Author's Note

Let me start this off with an official apology. In the way of writing this, i realized how wack I am- since a lot of things have been happening to all of these characters in other stories, yet some of theses stories were never published- meaning you might have a hard time following everything. As such, there will be a lot of referencing and explaining done during conversations and stuff- i'll try not to break the rhythm too much, but be ready for lots of lore. This is basically twist of Kudzuhaiku's universe I've been DMing in for years now. Lots of campaigns have happened, lots of characters died, and lots of stuff is still about to happen. Ill try to keep it short, but i don't want to leave you guys in the dark too much either.

Just know that if something seems weird, or unhinged, or doesn't seem to hold itself in the story, its probably because one of my players did something stupid and I'm trying to both keep what happened in the story, and cover it up so it doesn't look like the characters are trolls.

Now, here's the reference to the Chapter's title. Listen along or not, I just like Alabama Shakes.

Gemini [Not Edited]

Eerie, calm silence filled the air. A slightly moist summer breeze carried the smell of flowers and honey, but also of a certain humidity, like it will rain tomorrow.

It will never rain here, for there were no clouds. Only a comfortable, soothing light coming from nowhere, that pierced the darkness stretching into infinity beyond the confines of the soft, embracing light. In the middle of... Well, nowhere, stood a large building that ressembled a school, or a covent, or some manner of hospital. It was a tastefull bland of old ponish and griffic architecture, something ressembling the mess halls of Valhalla pictured in ancient, northern tribe scriptures- something not quite equine in nature, with hints of centaur technology, could be seen from the outside- such as the massive gate he was standing next to. Usually, said gate is closed to visitors. But he was no visitor- not quite the owner, but far from some estranged acquaintance dropping by. Not either unlike a roomate wondering if he has the right accesss to the living room while his roomate is having a jerkoff on the couch, he took an hesitant step inside the gate, and looked at the door to the main building before him; the doors seemed ajar, as if they hadnt been properly closed and a drifting wind had slightly opened them. He took it as a sign he was half-heartedly welcome, and treaded cautiously inside.

Who knows in what state the heart was, after such a long jump. The last time he was consicious of such a jump, he remembered how devastated the house was. How much time and effort it took to rebuild himself. As of today, he recalls the house looks particularly fine... Maybe too fine. That's why he was such on edge, he expected things to go sideways pretty fast- and he wasn't entirely wrong.

Casting a hoof against the door, he effortlessly pushed it open, and marveled at how everything looked... Fine. There wasnt even much dust hanging in the air, catching the stray beams of light from the skylights above. A jukebox played classical music in a corner. A display glass showed a few pictures of important ponies- most of them dead today, with the exception of a few immortals such as dragons, pony princesses and eldritch abominations- one of which a goose, with a shiny golden label saying "Erika"- and a few other outerworldy beings. There were also a few knickknacks, relics of a bygone era, forgotten to ponies and other modern mundane folk.

The lights flicked open in the hallways, and a door at the end of the room opened- with a soft summer breeze, it swung open slowly, inviting him, beckoning him to go deeper in the bowels of the mansion.

He obliged.

----------//----------

"I figured you would come. You always appear after a large strain on our reserves. Welcome back, Master." A floating pony, made of light, lazily drifted around the room. Her long, shining, flowing golden mane was enticingly wrapping itself around the visitor, embracing him lovingly. "You didn't have much trouble finding your way in? I changed the layout a bit." The floating pony's voice was smooth and silky, with an almost sultry french accent. Her velvety lavender eyes shone with a caring, kind light, and her pelt was a dull, pale yellow, soothing to the eyes.

"I have jumped again. I'm back in our childhood era- i believe i should let you know before you came out. Mother hasn't changed a bit... And I'm about to go see Dad. But before all that... I wanted to know how you were faring." The visitor shook off his duster's hood, and an ashen blonde mane shone with the lavender light coming from the eyes of his first friend. "It's good to see myself again, even if it's you Silence."

The light pony giggled. "I'm glad to see you too. I'm fine, I try to stay busy reshelving the library... And keeping your inner demons in check. Oh, and how do you like the new look?" She gave a twirl to show off her ethereal- yet perfectly plump curves. On her flank was the image of a ripple in a pond, and the reflection of a moon in the waving water.

"You look good, Silence. I'm glad to see you're okay. Handling crystal, centaur magic always makes me worry that I'll find you in a bad state. I don't think i could handle another fire..." His eyes glossed over, and the shadow of regret, mayhaps, took over his facial features. His lip almost trembled, in a rare display of emotion- the fire took a lot out of him. The fire took a lot out of Silence too, and she was left pretty weakened after his death back then. He had found the house completely burnt, and a lot of his memories were lost that day. The day he refused to ascend, and was overwhelmed by a power he couldn't handle.

She lifted a hoof, and caressed his cheek. "Don't worry. I'm stronger today, because of it. I won't let anything break us apart ever again..." She stroked his beard, and rested her head against his long neck. "I won't let anything break us. You can trust your subconscious to me, and put your worries to rest." Suddenly, her features brightened up, along with a wide smile and crows feet under her eyes- "You think I can warp reality hard enough to let Dad see me today? Do you think i've grown enough?"

With a chuckle, he replied, "I think it's worth a try. If anything, i can connect our mindscapes like last time." He quickly put his hooves on his ears, as the filly-minded mare before him shook herself off in a victory dance and a pretty loud cheer. "I bet he's gonna brush my mane, and let me drive the car around! It's gonna be so much fun! Hurry up, get out of here and at Dad's already!" She playfully shoved her host towards the door, pronking all the way towards the massive gates outside the Heart.

----------//----------

My eyes fluttered open, the light stinging a bit. The exchange didn't last very long, but an hour had passed in the outside world. It was more than time to get up and get going; otherwise i just know I'll pass the whole day on the couch doing nothing.
After living for centuries, i can honestly say that my worst enemy is procrastination. When you dont have to worry about aging, and dying, you tend to care little about wasting a day or two.

I could feel the tug in my mind, and after a few seconds, a mote of light appeared in front of my eyes. Silence apparently wanted to come out- and with a mental switch flipping, i let her manifest herself. A shower of lights and sparks twirling like a small dust devil manifested before me, and before long her light was cast around my room, making little dust bunies flying in the air sparkle and shine like pop stars on a stage. The off-white walls were glowing a golden color, and the few frames around the room now reflected rays of the flare coming from Silence's shining presence. Everything felt calm around us- but i knew that the second i'd walk downstairs, mother would sense Silence and give an huff of annoyance as my "mental clutter" filled the space around her and would make her feel oppressed. And just like that, my mood was soured for the upcoming few hours.

Being broken had perks, and disabilities alike.

----------//----------

I had teleported to avoid furtherly souring my mood- Honestly, i can't understand how angry i can be at times- and winked into existence just outside the laboratories in the industrial district of Canterlot. The city was stretched onto a few levels, and the lowest one, industrial, was filled with assembly lines, factories and a few offices. The buiding i stood in front of was actually an old warehouse refitted into a laboratory, a small, inconspicuous space that hid yet another one great equestrian secret: an underground base for one of Equestria's hidden agencies. My Family's order, the one i founded back in one of my earlier lives.

Bearing the symbol of the crown and the order's mark, an alchemical symbol for "heaven", my pass allowed me a direct access through the processing at the entrance, the guard barely reacting to my presence. I hopped into an elevator, and made my way to the lower floors. The underground headquarters had quite a large number of laboratories, all located under our offices and guard's barracks in order to hide our research as much as possibe, in the event of a raid- and the research Dad was working on was quite sensible, as a matter of fact.

The place had seen better days. The first floor above was immaculate- not even a speck of dust- but even the elevator showed signs of wear. Many scratches on it's wooden laqued floor, the paint on the buttons was slightly smeared and washed off, the light flickered occasionally, and the soft jazz playing from the hidden radio was crackling like an old witch- all in all, claustrophobic ponies clearly chose to use the stairs over the old elevator.

With a soft 'ding', the music stopped while a mare's voice announced, "Laboratories - Research and Development". As the doors parted, I strolled out of the elevator, and took a few steps towards yet another receptionist. "Excuse me, is the department's head still working in lab 5?"

Disinterested, the mare casually waved a hoof around and gave a huff of annoyance, her many pieces of jewelry tinkling on her hoof as she twirled it. "Obviously, we can't even get him to leave the lab in order to sleep. It was high time someone came to get him out of there. He has us all on edge with his experi-" she was cut off by a small explosion, coming our left.

My ears pricked, and my nose sniffed. My senses were telling me that it came from after the bend in the left hallway- most likely, lab 5. I sighed.
"I'll see if i can't get him to take a break, at least. I'll pay for the damages my idiotic Father caused... As usual." With a swish of my tail, I took of in the direction of the acrid smoke- i could already see ponies running from it. A twinge in my mind told me to be careful- Silence obviously sensed something, and it was wise not to dismiss it casually.

The soft clip clop of my hooves on the tiled floor echoed in a weird way as i turned into view of Lab 5. This peculiar lab was built into the cliffs of the Canterlot's lower spires- and as such, had a large bay window- letting in quite a lot of natural light, for some experiments behaved and reacted poorly to the constantly flickering, magically charged neon lights. The view was impressive, but what caught my attention was the state of the Lab.

Tables overturned, papers strewn about, smokong instruments- and the pod in the middle of it all, seemed intact. Cracks were running along it's lenght, but it still seemed in good enough of a shape. The crystal condensers had held the charge, and the circuits hadn't fried like the prototype a few weeks ago. Promising research.

"Dad? Anything broken?"being carefull not to step ok anything that could prickle my frogs, i made my way over to the pod, and opened it. Inside, a pegasus was curled up on a reclining chair, his golden-brown eyes glued to some screen showing various readings, while his primaries were working on some other pieces of machinery. Revered Scientist of the Apokryphes family, yet an idiotic bridbrain, my father was like me- an unnamed pony bearing only a mark and the Apokryphes name. He used to be an artist, an actor, until he was scouted by the order, purely for genetical reasons. They wanted to create the perfect host body for me-and thus was born Silence. They clearly had the same eyes, the same nose, the same rictus when they smiled. The dextrous ends of his wings were slightly darkened and glistened from the oil they were covered in, but you could still see the golden tips if you looked hard enough- the same golden color Silence's pelt often shone. His dull terra cota pelt was smeared with oils, chemicals and smelled an awful lot like the acrid smoke filling the air.

"Sonny, look at that. The Bose Einstein condensate held! We were able to successfully create another state of matter! Yet another breakthrough- soon, we will be able to make a stable one! I'm so excited! Years of research, hundreds of hours of hard work, isolated in this lab, finally bearing fruit!" He tapped the display once, twice, then twisted it so i could have a look. "Here, look at that. Even the molecular structure hasn't changed. The condensate was stable enough to even create it's own electromagnetic field! This is science that will change the way ponies interact with nature forever!"

I patted him on the shoulder, and a small smile crept unto my lips. This meant i was a few steps away to finally getting healed. "I'm proud of you, Dad. And i'm glad your research finally got you somewhere." A tingle ran from the back of my head, down to my withers. "But could you please leave the lab for a few days? There is so much enervation and harmful radiation around, i wonder how your gums aren't bleeding right now."

He nodded, his frantic eyes still glued on the screen before him. "Sure, sure, we'll go grab a bite in a few minutes. I need to record all of this data before I forget it. Could you go see if Specimen 46 is allright? Loud noises always distress her to no end." He immediately returned his attention towards the flashing screen, and I had a feeling a reply would fall on deaf ears.

I turned my hooves, and walked out the lab towards the containment chambers in the other hallway- passing in front of the secretary, we exchanged a brief nonverbal exchange- she looked over her glasses, stared into my eyes, and i gave her a small frown and a shake of my head. With a sigh, she returned to her magazine, and didn't stop me from going into the securised area in the other hallway.

I presented my pass at the scanner mounted on the wall, and the gate leading towards the containment unit chambers unlocked with a soft click. I pushed open the door, and trudged down the hallway silently- the specimens here were constantly changing, and some of them looked quite innofensive, while others ressembled eldritch horrors the likes of which could be found in centaur ruins- I.E. Skyreach- or other temples to forgotten deities Accross the globe. This section of our facilities was developing weapons against all kinds of creatures, or otherwise was trying to breed peaceful monsters to be used in all manner of ways, from war to industrial heavy lifting.

Approaching a three inch thick steel door at the end of the hallway, i braced myself as i went to open the door- the creature behind was slightly unstable psychologically. At times, it seemed to think i was it's herdmate and best friend. Other times, it seemed to think it's lunch was late and that i passed for a healthy alternative to the synthesized meat it was served usually.

I wondered, would i be friend or lunch today?