• 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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Ending 3

I looked up at the slowly repairing ceiling, and then flicked my tentacles out in an instant, smashing it open again. Her barrier was gone now, having dropped a few seconds after we breached the hull, undoubtedly at her whim to conserve her strength. I looked back to Nirru one last time, her body now burning as her own magic went out of control on her arms. The flames flickered, starting to die as the air was vented out of the cabin, and for a moment, I pitied her. If I could go back in time, would it be possible to find the point where it had all gone wrong? That question would take a far wiser pony than myself, and I dismissed it, quickly running out of time.

"How long until tha moon hits?" Applejack asked, stuck to the floor of the command center by her own magic as she held Rainbow, the pegasus suddenly weightless. The gravity systems for the room failed, and I kicked off the floor and headed back into space following the ceiling and bits of hull.

Everything seemed to slow down, and I frowned as I rotated upside down, touching back onto the bits of ceiling drifting upwards. A glance to my left showed Prudentia glowing a fiery blue color on my side, the rest of the color draining out of the world, even as Applejack and Rainbow Dash followed me. This time, their colors stayed, too, however, them not noticing, or be affected by the sudden grinding halt of temporal movement. At least until they got out here with me and spotted the debris stuck in time.

"Eh? W-Wait, what's goin' on...?" Applejack asked, noting the ceiling not budge when they hit it, then further discovering the bits of hull frozen in time around us.

Nodding, I released Prudentia, letting it float off my side as Purdue slowly manifested on the front of the book, the main gem glowing with energy and projecting her image above it. I explained after, "This is her doing. She's halted time just for the three of us. What's going on, Purdue?"

The little filly's soft blue ears lowered, and she momentarily looked uncertain before swallowing intensely. "B-Bro... n-no, Mender... I... I need to talk to you. Bad! I have to warn you!" she suddenly exclaimed out of nowhere. Eh? Her timing indicated that this was probably vital.

"Warn? About what?" Rainbow asked, flipping and landing gently next to me, still holding Applejack and helping her latch onto the ceiling. Now we were all 'upside down' compared to the command center above us, but perspective was funny like that.

The filly gave a little whine before fidgeting and adding, "I'm almost out of energy. I've... stressed my personal energy through this entire battle repeatedly, but I c-can never make it last long enough! I... I don't know what to do, Mender! I... I can't save you and I'm out of options!" Eh?! My mind was already trying to process what she was saying, but it was reaching blanks. What did she mean, 'can never'?

Frowning, I corrected, "It's still Brother, Little Sis. And save me from what?" I tried to keep my voice level and calm for her. She flinched regardless, shifting back and forth on her hooves.

It took her a few seconds, but she looked back up at me, tears in her amber eyes. "This. No matter what I do, I can't save you. I've tried over and over and over again. You get the idea to redirect the shuttle after this with your own Slipstream effect, but to escape dying, you have to dimension warp. You get stuck in the other dimension with Keela! All three of you!" she suddenly said outright. Well, there went that calm bit... as that was the plan I had indeed started to form. I knew Purdue had that 'probability profiling' ability, but that was crazy!

My eyes widened, both mares next to me following almost instantly. "W-What?! How did you know that.... wait..." I started to mutter before my brain skipped a few gears again. Trying.... to save me? Over and over again...? She could stop time, at least from the perspective of an individual, which was self evident in this situation. But...

She winced, as if expecting to be slapped for a moment, but when nothing came, she instead broke into tears. "I lied! I've been lying to you over and over again! Telling y-you never helps! You just sacrifice yourself instead and try to let me free of the Geas... I don't want to be free! I've repeated this same month and a half over and over and over again, trying to find a way to come out without losing anything..." Purdue revealed instead. Oh. Well damn.

"Uh... what?" Applejack asked, giving her a bewildered stare before looking over at me. I couldn't process it fully, however, and fought my own mind to pull it all back together.

It all snapped into place a moment later. "Your powers... Are literally everything to do with a book, aren't they? That includes flipping back to the beginning and starting to read it again... doesn't it?" I asked quietly. She swallowed, then slowly nodded to me instead, looking down and away. She had been... But that meant...

My eyes widened a little, and I continued with, "Oh... Your power... Does that include 'writing' in the book, too?" Her wince told me yes before her mouth needed to.

"Y-Yeah. It costs me a lot of energy, but I can 'write' tiny things into the book, changing things each time I start over. I've... been doing this for a long time, trying to find the right combination of things that will save you. This is as far as I can get, though. There's just... no energy left to change anything else, and... I don't know what to do," she finished explaining, slumping against the gem on the front of the book. Then... why tell me directly? Why now, of all times?

Both mares with me looked more than a little stunned, Rainbow looking between Purdue and myself before finally settling her gaze on the small filly. "So you're... Well, you're a time traveler? You're a time traveler from Mender's dimension who's linked to him in the form of a strange spirit bound to a book that's been trying to save him from... whatever this is that's going to happen...? This is... what?!" she asked, freaking out halfway through and flailing her forelegs to either side of her. I raised an eyebrow at the pegasus, but Applejack actually chuckled and rubbed her hoof along Rainbow's muzzle, calming the mare.

"It's... surprisin', but if that's what she says she is, that's what she is. She ain't lyin'. So, maybe we can put our noggins together an' come up with somethin'? What exactly is tha problem, Sugar?" she asked instead, accepting it all rather easily.

It took me a moment, but I pieced all of it back together again. "I... It doesn't matter, no. Nothing's changed in how I consider you, Little Sis. You say the plan works, but in order to avoid getting caught on the ship as it goes into the sun, we have to do a dimensional transfer... which gets us stuck on the other side?" I summarized. Considering everything at once made my head spin, so I just focused on the current problem instead.

Purdue looked stunned for a moment, but then nodded, looking to her left. The book projected an image next to her in the same moment, and my eyes widened. There we were, a brilliant miasma of energy washed around us in thick torrents, Dash gritting her teeth as her wings turned into flares behind her. They were two long ribbons of prismatic light dancing off into the dark of space behind us, splashing along the sides of the massive vessel following us. My mind tingled as I watched, and suddenly I started to remember alongside the image. That... It happened. That really happened!

I was riding on Rainbow's back, and she was carrying Applejack in her legs. I looked over to the two of them and saw the same look of realization starting to show across their expressions. Slowly, Dash's jaw lowered, and she exclaimed, "I remember this! This is... I did this! Oh my gosh, this is so awesome!" Uh, dramatically missing the point, but yes, she did!

Turning, I looked back at the image, remembering three or four different ways suddenly that it could have gone. Frowning, the image felt strange, and I reached forward with my left forehoof and touched it softly. Branches. Every decision made a branch as to how it could have gone. Not just our choices, but how our choices made other choices, and even the inanimate objects we affected.

Applejack frowned, watching me as the image started to split and schism. It slowly became a great tree of images, each one varying just a little as it branched out and out. She hesitated, then asked, "Mender, what are ya doin'?"

Purdue just watched, eyes softening a little as I spread the image out into three-dozen others. "I've... I've done this before," I muttered, surprised at my own memories. They weren't coming 'back', but were instead appending to the memories I already had. They were there, but I distinctly understood that they were also from alternative timelines. Did that mean that, somehow, I was able to 'remember' all of these branches? Is that how this worked?

The little translucent filly shook her head slowly, explaining, "Those are my memories. I've done it... for a very long time. I get the branches of you, master of the book, and anyone you interact with in your 'story'." Oh, that meant...

She nodded, and suddenly time seemed to stretch backwards. It was no longer an image just being projected to her left, but all around us in thousands of branches. It curled backwards, some branches joining with others and some spiraling away and into the distance. No, not away. We were going backwards, so that was when they joined, not separated.

Images all over, of not just my own memories, but... Rushing through an ancient castle with the others. Constructing a barn. Harvesting apples from the entire orchard. Winning so many races. Flying around in a giant tornado. Helping move massive thunderclouds over the town. It showed all of our memories, not just my own.

Spiraling backwards, it went further and further, but... I went the other direction, following the fourth spiraling thread connected to our group. It struck me almost instantly, and I just had to know. There were literally millions of branches. I could see every adjustment she'd made. Over and over, she'd repeated everything. I wanted to tell her to stop, to rest and stop doing this to herself. I followed that thread instead.

"M-Mender, stop, what are you...?" Purdue started to ask. I had to know. It was important! Something about how all of this mess actually began was important. It was too late to stop me, and I hauled all four of us down the thread and into a completely foreign set of memories...

* * * * *

Dancing. Her first memory was dancing. She looked so happy as she laughed and spun, arms extended. It was the sensation of the air on her fur, the weight of her arms pulling at her body, and even her own balance as she moved that attracted her. She'd never seen anything her entire life, after all, cloudy gray pupils looking empty and distant, yet she actually saw forever.

She'd been born a mutation. A genetically deformed child. They were getting more and more frequent, and it was always a 'tragedy' when it happened to a female kitten. She'd been born not only a runt, but blind as well. If she were a male, she wouldn't have lasted the night, but because females were important even without sight and strength of body, she was kept alive and simply slotted for breeding instead. Of course, that didn't mean her childhood was much different...

The memories flickered like a candle in the wind. So long ago. Something else, too. It didn't exist. Somehow, it felt like the memories didn't exist. Not that they weren't real, but that they were no longer real, somehow.

He'd found her. He was a veteran soldier by then, and held a good chunk of rank. He was up for review for both the special forces, and slotted for work as a training instructor. Alongside his magical aptitude and generally acknowledged cleverness, he held quite a lot of prestige. A male such as him was 'allowed' to enter themselves into the breeding programs. Encouraged even. Genetics were valuable, it would seem. It could have been blind luck, or maybe it was some sort of skill or training on his part. Maybe you could even call it 'providence'. But he found her less than two years before she was slotted to begin the breeding program. She was nine at the time, a rather sickly child who seemed naturally scared of everything. He saw past that, however, and realized it was more than fear.

She giggled then, sitting down next to me as the events flickered around us, through both vision and memory. Applejack looked horrified by the thoughts and images, but Rainbow purely focused on the small Keldarian in front of us. Purdue smiled, however, and explained, "I was completely blind, but they didn't understand. My mutation was a burden, but also a boon. My dead eyes saw past reality to the temporal streams beyond. It started just a few seconds displaced in any direction. That's forward or back in time, that is. Or maybe it was up and down. It doesn't matter..."

The small kitten was curled up on her bed, uniform on and wet moisture dampening the fur of her cheeks. She was waiting for the male who'd 'ordered' her to come pick her up. Males of status were allowed to select personal breeders, after all, and despite being too young, she was volunteered. Largely because they saw her as broken and useless anyway.

She wasn't expecting him to smile at her. Or to sit next to her bed for over an hour just talking with her. She didn't expect her first meal to be actual food, and for him to have a room prepared for her. He even had education books ready, and while he was a very busy male, he spent a surprising amount of time with her.

Purdue sighed at that, lowering her head and ears as she rested her cheek against my leg. "He started off a lot like you are, Mender. My big brother. He told me that he saw me for what I was, a little girl who wasn't broken and damaged like they thought, who needed to be rescued. Ordering me as a breeder was just his excuse to get me out of there..." she explained, closing her eyes again. Pulling her over, I felt her relax in my forelegs, a smile playing back at her muzzle.

The memories jumped and spun, fluttering like a hundred moths around a flame. Hard to track and follow just one. We fell out of focus, a memory of learning here, reading together on a garden moon there, learning how to properly dance even. The little kitten was happy, and she'd found her big brother to protect her. That perverse sense of wrongness still invaded the memories. Like they didn't exist, but did at the same time. Another thing I noticed was that there were no branches here. Just one long line.

Three years. I, no, she, remembered it as the third anniversary of the day he'd picked her up. Her big brother, who'd proven time and time again to love and care for her. She even helped him celebrate when he found another female who liked spending time with him. Things were tense, though, and going badly with the war effort against the Grosh, which was putting a lot of stress on him.

Purdue nodded along, watching the older looking female Keldarian waiting patiently in a modern apartment hallway, staring at the door curiously yet with empty eyes, seeing through it. She'd been taught to 'look' at things she was addressing or examining, if only to keep up the appearance of being active and aware. One of the many things he taught her, of course.

"He met Keela after he saved her from one of the world's under siege. She was a shy girl, who was always second most important to her sister. She fell for the dashing rogue who'd saved her life in the middle of live combat, and started meeting him in secret. She hadn't been ready to tell her sister yet about her relationship, but she was nice to me, and treated me like a little sister when she watched over me. Even started teaching me magic and how to use my powers, seeing as she was a clairvoyance specialist," she explained. A lot of that I'd already known from Keela, but...

The little kitten girl sighed, resting with her back to the wall now as she sat on the floor. It had been hours since he'd left, and still, he wasn't back. His dates with Keela usually only ran a few hours, but it had been six now. Keela came in instead, looking a mess and in a panic. There'd been a misunderstanding.

This much I knew, too. They'd been caught together, Nirru jumped to conclusions, and he'd been arrested. Keela went to her mentor, Kyliona, for help, but it took time. And in the meantime, he was busy being tortured. It didn't do his sanity any favors... We watched the blur, and after sighing, Purdue narrated with, "She took me to the lab for a few days. It took two and a half days for Kyliona to clear him with the council and essentially draft him into her service. He was in rough shape by then, and blamed Keela for not standing up to her sister, breaking off their relationship. It was... bad. He didn't even talk to me, and he usually told me about everything..."

Images of her being pulled through a blurred and stormy street, barely avoiding people as he hauled her along. He was frustrated and angry, and probably more than a little crazy at that point. He had been forced to aid Kyliona in her project as part of the excuse for freeing him. They'd replaced the missing body parts with cybernetics, but couldn't do much for his mind. I knew now that his DNA had gone into me to stabilize my missing bits resulting from the three hundred years of cryostasis and being removed from my mother exceptionally early. As a result, I had his memories and training, intentionally given, from what I understood. They were originally using me as a scout, and didn't know what they'd be sending me into, after all. None of them predicted that it would also transfer Purdue's magical Geas to me as well, after he died...

"Raaaah! That's it!" he screamed out, violently kicking his dresser and smashing the front of its drawers open. Purdue sat on the bed, large ears lowered as she kept herself shrunk down, despite him only taking his anger out on inanimate objects.

"B-Brother, calm down. I know a lot happened to you, but let me help you! I'll do anything to help you, you know that!" the young kitten pleaded in a low whine.

He slowed, breathing hard as he sunk to his knees and leaned against the bed. Purdue slid over to where he rested, putting a paw on his arm, which caused him to start shivering. This wasn't how I anticipated it at all. He was... crying? I frowned, but filly Purdue shook her head. "He was a completely different person originally. Driven, and wanting to make a difference. He only became the individual you knew after having decided that difference was worth any cost. That's when he decided that only he could adequately 'judge' individuals for their 'sins', at least as he put it..." she explained, closing her eyes and sagging against my forelegs. I held her closer, watching her other self trying to comfort the crying Keldarian.

Slowly, he looked up at her and shook his head. "It's too late, Purdue. They're all dead... That... monster... She killed my entire team right in front of me. Even if I was set free, I'm stripped of my ranks and titles, and we're probably mere days away from losing this war..." he whispered, shuddering again. His eyes let streams of tears down his cheeks, but within, I saw an even deeper pain stirring. That level of darkness gave way to madness fairly fast, I knew... It was a pity he couldn't see his own eyes.

"I'm still here, Big Brother," Purdue tried to whisper, leaning in and nuzzling him gently. He relaxed a little, giving her a shaky smile before closing his eyes again.

"You are... If only your powers were stronger. We might be able to save the Keldarians... But we're almost entirely out of time..." he muttered. His hand clenched, his claws digging into his blanket as he gave a half-hysterical snarl of frustration.

Purdue persisted, giving soft and gentle nuzzles the whole time, until he relaxed again. Slowly, his ears perked up, and he suddenly widened his eyes. "Wait... no... There's... It's a long shot, but there is one more hope. Only one. But if we're all going to die anyway..." he muttered, shakily looking up at her again. They stared at each other for a surprisingly intense dozen seconds or so, his eyes searching hers as she slowly tilted her head. Instead, he asked, "You said you'd do anything, right? And you trust me?" Oh hell...

She momentarily looked confused, but nodded a second later, smiling again. "Of course, Big Brother. I trust you with my life..." she assured. A knot formed in my throat, and I felt the little filly start to shake against me. No, these were memories. It was all over already, right? The real her wasn't what we were watching, but the one snuggling against my legs.

I held her tighter, only now starting to grasp just how desperately she needed a hug. The Keldarian in the image nodded, and then stood rapidly. "This is our last chance, then. We can still save them all, but we literally need more time. Of course, it's all just pure theory, but we don't really have a choice, or the time to run comprehensive tests. Stay here. I'll be right back..." he instructed. Purdue nodded, still looking a little confused, but he took off out of the room rapidly, leaving her resting on the bed instead.

Time stepped forward again, and a sense of dread hit me. For reasons not entirely known to me, I pulled Purdue closer and rotated her around so her face was pressed into my chest. She shivered, and I felt the barest hint of a smile. "I don't need to see it to know what happened. I lived it..." she reminded, although there was a hinting of affection in her voice.

Snorting lightly, I assured her, "Real big brothers don't listen to logic like that. They just guard you anyway..." There was a surprising emphasis on 'real' that I used, but she smiled fully anyway, pushing her muzzle in a bit closer to my chest and letting it brush over my fur.

Applejack smirked at my statement and nodded in agreement, then slid over closer and pressed into my side. Her face buried into my shoulder, she helped me snuggle Purdue, then muttered, "Big Mac ain't 'ere, so ya can guard me, too. Ah don't have no desire ta see this either..."

Chuckling, I looked over to Dash, too, and then lifted an eyebrow as she stayed staring at the images, ears flicking lightly. She flinched as I turned towards her, and I knew she knew I was watching. "Nope. Not gonna make you watch this alone, Mender..." she suddenly defended, crossing her forelegs over her chest and giving a stubborn huff after.

She'd probably been anticipating me to talk her out of it. She wasn't expecting me to just grab her right shoulder and spin her around, pulling her against me, too, instead. She gave a squeak, but I cut her off with, "Good, because I don't want to watch it either. Plus, we have a little filly here who's in desperate need of snuggles." My head lowered, too, resting on top of both of theirs, and then none of us were watching. Not that I needed to. I'd touched the stream, and that told me exactly what had happened. I 'felt' it in my memories.

She trusted him absolutely, and he took that and used it to betray her just as completely. There was that sense of surprise at being grabbed, but it was fine, of course. It was her big brother. Muscles relaxed, and she smiled up at him, even as he rested her down on the bed again. Blind eyes sought out his essence, but she'd never been able to read him properly. He always held everything inside as much as possible. But for just that instant, she was surprised to feel a single thing sliding out of his mind. An apology.

It was too late to ask him, however. The biting sting slid into her chest, white hot and tearing. She screamed silently, but no sound came out as her strength failed her completely. The heavy blade parted through her, smashing deep into the very beating sensation at her center, then cut away. The pain became blinding, white hot dissolving into numb cold instead as all feeling fell away. Weak thrashing turned into spasms, liquid heat rushing out of her center and leaving her cold and empty inside. He tore the pulsing free of her chest completely, letting the hot fluid splatter over her as he pulled it free of her body. She was left alone, laying there in the cold darkness as it sank around her.

He wanted more, however. Her heart was just the catalyst, of course. Out of that cold, freezing abyss, he reached out of nowhere and drove a thousand fish hooks right into her essence itself. The link between them turned absolute, and the Geas tore into her soul, even as he completed the ritual with her lifeblood against the Aegis Barrier. Then it was activated...

I held Purdue close, even as she shivered and cried. The other Purdue did the same, but without anyone there to hug her. Instead, she was bound into the barrier itself, which was sealed inside the book in a massive explosion of energy. An Aegis Artifact was born, her life unbound to fuel its energy and creation. The power of the essence, or a 'soul' was used, unshackled by a corporeal form and left to grow upon itself without limit. Hers was unique, however. It was the first Artifact created where the caster didn't sacrifice themself to make it. The trick was in the Geas spell itself...

All three of us snuggled Purdue, blocking out the visions entirely. It was a long moment, and minutes passed in silence, the memories having bled off to blissful nothingness instead. I just let her rest, no questions asked, and we formed a furry cocoon around her of warm bodies. She shivered again, snuggling into my chest even as the two mares pushed closer.

Applejack felt utmost concern for the filly we held, but Rainbow's thoughts stayed focused entirely on the sensation of my foreleg over her, an uncomfortable feeling shifting through her from our link. She, nor Applejack, had felt any of Purdue’s memories about getting sacrificed, I knew. Left to her own devices, she'd instead been thinking about the other timeline. Purdue had shown us what would happen if we’d gotten trapped in the other dimension. All of our memories, at least of that particular thread of time, had returned fully. I knew all about the Grosh, the technology that we'd recovered from them and where I'd advanced with it, and what I'd fallen into in order to annihilate them from the universe.

At the same time, I also felt the connection to Keela and the two mares magnify dozens of times. They'd both been my lovers for hundreds of years, and it was rather hard to ignore that sensation. Things were... getting complicated now. No, we needed to focus on the present. Things could be dealt with in time after. There was only one more piece missing, then. "We're almost there. What did he do, Purdue? I think that's the important part..." I muttered, working off gut instinct now. Or maybe it wasn't gut instinct at all, given how crazy this was all getting. The beginning of this. It was more than just curiosity. It had to hold the key...

She sighed, and then nodded slowly. "After turning me into an Aegis Artifact using the ritual, he had to act fast. My awakening released an energy pulse that could be felt hundreds of miles away, like all Aegis Artifacts. It set off alarms everywhere, and special operations squads were already on their way towards our apartment..." she explained. How on earth did he get out of that?! And get reinstated as an agent somehow...? Wait... No, they didn't know about her being an Artifact either!

Purdue swallowed, her empty eyes looking up towards me pointlessly for a long moment. Or maybe she really did see something, but it wasn't likely to be something I could comprehend. Her eyes seemed to soften, ears lowering as they closed slowly. "I asked myself a lot over the years, why he was the only individual that my vision didn't work on. At first I thought he was just too powerful, but things didn't add up. I realize now why my vision didn't work on him. It's because he broke everything, and to save me from the madness, my mind blocked him out completely..." she revealed, voice dull and without variation. Broke...?

"Broke." Her voice answered it, but didn't at the same time as it echoed around us instead. I was treated to the sensation of the sound 'tearing', and a pang shot through my skull in an instant. No, that wasn't a tearing sound. I watched the sound tear inside of my brain, and it refused to process it.

The image was distorted now. Fragmented, I realize. Like the memory was literally coming apart at the seams with warped, blank 'nothing' filling the gaps. He smiled, a distorted grin with bladed teeth warping around and out his face as perspective melted like heated butter. Wait, no, that was the smile he’d given me as ‘Nirru’. My own memories were bleeding in now? "You belong to me now, Purdue. You are now Prudentia. Foresight, in all aspects. Bound to a book, and thus acting as one," he declared. It wrote itself inside of the cover of the book, like absolute law, even as the hooks into her soul twisted and tore. She spoke, even without wanting to.

"Yes, Master. What is your command?" she asked, voice empty and hollow, her life's essence held up overlaying the book like some twisted marionette on rusted, bloody chains. Her actual blood drifted around them, still pooling from her discarded physical form, and drifted free of gravity in long strands as the energy exploded out. For that instant, frozen in time, he was at the center of a great explosion of life and power, realized in the exact moment of her death.

He lost his grin, causing a chill to go down my spine. "Take my energy, too. All of it. I have only one order," he continued. What...? His eyes closed, even though I could no longer see them, and I simply 'knew' what was happening now. No... this wasn't... He finally ordered, "Erase Purdue from existence entirely..." My mind blanked, reality starting to froth into a boil around us as I heard Rainbow silently screaming, her voice dancing forward like streams of water into the air rather than producing sound. Applejack clutched at her head, body warping partly through mine as we started to burn away.

"Yes, Master." With those words, we were undone, and torn asunder. Purdue existed. But then she suddenly didn't exist. But then her power left with her, removing the very force that had removed her. Suddenly she existed again. But then time repeated in an instant and she was forced to erase herself in the same moment. Again and again and again. The thread of continuity frayed, and he wielded a paradox as if it were a weapon, striking one single, very precise blow into the thread itself using his very existence.

Reality and causality, however, wasn't such a stable thing. It buckled under the weight of the twisting, infinite repetition in that same moment. There were safeguards, of course. That was the moment I realized that reality strove for balance. It had the ability to fix itself. It wasn't due to some magical contrived plot device from within the paradox loop, but time itself stepping back and mentioning, "Wow, that got messed up."

Purdue smiled, guiding us through the abyss with practiced precision. "That's why I didn't want you going back. Watching that..." she whispered, tears sliding down her cheeks. It was the worst moment, and last, of her life, and her soul had been used to destroy all of existence.

Purdue's mother smiled, giving a nuzzle to her father, but fragmentation stripped their identities away already. Nothing but the 'knowing' of the roles they played was left. Well, more accurately, the roles they no longer played. Purdue herself was erased. Instead, their love didn't bear a child, but a power. At that exact moment...

He was past the checkpoints now. It had been a long week of security clearances, and he was on to basic training. So young. He rested on his mattress and gave a tired sigh, closing his eyes for a moment before he remembered. His mother's journal. He smiled, innocent and pure as he pulled it out of his bag to write a new entry in it... and his eyes widened. She had awoken, in the only form she could to both satisfy her destruction and existence at the same time. She was the book. Past security, and fully awoken as an Aegis Artifact, subtly, in that instant of her birth. That brilliant bastard. And he didn't even know...

Time flew by, showing him experimenting with the strange new powers of the book, seemingly coming out of nowhere and being served by an obedient soul that was forced to obey him. Laws inside of the cover instructed her to always obey, never tell, and to be a book. He didn't care, of course, not even knowing her real name, and used the book to its full advantage... and that's how everything snapped into place. He'd achieved a rank similar to Tym in a tenth of the timeframe, and set up everything so he was exactly where he needed to be with exactly the resources he wanted. How? By writing it in and reading ahead!

I hated him all over again. He hadn't even tried to understand the nature of the sudden change to the book. He hadn't even tried to free her. It was a 'her' and he hated females anyway. At least until Keela. He could be as innocent and idealistic as possible, and it was still all his fault for being a complete idiot instead!

I gritted my teeth, even as Applejack slumped against me, and Rainbow shivered at my hooves holding her head. They'd seen everything, too. Everything in that timeline, and everything in the timeline right before us where we were stuck for hundreds of years. I had all of my knowledge of that event, but still...

That was the answer, but I didn't know how to actually utilize it. It was right in front of me, and I understood what had to be done, but I didn't know how to get to that point. We were back in that instant, having never departed, of course. All three of us stood on the surface of the ship, having just stopped running. It was pointless. We'd just get stuck again, or die trying.

"I don't have anything left. The reserves are empty, even if you ordered me to try to change something..." Purdue whispered, closing her eyes as she slumped against my leg. I didn't feel any weight at all now, and knew we were outside of her mind. But the book was still open, and I could feel it. The massive tree of probability anchored around us, impossibly huge yet all of it fit inside my perspective, even in detail. My own mind gave up trying to figure that one out, and I refused to try. Now I knew she didn't stop time, however. She'd only ever stopped reading, and left our perspectives out of it. Time wasn't stopped at all. We were.

Frowning, I immediately asked, "What about my own energy? I saw you took his in the flashback." Applejack recovered fast and immediately shot me a glare, but Purdue's ears just lowered.

"Even if I wanted to risk that, he was the one that gave me his energy, not the other way around. I... I couldn't see him. Even then. Especially then. I was never able to see him. He used a spell effect, but I have no idea how he did it, so I couldn't even begin to tell you..." she whispered, starting to shiver lightly. Damn it!

Giving a frustrated grunt, I slid my left forehoof across the metal of the deck. No energy left in the tanks, can't access the backup tanks, can't slow the ship down enough, can't redirect it... There was really only one outcome that we could possibly do. There was no choice but to just let it happen and get trapped in the other dimension...

I felt him before I noticed him, my senses ablaze and tuned directly into the hundreds of thousands of threads running around me. A new thread just 'appearing' as a single point out of nowhere was definitely unexpected, and caught my full attention. A moment later, I watched a very, very small Draconequus 'slide' down the thread closest to my head, as if it were a fire pony's pole or something.

"Ooooh, is this a secret club?! I find ponies in the strangest places sometime, but I do wish they'd inform me when we got a new extradimensional club outside of the chronological flow of space itself... And, of course, it's, uh..." he started before suddenly blanking and staring at me for a long moment. Seriously? Again?

My mouth opened, but he held up his paw. It suddenly felt like my lips were all sticky and gummed up! I flailed, but he continued with, "No, no, don't tell me. Uh... bandaid flank? No, wait... that's what you used to be... Gear Butt? Wait, no, I guessed that last time... it had something to do with butt, right?"

I force regenerated my lips, but just glared at him. Applejack gave him a skeptical stare, but to my surprise, Dash didn't laugh, rolling her eyes instead. "You're not fooling anypony, Discord. You know Mender's name. Now why are you here?" she asked instead, looking tired as she sized him up.

He took it literally, of course, immediately growing back to his normal size. Purdue seemed concerned for a moment before asking, "And how are you here?! This is my own domain outside of time itself! You shouldn't even be aware this instant exists, let alone be able to interact with it!"

Applejack raised an eyebrow to her, and then finally smiled at that. "Long story, don't ask. Short story, he's basically ah physical god o' chaos an' has done far stranger..." she explained.

Discord, of course, snickered merrily, lounging back on several threads of time like a giant hammock. "Good answer! As to why, well, do I ever need a reason? I mean, really, Rainbow. You know what I'm like when bored, and then you wonderful ponies go out and have a full on battle in space without me! It's like the showing of all time, one night only, and nopony bothered to get me a ticket. I'm truly upset!" he revealed, waving his clawed appendage over his forehead in a surprisingly dramatic tone and gesture.

"You're supposed to use a couch, not a hammock," I reminded, relaxing again and deciding I really didn't care why he was here in the first place.

He blinked once, looking momentarily surprised before grinning and snapping his fingers. It didn't surprise me in the least, however, when the strands of light reshaped themselves into the exact replica of Rarity's couch, him still on them. Rainbow finally smirked and laughed lightly.

"Why thank you! I believe I get to ask 'why' now, right? What's this gathering about?!" he asked, sounding more than a little pleased. Mostly with himself, of course. He used his pawed hand to rub at his goatee while waiting.

Applejack sighed, and then quickly explained, "About tha same as usual, Ah reckon. We're stuck 'ere with no way ta get back ta Equus while still divertin' tha ship. Ah don't imagine ya got any fancy powers that'll teleport us back ta tha surface, do ya?" Oh! He was indeed an Ancient. Shouldn't he have the ability to teleport, too?

He looked momentarily amused at that, throwing his paw up to his forehead dramatically again before replying, "Oh my! I so wish I could, but truthfully, my magic doesn't function like that. I mean, I could certainly try to move you three such a vast distance, but there'd be no promises that you'd arrive... in one piece..." His body shivered for a moment, then his fingers and arm fell off on the side against his forehead, and he gasped in faux shock. Uh… That probably wouldn't be nearly as pleasant looking if it happened to us.

"Uh... that's bad. Is there anything you can do to help us or...?" Rainbow started to ask, shifting to looking mildly annoyed. Predictably, she was ignored as he began blowing on the thumb of his other hand until his arm 'inflated' out of the shoulder, regenerating instantly.

After he wiggled his fingers tentatively, he shifted back to dramatic lamenting, continuing with, "Why, it could be even worse! You might end up switching body parts! Or somepony might end up with foal!" Weren't those just generic 'teleportation' myths and superstitions?

Despite flushing lightly, Dash glared at him regardless, shaking her head after and turning back to Applejack, Purdue and me instead. "...yup. He's just here to be annoying and useless. So, back to the drawing board?" she offered. Discord frowned, looking a bit annoyed, but I cut him off before he could continue.

Sighing, I glanced back to Purdue before asking, "How long can you keep time paused like this?"

"About ten more minutes or so before it starts wearing me down. After, I don't know..." she admitted, frowning again at that as her left ear flicked lightly.

Applejack recovered next, sighing and glaring back over at the laughing chimera. "Can ya help us at all, or was Dashie right an' yer just here ta be annoyin'?" she asked, a hint of needling in her tone.

Discord looked even more peeved before gasping, suddenly standing as his 'couch' vanished as if it had never been there, the strings returned to their prior imagery. "Me? Annoying?! Well, fine! If you truly find my presence such an inconvenience, I shall depart. How very rude, especially treating a friend," he declared, looking offended instead. I still couldn't tell if he was serious or not, sadly. As hammy as he acted most of the time, it was just that, an act, and him shifting to a more normal expression after threw me off completely. He was... remarkably hard to read.

The orange mare flattened her ears down, and then sighed before hastily correcting, "Sorry! We're sorry. Yer right, o' course. So we apologize. We'll ask ya more polite-like. Do ya think that ya could help us out, Discord? We're in ah bit o' ah jam..." She lowered her head in a slight bow towards him at the same time, and I almost caught a light bristling to Dash before she whipped her head around to look at Discord again.

The draconequus smirked at that, and I repressed a groan. "That's more like it! Hmm, and I'd maybe consider helping you, yes. It's what such good friends do, of course... Plus, it would be a tragedy if something were to happen to Mender. Poor Fluttershy would be heartbroken and have nopony to turn to at all! Except, of course, for her friends, including me, banish the thought..." he assured, suddenly shifting topics in a significantly concerning way. I lifted an eyebrow as his eyes locked onto me instead, a hint of something in them, regardless. I got the sensation before that he didn't like me, but if he really was as 'redeemed' as they claimed, would he really resort to letting us all be 'banished' for hundreds of years, just to get rid of me? Wait... Fluttershy specifically? What was he to her...?

He watched me carefully, a smirk playing at his mouth as some sort of acknowledgement undoubtedly flickered onto my expression. He knew exactly what was going on when he arrived, as he'd already acknowledged being aware of the temporal tree that Purdue was manifesting. But he'd benefit somehow from me going away...?

Rainbow's ears lowered, and she quickly retorted, "You're not making any sense! If you were our 'friend', you would just help us! This is a serious situation we're in, and you're playing games!"

He never flinched for a second, continuing to smirk. "Why, everypony loves games, Rainbow! They're such an enjoyable way to pass the time... oh! I know! Seeing as you won't do something as simple as begging, how about we settle things with a game instead? If you beat me, I'll help you all," he chirped, grinning as he snapped his fingers again, a game board appearing between him and Dash, looking remarkably like checkers. Oh hell... We didn't have time to do that!

The cyan mare glared back at him, but everything suddenly felt colder. My eyes widened a little as I glanced down and to the left again, noting Applejack also looking at the small filly in surprise. Her eyes had shifted from the empty gray to a brightly glowing white, focused on the draconequus like two bright spotlights. He froze for a second, looking back over at us with confusion before... His eyes slowly started to widen as he regarded the little filly instead.

Slowly, Purdue warned, "You regard Mender, my master, as a rival for Fluttershy's attention now. With that, you've entered into his story. ...I can see you now, Discord." What...? Oh. Uh oh...

He hesitated, starting to frown at that. Rainbow perked, losing her glare as she shot a questioning glance back at us instead. Discord quickly defended with, "A... rival? I most certainly do not! I'm far more mature than-"

Purdue smirked instead, causing him to freeze again as she continued with, "I see you now. Even you cast threads of choice and thought, Ancient. You wish to selfishly hoard all of Fluttershy's time because she's the only one who acknowledged you without asking for a single thing in return. Who forgave you without hesitation. She lets you forgive yourself, just a little. But in trying to be selfish, you're falling right back into your old ways, Discord. You came here to see if there was a way to subtly make sure at least Mender was lost to the other dimension, so you could see her link with him fade away. This isn't who you want to be, is it?" My eyes widened, and I looked back at the Ancient as he glared towards her, taking two steps slowly back away from us. The mare to each side of me rapidly returned his glare twofold, and I sighed. The game was just to buy time until Purdue ran out of energy for the time stop effect, then.

Interestingly enough, a momentary guilty look flickered across his expression. "I... was going to do no such thing!" he quickly assured, crossing his arms over his chest as he pouted, looking away from us and closing his eyes before adding, "My intent was merely to try to encourage you all to solve your problem yourself first, of course! Celestia does that all the time, because ponies learn better when they get themselves out of their own difficulties, right?" Wow, her powers put him on the defensive... I didn't know him very well, but that felt sort of like a rare occurrence.

My eyes widened an instant later. Solve it ourselves. No, he was right! That was... Everything snapped into place an instant later. I had just defaulted to assuming Purdue's powers and will was the only way out of this mess the second I learned about her full abilities. But that... sensation. It had told me that the start of all of this had been important. I thought it was so I could understand Purdue's ability to manipulate time, but...

That wasn't the case at all. It was so I could see that the captain gave her his own energy to fuel the effect. Even if she didn't know how it worked, that meant it was possible. Solve it ourselves, then. That instinct was back, and now I knew what it was, finally, as all of the pieces fell into place. It was him. His memories affected more than just the training and skills put into my head. It wasn't that unexpected, I decided, that I also got his instincts as well. He had years of experience in using Prudentia, and all of that translated into a certain level of understanding about how the forces worked behind the scenes.

"Discord, you're a genius. Thank you," I suddenly interrupted, smiling more earnestly up at the draconequus. He blanched completely, snapping back to look at me with a surprised expression.

"I... I am...?" he asked, confusion matching the three other females as they all looked back at me at the same time. I simply nodded, however.

"You are. Do it ourselves... That's it. It's what my own instincts had been trying to tell me when I looked back into Purdue's past. I had to understand that it was possible to directly manipulate Prudentia..." I elaborated, turning to the small filly after, who widened her eyes even further.

Nodding down at her, I asked, "You revealed all of this to me. That means you trust me, right, Sis?"

Her ears flicked before she perked and rapidly nodded, no hesitation at all. Smiling, I then asked, "Every time you've revealed your full powers to me in the past, I ignored it and attempted to free you instead, right?"

The ears lowered again as she sighed and nodded. "Yeah. You put my well-being above your own each time. You can't free me from the Geas, however..." she warned, obviously guessing where I was going with this. She was wrong, however.

I shook my head, correcting, "Actually, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is more than a little crazy, right? I have a new idea. This time, I'm going to take you up on that offer. You trust me, right? You don't need to do a thing. Just let me use the book directly instead..."

Purdue's eyes almost widened out of her skull, although Applejack and Rainbow just looked even more confused. The little filly rapidly shook her head, warning, "Brother, you can't! Well, you can, but... No! It uses a tremendous amount of energy and even if you used up your entire life force, there's no way you can stop the ship in time!"

The orange mare frowned at that, turning to look back at me, but I held my hoof up to her and just smiled. "I don't have to stop the ship. And I won't kill myself, don't worry. Inverted logic a given, Discord is right. Fluttershy wants to see me again and for me to come home. So do a lot of ponies, so I can't just assume my life is for only me anymore..." I assured, giving her a softer smile. The two mares with me had also proven that. They had no reason to go along with me like they did, but each of them had aided in helping me get here regardless. They came along because they not only wanted us to succeed, but to add their abilities to mine to help me survive, too.

The filly bit her lower lip, but Applejack just looked sternly at me for a long moment before slowly nodding. "Ah trust ya, too. Ah believe ya," she assured. Rainbow looked less than pleased, but huffed and added her own nod as well.

"Fine, but if you die, I'm going to go get your soul myself and drag you back here. Don't think I can't, because I'll practice until I can! Then we will have words!" the cyan mare finally announced, glaring at me until I smirked at her. Her anger shifted away into a grin herself, and I nodded to her.

"Done. Which is good, because I need both of your help still to do this..." I revealed finally. Purdue finally relaxed a little and nodded towards me as well, but both mares just grinned...

* * * * *

The time distortion dropped. I barely even noticed it, us already flickering forward in a distorted blur of motion. With her newfound ability to abuse physics, fire off her perpetual Ether Furnace uncontrollably, then just toss all that power into warping her wing jets, Rainbow had discovered that she was capable of mimicking the Icarus Effect and temporarily entering Slipstream. Thus, she was the first living organism ever to enter, however temporary, a state of faster than light travel without any assistance whatsoever.

She had assistance this time, however. My computer systems had already locked onto Discord, who had teleported ahead, and now held up a massive, billboard sized neon sign with an arrow pointed downwards at where the panel was that I had described to him, almost at the back of the six some kilometer long ship. We arrived in less than the span of a heartbeat...

Dash flipped, letting us go as she spun out of control, completely unable to stop as she exited FTL going over six hundred meters a second. While she spun backwards and fired off her wing jets to slow herself, Applejack and I descended hard directly into the plate, just as Discord hopped away.

Purdue shouted, energy flowing around her as her barriers expanded around me, and I hit the plate at over the speed of sound, in full armor. With her barriers focusing on inertia dampening, I put all four hooves down into the metal and watched it twist and buckle, even as my vision shook from the impact. Shielded, Applejack 'rode' down on my back, letting me absorb the entire wave of vibration from the hit, then 'pulling' it out of me as she used her armor to 'sync' with my body.

I rolled, tossing myself out of the way as she kept going, then gave a snarled scream as she spun and drove both her back hooves into the same plate. The vibration she ate from me was transferred right through her legs, and for a moment, I watched the pulse distort off the plate as it tried to register the damage. The ablative armor was useless as the entire system disintegrated into a fine dust in a blinding flare of orange light.

Trying to catch myself with tentacles to stop my spin, I instead felt forelegs snatch me from space, boosting us both back towards the now gratuitous impact crater. Discord was already down in the center, of course, even as Applejack drifted away into space. Teleportation was cheating... He pointed frantically down towards the side of the crater instead, however.

"Oooh, oooh! I found the vibrating bits!" he called out, sounding gleeful, probably due to completely ignoring the laws of physics and somehow transmitting sound inside a vacuum.

Rainbow nodded once, and I braced as she flung me at the area he was pointing at. I rotated, pointing my hooves down towards the crater, and got an excellent view of her bursting after Applejack, making a speedy space rescue even before my hooves contacted the broken metal below. Focusing, however, I looked down at the massive power couplings, and then smirked as I felt Purdue fade in next to me, Prudentia open and radiating energy out as she passed the control directly to me. My eyes widened, but she quickly directed me at the couplings, barely saving me from a whole world of torment. Literally.

In that instant, everything blurred through my head at once. I saw them being manufactured in the Grosh labs. I saw them being touched up and tweaked for a perfect fit. Them being installed was even shown to me, details of the sealant they were using flicking past, too. I focused, trying to get a grip on the absolute bombardment of data, my head spinning and screaming out in agony, even as I made sure to keep my forehooves connected to the parts in question.

"Focus, Azure!" suddenly rang out in my mind. Kyliona. My eyes snapped forward again, and I watched the departed doctor's form gesture with her left arm, parting the haze as she directed me to exactly where I was looking for. She smiled, starting to fade, but then looked surprised as I latched onto her sensation instead, refusing to let go.

"No, I'm not losing you again! You're staying at the forefront!" I shouted, her hazy and distorted image snapping into focus, even as she looked surprised. My attention shifted back to the parts, however, running through the final metal restructuring in the facility. Nodding, I pulled my right hoof up, the book drifting up in front of me, even as I kept my eyes trained on those three couplings. They were each the size of a car, but it didn't matter. My own engineering knowledge pointed me right to the three seal lines, and I pushed my hoof down against the book.

The effect was instant. The writing started to change on the page, shifting to exactly what I wanted instead. It also simultaneously felt like someone spun around and smashed a sledgehammer into my chest, unfortunately. My magic supplies were depleted immediately, and it felt like my heart skipped a few beats even as my body jerked, and I winced. Damn it!

It was too late, though, even as the screaming ache sensation tore through my legs. The energy was gone and used. Minimal changes to very small details, and it still hurt like hell. For just that moment, the cooling cycle on the machine as it rotated around to harden the sealant also skipped a beat. One little fault introduced to the code running the machine was all it took. No longer cooled down, the seal on the coupler would begin to warp and bend from the heat. It would start on the microscopic level, of course, but when the engines activated and Nirru did her first FTL transfer to get into Equus, the heat would utterly tear the metal apart at the seams, leaving long splits along its surface that would cause large energy leaks.

Shivering, I looked to the second and third couplers, however. One might not be enough. Swallowing, I shifted back to the beginning of this 'scene' in the book and prepared to modify the other, my chest still screaming out in that cold ache.

"Brother, stop it! Y-You can't get all three! One should be enough to slow it down!" I heard Purdue whisper in my mind. Tch...

Hesitating, I shook my head before asking, "Even if you can just rewind this, I can handle at least one more, so doesn't it make sense to maximize your chances of this working?"

Not giving her a chance to actually answer, my hoof touched the book once again, and I gritted my teeth. If the first one felt like a sledgehammer, this time they'd installed a rocket engine to the back of it or something. My air left me as the shattering pain tore into my chest. The hoof touching the book went numb even as I felt it tugging hard at my life force instead of my magic. Something warm was sliding down my muzzle, a sharp contrast to how cold I suddenly felt, even as I tried to push the change into place. It was hard to focus, my vision swimming even as I felt Kyliona trying to direct me. This wasn't enough!

The energy pushed hard against causality. The odds of a second error happening started to go up, but my body faltered before I could push it past the fifty percent mark. I felt my back legs go out, even in the distorted time field that Purdue had created, and winced as my knees hit the cold metal. Head swimming, I focused as hard as I could on my forehooves instead, watching reality mix with my vision of the past back and forth, starting to time itself to the pounding in my skull. Well that wasn’t good...

For a moment, I hesitated. This had to be done. There wasn't a choice. With just one, it might slow it down by a half a dozen seconds or so. But with two, they'd cause additional overheating and larger cracks, venting almost three times the energy together. That was guaranteed to slow it down enough...

But she could just rewind if it didn't work, right? I swallowed the hard lump in my throat. None of this had ever been about me, had it? The book wasn't actually about the one written in it. No, she had been controlling everything from the very start. She was the hero, if anypony was.

My eyes closed, stuck in time as I sagged slightly. Why did I always push myself so hard? I wasn't the hero. I was just another cog in her grand design, and my success or failure was up to the roll of a die, basically. Was I actually wanting to be a hero? Was that the reason I didn't have any issue with sacrifice whatsoever? Or was there something darker there...?

She had fallen behind. It wouldn't take her long to find me again, but for now, I was frozen in time an instant ahead of her. I looked back at the small filly, crying out towards me. She was doing all of this for 'me', right? I didn't even pretend to understand why, or what made her decide I was worth the immense, unimaginable effort she'd put in so far.

Kyliona smiled, sitting on the coupler next to me as she looked up into the shifting and twisting sensation and textures past our image. Slowly, she chuckled and pointed out, "It's ironic if you examine it a step further. She's doing all of this for you, and you're doing all of this for them. Your species, and those ponies you love. Of course, it's more than that, isn't it?"

Her eyes seemed to slice into me as she turned and directed them my way. I shuddered, some of that dizziness sliding away as I stood again, then closed my eyes. More? My mother immediately came to mind, having not only sacrificed her life to save mine, but spent three hundred years in what could only be described as a personal hell in order to stay by my side, so I wouldn't be alone instead. She was selfless and loved me completely, and I realized that I'd changed the second I learned about her story. It was something to look up to, and strive towards.

The Keldarian smiled and nodded, looking amused, even with my eyes closed. I remembered she was 'inside' of me a moment later and sighed. Not only did closing my eyes do nothing, she had direct access to my surface thoughts regardless. "The moral of her story, however, is to strive for selflessness while staying true to what you believe in... not that the only way to achieve that is by sacrificing yourself... Maybe it's time you included Purdue in who you were doing this for...?" Kyliona asked, tilting her head slowly towards me.

My eyes widened a little. Doing it for Purdue, too? But... I remembered my promise to Applejack and Rainbow, too, and sighed. What could I do, then? Looking back up to my longtime friend for possible suggestions, I was surprised to note her frowning as she stared past me to the left instead. Looking over my shoulder, I froze the instant I spotted her.

Nirru was moving, regardless of the temporal freezing, which left rather unfortunate implications as to her current state of existence. There was an empty, yet somehow haunted expression on her face as she walked up towards us. To add to the overall sensation that she'd been run through an industrial power washer, her movements were jerky and she slid her back paws across the lower boundary of our reality with every step. Her colors were faded, looking muted and dull as she got closer, slowing to a halt next to me and staring towards the ground between Kyliona and me.

A hesitant, guarded dozen seconds passed, but she didn't even flinch. There were no attacks incoming, and she didn't have her guard up at all. What... was she? She smiled at that thought, but it wasn't her usual sneer. Instead, it was weak and barely existent, her looking even more tired for a second before she stood up a bit straighter.

"I'm dead. I'd call you a cheater, but admittedly, there aren't any 'rules' when it comes down to real combat... so truly, good move," she muttered, voice rasping lightly as she finally met my eyes with her own. There was no color left in them whatsoever, nothing but gray emptiness within, giving an exceptionally creepy vibe.

Not knowing what else to say or do, I went with, "Thanks, I guess. You look remarkably lively for a dead person. Sort of..."

She chuckled at that, sagging again before sliding down to a sitting position instead, legs tucked up against her chest as she rested her forehead on her knees. She was oddly naked, I noticed, however her body was surprisingly formless, showing she had fur covering her but leaving the more specific and finely detailed aspects overly smoothed out and undefined.

"It's your weapon," she revealed, explaining with, "You already know it attempts to eat the life energy of individuals, too. Well, it turns out it does that automatically. At range. You might not have gotten my body, but you ate my soul, so to speak..." What...? Aww, crap.

She held a paw up before I could respond, and shook her head. "There's nothing to say. Dying... It's amazing how much it clarifies things. Suddenly, the urgency of everything just sort of bleeds away, and in an instant, I was able to reflect upon everything in my life. Maybe that's what they mean when they say your life flashes before your eyes... Although I always thought they indicated it would happen before you died," she added, letting her arm fall limp at her side again after.

I watched her for a moment, definitely completely unsure of what to say. The pure stupefied sensation made me entirely forget about the raw agony my body was in. For a moment, anyway. It didn't stop me from narrowing my eyes and taking a step to the side as she suddenly moved closer, however. I didn't predict she could do much to me in her current state, but I wasn't about to take any chances!

My eyes widened when she instead knelt down and placed both of her paws onto the middle energy coupler. Her energy stores flooded forth suddenly, and she shivered, watching Purdue's effect start to fire off. "W-What are you doing...?!" I asked her, wondering if she realized she was technically sabotaging herself or not. She was powering the effect!

She didn't hesitate, only continued to push her own power into it. "Powering your effect to destroy my own ship's FTL drive... And before you ask, no, I'm not helping you," she assured, earning a frown from my very confused self. Uh, it kinda looked like she was helping me.

Shaking her head, she corrected, "I'm helping my sister. You're still a dick, but... she likes you, and she was right. I let my own feelings turn me into a monster, and did nothing but hurt her. She was... the only one I ever loved, and I have to at least try to make things right again for her." Ah. She wasn't apologizing, then. Of course, I probably would have just laughed if she tried, which she understood.

She just kept pushing, however. I sighed, then warned, "That's enough of your energy, Nirru. I know you aren't exactly at risk of dying, but if you push any more forward, you're going to mix it with mine and it might make you... more stuck in the cluster inside of me..." That probably wouldn't be pleasant for her, or any of the souls she had gotten mixed in with, I'd imagine.

To my surprise, Kyliona had snapped out of it at that point and also stepped forward. "I didn't know this was possible. But she's stuck regardless, so I might as well help, too. Along with a few others that you've made very happy today..." she suddenly informed.

My eyes got even wider as image after image distorted along behind her, making her almost look like the head of a massive snake. Paws joined my hooves, some merging out of my legs and chest, and others coming from the side. They rested around and on mine, and energy started to flow freely forward.

"What are you all doing?! It's fine enough as is, but... If you guys do this, you're just going to tie yourselves even closer with me!" I tried to warn, looking at the now hundreds of faces of Keldarians I didn't know, all around me now. Every push they made, their energy was getting more and more tangled with mine!

Nirru looked up from the flood of energy, locking eyes with me for the first time since dying. If anything, my longtime enemy just looked mildly amused. "I openly admit that I was a fool turning to the Grosh for help. You let our fallen comrades taste victory for the first time in their lives, however. I think you've done a lot of impressing this day..." she pointed out idly. Was that enough to let them risk possibly getting stuck even harder to me?!

Kyliona nodded at that, then added, "The energy within you, and in Equus itself, is also liberating them of all that magical congestion you're familiar with. It's a paradise, and I doubt any of us have any qualms with following you back there." Nirru said nothing, and I just closed my eyes and sighed. It wasn't like I could stop them anyway. I wasn't the one in control of the link, after all, with the energy couplers.

Opening my eyes again, I looked to the left and spotted a sheepish looking Purdue, sending a glare her way. She just shrugged, however, then added, "Maximizing possibility of success, right? You said so yourself..." I gave a start, then glared even harder. That brat!

By then, it was too late, however. All three coupler seals had been skipped, and Purdue cut the link in an instant. The true agony my body was in suddenly readily apparent once more, and I gasped, coughing twice as I watched a splatter of my own blood hit across the coupler I was touching. The coupler that was now partly melted due to a faulty seal line. My eyes widened in an instant, even as Purdue's barrier blocked the sudden gout of radiation coming out of the fracture. Discord's paw touched down on my back a moment later, and we were gone...

Pain... It was one of those times again. Although for literally cheating 'fate' itself this time, I guess the bill had come due much faster for me. Rainbow caught me, even after Discord finished his teleport. I hadn't even seen anything about how he did it, momentarily blacking out for completely different reasons. Applejack said something, but it was echoing too bad to hear, even as she helped stabilize me in Rainbow's forelegs. Both of them... Wait...

The orange mare leaned forward, nuzzling some of the blood off my muzzle, and then winking as she pushed her nose against mine, our foreheads touching. The stubborn brat... Her energy flowed into me, slowing the spinning in my skull as the pain vanished completely. True. She'd used the least energy out of the three of us there, Rainbow looking about ready to pass out as well. That was the one flaw of her technique, I noted. Well, apart from only lasting about two seconds, of course.

Applejack's warmth drifted all around me, slowing my energy down and refilling my very base supply, her smiling as she felt me stabilize. "Gotcha, Mender. Don't worry. Ah'm ah tough gal. It worked..." she reported, pulling back a little, then grinning as she rotated me around in her forelegs.

Rainbow was tucked into my other side, looking happy towards me before she turned to watch as well. Discord was even here, too, drifting half a meter away and looking a mixture of pleased and awkwardly embarrassed at the events. I tried not to chuckle, if only to preserve his dignity. With the rotation completed, I saw that the massive ship was still visible, although quite a distance away now. A massive gout of green flames expanded from its side, and my scanners picked up its engine output even from here. It was still powering up the FTL, but its engines had dropped from eighty-seven to fourteen percent output in an instant, pushing its required jump time from twenty seconds all the way up to three and a half minutes. Ha!

I grinned and nodded to them both, a look of relief washing over their expressions as they had waited, with bated breath, for my final verdict. We had fought our first, and hopefully only, full-scale battle... and Equestria prevailed. We won...

Luna's voice exploded through space itself, telepathic vibrations distorting from the very moon. I winced, recognizing the Royal Canterlot Voice even before her first word formed. "MOST FOUL ENEMY! CONSUME UPON THIS!!!" radiated out, causing the other two to wince as well.

"Eat!" Rainbow shouted, correcting her with, "It's supposed to be 'Eat this!'"

If the Princess of the Moon heard her, she certainly didn't act like it. Instead, she just appended, "AND ENJOY EVERY MOMENT OF IT!" My eyes widened as I watched what my scanners picked up as a fifteen kilometer wide patch on the surface of the moon suddenly rupture upwards with dark energy, popping out into serrated and jagged spikes instead, even as it careened towards the flagship at several hundred meters per second. My jaw dropped, the unpleasant taste of getting my own blood in my mouth completely overshadowed by watching a celestial body smash into a huge space dreadnought. Well, technically, it was more like the dreadnought hit it, but that hardly mattered!

Luna just kept laughing. Even Discord looked horrified as the four of us watched in shock. It was like seeing a big slice of cake get launched out of a potato cannon into a razor wire covered brick wall. The moon didn't even notice, of course. Hell, the ship was a speck compared to it, and I doubt it even slowed it by a few appreciable fractions of momentum. The metal came apart in an instant, the massive vessel flattening, then buckling in slow motion as the expanding fireball was released into space, in a remarkably well-shaped sphere. Having a pre-shaped direction to be released in, thanks to Prudentia's powers, all of the energy inside the FTL drive was released a heartbeat later, like a shaped explosive charge. The gout of green light expanded off into space, like a colorful fountain of energy off the moon for several seconds before it faded completely.

Everything went quiet, minus Luna's hysterical laughter, and I slowly blinked, staring at the sheer destruction as I watched the still glowing chunks of moon start to move. Within seconds, the spikes had all but ground up the remains of the huge flagship, pulling it beneath the surface of the celestial body like a million tiny 'mouths' eating the metal and bits of the ship completely. Okay, Luna was absolutely terrifying...

I gave a shiver, looking to my right just in time to see Ventosus Lacuna warp into existence next to me. Ah. "Heh, you didn't want to be down there either, huh? I don't blame you..." I admitted, drawing everypony's attention back to me, then to the sword.

Applejack snickered, then nodded. "Remind me not ta upset Princess Luna. Ah guess tha sword's yours now..." she pointed out.

Nodding, I reached over and used my right forehoof to close Rainbow's jaw, earning a light blush from the mare, who then shivered. "Can we go home now? I need a nap..." she finally muttered, using her left forehoof to wipe some of the blood from her own muzzle. That... That I could heartily agree with.

Discord rolled his eyes, and then rotated back to face us, wearing a smirk again. "But the day is young, and I'm sure all your fellow ponies are all set to throw a massive victory celebration in your honor!" he suddenly reminded, voice full of mirth.

All three of us groaned, even as I felt Twilight's magic finally find us. Her spell pulled us all away in an instant, reality crushing in upon itself as we were yanked back towards the massive planet below...


Epilogue

Falling. It always felt like falling. This time, we drifted through emptiness for a long time. Everything had collapsed away into a singularity, crackling with energy that protectively folded around us, probably shifting us into some sub-dimension while we physically transferred ourselves. Rainbow and Applejack both rested against me, my sensation extending to them despite my eyes being closed. We stayed stuck together and held on, until reality tossed us out sideways.

It was more violent than her usual teleports, but given the distance we had traversed, it didn't really surprise me. Rainbow's eyes widened, and before either Applejack or I could react, her wings flicked open. She corrected our spin with a burst of her jets, slowing our velocity even as we sailed into the camp. We spun once, lazily through the air as I rotated, tentacles extending from all four legs and six from my back.

Tucking, we became a cushioned ball a moment later. Both mares grabbed on tight and I just let us bounce once, then roll to a gentle stop. Tentacles collapsing into me again as the three of us slumped to the grass, dozens of ponies converged on our location in an instant, most wearing medical gear. Ah... hah... It was real. We had won...

It was the only thought I had time for before a blur of yellow and lavender crashed into me from the side...

* * * * *

Everything was happening so very quickly now. Redheart smiled and nodded once to me, pulling back and taking the stethoscope out of her ears. "All of you are in good condition. Injuries are superficial at most, largely consisting of minor contusions and lacerations..." she reported, earning a warmer smile from Tia. We were in an informal circle now on the grass, joined by the previously wayward Luna and Discord, whom everypony apart from the three of us were surprised to see. Turns out, he had been invited to aid and had simply neglected to respond. He of course claimed it had gotten lost in the mail...

Absently, I gave a nod while adjusting the ping controls. My transmitters had gotten a little wonky in all of the FTL jumps we'd done, and needed recalibration. The projection orbs drifted around me, showing everything I was doing while the large projection screen displayed my image to the entire field. Hundreds of ponies watched nervously as I finished the adjustments, then sent the ping through to Keela. Luna had set up the projector screen for us to let the guards watch.

She picked up instantly, of course. "Mender! You're okay!" she exclaimed, popping up on the screen with her expression looking tense. She sighed a second later, visibly relaxing, and I nodded confirmation to her.

"We're all fine. Minor injuries. Are you okay?" I asked immediately. The odds that the Grosh had pulled off a really bizarre and elaborate trap hadn't slipped my mind, and I was eager to hear the outcome.

The Keldarian nodded, glancing out at the crowd of ponies through my display for a brief moment before reporting, "The Grosh surrendered completely. They jettisoned their weapons and armor, and we've already pulled the gear on board, so they're literally defenseless. We haven't done anything to them apart from talk, however. They want to make 'amends' and help us..." Her voice was strained, and she sounded like she didn't believe what she was saying.

Twilight made an awkward coughing noise, and then asked, "Well, the Elements of Harmony are a form of exceptionally powerful magic which has effects we've not documented yet. This is definitely new but, uh, is it really that unwelcome?"

I was the one who shook my head first, earning a surprised glance from both females. "No, it's very welcome. You can backwards engineer the technology from their vessels and blueprints available. I'll draw up more for you later, too," I offered softly. It had been a long day and I was almost completely out of energy. Applejack shot me a knowing glance from across our circle, forelegs still wrapped around Dashie, who was snoozing out already in an exhausted looking collapsed position. The lavender mare next to me lifted an eyebrow to my seemingly inside information, but didn't say anything for now.

Keela exhaled, then nodded, still looking a little confused but apparently willing to accept it for now. There'd be a great many things that we'd have to talk about in the future, I imagined. She hesitated, and I felt it coming now. "I... That means you stopped her, right?" she asked, voice softer now as her eyes lowered. How exactly do you tell somepony this...? She already knew the answer, and she was really only looking for confirmation, but...

I lowered my eyes instead, and she bit her lip for a moment, but Rarity sighed instead, drawing our attention over to her instead. Once we all glanced over, she shook her head and added, "We all know that our course of action had been sealed the moment she refused to surrender. That said, given the fact that we're still here, the outcome should be fairly obvious." Keela winced lightly, but the pearly mare shook her head and continued, "We understand, Keela. She was your sister. I'm just worried for Mender, who's also my friend. I don't believe he derived any pleasure from what he was forced to do, either." That...

Searching my own heart, I felt back on it. I 'remembered' killing her twice, but given how many times we'd been rewound, it was undoubtedly more than that. Both of those times... were just empty. The first time, I was so angry right up to the point, but when she was actually in front of me... it just went blank. It became a job that had to be completed. So yes, Rarity was right. It gave me nothing, and left me with nothing.

Swallowing, I snapped out of it in time to note everypony looking at me, including Keela. The Keldarian looked close to tears, but bit her lower lip and nodded, meeting my eyes instead. "I... I know. I'm s-sorry I didn't have the guts to... do it myself and had to ask you, Mender. It..." she whispered, a tear sliding down her left cheek.

Sighing, I slowly shook my head. No, there was no point in hiding other things as well. My mind flashed back to the teleport ride back to Equus' surface just a few minutes ago. Nirru had retreated, and started to slide back into the darker recesses of my mind, sinking away into the miasma of souls within.

I had stopped her, of course. She demanded why I was helping her, but naturally... I wasn't helping her. I was helping her sister. Looking back up at them, I instead corrected, "Nirru's not gone..." Her eyes widened, and almost everypony near me promptly gasped...

* * * * *

Things moved remarkably fast. Not quite as fast as when the threat of alien invasion was imminent, but still fairly fast for standard pony life. My eyes scanned over the screen, but it was still reading all nominal. Not that I doubted Luna's abilities, but this was...

Looking up and away from the holographic screen in front of me, I saw into the night sky. Dozens of stars danced above, and for just a moment, I felt things slow down and get peaceful again. My long awaited 'nap' had been delayed, of course. It was now five hours since the battle, and DReg was still on full alert... I watched the stars for just a moment before yawning, glancing to the moon instead.

It was full, glowing bright in the sky and spreading its luminance over the landscape. This time, however... The dark spot was visible at about seventy magnification of my eyes. A few more rotations of my lenses showed a picture of the portal slowly closing and sealing, ripped right across the surface of the moon. They were suppressing it as well as sealing it, strengthening that 'weak spot' that was on the other side even as they closed the hole. The massive dark spot was an entire mining vessel floating in geostationary orbit between the moon and Equus. Quite a feat, despite Luna's expert control over gravity.

And there it would stay. I smiled, watching the dim glow of the dropship as it slowly entered the atmosphere. Well, slow was a relative term, but I digress. They had made it. Tia had stayed true to her word, and about four hours after the battle, had opened up a portal and, to my surprise and Keela's, pulled the entire mining vessel through. Mostly.

Looking to my right, I saw another panel on display, showing space coordinates in the other dimension. Quantum entanglement was a rather powerful communication method, it would seem. It didn't even need a direct 'link' between places to function. The one given to me, for example, was from another dimension, and linked to a rather large Grosh ship that had been left in contact with a large colony of escaped Keldarians. Keela thankfully hadn't questioned yet how I happened to know exactly where they had escaped to, including exact space coordinates. Sadly, Twilight wasn't as forgiving.

The lavender mare shot a curious glance at me through the translucent image, and my eyes focused past the screen onto her instead. She pushed her face through the image and stared pointedly at me, narrowing her eyes a little and I lifted an eyebrow. "You've been acting weird. I know it was intense, and I know the battle was hard on you, but... This is different. What happened, Mender?! We're worried. You three are... different," she suddenly explained, eyes softening again as she straightened and withdrew her face from my hologram.

Looking over it at her instead, I sighed, then closed my eyes. I felt where they all were at this range without needing them open anyway. Applejack and Rainbow were unconscious and curled up against each other on our blanket half a meter behind me. No backup for me this time. It was interesting how I considered those two my closest backup now, my memories from the other timeline left intact. It had already changed our relationship, and I didn't know where.

One source of backup remained, however. I looked to my left, eyes still closed, and felt Purdue there, lingering next to her book. Dutifully, Prudentia started to glow, and an image of the little filly appeared next to me. I opened my eyes again and smiled to her, earning a hesitant one back. My relationship with her had changed, too. Although definitely for the better, I knew. She'd been through hell to save me, and... There were no words to express thanks for that.

"It's a long story, Twi. And I really, really need to sleep. How about we compromise after this is done. This is our last thing to do tonight, right?" I inquired, shooting her a skeptical glance instead. Debriefing from the battle, navigating Keela to the other Keldarians, laying out a plan for their survival against the Grosh and development of the ghost fleet I knew they could make, organizing Keela's retrieval alongside her whole team over to here, explaining about the fact that I apparently absorb ghosts at ranges of a few meters without intending to, and of course that her sister was still 'here' and inside of me... I was really, really tired. And this was after getting up early, eating a terrible breakfast, and going through a mortal battle for the fate of Equus. Now it was one in the morning and frankly, today had sucked.

She looked at me for a long moment before smiling softly and nodding. "Apart from welcoming Keela, who's probably just as tired as you, yeah, sleep is next..." she assured. Several guards towards the edge of the camp breathed sighs of relief, apparently listening in. Campfires danced in the night all around us, and the field was lit up like a small city at this point. They had three flags up, one waving to signal the completion of the landing pad, and I nodded.

"Ugh... all right. You let me sleep after, and I'll talk our dream away, sharing with all of you," I assured, gesturing to the mares already sleeping behind us. Well, mares plus Spike, who was definitely not a mare, and quite lacked those parts. My tired brain stalled out for a moment imagining a female Spike, and I sighed, sagging where I sat. Damn it... His head rested against Rarity, and I knew he'd be joining us in our dream shortly. Of course, I had ulterior motives regardless... If I told them in the dream, I'd not only have Purdue, Applejack, and Rainbow as backup, I could also use visuals.

The small filly grinned and nodded at that, assuring, "I'll help explain, too. After all this... I... We really won, didn't we? This isn't just a dream, is it?" Her eyes met mine, bright and hopeful, my own colors shining looking up at me. Smiling softly to her, I nodded, then reached down and scooped her up, even as she clung to my chest. I felt her shivering as I just held her there, and Twi smiled gently again, relaxing. It didn't matter. They'd have the truth, and it didn't matter, because everything was going to be good again. Purdue was right. Compared to what we'd been through already, the future was looking a hell of a lot brighter...

Fluttershy stirred against my back and I smiled backwards, feeling her eyes open sleepily. She just returned my smile upon seeing I was still there, and then nuzzled against Purdue in my forelegs. "Mmm, practicing?" she whispered, a quiet murmur compared to our voices before. I blushed regardless, of course.

Purdue herself snickered, however, and then assured, "Big Brother's good at being a hero, so I'm sure he's good at being a dad, too. I totally wouldn't mind if he was my dad, as a vote of confidence!" She grinned, of course, but I scowled down at her.

"Hitting me with both the 'good father' and 'hero' lines at the same time isn't fair!" I shot back, then reasoned, "I can't decide which to be more annoyed over...." Both were just downright embarrassing, and I'd really rather somepony else take the credit. Then they can deal with the spotlight and talking to others and I could do something relaxing... Like a nap, or mechanical physics.

Twilight giggled, then assured, "Eh, you'll get used to it. Besides, it doesn't really matter what you call it. If you don't like 'hero', just instead put it as somepony who wants to help and protect others..." That was... Huh. I blanked at that, blinking once, then once again as that screen below my view of Twilight blinked again.

A glance told me that the Grosh were reporting in. The Keldarians had accepted their information and surrender based on Keela's explanation, and were very interested in my extensive data. Moving my right hoof up, I typed at the panel for a few seconds, agreeing to the three week observation and transfer of information. DReg was officially multidimensional now, and had Keldarian and Grosh members to account for. Time to make that other time stream at least partly true.

Letting Fluttershy slip up and snuggle into my left side, I smiled to her with a nod, then looked past Twilight as the large dropship slowly lowered itself towards the landing platform, several ponies guiding it visually down from the sides. Lots of new things were going to be happening now, and I'd get to see them with my own eyes... Thanks to Purdue, we all were going to see a new tomorrow. Twilight slid into my other side as we snuggled and watched it land not twenty meters away. I felt Pinkie stir behind me at the noise, and the others started to reluctantly drag themselves back to reality at my mental call. We might as well greet our guests before fully committing to that nap...

* * * * *

Life moved both slow and fast, I realized. You either lived in the moment, or you were a spectator. Sometimes, your role changed depending on the scene, but we were all actors, moving to and fro at the beckoning of fate. Although 'fate' was a tricky concept, especially when my little sister could screw with it at will. Or did she prefer 'daughter' instead? Admittedly, the line was rather blurry sometimes, not that it really mattered.

Sometimes I played the joker. Sometimes the knight. Sadly, sometimes I played the prince, too, all paperwork included in that position. I preferred to play the wizard and inventor, of course, challenging myself to new problems and discovering new ideas at the same time. Of course, I was also a lover and friend to quite a few, with those lines getting equally as blurry. But again, blurry lines didn't matter at all, just being a sign that relationships were organic and not to be labeled.

Today, or rather tonight at this point, I was to accept yet another title, and stood on ceremony waiting to be called upon. Well, 'on ceremony' hardly adequately described the levels of panic, terror, enthusiasm, apprehension, and glee that tore through my heart in a blinding flurry similar to a house flattening tornado. Did they have tornados in Equestria? Oh Celestia, I hoped not.

There was a small crowd at this point, and I certainly hadn't predicted it would be a widely viewed occasion like this, but I suppose it was a festival. The 'Harvest Moon Festival' to be exact. The name felt familiar, but it didn't really matter. Two weeks of more laid back celebration, evenly bracketing Nightmare Night on both sides, the festival was to commemorate a good yearly 'harvest', for all meanings of the word. It made sense really, to be honest. When your species had two very specific times that the females were fertile for, and eleven month gestation periods, it meant that there'd be a whole cluster of births all during a fairly specific time period. Why not make a celebration out of it? This was different, though!

Hearing a faint cry from the field hospital tent in front of me, the small crowd of ponies all let out a little cheer, causing me to almost jump out of my skin. I definitely had never heard that voice before! Oh hell, oh hell, oh hell... Twilight gave a giddy little squeal next to me, stamping up and down on her forelegs while grinning at the door to the tent, waiting just as impatiently as I was, it would seem.

Dash made a huffing noise behind us, pouting as she sat there on the grass. "Why aren't we in there with her?! This is silly!" she declared, sounding a bit frustrated. I agreed fully! I'd wanted to be in there the whole time, not be kicked out all of ten minutes before the final act!

Applejack smirked and gave Dash a gentle shove in the shoulder, causing the cyan pegasus to wobble and steady herself with her forelegs for a moment, looking a bit startled. The orange mare answered, "We're not 'cause it's Fluttershy. Ya know she's self-conscious 'bout things, an' trust me. Ah've grown up on ah farm an' seen it lots. Givin' birth ain't always tha most glamorous o' events..."

My mind spiraled at that, and I flailed. "Aaaah! I thought you said it was reasonably safe!" I exclaimed, spinning around to glare at the mare who looked momentarily surprised, then grinned again.

Rarity giggled on her other side, then shook her head, the much larger looking Spike holding her from behind, with his arms wrapped under her forelegs. He'd really hit a growth spurt over the winter... "Dear, she means appearance-wise. There's the mess involved, and the smells, and you saw how much liquid was released when her amniotic sac broke! I'm sure she just doesn't want you to see her in such a light," she assured. I huffed lightly, but Twilight smiled more gently to my left now and nodded as well.

"We ponies don't have much issues with foal birth, plus she's in expert hooves with highly trained professionals, including your favorite nurse in Equestria. Redheart's not going to let anything happen to your foal especially, don't worry, Mender," she pointed out, causing my heart to skip a beat. My.... My foal.

Pinkie just couldn't take it anymore. The tape over her muzzle was already ripping in spots, and her vibration despite being tied up with four tentacles from my back was starting to cause her to shift across the ground. The tape ripped with a loud tearing motion and she squealed, immediately tacking on, "Oh gosh, oh gosh! It's all gonna be fine anyway! There's a new foal coming, and it's Fluttershy's and Mender's!" It was about a hundred times louder than needed, and of course caused even more ponies to head towards our rapidly growing crowd. All of us winced, being much too close for her 'megaphone' voice. Glaring at her, I slipped a third tentacle up and unceremoniously shoved it into her mouth, earning a grin from the pink mare. She wasn't dissuaded by anything...

"Pinkie! We taped your muzzle shut so you'd stop being so loud! It's interrupting the doctors and nurses in with Fluttershy!" Twilight hissed, glaring at her as she gave an apologetic look.

I pulled my tendril out, and she gave a whine and wiggle, then murmured in a much lower voice, "I'm just so excited... It's Fluttershy having a foal!" At her outburst, my mind began to whirl again, just in time for Rainbow to reach over and whack me in the shoulder instead.

"Calm down, Mender. And relax, Pinkie, you're not helping him either..." she pointed out, causing me to exhale nervously. I couldn't deal with this. Why weren't they calling us in yet?!

"We found them!" was suddenly shouted in a very Scootaloo-sounding voice from my right. Perking my ears up, I looked to the side just in time to watch the three Crusaders rushing up, alongside my two nieces. Aura had been in town for the festival and dropped in earlier that morning to visit regardless. Derpy had hung out with us for most of the day at this point, but both had left to go check out the midway.

Interestingly enough, looking over to them, I noted that Keela was riding on Aura's back. No, they all had a Keldarian on them! Litta was riding on Derpy, Mirin was on Scootaloo, who was actually flying with her, and Amre and Kyre were on Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom respectively. Of course, they were smaller than your average pony and all three Crusaders had hit the same growth spurt that Spike had, so honestly it didn't really surprise me. They were still 'Crusaders', too, even though they all had their marks now.

"They're way faster running!" Keela called out as she slid in on Aura, who carefully let her off. All five of them were wearing custom fit, matching jumpsuits with a single stripe going down the side of each in the color of their hair, the rest a blueish gray color. Rarity thought they were adorable, and I had to agree, especially the twins with their matching ones.

"We're not sure how far along she is. She kicked us out!" Rainbow grumbled, huffing as she gave a grumpy look in Keela's direction as the rest of the Keldarians dismounted. Scootaloo almost crashed on her face as she slowed down, landing hard and spilling the laughing Mirin against the back of her head for a moment. Figures, she'd pick the rough but exciting 'ride'.

"Aww! Is everything okay?" Derpy asked, giving a concerned look towards the door.

Aura's eyes lit up almost immediately, and she rapidly assured, "Everypony's health looks fine in there. Awww! And there's definitely a new little aura present now!"

There were two gasps next to her, from both Scoots and Sweetie, and the white filly quickly asked, "Little Aura?! Are you pregnant too, Miss Auramirror?"

My niece blushed almost instantly, widening her eyes, but Apple Bloom snickered and shook her head, interrupting with, "Ah don't think she's talkin' about a filly named 'Aura'. An aura is another name for life force that's all swirly around ah pony. Mah Sis taught me that!" They both shot her a skeptical look but Applejack snickered and nodded.

"That's right! Yer life force drifts up around ya, an' fer ponies trained in it, it's real easy ta see, even through walls," she confirmed. Huh. I think I'd heard about something akin to that. Was it in one of Twilight's books? Wait, no, another time. Fluttershy was giving birth, and I was supposed to be panicking! I flailed abruptly and immediately for good measure.

"Is the aura separate from Fluttershy now?!" I asked Auramirror almost immediately, turning fully towards her. Twilight perked her ears up and turned with me, realizing the same thing I did, of course.

The still blushing mare looked promptly surprised, then shifted a bit, hesitating before answering with, "Well, actually yes it-"

She was cut off by the tent flap opening up, and a smiling Redheart peeking out. She spotted me instantly, and I froze, head snapping in her direction as I waited for... well, something to come out of her mouth. She snickered, then assured, "Calm down, Mender. You're the father of a very healthy looking little filly. The herd can come in now, as we've cleaned her and her mother up..."

My mind blanked, and I was only aware of Pinkie deflating visibly in my tentacles to my right. "Whaaaat?! We all can't go in?!" she asked instantly, starting to vibrate again. I frowned at that, then shook my head, drawing her startled glance.

"No, Pinkie. Slow and steady. You'll see her in a few minutes, I'm sure, but Fluttershy and she have just had a rather rough experience, so let Fluttershy rest for a moment, and the filly slowly adapt," I suggested. Well, more told, as I wasn't exactly going to grant leeway there. She relaxed a little, then smiled again and nodded to me, causing me to exhale. I hadn't realized I'd been holding my breath.

The uninvolved crowd started to disperse a little at news that the filly was fine, but our immediate group stayed, of course. Keela smiled and nodded to me, looking pleased before adding, "See? You're a natural. Now stop fidgeting and go comfort them..." Ah! Right.

Rarity snickered, then nodded, assuring, "We'll all be right out here. You two go in first, then give us a call when everything's okay." I nodded to her, then looked to Twilight, who seemed almost as nervous as I was.

"We... We have everything set in the room in the castle, right? I mean... I think we set everything up right and you're a trained engineer and..." she started rambling, shivering lightly as her wings twitched and fluttered. I leaned in and gently nuzzled her, earning a more relaxed sigh before she nodded again, and we stood.

"That I can say for certain. The room is very well set up, structurally sound, and quite ready for an occupant..." I assured. If anything, I was at least certain of my engineering ability. Moving forward, I 'felt' Twilight following after me slowly, and Red nodded, turning around and heading back into the tent.

Touching the flap, I hesitated for a moment before Derpy grinned to my right and gestured in with her head. Sighing again, I pushed forward, bumping the flap open with my head before slipping inside. It took a second for my eyes to adjust to the brighter interior, and I blinked twice in the lamplight before my eyes made out the 'room' within.

It was rather simplistic, but well stocked for a temporary infirmary. Two large medical trunks with shelves folding out of the top of them were on one wall, lined with equipment and medicine. There was a freezer box for food supplies, and two comfortable looking medical cots on the left side of the room. The mattresses themselves were waterproof by the looks of it, and both were well cleaned. My eyes widened as I spotted Fluttershy resting on the closest one, and I made a beeline towards her immediately.

Her eyes opened gently as she felt me approach, and a smile danced across her muzzle as I slid over next to her. Twi was right on my tail and sat down behind her instead, gently resting her forelegs against the pegasus' back.

"Mmm, hey," Fluttershy whispered, looking a bit tired, but healthy. She assured a moment later with, "We're both okay..." I leaned in and bumped noses with her softly for a moment before she gave me a little kiss, then smiled warmly up at me. We... She'd said 'we'. Her left wing lifted and slid back a little, and my eyes widened as it revealed a very light blue fur. It was similar to mine, but lighter, and very fine. More of a 'fuzz' than outright fur. My breath caught, spotting little tufts of pink amidst it, and what could clearly be seen as a little tail starting to grow out. Pink that was remarkably similar to Fluttershy's mane. Her rump was towards me, seemingly oblivious as her head rested further back on Fluttershy's navel. The up and down motions slowed a little, and I recognized almost immediately that she'd been drinking.

Twilight's eyes widened too as she spotted her at almost the same time, both of us watching, unable to even blink as the little filly slowly and carefully raised her head. She gave a little hiccup, and Fluttershy reached her left hoof down to lightly rub at her side, massaging it carefully as her eyes opened again. She looked a bit sleepy, and her muzzle was slightly damp still from the milk, but she turned and gave a tiny smile towards Fluttershy again. That's when she noticed Twilight instead and froze.

I blinked once, a bit surprised when I saw her head rotate fully. Her eyes... To my surprise, I'd originally seen just her right eye when she first opened them, and it was an amber color, maybe a little lighter than my own. But as she turned and looked back at Fluttershy, I realized her left was teal, with maybe a bit more blue mixed in than Fluttershy had. Heterochromia? That was a thing ponies could get?

She watched Twilight fully now, and I looked between the little filly and the lavender alicorn. Fluttershy giggled lightly and leaned in, nuzzling the small foal's left cheek lightly. "Don't worry. This is Twilight Sparkle. Your other mommy I told you about, remember?" she whispered softly. The small filly relaxed a little, and I suddenly found myself wondering how intelligent foals started at. Maybe intelligent wasn't the right word, but...

The little filly perked up after, then gave a little smile before murmuring lightly. The tiniest of squeaks came out of her muzzle, not forming anything really intelligible, but making my heart absolutely melt all the same. Twilight smiled, leaning down to make herself smaller as she rested her chin on Fluttershy's side. "Hey there, little one. I'm your other mommy, yes," she assured quietly, blushing a little after. My heart fluttered again, and I didn't want to even make a sound to ruin the moment.

Fluttershy was less reserved and giggled lightly, drawing the attention of the little filly again. "I wanted to run it past you two, but... given her coloring, it just sort of popped into my head. How does 'Sugar Snowflake' sound?" she asked gently. Oh! A name!

Twilight grinned at that and nodded, then tried out, "Sugar Snowflake? Snow."

Smiling at that, I nodded, then added, "Snowy." That was an adorable nickname. Wait... My hooves moved up to my muzzle to stop the noise, but it was too late. Fluttershy giggled as the little filly perked, rotating around the other direction instead. In that instant, those two eyes, one teal and one gold, met with mine and locked on like a guided missile right into my heart. I froze, of course, the only thing my mind processed was her slow blink, and then she tilted her head towards me. Her little face was framed with the start of a thin pink mane, and it all smashed into me right then and there. She was my daughter. My little filly.

Fluttershy nuzzled her again, and then assured, "He's safe, too. That's your daddy. Moon Mender. I told you about him, too." Snowy relaxed, then gave me a tiny little smile, and I felt my chest getting warmer. I couldn't make my voice work, so I just smiled back, probably rather goofily, and slid down a bit closer to her. My forelegs resting against Fluttershy's back legs, I laid my head on my own right foreleg and watched the little filly watch me instead.

Time almost froze, my heart swelling in my chest, and my eyes widened just a little as she shifted, then lifted her right foreleg up. My breath caught and my barrel tensed as she reached forward and tentatively brushed her tiny hoof against my nose. I wiggled it for her, and she giggled, one of the most beautiful noises I'd ever heard, causing me to smile fully again. It didn't matter anymore if I was ready or not. She was right here in front of me, and that's all that I really needed. I suddenly just 'knew' that I was going to guard and comfort her, and not let a single thing harm her. I wanted her to grow and thrive and be happy, and nothing was going to get in the way of that.

Her hoof pressed a little, and she made a murmuring noise again, relaxing as she watched me. Little wings moved on her back, and I realized she was a pegasus like her mom. But it didn't matter, because I realized she was touching me when I understood that. She understood it, too. That was how Fluttershy had been 'talking' to her.

Fluttershy smiled to me at my expression shift, then nodded. "She knows who both of you are now. I... I asked for just you two first because of that. She's a very timid little filly..." she whispered, looking back to Snowy and looking her up and down.

To my surprise, the little filly shifted again, using my nose to push herself upwards. She wobbled once, and my eyes widened as she carefully stood up on all four legs. They shook under her, wobbling at the knees and ankles as she tried to steady herself. Twilight smiled and slid closer, lifting her right hoof and lightly touching the filly's left flank to steady her. I moved over, then mirrored her on the other side, both of us helping to keep Snowy balanced as she stood fully for the first time. I'd read that much already. Foals learned to walk rather fast, a carry over from herd migration periods almost thirty thousand years ago. The ability to walk and run was needed for survival and taught fast.

Wobbling, Snowy carefully rotated herself, turning around so she was facing Fluttershy's head again, then carefully started to make shaky steps towards the yellow mare. Our hooves rested lightly to both sides of her, helping her stay steady as she wobbled forward. She managed to make it halfway up Fluttershy over the course of half a minute, then stumbled. The yellow mare moved her forelegs up in an instant and caught the little filly, giggling again as she held her to her chest.

"She's perfect. I love her... and I love you both," Fluttershy murmured, eyes shifting over to Twilight, then to me as well. I grinned, then slid over and lightly kissed her on the forehead, earning a shiver. Twilight nuzzled into the side of Fluttershy's neck as the four of us relaxed there.

The flash of light hit next, and I winced. Redheart grinned as she set the camera down, then winked to us. "Hey, her first picture. It's a moment I figured you all would want to remember, after all..." she pointed out. Heh, okay, she had us there.

Fluttershy giggled again, then looked back over at me instead. Hmm? "Mmm, I'm a bit tired, though. Could you watch over her for a few minutes while I rest, Mender? I'm sure our friends will want to see her, too, and she'll need somepony to protect her while she meets them all..." she murmured. Eh...? Me specifically? But... wait...

Twilight smirked at that, then nodded, standing once more. "She's right. I'll have time with her, too, don't worry. But her overprotective daddy should handle this," she teased. Arg! I scowled at her, earning a wink from the mare, and to my surprise, another soft giggle from my new daughter. Looking back down at her, I saw she was watching me again. Fluttershy smiled and nodded before fully lifting her wing up, revealing the entirety of the filly once again.

My mind blanked as she stood again. She managed three shaky steps on her own before swaying to the side. I caught her immediately, then widened my eyes as she relaxed into my forelegs. Ever so carefully, I shifted her until I was cradling her to my chest. She was so light and soft, and I did my best to carefully hold her, lightly rubbing her side as she looked up at me again. Fluttershy's eyes softened as she watched me, warm smile playing across her muzzle.

Red grinned again, then let Twilight back out of the tent before heading over to us both. "You two are natural parents, don't worry. You'll have to show Twilight the ropes, I think. Heh. I'm actually going to go over Fluttershy once again as a final checkup, now that she's separated from the little one for a few minutes," she revealed, slipping over to where Twilight had been a moment ago.

I nodded to her, then looked back to Fluttershy before asking, "Just a precaution?" Okay, so maybe I was a little protective...

She snickered before nodding, then revealed, "Policy, actually. It's part of our regulations. To be honest, Fluttershy was one of the smoothest cases we've had so far this year. I'm impressed. Everything went about as perfectly as possible, and she's amazingly healthy..." I relaxed at that and smiled, nodding to her again.

Looking back down at the filly in my arms, I blinked and froze for a moment, noticing she was looking over my left foreleg instead. Purdue sat there next to me now, glowing lightly as she looked back at Snowy, and for a moment, they both just stared at each other. Oh.

Relaxing a little, I explained, "This is Purdue. She's going to be your sister." Purdue perked at that, blushing lightly as she glanced up at me instead, but I smiled and winked down at her. "Purdue, this is Sugar Snowflake, or Snowy. My..." I started, then hesitated for a moment. Fluttershy's eyes opened again as Redheart felt along her side with her hooves, and the mare looked over at me curiously.

Relaxing again, I smiled, looking the small filly over again before gently finishing, "She's my daughter." Purdue smiled, then turned to face her again as the filly relaxed, then smiled as well. Just a little. ...and just for a moment before the flap to the tent opened again rather abruptly... So much for gentle relaxation. Looking to my right, I shielded Snowy against my chest, the warm glow of my barrier going over her even as I spotted Pinkie and Sweetie leading the charge... Heh. Life never slowed down, did it...?

* * * * *

Three years passed, uneasy and unwelcome for their empire. Terror had been struck into their very souls. Less than a year prior, a new foe had emerged. A terrible, terrible force that struck suddenly and without warning out of the darkness of space. They seemed to fold out of the inky black between stars, striking and destroying facility after facility before disappearing without a trace. There was no identity, and no quarter given.

Far worse, three months prior, they had lost the entirety of their energy production and research on top of the unidentified attacks. A single beam had come out of nowhere, from the dark of space. It was a brilliant gold in color, and somehow moved many hundred times the speed of light while still in relative space. It was an enigma, not able to exist under their understanding of physics, but there it was regardless. It bypassed all sensors, having struck by the time they even detected it, and released no FTL emissions to be tracked at further range. It hit with precision, and worse yet, all Grosh on-site accounted for what could only be described as a mass hallucination.

The explosion took the form of a brilliant and fiery equine, possibly native to species 1459's habitat. It reared up, and for just a moment, they all claim to have perfectly understood a 'Gotcha!' as it rang out through space. At first, they suspected telepathy, but no known translation of the word of sorts was found. Fear was all that was left as the detonation lost shape and destroyed the entire gravity generator.

The great experimental megastructure collapsed. They had almost completed the awe-inspiring 'net' that had completely surrounded the star itself. Capturing an appreciable percentage of the energy released from the massive star, the superstructure would have allowed leaps and bounds of research, and almost unlimited energy for the Grosh.

With the gravity field destroyed, almost half of the net collapsed into the star itself. Experimental generators detonated, setting off a massive chain reaction. Half a day later, the entire star went nova.

The beam was traced back to the one and only known battle with species 1687. The image in the mass hallucination was further attributed to their image. No explanation was ever found, and all interaction with the species has now been blacklisted. Research has ended in regards to finding them, and all insisting on trying to continue were silenced by the governing body. Nothing further exists of the star system that used to house their vast energy systems. Just cold and empty space, driving home the fear they now held for an entity they only knew as 'Celestia'...

The End

PreviousChapters
Comments ( 76 )

Best ending of the three ! and yes I'm a sucker for happy endings. this goes into my saved list.

Trollestia Strikes Again!

and thus another chapter closes and another opens

It's stories like this that keep me up all night reading, congratulations on this wonderful story.

I can finally die in peace. Unless another story comes out.

I know that it's kinda late for this but... Damn, you deserve all the upvotes for this incredible history!
i.imgur.com/M6gbJFj.gif

all three endings were good, but i am a (rather sadly) fan of the first. the whole concept is is great (and considering the implications of the first story) was worth the read.

Kudos!

Loved this story ! :heart:

I REALLY LIKE ENDING THREE!!! :pinkiehappy:

So.... plans for the forgiveness pending sequel?

I KNEW IT I KNEW IT I KNEW IT I KNEW IT! YOU SLY DOG YOU!

OH GOSH
:pinkiehappy:

Lemme explain my emotions to you as im going through each ending.

The first ending was so saddening, but it was such heart touching ending, so when I saw that last line of dialogue I had my suspicions that something wasn't right, that there was someone with an outside influence not happy with how things ended up. At first I thought it was discord but...I had my doubts.

The second ending was just flat out amazing...but also a little saddening as well, since they were stuck in another dimension, and then mender went forth to kill all the grosh. However again, that last line of dialogue just COMEPLETELY Affirmed my assumptions and it HAD to be Purdue , IT HAD TO.

SO when this ending comes out and within the first couple paragraphs I'm actually SHOUTING in exhilaration, happiness, and just pure joy when it was revealed that purdue was desperately trying to keep mender alive be altering the timeline over and over and over and AHHHHH
This story was beautifully crafted I can't help but feel emotionally drained in both happiness and sadness that this story has come to a close. I am so glad to say that I have taken this adventure with you from memory pending to now. I can only hope and dream you do bonus stories of the life after these events but even then, all good things must come to a close and Kiroberos, Thank you for coming up with this story, and taking me on a wild roller coaster ride these past few years. I EAGERLY await any and ALL future projects that you may or may not do. I am so so so so very happy to have met you.

I extended this to the proof readers that helped Kiro with this story, all the editors that helped kiro, anyone that helped him. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping him create this wonderfully constructed masterpiece of a story.

I really like this ending...Especially on how fucking terrifying and badass the princesses are.

And like that the grosh will never cross equus again. I wanna see the family raising experience for our cybernetic earth pony though

And so, another epic reaches its end.

Such a bittersweet feeling I have right now. I remember reading Memory Pending back in 2012 when it was still being written, and almost 4 years later Mender's story finally reaches its end(unless a trilogy?) I'm happy to see it reach its conclusion, making all those weekly/bi-weekly updates feel worthwhile. Yet, I feel sad knowing that the story is over. At least with the power of imagination, we all can imagine our own continuities of the story if we wish, to take Mender's family on new journeys and destinations.

So, Kiroberos, I sincerely thank you for providing us with this story. It has been quite the wild ride.

I need more this is like drugs. MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!:flutterrage::twilightangry2:

After almost 4 years, mender gets his happy ending. And hey, he's a little over a year old now.
I'm going to miss looking forward to hearing more about Mender.
Unless you have more stuff planed. After all there were a few thing that were touched on but left unexplored.

12th longest story on the site. That's quite an accomplishment. And well worth the time it took to read.

If it weren't for their peaceful nature I think the princesses would conquer things just for the fun of it. 'Gotcha!'

6781012 Yeah what he said!

Ending 4

By M.A. Larson

"You have to stop this!" Mender pleaded with Nirru. "Don't you see there's a better way? Let us help you."

Nirru replied, "Okay."

And they all became friends.

P.S. Am I the only one that pictures the Grosh as Chua from Wildstar?

An excellent end to one of the longest stories on this site, still want more but a good place to end regardless.

You win the internet. You are hereby declared my god. If you are ever in the Netherlands i will personaly treat you to diner/drinks Or whatever. I sincerely hope you continue to write on Fimfiction. Yours truly, Stjonal.

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wow. what a story. i cant... i cant believe its over. the longest story i ever read, 3x longer than my second, is now completed. the one of the 2 stories that keeps me coming back to FIMFic is now complete. Im sad now, but also happy because Mender got his happy ending finally and what assumes with 3 other herdmates. Also im happy that it actually got finished. not that i wanted it to ever end by any means, but that you actually were very dedicated to your story and didn't fall off the face of the planet and disappear like soo many writers do. heck, IIRC i made my FIM account when i started reading this story

Looking forward to your next masterpiece, whether you keep it related to Menderverse or not.

I can honestly say I enjoyed this from beginning to end. While it a shame that every good book must have a back cover, i'm glad this one at least concluded. So many that never reached this point.

If i'm being honest though, i get the feeling this might not be completely over. Just a hunch.

An old year, and a story ends. a new year begins.

One Million Words.

And Luna and Celestia finally get to have a go with their full power.

You know, given Dreg, I wonder what would happen if nice Grosh, those Harmonised, were to find the Hall Of Worlds, and start spreading the myth of the Mace Moon, and the Novae Celeste. :trollestia:

Well, this story is finally over. Now, go out there, and have you own. :pinkiesmile:

Good read, would read again.

Argh, even after all this the last chapter still ends with an ellipsis. I was looking forward to the final period... :moustache:

This ending. This ending is great. It's blatantly the real ending (the one with the final climax, the one with the final relevations) and the other ones only exist to set this one up. It actually makes me wonder why you bother to pretend that some people might prefer to stop at either of the previous endings.

Man...it's all over! I can hardly believe it. I'm legitimately shocked you managed to write such a complete and satisfying ending to such an incredibly long story... well done! :pinkiehappy:

The journey's over, and I'm... happy. I'm satisfied. It was fun.

Thanks for everything! :twilightsmile:

Oh man, this is it; the end. I have greatly enjoyed this story and would like to give you an applause for such a well done story, thank you.

An enjoyable read

Nice work

6884051 that got cleared up in later chapters but the time discrepancy in the story still urkes me, like he arrived in the first story a week or so after Heat season right? like in the train to canterlot Twi says that if he had arrived a week earlier their would have been trouble, but like two weeks into the story the second heat hits which should have been on opposite ends of the year, so like are their years like 4-5 months long?

6901744
Equus - genus of mammals in the family Equidae, which includes horses, asses, and zebras.

There's no 'canon' to it. It's literally how you spell it. It's latin.

See this:
Let Me Google That For You: translate horse to latin

Read all this over the course of a week. Obsessively.

I loved it, for the most part. You've done good work here, Kiro:twilightsmile:

Jesus fucking Christ. I just read the Pending stories, and I have to say something. I have read a lot of stories on the site. Almost none compare and I doubt will compare to these two stories. The storyline is brilliant, the way you have written this story is phenomenal. Honestly, your story has enraptured for me for a week plus, and I haven't been able to read anything else in this time. Consider me a loyal fan from now on, and just once again: holy fucking shit this story is amazing.

Finally got around to reading the endings. All I can say is that you nailed it. I love how the third ending actually connected the other two. It was perfect! By far my favorite fanfic of all time (although, I haven't read a lot of popular fics, but Memory Pending was one of the first fics I read, so it'll probably still be my favorite). Thank you for writing such an amazing story! You did a good. :pinkiehappy:

...now, about that plot hole?

Took me what, like a year and a half after the army to actually get back to this, but boy am I glad I did!

I've followed the story of Mender ever since the beginning of Memory Pending, and I have to say, there isn't a story, original or fanfiction, that has made me feel more than this story right here. Everything from earth-shattering sadness to pure joy and laughter has been a part of this amazing journey and I want to thank you, Kiroberos, for giving me, and everyone else here, this magnificent trip. :yay:

If there is more to come in the journey of Mender, you can count on me being right there, waiting, heart-pounding, for the next chapter. :raritywink:

Thank you, Kiro! :heart:

This is a great story, I am now wishing and hoping for a new one, Mender or not, so please!

Just finished reading Memory Pending and Forgiveness Pending back to back and, I must say, that was pretty intense! What was done with the multiple endings is quite interesting, and I really like Mender as a character. All of the supporting roles were in character as well - I was usually able to tell who was speaking just by the choice of dialogue or "accent" before actually read who was speaking. That said, there were a few loose ends that didn't get tied up, but, overall, a quite enthralling read! :)
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I loved this series a whole lot. Would there be any chance of us seeing a sequel to make it a trilogy?

7410924 I am flabbergasted. I left that comment 171 weeks ago. That's over three years ago, mind you. How many pages did you have to look through to find it? More importantly, why did you bring it up now?

7413991 haha I can't believe I never noticed that. Ruins the seriousness of the comment entirely.

This story had its ups and downs. Par for the course when the story is a million words long and written over the course of three years. All things considered, I enjoyed it.

This story is filled to bursting with creativity. Every chapter is full of interesting ideas, many of which could justify a story all on their own. And while a few don't work, it's impressive how well they fit together, overall.

A lot of this comes back to Moon Mender. At his core he's something of a stereotypical "nice guy," but the layers of trauma and his constantly evolving backstory keep his story an interesting read. It helps that his relationships feel genuine and unique to each character, and that his romantic entanglements feel organically grown, for the most part.

It helps that the story focuses on many of the more mundane aspects of life, rarely taking shortcuts. It's admirable, taking a more laid-back and casual approach than even many slice-of-life stories, and it helps to build a world that feels lived-in. There's also a nice layer of comedy and self-awareness that keeps things feeling lively, even when events are moving at their slowest.

That. Having. Been. Said. When the story doesn't maintain these higher standards, it's hard to ignore. And this story has a bit of a problem with quality control.

The story is at its weakest when it has to rely on contrivance to advance the plot. I've commented on several of these segments at length, and they still bother me. Almost all of these could be smoothed out with the same level of attention to detail and logic that the rest of the story demonstrates, which makes it doubly frustrating.

Another thing, and I admit this might just be me, but I had a bit of an issue with foreshadowing, and the lack thereof. It seems like a lot of things are built up, but never end up being important or paying off in any significant way (Twilight's Jealousy, Octavia, Snapshot, BEID, Fluttershy's Parents, etc..). By contrast, there's a lot of things that feel like they came out of nowhere, especially the last chapter, which introduced a lot of abilities and mechanics seemingly just for deus ex machina purposes.

There's also a bit of a problem with continuity within the story. Granted, it can be difficult to keep all the details straight with text of this scale, but it still makes me cringe when Mender "suddenly realizes" something he already recognized a dozen chapters ago. A bit of repetition is expected with him so often ruminating on his personal demons, but too often it feels like filler because he's already gone through the same motions earlier in the story.

Speaking of filler, my most persistent, if low-key, complaint about this story is that it is wordy, verging on bloated. There's a lot of awkward phrasing and meandering sentence structure that drags out into several lines what should only require one or two. When this gets into dialogue, especially from Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, it can throw off character voice, leading to confusion over who's actually speaking until the dialogue tag arrives. Harsh as it may sound, I'd say that 15% of the text could be cut completely, without any appreciable difference. You could lose 1.5 "Memory Pendings" from this story, and it would do nothing but save the reader time.

.....:ajsleepy:

Most of these issues would disappear in the face of tighter editing. That may sound a bit flippant, but it's true. If/When this story continues, I hope that, if nothing else, this is taken to heart.

In the end, this is a good story, and a good series, and I hope to read more of it soon.

7487887 then some body needs teh do there math home work cause 15 mins is a quarter of an hour do your home work dunce

7487886 and ur comment is invaild cause it's 90weeks old

Just finished reading this amazingly story, sad its over but I'm content with the ending. Thanks bro!

7595919
Oh, did not realize she said that in the multiple.

I don't think the story is done yet, there are some things that are unresolved.

Is there anywhere i can get this combined with the cencsorship pending chapters?

I.....I have no words, other than that this is going into my absolute favorite stories of all time.

Now please excuse me while I sleep off the two days of pure reading ........

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