//------------------------------//
// Gift Wrapped. 
// Story: Bros in Equestria 
// by Mandroid 
//------------------------------//


 Year 1486 in Equestria.
	

It was also Mous's birthday. 
You were standing outside on the main deck as the ship slowly sailed through the sky. The deckhands around you were more than a bit nervous. You couldn't blame them, The Breach was a fairly un-routine place. 
The sound was what did most ponies in, that faint singing sound echoing in the wind. Some thought it was sirens, or some sort of magical resonance from The Breach. It sounded like a church choir to you.
You walk over to the edge of the deck next to a particularly edgy deckhand. "Nervous, son?"
He snaps to attention as he sees you. "Sir! I...guess you could say that."
He looks off the edge of the ship. "You hear the stories about this place, ponies telling you that you're mad for coming this far...seeing it I start to think they're not far off."
You look over the edge of the ship with him. 
The Breach was the place in Equestria where science went to go fuck itself. Your view was dominated by floating landmasses and continents. Off in the horizon you could see the pink glow from all of Equestria's leylines coming together a little past your destination. The water underneath you rippled away from itself from the tear in the world at the sea floor.
You turn back to the deckhand. "Don't worry. The Breach puts on a big show, but I came through here years ago without even a scent of trouble."
He looks a bit more relaxed at your words. "Nothing, huh?"
You shake your head. "Not a damn thing."
He grows a small smile. "Schway." 
Your brain cracks a bit at his words. 
"Schway"?" you ask.
The boy smiles. "Yeah, the Logician has been saying it all voyage. I guess it caught on."
He didn't...That motherfu-
"Excuse me, son."
You stomped down the corridor of your ship and threw open the door to Mous's room.
"Yeah, don't knock or anything. Not like I could be-"
"SCHWAY?" you shout.
A devilish grin immediately grows on his face. "Which one was it?"
"ONE OF MY DECKHANDS."
Mous jumps up from his set. "Oh good! I'll have to give him a bit for using it."
"What are you doing?" you ask disbelievingly. 
"Making a trend!" he says with a smile. "I figure I can get all of Canterlot saying it within the next five or so years."
You bury your face in your palm. "Mous, this is..."
Stupid. Inane. Fetishistic. Those thoughts and more sprout in your mind.
"Schway?" he asks, grin wide.
You look up and glare at him. "It's schwarbage."
"It's been a thousand years! About time we got some new slang terms."
"Not from a cartoon."
Mous walks to his chair. "Oh, you're no fun.." he moans.
"Besides, I don't know what you expected me to do, you've kept me on this boat for a week. Why do we need to go all the fuck the way out here for a birthday present?" he says.
He'd change his tune...
"It only works here." you say.
Mous brings a hand to his chin. "Is it a spaceship?"
"No."
"A robot?"
"No, dude."
"A spaceship robot?"
You give him a deadpan look. "I promise that your gift will be wonderful and excellent and that you won't be able to guess it."
Mous leans back. "Well that's no fun."
"Not for you, anyway."
"How much longer until we get there, anyway?"
You do some math in your head. "At current speed and where I figure we are, I'd say about a half hour."
Mous pouts. "Bet you didn't even wrap it."


-Mous PoV-

You and Anon disembarked the ship alone. He had said you wouldn't need the deckhands.
The two of you now stood in a rather unassuming field of grass. Apart from the fact that this continent was at the literal edge of the world and a stone's throw away from the source of all magic, it looked pretty normal.
"Where are we?" you ask.
Anon looks around with a smile. "Eden: The Original Landmass. Hidden up at the tip of the world and spawning every other landmass on the planet from its fertile shores."
You looked around. Pretty normal trees, normal mountains, normal lake way off in the distance.
"It looks like Montana."
You turn to Anon. "So, why drag me all the way out here for my fifteen hundredth and third?"
Anon smiled and produced a small pulsating crystal from his pocket. "I've been working on something for a while...talking to some colleagues, working out the details, figuring out just what to do to make this work." He smiles at you, that warm smile that was probably responsible for his last four spouses. "Well, I finished it. And I can't think of someone I would rather give it to then you."
"Anon...what the fuck are you talking about?"
Anon smirks and tosses the crystal past you. An explosion of bring light and a wall of sound rushes past you as the crystal releases it's magics. In the direction of the light, you can hear the sound of hooves clopping towards you.
"...Mous?"

-Music-
No way... That voice...
You look towards the light, more gentle and benevolent now then when it first came into being.
You dropped to your knees at the sight you saw.
Same hair...same coat...just as you remembered...
She trots up to you and nuzzles your face with hers. "Hey, you..." she says.
Your brain takes a moment to process this before you wrap your arms around her.
"H-hey pretty pony..."
You can feel tears welling up in your eyes.
She was back. Lotus was back.
"Hey you." she says as she wraps her own hooves around you.
"Oh my god, oh my god..." you say through it all.
You kiss her neck as the tears fall down your face. 
"H-how are you here?" you ask.
She rests her head on your shoulder, just like she used to. "I was told someone wanted to see me..."
She was...how-
You turn back to Anon. "How long?"
Anon smiles at you. "Few minutes?"
You turn back and embrace Lotus again. It would do.
"I missed you."
"I missed you too."
This was...
You're beside yourself, you can't think of a single thing to say after shouting "BABE!" and pulling her as close as you could.
Words weren't going to be enough, there was nothing you could say or do to express how you were feeling.
"S-see my kid?" you ask.
You hear Lotus sniff as she runs a hoof over your hair. "Yes, a cute little thing."
She takes your face in her hooves and places your foreheads together. "You've rubbed off on him. There isn't a week that goes by where he doesn't find me."
You sniff. "Heh...he's my boy, all right."
Teary smiles are echanged by the both of you.
She was back...
"What's it like up there?" you ask.
Lotus rocks in your arms a bit. "Big, happy. You have a lot of old friends up there..."
You look down at the bracelet you were wearing. "Your dad mad at me for taking so long?"
Lotus smiles, she was still wearing her necklace. "How could he be mad at his favorite son-in-law?" she says before giving you a peck on the lips.
That wasn't enough. You pulled Lotus back to your lips and let her embrace take away all the heartache you had in you once again.
In time, Lotus pulls away from you and returns her forehead against yours. "I think our time together is almost up..."
"That's fine..." you say.
She sniffs. "I wish I could see you again."
"You will."
Lotus looks into your eyes in confusion.
"Take a message to your boss, landlord, whatever. Tell them that when I eventually...go, that I'm gonna want in. No Pearly Gate's gonna stop me." you say.
Lotus lets loose a small laugh through her own tears. "You'd break into Elysium on your own?"
You smirk. "Of course. Who the hell do you think I am?"
Lotus laughs harder this time and wraps her hooves around your neck. "You're my completely mad husband...and I love you."
You bring your lips together one last time. "I love you too."
Lotus turns back the way she came in response to some voice only she can hear.
She turns back to you with a tearful smile. "See you again?"
You reluctantly release her from your arms. "Count on it, pretty pony."
Lotus smiles and trots back to the portal. She stops at its edge and sends one more wave to the two of you.
This was...good.
You knew you would see her again. You promised.
As Lotus finished waving, she stepped through the portal just in time for it to swallow itself.


-Anon PoV-

Mous got off his knees as the portal shut itself. He begins to walk over to you with his head down. "So, did you enj-"
"Shut the fuck up, Anon." he says as he wraps his arms around you.
This was...new. Very new.
"Thank you...I don't know how you did it and I don't know how I could repay you, but thank you." he whispers.
You pat him on the back. "Don't thank me man, it was your birthday. What else was I supposed to do?"
He pulls away from you, his arms still on your shoulders. "Use it yourself? You have just as much use for it as me..."
You had considered that for a moment.
You shake your head. "This trick only works once, dude. I guess I could have seen Rainbow, or Thunder..." 
His head droops a bit. 
"But I finished this and thought. "Who do I know that could use a visit from an old flame?", I really couldn't see myself using it any other way."
Mous chuckles. "You're a real bastard, ya know?" He looks up at you. "Here I am trying to be the best friend ever and you go on and blow me out of the water like this."
You grin at him. "You do pretty well, yourself."
Mous lets go of you with the biggest genuine smile you've seen from him in a while. "Thanks man...for everything."
You give him a slap on the shoulder. "Any time."
The Delphinus floats in the air a ways away. "Ready to head back home?"
Mous wipes his eye and looks out with that smile. "Yeah, let's go. I have to get to work on the statue of you I have to make now, anyway." he says.