Falling into place.

"...and Project Tranquility is going well, I thought you should know..."

It was a bit strange, having to talk without the chance of being interjected, contradicted or corrected. Especially when it was him. Conversation with him were supposed to devolve into squabbling over the inherent values of stuff. Him not responding to her casual statements of 'aesthetics' and 'true art' was wrong.

But she came here anyway, at this time, every day, no matter what, to tell her older brother about what was happening beyond the land of the unconscious. Today was rather uneventful in the grand scheme of things, just a natural progression of what happened yesterday. Tomorrow seemed to be the same.

"Your department is still fighting with the others for funding, it seems. Apparently all of them have come up with a 'great big project' to attract the punters. Unfortunately for your department, the other project don't seem to have the same likelihood of blowing everything up. In fact, the astrology department is helping me greatly with Project Tranquility." She smirked. "Don't worry, it has some use beyond 'looking pretty', even though it uses very little magic."

It was that time again where Elegance had finally ran out of things to say. It was earlier today than usual. The next moments were spent in silence, with only the machinery recording Intel's status breaking it.

I don't know what I'm doing.

That was what Shala told herself as she arrived at the check in counter. She knew why she was here, but she didn't know what it was going to do. Her life had fallen apart enough times that it wasn't even in her control anymore. The train was on invisible tracks run by her subconscious. Having started her life over only made her realize how much deeper her internal tornado had gone.

"What is your relationship with our patient Miss Table?" Asked the nurse.

Shala withheld a wince at the use of her new name. It didn't feel right to her. Everything felt half empty since her life restarted. A new identity, new liver, and medication so her body would not reject it. And the side effects of that of course. Her normal escape to alcohol was only a shadow of what it used to be. Nothing had the same effect on her as before. And her mind would always be...buzzing with attentiveness. Maybe everything felt so awful because she had to pay attention to it more.

"...Miss Table?"

Shala calmly brought her attention back to the nurse. Her expression was nearly blank, hinting with some fear.

"....Fiancée."

She wasn't sure why she chose that for her relation, but in her mind it made sense.

In the next few moments, she found herself taking a long walk down the hallway to her ultimate destination. Fear began to build in her. She didn't know what she was going to do. Would she sit next to him and talk about her life? Would she ask for his forgiveness? Or would she lose herself again and hurt him? Shala didn't know if she could trust herself anymore to do what was best. Her life could very well end here as much as begin anew. There wouldn't be a second chance after this.

Shala stopped at the door. Her magic was locked onto the doorknob, but it wouldn't move. Her mind locked. This would be the moment she ran the rest of her life on after. Taking a deep breath, she recalled the many words and stories her mother told her and opened the door.

Here we are...The moment for the rest of your life. And there he is...oh f-

Shala saw her just as soon as she saw him. Each one brought it owns stimuli. One brought fear, the other, hate. All she could do was bring herself to stand there in the doorway, looking at her with a blank stare bordering fear.

There were so many ways this could go wrong. Was this what it was meant to be? Was it all just going to crash together on itself now? Shala felt the itch for alcohol.

Breaking the moment of stillness, she took a step inside and closed the door behind her . Her decision was made. She was staying to the bitter end.

I'm not letting this happen. I swear I'll destr-...I'll...figure something out. Shala lifted a box she carried with herself and placed it on the counter.

"....Hello...." She said in a dry bitter voice, forcing a toothy smile.

Elegance froze when the moment of solace was broken. From her heart, a deep chill flowed through her arteries, causing her muscles to clench and her ears to ring and her head to ache. The voice she heard should have been one that had been silenced, if justice was a natural thing. Alas, justice was something that must be forged a pony hooves, and it was clear to the young lady that somepony had been skiving their duty to all that was decent.

She could not bear to look at the object of her hatred, a being made of the very essence of everything that went against the inherent goodness of pony. Her teeth were forced together, a sign that she was using all her will not to lash out at the blight in the fabric of reality. No, violence was a tool of the inept, the wicked. One only had to look upon the fallen form of Lord Design the Intelligent to realise this truth. One only had to know about the vileness in equine form known as Shala Woods.

Yet hatred had to manifest, and it did in bitter tones. "It appears dying was too selfless an act for her to accomplish."

Shala knew that her entire life could change in this room. Everything she did would contribute and echo on from here. And the more terrifying part? She didn't have control of herself. She didn't feel like she knew what she was doing or if she was actually making choices in her head. Her sitting down across from Elegance being one of them. She much rather stay on the other side of the room. But she sat instead, hardly showing any more emotion than fear and uncertainty.

She leaned forward and looked over Intel, wincing at the sight of the damage she had caused him. It hurt far more than what Elegance had to say. Lips trembling, she opened her mouth to say something, but she faltered with a sigh.

Come on...I can get through this...I can't snap. I have paid for that last time enough already.

She took a deep breath and looked down. "...I already died once." She said with some difficulty. Another deep breath and she felt slightly more at ease. She was feeling less and less like she could instantly grappled Elegance and snap her in two over the chair.

She tried to move her eyes to Elegance, but they maneuvered around her and went to Intel. She wasn't sure which of the two was more traumatizing to look at, but she knew that Elegance could only bring the worst out of her.

"...How has he been doing?" Shala said, avoiding the white elephant in the room. She knew things would have to settle between them, but she wasn't sure if she could bring that up just yet. Or if she was capable of doing it at all.

"Why would you care?" was the reply.

She hated her.

"Why did you come here?"

She hated her so much.

"Haven't you ruined his life enough?"

Apart from speaking, Elegance did not move. Her voice was devoid of all emotion as she asked her questions.

"You should have remained dead."

Shala felt her anger begin to boil. Oh how much she wished it would not. But it seethed and festered. Each sentence was a hammer pushing a nail further in.

"You should have remained dead."

She didn't want to hear her anymore. With as much self control as she could muster, she quickly faced her and met her eyes, tears already building up in them.

"Because I love him! He is the only pony I have really cared about since I was a little filly! Last time I ever cared for anypony, they die or disappear or take advantage of me! I am sick of other ponies ruining my life so I stopped trying to care! I stopped trying! And he came into my life and made me care again and you! YOU! Your words were poison to suggest he would just leave me later! Just like how the others have left my life to fall to pieces! So I pushed you out of my life with force and I left!"

She took a moment for some air and wiped her eyes clean of tears, only to have them flow again moments later.

"....And I lost everything...Old friends. My name...My life...All of it torn down....Again." She let her head droop down, staring at the cloth of the bed. "...Its so easy to examine yourself when you are torn down completely...I didn't even care about myself....But there was something left." She looked over to Intel. "...There was him. I don't understand why, but I love him, even after all this...I would have died twice if not for him."

Slowly, carefully, Elegance turned to look at her. Her gaze, in sharp contrast to Shala's, was emotionally dead. That was the true difference between a noble and commoner. A noble did not let her heart be directed by base emotion, but by higher thought.

It was this philosophy that convinced Elegance that as much as she hated the mare she saw, she would not use that as an excuse for her actions. Beyond both hate and compassion, there was only beauty.

And truth.

"He thought the world of you, probably still does. It wouldn't be in his nature if he didn't. A Design never leaves a project unfinished." She sniffed. "And if the project would collapse in on itself if the architect moved on to another, then it could hardly be called 'finished' by any definition of the term."

Elegance tilted her head, not breaking her cool gaze. "This may be surprising to one such as yourself, but my brother and I are very similar. We are both proud members of the Design bloodline, we both value intelligence and we are both consumed by our work and projects. But yes, there are a few vital differences between us. The one that matters here is this: I would never view another pony as a project."

For the first time that evening the features on Elegance's face changed. Her eyes narrowed sharply, turning her expression from 'unemotionally cool' to 'deathly serious'.

"It appears you misunderstood my intent from your eavesdropping. It wasn't a noblemare voicing her distain for a vagrant. It wasn't even a childish foal jealous at the attention an outsider was receiving. It was a little sister trying her big brother from making a big mistake." She paused. "Talk about self fulfilling prophecies."

Shala darted forward and almost onto the bed entirely, shoving her face in the way of Elegance.

"I am not a mistake! I am not a project! I am a pony..." Her words weakened into her last sentenced.

She couldn't let Elegance trivialize this. Nor make the fault be on Intel's end. She loved Intel. It made her feel comforted to know that he loved her, but to suggest that he would only use her? She didn't want to hear that. She came this far to admit her fault, not have it all come true based on her worst fear.

"I know that," Elegance said, "True, I think you are a complete and utter catastrophic mess of a pony, but you are still a pony. And I hate you because of it. Because you are a pony, you didn't have to beat my brother into a coma because of your stupid insecurities. If you didn't have the choice, I wouldn't bother hating you. Why would I? If there was no choice, there would have been nothing anypony could have done and no reason for hatred. But you did have a choice. And you chose to cause pain and misery, even when you knew what pain and misery could do to a pony."

"You tell a sob story, saying that the world treats you like dirt, but really Shala Splitter Tickyclock. How many lives have you destroyed? How many foals now curse the pony who had tortured their parents? How many of them will now grow up to be horrible monsters, just like you? If you weren't a pony, then it would be unfortunate. But you are, and that makes it despicable."

The young noblepony turned to her older brother. "Intel doesn't know what forgiveness is. Oh, he's intellectually familiar with the concept, but he doesn't really know what it means. I don't think he has the right to forgive the sins you have committed against decency, anyway. But since you are his latest project, that doesn't matter to him."

Shala wanted nothing more but to destroy her. To shut her up and never have to hear her words ever again. But each and every bit destroyed her at her core.

She was right. Twice now she had changed her name, and had gone under an nickname before as well. Ever since life took away her mother and the only stability she knew, she took it out on life, never getting over it and using that define herself. It was not the pony she wanted to be. But here she was. Exactly the pony that Elegance described. The worst part of it was that in a way, she admired Elegance. She had aspects that Shala dreamed of having when she was a filly. Until her stable life was taken from her, she envisioned herself being a smart independent pony. Now here that pony was, stripping Shala out to her bare basics and destroying them.

Why did she come here? She could have lived her life just fine if she didn't. Sure it would have been dull and never fulfilling, but she would have survived. Just like she always did. She always survived. Now she was entirely broken. All the barriers broken down. No defenses left.

She began to become hysterical. Her breathing rapid and broken. Her body cringed before crumpling up on the bed and breaking into a sob. The pony before Elegance was now reduced to nothing more than a sobbing filly. She had no real words to offer anymore. Nothing that made a difference. All she could do was whimper and beg.

"...I...I just...I don't know what to do....I just want to go back to the old me. I don't want this anymore. I want out. I want....I want my mother."

Her horn glowed, though faintly. Nothing came of it for now, but it seemed to be related to her trauma.

Elegance never had a pony break down quite so spectacularly in front of her. She usually surrounded herself with ponies that hid their emotions behind a mask of respectability, and when they did cry, they did so with at least some respectability.

There was none here, no poise, no dignity. Just a pathetic shell of a pony. And Elegance did not know what to do, apart from watch. She knew no words of comfort, no ways to make the pain hurt less. Nopony had taught her these things.

Like most, Elegance did cry when she was very small. Unlike most, nopony dared to tell her the lie, or the incomplete truth, that 'It will all be better.' Because it wouldn't be; unless you did something about it.

Cautiously, Elegance stood. "If your mother was here. What would she do?"

The pony that tore her down asked something of her she never expected. What would her mother do? Shala wasn't sure how to answer her, or if she could answer her in such a state. Her basic thought process was hardly working. But her mother was hardly that far form her mind here. Part of her thought it was a trick. A way to destroy her even more, but at this point, she had nothing left. Was she going to take was little she had of her mother away too?

Not looking up from her messy of a self she was, Shala replied with broken breaths.

"She...She would hold me...and tell me everything would be...alright....And..." She cringed up tightly. "She told me to...love myself in the end...forgive and forget....Those were the last things she told me before she died....Before my father murdered her....Again...and again...and again.....Like its the only thing I can remember...."

Shala recalled the events all too well. The actions her father took. It reminded her of herself. Had she become the monster she hated more than anything?

Elegance looked at Shala for a long, long while, examining her in silence. Her eyes did not cease to narrow as she led her gaze up and down. When she finally spoke, it was cold and unfeeling.

"Did you hate your mother that much, then, to disregard her final legacy so?"

As if her words could not strike any deeper, her core was rocked once again. Shala grinded her face harshly into the bed and pressed with great force. Any words she tried to speak only came out as loud shrills and sobs.

It was those words that made her really realize that as much as she loved and clutched onto her mothers memories, she never let herself move on from that moment she came to an end. Did that filly that was Tickyclock in that moment cease to be? Was she locked away in her mind in those moments of desparation? What pony came to her after that? As terrifying as it was to consider, there was only one other pony in the room when her mother died. Only one other parent.

"No....No. No. No. No....I love her. I couldn't. I wouldn't. I love her. She did everything for me." Shala sobbed through her words, speaking quickly in a panic. Half the time she seemed to mumble numbers. Perhaps they were the time, but they were not the right time. Her horn glowed and sparked sporadically.

With her magic, Elegance picked up the box that Shala had placed on the counter, examining it curiously, tilting it this way and that. If you squinted, you would see that the way that she did this was automatic, practiced and very reminiscent of how her older brother examined something that took his interest. She paid no real attention to the indecipherable blabbering, for it was no doubt nonsense.

"How much you must have loved your father then, to take after him after he had killed his wife in front of their child. You must have really hated your mother to do something as spiteful as that. What sort of monster would hate their mother that much, when that mother loved her so? Oh, Intel. Whatever you saw in her, it wasn't worth it."

With that statement, Elegance opened the box.

The sobbing and tears kept flowing as Elegance kept the wound open and flowing. It was as if she were filling in the thoughts that Shala had denied in her mind this whole time with her alcoholic stupor. As the walls around her collapsed, she could no longer hide behind her walls of denial built around her. No alcohol to save her in her own cage. No pity to allow her to escape behind. The honest truth was clear. Shala was her own worst enemy through and through.

"No...No no no no nonononono! I'm not my father! I can't! I...I love my mother. I...." Her sobs and tears overtook her. She wailed and sobed as she could deny it no longer. All the ponies she hurt and took advantage of under the sorrow of her lost mother when the memory honored her father more so.

Her horn sparked furiously and suddenly, in a flash, Shala was gone. An errie silence followed for a while, but before one could form conclusions, she sparked back into existence before dissapearing again. Each 'flicker' of her being back showed her in various emotional states, growing more tired until finally she stayed in place in one final flash. Mane and fur ruffled, she layed on her side with dried tears. One could say she looked like she were in a tornado for a day. Mouth hanging open, she spoke in a flat tired state.

"I...I'm not a good pony....I'm terrible....I'm a monster....I can't take it anymore. I don't want it....I......Shala Woods must die."

Her face winced and contorted with rage. "No...I'm fine. I just need a dink. I..."

Then she relaxed again face tired and sad. "I...I need help. Help me...."

The box contained what looked to be clock. Only it was not simply a clock, as it had three faces on it. Much of the face hadrustic looking gears behind it, giving it a classic yet sophisticated look. From looking at a glance, it appeared to be telling the time three times, but each one was telling a slightly different time from the other. The left one had a sun like look to it in the background, and the right one had a moon looking face. The center was the larger one and had nothing to distinguish from the others save the large gears built into it. Overall, it was very complex looking.

If Elegance had anything, she had an eye for beauty. And the clock was beautiful. Slowly, intricately, her gaze traced the gears that interlocked to make the mechanism function. So intent was her appraisal that Elegance was blind to all but the clock.

"I assume this of your own making," Elegance said lightly, "You should have remained a clock maker. Curious in how you blame the only good thing about you for all your failures. You could have been decent, dare I say great. But you chose to be a monster. You chose to be evil. In the end, it's all down to one's choice."

Elegance paused. The gears that she saw of the clock started to turn gears in her mind. She hummed. Scratched her ear. Looked up at the ceiling.

"Nightmare Moon spent a thousand years a monster, yet I am constructing a palace in Luna's honour. Funny, that. But I suppose the night was never in itself evil. It's the petty impulses that override noble judgement. The ponies sinned by disrespecting the night goddess, and Luna sinned for refusing to bear her burden. Shallow emotion makes sinners of us all."

She placed the clock down. "I do not lie, Shala Woods. I meant it all when I said that you will find no future among the likes of my older brother and I. You are too broken, and things that can't be fixed have no place in the Designs. Some would describe it as cruelty. I believe that we have no use for wasted compassion." She gestured to the clock. "On behalf of my brother, I thank you for the gift. On behalf of my family, I thank you for dropping by." She took a breath. "On behalf of me, get out. Never return to our life. Go to some country town and become a watchmaker. Fall in love with some other pony and make a family for all I care. Just never cross my bloodline's path again."

Shala's head was buried into the pillow next to Intel, staring at him as if in some hope he would come to and make her smile. But nothing happen. She was on her own here.

Maybe it was better that way.

"....No."

Her voice was soft but flat. Her mind was made up.

But you still need me. Said a voice in her head.You can't get rid of me.

I can't get rid of you yet...But I can control you.

The other voice in her head laughed. Ticky needed Shala, at least for now. Though barely leashed, Shala was given reign.

"No. I never will. I don't care who you are. I'm staying with him." She looked sharply at Elegance. "And you don't have any place telling me that or giving any reasons. You don't even know what those really mean. You don't know what love it. You probably never have had it. What pony would for you? All you do is make buildings and happen to have been born into a rich family. You were GIVEN the things you stand so proudly on. Your funny little blocks you call 'architeture' is just the result of you being a tool. A tool that makes things, gets money and is thrown aside to be discarded and forgotten about when you get old and can't do it anymore! Even your 'toys' you make will eventually fade into nothing in time. Just like the old city in the Everfree. You say your so special and privileged when all its based on is just what mother you came from and that ponies give you money for material. You don't know love. I bet you simply think of family as only ponies who were raised in the same house. If your family bothered to 'raise' you as much as shower you with money and distractions in hopes you did anything but go by that 'oh so precious noble trend'!"

By this point Shala had creeped closer and closer to Elegance, standing on the bed and pushing her head closer toward her with eyes narrowed.

"You think you have so much right telling me off when you are more a joke than me. All the things that define you are just money and material. Take those away and you are just a spoiled brat that wouldn't know what to do other than whimper off and die. You probably never had much a mother to teach you how to do anything in life other than sell yourself off with your name and bits like some prostituted whore!"

She got so close to the edge of the bed that her horn was nearly poking at Elegance's.

"I'll tell you what, pony. YOU get out! You leave! Unlike you, there is something actually real here! Go sell yourself off in some contract and make a house to feel better and make mommy happy!"

"If there was ever a word equivalent to a prostitute, it would be the word 'love'," Elegance said icily, "Ponies like yourself pevert it for your ends so often that it loses any and all attachment to any single meaning. Throwing it at me like some foal throwing a tantrum will not move me. Especially when it comes from a pony who chooses only to destroy when she is perfectly capable of creation. Especially when that pony's expression of love is to either urinate on everything they stood for, or to attempt to kill them. If that's what you think love is, then I am proud to have no part of it."

Elegance smirked. This pony thought that what she said was somehow clever, somehow meaningful. It was just the empty rage of worthlessness, trying to make itself feel better by attacking its betters. Elegance heard more compelling arguments over types of tea.

"Whilst you desecrate everything your mother held dear with every idiotic action you take, I build on what my forefathers gave me. I cannot claim to be part of the Design's legacy without living up to it, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Of course my creations will fade, for everything does. But in between their conception and expiration they will inspire, respect and honour everything magnificient about the world and we who live in it."

The young lady laughed. "You know, it's funny that you bring the Everfree Ruins up. I saw the notes taken on their structure and composition, then used some of those ideas in my Midnight Palace. So in a sense, they will be reborn here in Canterlot. Who knows, maybe in time some young foal will look at my creations to build some of her own. I know my brother who you claim to love was inspired by the magicians of the past, and his magical dampener will enable magicians of the future to pursue avenues into the mysteries of magic not yet traversed."

"What defines me is a legacy to be use the foundations of our past to build something for the future. My 'toys', as you so ignorantly call them, are part of something far greater than your twisted mind could possibly conceive. What would you inspire, I wonder? Pain? Misery? Is that what you think Intel needs? Is that what you claim is more 'real' than I aspire to, what we aspire to be? If you were given what I was, how much would be wasted on your selfish desires! You would be everything that is wrong with most Canterlot ponies today! As it stands, you are merely everything that is wrong with ponies period."

She huffed. "And ponies, like you, are capable of being so much more. When the Lunar princess was finally freed from the madness that tore apart at her sanity for a thousand years, alone in a place so cold and so desolate, she did not wallow in self-pity, she did not remain a monster. She picked up where her legacy was left off and aspired to make up for the thousand years of lost time. That is admirable and deserves to be honoured. When the ponies of the past gave up their lives so that we can live in a better today were swept under the rug and remained ignored for years, they deserved to be honoured. I respect and honour those that deserve it, and I am sickened by ponies like you that demand my respect when they have done nothing to earn it. That's what's real, Woods. I am here because my brother deserves better than this fate you have given him."

The Shala that occupied this ponies body was furious. How arrogant could she get? How could she talk like she was so righteous? It was time she put her in her place and-

Stop! This isn't right. We have done this before.

Oh, you? Don't worry. She won't be a problem soon enough.

We can't keep doing this...

You would not have survived without me. And we are going to survive even better with this twit out of the way!

You did help, but that was then. We have been dying so slowly. We have to change. We can't survive anymore after this....I have to.

Don't you dare think you can tuck me away! I will get back out!

I'll try to be fair to you, but control is needed....I'm sorry.

The pony on the bed fell back onto her rump, looking down to the floor and somewhat defeated, but more than anything, her expression became more sorrowful and...thoughtful.

"The Princess.......she got her honor when her prison was gone. And the first thing that happen when she did was give an apology...And then she was loved for it. The elements of harmony offered her a warm return. And she was a full princess by all rights near immediatly.....My prison is still here.....Just like Princess Luna's, it is self created. That prison is in my mind, and more importantly, its right there on the bed. I'm still in my living hell. And its lasted since the day the ones I loved dissapeared and destroyed the other. No where to go, my life lead me to crime to survive..." She briefly recalled the memories that gave birth to her name and persona that came about in her life of crime.

"...I blamed...Everything. I blamed Intel, and even you. It would be a lie to say I like you or can tolerate your self righteousness, but...."

I can do this....

No you can't. Not with me around.

I'll let you drink a bottle tonight.

.......Two. Final offer.

With an internal sigh, she agreed and felt free to speak her next words.

"...Elegance....I'm sorry....I...I don't want to be a bad pony....I just..." Her eyes twinkled a little and body shook. The rapid change of emotion from earlier was already taxing on her. "I want to get better. And I suck at it. I need help. I need somepony. And whether or not its meant to be, Intel is my penance, and I have to...I have to be here."

Elegance blinked. She blinked again. Then she frowned.

The shift...it was somewhat disturbing. After the barbed words, the hurtful insults they threw at each other, an all out apology threw her train of thought off. When she thought about it a little more, the object of her hate had undergone great mood swings. But what disturbed her most was the similarity to her brother when he...got really into things.

She was honestly quite scared when Intelligent was like that.

To have him as your only hope would be...

"Ever improving," the young lady said soberly, reciting her family motto, "It's never over. Never. Transform all of Equestria into a Utopian paradise, and there would always, always be something to fix. There's always, always something wrong."

Elegance closed her eyes and bowed her head. "Intel is broken. Quite, quite broken. You know how he thought we'd get on famously." Her voice was dripping with bitter irony. "He doesn't think about such 'irrelevant' stuff like that. What he thought was 'it would be more efficient if they got along and cooperated, so of course they'll see that!', and of course, we both know what happened."

"I've said this once, I'll say it again, he doesn't understand ponies. He's socially inept, yes, but he just doesn't get- There was one time-"

She choked, unsure on whether to tell Shala the reason why she didn't think that there was any chance in Tartarus that Intel would make a good saviour.

"He was banished from Canterlot for building a bomb that could have turned Equestria into a wasteland for countless generations," she mumbled, an action that flew in the face of a lifetime of etiquette training, "He didn't- he didn't even understand what he did wrong. And when we tried to get him to dismantle it..."

Elegance turned away, ashamed.

Shala was a little surprised to get any progressive reaction out of Elegance. It was an amazing relief to suddenly have the topic of conversation shift off of herself. The change was more than welcome, though she knew it would come back eventually. For now, she listened to the pony that knew Intel better than her.

"The A.M.E....Funny...I called it a bomb from the start. Called it a bomb every time he brought it up. Then he got distracted with his magic fire and set myself as well as half of the Whitetail Woods on fire. At least that was what I was told. But Canterlot possibly blowing up?"

Shala turned it over in her head. Here was Elegance, having moments ago not caring if she died for what she did, and now her brother could be considered capable of worse, if any. Family values is one thing, but there had to be some kind of consequence. A dire one.

Part of her wanted to call her out on being so merciful to her brother relatively to her, but that obviously would be shot full of holes with reason. She did remember that Intel had a bit of a blank in his memory....

"....You cleared his memories out didn't you?" She said, trying to sound sympathetic, but unable to hide some hostility at the idea of altering a pony's brain.

Elegance shook her head when Shala talked about Canterlot blowing up. It was worse than even that. The mountain would have instantly ceased to be, and like how fire greedily consumed air to whip up winds, the catastrophe would have caused magical storms that would have ravaged Equestria and beyond.

The AME...Elegance had heard Intel talk about it before. She had never linked it the thing that her older brother created, the machine that hurt even to look at, that made noises that still occurred in her nightmares even now.

The suggestion of wiping Intel's memories made her pause. "The Designs are not reknowned for their magical strength," Elegance said slowly, "None of us would have had the capability to-"

She was interrupted by the sound of footsteps outside the room. The door opened to reveal Duchess Glitter Design nee Rainshine, daughter of great standing herself. However confident Elegance tried to act, it was dwarfed by the self-assurance this mare seemed to naturally radiate from every aspect of her being. She didn't stand out as much as make the entire world step back to let her have centre stage. She demanded detailed description, especially with emphasis. Elegance automatically stood up in respect.

"Elegance."

"Mother."

With the required ritual of acknowledgement over and done with, the Duchess turned her gaze to Shala, and it suddenly became clear where Elegance got her analysing, judgemental stare from. It was just that this one had many more years to be finetuned and perfected.

"Elegance, who is this mare that is slobbering on my son's bedsheets?"

Now that....is a pony I would love to drink under the table of all day long...Or beat the crap out of her

Stop it. Thats not going to help us.

But it might break the stick she has stuck up her-

She mentally rolled her eyes and came back to the situation that demanded her full attention. If things were fragile before, she was walking on fractured ice over hot coals now. This was probably going to end badly. It was hard enough to face off with someone as stubborn at Elegance. Now she had that very personality perfected and multiplied right before her.

Meh, she will probably be cliche and predictable. A good pop to her chin should keep her from talking.

This has to be handled carefully. We have to-

Really? I already let you have your way at the last one. Its my turn.

No! We are not talking about this now. We are fixing things!

Pfft. Whatever. I'm totally going to be capitalizing on you when this comes back around to you though.

Taking control of herself again and taking a breath, she moved to face the matriarch and sat down neatly. It pained her with how much she was bending over and out of her own character, but this was something she couldn't afford to lose in. Not completely.

"...Miss Time Table....a 'very' close friend to Intelligent Design...I...miss him."

Wow, you bent over your back twice over and kissed your own rear just because some pony 'looked' like she might be offended if you didn't? Some progress you are making...

...We'll get her back later....

Wait! Really?

Not now!

Glitter Design's judgmental stare continued to analyse every word, every accent, every action, every twitch of movement, until she said in a soft but commanding voice, "Elegance, I think you should get a couple of minutes of fresh air. Perhaps a cup of tea in the cafeteria downstairs. You have been at your brother's side without a break for too long."

Elegance's eyes were, for an instant, alight with the fires of defiance before she blinked them away. With a final quick glare at the pony who ruined everything, she strode out of the room.

For a long while after the door closed behind her, not a word was spoken in the room. It was deaf to all but the breathing of the pony who could nothing else.

"I don't know who you are, Ms Table," she said, "I don't know how you know my son, nor do I know exactly why you think it's worth your time to spend crying into his bedsheets. I have no idea what you are looking for in this place." She waved a hoof.

"What I do know is that it is not likely that he'd recover from this...tragedy." Her voice was one of weary bitterness. "And it is best if we can move on. To live our lives to the fullest, despite it all. It is what he would have done."