Chapter 16
The fluid dimensional shift had been so poetic compared to the now jarring spasms that I awoke to. At first I was wondering if I'd inhaled vomit and was now having some sort of choking attack, but those don't normally talk to me, I'd hope.
"Dude! Mender, wake up. Are you okay?" I heard in a quiet but sturdy male voice. My eyes opened up abruptly to stare right at his emerald ones. The little, purple lizard stood over me, an expression of seeming concern adorning his face.
I winced and pushed my hoof against my right temple, trying to shove the splitting headache out of my skull. "Ow. Yeah, I'm all right, Spike. I think I passed out last night and fell," I excused, telling most of the truth. Well, it was enough of the truth to hurt like hell. I probably had hit my head when I fell over, but I vaguely recalled being on my knees to throw up anyway, so it probably wasn't too far of a drop.
Spike looked momentarily unsure before smiling and nodding again. "Well, as long as you're not hurt or anything. You're nice and all, so it wouldn't be good if something were wrong. Oh, and Twilight would go totally spastic again. You should have just heard her yesterday!" he complained, rolling his eyes before walking back over to the counter where I had gotten my drink last night.
He went under the counter, however, withdrawing what appeared to be a paper towel. "Are you sick, though? You should let her know when she gets up if so," he followed up before getting ready to clean up my rather large mess.
"Those two are still asleep?" I questioned in earnest interest before tapping my left hoof to the wooden floor. The barrier formed almost instantly under the mess and I scooped it up using a bowl shape in one fell swoop. "Sorry about the mess, by the way. I think it was something I ate," I tacked on, gesturing to the bowl of rather disgusting smelling liquid. Well, it used to be liquid. I decided not to think about it, lest I make myself sick again.
"Oh, sweet! I wish Twilight helped me clean up stuff! Thanks! I totally forgot you had that crazy magic, too. But yeah, I usually always get up before her. I usually make her breakfast, too," he informed as he walked over to a nook in the corner and slid a garbage can out. I winced as I dumped the contents into it, and he rapidly tied it off.
"You cook? You seem more like a little brother to Twilight. Isn't she supposed to be the responsible one?" I asked, smirking as he tried to pull the now much heavier plastic bag out of the can.
"Ha! You'd think so, but we actually do it this way for safety. You saw her cooking at the party! I thought Rainbow was going to die," he warned, sounding actually shocked.
I felt the blood seep out of my head. Oh. "Yikes. I thought that was because it was just really old," I muttered, shuddering before lifting the bag out of the can with my teeth. Spike smiled as I helped him again and latched onto the bottom of the can, using his weight to help me pull it off.
"Nah. Twilight's too orderly to let things sit in the fridge for that long. Pinkie made that up. She'd only cooked that up, like, three days before? It just wasn't exactly, um, edible by the time she was done. It was a total waste of potatoes and celery if you ask me."
More blood dribbled away and I felt faint, suddenly glad my stomach was still empty. "Potatoes and celery?! I thought that was pancake batter!" I admitted, swallowing wearily. Note to self, if I ever felt suicidal, have Twilight cook for me.
"Exactly!" he returned, winking at me before opening the door. We took the bag out the front and set it down next to the end of the walkway leading up to the library. Hoped nopony got too close. The smells alone might incapacitate an unlucky pony!
"Thanks a ton, Mender! Having you living here is going to be awesome. Do you want some breakfast too?" he asked, running briefly to catch up as I walked back inside.
"Well, if it's not too much trouble. I can try to help if you want," I offered, smiling over at the little guy. He was nice enough of a lizard-thing when it came down to it.
His eyes widened a little and he asked, "For real? You'll actually help me cook?" Was it that much of a surprise? I paused, but nodded simply, wondering if I was missing something. "Woo!" he exclaimed before hopping into the air and raising his fist. I snickered momentarily before he rotated and landed on me during his second jump, almost knocking me over sideways. "You're awesome! Let's go make breakfast, then," he agreed from his newly discovered sitting position on my back.
I raised an eyebrow back at him, but he only grinned. "Twilight must have you ride on her back, then?" I questioned before heading back inside the library. He wasn't heavy at all, honestly. If he hadn't been rather on the warm side, I probably wouldn't be able to tell he was riding on me. My hoof flashed with energy and the door slid shut after we entered.
"Oh! Sorry, I didn't even ask if I could," he suddenly apologized.
I glanced back at him with a smile again and shook my head. "You're not that heavy, so it's okay. I just wasn't expecting it," I explained as we entered the kitchen. Now that I peeked around a little more, I noticed that he was right. Everything was ordered, tidy, and practically immaculate. It struck me as almost compulsive, but I knew better than to say anything to the mare, or that wouldn't be the only thing that struck me, I figured.
Then I suddenly got an idea as we entered the kitchen. "Hey Spike, why don't we make the mares breakfast in bed?" I suggested, looking back and up at the little fellow.
He thought about it for a second before smirking. "Dang, I wish I'd thought of that before! You really know how to impress the ladies, Mender. I wonder if Rarity would like breakfast in bed," he mumbled, raising a clawed hand to his chin as he thought out loud.
My brain did a flip. Wait, he liked Rarity? The total lack of comprehension shifted my brain into reverse as it rolled down a hill at maximum speed. "Whoa, you like Rarity?!" I asked before common sense or propriety could caution me otherwise.
Spike let out a gasp of shock and stared at me, dumbfounded. "Ack! Don't tell anypony! That's supposed to be super secret!" he warned, looking at me with pleading eyes. Oh crap! Why could I not go a whole day without committing some sort of social atrocity?
"Don't worry, Spike! I promise that I'm not going to tell anypony. I'll even help you make Rarity breakfast in bed too if you want to," I offered, hoping my attempt at blatantly bribing him wasn't too obvious. Wait, there was something odd about that logic.
He seemed oblivious, though, and sighed in relief instead. "Thanks, Dude. You're a good stallion. Oh, and you're so lucky to have both of them after you!" he suddenly exclaimed, probably remembering what he heard last night.
I blushed and coughed as he climbed up onto the counter wearing a smirk. "Well, Fluttershy hasn't made any promises and I'm happy enough to have Twilight. Both mares are amazing for their own reasons, so I am pretty lucky. Well, in that regard," I admitted, leaving a loophole for the blunt head trauma and injury quota I seemed to possess.
"Oh yeah. I'm gonna do the cutting, okay? I know better than to let you near sharp objects," he agreed, taking my hint. I laughed and helped him get things out of the fridge that seemed breakfast-y. Was that a word? Oh well. Eggs and bread were good, solid choices. Potatoes would work too. I peeked around for the veggies as Spike started working with the eggs I had retrieved.
It was strange. Every time I had one of those dreams, I felt so weird when I got back. It was a surreal, detached feeling that lingered for as long as I thought about it, which this time, was quite a while. What was Keela doing now? She would hopefully be less intrusive from now on, but maybe with her help, I'd be able to solve the link issue without talking to Twilight. A twinge of bitterness slipped in before I could stop it. She'd probably just think that I was nuts again, even if I did say anything.
"Equestria to Mender? You okay?" Spike suddenly asked, snapping his fingers in front of my muzzle and knocking me out of my thoughts.
"Oh! Oh yeah, sorry. I was just thinking about something," I excused, attempting to act nonchalant and probably failing in an extremely epic manner.
Spike gave me a skeptical eyebrow raise before muttering, "I noticed. The mares won't appreciate burnt breakfast nearly as much, however. Watch the toast for me while I handle the potatoes," he requested in a surprisingly professional tone. Well when someone spoke like that, one simply had to go along with it.
I nodded politely and peeked over at the toaster. Now that I realized it, this was the first time I noticed that Equestria actually had working electricity. Although I think I should have known this before. I could have sworn I saw a hydroelectric dam up by the riverhead. Forcing myself not to get distracted again, I plugged the machine in with a burst of field manipulation around the cord, then stuck the entire stack of bread slices to my hoof with a simple magnetic shift. The little lizard watched in amusement as I took four slices and slid them over the top of the toaster, simply releasing them as they were over the slots in one fluid motion. I might as well get magical practice while doing mundane things, right?
"Magic is so cool. Yours doesn't seem as convenient as Twilight's, though," Spike observed after another moment. Well, that much was true.
"Yeah. I have to touch things I want to mess with. Having a horn must be amazing," I agreed wistfully. I could think of a few ways around the limitation, but walking around with a bunch of ribbons tied to my left ankle wouldn't do wonders for my already suffering image as a stallion. Maybe some sort of hoof-to-hand glove I could build with movable parts? That might go the other direction though and scare ponies.
I gently reminded myself that I was supposed to be cooking when the toast popped up, arced through the air, and unerringly skipped off my nose. I let out a squeak before lashing out with a bunch of force fields from my hoof and catching all of the slices in a makeshift bowl!
The little purple lizard started giggling in amusement at my quick recovery, then clapped as I managed to get all of the slices safely back onto the counter. "Your luck is still just as bad, but at least you're getting better at the recovery part," he complimented, pulling a flat, dull knife out and dipping it into the small tub of butter nearby. What interesting ways to prepare food. It made sense from what I had been subjected to so far in meals. They prepared things similarly to the exotic dishes I vaguely remember being 'imported' from our tentative treaty with those other aliens. They had such complex ways to prepare food. It was a little weird, but I guess I'd get used to it. Our species, when not subjected to preserved military meal rations, kept things simple and mixed; chopped, diced, or stringed meat mixed with light grains and maybe a bit of sauce for flavor. The sauce was typically made from either fruits or vegetables. I remember a lot of spicy peppers mixed in as well as the occasional fruity tang if the meat was sweet.
My stomach growled as I put in the next set of four toast, and I whimpered. Spike smirked and nodded, complaining, "Yeah. I always get hungry when cooking, too. Seeing all this awesome food in front of me and not being able to touch it is like teasing. Even if it's not what I really want to eat."
My attention focused on his mouth while he was talking, and I once again saw the rows of pointed teeth. Was he omnivorous? "Do you eat meat sometimes?" I questioned gently, having gotten too curious for my own good.
To my own defense, I wasn't expecting the look of utter horror that the little guy displayed. "Ew! No way, Dude! I'd never eat any kind of meat," he denied instantly, taking a step backwards and away from me. Okay then! That hadn't been a reaction I was expecting. I chalked yet another social blunder onto my quota for today. Damn. I'd only been up a half an hour!
"Oh, sorry! I didn't mean to offend! I just saw your teeth and I didn't think they looked like something a pure herbivore would have," I explained hastily in attempts to calm the little guy down.
He exhaled, and seemed to relax before sticking a finger into his mouth and running the claw along his teeth as if just having noticed them himself.
"Well, I guess I see the mistake. These are for crushing and chewing gemstones, though, not meat," he corrected.
What? My brain stalled as I blinked slowly at him. Gemstones? He eats crystalline mineral deposits that have been processed into faceted gems? "Uh, all dragons eat gems, I guess. They taste really, really good and make my tummy feel better if it's aching," he expanded upon, seeing my empty expression.
Oh. He was a dragon then, not a lizard. My mind strained to remember anything I could about the word. The only place I had recalled seeing it was in an old book that was imported, once again, from our estranged allies. It was starting to make me a little paranoid now that I considered it. A lot of that alien culture seemed to be popping up around here. Although to them, even, dragons were a myth. Something fictitious that existed purely in imagination and fantasy; yet here was a living, breathing example of one. I think. I wondered how close the little guy matched to their myths.
"So you're a dragon? I think I recall reading that they can breathe fire," I muttered a moment later, tilting my head towards him.
He grinned in the same instant and exhaled, blasting a small plume of green flames dangerously close to my styled and braided mane. I stepped backwards with my eyes widening a little before coughing out, "Dragon it is, then!"
He snickered and nodded with a big grin dancing across his face. "My fire isn't normal dragon fire, though. I'm extra magical and can use the fire to transport things to wherever I think about when using it," he added, swaying back and forth as if pleased with himself.
I was confused, however. "Wait, so it makes some sort of portal or something?" I inquired curiously, suddenly finding the little guy fascinating. At least he didn't seem to mind the attention I was giving him.
"Haha! No. It kind of burns up, then just appears somewhere else. Like magic!" he exclaimed. Yet again, my brain did a flailing nosedive down a cliff. A thousand questions came to mind, but I suddenly realized that assaulting him with them might seem kind of rude. The way he was explaining it, I decided he probably didn't know the answers any more than I did. I made a mental note to never willingly use it for transportation, however. If it didn't actually send the object, instead destroying it and making a copy at the location he considers, wouldn't that technically kill living things? If it didn't, were they really the same individual as the one who got teleported? If one couldn't tell, was that still a bad thing? The moral and ethical questions confused me deeply.
Spike was oblivious to my inner turmoil, thankfully. "I mostly use it to send letters for Twilight," he added happily before starting to load up a tray I hadn't seen him pull out. Oh, the food!
To my surprise however, the sets of toast were done to perfection and already placed on a large plate. "Ah! Sorry for zoning out so much, Spike. I didn't really help you much," I apologized, suddenly feeling badly about it. He had seemed so happy to be getting the help earlier, too.
Spike snickered and waved a claw to me as he finished loading the tray. "It's fine, Mender. You had a rough night, so it doesn't surprise me you're a little out of it today. The company was totally worth it! Can you help me get this upstairs, though?" He glanced over at the tray, suddenly seeming to realize that it was several times his size.
I smiled, teasing, "Don't want to use your flames to move it up there?"
A faint blush appeared on his cheeks before he shook his head, admitting, "I can't exactly control how the objects come out. With our luck, the tray would flip over and land on them."
That would indeed be bad. Eating breakfast is good. Being covered in it; not so much. I reached out and touched the tray with my left hoof. It was simple enough. The tray and contents lost gravity instantly, and I snapped a thin, contorted barrier over the food on top to prevent any unfortunate drifting that might happen. Spike gave a questioning look due to the effects being not exactly visible to the naked eye. It shifted to amusement and a rapid clapping as I slid the tray off the counter and drifted it through the air towards the stairs. Once the properties of an object were changed, the small symbols I put on them would remain 'charged' for quite a while after I broke contact. That was a basic technique I remember being taught. More advanced ones gave methods in which to place self-recharging 'batteries' onto the enchantments, allowing for significantly more permanent effects. They required a tremendous amount of focus and magic to start up, though, and that was currently well outside of my capacity.
Spike snagged the tray out of the air and pulled it up the stairs, scooting himself backwards as he went. The anti-gravity enchantment seemed to amuse him to no end. Of course, I could hardly cancel the true effect of gravity on an object. That would take considerably more energy than my entire body possessed. Mass manipulation enchantments were extremely hard. Now a basic effect that provided omnidirectional counter-thrusting to match the force of gravity on the object; that was a lot easier!
Spike gleefully made it to the top of the stairs and turned in the direction of Twilight's bed. I smiled at his youthful exuberance as I went up the stairs significantly slower. Up was far safer than down when traversing stairs in my current body, but I still didn't want to trip and plant my face into the steps. Idly, I wondered if the girls really would enjoy this little gift. My eyebrows raised questioningly, however, as I saw Spike freeze shortly after turning the corner, claws extending up to his mouth and his eyes widening. Uh oh...
Sensing potential disaster, I sped up upon nearing the top of the stairs. Thankfully I only managed to trip once. Stumbling to a somewhat complete stop, I finally managed to turn just as Spike started to smirk instead.
The girls must have heard my fumbling in some far off corner of their dreamland. Both stirred gently, still tucked under the warm embrace of the covers. A smile crept onto my mouth before I could stop it as the stirring made them snuggle closer into each other. Fluttershy's muzzle and cheek were lightly pressed into Twilight's chest as the lavender unicorn had both of her front legs wrapped around her friend. Honestly, it kind of looked like she thought she was holding some sort of stuffed animal. Actually, now that I thought about it, the yellow pegasus was probably going to have a small heart attack upon waking up.
"Twilight? Fluttershy? Breakfast is ready," Spike gently called out before I could properly warn him. Both mares stirred gently after barely a second; Fluttershy opening her eyes up first.
She looked disoriented in that brief moment where you have to cognitively register where you are after falling out of your dreams. The look of confusion rapidly slipped into surprise, and then panic as she looked up fully at Twilight. Twilight, for her part, didn't seem to notice at all anyway. She was busy releasing a planet-cracking yawn. I momentarily amused myself by watching the little thingy in the back of her mouth shiver back and forth before she finally stopped yawning and blinked sleepily. By then, Fluttershy had started shivering uncontrollably and couldn't seem to break eye contact.
Twilight slowly looked down, eyes widening in surprise but not quite slipping into the panic her friend seemed to be displaying. "Oh! I'm sorry, Fluttershy. We must have moved in our sleep," she reasoned, probably dead on as per usual. Fluttershy was still mostly frozen, but I watched her eyes soften a little at the lavender unicorn's warm smile. Note to self, my fillyfriend is amazingly unfazed by waking up to cuddling with her best friend. Even in my head, that sounded really weird, and not because of the cuddling part. I decided I still was having problems considering myself as her coltfriend.
Spike managed to remain smiling, even though I heard the suppressed, airy snickering from this close. "I'm sure you two are hungry as well. Mender had a really good idea, so here you go! Breakfast is served," he announced, giving a hammy bow before sliding the tray through the air. It drifted low before gently landing on, and sliding across the surface of the bed. Twilight looked more surprised by the tray than the fact that she woke up to holding Fluttershy, ironically.
"Wait, did you guys make us breakfast in bed? Aww!" she cooed, smiling even wider now. Fluttershy snapped out of her system shock and glanced at the tray in front of her as well, as she sat up to equal Twilight's height.
Spike wasted no time in hopping up on the other side of the tray and sitting across from Twilight. "Yup! He even helped me make it. I should have totally thought of this before!" he exclaimed, tone indicating he felt he was silly.
"Hey, you did most of the cooking. Plus you would have had too hard of a time getting the food upstairs," I reasoned to try to redirect his self-chastisement, not to mention the credit.
Fluttershy was now blushing furiously and looking down at the tray. I had the sneaking suspicion that it wasn't me who caused the tinted cheeks, however. "Thank you. You two are wonderful. You really know how to treat two mares!" Twilight spoke up, smirking over at Fluttershy before shifting to a more questioning expression.
There was a long, awkward moment where Fluttershy continued to zone out while blushing and Twilight stared blankly at her. I was a little awkward, too, but for other reasons. I realized that I was rather hungry myself, having thrown up most of my supper last night. There was a problem, however. Breakfast was sitting on Twilight's bed. Her bed. Bed! I might be rather naive from time to time, but I knew what the favorite location of private time was. Due to a very informative conversation with Pinkie and Applejack a while back, I had a sneaking suspicion that the concept was fairly universal between our worlds.
"Uh, are you okay, Fluttershy?" Twilight hesitantly asked, finally running out of patience, it would seem.
The timid yellow pegasus snapped out of it with a start and nodded rapidly. "Oh yes, I'm, well, fine!" she assured, not sounding assuring in the least. Twilight's expression said she didn't buy it, but she sighed and nodded before gesturing towards the food again.
"You should really eat something, Fluttershy. I'm sorry again about moving in my sleep," Twilight apologized softly, gently brushing Fluttershy's right shoulder.
Fluttershy started to shake her head towards the tray before she stopped and gave me a questioning look. Damn it. I'd hoped they'd be too distracted with their food and awkward moment to notice mine. I carried forth with sitting down on the floor next to the bed and peeking over at my share of the food. Maybe Twilight wouldn't notice and I could...
"Mender, what are you doing?" aforementioned lavender unicorn asked. Damn it! I swallowed and glanced over at the confused looking unicorn before trying a reassuring smile.
"Uh, sitting down? I'm kinda hungry," I complained, trying not to be too snarky. I'd noticed that I'd been getting a little sardonic as of late. Not that it was necessarily a bad thing, but I didn't want to be rude.
Twilight was deadly sharp of mind, I keep forgetting. She smirked instead, assuring, "It's okay if you sit on the bed, Mender. There's no stigma against it, and besides, you technically are my coltfriend now, remember?"
Blushing at her implications, I gave in and slowly climbed up onto the bed. "I suppose. I just don't want to do something stupid by assuming and offend you," I admitted, settling into a comfortable spot across from Fluttershy and next to Spike. This still felt awkward, but I suppose knowing that the bed wouldn't be hurled at me for sitting on it was a good step in the right direction.
Twilight frowned for a microscopic moment before smiling again and nodding. "It's not like we're being intimate. You're just eating with us," she reassured before taking a bite of her toast finally.
Fluttershy, who had been reduced to a timid silence during the exchange, nodded to me as well. "Admittedly it is a, well, nice concept. It would make me feel so much better some nights if you were there to push up against. Sometimes I get really, um, scared in my house all alone," she furthered softly. She was looking down at her food, which oddly left me wondering which one of us she was addressing that to. She wore a light blush regardless and Twilight gave her a curious look. Somehow, I had a sneaking suspicion that she was refering to a more platonic cuddling than anything. My smile softened towards her.
"I didn't realize you thought of Mender that much, Fluttershy. You really like him, don't you?" Twilight asked gently, smile not even flickering. I know, because I was watching it like a hawk. It was still hard to believe she was so open-minded about Fluttershy liking me too. Was their culture that different, or was it more of a Twilight thing? I discovered that I was looking for any indication of her secretly disliking it that I could find. Realizing that, I started questioning my own motives over the ordeal. I was afraid of offending the lavender mare, obviously, but some of the doubts stemmed from myself instead. I didn't really consider myself worthy of them both. Wait, did I consider myself worthy of either of them individually?
That, of course, reminded me of the awkward conversation from last night. "That reminds me. What's a herd?" I blurted out before seriously considering what I was asking. I should really stop doing that, I decided in hindsight.
Fluttershy seemingly forgot that she couldn't breathe while eating eggs and suddenly started coughing and hacking like mad. Spike started to laugh a split second before Twilight made a gagging noise and spit half the contents of her orange juice cup all over him. My eyes widened and I leaned forward to pat Fluttershy on the back as she leaned over the tray. At least my fillyfriend seemed in less immediate danger of choking to death.
"Ew!" Spike complained immediately, looking down at himself with both arms indignantly spread and dripping orange juice. Fluttershy seemed to finally regain her composure and adopted a new, fiery red tint to her cheeks as she looked back up at me in surprise. Twilight's cheeks were similarly tinted, although noticeably less than her friend’s. Maybe it was a shading difference due to their extreme coat colorings?
The lavender mare shook her head before sighing and asking, "You remember that from what the guard told you last night, right?"
I nodded weakly, wondering if I should be worried for my safety now. She continued regardless, seemingly less upset and significantly more awkward. "A herd is an older tradition in Equestria. It stems all the way back to when we were still nomadic, but the legal and cultural aspects are still practiced today from time to time," she explained quietly, not making eye contact.
In a slightly bizarre oddity, Fluttershy actually seemed a little more comfortable with the topic, continuing where Twilight left off with, "Yes. A lot of animals still use the concept, and it's obviously still important to us ponies too due to our slightly off balance gender ratios. A herd then is as simple as multiple mares and stallions in a family or relationship together."
That was it? It seemed simple enough, but was more flexible than I anticipated. So it wasn't just one member of a gender sharing multiple opposite gendered partners, but simply a group of ponies in said situation with potentially multiple on each side. It made sense if it was originally for a nomadic lifestyle. Unity and protection would be significantly greater.
"So the guard last night was insinuating that we were trying to form one?" I asked, largely for clarity. Well, not in so many words, as he chose a lot more that were significantly more degrading. That wouldn't do at all.
The shy pegasus shot back to embarrassed in a heartbeat and shrank back down again. Twilight took her turn to recover and let forth a snicker of amusement before rubbing her friend on the back. "Well, for right now we're just a couple. If Fluttershy would like to join in the future, we'd tackle that then, but I read that it works a lot better if the members of a herd are friends before joining, so I could honestly see it going well," Twilight pointed out. At this point, her referencing the fact that she's read about this topic didn't surprise me in the least. Was there a topic she hadn't read about yet?
Spike, who I totally forgot was there, gave a questioning glance over at the two mares after swallowing a large mouthful of toast. "Wait, doesn't that mean that you and Fluttershy would be in a relationship too?" he questioned curiously, taking a strange interest in the subject. Wait, he probably shouldn't have asked that!
Fluttershy gave out an almost miserable sounding mix between a groan and squeak before sinking lower to her side of the tray. I resisted smiling as I went back to gently rubbing her shoulder to try to comfort her. Spike's studious mother surrogate raised an eyebrow to him but finally giggled nonchalantly. "Well, sometimes. I've never, well, considered being with a mare before, but I couldn't see any harm in it. I care deeply for Fluttershy as a dear friend, of course, but I can't speak for how she'd feel for that, Spike. Be gentle," she warned before turning to the now visibly shocked yellow mare next to her.
"You really, um, mean it?!" Fluttershy asked in disbelief. I could see the muscles along her forelegs shivering as she asked, her wings twitching behind her lightly in what seemed to be a mix of panic and surprise. I suddenly realized that all three of us liking each other might actually have a possibility of working. That was a little scary, for some reason. My sense of self-established inferiority started to creep up again. Things were getting complicated and the urge to distance myself reared its head again. The more complex something got, the higher the probability of something going wrong.
"Of course, Fluttershy. Now you'd best eat something before the wonderful meal the boys made us gets cold," Twilight reminded gently.
The shy pegasus gave a start before turning back to the tray of food in front of her. "Ah, yeah! I'm sorry," she rapidly murmured, gaze shifting between Spike and me. I smiled softly to her, and my scaly friend gave a nonchalant wave of a claw while stuffing a frightening amount of hash browns into his mouth. Fluttershy simply giggled before resuming her own meal.
My smile dropped away as I lost the focus of attention again. Why was I doubting this? I liked both mares; Twilight maybe just a little more, due to experience and proximity. Wasn't this the perfect opportunity then? It seemed almost too perfect. Admittedly, my natural sense of paranoia was a little cautious. It didn't help that I kept getting stuck on the fact that these mares were national, maybe worldly even, heroines! How did I deserve such amazing mares? Finally, like a shadow looming over the whole thing, I worried that things involving Keela and the other dimension would spill over at the worst possible time.
So yeah, things were getting complex. Twilight drew her attention back up to me. I caught it this time and rapidly resumed eating as to not draw unwanted attention to myself. This was hopefully going to be an easy day, anyway. I hoped that thought wouldn't come back to bite me again...
* * * * *
The resounding vibrations drifted through my skull as my momentum slowed to a halt. The cold wood contrasted my now heated and pulsing skin just along the bridge of my nose and muzzle. Groaning, I slowly slid my head down the unmoving wood, eyes still closed. Damn it.
Laughter danced along my hearing from somewhere in front of me. It was a hearty, carefree laugh with a familiar voice behind it. "Ah reckon yer eyesight still ain't fully recover'd?" Applejack inquired in an amused tone. At least I assumed it was the country flavored Earth Pony. If it wasn't, somepony was one heck of a voice actor.
"I take it you found out about the incident yesterday?" Twilight asked softly as she helped me back to all four hooves without hesitating the slightest. She adjusted quickly to my penchant for hurting myself. At least I was expected to be fully recovered by tomorrow. Magic was amazing!
Opening my eyes finally, I saw a slightly fuzzy version of Applejack nod earnestly. "Yup! Dash came by yesterday an' told all 'bout it. Yer one lucky stallion," she remarked, walking over to give Twilight a hoof in moving me into the room.
"It usually doesn't feel that way," I muttered, giving out a stiff groan as I was forcefully moved next to the inside wall of the barn.
My, as of yet hard to believe, fillyfriend snickered playfully before suggesting, "Well, just in case you're right and physics still hates you, you're just going to be telling us what to do today. No handling sharp and pointy objects when you're half blind."
Applejack laughed as well, seemingly ignoring my eye roll. "That's probably ah good idea. Ah'm gonna keep workin' with tha supports until Dash an' Fluttershy get 'ere. Mah brother asked if ya could make some plans up fer tha design, too," she requested, turning to walk back in the direction of the half-done conveyor, but glancing back over her shoulder at us.
Twilight perked up, probably noticing that this stage of the project could make full use of her talents. "Oh, certainly! Mender will explain the design and I'll draw it up as precisely as possible!" she assured, again promising my support without actually asking me. Well, it wasn't like I would have turned the farm mare down, but it still would have been nice to be at least consulted on what my workload would be. I chalked it up to her knowing me, though.
"Thank ya kindly, Twi! An' you too, Mender. This would'a been downright impossible without yer talents," she thanked, sounding more sincere than I thought a pony could.
Smiling, I nodded softly to her as I plopped down into a lying position with my butt to the wall. The lavender unicorn sat down next to me before giving a smirk and lighting her horn up with magic. Almost a dozen logs drifted over to my position from a new pile that had apparently appeared there overnight. Oh yeah, Applejack had been shorted by over half her required parts. Note to self; find out whom she bought the 'kit' from and blacklist him or her from any of my future business. "Hey Spike, are you coming?" Twilight called out a moment later, aiming for the door next to us, it sounded like.
Oddly enough, I could still 'feel' what the part was shaped like from when I last scanned it. I didn't think my memory was that good, so I snagged the original again and started to re-scan it. That was the last thing I needed: to get through all of the parts only to discover that I made a noticeable error in the duplication process. Applejack would probably kill me for wasting that much wood, too. My thoughts were interrupted by the grumbling of the little dragon as he hauled a rather sizable saddlebag set in from outside of the barn. "Yeah, yeah. This isn't the lightest, ya know," he complained, causing me to smile over at him. He was an extremely hard worker. Of course, Twilight had been wearing the pack up until we got to the barn, so at least he didn't have to drag it far. Which was good. If Rarity were here, she'd probably kill us all for mistreating an accessory by dragging it through the dirt like that.
"Oh, Ah ordered tha metal parts, too. They said they'd come sometime today," Applejack chimed in. Oh yeah, I'd forgotten she'd need more than just the wooden segments I was making. They were kind of pointless if there was nothing to attach them to.
"I hope you didn't go through the same pony," I returned, shaking my head slightly. It still made me mad that somepony had taken advantage of my friend. Sure, we had gotten off to a rough start, but Applejack had been extremely nice to me ever since that had been patched up.
"Ha! He ain't gonna get ah lick o' Apple business ever again, don't worry. These parts are from out o' town. Ah little more expensive, but Ah'm guaranteed ta get tha whole order, ya know?" she informed, sounding justifiably irked.
"Good! I have half a mind to go visit him myself and discuss the definition of product fraud," Twilight grumbled as she pulled out several sheets of paper from the saddlebags that were now in front of her. Spike wobbled a little bit before dramatically falling over next to her. Oddly, it kind of reminded me of Rarity.
"It ain't worth tha trouble. It'll hurt 'em enough ta lose all tha Apple business. 'sides, Ah might'a found somepony ta take over our construction needs," she returned with a playful tone to the last part. A little flag went off in my mind and I glanced up from my scanning work just in time to see the orange mare smiling at me from on top of the conveyor's main support.
Wait, was she talking about me?! Heat drifted into my cheeks as my eyes widened. "I think that's a very good choice, Applejack. He's brilliant at engineering, from what we've seen so far," Twilight chimed in using a sweet tone and a nuzzle to my shoulder.
I let out a weak groan and buried my head in my forelegs, feeling the heat radiating off it. Twilight let out a light giggle before I heard the papers rustling into position. "Yer too humble, Mender. Ya must realize how much this is helpin' us, right?" the farm mare questioned curiously, yet in what sounded to be a distracted tone. Curious again, I peeked up at her latching a hammer to her hoof using a simple leather strap. She lined up a couple more nails with her mouth and lightly held them up with her free hoof as she tapped them in. The act seemed so precise that it left me in awe for a moment. If I had tried that, Twilight would be re-attaching my hoof. I knew she was strong, but watching her reinforce the supports displayed a totally unrealized level of finesse from her.
"No, don't try doing that, Mender," Twilight suddenly advocated cautiously, apparently practically reading my mind. She wore an amused smirk as I glanced over at her.
"Yeah, no. I like my hoof in one solid chunk, thanks. Worse yet would be making extra work for you," I agreed, returning a much softer smile. She looked momentarily amused before softening as well, probably guessing that I was purposefully trying to appease her. What was the term for that? 'Sweet Talking'? The situation seemed similar to when Twilight had accused me of that before. Maybe it wasn't a bad thing?
"Don't get distracted, Casanova. We have work to do," she murmured tenderly. Of course, she accompanied it with a tantalizing and agonizingly slow nuzzle along the side of my cheek, doing the exact opposite of keeping me focused. It was strange, but I had a strong compulsion to push her over onto her side and start kissing her. Still, that would probably get a bad reaction. Reminding myself that she could tie bows using my insides without touching me, I managed to resist. Somehow. The heat rushing to my head certainly didn't make it easy.
"Oh come on! Last night wasn't enough smooching for you two?!" Spike suddenly groaned out, sounding appalled. Twilight snapped back instantly and looked over at the annoyed little dragon. Applejack, who had apparently stopped hammering at some point and was now watching with a surprised expression and slack jaw, shifting to that of amused and started chuckling.
"Ah reckon ya would think ah little differently if'in it was Rare and yerself," she reasoned pointedly. Wait, she knew about Spike's crush? If she was okay with speaking of it so plainly, Twilight must know about it too.
Spike grumbled something under his breath and crossed his arms. Applejack snickered but spun the hammer around with a flick of her hoof and resumed lining up nails. She continued to speak as she worked, with, "It was ah little surprisin' though. You finally decided ta admit feelin's an' bury the hatchet?"
"It took a while, but I think he's finally more comfortable with me," Twilight agreed readily enough, missing my eye roll shortly after. It wasn't entirely my fault that I was terrified of making her mad. Disregarding the most obvious retort, I decided to just resume my scan.
Amusingly enough, it turned out that my memory seemed to be spot on from the last one I did. Maybe there was some sort of intrinsic memory involved with imprinting the scan in my mind. Regardless, I locked down the shape and set the part aside. From my yet imperfect vision, I noted that the stack of logs was over to the left side of me. I reached up to touch one when the top log drifted free and landed softly in front of me. Smiling, I gave the unicorn a nod, even if she was currently looking down at her papers. It didn't surprise me in the least that she could manipulate the logs without looking.
"Ah meant you, Twi," Applejack corrected a moment later. Uh oh. The farm mare had serious guts, I'll say that much. Well, she was also a good friend of Twilight's, so she could get away with saying a lot more than I could. I decided not to look up. Maybe if I didn't see the death coming, I'd survive?
"Hey! I admit my feelings for him! Well, okay, fine. I might have been a little on the hesitant side, but I've never done this before!" the lavender unicorn protested, suddenly seeming extremely flustered. Well, that wasn't the anticipated reaction. I expected more yelling. And homicide.
I kept my head down through the moment of silence, busying myself by making cutting patterns in the log in front of me. They hunted mainly through motion and terror, I had heard. If I remained absolutely still and avoided eye contact, they shouldn't be able to see me! The log was significantly larger than the one I worked with last time, I suddenly noticed. I managed to fit three full-length stacks inside of it, allowing for eighteen sections from one. That meant we should only need five or six, and still have plenty of spares left over! As pleasing as that aspect was, I realized that I had only done four stacks before causing my nose to explode in blood and the most distracting sensation of a nail being driven into my forehead. This wasn't going to be pretty.
"Ah think yer both perfect fer each other, frankly. Ya share enough similarities ta get along, an' not enough ta murder each other," Applejack admitted, gaining a snicker from myself. The mare spoke truth. It made me realize that Rainbow and she actually were very similar to Twilight and me, minus the massive competitive streak they had going. They shared a lot of similarities and lacked the overlapping skill set.
Twilight nodded in my peripheral vision before adding, "Agreed. It's nice to be able to talk about magical things to somepony. It helps that he's actually neat and tidy too. Well, when not bleeding all over things."
I gave her a skeptical glance, only to receive a tantalizing one in return. She was such a brat sometimes. She continued her verbal rampage before I could retort, however. "Still, at least he has the sense of organization and cleanliness in the first place. Right, Spike?" she asked with a bit of a bite to her tone. Whoa, what did he do to get on her bad side?
"Hey, what did I do?!" he asked instantly, apparently knowing just as much about his offense as I did. That didn't bode well. I had just started to become friends with him, too.
The exasperated unicorn sighed wearily. "You filled up the bin under my drafting table with cut up pieces of paper, Spike. It was two inches over the top of the thing! Did you think I wouldn't notice?" she questioned bluntly. Cut up pieces of paper?
I glanced up at the same time Applejack did apparently, her expression shifting to one of dubious curiosity rather than mirroring my merely interested one. "What? No, those were all over Mender's bed when I got up! All I did was pick them up," he defended adamantly. Wait, what? Oh. I knew I forgot something.
Twilight slowly rotated around to give me a skeptical, yet confused look. Applejack's shifted even further to the disbelieving side of the spectrum as her eyebrow rose sharply on the left side. Well, crap.
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nice chapter... not sure if first...
Well crap. Well crap indeed Mender. So..........does your freaky magic allow you to make portals to Celestia?
Cos she's the only one that can help you now!
Daaamn, I forgot about the paper too
That IS a "Well crap" moment.
It's kind of funny to see that Mender still overestimate the reaction of the Mane 6. Well except maybe Twilight. When she panic, things can get bad
.
Extra-dimensional pieces of paper you say?
never heard of em!
Either he's going to lie with Applejack there or tell the truth and look cray cray.
Well...shoot...
So much adorableness in this chapter...Twilight and Flutters snuggling with each other in their sleep...Twilight nuzzling Mender. So cute...
And the plot thickens.... Hmm... I think he's going to tell the truth, although not all of it
I don't see what the problem is. He can prove that the connection exists now. Just ping Keela and ask her to apply her interdimensional postal delivery skills.
And when Twilight asks how he made the paper appear, he can be all "Oh, I just asked my former girlfriend from another world, which is something I can do because I totally have a soul link to her now."
"Um, what's with the face? Is it something I said?"
See? Problem solved.
Well crap indeed! How will he get out of this one without explaining his unconscious conversation last night? I guess now we know that the attempts to make contact were not in fact apart of his imagination.
Also, I like the literal definition of herd, still definitely within the parameters of the show
Makes me wonder if they will indeed make a herd.
So now, how long before Fluttershy jumps at the chance to join in on this herd? We know she is going to be hesitant and shy but...
And I suddenly want a picture of Twilight hugging Fluttershy like a giant teddy bear in their sleep.
I suddenly had the mental image of Twilight opening him up and tying a bow with his intestines. he looks down and screams. "I'll patch you up in a minute" screams again. "oh fine" undoes the bow sticks them back inside and zips him up like nothing happened. "happy? it's not like that was the worst thing to happen to you"
(yes I have a disturbing mind and it might be influenced by something I'm trying to write)
Ups, Mender will have some explaining to do...
Ugh... Why do I have to wait a whole week for the next chapter?
Hmm. Seeing Mender's paranoia with Twilight again is making me wonder if Mender had an experience with a powerful comrade that snapped and went on a rampage. Unless getting a bed thrown at him scared him as much as it seems to have, not that I can blame him.
Oh crap indeed Mender. Seems it's time to test your theory, hm?
~Have a good one.
He'll be forced to explain everything, and this will turn into yet another mess! Run Mender, run for your life! Flee in terror from the impending lavender doom! (Who is also your girlfriend)
Dang Keela... Ruining the Pony Love.
Its not going to take much to get Mender to spill the beans.
Let the interrogation begin 24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4owhyk4cU1qcdxrqo1_500.png
I see what you're up to! Give us a chapter of sci-fi stuff, then throw an easygoing chapter of friendly conversation, cuteness, and romance at us, and next you'll probably hit us with more seriousness, so we're constantly spinning around not sure where to look next. Sneaky.
This was a cute chapter, though. Twilight probably has no idea how happy she just made Fluttershy there, and I think 'Shy just barely managed to resist outright glomping her. Guess she probably figures the time still isn't quite right for her to join in yet, but I bet that whole conversation has her eagerly trying to figure out the perfect moment to make her move. Maybe she should try literally pouncing on them. I think that'd look too adorable for them to resist, and I know I'd let Fluttershy tackle me any time.
So I see that mention last chapter of Spike being a dragon was just an accident. Kinda figured it probably was, and I think there were a couple other instances of that a chapter or two earlier too, by the way. It would've been funny if Mender found out by seeing Spike nonchalantly munch down a gem, though. Anyway, I had a feeling Spike might be the one to find him on the floor, although I wasn't expecting them to go make breakfast together. I've always liked the idea that Spike generally does the cooking in the library, so Spike at Your Service was rather annoying how he was suddenly completely inept at it, especially since he's proven himself capable before.
Interesting take on his fire-breath magic too. I've always assumed that Spike is linked directly to Celestia, since he's sent scrolls to her by accident, and that an object has to be enchanted to transport, but it does seem like there's some element of control for him in there too. Your explanation definitely makes it more versatile, and it's amusing to think of all the ways he could abuse it. Also, it's funny to see Mender pondering the ramifications of teleportation the same way were were a few chapters back.
But yeah, it's nice to see some one-on-one interaction between Mender and Spike. I was sure Mender was aware of Spike's crush on Rarity at some point earlier, but it could easily be something he simply forgot about. It'll be amusing to see if Mender really does help Spike try to impress Rarity, but Spike may want to reconsider once he accounts for Mender's luck. They'll probably end up setting Rarity's bed on fire, as Mender somehow gets tangled in all of Rarity's saddles and dresses, then trips down her stairs, taking Rarity with him and landing on Opalescence. Or maybe what happened in the Everfree was that in his crazed raving, Mender somehow managed to spew out some invocation to conjure a monster from Tartarus, and we'll get a repeat performance in the middle of the boutique.
In any case, I've been wondering for quite a while what you might do with Spike's crush on Rarity in this story. Spike and romance is a more complicated issue than shipping the ponies, since it depends on how you interpret the age and species differences. Personally, I think Spikity is a cute pairing, but Rarity herself could easily be conflicted about it due to the same questions about whether or not he's mature enough, and would likely prefer if he at least looked a little older before giving anything with him a shot. I wouldn't mind if this story included it as another secondary romance, but it doesn't seem highly likely. In this story's context, though, the fact that they're perfectly fine with talking about herds and romance and all that with him as part of the conversation, plus AJ's comment to Spike about Rarity says they don't seem to think he's too young for such things, so it's hard to predict. Rarity's thoughts about Spike haven't really come into play enough yet to base a guess on much for this.
Oh, and I agree with Mender that "girlfriend" does sound strange in a pony story, even though that's obviously not what he meant. I know they used that word in the Perfect Stallion song, but I think marefriend sounds better, and either would be acceptable as synonyms. Not that it's any more than a quibble, really.
Also, gah! The allies of Mender's old race really were humans, weren't they? There were one or two vague hints of that before, but now it actually sounds probable. That's a little... I don't even know what that is, actually. Can't be just a coincidence, if it's true. Maybe my theory from a while ago was on the right track, and Celestia was originally from Earth, and Equestria is in some sort of artificially created dimension. That could also be why the dimensions were "close" to each other.
Oh, and Mender has a perfectly reasonable explanation he can offer for the note the chapter ended on, something Twilight herself knows all about:
derpicdn.net/media/W1siZiIsIjIwMTIvMDkvMTcvMDFfMjdfMDVfMzQzXzk5NzkwX19VTk9QVF9fc2FmZV90d2lsaWdodF9zcGFya2xlX2ltYWdlX21hY3JvX21heW9yX21hcmUiXV0/99790__safe_twilight-sparkle_image-macro_mayor-mare_paper_i-came.png
He's officially dating a librarian now, and they DO live in a library, after all. That's bound to have some side effects.
Had to re-read FP11 to see if it gave better answers to if the paper was truly there or not. No hints found. Had assumed the papers were going to be kept as unmentioned to others or always in a solo situation so there was the possibility of them being Mender-visible-only papers, like the first probes were.
Glad that it seems like there will be proof now to whats going on and stuff will be Twi investigated and theorized on. That said, I fully expect there to be something that will distract from this plot point, Mender can play it off if he wants to keep this quiet, Twilight will assume destruction of her books and jump on that conclusion before getting the truth, or the papers have nothing visible on them anyway so the point becomes temporarily moot.
Dangle the carrot, fill it with corn. Yes, that analogy happened and you will not question it.
[/enjoy]
It always irks me when someone uses the phrase "in one fell swoop" to say "in one go" or something like that. The word "fell" (as is used in the phrase) is an adjective meaning "fierce" or "deadly." Was Mender cleaning the kitchen in a fierce or deadly way?
The original usage of the phrase was in the play Macbeth, wherein Macduff says, "All of my pretty ones... at one fell swoop?" after being told that his wife and children had been killed.
Other than that it was a pretty good chapter.
So, wait a minute... the paper is sort of like a transcript of what Mender and Keela discussed during his sleep, right? Or did I forget something..? Anyway, he's going to have a hell of a time explaining this.
This kinda fit the bill when I saw the mature tags. It's been pretty calm so far I wonder how mature it's gonna get.
This also will be my reaction to the next chapter (once Twi finds out what a stud he used to be and his old girl is (possibly) making moves on him again).
Excellent chapter Kiro!
~Momentai
2341029 - Jansvl
You'd have to pay close attention to Fluttershy's reactions. It would be a very, very good explanation then for how she acts around Twilight and Mender.
Does -1 count on that scale?
2341183 - Dhuradhan
I'm enjoying it very much! Thank you.
You did.
2341289 - Periphery
Barring exception of the straight couples producing a disproportionate amount of offspring or Ponyville being some sort of social experiment and thus, skewing my numbers. 
</nerd>
Hmm. Your reaction makes a bit more sense now but still makes me uneasy. However, if it sets your mind a little more at ease, my intentions are not to lessen the bond between anypony or hold favor towards any of the three involved. Plus, it's not going to solve everything, obviously. There are a few snags already in the works, if you looked carefully enough.
I guess I always saw Equestria as having enough love that feelings were the only thing that really mattered. <nerd> Besides, with their gender ratio in effect at about 3-1 in favor of the females, if they don't implement something akin to this, they're going to see a serious drop off in population as the birth to death ratio skews horribly.
2341298 - Lucky424
Was I bad at explaining anything?
2341301 - Morfonious
I note you said when and not if.
2341361 - Chii-chan
Plus, guessing is fun! I very much enjoy reading what everypony thinks is going to happen, and there's no harm in it.
It's still awesome.
2341371 - Ebrony Black
Mender is a bit more aggressive than ponies realize, but it's hard to notice seeing as you've only seen him interact with females.
Heee. I'm glad that I'm interesting you with the interactions.
2341408 - Mr. Yoke
Heee, Love Shape.
2341423 - Skijarama
That's a very accurate statement.
2341457 - vicviper6
*blushes* I'm glad you're enjoying the story, though!
I'm also very bashful.
2341465 - Moonton
You're going to have a lot of fun with that shape later. Heh. We might need another dimension for it.
A play off one of your suggested members being in a different reality?
2341489 - jazwiec
There will never be a human tag on this story. I can confidently say that much. The book is interesting, however. You shall have to wait and see. 
Heh. No humans here.
2341671 - blindbronyinblack
Your first and third guesses are both correct. The void was being held between the two layers of 'shield'. They aren't really shields though and are facing the other way, meant only to keep the void in and in one shape. It was automatically formed by the book before Mender took over.
You won't know much about Keela's actual relationship with him for a while, sadly.
You'll find out today!
It was a lot of plot for such a short chapter.
Bedded might be too strong of a word, but it would seem that he was a 'clever dissenter' in the army.
Heh, it will indeed be awkward and interesting.
2341742 - Sylthsaber
Guild Wars 2 has currently eaten my brain however, for now.
I love it too. It's even currently installed on my computer.
(1/7)
2341891 - PhantomKirby
The paper she dumped on him that he started shredding was indeed real. The orb she sent through was just energy however, and only existed partially in their dimension.
That would be a nay. The paper he wrote on in the forest actually existed after the connection was broken, remember?
2341898 - Guardian Talon
I'm glad you're enjoying.
You shall find out about their 'waking up' in this upcoming chapter.
2341977 - Gemannihilator
I flooded ponies with the dataz.
2342139 - Jansvl
And I see what you did there! Heh. I used the same up above so yeaaaah.
Well his specialty IS barriers.
2342140 - I_S
Nopony does!
2342271 - PhantomKirby
Wait, if both his fillyfriends dump him for each other, he won't HAVE a fillyfriend...
Um, what?
2342415 - RoboGerbil
More's coming.
2342445 - conantheimp
2342494 - dargondarkfire
*wonders who's pregnant*
That's a very interesting story title.
2342647 - tigerphoenix
That was unfortunately just timing. I'm not psychic or anything.
Keela's wanted a change for a while though. You'll definitely be seeing more of the sisters in the future.
Heh, I guess you'll find out the state of the kitchen in this chapter, however. This is going to be so much fun!
2342774 - pretty in pink
I have no idea how to do that on a phone.
2342949 - Arlan753
That's a very unique curse. I like it.
2343032 - XxAshiikox3xX
It's not intended, no.
2343078 - tjamesbeard
This is generally the direction the fic is going, with a few darker turns mixed in. *points to the dark and gore tags*
I'm glad you're liking.
2343388 - Farnham
I like Keela.
Nirru is under a lot of stress, yes.
2343593 - TheOneThatToldTheTime
I did while writing it.
2343789 - NightoftheDante
Heh, far worse than that. Death might have been a mercy.
2343923 - Bridge
She was interested in him before as a Keldarian, but her continued interest is yet to be seen.
Admittedly I wasn't expecting this reaction about Keela. heh. It's interesting to say the least.
(2/7)
2344256 - Dhuradhan
Also, I should warn you that there's Dark and Gore tags too...
I'm glad somepony else likes the technicals too.
2344457 - chavis54
He was always dangerous. There's no reason to sugar coat it. He was trained to kill things using magic and held a moderately ranked position in his old culture, limited by social stigma.
Ha! Mender's subservient to females.
2344774 - Enmar
He wakes up first.
Sorry! It was Spike who found him!
2345064 - Rezival
I'm glad you approve. Things will start speeding up now.
2345618 - Patashnik
I enjoy Lovecraft's work.
2345666 - JockeTF
I'm happy with the speed of the story right now, so I guess I'll stick with it.
Admittedly, part of my problem is I let a select few get to me too much.
2345910 - FlyingChurro
Keela made the mistake of not openly 'claiming' him.
Girlfriend is too strong.
2345945 - NightCore
I'm sure you'll find out more about the Keldarians as well as time goes on.
Heeee. Oh? The book is... interesting indeed.
2345969 - RoboRed
There's more to come, obviously, as well.
Of course it does. It's an important part of Mender.
2346036 - Bubbubob
Twilight's an... interesting case. She's not as heartless as she may seem.
2347883 - ExplosiveBrohoof
Just a little concerned is all.
2348374 - Blaise Brony
Aaah, the infamous Pinkie-Induced Kiss Scene.
2348404 - NomanV1
Heh. I love how so many ponies are jumping to conclusions about Keela. It's not even indicated if she's into the xeno thing or not! Ha! Anyway, yes, he avoided being sliced in half, which I suppose is a good thing.
2348633 - Blaise Brony
Catching up fast.
2349099 - Biscuits
Quite. He's seen a lot more than the audience currently knows.
2349256 - Half-a-Yolk
If so, thank you! Fixing!
I know. Why, did I accidentally use the wrong one?
2349314 - Majk
Hex might be too weak a word...
(3/7)
2349817 - Periphery
Congratulations on the trendsetting! Sadly, even I didn't think of that one while designing his mark...
It's definitely weird that the book had his full name in it. He only ever told her the 'Mender' part. Who knows what's going on with the book! 
Again, a very good theory though.
It looks familiar. Although your observation is interesting indeed. Heh. I wonder if it's just some sort of inner voice of Mender's acting through the book, or if the book has some sort of personality? Either would be interesting. 
He didn't use any spell on it. His Ignite magic isn't strong enough to do that. He freaked out and her connection spell overloaded and blew up in her face, setting her fur on fire. Nirru couldn't stop laughing for at least an hour. 
As for the 'bitches' part, remember he made that statement before having met any of them while in the midst of the 'rescue' operation. I have a feeling he rescinded the term for Keela, anyway. 
Admittedly, you do have some very delicious ideas. I wonder how accurate they are? 
Oddly, he wasn't harmed by the landing, even at the velocity required to make a crater several times his body size. It's also already fact in the story that he has his own gravity field, and SOMETHING has to be making that. To answer the other part however, they turned their moons into mini-citadels with propulsion. 
It's a pity Mender doesn't think maliciously enough to realize that. Her connection to him IS a link, however. Although it's SIGNIFICANTLY more restricted than his other one.
You're totally the first one.
I like that theory.
What game is that?!
Aaaah, yet another thing said in passing that will never, ever be explained to the audience. I could probably write a short story just on all the parts missing in MP/FP simply because Mender wasn't there to see them.
Heh. Keela hasn't even made any noticeable comment on xenophilia in the first place. I love how everypony instantly jumps to her crushing on Mender just because she was crushing on his old, Keldarian form.
Oooh, and here we go. Patented Periphery-Theories.
Spike as a dragon thing was incorrect. I went back and fixed it after you commented. Thank you.
Pinging Keela repeatedly for a long period of time would have indeed been funny.
2354060 - CodeSmith
Which means I probably will be releasing it at a faster pace, yeah. Ponies are impatient. 
I'll probably hold a (pointless) vote over it once I finish.
2355799 - Tech Specs
*doesn't remember any in that chapter*
I put other plot in this?!
2356286 - Destructorspace
Also, Mender saying almost ANY of those would be so out of character it would be hilarious. 
Uh, which one of those dozens of quotes?
2357017 - Kaille
I'm glad you're enjoying.
(4/7)
2361202 - CodeSmith
Psh, I aim for spheres.
2361563 - Unwitting Brony
In theory, it should be dormant when he's not 'in' it. Of course, Mender appears to have no intent on actually TELLING Twilight or Fluttershy yet. 
They can't get jealous if they don't know, of course. He's a master level barrier specialist and expert level in his two main fields. That's one rank lower than the highest 'casting' rank the males could achieve. Keela however is a scanning specialist, so it IS really hard to hide things from her. 
The book is very dangerous, but it's unknown if it has a mind of its own or not.
Also, I don't think I'd ever agree to a movie out of this, even if it WERE legal.
2368214 - J0HNS0N
I think...
Thank you?
2373988 - Omnicron25
Make the most of what you're given...
Heeee. The link is strong indeed. The link was totally missed by Princess Celestia however because it was... dormant when she did her scan.
He was a moderately high ranked male, although that still doesn't assure his status as a 'stud' in his old world. His body was physically weaker and smaller than his peers, so he was deemed a 'runt' by the females and undesirable. He became a high ranked mage instead, mastering things that didn't have to do with his body.
2375610 - Zer0prototype
Maybe I should throw him a bone and finally make that wish a reality?
I update once a week on Fridays until I get the entire story done. If you watch either myself or the story, you'll get updates as to the progress of the writing as well as a pre-notification of the chapter going up in my blog each Friday.
HA! The saddlebags are something of a brick joke. He keeps mentioning that he wants them but never, ever seems to luck out and actually have her make them for him!
Congrats on getting caught up though.
Edit: Scratch that. I see you already Favorited the story, so you'll get these.
2377146 - Master Specter
I missed you! I know the long exposition chapters can be boring to a lot of ponies. I try to put a mix into each chapter when exposition is needed, but this was a long scene that couldn't be avoided, so I decided to toss it in all at once rather than try to split up. You'll get back to ponies making out soon enough, worry not. 
Yay, you still exist!
2377963 - ExplosiveBrohoof
Don't pull an AJ. Anyways, you comprehended the chapter well enough. Making out isn't illegal per say, but her not 'claiming' him first was a bad move. That's all I can really detail, as most of your post was summary. I can understand you not liking sci-fi though, so yeah.
It's okay to take time for yourself, EB. I'm just worried you're burning yourself out.
2379445 - Jamza
I'm glad you liked the exposition, though. You knew there'd eventually be true contact between him and those two anyway, no? 
Does cute fluff count as romance?
2380051 - AggroViking
You were first.
2380152 - Lucky424
Now will he fess up or try to come up with a totally bogus story to cover it? HMM! Stay tuned in and find out next time! 
He does appear to be in hot water!
(5/7)
2380214 - Gemannihilator
Hopefully without that chilled sense of dread afterwards, though.
Then you were as surprised as Mender.
2380340 - Skijarama
I figured it was fitting.
2380356 - bitWolfy
I'm sorry you don't like the story. Goodbye, then.
2380459 - Sarikano
You're finally starting to see hintings as to WHY he over-reacts to them, based on his prior culture.
2380699 - Enmar
I think saying that would have the exact OPPOSITE effect Mender desires.
2380744 - Bubbubob
Not great choices...
Lose-Lose either way.
2380747 - RoboRed
Well, as much as I can in-between the crazy, dark, and unstable. 
Heee. I do add a lot of adorable parts in.
2380891 - Starburst
Eventually? What would he hide and what would he tell?
Maybe?
2380954 - Eratosthenes
She did learn that lesson.
Heeee. That would indeed be adorable. Even when Twilight gets mad, she's very intent on NOT hurting Mender.
2380956 - jazwiec
He should PROBABLY leave that whole girlfriend thing out of any explanation he gives...
And a new one, such as being teleported into orbit, totally created!
2381110 - tigerphoenix
There's really no serious way to get out of it.
I think he might have to fess up!
And yes, I changed up the traditional 'herd' a bit. Most readers jump to 'harem', but that's not true. Each member of a herd represented in my story can care for and love each other member, not just draw focus to one member in particular. It LOOKED like Mender was going to be the link, but that's not the case if they do form one. Also, legally, in my universe, herds can have multiple members of each sex.
2381238 - Guardian Talon
Twilight seems mutually okay with it, if not accepting. Of course, she doesn't realize she too is an objective of desire for the mare.
Although as a warning, I do have gore in this fic.
Heh, Fluttershy is eager to be accepted but she's also reserved and doesn't want to rush things, so it's hard to say.
Plus, I don't think Twilight would ever do that, even in her craziest of moments, so Mender should be safe.
2381262 - Arlan753
Quite!
2381583 - Somepony Nopony
I sowee.
Because I need enough time to write, proof, and correct chapters to stay ahead?
2381714 - NightCore
Oh, and you'll get a nifty flashback for next week!
It's been hinted as to why Mender's the way he is already, but it will be spelled out in later chapters.
2382290 - Jansvl
But he almost has to explain unless he makes up a totally crappy and bogus story in attempts to cover it and only makes the situation worse! 
Fillyfriend.
(6/7)
2382593 - Blaise Brony
Congratulations!
You caught up!
2382823 - Rezival
Thankfully Mender hasn't seen THAT version of Fluttershy yet.
Scary.
2383294 - Periphery
Things are going to start speeding up now heading into the twenties. Something is coming... 
Mender is really turning out to be helpful for her, although not just in hooking up with Twilight, obviously.
I like to consider him an extremely good cook, and thus, make him so in the story. He's a lot better than Mender is, and also far less prone to injuring himself, and/or dropping his body parts into the meal when cutting something. So it's all good, right? I'm glad you enjoyed that aspect of his portrayal. 
Mender is also very skeptical about teleportation, especially when it involves being incinerated. 
Mender COULD have summoned something in the Everfree by accident as well!
I'm still debating on actually coming out and saying it at some point. You have a very, very good guess though, based on the subtle hints so far... 
That's painful to even THINK about... OW! You're a horrible, horrible pony for making me imagine that... 
Intentional to some degree.
Fluttershy is just downright adorable for the most part, yes. She was very, very happy in this chapter and is indeed eager to try to join. She thinks Mender will support her if she tries at this point and hopes it might be enough to convince Twilight to maybe consider being with Fluttershy too.
Technically it only showed him inept at making food that was too delicious for HIM to resist.
I just took the accidental thing as him being so conditioned to sending things to Celestia that he kinda does that on instinct if he's not intentionally thinking of a different place to send them.
He saw hintings of it in the first story, but it was never specifically stated. You also have to remember his mindset. He's used to a male pining after a female as being a death wish, and momentarily had to remind himself that it's reasonably okay in Equestria. Your example of Mender's incompetence/clumsiness still makes me laugh, though.
I agree with almost all of your points about Sparity, of course. It's a cute pairing and I do endorse it, but it has to be handled more carefully than most. Rarity could very easily overlook Spike's interest, or pass it off as puppy love due to the apparent age gap. He seems somewhat immature in comparison, but significantly more mature than his physical age would dictate, being at least four or five years younger by estimate than Twilight herself. I'm guessing dragons simply mature faster, in that case.
That was a mistake on my part. It's changed to 'fillyfriend' now, like all other instances before it. Direct shift between girl/filly. Marefriend is also nice SOUNDING, but literally woman-friend seems strange conceptually for me.
Heh. For a majority of the story, I don't think I ever actually SAY what their allies were.
OW! OWWWWWW!
2383427 - J4mie
Although you might yet be surprised at how things play out next week.
Heh, no, there are no specific hints. Although Spike definitely 'saw' the paper that was popped out in the library. That would imply in high probability that the paper Mender was writing madness on that night also existed.
2384577 - sanity4cheep
Although another interpretation could be that a phrase is used as established irony or lampshading, or as an iconic gesture rather than a literal meaning. That is occasionally done.
Apologies.
2384999 - Unwitting Brony
He was complaining about it before shaking them off and going downstairs to get a glass of water, remember? Then he passed out in the kitchen before getting a chance to clean it up, and Spike threw them into the waste bin that morning. Then Twilight saw the bin was FLOODED with cut up paper.
No. The paper was all the attempts Keela was using to get his attention and have him respond using them like he did the night in the Everfree. Most would probably say 'Hello?' or some such, if so.
2385813 - PhantomKirby
You're less likely to be blindsided that way. I'm glad you're enjoying, though! 
It's good that you haven't forgotten about the mature version, and the gore/dark tags.
2387752 - FlyingChurro
No, that was an energy construction. The paper she was literally physically sending to Equestria through stream effects. She can only do that with small objects, however.
The orb?
(7/7)
2391028 No, that was just my interpretation of what Mender is thinking at first!
2391043 Damn Friday. Why can't it get here sooner!!
Uh oh, three replies at once to respond to. THIS is going to be a looong one. Probably fairly boring too, since it's turning into a conversation that's largely only tangentially related to the actual story. Welp, here goes!
2391048 I meant the scene when Spike demolished Applejack's kitchen and ended up making that horrible pie that they made Rarity (pretend to) eat. That really didn't fit with Spike's abilities at all, because, like you said, in the episode where he kept accidentally eating his ingredients, it really did seem like he was making his cake quite competently otherwise. And then there were those cookies he made that everyone loved in Owl's Well that Ends Well, and it seemed like those were even his own recipe. He made the popcorn in Over a Barrel, as minor as that might be, plus he helped prepare food at Sugarcube Corner for that party with Celestia at the beginning of A Bird in the Hoof. Maybe some stuff I'm forgetting too. So yeah, he must've gone temporarily insane or something in his "let's harass Applejack" episode, because he can clearly make food pretty well if they even trust him to help cook for Celestia.
Spike's maturity level kind of depends on the episode, really. In general, though, he usually seems as mature as Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, at least. Plus this is a world where even the adults play Pin the Tail on the Pony, and things like that, so they're all at least a little more childlike in some ways. I actually think he's very slightly younger than the CMC, since it seemed like Applejack's parents had already died by the time she went to Manehattan, in which case Apple Bloom must've already been born by the time Spike was hatched. He's definitely more mature than they are, so I think the species difference makes up for at least a good chunk of the age difference.
The fact that he can grow to the size of a building in a single day clearly means that dragons don't age the same way as ponies (or people). And it's long been my headcanon that he's going to molt his scales one day, instantly becoming significantly larger, and gaining his wings. Completely separate process from the greed-growth, but still burst-prone. Plus he's shown more interest in romance than any of the ponies, so I really don't think ten years old (or whatever) for a dragon is the same as ten years old for a pony. By the way, if you ever want to read any Spikity stories, Paleowriter's are all good, and she does a nice job at addressing the internal conflict I think makes a lot of sense for Rarity's feelings on the matter.
And yeah, that was the conclusion I came to when I read that explanation of Spike's teleportation magic. It could make sense that Celestia is basically his default destination when he's not paying much attention. Oh, and just because I was curious if I was remembering right, I took a few minutes to skim for Spike's scenes in Memory Pending, since he really didn't show up much in that, and found this in chapter ten: "It didn't take a master of psychology or behaviorisms to note the massive infatuation he had over her. A pity it appeared to be largely one-sided, as Rarity smiled politely at him before settling down on the half couch once again." That must be what I vaguely remembered, and like I said, it's the sort of thing that could very easily slip his mind, considering everything else he's had cluttering it up. It was just a brief observation, then he got distracted by Twilight waving her butt around in his face just a moment or two later. "Spike? Spike who?"
2391039 That picture was from Chrono Trigger. Aaaaand hmm... actually, I think most of this comment doesn't really require much of a reply, soo...
2391028 Don't worry, my mind is thoroughly at ease already for FlutterMoonLight. But just for the sake of further elaboration, I think the main thing that makes herd-type situations generally seem less appealing to me is that the more individuals involved in the romance, the more there will tend to be missing lines, so to speak. Like for a while, this seemed like it was going to be a V-shaped romance--two simultaneous pairings, where two ponies are linked mainly through the third. But since Fluttershy spilled her secret, a true triangle with mutual feelings for all involved has been looking far more likely, and I'm much more comfortable with that. It's definitely far more complicated and potentially confusing for everyone, but it seems like they can make it work. I wonder if Mender might start feeling occasionally unsure about Fluttershy too now, though, on top of his regular self-doubt, because of that brief misunderstanding when she told him she likes Twilight too. Anyway, at this point I very much want to see them succeed, so I hope they can all start to work together effectively and communicate well. It's bound to take them a little while, of course.
To generalize the explanation even further, just because I can't seem to stop typing today, I like to imagine romantic love as being about what those involved create together as a combined whole at least as much as the emotions one individual feels for another, if that makes any sense. And in a world with real magic, like I said before, I believe it would be like a soul mate type deal, for lack of a better term. But with enough participants, eventually polyamory can end up being like H-shaped romances, or such, where's it's just about impossible that every "point" will be connected to every one of the others. That wouldn't really be a cohesive network, but rather have focal points that are more important than others to the overall group, and to some degree they'd be stuck trying to figure out how to keep things balanced enough just to function. If you have an H and remove that top-right dot, well then you've still got an h. And if one point on the shape can fall off without breaking up the rest of the pattern, it kinda seems like it wasn't really all that important. It just doesn't seem like love if some individuals are less important than others.
Plus on a purely emotional level, the more connections there are, the less, well, special each one feels, in my opinion. Part of how I would define romantic love is that it's something unique you share together. If every single individual in the group really does have that same bond with every other member of the group, it's not all that unique, so if you have the same feelings for five other people, that sure doesn't seem very romantic to me. More like a big cluster of strong friendships. A group of three is small enough that I can think of it as special circumstances, where it takes the full trio to make the whole thing complete. A soul set instead of soul mates, perhaps? But every addition beyond that feels like it dilutes it, to me, making an increasingly messy pile instead of something elegant and beautiful.
Obviously I'm not saying everyone has to see it that way, but for me, the more participants involved, the less appeal and romance I see in the situation. I think it'd have to be pulled off with absolute perfection for me to make that exception for a story with a four-way relationship. And for five or more, I think I'd just see it as something else entirely, more like a little community. It could potentially work, I suppose, but I wouldn't really see much romance in it.
Also, Equestria's population doesn't seem all that large, so maybe they do have a population that isn't really growing over time. And then there's no reason they couldn't do things like mare couples finding a stallion who's willing to offer them a little donation to help them out. Or maybe there's even magic that allows same-gendered couples to have children together. Possibly that's what the amniomorphic spell is. Might not work for two stallions, but maybe that's somehow even why there seems to be an imbalance in their population in the first place, because a magically conceived child might have a strong tendency (maybe even be guaranteed?) to be the same gender as the parents. Or maybe one of Celestia's duties (or Cadence?) is to cast a temporary gender-bending spell on couples who want to have children together, and that's where Twilight got the idea from for her fake-out duel with Trixie.
Anyway, I realize a lot of this is pretty idealized thinking, talking about soul mates and such, but that's a good part of what ponies are for, imagining a world that doesn't have to match up with real life or anything else. I remember I was just fine with the multiple-wives solution back when I used to read Tenchi Muyo fan fiction, because that was something they did right in the show itself. So my attitude largely depends on the specifics of the particular world in question. Worst-case scenario, I accept that this story doesn't fit with how I see Equestria, then simply read it as a different interpretation. No big deal, really.
Also, I guess I didn't make any sort of prediction for what's going to happen next. Hmm, I think I'll take the serious route this time and say that he's going to bite the bullet and explain truthfully, maybe just because he won't be able to think of anything else that'll work. Twilight will be skeptical and probably grumpy again, but the others will vouch for him and tell her to finally listen to him for once. She'll examine the paper and realize it doesn't look like anything normal for Equestria, and then she'll want more evidence. It hasn't really been all that long since the meeting with Keela ended, so he might just ping her right away, but maybe they'll decide to wait until the end of the day to do it with some proper scientific observations prepared.
Or maybe he'll just say he was reading a book and sneezed. Somehow that'd probably be enough of a reason for a book to explode if he's the one looking at it.
2391045
Cant wait to see what his explanation ends up resulting in, either more tests or more thinking that he is "rather odd".
2391033
I rather enjoy this other side of the story, I'm hoping for a great deal of development on this front, though knowing you, I'm sure I won't be let down
2384577
English is a little bit stupid that way. There's a lot of sayings that don't make much sense once you think about them, if you look at the individual words literally. Try this definition instead: "all at the same time" with etymology "based on the literal meaning of fell swoop (a quick, sudden downward movement by an attacking bird)." And elsewhere on that site: "a single hasty action or occurrence."
Idioms are kind of just slang in phrase form. Don't take 'em too seriously or they bug the crap out of you.
Another stirling chapter, Mr. Kiroberos! Thank you for updating so regularly!!
On a side note, just a thought -
I have a sneaking suspicion that leather would be pretty horrifying to the average pony. I can only imagine how Fluttershy might react!
Just my two pence though. xD
Crap indeed Mr. Mender crap indeed
This frist sentence
and the day was going so well 2 poor mender
TB: *facepalms with a hard slap* Dammitt, Molestia... Why?... I was having a good morning, too...
TB: *Face red with rage* FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUU-- *gets a hoof in the mouth*
Ugh herds....
Homicide refers to the act of killing a Homo Sapien, or human. The act of killing an equine, if sentient, is referred to as murder, but one could say Equicide.
Wait, how do they know what paper Is? They use parchment!
8046407
I'm pretty sure they have newspapers in the show not to mention we have seen several with clipboards with white sheets on it.