• Published 21st Dec 2012
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Forgiveness Pending - Kiroberos



Moon Mender's adventure continues right where left off. He jumps at the chance for a new life, but will his old one truly leave him in peace? Some things are better off forgotten.

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Chapter 90

The hum of the machines was rather comforting as I relaxed in the padded examination chair, idly watching Kyliona move about setting up the equipment and double checking everything. Her hair was down today, the dark purple swishing about as she rapidly went over the checklist. Her level of compulsive orderliness had become comforting as well.

"Everything seems to be in order. This will be the third attempt of Experiment Sixteen, Section C. Keela, are you ready on your end?" she asked, looking into the monitor that bridged the two active labs at the moment. We were in Lab A, which was rather spacious and mostly dealt with the scanning equipment and analysis servers. Things had progressed quickly over the last two and a half months, and not just in my growth department. After the partial success of the last experiment, I was really, really excited to see how this one was going to turn out! The darker ambiance served to highlight the glowing screen in front of me, three orbs of light drifting about and projecting the image into the air itself. Relaxing, I listened to my internal hum, too, smiling as I felt the computer parts process the data Kyliona was feeding into me.

Keela nodded in the side screen to my right, also being projected by one of my hovering orbs. They'd installed this system only last week, and it had not ceased to delight me since. Twenty-four 'self-extension' orbs, for projecting images, playing sounds, or casting my magic through. They told me it would be useful when I did the full jump to 'Equus'.

"I'm ready. Scrying is prepared, and I've locked onto the coordinates from last time. All we need is Azure to engage," the Keldarian confirmed, typing into her side computer while her other hand operated the complex spell engine in front of her. They taught me how to do this, and I nodded, feeling the link inside of me churn. It was immensely powerful, and almost immutable to me. It felt like a vastly tall pillar of pure, absolute rock anchoring down into an incomprehensible ocean. The water failed to even shake it, and touching upon it drew me specifically to its location, so I could never, ever be lost. Mom told me it was proof I was a pony, and that I belonged in Equus. I'd grown comfortable with that link since then.

Kyliona nodded to that, then gave the go ahead with, “Begin experiment now, Azure.” My eyes started to glow with my own amber light, inner magic activating and grabbing onto all of the links that Keela gave me. Her spell was indeed ready, and I pulled my focus along my link again, feeling it open up before me as easily as drawing a curtain. It went far more smoothly than even our last attempt. My screen lit up, and for a moment, I was disoriented as usual, seeing through two sets of eyes instead of one. The extra set didn't exist, however, I remembered...

The dark ambiance was gone, the new vision impossible to ignore as the sky exploded into light and warmth. An orange cascade of a new dawn opened upwards and the horizon expanded out in front of me. We fell, the blast of wind dancing across my mind as I rushed downwards, following the beads of light that Keela's magic showed me in my head. We were a good team.

I spun, shooting in an intangible stab through the clouds and rushing down through the Spring air. 'Spring' was something new I'd learned, along with the rest of the seasons. The ground spiraled under me, and I closed my eyes for a moment, just ‘feeling’ the breeze around me as we shot downwards. I heard Keela giggle a moment later, and remembered that I certainly wasn’t the only one here as I shot to the ground instead. The dark ocean of greens and browns flew up faster than I could fathom, and suddenly a thick forest was all around me as I burst down close to the ground and reaching the team’s observation point.

I saw a softer smile come from Kyliona as I settled into place, shifting back to my actual vision with one eye. The older Keldarian examined the screen for a long moment before nodding mostly to herself. “No changes since last time appear to be present. Insect and flora are within three percent of their genetic equivalence. Astounding for a dimension that’s, in theory, developed completely separately from this one,” she observed as we reached our usual clearing in the woods. This was the lighter forested area in this region, both less dense of trees and having different types entirely. It was hard for Mom to remember properly as she said she didn’t live in this area, but she thought this place was called the ‘Whitetail Woods.’

“Not entirely no changes,” Keela warned, giving me a mental arrow, and I turned to look in the direction she indicated. On the other side of the clearing, across the gently gurgling stream, there looked to be equipment of sorts set up. There was a fancy box on a tripod with crystals sticking out of it by the looks of it. Wires connected it to a smaller machine that had a paper feed in it, and a few sheets sticking out the bottom. My ears perked up, and I drifted over closer to the machines.

I gave a squeak as it started beeping, however. Had I done something wrong?! A prior unnoticed tent opened up just a bit further back into the woods, and to my utter shock, another pony stepped out of it, giving a tired looking yawn and heading over to the equipment. It was a mare, I instinctively knew, and she was rather pretty. Her mane and tail were a golden brown in color, almost matching her lighter gold eyes. Interestingly enough, her coat color was a darker green instead, although it complimented her eyes quite well. Her mane was rather messy, though, and it looked like she’d just woken up.

“Oh! This is interesting. I don’t think we’re ready to observe others in this dimension yet, but I suppose this is a prime opportunity. This appears to be another ‘pony’,” Kyliona noted, looking interested as she shifted her glasses up on her nose and examined the mare. I did as well, more for never having seen another pony before now.

“It’s a mare. A female,” I informed, and was then nudged in the side by the only other Keldarian in the room. Huh? Glancing back towards Mirin, I saw her grinning again, and inwardly groaned. She was the second youngest member of the team, if you only counted the twins once, and Litta’s little sister, sharing her yellow eyes. Her hair was a light blue instead, however, and done up in pigtails in the back. She didn’t have her older sister’s restraint, sadly.

“Is she cute?” she chirped, causing my cheeks to heat up and I swatted at her with my tail, earning a laugh as she flailed and dodged out of the way.

There was a snort, then Litta cut in over Keela’s line. “Stop distracting him, Mirin. Wait till later when we’re off duty,” she reminded. Uh… thanks, I think.

Keela rolled her eyes in the video feed, then suggested, “Or you could just, you know, not at all?” Heh, Keela was always sticking up for me, which made me happy. Plus, she was one of the highest ranking members here apart from Kyliona, so they all sorta had to listen to her. Her magic was really, really powerful, too! Illusions were fun, and Keela let me play with them quite a bit. Of course, we also used them for more practical uses, too, like that time she linked her mind up with me and helped me make an illusionary image of my Mom so they all could see what she looked like.

“Hey, you’ve only claimed him as a glorified teddy bear! Besides, it’s Kyliona’s fault for not letting any boys into the contamination area!” Mirin complained, huffing afterwards, then tacking on, “If he thought Keldarians were attractive, too, we could totally…” Her statement ended abruptly as she put her paw on my back flank and I squealed, flailing away from her as she broke into giggles again. No! Not that again! Ever since the bath incident that made me start washing myself from then on, I’d never heard the end of their teasing!

Her giggles ended just as abruptly as a clipboard collided with the side of her head and knocked her over. “Enough! This is important research data, so stop screwing around while working!” Kyliona reminded, glaring at Mirin on the floor, who rapidly held her paws up with an apologetic face.

“S-Sorry! Right! I’ll get back to monitoring the video feed!” the smaller Keldarian quickly apologized, scrambling back up to her feet again.

Blushing lightly, I got control of the link again and refocused it, snapping the picture back into focus and also adding, “I’m sorry, Kyliona.”

The older Keldarian relaxed and smiled at me before brushing her paw gently through my mane, causing me to relax. “Calm down, Azure. It wasn’t your fault, and you’re doing marvelously. We’re getting lots of data, but it would seem we’ve been discovered,” she responded, gesturing back to the screen. Instead, I shifted my attention back down the link and noticed the mare hastily checking the readings, then squeaking as she pulled out another strange machine with an array of crystals on long spokes. It looked sort of like an orrery, but where the planets were replaced by carved crystal spires.

To all of our surprise, a voice came out of it a moment later, as all the spires lit up and a hazy image of a pony wearing a dark hood faded in amidst all of the crystals. “Ah, I was hoping you’d call soon. Do you have a report, Snapshot?” the pony asked, voice deeper and definitely male. Snapshot? For some reason, Mom froze up inside of me as well, eyes widening radically. Ah! Wait, did she know Snapshot?!

“Yes! You were right. The location of the last two energy readings is activating again! I’m not sure what all these numbers mean, but the last address is three hundred and twelve, like you said to look out for,” the mare, assumingly ‘Snapshot’ announced into the crystal.

The hooded stallion was quiet for a moment before exhaling softly. “It’s the same location, then. The same dimension that they connected to before. It’s bleeding through again, but specifically at that location. Why?” he asked, sounding like he was talking to himself. The mare frowned, then glanced back at the readings as the machine took a few more. I shifted closer, trying to peek around and look at what the machine was spitting out. There were lots of numbers on the sheet with labels to the left of them, and I felt Mirin’s display zoom in and start recording all of them as I watched. They could all see this, after all.

“Um, am I supposed to do anything, or just keep getting data? Also, are you sure you should keep this from the others?” Snapshot asked, glancing back at the floating projected head with the black cowl over himself. He didn’t answer immediately, and she instead turned back to look into the clearing, then froze. Her eyes locked right onto me, and I gave a start, momentarily locking eyes with her as well before I looked down and saw my now glowing hoof stepping on one of the power cord thingies leading up to the scanning device. Ah! Oh no! “G-Ghost?!” Snapshot squeaked, taking a step back before frantically looking around her, then reaching for a brown bag with a strap that was left near the scanning device.

“Camera!” Mirin identified almost instantly, as the dark figure in the crystals turned to look abruptly at me. For a long, scary moment, I saw two glowing blue eyes looking out from under the darkness of the hood, like frozen embers from some horrible underworld. They widened as they saw me, and Kyliona cut in instantly.

“Cut the connection, Keela!” she ordered. The image was gone in an instant as I felt the steering magic fall out from under me, and I shivered, flopping onto my stomach from the sudden loss of energy. That was the longest run we’d done yet, and certainly the liveliest. I’d felt rather lightheaded afterwards, as the energy ebbed around inside of me from the exertion.

Mirin was there almost instantly, back to looking serious as she got a glass of water up to my muzzle, and massaged my upper back and along my neck where the tension had started to build. She was our healer, after all. She held the glass for me as I took a long drink, then shivered, relaxing against the table.

“Are you okay, Azure? There was a lot of magic involved with that equipment, and whomever that other individual was,” Kyliona asked, frowning as she turned the lights back up in the lab.

Glancing inside of me, I saw Mom slowly massaging my energy back into working flows, then smile at me, shaking her head. “No, I… I think it was just my imagination. Don’t mind me,” she assured to the unspoken question as to her reaction earlier. There were lingering doubts around her, however, and I raised an eyebrow, but she merely averted her eyes. I knew I wouldn’t get anything more out of her when she did that, and exhaled, shifting my attention back to reality.

“I’ll be okay. That was just taxing, is all. I don’t think my inner energy was meant for this sort of thing,” I assured, feeling a bit of the tiredness ebb out of me.

Keela smirked at that, then asked, “Which? Projecting yourself across a spatial dimensional gap using applied quantum fields, or doing so while simultaneously letting six others piggyback along your connection to watch?” Uh…

“Yes?” I answered, earning a giggle from Mirin, who wrapped her arms around my neck and gave me a squeeze.

“You’re adorable, Azure,” she pointed out, earning an eye roll from both Keela and Kyliona.

Coughing, the doctor rapidly got us all back on track with, “We’ll need to abandon that spot, unfortunately. Despite its close proximity to these ‘Elements of Harmony’, it’s obviously no longer secure. The ponies have higher technology than we thought.” Mom remained silent, but I could tell she was bothered by what had happened far more than she was letting on. Our link worked both directions, and despite her being really, really good at blocking it, I could still feel a bit of her feelings. Kyliona continued a moment later, however, knocking me out of my thoughts.

“Keela, get me the readings and metrics from your spell output. Mirin should do another mental check on Azure to ensure he’s okay. Litta, get me an analysis on those number readings from the machine we saw. The twins should get me an analysis of both devices from the output we got,” she ordered, gesturing between the two windows as she addressed the other members of the team. The twins, also in Keela’s viewing window, silently nodded both at once and headed into the engineering lab. They were the last two members of the team and something of engineering geniuses, Amre and Kyre. Both had pink eyes and darker blue hair. Really, the only way I could tell them apart was that Amre always wore her ponytail on the right side of her head, and Kyre on the left. They were also really quiet and shy, although they seemed to like petting me. I’d fallen asleep to them on either side of me like bookends, massaging along my coat. It was rather nice, actually.

Mirin grinned at that, and then tacked on, “I’ll give you a full scrubdown and physical, too, just to be sure!” Ack!

“He can wash himself, Mirin!” Keela reminded almost instantly, only earning a giggle and nod from the younger Keldarian before she pulled me off the table. Thankfully, I was used to having four legs now, and casually landed on all four hooves before getting hauled towards the decontamination airlock. This was going to be a long day…

* * * * *

We stood over the silent embankment, fires and death blazing below us equally. The images no longer bothered me, having come into a majority of my DNA Donor’s memories now. Keela sat next to me, legs dangling off the cliff and staff still glowing, her protection and healing magic having enabled us to win the day. The evil, dark creatures had been driven back underground, and we won back the keep they’d overrun earlier in the storyline. Smirking, I glanced back over at Litta and Mirin as they continued arguing.

“No, the grunts only count for one point, otherwise your stupid area attacks would obviously get you more! The three captains I took out were obviously worth more than one point, so yes, I win!” Litta argued, gesturing at her gore covered longsword with her other arm, and almost bashing Mirin in the face with the shield strapped to it at the same time, if accidentally. Mirin stepped back away from the shield and glared at her sister irritably, then gesturing with her staff as well.

“Hardly! Even if the grunts only count for one point, I killed thirty-eight of them! Even if we make the captains count as five points each, I still totally beat you!” she yelled back, earning another giggle from Keela, who was just amused by it all.

They both glared over at her, but she was unfazed as she pointed out, “Azure killed five captains, and took down the dragon boss. Doesn’t that mean he wins?” I blushed, remembering flicking up and catching onto the dragon’s head, then riding it as it flailed around and I drove hoof blades into its neck… It was quite exhilarating, honestly.

Mirin huffed, then pointed out, “No! He cheats. He’s, like, trained spec ops or something with those memories!” I averted my eyes, and Keela lost her smirk instantly, shifting to a death glare at the younger Keldarian.

“We were the ones who put those memories in him. Yeah, we know he doesn’t need them for when he goes to Equus now, and yeah, we were different people back when making those decisions, but that doesn’t change that we did it to him. Showing blatant disrespect for that is not tolerated!” she warned sharply, causing Mirin to widen her eyes and hold up her paws in front of her, dropping her staff at the same time.

“Ah, sorry, sorry! I didn’t mean it like that!” she quickly apologized, looking sheepish and uncertain if she was going to be gutted on the spot or something. If these were normal Keldarians, she might have been, however, so I think I understood.

Litta shook her head slowly at that, however, sheathing her sword after flicking it clean. It didn’t actually work like that in real life, but I assume some breaks from reality were acceptable. Heh. I wondered idly if there would ever be a videogame about following behind the ‘hero’ and cleaning up the messes they left behind.

“I think all of us regret who we used to be to some extent. Getting irradiated was probably the best thing that’s ever happened to us, now that we understand what it was really doing. It’s like someone lifted a dark cloud from our eyes now, and… Well, I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Litta pointed out, looking solemn again as Keela relaxed and wrapped her arms around my shoulders. I was too big to fully hold anymore, but I could still be an oversized teddy bear if they needed me to.

“Yeah. Silly high level energy that ignores physicality. That does explain why those heavy, lead layered, magically woven contamination suits didn’t do a thing to stop it, though…” Mirin muttered, blinking at that. I think she was more upset by the fact that her fancy suits hadn’t stopped it than that it had actually changed her.

Keela exhaled into me, hugging me tighter as she buried her shorter muzzle into my mane. “I regret who I used to be, too, if only for it poisoning my memories,” she murmured, arms shaking a little. Mirin’s eyes softened at that, and Litta gave a weak smile as she sat down next to me and slid up against Keela, too.

“We know you miss him still. You’re a smart girl, and you know he’s not coming back. We’re here to help you move on past it, though,” she reminded. Keela had tried three times to talk to that male since I knew her. Those were her first attempts after getting locked inside the facility with the rest of the team, to my knowledge. They’d gone, well, poorly. He blamed her for what her sister did to him, on account of not being able to rescue him sooner, or tell her sister to stop. From what I knew of ‘Nirru’, she was a complete monster, however, even if Keela couldn’t or refused to acknowledge that. I don’t think anything Nirru did was Keela’s fault, even if Keela’s lover couldn’t figure that out.

Keela just nodded weakly, face still buried in the top of my head, and I rested against her neck, letting her hold me close. Even if I couldn’t really do anything, my mom had explained that just being there for somepony was often a huge help. Being an ear to listen to them, and a shoulder to cry on was what friends did. All six Keldarians here were my friends, I realized, and thanks to our energy affecting them, all six had changed. Keela had changed least of all, already being ‘purified’ of the negative energy that using their magic had built up in them. Mom had explained that it was a critical flaw in how they cast their spells that caused ‘buildup’ inside of them. It slowly corroded their own genetic code over the generations, causing the number of female births to dwindle drastically, and also lead to a ‘cloud’ of negative emotions to hamper their choices, built up over dozens of generations of hatred over their own situation. The energy inside of us pulled that tangling of energy apart at its source, and healed them.

Litta nodded to me, then requested, “Unhook us, Azure. It’s getting late anyway, and we can keep gaming tomorrow.” Oh, right! I pulled up my inner clock program and noted that it was already twenty-two hundred hours. Yeah… We tended to lose track of time while playing inside my entertainment suite, especially on weekends. Nodding once, I unhooked all of their psyches from my network, and opened my eyes at the same time as them.

Physical contact was required to hook into my psyche, and all three of them were still against me. Keela didn’t move at all, blinking once then snuggling into my chest as my right foreleg draped over her. Litta continued her yawn that she’d started as I disconnected them, this time for real as she stretched against my back. Mirin sat up from my waist after untangling her arms, and smirked down at Keela instead.

“You know, you already use Azure like a big teddy bear, so it wouldn’t be a huge jump to-“ she started to suggest.

“Finish that and you’ll be thinking you’re a frog for the next hour,” Keela warned, her left eye opening and giving Mirin a dangerously pointed glare. The blue haired Keldarian clamped her mouth shut, awkwardly looking away again as her sister started laughing.

Sitting up off me, she grabbed Mirin, then pointed out, “Your mouth is going to get you in trouble one of these days, Sis. Let’s get you back to our room before you’re croaking.” I lifted an eyebrow, but Litta hauled her off us and out the door all of a meter away before I could ask. Looking to Keela, I noticed her having closed her eyes and buried her face into my chest fur again. Eh, she probably wouldn’t be upset.

“Croaking?” I inquired, causing both her ears to perk up.

She giggled, a soft and tickling vibration into my chest that made me squirm lightly. “The sound a frog makes,” she explained, eyes opening as she looked up at me in amusement. I was as big as they were now, but she liked curling up so she could rest against my barrel instead, and tuck my legs around her. She said it made her feel safe, and I understood that much, feeling the same way when Mom hugged me. Although Mom just gave me a smirk and snicker when I tried asking her about it instead. Ugh. Females were frustrating sometimes.

“Good night, you two!” Litta called out behind us somewhere, as I heard their door shut. The main room’s lights dimmed anyway, the light coming through our door lessening as Keela relaxed further. They all had their ‘pajamas’ as they called them, which I guess made it easier to sleep. It was a bit confusing to me, really, given that I didn’t normally wear clothes and didn’t really understand the point. Litta’s pajamas were just a double slip of cloth that covered her chest and then a third between her legs, so I really didn’t know why she didn’t just take them off completely to sleep. They didn’t really look all that comfortable. Her sister, Mirin, wore her undershirt for a top, and also had a little slip between her legs that looked like a bigger version of what Litta wore, but seemed a bit looser and more comfortable. That was reasonable, I thought. Keela had a big, comfy looking overshirt on that typically went down to almost her knees, but also wore an even wider and looser slip thingy between her legs that covered her rump completely, too. She didn’t wear anything on her chest under the shirt though, so I decided hers was probably the most comfortable out of all of them. Mom had explained what a ‘teat’ was on females, and I didn’t really get why they felt the need to cover them up in the first place. Although frankly, the twins probably wore the least comfortable, as they went to bed in full bodied suits, it looked like! How they didn’t overheat was beyond me.

“I really should get up and brush my teeth before bed,” she murmured a moment later. Despite that, she didn’t move, however. Huh.

Deciding I should still probably ask, I started, “Um, do you still want me in here with-“

“Of course. You’ve been staying in here for a month and a half now. Why would it change tonight?” Keela inquired playfully, eyes opening again as she smiled up at me. Blushing, I shrugged weakly. She already knew that!

Coughing, I reminded, “You know I have to ask. It feels like it’s a bad idea to get in the habit of assuming things. Assuming feels dangerous.” Normally she snickered at that, but this time her expression blanked, and I wondered what was on her mind. Was she still bothered over that last turn of conversation from the game?

Her eyes softened, then she asked, “Um, you’re right, Azure. I shouldn’t assume either. Do you, um, mind staying in here with me at night? I don’t mean to use you like a teddy bear or something. You know that, right?” Oh. That.

Smiling, I nodded to her. “Of course. I know that you’re hurting a lot and that I can at least listen and let you vent. That’s no problem at all. Staying in here, um, also helps me sleep. I can hear your heartbeat, and you smell good. Both relax me, so, well, thank you,” I assured, blushing a little at that. They always got all awkward and changed colors when I mentioned smells, despite Kyliona explaining that my nose was a few times better than theirs, apparently. Predictably, Keela turned pink in the cheeks, too, and I realized I’d made her feel awkward again.

She stared into my eyes for a long moment before smiling softly, the blush still not fading. “You’re a lot like he used to be, which reminds me that everyone can have good qualities, too,” she commented finally, causing me to blink. How he used to be? Her smile widened, however, and she tacked on, “But you’re also enough not like him to make me realize that he’s no longer the boy I fell in love with. They’re right. I really do need to let what happened go.” I relaxed, realizing that’s what they’d been telling her all along. I didn’t know what she saw in me that caused her to come to that conclusion, but it was enough that she did, really. Did I care how it came about? If I was able to help her…

My eyes widened and my brain completely shut down as her mouth pressed into mine. She leaned up into me, reaching up and cupping my head with both her paws as she kissed me softly. Instincts flared, and I let my forelegs slide up and hold her tighter, and she shivered against me, pressing fully into my chest with her eyes squeezed shut. Her smells were all around me, and I felt relaxed yet wound tight as she stayed against me for another long moment before leaning back again, face flushed and eyes still closed. Oh… Wow…

Hers finally opened, but she didn’t look up into mine, and for a moment, she just lay there. I knew what a kiss was, and all the things they could mean after Mom’s ‘birds and bees’ talk with me earlier. After… other memories from Keela’s lover had started surfacing alongside the strange feelings and awkward washing incident with Litta, she’d said it was kind of needed. I’d not expected to actually kiss a female, though!

“I… T-Thank you, Azure. You might have been, um, too young for that, but… you’ve helped me start to heal my heart, so thank you,” she whispered softly. She stood up before I could reply, hastily turning away from me, the tip of her tail flicking as she smoothed out her big overshirt again. My eyes traced up her form for a moment before locking on her twitching ears, wondering which of the torrent of emotions in my chest I should try to lock onto first. Her twitchy tail and ears indicated she had a lot on her mind, too, by the looks of it.

“Keela…” I murmured, causing her to freeze suddenly. I hesitated, and she turned and looked back at me, her left eye locking with mine for the first time over her shoulder. She searched mine for a long moment, apparently not finding what she was looking for so nervously. She relaxed a second later, and I saw the corner of her mouth turn up into a softer smile.

She looked back towards the bathroom a moment later, then snickered lightly to herself. “I’m not leaving. I just, um, want to brush my teeth before bed. Then I’ll be back,” she assured quietly. Her ears relaxed, and her tail twitches turned into sways instead, and I found myself easing back a bit more against the mattress before nodding.

“Okay. See you in a bit,” I agreed, watching her head for the bathroom. Her scent was all around me still, and I closed my eyes. That was… new. I felt Mother smirk inside of me and shifted my attention there instead.

My mom was relaxing there inside of me, then gave me a wink as I materialized. I suddenly felt kind of awkward, but she only grinned. “Relax. I was just wondering when she was going to admit to it. As much as I wouldn’t mind grandfoals, I do just want you to be happy, my son,” she pointed out, making my cheeks go scarlet.

“I don’t think she’s going to do that with me. Sheesh. Maybe, um, it might have been just a thank you for being there for her, too,” I pointed out, plopping down in the emptiness in the room of light that we had constructed over the weeks. She rested on the sofa within, and lay back down before giggling.

“If it makes you feel safer to think about it like that, go for it. Just don’t be surprised, or worse, break her heart, if she says otherwise,” she pointed out, earning a pause from me. Her heart. I cared about all of them. I’d grown to know all six of the Keldarians here. Kyliona was like a second mother or aunt. Litta and Mirin were like sisters, really. That made Kyre and Amre feel like little sisters. That was cemented further the few times they fell asleep while petting me, and I had to carry them back to their room and tuck them in. They were adorable… Keela used to feel like an older sister to me. She’d always been there to stick up for me, and give me advice and make sure I was taking care of myself, especially when I was younger. But now…

My feelings blurred. I’d always thought she was cute. Was it… Was it wrong to be attracted to a species that wasn’t your own? Today reminded me, with that ‘Snapshot’, that I was fully capable of finding mares attractive, too, but… Keela was far more than just attractive, and not just in looks. It was because I felt so attached to her. But my feelings were all jumbled up. The only thing I could really make sense of was that I definitely didn’t mind kissing her. My Mom was obviously still there of course, and smirked.

“That’s a good and important start. There’s nothing wrong with liking to kiss a pretty girl, mare or not. Especially if you share powerful feelings with her. There are at least three major species in our Equus. They don’t usually discriminate between race either, there. Love is love, and should be celebrated, no matter who is involved,” she reasoned, smiling softly at me. I relaxed and nodded back to her, feeling better already. Was it weird for a pony and Keldarian to be together? Not really. Both of us were sapient, and she seemed to fully know what she was doing. I think. Okay, I should ask her that…

Mom giggled, then nodded to me as I shifted my attention back outside, noting the lights dimming. I briefly saw Keela’s silhouette against the bathroom light as she shut it off then turned, letting her over shirt drop from her right paw to the floor. My eyes widened as her darkened form sashayed back over, then she snickered and kneeled down on the edge of the bed next to me.

“Relax, Azure. You don’t have an issue with clothing, and it’s more comfortable for me to sleep like this, so I was hoping you wouldn’t mind. If it does bother you, I can put it back on,” she whispered gently. I relaxed a little, looking up at her softly glowing eyes, her own inner magic shining through them.

Slowly, I shook my head and locked onto what could easily be agreed to. “No, if you’re more comfortable without, then you’re obviously fine,” I assured. My uneasy confidence melted completely as she smiled, and then snuggled in, her chest pressing up against me instead as her magic lifted the blankets up and over us. She was doing this and didn’t really care! Why didn’t she care?! Why did I suddenly care?! I should be fine with nudity!

“The kiss, Azure,” I heard my Mother helpfully remind inside of me. I snapped to focus immediately, then looked back to Keela, swallowing nervously. Her smile turned to a smirk almost instantly, and I wondered if this was one of those “It’s A Trap!” moments.

“Um, w-what about that, um…” I whispered, swallowing after to try to get a hold on my nervousness. Keela pressed me backwards, seeming unfazed to the point where I swore I felt her smile against my chest fur.

Swallowing, I uneasily looked back down at her as she snuggled into me and the mattress, letting the blankets settle around her form before answering regardless of my inability to ask. “It can mean anything you want it to mean, Azure. If you want it to be a thank you, I’ll leave it exactly at that. If you want it to be more than a thank you…” she started, then leaned up a little more and nuzzled me under the chin, getting me to shiver. Ah! That was cheating! “I don’t think I’d mind. You’ve started to capture my heart as well… even if I might have to share you if we escape to your Equus together,” she assured softly. My face couldn’t get much hotter without catching fire, I decided, and I swallowed nervously yet again. What I wanted? Wasn’t that selfish, though? But she said… No, was that a trick? Was she just telling me that to try to get me to say what I really wanted, or was she trying to honestly not influence me? My head spun with feelings, and I knew what I wanted, but ironically didn’t know if I was supposed to want it.

Keela grinned, her furred body pressing gently against my chest as she relaxed there, feeling pleased with me holding her. Slowly, and hesitantly, I nodded to her, then leaned down just a little. She met me halfway, gently pressing her lips to mine again, giving another soft sigh before breaking away and smirking. “That’s as good an answer as any. We can talk more tomorrow, though. Try to get some rest, Azure,” she warned, tucking her head against my shoulder blades. Only three months here, and things had already started to get weird. Why did that sound familiar?

* * * * *

Another shockwave hit the building, dust falling down from the ceiling as it rumbled past. It was hard to believe those shells were hitting over a thousand kilometers away! I swallowed nervously, unable to even imagine the absurd explosion and destruction that was happening elsewhere.

“Come on, Kyliona! We need to get going!” Keela shouted, tossing the last of the hard paperwork into the incinerator as we got everything packed up.

“We need to finish this upload! It’s almost done, and with it, we’ll have everything we need to make a portal to Equus elsewhere in space,” Kyliona returned, watching the last of the papers scan into the machine, it transferring the data into the database so it was ready to be carried to the ship.

Keela frowned, looking over to Litta, who was throwing on her jacket and nodded in return. “Let’s go, Keela. Kyliona and Azure will be evacuated to us before we can leave regardless. She’s team leader,” she reasoned. The pink haired Keldarian frowned still and hesitantly looked over at me, and I gave her my best assuring smile and nod.

We locked eyes for a hesitant moment, and she stormed over and glared at me from an inch away. “You’d better make it up there, Mister. I’m not losing you, too, okay?” she ordered at an undeniable, point blank range. Not that I was planning on denying it, but…

“I’m not going to leave you, Keela. Nothing will stop me from seeing you again, don’t worry,” I assured, smiling softly at her. She relaxed, eyes softening for a moment before she pulled me up against her and kissed me right on the lips. I smiled into her kiss, and she returned that, too, her tongue lingering against mine for just a moment before she backed off and grinned at me.

“You’ll get that and a lot more if you make it onto the ship. Now hurry up,” she ordered, winking at me before turning and heading after Litta, who was also smirking now.

Kyliona gave her a skeptical smirk as well, adding, “I still don’t know why I let you do this. It’s either fraternizing with an employee or tampering with a specimen.”

Litta grinned at that, then suggested, “Why can’t it be wooing a friend? They didn’t actually mate yet, so I don’t think you can call that ‘tampering’ with the-“

My blush was rather apparent, but Keela’s was almost full faced as she flailed at Litta, who only laughed and danced away from her, then stuck her tongue out. “Careful. You’re sitting next to me on the launch shuttle. Now come on. Catch up fast, you two!” Keela reminded. Kyliona gave an absent nod, then smiled at them as she turned back to typing rapidly at her computer.

Both Keldarians nodded back, and then they were gone, the door closing behind them. I watched the door slide shut, then swallowed again, feeling that apprehension build back up now that Keela was gone. I wanted my promise to be true, but being a ‘specimen’, I couldn’t just walk out of here on my own. I needed to be escorted out by the lab director, and pretend to be a dumb animal as to not raise suspicions. She’d already made some bogus story about finding out she was wrong about the radiation. Then we sail out on an escape ship, use my Mom and my energy radiation to ‘infect’ the entire ship, and then take all the willing Keldarians with us to Equus and try to start a new life, far away from war, hatred, and all of this pain. I’d be taking Keela and all the others with me. I smiled at that thought, then realized it rather abruptly.

“Half a year ago, wouldn’t it be strange to see them play fighting like that?” I pointed out, looking at where they had been in the lab just a minute before.

Kyliona smiled softly as she burned up the last of the paperwork, then checked the upload bar on her laptop again. “Yeah, I agree fully. It’s a welcome sight, isn’t it, Azure? If only all of us could be like that. I think your energy is the key to saving our whole race,” she agreed, turning and smiling at me fully. I nodded in return, and she walked up and rubbed me on the nose, that soft and warm smile on her muzzle. I watched her for a moment, curious, as she shook her head again.

“I was still considering staying behind to spread the energy to the rest of the council, but… I think you might be right. I’m starting to feel too old for all this, and with the latest reports…” she murmured, looking back to her laptop. The siege had started two days ago. The Grosh fleet had warped in practically out of nowhere. Intel from our ‘allies’ had warned that they might have developed a new long range warp drive technology that could deliver ships to fixed points with little to no warning, but the council had ignored the threat. Our ‘allies’ had prepared, and warped out less than two hours after the Grosh had arrived, and well before the warships had gotten anywhere near their defensive lines. We were stuck almost as sacrificial bait as the council and important dignitaries were evacuated first. Now it was our turn, still almost a full day in estimate before the siege would hit this part of the planet. The planet was lost, and the death count staggering now.

Shaking my head, I pointed out, “You have the energy sample data drops ready, and the council is evacuating potentially with enough Keldarians to restart the race elsewhere. There’s no need for you to personally deliver the samples and data, Kyliona. Come live with us.” She smiled softly at me and nodded her head, indeed looking tired. Her laptop beeping snapped her out of it a moment later, and she glanced over at it.

“Ah, the upload is done. Initiating transfer into your cybernetics for safe keeping,” she announced. Her computer beeped again, accepting the instructions and starting the transfer. “That’ll take another four minutes, then we’ll leave. And you can get back to your sweetheart all the sooner,” she teased, winking at me as I blushed again.

“You think we’re weird, don’t you?” I asked, never having gotten a straight answer out of her yet.

She paused for a moment, then gave me a soft smile, shaking her head. “Azure, I’ll always love you, no matter what choices you make. I also love Keela, like she were a daughter. You two being happy is more than enough for me. Your mom’s right. Love in any form should be celebrated,” she assured, rubbing a paw across my cheek at the same time. I smiled to her, then both of us gave a start as the door opened a moment later. Her eyes looked to me knowingly, and she nodded as she finished closing up the plastic casing on my container, me sniffing idly through one of the air holes at the new individual entering.

“Are you sure you should be that close to the specimen, Doctor? It might not have the radiation like you suspected, but it could still be dangerous,” the male voice suggested. I didn’t recognize the Keldarian standing there, but he gave me a look of utter annoyance, and I immediately didn’t like him. He didn’t look much bigger than me, and his hair was a boring, slightly darker shade of blue from his coat. He kept it short cropped on top of his head in a military-looking cut.

Kyliona gave a start, then turned to look at the well armored officer standing before her. “You? What are you doing here?” she asked, giving him a frown.

He rolled his eyes, then gave a shrug in return before answering, “I was stupid enough to take back my position at special operations, and now they ordered me to make sure you were out and on a drop ship. You may not like it, and I know I don’t like it, but you’ll have to be escorted out by me.” Did Kyliona know him?

She exhaled, then nodded, gesturing at her computer. “It’s got three minutes left on the transfer, then we can go. The specimen is invaluable, however, and is coming on board with me. It’s also without danger. Herbivore, as you should know, and docile as a lamb,” she revealed, sounding bored instead and shifting back to her neutral tone I hadn’t heard in a long time. She was good at acting…

The nameless Keldarian nodded absently to her before wandering over and staring at me like I was an animal in a zoo or something. He didn’t even look interested really, and I saw nothing but a cold calculation in his eyes. He almost looked through me before exhaling softly and shaking his head.

“Just to clear the air, I never had anything against any of your research, Doctor. You’re an amazing scientist, and are really on to something. It was Keela that made me leave…” he spoke up, looking almost remorseful for a moment while he frowned and looked over his shoulder at the doctor. My eyes widened a little as he looked away. Wait, he was the dick that had dumped Keela?! Now I just wanted to buck him in the face for all the pain he’d put her through. Of course, if he were still with Keela, she wouldn’t have wanted to be with me. Huh… Okay, now I was conflicted. I didn’t want her to have been hurt, but I also really didn’t want to share her or not have her. Mom started giggling in my head at my predicament, and I inwardly scowled at her.

“I know that. I’m pretty sure all of us knew the reason you left the project,” Kyliona assured, turning back around to lean on the table the laptop was on and look at the two of us. It was a bit weird to think that this was the donor of my own augmented DNA. That meant I could technically pass as him with security checks and various other electronic-

His hand whipped up a moment later. I almost didn’t track it as a spike of barrier energy flicked up and smashed right through Kyliona’s stomach, momentarily impaling her to the table before the energy dissipated an instant later. My eyes widened, as did hers as she reached down to touch at the hole in her stomach, her shirt running crimson suddenly.

“Then for what it’s worth, I’m sorry. Your lab is in the opportune area for the bomb’s release system, and the cybernetics in your specimen has the optimal operating system for it,” he apologized softly, watching her slide down the table and fall to the floor. I felt frozen, my vision running red an instant later.

The shards of reinforced plastic went into the side of his head as my hoof cratered the left portion of his face in, my scream of rage echoing through the lab as I sent him flying almost four meters and crashing into the leftover supply crates. He smashed through them and rolled, coming up to his feet and whipping his hand up, the spear of energy expanding towards me, only to crash to the side as the barrier coating my hoof parried it, knowing exactly what he was going to do. There was nothing left to the front of my container, and I quickly hopped out of it, whipping my other hoof downwards as I dropped. He looked somewhat surprised at my use of magic before falling into a roll and barely dodging the crash of my hammer impact, it rupturing the floor apart with energy as he cleared the distance, yanking a dagger out of his belt. I didn’t care.

His expression shifted to actual surprise when I caught his arm with my own foreleg, and he couldn’t push my leg away enough to stab me. There was no way a Keldarian was going to overpower an Earth Pony. Snarling, I instead head butted him in the face, hearing his nose crunch under my forehead. Images of Kyliona falling burned into my mind and before he could even fully stumble back, I screamed again and drove both of my forehooves right into his stomach.

There was nothing to cushion his impact that time, and he slammed hard enough into the door to dent it with his armor, him falling to the floor a moment later. No, not enough. Glancing to Kyliona, I saw her not moving still, and bit back the knot in my throat with rage instead. Looking back to the Keldarian, I ran at him again, fully intending to stomp on his skull until it crushed under my hooves like a watermelon. He coughed once, and gasped out, “Override P12z!” My eyes widened as my hoof froze all of four centimeters from his head, my muscles suddenly refusing to move. What?!

Gasping and coughing, he struggled out from under me, barely managing to sit up against the door. Blood was smeared all over his face, and his stomach armor that I hadn’t noticed prior was dented inwards and snapped across the front plate. “Holy hell! You’re a complete monster!” he groaned out, staring at me in shock. I wanted to break his face in, and strained against my own muscles. Why wouldn’t they move?!

“I’m the monster?!” I hissed out, him widening his eyes a little more.

“Calm down. Focus. You can’t move, but you’re not helpless,” I heard Mother whisper in my mind suddenly. Her own focus drifted into me, and my eyes narrowed.

His reaction speed was impressive. Most of his right ear landed at the base of the door, my energy blade expanding out from my own face to impale his head. He screamed in pain, clutching the bloody side of his head before reaching for something else at his side. My second attack, pulling the energy blade to the right to decapitate him, smashed into something hard, the energy fracturing as my eyes widened. He held a book out in front of him. It was black and dark orange in color, and it generated an immensely powerful shield that halted my attack. I strained against it, but it suddenly felt like I was pushing against a mountain! What the hell?!

“Aaah! Damn it! No, I’m done with this! I only need your body, after all. Prudentia, activate. Use the remaining power we gathered and completely erase that monster’s mind! Oh, and erase all memory of it from the scientists. They’re probably in orbit already, and I don’t need them blabbing on me to the council if I don’t rescue their precious experiment,” he suddenly spoke out loud. My eyes widened, as I suddenly recognized what that was. An Aegis Artifact?!

“No!” Mom screamed, leaping in front of me in my own mind, dozens of barriers expanding out and around us. I winced, trying to pull her back, but she snarled and refused to move, holding the barriers tight. Half a second passed, and the male frowned suddenly, looking down at his book instead.

Another long three seconds passed as he turned and opened it instead. “Wait, what? Not allowed to target myself with any effects? But that’s not… wait… you’re the monster they gave my DNA to, aren’t you?” he asked quietly, wincing as he looked up at me again with frustration flashing into his eyes. He didn’t look nearly so dignified with his head almost nothing but blood, and I only growled low at him. I wanted him to die so badly that I could taste it. I couldn’t see Kyliona from my current position either. Was she okay? She knew some healing magic, but wasn’t nearly as good at it as Mirin was!

“Tch, I can’t erase you, and I don’t think I could kill you in a one on one fight, so time for the next best thing. Ignoring you,” he finally decided, hauling his own backpack off and tearing it open with his claws. My mind raced. I had verbal computer commands that I apparently didn’t know about. Was it possible for me to figure them out and activate them myself? He obviously didn’t know I could talk before this, so he might not have prepared for that…

I tried to bring up my access console, but found myself locked out instead. Mentally trying to remember my own passwords, I started inputting them rapidly while disrupting the failure exceptions it kept throwing. No locking me out this time. My eyes flicked back to him as he pulled out a black suitcase and opened it up, withdrawing what looked like a large timer, data console, and wiring connected to a plastic case filled with black goo. He kept his barrier up the entire time, and carefully shaped it as he kicked the case towards me, the console activating.

“Damage it at all and it goes off, ending all life in the universe. Wait for it to finish and sacrifice yourself, and it kills only the Grosh, saving those you love who are in orbit right now. Your choice, Monster. Activation code R35a,” he explained, finishing with another release code for me. My chest panel opened up, and one of my cable releases popped out of it, extending out of my chest. Damn it! Passwords flicked through my display as Mom started to bring up her own console. She was about as trained as I was at this dimension’s technology, having been very curious about how it all worked, and started helping me by directly digging into the code behind the prompt, trying to pick up response cues. My screen went haywire behind my eyes as whatever it was connected to my chest and code started spewing across it, injecting itself into my operating system. How did he have so much access to me?!

He stood a moment later, sliding through the sparking, partially opened door and stumbling into the darkened hallway as he held his head again, coughing. I think I broke a few of his ribs, too. To my surprise, he hesitated and glanced back for a brief moment before adding, “I didn’t want to have to kill her, but she shouldn’t have still been here. This is for the greater good. You’ll understand eventually.” The anger spiked in me again and I wanted to scream, my vocal cords locking up too as I fought against my own body. That monster! That complete monster! I could barely think, a flare of pain shooting through my shoulder as I felt something pop as I strained against myself. I winced, tears coming to my eyes both in pain and frustration, but he was gone by the time I blinked them away. Damn it! No, this couldn’t be happening…

My mind whirled, eyes forcing themselves to the left as far as they could go, but still unable to see Kyliona. I wanted to run to her and make sure she was okay. Heal her somehow, or patch up her wound! No, she was tough and a powerful mage! There was no way a stupid attack like that would kill her!

The chair in my peripheral vision moved a little, and my eyes widened. The lights flickered and dimmed as the entire room shook again, almost tipping me over from the shockwave. An idea flicked through me, and I used the movement to rock myself to the left, slowly turning in place with stifled hopping motions. This would have looked stupidly silly if I was in any mood to laugh, my right foreleg raised up still from trying to stomp his skull in as I hopped about in place.

Kyliona crawled up slowly to the chair, bumping it a bit before crying out and clutching her stomach. My eyes widened, and I thrashed against my own body, fighting to get it to move. She panted for a second, her hand glowing under her body before she hauled herself up and into the chair, shaking there for a moment. The wound on her stomach was bad, her fur stained red, but there was an orange glow from it now, as a small barrier covered the wound.

“Knew I should have… Ha. Picking up some healing techniques seems like a good idea now. Hindsight and all,” she muttered, giving a weak smile as she looked down at me. My eyes felt watery as I tried to tell her to stop talking, but couldn’t move my throat or mouth. She stared blankly at me for a moment before looking down at the device plugged into my chest. To my surprise, she continued, in a surprisingly stronger tone, "I should have known that would come back to haunt me. There's no running from your past, Azure. I've... I'm the real monster. I wanted a second chance so bad, but some things you have to pay for." I looked down at the thing, not understanding what it was in the first place, let alone how it could really do what that monster had suggested. I wanted to pull the plug out of me, but that might set it off, too. Instead, I returned my attention to attempting to hack into my own systems.

Kyliona smiled weakly, then glanced over at her laptop, now splattered red across the left side of the screen. I'd seen her use it before, but didn't know why she pulled the cord up out of the side of her neck and brought it down to plug into the computer. She had cerebral implants at the base of her head that were used for processing and data storage. Mom was a few steps ahead of me already, and smiled as she dismissed the command prompt, getting us past the lockdown and into root access. The bomb had already wired into my systems, however. It was a bomb. A surprisingly small bomb, that had a very weird chemical mixture for its explosive formula. I didn't understand the composition at all, and neither did Mom by the looks of her frown.

"It's a weapon of mass destruction. Biological in nature. I helped make it, and it’s one of my biggest regrets. I engineered that thing to be able to move at faster than light speeds. It’s… No, all of that isn’t important. It has a flaw,” Kyliona whispered, starting to rapidly type into her computer. Everything was locked down still, and I couldn’t figure out a way to gain access to the bomb. It was heavily encrypted and had an actual firewall installed that was filtering out anything sent to it. The timer was set for ten minutes, and there was no way that I could possibly break through it in time. Wait, a flaw?

Looking back up at her, I saw her smile as she typed rapidly at her computer. “I’m setting up… Ah! Tch… I’m setting up a code injection for it. It’s plugged into you now and I can see everything he’s set it up to change. I can’t stop the changes, as he’s already started them… but I can change a few things back afterwards. This will give you back… control…” she murmured, looking tired for a moment, then wincing again as more blood spilled into her lap. I strained against my own muscles, eyes widening as I wanted to rush over and help her instead of me!

Mom surprised me by accessing my command prompt instead and typing into it. “You need medical attention,” appeared in the upper corner of Kyliona’s display a moment later.

The Keldarian smiled at that, then murmured, “That’s not how Azure talks. I… No, I really did believe you existed the whole time, Gem. We’ll meet soon enough, I think. No, my injury may or may not be fatal, but it doesn’t matter. I… I tried to stop it. But no. I can’t believe it, but… He was a monster. I tried, but the bomb’s already activated. There’s no way that I could even get into orbit before it explodes, so I’m dead anyway, even if I wanted to just abandon your son. Which I won’t…” What?!

“Is it too late, then?” my Mom typed into her display. Kyliona relaxed, then added a few more lines of coding to the injection before looking at me fully. With some level of finality, she hit the enter button on the laptop, and I watched an ‘uploading’ bar start.

“It will be launched anyway, but… there’s a weakness. A split second code injection into the firewall protocols themselves when they’re scanning a new, incoming link can overwrite them if its less than four hundred milliseconds transfer time. With that, I can use the security hole to inject this code directly into the changes that he plugged into the bomb,” she explained, surprisingly calmly as she turned to look at me fully, crossing her hands in her lap to also cover up the hole through her stomach. Four hundred…? But not even plugging something into me could process against the firewall that fast! That wasn’t possible to-

A spike of pain went through me an instant later, and Mom’s eyes widened as she spun her attention around and back to me. I gasped, blood suddenly oozing lightly into my mouth from inside as it felt like I was being torn in half. My spine was adjusting itself inside of me, and I tried to scream but couldn’t as white hot flashes of agony burned through my body.

From inside of it somewhere, I heard Kyliona’s voice. “Relax, Azure. Stop tensing your muscles and let them change. He programmed you to age rapidly to physical maturity, and I can’t stop it. I see his intent now, and it’s sick. He means to ‘repopulate’ the Keldarians in Equus, and use your reproductive abilities to do so, alongside the DNA from every Keldarian on the planet after the weapon’s killed them. He’s a monster…” she murmured. Everything was hazy, but my eyes slowly opened up again, the right one stained a red tint for some reason. My body felt heavy, and I still couldn’t move as I felt my legs lengthening and elongating, bones warping and twisting under the nanites’ manipulation.

Kyliona just stared sadly at me, blood dripping to the floor now from her stomach. She looked just tired now, and exhaled weakly. “He’s put special instructions to go and eat him, too. He’s pretending to be a soldier on the front lines right now. Pretending to protect while dooming them all. He thinks uploading his data onto your fourth core and taking you over biologically will give him control… heh. I’ve cut the shielding. It will fry his personality core and hopefully any lingering traces of him during the dimensional transit he has planned. You’ll be going home without any of us, Azure. I’m sorry…” she whispered, explaining more as she closed her eyes. But… I promised Keela…

Mother frowned, and started typing again. “But the connection speed isn’t fast enough to get past the firewall,” she reminded, it popping up on top of the finished upload window now.

The Keldarian just chuckled, then coughed, wincing as she clutched at her stomach for a moment, then relaxed again. Slowly, she rested for another few seconds before quietly explaining, “That’s the weakness of the weapon. We never fixed it before the project was put on pause. They wanted the minds and information of those eaten by it. They’re connected to the system directly to upload it.” Eh? She smiled, looking up at me with eyes half-mast as she tapped the back of her head.

“It’s too late. After it eats me, it will be too late… The code injection will fire off when it tries to download my data. I’ll be literally as close as I can be to you then… transfer times negligible…” Her voice failed, and she winced again as my eyes widened. No. No, I couldn’t… The bomb was going to make me eat her?! No! No, hell no!

I tried twisting and thrashing again, but Kyliona just smiled weakly. “I… No, I know now that I couldn’t avoid paying for making… I made such a monstrous thing. If my life can mean you can live free, then I’ll gladly… Azure, don’t ever let anyone tell you who you are,” she whispered, wincing again as I felt warmth start to run down my cheeks. No, she didn’t deserve any of this! This wasn’t how things were supposed to go at all! We were all supposed to escape to Equus and be happy!

The bomb next to me started beeping rapidly, the black goo boiling up and shattering out of its container as it merged into my body. My eyes widened as black veins shot up my leg, and I tried to scream again as it felt like it was dipped in acid. Kyliona’s eyes softened, her breathing turning shallow, but her smile never waning. “You are you. This won’t change you, Azure. Never let them tell you otherwise. They wanted to use you for themselves. They can’t have you. I won’t let them, ever… Please, Azure. Even if they come after you… Destroy them,” she whispered, eyes closing afterwards. My body warped and twisted under me, and I heard my jaw crack as I fought with everything I had to scream out. Run, get away, get medical help, anything! Tears flowed down my face, and Mom pulled inwards again, wrapping her hooves hard around me as the bomb released one long beep, and then I felt my body pop. My viewpoint exploded, and rushed up towards Kyliona’s face in an instant of pure horror. She just smiled, though.

“I love you,” I managed to whisper, watching a single tear go down her cheek.

* * * * *

I screamed, over and over again. The chorus of millions screamed around me, the world twisting and churning below. Clutching at the sides of my head, my entire body thrashed in agony, its millions upon millions of limbs lashing out. I couldn’t think through the pain, somehow still awake despite my body being constantly ripped apart in every direction at once. I cried and I screamed and I lashed out, barely able to tell where I was aiming. The Grosh were still in orbit. I could see them. I didn’t breath anymore, and this was all their fault anyway. They died first. They tried to shoot me. I ate their bullets. I ate the energy of their lasers, too. Then I ate their ships. I ate them. Slowly. They needed to feel it.

There was no thinking. There was too much thinking. Screaming; they were all howling in a symphony of pain and anguish. Everything they ever were, and ever could have been was ended in an instant and added to me. They were all a part of me, and we rampaged across the planet, killing everything. The ones that did this needed to die. But it was a hurricane around me, and I couldn’t think. The soft glow came back slowly, and my eyes closed, gentle forelegs wrapping around me.

We drifted, no longer in nothingness, but instead in a hellish storm of screaming and twisting faces, paws, claws, teeth, eyes… Everything whirled around us in raw hatred, but they couldn’t touch the glowing light. It burned them, and Mother held me tight, smiling as we stayed in the middle, safe. Out of the darkness, Kyliona walked as well, no injuries now and not burned by the glow. She sat down near us and smiled upwards at the whirling abyss going into the sky.

“It’s like trying to shout into a hurricane. What have I created?” she whispered, their screams not reaching us here. She’d tried talking to them…

“You didn’t make this,” Mom reminded, no hesitation in her voice at all as she didn’t budge in releasing me in the slightest. I didn’t want to let go anyway. The tears wouldn’t stop, and I knew I’d never see Keela or the others again now. Everything had fallen apart in less than ten minutes. Everything I had to be happy about was falling away, but I had my mother still. She was with me, and said she’d never leave me, ever.

A pulse of green light went through everything a moment later. I winced, but no additional pain came. I’d had enough of the pain for forever if I could help it. The pain was too much to think about. Shakily, I looked away from Mom’s fur for a moment, and saw Kyliona smiling at a small kitten face that was winking at her. She reached out and touched it, and the whole area glowed a soft green as we started to rapidly drift upwards instead.

“Checkmate,” Kyliona announced, with a soft smile.

My eyes slowly opened. I felt massive. So impossibly huge I couldn’t even fathom it all, so many parts of me to move that it hurt my head to think about, but I was somehow instinctively doing it. The tentacles along my underside stopped attacking the planet and the Keldarians. The Keldarians in orbit stopped dodging and weaving as I stopped attacking them, too. I saw the orbital science pod escaping, from one of my millions of eyes, and weakly smiled. They escaped. The Grosh continued to die, but I didn’t like them, so that was fine.

I could hear him as I stirred inside my huge body. “The moment of my ascension. Finally. It’s all realized,” he muttered, sounding injured but obviously still egotistical. Slowly, my head molded out of my body, its original size, and I came face to face with the one Keldarian I desperately wanted to kill above all. Shock didn’t even cut it, as more a look of pure dumbfounded surprise came over his expression. Ah, I knew that sensation. When you just saw something so mind numbingly stupid, or so horrifically unexpected that your brain couldn’t even process a reasonable response to it.

“You’re… You’re you, still?” he finally managed to mutter out, his arms still extended as three of my tentacles were embedded into his body, slowly merging with him.

It was slightly weird feeling Kyliona’s face extend out from my right ‘shoulder’, and Mom’s extend from my left. Kyliona gave him a wry smile, however, then pointed out, “You should have made sure I was dead.” He blinked once, looking even more confused before the three tendrils reformed completely. They turned into a massive Keldarian ‘paw’ instead, unfortunately for him, complete with claws. Kyliona snarled and whipped her new arm sideways in an instant.

His eyes widened in slow motion, his body falling backwards into three amazingly neatly sliced pieces. He didn’t get the peace of rest regardless, Mom suddenly screaming in rage. A large, concrete reinforced hoof crashed into his face an instant later. I watched his cheek slowly cave inwards, spit and bits of broken teeth go flying out the other side of his mouth as his eyes bulged out. She cratered his upper half into the ground almost a meter away from the rest of him, shattering most of his cheekbone and yet again making his head a bloody mess. He twitched there, staring in shock off to the right as he went from ascending to some higher existence in his mind, to dying instead while lying on the broken remains of his planet he failed to protect.

“Stay the hell away from my son! You’re never going to touch him,” my mom spat out, glaring at him with the most stabbing rage I’d ever seen. I relaxed, resting against her shoulder inside of me, and her expression softened as she pulled me close again. She had always been protecting me. For a really long time. It was hard for me to fathom how long she’s been in this world, looking over me.

He lay there, being nothing more than a head and partial set of shoulders now. Shock was still apparent in his only working eye now, mouth hanging open. No, he needed to see. My mind extended, my magic not taking any form in particular apart from the sheer emotional vibrations Mom had taught me how to feel so long ago.

“I don’t know your name, but I give this to you. You deserve to know what you’ve done before you die,” I managed to say, evenly and without screaming at him. I knew what hate was now, and wished I didn’t. But even if I hated him, he needed to see.

He started screaming. Over and over again, I gave it all to him. Every last memory. Every last moment of every Keldarian he just murdered. Using the raw empathy waves, I pushed the memories and feelings right into his mind, and kept pushing. Time lost all meaning, and it felt like I was crying as I shoved them all right into his skull as hard as I could. He lay there, no longer moving and eye staring vacantly at the rock in front of him, twitching occasionally by the time I’d stopped. He knew them all. He was now intimately aware of every single life he’d just ended. It was the same present he’d just given me all of five minutes ago. Now he knew how they felt. He saw them now.

“What have I done?” he whispered. His mouth wasn’t moving, and I didn’t care. I hated him. They hated him. We hated him. His mind couldn’t handle his own guilt, and I watched him inwardly scream, fighting against the very thing he became. His timer went off in my mind, and I closed my eyes. It was too late. This was all I could do. I felt my body start to pull itself back together again. Space folded in upon itself in impossible ways, the knowledge of the Keldarians and their allies making it so it could overlap so easily, a thousand times over, then another thousand times on that. I felt myself inside of the subspace, unharmed and unhurt. Slowly, my body pulled inwards more and more, condensing and shrinking as I drifted.

“It’s time to leave, Azure,” Kyliona murmured, pulling back into me. My mother gave me a nuzzle on the other side, withdrawing as well as I turned and started to drift away from the tormented, broken mess that was the nameless Keldarian who’d doomed them all. It was already too late for him. His plan had failed, in the worst way imaginable.

My hooves landed on the broken rock, my gravity warping and twisting around me as the stabilizers kicked in, shattering stones apart to dust as they floated into the air near me. I was no longer me, containing a billion or more other souls inside of me, but I was me all the same. Kyliona and Mom had said so. I would never not be me. Huge wings of light opened on my back, the burning energy of the Wings of Icarus opening up and the atmosphere exploding into prismatic hues. A prism. I could almost see the rainbow light as it drifted before my eyes, reality itself melting away on my uncontrolled jaunt towards Equus. A rainbow, huh?

Behind me, I felt it. For just half a second, that evil inside of him won. A consciousness made up of all of the twisted, dark hatred inside of him opened its eyes. Using the shards of his destroyed Aegis Shield that drifted around him, it used a ritual I’d never seen before. My eyes widened as it targeted the only thing it knew about. The spell hit my fourth CPU core barely half a second before everything exploded into light, and reality burned away…

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