Redemption

The first warning I had that something was wrong was a hoof impacting on my chest. While not the worst hit I've taken. Without my armor blunting the impact, I felt my ribs creak, however I don't think anything broke. Waking up VERY quickly thanks to a handy burst of adrenaline redlining all system tolerances to get me moving now. I shoot up into the air for a moment before coming down, feet planted apart for stability, and survey the room, air compressing in my chest in preparation for one hell of a cranky bear roar.

Staring around semi-frantically, I don't see anything, no attackers, no shadows flitting around. Glancing down, I find Vine tangled in the bed sheets, thrashing and moaning. Shaking my head to clear some of the mental cobwebs out, I reach down and grab her none to gently by the scruff of her neck. Pulling her up and unwrapping the sheet at the same time, I put my mouth to her ear and yell. "Up and at 'em, recruit!" This managed to derail whatever the tartarus was happening in her head and brings her to full consciousness.

Staring around frantically, she surveys the room, then relaxes slightly before realizing I'm holding her up by her mane for all intents and purposes and starts thrashing. "Hey! Ow! Let me go!" She yells right back, I drop her, sadly she's awake now and lands rather solidly on all four hooves.

Rubbing my face, I glance around the room, checking my internal clock, I determine it's still somewhere between bedtime and wake the flip up time. With that decided, I grab Vine, ignoring her still semi-befuddled complaints, and plant my sleepy butt right back on my pallet. "Next time you want to have a nightmare, at least invite me over, huh? I'd love to meet and beat your subconscious fears." I ask, causing her to freeze as she obviously remembers what was going on before I so rudely awakened her.

Relaxing, I nuzzle the top of her head. "Hey, it's okay, I'm here, and nothings going to hurt you,"

She shakily nods her head. "I know, but I still see their faces, screaming at me, no matter what I do, they won't stop!" she turns her head into my chest, earning a hiss of pain from me, and proceeds to commence sobbing, it's going to be a long night.

I hum deep in my chest as I stroke her mane and neck, just laying like that for awhile, before I judge her sufficiently calm to move on to the next step. "Bloom," I state, rubbing my chin into the top of her head, she raises it slowly to look up at me. "You still remember how to utilize our link, yes?" I ask, staring at the wall.

She goes still for a moment. "I . . . I thought we weren't to use that again, not once we got here," She replies.

I shrug, still staring at the wall as if it's the most interesting object in the buckin universe. "That was to be a gesture of good will, it is dark magic after all, the ability to access and even influence another's mind. But I don't care, I don't have the time or the ability with words to help you, but I am a very good dreamer," I look down at her, feeling my eyes glisten with tears. "If I fail at everything else, I will stop these nightmares, we're not safe Bloom, we're just not safe. I'm tough, I can keep you safe from enemies, but I can't promise to protect you from myself, I feel your pain, and its eating away at me. Maybe together, we can share our strength, and build a better world. A better us. Someponies that can walk down the street without constantly scanning the sky. That can have someone walk up behind us without doing our best to put them down on the floor in as painful a method as possible. Someponies that don't wake up screaming in the middle of the night from the memories of those we left behind." I state, tears running sideways on my face to soak into the bedding beside Vine's own tears. "I don't want to hurt anymore, I want to live, I want to see the beauty in the world without assessing it for tactical survivability. I want to enjoy a good life without always looking over my shoulder. I don't want to be a monster, I . . . I just don't," I pull her closer, ignoring the complaints from my chest, and rub my head on her own. "Lets see if we can build something better by letting our pasts go?" I ask finally.

She looks up at me a second, then lowers her head back down and nods it lightly. "Alright," She says, choking back a sob.

I rub her mane once more, then I wrap her in my arms and pull her close, reaching out with my mind along the channel forged long ago between Alpha and Human. Feeling her reach back, making contact. Connection made, I take a step back in my mind, my body entering what is for all intents and purposes a state of sleep.

Standing in my glade, I glance around, checking my ribs, while strained, and possibly cracked, my natural healings repaired the bone, but without a magic reservoir, I won't be able to repair the bruises. They'll fade in time, but may cause questions to be asked. Shaking my head, I dismiss the wayward thoughts.

Reaching out, I call, and Vine answers, bringing her into my dreamscape is simple enough with the mental connection already established. Accessing and building a metaphorical representation of her own emotional hazards, is not, but I'm persistent, so I persevere. Once its made, I focus, and our surrounding shift. By some fluke of the subconscious, we end up in the midst of a graveyard. The light seems dim without really being dark, and mist roils throughout the area, limiting vision beyond a few feet.

Looking at the tombstones that lay in neat rows stretching out into the mist, I glance down at Vine as she looks up at me. "Well, we're here, and I'll just be the first to say I'm not looking forward to this," I state, reaching out to Vine for emotional and physical support.

Rubbing her cheek against my palm, Vine smiles with no small amount of her own trepidation. "I hear you, but we have to do this if we've any hope of normalcy," She states sadly, I can only nod.

Shaking my body, and steeling my resolve, I step up to the first tombstone to read the inscription, Vine right beside me.

As befitting our traditions, there is no name, that their shame might be forgotten. It simply lists the date of this pony's birth, as well as the time of death. Resting at the base of the Tombstone, is a flower. Sighing, I look at Vine. "Ready?" I ask, she nods, tears already running down her face. Reaching out together, we touch the flower, instantly, memories of the individual come to us. A chance passing, seeing them in a briefing, at lunch, words exchanged, both good and bad, and worst of all, a life unfulfilled, thrown away in a stopgap measure to insure the safety of an ever decreasing population. Shame, Anger, Depression, years of combat, only to be driven back, one bloody step at a time.

After a time, I step back, sobs wracking my body, turning to Vine, I reach out wordlessly and we collapse into one another's embrace. After a time spent recovering, we moved to the next tombstone, I can't say how long this went on, but after a time, the pain grew to be too much, and we had to retreat from the realm of memory, our mental barriers hopefully strengthened to last a little bit longer.

Cracking my eyes open with a groan, I look around the basement, seeing the same old stuff still sitting where I'd placed it yesterday. Checking my internal clock, I find it's time to get up and go time. Rising, I inspect the rather magnificent tear stains all over the sheets. I shake my head. Snarky mental defenses? Check. Yawning, I make my way up the stairs into the library proper, glancing around I find it's still dark outside, and everyone still appears to be asleep, or in other words, the perfect time.

Nodding my head, I immediately head back down, grabbing a change of clothes, I head back up to the bathroom, hopping in for a quick shower. A quarter of an hour later, I'm out, feeling rather conscious, if not particularly chipper.

Making my way back downstairs, I grab a couple glasses of water, downing one, I carry the other with me as I check on a still sleeping Vine, admiring her also rather magnificent tear stains.

Setting the cup down on a table out of easy reach, I move to Vine's side, place my hand on her shoulder, and softly shake her. Surprisingly, I don't end up catching a punch, she simply opens her eyes, blinking a few times, then yawns and slowly stands. I stand as well and grab the cup of water, holding it out to her. She gives me a small nod of thanks, taking it in her hooves and slowly drinking the entire thing.

Once she's finished rehydrating, and freshly showered, I raid the kitchen for a simple breakfast of some boiled oats with some sugar, and a couple small slices of cheese because cheese is awesome. Popping a protein tab into my mouth and swallowing it, I glance at Vine. "Ready?" I ask, she huffs, but nods her head nonetheless.

I chuckle. "Oh it's not that bad!" I state with a smirk.

"Says you," She retorts. "You're built to run on the ground for days on end, I'm designed to fly, not rumble along like some demented earth pony," She complains, I resist the urge to facepalm.

"Then why don't you fly this morning?" I ask, causing her to open her mouth, then close it a few seconds later with a sheepish expression, it was awesome.

"Oh," Is all she says, a slight blush adorning her cheeks.

"Silly Vine," I quip. "No tracks here, we get our workout any way we darn well please. Plus, I'm going to be so jealous, you'll get to appreciate the friendly skies. I was too busy trying to evade capture and get to you to really enjoy the freedom." I say. She grins up at me.

"Then I'll just have to enjoy it for the both of us," She states with a soft smile replacing her grin.

I nod my head. "Don't forget to give your legs a workout too, now. Don't want you going soft on me," I say with a smirk, she just shakes her head.

"Any time, big guy, any time," And with that last warning, we're out the door.

Picking a random direction, she sets off in a gentle lope, I follow along behind her, schooling my expression into the stolid mask the guard is trained to show the outside world, and also helps to fulfill the role of showing no emotion, since everyone knows humans don't have those.

Looking around as we run, I take the time to admire some of the buildings around us. The lack of light in the predawn hours results in most everything being black and white, and while I appreciate the lack of visual assault, I know I'll have to get used to the riot of different colors and hues eventually.

Reaching the edge of town, Vine turns right, following the border. "How big do you think this town is?" She asks. I just shrug my shoulders.

"Big enough for just one lap," Is my flippant reply, prompting a groan from her, before she adopts a big smile.

"One lap for you maybe," She replies playfully, opening her wings and starting to gain altitude.

"Just don't go too far, if I get taken to the pound, I'm blaming you," I warn, before waving her off to enjoy her newfound freedom as I stolidly trot along.

And enjoy it she does, flitting around in the air like a hyperactive bird. Jumping from cloud to cloud, occasionally doing tricks because why not. I just watch her as I go, continuously suppressing the urge to smile. The run passes quickly, as I watch her fly around.

We pause for a time, staring in wonder as the sun rises over the horizon, intellectually, I know it's at Princess Celestia's behest, but all the same, there was just something elemental about that big orb rising from the ground, some . . . essence of poetic euphoria that I felt the urge to express, but lacked the skills and tongue to profess properly.

Chuckling at my odd emotions, I turned back to my run, continuing to follow Vine's form as she flitted from one place to another. About halfway around the town, she finally rejoined me on the ground, her form positively glowing after her rather rambunctious escapade through the air. Positively bouncing in place like a cute little kitten, her exuberance hits me so hard, I'm hard pressed not to bust out laughing.

Shaking my head, I ruffle her hair and scratch behind an ear, causing her to snap her teeth at me playfully before rubbing herself against me. Again, I'm struck by the antics of a playful kitten, but shake them off as I find my pace staggering, this town is surprisingly large, and unless I meter myself carefully, I may not make it at a full out jog.

By the time we make it back around to the street we entered town by, I'm covered in sweat, and Vine's not doing too hot herself, but it's the good kind of exhaustion. The sort you get after you know you've been places and done things, that lets you know you're alive, the day is beautiful, and the world lays at your feet, ready to be experienced.

On our way back into town, walking so we cool down from the run, the people of the town start their own morning rituals, and while it's not crowded, I still feel Vine shivering beside me as she walks closer as we go. While not a SMALL town, the unknown Pegasus in a predominately earth pony farming town attracts its fair share of curious looks. My presence only exacerbates the problem.

Ignoring the looks, curious or otherwise, I rest a hand on Vine's shoulder unobtrusively, guiding her to the library as quickly as possible without making a scene. Coming to the front door, I sweep the area behind us, my hands clenching at my sides. While no ones looking at us anymore, my paranoia isn't letting up. Opening the door, we shuffle inside quickly and shut it, breathing twin sighs of relief.

Twilight is standing in the entrance to the kitchen, head tilted to the side in confusion, looking from me, covered in sweat from my exertions, to Vine, also sweaty, with her hair in disarray and some of her feathers in dire need a preening. "What happened to you two?" She finally asks, confused. "And why did you get up before me?" She asks.

I shrug. "I wanted to go for a run, figured the morning was our best bet, less people. Sadly, I underestimated the size of your town, by the time we made a lap around the borders, people were waking up," I state, shooting Vine a nod, to which she returns her own nod before heading up the stairs for another shower.

Twilight gives me an odd look. "You ran around the ENTIRE town?" She asks in an incredulous tone.

Suppressing my inner jackass, I nod my head. "Yeah, standard training for a Nightguard," I can tell from her face she's torn between more questions about my world and actually eating something. Thankfully, food won. While she troops off to eat something, I find a handy corner and collapse in it.

Sadly, the smells emanating from the kitchen catch my attention, and my stomach chooses that moment to let me know I just burned through my earlier breakfast. Shuffling to the door, I look into the kitchen. Spike stands at the stove, cooking in a skillet, and Twilights sitting at the table munching on pancakes, you heard me, frikkin pancakes, sugary confections of breaded awesomeness.

Shaking my head, I contemplate the pros and cons of trying to snag a few or just walking in and asking, which is sure to result in the small fry staring at me for awhile. Waiting for me to snap and suddenly start eating everyone in sight or something.

I'm saved from this mental dilemma by Vine coming out of the bathroom. Climbing the stairs quickly, I step into the bathroom and enjoy the shower to its fullest. Coming out of the bathroom, I leave my shirt laying over a shoulder as I wipe my hair down with a handy towel.

Coming down the stairs, I head into the kitchen, the smell causing my mouth to water already. Thankfully, I don't end up having to bother the poor dragon, he seems to have anticipated me, and there's a stack of fluffy pancakes already sitting on a plate.

Tossing him a wave of thanks, I take a seat and proceed to inhale them. Closing my eyes, I savor the taste.

"See? I told you he wouldn't use syrup," Vine's voice snaps me back to reality, blinking around owlishly, I glance between a smirking Vine and a giggling Twilight.

"What?" I ask, Vine just shakes her head while Twilight levitates a bottle of liquidized sugar. My eyes grow wide as I consider it, Vine just about falls out of her chair from laughing. Glaring at her, I take the bottle from Twilight's magic and spread the syrup over my remaining pancakes. Taking a bite, I masticate it for a second, giving a hum of pleasure at the interesting taste.

"Hey Re . . .Frix?" Twilight asks, I glance at her, finding her gaze, I notice my shirt had rocked to the side revealing the bruise I'd completely forgotten about, crud.

"Don't worry about it, Ma'am." I state quietly. "Just another one of life's misadventures" I reason.

She looks at me funny, but doesn't say any more on the subject, which I'm entirely happy with as I go back to munching down on my food.

Once I've finished my breakfast, I turn to Spike, as he's consuming his own breakfast with the occasional giggle at my antics. "Thanks for the excellent culinary demonstration, Spike," I state, he gives me a timid smile and a wave, yay! Turning to Twilight, I cock my head to the side. "Any chance I could get your assistance with the phonetic sounds of letters, Ma'am? I recognize the symbols now, I just don't know how to say them."

Twilight nods her head agreeably as she finishes up her own breakfast, I spend the next couple of hours receiving a very through rundown on the interactions of various letters. Twilight seems surprised that I wasn't bored to tears by her explanations, I can only shrug. "Sounded fine to me, Ma'am." She seemed rather taken by that statement, earning me a soft and fluffy hug, love em.

The next couple of weeks seemed to pass in a veritable storm of activity. My reading skills improved steadily, after several letters were sent, we managed to get our financial affairs in order, I transferred my bits to Vine's name for simplicity's sake. And we found out that there were indeed banks in town, and that our bits were deposited in one of them. My eye enchants ended up getting redone in a slightly more permanent form until I could get ahold of one of my enchanted collars. After a couple early morning visits to the Boutique, I managed to get more changes of clothing, including one shirt that Rarity really didn't want to make that read: 'Caution: Combat trained human' she finally relented after I promised not to wear it anywhere near ponyville. Grinning evilly, with the occasional maniacal giggle. I showed it off to the girls, and dragon, back at the library. Twilight thought I was being immature, Spike thought it was funny, Vine just shook her head.

Every couple of days, Vine and I would have join one another in my head, and we'd spent a good portion of the night dealing with memories, greatly accelerating the healing process. After each session, the morning runs became easier and easier, our paranoia abated, and Vine started to enjoy her trips with the various Elements, ranging from watching them play with their pets to a chow down at sugarcube corner, weird name for a weird bakery, and an even weirder element bearer.

Sadly, my thoughts on building a house in the forest were shot down, I ended up deciding on a site just outside the town limits, near another house that belonged to Fluttershy. I almost squeed at the thought of being near her, so cute! Breaking out some draft paper, I ended up making several drafts, ranging from a simple two story cottage much like Fluttershy's to a several story underground bunker, looking them over, I planned to take them to a legitimate contractor to get a professional's opinion to see what would actually work, while I know a few things about field expedient bunkers, making something to last wasn't on my list of qualifications.

Then, about a month after we'd begun our assimilation, a royal summons came through, I was finally being called to active duty. I wasn't sure how to take it, Vine was doing ALOT better, but she still had the occasional panic attack, plus I couldn't guarantee her mental stability when asleep if I wasn't nearby. After consulting with Twilight on the subject, we decided that she'd be fine tagging along.

The next morning found myself, Vine, and an entirely overenthusiastic Twilight sparkle waiting at the train depot.

"Oh, I can't wait to show you around Canterlot!" Twilight practically gushed. I just rolled my eyes behind my helmet, giving my recently regrown wings a small twitch under their covering to get used to their presence again. Vine just grinned right back.

"Thank you for agreeing to escort me in, I may have the royal summons on me, but I still wouldn't put it past the guards there to freak out a little. Which reminds me, I need to ask Celestia for some reference materials, if possible, I want you to modify my helm for me," I say idly, watching the tracks and depot.

Twilight's eyes light up at the mention of technical manuals from my world, by the end she's practically bouncing in place. I just chuckle and give her ear a good rub, earning me a mock affronted look and a hoof to the thigh, which actually hurt, huh, getting soft here. A whistle rings out through the early morning air, and I shake my head.

"About time." I snark, Vine just rolls her eyes.

"Shush you, just wait until you're trapped on that train for 8 hours," She ripostes, I grimace.

"Well, I can always get more information on this world white we wait," I respond, Vine covers her face with her hooves, Twilight laughs, used to our back and forth banter at this point, she barely responds to being used as ammunition in our continuous verbal sparring matches.

Now, our PHYSICAL sparring matches on the other hand. She screamed the first time she came into the basement to find me latched onto a bucking Vine Bloom as I choked her into submission, admittedly not the best timing, and she was afraid for Vine's safety against the big human until the first time she watched me sail across the room leaving her mouth hanging. When she found out, Rainbow Dash also expressed her own curiosity in our fighting method, but I declined actually teaching her until such time as I could be more sure of her safety around us.

Shaking off my reminiscing, I move forward for the train, finding a cabin, we file in and take our seats, Twilight grabbing one bench while Vine and I grab the other. Vine laying out with her head in my lap and going to sleep quickly.

Yawning slightly, I consider following her example, but decide that more information would be more useful, I spent the next couple of hours asking Twilight about the kingdom of Equestria and the surrounding areas. After finding out the gryphons liked to hunt humans for food, I made a mental note to avoid that area if at all possible.

"So, you have Las Pegasus to the West, the site of the old Crystal Empire to the north, on a side note, I didn't know my wings looked like that, I just kind of liked the translucent look, and it made me easily identifiable on the battlefield." I state with a ruthful grin before continuing my recap "To the east you have Fillydelphia, and finally to the south is Appleloosa?" I ask, rubbing my forehead as I note all the locations.

"Yes!" Twilight replies happily, her teacher mode in full swing. "You also have the White Tail Woods to the east, just south of the mountain range. Oh! There's also Cloudsdale up to the Northwest!" She elaborate further, I just shake my head.

"I'll wait until I can find a map of this mess, keeping it straight in my head isn't easy right now," I chuckle. Twilight just grins.

"Wait till we get to Canterlot, if you thought my library was big, theirs is MASSIVE!" She states happily.

Yawning, I lay back. "Alright, geography lessons aside, I'm going to try and get some sleep, you should probably do the same," I say as I finish my yawn.

Twilight nods, laying out on her bench as I lay my head back and close my eyes.

The next time I open my eyes, its to absorb a painfully bright eyeful of sunlight, groaning and covering the front of my visor, I rock back into a upright sitting position, glancing around, I see Vine quietly reading a book, glancing over her shoulder, I can tell its another Daring Do book, but that's about all I can tell before she turns the page. Looking up, I smile slightly at the sight of Twilight sleeping peacefully.

"Dawww, ow!" I wince as Vine punches me in the arm lightly, chuckling, I look over at her, seeing her glowering at me.

"Don't make fun of her!" She commands, I shake my head.

"But she's so adorable! I mean, come on! She's like a big fluffy bag of intelligence wrapped around more magical potential then you'd find in the magic research department back home." I quip, Vine just shakes her head.

"Yeah yeah, she's awesome, we know this, stop making fun of her, read a book or something," She says, going back to her own book.

Grinning, I pull a book from my pocket and open it up, rather than walk around with a child's book, I decided I'd try reading one of the adventure novels Vine seems so taken by. While entertaining, the strain of figuring out some of the words tends to give me headaches if I'm not careful. Hmmm, speaking of headaches, It'd be a good idea to change my wing colorations.

Sitting back, and propping the book open before me, I start to read slowly, figuring out each word as needed, while picturing my wings, only instead of a translucent brown, I go with a solid brown with white highlights, I always rather liked gryphon colorations. Several minutes and several minor aches later, I feel my wings settle down and turn my full attention back to my book.

Suddenly, the light from outside dims, causing me to look up, seeing Canterlot up close, this time without having to break something. Taking a moment, I just admire the city, okay admiration done. Rocking forward slightly, I tap Twilight on the shoulder, she twitches but doesn't respond. Resting my hand more comfortably on her shoulder, I shake her lightly, this has the desired affect of causing her to open her eyes and raise her head blinking around the compartment.

"We're almost there, Ma'am," I state, she smiles her thanks and sits up, gathering her stuff. I emulate her as well, getting my duffel bag that I'd had Rarity create for me since carting a crate around was annoying. Making sure the closure was secure, I propped it by my feet and sat back to watch the show.

As the train inters the station, I'm met with the sight of what I can only assume from the coloration of their armor is several of Celestia's Royal Guard in golden armor. Upon disembarking the train they see us, and head over. "Private Redemit?" The officer in charge asks, I nod my head. "We're to escort you to the castle, this way, please." With that, he turns and walks off.

Falling into step behind him, I rest a hand on Vine's shoulder as we make our way through the city. Twilight provides a calming dialogue, pointing out various points of interest as we go. I keep my visor pointed forward and watch the surrounding ponies ahead of us for any threats, thankfully none are presented, and we make it to the castle without mishap, aside from the occasional curious glance that avoids me like the plague, yeah, need to get that skull removed.

Once inside the Castle, Twilight sets off ahead saying something about meeting her family. Vine stays by my side as we're led to a small meeting room with a table and chairs. The guards troop off once we're inside, two taking position by the doors, the rest returning to wherever they came from.

I take a seat with Vine right beside me, my duffel at my feet, and sit back to wait.