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Forgiveness Pending

by Kiroberos

Chapter 87: Chapter 86

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Everything was a blur, as per usual. Although at least it was a neutral to happy blur this time instead of raw panic, rage, or adrenaline. Or even worse, all three. Looking down at the tons of papers, I was a bit overwhelmed by the complete clinical display of identification for the mare sitting across the table from me. Birth certificate, picture identification, graduation paperwork, a DNA analysis writeup, an Ether Spectrogram, whatever that was, a written letter from Tia with instructions to Spike to deliver it when we got a 'strange visitor', and even Auramirror's library card. Well, at least I knew that Tia was feeling impish today...

"It all checks through, multiple times over," Twilight muttered, sounding a little exasperated as she glared at the letter once again, explaining that the young necromancer had visited her personally about a week prior to this. Apparently she'd become 'suspect' to my identity before coming forward with it, and Tia knew she was related to me already. Of course, the logical conclusion was to tell her pretty much everything about my situation, apparently. Who needed security protocols, after all?!

Auramirror stared vacantly at me for a moment before slowly blinking, back to her more relaxed state now. "I really thought she'd send word ahead of time that I was coming. I made my intentions clear to her that I wished to find you after learning your true identity," she defended softly, without much conviction at all. It was already late at night, and just listening to her made me even more tired. Then there was the other issue, of course...

"Hee, it's still hard to believe Mender's, like, three hundred years old! He looks so young!" Derpy chirped happily, sitting in a chair directly to my left and largely unfazed by the revelation that had been literally dropped right in front of her, openly. Again, those security protocols...

As if to get us back on track, Owlowiscious let out a ‘hoo’ noise while sitting on our table, sliding forth the books he’d retrieved for Twilight. There was a book there on pony family genealogy and another on necromancers, Twilight’s magic enveloping them both and passing me the genealogy one. Right, my family…

Completely ignoring the owl, Rainbow flared her wings out a bit behind me as she sat on the floor, a bit to my left. "Seriously, it doesn't faze you at all that he's, like, an alien?!" she asked, sounding a little annoyed. It was probably because she hadn't found out about it on the best of terms, literally walking in on me transformed. She whacked my back an instant later and I got the hint, sighing as one of my tentacles slid out and wiggled above her in the air. Thankfully, Twilight had put four separate wards up on the library already and I didn’t have to worry about any more surprises. The lavender mare in question narrowed her eyes surprisingly rapidly at that, however.

"He's not an alien! He's an cybernetically augmented Earth Pony! Legitimate Earth Pony who was born three hundred years ago, then frozen until about a month and a half ago, when he returned from another dimension," Twilight corrected with a scary amount of conviction. Although it actually made me feel better to hear her defend me like that. Her glare was aimed over her shoulder at Rainbow, who held her hooves up defensively and slide behind me for protection, ironically.

Derpy, of course, paid no heed whatsoever, instead watching the tentacle with what could only be described as avid fascination. "Oooh, that's so cool!" she finally squeaked, confusing me even more. Scootaloo made a flying pounce into the air, catching it and hanging by it as I gently swung her around. The gray pegasus continued after with, “And no, it doesn’t bother me. Sure, he’s really old, but the Princesses are way older and look young, too. Tentacles also aren’t the weirdest thing in Equestria.” That… Okay, that was a very good point.

"I know, right?! It's awesome! But he's totally an Earth Pony, Rainbow. Big Mac said so, right AB?" Scootaloo reminded. Eh?!

Apple Bloom smirked and nodded happily, Applejack also grinning and rubbing the top of her head with no small amount of affection. Her cheek flush had faded over the half an hour surprise with Auramirror so far, the alcohol having a surprisingly short effect on her. How much of that were the nanites, and how much was her absurd constitution? She sat right next to Dash, however, literally touching the pegasus with her side, so I only assumed that their shared kiss earlier had 'upgraded' their relationship a little. At least, that was the sensation coming from both of them as she reached over and pulled Rainbow back against her.

"Relax. Dash says things she regrets before thinkin' all tha time. Ya know she definitely appreciates Mender," Applejack reminded, looking at Twilight when she said it. Rainbow still blushed furiously, easily reading the hidden and not so hidden context. Oh, right. I had said that we'd deal with that after she dealt with her feelings for Applejack. I just hadn't expected her to pull that off quite so fast. Well, actually no, that's my fault. She is the 'fastest pony in Equestria' after all.

Twilight looked vaguely annoyed at the mention until I swung Scootaloo around into her face. The little filly squeaked, then laughed as she planted herself like some sort of strange alien on my fillyfriend's face, Twilight momentarily flailing before recovering and just sighing into the orange filly's stomach.

"Was that really necessary, Mender?" she asked, voice muffled by the fur up against her face. Scootaloo started giggling as her fur puffed out around Twilight's breathe.

"Of course. You need to relax a bit, and the best way to do that is to have a cute filly land on your face," I assured.

Sweetie perked up, almost hitting her head under the table directly in front of me. "Really?!" she asked, sounding all too eager. Well, she had been holding it back all night, and it was late.

"Sweetie, behave," Rarity reminded, sipping at her glass again from the rug, the warm light from the fire playing across her back as she kept herself toasty. Fluttershy sat with her and giggled lightly, watching me pry Scootaloo off Twilight, then just haul her onto my chest instead. Although she was almost too big for that, and I had to hold her on her back in my forelegs to support her. She didn't mind regardless, just grinning up at me before turning her attention back to the tentacle, snatching it as it drifted past again. She was sort of like a cat...

Auramirror watched the tentacle as well, her eyes almost twinkling as she slowly revealed, "They have your life force in them. They're entirely natural as a part of you, but your overall energy internally matches an Earth Stallion. Except it's extremely close to the surface, creating a billowing cloud around you that looks like your internal self. It's quite fascinating." Oh. Wait, Red had mentioned something about that too. That my magic was close to the surface.

Twilight really did relax, however, before sliding over and resting her head on my shoulder. "I don't care how strange he is, or even if he's not a pony at all, even though I know he is. After a couple close calls with our relationship, I re-evaluated my feelings and decided I want to be with him no matter what," she admitted, getting me to widen my eyes a little as I felt heat drift into my cheeks. That I hadn't been expecting.

The unicorn mare across from us just giggled at that before also admitting, "I felt he was in love earlier, too, at the town square. Ponies always have a warm flow around their heart when thinking about somepony like that." L-Love?! I blushed even more as I felt Twilight smile against my shoulder before kissing it. How could I know something like that?! Was I in...?

I hesitated, realizing that it made Twilight happy to hear it, and I relaxed. Even if I... Even if I might be in love with her, she appeared to truly want it and reacted favorably. I felt Fluttershy's warmth from here without even needing to turn and look, as well. Of course, my feelings for her felt sharper, and more focused. Her too, then... It scared me when I realized it hadn't been a question.

Pinkie, who sat next to Apple Bloom and Spike on the other side of Applejack, surprised me by giggling merrily and interrupting my scary, self-tormenting thoughts. "There's nothing wrong with any of that, Mender. It's not scary, relax," she cooed, startling me as I suddenly realized I'd been broadcasting my empathy there. Ah crap.

The lavender mare only smiled a little more and nuzzled my shoulder before looking up at me, eyes soft and curious rather than hard and accusing. Well, that was a vague improvement over my nearest imagined outcome to that revelation.

Auramirror giggled before remarking, "Admittedly, I didn't know what to expect when I first heard about you. You've been through so much. I thought that would leave permanent scars on most ponies, but you seem remarkably better than it could have been. Your relationships, I think, are helping a lot." That I definitely agreed with. Without my friends, I'm fairly certain I would have gone totally off my rocker by now. Fluttershy especially.

Looking back up at her, Spike gave a questioning frown at that, however. "Wait, how exactly did you figure out who Mender was, anyway?" he asked, sounding a bit confused. That was a very, very good question. Her entire visit so far had more been proving who she was, not how she found out. She must have had some pretty compelling evidence for Tia to just tell her everything. I hoped...

She blanked for a moment, which is to say, didn't change her expression immediately. After, she smiled and nodded. "I figured you'd ask that. Like I said, I'm a necromancer. Well, more a necromancer in training. I'm actually only sixteen, but I'm almost done with my preliminary studies with my senior necromancer, and ready to move on to independent study! I think there's only a year of that, but I might be wrong. After I graduate, I also wanted to extend the offer to take you to visit the Ether-" she started. Spike coughed lightly, and she blinked once before lightly blushing.

"Oh, right. I'm a necromancer. A standard part of my training has me regularly projecting myself into the Ether and tending to our family line. We leave the paper notes on the coffins to try 'talking' to their spirits, of course, sending messages along from the family. We also care for the coffins themselves and keep them cleansed and pristine. It, well... This is going to sound bad probably, but your mother, Gemstone Weave, has never shown up in the Ether," she explained. Oh. She didn't die in Equestria. Right...

Twilight frowned, a sad expression grazing her before asking, "Doesn't that only happen with ghosts?" Wait, what? Applejack smiled weakly and nodded to me instead.

"Sometimes, when death comes suddenly or traumatically, tha spirit left behind is confused or lost. Tha other job fer usually more experienced necromancers is ta come an' talk ta tha spirit, an' convince 'em ta move on. That's what happened with mah parents after tha accident..." she explained solemnly. Oh. A sudden pang went through my chest, mostly for Applejack who I just discovered a rather horrible fact about. Did that mean my mother's spirit was in the other dimension then as a ghost, however?

Auramirror nodded at that, eyes softening a little as she turned to Applejack instead. "That's almost always the case. I’m also sorry about your parents, Applejack. I know about what happened. I’m sorry,” she apologized, showing sympathy as Applejack simply smiled and nodded to her once. I wanted to ask, but it wouldn’t really be appropriate at the moment. The necromancer turned back to me regardless a moment later and continued talking. “Gemstone, however, was missing, with none of the letters left for her even moved, let alone responded to. No sign of her anywhere in the Long Road, or forests surrounding it. We definitely looked. Uh, just to mention, your coffin is there too, smaller and next to your mother's. You never showed up either, but that's sort of explained now. Um, you're not dead," she explained blankly, momentarily flustering herself again. Uh, yes, I was indeed alive. I think. Yeah, going with alive.

Thankfully she continued before I confused myself. "Regardless, it was assumed she was a ghost somewhere, along with you, and we sent out word to other towns to keep a look out for you both. Bronze Bastion and Auraprism completely refused to comment on what happened at all, which I now know was an order from Princess Celestia. They also cut off all contact with the Princess completely after that. I, um, think they blamed her for what happened. The Princess didn't tell me about the incident, only that Gemstone Weave had transfered over to another dimension and not returned, assumed dead," she continued. That was... They blamed her. Tia had some say in what happened, but it really was an accident, by the sounds of it. They must have been hurt beyond imagining, and I couldn't even guess at how much Tia beat herself up over all of it. She lost two friends that were close to the crown, including my father's family which had been connected to the crown closely before that, according to the dossier. Worse yet, she blamed herself for my mother's death. And mine, up until a month and a half ago.

"That's... horrifying. Does that mean that my mother's spirit is still in the other dimension? Is there a way we can somehow help her come back to-" I started to ask, frowning as I looked up at Auramirror.

"No, she's not," she corrected, cutting me off. Eh?! I felt my eyes widen, Twilight perking up next to me, also looking surprised. The necromancer continued by explaining, "That's what cued me in to you. One day, about three weeks ago, I moved into a trance and did my rounds along the Long Road. Everything was normal until I got to her coffin, and yours. Your letters and pictures were still there on top of the coffin, but all of hers were missing. At first I thought a trickster spirit might be playing a prank on me and hiding them from sight. Only the pony in question may remove the letters from their coffin. I tried dispelling any illusions, but there were none. They were really gone. Shocked, I looked out into the forest to try to see if somehow another spirit had taken them, and that was the first time I'd ever seen my great, great, great, great grandmother, apart from pictures... Her spirit was there, in the forest, talking with the spirit of Auraprism. They both... looked so happy."

My mind blanked. Three weeks ago...? That was two weeks after I came back, give or take. But what had happened?! I was numb, and almost missed her continuing to talk. "-so I tried to call out to her. Just a basic 'attention' spell. Actual communication spells are immensely draining for the necromancer, and I don't even know any yet. She turned and smiled towards me, and, uh, stuck out her tongue in my direction. Um..." I blanked for a different reason, then coughed lightly and averted my eyes. Actually, that sounded remarkably like her.

"She just spontaneously came back?!" Twilight asked, sounding surprised more than anything, and apparently completely ignoring that last comment. Auramirror nodded regardless, smiling a little.

"She just came back. My mentor was shocked as well, and initiated a small communication with her. We'd received no letters from any other necromancers to explain that they found her somewhere, and we also wanted to know where you were. All she said, however, is that she was gone for a long time, looking over somepony with everything she could muster, and that if we wanted to know everything, seek out a 'Moon Mender' and ask him," she revealed. Strike three, and my brain blanked completely, finally. Everything snapped into place in an instant, and I realized that she never came back because she had stayed with me. During my entire three hundred year span as a block of ice. She was watching over me. She...

It caught me off guard and I winced, snapping my hoof up to wipe the moisture from my cheek. Damn it. Nopony said anything, the unspoken truth readily apparent as Twilight slipped over and wrapped her forelegs around my stomach, kissing me on the shoulder. Relaxing, I pushed the knee jerk reaction back down to hide it, remembering that essentially everypony here was supportive and good ponies. Derpy gave a soft smile and lightly rubbed my other shoulder with her forehoof as well, looking understanding. A moment later, Applejack just chuckled and smiled, though.

“She loves ya, Mender. She’s yer mother, an’ yer obviously tha most important thing fer her, bein’ that she stayed with ya that whole time. Now she’s come back with ya, and is happy with her herd again. Although she’s still lookin’ out fer ya, Ah imagine,” she assured, giving a soft smile. She was right, of course. Despite being sad that she had to sacrifice so much for me, I was happy as well. That her long vigil was finally over, and maybe both of us finally could have peace.

Rainbow reached over and lightly rubbed Applejack’s knee. “Your parents, too, AJ. You know they’re looking out for ya,” she reminded, smiling at her new marefriend and looking surprisingly confident in that fact, for potentially the first time tonight. Applejack just smiled softly to her before leaning over and resting on her side instead, her head tucked up against Rainbow’s back left leg.

The orange mare looked rather tired, actually, and a glance showed me that all four crusaders looked almost asleep already. No, wait, I think Babs actually was sleeping. Of course, it was well past midnight now, and everything was supposed to have wound down for the night an hour ago, all that halted by my niece’s arrival.

Glancing back at her, I noticed she nodded and smiled at me more fully. “Yeah, it is getting rather late. I just wanted to try to catch you and introduce myself before I lost my chance again. There are festivities going for a few days, and I’m staying in town for the duration, so if it’s at all possible, could we talk more tomorrow?” she asked, smile remaining as her eyes shivered while watching me, obviously hoping for a yes.

“Of course. I would like to get to know you better. Um, before you go for the night, though, Auramirror, do I have any other family? I know you’re probably the only one that actually knows about, well, who I really am. I was just curious…” I asked, suddenly feeling amazingly awkward.

If she felt the same way, she didn’t show it, of course, and only giggled merrily. “Just Aura, for you. That’s one of the main reasons I wanted to meet you, Mender. I wanted to let you know that you did have family, and that you’re not alone here. Although it looks like I didn’t have to worry about that,” she mused, eyes drifting over to Twilight, who grinned at her rather impishly. That wasn’t a face I saw very often on Twilight!

Smiling to Aura, I nodded and gave Twilight a squeeze before also gesturing over at Fluttershy, who perked up while sitting next to Rarity. “Fluttershy’s with us, too,” I informed, earning another whispy snicker from the mare across from us.

“Oh, I know. I do read the headlines, especially after Mister Fancypants himself corrected them to include you in it. That’s actually how I found out who you were. Uh, actually, don’t tell anypony that, as my mentor told me not to look for the name. She said that Miss Gemstone Weave obviously didn’t feel comfortable telling us yet, and would in due time, but I got really curious! I mean, she said that she was watching over somepony far away, and that somepony had to have been her foal. I mean, who else would it be if she wasn’t with her mates? But then she gave a name specifically, and looking up all the news about you showed that you’d ‘suddenly appeared’ and that Princess Celestia herself had vouched for you so I thought that maybe she-“ Aura started to ramble. Again. This time her pace quickened as she realized she might be in trouble for going against her mentor’s wishes, and it was kind of cute.

Coughing, she dwindled and stopped as she locked her eyes back onto me, holding my hoof up. “Relax, Aura. We’re not going to tell anypony. Although my past is supposed to be a secret for now, so please don’t tell anypony else,” I warned. She relaxed and just nodded, moving back to her usual smile as her shoulders sagged a little.

“Yeah, I know. That’s why I brought so much identification. I know you’re head of that new agency thingy, so I wanted to be sure I proved who I was. Coming here, then getting arrested or something wouldn’t have been fun,” she murmured, scratching her chin as she thought about it out loud, and earned more confused looks from around the room. I… I doubt I would have arrested her just for not proving her identity, but okay. Maybe jumping to conclusions ran in our family?

Derpy surprised me by raising her hoof frantically. I looked over at her, confused, as she suddenly looked rather nervous. “I promise not to tell anypony either, Mender! Please don’t arrest me, either,” she requested, making Twilight slap her forehead next to me. Or maybe ponies just jumped to conclusions a lot?

“I’m not going to arrest either of you, relax. It doesn’t matter if you’re family or not, ponies don’t deserve to be arrested for something so silly. Besides, you’re my friend already, and I know who you are, Derpy,” I pointed out, giving Derpy a skeptical glance as she happily started smiling again. Rolling my eyes at the silly mares, I finally remembered the book in front of me and opened up to the master index in the genealogy listing. Owlowiscious gave a ‘hoo’ of appreciation for the first pony to use his hard work, regardless. Wait, how did ponies list their genealogy if they didn’t have common names?

Aura perked an instant later as she saw me open the book, however, snapping back to happy again as she suddenly revealed, “Oh, I almost forgot about that family question! You do have a really, really huge family. There’s dozens and dozens of us, really. Auraprism and Bronze Bastion had two foals themselves, and the family just exploded from there. You even have another great, great, great, grandniece here in Ponyville!”

My ears twitched at that, unable to keep my eyes from widening a little. Oh. Well that would be a lot easier than trying to figure this out, probably. “Oh, I do?” I asked, more than a little curious. Had I seen any mares around that looked like me? Not that I remembered… Although color palettes could probably change dramatically over that many generations.

She nodded, of course, before revealing, “She’s got the family’s more dominant eye color like you, actually, although I’ve not met her myself. Bad at faces… wait… What did you say your name was?” She halted suddenly, looking over at Derpy instead. Huh?

Derpy blinked, looking a little surprised before glancing over at me as well with… those golden yellow eyes. “Um, what…?” she asked, looking more than a little surprised. Oh…

* * * * *

The day was much cooler than yesterday. My fur puffed up as I looked out over the overcast sky. The sounds of a lot of laughter and excitement drifted up into my ears, but I wasn't connected to that. It was far away down in the actual fairgrounds area, and I was way up on a hill overlooking it. My magnified sight could easily sweep over the fair itself while I rested on the blanket, another on top of me. Even though I knew where they all were, it was still nice to see them visually.

Pinkie, Rainbow, and Applejack were all in the same spot over by a booth clearly labeled The Dunk Tank. The mayor was sitting on the collapsible platform over a pool of some sort of unidentified purple liquid. I assumed it was non-toxic and non-acidic, but I could be wrong if she'd gotten on somepony's bad side or something. The objective appeared to be to stand behind the line and somehow hit the small panel sticking out to the side of the tank with enough force to release the trigger and dunk her for a prize. The catch was that you had to use a baseball to do it, and only got three tries. Applejack had only hit once, using her spin around and buck technique. Rainbow also only hit once with her cup in wing and catapult technique. Pinkie, however, was going on three for three with her lethal inhale and fire out like a cannon from the mouth technique. I was impressed.

Twilight had only momentarily left, having seen somepony running one of the fair games that she recognized and apparently wanted to talk to. Zooming in on her instead, I saw her chatting with a solid blue unicorn mare, wearing a rather fanciful cape and apparently running some sort of card magic show or something along the midway, in her own booth. Spike was sitting on her back, looking at some sort of unrolled scroll for her. Interesting.

Shifting my attention along the midway, my eyes locked on to inner Ponyville instead. The fair had been extended off the edge of the town, technically, and I could also see most of Ponyville from the hill. The spa was a rather nice looking building, and I momentarily zoomed in on it, but saw nothing particularly of interest. Fluttershy and Rarity were inside, the pearly unicorn managing to convince the surprisingly, well, clingy pegasus to take a moment to get a relaxing spa trip in. Not that I was complaining about Fluttershy wanting to spend time with me, of course. Heh.

With all of the Elements and Spike accounted for, I checked up on the Crusaders next. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom were easy to find, being with the other three mares at the Dunk Tank and apparently getting treated to prizes. Scootaloo appeared to be wearing a Wonderbolts costume now, and Apple Bloom had a stuffed cow sitting next to her that was almost bigger than she was. Sweetie and Babs were together, too, but harder to spot. Not having a link to them, I had to actually use effort to scan the crowd heading down the midway. My tracking program picked them both out, chatting to each other and heading further east at a slower pace, in the general direction of the other Crusaders. They both had a stuffed animal on their backs, Babs having a puppy and Sweetie having what looked like a bird of some sort.

With everypony yet again accounted for, I relaxed inside my comfy blanket, enjoying the warmth and escape from the winds. It was a little silly to like to keep checking on them, but who was I to argue with my inner urges to guard over the ponies I cared about? Still, I was back to being alone now, and I laid my head down on my forelegs, relaxing. I didn’t get very many times when I was really left to my own devices, minus all those hospital stays, of course. I didn’t count those, though.

My mind drifted as I relaxed, not really sticking on any one topic and me not really trying to at the same time. Aura said she’d come find me later today to talk more, and I wasn’t really worried about that. There were a lot of things I wanted to ask her, including if she knew about whomever this ‘friend’ was that had sent me my parents’ private items. She might know more about the state of things after my parents passed away, too. Although finding out that Derpy was my niece was more than a little startling. Why hadn’t Aura even noticed what she looked like?! Wait, that didn’t surprise me that much after what happened at the flower stand.

The black box was almost decrypted, too, and I was ready to be rid of the stupid thing at this point. Once fully decrypted, I could unpack its contents and then see literally every one of my functioning systems inside of myself. I’d finally have absolute control over everything artificial in my body, which was a good ninety percent of myself, I now realized. Well, the line between natural and artificial was a bit hazy when it came to organic metals and various wetware electronics. Most of my artificial components, such as my power generators and CPU cores, were actually held in subspace compartments attached to me. My bones were organic metal with nanite fabrication in the center. Organs were similar to that of a normal pony but laced with woven composites to be resistant to piercing and sheering forces. Muscles had woven organic metal fibers in them to heavily increase their durability and strength. Nanites filled my bloodstream to saturation level, and heavy military ones were embedded in my muscles, bones, and skin to do fast repairs and reinforcements. Overall, I was heavier than a normal pony of my size by a bit, but not too much. The average stallion was usually between ninety and a hundred and ten pounds, and I was a hundred and twenty five, despite being a little bit smaller than average for stallions.

Keela also sent me a ping extremely early this morning that was just in text form, stating they’d gathered all the rest of what they could from the wreckage around the attack area and were getting out of there before their luck ran out. It was probably for the best, given my luck could potentially rub off on them. They’d successfully relocated into dark space, however, rotating slowly around in a drifting asteroid thicket. Now she had the detailed analysis to do for all the samples they gathered, and she said she’d hopefully get results by tonight or tomorrow morning on the location they warped out to as well. I doubted a ‘rescue’ was possible, as there’d never been a successful one against the Grosh yet, but I didn’t want to discourage her from at least doing the research. Regardless, it was back to waiting for me.

The sun was slowly rising towards the middle of the sky by now, cloud cover barely letting it shine through as I peeked up at it. I was still tired today, but feeling better, especially along my back. I think it was finally getting fully healed at this point. It still made me lazy, though. Closing my eyes, I withdrew further into the big blanket, it being about fifteen times too large for me alone. The one under me was plaid with all sorts of what looked like Cutie Marks in the squares. The one I was wrapped up in like some sort of amazing pony cocoon was just a simple brown in color, but I was fine either way. It was thick and wool and felt amazing.

Midway through snuggling into the blankets, I felt a light ping go off in my mind. It couldn’t be Keela this soon, unless she forgot to tell me something. Chances were, it was one of the mares. A second later, I was proven completely wrong when I pulled my notification panel down. Oh! I hadn’t heard from her in a while.

“Yes, Purdue?” I inquired politely and calmly after opening up her link. I got the direct sense of being startled, like she hadn’t anticipated me actually noticing her tiny little ping, but she recovered quickly.

“Um, h-hey, Mender. I know it’s been, uh, a really long time,” she greeted, sounding a tad nervous as it whispered inside my mind.

Smiling, I relaxed again and let her feel how snuggly the blankets felt. She blushed lightly a moment later and fidgeted, but calmed down a little. I instead offered, “You can manifest if you’d like. No need to stop time or anything.”

It was another long moment of hesitation before I felt the energy well up inside of me from the connection to the book. I manifested the book out of sub-space and let it sit next to me on the blanket to make it easier for her. A second later, the energy swelled out of my chest, and I released it, seeing the little slightly glowing, slightly translucent filly fade in on the blanket next to me. She looked around the covered area before looking up at me instead, a look of wide-eyed surprise on her expression.

Smiling, I just pulled her against me, ignoring her squeak, and gave her a soft hug. “Relax, ‘Sis’. You’re fine and you know it,” I reminded, putting emphasis on her nickname to also remind her of her other request she’d already made. She flushed lightly, then buried her face in my chest instead as I just held her there.

Neither of us said anything for a long time. I was curious as to what she’d been doing, but that could wait. To actually feel her just resting and enjoying lying next to me was good enough, my intuition telling me that the little filly didn’t quite know the concept of taking a break. I just let her relax and enjoy herself. I didn’t stir or open my eyes again until I felt one of the links drawing closer, and heard the hoofsteps.

My eyes opened to look up at Twilight, curiously sans Spike, as she walked back up over the top of the hill and smiled towards me, heading over. “Sorry that took so long, Mender. I didn’t mean to leave you up here alone for so long,” she apologized, giving a tenderer smile as she approached the blanket.

“I’m not alone,” I corrected. She halted for a moment, tilting her head before I lifted up the blanket against my chest, revealing the glowing filly as she sleepily perked and looked up at me. Her eyes traced where I was looking and locked on to Twilight for a moment before she smiled and rested back against me. Twilight’s confusion snapped to a warm smile instead.

“Oh! Purdue, it’s been a while,” Twilight greeted, closing the distance between us and sliding down into the blankets as well. Purdue just nestled into me a bit more to get away from the chilly outside air until Twilight got settled, dropping the blanket back down over us as she slid forward and rested right behind the filly, not actually able to touch her. Then an idea hit me. Accessing the energy of Prudentia, which was conveniently right there, I pushed it into Purdue and formed a shaped barrier inside of her image. The technique was what I used with Keela when projecting over there, so she could physically touch me. Purdue obviously didn’t remember and frowned, poking her own hoof against my chest experimentally. Of course, she wasn’t going to discovery anything like that, given that I could already touch her for some reason. Instead, I gestured to Twilight, who looked surprised before tentatively sliding a little closer, then widening her eyes as she pushed up against the little filly from behind.

Purdue squeaked and looked back over her shoulder as she suddenly felt a pony other than me able to touch her. Twilight just smiled, however, and slid in fully, hugging her from behind instead as she rested against my chest. I started adding details to the barrier a moment later, letting the energy colors compliment her bronze mane and tail and the darker blues of her coat until she wasn’t see-through anymore, looking like any other normal foal out there. Well, minus the misty gray eyes, but I imagine there might be a few blind foals in Equus as well, so maybe? Regardless, I added ‘body heat’ and tactile fur sensation to the shield after. Twilight smiled as she felt the changes fall into place on the filly against her chest.

“Mmm, if Mender’s my big brother, does that make you sort of like my sister-in-law?” Purdue asked quietly a moment later, immediately smacking us with the awkward questions. Twilight blushed, getting what she was asking and the insinuation that came with it easily enough.

She took it well however, with a smile and nod. “Mender and I are together, and in an official herd, so yes. However, we don’t distinguish between relatives by blood and relatives by marriage, so you’re just my sister,” she explained, coincidentally to both of us, actually. Interesting!

Purdue smiled happily before slowly rotating and turning around so her back was against me instead. “Um, with our connection, I can feel what my big brother looks like but, uh, I’m still actually blind. I can see your energy, but I… I don’t know what you look like. Could I, um…?” the little filly asked, reaching her hooves up gently. Twilight giggled to her, then leaned in closer and let the two tiny hooves touch against her muzzle.

Smiling, I simply watched as the filly closed her eyes and gently felt out around Twilight’s muzzle. I could almost feel her forming the mental image in her own mind as her hooves traced the contours and details of the lavender unicorn’s face. Twilight just patiently kept her eyes closed, smiling softly as her mouth was traced, and then the hooves slipped up around her eyes and felt her cheeks out before moving up to her eyebrows.

Ever so gently, Purdue reached up and brushed her hooves along the horn coming from Twilight’s forehead. Her mouth opened a little in surprise, but she carefully felt up and along it, as if it were some wonderful new discovery that she’d never noticed before. Twilight lightly giggled as she felt up along the horn, the sensation possibly tickling a little bit, although I remembered that there wasn’t much feeling in it if they weren’t using magic. I just let her keep going, because it was too adorable not to.

After finally tracing her ears, Purdue smiled and leaned back again, looking satisfied finally with the basic three dimensional feeling she had in her mind. I felt it, and suddenly realized it would work in reverse, too. My connection to Twilight opened fully, and the unicorn mare tilted her head towards me curiously as I tugged her into our own mindscape.

Purdue gasped, colors exploding around her for a moment as I pulled her in, too. She looked around, eyes glowing softly until they turned a bright golden amber instead, and I gave her my eye color. She turned and looked at me, eyes running all the way down my form before looking over to Twilight, too, seeing her for the first time completely. Twilight caught the eyes, and suddenly smirked, realizing exactly what I’d done.

“You’re giving her the input directly from what her avatar should get in the simulation, aren’t you?” she asked, walking towards me through the grid of ground as it formed, growing rapidly into grass. Purdue just gasped, looking around her as the sky exploded into bright blues, with puffy white clouds expanding out. Grass shifted green under us, instead of the dots of life force she was so used to seeing, the individual blades sliding up out of the ground as a tree expanded next to us for shade. The warm sun beat down, and rapidly, I completely reconstructed our hill, but in my mindscape instead, giving the little filly all five senses of input from it.

Twilight lay down next to me, snuggling back into the blanket as we watched the filly trot around, looking at everything with a sudden level of interest and excitement. Why I hadn’t thought to do this for her before, I didn’t know, but I’m glad I did now. She scraped at the grass for a moment, getting a bit of dirt on her hoof before whispering to herself. “Grass is green. Dirt is, um, brown. This is what green and brown look like? I don’t… I don’t understand but it’s pretty!” she squeaked, then shifted skywards instead. I smiled while watching her.

“The sky is blue. All the clouds you see are shades of white. Celestia’s sun you see glowing in the sky is yellow,” I continued for her. She started to beam as she looked up at all the colors, trotting backwards slightly now until she tripped and fell over, rolling once in the grass before plopping her rump into the dirt again, blinking twice. Heh. Too excited now.

It didn’t dissuade her for long, and she hopped back up with a grin and trotted over to the tree I’d made. Looking it over, I saw her flash an access point to my information core, then grin. “Acer glabrum? It’s a maple tree! The leaves are green, like the grass. Trunks of trees are, uh…” she announced before looking down it.

“Browns, with dashes of gray, which is just a darker shade of white,” Twilight informed, watching her with amusement as she felt along the bark of the tree. A moment later, a butterfly heeded my request and flitted past her, drawing her attention instantly as she bound after it, watching it wave through the air on its colorful wings. She almost looked stunned, trying to take it all in at once.

Finally, she just gave up and spun in a circle, grinning at me before charging back over and pouncing on my chest again, making me slide into Twilight slightly. “Whaaa, thank you, Big Brother! This is amazing! So this is what your world looks like?” Purdue asked, glancing back up from my chest as she looked around again, and I nodded.

“Yes, this is Equestria. I’m sure you can see why I want to stay here,” I pointed out, earning a softer smile from my lavender companion.

“She probably hasn’t noticed that you gave her your eye color yet, either,” Twilight pointed out, causing the filly to snap to attention at her instead.

Chuckling, I reasoned, “Well, she is my sister. It was fitting, I thought.” Lifting my right foreleg up, I let a small standing mirror materialize on the grass, turned to face Purdue instead.

Slowly, her eyes widened as she cautiously approached the mirror, looking herself over. She touched her coat first, feeling it along her arm as she saw it in the mirror. The dark blue fur parted as she ran her hoof up to her shoulder, then brushed some of the locks of her soft mane out of her face, examining the strands of bronze against her hoof instead of in the mirror. Finally, she looked back down at the reflective surface, staring right into her own eyes for a moment before blinking once, then twice, then alternating her eyes closed, back and forth.

Watching her was rather cute, but when she started shivering, a smile forming on her as she hopped up and down on her right and left legs, back and forth, it skyrocketed right into deadly adorable levels. “It’s me! That’s what I look like… and the eyes are perfect!” she squeaked before turning and pouncing me again. I smiled as I simply held her, feeling her happiness leaking all around me. Interestingly enough, I was kind of reminded of Scootaloo’s first time flying.

“This is all so amazing! This makes… oh! This makes the reason I bugged you even more important. I’m sure of it now!” Purdue suddenly announced, snapping back into focus.

Twilight tilted her head at that before asking, “Oh? You came here for a reason, then?”

Admittedly, it was amusing to see Purdue look at her like she was completely insane. “Uh, well, of course. I need to have a reason to manifest, don’t I?” she asked as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Ah, less amusing now.

“Nope,” I quickly answered, before assuring, “You can show up just to talk or have fun with us if you’re lonely, Purdue. I meant it when I honored your request, and a little sister is welcome any time she wants to be.” The little filly blushed at that, fidgeting for a moment before leaning forward and pecking me on the forehead. I just smiled at her, and she relaxed, nodding twice to herself.

“I’m sorry I was gone so long. I’ll visit a lot more often now, but I had a lot of thinking I needed to do. Um, I finally came to an answer, however,” Purdue explained, sitting down in front of me again and giving me her full focus. Oh? Sitting up, I reached the level of her eyes before settling and just listening to her.

She nodded for a moment, then continued with, “You told me not to use my powers because you said so, but to use them how I want to. Nopony has ever, um, just given me permission like that. You’re… You’re far nicer than I realized you could be, and genuinely care about me. Even before I told you this, you did all of this for me!” Her gesture was towards around us in general, and I realized she’d valued being able to see all of this more than I could ever imagine. She just kept going, however.

“Well, I came to a conclusion. I trust you. Completely. You really are the first owner that cares about me as an individual. Um, I want to use my powers to help you. I’ll warn you if something bad is going to happen that you need to prepare for or avoid from now on, and I’ll also get any information you ask for,” she finally promised, surprisingly me significantly.

Frowning, I shook my head, momentarily earning a look of disappointment before I corrected her thought with, “Just warn me about the bad things if that’s what you want, Purdue. You don’t need to worry about me asking you for any extra information. That’s… It isn’t information that I should know about anyway.” Nopony should know the future, and I was kind of sad that she got stuck seeing it all the time. Books must be really boring to read if you already know what’s going to happen.

Her frown shifted into surprise instead, then she blushed lightly and smiled, nodding. “I will! I try to keep you safe already as much as I can. But if there’s anything I can’t stop, I’ll let you know immediately!” she chirped, looking relieved instead. Wait, what?

Tilting my head, I instead asked, “What do you mean you keep me safe?” Twilight perked at that, picking up what I had already as well, but looking to me instead.

Purdue froze. Instantly, as if a sudden spotlight came down on her and revealed she was surrounded by monsters. Oh. That had been a slip up on her part. To her credit, she recovered amazingly fast by fidgeting rapidly again. “O-Oh! Right, I never, uh, told you! Well, you sort of have this… thing. It’s, well, I named it ‘Malice’. It’s an extremely angry… something… that is following you around and constantly trying to cause misfortunes to you. Anything, ranging from something falling on your head, to bigger things, like Nirru stumbling onto where the other prototype pony chassis was in the science lab and using it to come to Equus,” she explained. What?

Twilight stared at her like she’d just grown tentacles herself, which I could sympathize with. But still, what the hell?! “Prototype pony chassis?” I asked, raising an eyebrow to the filly. She froze again before wincing and smacking herself on the forehead with a hoof.

“Right! I didn’t tell you about that either! Uh, you’re Unit Two. Or Zero Zero Two, I think. The organic mechanical chassis that she was in when you encountered her was Unit One. That was the prototype that Doctor Kyliona had been making to attempt to bridge the gap between the dimensions before she stumbled upon your information,” Purdue explained, looking slightly calmer but still more than a little uneasy.

Nodding, I added, “That was the body she was in that I destroyed. It was made out of organic cybernetics just like me. I thought she’d made it, but… well, that answers that, then.” The disks were then only appended with my data afterwards, then. Which means I already destroyed and ate ‘Unit Zero Zero One’, and definitely didn’t have to worry about any access issues with the disks, now.

“What’s Malice, then? Wait, how does it affect Mender like that? How do you protect him from something like that?!” Twilight asked, frowning and acting like she definitely didn’t like the sound of that as she got more and more irate.

Reaching over, I set a hoof down on her shoulder, and she relaxed a little, exhaling as Purdue went back to fidgeting. Looking back to the tiny filly, I assured her with, “Relax, Purdue. You’re not in trouble. Just tell us about it.”

She exhaled as well, a bit more shakily than Twilight, then nodded twice, closing her eyes for a moment to focus. Then she went in to explaining, “Everything works off probabilities. The odds of something happening are usually fairly hard to just guess, but sometimes things happen that a sentient creature doesn’t directly control. These events are events that don’t have a will behind them. Well if you’re, um, aware of these events before they happen, you can potentially attach a will to them and, well, tip them in one direction or another. Doing that, you can influence how things happen, given enough energy.” Uh oh. This was sounding remarkably like quantum theories. I hated quantum mechanics.

“So this… whatever it is… is following Mender around and trying to bring him extreme misfortune by influencing events that don’t have a sentient will behind them? Why? What does it want?! What is it?” Twilight asked, shifting from the irritation to a questioning frown, her sensation shifting to more curiosity coming from her empathy link.

Purdue shook her head, then continued, “It wants him to suffer. Suffer, not die. It’s, um, sort of like this scary… thing that feels, um…” She started fidgeting again. Four blinks, a fidget, breaking eye contact away and to the right, and an increased amount of breathing, I noted.

Sighing, I coughed lightly, snapping her attention back to me before slowly reminding her, “Truth, Purdue. We’re not mad at you and we’re not going to be, so just relax. You trust me, right? I trust you, too.” Her tense look softened, along with her eyes as she stared at me, then nodded. She was beyond nervous, and almost instinctively tried to hide details from answers. What had she been through? Did I even want to know?

She focused for a moment before opening her eyes again directly at me instead. “Malice is an amalgamation of billions of Keldarian souls that got eaten by a Weapon of Universal Destruction on the surface of the Keldarian’s home planet. They unite purely through their own hatred over being so suddenly and violently killed, and single-mindedly want their murderer to suffer for the rest of eternity. They, um, think that’s you, Brother,” she fully explained. Suddenly, it felt like she just hit me in the chest with a sledgehammer…

Next Chapter: Chapter 87 Estimated time remaining: 12 Hours, 45 Minutes
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