no pain at all. Second to Third Degree Burns had covered a good chunk of my back, and now I was fine. Less than twelve hours later, fine. She smiled and nodded at my recognition, then tilted her head as I turned around and closed my eyes again.

It took me a moment to formulate, but slowly, I opened them again, letting soft blue light spill out over the bed instead. She relaxed quickly, but my sensors picked up her momentary surprise prior, even pointing out exactly how many centimeters away she was, her heart rate as it lowered slowly, and the fact that there were stress lines along her hooves, likely from too much standing and walking.

"I don't really understand, Redheart. I mean, well, I don't get why you're so comfortable around me, especially when I think you have a better actual understanding of exactly what I am than most ponies who know about me. You even told me all of that about you," I reasoned. She was lying next to a mobile planet blender, for crying out loud. I understood that she could justify that I was in control of it and generally tried to be a good pony, but I also had a record for horrific accidents happening around me, alien attacks, and things exploding! I just blew out the side of a train earlier totally on accident, almost slicing my friends into pieces with superheated wings. That had to give somepony even the slightest pause and consideration for their personal safety, didn't it?

She chuckled, only serving to confuse me entirely. "Mender, you don't understand, and I don't blame you for that. I just told you all of that because you're my friend and you actually make me feel safe. It's not some magical effect from you that you talked about earlier, or some techno babble from another world. It's simple. You do what you say you're going to do. You try your very hardest to protect those you care about. You show very real remorse when you can't. And the most important part, you really do strive to just be kind and friendly," she pointed out.

My blank stare towards her must have been funny, because she snickered again and smiled fully this time. "See? You think none of that adds up to what you could 'potentially' do to us, but that's not really how ponies operate. Your potential can explain a lot, yeah, but it's just a whisper. Your actions and what's important to you, now that's a scream to most ponies. That said, you're a very easy pony to trust and feel safe around, just based on personality," she elaborated. It barely registered as I just stared at her further. How was that a good idea at all?! A reaction based off only somepony's actions without considering their potential at all seemed so haphazard and careless that...

She interrupted my thoughts a moment later by adding, "Also, I said you were my friend. You can just call me 'Red', like my other friends do." Oh.

That was the problem. It was because she assigned trust before running the logic behind it through her mind. She based it off who I was, which was so radically different from what I was used to. Trust was a value. It came in levels that were assigned based on what you knew, how capable you were, and how dangerous you were. My other self was all three at once, but managed to hold himself slightly more useful than dangerous, so he wore a badge that proclaimed his trust level as seven out of nine. Clearance level seven, to be specific. Based on that bit of recollection, I realized that the concept she just explained laughed in the face of all that. But...

Why did it feel better? I knew it wasn't logical. It was less safe. Riskier. But it felt better all around. More fair to the person being judged. Yeah, that was it. "Sometimes I think the problem is me. If we're actually talking about trust, then, I don't think I really trust myself in the slightest. Not to understand pony concepts, and definitely not to fit into the culture here. But I want to so badly. I just want to go back to not remembering who or what I was, and live like a normal pony. Getting my memories back has never been worth it so far. Ever," I whispered, holding my hooves up to look at the underside of them. That cracked pattern was still there on my left one, having regenerated to how it was before she tore it off. The damage even regenerated perfectly, although the scars remained down at the base of my limb, especially along my chest and barrel where it tore.

Red spoke calmly and reminded, "I did say we'd both vent. I told you a lot about myself, and you've helped me feel better. You let me feel not alone when I'm around you, which is exactly what I need. So let me help you, too, Mender. You can vent a little as well, you know." Ah, right. That was part of the original 'deal', but it didn't exactly feel like a 'payment' anymore. She'd somehow flipped it around during her talking. Now it really did feel like she wanted to help me instead. Was telling me her issues just to help me relax about it?

Lying back a bit, my eyes drifted to the left at the book resting on top of Prudentia, slight plastic shine across the side of it from my lamp. It was easy enough to see where I was looking, and she smiled softly, closing her eyes again. Yeah. Still, it needed to be said, I guessed. “It’s my parents, mostly. I guess I just… I feel some loss as to never getting to meet them. And what happened to them was terrible. There’s nothing I can ever do to make that any better, and that frustrates and saddens me. Reading about all of that stuff involving the Ether in her journal made me hope that, well, maybe they’ve gotten to be together again since then, but…” I wasn’t good with words, especially when I didn’t have time to prepare.

“I understand that. They’re your mom and dad, so of course you’re going to want to meet them. That’s one of the most tragic things about everything that’s happened to you. You were pulled out of your own time and left behind really. You have every right to be upset about that,” she pointed out, guessing that I’d been playing it down, even in my own mind.

Sighing, I averted my eyes again and then felt her smile, knowing she was right. Yeah, I guess that crying over the situation wasn’t that big of a sin. If it were me looking at somebody else, I’d feel they were justified, too, after all.

“Yeah, I guess that I’m not a big wuss for feeling sad about it all. I just don’t know what to really do about it, either. I wish they could have gotten some closure,” I said, turning to look at her again as she reached a hoof forward and slid the pile of pictures closer to her.

“Heee. They look happy regardless. You can see the start of her tummy in this picture,” Red cooed, earning a snicker from me anyway. Fluttershy had noticed that, too. Was it some sort of female thing here to notice pregnancies? I didn’t even want to hazard a guess as to the social implications of a pregnant mare, and all things surrounding it. All I knew was that gestation was eleven months, which was three months longer than a Keldarian. That must be brutal!

I opened my mouth to ask how rough pregnancies actually were, but she frowned a moment later and pointed back to the picture. “Hey, who’s this other mare?” she inquired, gesturing towards the second shot I had of Auraprism.

“That’s Auraprism, my other mom. Her and my dad were left behind after Gemstone got pulled through the rift,” I explained. Redheart got a sad expression for a moment before it shifted to thoughtful instead. Oh?

After a moment, she hesitantly asked, “Do you know if you have any brothers or sisters? You were gone roughly three hundred and forty years, which is about… four or five pony generations? That gets confusing after two generations or so.” Brothers or…? Oh! That’s right, Aura and Bastion might have gone on to have foals of their own!

She smirked at my blank expression, and nodded. Hesitating, I looked back at the bio information, and then frowned when I realized that it was from the time they were recruited. It wouldn’t be able to tell me anything about their life afterwards. Finally, I just asked, “Is there any way that ponies keep track of this sort of stuff? Uh, I don’t know how important it is to you as a culture, but, uh… Genealogy! That’s the name for it.”

Red rolled her eyes and gave me a skeptical smirk, earning a sigh from me before she went on to say, “Yes, Mender, of course we keep track of Genealogy. They’re a Canterlot family, however, so in order to get the records to look at, you’ll need to go visit Canterlot City Hall, which is next to the palace.” Ah. Damn it! I could have used this information just yesterday, even. Now I’d have to wait until we took another trip there, which was in two weeks if I remembered right. Yeah, that’s when Shining said that they’d have the soldiers ready for the first prep training session, which should be a load of fun. I somehow doubted I was going to get much respect, but at least I could properly handle soldiers. That thankfully wasn’t a social situation!

“Well, I’ll have to look into it when I go back to Canterlot. Although I don’t know what I’m going to use the information for exactly,” I admitted, suddenly stumbling into a rather awkward point I’d neglected.

She tilted her head at that, obviously not having thought of it either. “What do you mean, Mender? Isn’t it obvious? You should look them up and introduce yourself,” she suggested, totally missing the point.

“Introduce myself as what? The leader of DReg who just happens to be coincidentally interested in their family’s wellbeing? Oh, and happens to have some genetic traits that look amazingly similar to their own line? It would be even worse if I were actually allowed to tell them the truth. ‘Oh, by the way, I’m actually your great great great granduncle who got sucked away to another dimension before he was born, got frozen for several hundred years, and recently returned and brought a whole dimension’s worth of trouble back with him. Nice to meet you!’ That would be perfect,” I pointed out. Okay, that might have been a little too sarcastic, but I think she got the point, anyway.

She blinked at that, then actually snickered, seemingly unfazed by my reaction. “Okay, admittedly I forgot that you were supposed to keep it a secret. Still, you should run it past Princess Celestia. She’s sure to understand you wanting to meet and know about your family,” she reasoned. Exhaling softly, I nodded and rested back against the pillows again. Yeah, that was probably true.

“I’ll ask her what she thinks about it, then. I don’t even know if they exist yet, though, so I shouldn’t focus too hard on it yet,” I reminded myself out loud. Red gave me a soft smile and then nodded towards me as I noticed my body finally relaxing. Huh.

“You should get some sleep, Mender. Staying up all night isn’t good for you,” she lectured softly. Heh.

Smiling at that, I nodded with my eyes closed before adding, “Thank you, Red. You really did help quite a bit.”

They opened again rapidly in surprise when I felt fur-to-fur contact. Redheart had gently leaned forward and now hugged my chest softly. I relaxed a moment later and smiled down at her as she gave me a squeeze. I hugged her back and exhaled across the top of her mane, causing her to shiver lightly. Finally, she spoke up with, “It’s fine, Mender. You really do help me a lot, too. More often than you realize. Thank you for being my friend.”

She relaxed after saying it, and I chuckled softly towards her, causing her to look up at me with an amused grin. Whatever she was about to say or do next was interrupted, however, by a slow, low creaking noise. Eh? She shifted to a confused look and frowned before asking, “Uh, what’s that?”

My ears perked up and I rotated them around, trying to find out exactly where the noise was coming from. It sounded like it was under my bed? Wait, no… “Uh, Red, is this one of those folding-“

The bed latch snapped a moment later under our combined weight, and the foot of my bed came up to greet us with record speed…

Twilight raised an eyebrow, and then tilted her head at me as I gathered my things up and put them back in my saddlebags. Okay, so it wasn’t exactly at me, but…

She reached her hoof out and poked lightly at one of the metal chains strapped around the corners of the bed, which were strapped to various large objects around the room. I said absolutely nothing at all as I finished packing Prudentia and my mother’s journal into the bag and slipped it on over my shoulder. Red looked even more annoyed than me before finally simply warning, “Don’t ask…” She winced lightly, the bandage on her cheek shifting as she said that. They needed to run upkeep on their furniture more often! The latch had almost disintegrated due to disuse, it turned out. I guessed that we just pushed it over the edge with our combined weight on one point of the bed. Or my bad luck was phenomenal, which was practically scientific fact at this point.

“Uh, right. I’ll just chalk it up to Mender being Mender. I hope you’re okay, Nurse Redheart,” Twilight finally muttered, turning her attention to the bandaged nurse. Thankfully, it was neglected to be mentioned that I technically bit her in the cheek, more due to our heads literally being slammed together. That wasn’t pleasant at all.

Sighing, I reminded, “I said I was sorry. Um, is there anything I can do to fix it?” I’d said it before but it had been met with negative results the first time.

The nurse sighed and hesitated a moment before finally admitting, “No, not really. Unless you can give me some of those fancy regeneration nanite things. This really wasn’t your fault anyway.”

My marefriend shivered at that for a moment. “I don’t think he should be making any more of those disks until we fully monitor and record exactly what they’re doing to their hosts, and what happened with the incident on the train,” she reasoned, which was actually a really wise course of action.

Red snorted, then chuckled at that before shrugging. “I was just kidding. I’ll leave the scary testing to your mares, then maybe get a finished product once all the kinks are worked out of it,” she agreed, sitting back down again on the floor next to my bed, then helping me get down as I slipped towards the floor. Heh. My mares?

“Here I thought you liked kinks,” I jibbed as she finally got me stabilized on my hooves again. That much I’d learned fast. Get required assistance from somepony before playfully teasing them. It always worked out so much better.

Her smirk was instant, and Twilight’s blush was almost as fast. “Only if I get to wear hoof socks. Now get out of here, you two, before I change my mind about the disk,” she warned playfully. Chuckling, I slipped up next to Twilight, who relaxed and smiled towards me.

“Glad to see you’re getting more and more adjusted. Now if only you’d flirt with me like that,” Twilight teased, snickering and nuzzling under my chin.

Okay, she walked right into that one, possibly intentionally. “Well, if you’d like to wear socks instead for me, feel free,” I suggested, nuzzling her back. I almost literally felt her heat up, and for a moment, images of me on fire and diving out my room window came to mind. To her credit, however, she didn’t run away this time, instead just glaring playfully up at me with crimson cheeks.

“Let’s stick to normal first,” she jabbed, poking me in the chest with her hoof. Uh! I coughed lightly and looked over at Red, who was busy giggling hysterically as Twilight realized what she just said and went rigid against me, the flushed color traveling up across her entire snout and almost to her ears on each side.

“Ahhaha… Let’s just pretend you didn’t hear that, Red. Anyway, we’ll see you later,” I excused, earning more laughter now as I pushed Twilight out the door, the lavender mare emitting a low whine the entire way…

Thankfully she had recovered by the time we got to the hospital stairs, or we might have had a problem. Sighing hesitantly, she followed me down them slowly, remarkably quiet now before catching up to me on the first floor. She was a little slower than normal, too, both of her forelegs still bandaged lightly due to the burns. For once, I was actually thankful for my cybernetics, granting her the regeneration nanites.

My pace slowed once I cleared the ‘safety zone’ and decided we wouldn’t be able to hear any embarrassing laughter from Red anymore, no matter how loud the nurse got. Twilight walked gently along next to me, shifting up close and pushing into my side as we moved around the ponies in the lobby. It was amazingly nice to feel her warm fur again, though, especially after being so lonely last night. I leaned closer into her and kissed the side of her cheek, earning a start and much lighter flush this time.

“Mmm, somepony’s feeling snuggly. Are you okay, Mender?” she asked softly, her horn lighting up to open the door for us. I hesitated, and then halted completely with a questioning look as I saw two other remarkably familiar ponies approaching. Eh?! Twilight saw my surprise and followed my gaze, easily spotting their approach.

Applejack was flush alongside her brother, leaning heavily into him as he was kept propped upright by her strength. To my surprise, a rather thick bandage was wrapped around his back right thigh, and she was supporting him walking on that side. What happened?! I knew he had taken over farm chores when she was gone, but enough to get injured?! I didn’t think the super heavy physical labor started until a few days from now with Applebuck Season. At least, I thought that started up at roughly the same time as the Running of the Leaves.

“Uh, should I ask?” Twilight inquired curiously, causing the siblings to look up at us as they got within a couple meters. Tiredly, I sat down next to Twilight as I watched, still low on energy from the healing process.

“Ahnope,” Big Mac groaned almost immediately, promptly looking away again as I raised my eyebrow.

Applejack scoffed at his reply before adding, “What tha big lug meant ta say is, he got himself hurt while we were up in Canterlot. Ah suspect ya tried ta start tha harvestin’ early, didn’t ya?” Her inquiry was paired with two jabs to his chest, but the stoic stallion didn’t even budge, stubbornly starting to move forward again towards the steps up into the lobby.

“Ah thought ya’d learn yer lesson after tha first time! Gah. Anywho, Ah’ll talk ta ya more later, Twi. Gotta get him checked in first,” the orange mare groaned before nodding to us and following him up the steps. She barely got there before he tipped sideways, and managed to catch him again. Yikes! What in Equus could injure the huge stallion like that?!

We watched them go before Twilight snickered and nudged me. Oh, right. Walking. I sometimes forgot about that. Standing up again, I followed after her, catching up as she lagged back, then resting against her side again immediately. She sighed contently at that and nuzzled my neck before reminding, “You never did say why you were so snuggly. Not that I’m complaining, of course.” Oh yeah…

“I just missed you while I was in the hospital. Fluttershy, too, of course. Reading the entire journal last night also didn’t help much,” I admitted, remembering Red’s advice that venting was okay. It still made me a bit uncomfortable to bring up, but I stuck to my ground anyway.

“Mender… I’m sorry. I forgot that you’d gotten that. You should have said something sooner,” Twilight suggested, voice softening as she stopped walking and pushed into me. Relaxing, I let her slip up and wrap her forelegs fully around my chest. Her squeeze was light, not really jostling the bandage I still wore around my mostly healed back, thankfully.

Pulling her against me, I just enjoyed her scents and warmth for a moment. I was still tired from the little sleep, and it felt like I could almost pass out right here and now if I let myself. But no. I kept myself awake and peeked over Twilight’s back while relaxing. The chilly day was getting downright cold now, and her body heat felt nice. All the hustle around town square also made the day feel warmer, a bunch of ponies setting up decorations and festivities. Winter was coming, and ponies were going to welcome it with open forelegs. I even saw a massive stage set up in the center of town square. The next few days were going to be interesting.

“Mmm, you’re cold, Mender. Oh! I almost forgot. Here,” Twilight whispered, carefully opening her left saddlebag with her magic. To my surprise, a darker blue scarf made out of a warm knit material floated out of her bag, looking almost three meters in length. The end of it had a silver yarn used instead to make a gear with a heart in it, definitely giving it that customized look.

Twilight continued a moment later after placing the middle of the scarf over my neck. “Rarity felt badly for not being able to be here to help pick you up from the hospital, but I assured her it was fine. She still made this for you, however. She knows you’re going to need some winter clothes soon, after all,” the lavender mare explained, smiling as she helped me wrap it properly. The custom Cutie Mark on the bottom hung down my chest when we were done, and I smiled at the design.

“I’ll have to thank her later for it,” I admitted, feeling significantly warmer already. Although that might have been from blushing lightly. Being in Twilight’s pack, it smelled remarkably like her wrapped all around my neck. It also had faint traces of Rarity smells on it still, and that soft perfume she used.

Twilight nodded happily towards me, looking pleased with her wrapping job for a moment before her ears poked up and twitched lightly. Oh? We both turned and looked towards the stage, where a small construction zone appeared to be going on. By the looks of it, they were making and painting the finish line for the race later. To my surprise, a very familiar draconequus was up on stage as well, looking like he was ‘overseeing’ the construction project. Uh oh.

“I’m not so sure. Does it honestly look centered to you?” Discord inquired curiously. The very frustrated forest green mare that was working on it just glared at him, the ‘Finish Line’ text somehow extending off the end of the sign and hanging in the air now. Twilight sighed and broke off from my hug, trotting more briskly up to the stage. Uh, right! After a moment’s hesitation, I took off after her, slightly faster in order to catch up.

“Discord! What are you doing? Why are you harassing the ponies trying to set up for the race?” Twilight asked as she walked up, her tone sharper than what I was used to hearing, although not really on the angry side. I couldn’t really do much against Discord given his unique abilities, but I decided I could at least support her, and slipped up next to her to listen.

Discord himself perked up and turned around, suddenly smiling widely down at us. Ugh. “Twilight! What a pleasure to see you here! Oh, and Gear Butt! It’s a pleasure to see you, too,” he spoke in a flamboyant tone. Gear Butt?!

Twilight growled at that, but the draconequus didn’t exactly look scared. Instead, he continued with, “Oh don’t get upset. I’m hardly ‘harrassing’ these ponies. Can’t you see I’m helping them design their decorations? They’re so much better this way, don’t you think?” Eh? Turning and looking past the stage, I noticed a number of other decorations that Discord had ‘improved’ as well, with Apple Bloom trying to continue selling apples stuck to the ceiling of her sideways stall, and Carrot Top also nearby, trying to pull a massive carrot out of the ground that apparently used to be one of the support stakes that held her stall steady. It crushed it down into the ground now, pulling the entire stall over sideways with it and spilling carrots everywhere. A few gravity defying apples also drifted past, and she slipped on one while pulling upwards, falling on her rump on the ground. Wow, what a mess.

“This isn’t helping them, Discord! You’re interfering with their ability to work, and ruining products! Wait, aren't you supposed to be with Fluttershy right now, anyway?” Twilight snapped, starting to get angry now. Sighing, I slipped away from her and ran over to Apple Bloom’s stand, which still seemed to be spilling an almost infinite amount of apples into the air as the filly tried to hold the baskets down.

“Ah! Mender, help!” she squeaked, flailing about as the gravity shifted again and stuck her to the ceiling. Yikes! Observing it for a moment, I noticed the rather powerful levels of magic that was spread all over the stand. It was a weird form of enchantment that I’d never seen before, seemingly designed to overwrite the local rules of reality. I assumed it was on a quantum level, but that was with my own understanding of things, so who knew for certain in this case? Still, the core enchantments were rather simplistic, probably due to the speed he created them with. I grabbed the support strand for the enchantment powering it all and yanked it out a moment later.

Gravity turned back to normal immediately for the suddenly perfectly upright stand, and Apple Bloom fell from the ceiling. My barrier caught her, quickly extending across like a pillow when I tapped the counter, and she lay there on her back, eyes spinning around and apples spilled everywhere. “Uuugh, Ah’m gonna be sick,” she muttered, looking more than a little dizzy. Well, this wouldn’t do.

Rotating, I slid her onto my back gently, stomach down, and closed my eyes. My inner magic projected upwards and danced along my back where she was touching, and I used that to form the link to her instead, giving her stomach a little massage while she rested. I hoped AJ would be back soon in order to help her with this mess. In the meantime…

AB just lay there as I trotted towards Carrot instead, who was lying there and rubbing her slightly red right flank. I averted my eyes from her apparently tender private spots and looked up at the giant carrot. Transmutation magic reeked from it, and I guessed its nature without even having to feel out with my own energy.

Twilight, in the meantime, had continued arguing with Discord about his interference, the draconequus quickly explaining, “My good friend Fluttershy is quite busy at the moment. She seems to have been gone for a few days, and now her dear animal friends need a lot of attention to make up for that. Further, I’m saddened, Twilight! We’re good friends, yet you seem to want to get rid of me.” The hammy tone never left his voice, and I shuddered. Ah, so he was difficult with everypony, then. I felt marginally better that it hadn’t been just me.

“Mender? I heard you got back but what happened? You’re hurt,” Carrot asked, suddenly noticing me. She was remarkably calm for having her market stall flattened by a giant carrot. Maybe she was used to dealing with Discord?

“Yeah, there was an accident on the train,” I explained, looking down towards the base of the carrot as I felt the filly stir on my back.

Touching the base, I found the original form of the stake stored within. While he wreaked havoc on everything he saw, he also put in ways to easily undo all of his effects, I noticed. Huh. I guess he wasn’t really that bad of a guy, apart from annoying everypony. Pulling the power thread off the base enchantment again, I watched the carrot pop away into a stake again, and a secondary spell go off that righted the fallen stand. Interesting.

“Oh! Thank you, Mender! Discord can be downright frustrating sometimes,” Carrot muttered, rolling her eyes before smiling more sincerely towards me instead. I nodded, and then glanced back at Apple Bloom as she raised her head up.

“Hoowee… Ah think tha ground finally stopped spinnin’. Thanks, Mender. Wait, is yer back okay fer this?” the little filly suddenly asked, raising herself off my bandage and looking down at it from between her forelegs.

Shifting my back muscles under her, I nodded and gave her an assuring smile. “Yeah. You’re light as a feather. Plus, I heal rather quickly,” I reminded. I hesitated a moment later as Carrot gave me questioning expression, then I added, “Uh, they gave me a potion for it at the hospital, of course.”

The orange farming mare stared intently at me for a long moment before smirking lightly and nodding back. “Of course. Thank you again for helping me, though,” she finally spoke, sounding like she didn’t believe me for even a second, but oddly, that it didn’t matter really. I didn’t know what to say or do, so I just bowed politely to her, then turned and trotted back over to Apple Bloom’s stall.

“Discord, this is ridiculous. You can’t expect anypony to manage to get ready for the celebration if you’re changing things they’re working on without asking! If you really want to help, you need to use your powers to help us decorate. Or I guess you can come with Moon Mender and myself, if you’re this desperate for entertainment,” Twilight shouted, putting particular emphasis on my name while simultaneously sounding like she might throw up with that last offer.

Discord perked at that, as if hearing magical words from that offer. Ah crap. Still, he snapped his fingers and reset everything else in an instant, at least saving me a ton of effort. How he managed to control and place all of these effects seemingly at will was totally beyond my understanding. “Ah! Yes, that was his name. You’ll have to excuse me, as I was never formally introduced to him. We had a… chilly first meeting,” he excused, bowing politely to Twilight. Chilly? I shuddered, remembering the small mountain of snow that he flooded Fluttershy’s living room with. Despite my reservations, the rest of the ponies working on the stage looked quite pleased with the turn of events.

Setting Apple Bloom down, I helped her start gathering up all the spilled apples and placing them into the water bin she had under the stand, apparently just for this cause. Something told me we were going to almost fill it up… Thankfully the huge bins of apples behind the stand weren’t touched, so we just had to wash off the display apples. “Thanks fer all this, Mender,” she chirped, sounding none the worse for wear despite spending who knows how long in a gravity blender with apples bouncing off her from every direction.

“It’s fine, AB. Watching the shop while AJ takes Big Mac into the hospital?” I inquired, more to make pleasant small talk with the filly than anything.

She grinned at that and nodded, puffing up slightly. “You bet! Ah’m totally old enough ta sell apples fer tha family! Ah even made five sales before Discord got ‘ere an’ made everything go all topsy-turvey! It was ah mite hard sellin’ apples after that,” she admitted, which was definitely an understatement.

“Oh, I’m truly sorry, Apple Bloom!” the apple I was lifting up suddenly exclaimed in a somewhat exaggerated dramatic tone. I yelped and panicked, flailing backwards away from it. Holy hell! The apple had Discord’s face on it, of course, complete with his over the top goatee. “I didn’t realize this was your first time selling apples by yourself! I shouldn’t have been so careless,” he continued onwards, totally ignoring the fact that he scared the crap out of me. It was hard to get a lock on how sincere he was, but maybe that was just because an apple doesn’t have much body language?

Apple Bloom slid a few more apples over towards me from where they spilled next to the path and sighed. “It’s okay. Ah mean, AJ probably won’t be too mad. Just tha display apples got dirty,” she reasoned, looking at them lying on the ground as I held my chest. Okay, hadn’t expected my apple to start talking…

Speaking of my apple, it gasped momentarily then flashed away in a burst of light. All of the apples were gone, actually. I glanced around until I noticed they were all back, stacked in the bins on the stall… in an oddly pyramid-like shape each. Well, at least they looked clean again. Apple Bloom perked, then hopped sideways and hugged the re-materialized draconequus, actually getting him to look momentarily surprised. “Thanks, Discord! Ah know yer bored, but yer ah good pony,” she thanked, further surprising the chaos spirit.

Twilight snickered as she approached, obviously amused at the hesitation from Discord, who seemingly had a soft spot for young foals. Although Apple Bloom was sickeningly cute, and I had a hard time saying no to her as well, so I understood where he was coming from. “Thank you, Discord. That was helpful,” she pointed out, making an example of the event. Discord pouted at this point, crossing his arms and huffing while looking away from her, but I knew he got the hint. There was no reason to be defensive otherwise. Heh.

A low whistling noise interrupted my thoughts a few seconds later, however, and I frowned. What was it now?! Wait, where had I heard that sort of noise before? “Memder, lomk oot!” resounded a second later. Uh, what? It struck me a moment after she struck me that it had been a while since I heard aerodynamic wind flow, and that familiar whistling noise it did.

My vision was filled with gray for a moment as I got smashed into from the left side, somepony yelping above me as we rolled. She was surprisingly heavy as she bashed into my chest, but despite the impact, I still managed to grab her and pull her wings in during the violent roll to stop her from breaking anything. We came to a sliding stop about two or three meters from where we began, my ribs and left leg kind of hurting from the impact of something quite large and distinctly not soft and furry.

Derpy popped up a moment later, sitting up next to me with her eyes spinning for a moment before gasping and nudging me with her right forehoof. “Mender, are you okay?!” she asked softly as the world finally stopped spinning. Oww. For various levels of ‘okay’, I guessed. The large package she was carrying via foreleg and mouth grip spun and slid to a stop next to us, presumably what impacted my ribs and leg. It looked larger than she was, which seriously surprised me that she was able to get off the ground with that thing!

“Ah! Mender!” Twilight yelped, running up as well a moment later, followed by Apple Bloom right behind her. Discord trailed a little bit behind, looking remarkably like Rainbow Dash in trying to hold back his laughter. Okay, so he was back to being a jerk.

“Wow, I forget how often you ponies don’t even need me to cause chaos!” he chimed in, earning a glare from Twilight and a sheepish glance from Derpy.

Wincing, I managed to slowly get up to my hooves again, suddenly gaining a gentle lift from two hooves from behind. Eh? Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Carrot smiling softly at me as she helped me get back up into a sitting position. “Ah, thanks, Carrot. Yeah, I’m okay. That package kinda hurt, though. Wow, that’s big,” I admitted, looking back to the sizable thing. It was in a wrapped, brown paper, which seemed to be typical for any delivery system. Why brown? I suppose they just didn’t bother to dye the natural paper color to keep things cheap to make.

“Whoa, that is huge, Derpy! Wait, why is only one pegasus delivering such a huge parcel? You should have had some help…” Twilight pointed out, nudging the large box with her left forehoof.

Derpy surprisingly blushed softly and looked away before mentioning, “Oh, Cloudchaser and Flitter were supposed to deliver it, but, um… They had a really bad night last night at the raffle drawing and couldn’t. I didn’t want it to be late, though, and I’m strong enough to carry it! …mostly!” While technically true, she did need to work on that landing part. Although now that I looked at it, her wings really did seem rather powerful, being a bit larger than the average pegasus, and rippling with muscles down her back. Wait, what?! How did a raffle put two ponies out of commission like that? I suddenly got the horrific mental image of the raffle machine exploding and falling over on top of them as they helped run it…

Discord looked delighted regardless, and started to slowly clap. “Oh, I concur. You did an amazing job of transporting it, Miss Derpy. Number one in entertainment! Five out of five stars, would definitely order from you again! Why, you even ‘delivered’ it to the right pony!” he chirped, snapping his finger afterwards. A five-pointed crown landed on her head, with a colorful gem for each of the five star points on it. Interestingly enough, she actually smiled at his words, and then grinned up at the crown sitting on her head. It was actually quite pretty. Wait a second…

“Don’t tease her, Discord! She was carrying a pretty big package, and did amazingly for that. Wait, right pony…?” Carrot railed off and raised an eyebrow up at the draconequus, but Derpy nodded enthusiastically first.

“Yeah, it’s for Mender!” she exclaimed, sounding more than a little happy for that fact more than anything. For me? Slipping forward again, I approached the box with a bit more healthy skepticism than before. The box itself was unmarked on the wrapping, and had no return address at all. “Moon Mender, Golden Oak Library, Ponyville, Equestria” was written in extremely neat script for the address, on three lines. I was more than a little suspicious, suddenly. Large box, almost the size of a pony, delivered anonymously to me, the head of Dimensional Regulation.

Frowning, I warned, “Get back, everypony. I’m going to open it. At least five meters of distance and behind Twilight, please.” Derpy and Apple Bloom gave a confused expression, but Carrot squeaked and pushed them behind Twilight, who backed up to six meters. Discord looked more intrigued than anything and remained next to me. I decided I really didn’t care, and doubted normal ordinances would harm him anyway.

Twilight got the hint and put up a shield as I put four barriers up around the outer sides of the box. Well, here goes. I prepared to welcome yet another hospital visit just in case. Removing the paper from the top of the box, I braced for impact and pulled it open. After a slow three seconds with no earth shattering detonation, I opened my eyes again and blinked. Okay, so maybe not a bomb. Images of a severed head or something instead hopped into my mind, and I shivered. Snapshot had better not have gotten herself caught!

Swallowing, I instead peeked into the box to finally investigate its contents. Instead, I was met with a horror far beyond what I’d prepared for. Discord gasped next to me before adding, “Packing peanuts?! Those monsters! Don’t they realize those get everywhere when you’re trying to dig through them?” I looked over at him, and he momentarily held a blank expression before grinning. Aww crap.

A snap of his finger set off an air blast on the surface of the box, and suddenly everything was covered in packing peanuts. There was a moment of silence as everypony nearby was suddenly extremely surprised, then a chorus of groans and complaints started sounding out as they tried to get the vile material out of their fur. Of course, they were all statically charged and stuck to everypony, which definitely didn’t help.

Spitting two out of my mouth, I glared momentarily over at the now hysterically laughing Discord before looking back at Twilight and asking, “Are these things at least biodegradable?” I was a bit surprised to see a wall of them instead, where her shield used to be. She peeked around the side of it and raised an eyebrow before trotting over.

“Yeah, they’re organic and disintegrate into compost friendly dust in about three days. No bomb, I take it?” the lavender mare asked, trotting up towards me. Oh! Right. The package contents.

“No bomb,” I agreed, finally propping my forelegs up on the box and peeking in, ignoring the scrunching noise of the dozens of peanuts stuck to my chest. No rotting smell either, which was also a good thing. Instead, I lifted an eyebrow up at the actual contents.

There appeared to be a large jewelry box inside, taking up most of the inside of the box. It was made of a dark wood, both well taken care of and treated, by the looks of it. It had five drawers going down the front, each with a single knob in the center that looked like it rotated. To my surprise, there was also a key lock on every single drawer, just to the right of the knob. The metal appeared to be some sort of sturdy brass, and there were golden inlays patterning the top and front of it. It was a very pretty jewelry box, but I’m not sure who would give me something like it, or why.

On top of the box, however, was a slip of paper and a single brass key, resting on top of the note. At least, I assumed it was a note. Hopefully it would explain this a bit better, anyway. Reaching down, I slid the note out from under the key, keeping it on top of the jewelry box as I lifted the piece of paper up. Twilight had gotten close enough to look inside, and was now giving the box and paper an equally puzzled look. I flipped the single folded paper over, and indeed found writing in a script remarkably similar to the address on the package itself.

“Dear Moon Mender,” the salutation started, and then went into an actual letter format continuing with, “Enclosed with this letter is a jewelry box and brass key that unlocks the drawers. They’ve remained locked for over two hundred years. As far as I’m concerned, this rightfully belongs to you. The box itself, and all the jewelry and items within belonged directly to your parents, Bronze Bastion and Auraprism. I recently came to observe you myself, and verified with my own eyes that you are indeed that little foal that disappeared so long ago. That said, I feel this rightfully belongs to you, especially seeing as you now have your mother’s journal.”

“You are undoubtedly confused as to my identity and how I know of you, but none of that matters in particular. I can say with an honest and open heart that I mean you no ill fortune or harm. Your parents were amazing ponies, and what happened to them and Gemstone Weave was the most tragic incident that, I feel, has befallen ponykind in the last thousand years. They are missed dearly, but would want you to have these things. You have your father’s strong eyes, and your mother’s powerful aura. Carry on and have heart, Mender. I know you’ll make the right choices. You already have. I saw you investigated like I asked, but intentionally chose not to actively bring violence to the scene. You’re honorable, like your mother was. Thank you, Mender.”

“Signed, A Friend”

I stared blankly at the letter, eyes shaking a little in a way I couldn’t stop. My parents? No, specifically my dad and second mom. Twilight frowned and gave me a questioning look, but I couldn’t make my voice work. Instead, I just slid the note over to her across the open flap of the box and reached in, carefully lifting the heavy jewelry box out of it. It was definitely old, and looked amazingly sturdy. I felt magic almost humming from it, and suddenly realized I could have flung it against a brick wall and saw it bounce off unharmed. This was important. But no, I shouldn’t open it here.

The key was slipped into my folded space in an instant, not wanting to lose it. A thought occurred to me a moment later, however. Looking over at Twilight, I saw her eyes getting wider and wider as she read the note, and I wiped my right eye free of the sudden wetness in it. Why now, suddenly? Why was I suddenly getting all this information about my parents? Was it because of this pony who keeps sending stuff to me?

Digging into my left saddlebag, I pulled the other note out and opened it up again, setting it next to Twilight, who snapped her focus back to reality. She looked to me once, then glanced at the note as well and frowned before widening her eyes. “The same ‘friend’, then?” she asked softly, taking a guess as to my thinking as I nodded.

“What is it?” Derpy asked quietly, somehow sensing that things weren’t entirely happy as she slipped up with Carrot and Apple Bloom.

“It’s a jewelry box that used to belong to my mom and dad,” I answered truthfully, turning to stare at it once more. Things just kept getting more and more complicated…