Bound by Scales

by FrostTheWolf

35- Making Amends

        The moment my eyes opened, I felt my body jolt awake. I could not recall what had happened that would put myself in a state like this, but right now, I felt… scared. Something that does not fit well with someone of my position. I did not wake up to the hive that was the home of my kind, but to a bed in one of those… places where those ponies would tend to the sick and the ill. But why I was here of all places… was something I did not know.

        I tried to move my front foreleg, but then happened to notice the tubes that were… connected to me. Was this really how some modern medicine for ponykind actually worked? It looked rather foreign to me and complex, but it made me feel… okay. It wasn’t trying to slowly kill me, or change me in any sort of way… but I was still nervous because I had not seen the likes of these before. The silence throughout the room I was in was not helping me out either because I could not keep myself calm the longer I was in here. Not to mention that the room was rather dark and almost impossible to see anything-.

        *FLICK!*

        It was only a few seconds after originally thinking this that the whole room immediately began to fill up with light. Causing me to raise a hoof in response because of how bright it was before everything began to die down. However, the one who turned on the light was not who I was expecting to see… or who I actually wanted to see for that matter. “Oh man…… I’m glad to see that you are awake…”

        It was that… human I think they were called… that had the soul of a dragon fused with his. The Scalebound, I think he was called. Though, why would he be here after everything that had happened? Did he come to make fun of my failed attempt in trying to take over Equestria? “How are you feeling?” Wait… did he just… did he actually ask me a question? Why is he trying to be so nice to me!? After everything I’ve done of all things?!

        Now though, I felt was the right time to speak. “Why would you care? Matter of fact, what happened to me to where I need to be here of all places?” He sighed for a moment, before looking back at me and then asking me something I… was not prepared to answer right away.

        “Chrysalis… how long do you think you’ve been in this room for?” He asked me… and the answer for that was something I couldn’t think of in my current state right now. I watched him go over to the machines that were on the sides of the bed that I was on, watching him turn them off and taking the needles out of my forelegs before looking back at me as I shook my head from side to side. “You don’t know? Oh boy… This might be hard to bear then…”

        “What’s that suppose to mean?” I growled a little, not liking that response. But what he said next was something I was definitely not prepared for.

        “Chrysalis… you have been in a coma for the last month,” What? How?! What could have possibly put me in a state to which I was separated from my kind for THAT long?!! “On the day that we… uh… how should I put this…”

        “Foiled my plans?” I spoke up, still internally shouting at him and wanting to demand answers.

        “Yes… shortly after we ‘foiled your plans’... something called an aspect tried to take control of you,” Oh… Now the memories were beginning to come back… and the very painful memories, might I add. “You’re very lucky though… in my encounters with aspects, they kill off the person they plan to possess and take the body for themselves. Somehow though… you put up a fight and resisted them… and when the aspect was destroyed, it put you in a coma.”

        Which now leads to the point where I’m no longer asleep in this bed… but the first thing that came to my mind was… “What in the name of the hive is an aspect?”

        In response, the Scalebound I was talking to then asked me a question. “Are you familiar with Nightmare Moon by chance?” Of course I was. I remembered the old stories from that of ponykind. But… I wasn’t really sure if they were actually true or not. So, I briefly just nodded my head, allowing for him to explain to me how this relates to what happened. “Well, even though Nightmare no longer possesses Luna, she is still a threat because she was responsible for the Onyx Dragonkin being pushed to the brink of extinction. Nightmare is the one that conjures the Aspects, which are based on the four natural elements that dragons respect the most… I can go into the details, but the point is, Nightmare is trying to finish what she started long ago and she’s trying to use the Aspects to harm those that are close to me and Revaan.”

        “And should I assume that Revaan is the name of your… dragon?” I asked, a little nervous. When we were young hatchlings, we were always told how dragons were fierce and mighty in the hive along with the fact that they can easily destroy us if we weren’t careful. I watched the Scalebound nod his head for a moment as he straightened up from the leaning position he was in originally against the wall.

        “Can I ask you something though?” Wait… he has a question to… ask me? I only was able to nod my head a short bit, caught off guard by the first question, before he asked me a second one. “Why did you do it?”

        “Do what? The invasion?” Looking back on it… There were many reasons why. Many would assume revenge because of the Canterlot Wedding… but there was another reason. A reason for everything. The Canterlot Wedding… the hidden tunnels… the invasion. Behind everything was another reason… something that I haven’t told anyone else before.

        “More then that…” He then told me in response. “I’m not going to share your life story or anything… but I think there’s more to why you do it than just to get revenge… so, I want to hear you out.” Is he… actually serious? There has to be some kind of catch… is that orange pony with him? The earth pony with the weird looking hat? She’s not hiding anywhere now, is she?

        I took a moment to verify that she wasn’t trying to listen in on us and after a few moments, I realized that she wasn’t anywhere. It was just me and this… Scalebound. Taking a deep breath, I… began to recall the memories from before. “It all started when I was young. Around the same age where a filly would become a mare. At the time, I was not seen as a queen, but instead as a Princess… My mother was the Queen. Queen Animi-Motus. She did everything she could in order to provide for the hive without having to resort to conflict with other species… However… one day, she… became no more… and I was left in charge to rule my kind. But unlike my mother… I was unable to help provide what I could for my swarm on my own.”

        Looking back at the painful memories… and recalling the days where I saw helpless younglings just wither up and die because they did not get the care or the love they needed to keep them alive made me shed a couple of tears, causing me to wipe them away from my face. “I… was upset at myself… I was doing everything I could to try and provide for my kind, but it just wasn’t enough… So I looked for somepony to blame… and in this, I found a young alicorn. A princess… who was able to provide love for everypony that was around her and mend broken hearts. It was then… that I began to despise her… and Celestia. They was doing everything in their power to provide for their kind and thrive… while I was doing everything I could do for my kind, but nopony was thriving at all.”

        “So that was when you set your sights for Canterlot?” He asked, looking back at me.

        “That was the goal… but we had a lot of work to do before we could get there… Some of my advisors and close friends to my mother, disagreed with my plan. Saying it would be too risky for the hive. But, I told them that it would work. It started with the tunnels, working our way to Canterlot once the groundwork was laid. Then, there was actually kidnapping Cadence and assuming her form… Then the wedding… I had thought that everything was perfect, but that student of Celestia’s ruined everything… Looking back, I should’ve done more to deal with her if I had the chance…”

        The Scalebound nodded his head as he listened to my story, before then asking another question. “What happened after the wedding? Leading up to the events of… well… running into me for the first time and then your plan afterwards.”

        “Many of the changelings that opposed of my plan soon either left or pushed me to the point where I was to banish them and some of their other family members out of the hive… I did not want any weak links that could wither away with what we were doing. For a few years, we were able to move peacefully with no real problems from the surface. But… around the same time that you had made your… grand entrance in the Apple-lachian mountains, one of the drones soon ran away. It may be a little obvious at who I’m referring to.”

        “Thorax.”

        I nodded my head in response to what he said. “Yes… Unlike the other changelings… he was part of a new wave of drones that were born after the Canterlot Wedding. But Thorax… he was the first. He was the closest thing I ever had to having an actual son… and for him to leave like that…”

        “… made you heartbroken?” The question at first made me think that he was trying to make a joke out of this. But after a couple of moments, I saw no ill intent in his humor and just nodded my head in response. I continued to tell him my story for a little while longer, until I had finished what I had to say as he took the chance to process everything.

        But when he was done… was when he caught me off guard with a question I wasn’t prepared for. “Do you know a changeling by the name of Zektor?” That name… oh it has been so long since I heard that name! But… Why would he say it?

        Matter of fact… “ Yes, but h-how do you know that name?” He didn’t say anything at all… but instead turned to the other end of the room as I heard a door slightly creek open and someone step inside. At first, I thought it was another pony or someone like him but-.

        N-no way… H-how is this possible? I-it can’t be him… can it? “Hello there, Chryssy.” I just stared in disbelief. Zektor… one of my mother's closest advisors and my closest friend… was alive. I had thought that he perished after what had happened when some centaur broke out of Tartarus, but he was still here. This… looked to be impossible… but he was truly here with me right now.

        “H-how?” I asked. “How are you?”

        “When the swarm was forced to move because of the centaur named Tirek broke out of Tartarus, I got caught up in the destruction and I was close to death… but… one of the drones that you casted out as a defector found me and took me in here at the Hollow… She’s my niece… Maple Leaf. Her sister was Holly Leaf… and they are just two of the changelings that have called this place home.”

        I… was stunned by this. “T-there are others here?”

        “Yes…” the Scalebound soon spoke up now, opening a window and letting me have a look outside. All around this… place, there were changelings, earth ponies, pegasi, unicorns… all walks of life in the same place… living with one another, side by side. “Obsidian Hollow is the first community to our understanding where Ponies, Changelings and other species have been able to co-exist here without having to exert dominance over one another. And Chrysalis… we want to provide for you the same chance that everypony here has gotten.”

        Now… I was beginning to look at him with a confused look. “What do you mean? Like… a reformation? I still have the hive to-”

        “Thorax… or more specifically, King Thorax, has been helping the changelings improve their relationships with Equestria and other species,” I heard Zektor speak to me now. “Everything is in good hooves, Chryssy. We just want to give you a chance to start over.”

        “Oh really?” I asked now. “Who else has had that chance to ‘start over’?” I questioned, looking back at both of them. The Scalebound… looked at me for a moment and sighed before speaking up.

        “Would you believe me if I told you that we gave Starlight Glimmer the same chance and she took it?” Wait wait wait wait… Did I just hear him right? Starlight Glimmer… the SAME Starlight Glimmer that is the student of Twilight Sparkle… was in the same position I was in at one time? How does that make sense?!

        “Why would Starlight Glimmer need a chance to start over?” Chrysalis asked.

        “Well, she used to run a ‘cult of equality’ from what Applejack told me, forcing everypony’s cutie marks to be the same thing, even though she just hid hers because she thought it would bring peace and harmony, but it really just oppressed the ponies in the village. Months later, she had a plan to go back in time and undo the moment when she and her friends got their cutie mark, but the spell she had was set on fire, resulting in finding her way inside the hollow and encountering us.” Okay, that’s a lot to take in, but I… think I understand it a bit.

        “So yeah… for this, it’s like with Starlight, but instead of Twilight or Ken here helping you through the process, I’m going to help.” I heard Zektor speak… though, which one was… wait… is that the Scalebound’s name? I never knew it until now. “I have a place in the hollow where we can stay and I can also talk to the doctors so they can let you out today.” Well, at least that’s some good news.

        “Alright… I’ll just leave you guys be then. Let me know if you need any help with anything.” I heard… Ken… speak up as he soon left the room and left the two of us alone. It was during this time that I felt like I had the strength to get up as I motioned my back legs to the side of the bed and got up.

        Hang on a second… what’s this feeling by my tail? Is that a cathe-eeeAGGGHHHH!!

        After I had stepped out of the room and left the hospital, I began to walk over to where the doorway to Ponyville was, knowing that someone… who was once a former enemy… was now in good hooves. It had been a month since the incident involving Chrysalis trying to take over Equestria and kidnapping everypony and in that timeframe, things have… improved quite a bit. A lot of the changelings that were once part of Chrysalis’ group were now actually learning how to live amongst other ponies thanks to Thorax’s help. But more importantly, we were able to bring a lot of ponies, including Celestia herself, up to speed with what exactly happened to Chrysalis. Fortunately, it was unlikely that something like this was going to happen again, but we couldn’t really be too sure given the amount of ponies who did witness it.

        One thing that has improved in that time though, which I’m happy about, was my relationship with not just Applejack, but also her family and siblings. In fact, I was on my way right now in order to go see how they were doing. It was only a few moments afterwards that I ran into Applebloom, who seemed to be in good spirits this afternoon. She was even talking to somepony that… oddly reminded me of Granny Smith as I heard them continue to talk.

        “You must be new,” She replied, looking back at the old stallion for a moment and smiling. “I’m Apple Bloom.”

        “I’m Grand Pear.” Wait…… is it just me or does that guy sound like William Shatner?

        “Welcome to Ponyville!” I heard the filly tell him, which, caused him to scoff a little in response. Surprisingly enough, he told her that he was originally from here before moving to Vanhoover in order to open up his own store. When Apple Bloom asked why he moved back though… that’s when things got confusing.

        “I… uh,” He smacked his lips for a moment before finishing his sentence as he looked back at her. “I needed a change of pace.” Of course, I figured there was a little bit more to the story then that… but I rather not interrupt them. Besides, he was even letting Apple Bloom try out one of his pear jams, which seemed nice enough… even though I’m not personally a fan of other kinds of jams besides grape, raspberry and strawberry.

        Apple Bloom was even liking it a lot to the point where when she asked how much the jar would be, Grand Pear gave it to her for free… Of course, I wasn’t really sure how that would help him from a business standpoint, but hey. At least Apple Bloom enjoyed it.

        Before we left though, that’s when Grand Pear actually noticed me as the two of us were about to walk away for a moment. He looked a little surprised, especially because I allowed Apple Bloom to ride on my shoulders on the way back to Sweet Apple Acres as the sun was beginning to set down. When we got closer, I set her down back on the ground as we walked towards the barn while she galloped. I would catch up, but it would be better to take things at my own pace.

        Yet… when I got to the door though and began to open it, that was when I thought that something didn’t seem right. “Pear Jam!? What were you thinking?” I heard Applejack say, shortly followed by a door closing… other than the one I closed. And given how AJ was acting right now, she was panicking a bit. “Quick, Hide it!”

        “Huh?” Before Apple Bloom… or even I for that matter, could understand what was going on, both Big Mac and AJ were rushing to hide the jam under the floorboards. Which, was weird enough to me since I didn’t really know that you could hide anything underneath the floorboards in the barn. “What’s the big deal? It’s just Pear Jam.”

        “I’m with Apple Bloom on this one, what’s the big deal about it?” I asked, just as confused as her right now. “Is there something about pears that you don’t like or-?”

        “No, it’s not that,” Applejack shook her head as she looked back at us. “The big deal is that there’s been a long standing feud between the Apples and the Pears!”

        “Yup.” We heard Big Mac add to that as I now sat down at the table. Yet, before I could say anything, Apple Bloom beat me to it.

        “Why?” The question though… was something that I… don’t think Applejack was personally prepared for. In fact, it didn’t look like she or Big Mac knew the answer either… and when Apple Bloom suggested asking Granny Smith, around the same time she entered the room, Applejack switched the topic to asking what kind of syrup goes better with pancakes.

        As Granny was going to go wash up… that’s when I then decided to speak up. “Okay… what was with the sudden change of topic?”

        “Listen sugarcube,” Applejack told both of us as she sat down across from the table and began to speak. “Anytime that Big Mac and Ah tried to ask Granny about the feud or the pears, she gets so upset that she couldn’t talk. Best not to bring it up.”

        “That doesn’t make sense though…” I told them now, looking back at Apple Bloom as she finished the other half of what I was going to say. “That Grand Pear was really nice to me, even though I’m an Apple. He was even nice to Ken. I wonder what happened.”

        “Me, too. But we can’t ask Granny.” Applejack affirmed us. Which, lead to me asking something in return.

        “Is there somepony you can ask?” I then asked her, looking back at Apple Bloom and Mac before refocusing my attention on AJ “Surely, there’s gotta be somepony in the family that might know about it.”

        “True, but ah don’t know who-” It was then that it looked like a lightbulb lit up in Applejack’s head, because she soon figured out how to solve the problem. “I got it! We can ask Goldie Delicious! If anypony knows about the feud, it’d be the family historian!” Wait, the Apple Family has a family historian? Seriously, how big is Applejack’s family?

        It was shortly after this that AJ, Mac and Apple Bloom agreed that the three of them would go visit the family historian first thing in the morning. Yet… I wasn’t quite sure if I should come along. After all, even though I was considered to be part of the family, this looked to be more of something that was central to that of AJ and her siblings rather than me.

        Of course, that doesn’t mean I can’t help any. “If you three are going to see this… Goldie, then the least I can do is cover for you while you’re gone.” I suggested. Which, surprised all three of them. From the expressions on their faced, I don’t think any of them would’ve expected for me to say that at all.

        “Ken, ah love ya, but are you sure you want to do that?” She asked.

        “Why of course,” I insisted, looking back at them. “Granny Smith would get suspicious if nopony was collecting apples, so let me work on that. Trust me, AJ. It’ll be alright.”

        “Well, if you say so.” Applejack replied back to us, before turning to notice Granny Smith coming back downstairs. “Hey Granny, is it alright if Ken covers for us tomorrow for the harvest?”

        “Sure thing… though, why do you ask? Are you three doing something that ah don’t know about?” She asked… which really put AJ and her siblings in a tight spot for a second. I needed to think of something so they didn’t get suspicious of what they were doing… without making it sound like they were lying to her.

        “Apple Bloom is working on a school project that involves learning more about her family tree,” I told her for a moment before finishing the rest of my sentence. “So AJ and Mac were going to go see the family historian and see if they could help her with it.” It was… a bit of a risky gamble, I have to admit. But Granny Smith seemed… okay with that. In fact, she didn’t think I was lying at all actually. Which was a huge sigh of relief for the four of us.

        The only question though… was how long could that last?

Next Morning

        I was already up early before the crack of dawn in order to get myself ready for a day of work at Sweet Apple Acres. For clothes, I decided to use a sleeveless shirt and pants along with keeping my headphones and jacket at the hollow given how warm it would get across the orchard on a summer day like this. Not to mention that I didn’t need to bring along any weapons or anything, hence why I decided to leave them in the armory.

        What I was going to use though was one of the newfound ‘pulses’ that I had yet to try because the opportunity to do so… didn’t really present itself. I already had Aura, Fire from defeating Krent Zin, Earth from when Hunter helped us out with defeating Gol Motaad and Ice from figuring out the inner properties of Norok and Ruvaak Iiz. But this one seemed the best to use… because it wouldn’t damage any of the trees.

        Wind. That’s right… Wind. With the last Aspect, Viin Riik, being the aspect of storms, defeating it allowed for me to control currents of air. Originally, I thought that I could also control lightning, but from trying it once, no electricity seemed to come out from the air currents I conjured. So… how would this relate to Apple bucking though?

        Well, the theory that I had was that if I could conjure enough wind and have it hit a tree with enough force, the shockwave would be enough to have the apples fall from the tree… but not uproot it from the ground. Besides, last time that happened was when we had the Derpy Hooves that was displaced with the strength of Saitama over and one tap of a tree accidently cause a whole row of them to collapse on top of one another like dominos.

        To this day, we’ve had to repair the ground, get all the apples off the trees, remove the old trees since they were uprooted from the ground and plant new ones… Granny was not happy about that. So hopefully, this plan would be less destructive than before.

        By the time that I got a small tote bag ready with some water and a few extra things, I then got moving to Ponyville and back to where the Orchard was, passing Applejack and her siblings on the way here and finding Granny Smith getting the baskets ready for the harvest today. She also seemed happy to see me so I could help her out as I set my bag down by the porch. “Time to get to work.”

        One by one, I approached a row on the orchard and set a basket down on the ground. And yes, I mean every tree in that row. I thought that having the baskets set up already would save me the hassle of having to go back and forth with bringing a new basket each time. And as the old saying goes, time is money. So, I took up a stance at the end of the row, letting my arm glow a bit as some wind began to churn around my right hand before releasing it. This… in turn, struck the tree I was standing in front of… hitting it with enough force in order to shake it, but not break anything as the apples soon began to fall into the basket.

        What I did not expect though… was for the same thing to happen to the other four trees in that same row. I was even personally surprised myself by this as I looked back at the other rows. This… could be a lot easier than I originally thought.

        So, I repeated the same process for the next few sets of trees and kept going. Granny told me that she needed roughly twenty baskets and that something like that would take almost half the day, but at the pace I was going, I had reached those twenty baskets… in less than two hours. Which was fine to me, but it still meant that I somehow needed to occupy Granny Smith until they get back.

        Things got weird though when I finally brought the last basket over. For one thing… there was an apple on top of everything that looked like somepony… or something took a bite out of it. Secondly, there was the fact that my tote bag… was strangely open. Something that never really happens normally. When I took a closer look though, it looked like the edges of the bag were… melted somewhat. And it smelled rather fresh.

        I could only think of one possible explanation… and one that I hoping that it didn’t happen. But before I could do anything, I heard Granny inside the house scream. Impulse soon kicked in shortly afterwards, causing me to tighten up the bag and run inside.

        When I got inside, I saw a scared Granny Smith holding a broom with one of her forelegs as I looked to her. “Granny, are you okay? What happened?”

        She was relieved to see me… but still looked a bit terrified. “T-two lizard like creatures just r-ran under the floorboards! I t-thought they were rats, but they had scales! One of them was f-fire like and the other one like a red ruby.” Granny told me, pointing back at the same floorboards that Applejack had hidden the Pear Jam jar from yesterday.

        Realizing who the two ‘lizards’ were… just made me facepalm myself. “You have got to be kidding me…” I groaned for a moment, looking back at Granny Smith for a moment. “Granny, could you please put the broom away. You’re scaring them.”

        “Scaring who?” She asked, confused for a moment as I looked back at her. Around the time that she had put the broom away was when I sat down on the floor. Trying to ease myself a bit before actually speaking.

        “Ruby. Magma. Please come out now…” That… small statement soon had the floorboard in the kitchen that Applejack messed with the other day soon move. Low and behold, it was Ruby and Magma… both of them looking like they did something wrong while Magma had a piece of an apple peel cover his head like a time hat.

        Granny was rather… surprised by all of this. Especially with the fact that the lizards that she thought were in her kitchen were just two little dragon ponies who happened to be sleeping inside the bag I brought with me and were looking for food from the looks of it. However… there was one part I was unsure won’t really go down so well with her. And that happened when Ruby spoke up. “S-sowwy Papa…”

        That… immediately got the old mare’s attention. “Wait… Papa?” Yeah, I was definitely beginning to dread this part right around now. But, the only thing I could do was bite the bullet and tell her.

        “Yeah… Granny, these two happen to be my little ones. Ruby and Magma…” I explained to them. “Normally, they would be back home sleeping, but apparently, the two of them must’ve decided to sleep in my tote bag this time.”

        She understood that part… but then came the hard stuff. “So… if you're the father… than who’s-” Around then was when I held up a finger, getting something I kept in my pocket actually. It was a small family photo of AJ, me, and the kids. So, I held it out for them to see, pointing at different people on there to see their responses.

        What happened was… well, this. “Papa.”

        “Mama.”

        “Ruby.”

        “Dork face!” That one had me groan a little bit as I looked back at Ruby now. Despite her calling her brother her first nickname, my concern was about how Granny was going to take all of this.

        Her response though… even surprised me. “So… You two…”

        “Yeah…” I sighed, before looking back at her. “Granny, before you ask-”

        “Why didn’t you two tell me sooner?” Wait, what? This… was not the kind of reaction I was expecting at all. “You two did not need to keep a secret of having grand kids from me.”

        “A-applejack was concerned that you would freak out since Ruby and Magma aren’t… well… like normal earth ponies.” I told her, just as Magma burped and set the apple peel hat that he was wearing on fire briefly. “They’re part dragon too.”

        “That still ain’t gonna convince me to love them any less… It’s better to tell me such things than to hide them from me,” She replied, which made me think of yesterday when Applejack originally hid the Pear Jam under the… floorboards… Oh no. “Which begs the question… what was in there that had them scurrying over there?”

        “Uhh…” Okay, now was when things were getting kind of nerve racking. This was the kind of position that I did NOT want to find myself in at all. Besides, if Granny Smith actually did find the Pear Jam and figure everything out, it would also lead to her figuring out what Applejack and the others were doing. “Can I be honest with you on something… and please don’t freak out on me…”

        “Why would I-?”

        “Applejack told me that there was a certain subject that you would get frustrated on to the point where you wouldn’t tell her or Big Mac anything.” I was going to saw more, but I think that was all I needed to say before she looked back at me with a surprised look on her face. Not before long though, she calmed down a bit… and sighed.

        “Ken… I want to ask you something, after we take in the baskets from the-”

        “Already did that,” I replied back. “I was just finishing up as I heard you scream earlier.” Granny Smith was honestly surprised by that, looking back to the inside of the barn to see all the baskets I was talking about. “One of them only has ninety-nine apples since these two tried taking a bite in one.”

        “Sowwy, Gwanny.” That… caught both of us off guard once we heard the kids say that. Adorable, yet apologetic at the same time.

        “Aww… it’s okay…” Granny Smith replied, looking back at the two of them now before turning to me. “Tell ya what. Let’s wash this one up and get ya some Apple Slices to tide you over.” They definitely liked the sound of that.

        As we were washing some things up though, Granny Smith then asked me a question. “So… about what I wanted to ask… How did you learn about the Apple Family Feud? How much?”

        I sighed for a minute in response as Ruby jumped up onto my shoulder. “Honestly, from what I do know… is basically the same as Applejack and the others. We were talking a bit and the only things I could gather was that the Apple Family has a long standing feud with another family… but nothing as to why… and Applejack keeps on saying that anytime she or Big Mac try to bring it up, you would get so frustrated that you wouldn’t speak.”

        “Well, sugarcube… there’s more to it then what you might think.” That… threw me off guard. No, I don’t mean Granny Smith calling me ‘sugarcube’. I mean the other half of her sentence. “Back in the day, this feud between the Apple and Pear family was different. Both of us were selling the fruits and also the products made with it.”

        “So like competition between businesses?”

        “Sort of,” Granny Smith replied. “You see, at the time… both families were going through the rough… Ah lost my husband early on and the only thing that kept me going was my son, Bright Mac. The business to me was less of something to make a profit on… and more of something to be able to support ourselves back then. For Grand Pear though… even though he and his wife went through a divorce, ah thought that he would do his business as a way to support his daughter, Pear Butter.”

        That… brought up a new question in my head that I had to ask. “It didn’t turn out that way?”

        “That’s what I originally thought. But over the years, as Bright Mac and Pear Butter grew up, Grand Pear was focusing less on the family and more of the business portion of the Pear’s family business. But as they grew up… Bright Mac and Pear Butter soon became friends… but then their relationship grew faster than the seeds for a new Apple tree.” Granny Said. I noticed her turning her head to a photograph that was on the wall-

        Wait wait wait… That’s… the photo of Applejack’s parents… but… No way…

        “However, Grand Pear was oblivious to all of this… he wasn’t aware of his daughter’s happiness with my son… so when he immediately decided to pack up his things and move to Vanhoover, forcing Pear Butter to leave… that’s when my son did something so reckless that I honestly didn’t think he could pull it off.” She replied, chuckling a bit at first. “For when Grand Pear and I were looking for them… we found that Bright Mac had organized a secret wedding for the two to get married. And we found them just as they were declared as husband and wife.”

        Holy sh*t, she’s talking about AJ’s parents!! No wonder this was a hard subject to tell Applejack and them about.

        “However… before Grand Pear could say anything, that was when Pear Butter told him that she was an apple now… and that she was with the pony she loved the most. In Grand Pear’s mind though, he saw this as betrayal. Choosing the Apple Family over her own… and all he did afterwards was stomp off… He never came back since.” Granny finished her story as she looked back at me now. “I never told AJ and the others about their parents because anytime the subject is up, I can’t stop thinking about how that prickly pear just decided to leave her own daughter in a tearful mess… It’s something no stallion should ever do. Pear Butter was part of our family just as much as she was part of the Pears… and abandoning her like that is unforgivable.”

        For a moment, it looked like Granny Smith was going to cry a little… but it was then that something… surprising happened. From the other side of the table, I watched Ruby pick up a tissue from the tissue box on the table and walk over to Granny. Setting it down at her hoof. “P-pwease don’t cry, Gwanny…”

        Oh my god, that is just too adorable… what made things even more cute was Magma doing the same thing afterwards. I just smiled as as I looked back at them for a moment, before looking at Granny Smith as she took the tissues to wipe her face.

        “T-thank you, young’uns,” She said. “T-thank you for listening to me too…” I acknowledged what she said with a nod because I didn’t want to accidentally say something that may be interpreted the wrong way. “Just… promise me that… that you won’t hurt Applejack like that…”

        “I won’t,” I told her firmly as I looked back at Granny Smith now. “I swear to you that I won’t bring any harm to her. I care for AJ just as much as she cares for me… and the last thing I would want to do is hurt her.” She smiled, going over to me and hugging me in response. It was during this though that I happened to notice something as I looked out the window.

        “Hey Granny… not to surprise you or anything, but Applejack’s back with the others.” After I said that, Granny thanked me for informing her as I had Ruby and Magma come with me to the front porch while Granny Smith was interacting with AJ, Mac and Apple Bloom. Turns out, Grand Pear was with them… and the real reason for coming back was that he wanted to bury the hatchet with the Apple Family and stop the feud. Something that… even caught me by surprise. But hell, I can’t blame him. He’s basically their Grandpa after all.

        Yet, it was only once they were all coming inside that Grand Pear happened to notice me on the porch… and Applejack noticed the kids. “Now how the hay did those two troublemakers get here?”

        “Turns out, they were sleeping inside the tote bag I was using today. I already had told Granny about them,” I told her, causing her eyes to widen for a moment. “Her first question was why didn’t we tell her sooner.”

        That was when Grand Pear decided to speak up. “Excuse me for… interrupting, but I happened to notice you with Apple Bloom the other day. Are you a member of the Apple family?”

        Both Applejack and I looked at one another for a moment before I shook his hoof with an outstretched hand. “I’m AJ’s fiance. I’m Ken… and these two little ones are Ruby and Magma.”

        “Nice to meet you Ken.” He said, before noticing my dragon arm. “Can I ask you something? About your foreleg?”

        “Funny thing is, that’s what everypony notices the first time they see me.” I replied with a chuckle before all of us decided to come inside.

        We spent several hours at the barn with Grand Pear. Bringing him up to speed on everything. And when I mean everything, I literally mean everything. This included my Dragon Arm, the Obsidian Hollow and a lot of other things. But by the time I got back to the hollow, something I was working on as a side project actually seemed to work.

        A long time ago, when we still had to deal with the Land Aspect, Gol Motaad, we met a displaced named Hunter. A Doom Marine who couldn’t speak, but used a tablet as a form of communication. He also gave me a copy of it, which not only showed the kind of… gruesome demon killing he was known for, but also told us a bit more about himself.

        With the fact that I already had a main piece of tech as it is… that being my ECHO device, I was beginning to think of a way to transfer the content that was on Hunter’s extra tablet to my ECHO. No, I don’t mean every nook and cranny. Just the important parts. It would be useful to have them on file and for me, it’s easier to have numerous things all in one place instead of having numerous different tech spread out across the armory. And unlike the weapons and Dragon arms I had, I can’t just call upon them at will.

        To put it lightly… it was how Sheldon in season 1 of ‘The Big Bang Theory’ described the problem with teleportation. Instead of transporting something from one place to another, you originally destroy it before having it be recreated. Though, there would not be any changes with it... but given that this was something from another displaced, I did not want to risk anything.

        Especially since there was the likelihood of having Tiny Tina mistake Hunters Tablet for a portable gaming device… which, may sound odd… but come on, it’s Tina we’re talking about here. By the time I was done with checking everything and moving it over though, I left it on the shelf for me to tend to later.

        And missing a message that had just popped up on there.