It felt like it took forever to get back to the palace this time. Of course, it didn't help that somehow, word of mouth seemed to be traveling faster than we were. By the time we got within three blocks of the main gates, there were six reporters and a good thirty ponies following me. This was potentially the worst I'd possibly screwed up so far, but instead of really appreciating the sheer horror of everything that was about to transpire, I mostly just felt numb. The day seemed darker, and if anypony was home inside, they'd boarded up the windows and doors for the impending storm. I just felt tired.

Octavia had caught back up with me after three blocks or so, having used her superior mass to easily path through the crowd, given the massive case on her back. I was a little surprised to see her trying to catch up with me again, after I'd been forced to abandon her, ruining the little lunch date. Again. Oh, and reveal that I was actually a monster.

There was nothing I could think of to even say, and for the majority of the trip, she silently walked next to me. It was almost as unnerving as everything that had just happened. We cleared the palace gates without me so much as glancing back at the reporters screaming questions out to me. They all wanted to know what I was, along with the few more selective questions of what had happened involving the mare, why she did what she did, and of course what was going to happen now. I didn't have answers to most of those, unfortunately. One even asked why I was with Octavia. Thankfully she cut them off blindingly fast with a shout of us just being friends. Hey, we were still friends? That was an upside to the situation, regardless.

I turned my head and looked at her as we cleared the castle gate. Four more guards had rushed up upon seeing the commotion and abruptly closed the path off behind us, closing the gate on the storm of reporters following. The party that was still on the lawn ground to a screeching halt as all heads turned to look at my entourage, and I was a bit surprised that the lead guards stopped with all three ponies that had been involved in the situation at the café. I gave them a nod, and all four of them saluted, heading towards the castle with me and Octavia following.

The injured mare fell halfway across the yard, giving a yelp as she stepped down wrong on her left foreleg. After hitting that leg against the concrete, I was surprised she’d walked this far, even with the guards’ help. I ducked forward and braced her, causing her to go rigid as she looked back up at me in surprise with mixtures of fear in her eyes. I probably deserved that. Instead, I focused on her leg, lifting it gently, and then frowned. Bruising was going up from her ankle almost all the way to her elbow. My eyes flashed blue for a second, causing her to start, but my scan ran almost instantly along her leg. The surface blood vessels were, as best described, mangled. She'd rotated slightly in the air to not quite land on her face, and was instead heading for a lovely shoulder impact when she hit me instead. Unfortunately for her, a leg went past me and hit the ground, still going an appreciable fraction of terminal velocity. Of bigger concern was the muscles, and how they appeared to be partially torn at the connection with her ankle.

"She has a torn muscle. Could one of you carry her on your back to the infirmary first? A second guard can go with to keep her calm. She needs that leg looked at," I requested, glancing to the unicorn and earth pony to my right, who'd been helping her along prior. They were the same two that ran up next to me when the event started, I realized. Both nodded, and the unicorn helped her uneasily up onto the earth pony's back. I nodded to them, then looked to the mother and little filly. "You two should go to the infirmary as well. Can you follow these two guards?" I requested, gesturing my right foreleg towards the filly, who had a little bit of blood running down from her right shoulder. She'd hit the broken roof tiles on that side after the mare threw her. Ultimately better than falling off the roof, but it still needed tending to.

The older mare nodded, looking uneasily towards me before suddenly stepping forward. I hesitantly leaned back, unsure of her intent, and the closer pegasus stepped forward towards her, but she surprised me by suddenly hugging me instead. "I... I'm sorry I didn't say anything before now. Everything was a rush, but... Thank you! I don't care how you did it. You saved my little Morning Joy, and that's all that matters," she suddenly thanked. The pegasus relaxed, smiling a little as he sat back down with a dull thunk of his armor. She turned to him as well and grinned. I raised an eyebrow as she pounced on him as well, having carried the filly back down from the rooftops himself.

"It's okay, ma'am. I'm just happy that nopony got hurt," the guard admitted. Ah, right! I was supposed to respond to that!

"Yeah, it turned out surprisingly well for how it started. I'll probably be down to talk to you again after a little bit, but try to stay calm," I assured her. Assuming they didn't arrest me for creating a huge public disturbance and breaking the little Masquerade we had going. I kinda doubted that was outlined in law anywhere, but so far I had proved something of an exception, so why not?

The mare relaxed a little before nodding to me, releasing the captive guard and picking her filly up instead, depositing her lightly between her two saddlebags. Oh, that was clever. I made a note of using saddlebag straps to help carry foals, if I ever ended up with one myself.

I watched her catch up with the other two guards before turning back and heading for the castle entrance. Octavia gave a chuckle, catching up quickly on my right. The two remaining guards framed us to either side as we walked, making us look more official than I would have preferred. That's when I realized that I wasn't exactly 'numb' so much as my insides felt like I'd eaten several buckets of ice cubes. My nerves felt fried, and I realized I was oh so slightly shivering as I walked. Damn.

Looking to Octavia, I watched her for a moment as we neared the gates. Her eyes flicked to the left at me for half a second before looking back in front of her, her left ear flicking twice. "Don't even say it. No, this changes nothing for me. If anything gives a strong enough witness of character, it's saving my life while asking for nothing in return and at great risk of your own. So regardless of what you may be, I know 'who' you are, and that's all that matters. So don't start," she suddenly spoke up. I blinked, almost tripping on my forelegs as I slowed, staring at her in surprise. She smirked, probably predicting my reaction, and I flattened my ears back a little. Well, I guess she'd made up her mind already. She was a very strange mare.

"No room for argument, hmm?" I asked, catching back up to her side. For hauling an extra hundred pounds, she moved with surprising ease.

She didn't miss a beat before smiling a bit wider and shooting back, "Of course not. I'm never wrong when it comes to judgement of character. I even knew you'd ask me that." That... That was true, yes. She'd predicted that I was feeling insecure, which probably wouldn't have taken a great leap of logic given what she'd witnessed earlier, but it did imply she at least knew me a little bit. Still...

"So how does a musician, even an immensely talented one such as yourself, pick up skills for reading ponies so well?" I asked, raising an eyebrow towards the gray mare. The two guards slipped ahead of us and each opened one of the double doors heading into the palace. Crap, my time was about up. I'd hoped to hear her answer.

She smirked, which was interesting enough when it came to reactions. "Oh my. Flattery will get you everywhere. Still, that's an honest enough question. Suffice it to say that I get invited all sorts of places, and have gotten very good at listening. You'd be surprised what you can hear if you just stop to listen in unique spots," she revealed, glancing back towards me with a coy smirk. Unique spots? The things that could be implied from that answer made my head spin, but I knew I didn't have time to consider it.

I smiled more earnestly, and for just a brief moment, she looked mildly surprised. That was my opening, I realized. Fortune sometimes favored the suicidal brazen, I think the phrase went. "Thank you, Octavia. I'm glad that you're my friend," I returned. For just a split second, I saw her eyelids flick upwards ever so slightly, a micro-reaction that definitely registered. She controlled her expression with surprising precision, however, and shifted to a milder look of surprise, melting it into a warmer smile afterwards as she nodded. That was definitely an interesting reaction, but it didn't tell me anything specific.

Turning, I headed through the small entry chamber and towards the inner doors instead, wiping my hooves absently on the thicker, rougher rug across the floor here. Octavia recovered in negligible time and repeated my gesture, as did the guards as they followed after, then opened the inner doors.

"Thanks," I muttered to both of them, earning a nod from the pegasus and a soft smile from the unicorn. I'd have to thank them in more detail later, for their help at the cafe. Pulling my notepad program up, I tacked on all of their guard numbers to the bottom of it. Not thinking I was a monster right on the spot and still actually listening to my orders had to mean something.

The inside of the throne room felt even bigger as I stepped through the inner doorway, my hooves making light padding noises on the softer carpet that ran all the way up the center of the room to the elevated throne. I swallowed a lump in my throat upon spotting Princess Celestia. She sat up on her throne, speaking with two ponies that stood at the base of it. I didn't recognize either of them, but from their fancy suit and dress, I assumed they were attending the party outside.

The magical torches were already on as we walked up the straight path, and I did everything I could to try to distract myself. It was darker outside, summer light waning already, so I assumed they used artificial lighting more frequently. It made the room feel warmer, however, the sconces projecting a warmer orange ambiance through the air. My insides were thankful for it.

To her credit, the Princess was remarkably perceptive. Her eyes locked with mine as we neared the throne, then flicked to Octavia, then the guard to each side of me. She smiled softly a second later, then looked back down at the two ponies in front of her. "You'll have to excuse me. Urgent matters appear to be at hoof, and I must take a private council," she excused. Both stallion and mare bowed politely to her before turning and heading back towards the exit, without another word. The mare looked us over as she walked past, frowning ever so slightly as she hurried to catch up with the stallion. Maybe it was that inner magic of mine giving away my mood?

"Ah, Mender. You're back remarkably quickly from lunch, have your rumored lunch date in tow, and are accompanied by two of our guards. This bodes quite poorly," she deduced, giving me a skeptical if somewhat amused smile.

"You have no idea..." I groaned, not even sure where to begin...

Tia exhaled softly, for perhaps the fourth time as she considered everything. I gave her a glance, then turned back to the mare lying in the hospital cot with a heavily bandaged foreleg. Miss Dusk Star was significantly more familiar to me now. She had a grayish tan coat, a strange color to describe. Obviously a unicorn, her mane and tail were dull orange with a few stripes of equally dull red running through them, giving her a very muted color scheme. The only bright color to her was her surprisingly vivid green eyes. Not every pony apparently had complimentary color schemes. She was currently on light pain medication, and was looking rather sleepy as she quietly regarded me.

"So far, we know you work for BEID, but that plan wasn't an official scheme of theirs. You joined them three years ago, back when they were only monitoring dimensional activity, predicting the 'cycle' of dimensional movement would re-connect Equus in the near future. Right?" I summarized, looking to Tia, who only frowned further.

Star shivered lightly, then slowly nodded. "I... I was acting without consent from the group with two others. One took the filly and hauled her to the roof where I was waiting. The other kept an eye on you and coordinated," she explained, swallowing uneasily.

Glancing to my right, I saw the very filly in question sitting up in the hospital cot next to us. Her shoulder was bandaged on the right side, which really stood out on her pink coat. Her yellow mane, tail, and eyes matched nicely, though, and she sort of reminded me of a flower blossom. Morning Joy was a rather pretty name, in that case. Regardless, she was remarkably recovered from the event, now giving a soft smile as she watched me talk to the mare. She’d already forgiven the mare for taking her hostage, which genuinely surprised me...

Her mother, an Earth Pony just like she was, sat next to the cot with her upper torso leaning up on the mattress, both forelegs around her filly. She hadn't let her go the entire time I was here, and I suspected before I got here as well. Her coat was a slightly darker yellow compared to the filly's mane and tail. Her own were a softer teal color, managing to mesh well with the yellow, but only because both were darker colors. Her eyes were a brighter version of her mane color, and frequently moved between me and her daughter. Miss Banana Swirl, or just Swirl for short. A local purveyor of all sorts of ice cream treats. I'd already been offered a lifetime supply...

Octavia leaned up against her own cello case, piercing lavender eyes locked carefully on the mare as she took it all in. A moment later, she closed them and slowly nodded before furthering, "It fits. A little bird in the pub a few nights ago revealed that BEID was seriously locking down on its members due to a sudden rash of doubt and reconsideration. More than likely, Miss Snapshot is to blame." Eh?

"What do you mean?" I asked her, looking over at the gray mare. Bringing up Snapshot out of the blue was a curious deduction.

"It's simple. Temporary or not, she was a known BEID affiliate. During her 'mission' against you, whatever that was, she failed. I'm guessing she failed in a way that made them realize she failed, either by lack of a return report, or her somehow telling them," she pointed out. Yeah, when I broke the crystal, it probably disrupted whatever link it had with the other end, I realized, now that I understood how they functioned a little better.

She continued regardless with, "Given their opinion of you, at least back then with what those bogus fliers had to say, they probably assumed her dead. Rather gruesome, but their opinion of you appears to be abysmal at best, no offense." I averted my eyes, and she gave me a soft smile, holding a hoof up as her ear flicked. I slowly shook my head, and she exhaled softly, relaxing a bit.

To my surprise, Tia cut in instead, however. "But she didn't die. She showed up here a day later, arrested instead. I made no attempt at hiding that fact, and you believe that due to her being not only unharmed, but suddenly changing her opinion on Mender entirely, that it caused doubts," she deduced softly, eyes looking remarkably focused for her more relaxed posture. Ah, right. I hadn't hurt her at all, and she was technically free now, but working for me. That was a far cry from the rape, murder, and cannibalism she herself had proclaimed, I suddenly realized.

"It... It's true!" Star exclaimed, then added, "We all got top priority correspondence that, um, essentially said that it would be the complete end of Equus as we knew it if Mender continued to roam free! I... I'd already believed them, but they sent all that out and I got scared. Nopony was doing anything, and no plans were being made to stop him. The three of us got together and decided to try to stop him ourselves..." So it worked a little too well on her and her friends. Although BEID had gotten its wish and got me to reveal myself regardless, ironically, through a complete fluke. The mare herself was absolutely terrified when I'd seen her up on the roof, and it made a painful knot in my throat when I realized it was in regards to me. How many ponies thought I was a complete monster hell bent on destroying their world?

Tia exhaled softly, looking up at the ceiling before shaking her head. "We don't have a choice, Mender. The exposure is already too great. I'm going to call a press conference. I'd like you to be there. You don't have to say anything, but having a visual will help," she requested, looking back down and over at me. That. That was precisely what I'd been afraid of for a good hour now.

I gave a sigh myself before nodding to her. "I understand. Am I coming as a captain, or just Mender this time?" I asked. Ironically, that heavy ceremonial armor would probably make me feel a bit more comfortable this time, putting another physical barrier between myself and the crowd.

The alicorn shook her head, however, replying with, "It might give the wrong message, especially to a bunch of very uncertain ponies. Not wearing the armor will help you look more humble and down to earth. I'm going to go make the arrangements. Meet me back in the throne room in fifteen minutes or so."

I nodded to her again, and watched her stand and leave, a bit of a rush to her step. The longer we let the ponies worry, the worse it would be, of course. Slowly, I turned and looked back at Octavia, who stretched against her cello case, then sat more upright instead of leaning on it.

She looked at me for a moment, but I couldn't manage to keep her gaze and closed my eyes, settling on at least the truth. "I'm sort of an alien. Techically, anyway," I revealed, opening them again to look at her unchanged expression. She shrugged instead.

"So am I whenever I visit Vinyl in Ponyville, 'technically' speaking. You'll have to be more specific," she pointed out, a slightly coy smile coming to her expression. At least her humor hadn't failed yet, which I was thankful for.

"My mother and father are ponies. They were from here, Equus. An accident happened and pulled my mother into another dimension. I was frozen there in cryostasis for three hundred years before being crammed full of artifical parts to keep me alive, grown to maturity, then accidentally sent back here to Equus a little over a month ago. I completely lost my memory on arrival and started over as 'Moon Mender' instead. I only remembered everything that happened as of yesterday evening," I summarized, mostly for Octavia.

To be honest, I was a little proud of actually getting the gray mare to look dumbfounded for a few seconds, surprise washing over her face. Of course, if she was reacting... A glance to my right showed both Dusk Star and Banana Swirl staring at me with bewildered, wide-eyed expressions. Yup. Joy, however, simply gasped before loudly professing, "Cool!"

I looked at the little filly for a moment before smiling a little and nodding to her. Okay, she was adorable, and it was hard to brood around foals. Her mother relaxed a little and smiled as well, but Star frowned. "Artificial?" she asked quietly, looking my body over. I nodded to her, then wordlessly lifted one of my forelegs, letting a couple of tentacles extend out of it. I stared at them as they wiggled for a moment, my eyes shifting blue as I adjusted my scanners over my extra limbs. They weren't 'normal' in the slightest, not technically being flesh so much as a mass of fully functional, completely independent cells all lumped together and networked into acting as one. They formed an organic metal core for strength, and sinew and muscle connecting to it, allowing complete prehensile movement. They could also manipulate the moon-sized folded sub-space that was connected to me at a molecular level, to both pull more matter if I told them to grow, or poke out sharp and pointy things if I really wanted to whack something. They also got 'armored' the same way as I did, if I went into full combat mode. The best part was, apart from acting as a prehensile extra limb, they were entirely useless in the primarily peaceful daily life in Equestria. They mostly just alienated me, especially now. I sort of wanted to just rip them out, but I had no idea where I'd hide a small moon's worth of random matter. Maybe Pinkie would have ideas?

"Fake parts. I wasn't ready to be born when they thawed me. In order to save my life, they replaced parts of me with fake versions. I'm partially mechanical. That's how I can make tentacles," I elaborated, gesturing to them. She watched them in more confusion than anything. Octavia reached out with her right foreleg and casually poked one, watching it gently wrap around her hoof.

"Seems remarkably harmless, although I'm guessing you can do other things. Admittedly, I wasn't about to guess you were some sort of synthetic pony. We're geared more towards the, well, supernatural here," she explained, looking back up at me curiously. I nodded to her, having expected that much.

I unhooked her hoof and withdrew the tentacles before shaking my head. "Nothing really supernatural about me. Apart from all of the artifical enhancements, I'm a normal Earth Pony. It's more complicated, of course, but I'm summarizing. Big Mac showed me that I could do Earth Pony magic, too, and that really proved it to myself, most of all," I said, staring at my own hoof. Now I knew for certain exactly what I was. Reliving my time as 'Azure' had completed my missing memories, and only made me realize what I'd sort of known all along. I was a pony, through and through. The memories I'd started with of another being and another world were the artificial ones.

"I'm sorry," Star suddenly murmured, eyes going watery as she reached up and covered them with her hooves. "I'm so, so sorry. You... You weren't keeping any stupid secrets. You were just trying to be normal, and... I ruined all of that. I believed every word they spoon fed us, and I ruined your chance at a normal life," she whined, choking back a sob after as I saw tears slip out from behind her hooves. She had completely changed her mind before I even got down here. Apparently the 'monster' revealing himself willingly to save her life was completely beyond her reasoning before.

Admittedly, a part of me realized she was right. Tactically speaking, what I had done was an amazingly poor choice. The unicorn guard might have been able to catch her safely, but even if he hadn't, I could have simply let her hit the ground. As an Earth Pony, nopony would have even batted an eye, acknowledging that there was no way I could have saved her after she fell. My secret would have been safe, and I could have been justified in that she 'deserved' it for what she tried to do to me and the innocent filly.

That was only tactically, however. Even reasoning all of that out in my head felt like it rang false, and I was glad for it. It sounded more like something he would have done, and the further from him that I made myself, the better I felt. No, even if there was a chance the unicorn could have caught her, I wasn't about to risk a mare's life on uncertain odds. I was in a position to do something, and any life felt more precious than a stupid secret, even if it made my day a living hell.

"No, I made the choice. Your life is more important than me keeping my identity a secret. I don't regret saving you," I finally spoke up. She stared at me, a certain level of emptiness to her expression, like I’d said something not in her native tongue.

Octavia fully stood, however, drawing my attention back to her. “And that’s why you’re not a monster,” she declared, in a rather final way. I raised an eyebrow to her, but she hoisted her case back up on herself, focusing on that instead of immediately looking at me. When she did turn back, she instead added, “Now come on. We’re going to borrow the bathroom down the hall. I may be more relaxed than the noble types around town, but you’re still not going out like that on my watch.” Huh?

Looking down at myself, I noticed my coat was rather frayed looking, and sticking out oddly in a few places. Some of it was from where I’d slept, but others I couldn’t place. At least not until I remembered Twilight’s last two day freak out session.

Exhaling, I nodded to her and stood up as well. Might as well get this over with. Maybe if I just plunged into the proverbial ice water all at once, face first, it wouldn’t be as bad? “Okay, yeah. I should have probably tidied up before I left this morning, after the shower,” I admitted, looking my other, equally messy foreleg over. Apparently brushing was a useful thing for both genders of ponies…

Octavia perked and gave a nod, surprising me with a smile instead. “Good! You’re significantly less stubborn than Vinyl. She would have fussed for at least an hour. Let’s go,” she declared before trotting rather perkily out the door of the clinic. Yup. I was never, ever going to understand mares. Slowly shaking my head, I headed towards the door to follow after her, regardless.

“Mender, wait,” I heard behind me, from Swirl instead. I turned and looked back her way, noting she’d stepped away from the bed and was now standing at the foot of Star’s. Seeing she had my focus again, she quickly requested, “I really meant it about treating you at my ice cream shop. You saved my little filly’s life, and I don’t want to just leave it like this. Please, I don’t care what time of day or what day of the week. Could you please drop by the shop?”

My mind immediately flashed to Pinkie for some reason, enthusiastically bouncing next to me and nodding. Smiling at the thought, I nodded to her, then added, “Sure, so long as I can bring some friends. Pinkie loves ice cream.”

The mare dramatically gasped, and I tilted my head to her as she wobbled her legs. “You’re bringing the Elements of Harmony?! Oh, oh, I’ll have to get ready for this, then! Please, um, give me a bit of heads up before coming over, and I’ll have lots of treats for you all!” she exclaimed, clapping her hooves together happily. Huh. Pinkie was well known over here.

“I’ll send you a note ahead of time, don’t worry,” I assured, nodding to her as I turned again.

This time I got as far as the door before my name was called out. Looking back, I watched Star sit up in bed, frowning. “I’m… No, Snapshot is right. This is just… so stupid. They’re lashing out at you out of fear. I don’t want to work for BEID anymore,” she announced. She was probably right on their motives, anyway. I was pretty sure fear of the unknown was one of those ‘primal’ ones. Although for the scientifically inclined such as Twilight or myself, the unknown was more a driving force.

“That’s probably wise. I’m not saying they’re bad ponies. They just seem misguided,” I muttered. It was the first time I’d really thought about ‘why’ BEID was doing what it was doing, but it seemed to make sense. Realizing that they were normal ponies with normal wants and fears was also sort of pushed upon me by all of this. Although that was probably a good thing, rather than imagining them as some nameless entity in the darkness that wanted me gone.

She hesitated for a moment, and I admittedly saw it coming. “So, does Dimensional Regulations have need for a typist?” she asked hesitantly, a few moments later. Oh boy…

“This is a surprisingly big mess…” Shining Armor muttered, sitting next to me and staring blankly out at the stage.

My ears flicked, and I glanced over at him before asking, “Which? My run in with BEID, or… this?” I gestured out to the projection screen sticking partially out of the wooden floor of the stage, a bit of smoke coming up from the basic wind up motor it had on the one end. The magic projection system had also been knocked over, scattering a few dozen crystals across the front of the platform and ground in front of the stage. Tia sat at the podium, intentionally not turning around to even watch, letting her head rest on her forehooves as she stared out above the crowd of ponies already gathered.

“Uh… yes?” Shining offered, shrugging his shoulders before asking again, “Are you sure you don’t want help with-“

He was cut off as Snapshot shouted, “Yes! I’m fine, and this is all under control! Just give me a moment.” I lifted an eyebrow as she strained, slowly yanking the smoldering display screen out of its crater on the stage. It looked kind of the opposite of under control, but she was very adamant on doing it all herself.

It didn’t help that she’d heard about what happened and immediately came to the same conclusion as Octavia. So now she decided that she absolutely had to help correct the situation. A few ponies in the crowd had started to chuckle. A good chunk were still watching me with mixtures of anxiety and curiosity. I was pretty sure the news had gone everywhere by now, for better or worse. They were surprisingly quiet, however, and just waiting patiently for Tia to begin talking.

Looking out into the crowd, I was met with so many pairs of eyes looking back at me that I was almost instantly struck with a sort of vertigo. The attention was choking, and I wanted to slowly slink backwards until I fell off the back of the stage, then run and hide somewhere. Having the girls here to help would have been amazing, but they weren’t due in by train for another hour yet, the trip here taking about three. Tia had sent Twilight a letter last night stating that I’d woken up, and apparently the mare had tried to pack up and leave on the hour. I blushed a little considering it, but was glad that Tia had talked her out of it. She was still needed for the last day of the festival that I had mostly completely missed.

Rolling my eyes, I stood and walked forward finally, just as Snapshot yanked the projector screen out of the flooring. “Mender, I said-“ she started.

“Shush. You’re getting help,” I ordered, causing her to look surprised for a moment until I bumped into her and moved her backwards, then whacked the motor casing on the end of the screen. Friction burn had literally burnt the edges of the rotation axel, and the rope had gotten hung up behind the gear after it had slipped out of the spindle, by the looks of it. Of course, finding this out before she yanked the whole thing off the back wall would have been better, but the damage was done already.

She watched curiously as I hooked the other end of the rope and pulled it out of the threading feed, then lifted it up until it popped out from behind the gear assembly. After, I just put it back into the feed and lined it up again, pushing the gears back down into place. A check of the bolt and washer that had secured them showed that it was stripped bare, probably since the last time that Twilight and I had caused it to crash to the floor. Exhaling, I pulled the bolt out with a magnetic spell on my hoof and held it up to the light. This wouldn’t do at all…

“Oh, that’s what broke?” Snapshot asked, looking the bolt over after snatching it out of my hoof.

“It popped loose, let the gears pull away from the back cover, which let the rope slip off the spool and get stuck in them. Then you pulled on it so hard that the friction caught the rope partially on fire, and the bolts securing it to the wall pulled free…” I pointed out, gesturing to the bits of the wall that were still on the bolts at the back of the screen. Wait, bolts…?

She scowled at me, then tossed the ruined bolt haphazardly backwards and crossed her forelegs. “That doesn’t fix it, though! We need this for the presentation!” she whined, energetically flailing her hooves a moment later. Glancing at the back of the screen, I eyed up the bolts there instead. An eye scan showed me the exact same measurements, and I smiled. Universal parts really did make engineering easier!

Pulling one of the bolts out of the back of the panel, I instead slid it into the gear assembly and tightened it with my magic. Snapshot squeaked, then did a small dance happily as she watched, her energy and enthusiasm rather infectious, really. Admittedly, focusing on engineering issues instead was helping me calm down, too.

Octavia had spent a good fifteen minutes with me in the bathroom. I didn’t question why she had a brush packed into her cello case, and further ignored that it smelled lightly of instrument oil. Still, she’d done wonders working on my coat, and explained that stress tended to cause hormone releases into the bloodstream, and the nerves along our skin reacted with that, sometimes causing our fur to get messed up. I imagine that originally it was used to ‘puff’ us up to make us look bigger and scarier when we were nervous, but it hardly had a place in a more modern setting. I knew nothing about evolution, but was kind of irked that was still a thing. Eh, at least male ponies didn’t have nipples. Keldarians did, which also made me question things.

Alas, I couldn’t keep myself distracted forever. After the screen was levitated back up on the wall courtesy of Shining, Tia didn’t have any reason to further delay the press conference. Of course, there was a lot more ponies than just the press in the crowd, them backed all the way out the side gate, as well as spilling out onto the lawn to either side of the assembly area. My neatly groomed fur was threatening to pop loose again, and I closed my eyes, taking a few deep breaths to calm that twitchy sensation in my chest. I wondered idly if they made pony ‘hair spray’ for this sort of situation. A momentarily amusing image came to mind of a spastic pony shaking so much that suddenly all their fur popped out at once, sending hardened chunks of spray out into the audience like shrapnel, and I had to resist laughing. Yeah, that would be my luck. Maybe. Maybe Malice was going to play nice from now on?

Tia started speaking, however, interrupting my train of thought as I snapped back to reality. “Ah, now that our technical difficulties have been resolved, and as long as I remember not to step backwards into the hole in the stage behind me now, things may begin,” she started, earning a few chuckles and giggles from the crowd. The air was tense and nervous still, however, and I swallowed that lump in my throat that had been building up. I was nervous, too, but for other reasons.

“Most of you have already heard about the incident that happened an hour or so ago, I imagine. I’m not certain of the exact timing involved,” she started, shifting to a softer tone while carefully choosing her words. She didn’t have any script and was doing this right off the top of her head, which scared me even to think about. Talking at all in front of crowds was horrifying enough, but to do so without any planned material and about a rather nasty disaster?

There were a lot of nods, and Tia added one herself before continuing with, “For those of you who haven’t, I’ll give a brief summary. Moon Mender, one of my guard captains, was having an early lunch with a friend of his at the Green Tea Café downtown. Before they’d gotten their orders, a mare called out to him from the roof of the shipping manifest office next door.” She had to remind me that I hadn’t eaten… I closed my eyes and tried to quiet the sudden sympathy rumble in my stomach, my left ear twitching in annoyance.

“This mare had hauled a seven year old filly up with her, and was threatening bodily harm to the young foal if Mender didn’t reveal to the gathering crowd that he was an alien or monster trying to destroy our world,” the princess continued. There was a significant amount of gasps from the crowd, and I wondered at how many actually had heard the whole story. She continued before anypony could interrupt, however.

“This mare was scared witless and truly believed Mender to have nothing but ill will towards our nation and world. Mender reacted admirably by attempting to calm her, and get equipment from the nearby fire station to get both of them down safely. Two guards attempted a rescue in the meantime,” she explained, summarizing surprisingly accurately minus the ‘admirably’ part. The Keldarians hadn’t really been big on teaching what to do in a hostage situation, so I hadn’t had much to work with there, fake memories included.

Tia exhaled softly after that, lowering her head a little before giving the next part. “The rescue went poorly, and the mare slipped and fell off the top of the roof. She managed to throw the filly to safety even as she fell, and one of the guards caught her carefully. The mare, however, fell four stories,” she revealed, letting that last part hang for a moment. Several more gasps, and somepony in the front managed to call out.

“Is she okay?!” a mare asked in the front row, scratching furiously on a notepad in front of her with a pencil. She popped it back into her mouth immediately after asking, with practiced precision. Huh.

“Yes, she’s doing quite well. Moon Mender saved her life by catching her. However, he used his tentacles to do so, his magic not charged up enough at the time,” the princess answered. It was as if somepony had hit a big ‘pause’ button on the entire crowd, everypony freezing at the exact same time and locking eyes with me instead. I closed mine, unable to stop my legs from shaking, even as I struggled to maintain my normal breathing. It was like their stares were tangible, able to be felt over my skin and burn like acid. I wanted to crawl away and hide, but… No, Tia had asked me to stay here, so I was going to stay here.

There was a long pause that felt like an eternity crept past before she finally spoke again. “I’ve not been entirely truthful to my little ponies, and I apologize profusely for it. There are many reasons for why I did not tell the truth about Mender’s existence. For one, he himself started with no memories of who or what he was. I recognized him, having known his parents, and was desperately hoping that I could give him a normal life,” she revealed, emotion leaking out into her tone, even though she tried to keep her voice even. My eyes opened and I looked to her again, only to see her staring momentarily at the top of the podium as she fought to formulate her words. Something in her eyes made me pause, as I’d never seen her look like that before. She seemed almost… haunted.

Finally, she shook her head slowly, then shifted to a different part of the story instead. “Three hundred years ago, there was a rash of disappearances all around Equestria. All sorts of objects simply disappearing from their spots seemingly for no reason whatsoever. My first instinct was a string of burglaries and petty thefts, but the phenomenon quickly grew too widespread. Worse yet, sometimes items were put back in their place instead. Items that were definitely not of Equus origin,” she summarized. Oh, right, the dimensional bleeding effect. There were whispers, but ponies mostly kept silent, so she continued.

“Growing concerned, I assembled a team of ponies from several fields of study to look into what was causing this strangeness, and if it was a danger to anypony directly. What they found was… It was startling, to say the least. We are not alone in this, well, let’s call it multiverse. Our universe is one of many in reality, and they travel in ‘cycles’ in time, sometimes getting closer or farther away from us. One such is matching up almost flawlessly with Equus, and when it passed close, areas that had intense pockets of magic caused a reaction, letting smaller items be swapped back and forth between our dimensions.” Gasps. Everypony started talking at once, but Tia held up a hoof in the air, causing them to slowly fall silent once more. Anxiety spiked, in both the audience and myself, it felt like.

The princess shook her head, however, and then admitted, “I kept this a secret. I didn’t want anypony to panic. In the meantime, I had the team I’d already created formalized into a government branch called the Bureau of Extradimensional Investigation and Defense, or BEID for short. I then instructed them to look in-depth into this other dimension. The results were horrific, to say the least.” I’d never know if she intended to hang on that point, but the crowd exploded into more talking, questions being screamed towards the stage, and a flurry of restless motion. I felt my own heart thudding harder inside my chest and swallowed, closing my eyes again and pretending I wasn’t up on stage right now. At least they weren’t specifically paying attention to me anymore.

“Quiet!” Shining barked suddenly, almost scaring me out of my skin due to being literally right next to me again. Even not being right at the microphone, his voice carried out over the crowd and caused a very familiar looking freezing effect throughout. He continued with, “Let Princess Celestia finish explaining before orderly asking questions, one at a time.” His order was level and even, and I saw many ponies relax visibly below us. Oh boy.

Tia nodded at that, replying momentarily with a thank you to him before looking back out over the crowd. “The other dimension is not a pleasant place, and is nothing like our Equus. Everything from their reports are on file, and I’m now making them available to the general public, although I caution a strong heart and stomach if you’re going to go and look at them,” she warned, gesturing behind her as the screen finally lit up, showing data and measurements from familiar looking reports. Dimensional ‘density’ testing, I recognized, showing that how thin the barrier was between our dimensions varied depending on physical location. It was interesting results and actually implied that the bleeding was a ‘localized’ occurrence, mostly over the planet known as Equus, actually. It couldn’t have been coincidental, however.

All eyes were drawn up to the huge projection screen instead, and she took advantage of their temporary distraction to continue talking. “However, I was foolish. This dimension had proven dangerous, so I immediately decided to stop the experiments to investigate it and try to seal it off as best I could. This turned out to be a mistake that has haunted me for the last three hundred years. In simply unplugging the experimental device they were using to look into the other dimension, it ruptured, causing a massive tear to momentarily appear connected to that other reality.” Her voice dwindled, most eyes shifting down to look at her instead as her eyes softened. I saw her left forehoof scrape slowly across the podium, but she closed her eyes and focused again before continuing.

“We lost one of our own, pulled through the tear into that other dimension. Miss Gemstone Weave didn’t go missing in a hiking incident. She was one of the researchers for the team, and fell into the other dimension,” Tia muttered, a rare moment where the conviction was lost in her voice. Shining frowned towards her, and I saw confusion dance in the crowd, alongside several more shocked looks. Nopony said a single word, however, either too shocked to manage, or not wanting to interrupt. I didn’t know what to say at all, not used to seeing her like this.

After a long moment, she looked up again and instead apologized with, “I’m sorry to have lied about it. I was concerned news of the other dimension would bring panic. I officially apologize to her friends and family as well, who missed her dearly. She was survived by her fellow partners in both the lab, and life, Bronze Bastion and Auraprism. Far worse, she was pregnant with a foal on the way when the incident happened.” Ah. And here we go.

That brought full on gasps. Several audience members looked to me instead, sharply catching on almost immediately. She didn’t give them time to interrupt, however, instead glancing to the left and looking right at me as well. There was a certain tiredness to her eyes that I could sympathize with, and I nodded to her. She smiled softly and returned my nod before pushing the surprisingly oversized button on the podium, switching the flickering slide behind her again. My eyes widened at what came up.

On the image was my full bio instead, done up with profile information and, to my surprise, something called ‘energy signature readings’. Two other signatures were lined up under that, appended onto the bottom with a paperclip, by the looks of it. Combined together, it looked remarkably close to mine, I realized.

“This is the hospital’s write up on Moon Mender when he was first taken in. As you can see, they found him to have almost complete retrograde amnesia, retaining only motor functions and rudimentary basic knowledge. He revealed more specific understanding later on, but the important aspect that you can see are his energy signatures at the bottom. As most of you know, the magic inside a pony is entirely unique. Combining the signature from two parents, you can guess within a discrepancy of five percent or so what the foal’s signature is going to be. This is the comparison of Gemstone Weave and Bronze Bastion’s signatures that I ran on a hunch after I spoke for the first time with Mender himself,” she revealed, to me as well as she gestured back at the screen.

She then dropped the big proverbial bomb on the crowd with, “They match within three percent. It surprised me at the time as well, but Moon Mender is the foal that Gemstone was carrying when she was pulled through the dimension.”

The questions came flooding towards us, non-stop after that. Shining Armor slammed his hoof down hard on the stage, causing pretty much everypony to jump, including Tia and me. “One at a time! Raise your hooves and calm down, everypony!” he shouted out, giving a stern glare to several in the front row, who shifted sheepish instead. One lowered a megaphone, and I had to resist slapping my forehoof to my forehead.

The same mare as before raised her hoof patiently in the front row. Shining nodded to her, and she immediately looked to me instead. “If this event happened over three hundred years ago, how is it that you’re still alive, even if you were successfully born in the other dimension?” she asked quietly. I blinked, not anticipating the question to be directed specifically to me instead. Tia frowned, starting to open her mouth, but I shook my head and closed my eyes again. I’d never be able to muster my voice if I had to look at them all staring at me.

After a long moment of settling my insides, I finally spoke up with, “I wasn’t born in the other dimension. She was only seven or eight months into the pregnancy. She… My mother didn’t survive her arrival into the other dimension. I only know this all second hoof, but one of the races of that dimension, called Keldarians, found us shortly after she fell through. She was already gone, but they preserved her body, and incidentally me inside of her, with cryostasis. That was a technique they used to freeze us, keeping us in the exact state they found us in. I was like that up until about seven months ago.” Once I started, I knew I couldn’t risk stopping or I’d probably never get going again. My eyes remained closed, and I tried my hardest to stop my legs from shaking, hearing the very light rattling of my hooves on the wood of the stage, getting picked up by the microphone.

It took a long moment, but the voice of that same reporter spoke up again, less urgently and more gently this time, to my surprise. “What happened seven months ago, then?” she asked. I opened my eyes again, and she gave me a gentler smile. I hadn’t been expecting that, but I relaxed nonetheless and nodded weakly.

“A stronger, far nastier race had been hunting them for over a hundred years. The Keldarians were at the brink of extinction due to these horrible creatures. In order to find other ways to escape, and find somewhere else to flee to where the monsters couldn’t follow them, they launched a bunch of experimental projects. For one of them, led by a genius dimensional researcher called Kyliona, I was unthawed. She’d found unique energy on me and my mother, that she didn’t think originated from their own dimension,” I explained, topic shifting a little more ‘comfortable’ for me, anyway.

The reporter looked surprised for a moment, then scribbled more notes down on her pad, and Tia nodded, giving me a smile and gesturing at me with her head. Right, I was supposed to keep talking. Ugh. She said I wouldn’t have to do this! Regardless, I guess I had chosen to speak up so it was sort of my own fault. I swallowed uneasily and shifted how I was sitting, noting a small puddle of my own sweat under me now. Calm down, Mender!

Exhaling softly, I closed my eyes again and tried to focus on what was next. Oh, right. “When my mother was unthawed, I was discovered still inside of her. It was much too soon for me to be born, and they had to remove me from her and give me artificial parts in order to save my life. They also meshed my DNA with a few other sources, mostly my mother, to complete missing pieces of it from being frozen for three hundred years. The results is that I’m a ‘cybernetic’ pony, as they called it,” I explained. Tia hit her excessively large slide changing button again, and I looked back behind me as an amazingly large picture of Snapshot’s face came up, sticking her tongue out at her own camera. Uh…

The mare off to the side near the projector squeaked in panic almost instantly, diving for the projector and manually flipping to the next slide. Instead, a picture of my profile came up, showing hundreds of artificial parts inside of me in various locations. Well, now I knew who prepared the slideshow, anyway…

The small chorus of laughter halted as expressions shifted to curious instead, all eyes focused on the flickering image of light on the screen. Tia smiled at that and nodded, explaining, “Mender was saved by the advanced technology of these Keldarians. He has roughly eighty-five percent of his body augmented by something mechanical at this point. The project that unthawed him was originally going to use him as a scout, to send to Equestria and then report his findings back. Due to the… unique energy that he and his mother radiated, however, the Keldarians themselves that were working on him changed.” I didn’t know if she wanted to mention how technically atrocious they were as well, even if that made the Grosh complete monsters in comparison, but I just let her decide how much to reveal, as I looked back to her. She instead hit her giant button again, and the slide flicked forward once more. This time, Snapshot watched it like a hawk, her hoof over the slide change lever just in case. She was… a very strange mare…

To my honest surprise, I was instead greeted by a five meter wide, four meter tall image of Keela instead. It was from the picture we’d made projecting her using my eye augments after they’d met for the first time. She was in her captain’s uniform, and on the bridge of the mining ship, I recognized. Gasps shot up from the crowd again, but Tia cut them off by immediately starting talking again.

“This is a Keldarian. Her name is Keela, and she’s one of the researchers that worked with Mender, named Azure at that time, I’m told. They were changed by the residual embodiment of the virtues of harmony inside of Mender and his mother. They quickly were healed of the magical ailment that’s been plaguing their race for hundreds of years, and their dispositions softened towards the then young colt. They did artificially age Mender, but she was one of the ones there to help raise him. All were quite nice to him indeed,” she quickly summarized, smoothing over a lot of the more awkward parts of that story with surprising, practiced ease. A few ponies smiled at the image. A few others just looked surprised or confused. I glanced up at her, feeling a light heat enter my cheeks as I realized her image was being shown to easily over two thousand ponies suddenly. She herself would probably squeak and try to hide under her bed if she knew. Idly, I wondered when she’d be calling me back with an answer on her memory concerns. She said today at some point…

A stallion wearing a ridiculously oversized journalist’s cap, next to the nice reporter mare from earlier, raised his hoof next, and Shining nodded to him a moment later. He stood up fully, making himself a little taller before asking, “If Moon Mender has recovered his memories now, is he somehow still in contact with these ‘Keldarians’? If so, what happened to send him back to Equus?” Ah, that was an astute question indeed. Tia must have thought so too, as she smiled at that.

“Ah, yes, actually, we are still in contact with them. Mender has let me speak to them directly using his augmentations. They’re quite intelligent and very considerate individuals, I found. Their home planet was attacked by those monsters that Mender told you about already. This picture was taken from a ship they’re actually traveling in, no longer on their planet at all, but in space,” she explained, more carefully this time. I wasn’t sure how familiar ponies were with the concept of outer space, and quite a few gave confused expressions at that, I noticed at a glance. Oddly, I felt a little more comfortable now that my silly subconscious worries about them throwing pitchforks at me was proving unfounded. I didn’t realize it, but somehow, Tia managed to completely smooth over the explanation of what I was, although I doubted they were done asking about it.

Exhaling softly, I added, “There was an accident during the attack. The Keldarians who had become my friends tried to get me off the planet with them. Doctor Kyliona, who’d saved my life, didn’t make it, unfortunately. In the panic and confusion, my augmentations activated and I ‘jumped’ to Equestria completely by accident. Somehow, it left me with retrograde amnesia, and I landed in the Whitetail Woods, near Ponyville.” And with that, minus the details about being a weapon of mass destruction, I’d completed the full circle details of my arrival. And I’d just told essentially all of Equestria. It felt like somepony had lifted a huge harness off my back that had been holding me down for quite a while, but at the same time, had bucked me in the gut and made me throw up all over the place. Thankfully without actually throwing up. Although there was still time left in the day for that…

Nopony spoke, to my surprise. I didn’t look up, but I saw the mare reporter from before frown at that. Looking across the crowd, Tia frowned as well, then relaxed a bit more. “It’s not a pleasant set of memories, certainly,” she admitted, then continued with, “Mender hasn’t exactly had the best life, forced to grow up in six short months, then thrown into Equestria with no memories whatsoever. Since then, his prior life hasn’t exactly let him rest in peace, either. I found out who he was and tried to not even let him know in hopes he could live like a normal pony. That didn’t work out, however, and he was attacked by another creature from the other dimension. I’m sure you all know the details about that incident already. That’s when he found out himself that he wasn’t a normal pony.” They all heard about that? Some might not have known! We only set about five kilometers of the Everfree Forest on fire, caused a couple earth shattering explosions, and got Ponyville locked down in a state of emergency for a few days… Surely that couldn’t have been that noticeable.

This time, most of the crowd didn’t look surprised, instead looking up as the projector changed slides again. I watched it switch instead to a picture of the swath of fire and destruction through the forest, then the mostly obliterated clearing we’d fought over. Oh boy. A few more murmurs sounded out, but Shining Armor surprised me by summarizing instead. “A creature disguising itself as my sister, Twilight Sparkle, attempted to infiltrate Ponyville and use the ruse to get Mender to let his guard down. It almost worked, but Mender noticed discrepancies in her appearance. As most of you know, he’s rather familiar with my sister,” he explained, glancing to me. A bolt of shock went through me and I felt the heat skyrocket into my cheeks as I turned to note his rather impish grin. Ah! Laughter broke out fully at that, but Shining just chuckled and kept talking. Sure, they could laugh now that it was safely in the past!

“It saw that it was compromised, and attacked instead. There was an explosion at the library where they were, and the creature kidnapped Mender and retreated deep into the Everfree Forest. Princess Luna herself gave the rest of the account, revealing that Mender had realized fully that he was augmented, and actually did battle with the creature right in that clearing there. You can see the extensive damage to the surrounding area. The creature’s intentions were to destroy Moon Mender and any evidence of his existence, including Ponyville. Realizing this, Mender fought to protect everypony he’d come to know and love, and won. He defeated the creature,” Shining continued, looking back to me instead of the slide. I stared at him, eyes softening a little. He knew what her intent had been? I’d told Twilight about that, so she had to have been the one to tell him. But he praised my actions as rather positive there. Did that mean he really approved of me? After what happened with their dad, and mother to some extent, I had started to question how he felt about me dating his sister, too.

Oblivious to our exchange, several of the journalists raised their hooves again. Snapping out of it, Shining looked back and nodded to a female unicorn that was a bit further to the left. She put her hoof down and quickly asked, “If you were able to fight that creature and defeat it, does that mean your, um, augmentations, I believe they were called, enable you to be, well…” She hesitated, and I closed my eyes again, exhaling. I’d seen this one coming. Tia looked to me, but I just nodded before relaxing myself again.

“Yes. My augmentations make me physically stronger, tougher, and faster than I normally could be by a significant degree. On top of that, they let me create the tentacles I used earlier to save the mare. All of that is what I used that night to defeat the creature. Originally, when they were going to use me as a scout, they had no idea what Equus was actually like. That’s when they installed all of the combat functions and knowledge of how to use them, because they were worried that Equus might be an extremely dangerous place,” I explained. That I’d prepared ahead of time, having predicted they’d be a bit concerned with the more combat-oriented augments.

Smiling, the princess nodded again to me before suggesting, “Perhaps a demonstration would be in order, Mender? Show them the tentacles up on stage, and your armor that you use.” Oh, yeah, that would probably be easier.

Relaxing, I nodded to her and closed my eyes again. I felt them stir in my back, and I expanded them, eight long points extending from me and reaching upwards into the air. After I expanded them to a good three meters, I relaxed them and let them lower, pooling around my legs and gently swaying as I stretched the kinks out of them. They were always a little stiff if I didn’t use them for a little bit, I noticed, which was kind of weird.

As predicted, everypony started talking at once, in a flurry of slower questions, not quite as panicked as before, at least. Predictably, there was also an explosion of camera flashes across the entire crowd. I felt heavy as I pulled my armor out at the same time, feeling the plates ‘melt’ out of my skin. My legs lifted one at a time as I snapped the huge plated ‘boots’ over my hooves, elevating me by a dozen centimeters or so more than normal. I also gained a good seventy-five pounds in pure plating, and easily heard my hoofsteps on the wood now. My muscles expanded and I felt that flow of power again as I cracked my back, then stood, opening my eyes finally. Everything was lightly tinted blue as my scanners took over completely, and I had a slight ‘letterbox’ effect going from seeing through the reinforced crystal lenses and armor plates over my eyes.

Everypony had fallen silent, watching me now as I stood there in full armor, the plates going up my tentacles as well now. Exhaling, I walked slowly in a circle, turning each side of me to the audience, hoping familiarity would breed comfort in this case. In my rotation, I was a bit surprised to see Tia and Shining also staring at me, looking a bit shocked. Huh?! Did I forget the ‘pants’ or something?! Another wave of camera flashes hit me a moment later. Oh, that was just perfect…

“Mender, when did your armor change colors?” Tia asked, sounding quite surprised. Huh?! Tilting my head to her, I sat down again and folded my helmet off. After I had full neck movement again, I looked down at my raised foreleg, then widened my eyes as I saw the solid white color instead. Eh?! Each individual plate was white, but there was an engrained overlay of a silvery blue color in a ‘branching’ pattern across the surface of each plate, which definitely wasn’t there before.

My dumbfounded expression must have been fairly obvious, Tia frowning after a moment and rotating more towards me. “It must have subconsciously changed without you realizing it. Maybe when you got your full memories back?” she suggested. I was at a loss, realizing I technically didn’t know what had made it ‘black’ before that. It was never really something I’d considered before. Did the Elements of Harmony do something?

It snapped into focus inside of me a moment later. A stirring, then a thousand eyes and then some opened up inside of me. My eyes widened a bit as I looked down at my own hoof. I braced, but they only watched me. There was nothing accompanying them this time, I realized. That usual flood of screams and hatred that flowed freely under their presence was absent. Instead, they smiled to me. It was an indistinct feeling, billions of smiles at once. Almost in one unified thought, I felt a ‘thank you’ drift into me, then the focus switched to the armored plate in front of me. Oh.

They had done it. I let them get their revenge on who really killed them, and then the Elements of Harmony had purified them all. They were just like Keela and Kyliona now, I realized. Their anger was gone. I imagined that made a more concentrated form of thinking a lot easier. They had thanked me by changing the color of my armor and giving me these designs? Looking more closely at them now, I realized they were a very ‘nature’ feel, and wondered how intimately they knew and understood my inner Earth Pony side. I smiled gently, then thanked them back instead.

Shining Armor smiled, too, looking me over. “It doesn’t really matter. I think it looks quite good on you, Mender. Much more fitting than the black stuff you had before,” he admitted as I stood up again to look back at my hips. My Cutie Mark was proudly displayed on the large back hip plates, and glowing a silver color, even visible in the sunlight. I smiled back at it and nodded quietly, taking in the details of the etched gear and heart. The inside of the heart was blue instead, and shining brightly in comparison. Hell, I could probably use my butt as a flashlight in this state.

Tia watched us, too, looking relaxed before she softly sighed and turned back to the podium. Oh? She looked lost in thought for a moment before she continued talking instead to the crowd. “There you have it. Everything that I’ve been keeping secret from everypony. I apologize again, and would like to remind that it’s all available for public viewing now. It was a mistake to hide it, and I deeply regret everything that happened,” she started, frowning for a moment before glancing back at me. I saw that pain in her eyes again, and she quickly snapped back to looking out at the crowd instead.

“Mender coming back was like an impossible hope of mine. Even more, it turns out that Gemstone Weave has been watching over him the entire time. Her soul has returned to Equus alongside Mender, and she’s now safely in the Ether. She’s been seen on the Long Road now, and is answering communications again, if anypony wishes to welcome her home. All of this… has felt personally like a second chance for me. That’s why I made Dimensional Regulation,” she explained. Oh, right! I figured she was going to talk about DReg, too.

The reporters perked up at the mention of that, our big announcement conference having only been about a week ago. The princess continued, however, with, “Due to his experience with dimensional travel, his extensive training in engineering, technology, and combat, and his absolute desire to protect everypony he encounters, I made Moon Mender both a guard captain, and the official head of Dimensional Regulation. Shining Armor is in charge of the guard details in training and the field, and Twilight Sparkle is in charge of everyday management and utilities. Their duty, unlike BEID, is transparent this time. Mender is to research into the other dimension and come up with active defensive measures to protect Equus from any possible dangers it could entail. Every town in Equestria is donating guards to this cause, and due to the centralized location and ease of access, Ponyville is going to be the new seat of governing for Dimensional Regulations. Construction starts up immediately on a house of operations and labs, both of which will be tour-ready when not in active use. We are hiding nothing except for the actual research results, which could be possibly dangerous and subject to extensive filtering.” Murmurs went through the crowd at that, probably due to most of it already being announced last week. It was a good idea to iterate it again, however, in new light. I nodded to her, relaxing as I eased my muscles inside my armor, my tentacles coiling neatly into pools behind me. It was rather weird to have them out in public like this.

Tia sighed at that, however, and hit her oversized button once more, switching to the last slide which showed the initial findings of BEID. Oh? She looked a bit sad suddenly when she announced, “Unfortunately, I’ve recently discovered that BEID did not disband when I instructed them to, after the accident. Some apparently felt the need to continue monitoring dimensional activity. They’re responsible for the events of today, the breaking and entering on Equestria Weekly’s printing press, and the distribution of the dangerous magical fliers. I can only conclude at this point that they will no longer listen to reason, and only see Moon Mender as a dangerous threat to Equus itself.” Oh.

There was absolutely dead silence as everypony stopped, slowly looking at each other, and then back up at Tia herself. She didn’t look pleased in the slightest, expression grim as she continued. “I officially ask you one last time, BEID. Your agents are undoubtedly in the crowd right now, listening. Disband yourself. You have my word as a ruler of Equestria that this stallion is every bit a pony, just like everypony else here, and no threat to anypony. He only wants to protect his new home, and what you’re doing, whether you intend it to be or not, is a danger to innocent ponies everywhere. Today could have ended in tragedy. I think we all can see that. You got your wish, and forced Mender to reveal himself. So please, stop this foolishness before anypony gets hurt,” she pleaded, looking back and forth across the crowd of ponies. Murmurs went up as ponies looked to each other, probably hoping any ‘agents’ would be readily visible, which I knew wouldn’t be the case. I glanced along the crowd, too, and then raised my view up towards the back gates.

My eyes widened. Twilight stood far back towards the gates, luggage strapped to her in a few spots. Her eyes were locked on me and about as wide as they could get, probably due to the fact that I was sitting up here in my fully transformed armor. Oops. Well, I could have thought of numerous better ways to break the news to her. Fluttershy rounded the corner a moment later, looking unnerved by the ponies all around before accidentally running into Twilight. After rubbing her forehead, she followed Twilight's gaze and also locked onto me. Her squeak was suddenly heard over a very welcome link as it reconnected, and she covered her mouth with her hooves, despite there being literally no way anypony could have even heard her over the crowd. Seeing the other four and Spike walking along the side of the fence towards the gate, I took a shot in the dark, guessing I'd be going into the story yet again, soon enough...