Jumping Blind

Chapter 6: Haunting Memories

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The library was silent again as its inhabitants sat frozen in shock. Their princess, one of the most kind and caring ponies to have ever lived, had just insulted a new pony to the point that he had left. He was admittedly strange, but he had tried to be pleasant to all of them. What had she seen with that spell to treat him that way?

The only pony that wasn’t affected by the events that had recently occurred was the princess herself. She still seemed to be dazed by whatever that orb had shown her.

Celestia shook herself as the effects of the spell began to fade away. She smiled fondly at the group of mares in front of her. “Hello my little ponies.” She looked around the interior but noticed that something, or rather, somepony was missing. “Where is Vigil?”

There was no verbal response but six hooves rose into the air, pointing at the slightly ajar door leading outside.

Finally one small, accented voice spoke up. “Why’d he leave like that?” The owner of the voice, a small yellow filly, was curled up next to her sister and staring beseechingly at the white alicorn.

Twilight snapped out of her shock first and looked at her mentor. “Princess? What did you see that could have made you say that?”

Celestia returned the look to her student in a confused fashion. “I haven’t said anything. I’ve been viewing memories until a few moments ago.”

Surprisingly, Fluttershy spoke up, the quiet yellow pegasus was gazing at the door worriedly. “You said ‘monster’ and he left. Will he be ok? He didn’t look very well.”

Pinkie’s hair had deflated and hung limply as she stood crying. “I never got to throw him a welcome-to-Ponyville party and now he’s gone FOREVERRRRR…” Her final word descended back into wailing.

Celestia looked at her distraught subjects. “There seems to have been a misunderstanding. Until the spell ended a few moments ago I haven’t been able to pay attention to anything else. Anything I might have said would have been repeating what had been said in the memory.”

Meanwhile, Rainbow and AJ had split off from the others and were discussing the situation themselves.

“I knew it and I told them he was trouble. I knew we shouldn’t trust him and now look.” Rainbow declared victoriously.

AJ took a more reasonable approach, her accented tone cutting off the cyan mare’s self-praise. “What did he do exactly? All he did was bring Spike home, help Applebloom find me, and fall asleep. He even answered our questions. What did he do wrong?”

The pegasus dropped to the ground. “I guess you’re right…” She paced back and forth thoughtfully, then stopped suddenly. “I can just catch him. There’s no way he can beat the fastest flyer in Equestria.” She leapt into the air and sped out the door, leaving a trail of rainbow colors in her wake.

Every pony in the room turned to the farmer. She shrugged. “She went ta go bring Vigil back.”

“Oh dear.” Celestia said as she hurried out the door followed by five mares. “I fear that may not have been the best choice in his current state.”

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A cloaked stallion flew above the sleeping Ponyville, seeking solace in the clear night sky. The coloring of his apparel made him nearly invisible apart from the flashes of color the moonlight would reveal occasionally as the wind pushed aside the cloak. His eyes could barely be seen beneath the slightly fogged flight goggles over them, but a close examination would reveal their bloodshot quality and the moisture collected on the lenses was on the inside.

He flew silently towards the overgrown forest not too far away. The Everfree, the kind yellow mare had called it. As the last houses of the small town were cleared, the solitude was interrupted by a streak of rainbow colors barreling into him.

Vigil turned with the impact, folding in his wings, and allowing whatever crashed into him to continue its path harmlessly. He rolled a few times while reorienting before catching himself with his wings and continuing his flight. He pondered the possibility of this world having fireworks, but shrugged it off and continued on.

The streak of color banked back around and dove at the draconic stallion again. This time he withdrew his wings and dropped under it before impact. As it flew past, his augmented eyes revealed the blur to be a cyan pegasus mare. He stopped and hovered in the air, confused. Why was she out here? Did she come to make fun of him? He shook his head, pulled in his wings, and dove for the forest, desperate to escape.

Rainbow followed her target easily enough, he was fast but he hadn’t quite figured out all she had to make herself faster. She matched his driving speed and called out, “Hey! Where do you think you’re going?”

He abruptly spread his wings, effectively stopping in place while she sped past. She grumbled at being out-maneuvered, even if her thoughts had been elsewhere, and turned around again. He called ou to hert against the wind. “What do you want? To make fun of the freak?” His anger put an edge on the normally quiet and resonant baritone.

The flyer looked at his bared fangs and the smoke escaping his mouth, the fiery glare from his slitted eyes burning into her. There was no way she would ever want to fight the nearly feral being presented before her. Here was a creature that was had survived centuries of violence and reveled in it. Where was the shy, gangly and quirky young stallion she found in the library?

His eyes softened and lost their edge at the fear evident on her face. His voice took on a tired and truly defeated tone as the anger faded away. “Just… Go home Miss Dash. I was leaving anyway.” He turned and dropped the rest of the way into the forest, vanishing from view.

Rainbow was left hovering in confusion. Why was Vigil acting like that? What happend to him? She looked to the forest and found no trace of him. She shook her head and turned back to the town. Maybe she would have better luck with her friends.

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I ran through the corrupt forest, hooves pounding into the soft earth. Honestly it was more like pushing through a thick jungle, but without the humidity and heat.

A memory of me steps out of my family home. He is quite a bit shorter, stockier, darker colored skin and hair, he has none of the scars my body is covered in. He walks over to a parked car and pulls out.

I kept running, not seeing or caring where I was going, I just needed out to get away.

Red and blue lights flash in the rearview mirror. The memory figure hands the officer a license and turns to pull the registration from the glove compartment. A sharp prick in the side of neck and everything fades to darkness.

I shuddered as the memory continued despite my attempts to drown it out. My legs gave out as I entered a small clearing, throwing me to the ground. I curled up as tightly as I could while shaking and whimpering as the images forever etched into my mind played out.

The view lightens and clears, revealing the figure from before strapped to an operating table in an unfamiliar room. The walls, floor, and ceiling are all white, uninterrupted by windows or doors, giving the impression of floating in a timeless space. An outline of a rectangle slowly forms at one side of the room, taking on details little by little until a door stands there. A new figure walks into the room, his face obscured by a surgical mask. All that can really be made out is his lab coat, hair, and eyes, all of them the same shade of soulless black.

“Hello there Omega. I’m sure you’re very confused at the moment.” His voice is warm and comforting, with a slight British accent. The figure relaxes slowly against the table.  He looms over the restrained figure, raising something in his hand to just above the figure’s chest. “Your purpose will become clear in time.” The scalpel reveals itself as it comes down, the arc ending at the figure's chest. The image fades with the sound of the figure’s screams and thrashing.

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I jolted awake, yelling, to find that the sun has risen, just peaking over the mountains in the distance. I must have fallen asleep for a few hours. I shuddered at the images of the memories of what had happened the night before. That might explain why I felt even more tired.

I looked down at my battered body, my cloak had been discarded a few feet away leaving it bare. Cuts and tears from crashing into things covered it along with an oddly distorted leg. That explained why it gave out last night. As soon as I noticed it, my body started reporting the damage as loudly as possible. I brilliantly decided that getting up would be a bad idea just yet and ran a system diagnostic.

Thanks to Tory’s experiments, I’m not completely flesh and blood anymore. My skeleton was replaced with a set of extremely strong and ridiculously complex mechanics, capable of operating independently of the rest of my body if the need arises. Plates of whatever material those are made of also cover my ribs to protect the organs beneath. My organs, including my eyes, inner ears, and muscles have been augmented with a kind of biocircuitry, organic mechanics, enhancing their functionality. The superficial aspects of my body, my skin, facial features, outer ears, etc. are almost purely biological though.

While doing all of this work, Tory realized that it would all be useless if I died from the injuries he or someone else would inflict on me. So he added stolen plans and experiments to his own to increase my physical endurance.

Does it need to be said that he only ever worked when I was conscious?

I stared at the injuries, wondering why my healing factors hadn’t kicked in. I shrugged and shifted back to my regular, human, form to see the damage.

I looked down at myself again. I was back in my blood soaked jeans and t-shirt, hurray. The cuts and bruises still didn’t show any signs of rapidly healing and my arm remained just as broken as before. This did not bode well for my stay here, and I couldn’t go jumping with how tired and damaged I still was.

I slumped over. Is this what I've been reduced to? Running from abuse for the rest of my unnatural life?  All I've ever done is try to help and look at where that's gotten me! I'm damaged and hurting in the middle of a corrupted forest because some BITCH decided that something outside of my control makes me a monster! Unfortunately she's an overpowered sun god worshiped as royalty by an entire kingdom. I sighed. What's the point anymore?

A rustle and snap from the far side of the clearing brought me out of my thoughts again. I dragged myself behind a bush and peaked out. A midnight blue unicorn trotted happily into the clearing, levitating a basket in the air next to her, she was a little shorter than I was in pony form, but still taller than what seemed to be average. She smiled as she left the tree line and bolted past me.  She leapt into the air, revealing a set of wings matching her fur, and dove behind a small hill with a splash leaving the basket at the top.

I slowly crawled up the hill and peaked over. This angle allowed me to see a small lake, hidden from my original entry. The winged unicorn giggled as she used her wings to propel herself through the water. Huh, I’d never thought of doing that before. After a while she got tired of splashing about and swam back to shore. She got out and made her way to her basket, forcing me to duck back into the foliage. She pulled out a dark towel and dried off before spotting my cloak.

“Ooooh. That’s interesting. It will go perfectly in my collection.” She mused quietly to herself. She her speech indicated probable royalty, but why was she out here alone?

Here goes nothing. I stood up as she lifted the cloak and carefully stepped forward. “Sorry miss, but that’s mine.”

She stared at me for a few moments, examining me, then shrugged and moved it over to me.

I gingerly pulled it out of her telekinetic grasp and looked at her confused. “That’s it? No screaming and fleeing in terror? No insulting the abomination or trying to remove a threat?”

She shrugged again. “You are not the oddest thing that I have seen. And the creatures of this forest do not bother me.”

My jaw dropped. What was that? “Erm… Ok, not what I was expecting.” My brain finally made the connections between her and what Spike had told me about this world. “I’m going to guess that you’re Luna, the recently returned princess.”

She nodded and pulled a blanket out of the basket to lie on the grass. “That is correct.” She flopped on top of it, the grass underneath softening the fall.

I looked at the cloak at mentally kicked it. It warped and tied itself into a sling, which I slipped my arm into and put on. “There aren’t that many winged unicorns I’m guessing. Spike mentioned a yelling problem… and an extensive use of the ‘royal we’.”

She shook her head while pulling out a sandwich. “You know of Spike? The correct term is alicorn and no, there are not. The royal Canterlot voice and the royal language are reserved for addressing the subjects or ambassadors. Or, they were.” She took on a wistful expression momentarily before returning her gaze to me. “But you are not one of them.”

I nodded and studied her, watching the mood shift. “Yeah, he was part of a case I just finished. I know the feeling of being left behind by the world.”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, really? And how would a creature such as you have any idea what I feel?”

I chuckled, surprising her. “A few different reasons, the primary one being personal experience.” I stared directly ahead as I thought back. “I told a little filly part of this story, but didn’t finish it for her. A long time ago, there was a… Incident and I was taken away from my life at home for many years.” My expression never faltered from a blank neutral state.

Luna listened without any reaction besides an occasional flick of her ears. I really should figure out pony body language.

“The world have moved on while I was away, twelve years to me was a century there. Everyone I had known was gone, my friends my family..." I sighed before continuing. “They probably had forgotten me by the end, not that I blame them. They thought I was dead and moved on like they should have. To this day, I only know where my father is buried.”

I looked over and found Luna looking up at me with tears dripping down her face. I scrambled closer as much as could with half-asleep legs and wrapped my arm around her. “Hey, don’t worry about it. You have a chance to be accepted again by your home.”

She sniffled and laughed at my antics before looking at my back. “You have wings?” she asked incredulously.

I craned my neck around and sure enough, my wings were showing. The speckled grey appendages were furled comfortable at my back. “Ah… That’s not a good sign. My glamour is failing.”

She shot me a flat look. “Sure you can use magic…”

“Spike didn’t mention you’re a cynic.” I chuckled.

She gave me a withering glare in response. “I will not be made fun of.”

“Oh really? You won’t?” My smirk widened to a grin. “Look up then.”

She rolled her eyes, freezing with a shocked expression as they looked above her. A blue aura held a sphere of water over her head. Her gaze slowly returned to me and I held out my free arm. My hand was coated in a matching aura while a variety of runes and shapes glowed out from under the skin of my forearm. Her eyes sharpened to a glare. “Don’t even think-” Whatever the rest of her sentence was supposed to be was drown out in a fit of sputtering as the aura snapped off, drenching her. She glared while pulling some water from the lake behind us while I was laughing and dropped the icy liquid down my back.

I spent the next few hours just hanging out with Luna. She seemed lonely and sad, so I did my best to cheer her up, she was a little reserved at first but she warmed up quickly. The combination of her hideaway and that I wasn’t a pony allowed her to relax to a degree that she couldn’t anywhere else. I told her stories from past jumps, my training from just after the incident, and listened when she talked about her current life in Canterlot. She seemed particularly entertained by my abilities.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my wanderings, it’s that the smallest gestures have the biggest impacts.

“… and that’s why you should never get into an arm wrestling competition with an ogre. It was not fun fixing that dislocated shoulder.” I rose to my feet. “Well this was fun and all but I really should be off.”

The princess looked up at me, sadness creeping into her teal eyes. “Do you have to leave so soon? Where are you going?”

“To see the wizard of course!” I placed a hand over my eyes and shook my head. “Ok, that was a bad one. But really, I’m going to find a place to hide out for a while. Until I can figure out why I’m not healing and why my jumping is off I can’t leave this reality.”

She considered that for a moment before offering “You could come to the castle, I’m sure that between my sister and I we could find out what is happening to you.”

I cringed at the mention of Celestia. “That might not be a good idea.”

Luna saw my reaction, apparently I’m not all that hard to read. “What happened?”

“Your sister and I had a… falling out of sorts.” I looked down at the ground morosely. “She called me a monster.”

She gasped at that. We had gotten to know each other pretty well this morning and she knew how much of a sore point that word is for me. “Why would she do that?”

I sighed and sat back down. “I don’t blame her really. She wanted to make sure all of her little ponies were safe, so she looked through my memories.”

I felt a wing settle on my shoulder, but I refused to look up. “I am certain that it was a misunderstanding.”

I shrugged her off. “There was no misunderstanding that. I've spent more than two centuries trying to help only to get pushed away, hurt, and hunted because of my differences. This is just more of the same.” I let out a sad laugh, speaking mostly to myself “How many times have I said and thought that someplace would be different?”

Luna settled down next to me, ignoring the fatalistic remark. “What exactly are you? Not your species, but how you are immortal."

I laid back, using my arm as a pillow and staring up into the clear blue sky. “I'm not immortal in the traditional sense. I can die, it just takes a lot of effort on their part. However even when I die, I can't remain dead. My body gets kicked into a regenerative state while my soul, or what passes as it now, is pulled away. I wake up sometime after depending on how extensive the damage was."

"How do you move through worlds then?

"That's actually fairly easy to explain. You know about the Travelers right? I’m a ways below them on the whole cosmic scale, but above the jumpers who just happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. A group of gods claimed me, but they never gave me much of a mission. It’s really more of a ‘go out and do something’ kind of thing. Occasionally I get a specific job, but mostly it’s ‘bring this message to this person’ or ‘observe this event’. Mostly, I think they just wanted to see the multiverse through a different perspective.”

She nodded. “How are you different then?”

I shrugged. “I can control my jumping somewhat, but not nearly to the same degree as the Travelers. Ask Spike about it sometime. I’m also so much weaker than them, but I’m not bound by the same rules. My rules are much more flexible, which might explain why Nuetra dislikes me so much. Something about upsetting the balance.”

“I think we've waited in this disgusting forest for far too long. Let’s just talk some sense into him.” A familiar posh voice drifted from the forest behind me, interrupting my explanation. Great, of all the ponies to find me, it had to be little miss prissy.

Luna squeaked and dove behind me as I leapt up, my larger form shielding her from sight. My wings flared behind me as I couched defensively and formed a sparking blue dagger in my hand.

“There’s no need for that.” Celestia stepped out from behind a tree, followed by the six ponies from earlier. “I’d like to apologize. I didn't mean to say what I did before. It was a repetition of something that was said in your memories.”

I stayed in the stance watching the group wearily, particularly the rainbow haired one. She was watching me carefully, trying to judge how I would react. Good, she knows how dangerous I can be if they try anything. At her words I relaxed slowly and nodded at her apology. It didn't completely erase what had happened, but it was a start.

“Luna, you can come out now.”

The little lunar goddess’s hooves were set on the top of my wing as she peaked over it. It funny how adorable it looked. “Sister? Why have you come out to this place?” I noted the shift to the royal dialect, old habits die hard I guess.

“You can come out from behind Vigil.” Celestia’s smile shifted into a smirk as her voiced lowered into a conspiring tone. “I didn't know you were quite so attached to him already, dear sister.”

Luna suddenly noticed how tightly she was holding my wing and abruptly let go, sinking back behind it. I watched her slowly step out from behind me and over to her sister. “We are sorry. We wanted to get away from the palace for a time and remembered this place from before…”

I sighed and stood up, furling my wings. It didn't look like they were coming to attack me, but I kept my watch allowing my blade to fizzle out. I waited while the two rulers talked quietly.

“WHAT?! He was serious?!” Luna’s cry of surprise sent me back into a defensive stance, preparing for the worst. When it became obvious that nothing was about to go down I relaxed again.

“A-a-are you ok?” A timid voice behind me made me jump forward and bounce off of a tree. At this rate, I was going to break my nearly indestructible skull or at least dent it. I stood back up and turned around to find Fluttershy staring worriedly at me and Pinkie on her back, cracking up.

I rubbed my aching head. “My everything hurts.”

A multicolored blur sped up to me, leaving a cyan colored mare glaring into my eyes. “What was the big idea running away like that?”

I glared at her muzzle instead of meeting her eyes. "Several lifetimes of abuse from ignorant beings such as yourself."

She stared at me blankly.

I sighed and rubbed my hand across my face. “Did the princess tell you anything of what she saw?”

Twilight walked over and answered. “She didn't go into specifics, but she told us some of it.”

“Then you know my reaction to that word.”

Rainbow kept glaring at me. “I don’t see the big deal. I get that it’s insulting but why take it so personally. It’s not like it’s even that bad, being called a-” She never had a chance to finish her sentence as she suddenly found herself on the ground several feet away.

The ponies around me stared blankly, trying to process what had just happened.

“How did you move that quickly?” Twilight asked slowly. I just gave her a blank look.

I slowly walked over to the cyan mare, who was slowly getting up. “If you ever want to get on my bad side, try to call me that again.” I helped her back up and brushed her off.

“Ok, ok. I get it.” She got back up into the air. “You’re pretty fast for whatever you are.” She glanced up as my face. "And tall too."

Fluttershy spoke up. “What are you exactly? I've never seen anything like you.”

I smiled weakly. “Like I said before, I’m a chimera and a dimensional traveler. This form is from my home dimension, it’s my original one. The species is human or homo sapiens if you want to get specific.” I looked around me, noticing for the first time how I towered over these ponies, even Celestia only came up to my chest without her horn. "And no, they aren't this tall. Most are between five and six and a half feet tall, I'm eight and a half."

Twilight was absorbing this new information and jumped up. “A new species! I have to study this.” She started measuring and lifting my appendages in her aura, resulting in a hiss of pain when she tried moving the sling.

“You’re hurt!” Fluttershy rushed to me, gently unwrapping my arm. “Oh dear, this is broken.”

I gave her a ‘you don’t say?!’ look. “I hadn't noticed. Normally it would have been fixed a couple of minutes after it happened but something is messing up my systems.” I would have enjoyed the confused look on all six faces, but a sharp blow to the back of my head interrupted my victory.

“Ow! What was tha-” Every joint and muscle in my body abruptly locked in place, leaving me petrified. I tried to force myself to move but my vision flickered and blacked out.

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After what felt like a few moments, my sight flickered back on with FULL SYSTEM REBOOT COMPLETED overlaying my sight. “-t for?”

I shook my head. What just happened? I looked around, finding myself back in pony form and limply sprawled on an unfamiliar bed. Aw, I already missed my hands. The room was kind of familiar, or at least the walls were. I slowly rose to my hooves, stopped and stared at my left foreleg. Something was different. Oh, it wasn't broken. I checked for other changes, but couldn't find any. I experimentally shifted my weight onto the leg. No pain or any weakness, must have fixed itself. Satisfied, I walked out the single door.

I was in the library that I arrived in. Huh, small world after all. I looked over the balcony. Spying the group from before I jumped off, spreading my wings to slow my descent. Landing silently behind the cyan one I crept forward, winking at the rest of the group. I reared back on my hind legs, prepared to freak out the pegasus.

Pinkie appeared, just freaking appeared, next to me and started yelling in my ear, causing me to fall over and ruining my scare attempt. “YOU'RE AWAKE! I’msohappyyoufinallywokeupnowwecanfinallyhaveyourwelcometoponyvillepartywhatkindofcakedoyoulikedoyouevenhaveafavoritecakewhatsyourfavoritecolorcanyoubreathefirebecauseyoulooklikeadragonanddragonsbreathefireand…” It got kind of obscure from there.

Rainbow jumped into the air at Pinkie’s sonic assault and started laughing at my sprawled form on the ground. I returned to my hooves again, trying to ignore the pink dynamo who was still chattering quite rapidly in my ear. I’m just happy she ran out of cookies earlier. “I almost had you there Miss Dash.”

She rolled her eyes. “Would you stop the ‘Miss Dash’ stuff? It’s just Rainbow.”

I nodded, a grin forming on my face. “Ok, Miss Rainbow.”

She glared at me, but laughed when she saw the grin. “You’re kind of funny.”

I held a hoof to my chest and swayed dramatically. “Only kind of?” I scoffed, “My dear, I must try harder in the future then.” That got a few giggles from the rest of the group.

I smiled at them, then focused on the matter at hand… hoof. “So, what happened out there? I remember the clearing and then I got hit in the back of the head. After that, nothing.”

Applejack answered me. “Well, after the princess knock you in the back of the head you froze. Then you just fell over and started making funny noises. The princess said somethin’ about a many restarting or somethin’ like that.”

“That’s a manual reset Applejack.” Twilight spoke up. “She said he had to sleep off the effects of coming to a new world.”

I nodded slowly. “That’s close enough I guess. Really I had to go into a lockdown where all of my systems simultaneously shut down briefly while they copied the base code and reworked a new set of codes to work optimally in this reality. Then… No one’s listening anymore are they?”

It was true, they all had blank looks on their faces at the unfamiliar information overload. Twilight however was busily writing notes about what I said with a quill. I sighed and clapped my hooves together sharply, snapping them out of it. “Basically I fell asleep while my body adjusted, better?” They all nodded in agreement. I looked over at the still scribbling librarian. “Should I do something about that?” They all shook their heads.

“Ah wouldn’t worry too much about it sugarcube. She’s always going on about somethin’.”

I smiled at her. “Ok Miss Applejack, did your sister get home alright?”

She smiled and held out a hoof. “Shoot, just call me AJ. It’s a pleasure to meet ya’ Vigil and she got home just fine.”

I looked inquisitively at the offered appendage. “Er… What are you doing exactly?”

She gave me a look like I was an idiot. Which I am, but not for the reasons she’s thinking of. “It’s a hoofshake. Haven’t you had one before?” I gave her a flat look and she seemed to remember something. “Oh, right. You aren't from around here.”

I facehoofed, slowing before impact this time. “No, I’m not. I’m used to handshakes, but...” I held up my hooves. “The lack of hands makes it a bit difficult.”

Rarity walked over to me. “Oh you poor dear. You don’t know anything about our culture or customs do you?”

I shook my head. “No Miss Rarity, just what Spike told me and what I've picked up from being around you ponies.”

She scoffed. “No no no. That won’t do at all. You have such potential to be a true gentlestallion.” She walked around me, assessing my features more closely. “I've already told you about your weight…”

I sighed and put my head on my hoof. “I get it, I’m skinny. There isn't much I can do about that though.” A pink missile slammed into me, knocking me over.

Pinkie was sitting on my chest, pinning me to the floor. What is with this pony and knocking me to the ground? She held a plate of various sweets and baked goods in one hoof. “I can fix that! I got you a sampler of everything we have at the Sugarcube Corner.” She started shoveling the treats into my mouth as she told me what they were. “These are peanut butter chocolate covered cherries, tiramisu, carrot cake, banana muffin, caramel apple, red velvet cupcake with strawberry icing…”

I tried pushing her off but even with augmented strength, there’s not much you can do without leverage. I was forced to try and breathe around the sweets being shoved into my mouth until finally someone pulled her off of me.

“All right sugarcube, ah think he gets the point.” AJ, my hero! I coughed up some crumbs as I struggled to get back up again. AJ helped me up while Rarity cleaned up the mess on the floor.

“You have a little something.” Dash rubbed her hoof all over her face. “There.”

I glowered at her until Pinkie walked up. “She’s right. Let me help you with that.” Her tongue extended to a cartoonish degree and whirled across my frontal body, taking off everything. I froze in place, staring straight ahead while my brain tried to process what just happened. I’ve seen some odd things and done even worse, I've had tea with freaking Cthulhu, but come on. Nothing can ever prepare you for a Pinkie tongue bath.

“Um… Pinkie? I think you broke him.” Dash waved a hoof in front of me.

“Oh dear, I think he’s in shock.” Fluttershy poked me in the ribs with a hoof, I didn't even rock with it. “… oh...”

And of course, nothing would do except all of them touching my scarred ribs and the plating on them. Dash even punched me, resulting in a metallic thud and an injured hoof. Meanwhile, my mind have given up and was taking a vacation in the Bahamas from the weirdness that now makes up my life, so I was stuck in statue mode.

A splash of cold water brought me back to my senses. Twilight was hovering a bucket overhead, still dripping on me. “Thanks.” I dried off with an offered towel and mopped up the floor. I looked around, the rest of the group was nowhere to be found. “What happened to everyone?”

She was reorganizing the books on a shelf. “They all had to go home, it’s getting late. When they couldn't wake you up they left.”

“How did you know  how to snap me out of it then?”

She shrugged. “I tried everything else.”

I nodded. “Ok, that explains nothing at all. What happened to the princesses? They weren't here earlier.”

She finished the shelf and moved to the next, never losing concentration. “They had to return to Canterlot and their royal duties. They left you a message.” A bound scroll floated over to me. I untied it and started reading.

Dear Wanderer,

I’m sure that you have awoken confused, allow me to clarify what transpired. After my sister informed me of how your abilities were not functioning properly, I consulted your memories for an answer. It appears that by jumping through so many different realities you put too much of a strain on yourself resulting in your body shutting off non-primary functions. As you know, your systems are reset when you fall asleep. It seems that with all of the events that have happened, you haven’t gone into a deep enough sleep for your body to do so. I activated a manual reset safety protocol in the back of your skull. You should find that all of your systems and abilities have been reactivated.

You really should re-read your user’s manual.

During your reset cycle and being known as “Emma” spoke to me. She wanted to let you know that she cannot stay with you any longer and wishes you luck until the next time you meet. She is also sorry that the strange matter didn't function properly in this dimension.

To further apologize for my actions I have instructed my student, Twilight, to offer you room and board until you find a residence. I would also like you to join my sister and I in Canterlot tomorrow at your convenience.

Princess Celestia

P.S. Princess “M” wishes you and Spike well and hopes for another visit from you soon.

P.S.S. My sister also wishes to thank you for an enjoyable day, she hasn’t been settling into the palace very well the last few days and this morning helped her considerably.

I shuddered after reading the first post script. That is NOT a reality I plan on visiting again soon. I walked over to Twilight and wrapped my forelegs around her awkwardly. “Thank you Miss Sparkle.”

She laughed a little at the awkward hug. “Please, it’s Twilight. Besides I couldn't kick you out on the street after you helped Spike.” She paused a few moments when I didn't let go. “Your scales are very warm.”

“Oh, right." I set her back down quickly and backed away. "Sorry, just a little happy.”

She shook her head. “Oh, it’s perfectly alright. Why are you so happy?”

I handed… hoofed her the letter. “My systems and abilities are back!” I twirled in a circle excitedly.

She shook her head as she read the letter. “You have a meeting with the princesses tomorrow?” She read the last part. “You have a manual?!”

I shrugged. “Yeah, but it’s constantly being rewritten by The Editor. I've repaired, replaced, and upgraded myself so many times and I've rewritten all of my original coding which makes most of the safety and shutdown protocols useless. I was supposed to have been the generalist for my series, which when you have a team of specialists meant that I had to learn everything. Engineering was one of the few parts that I enjoyed.”

 “Can I read it? Can I can I can I?” She started hopping up and down excitedly.

“Twilight. Calm down. I have one of the originals written by Tory in my bag. Crazy bastard made triplicates of everything and he didn't trust the computers. It’s a bit outdated but it has the basics.” I pulled a black book the size of an encyclopedia out of my bag. “Just a warning though, it’s a bit of a dry read.”

Twilight all but tore the book apart as she pulled it out of my grasp. “Thank you thank you thank you. All this new information, just think of all the things that could be done. I have to start this now!"

I chuckled and settled onto the couch, using my folded cloak as a pillow. There’s no way she could do anything from Tory’s notes, all of the materials and processes could only be made and performed by him or me and he "lost" all of his notes.

"Hey Twilight?"

She looked up from the book. "Yes Vigil?"

"Thanks really... for everything. You didn't have to be this nice, I mean you didn't have to let me stay. Heck you put me in your bed when I passed out. That's all unnecessary, I would have been fine on the ground." I listened to the silence. "Alright, I’m going to get some actual sleep now. I haven’t had a good rest since I picked up Spike.”

A young purple drake slowly came down the stairs, rubbing his eyes groggily. Spike’s sleepy eyes settled on Twilight and me. “Oh hey. What happened to her?”

I shrugged and glanced at the mare. She already had a stack of notes next to her. “I gave her one of my old manuals to keep her busy while I get some actual sleep.”

He nodded and turned around, heading back upstairs. “Good night then.”

“G’night Spike.” I closed my eyes and turned down my audio sensors. I drifted off quickly to the sound of a quill scratching on parchment and ruffling pages.