Chapter 15
It was subtle at first; that creeping madness as the hours went on. The dark was my friend after all, and I stared up into the blackness around the ceiling, currently lying wearily on my back. Or maybe it was the blackness in my head. This could all be some sort of vivid hallucination or fantasy as I'm locked away somewhere, still. Maybe after all the pressure, I finally snapped and decided my life needed more cute, colorful ponies? Or maybe, finally, I had died at some point and this was what heaven was like. Any of those sounded like acceptable answers. It hardly mattered, as I couldn't substitute this reality for anything else, so it was what I was stuck with.
"Test number two hundred and fifty-seven; failure. I cannot seem to replicate the communication with the entity from before. All attempts have now been rejected. Perhaps I offended it the last we spoke? After well, what happened, I could hardly say for certain," the familiar voice of Keela continued to run through my mind. She was sounding less and less professional the longer she went on. From the way she spoke earlier, I could only guess that something extremely bad happened to her connection after I had my bout of insanity. From what I gathered, she got stuck connected to the book and experienced, well, something that had rather disturbed her.
I sighed quietly, literally covered in cut up pieces of paper at this point as I stared blankly up at the ceiling. She was persistent, I'd give her that much! Every one she'd send through, I'd slice in half as it drifted through the air. That seemed to disrupt the magic instantly. Of course, explaining this mess in the morning was going to be a little trickier. I could only guess that she kept bizarre hours, or that our night and day cycles were reversed.
Finally deciding I could use a bit of water, I got up out of bed, careful to slide the mountain of papers quietly to the floor. Both mares had fallen asleep hours ago, of course, and I definitely didn't want to wake them up. I glanced over as I fully stood, of course. It was hard to pass up an opportunity to gaze at them. It was like candy for my eyes!
Twilight and Fluttershy were both tucked under the covers, face to face but several inches apart. I remembered Twilight had started with her back to her friend, so she must have rotated in her sleep. Nothing bad could possibly come from that, right? I decided to remain blissfully unaware and move on.
I walked past the basket at the foot of the bed as quietly as I could, momentarily hearing the quiet snores of the baby lizard thing wrapped up in his sheets. Hmm. I should really ask Twilight about him in the future. I'm sure he was some sort of known creature, as I hadn't run into anything truly unknown yet. I smiled down at Spike for a second before slipping down the stairs.
"What was the entity I spoke with, anyway? It announced its presence as 'Mender', which doesn't sound much like a name. It insisted that it was named that, however, so I'm inclined to believe so. Was it some sort of advanced artificial intelligence that existed inside of the book? Or is the book connecting to somewhere else and I'm talking to a true being?" Keela questioned as I walked down the stairs carefully. Ignoring her, I focused on putting one hoof in front of the other. I didn't trust myself to walk blindly down the stairs still, especially with everything blurry and distorted. I'd likely fall down the stairs if I tried that, even when my vision wasn't screwed up. After I ran into the bathroom doorframe before bed a few hours ago, Twilight assured me that my vision should be returning to normal in a day or so. Until then, I simply had to be careful. Especially around varying depth levels that were the same color. Like the bathroom doorframe and the floor of the loft.
With a light boost, I raised my upper body and put both hooves on Twilight's counter. I nudged the tap for cold water and let a little stream go into the sink before cheating and forming a shielded 'straw' with my left hoof. It worked a lot like a drinking fountain at that point, and I sipped down a good amount before sighing and turning the water off again.
"Thankfully, Nirru gave me a fascinating idea that I'd like to try before she gets down here with the data. If it was a book, it must have words in it, right? Well, if it's written in ink, I should be able to try scanning it with a particle projector on several varying levels to try to pick up the words!" she exclaimed, sounding excited.
Uh oh. That didn't sound very healthy for me in the least. I debated what to do when a loud humming sound started echoing through my head. Wincing, I pushed both hooves to my ears and sunk to the floor, gritting my teeth. Oh hell. I had all new respect for those lead x-ray sheets. Our allies had been absolutely crazy to make this a regular part of their medical exams! Magic was so much safer.
Then I realized in horror that it was simply warming up the generator. There was a sudden, bright flash as my body went through the strangest sensation of being turned inside out, boiled alive, put back together, then microwaved. All purely speculation as to how those felt, of course. I gasped as my flesh suddenly felt like it was on fire and smashed my forehead into the floor before throwing up. Everything spun after that and I fell sideways, thankfully missing the now external contents of my stomach by a few inches. Then, blissful nothingness.
* * * * *
Blissful nothingness, sadly, didn't last for very long. I drifted sideways gently, not really looking around, but effectively able to turn my viewpoint with my mind. Oh, this again. I glanced about curiously, and was gifted the rather amusing sight of Keela spraying down a machine with some sort of foam. The device in question looked like it had been hit by lightning, then cut into pieces. Damn. If I had done that, I was seriously impressed. Was it weird to be impressed by yourself? I guess not, as a lot of ponies and Keldarians alike probably were. Although looking at it from a third-person perspective was a little strange.
Widening out my view a little, I noticed that my location was different from last time. I appeared to be in some sort of laboratory with various computer devices, scanners, and interestingly enough, a glassed in blast chamber in the corner. One of the scanners was now out of commission, it would appear. My 'eyes', so to speak, were drawn to a glowing book that rested on the floor a meter or so from the smoldering wreckage.
Footsteps sounded rapidly in the hallway as I drifted closer to the book that was now lying neglected. I heard the powered door slide open, but paid little attention to it. The book was exactly as I last saw it with the new addition of a distorted energy shield that covered it entirely. It was an Aegis Barrier, in which the item shared its name. I'd never seen one on such a small scale before, however. I wasn't aware they could be compressed like that. Although from what I'd heard the last time, there was a significant amount we weren't aware of.
"Keela! I heard an explosion. Are you all right?!" Nirru asked upon entering the lab, expression looking nervous and concerned.
Keela sighed as she stood back up fully from the machine, smoke seemingly ceased for the moment. "Yeah. The idea to scan the book didn't work out very well. It apparently likes its privacy," she muttered in an annoyed tone.
Her sister stopped for a moment before shifting to a smirk and snickering lightly, earning a frustrated glare from Keela. "Relax. At least it didn't set your fur on fire again. Besides, you needed the break. Check this out," Nirru offered, holding up what appeared to be an elongated crystal rod. Hmm. My mind gave a dull ache as I stared at it, but memories came back a moment later. Information. Those crystals stored a lot of information that could be read by a computer.
Nirru walked right past the book and myself without notice, confirming that I was indeed undetectable again. I watched with interest matching the speculative look Keela wore as she took the crystal from her sister and slid it into the surface of the computer next to her.
"You found something?" she inquired as she tapped a few buttons along the panel. The screen on the far wall of the lab lit up, and several menus were navigated with precise motions.
Nirru nodded patiently, watching the screen as well. "Indeed. On a hunch, I looked through the soldier index we brought with us from the citadel. Every soldier was allowed one item of personal value to be carried with them. Command said it helped psychologically, but regardless, we kept a log of every object each soldier chose.”
Keela shifted to a grin instead as her movements sped up. "You found the book," she deduced sharply. Of course she did, or she wouldn't have brought it up. That also meant that she found me, however. Or at least, my old self.
As if on cue, a full profile popped up on the screen a heartbeat later. It had an extremely familiar looking profile picture, and a full readout of skills, basic background, and a psychological profiling. Overall, I was suddenly made extremely uncomfortable and wanted to look away. Did I really want to know all of this stuff right away? Of course, would I ever have another chance to learn it if I didn't look right now?
"It's not terribly insightful, but does raise a few interesting questions," Nirru commented, sounding perturbed. It didn't feel like she liked the questions she was presented with, to me. Maybe it was just her body language.
"No name listed, but I think that's normal. Just a serial number," Keela muttered, scanning over the beginning bio with rapid eye movements.
Nirru just gave a light clicking noise, but I mentally snorted. We were just numbers all along. It was only a rumor that they didn't even bother to write down our names, but I guess it was actually true all along. The varying amounts of memories that seeing the display caused was exceedingly uncomfortable. Not to mention, it was starting to feel like my own mind was going by a 'need to know' basis and only feeding me information as it came up. It was a rather, well, helpless sensation.
"Expert marks in barriers, abjuration, and transmutation. He could have been trained as a Master with these grades. What caused him not to be?" the younger sister asked a moment later. Ah, barriers did come easily for me. Forming them now was almost like second nature. Abjuration dealt with changing the metaphysical properties of an object such as gravity and inertia, while transmutation revolved around morphing the physical in its entirety. My choice of professions was fairly straightforward with that skill set. I was able to repair and jury-rig things on the fly, and adapt rapidly to changing battle scenarios. That's why I was elected both an engineer and field commander, if I recall correctly.
"He was the reason. Quiet type, and never favored command. He also held dangerous opinions on the status quo," Nirru explained idly, shifting tone to seem a bit bored now. I watched her carefully as she skimmed over the page on the screen.
Keela frowned and looked over at her sister. "A full out dissenter?" she asked skeptically, failing to mask the surprise in her voice.
If I had ears, they would have perked at this. I rotated away from the book fully to pay more attention. I was at least a little interested in who my old self used to be.
Nirru shook her head slowly, however. "Nothing that drastic. No concrete proof, anyway. He was the quiet type so it was hard to get evidence, but due to a few incidents during his growth period, he was flagged as high risk," she explained, confounding me even further. That was the problem with having only single events in your memory. The larger picture was extremely difficult to piece together.
Keela's elongated ears lowered a little, making her momentarily look sad. "So no proof he held views contrary to the government. I see," she muttered softly, looking back over at the screen.
Her sister snorted, crossing her arms fully. "You might not like the way we ran things, but you can't argue with the results. Did you manage to get any data before the, uh, unfortunate accident with the scanner?" she questioned, giving an appraising glance at the toasted machinery.
Keela started, before shifting back to smiling. "Oh, I might have found something of a lead. The computer managed to pick up a few words! It reads something akin to a journal from what I've glanced at. It also references one 'Moon Mender' frequently," she informed.
My nonexistent heart fell into my equally imaginary stomach instantly. Oh hell! That wasn't just a journal! Somehow, it had more recent data in it than since I left. That meant it might have important information on Equestria in there. My mind started whirling at a hundred meters a second, trying to think of a way I could get rid of the accursed thing. Sadly, I snapped out of it a second too late as Keela bent down and picked up the book from under me.
My metaphorical eyes widened as the book was lifted up directly into my self-awareness. Thousands of images exploded all around me like a rampaging movie reel in an all night marathon, without the delight of concessions, of course. Further in line with my luck, it had to lag momentarily on a simply wonderful zoom shot of Fluttershy's posterior before zipping on. I tried not to throw up my meta-dimensional stomach contents as they spun about my consciousness with little respect for my sanity or consciousness.
It all halted in a fraction of a moment later; barely a drop of time in an infinite expanse. My view was locked in a screaming hell-scape with my prior kind frozen in mid-destruction. The ground itself was torn asunder and flames colored the skies as the air started to burn. I saw the beam of light in the backdrop and knew that this was a mere second, with some generous rounding, before everyone in the image burned away. But then, like staring at a familiar image and suddenly discovering something mind-numbingly terrifying about it, my eyes were drawn up to the sky. It was monstrous; a black shadow of absolute nothingness with a web of similarly styled lines splintering from it at all angles. The blot on existence hung in the sky as if suspended by sheer physical defiance, urging a painful tugging in the front of my mind. The second I saw it, I couldn't look away. It was like staring into an abyss. The mind isn't capable of quantifying something that has no end. Looking into it was like seeing into forever, and my mind ached as reality was drawn in.
I snapped back at the last second, hurtling my metaphysical camera off the surface of the planet in the frozen picture. I saw the beams hitting the planet's surface from the star's lit side. The atmosphere burned away and the plates themselves buckled and shattered under the force of the barrage. Some tore loose under the unimaginable power at play as gravity warped. It was a truly horrifying sight to behold, especially knowing that technically my last breath was but a moment later before my magic broke and trapped me in stasis. Further, I saw it fully. The massive thing in the atmosphere could be seen from space. It looked almost draconian in shape, and a web of burning ebony tendrils stretched across an unimaginable amount of the planet! A rough glance told me that it covered at least a hemisphere with the impossibly black manifestations. What was that?! I'd never heard of anything like it before, and I remembered almost everything about our most hated enemy. Was it something I couldn't remember, or something I didn't know about to begin with?
A throaty scream tore my thoughts aside and I looked around as best I could. The image was gone a moment later, replaced by the laboratory once again. The power must have gone out; emergency lights flooded orange luminescence across the bleached floor, making for a rather brutal contrast that was unpleasant to the eyes. Well, if I had any. Oddly, I felt quite a bit different now as I looked about. Gravity was in full effect, yet I floated effortlessly in the air. There were no appendages, so I felt remarkably similar to my consciousness-only state, minus the fact that I felt immensely physical. The sensation was indescribable; like I was so physically there that I transcended normal reality. Everything tinted a light blue as I rotated and glanced at Keela, who was staring back at me in shock. Uh oh. That's when I noticed the literal aura of energy that radiated off me. Testing, I checked my magical energy levels and was literally washed out by the ocean of power I stumbled into. Aegis! This was the book. It had to be. But that meant...
The realization hit me as if I'd tripped and rolled down a hill on my face. Again. The sensation was actually reasonably familiar, but I digress. I was in the book! The book's powers, whatever they were, had activated and pulled me in? Maybe. Or that intrinsic link I seemed to have with the artifact had something to do with it. Regardless, the effect was rather apparent as I rotated around to look at Nirru instead. She looked far more stunned than her sister and was instead reaching for her belt while rapidly backing away. She withdrew a small, metallic looking item with various, fundamentally obvious shaping, and pointed it at me. It was a standard issue officer sidearm. I searched my memory and oddly heard the sensation of a book page flipping. A heartbeat later, I suddenly 'remembered' the exact specifications of the weapon, revealing that it was an energy, pulse-based pistol with high rate of fire and a shield disruption effect. I was suddenly less worried about the gun, and more concerned for my own sanity. Was that an effect of the book?
"Turn it off, Keela! Hurry!" she shouted as her back ran into one of the main support columns for the room.
There was a hesitation before her sister returned, "I don't know what I did to turn it on in the first place!" Not taking my viewpoint off the firearm, I rotated awareness in time to see Keela rapidly digging through her notes, panic readily apparent. Well this was bad. I didn't know what would happen if they destroyed the book while I was residing inside of it. I did a rapid assessment of my defenses.
I recalled that Keela had mentioned that this was a defensive artifact at the same time I discovered the seven layers of Aegis Barriers coated the outside of the book. The more I examined them, the weirder they got, however. From a practical standpoint, I knew next to nothing about how the magic behind the barriers actually functioned. Very little was explained directly to us it would seem. I shifted my awareness against them and realized the barrier I saw, the visible parts of the Aegis Shield, was actually holding the inside together, not blocking anything. I tried to scan deeper into the inside, but there was a mind-numbing absence that stretched on for far longer than existed inside the centimeter-thin layer. Everything suddenly clicked into place. It was an absence so resolute that it felt like it 'leaked' out a ways from the barriers themselves, preventing me from getting any sort of feel of them whatsoever. What was this magic that we had been using? It wasn't a barrier at all, but a thinly held in place sheet of void. A cleverly shaped hole in reality manifested by our magic, somehow!
In truth, I forgot all about defending myself. Something was extremely wrong with how I perceived things. I suddenly realized that there were some things you simply couldn't un-think. This magic wasn't what I had thought it was all along. An Aegis Barrier was supposed to be just an extremely strong, layered shield. But the entire time I had been using them, I didn't understand what I was working with.
Nirru fired three times in rapid succession. The shots didn't even reach the outer field before the absolute nothingness between the two barriers drew the energy into itself. Nothing was left of the blasts once it was done. It consumed the energy like it was a ravenous beast, and I mentally shuddered simply from witnessing the truth.
"Damn it! It's definitely an Aegis. I can't disrupt the energy field around the book. Tell me you have something, Keela!" Nirru swore, slipping sideways away from the support pillar and backing up further, dropping the gun.
I felt the book inside of me. There was no will; no awareness. But it still worked towards my goal with a limited intelligence, I noticed. There was a certain amount of anger that was somehow separate from me, but it was ruthless instead, requesting a quick and efficient solution. It gave me twelve known fatal points on Nirru's body, suggesting that if I hit at least seven of them at once, she was almost guaranteed to cease functioning almost instantly. Further, tendrils made of shielding shaped into rather sharp, twisted points popped out of various locations around the book, as if showing me a perfectly reasonable implement with which to attack.
Okay then, so it was of questionable morality. I decided to ignore it in light of cutting the gun in half on the ground with a simple wave of a conveniently formed barrier tentacle. I had the sneaking suspicion that Fluttershy would have likely passed out from witnessing that, I idly mused. I probably looked like some sort of ancient eldritch abomination or something.
Keela froze behind me, and I heard her lightly mutter, "It's intelligent." It was beyond weird to be aware of something I wasn't looking at.
I shook myself out of it. No, this whole situation was weird. I needed to get rid of this book somehow. If I could figure out how to take it back with me, I could solve everything at once. They wouldn't have either the source of power, or the knowledge that the book contained! The practical ocean of power inside of the book was dizzying, and I fought to maintain coherent thinking. How the hell did Twilight manage to do this on a daily basis?
My attention snapped back to Nirru as she lowered her hands again, both to the left side of her waist. The air itself seemed to distort and fold outwards from itself as she drew forth a hilt and full sheath. It was some sort of archaic bladed weapon, I noted, mentally frowning. No need to underestimate it if she felt it was more useful than the gun, I reminded myself.
"Wait, Sis! Don't use that! If you damage the book," Keela started to scream out, just as Nirru stepped forward and whipped her right hand out in one fluid motion.
My mind forced time to a crawl as she drew the blade. Regardless of my enhanced reaction speed, she had almost finished the cut by the time I became fully aware. Lines of energy danced from the shining white blade as it cut, extending its natural path through the air dozens of feet in front of it and aimed right at me. Along the path of the lines formed a familiar looking absence of matter. It was the same effect as what was between the Aegis layers! It wasn't even a vacuum, although it behaved similarly towards the edges. It was nothing; void. There was nothing at all existing along the path of the cut, leaving air and matter to scream back into place to fill the gap behind it. This wasn't a shield, however. The lines simply created the effect and then let it go. An Aegis Barrier wouldn't be able to block that, I suddenly realized. The book needlessly informed that it would slice through as if we were made of butter.
My thoughts whirled. A moment later, I decided that I had a distinct advantage. There was a force of will and decision behind the energy in the book that was under intelligent control; namely, me. I whipped out a barrier with two tethers embedded in it just in time to watch the effect pass through as if it weren't there. I smiled however as the lines intermixed, connecting me for just a moment to the effect. The sword was massively powerful; possibly more than the book I was in. There was no will behind it, however. It was attacking using a preset pattern built into it. It was static, while I was dynamically adapting to the situation.
I pulled out the energy. Like turning off a light bulb, the attack faded more than a foot before it got to me, dispersing as fast as a disrupted Aegis Barrier wouldn't after the support fields collapsed, as predicted. I exhaled in relief, deciding I really didn't want to find out what would happen if I got my consciousness cut in half.
Nirru's jaw dropped as she backed up more, shaking her head slowly. "No. That's not possible. Nothing can withstand an attack from the Void Cutter," she rejected, right hand clenching down hard on the hilt of the still glowing blade. Void Cutter? Based on context, she must be referring to the blade. Aegis Artifacts had names, then. I felt a little like Twilight as I mentally took notes, trying to piece together the information I was missing. It was a pity she wasn't here. She'd think of a way to get the book back to Equestria, no problem. I blushed as I shook the heated thoughts from my mind. No, this was no time to be remembering the finer points of more recent events involving her.
"It wasn't withstood. It nullified the attack before it connected," Keela corrected softly, standing up fully behind me. I suddenly wondered if there was a scripted maximum length for that effect. Had I not disrupted it, there was a significant probability that it would have not only went through me entirely, but continued and hit her sister.
"We need to vent the lab," Nirru muttered, eyes narrowing as she risked a glance back towards the door. The book reminded me that it would be easier to just slice her in half as she lost focus, but I quelled the advice yet again.
"No! Stop it, Nirru. M-Mender! Please, stop as well," she suddenly requested, causing me to do a double take and spin around to look at her. Her expression shifted from worry to a gentle smile as she saw my reaction. She had guessed that it was me inside of the book?! I watched her carefully, extremely wary suddenly. Had she predicted this would happen as some sort of contingency? What was she planning?
"Wait, what? Who's Mender?" her sister asked in shock behind me. Both of us seemed to have forgotten what we were doing in light of what she just said, albeit for entirely different reasons, I assumed. As much as she seemed surprised, she stopped retreating as soon as Keela drew my attention. The book suggested she might try to attack while I was distracted, of course. I really hoped this thing wasn't some facet of me or something. Was I really that paranoid?
Keela drew a blank look before snapping out of it and nodding rapidly to herself. "Oh! It's an AI that's controlling the book. I read some of the command words from the scan the machine made before being destroyed," she rapidly lied.
Wait, why was she lying to her sister? I suddenly drew a blank and realized that there were a few pieces of the puzzle I was missing still. Keela gave me a stern look before glancing back at her sister for support.
"Can you, um, control it? Is it dangerous still?" Nirru asked warily, sheathing the sword once more but keeping her eyes dead set on me. Similarly, I watched the blade carefully until the last of the glow disappeared into the leather sheath. That weapon was exceedingly dangerous, I noted. It took sharpness totally out of the equation by not needing to cut its target in the first place. It was kind of hard to defend against something that simply made everything in a long, spatial plane cease to exist.
Keela nodded curtly, walking up fully next to me. She seemed shockingly unafraid, suddenly. "Yes. That command renders it neutral, it said. I'll have to read up more on it though," she continued, much more calmly this time. Well, there was nothing else for it, so I decided to play along to the best of my abilities and acted harmless, pulling the barrier tendrils back into the book's form. The young Keldarian girl smiled at my display and gently patted the spine of the book, causing a lightly colored ripple to drift down the surface of the outer Aegis Barrier with each touch. The book further reminded me that I could sever every nerve in her hand and interrupt her nervous system with a few deft barrier movements, but I ignored it. Again.
"You're certain? I can leave Void Cutter with you if you think you might need to defend yourself, Keela," Nirru offered, shifting from suspicious back to her worried, surprisingly sisterly side.
Said sister in question shook her head, however. "It's okay, Sis. I don't want to risk deactivating it, then not being able to turn it back on. Just let me study it for a little bit in its active form, okay?" she suggested, moving back over to where the equipment resided.
Nirru let out a discontented sigh, but shrugged, finally giving in with, "If you think it will get us closer to figuring the thing out, go for it. Just be careful. Oh, and look at page three in the dossier. I think you'll find the information there quite interesting indeed."
Keela gave her a questioning glance, but received only a wink in return before her sister gathered herself again and walked slowly towards the door. I watched it slowly slide shut again before noticing Keela shift her head towards me instead, looking a little confused. I shrugged until I remembered that I lacked shoulders, of course. Feeling a little stupid, I formed a vague shoulder image out of four barrier planes and repeated the motion, much more visibly this time.
Keela cracked a smile suddenly and giggled, nodding to me in amusement. "So it is you, Mender. I think I recognize the biting sarcasm from last night," she muttered, looking a little less tense. I was surprised by her level of trust in the strange, floating, potentially alien entity with almost unlimited energy that resided less than a meter from her. Throwing caution to the wind, I decided to try something.
"This is a little new for me, but you did catch me at a bad time last night," I attempted to say. Lacking vocal cords, I distinctly placed my chances of that working at almost zero. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised when her eyes widened a little. Wait, I hadn't 'heard' anything when I said it, though.
"Wow! You can use telepathy? That's definitely handy. Wait, you're male?" she suddenly questioned, tilting her head to the side while giving me a curious look.
Oh. She heard it in her mind. Well, more likely, I manipulated the various nerve signals that allowed her mind to interpret what I said as verbal and in my distinct voice. I was suddenly extremely glad that I didn't have to manually do that.
I decided to be diplomatic and returned, "Well, yes. I'm male. My full name is Moon Mender, but most just refer to me as Mender." Names were a show of politeness, right? I tried to remember any rules of etiquette I may have read about at any point. Damn it. I drew as big of a blank as when I tried the same with the Princesses.
Keela smiled and nodded gently. "It's an interesting naming convention. Who are the 'others' you refer to?" she inquired curiously, now ignoring the machines and sitting down on the top of the lab table instead, all attention directed at me. It was a little flattering, and I felt myself mentally blush.
"They're my friends, but I'd rather not go into detail. Is it at all possible to convince you to get rid of this book and forget it ever existed? Maybe, I don't know, launch it into a star or something?" I suggested hopefully.
Keela looked surprisingly contemplative for a moment, before snickering and pointing out, "I don't think that would technically destroy the artifact. The book you're in is extremely defensive in nature. It would probably just get pulled into the star for a few billion years until the end of its life cycle."
Okay, so she could be sarcastic too. I smirked, but decided it had at least cheered me up. There was something about leaving the colorful ponies once you knew them that was utterly depressing. "Well, that would be fine. By that point, any and all relevance the book has would be gone," I reasoned, mentally doing the calculations. I'd be dead by then, one way or another. The link to Equestria would die with me, so at the very most, the book would then simply be a colorful story, if anyone existed that could still read Universal Common at that point. Or if it was even found again. A cold, inert, pathetically small object drifting through space had an astronomically small chance of being found. Last I checked, space was a pretty big place.
She smiled suddenly, looking a little too amused for comfort. "You're not actually in the book, are you? The book is a connection to somewhere else that you can act through, right?" she deduced, causing me to mentally twitch again. Why did she have to remind me of Twilight so much? She was definitely a sharp one, that was for sure.
"Does it matter? I really just want to be left alone," I groaned, getting tired of the conversation already. Wait, was it still a conversation if it was purely one-sided in a verbal context? I snapped out of the distraction yet again, the dizzying ocean of energy weighing heavily behind my eyes like muddy, lukewarm swamp water.
She lost some of her smile and nodded gently before scrolling the long forgotten computer screen down two pages. "If you can answer my questions, I promise that I'll try my hardest to help you. You seem like a really nice guy," she promised, scanning the page with her eyes. I glanced up at it as well. The document appeared to be only three pages long, with the last page detailing my old self's career. It was a list of combat operations for the most part, until one got down to the last three entries.
"Led Rescue Operation EX6?!" Keela suddenly read out loud. Oh yeah, that must have been the extraction mission I had remembered earlier. It didn't seem entirely relevant, however. Immediately under it was, 'Selected by Doctor Kyliona As Punishment', followed by, 'Elevated to B11 Status'. Disturbingly, the entries simply ceased after that, being replaced by over a dozen 'Classified' labels.
"He was the commander in charge of the rescue mission," she muttered again, sagging a little in posture.
I frowned at her reaction but quietly mentally corrected, "Lieutenant."
She snapped her head up and back at me rather rapidly, eyes surprisingly wide. "Do you know about him?! Where is he now?" she rapidly asked, borderline on demanding. I sensed a potentially deeper connection and backpedaled rapidly.
"I, um, don't know. It just said he was a lieutenant in the promotions listed," I excused rapidly, not very good at the whole 'lying through my teeth' thing. At least, not with last second excuses, anyway.
Keela's eyes narrowed momentarily before she sighed. "Please tell me? I'm partially responsible for him getting punished and I'd really like to know," she requested, expression softening.
Uh oh. My potential landmine radar was flashing like crazy. I had been punished for something regarding whatever it was she did, and was then classified. Somewhere after that, I had somehow ended defending a vault on an extremely doomed planet, blown to crap, then transferred to another dimension full of colorful, talking ponies. I was missing a few pieces still...
"The truth?" I asked hesitantly, to make absolutely sure she really wanted to know. There would obviously be things I couldn't tell her, but I could let her know ultimately what happened to the individual she apparently knew.
She frowned, hesitating at my question as if not expecting it, but finally nodded. I sighed weakly before informing, "He's dead. He died on the final day of our last planet."
She closed her eyes softly and slumped, bringing her hands to her knees for support. I watched the gentle movement of her throat as she fought to swallow before nodding. "I kind of knew, I guess. It's not like I really knew him that well, of course, but well, he saved my life and paid for it," she finally explained, shaking her head gently. I watched her soft pink mane, er, hair sway back and forth as she did so, bangs draping back in front of her eyes as she looked back up at me again. Her almost sapphire blue eyes seemed to stare into me and I was forced to look away. "Can you tell me how he died?" she asked quietly, apparently composing herself a little. What was her relationship to my old self?
"He was charged with protecting one of the vaults. He gave his life to charge the Aegis Barrier but persisted as the Planet Busters hit," I furthered, unsure if I wanted to give her all of the details.
Regardless, she didn't ask for them. She smiled gently and nodded, sitting back upright. "He always wanted to protect something, he said. I guess he got his way in the end. I was worried they'd execute him," she muttered, before chuckling wearily. My curiosity got the better of me, finally.
"If I may ask, what did he do to get in trouble?" I couldn't help myself. If this was my past life, I wanted to know more about it. He wasn't me, I don't think, but it was still informative.
She smiled fully now and raised an eyebrow up at me. "You'd laugh if I told you, probably. You must come from a totally different world," she warned, looking amused at my apparent expense. That was the problem with inside jokes.
I rolled my metaphorical eyes before daring, "Try me?" Her expression of mirth was worth it, and I caught myself smiling too.
"Oh fine, nosey. If you must know, high-ranking females in our culture have a very strict privacy and dress code. It's mostly a religious thing, and the males are punished for violating it. At the highest ranks, me being a council member as an example, the punishment for even seeing a patch of my fur is quite severe," she explained, covering what I had already knew of course. I feigned ignorance, however, to both cover my identity and speed the story along.
"Anyway, needless to probably say now, he broke that. Well, that's not entirely accurate. I broke it for him, which is very well known," she finished, coughing lightly and looking away from me. Uh oh. I suddenly didn't like where this was going.
"Uh, he saw your fur then?" I suggested, playing the idiot. It wasn't too hard for my usual self to pull off fairly convincingly.
She laughed, a sharp and amused sound, before shaking her head and blushing. "Ah, a little bit more than just fur. But nothing too bad. He saved my life, so I might have, well, thanked him a little after his debriefing conveniently located in my room. Just a bit of kissing and such. Damned if my sister hadn't walked in on us," she groaned, putting a hand on her forehead.
I tried to keep the mental convulsions to a minimum. I'd made out with her in her room after rescuing her?! Damn it all to hell! My mind whirled at potential implications of what that would mean. Did she have feelings for my old self? It was unlikely those would carry over to my new form, so I was probably safe. Still, if she found out about the relationship, working with her to fix the connection might become awkward. Or she might get pissed at me for lying about it and refuse to help me. Oh crap. But if I told her the truth, she might think I was lying anyway and then get mad regardless. What was I supposed to do?!
In the midst of my panic, I failed to note her giving me an amused look. "I should warn you, I'm a detection and observation specialist. It's one of the reasons I'm the head scientist. Your inner aura just went crazy after I said that. What's wrong?" she suddenly asked, causing me to whirl and smack into the side of the desk as I momentarily lost control of my levitation.
She put a hand to her mouth to hold in a giggle. I glared momentarily before sighing. I had figured she was a sensor specialist of some type. "I might not have told you the entire truth about him. Um, he actually lived for about a week after the destruction of the planet," I revealed, looking back up at her.
Keela, for her credit, managed to limit her reaction to one of extreme surprise. "Wait, that was just shortly before we got here! How did he stay alive in space for that long? Could we have, um, saved him?" she asked, a little more eager than I had expected.
"No. He was in a coma and had extensive physical damage. Saving him wasn't possible. We would have tried could it have been. He was in stasis, being kept alive by the dwindling Aegis Barrier that had shrunk down to barely three meters wide. Air was being pumped in by the Grosh that had moved into the area to study the event." It was easier to get out than I anticipated. If she was going to help me close the link, some things she'd have to know regardless.
There was a long moment where she just stared at me, vacant expression of surprise and what appeared to be system shock. For a second, I thought I had accidentally broken her or something. Finally, she shook her head slowly and frowned again. "They really were here then. Wait, we? You were here and trying to save him?" she asked, catching on rapidly like I had hoped.
"Yes. My friends and I tried to deal with the connection once already. We apparently weren't fully successful as we didn't anticipate the book, but we were responsible for the destruction of the Grosh laboratory vessel. It was a private operation that hadn't been reported yet, don't worry," I added, heading off that bout of panic before it could get out of control.
Keela's frown didn't fade, and she immediately asked, "Wait a second. Your connection existed before the book, then? Are you and your friends connected to here somehow? And where is the other end of the connection?" Her thinking was speeding up and I could see an entirely new interest forming in her eyes. Still, this time I needed confirmation first, however.
"Before I can tell you that, I need your absolute word that not only will it stay between us, but that you'll help me destroy the link to this place," I adamantly warned, drifting back up to be eye level with her again.
She watched my carefully before suddenly smiling. "I can do better if you're asking for insurance. I trust you, which is strange. You feel familiar, so I'm going to go out on my gut feelings in this case. Here," she offered, raising her left hand up to me.
My eyes widened, figuratively of course, as her palm started to glow. There was no prepared attack however, so I simply remained alert. A small orb drifted out of her palm and formed into a crystal in the air, bright purple in color. I momentarily wondered what it was for before she gave it a shove and let it drift over to me. I caught it with the innate field of telekinesis around the book and went to examine it. Unfortunately, it didn't give me a chance and promptly faded into light again before smacking into the book itself?!
"Well, that explains a lot. You have a life signature. That was a soul bead. It's a little drop of my condensed life force that is attached to a promise. I promise that I will not share what you're about to tell me, and will help you close the link you refer to, to the best of my abilities," she promised in a surprisingly official tone of voice.
Now I was really confused. "Where did it go? And what does it do?" I inquired curiously. I didn't feel anything particularly detrimental, so I assumed it wasn't malignant or anything.
She snickered before explaining further, "It attaches to your life signature. You can use it to 'ping' me at any distance, so to speak. The real purpose of it, however, is to assure that I uphold my end of the bargain. If I don't follow through with my promise, the bead opens up to you and gives you full access to my end of the link." Oh. Whoa. If I had access to a link directly to her, I could cast any spell I wanted directly into her being. That much I knew already, as I vaguely recalled contracts involving them from time to time. It didn't take a genius to know that having an angry person with a direct link to your existence would be very bad.
Then it dawned on me. She trusted me. It was probably something she felt inside of me that made her remember my past self, but regardless, she trusted me. Me, not him. I drifted gently before nodding my entire form. "Thank you for trusting me. There's a reason I probably seem familiar," I added, a little concerned with how she was going to take this.
Her eyes flickered wider slightly, but she contained herself and just listened. Not able to hesitate any further, I gave up and just started talking. Or whatever it was that I was doing now. "The place this one is linked to is a different dimension. I traveled there by freak chance when my spell went haywire. As far as I can tell, the dimension 'passed' close to this one and a, well, rather powerful energy source on their side linked up with the energy of the shield I was using. I think that's what caused me to shift over to their side," I hypothesized. It was summarized, obviously, but that was about as close as I could come with the information I had. Of course, there wasn't any need to convolute the details by explaining what a Sonic Rainboom was.
She couldn't quite contain herself this time. "You're a Keldarian, then?! Wait, shield? No. No, it couldn't possibly be..." she started to rapidly ask, suddenly looking conflicted and confused. Further, she didn't seem to know what to do with her hands, claws sporadically popping out as she flexed them.
"He, well, I died a week after our planet blew up. My old body was too badly damaged to save, but that was what kept the link connected before the book took over. A new body was somehow formed for me on their side. I'm not a Keldarian anymore," I corrected softly, not exactly sure what to say after all that.
"What are you now?" she asked quietly, staring at me with an incomprehensible expression, a light shiver in her pupils.
That was a difficult one to answer. Instead, I focused and formed a shield in front of me. Slowly and surely it started to bend and curve, shaping into my now familiar form. It took a good thirty seconds to finish with the crude shape of my body, but I was pleased at the dimensions. I put on the finishing touches of the eyes and hair with a second shield plane to overlap with, keeping them somewhat visible as they hung in the air in front of me. She watched curiously as I finished the rough image, finalizing my rather unkempt mane and tail. The last thing I added was the silvery Cutie Mark that adorned both flanks. Shifting the visible light spectrum across the surface of the shields was rather elementary of a procedure, so color was quite possible. Complex pictures would take a great deal of concentration, but basic shapes such as what my symbol consisted of was rather easy.
"You're an equine? Um, too small to be a horse. Isn't that one of the imported animals from our allies?" she questioned, tilting her head and seemingly getting distracted by her own natural curiosity.
Regardless, I nodded softly to her, a full motion of the book simulating it. "A pony. There are many genetic differences, though. Different skull structure, larger eyes, shifted proportions, and altered hooves. Sapient levels of intelligence as well as a grasp of complex machinery, sciences, culture, and magic. Two different phenotypes as well, as to what they consider races," I explained as technically as I could to keep her distracted. Based on her expression, it more than worked. Her eyes were now glued to the diagram as I added the translucent horn and wing types to it in cascading style to show the different types.
"Let me guess. Unicorn, pegasus, and normal types?" she inquired, peeking around the wings to get a better look as I cycled them.
I chuckled and shook my book form. "They are based off legendary creatures, but they call the normal form 'Earth Ponies' in regards to their apparent natural affinity in magic," I corrected simply.
She smirked and nodded, still looking amused as I drifted my little diagram closer to her to see. "I'm a normal type, but due to damage to my hoof in the destruction of the Grosh ship, I can perform my magic from when I was a Keldarian on things I touch," I added, erasing the extra parts and shifting the form back to just me again.
"Earth Ponies can't use magic?" she inquired, drawing her hand along the flank of the image and lingering with curiosity on the Cutie Mark.
"Watch it. That's technically my butt, you know," I reminded, coughing lightly. She snapped back as if burned and I started laughing as a visible blush danced up into her cheeks. I continued before she could complain, however. "Unicorns are the only ones to be able to actively use magic. The other two races use it in a passive way. Earth Ponies manifest it through heightened strength and constitution, as well as a natural connection with nature, making them excellent farmers. Pegasi manipulate clouds, fly far more capably than their wings should allow for, and can alter weather conditions."
She was still glaring at me by the time I finished, but I had no doubt that she had heard most of that. "I didn't mean to touch your flank. I was just curious as to the obvious symbol," she defended, looking a little miffed. I was kind of glad she couldn't see the grin I'd be sporting if I had a mouth.
"It's called a Cutie Mark. It symbolizes a special talent that we're particularly good at, but can be extremely vague sometimes. Normal ponies apparently get them close to puberty when they discover said talent, but mine appeared a few days ago." The mention of vagueness might have been influenced by my own frustration over mine, but I'm sure I wasn't the only pony out there with the mindset! That damnable heart confused me to no end. It must be symbolic, but the connection to the gear was rather baffling.
She nodded, her blush finally dying down a little as she peeked closer. "A gear? Well, if your engineering skills carried over, that's very appropriate. Are you a male still? Do they have genders?" she continued her pattern of curious questioning while examining the model. It was a little annoying, as I didn't know how long I had before waking up, but I owed her politeness anyway. She trusted me, so the least I could do was show a little in return.
"Yeah, I'm a male still. It's a little awkward as their gender ratios are flipped from what ours used to be, if I remember correctly. The transfer also gave me a lovely case of retrograde amnesia," I admitted, sighing wearily. It was an extremely selective amnesia as well, which was beyond weird. The book even only gave me information I specifically asked about, greatly limiting its usefulness. Well, it was automated when trying to get me to murder things, but that was hardly fair.
"That actually makes sense. To be forcibly shifted into another dimension and have your body regrown into an alien shape probably put you into system shock. Is their culture reversed like ours too? Males rule or something?" she questioned lightly, seemingly calming down a little now. Or she noticed my unrest over the barrage of questions.
That one was less awkward, anyway. "Their culture seems pretty even. The ratio seems to be about four to one in favor of female births, but both genders are treated as equal members of society. There's significantly less crime and violence as well," I answered wistfully, realizing honestly how lucky I was. If the dimension shift was truly random, I had amazingly good luck, contrary to what a lot of mares believed.
Keela giggled lightly and nodded, eyes softening. "I can see why you don't want to come back here. Cutting the link is more to protect the place, isn't it?" she deduced simply, looking a lot more relaxed now. There was an odd whispering quality that echoed in her voice suddenly, and I glanced about. Wait, that seemed really familiar all of a sudden.
I saw the Sun slowly rising on the inside of the ship, oddly. It was starting to bleed through the walls, almost as if a massive three-dimensional projection was inside the room itself. Uh oh. Keela glanced over at where I'd rotated to, but acted like nothing was out of the ordinary and shot me a questioning glance. Yup, it was dimensional bleed through. Damn it.
"Crap. I'm waking up. If you have any other questions, best ask them now," I warned rapidly, rotating back to face her.
Her eyes widened and she put both hands to her mouth in surprise. "Oh! You were sleeping? Our time cycles must be reversed. Um, I don't want to be a bother now that I definitely know you aren't an AI or anything. What should we do?" she questioned, an air of guilt leaking into her tone.
"Oh, that thing you gave me. Right before I'm about to go to sleep, I'll ping you. Just feed the book energy and I'll probably be pulled through into it. It beats listening to you talk for five hours and getting paper dumped all over me," I groaned, suddenly remembering what I had to look forward to when I woke up. "Oh, and don't run the book through that thing anymore. It wasn't pleasant," I added, sighing wearily. Hopefully I hadn't rolled into my own vomit while sleeping. Well, unconscious.
Keela nodded rapidly, looking a little sad suddenly before agreeing, "Yeah, that's no problem. I'm glad you're going to let me talk to you again. You're, well, fun." Well that was, um, actually, I didn't know how to respond to that at all.
Thankfully I didn't have to. I felt the book suddenly turn off and fall, me falling with it. I kept going however, falling back into the dark recesses of my mind and crossing the infinite void once more.
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Oh well, at least he shouldn't get any more unwanted wake up calls. Or are they sleep up calls?
SO there is two being dead intent to finding the original owner of that book, Mender which is currently in Equestria..interesting. I wonder when they will find him?
Yay. Add another being to the love shape.
Interesting. Really enjoyed this chapter. Though i sense that things are going to get even more interesting given time.
Your amazing! of course i am silly! otherwise i just wouldnt be me!
But *clears throat* time for my promise to be fuffilled, FINALLY! ALSO! THIS EXPLAINS SO MUCH!!!! but yes FINALLY! that is all
This is the first love triangle I've seen that became a love triangle-based pyramid.
One that's infinitely long on one side.
*Checks for suddenly appearing 'human' tags.* Okay, carry on.
Nice to see contact finally established and the deal with the book explained somewhat. But only somewhat. I mean, is the book his superpowered evil side or what? Oh, I know! The book contains the story we're reading right now!
And I bet the weird sounds in the forest were trees having an epileptic seizure.
Also, Mender was an awkwardly charming lady killer even before he became Mender, huh?
Dear Celestia, so much happened in this chapter!
I'm a little confused about the layer of void wrapped around the book.
Is it between layers of the shield, is it one of the shields, or was it a defense mechanism activated when they turned on the book?
It was interesting to see some of Mender's old life story revealed. It seems that he believed in equality and was one to voice his objections, though not stupidly. From a previous flashback it seemed he was disgruntled with the operation of saving the females from the research facility and now it's revealed that he bedded Keela.
I guess when you go from one chaotic battlefield to the next, you take what you can get. It seems that the chapter hinted that his relationship to Keela was more than just that but we'll wait and see.
Interesting chapter overall.
Can't wait for next week for the reactions of everypony when they find Mender on the kitchen floor. 
2341408
What you did there, i saw it
2341004 HA! knew it! i had my suspicions when you first mentioned their goal. and then again when you said there name, but i knew it when you described them as looking about exactly like the Grox. very nice. i LOVED spore and still do.
Mount-papercut, No pony has the balls to tame this beast!
Excellent chapter, loving the back story and increasing number of intelligent life forms wanting some Moon. Why is he worried about all the paper though, I thought that everything used to contact him was invisible and undetectable to the other ponies, that's why they called him cray-cray and he ran into the forest.
~Momentai
hmm, if Mender can absorb that book or at least it's power, then again it seems to have a violent mind of it's own.
lol. Twilight and Fluttershy sleeping together, what's the worst that could happen? It's not like Twilight is going to wake up to Fluttershy kissing her
So many interesting things that we have to wait to find out more about.
Yay! A good amount of info about everything here!
Well that's a pretty impressive shield system. Why block an attack when all you have to do is make it not exist? Oh if only all problems were so simple to deal with, as I suspect Mender's love live just got much more complicated.
3 parties in love = love triangle. 4 parties in love = love pyramid. Its like having a whole other dimension of problems!...
I'm sorry I couldn't resist the pun!
Who uses shunts into random dimensions as a primary defense mechanism for their planets. Only BAD things come of that.
2340996
Whaaat? It's not like I'm gonna gobble up Tacoshy or anything! *Whistles*
Although I'm wonder what would happen if this new universe came true. Mender's life as a travelling showpony doing impossible tricks and living the high-life with his new girl-friend (who may or may not be addicted to pine cones GASP). It can be all dark and edgy as they... well its ponies, can't really get dark and edgy... UNLESS Trixie is a
VAMPIRELYCANDRAGONBORNNECROMANCER WHO IS CELESTIA'S ILLEGAL FOAL!Huh, this might actually go somewhere, to bad I can't write for jack.
~Momentai
very good chapter. cant wait for more like this.
This chapter was so much better than the last one. I'm sorry to say I was this close to dropping Mender's story, but this chapter saved it for me.
I still suggest you rework the scene with the Royal guards. That was just terrible.
2340999
hehehe, you should see the mass reply i made on this story she's having a foal
2340996
Yay! I noticed something
First, I wanna say thank you for starting to post things the second I got home, awesome timing!
Second, LOVED the chapter! Especially the insight into Menders past life. Kinda bites how he got punished for something that technically wasn't his fault. I'm kind of curious as to WHEN Keela figured out he was Mender. Seems her sister is a little quick on the stabby/shooty reaction, makes me wonder what her position is. I would assume she's not as open minded about things as Keela. Seems like she has a lingering interest in her savior, though I can't tell now if that is more out of curiosity or genuine interest, though her last comments seem to hint genuine. Kind of reminds me of Twilight a few chapters back with that. I like the interaction between Keela and Mender, I hope we see a great deal more, and I tend to wonder if she might want to join him in the future. It doesn't seem like she's terribly impressed with her current dimension at this point in time and that she may want a change of pace. She also didn't seem as upset about him being an undocumented dissenter as Nirru, maybe she is one as well, just even less documented?
The book seems almost like a biography of his lives and experiences, that seems to be written as events happen, is this typical or not though I wonder. I can't wait to hear what Twi and the Princesses think of all this, naturally I think that they would be rather skeptical at first, then sort of raise an amount of alarm. I also wonder about the state of Twis kitchen/living room at this point, whether or not it is ripped to shreds, or merely has only a puddle of vomit with a sleeping/resting Mender in/near it. If the theories about Mender being the one behind the "rampage" that happened the night before are right, then I would suspect that Twis place is a little on the destroyed side, and also that Twi and Shy are pretty well awake, along with Spike.
2341004 Oh good. Would have to dislike this story if it ended like that. I'm typing this on my iPod, does anyone know how to use the emoticons from it?
Wow, great chapter.
Finally we get some information from his home dimention.
Shy and Twi will panic if they know about the link.
As the ancient curse states "May you live in interesting times", Mender surely can complain about his dose of action.
Keela? Citadel? ..... either there are mass effect hints in this story, or I've been playing too much mass effect to notice this XD
Every Friday, this is the highlight of my day/night. I look forward to it every week, and with where you are bringing it, I'll stick with you till the very end!
The interaction between...everything in this chapter just made me flip! It attracts my attention like cake to a fat kid!
Thank you, can't wait for the next chapter!
Well, that was awesome. I'm not sure I like this Nirru person. She seems a bit... high strung
.
Keela seems on the level, however, and I hope we get to see more of her in the future.
A fun chapter all around.
I'll cut Mender some slack in the social awkwardness department from now on. He just got out of a culture in which unsanctioned making out was punishable potentially by death. You don't just shrug off that kind of stigma.
This multidimensional tale remains compelling.
And now I wait for Friday again - It's almost becoming a curse, the way this story takes away my attention from other doings, because I simply HAVE to find out more about Menders "adventure" - More layers, more dimensions, more love-par-.. Okay, maybe not that - This newly formed pyramid already got my nerves on the edge of destruction
Till next, my dear Lieutenant [random number] & Kiro!
I. Freaking. LOVE. Your. Explanations about magic! Seriously, it's like science with magic! I shall try to do something like that for myself and not just something like this: ''He shot a blue ball of magic, without explaining how he formed a ball of magic.''
This story is simply awesome! Epic, funny and romance. The best combination.
So mender was a badass before he was a badass?
On fridays i sit for hours on my computer hitting the F5 key...
Its always worth it.
Oooh! love pyramid! Haven't seen one of those before!
And now we wait for flutters to find him passed out!
I've been waiting for a chapter like this.
Great chapter, I like the Lovecraftian/sci-fi fusion influence. "Celestia, that hoof! The window! The window!"
2341001
More like too slow for some ponies, but a lot are liking it.
Also, thank you for another great chapter!
That book...I'm getting some bad juju vibes from it. Part of me wants to play it's "advice" to Mender as it simply acting on instinct since it was said that it didn't have any will or awareness, even if it did have limited intelligence or if there is something more sinister at work with it. Hmm.
Learning some more about Mender's past as more than a flash of memory was a nice treat. Learning more about their culture was and added bonus! I'll be looking forward to more of their talks ^.^
~Have a good one.
Yes! Exposition! Glorious exposition! I was hoping the story would get back to communication with those two.
I kind of want more of Mender's kind make it to Equestria just to prove Twilight wrong about the connection being severed.
2341004 What? Yeah, I'm fine. Just busy is all. Sorry for not elaborating in my comment. I had a concert I had to attend. What I meant was her development in character for Mender. She's finally opening up and hopefully will fully bloom in upcoming chapters.
Okay i could see a 'herd' with Twilight, Fluttershy, and Mender, but if you add in Keela then that just shows me that Mender is a big-time ladies man, er mare's stallion. Can't wait for said mare's stallion to be woken up while his braids are soaked in vomit by an extremely concerned Fluttershy
and a Twilight Sparkle thinking that he is humiliating himself 
. Oh yeah, he actually avoided the things that could cause him serious injury this time, congrats for not getting your mental state cut in half by a badflank sword!
2341001
Yeah he's funny. But he did see some pretty screwed up stuff
Sentience means your aware of your surroundings, like all animals. Sapience means capable of wisdom, like intelligent life. I didn't know the difference until recently myself.
Nice chapter. For some reason I like the moments Keela is involved.
Aaah Mender, you playa.
Now i can't help but wonder is somebody didn't just hex his plot for fooling with a high ranking female of his original species.
So has anyone made the rather obvious joke yet that Mender's cutie mark means he's a love machine? I mean, come on, it's a gear with a heart in the middle! That's just asking for it. Probably not all that wildly inaccurate either, considering how good he seems to be at getting ladies' motors running, so to speak.
So is it weird if, when Keela said the scan detected Moon Mender's name, my first thought was that we're reading his book right now? Did this all happen, well... a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away? (Might as well continue that Star Wars comparison I was playing with a few chapters back.) That's another thing that seems like I can't be the only one that occurred to.
I'm extremely amused by that book's attitude, by the way. It's just trying to be helpful! Actually, it reminds me of two completely different things. First, the sorts of morbid thoughts that many people with OCD get, but have no desire to act on, such as, "What if I went nuts and suddenly used this knife on my friend over there?" Mender has the right attitude about that anyway, just ignore it. And 2nd, this for some reason:
shrines.rpgclassics.com/snes/ct/walk/23/07.gif .
I want to know how he set Keela on fire, though. We already know he has a little fire spell, since that's how he blew up the Grosh ship, but how would he have sent that through the link? Is that what those symbols on the paper were? You'd think she would've asked him why he suddenly interrupted the first conversation to randomly flame her, though. And then it's not at all surprising that Keela and Nirru were two of the "four bitches" Mender's squad was sent to rescue, but it does raise the question of what happened to the other two. Nirru, does seem like a little bit of a bitch, though, at least if she turned Mender in when she caught him and Keela together. If that wasn't deliberate, well, then she more just needs to learn to calm the hell down. If Keela is kind of like Twilight, then Nirru is reminiscent of Rainbow Dash, with the attacking without thinking about consequences or if there was even any reason to attack in the first place.
And then I can't help but notice that although Keela's promise said that she'll do everything she can to help close the link, it covered absolutely nothing about how she might try to use it first. I just hope she doesn't try to romance him too. Sorry, little Keela, no pony for you. He's already spoken for...twice. Plus things are already complicated enough with a triangle. But maybe she can have Big Mac, or some other stallion, if she does somehow end up in Equestria.
And then doesn't that soul bead thing create a second link altogether? Either way, it seems surprisingly similar to Mender's mysterious connection with Fluttershy. Maybe they did a little unintentional soul swapping of their own when he pulled that jello rock off her. Speaking of which, it still seems likely that thing had something to do with the odd effects Mender has going on, since that's presumably what he was guarding in that vault. I still wonder if, since they apparently weaponized their moons, maybe that mysterious little artifact had something to do with it (unless they simply chucked 'em), and imbued Mender with some related attributes, giving more meaning to the Moon portion of his name. Could maybe explain the boosted gravity effect, at least, plus maybe the fact that he left a crater when he arrived, yet wasn't harmed by the landing. Been wondering if that was significant ever since the original story started. As for the book's existence as an Aegis Artifact, that's probably mostly just related to the shield he was using, though that doesn't really explain how it works.
One other thing that caught my attention is that Mender has started thinking of Spike as a dragon, even though I don't recall anyone ever telling him that. I was kinda hoping to see the conversation where Mender found out what Spike was going to turn look like day.
Heh, and I just realized, Mender now has a good way to get a little mild revenge for her bugging him so much. Any time he's bored, he can sit there "pinging" Keela for twenty minutes, just to annoy her. He's probably not that grudgy, though, and she might retaliate by tweaking his book some more.
*Ping* "Oh, hi!" *Ping* "Hello? *Ping* "Can you hear me?" *Ping* "Uhh..." *PingpingpingpingpingPINGPINGPING!!!* "SHUT UP ALREADY!"
...*Ping*
2349817
it seems she has realised who he is.. and her soul gem means she has a link to him... why do i feel like shes going to try going to equestria now......
2341408 We'll probably end up with a freaking love decagon by the time this is over..
2349256 Huh, I didn't know that. Thanks!
denver.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/rsz/mlfw1449_small.jpg
There's a lot of plot reveal in this chapter.
And yes, I meant that both ways.
2349817 He didn't set her on fire, the x-ray machine did. When it EXPLODED.
2350975
If that happens, Mender should totally say this:
[youtube=youtube.com/watch?v=tvK-fyh-bAE&t=10s]
You know, if he wasn't incredibly afraid of upsetting anyone by being flippant.
. . .
Welp, if I wasnt hooked before, I most CERTAINLY am now. Friday is going to take forever to get here.
2355799
i don't think she was on fire per say, but the machine was after it exploded.
2357958 WHATEVER.
EVERYONE SERIOUSLY NEEDS TO CALM THEIR PANTS. I MEAN IT.
2360764
*pours a bucket of water onto himself*
that better?