It had ultimately gotten surprisingly cozy. Relaxing there on the floor, Fluttershy rested against my left side, and Twilight was against hers, sandwiching the yellow mare between us. She looked extraordinarily pleased by the turn of events, giving a little smile to both of us every minute or so. Everypony else had pretty much stayed in their spots, minus the new 'additions' to the room.

All five of them were here now, Keela flopped on her stomach in the center of the room next to me, in a completely new dark blue and purple pajama set. Honestly, I hadn't thought about that issue when she'd coughed and soaked her front in juice. It was at least partially her fault for wearing materials that turn transparent when wet.

Litta sat next to her, in a dark yellow tank top and even darker yellow pajama bottoms. Her darker pink hair was done up in a ponytail as usual, and she lounged lazily on her back. Her little sister, Mirin, had hers done up in a twin ponytail of sorts, looking almost like light blue 'ears' that folded off the back of her head. She was in a rather cute pink t-shirt and surprisingly short set of red shorts. Her yellow eyes, the color shared by her sister, were locked on the twins who sat next to her, the three of them just a meter or so from Litta.

The twins themselves, Amre on the left and Kyre on the right, were in matching outfits, as they loved to do, both in full body purple pajama suits. They looked a little older than when I last saw them, but not by very much. Their dark blue hair was worn on opposite sides, purely for identification purposes I was pretty sure. Sitting side by side, it was actually a little creepy, as they had the tendency to look at the same things, too. They both had pink eyes. It was nice to see them all together still, and fond memories danced to the surface from my time as Azure. This was… a little different, though.

Looking down to my left, I saw the small filly sitting there, on our side of the universe. Dark blue coat, bronze mane and tail, and bright amber eyes, she smiled up at me gently, sitting next to her book. Purdue, sitting next to Prudentia. I wasn’t about to consider them the same thing ever again, that was for certain. She needed to hear all this, too, however.

Keela grinned, still staring at Fluttershy’s tummy before assuring, “Well, congratulations again. Despite the fiasco at the café, this is a welcome bit of good news.” The yellow mare blushed softly, but remained smiling as she gave a gentle nod.

“Mmm, yes, I think it’s, well, good news, now that I know nopony is upset over it,” she murmured, yawning slowly, then resting against my shoulder with her cheek. Chuckling to that, I just shook my head.

"Fluttershy, I'm not going to be upset over you being pregnant. Not even about the estrus stick. Relax," I assured softly, nuzzling into her forehead. She gave a happy little nicker, then returned my nuzzle under my chin, then giggled.

Mirin grinned while watching us, admitting, "Okay, ponies are adorable. Keela, can we go to Equus instead? There’s really no point in us sticking around here any longer, right?” Uh, actually I had no idea what they were even doing, now that I thought about it.

Keela rolled her eyes, then reminded, “For one, we need to get a bigger generator to even think about making a stable portal to Equus. For two… I’d like to at least find out what happened to my sister to get some closure before permanently leaving this dimension.” She sighed after, and I brushed my right hoof along her shoulder, earning a smile as my image did so on her end. She couldn’t feel it, of course, but the intention was still apparent.

Giving out a murmur of apology, Mirin looked away from us, and her sister exhaled, holding her paw up towards the ceiling. “That’s a discussion for another time, by the sounds of it. Keela’s told us about the fact that our memories are fake, and personally, that seriously bugs me,” she admitted, sitting up and looking directly at me instead. Her eyes looked down towards Purdue, who caught her gaze. There wasn’t any malice, however, and the little filly relaxed, nodding.

“I didn’t mean to do it. I was ordered to, by my master at the time. Mender’s now my master, and with his permission, I can undo what was taken,” she explained, nodding to Keela as well.

To my surprise, Amre spoke up next, with, “We’re curious…”

“What’s the extent of the missing memories?” Kyre finished for her, both of them looking expectantly at me. I saw Rainbow flatten her ears back and shiver while staring at them, but I just smiled and nodded. Eh, it was just how they did things.

“Extensive. Six months of memories were modified. As you’ve probably already guessed, this isn’t the first time we’ve all met,” I explained. They both looked to each other, but Keela nodded at that.

I glanced back to her, but she frowned, shaking her head for a moment before admitting, “Even if I didn’t know that it was an important six months, half a year’s worth of lost memories is too much for me to ignore. I don’t care if I was tortured the whole time, Mender. My vote is to have them back.”

I raised an eyebrow, but Litta immediately tacked on with, “Yup. I don’t care what the memories were. Personally, I don’t like the very thought of that d… uh, jerk having forced me to remember something wrong.” Knee jerk censoring aside, I could also understand that much. I couldn’t pretend to be so pure as to not know what spite was.

Mirin exhaled quietly, looking over to me instead before hesitantly asking, “Um, t-there are no, like, huge amounts of physical pain or anything in these memories, are there?” I blinked once, but Litta smirked an instant later.

“Pansy,” she shot at her sister, who glared back at her. Surprisingly, however, she continued reasoning with, “Does it even matter? Even if it was something that hurt, we’re alive and still here. It’s just going to be a memory.” Well, that was one way to look at it.

Applejack shook her head, however, drawing the attention back to her. “Ah wouldn’t worry about physical pains so much as emotional ones. Sometimes, those can last longer, an’ hurt far worse than anythin’ else,” she warned. A certain emptiness flashed through her eyes, and Rainbow set her hoof down on the mare’s shoulder, shaking her head. The orange mare exhaled, then rested back against the chair, but her point had already set, and Keela tucked her legs up gently instead, pressing her knees to her breasts before shaking her head.

“Even if it hurts, emotionally or physically, I’d rather know than not know. The only other option is running from it,” she pointed out, looking back to Mirin, who sighed and nodded. The twins nodded at the same time, however.

“We agree,” Kyre added, looking to Amre, who finished the statement in the next breath.

“It’s too large of a time period. We’d regret not knowing the truth,” her sister decided.

That was all of them, really. Twilight noticed, too, nodding on the other side of Fluttershy. “Then you want the memories back?” she asked, looking to Keela specifically, who nodded. Slowly, the other four repeated her gesture, and I exhaled. That selfish little voice inside of me had gotten its way, and I didn’t have to go on from this point being the only one who remembered the truth of what had happened.

Keela nodded, before finally stating, “Yes, we do. What do we have to do in order to go about it?” She looked to Purdue, who instead turned and looked to me. Right…

Sighing, I officially stated, “Purdue, use Prudentia to undo what he did to their memories, please.” She smirked, and I averted my eyes. Yes, the ‘please’ was required. I didn't even need a link with her to know what she was thinking in that regard.

She nodded regardless, then looked back to Keela specifically. "Are you ready, then?" she asked, a certain air of finality to her question. I couldn't help but feel that certain unease in my stomach. My eyes traced over Keela as she watched me, and I caught myself looking at her in a different light. I quickly looked away as she nodded, to me rather than Purdue.

"Do it, then," she agreed. I wasn't entirely sure what I expected. A flashy show of energy and power? The universe rending itself asunder and rebuilding around me? Of course, what did that even look like? Regardless of what I expected, it wasn't what I got. Absolutely nothing happened, and then all five of them jerked at the same time. Keela lifted up both paws to the sides of her head, teeth clenched rather hard.

Purdue watched them all for a moment, then frowned and added, “Stay calm. Don’t fight the new memories. Just let them rebuild themselves.” That probably would have been amazing advice before she started the process. I kept my mouth shut, though, and just watched.

Keela relaxed, eyes blanking for a moment as she focused on deep breathing. Litta watched her, then followed suit, and the twins turned and lightly put their foreheads together, breathing heavier. They’d always been like that, and my personal guess was some sort of high capacity shared telepathic link, but I could be mistaken. Mirin was the only stubborn one that continued shuddering and rolling on her back, holding her head.

Seconds passed slowly, and I counted out to almost twenty before Mirin finally stopped shuddering. All five of them opened their eyes at once, Litta immediately gasping out. “Oh… No, no, no… Kyliona. Wait, Keela…” she muttered, looking towards her friend.

Keela just looked at me, dazed for a moment, jaw lowering a little. I turned and looked back to her, and felt the yellow mare against my side tense as she noticed. It felt like forever, with her stuck just looking at me, eyes locked with mine. Thirty seconds passed, and she made a little choking noise, covering her muzzle with both paws. I swallowed the sudden lump in my throat. It didn’t stop her eyes from getting wet, and a streak going down the fur on her left cheek.

Nopony said anything. I didn’t know what to say, or do, or feel, really. It was like dozens of realizations had come crashing down on her all at once, and I was effectively powerless to stop it or help her in any way. Eventually, a tear joined on the other side of her cheek, and I sighed softly, reaching my hoof out to her. She raised her left paw, lightly touching it against the image of my hoof. It was all that it took, and the tears started sliding down. Litta shivered and took that moment to slide over, wrapping both of her arms over Keela’s shoulders.

Keela’s thumb moved, stroking slowly around under the image before she gave a little whimper. “It’s… just like I suspected it would be, and now it’s as if it all really happened up until the point the memories become normal again,” she whispered, shaking a little as she looked at me.

“Azure…” Mirin muttered, sitting up again finally and also looking towards me.

Litta smiled weakly at that, then shook her head to her sister. “He’s ‘Mender’ now, remember? Moon Mender…” she reminded, testing the name out for herself.

Fluttershy wiggled against me, then slowly nodded. “Um, yes. His parents actually picked it for him,” she explained, smiling gently towards Keela. The Keldarian smiled towards her and relaxed a little, nodding finally.

“He said that much. I like the new name, really. Azure was pretty, but not very pony like,” Keela admitted quietly, wiping her eyes.

“Keela…” I muttered, earning a little shiver from her.

She quickly shook her head, however, and then stopped me by raising her paw up. “No, I know. This is similar to what I thought it would be, but the scale is… far more than I had anticipated. You… No, you didn’t break any promises to me, Mender. You getting transferred over to Equus alone… it wasn’t under your own power or control, I know that. You know that, too,” she quickly reminded.

“Promise?” Rarity asked curiously, less than a heartbeat later. Ah, her romance sense must be tingling.

Sighing, I explained, “I promised her when we were leaving that day that Kyliona and I would definitely meet them on the ship. We, uh, didn’t make it.” It was a lot worse admitting it out loud, I suddenly realized.

Keela’s paw passed through me an instant later, and she shivered, then slid a little closer. “Mender, it’s okay. None of us could have predicted what happened. It… was a horrible accident. I’m just glad that… at least you made it,” she quietly admitted, eyes still locked with mine. I sighed, shaking my head slowly at that. Not entirely accurate…

“I… Kyliona is inside of me. I never told you the reason why my code malfunctioned. She uploaded the backdoor access code to her own cerebral storage, then was the first one that was eaten. She’s inside me with the rest of them…” I muttered, eyes softening a little.

Litta and Keela both widened their eyes at that, but Mirin shuddered and added, “Uh, that’s actually kinda really creepy. What exactly can you do with all of them?” Thanks, Mirin…

“At the moment, not much,” I admitted, shrugging before explaining, “The bioweapon recorded all their DNA, too, which I can convert into usable gametes for reproduction purposes, or if you wanted to clone them all. Otherwise, nothing, really…” Well, apart from asking them all to help me really murder the hell out of something, but I didn’t particularly foresee a need to do that again in the near future.

Rarity huffed behind me, however, causing me to glance back as she defended, “He doesn’t need a use for them. Mender fits in here perfectly fine, and even after everything that happened, as you can see, the ponies of Equus still accept you perfectly fine. If anything, what happened here will only cause those disagreeing to lose even further credit.”

Sighing, I shook my head, then turned back to Keela instead, who was still looking at me. “Regardless, I’m sorry, Keela. I did technically break a promise to you, even if I didn’t have any control over what happened. So let me make it up to you? We can… talk more about other things later if you wish, too,” I assured, giving a softer smile to her.

The pink one hopped up and down in my peripheral vision before sending an approving shout of, “Yes! I’m big on keeping promises, and that one definitely, definitely, positively wasn’t his fault! But making it up to her is still really important.” Heh, I remembered that much, I was pretty sure. In my stay here, I’d heard a few horror stories involving a Pinkie Promise.

Velvet grinned, however, and I braced myself as she assured, “There’s no harm in discussing the relationship you had, and all the possibilities of it continuing and possibly thriving, especially once you all manage to get to Equus.” Uh…

An awkward moment later, Litta raised an eyebrow and asked, “Uh, are you always like this?”

Night Light just sighed next to her and answered, “Yup.” There was no hesitation, and his wife just grinned at him, looking amused.

I glanced back to Keela, and she just bit her lip, eyes trailing over to Twilight and Fluttershy as well. The lavender mare just chuckled, however, and shook her head. “We already talked about it. Fluttershy and I are both fine with you trying to be with Mender and possibly joining our herd, don’t worry,” she assured. Keela’s cheeks were pink by the time she was done, eyes wide as she looked back at me. Velvet started just snickering over on the couch, of course.

“I-I… But I’d need Mender’s approval even if I did manage to…” she stammered, eyes locking with mine and searching my face. I just chuckled, however, and nodded to her.

“Keela, I cared about all of you, and… I really did like you. Our time got cut short due to things conspiring against us behind the scenes, but that doesn’t mean that it’s automatically too late,” I assured her softly. Both paws were back up to her mouth by then, and it felt like the tears coming down were quite a bit different now, a smile playing against her mouth, from the bits of it I could see.

She nodded rapidly to me, but Mirin smirked behind her, then suddenly asked, “So, did making that portal to Equus get jumped up a bit in priority?”

I blinked, but Keela suddenly smiled and giggled. “Mmm, we’re finding what happened with Nirru, then leaving, I think…” she agreed, giving me a grin as she wiped her eyes with a paw. I blinked again, then blushed a little as Mirin started snickering…

“You could have given me a little more warning than ten minutes!” Banana Swirl whined as she flailed about in the kitchen behind the counter. I coughed lightly, but Pinkie, bouncing in place to my immediate left, just squealed happily.

“You can’t rush awesomeness! Ice cream is soooooo worth waiting for!” she chirped, wiggling all her hooves into the air in the next bounce. I ducked under the flailing hoof instinctively, then sighed.

“I’m sorry I didn’t give you more time. I honestly entirely forgot. It’s been… a rather long day,” I admitted, lowering my forehead until I whacked my subdermal armor against the counter with a reverberating ‘tonk’ noise. Nope, didn’t feel a thing.

Rainbow snickered at the table behind us, then reminded, “I dunno, Pinkie. I can put quite a rush on my awesomeness. Fastest flier in Equestria!”

I looked back at her with a skeptical glance, earning a raised eyebrow until I smirked and pointed out, “Dash, you technically moved fast enough to go through a compressed spatial bridge between dimensions. I think you’re the fastest anything in Equus at the moment.” A technically true statement, as I was pretty sure Twilight’s teleportation technique didn’t involve actual velocity. It appeared to actually cancel it completely during the transition.

Predictably, the cyan mare puffed up unbelievably at that, turning a little pink in the cheeks. Applejack, to her right, rolled her eyes, then chuckled to herself. “Eeyup, it went right to her head,” she deduced. The cyan mare stuck her tongue out at her fillyfriend, and I just snickered. That much had been intended when I said it. Still, it was a true statement!

“Ooooh, question!” Pinkie murmured, halting her bouncing long enough to shoot it right into my ear and freak me out.

Sliding away from her a bit, I shuddered before asking, “Uh, what is it, Pinkie?”

She just grinned a little wider at me, of course, before asking, “If she has our orders and knows we’re here, why are we still standing up by the counter while everypony else is over there sitting down? Not that I mind, of course, because standing up is really awesome and fun and I get to bounce this way, plus you’re my friend and I don’t mind being next to you.” I stared blankly at her through the long string of statements, then fidgeted. I actually didn't have an answer for that. I'd gotten so distracted staring at interesting freezers behind the counter and trying to figure out how they functioned that I hadn't actually noticed everypony sitting down already.

"Ah, right, we should go join them," I stated blankly, wiggling a little before turning and walking over to the others. My face felt hot, and I knew I was probably blushing. That was the one issue with having a light fur color. It was really easy to see the blushes.

Twilight snickered as I came back before asking, "So, figured out the freezers yet?" Gah! Sitting two chairs down, I glared at her, and she just grinned before revealing, "Ice in a certain shape around one of our magnification crystals was discovered to stay at perpetually one temperature if a low amount of Ether is pumped into it. There are coils of ice in the top of the freezers that keep everything inside the glass cool. More intense ones are used in her kitchen area to make the ice cream in the first place."

I blinked once, not suspecting the coy mare to actually be helpful. Still, I nodded, thanking her with, "Ah, yes, you guessed right via my link and direction I was staring. I really should look into figuring out these crystals more, however. They seem interesting."

Rainbow gave me a skeptical stare, then asked, "Wait, wait, you were seriously trying to figure out the freezers?" I felt my face heat up, but Spike interrupted instead.

"Why does that surprise you? He's almost as curious as Twi is, and if she didn't know, you know she'd be tearing it apart to figure it out," he pointed out, shooting a skeptical look at Dash instead. The cyan mare snickered, and Twilight gave a sheepish smile and blush.

"Yeah, yeah. I didn't say it was a bad thing! Besides, we should also take it as our responsibility to answer any and all questions and curiosities that Mender has. He's not even been here two months yet, and we should be accommodating," she suggested, more than likely to distract and change the topic.

Still, that brought up another thing I was going to ask. "That reminds me, once we get back to Ponyville, could I talk to you, Applejack?" I asked, looking towards the orange mare.

She perked, looking over at me with a bit of curiosity and surprise in her green eyes. "Oh? Ya got somethin' in mind, Sugarcube, or just ah social visit?" she asked, tilting her hat up out of her eyes a little.

I gave a nod, then explained, "Big Mac taught me something over estrus break, and it recently came up again. If you don't mind, I'd like to talk to you or him about learning more things about my Earth Pony magic." Her eyes widened for a moment before a warmer smile drifted onto her expression.

"Aww, well shucks, that ain't no problem at all, Mender. Although Ah should warn ya, our specialties are actually ah little bit different. He's really good at tha growin', an' Ah'm better at tha knockin' down. Tap tha tree just right, an' get it ta drop all o' tha good stuff," she revealed, grinning to me. Oh, actually... His sounded easier. Doing a burst of magic in a single instant to specifically target all objects connected to the target and dislodge them on impact sounded hellish...

Smiling, I nodded to her, then elaborated with, "It's an entirely untapped area of magic for me, and seeing as I'm an Earth Pony, I at least wanted to be able to manage Earth Pony magic. What do you think I'd be best at, then?" I really hoped she'd say growing.

Raising an eyebrow to me, she slowly looked around the side of the table at my flanks for a moment. "Uh, if Ah had ta guess, not apples," she warned a second later, grinning at me. Okay, walked into that...

My scowl towards her was interrupted a moment later by a very small and very timid poke to my left foreleg. Raising an eyebrow, I turned to my left and looked down, only to be greeted by a surprising amount of pinks and yellows. Morning Joy, who had prior been upstairs, I was told, was shyly smiling up at me, wearing a darker yellow frilled dress, and had her mane done up in two small pigtails behind her ears. Well, that totally defeated my look of annoyance.

I rotated in my seat to face her, giving a smaller smile down to the little filly, who returned it rather readily. To my surprise, both of her hooves lifted up towards me, in the almost universal gesture of wanting a lift. I gave a blink, then leaned down and hooked my forehooves under her upraised legs, easily lifting her up and into the air. She was surprisingly light, and I found myself idly wondering what it would be like with my own foal. Upon reaching face-level, she giggled and leaned forward, very lightly bumping her nose against mine before straightening again. I chuckled to her, then gently rested her on the edge of the table, looking at me. My left hoof reached up and carefully moved back the right shoulder of her dress a little ways, revealing white wrapped bandage behind it still.

“How are you feeling? Does it hurt?” I asked, shifting back to Joy’s eyes as she grinned for a moment, then shook her head.

“Nope! The nurse was really good, and it doesn’t hurt at all anymore. Well, it did a little when I was trying to get my leg through the dress, but I took it easy like Mom said to,” she assured, settling into a partial sit as I supported her against the edge of the table.

Fluttershy leaned forward next to me, touching the bandage with her right forehoof and giving the small filly a little frown. “This is a pretty big bandage. You’re a very brave filly for coming through all of that,” she praised, moving the dress back over the wrap and smiling to her, her other forehoof giving the filly a pat on the head.

Banana Swirl came out of the kitchen at about that time, then gave a raised eyebrow to her filly. She balanced a large tray of treats on her back, easily half of our orders already, then walked gently towards our table. “Joy, I warned you not to bother our guests too much. Sitting on them might be bothering our guests too much,” she warned, giving a playfully skeptical smirk to her daughter, who flailed instead.

“I’m not sitting on him! I’m sitting on the table! Uh, which you also tell me not to do, but, um, he put me up here!” she quickly defended, and I started to chuckle.

“She’s not being a bother. If anything, I call this practice for my own foal. Uh, if it turns out to be a filly, of course. Not that that would really matter for just sitting on a table. Wait, no, I wouldn’t want them sitting on the table either, so I guess this isn’t very good practice at all, actually,” I started to explain, promptly walking myself right off the proverbial cliff. Rainbow started snickering the longer I trailed on, but Pinkie actually nodded along as if following my rambling string of thoughts perfectly. I didn’t know if I should be happy or sad for that.

Joy perked then suddenly gasped, instead. “Oh, you’re going to be a daddy?!” she asked, zeroing in on that almost immediately. Fluttershy turned lightly pink, shrinking down a little in her chair, but Swirl perked up as she set the tray down. One glance later towards Fluttershy, and she started to grin instead.

“Ooooh, are you expecting, Miss Fluttershy?” she asked gently. Despite the rather reserved way of asking, the yellow mare still squeaked.

Reaching over, I gently rubbed her shoulder, giving her a warmer smile and nod as she looked over at me. Her blush didn’t fade that much, but she smiled and nodded after, relaxing a little. “Um, yes. We just found out today, actually. I’m sorry. It’s just a bit overwhelming still,” she admitted, exhaling gently and blowing her bangs up a little with her breath.

Joy perked even more, a wide smile popping up on her expression as she clapped her forehooves together. I quickly caught her as she unbalanced herself, falling into my lap with a squeak a moment later. Her mother seemed unconcerned with the tumble, instead grinning towards Fluttershy and doing a little hop.

“Oh! Congratulations! I know what you mean when you say overwhelming. He’s not here at the moment, but my herdmate can definitely tell you, as he was even more worked up than I was! You get adjusted to it after a while, thankfully, and given how strong your relationship already seems to be, I have a feeling it will get even stronger,” she assured, rubbing Fluttershy’s other shoulder, which seemed to let the mare relax even more. Oddly, a spike of irritation shot down Twilight's link instead, but it was gone in the same instant when I turned to look at her. She gave me a small smile instead as I raised my eyebrow, and I sighed, giving up for now.

Smiling down at Joy instead, I helped her stabilize herself, and she gave me a peppy smile upwards. “Hee, good catch. Earlier, too. You’re good at catching ponies!” she admitted, snickering after.

Her mother smirked at her, before turning to Fluttershy instead and assuring, “You two are going to be great parents regardless! You’re the kind and nurturing type, I can tell. Not that your reputation hasn’t preceded you of course. Your mate is also very protective and obviously cares about you a lot. I bet he’d be a great father, too, given how good he is with foals.” Gah!

I twitched visibly, then asked, “Why does everypony keep saying that?!” The most obvious answer they could give is ‘because it’s true’, but even if it was, that didn’t mean every pony who saw me interacting with a foal had to make the observation!

Applejack started snickering at that, then pointed out, “Mender, ya’d need ta be blind ta miss it when yer bein’ downright adorable with a cute little filly like ya are. Plus, we all know ya got tha protective instincts, an’ ya obviously don’t mind foals, given yer toleratin’ one in yer lap. It’s ah compliment.” I blinked, then looked down at Joy again, who just grinned up at me before nodding.

“Being around adults that get annoyed easily isn’t fun, no. Oooh, and another thing! If you have tentacle thingies, that’s like a built in playground!” she exclaimed a moment later, surprising me even further. Then, of course, she asked, “Oh, can I see them?”

“Morning Joy!” her mother scolded, looking momentarily horrified. I finally managed to chuckle at that, however, the conversation at least falling back into a topic that I could fully digest. My shoulders wiggled slightly before two tentacles slipped out of them from each side. The filly spotted them immediately, eyes widening as they slipped out and wiggled their tips lightly in front of her face. Both she and her mother just stared at them for a moment, and I raised an eyebrow, at least until the filly lifted her hoof up and poked at it.

Shifting it slightly, I gently wrapped it around her hoof, giving it a little squeeze, and she smiled at it. After a long moment, she giggled, then reached out to touch her other hoof to it as it wrapped around her first. “Huh. It’s furred, just like your coat,” she murmured, apparently surprised at this revelation. I raised an eyebrow to her, then snuck the other over her dress, wrapping around her lower chest. She gave a surprised squeak as I lifted her up into the air, gently drifting over the table before slowly starting to rotate her around in place. The other slid off her hoof and supported her waist, helping her balance, and she started to grin, laughing as she flapped her hooves like wings.

Swirl relaxed, giggling as she watched her daughter ‘fly’ around over the table, then drift down in close. She moved her head to the side as Joy slipped past, then I carefully deposited the filly onto her mother’s back instead, her muzzle going into her mom’s mane. “Eeee, that’s awesome!” she declared a moment later, followed by, “They’re surprisingly soft!”

“Really?” Spike asked all of a sudden, looking over at me while raising a claw. “Can I feel?” he asked curiously a moment later. I nodded towards him, moving the right over around Twilight for him to grab with both of his claws. It was strange feeling him poking and prodding at it, but eh.

“What are they, exactly?” Swirl asked, reaching out and bumping her hoof against the tentacle I’d forgotten was still near her. I held it out for her after she poked it, and she used a hoof to brush along some of the fur.

I looked at them for a moment before explaining, “Honestly, they’re almost exactly like additional legs, except instead of ending in a hoof, they end in a tapered point. There are no bones or anything inside of them, just an organic metal core that controls their movements.”

Joy perked at that, asking, “Metal? That’s not something that’s in somepony, though.” Technically true. Twilight just giggled though and shook her head.

“That’s why he’s a ‘cyborg’. It’s short for ‘cybernetic organism’, or a normal pony who has artificial parts put inside of him. It’s way beyond our technology, but he got them in the other dimension, where they were put in to save his life,” she explained, keeping her vocabulary intentionally small by the sounds of her tentatively searching for words.

Rarity giggled in amusement at that, and I raised my eyebrow over at her, then winced lightly as Spike poked his claw into the side of my tentacle. I pulled it away from him and gave him a frown, earning a sheepish, apologetic smile in return. The pearly mare shook her head at our display, then elaborated with, “I find it fascinating that originally we thought that you were a Keldarian just like Keela. It just amuses me how completely incorrect we were, but pleases me at the same time to discover you were a pony all along.”

My eyes softened towards her, and I smiled, giving her a nod in return. Her eyes widened slightly as she felt the ‘thanks’ from it flowing down between our empathy links, but she recovered remarkably fast, and gave me a gentle smile and nod. Fluttershy nuzzled into my shoulder from the left a moment later, then gave my cheek a little lick before agreeing with, “Quite. Now Mender doesn’t have to doubt himself anymore. Having all his memories back should help with that.”

I let my right tentacle slide back into my shoulder, then lifted my right foreleg instead, staring at the hoof. It was my hoof, grown like a normal pony hoof, regardless of it being accelerated or regenerated or morphic. Giving a little sigh, I admitted, “My time as ‘Azure’, remembering the first six months of my life, has definitely helped me out a lot.”

Grinning happily, Pinkie nodded twice before shoving an entire ice cream sandwich bar into her mouth at once, bits of vanilla ice cream and chocolate crumbs spraying out everywhere. Rarity floated a napkin up ahead of time, opening it up like a makeshift umbrella as the spray hit, but Rainbow on the other side of her took it directly. She gave Pinkie a mildly annoyed glance. Rarity took another sip of her shake as a second napkin floated up from next to her, and offered itself to Dash. I was rather amused at the unicorn’s nonchalant handling of Pinkie’s antics.

Tilting her head, Swirl asked, "First six months? Isn't that oddly speci-"

"I'm technically only seven and a half months old," I reminded, cutting her off with the explanation I knew it was leading to. She faltered, then blanched at me instead, eyes hitting maximum size within seconds. I nodded regardless before continuing with, "I was aged by the machines they put into me to be about twenty or twenty-one, both physically and mentally. Oh, and technically I'm from Equestria of about three hundred and twelve years ago, which would be my theoretical age. I was frozen for most of that, though, and have only been 'born' for those seven and a half months." I was starting to think that Snapshot was right, and a smiley face was an easier answer.

Twilight smacked herself on the forehead, then rolled her eyes before elaborating, "His legal age is three hundred and twelve. His mental and physical age is about twenty-two or twenty-three. His amount of actual experience is seven and a half months. Prior, when he first got here, he had complete retroactive amnesia. Up until about two days ago, he was operating with only a month and a half of experience." I raised my eyebrow again and looked over at her questioningly.

"You couldn't have just explained that at the press conference and saved us twenty minutes of debate?" I asked, continuing my skeptical stare after.

She huffed, then defended herself with, "I wasn't a part of the conference! I couldn't just get up on stage and-"

"We did," Rainbow reminded, giving a mildly annoyed look to Twilight, who widened her eyes a little. The pegasus continued with, "I wasn't about to just let them continue ripping into him mercilessly like that. Asking questions is one thing! What they were doing was just... just..."

"Leading," Rarity finished for her, causing the pegasus to blink and give her a curious look. She shrugged and appended, "They were using blatantly leading questions to attempt to steer the conference in a way that negatively reflected Mender's public relations. Chances are, one or more of them were members of BEID." Ah, she'd noticed. Rainbow looked actually surprised by that, but Applejack just snorted.

"Ah figured as much. Them varmints just don't know when ta quit. What good would it do ta ask such obvious questions aimin' ta implicate Mender?" she asked, looking annoyed.

I sighed and shook my head, however. "To distract is my best guess. Everything that happened today with Joy," I started, nodding over to the filly, who was paying very close attention to me now, before I finished, "wasn't an actual BEID plan. It wasn't thought out. It was a few BEID agents acting out of pure fear due to the propaganda that they were fed. Octavia was right. It looks pretty terrible for BEID's own public relations. So if they can disrupt the press conference about it and try to shove attention back onto me instead, it benefits them."

"So they used you as a distraction to try to lesson the blow to their own reputation?" Swirl asked, frowning as she stared towards the center of the table.

"Usin' Joy as ah hostage like that is disgustin'," Applejack spat out, followed by, "Ah'm not tha only one who thinks so. Mender gave up his own disguise willingly in order ta save tha BEID agent who did it. Then it turns out she did it 'cause she was so terrified o' tha lies that they spoon fed her that she panicked? Yeah, that don't look too good." Okay, yeah, that was a good perspective on it. Heh.

I shook my head, then defended, "I didn't do it for that reason. The unicorn might have been able to catch her, but even he wasn't sure, it turns out. My own magic hadn't pulled back from blocking her knife, so it was literally I take a risk of her possibly dying, or I catch her with my tentacles. If I'd just let her have that risk, I don't think I could have lived with myself." Maybe I was weak and had the inability to make the hard decisions. Sure, politically it would have been infinitely more adventagious for me to simply do nothing. But I would have torn myself apart with the guilt.

Rarity smiled at that. "That's called being a pony, Mender. We work together and look out for each other as best we can," she said softly, eyes locking onto mine. I exhaled gently, feeling the tension go out of my back. Being a pony, huh?

Pinkie finished licking around her hoof, then smiled and nodded over to Rarity. "Yup! She's right, of course! Some ponies just lose sight of that. Then it's up to other ponies to remind them of what we're supposed to be like. That's all BEID is! A bunch of really scared ponies who've lost sight of what it's like to be a pony, and can't see it in you properly," she chirped. I stared at her for a moment, not having expected the level of depth that answer struck upon. She grinned to me, then promptly shoved another ice cream sandwich into her mouth, of course. I smiled and just gave her a chuckle instead, sliding my tentacles back into my shoulders.

Hooking the glass with my hoof, I pulled my own sundae over. I sniffed it twice, the scent of nuts, vanilla, and caramel coming to my nose. Shivering, I licked my lips as I felt an extra wave of saliva come in, and smiled. The spoon on the napkin next to me got hooked to my hoof via the strap, and I teased some of the cream off the top first, sampling it.

Swirl slowly grinned, waiting oddly in anticipation as I tasted it. It was whipped cream, sugar mixed in and quite feathery in texture. Sweet but not too sweet, seeming to just melt in my mouth. I shivered, then nodded twice to her, and she danced happily in place. “Eee, I always love seeing my customer’s expressions and reactions when they eat my treats. So I knew I just had to make sure you liked it, especially,” she revealed, giggling after.

Instead of answering, I took a bigger spoonful, getting some of the caramel and ice cream this time as well. She grinned, then gently set Joy down, who simply plopped down onto her haunches next to her and gave Fluttershy more curious looks, mostly towards her tummy. I felt my cheeks flush lightly when I considered what was inside of her, but the ice cream cooled at the same time, giving a strange contrast between my mouth and cheeks.

I gave a little shiver, then relaxed as I simply enjoyed the dish. Swirl went back to get a second tray after grinning to me again, Rainbow slid her malt over to herself, and Applejack pulled her banana sundae in, too. I was sort of amused at the image of her eating something not apple related, but didn’t want to say anything.

After the second tray was delivered, we sat in peace, the only sounds being spoons scraping against glass, munching, and the occasional, “Mmmm!” I let myself wind down as the sun slowly set through the window outside. It had been one hell of a day, with the press conference after all that fiasco, finding out Fluttershy was pregnant with my foal, and Keela getting her memories back along with the rest of the Keldarians. She still wanted me to call her again tonight after we got back into the rooms for the night. She said that she just wanted to talk to me about the things she found regarding her sister, but I had a sneaking suspicion that there was more to it than that. I wasn’t about to deny her, however, rather pleased she’d wanted to spend more time talking with me. A part of me had worried that the memories she got back would be so traumatizing that she’d break off contact, but I acknowledged that as a bit pessimistic anyway.

Slowly, the sun set as our snacking went on, and I just closed my eyes and leaned back in the chair, feeling Fluttershy’s warmth to my left as she rested against my side. It didn’t take too terribly long for Twilight to slide her chair over and rest against my right, but I just stayed unwinding, doing my best to let the stresses of my day drift away. Here’s to hoping tomorrow would be bet-

An image of Carrot Top flicked into my mind, and I ground the thought to a halt before it cumulated. Ah, right, no, wasn’t going to even say it this time. Instead, I just exhaled, resting with my two mares and idly wondering what tomorrow would bring…