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Forgiveness Pending

by Kiroberos

Chapter 96: Chapter 95

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“And… Twilight’s not…?” Night Light asked once again.

Twilight herself let out a lower growl before repeating, “For the last time, Dad, no, I’m not pregnant! It’s Fluttershy who is!” She’d said it before, but the still hit me like a flying chunk of bricks. Fluttershy was pregnant.

I turned and looked down at the yellow mare resting on the couch, still quite unconscious from her little spill a minute or so ago. I’d caught her before she fell off the side of the steps, but she was out cold before I even got there. It didn’t take long to get her inside, and by then, Night Light had come sprinting. Apparently he had some inclination as to his wife’s tendencies and favorite way of greeting her daughter and friends at the door. When he heard her squeal and start giggling happily, it was like a red alert had gone off through the house.

Fluttershy rested on the couch, eyes still closed and mane pooling around her shoulders. I sat next to her resting spot, looking down at the yellow mare. My mind couldn't really even wrap around the concept yet, and I just stared down at her peaceful looking expression. My eyes drifted down to her stomach, and I swallowed, my entire world feeling like it was spiraling out of control like a blimp being piloted by a drunk penguin in a hurricane. While on fire. And laughing hysterically. Now I just needed to decide if it was the penguin or blimp laughing...

"Uh, Mender, breathin' might help," Applejack suggested next to me. I gave a start, then inhaled a little, not having realized I'd stopped while staring at the mare on the couch.

"I just don't understand. Fluttershy said she was safe the morning I spoke to her before Mender returned," Rarity informed, frowning and looking a little confused.

Twilight slowly shook her head, pacing around the center of the room and looking a mixture of frustrated and shocked. "This doesn't make sense. Fluttershy tests herself the most out of all of us due to working with her animals. There's no way she didn't know she was still at risk," the lavender mare pointed out, turning to look back at me instead. There was more 'helplessness' there than anger or frustration.

Spike shrugged, sitting towards the recliner that Night Light sat in. "Maybe she read the thingy wrong, or it broke or something?" he suggested. Actually, it breaking was a reasonable guess. Fluttershy wasn't technical savvy, and may not have realized it was malfunctioning.

"The stick lit up and stuff when she put it in her mouth to show me," I revealed, wondering if it wasn't supposed to work at all when busted. Twilight frowned at that, considering it for a moment.

"What was the exact number? Do you remember?" she asked, looking back up at me.

Nodding, I answered, "Zero. It read rock bottom, glowing red." Her ears flattened back almost as soon as I said it, and she frowned. Eh? Was that bad?!

Rainbow coughed lightly, then answered for her instead. "Uh, that means dead battery. Every mare knows that. And, uh, most stallions," she revealed. Oh... Pinkie flailed and hopped into the air before I could even process that, however.

"Oooh, except for a stallion who grew up in another dimension! He wouldn't know, right?!" she asked, about six decibels too loud. She had a point, however.

Velvet made a sigh as she came back in with refreshments balanced on her back, immediately floating a glass of tea over for me. I relaxed a little after I took a long drink, and she smiled and nodded towards me before passing the rest out. “Honestly, the truly important thing to ask is how the parents feel about this,” she pointed out, looking towards Twilight, who huffed instead.

Applejack coughed softly to that, adding, “Ah think it’s ah bit soon fer that question.” She was looking at me when she said it, and I exhaled quietly, nodding. My head felt like a blender had bounced through it, and I reached out, slowly brushing Fluttershy’s mane back.

“I… think I’m a bit, well… This is a big shock,” I finally admitted, my own voice sounding weird. The orange mare next to me gave a confident smile and nod towards me, and I relaxed a little bit more. At least everypony wasn’t completely freaking out over it. That was a step up from what I’d briefly anticipated in the wake of catching Fluttershy.

Twilight slipped up next to me on the other side, sitting down and looking at Fluttershy with a rather empty expression. I gave her a curious look, and she frowned, shaking her head slowly. “It doesn’t make sense, is all. Fluttershy knows how to work one of those and should have known the battery was dead. She also knows how to take her own readings and should have known she wasn’t safe yet. Anything over a forty percent of optimal hormone level in the blood still has some slight risk involved of a mare getting pregnant,” she pointed out.

It didn’t matter too much, because my link stirred first. Perking, I immediately looked back to Fluttershy, my ears rising up to catch the faintest sounds of her giving a little sigh. Twilight caught my movement and immediately drew her attention back to Fluttershy, which caused Applejack and Rainbow Dash to as well.

Slowly, her eyes opened up, lashes sliding across her fur and teal pupils looking hazed out for a moment before focusing as she slowly looked up. They locked right on me first, and stayed there for a good ten seconds before drifting over to Twilight and blinking once. I leaned down and kissed her muzzle, earning another blink and shiver, then asked, “Are you okay, Fluttershy?”

She slowly looked around as the other ponies gathered near the couch, minus Night Light and Shining who watched from their chairs. It was getting a tad crowded now. For a long moment, the pegasus frowned and looked to all of us. Her face flushed a few heartbeats later, eyes widening as they snapped back to me in an instant. I nodded slowly to her, and she seemed to almost shrink, her wings flattening down as her legs tucked up, pupils shivering as they stayed locked with mine.

“Fluttershy, shh, it’s okay,” I assured, resting a hoof against her right foreleg and gently rubbing up and down her coat. She froze for a moment before swallowing and slowly nodding towards me. I settled more into the couch, and she instead crawled forward, burying her face into my chest an instant later. Eh?!

“I-I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” she quickly started apologizing. My eyes widened, and Twilight gave a surprised look as well, but Applejack just frowned, slowly placing a hoof on her left shoulder.

“Fluttershy, hon, you don’t need ta apologize. This is surprisin’, sure, but Ah don’t think-“ she started to assure. The yellow pegasus cut her off with an outright sob, shaking against my fur as her hoof reached up, running down my chest.

I let her pull closer, holding her gently as she cried. Twilight frowned and slid closer, massaging her right side. Something was… wrong. “No, I… I lied. I’m so sorry! I thought it would be, um, okay,” she quickly explains, burying her face into my fur even harder, as if she could crawl against me and hide from everything.

Frowning, I pulled her whole body a bit closer to me, letting her tuck her back legs up against my stomach as well, her tail curling and partially falling over my back left hip. “Fluttershy, calm down. What’s wrong? Lied?” I asked softly. She winced at the word, then slowly looked up into my face with those expansive teal eyes, giving a tiny nod.

I waited patiently, and she finally admitted, “I, um… Before I showed you the testing stick, I pulled the battery out of it!” It came out all at once, and I widened my eyes in surprise. She intentionally sabotaged the stick? Applejack frowned at that, but Twilight just looked more confused, slowly shaking her head to the mare.

“W-Why, Fluttershy? I don’t understand,” she asked, causing the pegasus to look over at her, giving a frustrated look.

“After what w-we did… Mender felt completely left out. I could feel it. Um, but I was only down to thirty-two percent, and I knew that even if I wanted to try to, well, fix it…” she explained. My mind flashed back to those lovely events surrounding the estrus week, all awkwardness included. Oh…

Rarity was the first to admit, “No, I don’t imagine he would have been too inclined to be with you, had he realized you were at any risk at all. Still…”

Twilight completed the sentence for her with a frown. “Thirty-two percent should have been safe. Assuming that, you decided to make it read as zero to better convince him that it was all okay,” she deduced rather sharply. Fluttershy slipped back to her prior position of burrowing her face into my fur before just nodding, blushing fully again now.

Averting her eyes, Applejack gave a sigh before pointing out, “Even that don’t sound all that bad, Flutters. Ya technically didn’t lie when ya said ya were safe. Just in showin’ him tha stick.” Very true. I probably would have been a lot more cautious had she said she was that high of percent, but how had that worked in the first place? As if reading my mind, Shining coughed lightly before interrupting.

“Ah, how exactly did she get pregnant, then, being significantly under the absolute rock bottom percentage of hormones? Towards forty percent, it’s supposed to get exponentially harder and harder to do…” he asked, raising his left eyebrow up curiously.

Twilight thought about it for a moment before perking and looking back to me. “Mender, what about your augments? You have cybernetic augments that modify those parts, too, don’t you?” she reminded, tilting her head. Rainbow and Applejack blushed to my right, but Velvet turned and gave me a skeptical look instead.

“Oh really, now? So those fancy parts they put into you also boost your virility?” she asked almost instantly, with surprisingly acute interest. Uh…

I tilted my head back away from her a bit, and Twilight slapped herself in the forehead, looking annoyed. To my surprise, Shining gave her an even more annoyed look, glaring at her out of her peripheral vision, which only made her smirk more. I wasn’t sure I really wanted to know.

“Uh, yeah. Long story, but another of my ‘missions’ here was apparently, uh, breeding. Obviously I’m not actually following any of those orders, though, so you don’t need to-“ I tried to assure, She cut me off, edging a bit closer as her cheeks flushed and her grin widened a little.

“Breeding, hmm? Well, if you’re potent enough to give Fluttershy a foal at thirty-two percent, which should have been impossible… Can you give those enhancements to others…?” she chirped out, fluttering her eyes at me.

My eyes widened a bit, but Shining hissed out, “Mother!” She smiled innocently back to him, and everything immediately fell into place. Oh Celestia, what have I gotten myself into?

* * * * *

It was just the four of us now in Shining’s old room. Fluttershy rested next to me, still looking guilty. My left foreleg was around her, and she snuggled into my chest while we listened, but she wouldn’t let it go, even after I said that she didn’t do anything wrong. Twilight sat to my right, a little further away while frowning, listening to Shining talk more.

“Over and over again. We’ve tried every Estrus for the last two years,” he repeated, frowning down at his own bedspread. It was a rather interesting design, with a bunch of masked and suited ponies who looked like they were using powers or something. Super ponies, maybe?

Twilight looked a bit awkward talking about this, but hesitantly asked, “Have either of you, uh, gotten tested? It’s rare, but…” Okay, seeing as this was her brother, I could see where it might be a little awkward, but for once, I wasn’t really feeling it. Memories gave me a lot more awkward things that my DNA donor walked in on in the barracks’ locker rooms.

“Yes,” Shining quickly interrupted, sighing wearily before explaining, “Both of us got tested. Both of us are absolutely a hundred percent functioning and working.” Well, that was strange.

“So it’s more than likely something incompatible with her being an Alicorn then. Hmm. I’m not sure that Mender’s enhancements could help with that. We don’t exactly know a huge amount about Alicorn genomes,” Twilight deduced, frowning then scratching under her chin. Leave it to a mystery to make her feel more comfortable about the situation.

Shining exhaled, flopping backwards onto his old bed before rolling onto his side. “We’re pretty sure it is. I’m willing to try just about anything at this point. I really would love to start a family with Cadance. It’s just… frustrating,” he admitted, slowly frowning.

Raising up my left foreleg, I let an orb merge out of it and float into the air instead. It started glowing a soft blue color, and I let a projection pop up on the screen displaying my own more… personal anatomy. The individual upgrades were highlighted, however, and I listed the specifications on all of them to the side, which would be a good indication of what he’d be in for…

He perked up, then widened his eyes at the display before sitting up and moving closer to it. It was all there, and I let him read the finer details himself. Fluttershy blushed as she looked up at it, shrinking down a little as she slid into my side further. “I… I really did think it was safe, Mender,” she whispered a moment later, pressing the side of her face up to my left hip as she closed her eyes. Turning, I lightly massaged her shoulders, giving her a softer smile.

“While I wish you’d been honest with me, it’s not your fault that we didn’t take, uh, this into account,” I reminded, gesturing towards the glowing display with my head. She nodded, looking a bit sad still, but I leaned in and lifted her head up, kissing her softly. She shivered, then smiled again and leaned into it. For the first time since we’d found out, I felt her relax down the link as we kissed softly.

Parting, she gave me a warm smile, a little flushed now, and I nuzzled her nose softly, earning a little giggle from the mare. My ears perked, however, my right one rotating over before I raised an eyebrow and looked to both Twilight and Shining watching us. Eh?

“Wow, that’s amazingly adorable,” Shining admitted. Twilight broke down and started giggling, smiling as she looked up, and I felt my cheeks heat up, almost as much as it looked like Fluttershy’s were.

Pulling Fluttershy further against me, I relaxed and felt her slowly unwind despite the attention, smiling up at me again. Sighing, I decided to fully assure her with, “I’m not angry with you, Fluttershy. This… It’s a surprise. A huge surprise. Probably to both of us, but…” She gave me a curious look, as did Twilight, but Shining smiled instead as I continued with, “Even if it is a huge surprise, it’s a good surprise. We’re still a herd, and it doesn’t really change anything other than knowing we have quite a bit to prepare for coming up. I’m not going anywhere.”

Her eyes softened through my little speech, but she smiled afterwards and nodded, leaning up to kiss my softly on the mouth again. I returned it, letting her fold against my chest and relax as I pushed against her lips. No, this didn’t really change much. If anything, it would probably make our relationship all the stronger.

Shining just chuckled at that, however, and I lifted an eyebrow to him curiously. He shook his head, and then shrugged, explaining, “I don’t think anypony really expected this, but you three have a strong relationship already. So she probably already knows just about all of that.”

His sister rolled her eyes and swatted him a moment later, causing him to flail and fall over dramatically. She huffed before shaking her head and admitting, “Even if we knew it already, it’s still nice to hear once in a while!”

Fluttershy and I just relaxed against the bed until he sat up fully again. I nodded to the projection, and he sighed, looking it over once more before nodding. “Okay, so what’s the rundown on how to get it?” he finally asked, looking back to me.

“Unpleasant, if I read the specs right in the documentation. I’m glad I was unconscious as a little colt when they gave them to me, that’s for sure,” I warned, earning another exhale from the stallion. He nodded, though, so I elaborated with, “Three localized nanite injections. They’d have to be rather big needles, but I think ponies make them that large. After, there’s one stabilization injection. I should warn you, that one I’m not sure how to do without it being military grade. I don’t have any other designs built into me, so if you wanted it in time for next summer’s estrus, I probably couldn’t absolutely guarantee it.”

He shuddered at my explanation, then gave a skeptical stare at the glowing screen again. “Military grade? Should I be concerned about that?” he inquired a moment later. Oh, right. Nanites were a new concept to them.

“It means that the nanites I’m injecting are going to be more aggressive, shielded, and less concerned probably for personal comfort until they get settled,” I summarized, looking back to the projection myself as I highlighted the areas they’d be setting up in. He gave me a frown, and I nodded, appending, "I don't think I can undo this once I give it to you, and I can't guarantee that it's going to limit itself only to the parts that I apply them to."

Twilight swallowed uneasily at that, glancing back to him, but he was staring at the projection instead, silently. We waited for almost fifteen seconds before he exhaled and nodded towards the projection. "If it were my call, I'd say yes. But I'm going to have to talk to Cadance about this, first," he confirmed, looking back to me.

Having already anticipated at least that much, I nodded to him and looked back to Twilight instead. "I can make the nanites inside of myself, and give the exact insertion locations, but we're probably going to need anesthetics for this, and an expert that actually knows how to give an injection," I warned, not at all interested in performing a minor surgery myself. Given my level of dexterity and natural grace, Shining probably wouldn't want that either.

"That's fine. I'll run the procedure past Princess Celestia, and she'll probably get one of the royal physicians to do it," the lavender mare guessed off the top of her head. She frowned a moment later and instead asked, "What will the nanites do if they don't limit themselves to one area?" Ah, right.

Shaking my head, I assured, "The same thing your nanites do. Generally sustain your health, keep your system clear of dangerous materials, and regenerate your tissue." It was just a step under what mine did, but I didn't have the schematics for my particular brand of the tiny things.

"That actually sounds rather useful," he admitted, shrugging absently at the thought. I started to nod to him when Fluttershy frowned a moment later.

"Um, I... I'm pregnant," she suddenly declared. I blinked at her, a bit confused by the seemingly non sequitur. Twilight apparently thought the same thing, lifting her eyebrow up, but Fluttershy just rapidly shook her head, then continued with, "I... I have the nanites in me, too, right? Um, what do they do to a foal growing in me?" Oh!

My ears perked as I turned towards her again, flicking her link on and switching the projection on the orb over to her analytics. General biological information popped up, showing good blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, and other such things. I played with the display for a moment, then frowned, bringing up an actual interface for pregnancy information. They had that built in? It indeed showed her listed as 'pregnant' by twenty-three days, listing a green status on the offspring. I widened my eyes a little bit, surprised at this turn of events.

"That's surprisingly accurate information," Twilight admitted, looking the display over herself as both Fluttershy and Shining frowned.

I nodded, finally admitting, "Good news, bad news time." The yellow pegasus widened her eyes, immediately snapping her attention to me again, and I continued explaining quickly. "It turns out, there's a built in system for pregnancies in the subjects. I really should have already predicted that, given all the other virility stuff they shoved in me," I admitted, flattening my ears back as I gave a momentary glare towards the display.

"So it's safe for the foal?" Shining guessed, looking back to the glowing projection himself, although he was trying to see it backwards. I nodded, and Fluttershy visibly relaxed, exhaling softly before Twilight frowned.

"And the bad news?" she inquired, looking back towards the screen. The yellow mare's peace was short lived, her attention snapping back to me with that, and I nodded to her.

Considering it, I decided it probably wasn't too terrible in and of itself. "The nanites have a lot of readings on the foal already, and I have reason to believe the amount of data will increase as it grows. That means, with very high probability, that the foal will have nanites in it right from the start," I deduced, gesturing to the display screen.

Fluttershy stared at the display, frown shifting as she watched. “Um, what does that mean, exactly? The regeneration and stuff that they’d give Shining Armor?” she asked quietly, her eyes sliding back over to look at me instead. I reached out and bumped the floating orb, it giving a brighter flash of light before turning off completely and sinking seamlessly into the hoof that poked it. Having subspace inside of me would probably always feel weird…

“Yeah, pretty much. It’s because you yourself have them, so they’re going to be automatically passed on to the foal. If I’d known about this ahead of time, I might have been able to write up a patch so that they wouldn’t do that, but… I’m still not entirely sure it’s possible to remove them once they’re inside a living creature,” I admitted, frowning and thinking about it. If I could make a program for turning them all off at once and relayed that through the system, it might work, but there was no ‘off’ switch built into the nanites themselves. About as ‘off’ as I could tell them to do would be to violently attack and dismantle each other, but that would probably set off a rather horrible immune system reaction inside of the individual.

The yellow mare nodded to me, sagging a bit and letting out a soft breath, faint smile returning to her muzzle. “That’s not nearly as bad as I imagined. As long as they won’t hurt the foal…” she murmured, lowering her head and resting it against my upper thigh again. This time, I slid down into a lying position as well, resting up against her side and earning a bigger smile from the cute mare.

Twilight was busy planning, however, scratching under her chin for a moment before nodding. “It shouldn’t take too long, then. I’ll talk to Princess Celestia about the details of the procedure. You talk to Cadance in the meantime and see what she thinks. I’ll need Mender to help give the details to the Princess, though,” she requested, shifting her focus back to me.

I nodded absently, mind not really on the conversation, but instead the mare next to me. Swallowing this would take a lot of effort. I was going to be a dad. Personally, I wasn’t even fully comfortable with being a pony, but this left me no choice but to accept that life probably wasn’t going to slow down and brake, instead intent on turning me into a speedbump. I absently found my head drifting into hers, and she smiled, nuzzling against my muzzle until our fur intermingled.

Shining just chuckled, then headed Twilight off with, “He has enough on his mind, and I’m sure Fluttershy could stand for a bit of attention, too, so let’s plan this out fully later.” The lavender mare pouted, but I simply nodded slowly.

“I have a lot of thinking to do, and I’m sure the others are probably waiting on us. Pinkie, for one, wants to get to the ice cream part,” I reminded, glancing to Twilight, who gave a short snicker. It sort of made it sound like a nicker.

She shook her head after, and hopped down off Shining’s bed. “Well, we should head back downstairs, then. Our parents probably would like an actual visit before we take off, even if we’re not leaving until tomorrow,” she suggested. Oh, right. The visit had so far been obliterated by the sudden news when we got here, then the consultation with Shining.

Exhaling, I looked back to Fluttershy, but she smiled and nodded to me. Ah well. I wasn’t looking forward to being back down with everypony just yet. It still felt… It was awkward, it seemed. They all knew already, and didn’t seem to care, but Fluttershy being pregnant just sort of snapped everything in place that we were together. Together, together. As in, serious. I was suddenly self-conscious as it added a new ‘layer’ of visibility onto the relationship.

My thoughts were interrupted by her lightly kissing me, then giving a timid smile and nod. I relaxed, nuzzling her back and hearing her giggle at point blank range, it vibrating through me from two links at once. Yeah, Shining was right. I don’t think we’d be anything but even closer after this.

“Okay, okay, come on, lovebirds. Let’s go back downstairs,” Twilight jibed with a smirk. I detected just the tiniest trace of jealousy from her link, though, and raised an eyebrow in her direction. She’d already headed into the hall, however. Fluttershy looked to me, a light frown on her face that matched my own feelings, and I shrugged to her, seeing Shining walk past us in my peripheral vision. Eh, I’d ask her later.

Gesturing to Fluttershy, I smiled as she slid off the bed then followed me out, walking directly to my right as we followed Shining down the hallway…

* * * * *

Her fur was rather soft, and she gave a content sigh as my hooves worked along her back. She smiled back at me while I massaged her, her wings fluttering out a little as I continued. Fluttershy was unsurprisingly tense, and I did my best to ease knots out of her muscles, especially if she was going to be doing any sort of flying later.

We were on the couch, with Spike immediately behind me, and Rarity sitting next to him, to his delight. Applejack and Rainbow were squished together into a sofa, and Shining was sitting across from them, looking towards his parents. Twilight sat on the other couch opposite from us with Night Light and Pinkie. Velvet was just coming in with snacks and drinks.

“Having our children home regardless is cause for celebration, Dear,” she assured, walking past Night Light, who had prior been concerned that maybe celebrating me getting released from the hospital was too similar to celebrating me getting maimed and blasted in the first place. I could see his point, but he underestimated Pinkie Pie and her love of celebrations. Regardless, I took no offense.

“I suppose. The whole town was abuzz before regarding this Dimensional Regulation thing regardless, so the formal moving of guards is rather exciting,” Night Light admitted, taking a sip of his coffee after pulling the cup off the tray.

Shining nodded to that, explaining, “Yeah, I’ll be heading down to Ponyville as well to see that they get set up in the temporary barracks. I assume Mender and my sister can handle their transfer to the full on barracks once the testing facility is completed. Oh, I also heard an interesting little blurb from a little birdy that Mender wants to help train the guards?” Oh, I totally forgot that I’d volunteered myself to do that.

“Oooh, a birdy told you that?! Can you talk to them, like Flutters?!” Pinkie asked, gasping after as she turned to face Shining.

He blinked slowly, then chuckled to himself before shaking his head. “Well, this birdy was about a hundred and fifty kilograms and sporting a rather dark blue color tone, so…” he admitted.

“Birds can get that big?!” Pinkie asked further, without missing her cue even slightly.

I coughed lightly, averting my eyes as she turned to look at me, before suggesting, “Uh, he’s probably talking about Princess Luna, who is indeed, not a bird.”

Pinkie started giggling and snickering while wobbling back and forth, causing Night Light to look mildly annoyed as his cushion was shifted and tilted everywhere. I took a cup of tea from Velvet as she trotted past, giving me a warm smile, and nod. She was in amazingly good spirits today, and this time, I knew exactly why.

Regardless, I agreed, explaining, “Yeah, I heard they needed a trainer, and I do have military experience in the memories put into me, so I thought, why not? It seems far more practical than you making regular trips all the way from the Crystal Empire just to train troops, or bringing somepony in from elsewhere to do the same thing, given that I’m already in Ponyville.”

“Yeah, that’s probably for the best all around, if you’re sure you can manage. I’ll give you a basic run down of pony training techniques tomorrow, but you should pick them up fairly fast given prior experience. Are you familiar with any martial arts?” he asked, shifting serious as he rotated to face me.

Coughing lightly, I admitted, “Uh, probably none that’s suitable for a pony. Or at least a defensive outlook.” The only style I knew was to use the least amount of effort to ‘remove’ threats as quickly as possible. This usually resulted in grievous injuries up to and including death.

He raised an eyebrow, but appeared to not want to ask, nodding after. "It's not that big of a deal. Most of them already know the fundamentals. They just need somepony to run them through the daily morning regime, and clean up any sloppiness you see. Your main goal will be training them to use whatever fancy toys research and development makes," he reasoned. Wasn't I in charge of re- Ooh, right. Okay, that made sense.

Twilight nodded along, assuring, "It should be fine, as I'm pretty sure these are all well trained guards already. Plus, as much as I don't like to admit it, your reputation as an 'alien' will probably garner quite a bit of respect from them." Well, that was one way to look at it... So they'd either be absolutely terrified of me, or think I was a freak. Eh, close enough to respect, so long as they followed orders.

Fluttershy gave me a rather stern nudge with her hoof, and I smiled without needing to even look at her. Yeah, I knew I was too hard on myself. Living out the first six months of my life gave me a fresh outlook on almost everything, including that. "I know. Sorry," I added, causing her to smile and relax again.

Afterwards, Twilight started talking about that book again that she was going to be getting from Princess Celestia. Something about it made me think it was more important than just whom she was getting it from, but it went well off my comfortable edge of metamagical understanding. Fluttershy felt warm against me, and I slowly let myself zone out, pressing my muzzle gently into her side.

She just smiled, tucking her head around mine as we relaxed at the end of the couch. It was enough for me to just relax for a while, letting my worries and thoughts drift about lazily. Twilight was excited to have the chance to look at the book, from what I vaguely heard while zoning out. Apparently it was written by somepony really important a while ago, and was fairly classified as far as reading material went. Not being the most updated on Equestrian history yet, I of course probably didn’t grasp the true weight of it.

At first, I almost didn’t notice. The light ding noise sounded inside my GUI a second time, however, and my eyes opened again. Twilight was still talking, and nothing appeared to be amiss. Pulling my interface out inside myself, I glanced at the display and noticed that the incoming ping was lit up. Aww crap.

Looking up, I glanced around the room, biting my lower lip. Applejack looked over to me, raising an eyebrow, but Rainbow looked mostly relaxed, curled up near her hooves in the chair. Everyone was still talking, and I didn’t want to just interrupt, but answering Keela was rather important. Slowly, I decided to take a chance and slide off the front of the couch.

Nope. All eyes shifted to me instantly, conversation grinding to a halt. Out of instinct, I froze for a moment, blinking and looking at all the eyes on me before coughing lightly. “Ah, sorry. Carry on. I’m just getting a ping,” I excused, voice a bit on the quiet side as I was suddenly self-conscious without the background talking.

Twilight perked at that, of course not just leaving it at that. “Oh, from Keela? Ooooh, then she probably has an answer for you,” she deduced.

Suspiciously, Velvet perked very quickly at that. “Oh? That’s that, mmm, what were they called? The kitty in the presentation earlier. That female?” she asked curiously. I fought back the heat to my cheeks and sighed.

“Yeah, that’s Keela. Although a few others are probably there, too. I was talking to them about giving them their memories back that were taken away by Prudentia. Loooong story,” I warned, giving Twilight a mildly annoyed look. She only returned a sheepish one, raising her front hooves to give a guarded gesture.

Night Light gave a momentary confused look before asking, “Why wouldn’t they want their memories back? Seems like a kind of important thing to me.”

Shifting awkwardly, I didn’t honestly know how to respond to that. Thankfully, Rarity answered from behind me instead with, “These memories perhaps aren’t the… greatest. I believe they contain both extreme violence and a rather brutal emotional burden, so remaining ignorant of them might actually be more pleasant.”

Spike snickered next to her, then added, “Yeah, it turns out Keela had a relationship with Mender before-“ My tail hit him as I flicked it up into his face, causing him to flail, then fall over sideways onto Rarity, who smirked and caught him. It was too late, though, and Velvet squealed again. Okay, now all she needed was a little bow with heart-shaped arrows or something.

“Ooooh, that’s super romantic! You must devise a way to pull her over to Equus, Mender,” the mare declared with finality. Oh boy. Ignoring the logistics of that request, I sighed and shook my head.

“She has to get her memories back of even knowing me before, first. Then there are… a few other complications we’d need to take care of, and finally, we’d need to generate a massive, massive amount of energy to perform the transfer. But regardless, I need to answer her ping, so,” I excused, gesturing vaguely to upstairs, where there could be some more privacy.

Shining smiled, and I tried really hard not to groan instead. “Well, it’s not like any of it’s a secret anymore. I’m sure that Keela wouldn’t mind meeting our parents, too,” he suggested. Damn it!

My ears flattened back, and Pinkie started giggling, hopping around on the couch to face me again and accidentally jarring Night Light sideways into her on the couch, hitting his cushion too and almost flipping it. “Oooh, yeah! Answer it here,” she chirped, sounding excited.

Twilight frowned, starting to open her mouth towards Pinkie when I just sighed and flicked the ping on instead. Four orbs melted out of me, causing me to shiver as the static energy danced along my fur from the subspace release. They rotated into the air before all lighting up, projecting a blank, three dimensional box into the center of the room rather abruptly, colored in cyan.

The ping flicked on fully a few seconds later, and I shifted my audio output to speakers as Keela squeaked, answering with a start. “Oh! I didn’t anticipate you’d get back with me so fast,” she answered, the cube flickering and rapidly reforming into a slightly transparent version of her. She was in her casual wear, a comfortable looking t-shirt and sweatpants.

She perked immediately after the projection completed, slowly looking around inside of her own image bubble, I imagined, at all of the ponies around her. “Ah, sorry for the lack of explanation,” I apologized with, before revealing, “We were in the middle of a, well, family gathering. The two new ponies are Twilight Velvet, and Night Light. They’re Twilight Sparkle’s and Shining Armor’s parents.” I gestured to both of them as they were introduced, and she took them in quietly for a moment before smiling.

“Oh, very nice to meet you. Wait, they’re aware of my existence?” she asked suddenly, looking back to me. Oh, right.

“Ooooh, awkward!” Pinkie immediately announced, earning a raised eyebrow from the Keldarian. Thanks for that. Although it was true.

Shining coughed lightly, drawing Keela’s attention to him before admitting, “Actually, about that… Now all of Equus does, effectively. There was an… incident. It forced Mender to reveal himself in order to save somepony’s life. The truth spread rather fast after that.”

She stared at him for a long moment, eyes a bit wide before looking back to me. I nodded to her, and she slowly crossed her arms before returning it. “I see. Are you okay, then, Mender? I’d like to hear about it,” she requested softly, eyes scanning over my form, undoubtedly looking for yet more bandages.

Smiling, I nodded to her, assuring, “I’m fine. But it’s a bit of a long story. Got time?” She grinned, and I raised my eyebrow, a warning flag firing off in my head.

“Of course! I’ll… refrain from giving you your other answer until you finish, though. Incentive,” she teased. Gah! Pouting, I rolled my eyes and deflated a little. She was as much a brat as I remembered from my time as Azure.

Considering it, I smirked a moment later and nodded to her, sitting upright more. “All right. If you have the time, I’ll relay the story again. You could bring the others in to hear it, too,” I suggested. She smiled sweetly and nodded, reaching over and hitting a few more buttons to bring up what looked like a paging system. Twilight raised an eyebrow at me as I watched her like a hawk, but Rainbow, who had suddenly started paying attention again during the ping announcement, slowly started to grin. She felt that familiar feeling from me, I imagined…

Keela lifted up her left hand while typing out her message on the screen with her right. She picked up her cup of what looked like some sort of juice next to her, and I slowly grinned. She sipped, eyes locked onto the display screen to the right, and time seemed to slow down as I saw the opportunity and pounced all over it.

“Oh, I almost forgot. Fluttershy’s pregnant,” I revealed, hearing a surprised squeak behind me. Keela gave out a gasp mixed with a gurgle, then coughed, spraying blue fluid all over the console behind her projection, and straight down her shirt. Rainbow and I both started laughing at once…

Next Chapter: Chapter 96 Estimated time remaining: 6 Hours, 5 Minutes
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