Pandemic: Monsters We Make

Chapters

Chapter 2: Background Noise
Chapter 3: Family Dinner and Activities
Chapter 4: Below the Surface
Chapter 5: The Psychology of Night Ponies
Chapter 6: Learning Curve
Chapter 7: Dreamtime
Chapter 8: Innocence
Chapter 9: The New Order
Chapter 10: Shadows and Unease
Chapter 11: Birth, Growth, and Change
Chapter 12: Anger and Tears
Chapter 13: Sunday Mourning
Chapter 14: Showtime
Chapter 15: Unexpected Results
Chapter 16: Visions
Chapter 17: Legacies
Chapter 18: Precursors of Disaster
Chapter 19: Rising Tensions
Chapter 20: The Field of Battle
Chapter 21: Powerless
Chapter 23: Face Your Fears
Chapter 24: The Cataclysm of Riverview
Chapter 25: Those Who Remain
Chapter 26: Lament
Epilogue: Stories Close, New Stories Begin
Chapter 1: Preparation Before Dinner
Chapter 22: Cat and Mouse

Chapter 2: Background Noise

Jessie laid in the backseat of the car listening to the hum of the electric motor and trying to catch glimpses of the sky between blocks as they passed through the pony residential neighborhoods where much of the view of the sky was blocked from view by the tightly cramped and tall houses. Her brother sat next to her, sitting up and looking out his window.

She didn't know what he was looking at other than the boring houses. From street level, they all looked the same other than house numbers and the occasional cutie mark that adorned a door. It was up on top where everyone walked around, and that was where everything was pretty and unique. Down here, where the cars drove, it was just dull, and a little creepy due to the houses jutting out over the street and blocking out the light. Her brother probably liked it that way. Night ponies didn't care much for daylight. She wasn't a night pony, though.

After failing to catch her glimpse of the sun, she decided just to sit up and try to see if anything was interesting about their surroundings. To her surprise, there were some differences from the usual way things were. There were many more cars parked up next to the houses than there typically were; normally there were almost none. There were some humans and ponies out talking by the vehicles. These were pony houses, but ponies almost always had at least some human family somewhere; they'd all been humans just a few years ago, after all. According to her parents, she had been born human, even if she'd only remained that way for a week--it made sense, even though it was hard to believe, human parents can't make pony foals. All these humans must be visiting family members for Thanksgiving.

"Robby, don't encourage them," her dad chastised her brother.

She turned her head just in time to spot some night pony mares by one of the houses on Robby's side of the car. Her brother had been looking at mares a lot more lately when he thought Mom and Dad weren't going to notice. She didn't have time to see if their wings were marked or not, but if their dad was scolding him, they must not be.

"We're just driving by..." Robby protested.

"Doesn't matter," her dad cut him off. "You don't so much as make eye contact with a mare who doesn't have her wings marked, got it?"

"Yes, Dad," Robby replied unhappily.

Jessie turned back to her window. Her parents had always been like that with Robby, but he seemed to be getting more unhappy about it lately. Her big brother being unhappy, bothered her. He was her best and only friend, and the only one she needed as far as she was concerned. She didn't like him being unhappy. Maybe today it was because he was up earlier than he'd generally be, and he was tired and cranky. She got cranky when she had to get up too early.

They finally reached the end of the regular pony houses, and she could finally get a good view of the sky. The car then turned and drove parallel to the pony residential area. This left her staring at the houses again. She pinned her ears back in annoyance and glared at the houses, and then got up from her seat and went next to her brother on his side of the backseat. This way, she could look out his window instead. Her brother shifted where he was sitting to give her space.

There was a small park area between the residential area and the businesses and shops beyond. Above them was a monorail train track, and she could see the closest monorail stop just down the road, though it didn't look like many ponies were out at it today. Most ponies at her school got there by the monorail. She came in by car with her mom each day. Her mom had to work, and she had to go to school at the same place, even though she'd never actually gotten to attend any of her mom's art classes. Her mom taught the elementary grades on the lower floors, and she'd skipped all those. Robby had gotten to attend her classes when he was her age.

They passed by the monorail station and kept going. Her Aunt Tonya's house was a big house all the way down by the river. It took a little while to get to because you had to go to the very end of the residential area and then turn onto a side street. She'd never actually been in it, but her parents had picked Aunt Tonya and Sunset Blessing up at its gates a few times. The big wall around the yard always looked really imposing, and she only caught glimpses of the yard through the security gate--not even the house. Today would be her first time ever going past the gate. It was kind of exciting getting to finally see that well guarded place at long last.

The street came to an end where they had to either turn left or right, directly in front of them was a clinic and fire station. If they went down the right turn and kept the houses to their sides there were lots of things that weren't normal businesses that ponies wanted close to them; clinics, fire stations, daycares, and the central stations for the many taxi services if they really needed to call a ride to get someplace fast. There were streets like this every few miles of the residential district, but this was the area where the river was and things came to an end.

They instead turned right and this area had a bunch of offices for companies, some hotels, and a few mansions. What it also had at the moment were a lot of people on the sides of the streets holding signs and yelling.

"Crap," her dad growled, using one of the many words that she got in trouble when she used them. "It's Thanksgiving! Don't these people have families to be home with? They come and disrupt our city often enough as it is, but it's a fucking holiday!"

Jessie ears fell all the way back and she cowered in her seat at her dad's anger. If he used the word fucking instead of fudging that meant he was really mad because he never said it around her, it had been forbidden from being said in her presence. She'd used the word fucking once when she was mad and her mom had threatened to clean her mouth with soap; which wasn't fair because Robby only got scolded for saying it specifically in front of her. She heard a lot of her classmates use the word a lot, and even read it in some books. Denying her the word was some weird way of asserting she was just a little filly. Her parents only slipped with denying it when they were extremely angry.

"Calm down, Paul, you'll upset the foals," her mom said in a level tone.

Her dad didn't respond, but he could be seen glaring at the people on the sides of the road as they began to pass by.

Jessie looked out her window at them as the car drove past. There was a lot of them, and there were a lot of signs. There was a sign a human was holding that said Babylon = Riverview. There was another sign that said No More False Gods! No More Dreamwardens! that a unicorn was waving around in her magic. That unicorn was yelling back and forth with at a night pony that had a sign clutched in her hooves that said Leave Night Pony Affairs to Night Ponies! Let the Dreamwardens Govern Night Ponies! Save Our Tribe! Others she saw were Down With The UN, No Tax Money to Foreign Governments, The Best Way to Keep Kids Safe Is No Monsters' Foals In School, Protect All Foals and Children!, and End The New World Order. There were a lot of others that had pictures and slogans she didn't understand. Some were shouting at the car, some were shouting at each other, and some were just shouting, but they all seemed really angry.

"These people aren't even from around here," her dad started muttering again. "They have no business here."

"Don't get so stressed," her mom said calmly. "It's like Sunset Blessing said Sunday at church; let the dogs bark. We have the lion of truth on our side and the dogs can't hurt the lion."

Her mom liked to quote off things from the sermons from church. Jessie wanted to point out that both lions and dogs could both eat them, but her mom didn't like it when she did that kind of thing. Jessie found the sermons at church boring. The music was good, especially when Aunt Tonya sang, but Sunset Blessing just seemed to make lots of unneeded allegories to make everything sound more important. Her mom thought they were great though, and would scold her for falling asleep during the sermons.

The car finally came by the familiar wall that marked Aunt Tonya's house. The wall was pretty high and made of white stone, with metal spikes jutting out at odd angles near the top like some nightmare thorn bush. There were more protesters here as well, and they were even louder and meaner than the ones just down the road. Her ears flattened all the way as she heard one of them yell something about how the Dreamwarden's foals should just die to teach the Dreamwarden a lesson.

"Jessie, get down on the floorboards," Robby said in a serious tone.

She didn't want to admit it, but she was scared. These protesters seemed really angry and cruel in what they were shouting. Her parents didn't say anything. Jessie crawled down from her seat to the floorboards and Robby came down with her and protectively draped a wing over her. She snuggled closer to her brother as he did.

The car came to a halt and her dad partially rolled down the window. "Middleton family, we're expected."

"I have your pictures on file, you're good to go. Don't worry about these wackos; they like to shout, but they won't be getting in. House is far enough back from the gate that even the ponies can't hear all this. We've got extra security between here and the house too. Try to enjoy your Thanksgiving," came the voice of someone unfamiliar just outside the car.

The gate could be heard opening and a moment later the car began to move again. Then the sound could be heard of the gate closing behind them.

Robby removed his wing from her and gave her a nuzzle. "Coast is clear, egghead." He then climbed back up into the car seat.

She followed after him, still feeling a bit fearful as she looked out the window to finally see what was hidden beyond the gate.

What caught her eyes first were all the trees. There were lots of trees. They were spaced out evenly and looked like saplings that had been planted with care. The next thing she noticed were humans and ponies walking around wearing security vests.

She turned her eyes to the front of the car. Off in the distance she could see the house. It looked like one of those white plantation houses from her history books. It was two story, and had a big front porch with massive colonnades. Before the house was a gardened area that seemed to loop to either side of the house, though immediately in front of the house was a cleared area and what looked like a small parking lot. There were three cars in that parking lot already. The house was indeed very far from the front wall of the yard, but the side walls were much closer. The distance from the house to the front wall was perhaps the distance of several soccer fields, but the distance to either of the side walls was perhaps half a soccer field each. She could see what looked like office buildings not far beyond those side walls. She knew the river had to be very close behind the house with how far back they were.

Her dad drove the car into the tiny parking lot and brought it to a stop. As soon as the engine turned off Robby used a wing to open the door and hopped out of the car. She sat still as her parents unbuckled themselves up front.

"Getting out, baby girl?" Her mom asked as she glanced in the mirror. Her mom was really heavily pregnant and was carrying a green bean casserole so she couldn't really turn around to look.

"I'll get out in a second," Jessie replied. She really wasn't ready to leave the safety of the car. All those people saying those mean things had shaken her up. She imagined them storming the gate and coming up and burning down the house.

Her dad reached around and touched a hand to her mane while giving her a small smile. "It's okay, no one is going to get you here. You saw all that security, and Wild Growth is going to be here too. Do you really think anything bad could happen with Wild Growth here to protect you?"

That was true. She couldn't imagine anything that Wild Growth couldn't protect them from. Wild Growth could make a wall of brambles to block the protesters, just pull a wall of stone straight up from the ground, or split the ground so there was a chasm between them. Nothing could hurt them with Wild Growth here.

She cautiously got up and hopped out of the car. Up on the porch were a bunch of adults. There was Mr. Miguel and Mr. Jose, who she knew were twins, but she wasn't sure how she was related to them even though she knew they were family. There was a young human woman she didn't know who was next to Mr. Jose. There was Ms. Amanda and Mr. Tom, but she didn't see Jackie and Jordan anywhere. Maybe Jackie and Jordan were inside. They were all talking at the moment.

The sound of the car door closing behind her made her do a little startled jump, and that made her feel embarrassed as she looked back at it quickly. When she turned back around she saw her brother hurrying up to the porch and Mr. Tom and Ms. Amanda heading into the house, wrapping their tails together as they went.

"Come on. You can't just stay by the car. You have to come inside and see the rest of the family," her dad said as he and her mom started walking up to the house.

She followed after them. Doing a light gallop to close the distance they'd already gotten ahead of her. When they got up to the porch Mr. Miguel held the door open for them and her parents started to walk in, but she stopped.

Her dad looked back at her, then looked at the twins, and then back to her. "Do you need a few minutes to settle down? I know the trip here made you nervous. It's okay if you just want to sit on the front porch and take in nature for a few minutes if you want."

She wasn't feeling particularly articulate at the moment. If she started talking she'd start crying, and then everyone would treat her like a little filly. Instead she just nodded.

"Okay, you take a few minutes and come in when your ready. Stay in sight of the porch," her dad instructed. He then headed inside.

She turned around and looked out at the garden and the saplings beyond. Like any earth pony there was something calming about seeing lots of plants around her. Growing things wasn't what she wanted to do, but that didn't mean she didn't appreciate plants. She loved admiring them, smelling them, just basking in being around them. Her magic was still too weak for her to feel them that way, but she could almost imagine she could. This wasn't as great as the park, but it was still nice.

Despite that, her eyes kept drifting down the path they drove down to the wall and gate far off in the distance. She strained her ears to try to pick up sound of the protesters. She thought she heard something just faintly, like some background noise just beyond her perception, and the longer she listened the more she imagined them shouting meaner and meaner things. The gate looked so fragile a thing to keep them out. Without thinking about it she tucked her tail between her legs. She shouldn't be scared, no one else seemed scared, but she was. That made her feel embarrassed again and made her want to cry.

"It's alright to be scared," came a voice from right behind her, causing her to jump again.

Phobia Remedy stepped up beside her and sat down. The Dreamwarden had never said much to her beyond a passing greeting when they dropped or picked Robby up from the Dreamwarden's house, and typically wasn't even seen. The grey night pony was wearing pearl earrings and a green dress that matched her mane, and she clearly had makeup on. Looking at her now Jessie decided she was one of the most beautiful mares she had ever seen. The night pony stared out at the gate and looked almost serene as she did so; completely contrasting with the normal night pony trope. She didn't look that strong, but there was something about her that seemed wise and powerful despite her delicate features. The idea the Dreamwardens were some sort of divine beings was ridiculous, but staring up at the night pony it didn't feel quite as ridiculous. She wondered if this is what ponies in Equestria felt like when they looked at the alicorns.

Jessie felt like she was expected to say something. "I shouldn't be scared. You don't seem to be scared. Those people are like monsters, but you're not scared."

"Oh, but I am scared. I'm very scared that someone will hurt my family," Phobia Remedy replied, still in a perfect calm.

"So why aren't you angry? Why do you let them say those things? You could stop them, you're a Dreamwarden." It didn't feel right that people could threaten foals like that.

The Dreamwarden seemed to consider her answer before turning to look at her. "Let me tell you the most important lesson the Dreamwardens ever learned. The worst thing you can do is look at others as monsters. The Dreamwardens, when we were still new to our jobs, looked out at the world and saw nothing but threats and monsters. That was the worst thing we could have done, because we stopped treating them like people. They were monsters in our eyes and didn't deserve to be treated like anything else. We gave them no rights, we were brutal in how we treated others, and we were determined to show no weakness and very little mercy to them. We wanted them afraid of us and we succeeded all too well. We became monsters to fight perceived monsters, and it was wrong."

Jessie had a hard time picturing the pony in front of her as a monster. "But they're scary and mean. They say all those horrible things and are so angry. The only night pony yelling was yelling for you to help. You never did anything to those people. They say a lot of mean things about you, and you aren't bad. Doesn't that make them like monsters?"

Phobia shook her head. "People say mean things sometimes when they're scared. It's important to remember that they're just scared. They want to protect themselves and their families from what they think is a threat. For a long time Dreamwardens were a threat because Dreamwardens treated people like they weren't people, and people's anger and fear can be understood because of that. This was earned, and it will be a long time before they stop being angry, if ever. It was a hard and painful lesson to learn."

"But there is no threat now, they're threatening us...threatening you, threatening the family. The rest of us never did anything wrong. Plus, that was mainly night ponies you did that stuff to, and they aren't mad at you."

"Ironically, night ponies actually respected that kind of behavior from us. They saw it as a show of strength, and are now mad we aren't doing it anymore. It's a clear sign of how out of whack night pony instincts are. If it weren't for the fact we had a growing number of mind magic users that aren't night ponies we might have been better off staying doing the same thing, bad as that sounds. There were just so many non-night ponies using mind magic. I don't know if that was some design by Sunset Shimmer to add controllers to the population or random chance, but we couldn't continue on like that. We shouldn't have even done that with the night ponies to begin with." Phobia sighed and frowned at the ground.

The sense of regret coming off the Dreamwarden was strong. Again, Jessie could not picture this pony as a monster.

The night pony then turned and looked at her, serenity restored. "But just because we aren't a threat now doesn't mean they can't be scared. Always remember they're just concerned about protecting their loved ones. Sometimes you can misinterpret a thing as a threat. It doesn't make you a bad person if you do. They may be threatening to us as a result, but it isn't because they're bad. Always try to understand why someone is threatening you. Remember this, because this keeps you seeing people instead of monsters. It keeps you from becoming a monster who doesn't care about other's concerns. Do you understand?"

"I think so," she replied. It didn't really address what she was supposed to do about the angry people outside that didn't feel the same way. People that were willing to be monsters to fight monsters.

She did however feel calmer talking to the Dreamwarden for some reason. Phobia Remedy's calm seemed to radiate out from the night pony and soak into Jessie. It was like magic, though she could feel no magic at work. Was there some some magical quality to the Warden of Fear that made fears go away from around her?

The Dreamwarden stood back up and softly smiled at her. "I'm glad you do, and glad you see the good in me rather than my past misdeeds. It's comforting to feel there is hope things can move on after all that has happened."

Jessie looked up at the Dreamwarden. The Dreamwarden was still calm and serene, but there was a hint of sadness to her now. "Maybe they'll figure out you're not bad if you keep being good."

Phobia Remedy continued to stare off at the gate. "Perhaps in time, but that's a long way off. The Dreamwardens are tolerated and worked with because there's no getting rid of us, and the world's governments aren't going to refuse being given controls we didn't have to let them have. We try to earn trust, but it may never completely come. There are mistakes that people make that can plague them for a lifetime. Pray that you never make such mistakes."

The idea of making a mistake that could make people hate her for the rest of her life was a scarier thing than the people outside the gate.

The night pony turned as if to walk away, but looked down with a smile one last time. "Enjoy looking at my mother's gardens, she is very proud of them. I hope you'll join us inside soon. Remember, we're family, and you don't ever need to think you need to walk small around me."

The Dreamwarden departed and Jessie sat looking at the gardens again. The anxiety from earlier seemed to have evaporated in that short exchange. There were other things that it made her think of, but the dread of the people outside now didn't seem so bad. She took a moment to admire the colors of the flowers and smiled. She then got up and went into the house.

When she got into the house she saw that her brother had been accosted by all the winged foals, who were now begging him to show them how to fly. That would be the three demons and Jackie. Jackie's little sister Jordan was sitting a little bit away watching all the other foals shyly. All the adults were seated around the room talking to one another. She didn't see her Aunt Tonya, Sunset Blessing, or Wild Growth.

Jessie confined herself to a corner as she watched the various winged foals question her brother about flying. She felt a mild amount of jealousy that they were taking all his attention. She knew she shouldn't feel that way, but it didn't stop her from doing so.

Still, she was supposed to be socializing. Her parents would be upset if she didn't make an attempt to socialize. With that in mind she turned to the purple unicorn filly with a yellow mane that wasn't pestering her brother.

"Want to do some coloring together?" She asked Jackie's shy little sister.

The purple filly blinked and looked uncertain. "Color?"

Jessie resisted the urge to groan. Why did other foals have to be so hard to talk to? "Yes, color. You know, drawing on paper with crayons? You know how to draw, right?"

"I can draw," Jordan said in a low voice, and seemed to cower a bit.

Why did Jordan have to be so shy? Jessie never could tell what she was supposed to do with foals her age. Her dad said she needed to stop treating other foals like they were stupid. She didn't mean to; she just honestly didn't know what foals her age were supposed to be able to do and understand. Jordan wasn't even her age; Jordan was more than a year younger than her--fifteen months younger actually. Finding out what Jordan was capable of doing was essential to being able to socialize with her. Jessie had been reading before she could draw, but she didn't think Jordan could read yet. That made the question of whether Jordan could draw a perfectly reasonable one to ask as far as she saw it.

Actually, she didn't know for sure if Jordan could read. It was worth finding out.

"Jordan do you know how to read?" She asked curiously.

Jordan smiled and nodded enthusiastically. "Mommy reads with me. I can read The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham really good. I like Green Eggs and Ham, it's funny."

"Really well, not really good," Jessie corrected. "You can't do things good. You do things well."

"But I do read good!" Jordan protested with a stomp of her hoof. "My mommy says so! She says I'm a good reader!"

Okay, it was pretty clear she'd had a breakdown in communication.

Her first instinct was to just shout at Jordan that she wasn't trying to say Jordan was a bad reader...even though Jessie had moved passed reading Dr. Seuss before she was even two. She knew logically that was probably a bad idea though, even though she really wanted to do some yelling of her own. It wasn't fair. This kind of stuff always happened when she tried socializing with foals close to her age. It wasn't her fault that Jordan didn't understand the difference between good and well.

She needed an adult.

While Jordan was still tearing up about thinking Jessie was picking on her Jessie spotted the closest adults. Ms. Amanda and Tom were talking with her mom and Ms. Phobia over by one the chairs. That would be perfect. They could explain to Jordan what she meant and Jordan would listen to them. Jessie had a small hope that her mom would realize that she wasn't going to do well trying to get along with the other foals and tell her she could sit with the adults.

Yeah, there was no fudging chance that was going to happen, but she could dream.

She walked over to the trio of adults and her mother looked down at her. "What is it, sweetie?"

"Jordan thinks I'm picking on her because I corrected her about saying she does things well instead of saying she does things good," Jessie answered as she pointed to the unhappy unicorn filly.

Amanda let off a sigh as she turned and hurried toward her younger filly. "Oh, my little plum butter, let mommy explain something to you."

Jessie's mom shook her head as the pink earth pony walked over to the filly. "With how often she calls Jordan that I'm surprised she didn't just name her that. It sounds like a perfectly decent pony name."

The green unicorn stallion, Tom, shook his head. "We debated it. Amanda wanted to go with a pony name, but I convinced her that if Jordan wanted a pony name that she could pick her own name out when she was older. Imagine if we named her that and she doesn't even like plums? I still think the whole pony naming thing is silly."

"It's just another naming convention. Some of us like having descriptive names, or keep a human name and pony name both like Amanda does. Still, letting a pony pick out their own pony name doesn't seem like a bad idea; pony names are very personal after all," Phobia replied. Ms. Amanda's pony name was rarely used around the family, but Jessie knew that it was Treasure Finder and that Ms. Amanda used that name when teaching school and with strangers.

Jessie also knew her little brother was going to have a pony name, even though he was human. She wondered how her mom felt about them saying those things.

"So, did you try to explain to Jordan you weren't trying to pick on her?" Her mom asked. The tone indicated that her mom had her doubts about it.

Jessie tucked her tail between her legs and her ears fell. This made her mom give her a disappointed look. "Jessie, we talked about this. You need to start trying to deal with problems like these on your own. You can't always run away from them and have an adult fix them for you. You're not going to get better dealing with others if you don't try to resolve things yourself. You're one of the smartest persons in the world; you can do this if you actually try."

"But..."

"No buts," her mom cut her off. "Think about your classmates at the high school. You don't see them running for an adult every time they get into a disagreement with one another. Most of them are expected to be functional adults. When you're an adult you don't have anyone to run to most of the time and you have to deal with things yourself, but adults learn how to do that while they're kids."

Jessie hung her head. This was one of the few times she wanted to point out she was just a little filly, even though she didn't normally like admitting that.

Her mom knew how to read her. "Jessie, if you were like any of the other foals your age I wouldn't be so stern about this, but you're different. You're going to be seven in the spring and you want to push yourself into the adult world already. You've got more book smarts and raw intelligence than just about any adult, but when it comes to things like this you're just a little filly. Many of the children your age are actually more advanced than you in dealing with these things because they actually try. It's my responsibility to prepare you for the world. You don't need any more preparation in terms of education, you likely know more than most people with regular college degrees, but you still need a lot of preparation when it comes to social interaction."

Jessie didn't really see the big need to be very social. You didn't need to be social to run equations. Doing math was one of the things where being social was least useful. That's what she wanted to do for NASA, come up with the math and physics equations that would help get the people of Earth to the stars. She'd been working in a special set of math equations that she knew would get her noticed. If she could finish them and show them to an important pony like Wild Growth or Phobia Remedy she would definitely be able to get into NASA. She was sure she almost had it solved, she just needed a little more work.

"Did you hear what I just asked?" Her mom questioned.

Jessie blinked. She'd been so lost in thought thinking about her math she'd tuned her mom out. "Sorry, I was thinking. What did you ask?"

Her mom let off a groan. "I asked if you would go over and try to play with Jordan again. I hope you were thinking about how you can be more social and not math problems."

"Um..."

"Jessica Ann Middleton, go play and stop focusing on school work or math for one day," her mom said crossly.

"Yes, Mom," she said with resignation as she turned back around and started walking to where Jordan and Amanda were sitting.

Amanda watched her expectantly as she walked over and gave Jordan a nudge. "Alright, plum butter, what are you going to say?"

Jordan looked at Jessie with lowered ears. "Sorry for getting mad."

Jessie rubbed her hoof on the tan carpet. "I'm sorry for being picky about how you said things. I'm sorry if I made you feel stupid."

Amanda smiled. "There, all better now, I hope. Jordan knows all about what saying you do something well means now too. Now you two play and be good."

Jordan looked confused. "Aren't we supposed to be well?"

Amanda sighed and looked briefly at the ceiling. "Alright, we still have some work to do with use of the word well. We'll talk about it later. Just play and have fun."

"Okay, Mommy," Jordan said as she rubbed her head against her mother's side.

As Amanda got up and walked back to the rest of the adults Jessie looked at Jordan. "So do you want to draw?"

Jordan reached back with her head and pulled a book from her saddlebags. Jessie spotted the title, The Chocolate Touch. It looked like a very simple book, but considerably longer than anything by Dr. Seuss; probably over a hundred pages and actually a simple novel rather than a picture book. The book was definitely more advanced than what Jordan had implied she could read. It was something that would take at least most of an hour to read.

Jordan put the book down in front of her. "Mommy says you're really good at reading...or well at reading. This book has a lot of words--like a thousand-thousand--and I need help. I got it because it had a funny picture on front, but it's too hard for me. Can you help me read it?"

Jessie doubted there was a million words in it, maybe twenty or thirty thousand if she had to take a quick guess. It looked like it might be a fun read though, even if it was much simpler than what she was used to.

She walked over to the purple unicorn filly and sat down with her while smiling. "Sure, I can help you read it. You start reading, and I'll read over your shoulder. I can tell you how to say any words you have problems with."

The other filly clapped her hooves together and then gave Jessie a hug. Jessie didn't think it was that big a thing to be excited about, but at least she was getting along with Jordan now.

"Let's find a good spot to lay down and we can get started," Jessie instructed. The other filly nodded with excitement in response.

Tonya swooped down and did a slow circle around the house. She spotted the security guards out in the yard and gave them a wave to indicate it was her and not some random pegasus trying to sneak onto the property. They had actually discussed adding this new security system that tracked incoming flyers and would set off an alarm if they came in without wearing a special chip in their Pony Strap. So far there hadn't been enough reason to, but better safe than sorry. She was mainly concerned some random large birds would constantly be setting off the alarm. Any decent sized bird of prey or buzzard could possibly trip it. She didn't want to be woken up with alarms because an owl went hunting for mice in the yard.

She came in for a graceful landing on the porch. The twins and the one twin's girlfriend were all outside. The girl seemed a bit anxious for some reason.

"Something wrong?" Tonya asked the trio.

The girl shook her head. "Just tobacco cravings. Jose didn't tell me this whole city was smoke free, even in private residences."

Tonya did a light chuckle into her hoof. "Yeah, we ponies don't like our air getting polluted with that stuff. We actually have a ton of hookah bars out in the entertainment district though. Regular smoking is allowed there in addition to the hookahs. They're really popular; popular enough that most ponies will visit one sometime over the course of a month just to socialize. I sometimes meet clients there for a smoke and a drink because it's a relaxing informal place for them that helps them feel at ease. You could try going out to one of those after dinner."

The girl looked confused. "Wait, ponies can't stand smoking, but bars set aside specifically for smoking are popular enough that just about every pony in town goes to them at some point? That makes no sense."

Tonya shrugged. "It's weird I know. When the no smoking law was passed they made exceptions for those kinds of places so we didn't deter humans that smoked from coming here...at least that was the logic we had at the time, I know that isn't much of a non-deterrent. Anyway, humans would invite ponies to come hang out with them there to socialize. Ponies are very social creatures and they started doing the same with their friends and it kind of just spiraled from there until ponies basically took over the whole industry we had set aside for humans. We can control the climate inside them with magic so it doesn't really get smoke filled, so it doesn't really bother us. It's an indulgence when just trying to hang loose with some friends."

"You said they're bars. Do I have to be twenty-one to get in?" The girl asked.

Tonya shook her head. "Only to purchase alcohol, they'll card you for that no matter who you are. Getting in they're actually really lenient about though. I know they'll let high schoolers with cutie marks in and just kind of look away, but ponies are pretty lax on enforcing age rules on teens with cutie marks. My nephew could likely get in by himself with no question if he really wanted to, and he's thirteen. Heck, I see pony parents bring their teens with them there all the time and see no problem letting them use the hookahs. With humans getting in they just go with do you look old enough. The only ones they will card you at the door for are the...um...special ones where they put aphrodisiacs in the stuff. No one under eighteen is getting into those bars. Oh, and you can buy cigarettes and stuff there one at a time, but they check you when you're leaving to make sure nothing leaves out the door--the no smoking ban is still strictly in place outside those doors."

"This city is weird," the girl said with a befuddled expression.

Tonya shrugged. "We have our own ways of doing things here in Riverview. Those places pay special taxes and fees to the city, and make the city lots of money that we reinvest into improving the city, so no one is likely to try to shut them down."

"I'll see about checking them out," the girl replied. "Thanks for the information."

Tonya smiled as she opened up the door. "No problem. I like being helpful."

She went inside and did a quick glance around. It looked like everyone was here in the living room except Wild and Sunset. She had spotted Wild's limo en route to the house when she was flying over. Sunset was probably in the kitchen.

"Tonya, it's good to see you. Where were you at?" Her human brother, Paul, said to her as he walked over to her.

She gave him a smile. "Just taking care of some private business. Had a human that needed some counseling. You know how stressful the holidays can be for some people."

"How's the counseling job going?" Paul asked. "It's nice seeing you finally settle into a career."

Her smile widened. "It's good. I don't get a lot of clients since I'm not certified, but I get enough to keep me busy."

She actually had plenty to keep her busy. Her counseling job was her official job, but she also did a lot of odd jobs for her wife. There were ponies to be contracted into top secret jobs, and those required assurances that they wouldn't discuss what they were doing with anyone. Many magic restrictions had been lifted over the years, but there were still things that the general public was neither allowed to do or be allowed to know could be done. Those assurances of secrecy came in the form of compulsions from her. It wasn't done against their wills. They had to sign forms of consent and have it explained at length what she was going to do.

There was also one project that she personally was tied to. It was one of the most important of all the projects that happened below the Bastion, and she was the key.

In short, she was a busy mare. If she had a large clientele for her counseling she'd have no time for herself.

Paul gave a pointed look at his daughter Jessie. "I know your wife has some sort of research centers spread about the country. I was wondering if my daughter could be taken to visit one of them. She's really hung up on getting into NASA, but I thought it might be good to broaden her horizons a bit and show her that there are other things she can do too. I don't want her getting so attached to one idea and if it doesn't work out having her feel like she doesn't have options."

There were plenty of lesser security research centers that were public knowledge mixed among the secret ones. The projects were still guarded secrets, but more on a corporate level than national security. Any of them would love a brilliant young mind like Jessie's. Sunset had actually already opened a file on Jessie in hopes of one day swaying her over to working in the labs.

"I'll be happy to talk to Sunset about it," she replied. There was no need to even lie about this. "I'm certain Sunset would be thrilled to show Jessie that she could have a great future working at one of the various SPEC research facilities. We've already had many researchers make groundbreaking scientific discoveries in our labs and I'm sure Jessie could eventually as well."

"I don't want to pressure her," Paul cautioned. And got close to Tonya in a crouch before continuing in a very low whisper. "I'm just wanting her to see that there are lots of options, and that maybe she can take some more time deciding what to do with her life. She's so focused on her goals right now she's worrying me and Devon. She needs to step back, slow down, and actually enjoy life."

Tonya gave her big brother a quick hug with her wings before releasing him. "Understood. I'll pass that information on to Sunset and we can see about when a tour can be arranged."

Paul nodded then looked around the room briefly before putting a hand close to her ear and whispering. "Are you still taking volunteers for that project? I might be interested."

Tonya looked around the room briefly. Out of those present only Tom and her brother knew about the temporary transformation project for sure. Phobia likely did, since Sha'am now knew about it after the screw up with Megan's transformation, but Phobia hadn't said anything to indicate it.

She lowered her voice. "We still have some kinks to work out. We're close, but we've underestimated the amount of mind magic we need involved with it. You know how your wife feels about mind magic, so she won't be happy about you doing anything involving us messing with your mind. Plus, we need to focus on some more pony volunteers and sickly humans so we can impress the delegates and present this in a way they'll go for."

"Devon might make an exception for this. You know how big this is for the humans around here," Paul reminded.

Tonya was well aware. Most of the long-time human residents of town followed Shimmerist Christianity, her brother and his wife included. When word went public about the temporary transformation spell they were going to have more human volunteers than they knew what to do with. To get the general public beyond Riverview on their side they needed ponies showing interest and having successful transformations to humans. The days of the rehumanization clinics were done, but there were still those who wanted ponies returned to humanity.

"Testing is going to be going till Saturday and then we'll see what the government says on Sunday in terms of what kinds of restrictions they'll be placing on this. We need to put a good show on for them," Tonya said quietly. "I'll let you know how things progress, and when we'll be taking healthy human volunteers again."

Paul nodded. "You might want to go check on your wife. She's barely left the kitchen since we got here."

She groaned to herself. Hopefully Sunset wasn't obsessing too much.

"I'll go see her now. Wild should be here any minute and then everyone will be here," Tonya replied. "I'll see how long we have before dinner is ready."

She quickly took her leave of her brother and headed back towards the kitchen, giving quick hellos to people as she walked by.

When she entered into the kitchen. It looked like nothing was actually cooking and there were a large number of dishes laid out ready to serve. There was no smell of anything burnt, by all means it looked like everything had gone smoothly with preparing dinner.

So why was Sunset in the corner holding her forelegs around herself and rocking back and forth?

Tonya cautiously walked over to her wife. "Sunset, sunshine, what's wrong?"

Sunset looked at her with red, bloodshot eyes. "Phobia's plotting against me."

Tonya gave the red unicorn a doubting look. "I highly doubt that. Why do you think Phobia is plotting against you?"

Sunset pointed a shaking hoof in the general direction of the food. "She brought buttered-baked spiders. I can't bring myself to eat one of those."

That sounded completely unappetizing, but no more unappetizing than cold turkey. She didn't understand why night ponies tried to imitate their Equestrian counterparts' diets. "Why's this a sign she's plotting against you? I know spiders freak you out, but these are definitely dead. I'm a little confused."

Sunset started crying. "Because Rosetta will look down on me more when I don't try one!"

Yep, as predicted, Sunset was obsessing over winning over Rosetta and Amanda's approval again. She could get a little loopy when she did this, add to that her general fear of spiders and you had the makings of a full on meltdown..

"I'm sure you aren't going to be the only one not eating any of them. If anyone other than the night ponies do I'll be surprised," Tonya said soothingly. "If Rosetta was going to look down on you for not eating one she'd have to look down at the rest of us too."

Sunset just stared at her blankly.

Tonya sighed. "If you're so hung up on thinking Rosetta's going to look down on you for not eating one maybe you should just close your eyes and just imagine they are nice crunchy apples or something."

Sunset looked horrified. "But... they're spiders. Really big spiders, you know I don't like even being around spiders."

"Consider it your ultimate revenge on them. You fry spiders on sight with your magic, you're just eating them this time around." She caught sight of their black cat making a move towards the food out of the corner of her eye and turned and flapped her wings at it. "Back! Back Satan! You've got food upstairs!"

Satan took off in a rush out of the kitchen into the living room. Squeals of excited foals greeted the cat's entrance. She wasn't particularly fond of that cat--he always tried to get the feathers on her wings--but Sunset was fond of cats.

She suspected that the cat gave Sunset something to pamper like a foal. That made the cat's presence even more of a sore point since Sunset was strongly against them having foals, much to Tonya's chagrin. Sunset said she was too old to be dealing with a new foal, but Tom was her age and he was raising foals. It wasn't like Tonya was asking Sunset to get pregnant, Tonya could carry it or they could adopt--she'd even go full time stay at home mom and do most of the raising herself. At twenty-six years old and seeing most other mares her age now as parents she really wanted to be raising her own foal.

At least she wasn't the only mare in the family without foals. Wild somehow managed to stay foal free with heavy doses of birth control. Whenever Wild finally got pregnant as well then Tonya would press the issue some more. She wasn't going to be the only grown mare or woman in the family that wasn't a mother. Her being technically step-mother to Phobia didn't count either. She wasn't claiming her step-parent status to a pony only a few months her junior that she'd grown up with.

Rosetta chose then to walk in. "Sunset? Mom? We about ready for dinner? The natives are getting restless."

Tonya rolled her eyes. Rosetta did that just to annoy the two of them for her own amusement. She'd never call Sunset Mom no matter how much Sunset wanted her to, but she'd call Tonya Mom specifically because Tonya didn't want her too--and to rub it in Sunset's face that Sunset wasn't getting called Mom. Rosetta seemed less aggressive a night pony to some, but she just channeled it into passive aggressiveness. If there was anything weirder than being called Mom by a childhood friend that was younger than her it was being called Mom by her childhood friend's wife who was actually older than her.

"Is Wild here?" Tonya asked.

Rosetta nodded and pointed one of her tattooed wings towards the front of the house. "She just got dropped off. She's outside talking to the twins right now."

"We'll have everything ready in a few minutes then. Sunset's got everything under control," Tonya said with a smile.

Rosetta looked at Sunset, who was still sitting in the corner looking miserable and gave her a doubting frown. "So I see. I'll get everyone ready, you two just make sure to be ready to serve some food in the next ten minutes."

Rosetta then turned and walked out of the kitchen, giving a strong flick of her tail in their direction.

Tonya sighed again as Sunset started crying again. Holidays were a pain in the flank.

Wild stepped into the house and did a quick look around. Assuming Tonya and Sunset were elsewhere in the house it seemed that everyone was here already. She quickly spotted her parents and her sister together over by one of the couches. That was convenient for her. She wanted to break the news about her pregnancy as quickly as possible just to not have the dread of waiting to tell about it hanging over her all through dinner.

She hurried over to them, saying hello to others as she passed. Little Jessie seemed a bit disappointed that she didn't stop to talk to her, and she made a mental note to herself to sit down and talk to her strongest admirer in the family later. There were important matters to attend to first though.

Rosetta gave her a considering look as she approached. "You look stressed. What's got your tail in a knot? More trouble with work?"

Wild came up close to the three of them and sat down quietly, not answering right away. She looked at her mama. The older woman looked a little dazed. That probably meant she had her medication recently. Hopefully soon the days of needing medication would be at an end. That was if Sunset could solve the mental issues.

"What's wrong, sweet pea?" Her papa asked her with a strong hint of concern.

She took a deep breath and flattened out her ears before answering. "I'm not going to beat around the bush. I'm just going to say it straight out. I'm two months pregnant. No, I don't know who the father is. Yes, I'm keeping it."

The three of them gasped. Even in her foggy state that news registered to her mama. It seemed that all three were working on an appropriate response after she stated all the pertinent details.

Rosetta was the first to recover. "Phobia likely already knew and didn't say a word! I know she isn't supposed to divulge private information, but this is family."

"Wild telling you the news, dear?" Phobia called out across the room.

"Yes! She's telling me the news!" Rosetta shouted back and then refocused on Wild. "I thought you were on birth control. Not just regular birth control either, you had the normal medical stuff and magic. How'd you get pregnant?"

Wild rubbed one of her forelegs absently. "Well, over the counter stuff isn't foolproof. As for the magic, you know how it takes a lot of magic to do anything to me? Well, from what I had explained to me, because my magic is so powerful it kind of overwhelms spells set on me so they fail faster. The birth control spell essentially failed much earlier than it should have because of that."

"And you have no clue at all who the father is?" Her papa said in a tight voice.

She hung her head and shook it. "I sleep with maybe twenty to twenty-five stallions a month on average. I can't even remember the majority of them. I can guess where the father lives...Algeria, based on when it happened, but that's about the best I can give you."

"Algeria? Seriously?" Rosetta said with frustration. "How many ponies actually live in Algeria? Did you sleep with every stallion in that country? This slutty behavior was going to get you into trouble sooner or later."

Wild's eyes narrowed as she glared at her sister. "Excuse me? Did you just call me a slut?"

Rosetta glared back. "You're the one that quoted off twenty to twenty-five stallions a month. I think those figures speak for themselves. That's between two-hundred-forty and three-hundred a year, and you've been at this for a few years now. At a certain point you go from being sexually liberated to being a slut. I think two-hundred something stallions a year is definitely in that territory."

Wild's temper flared and she took some deep breaths to calm herself.

After getting her temper under control she decided to just give a full explanation.

"Alright, I'll admit I have far more sex than the average pony...by a lot. I'm always on the road doing important work. I get stressed, I get lonely, and I'm generally horny. That same magic that gives me the power to change the world also gives me a sex drive you wouldn't believe. Since I'm a PREQUES of at least eight I get the super sex drive package, because apparently earth ponies have magic reproductive systems and the more magic the more libido; it just doesn't come up with earth ponies normally because they aren't anywhere near this high up on the magic scale to put their drive out of whack. So...yeah, I typically have a libido that would make a rabbit blush. It's part of what I am, and what I do with other consenting adults isn't your business to criticize or throw slurs at me for."

Rosetta blinked and then bit her lip before answering, "You've never mentioned that. If it's really that big a problem I could ask Phobia to get in touch with Yinyu for you. Yinyu is good at helping with those kinds of problems. She knows how to adjust anything with sex drives and sexuality if you convince her there's something hurting you about yours. It's completely confidential, other than a report about what she did getting filed with the OMMR. I know a lot of night pony mares go to her for help."

Wild frowned and shook her head. At least Rosetta was backing off calling her names for her high sex drive. Talking to the Dreamwarden of Lust might be an option later on, but it wasn't needed right now. Having a bun in the oven seemed to dampen the drive considerably. She still had some drive, but it was a more normal level right now. Maybe after this foal was born she might explore options. She didn't like the idea of her having a report on her doing something like that in some bureaucrat's files that could leak to the press. Having a Dreamwarden for a sister-in-law was bad enough press, going to them for help with personal problems would be a fiasco if it leaked.

She was curious about something though.

"What exactly does Yinyu do for night pony mares that comes up so often?" She asked.

Rosetta gave a sad sigh and lifted a wing up to show the tattoos that marked her sexual attraction to mares. "Yinyu's Blessing. I didn't take or need it, obviously, but I had my wings done anyway to mark that I wasn't fighting for stallions. They want to escape the stigma. Everyone treats night pony mares like they're dangerous pedophiles because they'll search out any male night pony for a mate, even underage ones as eventual mates. The pressure to escape that stigma and infighting makes many of them turn to having their minds altered so they actually have options when looking for a mate. It's going to be many years yet before the night ponies' gender imbalance resolves itself, and most night ponies living today won't live to see it. Yinyu doesn't really like it, but the desperate mares have made their case clear that going without her blessing is detrimental to them."

Wild blinked. She knew about the stigma. Devon treated any straight night pony mare that came near Robby with a huge amount of hostility, and it didn't seem unfounded in a lot of cases. She'd also heard the term Yinyu's Blessing before, but had thought it just a slang term for lesbian, not actual mind alteration that had been done. She never really considered why the night pony mares sat there trying to flirt with young colts. It seemed obvious now that it was explained to her, and gave her new insights into her sister's tribe.

Rosetta wiped her eyes where they had started to water. "Fuck Sunset Shimmer for how much she screwed up with the night pony tribe. My chances of getting eventual grandfoals from my daughters are slim, and I wouldn't blame them for going to Yinyu as well when they grow up. Even their generation will be facing this. I don't want them being treated that way."

Wild frowned. There had to be something she could do to help the night ponies out. Maybe encourage large scale night pony sperm donations so they could at least artificially inseminate the night pony mares. That may help with getting more foals born to help even out the numbers sooner, but wouldn't help with the current adults wanting relationships and trying to stick it out as straight mares. Some sort of public campaign to raise awareness of the night ponies' plight? She had to do something to help take care of the night ponies.

She wasn't going to discuss it with her sister. The response she would get was the same tired one about how she didn't have to be responsible for caring about everyone and everything. She'd give her own response about how she had the power to make a difference so she should be trying. It would descend into a fight and she'd do what she could to help anyway. Better just to skip the fight and figure out what could be done on her own. Ponies needed her help and resources. If she wasn't using her power and wealth to help others there was no point to any of it.

Her papa took a deep breath and she waited fearfully for his response. Disappointing him always hurt the most, and she knew he was disappointed with her.

"I'm not going to discuss the circumstances that led to you getting pregnant," her papa finally said. "You're having a foal and that's all that matters. I'd like to say I would do anything to help you out that I could, but your mother's health is my main focus."

Wild glanced at her mama. Her mama seemed to be not even half aware of what was going on around her. She just seemed to be in her own little world. This medication was just not helpful enough if it left her like this. She rather have her mother trembling and able to understand what was going on around her than this. Medical routes were failing her. Hopefully the effects would clear up enough soon that her mother could understand.

"There's another thing I need to discuss with you, concerning Mama," Wild added on as she tried to work up the courage to discuss this.

Her papa looked at her curiously. "Did your researchers find a better medication than this?"

She shuffled her hooves and wrapped her tail around one of her hind legs. "Kind-of-sort-of...this is really big. We're presenting it to the government this Sunday."

Rosetta's eyes narrowed. "I heard about delegates are supposed to be arriving in town Saturday for something Sunset's presenting. Having Homeland Security and Department of Pony Affairs involved doesn't seem like simple medical research and breakthroughs. What are you and that unicorn up to?"

Wild lowered her head and indicated her sister and papa should huddle close together with her. They gave her questioning looks, but Rosetta got close by her and her papa crouched down close to her.

She kept her voice at a low whisper. "We've developed a way to do temporary transformations of humans to ponies and ponies to humans." The other two gasped but she continued on. "While temporarily transformed all illnesses and physical ailments are gone. It only lasts a few hours at a time, but over those few hours Mama could be fully functional."

Rosetta growled. "You're treading on dangerous ground. You know how most of the world, including our government, feels about transforming humans. You could also spark new fears that the government will try to force ponies to rehumanize as well. This could go wrong in so many ways."

"That's why we're bringing the delegates in," Wild whispered. "We want the government to feel like they have the power to control and regulate this. We also want to present it in the best light possible. This could help so many people, both humans and ponies. It isn't just people like Mama. Think about Tom who has never been really completely happy as a pony. We can give him temporary humanity, and he isn't the only pony that wants that--not to mention humans and ponies dealing with debilitating injuries and illnesses that temporary transformation can give them relief for where nothing else will. The spell can be reapplied when needed after wearing off. It's a medication, the ultimate medication for those with no hope of getting better."

"But they just go back to being sick when it wears off from what you described," Rosetta said harshly.

Wild nodded. "But they aren't while it's applied, and it reverts back to where it was before the transformation. We could extend the lives of those in critical care by a long period with regular applications of the spell. We could give cancer patients with weeks to live months or even years instead, all while improving their quality of life because they won't be hurting during those transformation times."

"And this is ready to be used?" Her papa asked with wide eyes.

Wild sucked in her breath. "Not yet, but it's close. We have the actual transformation part down. There's some problems on the mental end we haven't resolved. We didn't want this to be like ETS where it overrode so much of a person's old personality and instincts with new ones, so we didn't do much to impact them mentally. We're coming to learn that we made a mistake by doing virtually nothing on that end. We still need to find the right balance of what is just enough mental changes to make things right without changing too much."

Rosetta's gaze hardened. "Now you're pulling mind magic into it. You're messing with things you don't understand. Have you even informed the Dreamwardens about your mages doing mind magic?"

"I was told Sha'am Maut has been informed that we're going to start using it, and that we're busy writing up the legal informed consent paperwork and it will be reviewed by office at the UN shortly. All the regulations will be met. We're doing everything with care," Wild said dismissively.

Rosetta gave her a disapproving stare but it softened into one of concern. "Wild, be careful. There is going to be an uproar when news of this gets out. I know I like to talk you up like you're invincible, but as you reminded me you're not. There are a lot of angry people just outside the gates of this property. If enough people try to hurt you due to your connection to this someone is going to get lucky enough to put a bullet into something vital at close range. And please, don't use something that's not ready on Mama."

Wild frowned. "Well, that's why I keep security, so they don't get that chance to hurt me. If they can't get close enough they can't get a shot off that will have enough impact to do anything. I'll keep you safe as well. I'll protect and take care of everyone, and I'll make sure this is ready."

"Sweet pea, you can't be sure you'll be safe," her papa said sadly. "You're powerful, scarily powerful, but you aren't powerful enough to protect yourself all the time or everyone else. The twins used to talk about you being a superhero, but even Superman has his kryptonite. Yours is you try to carry everyone on those powerful shoulders of yours and thinking there are no limits to what you can do. You're so focused on trying to save the world you lose track of some important things. You have a foal on the way, don't endanger yourself or your baby if you don't have to. We can find another way if what your sister says is true. I have nightmares about what people will do to you, your sister, and the foals. You've risen so far up it has become its own danger."

Wild grit her teeth. "Mama needs me to fix this; so many needing people need me to fix things for them. I have poured years of effort into this and I will see to it this research is followed through; for Mama and everyone else. I am strong enough to protect myself and everyone else in this family, and this can do too much good to turn away from it."

"This is so risky Wild," Rosetta said in a pleading voice. "You can't just do this to Mama with these kinds of risks, even if you're willing to expose yourself to them."

Wild took a deep breath. "You know, you're right. Let's see what she has to say about it when she is more lucid. I'll talk to her tomorrow when she isn't medicated. It's her choice to go through with it, not mine, not yours, not anyone else's, hers. This is a good thing, and I think she'll agree with me."

Their conversation was interrupted by Sunset Blessing walking out into the living room. "Hello everyone. I'm sorry about the delays, but dinner is ready. Everyone gather up their plates of food, but don't eat yet. We need to say grace first."

Wild looked at her papa. "We'll talk more after dinner."

Author's Note

Weekly updates on Saturday for right now. Expect long chapters that will feature each of Jessie, Wild Growth, and Tonya's perspectives every chapter.

Chapter 3: Family Dinner and Activities

Tonya watched as the foals were passed their plates and carefully walked with them in their mouths to their spots out in the living room. She'd have preferred the adults had taken the food out to the foals as well, but Sunset hadn't specified it. Hopefully, there would be no accidents involving spilled food on the carpet. It was inevitable that some food would get on the carpet, but that wouldn't compare to a full plate being dropped.

Oh well, they could afford carpet cleaners. They knew that they'd be needing them after Thanksgiving anyway.

After all the foals had gotten their food, the adults started preparing their plates in the buffet line along the two-foot-high table. She and Sunset would be the last as hostesses of the dinner. With nineteen people getting food before the two of them, she hoped that there would still be some of her favorite dishes left by the time she got to them. They had made a lot of macaroni and cheese, that at least should last...in theory.

"Shit," Sunset cursed.

Tonya flicked an ear and looked at her wife. "What? What's wrong?"

Sunset pointed at the pink earth pony. "Amanda decided to be adventurous and try one of the spiders. Now I doubly have to eat one of those things, or they'll notice."

Of course, it would be Amanda; the other mare Sunset was desperate for approval from. Another meltdown might be incoming.

"Sunset, it isn't that big a deal. You don't need to freak out about this."

"But now they'll both think I'm a coward if I don't try one," Sunset whined.

Tonya gestured broadly at all the others. "Except for Amanda and the night ponies, no one else has gotten brave enough to try one. Not even all the night ponies are, Robby didn't take a chance. No one is going to look down on you."

"What are these?" Tonya heard her brother say as he examined the spiders. "It looks like something for Halloween instead of Thanksgiving."

"They're butter baked tarantulas," Phobia answered. "I brought them. They're an old night pony recipe from Equestria that I learned. You should try one. Don't be afraid. They're just another type of food."

Devon gave her husband a mischievous look. "Go on, Paul, try one. Or are you chicken?"

Paul looked at Devon. "I don't see one on your plate."

Devon quickly reached down with a hand and tossed a biscuit onto her plate--a feat Tonya wondered how Devon performed without tipping over considering the table was low for a human--and smiled sweetly at him. "Oops, it looks like my plate is already full. Maybe I'll eat one later...if you do first."

Paul scowled at her, then turned and purposefully put one of the spiders on his plate. He then turned to Tom and grinned.

"I saw your wife grab one," Paul said. "You wouldn't want your wife showing you up or hurt your daughter's feelings by not trying one, would you?"

Tom looked uncertainly at the spiders. "I..."

Wild gently shoved between the two of them. "What you two need to do is get out of the way because a hungry earth pony is eating for two here. Oh, I'm pregnant, by the way. There's my big family announcement."

Wild quickly took her plate from her back onto the table, added two spiders to it, put her plate back on her back, and then cut around Paul to get more food.

"I suppose I can get one," Tom said with a blink as he watched Wild continue to fill her plate.

"I'm game. I'll try them," Jose said as he apprehensively watched his sister load more food onto her plate. While keeping his eyes glued to her, he leaned over to his brother to whisper. "¿Sabías que está embarazada?"

Miguel shook his head in bewilderment while watching his earth pony sister finish loading her plate. Tonya heard Amy whisper a question to her boyfriend, asking what he said, and Jose whisper something back.

Tonya could hear Sunset whimpering now beside her. She wanted to reassure her wife, but the thing stuck in her head was the announcement that Wild was pregnant. Tonya was now the only adult female in the family that wasn't a mother. It was time to double down on trying to convince Sunset that it was very personally important that she have a foal.

"I need a minute," Sunset abruptly announced. The unicorn then lit her horn up and vanished.

Tonya looked at the spot her wife just vanished from and started muttering. "Seriously, Sunset? You know you failed your licensing to be doing that. And even if you had your license to teleport, it's meant for emergencies only. This isn't an emergency."

"Um, something wrong?" Jose asked as the family stared at her.

"She teleported, Mommy! Did you see, Jackie?" Jordan said excitedly to Amanda and Jackie beside her and then sparked her horn.

"Yeah, I saw," Jackie replied, though she didn't seem very interested. Jackie rarely seemed interested in magic from what Tonya could tell.

Amanda rubbed Jordan's mane. "Yes, we know, plum butter." Amanda looked at Tonya. "Is she allowed to be doing that?"

Tonya sighed and shook her head. "No, she's not. She's having a moment right now, don't worry. I'll go track her down and calm her. She's not strong enough to go very far. She'll either be upstairs or outside. My bet is upstairs. I'll be right back."

She took to the air and flew through the living room and up the stairs. When she reached the second floor, she landed. Up here was a large bathroom, her sewing room, Sunset's study, their bedroom, and a room they used for general storage. All the rooms had their doors slightly cracked open to allow Satan easy access. She perked her ears up to listen for any sounds, trying not to focus on the sounds of conversations taking place downstairs.

Her ears picked up muffled sounds from the bedroom, sounds that weren't the cat. She hurried over to it, cautiously pushed the door completely open, and stepped into the room.

Sunset was on the bed, face buried in the pillows that Tonya had personally sewed and filled with her feathers. Sunset's purple and yellow mane was a mess.

"Sunshine, let's talk about this. You're making a mountain out of a molehill," Tonya said, walking over to the bed. "I know you've been deathly afraid of spiders since you found that big black widow nesting in your tail. Phobia will understand how you feel if you just tell her spiders freak you out. I'm sure if she realized you developed arachnophobia, she wouldn't have brought those."

"Maybe that's exactly why she brought them," Sunset said as she turned and fixed her bloodshot eyes on Tonya. "You know how she is; she wants ponies to face their fears. I'm supposed to face my fears, and I'm failing. I'm failing in front of her, her wife, and Amanda!"

Tonya hopped onto the bed and cuddled up close to her wife. "Do you really think your daughter has it out for you? Is it really that bad just to admit you're scared stiff of spiders? I don't think anyone is going to look down on you for that. If anything, you might be more sympathetic to Amanda, at least. You always try to be this perfect, unshakable pony. Maybe showing a little of your more vulnerable side would be a bit more enduring to the people you want to impress."

Sunset continued to cry as snot ran out her nose. "So they can see how weak I am?"

"You're not weak," Tonya replied as she ran a few feathers over Sunset's face to wipe it clean.

Sunset flinched back. "Yes, I am. You know how weak my magic is. Couldn't even pass the test to be allowed to teleport."

Tonya sighed. "Yes, it's true that you aren't capable of channeling lots of magic into single spells, but that doesn't make your magic weak. Do that thing with the balls of fire, make a few of them."

Her wife gave a doubting look but lit up her horn with its red aura. A moment later, half-a-dozen balls of fire surrounded them in the air.

"Now look at those," Tonya instructed. "You're maintaining six separate balls of fire around us perfectly fine, and those aren't just one spell. You've got separate shield spells and fire spells going in each one, along with positioning spells and other spells on top of that. That's a lot of spells going on all at once. Most unicorns can't do something like this."

The balls winked out of existence. "So what? They're all weak power spells. Barely any magic is going into any of them. Most unicorns could make stronger shields and bigger fires, if they bother to learn the spells."

Tonya nuzzled her wife then pulled back and looked her in the eyes. "But it's still far more spells at once than most unicorns can do. Plus, those spells are combined in ways that are more complex than most unicorns can do. You're pumping out a lot of magic, it just isn't going into one big spell. You're a talented spellcaster who knows a lot about magic."

"Maybe," Sunset muttered as she pulled a pillow into her forelegs and gripped it tightly.

"Not maybe," Tonya said sternly. "You take a lot of little things and make them something more. That's what I've always felt your talent really is, to make something greater with what you've been given. You look at your cutie mark and see your focus as doing God's work. I look at your cutie mark and see your hooves gripping on to the only thing you felt you had at the time, combining your ponydom and your faith into something more. You do that with everything, you gather things together and make them something greater than they were separately. That's how we're sitting in the greatest city there is. You built it by making use of every little thing you were given, and you've accomplished more than any other person in your position would have. You aren't weak."

"Can you just mind magic me to make it so I'm not afraid of spiders anymore?" Sunset begged, seeming to ignore Tonya's reassurances.

Tonya facehoofed briefly before lowering her hoof back down. "No, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to go back downstairs. I'm going to tell everyone the truth that spiders just really scare you. You're going to go wash your face, brush your mane, and make yourself presentable. Then you'll come back downstairs and everything will be fine."

Sunset cringed. "You're going to tell them? Why?"

Tonya put a wing over Sunset's back. "Because, I need to explain why you bailed like that and the truth is better than anything else I can give. They aren't going to look down on you for it. That's your family down there. They care about you. Rosetta and Amanda care too, even if it's only for their spouses' sakes."

Sunset sat stiffly beside her. Still not responding.

She tried another tactic; try to get her competitive nature going. She put on a playful smile. "You know that the foals are going to end up getting into a race at some point after eating. I'm sure you want to cheer your namesake on. Rosetta said the demons have learned new tricks so Charlotte might win this time around, even though I'm sure it will be Jackie. I'm ready to take the ten dollars you're going to lose."

The unicorn didn't rise to the bait. It was time to go to the tried and true method of getting Sunset to focus. It wasn't something she wanted to do on a holiday, but sometimes things just had to be done.

"By the way, you have some talking to do when you get down there. Paul was asking about having Jessie tour some of the research facilities to try to get her interested in more than just NASA, and he was also asking about the testing we have going on now."

Her wife blinked and seemed to get more ahold of herself as thoughts of work entered her head. Sunset could always be distracted from problems by making her think about work. She was a goal oriented pony, and if she was getting too caught up in one area with no progress all that needed to be done is get her to focus on a separate goal for a few minutes.

"Paul's trying to get Jessie interested in eventually working with us?" Sunset asked with building excitement. "This is great news. She might still be years away, but that little filly has a mind for equations that's unmatched. I'm shocked she still doesn't have her cutie mark, even though she's much younger than most would normally get theirs. It seems so obvious what her talents are."

"He's only trying to broaden her horizons," Tonya cautioned. "Don't get too pushy with her or you'll push her away. Just try to sell it to her that important things are being done by great minds in our facilities."

"I really don't like losing the chance at an asset like her," Sunset said. "I want to get her excited about the idea of working for us."

Tonya nodded. "I think we've got a few ex-NASA people working for us. Maybe you can have her meet them. She can hear more about what NASA is actually like and why they chose to work with us. It gives her a well rounded perspective that will make her appreciate you doing this more. That way she still has a good opinion of us even if she does end up going to work with NASA and might choose to move on to us later."

Sunset tapped her hoof to her chin. "That's a good idea. She'd be just as excited talking to them and grateful we got her the opportunity. I could also sell the idea of this being a stepping stone to NASA as well. I think there was a pony that got recruited from one of our labs to NASA. I hate losing assets, but it builds our credibility."

Tonya smiled. "See, plenty of good things can come of this as long as you don't upset the filly." Tonya then narrowed her eyes. "Speaking of fillies, you know what I want to discuss now that Wild is pregnant. I know you had to have known that before today since she has to alert all the businesses she's involved in about any pregnancies. You kept that from me because you knew what I would say."

Sunset frowned. "You know how I feel about that. I can't be a proper parent at this stage. I'm too busy and too old."

"You're not too old, and I'm not too busy. I can be a stay at home mom," Tonya replied in a strained voice. "A lot of foals have at least one parent that's very busy and don't get to spend as much time with them. I want to have a foal Sunset. I'll carry it. I'll be there for it. I'm at the age I want to start seeing to the next generation. You love Phobia and your grandfoals. I love them too, but I don't have that kind of bond with them. I want foals we can share that kind of bond with."

Sunset looked uncertain. "How about Monday you go to the doctor and find out what your options are...just for information gathering. After that we can sit down with a family planner and discuss things together with them. I'm not saying yes, I'm saying I'm open to changing my mind. This is a big thing, and it impacts both of us--even if you take on most of the parenting responsibilities."

She gave Sunset a hug. "At least you're willing to consider it." She released the hug. "Now get yourself ready. I'll go deal with everyone while you do."

Wild sat in front one of the low sitting tables of the living room away from everyone else, trying to avoid too many questions about her pregnancy. Right now most of the other adults seemed to be content to huddle into separate groups away from her. She had no chair, but the table was designed for ponies so she really didn't need one. She had her spoon attached to her pony strap and was at this moment using it as a shovel to shovel food into her mouth. She hadn't been joking when she said she was hungry and eating for two.

Her ears picked up the sound of someone coming down the stairs. She turned and looked to see Tonya walking down. The pegasus stopped as she saw them all eating.

"Did someone say grace?" The pegasus asked sternly. "Sunset and I will be very disappointed in you all if you didn't say grace."

"I led us all in grace. Don't worry," Tom answered. "We didn't know how long you'd be and it's hard to stop the foals from eating when they've got food in front of them. We figured you and Sunset were more than capable of saying your own blessings over your food."

Tonya gave another look around and examined everyone with a critical eye. The purple maned pegasus had picked up some of her wife's religiousness over the years. Wild supposed it was one of the inevitabilities of being married to a preacher that Tonya became religious. Tonya was normally nowhere near as adamant about things as Sunset, or as quick to bring God into her discussions, but there were a few things that would transform Tonya into a nagging church lady.

Tonya seemed to accept that grace had been said and looked around the room with a smile. "Okay then. Well, Sunset will be down shortly. The entire ordeal was because she's terrified of spiders and the watching people getting Phobia's butter-baked tarantulas caused her arachnophobia to go into overdrive. Please, don't give her a hard time about it. She's really embarrassed about it."

Wild raised an eyebrow at that. She guessed that was a common enough fear. She'd seen plenty of people panic about spiders before. That Sunset had that kind of crippling fear was a little surprising, but completely believable.

The baked spiders didn't bother her personally because she'd eaten spider before on a trip to Cambodia. They tasted kind of like what she remembered lobster tasting like when she was a human--only unlike lobster they wouldn't make her vomit. There were supposedly some types of lobster that ponies could eat without getting sick, but she hadn't come across those yet in her travels. Night ponies in Equestria apparently raised the appropriate lobster types, but transport of those across dimensions was still prohibited. Tarantula was one of the few meats ponies could eat that were found on Earth, and with her eating for two now she'd take any meat she could get.

She watched Tonya leave the stairs and walk to the kitchen, greeting many again as she passed. When Tonya passed by Wild there was no verbal greeting, by either of them. Tonya may have found God, led a choir once a month, do counseling, and be generally friendly to all; but Tonya's past deeds still made Wild wary of her. Wild had forgiven but not forgotten what Tonya had done to Number Crunch.

If didn't make her happy that mind magic would need to be employed to make the temporary transformations a true success, and that was primarily because the top pony Sunset had on staff for mind magic was Tonya. The Dreamwardens were the ideal choice to help, but they would refuse to get involved in anything beyond making sure the rules were being followed. Sunset had enough experience dealing with them to dot all her i's, so angering them wouldn't be an issue.

"Hi, mind if I sit with you?" She heard Devon say.

Wild looked up at the very heavily pregnant human. Humans who lived in Riverview made her wary. The fact that Devon was intending on giving her upcoming child a pony name was the first red flag, but the confirmation was in the silver necklace hanging around Devon's neck--a cross embedded on Sunset Shimmer's cutie mark. This was the first time Wild had seen the woman openly wearing such a thing. The Shimmerists in Riverview we're getting bold in displaying their beliefs.

"You may," Wild answered. Devon might be a Shimmerist, but Wild did work alongside them. She didn't even have problems with humans that wanted to be ponies and had no reason other than personal desire, that was perfectly fine. It was the insistence that they were all better off as ponies that bothered her. Wild felt each tribe brought something of great value to the world, and she personally counted humans among the tribes--even though almost everyone looked at her strangely for saying so.

Devon crouched down and crossed her legs under her. It looked like a lot of work to just sit down in her state. After watching many mares and women go through pregnancy Wild was not thrilled with the idea of reaching such a state. At least it was only a temporary thing and the timing put it to where she might actually be able to clear her schedule to take care of her foal now. After Sunday she could start getting more into the motherly spirit. Her years of work were finally about to pay their dividends.

Devon smiled at her. "How are you feeling about your pregnancy? I know how exciting and scary the first time can be."

Well, there was no way she was going to completely avoid these conversations. She rubbed her tummy with a hoof, trying to imagine the life growing inside her. "It hasn't fully registered yet that it's happening. Other than my sex drive getting under control and having a bigger appetite I really haven't had anything to keep me reminded it's happening."

"No morning sickness or strange cravings?"

Wild shook her head. "Maybe a little more craving for high protein stuff, like the spiders, but nothing too odd. I haven't gotten sick at all. Doctors think I just have a much stronger stomach than most ponies. Doesn't surprise me, I tend to be much stronger in everything physical than most ponies."

Devon nodded along. "I know, you're a regular living legend. Your work and powers make you an icon for everyone. Jessie looks up to you so much. I worry about how much she looks up to you given your." She coughed into her fist. "Sexual exploits."

Wild frowned. "My sexual exploits are a result of an extra magically fueled sex drive. After I have this foal I'll be talking to Yinyu Wu Yan about curbing my sex drive. Having lots of sex helped for a while with my stress and loneliness, but I'll be backing away from a lot of projects to focus on raising my foal. Work stress and loneliness might be less of issues going forward, though I know having a foal is its own bag of stresses. For what it's worth, I doubt you need to worry about your daughter ever becoming a raging sex machine when she grows up."

Devon glanced over at where her daughter was currently sitting and eating next to Robby. "I have reasons to worry about a lot of things with her. She's not even seven yet and she's wanting to graduate high school by spring, despite me insisting she should spend all four years there."

"I'd think you'd be really proud of her," Wild replied, unsure where this conversation was going.

Devon looked flustered. "I am, but I wasn't even really comfortable with her being in high school to begin with. She's being exposed to all kinds of social situations that a filly her age should not have to be exposed to. She barely knows how to socialize properly, but once she does learn that it's going to open a whole new can of worms as she deals with others discussing adult subjects. She's going to be exposed to so many subjects long before she's ready to be thinking about those things. Hell, she's already read the sex education textbooks, even though I really rather she hadn't."

Wild frowned as she picked up where this was going. "It isn't my intention to encourage foals into risky behavior. I don't promote it. I can't help that the media like to broadcast that stuff. I really rather they didn't, but I can't do much to stop free press. I'd rather they focus on my charitable campaigns, work raising public awareness about many issues, trying to facilitate positive climate change, and my efforts to roll back deforestation."

"Not your business dealings?" Devon asked with a raised eyebrow.

Wild waved it off. "It's a means to an end. Though I'd rather hear the press talking about those than who I slept with."

Devon pressed her lips together tightly before continuing. "Look, I'm not condemning you for what you do in your free time. You're a grown adult and if you want to sleep with a lot of partners that's your business. I also know that you dedicate your life to making a world a better place, and that you do make a difference. But do you see why her idolization of you makes me nervous after what I've told you? Right now she's focused on those wonderful things you do, and that's great, but as she gets more exposed to adult concepts her idolizing you might carry over to what you do in your private life. It could normalize those kinds of things for her, and in a few years she could be engaging in the same things."

The woman certainly mixed a lot of condemnation in for not meaning to criticize. Wild took a bite of food to give herself a moment to think before answering, and her eyes passed over the room as she did. Everyone else was in their own little groups still, but she noticed an occasional person here and there glancing in this direction.

"I can see your concerns," she said after swallowing. "I was an impressionable filly myself just a few years ago, and I picked up some of my bad habits because of it. What I'm unsure of is why you're discussing this with me instead of your daughter."

Devon glanced over at Jessie again before turning back to Wild and leaning close to whisper. "She worships the ground you walk on. I was hoping you could give her a talk about what she should and shouldn't look up to you for. She'd take it more seriously coming from you."

Wild looked at the human in shock. "You want me to give your daughter the birds and the bees talk?!"

Devon gave her a steady look. "And the sobriety and say no to drugs talk."

"I don't do any drugs," Wild said with a growl.

"Reporters have said you've been known to smoke...stuff."

"Regular tobacco, not anything illicit. Don't believe everything you read in the tabloids," Wild said with an annoyed flick of her tail as she started to feel defensive. "I've also seen you at a hookah bar after a long week at work, even you do that on occasion, and you drink sometimes too."

"Not to the extents that you do. You spend an extraordinary amount of time in those places," Devon said firmly as she crossed her arms. "Again, I don't want to to criticize you, but I don't want this to be something Jessie learns she should be doing. She's a sponge, and she looks to you more than she does me. You're the great Wild Growth. I'm just her dumb mother."

Wild looked wide-eyed at Devon. "Do you really think your daughter looks down on you?"

Devon hung her head. "Right now, no. In the future...maybe? I used to worry about just trying to understand my foals because I wasn't a pony, but she isn't a normal pony. I look at her and see a foal that should be playing pretend, learning how to read, and having sleepovers with her friends. Then she starts talking and I'm reminded I'm dealing with someone who is so much more educated that me I just feel dumb in comparison. I try my best to address the gaps in her development, and try to slow her down so I can, but she sees it as me holding her back for no reason. At some point I wouldn't be surprised if she started to resent me from trying to hold her back. She's my baby girl, but I feel so lost dealing with her."

Wild really had no clue what to say to that. Devon was in a position that not many mothers would be in. How was she supposed to help with this? She wanted to help, but felt as clueless as Devon did to figure out what the best course to take was. Something needed to be done, for Jessie's sake and Devon's.

She glanced over at the small filly in question then back to Devon. "If you really want me to talk to her I will. I'll do what I can to make this better."

Devon gave a grateful smile and slowly lifted herself back to her feet. "Thank you. I'll send her over to you."

Wild's eyes widen slightly. She hadn't meant this second. She hadn't even had a chance to think about what to say to the filly. There was no help for it now, as Devon was already up and walking over to Jessie.

Her ears swiveled in their direction as she heard the excited gasp Jessie let off at being told she could go talk to one of her idols now. A second later Jessie hurried over to her so fast that if Wild hadn't been paying attention she would have sworn the little filly had teleported.

She smiled down at the yellow furred, blue maned filly. "Hi there, Jessie...or do you prefer Jessica now?"

"Jessie's fine. My mom only calls me Jessica when she's mad at me," Jessie replied. She gave Wild a questioning look. "Ms. Growth, why do you think I would prefer Jessica?"

Wild's smile slipped a little. "Mom's like to pull out your full name when they want to let you know their serious about things. My papa will on rare occasions still call me Catherine when he really wants to get my attention. As for why you might prefer Jessica I know you're trying to impress people, and using Jessica sounds a little more professional."

"So, people might not look at me like a little filly if I ask them to call me Jessica instead of Jessie?" The six-year-old asked with a cock of her head.

Wild bit her lip. She really didn't want to encourage the filly into insisting on using her full name when her parents were fond of calling her by the nickname. Devon was already upset that her daughter was growing up much faster than she could keep up with. At the same time she wanted to make Jessie feel her questions were treated seriously.

"I think it depends on the setting," she answered after a moment of indecision, deciding that honesty was the best policy. "With friends and family I think Jessie is appropriate, because it's better to be informal then, but with more formal or professional settings Jessica is better. There are different social contexts to how we present ourselves. Presenting ourselves in the appropriate way for each social context can help us succeed. You can call me just Wild instead of Wild Growth or Ms. Growth, because the two of us are friends."

"Is there a book to explain the right social context for using different names, Wild?" Jessie asked curiously.

"There may be, but it isn't going to be completely correct," Wild said as she smiled down at the filly. "Nothing substitutes for observation and experience when it comes to that type of thing."

"But you asked me if I preferred to be called Jessica, but you said we're friends. Why'd you ask me that then?" Jessie said as she tried to better understand the the concept.

"Because if you don't actually like being called Jessie it wouldn't be very friendly," Wild explained. "Your feelings about your name are important too. Do you like people to call you Jessie?"

"I never really thought about it. They just do," Jessie replied.

"I guess you have something to think about. There isn't a right answer either. It's about what makes you happy."

The yellow filly sat and considered this for a second. "I guess I'll just keep it the same for now while I think about it more. If that's okay."

Wild brightened up her smile. "That's perfectly alright. How has school been going for you, Jessie? You must have been excited to start the ninth grade."

Jessie frowned slightly, which was a little confusing. "I'm technically in tenth grade now. I challenged out a lot of my classes. I'm trying to challenge out more so I can be in eleventh grade by Christmas, but my mom keeps stopping me from studying."

Jesus...they weren't kidding when they said this kid was moving at breakneck speeds through her education.

"That's really impressive. I skipped one grade level back when I was in school, but you seem like you're ready to redefine skipping school," Wild joked. It wasn't much of a joke. How much time had this filly actually spent in school? A year and a half maybe? Here she was on pace to finish all her primary schooling in just two years.

Jessie didn't seem particularly impressed or proud of her achievements though. "It's not that big a deal. The classes are all really easy. I can usually get by just reading the textbook and taking the final exam, except for the reading classes that I need to read a lot of books for."

"So is there anything academically that does challenge you?" Wild asked curiously.

Jessie brightened up and showed some excitement again. "Yeah! I've been working on some equations in my free time trying to show how soon the Devourers could reach Earth based on all possible speeds up to the speed of light!"

Wild's mouth dropped. "You what? How can you figure that out if you don't know for sure where they are?"

Jessie reached into her saddlebags and pulled out a notebook with her mouth and put it on the table. "It isn't perfect, and I'm still trying to figure some things out, but based on the assumption that they are in the observable universe, since we have observed the solar flares that are supposed to indicate them, that must happen within forty-six billion light years of us. While this is in the particle horizon we can dismiss most of that because it is beyond the cosmic event horizon, which is about sixteen billion light years away, and therefore not relevant. We only need to concern ourselves the with activity within the CEV. We can create a range of data points based on where we've observed otherwise unexplained solar flares within the CEV based on varying speeds and use those to determine location, trajectory, and speed. It would help greatly if we could determine an event zero for mapping, but I'd need far more data to accomplish that. That's why I need to get into NASA, to get the data for my equations."

Wild just stared. Holy shit! Jessie was on a whole other level of intelligence. This was big stuff she was working on. It was uncertain how much work had actually been done on this so far by others, but this was definitely something that needed people studying it.

Her befuddled expression must have been evident, because Jessie had a look of hurt and disappointment on her face. Before Wild could say anything Phobia walked over and grabbed the notebook up with her wings and began examining it.

"Hmm," Phobia hummed to herself. "You've made calculations for expanding space time?"

Jessie blinked then looked excited again. "Yes, on the fifth page, you can see where I was working on that."

Phobia turned to the appropriate page and started examining it.

"You understand all that?" Wild asked the Dreamwarden.

"Dreamwardens understand a lot of things," Phobia said absently as she flipped through some more pages of the notebook. "This still needs work, but it's very good. Very good indeed. Mind if I hold on to this for a few minutes? I promise not to mess anything up and will return it to you before you leave."

"Um, sure. You really think it's that good?" Jessie asked excitedly.

"Truly brilliant," Phobia replied, still reading. "As I said, it still needs work, but what I'm seeing here is very important work in progress." Phobia closed the notebook and tucked it under her wing. "I need to speak with your mother. I'll leave you two to continue your talk in peace."

Wild watched Phobia casually walk over to Jessie's parents and motion them into a huddle to speak quietly. She turned back to Jessie who also had her eyes and the night pony and two humans.

"Well, it seems someone here understands what goes on in your head and approves," Wild said to the young filly. "I apologize for blanking out there. That's not my field of expertise and it was clear it was well beyond my understanding. I was trying to figure out what the right thing to do was, but Phobia clearly seems to know."

Jessie looked back at her and gave a sad smile. "It's okay. Everyone seems to do that to me when I start talking about this stuff. Miss Phobia is the first person who has ever seemed to understand what I'm talking about. Do you think she'll help me get into NASA?"

Wild glanced over to the night pony and humans again and couldn't tell much about the conversation from what she saw. "I don't know kid. She's got her own connections to different things. She is a very powerful pony with a lot of pull though, and she seemed very impressed. Until today I didn't know she cared about anything with that subject."

"I hope she helps me, that would make this the best Thanksgiving day ever. Mom can't hold me back if Miss Phobia says I need to be at NASA," Jessie squealed excitedly.

Mention of being held back brought Wild's attention back to what she was supposed to be talking to Jessie about. She did a quick glance around the room and decided she wanted even more privacy than her isolated spot. "Jessie, while Phobia is talking with your parents how about we step outside for a minute to talk about something important. It will be me talking to you like you're an adult."

Jessie went even more wide eyed. "Okay, we can do that."

Wild stood up and removed her spoon from her pony strap. Making a mental note to herself to remember to wash it before she left. She then started walking towards the door, taking only a second to make sure Jessie was following.

The two stepped outside and Wild sat down on the edge of the porch. She glanced around the outside grounds . Sunset and Tonya kept pretty elaborate gardens with walkways with many different types of bushes and walls with vines climbing them. She couldn't imagine either as a gardener and wondered how many gardeners they hired to tend this. It was pretty, even at this time of year. Settings like this helped put her at ease.

She turned to her small companion. "Your mom wanted me to talk to you about my lifestyle. She's concerned you might get the wrong ideas about what you should do. I normally wouldn't talk to a filly your age about these things, but you understand things well enough that I can talk to you like you're much older."

Jessie seemed to get irritated and flicked her tail grumpily. "She's always saying things about what you do are bad. They aren't so bad, you don't hurt anyone. You do so much good that she doesn't seem to pay attention to."

"Well, you heard that I'm pregnant, right?" Wild said uncertainly. Talking to a filly about these things was weird. "I'm guessing with how well read you are I don't have to explain to you how that happened."

"You had sex."

Wild nodded. "Yes, I had sex. I had a lot of sex. While talks of orgies is a gross exaggeration by the tabloids they aren't wrong when they say I have a lot of sex with a lot of stallions. I also drink a lot and do other things like that. Your mom is worried that when you get older you might start thinking you should be doing these things too because I do them."

She groaned to herself as she finished speaking. When out in public her responses to things were careful and rehearsed, but with family she dropped a lot of her guards when speaking and ended up saying way more than she should with them. Now she was saying things she especially should not say to a six-year old.

"I don't care about those things, all I care about is doing my math," Jessie replied.

Wild took a deep breath before she continued, she'd already started down this path so no turning back. She'd promised Jessie she'd speak to her like an adult anyway. "Right now you don't. Right now your biology hasn't started pumping you full of hormones and started messing with that big brain of yours. You aren't going to stay a six-year-old forever. Even with your mom trying to slow you down you're going to be getting out into the adult world way before you actually reach your teen years. You're going to be seeing those around you involved with this kind of stuff, you'll feel pressures you never felt before. When I was seventeen I had been pretty sheltered from the world, and when I got into it I got to doing a lot of things I probably shouldn't have--which has culminated in me having a foal inside me from an Algerian stallion that I can't even identify, and I was a pretty smart filly too."

"That's just another reason I shouldn't be socializing then," Jessie asserted as she laid her ears back.

Wild shook her head. "Jessie, it doesn't work that way. We're ponies, we're some of the most social creatures there are. Extended isolation is literally torture to us. I saw how disappointed you looked when I didn't understand what you were talking about. I also saw your glee when Phobia did. You want belonging just like every other pony. Whether you think you will or not, you'll put yourself in positions to be part of the group, part of the herd. Understanding how to properly socialize and recognizing the dangers you can get into is important to learn or you'll ruin your future with NASA--and I do think you have a bright future with them if you play your cards right."

Jessie looked up at her with her ears held high. "You do think I can join NASA?"

Wild gave the filly a serious look. "You definitely have the brains and the know-how to be a big part of NASA. The only thing that could mess you up from being a major part of NASA for years to come is yourself. Even with how smart you are you can screw it all up if you don't learn how to socialize in a healthy way. I have gotten away with social failings others wouldn't because I'm indispensable with my magic; they won't be so kind to you with your brains."

Jessie's ears fell.

"Take your mom seriously when she wants you to learn how to better socialize, because she loves you and wants you to reach your dreams. Your most important lessons that will make or break you aren't in the classroom, but in the schoolyard."

Jessie looked down at the ground. "I think I understand."

Wild put a hoof on the filly's back. "I hope so, because I want to be friends with Doctor Jessie Middleton at NASA. I'm told you idolize Twilight Sparkle as well. Remember that she didn't think friendship was that important when she was younger either. She didn't come into her own until she came to understand how wrong she was. Now let's go back inside. You need to start making sure your future is a great one, and that starts with the foals in there."

That might not have been her best handled conversation ever, but hopefully she hadn't screwed up too much. Learning how to deal with foals was going to be a whole new experience for her. Just like Jessie she had a lot of practice she needed to get in.

Jessie walked inside beside Wild Growth. Her feelings were really mixed. On the one end both Wild Growth and Phobia Remedy seemed really impressed by her math skills, and really seemed to take notice. On the other end was the dire warning from Wild Growth about how it could all go terribly wrong and she lose her chance. Her mom had never really expressed things like that to her, she'd only stressed that learning to socialize was extremely important. What Wild Growth had said made learning to socialize what her dreams depended on.

For the first time ever she was feeling real doubt about whether her intelligence was enough. She had to learn how to properly socialize and learn what was appropriate when and where. That was a scary thing. This had always been something she failed at. It just didn't come naturally to her like math, reading, and science. She barely had to work on those subjects to succeed in them, but this...this was something she actually struggled with.

"Jessie, can you come over here?" Her mom called to her. "We need to talk to you about something."

She looked over to her mom. Both her mom and dad were sitting with Phobia Remedy, and her notebook was sitting open in front of her mom. Her mom knew about her notebook, but never really was able to understand what was in the notebook. All three of them were looking at her. Phobia Remedy was smiling.

"Yes, Mom," Jessie replied as she walked over to the three adults.

Her mom watched her approach and pointed at the notebook when she reached them. "Miss Phobia was explaining to us in terms we could understand exactly what you've been working on. Your father and I had a discussion with her about it, and she has a proposal for you."

Jessie turned to Phobia Remedy. The Dreamwarden smiled at her. "I was very impressed with your work and do want to see it continued. Your parents have expressed concerns about how this will impact your upbringing and I have listened. Here is then what I propose to satisfy all involved."

The Dreamwarden pointed at the notebook. "I'm going to make copies of this and send them to Twilight Sparkle and NASA. I'm going to advise the Princess of Friendship along with the government about the importance of your work and the contributions I think you can make. I'm also going to advise Twilight Sparkle about the fact you've been struggling with making friends and she can help you with that. Between her time helping you improve your friendships she can help you with what you've begun in this notebook."

Jessie's eyes widened and her mouth went agape. "You're...going to tell Twilight Sparkle...and NASA...about me?"

Phobia Remedy nodded. "I originally was going to just tell NASA and the government. I don't like getting tangled up with Equestrians, but your parents stressed their concerns that you need help with your social development. You can thank your parents for me going to her because of that. I believe Twilight Sparkle finds me enough of a friend she'll listen when I recommend you to her. She won't fix all your friendship problems for you, but she'll help if you make an effort. Will you make an effort?"

Jessie nodded enthusiastically. "Ms...I mean Wild--just talked to me about how important it is that I try."

Phobia smiled. "My sister-in-law is a smart pony. I'll make arrangements over the next few days and get back to you sometime next week."

With that, Phobia picked up the notebook and walked towards the stairs. Sunset Blessing was walking down the stairs as she did and a few quick words were said by the Dreamwarden. The unicorn listened, nodded, and made a few quick gestures that seemed to indicate the location of something. Phobia nodded back and went up the stairs, notebook still tucked under her wing.

Best Thanksgiving ever!

"Now, I think you need to get back to trying to socialize with the other foals," her mom said to her.

Oh yeah, she was supposed to be doing that. Agreeing that she would take it more seriously and having any idea what she was doing were to entirely different things though.

She looked at the other foals. Jordan was clumsily trying to take bites of her food with the spoon attached to her Pony Strap. It didn't look like the unicorn was used to silverware at all. The three night pony foals were wrestling with one another, and it looked fairly rough. Ms. Rosetta, Mr. Tom, and Ms. Amanda were all sitting pretty close by and talking, but none of the adults seemed to care about the roughhousing going on right next to them. Her brother was drawing in a corner, and she knew he wasn't who her parents wanted her to socialize with.

That left Jackie, the pink pegasus with a yellow mane was watching the three night ponies and seemed to be debating whether to join in or not. She seemed the best bet at the moment, provided the pegasus didn't decide to join in the fighting before Jessie got to her. Jackie was the closest to her age too, only a week younger. Jackie could be a little difficult sometimes, but she didn't really treat Jessie that weird.

Jessie went over to the pegasus and Jackie gave her an appraising look as she approached.

"What do want? You never come over to play," Jackie asked suspiciously as Jessie approached.

Okay, so Jackie was in a difficult mood...great.

"Well, I want to try to play now," Jessie replied.

Jackie looked her over. "What do you want to play? Not number stuff again, that's boring."

Math isn't boring! Jessie thought loudly in her head. She wanted to yell it at Jackie, but that would get her in trouble.

"I don't know. What do you want to do?" She asked instead.

Jackie looked over at the three fighting night ponies, who were all pulling on each other's wings and tails while kicking each other. She hoped Jackie didn't want them to start fighting too. Why were all the adults alright with the three night ponies doing that? Her best guess was because they were giggling rather than screaming, and because they were night ponies and everyone just expected night ponies to do that. Her brother pulled her tail sometimes and no one seemed bothered by it.

Jackie seemed to dismiss the night ponies, to Jessie's complete relief. The pegasus turned her head towards the door and swished her tail about a few times before turning back to Jessie.

"We should race now," Jackie answered.

That was great. She had no problems racing. There wasn't much talk involved with racing and she'd been ready to show Jackie up in a race today anyway. Racing was one of the few fun physical activities.

"Yeah, we can race," she answered.

"Race?" Charlotte asked. She still had her brother tugging on her tail and her sister on her back, but her attention was on Jackie and Jessie. "Are you gonna race?"

Jackie looked at the dark blue night pony and nodded. "Yeah, we're going to race. Do you want to race too?"

Charlotte slapped her brother with a wing and shook her back to dislodge her sister before turning to her purple twin. "Tabby, they're gonna race!"

Tabby blew some of her dark blue mane out of her face and looked at them. "We're going to race too!" She then kicked her brother, who was still attached to Charlotte's tail. "Stop fighting, Alfie. We're going to race now."

"Did I hear race?" Ms. Amanda asked in a loud voice and all the adults around the room focused on her as conversations came to a sudden halt. "I'm putting ten dollars on Jackie. Who's betting against me?"

"Ten on Jessie!" Her dad chimed in.

"I've got ten on Tabby!" Mr. Miguel called out.

"Ten more on Jessie!" Her mom yelled a second later.

"Ten on Jackie!" Aunt Tonya yelled.

The human girl that Jessie didn't know looked around in confusion. "You're all going to gamble on your kids' race?"

Mr. Jose laughed. "Foal races are serious business, Amy. It's like competitive sports. Foals are all on a close to even playing field because they haven't developed their specialized magics yet. We've been waiting for them to decide to race since they finished eating." He raised his hand up. "I've ten on Alfie!"

"Ten on Charlotte!" Sunset Blessing called out.

"I'll put ten on Jordan," Phobia Remedy said as she returned down the stairs with the notebook still tucked under her wing.

Jordan's head popped up high and blinked a few times as she found that she had suddenly been drafted into the race by her eldest sister's bet.

Ms. Rosetta looked at her wife in disgust. "Jordan? Really?"

Phobia Remedy shrugged. "Someone has to bet on my little sister. Go show them, Jordan!"

"Wha..?" Jordan said in confusion.

Ms. Rosetta shook her head and looked down at Charlotte. "Okay, my money's on Charlotte. Earn Mama back the money Mommy is losing us."

"Jackie, make your dad proud, money's on you," Tom said.

"I'll put money down on Tabby," Mr. Roger said.

"My money's on Jessie. Earth pony pride," Wild said.

Sunset Blessing stepped forward and did a quick glance at Ms. Jean before looking back at the rest of the family. "Alright, think all bets are in. Let's take this outside. Robby, you can fly above and give us commentary while the rest of us sit on the porch."

"Okay, Mrs. Mayor, ma'am," Robby said as he stood up and closed his sketch pad.

They all took a moment getting outside. The adults boasting about their picks for who would win and why. All the foals went out in front of the porch while the adults all stayed on the porch. Jackie seemed eager to get running, as did the three demons, Jordan still seemed to getting into the spirit of it and was giving her eldest sister that showed some faith in her a big smile. Jessie didn't really think Phobia Remedy expected Jordan to win. The Dreamwarden was probably just being nice. Jordan wasn't very fast at all.

Robby flapped his wings and got in a hover over them. "Okay foals, listen up! Rules are simple. Three laps around the house though the gardens. First one to finish three laps wins. If at any time you're bleeding or crying you're out! Other than that, anything goes!"

"Bleeding?" The human girl asked in shock.

Mr. Jose shrugged. "Told you, foal races are serious. They can get pretty rough sometimes."

"Now line up all facing that direction," Robby instructed as he pointed a hoof to a clear way to the left.

They did as instructed. Jessie crouched into a running pose, as did most of the others. The ones with wings spread them slightly in anticipation. Jordan just stood in the line. Jessie was ready to show earth ponies were the fastest on the ground.

"On your marks. Get set. Go!" Robby yelled.

Jessie took off as fast as her legs could carry her, and she quickly took the lead past the others. She didn't look behind her to see how much of a lead she was starting off with. Trying to turn her head to look could trip her up.

She quickly reached the edge of the house and had to slow down to make a turn. When she did Jackie darted by her, using her wings to better keep her balance at high a full run while she turned. The three demons all came up close enough that she could see them, doing the same maneuver that Jackie did. Jackie seemed to be faster than them though.

She worked to build up her speed again following the loss of speed on the turn. As she ran down the next side of the house she quickly gained back lost ground on Jackie and put some distance between her and the demons.

She caught up to Jackie again, but a garden wall that extended out from the house made her have to make a turn and she lost a little ground. She quickly made up that ground again after turning and got just ahead of Jackie again. This lasted until the reached the end of the wall and she had to make a really hard turn to go around it. At that point Jackie went around her again.

When they did get around the wall she was shocked to see the three demons had somehow gotten ahead of both of them. How the flying freaking fudge were the demons ahead? They were behind them both. She never saw them pass her.

The demons inexplicable jump ahead of them had given them a solid lead over both her and Jackie. Jordan was assumably somewhere far behind them.

"And Tabby is in the lead, with Alfie and Charlotte close behind her," Robby announced high above them. "Jessie and Jackie are going back and forth between who is ahead further back, and way in the rear, just now reaching the garden wall, is Jordan! It's still early in the race, and it's still anyone's race!"

It was still anyone's race.

Jessie did the best she could to add push her speed when running in a straight line. That was when she was at her advantage. Jackie and the demons could do turns faster than her, but when they were going straight forward she was faster. She needed to catch up to the demons and get as much distance as she could between her and Jackie before she hit the next area that required her to turn a lot.

This side of the house wasn't helping much though. There were actually a series of garden walls and fences with vines growing up them. She could run straight for short periods, but not long enough to get a good distance between herself and Jackie before having to turn. As a result they remained pretty close together, and the demons had gotten far enough ahead that they weren't even in sight.

They finally cleared the the series of walls and fences and came upon the turn to go to the next side of the house. Jackie pulled ahead of her again briefly, but she was right on Jackie's tail. This new side of the house had a steep incline upward and a few spaced apart. This was her opportunity to make up some ground because there wasn't much here she'd have to dodge around. There was still no sign of the demons, which meant they had already cleared this side of the house. That was worrisome.

She pounded her hooves as fast as she could get them to carry her as she went up the incline. She got to where she was clearly past Jackie and she didn't look back to see how much distance she was putting between them.

The human security guard was back here at the moment. "You better run fast little fillies. You're way behind the other three."

"And the three demons have had a small collision in the bushes as they try to work their lead farther! I don't see any blood or crying, but they better sort themselves out fast or Jessie and Jackie will catch up to them! Right now they seem to be arguing though," Robby announced. That was good news. She could shorten that lead if they were taking time to fight with each other.

"¡Deja de discutir y corre!" She heard Ms. Rosetta scream from the front of the house. Jessie didn't know what that meant, but it was probably directed at the demons. The adults were just as competitive as the foals.

"And the demons are back on their hooves! They've lost a lot of momentum, and they aren't in a good area to get it back. Hopefully they can gain that back when they begin lap two," Robby called out from above. "Jessie has a small lead over Jackie as she nears the back of the house. Jordan has gotten into a good steady stride and is nearing the end of the garden walls!"

Jessie came to the end of the house and made her turn. She had to brace herself as it began a sharp slope down suddenly leading to a twisting batch of turns the flower beds and bushes. From her raised vantage point she could see the demons snaking their way through the twisting paths.

This was bad. Jackie would be able to make up a lot of ground here and possibly get past her. On the plus side, she'd seen all four sides of the house now and could formulate her strategy for the remaining two laps. The front of the house and the back of the house were where she could do the best. The math was simple, just get as far ahead as she could when at the front and back of the house and try not to lose too much ground on the sides. The demons were still an issue, but their tendency to get in fights with one another might give her a chance to overtake them yet. Jordan was a non-issue for the most part, but based on where Jordan was reported last it was best to avoid and falls or collisions to make sure Jordan stayed behind. With the slower pace Jordan was less likely than the rest to make those kinds of mistakes.

Each foal had their path to victory still. Jessie by taking advantage of the areas with few turns. Jackie taking advantage of her better maneuverability on those areas with turns. Jordan on the higher chances of crashes by the others. She had to figure out what the demons were doing to get themselves in the lead still, but once she did she could try to figure out how to counter it.

She headed down into the bushes and carefully started weaving her way through them. Being careful was critically important here because she could easily skid and go off into the bushes themselves if she tried to take a turn too fast. That was probably what happened to the demons. About halfway through she had that confirmed when she saw a bush near one of the turns that had lots of leaves knocked loose and broken branches, along with the marks in the dirt that showed that several bodies had gone skidding through it at this point.

As expected, Jackie made up lost ground here. It took much longer than expected for Jackie to do so though. These tight turns didn't allow Jackie to build up much speed between them, and even though Jackie could do the turns at higher speeds she still had to take them slower than she would running in a straight line. As a result it wasn't until Jessie was three-fourths of the way through that Jackie finally overtook her and took a small lead over her. Jessie was fine with this, she knew she could take the lead back at the front of the house, and she had enough momentum to push it farther.

They escaped the bushes and rounded around the front of the house. Jessie took this moment to try to push herself harder after conserving energy through the bushes. Cheers went up from all the adults as they ran by.

"Come on Jessie! You can do it!" Her dad yelled out.

"Come on Jackie! Show these other ponies pegasi are the fastest!" Her Aunt Tonya yelled.

"They're gaining on you three! Don't fight!" Ms. Rosetta yelled.

"Come on Jessie! Earth pony pride!" Wild yelled.

"Where's Jordan?" Phobia Remedy called out.

"Jordan is well behind and just entering the bushes section as everyone else has started lap two!" Robby announced. "Tabby and Alfie are neck and neck for first place right now with Charlotte right on their tails, but their lead over Jessie and Jackie is rapidly narrowing!"

The lead over Jackie was hers again as she rounded the corner. She could see the three demons ahead of her on their way to the garden walls. They could take those turns better than her just like Jackie could, but they were much slower than Jackie in a overall. She might be able to overtake them behind the house.

Her eyes widened as she saw they did not turn, but instead start scrambling straight up the wall at a fast pace.

"Those little cheats!" Jackie yelled out from right behind her.

"There are no rules other than make three laps and no crying or bleeding!" Robby called down to remind them.

This was a problem. The demons could effectively get through this section so much faster than everyone else that they were going to be hard to overtake. She could gain a lot more ground on them in the front and back of the house than she could Jackie, but she was running dead even or slightly slower than them through the bushes. This section of the race was where those three had their strongest advantage, and they were doing all they could to use it.

Tabby turned to mock them as she reached the top of the wall. "Na na! Night ponies are the best because we can cli....aaaahhh!"

Tabby lost her balance while trying to do a mocking gesture and came down, face first, into the ground. When she lifted her head back up it was clear she had a bloody nose.

"Tabitha Stone-Remedy takes a tumble off a wall and gets a bloody nose! Tabby is out!" Robby declared.

"Aww!" Tabby whined loudly.

"Tabby, come back to the porch so I can look at your nose!" Ms. Rosetta yelled out. She had very good lungs.

Jessie ran by the night pony as the night pony started walking back to the front of the house. She didn't say anything to the other pony as she passed by. She was focused on trying to get a little more speed on her turns this time around. Charlotte and Alfie were still ahead of her, and they climbed really fast. If she didn't do something to lessen the gap the other two demons were still ahead by.

As expected, Jackie started to catch up with her. Jessie narrowed her eyes as she came up to the next turn and tried to take it faster. This didn't go well at all, and she ended up sliding so much she almost collided with the wall. She managed to avoid the collision, but Jackie was able to capitalize on it and get ahead of her. Now she'd have to run even faster at the back of the house to gain back her lead over Jackie. She was no better off right now than she'd been on lap one, with the one exception being she only had two night ponies to worry about instead of three.

When she reached the back of the house she was a full foal length behind Jackie. She pushed herself hard and was able to bring herself to where she was just ahead of Jackie by the time they were nearing the end of this stretch.

"And it looks like Charlotte and Alfie are being more careful as they go through the bushes this time," Robby called from above. "That's good for them because they aren't having another crash this time around. It's bad because Jessie and Jackie are making up lost ground. Jessie and Jackie are almost to the bushes, and Jordan is nearly through the garden walls again."

Jessie's eyes widened. Jordan was closing the gap behind them, slowly but surely. There was still a good lead over Jordan but there was a chance that the unicorn could still catch up in the remaining lap. Clearly everyone had underestimated the shy filly. The chances of Jordan overtaking them with one lap to go were low, but couldn't be completely dismissed. It was good it was only a three lap race, because it seemed a four lap race might have favored Jordan.

She rounded the corner and was ready for the rapid drop in elevation this time. This section she just had to avoid crashing and she could keep things even with Jackie. As for the the two remaining demons she might be able to catch up to them if they lost enough momentum now. She could see them a little closer than they were last time she reached this point. There was still the chance those two could sabotage themselves since they were prone to fighting with one another, and as the fall from Tabby and their earlier crash indicated they were also a bit more clumsy.

Jessie and Jackie started weaving the bushes at a steady, but not reckless pace. A mistake here could doom either one of them and Jessie wasn't the only one who realized it. When they finally cleared the bushes they could see Charlotte's distinct purple tail zipping around the corner to the front of the house and the beginning of the final lap.

As the rounded the wall the adults were shouting their encouragement to each of them.

"Come on Charlotte! Get a good lead with your wall trick again and then get past your brother!" Sunset Blessing called out.

"Come on Jackie! Don't let those two beat you!" Ms. Amanda yelled out.

"You're doing great, baby girl! Close those gaps and win this!" Her mom yelled out.

Jessie could catch the sight of Ms. Rosetta holding a cloth in her wing up to Tabby's nose. The eldest night pony filly looked annoyed that she had been disqualified from the race.

"Where's Jordan?" Phobia Remedy called out again.

"Jordan is about halfway through the bushes. She's slowly gaining ground on the others," Robby informed the adults.

Jessie took full advantage of her straight shot and pushed herself hard through this section. As a result when she was nearing the turn she was right on the night ponies' tails. They'd retake a strong lead again with climbing over the walks, but she was close enough she might be able to overtake them in the two sections after since they seemed to be slowing down.

They rounded the garden walls and the night ponies slower speed turned out to be a ruse. They'd been conserving energy and we're now pushing hard to make it to the walls. As Jessie was reaching the turn around the walls they started scrambling up them. To her shock Jackie zoomed by her.

"Not this time!" She heard Jackie shout.

The pegasus made a large jump and managed to clip Alfie off the wall with her wing while still turning in the air. Alfie came crashing down off the wall and down on top Charlotte's head as Jessie ran by the pair.

"Ow!" Alfie yelled.

"Alfie get off me! We're gonna lose!" Charlotte screamed.

"Don't yell at me!" Alfie could be heard yelling back as Jessie turned around the first wall.

"We're gonna lose! Mama!!" Charlotte shrieked.

"And I see tears starting to flow from Charlotte. There's no crying in foal races! Charlotte Stone-Remedy is out!" Robby announced. "Ouch! Make that tears from Charlotte and Alfie, because Charlotte just boxed him in the nose really hard. Alfonso Remedy-Stone is out as well!"

Alright, that meant this race was mainly down to her and Jackie. Jordan might have gained some ground, but Jessie had enough speed left in her to keep Jordan behind her. She just needed to get ahead of Jackie and keep Jackie behind her.

That was easier said than done though. Jackie had taken the lead in what was likely her strongest section of the race. If Jackie extended that out too far Jessie wouldn't get enough of a new lead back in the next section, and she knew Jackie could outpace her through the bushes as well. Things heavily favored Jackie right now, but Jackie hadn't won yet.

She did her best to clear through all the garden walls as quickly as she could without getting reckless, but it was getting to the point she was going to have to start doing something more daring or she'd lose. Jackie had taken a chance with that move that had taken Alfie and Charlotte out of the race and it had paid off. She wasn't sure if there was anything similar she could do to Jackie, but on the other hoof she didn't think there was much Jackie could pull to knock her out of the race either.

She reached the back of the house and again pushed herself hard to retake the lead. She did manage it, but wasn't sure based on past experiences if she had enough of one to make a difference.

Robby chose then to commentate loudly. "And as we go through the last lap Jessie currently has the lead! Jackie isn't far behind her though, and we're approaching the bushes which is where Jessie struggles the most. Jordan is coming around to the end of the garden section and seems to be putting her all into it now as she continues to close the gap between her and the two ahead of her. She should be reaching the bushes while they're still in them and she's gotten to where she's the fastest in the bushes. Still anyone's race...well...except for the night ponies. Better luck next time demons!"

As Jessie reached the turn that would lead downward into the bushes she did the math in her head. She couldn't win this if she took the bush run like she normally did, but if she tried to round those corners too fast she was going to go tumbling. The only thing left to do was something reckless and daring. She was going to lose if she didn't anyway. It was now or never.

After rounding the corner to where the path rapidly dropped down she didn't try to slow herself down. Instead she used the downward slope to increase her speed as she headed straight for the bushes. This could go so wrong, but she had to try.

She narrowed her her eyes to protect them as she didn't turn to try to go through the paths, and instead tried pushing full speed straight through the bushes and flower beds.

"Wow!" Robby exclaimed. "Jessie has made the daring move to run through the bushes. I'm going to have to keep a close eye on her in case she scrapes herself and draws blood and...wait... what's Jackie doing!"

Jessie barely paid attention to Robby's commentary as she exited out the first round of bushes and braced to go into the next. Suddenly something hit her from above and she tumbled into the bush ahead of her. She suddenly had a face full of branches and feathers.

"Jackie just tried to do an unsuccessful glide from the high ground and landed right on Jessie!" Robby shouted. "The two of them are now completely stopped and tangled in the bushes! I can't tell if there is any blood or crying from here, but they both are definitely lodged in there well. Jordan's coming around hard as can be around the back of the house, this could be her chance!"

Jessie struggled to free herself from the bush and pegasus. Jackie did the same. Her reckless attempt to win the race had just inspired Jackie to make her own reckless move. Now they were both stuck and Jordan was rapidly approaching.

"Hold still a second and let me pull free," Jessie ordered the pegasus. "If we both struggle we won't get anywhere!"

"If you get out first you'll get a lead on me!" Jackie protested.

"If neither of us gets out Jordan is going to win!"

"Do you guys need help?" Jordan's voice said from right outside the bushes.

"Just run Jordan!" Jackie yelled. Jordan could be heard running off right after.

"And for the first time in this race or any other Jordan takes the lead!" Robby yelled.

Fudge!

"Okay," Jessie said. Her only hope was to try to get through the bushes from the rear. Jordan wouldn't try it, and Jackie's wings would only get tangled in them if she tried. "I'll hold still and you can pull yourself out first."

"Okay," the pegasus replied.

Jessie held still as Jackie untangled herself from the bushes. When the pegasus got free Jessie rapidly got to work with freeing herself. It took a second, but she did manage it.

Now it was time to just try to push it through.

"And that's a wrap! Jordan crosses the finish line and is the winner!" Robby declared.

Fudge!

She dejectedly started walking the path through the bushes and her brother came down from the air and joined her.

"Tough break, egghead. I thought you were going to win when you started running straight through the bushes like that," he said as he draped a wing over her.

"Well, Jackie messed that up," she muttered.

Robby chuckled. "Yeah, that was crazy. She knows she can't even glide yet. She got some pretty good distance with that jump though."

"And we both lost because of it," she replied as she laid her ears back.

Robby slapped her back with his wing. "Hey, don't be like that. Look on the bright side. You had Jackie so certain she was going to lose she tried something stupid to try to get past you. I was watching and it was kind of a freak accident she landed on you. You got unlucky. Jackie isn't mad about it."

She gave him a raised eyebrow. "Really?"

He used his other wing to rub his ear. "She's proud her little sister won. We older siblings like seeing our little sisters win. You'll probably cheer for Dusk in a few years when he wins at things."

"Dusk is going to be human. He isn't going to do foal races," she replied dryly.

Robby waved his free wing dismissively. "He'll have other things to win at. You'll understand when you're a big sister."

That brought up an interesting thought. The only one that had cheered Jordan on was Jordan's oldest sister, Phobia Remedy. How had Phobia Remedy known that Jordan was going to win? Did she use her magic Dreamwarden powers to alter the race somehow?

She picked up her pace and Robby hurried after her. "Hey, egghead. What's up?"

She didn't answer and hurried out of the bushes to the front of the house. In front of the house the whole family was standing around and talking. Charlotte and Alfie were sitting with their backs to one another, both still mad at each other for disqualifying themselves in the race. Tabby was still sitting with Ms. Rosetta with a cloth held up to her nose to catch the blood. Adults were passing Phobia Remedy her winnings, which the Dreamwarden deposited into a small purse under the edge of her dress. Jordan was being congratulated by her parents, with Jackie sitting next to them doing a major preening of her wings.

Her parents came over to her as she approached and her dad bent down in front of her while her mom stood.

"Hey, that was a valiant effort you put up," her dad said to her as he checked her over. "You were neck to neck with Jackie and we were cheering for you. You did a good job."

She looked over at Jordan. The little unicorn was excitedly telling her parents all about how she won. How she won was what was on Jessie's mind too. There was only one person who knew the answer to that, and it wasn't Jordan.

She looked back at her parents. "I need to ask Phobia Remedy something."

Her parents gave her a confused look. Her mom then smiled. "Alright, go ask her."

She took a slow trot around her parents to the porch. The Dreamwarden saw her approach and gave a smile. "I get the sense you want to ask me something."

Jessie glanced around to make sure no one could overhear her and whispered to the Dreamwarden. "How did you know? How did you know Jordan was going to win?"

Phobia Remedy's smile slipped slightly and she glanced briefly over to the filly in question. Jordan was still soaking in the praise and attention from her parents. The Dreamwarden looked back at Jessie. "Come, walk with me. We'll talk about it."

The Dreamwarden then walked off the porch and started walking the path that the race had just followed. Jessie hurried after to catch up. Once she caught up she kept pace easily with the night pony, who walked calmly and peacefully as she went.

After they passed the corner and started walking towards the vined walls Phobia Remedy spoke. "You want to know what deep dark Dreamwarden secrets and magic I used to predict Jordan's victory? Many would consider that impertinent."

Jessie gulped. "Yes, I do. Only you seemed to think she'd win. Jordan didn't even think she'd win."

The Dreamwarden came to a stop before the first wall and looked down at her. "And are you prepared to learn the truth?"

The sun set at just that moment and the world grew darker. She wondered now if it was a good idea to question a Dreamwarden. Her tail was held so tightly between her legs it hurt as she nodded back.

Phobia Remedy looked down at her stoically. "Very well. The secret is...I didn't know."

Jessie blinked. "You didn't? But did you use your magic or something to help her win?"

Phobia Remedy looked at the direction they had come. "I helped her win, but I didn't make her win. Nor did I use magic or do anything to interfere with any of the rest of you."

That was confusing. Did the Dreamwarden give Jordan some drug or potion to help Jordan run better.

The great night pony sat down. "Sit down. Let me tell you some things about my baby sister."

Jessie did as instructed and the Dreamwarden continued. "Jordan is a wonderful little filly, but she is really shy. Jordan, like you, isn't a very social filly. She also doesn't feel like anyone believes in her. Did you notice how quickly she got upset with you when she thought you were saying she couldn't read well?"

Jessie didn't think much of it earlier, but she nodded.

Phobia sighed. "Jordan doesn't feel like she can do much. When she thought you were saying she couldn't read well it felt to her like you were attacking one of the few things she could do well and enjoy. She might not have your reading ability, but she is a good reader for her age, and she likes to read; just like you."

Jordan had done very well reading that book she pulled out. There ended up being very few words she needed help with. After they had been reading for a few minutes Jessie had wondered why Jordan thought she needed help. It had seemed Jordan was fully capable of reading the book without aid.

"What does this have to do with the race?" Jessie asked in confusion.

"Jordan lacks confidence," the Dreamwarden answered. "She has two big sisters, me and Jackie. Jackie is more than a year older and can outperform her on most things because of that, and I cast a very long shadow. Jordan doesn't believe she measures up. As you may have noticed the adults can get very competitive and none of them seemed to show any faith she could win. That reinforces this feeling of inadequacy. What I gave her was someone who showed faith and seemed to believe in her. That can be a powerful thing to a person who feels the way she does."

"But she wouldn't have won still if the rest of us hadn't messed up," Jessie observed.

The Dreamwarden shook her head. "She would have lost even with your mess-ups if she didn't give it her all, but she did give it her all, and was rewarded with a victory. All because someone had shown a little faith. Some of the most powerful magic you can work on a person doesn't involve magic at all."

Phobia Remedy brought her face down close to Jessie's. "And I'll tell you another secret. I have faith you can make friends with her if you try. You made her feel really happy when you helped her read. You didn't do it for her, you let her do it, and let her show she could. She needs a friend like that. I hope you'll be that kind of friend to her. If you are I think you'll find she will impress you with how much she can do when you show her a little faith and encouragement."

Jessie lowered her head. "I'm not sure I can be a good friend. I'm kind of bad at it. I just came questioning you about why she won, and that doesn't seem very friendly."

Phobia Remedy chuckled. "Oh, don't be so harsh on yourself. You never questioned her innocence in doing a fair race, only mine."

She went wide-eyed as she realized she really had implied that the Dreamwarden had cheated. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..."

The night pony cut her off with a wave of a hoof. "Think nothing of it. Just know you have what it takes to be a good friend to my sister. I've already given you some leads on how to start. It's up to you to follow through. You should go try to talk to her now."

"Okay," Jessie said obediently. She got up and started walking away and noticed the Dreamwarden wasn't following. She turned and looked back. "Aren't you coming too?"

The night pony shook her head. "In a few minutes. I'm going to sit here in peace and doze a moment or two. I have tasks to attend to, and they aren't on hold for the holiday."

"Oh," Jessie said, bemused. The Dreamwarden was actually going to just go to sleep sitting right there for a minute or two? At this time of day when night ponies were normally up? She supposed if all the work the pony did was while sleeping that being able to just fall asleep at will for a minute or two was a useful skill. Phobia Remedy's eyes were already closed now and the night pony was just sitting there very still, there was even a very faint snore. She'd never seen her brother, grandmare, or any other night pony do anything like that.

She walked back around to the front of the house where some of the family had started heading back inside. Jordan was still outside with Ms. Amanda while it looked like Mr. Tom and Jackie had already gone inside.

As she approached them Jordan looked down with sagging ears. "I'm sorry you didn't win. I know you were trying really hard."

That made her blink. "Um, don't worry about it. You were trying really hard too. I was worried you might win even if I hadn't got caught in a bush. You were really good at running that one part and the rest of us were bad it. That's why Jackie and I tried doing stupid stuff there."

That wasn't entirely true. She'd been primarily concerned about Jackie. Jordan was the best at that section though, and another lap through that section would have put Jordan in the running to win without the crash. Jordan had found just the right pace to make turns without slowing down.

Jordan raised her head and blinked while her ears raised a little. "Oh, okay. I'm still sorry you got stuck in a bush."

"Want to keep reading that book?" Jessie asked. "You were reading it really well, and I want to know how it ends."

Jordan looked shocked. "You want to keep reading with me after I beat you in a race?"

Ms. Amanda bent her head down and talked into Jordan's ear. "She wouldn't ask you if she didn't want to. You want to finish reading her the story, don't you?"

Jessie decided to just try to put herself out there. Phobia Remedy said if she tried to make friends with Jordan it would work out. "You're nice to be around. I want to be friends."

Jordan's eyes went wide as saucers. The filly then reared up on her hind legs and grabbed Jessie into a hug before Jessie knew what was happening.

"Wellest Thanksgiving ever!" Jordan declared happily.

Author's Note

The chapter ended up being much longer than originally intended. There will be a lot of slice of life out of Jessie early on. She has some developing and friendmaking to do before conflict starts. There is going to be a massive shift away from SoL for the Wild Growth and Tonya sections starting next chapter.

Chapter 4: Below the Surface

Jessie awoke early the day after Thanksgiving. When she turned over in her bed she felt soreness in her legs. She was a good runner, but yesterday was more running than she was used to doing. The fact that she'd put that much effort into winning and had come out in third place still stung a little, but it wasn't enough to have ruined her day. Yesterday had been a really special day on the whole.

She didn't feel like getting up just yet. There was no school today because of the holiday. She had the beginning of next week off as well. There really wasn't any need to get up early. Yes, she had some reading to do, but she didn't need to get up early to do that.

Instead she rolled on her back and stared upwards at the papier-mâché planets hanging by strings from her ceiling and the various little stickers of stars that were plastered all over her ceiling. Her dad had put all those up for her and she loved looking at them. He'd even tried mixing in some constellations in the way he arranged the stars; they were all in the wrong places in relation to one another, but that was alright.

It was really going to be happening. Because of Phobia Remedy taking notice of her notebook NASA was going to notice her and she'd be helping bring people to the stars. She could help figure out the best ways of getting people out to those planets and to solar systems beyond. Surely planets like Mars could be colonized now. The world didn't have earth pony and pegasus magic at its disposal before, but it did now. With those magics they could really terraform Mars into a planet hospitable for life, maybe even Venus too. She'd didn't know a lot about magic, but she knew numbers. She'd be doing her part by figuring out how to get them there to do it. Maybe she'd even get her own chance to visit those far away worlds. This was her destiny, this was her purpose.

She frowned and pulled off her blanket. Her flank was still blank. Why didn't the universe agree with her? There should be a cutie mark on her flank. All the requirements for a cutie mark had been met. She knew what her talents were. She knew what she wanted to do in life. She even knew how those two things worked together. Yes, she was young, but it wasn't unheard of for a foal her age to get a cutie mark. It was uncommon, but it wasn't unheard of. It was understandable that most foals her age didn't have their marks, but most foals her age weren't her.

What was she doing wrong? Something had to be wrong for her not to have her cutie mark. Everything that happened or didn't happen had clear definite reasons for why they happened or didn't happen, that was basic science. If she didn't have her mark yet and there were some foals her age that did there was a definite reason why she didn't. Most adults, even her parents, would tell her not to be concerned about it. They'd tell her that she was just six and it would come in time. She wanted to be taken seriously, and ponies rarely took you seriously if you didn't have your mark.

Terrible thoughts entered into her head. What if there were ponies at NASA and they treated her like she didn't know what she was talking about because she didn't have her mark? What if Twilight Sparkle didn't treat her seriously because she didn't have her mark? All her hopes and dreams could turn into one big nightmare.

There was a chance they would still treat her seriously. Wild Growth seemed to treat her seriously, and Wild Growth was a very important pony that everyone respected. Even the people that badmouthed Wild Growth still admitted that Wild Growth was a great pony that did a lot of good things for everyone. If she had Wild Growth's respect that had to count for something, right?

As she looked at her stars she thought of another important pony that seemed to treat her with respect. Phobia Remedy was the one that said her work was important. The Dreamwarden had always been one of her brother's heroes, not hers, and she never really gave Phobia Remedy much thought. The Dreamwardens mattered mainly to night ponies. Yeah, people that weren't night ponies complained about them, but people could just be stupid. Dreamwardens dealt with dreamwalkers, and most people couldn't dreamwalk. Not even all the night ponies could do it, there were some rare ones that couldn't.

That brought up a very interesting question though. Why was a Dreamwarden so interested in her work? Why would a Dreamwarden care so much about her equations? It seemed weird somehow. Things being weird meant there were things she just needed to study more to understand.

She turned over and got out of bed. Robby had spent the night with Ms. Rosetta and Phobia Remedy, since Grandmare Nocte was out of town with her marefriend in Brooks. Her dad would be going to pick him up from there soon. If she tagged along she could get a chance to talk to the Dreamwarden, and maybe find out why Phobia Remedy had taken an interest in her work.

The yellow earth pony left her room and headed to the kitchen. Her dad was up and cooking on the stove. When she walked in he looked down at her and gave her a big smile.

"Morning, I wasn't expecting you or your mother to be awake yet, it's barely after dawn. Would you like some breakfast? I'm cooking some eggs and black bean sausage."

That did sound good. She loved black bean sausage. Her dad had cooked actual sausage one time, and just the smell of it made her feel sick, but sausage made out of black beans didn't have the same smell. Her parents swore it smelled the same, but she found that hard to believe. She knew human sense of smell and pony sense of smell were really different, but the smell of cooking meat was one of the most disgusting things ever. She didn't know how her parents could stand it, or how they could think black bean sausage smelled anything like meat.

Eggs were alright. They tasted a little bland without something on them, tasteless really. If she put a lot of pepper and jam on them then that at least gave them some taste. They were best used just as an ingredient in baking. She never understood why her dad thought they were a good breakfast food. Just straight baking flour by itself had more taste than eggs.

"I'd like some black bean sausage," she said with a smile. Then turned her head slightly as she looked up at her dad. "Dad? Can I go with you when you go pick up Robby?"

Her dad looked down at her with a straight face. "Sure, I don't see why not. You need to get out and about more anyway. Is this you wanting to see the other foals, or is this you wanting to see Phobia Remedy about your notebook?"

She looked down and her ears sagged, knowing that she was going to be giving the answer he didn't want to hear. "It's about Phobia Remedy." She raised her head up to see him frowning slightly. "I just want to understand why she took an interest. I'm happy, but I don't understand it. I don't like not understanding things."

"You should be concerning yourself with trying to understand how to get along with others better, hun," her dad said in a tired voice.

"Isn't trying to understand why someone did something and going to talk to them about it part of doing that?" She asked, confident that she had a good argument.

"It is..."

"And I normally don't take initiative to try to talk to anyone, right?"

Her dad chuckled and shook his head. "Alright, you win. I'd like you to at least try talking to the other foals while we're there though."

She nodded. She wasn't sure if she had anything really in common with the three demons, so she couldn't make any promises she was going to be successful. She found that even though Jordan wasn't anywhere near as good a reader as her the unicorn filly at least loved reading too, and Jordan was a little uncertain around others as well. Those were things to get along with her about. The three demons didn't seem like they'd really be into reading, math, or science and they definitely were very outgoing and high energy--unlike her.

As her dad finished cooking she hurried back to her room and put her Pony Strap on and gathered up her accessories. She had her own Pony Wand, spoon, pen, toothbrush and brushes for everything else, some safety scissors, and a flashlight. She then went to the bathroom to get ready.

When she returned she found her dad had set a plate down for her at the foal table and he was sitting at the human table. They had separate tables because the regular table was just too high for her and tables meant for ponies were much too low for her parents.

She also noticed that he had given her eggs in addition to the black bean sausage. The coloration said that they had cheese in them, but that only helped a little.

He seemed to notice her looking at the eggs. "Sorry, hun, but we're out of jam. I'll go shopping for some later today. You're a growing filly and need as much protein as you can get. Wild Growth ate two big spiders yesterday; you can eat some eggs."

Her idol had some admittedly weird tastes in food. Just because Wild ate something didn't mean she wanted to eat the same things.

That brought to mind her conversation with the great earth pony yesterday. She couldn't believe she'd ever do the things that her mom, dad, and Wild seemed concerned about. Wild was right though. She didn't have all those hormones racing through her brain yet. With all the reading she'd done she knew about how they could impact the brain, and a lot of the stories she read had implied that she could go kind of crazy.

She also had her brother to look to, and she knew that he had started looking at all those flirty night pony mares lately where he hadn't before. They used to annoy him a lot, but now he seemed more annoyed their parents chased those mares off. He also spent weirdly long times in the bathroom sometimes making strange noises. She hadn't put it together with what she'd read in books until she'd asked her mom why he was spending so much time in the bathroom making weird noises and her mom had blushed and told her she'd tell her when she was older. That was like a code phrase in a lot of the stories she read. Her mom sometimes seemed to forget how much Jessie read.

Her brother was definitely under the sinister influence of the dreaded teenage hormones. If they could drug her big brother's brain, and make him act all weird, then they could drug hers too when she got to that age. She couldn't allow herself to let her brain get scrambled just like these eggs.

Maybe she could stop puberty from ever happening? There were medications she read about that could do that. That wasn't going to work though. She wanted to grow up. The idea of being an eternal filly might preserve her brain, but it meant she'd never be taken seriously. It was so frustrating. Why did growing up have to come with the side effect of becoming dumb? Her life might as well be over by the time she turned thirteen.

"Jessie, you've got that look where you're lost in thought again," her dad said in a concerned tone. "You haven't even touched your food."

She blinked and then fished into her saddlebag to get her spoon out. After finding it she quickly clipped it onto her strap and started eating the bland eggs. If she ate the eggs first she could follow after with the black bean sausage and have some actual taste in her mouth.

After she got over to Ms. Rosetta and Phobia Remedy's house she was going to have to be social with the demons. Her mom, her dad, Wild, even Phobia Remedy all wanted her to be more social, and made it clear that was how she was going to avoid ruining everything when she got older. She didn't know how to be more social. She wasn't like anyone else. There was no math equation to figure this out, no book to read, no advice had really been given. Just go out there and try. What was she supposed to try? There weren't any instructions for this. She was going to fail and everything would be ruined.

"Hey!" Her dad said loudly. "Slow down. You're going to choke on your food. What's gotten into you this morning? You're not acting like yourself."

She stopped shoveling food into her mouth and stared down at her plate. Without knowing why she started crying.

Her dad immediately grabbed her and stood up. Holding her tight while rubbing her back. "Baby girl, what's wrong? Why are you upset? I can try to help you, but I need you to talk to me."

Why was she crying? She didn't know. Not knowing made her more upset and she cried some more. Maybe she was already getting older and getting crazy.

"Come on," her dad said soothingly. "Talk to me. Tell me what you've been thinking about. I love you, and you'll get no judgment from me. You can tell me anything."

The crying didn't stop. The shame that the crying didn't stop intensified it.

Her dad didn't give up. "Okay, how about this. I want you to take some deep breaths and count to ten slowly in your head. Focus just on the numbers. Then count backwards from ten slowly in your head while still taking slow deep breaths. Actually...I think in your case you should start listing off in your head all the digits of pi going out the first ten decimal places and then do them backwards again. Can you do that for me?"

List the first ten decimal places of pi? Of course she could list the first ten decimal places of pi. She could list way more than that; she was a math genius after all and pi was a really important number. And saying them again backwards was simple too, she just said them forward after all. She proceeded to sit and try to think about what number series to use to try to calculate pi; Chudnovsky brothers or Ramanujan. She decided to take the Ramanujan series because she was particularly fond of it and started mapping the equation in her head, picturing it like it was being written out on a giant whiteboard.

After a moment her dad spoke up. "There, you're doing better now." He sat her back down on the ground. "Now, care to talk to me about what's on your mind? It's not like you to get so upset out of the blue. You haven't done this since you were two."

She wanted to organize her thoughts, so she could give them in a calm and mature way.

What came out was not organized at all and in a rush. "Robby makes weird noises in the bathroom and looks at mares! Phobia Remedy is interested in my work and it doesn't make sense! Mom thinks I'm going to have lots of sex when I get older! Wild says that hormones are going to make me go crazy! I don't know how to socialize right and it's going to ruin everything! The people at NASA are going to laugh at me because I'm a filly! Eggs don't have taste!"

Her dad blinked a few times. "Okay... let's try to tackle a few of those things. First thing was Robby, right?"

She wasn't sure what she had listed off in what order so she just nodded.

Her dad sat down on the floor next to her. "Your brother is getting older and he's at a stage where certain feelings...sorry, I shouldn't feel squeamish about talking to you about these things because I know you understand a lot of these concepts, but I do. Anyway, he's at a stage where his hormones are turning on his adult desires. Believe me, it gets hard for me and your mother to accept he's getting older too. We worry about him too. He has his own list of baggage that we're concerned about. This is just part of growing up though. We'll be worried about you too when you reach that stage."

She laid her ears back. "You act like you're already worried about it with me, more than you do Robby."

Her dad sighed. "Sweetie, this might sound mean, but it's not meant to be. You aren't our only focus. You and your brother share an equal amount of concern from us. We keep our talks about Robby private from you, and sometimes from him. He's turning fourteen next year and that's a huge deal because of certain laws, and we're worried sick about some things that might happen. Two years after that he turns sixteen and there's another set of laws that kick in then that make us even more worried. We worry about your development too, but to be honest he probably needs our more immediate concern."

Hold it, laws?

"What do you mean?" She asked as she started getting upset again. "What's wrong with Robby?"

Her dad shook his head. "Nothing's wrong with him. Don't worry about it. I shouldn't have even mentioned it."

She stomped her hoof. "But you did mention it, and you said you're worried. I heard you! What's wrong with Robby!"

Her dad let off an exasperated breath. "Your mother is going to kill me for talking to you about this. You don't say a word to her or your brother--especially your brother. Got it?"

She didn't answer, she just stared at her dad. All that mattered was her brother had a problem. A big enough problem her parents were worried about it.

Her dad glanced at the hallway like he was looking for her mom. He then turned back to her. "When he turns fourteen he starts falling under a certain set of laws called age of consent. You know how those night pony mares are always trying to get to him? They're trying to get him interested in them in a very adult way, even though they're not allowed to yet. Next year they are still not allowed to do anything, but the night pony fillies that go to high school with you legally can, and he'll be starting high school too. Those fillies aren't stupid. They've been watching the mares and know that mating is an all out war for them, and he'll be open season. Two years after that the full grown mares get to start trying."

"Robby won't let those fillies or mares do that," she asserted.

That statement earned her a flat look. "He's a teenager, he's got hormones running through his system, and he's got all the girls...fillies...eager to get in bed with him. I trust Robby, but everyone has their limits, and he's going to be under a lot of pressure."

Uncertainty crept in. "Well...you won't let him, and all those fillies' moms and dads won't let them."

"We won't," her dad agreed. "I'm not so sure about those fillies' parents though. Those parents are worried about their foals too. Only they have an entirely different set of worries. Being a night pony mare is a very tough thing to be. The biggest problem is mating, and there's a huge stigma on unmated night pony mares without marks on their wings. Those fillies' have a two year window of opportunity where the full grown mares can't fight them for Robby. If I was in those parents' position I can't say I wouldn't encourage them to take their chance while they have an advantage, because after those two years are up they'll never have an advantage like that again."

Her ears fell. She felt guilty now. Here she was worrying about all her problems and Robby had big problems too. They were even kind of the same problems Wild Growth had told her that she could have when she got older if she wasn't careful. The big difference was it seemed like everything was out to get her big brother in trouble. Wild had told her that kind of stuff could ruin everything, and her brother was going to be facing it much sooner than her.

Her dad touched the side of her face gently with his hand. "Hey, don't fret. What's going to go on with Robby is at least a year out still, and we're going to be watching and taking care. I'm sure you'll keep your brother on the straight and narrow with those fillies too. Now finish your breakfast. We'll talk with Phobia in a while about why she's so interested in your work, and as for the rest you still have plenty of time."

"But the socializing..."

"You'll learn in time if you try," her dad said as he looked her in the eyes. "It might not come as naturally to you as academic things, but that doesn't mean you're destined to be bad at it. It's just something you'll have to learn at a pace similar to everyone else. You'll mess up sometimes, but it won't be the end of the world because you'll have more chances. You don't have to be a master of everything, but you can't give up on something just because you can't be perfect at it."

She wasn't so sure of all that. Her dad must have been able to tell.

"I'll want to tell you something important," he whispered. "If your brother ends up messing up with those fillies in the next few years his life isn't going to be over either. He might wish it was when your mom and I are done yelling at him, but he'll still have plenty of life left to live and it isn't ruined. Failing means you've been challenged, and if you're challenged you'll find that you can find ways of doing things you never thought you could."

Phobia Remedy seemed to believe everything was ruined forever for the Dreamwardens because of a mistake. The advice her dad was giving her seemed to clash with what she had heard from the night pony. Maybe it was just certain mistakes that could ruin everything, but how were you supposed to know what mistakes could ruin everything and which wouldn't? She needed a book, a guide, a pamphlet, anything that could tell her which were which.

What was clear was that her future was on the line. Some mistakes she might be able to recover from, but others would doom her. Everyone seemed to think it all depended on her learning to socialize better, that was at least a small guide. Hopefully her mistakes trying to learn to socialize were the ones she could still be okay after.

She was so stressed she felt like she might get sick. She wanted to cry more, but didn't want to seem like a little filly again. Instead she just gave a weak nod and quietly turned back to finish her food.

Wild hopped out of her limo and her security closed the door behind her. She gave a quick glance around the area in front of the Bastion; there were a few protesters on the other side of the street, but they seemed to be respecting the zones they were confined to. Several police officers were nearby just keeping patrol around the area in case trouble broke out. The crowd seemed small at the moment due to the early hours, and it typically took a larger crowd to really get the mob mentality going.

Sunset Blessing was awake untypically early, and was waiting for her at the entrance with a few security officers standing close by. She walked up to the red unicorn and Sunset smiled in greeting at her as she approached.

"Good morning," the red unicorn said while smiling. "I hope these misguided souls didn't give you any problems on your way here."

Wild shook her head. "It's a bit early, and I'm sure they're still sleeping off Thanksgiving dinner."

Sunset smiled wider. "I would hope so. I was told that it was quite the turnout at the kitchens. No one goes hungry in Riverview on Thanksgiving, even those that curse us. The Lord took care of everyone he came in contact with. He put no conditions on it."

Wild scowled. "Seeing that everyone is well taken care of is one of the things we see eye to eye on, but I would have appreciated it if you hadn't let those protesters so close to your house yesterday. The foals didn't need to be hearing that stuff."

"The side of the street there is public property and they have their rights," Sunset replied as her smile slipped. "We cannot force them to be silent or keep them from where they have a right to be. This is the United States, not China, and valuing free speech means we accept that sometimes people are going to say things we don't like or agree with. All we can do is endure what they shout. The foals are better off having seeing that we can do this, and that the day still goes on no matter what is said."

It was ironic that China was the closest thing to being a Shimmerist nation there was, but the Shimmerist preacher would spend just as much time anymore condemning it as she did Equestria. Sunset Blessing may be a Shimmerist, but she was also highly patriotic to the United States--almost fanatically patriotic. Her patriotism could often be heard reflected in her sermons and was one of the things the helped draw her a large following. It also earned her a great deal of trust from the government.

Wild gestured at the small crowd. "With the exception of Robby they're too young to understand all that. Even Jessie with how smart she is shouldn't have to try to understand why crowds of people are shouting hateful things at her."

Sunset sighed. "It's the reality that we live in though. We do them no favors trying to hide that reality from them. We might want to shelter them from it, but we can't effectively guard them from it. It's better to expose them to it and give them our example."

"I can guard them," Wild asserted.

"Really?" Sunset said with a skeptical eyebrow. "So you'll stay with them as they go off to school and their teachers have to explain why there is security posted? And you'll guard them on the playgrounds when the children and foals confront them? Oh, and they don't all attend the same classes; do you have some magic power to be in multiple places at once that I was unaware of that we need to report to the government? What about what they see on TV or read on the internet or papers? My daughter and her cohorts once tried to control all information people knew about certain subjects. You know how that worked out."

Said the unicorn who ran who knew how many secret labs and had Tonya use compulsions to ensure secrecy.

"Speaking of information we control; let's get inside so we can get this done with. I want to see what I've been funding," Wild said as she started walking to the door. "I plan on going to see my mother after this, and I want to be confident that what I am trying to convince her to do is safe."

Sunset turned and followed with a security officer close behind. "Of course, you have full rights to see our work and to feel that it's safe."

They entered into the front lobby of the Bastion. The room had a large domed ceiling and hallways going to the left and right. There were an information desk and kiosks for buying tickets to the various events that were held here. Shimmerist iconography was present in abundance; inlaid Shimmerist suns in the walls behind the lights, to a massive painted two-tone sun with cross in the middle that was displayed above the doors to enter into the church. Sunset Blessing made no attempts to hide what she was or what she preached. There was no more blatant a monument to Shimmerism in the world. Wild felt uncomfortable even being in here, but the lab was below this place.

She allowed Sunset to take the lead as the unicorn led them down the hall to the right. They passed by several doors that led into meeting rooms, as well as a few stalls for food vendors--all unattended at the moment. They went through a door at the end of the hall that led into another hallway with a much lower ceiling. This one also had doors going off to the side that assumedly went into meeting rooms. The hall curved around and they now started to have doors on either side.

When they reached the end if this hall they were greeted by another door. This door did not enter into a new hallway, but instead a stairwell going up and down. They headed downward and went through a door there.

This door entered into a new hall way that went to the left and right, with more meeting room doors down the halls. Directly in front of them when they exited out the door was another of those Shimmerist' suns painted boldly over the wall across from the stairway door. Sunset immediately started walking to the right again down the hallway.

As they walked they passed by a janitor that was mopping the tile floor of the hallway, even though the hallway seemed perfectly clean. Most of the doors along the hallway were open and she could see other cleaning staff vacuuming rooms and scrubbing down desks.

Sunset stopped and turned to the security guard who had been following them. "You may leave now. We are perfectly safe down here."

The guard gave no verbal replay. He just did a quick nod and walked back the way they came. Wild wondered why Sunset had waited this long to dismiss him if she was going to do so. Seemed pointless to just make him walk through all the hallways just to make him walk back.

The unicorn started walking again and made a right turn as the hallway made a bend; more of the meeting rooms, more janitorial staff. Halfway down each hall was another sun drawn on the wall. It became evident after another two turns and walking past the stairway again that they went in a full circle. Wild counted the cleaning staff as they went. There were at least six people on staff down on this floor. This was a large cleaning staff for a single floor that didn't seem much used or particularly dirty. She counted two humans, a crystal pony, a night pony, and two unicorns; and it was pretty evident none of them were there to clean.

As Sunset came up again to the human that was mopping she stopped. "See that we're not disturbed, Mordecai. I'm not sure how long we'll be. Make sure all staff is on alert in case some protester gets daring and tries to come down here. Try to deal with things calmly though."

"Yes, ma'am," the human said without looking up from his mopping.

The unicorn turned to Wild. "Mordecai here is head of security. He's an ex-black ops navy seal, a true hardened professional. Aside from a few cleaning staff members who get restricted strictly to cleaning vendor stalls every person on staff in this building is highly trained security, and armed. I like to make my rounds before heading all the way down to ensure I know who is currently on duty."

"I kind of caught that when there were so many people cleaning spotless rooms on this floor," Wild replied dryly. "It's a little too obvious if you ask me."

Sunset shrugged. "It fools the average dope who just wanders around where they don't belong. Anyone coming here with more direct intention we have no need to fool. We just need enough security available to stop them."

"So where is the actual lab?" Wild asked. "We've walked in circles and I haven't seen much but meeting rooms."

"One more lap," Sunset said as she started walking again at a brisker pace.

Wild shook her head in frustration before following. Did they really need to go around one more time?

This time when going around Sunset lit her horn briefly as they passed each of the suns. There was no obvious sign anything was done, and Sunset's magic was far to weak for her ever to really feel, though normally it would take some massively powered spell to feel it anyway. Sunset wasn't capable of strong power spells. The unicorn could manage slightly above average power when enraged, but when calm she couldn't even overpower most foals who were just coming into using their magic properly.

Powerful unicorns made her nervous anyway. While she could take most direct magic blasts used on her, teleports were an effective way of fighting her. One of the only times an attack had almost been successful against her a unicorn had teleported her far above the ocean to fall. If her hooves weren't on something solid she couldn't do much more than brace for impact. The high fall had made her go unconscious and unable to harden her body for the impact with the water.

She'd survived thanks to her security, but that had left her hospitalized for days. Thankfully, the attack had been kept from the media so others didn't learn an effective tactic against her. Even her family hadn't been told. She was also thankful most unicorns couldn't pull something like that. The fact they'd never caught him left her feeling nervous whenever she traveled to that part of the world.

She'd never even learned what had pissed that unicorn off enough to attack her. It had been out in Thailand, so maybe some religious nut or someone mad about the United States and she was a perfect target for his anger. She had no idea why she in particular had such a huge target on her when she traveled overseas. There were plenty of actual government officials people could be attacking instead. Her going theory was that she had so many connections to so many things while being so powerful herself that it made her a symbol of a changing world, the holy grail of assassination targets. Most people liked her, but those that didn't had a special hatred for her; a special hatred they liked to express with bullets, knives, bombs, and magic blasts.

The unicorn stopped in front of the third sun and lit her horn again. This time the sun rolled away revealing an entrance to another stairwell leading down. Without a word Sunset turned and went down the stairs, and Wild followed. As they were descending the stairs she heard the sun swing shut again.

"It's on a timer," Sunset explained as they paused on the stairwell. "You have to hit buttons on each sun in a certain period of time and the door will only stay open for a moment or two after."

"Like a puzzle in Legend of Zelda," Wild noted. When Sunset looked at her in confusion Wild raised an eyebrow. "What? You never played Legend of Zelda? You must have been a kid when the first few games in that series came out. This is exactly like something out of that."

"I never really played video games," Sunset said as she started going down the stairs again.

"That's a shame," Wild said as she followed. "I used to enjoy them when I was much younger, before my brothers completely took over the systems. Now all I can do with hooves is a few motion control games and things I can do swiping a Pony Wand. They don't really match up to the old stuff. You're a unicorn and can actually use a regular video game controller. You should try Zelda out sometime. I've thought about introducing my nieces and nephew to video games, they're pretty nimble with those wing thumbs of theirs and could probably manage it. All you need for the older ones is a good set of thumbs."

"Why would you want to introduce them to such a mind numbing human activity?" Sunset asked as they reached the lower floor door.

Wild shrugged. "It seems better than them going on a fighting rampage through their house. It's an activity to channel some aggression into that doesn't involve damaged property or damaging each other. I actually think I'll talk to my brothers about trying to introduce the foals to some simple video games. They could have a two sets of twins plus one Mario Party marathon, it'd be a good bonding experience."

"Are you really sure that will be a proper outlet for their aggression?" Sunset asked skeptically. "I heard Rosetta was trying to arrange some sort of foal fight club with the other night ponies with foals, that seems more in line with how night ponies are."

"You've clearly never been witness to a large group game of Mario Party," Wild said with a chuckle. "What did you play with as a kid, Bible toys?"

"Rainbow Brite, Cabbage Patch Kids, and Transformers," Sunset replied with a hint of nostalgia before lighting her horn again to open the door.

"I don't even know what those first two are," Wild replied. "Didn't take you for the type to be playing with boys toys like Transformers though."

"I had a fairly liberal upbringing, and my parents didn't believe in segregation of toys by gender. Definitely not Bible toys; I never set foot into a church till I was eighteen, and my hippie parents were into New Age mysticism," Sunset replied as she gestured for Wild to go through the door.

Wild chose not to comment. It was easiest just to say it wasn't what she imagined the preacher's childhood to have been like.

Beyond the door was a very short hallway with a security desk and a large metal door at the end.

"Did you really need another layer of security after the Zelda puzzle?" Wild asked as they walked into the hallway.

"Yes, and there is even more security within the lab itself. This particular hall can be sealed, gassed, and set on fire if need be," Sunset explained, then glanced at her. "You'll actually be bypassing some of the security. Typically before you can go beyond the next door Tonya has to lay a compulsion down on you for secrecy."

"Christ.." Wild groaned.

"Don't take our Lord's name in vain. We're in a church, if you haven't forgotten," Sunset scolded with an angry flick of her tail.

They went up to the security desk that had a well-armed human sitting at it. There was a computer terminal and multiple surveillance monitors. The guard did something to dim the monitors as they walked up, making it hard to see what was going on in the images if you didn't know what you were looking at or for. The guard reached into the desk and started pulling out some paperwork, but Sunset held up a hoof.

"Those won't be needed this time. Wild Growth is one of our patrons and Tonya won't be using any compulsions on her," the unicorn explained.

The guard ceased his task and nodded. "As you wish. Do you want me to let you through now?"

"Please."

He did a few clicks on the keyboard then turned a key on a nearby console. After that the great metal door split into two parts and separated to either side, allowing entrance. The two of them walked through the door into yet another hallway, this one straight white--white floors, white walls, white ceiling, white light.

The only things that were not the same flat shade of white were the occasional human in army fatigues or pony that would walk by. She had never seen anyone from Fort Torres enter the Bastion, so if they were here that must mean that the army was using their own entrance. Could there be a tunnel passing under the city? The base had begun construction specifically because of the lab not long after the Bastion had started to be built, it made sense they could have began their own secure route of entry at the same time.

"Making everything white in the hallways makes things stand out more," Sunset explained. "Don't want things going out of the lab where they don't belong."

"Things?" Wild asked. "Do you have things living down here?"

"Normally, no," Sunset said as she led them down the hallway. "One of the researchers does live down here though, and we don't want them getting out either. Last thing we had down here that almost got out was those damn parasprites."

Wild flicked her ear. "What's a parasprite, and did you just imply you are holding researchers prisoner down here?"

"Parasprites are the Equestrian equivalent of a tribble. Had to set them all on fire to get rid of the damned things before they could ruin anything or get out," Sunset explained. Wild just stared and Sunset turned to her and cocked her head. "You know, tribbles, like in Star Trek? I thought you were a nerd."

"Star Trek isn't my thing," Wild replied slowly. "You had Equestrian animals down here? That is all kinds of illegal. How did you even get them on this side of the portal and to Riverview unnoticed?"

Sunset scowled. "I had a contact, and I thought it was a great break to have someone able to smuggle things through. As I said, the things were far more trouble than they were worth. I think my supplier had a good laugh giving me one of them, and I wouldn't be surprised if those damn Equestrians got word I was trying to find ways of getting black market goods from Equestria and deliberately gave me something that would cause chaos in my lab. They like to teach lessons, and have a warped sense of humor. I won't be dealing with them again after that."

Wild was familiar with the Equestrians propensity to try to make everything a teachable moment. They were ruled over by immortals so it made some sense. It was like parents dealing with their foals.

There was an issue that had been glossed over though. "You didn't answer me about whether you're holding researchers against their wills down here."

Sunset frowned. "Let's take a quick detour so you can meet one of our most brilliant researchers, the most brilliant I have as a matter of fact. He's also the one we don't let leave. You'll understand after meeting him why he doesn't get to go out and play."

Sunset led them through the white hallways past many doors. The hallway actually sloped downward slightly and Wild could feel they were actually getting deeper underground. Sunset went through a door marked simply as 9A, and this led into what would seem like a stairwell only it was more a ramp going down another floor. How much had Sunset's unicorns and earth ponies carved out down here? The area above them had been a bomb shelter at some point in the past, but all of this was new construction over the last few years.

They exited out the rampwell into a new hallway that was white as the floor above and went down it for about a minute till they came upon a room that had several crystal pony guards standing outside.

Sunset went over to one of these guards. "How has Poly Glot been doing today?"

The crystal pony frowned. "He's in full on crazy mode. You haven't given him any work to do for a few days so he is just in there muttering about I want to tell you a secret. We had an incident yesterday and a guard got hurt. You've got the full report sitting in your office ready for review."

Sunset laid her ears back. "Give me the brief rundown of what happened."

The guard sighed. "We had a newer guy on duty yesterday. The ones who've been here forever were given priority to actually take the holiday off. Poly Glot started crying and whimpering about how he just wanted to tell someone a secret. The idiot fell for it and went in there with him and let that crazy unicorn get close to his ear to whisper, even though the other guards told him not to. Poly Glot bit down on his ear, ripped it off, and then swallowed it whole. We managed to save the ear because he vomited it back up a moment later. Got our newbie to the hospital and got it stitched back on before the nerves of the ear died."

"Let me tell you a secret! Just one little secret!" A voice rang out from the other side of the door.

Sunset sighed. "I should dismiss that guard for breaking protocol and such a severe lapse in judgment. I'll be kind though. It's the holiday season, and I think having an ear ripped off teaches him never to do it again. I'm going to reassign him elsewhere in the lab though. I don't want him getting vengeful with our resident psychopath."

Wild grit her teeth as she walked up to the door and gestured at it. "Maybe if you didn't keep him locked up you wouldn't have him attacking people. A person will do a lot to gain freedom."

Sunset shook her head. "You misunderstand. Poly Glot is locked up specifically because he is a danger to everyone around him. He was transferred here from a high security psych ward as a favor from the government. No one knows who he was as a human, but as a pony he has been a true monster. When he was first found it was after a string of missing foal reports in Houston. They found him dissecting them...some of them were still alive."

Wild backed away from the door, feeling sick to her stomach. "Why is this pony here then?"

"Because, despite his very obvious shortcomings, he is extremely brilliant. He has insights into unifying physics theory and magic theory that no one else has. The stallion is a genius...a mad genius, but a genius none the less. Every pony has their uses, and I put his brain to use."

"Sunset Blessing...I know you're out there," came the voice from the other side of the door again, this time in a singsong manner. "I have a secret. You don't get to know my secret, because it's a secret." The voice started giggling loudly.

Sunset shook her head with disgust. "Let's move on. I can only stomach being in earshot of him for so long."

They continued on and Wild gave a wary glance at the door as they walked by. Psychopath on staff, Equestrian animals, the failed version of the transformation spell, and all this security; it all made her feel troubled by what went on down here.

They passed on through another door to descend yet another floor and out into another hallway. They weren't in this one long before Sunset opened a side door and led them through to a very large room. The first thing that stood out about this room was the large device in the center. It was easily the size of a human and she could feel magic within it. Several unicorns and crystal ponies were also in the room on computer consoles, with the exception of one crystal pony mare who seemed to be monitoring the device in the center.

"This is called the Chorus," Sunset said as they walked through the room. "It's one of our prouder achievements. It stores a large amount of magical energy that we are trying to convert to electrical power. One day we hope to use this to power the whole city, but work still needs to be done with it. If we can get this working we can have a source of seemingly endless clean electric power."

Now this was something that Wild could get behind. Promoting clean power sources was one of her various causes that she championed. There had been speculation about the possibility of converting magic to clean renewable energy, but this looked well beyond the speculation stage.

Sunset continued to explain without pausing in her walk. "We've determined we can use magic to generate electricity, but reliably transferring it in an efficient manner from the thaumatic material to wires and cables has been a challenge. The magic in this does dissipate with time, but we have it keyed to Tonya's singing on the stage up top at the moment--hence the name Chorus. Her song recharges it. As a side effect it seems to fight control of anyone else trying to channel it's magic. It's not impossible to charge it other ways or to have someone else channel it, but it is difficult."

The fact Wild could feel the magic in this device from where she was standing meant that the power was enormous. "How much magic do you have stored in that thing?"

Sunset stood at a door on the opposite end of the room and gestured for her to follow. "Rough estimate? Maybe about the equivalent of ten of you."

Wild followed to the door. "How? You said Tonya charges that thing. She isn't anywhere near powerful enough to generate that much magic, even if it has been stored up over time. She only sings at the church once a month so that shouldn't have even a fraction of that power. Ten times as powerful me is getting into alicorn level power."

Sunset opened the door. "That may be an exaggeration. We haven't actually confirmed how powerful an alicorn is, or you for that matter. Not enough data points to really get hard figures with considering you're in a league of your own with magic and all we can confirm about alicorns is they are even stronger than you. Let's just go with it's a lot of magic."

Her magic power levels were a thing of debate. When she listed off at least an eight that was the safe bet when comparing to an alicorn at nine or ten, but the PREQUES scale of one to ten might have been flawed from the start--with alicorns being well beyond that ten designation if using a consistent scale. Her magic levels had led her to some nasty confrontations with the more radical Harmonists who wanted to prop her up as an alicorn-to-be. Most Harmonists didn't do that, of course, and she had many friends who were Harmonists, but the radicals set her teeth on edge.

She had no interest in being an alicorn, but for entirely different reasons than most would expect. The Pentagon had questioned her before about whether she thought she could take an alicorn in a fight. It was a laughable question. Sure she could...if the alicorn had their ability to cast spells taken out of the equation, but if they couldn't cast spells there really was no need her to fight an alicorn. Phobia had told her the Pentagon had asked the same thing out of the Dreamwardens. The generals had been pretty mad when the Dreamwardens said they just flat out wouldn't get in a fight with an alicorn--they'd never said whether they could defeat an alicorn or not.

If she was an alicorn two things would happen. They'd start plotting on how she could be killed due to their paranoia about alicorns, and start trying to pressure her into being a weapon. They pressured her enough as it was. That power might in theory let her do a lot of good, but she had no intention of being anyone's weapon.

"Again, how did you generate that much magic with Tonya?" Wild repeated. "Tonya is like a four on the PREQUES scale, maybe a high four, but nowhere near strong enough to be doing that."

Sunset gestured for Wild to go through the door. "We can't reveal all our trade secrets, even to you. You're one of our financial patrons, but not the only one. No one gets free access to every secret we have here, including you. We've got some projects we're working on that go beyond what we believe the Equestrians or Chinese are capable of doing with magic. What goes on down here is a matter of US national security. If the United States ever goes to war with Equestria or China it's important that they don't know what we're actually capable of. It's a magical arms race, and this is lab is equivalent of Area Fifty-One."

A chill ran across her spine as she stopped at the door. "I'm not funding weapons, am I? I want to help people, not finding new ways of killing them."

"Some things we develop here can be utilized in an offensive way. That is not their direct intent. Everything we develop we hope to make peaceful use of, but if conflict should arise we can repurpose some of this to military applications," Sunset said with an emotionless expression.

"There is nothing here that is meant strictly for hurting anyone?" Wild asked again.

Sunset shook her head. "Nothing of the sort. I am not a weapons manufacturer, and this is not a weapons lab. How our work is used is not determined by me though. I have faith in our country that it won't use what we do for warmongering."

Wild's own faith in such things was not as high. She'd seen too many weapons manufactured by American companies in the hands of other countries' militaries and terrorists. The conflicts weren't done directly by the US, but the US exported more weapons than any other country and wherever there was conflict there was usually US weapons. If there were magical weapons made by the US then sooner or later they'd start spilling blood all around the globe. To be fair, she expected the same out of Russia and China as well, who were number two and three on the weapon export list. One way or another there was going to be death by magic coming to millions if things were already this far along, and it made her sick to think her funding could in any shape or form be attached to it.

"Just show me what you need to show me," she finally replied in a level voice. After Sunday there would be no need to fund Sunset in broad terms. The temporary transformation project would be public, and available for public funding that had to be carefully accounted for and not going to any side projects.

Sunset nodded and led her through the door. This new hallway had wood paneling and a few potted plants, which meant it was likely management and bookkeeping offices rather than a lab area. The hallway was short with only about half a dozen doors. Sunset led them to the office at the very end and entered it.

Inside was what looked like a study. There were lots of bookshelves, two reading stands, a simple work desk, and a computer. There was also a small area with tankards and wine glasses. Despite the fact she knew she shouldn't she was very tempted to ask for a drink to put herself more at ease.

"Welcome to my lab office. I try to keep it tidy and welcoming," Sunset said as she went over to a bookshelf.

The unicorn removed three books from it. Wild caught sight of the titles; The Bible, The Art of War and On the Origin of Species. The unicorn then set the Bible on the desk and set the other two out on the two reading stands. Immediately after setting the last book down there was a clicking sound and one of the bookshelves swung out slightly to reveal a hidden door.

"Are you sure you never played video games? Is this all really necessary?" Wild asked.

"I'm sure, on both counts," Sunset replied as she walked over to the newly opened bookshelf. "Come on, it's time to go down to the vaults."

Behind the bookshelf was one last slope downward. The walls here looked like reinforced concrete and metal like the old bomb shelter area above. A single metal door was at the end of the ramp.

She wondered what trick there was to opening this door after everything before. To her shock the unicorn just walked up to the door and pushed the handle down with her hooves, causing it to easily swing open.

"No extra security here?" Wild asked.

Sunset shrugged after settling back to four hooves. "If they made it this far there's no keeping them out."

The two walked into the vaults. Inside was a large room with various alcoves in the walls containing laptop computers, flash drives, notebooks, what looked like small stone and wood carved statues, and a few vials of unknown substances. A large computer terminal was at the far end of the room with a few smaller devices attached. There was a monitor that showed camera feeds for the last hallway, the Chorus room, and Sunset's office. In the middle of the room was a jet-black sphere about the size of a beach ball that simply hovered in the air with no visible method of doing so.

As Wild was glancing around she decided to ask some more questions. "So, why don't the Equestrians have the kinds of problems with their temporary transformation spell we've been having?"

Sunset walked through the room and gave the black sphere plenty of space as she walked around it. "Because their temporary transformation spell has worse flaws. I have already learned their spell, and have learned it is of no use to us. We had to turn to other spells."

That was completely new information to her. It also made her a little angry. How long had Sunset had the Equestrians' spell and not said a word about it? The unicorn would need to explain why it wouldn't work.

Wild followed after and glanced at the contents of each alcove as she passed by. As she passed the black sphere she stopped and gave it a careful examination from a few steps back. There were no visible markings of any sort on it, no sense of magic, and no sound coming from it that indicated any sort of motor. Looking at the floor and ceiling she saw nothing there that was aiding the sphere in just floating in the air. There was something unsettling about the sphere she couldn't put her hoof on.

"I don't recommend spending too much time with that thing," Sunset said as she removed what looked like a snow globe from an alcove. "It will just make you feel steadily more uncomfortable and you won't learn anything."

"What is it?" Wild asked as she stepped away from the sphere with her eyes still on it.

"Don't ask me. I don't know. I made the damn thing, following my instructions to the letter, and I don't even have a clue what it is or what it does. It just floats there, and you get the impression it's hungry for you if you spend too much time with it, crazy as that sounds," Sunset replied with a shiver. "Come over here, we're not here for that thing."

Wild turned away from the floating sphere and walked over to where Sunset was holding the snow globe in her hooves.

"So what's that, and why did we come down here to get it?" Wild asked.

Sunset held the item up in one hoof to display it. Within it could be seen some mane clippings that matched the unicorn's colors. "The Equestrians' temporary transformation spell is a dead end. Trying to use it as we intend could end up seriously hurting or even killing the subjects with enough repeated use, and we can all agree that is unacceptable. Here is what we are using for our foundation to our spell to resolve those problems. This is a live sample of the ETS flu strain. I have studied it extensively for two years now, and still have much to learn about it. Our superior version of temporary transformation spell is a product of that research."

Tonya leapt from her front porch and took to the air. She had the paperwork for Velvet to sign in order to be referred to a psychologist and was ready to discuss the doctor and why she felt he was most qualified to help the poor night pony out. Velvet just had to sign and agree, all costs would be covered for her. Velvet had been hurt by what had been done, mentally and emotionally, and it was SPEC's duty and responsibility to see to it that Velvet was properly taken care of.

The night pony didn't live too far away, but Tonya still took the chance to gain what altitude she could. She didn't get much flying in yesterday and was in need of a little workout. She climbed into the air till she could see the entire city and she did a slow circle in the air as she admired it.

It was something out of a storybook, but it was real and she lived here. Riverview was a one of a kind place, and if someone had told her seven years ago that she'd be living in such a place today she'd laugh at them for being crazy. She'd have said places like this weren't real, yet here she was. It gave her a great deal of pride knowing that she had played some part in making this fantasy a reality.

She couldn't stay up here all day just enjoying the air and the view though. There was work to be done. With a touch of regret she went into a dive down towards the pony residential houses and pulled up from her dive a few dozen yards above them. She counted streets and looked for appropriate landmarks to situate herself and found her destination. A moment later she landed in a stretch of green that had a very small flower patch and a pair of trees giving shade over the entrance to the house below. On the door was a picture of a red ribbon wrapped around a purple flower, Velvet's cutie mark.

Tonya rang the doorbell and did a few quick knocks on the door before sitting and waiting.

The edges of her mouth dropped as she began to grow concerned that there was no reply. She glanced up at a small intercom above the door. Even if Velvet was well away from the door she would have heard the bell anywhere in the house, and could give a reply over the intercom that she was on her way. The night pony knew Tonya was coming this morning.

Tonya pushed the bell again and waited. There was still no reply. After that she raised her leg up and spoke at it. "Alexa, call contact Velvet Nightshade."

"Calling Velvet Nightshade," her leg band answered.

The phone started to ring and she waited for an answer. It continued ringing for some time and her ears were able to pick up its twin somewhere below her; Velvet's phone was definitely in her house.

"Alexa, end call," she instructed.

She stared at the door. If it weren't for the state Velvet had been in after the experiment she wouldn't be so worried about it, but Velvet had been in very bad shape. The night pony had tried to hurt herself when she was in her temporary human form, and they still didn't know what the lasting side effects were.

She put a wing on the handle of Velvet's door and took a deep breath. If Velvet was just away and had left her phone at home by accident the night pony could charge her for breaking and entering, even if most ponies left their doors unlocked. If the night pony wasn't just away her entering on her own could be critical to saving Velvet from harm.

"Velvet, if you're in there, I'm letting you know I'm coming in," Tonya called out. There was no answer back.

She opened the door and stepped through. There was a light switch for the ramp down, but when she pressed it there didn't seem to be any effect. That was frustrating, but it wasn't uncommon for night ponies to fail to replace light bulbs. That also meant walking through the house was going to be much the same. She paused and started going through her saddlebag to find a flashlight. After finding it she attached it to her Pony Strap with it facing to where she could see while walking.

After making her way carefully down the ramp she reached the living room. She raised her leg up so she could get a good look around the room. There wasn't much for furniture in the room. There were some small area rugs, a couple pillows, a small couch, and a small table that had a pony optimized laptop computer sitting open on it. There were also some pictures hung with care of who Tonya assumed were Velvet's relatives; she noted that they were all humans rather than ponies. Velvet hadn't mentioned that in her interview, but it wasn't surprising to see.

"Alexa, call contact Velvet Nightshade," she instructed her phone again.

"Calling Velvet Nightshade."

The phone started ringing again. "Alexa, mute call."

"Muting call."

The phone was still ringing, but it wasn't coming from her leg anymore. She could hear the phone ringing further below somewhere.

She carefully made her way through the living area to where the stairs led down to the next floor, phone ringing in the background the entire time. She tried a few more light switches on walls but was met with much the same result as at the entrance. Velvet clearly never had non-night pony guests over. Actually, with the amount of dust that was in the house it might be that she never had anyone over to visit.

The next floor down was the bedrooms and hallway between them. She did another stop at this point and got her bearings. The light switch again didn't work. No real decoration here other than the sconces, and they did have unlit candles in them, but Tonya had nothing to light them with and didn't see anything in the hallway to do that with either. Two of the three doors had a good layer of dust on their handles, showing they were never used. The master bedroom door handle was dust free. The sound of the ringing was still coming from below though, not the bedroom.

After a moment of indecision she went and checked the bedroom, just to be sure. She opened the door to the room and stepped just within the doorway and held her leg up to give some illumination to the room. The room was rather plain. There was a bed, a nightstand, a small fan, and a small table a pony could sit on the ground with a mirror propped up on the wall. The bed had one side that was littered with trash and one side that had an unkempt blanket. She tried the light switch and the fan rather than a light turned on. She flipped it off again; at least she could confirm Velvet had paid her power bill now. There was no sign of Velvet in here. The phone still rang downstairs somewhere.

She left the room and closed the door behind her using a wing. It was time to go down to the kitchen. The phone ringing was really close. She carefully made her way to the stairs and cursed night ponies and their love of the dark as yet another light switch did absolutely nothing.

As she reached the kitchen the light caught sight of black fur and a blue tail. She gasped as she saw Velvet sprawled at on the floor, a tankard of something spilled across the kitchen, and a bottle of spilled prescription pills.

"Alexa, call 911!" Tonya shouted as she ran over to the fallen night pony.

The ringing stopped. "Calling emergency services."

Tonya put her head down against Velvet to listen for breathing. She could just make it out, barely. The heartbeat was very weak as well.

"911, what's your emergency?"

"This is Tonya Blessing, I'm at...I don't actually know the address..."

"We can locate you by GPS. What's the emergency?"

She started crying. "I'm with a night pony named Velvet Nightshade. I think she overdosed on medication. She's unconscious, barely breathing, and her heartbeat is weak."

"Do you know CPR?"

Tonya shook her head and sobbed. "No."

"We are picking up on the GPS that you are in the pony residential district. Are you in a house?"

"Yes."

"What part of the house are you in?"

"The kitchen."

"Do you know how long it has been since she ingested the medication?"

Tonya shook her head. "No. Her phone has been ringing for several minutes without being answered and is on her leg."

"We are dispatching unicorn paramedics by teleport right now. Is there any obstructions on the roof that they need to be made aware of before teleportation?"

Tonya shook her head again.

"Ma'am, are there any obstructions on the roof the paramedics need to be aware of?"

"No. It was clear when I arrived," Tonya replied as she sniffled. "The house has no lights."

"Can you identify the medication she has ingested?"

She turned the light to the spilled bottle of pills and pulled them towards her with a hoof. "It says imipramine slash Tofranil, ten milligrams, count sixty. Take one pill twice daily. The bottle is empty and there are only a few pills on the floor. It says it was filled yesterday."

She recognized the type of medication. It was an antidepressant. It was very effective on ponies, but overdoses of it were really bad. Velvet hadn't been to the referral yet, so that meant this was already prescribed before the experiment. Velvet had denied being on medication when questioned before the experiment.

"Paramedics should already be on the roof of the house, ma'am. Just stay where you are and they'll get your friend to the hospital."

Tonya laid her head down on Velvet and cried.

Chapter 5: The Psychology of Night Ponies

Tonya sat in the hospital lobby staring at the doors that went back into the emergency room. Velvet had been back there for a while and there had been no word yet on whether she'd be alright.

She'd already called Sunset to let her know what happened, and Sunset said she'd be over to the hospital as soon as she could. That had been about thirty minutes ago. Tonya sat and tried to work out in her head how long it took to get from the vaults to the hospital, but couldn't come up with a clear answer. It took several minutes just to get down to the vaults from the entrance of the Bastion, and more time to get from the Bastion to the hospital.

The lobby was empty with the exception of her and the person at the reception desk. There were lots of seats but they seemed unneeded. In Riverview there weren't supposed to be emergencies like this. When she'd been human ER lobbies had always been packed when she had to go to them. The emptiness of the lobby was a good thing, but it felt disconcerting at the same time. It was like she was the only one worried and unsure of what was to come. It was a type of loneliness that needed a special word for it because saying afraid and alone did it no justice.

The door to the ER opened and she jumped to her hooves as a human doctor came out to her.

"Your friend is going to be alright, for now," the doctor said. "We pumped her stomach and got her heart rate and breathing stable. We had actually gotten a notice from the OMMR responders shortly after her arrival that she was in danger, it wouldn't have been fast enough if we had relied on that. She's lucky you found her."

She wanted to call Phobia to yell that they really needed to speed up the response time at the OMMR. That wasn't fair though. The OMMR emergency alerts depended on volunteer responders and those were in short supply at this time of day. The Dreamwardens likely had to find a responder outside the area who had to in turn track down the contact information for the Riverview hospital after just waking up. It would hurt Phobia's feelings to condemn what had been one of her proudest ideas because it wasn't efficient enough. Especially since no one was willing to fund a group of professional responders in order to make it efficient.

Tonya was a volunteer OMMR responder herself. That was a bit of irony because that meant she could have likely alerted authorities about Velvet being in danger much sooner if she had just slept in. She didn't even care if it was likely Sha'am Maut she would be getting the alert from.

"Is she awake? Can I see her?" Tonya asked.

The doctor shook his head. "She's still asleep and will be for a little while. Her body needs time to recover from what happened so we don't want to wake her up unnecessarily. She has no contacts for emergencies listed on her insurance. Do you know of any family of hers we can contact?"

Tonya shook her head. "She had some pictures of family up in her walls, but I never heard her talk about it. I'm her counselor and was getting ready to have her referred to a fully licensed psychologist. I think she might have already had one though if you check who prescribed her those pills to begin with. They might know someone to contact."

The doctor nodded. "We'll look into it. It's a sad thing whenever someone attempts this. It's a regular public health crisis with the night pony mares."

There were a disproportionate amount of unmarked night pony mares on the list of volunteers for the temporary transformation experiment. She only knew the next five ponies on the list at a time, but they were all unmarked night pony mares out of the next five. That was a potential issue because that was a lot of potential subjects who weren't in a good mental state before the experiment. If these experiments were going to continue they really needed help.

"If you come back tonight I'm sure she will be able to take guests then," the doctor said as he seemed prepped to leave.

She nodded. "Alright. Let her know that I was here and I'm very worried about her."

As the doctor walked away she hung her head and sighed. At least Velvet was going to be alright. She'd have to come back tonight and talk to the night pony. She needed to try to find out why she had lied about being on medication, find out who her actual psychologist was, and figure out what steps to take from there. It took a few times repeating it to herself to remind herself this could have been worse.

She started to raise her leg in order to call her wife again when Sunset came through the hospital doors. The unicorn raced over to her looking frazzled. "I'm sorry. I came as quick as I could. I was down in the vaults with Wild and had to escort her out, otherwise I'd have been here quicker."

"It's okay," Tonya said in a quiet voice.

Sunset came up to her and hugged her. "Is she alright? Did the doctors get to her in time?"

Tonya nodded into her wife's shoulder. "Yes, she'll pull through. She's sleeping right now."

"Thank God," Sunset said as she gave Tonya another squeeze before releasing.

She looked down at the floor. "Sunset, ponies aren't supposed to do things like this. We're not supposed to feel so helpless about our lives that we think we're better off not living."

"There are always exceptions who are troubled. We'll get her help so we can try to fix the way she's feeling," Sunset said soothingly.

Tonya looked up at her. "This is an epidemic with the night ponies, not some occasional individual. Sunset, there are a lot of night ponies on our volunteer list. We have a whole tribe that feels hopelessness."

Sunset sat down and lowered her ears. "Look, I understand they're going through a rough time right now with their tribe. They're dealing with a severe gender imbalance that has them at each other's throats, they feel like their leaders have been taken from them, and they feel like outsiders from everyone else. They're desperate for something to fix their problems. That's why we have so many volunteers from them. These things will pass, and once we get this project working we can give them some relief."

"Sunset, until we are sure we know what we're doing I don't think we should experiment with night ponies anymore," Tonya said firmly. "They aren't in a good place emotionally to deal with the failures. I don't want to have to find any more of them like I found Velvet. They can't take it. I can't take it."

Her wife frowned. "That's the majority of our volunteers on the list for ponies. That leaves us with few options and we need to be able to show this is working right with ponies. I'm not sure we can afford to take the night ponies off the list."

"Are there other options?" Tonya asked as she stared her wife in the eyes. "I don't want anyone else who is mentally unwell being exposed to this. Not when things aren't right yet. I won't be a part of it if we do. I told you, I can't take it."

Sunset hung her head and spoke in a near whisper. "There's one I can think of off the top of my head."

"Who?"

Her wife turned her head away. "Tom, he's on the list."

She felt no jealousy that Sunset was showing concern about Tom. She knew that Sunset never stopped loving him. Sunset just recognized she didn't have the right type of love for him to be married to him. "Are you prepared to move him to the front of the list, knowing we aren't sure this first round of mind magic will work?"

Sunset licked her lips. "I'll talk to him, both him and Amanda about it. She has a right to know what he's volunteered for. I'll explain where we are at in term of research and let them make the decision."

"Amanda isn't going to be very happy."

Sunset let off a sad laugh. "I might not get along with her, but I do understand how she thinks, at least a little. She knows how much this will mean to him."

"I'm not so sure," Tonya replied. "She's the one who wanted to give their foal a pony name, and the one that uses a pony name publicly."

Sunset nodded. "I know, but I've heard her talk to him. She encourages him to embrace the fact he is a pony because she wants him to be at peace with himself and happy. Knowing there are options might change her mind. I sometimes wonder if she has her own desire to be human again, despite her apparent pony-positive disposition. Perhaps she may volunteer as well."

Tonya didn't feel comfortable still. "You need to make sure the spell is cut short this time if needed. Don't let it just keep running till it expires. The first sign of distress and you have the crystal ponies pull the plug on it. Don't let it run its course if they are getting upset."

"We need more data on how long it lasts and why it lasts different amounts of time on different people," Sunset insisted.

"We can get that later once we have gotten confident we have things right with the rest of the spell," Tonya countered. "We aren't trying to have a finished product ready to go by Sunday. Just enough to show its promise. This is Tom you're doing this to. Do you want to have him traumatized? We were ignorant about what could happen before, but we aren't now. I'm supposed to remind you when you are crossing lines that shouldn't be crossed. Please, take me seriously with this."

Sunset frowned and nodded. "You're right. There are ethical concerns that we need to take into account. How are Melissa and Megan doing? Not as bad as Velvet, I hope."

Tonya glanced up as a human man and woman came running in through the doors to the reception desk, looking worried. The unicorn paramedics teleported straight back to the hospital so there might have been someone brought in the last few minutes.

She dropped her voice further. "Megan is still pretty shaken up, but not as bad as Velvet was. I haven't heard from Melissa but will call her and arrange a counseling session with her as well. I had her on a call me if you need me order, but given what happened with Velvet I want to have an actual sit down with her no matter what."

Sunset nodded again. "Wild and I went over the mind magic we'll be incorporating into the next round of tests. I also showed her the footage of the last round of tests and discussed with her what the mind magic we were including would hopefully address. Had to explain to her that you weren't doing the mind magic because she was under that impression for some reason. She's going to talk to her mother now about volunteering."

"I'll make the call to Melissa," Tonya replied. "Please wait until I've had time to sit down and talk with her before we do the next round of tests. I know we're on a deadline, but we need to be aware of the after effects. Melissa seemed fine, but I want to be sure."

Hopefully there were no negative side effects with Melissa.

Wild hopped out of her limo once again. Going place to place by car was aggravating, but couldn't be helped. She just couldn't go walking down the street like the average person without having to concern herself with security issues. It felt like everything in her life had to be closely monitored; what she said in public was all carefully rehearsed, her travels from place to place required security present at all times, and her every action put under a magnifying glass. It went well beyond what a celebrity would endure, and it was beyond tiring. She wished she could just escape it all.

Maybe sometime in the future she could use the temporary transformation spell herself, just to be able to go out unnoticed into the world for just a few hours. Was it selfish to want a few hours of being someone else?

"I'll send a call out when I'm ready to leave. You can take an hour break somewhere else for now," she instructed her limo driver. She was still going to be stuck with a security guard standing outside the house, but no need to keep the driver waiting here.

"Yes, ma'am," the human driver replied. He them got back in the car and started it back up. A moment later he drove off, leaving her and her crystal pony guard standing in front of her parents' house.

"Stay on the porch. I don't know how long I'll be. If there's trouble don't hesitate to call for backup. I don't want anything happening to my family," Wild instructed the guard. She didn't really think there would be any real threats, but it was always best just to keep everyone alert, just in case. It was the attacks she didn't expect that she was vulnerable to.

They walked up to the house. It was a simple two story dwelling that had been here before the majority of Riverview was built. The porch had four flags flying; the Clemson University flag, the South Carolina flag, the new Puerto Rico state flag, and an updated US flag. Her family had celebrated when they finally got to put those last two up, after the government finally decided that it wanted no questions about Puerto Rico's status as part of the United States. There was a pegasus running for US Senate on a Harmonist platform there that claimed to be her cousin to boost his publicity. She'd found out he actually was a sixth cousin when looking into it, though she didn't think that really counted.

The guard took his position on the porch as she let herself in. The house was quiet. Both Jose and Miguel were effectively moved out at this point, and were staying at a hotel in town. The twins still had rooms here, but since starting college they wanted their own space and privacy.

From what she could tell Jose had more than one reason to desire privacy. She really should have made more effort to speak with his girlfriend yesterday and get a feel for the girl's personality. She hadn't learned much about her so far; the two attended the same college and the girl didn't seem familiar with southern pony culture, that was about all she knew so far. Well, that and the relationship was serious enough that the girl came with him to Thanksgiving instead of going home to her own family. Jose and his girlfriend had taken off to a hookah bar after dinner yesterday, but that didn't bother her. If she weren't pregnant she might have joined them to spend some time with them.

So many months left where she had to go without her usual distractions, and she'd have to drastically cut down on those even after her foal was born. She needed some new hobbies once her mother was taken care of.

"Hey," Rosetta said as she walked into the front room.

Wild gave her sister a questioning look. "Hi, what are you doing here? Are you going to try to stop Mama from agreeing to try the temporary transformation?"

Rosetta pursed her lips and flicked an ear. "I'm here to listen in to what is being discussed, and if I have concerns I'll express them."

"So, that's a yes," Wild said with a small sneer.

Her sister walked over and gave her a sad look. "It's a statement that I'll express my concerns. I'm not completely opposed to this idea to tell you the truth. I want Mama better too. I just want to be sure this is safe. I don't want anyone getting hurt. I want to protect the family."

"You're just being a protective night pony then?" Wild asked as she stared at her sister.

Rosetta frowned. "I would say that I'm being a loving daughter and big sister who cares about her family. Not every time I'm protective has to be attributed to my tribe. That's rather tribalist if you really want to get into it."

That made Wild blink. "I thought you had a great deal of pride in that night pony protectiveness. I wouldn't feel you'd take that as an insult."

Rosetta sighed. "I don't take being protective by nature an insult. But I do take having my concerns dismissed as me just being any overprotective night pony somewhat insulting. I'm your sister and part of this family. If I was a human or any other type of pony I would still have concerns about this."

"Do you think I would be doing this if I felt it would hurt Mama?" Wild demanded with a stomp of her hoof.

Rosetta raised her head up high. "By your own admission you have poured years of effort into this. You now see a potential finish line and you have a deep emotional commitment to this. Don't you think that might impair your judgment slightly?"

Wild snorted. "I was just reviewing footage of the last experiments and going over with Sunset how to resolve what problems we saw. It won't hurt Mama."

"And you have confirmed that these problems are getting resolved by whatever adjustments you're doing?" Rosetta asked with a raised eyebrow. "You've also confirmed you don't have other problems other than what you observed? If Sunset is so confident in this version of the spell maybe she should have it used on herself to verify its safety."

"The human to pony transformation spell is somewhat different than the pony to human one," Wild replied with a groan. "So that wouldn't be that much of a confirmation for her to do in Mama's case."

"Have you had any successful experiments of humans to ponies?" Rosetta asked skeptically.

"One." It had some extenuating circumstances, but what they learned my Megan's experiment gave them the knowledge to prevent a repeat of the failures. Mentally lining up that a person was what their temporary body happens to be was needed. Some of that had been found in the runes for ETS, but surprisingly not as much as expected. At least by what Sunset said. Wild knew about runes and made use of them more than the average earth pony--she needed to in order to have fine control of her powers, but she didn't know as much as most unicorns. A certain amount of trust had to be given that Sunset knew what she was talking about.

Rosetta seemed to consider for a moment. "Out of how many people?"

"Two," Wild answered. "We still have other human volunteers if she wants to see more testing first. The failure was due to emotional trauma that we realized our mistakes on, not a problem with the transformation itself."

Rosetta flicked her tail. "I guess I'll listen to you explain it to Mama and I'll ask questions then. Come on, let's go upstairs."

Her sister led the way and Wild followed without a word. She considered the stairs as she went up them and whether her mama had a lot if trouble with them. It might have been better for her parents to move to one of the human apartments before now. Elevators had to be better than stairs for someone suffering from Parkinson's. The house was also far bigger than they needed with just her parents left here. The neighbors would be closer in order to turn to for help as well. Whether her mama agreed to this or not it might be a good idea to suggest a move.

They went to their parents' room and found the door open. Her papa was sitting in a chair and seemed tired. Her mama was on the bed and she was just making lots of random movements that served no purpose at all, a small child that couldn't sit still wouldn't have been moving around as much as her mama was on top of the bed.

"Hello girls," her mama greeted them as they walked in, still not ceasing in her constant movement, a side effect of the medication wearing off that would last up to a day. It couldn't really be helped. She really had no control over her body while like this, it was pure luck she was still able to speak clearly. It was this or having her unable to think or speak.

They kept their distance as their Mama's legs could sometimes kick out unexpectedly, sometimes those kicks were hard, sometimes they weren't, but they were completely unpredictable. Their mama seemed like she would try to bring an arm up to lean on only to drop it and do the other before flailing each of them. Fists would clench, then unclench, and she'd squirm and seem to roll around slightly. Muscle spasms would rock her body in-between all these movements. This would go on until medicated and had to be physically exhausting. Things would only get worse as time went on. If things continued to progress it would reach a point to where all she was doing was spasming to the point everything was locked up tight. She wouldn't even be able to speak then, just be trapped in a body that did not work.

"She's speaking well today, almost no stutters," their papa informed them.

"I'm right here, Roger. I can speak for myself," their mama chided him as she continued to twist in place.

"Force of habit, dear," her papa replied.

"Let me talk for me. I can do it right now. I don't get many chances," her mama pleaded.

"We know, Mama," Wild said sadly. "Did Papa tell you what I'm here to talk to you about?"

Her mama looked like she tried to nod but her head just did a few jerks instead. "He told me you have a way of making me a pony for a while and I'm not la-like this when I'm that way."

Wild nodded. "I need to tell you what has happened with those who have tried this already and explain what it can and can't do."

"If it will give me control of my body again that's all I need to know. I don't care if it's a p-pony body," her mama said quickly.

"Well, I still need to explain some important things," Wild replied. "We've had two test runs with turning humans into ponies temporarily. One went great, the other had some issues I need to discuss. We think we fixed the problems with the one that didn't go right, but I still need to tell you what went wrong and what we had to do to fix it."

Her mama just continued to move about and twitch without responding. Her mama's eyes couldn't even focus on her because she kept turning her head in different directions constantly. This was only the side effects of the medication wearing off and it was hard to watch.

Wild sat down as she began her explanation. "The one that didn't go right didn't have control of their body to start. It took them a long time to get where they were even able to move what body parts they wanted, and it wasn't well controlled. We have added mind magic that will give your brain the basic operating instructions for your body. We're pretty sure we have that part right now."

"But if you're wrong she's still trapped in a body she can't use," Rosetta chimed in as she gave a hard glare.

Wild glared back. "As I said, we think we have it fixed, and if we haven't gotten it fixed we can get to where we do have it right with some adjustments. If she goes in knowing there might be problems she won't be as upset by them, and we can try again later with the adjustments."

"That's risky, doing a bunch of failed bits of mind magic. The failures can do unexpected things, possibly bad things," Rosetta insisted.

"I understand the risk," their mama cut in. "Anything else I sh-should know?"

Wild looked back to their mama. "Yes. There was distress from that patient that we attributed to not having a pony sense of self, and having their human mind warring with the fact they were in a pony body and rejecting it. We're going to have mind magic to do something about this as well added in."

She took a deep breath and added. "We are not as sure we have that right."

"¡Su sentido del yo es una gran puta cosa para desordenar!" Rosetta growled at her like she wasn't aware of how bad that could go. What did Rosetta think she was, stupid?

"¡Haley, maldiciendo!" Her papa shouted. Rosetta just continued to glare, not even budging at the use of her human name or being called out for foul language like a foal.

Wild decided to just give a blanket reassurance to her mama. "Sunset gave me a call on the way here assuring me that we'll have crystal ponies standing by to help cancel out the spell if anything goes wrong. Even if we don't have everything right yet we can with time. We just need someone who is willing to help us get it right if we need multiple attempts to do so."

"What about your successful person?" Rosetta questioned.

Wild gave her a flat look and laid her ears flat. The fact that the night ponies almost certainly knew about Melissa's secret and said nothing to anyone annoyed her.

When Wild answered she couldn't keep the frustration from boiling over into it. "Era Melissa Rivers, y tengo la sensación de que sabes por qué funcionó para ella y he estado callada sobre lo que es."

Rosetta flattened her ears and looked down. Yeah, Rosetta had definitely known about Melissa's little secret and hadn't said a word to anyone. The damn night ponies were still secretive after all this time.

"The actual transformation part works though, and it doesn't carry over the Parkinson's?" Her papa asked before Wild and could continue to press her sister.

Wild turned to him and nodded. "The doctors checked. The pony bodies are fully healthy and functional. We don't determine tribe or anything like that, so there's no telling what tribe she might come out as. Both our previous subjects came out as night ponies. One we have a clear idea why, the other we have some guesses, but we don't think it is stuck just doing night pony. If it is we can figure out later why."

"Hold it, isn't the Equestrian temporary transformation spell you're trying to base this off of supposed to transform them into what you choose? Why don't you know what tribe?" Rosetta demanded.

Wild turned back to her. "Because this obviously isn't the same spell. We're working on our own spell with theirs as inspiration. We have seen the Equestrian version and it has issues we can't afford to have in ours."

"What kinds of issues?" Rosetta asked.

Wild frowned. "This is a little beyond my full understanding and I leave it to Sunset and her mages to know what they are talking about. What they said is that the Equestrian version decays the morphic resonance with repeated use in a short period of time, and we cannot afford to have that happen. A full new spell had to be made."

"Decaying anything sounds bad," her papa said warily.

They had no idea. Apparently there was talk of China trying to make a weapon that would decay the morphic resonance of everyone in a large area. It would be a magical weapon capable of killing millions if they accomplished it. She'd only learned of that today and the thought of it made her shiver. There were a lot of things she learned today that made her fearful of the future.

She turned around. "Because it is bad. Your body will start failing, become deformed, or who knows what if that resonance decays, and there's no fixing it. We're looking for something that can have repeated use over a long period of time. We can't do something that will decay that resonance. That's why the Equestrians never used their spell here to try to give the effect we're trying to do. Their spell won't work for constant repeated use, but ours will. We resolved the issue in our form."

"How are you developing more advanced spells than what the Equestrians have? It doesn't seem possible," Rosetta asked in confusion.

Oh, if her sister only knew how far along magic on Earth really had developed. When you have more unicorns than there are ponies of any tribe living in Equestria. You gave them an idea what they can do, mix in some stolen knowledge, a strong drive to learn, and fresh perspectives from the Equestrians it added up to some rapid advancement. It was probably part of Sunset Shimmer's plan from the start, even though she'd seriously miscalculated how much she'd altered instincts to where it wouldn't have happened had things gone unstopped. In a sense stopping Sunset Shimmer's main plan had been the catalyst for the parts that would have failed on their own to succeed.

However, with this spell part of it was Sunset Blessing was literally lifting whole parts of the spell from Sunset Shimmer's spell. They had taken the Sunset Shimmer's spell apart and were stitching parts of it together with a bunch of new parts they'd developed on their own. It had been quite the revelation when she found that out earlier today. The unicorn had refused to say how she had even gotten ahold of Sunset Shimmer's spell; it should have been impossible. She even claimed that the government knew she had it.

"I'm not allowed to really give an answer on that. There's national security things tied into that," she answered instead. "Just trust me that we have."

Rosetta flicked her tail angrily, but didn't respond. Wild could feel a certain amount of empathy in this case.

"So, it will temporarily make me a pony, and I'll feel like I should be a pony while it's in effect?" Her mama asked as she continued to move about. She seemed to be moving about faster.

Wild nodded. "That's how it is supposed to work. I should warn you too that one of our subjects didn't have magic before this experiment, but is reading she has weak magic now. The other subject already had magic and it increased slightly." She turned to Rosetta. "Have something to say about that?"

Her sister shook her head. "Lots of humans have magic. There are clear ways that is handled. If Mama isn't concerned about gaining magic then I'm not. Though I'm guessing your failed experiment didn't have any going in, and hope you have considered if that might have been a cause."

"We don't believe it is, but the option is under consideration," Wild replied. "We got a little overconfident after the first test and realized mistakes were made. We're being much more careful now. We won't let this do anything bad."

"I'll do it," her mama declared. Rosetta looked like she wanted to say something, but her mama didn't give her time. "Rosetta, I understand you're worried, but this is my one real chance to be functional again. I understand they might need to go through multiple attempts to do it right, an-and that it might not be pleasant when it doesn't work. It can't be any worse than what I'm dealing with now though."

Rosetta looked down and took a deep breath. "Fine. It's your call." The night pony shook her head. "I'm going down to the kitchen and getting something to drink. I'll hear the details of when things are going to happen in a few minutes."

Rosetta turned and walked out of the room with her tail dragging behind her.

Wild frowned as she looked at the door and then turned back to her parents. "Alright, there's not much more to say at the moment. We can get you in for the first round of attempts at eight in the morning tomorrow at the Bastion. Don't come medicated, and try to be well rested as you can. You can't tell the twins or anyone else about this yet. Rosetta really shouldn't even know, but I trust her to keep a secret. No one keeps a secret like a night pony. If things go well we will be making a public announcement about it Sunday and you can talk about it with everyone then."

"Getting her to the Bastion unmedicated is going to be difficult, but we can manage it," her papa replied. "We'll be there."

Wild turned towards the door. "I want to talk to Rosetta. I'll be back up in a few minutes."

"That might not be a good idea. It might be better to give her space," her papa cautioned.

Wild shook her head. "I need to ask her some questions about some other things anyway. We won't fight." That last part was probably a promise she couldn't keep, but she'd at least try to keep it.

She walked out of the room and went down to the kitchen. The house wasn't really built with ponies in mind and as such had much higher kitchen counters. Rosetta was perched up on a kitchen counter staring into a mug of something gripped between her forehooves. Her sister's ears twitched as Wild approached, but Rosetta didn't look at her.

"Rosetta, I..." Wild began, but was cut off by Rosetta raising a wing.

"Save it, Wild. You're right, it's her choice, not mine. Mama's made her choice and I can't argue," Rosetta said, still not looking up from the mug. "I'm not even sure if it's something I should be arguing about or not."

"I wanted to ask you some things," Wild said as she sat down below where Rosetta was sitting on the counter. "I was told that almost all of the pony volunteers for testing were unmarked night pony mares. I had guessed when I heard it that they tried night ponies because the lot of you are very good at keeping secrets, but they are telling me that it's because those were the ones who actually seemed to show interest."

Rosetta set her mug down and hopped down from the counter. "I believe it. I've told you how bad things are with my tribe right now with the fighting for mates, but there are other things that are problems on top of that. That a lot of our worst off would want to just get out of being night ponies makes sense."

Wild rubbed one of her legs. "The thing is, Tonya just asked Sunset to pull all of them off the list for testing."

Rosetta jerked her head up. "Tonya what?! That's a really bad idea."

Wild looked at her sister like Rosetta had just grown another head. Rosetta had just been completely opposed to what was going on. This was a very quick change of opinion.

Rosetta seemed to notice her confusion. "You have to understand; these ponies feel like people keep taking everything away from them. Now you're denying them this when they volunteered. These are angry and desperate mares and they will not take being told they can't have this well. I may not feel comfortable with this temporary transformation, but I understand how important this must feel to many in my tribe."

"We're only taking them off the list until we're sure things are right," Wild clarified. "There were concerns their emotional state could cause additional problems. This is for their safety."

Rosetta whinnied slightly. "I agree with you, but they won't see your concern that way. The fact that they've been singled out will be noticeable to them even if you don't tell them. This is going to spark further outrage from an already outraged group."

"So what are we supposed to do?"

Rosetta looked her in the eyes. "You'd better be pretty damn clear that they are going back on the testing list after you resolve whatever it is you need to resolve. Otherwise you'll have a riot to deal with."

She nodded back. "I'll talk to Sunset about it."

Rosetta's ears were still flattened back, but didn't object instead she looked down. "I'm sorry again for calling you a slut yesterday. I think I let my own sexual frustration get into how I looked at you."

Wild blinked at the sudden shift in subject. "That's alright. Us yelling insults at one another isn't anything new. Is something wrong with you and Phobia?"

Rosetta shrugged. "Yes, no, not really. It's that she never has gotten completely over her rape. She'll make love with me, but it's infrequent, and she has to be the one to make the first move. It's not her fault, but I feel neglected all the same."

Wild came up and cuddled close to her sister. "Have you talked to her about it?"

Rosetta let off a long breath and laid back her ears again. "We've talked. She understands how I feel and has tried to come up with compromises. She can't just force herself to have sex when she isn't comfortable doing so. I wouldn't want to do that to her either, it would be like me raping her. She suggested me getting...a fling...on the side. It makes me feel dirty thinking about it."

"She wants you to cheat on her?!" Wild asked with wide eyes.

Rosetta shook her head. "Well, she'd be in the know about it, so I'm not sure I'd call it cheating. She doesn't seem to have a problem with the idea of me having a marefriend on the side to just have sex with. I would never consider such a thing normally, but I'm just so lonely when it comes to that kind of attention. I think that's what has my tail in a twist whenever the unmarked mares come up anymore. I feel a certain kinship with them."

"So are you going to do it?"

Rosetta nodded. "There's some clubs and bars that cater to lesbians in town. I was wondering if one of these evenings you could come by the house and help Phobia watch the foals while I'm out doing...that."

Wild gave her sister a nuzzle. "Sure, I don't mind. You do what you've got to do. I know it isn't lucky you're in this kind of situation with Phobia, but it is lucky you have..."

"Don't say it," Rosetta hissed. "This is hard enough for me as it is. No matter what it feels like a betrayal on my part. I should be stronger, for her sake. I'm not even sure if it will work out or if I'll just feel too ashamed to have this help anything."

"Well, she at least cares about what's important for your sake," Wild said sadly. "She'll be unhappy if you're unhappy, and wants to see your needs met. When's the last time she's been to a psychiatrist by the way?"

Rosetta let of a bitter laugh. "She hasn't since the Dreamwardens went public. What psychiatrist is going to feel qualified to sit down and discuss a Dreamwarden's issues? Not to mention how bad that would look if anyone found out. Psychic Calm talks to her some, but they've all got a load of shared issues. Phobia doesn't go into detail about it, but I get the impression that whatever process was done to make them Dreamwardens left its own scars. There's a lot about her I know next to nothing about. It's like there's the mare I know and love, but there's also all this other stuff that's been downloaded into her. It frightens me sometimes how much else there is in her other than just her."

The Dreamwardens were famously tight lipped about a lot of things. Even Princess Luna had publicly tried to get them to open up about what goes on in their heads, but to no avail. They wanted trust, but even now they still kept a lot strictly to themselves. It seemed they even kept those things from their loved ones.

That still left her unable to come up with a good way of comforting her sister. It sounded like there was a lot of stresses in that marriage.

"I'll come by and watch them. You just tell me when," Wild said soothingly. "I'm assuming Phobia is watching them right now?"

"Partly," Rosetta answered. "She's doing paperwork for the OMMR in her office. Tempest is foal sitting."

Wild suppressed a laugh. She wondered who was worse off in that arrangement. The Equestrian unicorn or the night pony foals.

Jessie looked around as her dad let her out of the car. There were always a lot of night ponies just hanging around this particular house. Some on the roof, some in the yard, and some out in the street. a lot of them were watching her and her dad. There wasn't a single stallion or colt out of all of them. She'd only seen a stallion here once, and it had caused the mares to break out into a fight.

There were a few older fillies mixed in as well, and she was pretty sure she recognized one of them from being in her fourth level calculus class. She rarely remembered classmates, but that class only had six students in it. The night pony's name was Layla, if Jessie remembered right. She also stood out to Jessie in class because Layla actually had a math related cutie mark--much to Jessie's jealousy--a full moon with stars around it and a pi symbol on the moon.

She noted for the first time that Layla's wings were marked. Had they been marked before and she hadn't noticed, or was this new? She guessed that meant Layla wasn't going to be a threat to her brother. A lot of these mares were unmarked though, and most of the fillies.

Her dad noticed her looking at them. "Don't worry, they won't try anything with Robby here. They're here because of Phobia, and they won't do anything that may end in her sending them away."

Jessie wasn't so sure of that. Phobia Remedy hadn't sent them away when they got into a fight that one time. Having all these night ponies watching her always made her nervous. Maybe their desire to be near a Dreamwarden would be enough though.

Her dad started walking towards the house and looked up at the night ponies perched above the porch. "You ladies having a nice day?"

"It's been slow," one of the mares called down. "Protesters don't like coming by when we're around. We're just waiting for the day ponies to arrive and take over watch."

There weren't nearly as many non-night ponies that came and did this, but there were some that seemed to have the same loyalty to the Dreamwardens that the night ponies had. While there were too many night ponies to keep track of who came here Jessie knew the names for most the non-night ponies. Her favorite was a crystal pony named Crystal Dreams who would sometimes have candy.

She followed after her dad. When they got to the door her dad gave a few quick knocks. A moment later the door opened and Tempest Shadow was standing there, wearing a red and white cheerleader outfit for some reason.

"Your colt is inside. Do you want me to fetch him for you?" Tempest asked without giving any greeting.

"Jessie was actually hoping to talk to Phobia Remedy while she was here. Phobia had shown some interest in a project Jessie was working on," her dad explained.

Tempest looked down at Jessie and raised an eyebrow. "The Dreamwarden's time is a valuable commodity. She is currently very busy. If you wish to speak to her here you may be waiting a while. I can pass on the message that you wished to speak to her and she could possibly dreamwalk to you later."

"I can wait a little while," Jessie responded. She then cocked her head. "Um, Ms. Tempest, why are you wearing a cheerleader outfit?"

Tempest glared down at her. "Because it is comfortable and easy to move around in. Why aren't you wearing clothes?"

"I don't normally wear clothes. I only wear a hat on Sundays to church," Jessie answered.

"It would seem like you aren't really qualified to judge other ponies' choice of attire then," Tempest said stiffly. "Come inside, the Dreamwarden will see you when she is ready."

She and her dad walked inside. Inside was a simple room with a couch, some pillows, and a lot of windows with the curtains drawn shut. There was some light provided by a dim lamp and she could see a few night lights plugged into walls here and there that provided a little bit of light, but the entire inside of the house was still pretty dim.

Tempest walked by them. The bright cheerleader outfit actually made her easier to see in the dark.

"Wait here and I'll inform the Dreamwarden of your request. I'll also send Robby down to you; I believe he is drawing upstairs," Tempest said as she walked towards the stairs.

"Where's Rosetta Stone?" Her dad asked.

Tempest turned to him for a brief second. "She is not currently at home." The broken horned unicorn walked on with no further explanation.

After Tempest went upstairs Jessie sat down and pulled her saddlebags off. This place was kind of creepy with how dark it was, all the night ponies outside, and Tempest not being really friendly. That was why she normally didn't come when Robby stayed here overnight.

She looked around at her surroundings some more with her ears flattened. Night ponies might like living like this, but she didn't like it at all. Maybe having to live in the dark like this was why Tempest was so grumpy. The little night lights really didn't do much to show their surroundings, and she kept looking at the shadows wondering what was in them.

Something touched her tail and she jumped into the air and screamed.

"Ow! Don't be so loud!" Came a familiar voice behind her.

She turned and looked at her assailant. Charlotte was crouched low to the ground holding her ears and giving her a dirty look.

"Well, don't scare me!" Jessie yelled at the night pony.

Charlotte winced. "Sorry, no more yelling. Please."

Jessie took a few deep breaths to calm down. "Why'd you sneak up on me?"

Charlotte looked to the stairs then back at Jessie. "We want you to help us. We're trying to get the cookies."

Jessie frowned. "Are you not supposed to get cookies? Why don't you just ask your mom or Tempest?"

"Because that's not part of the game," Charlotte replied.

Jessie blinked. "Game?"

Charlotte smiled and nodded. "Yeah, it's like tag. We gotta get the cookies and get away with them before we get catched by Mama. Mama isn't here, so it's Tempest we gotta get not catched from."

"It's don't get caught, not get catched," Jessie corrected.

Charlotte looked at her in confusion. "That's what I said."

Jessie suppressed the desire to argue the point. She wasn't supposed to treat other foals like they were stupid, even when they said stupid things.

Tag didn't seem like too bad an idea though. She like tag. There wasn't much talking involved with tag.

"Okay, I'll play," Jessie replied after thinking about it. "Where are the cookies?"

Charlotte smiled. "They're in the kitchen, at the highest place, and they got a lock on them."

Jessie blinked again. "That sounds like they really don't want you to get the cookies. How are you going to get them unlocked?"

Charlotte pointed at her. "Well, you're really smart. You can figure out how to get the lock off."

"You're sure this is just a game?" Jessie asked doubtfully. "It really sounds like they don't want you getting the cookies."

Charlotte nodded quickly. "It is a game. We play it all the time."

She looked at her dad, and he seemed uncertain for some reason as he looked back at her. He then sighed. "You can play with them if you want. Please, don't break anything."

That wasn't ominous or anything. She really wasn't sure she should agree to play with them. If her dad seemed like he wasn't sure about her playing with other foals that meant something bad might happen.

"I'm not sure," she said hesitantly to Charlotte.

"Come on," Charlotte pleaded. She then lifted her head. "Mommy always says we should face our fears. If you're afraid you should definitely play then, and beat those fears."

Jessie wasn't used to being lectured by other foals, at least not ones close to her age. The fact it was Phobia Remedy's advice that Charlotte was passing on did make her consider it again. Phobia Remedy had given her a lot of advice yesterday that seemed good, and was doing things for her. She wanted to impress the Dreamwarden just like she wanted to impress Wild. Doing this when she was nervous about it might impress the night pony.

"Okay, I'll play," Jessie agreed. Nothing that bad could happen. What could possibly go wrong?

This was bad, really bad. How had she let the demons talk her into this?

"You're doing great! Just try hopping a little more and it will come loose," Charlotte called up to her in a loud whisper.

It coming loose was exactly what she was afraid of. She had her legs tightly wrapped around a chain while sitting on the cookie jar. The chain and jar were both hanging from the ceiling. With the chain wrapped around the jar and lid tightly. Who the fudge hangs a cookie jar from a chain in the middle of the kitchen ceiling!

The three demons were below. Tabby and Alfie had a blanket held between them to catch her and Charlotte was trying to encourage her into dislodging the chain from the ceiling so she and the cookie jar could fall. This was the most insane thing that she had ever done!

"We'll catch you. It will be okay," Charlotte assured her.

"Why couldn't one of you be up here and I be down there helping catch you?" Jessie whimpered.

"Because none of the three of us is heavy enough. You are," Charlotte explained.

Outrage overrode fear for a second. "Are you calling me fat!"

"You're like a whole year older than us, and earth ponies are heavier than night ponies," Charlotte replied. The demons had clearly put some thought into this.

"I'm scared," Jessie whimpered again as she shut her eyes. She would have gripped tighter, but she couldn't hug the chain any tighter.

"You won't get down till you get the chain out," Charlotte reminded her.

Fudge...fudge...fudge! She repeated in her head. She wanted to use the worse word, but couldn't bring herself to say it in her head or out loud.

She was shaking as she opened her eyes and brought her hindquarters down as hard as she could on the cookie jar. The chain shook when she did, but didn't come loose.

"Keep doing that!" Charlotte called out in a hushed tone as she did worried glances towards the entrance to the kitchen. Why hadn't Tempest come checking on them yet? They weren't being that quiet.

This was still insane and she just wanted to be done with it all, but she had to get down first. She held her breath as she brought her weight down on the cookie jar a few more times. The chain did a sudden jerk. When she looked up she saw the hook in the ceiling was coming loose.

"Almost there. One more good bounce!" Charlotte called out.

"I'm going to fall!" Jessie whimpered, starting to cry.

"You'll be okay, trust us," Charlotte replied. "Do what Mommy says, face your fears."

Jessie wasn't sure that this was what Phobia Remedy meant when she said that. At this point she had no choice but to knock the chain loose from the ceiling. They'd better fudging catch her! She took a deep breath, and with one last hard pound down on the cookie jar the hook came loose and she and the cookie jar plummeted down. She hit the blanket that the demons were holding and it pulled free from their teeth, but had given enough buffer to stop her from hitting the kitchen floor at full force. The cookie jar had hit it a second before and bounced away, and she had heard it shatter against something.

"Cookies!" She heard Alfie call out in glee.

She looked up and saw Alfie grabbing a sealed package of fudge spiral cookies in his mouth. It wasn't even homemade cookies, just store stuff. She felt cheated because she knew Phobia Remedy baked all the time.

"So...the game is afoot," came the dreaded voice from the entrance to the kitchen.

They turned as a group and saw Tempest standing at the entrance of the kitchen. The unicorn was crouched in a fighting pose and her broken horn was sparking. This was bad.

"Run!" Tabby yelled out and made a beeline for the back door.

"I already locked it, little ponies" Tempest said with a sinister chuckle. The unicorn's eyes went wide a moment later as Tabby jumped up and grabbed the handle and the click of the door opening could be heard. "How?!"

The rest of them starting running to the door as Tabby worked to pull it open. Tempest was faster and jumped over them to shut the door. The three night ponies turned on a dime and started running the opposite direction towards the entrance Tempest just vacated and Jessie was pulled along with them as Charlotte and Alfie yanked her around into the corrected direction as they passed.

Wait a minute, didn't Alfie just have the cookies? She then noticed that Tabby now had the package of cookies tight in her jaws.

Tempest took off after Tabby and as Tabby was running she looked like she deliberately dropped the package which was then grabbed up by Charlotte. Tempest tried to make an abrupt turn to get Charlotte but ended up tripping due to the odd angle and speed. All four foals quickly exited the kitchen.

They ran out into the living room and her dad called out to her as they did. "Please, don't break anything!"

"Keep running to the stairs! She's coming!" Tabby yelled.

Without thinking Jessie did as instructed and the four foals started making their way up the stairs as fast as their little legs could carry them. Robby was laying in the staircase drawing and Alfie literally ran right over him. "Hey! Watch where you're running squirt!"

"Sorry, Robby!" Alfie called out as he continued up the stairs.

"You better run faster, Jessie. Tempest is fast," Robby called out to her as she passed.

As she reached the top of the stairs there was a sound of tumbling and cursing behind her. "Why are you laying on the stairs!" Tempest could be heard shouting.

"Why'd you try to run right over me!"

"Because I didn't expect you to be laying on the stairs! Don't lay on the stairs!"

Tabby was ahead of them and pulled a box away from the wall to reveal an open air vent. They couldn't be serious!

"Get inside, quick!" Tabby called out.

They were serious. Fudge!

The four of them hurried into the vent and Jessie struggled to pull herself in. She was a little bigger than the others and it was a tighter fit for her. Maybe her dad shouldn't have fed her eggs before she came here. That was it, no more eggs!

Inside the vent the air duct was a bit more open and it wasn't as bad. The night ponies started walking and the sound of hooves on metal echoed as they went in a single file line through the duct. Just as Jessie moved away from the vent she let off a yelp as Tempest's hoof came reaching into the vent, just missing grabbing her.

"This way, hurry!" Tabby called back.

They hurried through the duct, passing by several other vents that were also open and could have let them out to freedom. The night ponies eventually settled on one down the line and exited out it one at a time.

Jessie had to work to squeeze out of this one just like she had to squeeze into the first one. When she exited out she found herself under a small table with the other three foals huddled around her. She also realized they were not alone in this room. Phobia Remedy and Tattered Wing were sitting at a desk and it looked like they were doing paperwork.

Before anything was said the door slammed open and Tempest came into the room. Phobia Remedy and Tattered Wing didn't seem really concerned about Tempest barging in like that.

Tempest crouched down and looked under the table. "Gotya now!"

Charlotte passed the cookies to Jessie and yelled. "Run!"

Jessie didn't need much prompting she took the bag of cookies into her mouth and started running behind where Phobia was sitting while the three night pony foals ran around the other side of the desk. She heard one of them collide with Tattered Wing's chair.

"Foals, where are your manners?" Phobia Remedy said calmly.

"Hi, Ms. Tattered Wing, sorry, Ms. Tattered Wing," the three demons called out in chorus.

"Jessie, you as well," Phobia Remedy said without turning to look at her.

Jessie stopped as she rounded the desk and dropped the cookies. "Hello, Ms. Tattered Wing. I'm sorry, Ms. Tattered Wing--ack!"

Alfie and Charlotte started dragging her by her tail and Tabby shoved the bag of cookies back into her mouth. "Mommy didn't say stop running!"

They ran around the entire room in a circle with Tempest chasing after them. Alfie started trying to scale a small bookshelf and the entire thing came crashing down in front of Tempest while he jumped clear.

"You're helping picking that up later, Alfie," Phobia Remedy said without looking up from her work.

"Yes, Mommy!" Alfie yelled out.

Charlotte gave Jessie a nudge to turn her towards where the fallen bookshelf was and she saw a larger opening in the wall. Guessing that the demons wanted to go there she made a break for it.

She ran through the hole in the wall and the demons ran in right after her, shoving her forward.

"Don't stop! She can reach us!" Alfie yelled.

Jessie started moving forward, still carrying the stolen package of cookies in her mouth. They weren't in an air duct now. Now they were just in the wall proper. She could see the wood skeleton of the house and all the insulation, though it looked like someone had cleared lot of the insulation out at a height for foals to walk through. Clearly not one of the adults. The devious demons had done some serious damage to the inside of the walls. She wondered if the adults knew.

She followed along the path and was forced to climb up over the air duct on occasion. The path eventually split.

"Go right!" Tabby instructed.

"No, go left!" Charlotte countered.

"We need to get to the front door!" Tabby fussed.

"We can take the line!" Charlotte countered again.

"I'm the oldest, you have to listen to me," Tabby said irritability, seeming to forget Jessie was there and older than any of the three night ponies.

"By thirty seconds," Charlotte growled.

"Thirty-two," Tabby growled back, like the extra two seconds mattered.

Since she was in the lead and didn't really see much difference in the paths or what the demons plans were she just picked a direction and went left. Her choice was in no way made by the fact there were cobwebs she could see down the path to the right.

"We should have gone right!" Tabby complained.

"Ha! We're going left!" Charlotte said smugly.

"Tempest is going to hear us," Alfie added in. That shut the two bickering twins up.

There was a long board laid out on the path ahead that acted as a ramp to go up. Jessie started climbing but as the night ponies started following it started to feel unstable.

She set the cookies down and turned around and looked at the other foals. "I don't think this can hold all four of us."

"It holds the three of us all the time," Tabby replied.

"Well, now there are four of us and I'm heavier, as you three liked to point out. Alfie and Charlotte need to get off until you and I are up, and then they can follow."

"Why us?" Charlotte whined.

"Because you two are in the back!" Jessie almost shouted. That should have been obvious.

The two in the back got off the board with some grumbling. The board still didn't feel right. Maybe trying to hold that much weight before had cracked it? She couldn't see any crack. If she were older she'd have been able to feel out the board with earth pony magic, but then again, if she was older the board likely wouldn't have held just her by herself.

She grabbed the cookies again and made it to the top of the suspect ramp. Tabby followed right after her. When Charlotte and Alfie saw them reach the top they started running up the ramp. That's when she heard the crack and the two night ponies stopped dead in their tracks on the board. A second later a louder crack could be heard as the board gave way under them. Jessie covered her eyes in fear as it did.

Instead of the sound of screaming in pain she expected she heard moans of disappointment. "Aww, there goes our ramp. Now we got to get a new one." She heard Charlotte complain.

She uncovered her eyes and looked. Both of them who had been onto the board were latched onto the insulation on the side of the walls by their wings. It was really impressive that their wings were able to hold their whole bodies like that. She'd watched them do it yesterday with the garden walls, but this was the first time she saw it up close. Robby didn't typically climb things.

The two of them scrambled up the wall and onto the higher level with her and Tabby. "We need to keep going to get to the line," Charlotte instructed.

Jessie wasn't really sure what the line was, but she was eager to get out of the walls. Hopefully Tempest had just given up by now.

They started walking again and another hole in the wall could be seen. Better yet, she could see actual daylight peaking through the hole. She quickened her pace and exited out the hole into their new location.

She found herself in the crawl space at the top of the house. It was probably a proper attic for a pony, but she knew this house had been built originally with humans in mind and adjusted for ponies later on. The light was coming through a small open door that led out to the roof.

She set the cookies down and looked at the other foals. "Can we eat the cookies now? I'm hungry from all that running and being scared."

The night ponies looked at one another and then Alfie carefully crept to the open door and peeked out it quickly before pulling his head back. "Tempest is at our tree house. We can't go down the line or she'll catch us."

Jessie still wasn't sure what the line actually was, but it didn't seem to matter at this point. "So can we sit here and eat then? She's there and we're here."

Tabby nodded. "Yeah, let's eat. I'm ready for cookies!"

"Keep your voice down," Charlotte scolded. "She'll hear us."

"No she won't," Tabby said with a defiant flick of her tail.

A shadow passed over them, blocking out the light. "Actually, I will, but only because I already spotted your brother and am up here now. Game is up, little ponies. I win."

They all sat and gaped for a moment at Tempest. How had she even gotten up here? The unicorn didn't have wings or have the ability to climb like a night pony.

The three demons reacted quickly though. Alfie grabbed the package of cookies and the three of them took off. They reached the door that dropped down to the second story and undid the latch with the three of them standing on it and the three of them dropped right away.

Jessie hurried over the way that the three demons had gone, but when she reached the hole she looked down and realized for a pony that couldn't climb that was a straight drop. There was nothing to cushion her landing either.

A second later a pair of forehooves came down on either side of her and she looked up. Tempest was smiling down at her. "Well, at least I caught one of you."

Tempest then reached down with her head and grabbed Jessie up by the scruff of her neck. Jessie was about to struggle, but Tempest chose to jump down the hole while holding her. She just went limp in the unicorn's grasp as Tempest calmly carried her down the hallway and then down the stairs.

Tempest finally dropped her in front of her dad and Robby in the living room and Jessie looked sheepishly up at her dad.

Her dad looked down at her with a blank expression. "I think you've had enough excitement for one day. We need to get your brother home so he can get some sleep. Tempest already told us Phobia will take time to dreamwalk to you tonight."

She looked at Robby and Tempest quickly and they were giving her blank expressions too. Was she in trouble? She normally didn't get in trouble. She never did things like this, and she didn't know what to expect now.

"Come on, get your saddlebags and let's get going," her dad instructed. "We'll talk about your little escapade when we get in the car."

Her ears flattened and her tail dragged behind her as she went and grabbed up her saddlebags and carefully fastened them back on. Her dad and Robby were at the door already and her dad was holding it open for her. She followed and went out the door. When they got out on the porch her dad briefly thanked Tempest for watching Robby and explained that Robby would need to spend the night again tonight since Grandmare Nocte wasn't going to be home till tomorrow. The door then shut and her dad started leading then to the car.

As she walked one of the night pony mares called down to her. "Hey, you actually made Tempest have to show off. Crazy unicorn actually jumped all the way up there from the ground. That unicorn can get some serious air on her jumps. Would have made a great basketball player." Well, that solved that mystery.

Her dad opened the back seat door for them and Robby hopped in first then her. The door shut behind her and she tried to tell if it seemed like it shut harder than it normally did or not, she couldn't tell. Her dad then got in the driver's seat and shut his door behind him.

"So...you got into some mischief," her dad began.

"I didn't mean to," she hurriedly starting trying to explain. "First there was the thing with getting up to get the cookies, and then they weren't even homemade cookies, and then Tempest was there and everyone was running, an..."

"Jessie, hush," her dad instructed. Jessie bit down on her lip, bracing herself for the lecture that was coming.

"You also had me get run over...three times!" Robby added in.

She looked at her brother in confusion. "Three? I thought..."

"She ran over me again trying to get down the stairs," Robby said flatly.

Her dad sighed. "That was your own fault Robby. She told you not to lay on the stairs."

Robby looked up at him. "Well, someone had to run interference for Jessie."

Huh?

Her dad shook his head and started laughing. This made her really confused. Why was that funny? He finally looked at her with a smile. "I hope you had fun. It's good seeing you get up to more foal-like activities. Let's not make a habit of grand theft though, okay?"

She silently nodded, still completely confused. Now that it was all over she realized she actually did have fun. It had been scary at the time, but it had been exciting too. The only part that she regretted was she didn't get any cookies after all that running.

"Look in your saddlebags," Robby whispered into her ear.

She gave him a baffled look, but then did as instructed. As she started reaching her head in the smell hit her. Cookies!

She reached in and pulled out several cookies one by one, and she found a note too.

Come play again

"Charlotte came and slipped the cookies into your bags right before Tempest brought you down," Robby explained. "I think you made friends with the demons."

She brought one of the cookies up with her hooves and bit into it. She might just come play again sometime after all.

Author's Note

Next chapter release will be in two weeks. I have been dealing with a parent suffering from dementia who needs constant supervision and it has been slowed my writing down considerably.

Chapter 6: Learning Curve

Tonya and her wife sat in Amanda and Tom's living room. The other married couple were down at the street level talking with Paul. Sunset had advised them that they might want to have the foals elsewhere for this conversation. Amanda had made a call over to Paul to see if he could take them to the park for a little while, and luckily Paul was already out with Jessie and Robby at the time. This hopefully wouldn't take too long, but that all depended on how Amanda reacted to the conversation.

Sunset sat examining the many family pictures on the wall. Tom liked to stress to Jackie and Jordan that Phobia was their sister and that Phobia's foals were their nieces and nephew. So pictures of Phobia's family were hung right along the pictures of Tom, Amanda, Jackie, and Jordan. There were also a few pictures of Amanda's mother and her human brother's family as well.

The living room had clearly been designated as the foals' play area. Large wooden blocks looked like they had been shoved haphazardly out of the way rather than properly cleaned up. Crayons and markers were scattered amongst a mess of loose papers and coloring books. Small stuffed animals and dolls were seen in random locations throughout the room. There was a neater area in a corner with some mats for laying on, and a small bookshelf next to it that had been filled with books meant for very young readers. Looking at these surroundings made her start thinking of having a foal again. Did Sunset get any of the same types of feelings looking at all this?

"Tom and Amanda have a nice home," Tonya said to try to get conversation going.

"You know these houses are all built the same," Sunset replied as she studied some themed photos. The theme was first day of school and had Jackie's kindergarten and first grade photos, and Jordan's kindergarten photo. Not a surprising theme considering Amanda was a teacher. Sunset was being deliberately dismissive of the surroundings and Tonya had a good idea why.

Tonya walked over to where Sunset was standing and looked at the small bookshelf below the pictures. Amanda kept yearbooks from school going back the extent of her fourteen-year teaching career, and it looked like she kept all her old college and high school ones when she was a student herself. It was tempting to pull out one of the ones from before Amanda was a pony to see what Amanda looked like as a human, as it was like looking at embarrassing baby pictures, but she didn't want to disturb anything.

"The home is what you fill the house with. This one feels like love and family," Tonya replied as she looked over a picture of a newborn Jordan being cuddled between Amanda and Tom with a very curious Jackie trying to investigate the little unicorn. Tom's horn was lit in most of these pictures, indicating he was the one taking the picture. He was certainly quite the shutterbug. Maybe he should have had a camera instead of a shield for a cutie mark. He made exceptionality powerful shields, but he rarely used the ability. A good example of a pony not defined by their cutie mark.

"You're trying to get me thinking about foals," Sunset said dryly, but continued looking over the pictures.

"Is it working?" Tonya asked playfully.

Sunset stopped and looked around the room. "Perhaps a little. I hope Tom and his wife get up here soon, before you get me all wistful for the sounds of little hooves. You know how to play on my emotions without using your powers."

Tonya bit her lip for a second. "I don't mean to be emotionally manipulative. Seeing all this just makes me think about the subject more myself."

Sunset looked at the photos again and her ears sagged. "It's okay. Seeing these photos would impact me no matter what. Tom and I never took pictures like this with Phobia when she was young. Oh, we took some pictures occasionally, but not nearly this many. Phobia was a quiet and withdrawn child, and a lot of our interactions with her after she turned four were often frustrating ones. In all these photos he, Amanda, and their foals look much happier than the way our family was back then. I'm glad he has a happy life with Amanda, but I can't help feeling a little jealous that he seems so much happier than he was with me. It makes me think I was the reason why there was so much friction back then."

"Well, part of that was your needs and desires weren't being met, so you were unhappy," Tonya reminded her as she gently touched a wing to Sunset's side. "I hope between your work and me that those needs are being met now."

Sunset smiled. "They are. I wasn't being true to myself back then. I was trying to play the role of obedient stay-at-home mom, and trying to convince myself I sexually desired Tom. I can't even really completely credit my homophobia to human bigotry, because even after becoming a pony and admitting I had an attraction to mares it took even longer to admit I had no attraction to stallions. I was still ashamed to admit I'm purely lesbian even when I got with you. I'm also certainly not the type of mare who would be satisfied confining herself to a homemaker role like I did back then, and I was an idiot for trying to be."

"But I am the type of mare that could be satisfied with that," Tonya interjected. "I know when you had Phobia you went full time stay-at-home mom, but that won't be the case this time around if we have a foal. It's a completely different situation that you don't need to be afraid of repeating the same mistakes with."

Sunset firmed up her expression. "Tonya..."

"Are we walking into a private conversation? Do we need to give you two some time?" Amanda said from the stairs, frustration lacing her tone. "We're lucky Paul was gracious enough to pick Jackie and Jordan up rather than heading straight home from Phobia's. I'd like to know that we didn't rush him and keep Robby from getting to bed for nothing."

Sunset shook her head as she turned to greet them. "No, it's an ongoing marital debate that we can put on hold for right now. We're here to discuss other things. I'm sorry about the short notice. This is a sudden change of plans we needed to act on quickly "

"Alright," Amanda said as she walked into the room with Tom following her. Like most ponies in town they favored low couches, pillows, and small coffee tables for furniture. The couple made their way over to one of the couches and made themselves comfortable, with Tom briefly taking time to remove some stuffed animals from it.

Tonya and Sunset each took up separate throw pillows nearby. Tonya just made herself comfortable and ready to listen. She wouldn't be speaking much since this was Sunset's project; not unless there was something she felt was being left out or she was called upon to speak. She was fine with that. She'd also step in if she felt Sunset was getting too pushy, which wasn't an uncommon occurrence.

"So, has Tom discussed the experiments I have been conducting?" Sunset asked the earth pony mare.

Amanda gave her husband a considering look with her ears laid back. "No, he hasn't. What experiments? What's this about Tom?"

Sunset held up her hoof. "Don't be angry at him. He was required to keep things secret. Tonya actually had a compulsion on him to keep it secret. He accepted the compulsion voluntarily, but it was triggered to come off when I contacted the two of you today, it just required a key phrase."

Amanda gave Tonya a dirty look. This didn't bother her much. She was used to getting dirty looks about her compulsions.
No one trusted what she'd do to someone's mind, but she was far better with taking care of those she used her powers on than she once was. All her compulsions were now triggered to end when a particular phrase was said or period of time has elapsed. Tom's phrase had been pretty pink poodle polkadot plush pajamas. Sunset thought her phrases were unnecessarily silly, but they were easy to remember and were things people were unlikely to ever hear said by accident. The fact that she could say something like she was buying a pair of pretty pink poodle polkadot plush pajamas wasn't so outlandish a thing that she couldn't somehow slip it into a conversation to trigger an end to a compulsion. She had a set of about a dozen key phrases she used. She kept a log of which phrase went to who, but if ever in a bind and unable to get to her log she could simply start saying each of them as long as she had the person isolated from anyone else she may have used compulsions on.

Tom cleared his throat. "They've been working a spell that grants short term humanizion. They contacted me as a possible volunteer for testing it out."

Amanda looked at him with her mouth held wide then started shaking her head. "Why? Why would you volunteer for that."

Tom looked down. "I wanted to remember what it was like to be human again. Even if it was something that was temporary."

Amanda opened and closed her mouth. "But...and...I don't..." She took a deep breath and turned to glare to Sunset. "How long? How long does this temporary spell last?"

"We have had differing time periods the spell has lasted; the longest has been eight hours, the shortest five. We still aren't sure why it isn't being consistent with how long it lasts," Sunset explained.

"Sunset, you're bending the details a little," Tonya scolded lightly.

Amanda lifted an eyebrow at Sunset and Sunset's ears sagged. "We've actually developed two similar but separate spells. One is for temporary pony to human transformation, the other is for temporary human to pony transformation. We've only actually had one run with the pony to human transformation and it lasted six hours...and we should have cut it short at five hours."

Amanda's eyes narrowed. "Why?"

Sunset hung her head. "Because the subject started feeling very upset after five hours and has been extremely emotionally unstable since then...she tried to commit suicide this morning."

"What!" Amanda screamed as her eyes dilated. "No! I am not letting Tom subject himself to that."

Okay, a little more open and honest than Tonya wanted Sunset to be. Velvet's suicide attempt didn't need to be told to them. There were also extenuating circumstances with that. That it had caused Velvet extreme distress would have sufficed.

"We have reason to believe that the pony was emotionally unstable before the experiment happened," Tonya cut in, hoping to salvage this. "She hid from us that she was on depression medication, some really strong depression medication. This was probably a huge contributing factor for what happened with her. Tom is not dealing with those kinds of issues. We'll cut the spell early this time at the first signs of distress."

"We also did no mind magic in the first round of tests," Sunset continued on. "This time around we will give that human sense of self when transformed and..."

"No, no mind magic," Amanda said crossly.

"But we're trying to stop any distress from happening. We don't want anyone hurt by this," Sunset tried to explain.

Amanda looked at Tom and then back at Sunset. "Tom has expressed on more than one occasion that he doesn't know if he thinks the way he does because he was programed to do so. If you use mind magic you are definitely putting some sort of programed thinking into him. Tom has been a pony for six years. One way or another this is how he thinks now and it has developed as part of him, regardless of what may have happened six years ago. If he does this I want him to have no doubts the way he feels about it comes from him and not what you put in his head."

Tonya had her own experiences with body dysphoria, and knew how unpleasant that could be. What Velvet and Megan went through dialed that up to an eleven though. Going without that proper sense of self to match the body was a mistake.

She looked at her wife. "I'm not sure I'm comfortable with this happening without the mind magic."

Sunset nodded then looked to Tom. "What do you want to do?"

"I want to try it," Tom said quietly. "I can't let a chance like this slip away."

Amanda gave Tom a hurt look. "Regardless of how we ended up this way we've built a good life. Being a pony isn't wrong. We have a filly that never even spent a day in the womb as a human. Can you look at her and tell her that she shouldn't exist?"

Tom shook his head. "I love both Jordan and Jackie dearly, and don't for a second question that they should be ponies and not humans. They were born ponies and saying they should be anything else is as wrong as what was done to us. I'm not planning on going human full time and leaving you or them, but I do want to reconnect with my humanity."

"Can Sunset and I have a moment to discuss things, privately? I'm sure you two want a moment as well," Tonya interrupted.

Amanda turned and nodded. "Yeah, some private conversation sounds good right now. Tom and I are going to go downstairs again and have a talk about this and you two can have some privacy while we do."

Tom and Sunset gave quiet agreement and Amanda quickly marched her husband downstairs. Tonya didn't really feel much satisfaction in being right that Amanda wouldn't take this well. Hopefully this didn't introduce any strain on Tom and Amanda's relationship. Regardless of that, there was an important detail that needed to be done until with Sunset.

"Sunset, if he does this without the mind magic you need to cut the session much shorter on purpose, no more than two hours," Tonya declared. "Two hours or when signs of distress appear, whichever comes first."

"I can agree to that," Sunset said with a nod. "Though if he does alright with the two hour session we can try increasing the time slightly with later sessions. Slowly work him up till we find what the limit is, or when the problems start. Maybe taking it in smaller sessions will be enough. We didn't want to use mind magic when we began this project anyway."

"And Jean..."

Sunset shook her head. "Jean is a different matter. She was never a pony and doesn't have any past experience to settle her. She's getting mind magic and I'll wait until signs of distress from her to pull the plug. We need to know if it actually will make it so they're emotionally stable with the mind magic, and we need more information about why it goes different lengths of time for different subjects. Also, do you really want to cut short that woman's time with a working body if we don't have to?"

That was a hard point to argue with, but it still needed care. "That one I suppose we can leave up to her. Explain to her all the factors and let her decide if she wants to possibly reach a point where it's causing her distress. I only say that because she is distressed with her body already, so there is a possibility that it won't hit her as hard since she's used to that."

Sunset nodded. As she did Amanda and Tom returned up the stairs. That was quicker than expected.

"To confirm, no mind magic and first sign this is causing him to get upset and you're going to put an end to it?" Amanda asked.

Sunset nodded. "We discussed it. We'll agree to no mind magic, and we'll be putting a time limit it on it as well. Whichever comes first, him getting distressed or the time limit we set being reached."

Amanda creased her brow. "How long?"

"Two hours," Sunset answered. "The previous subject started showing distress at three hours, and the spell dissipated on it's own at five hours. Knowing they were getting upset at three we want to cut it short before then."

Amanda sat for a moment and just stared at her husband before speaking. "Will two hours satisfy you?"

"It will do," Tom replied with a barely perceptible nod.

"Just to be clear. We were hoping to do repeat sessions and slowly work our time up. Not repeat sessions in one day," Sunset clarified. "We need data, and to do get that we need repeat volunteers."

Amanda scrunched up her nose. "We'll see. I have an additional condition; I want to also do it, and at the same time."

Sunset blinked. "Why?"

Amanda looked at her husband again. "I want to understand exactly what he experiences. I'm his wife, his partner, and I need to be there for him."

That caught Tonya off guard. Maybe there was something to Sunset's view of Amanda. Still caution had to be given.

"You realize that if there is any distress caused by this you're subjecting yourself to it as well," Tonya said, careful to try not to ruffle Amanda's fur too much. "You don't have Tom's same commitment to wanting to do this so it might impact you even more."

"I can deal with two hours," Amanda said dismissively. "Just give me something to use my hands on that I can't do well as a pony to keep me occupied. The novelty of having hands again should keep me distracted."

That wasn't a bad idea. She was sure she could find something that could work out with that. Maybe some puzzles? Earth ponies typically struggled with puzzles with a lot of small pieces. That sense of self was essential though. Tonya had no doubts that no matter how much Tom said he wanted to do this or Amanda said she could distract herself that lack of proper sense of self would get to them in time. Velvet had been all gung-ho about this and that didn't stop it from turning into a living nightmare for her. Hopefully the shortened time would work. Don't give it time to start being disturbing rather than just odd.

"Alright," Sunset said with a small smile. "I have our human to temporary pony test subject lined up for tomorrow morning. How about we have you two come to the Bastion around three. We should hopefully be done with everything concerning our other experiment by then. You’ll just need a foalsitter for a few hours."

Amanda nodded. "I can get Devon to watch the fillies around then and keep them until close to bedtime. It gets us time to get our heads screwed back on right."

Tonya hoped so. Going into this without mind magic again scared her. She didn't want any more upset patients. As soon as they got home she was going to take a nap and dreamwalk Melissa--now that she knew she could--and make a call to Megan along the way.

She looked around at all the toys scattered about the room again. She could probably find some time before her nap to research what doctor she wanted to see Monday about her options. Sunset was opening up to the idea a little. It was safer to start really start thinking about that kind of future now.

Jessie gave her sleeping brother one last look before getting out of the car. He had said he didn't mind napping in the back seat for a while. Her brother was very accomplished at falling asleep just about anywhere when the sun was at its zenith. He'd just curl up and wrap a wing around his head. A few moments later he'd be snoring.

Seeing him sleeping in the backseat right now she couldn't help but notice how much bigger he'd gotten in the last year, basically doubling in size. She didn't think about it normally, but seeing him take up the extra space in the backseat like this made it stand out more. She remembered when he didn't take up much more space than her, but now he was probably closer to an adult's size than her size--even if he wasn't full grown yet. It was a reminder of how much he was changing, and she wondered how long it would be before he didn't have time for his filly little sister. He'd be too worried about trying to be near those naughty night pony fillies that were going to get him in trouble.

"Come on, Jessie. Time to get out and enjoy the park. We aren't going to spend a lot of time here," her dad instructed.

She hopped out of the car door and her dad shut the door quietly, but firmly, behind her. She joined the other two fillies.

Jordan was laying next to some bushes and seemed highly focused on watching them for some reason. Jackie sat with her head turned up to watch a flock of birds that had just taken off out of some trees.

Her dad walked between the trio. "The three of you can do whatever you want to do, but you all need to stay in sight of me, got it?"

"Yes, Mr. Middleton," Jackie answered.

"Yes, Dad," Jessie said right after.

Jordan gave a little nod, but seemed to be holding her breath as she stared into the bush.

Jessie walked around a bit and admired the plants. This time of year not a lot was actually blooming. There were earth ponies that came and helped keep the park looking nice through the fall and winter, but there were still a lot of trees with no leaves. Most of what was still lush and green was grass and bushes. She enjoyed the smell of each and the feel of the damp grass beneath her hooves, but she still wished there were some flowers like there were at her aunts' house.

Her dad was probably expecting Jessie to continue to try to socialize since she was here with Jackie and Jordan. She'd made friends with Jordan, but Jackie it was hard to call a friend. They'd been closer a long time ago, before Jessie had gotten focused on math and wanting to get into NASA. They'd never even seen each other in school because Jessie had never attended kindergarten. They still saw each other sometimes when one or the other was being foalsitted, but largely ignored one another during those times--aside from some short races and games of tag.

Jackie seemed to take note of her sister's focus and walked over next to the little purple unicorn. Jessie joined the two of them a second later.

After staring for a solid minute without noticing anything Jessie decided to ask the question. "What are we looking for?"

"There's a ladybug in there," Jordan answered, eyes glued on the bushes still.

Jessie flicked an ear and stared harder. "I haven't seen anything."

"If Jordan says there's a ladybug in there it's true," Jackie assured her before taking a moment to start preening a wing. Talk of bugs probably triggered an instinct to preen. Pegasus wings were magnets for bugs to get into, and a lot of preening was them making sure their wings were bug free.

Jessie had no intention of questioning her friend's honesty, but she was still confused about why this mattered. "Why are we looking for the ladybug?"

"Because a colt in my class said his brother did magic when a ladybug landed on his horn. I want to do magic," Jordan answered as she continued to stare into the bush.

"What kind of magic?" Jessie asked skeptically.

The unicorn's ears dropped slightly. "I don't remember, but he said it happened when the ladybug landed on his horn."

Jackie looked up from her preening with interest. "Maybe a ladybug landing on my wings will help me fly."

"I called the ladybug first!" Jordan said with a whine as she turned and looked at her sister..

"You can share. Mom and Dad say we should share things," Jackie countered.

Jordan flicked her tail and went back to staring at the bush. "I guess so."

Jessie didn't know much about magic, but she knew that wasn't how magic developed. "How old is your classmate's brother?"

Jordan's ears dropped a little more to where they now hanging below her yellow mane. "Ten, I think."

"He probably got to where he could use his horn because he's ten," Jessie concluded.

"But I want magic now," Jordan said as her eyes started to water.

"Jordan, we're too little to use magic. We'll get to use lots of magic when we're older though," Jessie explained calmly, hoping that reason would soothe her friend.

The younger filly did not take well to reason and the watering eyes went into full scale tears.

Before Jessie could say anything else Jackie slapped her with a wing. "You made Jordan cry!"

Jessie's muzzle hurt from being hit with the wing. She saw her dad watching them, but not coming to her rescue. She knew what that meant. He wanted her to resolve this herself.

She turned and laid her ears back and flicked her tail as she glared at the pegasus. She couldn't help it, that wingslap hurt. "I didn't mean to. I'm sorry I made her cry."

Jackie laid her ears straight back and spread her wings threateningly. "You still did it. You made Jordan cry yesterday too. Stop picking on my sister!"

"I'm not picking on her!" Jessie shouted.

"Then why does she keep crying?" Jackie demanded. "I should make you cry and see how you like it!"

Jordan gasped and turned to her sister. "Jackie, no! She's my friend!"

"Then why do you keep crying?" Jackie asked the little unicorn.

Jordan hung her head. "I'm just being stupid again."

"You're not stupid," Jessie and Jackie said in unison. The pair of them turned to one another right after and stared at each other in confusion. Jessie didn't even know why she said that. It just seemed like the right thing to say.

Jordan started inexplicably giggling which made them turn back to her. "That was funny."

Jessie hung her head. "I'm sorry if I made you feel stupid--again. I really don't mean too. I'm bad at being friends."

"Yeah, you are," Jackie said snidely. Jessie felt a strong urge to box the pegasus.

"She's my best friend," Jordan said snappingly at her sister. Then continued in a mumble. "My only friend."

"I'm your friend," Jackie replied defensively.

Jordan looked at Jackie with ears slightly pulled back. "You're my sister. You have'ta be my friend. Mom and Dad will be mad at you if you aren't."

Jackie raised her muzzle up high. "I don't have to be your friend. Mom and Dad can't make me. I'm still your friend though."

"We're both your friends," Jessie added in.

"I don't make you cry," Jackie said and pointed a wing at Jessie. "She's making you cry. Friends don't make friends cry."

"Jackie, stop being mean to Jessie!" Jordan shrieked, then started crying again.

Jackie's ears flattened and she looked down. "Sorry."

Jackie was right that Jessie was the cause of Jordan crying. Okay, what would a good friend do here? Jessie had read lots of books that had characters that we're friends, that should tell her what she was supposed to be doing. What had started this whole thing? Jordan had been wanting a ladybug to land on her horn so she could do magic. Telling Jordan that wasn't how that worked had been a bad idea, and there was no way Jordan was going to just develop her magic right away. What was she supposed to say? She had to make Jordan feel better.

"Jordan, you'll get your magic eventually," Jessie said. "I'm sure you'll be really good at it when you do get it."

"But it's taking too long," Jordan said sadly. "Don't you want your magic right now?"

Jessie frowned. "Um, I want my cutie mark, if that counts. I don't really care about my earth pony magic."

That seemed to get Jackie's attention and cause the filly confusion. "Jordan wants to be able to cast spells. I want to be able to fly. Why don't you want your earth pony...stuff? What do earth ponies do?"

"We can do lots of stuff!" Jessie said indignantly. "Like grow things, are super strong, can...wait...your mom is an earth pony and so is Wild Growth, shouldn't you know what we can do?"

The pink filly looked a little embarrassed. "Never really noticed what mom does. She never does much magic. Wild Growth is Wild Growth; she's supposed to do special things."

Jessie shrugged. "Anyway, it isn't really important to me. I like math, and I don't need my earth pony magic to do math. I could be any type of pony or a human and still do math."

"You don't care about being an earth pony?" Jordan asked in confusion.

Jessie thought back to her poster of Wild Growth that cheered about being an earth pony. "I like being an earth pony. It's just I don't see where my earth pony magic is that important. Every earth pony gets really strong and can help grow plants and stuff, but not every earth pony can do math. It makes me feel special doing math."

"Wild Growth is really special because of her magic," Jackie pointed out.

Jessie flicked her tail. "Well, she's like the best earth pony, and she does other things too. She helps a lot of people too."

"Nobody would care if she didn't have a lot of magic," Jackie pressed.

Jessie wanted to tell Jackie that they would still care, but she suddenly wondered if that was true or not. If they really wouldn't care did that mean no one would care about what she could do if she didn't have special magic too? She wasn't going to be developing her magic for years yet, and chances were that it would probably be just normal earth pony magic--not like Wild Growth's. Her anxiety started rising again.

Maybe they could get their magic working earlier. Robby had told her that his night pony magic for dreamwalking had started working when he was her age. That wasn't all his magic, but it was at least some of his magic. Some was better than none, right?

"Maybe we're just looking at the wrong magic," she said slowly.

"What?" Jordan asked as she cocked her head.

She looked at Jordan and Jackie. it was time to look at things from a different angle. There was no way that Jordan was using her horn yet, and the same could be said about Jackie's wings. They were focused on those and those just wouldn't work. What other types of magic did unicorns and pegasi have that didn't involve those things?

"What types of magic are you supposed to get that don't involve your horn?" Jessie asked.

Jordan looked very confused. "My horn is for all my magic. I don't think there is anything. Horns are like everything to unicorns."

Jessie frowned. She could think of one unicorn that the horn wasn't everything too.

"Have you ever been to Ms. Phobia's house?" She asked.

Jordan shook her head no. Jackie watched and cut in. "You have. We've been to our sister's house."

Jordan looked unsure. "I don't remember."

Jackie flicked her tail a few times. "It was a while ago. Maybe you were just too little. We've been there."

Jordan nodded. "Okay, but I still don't remember."

"There's a unicorn there that has a broken horn," Jessie explained. The thought of a broken horn must have been pretty scary because Jordan gasped and put both her forehooves up on her horn as if to protect it. "She must know what kinds of magic unicorns can do without a horn. We should ask her. Just because your horn isn't working right yet doesn't mean something else couldn't be."

"Oh," Jordan said as her eyes widened. "Do you think so? Do you think I could have other magic than my horn that works?"

"Tempest Shadow is Phobia Remedy's main bodyguard, but has a broken horn. If Tempest is good enough at things to be a Dreamwarden's main guard she has to be able to do something special still," Jessie reasoned. "Maybe she knows magic that doesn't need a horn. Maybe that magic is good for any pony." She turned to Jackie. "Earlier today she jumped all the way from the ground to on top of the Dreamwarden's house. It's not actually flying, but that's like flying."

Jackie's ears went high. "You think she could teach me?"

"We can find out," Jessie replied, now smiling. This idea was working.

Jordan's ears suddenly dropped again. "But what if we're too little, like you said."

That was a possibility. What evidence was there that foals their age could learn magic? Robby did when he was their age, but he could be merely outer statistical occurrence, that didn't line up with the mean statistical range. There had to be something that showed a strong statistical probability all foals could do magic to really be sure. After a moment of pondering it she thought of something she had witnessed that seemed unlikely if foals couldn't learn magic.

"The demons!" She said excitedly. "They can climb way better than they should if not using some sort of magic. The fact that all three of them can do it shows a high rate of occurrence and increases the likelihood that it is not an outside statistical variance within the population!"

Jordan just held her mouth open. "Wha?"

"We don't know what you just said," Jackie said with annoyance.

Jessie groaned. Why did she have to have a language barrier with other foals? "Because the demons can all do magic it probably means that all foals have a chance to do magic."

"Why didn't you say that first?" Jackie asked.

Jessie stomped her hoof. "I did! I just said it a more math related way."

"They aren't here to help us," Jordan pointed out "And Daddy says that Phobia and the demons sleep in the afternoon."

"But Ms. Tempest doesn't," Jessie reminded them. "I can get my dad to call her and we can ask her about it."

"Let's go then," Jackie said eagerly as she started trotted back towards the car.

"Wait for me!" Jordan said as she hurried after Jackie. Jessie hurried to along as well.

"Dad!" She called out as they approached him. "Can you call Ms. Tempest? We wanted to ask her something."

"Tempest?" Her dad asked in confusion as they approached him. "That's an odd request. What did you need to ask her?"

Jessie came to a stop in front of him and stared up. "We needed to ask her about magic. I'm pretty sure she knows what kinds of magic unicorns can do without a horn."

Her dad frowned down at her. "Jessie, I think Tempest's horn is a very sensitive subject to her. I don't think she will be happy bringing up the fact that it's broken."

"But we're trying to get help from her. We aren't trying to make her feel bad," Jessie continued.

Her dad looked back towards the residential district and ran his hand through his hair slowly. "How about you ask your aunt Sunset Blessing instead? She knows a lot about magic and is a very accomplished mage. She likely knows about what magic unicorns can do without a horn too. I'm sure it would make her very happy to have you three asking her about magic."

She didn't really like Sunset Blessing much. Why she didn't she really didn't know. Maybe it was just the boring sermons that the unicorn gave that her mom made her listen to. Still, Sunset Blessing was better than nothing.

"Okay," Jessie replied, still not happy that her initial idea had been rejected. Tempest just seemed like the ideal pony to know about this.

Her dad pulled out his cell phone. "She might not answer. She was busy with Jordan and Jackie's parents, but I'll leave her a message if she doesn't."

He quickly did a few finger strokes on the phone and it started ringing. A second later it was answered on speaker. "Hello? Paul? Something wrong with the foals?"

"No," her dad answered. "The foals were wanting to ask you some questions about magic. I know you're busy right now, but maybe we can set up a time for them to..."

"Oh, I'm finished. I can spare a few minutes on the phone now." There was a hint of eagerness in Sunset Blessing's voice. Maybe it really did make her happy that they were asking her about magic.

"I'll let Jessie ask you," her dad said before kneeling and holding the phone out towards her.

Jessie came a foot or so from the phone and started speaking. "Aunt Sunset, we wanted to know if there is magic that unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies can do when they're little. The demons can climb much better than they should without magic helping. Is there some things me, Jordan, and Jackie can do too?"

"Hmm, nothing very applied I'm afraid," Sunset Blessing replied. The three foals all dropped their ears as one. "However, Jordan may be able to see the runes in spells with some practice. Unicorns have a strong affinity to doing that and it doesn't require their magic to be fully developed to do so. She can't use them yet, but she can start recognizing them."

Jordan's ears picked back up at the news there was something she could do.

Sunset Blessing continued on. "As for Jackie, pegasi can pick up on things like how much moisture is in the air and various other things concerning the weather. She can't impact these things yet, but may well be able to detect them before she can fly."

Jackie looked around at the sky as if wondering what she was supposed to be able to notice.

Sunset carried on. "As for you, you should be able to pick up some information about the health of plants with direct contact and focus. It will be some time before you can make any changes to the plant with your magic, but you should be able to tell that much now if you set your mind to it."

That didn't seem particularly interesting. She could probably tell if a plant was healthy or not just by looking at it without having to have any magical information. It might be fun just to feel what using that little bit of magic was like though.

Plus, this seemed to verify that she was right in her theory that there was magic they could do. Having a hypothesis confirmed gave her some pride. It would take independent confirmation still, but she trusted Sunset Blessing knew what she was talking about.

Still, it felt underwhelming. "Are you sure? There seems like there should be more to earth ponies than plants and strength."

"Well " Sunset said in a thoughtful tone. "Different elements and minerals might have a different feel to them to you if you touch and focus on them. Two objects that look the same but are actually made out of different things might have a different feel to you."

"So I can possibly identify minerals?" Jessie asked. This seemed a little more interesting than whether plants were healthy or not.

"It would be up to you to learn what sensation lines up with what kind of material. Early on all you would be able to tell is one thing is different than another," her aunt clarified.

It would take experimentation then. That wasn't so bad; it offered up a whole new realm of learning. The ways of applying it to her love of space exploration immediately occurred to her. She could get different mineral samples from asteroids or other extraterrestrial objects and be able to identify what they were made of with a touch. There were other ways of doing this without magic, but to be able to touch some rock from Mars and know what it was made of filled her with excitement thinking about it.

"Any other questions?" Sunset Blessing asked.

Jessie shook her head as she realized she was zoned out thinking. "No, Aunt Sunset."

"Glad I could help then," Sunset replied. "I should tell you there may be other things you can all do, but I am not an expert when it comes to early magic development. I tend to work with magic on an adult level. I learned magic watching others do things and taking what I observed and experimenting with it. Learn the basic elements and get creative with what you do. The biggest breakthroughs are done by thinking outside the box."

"I'll do that, Aunt Sunset," Jessie agreed. This might get to be an opportunity to add some study of chemistry to her study of math and physics, if her aunt was right.

Her dad stood back up and spoke to the phone. "Thanks for answering their questions. If you're still with Amanda and Tom let them know I'm getting ready to bring Jackie and Jordan back. I expected you all to be busy for a while longer, but I really need to get Robby home to bed. Jessie might want to nap as well."

Nap? Why would she want a na...oh, Phobia Remedy. She'd almost forgotten about that when she had gotten excited about the fact she might actually have magic she could use.

"I will," Sunset replied. "Take care. I hope to see you at church on Sunday. I also hope you take the time before then to prep for the sermon, Book of Josie four-nineteen. Let Devon know that next week I'll be talking to her about her application to be a Sunday school teacher. I would this week, but this Sunday is going to be very busy for me."

"Will do. See you then," her dad answered before hanging up the phone.

"Aww, do we have to go?" Jackie complained. "I was going to try out what she said."

"You can try that at your home," Jessie's dad replied. "Plus, I'm sure Jordan will want to see if she can see the runes in your dad's spells. You want to give her a chance to try things too, right?"

Jordan gave Jackie puppy dog eyes and Jackie relented. "Alright."

Jessie wished she could spend a little more time in the park, but it wasn't the best place for experimenting with purer minerals anyway. On top of that she did want to take that nap so she could talk to Phobia Remedy, even though she normally didn't like taking naps.

The three foals followed her dad to the car and jumped in when he held the door open for them--being careful not to wake Robby when they did.

As her dad started up the car and pulled away from the park Jackie nudged Jessie with a hoof. "You cheered Jordan back up. Sorry for saying you were picking on her."

"Well, she told you we were friends," Jessie replied.

Jackie glanced at her sister. Jordan's ears were turned towards them, but the little purple unicorn was staring out the window.

The pegasus turned back to Jessie. "My mom and dad always tell me I'm supposed to make sure Jordan is treated nice. They say it's my job as a big sister. I just wanted to make sure she wasn't getting picked on."

Jessie thought about Robby and how he said to her yesterday. "Robby always looks out for me; so I guess I understand. I'm getting a little brother soon. Robby says I'm supposed to look out for Dusk after he is born."

Jackie took on a highly serious expression for a filly. "My mom and dad say that being a good big sister is one of the most important things ever. You should make sure you're a good big sister too."

She hadn't really considered her duties as an older sibling till now. If she was being honest with herself she'd been kind of dismissive of what her big brother had told her yesterday. She'd always assumed that Robby would just look out for both her and Dusk which put no pressure on her as the big sister. The very idea that she'd be the big sister hadn't even fully registered.

Looking over at Robby now something obvious occurred to her though. There was going to be the same age gap between her and Dusk as between her and Robby. When Dusk got to be her age she'd be a teenager like Robby and Robby would be a grown up doing grown up things...probably with those night pony mares that were so interested in doing adult things with him. He might even have his own foals by then and not have time for her and Dusk--making her an aunt in addition to a big sister. She was going to have to take up her brothers mantle as the protective order sibling. It was a paradigm shift that was hard to contemplate, but logic said it was going to be that way. Her world was about to drastically change.

Wild Growth had an older sister and younger brothers. She wondered how Wild Growth dealt with it when her little brothers were born and she had to suddenly be the big sister after getting used to being the youngest.

She looked back at Jackie. "I'm going to try my hardest to be the best big sister I can be. Maybe you can help me learn how to be a good big sister?"

Jackie nodded. "Sure, I can be your friend and help you be a good big sister. We can start a big sisters club."

The pegasus might have different experiences considering she was closer to Jordan's age than Jessie would be to Dusk, but it couldn't hurt anything. She'd probably turn to Robby and Wild Growth for advice more. It was nice to hear Jackie wanted to be friends though, and made her feel warm inside.

"I think I'd like that," she said with a smile. "We'll help each other be the best big sisters we can be!"

Wild got out of the limo again, this time in front of her own mansion. There was enough security about that she didn't need a guard following her up to the door. She did have the head of the house staff greet her at the door though; George, a graying human with a very slight accent that indicated he was British. He had been hired on as the head of her household after several high recommendations. The previous family he had served had gotten ETS in the UK and decided to retire to a small farming community, leaving him jobless.

"Ms. Growth, Number Crunch is here and has been awaiting your return," George I formed her.

Number was here? Was there some problem? "Thank you, George, anything else I need to be made aware of?"

"No ma'am. Everything has been very peaceful. Some of the staff were curious about what room you were setting aside for a nursery and if you were going to be hiring on a governess and nanny."

Wild looked up at him. "A what?"

"A governess, ma'am, a full-time stay at home tutor for your foal or foals," George explained. "For a person in your position having a governess for your offspring is all but a necessity considering the security concerns."

Wild shook her head. "It's way too early to be thinking about my foal's education. I'll possibly start looking into candidates for a nanny soon. As for the nursery, I want something next to my bedroom. Setup that room I was using for storage that is just to the left of mine. My bed is next to that wall and that will let me hear what's going on over there."

"Very good, ma'am, though I do recommend that it is never too early to start lining up candidates for a governess."

Wild walked by him into the house. "I'll think about."

This was annoying. She hadn't even fully adjusted to the idea that she was going to be a mother and already her staff were trying to prep for the baby. She did pay them to anticipate needs, but this felt too soon. If only everyone would let her get used to the idea first. The foal was coming, but there was still plenty of time yet before it was here.

"Welcome home, Wild. Ready to do some foal shopping?" Number called out as she entered.

Et tu, Number Crunch?

"No, I am not," Wild called back as she saw Number sitting at the large group hookah in the corner. "And can you get away from that? I'm not supposed to be around smoking. You're asking me about my foal and here you are smoking around me."

Number pointed a hoof at the special fan and vent above her. "I believe containing the smoke is why you have those things right there. Are you planning on having this removed? Having a friend whose house has a living room that is a registered private hookah bar is rather nice. I'd miss having a spot to smoke that I don't have to go down to the entertainment district for."

"No, it's staying. I have to keep this place ready to host SPEC social functions," Wild said as she glanced between the hookah and the actual bar not far from it. She was going to need to stay away from this section of her living room to avoid temptation; unfortunately you had to walk by the alcohol bar to get to the kitchen unless you took an indirect route through the house. "Why aren't you at home? Is something wrong?"

Number sighed and took a long draw from the hookah before exhaling it straight up towards the vent. "I could be at home, but that would leave me having to listen to my husband and his boyfriend fuck. It is nowhere near as much a turn on as you would think to listen to two men screwing across the hall from me. I decided to come spend time with you instead."

"You could ask them to go get a hotel room," Wild suggested, then scrunched up her muzzle at her friend. "Number, please stop with the hookah. It isn't about the air quality it's about causing me temptation. Trying to go cold turkey on alcohol and smoking is bad enough without watching you. If I'm not here you can use that all you want, but don't do it right now."

Number hung up her hose from the hookah and turned to Wild. "Alright, you win. Anyway, I can't ask them to do that or word might get out that my husband is screwing another man. It might not be so bad if he was screwing a woman, but society has strange rules that escalate things from gossip to scandal."

That brought to mind the talk with Rosetta earlier today. How much care was her sister planning on taking to make sure what she was going to do was private? Rosetta put a lot of thought into Phobia's public image, but never really considered her own or how she fit into Phobia's public image. It was like her sister considered herself a non-entity next to Phobia. She and Rosetta needed to have a talk about that before Rosetta started frequenting any lesbian bars. Maybe Phobia already had this talk with her, but it was best to make sure.

"Well, we can hang out for a while I suppose. I don't think that I can go shopping for anything for foals yet, except maybe Christmas shopping for my niece's and nephew," Wild offered.

"Why not?" Number asked. "You're two months along. You should at least go out window shopping for ideas of what you want for a crib, how you want to set the nursery up, things like that."

Wild groaned. "Everyone wants me thinking about this stuff. I don't even know if I'm having one foal or twins, don't know the tribe, don't know the gender, I don't have any information other than there is definitely a foal in me. It's like it isn't a person yet, just the concept of a person."

Number gave her an odd look. "Why don't you know the tribe and how many yet?"

Wild slapped a hoof on the floor. "I have a doctor's appointment next week where I'm supposed to find that out. Would have had this appointment already, but I spend so much time traveling it is hard to get with a regular doctor. Now it's a holiday weekend that I'm waiting through."

"Um, why don't you just ask your sister-in-law what you are having?"

She gave the unicorn a blank look.

Number looked amused. "You do remember she can tell information about what your foal is well ahead of everyone else. She can read it's little partially formed mind-or minds if it is twins. Phobia probably already knows and you just haven't bothered to ask her."

Okay, that really had slipped her mind that Dreamwardens could do that. It wasn't one of their abilities that got talked about much.

She raised her leg up. "Alexa, call Phobia Remedy."

"You have a reminder in place to not call Phobia Remedy between noon and eight at night," Alexa alerted.

"Disregard reminder, call contact Phobia Remedy!"

"Calling Phobia Remedy."

The phone rang a few times before being picked up. "Wild? Is that you? What's the emergency?"

"What am I having?" Wild asked quickly.

Phobia grumbled. "You'll have to be more specific than that. My answer right now is you're having a Dreamwarden get grumpy with you because you woke her up at one in the afternoon."

"What kind of foal or foals am I having?"

"You waited till now to ask me this? If you waited this long you could have waited seven more hours."

"Please, Phobia, just tell me," Wild pleaded.

"Alright," Phobia could be heard yawning. "You're having one foal, and it's a pegasus. I'm going back to bed now."

Okay, just one, and a pegasus. That was going to be interesting. That was information she needed when setting up a nursery. "Wait! What gender?"

"Don't know. Go ask a doctor. Let me go back to bed," Phobia said with a hint of annoyance.

"Why don't you know? You know virtually everything," Wild asked in disbelief.

Phobia chuckled. "Um, not even close to everything, but thanks for thinking so highly of me. As for why I don't know, I read the foal's instincts in its mind, not what it's body parts are--not unless I do something extremely invasive to its mind. The instincts that tell it what gender it is don't actually develop until very late in a pregnancy; it's one of the last major instinctual things they develop before you push them out. Tribal identification and species identification instinct develop much earlier so I can tell those already. Go ask a doctor if it has colt parts or filly parts."

"But what about..."

"No more questions right now or I'll be giving you nightmares tonight about endless mountains of dirty diapers. I want to get my sleep!" The phone clicked off.

"Do you think she really will give you nightmares about dirty diapers?" Number asked.

Wild shook her head. "No, Phobia likes to bluff."

She sat down on a pillow and ran a hoof over her tummy again. Knowing that it was definitely one foal and a pegasus made the situation more real to her. It made the little pony inside her less of a vague concept and more a person she was going to get to know soon. There was going to be a little colt or filly pegasus that was going to need their mama, and that mama was going to be her. She got misty eyed as she thought about it.

Number came and sat beside her then laid a hoof on her back. "Starting to hit home now?"

Wild nodded as more reality started crashing into her. She was having this foal and she was going to be a single parent who spent much of her time in the road. Could she bring her foal on the road with her? She was subject to regular assassination attempts; she couldn't expose her foal to that. Who was going to be watching her foal while she was working? She needed to start researching who will be the nanny and who will be the governess. They'd be just as much a part of her foal's early life as she was; she couldn't let them be just anyone.

She was a single parent; did she need to start seriously dating to find a proper father? How was she supposed to do that when she traveled so much and they knew she was pregnant? Her foal deserved a father, but she didn't know where to begin with that. She'd never had a relationship with a stallion before, at least not a relationship that went past having a few drinks and then moving right on to screwing.

Oh, she was so not ready for this. There was zero evidence she was going to be capable of being a good parent. She'd be left neglecting her foal to be raised by aides. She'd never spend the time with her foal that she should. She wasn't even sure she knew how to be a properly loving mama when she did have time for her foal. What about how much her foal was going to have to be constantly watched? With all the security that would always going to have to be around was she going to put her little pegasus in a gilded cage?

Number gave her a sympathetic look. "Hey, it will be alright."

Wild shook her head and started crying. "No it's not, I'm going to be a horrible mother. One of those horrible parents that are always at a distance, are too strict, and leave the raising of their kids to others."

Number raised an eyebrow. "Too strict? Really? Distant? I doubt it. You're the pony that got me to open up and lighten up, the pony who took the chance on being friends with me and taught me how to be a better person. You're the most compassionate and generous person I have ever met, and you're going to be a wonderful mom for your foal."

"You're just trying to make me feel better," Wild muttered. "There is no evidence I can cut it as a mother."

Number's horn glowed blue and Wild felt a yank on her tail. "Yes, I'm trying to make you feel better. There's plenty of reason to believe you'll be a good mother though. The main reason being is how much you care. You care about everyone and everything, and you'll bring that same caring nature to raising your foal. You won't neglect them because it matters too much to you that your foal has a good life where it feels loved."

"I don't know," Wild replied as she rubbed her leg. "I'm just so busy, and can't imagine I can spend the time I should with my foal. Plus, the security I maintain is stifling to me; I can only imagine what it might feel like to a foal."

Number stood up. "Let's go out shopping then. Remind yourself that you can just go out once and a while. Just bring one guard along, not the whole big entourage. Go out and be just another expecting mother out shopping for her foal."

That made her laugh at the absurdity of it. "You do realize it is Black Friday right now, don't you? The crowds out in the commercial district are going to be insane. This is the worst possible day to pull something like this."

"It's the best possible day," Number countered. "Everyone is focused on shopping. No one will care that you are there shopping as well, most people will be so focused on trying to just buy things they won't even pay attention to the fact you're there. If anyone wanted to try to pull something with an attack on you they'd have to wade through mobs of shoppers to get to you, and your one security guard could spot something like that happening. No one will be prepared with anything planned to take you down either because it will take them off guard that you even went out. You could use some unpredictability in your routine."

"When they see me shopping for foal supplies tongues are going to wag," Wild replied.

Number snorted. "Let them wag. You aren't going to be keeping the fact you're pregnant secret for long anyway. You were mainly keeping it a secret because you wanted to tell your family face-to-face first before they found out through others. You've done that, so there's no more reason to hide it."

"Don't you think the media finding that out will impact the stock prices?" Wild asked as her tail twitched.

Number looked down her muzzle at her. "You know that it will probably help the Westvaco stock. It would put an end to speculation about your health. When it was announced you were taking time off that hit the stock price hard. I'm the one who taught you all you know about business and the stock market, so I know you know better. You're making empty excuses now."

Wild sighed. "I know. I'm just nervous. I have gotten so used to having to worry about these things that even though I hate them I can't stop instinctually focusing on them."

Number started walking to the front door. "Well, let's break that chain. If the world is feeling too controlled for you then you need to do something spontaneous. Trust me, you'll feel better when you do things that make you think about how wonderful having your foal will be."

Wild raised an eyebrow. "Weren't you the one that was reminding me how stressful it will be and laughing about it?"

Number blew a raspberry. "You know I was just poking at you. If I knew how concerned you were about this I wouldn't have done that. You normally are so confident that you can take care of everyone, so why should I have guessed you have doubts about your ability to take care of your own foal?"

"I didn't even consider whether I was up to the task until today," Wild admitted. She then got to her hooves. "Fine, we'll go out browsing what kinds of things I want for the nursery. Where do you want to go?"

Number shrugged. "We don't need to go anywhere fancy; Walmart, Target, the normal places. It's a shame so many of the old big department stores like JCPenney were forced to finally shutter their doors after ETS. I miss those. I think there's a pony who has a shop in one of the strip malls that specializes in baby supplies for both humans and ponies."

Wild walked towards the door. "I think I'd prefer to just go there then. It sounds like somewhere that has a more personal touch and an expert to consult with. Unless you have some secret education on setting up nurseries I'd like to be able to ask people questions. If it is someplace privately owned and run I prefer to support those kinds of businesses anyway; they can struggle sometimes."

Number laughed. "There's the Wild Growth I know. Perhaps you can cut them a good supply deal for the inevitable line of PonyCo pregnant mother products your engineers are likely already dreaming up there with hopes of having you being able to show them off to the world."

Yeah, that was definitely going to be coming. As soon as she had informed the acting CEO there about her pregnancy he had likely called up the R and D department to get making products she could push as a famous celebrity mom-to-be. There was no escaping business.

She really needed to look into all her various business contracts she had for her services with different companies and see what loopholes there were for terminating them early. Most of the businesses could survive without her marketing their products at this point. Westvaco would be the only one that actually needed her. She might still be able to renegotiate her contract with them to something that gave her more time with her foal.

The whole reason she had embarked on getting this deep into the business world was basically done now. Soon her mama would be able to go temporary pony and not suffer so much. There were still plenty of things she wanted to help with, but the era where she needed to accumulate huge amounts of wealth was done. It was time to reassess her goals. Her mama had been wonderful to her growing up; it was time to try to be a wonderful mama to her own foal.

It caught her security by surprise that she was leaving again so soon, but no complaints were raised. She and Number were quickly back in the limo with her one crystal pony guard. The drive to the commercial district didn't take long at all.

It looked like getting out of the commercial district was going to be a whole other matter. The parking lots were jammed full of cabs and buses. The cars that belonged to human residents were often forced to park in grassy areas far from the shops because every spot was seemingly taken by the cabbies and bus drivers--with the busses taking up whole stretches of parking spaces. The areas where the traffic was exiting out of the commercial district were at a complete standstill. Riverview didn't have streets that were built for high amounts of traffic or parking lots built for this many cars at once.

"I didn't realize there were this many cabs and buses in the city. Never thought I'd see a traffic jam in Riverview" Number said with exasperation as she looked out towards the street as the limo continued to circle the lot looking for a spot. "Why is everyone taking cabs today instead of the monorail?"

Wild rolled her eyes. "I warned you it's Black Friday. They're probably taking cabs because they're going to be purchasing too many things to be carrying around with them. The monorail just isn't going to work for most shoppers today."

Number turned to her window again. "At least business is booming. I had considered bringing up the suggestion of retrying proper malls again. I think that they be better suited for pony shopping styles. Someplace they can wander around with speciality stores. What do you think?"

Wild groaned. "I'm trying not to think about business...but it sounds like a good idea. Food courts and sitting areas are great socializing centers and are lacking in places like Walmart, and there are plenty of ponies who try to set up specialized shops that would thrive better in a mall if we kept the rent relatively low."

Number turned and gave a happy smile. "Glad you agree with me. I may start looking into setting up construction of something after the new year."

Wild took a deep breath. "I want to try to start distancing myself from business."

Number lost some of her smile, but nodded. "I understand." The unicorn took a deep breath. "You know, I've been helping you a lot these past few years. Maybe it's time for me to just make that my full time gig. That way you can have more time with your foal and still have time to do your good works and act in a leadership role in SPEC."

"I appreciate the offer, but you can't do that and run your bank."

Number sat silent for a second before replying. "I can retire from my position at the bank to do so."

Wild went wide-eyed. "You don't have to do that. We're friends, but I know how much your bank means to you. I wouldn't want to have you drop that to take care of all my business affairs for me."

"Wild, you succeeding is more important to me than my bank," Number said as she looked her in the eyes. "I'm more than just your friend, I'm a pony that believes in all the good you can do. You do everything you can for others without asking for anything in return. Let me give you the opportunity to keep doing the good that you do."

Wild looked her friend over as the limo finally found a space to park. "Number, I appreciate the faith you have in me, but don't you think quitting a job you love to help me out is a bit...extreme? It's a nice gesture, but it's too much."

Number flattened her ears. "What's more important to me is seeing that people are taken care of and that the future is built on the right kind of foundation. You taught me how to be a good person; and I say person inclusive of ponies and humans. You teach the world how to be caring and generous with all that you do. Seeing that as the foundation for the future is what is important to me."

Wild shook her head. "Number, let's not talk about this now. I've got enough things on my mind. I'm not prepared to think about your offer and I think you need time to consider whether that's really what you want to do."

Number looked like she wanted to say more, but just nodded instead. What the unicorn had been saying felt uncomfortably close to what radical Harmonists like to say to her. It didn't seem likely that Number had gone down that rabbit hole, but it still made her uncomfortable hearing things like that from her best friend.

Her driver and security opened the doors to let them out of the limo. She was just going to put this talk out of her mind and focus on trying to prepare for her foal. Her life was changing fast now, and thinking of it all made her anxious.

Author's Note

Going to be another two weeks until next update. I just got hired for a new job and will be taking time settling into it.

Be sure to check out Pandemic: Aftermath and Pandemic: Departures which are both stories in the Pandemic AU currently in progress giving weekly updates.

Chapter 7: Dreamtime

“So how did you find out about this store?” Wild Growth asked while she followed Number Crunch. The unicorn casually using her magic to open the glass doors to the hallway that allowed shoppers to quickly travel from one side to the other of the long strip mall so they could more quickly have access to shops on either side of the strip mall.

Her mane blew back briefly from a soft rush of cool air escaping out into the warm outside until the door closed behind her crystal pony guard, who waited at the doorway to allow more space to develop between them. Wild couldn’t help but notice how much of a risk it was going into a narrow unsecured corridor with only a single guard.

“Stop it.” Number Crunch used some magic to pinch at the back of her foreleg where it met her body, interrupting her thoughts as she began to run through all the possible ways an assassin could take advantage of this location. “Stop worrying, today we’re just like everyone else, a pair of ponies— with their discrete guard, out to shop”

“I’m not worrying, I’m just confused on how you heard about this place when there’s not a single sign for it,” she protested, trying to divert attention away from her constant need to assess her surroundings.

“Word of mouth of course,” Number answered. “You know how us ponies love to talk, so why spend money on advertising?”

“Good point,” she conceded, reaching the middle of the short hallway where a single store was positioned across from a set of public bathrooms with doorless entries and drinking fountains.

Surrounding a single glass door were multiple cork boards mounted to the wall at pony height filled with foalsitters advertising their services, notices from crystal ponies willing to help with surging foals. A full board was dedicated to general parenting tips, midwife services, classes for expecting parents, and a very eye catching warning about the danger of surging crystal pony foals and the need to isolate them from other tribes until it had passed.

At least there’s no paparazzi snapping pictures of me, yet. Choosing not to jinx her good fortune, she entered into the store with Number Crunch, the door chiming gently from a small bell. Though having ridden here in her limo they were probably already hunting her down.

The store may have only had indoor access, but with the ceilings designed to accommodate humans, and with how almost everything was to pony scale it gave the impression of a larger space. A rainbow of soft pastel merchandise, from blankets to stuffed animals and saddlebags for carrying baby supplies. It had a small selection of basic but nice cribs took up a lot of room at the front of the store with a few human strollers against the wall. Those things were easy to wrap her mind around, but as her eyes wandered over the confusing mix of products making up the bulk of the store, she couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed all over again.

“Welcome!” a unicorn mare greeted warmly as she trotted past with a wheeled basket filled with items trailing alongside her with the handle engulfed in her magic, a heavily pregnant earth pony couple following her to the checkout. “I’ll be with you as soon as I can.”

“Right, thank you,” she answered the greeting awkwardly, unused to going to an actual store herself. Normally ordering things online or having one of her assistants do the shopping for her so she didn’t know what to start looking at first.

“We’ll just be having a look around,” Number added, nudging her in the direction of the cribs.

Allowing herself to be led by the slight unicorn, she did find the cribs interesting, the design was far different than what she remembered her younger human brothers sleeping in. They were designed to be close to the ground, the sides reaching up only to her eye level, and with swinging doors to provide access. A promotional flyer hanging from a bar also showed the four different models. One with no real special features was by far the cheapest. Then there were ones tailored to each tribe and the surges each foal might go through. One with a roof that could be added to keep a pegasus from escaping. For a substantial upcharge, they also made a version with materials capable of holding up to an earth pony strength. And last there was one with a special locking system to prevent the escape of young unicorns.

She did like the design of one of the cribs and the pegasus proof design didn’t make her think she was going to be putting her foal in a cage. Should she get it? Or should she be shopping around more? What if she found something else later that she liked better? There was a still a long time before a crib was needed anyways. But if she found something she liked better later she could always donate it.

“We can’t afford that!” the stallion exclaimed in shock.

Wild winced at the shout but even trying to give the couple some privacy, her ears swiveled backwards on their own to pay attention to the only noise in the room.

“I do offer installment plans, but it requires a forty percent down payment.”

“That’s still too much,” the mare answered sounding like she might start crying. “Is there really nothing you can do?”

Number gave her a knowing look as she was already turning to go over to the counter. “Sorry, I couldn’t help but overhear,” she interjected, the distraught earth pony couple turning to face her, upset that she had butted in. She was about to offer to pick up the bill for the couple when the stallion spoke up.

“You’re Wild Growth,” he gasped, craning his neck to verify her oversized cutie mark.

“What’s she doing in a baby store?” the mare whispered quickly.

“That’s me,” she nervously gave a big toothy grin, noticing how the three were already switching her from just another customer to a celebrity in their minds. And she wasn’t interested in hearing any fawning adoration or if they were of the other inclination angry denouncements. “I was just going to say, I heard that you were having trouble doing so, so I’ll cover the cost of your things.”

“You will? Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!” the mare exclaimed breaking down in tears.

“That’s very generous, Miss Growth,” the shopkeep glowingly exclaimed.

“Please,” she quickly cut off the stallion from protesting her gift. “I’m happy to help whenever I see someone in need,” Wild held up her smart watch to the chip reader. “Go ahead, charge me for their total.”

The unicorn glanced at the couple to confirm that they wanted to accept her gift, the two earth ponies rapidly nodded as though she would rescind her offer if they waited. Her account was quickly charged, and she was free to return to Number Crunch while the duo’s purchases were loaded into bags and their address taken for the shipment of their specialized crib to withstand an earth pony foal’s surges.

As the couple left with their smaller purchases, thanking her profusely, Wild caught her guard giving her a purposeful look through the entrance along with a specific flick of his right ear before it pinned back. Returning the motion, she tried not to nervously glance at Number Crunch, briefly being concerned for her safety before realizing that there likely wasn’t a threat.

The amount of ponies who warranted that kind of notice were few in number and her guard had indicated it was a pegasus that narrowed it down even further. Tonya might be seeking her out for some reason but she was known and wasn’t strong enough to cause this kind of level of warning from her guard. There were only two candidates left who traveled across the country with any regularity. One would be Sunrise Storm, who was very unlikely to ever travel to Riverview. Which left only Sapphire Sky, even if she had been politely rebuking invitations from Sunset Blessing for years.

Relaxing to pay attention to the store pony stepping out from behind the checkout she pushed the suspicious timing out of her mind. None of the pegasi who would raise an alert had an inclination to cause her harm. It paid to stay on good terms with ponies who could drop a bolt of lightning on her head.

“That was very generous for you to pay for them, Ms. Growth. So what brings you to my store today?” the unicorn asked pleasantly.

“I’m uh— that is to say—,” She stuttered, finding saying it to a random stranger to be just as nerve racking as telling her family.

“For herself, she’s expecting her own little bundle of joy,” Number helpfully answered for her and the store unicorn’s eyes lit up.

Wild grimaced at how helpful her friend was being but nodded. She opened her mouth to say she was going to need supplies for a pegasus foal but was interrupted by the shopkeep.

“Congratulations, but hold on don’t tell me— you’re having a—,” the unicorn’s muzzle quirked to one side in deep thought. “A pegasus! But I can’t tell if it’ll be a colt or filly yet.”

“That was a good guess,” she blinked in surprise even though it was a one in five chance.

“Wasn’t really a guess, my special talent is knowing what a mother is going to have.”

Wow, it sure would have been nice to know that was your talent before I pissed off a Dreamwarden earlier trying to find out. Wild kept a smile on her face but was grimacing inside.

“I noticed you were looking at the cribs first but I think you should stick with some literature to start,” the unicorn suggested, her horn lighting up and a small square shopping cart she had been using to carry things for the earth pony couple rolled over to her as she trotted over to a shelf. Her horn stayed glowing as several books floated out to show their covers to her and Number. “These are good parent primers. First is one of the most popular for ponies, So You Don’t Foal Up but we also have Uncomfortable Truths After Getting Bucked. Both have Equestrian sources and are backed up by research done with the more modern human medical instruments.”

“That sounds good,” she responded without sounding very certain as both books were placed in the cart.

“This one I have a hard time keeping in stock, so you should get one while you can,” the shopkeep levitated up one entitled Potty Training by Two Months, 12 Easy Steps. “And trust me, with a pegasus on the way, you will find messes in the worst spots while they are surging, so you’ll want to keep them in diapers early on.”

“Diapers— and— potty— training,” she said slowly, left eye twitching.

“I would recommend also getting a litter box even if you want to follow that book. I know you have a big home so your little one might find it hard to get to a bathroom in time.”

“Litter box?” Number asked for her. “Is she having a foal or a cat?”

“A foal of course! And trust me those accident pads are a waste of money. I know if you haven’t been involved with any newborn foals yet, it may sound strange to think of providing a litter box, but it’s good to give them a place where they know it’s safe to go if they need to, because there will be accidents,” the unicorn paused in thought before gesturing with a front leg towards another section. “Leashes too, most foals are going to follow obediently but they can get distracted or lost in a crowd. So you really want one and a harness to keep them with you.”

“It sounds like I’m getting a pet,” Wild remarked as she followed the unicorn. “And not like I’m having my own foal.”

“I thought you spent time with Rosetta and Phobia’s foals?” Number asked.

“It’s different when they aren’t yours, and that was back when nothing sold was for ponies, it was all human stuff,” she answered. The three night ponies had been adorable but she hadn’t volunteered to help with their care after having had to help raise her own younger brothers. “Plus they’re nocturnal, they were asleep most of the time I was around.”

“So you have some winged relatives who can give you pointers, you may not have to worry about your foal invading your dreams but you do have to worry about them taking off like a missile or walking around on ceilings while they are surging. Our newest tethers have a bungie portion that’ll soften the shock when they hit the end. You can even shorten them so if they are in a small room they won’t slam nose first into a wall and give you a heart attack. On that subject, don’t panic, pegasi foals are much tougher than they look. But all that is covered in those books I picked out for you.”

“Alright,” she nodded absently.

“Surging doesn’t last very long, do you have products that she could buy that she would need longer?” Number Crunch asked.

“Of course, we have baby monitors, diapers, changing accessories, bottles, milk pumps.”

“Milk pumps,” she whimpered and squeezed her hind legs together subconsciously.

“You alright? You’re looking a little green,” Number asked in concern.

“I’m always green,” she responded with a flat look.

“More than usual, you knew what I meant.”

“I just need to go use the restroom, don’t worry about me, I’ll be back in a minute,” she laughed nervously and quickly trotted off into the hallway. Taking a moment to breath out a sigh of relief, she almost had time to ask her crystal pony guard if that strong pegasus was still in the area before she almost had her feet tripped out from under her by a small green blur.

“Gotta go, gotta go, sorry!” the little pegasus filly called out, dashing into the bathroom, wings buzzing as though they would propel her to move faster.

“Sorry about Aurora getting underhoof, Wild Growth,” a feminine voice with a subtle musical cadence apologized though her tone sounded more amused than apologetic.

Recognizing the distinctive voice, she waved off her guard, who would move to a more discrete space at the entrance to the hall as a few humans passed by on their way to the other side of the mall. Turning to the tall blue pegasus with silver-white mane and tail, Wild gave the other mare a friendly smile.

“Sapphire Sky, I didn’t think I’d ever see you in Riverview,” she responded pleasantly, idly noticing the child carrier strapped to Sapphire’s chest. Standing next to the mare at about equal height was a handsome pegasus stallion with an unusually dark black coat and a soft mix of reds and pinks for his mane and tail.

“I wish I had come sooner, that tree you grew is really amazing. Pictures simply don’t do it justice,” Sapphire came to within a comfortable distance and gestured to the stallion with a foreleg. “I don’t think you two have met, this is my husband, Crescent Shadow.”

“That’s Skytree, and it’s nice to finally meet you in person, I’m Wild Growth as you know already,” she greeted with a shy giggle looking into his violet eyes and extending a hoof. Pictures don’t do that rare dark coat of yours justice. The last time she had worked with Sapphire Sky was on a project two years ago, her husband had stayed home with their daughter so this was the first time she had ever had the opportunity to meet him.

“Nice to meet you,” he returned with a much more noticeable accent to his speech than Sapphire and touched his hoof to hers briefly.

“I am going to have to remember how warm it is down here. It’s November and nearly seventy degrees out. If I had my full winter coat I’d need to have a cloud following me around just to keep cool,” Sapphire remarked, bringing a wing forward to fan herself. “Don’t your pegasi manage the climate at all? This humidity is oppressive.”

“She’s been drawing in cold air to herself since before we landed on the plane.” Crescent Shadow explained and draped a wing over the other pegasus.

The blue pegasus gasped and stepped to the side. “Don’t give away my secrets.”

“Then stop being overly dramatic,” he teased.

The bell on the door dinged and Number Crunch peaked her head out. “Am I missing something important out here?” the unicorn asked before stepping full out into the hall. “I’m sorry but I must interject, if you two are here to conduct business we are not handling anything of that nature today. You’ll need to make an appointment.”

“Number, I don’t think she traveled all this way just to try and bump into me on Black Friday for that,” Wild whispered to her friend, her statement being punctuated by a flushing sound from the bathroom.

“Correct, we might be here for business but running into each other was just a pleasant surprise,” Sapphire explained, but swung her green hazel eyes over to her young daughter trotting out of the restroom. “I didn’t hear you wash your hooves.”

“But mom, we’re out walking around,” the small filly whined and fluttered her wings. Wild finally got her first good look at the foal, same hazel eyes as her mother but her coat was a seagreen color that didn’t match up with either parent, while her mane and tail were a mix of silver, red, and pink.

“The world doesn’t need your help to be dirty, go wash and then apologize,” Sapphire answered sternly and her daughter grumbled but turned to comply. “If I may ask, what are you doing—” the blue pegasus took a moment to look through the glass door before asking suggestively. “In a baby store?”

“That’s because-- ,” she gulped and steeled her resolve. She had already told her family and it was going to happen eventually that the wider world would find out. “I’m going to be having a foal of my own,” she blurted out.

“Congratulations,” the two pegasi said in unison.

“So who’s the lucky stallion? He must be really handsome,” Sapphire asked, her voice full of suggestion and looking more like a giggly schoolfilly and not a mare that was almost forty.

Wild couldn’t stop her ears from drooping as she grimaced before trying to recover into the mask she usually wore when answering questions, but she wasn’t quick enough to hide it from the pair. “Some rumors about me are— true,” she added trying to sound unconcerned with what those rumors said about her.

“Forget I asked, doesn’t matter,” the blue pegasus responded sympathetically and shrugged her wings.

“What don’t matter?” little Aurora asked as she ran up to stand underneath her mother.

“Just boring big pony talk,” Sapphire replied and briefly nuzzled her daughter before sternly asking her, “Don’t you have something to say?”

The filly scrunched up her muzzle but stepped out to come a little close to Wild. “I’m sorry I almost knocked you over.”

Wild chuckled and ducked her head down to be level with the filly. “If you could have done that, I would have been really impressed. I probably would have hurt you, you’d just bounce right off me, I’m an earth pony, we’re tough like that, or I’d stomp you flat by accident.”

“Grandpa Golden is bigger than you, no way you’re stronger than him,” Aurora declared confidently.

“How big?” she asked with a big smile, noticing Number Crunch watch her out of the corner of her eye approvingly.

“Um— three times bigger.”

“Ooh, he sounds big, how many tons can he lift?” she asked, unable to keep her ego in check.

“What’s a tons?” Aurora asked and bit down on her tongue. “Is tons like,” the filly switched to singing an Equestrian word that Wild didn’t know before casually switching back to English. “Cause he lifts those all the times.”

“A ton is something really heavy,” Sapphire supplied for her daughter.

“If you’re still here on Monday, Riverview is going to have a big feast for anyone who wants to come, and it all comes from crops that I’m going to grow right then and there. Would you like to see that?” she asked expectantly.

“You and all the earth ponies are going to do a show?” Aurora asked in confusion.

Wild shook her head, grin growing bigger. “Nope, just me.”

“Nuh uh, nopony could do that, this place is too big.”

“I bet I can.”

“Mom! She’s teasing me!” Aurora whined and twirled around to run back under her mother’s legs.

“Guess we’ll have to find out Monday then,” Sapphire replied. “Why don’t you and daddy go see if there’s any stores you want to go in while I talk to these nice ponies?”

“It’s too hot,” the filly whined, mirroring her mother’s words earlier.

“Come on, perhaps there is an ice cream vendor,” Crescent Shadow beckoned and Aurora didn’t need any more prompting to take off for the outside. “Until we meet again,” the dark pony nodded in her direction before following his daughter at a more sedate pace.

Wild watched the filly wait impatiently at the exterior door, running in circles before her father arrived to open it for her. She wasn’t going to have anyone to share the burden of raising a foal unless she hired someone. Sapphire taking a seat drew her back to the moment and she did as well. This hallway seemed mostly unused so they still had privacy.

“Ice cream does sound good,” Number remarked absently.

“Number Crunch, right?” Sapphire started. “I would really like to just speak to Wild Growth, please.”

The unicorn thought it over quickly before her horn lit up and opened the door to the store again. “I’ll go inside and mention you’ll be another minute,” she explained and reluctantly went back inside.

“So?” Wild asked impatiently.

“I saw your mother’s name on the list and why she volunteered—” Sapphire paused and her eyes lowered briefly. “I have a lot of concerns about what Sunset Blessing is doing. But I really do hope that this will help your mother.”

“Thank you,” she replied after a moment of hesitation.

“You’re going to have quite the audience. All the human authorities and it seems like half of Equestria is going to attend.”

“Really? Sunset didn’t think to tell me who was going to be coming.”

“Rarity is here with a few other unicorns and one night pony, they’re trying to keep a lid on a couple griffons and a really talkative kirin,” Sapphire listed off, grimacing a little at the last one.

“I haven’t met any griffin or kirin before,” she absently remarked.

“The kirin is very nice, she just— doesn’t stop talking. The griffins on the other hoof— well let’s just say I’m happy to get some time away from.”

“They’re that bad?” Wild asked briefly in shock.

“A little of them goes a long way. They’re greedy, selfish, and somepony slipped them a cookbook and now they just want to try all the meat dishes they can get their talons on,” Sapphire finished with a little disgusted gag.

“What? It’s just meat, I had two big tarantulas last night for Thanksgiving. Phobia made them and I thought they were really good.”

“Night pony food? No thank you,” the pegasus looked queasy and waved a forehoof side to side.

Wild raised an eyebrow. "You know, you ate meat the majority of your life. It shouldn't bother you that much."

Sapphire shrugged. “I guess I did, but haven’t we all been through some big changes in the past six years?”

“Yeah—” she sighed and glanced at the store she had been in, absently shifting to rub her stomach briefly.

“It was wonderful to see you again,” Sapphire held a hoof forward. “But I really should get going, we’re due to meet back up with the Equestrians for dinner. And I’m definitely in need of some ice cream before then.”

“Yes, it was nice to see you too. We shouldn’t wait another two years to run into each other again,” she briefly raised a hoof to touch Sapphire’s.

“Send me the date when you find out, I guarantee I’ll come down south again.”

The sound of knocking made Jessie turn over in her bed. She'd only laid down to sleep a little while ago, and had been having trouble falling asleep for a nap. She'd been dozing finally and had almost been asleep before the knocking started. It was incredibly annoying.

She sat up and noticed right away that something was off about her room. It seemed like it was bigger than it should have been for some reason. There were also a lot more pictures hanging on her walls than there should have been, with even more picture frames hanging that didn't have any pictures in them at all. Why would she have empty picture frames on her walls?

The examination of her room was interrupted by more knocking. The knocking wasn't coming from outside or the front door. The knocking was coming from her closet. Looking down she saw bright light coming from underneath with shadows dancing in the light.

With this in mind she did the only reasonable thing she could do; she hid under her bed.

The knocking continued for a few more seconds and then the light in her closet shut off, leaving it dead silent and still. She stared at the closet door, holding her breath, to see if anything else would happen and too afraid to come out.

"You know, under the bed is my other entrance," came a voice from beside her.

She rapidly crawled out from under the bed and ran for her bedroom door--only to discover that there was no bedroom door. There were just four walls covered with her pictures, posters, the vacant picture frames, her closet, and the bed.

A shadow spread out from out under her bed then shifted from two-dimensional to three-dimensional as it took on a tall form that towered over her. Great batlike wings spread out from the shadowy apparition and a long sharp horn. The thing rippled and suddenly it had color and features; grey fur and a billowing green mane the seemed to blow in a non-existent wind. It was also instantly recognizable.

"Phobia Remedy?" Jessie squeaked.

Phobia looked herself over and then looked down at Jessie. "Do you think it's too much? I was trying out a new avatar form and got some inspiration from Luna's form. You also had some thought of me being alicorn-like so I decided to give it a try."

Jessie took a few deep breaths. "It's pretty, but I didn't expect you to be under my bed or in my closet. Seeing an alicorn is a little intimidating to be honest."

Phobia shrugged. "Well, that's generally where ponies expect me to enter, and I am the unofficial Queen of Nightmares. Hasn't your brother ever told you that? I guess because you're younger you might not be as familiar with the fact that I'm-- among other things-- the boogie monster."

Jessie scrunched up her nose in disgust. "You're made out of boogers?"

Phobia shifted forms again, this time to a human woman with pony ears and green hair wearing a grey dress. "Guess you never heard of the boogie monster. I suppose that's a good thing. It means you aren't afraid of what's in your room at night. I want to put you at ease though. How is this form? Is it less intimidating?"

"You're still kind of tall..."

Phobia nodded. "Let's try something a bit more personable, shall we?"

Phobia Remedy vanished and it took Jessie a moment to look down and notice there was now a grey furred-green maned earth pony filly her age sitting across from her.

"Why can't you just look like you?" Jessie asked as she stared at the seeming six-year old filly across from her.

Phobia looked herself over again then back to Jessie. "Because the dream realm is the real me. Here I am formless and shapeless beyond whatever avatar I choose at the time, with no race or species. My existence has some concept of time moving forward, but that's about the only spatial dimension I truly have. My waking body might be a night pony, but I'm a Dreamwarden, and that makes me something other than a pony. My waking body is just a small portion of my consciousness contained in a sack of flesh and fur. I have found it best over the years to remind others of that fact by taking on other forms here. It lets them know I'm not here to be some ruler of night ponies, nor are ponies my only concern."

"The alicorn thing is pretty, but think it might be a bad idea in that case," Jessie replied as she tried to adjust to the fact she was talking to an adult in a foal's body. How could something be tied specifically to only time? It defied everything she knew about physics. It was a piece of metaphysics that made her head hurt as she tried to work out the math on it.

The filly version of Phobia Remedy stared at her for a moment then smiled. "I actually have a better idea of how to put you at ease. Do you trust me to alter your dream form for this dream? I promise it won't hurt you and that I think you'll enjoy what I have in mind."

Jessie wasn't sure of anything, but she trusted the Dreamwarden. She just nodded.

There was a flash of light and suddenly she felt different and the room felt smaller. She looked herself over to try to figure out what Phobia Remedy did, but saw her same yellow fur and blue mane. Something seemed different though.

It took a moment of staring to figure it out. Her proportions were all different, and she was muscular too. Phobia Remedy had made her a full grown mare!

"I find this kind of form is popular with many foals in their dreams. They appreciate the feeling of being able to talk to me like an adult with an adult form, even if it is a passing dream. I find most foals find it very liberating," the Dreamwarden explained. "My own foals enjoy this. Charlotte even makes a game out of it where she pretends to be her mother to fool her siblings because of how similar she and Rosetta look. Rosetta will play the same game by pretending she's Charlotte. The two of them are very effective in fooling Tabby and Alfie, though they catch on to Charlotte more than they catch on to Rosetta."

Jessie barely noticed what Phobia was saying. The idea of being a grown mare was just too fascinating. Logic said that however she looked right now was probably just Phobia Remedy's best guess about how she would look like as an adult instead of how she'd actually look, but she was still extremely tempted to go find a mirror. When she looked back to the Dreamwarden she found that the Dreamwarden had traded the filly earth pony form for regular adult earth pony form.

Phobia Remedy must have known what she wanted because a moment later a tall standing mirror appeared. "Feel free to look. I'm in no rush. Time moves slowly at my command here, and I can be at more than one place at once. Take this form as a concept though, not the actual future you."

She walked over to the mirror and gazed at the mare reflected back, and it was definitely the image of an adult mare staring back at her. The reflection was still clearly recognizable as her despite the changes. She started trying to note the differences.

The first difference that stood out to her was that her head seemed like it shrank, but upon further consideration she realized her head hadn't shrunk it was just that the rest of her body was that much bigger. Did fillies really have disproportionately bigger heads than their bodies? She'd never noticed before, and it made her feel a little self conscious. She was much longer legged, but they were also wider around with toned muscles. Her mane was longer and hung loosely down onto her shoulders from her longer neck. She also noticed that her face had a slightly different shape, and her eyelashes seemed much longer as well. There was no cutie mark yet, but that was probably because Phobia Remedy didn't want to make something up.

Upon examination she decided that she was pretty, and the fact that she was pretty made her smile. The smile made her seem more pretty and for some reason gave her a strange feeling. She felt weird and didn't understand why.

"Hmm, didn't expect that. If it weren't private information I might pass that information on to your parents," Phobia Remedy said with a small chuckle.

Jessie turned her head and ears to Phobia Remedy and gave the Dreamwarden a confused look. "Didn't expect what? What information?"

Phobia Remedy shook her head. "Nothing you need to concern yourself with for a very long time yet. Just a hint of something in your subconscious that I was able to pick up. I don't feel qualified to discuss it or believe it an appropriate subject to discuss with you. Don't fear, you'll almost certainly figure it out on your own eventually."

Jessie snorted with annoyance. If the Dreamwarden wasn't going to share whatever it was why even bother mentioning it? Her brother said that Phobia Remedy did this kind of thing sometimes, and that it annoyed him too. Perhaps the reason was to make her want to try to figure it out. Things that she had to figure out on her own were more rewarding to learn than things she learned just memorizing facts. The Dreamwarden was just giving hints that there was something to figure out. She supposed that made things a little less annoying.

She'd think about it later. Right now her added height gave her an opportunity to take a better look at the oddities to her room, namely the many pictures that she had hanging on the walls here that were not there in her actual room.

The first picture she found was her gazing at the stars with her brother as he pointed out constellations. She remembered this, this had been about two years ago and it was when she first took interest in space and the idea of seeing all those far away worlds. The memory of it brought a smile to her face. That had been a special day.

Beside that first picture was the first time she had solved an algebra problem. She'd gotten ahold of a textbook that her mom had brought home and started reading it. Her parents had been so proud and amazed that she had done it, and their pride made her want to push to learn more and do more with math.

The next picture she saw made her frown. It was her first day of school. She'd started last year in sixth grade for her first year in school and some of the other foals and human kids had picked on her because she was so young. At least they had until Robby came and chased the bullies off. It was the first time she had really realized that her big brother would always do what he could to protect her, and had made her even closer to him than ever.

Moving on to the next picture she saw herself sitting with Wild Growth outside her aunties house just yesterday. Next to that was a picture of her parents and Phobia Remedy telling her that NASA and Twilight Sparkle were going to be hearing out her work. Beside these was a picture of her reading with Jordan, with Jordan giggling at the story they read. Yesterday really had been the best Thanksgiving ever.

The last set of pictures were from just today. There was her memory of sitting on top of the chained cookie jar with the demons below her ready to catch her. That had been really scary, but if she had to admit it she would do it again. Beside that picture was one of Jackie and her talking in the backseat of the car.

"I had to form this dream for you, and it pulled a lot of memories that you value and shape you into it as I did," Phobia Remedy explained.

Jessie looked at the many empty hanging picture frames. "Why are so many of them empty?"

Phobia chuckled. "Because they are waiting to be filled. You're only six, you have far more to come than what you have already experienced. Your life is just starting and many of the memories you will hold most dear won't happen for years yet."

Jessie stared out at the many frames. There were so many of them, hundreds of them. So far only a small portion had been filled.

"Now that you have finished checking yourself and the room out we should talk about that notebook of yours. That's why you wanted to speak to me, correct?"

Jessie sat down and nodded. "Yeah, I'm happy that you thought it was important, but I don't understand why."

Phobia turned and stared upwards. A second later the Dreamwarden shifted shapes yet again to what looked like the alicorn shape again, only this time without the horn. The room vanished as well and they were now sitting under a night sky sitting at the top of some chalky white cliffs with no sign of vegetation anywhere. Off in the distance there were some structures with lights on that Jessie could just barely make out.

Jessie looked around. "Where is this?"

"The distant past. Watch," Phobia ordered in a cold voice that didn't allow any questioning.

There was no telling what she was supposed to be watching. She turned her gaze to the structures in the distance since they were the only thing of note. Nothing seemed to be happening.

The air around the structures suddenly seemed to shimmer and all the lights went out from the structures. Even from the distance they were at from them she could hear a large amount of screaming. Flashes of light started happening in the distance and within seconds all the screaming stopped.

"What...?" She asked in confusion, but was cut off as everything exploded where the structures had stood and the might of the explosion blinded her temporarily. The deafening sound of the explosion made her ears ring to the point all she could hear was the ringing.

When she could see again she saw a massive wave amount of plasma extending across the entire horizon and far into the sky out into space.

Her ears flattened and she furled up into a ball and started crying. "What just happened? I don't like this. This is something bad, really bad. I'm scared."

Phobia stared out at the plasma. "You just watched a civilization get destroyed by the Devourers. They had no warning, and even if they did have warning they had no way of fighting back. This was a smaller one, but what you are seeing now are one of those flares that you've been using to track the Devourers presence. Not every one you've tracked is them doing this, but a great many are. Some of what you see in the depths of space is the Devourers ending whole civilizations; billions of lives lost."

She turned her head and looked around, tears still in her eyes. Off in the distance in different directions she saw more plumes of plasma erupt into the sky. The numbers grew so great that the plasma waves spread everywhere. Without warning they spread right over where they were and she cried out in fear and shut her eyes.

"We aren't really here. This is just a memory. I kept us at a distance from the event so you didn't have to see the full horror. We are not part of it and cannot be hurt by it, so don't give into fear," Phobia Remedy explained calmly.

Jessie opened her eyes and found they were standing within the plasma. For some reason it wasn't hurting her eyes or either of them. This was just a dream, physics didn't apply here. That calmed her a little, but she still felt her heart racing.

Still cowered where she was at as she looked to the Dreamwarden. "Why are you showing me this? This is a bad thing, a really bad thing."

Phobia Remedy looked down at her. "This is the reason your work is important. Dreamwardens remember many things, but our grasp on time when it comes to things that have long passed is heavily flawed. Your work gives us missing information about when things happened."

Jessie flicked her ears in confusion as she stopped crying. "This is your memory? How do you remember this? This had to have happened thousands or even millions of years ago. I know this is the past, but it is still really scary."

"Fear is important, it tells you there is danger; and we face a terrible danger. I'm instilling that fear in you while trying not to be too cruel about it." The Dreamwarden then sighed. "As for how I have this memory, that requires an explanation that is not important right at this moment, though we may be forced to give it to the world soon. What is important is the ramifications of what your added information has given us."

"What is that?"

Phobia looked her in the eyes. "Your equations combined with what we remember show that we don't have centuries or millennia to prepare our defenses against the Devourers. Earth's time to prepare itself is much shorter than that. They are coming, and they will be here in our lifetimes. We have decades at most to make sure this doesn't happen to us as well. You might not have realized how important what you were doing was, but you might just have helped save the world with your little project."

Her heart picked up its pounding again. "Me? But...it was just a project to show how good I am with using math applied to astrophysics."

Phobia nodded. "You definitely proved you're capable of that. You still need to do some revision and work on it, but what you have done has shown we must move on to our plan C for dealing with this threat."

"What we're plans A and B?" Jessie asked in confusion.

Phobia grimaced as she looked down at Jessie with consideration. "I'm already beyond the boundaries of what I should be explaining to a foal. All you need to know is that your work, even though you didn't intend it, is very important. There are years, perhaps decades, that we have before this is an urgent concern. I will be consulting with Princess Twilight how to proceed and how to make use of you. The Dreamwardens keep many secrets, but we do it because those secrets are dangerous things; potentially more dangerous than the Devourers. We must proceed with extreme care with what we say and what we reveal, or all could be lost before the Devourers even arrive."

Jessie flattened her ears. It sounded bad. What could be worse than the Devourers coming and doing this though? She also didn't like being told she shouldn't have details explained to her because she was a foal. It didn't matter that she was a foal if her work really was that important.

Phobia looked at her again. "I'm going to return you to a regular dream. The Devourers are coming sooner than anticipated, but we still have time. You'll most likely be grown with foals of your own or perhaps even grandfoals before the Devourers arrive. There is time yet to prepare. I'll be making arrangements to address the UN sometime after the new year. I'll do whatever it takes to save our world. You'll play your part, but I have no intention of letting you become consumed by this effort. Enjoy life, because it reminds you what we're fighting for."

Jessie took one last look at the alien sky and view of the stars. Being told that the end of the world was coming and that her work could be an important part to stopping that was no small amount of pressure. It did reinforce the idea that her future revolved around outer space--just not the way she had thought. To be able to colonize worlds there had to be people left to colonize them. There was something bad out there, and it was coming for them. The thought of it made her want to go back to hiding under her bed.

Tonya wasn't much one for going to bed early, but Melissa insisted that if they were going to have a conversation that they were going to have to have it in the dream realm. Up until recently the idea that she could even dreamwalk to Melissa seemed out of the question so she never attempted it. Dreamwalking to rehumanized humans was something she had only managed once or twice since becoming a dreamwalker, with many failures at doing it. Their minds weren't like pony minds, and were much harder to find for anyone but a Dreamwarden or someone extremely emotionally close to them. However, she had just recently found out that Melissa's mind was much more pony than human and that changed things.

She closed her eyes as she sat amongst the stars and focused on her impressions and knowledge of Melissa. If Melissa was more pony than human in her mind it should make her easily reachable.

"Well, looks like you had no issues finding me," came Melissa's voice. That shouldn't have happened unless Melissa was dreamwalking as well instead of in her own dream.

Tonya opened her eyes to see a dark grey night pony mare with a yellow mane with a streak of blue going through her mane and tail standing before her grinning. She actually knew this pony, Daylight Mirage. She had run into the pony several times in the dream realm, but now that she thought of it had never run into her in the waking world. Melissa had also taken this form when in temporary transformation, but Tonya had only thought it a chance similarity. Daylight Mirage's mane was well kept and styled compared to the messy mane of Melissa's temporary transformation, so it had thrown her off.

"You're Melissa?" Tonya asked with a few surprised blinks.

The night pony chuckled. "I'm both Melissa and Daylight, I'm no less one than the other. I'm shocked no one ever managed to figure it out before, except of course for Teddy Bear and the Dreamwardens."

"And you have been able to dreamwalk this entire time?"

Daylight flicked an ear and looked about. "It took a little while after becoming like this for my magic to grow and develop to where I could dreamwalk on my own, but yeah, I've been dreamwalking for years now. A gift from Yinyu, just like your ability."

"Was she responsible for you being a night pony mentally as well?"

"Why, yes, yes I was," came the familiar voice of the Warden of Lust.

Tonya looked up and saw the Dreamwarden swimming around them in a circle. Yinyu Wu Yan almost never took her night pony form in the dream realm, preferring the form of a fantastical multicolored seapony. The Dreamwarden would swim around through the air like it was just water. The urge to say the now defunct Oaths was still there, and Tonya had to actually bite her tongue to prevent herself from launching into saying them. Most long-time dreamwalkers had a hard time breaking their training with that.

The Dreamwarden continued to swim in circles around them. "My favorite human-night pony and my fourth favorite pegasus...maybe fifth; you're an interesting pair to see together here."

Tonya took a deep breath before answering, but Melissa/Daylight beat her to it. "Tonya was just concerned about me after what happened today. I kind of let them know about my secret after what happened with Velvet--well, the first thing that happened to Velvet."

Yinyu came to a stop and turned to them as her face went grim, causing Tonya to gulp. Seeing the usually bubbly Dreamwarden get serious was always worrisome. "I'm aware of what happened to her. Sha'am found her dying earlier today." The seapony looked at Tonya. "We were told that you are the reason she survived. Good job saving her. We also figured out that your wife's experiment is what pushed that unfortunate mare over the edge. That we aren't as happy about."

"Well, at least somepony found her in time," Melissa/Daylight spoke up.

"You aren't supposed to say somepony, say someone," Tonya scolded absently.

Daylight turned to her with flattened out ears. "Really? It's the dream realm and we're all ponies here. Do we really need to be politically correct?"

"You aren't even really a pony," Tonya replied.

Daylight huffed and glared daggers at Tonya. "I am here." Daylight then raised a wing and pointed it back at her own head. "And in here. I'm actually even more insulted having you of all ponies argue with me about me knowing what I am. Never took you for a hypocrite."

Ouch, that stung. Melissa was right, that was highly hypocritical for her to be asserting what someone else's identity was. This wasn't even the first occurrence of her doing something like this. Granted, the last time she had been right about it, but there was fairly clear evidence this time around she was completely wrong. Even if there wasn't such strong evidence it was horrible for her to make statements like that given her own personal history. Maybe she'd gotten so used to being comfortable in her own flesh she'd forgotten how uncomfortable others could still be. The failures of the experiments should have made that point, but Melissa...Daylight had hammered it in.

Tonya bowed her head. "I'm sorry Daylight. That was wrong of me, and I take it back. If you say you're a pony then you're a pony."

"She's actually pony and human," Yinyu cut in. "I suppressed the human instinct a little, but it was more turning down the volume instead of turning them off. She wouldn't be able to cope if I had suppressed them fully."

Daylight smiled. "That's true. I'm typically comfortable being human as well. The main reason I want to go full pony is Teddy Bear. If he wasn't around I wouldn't even bother. Hands are useful things. I like being able to do on my own all the things you have to get strap on accessories to do, and being able to dreamwalk as a pony scratches my pony itch. I used to desire to be one-hundred percent pony all the time, but that was before my magic developed."

Daylight--or Melissa in the waking world--had an ability to feel out a room. She could walk into a room and be able to tell the shape and feel of every object in it without even looking around or setting her hands on anything. It was a useful ability that helped her find evidence in a room quickly or determine if someone was hiding something on their person. It didn't work well outside, but it worked very well inside most buildings. It even acted as a form of magical sonar that gave her the ability to operate in a dark room as well as any night pony. It was clearly evident she could dreamwalk as well.

"Are you feeling anything at all off since the experiment?" Tonya asked. "After what happened to Velvet I worry more about you and Megan."

Daylight shook her head. "No, nothing really has changed. I'm perfectly good to go for another session. Would like to get a chance this time around to actually try out my wings. I didn't get much flight time when I was originally a pony before having to get a wing amputated."

"Um, flying isn't going to happen soon, even if we get more sessions in," Tonya said with a frown. "We still don't have a clear guide on how long the spell lasts under different circumstances. Could you imagine getting into the air and having the spell wear off several hundred feet above the ground?"

Daylight grimaced. "Uh, good point. I'd rather not have that happen. Even if I survived I've spent enough time in critical care to last a lifetime already. I'd rather not have this turn into something I need to even be able to function."

Another thought suddenly occurred to her. If Daylight was doing this to spend time with her stallion friend what would happen if she got pregnant while temporarily transformed? If this was ETS it would simply have the fetus transform with the mother, but this wasn't ETS. What seemed likely to happen is a very early miscarriage due to her body rejecting a pony fetus that happened so early that Daylight likely wouldn't have ever realized she was pregnant to begin with. That wasn't something she was completely sure on though and raised more things to be cautious and concerned about.

She turned to the Dreamwarden. "I doubt it, but any chance you could teach us how to do what you did with her? We really don't want any more depressed or suicidal subjects."

Yinyu shook her head. "I can't really explain a step by step process for what I did. It's not a spell you can replicate, and even if it was I wouldn't let you know it." Yinyu's gaze hardened as she glared down at Tonya. "Your entire filthy project makes me sick to my stomach and I can't express how unhappy I am with my inability to put a stop to it."

Tonya recoiled, taken aback. "But why? We're just trying to help people."

"Because my homeland has been overtaken by Shimmerists." Yinyu all but spat. "At first my government's support for ponies seemed great, but this isn't about acceptance--it's very much the opposite."

"Wrong how?" Tonya asked hesitantly. "I'm a Shimmerist, I don't see the problem."

Yinyu lowered herself down and flicked her tail. "They're expecting every mare over fourteen to stay perpetually pregnant and popping out foals to increase the pony population, like we exist only to be broodmares!" Yinyu spat in disgust. "My oldest isn't even fifteen yet and she's heavy with foal right now. They've completely changed the school curriculums to promote pony superiority. The things they teach her in school make me cringe. It's subtle, but it's teaching her that when Sunset Shimmer forcibly transformed others against their wills she was right."

Tonya shook her head in confusion. "Isn't most of your government still human though? How is this happening? Shouldn't everyone have heard about it by now if it's like you say?"

Yinyu growled and flicked her tail more. Tonya felt at the moment that Yinyu might resemble a dragon more than a seapony. The seapony had fangs. "Oh, they are mainly human...for the moment. They're looking to the future though. The human Shimmerists are far worse than pony ones. They're violently suppressing humans that object to the new doctrines, declaring them terrorists and enemies of China--just for publicly disagreeing with them. Not even ponies that object are free from that. They're also slowly replacing government officials with ponies as they retire or vanish."

Tonya licked her lips. "We know that things have been going towards a Shimmerist way of doing things, but I'm sure we would have heard if it was that bad."

The Dreamwarden continued to rapidly flick her fishlike tail. "They control all media and information networks in China so the propaganda is pervasive, and information getting out about what's going on is slow. I know your country has some idea how bad it is from their spying and what does manage to get out, but the public outside China really doesn't have a clue how bad it is."

Tonya and Daylight exchanged an uneasy glance. Yinyu was not happy, and when Dreamwardens weren't happy dreamwalkers instinctually desired to be anywhere but near them. What was said was unnerving as well. Hearing that Shimmerists were doing this kind of thing made her feel sick to her stomach. A pony world built on the bodies of those that disagreed was not a pony world worth having.

The Dreamwarden's eyes started to water. "I worry my own foals will get caught up in this indoctrination and look down on humans, and I fear even more they will try to pressure me to indoctrinate others." The Dreamwarden paused and then spoke in a lower voice. "I have four foals, one who will soon be a mother herself. That's leverage to use against me."

Tonya took a few fearful steps back as the Dreamwarden turned her eyes to her and growled again, much more deeply. Like a wolf ready to rip a throat out. Whatever else the Dreamwardens were, they still carried those protective night pony instincts. Threaten their families and you faced the most dangerous predator there is.

"Now you fucking Americans are working on a spell that turns humans into ponies," Yinyu seethed, teeth bared. "Do you think my government won't seek that spell out? Do you think they won't try to impose their views of the world on everyone? I'm seeing a waking nightmare play out and you're only throwing more fuel into the inferno."

Tonya cowered where she was at. "We just want to help make things better. It's for the greater good."

"The promise of the greater good is the siren's song leading to greater evil," Yinyu said as she floated menacingly over Tonya.

Daylight shuffled her hooves nervously, ears twitching as she stared up at Yinyu. "You're not angry at me for participating in this, are you?"

Yinyu turned her gaze to the dark grey pony and softened her expression before shaking her head. "No, I understand your desires. I also understand the desires of the various night pony mares like Velvet Nightshade that find this enticing as well. It's not something I can condemn any of you for. I just...I just wish the world was different. You know I do all I can to help all of you, but this is something I will not give aid in."

"Why has Phobia said nothing about how much you all don't like this?" Tonya asked, feeling a little safer now that some of the fight seemed to have gone out of Yinyu.

Yinyu flicked her tail in annoyance. "My sister is slow to speak up against her mother. She has an infuriating habit of dropping lots of hints about things but never actually speaking her mind; always trying to avoid confrontation even when she needs to lay down hard truths. She gives nudges when she should be shoving. I try my best to be nice too, but she's far too fond of her delicate ways of dealing with things."

That earned fluffed wings and laid back ears from Tonya. She didn't care if she was about to come off as rude. The days of being punished for being rude were done. "Hey! That's my best friend and my wife you're being critical of."

Yinyu floated over her while swishing her tail slowly. "I can be critical of who I wish. I don't hate either of them. Phobia and I have our disagreements about how things should be dealt with; all the Dreamwardens have our own views on things. I don't hate your wife either. I think you and she are horribly misguided, but I don't consider either of you deliberately malicious. I'm just being clear on my position. I don't agree with your project, and I think it is dangerous because of who can obtain it and use it for less altruistic reasons."

"Well, we'll just have to make sure that doesn't happen. If the Equestrians can keep a tight lid on how to do their rehumanization spell we can keep a tight lid on how to do this," Tonya said with confidence.

Yinyu gave a doubting frown. "This is outside the realm of my control. Just please, whatever precautions you already have in place need to be increased. This is not to be taken lightly. If my country gets your spell they will turn it into their method of conquering the world. The Dreamwardens can fight them at that point, but by then it might be too late."

"Excuse me," Daylight interrupted in a cautious tone. "I have a work shift to get to and I'm going to have to wake up. Am I needed for anything else?"

Tonya shook her head. "You answered my questions. I'll talk to Sunset about when you can get another session."

Yinyu crossed her fins. "You have no need to fear me taking any action against you. Wake in peace."

Without any further discussion Daylight vanished from sight. There was still things for Tonya to do before she woke again though.

"Did you wish to observe when I visit Velvet?" She asked the Dreamwarden.

Yinyu held a fin up to her chin for a moment before nodding. "I shall. I'll keep quiet and without form though. Neither of you will have any clue I'm watching. I'll have some of the others watching along as well. You're free to let her know we're monitoring your conversation."

Great, no telling which ones would be watching for sure, but she could guess that it was probably at least four out of the six. Phobia was highly likely, and Sha'am was likely already watching right now. Just thinking about the undead pony made her want to glance around to find Sha'am lurking nearby. There was no lurking involved with Sha'am though; Sha'am was everywhere in the dream realm. Death was always watching.

Tonya put thoughts of the undead out of her mind and focused on the thankfully still living. Having been a dreamwalker most of her adult and pony life she was now somewhat good at locating ponies in the dream realm. Her wife often utilized her to send communication to ponies all over the world. She could even track down the dreams of ponies she had never met with a little bit of dream hopping through a series of ponies until she located one that knew the one she was looking for. The only way she couldn't find a pony with enough time was if they really were cut off and isolated from any pony and she couldn't therefore find a relationship chain back to her; that was a rare thing, especially with how social ponies were.

Velvet was not a pony she needed to do such dream hopping to find. Within seconds of looking for Velvet she found herself outside a dream. That was a little troubling since night ponies rarely kept in their own dreams for long. Typically they might stay in them for a few minutes when they first went to sleep, but they'd leave them relatively soon after. Velvet had likely been asleep for a while now, yet she was still isolating herself in her dream. More troubling still was the darkness that swirled through the dream, marking it as a nightmare. Velvet could have dispelled the nightmare at any point, but she hadn't.

Tonya felt a bit uneasy as she looked at the dream. Dispeling nightmares was not one of her abilities, that ability was exclusive to night ponies and alicorns. Maybe one of the Dreamwardens would be nice and dispel it if she couldn't convince Velvet to do so or was unable to talk Velvet through it. If not this was going to be a very difficult session.

With little other choice she cautiously flew into the dream. Hopefully whatever nightmare Velvet was having wouldn't attack immediately.

The inside of Velvet's dream was dark, but disjointed images flashed in and out all around, memories that had been warped into things far more horrible than the actual events had been. It wasn't an uncommon form of nightmare. The most disquieting thing was Velvet was sitting in the heart of the dream enduring a terror that made made Tonya struggle not to avert her eyes from.

Small tentacles extended out from her hooves squirming and grasping at nothing. Her body was twisted and misshapen, being at the same time too long in places and too short in others. Parts of her body had fur while others had fleshy outgrowths of pale skin. Her snout was missing and had just a gaping hole full of fangs in its place making her head seem like the head of some massive leach. The night pony's wings were replaced with a massive set of human hands which were in turn misshapen with fingers that were bent in inhuman directions. The poor mare's eyes were shrunk down to pinpricks that were so barely noticeable that it might be mistaken she had no eyes. Velvet's screams of terror possessed a quality was not of pony, human, or any known animal.

This was horrible. There was no way that Velvet could be reasoned with like this. All the pony could know right now was pain and terror.

"Enough of this. It is appalling," came the most dreaded of all voices, the voice of the Warden of Death.

The nightmare came to an abrupt end. The images stopped flashing and Velvet was returned to her normal form. As the night pony sat panting where she lay Tonya gave silent thanks that Death had some mercy. Sha'am Maut was not known for her mercy, so this may only have been her acting out of annoyance, but it was a mercy all the same.

The Dreamwardens didn't do any more to make themselves known. All there was for sound was the heavy breathing from Velvet. Tonya cautiously approached the night pony, careful not to spook her.

"Velvet? It's Tonya. The nightmare is gone, you're okay."

The night pony jumped and spun around defensively. Her eyes fixed on Tonya with some recognition. "Keep away! I won't do any more experiments! Leave me alone."

Tonya held her wings forward and low. "You're safe, no one is going to hurt you. There aren't going to be any more experiments."

Velvet shook her head. "I remember it. Every time I shut my eyes I remember it. Am I dreaming? The nightmares don't stop when I'm awake. I don't know when it's a dream or the waking world anymore."

"This is just a dream," Tonya said soothingly. "The nightmare has been banished. You're alright."

"It will happen again," Velvet said as she shook. "I can't stop thinking about it. I want it to stop, but it won't."

"I'm sorry you're suffering like this." Tonya hung her head. "I know the experiment didn't go as planned, but..."

The night pony gained more lucidity at that statement and jerked her head up. "Didn't go as planned?" Velvet said and let off a bitter laugh. "Oh, that's the fucking understatement of the year. You have no idea what it was like."

Tonya raised her head up. "I dealt with dysphoria myself when I was younger. I know..."

"You know nothing!" Velvet snapped. The night pony crawled over to Tonya and Tonya took a few steps back. "You think your little bit of gender confusion has anything on what I experienced? At least you had the right limbs! At least you didn't feel like the skin on your body didn't belong! At least your senses felt like your own and not the senses of--of some monster!"

Tonya licked her lips. "You began life as a human, and spent most of your life as a human. I don't understand how this was so troubling to you."

Velvet spread her wings and growled. "Whatever life that was is dead and gone. I don't want to ever even consider I was once a human. It is something else, something not me, something wrong. Very very wrong!" The night pony folded her wings around herself and curled up into a fetal position and started crying. "I'm a pony. I'm meant to be a pony. It was so stupid of me to want to be human. I can't remember what it was like before being a pony anymore, but I remember that transformation a few days ago every time I close my eyes! I don't even have to be asleep, it is a waking nightmare. I just want it to end. Why'd you try to save me? It could have been over."

This was far worse than she thought it was. She'd attributed this to Velvet having been depressed before the experiment, but this seemed like it all came from the experiment. Tom and Amanda had signed up to do the spell exactly like Velvet had taken it. She couldn't allow that to happen. Not if it was going to possibly do this to them.

She looked upward at the empty void around them. "Can't you help her? Can't you suppress this so she doesn't have to keep suffering?"

"We could suppress it," came Phobia's voice. The unexpected sound of the Dreamwarden's voice made Velvet yelp and cower as Phobia continued on. "As can you, but it isn't a long term solution. You should know that if we fully suppress this that it will leave her still just as fearful in time, only now not knowing what demons she must fight. It wouldn't be a kindness done, it would be crippling her."

"You're a counselor, pussy-eater. Do some counseling," Ghadab's voice scorned.

"Prepare a schedule of counseling sessions and a good support system. If she needs some mild suppression to help then do so, with her permission," Psychic Calm added in.

It sounded like the whole Dreamwarden crew was here. Only the Warden of Silence hadn't spoken, and being the Warden of Silence he wouldn't speak if he was here.

Velvet growled. "You think you can help me? If the Dreamwardens can't help me what are you supposed to accomplish? Your wife is why I'm dealing with this. It's her fault! Do you think I want anything to do with you after that? Fuck you!"

"Let me try to help fix this, please," Tonya begged as she started to cry.

"You can't fix th..." Velvet began before both she and Tonya were knocked down.

"Enough!" Sha'am's voice rang out. "You fillies will work together to try to resolve this. I have no intention of seeing your mind in my bowl again anytime soon. Suicide is a disgusting act of cowardice. Night ponies face their fears, not allow themselves to be reduced to this undignified state. I have no patience or compassion for it. Resolve what is troubling you or next time you end up in my bowl you will have no comfort there."

Velvet stared for a moment up at nothing before lowering her head and nodding. The need to obey the Dreamwardens was apparently stronger than whatever fight Velvet had in her. The urge was even stronger in Velvet than in Tonya; night ponies still saw the Dreamwardens as their rightful rulers. Dreamwardens needed no authority to give orders and expect them to be obeyed. It was too well conditioned into the first generation of dreamwalkers on Earth.

Tonya couldn't help feeling anger at Sha'am's words. Not the demands that they work to fix this, but her vile disregard of how Velvet was feeling. She didn't think Phobia, Psy, or Yinyu thought that way--and couldn't be sure with Ghadab or Krik. They wouldn't call Sha'am out on it in front of mere mortals, but she hoped that they gave Sha'am the tongue lashing of her undead life in private.

Tonya cleared her throat. "Well, I'm guessing they're done talking for now. I wanted to start trying to help you. The first thing I need to address is why did you lie to us saying you weren't on any sort of medication?"

Velvet laid her ears back and gave a small flap of her wings. "I didn't lie. I hadn't started taking it yet."

There was no way of confirming that. She wished she'd taken the time to read if there were refills or if that was a refill. She'd take the night pony's word on it.

"But you knew that you were suffering from depression before you went into the experiment and lied about that," Tonya continued. "You wouldn't have had a psychiatric visit lined up so close to the experiment if you hadn't. It can take a few weeks at least after scheduling an appointment to be seen. I work in the field, I know. You knew something wasn't right."

That seemed to take the fight out of Velvet. "You don't understand the loneliness we night ponies go through. Oh, I'm sure you have night pony clients you talk to who try to express it to you, but you can't understand what it's like."

"Try," Tonya replied.

Velvet stared downward. "It's so hard to make friends. We all hate each other. Those that haven't taken the Yinyu's Blessing all hate each other because we're all competition for stallions. I don't feel really comfortable making friends with the ones that took the Blessing because I feel like they're checking me out. I know that sounds bad, it probably is, but it's the way I was raised."

"What about non-night ponies, or humans?" Tonya prompted, choosing not to comment on Velvet's mild homophobia.

"We try to make friends with the day ponies, but trying to stay awake all the time to spend time with them takes a huge toll on us--we're too wired to be nocturnal to do that without it starting to really impact us emotionally." The night pony looked up at her. "Do you know what it's like not being able to maintain any friendships or have any family? It's torture, and I've tried so hard and failed."

"You had pictures of human family hung up back at your house. Can't you get along with them?" Tonya asked.

Velvet shook her head, and tears could be seen forming in her eyes. "They're all part of that Humanity First group. They don't talk to me, won't even acknowledge my existence. I thought that if maybe I could be human again, or at least show that I'm trying to be human again, that they might start to love me again."

"Velvet, if their love is conditional on you being human that's not love you want," Tonya replied softly. "They can wish you were human and still love you, but they're choosing not to. I'm a Shimmerist, and I would never recommend a human want to be a pony just to gain some bigoted relatives' love. Them being in Humanity First is no excuse for not loving you."

Velvet wiped her nose with a foreleg. "It doesn't matter anyway. Being human again...it felt so wrong and alien. I should forget that they were ever part of my life, that being human was ever part of my life. I still don't know what to do. I'm still going to be lonely."

That was a hard thing to face. Loneliness was the bane of ponies. The instinct to be part of the herd and to have belonging was just too great. It was bad enough for a human, but for a pony it was unbearable.

"I know you're uncomfortable with the idea, but maybe it's time you just take Yinyu's Blessing," Tonya suggested slowly.

Velvet looked at her with wide eyes. "But it goes against everything I was raised to think. I can't do that, it's wrong."

"Goes against everything you were raised to think by humans who can't find it in themselves to love you because you're a pony," Tonya reminded, and turned and looked at her cutie mark for a moment before turning back to the night pony. "I know it's not the ideal solution, but you need something, and maybe it's time to break completely with how you were raised. It's time to time to stop holding on so tightly to the past, and let some of it go."

"But..."

"Which is more important to you? Holding on to the way you were raised by a bunch of people that don't want you in their life or having an opportunity to actually be happy?"

Velvet's lip trembled for a few seconds with no answer. Her expression then took on a look of resolve and she nodded. "You're right. I don't want to think about my past humanity and I need to put it behind me completely." The night pony looked up into the void. "Yinyu Wu Yan, I request your blessing."

The Dreamwarden in question appeared above them, still in her preferred seapony form, and stared down with a sad look on her face. "I can grant you what you wish, but I have to warn you that it won't make your prejudices just go away. You may have an attraction to mares after this, but your feelings about such relationships aren't going to be changed by this."

Velvet's ears sagged. "Then it's no good for me then."

"It's no good to you if you make no effort of your own to change," Tonya corrected. "My wife had the same prejudices as you, and it took her time to completely overcome them. She was a lesbian naturally and denied it her whole life. It may not be overnight, but you can change too."

"I'll still be miserable in the meantime, maybe more miserable because now I'm having feelings I feel are wrong," Velvet said with hurt in her voice.

"But you have the opportunity to have that happiness, and from what you describe and what I know about night ponies you don't have that right now," Tonya insisted. "Look, there's still a chance you could hook a stallion, but we both know how much of an uphill battle that is, and that you're in no position to present your best self. As it stands you may never be in that position."

Velvet sat and said nothing, so Tonya decided to add another point in. "And the other mares will cease being hostile to you right off the bat. Most night ponies don't have the same prejudices as you. You've made your situation worse by having them. Now you can actually form some friendships."

"If I don't make myself too uncomfortable because I'm checking them out," Velvet muttered.

Tonya groaned. "Velvet, not every mare is going to be some sex object to you because you're a lesbian. You're not going to be checking every single mare out, just like every marked mare you encounter now isn't checking you out now. We aren't all nymphomaniacs. I'm a lesbian and I never once had any interest in you that way."

"I check out every night pony stallion now," Velvet replied with a frown.

"Because you're dealing with extreme scarcity of supply and you know it. You know in your heart that if there were more night pony stallions you wouldn't be attracted to most the ones you are now."

Yinyu spoke up. "I've given my warnings, and our dreamwalking pegasus friend has given you good information as well. I don't like giving my blessing, but Tonya makes a good case. I do nothing without your choice though. Do you or don't you want my blessing?"

Velvet licked her lips. "What if I change my mind? Can I change back later?"

Yinyu shook her head. "No, I don't do this lightly, and won't have it become something ponies come back to me later asking to change again. You either do it or you don't, and you're committed to it. Perhaps you should take more time to think about it."

"That's a good idea," Tonya added in. "It's a big decision to make. Having something permanently changed about you isn't something to rush into. I shouldn't have put as much pressure on you to do so. I do think it is what's best in your case though."

Velvet sighed. "No, I'm just going to do it. I've got nothing left to lose." She looked up at Yinyu. "I want your blessing."

Yinyu floated down to her and gently kissed her on the head and gave her a tender hug. The night pony cried onto Yinyu's shoulder as the Dreamwarden held her. It was easy to forget that the Dreamwardens were capable of being kind and gentle, but Yinyu often was. The Warden of Lust seemed more subdued than she had been when Tonya first met her years ago, but imagining herself in the Dreamwarden's position she couldn't imagine being able to keep up that kind of pep. Who would want those kinds of burdens?

After a solid minute of embrace the Dreamwarden broke from Velvet and floated above them again. "It's done. I'm sorry you felt this was the only way to deal with this, and I'm sorry there isn't more that I can do for you. I hope you find some happiness." Yinyu turned to Tonya and smiled. "I'll count you as a solid forth favorite pegasus. If you ever abandon your Shimmerist views I may move you up to third."

"Who are one through three?" Tonya asked with curiosity.

Yinyu laughed. "The first is my oldest daughter, of course. Number two is Sunrise Storm, such a nice pony. Third is Rebecca Riddle."

Tonya flicked an ear in confusion. "Um, who is Rebecca Riddle?"

"A wonderful little filly with a great imagination and happy disposition. She has the most creative and wonderful dreams when she sleeps," Yinyu said, still smiling. "Sometimes the ones who are most special don't have any grand powers or political importance, but are the ones that remind us that there's good out there."

Hopefully the world wouldn't snuff the creativity and happy disposition out of the filly. It still made Tonya smile a bit that the big powerful Dreamwarden found comfort in a foal's dreams.

The Dreamwarden departed without another word said. Departed being a very loose word since Yinyu was probably still watching without form. Velvet was still sitting where she'd been and still sobbing softly. Tonya didn't say anything more to the night pony, she just walked over to the pony and embraced her. Sometimes what others needed most took no words

Author's Note

Special thanks to Lawra(click her name to be brought to her page) who acted as a guest author and penned Wild Growth's section for this chapter. If you're curious about Sapphire Sky then follow Lawra and be on a lookout for her upcoming story.

I'm not currently sure on when the next update is going to be. I just started a new job and haven't gotten into a proper writing schedule with it yet. I will post up a blog when I am more sure of the date. Take this as a chance to catch up on Pandemic: Aftermath by ASGeek2012.

Other Pandemic AU stories in progress, links included:

Pandemic: Hope by Princess Amore Dudette set during initial pandemic.

Pandemic: Departures by Cosmic Eclipse begins a few months after the initial pandemic.

Chapter 8: Innocence

Tonya poked at her corn flakes with the spoon she had strapped on. She didn't have much energy this morning. It wasn't for lack of sleep since she went to bed early last night, nor was it any sort of physical weariness or drowsiness. It was just a complete lack of enthusiasm for the day. She knew a lot of others had a nervous excitement for today, but she couldn't bring herself to feel it.

Across the kitchen table from her Sunset had her spoon held in her magic to one side as she levitated a piece of buttered toast to her mouth and had a paper report levitated in front of her to read. Without even looking at what she was doing the unicorn opened the refrigerator door and pulled the milk from it with her magic before shutting the door again, opening the gallon, and then pouring herself a fresh glass of milk.

It always bewildered her that Sunset complained she was weak. Sunset might not cast powerful spells, but she was no magical lightweight. Tonya felt pride in how skilled a mage her wife actually was. All the more impressive since Sunset had to learn magic from the ground up as a middle aged adult. If Tonya was half as adept at learning pegasi magic as Sunset was unicorn magic she'd probably be captain of the weather team instead of a counselor. It wasn't even completely natural talent; Sunset was just that dedicated to her craft and working to understand it. There were many who had more natural talent than Sunset, but there were few that had her commitment to improving their abilities to their limits and willing to put the time and effort to do so. Tonya sometimes wished she had a quarter of that dedication.

Maybe after everything was done with these temporary transformations she should try to improve her own weather abilities more. She needed to start taking more after her wife's example. Thinking about how much Sunset worked to get better at magic made Tonya feel a bit lazy in comparison.

"You've been really quiet and look down this morning. What's wrong?" Sunset asked as she set each of the things she was levitating down and looked at Tonya.

Tonya frowned. "I'm thinking about my visit to Velvet last night."

Sunset nodded. "I've been waiting for you to say something about it. I was letting you broach the subject though. I take it that she's not doing well."

Tonya nodded. "That's one way of putting it. It wasn't her previous depression, at least, her depression alone wasn't enough to push her over the edge. What she went through was really traumatic for her. It was horrifying to see how she conceptualized it."

"Being human is a horrifying thing in my humble opinion," Sunset said slowly. "I admit that I didn't expect anyone's reaction to be that bad."

"I don't feel like it's safe at all to use the same version of the spell on Amanda and Tom. It's just not right or ethical," she replied in a firm tone.

Sunset grimaced. "I share your concerns, but if we keep the time frame limited that might work out still. You know we already alerted them of the possible dangers and they insisted on using this version. We need test subjects and have to do some compromises to get them. You can try to talk sense into them again before we conduct the test. I have already designed a modified version of the spell if they agree."

"You could just refuse to have the experiment conducted with this version. We know it's not safe," she said in a firmer tone as she banged a hoof against the table. The hoof was the one that had her spoon strapped on it and the utensil went flying out of the strap and onto the floor.

"Tonya, the public demonstration is tomorrow. I can't afford to do that," Sunset said as she slumped back in her seat. "We can push for better versions after that, but we need something to show tomorrow. If I can get ponies interested with a good showing I can get more ponies who might be willing to do an improved version-- and bad as it is to say it this way-- show Amanda and Tom to the door."

Tonya laid her ears back. "Sunset... that's just cruel. It sounds like you're just using them and tossing them aside."

"If they aren't going to let me do a better version of the spell that's exactly what I'm doing," Sunset said then took a sip of milk as Tonya stared wide-eyed at what she was hearing. Sunset looked back at her when she finished her milk. "It's for their own good. If they're going to subject themselves to a spell that might have the effect that you describe Velvet experiencing I can't use them long term. I'm not being cruel, I'm being merciful. They can hate me for it if they like."

Tonya narrowed her eyes. "Are you at least going to tell them that you intend to do the spell as is today and tomorrow before banning them from its further use, or are you just going to use them and drop them without a word?"

"Do you think I should be up front with them about it?" Sunset asked as she set her glass down. "I'm being sincere in asking you what you think I should do. I value your input."

"Yes, make it clear that you have no intention of using them further after tomorrow if they aren't going to go for a safer version of spell," Tonya said with a little more bite than she intended. "It's the right thing to do. I still don't think this version of the spell should be used at all. It isn't worth it to possibly hurt someone like that just to get this approved tomorrow. You should refuse to let them do it and tell them why."

Sunset tapped her hoof on the table slowly as she considered. "I'll make clearer the risks based on what you observed, and let them talk to you. I'm leaving the choice in their hooves. Maybe you can convince them to go with the safer version, and if not make it clear this isn't going past tomorrow."

"You could use the safer version without telling them," Tonya countered.

Sunset raised an eyebrow. "You know better than most how bad that idea is, especially since we'll have Phobia watching the whole thing. That's mind magic without consent. We can't make those kinds of mistakes."

Tonya sat back in her chair. She was really not thinking straight if she almost pushed for something like that. That was one mistake she definitely knew better than to make. She looked back at her wife. "So, what are you going to do if they refuse to go through with it?"

Sunset pulled her hoof from the table and rubbed her forelegs nervously. "I've already got a backup plan that's going to happen one way or another with the pony to human version of the spell. I'm not going to be left hanging out to dry tomorrow. It'd be better with them, but it can be managed."

"What backup plan? You haven't discussed this with me. Who do you have lined up?" Tonya asked with suspicion.

Sunset shook her head. "That's going to be private for now. Believe me when I say the pony involved fully understands the risks and what is going to happen, and has given their consent."

"Who is it, Sunset?" Tonya demanded. "It must be someone I wouldn't approve of or you'd be telling me. Is it another night pony?"

"They know everything involved and have given consent; that's all you need know till tomorrow," Sunset said in a low voice. "Please, just trust me that it will be alright."

Tonya shook her head in frustration. "I love you, Sunset, but you're worrying me with your drive to see this approved tomorrow. We could delay this till more testing and volunteers are gathered. It might make a big stink after bringing in the delegates, but it's more important we do the right thing "

"I'll see to it that the right thing is done, just trust me."

Tonya wished she could, but something felt seriously wrong.

Jessie blinked and rolled over in her bed as she realized it was so early the sun wasn't even up yet. Why was she awake this early? Did she need to use the toilet? A few seconds considering this made her decide that was not the case. There must be a reason she was awake, but it wasn't coming to her right away. What was coming to her was that it was too early.

She turned over in her bed to face the wall. Even in the dark she could make out it's blue color. Her room had a theme. Her carpet was green like grass, her walls were blue like the sky, and her ceiling with it's stars and planets was painted black like the night sky. It was her own private world, and looking at her room made her feel loved as she thought of all the time and effort her dad had put into it for her. She had to have one of the best dads in the world. Her brother calling it a cavern was completely unfair, especially since his room with the dark curtains and low light was the more cavern-like of their rooms.

She let off a low groan. She was thinking when she was trying to get back to sleep. That never worked out. All it did was make her more awake. What time was it anyway? She rolled over again to look at her smiling sun clock and saw that it was a little before six in the morning. That was one of those horrible times when it was too early to get up but too late to really get back to sleep. Going to bed early no doubt led to this. Just laying in bed might be the best option. Maybe she could grab one of her books and do some reading in bed.

Her ears twitched as she heard low voices out in the living room. Was that what had woken her up? It might just be the television, but she was pretty sure she could hear her mom speaking and someone replying. Whoever was out there was trying to be quiet. Who'd be here at this time of the morning?

She carefully climbed out of her blankets and to the floor. Her dad said that he and her mom kept conversations about Robby private from her. If that was the case they might have private conversations about her as well. If she was quiet enough sneaking down the hall she might be able to listen in and not get caught.

She kept her breathing low and quiet as she sneaked out her door. The carpet would hopefully muffle her hoof steps. The air conditioner was going as well and might help muffle sound some. Her parents couldn't hear as well as she and Robby could, but she didn't know who else was out there for sure, and if it was a pony they might hear her if she wasn't careful. Maybe the demons could give her some pointers on how to sneak better, because she afraid she wasn’t doing it right.

The other voice was now identifiable; it was her Grandmare Nocte. Her grandmare must have just gotten back into town not long ago. Thankfully, it didn't seem like Nocte had taken notice of her sneaking in the hallway yet.

Her grandmare was talking. "It's a shame they haven't opened up the testing for healthy humans yet. Did Paul get any indication from his sister when they might be doing that?"

"No," her mom answered. "I'm not really in a position to volunteer anyway. Not with Dusk due any day now. Rosetta's mother needs this much more urgently than me or Paul. I don't feel bad she is getting to try it early while the rest of us wait."

"I know," her grandmare said with a sigh. "I'm just eager to see you as..." There was a sudden pause and the sound of sniffing. "You can't hide from my nose, little filly. I have the best nose on the police force, you haven't had a bath yet today, and the air conditioner in the hall spreads your scent really well. Come on out, Jessica."

Jessie came out from the cover of the hallway and saw her mom and grandmare sitting on the couch. Her mom smiled down at her as she walked over to them.

"I hope we didn't wake you up. We were trying to be quiet," her mom said apologetically.

Jessie shook her head. "I think I went to bed too early." Her ears perked up. "What kind of testing were you talking about?"

"Oh." Her mom put a hand up to her mouth and then back down again. "It's not something we can talk about right now. Don't worry; it isn't anything bad."

"Oh," Jessie said as her ears dropped. Why did everyone always have to keep things from her? It wasn't fair. She might be a filly but she was smart enough to understand anything they told her.

"Devon, do you mind if I use the computer in your bedroom?" Grandmare Nocte asked. "I wanted to send a photo down to my marefriend to let her know I got back here alright."

Her mom blinked then nodded. "Yeah, go right ahead, Mom--and thanks."

Jessie flicked an ear at that. What was she thanking Grandmare Nocte for? It also occurred to her that her dad must not be here if Grandmare Nocte was going in her parents' bedroom.

"Where's Dad at?" She asked her mom as Grandmare Nocte walked past.

Her mom patted the seat next to her. "He is going to the Dreamwarden's house. Phobia, Rosetta, and Tempest are all going to be out for a few hours and the demons needed a foalsitter. Your grandmare agreed to stay here in case anything happened and I needed to get to the hospital quick."

Jessie hopped up on the couch next to her mom and looked up at her. "Um, Grandmare Nocte can't drive you to the hospital."

"She can call the hospital and they can come get me if they need to," her mom explained. "It probably won't happen, but it's good to have her here, just in case." Her mom ran a hand gently over her mane. "Want to feel your little brother? He's awake too, and kicking."

Jessie's ears picked back up as she smiled and nodded. Her mom lifted her shirt up exposing her belly and reached down and guided Jessie's hoof to it. Her mom's belly was warm and it felt even warmer having her hand over Jessie's hoof. For a few seconds there was nothing, then there was a thump.

"I felt him!" Jessie said excitedly as she looked up at her mom's face. Another thump quickly followed.

"He certainly is active this morning," her mom said with a giggle. "I never really got to do this with Robby when I was carrying you, it's nice."

Jessie's ears twitched as she continued to feel and look at her mom's belly. "Why not? Was I not active?"

Her mom didn't answer her. After a few seconds of quiet Jessie looked up at her mom and her ears fell as she noticed that her mom was crying.

She sat up and put both her forehooves on her mom's arm. "Mom? What's wrong? Did I say something bad?"

Her mom wiped her eyes and gave Jessie a forced smile. "No, you didn't say anything bad. I'm just a little emotional. Moms get this way sometimes when their carrying a baby." Her mom wiped her eyes again then put a hand back on Jessie's hooves. "I've never really talked to you about your birth much. I think you're capable of understanding though. Do you want to hear about it?"

"Okay," Jessie replied uncertainty.

"No, you weren't very active," her mom said as she brushed Jessie's mane her hand. "You were born really early--too early. When babies are born too early they aren't ready for being outside their mothers. Your father and I were so afraid we were going to lose you."

Jessie flattened her ears. "I almost died?"

Her mom nodded. "You were so small and you couldn't breathe right, couldn't eat, and you had no immune system to speak of. Your hands and feet were so tiny and barely moved--but you caught ETS, and that was a miracle that saved you."

Jessie held her hoof up and looked at it, trying to imagine it as a tiny human hand. It was easy enough to picture a tiny human hand, but she couldn't imagine what it would feel like to actually have a human hand. Learning that she at one point had them didn't help at all.

Her mom brought her hand to Jessie's hoof like she was greeting her, and spoke in a low voice. "And then in the weeks after that I was so scared that you'd not love me because of this."

Jessie's head shot up. "You're my mom. Why wouldn't I love you?"

Tears kept flowing from her mom's eyes. "I was afraid you'd realize I'm not the same as you, that you were a pony and I wasn't. I felt so guilty that I didn't change too."

"You shouldn't feel that way though. You're a great mom, and I love you," Jessie said with all the firmness she could muster.

Her mom wiped her eyes again and smiled down at her. "I know you love me. You're such a special little filly, and I can't express how proud I am of you. Dusk is going to be very lucky to have you for a big sister."

She looked at her mom's hand again. "I don't think big sister is the right thing to call me. Dusk is going to get much bigger than me."

Her mom bit her lip for a second before continuing on. "Does it make you uncomfortable, knowing you'll have a human for a younger brother?"

Jessie blinked. "Should it?"

Her mom shook her head briskly. "No, it shouldn't. But you should know, human babies need a lot more care and attention for a lot longer than foals do. It's going to be a long time till he can walk on his own or understand what's being said to him. Your father and I are going to have to pay a lot of attention to him. I don't want you to feel neglected or jealous."

"How long before he walks and talks?"

"Um," her mom seemed to consider. "It will almost definitely be after your seventh birthday--maybe even after your eighth."

Her eyes went wide. "That long!? But I was doing those things way before then. I was reading already by then."

"You're also a genius, so you learned extremely fast," her mom reminded her. "And pony foals start walking much earlier. Most foals don't learn how to talk nearly as early as you did. As I said, Dusk is going to need a lot of care and attention. On the plus side, human babies don't surge. That should make things easier in that respect."

She knew about surges from her classes. "Were my surges bad?"

Her mom looked uncomfortable again. "At the time we didn't know what surges were so that made it worse. They were...difficult to deal with--let's leave it at that."

That made her think about how her mom was always trying to get her to socialize more and she hadn't been cooperating much.

She tapped her forehooves together and looked down. "Mom, I'm sorry about not listening when you wanted me to spend time with other foals. I didn't mean to be difficult, and I know you were trying to help me."

An arm pulled her up in a gentle hug and her mom gave her a kiss on the nose. "I just want you to have the best life possible.".

Jessie leaned into her mom's side to nuzzle. "Wild Growth talked to me, and she told me how important it was and why."

Her mom gripped her tighter. "I knew an earth pony you respected would have an easier time getting through to you. I'm glad she did."

Something about what her mom said felt off. As she kept nuzzled against her mother she began to get frustrated because she couldn't figure out what it was that was off. Perhaps she needed to prompt some more conversation.

"She said you wanted her to talk to me," she explained. Hoping it would get her mom to say more. "She talked about how I could ruin all my chances at NASA if I didn't understand how to socialize well, and that I need belonging and might make mistakes trying to get that if I'm too isolated from others all the time."

"Harsher than I would have been, but she seems to have gotten through where I didn't," her mom said quietly. "I noticed you reading with Jordan the other day, and your dad told me you were playing with the demons. I'm proud you're doing more of that."

"Yeah, we're all friends now, I think. It's really early, but I think so anyway," Jessie replied. There was still something off; like her mom was sad about something. "I had a lot more fun than I thought I would with the demons, and Jordan likes to read. Jackie even seemed like she wanted to be friends when we were talking about how Jackie really takes being a big sister seriously and I told her I was going to be a big sister."

That earned another light kiss from her mom. "And I know you'll do all you can to be a great big sister." Her mom paused for a second. "And you're sure that Dusk being human isn't going to bother you?"

"Mom, you asked that already. Why should it matter if Dusk is human?" Jessie asked in confusion.

Her mom bit her lip before answering. "I just worry you won't feel strongly connected to him because he's human. That being human is too different from being a pony for you to want him around. Maybe I get a pass on that because I've always been part of your life, but this is a new human."

The answer struck her by surprise. How could her mom think that? "But, he's my brother, and you're my mom; I don't care that were different."

"I do worry about how different we are though," her mom said in a low voice.

The things her mom had been saying suddenly came into focus. The fact that her mom worried about them not being the same species had never gone away. In a way, learning that hurt somehow -- even if her mom hadn't said anything mean. Anger rose up in her, and she didn't fully understand why. It felt like some sort of betrayal had happened. She was hurt and angry and she wanted to yell at her mom, but she didn't know what to yell at her mom. Plus, if she yelled at her mom her mom would be hurt and...and...this was just unfair.

She pulled away from her mother hopped down from the couch. "I have some reading to do," she said stiffly.

"Jessie, I didn't mean it like that."

You did. Jessie thought with rising anger. Now her mother was lying to her. "I want to be left alone."

"Jessie, let's talk about this," her mother pleaded.

She whirled around and looked at her mother. "Just leave me alone! You're so stupid!"

Jessie froze as she stared at her mom again. Her mom didn't yell back after the insult. Her mom just looked at her with a look of hurt and shame that made Jessie regret the words she had just said. She didn't know what to do and just turned and ran for her room.

"Jessie!" Her mom called after her.

She didn't listen. She ran straight for her room, got into her bed, and buried herself under the covers. She could hear her mom and grandmare out in the hall. She missed the beginning of their conversation, but strained to hear the rest.

"Devon, go back and sit on the couch. You need to calm down or it will upset the baby. I'll deal with your daughter."

"But, I need to fix this. She probably hates me right now."

"Stop being dramatic. She doesn't hate you. She's angry and mouthed off. It's no worse than the things you said to me when you were a child."

"I just screwed that conversation up so badly. I need to apologize."

Her grandmare growled loud enough Jessie heard it. "Yes, you did and yes you do. You may be better off as a pony, but until that day may come your family is perfectly good and loving already. She has a right to be mad at you for even considering she wouldn't accept her brother. Even if you're never a pony we all still love you completely and unconditionally, and the same will be said for the new baby."

"So let me go apologize."

"After I've given your filly a good talking to and you've had time to collect yourself. Go back in the living room and sit."

Her mom's heavy steps could be heard departing. Jessie cried into her pillow. She didn't know why she said something so mean to her mom. She was angry, but she didn't want to hurt her mom like that.

"Jessica, come out from under those blankets right now and look at me," her grandmare said sternly.

She hesitantly pulled herself from the blankets and turned and faced the scowling face of her grandmare.

"Jessica, that was a very cruel thing to say to your mother. I know you were upset, but that is no excuse to speak to your mother that way."

"I know, but..."

"No buts, " her grandmare said harshly. "If you were my filly I'd be paddling your butt with my wing right now."

Jessie whimpered a little and didn't reply. Hopefully she wasn't going to get in more trouble. She definitely didn't want to get paddled by Grandmare Nocte.

"Do you have any idea what your mother goes through and has gone through for you?" Her grandmare demanded as she pointed a wing out towards the living room. "She loves you with all her heart, and would do anything to see you happy."

"She thinks I don't care about her because I'm a pony," Jessie muttered defiantly. "It's like she looks down on me."

Her grandmare sighed. "Nothing could be farther from the truth. She doesn't look down on you, she looks down on herself because she's not like us. There are many things humans are inferior on, but not when it comes to love and family. Being human is like a...like a disability. You don't look down on those with disabilities, do you? That would be cruel, and you're not a cruel filly."

"My mom isn't disabled because she’s human," Jessie said in defense of her mom.

"If you lack sympathy for the plight of humans perhaps your mother needs to do more than bring you to hear Sunset Blessing’s sermons," her grandmare said coldly. "You clearly don't see how they suffer with their humanity. Perhaps you need a firmer education in that area."

Jessie lowered her ears. She really didn't like church at all, and she knew she didn’t lack sympathy. She also didn't like being told she wasn't learning something properly. But was she being uncaring without realizing it?

Her grandmare's expression softened. "Regardless, she does need to get it out of her head that you might not love her or your little brother as much because they're human. You need to be better at showing her that rather than getting mad at her."

There wasn't much Jessie could do to argue against that. She'd hurt her mom's feelings and she didn't like knowing she'd hurt her mom. "Yes, Grandmare."

Her grandmare walked over to her and touched a tattooed wing to her back. "I'm going to go talk to your mother now. After I come back you can go and apologize. Don't ever treat your mother like that again. She loves you too much to deserve such things said to her."

"Yes, Grandmare."

The night pony left the room quietly and a moment later Jessie could hear voices in the other room and could pick out little bits and pieces of conversation.

"She's a good foal, just emotional..."

"I still feel..."

"...rectify that in a moment...I think you should enroll her in a youth group. She needs to develop proper views while young."

The conversation picked up volume and she could now hear it clearly.

"She’s just not interested in church, she's so bright that she gets bored going at our pace. I've considered letting her stay with her friends on Sunday instead since she still needs to learn how to build friendships more."

"She can build friendships in a youth group with foals who have been raised with the right type of upbringing. Your filly doesn't understand how much better off we all are as a ponies. She has a complete lack of care for human suffering."

"Jessie is a kind and caring foal. I don't think that's needed."

"I don't doubt she's kind and caring. I think she's just ignorant of some important things, and it's your job to see those gaps are filled."

"I'll discuss it with her. I won't force her to do something she doesn't want to do. Not when she's making real progress with making friends ."

"Those foals may not have the proper upbringing and fill her head with nonsense about..."

"Mom, those foals come from friends and family--and that includes Phobia Remedy. They are Jessie's friends and family too. I won't have you saying crap about them."

Her grandmare hesitated. "I overstepped myself perhaps. I wouldn't dream of insulting the Dreamwarden's foals. But I still think she could use a firmer push towards some good Shimmerist friends."

"Paul and I are the only ones who need to be concerned about the fact that we're human. I don't want to burden her with worrying about such things and interfere with her dreams and aspirations. I've been thinking about it lately and realized it might even hurt her chances if she gets too involved with the church... That's my baby girl, Mom, and I won't be a reason she fails to achieve her dreams."

"They can't discriminate against her for that. It's the law."

"I’m not going to risk it."

"As much as I disagree, she’s your daughter. Do what you think is best. I'll go tell her to come back out so she can give her apology."

Jessie hopped down out of her bed to the floor before her grandmare appeared back at the entrance to the room. The night pony looked down at her and nodded silently before walking off back towards the other end of the hall.

She quietly walked out into the hallway and back into the living room. Her mom was sitting on the couch again and watched as she entered the room.

"Jessie" her mom began and then took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have implied you might not accept your little brother. That was old fears of mine talking."

That brought to mind the demons and Phobia Remedy, and all they said about fear. It was okay to be afraid, but you needed to face your fears. Her mom was scared and that was okay, but her mom needed help facing her fears.

She ducked her head down. "I'm sorry I got mad and said something bad. I didn't mean it."

Her mom looked down at the floor and rubbed her tummy absently. "You've never gotten angry at me like that before. I don't think you need to apologize for being angry. I was the one out of line and you don’t need to apologize for being upset with me for that. But I will accept your apology for calling me stupid though."

Jessie scrunched up her nose. "I’m sorry… and you’re not stupid. I get so frustrated when you make me socialize and stuff when I just want to study."

That earned a groan from her mom. "Jessie, we've talked about this and I thought we were making progress. You need--"

"But you were right," Jessie cut her mom off. Her mom paused and gave her a wide-eyed look. "You were right about me needing to make friends. I think I'm learning things because of that. Important stuff I can't learn in books. I'm sorry I got mad all those times."

Her mom smiled and tears went down her mom's face. "Sometimes I forget how smart you are. You really are my little miracle. Your little brother is going to be so lucky that he has you for a big sister." Her mom patted the seat beside her. "Come up here so I can give you a hug. I can't really bend down that easily right now."

She hopped on to the couch next to her mom and leaned into her as her mom wrapped her arms around her. A few of her own tears started to flow as she felt the love of her mom.

"I'm very happy you're making friends and seeing that as important," her mom continued on. "I just want the best for you. You're so talented, and I want you to succeed in everything you set out to do."

That made her think of the conversation that she overheard just a moment before. She pulled away gently, careful not to be interpreted as being mad again, and looked up at her mom. "Mom, I don't really want to do that youth group thing you and Grandmare Nocte were talking about."

Her mom bit her lip and ran a hand over Jessie's mane. "So you heard that too? Don't worry, I'm not going to push you to get involved with that if you have no interest in it. You're doing a good job the last few days with starting to open up with other foals on your own."

She laid her ears back. "What did you mean that if I got too involved with church it could mess things up?"

That made her mom look worried for some reason. "Jessie...I really don't know how to explain these kinds of things to you. You understand a lot about academic things, but this gets into more mature subjects that don't follow clear rules."

She pouted. "Tell me like you'd tell a grown-up. You know I'm really smart. I can figure it out. Phobia Remedy talked to me like I was a grown up when I asked her about why she was so interested in my project. It was scary, but I understood it."

Her mom sighed. "I just don't want to have you exposed to certain concepts. Even though you're so smart you haven't been exposed to how mean the world can be."

Jessie kept her ears flat. "Mom, Phobia Remedy told me that Devourers will be here in a few years and showed me what they do. I can understand bad things."

"She said what!?" Her mom screamed.

She flicked her tail and winced at the shouting. "Ow! Mom! Don't yell like that. It hurts. Phobia Remedy said I'd probably be all grown up by the time it happens. Don't worry about it."

"That's not a thing not to fucking worry about!" Her mom said in a frantic voice. She must be really scared if she said the forbidden word and didn't even notice. Maybe she shouldn't've said anything about it to her mom. She had an idea how to distract her mom from thinking about it though.

She took a deep breath and braced herself for getting yelled at. "Fuck," she muttered.

Her mom's eyes snapped to attention on her and her eyebrows narrowed as she suddenly stopped worrying and stared down in anger. "Jessica Ann Middleton! You will not use that word! End of the world or not!"

Jessie smiled up sheepishly. "I just wanted to make you not think about that bad thing."

Her mom just stared at her for a long moment then her mom's composure broke as she started trying to visibly suppress laughter.

"Um, Mom? Why are you laughing? I don't understand."

Her mom shook her head and started giggling and snorting. At this point Jessie was getting really confused and worried she might have accidentally broken her mom somehow. The giggling and laughter continued on for a few seconds before her mom start to look like she was getting it under control.

"Mom? Are you okay?" She asked as she watched her mom with concern. She could see her grandmare watching from the hallway with equal concern on her face.

Her mom nodded. "It's hard to put it into words, but the contrast in what constitutes a bad thing there was so ridiculously different that it was like the punchline of a joke. Please, don't cuss; let me keep the illusion that you haven't lost your innocence."

She cocked her head to the side and bent on ear. "Okay, but I don't understand."

That nearly got her mom giggling again. "Okay, maybe you haven't completely lost it. We need to sit down and talk about your talk with Phobia Remedy though."

Her mom then stared at the ceiling and shook her head. "Oh God, why can't it just be a normal problem for once? Like some colt putting gum in her mane or me worrying about paying the power bill? Oh no, it's all mind control and demigod pony foalsitters. It ranges from the most intelligent kid on the planet to the end of the world...I'm so not cut out for this..."

Jessie wasn't certain what was going on, her mom was acting all weird, but didn't seem so scared now. "Alright, but will you tell me about why the church thing is bad?" She pleaded again.

"I don't know how much you've read about churches, but our church is a little different than a lot of churches. We believe we're all better off as ponies, and that makes a lot of people suspicious of us. I don’t want anyone to be suspicious of you."

"Why?" Jessie blurted out, then felt the need to clarify. "Why do you think you would be better off as ponies?"

Her mom stared at her for a second before Jessie heard the soft sound of hooves on carpet, her mother quickly looked away to the hallway. "Mom, go back to whatever you were doing. This is a private discussion between me and my daughter."

Jessie turned and saw her grandmare turning and could hear her grumbling. Her mom got her attention back by clearing her throat. "You have to understand what it's like to be me or your father. Our entire family are ponies; your grandparents on both sides, your aunt, you and your brother. There are things you all experience that your father and I never will."

"So?" Jessie said with confusion. "Robby can fly and dreamwalk, and I'll never experience that. He also can't understand what's it like to sit in a field of flowers with the sun shining bright because night ponies don't like the sun. What does it matter who can do what?"

Her mom looked her in the eyes. "What do you feel when you're surrounded by those flowers? What do you think your father and I feel? What do you feel when Wild Growth makes all the crops grow?” she paused. “Your father and I feel nothing."

Jessie flattened her ears. "But-- no— that can’t be right, you have to feel something. It feels so strong when Wild Growth does her magic."

"Magic isn’t a part of us though," her mom explained. "We can feel it sometimes, when it is used directly on us, but not in the way a pony does. It's like a blind person trying to understand color or a deaf person being told what music sounds like. We're like that, deaf and blind to magic."

"But I've seen some humans do magic," Jessie protested.

"Humans that were once ponies or partials. Not humans like me or your father. Even human magic has a pony source," her mom said sadly. "If we had been partials who rehumanized maybe we could have that connection, but we weren't touched by ETS."

Jessie sat back on her rump and crossed her forelegs. "Well, I think you're great as you are. I don't think you need to be a pony to be special. I love you and Dad just like you are and I can't imagine you being anything else."

That made her mom look at her with a strange expression. "You don't wish I was more like you? A pony mother who you could cuddle better with or could teach you about magic?"

She shook her head. "You couldn't give me such good head rubs and Dad couldn't lift me up high when we're in a crowd and I can't see and you're warm already. If Dad was an earth pony like me he couldn't have put the planets and stars on my ceiling. Plus if you and Dad weren't human you couldn't spend time with both me and Robby like you do. What if one of you were a night pony and the other wasn't? Aren't they always saying night ponies can't be happy with being married to someone who isn't a night pony?"

Her mom blinked. "Who told you that?"

"Robby," she replied. Her brother was a perfectly valid source about night pony things.

"Oh did he.... and where did he hear that from?" Her mom asked with a creased brow.

This required her to rat out her brother, but she wanted to maintain her credibility at the same time. She warred with herself on what to say while her mom watched. Finally her ears dropped as she answered. "He heard it from the night pony mares. They told him that all of them who were married before becoming ponies ended up getting divorced because they couldn't make it work out with day ponies."

"He knows he isn't supposed to be talking to those mares," her mom said with frustration.

"They might have been marked," Jessie supplied helpfully. "I think they're the experts though. I don't want you and Dad to not want to be together."

"That's a really mature subject that they shouldn't have been discussing with him anyway," her mom said firmly. "And far too mature a subject for him to be discussing with you."

She gave her mother a sullen look. "Robby doesn't treat me like a little filly."

"You are a little filly, Jessie."

"It doesn't mean I need to be treated like one!" Her eyes went wide as she realized she'd just shouted at her mom again. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to yell. I just get so mad everyone doesn't treat me seriously. Like everything has to be kept from me because a little filly couldn't understand."

"Jessie..." Her mom seemed to carefully consider her next words. "It isn't that we don't think you'll understand. The problem is the opposite of that. We're afraid that you will understand all too much and there are certain things a foal your age shouldn't have to understand or be exposed to."

She almost voiced that she didn't understand again and caught herself before doing that. "I want to know." She demanded instead, unable to keep her frustration from showing.

"Why can't you just be normal?" Her mom asked with a groan. Jessie pouted at the declaration before her mom shook her head. "No, that's unfair. Part of why you're so special is how not normal you are."

"I'm going to just go research it if you don't tell me why I shouldn't know things."

"What other six year old would use that as an ultimatum?" Her mom asked the ceiling. "Teenager maybe, not a six year old." Her mom sighed and looked back at her. "Fine, you win. Can you explain the concept of innocence?"

"Um, not being guilty?" Jessie answered.

"Try again," her mom replied.

She scrunched up her muzzle and hopped off the couch and walked over to a nearby bookshelf to find an old friend, the dictionary. She'd sat reading it many nights when the family was watching television together and she was bored with whatever was on, like the news.

She pulled the worn book that was far older than she was from the shelf and nudged it open with her muzzle and began flipping pages carefully. These old books had pages that were really hard to flip with hooves, and she'd never really tried to get to an entry deep in it before. Normally she just opened it up randomly and started reading it one page at a time.

After a few seconds it became evident that finding the proper page when they were this fragile was going to be too time consuming, and it made her appreciate her newer books with specially designed pages all the more.

"Want me to help?" Her mom asked.

Jessie shook her head then carefully lifted the heavy book with one foreleg and her muzzle on to her back. It was a little awkward with a book this big and heavy, but she managed it. Once it was on her back she carefully walked back to the couch and considered how she was going to get it up there without dropping it. While doing so her mom reached down with some visible effort and grabbed the book.

"Thank you," Jessie said, then grinned. "Picking up big books is easier with hands, don't you think? I wish I had hands."

"My hands are only needed because this book was designed for them," her mom reminded her.

"Still they’d be nice to have," Jessie countered.

Her mom frowned. "Well, you've been a pony your whole life--minus a week. Rehumanization was never an option for you."

"So it'd be more humanization."

"Jessie, drop it, please" her mom said in a pained voice.

She actually legitimately was curious about what it would be like to be human. If she was turned into a human she would likely still have magic since she'd been a pony, and a lot of things would be easier. However, there was also the mare she saw in the mirror in her dream that she wanted to be too. Why were humans and ponies limited to being one or the other? Wouldn’t it be better to be able to go back and forth?

Her mom opened the dictionary and flipped through the pages as Jessie watched. They quickly found the entry and Jessie peaked at the additional definitions beyond what she was familiar with.

"Lack of guile or corruption, and another definition referring to virginity," Jessie listed off.

"Lack of corruption," her mom said in a tight voice. "By that I mean you don't think about subjects that can be disruptive, disturbing, or involving things you should never be involve a child or foal in."

"What kinds of subjects do you feel make me less innocent then?"

"What Phobia showed you for starters," her mom said with a frown. "Other subjects might be politics, sex, some other things."

Jessie frowned. "Why sex? I read all about it in health class. I know all about what Wild Growth does. I even watched some videos."

"It's because--wait, you watched videos?" Her mom asked in a shrill voice.

"Um, they're really easy to find on the internet, and I wanted to see what it actually looked like when I was studying it in class. Everyone else in class seemed to know. It didn't look that interesting to tell the truth. I don't know what all the fuss is about."

Her grandmare could be heard braying laughter somewhere down the hall. Jessie didn't see what was so funny. Her mom was turning bright red though and was cupping her hands over her mouth while looking like she couldn't decide whether to scream or cry.

"What's wrong?" Jessie asked. She could still hear her grandmare laughing elsewhere in the house.

"I'm such an irresponsible mother," her mom breathed. "My six year old has been accessing porn on the computer behind my back."

"Only one time, and I only saw a few videos. I told you it looked boring. You and Dad do it; that's where Dusk is coming from. I heard you two do it lots of times, you're really loud," Jessie clarified defensively. Her grandmare started laughing louder.

"It's not funny, Mom!" Her mom shouted towards the back of the house as she got so red she started looking like Aunt Sunset.

"Whatever you say, sugar plum!" Her grandmare yelled back, still laughing loudly.

"I really don't understand " Jessie said in a small voice. Why was her mom acting like that? Why was her grandmare laughing?

Her mom stood up slowly and then looked down at her. "Ask your father. Tell him I'm deferring this one entirely to him. Let him figure out what to say."

With that said her mom walked out of the room into the hallway with her grandmare still laughing. Clearly her mom and grandmare were suffering from the same grown up craziness that Wild Growth mentioned and her brother was coming into. They really needed to come up with a cure for that. Hopefully they would before she got that old and went crazy too.

Wild watched the monitor as her mama was being briefed by the doctors, mages, and lawyers in the testing room. There were consent forms that had to be signed and with the Parkinson's that was something that Wild's papa had to assist with. They'd already been here for some time, but there was a lot of legalese that had to be waded through. Her mama was already been stripped of every single last article of clothing and those had been carefully folded and put on a table off to the side

It was pretty cramped in the monitoring room. In addition to herself both her sister and Phobia were here, with both Tempest Shadow and Crystal Dreams guarding her. Amanda and Tom were also here, and would be in that testing room themselves later on. Rounding out the group was Sunset, two military guards, and Tonya.

"I don't care what the governor wants in this case. You're going to wait until enough medallions arrive from Equestria before you let that mare into a full courtroom," Phobia snapped as she talked on the phone in a corner. "She shouldn't even be allowed in there. You should be using a video feed to question her. It's ridiculous that she’s physically taking the stand, but if that's what they want they are going to wait on enough medallions to block her powers on every person in the courtroom. I don't care if she's already got one on; I won't have chances taken."

"Phobia seems a bit perturbed," Wild whispered to her sister. "I'm not used to seeing her get like that. She's usually so calm when speaking to others."

Rosetta grimaced from beside Wild. "She's been arguing with them about this for days. It's taking forever for Equestria to get enough mind magic blocking medallions that are strong enough together. There are going to be a lot of people in that courtroom and those things aren't easy to make."

"I don't know why they're even questioning her on the stand. What that mare did was an atrocity that they should just throw the book at her and be done with it," Wild grumbled. The mare in question had made her own demented form of protest by unleashing lots of mind magic during a major gun show where most the people were armed or had quick access to getting armed. Over four hundred-fifty people were shot by those she impacted and of those over three hundred dead-- three hundred and nine to be exact. The mare ended up getting shot as well, but had survived.

"It's a mess," her sister said with a sigh. "The governor and judge in this case are both posturing and trying to make this into a spectacle. The Dreamwardens by law have to do what they can to try to accommodate the local authorities' requests as far as they can while keeping the public safe. Phobia thinks this entire thing is stupid-- a lot of people do, but she's done as much as she can to figure out how to make this stupidity work. She's not going to back down any further on her requirements for safety restrictions though. At a certain point the judge will have to just agree to wait for all the medallions, not let as much of the public in so he can go with less medallions, or keep that terrorist out of the physical courtroom and question her by video feed-- like it would make the most sense to do."

"I'm just impressed that she's showing she can get angry. I'd thought she'd somehow cut that emotion out. At some point someone might mistake her for having regular emotions," Wild said with a smirk.

Rosetta gave her a slap with a wing. "Phobia gets just as emotional as anyone else, she's just very reserved in showing it."

"Whatever you say," Wild replied skeptically, but then remembered getting yelled at yesterday and felt a bit less skeptical. It would be nice if she could get a laugh out of the Dreamwarden though. "What do you think is going to happen with this trial?"

Rosetta shrugged. "There will likely be stronger clamp downs on mind magic after this than there were already. There's talk of just having medallions locked on the necks of every mind magic user permanently as soon as they show signs they can use it."

"That's a little extreme," Wild replied.

"I don't think the families of the victims would think so, nor do the Dreamwardens for that matter," Rosetta observed darkly.

Wild looked at her sister in surprise. "Phobia would be willing to have a permanent collar clamped around her neck?"

Rosetta looked over at Phobia--who was still arguing hotly on the phone. "If that's what it took she would."

Wild turned her eyes back to the monitors to watch her mama continue to sign forms with her Papa's assistance. "Still seems a violation of civil liberties. There are good things mind magic is used for."

"Considering how hard it is to get proper medallions made it probably isn't workable anyway," Rosetta said with resignation. "Something needs to be done though. This is the fifth major incident like this in the last five years. That might not seem like a lot, but each one of those cost many lives. Even if they are brought to justice right away they can do far too much harm in one initial attack. Having the Dreamwardens more pervasively monitor mind magic users is probably what's going to happen; active monitoring of their dreams every time they sleep whether they want it or not, Sha'am can do it."

"That's an exceedingly invasive breach of privacy, and a slippery slope towards thought policing everyone," Wild protested.

"The Dreamwardens are only concerned with whether the person intends to do harm with mind magic, nothing else," Rosetta replied dismissively. "They wouldn't reveal anything else to anyone not related to crimes of mind magic or dreamwalking, it's one of the things in the treaty . The matter is for lawmakers to decide anyway; the Dreamwardens just help enforce what is legislated as long as it is within treaty guidelines."

She decided not to push the matter further. Rosetta's fervor for curtailing mind magic abuses was not far behind the Dreamwardens, and her faith in the Dreamwardens doing the right thing matched that. Due to that fervor it was highly unlikely that anything Wild said would make her sister see how dangerous this line of thought might be. It might even be easier talking to Phobia about it than Rosetta. Whether she ended up agreeing or not Phobia at least really listened and considered it when you voiced concerns. This wasn't the priority for today anyway, today was all about their mama.

The lawyers signaled to the camera that everything was in order with the paperwork, and they exited out of the testing room. Her papa was made to exit as well. The only ones who would be allowed in the room with her mama during the spell cast were the mages, the human doctors, and a pair of crystal ponies. The monitor was deliberately low resolution so no chance could be had of making out the details of how the spell was constructed. There really wasn't much chance anyone currently viewing would be trying to duplicate it themselves, but precautions had to be taken all the same for security purposes. After the spell was finished and her mama was confirmed alright was when visitors would be allowed into the room with her.

The door for the monitoring room opened and her papa entered in. Phobia seemed to note it and promptly told whoever she was speaking with that she would call back later as everyone started directing their attention to the monitor in anticipation.

"I hope this works. Trying to get those papers signed just reminded me all the more how much she's suffering," her papa said with his eyes glued to the monitor.

"I still have concerns about this entire thing, but I hope so too," Rosetta said quietly.

Wild and everyone else didn't express their opinions out loud, but there was a sense of agreement as the world seemed to slow down waiting for the moment the spell began. Each second felt like minutes as the final preparations were made.The four unicorn mages made a circle around her mama and the human doctors and crystal ponies retreated back to the corners of the room. Her mama was laying naked on a cot in the center of the room without so much as a blanket.

One of the unicorn mages lit his horn and there was a brief flash that didn't seem to have any effect at first, but on closer observation it looked like her mama had been put under a sleep spell. One of the doctors went over and checked her and a moment later nodded to the mages that she was properly asleep before returning to his corner. Once he was back in place the the four mages lit their horns together and her mama started to glow.

What followed looked like ETS in extreme fast forward. Her mama's hair shifted color from it's heavily greyed black to a bright pink with a crystalline quality to it and started to lengthen. A tail of a matching color and quality quickly sprouted and lengthened. Next her ears shifted position and at the same time blue fur with a slight glittery look started to sprout on her lower legs and on the ears. From there the fur continued to advance up the legs as her form started to shrink little by little. Wild could not tell if seconds, minutes or hours were going by since she and everyone else were so focused on what was happening.

The fur continued it's takeover of the body and the shape of her mama's lower legs began to shift. Her mama's breasts shrank and retreated lower on her body, shrinking down so far that they were barely noticeable unless looking for them. The fur reached her mama's neck and started down her arms. The shape of her arms began to shift as well and her fingers tightened together and could be seen fusing and forming hooves that matches hooves that had already formed on her legs-- which were now more properly called hind legs. The fur spread to her face and the muzzle sprouted as the eyes enlarged, and in seemingly no time at all where once a human woman lay on the cot there was now a blue crystal pony with a bright pink mane and tail.

The unicorns' horns ceased glowing and the doctors moved in and began checking her. It looked like they were checking her pulse, her breathing, and ensuring that there was nothing physically wrong with her. This continued on for a solid two minutes while everyone watched in rapt silence, waiting for the notification that she was alright. When they retreated and said some things to the unicorn mages everyone breathed a sigh of relief as it seemed they were affirming she was healthy. The unicorn that had cast the sleep spell lit his horn again and her mama started to stir from her sleep.

The first thing her mama did was blink several times and look around with a puzzled look on her face. Then she caught sight of her forelegs and looked straight down at her muzzle. She raised a hoof up and gave herself a boop on the nose and seemed to have done it a tiny bit too hard as she jerked her head back and shook it. She then stared at her hoof for a second or two after before putting it back down. There was no audio feed to the room but one of the doctors stepped forward and seemed to be asking her some questions. Her mama's ears twitched and she turned and looked at the man and answered him with a big grin on her face as she began to try to stand up.

She was a bit unsteady for a second then seemed to find her center of gravity. She continued to give herself a thorough examination; reaching her head around to look at each leg, looking over her body, and swishing her tail about a little while watching it. The doctors asked her a few more questions and she turned and answered each in turn.

"She's healthy, thank God," her papa said with emotion filling his voice, breaking the silence. "I had this fear in the back of my head that the Parkinson's would carry over to this and it was all for nothing."

Wild nodded as she had the same fear, though she'd never confessed to it. She continued watching her mama as her mama adjusted to the pony body. Her mama seemed to now be slightly fascinated at how far away things like the floor, the ceiling, and the walls were. Her mama's changed perspective likely made everything seem bigger and farther away, the differences in pony vision likely made them all appear somewhat different as well. It could be a lot to process, but her mama seemed to be doing alright.

One of the doctors asked her mama another question and she looked down at the floor before answering. The same doctor, along with another, came over to her and together carefully lifted her off the cot and then set her down on the floor. She took a tentative step and almost fell flat on her face before one of the doctors braced her back up. She seemed to thank him and made another attempt, this time it was successful-- if a little shaky. Another unsteady step was taken then another, and with each step she seemed more steady and sure of herself walking. After more than a dozen steps she seemed like she was starting to feel comfortable walking.

"Has full motor control from the looks of it," Sunset said from where she was standing off to the side. "We can confirm that's working as planned with this new iteration of the spell."

"Motor control isn't the primary concern though," Tonya said in a more serious tone.

"We'll find out if this causes any distress soon enough," Sunset replied. "I'm going to go in there and have the mages step out. I'll ask her a few questions and then we can see about just a few visitors. We don't want to overwhelm her with too many at once though; probably just Roger, Wild, and Rosetta to start."

"I'm coming with you," Tonya announced in a surprisingly serious tone for her and just as surprising she was using a tone that seemed to broker no argument. "I want to be perfectly sure everything is alright."

Sunset raised an eyebrow at her wife. "Are you sure it's really that necessary for you to be checking her out right away? She seems perfectly fine from what we've seen here. You'll be getting your chance anyway."

Tonya gave Sunset a firm look back. "I'm sure. This is a big deal, and I want no doubt she has no emotional problems."

"As you wish, love," Sunset said in a resigned voice before leading Tonya out.

The rest of the room turned their full attention back to the monitor. Wild wished that it had sound. Why would this massive budget did Sunset not have a sound feed for the room? Was it some other security concern or was it a privacy concern? Whatever it was it was annoying at the moment.

Her mama was still making small laps around the cot and seemed to have gotten a natural stride going. She paused as her ears turned towards the door and a second later the door opened with Sunset and Tonya entering. Sunset gave some direction and the mages quickly exited out of the room.

The two of them were getting a puzzled look from her mama as they came over to her. Sunset said something and her mama responded back with a smile. The unicorn then could be seen laughing and even Tonya looked amused. Tonya then got a serious expression on her face and began talking while her mama listened and gave occasional answers. At one point her mama laughed and reared up on her hind legs and did a strange two legged dance before settling down to all fours again.

Sunset said something to Tonya and Tonya responded back quickly and seemed to perk back up.

"She looks happier than she's been in a long while," her papa said, and Wild could hear the tears in his voice without looking up. "It's so good to see her moving around without difficulty and enjoying herself. I wish she had gotten ETS when it was happening so she could have been this way the last few years."

"Would it have bothered you if she had turned into a pony and you hadn't?" Tom asked, the first thing he hadn't said in a whisper since he got here.

"That's the love of my life in there. I love her no matter what form she's in. I wish this wasn't just some temporary thing and she could stay like this all the time," her papa said, still emotional.

"I have to admit, this does look like a good thing for her," Rosetta said as she stared at the monitor. She turned to Wild then. "The entire project has things to be concerned about, but in the case of mama this is a great thing. You did good, sis."

Wild didn't respond, but smiled as she watched the monitor. After years of time and effort her mama had a chance to be happy again. There was no more noble a goal than helping others, and knowing she'd helped her mama made her heart sing. Whatever else happened, nothing could ruin this.

Author's Note

Jean Martinez art by Mr. Tech

Not sure again when next chapter will be out, tentatively saying two weeks. Will keep blog posts going about it.

Chapter 9: The New Order

Wild stood beside her sister and papa as the waited to be admitted into the testing room. At this point her mama had been a pony for about thirty minutes with no sign of problems. It was still far too early to tell if there would be any, but Sunset had made the call that her mama could start taking guests. All they were waiting on was some final instructions to be given to the crystal ponies-- other than her mama-- on what to look for in terms of trouble.

Her head jerked up when the door opened and Sunset stepped out. "She should be ready. Be alert for any signs of distress about her form and let the staff know if you notice anything. Beyond that you might notice some behavioral differences that are reminiscent of what ponies were like immediately after ETS. Don't worry too much about those."

"Behavioral differences?" Her papa asked in a puzzled voice.

Sunset nodded. "We didn't anticipate them, but there's no mistaking she's definitely thinking like she's a freshly transformed pony from six years ago; pony pronouns, super friendly, really touchy-feely. She even started speculating about what her cutie mark might be when she looked at my cutie mark; at least before I reminded her that this was temporary and she wouldn't be getting a cutie mark. That made her pout for just a second-- and I mean just a second."

Wild frowned. "That's way more than what we had wanted."

Sunset nodded. "I agree. I'll be trying to find a way of turning that down in future versions of the spell."

"As long as she's happy and healthy I'm not going to worry too much," her papa responded. "It's not like it ended up being a big deal for the rest of you."

That stirred a bad memory of her time transforming and immediately after. She hadn't thought of it in years, but she'd been isolated, scared, and felt unloved and betrayed. There had been things that were big deals at the time.

"She's definitely happy and healthy," Sunset said with a smile. "Go on in; she's waiting for you."

Her papa didn't need any more prompting than that he pushed the door and walked straight in with Wild and her sister hurrying to follow after before the door swung shut again.

Her papa had the blue crystal pony latch onto his legs almost as soon as he got into the room. Her mama looked up at him with a big grin. "Good God, you're tall! You make me feel like a little filly when looking up at you. Soooo, what do you think? I think I rock the sparkling blue look."

Her papa bent down and gave her mama a hug. "It looks good, really good. How are you feeling?"

Her mama hugged him tight for a second...tight enough he grunted in discomfort before releasing him with an embarrassed and concerned look. "Sorry! I don't know my own strength. I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"It was a little tight, but I don't mind. You haven't been able to grip me tight in a long time," her papa said with a warm smile. "You didn't answer me about how you're feeling. Being a pony isn't too weird for you, is it?"

"Weird?" Her mama said with puzzlement then giggled. "Why should it feel weird? This feels like what I was always meant to be! I'm also feeling the best I have felt in--ever!"

That set off red flags in Wild's head. Sunset had said this spell was essentially a reengineered version of Sunset Shimmer's spell. It was supposed to be reengineered to be temporary and not have as many mental changes, but at the moment her mama hadn't failed to check off a box on the mental change checklist. What happened when she had to go back to human? Would these changes go away or persist? And if they persisted what would that do to her? That was on top of the fact she was going to be returning to a form she wasn't comfortable or happy with to begin with.

"Mama, you know this is temporary, right?" Wild asked slowly.

Her mama's ears sagged for a moment then perked back up. "I know, but it's just a little while as a human again till I'm back to normal."

"Human is your normal, Mama," Rosetta stated in a flat tone, then turned to Wild. "I'm starting to get concerned about this again."

"I'd hardly call what I was normal, by any definition," their mama said with a frown. Then smiled and reared up on her hindlegs with her forelegs spread wide. "Oh, my sweet fillies, don't worry!" She said in a perky voice. "Come over here, let me give you each a hug. Do you know how long it's been since I've gotten to hug either of you myself? I'm fine, nopony needs to worry."

Wild was going to have a long talk with Sunset about this. Rosetta was staring at her with an accusing eye. Wild gave her sister a practiced smile and whispered. "Just roll with it. She's happy. We'll get the bugs worked out."

"I'm your mother, don't discuss me like I can't hear you," their mama chided before suddenly grinning and looking up. "Though these ears are great for hearing you whisper about me," she emphasized by purposely swiveling them in different directions.

Rosetta gave their mama an embarrassed look. "Sorry, Mama. I'm just worried about you."

"There's nothing to worry about. Why can't you just be happy for me?" Their mama said as she settled back down on all fours and pouted.

Rosetta put on a smile. Wild was an expert on fake smiles, and easily recognized it, but their mama probably wouldn't. "I am happy for you." Rosetta walked over to their mama and embraced her. "I'm very happy you're feeling well."

Wild watched as her sibling and mama took in each other's scents as they hugged. That was second nature for a pony, and now her mama was doing it. She was a pony at the moment, but the instincts weren't supposed to be anywhere near this strong. Seeing her mama display those instincts made this feel a little odd. Like this wasn't her mama but someone else instead. Was this what those who remained human felt years ago when first dealing with those who changed to ponies? Wild knew she and Rosetta were very different from who they'd been as humans, had it been this disconcerting for their parents?

The two finished their embrace and her mama beamed. "That felt...amazing. What was that tingling sensation?" She then turned to Wild with a happy expression. "You too. I am overdue for quite a few hugs from you."

Wild gave her mama a careful look. "That was your magic stirring. You might want to be careful touching too many ponies till we're sure you aren't going to accidently use it." She looked at the other crystal ponies standing to the side. "Can you confirm that or not?"

One of the crystal ponies, a stallion with a deep pink color nodded. "Her power was definitely fluxing a little bit. None of us ever hurt anyone with it after we were freshly transformed so It should be alright."

"My magic?" Her mama said thoughtfully as she rubbed a foreleg against her barrel as if recalling the sensation that was just there.

Great, now her mama was going to be itching to try out her crystal pony powers. She should have just kept her mouth shut about it. The damage had been done though. Now to try to appease that.

"I know you're wanting to try," Wild said with resignation. "Come and give me a hug. You can try it out on me."

"Wild...are you sure that's a good idea?" Rosetta asked. "We don't know how much she can absorb."

Wild shook her head and waved the question off with a foreleg. "Doesn't matter. No matter what she can't put a dent in me. No crystal pony can."

"What if it has some impact on the spell?" Rosetta pressed.

"We can syphon off whatever she absorbs. She can only hold so much," the other other crystal pony stallion said dismissively.

Her mama looked at her with concern. "Are you sure? Rosetta's acting like I could hurt you."

Wild grinned. "Mama, you could never do that. Believe me, the typical crystal pony reaction to trying to drain me is pretty humorous."

"Easy for you to say," one of the stallions muttered. "It'd be easier to drain a river with just a shot glass. I even heard that when Jarris tried to drain you as far as she could that she collapsed from exhaustion and you didn't even seem to notice."

"I noticed she was doing a lot of cussing as she lit up pretty brightly-- right before she fell over. Never thought a black furred pony could glow until then," Wild said with a sheepish grin. That had been back when they were trying to assign a PREQUES number to her, they'd just had the strongest crystal pony they could find go at her with everything they had. After that they tried teams of crystal ponies--including Jarris; it had gone no better for them. They eventually threw up their collective hooves and said PREQUES eight, and promptly agreed they all needed a good hard drink.

"But what if it does something to the spell?" Rosetta repeated.

"We were told to end it in four hours no matter what if it doesn't end on its own or need to be ended. I will be alright," the same stallion repeated. "If she is a crystal pony we need to get an idea what she's capable of anyway and document it."

"Just four more hours, that's all?" Her mama said with flattened ears.

"If today goes well you'll get another go at this tomorrow," Wild assured her. "Come on, let's see what you can do."

Her mama walked over to her slowly and stood before her. "I don't know how to do this."

"Try doing a hug again. Crystal ponies can draw magic without touching, but you have no experience drawing power so touching will make it easier," the other stallion explained. "Just focus on that sensation you were feeling and try to draw it in. I can't really explain it in words better than that."

Her mama licked her lips nervously and then embraced Wild. Nothing happened right away, at least nothing that Wild could tell. Crystal ponies could drain from her without her noticing though. The power drain was just too small for her to feel it.

A gasp left her mama as she started to glow. Wild still felt nothing, but her mama was glowing steadily brighter.

"It's so wonderful...this sensation," her mama breathed.

"I think you should stop. That's more than I thought you could take in your first try," one of the stallions said apprehensively "You seem to be a natural."

Her mom let go and and blinked a few times, seeming a little dazed. She was still all crystalline and refracting the artificial overhead lights which made it appear like little rainbows were coming off her at points.

"Jean, are you alright?" her papa asked hesitantly as he eyed her. "You're acting a little doped up."

Her mama shook her head as if clearing it and turned to him with a soft smile. "Of course." Then looked herself over again and giggled. "¡Me veo increíble!"

"That you do," her papa said as his smile returned to his face.

Her mama turned back to him. "You have to volunteer for this too. I want to see how handsome you are as a stallion. You're going to love this."

"That's not going to be happening for a while," Wild cautioned before the conversation went too far down that road. "We're trying to get this to just the those with severely debilitating conditions or in critical care. There are going to be enough people skeptical as it is about this and we want to focus on getting this to the ones that really need it most."

"I'll believe Sunset plans on limiting it when I see it," Rosetta said with a grumble. "I'm not the only one who'll be thinking that too. One of the most noted Shimmerists in the world developing this spell is going to have a lot of people wanting a stop put to this."

Wild gave her sister a long suffering look. "There may be detractors, but if the government wasn't interested in this themselves we wouldn't even be here in a secret lab that is literally crawling with military personnel, or having government delegates from two worlds coming to watch a demonstration tomorrow."

"I still don't understand how," Rosetta muttered.

Wild pointed at their mama. "Because of that, because we can make a real positive difference in the lives of those hurting. Plus, this time it will be regulated by them."

"Is this really an argument you two should be having now?" Their papa asked with a hint of anger. "Maybe you two should take a few minutes away from here and let some of the others come talk to your mother. I don't want you two upsetting her when this should be a happy day for her."

Their mama walked over to him and laid a hoof on his leg. "Roger, it's okay, they fuss with each other all the time. I'm sure Rosetta is happy for me, and we know Wild is."

Rosetta shook her head. "No, Papa's right. If this really is the first of many times doing this I'll have more time to spend with you later. I should take some time to cool down. I'll send Phobia's dad and Amanda over." She looked at their mama. "I am happy for you. I love you too much not to be happy seeing you moving around and not suffering. I'm just afraid of what else might come of this."

Rosetta didn't wait for a reply as she headed straight for the door.

"Haley! You don't need to go," Their mama cried to her.

Rosetta didn't pause, she went straight out the door into the hall.

By this point Wild wasn't going to let this go unsettled. She turned towards the door herself. "Don't worry, Mama. I'm going to talk to her. We'll be back in a little bit."

"Please, don't fight anymore, Catherine" her mama pleaded. "I know you two love each other dearly, and I don't want to see you two push each other away like this."

"There are things that need to be said," Wild replied in a firm tone. Her mama was really upset by this whole thing if she was calling them by their old human names, but this needed settling sooner rather than later. "I'm not going to have her treating taking care of you as wrong."

Her mama started walking towards the door. "I can come with you and talk to her."

"No, ma'am, you can't," one of the stallions said briskly. "Our orders are to see that you stay in here for the duration of this test."

The newly minted crystal pony looked at Wild and the door with a trembling lip. "But, my daughter needs me."

"You'll have to wait till later to talk to her. I'm sorry," the stallion said firmly.

She winced as she heard her mama start try to cry, and then got angrier. Rosetta was ruining this day for their mama. She opened the door and stormed out it.

"Rosetta!" She yelled as she came into the hallway, and was shocked to see her sister just sitting there with her head held low instead of having moved on.

Her sister looked up at her with a sad gaze. "I knew you'd come out after me. You can't help yourself; you've always got to be the grand savior who fixes everything."

Wild set her jaw and glowered. "I just do what I can to make things better. You shouldn't be treating this like it is a bad thing. You're hurting Mama on what should be one of the happiest days she's had in a long time."

Rosetta frowned and flicked her tail. "You never consider the cost of what making things better entails."

Wild stepped forward with her ears laid flat. "This coming from a pony that sees no problem with collars being fastened around every mind magic user's neck whether they've done anything wrong or not, including her own wife!"

"That's different," Rosetta said sullenly.

Wild flicked her tail angrily. "Oh, you're right about that. It's about taking away rights in that case; being iron hoofed. You are so afraid of what might possibly go wrong you'd deny people their rights to stop perceived threats. I'm looking at what is wrong right now and trying to figure out how to empower them to make their lives better!"

"With no thought of how your empowerment can be abused!" Rosetta snarled.

Wild shook her head. "I trust more people are willing to do the right thing, you're too worried about who might do the wrong thing. Someone will always do the wrong thing no matter how much you try to ban things, there will always be bad eggs, but you shouldn't hurt everyone else because of it."

"What you're doing is making it easier for those who want to do harm to be able to do so," Rosetta replied.

Wild tilted her head. "You know who you remind me of? You remind me of Sha'am Maut. Declaring everyone guilty whether they've done anything or not, and thinking you can just force everyone to be good by any means necessary--not even realizing that your methods are making the very monsters you want to prevent."

Rosetta bared her teeth. "How dare you compare me to that bitch! How about I compare you to Sunset Blessing! Oh, it's just a choice. We're just trying to make things better--horseshit!"

Wild narrowed her eyes. "I am not Sunset Blessing. She might have ulterior long term goals, but I do not. Whatever her goals, they will be held in check by the people who want to do the right thing."

Rosetta glared back. "Well, you already expressed our difference of opinion on how much people can be trusted. Sunset thinks she's doing the right thing after all."

This conversation was getting nowhere. They were both entrenched in their views. Something still needed to be done to make it so Rosetta wouldn't continue to hurt their mama though.

"Rosetta...sis," Wild said with a sigh. "The decision about this project will be made tomorrow, and not by us. I'm going to do my best to see it gets approved. Can you please stop voicing feelings about this for the sake of Mama? She isn't out to get anyone. She's just someone getting help."

Rosetta looked back at the door they had just left and let out a long breath. She just gave a small unhappy nod. It would have to be enough.

Jessie sat at the computer and glared at the telephone icon. Her grandmare was laughing again on the other side of the room.

"Jessie, this really isn't the right time or place to be having this conversation with you," her dad's voice came over the speaker.

"Why?" Jessie demanded. She was getting really tired of people avoiding her questions today.

"Because I have Jackie, Jordan, and the three demons standing right here listening on."

"So?" Jessie countered with frustration.

"Their parents would kill me if I had this conversation in front of them," her dad explained with a note of pleading.

"What are they talking about?" She heard Tabby say somewhere in the background.

"I think they're talking about Auntie Yinyu stuff." She heard Alfie respond.

"Ohhhh, I always wanted to hear about Auntie Yinyu stuff!" Charlotte said with excitement.

"Robby! Can you come take these five somewhere else in the house? Your sister is asking me inappropriate questions they shouldn't be hearing," her papa called out.

"What's she asking?" Robby could be heard calling out curiously.

"I'm just asking about why sex shouldn't be discussed," Jessie protested.

"What's sex?" Jackie asked from somewhere.

"I think she said six," Jordan said helpfully.

"Aww, more boring number stuff?" Jackie whined.

"Oh..." Robby said, sounding amused. First Grandmare, now Robby, what was so funny? "Come on squirts. I'm going to teach you how to draw better."

"But I want to hear about Auntie Yinyu stuff!" Charlotte protested.

"You know your moms don't want you hearing that. Do you want me to tell them you were doing something they'd be mad about?" Robby asked.

"No," Charlotte said with resignation.

"Thanks, Robby " their dad said with relief. "Okay, so as for your question. Let's deal with this in ways you can relate to. Can you agree with me that foals shouldn't be doing that kind of thing?"

"I don't know why'd they even want to," Jessie replied.

"Because foals are curious and we'd rather they didn't get curious about things like that when they aren't mature enough mentally or physically," her dad explained. "That includes you. You're very mature for your age, but not that mature--and no where near physically mature enough. So we'd rather you weren't curious about it either. That's why no one wants to talk to you about the subject or have you being exposed to the subject."

"But you're telling me now," Jessie pointed out.

"Because I know you won't let it go until you get a straight answer," her dad responded. "I'd really prefer not to, but I know you far too well."

"So why couldn't Mom just tell me? Why'd she have to act all weird about it?"

She heard her dad sigh. "Your mom is a teacher and she deals with foals your age for a living. She has a hard time sometimes separating how to respond to an average foal your age from how to respond to you. She looks at you and sees a foal that's coming up near seven years old and responds accordingly."

"But I'm not like them," she said grumpily as she flicked her tail. "I'm smarter, I understand things they don't, I understand concepts most grown-ups don't; I shouldn't be treated like a little filly. It's unfair."

"Saying it's unfair all the time is something I expect out of a filly rather than an adult," her dad said with a hint of mirth. "Your time to be treated as an adult will come, Jessie. The majority of your life is going to be spent as an adult. You only get one foalhood, and when it's over you'll wish you could have it back, because it's a special time in life. Don't be in such a hurry to leave it behind."

"I don't see what's so special about it," she replied in a sour tone.

"Well, for one it's a time of life where everyone is making sure you're taken care of. After you become an adult you have a lot more fending for yourself to do," her dad said slowly. "Second, you don't have the same responsibilities forced on you now as you will as an adult. You don't only have to be responsible for yourself and your obligations, but often times responsible for others--especially if you have your own foals that will be depending on you. That can be very stressful. Third, you have a lot less time to just do what you want to do because of your responsibilities. You'll never have the same level of freedom as when you're a foal when it comes to just having fun."

Her thoughts drifted to the responsibilities that she had coming. Phobia Remedy said that she'd be a big part in saving the world from the Devourers, but didn't want her getting too involved yet. Protecting the world like that was a huge responsibility. If she messed up it wouldn't be just hurting her it would be hurting everyone. She couldn't even decide that she didn't want to do it--it was just too important not to do. The Dreamwarden must not want her getting too involved yet because she knew how much of a burden it was. She also thought of all the empty picture frames that were in her dream, and how she wanted to see what would fill those.

"I think I understand," she said after much consideration.

She jumped as her mom let out a squealing scream. Her grandmare moved like lightning, jumping into the air and into flight straight out of the room and through the hallway.

"Jessie, go check on your mother then come tell me what's going on," her dad instructed in a worried tone.

She didn't need any more prompting than that. She jumped down to the floor and ran out to the living room. Her mom was breathing hard and looked like she hurting while her grandmare was trying to soothe her. There was also a strange smell that smelled very faintly of urine. A damp spot was slowly growing where her mom sat on the couch.

Her grandmare turned to her quickly. "Jessica, go tell your father that I'm calling the hospital right now to come get your mom. Her water just broke. Your little brother is on his way now."

Jessie stood in shock for a second. "What's he supposed to do. What do I do when I'm done? Are Mom and Dusk going to be alright?"

"They're going to be fine," Grandmare Nocte said firmly. "Your dad is going to have to figure out what to do with all the foals he is watching. I'll find a way of getting the two of us to the hospital as well. Just move and do as you're told."

She ran back to the other room and hopped up on the chair and looked at the computer. "Mom's water broke and Grandmare Nocte is calling the hospital."

"Of all the days it had to be the one I agreed to foalsit," her dad said in frustration. "I'm going to figure something out. I might just have to just pack everyone in the car and go to the hospital--if the mares outside let me take the demons away from the house. Be good, and do whatever your grandmare says. I'll see you at the hospital soon."

"Please hurry, Dad. Mom seems like she's hurting and I'm scared," she said as the initial shock started wearing off. "Why can't the night ponies just watch them? They're already there."

"Phobia and Rosetta are very particular about who they let supervise their foals. Guarding the foals and taking care of them are two different things," her dad answered. "I'll call them and see if they are going to let me take them to the hospital and if not then find out what they want me to do."

"But we need you now," Jessie protested as her fear grew. "Can't you--"

"Jessie!" Her dad cut her off and she could hear him getting a frantic himself, which didn't help her feel better. "I need to get going. I'll be there." The line abruptly cut off.

She didn't know what else to do so she left the room and went back to the living room. Her grandmare was just getting off a phone call and her mom was laying down on her back on the now very damp couch, still taking deep breaths and grunting occasionally.

Her grandmare gave her a considering look. "Jessica, the ambulance is going to be here in just a few minutes. You need to gather whatever it is you need to keep yourself occupied because when we get to the hospital we're likely going to be there a while. I'm calling us a cab and we'll be leaving right after they get your mom. What did your dad say?"

She took a deep breath to try to calm herself and show she was mature and brave. "He said that he's coming, but he has to figure out what to do about the demons. He promised he'd be there though... Why don't they just teleport Mom to the hospital?"

"You don't teleport someone who's pregnant unless you don't have a choice. It could hurt the baby," her grandmare explained. "This is just her water breaking, it might be hours yet before your little brother chooses to grace us with his presence. Now get ready, and when the paramedics get here stay out of their way so they can do their jobs."

Jessie didn't obey right away; instead she stood and stared at her mom. Her mom somehow realized she was being watched and turned and looked at her. "It's okay, baby girl. I'm alright. I'll be feeling much better when Dusk is out and in my arms. Just do as your grandmare says."

"Take a shower first," Grandmare Nocte ordered. "I'm not going to have my granddaughter out in public unwashed and smelly. You've got time if you're quick about it."

Jessie scrunched up her nose. She didn't stink that much, and her mom smelled much worse right now. Plus, drying took a long time and there was no way she would be able to get properly dried in time if what Grandmare Nocte said was true about how fast the paramedics and the cab would be arriving.

"Jessie...skip the shower, just get ready," her mom said, directly overruling what her grandmare just said. Her mom couldn't be as bad off as she seemed earlier if her mom was thinking things through better than Grandmare Nocte--who should know how long it takes a pony to get their fur, mane, and tail dry. It soothed some of Jessie's anxiety that her mom was thinking clearly, even if Grandmare Nocte wasn't.

She hurried to her room started getting what she needed together. She hadn't yet put her Pony Strap on today and that was the first thing taken care of. The next was double checking her saddlebags to make sure all her accessories were still properly packed. Typically they were, but there had been once or twice she had taken something off to clean or set aside in a hurry and forgotten about it.

After she was satisfied that nothing was missing she double checked her other bag to see what was currently in it. All that was currently in there was her notebook. She considered it for a moment and decided to return her notebook to it's safe spot in her pillow; just protect it from getting possibly lost. She'd be far too distracted today to work on it anyway. She added instead her copies of Frankenstein and her biology textbook, along with a separate notebook for each for taking notes if she needed.

She wished her parents would let her get a cell phone so she could browse the internet at the hospital. They wouldn't even let her get a phone watch like most grown-ups had. They said she had no need of one and she was too young. What could be so wrong with a foal having a cell phone?

Her mane and tail took a few minutes to properly brush. As she was finishing she heard knocking at the front door. She quickly put her brush away into her bags and went out into the living room.

A pair of humans, a unicorn, and a crystal pony were all talking to her mom. Grandmare Nocte was standing a short distance away just watching. The front door was open and she could see a stretcher sitting right outside. Her mom was red faced, but like she was hot or something rather than embarrassed. She was propping herself up with her elbows to answer the questions the paramedics were asking.

"Come over by me, Jessica," Grandmare Nocte instructed as she gestured her over with a wing. Jessie quickly complied and snuggled close to her grandmare as her grandmare draped a wing over her.

The paramedics seemed to be done asking questions and the pair of humans went outside and started maneuvering the stretcher through the door as the crystal pony mare sat beside her mom and spoke soothingly as she rubbed her hoof against her mom's arm. The unicorn stallion walked over towards Jessie and and her grandmare with a smile on his face.

"We'll be taking her straight to the maternity ward," the unicorn explained. "Everything seems to be perfectly fine with no signs of complications so far. Hopeful Heart over there is an experienced midwife and if anything happens along the way she can help get her through it. Contractions have just started and may be going on for a while."

Grandmare Nocte's phone watch rang and she raised it up and touched a wingtip to it. A voice came from it. "Someone order a cab? I'm right outside."

"Thank you, we'll be right out as soon as the paramedics get my daughter into the ambulance," Grandmare Nocte replied, then touched the watch again before setting her hoof back down.

They watched as her mom was carefully moved onto the stretcher and strapped on, with the paramedics asking about whether straps were too tight and giving her mom reassurance that the trip to the hospital would be quick. The crystal pony kept telling her mom that she was doing a good job, but Jessie didn't see her mom actually doing anything.

"We'll be there soon," Grandmare Nocte called out to Jessie's mom as the stretcher went out the door. She then looked down at Jessie as she removed her wing. "We need to go out to the nice cab driver who has been very patient to wait for us. Do you have everything you need? I'm not sure when we'll be back."

"Yes, Grandmare," Jessie replied with a nod.

Her grandmare led them out and shut the door behind them and then frowned at it. "I don't have a key for this so I can't lock it. I don't like leaving houses unlocked. I know most ponies don't lock their doors, but I think that's just stupid."

Jessie didn't have a good reply to this so she kept quiet. The concept of locking doors seemed strange to her. Yeah, that might be something important in other places, but this was Riverview and most people were really nice and wouldn't break into houses. Even if they did break into houses she didn't think a door lock would do much to stop them. Her grandmare was a night pony and a police officer so it was probably just protective paranoia.

Her elder led them out to a yellow cab and opened the door with a wing. Jessie hopped into the vehicle and her grandmare followed her in then reached with a wing and pulled the door shut with it--she was always so impressed with how strong and agile night pony wings were. Night ponies couldn't fly has high and fast as pegasi, but they definitely put their wings to more use when they were down on the ground--like less nimble versions of human hands.

"Where to?" The cab driver asked.

"To the Central Hospital, please," Grandmare Nocte instructed.

The car pulled out of the driveway and onto the road. Jessie didn't feel much like looking at the scenery as they drove down the road. She instead looked at her grandmare. Grandmare Nocte's face was calm, but her ears and tail were twitching, and on and off she'd rubbed one leg against another.

"Is Mom going to be alright?" Jessie asked with worry. "And Dusk? Mom told me about how I was born early and how bad it was. Wasn't Dusk supposed to be born a few days from now? What's going to happen because he's early?"

Her grandmare looked at her with her ears slightly flattened. "He's not really early, not like you were. Due dates are best estimates and a few days before that isn't really that big a deal. You were months early, not days."

"But you look worried," Jessie said in a low voice.

Grandmare Nocte took a deep breath and a lot of her twitching stopped. "I'm a little anxious, that's true. I wasn't there for your birth and I always felt bad for not being there to help. After everything that went on with your birth and not having helped I can't help but feel that she's depending on me, even though I know that's not true."

That perked her curiosity. Hearing a story might distract her. "Where were you back then?"

Grandmare Nocte looked out a window. "I was a prosecutor at the time. That's what I used to do for a living; I was a lawyer. It was a critical part of the case and I couldn't take time off to go to your mom and help. You showed up so early there was no way to make plans to do so. I just couldn't drop what was going on with the trial though--I had duties and obligations. I was even working through a very bad case of flu."

"ETS?"

The night pony nodded. "Yes, though no one really knew it was more than just the flu until reports really started springing up all over the internet from what was going on out west. I had it in my head that I couldn't just drop everything and come down to help. I likely would have spread ETS to your parents if I had, and you'd have pony parents right now."

There was a sound of regret in her grandmare's voice. Why was everyone so concerned about that? Her parents being human was perfectly fine. She knew her grandmare felt even stronger about it than her mom did so she didn't say anything about it.

Her grandmare turned back to her. "You know, Jessica, your mom is always so concerned about how to get you more social. We all want to see you have more friends and enjoy life more. I don't think you're as socially inept as everyone makes you out to be, though. You pick up on others' emotions; and display care, empathy, and love. What you lack is an appreciation of what life gives beyond academics."

"What do you mean?" Jessie asked in confusion.

"You can make friends, but you don't understand friends and family are as important as your math--maybe more important. I don't want you to be like I was and make those kinds of mistakes," her grandmare replied. "I could introduce you to some more foals you could be good friends with."

That was something she couldn't agree with. Phobia Remedy said her equations were going to help save the world. That was way more important than her going out and reading with Jordan or stealing cookies with the demons. There was no way saving that the lives of everyone on the planet was less important than her playing. She wasn't sure she wanted to be introduced to any foals that her grandmare had in mind anyway after that talk about youth groups.

Her grandmare must have picked up on her reluctance and gave her a pat on the head with a hoof as she sighed. "Forget I mentioned introducing you to those foals, but please take to heart that no matter what what goes on with your friends and family is more important than whatever job you have might be. Whenever you get your cutie mark--which I'm betting is going to be some math or science-y thing--I hope you realize that's not what defines you; you're relationships with friends and family do."

Jessie looked out the window then. Friends and family were important, but they weren't as important as her math and nothing was going to convince her otherwise.

Tonya watched with as much detachment as she could muster as Roger wheeled the once again human Jean away in a wheelchair, and her ears twitched at the sound of the squeaking wheels. She had spent several agonizing minutes interviewing the poor woman after the spell had been brought to an end. She couldn't blame Jean for being unhappy with being returned to her human form. She had been given four hours of true freedom from parkinson's disease and was now forced to return to it again. Jean's brave front couldn't hide how despondent she truly was and Tonya didn't need to probe her with her powers to feel how upset she really was. Her heart went out to her.

Jean, like Megan before her now registered a weak PREQUES rating now. The crystal ponies had given her a rating of a quarter of a point. That wasn't much, but it was infinitely more than nothing. It was unlikely such a weak amount of magic would actually be useful for anything, but such magic had grown in rehumanized people before to the point they gained magical abilities with time. Melissa was a prime example of that.

Tonya didn't think she'd be able to find Jean's dreams tonight even if she tried to check up on the woman. Rosetta as a close family member would be the only one outside of the Dreamwardens who could possibly do it. The Dreamwardens would certainly be able to but they wouldn't give her any information on what they found.

Now it was time to deal with Amanda and Tom. She'd done all she could to dissuade them from going through with the spell like this, but they wouldn't budge on allowing mind magic being incorporated into the spell no matter how much she pleaded. Amanda seemed to take a certain amount of satisfaction in knowing this wasn't going to continue past tomorrow; she said that it was best that she and Tom just got this out of their system so they could properly move on with their lives. Tom had been silent on the issue, but had put up no protests to what his wife said. From what Tonya could tell Tom liked to take a backseat to strong females. Sunset might have actually been good for him, even though he certainly wasn't good for her.

Crystal Dreams pushed by as Tonya returned to the monitoring room, giving a quick apology and saying she was in a hurry. Almost everyone was still there; Sunset, Phobia, Rosetta, Wild Growth, and Tempest Shadow. Amanda and Tom were now in the testing room filling out the mounds of paperwork that needed to be completed before the test. This could have been done earlier, but Sunset insisted that such signings be withheld until the last minute in case any of the testing subjects developed second thoughts at the last minute. She didn't want paperwork filled out for nothing.

"You need to let them know that Paul is in route to the hospital and he's bringing Jordan and Jackie with him. Devon's just gone into labor," Rosetta instructed as Tonya was stepping over to Sunset. "Crystal is going to be watching our foals and Robby, but we didn't want to make the decision to have Jackie and Jordan left with her when Amanda and Dad don't really know her well."

"Couldn't Robby just watch them?" Sunset asked. "I know he's only thirteen, but he has an army of mares standing right outside the house guarding them."

Phobia chuckled. "We suggested the same thing, but Paul isn't too keen on leaving Robby near a swarm of night pony mares without an adult he trusts close at hoof."

Tonya felt a mild rush of euphoric excitement at hearing that her newest nephew was going to be likely be born today. She turned to Sunset and her wife sighed while rolling her eyes before nodding and gesturing for Tonya to follow her out into the hallway so they could go inform the couple in the other room that their foals were doing an impromptu visit to the hospital. It was doubtful they would call off the experiment for this, because they trusted Paul absolutely, but they still had a right to know about the sudden change in their fillies' whereabouts.

"Do you think they'll call this off with this news?" Sunset asked as they stepped out into the hallway.

Tonya shook her head. "They were pretty committed to it, and they trust my brother with their foals completely. They'll probably just want to visit the hospital to go see Devon after they are done here."

"Pity," Sunset muttered.

Tonya raised an eyebrow at that. "Are you having second thoughts? You could still call this off. You know my opinion on this."

Sunset hesitated for a moment then shook her head. "No, we're just going to limit it to forty-five minutes and be done with it for today. We can use the fact they will want to go see Devon as an excuse for the further limitations on the time. I'll admit, I've been thinking about it, but this must be done."

"It doesn't have to be, Sunset," Tonya whispered as she laid her ears flat.

Sunset raised her head high. "Yes, it does. This is for the future of our world. This is my legacy to future generations. When the government approves this we will have our avenue to slowly bring magic to every person on the planet over time. It won't even matter if they all choose to be ponies or not. Just doing the temporary transformation once gives them magic, and they will pass that on to future generations. Time and the needs of humanity will slowly ensure everyone will eventually carry that magic. We're going to heal the world and grant it the light of magic, as God intended."

Something about that struck Tonya as odd. "Wait...I thought the idea was people would see how good being a pony was and spread the word--that they'd slowly cease wanting these transformations to be temporary. The way you describe it moves away from Shimmerism."

Sunset shook her head. "The world becoming all ponies might be the more effective for reaching the end goals of Shimmerism--in theory, but ultimately our goals are a society without scarcity or need--where all have magic. It was always an unrealistic pipe dream to expect that we could convince the whole world to become ponies permanently, but we can accomplish bringing magic to the humans. There is more than one route to our end goals. This isn't a betrayal of Shimmerism, but the evolution of it."

"But where do ponies fit into this new world?" Tonya asked with confusion about what she was hearing.

Sunset waved a hoof dismissively. "We aren't going anywhere. Our magic is developed and specialized already. It will take a long time for humans to catch up, and even then it is unlikely they will have all our specializations. We will all fit together in God's plan. There may even be some humans that do eventually permanently transform that will hasten the world's rebirth along. Everything will come together in the end."

Tonya sat trying to process all this. This was such a sudden change in what Sunset had always preached. Tonya herself didn't even know what to make of it all or if Sunset was right or wrong--or if some strange doppelganger had come and replaced her wife.

"Where is all this coming from Sunset?" She finally asked as she shook her head in confusion. "This isn't what we've always believed. You haven't even discussed this with me before now. I...I just don't know what to think right now. I almost want to ask who are you and what have you done with my wife?"

Sunset gave her a sympathetic look and touched a hoof gently to the side of Tonya's face. "It finally came completely to me today, but it has been a slowly growing thought since the first days of rehumanization. When Megan came out of her transformation with magic, and then we saw the same thing happen today with Jean, God opened my eyes to the truth."

"How many times must God open your eyes to the truth?" Tonya asked, still in disbelief of all this.

Sunset smiled as she looked upwards. “Revelation is ongoing, we learn things when we’re ready to. None of us were prepared after ETS to realize that his plan wasn’t for a world of only ponies, but to instead shepherd in a world of both humans and ponies using magic in a new Eden."

Tonya licked her lips nervously. This was definitely Sunset. Only Sunset could go so deeply into her zealotry for God's work. There would be no reasoning with her when she was like this. The scary thing was she wasn't entirely sure if Sunset was wrong. It was so easy to be caught up in what her wife was saying. Sunset saw herself as a prophet of God, and listening to her you could believe she was--Tonya already did to some extent. What Sunset said did seem like a natural progression of divine revelation, despite seeming the sudden change in course. This really needed time to sit and consider--away from her wife and her ability to catch everyone up in her vision of a better world.

She looked around the hall, there had been soldiers who had walked by during all that. How many of them had heard that? She had no doubt some had, and it was going to be reported on to the government. They might think it some ploy on Sunset's behalf, but it would intrigue a lot of people. There had been those that dreamed of the prospect of human magic since the early days after ETS. Sunset had to know that what she said was going to reported, and that it would help curry favor with those factions. Tonya's wife was no liar; if she said this she meant it, but her timing and placement of when she revealed it was likely no accident.

"We'll discuss it more later, but for right now let's get to Amanda and Tom before the mages start working," Tonya said hurriedly as she started back towards the testing room. Sunset nodded and followed along.

As they entered into the testing room it looked like the couple who were subjects for today's test were on their last few sheets of paperwork. Amanda glanced up at them and grimaced. "Ma mouff is zarting to go mum from all thiz watting," the earth pony mumbled around the pen in her mouth. They weren't allowed to have their Pony Straps on in here so that made writing more cumbersome.

"Set the pen down for a moment, we can finish the paperwork in a minute," Sunset instructed. Amanda gratefully complied then sat working her jaw for a moment like it had a cramp.

"Is there something else to go over before we start?" Tom asked as he lowered his own pen with his magic.

Tonya shook her head. "Just passing some information on as a courtesy. Devon just went into labor. Paul had to go to the hospital right away and didn't see much choice but to bring Jackie and Jordan along with him. We figured you'd want to know."

Amanda squealed with excitement as she hugged Tom tightly. "Oh, that's exciting to hear! Of course we understand him bringing the fillies' with him. They're going to be bored, but they at least will have Jessie to keep them company while they wait."

"We're going to cut the time of this experiment down so you can head out sooner," Sunset cut in. "We're doing just forty-five minutes then ending the spell."

"That's not much of anything," Tom replied with narrowed eyes.

Sunset looked her ex-husband in the eyes. "It's enough to get the data we need for today. I have my reservations about this version of the spell being used at all--unless you're willing to reconsider."

Amanda held up a hoof. "We aren't changing our minds about that, forty-five minutes will be fine. I am confused about why you would want to change our minds anyway. It seems out of character that you'd be trying to mind magic us into being more comfortable in human bodies than we'd normally be on our own."

Sunset raised an eyebrow at the pink earth pony. "Is it so hard to believe I don't want to see you hurt by this? I admit, I'm not perfect and would personally find being human again repulsive, but that's just me. There's no need to make you uncomfortable if there's a way not to."

"If we end up being uncomfortable at least we know it comes from us and not what you put in our heads," Amanda said in tone that had a hint of steel to it. "We're doing it this way."

"As you wish," Sunset said with a sigh and a flick of her tail. "We'll leave you to finish signing the rest of these forms and will be back after the spell is done."

Tonya stepped back into the hallway with her wife. Sunset glanced back at the door unhappily. This was clearly weighing on her.

"Just tell them no, Sunset," Tonya pleaded again.

"It's happening," Sunset said with a tone of finality. "Our other subject will have to take the same spell as them tomorrow just to keep consistent in front of the Equestrians. They'll be reading the spell closely and we can't be showing multiple versions of it at the same test."

"That's endangering another person," Tonya protested will a stomp of her hooves. "Does this pony even know?"

Sunset looked her in the eyes. "Yes, yes I do."

Chapter 10: Shadows and Unease

The monitoring room had a different sort of tension than it had when Jean was preparing to be transformed. With the previous tension there was the hope and expectation that the spell would give the debilitated woman relief from her ailment. With Tom and Amanda it was tension born of fear of what bad things this spell might do to them. No one was happy as they waited for the experiment to begin.

Two soldiers stood guard near the door. In a corner Wild and Rosetta were having an animated discussion with a lot of harsh whispering going on. The two sisters rarely missed the opportunity to bicker and had been doing so most of the morning--with intermittent hugs, crying and affirmations of their familial love. Sunset stood motionless watching the feed from the testing room as doctors and mages explained some final details to the couple in the other room. Phobia stood silently watching the feed as well in her own corner, isolated from the rest of the ponies in the room. Tempest Shadow stood at a midpoint between Phobia and the two bickering sisters, with her eyes focused on the human guards.

Tonya felt uneasy as she glanced at Phobia. The Dreamwarden had said nothing on the subject, but her gaze at the monitor was particularly fierce. Phobia had seen what had happened to Velvet and knew what harm this could cause. The rules of dreamwalking prevented Phobia from saying anything about what she learned in the dream realm that could be considered private information, but seeing her father and Amanda subjecting themselves to this must have been curdling the night pony's stomach.

Tonya stepped over to her oldest and truest friend and whispered low to her in her ear. "I did everything I could to try to convince them not to do this without describing in detail what I saw in Velvet's dream. I tried to tell your mom to just call it off as well. She finally decided to reduce the time further, but that's the best I could manage. I'm sorry."

Phobia closed her eyes for a moment as if pained and then nodded back. "You did what you could. All we can do is hope for the best...or at least hope the worst doesn't happen. I'm all too familiar with that feeling."

Tonya glanced over at her wife and then whispered again to Phobia. "Your mom is planning on having this done to herself. I don't know what to do."

Phobia's eyes closed again as she whispered back. "I'm aware of it. I don't have any answers for you though."

"Wait, you know?" Tonya said in shock and almost broke out of a whisper before catching herself.

"Dreamwardens know a lot of things."

"How long have you known?" Tonya demanded in a tight voice.

"I can't reveal that."

Tonya swished her tail angrily. "Why? That's your mother doing this!"

Phobia gave Tonya a hard look. "You know why. It's private information I gained in a dream. I can discuss it a little now in the context of the information you just said, but no more than that. It doesn't matter who I got the information from or what it involves; private information is private information. I am bound to protect that no matter what if no mind magic abuses or dreamwalking abuses are involved."

"But she could be hurt by this..." Tonya protested as tears filled her eyes.

"The rules are absolute," the Dreamwarden said harshly. "If someone had a nuclear bomb set to blow up half this city and was planning to detonate it moments from now. I couldn't even act as if I knew something bad was going to happen if I gained that information from a dream."

"The rules are stupid," Tonya muttered.

Phobia sighed. "The rules keep people safe from dreamwalkers and even the Dreamwardens. Once you say you can reveal private information gained in a dream you've opened Pandora's box that anything can be revealed from another's thoughts if you can make up some justification for it. Such information must be kept sacred, even the terrible and horrible things that could protect others if they knew."

Tonya gave her best friend a long look. "And how many more terrible things do you know?"

"Far more than I ever wanted to know," Phobia said in a barely audible whisper.

"It's about to start," Sunset announced, bringing a halt to any conversations that were happening. Tonya returned to her wife's side and turned her attention to the feed. Sunset reached over with a hoof and Tonya extended hers out and the two gripped fetlocks in nervous anticipation.

As before the mages circled the couple and a sleep spell was cast. Doctors moved in to confirm that the couple was indeed asleep and retreated to their corners after doing so. Then the mages lit up their horns and the spell went into progress.

Tonya averted her eyes from it. After watching the recordings of the previous tests, and watching Jean's transformation brought to an early end, she had a hard time stomaching watching the transformation to human again. There was just something disturbing about the retreat of fur, elongation of body, and shifting of hooves to hands and feet that made her feel sick watching. It was probably the Shimmerist in her that made it so the process of becoming a pony didn't disturb her, but the process of becoming a human made her want to empty her stomach. She felt somewhat guilty for feeling this way, but still wanted to avoid the feeling of nausea that it induced.

She instead watched the faces of the other ponies in the room. Sunset and Phobia were stoic as they watched, and it was easy at that moment to tell that they were mother and daughter despite their different tribes and mindsets. Surprisingly, the two sisters and Tempest had squeamish expressions on there faces as they watched the process at work; with Rosetta of all ponies looking the most ill while Wild and Tempest simply looked more unnerved than sickened. The human guards she could spot taking curious glances at the feed, but they didn't seem particularly disturbed by it.

The looks shifted to anticipation and Sunset tightened her grip on Tonya's fetlock. Guessing that the actual transformation was done she turned her eyes back to the monitor.

Where once there were a unicorn stallion and an earth pony now lay a white middle aged man with greying hair and a black woman who could have been anywhere from later twenties to early forties laying naked on separate cots.

"It's been a while, the grey in his hair is more pronounced--he's my age," Sunset said in a low voice. "His perception of what he should look like impacts this, he must feel old."

The doctors were at work checking them over. The process would take several minutes.

"Let's head over now so we can be present right away when they're awakened," Sunset whispered to her. Tonya looked over at the others, but their attention was as glued to the feed. She then turned and nodded to her wife.

They stepped out into the hallway without a word and walked down it with only the sounds of their hoofs hitting the white concrete and the occasional human soldier walking by through the plain white hall. Not a word was said between them as they advanced to the testing room. When they reached it Sunset knocked twice and keyed in the security code to the panel beside the door using her magic before the door clicked marking that it had unlocked. A moment later a human guard within opened it for them and they walked in. The guard shut the door behind them and the sound of clicking again marked that it was once again locked to the outside.

The doctors were finishing their examination as they walked in and stepping away from the couple. Tonya and her wife stepped off to a corner as one of the mages lit his horn and cast the counter to the earlier sleep spell. The two reminted humans started to stir.

Amanda was the first to sit up. Her motor control seemed to be working well enough, but when she rubbed her eyes she rubbed them in an odd looking way with the back of her hand. She looked over at Tom first before looking herself over, but after seeing him she put her hand back up to examine closely; flexing her fingers joint by joint and looking at them with an odd expression before turning her attention back to her stirring husband.

"We have some robes for you so you don't need to be naked. We didn't cover you with blankets because we needed to make sure no problems happened during the process," one of the human doctors said with embarrassment.

Amanda looked at the doctor with a puzzled look before it seemed to register to her what he was talking about or why. "Don't worry about the robes. I'm not concerned about wearing anything. It's not like I'm going to be walking down the street like this to upset humans with our nakedness. You sound...strange."

"That would be because your hearing has shifted from pony to human, ma'am, things are going to sound different because of that," the doctor said as he tried to avert his eyes from Amanda's chest. Tonya noted that Amanda's breasts were fairly large and human males typically had some strange fascination with staring at those. She wasn't sure if Amanda picked up on that yet. Next time they'd need to insist on covering them right away as they'd have a larger human audience.

"How are you feeling?" Tonya asked.

"I want to be sure Tom is alright before I start trying to process all this," Amanda replied.

"Tom, can you hear me?" Sunset called out.

"Charlotte...?" Tom said groggily as he started to sit up.

"It's Sunset Blessing, we've gone over this I don't know how many times. Charlotte is our granddaughter," Sunset replied with a hint of annoyance. "How are you feeling?"

The man sat up slowly, pushing himself up with his hands. "Something about the sound of your voice made me think Charlotte."

"Probably the change in how you hear it reverting to human hearing reminded you of Sunset when she was human," Tonya interjected. "Tell us how you're feeling."

"A little tired," he replied as he came into more of a sitting position. He then seemed to finally register that the transformation had happened and started examining his chest which had patchy dark hair on his pale skin.

"You look a bit older than the pictures we were looking at last night," Amanda commented. She squinted at him. "At least I think so...everything looks a bit off with my vision: like color is dull and out of focus."

"Human vision, you're used to pony eyesight and it's different," Sunset commented then looked back at Tom. "As for difference in appearance: I'm not sure on the answer for that. The pony to human spell I haven't perfected the resonance warping as well as the human to pony one."

Tonya knew why on that, though she wouldn't mention it. Her wife was working with her namesake's spell as a base, and the Equestrian hadn't been interested in turning ponies into humans. Sunset had spent a lot more time trying to figure out this version. Sunset Shimmer had done the hard work on developing the working concepts, but it was still a challenge doing adjustments with less advanced knowledge of magic--it had taken years of research and development even with Sunset Shimmer's spell available to study and build off of.

"Do you think you can try to stand up? We can have one of these fine doctors brace you while you're trying to find your center of gravity."

"You're pushing them pretty fast," Tonya whispered.

"We are short on time and I want to keep them occupied as much as possible," Sunset whispered back.

Tonya settled down. She understood what was unsaid. Distract them from thinking too deeply about this and have an existential crisis as a result. She wasn't sure how well that would work, but she had much the same idea with the puzzles for Amanda that were even now sitting in the corner.

Tom looked around him and then to the floor. "Floor looks a lot closer than it did a before I fell asleep. I think I can manage it on my own. Walking on two legs should be like riding a bicycle, once you learn you never forget how."

Tonya chose not to comment on the fact that for the last six years riding a bicycle had been all but impossible for anyone who was a pony. The doctors didn't seem to put much stock in the idea he could just go straight back to standing on two legs either, as they moved closer to him in case they needed to step in to catch him.

Tom carefully moved his legs over the side of the cot as he prepared to stand up. He had his hands planted on the cot but didn't seem to be instinctually gripping the edge to better support himself. When he pushed off he gave it more of a jump down than just stepping down, likely because ponies typically had to do a bit more of a hop when doing such things.

His legs immediately buckled when coming in contact with the ground, Thankfully the doctors had been anticipating it and were also pretty fast. As a result they were there to grab him from either side before he fell on the floor and possibly hurt himself.

"Please be more careful, Tom. You might accidentally hurt yourself," Amanda said worriedly as she watched this all unfold.

"I'm fine," Tom replied dismissively as he tried to stand up straight. Standing up straight looked like it was more complicated than it should have been, even when the doctors supporting him. It was as if he was having to put a lot of thought into what he was doing. The memory of how to do that was in his mind, but it had been a long time since such memories had to be used. This spell supposedly drew a lot on those old suppressed memories but it didn't automatically suppress his natural instincts on how he instinctively as a pony would have done things.

It took him a minute, but his mind seemed to find the long unused instructions on how to properly stand on two legs. The doctors held his sides until it seemed he fully had his balance before letting go, but they kept close by him after releasing him.

At this point he did started doing a more thorough examination of himself, starting with his arms and hands. He flexed each finger starting with the outer joints first and working his way through all of them. He then rubbed his arms with the palms of his hands before looking down at his toes and moving each of them in turn.

He gave an involuntary shiver. "It's a little more chilly in here than it was a few minutes ago."

"You don't have fur anymore and aren't wearing any clothes," Sunset pointed out. "Do you want to put on a robe?"

"It might be a good idea," Amanda said quickly, to Tonya's complete surprise. "I'd somehow forgotten human male...um, organs...hung out for everyone to see in the front." That better explained her sudden feeling of nervousness about nakedness in Tom's case. Stallions typically had those parts mostly hidden by their natural body position, and while ponies typically didn't have the same concepts of modesty a human would that one particular part being put in easy viewing range of every mare could be considered indecent.

Tom looked down at his offending parts and actually blushed before silently nodding. The doctors quickly moved to get robes for both Tom and Amanda. Tom's went on fairly easily.

"You're going to need to stand up, ma'am," a doctor instructed Amanda. Amanda looked down at the floor and then tentatively moved her legs over the edge of the cot. She allowed the doctor to support her while she stepped down. He gave her a moment to find her balance after she got into a standing position and then proceeded to dress her.

"This feels weird," Amanda muttered as she rubbed a palm of a hand over the sleeve of the robe. Tom didn't say anything, but was doing a similar action.

"We'll need you in those tomorrow because we'll have a bigger audience. Try to get used to them as best you can now," Sunset instructed. "Tom, try to take a few steps--with a doctor helping."

Like Jean before him the first step nearly sent him tumbling--in his case much more severely, but the doctor was ready for it and braced him back up. Tonya held her breath as the next step wasn't much better, or the one after that, or even the one after that. Amanda let off involuntary gasps each time Tom almost took a tumble. It took many attempts before the knowledge of how to walk on two legs finally seemed to come back to him.

The doctor standing by Amanda put a hand on her arm. "Are you ready to try, ma'am?"

"Not particularly," Amanda said with a mutter as she looked at the floor. "I suppose I should though. This place feels a lot more cramped than it did earlier. I'm feeling a little claustrophobic to tell the truth."

"How bad is the claustrophobia?" Tonya asked quickly on hearing something that might be interpreted as distress.

Amanda shook her head. "It's manageable. Between the walls and ceiling feeling a lot closer, standing close to the same height as these men, and looking down at you below me it is just a little jarring, and combine all that with my vision and other senses feeling off and it's just uncomfortable all around. This really wasn't the experience I'd thought it be."

Tom let off a grunt that might be interpreted as agreement as he continued his slow guided walk. Tonya wondered what was going on in his head, and was tempted to reach out with her magic to try to probe their emotions. She wasn't very good at doing that unless sitting close one-on-one though. Any idiot could see that they weren't enjoying this like Jean had enjoyed her transformation, but she wished she had a better idea how much less.

"Once we see if you can walk I have some jigsaw puzzles for you to try. That should let you appreciate having hands a bit more," Tonya said with a reassuring smile.

"Yeah, that might be cool," Amanda agreed while staring at her feet in preparation of trying to walk. She wiggled her toes a little and gave them a slightly disgusted look.

Amanda wasn't taking the same risks as her husband and reached an arm out to let the doctor brace her. The first step nearly had her twist her ankle despite that and only the support of the doctor prevented that. She took a deep breath and tried again. After a few false starts she seemed to get the hang of it.

Tonya and her wife watched them walk about with doctors following close by for a few minutes. Neither of the reminted humans looked particularly happy. She couldn't help feeling a little bad for Tom. He'd been wanting this so long and now that he was getting to do it things weren't anywhere near as pleasant as he expected. Without suppressing the pony mindset this just wasn't going to be workable.

Sunset had a frown on her face as she watched. She no doubt was thinking about how she was going to be coping with this herself tomorrow. Hopefully this showing would give the unicorn second thoughts about doing this to herself. Tom and Amanda at least had some nostalgia for being human coming into this, Sunset had nothing of the sort. Sunset might have decided that seeing humans eventually as pony equals in magic was the worthwhile and proper course for Shimmerism, but the red furred unicorn had a hatred for her past human self that had to make the thought of this horrifying to her. Tonya was unsure if even the upgraded spell that gave a human mindset would offset that; those feelings were deep set and impacted much of her ways of thinking.

"How are their PREQUES ratings?" Sunset asked the crystal ponies.

"Hard to say for sure because of the spell itself overlaying things, but I'm pretty sure they are unchanged from as ponies; mid three range for each," one of the crystal ponies replied. The other nodded in agreement with this. Sunset grunted and went back to watching the couple walk around.

Tonya checked the time on her phone watch and then stepped forward. "I think it's time for some jigsaw puzzles. Come on over to the corner here and take a seat to rest those legs. This should be a little more fun than just walking around and should hopefully get your minds off how cramped you feel this room is."

"Puzzles aren't that interesting," Tom commented as he looked over at them, absently scratching at his skin.

Tonya tried to ignore the scratching, it reminded her far to much of the recording of Velvet trying to scratch her skin right off. Instead she gave him a smile. "This will be fun for your wife. She normally can't do them. It's an activity you can work on together."

"I'm game to try," Amanda said with a tight smile as she too scratched at her hand. Tonya nervously checked her watch again and saw they still had twelve minutes.

The couple walked over to a table at the corner of the room and Tonya directed them to take seats. She then flew up on the table and indicated the puzzles she had picked out.

"I have a few to choose from since I didn't know your preferences; I have a puzzle of Skytree with a bunch of crops around it, a puzzle of the Statue of Liberty, a hot air balloon, Twilight Sparkle's Castle in Equestria, a bowl of fruit, and an older one of the castle in Disney World."

"Um, Disney World, I guess. I always wanted to go to Disney World but never had an opportunity to," Amanda said without much consideration, then turned to her husband. "Is that okay with you?" Tom nodded in turn.

Tonya pushed the appropriate box of puzzle pieces across the table towards Amanda. Amanda stared at it for a moment before gripping it on either side of the box using the palms of her hands and shaking the top of the box off. It was technically not the wrong way to open the box, so not worth correcting--even though Tonya would have preferred that Amanda put her fingers to use in opening it up.

Amanda and Tom stared at the various puzzle pieces without doing anything. Tonya gave a small smile then tipped the box over so the pieces fell out, then pointed at their hands. "Time to see if you can put those fingers to use. They're one of the big advantages of humanity, so see what you can do with them."

She really didn't think they were that much of an advantage, but she had to admit that this task should be much easier with fingers rather than hooves. Time to see if the novelty of it--as Amanda had put it--would make this experience more enjoyable. Anything to further delay a freak out.

The newly human woman reached over, and with all her fingers clamped together, tried gripping a puzzle piece. Tonya was about to correct her about her methods before Amanda seemed to realize what she was doing wrong. The woman lifted her hand back up, spread her fingers, and started flexing them as she watched how each joint moved carefully. She then looked back down at the puzzle pieces and then over at one of the human doctors who was writing something on a notepad. She stared at the way he was holding the pen for a moment before turning back to the puzzle pieces.

She reached down and carefully gripped her fingers around the puzzle piece in an odd manner and lifted it up. She had a small smile of satisfaction on her face as she did. This was short lived though as she tightened her grip on the puzzle piece and crushed it so it was folded in on itself. This wasn't a cheap puzzle, it was firm plastic. Tonya had gotten puzzles with less flimsy pieces that were designed for unicorn foals coming into their magic specifically because she expected that they'd be rough with the pieces.

"Don't worry!" Tonya quickly said before any distress could happen. "You just seem to have your earth pony strength still. You could consider that a good thing; having the benefits of being a pony carry over to this form."

Amanda dropped the crumpled piece, closed her eyes, and bit her lip before replying. "Is time up yet?"

Tonya checked her watch as Sunset sat silent. "You've got three minutes. If you want to head back to the cots that should be alright."

Amanda nodded and started walking back. Sunset stepped forward and raised her head. "Tom, are you alright?"

Her ex-husband looked down at her with an unreadable look. "It hasn't been what I remembered it was. Maybe it has just been too long since I was human. Maybe tomorrow will be a little better since I got a little acclimated this time."

"You still want to do tomorrow?" Sunset asked with her ears lowered. "You two don't have to do this. Or we can go with the improved version that doesn't let this be so weird."

Just tell them it isn't happening. Tonya pleaded in her head.

Amanda looked at her husband. "It's your call on whether we do this again or not. I can be satisfied with this being the only session. I'm more convinced than ever that thinking about being human again is just not right. This isn't what I am anymore. I'm ready to finally completely let it go."

Tom looked down at himself then took a deep breath. "One more time, just like today. If it doesn't feel any better then I know this just isn't for me. I listen to our daughter and Rosetta too. I know how important this is for a lot of the night ponies, or even severely injured ponies. Even if this isn't for us I want to do what I can to help."

"You should at least take the improved version of this then," Tonya said hurriedly, eager to see a stop put to anything going wrong like Velvet. "Since we know this version isn't working out."

Tom shook his head. "No, Amanda's right. I want to know that I personally don't want this. Not have my head messed with to say I do. I always hated that my head was messed with years ago. No matter what they were back immediately after ETS my thoughts right now are my thoughts through years of development--they're mine. I know how mind magic works from Phobia, there's no reset button to just go back after all this time--only forcibly changing them, and I don't want to have my thoughts messed with again."

Sunset lowered her head. "As you wish. Your participation tomorrow will at least help show that we can do this, and I'm grateful for you helping do that. For what it's worth, I'm sorry this isn't what you thought it be."

Tom grimaced. "Well, you can take cold comfort in the fact you were right for all these years and I may have been the fool."

"I don't," Sunset said in a whisper.

Tonya silently seethed in her head about this entire thing. The delegates could be told there would be a delay for a few days because of complications. If Sunset really was committed to doing this to herself she could have dismissed these two and gone forward with herself as the lone subject using the better version of the spell. How could this be stopped?

"If I volunteer to have the newer version of the spell cast on me will you dismiss these two now?" She whispered harshly to her wife. The other ponies in the room apparently heard and gave her surprised looks.

Sunset turned to her and frowned. "No."

"What do you mean no?" Tonya demanded, voice rising.

"I mean I will not be dismissing these two. I owe this to Tom," Sunset said as her jaw set. "If you wish to volunteer it can be for a later test."

"You don't owe Tom anything. He's not your husband anymore," Tonya said as her face started getting hot.

Sunset sighed and looked at the confused couple that stood standing by the cots. "I have a confession to make. Years ago I got inside information that told me that the Equestrians that came to the church were going to take ponies back to Colorado for rehumanization testing. Because of my interference they weren't able to gather anyone from our area...if I had not been so overzealous...and misguided...they very likely would have taken you, Tom. You're a pony today because of me."

"And now you wish to make it up to me somehow," Tom said in a low voice as his hands gripped into fists. Amanda laid a hand on Tom's shoulder and he looked up at her. He then brought his fist up and laid it on her hand before turning back to Sunset with an angry gaze. "I can't even express how angry I am right now. I don't even know if I want anything to do with you after tomorrow."

Sunset's ears sagged as she looked downward, and a tear ran down the side of her face.

"But.. I suppose I should thank you in one way." Tom said slowly, making Sunset look up at him. "I never would have met Amanda without all your meddling. I would have never gotten my two other wonderful daughters either. You might not have intended it back then, but it's what happened. I'll do the test tomorrow, because this might help others, but I am done with you after tomorrow."

Amanda put her other hand on her husband. "Tom, don't cut her off." Which shocked both Tonya and Sunset to hear come from her lips. "I don't like her, but we both know what kind of pony she is and what kinds of things she would do. Is this really that much of a shock to hear? You don't need to interact with her because you like her, but instead because you have another wonderful daughter that she happens to be the mother of and wonderful grandfoals from that daughter. Don't cause a rift in the family that may hurt them when we've known she'd have done anything back then to keep you a pony."

"They're your daughter and grandfoals too. You're my wife, not her," Tom said firmly.

Amanda shook her head. "I had no involvement in raising Phobia, but she did. I have no more claim to the title of mom to her than Tonya over there does. I'll be a grandmare to her foals--old as that makes me feel--but I can't step in and replace her actual mother."

Tom grunted then sighed. "You're right, you're always right." He looked back at Sunset. "Don't believe that I'm just going to forgive you messing with my life like that, no matter how it turned out. I'll keep polite with you, for Phobia and the foals' sakes, but don't expect much warmth from me."

"That's...fair," Sunset said as she looked downward again. "I know you won't believe me right now, but I hope you'll eventually see I've come to regret that action and find it in your heart to forgive me."

Tonya's ears sagged too. She wasn't innocent in those events either. She'd advised Sunset in how to make Tempest Shadow blow her top, ending the chances anyone from the area would be taken away for testing before they even knew that was a possibility. She looked up at the camera. Could Tempest read lips well enough over the feed to tell what was being said? She knew that was one of Tempest's skills. What was Phobia's bodyguard thinking right now? What were the others in that room going to think when they found out what was being said here?

"It's over forty-five minutes now, let's just get you turned back," Tonya said in a neutral tone. At least this conversation seemed to have distracted them where the puzzles had been a bust.

Sunset looked over at the crystal ponies. "Be sure to get a good reading of their PREQUES ratings before and after. I'll be standing outside." Tonya flicked an ear at this and gave her wife a considering look.

She and Sunset left the room so the work could be done. As soon as the door closed behind them Tonya turned to her wife and flattened her ears. "You're hoping to increase your magical strength through this, aren't you?"

Sunset raised an eyebrow at her. "It may have crossed my mind, and wouldn't you say that's a nice silver lining to what will be an otherwise miserable experience? But no, that's not my primary goal, just a small hope. My goal is to do everything I can to make tomorrow's display earn approval. Seeing the spell cast on me will change the perceptions of some who have reservations about this."

"And what about my reservations?" Tonya demanded crossly. "This could hurt them. This could hurt you. You saw how they were doing with just under an hour with this. That was with them being previously more comfortable with the idea of being human again for a short time. What do you think that will do to you? You don't have any sort of nostalgia for your humanity. There are few things you hate and fear more than your past human self."

Sunset swished her tail. "And I'll go into this knowing how disgusted I'll be to have that form again, and be safe in the knowledge that it is only for a short while in order to serve a greater purpose. Tom sees a greater purpose here too. You know I love you with all my heart, but this isn't your call."

"Why do you have to be so stubborn," Tonya muttered in frustration.

Sunset came over to her and gently touched a hoof to her wing. "Delaying this when we've set a date will make doubts grow about how ready we are to expand testing to the greater public beyond Riverview. I won't give anyone more reason to doubt this than they already have."

Tonya had no idea how to respond to that, so she kept her mouth shut. Her wife already knew the obvious, that seeing the pony to human subjects freaking out in front of that crowd would sink this even faster.

"Go escort my daughter and the others out," Sunset instructed as she turned back to the door. "I'll see to it escorting these two out after I'm done explaining to them about what to expect tomorrow."

Tonya nodded in defeat. There was no stopping this. She just had to hope for the best. She was not looking forward to whatever their other guests had to say about what just went on in that room.

Wild Growth turned her head from the feed as the spell on Tom and Amanda was brought to an end. Phobia, Rosetta, and Tempest were all grim faced. Knowing what she did about how the last pony to human test Wild was mildly relieved that Tom and Amanda simply didn't look thrilled rather than went into panic. It was a better alternative at least.

The door to the monitoring room opened and Tonya stepped in by herself. Wild caught sight through the corner of her eye Sunset stepping into the testing room. Tonya looked as grim faced as the other ponies in the room. The pegasus made a brief glance at the feed then turned to the assembled audience.

"I can take some questions for a minute or two. After that I need to escort you all out," Tonya announced.

"I will say my peace specifically to Sunset Blessing," Tempest said tightly. Tonya's ears sagged low at that. Wild didn't know what was up with that exchange, but it sounded like there was something private involved.

Phobia shook her head. "How much security do you have for tomorrow? The protestors outside have been extra rowdy as of late."

Tonya nodded. "We're going to have some extra reinforcements from the army due to the presence of all the delegates. We're taking security tomorrow very seriously." She gave Phobia her direct gaze. "It would help if you could perhaps tell us if there's any specific threats. I know you've got insights the rest of us don't have."

Phobia shook her head. "I see threats everywhere, all the time. If I were to try to guard against them all directly and call authorities to arrest someone for what was possible I don't know who would be free from jail. It is a world of shadows and it fills every Dreamwarden with dread. The ban on us divulging private information thankfully keeps us from hunting down every perceived threat whether it ends up being legitimate or not. Seeing what we see, combined with our desire to protect, makes us far too paranoid about the shadows."

Tonya rolled her eyes. "A simple yes or no would have sufficed. Yinyu forgive me for saying it, but it feels like it's all but impossible to ask you a simple question without getting a monologue."

Phobia actually looked mildly hurt. "I thought I was being brief in my answer. I just try to clarify things as best I can. And what do you mean Yinyu forgive you?"

"Well..." Tonya said sheepishly. "Saying God forgive me feels like taking his name in vain to me. So I need something else to swear by, and Yinyu fits the bill. I hear some ponies say Luna for that, but I don't want to swear by an Equestrian."

Wild turned her head to side as she stared dumbfounded by the pegasus. It took her a few seconds to process this before she could form words. "You do realize that Phobia is exactly as strong as Yinyu--and she's sitting right in front of you--and she's the pony you might want to ask forgiveness from since you kind of hurt her feelings, right? You featherbrain."

Tonya ruffled her feathers and glared back. "Okay, I'm being stupid. You didn't need to be so rude about it."

"Takes rubbing your muzzle in it to make you realize the obvious," Wild said simply.

"Screw you, Wild," Tonya hissed.

"My sister only screws stallions, so you're out of luck on that one," Rosetta said nonchalantly.

Wild turned her glare to her sister, unsure who Rosetta was taking a jab at because it felt more directed at her than Tonya.

The orange pegasus gave Phobia a sad look. "Anyway, forgive me Phobia. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. These tests are causing me a lot of stress. I appreciate that you always try your best to make yourself clear."

Phobia walked over to the pegasus and gave her a hug. "Forgiven."

Wild was actually happy for Phobia's little monologue. She inadvertently addressed one of the concerns that had come up with the discussion with Rosetta much earlier about mind policing. Phobia seemed to make it very clear that kind of tyranny wasn't going to be happening, and it was a relief to hear it. She could also sympathize with the Dreamwardens. Going out in public she found herself imagining threats all around her. What must it be like to know the secret dark dreams of others and not know if that was just a product of a dream or what they actually intended to do?

She lifted her head up. "The obvious question that hasn't been asked yet is whether or not Tom and Amanda are going to do that again tomorrow. Are they?"

Tonya nodded. "I actually wish they weren't going to." She licked her lips before continuing. "I should warn you now so you aren't taken off guard; Sunset is having it done on herself as well tomorrow."

"That's...surprising," Rosetta said slowly. Tempest nodded in agreement while Phobia seemed unfazed by the information--probably already having known it.

Wild frowned. "Why didn't she tell me about that. I've been helping bankroll her research, shouldn't I get to know?"

"She just told me today," Tonya said through gritted teeth with a small stomp. "The exact same spell version as what you just saw. We have a better version that should make people more comfortable with the human body. I've begged and pleaded for them all to do the better version, but the three of them are being so stubborn. I want to just...it doesn't matter; I'm just passing the information along."

Tonya wasn't Wild's favorite pony, but she had to give her credit for having more sense about this than the ponies in the testing room. If Tonya had tried to dissuade Sunset and failed then it wasn't likely anyone else would be able to have any more luck trying. Hopefully for the sake of Tom and Amanda, and the project as a whole, nothing would go wrong with this tomorrow. Sunset at least might be able to fake not being bothered by a human body, the unicorn knew how to put on a fake smile better than Wild.

"We've also got another human lined up for tomorrow with Jean," Tonya continued. "Poor guy fell off a ladder yesterday and shattered his lower back, can't use his legs. I might have actually been at the hospital when his family came in."

"Any more last minute additions?" Wild asked, trying to keep the annoyance about not being kept in the loop from her voice.

Tonya shook her head. "Sunset didn't even tell me about the fact she was doing this to herself till today and I found out about the other gentleman on the trip over here. If there ends up being more don't say I didn't say anything--I don't know about anymore."

"I don't have any more questions for the moment," Wild said with a sigh. Hopefully Sunset didn't get too ambitious for her own good tomorrow. Her doing this to herself would gain some more credibility to this, but this new man was untested going in and they didn't know for sure this would fix his legs without the test. It was blind faith that things would go well, and if that didn't work out that would lose them far more credibility than Sunset's stunt with herself would gain. Sunset was being reckless and it might cost them government approval to open up testing to the public, set this entire project back, or worse get it shelved.

The big question was why was the fanatical unicorn being reckless to begin with? Sunset normally did everything with care and did nothing that could jeopardize her long term goals. Something was off, and the only one who might know other than Sunset herself was Tonya. This wasn't a conversation to have in front of her sister and Tempest though.

Rosetta, Phobia, and Tempest didn't seem to have anything else to ask either. Tonya directed them all to follow her out into the hall with Tonya taking the lead and Wild pulling up the rear. The human soldiers walking the halls were a relief from the oppressive white, but Wild wondered exactly what they even were doing walking around like that. Were they patrolling? Going to and from different locations? If they were going to and from locations what were they doing at each location? Most these doors had security codes of some sort to get through, some seemed more elaborate in security than others. There were so many doors, did they all represent different projects? What all went on down here other than this project?

They started passing by a room that was well guarded by crystal ponies and Wild realized where they were, though they hadn't come down this way.

"Tonya.... Blessing, I know you're out there. I know your hoofsteps anywhere," came the oily voice from the other side of the door as they passed by. "Oh, and you've brought friends. You should bring them in here to meet me. I would love to tell them a secret."

Rosetta paused and turned as Phobia paused and let her ears lay flat. Rosetta gave the door a curious look. "Who is..."

Tonya stepped in front of Rosetta quickly. "No one you want to talk to. Just a sick freak that I'd love to see buried in the deepest darkest hole forever."

"Believe me sis, this bastard isn't someone you want to be anywhere near," Wild said in a disgusted tone.

"I've got a secret." Poly Glot sang. "I could tell you...just come on in and so I can whisper it to you," he finished with a cackle.

A crystal pony guard banged on the door. "Enough of that! You be quiet. You've been well behaved all day. Don't start now."

Rosetta rounded on Tonya and pointed at the door. "You're treating whoever that is like a prisoner. Since when do you keep prisoners down here? What did he do? Why is he here?"

Wild stepped up to her and laid a hoof on her. "You really don't want to know. Just trust us and move on." If Rosetta heard the truth she might very well try bust into the room just to rip his throat out.

"Who are your friends Ton-ya?" Poly Glot asked in a whimsical voice. "That one sounds so full of passion. I like them like that."

"He's a foalkiller, Rosetta," Tonya said in a grim voice. "He deserves death, but he got off on an insanity due to becoming a pony plea."

Rosetta got right into Tonya's face and looked ready to box her. "What the fuck, Tonya!"

"Oh, that's such a poor description," Poly Glot cackled again. "I'm a visionary...I just want to figure out how they work. I used to run so many experiments. You know, once when I was still human I found this dear sweet little girl...."

Wild didn't want to hear whatever this was. She just wanted to flee before he could speak whatever horror he was going to share, but he had attracted Tonya's attention now and the pegasus was staring at the door.

"...I took her in and showed her pictures, brought her guests, and taught her how to play special games while stimulating the pleasure centers of her brain," Poly Glot said lovingly. "I kept her with me for a year. Then I took her back to her family, and she played those games that made her so happy with her family. Oh...how I wish I could have watched."

"What the fucking hell did you do?" Tonya growled.

"Me? I didn't do anything. I just taught her to play games, and she had so...much...fun," Poly Glot said as if he were in pure bliss.

"What did you do to that child?" Rosetta demanded. "I'm a mother, and I won't tolerate sick things being done to foals or children."

"Perhaps one day I could teach your foal to play special games with you," Poly Glot continued, sounding hopeful. "That little girl loved her mother very much....loved her so much she cut her up and ate her. She loved her whole family. I had taught her a new way of expressing love, and it was beautiful."

Poly Glot started laughing as Rosetta charged the door. Wild had to move fast to tackle her sister before she could make it to the door.

"Stay back Phobia!" Tonya shouted from where she was blocking a growling Dreamwarden.

Poly Glot bit off his laugh. "Phobia? Would that be Phobia Rem-ed-y...the Dreamwarden? Oh, how I'd love to get my hooves on you. You're such a prize."

"Keep your hooves away from my wife or I'll rip them off!" Rosetta shouted in rage from beneath Wild.

He continued on as if Rosetta hadn't spoken. "Tell me Dreamwarden...how far do those oaths of yours stretch? Does it make you angry you can't reveal what goes on in my head? How angry does it make you? How much do you hate being so powerless? I wonder what it would take to make you break those oaths. Surely there's a way...the rumors say Luna snapped and became Nightmare Moon...what kind of nightmare will the Warden of Fear become?"

"You'll never find out, and if I have my way you'll be out of here within the week," Tonya said darkly. Then smiled like she just won a prize. "You screwed up this time you sick bastard." Tonya turned around to a human soldier who had stopped in the hall to watch the commotion. "Find someone to research every single case in the database until one is found that matches what he just described. He claims to have done that as a human, so there's no blaming this on becoming a pony. Find where it happened if you have to research other countries to find it. Something that disturbed has to stand out in a record somewhere."

"But the director..." One of the crystal pony guards started trying to protest.

Tonya spun around and got right in the crystal pony's face. "I don't care if he's one of my wife's assets. That bastard needs to hang! I outrank all of you in security here, and I'm giving you an order!"

"That authority is more a formality," one of the soldiers muttered.

Tonya turned and sneered. "Unless I choose to actually use it. I'm choosing to do so now."

"Yes, ma'am, but I'll still have to report this to the director," the soldier replied.

"Go ahead, I'll be discussing it with her tonight," Tonya said as she backed away. "She'll see things my way. Sunset may not have been inclined to have him rot in an institution if he could be put to use, but some dogs need to be put down, and if there's a clear route to legally doing that with him she'll take it, you'll see."

"Ton-ya, you always impress me with how bloodthirsty you can be," Poly Glot giggled. "Is it you've hung around night ponies so much, or you have such similar abilities to them? I wonder how your brain compares with theirs...oh how I'd love to pick...it...apart."

Wild slowly got off her sister after Rosetta stopped struggling to get away, though she kept ready to jump again if need be. She gave a sickened glance to Poly Glot's door. The idea of executing anyone was abhorrent to her normally, but even she had to agree that this pony was enough of a blight on the world that it was worth considering. No matter how brilliant he may be that was nowhere near enough to justify him breathing in the face of everything he had done and clearly wanted to still do. Unredeemable was a rare word to throw at any criminal, especially a pony, but it definitely matched Poly Glot.

Tonya turned back down the hallway and looked over her shoulder at the rest of them. "Let's get going. My soul feels polluted just being in proximity to him. I promise, I'll see something done about him. I won't let his little slip up go to waste."

"See you soon Ton-ya. I have so many secrets to share with you, and so many of your secrets to learn," Poly Glot sang.

Wild walked up to Phobia who was still glaring at the door. "Don't worry, they have him secure. Tonya and I don't get along, but both you and I know that when she wants justice she'll go to any lengths to see it done."

Phobia glanced around and grimaced. "You're right, I'm probably just jumping at shadows."

Jessie sat in her seat and looked around the hospital lobby with her head and ears held low. The hospital didn't feel like a good place. She couldn't explain why as there didn't seem to be much logic to it being so unnerving to her. It smelled strange, but a lot of places smelled strange. It had long hallways, but so did the school--and she liked the school. The hospital made her feel small and afraid though. She'd been here a few hours now, but really didn't feel any better about it. She didn't want to be here.

Her grandmare sat beside her, anxiously looking up at the clock at regular intervals and keeping an eye on Jackie and Jordan when not looking at the clock or the hallway. Jackie and Jordan had picked up on Jessie's mood and were giving her space while laying on the checkered tiled floor quietly coloring. She wished Robby was here to protect her. She wasn't sure what she needed protecting from, but she felt like she needed her big brother there to protect her all the same.

Occasionally a doctor or nurse would walk into the lobby from one of the connecting halls and both she and her grandmare would look up at them expectantly, only to have their heads sag again as the person walked on to another hall without stopping, having only been passing through. Every time the phone rang at the nurse's station they'd look up again with ears erect to catch any sliver of conversation from the nurse that may relate to Jessie's mom or Dusk, but time and time again the calls didn't seem to involve them. The waiting was agony.

"Jessica, you know you could be coloring with your friends. I'm sure they wouldn't mind sharing crayons with you," Grandmare Nocte gently suggested.

Jessie laid her ears back. "I don't want to color right now. I want to see Mom."

"It may still be a while yet. You should find something to distract yourself. It will make time seem to go by faster."

"You're not doing anything but waiting either," Jessie replied, maybe a bit more tersely than she should have.

Her grandmare looked down at her with a tight frown. "Watch your tone, young filly. I know you're stressing, but that's no excuse for speaking to an adult like that."

"Sorry," Jessie muttered as she swished her tail.

Her grandmare sighed. "You're right that I should be taking my own advice." She raised her leg with her phone up. "Alexa, call contact Ferris Wheel."

"Calling Ferris Wheel," the phone echoed before it started ringing.

It took several rings before someone answered. "Hello? What's the emergency? Why are you waking me up? It's like four in the bloody afternoon."

"Sorry Ferri, it's Nocte," Grandmare Nocte said apologetically.

"Nocte?" The female voice said in astonishment as it seemed to wake up more. "I was worried when I didn't find you in the dream realm. What are you doing awake at this time of day? Is everything okay?"

"Devon went into labor," her Grandmare explained. "I'll probably be up all day and hitting the hay around dawn."

"Oh! I completely understand!" Ferri replied. "How are you holding up? I know how anxious you were. Seems you were right that you needed to leave early."

Jessie perked her ears up as she put two and two together. Was this Grandmare Nocte's marefriend? What kind of name was Ferris Wheel? Did she work at an amusement park? Curiosity did act as a good distraction; better than trying to color anyway. There were things to learn.

Her grandmare glanced down at her then back to her phone. "I'm a bundle of nerves, but I'll be alright. Say hi to my granddaughter; she's developing quite the habit of eavesdropping on others' conversations."

Jessie flicked her tail. Grandmare Nocte was literally right next to her on a speaker phone, how was she not supposed to eavesdrop? And it wasn't a habit, she'd only done it a few times...today. What was wrong with her listening in anyway? How was she supposed to find things out if she didn't pay attention?

"Hello," Jessie greeted uncertainly.

"Oh! She sounds like a cute little thing!" Ferri gushed. "Nocte, I really must find an opportunity to introduce you to my grandcolt!"

"Are you an amusement park pony, miss Ferris Wheel?" Jessie asked, unhappy about being treated as a discussion piece like she wasn't there.

Ferri laughed. "My name give it away that easily? Yes, I currently travel with a fair that tours all around the south. I help with making sure all the rides are put up right and every little bolt and screw is secure. Don't want things getting loose on the rides and hurting anyone. I live for fairs, amusement parks, and carnivals. I've been involved with them my whole life ever since I was a filly...or young girl anyway, just do it better since becoming a pony--don't need ladders anymore."

"Are you going to come to Riverview sometime?" Jessie asked. She'd never been to a fair, but she'd read about them.

"I was by there about four years ago actually. That's when I met your grandmare," Ferris responded. "Not sure when we'll be back that way again. We had wanted to make it a regular stop every year, but your mayor keeps building the city over all the places we can pitch it."

"Oh," Jessie said as her ears fell.

"But miss preacher mayor keeps telling us she'll figure out a place eventually," Ferris assured her. "She just isn't willing to prioritize it while that city of yours keeps having to expand its belt. Hopefully soon the growth will slow down and she can tell us a good place that she isn't planning on bulldozing any time soon."

The sound of hooves coming down a hall made her look up and she spotted Jackie and Jordan's parents coming towards them. The two of them looked tired, but they smiled as they spotted their foals. Grandmare Nocte spotted them a second later and looked down at her phone. "Have to go, Ferri. I've been watching some foals and it looks like their parents just arrived."

"Okay, Nocte," Ferri said with understanding. "Don't stress too much. I'll talk to tomorrow in dreams. I love you."

"Love you too," Grandmare Nocte said with a smile as she touched her phone to end the call.

"Mommy! Daddy!" Jordan shouted excitedly, dropping her crayon and galloping to greet her parents. Jackie followed after her little sister looking just as excited.

"Oooppff," Mr. Tom said as Jackie collided with his legs, causing him to lurch just a little. Jordan hit her mother's legs just as hard, but without causing any similar lurch. "Tackled by my own daughter. Have you been well behaved?"

"Yes, Dad," Jackie said as she gripped her father's legs tightly.

"I wasn't expecting you to be done with...what you were doing for some time," Grandmare Nocte said as she stepped over to them. "Did you actually go through with it?"

Amanda glanced around before looking back at Nocte. "That's not really a conversation to be having in public. The short of it; Jean's seemed to have gone very well, and ours..." Amanda shivered. "We're just happy we didn't go for as long as originally planned."

Jessie shook her head in annoyance as she listened in. Why did adults have to be so secretive about everything? Maybe it was something else hormones did to the brain. Would she get secretive when she got older because of that? If it was a hormone thing it could be involuntary. She could write herself notes reminding herself not to be secretive then.

Tom lifted Jackie into the air with his magic. The pink pegasus started giggling and flapping her wings as if flying. Jessie couldn't help but smile at the display, but it also made her miss her parents more, and made her go back to worrying about her mom and Dusk.

As Amanda picked Jordan up on her back to give a pony ride Jessie turned her attention back to the halls. How long would it take to get a nurse to them to come tell them how her mom was doing? She'd watched her dad walk down the halls to an elevator at the far end. She looked down the hall and started making estimates with what little information she had. She knew that the maternity ward was one floor up from them. If the halls had a similar layout as the halls down here she could estimate the time within a range. Since the elevator was in that direction it was safe to assume that the area that her mom was at was in that quadrant of the hospital, which narrowed the range of time it could take. She'd watched many ponies and humans walk the halls already and using their sizes as a guide she could determine the distance between each door going down the hall and the total distance to the elevator as a result.

Her vision partially blurred as she started drawing diagrams and charts on her mental whiteboard, more aware of it than she was of her actual surroundings. Geometric lines were sketched out on it and formulas were jotted down. This wasn't really that important to know since she lacked the critical information of when Dusk was actually going to be born, but she was still eager to know all the same. She let herself get lost in thought and the workings of the imaginary whiteboard.

"Jessie, are you alright?" A voice said, breaking her out of her concentration. She looked up and saw miss Amanda giving her a concerned look, with Jordan giving her a puzzled look from atop Amanda's shoulders.

"She's fine," Grandmare Nocte said dismissively. "She's just in her own little world. She does this sometimes. Freaked me out the first time I ever caught her doing it, but Devon and Paul explained that she's just deep in thought."

Jessie nodded in embarrassment. "I'm fine. I just want to know how long this is going to take."

Amanda smiled. "I understand. This must be very scary for you."

Jessie hunched her shoulders and bowed her head low. "I don't like this place. I don't know why. It just doesn't feel right."

The pink earth pony frowned and started muttering. "I wonder...she couldn't actually..." Then shook her head before smiling again. "It's alright. Hospitals make a lot of people uncomfortable. Your little brother will be born soon and you'll be too interested in meeting him to pay this place much attention."

The phone rang at the nurses' station again and Jessie directed her attention to that. The crystal pony nurse spoke quietly on the speaker with whoever was on the other end and Jessie strained her ears to try to make out anything. The call ended and the nurse looked up at them with a smile.

"That was a nice, easy, and quick birth. I'm happy to announce that Riverview has a new healthy resident. Someone will be down in just a moment to bring a few of you up to meet him."

Author's Note

Not sure again when the next chapter will be. Just when I'm satisfied that it is done and edited.

Chapter 11: Birth, Growth, and Change

A human nurse let Jessie and her grandmare into a room and Jessie's eyes immediately fell on her mother laying in bed holding something wrapped in a blanket. Her dad sat in a chair directly next to the bed and gave the two ponies a smile as they walked in. Small hints of the previous smell she'd smelled from her mom hung in the air, as well as a tiny hint of blood, but the smells weren't strong. She could just barely make out them out, which meant her parents likely didn't notice them at all.

Her dad stood up and walked over to them. "Do you mind being picked up so I can introduce you to your little brother?"

She didn't give a verbal answer; she simply reared up on her hind legs and stretched her forelegs as high as she could, raising her tail to try to keep balance. Her dad reached down and grabbed her up in his arms. He walked over to the side of the tall bed and gently set her down on the edge of it next to her mom's elbow.

Her mom gently touched a hand to Jessie's mane and then took it away to adjust the bundle in her arms. "Meet your new little brother, Dusk--Dusk William Middleton."

Jessie almost timidly stretched her neck over to look into the bundle. She'd have stepped up on her mom's arm, but her mom seemed a little fragile right now and she didn't want to accidentally hurt her. Her mom propped the bundle up a little higher so she could get a better view.

Dusk was small, really small, and wrinkled--very wrinkled. Were human babies supposed to be so wrinkly? His eyes and mouth were closed and his nose was so small she couldn't believe it was good for anything. His hands were extremely tiny, a fraction of the size of the frogs of her hooves, and they were gripped into little fists as he slept. His ears were tiny little nubs on the side of his head that she also wondered if they were capable of picking up much sound with how small they were. Was he supposed to look this way? Why was he sleeping already? He was just born and he was already taking a nap. Her mom had to give birth to him and she wasn't sleeping after all that work.

"Is he deformed?" She asked after looking him over carefully. He seemed deformed. There was no way he could do anything for himself like this.

Her mom gave Jessie a hurt look which immediately made Jessie regret saying that. Perhaps she should have had a bit more tact. Her mom seemed to recover quickly and now seemed amused for some reason. "No, it's just like I told you this morning. Human babies are much more helpless than pony ones. He's going to be dependent on me for everything for a long time. You were much smaller and more helpless looking than this when you were born, less than half his size."

She tried to imagine that. Imagining herself as human was hard enough as it was, imagining herself as something half Dusk's size and even more helpless was beyond her ability to picture. It was hard to believe, but she had to trust her mom's word on it.

Dusk chose that moment to wake up with a tiny little groan that sounded completely off key. He opened his eyes up and she could see that his irises were a bright blue, the first bit of color she'd noticed on him other than his pasty white skin. He started slowly looking around. His eyes never seemed to rest on anything and at least once they went cross-eyed in front of his face. His eyes passed her over several times, never stopping to actually examine her. He didn't turn his head either, just let his eyes move around.

"He can't really see well yet either. His vision is very blurry. It will get better soon enough," her mom explained.

Jessie frowned. It seemed completely silly that nature would do this. Newborn foals were supposed to be largely functional within a week out of the womb. At least in terms of being able to walk, see, hear, and start learning about their environment. What was the point of coming out of the womb if you weren't actually able to do basic functions yet? It seemed really inefficient to her. Human babies just came out too early. It was obvious with how wrinkly he was he wasn't done baking. Maybe they could put him back in so he could finish.

She reconsidered this idea. If they could put him back they could have put her back years ago. She wished her sex ed textbook hadn't focused primarily on ponies. She needed to learn more about human babies.

Her mom brought Dusk a little closer to Jessie now. "Go ahead and touch a hoof to one of his hands. Just remember to be extremely gentle doing so. He might not realize what's touching him right now, but he'll learn over time the feel of his big sister's fur. If he tries to grip it just let him. Babies tend to grasp onto whatever you put near their hands, though it will be a few months before he starts picking anything up on his own."

Her mom seemed really tired, but introducing her to Dusk seemed like a big deal to her. She thought back to the earlier argument they had and realized why. Her mom wanted to be completely sure that she accepted Dusk.

She raised a hoof up and reached out to touch one of Dusk's little hands. He didn't look at it or her, but the hand opened up and tried to grab onto her hoof. It was far too small to actually reach around her hoof, but he still lightly latched on and kept holding on. She just stared at the little hand and her little brother. There felt like there was something important happening but she couldn't say what; something special, something sacred.

Dusk was so tiny, and so helpless. She knew logically that he wouldn't always be this way, but at this point in time he really was her little brother and her the much bigger sister--like a giant to him just like Robby and her parents were to her. Something clicked in her head as she thought of that. It was very likely she'd eventually get just as big as Robby and far stronger, but he was still her big brother through and through. The same thing applied to Dusk, he might get bigger than her in time, though not as strong, but no matter what she was his big sister who was always supposed to be there for him and help make him feel safe.

Her mom pulled Dusk back and his hand slipped away from her hoof. She was actually a little saddened to feel the hand go. She understood though. Her mom did look very tired.

"Come on, Jessie," her dad said as he carefully lifted her off the bed and set her on the floor. "It's time to give your grandmare a chance to look at her newest grandson."

Her grandmare looked up at her dad consideringly. "Are you going to hold Dusk so I can get a good look or are you able to lift my weight without any problem?"

Her dad blinked as he looked at the night pony. "Are you expecting me to lift you up and put you on the bed too? You're a little big for that."

"No..." Her grandmare said in a tone that she sometimes used on Jessie. "But I'm not going to flap my wings close by the baby, it might upset him. The bed is too small for me to stand on anyway while Devon is lying in it. You'll need to either pick me up and hold me or hold the baby yourself and bring him down where I can look at him. Don't be dense, Paul."

Her mom held Dusk out to her dad and he cradled him in his arms. He then crouched down low so Grandmare Nocte could see. Grandmare Nocte raised a hoof to her muzzle and awed at Dusk. "Oh Devon, he's got your eyes, and he's got Paul's hair."

"He's bald at the moment," her dad said stiffly.

"Well, don't think I didn't notice that receding hairline," her grandmare said. "Next thing you'll need a toupee."

"I'm not going to get a toupee," her dad said with a partial growl.

"Well then, you'll be bald too before you know it," Grandmare Nocte said with a sniff. "Maybe you should just shave it all off. It receding like that makes you look older than you are."

Her dad just rolled his eyes as he kept holding the baby out for Grandmare Nocte to look over. The night pony didn't make any movement to actually touch Dusk in any way, just examined each and every one of his features closely. After a solid minute of this she stepped back.

"I'm going to try to take a short nap," her grandmare announced. "I didn't think I'd get any sleep at all in earlier, but this birth went faster than expected. I guess I really shouldn't be that shocked about that. Robby's birth was pretty quick and easy too. I was worried after what went on with Jessie that this would turn into a C-section. I was always told that if I have had a second child it would have to be a C-section because I needed a C-section for Devon."

"They don't require that anymore. They haven't for a while," her dad informed her. "We were worried about that though. Jessie's birth had been pretty rough. Are you sure you don't want to hold him? It's perfectly alright; we know you won't drop him."

Grandmare Nocte shook her head. "If I start holding him right now I'll spend so much time cuddling him I won't get any sleep. I'll get plenty of opportunities to hold him tonight. I'm cashing in my personal and vacation time to help out. I can help watch him overnight while you two get some sleep. I'm not going to be uninvolved this time around."

"That's kind of you, Mom," Jessie's mom said softly.

Her Grandmare turned toward the door. "It's the least I can do. Anyway, I'm going down into the lobby and finding a corner to nap in for two or three hours. I'll dreamwalk Robby and get him an image of his baby brother. I'm not the dreamshaper he is, but I got a pretty good impression of Dusk's appearance." Jessie blinked as she realized that was what her grandmare had been doing when examining Dusk so closely. "Your pink earth pony friend and her husband are downstairs. Do you want me to send them up?"

"Amanda and Tom are here?" Her dad asked in confusion. "I guess I should have realized that because you don't have the other fillies with you, and I know you wouldn't leave them unwatched, but I was a bit distracted too."

Her grandmare shrugged. "Shocked me too. Maybe they can talk to you about why since it's more private in here than out in the lobby."

Jessie found her dad looking down at her for some reason. Why was he looking at her when talking about Ms. Amanda and Mr. Tom?

"You might as well talk about it right in front of her. Your daughter will eavesdrop anyway," Grandmare Nocte said with a laugh. Jessie gave her grandmare a dirty look as her grandmare continued. "I can watch their foals for a few minutes more. I doubt you'll want them keeping you too long. You need your rest."

"She won't have a chance to eavesdrop if you're watching her," her dad said with a frown.

"It's Jessica, if she wants to find out something she'll find a way. The trick is making her keep it to herself," Grandmare Nocte replied. "I can take her down with me if you want, but you're the one who'll be fielding her questions, not me."

Jessie's mom groaned softly and put a hand to her face. "Mom, why are you doing this?--Deliberately stirring up trouble by having her get curious about things that aren't supposed to be talked about."

"Just trying to see that her education is expanded. It will all be public knowledge by tomorrow anyway, so no harm done," Grandmare Nocte said innocently.

Her dad sighed. "Jessie, go sit off to the side. You can listen, but don't interrupt--and definitely don't talk about this with Jordan, Jackie, or anyone else."

"Paul, are you sure that's a good idea?" Her mom said with concern.

"No, but it's what we're doing," he said with a shake of his head. "Your mother might discuss it with her if we don't with the way she's going on."

"I wouldn't...." Her grandmare began.

"Seriously, why are you deliberately stirring things up?" Her dad cut off.

Her grandmare stuck her muzzle in the air. "If my suspicions are right then the comparison in how the two different types of tests went should encourage some much needed proper thinking."

"Today is supposed to be about Dusk, not that," her dad said with irritation. "But you're getting your way, so be happy. From now on though I'm telling you to keep out of how we see to our daughter's education, understood?"

"Understood," Grandmare Nocte said with a bow of her head, then turned and exited the room.

"I just want to spend time with Dusk. You don't have to let me know...whatever it is," Jessie supplied helpfully. She really did want to know what the secret was, but this was getting her parents unhappy and she thought her dad was right; today was supposed to be about her little brother. Today was his birthday, and she knew that she didn't want people getting upset or just ignoring her on her birthday.

"It's okay, baby girl..." Her mom started then paused. "I guess I should stop calling you baby now that you aren't the baby of the family anymore."

"She's our big girl now," her dad said as the mood started to lighten up again. "And as a big girl we're letting you stay and listen. Just do what I said and don't discuss this with anyone, understood?"

Jessie held her head high, proud that she was being treated like she was older now. "I understand. I'll be good." Being a big sister came with unexpected benefits.

"That's my big girl," her dad said with a smile as he passed her little brother back to her mom.

Jessie frowned as she looked at her mom. Her mom really did look exhausted and needing sleep. "Mom, are you alright?"

Her mom gave her a small smile. "Just tired. Even an easy birth is exhausting."

"We're going to be going home in a few hours. We'll let her sleep for an hour or two after everyone else leaves and then we'll head home," her dad explained.

"What about Robby?"

"Your grandmare should hopefully be rested enough she can go get Robby and the two of them can fly back to the house just fine," her dad explained.

There was a light knocking at the door and Ms. Amanda and Mr. Tom peeked into the room. Her dad gestured for them to come in and the two ponies entered in slowly. They still looked tired too. They'd seemed more energetic when they were with Jordan and Jackie, but now they looked almost as ready for bed as her mom. Why were they so tired? She got over to the side of the room as she'd been instructed as they came in and just watched.

"Devon!" Amanda said with joy as she came over next to the bed. "I was so excited when I heard today was going to be the day. How big is he?"

"Eight and a half pounds," her mom said as she kissed Dusk on the forehead. "Perfectly healthy with all the right number of toes and fingers."

Jessie raised an eyebrow at that. Was there any doubt he'd have the right number of toes and fingers? Was that a regular concern? She'd never seen any humans that were short the right number of fingers, but she'd never really payed attention to that either. Maybe it was a common problem and she just never noticed.

She also noticed Ms. Amanda's face scrunch up like she was thinking about something she didn't like when her mom mentioned that. That was weird.

Her mom passed Dusk back to her dad and he once again bent down so the two ponies could look.

"He's adorable," Amanda said with a big grin as she looked him over. "And such bright blue eyes!"

"He does look healthy," Tom said with his own smile, but still sounding weary. "We can't stay too long. The two of us are very tired as well, and we have another exhausting day tomorrow."

"How did it go?" Her dad asked them. The two ponies gave Jessie a considering look before her dad continued. "She'll keep quiet about whatever you say. She'd find out about this tomorrow anyway. I specifically told her not to talk to Jordan and Jackie about anything she hears from you two and she's taking that seriously."

Amanda sighed as she sat down. "I can only speak for me, since Tom wants more time to figure out how he feels about a human form, but it bothered me...a lot. Nothing felt right. I mean...I knew how to do things, but the whole time I was wanting to move my tail...which wasn't there, and being furless and feeling all that stuff on bare skin was kind of freaky--human sense of touch and temperature are so much stronger. That doesn't begin to get into all the stuff I was feeling. I know that's what I used to be, but I honestly don't know how I used to be so fine with it all. I may know that it's just that it's so different from what I've grown accustomed to, but it still left a very negative impression on me."

Jessie burned with questions, but sat silent as she'd been instructed. Was Ms. Amanda talking about a memory or did they actually become human temporarily?

"Human sense of touch and temperature are stronger?" Jessie's dad asked in confusion. "I thought pony senses were better all around."

Tom shook his head. "That's not actually true. Ponies do have stronger eyesight, hearing, and smell, but things like touch and temperature humans feel more acutely. Except for pegasi most ponies can't tell subtle temperature changes like a human can and fur dampens the sense of touch a lot, and with the pegasi that's not even really their sense of temperature--just an extension of their weather magic."

"There's a few sensitive spots on ponies where we have a strong sense of touch, but overall it is weaker," Amanda added on.

Jessie tried to imagine what it was like to feel touch like a human based on what was described. The best idea she could think of was if her whole body felt as sensitive as her nose. She wasn't sure she'd like that. It seemed like that would end up hurting really easy. Maybe more like her belly where she was ticklish? That would be weird having ticklish spots everywhere. She'd never noticed if her parents had ticklish spots on them, she'd have to ask.

The temperature thing she had noticed before though, because her mom would complain about it being too hot and turn the air conditioner on to drop the temperature only five degrees--while she and her brother couldn't tell a temperature change unless it was like ten or more degrees. Her health class had even pointed it out, and she'd been taught to always listen when a human said it was getting too hot because it could get to where a pony might overheat slowly over time without noticing that it had gotten too warm until it was already a potential problem. The teacher said a lot of earth ponies every year ended up going to the hospital because they kept working in the sun while temperatures slowly rose and they ended up overheating by the time they finally noticed.

"How about Jean's test?" Her mom asked. Her mom seemed eager despite how tired she was.

"That seemed to go great," Amanda answered. "Turned into a pretty blue crystal pony with a pink mane. She looked happy as a clam most of the time. She did start to get upset when Rosetta and Wild looked like they were arguing and Rosetta left in a huff, but other than that she was nothing but smiles and giggles."

Jessie's eyes went wide and she started fidgeting in place because she was dying to ask questions. She managed to contain herself, but just barely.

"She also had mind magic Incorporated into her version that we didn't," Tom said with a scowl. "So of course she would feel happy as a pony; the mind magic was telling her to feel that way. It was just like six years ago."

Amanda nodded. "But what's done is done. We know that ETS forcibly changed how we think years ago. We also know that by this point there's no way of going back to how we thought before ETS. Anything they tried to do now to make being human feel natural would be more of the exact same thing Sunset Shimmer did."

"It wouldn't be the same," Tom corrected with a sigh. "We'd have a choice in the matter now. I don't want my mind messed with anymore, but Jean is free to make that choice. She's also dealing with an awful situation that I can't even imagine dealing with. Having a choice and a need changes things."

The idea of having her mind or anyone she cared about altered bothered Jessie. Her mind was the thing she was most proud of.

"Do you think they'll open this up to the rest of us soon?" Her dad asked. Jessie held her breath, dreading the answer.

Ms. Amanda shook her though. "Don't count on it. Wild was being pretty adamant that this was for the sick and injured humans. Sunset Blessing might want to, but at this point I think Wild has more pull for politicians ears."

"Oh," Jessie's mom said with disappointment.

"Devon, you're my best friend..." Amanda said with hesitation, then her look firmed up. "I know we disagree about some things, but they told us what it did to the person that did it with no mind magic. You don't want that being done to you."

Her mom frowned. "But they're going to use mind magic to make it alright. I'm not a huge fan of it, but for this it's worth it."

Amanda looked at her husband and back to Jessie's mom. "That kind of mind magic... it'll change you a lot." The pink pony raised a hoof to stare at it as she continued speaking. "This whole experience has really hammered home just how much of a different person I was. Sure we both have all the same memories and most of the same personality traits, but there's this fundamental difference between who I was as a human and who I am now that I'm still coming to terms with. Because I have to accept that Amanda the human has been gone for a long time, that she was essentially someone else than me, and she's never coming back."

Ms. Amanda turned and looked right at Jessie and then back to her mom again. "Your family loves you. The pony you might become might seem very familiar, but she wouldn't be the same Devon we all know and love--she'd be someone new. All of us who went through ETS were forced to replace ourselves, even those who rehumanized weren't really the same people after changing back. Please, don't seek to do that to yourself."

It was at that moment that Jessie gained a newfound respect for her friends' mom. Ms. Amanda articulated things that Jessie hadn't even considered earlier today. Because Ms. Amanda had actually lived as a human she had insights Jessie lacked when trying to explain why all the humans didn't need to be ponies. Sure, being able to do things you normally couldn't would be fun and interesting, but not at the cost of losing yourself.

"But it's okay for Jean to choose to replace herself and not the rest of us?" Her mom asked bitterly.

"You know there's a big difference there," Amanda said with a sigh. "Jean is suffering day in and day out. Because of that she and her family would all rather meet the pony that would take her place than keep watching having her suffer."

The two continued to debate back and forth and Jessie ceased listening. She was now back to thinking deeply. Her earlier argument with her mom played in her head overlapping with the current argument between Ms. Amanda and her mom. She considered Dusk, her dad, her mom, Robby, and came to the only conclusion she could; one that brought back all the anger and hurt from earlier several fold.

"I don't want to lose my mom," Jessie said aloud, bringing a heavy silence to the room. She knew she wasn't supposed to say anything or interrupt, but this felt important. "I love you just how you are, Mom. I don't want some pony replacement for you--I want you."

Her mom looked at her with a sad look. "Jessie...you don't under--"

"I understand perfectly!" Jessie shouted as she stepped forward. "I'm not stupid! I'm a foal but I understand things better than anyone thinks. You think I can't love you as much because you aren't the same as me. That I'd love you more as a pony. It's like Ms. Amanda said; I don't know that pony, and I don't know if I'd love her or not." She couldn't help it, she started crying. "I know I love you though. I love you enough to be angry that you would ever think I'd want you replaced!"

The whole room sat in shocked silence at her outburst. No one seemed to know what to say. She just sat and cried.

"You've got a very smart daughter. You might want to listen to her," she heard Mr. Tom say quietly. "I know I've gained a lot of wisdom over the years listening to mine."

"Paul, I need help getting out of bed," her mom said in a tight voice. Making Jessie lift her tear filled gaze to her mom.

Her dad looked uncertain. "I don't think that's a good idea. You shouldn't be trying to move around too much right now."

Her mom shook her head. "I just need to get to the floor and sit down. I'm not trying to walk anywhere. Please, just help me down."

"If you're trying to get to Jessie how about I just bring her up to you instead?" Her dad asked. "She'll be even more angry than she is right now if you hurt yourself trying to overstrain."

Her mom gripped her fists then released them in defeat. "Fine. Set her up here."

Her dad took Dusk and held him out to Amanda and Tom. "Do you two mind holding him just a moment?"

Ms. Amanda sat down and lifted up her forelegs. "Of course not. Let me hold the cutie. Do what you need to do."

Dusk was transferred to Ms. Amanda's eager hooves and her dad moved towards her. Her initial instinct was to resist and refuse to be picked up. She was mad and wasn't in the mood for physical contact, but she relented and allowed him to lift her into his arms without any struggle. Not that she made it simple for him either. She made no move to assist him and let herself hang as dead weight as he lifted--not that it actually impacted his ability to do so in any way.

She stared downward at her hooves, still crying, as she was set on the hospital bed. Her mom gently touched a hand to her head and Jessie let her displeasure be known by pulling away from the touch. Her mom wasn't going to be allowed to just make this all better with some mane and ear rubs.

Her mom withdrew her rejected hand. "Jessie...this is the second time today you've gotten furious with me, and it's over the same thing. You'd think I'd have listened to you the first time it happened. I heard you, but I didn't really listen. I'm sorry for that."

Jessie just kept glaring at her own hooves, not wanting to give her mom any reaction. Her ears were still laid all the way back, but she was listening.

"Your opinion of me does matter very much to me," her mom continued, her voice still tired despite the adrenaline everyone was feeling. "And you are absolutely right; I have always thought you'd be happier with me as a pony. I've always felt so lost dealing with you, and the fact you are as bright as you are has actually made me feel all the more lacking. It feels like there's some gap between us and I'm just desperate to close it."

"So it's because I'm just too smart then?" Jessie mumbled.

"No," her mom asserted. "It's just... it's hard to explain."

Jessie looked up at her mom, giving a hard glare. "Do you feel that same gap with Robby? He does art just like you. He probably got into art because of you."

"It isn't as strong a feeling as him," her mom confessed. "I still feel lost when he starts talking about the dream realm, flying, and magic dream seaponies."

"Seapony, singular," Jessie corrected. "He's talking about Yinyu Wu Yan. She's a big deal to night ponies."

"I'm not meaning to make this a talk about your brother," her mom said in an exasperated tone.

"Maybe you should think more about my brothers--also plural," Jessie snapped. "How do you think Dusk will feel when he's older? You gave him a pony name because apparently a human name wasn't good enough. Are you meaning to teach my little brother he's not as good as me and Robby because he's human?"

"Jesus, she sounds just like an adult when she argues," she heard Ms. Amanda whisper in the background. "I'm glad Jackie and Jordan aren't capable of that advanced level of thought yet. I'd never win an argument with them."

Her mom was taking time to respond and that meant she either felt guilty, was considering something she hadn't before, or both. She decided to make herself more clear. "Robby always protects me, Jackie protects Jordan, and I'm going to protect Dusk. I'm not going to let anyone tell him he's not good enough."

"I'd never do anything to hurt him," her mom replied, and Jessie could see she was crying.

"You're hurting him already by treating being human as inferior!" She yelled with a stomp. "He's not inferior, you're not inferior, Dad's not inferior, humans aren't inferior. I don't care what you or Grandma Nocte or anyone else thinks."

"I'm not as smart as--"

She headed her mom off. "Except for maybe Twilight Sparkle, Bob McDermott, and a few others most ponies aren't as smart as me either--and I know there are humans just as smart as me too. It has nothing to do with me being a pony. I'm smart and I'd be just as smart even if I were human. It doesn't need me having any special powers and that's what makes it special."

"She is six--right?" Mr. Tom could be heard whispering.

Jessie stood up and rounded on the two commentating ponies as new wave of tears started. "Yes, I'm six. I hate being six. Being six means no one takes me seriously." She sat back down. "I just want my mom to listen to me. She thinks I'm so smart, but she won't listen to me."

"You're right..." Her mom said quietly, which made Jessie glance back. "You're right that I'm hurting Dusk--and hurting you--by treating humans as not being as good as ponies. You're also right I don't take you as seriously as I should."

"Do you mean it or are you just saying that to make me happy?" Jessie asked skeptically.

Her mom reached out to her again. "Believe me, having my own six-year-old daughter call me a fool and back it with strong arguments is a humbling experience. You won't hear any more Shimmerist talk from me."

"But that doesn't mean you aren't thinking it," Jessie accused.

Her mom looked ashamed. "No point trying to fool you about that; you're far too smart for it to work. I promise to try not to think that way though. I can't promise I'll be successful all the time, but I can promise to try, and I can promise to listen when you call me out on it. Is that fair?" Her mom reached both arms out with a pleading look. "Please say it's okay, it's the best that I can do."

Jessie sat for a second and then went into her mom's arms, and she let loose every tear she had left in her and so did her mom. A second later her dad joined in the hug. It wasn't all better, but it was better enough for now.

Tonya landed gently at the entrance to the hospital lobby, and took a second to adjust her saddlebags that had shifted slightly out of place with the quick flight. Wild had backed her into a corner before leaving and angrily demanded to know what in the hell was going on in Sunset's head. Trying to explain Sunset's feelings about Sunset's legacy, the new direction of Shimmerism, and the drama between Sunset and Tom had not been a particularly fun experience--made worse by the fact she hadn't even had time to sit down and think about all of it yet. Wild hadn't been particularly impressed with the explanation. There wasn't any better answer to give the angry earth pony though.

She'd tried for a while after that to convince her wife not to go through with the test tomorrow, to the same result as the previous attempts. On the plus side she'd been absolutely right about Sunset being on board with finding an excuse to see Poly Glot taken away and put on trial again, hopefully getting the death penalty he so very much deserved. So the talk with her wife had not been completely fruitless.

Now she just wanted to see her new nephew. Unfortunately she still had another task that needed attending to at the hospital as well. Velvet needed to be checked on. Hopefully that would go quickly and she could focus on happier things, at least for a little while. Today was far from over, and tomorrow was going to be stressful on a level only to the time she'd been put on trial before the Dreamwardens.

She calmly walked into the hospital. The front lobby was largely vacant, as it had been the last time she was here. Only the receptionist at the desk was present. It was rather plain, with a single television that played old Looney Toon cartoons endlessly, a few potted plants, chairs of both human and pony sizes, and various posters giving reminders to have regular doctor checkups without going into detail about any particular health problem. There were other lobbies around the hospital, depending on the department. She wasn't well versed on the geography of the hospital though, and therefore had no idea where the psych ward or the maternity ward were at--or absolutely sure if who she was looking for were at either.

She walked up the receptionist, a cream colored unicorn mare with a bright red mane, and propped her forehooves up on the counter. "Hi, I'm actually looking for two different people. I'm looking for a night pony that came into the ER yesterday named Velvet Nightshade and also looking for a human named Devon Middleton who I'm guessing is in the maternity ward."

The receptionist smiled and lit up her horn. "Let me check for you. It will only take a second." The unicorn used a pen levitated in her magic to quickly type out some things on her computer. Some unicorns would do it this way because they found it less tiring than trying to strike each key individually with their magic. "Mrs. Middleton is indeed in our maternity ward right now, recovering from a successful birth. That's down the hall to the left, past another waiting area and nurse station, and there's an elevator at the far end of the hall. Take that up one floor and the nurses at the station right as you get off the elevator should be able to direct you right to her. Now let me see about the night pony."

Successful birth was a good thing to hear. She had been worried Devon might still be in labor. This meant that she could actually get to see her nephew today despite being busy.

"Ms. Nightshade was released late last night," the reception said.

Tonya's eyes went wide. "She was what?!"

The receptionist double checked the notes. "Velvet Nightshade was released as it was viewed she no longer needed medical care. A member of the OMMR came and took custody of her so she could have twenty-four hour supervision in a non-isolated environment. I'm not sure why the OMMR was involved, but the person in question had paperwork signed by Phobia Remedy herself authorizing it."

If Phobia really did authorize it she was overstepping her authority just a little bit, depending on how it had been justified. There was no knowing without actually seeing the paperwork, and the hospital wouldn't show that without a court order. Now she had to figure out where Velvet was at and with who. That probably meant a nap, and that nap needed to happen soon or she wouldn't catch Velvet in the dream realm.

"Thanks for the information," she told the receptionist as she set her hooves back down on the ground. Like many dreamwalkers she did keep some sleep aids in her saddlebags. After she visited the maternity ward she could try finding a corner to take that nap, or maybe find a nice cloud to lay on.

After a short trot down the hall she came upon the next waiting area and nurses' station. She spotted Nocte snoozing in a corner with Jessie beside her reading a book. Jessie looked up and gave her a little wave and she took a quick detour to go speak with her niece.

"How's your mom doing?" she asked quietly, trying not to wake the sleeping night pony next to Jessie.

"She's asleep," Jessie said in a whisper and then lowered her ears. "She was really tired, and I think I made her more tired by fighting with her."

That earned the little yellow earth pony a confused look. "You were fighting with her? About what?"

Jessie shook her head. "She and my dad said I'm not supposed to talk about it."

That would have to remain a mystery for a moment. "Where's your dad? Is he up with your mom? I'm a little surprised they let you stay in the lobby by yourself."

Jessie pointed a hoof at the pony beside her. "I'm not by myself, I've got Grandmare Nocte. I'm supposed to wake her up if I need anything."

It was still showing a remarkable amount of trust in a small filly not to just go wandering off. To be fair to Jessie she behaved much older than she was, and it was easy to imagine she was dealing with a pony Robby's age or even older listening to Jessie talk. The nurse at the station wasn't likely going to let the filly go wandering off either, and a quick glance at the station confirmed that the nurse on duty was watching. She still worried about her niece sitting in the lobby largely unsupervised, though.

"Okay, well...I guess I'll just pop my head in, look at the baby, and pop back out, like a ninja," Tonya said as she partially hid her face behind a wing.

Jessie gave her an odd look. "What's a ninja?"

Tonya lowered her wing and sighed. "Foals these days! You never heard of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? The great martial arts superheroes?"

"That sounds like a really weird thing to name something," Jessie said with a doubting look. "How are turtles supposed to be martial artists? And what happens when they aren't teenagers anymore? And mutated how?"

Tonya gave Jessie a level look. "It's supposed to be a little silly. It's for fun, like SpongeBob SquarePants."

"Who?"

Tonya shook her head in frustration. Were all the things she loved as a child completely irrelevant now? "What cartoons do you watch?"

"Furton's Cat," Jessie said with a small smile.

"Furton who?" Tonya asked.

Jessie tilted her head slightly. "They just had the third big movie for it. It was number one at the box office for close to a month. Didn't you notice? They're like the most popular cartoon characters ever. They are going to open a theme park based on them next year and I'd really like to go. I love how the cat goes meowmow then Furton's all." Jessie stuck her tongue out to the side and tried to cross her eyes.

Tonya didn't get it.

She lowered her ears in defeat. "Okay, guess I'm getting old and not cool anymore." She put her hoof to her head to give an exaggerated lament. "I'm completely out of touch with the younger generation."

"You were born last century, so that would make sense that you watched really old cartoons that weren't as good," Jessie pointed out.

Oh, this little twerp! Tonya held her head up with mocked indignation. "I was not! Your dad was, but I wasn't. Plus, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and SpongeBob are classics that never go out of style."

"If you say so, but I watch cartoons all the time and I've never heard of them," Jessie said with a confused look. "And I heard that Aunt Sunset was born in 1978 once. I figured you were her age."

Tonya rolled her eyes. "So she's a little bit older than me. I'll be twenty-seven next month, I'm not that old. How old do you think your dad is? He's my older brother."

"I never asked," Jessie responded earnestly. "So it's okay to marry ponies more than twenty years older than you?"

"If you love each other it is," she answered. Then considered her answer again before she gave her niece a very bad idea. "And both are consenting adults."

Jessie seemed to consider this new information. "I guess that's why Mom and Dad are always mad about unmarked mares getting near Robby. It makes sense."

The subject of her nephew and unmarked night pony mares was a minefield she didn't want to walk into. She just nodded in agreement and sought to exit the conversation. Robby thought she was fun and silly at least, and that reassured her that she wasn't getting boring. This kid just needed to lighten up.

"Anyway, let me get going. I have things to do and still want to meet your new little brother."

"Okay Aunt Tonya," Jessie replied.

She gave her niece a quick hug and then headed straight for the elevator. She'd just head up, say hi to Paul while Devon was sleeping, gush about the baby, and then find somewhere to fit a one hour nap in.

The nurses directed her to the correct room and she quietly made her way in. Devon was indeed sleeping. Paul was holding the baby in his arms while sitting in a chair next to the bed. He looked up at her as she walked in and held a finger up to his lips. She nodded and walked over to him as quietly as she could with hooves on tile. Hopefully Devon was so used to the sound that she wouldn't be woken by it. The bigger concern was waking the baby who was not used to such sounds.

"Such a gorgeous little baby," she cooed as she looked at Dusk's sleeping face. Looking at him made her desire for having her own foal jump up even farther. The fact she was going to the doctor the day after tomorrow to find out what kind of options she had to make that happen was something to look forward to.

"You probably guessed already we won't be at church tomorrow," Paul said quietly. "But there's a chance we won't be coming back at all."

That made her head shoot up. "What? Why? Did we do something wrong?"

Paul shook his head. "Jessie challenged Devon about the entire belief system. I didn't get involved with the argument, but I was paying attention to her. I think she made some good points. We may be moving away from Shimmerism."

Well, that mystery was solved quickly. Tonya looked down at Dusk and thought about the things Sunset had said about the future of Shimmerism. Was Sunset right? Was it time to abandon the idea of a pony world and focus on making humans the equals to ponies in magic?

"There's some things going on that may shake up Shimmerism in the future," Tonya responded. "Until things have settled taking a break from the church might not be such a bad idea. Sunset is getting ready to challenge one of our core beliefs. I can't see all the Shimmerists being okay with what she is going to say, and there may be a schism in the church."

"Her?" Paul asked in hushed astonishment. "She helped write out the belief system. Now she's going to challenge it? How?"

Tonya sighed. "I don't want to say anything yet. It will definitely appeal to new groups, but also enrage some among us. We'll just have to see what happens. I'll back her no matter what."

"Have you told anyone else yet?" Paul asked.

Tonya nodded. "Wild Growth cornered me demanding to know why Sunset was taking risks with tomorrow's presentation and I had to try to explain what's going on in her head."

"If you can tell her why can't you tell me?" Paul asked. "We promised that we were going to be open with one another and not keep secrets from one another anymore."

She gazes down at the baby. "You're right, just keep this to yourself, please."

"You know your secrets are safe with me," Paul assured her. "The only person who I'll share with is Devon, because there are no secrets between us either, but she won't talk about it with anyone."

Tonya lowered her voice as low as she could get it while having a human next to her still able to hear. "She's going to stop pushing for everyone to want to be ponies. Her new focus is bringing magic to every human. She wants humans and ponies to eventually have equal magic and work together."

Paul blinked. "Is she trying to appeal to Harmonists and Lunites?"

Tonya shook her head. "They aren't interested in human magic, but it may appeal to some of them; I don't know. This really is about what she's saying though, with no hidden motivations. She really thinks that the key goal should just to bring magic to everyone, and that will help end want and need."

Paul sat and considered this for a few seconds in silence before continuing. "And is she just abandoning all the humans that want to be ponies then?"

"I'm scared that's how it will seem, but she isn't," she answered with an understanding look. "Turning humans into ponies still works towards that goal of everyone having magic, but she's decided that it isn't the only method to accomplish that or the way we should be trying to push the hardest." She paused then added. "I'm actually more scared that it'll make a lot of pony Shimmerists angry. A lot of them aren't concerned with magic as the main thing, and some of them may be fearful of human magic."

"It wasn't primarily about the magic to us either," Paul said gravely. "For a lot of humans in town this was about being more like our friends and families. Wanting magic was something too, but it was also making us all part of one cohesive whole, especially those of us with mixed families."

Tonya let off a dry chuckle. "Humans like to think they have no herd instinct like ponies. It's there, it's just not as obvious at first glance. Sunset understood that, it's part of how she's been as successful as she's been. Humans long for belonging and being part of the herd just as much as any pony."

"I'm just not sure how to feel about this yet," Paul said as he glanced at Devon. "Between what you're saying, and what Devon and Jessie were arguing about, it's hard to really decide what to think right away."

"What started the argument anyway?" She asked as she looked over to Devon as well.

Paul frowned. "First it was Amanda trying to convince Devon that becoming a pony isn't what we think. That it changes who you are so much that it might as well make you a different person. Amanda had said that her human self was long dead and gone, and that only her pony self remained. She didn't want Devon to lose her human self. Jessie listened on to all this."

That gave a little bit of unexpected insight into Amanda's mindset after the experiment. Nothing surprising, but insight all the same. "And Jessie got angry about the possibility of losing her mom then, right?"

Paul just nodded and didn't say anything.

Tonya sat in silence thinking about this. She wished she could have heard the whole argument from all sides. How would all of them feel about Sunset's new vision for Shimmerism? It was her responsibility to try to see that Sunset got support for this new way of thinking, even if she wasn't sure about how she felt about it herself. Sunset was really committed to this and mitigating the fallout of that announcement was important. Getting as many insights as possible from how ponies and humans felt about these things would help her figure out how to do that.

That lead to the presentation tomorrow and why Sunset was so dead set on an impressive showing. So much so that she's taking risks she'd normally not take to wow the delegates. Tomorrow, Sunset could effectively win the war for the future--even though most people wouldn't realize it in their lifetime. Win that war before it even began. If this ended up going public there was no stopping human magic from eventually spreading to all the world in time, and completing the human magical awakening. Sunset sensed her decisive battle was upon her and she was not holding back cautiously this time.

Tonya just hoped it didn't bring ruin to everything Sunset had already built in the process.

Wild sat in her limo reading through profiles of each of the delegates that were viewing the demonstration tomorrow. Sunset had her worried with this out of character recklessness. Tonya's explanation involved things that went far beyond the scope of what Wild was presently willing to concern herself with, but it did show that Sunset's fanatical drives were in full effect, even if they had taken a new form.

"Number, I don't see a lot of information on this kirin, or what kirin interests are," she said as she viewed the file in question.

"The kirin don't seem to have much for interests from what I can ascertain," Number's voice came over the phone. "They are a very isolated group in Equestria that is just now trying to learn about the world beyond their immediate borders. There is apparently debate among the Equestrians about whether they are actually a tribe of ponies or something else entirely. Consider him the equivalent of a wide-eyed tourist. Just don't make him angry; they burst into flame when angry."

"Are they a tribe of ponies?" Wild asked. "And do the kirin view themselves that way?"

"Biologists say yes, some offshoot distantly related to unicorns with some other unknown strains of ancestry mixed in. Perhaps some other lost tribe that no longer exists or maybe they somehow bred with dragons, who knows? They determined kirin can breed with ponies with no problem and have offspring that may reflect the pony tribe of the pony parent or be kirin. That same trait for bursting into flames has been observed in some unicorns, further showing a common ancestor," Number reported sagely. "The kirin wish to have that link recognized as they try to bond with the ponies."

"And the Equestrians don't?" Wild asked in mild confusion.

Number gave a sad chuckle. "Celestia is either the worst liar or the blindest ruler if she says she failed to see where Sunset Shimmer developed such racist views. Racism abounds in Equestria, and the kirin are viewed as non-ponies by many--and not just in elite circles."

"Hmm," Wild hummed as she considered. "So, talking points for him are mainly recognizing him as a fellow pony and making sure he's enjoying his trip then?"

"I would say so, yes."

"And the ponies in the delegation, how do they stand with him?"

"I can't be sure with all of them, but Rarity seems to accept kirin as ponies. It may be logical to assume anyone she chose to accompany her in her party might share the same views."

Wild closed the file and grimaced. "Logical to assume, but not safe. I'll have to be careful what is said in front of whom."

"You always were an excellent student at politics," Number praised.

"I may be, but that doesn't mean I enjoy it," Wild said with a groan. "I'm looking forward to my maternity leave where I can just ignore all this crap."

"You're too important a pony to ever escape political games, it's the price of being powerful," Number said sympathetically. "Have you given any thought to my offer?"

"It's still under consideration," Wild replied, not really wanting to discuss it right now.

Her thoughts trailed to her running into the other member of their elite magic club who was currently in town. She envied the pegasus for seeming to effortlessly avoid the spotlight and stresses of politics. Sapphire was definitely involved with them, she wouldn't be in Riverview right now if she wasn't, but didn't have to worry about the constant magnifying glass being put over her. Perhaps it was because Sapphire had Sunrise Storm soaking up much of the fanfare on Earth--to a degree of scrutiny Wild did not envy. Having another powerful pegasus getting the limelight certainly gave Sapphire some freedoms.

Unfortunately, Wild's closest comparison among earth ponies was a stallion in Mexico, El Capitan. Capitan, while powerful, only registered a six to her eight. He was locally famous there, and had comparable physical strength to her. His powers were more exclusively focused on drawing minerals from the earth, which was something she could do as well and then some. A great deal of his local fame had nothing to do with his powers though, but instead his propensity for trying to charm and sleep with any mare--even married ones. If he was the standard bearer for earth ponies it would be a PR nightmare for their tribe. She had her own famous sex drive, but she wasn't a homewrecker. It was just as well she overshadowed him.

The Equestrian earth ponies that may be comparable to her weren't as flashy as Rainbow Dash was for pegasi, nor confirmed to be as powerful on their own. Surely Applejack or Pinkie Pie had some great latent earth pony magic they could do if they were protectors of Equestria, right? She wished they'd show it off so some attention could be redirected from her. Having to always live worrying about public relations was exhausting.

"Can you forward a request to the hotel to see if the guests would be interested in a surprise visit from me?" Wild asked.

"I can. Are you hoping to butter up the delegates before the presentation tomorrow?" Number asked.

"Butter them up if possible, but at the very least get a better idea how to respond to them and play up that we're still in development, particularly if Sunset has something screw up," she answered. She had no intention of letting Sunset's fanaticism derail this. Her mama needed this too much for it to be taken from her now.

"I'll make the call now, hold one moment," Number said before music started playing from the phone.

Wild turned her attention back to reading profiles, trying to determine talking points with each person and the goals and ambitions of each group. Ambassador Grannor the griffon was apparently no friend of the Equestrians, despite that being the official stance between the nations. The griffons were also allied with the Russians and the Chinese, which must have put Sunset on edge considering the level of hatred Sunset had for the Chinese. Though the griffon's alliance with these two nations wasn't particularly helpful to them all the time as the Russians and Chinese hated each other as much as the US hated either of them. The griffons themselves didn't seem to represent a major power on the other world, but strongly aspired to be. The Equestrians went out of their way to keep the griffons happy, but that could be due the Equestrians' pacifist nature rather than any real threat posed by the griffons.

Their primary interests seemed to revolve about whether the spells could be repurposed to turn ponies into griffons temporarily. There was some sort of major issue that happened with Sunset Shimmer before she came to Earth involving a griffon chick being turned into a pony that the griffins wanted a way of at least temporarily undoing. This had been one of several major points of contention for years between the griffon kingdom and Equestria linked to those events. Wild was unsure if Sunset was prepared to make such promises, but it seemed possible, eventually.

The Equestrians were hard to get a gauge on, which was why meeting them in person before the presentation was so important. It had been Equestrian policy for some time not to comment on what the US was doing unless it involved trade or the living conditions of ponies. They still to this day had teams come to help educate and train ponies in the use of their powers, and they had a steady export of minerals that were hard to find on Earth but were easy to find on Equestria--and imported many electronic components that they had yet to develop enough factories of their own to produce. They kept out of politics for the most part though.

The music on the phone cut off. "Okay, so, mixed results."

Wild raised an eyebrow. "How bad is it?"

Number coughed. "Rarity expressed she would be simply delighted to meet Earth's Element of Generosity."

Wild gave the phone a baffled look. "Is she talking about me? Last I checked I didn't have some magic stone from a magic crystal tree."

"You aren't up on the Equestrian tabloids I see," Number said with a chuckle. "The Equestrian public has developed a very positive view of you after hearing about your altruistic endeavors. Comparisons between you and Rarity started almost immediately, somepony nicked named you Earth's Element of Generosity, and it stuck. It also helps that PonyCo stamps your face on all the products the Equestrians like to buy when they visit Earth. Great for visibility and sparking conversation."

She rolled her eyes, but couldn't help smiling at the idea of ponies in Equestria complimenting her. "It's better than being called the Southern Slut, I suppose."

"Wild, that was one tabloid, one time. You really need to let that go," Number said with concern. "Anyway, the bad news. The griffons have heard of you too, but if you're going to visit with them today they want a show of your power."

Wild groaned. "And I'm guessing they won't be satisfied with a demonstration of something any significantly powered earth pony can do."

"Nope, they want to see something that will really wow them. They also said they aren't really impressed with trees if that's what you want to show."

"Did you tell them I'd be demonstrating my power Monday anyway?"

"They want to see something today if you want to talk to them today, and I don't think growing something will do much."

Wild looked out her window forlornly. "Great." She got an idea as she saw she was driving by one of the bigger parks. "Can you get Sunset on the line? I need to ask permission to do something I might normally need a permit to do and she might be able to order it through."

"I suppose so," Number answered skeptically. "Give me a moment to call her up." The music of being put on hold began again.

"Driver, please pull over to this park. Signal my security entourage I need them to be ready to look the area over." Since she'd been going out and about near official people today she actually had a full car of security trailing the limo.

The music stopped. "I've got her on the other line. Starting a conference call now."

"Wild? What do you need? I'm very busy," came Sunset's voice almost immediately on the tail of Number's.

"I'm at Patel Park. I want permission to put on a demonstration of my magic. Something that would require over a six PREQUES rating to do."

"That's a big deal. I can maybe fast track a permit through for that, but you'll need to tell me why, and give me assurances it won't cause any property damage or damage anything more than grass and dirt."

She looked around the park to make sure she actually had a spot she could make those promises with. She saw a large field that would be perfect. It had some ponies playing in it right now, but her announcing she was going to do a demonstration should get them to clear to the outskirts to watch. "I can promise that. As to why, I'm trying to get on the delegates' good side and the griffons want me to wow them with my powers before they talk to me."

Sunset was silent for a second before answering. "Okay, I'll fast track you through. Don't do anything until I've confirmed with you that the permit has been filed. It should only take a few minutes. Keep whatever this is contained so I don't look like a fool in front of the city council for approving this."

"I will...I mean I won't...or...you know what I mean," Wild assured her excitedly as she pictured what she was going to do. They wanted to be wowed, she'd wow them. "Number, you heard where I need them to come, right?"

"Yes..." Number said slowly. "Though I need to point out that I had been negotiating you coming to them, not them coming to you. That might be a little bit of a political boo-boo."

Oops..."They asked for a demonstration, I can't do that in a hotel lobby--not without leveling the hotel anyway. So...um...please do your best to get them here. You know how much I appreciate you, right?"

"You owe me a full box of Cubans for this," Number grumbled. Music started playing again, which meant Sunset was gone as well.

The limo stopped and a moment later she watched as her security detail got out and started looking over the area. Ponies stopped what they were doing to stare at the mix of human and pony security looking about. After a solid minute of them looking about they signaled her that it was alright to come out.

She exited the vehicle and was glad to feel her hooves connect with soil. She was attuned enough with her magic that even through the limo she could feel the earth around her, but it was no substitute to the real tactile sensation of having her own hooves in direct contact with the grass and dirt. The feeling of confidence and strength it gave her reaffirmed that earth ponies were meant to be in contact with the soil.

With music of the sound of Eye of the Tiger coming over her phone she walked into the center of her security. The song wouldn't have been her first choice, but it definitely pumped her up. "Follow me, keep alert, and don't get overly aggressive with anyone unless they present a clear threat."

"Yes, ma'am," all of the security said in well trained unison.

She calmly walked to the center of the park like any other pony would if you could forget she was surrounded by security Several ponies and a human or two that were in the park pointed at her excitedly, with a few snapping pictures of her. She gave each of her admirers a wave in turn as she made her way towards the field.

The music stopped. "Okay Wild, I think I asked too little. The griffons are unhappy about being asked to come out, and I think they expect you to disappoint them, but they're coming. Even Rarity complained about how she wasn't properly prepared to go out again, but she relented."

"Appreciate you, Number," she responded with a grin.

"Appreciate me using your bar for the rest of the night, and I'll be drinking top shelf," Number said with a huff before hanging up the phone.

She wished she knew how to enhance her voice with magic, that would make things much easier to tell others to keep a distance. It always seemed like she should be able to manipulate her body to do it, but she came to discover such magic was more a manipulation of the air than a manipulation of herself. Air was something she couldn't really manipulate directly. What she could manipulate was the ground, and one thing the residents of Riverview were familiar with were her set perimeters.

She looked about her, judging how much space she needed, and how much space was needed to keep people at a safe distance. The field offered more than enough space as long as she kept her work centered within it. With her mental estimates made she sent her magic into the ground and started growing higher grasses in an outline larger than what she had estimated as the needed safe area. Those that were in the park were all familiar with what this meant and excitedly retreated back to outside her perimeter. A few passing pegasi noticed what was going on and joined the others on the ground outside the perimeter to chatter as they all looked on with expectation of her coming display.

Perimeter established, she started feeling deep into the soil and all around the area for some distance. The hum of her magic was able to be felt by all around her as she worked, and added to the crowd's excitement and attracted more who felt it to the area.

She felt around, pinpointing all the minerals and seeds that she needed in the park's immediate area, and started slowly drawing them below the center of the field through shifting earth. She had to be careful to move the soil without damaging anything above ground or any plumbing or electrical wires that were hidden below ground. There was always the danger of an earthquake if she did this sloppily. She took extreme care that any movement of the earth would be so small that it wouldn't damage anything, and be only perceptible to earth ponies. Years separated her from blind brute force displays of magic, and she had pride in the precision she was capable of using it at such a high level of power.

She kept focused, effortlessly tracing the runes in her mind that allowed her to do things with precision. The government had feared what her magic could do if left wild, and had eagerly approved her training by Equestrians as a result. It had been a challenge to learn, but once the skills had been learned they became second nature to her. Now she could move objects within the soil like a unicorn could levitate them through the air. People believed that earth ponies couldn't be mages, but they were mistaken. Earth pony magic was geomancy, and her power made her without peer in that type of magic. Only the alicorns had the power to surpass her, and they lacked her natural affinity with this type of magic.

Her senses told her a few of her preferred seed types were not numerous enough here. She could reach out further to find them and draw them to her, but that would take time and energy she'd rather not spend. This was going to be a huge enough undertaking as it was. She was also obligated to localize her powers to just the park area anyway. Luckily she had a solution for this.

She turned to a member of her security while still drawing what she needed to her. "Bring me my seed case, please. It's in the limo." She'd have to remember to order a restock of it after this, but blowing through some of her stock of seeds was worth it. Those griffons wanted a display of power and they were going to get one.

"Sunset Blessing calling," her phone announced as it started ringing.

She gently touched a hoof to it to answer it, not stopping in her work. "Wild? What the hell are you doing? I have reports coming in from all over that part of the city about ponies feeling your magic at work. I told you not to do anything until this was officially filed."

"I haven't done anything that needs a permit as of yet. I'm just preparing," Wild answered calmly. That was more a technicality, she was moving things in the soil. Moving things in the soil technically didn't need over a six PREQUES rating. She was just doing that on a larger scale than most could. "Is the permit approved?"

"It's approved," Sunset confirmed. "What exactly are you up to?"

"I thought Rudra, and the night ponies, might appreciate a statue in honor of him as Riverview's first pony doctor. After all, this park is named after him," Wild said with a grin.

"A statue?" Sunset said bemused. "How big a statue are we talking? You aren't going to cause a quake making this thing are you? This seems pretty complex to do with earth pony magic, even for you."

"I can do it without causing an earthquake. I got to play and experiment when I was building myself up for the Sahara project. I know what I'm doing," Wild confirmed. "And the goal is to wow our guests, I intend to give Riverview's first pony doctor a proper monument."

"If you say so," Sunset replied, clearly still doubting and clearly concerned. "This isn't a desert with nothing for miles around that you can possibly damage in the process, this is the middle of a city. There's a lot more factors in play here than when you were playing in Africa. Make sure whatever you do doesn't impact anything past that park; don't overdue it showing off. This isn't a game."

"I know what I'm doing, Sunset," Wild said with a hint of annoyance that she was being doubted. "I had the science camp near me in Africa and I didn't disturb it with what I did for practice. Didn't you look over the reports?"

"I only looked at the report for the actual test and that involved a pretty significant quake that if they hadn't been prepared for it would have leveled that camp, and would have leveled any settlement nearby if there had been any," Sunset replied crossly.

"Well, I'm not trying to raise anything on that scale here. I'm making a statue in the middle of a field, not trying to pull magma from the Earth," Wild said dismissively. "I made a few out there with no harm to anyone before the test destroyed them. I know I can do this."

Sunset let off an audible growl. "If something goes wrong I'll make you wish you had a volcano handy to hurl yourself into, right before they're done tossing me into it for approving this."

"Noted," she said as she ended the call. The nerve of that unicorn. Like she would ever do anything that would hurt anyone if she thought there was any chance it may. At least her adrenaline was going now, and that would help her out.

Everything below seemed ready for her to start working on it so she ceased drawing things to her location while she waited for the key members of her audience to arrive. Hopefully they would be quick. She didn't want to keep her current audience waiting too long.

The number of ponies who were already watching had grown. Now there was a full flock of pegasi hovering above the park in anticipation, making their own circle around the field in the air, and some pulled up clouds to sit on. Since they didn't know exactly what she was up to they probably didn't want to be directly over where she was working--a giant tree sprouting up at the rate she could grow one might knock a flyer out of the air. On the other side of her grass perimeter the number of more ground bound ponies had grown into a fair crowd, with more humans joining them. The humans were probably just here to see what had attracted all the ponies, but there may have been some rehumanized among them that had felt the magic as well. There was even a solitary night pony mare wearing a dark pair of sunglasses lounging in a tree.

She gave the crowd a wave as her security delivered her seed case to her before retreating back beyond the perimeter. Then she started marking out on the ground a rough outline of where she meant to have her work done. She didn't actually need to do this, but it made for a good show that she was still preparing to do something. Keeping anticipation building was important for making people excited. Keeping people excited helped with her image. These were things that she had learned over the years. It wasn't just doing these big displays of magic, but how she put on the performance. Despite how much she hated having her actions scrutinized she had to admit she enjoyed positive attention a great deal, and was eager to cultivate it.

At long last several official looking cars pulled up to the edge of the park. An additional team of security, which included a few military members, got out of vehicles and consulted with her own security as the crowds watched. The new security took up their own positions while the delegation from the other world exited the vehicles and were given instructions about where they could watch and observe.

Rarity was the first out, and was easily recognized, even though Wild had never met the unicorn. If Wild had never seen pictures of her she'd have recognized her by that particular mane style since Phobia often modeled it herself and was open on saying who it was modeled after. Several other unicorns and and a few other token ponies of other tribes quickly joined her.

The griffons were a sight to see in person. She'd seen photos of, but never any in person. They bore little resemblance to ponies past being quadrupeds, more bird and cat-like in appearance. Some looked like they had hawk-like features, others falcon-like, and a few buzzard-like. Their feline tails were held high for the most part, though a few of them swished them about in a way that displayed their mood. One old buzzard-like griffon was holding what looked like a whole roasted chicken in his talons, and was chomping away at it with his beak.

The last guest was the kirin. He stood slightly taller than the ponies with peach colored fur and a golden mane that hung about his head and shoulders like a lion's. His height was apparently unusual among kirin, and was ascribed to the fact he came from their leadership line, who as a whole tended to stand much taller than the more average pony height kirin. It looked as if he had what looked like scales along his muzzle and back, and his tail seemed a bit different than a typical pony's. A strange branching horn that was almost more antler than horn was centered in his head. He clearly had pony facial features and bone structure, but she could see where some would see him as something other than a pony. The kirin seemed to be dancing in place as he tried to take in all the sights around him, and his youth and enthusiasm was clearly evident despite his size.

As they came up to the perimeter she smiled. It was showtime.

Turning back to the center the field she stretched out a leg towards it. Again, this was completely unnecessary, but it added to the show--and to be honest it had become a habit that she'd started doing even when she wasn't trying to show off. Her power gathered in her and everyone around seemed to feel the buildup of magical energy as they all went silent waiting for the hoof to drop.

It came down with a hard stomp that sent clods of grass flying. A sensation like the sounding of a gong went off to all that could feel magic, and likely could be felt at the very edges of the city. All the things she had been gathering beneath the surface began to push together and compact to form stone, and in the center of the field the ground could be seen moving as if it were a carpet of grass draped over water.

She focused and started forming the stone into the shape she wanted, starting from the top and working her way down. As she did this she reached down and opened up her case of precious seeds and bent her head down to gather up the appropriate ones in her mouth, before spitting them out towards where her work was being done. The seeds hit the ground and her magic grabbed them from the soil and swept them towards their new home.

The wingtips of Rudra's statue started to rise from the ground, and she was pleased that she had properly formed them without actually seeing them with her eyes. She had seen them with her magic and that was better than eyesight. With her magic pulsing through the park she could see all in it, even the shape and form of each person that stood upon the soil. The few crystal ponies in the crowd lit up as her magic seeped into them, making them sparkle brightly.

The statue continued to rise from the ground in front of the astonished onlookers. The mane of the statue was not stone like the rest. She had made it so where that would be was instead looser soil that her flowers had taken root in, and Rudra was given a mane of bright red roses. If this statue remained here after this they would need regular tending, as this was essentially just one giant planter for them, otherwise the poor night pony statue would eventually go quite bald.

Weariness started to kick in at this point. She'd been steadily using a lot of power and shaping the stone was not the easiest of tasks. Up it continue to rise still, with a small rumbling of the ground, but not too severe. Climbing foot by foot out of the ground until the whole body of her art was exposed; ten times the size of a normal pony, with wings lifted high and a stethoscope around his neck, Rudra's likeness was perfect.

She was not done yet, even though she was very tired from the sustained use of her magic. The statue continued to rise higher as she made a great boulder like pedestal for the statue to stand upon. Vines sprang up and wrapped themselves around the boulder as it rose completely out of the ground, and small blooms appeared from the vines. With all the statue with its stand raised she laid out a carpet of flowers all around it, perfectly sectioned off by type so it looked like the boulder was standing in the center of a rainbow.

With her work finished she sat back down, lightly panting, as the cheers went up all around her. Glancing over at the griffons and other delegates and she was pleased to see muzzles and beaks agape. She'd found a way of impressing them with her power while working on a relatively small scale. Now they understood that her power and capabilities were not just limited to growing trees. They wanted a show of magic that they'd never seen before and she'd delivered.

There were now meet and greets to do. Politics was going to reassert itself. She really wanted to take a nap. She was going to be drained for hours after this. Her magic naturally flowed in single large bursts, not this steady flow she'd been using today. Going against it's natural flow with this much magic was more exhausting than putting on even bigger displays with her natural wild power. If an assassin took a shot at her right now she was pretty sure her defenses would fail. She put a big smile on her face that masked her current weariness. Appearances were everything in politics, and they were critical to survival as well.

No one could ever be allowed to see her weaknesses.

Chapter 12: Anger and Tears

Author's Note

These three sections happen all at roughly the exact same time rather than in chronological order.

Chapter 12: Anger and Tears

Tonya sat outside the appointed hookah bar for the others to arrive. Tattered Wing was the one who had taken charge of Velvet, and the two of them should be arriving together with Megan. Melissa was going to take the evening off and join in as well. A private booth in the back had been reserved where they could discuss things without anyone overhearing, though at this stage, that was getting to be less of an issue if anyone did.

They were all running late, though. Sitting on the sidewalk at night was getting dull, and she wanted to stretch her wings, but was afraid they'd come up at any moment and miss her. She'd been sitting here for the better part of the hour.

The neon lights of the entertainment district flashed all around the street, advertising clubs, bars, theaters, and restaurants. There were still plenty of day ponies about, but the numbers were declining in favor of night ponies and humans as the night got later. This area never really shut down, but it had two sets of clientele. The humans and night ponies dominated the late-night scene and the rest of the ponies the day. She watched as shifts changed, and various earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns got off of work and joined the customers who were also preparing to go home.

She shifted her position on the sidewalk as several older teen unicorns hurried out of the hookah bar, nearly running her over. They were probably over eighteen from the looks of them, with mostly adult bodies with hints of foalish features still detectable in their faces. She watched them hurry down the street towards the monorail. Perhaps they lost track of time.

"Hi, Mrs. Blessing," she heard called out. She turned her head and saw Alex Rutledge walking up to her, wearing a vest, that marked him as a worker in the area, and his saddlebags.

She turned to look at him with a smile, happy for a chance at conversation while she waited. "Hello Alex, you know you can just call me Tonya, right? Mrs. Blessing is nice to hear, but it is a bit too formal."

He chuckled as he walked up. "Force of habit. My job involves dealing with a lot of rich people, and they get their tails out of joint if I don't address them formally."

"Any idea where your sisters are?" She asked. "I've been waiting for them for the last hour. They told me they'd be just a little late, but it's been almost an hour."

"Sorry on their behalf," Alex said with a slight bow of his head. "Tat said something about getting Ms. Nightshade to the tattoo parlor for her wings today. I'm guessing it might be taking longer than anticipated."

"Call her Velvet. Addressing her like that might make her uncomfortable," Tonya instructed. Being a day removed from a suicide attempt, it was worrisome that Velvet was even out and about. She understood letting her out and being watched, though. Ponies didn't do well with isolation, and you didn't want to do that to a pony already suffering mental illness. It was bad enough when it was done to humans. No one who was feeling unloved should be kept in isolation, human or pony.

"Sorry again, a force of habit," Alex replied.

"What exactly do you do for work out here?" Tonya asked.

Alex pointed a hoof to his flank, which was a drink of some sort. "Learning the trade of bartending. I'm pretty good at it, but still learning the actual trade part of making drinks. I have to have a veteran standing close by for me to do any special orders. Having a talent for something and knowing everything involved with it are two different things. I was a late bloomer with my mark--just getting it this year, but I'm enjoying this."

Tonya adopted a sly smile. "Meet many pretty mares doing your work? I'm taken, but I can still detect your charm."

He looked away slightly. "A few."

"How about Wild Growth?" Tonya asked with interest. "High-end place that serves alcohol? Sounds like catnip for her."

"I'm pretty sure that she's indiscriminate in choosing where to visit," Alex said slowly. "But no, I’ve only run into her at a little club down the way earlier this year."

"Ooh, do tell," she said with a smirk.

The blue unicorn sat down. "I wasn't doing great; being an adult with no cutie mark is rough. I was sitting at a bar that catered primarily to humans not far from here and just trying to get some peace, you know?"

She nodded sympathetically. It was rare for a pony to be an adult with no cutie mark at this point, but it wasn't unheard of. Ponies tended to look down on unmarked ponies. Humans didn't have the same concepts about adulthood and maturity as ponies. Ponies would treat a foal with a mark more like an adult than a blank flanked adult. It was just part of pony thinking. Early on after ETS this wasn't much of an issue, but as the majority of the adults gained their marks and maturing foals started gaining theirs, the concept of adulthood--or at least maturity-- equaling marked started developing and was now highly prevalent.

He continued. "I was just there, taking human-sized shots--which I don't recommend doing as a pony--and then all a sudden she just walks in and takes a seat at the bar right next to me!"

"Not every day that a celebrity just comes and takes a seat next to someone," Tonya agreed.

"She ordered a martini, I remember it was a Martinez," Alex continued.

"Not surprising she might choose a drink with that name," Tonya giggled.

"The bartender brought her the drink, and she just downed that martini in one long gulp. She tipped him and ordered another," Alex said with a shake of his head. "She then turned to me, looked at the shot glasses, and then said ‘looks like I'm not the only pony having a rough day. What's your story?’

"I just sat gaping at her. I was so shocked she was starting up a conversation with me. I was no one, and she's Wild Growth," Alex said with wonder. "I said just the blank flank blues like an idiot."

"Not the best introduction to yourself," Tonya said with a chuckle.

"Then she said: Well, you are a handsome shade of blue. Don't let ponies get you down. You're the most handsome stallion in this bar," Alex said with a stupid grin. "Didn't even occur to me I was the only stallion in that bar. I just knew that Wild Growth had just complimented me."

Tonya resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Good grief, this pony was practically worshipping Wild Growth with this story.

"She asked my name, and after I told her, she asked if I was related to Megan Rutledge. After I told her that was my sister, she said that Megan never talked about her family much," Alex said as he flipped his tail in happiness. "We got to talking about our families, and she told me about how stressed she often got, and I started to relax. She seemed to really be listening to me, and I hung on her every word."

Tonya resisted the urge to shake her head. She had no doubt Wild was listening and showing interest. Wild always took an interest in any pony’s life she came across. The bad thing was that she mixed that with her flirting, and it made her seem a lot more serious about the connection than what Wild should let the other party interpret. It wasn't Wild deliberately trying to give a wrong impression; it was just Wild being herself. Rosetta had said she'd tried talking to her sister about this, but Wild didn't seem to understand it. Maybe Yinyu could be convinced to visit Wild; if anyone could explain it so that Wild could understand, it would be the Warden of Lust.

"We talked for a while," Alex continued. "Then, when it was getting late, she invited me to her mansion. When we got there we… well… you know..."

Tonya rolled her eyes and nodded. "I can guess pretty easily."

Alex sighed. "But in the morning when I woke up, she was gone. She'd left early to go to the airport and then overseas. Her servants gave me breakfast and then sent me on my way. Haven't seen her since."

And so Wild's string of one night stands continued. Poor guy, Tonya thought ruefully.

Alex became somber. "I'm not an idiot; I understand that Wild Growth sleeps with a lot of stallions and moves on. I'm not even angry about the fact she did it with me, even though I wish she would have at least said goodbye."

Tonya draped a wing over the stallion and hugged him. "That's very big of you. She isn't a cruel mare, but she probably deserves to be called out for how she does things like that."

Alex nodded. "It's just that when I was talking to her, I really did see this amazing mare from what she was saying; that it wasn't just all stories in the news. She does care that much about everyone. The kind of person I want to try to have a real relationship with."

"Alex," Tonya said hesitantly, trying to decide how to be delicate about this. "She is on the road a lot, and I mean a lot. Because she's involved with so many things, I don't see where she has the time to pursue a proper relationship, not one she can give the proper time and respect a relationship deserves. Not to mention that sex drive of hers isn't going anywhere when she is on the road, and that leads to a lot of temptation for her to cheat--I'm not saying she would, just that it would be a huge temptation. It seems common with anyone that travels a lot."

Alex looked sadly at her. "Do you have a lot of those clients?"

She shook her head. "I don't have those types of clients, but I'm around a lot of businesspeople because of who my wife is, and I've noticed it is common with those that travel more than they are at home. Lots of angry spouses and divorces in those circles."

"So you think I'd be an idiot to try," Alex said dejectedly.

Tonya flattened her ears. "I'm just trying to give you realistic expectations. Stranger things have happened, but even if she did take you up on trying a relationship, I don't think it would go well. She's a great pony, but I think a poor one to fill that kind of role--for anyone, not just you."

"Alex? What are you doing here?" Came Tattered Wing's voice.

The two of them turned to see Tattered, Velvet, Megan, and Melissa, all walking down the sidewalk towards them. Tattered and Megan were giving their little brother a questioning look. Melissa was scanning the area with her eyes like a cautious night pony might, despite her human form. Velvet kept glancing at her wings and shaking them.

"Just ran into Tonya on the way home from work, and we were having a conversation," Alex explained as his eldest sister embraced him, and they took in each other's scents. He released her then straightened his saddlebags with his magic. "I really should get going. I already missed my normal monorail time, and am going to be getting home late as it is."

"We'll be home pretty late," Megan said to him. "But we'll try not to be too late. I'm sure Tonya doesn't want to stay here all night."

Tonya shook her head. "I don't like being awake deep into the night like the rest of you, but I'm going to make sure everyone gets to talk and share their feelings."

"I'm eager to get started with our pseudo-night pony discussion group," Melissa chirped.

Tattered facehoofed and gave Melissa a dirty look. "Mel, you're my best friend, but please try to be sensitive to my sister."

Melissa looked at the other human woman who was rubbing her arms nervously, and her cheerful expression dropped. "I'm sorry, Megan. I should have been more considerate about what you're going through. I’ve just never had a chance to sit down and talk about this with anyone, and you don't know how much I've wanted to."

Megan kept rubbing her arms, but nodded. "It's okay; I shouldn't be so scared of having to discuss my experiences. I need to be braver."

Alex shifted position nervously and took a few steps away as he watched his two older sisters. "Well, I hope it goes well. I'll see you all in the morning, I guess."

After the unicorn left, Tonya led the group inside and confirmed their reservation for a private area. At this point, most of the patrons and staff were human with a scattered number of night pony mares, a few of whom looked like they were on dates with each other. The smoke in the air did have a slight tobacco scent, but smelled more of various fruits.

She spotted Velvet gazing at those mares and was not the only one to notice where the newly blessed pony was looking. Tattered laid a hoof on Velvet's shoulder, causing the other mare to jump with a start.

"It's alright," Tattered said soothingly. "I know what you're thinking about because I've been doing that same thing over the last week. We're both trying to adjust to this, and it will take time. Try not to fret about it."

Velvet took a wary step back from Tattered. "Are you hitting on me?"

Tattered shook her head. "It is going to be a long time yet before I try flirting with a mare. I might have had my sexuality forcibly changed, but that doesn't mean I have any clue what types of mares appeal to me yet. Just like you, I find myself looking and trying to figure it out. It's a big change, and there's no point rushing to get involved with anyone."

Velvet looked at the mares seated in the bar and then nodded. "You're right, no need to rush. I just need to take this one day at a time."

Tonya tried to get a look at Velvet's new tattoos, but couldn't tell from her vantage what they were. There were no real rules about what the marks on the wings had to be to mark a pony with Yinyu's Blessing. Most night ponies that took it tended to start with more abstract designs on the edges of their wings and add more personalized things to the bulk of their wings later on. From what she could tell, both Tattered and Velvet had chosen the more abstract option as well.

A member of the staff led them to a side room with a few large empty booths surrounding enormous group hookahs. The stalls had tasseled pillows for seating, and the entire place was done up with heavy use of red and yellow. It gave off a very Middle Eastern vibe. The group took their seats, and Megan immediately took a draw from the hookah, and the scent of the smoke when she exhaled was mango.

"No ordering cigarettes for you?" Melissa asked her fellow human.

Megan shook her head. "Trying to avoid those, and I also know how you feel about seeing flames."

"Thanks for thinking about me, but it's unnecessary," Melissa responded. "I've gotten over most of that. Just don't hold a flame up close to my face or ask me to sit close to a campfire and I'm good."

"This kind of place isn't going to bother you too much, is it?" Tonya asked worriedly about hearing about Melissa's aversion to fire.

Melissa shook her head. "Smoke doesn't bother me; it's the fire that does. I have to see the flames."

It seemed there were a lot of issues that this group could use counseling. Perhaps she should suggest some further sessions with some of them one on one. Having a few more clients wouldn't be a bad thing and helping others with their personal and psychological issues was near and dear to her. Maybe she should go the route Phobia was working on and try to get her own master's degree in psychology, perhaps even a doctorate.

"Since we're all here and comfortable, let’s get started," she announced. "I think everyone here knows everyone else, so there's no need to go through introductions. I figured we would start with Melissa since she's most eager to talk and that gives the others more time to collect what they want to say. Melissa, you have our attention."

The pony brained human quickly stood up with a big grin on her face. "Everyone knows I'm rehumanized and the situation surrounding why I rehumanized. Only Tat knows what came after, though. The same day I rehumanized Teddy Bear--or Dan as he was called back then--told me he was interested in pursuing a relationship. Make no mistake, I’m comfortable being rehumanized and being human again, but when I started a relationship with Teddy, things quickly became kind of murky."

"We always had a hard time accepting a human, even a former night pony, dating one of our stallions," Velvet muttered.

Melissa gave Velvet a sour look. "And you have no idea how many mares I've had to threaten to beat down if they try to fight me for him."

"Oh, I can guess," Velvet said with amusement. Then her amused expression dropped. "Won't be any danger of me trying that anymore, I guess."

Melissa got back on track. "Anyway, after one of the Dreamwarden trials that I attended as a guest of the Warden of Fear, I spoke with Yinyu. She restored my night pony mindset enough that Teddy Bear and I could have our time sleeping together be both as ponies. It’s not that I'm fully pony in thought, it's kind of an amalgamation of human and pony, and I'm not sure how to describe it better than that. Since then, my magic has grown to where I can dreamwalk on my own too."

"So why'd you sign up for this experiment, if everything is fine the way it is?" Megan asked.

Melissa blushed. "Well, being able to make love with Teddy in the dream realm is great, but there's still the waking world human part of my brain that craves actual physical contact that isn't satisfied with just dreams. I figured if there was a chance I could go temporarily pony again for periods we could...scratch that itch."

"So...you wanted to change your whole biology...just so you could screw," Velvet said slowly.

Tonya held her forehooves and wings up high. "Please don't make any verbal judgments about others. This is a safe discussion, free from criticism. You don't want others mocking your reasons, Velvet, don't mock hers."

Velvet held up her forehooves defensively. "I'm just saying, if interspecies sex is your thing, you could do that without the biology change. Sure the proportions and positioning are awkward..."

"Velvet!" Tonya warned.

"But plenty of people do it," Velvet continued. Then she took a draw from the hookah and spoke again. "Just saying."

Melissa clearly wanted to say something to Velvet, but contained herself. Instead looking around the table at everyone but Velvet. "Anyway, my situation is a little different from everyone else's, but I'm perfectly happy with how things went on my end with the experiment and am eager for my chance at round two."

Tonya took a deep breath to calm herself, then smiled. "Thank you for sharing, Melissa."

"I don't think it's that weird to want to be able to do that as the same species," Megan said consolingly to Melissa, who nodded.

"Are you ready to, for your turn?" Tonya asked Megan.

The younger woman took a long draw off the hookah again and let off a long plume of smoke up towards the vents that sucked away the smoke before standing up. "Well, as you all know, I'm on the city council. I'm the youngest person on the city council and the only human. I've always felt a little bit of an outsider in a city full of ponies, and wondered if I represent them as well as I should."

"You do a great job, don't worry about it," Tattered asserted. Melissa nodded in turn, and Velvet took another draw from the hookah.

"Regardless," Megan continued. "I felt like I should be able to walk a mile in their hooves to be an effective representative for them. My dad never really got to understand who he was representing; he just understood buzzwords and walking a party-line--whatever got him elected and kept money from interest groups flowing into his campaigns. I didn't want to be that. Sunset Blessing and I are good friends."

Tattered snorted, but kept her mouth shut.

"And she approached me about the experiments. I signed up for them so I could gain that extra insight," Megan explained.

"Helped that you had a stallion who's been showing interest in you for a while," Tattered added in.

Velvet coughed on her smoke and looked at the two humans. "Really?! Are humans that fucking horny?"

"Velvet! I'm not warning you again," Tonya growled. "I know you're channeling your frustration and anxiety, but I'm not going to let you make others feel bad."

Velvet's ears sagged, and she looked downward.

Megan wrapped her arms around herself as she continued. "But when they transformed me… nothing worked right, my body felt so wrong, and it just kept getting worse, and I was so afraid. Do you know what it's like to feel like you don't even have control of your body? That your body isn't even there, and you're stuck in something alien that won't respond?"

Melissa gave Megan a look of pure pity. "Not to that degree, but I remember feeling helpless in my body years ago, when it was mangled, and I was confined to a hospital bed, wondering if this was going to be my life."

Velvet bit her lip then nodded. "I can understand the alien part...I can sympathize with that."

Tattered just hugged her sister.

Megan covered her mouth as she started crying. "They eventually had to put me to sleep again, and even then, it was all wrong. My newfound magic surged and put me right into dreamwalking. I didn't know where I was or what was going on. I didn't have night pony instincts to make sense of all that. It was like I'd been moved from one nightmare to another."

Tonya didn't correct her that it was dreamwalker senses and not night pony senses she needed to make sense of the dream realm. What was said was close enough since night ponies were born with those, and everyone else needed to be gifted them.

"Then something came and touched me," Megan choked out as she tried wiping tears from her eyes. "That just made me panic more because I didn't know what it was. Then a voice came into my head and tried to soothe me, but I couldn't be soothed--I was too scared. It finally said it was going to get me out of there and suppress any nightmares from this, and that the ones who did this would be spoken to."

"That was Sha'am, and she did have a lot to say on the subject," Tonya informed the others, though Megan already knew. "She tried to be as gentle as she could with you."

"You know it had to be bad if the queen bitch was moved to show sympathy and compassion," Velvet muttered, nods from everyone else followed. It was rare to get any form of compassion from the Warden of Death.

"Sunset did get around to talking to you about the fact you register a PREQUES number now, right?" Tonya asked. Sunset hadn't mentioned following through on that, so it was best to make sure.

Megan looked at her in shock. "No...what do you mean? I have magic now?"

Tonya sighed. "I'm going to have to remind Sunset to get someone to you to discuss it in full, but yeah. You register a point three on the PREQUES scale, and will need to fill out some paperwork because of that. That's not enough to actively do anything, but as Melissa can tell you, those numbers have been known to grow in humans to where you might eventually."

"I'm not sure I want that," Megan said meekly.

Melissa reached out and laid a hand on Megan's shoulder. "It's not a bad thing, believe me; most humans that have magic like their magic. I'd feel like a big part of me was missing if it was gone. Magic wants to be used, and if it grows, it'll become as natural to you as using your hands."

Megan gave the other woman a worried look. "How long did it take for you before it grew enough to do something?"

Melissa considered. "At about six months, it was strong enough that Yinyu said she could grant me my dreamwalking ability if I wanted it. As for me; actively doing anything else? That took longer. At about a year, I started feeling things, getting sensations that I didn't understand. At about two years, I could tell where things were around me with those sensations. It hasn't grown since then, and they rate me right at a two. I started close to what you are now, though. Others got to do things earlier than me, but they also started stronger than me as well."

"I guess I'll deal with that if and when it comes up," Megan said with resignation. "But back to the experiment. I still am having nightmares about it, bad ones. When I'm just going through my day, I get mild panic attacks where I need to reassure myself that my hands and feet are there."

"I can relate," Velvet said quietly.

Tonya gave the woman an encouraging smile. "We'll work through this, and be bringing in more help for you. I'm sorry that happened to you. I know that it won't make you feel much better, but with what happened to you, we made changes to the spell, so the person we tested with this morning didn't go through that distress. If anything, she was upset we didn't keep her as a pony longer."

"I guess it's my turn to share?" Velvet asked.

"If you feel you're ready," Tonya advised. "If you need more time, you can have it. You've had a rough time."

Velvet looked around at the others, and her eyes fixed on Megan. "If Megan can get through talking about it, then I can too."

Tonya nodded back. "You're free to speak then. After you're done, we can have a more open discussion between each other about what went on and what you've all been feeling after in detail."

Velvet gave a sad nod and stood up on her pillow. "For me, it was about being lonely. Melissa over there barely spent time as a night pony before she rehumanized, so she wouldn't understand, but Tattered understands what being an unmarked night pony mare is like. The infighting between unmarked mares is something you have to experience to understand how bad it is. Not to mention people treating us like we're all pedophiles."

Tattered nodded in agreement. "It was so bad I had to step down from my job because I was unmarked."

"You're both marked now," Megan pointed out.

Velvet looked at her wings and then back to Megan. "And it feels like a cop-out, a surrender. Night ponies don't do surrender well. We're fighters, protectors; we pride ourselves on our willingness to keep fighting when everyone else has given up. Even back in the days that Sha'am tortured ponies, there was a certain pride in the fact we could take it."

"I think I understand that," Megan said after a moment.

"Well, you did get transformed into a night pony, so not a surprise you might already think like us to some extent," Velvet replied, then hung her head again. "The experiment was a different sort of cop-out for me, though. I was saying I couldn't make it as a night pony, and I'm ashamed to admit that."

Tonya bit her lip then decided to say something. "There were contributing factors, though. You've discussed before the infighting, but you also mentioned your family."

Velvet gave a bitter laugh. "Oh yeah, my Humanity First family that thinks I'm shit because I got ETS and turned into a pony, like I chose to get sick. Sure, I didn't rehumanize when I had a chance, but when I became a pony, I suddenly gained purpose that I didn't have before. Do you know what I used to do when I was a human? I worked whatever dead-end job I could get; drive-thru cashier, gas station attendant, a stocker at Target. I have forgotten a lot of my human life, but I remember those things. When I became a night pony, I became a protector, though, something worth being."

"I understand that feeling perfectly," Tattered cut in. "All I amounted to in life was disappointing my family and working as a fry cook. When I became a pony, I was eager to protect." She gave Melissa a sad look. "And when my friends got hurt, I gained a purpose beyond that, to make sure ponies didn't get hurt protecting."

Melissa nodded. "I remember the feeling. I remember being so scared I was going to lose that when I rehumanized. More than anything else about my transformation, I wanted to keep that. I have been so grateful that I have gotten to carry on with that."

Velvet turned and looked at her cutie mark of the ribbon wrapped around a flower. "It's my purpose in life, too. It might seem generic as night ponies go, but it's still special."

"But the hurt from all the rejection and infighting can get to anyone," Tattered concluded.

Velvet sniffled. "Yes, it does. The experiment didn't fix anything either; it just made things worse. Megan, you were talking about panic attacks about suddenly wondering if your body is right? I get those too. I keep imagining that I have tentacles growing from my hooves, or that my wings are gone, or that my wings have transformed into human hands. I have to touch my fur sometimes to remind myself it's still there--and the actual nightmares...oh god."

Megan stood up and scooted around the table till she was next to Velvet and gave the night pony a tight hug. The night pony leaned into it and started crying profusely, and it only took a moment for Megan to join her as they shared their memories of a terror that no one else at the table could ever understand.

It wasn't perfect, but it was a start at gaining the support each needed to fight back the terrors in their heads. Tonya hoped that Amanda, Tom, and most of all, Sunset wouldn't need to find the same support soon.

The moment was ruined when cries of anger and anguish suddenly erupted from the main room. Everyone turned as one to look at the door in confusion. The night ponies started stirring from their seats quickly to confront whatever the cause of the distress was.

Tonya waved a wing at them. "Let me go check. There are no sounds of fighting. I'll be right back."

She went out into the lobby and found everyone from the patrons to the staff huddled around the televisions as a special news report broadcast on all of them. Most of the night ponies were crying, and even some of the humans. Many of them looked angry, in addition to crying.

As she turned her attention to the news report, her breath caught. She then sat down and brought both forehooves up to her muzzle in shock as she heard the report. Tears fell from her eyes as she let off her lament.

Jessie's mom was asleep, and her dad was getting ready to go to bed. They wanted her to go to bed as well, but she convinced them to let her stay up for a little while longer with Robby and her grandmare. It had been a long day, but she and her brother were eager to talk with one another. Her grandmare had assured her dad that she'd be asleep by midnight.

Her grandmare was in the new nursery room. Jessie had been in there just a few minutes ago, and there wasn't much to do there. Her grandmare had been curled up with a book on the floor while Dusk lay sleeping in the crib. If Dusk woke at all over the night, Grandmare Nocte would take care of whatever needs he had and see he fell back to sleep. Jessie and Robby were told to keep away from the nursery and keep the noise down. If they made a noise that a human could easily hear, Jessie was going right to bed.

She and her brother were out in the living room. The television was playing some older movies from before there were ponies and with the volume down extremely low, but high enough they could hear if they paid attention. Jessie never knew why they played so many older movies all the time. It just seemed strange watching a world where there were no ponies. They were watching an old superhero movie, and that felt weird because some of the superpowers didn't seem that impressive.

As a female super-villain started to monologue, Jessie twitched her ear. "Her voice sounds familiar." She said in a whisper.

"That's Bronze Glamor, the actress that played Daring Do, or at least this is what she looked like when she was a human," Robby explained in a whisper back.

Jessie tilted her head to stare at the actress, but try as she might, she couldn't see the resemblance. "You sure?"

"I'm sure, I read it on the internet," Robby replied. "She played Mane-iac in the Power Ponies movie too."

"That doesn't seem right, Daring Do and Mane-iac don't look anything alike--or this villain," Jessie asserted.

"Um, it isn't that hard to dye fur, manes, and tails anymore. They have special dyes for that, and there are different dyes humans use for their hair along with makeup. You can hide wings and horns, or CGI them on. It's kind of what actors do," Robby explained. She'd have to take his word for it; she never really paid attention to these things before.

"So, what's wrong with you?" Robby asked.

She blinked and turned to look at him. "Why do you think something's wrong?"

"Because you're my little sister, and I can tell," Robby explained, then laid back his ears. "Is someone picking on you again?"

She sighed and shook her head. "No. Mom and I were fighting."

Robby raised both eyebrows. "About what?"

She crossed her forelegs in front of her and slumped backward with a frown. "Her thinking that she isn't as good because she isn't a pony."

"What?" Robby said in shock, then lowered his voice before he could get in trouble. "I didn't know she thought that."

She gave her brother a doubting look. "You're way older than me. How did you not know? I noticed, and I'm six and a half, what's your excuse?"

"You are in a mood if you're being so snide," Robby said as he lowered his ears. "I don't get to spend as much time with Mom as you do. You're lucky; you get to be awake at the same time as her. I spend so much more time with Rosetta; she’s like my second mom."

That idea surprised her. She was learning all kinds of things about her family today. "But you take after Mom more than I do. You both are good at art."

Her brother gave her a sad look. "I do my best to try to do as much as I can with her when I do get to spend time with her. I don't see her at all except for a few hours every night before I have to spend the night with Rosetta or Grandmare Nocte, except a little more in the summer when school is out, and lately, she's been too tired to do much of anything with me. It doesn't feel fair sometimes."

Jessie sat and tried to consider this. She never realized how much Robby's nocturnal nature impacted his relationship with the rest of the family. Their dad got to spend more time with Robby than anyone else, because their dad worked from home. Their mom was at work when Robby was available in the mornings. Their mom had said things weren't as hard with dealing with Robby, but Jessie suddenly wondered if that was a lie.

"Do you think Mom gets jealous?" Jessie asked.

Robby looked confused. "Jealous of who?"

Jessie shrugged. "Everyone. Jealous of me because I can bond so easily with you even though I don't get much more time with you than she does. Jealous of you because you can do the same for me. Jealous of Ms. Rosetta because she thinks you love Ms. Rosetta more."

"I don't love Rosetta more," Robby protested. "Mom will always be my mom, and nothing will change that, but Rosetta all but raised me, and she deserves my love too. No one deserves more or gets more love; I love them both."

"Maybe Mom feels like Ms. Rosetta replaced her since Ms. Rosetta is a pony," Jessie responded, not liking the implication, but finding she could believe it after their fight earlier.

"That's a stupid idea," Robby scoffed.

Jessie flicked her tail. "Do you think I'm stupid?"

Robby looked down at her, and his ears fell. "No, you're the smartest person I know. I just don't want you to be right."

Jessie bowed her head. "Me neither."

Robby glanced back at the hallway. "I know you've got your own problems with getting along with Mom. She has a hard time dealing with your super magical smarts."

Her tail whipped around in more annoyance. "There's nothing magic about me being smart."

Robby laughed. "Egghead, you're smart, but I think you're trying to fool yourself. No one is as smart as you at your age without something helping."

"You're mature for your age," Jessie countered.

"Night ponies learn and develop while we sleep, so we mature a little faster. Even the demons are more on par with foals two or three years older than them. You don't have that," Robby explained.

"Doesn't mean I’m smart because of magic," Jessie replied as she laid back her ears.

Robby got down from the couch and looked at her. "Okay, now's my chance to school you for once. You know you were born prematurely by months, right?"

Jessie nodded slowly, not sure where this was going.

"And you've read about premature babies too, right?"

She frowned. "More about foal development, not human development."

"Alright, so this is going to be new information to you," Robby said before taking a deep breath. "Egghead, premature babies that are as premature as you were have underdeveloped brains. You shouldn't be smart; you should be retarded."

"That's a mean thing to call someone," Jessie said quickly, trying to avoid the implications that her brother had just given, but unable to stop herself from thinking about them.

"You get the idea, though," Robby continued. "I think because the magic had to work so hard to fix your brain, it didn’t know when to stop and gave you superintelligence. Jessie, you're super smart because ETS made you that way. You wouldn't have been this smart as a human."

She hopped down from the couch and glared at her brother. "I'm going to my room and getting ready for bed."

"You don't need to get upset about--"

"I'm not upset," she said through gritted teeth. "You're just wrong. I’m not special because I’m a pony."

"I never said--"

"Good night!" She said harshly before storming off to her room.

She closed her door most of the way, so it had just enough of a crack for her to pull open. Robby was wrong. There was nothing magic about intelligence. She might want to have her magic work, but her intelligence was something independent of magic; it was all her. She would have been just as smart as a human. Maybe it might not have happened that way with her being premature, but if she had gone full term, it would. The fact that she was smart could not be the result of being changed...could it?

These were things she didn't want to think about right now. Why was she getting into all these arguments lately anyway? She never got mad at anyone, but today she couldn't help getting mad over and over. It wasn't fair.

A distraction was needed. She went to her reading desk and pulled open Frankenstein to start reading again. She was behind on her reading anyway. Focusing on schoolwork was what she needed to do right now.

Reading on through midnight, she finished reading through chapters fifteen through seventeen of Frankenstein. When she set her book aside, she wept, because she couldn't help but feel a certain kinship to the monster of that story. She might not be hideous and ugly, but she was a thing apart from others, a thing that was made, a mere construct of magic formed from the broken parts of another being.

Climbing into bed, she cried into her pillow. Her intelligence was the side effect of a magical spell, and she couldn't find a sufficient reason to deny it. In realizing that she didn't know if she should be grateful or angry, but for right now, she felt like she had lost something dear.

Her tears were brought to an abrupt end as Robby and her grandmare both let off shouts of dismay.

Sand, that was all there was for as far as she could see with her eyes—sand dunes and the star-filled sky above. Sand was not all that she could see, though, as she was not just looking with her eyes. Her earth pony magic went deep into the Earth, deeper than she had ever delved her magic before. Her connection to the earth revealed the secrets of what lay below the sand. The minerals, long-buried fossils, remains of long-forgotten paths and dried riverbeds, and further below that, the strata of the Earth's crust. There was so much more in the Sahara than sand.

Eyes lied.

At her command, the magma of the Earth's crust moved upwards, and she joined together rock and stone to give it a path. She would reveal what lay below the surface. She would dispel the illusion. She would bring fresh volcanic soil to wash over the sands. She was Wild Growth, and she would see that this land was fertile. Plants once bloomed here, she felt the evidence of them below the surface, and they would bloom again.

Her power made what lay beneath break through the surface, but it was not a volcano that rose from the sands, but a great statue that burst to the surface with a titanic quake. The statue was covered with green grasses that made up a fake coat of fur and thick bushes of purple leaves that made up the mane and tail. She could smell the vegetation, like fresh-cut spring grass mixed with azaleas. The features were her spitting image, right down to the darker grasses detailing her tree cutie mark on her flank. It towered high above her, at least fifty feet high, and had its gaze fixed upon the ground below.

Without warning, the statue moved, shaking its head as a great horn sprouted from the forehead. Rearing back with a terrifyingly loud whinny, a set of wings unfurled outwards from its withers with a mighty flap that created a sandstorm that forced her to close her eyes from the painfully stinging grains of sand.

The storm that had sprung up died almost as quickly as it came, and Wild opened up her eyes, seeing the changed form of the statue standing neutrally upon the sand. The horn looked like a mass of vines curled tightly together in a spiral, and the feathers of the wings like great palm leaves and were spread wide to the sides. Her shock quickly gave way to a deep frown. This was a dream, but this was no dream of hers; she could sense someone else at work.

"Does what lies below the surface surprise you?" a voice asked from behind her.

She turned to see what looked like a dragon-shaped pony with pearly white scales. There was kindness and gentleness in that face, and there was a power the likes she hadn't felt even when she had encountered Luna.

The dragon padded casually across the sands to stand next to her, looking up at the statue with an unreadable expression. “Like these lands, you are far more than what you seem.”

"Who are you? Are you a Dreamwarden?" Wild asked the dream specter.

The being shook her head. "No, I am not one of their kind, and I fear that my name is far too long and difficult for you to pronounce. You may call me Triss, and I've been watching you, among others."

Wild immediately recognized the name, and the level of power she felt from this being was confirmation that it wasn't lying. Thanks to Phobia's warnings, this visit had been expected for some time, and she knew what the subject matter would be. Having a Dreamwarden for a sister-in-law, she didn't feel incredibly intimidated to have such a cosmically powerful being in her dream. It took a lot of the fear and wonder out of such things. There was going to be a very disappointed dragon after this, though.

She looked back at the alicorn statue of herself and then turned around to Triss. "I have no interest in becoming an alicorn if that's what you're here for. I am powerful enough as it is."

"Did you not struggle today with sustained use of your power?" Triss questioned. "It’s simplistic to think only in terms of power. Raw strength is, after all, not what makes an alicorn special. Don't you wish to have the power to not tire, to use what you have most efficiently, and to have a form capable of matching your convictions? Mortal shoulders can only carry so much weight for so long."

"I don't need to carry all that weight myself," Wild asserted. "It’s not for me to make the world a better place alone."

A scale above Triss's eye arched as if an eyebrow. "Yet you attempt to do so, trying to carry their burdens yourself all the same. You know their burdens are heavy, even with you helping. You could help so much more so they could accomplish much more themselves."

"I could inspire others that are strong to help as well," she countered. "There are people that look up to me because I'm mortal like them."

"And don't Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and Twilight Sparkle help inspire too? Are they not even greater inspirations than you?"

Wild narrowed her eyes. "And are feared as well. I've heard about you, Triss. I know what happened long ago where a whole world was so scared of others' power that they did the unthinkable as a result. Phobia has talked to me about it too and given a detail not well known--that your existence was the straw that broke the camel's back and put them over the edge. Never again, Triss. I won't be that straw here."

The dragon-like creature looked down at her as if she were an impertinent foal. "You speak of things you cannot possibly understand. The Dreamwardens have a bias against me and sow dissent against me— just as he did back then. Ask them what involvement the Dreamwarden had in those affairs. Please listen--."

"Get out of my dream," Wild ordered.

"Please, you make a mistake in trusting them. They are preying upon your familiarity. They would do whatever they can to stop anyone from ascending because of their hatred for immortality, even their own."

"The slut said get out of her fucking dream, you scaly junk peddler!" A deep male voice boomed.

A form appeared in a sudden eruption of flame and continued to burn after appearing. A massive floating seapony followed next to him, and was followed in turn by a stag and a great black cloud. Last to join were a grey minotaur and the walking skeleton of a night pony. The full squad had come out to deal with this, given that it was Triss, that made sense.

Triss looked out at the Dreamwardens, and her eyes lingered for a moment longer on the skeletal form of the Warden of Death before turning her eyes back to the immolated speaker. "I'm breaking none of your laws, what words do you fear me speaking so much that all of you must appear?"

"The slut said get out of her dream, yet somehow you're still here," Ghadab said in a snide voice. "You seem to have failed to understand the dreamer's order. Let me clarify things for you--daughter of junk merchants--get out of this dream or Sha’am will be free to do as she pleases to you."

The dragon flared her wings momentarily and puffed up her chest. "There is nothing wrong with being a junk merchant or being the daughter of such."

"I never said that there was," Ghadab responded in an amused tone. "I was just describing you in the most fitting way I can. For such a high and mighty being, you seem so bothered by words. I see it as a compliment; that one of such humble beginnings rose to such heights. Now you have till the count of five, or you'll be dealing with Sha'am, and that would go badly for you. We let you wander as you please here--against our better judgment, but when a dreamer orders you to leave their dream, you will obey."

"This is completely unnecessary," Triss said again.

"Five..."

"I am not some miscreant and should not be treated like one."

"Four..."

“You should show me respect, as your forebear would not do,” Triss now looked worriedly towards Sha'am, who sat unmoving where she had first arrived.

"Three..."

Triss frowned at the Dreamwardens. "If she won't listen to me, then perhaps she truly isn't as ready as I thought, but I'll find one that will."

"Two..."

Triss vanished.

Wild turned to Ghadab. "Thank you for getting her to leave, but I don't like being called slut repeatedly."

The fires extinguished around Ghadab, revealing that his fur color was a close match to the sand that they stood upon, and he had a dark blood red mane.

He gave a tired sigh. "So many are angered by words," Ghadab said as he walked over to her. "Anger over it is beneath you. You're the most powerful earth pony in the world, yet you let words you don't like to have power over you."

Wild's frown deepened. "Are you just saying I should let people insult me and not say anything about it?"

"Actually, I think you should just own the word and take its power away," Ghadab said as he sat down beside her. "You sleep with many ponies, so they call you slut. Are you ashamed that you sleep with so many?"

"No," she said as she glanced warily at him sitting beside her. The others had not left either, but had gathered some distance away, watching and talking silently. Why were they all still here?

"Then why do you feel like the word carries such insult?" Ghadab asked.

"Because they intend it as an insult," she replied as she laid her ears back.

"And so you give them power over you, and have you hiding in a corner over words," Ghadab asserted. "How powerful they are to make the great Wild Growth run and hide."

Was he dense? “It’s foalish to think words can’t hurt. If they spread too far, they'll think of me just as a rich slut and nothing else."

"Why should you care if you don't think it a bad thing?" Ghadab questioned with a raised eyebrow. "You can tell them it doesn't matter what you do. Trying to hide that you do it just implies you feel guilt. Are you being honest with yourself? Is it you who don't wish to look down upon yourself?"

Her eyes narrowed. "Not that I don’t want to hear how much of a slut I am repeated for the rest of the night, but you aren't typically the Dreamwarden I expect to have a sit down with ponies giving advice."

Ghadab's ears and shoulders sagged as he looked out in the distance. "Today is a unique day, and going forward, I intend to be more active in trying to help in these ways." He turned back to her. "And do not think I didn’t notice you changing the subject away from yourself."

She blinked. What was special about today? Ghadab seemed somewhat subdued, and wasn't being vulgar. She didn't have much experience with him since she wasn't a night pony, but from what she heard described, this was not his typical character.

What was more, she couldn't help thinking about whether she did feel guilt. If she was feeling shame, that implied she did think she was doing something wrong.

"Perhaps, I feel a little shame," she admitted as she looked away.

"Ah," Ghadab said and waited for her to continue.

She took a deep breath. "Am I a bad pony for doing it? My drive, it's unbearable at times. I've tried to just...you know." She made a rubbing gesture towards her private area. "It just isn't enough. I keep standards for who I do it with. I don't just go sleeping with anyone."

"Yet you feel guilty," Ghadab clarified.

"I don't understand it," she said as she shook her head.

"Try switching perspectives. What would others say if it weren't you doing this, but instead a rich man or stallion?"

She considered this for a moment and held her head low as realization sank in. "If I were a stallion or human man, they'd call me a womanizer, that I use my power and position to attract people to my bed."

"That you use ponies for your pleasure," Ghadab supplied.

She shook her head, trying to deny it, but knowing deep down, it was true. She couldn't deny it, and she started to cry. "I'm supposed to be one of the good guys. I'm supposed to be the one that helps everyone, but I'm selfish. I make use of them for my needs."

"And so the one calling you slut is not those others, but you," Ghadab concluded knowingly.

She cried some more and then gritted her teeth as she looked at him. "Are you doing something to me? I'm getting emotional quicker than I should."

"I'm letting your anger flow," Ghadab confessed without shame. "I will stop if you wish."

"I'm crying and upset, not angry," she said as she shook her head.

"Righteous anger is not all blind rage, but the reaction to seeing wrong being done. You see that you are possibly doing wrong, and you are angry at yourself."

"You aren't very good at making people feel better," she accused.

"Sometimes, you need to feel worse before you can feel better," the Warden of Anger replied in a calm voice. "How can you fight injustice if you are apathetic to it? You see you are doing wrong; you should not be left apathetic to it. You must get angry, angry enough to make a change."

"How?" She demanded in a heated voice. "You heard me; I don't know how to sate my drive. My sister suggested I go to Yinyu about it. Is that what I should just do?"

"It is one option," Ghadab answered, not looking at her but staring off at the stars in the distance.

"And what other options do I have?" She pressed, feeling her anger rise.

Ghadab turned back to her. "I do not know. That is not an area I have expertise in. I will say that my whore sister does have such expertise and can give better advice, but remember, you may not need to have some magical thing done to you since help can come in many forms. You recognize you have a problem, and you feel anger at yourself for what you have done. Now channel that anger into action, and in time you'll find a solution. Your apathy to the situation and reliance of an easy solution is at an end, that is a good start."

She raised an eyebrow at that. "So, you're saying I shouldn't go to Yinyu?"

Ghadab looked over at the seapony in the distance. "I'm saying my whore sister is one of many options to seek solutions from, and that you should consider your options rather than simply going with the first one offered. The whore might be the best option. That is for you to decide."

"Why do you call Yinyu a whore all the time?" Wild asked as she heard the vulgar insult Ghadab gave Yinyu.

Ghadab continued to stare at the seapony in the distance. "Because that's what she is. She sells her body for money. She knows what she is and feels no shame in it, so my word for her causes no insult--she chooses to own the word, and it has no power over her. If I say she will work her marehole on anything, she takes it as a compliment. About the only insult I could level against her would be to imply she is bad at what she does, which I highly doubt is true."

"Still seems rude to me," Wild muttered.

Ghadab chuckled. "Let my whore sister choose what she takes offense to. Anger over words is often pointless anger. Yinyu has good anger over many things that are so much more important than words. She is a good and caring mare who doesn't let apathy touch her. She is much like you, wanting to fix the problems of others all by herself."

"Do you really think of the Dreamwardens like your family?" She asked. "I notice some of you refer to one another as brothers and sisters; I've even heard Phobia doing it sometimes."

Ghadab nodded. "We know each other well, better than any other beings could know one another." His gaze fixed on Sha'am. "We don't always get along or agree, but what family does? We still love one another, even when some of us are difficult to love."

Wild followed his gaze. "I take it Sha'am Maut is a difficult sister to have?"

"You understate the matter greatly," Ghadab said with a chuckle. "Few can anger any of us like our eldest sister, she is the mother of all bitches, and it is righteous anger."

Wild could only imagine, given what she'd heard and seen of Sha'am. Having an undead psychopath for a sister had to be rough. "My older sister and I are always at each other's throats too."

"Then you understand," Ghadab said sympathetically. "You don't love her any less because of your disagreements, but you wish you could buck her to the moon sometimes--or better yet the sun or some black hole." His expression turned sad. "Her time left with us is short, though, so very short. Before the year is out, she'll be gone forever, and I should value her company in her last days."

Wild looked on in shock. "Before the end of the year? Why is she--"

Ghadab shook his head as a tear fell from his eye. "I do not wish to speak of it, not now."

She buried her curiosity for the moment. There would doubtlessly be some big announcement whenever it happened.

To tell the truth, she was finding that talking to the Warden of Anger pony to pony made her feel a certain kinship with him. He saw injustice in the world and wanted to correct it, just like her. He struggled with fighting with his older sister, and it went without saying he was powerful. He wasn't the pony she imagined him to be, and despite his tendency to hurl around crude insults, she still found him surprisingly attractive in a different way than she found most stallions.

"What about your other family?" She asked with curiosity. Now that she had time actually to talk to him, she found herself wanting to know more about this stallion.

Ghadab looked stricken, and she instantly felt terrible for asking the question. "I am disowned, merely for being a pony. You no doubt know how ponies are viewed in my part of the world."

Wild nodded. The Middle East and North Africa were not the best places for ponies. The negotiating to allow her even to set hoof in Algeria, much less work on the project there, had been long and grueling. It had ultimately come down to paying vast sums of money to the Algerian government and plenty of reassurances that she would not go out in public in any of the major cities. Most ponies there were living in small settlements well away from civilization.

Ghadab continued. "When I was still human, I was one of ten siblings, and not given much attention. I was a writer, and I used my pen to try to confront the injustices I saw around the Arab world. I wasn't one of much note, and that left me safely ignored for the most part."

"What inspired you to do that?" Wild asked.

Ghadab smiled. "When I was a young man, there were American movies that were made in my homeland. It was a popular location to use for many movie sets. I saw heroic deeds played out and was inspired to read them in addition to watching films. I read about great heroes fighting insurmountable odds--like in the Lord of the Rings. I wanted to be a hero, too, in my own way."

Wild got up and turned to look at the Warden in astonishment. "You're a Lord of the Rings nerd?"

“I am quite the Hobbit fan,” Ghadab grinned at her and changed his entire inflection. "There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after."

Wild blinked. "Not what I expected from a stallion from your part of the world whose main thing is anger."

His expression shifted to amusement. "Is it so strange? Psychic is but a mental health counselor. Phobia, you know, intends to do the same as our American brother. Yinyu is a whore. Krik spends his waking time painting and gardening, and was a soldier as a human. Sha'am was just a haggard old bitch on her deathbed. We were never the elite, or powerful; we were just common people who were given uncommon power."

"It's just hard to imagine," Wild said as she looked at the rest of the group finally breaking their silent vigil and moved towards them.

"Who were you before being the strongest pony on Earth?" Ghadab questioned as his eyes, too, locked on the approaching Dreamwardens. "Our origins should never be forgotten, but they do not determine our destinies."

The other Dreamwardens all came up in front of them, and as one, dropped their more elaborate forms in favor of their night pony forms--all except Sha'am, who instead took the form of a much younger mare, Yinyu or Phobia's age. The Warden of Death gestured, and a wooden bowl full of fruit appeared right in front of Ghadab. The Warden of Anger looked down at the fruit and started to weep.

"Destiny is not always what you wish it to be, though," the stallion said in a whisper.

Sha'am looked up at Ghadab with a sad expression. "It is time, brother."

Wild looked around worriedly. "What's going on?”

"I thought I could be a great hero," he said slowly as a piece of fruit vanished from the bowl. "You'd think one as powerful as a Dreamwarden could hold off any foe. I tried so hard to keep them safe. It was like trying to hold back the sands."

More fruit started rapidly disappearing from the bowl, and the other Dreamwardens began to cry as well, even Sha'am's eyes were filled with tears.

"I failed," Ghadab wept. "Even with all my anger and drive to fight, it all fell short."

More fruit vanished, and Ghadab lifted his head and let off a long wail. It was musical in nature, though it had no words, and it conveyed without words pure anguish as fruit continued to vanish. Wild stood back, confused, and afraid. The other Dreamwardens lent their voices in a chorus of Ghadab's, a great wordless song of lament.

The dream distorted and wavered, but still, the song continued on as fruit vanished. The distortion fluxed and rose with the song's notes. As the fruit disappeared, Wild saw some stars in the sky vanish in turn. At long last, there was but one piece of fruit left as the song came to a close.

The Warden of Death reached down into the bowl with her wings and gently cradled the small red fruit as if it were the most delicate thing in the world. The other Dreamwardens, other than Ghadab, reached their wings forward to touch the fruit, cocooning it within their wings. They all looked to Ghadab.

"You shall not die alone, brother. We are here for you," Sha'am said in a whisper as she looked the Warden of Anger in the face with a tender expression. "For what it is worth, I'm sorry your fool's errand failed."

Ghadab shook his head as he tried to choke out a reply, but he was too overcome to say anything.

This fruit did not simply vanish. From within its blanket of wings, it shimmered and transformed into a thousand tiny lights as Wild felt Ghadab's power surge. The lights evaporated out of the collective embrace of the Dreamwardens and dispersed all about. She could feel Ghadab's power now was a match to the power to Sha'am's, but despite this, he still wept. The other five all turned, and as one embraced him, crying together.

Wild stood back from the group as she realized what she had just witnessed. She then bowed her head and cried as well--not simply in sorrow, but also with anger at the injustice of it all.

Chapter 13: Sunday Mourning

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 14: Showtime

Tonya walked between the various participants for the test demonstration today, smiling and trying to give reassurance. Tom and Amanda were sitting together and kept looking out at the small crowd of spectators apprehensively. Jean was lying on a hospital bed, unable to move, with Roger standing beside her holding her hand. The other human participant, Bill, was on a separate hospital bed with his wife beside him, encouraging him.

Then there was Sunset; the red unicorn stared out at the crowd of government delegates as if trying to read their minds. The representatives from Equestria were dismissed as mostly unimportant, and the preacher's eyes never crossed over them. Today's decision would be decided by the people of Earth, not aliens from another world. The Equestrians were merely spectators for what Sunset hoped would be her ultimate victory. Tonya just hoped it wouldn't end up costing her wife too much.

The doctors, mages, and crystal ponies were all standing by, waiting for their jobs to begin. Security was at every entrance to the chapel and stood in every aisle leading up to the stage. Additional protection had been put out in the lobby and halls and every entry into the building. Protestors outside had gathered in force to protest the government and UN officials inside, even though they didn’t know what was about to occur here. There were news crews outside covering the protests, but news crews were also in separate rooms inside the Bastion to release the news of what had been achieved. Soon the world would know that temporary transformation was not only a possibility but a reality.

"How are you two holding up?" Tonya asked the pony couple as she walked up to them.

Tom looked to his wife then back to Tonya. "We didn't sleep the best last night. I can't remember my dreams, but I know they weren't too good."

"We put up brave faces in front of the fillies, but to be honest, we're kind of dreading this," Amanda said quietly.

Tonya frowned. She'd personally tried checking in on their dreams last night, but they were so indistinct and chaotic that she couldn't successfully dreamwalk them. This wasn't an altogether uncommon occurrence, and it didn't always indicate a nightmare, but what she was hearing boded poorly.

"Do you want to back out? Tell me now, and you can walk right out of here and be done," Tonya stated. She hoped that they would finally come to their senses.

"It's just this last time, and I'll be done. Knowing that, I think I can bear it. This is for what good may come of it," Tom replied and looked over at the disabled humans. "I look over at them and try to imagine--what if that were my daughters? Wouldn't I want them to have some option of being well?"

Amanda snuggled close to her husband. "If Tom is going through with it, I'm going through with it. We're a team, and I'm not letting him face this alone."

Tonya sighed. It was too much to hope. She looked over at her wife and let her ears sag. She then did a silent prayer for each of them. She didn't want any of them to go through what Velvet or Megan were going through right now. For her wife, she'd go through with this herself; for any of them, she would if it got them out of this. The idea of any of them having to face those waking nightmares was nightmare enough for her.

She sat and considered for a moment, then came closer to them. "You'll tell me right away if this gets too much for you, won't you?"

The pair nodded, but she was only paying half attention to the nods--focusing instead on using her magic in a manner that was harder for her. What she was doing was letting her magic feel their emotions. It wasn't a violation of any law to do this without consent since she wasn't doing anything to them. She could feel the anxiety, the fear that they were trying to be brave about, all the things that were hidden just below the surface. She wasn't very good at using this aspect of her power, but this was information she needed to know.

After only a second or two, she could tell that they couldn't take too much from this experiment. She'd have to keep a close eye on them and tell Sunset that this needed to stop at the first tiny hint of trouble. There were not going to be two more ponies in the same state Velvet was in.

She moved on and did the same near Jean. The hospital bed here was set very low so that when she transformed, she could easily leave it on her own. A short stool had been placed beside the bed where Roger now sat. He was holding his wife's hand still and looked up at Tonya as she approached.

"How's she holding up?" She asked as she came and stood beside the bed.

Roger shook his head. "I'm pretty good at reading how she's doing. I know it's hard for anyone else to tell, but she's restless. She wants to have more time as a pony this time."

She looked over at the human woman, who stared back at her, unable to move. Jean was in no state to answer any verbal questions, but the emotions that were felt at least close range told the story. There was eagerness and longing, as well as disgust--extreme disgust and loathing--for her current shape. The level of hate and contempt took her by surprise. There was no way of knowing without verbally communicating with Jean if this was a side effect of that pony mindset, hatred for her situation, or mixed. The closest comparison she could give was what Sunset felt when reminded of her old human self. There was no question Jean wanted the transformation to happen, and not being transformed was just adding to the distress. The polar opposite of the two ponies.

Jean needed some extra time for a psychiatric evaluation while in pony form. Tonya knew that it was currently beyond her level of expertise to dig into what was going on in the woman's mind. Years of suffering made it hard to tell what was the result of that and what was the work of the temporary transformation. As soon as she could manage it, she would try to sit down and talk with the woman in her pony form about what she felt as a human. Jean needed to voice all this; having no outlet to communicate her frustrations and suffering was not good for her.

She moved on to the other human. Like Jean, his bed was set low to the ground to give him easy access to get out, and just like Roger, Bill's wife sat beside him. What was unlike Jean was the fact that Bill did have motor control of everything from his midriff up, and he was propped up on his elbows talking to his wife as Tonya approached.

"Any anxiety about the temporary pony transformation?" She asked as she came and sat down next to the couple. "It's okay to express any concerns."

Bill looked down at his legs with a forlorn gaze. "I'm still trying to get it in my head that they don't work. I keep thinking I can just stand up, but I feel absolutely nothing down there. Doctors poked me all over with needles, and I didn't feel a thing. Being a pony for a little while can't be any worse than this."

His wife, who Tonya never caught the name of, rubbed her arm. "I'm nervous for him. Everything's happening so fast. His injury, the diagnosis about his spine, this experiment. It's a lot to take in, and I haven't been able to process yet."

Having a spouse turned into a whole different species had to be a tough pill to swallow as well, even if the woman didn't say that out loud. Tonya put on a gentle smile and touched a wing to the woman. "I know a lot has happened in a very short time. We're doing what we can to help your husband. What he's doing is very brave and will help lead to helping a lot of other people, and you're courageous to be here by his side."

She could feel the woman's anxiety and worry, and a slight cringe at the wing. Something else needed to be addressed as well, even if it was likely to cause more stress.

"I need to make sure you understand something, both of you. I know this has been told to you already, but it needs restating. The pony mindset that comes with this version of the spell is almost as strong as ETS was," she said slowly. "While he is transformed, he'll think of himself completely as a pony. That can be off-putting to see happen. For him, it will seem the most natural thing in the world, but for you, there may be worry that it isn't even him anymore. I promise that it still is him, and he'll still look at you with the same love he has now. You need to remember to look past the body and mannerisms of a pony and see your husband."

"I'm sure I can," the woman said quickly, too quickly.

Tonya stretched a wing out and gave Bill a pat on his hand, taking in his emotions as she did. He was anxiety, worry, fear, nervous expectation. Even though his wife wasn't going to be transformed as well, she checked the wife too. The wife was much the same, only even more so.

The fact that she wasn't very good at this aspect of her mind magic was exceedingly frustrating right now. She could feel those emotions, but she couldn't tell what they were directed at; it was all guesswork. Some of it was easy enough to guess, but feelings were funny things that could be produced in ways that you least expected. Right now, she didn't have time to question the test volunteers to get a good clue of what was being referred at what, and that was adding to her anxiety over what was about to happen.

There was only one subject left to check. She turned and walked over to her wife. Sunset turned to her briefly and gave her a brief necking in a surprising display of public affection for the two of them before turning attention back to the delegates. They were very affectionate with one another, but typically not right in front of strangers. The brief display had given her a chance to feel Sunset's emotions; determination, resolve, anxiety, dread, anxiousness, pride, and love. A complicated cocktail of emotions that made more sense than the more focused feelings of the others, if only because she knew Sunset so well.

"You just used your magic to read me, didn't you?" Sunset asked, eyes still on the audience.

"Yes," Tonya replied. The determination and resolve were all she needed to feel to know there was no talking Sunset out of this. "I did on everyone. Tom and Amanda aren't doing half as well as they are pretending to be doing. There are lingering effects, even with the reduced time yesterday. You need to cut things short with them and for yourself today."

"How about Jean? How is she doing?"

"As near as I can tell without being able to talk to her, I think she's eager to get back into her pony form," she replied and paused as she considered what else to say. "She hates her human body, literally hates it. I know that is to be expected in her situation, but I don't know if there are lingering effects of the mind magic at work as well."

"That's why we are still in testing and not presenting a finished product. After today we will get other locations testing, and we can iron out these wrinkles easier," Sunset said with a hint of confidence that didn't match her emotions. Full confidence that this test would get that public testing approved was partial bravado. Sunset had confidence it, but Tonya felt those lingering threads of doubt her wife kept from her face and ears.

"Please, just make sure the pony to human times are brief," Tonya said with her ears lowered.

Sunset nodded and turned to look at the doctors and mages standing off to the side. "All seems to be ready. It is time to start this and advance God's plan."

The unicorn stepped forward to the podium and spoke into the microphone. "Distinguished delegates from our great government, the United Nations, Griffin Kingdom, Kirin tribe, and Equestria; if I can please have your attention, we are ready to begin."

The chatter died down as all eyes turned to Sunset Blessing. The unicorn smiled out to the crowd. "Over six years ago, a rogue unicorn from Equestria unleashed a pandemic upon our world that forever changed it. While we can all agree that her methods were wrong, what we can also agree with is that the introduction of the ability to do magic has revolutionized many fields. We are now able to grow crops at rates we never could before, we are learning how to be masters of the weather rather than be at its mercy, and unicorns cast spells that help make what had once been science fiction and fantasy now a reality. Even now, there is a magical awakening among humanity, which I am confident will further make us masters of our destinies as that magic matures and spreads."

The red unicorn paused as she looked out at the crowd, judging their reactions. Tonya looked them over as well. That last part might have taken some guests by surprise to hear come from an arch-Shimmerist's muzzle. However, some may have already gotten word of Sunset's evolved ideas about Shimmerism. Sunset smiled as she continued.

"The people of Earth, and the United States, in particular, represent the largest population of magic beings there are. We are not content to sit in Equestria's shadow, waiting for them to trickle magical knowledge that they approve of to us slowly. One of the hallmarks of this nation has always been innovation and the drive to be at the forefront of all advancements. Some said that we were too far behind ever to match Equestrian magic or surpass it in our lifetimes. Those that mutter such things do not know the American people."

A small amount of clapping and a hoofstomp or two from where the delegates from their government sat ensued before dying off.

Sunset's smile broadened. "Today, we are going to demonstrate how far we have come in such a short time. The Equestrians have told us that repeated temporary transformations are destructive. Using the spells that they have developed for this, they are telling the truth, but we here on Earth are innovators, and we have determined how it can be safely done. In the field of transformation magic, we have risen to new heights, as is fitting for a world that found itself at the mercy of such magic just a short time ago. We shall never be at the mercy of such magic again, for we are now its new masters."

Tonya tried to get a read on the crowd by their faces, but their poker faces were definitely in place. She hoped Sunset knew how to play to this crowd.

Sunset flicked her yellow streaked purple tail. "Some might question whether we should be pursuing transformation magic so soon after what happened. But I say our world has a desperate need for it. There are ponies out there who wish to see their humanity restored that decided too late that was the path they wished to take and found themselves locked in their form by their cutie mark having that choice denied them. There are humans out there who are suffering from debilitating injuries and illnesses that would be cured if I had only had a chance to transform as well."

There were small mutterings in the crowd that quickly quieted down.

"To both these groups, mercy and compassion is owed, and we are a merciful and compassionate people. It is time we stop worrying about who is human and who is a pony and recognize that we are all brothers and sisters in the eyes of our creator in Heaven. It is time we do the right thing for those who want options, whether they be a marked pony who wishes to cup things in their hands again or the cancer patient that has been told there is no hope. It is time for the lines between human and pony to go away, and we become only the people of Earth."

There was a noticeable increase in the volume of clapping and hoofstomps this time around.

Sunset dropped her smile. "Now I must address what many of you see as the elephant in the room, me. With the ongoing threat of radical Shimmerists who wish to do as Sunset Shimmer did, it can be difficult to trust that I, a Shimmerist, don't intend to use this to advance a pony world without humans. That anything that we do in this field is suspect because of me overseeing its development. Let me soothe your fears."

Muttering started again among the delegates, and even those on stage had confused expressions on their faces. Tonya held her breath. This was not something she had been expecting, but she knew what was coming.

Sunset lowered her head and took a deep breath before raising her eyes back to the crowd. "I will not deny I think any human that wishes to be a pony full time should be given that self-determination. I am also not lying when I say that I think humanity as a whole now is being denied self-determination of a different type. The future is bathed in magic, and so many humans at the moment lack it. Magic should be the right of all thinking beings, human or pony. This temporary transformation from human to pony has a lasting side effect even after the spell wears off. It permanently grants the human magic. Today we can offer not only freedom from hurt and illnesses; we offer the self-determination for the future where humanity will rise as equals to ponies in magic, and all will share in this great gift. The future of the world is not all ponies or all humans, but a people united in their ability to shape their destinies."

This immediately caused a great deal of loud gossip to start among the delegates. the information had been leaked just yesterday, and apparently, most of the representatives were not in the loop about it as of yet. It was hard to read what was going on in the gossip from the stage, but there was no angry shouting going on--which was a good thing.

Sunset stomped a hoof a few times against the podium like she would a gavel. "If I may have your attention again, for the time being, there will be time to discuss this later. I'll be happy to answer questions once the demonstration has been done."

The delegates slowly quieted down, and Sunset turned and gestured to Tom and Amanda. "You have all received the briefings about each of our participants, and I hope you have had time to read over them. Tom and Amanda Gilmore here have already done the pony to human transformation once, and you can see they are in good health."

She gestured to Jean. "Jean Martinez likewise has done the human to pony transformation once already as well. Her reasons for doing it are severe Parkinson's disease. In her pony form, she was free from the malady, and we'll be showing that to you again today."

Sunset gestured to Bill. "William Longfellow recently suffered an injury that has cost him the use of his lower body. This will be his first time undergoing the spell."

And with those introductions made, she turned back to the delegates. "There is a final participant that you were not briefed on ahead of time. That participant is me. I have full faith in our spell, and would not subject any of these people to a spell I wasn't prepared to have cast on myself."

There was a shocked gasp from the crowd as the most famous of Shimmerists announced she was going to transform into a human temporarily. Tonya bit the inside of her cheeks. She hoped Sunset was going to be alright. It didn't seem there could be any way this could go well for her. If Velvet reacted badly, as well as Tom and Amanda, it was almost inevitable that Sunset was going to be suffering nightmares as bad or worse.

Sunset turned to Bill's wife and Roger. "I need all family to clear the stage until after the spells have been cast and the doctors have done their checkups." She turned to Tonya. "All family. You all have seats set aside for you in the front row of the chapel. Please go take them."

Tonya reluctantly obeyed and, with a few flaps of her wings, flew down to the seating in front of the stage. Roger and the woman who she really should learn the name of followed after on foot and took up seats beside her. The delegations had long since moved on from the VIP section to the chapel proper and were only a few rows back from them. She imagined she would have to restrain herself from turning to look at them through the demonstration.

"All participants will be put under a sleep spell while the spell is being cast," Sunset explained. "This is to help prevent any emotional trauma that might arise from seeing their body changed before their eyes. We shall all be woken up after doctors have checked to make sure everyone is well. Since this will be the first time either William or I have undergone this procedure, there will be a short period of adjustment for us to keep balanced. This should pass quickly."

Tonya watched as her wife step down from the podium and then simply curled up on the floor where a simple white sheet had been placed since she had decided to have no hospital bed for herself. Sunset signaled the mages, and five unicorns went out and got to work casting the sleep spells. Within a few seconds, all the participants, including Sunset, were sound asleep.

The remainder of the mages stepped forward and first took up position around Jean. The crystal ponies moved to the edge of the stage as if making a wall between the spellcasting on stage and the audience beyond, and they kept a vigilant eye on what was going on. The unicorns' horns lit, and the spell began. Tonya watched as the process went into effect once again, and for a solid two minutes, it carried on, with soft gasps being uttered by the audience behind her. In the end, once again, the blue-furred and pink maned crystal pony lay on the hospital bed.

As the doctors moved in to check on Jean, the unicorns moved on to Bill. As they did, his wife gripped onto Tonya's wing as if grabbing onto an arm. The grip was tight, but not so tight that it hurt. The unicorns' horns lit, and the process started again and continued just as it had with Jean before. At the end, when their horns unlit, there was a fuchsia furred crystal pony stallion with an orange mane lying on the bed.

She raised a curious eyebrow at this. What were the chances of having the spell create two crystal ponies in two uses? The last version had made two night ponies in two uses. That was four ponies total from tribes that were the two smallest in size. Perhaps the temporary transformation had an additional bug that hadn't been noticed till now. That needed some looking into.

Bill's wife didn't release her grip as the doctors moved in to start checking him. The mages didn't move immediately on to the others, instead going to the side of the stage where there was water set aside. This was not easy spellcasting, and it had been anticipated they'd need a brief reprieve halfway through.

"Is he alright?" Bill's wife whispered as she stared at the crystal pony version of her husband that the doctors were still looking over.

"He'll be fine," Tonya assured the woman. She could hear whispering going on back where the delegates sat as well.

"When are they going to wake him up? Will I get to talk to him like this? Why's this taking so long?" The woman continued on in a worried series of questions.

Tonya turned and patted a hoof on the woman's hand that was still tightly gripped on the wing. "They'll wake him once everyone is done being transformed. You'll get to talk to him after he gets his bearings, and Sunset is done readdressing the delegates. I know this seems like it is taking forever, but everything will be alright."

The hand didn't release from the wing, but Roger reached over from the woman's other side and gripped her other hand as he stared at his wife up on stage. Tonya turned her eyes back to the slumbering form of her own wife as she felt the same sense of worry and dread.

The mages' break did not last long. As they went over to where Tom and Amanda were lying, the sounds of the audience came to a halt. This was a key point of convincing the government that the temporary transformations were desirable. Earth had done things before with magic that the Equestrians hadn't, but it was primarily things that were unneeded or untried in Equestria. The Equestrians said that transforming ponies with cutie marks to humans was impossible with the rehumanization spell; that they had researched it and tried and proven it could not be done. Today that was going to be proven to be at least partially wrong.

Once again, the process began, only in reverse of the last. This time took a little longer because there were two individuals at once being worked on. After a little under five minutes, it was done, and Amanda and Tom were in their human forms once again. Excited whispers started up from the delegates as pair of mages quickly levitated a couple of blankets on top of the pair before the doctors moved in. The whispers continued as the mages moved onto their final subject.

Tonya held her breath and her muscles tensed as the mages circled her wife. She knew she should be putting on a brave face, but this was just too much for that. She did a small jump as the hand that previously gripped her wing moved to her mane. A glance to her side showed Bill's wife giving her a sympathetic look as she started to brush Tonya's mane with her hand soothingly. Tonya gave a small smile in gratitude before turning her attention back to the love of her life.

Time and sound seemed to stop as the final casting of the spell began. All that existed to her right now was the form of her wife engulfed in the white magic of multiple unicorn hues joining together in what was reshaping Sunset's body. Fur retreated and vanished, facial structure and bones shifted, limbs stretched and elongated. It was agonizing to watch. It had been hard each time watching the pony to human transformation, but this time it was Sunset up there, and Tonya could not take her eyes away. She kept reciting prayers in her head that Sunset would be alright, begging God to give her wife mercy and calm. Tonya had gained her faith in the last few years, but at this moment, she needed it more than ever. She wondered if this was how Sunset had felt when Tonya had awaited judgment from the Dreamwardens.

The spell ended, and the doctors moved in, obscuring Tonya's view of her wife. It took a monumental force of will not to start flapping her wings to get a better view, or better yet, hurry to her wife's side. Was Sunset, alright? Had everything gone well? Her thoughts were an echo of what Bill's wife's had been just minutes before.

It seemed like forever before the doctors were done, and a blanket had been draped over Sunset's sleeping form. Not much could be made out from where Tonya was sitting except for Sunset having reddish-brown hair. The doctors were all standing close by the temporary humans with robes ready for each of them. They signaled the unicorns and began waking Sunset.

Sunset stirred, and a doctor moved forward quickly with a robe, putting himself between her and the audience. He bent down and started whispering to her, likely explaining she was alright but that they needed to get a robe on her pronto. It seemed that Sunset gained lucidity from her slumber quickly; as a moment later, she sat up and had her back turned to the audience with the blanket still draped over her shoulders. The doctor moved to remove the covering to put the robe on, and Tonya could see Sunset briefly resist having the blanket removed. If this were any other pony turned human, Tonya's first thought would be wondering if they'd developed a nudity taboo despite there being no mind magic involved. This being Sunset, it was likely shame of being seen with a human body at all. Sunset's resistance lasted but a moment, and the blanket was pulled away, revealing the pale flesh of her back. The doctor quickly helped get the white bathrobe on her and closed so she wouldn't expose herself in a way humans would find offensive.

Tonya held her breath as the doctor helped Sunset get to a standing position, keeping an arm a hold of her so she would not fall. Sunset was unsteady on her feet, but she got turned around so she could face the delegates. When she did so, Tonya gasped in shock at what she saw.

There was nothing wrong with Sunset's face or anything else in terms of health. What was wrong was the sudden reminder of Sunset's previous identity. When Tonya looked at that face, she saw Charlotte Gilmore instead of Sunset Blessing, and despite knowing the two were one and the same, and despite knowing ahead of time this was the face Sunset would be wearing during this demonstration, it still hit Tonya like a brick to the face to see it. She loved her wife dearly, but that face had a history--one that involved some of the terrors of Tonya's childhood.

She took a deep breath and started to whisper reassurances to herself. "It's still your wife; Charlotte is gone. She's been gone for a long time. Don't get freaked out about this. It's okay. Everything will be okay. Just don't think about the face."

Sunset was helped to the podium, and when she reached it, she braced herself against it, though she had to hunch over a bit due to it being designed more for a pony than a human. She waved the doctor off and then turned back to the delegates as she bent down to speak into the microphone.

"I'm in good health," she announced. "It will take me several minutes of practice to get used to walking on two legs again. My mind still knows how to use a human body, but the memories are a little rusty. This will be a common thing for those who have the spell used on them for the time being. We hope to develop better versions that will cut down on this adjustment time, but for now, I can confirm at least that my body is healthy." She paused and grimaced as her eyes drifted to her hands briefly. "While I'm getting myself acclimated to trying to use this body, they'll be waking the others. They may or may not need time to acclimate as well. Once everyone is acclimated, I will take questions and allow family members back up here, but not before then."

The mages woke up each of the others in turn. The hand once again moved to Tonya's wing as Bill was awakened. The first thing the new crystal pony did was look around and blink at his surroundings; the second thing he did even before standing was stretch out every leg and watch in fascination at each of them moving. When it became clear that all of them were working, the stallion let off a loud whoop and all but jumped to his hooves with a happy buck. The doctors had to rush over to steady him before he tried taking off without getting accustomed to his new balance.

"He seems alright," Bill's wife said with cautious optimism.

Tonya nodded. Though she was keeping an eye on everyone, her primary focus was on Sunset still. The human version of her wife didn't make any attempt to walk around. What she seemed more focused on was just trying to stand upright on her own without having to brace herself against the podium. It was pretty clear to anyone watching she had no intention of leaving the podium at all during the duration of this transformation. Sunset also seemed to be trying hard not to even look at herself, beyond an occasional glance at her hands to make sure she was supported against the podium properly when trying to stand upright. After a few minutes of trying, she seemed to find her center of gravity and stood at the podium with her arms crossed tightly against her chest, turning to watch each of the others' progress.

Amanda and Tom were able to get on their feet and steady almost right away this time. They stood answering the doctors’ questions while nervously rubbing at their arms. The doctors would be performing a few motor control tests with them this time around—nothing complex, but enough to get some data.

Jean didn't waste any time getting back on her hooves once she had awoken, and made a beeline right towards the edge of the stage to try to get to her husband in her excitement. This was brought to a halt by the other crystal ponies blocking her progress and earned a pout. She then started trotting about the stage like some school filly while human doctors tried to keep up with her and ask questions. She eventually did come to a halt by Amanda and Tom and started engaging them in conversation--much to the annoyance of the doctors who were trying to question each of them.

Bill took some time to find his balance, but once he did, he tried to make his way to his wife. Just like Jean, he was blocked off from leaving the stage. Sunset called out a reminder that he needed to be checked out in-between answering the doctors’ questions herself. He lowered his ears and then submitted to having the doctor question him.

Questioning by the doctors went on for a while, with intermittent requests that they try to perform some small task. It was more than what had been done previously, but the doctors had insisted they wanted more time with patients. It was also a good show for the delegates to see; humans doctors in seeming control of the situation. Sunset knew what she was doing regarding what the representatives were seeing and how it would be responded to. The problem was this was stretching out the time that Sunset, Tom, and Amanda were spending in human form.

Eventually, the doctors seemed to be satisfied for the time being. Bill and Jean sat talking with one another as well as trying to engage the unicorns mages in conversation. Tom and Amanda were looking more and more skittish, and it was increasingly clear that this couldn't be allowed to continue much longer for them. The fact this was their second go-round for them helped with them having motor control and balance quickly, but it also seemed like it was only making the deterioration of their emotional state go faster.

Sunset turned back to the delegates and reached down to pick up the microphone from where it was slotted into the podium. She handled the microphone as if she was completely used to holding things in hands. Sunset had spent a lot of time just watching humans on video use their hands last night to visualize what she needed to do today. The unnerving feeling of seeing Charlotte Gilmore standing in place of her wife was starting to fade, but it wasn't completely gone.

Bringing the microphone up to about a foot from her mouth, Tonya's wife spoke. "I apologize for the delay in addressing you. The doctors needed to check our health. I'm pleased to say we're all in perfect health, as was promised. I'll go over a few details quickly and then start taking questions. We have loved ones who want to be given their time, and I don't want to delay that longer than needed."

Sunset cleared her throat and continued. "The first thing that needs to be addressed now that you see it does successfully heals a debilitated person when used is that this is not a final product. I would be lying if I said we didn't have bugs to work out, and there are details we have not resolved yet. I am asking for testing to be expanded to additional centers around the country. With the expanded testing, we can better isolate problems, develop more consistency, and have independent teams able to verify results. While I am proud of what my team and I have accomplished thus far, I know we are but one set of testers with a limited base to test upon."

Tonya could hear whispering going on among the delegates but couldn't make things out clearly. The acoustics of the chapel were meant to muffle sound out in the audience and were making things harder to hear.

"The second thing I need to address is I'm fully in favor of government regulation of this," Sunset continued. "Magic of this type is not something done lightly and should be kept under strict controls. As we further test, congress can decide what those controls will be and how to implement them. This is something that is for the betterment of the people of Earth and should be pursued. We simply need to know how to be responsible in our usage."

Sunset turned her eyes to the Equestrian delegation. "Third, at the moment, Equestria has a monopoly on transformation magic. Sunset Shimmer's spell is still kept under lock and key in their capital. Although Equestria expresses its good intentions and desires not to see such a spell used again, we are very much at their mercy as things stand if they should suddenly decide to unleash a new pandemic upon us. The people of Earth owe it to our security to understand such magic just as well as the Equestrians so that if we ever need to, we can counter such things ourselves. Not just the people of Earth either, but also the other nations that border Equestria in the other world. The Equestrian monopoly is a threat to everyone who is not under Celestia's rule."

Sunset turned her gaze back to the government delegates. "Let's not forget the portions of her spell were leaked to Shimmerist factions early on. I can confirm this since they shared the information with me before I reported them and what I learned to the authorities. It bears mentioning that their primary ambassador had the opportunity to capture this information from the original faction, but chose to walk away instead. We must know how to defend ourselves if Equestria says they are going to stay out of it when radicals try to unleash their own spell."

This was something that Tonya couldn't resist turning to look at the Equestrian delegation for. The Equestrians themselves kept neutral expressions for the most part. A few did frown at the implications being made. The griffons, in particular, looked thoughtful. It was well known to Sunset that the griffons had been Sunset Shimmer's original targets, and it was still something that had not been forgiven or forgotten. The distrust for the Equestrian ponies was still a significant force in griffon foreign policy. A glance at the delegates from her government and the United Nations showed similar glimpses being made at the Equestrians. Sunset never failed to play this card, and it never failed to be effective.

"That concludes the points I wanted to make sure were covered if they did not come up in your questions," Sunset concluded. "I have an aide with a microphone who will be passing it to each of you who have questions. At the moment, I am without the benefit of pony ears, so I request that you please speak clearly."

The microphone was given over to a human man that Tonya was pretty sure was part of the Homeland Security group. "Sunset Blessing, you mentioned that this temporary transformation spell grants magic to humans that use it. How much magic and of what nature?"

Sunset nodded. "The subjects so far have shown small PREQUES numbers, less than half a point, after the temporary transformation has ended. Due to the small sample size, I cannot comment on the nature or strength of their new magic, but we have seen humans with low PREQUES numbers have their magic grow in the past. This is something that will need further study."

The microphone was passed to a unicorn mare who looked was likely a member of the Department of Pony Affairs. "You say that this spell can be used for healing. I read over the reports that provided for Tom and Amanda Gilmore and saw no health problems listed. As far as I know, you had no health problems either. With all due respect, I must point out that your pony to human spell, as demonstrated, has not been shown to cure any medical ailments as a result. Is there a good reason why you did not find a sick pony for this demonstration?"

Sunset nodded in response. "This is one of the problems of our limited testing area, and secretive testing has produced. While it is a good thing that we have few ponies suffering from severe enough injuries or health problems in Riverview, it also limits our options. We approached the ones that did match those criteria, but none of them were interested in participating. This left us falling back to others known to be interested in returning to humanity. These were primarily night ponies. However, we have had some initial concerns about the psychological health of the night pony volunteers we have received and have prohibited them from joining in testing as we evaluate how to proceed with them. There are complex social issues with their tribe that need to be properly cared for when experimenting with this type."

The unicorn was not done. "I also could help but notice the mood of your pony to human participants is much more subdued and that the Gilmores are spending a lot of time fidgeting uncomfortably, rubbing their hands and arms. Forgive me for implying this, but it must be addressed. It seems an interesting coincidence that the ponies who are transformed into humans in an experiment run by a Shimmerist seem to be having more trouble than the humans turned pony."

Tonya grit her teeth at the accusation that was being made. How dare she imply that Sunset was deliberately causing discomfort to anyone to advance a Shimmerist agenda. Despite all Sunset had done to try to work with and care for humans, there was always the belief that she was out to get them in some way.

Sunset didn't seem to get upset, though. "Let me address your concerns about this. The version of the spell you have seen today is an outdated one we will no longer use. The reason we are using it today is that the newer version uses mind magic to create a more human mindset. Just as the other version creates a more pony mindset for the duration of the spell. This is a critical step to ensure patient comfort as it prevents severe body dysphoria. We used this version at the Gilmores' request, having warned them of all possible consequences, as they were staunchly opposed to having mind magic used. For consistency sake, I had the same version applied to me." She put on a smile. "And this also is another reason to have independent teams at other locations working on this. If you don't trust my intentions, you can have other teams working and making adjustments that you do trust."

The mare sat down, and the microphone was surprisingly taken over to the Equestrian delegation. Rarity stood up and stared at Sunset. "Even though my skills and selection of spells have improved during the last few years, I must confess that I am not a particularly skilled mage. However, my fellow unicorns that have come with me are skilled mages well versed in this subject, and they have noted to me that this spell bears a shocking resemblance to Sunset Shimmer's spell. You mentioned before the information that was leaked to other Shimmerist factions years ago. They say that this goes well beyond what those redacted documents should have allowed you to learn. I must ask, did you manage to somehow steal more information from us?"

There was an audible gasp among many in the audience at the direct accusation of espionage that Rarity had just leveled against Sunset. It was probably one of the most direct allegations of wrongdoing Tonya had ever heard an Equestrian make. This might have been a result of Sunset making implications against Equestria's intentions, though. Sunset had poked Rarity, and Rarity was biting back.

The grin deepened on Sunset's face. "It seems that you and your delegation were not listening when I said that Americans are innovators not content to play second fiddle to others' accomplishments. While I confess that what we learned from those early leaks was indeed more useful than what others might believe, no one has committed any further acts of espionage to our benefit."

"It seems you did not hear my question clearly as I did not question your ability to innovate, but for a simple hedge mage like yourself, who doesn't even have a cutie mark in magic, to display a spell that is almost a copy of the one your namesake produced strains credulity, no?" Rarity asked with narrowed eyes. Tonya had an extreme desire to slap that unicorn back to Equestria for the insult against her wife.

"A hedge mage?" Sunset said with a chuckle. "Let me tell you something, my dear fashionista; Equestria is largely stagnant in terms of much of its magical development. In fact, I would go so far as saying regressive. You think so highly of Sunset Shimmer’s accomplishments because she was actually making progress in magic where the rest of you were casting the same tired spells from the same worn-out books. The truth is that at this very moment, I have figured out how to do a permanent transformation spell instead of just a temporary one. I don't doubt that others will learn how to in time as well. Once you’ve understood this area of magic enough, it’s simply how the runes fall together."

This caused a lot of gasps, shouts, and loud commenting. Rarity stayed calm as she stared at Sunset, and the crowd quieted as Rarity cleared her throat. "A bluff. A pony of your particular convictions would not keep such magic to herself."

Sunset shook her head. "I am not bluffing. The world is lucky that it was me and not some crazed radical that learned how to do it first. I respect law and order, and as such, will not be casting or teaching anyone how to do such a spell. A key word must be said again though--first. There will eventually be others, and everyone must have the knowledge to prevent any unscrupulous radical from doing what Sunset Shimmer did. Equestria keeps that knowledge from everyone to maintain their leverage over the nations on Earth. With this magic we have developed, the threat of such bioterrorism becomes less relevant, and so does Equestria."

The microphone was snatched from Rarity by Sapphire Sky's wing. "Is this really all this was about?" the pegasus demanded, voice slipping into a noticeable Equestrian accent in her anger. "Some new-age lost cause garbage? Trying to prove how much better Earth is? That some weak magic hick from the south measures up? All this for a pissing contest."

Sunset raised an eyebrow. "My my, a pegasus of questionable allegiance is upset that I'm saying the truth about her Equestrian hypocrite friends. I'm so shocked."

"If you want to see just how upset I am, come over and say that to my face," Sapphire growled. "But you'll just hide behind your pulpit, doubly so now as you can't even walk after being foolish enough to use a broken spell on yourself."

Sunset chuckled and stepped away from the pulpit to carefully step to the edge of the stage, still gripping the microphone in her hand. It was showmanship, but Tonya held her breath all the same because she wasn't sure or not if Sapphire's taunt was false.

"Oh, you have gone so native with them," Sunset said in an amused tone. "A complete lack of respect for law and order to the point where you can’t even wait you’re turn. Tell me, how often have the Elements of Harmony and their friends gotten away with major crimes based on who they are? Does law even apply to them, or the alicorns for that matter? Why has Rainbow Dash never had to answer for destroying a weather factory? Why did Starlight Glimmer all but get rewarded for her crimes? The Journal of Friendship and accompanying volumes list serious crime after serious crime done with no legal repercussions. Equestria is a cesspool of cronyism and fearful of anyone else being a match for them in power."

Sapphire looked to be caught off balance by such a lengthy and varied list of Equestrian indiscretions for a second before her expression hardened again. "Even if everything you said was true, they'd still stand head and shoulders above a pony like you, Sunset Blessing. You put all this together so you could air your grievances towards Equestria and to stroke your ego."

Sunset shook her head. "This is hardly about my ego. I know you are not a religious pony, but you should know that confession is truly good for your soul. My confession is that despite the fact I don't harbor any animosity for humans I do have a great deal of hatred for my past human self. There is no more humiliating experience for me to stand, exposed before others, wearing her skin. This isn't about me, or even Equestria and its questionable respect for our laws and sovereignty. It's about progress and aiding the people of Earth. I am proud of my nation and my planet, and I want to see things made better; while some of us seem to be caught up in the false promises of Equestria's stagnation."

"Sunset..." Amanda called out interrupting the two feuding mares. Everyone's eyes turned to the dark skinned woman who was fiercely scratching her arms. "I think we need to end the spell now....please."

Sunset’s face lost it’s confidence for the first time and she looked decidedly worried before she nodded briskly and put her mask back in place. "Of course, thank you for letting us know. Crystal ponies and mages, please help Amanda and Tom ASAP. Leave me and the others be." Sunset turned back to the audience. "As I said before, this particular version of the human to pony spell is not our current version and without the mind magic to make someone have a human mindset it can cause distress over extended periods of time. We're going to demonstrate how quickly and easily this spell can be ended and after that if you have any continued questions you can catch me in the lobby where catering services have set up food and refreshments for us all to eat. Jean, William, and myself will be maintaining our current forms till the spells run their course."

That was too much. Tonya almost interrupted her wife with an outburst demanding to know why Sunset was going to let this run its course with her when she knew the level of distress that would cause her. She didn't want to be checking Sunset into a psych ward after this. She knew why though; Sunset was determined to show she would endure anything for the sake of her work.

As the mages and crystal ponies got to work she tried to calm herself, but her eyes wouldn't leave her wife, and worrying that Sunset was about to go too far for the sake of making a point.

Wild sat at a small table with the same mug of champagne she had picked up five minutes before. She watched as humans and unicorns walked around with fancy wine glasses, but earth ponies and pegasi struggled with holding those tiny glasses. Typically the alcohol in her mug would be long gone and she'd have moved onto another and then the next, but she was trying to keep drinking extremely light while pregnant. It was a struggle though, and the fact that it was a struggle bothered her. It was the sign of a problem, and she was becoming more aware of her problems as of late.

Where were her parents? None of the participants had emerged into the lobby yet. Her papa, that human's wife, and Tonya were still in the chapel with them. Sunset said they'd all come out soon, but hadn't given explanation for the delay. She could guess a few reasons for delays. Tom and Amanda needed to be attended to if the temporary transformation was getting to them that much. Sunset likely wanted to practice walking around a little so she didn't fall flat on her face. That human's wife needed time to wrap her head around the fact her husband was still her husband. She wouldn't be surprised if Tonya was taking time to have some choice words with her wife in private as well, the pegasus had not looked pleased when Wild saw her last.

She had privacy for the moment, though it would likely be short lived. She'd been talking to her sister and sister-in-law until just a moment before, but the two of them had now ventured off into the crowds to socialize. Phobia's two most trusted bodyguards, Tempest Shadow and Crystal Dreams, were standing in a corner with the three demons between them. The demons were all curled up with their wings draped over their heads; it was well past their bedtime and it had been a long day for them.

The delegates were all in their own little groups chatting and discussing what had been presented. She could easily hear most of these conversations and things seemed to be looking very positive for eventually expansion of testing. The Equestrians stood further apart from the other groups and were harder to hear, but they were obviously quite livid with how Sunset had painted them. Most of them didn't seem to realize that Sunset had played them like a fiddle. Equestrians had a much tamer world of politics, and even with six and a half years of dealing with Earth were often still ignorant of many of the nuances of how the game was played here.

Wild frowned as a particularly pissed off pegasus walked away from the Equestrian delegation and in her direction. Sapphire Sky wasn't an Equestrian, but she could be described as a sort of goodwill ambassador between the two worlds without an official title, even having an Equestrian husband. Sapphire should have known better than to walk into Sunset's trap, but she'd all but dove headfirst into it.

"Your associate is lucky I am not a violent pony," Sapphire fumed as she sat down in a seat next to Wild. “One light flap of my wings and she would have fallen off her high horse.”

Wild took a small sip from her mug and set it back down. "Why'd you even get into it with her? You know that's exactly what she wanted you to do."

Sapphire gave her wings a brief shake. "I know she wanted an outburst, but couldn't stand her sitting there slandering Equestria while making us all drown in her ego. That evangelical prick pulls dirty crap all the time and she has the nerve to espouse how much she respects law and order? I just don't have it in me to let it go without saying something."

"She probably anticipated that. She psych profiled everyone that she invited. I'll give Sunset that, she is very thorough in making sure she can manipulate things to go her way." She paused and took another small sip. "I'm sorry she decided to pull dirty tactics out against you and your friends, but I'm not sorry that it looks like her talk managed to get the support we needed."

Sapphire sighed. "The thing that really pisses me off is that she didn’t have to do any of it. It worked, she changed marked ponies back into the humans that they were. I’d have voiced my approval for it off that alone until I saw how distressed they were, and then she made her big speech advocating disharmony with Equestria because Shimmerists like her can’t have what they want. "

Wild raised an eyebrow at that. "You're in favor of it? I'm a little surprised."

"Why?" Sapphire asked. "It can help a lot of people. I have family that this would have helped. I'm pretty sure most Equestrians would have agreed as well if she wasn't taking pot shots at them. I just don't want this turned into an Earth is great and Equestria is bad thing, like she’s doing. These things aren’t mutually exclusive, we can have more advanced magic on Earth without fighting Equestria."

This was good to hear. There may not be much for behind the scenes opposition from Equestria. "Well, try not to let her get to you so much. You didn't see her getting angry in response. You gave her full control of the narrative with that little outburst. Words are just words; don't let them get to you."

Sapphire gave her a long dubious look. "You spend half your time concerned about bad PR, when did you start having a 'sticks and stones' mindset?" she asked before muttering under her breath as she took a drink. "Not that remaining stoic is a sign of anything but her own lack of empathy, that sociopath."

Wild lowered her head and stared into her quarter filled mug. "I doubt I was the only one who got a visit last night, but Ghadab was in my dreams when it all happened. His talk kind of stuck with me."

That seemed to take the pegasus aback. The taller mare seemed torn between sympathy and anger. "Shit...they made you sit there and witness that happening? I thought Dreamwardens were supposed to protect dreams not give you nightmares. I feel awful for what was allowed to happen, but they shouldn't have done that to you."

Wild shook her head. "It wasn’t like that, he had come to help me with a problem last night. Ghadab seemed to take an interest in my personal problems right after that and they just all kind of hung around till it happened. He knew the whole time what was going on, yet he still tried to make me feel better," She stopped and wiped her muzzle. "I cried so hard in my sleep when I saw those stars going out and realized at last what was happening. I had just started getting to know Ghadab. I actually like him. None of them deserved that."

The blue mare almost put her mug down before taking another drink. "To Ghadab, may his troubles be less and all those he protected at rest ." Wild picked up her mug and clunked it against the pegasus's mug before Sapphire continued. "If you don't mind me asking, what brought the whole herd of Dreamwardens into your dream to begin with?"

Wild glanced around then huddled close to the older mare. "Triss was in my dream, pushing me to try to ascend to an alicorn. I told her no and to leave, and when she didn't listen and leave right away the Dreamwardens showed up and pretty much told her get out or else they were going to have Sha'am do her worst to her."

Sapphire whistled low. "Triss visited you again? Can’t say I’m too surprised."

Wild turned her head in confusion. "What do you mean again? That was the first time I’ve ever met her."

Sapphire started laughing which confused Wild all the more. After the pegasus finished with her mirth she bent close and continued whispering. "First time? That I am surprised by. I figured she'd have tried and been rejected by you at least four years ago, I think that was the last time I saw her."

"She tried you first?" Wild asked in shock. "That doesn't make any sense. No offense, but I'm much more magically powerful than you."

Sapphire raised an eyebrow and laid one of her ears back. "Well, I never asked if I was the first, but if you think ascension is purely about who has the most raw power then you sound as misguided as Sunset Shimmer thinking transforming a world into ponies would grant her ascension. Sure, you're like the greatest earth pony, but you've never made an effort to understand the magic of the other tribes. Honestly, I think you're being unfair to yourself by thinking she would only visit you because you're so strong, you’re not that one dimensional."

"I understand runes better than just about any earth pony I wouldn't be able to control my powers without them. I'm a mage in my own right," Wild said defensively.

Sapphire shrugged. "Sorry, that was unfair on my part. Whatever her reason, I really don't believe raw power is the only thing her and the Princesses would judge us on. I told her that I wasn't going to be the only alicorn on Earth. Hearing that you two had a little chat makes me curious if I could have said yes."

Wild sighed. "I guess I'm letting my ego talk. I take a little too much pride when it comes to my magic. It's interesting to hear she's tried both of us though. It makes me wonder how many others she's talked to and who they might be. Also makes me wonder why she's pushing so hard for it. What's she know that we don't?"

"How to notice eavesdroppers for starts," Phobia's voice purred from behind her and both of them jumped in their seats, nearly knocking their mugs over.

The night pony came and sat beside them. "As for why she's pushing so hard you have to see things from her perspective. She's been around a very long time, longer than any Dreamwarden has ever been. She's lonely and she's seen civilization after civilization fail or be destroyed. She's sought out more candidates than I could recount searching for another who could ascend. She has always failed. Now we come along and we have a head start, we’re far more developed and aware of things than the vast majority of those civilizations she's ever come across. She sees hope to end that loneliness at long last, but she's also scared we’ll be snuffed out by the Devourers. Even a being such as Triss has much to fear."

"Pushing hard seems an inaccurate description in light of such things," Sapphire remarked, fluffing up her wings and resettling them against her sides with her eyes on the night pony.

Phobia gave small shake of her head. "I say this as a person that cares. I hold no animosity towards Triss, regardless of what she thinks. I feel sorry for her. I can sympathize with what she has endured, but ascension is not something done lightly. It carries with it a weight far beyond its responsibilities. To be honest with both of you I don't think there is a pony on our world ready for those burdens, no matter what your own egoes might tell you. I want to help her, but not with making situations worse by seeing ponies who just aren't ready ascend."

"Help her how?" Wild asked with narrowed eyes.

"She's lonely. She felt out Celestia and Luna in the other world and was eager to meet and talk to them well before ETS broke out. I think it might be best to have her go there," Phobia explained. "She'd have to take a physical form to do that, and that's hard to convince her to do--but it is within her power. But she’s tied too tightly to this reality, she wants to see the Devourers defeated on a personal level that would be hard for many to understand. I don't think she'll take any suggestion to just leave until they are gone."

Phobia paused and then smirked at the pegasus. "You're very right to say that power is not her only criteria, Sapphire. You weren't the first, or even second she contacted. Don't tell my mother about this, but I actually stepped in and told Triss no for attempting to speak with her. I love my mother, but I think we can all agree that no one wants to see her ascend."

"Sunset Fucking Blessing?!" Wild growled. A few people turned her head and she hastily lowered her voice again. "Now I am insulted if she was considered before me. Why the fuck her? No offense to you, but your mother is...she's Sunset Fucking Blessing!"

Phobia turned back to Wild and shrugged. "She's a leader and a uniter. One who's matched by few others. She's done marvels despite being so magically weak. Who are you to say you're a better choice? I say you're all poor choices. I only stepped in with my mom because she would have probably said yes right away, and if Triss really is pushing candidates straight to alicorn that would have caused a lot of misery. I have more faith in the rest of you to say no..." She gave Sapphire a side glance. "Though perhaps my faith may have been misplaced."

"Well yes, you would be a good judge of making eternity spanning decisions, no?" Sapphire asked and sipped at her mug.

Phobia raised an eyebrow. "Considering I have billions of years of memories stuffed in my head I have a bit more perspective on it than either of you. My mother and Wild aren't the only ones with massive egos that blind them, Sapphire. You might wish to look in the mirror."

Sapphire didn’t immediately respond so Wild had to ask again to see if she could get a clear answer. "Still, why Sunset? There would have been a war if she ascended."

Phobia nodded. "I don't doubt it. Another reason to have nipped that in the bud. I don't doubt my mother may have won that war with her existing capabilities combined with the following and power she'd have gained as an alicorn. It would have been long and bloody, but she could win. My mother is not a pony to underestimated, and my mother with alicorn power would be a force to be reckoned with."

"Sorry, but I can’t keep a check on my ego all the time. I'm a pegasus, energy, sass, and ego are our primary ingredients," Sapphire said with a smug grin; completely ignoring Wild's focus. That smile dropped into a grimace. "You talk about all the wisdom from all those memories, but it sounds like you’re still just worshipping your mother."

Wild snapped out of her shock. "Sapphire, let it go. Phobia said she wouldn't approve of her mother ascending, and I have to agree with her assessment of Sunset as an alicorn. She'd be a tyrant, but she'd be capable of winning. You're just proving Phobia right about you not being ready by behaving like this. Alicorns are suppose to be something better than this, prove you're something better."

"Prove to a Dreamwarden? That I'd be worthy of being an alicorn?" Sapphire snorted and rose from her seat. "Whatever, you should worship your parents while you can, the time you have with them always seems short in hindsight," she finished and took off towards the restroom.

Wild considering chasing off after her friend but decided to just let the hot headed pegasus cool down. She turned back to Phobia with a glare. "Sunset Blessing..."

Phobia grabbed Sapphire's abandoned mug and sipped from it. "My mother has all the ingredients for greatness. It isn't just me as a daughter saying it, Luna has seen the same thing. She is probably closest in terms of the capabilities that matter for being an alicorn, but they are twisted heavily with corruption. I will not see that kind of corruption given that kind of power. I already saw it happen once with Sha'am. I love Sunset, because she's my mother, but I don't let that love for her blind me to what kind of pony she is. I have had to face the difficult choice of forcing my sister Dreamwarden into retirement for the good of all; I don't want to have to help the world plot how to kill my mother for the sake of peace."

"And Triss isn't aware of how twisted your mom is?" Wild questioned.

"Triss may simply be recognizing potential and trying to simply guide her candidates to eventually realizing their potential. In which case she wouldn't be just turning them straight into alicorns, and possibly never doing so. The Dreamwardens can't be sure of that though, and we don't want to see her giving too much power to someone not ready and may never be ready," Phobia muttered. "That goes for the rest of you too, not just my mom. Your friend definitely has some work of her own to be done. Quite the temper."

"She's good intentioned and passionate," Wild said in Sapphire's defense.

"So's my mother, right down to the short temper and vindictiveness. They should start a club," Phobia said with a snort.

Wild frowned. "That's unfair, Phobia. I doubt you really know Sapphire."

"I don't doubt she is a good person, just pointing out she isn't half as ready to be an alicorn as she thinks she is," Phobia replied as she picked up the mug again and drained it.

"Well, how much sooner than expected are the Devourers going to be here that it is this urgent for Triss?" Wild asked. "If she has really tried at least four ponies if not more in the last six years that's a lot."

Phobia shook her head. "Can't tell yet, but our lifetime. Once more people get to working with what Jessie started we'll get a better idea. That's another reason we don't need an alicorn now. I don't want to risk the conflict further slowing getting defenses ready. This is something that we would be less objectionable to after the Devourers are dealt with. Triss thinks an alicorn will help unite the world faster, but the other Dreamwardens and I humbly disagree with that idea."

"Not so humbly," Wild replied with her own snort. She agreed with the statement all the same.

"Perhaps not," Phobia confessed. "It is a huge risk to take though. Triss may not be thinking clearly. Her mind is one of two known magical minds we can't penetrate, so I cannot say what all goes on in it. It worries me that she would take such risks when time is so short. She should be helping us win first and then she would be free after to actually find good candidates, and not such major fixer-uppers."

Wild decided not to complain about being called a fixer-upper as she glanced towards the doors to the chapel. She was becoming more aware of her own flaws by the day. "What's taking them so long? They should have been out by now."

Phobia looked down. "My dad and Amanda. This hit them very hard, much harder than what you were seeing. When you all were preoccupied I dreamwalked to check on them while they were being changed back. They're going to need some extended help. I am the closest adult family member and the two of them have given me permission to make arrangements for their care and discuss their problems so they don't have to. l've already agreed to let my little sisters stay with me for the time being while they get themselves together."

That was extremely worrisome to hear. The stories she heard about Velvet Nightshade were bad. If that was happening to Tom and Amanda she didn't know what she would do.

"How bad?" She asked in a small voice.

Phobia bit her lip. "Just thinking about anything involving their past humanity is enough to give them a fit right now. Just saying their names because they are reminders of that time is difficult. I don't know what my dad is going to do yet, but expect Amanda to be a lot more insistent on people calling her Treasure or Treasure Finder. They just don't want any form of reminder of their past humanity right now."

Wild looked again at the chapel doors and back to Phobia. "If you need any help from me don't be afraid to ask. I did much of the funding for this project and that means I carry part of the responsibility for what happened with them."

The chapel doors opened as Phobia was nodding back. All conversation in the lobby quieted down as Sunset Blessing, still in human form and wearing what looked like a white bathrobe, stepped out into the lobby. Right behind her were Wild's parents along with William and his wife. Tonya brought up the rear and was watching Sunset intensely.

"Sorry for the delay," Sunset said loudly. "We needed to make sure some things were taken care of. All of us are a little in need of food and refreshments. William said he is open for questions after he eats, and the same can be said for me. Jean wants a little time with her daughter's first, and I hope everyone can respect her wishes for privacy. These spells should last long enough so there is no rush."

The unicorn turned human walked with confidence to the buffet area. If Sapphire was watching she was probably annoyed by the fact Sunset seemed perfectly steady on her bare feet and didn't seem to be in danger of any faceplants. Rosetta suddenly came from out of nowhere to come sit beside her wife as the three of them sat and waited for their mama--mother-in-law in Phobia's case-- to arrive.

They were not kept waiting long. Her mama happily trotted over to them with papa following close by. Her mama took a seat at the table with a smile, casually wrapping her tail around her flank while sitting as if she did this every day and it was second nature to her. Her papa pulled out one of the stools and sat down, looking like an adult at a kiddie table due to the fact this table was designed with ponies in mind.

Rosetta was the first to speak. "How are you feeling, Mama?"

Their Mama giggled into a hoof. "I feel great. They're letting the spell go for as long as it will go and I get to be out and free for the full duration."

Their papa held up a robe that Wild just noticed. "I'm standing by to help her the second it ends. Have this just in case it ends and we're in public."

"In public? What do you mean in public?" Rosetta asked as her eyes narrowed.

Wild cleared her throat. "Sunset is still waiting on approval, but if she gets it there's going to be a news conference at the end of this get-together to announce to the world what happened today."

"And from what I hear from the delegates that may well be coming," Phobia said as she glanced towards the various other groups in the lobby. She then got up from her seat. "I'll leave the rest of you to talk privately. I need to call Paul and let him know that Jackie and Jordan will need to come to our home. I also need to brief Tempest and Crystal that they're going to be doing some extended foalsitting while Rosetta and I are sleeping. Crystal will take it well, while Tempest will likely grumble."

As Phobia walked away her mama got up from her seat and came and gave her a hug. She leaned into the embrace and held her mama a little tighter than she normally would. Crystal ponies were a bit more durable than other tribes--other than earth ponies--and a little more strength could be safely used in a hug without fear of hurting her. She released her mama in shock a few seconds into the hug as her mama lit up and went translucent.

Her mama blushed somehow through her glassy exterior. "Sorry, I was just so eager to feel this charged up again. It's hard to describe the warmth of it, makes me feel kind of full. You aren't mad, are you?"

Wild blinked then shook her head. "No, I'm not. You just took me by surprise. Try not to do that to anyone else though, okay? The other crystal ponies said you can draw a lot. I don't want you hurting anyone by accident like some surging foal."

Her mama nodded. "You’re right, I wouldn't want to hurt anypony. I'll keep strictly to you when doing that. Do you mind if Bill tries too? I was telling him about it and he wanted to try as well."

She shrugged. "Sure, I don't see why not." Before she could continue her mama quickly hurried off in her fellow temporary pony's direction. Wild stared blankly at the two talking for a second before continuing "Okay...guess this is something they're really eager to do."

Rosetta frowned. "Are you sure you should be letting them do that? We don't know what that absorbed magic will do to them yet, and I don’t like you being treated like a magic buffet."

Wild waved it off. "You're overreacting. It's fine. You're treating Mama like she's some sort of magic vampire."

"Saying absorbing your magic makes her feel full and the fact she seems more focused on that right now before other things gives off that impression," Rosetta replied in a whisper.

Wild looked over to her mama who was eagerly pointing at her while speaking to her new crystal pony friend. Her mama looked happy to her. What was a little magic absorbing going to matter if it made her happy?

Jessie sat and chewed on the pencil she had strapped on. She glanced over to Jackie's drawing and back to her own. Jackie's had some pretty good perspective of clouds at various distances, a trick Robby had taught her how to do. They weren't great looking clouds, but she could tell they were clouds at different distances. Jessie's picture looked like a bunch of sticks at various lengths. They were supposed to be trees, but she just wasn't creating the same effect. The talent for art apparently had skipped her.

Her dad had stepped downstairs just a minute or two ago when his phone rang. At first she had worried that something was wrong with her mom or her little brother, but he'd addressed Ms. Amanda when answering. Jordan and Jackie's parents were probably just checking in, or giving some instructions, or saying when they were going to be home. The two sisters had perked their ears up when they heard their mother’s name, but her dad had decided to keep the conversation private for some reason. Maybe their parents were bringing home a surprise.

Jordan looked up from trying to color her house and dropped her orange crayon in the process. She looked over at Jessie's drawing with curiosity. "What's that?"

Jessie frowned down at her lost cause. "It's supposed to be trees. I was trying to draw them with perspective, like Jackie is doing."

Jordan lowered an ear. "What's perspective?"

Jessie pointed a hoof at Jordan's drawing of the house which used a rough cube shape. "Giving it depth, like you're doing to show the sides of your house."

"So...you're trying to show the sides of the trees?" Jordan asked in confusion. "But trees look the same on all sides."

Jessie shook her head. "I'm just trying to make some seem farther away, but not doing a good job at it. And trees don't look the same on sides. Every part of every plant is unique. I guess you wouldn't understand that since you aren't an earth pony."

"What's it like being an earth pony instead of a unicorn?" Jordan asked.

"Um, I don't know since I've never been a unicorn," Jessie said in a bemused tone. "What's it like having a horn on your head? What's it like for Jackie to have wings?"

Jordan stared upward as if trying to gaze at her pint sized horn. "It tingles sometimes, and it feels funny when things touch it. When I think about the tingling really hard like daddy says he does, I can feel it… pop, and it feels really funny. Jackie said having wings was like having more legs, except you can’t walk on them"

Jessie looked at her two friends’ extra appendages. "Well, I guess being an earth pony is just like what you'd feel like without your horn."

"But you're really big and strong," Jordan pointed out.

"Not yet," Jessie countered.

"You're bigger and stronger than me, and you look even bigger and stronger than Jackie."

Jessie gave Jackie a dubious look, but upon closer inspection Jackie did seem a little less bulky than she did. "I'm just big boned."

"So earth ponies have bigger bones?" Jordan asked.

"Could be, does your mom have bigger bones than your dad?" Jessie asked.

Jordan thought about it and scrunched her muzzle up as her brain turned the problem over in her head. "I don’t know, you can’t see bones, they’re on the inside.."

She sat and reconsidered how to explain the question. "Is your mom bigger than your dad the same way I'm bigger than you and Jackie?"

Jordan considered this and then spread her forelegs in front of her. "She's bigger this way but not taller. So earth ponies are bigger this way and that means they have big bones?"

"That might be an indicator," Jessie said. She knew that she was built to hold more muscle, even if she didn't have all that muscle yet. She knew that gave her some extra weight, but never really noticed that it might make her a little bigger than foals her age in other tribes. She didn't spend time with foals her age in school--except for gym class, gym class they said would be completely unfair for her to be in with high school students as she was so little in comparison.

"Jackie, Jordan, can you two come over here. I need to talk to you about something," her dad called out as he came up the stairs. He was wearing a serious expression and seeing it made Jessie's ears drop. Were they in trouble for something?

Jackie laid her ears back and put her crayon down. "Are you mad about the bathroom? We didn't mean to make it all wet. We were just having fun."

Jessie's dad shook his head. "No, I'm not mad at any of you, and you're not in any trouble. Your parents need me to talk to you about something important."

The two sisters got up and walked slowly over to Jessie's dad. Despite him saying they weren't in trouble for anything, from his tone it still didn’t sound good, and they held their tails between their legs. Jessie decided to follow after them to find out what was going on without needing to be told later. Her dad looked at her for a second, but didn't put up any objections to her joining them. When they all got close to him he crouched down and looked at the two sisters.

"Something’s came up and you're mom and dad are going to be away for a few days. While they're away you'll be staying with your older sister in her house," he said in a serious tone.

“Why?” Jordan's eyes welled up with tears. "I don't want them to go away."

Jordan started mirroring her sister's expression. "Did we make them mad? Dad’s been mad about something since yesterday."

Jessie’s ears flattened and she put her hooves over them as the sisters began to loudly shout at her father all at once.

"We'll clean it up."
"Is that why they aren't going to be home?"
"I want Mommy!"
"Tell them we're sorry!"
"I'll never be bad in the shower again!"
"Just tell Mom and Dad were sorry so they come home!"
"I want Mommy and Daddy!"

Her dad shook her head while wincing and holding out his hands out pleadingly towards the two crying fillies. "You've done nothing wrong, and they aren't mad at you. They just...they’ve had a really bad day, bad enough they need a few days to get over it. Think of this as an opportunity to spend more time with your cousins and your sister. Like an extended sleepover."

"Are Mommy and Daddy hurt?" Jordan asked while still crying.

Her dad seemed unsure how to answer for a second then laid a hand on Jordan's back. "No.... they had a big scare, they aren't hurt. Just a day or two to get better that’s it. You get scared sometimes, right? Well, they got extra scared. They'll get better in a few days, don’t worry."

"What could scare Mom and Dad that much?" Jackie asked in confusion. "Mom is super strong so she can beat up any monster, and Dad can use his magic on it."

"Is it going to come get us too?" Jordan asked almost on top of Jackie. As she huddled close to her older sister.

"Is that why we have to stay with Phobia? Because she's scarier than any monster and can scare all the monsters away?" Jackie asked right after.

"Are you two scared of Phobia?" Her dad asked in concern.

"No," Jackie said right away. "She's our big sister. She's only scary to bad guys."

Jessie respectfully disagreed with that assessment. Phobia Remedy wasn’t mean but she was definitely scary.

"Well, Phobia is going to make sure you stay safe and in a few days your parents will be back to get you. You two just need to be good fillies for your big sister, okay? I'm sure your parents are going to ask her if you were good and didn't get into much trouble," her dad said in a typical parent trying to coax a foal into being good tone. Jessie knew that tone well.

"We'll be good," Jordan said as she seemed to calm down. “Promise.”

"We won't get into any trouble," Jackie said right after. Jessie doubted that was possible if they were spending time with the demons. The demons lived and breathed trouble.

It also occurred to her that all her friends and Robby were going to be at Phobia Remedy's house together. She knew why they were all going to be there, but she still felt left out.

"Dad, can I sleep over at Phobia Remedy's house too?" She asked. She felt weird asking, because she'd never asked to go to a sleepover before.

That seemed to get Jordan's interest and turn her frown upside down. "Can she? I want to do a sleepover with Jessie."

Her dad blinked and looked at her for a second. "That might not be a bad idea. Your mom and grandmare could use a few days to just focus on Dusk, and Phobia is practically family. It's nice seeing you trying to spend time with friends too. Are you sure though? You've never spent a night away from home before."

She smiled. "It will be fun, and Robby will be there at night to watch me. I get to spend extra time with him too."

Her dad considered. "I'll have to check with your mom and see what she says, but I'll give a tentative yes. For just a few days while you're keeping your friends company, and if you get homesick and want to come home early you just have someone give us a call."

“Yay!” Jordan grabbed her in a tight hug. "This is going to be so much fun!"

Jackie still didn't seem happy, but seemed calmer. "Spending time with big sis won't be too bad, I guess. But I want Mom and Dad to come home."

Jordan's excitement seemed to have a wet towel thrown on it as her ears sagged and her grip on Jessie released after the reminder about why they were going to Phobia's house. Jessie grabbed her unicorn friend back into a hug before Jordan could get too upset though.

"It will be an adventure, like in my books," she said. "We're going to gather our companions together so we can vanquish the monsters as a team."

"What's vankish mean?" Jordan asked in confusion.

Jessie rolled her eyes. "Vanquish, it means defeat, beat, kick the monsters flanks."

"Maybe big sis can teach us how to be scary like her so we can scare the monsters that scared Mom and Dad," Jackie said in excitement. "That will show those monsters for scaring our Mom and Dad."

Jordan brightened up. "Yeah! Let's get those monsters back for being mean!"

Jessie couldn't help giggling are her friends' commitment. This was going to be great.

Chapter 15: Unexpected Results

Jessie lay in the grass taking in the scent. Phobia Remedy had her lawn well taken care of. The grass was neatly trimmed and there were no ant hills. It was surprising how nice it was considering how many ponies trampled around on it all the time, not to mention how much a lovely shade of green it was despite it being late November. The Dreamwarden probably had earth ponies tend it. The grass back at Jessie's house was faded brown right now because she didn't have the magic to help it out yet. This was very relaxing, and she could lay like this for hours just enjoying herself.

Her two friends were not as impressed with the lawn and gave all their attention to the flock of night pony mares. While a lot of them were perched on the roof there were a number of them who had just latched onto the side of the house with their wings due to the roof only having so much space. They were very capable of saying attached like that for hours with their legs tucked close to them and just holding on with their wings. It was easy to see where the demons had learned to be such good climbers early on.

A much smaller group of ponies sat on the porch. This consisted of a pair of unicorns, a crystal pony, and three earth ponies. There were also a pair of pegasi doing circles around the house while in the air, and it looked like they'd brought some clouds in to provide the night ponies some relief from the sun. Everyone, including her dad and her friends were just waiting around for the Dreamwarden and her family to return. It was past the normal shift change time, but the night ponies wouldn't leave without being dismissed by Tempest Shadow or Crystal Dreams--even if they were tired and ready for bed.

"I don't think any monsters can get us here," Jackie observed as she continued to gaze at the night ponies. She turned and gave her own wings a look and then turned back to looking at the ponies latched onto the side of the house. "How'd they do that? Hold onto the walls like that?"

"Their wings are built more like hands so they can grip onto things like that," Jessie's dad explained. He was sitting on several bags that he had packed with Jackie and Jordan's help. Things like their school supplies, some of their toys, hygiene items, and bedding.

"That’s not fair, pegasuses should be able to do that too," Jackie grumbled. Jessie had come to realize Jackie had a strong need for everything to be fair.

"Pegasi can do things they can't though," Jessie's dad continued explaining. "Night ponies can't move clouds around or do anything with weather for that matter. Feathered ponies can fly higher and faster too. Night ponies also have a harder time seeing in bright sunlight. They have their things they can do that pegasi can't and pegasi like you have things you can do that night ponies can't. It all balances out."

Jessie looked up at the house again and something weird occurred to her. "Dad, why does Phobia Remedy live in a normal house if she has this many guards? Shouldn't she have a bigger house?"

Her dad shook his head. "That would take extra money. Wild Growth is rich, and Sunset Blessing has a lot of money, but Phobia and Rosetta live off a stipend from the OMMR and Rosetta's teaching salary. They try not to ask for many favors from Wild Growth either."

"But she can afford to pay for guards," Jessie said as she pointed to the ponies on the porch.

"These are all volunteers, even the ponies on the porch," her dad explained. "Tempest gets paid by the Equestrian government and Crystal is paid by the OMMR, the rest are here because they want to be."

That made her sit up and flick her ears. "Why?"

Her dad shrugged. "They consider it an honor. Dreamwardens are a big deal for night ponies, but they are pretty important for all dreamwalkers in general. All those ponies up on the porch can dreamwalk--Crystal and Tempest can as well."

She lowered one ear and stared at the ponies on the porch. "I thought only night ponies dreamwalked."

"Anyone that has enough magic and asks a Dreamwarden for the ability is able to dreamwalk," he gestured at the ponies on the porch. "All those ponies asked to be able to dreamwalk."

"Can I dreamwalk if I ask her?" She asked. Being able to dreamwalk might be interesting. It didn't give her access to the internet like a phone would, but it was kind of like having a phone.

Her dad gave her an appraising look. "You can when you're older, but not right now."

Jordan seemed to take an interest in the conversation. "Why not? It would be fun!"

"Because your magic is too weak right now," a night pony called down from the porch roof.

Jessie recognized the voice and looked up at who had spoken. It was her classmate from her math class, Layla. She was looking down at them and was wearing pink sunglasses that masked her eyes. Jessie managed to get a better look at Layla's wings and noticed that Layla's tattoos along the edges of her wings were actually algebraic equations.

The high school senior got up and gracefully glided down to her, giving Jessie's blank flank a dismissive glance. "They will let you dreamwalk when you have enough magic, but they will restrict where you can go until you're older. I just got to where Sha'am Maut wasn't constantly watching me to make sure I didn't wander into anymore pink dreams."

"What's a pink dream?" Jessie asked as she stared up at Layla's hot pink mane.

Layla smirked. "Something little fillies shouldn't be seeing or asking about. You should really slow yourself down and spend a few more years in school. Better yet, go back to elementary school where you belong."

"Layla, you’re tired, don’t say something you’ll regret," one of the other mares called down in warning.

Her dad was watching closely, but wasn't saying anything yet. If this was Jackie or Jordan he'd be coming to their rescue, but she was always being pushed to learn how to deal with people. "Um, Layla, are you mad at me about something?" She asked her dark furred classmate.

"It's just a little filly and you're a grown mare, just walk away," the mare who had called down before said in warning.

Layla turned her head to look up at the other mare. "What? She asked so I'm going to tell." She turned back to Jessie with narrowed eyes. "Did you know that since eight grade I haven't had a grade in any class below a hundred?"

"That's… uh impressive," Jessie replied as she stood up and took a hesitant step back.

"It was a lot of hard work," the senior growled. "Night ponies have different class schedules so it’s easy for us to fall behind on schoolwork, but I've busted my flank for my grades. I'm first in class and was in line to be valedictorian, until you showed up. You don’t even try and can match my grades, and if you graduate at the same time as me you may end up taking my rightful spot!"

"I'm sorry," Jessie said in a low voice. She really didn't know what she was supposed to say. People got uncomfortable with how smart she was all the time, but this was the first time anyone had ever been mad about it.

"I wouldn't even be mad if you were actually one of my peers, but you're just some freakish foal. Do you realize what it's like to be told after all the hard work and effort I've put in that I'm not as smart as some foal that should be in first grade?" Layla asked in a hiss.

"Excuse me, but that’s enough and you need to leave my daughter alone," her dad called out as he stood up. Jessie let off a sigh of relief that her dad wasn't going to leave her to deal with this all by herself.

Layla turned to him and gave him a dismissive glare. "What's she going to do when she graduates and goes off to college? Is she still going to hide behind her parents? She's got no business being in high school or getting ready to graduate."

"Leave my friend alone, you meanie!" Jordan yelled out.

"Pick on someone your own size! It's not fair for you to be picking on Jessie!" Jackie called out right after.

"It doesn’t matter what you think on the matter. I'm going to report that you're harassing a foal to Phobia," her dad continued. "You aren’t entitled to anything. Maybe you’ll be second in class when you graduate but that’s not right now, and right now you're picking on someone not even half your size. What's worse is you are a night pony and it is your duty to protect, but you're the one a filly needs protecting from."

"If she wants to play with the big ponies she better start learning how to stand on her own," Layla growled, ignoring her father to turn back to her. "Your friend wants to yell about how things are unfair; well, I don't think they are grading your work to the same demanding standards they'd grade mine. I think they're giving you free passes because of your age. I don't think you've actually earned your grades."

Jessie laid her ears back all the way and fear of the older pony evaporated into outrage. "I earned my grades! It's not my fault I'm smarter than you!"

"Layla! Heel!" A new voice rang out.

All eyes turned to a small van that had pulled up when no one was paying attention and the angry crystal pony that was charging over to deal with the situation. Layla dropped some of her aggressive posture and turned to Crystal Dreams. "It was just a verbal altercation, it's not like I was actually going to pounce on the runt." Layla briefly looked past Crystal to see Phobia and her family getting out of the van with Tempest already out and watching the situation from a distance.

Crystal stomped a hoof. "Your attitude is completely unacceptable of anyone here to guard the Dreamwarden and her family. That little filly you’re harassing is a guest of the Warden of Fear and is to be to be protected like everyone else. Tell me, why shouldn't I have your permission to be here as a guardian revoked here and now?"

Layla's eyes went wide as her ears flattened. "I apologize, it's just that--"

"No excuses! Tell me, why you should be allowed to remain after bullying a filly?" Crystal demanded.

Layla's head dropped and her eyes started to glisten. "I don't know."

"That's what I was thinking too." Crystal turned her eyes to all the mares on the roof. "And you lot, why weren’t you stopping this?" She looked at the day ponies on the porch. "Or all of you for that matter?"

"We try to keep out of night pony business," one of the ponies on the porch called out.

Crystal gestured at Jessie. "Do you need your eyes checked? Does she look like a night pony to you? You're here guarding Phobia’s family and any guests she has, so you're involved with night pony business. Not that you should even make a distinction for when you step in. If I hear that excuse again you’ll be immediately dismissed. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, ma'am," came the hurried reply in chorus from the porch.

Crystal looked up at the roof again. "Rebecca, get your flank down here and explain why you allowed your niece to do this, now!"

The mare that had called out warnings to Layla earlier quickly flew down from the roof and landed next to her niece. "Ma'am, Layla's been under a lot of stress lately. She's got her nerves in a knot about school and college applications. She just taken Yinyu's Blessing recently so schools would be more open to accepting her applications. It's hard being a night pony trying to get scholarships at top schools; they don't want to give night ponies a chance. Please don't dismiss her, it wouldn't look good on her applications for them to see that she was dismissed."

Crystal looked the mare in the eyes. "I didn't hear an explanation for why you let this happen. I just heard excuses for her."

The mare's shoulders slumped. "Layla would never have hurt the filly. She's got all this pent up frustration and she needed a chance to vent. It might not have been the ideal way, but it needed to come out. Night ponies can't be carrying all that around, we'll end up lashing out in bad ways if we do."

Crystal snorted. "A bad way was intimidating a filly." She turned to Layla. "You'll keep your position, for now. I expect a well thought out and sincere apology ready for Jessica when you return tonight. And if you’re so pent up and frustrated I’m going to have you running drills until you don’t have any energy left to care about your pettiness."

Layla kept her head lowered. "I understand, ma'am. Thank you for not dismissing me, ma'am."

Crystal's expression lightened. "I'm in my current position because the Dreamwarden gave me a chance after my best friend and I really screwed up on some things; far worse than what you just did. I understand the value of giving someone another chance. Do not make me regret it." She looked up at the night ponies on the roof. "You're all free to leave, day shift is ready. Be careful going home; there's no protestors here, but they're out there and they're pretty riled up."

There was a deafening sound of beating wings as the night ponies all departed as a flock off the roof and back towards the pony residential district. Layla and Rebecca departed with them as well. As soon as all the night ponies departed Tempest Shadow walked up beside Crystal while carrying the sleeping form of Alfie on her back.

"Mind you don't get too sweet and merciful. Your duty is to defend the Dreamwarden and her family, not coddle these volunteers," Tempest said flatly.

"Are you saying I should have kicked her out and possibly screwed up her opportunities for the future?" Crystal asked in annoyance.

Tempest shook her head. "No, you made the right call. Removing her would have only added to that young mare's misplaced resentment and made her more of a potential problem. Just be mindful you don't become a soft jiggly pushover." She gave Crystal an appraising look. "And don’t think I haven’t notice you have been eating too many of those candies again. You'll be doing drills with me after we get the foals secure in bed. Luna help us if you get too fat to put up a fight when needed after I'm gone."

Crystal glared at the broken horned unicorn as Tempest walked away into the house. Jessie took the opportunity to come over to the crystal pony while she was doing so.

"Miss Crystal? Thank you for doing that for me," she said in a trembling voice.

Crystal looked down at her. "She didn't shake you up too much, did she?"

Jessie shook her head. "I just didn't understand why she was so mad at me. She's in my calculus four class, but we’ve never even talked."

The mare went wide eyed. "There's a calculus four, and students actually take it?" Crystal said in astonishment. "Yikes, you and her are way smarter than me. I never finished high school when I was human still, and only recently got my GED. Anyway, Layla's a bright kid, just like you, so when she comes back with an apology tonight give her a chance to prove she means it. If you two get to talking you might find you have a lot in common. Seriously...calc four? How many calculuses do you need?"

Phobia and Rosetta walked by at that moment, each carrying a sleeping night pony filly on their backs. Phobia paused and turned to Jackie and Jordan. "Come on in and sit in the living room. I'll turn the lights on for you. Once I get your nieces and nephew to bed I'll spend a few minutes with you two before I go to bed. Crystal will see to it your taken care of while I'm sleeping. Maybe you can cheer her on as Tempest drills her, she could use the encouragement."

Jackie and Jordan hurried after Rosetta and her dad grabbed up their bags and started following as well. He turned to look at her as he walked by. "Need some time with nature to calm down? If you don’t want to stay I can take you back home."

She shook her head. "I'll be okay, but I do want to sit in the grass a little longer."

Her dad nodded. "That's fine. Don't be too long. Miss Crystal has things she needs to do."

She looked over at Crystal Dreams who had sat down upon realizing that Jessie was sitting put.

Her dad went inside and she took the opportunity to ask something she was curious about. "Miss Crystal? What did you do that was bad?"

Crystal's ears sagged and she sighed. "Years ago, right after ETS my best friend started using mind magic on humans to make them want to be ponies. He used it on a lot of humans and I helped him find the worst anti-pony humans I could find. I helped protect him, defended him, and believed in what he was doing."

Jessie's ears flicked. "But...that would get him in trouble with the Dreamwardens."

The mare nodded. "Oh, it did. He got called out on it right on front of Phobia. The Dreamwardens used to conduct trials themselves, and my friend was the very first one. This was back when only the night ponies knew about Dreamwardens. I actually tried to hit Phobia to protect him. I did hit Sunset Blessing. Wild Growth kicked my flank though."

"So, what happened?" Jessie asked hesitantly.

"They found my friend guilty and made him undo everything he'd done. Took away his ability to dreamwalk for a while," Crystal explained as she looked towards the door of the house. "It could have been much worse. They could have wiped his mind. But Phobia decided to show mercy."

"And that's why you gave Layla another chance? Because Phobia Remedy gave you and your friend mercy?" Jessie asked as she lifted her head up.

"She didn't just give us mercy, she set us a path to redeem ourselves," Crystal said with a smile. "I met lots of amazing people as we went through undoing what my friend did. I made friends with lots of the humans that I used to fear. I started guarding Phobia when we were all done, just as a thank you, and she offered me this job soon after. Sometimes people just need a chance given to them, and a little gentle push in the right direction. I try to live by the example of what Phobia did for me."

"Is Tempest mean to you because you did that stuff before?" Jessie asked. She was still concerned about mistakes that you couldn't ever recover from. Maybe that was what was going on with Tempest and Crystal.

Crystal blew a raspberry and then laughed. "Tempest? No, she's just rough like that. She's going back to Equestria soon and I'm taking over as chief bodyguard. She just gets on me hard because she wants to be sure I’ll do my job right. She's invested the last six years of her life to guarding Phobia so she gets picky about everything I do as a result. It's just her way of showing she takes the job seriously. It gets annoying sometimes, but I get where she's coming from."

"Tempest is going away? Why? Did she do something wrong?" Jessie asked in confusion.

Crystal gave her a confused look. "She is born and raised in Equestria, and at some point she needs to go home. She's been here for a long time, but even a hardas--butt like her gets homesick. Luna sent her to Phobia as a guard, but it's time for her to go back to serving Luna, or will be soon anyway. People don't do the same thing for their entire lives."

Jessie tilted her head in confusion. "They don't?"

"Of course not. Why would you think--" Crystal stopped and sighed. "Sorry, I know you're real smart, and to treat your questions like they are coming from an adult--I got briefed on it--but I forget you have gaps in your knowledge. No, people might do a lot of different things in their lives. I never thought before a few years ago I'd be some Dreamwarden's bodyguard, or anyone's bodyguard for that matter. Things just kind of led me to this."

"What were you doing before?" Jessie asked curiously. The part about Crystal being briefed on her was also something she wanted to know about, but she could ask about that in a minute.

Crystal drew her head back and glanced away. "Let's not talk about that. It was something I'm not proud of. I never really had a goal in mind for what I wanted to do when I was younger, and if someone told me I'd have a career as a bodyguard to anyone then I'd have called them crazy. I might be muscular and tough now, but as a human I was a walking stick that could have been blown over with a stiff breeze."

That also meant she could end up doing something completely different and unexpected herself, or more than one thing. Phobia Remedy really wanted her to help with fighting the Devourers when she was older, and that seemed really important, but maybe that meant there was still the chance she could work towards helping Earth colonize new worlds too. It also meant that she maybe would be doing other things that she couldn't imagine herself doing.

She rubbed her hoof against her leg. "I don't know if it is okay to ask, but you said you were briefed on me. What kind of stuff about me?"

Crystal frowned then went more straight faced. "I suppose there's nothing wrong with telling you. Your brother talks about you on and off of course, but Phobia recently dreamwalked me and gave me instructions about you, as well as a more thorough picture of you. She said you were important, and that if I ever saw someone trying to hurt you to step in just like I would step in for one of her foals. Guess that makes me kind of your bodyguard too."

Jessie blinked. "Does she do that a lot? Give you instructions in your dreams?"

Crystal chuckled and nodded. "You do ask lots of questions, but that's fine. That's how I get the majority of my direct instructions from her. She goes over profiles of ponies with me, reviews my decisions on the day, gives me fresh instructions, has me dreamwalk certain members of the volunteers to personally get to know them better. Kind of comes with the territory of working for a Dreamwarden. It doesn't take that long every night, and after that I'm free to dreamwalk as I please."

"What's it like flying through the dream realm?"

"Um...I don't fly in the dream realm. I like having my hooves on solid ground thank you very much," Crystal said with a nervous shuffle of her hooves. She must not like heights.

She was confused about the response though. "But Robby always told me that dreamwalking was kind of like flying through an endless star filled sky. You said you dreamwalk."

"Oh," Crystal said with realization. "That's how night ponies and most the pegasi perceive the dream realm. Ponies like you and me typically wouldn't perceive the space between dreams like that. For us it is more like lots of hallways with lots of doors. Every door is someone else's dream. Different colored doors indicate different types of dreams. I just focus on who I want to find, walk down the hallway, take a turn or two, and then I just know I'm at the right door."

That was interesting. She might prefer the star filled sky though. Just because she liked looking at stars.

"If you really are curious about it and want to do it you could always ask your parents for permission to let Phobia give you the ability to dreamwalk. If Phobia has such a high interest in you it might be worthwhile. It’s rare for foals your age, but there are some," Crystal continued.

"Night ponies said my magic is too weak," she said as she grumpily ran her hoof across the grass.

"Um, maybe your friends' magic is right now, but yours isn't."

Jessie's head jerked up and she stared at Crystal with her mouth open.

Crystal gave her a confused look. "Phobia didn't tell you? She can get reads on ponies' magic in the dream realm so she has to know. I’d say you're like a one-point-five on the PREQUES scale. Which is pretty high for a foal your age. I'm told your brother was the same way at your age so it must be some family thing."

She shook her head. "No one told me." She sat and considered this for a second then grimaced. "I suppose it answers a question though. People were saying my intelligence might be magic, and if my magic is high it might be because of that."

Crystal pursed her lips. "I'm not sure that's something magic does. I'm no expert though. I suppose it could be passively boosting your intelligence. It's definitely strong enough to passively be doing things right now. Magic wants to be used and if you have it you're using it for something."

"Wish I knew for sure. I don't like not knowing," Jessie muttered.

Crystal got a thoughtful look as she looked Jessie over. "You're pretty bulky for your age. That gives me an idea. Let's see if that magic is going to something normal for an earth pony." The crystal pony looked towards the porch. "Hey, do me a favor and find the rope that the demons use and get Paul out here. I want to check something."

Jessie perked her ears up in interest. "Are we doing an experiment?"

Crystal nodded. "First thing that develops in earth ponies is their strength typically. I doubt you're at full earth pony strength, but maybe you're a lot stronger than a foal your age has a right to be because your magic is helping."

She supposed that made sense. If she were in high school gym classes this would have already come up, but she was in first grade gym class and they didn't really do anything to test strength in those. They mainly just made you run and play with balls. She didn't really try lifting anything heavier than her books at any point either. Was she strong and just hadn’t realized it?

A minute or so later her dad came out the door. "Is something wrong? Do you want to go home?"

"She's fine," Crystal assured him. "I was wondering if you would have a little match of tug of war with your daughter."

Her dad gave a doubting look. "That hardly seems fair to her. She's not even seven yet."

Crystal grinned. "If I'm right she'll put up more of a challenge than you'd expect. She's an early bloomer, like her big brother."

A unicorn came out carrying a rope in his magic, and was followed by Tempest and the two sisters. Jordan looked excited. "Jessie is super strong?" The little unicorn exclaimed and then squinted her eyes and scrunched up her muzzle, causing sparks to pop from her horn.

"Maybe, we'll see," Jessie's dad said apprehensively. He looked back to Jessie. "Just try your best, and don't get too disappointed if I win."

"We'll see how it goes," Crystal laughed as she watched the unicorn lay out the rope in the grass with the center crossing the path up to the house. "Each of you come take a side. Let's see what you can do."

Jessie couldn't help herself; she excitedly trotted over to one side and gripped the rope tightly in her mouth.

Her dad walked over to the other side and grabbed the other end. He looked over to her. "Just do your best, big girl."

Big girl. Those words meant a lot of things to her, and right now they might mean she was strong. She didn't know why she was so excited about the prospect of being strong, but she was really hoping she was.

"Step back a little to give to get the rope tighter, but don't start pulling till I count down to go," Crystal instructed. Jessie and her dad did as instructed and both fixed their eyes on Crystal. "Okay, on the count of three. One...two...three...go!"

Immediately she started pulling as hard as she could and she heard her dad gasp in shock before the rope tightened. "Oww! Okay, that was a lot stronger than I expected."

The rope started dragging her slowly back and she dug her hooves into the ground to try to stop it. Her being pulled towards the center stopped and she put one hoof in front of another in determination to start trying to pull her dad towards the center.

"Are you trying as hard as you can, Paul?" Crystal asked.

"Does it look like I'm going easy on her?" Her dad cried out. "She'd be angry if I was going easy on her." Her dad stepped up his effort and she lost a few steps of footing before she planted her hooves again to stop it.

This became a pattern with her advancing a few steps only to get pulled back a few seconds later. She wasn't winning, but she wasn't losing either. Pride welled up in her as she realized she was holding a grown human man to a standstill in a contest of strength. A grown earth pony would have already won, but for her this was really impressive. Whether she won or lost she knew that she had some earth pony strength already. It also meant that magic was probably going towards that and not her intelligence.

"Go Jessie!" Jordan cried out excitedly.

"Ack! I'm getting rope burns," her dad cried out in pain and suddenly the tightness released and she went tumbling forward with the rope still in her mouth and faceplanted into the grass.

"And the little filly beats the big strong man in a test of strength," Crystal called out.

"I'm not that strong," her dad protested. "But Jessie is definitely stronger than I would have thought possible at her age."

Jessie picked herself up and dropped the rope from her mouth. She was going to be tasting rope fibers for hours after this. She turned and looked at her dad who was rubbing his hands and her ears lowered as she noticed that they were red and had scratches on them.

Her dad noticed her gaze and gave her a smile. "Don't worry about this. I'll get some lotion or something on them and it will be better in no time. This is just what I get for trying to play tug-of-war with you without wearing gloves. I might have stood a chance if I had been."

Before Jessie could answer she suddenly found herself at the bottom of a pony pile as Jackie and Jordan tackled her and started giggling. Jackie's feathers tickled her nose and made her sneeze, which resulted in the little pegasus jumping off and quickly inspecting her wing for snot. It seemed like it was a dry sneeze though that was completely booger free.

"I'll give you that you might have won if not for the rope being so rough on your hands," Crystal said cheerfully. "Still, Jessie is almost as strong as you are, and most foals her age wouldn't be half that strong. She's a definite early bloomer on her earth pony magic. You should keep in mind that she's stronger than she looks."

"Guess that means I’ll need to take Robby more seriously when he complains about you boxing him," her dad said with consideration. "I thought he was just exaggerating when he complained it hurt. You need to be more careful roughhousing with Robby, you're probably stronger than him."

She'd actually believed that he was exaggerating as well. It turned out she owed her big brother an apology...lots of apologies.

"If you're super strong does that mean I can fly?" Jackie asked as she flapped her wings eagerly.

"I'm not super strong. My dad is still stronger than me. He just lost because holding onto the rope hurt his hands, and Crystal is way stronger than I am," she said as she tried standing up with Jordan still on top of her. The purple unicorn filly gasped as she was easily lifted. Jessie winced at the gasp; she hadn't meant to show off like that, especially not right after saying she wasn't super strong.

"She's just an early bloomer. It happens sometimes," Crystal explained to the pink pegasus filly. "You register about a point eight right now--" Crystal turned her eyes to Jordan. "--and your sister is about a point eight as well. That's more average for foals your age. Can't do much with a point eight. You'll get there though. In a few years you might have more magic than me or Jessie. Just because Jessie has more magic than you right now doesn't mean she will by the time you all reach ten or so."

"Aww, that's not fair," Jackie pouted.

Her dad came over and rubbed her head gently. "Guessing you're feeling a little better now."

She nodded with a grin. She had earth pony strength, actual earth pony strength...well, the start of it anyway. Maybe she could do other earth pony things too. There was more though; she had learned she could help Phobia with the Devourer thing and still help eventually colonize other worlds. Talking to Crystal had been great, the mare had opened up a lot of new things for her. She decided she needed to thank Layla when the night pony came back tonight to give an apology. If Layla hadn't gotten mad at her she'd have taken a lot longer to find all these things out.

Hopefully she could count Crystal Dreams as one of her friends now, and maybe things could turn around with Layla if Crystal was right and she’d have another. In the last few days she'd made a lot of friends and that should make her parents proud of her, but it also made her happy on her own. She really should have started doing this sooner.

Everything was looking up for her, and she couldn't imagine anything that could jeopardize her future.

Tonya tried to keep her distance from her wife so she wouldn't appear to be nervously hovering. It was coming up on four hours since the demonstration and Sunset was still walking around in human form. She had made a few passes with soft feather touches on her wife that had allowed her to get a feeling for Sunset's emotions and they weren't good, even if Sunset was putting on all smiles for the delegates. It was sheer willpower and determination that was keeping Sunset from displaying the distress she was feeling. Tonya knew her wife had those traits in spades, but even Sunset had to break eventually.

Right now Tonya was trying to make some peace with the Equestrians. She didn't care much for Equestrians herself, but she did care if they were going to cause her wife problems. Unfortunately, she'd somehow gotten cornered and left alone with the griffin ambassador. He wouldn't be so bad to be around if not for his breath. It smelled like rotting meat, and every time he opened his beak she wanted to gag. She actually felt a pang of sympathy for Celestia if she had to endure this bird's breath every time he visited her.

"That's so tragic to hear, ambassador," she replied to his latest retelling of how a griffin chick had been stolen from her family, turned into a pony, and didn't even realize she was originally a griffin until well into adulthood. This must have been his forth telling of the story in the last four hours. He certainly was trying to play up sympathy but surely there had been more than just the one incident to talk about.

She tried not to scrunch her muzzle in disgust when he started talking again. "The Griffin Kingdom is very interested in this, but work because of that. We'd be willing to negotiate an arrangement for some of your mages to work in Griffinstone."

Her attempts to not react to his breath hadn't been completely successful, but he either didn't notice or thought she was reacting to the story. "We'd certainly be interested in the offer, but are you comfortable with unicorns working on this type of magic right in your capital?"

The buzzardlike griffin grimaced. "We're more comfortable with you Earthlings than Celestia's mages. Have I told you what Celestia did to us?"

Several times already. She groaned in her head as she forced herself not to roll her eyes. She put on a concerned look instead. "You did, and that is unacceptable. There should have been major reparations from Equestria for that. Celestia is lucky you are such a reasonable race and didn't take a more aggressive response."

"We're a civilized kingdom," the griffin said proudly. She knew it was just fluff. Griffins were highly aggressive, but they weren't stupid enough to think they could win a war against Equestria. "We are very wary of Celestia and her rule, and are happy to hear that your wife is like minded. Your government seems far too cozy with Equestria for our liking, but it is a hopeful sign to see individuals like Sunset Blessing speak their mind about our duplicitous neighbors."

This was pretty bold talk, stronger than Sunset's. Maybe a little too strong for even Sunset's liking. "Let's be charitable to the Equestrians. There's a possibility that they have turned the corner. I know that it is Sunset's hope that they'll become more open and transparent in their dealings with others, especially in light of the fact they are rapidly losing their monopoly on powerful magic. I'll talk to Sunset about your proposal. I'm sure she'll be interested in helping the griffins get their own self determination without Equestrian interference."

The ambassador gave a pleased nod of his head and she took the opportunity to escape him. Playing informal diplomat was hard work, and she had more important people to speak to than the griffins. Her next primary target right now was Rarity, and the unicorn was standing off to the side with just Sapphire Sky keeping her company. Those two were the ones who most needed their feelings salved after Sunset's performance.

"Did you want something?" Sapphire asked dismissively upon noticing Tonya approaching.

"I was just hoping to be able to speak with both of you," Tonya answered, trying not to sound put off by the other pegasus tone or the imposing figure she cut with a tall muscular build. She had expected a far worse reception after the fight with her wife earlier. "If I'm not interrupting."

"Of course not, darling. Sapphire was just telling me about how her little Aurora has become quite the little scamp. So I was telling her about my little sister Sweetie Belle and some of her adventures with the Crusaders that never made it into the storybooks."

Tonya chuckled. "I always found it interesting that that group's name translated as crusaders. It's a term that has some religious connections on Earth."

"Indeed," Rarity said with a sniff. "The name actually seems to translate out to Jihadists, Zealots, and other such terms roughly in some other cultures. I'm not sure how or why, and nor am I sure how to feel about it."

"I wouldn’t be too worried about it," Sapphire replied with a shrug of her wings. “Human languages just ill-equipped to handle the earnestness of three fillies.”

"Perhaps," Rarity conceded, then turned back to Tonya. "What did you wish to speak about? I assume you are here on your wife's behest."

Tonya nodded. "She didn’t ask me to but I would like to try to smooth over any hard feelings. Sunset was determined to do whatever it took to get approval and was pulling out all the stops to do so. I wanted to make sure you understood that what she said and did was a means to an end. Xenophobia unfortunately still plays well to an American audience, and she wasn't going to let any effective tool go unused."

"Playing to the worst impulses and being divisive isn’t something to be proud of," Sapphire almost sneered. "Your wife might insist on pony superiority but she still resorts to the worst human behaviors to get what she wants."

Rarity sighed. "Such behaviors and feelings are not unknown in Equestria, so they can't be ascribed as being solely human behaviors. I understand why she used us as a scapegoat, but I can't condone it. It was completely uncalled for."

"I apologize for her if she came off as too offensive to Equestria. This was just too important for her not to throw everything she could to make sure it was approved," Tonya said with her head held low. "You might think what she did was unneeded, but there's a lot of fears and misgivings about this kind of magic. Her most effective strategy was to redirect those fears."

"By targeting Equestria who has been nothing but amicable with Earth from the start," Sapphire said flatly. "If she needed to create an enemy, she could have brought up the Chinese since they might actually represent a threat, and not the ponies that have done nothing but help."

Tonya shook her head. "Most don't realize that China is a looming threat so it wouldn't have played as well. In case you missed it she did take an indirect shot at them; she said she was the first to perfect the permanent transformation spell. I think we all know what China might do if they develop that spell and no one else knows how to stop them. Sunset Shimmer was one pony, but China is a nation of over a billion people. I doubt even Equestria could do much to stop them."

“Any delegate here who doesn’t know about China’s looming threat in this matter is one who should not be here,” Sapphire responded sharply.

"I would like to switch away from the matter of China as you mention a matter that needs further addressing--" Rarity started and then chewed on her lip. "Was she bluffing? Does she really know how to do permanent transformations?"

Tonya shook her head. "She wasn't bluffing, and she wasn't lying when she said she didn't steal the knowledge from Equestria. There are actually members of our government that have known she could do it for some time."

"The Blessing family makes a lot of big claims," Sapphire laughed derisively. "First Sunset claims to have accomplished the same feat of one of the most brilliant mages Equestria ever produced, one trained by Celestia herself, in a fraction of the time. Now her wife is saying that it's true and the government has an X-files like conspiracy to cover up her knowledge."

"I can't get into how she managed to develop it, for obvious reasons, but I can address why no one took action against her," Tonya said as she met the pegasus's eyes. "She's been nothing but open and honest with the government from the start. She's made the same position she made a few hours ago clear as well; she isn't going to violate the law by doing any permanent transformations. Everything she does advances United States power, and she has made herself an invaluable asset to this country."

Sapphire snorted but continued to stare back at her. "And I'm sure they put a military base within spitting distance of her operation as a sign of trust. Almost sounds like Sunset's up to her ears in something else far more important than this transformation magic. Enough for them to overlook it completely."

"I can't comment on that," Tonya replied far too quickly, uncomfortable with how casually the other pegasus would voice such an accusation and how true it was. Sunset was involved in so many magical research projects it was hard to keep track of them all. Not just magical research, but technological too. There were a lot of clandestine things she assisted with as well where legality was fuzzy at best even though the government was aware of them, and had even ordered some of these actions themselves.

There was one project that the government didn't know about, or at least not who had ordered it or what the extent of it was. She hadn't even realized who the source of it had been until well after the fact and a confrontation with Phobia. The project Sha'am Maut had forced Sunset into accepting was the most well kept secret Sunset had. News that the Dreamwardens had a secret project would spark an enormous backlash and investigation if it got out.

Maybe now that Sunset's legacy had been secured she could convince her to step away from a lot of this. Sunset got what she wanted, couldn't she fall back into a more relaxed life? Not stop everything, that would be a disservice to Sunset, but enough so they could spend time together just enjoying life and having a family.

"Darling, you look distracted by something. We've heard your routine, you've been walking around performing it for hours. We've seen Sunset's demonstration, and her divisive speech," Rarity said with a cross look in Sunset's direction. She turned her eyes back to Tonya quickly and her expression softened. "But what are your concerns. How are you dealing with all of this? Are you doing alright? You seem like you want to be anywhere but here."

Tonya fought down a wince as she looked towards her wife. Sunset was busy talking with a unicorn and a human from the Department of Pony Affairs. She sighed and turned back to Rarity. "She should not have used this version of the spell. I begged her not to use it. She's putting on a good show right now, but it is sheer force of will. There's a good reason we cut the spell so short with the Gilmores; the person who last used this version of the spell this long didn't come out of it well at all. I even offered myself as a volunteer if she'd just use the newer version. I'm terrified of what this is doing to her right now."

"So why is she using this version if it is so bad?" Sapphire asked skeptically.

She shook her head. "It's complicated. I know that shouldn't have impacted the decision making process, but Sunset's gets passionate about making amends when she feels she's done wrong." She grit her teeth. "I'm actually kind of angry with her because she's done enough to satisfy her amends. This is just hurting herself for no good reason now, and all I can do is helplessly watch."

"I'm sorry she's making you watch. Not many things are worse than watching a loved one suffer in front of you and being unable to help," Sapphire responded with genuine compassion. "Is there no way to get one of the crystal ponies to drain away the spell and force her to change back sooner?"

"You're... concerned about what happens to Sunset?" Tonya asked in confusion, the pegasus seemed so openly hostile. Shouldn't she be gloating over how right she was?

Sapphire lowered her ears. "I've been told she supposedly has good qualities. I don't really see them, but I also would never wish harm upon anypony. Plus if Sunset nukes her brain with a broken spell, how could I ever tell her I told you so?"

"I've been the recipient of mind magic that made me act contrary to my nature," Rarity broke in. "I agree that something should be done to stop this before it progresses too far. Sunset's folly of being overzealous is not our responsibility, our reactions to it are."

Tonya looked back at her wife again and then sighed. "I doubt we could take any action. The crystal ponies operate on her orders and she told them to let the spell run its course. I don't even know if she would fail to notice if we did try. Her magic is still there and we haven't had enough testing to determine what a unicorn can and can't do in while in human form."

"I suppose that makes sense. Sunset Shimmer apparently had access to her magic while masquerading as a human," Rarity replied with a thoughtful tone. Then her eyes widened. "Is that how she managed this? We have access to many of Sunset Shimmer's notes, but we never determined how she did certain things...including how she repeatedly took a human form without it causing herself any harm. Did your wife somehow stumble upon some journal of Sunset Shimmer's that nopony previously was able to find?"

"I'm the wrong person to answer that..." Tonya replied. It wasn't what had happened, but it wouldn't be a bad thing to let the Equestrians think that it was. There was even a possibility such a journal existed somewhere. Sunset had done a lot of digging trying to find any traces of her namesake's work that may have been overlooked--and she wasn't the only one. The truth was far harder to believe and involved potentially far more dangerous magic than the world was ready for. Sunset had already purged all records of the time travel spell, and it would go with Poly Glot to the grave when he received the execution he deserved.

"We could still ask the crystal ponies," Sapphire said as she looked at the ponies on question, ignoring talk about the origins of the spell. "If we make the case that she isn't in her right mind and causing herself real harm then they might be willing. Not that I care if she is aware that her show got sabotaged, but it’s better to ask forgiveness from her than worry about making her angry if this is hurting her."

"I can't do that, even though I really want to," she said as she fluffed her feathers. "It would look bad in front of everyone if the call was made to pull the plug early. I can't do that to her."

"Then how can you say you care about her if you won’t fight for her?” Sapphire asked bluntly.

She stomped a hoof and snorted, glaring at the much more powerful member of her tribe with all the righteous fury she could muster. "How dare you ask me that?”

Sapphire didn’t respond to her display in the slightest. “The health of your wife or her PR, you’ve spent hours showing which you thought was more important.”

Before she could rip into the other mare,a sudden cry out from Sunset as she stumbled to the ground. She didn't even hesitate in taking to the air and flying towards her wife as she feared the worst. It wasn't the worst though. The spell had run its course and Sunset was very rapidly transforming back to a pony.

Tonya's eyes went wide in horror as She realized something she should have thought about earlier. Sunset was rapidly transforming while awake when she was already in a distressed state. How had she not thought about that?

The transformation back was rapid, and already complete by the time she reached her wife. She quickly got to work trying to untangle Sunset from the robe and gave the crowd a threatening glare to make them keep their distance.

"Sunset, my sunshine, can you hear me? Are you okay?" She asked with her ears flat and her tail tucked in tight.

Sunset let off a long groan before responded. "I'm alright. Give me a second to collect myself then I'll address the crowd and you can get me somewhere private for the doctors to check me over." Her voice dropped to a barely perceptible whisper. "Thank God that's over. That version of the spell is never getting used again. Not on anypony."

Tonya frowned as anger started filling the void of that was left as her worry declined enough to allow other emotions in. "You'll be brief. You're so rattled you've slipped into pony pronouns. I swear if you're not alright... you're still going to be getting a piece of my mind over this stunt," she snapped and didn't wait for a response before turning towards the crowd and flying up to be slightly above human height. "Everyone, she's alright," I hope. "The spell just ended a little more suddenly than expected. Please give her a minute and she'll give a few brief words before she needs to be checked out by the doctors."

Sunset took a few seconds getting to her hooves and shaking her messy mane before looking out at the various delegates with her best fake smile. "I'm perfectly alright, the spell reverts back to my natural form exactly as it was before the casting, but it can be a bit jarring so I do need to be examined for procedure's sake. I'll return in a few minutes after they are done with me."

After I'm done with you is what you really should say. Tonya grumbled in her head, but she stifled her anger and worry picked up again as she felt Sunset's emotions. By all rights Sunset should be in a state of panic right now, and she was sure if she checked it she'd find her wife's heart was pounding hard. Despite the calm demeanor she could make out that Sunset's breathing was heavier than it should be. They needed to get in private now.

Thankfully Sunset chose not to delay getting guided back to the chapel. The doctors were waiting for her up on the stage and started gathering what they would need. Tonya started guiding her wife towards the stage, but was caught off guard when halfway up the aisle to the stage Sunset paused and stood still with her head low to the ground and her eyes unfocused. As Tonya turned to head back she had to dart to catch her wife as Sunset just let her legs buckle underneath her and collapsed down on the ground. The calm facade went with her ability to stand, and the unicorn started sobbing.

Tonya held her wife close with her wings. The doctors came off the stage to attend to them but Tonya gave them a warning glance away. This was no physical problem, this was all mental and emotion. Right now Sunset needed her, not a physician.

She cupped her wife's head in her neck, careful to avoid the horn, and let her wife cry. It was good to just let the tears flow with no pride or fear of them being seen by the public. At times like this it was easy to forget Sunset was the senior of the pair of them. From Sunset's first full day as a pony this had been where Tonya had placed herself, as that shoulder to cry on, and that place for Sunset to let down her defenses. There had never been a moment of doubt in her head this was where she belonged. It was in this position that both she and Sunset had found who they were, and set out to change the world. Today her wife had done just that, but Tonya worried at what personal price.

"It's over, and you'd better never do anything that stupid again," she whispered as she continued to hold her wife tight. "You had me so scared for you. I'm still scared for you, do you know that? Why'd you have to go so far, just to make a statement?"

"I needed to prove that it was safe...prove that I don't hate humans," Sunset said through her sobs.

"Prove to who?" She whispered back harsher than she meant to. "They're going to believe what they want no matter what you do. I don't think torturing yourself with that form was helping endear humans to you either. Was this some display for God? I want to know what possessed you to do this to yourself...to do this to me by making me have to stand by and watch."

Sunset didn't respond back; she just kept crying. Tonya took a deep breath and pushed her anger away. Sunset didn't need her anger right now. "We'll talk about it later, when you're feeling better. You should be happy. It still needs approval from congress, but if the delegates are any indication that should be a vote in your favor. If you really think that this is your ultimate legacy then whatever happens after today doesn't matter, you've already won the war."

That made Sunset slow her sobbing and after a few sniffs respond. "I could barely tell when I was out there talking. I know I was but it was like I was on autopilot while it took everything I had to keep it together."

"Well, you won them over," Tonya assured her wife. "The Equestrians are still pissed that you used them as a punching bag, but not so angry they seem like they'll try to interfere. Rarity and Sapphire actually expressed concern for you."

"I'm not surprised, based on their files," Sunset said as she seemed to gain more control of herself. "I think I'll be okay...just dreamwalk me tonight, and bring Phobia with you."

Tonya gave her wife a doubt as she released her. "I’ll be dreamwalking you every night for a long time. I can feel your emotions. You’re in bad shape. I think you need to take a break from everything; at least until Phobia gives the all clear."

Sunset looked up at the sun emblazoned cross hanging high above the chapel stage. "Tonya, I think I'm done...done with trying to manage all this stuff. I've done it, I've secured the future our Lord wants for the world. I don't need to do any more."

Her eyes went wide at this. "You're just going to walk away? Not that I'm complaining--I've been wanting more personal time with you, but I know you and know that you won't be happy if you aren't out doing things."

"Maybe not everything, just most of it," Sunset amended. "I'd still preach and I’m still the mayor, but the rest I'm ready to be done with. Wild can take control of SPEC, the politicians can do without me, and it would be a sign of good faith to just turn all my operations completely over to the government to appoint who they wish to run them. I'm ready to step back and smell the roses though, and enjoy family life with you."

Tonya dropped her head close to her wife's. "What about the project Sha'am had you on? You can't just walk away from a contract with a Dreamwarden."

Sunset actually chuckled. "But they can back out of it apparently. The night after Thanksgiving I was told my services in that were no longer needed. They said they will get back to me about that damn sphere in the basement. It sounded like they were going to just destroy it after all the time and money that went into making it."

That was a shock. What had suddenly changed? It was actually kind of aggravating that they were doing that. Her life had been used as a bargaining piece to make Sunset make that thing, and now they were just going to abandon the whole thing? If it weren't for the fact it meant Sunset really was free from the contract she'd be cussing out some Dreamwardens for putting her and her wife through all that for nothing.

"Well, you need to take time to make sure your head is on straight before you make any big decisions," she said, wishing she could just get all onboard with this. The truth was there was no way of knowing at the second if Sunset was thinking straight enough to commit to such things.

Sunset nodded weakly in response. She was still putting on a show about how she wasn't bothered by what she just went through for the sake of the watching doctors, despite the fact she just sat their bawling her eyes out.

"I do need to take some time off for the next few days," Sunset said in a tired voice. "Are you still planning on going to the doctor to discuss foals?"

"If you need me to put it off I understand," Tonya said with mild disappointment. "You need my personal care right now."

"Actually...I was wondering if I could tag along and listen in," Sunset said as she rubbed her leg absently, looking away. "It isn't an endorsement. I just want to hear what they tell you while I'm deciding how I feel about it. If I cut back on everything I'm going to have some extra time for...other considerations."

Tonya's eyes lit up with hope. She didn't voice it though for fear she might come off as pressuring her wife, but it was the first time today she'd had any feeling of joy.

Sunset kept rubbing her leg. "You go out of your way to take care of my needs all the time, and I'm grateful for it. It's occurred to me that I might not be doing enough to meet yours. I still stand by having a foal is a big commitment for both of us, but I know how important this is to you. I owe it to you to be there with you learning what's involved so we can make an informed decision together."

She all but tackled her wife with a fresh hug and actually managed to get a filly like giggle from Sunset in the process. Today had been a long nightmare, and that nightmare would linger for some time yet, but there were things to look forward to. Right now she felt like the luckiest mare in the world.

The happy moment was cut short by a third voice clearing its throat. She looked up at one of Sunset's crystal pony guards from the basement who was standing a short distance away with a manilla folder cupped in his leg.

"Can we help you?" She asked in confusion.

The stallion sat up on his hind legs like some gopher and saluted. "Sorry to intrude, Mrs. Blessing, but you had said you wanted this report as soon as we found out the information you wanted."

He was talking to her then. If he had meant Sunset he would have said director or mayor.
She sighed as she got up and walked over to him, trying to remember in a hurry what report she'd asked for. She extended out a wing and took the folder in it and used her other wing to flip it open. Pegasus wings weren't as nimble as night pony ones, but they got the job done still with things like this.

The doctors moved in on Sunset while Tonya started looking into the folder. It was a newspaper article, only it was written in Chinese...at least she was pretty sure that was Chinese. A transcription of the article in English was included and she quickly started reading. Her eyes went wide at the content; it described how a young girl who had been missing for almost a year before being found had suddenly horrifically murdered her parents and cannibalized them. The girl had told the authorities that she was just showing her parents how much she loved them. The most unnerving detail being that the girl seemed to really believe this was a display of affection rather than making an ironic comment. Her eyes moved to the date and location of the article. Xi'an, Shaanxi province, this article was from two years before ETS struck.

"I'm guessing Shaanxi is a province in China," Tonya said in a low voice as she looked up at the rystal pony for confirmation.

He nodded. "Western part of China, it isn't a little city either. It has a few million people. Gotten even bigger since they started pushing pony births."

"This certainly meets the description of what he said. The question is how in the hell did he end up in Texas by the time ETS hit?" She asked as she looked over the details again. The crystal pony just shrugged. "I hate to ask, but I have more research you need to do for me," she said as she closed the folder.

The crystal pony sighed. "You need me to come up with a list of Chinese immigrants from that two year period that settled in Texas, right? That might take a while if you want me to narrow it down to likely suspects."

She nodded. "Do it. I want to have the case that he was responsible for this as good as it can be."

The fact he was apparently from China, or at least committed that atrocity in China certainly complicated matters with him immensely. She'd gotten more confident in her own judgement over the years, but she knew when she was dealing with a problem that was bigger than her ability to solve. She needed Sunset for this, and Sunset wasn't in shape to deal with it. Poly Glot's justice would have to wait.

With resignation she passed the folder back to the crystal pony. "If you find anything just leave the folder with the information in Sunset's office. She'll figure it out when she gets back to work."

The stallion nodded as he slipped the folder into his saddlebags. "I was also told by the ponies down below they need you for some Chorus testing soon. It was supposed to be recharged today when you sang, but...well...you know."

"Yeah," she said with a sigh. She hoped Sunset really did intend to walk away from all this. These projects, politics, and other things invaded their lives far too much. She couldn't go a day without having some secret something demanding her time. Sunset got it far worse, so there was a chance she was serious and not just having nerves talk.

She went back towards her wife and sat down beside her as doctors continued to put Sunset through motor and sensory drills. Hopefully this would all be over soon, and hopefully they could just relax and be a normal family. She was ready for a nice mundane life.

"So how long does this spell last exactly?" Senator Harris asked as he watched Wild's mama and Bill chatting away with the kirin and some of the Equestrians.

Wild shook her head. "I figured it would have run its course by now." It was going on five hours and many of the delegates had already left. She wished Sunset would get back out here.

"With her talk about having already determining how to do a permanent transformation spell there might be some that would be concerned at the length this one is lasting," the senator commented dryly. "Not me, of course, I understand that Sunset Blessing wouldn't do something so blatantly illegal as to perform such a spell right in front of government officials."

Wild tried not to wince, and hoped that it wasn't the case. She didn't think it was the case, but this was taking a long time. Senator Harris was on the Committee for Magic Regulation and Advancement in the Senate, and he was going to be one of those actually voting on this approval. She couldn't have him developing new concerns.

"I'm sure that's not the case," Wild said with a practiced reassuring smile. She hopped down from her seat. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to see what is taking Sunset so long to get back out here. She can better answer everyone's questions."

As she started making her way towards the chapel doors she was headed off by her mama and Bill. The two of them moved quick. They'd be drifting back and forth between talking to the guests and her for hours and didn't seem to be slowing down or getting bored.

"Where are you going?" Her mama asked, blocking her path to the doors.

"If you're going somewhere can we come with you?" Bill said almost immediately after. "We were told we could roam about as we want."

Wild gave the pair a wary look. "Just going to check on Sunset. She's been gone a while. Are you two feeling alright? This version of the spell has never been used this long before."

Her mama chuckled. "We are fine, better than fine. You don't know how much of a relief it is to be able to easily move about on my own without some medication clouding my head to the point nothing really registers or stays with me."

"I feel more alive now than I ever have in my life, April should get to try this," Bill added in with a grin.

“Remember that this spell does have a mental component so you aren’t freaking out. Try to keep in mind that Sunset may not have done that perfectly.”

Her papa and April came hurrying over, and her papa looked out of breath from the short run across the room. Her mama and Bill must have moved at a full gallop to get in front of her so fast.

"Why'd you both take off like that?" Bill's wife April said as they reached the three ponies. "Scared me and Roger half to death thinking something was wrong."

Bill's ears fell. "Sorry honey. We were just wanting to see where Wild Growth was going."

April looked at Wild and then back to her husband. "How about giving her a little space? The two of you can't seem to go ten minutes without pestering her."

Wild frowned. That was a concern too. Both the two temporary crystal ponies were still lit up brightly. That should have dissipated some by now...unless they'd been continually recharging off of her. She was starting to wonder if there was something to the concerns Rosetta had expressed before leaving. That was another reason she needed to talk to Sunset. The mages and crystal ponies were all standing close by watching, but they refused to discuss any details about what they were observing with her. They answered to Sunset, not Sunset's financial backers.

She tried to step by them. "I won't be gone long. You'll manage without me for a few minutes."

Her mama moved in quickly and gave her a hug, and Bill did the same. Six years ago a stranger embracing her like that wouldn't have bothered her. Pony instincts made it very easy to consider yourself best friends with someone you just had one conversation with, and her mama and Bill were riding high on that right now. However, after years of being constantly on her guard against threats it was a little uncomfortable for her. Learned experiences could override anyone's better instincts.

After separating herself from the two too comfortably close ponies she resumed making her way to the chapel doors. Four members of the 'janitorial staff' were standing close by the doors. She recognized one of them from when she toured the basement the other day, Mordecai.

As she came up to the doors Mordicai stepped forward and blocked her path. "I'm sorry, but there's to be no admittance for anyone without the director's approval."

She narrowed her eyes. "And if I just choose to ignore that and shove by you what are you going to try to do?"

Mordicai smirked. "Me? Nothing. I would signal the unicorns to levitate you off the ground and remove you from the premises. I know how your magic works, and your vulnerabilities. It's my job to know how to counter potential threats to security, which includes the super powered earth pony living a stone throw from this building. You might be the toughest person on the ground, but once you're in the air you're helpless."

Wild flicked her tail with annoyance. Just great, Sunset had profiled how to take her down. She supposed that made sense to do, but it didn't earn any warm feelings. How many other people had done the same thing? How vulnerable was she? Everything Sunset did was shared with the government, so presumably the military also had a contingency plan for taking her out. Triss was a fool if she was really pushing for an alicorn when the government had plans in place for just taking out highly powerful earth ponies. They likely had developed similar plans for all the elitely powerful ponies out there.

She just needed to have Sunset out here. Having her away so long looked bad and she needed to find out what was going on with her mama and Bill. "Can you, or someone on your staff tell her she's needed out here?"

"That I can do," the former black-op head of security responded. He then gestured to one of the other staff, a unicorn, and the unicorn opened a chapel door and slipped inside.

Her papa walked over to her from where her mama, Bill, and April had started chatting with one of the UN delegates. He crouched down next to her and whispered. "Your mother is acting strange when it comes to you."

"Really papa? I hadn't noticed," Wild said sarcastically.

"You might not have noticed that she makes sure she stays in sight of you at all times, and when you started walking over here she seemed almost panicked that you were leaving," her papa replied.

She lowered an ear. That wasn't good news. "I have a feeling that I'm going to be getting an I told you so from Rosetta. She was right, something's just not right with Mama and Bill. The two of them are far too needy of my magic. That isn't even pony instinct at work; crystal ponies don't get like that."

"She's not hurting you, is she?" Her papa asked with concern.

She shook her head. "No, I meant it when I said she couldn't put a dent in my magic. Even with both of them leeching magic off me it isn't even anything perceptible. I'm more concerned about why are they doing it than the impact on me."

Her papa looked out at the pair. "Do you think it's prolonging the spell? The spell has been going a while."

"Too early to tell. This went up to six hours in earlier tests, and we aren't there yet. I don't want to jump to conclusions," Wild replied. The thought had crossed her mind, but she needed Sunset's mages and crystal ponies to confirm that, and they weren't talking without Sunset's instructions.

Just then the chapel doors opened up and the red-furred preacher came out looking like she had taken the time to brush her mane and tail. Tonya walked beside her and Wild could tell the pegasus was tense. A pair of doctors followed close behind. The remaining delegates all looked in her direction as she ventured into the lobby.

Sunset gave the delegates a quick wave of greeting. "I'll be doing a final talk with you in just a moment or two, and then addressing the media. I need to attend to something first."

The delegates went back to their conversations as Sunset hurried over to Wild. "What's the problem?" Sunset whispered with her muzzle almost in Wild's ear.

Wild gestured to the two temporary crystal ponies. "Those two are acting oddly. They keep coming over to me to absorb magic, and when they thought I was going to leave the room they almost panicked."

Sunset's eyes narrowed. "Any other odd behaviors? Any discharges of magic?"

Wild shook her head. "Nothing else odd that can't be accounted for by having a pony mindset. I haven't noticed any discharges either."

"If they are able to absorb magic so often from you that magic has to be going into something," Sunset said consideringly. She looked over at her mages and crystal ponies and gestured them over to her. When they came over she spoke to them in a whisper. "I want to know what's happening to the magic those two are absorbing. Have you been monitoring them?"

One of the crystal pony stallions nodded. "We weren't sure at first, but we're pretty certain they're feeding the magic into the spell. The spell isn't weakening at all. It might actually be getting stronger. It is possible that they are doing this on pure instinct. The first crystal pony in the chain that helped spread the ETS counterspell was able to pull outside magic in to strengthen that spell on instinct alone."

"They're making this temporary transformation not so temporary then..." Wild said slowly. That could be bad if any of the delegates found out about it.

Sunset stared at the two temporary ponies for a minute without saying anything. Then got a look of resolve. "This needs further study. I'm going to have Bill prevented from absorbing any more magic from you, and kept away from any other sources. I want to see how long it will take to let this run its course after all the magic he's absorbed."

"And my Mama? What about her?" Wild asked.

"We'll discuss with her that we're going to a new stage of experiment with her approval. She'll be allowed to continue what she's been doing for now, and we will monitor the effects," Sunset replied. "We'll not be telling either that we suspect what they were doing is prolonging the spell. If they are going on instinct they might not realize they are actively doing that."

"Is this going to hurt her?" Wild asked as worry flooded into her.

Sunset fixed her orange eyes on her. "I can't honestly tell you yes or no. That is why this needs study, and why we'll be explaining to your mother that we don't know the impact of what she's doing or the risks involved. It will be up to her to accept or not with the understanding there's a possibility this could cause harm. We don't know if it is causing harm or not, not without observation."

"I don't want to see her hurt," Wild growled.

"Nor do I," Sunset replied as her expression lightened to sympathy. "But as I said earlier this spell is not a finished product, and we must observe these kinds of things so we can learn how to fix its problems. There are risks involved, and it is up to your mother to determine whether to accept those risks."

"If she agrees are you just going to hold her at the Bastion for the duration?" Her papa asked. "I don't want her feeling like a prisoner. She just got freedom to move around. She's going to be unhappy if she is forced to stay locked away."

Sunset shook her head. "What's important is keeping her close to Wild and some of my mages and crystal ponies near her. We can give her limited freedom to go about, and she can spend her nights at Wild's mansion."

"Not that I'm going to object to giving my mama somewhere to go, but it would have been nice to ask me first," Wild grumbled.

"I'll make a run by the house and pick up anything we might need," her papa said as he looked out at his wife. "I know you said you don't know if this is hurting her or not, but how likely is it?"

Sunset shook her head. "This is new territory, so I can't even give that much of an answer. If it becomes clear it is hurting her we'll end it. Newer versions are going to be worked on. When the testing is expanded we'll move more quickly towards having a perfected version of this."

She should be happy. Her mama was happy and healthy after all this time, but she couldn't shake a nawing sense of wrongness about her mama.

Chapter 16: Visions

"We're ready when you are Mrs. Blessing," came the voice over the intercom.

Tonya stepped up to the front of the chapel stage. This place on the stage was not just where someone would speak, it was the focal point for charging the Chorus. A marvel of technological and magical engineering that she doubted anything in Equestria except the Crystal Heart could rival. Its design had even been inspired by the Crystal Heart. Like most things Sunset took the lead in this and was the result of combining independent work by independent researchers into something more than the parts. Sunset's pride in her accomplishment with this was only dampened by the fact it did fall short of the Crystal Heart.

All the crystals that were normally hidden within the walls of the chapel and the stage were now revealed from their hidden spots. Each would magnify and absorb her magic. Beneath her hooves was another Crystal that was hidden that acted as the focal point. It was here that her powers were strongest. Here, in this spot and this spot alone--surrounded by these crystals and with the power of the chorus behind her, she had more power than any pony on Earth. Even if she wasn't doing anything grander than acting as a charger for a battery.

Her audience wasn’t as big as it normally was but it was still a worthy one. Today her audience consisted of just her wife, some security, and the scientists and mages down below. The delegates had finally all departed, and the far too lengthy media questions for Sunset were at an end. All that remained to do at the Bastion for today was sing before she could take her wife home.

Sunset had collected herself again after another round of sobbing following the media circus outside. These rounds of sobbing and panic were likely to endure for some time. Hopefully they would go away after a few days, but in the pit of her stomach she knew that her wife might still find herself waking in a cold sweat and panic years from now. Why'd she have to be so stubborn?

"I'm dedicating this song to you, Sunset. It isn't religious, but it is from the heart," she said with a smile down to her wife.

She took a deep breath as she prepared herself to sing The Rose.

Despite whatever Sunset might be feeling she looked up at Tonya with a twinkle in her eye and a small, almost shy, grin. All around the chapel the crystals were already glowing with Tonya's magic, but it was time to give them their full feed. She lifted her voice and her magic higher as she went into the next part, and images passed before her eyes as she sang. Not only of Sunset, but of others. She didn't know why she received visions each time she did this. She'd asked Phobia about it since it seemed dream like; Phobia simply said to not put too much stock in visions because visions were unreliable things. They could trust in the past and present but the future was beyond their ability to know for sure.

"...of breaking..." An image of Wild Growth sitting in a bar passed before her eyes. Wild was looking on at stallions in the distance at first, but turned away back to her drink.l

"Afraid of waking..." An image image of Phobia staring at the sky passed before her eyes next. Rosetta sat next to her, and another night pony mare sat in the distance with her back turned to them. The other mare had much the same coloration as Rosetta, but was wearing military fatigues--and even her wings were tattooed with military insignias and slogans.

"...seem to give." A troubling image of Sunset appeared before her next, her wife sitting alone in a room of dull grey stone and iron bars. At her hooves was the Shimmerist insignia, being consumed in the fire of Sunset's magic as her wife glared at it with contempt. Tonya quickly reminded herself that these were only possibilities, and there wasn't any way of knowing if they were even likely ones.

"...never learns to live." Now, a yellow earth pony mare with a blue mane appeared. She didn't know how she knew, but she knew this was her niece, Jessie, fully grown. She was in a room full of whiteboards and on each of them were mechanical designs and equations. All around the room were wadded up papers with discarded diagrams and crossed out equations. Jessie had a frantic gleam in her eye as she scribbled out more designs.

"...too long." A great silver scaled dragon appeared next, sitting amongst starlit ruins. The dragon raised its head high and let off a great roar of deep mourning and sadness.

"...for the lucky..." Sha'am Maut appeared next. The Warden of Death was not in her typical skeletal form, but instead a frail old night pony. Clutched in her wings was a small human doll, worn with extreme age. She held it like it was an actual small child and pulled it close to her in embrace as she openly wept. Below her hooves sat her wooden bowl, overflowing with fruit and dripping blood.

An indistinct shape began forming in front of her in the hall itself. Its silhouette was like an angel, or a partially transformed human-pegasus draped in a white robe. Mostly human, but with great golden feathered wings. It looked directly at her and smiled, singing the final verse in harmony with her.

As she ended her song the visions departed, and she dismissed them as fictions as soon as they did. Her wife gave an enthusiastic clop of her hooves together, and even the security gave her a few respectful stomps of their own. The crystals retreated back to their hiding spots and were quickly covered again. She could feel almost as if her magic were deflating as they did, and like she was a little less alive without that extra power coursing through her.

"We're back to full charge, Mrs. Blessing," came the voice over the intercom. "Thank you for your time and cooperation today. We should be good for another month."

Tonya took that as a dismissal and immediately took to the air and towards her wife. Sunset actually flinched and braced herself as Tonya was almost upon her, but Tonya quickly brought herself into a gentle hover and lowered herself down next to her wife.

"So, are you ready to go home now?" Tonya asked as she gave her wife a nuzzle.

Sunset nuzzled back and nodded. "I think we're free to go. The mages were hard at work through the entire reception scanning the resonance for the griffins and that kirin. They won't have the detailed report ready until tomorrow or the day after though. Getting a head start figuring out how to give the griffins what they want can be held off another day or two."

"I get the griffins, but why'd you want the data on the kirin? He didn’t seem to be that interested in the magic," Tonya asked.

Sunset shrugged. "Doesn't hurt to know their resonance and have more data to compare. I don't think it would be a good idea to be turning anyone into a pony that sets themselves on fire when they get pissed off, but who knows what we can learn from just a type of tribal magic that the Equestrians haven't put much serious study into. I’m sure we'll find ways of making use of the information somewhere somehow." She paused and then looked at her security. "Maybe I should just go check on it."

Tonya lowered her ears. "Sunset, no! I'm putting my hoof down on this. You need to take a break and you’re supposed to be backing off from all this. Even just for tonight, come home, relax, let me cook you dinner, and we can cuddle for a while before bed."

“You're right, you're right,” the unicorn sighed. “I just have a hard time letting go of my work."

Who cannot seem to give. The words echoed in Tonya's head. There were lots of ways of interpreting those words, and one was not being able to quit. The vision that had accompanied it came to her as well, and again she worried that Sunset may yet destroy everything that she had put so much time into building. She wasn't going to mention the visions though. Voicing them might turn them into self-fulfilling prophecies. It was just a possibility, not a certainty that her vision would happen. If Sunset would just back down and step away from it all would be well.

There was still the matter of Poly Glot that needed addressing, but that could wait. He wasn't going anywhere, and more time was needed to gather evidence to connect him to this crime and possibly determine who his human identity had been. After that she could possibly just go to the government herself and see if they had suggestions on how to proceed with him. They definitely had no desire to see what he knew falling into the Chinese's grasp.

"I'll make arrangements of our escort home. How bad is it out there after my announcement?" Sunset asked.

Tonya let her wings drop down to where they were hanging limply and tucked her tail under her legs. "Bad is an understatement. Tensions were already high from the news of the genocide in Morocco hit. Now we have ponies who are out protesting the government is going to try to force them to rehumanize. We have humans that are protesting that the government is seemingly putting their stamp of approval on transformation magic. Humans and ponies both protesting that the government is backing a Shimmerist plan to transform the world. Word is there's going to be more protestors coming in. Melissa actually gave me a call to let me know that her office has been getting non stop calls for permits for new protests."

"So I take it I'm not the most popular pony out there right now," Sunset said dryly. "I expected as much. Perhaps we should take the tunnel to the army base and then get an escort from there back home."

"That sounds like a good idea. If they were getting violent this morning towards the delegates I don't want to know what they might be doing now," Tonya replied with a shiver. "Something needs to be done before they start going at one another. It isn't just a lot of angry people; it's a lot of different groups of angry people with very different things they are angry about."

The two of them left the chapel and then transversed the path to the basement and then onto the complex below. The path they needed to take to get to the tunnel thankfully didn't require them to pass by Poly Glot's cell. That didn't mean that it was a quick walk. Sunset was like a filly in a toy store as they walked through the halls, and Tonya had to frequently remind her that they weren't stopping to check on any projects. The unicorn was not normally this easily distracted from her goals, but she'd been rattled today and her most time honored reaction to being stressed was to try to bury herself in work. That was a habit that needed breaking.

They finally reached their destination on the far eastern side of the complex. After passing through a guarded door at the end of a long hall they exited out into a private subway system that ran underneath the town out to the military base just outside. The subway train was more than capable of carrying upwards to fifty soldiers in and out in one go, and a large car in the back of the train was available for hauling large or heavy cargo--and was the main reason such a system was even needed. The tunnel itself was a straight shot to the base and only had two maintenance rooms attached to it along the way--both of which were a considerable walk down the tunnel. This tunnel also was a major part of the ventilation system as it's end at the military base was open air. If for some reason the main ventilation system for the Bastion's basement failed this tunnel was the breathing lifeline.

Sunset walked over to the station overseer and discussed their transport. After a minute of discussion she returned. "We can go ahead and board. It won't be leaving for another fifteen minutes because they need to keep on schedule. They are informing the base we're going to be on our way and they'll have a helicopter ready and waiting for us."

Tonya grimaced as they moved to go board the train, stepping between two armed guards to get on it. "I hate helicopters, they're so noisy. I don't know how Wild stands traveling around in one so much. I'm not really fond of this thing either. I just don't like being encased in moving metal."

"You could always fly ahead once we arrive at the base," Sunset suggested.

It didn't take any consideration to make her shake her head. "I'm not leaving your side. You know I'm just not fond of any metal box. It just doesn't feel right sitting in one as I feel the air pressure shift and I'm not flapping my wings to adjust."

The inside of the train was very spartan. It consisted of just two long seating areas on either side that stretched the length of the car, and they were uncushioned metal. Why did the military have to make things so damn uncomfortable? Would it kill their budget to at least cushion the seats?

They sat down on the bench opposite the entrance towards the middle of the car. "I'm not to fond of being in these myself, but they serve their purpose. It's hard to imagine that I used to drive myself around in a car everywhere. Being human again for that few hours brought back a lot of memories I'd forgotten."

Tonya gave her wife a concerned look. "Are you sure you want to be talking about this right now? Talking about it is good, as it helps with the coping, but doing it too soon when you aren't ready can cause problems."

"I can talk about it," Sunset replied in a low voice. "Knowing that I was putting myself through hell I think I managed to brace myself against the worst of it. It felt as alien as described by the others. It was also all too familiar in a distorted nightmare way."

"You certainly had the form of your old self down to the tee from what I remember," Tonya said as she looked towards the floor.

Sunset snorted. "Having faced her in that damn shared time-crossed dream, and since Phobia restored my memories it was easy. Glad I didn't see a mirror through all that. Seeing that face once again in the mirror would have been too much."

"You talk like you were a completely different person," Tonya observed.

"Not by as much as I would like," Sunset said and looked like she wanted to spit. "You never talk about how you feel about you out old human self. You've psychoanalyzed me backwards and forwards on how I feel about my human self, but you've never once spoken about your old human self in our years together."

"I couldn't really tell you," Tonya replied earnestly. "It's been years since I really thought of it, and you know how those kinds of memories fade if they aren't nurtured. I know all the events of my human life, can see my family as they were, my friends, the old places I lived, my old jobs, but not myself. I might as well have always been a pony back then as far as my memory is concerned."

Sunset laid her head upon Tonya's shoulder and her voice trembled as she spoke "I remember mine all too well. I think about it too often. I also saw the way you reacted when you first saw me after I transformed. I'm sorry for that, I should have thought about how you would react to seeing her."

"Don't worry about it," Tonya replied quickly. She then wrapped a wing around Sunset. "You aren't her. It was just a body."

"But she is me. As much as I wish that wasn't so," Sunset said as she started crying again. "I embraced my life as a pony when I changed, but it took having my muzzle pushed into how wrong I was as a human. Having been transformed back into a human again was uncomfortable and distressing on its own, but the hardest part is that it brought all those memories back to the forefront again."

"It's old news, Sunset. Don't beat yourself up about it," Tonya soothed as she rubbed her head against her wife.

Sunset continued to cry. "How can you be so forgiving? I was so cruel to you and others."

"Because it's the past and you've changed," Tonya replied. "You were given the opportunity to start anew and you haven't squandered it in the least. That's part of why I want you to step back and relax. You've done more than enough these past six years. There’s nothing left for you to prove. So take some time to finally enjoy life...with me."

Several soldiers boarded the car as she finished speaking and Sunset pulled away when they did, putting on her blank face. Tonya scowled in annoyance at the interruption of their moment and Sunset's unwillingness to show any perceived weakness to anyone but her. It was endearing that her wife let her guard down to her, but not when any audience could cause it to go back up.

They sat in silence after that, with Sunset not risking a break in front of the soldiers. The silence continued on when the train lurched into movement, and on through its short journey to the military base outside of town. The silence was deafening and by the time they were finally escorted to their helicopter Tonya wanted to scream just to break it.

Sunset touched a hoof to hers and then wrapped her fetlock around it. "How about we go to Disney World for a week for Christmas, just you and me?" The red furred unicorn asked in a gentle voice. "Or Universal Orlando, or Six Flags, or wherever else you might want to go. Just somewhere fun and away from work."

She gave her wife a soft smile as she cupped there joined legs in her wings. "It doesn't have to be anywhere high energy and exciting for my sake. You know that right?"

Sunset raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you saying I'm too old for Disney World?"

She leaned in and gave her wife a kiss. "Maybe too young. How old are you again? Eighteen? Nineteen?"

That earned a chuckle from her wife. "You know how old I am, but I love that you never seem to care--and maybe I want to go to Disney World for me. Ever think of that?"

Tonya snuggled close to her wife, ignoring the disconcerting feeling of being in a moving helicopter. "As long as it is us together I'm fine with wherever. I love you."

"Love you too," Sunset echoed.

And hopefully going forward they could spend the time together that they deserved after all this time.

"When are you going to come take us home?" Jackie whined loudly to the image of her parents displayed on Phobia's computer.

"We'll come get you in a few days," Treasure Finder assured the filly for what was the fifth time by Jessie's count. Jessie was trying to adjust her identification of the earth pony mare to Treasure Finder in her head like Phobia Remedy asked her to and was starting to have some luck.

"Why not now?" Jordan asked once again. Jessie tried harder to block out the conversation and focus on drawing with her brother, but these repeated questions that had been repeatedly answered were really grating on her nerves.

"We can't really talk about it right now. I've asked your sister to sit down and explain it to the two of you though," Mr. Tom said calmly.

"Why can't you?" Jordan immediately followed up.

"We just can't, plum butter. It's too hard for us right now. Your sister is going to be helping us get better, and she'll make sure you're taken care of too," Treasure Finder said in a trembling voice. Jessie's ears sagged as she heard it. She felt bad for her friends since they missed their parents, but their parents sounded just as upset. She wished Jackie and Jordan would just accept the answers given them.

"Don't scowl like that. You know you're just as bad as them with demanding answers," her brother said.

She spit out her crayon as she turned to face him. "I'm not!"

"You are so. Worse maybe."

"You're my brother. You're not supposed to say things like that."

Robby turned a disapproving eye at her and she winced because he seemed like he was angry. "I’m your brother, of course I get to call you on your shit."

Her ears sagged as she looked at him. "Robby...did I do something to make you mad at me?"

He looked at her hard for a second then looked at the two crying sisters before shaking his head. "No...I'm sorry. I shouldn't have gotten nasty to you. It's just...just forget I said anything. Let's just draw."

Concern built up in her. "Something's wrong. What is it?"

"See what I mean about asking questions? Can't I just be a moody teenager for once?" Robby said with a sigh.

"You always talk to me," she reminded him, after which she held up a hoof as if swearing a pledge. "I don't keep secrets from you and you don't keep secrets from me. It's our sacred sibling oath."

Robby stared over at the sisters who now had Phobia next to them trying to comfort them as the call with their parents ended. "Listening to them just brings up bad memories. Back when you were born Mom and Dad sent me away and I didn't understand why. I was scared and didn't know what was going on so I was afraid I did something wrong. Then it got worse when I got sick and had to be taken to a cramped school building full of scared people and I was still without Mom and Dad. I wasn't able to go home until after I fully transformed and then everything was crazy when we moved and Dad left for a bit. So yeah, I understand a lot of what Jackie and Jordan are going through right now."

"Oh..." Jessie said as her gaze dropped down to Robby's drawing. It was of a bunch of partially transformed humans huddled around each other in a tight room. It was really good and detailed, like someone who had seen it. "Do you think that's why you're a night pony?"

Robby looked at her in confusion. "Huh?"

"That you were so scared at the time," she explained. "They said it in my textbook for psychology that one of the possible things that determined if someone turned into a night pony when having ETS was they had a lot of fear."

That got a shrug from her brother. "Maybe, who knows? It isn't like my tribe is going to change, so what does it matter?"

"I guess just for the sake of understanding things," Jessie conceded and turned her head to look at Ms. Rosetta coming over to them. She wondered what kinds of things Ms. Rosetta and Phobia Remedy feared when they were humans if fear was such a big factor. Thinking about that made her feel like she was seeing people again for the first time.

"Phobia wants to have some privacy with her little sisters," Ms. Rosetta said as she reached them. "Jessie, you have someone outside waiting to speak with you. Robby, you need to get some exercise in. We might not be like pegasi that need to fly for obscene amounts of hours every day, but that doesn't mean it's alright to ignore wing day. I want you to accompany me on my early evening flight."

Robby stood up. "Yes, ma'am."

Jessie stood up as well as she realized who would want to be talking to her, Layla. This could go really good or really bad.

Ms. Rosetta was perceptive of her mood. "Don't worry, that young mare is well aware that she needs to be on her best behavior. Crystal may have gone home for the day, but if anything untoward is said Phobia will hear about it and have Tempest deal with it promptly."

"Where is Ms. Tempest?" Jessie asked as she realized she hadn't seen her since the two night ponies had come downstairs.

Ms. Rosetta looked upwards. "Giving my foals a few lessons. Just because school is out till Tuesday doesn't mean they get to slack off."

"But...they're in kindergarten. They don't get homework," Jessie said in confusion. "And I didn't know Ms. Tempest was a teacher, what does she teach?"

"It is different sorts of lessons than what most would get," Ms. Rosetta replied in a subdued tone. "It's hard sometimes, but as Phobia's foals they need to learn things that schools wouldn't normally teach; self defense, how to tell if someone is lying to them, how to read someone's motivations, how to not let anyone take advantage of them. They can be harsh lessons, and it breaks my heart sometimes that I have to see them having to start learning these things at such a young age."

That still left her confused. "Why don't you teach them instead of Ms. Tempest? You're a teacher."

Ms. Rosetta shook her head. "I teach them how to enjoy life, that they are loved, and to always give everything their best effort whether it works out or not. Those are important lessons that make life worth living. I'm not qualified to teach them what Tempest and Phobia teach them though. I'm just an ancient history and language nerd who happened to fall in love with and marry a Dreamwarden."

"And you teach them Spanish too," Robby pointed out.

Rosetta laughed. "That I do, though they may be learning a very colorful vocabulary. I've even managed to teach Phobia enough Spanish so she isn't completely clueless when someone speaks to her in it. I may have married a Dreamwarden, but she married a proud Puerto Rican and our foals will keep that heritage going." She then gave Jessie a gentle nudge with her wing. "Anyway, come along. Let's give Phobia and her sisters some privacy."

Jessie got up and started walking towards the front door with Robby and Ms. Rosetta flanking her to either side. She looked up at the night pony mare as they walked. "Why is it important for them to speak Spanish and be connected to Puerto Rico?"

"It's more than just language; it is also traditions and history," Ms. Rosetta replied as she opened the front door with a wing. "People should know where they came from and keep their family heritage alive in order to honor everyone that came before and so that heritage doesn't die out. You'll hear a lot of people around here talk about their southern heritage, it's part of their identity that they are proud of. They keep their history being told, even the ugly parts, and those things are never forgotten. The same can be said for my family's Puerto Rican heritage and our human heritage in general. We aren't just night ponies, we have many things that shaped us."

"But Phobia Remedy's family didn't come from Puerto Rico," Jessie observed.

Ms. Rosetta nodded. "This is true. Her family name on her father's side is Gilmore, which shows a Scottish or Irish heritage. Her mother's last name is Portsmith, which is of English origin. Sadly, her family lost connection to their Scottish roots, and English heritage is very prevalently taught in schools already. I'd really like them to learn more about their Scottish roots as well, but neither I or Phobia would be very good at representing them properly."

As Jessie followed the mare outside she wondered about her own heritage. She'd never really given it much thought before. Didn’t she just have a general American human heritage? She knew Middleton was an English name, so she must have family history going there. She didn't know her mom's maiden name though. Maybe she should ask her mom or grandmare about it when she got the chance. She was an earth pony, but what else was she? Was she incomplete without knowing?

As they walked outside the sounds of conversation from the night pony mares became audible. It was hard to make out any particular string of talk because there were so many conversations. They weren't loud, but there was a lot of chatter going on.

Ms. Rosetta led her and Robby out to the grass and then turned and looked up at the house. Jessie looked up just in time to see Layla detach herself from the side of the house and come down in front of them.

"I'll leave you two to your business. Robby and I have a flight to do," Ms. Rosetta said in a voice that carried more authority than Jessie typically heard from her. "Four of you can trail me to keep watch. Just to respect the wishes of Robby's parents I want nothing but mares who've taken Yinyu's Blessing." There seemed to be some grumbling about the last part among the night ponies which Ms. Rosetta quickly silenced. "I don't agree with it either but I'm not going to violate their wishes when it comes to this. Hurry up and pick out which four of you are coming."

There was some short debate before four mares with tattooed wings came down from the roof to the edge of the yard and waited. Ms. Rosetta took to the air without another word and Robby took just a moment to give Layla a sour look before taking to the air behind Ms. Rosetta. The four mares quickly followed after the two of them. It was now just her and Layla with the remaining mares on the roof quieting down as they watched.

Layla had a plain brown saddlebag on and reached a wing into it to pull out a folded up sheet of paper. Jessie felt a little envious of night pony wings as the young mare used hers to unfold and hold the paper up to read. "Yesterday I accused you of not earning your grades and acted in a manner unbecoming of someone who has volunteered to defend the Warden of Fear. I insulted you, and the teachers who have taught me over the years who I insinuated were not doing their jobs. While I can make excuses for my behavior none of them are adequate. I’m here to apologize and ask for your forgiveness."

Jessie blinked at the long apology. "Um...I think you could have just said you're sorry and that would be good enough. That felt kind of...not right...maybe a little too formal?"

Layla's ears sagged as she crumpled the paper with her wings. "Yeah, I suck at speech writing on short notice. I asked my aunt to help, but she said I needed to do it on my own. I'm guessing that didn't sound very sincere."

"Not really," Jessie replied, uncertain what she was supposed to do at this point.

"Sorry, I'm not that great with dealing with day ponies or conversations in general," Layla confessed. She looked Jessie in the eyes. "I'm telling the truth that I'm sorry though. I don't know what came over me. I couldn’t stop thinking about it and it just ate me up until it spilled out."

"So you really don't think I earned my grades?" Jessie asked as her ears laid back slightly and her tail flicked.

Layla winced as this clearly wasn't going as well as she hoped. "Try to see it from my perspective. I've busted my ass--"

"Don't cuss in front of a filly, Layla!" Rebeca cut in with a yell.

Layla turned her head upwards with her ears laid back. "Do you want me to talk to her like I would anyone else or not? She's in high school; she hears cussing all the time. If I'm supposed to treat her as my peer then I'm not going to watch my mouth more than I would with any other person I go to school with."

Rebecca looked like she wanted to say more, but she just laid down like an angry cat and glared at her niece instead. Layla gave a stiff flick of her tail then turned back to Jessie. "As I was saying, it is hard to believe that you're that smart that you can just blow through all those classes like they are nothing at your age. I believe you're smart, and I hate admitting it but probably smarter than me— but that's a lot of things to learn and master in a very short time. I have a cutie mark in math and I still have to put in a lot of work. You don't even have a mark. Can you blame me for being skeptical?"

"Can you try not being so snide?" Rebecca yelled down.

Layla turned and gave a snap of her wings. "Can you go somewhere? I'm trying my best here. I asked for your help and you said no, so back off!"

Rebecca got up with a hiss and took to the air. She didn't go that far, just flying to the opposite side of the house just out of sight.

Layla turned back and sighed. "Sorry about that. She takes care of me since both my parents are day ponies, but she's almost like my big sister since she's only eight years older than me. Sometimes we're best friends and sometimes we're snapping back and forth at one another."

"I'm sorry you don't get to be with your parents," Jessie said quietly, trying to find something to give an olive branch on.

Layla gave a brief winny that sounded like a half laugh. "Don't worry about it. They live in town so I get to see them all the time. They just wanted me to have a full time parent while I was growing up, and being on opposite sleep schedules made it so they needed to enlist my aunt for that. Now that I don't really need a guardian I could move back in with them if I wanted, but I'm just used to living with her now."

"Oh," Jessie replied. She guessed that wasn't too different than what went on with Robby and Ms. Rosetta except Robby kept his bed back home. It might even be easier if he didn't. She wondered if her parents had ever considered just letting him live full time here. She wasn't sure she'd like that; it took him away from her.

Suddenly she realized something that never occurred to her before. If she graduated and went off to college next year it would be somewhere far from Riverview. Would her whole family move with her? What if her parents decided to move wherever she was going to go to college and they had to decide what to do about Robby? They kind of depended on her grandmare and Ms. Rosetta for taking care of him. Would he just be left with one of them instead? Did her going to college mean she didn't get to see her brother anymore?

The thought of it was enough to make her eyes water and before she knew it she was crying like a little filly right in front of Layla and all the night ponies.

"Shit, what'd I do?" Layla asked in confusion and worry. "I'm sorry about whatever it is I said that came out that badly. I didn't mean to do anything to hurt your feelings. Tell me what I did and we can fix this...please. Crystal is going to kick me out if she finds out I made you cry."

"What's going on?" Phobia Remedy's voice called out from the porch. Jessie didn't look up and kept crying. Phobia was coming and that made her feel even more ashamed so she cried even more.

"Dreamwarden, I don't know what I did. Please don't dismiss me. I didn't mean for this to hap--"

"Hush," Phobia ordered. Jessie could hear the sound of the Dreamwarden's footsteps coming towards her. They came to a halt right beside her and the Warden lifted Jessie's head up with a wing and looked her in the eyes. "Jessica, I would like to put you to sleep for a minute. This requires me to use mind magic. Do I have your permission?"

"Why?" She asked through a sob.

Phobia Remedy kept her gaze locked on her. "So I can see what’s bothering you clearly. Layla's position is in the balance and I would not dismiss her without finding out all the facts. You could tell me in the waking world, but you could be lying to protect her."

She tried to cut back her crying. "But it wasn't her fault. I'm just being a stupid filly."

"Then allow me to verify that and this will be resolved quickly. Do I have your permission?"

She blinked a few times. She didn't want Layla to get in trouble. It really wasn't her fault. "Okay..."

"Then sleep," Phobia said and the world went black. It didn't last for long though before she found herself blinking on the ground with Phobia Remedy standing over her. "Thank you. We'll discuss your fears in a moment. Let me clear things up with Layla first." The Dreamwarden turned to Layla. "You're not responsible for making her cry. I'm sorry to make you worry you were going to be dismissed but I would be remiss if I didn't follow through with checking on this. But I do think it best if you two continue your discussion at a later date."

"Yes, Dreamwarden," Layla said hastily and then turned to Jessie. "I really didn't want to hurt you. Maybe we can talk in class when we get back to school."

"I'd like that," Jessie replied as she stood back up. Layla didn't give a goodbye as she left. Probably afraid she might be disobeying a Dreamwarden already.

Phobia Remedy looked down at her with a kindly gaze. "As for your fear. I don't have much to say that can make that go away, but I can help you understand it. There have already been talks with your parents about what happens when you go off to college. Specifically concerning your brother. Nothing is decided yet as we still haven't discussed it with him, but the option of him staying with us has been brought up."

"I don't want that," Jessie sobbed.

Phobia crooked her head. "Your choice to pursue college unfortunately will be the catalyst, but you don't always get to be the determining choice in what happens. You are so eager to grow up so soon, and to tell the truth the world needs you to. Growing up means change though. Sometimes it means changes we don't like. What is best for your brother might not be what you would want to happen, but it is what needs to happen."

"What if I took my time and stayed in high school all four years?" She asked as she considered her options.

"You buy some time with him here, but no matter what at some point the two of you will have to part ways. Your parents may choose to move before then as well just to be prepared to get you straight into college after you finish high school. Your time is short with him regardless. You set this path, and you need to accept what is involved."

Anger welled up in her. "And what about all the friends I'm making now? What's the point of friends if I have to just leave and abandon them? Why did everyone convince me to make friends if I'm just going to lose them?"

Phobia Remedy sat down beside her. "Friendships can be maintained over a distance. While you’re away you can call them and when you return as I’m sure you will you can see them. Perhaps if that is not enough, I can talk to your parents about letting you dreamwalk when it is time for you to move on. That way you can see them every night. The skills you're gaining now making friends will help you make new friends wherever you go as well."

"It won't be the same," she said as she dug at the grass.

"Nothing ever is," Phobia Remedy said in a quiet tone. "Change can be hard, but that's part of moving forward. You're going out into the adult world much sooner than most, and learning to deal with things you don’t like happening is part of that journey."

"I'm just a little filly," she whispered. "It's not fair."

"It's hard to accept now, but you'll come to understand in time that this is just opening new doors," the Dreamwarden replied. Phobia Remedy then wrapped a wing around her and pulled her into an embrace. "If I could make the world fair I would, but it doesn't work that way. No matter who you are, life is full of conflict and tension, fear and passion, anger and sorrow; it is about rising to the occasion over these things and growing for it. You've got a lot of growing left to do, and I hope you make the most of it."

She leaned into the comfort of the Dreamwarden's embrace. She could understand all that was being said to her in her head, but her heart couldn't accept it. Not for the first time she wished she were normal, and then she would have many more years for her heart to learn to accept this.

Wild stepped out of her bathroom and looked around her massive living room. Her papa was passed out on the couch with the television on. Trying to keep up with her mama had been far more activity than he was used to. One of the crystal ponies, the mare, was on a nearby couch watching news reports of riots in Colorado Springs. The other three ponies were at her bar with one of the unicorns acting as bartender. There was no sign of George, and more importantly, no sign of her mama.

She immediately walked over to the mare sitting on her couch. "Where is she? You're supposed to be keeping track of her."

The mare didn't seem particularly concerned and pointed a hoof up at the ceiling. "She's upstairs somewhere. We've got a good read on the spell's signature and we're keeping track of her with that. As long as she doesn't go any further than this building we know where she's at--at least as long as the spell lasts."

"And what if it comes to an end and she falls down?" Wild demanded with gritted teeth. "She'll be helpless when she reverts back to human form, and this place is big enough that it could take several minutes to track her down after that happens."

The mare waved her hoof dismissively. "That spell is still going strong. We'd know if it were weakening enough to worry about it. I'm not chasing your mother everywhere. If you haven't noticed she's more hyperactive than a night pony filly on coffee. Do you want us to be too tired to do our jobs when the time comes to do them?"

She snorted her annoyance and decided to drop it. Her mama wouldn't stay up there for long. It was only a matter of time before she wanted her magic fix. This was a good enough time to relax after a long day and a few minutes where she didn't have her mama hanging off her like a leech. She loved her mama, and was happy this seemed to be working out, but the constant feeding off her was getting grating.

Her papa stirred from his sleep after she jostled him by hopping up to sit next to him. He gave a big stretching yawn and looked around. "Where's your mother?"

"Exploring upstairs I guess. There shouldn't be anything she can get into that can hurt her," she replied as she tried to focus on the television.

Her papa started to stand up. "Maybe I should go find her."

"Sit down, Papa. Let her wander around," she ordered, contrary to what she wanted to do. "She could use a few minutes where she isn't right up in everyone's face. She has to learn how to lay off socializing a little bit."

Her papa sat back down. "I guess so. I just worry about her."

"Since I don't see George anywhere I'm guessing he's keeping an eye on her."

"Is that the stuffy human guy who was here?" The crystal mare asked. "If that's him he did go with her upstairs and she was talking his ear off."

"See, she's fine. George will watch her," she said, feeling more confident about it herself. She turned to the ponies at her bar. "Hey! If you three are just going to raid my stuff without asking or paying for it will you at least take the time to pour me a mug of orange juice and bring it here? Plain orange juice, not spiked."

The unicorn promptly followed through with her request and she thanked him as she grabbed the mug with both forehooves and took a drink. She then turned her attention back to the television and tried to zone out as the hour was getting late. Her attention was legitimately caught as she spotted them interviewing a pair of ponies and she recognized the earth pony.

"This talk about rioting is completely overblown. It was just some teenagers being teenagers," Theresa Perkins said into reporter's microphone. A much younger pegasus mare--one at that age young ponies went through where she'd reached her adult height but her body was thin and stretched out like she was emaciated--was hovering in the air behind her looking like she'd rather be anywhere else. The younger mare was wearing what looked like a numbered flight suit marked with colors that matched the banners in the background.

"As a witness to what happened how about you tell our viewers about it," the reporter said.

"There's not much to say. My daughter's flight team was performing for everypony and then a bunch of young stallions got out on the field and started yelling about how the government was out to get ponies. The police, who weren't all humans mind you, went out to try to get them off the field and there was a little scuffle."

"And how do you feel about human and pony relations after this? Do you feel this has escalated tensions?"

Thersea's eyes narrowed and her teeth grit. "Honestly, every time anything happens around here we have reporters swarming in here flashing cameras. This town doesn't have any problems with humans and ponies getting along. We've got a lot of mixed families here, like mine, and everything is fine. Stop looking for trouble where there is none. We're all sick of you coming to Colorado Springs and treating us like we're some powder keg waiting to blow."

"You tell them Theresa. Don't let them try to turn something small into something bigger than what it is," Wild said proudly.

"You know her?" Her papa asked.

Wild flicked an ear. "Not really, but I met her and remember her. Sunset sent me out there to deliver a check to her family once. Her husband is a human and he got caught in some Shimmerist violence and hurt. It was a publicity stunt on Sunset's part, but it was still good to be helping pay for his rehab costs and helping get them back on their hooves and feet. I got the chance to talk to them a little bit. They're good people."

"If her husband is human maybe he would be interested in this kind of spell," her papa suggested.

Wild scrunched up her muzzle. "That I'm not sure about. We're still a long way from this going public. As Mama has shown we've still got a lot of bugs to work out. Maybe in the fu--" she stopped talking the moment a pair of forelegs grabbed onto her neck from behind, her first reaction was to try to subdue whoever it was, but thankfully she got a whiff of the person in time and stopped herself. "Mama! Don't sneak up on me like that! I almost hurt you."

She turned around to see her mama hanging over the back of the couch with a crestfallen look on her face. There was orange juice spilled all over the couch because Wild had dropped her mug in her shock. "Mama, I didn't mean to yell at you, but you can't be doing that. I'm too tense about that kind of thing and even though you might be the strongest you've ever been right now I'm still strong enough to easily hurt you by accident."

George came running up looking out of breath. "I apologize, ma'am. She got away from me. She's just so fast on her hooves. One minute she was right beside me and the next she is galloping down the stairs."

That her mama moved that fast without being heard was impressive. It brought up another concern though. "Galloping down the stairs? As in actually galloping down the stairs? Mama, please be careful. You're going to get yourself hurt."

"I'm not a little foal. You don't need to scold me like one," her mama said ruefully as she let herself slide off the back of the couch. She then walked around the couch, still shining brightly despite her hurt expression. "I just wanted to give you a hug."

You just wanted to leech more magic off me. Wild thought but decided not to say. "Mama, just try to be careful. We've got you healthy and able to move around on your own again. Please, don't do something that's going to end with you getting hurt."

The older mare looked like she was going to argue again, but the fight seemed to go out of her a second later. "Okay, you're right. I probably need to have somepony talk sense to me while I'm busy being excited."

Wild sighed. "We're going to have to break you of those pony pronouns. You sound like a western pony. It's getting late and we've all had a long day. How about I show everyone to their rooms and we can start fresh tomorrow, okay?"

"Getting some sleep does sound like a good idea, hun," her papa said as he stood up from the couch just to crouch down next to his wife. "You're not used to being this active. You may be wearing yourself out and not realizing it. I'd like to have some personal time with you myself. I know you've been eager to talk to all the people you normally don't get to, but I want time with you too."

Her mama looked stricken by her papa's comment. "Oh Roger, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to ignore you. I just...well--you already explained it for me. The rest of the night can be just you and me."

"Maybe we can do something a bit more personal..." Her papa suggested in a mischievous voice. "...we haven't been able to in a long time."

Her mama's expression turned to a coy one. "Roger, I never knew you were a furry."

"Only for you."

"Well, I guess I could be into humans, just for you."

Wild waved a hoof. "NOPE! I didn't need to hear all that, and just so I don't end up hearing anything else I'd rather not, you two are going to room at the end of the hall away from me." She turned to the ponies freeloading at her bar. "Come on, let me show you to your rooms before you all drink my bar dry."

The ponies of the bar grumbled, but did as instructed. In a short amount of time she was upstairs and directing each person to their rooms. As she said she would she put her mama and papa in the room farthest from her on the floor, with the other ponies placed in rooms close by. She had no intention of listening to their late night activities through the walls. She was surprised to learn Number was actually here sound asleep in her customary guest room. She'd been here all day apparently. George confirmed that the unicorn was just exhausted and drunk, this wasn't the first time this had ever happened so she wasn't that concerned about it. Number did more than enough to be allowed to freeload unannounced.

It was just as well she placed her parents where she had; she'd originally planned to put them in the room right next to her but had forgotten she'd already ordered the staff to start converting that to a nursery. They moved fast on their instructions, and the room had already been stripped of everything inside it and whitewashed in preparation of whatever design choices she might have for it. Before going to bed she briefly stepped into the nursery to be and could still smell the paint fumes from the flurry of activity that had gone on here while she was away. She tried to picture the finished product; placing a cradle and crib in one area with her imagination, a rocking chair for her to sit in another spot, and going through various themes of wallpapers without anything really standing out as the best choice. In some ways this was still like a dream that this was happening. It was reality though, and now that her mama had been helped this was going to become more a priority...at least once the bugs with her mama had been worked out.

With a last glance she turned the light out and went into her own room. Glad that she was home and not dressed in a suit that she needed to carefully undress from she simply climbed into her oversized bed--which would have been huge even for a human couple--and curled up with a pillow clutched in her hooves. In no time at all she was asleep.

Her dreams were a mass of conflicting concepts and ideas. Sunset Blessing was doing her best Victor Frankenstein impression. Her mama was running through a dark castle drinking blood and blah blahing like Dracula. Her foal was bursting through her torso like an alien from the Aliens movie. People were running through the streets with torches and pitchforks. Poly Glot being wheeled into a cell bound up like Hanibal Lector.

To say the least her dreams weren't pleasant and she woke in a cold sweat part way through the night. When she did she jumped again, blinded by the glittering pony form of her mama asleep beside her, with a hoof pressed up against her flank.

Author's Note

There will be one more chapter sometime before BronyCon. Next chapter after that might be as much as two weeks after Bronycon though as I'll be attending that and not likely doing much writing that week.

Chapter 17: Legacies

Jessie woke up to something shaking her. She blinked to clear the sleep from her eyes and looked up to see her dad.

"Sorry to wake you, big girl, but I wanted to be here to give you the big news," her dad said with a huge stupid grin on his face.

"Big news?" She asked in confusion, not really awake yet. It was just occurring to her that she was on one of Phobia Remedy's pillows in the Dreamwarden's living room.

"You've got offers to attend several universities, big name ones," her dad said excitedly.

"What? This must be a dream. I haven't applied to any universities yet," she said as she tried to roll over and get back to sleep--despite her apparently already being asleep.

"Your dad is overstating things and getting ahead of himself," she heard Ms. Rosetta say from nearby. "You have been contacted by several universities though, or at least Phobia has on your behalf, and you aren't dreaming."

She sat up at that and looked around. Her dad and Ms. Rosetta were sitting close by her. Jackie and Jordan were on a couch and looked like they were waking up due to the commotion. Phobia Remedy was sitting at the computer desk reading something. There was no sign of her brother, the demons, or anyone else.

"What do they want?" She asked as she looked over at the Dreamwarden.

The Dreamwarden kept reading but answered her all the same. "You linked together the work of several different university research teams when you did your work. What you didn't do was give them proper credit and citation when you did it. They are being pretty forgiving since you're so young, but they want their proper credit given. Some of them have also been asking for your school records. You did impress them all with how you were able to draw connections and links between their independent works. They're willing to give you credit for how you did so, but you need to give them their credit for doing the majority of the work."

That woke her up the rest of the way. "But it isn't a proper academic paper! I don't even know how to write a proper academic paper other than for school. I mean, I could probably figure it out, but it's just the stuff from my notebook. I didn't mean to do anything bad."

"We know you didn't," her dad said as his excitement visibly lowered, but he now seemed amused. "People at universities can just get really picky about making sure they're given credit. Phobia sent them copies of what you did and they immediately started thinking about making sure people knew they helped come up with parts of it. What I think is important is that you got their attention." He turned towards Phobia Remedy. "Which ones were asking for her school records again?"

Phobia Remedy stopped what she was reading and looked at something that was written down on a sheet of paper. "Berkeley, Cornell, Stanford, University of Michigan, Yale, and the International School of Friendship. Berkeley, Cornell, Yale, and Harvard are the ones asking for her to include them in giving credit. That makes Harvard the only one that isn't already trying to see if she is a potential student out of the ones she borrowed from."

"Some of the others might be interested and just haven't gotten to asking yet, that was a pretty large list of universities you sent her notes off to, and those few moved pretty fast. I don't recall you sending anything to Twilight's school though," Ms. Rosetta said with a chuckle.

Phobia shrugged and went back to reading. "I sent it to Twilight Sparkle so it amounts to much the same thing."

"Why'd you send them all my notes?" Jessie asked in confusion.

Phobia kept reading. "Because I needed to make sure that your work is showing what I think it is showing. To do that I needed qualified professional opinions. I sent it to the majority of the top universities to let the doctors in them take a look. I'm kind of surprised at how fast I got responses back since I sent them out during a holiday, but it seems like your notes created quite a buzz in the academic community--at least among math and physics departments."

"You're fudging on the truth, Phobia," Ms. Rosetta scolded.

Phobia Remedy turned in her seat to look at her wife. "Are you calling a Dreamwarden a liar?"

"I'm saying you aren't being fully honest with her," Ms. Rosetta said without so much as flinching, instead giving her wife a flat look. "You take after your mother in that. Leaving things out to distort the truth."

Phobia Remedy flicked her tail and looked back at Jessie. "I was almost certain of it myself, as I know a lot about a lot of subjects. Just because I know a lot doesn't mean I can't be wrong though. My fellow Dreamwardens draw from the same sources of knowledge as me so they can't count as second opinions. Another thing I needed was for the academic community to back what your equations are showing as most wouldn't take a Dreamwarden's word for it." She looked back at her wife. "I didn't lie."

"Just fudged the truth by leaving out important details, as I said," Ms. Rosetta said with a smirk. Ms. Rosetta was a very brave pony to be taunting a Dreamwarden like that, even one she was married to.

Phobia Remedy sighed and looked back at Jessie. "They apparently already have lots of ideas that they are coming up with based on the connections you made, and they are eager to get to work expanding on those ideas. For the sake of academic integrity they want to see what you did converted into a formal academic paper, properly cited, so that they can in turn properly cite your work when they begin releasing their results."

Her ears dropped. "But...I thought this was my project. My thing to figure out."

Phobia Remedy gave her a sympathetic look. "You did a lot making the connections you did, and I'm sure you will do other great things in the future. If I didn't think so I wouldn't be telling you how important you are in helping fight the Devourers. You already provided a critical piece in doing so, and minds like yours will be important in that fight. Right now this is going to be worked on by experienced physicists as they develop and better resolve everything involved. You'll have opportunities to do other things in the future."

"Big girl, you still did a lot to impress them. I'm sure they think you have a big future in physics if a lot of them are already asking about your school records," her dad assured her as he ran a hand over her ears. "After you go off to college and really get to expanding your education I'm sure you'll be blowing everyone away with the new things you come up with. You'll be like the next Steven Hawking."

"I thought I was blowing them away now with this, but they're taking it away from me and saying I need to come up with something new now," she whimpered as she wiped her nose. "And I don't know if I want to go straight to college or not next year now. Things have gotten all weird."

"This is still yours, sweetie," her dad said as he seemed to be getting concerned. "I didn't realize how possessive you were of this. They are going to make sure you get credit, don't worry about that."

She shook her head. "It's not okay. I was supposed to be doing something big and important and now it is going to be somebody else. I don't know if I'll ever come up with something big like this again. All my friends are here and so is Robby. I don't want to leave them if I'm not doing important stuff."

"What?" Her dad asked as he sat back.

"The stuff Phobia Remedy was talking to me about," she mumbled.

Her dad turned to the Dreamwarden. Phobia looked uncomfortable as she spoke. "I don't have her permission yet to discuss these things with you. I don't think I'm the one you need to talk to anyway. Go ahead and ask her. I'm confident she'll say her mind. She's a very open foal."

He turned back to her. "Jessie, do you want to talk about what's bothering you?"

She looked briefly at her two friends, who were now awake and looking on at her curiously, before turning back to him while holding back tears. "I was thinking about what happens when I go to college. We'll have to move. When we move I will be taken away from my friends and maybe even Robby. Plus, Phobia was telling me how important I am for fighting the Devourers, but the big important thing I was doing was that stuff in my notebook and I'm not even going to be working on that anymore. It's like everything gets taken away from me."

"Jessie's going away?" Jordan whimpered on the couch. "I don't want her to go away."

"You're not allowed to go away. You'll make Jordan cry!" Jackie yelled as she scrambled to her hooves while beating her wings for balance, inadvertently buffeting her little sister in the process.

Phobia partially covered her head in embarrassment with a wing. "Maybe I should have taken my sisters out of the room before this conversation started."

"Ya think?" Rosetta snorted and then moved towards the two fillies. "Jessie isn't going anywhere right now. How about you two come with me and we can bake some cookies together. Robby and the others should be back downstairs soon and we can all sit down and have cookies together."

"I guess making cookies would be good, but what about Jessie?" Jordan asked, still looking on the verge of tears.

"I'll be there in a few minutes," Jessie called out after calming down a little herself. She even paused and tried to figure out why because it didn't make much sense to her. It seemed like Jordan getting upset should just make her more upset, but something made her gain focus with hearing her friend unhappy. She tried to figure it out and pulled a blank, and not resolving why frustrated her. She needed to ask about this.

"I'll come and help," Phobia Remedy said as she hopped down from her chair.

Ms. Rosetta laid a single ear back. "I'm not going to accidently poison the foals making cookies. I'm not that bad a cook."

"I didn't say you are dear," Phobia Remedy said without stopping her advance to the kitchen.

"You're just supervising, not taking over the baking," Ms. Rosetta instructed as she swished her tail about.

"Just supervising," Phobia Remedy agreed as she walked into the kitchen. "Making sure no fires start."

"That only happened twice!" Ms. Rosetta said as her ears went flat.

"Would you prefer I didn't help?" Phobia Remedy called back from the kitchen.

The Spanish and history teacher shook her head in defeat. "Okay, but only verbal advice. I'm going to make a perfect batch of cookies."

"I believe in you dear," Phobia called out in reply as the sink could be heard turning on in the kitchen.

"Aww, but a fire would be cool!" Jackie chimed in as the full group vanished into the kitchen.

Her dad sat down next to her and sighed. "Jessie, let me tell you about my life when I was growing up. I know they haven't come by much, but you remember my parents, right?"

She nodded. "Meme and Pepaw." She always thought those terms were silly, but they seemed to prefer them. They were both pegasi and lived up in North Carolina.

"Your Pepaw was in the military, and we traveled a lot because of that when I was growing up. They called kids like me military brats," her dad explained as he laid a hand on her back. "Up until I was about Robby's age I don't think we lived in the same city for two years straight, sometimes not even the same country. I lived on military bases a lot and the other kids would be going through the same thing where they were constantly moving, but different places than me. It was always new people every year and I didn't really have any long lasting friendships because of that."

"So you know how I'm feeling then," Jessie replied as her ears picked up.

He nodded back. "Yes, I understand how you're feeling. I always wondered what would have been different if I hadn't moved around so much. I can tell you one thing thing that would have been different though; you and your brothers wouldn't exist."

Her ears laid back again. "Huh?"

He smiled at her. "If my parents had stayed back where I was born and not moved about I'd have grown up in Louisiana. I'd have probably gone to college there too. Moving around did cause some struggles with maintaining friendships growing up, but eventually we did settle down and I did make friends. I also got put in a position where I would meet your mother."

"That doesn't mean good things couldn't happen if I stayed here," she countered.

He paused and then brushed her ears again with his hand. "You've got so much potential. You're one of the smartest people in the whole world, and that's not just fatherly pride talking. It's my job, along with your mother's, to see that you get every opportunity to turn that potential into something great. Your mom has been wanting to give you more time here, but she and I both know that to really see you be all you can be that you'll need to move on eventually."

"But what about Robby? Phobia Remedy said he might not move with us," she said as tears started building again.

Her dad looked down. "Robby is a complicated matter. There's a lot of things that factor in with what will happen with him, not least of which is what he wants to do. Him staying here is an opportunity for him as well. Not many night ponies can claim they get personal training from a Dreamwarden. A lot of those younger mares outside guarding are here because it looks good that they were guards for Phobia Remedy for anyone looking at job applications in the future. Phobia Remedy is a very good person to have listed as a reference and we want to give him every opportunity to succeed in life too."

"But leaving him here while we move is too much," Jessie protested as she stood to her hooves and glared at her dad.

"We don't know if that will happen yet, and if if did we would still see that he spent part of every summer and every major holiday with us still. We could still call him every day and he could dreamwalk you every night. We wouldn't be removing him from our lives."

"What are you two talking about?" She heard Robby ask.

She and her dad both turned to see Robby standing at the base of the stairs with the twins standing just behind him and Alfie crawling underneath Robby's legs like he was looking for protection. Ms. Rosetta stepped out of the kitchen with a concerned look on her face.

"Diablos, vayan a la cocina," the night pony mare called out and gestured towards the kitchen.

The three demons turned and scampered off towards the kitchen, with Alfie giving Robby one last worried look before vanishing out of sight. Ms. Rosetta watched her foals' progress and then looked back at Robby once more like she wanted to say something before glancing at Jessie's dad. After a moment of indecision she then turned and walked away quickly into the kitchen as the only sounds in the house seemed to be the sound of Phobia Remedy instructing her sisters on what ingredients were needed for cookies.

"Robby, I can explain," her dad began.

"Explain what? That you're thinking about leaving me with someone again to deal with Jessie's stuff, only this time it's permanent?" Robby asked in a near growl as he slightly spread his wings. The sound of his growl made her flatten her ears.

"Robby..." she whimpered at her brother's hostility.

He looked at her and his expression softened just a smidge. "Jessie, I love you to death. You're my little sister and nothing is ever going to change that. Please don't think I'm mad at you." He turned back towards their dad. "But I always get swept aside for you. From the day you were born, it was clear you were always going to be the one they'd focus on; that I was just in the way. I'm mad at them, not you."

"It isn't like that, Robby. If you'd just give me time to explain--" her dad tried to say.

"Or maybe I'm wrong," Robby continued over their dad. "Maybe now that Dusk is born she'll get pushed aside too for the new special kid since you don't have time for more than one. Already have her doing sleepovers right after he is born after all."

"Robert Middleton, that is enough! ¡Estás siendo irrespetuoso con tus padres!" Ms. Rosetta shouted as she marched back into the living room. "You're free to express your mind, but apologize for your tone now."

"I don't need help dealing with this, Rosetta," her dad snapped as he glared her.

The mare glared back at him. "Apparently you do. He is a night pony, you must be firm with him when he is out of line. He respects strength, not someone who let's him walk all over them in an argument. Even if he wasn't a night pony you should be firmer." She turned back to Robby and flared her wings. "I expect to hear the apology now, Robert!"

Robby glowered for a second then lowered his head and took a deep breath before looking back at their dad. "I'm sorry for my tone, but I'm not sorry for what I said."

Ms. Rosetta put her wings back down. "Satisfactory. Be more civil with your father. Argue all you want, but don't you dare take that kind of tone towards him under my roof again. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, ma'am," Robby said with his head still lowered.

Ms. Rosetta's expression softened. "And do let him finish what he has to say to you. You might find you're being unfair in your judgement if you do." She then turned and started back into the kitchen. "You better not have started mixing batter without me! Alfie, don't leave the kitchen," she shouted towards the kitchen.

"Robby, let's just sit down and talk about th--" her dad started again, but Robby held a wing up to cut him off once more.

"Can we do this later, please?" Robby asked, purposely looking away from their dad. "She wants me to be reasonable, but I'm too angry to be that right now."

Their dad ran a hand through his hair and bit his lip. "Okay, that's perfectly fair. Take the time you need to--" He didn't get to finish before Robby opened his wings with an audible snap and flew straight back up the stairs.

Her dad sat down with a groan and she walked over to him and laid down against him. "What am I going to do with him? I try my best with him, but don't know how to do right by him."

She was unsure if this question was directed at her or rhetorical but she decided to answer anyway. "Why don't you just do what Ms. Rosetta said?"

Her dad sighed. "Because I promised myself I was always going to be a reasonable parent who resolved things by talking things through with my kids. My parents were always really firm with me and I felt like I wasn't listened to. I wanted to be better. Maybe she's right, but I can't bring myself to do it."

"You do it when it comes to those mares and fillies," she reminded him.

"That's different," her dad replied with a shake of his head. He then looked down at her. "And this isn't a conversation I should really be having with you."

She pursed her lips before replying. "Both him and I are angry about the same things, kinda anyway, but I do like to talk things out. So you can talk to me."

Her dad sat and looked at her and then looked at the stairs Robby had gone up. "I think I agree with Robby about one thing. We need to take a break from the subject so we can get our thoughts together. I want to give you both good answers that you deserve, but I need to get my head in the game and talk to your mother about how to discuss this with each of you first. We didn't think we had to discuss this yet so we didn't have a good plan on how to do it, but it is obvious we'll have to sooner than we thought. Just give me a few days and I promise I'll talk to each of you about it, deal?"

She wanted to push, but she recalled what Robby said about her being worse than Jordan and Jackie about not letting questions go. "Okay, if you promise."

"I promise," her dad assured her. He then stood up. "I need to get back to your mom. I brought over your books and school supplies so you'd have them in the morning. Phobia said she'd make sure you were at school on time."

"How is she getting me to school?" It hadn't occurred to her until now that she had no idea how she was going to get to school. The demons went to school on a completely different schedule than her, and her parents normally drove her to school.

"She said that Crystal was getting a new car today and would be getting you there," her dad explained.

She frowned. "Um, ponies don't drive cars."

Her dad shrugged. "All I can say is that's what she said, and Phobia doesn't have a reason to lie."

She'd have to ask about that, but later. Right now she was just going to go bake cookies with her friends. She didn't know how to bake cookies and she wanted to learn. Plus she didn't know how much time she had left with her friends.

"¡Fuego!" She heard Charlotte yell excitedly.

"Your Spanish is very good, Charlotte, but please step out of the way so Mommy can get the fire extinguisher."

"¡No otra vez!" Ms. Rosetta could be heard yelling in despair.

Or maybe she was learning more about kitchen safety, whatever worked as long as she got her time with friends in.

"I need answers, Sunset," Wild said into her phone. She was in the bathroom because it seemed to be the only place her mama would give her a little bit of privacy.

"It doesn't take a magical genius to figure it out, Wild. She doesn't want to transform back and is doing everything she can to keep it going. I'll have them continue to run tests, and in a few days if this hasn't worn off we'll bring it to an end ourselves," Sunset replied over the phone.

"She climbed into bed with me last night," Wild whispered back harshly. "Your crystal ponies say that she should have been good to go for the full night on what she had absorbed just before going to bed."

"Maybe she just didn't want to risk it," Sunset suggested.

Wild shook her head. "This is not normal behavior."

"What's normal about her situation at all? We need time to figure that out. Don't go panicking," Sunset replied in an exasperated tone. "She's just being clingy to the person she feels is her lifeline for staying healthy, can you really blame her for that? We can't keep it going indefinitely, but we need data about this. Just be happy she has some time to be healthy."

"When are you going to have your mages do a thorough examination again?" Wild asked as her ears picked up the sound of movement just outside the bathroom. She didn't have to guess who was out there.

"I'll leave instructions for them to do a full line of tests tonight," Sunset answered. "I've got to switch out who's with you anyway. They've been good sports about it, but the ones with you I didn't give much notice they were going to be spending the night away from their homes and families."

She hadn't really considered that. Maybe she should be a bit nicer towards her extra guests considering the inconvenience this was putting them through. Her mama's behavior just had her too much on edge.

"I have to do the annual final harvest in a few hours. Do you think she'll be okay being left alone for a few hours or do I need to bring her along with me?" She asked as she tried to figure out how to deal with her mama for the remainder of the day.

Sunset was silent for a few seconds before replying. "The world already knows about her so bring her with you and keep some guards near her. No reason to keep her under lock and key. Just keep her away from talking to the media. I’m sure you’ll have Number Crunch with you, have her run interference on that; she knows how to deal with them. I’m only going to be there a little while so I won’t be able to help you."

"Where are you taking off to? I need you there," Wild demanded.

Sunset snorted. "It's a private matter concerning me and my wife. It doesn't concern you and is none of your business."

She lowered her voice to a whisper and brought the phone on her leg almost up to where it was touching her muzzle. "I don’t know what you’re thinking, but this isn't the time for you to be laying low. We've got protests going on and my mama is acting strange while under the affects of your magic. I need you figuring out solutions for helping resolve these bugs and to calm people down."

"I'll see that everything is taken care of, but I'm not answerable to you," Sunset replied in a cold voice.

"I'll bring it up with the SPEC board," Wild countered. "You're answerable then."

"Go right ahead. Maybe you should vote to have me replaced while you're at it," Sunset replied flippantly.

Wild blinked. "You escalated that quickly. There's no need to be dramatic."

Sunset sighed. "I'm done, Wild. This was my last great project. If you aren't happy with the way I'm doing things then give me a vote of no confidence and take this job for yourself. I plan on stepping down after the new year anyway and we both know you're the one most likely to succeed me."

"I'm pregnant, you can't dump everything on me like that. I need time to have my foal, recover, be a mother. I can't be running your secret empire."

"You could refuse, but we both know you won't. You feel too much responsibility and can't stop thinking of the good you could do. I know you, Wild."

"I know you too, Sunset. You wouldn't just release control like that. You treasure the power too much. You've got some plan to use me as a puppet while you don't have to deal with the fallout yourself if anything goes wrong. There is something wrong already and you aren't doing anything to fix it because you don't want to admit whatever you did isn't right."

"No… times change," Sunset said in a low voice. "No hooks, no secret agendas, just you taking over and me stepping away. I've done what I set out to do. Perfecting this spell will be in the hands and hooves of others. There needs to be a pony everyone trusts at the helm through this period and that pony is you. I'm a master at putting together the work of others into something new, but I'm not a creator of fresh ideas. You won't get the solutions you want from me. If you want the issues resolved get a coalition of mages and scientists together to find answers."

She bared her teeth at the phone. "You planned to dump this on me from the start. Ensuring your legacy lives on but everyone else has to deal with the fallouts."

"Since I've been a pony I've always won. Even the one time I lost I still count it as a win. I'm going to dip out on a perfect record. The person I lost to once asked if I was a gambler, and the answer is no. I know when to take what I've won and walk away. I'll see the future is ensured. That will happen through you because you are too much of a bleeding heart not to see to it."

"What if I tell the government what you did to my mother? They'll shut this down if they find out it turns them into magic addicts. What will become of your legacy then?" She snapped.

"It will be thrown in the garbage for sure, but that won't happen," Sunset replied dismissively "You need this to be right and you need the experiments to continue. You won't blow the lid off what could help so many. You'll see that the problems are resolved. If you don't your mother and others will suffer, and you won't let that happen. You care too much just to sink my legacy out of spite."

That manipulative bitch! The worst part was she was right. There was no way Wild would allow this to be shut down, not with the good it could do.

"Why are you so angry, Wild? Do you really think I matter so much in the resolution of the problems? I'm honored you think so highly of my skills as a mage, but they can be resolved without me. We both knew there were going to be some things that needed ironing out. If you're not happy with the way I'm handling it at this stage take control yourself and do it the way you think is best. I know you will do all you can do and you'll find the solutions. It isn't in you not to."

"Tell me, and tell me the truth; did you do this on purpose just to force me to take control? Did you deliberately screw up?" She said in a low voice. "Just tell me. Tell me that you did it on purpose and that you already know how to fix it. I'll take your damn job and won't say a thing, please.. just tell me you know how to fix it."

"I didn't know this would happen and I didn't do it on purpose. I’m sorry, I don't have any easy fix sitting aside ready to go--not unless you want me to permanently transform her and break the law...perhaps you do as you could just throw me under the bus for it. You seem to think I'm out to hurt ponies to get what I want, but I didn't need to hurt anypony in this case. It is just an unfortunate occurrence. We haven't even confirmed she is hurt by this yet. Do what you think you need to do. One way or another I know you'll see this spell perfected and a perfected version put to use. My legacy is secure no matter what."

The phone hung up without a goodbye said and Wild stared at the phone band on her leg for a minute before slamming it against the wall. The wall and the phone were both shattered. She opened up the door to the bathroom with a snarl and forgot that right outside the door she had someone waiting for her.

"Catherine...are you okay?" Her mama said with her eyes wide and her ears flattened against her skull. She was cowering down low. All eyes in the living room were on Wild and everyone looked like they were wondering if they should be running for their lives.

The anger went out of her as quickly as it had risen as she realized she had everyone deathly afraid of her, even her parents and Number. It has been a long time since she'd lost control of her temper. Her posture sagged and she took a few deep breaths to calm herself. "I'll deal with it. I'm sorry if I scared any of you, was just something over the phone, don’t worry about it."

Her mama didn't get up and her eyes glistened. "Oh...Catherine, I… I heard some of your conversation. I didn't mean too, it's just so easy with pony ears. Is there really something wrong with me? I didn't mean to make you mad."

"Mama..." How do you have a conversation with your mama about the fact she's an addict? "None of this is your fault, but there’s something not right about your transformation. I'm going to do everything I can to make it better. You're sapping magic way more than you need to be. I understand why you don't want to transform back, but this isn't meant to keep going like this. It's supposed to be reapplied regularly after wearing off. You could be hurting yourself and you're behaving almost like a drug addict when it comes to magic."

Her mama crawled backwards a few steps. "I'm...I'm fine I don't need to get magic."

Wild frowned down at her. "If that’s true, why were you waiting for me right outside the bathroom? Why do you hang off me constantly and not others? Why did I find you curled up in my bed last night asleep and still sucking magic from me as you slept like a baby sucking on a bottle?"

"She what?" Her papa asked in shock from the couch.

Wild turned to her papa. "I got her back to your room and in bed without waking you up. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it, but it is a big deal. She's got a problem."

"I don't remember doing that. I really don't. Maybe you just dreamed it," her mama whimpered as she shivered on the floor.

"Ma'am, I've been watching you since you got up. You have kept glancing in Wild's direction no matter where she is at, even when she's not in sight and no one should know for sure where she is," Number chimed in from where she had been eating breakfast in a chair.

"She's locked onto Wild Growth's magic signature. She can tell where it is within a certain range," one of the crystal ponies said thoughtfully. "Usually it takes a while to learn how to do that."

Wild raised her eyebrows at the scared crystal pony in front of her. "Is that true, Mama?"

"I'm not...how would I know… I don't think I am," her mama answered in a low voice.

"She might really not be aware of it. If she considers it her source of sustenance she might be doing it subconsciously," one of the unicorns said thoughtfully as he stared at her mama. "Come to think of it. I'm not sure I've seen her actually eat anything since she transformed."

Her mama started to cry in earnest now. "Why is everypony being so mean to me? Ponies are supposed to nice. Just leave me alone!"

"We're not trying to be mean to you, Mama. We're trying to figure out what's wrong and how to help you," Wild said as kindly as she could, afraid she'd been too firm with dealing with her.

"That's enough!" her papa shouted as he got up from where he was sitting and hurried over to where her mama was huddled on the floor. He bent down and hugged her and she wrapped her forelegs around his neck. He then picked her up--not an easy feat for a man his age considering crystal ponies were second to earth ponies in terms of weight--and gave the room a glare. "I'm taking her upstairs. Give her some space. I don't know what is going on with her but I do know that you're upsetting her and scaring her. And I won't have it."

She watched as he started walking up the stairs still holding her mama and she flattened her ears. "Maybe you should let me carry her up. You shouldn't be trying to carry that much weight up the stairs."

"You've done enough, Catherine," her papa snapped without even turning to look at her. He very carefully took one step at a time going up the stairs, and she held her breath until she heard him finally reach the second floor.

Everyone else in the room seemed to try not to look at her as she turned back at them. George was the first to break the silence as he headed towards the kitchen. "I'll make some calls and see about getting the bathroom repaired and remodeled." He hadn't even seen the damage yet, but he'd probably heard it. For all she knew the whole house might have quaked under her blow.

She focused on the unicorns and the crystal ponies who had been eating breakfast. "Are you employed by SPEC or the federal government?" She asked.

"SPEC," one of the unicorns answered quickly.

She narrowed her eyes. "Then let me make something clear. I expect you all to be trying to figure out what's wrong with her right now. I expect you to tell me what you figure out as you figure it out. Do you understand me?"

"We answer to Sunset Ble--" one of the crystal ponies began.

"I am the number two person on the board of SPEC and I am the primary financer of SPEC. Your paychecks come from my wallet!" She declared loudly. "I am just as much your boss as her. You either work for SPEC or you work for Sunset Blessing, choose now or you’re fired. Do you understand me?"

They all looked at one another with worried glances before one of the unicorns answered. "We understand. We'll get started right away."

"Good," she said through gritted teeth, and then walked over to Number Crunch.

The unicorn looked at her apprehensively. "What did Sunset say that got under you skin so much?"

"How long will it take to get a board meeting called for all the SPEC board members without Sunset's approval?" She asked as she looked her friend in the eyes.

Number flicked an ear as she leaned back in her seat. "I could get it together in two days. What's this about?"

She narrowed her eyes. "I'm going to call for a vote to have us demand Sunset Blessing's resignation, and if she refuses to step down her firing as chairpony. Some things are going to change around here. A lot of things."

"Who's Mama's precious little kitty? You are, yes you are," Sunset said in a voice that dripped affection as she rubbed Satan's back rapidly. The cat seemed to be enjoying the attention immensely. Tonya just rolled her eyes and conceded for the hundredth time that even though she had nothing but animosity towards the scourge of her wings that the cat did indeed make Sunset happy.

Her wife was doing moderately well today. There had been a bout or two of crying, but not too bad. The unicorn did seem to be giving her cat far more attention that usual, not that Satan was complaining about his increased worship. Sunset had gone off an unexpected tangent when on the phone with Wild. While she was overjoyed that Sunset was committing herself to stepping away from her work she was more than a little distressed that it seemed like Sunset might have been burning her bridges with the mighty earth pony to do so. Burning bridges with friends was a bad sign that could indicate several forms of depression, as was her sudden new fascination with showing the cat affection.

What she was observing today wasn't the most concerning things though. Sunset's dreams had been a severe mass of nightmares, not much different than Velvet's days before. It had taken Phobia stepping in to bring them down to manageable levels where Tonya could even begin to try to start helping Sunset with her issues. Phobia would never fully banish nightmares, but even she admitted no progress was going to be made as things had first stood.

Today a lot of things had been her keeping her wife on task. Sunset, have you brushed your mane? Sunset, brush your teeth. Sunset, remember we have to go to the harvest later. Sunset, we're going to the clinic later. The last she really had considered putting aside for another day, because her wife really wasn't in the position to be parenting anything right now, but hope shined eternal that this would pass in just a few weeks; that it was just a funk that needed to be worked through. Sunset also needed her reminders that there was life beyond her job.

They were lounging on one of the living room couches with Tonya to one side, Sunset in the center, and Satan taking up the full other side. The television was off as she didn't want Sunset thinking about the news. She'd personally cooked a large breakfast of oat patties, pancakes, and potatoes for the two of them. She really should be getting on doing dishes, but they could wait till later. Right now she was just trying to enjoy this domestic time with her wife for as long as it would last.

Sunset sat up from her pampering of the cat, something the cat laid his ears back in displeasure of, and sighed. "I suppose I should be making some calls. I need to see how Bill is doing."

"You're supposed to be taking it easy,' Tonya reminded her. "We need to make sure you're taken care of too."

Sunset shook her head. "I'll make it through this. Wild's right, I need to be doing more to help figure out what's going on with this spell."

"Which your mages can do without you," Tonya said as she pressed a wing to her wife's side.

The red unicorn gave the cat another light rub along its back as she hung her head. "She made it seem like I was being heartless and indifferent, that I didn't care, that I'm just some pony out to get what I want for selfish reasons. I don't want to be thought of that way."

She turned and laid both her forehooves on her wife. "You can't please everyone, sunshine. Wild's under a lot of stress, understandably so, but that's blinding her to the fact that you're in no condition to be dealing with all this right now. Your goals aren't selfish, but right now you need to be selfish about taking care of yourself first or you won't be able to help anyone."

"I'm dragging things down with you worrying about me though," Sunset replied. "You were supposed to be checking on Jean last night but you spent all night dealing with me."

"I'll look into her tonight, I promise," she assured her wife. "You were just in too bad a shape for me to leave you." The only interruptions she had last night to dealing with Sunset were getting Phobia to help and one of Sunset's contractors, Silver Eclipse who was trying to find out why he hadn't received any new instructions about the Dreamwarden project at the appointed time this month. She'd blown him off and told him to ask the Dreamwardens directly about it because it wasn't a good time for her.

"I promise not to get into things too much, but let me do just a few bare minimum things with this," Sunset pleaded. "I don't want to hurt anypony with this."

Sunset was still drifting into pony pronouns, a sign of her distress. On the one hoof Sunset really needed to step back, but on the other she was building up a lot of guilt about being seen as uncaring. Typically Sunset didn't care how she was seen by others, for the most part anyway, but right now her image of herself was distorted.

Tonya sighed. "Okay, make a few calls, and get what needs to be done completed. Delegate though, you don't need to be personally involved. You just have to make sure everyone is doing what they should be doing."

Sunset left the couch and walked upstairs, presumably to her office. Tonya sighed and gathered up the plates and silverware onto a tray before carrying them on her back and walked to the kitchen to begin doing dishes. She spent several minutes at this, with time spent where she had to shoo Satan away from trying to bat at her feathers and her tail. With the dishes done she gathered up a feather that Satan had managed to dislodge and walked upstairs to her sewing room where she deposited it with the others.

After noting that the cat had only gotten the feather because she was overdue for a preening she took a few more minutes doing that and added six more feathers to her basket to be used in her sewing later. She briefly considered working on doing some sewing, as she was trying an experiment where she was making a teddy bear and using her feathers for the stuffing, but noted the time that about thirty minutes had passed and she hadn't heard her wife emerge from the office.

She walked across the hall and gently opened the door to step in. She noted there was a privacy spell up around the room, but that was habit for Sunset whenever she was in any office whether at home or at work. "Sunset, are you still busy?" When her eyes fell on her wife she hurried over to her quickly. Sunset was curled up into a tight ball on her chair.

"Sunset? Talk to me. What's wrong?" She asked in a frenzied worry.

Her wife didn't say anything but did turn and look up at her. Sunset's eyes were bloodshot from crying; the privacy spell had kept Tonya from hearing it. The unicorn gripped onto her with her forelegs and pulled them close together to begin crying anew onto Tonya's chest. Tonya could only wrap her wings around her wife and hold her until the crying subsided.

After what seemed like forever Sunset got to where she could talk. "I fucked up. I fucked up so bad."

Tonya felt a chill go down her spine at this. Sunset never described anything she did in such a manner, even when she admitted to being wrong she didn't typically get worked up about it like this. "What's wrong? What do you think you did?"

“I got a call,” the unicorn sniffled. "The unicorns and crystal ponies got a good examination of Jean in just a few minutes ago. They haven't told Wild the results yet even though she's threatened their jobs. They were too scared to tell her."

She frowned hard. "What's wrong with Jean?"

Sunset wiped her muzzle with a foreleg getting snot all over it. "She hasn’t been eating at all. Her body is burning up magic she’s been absorbing from Wild. But that's going to be extremely hard on her body when the spell ends. For a healthy human at this point it would make them very ill for a few days to a week if they weren't eating this long under temporary transformation and we let the spell end, but she’s not healthy."

"If she's getting energy from magic why is it going to... snap back so hard?" She asked in confusion.

"It has to do with the laws of metabolistic energy conversion of magic and cross conversion," Sunset replied. "I’m so stupid for not seeing this before now. It's like her human resonance is being pulled tight like a rubber band and not eating is exacerbating it, pulling it well beyond any safe limit. If it’s allowed to go on it will either break and destroy her resonance or it will snap back hard when we can finally change her back. This wouldn't be an issue if the spell was working in normal parameters, but we've been extending past the normal magical decay of the spell with unaffixed magic."

"So just end the spell, won’t it be worse if it’s allowed to go on?" Tonya asked in confusion, trying to figure out what this all meant as those terms just went over her head. The important thing was Sunset understood what all that meant.

Sunset sat up and took a few breaths. "Not until we get a few good sized meals into her and cut her off from Wild so her metabolism can get off being fueled by magic, and then we can end it. If we move fast it shouldn’t be too bad. I had them check on Bill and he's fine; his wife made sure he was eating, and he reverted back with no problems. Apparently, no one paid attention if Jean was eating." Sunset choked as a sob escaped her. "But it could have been much worse if I had let this keep going."

She grabbed her wife into a tight hug. "But we know now and we caught it."

Sunset nodded. "I still want a full team working on ending the spell carefully. I'll call Wild again and tell her to make sure her mother is eating, and eating a lot. We can get her to the Bastion after the harvest festival and bring this to an end carefully. I want to be sure we don't screw anything else up by ending it too abruptly if there has been damage."

"Should we be letting it go that much longer if this is a big deal?" Tonya asked.

"If she's eating it won't make it any worse than it already is. She probably needs time to digest as well; not just shove food down her throat and end it. We just have to make sure she's eating up till then," Sunset said with a shake of her head.

Tonya nuzzled her wife. "So you have the situation under control. Everything is going to work out fine. Don't beat yourself up over it."

"Maybe," Sunset replied, seeming more calm now. "I need to make some calls over to the Bastion and have my best mages look over the data. I hate doing it, but I'll probably need to put Poly Glot to work."

That killed the mood. "I know you want your best minds on it, but can't you just leave him out of it? I'm ready for us to be done with him."

Sunset pulled away and flicked her tail. "This is too important and he's literally the smartest pony at the Bastion. I'm ready to be done with him too, but I'm going to use him up until then. He can be controlled, and once you set him to figuring out something he doesn't stop until he's got it done. This is my legacy, I need to use every resource I have to ensure it's going to start off right before I turn everything over to Wild. If this seriously hurts her mother she might abandon it. I can't have that."

"I just don't want your legacy to be stained with his bloodstained hooves," she whispered to her wife.

"I'm doing what I've always done. Whatever's necessary," Sunset said firmly as she levitated a phone up and started dialing.

The image of Sunset standing over a burning Shimmerist symbol came back to her again. She prayed that they weren't on that path.

Author's Note

I'm leaving for Bronycon tomorrow. Not sure how much writing I'll be getting in at the event so there will probably be a delay before next chapter is released.

Chapter 18: Precursors of Disaster

After a mishap involving fire, and some crying from the normal unflappable Ms. Rosetta, they were finally able to enjoy some freshly baked cookies. Ms. Rosetta had even made them herself, with all the foals cheering her on. When they came out perfect, there had been a lot of happy tears by Ms. Rosetta as Phobia Remedy held her tight, congratulating her. The three demons had sensed their time to strike as soon as Phobia Remedy released Ms. Rosetta and had all moved in and tackled her, only for her to counterstrike and start tickling their bellies with her wings. An epic family war of tickles and cuddles broke out among the night ponies as Phobia Remedy came to the aid of her foals with her own barrage of tickles under Ms. Rosetta's wingpits.

Jessie just watched the carnage from her seat at the table, along with Jackie and Jordan. The three of them knew by some unspoken word that the battle before them was something close and personal, and while they might be family as well there was something sacred in moments shared between siblings and parents that should not be violated upon. Though Jessie could see in the two sisters’ eyes that they were, by equally unspoken word, already plotting their own assault upon their older sister when she emerged from her current war and would be unprepared for a new set of assailants so soon after.

The great war seemed to fizzle out with no clear winner determined. Phobia stepped away from the field of battle and her two little sisters took this moment to strike. As if fired from a cannon the unicorn and pegasus fillies bolted from their chairs and upon their older sister. The three demons determined that this would not be a conflict between sisters, but instead one of foals versus Phobia. So commenced the second great tickle war in the immediate aftermath of the first.

Jessie for her part sat back and watched quietly. She had no direct family relation like everyone else here. Even Robby, if he were down here, would have more connection than her, as Ms. Rosetta was like a mother to him. She couldn’t look past the fact that she was an outsider here and it made her feel left out.

Ms. Rosetta sad beside her. "Nothing is stopping you from joining in if you wanted. Those are your friends after all," she said.

"I'm okay," she said quietly as she looked at the others. “But thank you.”

"You're such a serious little filly," Ms. Rosetta said sadly. "You should have more fun. Even my foals, who have to be constantly guarded against threats, aren't as serious as you are. They're trained to fight and defend themselves, and to be suspicious of others' intentions. They have every reason to be far more serious than you, but they don't stop having fun. Their life would be very bleak if they didn't."

She didn't have a good way of responding to that and wondered what it was like to be under constant guard and thinking that the world was out to get her. It was hard to imagine; she'd always felt safe and secure with her family. Her parents and her brother were always there to protect her. Some kids had picked on her at school, but Robby had always protected her. What was it like to live afraid of everyone?

"Ms. Rosetta...Robby told me about how he was scared before he turned into a night pony, and the psychology book I read said that was a big thing that helped determine night ponies' tribe. What were you and Phobia Remedy scared of?" She asked cautiously.

Ms. Rosetta didn't respond and Jessie turned to look at the night pony mare. Ms. Rosetta was staring at the stove with a distant look, and gently touched her wing to her face as if remembering some old sensation.

"For me, I was afraid of something I shouldn't talk to a filly about--even one as smart as you," Ms. Rosetta said in a slow and quiet voice. The night pony then turned to her. "But to give you some answer, Phobia and I were both afraid of the same thing we're afraid of now, in addition to our other fears. It is only because night pony numbers were held in check by a magical quota that we aren't the most numerous tribe, because it is one of the most common fears out there."

"What's that?" Jessie asked. She laid her ears back trying to imagine what kind of monster could have a Dreamwarden scared of it.

Ms. Rosetta stepped towards the hallway and looked back at her. "The world." The night pony's ears flicked and she looked back towards the front of the house. There had been a sound, sort of like a car, only bigger, but smaller than a bus. "Come with me. Let's go greet Crystal."

Jessie hopped down from the chair and scrunched her nose. "That answer didn't make sense. It was too broad an answer.”

Ms. Rosetta looked back at her. "I suppose it was." She then turned back away and kept walking.

Jessie pushed her little legs hard and caught up with the adult. "You're avoiding the question!" She said in mild outrage.

Ms. Rosetta didn't look at her. "Oh, you noticed that? You're a very bright little foal. Let's go look at the big shiny thing."

"I've seen Ms.Crystal before, why're we going to look at her?" Jessie asked.

Ms. Rosetta paused briefly to giggle. "She's not the big shiny thing, though I suppose she could be interpreted as such by someone your height." She started walking again.

"So what's the big shiny thing?" Jessie said from where she'd just been left.

"If you were following me instead of asking questions, you'd already know," Ms. Rosetta called back.

Hurrying out the front door to catch up to Ms. Rosetta, she saw Crystal getting out of what had to be the biggest car she had ever seen. It was silver, its front looked strangely compressed, and it actually had small sets of stairs extending from each of its four open doors. It was big enough you could easily fit over a dozen ponies into it. The two most interesting things were that Crystal was getting out the door that was normally reserved for the driver and a very pretty--even prettier than Phobia Remedy--mare stepping out from the passenger door. She was a pure white unicorn with a purple mane and was probably the most beautiful mare Jessie had ever seen. She realized she was staring at the beautiful unicorn and that might be rude, so she looked back at Crystal.

"Like my new car?" Crystal asked in a proud tone. "I'm one of the first ponies in Riverview to have one--one of the first anywhere actually."

"It's very... big," Ms. Rosetta observed as she looked the vehicle over. "That must have cost a lot of money."

Crystal held her head and tail high. "I got a discount when they heard I was Phobia Remedy's bodyguard. They even tacked on a lot of extra features for a low price."

"Like what?" The Dreamwarden's wife asked as she went into a low hover near the driver side door and started looking at the interior.

Crystal sat down and held up a patted a forehoof against the ground as she counted off features. "They gave me cameras for inside the driver area to see behind me and to the sides of the car. A harness for me laying in the driver's area--you lay in it as a pony instead of sitting in it like a human would. These extra steps for helping everyone get in the car, and built in satellite GPS."

Ms. Rosetta continued looking over the driver's area. "Crystal...how are you normally supposed to see to your sides or behind you when strapped into this thing? I don't see any mirrors."

"With the cameras on the console in front," Crystal replied as she pointed a hoof.

"You have a lot of extra cup holders in here," Ms. Rosetta continued as she started looking around the other seats. "And are these regular human seatbelts in addition to pony harnesses back here?"

"They were extra for both, but I think they were worth it," Crystal replied with a smile.

"You know having seatbelts and a way to see behind you is mandatory, don't you?" One of the mares on the roof called down.

"Crystal paid extra for standard features!" Another called out as a group of the mares started laughing.

"Rollie-pollie crystal pony got sold a car full of bologna!" Another mare brayed with laughter. "Our glorious leader got hoodwinked!"

"Hey!" Crystal yelled as her ears lowered.

The pretty unicorn walked over to Crystal and laid a sympathetic hoof on her. "Darling, don't feel bad. This is a new thing and you can't be expected to know what is standard and what is not, and it is a very nice car. You're wiser for the future. Even I have fallen prey to duplicitous merchants on occasion." Even her voice was pretty! It had the musical sound that Jessie recognized as an Equestrian accent.

Ms. Rosetta said something that was impossible to make out that sounded almost song-like. The unicorn's eyes widened a little and replied back in the same language before reverting back to English. "Dear, your Equestrian is wonderful. I didn't realize you were versed in our language."

The night pony smiled in response. "I have a knack for picking up languages and Tempest has been helping me learn. I'll go fetch everyone and we can get ready to be on our way."

"No need to rush. I'm told we have plenty of time," the unicorn replied and then looked down at Jessie. "You must be Jessica Ann Middleton. I'm Rarity, maybe you've heard of me? I've certainly heard a great deal about you."

No one ever used her full name except her mom when her mom was really mad. Hearing it from Rarity in that musical voice seemed kind of weird. She couldn't decide if it was a good weird or bad weird. "Um, you can call me Jessie. You're an Element of Harmony, right? You're really pretty."

"That’s sweet of you to say, darling," Rarity said with a pleased smile. "And yes, I am one of the Elements of Harmony--generosity to be precise. I came all the way from Equestria to meet you. Twilight was very eager to find out more about you. I'm told that you're very bright, just like her."

She felt the need to impress. "They tested my IQ last year right before I started school. They said I was a two-hundred-twelve, which is one of the highest in the whole world!"

"That sounds very impressive...though I'm not familiar with what IQ means," Rarity replied.

"It's a scale for how intelligent someone is," Ms. Rosetta explained. "Between ninety and a hundred-ten is considered average, I got a hundred-twenty-five myself when I was tested. It’s only to get an idea of how smart someone is though, not something that you should hold strictly to. IQs as high as Jessie's are extraordinarily rare though, and you can trust someone with that high a score is exceptionally gifted."

As Ms. Rosetta went back to the house, Rarity bent down and smiled at Jessie. "Well, I hear you have made quite the impression already, so I would say claims of your talents aren't exaggerated. Tell me, what inspires you?"

She sat down and tapped her hooves together. "I just really wanted to impress the people at NASA so they'd let me in."

Rarity's eyebrows rose. "And that’s your dream? To work for NASA? It sounds like a divine dream; mapping the stars, discovering new worlds, being an explorer of the vast unknown. Rainbow Dash wanted to be a Wonderbolt from when she was a filly, and she's now the most popular one. I myself have always wanted to be a famous fashion designer, and through hard work I now operate boutique in all the biggest cities in Equestria. My fashion lines are so popular that other shops will sell my designs. With dedication and some hard work, I'm sure you'll be able to achieve your dream as well."

She realized that she'd begun to feel like she had lost track of what she'd wanted to do when getting told that she'd be helping fight the Devourers. Nothing had changed in terms of her wanting to work for NASA; nothing had changed in terms of getting to where she could. If anything, she'd taken steps forward with that. Was she that easily distracted from her goals that she'd forgotten it that quickly?

"She has a future in NASA if we're able to stop the Devourers," Phobia's voice came from behind them. Jessie turned to look and saw the Dreamwarden, all the other foals, Robby, and Tempest walking out of the house. "And I'm hoping that the world governments will be giving their full aid in the coming conflict."

"Are they really coming as soon as you say?" Rarity asked as her ears lowered.

Phobia nodded. "The physics departments around the country seem to all be confirming my fears. I still need to give them the additional data that comes from my knowledge of Devourers to get exact numbers, but I'm estimating we have twenty-five to thirty-five years till they arrive."

Rarity lifted her head and did a strong flick of her tail. "Well then, at least we know and have that much time to prepare. My friends and I have always had to save the world with no notice, and we've been successful thus far. I can't believe that these...things...can't be overcome with that much time to ready ourselves."

Phobia looked up at the sky. "I hope so. Mind you, even if we succeed, that it is only the first wave that will be coming. New waves will follow every few decades after, each aware of how the last wave was beaten and able to thwart such methods. These are machines, but they can think when it comes to trying to achieve their objective. We may win the battle, but it will only be the first round of what may be a very long war against an enemy that will always come back harder to beat. One that is also spread out across the entire universe."

Rarity's ears lowered once more. "You make it seem like it is inevitable that we'll lose, given that scale. Is there nothing we can do? What about this mysterious plan that you had?"

Jessie's ears perked at that. The Dreamwardens already had a plan for fighting the Devourers? Maybe that was what Phobia Remedy wanted her to help with.

Phobia looked up at the night ponies then back down to Rarity. "That isn't public knowledge yet, but we'll discuss it with world leaders soon. Regardless, that is currently on hold as we won't have the time to complete it before the first wave arrives. Our priorities are to survive the first wave, and then we can determine how to take this fight to the Devourers."

Jessie frowned. How do you fight something that is spread out across the whole universe? The universe was big; that meant millions if not billions of Devourers. Where did they all come from? If they were machines were there Devourer factories out there somewhere? Machines making machines? Did that make them alive? They reproduce and think, that seemed like they were alive. Or would they be more like a virus?

"I'll discuss this with you in private later," Phobia Remedy announced. "For right now we need to get everyone over to watch Wild do the final growing of the fields for the year."

Rarity nodded and her pretty smile returned. "Agreed. I'm looking forward to seeing her magic at work. I've heard stories, and seen recordings of it, but I'm sure those don't compare to seeing it done with my own eyes."

"My sister at work is quite the thing to watch," Ms. Rosetta said, as she gave each of the twins a nudge with a wing. "Let’s go, kids; climb inside Crystal's new van." She turned to the crystal pony. "Since you drove here, I'm assuming that you know how to safely use that thing."

Crystal's ears picked up and she grinned. "Easier to drive than a human car. Having four pedals took a little getting used to, but once I got them down it drove perfectly smooth. It has sensors that can detect what's around me, and it has automatic collision avoidance. It's really high tech, even a foal could drive this if their legs could reach the pedals."

"Or a foolish crystal pony that gets bamboozled by car dealers," a mare yelled down from the roof.

Crystal looked up with a scowl. "Alright, that's enough of that! Mellony, you're going to be on demon watching duty tonight."

The night pony who has just made fun of Crystal flattened her ears to the sides. "Hey! I wasn't the only one saying things. Why'm I the only one getting punished?"

"Because you decided to be the one to start things back up," Crystal replied with a satisfied smirk.

Jessie felt something tap her flank and turned to see Ms. Rosetta. "Into the car. You want to see Wild, don't you?"

She nodded her head rapidly and ran right behind her brother who was waiting patiently for Jordan and Jackie to climb the steps of the van. The two sisters were trying to do it together as some sort of game and going rather slow as a result. While waiting Alfie came up and stood so close she could feel his wing touching her.

"I wanna sit next to Robby," Alfie said as he pushed ahead of her slightly.

She shoved forward in turn. "He's my brother. I should sit next to him. You should sit next to your sisters."

The advance was stopped because Jackie turned around. "I want to sit next to him!"

"You aren't related to him. You don't get to!" Alfie yelled out.

"You aren't related to him either!" Jessie protested.

Alfie flapped his wings, causing them to slap against her. "He's a night pony colt, like me. I want to be with him. He's like my big brother."

"But he is my big brother!" Jessie screamed. Alfie turned and lowered his head in an aggressive manner, and Jessie braced herself for the impending pounce.

"Hey!" Robby shouted. "You can both sit next to me. The back seat is big enough. Jackie can sit next to me on the way back. You've both been getting to be a pain in the flank and need to calm down."

"Alfonso, come here," Phobia Remedy ordered.

Alfie hung his head as he turned and walked towards his mother. As he reached her the Dreamwarden raised his head up with a wing to look him in the eyes. "Be nicer to her than you are to your sisters! To tell the truth the three of you need to tone down your fighting with each other. I know why you want to be around Robby so much, but you can't greedily push others away from him. You can't always have someone to yourself. Do you understand?"

"But--" Alfie replied as his ears sagged low.

Phobia Remedy brought her head down to fill her son's full field of view. "It isn't up for discussion. You will not fight with other foals, and you will not shove Jessie out of the way to get to her brother. If you do it again you won't be allowed to spend time with Robby for a week. Try it again after that and we will deal with this issue the hard way in the dream realm."

That last part seemed to get Alfie's attention, as he cowered in place. "But you only give the bad guys nightmares."

"I don't give nightmares as a punishment," Phobia Remedy replied as she stood up straight again. "I give nightmares because people have fears that they need to face, but won’t. Those fears can make them do bad things.

“It's okay to be afraid, Alfie,” she continued, almost whispering. “Having things you're afraid of is a natural and important part of life. You need to be in control of your fears, not under their control."

"What's Alfie afraid of?" Jessie asked, unable to contain her curiosity.

The Dreamwarden gave her an unreadable look. "I don't need information gained in a dream to know his fears, so I could tell you. However, you'll better understand him if you take the time to figure it out on your own. You're a smart filly; put the pieces together and you'll understand my son's struggles. For right now, I want you all to get in the car with no further fighting."

Everyone went single file into the car. While the others were taking their seats, she started thinking. She watched as Robby helped get the harness fastened around Alfie, who was putting up no complaints about Robby strapping him in. She trusted that Robby would help her, too, in just a moment. Looking around the car she saw Ms. Rosetta helping Jordan into her own harness and that Jackie was already secure in a harness and looking around the car. The twins were playing some sort of slap game with each other as they waited for their mother to come strap them in. Phobia Remedy and Rarity both took a seat up front and were buckling themselves in at the moment, and Ms. Crystal was situating herself in the driver's seat...which looked like an ottoman she laid across. Outside, Ms. Tempest was talking to some night ponies right outside the passenger door.

What clues were there about Alfie's fears? Nothing around here seemed really scary. The only scary thing was Phobia Remedy, and she doubted that Alfie's big fear was his mom. What could it be?

She jumped in her seat as something touched her. "Whoah, it's just me," her brother said quickly. "I should have realized you were deep in thought. Hold still a moment so I can help you get this harness on."

Alfie was staring at her with his ears laid back. Why was he suddenly so mad at her? They'd been getting along great until today, but something had changed today. She hadn't really talked to him much, and she knew she hadn't said anything rude until he started shoving her out out of the way to get to Robby.

She looked back at her brother. It had to be something about Robby. Alfie had said that Robby was like his brother. Phobia Remedy had said that Alfie was being possessive of Robby and knew why. If Alfie saw Robby as a brother, what did that mean, and what had changed today that made him hostile to her? She didn't think that Alfie would have just started thinking of Robby as a brother today, if he thought that way. Robby was around Alfie more than her.

What else had happened today? When she'd first seen Alfie it had been when Robby had caught her and her dad talking about him. Alfie had been hiding under Robby's legs. Ms. Rosetta had to scold Alfie not to leave the kitchen when Robby had been arguing with their dad. That meant he must have been listening. What did that argument have to do with Alfie though?

Her eyes widened. He was worried about the same thing she was, only on the opposite side of it. He saw that Robby might move away and be taken away from him, and the thing that would take Robby away would be her. It all made sense, but she didn't feel any happier, having figured it out. She didn't see any way she could make this right with Alfie. One way or another, one of them was going to have Robby taken away from them. At least they would if she moved away. This made the prospect of going to college seem even worse. Why did things that she should be proud and happy about cause so much hurt?

She frowned. Something still wasn't clear. Charlotte and Tabby didn't seem as worked up about it. There was more going on she wasn't seeing. What else had Alfie said? She looked around the car again to determine if there was something she wasn't seeing. All she saw was Ms. Crystal, his moms, his sisters, Rarity, Ms. Tempest getting into the car, the twins, the two sisters, Alfie, and Robby.

What was different than the rest? Robby and Alfie were both colts and everyone else was a filly or mare. She turned and looked out the window; all mares out on the house. Alfie was surrounded all the time with females, with one exception--Robby. Things started clicking together. Night ponies had a severe gender imbalance. How many night pony stallions had Alfie met? They kept night pony stallions away from the house because it caused the mares to fight. Alfie wasn't just possibly losing a brother; he was possibly losing the only other male night pony he had regular contact with. What was it like feeling all alone like that in a crowded room? She actually didn't have to think hard about that, she knew.

She looked back at her brother. He was staring at her with one ear tilted to the side. What was she supposed to do? Ask him what he wanted to do? He was already upset about it. She dipped her head and laid down with her head down between her forelegs. Knowing things didn't always help; sometimes it hurt.

Wild was about done dealing with things for today. They were standing in a tented area just a few meters from where she needed to do her magic. It was still early in the day, but she'd had enough already. Her mother was behaving worse than a spoiled foal.

"Mama, you aren't touching me, and that's final," Wild said with her ears flattened against her head.

"But...I don't want to change back. I'm eating like you asked." Her mama looked down at the hay provided her. "Even though it tastes terrible."

“Well then, you’re getting the full ETS experience,” Wild gestured at her mama's lunch. "That's enriched hay, it's very nutritious. You need your nutrition. Eat all of it."

Her mama laid her ears back and flicked her tail. "I'm not a little filly to be bossed around."

"Jean, be reasonable. We just want you to not get hurt," her papa pleaded. "You just have to transform back for a little while, let them run some tests, and they can transform you back."

Wild frowned. It was still unknown if they could do that. They needed to determine what damage had been done and go from there. Telling her that would only get more resistance though.

Her mama just growled and grabbed up another bite of hay and started chewing.

"They already are giving your friend another round of temporary transformation. He was eating and didn't drag this out as long, so he was alright," her papa said consolingly, as he ran a hand over her ears. "You know no one wants you to be able to keep this form more than me. We just want to make sure you stay healthy doing it."

The hay was spit out and her mama glared at him. "I am healthy! You don't understand; nopony can understand. I can't live another minute like I was before; it's torture! Why can't you see that?"

"The temporary transformation is better than what you were dealing with before," her papa continued. "We can see about them reducing how much they need you to revert back, or have you spend all your time as human asleep. We can work something out."

"Not...another...minute," her mama repeated slowly.

Wild stomped a hoof. "Mama, you don’t have a choice. Maybe you'll be more reasonable when you revert back. Sunset has that pony sense of self dialed way too high on you. That has to be impacting your thinking. When you revert back you'll think clearer."

"You sound like one of those Humanity First bozos," her mama sneered. "I'm sad to hear you spouting off the crap that ponies aren't capable of making informed choices. My pony daughter should know better."

"Jean!" Her papa shouted, as he withdrew his hand from her mama's ears. "¡Eso estuvo mal!"

Wild took a deep breath. "You're not thinking clearly, so I'll let that go." She turned to the nearby guards. "Keep an eye on her. She can watch me at work, but she needs to keep eating--and don't let her get near me."

She stepped out of the tent without another word, and her papa hurried after her. "Catherine...you know she didn't really mean that. You don't understand how helpless she normally feels."

She stopped and turned to him. "I understand as well as you do. I did this so she wouldn't feel that way, but I can't let her hurt herself. If I have to be firm with her then I'll be firm with her. We can figure out how to fix this and make it work, but right now she isn't in her right mind."

"People said the same about ponies years ago,” her papa said in a low voice. “Many still do."

She shook her head. "I wasn't hurting myself by choosing to stay a pony. She is. If I could give her a true permanent transformation, I would, but I can't. What I can give her is this, but it has to be done properly so she doesn't end up worse. She could die if she wrecks her resonance, do you understand that? This isn't me being mean to her."

His eyes went wide. "Wait...this could kill her? You never mentioned--"

"I just found out today!" She snapped. "She wasn’t supposed to stay a pony this long, that’s why it’s dangerous. It'll be okay if she reverts back to normal after eating plenty of food, that's what Sunset assured me. If Sunset is wrong then they'll be cleaning red unicorn paste off the walls of the Bastion when I'm done with her. Make sure she eats and doesn't get near me. I need to go. I have a job to do."

She then stormed off to the fields, leaving her father gaping behind her.

Jessie shifted side to side, shuffling from one hoof to another. She didn't want to miss Wild Growth growing the fields, but she really needed to pee. If this place wasn't so crowded she might just squat and go right where she was at. Someone would smell it though, and they'd know then that she'd gone potty right in public. Why didn't she go to the bathroom when she was back at Phobia Remedy's house?

Ms. Rosetta looked down at her and smiled. "I know that dance when I see it. If you need to use the restroom there's one set up nearby. Wild takes her time getting situated so you have a few minutes. Robby can walk you to the restroom."

"I need to go potty too!" Alfie immediately said from nearby.

"Alfonso..." Phobia Remedy said in a strained voice.

"I really do!" Alfie insisted.

Phobia Remedy shook her head. "Okay then, does anyone else need to go potty?"

"I do!" Jackie replied.

"Me too," Jordan said quietly.

"Anyone else?" Phobia asked as she looked at the twins. The two of them shook their heads. Phobia turned to Crystal. "I'd rather you walk them to the restroom, instead of Robby. It's easy to lose a foal in crowds like this, and I want to be sure they are safe."

Jessie glanced at Alfie, but Alfie didn't seem bothered by the fact Robby wasn't going with them. Maybe Alfie really did need to go to the bathroom. Jordan seemed fine as well, but Jackie's ears sagged.

"Whatever you want, boss," Crystal said with a hoof salute. The crystal pony turned to them. "Follow me, and keep close. We'll get you guys in and out of the bathroom quickly and be back in time to see the crops grow."

They did as instructed. The temporary restroom really wasn't that far away, only about thirty or forty feet away from where they had been, but the crowds were dense. Crystal pushed through the crowds and they all followed closely by her tail. When they got close to the restroom she could see no one was in it. Everyone must have decided that they'd hold their bladders until after Wild Growth was done.

Right when they were about to reach the restroom, a blue crystal pony with a pink mane almost ran them over. Crystal turned to give her fellow tribespony a stern word then paused and frowned as her ears flicked. She then started ushering the foals on to the restroom. Jessie didn't go right away. She instead took a second to find out why Crystal had that look on her face.

The crystal pony that had almost run them down was talking to a stallion of the same tribe, and she looked upset. The stallion looked more distressed the more he listened to the mare. Jessie perked up her ears and strained to listen. "--when she does her big spell. They'll be distracted. Nopony can pay attention to anything else when that's going on."

"But what will we do for food?" The stallion asked in a stressed tone. "We've got no money, and you heard them, we need to keep eating."

"We'll figure something out. We'll eat grass if we have to. Just be ready," the mare replied.

Several crystal ponies and unicorns came hurrying over. "Hey, you two! You’re not supposed to be off by yourselves. I don't know how you two found each other in this crowd, but you need to each go back to where you were."

The mare glared back at the ponies and flicked her tail rapidly. "Can't a pony spend some time with a friend?"

"Don’t twist things around like that," one of the unicorns replied. "Come along, Mrs. Martinez. This will all be over soon." The mare was led away and the stallion left on his own accord. The mare had seemed familiar somehow, but she could remember seeing her before.

"That was Abuelita. She looked different, but it was her," she heard Alfie say in confusion.

She hadn't even realized Alfie had stayed out here instead of going to the restroom. "Who's Abuelita?"

The night pony colt lowered his head and ears once again in aggression. "Abuelita is Abuelita. I guess you aren't so smart!"

Crystal walked over to them and gave them a little push towards the restroom. "I saw her, Alfie. Hurry up, we need to get back to your parents." The crystal pony lifted up her leg and spoke into it while frowning. "Alexa, call Phobia Remedy."

She hurried into the restroom with Alfie, and didn't get to hear what Crystal was saying to Phobia Remedy. When they went in they found Jackie and Jordan already squatting over holes. Jordan had her tongue stuck out and a look of concentration on her face. She found an empty hole to squat over and almost as soon as she did her bladder released, and she let out a relieved sigh.

"I don't know why Abuelita looked different," Alfie said from a hole across from her.

She looked up at him. "Who's Abuelita? You didn't tell me."

The night pony flattened his ears again. "She's Abuelita, I already told you that."

"That's just saying a name. It doesn't tell me anything!" She yelled back as her own ears flattened.

"Abuelita means grandmare in Spanish!" Jackie said enthusiastically. "We learned that in school." Then the pegasus filly raised her head proudly. "I knew something you didn't."

Taking Latin for her language class had been a mistake. Spanish seemed to be turning out to be the option that would have been most useful. At least she knew who he was talking about now, as the voice connected in her head. That was Ms. Jean...as a pony. She didn't just look different, she was acting weird. Ms. Amanda had said that turning into a pony changed who you were, and that seemed to be the case.

"So what's different about you grandmare?" Jackie asked the Alfie.

The dark green colt scrunched up his muzzle. "She was walking around on four legs. She always walks on two...and her fur was different."

Jessie blinked. "You could just say she's normally a human and now she's a pony."

Alfie glared back at her. "Humans are ponies, dummie!" He stopped and tilted her head. "But I guess she’s a different type of pony now."

She shook her head in disbelief. How could he be this ignorant? She knew she wasn't supposed to call other foals stupid, but she was really tempted. "How do you not know humans and ponies are different? How do you not recognize right away that she's a pony now and she used to be a human?"

"So, she was a human pony and now she's a crystal pony. She's still a pony, stupid," Alfie snapped back.

Jessie's mouth just hung open as she turned to Jordan and Jackie to see their reaction. They seemed confused by the whole exchange. Jackie stood up straight and looked at him. "She did the same thing as Mom and Dad, but the other way around?"

Phobia Remedy must have explained everything to her sisters. That opened up letting her talk about it then. "My mom and your mom were talking about Ms. Jean doing it. I heard them the other day."

Jordan's ears sagged. "But doesn't it make her feel bad, like Mommy and Daddy?"

"I don't kn--" Jessie's started before Crystal walked in.

"Hey! Are you all done?" Crystal asked. "You were supposed to be going really fast so you could see the crops grow. Let's move it."

The foals all stood and followed after the bodyguard. Jessie made a mental note to herself to talk to Phobia Remedy about what she heard Ms. Jean saying.

From her raised mound of dirt Wild glanced back at the crowd that was gathered. She could make out many familiar faces and many she didn't know. There were thousands gathered, with some standing in open fields near her for effective ringside seats, and others a distance away in bleachers. Those with the ringside seats were more important guests, and there would be a line of security just beyond them. Newscrews were set up there as well to cover the event. Between the two groups there were some small amenities and venders; restrooms, food sellers, souvenir hawkers, that sort of thing. This was a yearly event, and every year she tried to come up with new ways to make the experience new and interesting for the audience, and every year it got more commercial as well.

She frowned, as she couldn't spot her mama and papa, or the guards watching them. With this large a crowd that wasn't surprising, but she wished she could spot them all the same. She did spot her sister and some of her family, as well as the Equestrian delegation. Sapphire was with her family, and Wild her lips curl up just a little as she remembered she was supposed to be impressing Sapphire's little filly. What was her name, Aurora? She wanted to make that filly's jaw drop. She'd have to do something extra-impressive just to make sure.

She turned back around and looked at the cleared fields, close to three-thousand acres in all. A simple powdered line ran the length of them marking the borders of where she'd be growing the crops. Once she'd need some more defined barrier, but those days were long gone. That powder was made of a very particular carbonate, and she could feel it on the ground when she stretched her magic out. She knew the boundaries, and all she needed to do was trace the runes to define the barriers. Normally she'd have walked the boundaries ahead of time to set the runes, but her mama had kept her too busy for that. It wasn't needed though.

Taking a deep breath, she got to work. First she began tracing the runes in her head, beginning with the first stage of the spell matrix that defined area of effect. There was some math involved, but she knew the distance of the perimeter. The first matrix complete, she put her power into the soil and let it reach out the distance the initial matrix defined. With that done, she was able to feel around the boundary without focusing so much on the runes, and made small corrections as she felt the location of of the powdered line. Whether she was impressive or not, this was the most important step. Without that her magic could go loose into the crowds, and people could get hurt if that happened. This was what made her a geomancer, rather than a pony just wildly throwing her magic at things.

The crowd could be heard stirring with excitement. They felt her magic at work, even if nothing visible was happening yet, and she liked the fact that the crowd could feel it. Only alicorns could work magic at a level stronger than her. She made even the strongest magic users in attendance look weak in comparison, and she had to admit that it was her ego demanding that everyone know it. She wondered if Aurora was able to feel it when her mother worked her magic.

Her magic traced the gravel paths that were laid out for people to walk the fields, and she traced runes to make sure those paths wouldn't be disturbed. With those in place she focused on a hundred square yard area in the center of the fields. This was where she was going to do her really impressive display for this year. All the earth underneath was already in place as she needed it to be, and the seeds as well. This wouldn't be on the scale of her making that statue the other day, but it should still suitably wow the crowd who were used to seeing her just grow crops. This would be a chance to show off some of her geomancy.

She turned around completely and looked at the crowd as she stepped over to a microphone. "Thank you for the huge turnout! I'll be starting in just a moment. As a reminder to everyone, please stay back behind the lines when I'm working my magic. All these crops will be donated to needing families all over South Carolina and Georgia. I would like to thank all our farmers for clearing these fields and allowing them to be used for this purpose, and SPEC for helping organize this event. I'd also like to extend a warm welcome to our Equestrian guests who are viewing this event in person for the first time."

Cheers erupted all throughout the crowd, making her grin broadly. She loved doing this. Even if she didn't have a crowd she would love doing this. She might be an important business pony, but she was THE earth pony. As such, she loved nothing better than helping things grow. The fact that she had a huge crowd cheering her on was a positive bonus.

She turned back towards the fields and raised a hoof into the air. The crowd quieted, waiting with bated breath for the hoof to fall. Seconds passed, Wild teasing the audience. Sunset Blessing wasn't the only pony in Riverview who knew how to work a crowd. Finally, she brought it down hard on the damp soil, and her magic rang out like the world’s largest gong.

Like many times before, nothing seemed to happen at first; then came a low rumble in the ground. Starting near her, and spreading out like a wave, crops started rapidly springing up from the ground. Closest to her were pumpkins the size of grown ponies; beyond that, vines filled with bright red tomatoes; beyond that were bushes filled to the brim with strawberries big enough that they could be confused with apples from a distance. On and on the wave traveled; in its wake were left stalks of corn, sunflowers, watermelons, grapes, lettuce, and more. It was a rainbow of colors, fruits, vegetables, and flowers.

The wave of growth continued to move rapidly to the farthest outskirts of the fields. The crowd likely couldn't see from where they stood, but apple trees, orange trees, fig trees, and more were added at the far ends of the field. She could feel each trunk of each tree with her magic, and each fruit that burdened each branch with their heavy weight. The wave bounced back from the edges, a newer trick she first employed last year, and raced back towards the center, adding more growth as it went. Potatoes now grew amongst the already-growing plants, and various beans in a dozen different types.

The air was heavy with the smell of freshly-grown fruits and vegetables as the two waves reached the center of the fields, colliding with one another. The rumbling redoubled, and the crowd gasped as the ground in the center of the fields started to rise. It was a perfect rectangular block of soil that emerged from the earth, and within seconds it reached a height of three stories tall. Flowers started rapidly sprouting all over the monolith of soil, and within just a few more seconds a message was spelled out for all to see in white daisies amongst a sea of yellow tulips.

Thank You Riverview!

Cheers erupted again as she walked down from her hill and security started setting up lines for people to orderly go out into the fields to walk around and enjoy. She wasn't personally interested in doing this, though; too many people too close to her for that. Once upon a time that wouldn't have been a problem for her; it wasn't typically something that bothered ponies at all, but bad experiences can change anyone's comforts.

She instead walked down to meet Sapphire and see what her daughter thought of the performance. She'd chat with her, find her sister and talk with her for a while, and then see about getting her mama to the Bastion. Her taking the time to socialize gave her mama time to actually digest her food and absorb some much-needed nutrients. She was still worried, but now that she'd gotten to grow the crops she felt like she had more perspective. Everything would be alright soon enough. They'd get her mama to the Bastion, take down the spell, and figure out adjustments so this problem didn't happen anymore. Having her mama hanging on her so much and acting oddly had just gotten her anxiety up too much to think straight. Her head felt clearer now.

Sapphire's filly was staring at her with mouth agape as she walked up. Wild gave the filly her best smile. "So... do you still think I can't grow everything myself?"

"That was awesome!" The filly announced loudly with several excited hops. "I didn't know earth ponies could do magic like that."

Sapphire raised a hoof to her mouth to cover a chuckle before lowering it again. "She was scoffing at the idea you could do anything to impress her up until the point you did your normal magic shockwave, that silenced her right away." Sapphire shook her head. "Honestly, do you do that on purpose just to make the rest of us feel small compared to your magic? Admittedly, there aren't many ponies that have that effect on me. I'm used to being the strongest in the crowd."

Wild gave her best innocent look. "It was something I did by accident all the time when I was first learning to control my powers. I could stop it from happening now, but when I'm putting on a big show like this I deliberately do it."

"It certainly makes an impression," Sapphire replied, before snorting. "And Phobia Remedy says I have an ego, while you like to hold yearly reminders with thousands in attendance that we’re all kind of just bugs to your raw power."

That made Wild laugh. "Oh, I'm well aware of my ego, and so is Phobia. We understand it so well there's no reason to even discuss it. And you aren't a bug compared to me...more like a yapping chihuahua."

Sapphire rolled her eyes. "That isn’t exactly a compliment."

"What's a chihuahua?" Aurora asked her mother.

"A small dog that has no idea that it is small, a loud one," Sapphire replied.

Wild grinned broadly. "Have you run into a chihuahua since you've been a pony? They seem much more impressive now that we're lower to the ground."

Sapphire spread her wings. "I normally try not to spend too much time on the ground."

Wild looked down at Sapphire's filly again. She didn't want to completely upstage Sapphire in front of the foal. "Your mom could take me in a fight though. I'm only this strong when my hooves are on the ground. I'm sure your mom could pick me up with a tornado or something and I'd be helpless. That makes her really impressive too."

Sapphire flicked her tail. "A fight? Why would we be fighting? And if we were, I wouldn't worry about lifting you off the ground, I would just drop a few bolts of lightning on your head. Or create a storm and watch you be miserable from a distance."

Wild looked up at the pegasus. "Just felt that it was important to point out that no matter how daunting the obstacle there is always a way to overcome it. People look at me sometimes and are afraid of the power I have, but I'm actually pretty easy to stop. By the way, a lightning strike would just annoy me if I was grounded, but you getting me in the air is a whole other story. The key to overcoming you is to not let you get into the air to start with. We're both got really impressive magic, but even with all our power it doesn't matter if we are taken out of our element. No one should ever feel too small to either of us, or anyone else for that matter."

"Wild, you are forgetting the best way to overcome an obstacle; extend your hoof in friendship first," Sapphire said as she reached a hoof out to her.

She touched hooves with the pegasus. "Very true. Don't start fighting to begin with." She dropped her voice to a whisper. "And don't spread around how to beat me in a fight. I'd rather not have anyone trying that in order to make a name for themselves."

Aurora frowned. "What about Dreamwardens and alicorns? My friends always say they're invincible."

Wild shrugged. "I don't know enough about alicorns to say, but Dreamwardens- just don't break their rules and they can't do a thing to you. Considering most of us don't have mind magic and can’t abuse people in their dreams, that makes them pretty helpless against almost everyone...Ghadab will forever be a testament to that."

"It's the world's worst job," Sapphire chimed in quickly, perhaps not wanting to dwell on the subject of what happened to Ghadab in front of her foal. "All that power, but rules that are too tight and you can't break them. Worst retirement plan ever too. They've got the genie conundrum; phenomenal cosmic power, itty-bitty living space. They're also on the beck and call of anyone calling out to them in a dream. I'd go crazy doing that."

Aurora flicked an ear in confusion. "Huh?"

Sapphire sighed. "When we get home we're having a Disney movie marathon. I've been meaning to do that for a while."

There were others patiently waiting their opportunity to speak with her, but she spotted her sister and Phobia hurrying over to her with Jessie in tow. They looked worried about something. "Speaking of Dreamwardens, here comes Phobia now," she said as she gestured her family over to her.

"Wild, we have a problem with Mama," her sister said in a rush as they came up.

"I'm aware of her acting strange. It is getting dealt with shortly," she replied.

Rosetta shook her head. "Not that. Jessie, tell Wild what you heard."

She looked down at her tiny admirer. Jessie gestured backwards with a hoof. "I saw her out by the restroom with another crystal pony. She was talking about doing something when you started growing things. They were talking about how they had no money for food, and how everyone would be distracted."

"Where is she?" Rosetta asked in a pleading voice. "It sounds like she was going to try to make a break for it."

Her breath caught and she quickly brought her leg up and hit the auto dial button on her phone for her security. It barely rang before being picked up. "Where is my mama at right now?"

"We...we don't know. We're looking for her as we speak," came the hesitant reply over the phone.

She grit her teeth. "Why wasn't I called right away? How did you lose her?"

"We didn't want to bother you. She'd been taking off before and we were to find her each time. We were sure we could find her before you found out," the guard said in a meek tone.

"Find her, now! We'll discuss your continued employment later," she snarled. "Where's Sunset Blessing? Does she know about this yet?"

"We don't know," the guard replied, starting to sound frantic. "We tried calling her, but it goes straight to voicemail."

"What the fuck!" She shouted, making everyone around look at her while taking a few steps back. She wasn't even going to comment on the fact they'd tried to get in touch with Sunset first.

"We all turned our heads for just a few seconds when you were doing that thing with the dirt. We figured she'd be watching in rapt attention too. When we turned back around she was gone."

"Get some pegasi into the sky and find her! How hard can it be to find a crystal pony trying to run away? Move it!" She snarled into her phone before hanging up.

"I may not know this area very well but I’ll gladly help,” Sapphire offered.

She took a few deep breaths first before replying. "I appreciate it. We need to find her fast. She's not in her right mind. She's apparently dragged Bill into this too. We need to find both of them. You know what they look like, right?"

"I remember. I saw them both yesterday," Sapphire said with a nod before looking down at her filly. "Stay with your father and be good." She turned to her husband, who had been so silent Wild forgot he was even there, and gave him a kiss. "I'll be back soon. I should be able to find you if you're out and about. Do you have your phone on, just in case?"

"Yes, I do, and GPS is working for you to track us," her husband replied before giving her another kiss. "We will be here for some time."

"If you happen to see Sunset Blessing let her know I need her to turn her phone on and call me," Wild instructed, then lifted her leg up. "Get my personal number so you can get in touch with me fast. Alexa, share contact number."

Sapphire brought her own leg up and laid it across Wild's. "Alexa, copy phone number to contacts, label Jolly Green. Alexa share contact number."

"Contact created," Sapphire's leg band responded.

Wild rolled her eyes. "Alexa, copy phone number to contacts, label Sapphire."

"Contact created," her phone said in echo of Sapphire's.

Sapphire jumped into the air and hovered. "We'll find her, Wild, don't worry. How far could she really have gotten just running? She'll be back within a few minutes." The pegasus took off into the sky with a few strong beats of her wings, creating a stiff breeze in her wake.

"I'd look too, but it's getting too bright out here for me to see well from the sky. I don't think I'd be much help," Rosetta said mournfully as she looked up at the overcast sky with a squint. She then looked back at Wild. "I need to see about getting the kids back home. It's getting close to the demons' bedtime. Call when you have news, and don't worry about waking me up."

"I'm sorry about this, Rosetta. I didn't know she'd be this unreasonable about letting the spell end, or act so crazy," Wild replied as her ears sagged.

"In hindsight, we shouldn't be that shocked, but hindsight is just looking at the past with present knowledge. Let's just focus on getting this fixed," Rosetta said softly as she laid a wing on Wild's shoulder. "Remember to call me. She's my mama too. I'll give Miguel and Jose a call to let them know what's going on."

At hearing that Wild tucked her tail between her legs. "I don't think anyone talked to them about her doing the spell at all. They must have seen it on the news, but haven't called. They might be pissed no one told them anything."

Rosetta flattened her ears. "I'll deal with that too. I need to be back at work in the morning when classes resume, so I’ll need to get my lesson plans together tonight. It's going to be an exhausting twenty-four hours. Anyway, I'll speak with you later."

"Come along, Jessie," Phobia instructed as she gave the yellow filly a push with her wing. The filly moved as instructed, but turned her head back to watch Wild as she departed.

As everyone departed from around her, other people in the crowd started moving in her direction, seemingly unsure how to approach her when she was visibly unhappy. She wondered how much they had heard. It could be a potential PR nightmare, depending on what they knew. She couldn't bring herself to care at the moment, though. Her earlier anger had now dissipated into simple worry as the waiting game began.

If they didn't find her mama quick, there could be huge problems. She was desperate to remain a pony and that meant she needed magic, but where she'd been getting that magic was no longer an option. The question of where her mama would turn to instead was a fearful one. In her mama's crazy state, would she drain too much from someone? Hopefully they found her before it came to that.

Tonya sat nervously waiting by her wife in the doctor's office. They'd run a series of tests, and were now awaiting the doctor to come back with the results. Sunset had surprised her by asking that the tests be run on her as well. She'd told Sunset that wasn't necessary, but her wife had just said they were here to find out what all their options were.

There was no clock on the wall, so it was hard to tell how much time had passed. Sunset kept looking at the phone on her leg on impulse, only to remember each time that it had been turned off for this visit. Tonya found herself doing the same thing, so she wasn't upset at her wife for doing it. It felt like it was taking an eternity, but she was pretty sure they'd only been waiting a few minutes, half an hour at most.

The doctor's computer screen was turned away from them, and likely had the time displayed. However, years of dreamwalking, along with her own career, had cemented the idea she shouldn't invade anything private. Her lone punishment she gotten for breaking rules while dreamwalking had come from Yinyu, for trying to upset a very private dream of Wild's. People thought Dreamwarden punishments back in the day were all torture, based on the reputation Sha'am developed early on, but they got a bad wrap. Yinyu's punishment might have been considered torture, but not in the same vein. Yinyu had conjured a dream where she got endlessly lectured about being a peeping Tom in front of everyone she knew. It was just shameful and embarrassing, not painful. With the exception of one lone punishment by Phobia--that even Phobia admitted went too far, and...well...everything from Sha'am, they really hadn't been that cruel. There had been one execution and one mind wipe, but everyone who watched those trials knew those ponies had that coming.

She sighed and looked around the office. There were pictures of babies, both human and pony ones. A pair of medical diagrams of what different stages of pregnancy looked like for both humans and ponies were hanging on the wall directly behind the doctor's desk. To her left there was a poster discussing birth control options for ponies, and their effectiveness. That poster made her smirk because it listed magic off as the most effective, and most expensive. She wondered how Wild would feel about that poster. To her right, beyond Sunset, was one discussing not to have sex with random Equestrians because it could introduce Equestrian diseases to Earth. The pony population on Earth was still largely disease free; a few ponies had picked up some STDs from Equestrians, but so far those had been contained from spreading.

"I should probably just check in real fast on how everything is going," Sunset said, breaking the quiet. "Just one quick call to check in."

Tonya frowned and let her ears sag. "Sunset, you promised, no work until we're done here. Nothing intrudes into our time."

The unicorn let out a long breath and lowered her head. "I'm just not used to sitting around doing nothing. I'm bored, and feel like I should be doing something. What's taking that doctor so long?"

"Be patient, they need some extra time to run your tests too," she replied, then laid a wing against her wife. "I'm still surprised you did that. I know how you feel about the idea of getting pregnant."

Sunset's turned her head away. "I'm going to tell you something that even Tom doesn't know. I never wanted to be pregnant with Phobia to begin with."

Tonya blinked and laid one ear to the side. "Really? You didn't want her?"

"It's complicated..." Sunset began, then took a deep breath. "She wasn't my first pregnancy. When I was a freshman in college...I-I had...I had an abortion."

"What?!" Tonya gasped, unable to believe what her wife was saying.

Sunset turned back to her and there were tears in her eyes. "I was young and stupid. I got into college, and like a lot of girls who had that extra freedom for the first time, I was having sex. I got pregnant and I got scared. I thought my whole life was going to be ruined. I had already broken up with the guy who had gotten me pregnant, and didn't want to get back together with him. I did what I thought I had to, and I went to the doctor and ended it before anyone could find out."

"Sunset..."

Her wife sniffled. "Then I felt guilty for it. I guess that was my silver lining. I started going to some Christian groups on campus, looking for answers, I guess. That's how I got saved and involved in the church, even though I had never gone to church in my life until then. I was terrified when I got pregnant again after marrying Tom."

Tonya reached around with her forelegs and wings and grabbed her wife into a tight embrace. Sunset cried onto her shoulder as she let out the shame and guilt she'd been holding in secret for longer than Tonya'd been alive. What she heard described was the same Sunset she knew. Everyone else saw this commanding figure when they saw her wife. What Tonya saw was someone trying to make sense of her life, and life in general, because life had gone crazy for her.

"I...I did my best to be a good mother," Sunset continued. "I love my daughter, you know how much I do, but that first year was terrible. The post-pregnancy depression hit me hard. Tom talked about getting me to a psychologist, but I never went. I kept thinking about the baby I didn't have, and- what right did I have to one after that?"

Tonya continued to grip her wife tight. "It's okay, Phobia turned out alright. She always said you weren't a bad mother."

Sunset sniffled and brought a hoof up to wipe her nose. "I wasn't a great one either. I never wanted to hurt her, or let anyone hurt her, but I still ended up doing so. I let the doctor test me because, maybe if you couldn't have a foal, I could, and this time I could do it right."

Tonya slowly released her wife and looked into Sunset's orange eyes. "Is that why you're telling me about this? You wanted to a clean conscience going into this? To move past it?"

Sunset nodded. "I guess so. Since becoming a pony, before then even, I've wanted to undo all my past mistakes. I need to get all the skeletons from my closet. I want to try again, and be a better mother. I want to be the mom that Phobia and...and my other one didn't have."

Tonya held her breath for a moment before speaking. "So...you want to do this then? You want to have a foal?"

Her wife gave a sheepish smile. "If I didn't, then I just went and made sure Wild took over SPEC for nothing. Well, almost nothing; she is the pony better to lead it at this stage, but you know how I like to keep busy."

Tonya gave her wife a kiss. "That I do, and I'm sure you'll be a great mom this time around. No one is more committed to putting the work into caring for their family like you."

The door opened behind them, revealing a cream colored unicorn mare with a teal mane. "Am I walking into something private? Do you need another minute?"

Tonya and her wife shook their heads. "We're good. We just finished the conversation, and we really want to hear the results."

The mare walked in, levitating a few papers along with her in a teal aura, and took her seat at the desk. "That's excellent. Well, to introduce myself; I'm Dr. Anderson, but you can call me Becky. I looked over each of your results, and am happy to say you are both fertile and there are no major concerns that should interfere with a successful pregnancy."

"No major concerns?" Sunset asked. "Are there any minor concerns?"

Becky flipped through the papers. "Tonya is running a little high on her blood pressure, but not too high. Her cholesterol is a little high as well. A small adjustment in diet can fix that, and even if she doesn't, it doesn't present much in terms of worry. For you the primary concern is age. Ponies from Earth remain fertile longer than humans or our Equestrian counterparts, but I would still recommend that if you were to carry a foal that you do it within the next five years. After that point I would recommend avoiding pregnancy, even if you're still technically able."

"I'm actually surprised I'm able to at all," Sunset replied breathlessly. "I'd have thought I was too old. I mean, I knew I was still having a cycle, but still..."

Becky smiled. "You're not the first pony I've heard say that. I've read up on it for an explanation. We don't know if it was intentional or just an unintended side effect of the transformation, but being transformed basically reset your ovaries. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but all those cycles that happened between when you would have started as a teen, up until the age you were at transformation, all got put back into your eggs to go through."

Tonya just gaped. "How long is that going to keep going?"

Becky turned to her. "For a middle aged mare that's enough to keep her ovulating till the day she drops dead of old age. Even the final medical report on Sha'am Maut showed that she was ovulating at her advanced age. The fact that transformation also put us back into perfect health also extends how long it is safe for her to be carrying a foal, but after a certain age I would still avoid it, just a precaution."

"This effects everyone?" Tonya asked, surprised she hadn't heard about this.

"Yes, it does. I have had to deal with many mares, that thought their foalbearing days were over, come in surprised they've got a bun in the oven." Becky levitated a pen and paper and doodled out some math symbols. "As a general rule you can take your age at transformation, subtract thirteen from it, and that's how many extra years of ovulation you have than you'd normally have. It isn't perfect, but it gives you an idea."

"Okay then," Sunset said in a dazed tone. "So is there a sperm bank or something?"

Becky sighed. "Unfortunately, sperm donations from stallions aren't what we need them to be, and the night ponies have got so many mares waiting to get inseminated that the wait list for sperm is now very lengthy. The better option is if you get a direct donor. Mind, that many such stallions would want involvement in raising any foal they sired. This may or may not be an issue for you, but I like to keep prospective parents aware."

Tonya and her wife looked at one another to try to read how the other felt. Sunset then turned back to Becky. "We'll have to discuss this together. Do we just come back here when we make a decision?"

Becky nodded and typed some keys on her computer while looking at the screen. "My schedule stays pretty packed. It was only the fact the harvest is going on right now that I even had this time slot available. I can set an appointment for you to return in late January, say the twenty-eighth, at one? That gives you time to talk and discuss options."

"That would be good," Tonya replied, and then looked at her wife for confirmation. Sunset gave a nod in response.

Becky did a little more typing with her magic and then looked up at them with a smile. "You're all set then. I'll give you a reminder call the day before. You're insurance should cover this visit completely, but if you want a receipt just ask my secretary for one on the way out. I look forward to seeing you both again in January."

They quietly left the office, not bothering with the receipt for the visit. When they stepped outside Sunset broke the silence. "I don't have a clue who to go to. Do we know what tribe we're trying for? I guess that determines who we go to."

"We can sit down and talk about tribe later. We have time to think about it," Tonya replied with a grin, as she grabbed her wife into a tight hug. "I'm just so happy you're onboard with this. You'll be so happy too when you set eyes on that little foal for the first time."

Sunset hugged back. "I am happy. It's the start of something new, with you. It might be the final chapter in my life, but I'm sure it will be a good one." They broke their hug and Sunset sighed as she lifted up her leg. "Now to find out how many voicemails I have gotten while this thing was off."

Sunset's horn lit up and she flicked the power back on her phone. They both flattened their ears as it started ringing immediately. Sunset tapped it with a hoof to answer.

"Sunset? Where the flying fuck are you?" Wild's voice rang out.

Sunset's ears rotated laying flat to the sides to laying backwards. "None of your concern. What's wrong now?"

"My mama has run off!" Wild screamed. "I've got people looking for her, but no one has found her yet. It's like she's disappeared off the face of the Earth. We need to find her!"

Tonya looked worriedly at her wife. Sunset had a deep grimace on her face and was silent.

"Sunset? Are you listening to me? I need to find my mama," Wild continued on.

Sunset shook her head. "I hear you...I'll head straight to the Bastion and see about organizing a search party, and utilizing the city cameras to spot her. You have my permission to order any SPEC operative to do as you see fit. They can verify with me if they put up an argument. I'll fix this, Wild. I promise."

"You'd better," Wild growled as the phone went dead.

They sat silent for another moment before Sunset raised the phone back up. "Alexa, call contact Equestrian embassy, Washington DC."

"Calling Equestrian Embassy, Washington DC," Alexa answered. The phone began ringing, and continued ringing for a second before an automated message saying to please hold came over the line.

Tonya looked at her wife curiously. "The Equestrians? Since when do you call them?"

Sunset looked at her with sad eyes. "I can't let this project crash and burn, it's my legacy. I also can't let Jean get hurt because of this. If she's out there too long this could become dangerous for her. It's time for me to swallow my pride and do what's necessary. The Equestrians have better mages than us available to help figure this out once she's found. I'm going to beg Twilight Sparkle for help, even if I have to get down on the ground and kiss her hooves to do it."

Author's Note

Jean artwork by Lawra:

Chapter 19: Rising Tensions

It was a few hours after Wild had grown the fields. All the night ponies had gone to bed, with Ms. Rosetta just having gone to bed in the last few minutes, but there were still ponies awake at the Dreamwarden's house. With the night ponies asleep, Crystal and Tempest were taking turns watching Jessie and her friends. The three fillies were in turn left to figure out on their own how to occupy themselves.

Jessie was outside, and at this moment she was focused very intently on a small piece of wild lettuce growing by the edge of the house. Out of the entire yard this one plant was the only one of it's type, and the only one that might be considered a weed. She had her hoof on it, and had her tongue sticking out of the side of her mouth as she concentrated as hard as she possibly could. Jordan and Jackie stood close by, watching her. Jordan was looking hopeful. Jackie was looking bored.

"Feel anything yet?" Jordan asked.

Jessie narrowed her eyes at the small piece of vegetation, silently demanding that it reveal its secrets to her. There was something there, just on the edge of her perception, as if the universe was teasing her by almost giving her access to her earth pony magic, but keeping it just out of touch. She'd been at this for a few minutes, and the fact she was sure there was almost a sensation kept her going. She wished she knew what could make that almost into something definite.

She pulled her hoof back and let out a defeated breath. "I think there's something there, but I might be imagining it. I don't think this lettuce is going to talk to me."

"Why would it talk to you?" Jackie asked in confusion. "Plants don't talk."

"I meant I don't think I'm going to be able to interact with it," Jessie clarified as she patted the lettuce with a hoof.

"What's enter act mean?" Jordan asked.

Jessie looked at her purple friend. "Interact, spelled i-n-t-e-r-a-c-t, one word, not two. There are two parts of the word. Inter, which is a suffix from Latin that means between, among, together, or mutual. The other part is act, which means in this case action. So, action between It and me. In short, it means I won't be able to do anything with it."

"Oh," Jordan said thoughtfully. "Um, what's a suffix?"

"It's a morph--" She paused as she realized her definition was going to go over her friend's head. "It's a part of words that have a meaning, and when you combine suffixes to words you get new words. Like how I combined the suffix inter to act to make one word that means something more than act."

"This feels like school, and we don't go back to school till tomorrow," Jackie groaned as she laid down and covered her head with her wings.

Jordan looked at her sister with one ear turned to the side. "I like learning things. I want to be a teacher like Mommy when I grow up, and Mommy says I need to learn lots of things to do that."

"Well, I want to have fun, and I'm bored," Jackie said with a small flap of her wings as she stood up.

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" Jessie asked the pegasus filly.

Jackie looked upwards into the distance then pointed a wing. "I want to do what they're doing."

Jessie and Jordan looked at where the wing was pointing. There were lots of pegasi in the sky over where the fields were, and a hazy mist indicated it was raining there..

"Flying in the rain?" Jordan asked with her head tilted.

Jackie lowered her wing and looked at her little sister. "No, making it rain, and doing other stuff like that. I want to be a weather pony. It looks fun."

"It seems like you're only trying to do typical pegasus things," Jessie said as she observed the pegasi in the distance. "Don't you think that is a little boring?"

Jackie shook her head. "No. What's boring about making it rain? It's funner than doing stuff with boring old plants."

Jessie turned and raised an eyebrow at the other filly. "You didn't think Wild Growth was boring."

Jackie blew a raspberry. "She's okay, for an earth pony. She's isn't as great as Sunrise Storm!"

"She's more powerful," Jessie countered, as she stepped closer to Jackie.

Jackie snorted. "Who cares? She grows plants. Sunrise Storm is fast, and can change the weather, and do all kinds of other cool stuff."

"I just want to be like Mommy," Jordan said meekly.

Jessie gave Jordan a smile. "And that's good." Then turned back to Jackie. "And I just wanted to see if I could do it. I don't want to do typical earth pony stuff with my life. I want to do things with astrophy--" She reminded herself not to use big words with the other foals. "I want to do things with outer space."

Jackie flicked her tail. "So what if I want to do pegasus stuff. Only pegasuses can do pegasus stuff, so we should want to do it...or like, no one would do it. I think it's cool."

"Do you think I should do earth pony stuff because I'm an earth pony?" Jessie asked.

Jackie looked down at the wild lettuce. "Um, earth ponies just grow things. Anyone can grow things. It isn't that special."

"Mommy's an earth pony and she's special!" Jordan protested, as she snapped her ears down flat against her head.

Jackie seemed taken aback by her sister's sudden fervor and backtracked. "Well...Mom doesn't just grow things. She can find things underground, without seeing them. That's kinda cool."

"And she's a teacher," Jordan added in firmly.

"Um, that's okay, but kind of boring. Mom can be a little boring sometimes," Jackie said, and immediately seemed to realize she was digging herself a hole, as her little sister's glare deepened. "Boring for me, I mean. Ponies like you and Jessie think it's cool. I guess it's cool sometimes."

Jessie decided she wasn't going to fight about it. "I guess it's okay to want to do things inherent to your tribe with your life. As you said, someone has to, but that's just not for me." She flicked her ear. "And it is pegasi, not pegasuses, when you're talking about more than one pegasus. If you're going to have so much pride in your tribe get the name right."

Jordan blinked. "So are a bunch of unicorns called unicorny...unicori...unicici? And what are a bunch of earth ponies called?"

Jessie smiled. Jordan might not know as much as her, but she could appreciate the fact that her friend was trying to learn things. "They are just called unicorns and earth ponies."

"See, pegasi are cool. We get our own special name," Jackie said proudly. Jessie just rolled her eyes.

"So, what are we going to do now?" Jordan asked as she looked around the yard.

"The demons have a tree house, we could try to see what's in it," Jackie suggested with an eager glance at the tree in question.

"They can climb up the tree into their tree house. We can't climb trees," Jessie reminded them. "Plus, that might be bad, going into their tree house without permission."

"Well, me and Jordan are their aunts. They have to let us," Jackie said with a confident grin.

Jessie pursed her lips. "Well, technically you're their step-aunt and Jordan is their half-aunt. I'm not sure that counts as full aunts."

Jackie and Jordan both looked at her in confusion. "What do you mean half and step?" Jordan asked.

She was about to answer when Ms. Crystal came running up. "Hey! Having a good day? Who wants to watch some cartoons?" The crystal pony said nervously.

"Which cartoons?" Jackie asked.

"Any cartoons you want. I'll download them off my account for you, my treat," Ms. Crystal said with a big smile, as she started to calm.

Jordan's ears picked up. "Any ones we want?"

"Any ones," Ms. Crystal confirmed with a nod. "You and your sister head into the house and decide what you want to watch. I need to talk to Jessie real fast before we go in."

The two sisters started giggling as they ran into the house. At the point they were reaching the door Ms. Crystal looked down at Jessie. "I don't think their parents have had a conversation about the fact that Tom is Jordan's step dad, or that Treasure isn't Phobia's mom. That isn't something that they should be learning from anyone but their parents."

Jessie dropped one ear and frowned. "Why? It's just the facts."

"It can get weird for a foal to find out that she had a different dad at some point. You're talking to someone who has first hoof experience with that," Ms. Crystal replied with a frown. "People like to know their place in a family, it's comforting. Dropping that information on Jackie, without caring about how it is going to make her feel, could hurt her. Let their parents handle that discussion." Ms. Crystal paused briefly. "I might need to dreamwalk their parents, and let them know that you introduced the subject. Tom and Amanda...Treasure, aren't really up to that at all right now, but maybe trying to decide how to deal with that will distract them."

"I still don't understand," Jessie grumbled as she kicked the helpless piece of lettuce..

Ms. Crystal sighed. "Look, those two are holding up well, but this is a very confusing time for them because of what's going on with their parents. One of the core things they understand is that's their mom and dad. Telling Jackie that she had a different dad makes her understanding of the family dynamic get confusing. You're telling her, in a sense, that her dad that she's always known as her real dad isn't her real dad. How do you think that would make her feel? Add to that everything else going on."

Jessie lowered her head. "I guess it might make her feel bad, maybe angry, lied to."

Ms. Crystal nodded. "Good, you're starting to understand. Just imagine how it would make Tom feel if Jackie felt that way. Tom loves Jackie just as much as he loves Jordan or Phobia, and she's every bit as much his daughter as them to him. What if Jackie got mad and felt he wasn't her real dad?"

"It would hurt him really bad," Jessie said sadly.

Ms. Crystal sat down next to her and wrapped a leg around her. "I know you think facts and figures are just that. You see it as just knowledge for you to apply. A lot of emotions can be tied up in knowing certain things, and finding out about them takes a lot of care in how you learn about those things. Their parents do need to sit down and explain this stuff to them, but they need to do it in a way that doesn't hurt them finding out. Be careful what you're telling people. How people find things out can really impact them a lot."

Jessie looked up at the older pony. "How do you know all this? You said you weren't that smart."

Ms. Crystal chuckled. "Experience, kid. You may have more brains than I'll ever have, but you don't have half the experience. My dad, who happens to be my stepdad, used to tell me that experience was the best teacher. I don't think I really started to take that to heart until the last few years." She got a sad look on her face. "I've screwed up a lot in my life, but because of those screwups I have learned a lot. I hope you don't end up screwing up half as much as I did."

"I don't want to screw up at all," Jessie replied.

Ms. Crystal laughed loudly. "Good luck with that. It's going to happen, though. There'll probably be a few doozies in there too. It happens to everyone. Just make sure you learn from them."

Jessie hung her head low. "I just don't want to mess up my life."

The crystal pony booped Jessie's nose with a hoof. She scrunched it up in frustration, but Ms. Crystal started talking again before she could complain about it. "Hey, my life was pretty darned messed up for a while, but I'm in a great place now."

"You can say bad words you know. I hear them all the time," Jessie interjected.

"Well, it's bad manners for me to be doing that, and you shouldn't be cussing," Ms. Crystal replied quickly. "Anyway, the point is; if for some reason you do something that really messes your life up, that isn't the end of your life. My life is better than I ever imagined it could be. I have a great job, that I love. I have good friends. I also get to meet interesting people like you. It would never have happened if I didn't mess up so badly before."

Jessie looked up at the mare with one ear tilted. "Ms. Crystal....are you telling me I should let my life get messed up?"

"Just call me Crystal," Crystal said with a chuckle. "No, you should definitely avoid doing that, but you shouldn't live your life in fear of it going off track. Sometimes things that are better than what you planned can happen. Life never goes according to plan, and you never know what else might come your way."

Jessie sat and thought about this for a moment and tried to think of a good counter example. "What about Ms. Jean? She's run away and everyone's looking for her and worried. Things seem bad for her right now since they've gone off track."

Crystal sighed. "That's a whole other kettle of fish." That was a weird expression. "We don't know yet if things are that bad. I know Rosetta is freaking out about it, and Wild Growth...and I'm sure Sunset Blessing is worried about her reputation, but I'm also sure they'll find her and get things fixed. That isn't your problem to worry about anyway."

"Why'd she run away if it wasn't that bad?" Jessie asked.

Crystal let her go and stood up. "She's just scared. People do crazy things when their scared. She has a very hard life because she's sick, and she doesn't want to experience that anymore. She felt helpless, and not in control of her life. That's a very scary thing." She shook her head. "Listen to me, talking about being scared and how it impacts people. Phobia has gone and indoctrinated me into her thinking."

"Well, that's her job, isn't it? Make people understand fear?" Jessie asked, more rhetorically than anything, but she was surprised to see Crystal shake her head.

"Phobia Remedy's job is to be a Dreamwarden. The job of Dreamwarden is really kind of straightforward and cold. It means she is supposed to enforce and maintain the rules of the dream realm. If that was all she was it would be a pretty sad existence," Crystal said.

The crystal pony looked up at the windows of the house. "No, Phobia cares about fear because she wants to be more than just a cold enforcer, she wants to help people. When she transformed she saw a world ready to eat itself alive out of fear. She made it her life's purpose to help people understand what they are afraid of and not be at the mercy of fear. That's all Phobia Remedy, not something she got from her job. I wouldn't be here guarding a Dreamwarden if I didn't believe in what she personally stood for."

"But, early on the Dreamwardens used fear to control the night ponies," Jessie replied. "Why would she do that if it goes against what she believes."

Crystal looked back down at her. "She thought it necessary at the time, and she was dealing with her own fears. By the time Psychic Calm got her to buck up, and be what she needed to be, things had gone bad with Sha'am Maut far longer than they should have. Phobia let her fears get the better of her, and made her stay silent and in the background. That let bad things happen because the rest weren't willing to stand up to Sha'am without her. It is a hard pill to swallow, but being at the mercy of fear doesn't hurt only you, it hurts everyone around you or depends on you."

"Like how Wild, Ms. Rosetta, and everyone else is being hurt right now by Ms. Jean being afraid?" She asked as she made the connection. "Or everyone around Jackie if she gets afraid about Mr. Tom not being her dad?"

Crystal nodded. "Yeah, just like that. You're a smart filly. Jackie will get this all explained to her soon enough, and will have to face the fear that comes with it. You should always respect your fears, because you fear them for a reason, just don't be at the mercy of them...Urgh! I really am starting to sound like Phobia. If I start monologuing you have permission to buck me in the face."

"I'm not going to buck you," Jessie responded in shock. "That would be mean, and it would hurt you."

Crystal laughed. "If it stopped me from turning into a monologuing mare it would be a mercy." She gave Jessie a nudge towards the door. "Let's head back inside and watch some cartoons before those two wonder where we are."

Jessie got up and walked, and as she did she reflected on the conversation. What did she fear that could make her act irrational? She couldn't think of anything, but if she wasn't thinking rationally about it would she even be able to recognize it? The easier question would be to determine what she feared, and then she could start examining her actions in response to that. A short reexamination of the last few days brought up a lot of things, and she had to admit she'd acted out of character in response to them.

None of this knowledge told her what actions and reactions she should have to her worries, though. Again simply knowing something had failed her in coming up with solutions. Crystal seemed to indicate she just needed to be brave about things, but didn't that just mean putting herself at the mercy of her problems? She didn't understand. She needed to ask more questions. However, those questions could wait until after she watched some cartoons.

Tonya flattened her ears and pressed her hooves together as she continued to listen to her wife argue over the phone. They were now in Sunset's office in the Bastion and there still had been no trace of Jean and Bill found. To be fair to the Equestrians, most of the yelling in this conversation was being done by Sunset.

"You need to tell the ambassador that you'll have to cancel. I need you here!" Sunset yelled.

"I'm conducting my business with the ambassador as quickly as possible. I can't just walk out because you have an issue with your experiment," Twilight Sparkle replied calmly over the phone. "Rarity has been informed to put six of our best mages, who are already on site, at your disposal. I'll be there when I have finished my business here, no sooner."

"This is an urgent matter and those mages aren't you!" Sunset fired back.

Twilight sighed. "I understand, and I'm doing my best to get this matter concluded as fast as I can. You need to understand that I am possibly creating friction with your government just getting involved, and the only reason I am willing to is that two people are in jeopardy."

Tonya got up from her seat before her wife could launch another angry retort. "Sunset, let me talk to her."

"I've got this," Sunset growled.

Tonya flew next to her wife and touched a hoof to her shoulder. "No, you don't, and you know it. You're not thinking straight and it isn't being productive. How about you go down to the vaults and work on things there. Let me be the one to talk calmly with the nice pony that we want to help us, okay? You and I are a team, let me do my part."

Sunset snorted and left her seat. "Fine." She then promptly stormed down to the the already open vaults.

Tonya took the vacated seat and spoke into the phone. "I'm sorry about that. She is under a lot of stress. We do appreciate you agreeing to try to help us even though it puts you in a difficult position. What can we do to help you help us?"

"You're her wife, Tonya, right? To tell you the truth, I don't see any simple ways of making this any easier. Ideally, if I had access to her notes on how her spell actually worked and was developed that might help me figure out solutions on how to stabilize their resonance, but I can't be sure of that. Given that this is a project your government considers a matter of national security, I doubt they will allow me to see those files. I'll be working blind."

"I may actually have a solution to that, though, I'm not sure it's one you would like," Tonya replied. "I'm not sure how much you know about me, but I'm a mind magic user. One of my jobs here is to give voluntary compulsions to secrecy. I have done a few for the government on the side as well. We can draw one up for you and let you review it. If you agree to it we might be able to give you free access to Sunset's files."

Twilight hesitated. "No offense, you seem like a nice pony, but I'm not really comfortable with the idea of a Shimmerist messing with my head--or anyone else for that matter."

"I understand," Tonya replied. "I'm only offering up options. I could get Phobia Remedy to watch when we did it, just to verify I only did what I said I would. If you're still not comfortable with it after that I won't get my feelings hurt too much. A lot of people aren't comfortable with that kind of thing."

"I'll just say it is under consideration and leave it at that. Do you think you're even strong enough to lay a compulsion on an alicorn anyway?" Twilight asked.

"That depends on how willing you are to accept it. That's something else Phobia could verify," Tonya responded. "If not, there's always the option of having Phobia herself do it. I know it will take if a Dreamwarden does it."

"We'll keep options...open on that," Twilight responded in a tone that screamed 'hell no'. "I will get down there as soon as I can, I promise. I'm actually doing another round of arguing about the bottlenecking of returning the ponies I fully transformed from a partial state. I made promises to those ponies too, that I would do all I could for them. I want your experiments down there to go well because it might help me convince the government to let these ponies go home rather than just stringing them along."

"Madam ambassador," another voice called out in the background. "There's a Jennifer Tanner on the line. She says that her special friend is talking a lot and that you'd know what that meant."

Twilight groaned. "I need to get going. Urgent matters keep mounting. I'm sorry to cut this short. I'll get back in touch this evening after I have met with the ambassador and figured out what's going on with Jenny. I hope you find them soon." The line clicked dead.

That could have gone better. Tonya left her seat and proceeded down to the vaults to see her wife. Sunset had the globe with the ETS sample pulled out and was doing some sort of magic. It was best not to interrupt when her wife was in the zone with something that complicated, so she decided to take a seat off to the side.

She looked up at the floating black sphere and shivered. That thing gave her the creeps. She hoped that it was taken away soon, since the Dreamwardens were pulling the plug on the project, or putting it on hold, or whatever. She hated the sphere with a passion. It wasn't just that it just felt wrong when looking at it. When she learned that the price for this thing had been bought at was her life it felt like somehow her destiny had forever been tied to this mysterious object, and now the Dreamwardens behaved like it didn't matter at all. The sooner she never had to think of it again the better.

She looked around at the other compartments. This place was a treasure trove of magical knowledge, definitely the greatest on Earth, but probably up there on the list if you included Equestria's knowledge as well.

Down here were copies of all the collected research of Robert McDermott, transcribed and sent in secret by his aunt, Sarah Tanner. Sarah had a great love and pride for her nephew and his achievements, and was not actually a Shimmerist herself, but understood that her nephew lacked the resources to make full use of what he had discovered. These days he released much of his research to the public, but early on much had been kept secret. There were still things he held back for reasons ranging from he hadn't resolved all the issues to he feared widespread use of the spell. Getting this information was invaluable, and that made Sarah one of Sunset's most valuable agents. It was a shame that they had to resort to these kinds of tactics with him. Many of Sunset's other agents out west were best described as strong-armed, and they'd gotten a little too aggressive with him and scared him off.

Here also were also copies of all information that those nobles on Equestria had tried to send to Earth. Twilight Sparkle had been aware of who the nobles had sent that information to, and done nothing to take it away from them. That faction of Shimmerists had shared their secrets with Sunset, and Sunset had repaid them by revealing what they knew and their whereabouts to the government. It hadn't been personal, but SPEC kept its good standing with the government by being loyal to the United States, and those Shimmerists had previously conspired with the Equestrian nobles to try to set up an Equestrian protectorate on US soil. In Sunset's opinion they were traitors, and that they had escaped justice was unacceptable.

It could be said that SPEC's methods in obtaining knowledge were often unfair, duplicitous, or on rare occasions-- brutal, but it was a case of the ends justify the means. Sunset didn't hurt anyone unless she felt it was necessary, and often went to great lengths to secretly protect those that she was taking information from. Dead and imprisoned researchers were not productive to her. Years ago she had placed agents around Bob. She had let the government know what he was doing and that she was monitoring him closely. They had agreed to keep their distance from him, despite him breaking the law at the time. Her influence had kept him from being arrested, even if he had no clue of it going on. She had raged when she found out that a rogue faction in the government had tried to murder him in cold blood. When his aunt Sarah had come to Sunset asking for aid in protecting him Sunset had already been in the process of demanding justice for the colt. The fact that they'd used her knowledge about his activities to select him as a target made it a deeply personal grievance.

The works of countless other researchers, and magical artifacts from the early Equestrian expeditions were housed in these alcoves, all carefully studied. Most people who contributed to SPEC didn't even realize they were on the payroll, or indirectly involved. Wild called it Sunset's secret empire, and she wasn't completely wrong in that. Knowledge was power, and this room was the foundation of all of the research in the Bastion. Sunset always made something greater than the sum of the parts given her, and these were the best parts Earth had to offer.

"I think I found something," Sunset said as she returned the globe to its alcove.

Tonya perked her ears up. "You know how to fix what's wrong?"

Sunset shook her head. "No, but I determined that how we were placing certain runes that impacted giving them a pony sense-of-self were slightly off compared to how they were set in the original ETS spell. I accidently threw them out of balance when adjusting for maintaining their true resonance in standby. This can be corrected in future versions, and I'm unsure what the full effect it's having on them. I suspect it might cause some problems with their thinking, though. That might explain how Jean got so dependant on Wild's magic so quickly, and how she was able to convince Bill to get involved with her plan to run off."

"They're not mentally balanced," Tonya said as she considered the implications. "You know there'll be an investigation by the Dreamwardens because of this."

Sunset flicked her tail dismissively. "It wasn't intentional, and they will verify that, so I'm unconcerned about it. It's a fine at most. What's more important is we're still left to wonder how much it's impacting their thinking. The fact remains that, in essence, those runes were applied sloppily, and sloppy placements of runes in long running spells can cause degenerative side effects. These are degenerative side effects impacting their minds."

"So whatever is wrong with their thinking might get worse?" She asked as her ears sagged.

Sunset nodded with her head held low. "Compounded by the fact the spell is persisting much longer than it was designed to. They aren't thinking straight right now, but if this keeps going that will continue to get worse, until there's no rational thought at all."

Tonya walked over to her wife and gave her an encouraging nuzzle. "They'll find them soon, and we've got the best mage there is coming to help figure things out. We'll get this fixed."

Sunset sniffled. "This is all my fault. I spent so much time crafting the primary part of the spell with care, but I rushed with the revisions. I was so concerned with getting something I could present by a deadline."

"We all make mistakes, my sunshine."

Sunset looked up with tear filled eyes. "And how long can I keep trying to apply that to myself before I can't use that for an excuse anymore?"

"You've done so much good. The world is better for all you've done," Tonya replied as she stroked her wife's mane with a wing.

A bitter laugh escaped Sunset's lips and Tonya stepped back. "I want to believe that, I really do. I want to say at the end of the day that I advanced God's plans, and the world will be better for it, but just look at this room. Everything I do ends with somepony getting hurt. Now, at the point I think I should be cementing my great legacy, it is happening again. I have two innocent people that I'm possibly destroying for the sake of the greater good. How many bad things can happen before they outweigh the good? Is my legacy the greater good, or all the pain and suffering that I caused on my path to it?"

"Sunset, you aren't thinking clearly, either," Tonya said firmly. There was some truth to what her wife said, but while Sunset was dealing with the aftereffects of her own transformation wasn't the time to be tackling this. "Let's just get home and get you to bed. If they find them, they'll call us. You just pointed out that you made a mistake while rushing. You could make more mistakes if you get yourself too upset."

Her wife looked like she might argue, but sighed in resignation. "You're right. I should be listening to you. If I had listened to you about delaying things we might not have this mess."

"I didn't foresee this happening with Jean and Bill either, so don't give me too much credit," Tonya replied. "Come on, you'll do better with some sleep. Hopefully Twilight Sparkle will finish up early and be here tomorrow." She touched a wing to her wife's shoulder. "And I'm proud of you for admitting you need help with this, and not letting your dislike of the Equestrians stop you from finding the best you could."

Sunset looked up and gave a small smile. "Baby steps for doing better?"

She hugged her wife. "Baby steps are the most important ones, because you can't walk until you've done them."

They left the vault and Sunset resealed the passage into it. They left her office out into the Chorus room and then out into the hallway. All the researchers were gone for the day and only members of the security and military were here, patrolling the halls. Sunset came to a stop and looked off down the wrong direction to go home.

"I need to check on Poly Glot's progress. See if he has figured anything out," Sunset said as she flicked an ear.

Tonya groaned. "Can it wait? I really don't want to be near him."

Sunset shook her head. "He may have found something, and when we find Jean and Bill I don't want to be missing any information."

She scowled in response. "Fine, but let's make this quick. I get sick just thinking about the fact I share air with him down here."

"I do too," Sunset said in agreement. "I promise he's gone after this. One way or another I'm not keeping that monster here anymore after this week."

"Thank God," she said with a sigh.

They walked through the twisting labyrinth of halls till they saw the well guarded door of Poly Glot. As they approached his voice rang out. "Oh my, are there guests for poor old Poly Glot? You should come in, I have so much that I would love to talk about."

Tonya shivered at his voice, but Sunset didn't deem to give him a reply. She instead looked at the crystal pony guards. "Has he been busy in there?"

"He's definitely been scratching away with a pen at something," the guard replied. "No one is looking forward to trying to take the pen from him. First thing he did was try to stab someone in the neck with it when he got it."

"Par for the course," Sunset said dismissively. "Get yourselves ready. I need to go in and check his progress."

"Sunset? You’re visiting me? Oh Sunset… Sunset, it warms my heart. You are such a wonderful jailer. I have secrets to tell youuu..." Poly Glot all but purred.

One of the humans unlocked the door as all the crystal ponies stood ready. Poly Glot had an inhibitor ring on his horn, and was chained, but all precautions were always taken whenever his door was being opened. He could do a lot of damage in a short amount of time, and knew exactly how to maximize his carnage. On the rare occasions his inhibitor had been removed in the past he had a literal army of crystal ponies watching if he tried anything. They had discontinued letting him have even brief periods of this freedom after he had caused mayhem with his broken time travel spell. Everyone had been told afterwards that they had just been stunned, and not the full nature of what they'd experienced.

The door was opened and Tonya took a deep breath as she and her wife stepped on in. Poly Glot was near the wall, with chains restricting him from getting anywhere near the door. The room was padded, but the padding near the wall the dirty brown unicorn sat was ripped and shredded, and the way it was done indicated he did that with his horn. He sat smiling at them, with his thin black hanging beard and mane twisted in knots. A mad gleam was in his purple pupils as he watched them. Papers surrounded him, many of them shredded, and bits and pieces of runic diagrams could be seen on them. There was no sign of the pen.

"Figure out where the fuck he has that pen hidden," Sunset harshly ordered the guards.

The guards came into the room as Sunset lit up her horn and her red aura locked around the mad unicorn to hold him still. They began checking his mane, underneath him, and in the ripped up padding, all came up empty. Sunset grunted and forced open his mouth with her magic and they did a thorough inspection of that, again nothing. She then lifted up his rear and one of the humans put a glove on and began searching that crevice as well, again nothing.

Sunset growled and motioned with her head for the guards to back away from him. The aura disappeared around just Poly Glot's head. "Where's the pen? You aren't getting left anything you can use for a weapon."

"I chewed it up....and ate it," Poly Glot cackled.

The aura holding him in place glowed more intensely for a moment before vanishing. Sunset panted for a second from the exertion before nodding. "He's telling the truth. I can detect it in his stomach."

"You could have saved exhausting what little magic you have if you had only asked," Poly Glot said with a smile. “Not that watching you strain so much wasn’t exciting in its own right.”

The reminder that her magic was weak earned a snarl from Sunset, and Tonya prepped herself to stop her wife from lashing out. "Sunset, don't let him push your buttons. You know that he's trying to get you mad enough to come near him."

Poly Glot giggled. "Ton-ya, you know me so well. I can't wait to spend some quality alone time with you. We'll have so much to discuss just between you and I...the time is getting so close, I can already hear the music of your screams. La-da-dee la-da-da-da."

Sunset stood up straight. "Enough! Did you actually figure out how to fix the spell, before you ripped up all your work?"

"Fix it?" Poly Glot said in confusion. "Why? The spell is almost perfect. The only thing wrong is that the intensity is too low."

"It has a degenerate effect on their minds," Sunset replied. "I can't use it like that."

"Oh..." Poly Glot laughed. "But it's just so perfect that way. Slowly pushing them to whatever brings them the most pleasure, and pushing away all other paltry concerns. It really is a work of art, returning the lucky recipient to a creature with only one goal, with no other thought. Pure perfection."

Tonya stiffened. Was that what it was doing to Jean and Bill? It would explain Jean hanging more and more off Wild even though she didn't have to. The magic gave her pleasure, and she was a junkie for it. Sunset said this would get worse and worse as time went on. Would they stop thinking about anything but how to get magic?

Sunset frowned. "I guess you were somewhat useful after all. At least I know what it's doing now. I was pretty sure I knew how to correct it already, but it is good to know what kind of side effects I'm looking to fix." She turned to the guards. "We're done here. Make sure he gets a bath in the morning, he stinks. Also get a physician to look him over to make sure he hasn't torn up his intestines with that pen. When he is taken out of here I don't want anyone able to say we unnecessarily mistreated him."

"Time is com-ing so cl-ose," Poly Glot sang. "I’ll get to play and dance and sing!"

Sunset glared at him. "Don't count on it, you perverted freak. I'll see that you hang. Your days are numbered."

"One...two...three...hehe," Poly Glot said as he went back into giggling. "I'll be seeing you both soon...real soon."

Tonya left the cell with her wife. As the guards relocked it up she reflected that at least her wife got a reminder of what a real monster was.

"Why are we stopped?" Wild asked her driver. The question was partially rhetorical; there was a police barricade that had not been there earlier up ahead, but an officer had spoken briefly with her driver and she hadn't been able to overhear because she'd been on the phone.

"The protests, Miss Growth," her driver explained. "The Humanity First group has started a protest without getting a permit, and the police and national guard are trying to disperse them as we speak. We're still waiting to find out where we can detour."

Wild laid down in her seat and flattened her ears. "Great...who knows how long we'll be stuck here."

"Something really needs to be done about all these protests. I know they're a normal thing around here, but lately they've been getting completely out of control," Number complained.

"If you can think of an answer on how to do that let me know," Wild replied as she sat back up. "Hopefully they can get this group under control before they get into it with any of the other groups. If they don't we won't have a group of protests on our hooves, we'll have riots."

"It's a regular powder keg," Number said in agreement. "We have Humanity First, the Anti-Dreamwarden League, the Night Pony Rights Organization, a collection of concerned parents groups, Anti-Shimmerist groups, people protesting the United Nations over the Moroccan genocide, people protesting the UN in general, extremist ponies who are protesting our way of life, socialists protesting that SPEC is too big a friend to big business, other groups protesting that SPEC is too involved with trying to divert tax dollars to public handouts...the list goes on, and they all hate each other."

"Sunset has gone too far with her protections of freedom of speech and right to protest," Wild grumbled. "Those freedoms are great, but the way it has been handled in Riverview is ridiculous. She all but encourages protests since she provides them food. Sooner or later, someone is going to get hurt."

One of the officers came up to the car and started talking with her driver again. She listened in for a moment and then stopped as she realized he was just giving directions on how to detour safely, rather than any new information about the protest. At least their stop had been a brief one. However, she needed to find out more about the protests, as those could interfere with the search for her mama. As a safety precaution there had been laws put in place that only flyers who were involved with trying to keep order could fly over a protest area, under penalty of arrest. This kept protestors with wings on the ground, because once protests got into the air as well as the ground all kinds of new problems were introduced.

The car started moving again, and in a few minutes time they reached her mansion. As she entered, George gave her a rundown of updates about the house. That the crew working on the nursery had left paperwork about design choices for her to make decisions on. That someone had come by and inspected the bathroom she had damaged and given an estimate on how long it would take to fix, as well as a request to have someone take a more detailed look at the structural integrity of the ceiling right above the bathroom. That the alcohol vender would not be available to restock her bar for another two days due to him being short staffed and having to reset the mods at a few stores. He also informed her that no news had arrived about her mama.

She sighed, and gave out a series of instructions. With that done, she walked over to the large group hookah and took a seat at it.

"Wild, you aren't supposed to be doing that," Number scolded. "You're pregnant. Think about the foal."

She gave the hookah a dejected look and nodded. "You're right. I'm just stressed and stuck waiting for any news. Do you know what it's like to be so worried and not be able to do anything but wait?"

"We've all been in situations like that at some point in our lives," Number replied as she lit her horn. A blue aura enveloped Wild and she found herself being levitated away from the hookah to the couch. She gave her best friend a dirty look for picking her up like that, but Number ignored it. "I know you're worried, but try to find other ways of relaxing. That foal inside you is not near invincible, like you are. Just stress alone could be bad for it."

"Then everything about today is bad for it," Wild replied flippantly.

She glanced up a hanging clock, evening was falling. Her mama and Bill were going to be running out of magic soon, if they hadn't already. If they were hiding that would leave them hidden and helpless somewhere. Bill could call for help and use his arms to crawl to search for it, but her mama couldn't even do that much. It broke her heart to think about her mama being left in that kind of position.

Her phone rang and she quickly answered it. "Yes? Did someone find her?"

"Sorry, Wild. " Sapphire's voice came over the line. "Couldn't come up with anything and neither did any others yet." Her tone shifted to annoyance. "Who do I lodge a complaint with by the way? And it better not be Sunset. It's a pony city and I'm being told you have flying restrictions? We're trying to find a couple of missing temp-ponies who might be in trouble and they told us to stop because a crowd is getting a little rowdy."

"It's meant to keep order," Wild explained sadly. "Thank you for trying. I appreciate it. Maybe someone else will have had some luck."

"If they want order, let us create a thunderstorm and that’ll clear em out real fast. Human methods are always so inefficient. But whatever, I need to go back to my family for the night," Sapphire replied with a huff. "If she isn't found by tomorrow I'll help again in the morning. You should get some sleep too, freaking out and keeping yourself up all night worrying isn’t going to accomplish anything."

The line went dead and she hung her head. If Sapphire had spent the afternoon searching and found nothing that meant her mama was either inside a building somewhere or out where the protests were happening. The protests at the moment covered a large area, and buildings could have her anywhere. Nothing had really been narrowed down much.

A knock came at the door and she looked up as George went to get the door. A moment later he returned with Melissa Rivers.

The police chief looked at her glumly. "I've got some news. I wanted to give it to you in person rather than call. I hurried over here as soon as I found out."

"Did you find her?" Wild asked eagerly, then her heart sank as she further took in the human's mood. "Is she hurt and that's why you wanted to tell me in person?"

Melissa shook her head. "We haven't found her, but we did find two ponies that were drained of most of their magic by a pair of agitated crystal ponies. They are in the hospital recovering right now, and should be fine in a few days. We have witnesses to the event."

Wild's breath caught as one of her big fears about what could happen was coming true. Melissa looked at her and continued. "It happened near where some of the Anti-Dreamwarden League were protesting. They were tettering out for the day and starting to leave for their hotels when two crystal ponies matching the descriptions of your mother and Bill attacked a pair of isolated unicorns by an alleyway. Some humans came when they heard yelling, and they say the crystal ponies ran away while calling out how sorry they were. I have teams searching that area now, but haven't found a trace of them yet."

"Mama...how could you?" Wild whispered, then nodded stiffly. "I understand. Let me know when you have more information."

Melissa looked contrite. "I have to let you know I'm going to have to reduce the number of people searching for the time being. We're switching over to night shift and I need the night ponies to help keep the peace. The Anti-Dreamwarden League have gotten it in their heads that this was an attack by those protesting the what happened in Morocco, or possibly sympathizers for the Night Pony Rights Organization. They're angry, and things might get ugly. I can't let violence break out."

Wild took a deep breath to try to calm her nerves. "I understand your position. My mama and Bill are glowing again now, and it's getting dark. Hopefully that will help the night ponies catch sight of them while doing what else they need to do."

"Maybe," Melissa replied. "I expect that they'll be finding somewhere indoors to sleep, so my night ponies might not be in a position to find them. I have humans out checking for anywhere that's been broken into. It's best that they are found by humans anyway, rogue crystal ponies can be dangerous to anyone with magic. I'm the only human on the force with any known magical powers."

"I understand," Wild replied, feeling like she was stuck repeating that over and over. She understood all these things, but she was getting more and more disheartened acknowledging them.

Melissa turned back towards the door. "I need to get back to checking on the people I have keeping the peace. I'll let you know right away if there is any more news, I promise."

Wild silently watched the human depart. Her mama was getting dangerous. What if next time she drained a pony till they died?

She bowed her head and wept. "Mama, what have I done to you?"

Chapter 20: The Field of Battle

Wild shifted, ears twitching from the high pitched ring of her phone. Blinking sleep from her eyes, she suppressed a yawn and called out to her leg band she had left laying on her night stand. "Alexa, answer call."

"Wild, sorry to wake you. I have more news," Melissa's voice came over the line.

"What's the news?" Wild asked, as she saw the daylight outside. A quick glance at the hanging wall clock showed the time to be a quarter till eight in the morning. She'd slept in later than she'd wanted to.

"Two more ponies were found drained," Melissa replied. "In a house on the northwestern edge of the pony residential district. A neighbor had plans with them first thing in the morning and went inside to check on them when they didn't come to the door. They're alive, just barely. No trace of your mother, or Bill."

Northwestern edge of that district wasn't too far from where she was at. "How far away from the attack last night is that?" She asked.

"About a little less than two miles away," Melissa replied. "The attack last night was in the northeastern corner of human residential and services district, about a mile south of the Bastion."

At least that narrowed down the region they were likely in. That was about two miles southwest of the fields. The farthest they had moved in eight hours had been two miles, going slow because they were hiding. Unless something suddenly changed they should be within two miles or just outside two miles of their most recent attack. She needed to look at a map and draw out a search area. Melissa likely already had done that, but Wild wanted to conduct her own search.

"I'm trying to get as many people as I can searching for them," Melissa continued. "At this point they are my top priority over the protests. I have already called Sunset and the governor to try to get more help in with controlling these protests so I can focus on finding your mother and Mr. Longfellow." Melissa paused briefly. "Wild, I'm sorry, but I have to arrest them when I find them. This is multiple cases of assault and battery, along with possibly breaking and entering. I can't let that slide."

"There's no evidence they weren't let into that house willingly," Wild protested.

"That is why I said possibly. I can't confirm whether they were invited in or invaded. The victims are comatose," Melissa said firmly. "Wild, if they try this on someone elderly, or a foal, it could be a murder charge. If they drain more than they are now it could be the same thing. They are dangerous, and when I catch them they will be arrested."

Wild's ears sagged as she took a deep breath. "I understand."

"I also know you have your own teams out looking for them. Those teams need to call and report when they find them, and not approach. I'm not dealing with your searchers ending up in the hospital as well."

Wild flattened her ears. "They can't drain me... or Sapphire,” she added quickly. “The two of us should be able to approach at least."

"And can I trust you to call me so I can come make the arrest if your group finds them?" Melissa asked skeptically. "I will see all of you arrested for interfering with police business if I can't trust you to do what needs to be done."

Wild hesitated, but then firmed up her resolve. "I just want this to get fixed. They aren't in their right minds right now, and any court will see that upon review. I'll call you so you can arrest them if that's what has to be done. At least it will get them to where they can be helped."

"Fine then, your team can look but only you or Sapphire Sky can approach, no one else," Melissa replied with audible relief. "I promise they will be treated with care when I have them in custody. They'll get help, but first I have to ensure people are safe from them."

"I understand," Wild said numbly.

"I'm going to do my best to keep the press away from the details on this, but I have to let the public know that two highly dangerous crystal ponies are on the loose," Melissa said before her voice dropped. "Believe me, I don't want this project getting a bad rap. It could help me and my husband a lot. Teddy opened up a little to the idea of him doing it when it seemed to work well with me. He does well on his prosthetic legs, but I'd like to see him able to feel whole again. I also want the possibility of us having our own biological children. I'll keep as tight a clamp on damaging information leaking to the public as I can, but my first duty is to protect the public."

"Muchas gracias," Wild replied. "I don't want this to be hanging over my mama's head later on. I'm sure she'll be feeling guilty enough when she comes back to her senses. Having everyone know what she did, and possibly being afraid of her because of it... it would be too much."

"I need to get going," Melissa said. "I tend to work overnight, but I'm going to be needed during the day and will need to get at least a nap in. You can call the department directly if you find them. My officers know what needs to be done and how to keep it quiet."

"I will," Wild said as she got out of bed. The line went dead after that.

She quickly went into the adjoining bathroom and prepared herself for the day. After a short shower and brushing she returned to her room and attached her PonyStrap and her phone to her legs, as well as a put on a saddlebag with things ranging from her ID cards to her strap accessories inside. From there she left her bedroom and proceeded downstairs.

Her papa was still asleep on the couch. He had spent the night here, and she had given him a room to sleep in, but after he'd passed out from exhaustion she hadn't the heart to move him. Number Crunch was still here and already up. The unicorn was smoking at the hookah when Wild first came down the stairs, but quickly brought an end to that upon noticing her. The team of unicorns and crystal ponies were gone. They'd gone home yesterday and their replacements had been SPEC agents who went out to search. She'd need to get in contact with whoever was searching now, as she was sure that had rotated yet again overnight.

"What's the news?" Number asked as she left the hookah.

"My mama attacked two more ponies sometime over the night. This time in their homes," Wild said grimly. "I want to believe that they asked them for a place to stay and didn't intend on draining them, but I honestly don't know."

Number hung her head. "I'm sorry, Wild."

She immediately went and flipped on the television with a nearby remote. "Alexa, cast to main television, street map of Riverview, South Carolina."

"Casting," her phone rang out.

The television lit up with an overhead Google Maps view of the city. "Alexa, center map on current location, zoom out to box four miles in all directions." She started strapping on a laser pointer from her saddlebags onto her PonyStrap.

"Do we have an area to search?" Number asked as she looked at the map.

Wild nodded and began roughly drawing the outline with the laser. "She was somewhere around here last night. Here is where she first escaped from, and here is roughly where she was during the latest attack. Given that we can guess their general range of where they might be."

Number considered the map as Wild spun the laser in an outline around the area. "That's still a lot to cover. There's lots of pony housing there, and a lot of businesses, as well as some human apartments. The main hospital, central school, the Bastion, and even this house is in that range."

Wild made some gestures vaguely crossing out a few locations. "I think it is pretty safe to say that if they made their way to the Bastion they'd be caught already. Too many eyes at the school or the hospital for them to hide from, and they clearly aren't here. That takes away pretty much the entire north to northwest area. That leaves them returning to the fields, somewhere in the pony housing, somewhere in the human district, or possibly hiding along the monorail lines."

"I don't think flyers are going to do a lick of good for this," Number said as she looked at the map. "Pull up the location of the protests."

"Alexa, add current no fly zones to the map," Wild instructed. A moment later a huge splotch of red appeared stretching over most of the human district and running straight up to the Bastion and right around it, as well as curving out around the pony residential district slightly. "I can see what you mean, and understand Sapphire's frustration yesterday. The pony district and fields are largely clear for flying, but if they're in a house or in all that vegetation no flyer is going to be able to spot them anyway."

"What's the plan?" Number asked.

She looked at the map and sighed. "I can't just go walking around all the protesters. Too much of a chance that some angry person will try to attack me, even with bodyguards. I'm not really concerned about my safety, but something like that could be all it takes to spark a riot."

"Makes sense," Number replied. "So, fields or pony housing for you. Send the agents out to the protest area. I guess I can stay here and help coordinate everyone."

Wild considered. "I guess I search the fields. I seem least out of place there. I can use my magic to search out anyone hiding in the vegetation there too. Pony bodies in the plants should be easy enough for me to read."

Number looked at her with an ear lowered. "Um, how long are you planning on doing that? No knock to your powers intended, but you don't do long sustained uses like that normally."

"As long as it takes. I'll be alright," Wild replied, with a flick of her tail.

Number shook her head while Wild put the laser pointer away. "Wild, you're going to exhaust yourself doing that. That's not only bad for you, it is bad for your foal. Bring some crystal ponies with you. Let them use their powers to do most of that work. The ones Sunset has on payroll are used to searching out magic for sustained periods."

"That won't work," Wild objected. "My magic is still saturating everything there for another day or so. It will throw their senses off. I'm looking for physical bodies. I do want to go there though. Maybe Mama and Bill have learned how to sap the magic I left behind there. If they have that would be the ideal place for them to be because they don't have to drain ponies to keep their magic up."

"And if they haven't learned to do that then the ideal place is the housing," Number countered. "They can isolate a few ponies by themselves out of sight in the housing. Hardly any pony locks their doors. It's an ideal feeding ground."

"Don't talk about my mama like she is some monster out stalking ponies!" Wild snapped as she rounded on the blue unicorn.

Number took a step back and laid her ears flat. "Wild, we have multiple ponies in the hospital right now. It's not her fault, but that's exactly what she is at the moment."

"What's all the yelling?" Her papa asked as he sat up.

Wild shook her head. "Nothing important. Mama and Bill struck again last night. We're planning out how to search for them." She gestured at the map. "I might need you going door to door in the pony district, asking if anyone has seen them."

Number groaned. "A lot of ponies might be at work right now. Which is going to lead to a lot of no answers. The thing is, if there is no answer it could also be because the two of them are there."

"It's the best we can do," Wild asserted. "And I'll be searching the fields."

Number cut in again. "Another thing to consider with you searching, your mother knows your magic. If she's trying to avoid you then all you walking around is going to do is push her to move. Getting some pegasi up over the fields as you go through would be a good idea then. They may be hiding in all the crops, but they can't hide as well if they are desperately trying to get away from you. You wouldn't be finding them, you'd just be flushing them out."

Wild frowned up at the map. "You may be right. I'll see if-" Her phone started ringing and she hastily answered it. "Hello? Who's there?"

"It's Melissa. I've got bad news. Two more ponies found drained. These ones on the southeastern edge of the central green. It had to have happened in the last hour."

Wild looked up at the map. That really didn't change much at all in terms of locations. The central green where the Bastion and a few other major buildings were bordered all those areas. It was much closer to the Bastion than she had anticipated they'd go, though. "Thank you. I'll be going out to the fields with some pegasi. I'm sending SPEC agents into the protest areas to search, and will have people go knocking door to door in the pony district."

"Wild, the time between attacks is decreasing with each occurrence," Melissa said grimly.

Wild chewed on her lip. That was true. Was it because they weren't getting enough magic from each drain to keep the spell going, or because their desire for magic was just rising? She hoped it was the first. She didn't want to consider what it meant if the second option was what was happening.

"I understand," Wild said, in what felt like endless repeat. "We'll do all we can to help you get them into custody...are the two you just found going to be okay?"

Melissa sighed. "Another two in the hospital, but they'll live. I'm at the point I have to tell the press something, and make a public safety announcement to stay in groups over three people and to beware two unmarked crystal ponies."

"Saying two unmarked crystal ponies might just broadcast who they are," Wild objected. "There aren't that many unmarked adults and having two crystal ponies after my mama and Bill being shown to the world makes it pretty easy to put two and two together."

"I have to give some sort of alert of what to be on the lookout for and that's the most obvious description," Melissa said in a strained tone. "I won't confirm or deny who they are, but I can't go without giving some sort of warning about what to beware of."

Wild closed her eyes and went back to her mantra for the situation. "I understand."

"I guess I'll be skipping that nap," Melissa said with resignation. "Thank Yinyu I'm human instead of a night pony, or I'd never make it through today. Give me a call if you find them, and I'll call you if I do or if I have any more information."

The line went dead and Wild sat silently for a moment. As the silence dragged on Number took a step towards her.

Before the unicorn could say anything Wild looked up at her papa and her friend. "We need to get going. I'll call Sunset on the way, and confirm with her. The longer we wait the more chances someone else can get hurt. We need to find them and fix this, now."

The drive to school wasn't going smoothly. They had to keep stopping, getting redirected, and then stopping again. When they left Phobia Remedy's house Jessie had thought they were leaving too early. Now she was pretty sure they'd left too late.

"We're going to be late for school!" Jordan yelled out in anguish.

Jackie removed her wings from covering her head and glared at her little sister. "Who cares? It's just late. We aren't going to miss it. Don't cry."

"I won't get my gold star for being on time," Jordan sniffled. "I've gotten every gold star so far."

"Mom and Dad can get you stickers. Please, don't cry," Jackie pleaded.

The car had been stopped for a while now. They were waiting to be redirected yet again as some protest had moved suddenly. The two sisters were in the back, and Jessie was up front with Crystal. Her location had let her listen in on conversations when police officers had come up to the driver window and explained the situation.

A lot of them were really surprised that Crystal was driving, and spent an extra minute or so each time asking questions about the car and how it worked. The questions seemed more interest and curiosity than Crystal being in trouble, and Jessie was starting to get an education in how cars worked. It wasn't what she'd normally be learning right now, but she still found it interesting just because it was unfamiliar. After each time the officers left she'd taken the time to ask Crystal about things ranging from how cylinders in an engine worked to how the ignition in the car worked. Crystal didn't have all the answers on this, but she did seem fairly knowledgeable, and these talks helped pass the time.

Crystal let off a loud groan. "Today is teaching me that I don't want to do any long drives in this van. Short drives around town are fine, but to spend hours strapped up like this is torture. They had a separate driver seat design that would have had me on my back looking up at a console above me. I think that might have been more comfortable. Maybe I can trade it in for that still."

"How did you get fooled by the salespeople but know so much about cars?" Jessie asked.

Crystal didn't have much range of movement, strapped in the way she was, but she turned her head to look at Jessie. " My stepdad was a mechanic. He was always talking car stuff, and trying to get me interested. I did learn some things...learned enough that when I ran away from home I helped hotwire them."

Jessie picked up on the bitter tone. "What's hotwiring?"

"Starting them up without a key, in my case to help steal them," Crystal muttered. "Told you, kid. I've screwed up a lot in my life."

Jessie flattened her ears. "Why'd you do that?"

Crystal sighed. "I was an angry kid who fell into some wrong crowds, got myself hooked on drugs, and kept on doing the wrong things till I hit rock bottom. If ETS hadn't happened, I'd probably be dead or in prison now. ETS might have been what gave you a chance at life, but for me it was my second chance. If it weren't for Phobia Remedy I might have blown that one too. Guess this is my third chance when you think about it. I don't intend to strikeout."

"Strikeout?" Jessie asked in confusion.

"Baseball reference, kid. It isn't that popular a sport anymore, so I understand if you don't get it," Crystal said with a weak chuckle. A human police officer came up to the window as she finished speaking and she rolled the window down.

"We're going to get this line moving in just a minute," the officer said. "You said you're headed to the big central school? We're diverting traffic onto Rutledge Avenue. Follow it about a quarter mile down and you can turn right onto Martinez Circle heading east. You should have a clear shot to the school. These foals won't be the only ones late to class, there's lots of buses stuck out in this jam. My kids attend there too, and I heard they were actually debating canceling classes for tomorrow due to the protests, but don't quote me on that."

"Aww, we don't get to go down our street," Jackie griped.

Jessie looked back at the pegasus. "Your street? We're pretty far from your house."

Jackie shook her head. "No, Gilmore Street. We usually go down it on the way to school. Mom says it was named after us."

"Oh," Jessie replied. She wondered if there was a Middleton Street somewhere in town. She never paid much attention to street names before, and her parents never mentioned it. Martinez was Wild Growth and Rosetta Stone's family name, and they were both really important people. If Martinez Circle was the big road the school was on it was an important road. Now she wanted to know what road she was on now and start figuring out how all the roads got their names.

The traffic started moving again and after a few minute drive they were on the road that was known as Martinez Circle. Martinez Circle went around in a huge loop that circled the Bastion at the center. Expanding out from the Bastion were a few smaller roads within the circle and some small parks that made up the central green. Beyond this was the outer part of the circle that had some government offices, as well as the large central hospital and their school. There were other schools and hospitals in town, but they weren't as large or as fancy. A number of other things were also on this road, including a museum, a massive library, the main police department, the central office of the weather team, and the central monorail station. In the distance, just on the border of the fields, Skytree could be seen looming over everything.

They pulled into the visitors parking lot for the school and parked. It took a few minutes for everyone to get unbuckled because Crystal first had to unbuckle herself, and then work on unbuckling each of them in turn. By the time they were out of the car with their saddlebags it was nine-thirty, and Jessie had already missed her Latin class for the day. She knew that she was going to be missing a good portion of her Calc four class as well at this rate. They still needed to get to the main office and check in since they were so late.

The school was the second tallest building in town, even taller than the Bastion. It was twelve stories tall, with the first story being the largest by far, the next four stories being still pretty big, and the last seven being half the size each of floors two through five. Each floor was a grade level except the bottom floor which held both kindergarten, first grade, a cafeteria, two gyms, and a library--hence it being so large. There was actually a basement that had an additional cafeteria and a bunch of other stuff related to maintenance as well. Outside were two playgrounds, several sports fields, and two large swimming pools. Jackie and Jordan both attended classes on the first floor. Jessie's classes were all on the eleventh and twelfth--except gym. The higher up you went the longer your school day ended up being, but you also got more time between classes as well. Jessie was allowed a full twenty minutes between classes to get to the next, which really helped right after lunch or when she was going to or from gym.

This wasn't a normal school. To go to this school you had to be special. What being special meant varied from person to person though. For kids like her and a lot of others that went all the way to the top two floors they needed more advanced classes than what a normal high school in the area would offer. As you went down from there the definition of special got broader. A lot of the students on the lower floors were very intelligent or showed high academic aptitude, others were there because their families were rich or important. As you advanced through grades every year they did a review on whether you were best served going to this school or a regular public school somewhere else in the city. After you got past floor five it didn't matter how good your connections were or how rich your family was, if you didn't perform well enough you got cut. It was very competitive. There were only so many slots for students to take on in each new grade level, and if you didn't earn one of those slots you didn't move up the floors.

Her brother had gotten in by his connections to their auntie Sunset, and the fact their mom taught here, but he'd managed to survive through the dreaded floor five and the proceeding floors after that. The most recent one he had just barely gotten a spot on, and their parents said he needed to do extra well this year to keep moving up here. Jackie and Jordan's mom taught here too. Jessie doubted Jackie would make it past floor five with her attitude towards school, but Jordan seemed like she would. Jordan was right to worry about those gold stars. They looked at everything when deciding if you should move up, and that included attendance. The demons were all here because their mom taught here and they were the foals of a Dreamwarden. The last fact might keep them moving past floor five even if they wouldn't normally, just because of the fact they always had to have security.

Jessie would have gotten in because her mom taught here, but it was her brains that got her up to the top floors. She guessed with all the competition here she could understand Layla's anger at possibly being displaced as valedictorian. Being the valedictorian here was a bigger deal than being the valedictorian at a normal high school. It said you were the best of the best Riverview had to offer, and was an almost guaranteed acceptance letter at any college in the world.

"Let's get you kids checked in and to class," Crystal instructed, as she led them towards the main doors.

The three foals followed the crystal pony in. Just inside the doors was a large open space with a wide hallway going forward and two still spacious hallways going to either side. Off to their right was the doors to the cafeteria and one of several stairwells. The hallway next to it went down to one of the gyms. To their left was a series of doors that housed the main office, principal and vice principal offices, and the counselor department. The hallway next to this led down to the other gym and looped around into the kindergarten and first grade classrooms. At the end of the wide hallway were several elevators, doors for staircases, and to the far left another hallway that completed the loop for the kindergarten and first grade classrooms. Bright murals with smiling suns, moons, clouds, trees, and gems filled all the walls. On the ceiling above the area with the elevators was a large Shimmerist insignia, and closer to the front doors smaller insignia for Lunites and Harmonists decorated the ceiling. A lone human security officer stood near the elevators.

Crystal led them into the main office. Beyond the counter inside several ponies and a human were all busy on the phones. The earth pony mare at the front desk acknowledged their entrance with a nod as she finished up her call.

"Don't worry. We aren't counting any absences against students today. We'll be making a decision by noon about whether the school will be open tomorrow. Thank you for calling in," the mare said into the phone, then tapped a hoof on the speaker to hang it up. She then smiled down at the three foals. "I'm guessing you need late passes for class? I recognize each of you, just give me a minute and I'll have those ready. It's been a busy morning. Jessica Middleton, Jordan Gilmore, and Jacqueline Gilmore, correct?"

"Yes, ma'am," Crystal said for them. "I tried to get them here on time, but the protests were causing a lot of traffic problems."

The earth pony waved a hoof dismissively. "Don't worry a thing about it. We've still got whole busloads of students waiting to arrive. We're used to the protests, but even we were caught off guard with how bad they are today. Crystal Dreams, right? I almost never forget a name, it's kind of my talent."

"That's me," Crystal replied. "And that's a useful talent for an attendance clerk at a school."

The earth pony's ears sagged as she scribbled out passes with a strapped on pen. "And I don't think it will be enough to save me having to look foals up today. The classes are all but half empty, and many of these students have never been tardy or absent. You may want to stay close by. We may be dismissing school early today, if it's logistically feasible."

She pushed the late passes over to the edge of the desk and each of the three foals reached up with their mouths and grabbed them. Jessie and Jackie put theirs in their saddlebags right away, Jordan just kept holding hers in her teeth.

The mare looked back and forth between Jackie and Jordan. "I'd normally have someone escort the two of you to class, but we just don't have the staff today. Students aren't the only ones unable to make it in. I will have to trust you to get to class on your own."

"I know where my class is," Jackie said confidently. She then looked over at Jordan. The young unicorn didn't look as confident, in fact, she looked a little scared.

The mare looked down at Jordan with a gentle smile. "Are you going to need help, sweetie? It's okay to admit you don't know the way. You won't get in trouble."

"I can help her!" Jackie said enthusiastically. "I know where Miss Daisy's room is. It's right next to Mom's room."

"I'll allow that, provided you head to Miss Albright's room right away once you're done," the attendance clerk replied. "I'll make sure to tell Miss Albright to give you a butterfly sticker for being kind to your sister." She turned to Jessie. "And I trust that the school's star student can find her way to her classes, correct?"

"Yes, ma'am," Jessie replied with a nod.

"Are the Dreamwarden's foals going to be able to get home alright?" Crystal asked.

The clerk gave a dejected look at some papers next to her. "There may be a delay. The bus schedule and routes for getting the younger night ponies and the adjusted schedule humans home is completely thrown off. The older night ponies may he able to fly home, and some of the older humans have their own cars, but we're still trying to figure out how to get all the younger ones home in the safest manner. We have less than an hour till their dismissal and we still don't have a plan. Thus just caught everyone off guard. Today has been a nightmare."

Crystal looked down at the three of them. "Go ahead and get to your classes. I will be around. I need to find out how Rosetta wants to deal with the demons. I'll check on each of you later."

The three fillies didn't need to be told twice, and promptly left the office. Jackie turned to her little sister and gestured with a wing. "Come on, I'll show you the easiest way to get to your class. I know all about everything down here."

Jessie watched as her friends hurried off down an adjoining hall and then turned and trotted over to the elevators. Pushing the pony height button and ignoring the human ones far above her ability to reach, she waited briefly before the far elevator opened up and she hurried in before the doors closed. Using the lower set of buttons, she pressed a button for the twelfth floor, and watched as the door shut.

The sensation of moving up always bothered her a little. She didn't know exactly why, but suspected that as an earth pony she had some primal instinct that objected to going up in the air, and the rising sensation caused instinctual worry. To distract herself she looked at the murals on the elevator walls, which had a smiling tree behind her, a smiling sun to her left, a smiling cloud to her right, on the left door of the elevator a smiling gem, and a smiling moon on the right door. One of her teachers had told her that this was supposed to represent each of the pony tribes. She took note that the tree mural was the biggest, and that the earth pony tribe was the biggest. The gem and the moon had the smallest murals and they represented the crystal ponies and the night ponies. She always wondered why there wasn't a mural for the humans though. Humans went to this school too, but she couldn’t remember seeing anything to represent them here.

The intercom dinged and made an announcement. "Maintenance members Finch Song and Pole Position, please report to the administrative office." Then went quiet again.

The elevator came to a gentle stop and the doors opened. She hurried out into the twelfth floor hall. There weren't a lot of classes up here. From what she had counted before there were only about forty students in all that used this floor, and the class sizes were much smaller than the ones down below. The walls up here didn't have colorful murals, and instead had a few lockers as well as some posters advertising events. She didn't typically use her locker, as the lock and shelves inside were just too high up for her, being placed more at a grown-up pony height. Instead there was a cubby reserved for her in the floor administrator office on the eleventh floor. She didn't need to go there yet, though.

She hurried over to her Calc four class with professor Anderson. She didn't know why he insisted on being called professor instead of Mr. like most teachers. Her biology teacher, Dr. Richards, was the only other one that didn't want to be called the same as all the other teachers, but she had a doctorate, so that made sense.

She gently pushed open the classroom door and stepped in. There were even less students here than normal. Layla was here, along with a human and a unicorn she never learned the names of...she really should learn everyone's names, it felt kind of embarrassing not to actually know who her classmates were, especially with such small classes.

"Jessica, glad you could make it," Professor Anderson said from where he was writing on the dry erase board. "Since we have a smaller class today everyone is sitting up front. Please take a seat between Layla and Abigail."

Well, considering the unicorn was a young stallion it kind of narrowed down which of her classmates was Abigail. She quickly took a seat between Layla and the human.

The stallion bent over his desk and waved at her. "Um, wrong seat pipsqueak. He said between me and Layla."

She lowered her ears in embarrassment. "Oh, sorry. I didn't actually know your name."

The young stallion blinked in confusion. "We've been in class together since August. How have you not learned my name yet? I'm like the only stallion in school with a name like that."

"She just learned mine the other day, Abby, don't feel bad," Layla said with a chuckle.

"I'm Elizabeth, in case you didn't know mine either," the human said with annoyance. "Thought you were some super fucking genius. How have you not learned anyone's names?"

"Elizabeth! Watch your language in class," Professor Anderson scolded. "Most of you aren't children, please, don't make me treat you as a child." He turned to Jessie and pointed a finger over to the appropriate desk. "Take your seat, Jessica. We are going over any questions any of you had about your homework. I'll collect yours shortly."

Jessie quickly hurried over to the appropriate desk and after taking her seat pulled out her notebook, textbook, and homework. She then hurriedly got her own pen strapped on. Professor Anderson finished writing what he was doing on the board and looked at Abigail. "Do you see how the holomorphic functions work now?"

Abigail nodded. "Yes, Professor. I see where I got myself confused." He then lit his horn and scribbled out a few notes with his pen.

The professor looked around the rest of the class. "Does anyone else have any questions about Cauchy's integral formula? It's okay to ask questions if you're confused, this is extremely advanced stuff for most high schoolers."

Jessie shook her head, it had been extremely easy for her, but math was her best subject. She caught sight of the others shaking their heads as well.

Professor Anderson looked them all over. "Are you all sure? Layla, Jessica, no questions from either of you? I know you are both brilliant at math, but if you aren't sure of anything just let me know."

Layla shook her head again. "I understand it perfectly," the night pony said confidently.

"It seems pretty easy to me," Jessie replied.

Their teacher turned and looked back at Elizabeth. "And do you have any further questions about your earlier problem?"

"No, professor," Elizabeth replied.

The professor sat his marker down and then crossed his arms as he looked at the four of them. "Since no one has any further questions, and I don't want to have your missing classmates fall behind, we're going to do something a little different with our remaining class time. We're going to back off academics for today and get to know each other better. It's obvious that Jessica has not properly learned who each of her classmates are, so I think a fresh get to know each other session is in order."

"Just pamper the little foal more…" she heard Elizabeth mutter. She didn't think the teacher heard it though, he didn't have pony ears.

"It looks like Layla had an eventful break," Professor Anderson said as he looked at the night pony's wings. "Come up and tell us about it." He then went and sat down at his desk.

The night pony left her seat and flew over to the front of the class. She didn't land, instead she stayed hovering about two feet off the ground. "Well, I turned eighteen just two days before Thanksgiving. Right away I took Yinyu's Blessing."

"So, your a lesbian now, but weren't before?" Elizabeth asked.

Layla nodded. "That's pretty much how it works. I didn't want to get caught up in all the night pony mare drama and that's the easiest way of getting away from it."

"Any mares you think are cute?" Abigail asked coyly.

Layla glared at the unicorn. "That's kind of private information. I'm still getting used to it. I'm not in a hurry to get a marefriend. Maybe when I'm in college, but not yet."

"What else you do to celebrate your birthday?" Elizabeth asked.

Layla dipped her head in embarrassment. "Um, my Aunt Rebecca took me to a...hookah bar. It was my first time ever going to one. It was kind of fun, and different; except we went after full dark, so it was full of other night pony mares. She kept asking me who I thought was cute. That was really uncomfortable, and I know she was doing it just to embarrass me. My aunt does stuff like that sometimes, but she's cool. She then took me to a tattoo parlor to get my wings done, and after that she helped signed me up to be a volunteer guard for the Dreamwarden."

The night pony then frowned. "After sunrise we went and visited my parents' house, and they freaked out that I had taken Yinyu's Blessing and gotten my wings tattooed, even though I told them over and over again I was going to do it. Aunt Rebecca stood up for me, though."

"Are your tattoos math equations?" Abigail asked as he tilted his head while staring at them. "I know we're all kind of nerds, but that's like super nerdy."

Layla landed back down on the ground and snapped her wings to her sides. "Math is my thing. I have a math cutie mark and I've got math tattoos. I might get some non-math related tattoos later. I just didn't want to get dull abstract designs like a lot of mares get for their first ones. I wanted something more me."

"What's it like guarding the Warden of Fear?" Elizabeth asked, with seemingly genuine interest. "Is she really as scary as everyone says?"

Layla shook her head. "Nah, she isn't very scary. She's really good looking-"

"You have the hots for the Warden of Fear?" Abigail called out in shock.

Layla narrowed her eyes. "I'm allowed to think she's good looking. Doesn't mean I have the hots for her." She then dipped her head slightly. "I'll admit, I did find her kind of sexy. Maybe it's the power and the looks combined, but she's married, and my overall boss, so she's kind of a- just-look-at kind of mare."

Snickers came from Elizabeth and Abigail. Professor Anderson did a single loud clap of his hands. "Let's leave discussion of Layla's sexual interests outside the school, please. It isn't school appropriate talk, and even less so because we have Jessica here."

"I think Phobia Remedy is really pretty," Jessie chimed in, not wanting the conversation dampened because of her age.

This caused all three of the other students to start snickering loudly, and Professor Anderson to cover his face with a hand. Abigail was the first to say something. "Looks like you aren't the only one, Layla. Jessie hasn't reached puberty and apparently already knows which way her barn door swings."

Elizabeth turned to her. "Aren't you like cousins or something with the Dreamwarden?"

Jessie shook her head, then thought about it and shrugged. "My aunt is her step-mom, which I guess makes her my step-cousin. Not sure if that counts as anything." She turned to Abigail. "What do you mean which way my barn door swings?"

Abigail lowered his ears. "Um...I'm not sure if I can talk about it if you don't actually know what that means." He looked to the professor for help.

"We're dropping that entire subject now," Professor Anderson stated firmly. "As I said, it is inappropriate for the setting, or for Jessica." He turned to Elizabeth. "How about we take a break from Layla and have you share about your Thanksgiving."

Elizabeth crossed her arms tightly in front of her. "I'd rather not."

"You can be brief," Professor Anderson replied. "Share something."

Elizabeth leaned back in her seat with a defiant look. "Fine. My aunt spent the whole time fighting with my mom, trying to get her divorce my dad because he's a pony. My older brother has foals with five different mares. Five! And that dipshit brought them all to Thanksgiving. They all acted like they wanted to murder each other, and when they weren't getting into it with each other they were teaming up to yell at my aunt in defense of my parents. The whole damn thing was a fucking train wreck, like every other holiday. I spent most of my time hiding in the backyard with my dad, trying to keep my nieces and nephews away from the fighting and yelling inside the house. The end."

Professor Anderson frowned, and Jessie wondered if he was going to punish Elizabeth for cussing. "Elizabeth, I think it might be a good idea for you to visit one of the counselors to talk about this more."

"I'm fine," Elizabeth said crossly. "The holiday is over."

Professor Anderson sighed. "See me after class. Abigail, it's your turn."

The stallion still had his ears flat from Elizabeth's talk, and cautiously went up in front of the class to the spot Layla had vacated a moment before. "Um, my Thanksgiving was good. My family went up to my grandparents' house in Greenville. Most of my family is human except for me and my mom. This Thanksgiving was great because for the first time they all seem to have started accepting I'm a stallion. I know the rest of you already know, but Jessie might not; but before I transformed six years ago I was a girl. So the fact I transformed into a colt was kind of a double shock to a lot of my family. I was always kind of a tomboy back then, but I knew other tomboys that transformed, and none of them switched sex. Heck, Layla and I were actually friends as humans, back in Augusta. She was a tomboy too, still is."

"Still can kick your flank any day of the week," Layla said with a grin.

"Do you two still spend lots of time together?" Jessie asked.

Layla frowned slightly and shook her head. "The separate sleep schedule makes it kind of hard to spend a lot of time together. We're still friends, but it is mainly here at school."

"Oh," Jessie said as she lowered her ears. She was hoping that they were closer. It would have given her encouragement she could still keep close to her friends when she went off to college.

Abigail continued. "Anyway, I don't know why it happened to me, but it just felt right, and the fact that my family finally seems to be okay with it after all this time is great. I normally dread visiting family because of how they'd look at me and treat me. But this time they treated me like just another one of the guys when we sat down to watch the football game. It was a good feeling. Um, that's all I really have to say."

"Why didn't you change your name?" Jessie asked in confusion.

Abigail blinked. "I just never wanted to. A lot of other ponies took pony names, made them feel more unique and personal, I guess, but I was kind of unique with being a guy with a girl name. It had been my name my whole life, and I liked my name, so I just kept it."

"Raiders or Seahawks fan?" Layla asked.

Abigail grinned. "Raiders."

Layla stuck her tongue out. "I accept you for who you are, except for that. Raiders fan, get your flank back in your seat. Seahawks are the best."

"Your turn, Jessica," Professor Anderson said with a smile.

Jessie left her seat and walked up in front of the class as Abigail returned to his. She had a very busy holiday break and wasn't sure what all she should say. Getting up in front of the class like this might normally be a little intimidating, but there were only four people watching her, and that made it easier.

"Well," she began. "I spent Thanksgiving day at my aunt’s house. My auntie is the mayor, Sunset Blessing. A lot of important people were there, like Phobia Remedy and Wild Growth. Everyone that showed up is kind of loosely family with Phobia Remedy."

Abigail whistled. "Wow, you're super well connected. Are you rich too?"

Jessie shook her head. "No, I think just Wild Growth is rich...and maybe my aunts, I'm not really sure where they get all their money. I guess being mayor pays a lot, but don't think it’s enough to make you rich."

"Phobia Remedy is like middle class, at least from what I've seen," Layla quipped in. "I was kind of surprised that she lived in just a regular old house with regular old stuff. If it weren't for the army of guards on the roof you wouldn't think it was anything special. I'm told she even spends a lot of time baking cookies for her foals in her spare time."

"The Queen of Nightmares as a middle class housewife is kind of a funny concept," Elizabeth said with a smirk.

Jessie didn't want to interrupt, but she didn't know how to continue after the interruption. When they all looked at her to keep talking, she shuffled her hooves and just said the first thing that came to mind. "All of us foals had a race. I thought I might win, but I ended up getting stuck in a bush and came in third. I have a notebook with some math I had been working on to try to impress NASA that I tried to show Wild Growth. It just confused her, but Phobia Remedy took it and was really impressed with it."

"What kind of math?" Professor Anderson asked curiously.

Jessie hurried over to her saddlebags and pulled out her special notebook and brought it over to him. He took it and started slowly flipping through it. She grinned. "She sent it off to a bunch of colleges, NASA, and Twilight Sparkle! The colleges already emailed her back, and said that I needed to redo it as a proper academic paper with citations, and also requested my school records. Can you help me with that Professor Anderson? I haven't done a paper like that before."

Her professor looked at the pages with narrowed eyes. "I see the math, but you'll need to explain to me what they are in relation to. The terms and concepts that I see written down are Greek to me."

Jessie lifted her head proudly. "I'm demonstrating that models of universal expansion to this point are wrong. Thaumic energy, which we now know makes up a great deal of what is in dark energy, does fit into Einstein's theory of relativity, and it is part of what drives universal expansion. However, when it is converted into what we consider magic that push is weakened, and with enough weakening we could reach a more constant speed or even deceleration. When charting the supposed Devourer events with this in mind we can postulate a more irregular expansion pattern than what current models indicate, because significant changes in the amounts of thaumic energy converted.

Scientists already figured that out, but they never really looked at it. So, I took the anomalous changes in redshift and cosmic cold spots between one-half and three billion parsecs away, found clumps at about the same distance, and calculated how much they differed, and by how much. The numbers didn’t make sense, so I took the values for a hypothesised Devourer gamma burst, and started checking what numbers and speeds made sense. Analysing the variance, I found that adding in Devourer events explains certain unexplained circumstances in current cosmic expansion. With some work this could lead to a working theory of quantum gravity! "

"Come again?" Abigail said in confusion.

Jessie looked up at the professor hopefully. "Can you help me?"

Professor Anderson didn't answer right away, he was gaping as he continued to read through her notebook. He licked his lips. "Hold on- are you saying that you did a 3-D ANOVA test on cosmological expansion itself, and then applied succeeding models to determine both their speed and distance? By hoof?"

She rubbed a hoof against a leg and lowered her ears. "Well, I borrowed ideas and combined them together. There were lots of people studying the effects of gravity on magic, others studying the cosmological impacts of the Devourer events, and some researching the impacts of thaumic energy on acceleration of universal expansion, but they weren't really combining those things. They just seemed to fit so well together to me, and it made it all make sense to combine them. I even saw that either the Devourer bursts vary by thirty percent more than we thought they did, or our distances are at least ten percent off of our expected standard deviations! I had to do a little figuring on how they could connect, but I did that part. The math all works."

"I'm so confused. Did we cover this in class, and I just somehow missed all of it?" Abigail asked with wide eyes. "If we did, I think I'm going to fail."

"She's doing this at six years old…" Professor Anderson mumbled.

"I'll be seven in March!" Jessie yelled out defensively.

Elizabeth looked at her rump. "Are you a computer, android, or something like that, and have a power cord plugged in somewhere?"

"Elizabeth! Don't be rude!" Her professor scolded, as he continued to flip through the pages, occasionally tracing a finger over equations. He then closed the notebook with care and looked back at Jessie. "Even figuring out how to combine these concepts, and seeing the connections the way you're mapping them out here is genius. I'm not familiar with much of what you’re doing here, because I'm neither a statistician nor a physicist, but I would love to help you convert this into a proper paper.”

"Upstaged again," Layla muttered. It didn't seem as angry as she was before, but didn't sound happy either.

Professor Anderson looked over at Layla with a considering gaze. "Actually, I think I know something better. Layla, I have an extra credit project for you." Layla perked her ears in interest, Jessie did as well. "I want you to be the one to help Jessie convert this into a proper paper. You intend to be a math major in college? This will be a good opportunity for you. You don't even have to understand the material, just get it in a proper academic form. With Jessie's permission you can be cited in helping prepare her work for academic review. It will look exceptionally good on your college applications to have your name in any way tied to this, believe me. I'll make sure you do it correctly, and provide you with a writing style guide, but I'll keep my name out of this. I'm here to help my students, not myself."

"You get to say you taught two students tied to this big important paper. That makes you look good by itself," Elizabeth said cynically.

Professor Anderson leveled a flat gaze on the human. "That kind of shrewdness will get you far, Miss Ferro, but only if you can get your attitude under control. Don't forget to see me after class."

The intercom let off two loud dings, marking an announcement. "Attention teachers and students. The decision has been made to dismiss classes early today at noon. Classes will also be canceled for tomorrow. Night pony students who normally leave at ten-thirty will be leaving at noon as well, and we ask you to report to north gym when done with classes today. All students who normally drive themselves or fly to school we ask to report to the south gym at eleven, including older night ponies. If any student needs to contact a parent, or have additional help getting home, please come to the main office immediately so we can make arrangements to help you. Jessica Middleton, Robert Middleton, and Mrs. Rosetta Stone-Remedy, please report to the principal's office as soon as possible."

"So what am I supposed to do between ten-thirty and eleven? Just hang out?" Layla asked the intercom as if it would answer.

Professor Anderson looked up at the clock. "It is almost ten-thirty now. Since you are officially a volunteer guard for the Dreamwarden how about you head down to the principal's office with Jessica. I believe your duties include guarding the Dreamwarden's wife and foals, and they may need to give you instructions." He handed the notebook back to Jessie, who quickly grabbed it with her mouth. "Gather up your things and do as instructed. Leave your homework sitting on your desk and I'll collect that after you leave."

The intercom dinged twice again. "Maintenance members Finch Song and Pole Position, if you are still in the building, report to the administrative office. This is the second call for you."

Jessie hurried over to her desk and quickly repacked her saddlebags, leaving her homework sitting on her desk. When she finished Layla was standing waiting for her.

"Come on squirt, don't want to keep the principal waiting," Layla said as she turned towards the door, Jessie quickly followed.

As they waited on the elevator Layla glanced over at her. "So, this notebook of yours is a big deal? How do you not have a cutie mark yet in math or physics?"

"Everyone thinks it's a big deal," Jessie replied. "I didn't mean for it to be, but Phobia Remedy said it's really important. She says it demonstrates that the Devourers will be here much sooner than expected. She said our lifetime." She then pouted. "And I don't know why I don't have a cutie mark yet, it isn't fair."

Layla gasped and glanced around hurriedly, then down at Jessie. "Are you serious? Our lifetime?"

She flattened her ears. "That's what Phobia Remedy said."

Layla gaped for a moment then shook her head. "Jessie...do me a favor and don't tell anyone else that. You could start a panic. If the Dreamwarden said that then I believe you, but you can't go spreading that around." She shook her head again. "Holy fucking shit."

Jessie cowered down a little. "I'm sorry."

Layla looked at her again and for a third time shook her head. "I'm not mad at you. It's just you basically just told me doomsday is coming soon and you have the math to back it. If it weren't for the fact the Warden of Fear is saying that I wouldn't believe you, but since she is I have to." She looked at Jessie's saddlebags. "And I get to read over the math that says it, and then try to put it in a presentable report. That's some fucking pressure." She looked Jessie in the eyes. "How does this show doomsday is right around the corner anyway? How long do we have? Our lifetime could mean sixty years from now or it could mean tomorrow."

Jessie pouted further. "I don't know. Phobia Remedy says it involves things the Dreamwardens know. She didn't explain it to me. She said a few decades, but she didn't really seem sure about that. I think they still need to figure that part out. Maybe they need more data."

"Fuck," Layla hissed as she snapped her wings open then closed.

The elevator dinged and the door opened up. The two of them headed inside quickly, and Layla hit the button for the first floor.

"You're saying a bunch of bad words, doesn't that mean you're mad?" Jessie asked timidly.

Layla looked at her in surprise and then laughed. "The world is ending and you're worried about cussing? There are times and places where cussing is fully appropriate, finding out that the apocalypse is happening soon is one of those fucking times."

"Oh," Jessie said. "Um, fuck?"

Layla bit her lip and her eyes started to get wet, then she burst out laughing even louder. "Oh, Yinyu save me! You're downright adorable when you try to cuss. I needed that. I mean, the world is still fucking ending, but that is still priceless!"

Jessie turned her head away and frowned. "You don't need to make fun of me."

Layla touched a consoling wing to her. "I'm not trying to make fun of you. Now, there it would have come out naturally if you mixed some cussing in what you just said. You need to have some emotion behind it. You can't sit there and say it all straight faced and innocent like you did. It's good you don't really cuss, it means you aren't that angry and are more innocent. There's something comforting about the fact that the person who predicted the end of the world can still be so innocent."

"If being treated like I'm not just a little foal means I'm less innocent, then I guess I would rather be less innocent," Jessie grumbled.

Layla looked at her and tilted her head. The elevator stopped at their destination and they both stepped off. Before they headed to the principal's office Layla put a wing out in front of her and stopped her. "You know what? I get it. You're caught between being super smart and mature in some ways, and just a normal little filly in other ways. I get that can be frustrating and feel confusing. I was always kind of mature for my age, and it was frustrating for me at times that people treated me like just a kid, and I know that must have been nowhere near the extremes you're going through now. I guess we'll be spending time together working on this paper of yours, but if you just want someone to talk to and vent your frustrations to, I'm here for that too. We're a lot alike."

Jessie perked her ears up. "You want to be friends?"

Layla gave her a bump with her flank and grinned. "We can be friends. I'll try to balance not being too bad an influence on you with not walking on pins and needles just because you're a kid. Um, just don't implicate me if you inadvertently learn anything from me that people don't think is age appropriate for you, like cursing. Friends don't sell friends out on minor stuff like that, not unless someone is in danger or something."

"Oh," Jessie replied. Then thought of something that was said earlier. "What did they mean about my barn door? I don't have a barn."

Layla flattened her ears. "Right out the gate with the not age appropriate stuff. This is going to be interesting." The night pony looked around. There were a lot of students out in the halls going to the gyms and to the main office, but no one near them. She bent down and whispered in Jessie's ear. "They think you have an attraction to mares over stallions, a lesbian, like me. You're six, don't think too much about that stuff. You really don't need to be thinking about that stuff until after you've hit puberty or later, and right now you have no way of knowing how you feel about those things for sure."

Jessie's ears snapped back in horror. "Wait, me thinking Phobia Remedy and Rarity are really pretty, and me liking to look at Rarity is a hormone thing?"

Layla blinked in confusion. "Rarity? The element of generosity? Well, she is kinda-" Layla shook her head and grumbled. "I don't know. It's mainly just Abby and Beth being perverts and taking things out of context. I guess I did too, and I'm sorry about that. Maybe you just admire the way they look because you want to look that way too. It's perfectly normal for a little filly to see a pretty mare and want to be pretty too. Don't read too much into it."

Jessie laid down and covered her head with her legs. "It's starting already. I'm going to go crazy because of hormones!"

Layla bent down and whispered to her. "You're certainly getting the drama queen part of being a teenager down way ahead of time. Get up, people are staring at us, and they're going to think you're crazy now."

Jessie looked around. Students were staring at her. She quickly got up before anyone thought that she was crazy, if she wasn't already going crazy.

"Come on," Layla instructed. "Rosetta's already at the office. I see Crystal standing outside the door."

Jessie nodded and followed her new friend to the principal's office. Crystal gave Layla a quick glance and then turned to Jessie. "Go on inside, and get comfortable. We might be staying at the school for a while after it closes." The crystal pony then turned to Layla. "We might want some extra guards here. Are you willing to hang around? Do you think your aunt will mind if you stay?"

"I'd like to go home, but if you need me, I'll stay," Layla replied as she stood up proud and straight. "Aunt Rebecca won't mind. She'll be proud of me for doing it. I'll need to call her to let her know what's going on, though."

"Go do that," Crystal instructed. "I don't have a timetable on when we are getting out of here. You might not be getting home till late tonight. I'll try to find time for each night pony to nap in shifts."

Layla saluted with a wing. "Yes, ma'am." She then looked down at Jessie. "Sounds serious. Keep safe."

As Layla hurried off Crystal turned back to her. "I told you that the two of you could get along if you tried. Head inside the office now."

Jessie walked into the office as instructed. Her brother was sitting off to the side and looked at her as she came in. The principal, a pegasus named Merry Weather, was sitting at her desk with Ms.Rosetta across from her.

"Jessica, take a seat next to your brother," Principal Merry Weather instructed with a gesture of a wing.

Jessie did as instructed and her brother immediately draped a protective wing over her.

Ms.Rosetta turned to the two of them as the principal sat back in her seat. "I have some bad news. The protests outside have gotten much worse, and there is a real danger of violence breaking out. Because of who some angriest groups are everyone that is connected to Phobia is getting security near them. We briefly considered having your parents take you back home, but you and your parents could be potential targets as well and we don't want anyone of you going out in that."

"What are we going to do?" Robby asked.

Ms.Rosetta sighed. "When the school closes we're going to remain here. This place has storm doors and can be locked up tight. It is one of the safest locations in the city. We'll sit tight here until the protests can be brought under control. When violence breaks out...and it is looking more and more to be a when rather than an if, we'll be safe."

The intercom dinged again. "Finch Song and Pole Position, this is the final time we're calling. Please report to the main office, now."

Jessie looked up at the intercom. "Why do they keep calling them?"

Principal Merry Weather let off a huff. "We're short staffed on everything, including maintenance people. They showed up for work today, but in the last hour they've just vanished off the grid. I'm wondering if they took off because of the protests and didn't say a word to anyone. It's disgraceful. At least tell us that you needed to leave. How are we supposed to have responsible students if the staff isn't even responsible?"

Ms. Rosetta looked back at them. "Anyway, looks like my foals and you, Robby, may be sleeping here, along with me. Crystal will be here if you, Jessie, or Phobia's sisters, need anything. Consider it an adventure."

Jessie gave a weak smile. Things sounded really bad outside, but at least they were safe here. There were worse places to spend the day than at school.

Tonya hovered in the air behind her wife while Sunset glared at the reports coming in on her laptop as if glaring at them would make them go away. They were at home, and since they had gotten up it had been non-stops calls and reports coming in that meant more and more bad news.

"Why did it have to be two night ponies that were found this morning? It could have been almost any other pair of ponies, but it had to be them," Sunset snapped.

"I don't think Jean and Bill are really in a position where they are considering who their victims are at this point," Tonya replied in a low voice. "Melissa did send out the warning."

Sunset slammed her coffee cup down with her magic. "And the night ponies and the pro-Dreamwarden groups think it's just trying to cover-up of a reprisal attack from the anti-Dreamwarden groups or Friends of Humanity. No one wants to see sense. This is going to escalate into a full fledged riot!"

"The national guard will keep the peace," Tonya said, without much confidence. "If we can catch Jean and Bill soon that might help."

Sunset sighed and rubbed her head with a hoof. "I hope we catch them soon, but I don't have any faith that is going to stop the fire they lit. We need to start preparing for the worst."

"What are we going to do?" Tonya asked.

Sunset turned in her chair and looked up at her. "I'm going to go out there myself and try to direct efforts to help get these protests under control. You're going to go to the Bastion's basement, and stay there."

Tonya lifted an eyebrow. "What am I doing at the Bastion?"

"Staying safe," Sunset replied. "It is the safest place in the city when violence breaks out. No matter how bad the violence gets, nothing can penetrate the Bastion's underground. It's built to withstand assault from anyone, even an alicorn.. in theory. Rioters have no chance of getting in there, but they have a slim chance of getting to our house."

Tonya narrowed her eyes. "I don't need to be protected like that. You need me by your side. You aren't well."

Sunset hopped down from her chair and looked up. "I have tasks to do, and that will keep me focused. I don't want to have to worry about you being safe...I almost lost you once. I won't let that happen again."

"I can take care of-" Tonya began, but paused as Sunset's phone started ringing again.

Sunset tapped the phone on her leg. "What now?"

"Mayor...Twilight Sparkle just teleported into the police department. She's looking for you. What do you want us to do? She violated city ordinances by teleporting straight in here. Everyone is on edge, and she scared the bejesus out of us doing that."

Sunset's eyes widened. "We're in an emergency situation, so overlook the unauthorized teleport. She has diplomatic immunity anyway, and I'm not going to ask she be expelled over that. Give her my location and tell her that she has permission to teleport to my house. Just let her know that I need two minutes to alert security here that she will be arriving that way. That way no one here gets caught off guard."

"Yes, ma' am," the voice on the other end of the line replied, and then hung up.

Sunset let off a sigh. "Well, at least we have that for good news. Give me a moment to call the guards." She lit her horn and entered a number into her phone, rather than use a voice command. "This is Sunset Blessing, expect iminent P-nine to P-ten arrival via teleport, view as non-hostile. Allow entry."

"P-nine to P-ten? Information correct?" The security head asked in astonishment.

"Correct. Repeat, iminent," Sunset replied.

"Understood, ma'am. Passing order."

Tonya looked at her wife. "If you're going to be talking to her you really should have me here."

Sunset shook her head. "No, I'll go find Phobia if I need assistance with the princess. I would like Phobia to be in the Bastion as well, but already know that she can't safely make the trip, and is best sitting where she's at with her guards. You can fly higher and faster, so you can make the trip."

"This isn't necessary. I'm no less capable of keeping safe out here than you," Tonya snapped as she crossed her forelegs.

Sunset flattened out her ears. "It would take a load off my mind to know that you're safe. You'll be in there, surrounded by military. There won't even be experiments going on there because I didn't want any of the unicorns braving the trip today. It will be just you and the military, with it on lockdown. I have enough to weigh on my mind today, can you please just do this for me, and save me that little bit of worry?"

Tonya snorted. "Fine, but I'm staying here long enough to see that you and Twilight Sparkle get off on the right hoof. Is that fair?"

Sunset nodded. "That's fair."

A knock sounded at the front door and Sunset lit up her horn and opened it. The alicorn immediately walked in. She was taller than the time Tonya had seen her at the trial of Shadow Dancer six years ago, and at that point Twilight Sparkle had still been slightly taller than most ponies. Alicorns got much taller than most other ponies from what she understood, and it was clear that Twilight Sparkle was still growing. Luna was an imposing height, and though Twilight Sparkle wasn't there just yet, she was getting closer.

"Thank you for coming quickly, princess," Sunset said as she approached the alicorn. "Our situation has gotten more complicated since we last spoke."

Twilight glanced around the living room briefly, perhaps taking in what she could learn about Sunset from how she lived. "I heard the situation here has deteriorated. I also had an independent source tell me that whatever is going on down here, it's extremely serious, though that source was maddeningly cryptic."

"Jennifer Tanner?" Sunset asked in surprise.

Twilight's eyes narrowed. "You know about Jenny?"

"I gather and repurpose knowledge," Sunset said proudly. "Plus, any information about powerful magic users the government gets passed into my hooves. It is up to me to make a threat assessment, and method of neutralizing, if necessary."

"Keep your hooves away from her," Twilight warned. "I heard about how you threatened Bob, and threatened others."

Sunset frowned. "I never did anything of the sort. I had some agents out west who got too enthusiastic at times with trying to secure aid. They've each been dealt with, in turn."

Twilight snorted. "Who you surround yourself with says a lot about you. If you hired those agents, you had to realize what kind of things they would do."

Sunset waved a hoof. "In any case, I deemed her seeming precognitive ability nonthreatening, but too unreliable to be harnessed due to its unpredictability in manifestation. Any threat she presents comes in her mind magic abilities, along with illusion abilities. Since those are joined together that's the OMMR's business, not mine."

Tonya landed and stepped between the two, and glared at the alicorn. "This isn't something to discuss right now. Sunset has a very wide network and she can't be in control of what everyone does all the time. She has her regrets about how some things happened. What matters right now is figuring out how to find Jean and Bill and get them help."

"The Faithful Attendant," Twilight’s eyes unfocused as she muttered cryptically. "You're right. We're getting off topic, and time is of the essence."

"I propose taking this talk to my daughter's house," Sunset said quickly. "She can help keep the peace between us, and see to it that if I have to reveal any secrets to you that you keep them."

Twilight grimaced. "I'm not comfortable with that, but given the urgency I'll be open to the possibility, if it becomes necessary."

Tonya blinked. "What changed your mind on that?"

"Jenny," Twilight said flatly. "What I got from her was vague, but all implications were that whatever is going on here has bigger implications beyond Riverview."

"Well, that's not concerning or anything," Tonya muttered.

Twilight nodded and turned back to Sunset. "Considering I'm getting these dire warnings I want to actually see what goes on in the Bastion. What I heard about your two temporary ponies is a priority, but it doesn't seem to match the scale of danger I've had described to me."

"We have the riots about to start too," Tonya added in. "That could be it."

Twilight shook her head. "Those are still just things that only impact here. They’re important and I’m deeply concerned about them, but there's obviously something else that is being missed or hidden. Jenny indicated something more, plus, Jessica Middleton that just popped up with world shattering information here just a few days ago. There's a lot going on here, and the biggest unknown to me is what's going on below." She paused. "Is Jessica safe?"

"I made sure that she, along with my daughter-in-law, as well as my grandfoals are secure," Sunset replied, she then turned an ear to the side. "If you tell us what these dire warnings are, we can better figure out how to resolve them."

Twilight licked her lips. "Given your reputation… I’d rather not. I don't know if the warning is about something you're doing on purpose, and you won’t tell me without forcing me to submit to secrecy that could make it even worse."

Sunset glowered at the alicorn. "We called you for help. Don't treat us as the villains because of young Miss Tanner's story."

"I don't know for sure who the villains of this story are, and until I do you're high on the list of suspects," Twilight replied back curtly.

Sunset snorted. "Well, if you want in the Bastion you will need to get those compulsions for secrecy. It might be a delay even after that as clearances will need to be processed, even with a Dreamwarden's compulsions."

The alicorn’s eyes narrowed into slits. “You begged me to come to your aid. A trusted source told me that there were greater issues I should be involved with. I don’t appreciate these manipulations.”

Sunset snarled back. "It's a government research facility, and you're a foreign delegate and military force unto yourself. I can pull strings to get you in, but I still have to follow proper procedures. As an ambassador I would have hoped you understood that."

Just then Sunset's phone started to ring startling everyone in the room and the unicorn sighed as she reached to tap it. "Hope this is good news for once today. Hello?"

"This is Pop Tart on a recorded line. Can I speak to Tonya Blessing?"

Everyone just stared for a minute. Before Sunset answered. "In regards to what?"

"This is Capital One."

Tonya draped a wing over her head. "Oopsies, I forgot to pay the credit card bill. Um, I'll call them later."

Sunset shook her head despairingly. "She says she'll call back later. Bye." She then clicked the phone off without allowing for a response, and looked at Tonya. "Why'd you even give them my phone number?"

Tonya dipped her head in embarrassment. "They asked for a home phone, a mobile phone, and a work phone. I just gave them yours for the work phone. I didn't think they'd actually call it. This is like my first time ever being late, and it couldn't be more than a few days. It has been a busy week and I got distracted."

"Get my number off that. It's officially your card, not mine. I don't even have my own card on your account," Sunset instructed. "Anyway, you need to get going to the Bastion."

Tonya fluffed her wings. "I don't-"

"Give us a moment," Sunset said to the agitated alicorn as she gestured Tonya back towards the kitchen. Tonya followed her wife with a grumble, and when they were out of sight Sunset whispered to her. "Not only do I want you safe, I have something else I need you to do now."

"If this is about the stupid credit card-"

Sunset shook her head. "No, I need you to get in contact with Sarah Tanner. Have her find out what is going on with her daughter. The princess isn't going to be forthcoming, and if Jennifer Tanner's ability is giving information that is urgent then I want to know what the hell it is. Sarah might be able to find out without giving away that we're trying to find out."

"I'm not sure she'll tell us," Tonya said slowly. "We already ask a lot out of her with invading her nephew's privacy…espionage, really. Now we're asking her to invade her daughter's?"

"It could mean the welfare of a lot of people from the way Twilight Sparkle is going on about it," Sunset said hurriedly. "The princess doesn't trust us, but Sarah does."

Tonya gave a flat look. "I've got my doubts about it. I don't think this is something that Sarah can pry into without being suspicious, even if she's willing to help--which is a big if."

"Just explain to Sarah about our current situation, and let her make that call," Sunset instructed. "Be open and honest about it. She's earned our trust, and we should show her we trust her."

Tonya looked sadly down "I think it's her family's trust that she's going to be worrying about, but I'll do as you said; I'll tell her everything and let her make the call." She paused. "Can I tell her that we don't need her to spy on her nephew anymore? If you're quitting after all this we don't know who that information will be going to in the future."

The unicorn considered, then nodded. "That's true, and a fair concern. If you are bored while in the Bastion see to it that our agents closest to important individuals know that their services are no longer needed. I can’t be sure that Wild will succeed me as leader of SPEC and director of the Bastion's underground operation. I’d trust Wild with that network, I don't trust some random individual I don't know."

Tonya glanced back at the living room. "Okay, I'll go to the Bastion, but only because I can make myself useful there. We shouldn’t keep Twilight waiting any longer so we can start getting this mess fixed."

Hopefully they could. The fact that the alicorn seemed convinced that there was more that could go wrong was frightening to contemplate.

Chapter 21: Powerless

All around Wild there were ponies, and she could feel each of them with her magic, with the exception of the pegasi up in the air. So far she had stumbled on a few young foals, too young for school, hiding in the crops, playing hide and seek within close proximity of their parents. She hadn't found any grown ponies hiding as of yet, and she was already starting to tire. It had only been an hour since she had arrived, but already the constant use of her magic was putting a strain on her, even at this lower power level. Number was right, she was made for quick bursts of magic, not steady use.

There was a lot of ground to cover though, and she needed to flush out her mama and Bill. Figuring out which ponies were out of place was a difficult task, and even though she could spread her magic out to the entire fields it was hard to tell anything beyond a certain range. The same lingering magic that she said would disrupt the crystal ponies was also making it hard for her to tell anything beyond a certain range. It was like trying to make out shapes in a sea of dark lime jello. Until she got close to them they were just indistinct shapes.

She touched her phone on her leg and raised it up. "Sapphire, see any movement up there?"

"Just ponies out and about," Sapphire's voice came over the phone, partially muffled by wind shear. "Things are looking really bad a mile or two off. There’s a pretty unfriendly looking crowd to our southwest."

"The protestors," Wild replied. "They've been getting really rowdy as of late. They aren't why we're out here. Focus on the fields, my mama has to be here somewhere."

"You don’t know that," Sapphire replied.

"It makes the most sense for them to be here," Wild snapped. "I'm sure we'll find them."

"Wild, I'll help you keep looking, but your hunch is just a hunch. I’m starting to get worried about what’s going to happen if that crowd gets out of control,” Sapphire paused letting the rush of wind carry over the line. “I don’t like that there’s so much activity near where my daughter is. Maybe I should make a storm to disperse those protestors, might make it easier to find your mother and her friend if everyone wasn’t so distracted?”

Wild stopped to stare at her phone in disbelief. "A storm is against city ordinances, and would only make it harder for the national guard to do their jobs. You aren't bringing a storm in. You act like bringing a storm in is the solution to every problem. You should have named yourself Storm Queen."

"I do NOT think a storm is the solution to every problem. But none of them would have planned for rain, and no one is brave with thunder exploding overhead," Sapphire replied with a hint of smugness. "Why waste time with lots of guards trying to pen them in when you can just make them all leave on their own?"

Wild grit her teeth. Tonya had once tried to make a point about how powerful ponies were more trouble than they were worth by telling about how Sapphire had caused havoc to one of Sunset's contractors with a storm over some misunderstanding. Tonya couldn't keep her admiration from Sapphire's abilities from leaking into the story, but had also stressed that Sapphire had flown in with a storm that nearly washed away the town without trying to find out all sides of the story. From what was described it was surprising Sunset hadn't pressed any charges. That probably meant Tonya had conveniently left out that Sunset had caused it in some way. Tonya would do everything to paint her wife in the best light possible, after all. Regardless, Tonya had made her point.

"Please, just keep your eyes out," Wild replied as she clicked her phone off.

There were several humans and earth ponies working together to carefully harvest some daisies without hurting the tasty flowers. She walked over to them and they all waved at her in greeting as she approached.

"Have any of you seen two unmarked crystal ponies?" She asked as she approached.

"The ones that the police put that emergency alert out on everyone's phones for?" An earth pony stallion asked as he wiped his brow with a foreleg. "Nope, haven't seen them. Would have reported them if we did. That emergency signal popping up all at once startled the lot of us, but we all know to keep a lookout out for them. Don't want anyone gettin' hurt."

Wild sighed and nodded. "Thank you. Just keep aware that they may be hiding in dense vegetation. Make sure you're staying in groups of three or more."

"Will do, ma'am."

She walked away from the group and considered what to do next. Looking through the fields was not being as fruitful as she thought it would be. Perhaps Number had been right, and they were keeping towards the housing where they could get into houses and find isolated pony couples. She just didn't like that idea; it made her mama into some sort of predator looking for prey. It had only been a day. Was her mama already that deranged in that short time?

"Alexa, call contact Papa."

"Calling, Papa."

There was a brief ringing before it was answered. "Hello? Have you found a trace of your mother?" Her papa's voice said.

She absently shook her head. "No, nothing so far. Any traces on your end?"

"Nothing," her papa replied. "Most houses have no replies. We have had a few that answered, but no one has seen anything. Think we are actually scaring some ponies by searching door to door, or in the case of one night pony making them mad."

She grunted in response. "All we can do is keep trying. I might come down there and assist. It seems like everyone is aware and on the lookout here, and I know there are a lot of pony houses to cover."

"Enough that we could be at this for days," her papa replied. "We don't have that kind of time."

"I know," she said, far harsher than she intended. She was scared, frustrated, and worn down from constant use of her powers. "All we can do is keep searching. Hopefully Melissa will get back with word soon."

"I hope so," her papa replied in a whisper, she could tell from the sound of his voice that he was trying to hold back tears.

She wiped her own eyes before replying. "I'm going to make a few more calls." She wanted to assure him it would be alright, but she was having her doubts about that, and couldn't bring herself to lie.

She hung the phone up and looked up at the sky. She really couldn't tell most pegasi from one another at the distance they were above her. She saw their colors, but for all the variety of colors that ponies came in they still repeated the same colors and color combinations fairly often. She also didn't know enough about weather making, casual flying, and pegasi search patterns to tell what any particular pegasus up there was currently doing. She just saw them dart around against the backdrop of an overcast sky, with the cloud cover hiding the early afternoon sun. The grayness matched her mood.

"Alexa, call contact Number Crunch."

The phone was answered quickly. "Wild? Have you found her yet?"

"No," she replied. "And based on your response I'm guessing you have no word from anyone."

"Nothing as of yet," Number answered. The unicorn's voice became hesitant. "Wild, my understanding of statistics and probability are mainly tied to business, but I've been trying to run some math on this. Based on the previous attacks it seems like there should be at least two more victims by now, if things keep progressing the way they have been. I haven't heard anything yet, but that's what my rough math says."

It briefly crossed her mind that she had access to a math genius in the form of little Jessie, and she might be able to run some models on how this would progress. However, she rejected the idea quickly. It wasn't likely complicated enough math that she needed a math genius to figure it out. Without doing any math herself she already knew that the times were decreasing between attacks, and that it was likely another attack would have happened by now. She really didn't want to have it spelled out in detail how bad this was.

"I'm guessing the police have already figured that out as well," she finally replied, a moment of silence. "Any new word from Sunset?"

"Only that she is bringing in some sort of outside help. She also called Rarity and the Equestrians to her," Number answered. "She's gone to your sister's house for some reason."

It was early afternoon, most night ponies would normally be asleep, but given the current family crisis she supposed Rosetta and Phobia were up and awake. Sunset was probably there for Phobia, not Rosetta.

"I'll give my sister a call and see what's going on. I think I'm going to shift to the pony housing, and leave Sapphire here checking the fields. If they are here then they'll likely cause a commotion, and Sapphire can follow from there. Do me a favor, and pass that on to her while I'm calling Rosetta."

She hung up the line and gave out a new order. "Alexa, call contact sister."

"Calling sister"

"Hi, this is Rosetta Stone-Remedy. If you're getting this voicemail I'm probably at work, and can't get a signal. Please leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can."

Rosetta was at work, or somewhere she couldn't get a signal? There was also the possibility her battery had died.

She frowned. "Alexa, call contact sister's house."

"Calling sister's house."

A few brief rings happened before it was answered. "Wild? What do you need? I'm kind of busy at the moment trying to keep my mother and Twilight Sparkle from screaming at one another," Phobia said over the line.

Her brow raised. "Twilight Sparkle is here?"

"Yes," Phobia replied in a flustered tone. "I'm both happy for that and aggravated. We can really use her help, but my mother and her get along like oil and water. It's almost impossible to get through three sentences without some accusation, complaint, or general rudeness to happen. I don't like all this negativity in my house."

"I would guess that your mom is responsible for most of that, no offense," Wild replied.

Phobia sighed. "You aren't wrong, but Twilight isn't helping much either. The princess has not been shy about her distrust, and it's riling my mom up further. If I could just get my mom to leave I might make some progress talking to Twilight, because we get along most of the time. She and I have our disagreements, but we trust in one another's good intentions. That trust isn't there at all between my mom and Twilight."

"Sounds like you have your hooves full," Wild said. "I was just wanting to talk to my sister. Can you get her on the line, just so I can check in about Mama with her?"

"Sorry, I can’t," Phobia answered in a worried tone. "She's not here right now. She, my little sisters, the Middleton foals, Crystal, and a few of my other guards are all at the school. They have it on lockdown due to the riot threats, and they're safer there. Anti-Dreamwarden groups are some of the most likely to get violent, and my family are all potential targets if someone gets it in their head to go out and try to hurt me."

Wild groaned and rubbed her muzzle. "Okay, well, can you let her know me, Papa, Sapphire, the police, and a host of SPEC agents are out looking for Mama? I'm assuming she has to be asleep or sleeping soon. You can just do the whole dream thing...by the way, have you seen Mama there?"

"I can't say that unless I found her and she gave me permission to share that information," Phobia replied in a sad tone.

Wild glared at her phone. "Seriously? You can't even tell me if she's been dreaming?"

"Information about someone being awake or asleep is still private information that has to be guarded," Phobia replied.

"But she's in danger!" Wild shouted, earning her worried looks from nearby ponies. "Even professionals reveal information if it means their clients are in danger."

"I'm sorry, Wild. It's the rules," Phobia replied firmly. "I cannot break the rules with deliberate creative interpretations. If I didn't believe that kind of information could be used against someone, maybe I could get around it, but I do believe it, so the rule is ironclad."

"You said unless you found her. Is that a clue you haven't?" Wild demanded.

"Don't read too much into it," Phobia cautioned tensely. "I can promise that I'll do all I can to try to reason with her in the dream realm, and to pass on how worried we all are for her. If I can convince her to release any personal information you'll be second to know, after Rosetta."

Her ears twitched as she heard a sound that she would never forget in the distance, a shot from a gun; followed quickly by several more Even though it was far off she reflexively hardened her body. Some less familiar, or humans with weaker ears, might mistake it with a firecracker or something else, but with the amount of times she had shots fired at her in the last few years she'd never forget that sound.

"I need to get going, now. I think something bad is happening with the protests, I just heard shots being fired," she said hurriedly.

"I'll pass that onto my mother," Phobia replied. "Keep safe."

She quickly hung up the phone and then hit the quick dial button she had set up earlier today. "Sapphire, what's going on with the protests? You can see better than I can down here."

"I'll need to get higher to get a good view, since I can't fly in closer due to those stupid no fly zones," Sapphire answered in aggravation. "Hold on. I might lose phone signal. If I do I'll call right back as soon as I'm done getting a better look."

The sound of rushing wind as Sapphire changed elevations was so loud that the speaker of her phone began to distort. While storms were one of the things the blue pegasus was known for, her actual special talent made her an unimaginably fast flier. This rush of wind held for at least ten seconds while Wild silently waited before the background noise suddenly cleared up.

"I can’t be too sure, but looks like there's an area where maybe a hundred people are fighting and yelling, and it looks like it is growing. Some are running away in random directions, but there’s no way to tell what’s going on," Sapphire reported.

"The National Guard can take care of it," Wild replied. "I might need to go in though, just in case my mama and Bill are in all that mess. I don't want them getting hurt."

"The National Guard aren’t even close to that and people are already getting hurt," Sapphire snapped. "I'm just going to end this quickly. Your city can fine me, or whatever. These humans need to cool off."

Oh no, she wouldn't...Wild thought helplessly. "Sapphire! Sapphire! Don't you dare!"

"Sorry, krrk… hisss….ksssh, can’t hear you…" the storm-happy pegasus's voice came over the line clearly.

Wild could only watch helplessly as a blue blur stood out against the sky, streaking across the sky towards the southwest with a contrail of silver. In her wake, storm clouds followed, coalescing so fast she could almost feel the humidity being ripped from the air around her to fuel it. Did Sapphire have no experience with angry crowds? This wasn't going to disperse them, it was just going to add to the chaos and confusion. “You idiot! Storms aren’t the answer to everything!” She shouted helplessly after her phone hung up. This was South Carolina, people didn't run from storms here, they'd stand outside in a hurricane for the thrill of it. Storms just made people act more recklessly.

The crack of thunder and flash of lightning heralded the rain, which came pouring down just a moment after the first flash. Around her the air rapidly built with static causing her fur to start to stand on end. Sapphire’s magic settled over the area, dominating it in a way that she only ever felt with her own. The wind whipped across the fields carrying with it the smell of ozone and moisture. The other pegasi immediately broke and scattered from the sky to await orders from Amber Flowers, the weather captain, to give orders on how to deal with the sudden storm. It would take a team of pegasi to break that storm up if Sapphire didn't do it herself, but they might not be able to if Sapphire fought their efforts.

It was a matter of debate who was stronger, Sapphire or Sunrise Storm, but both of them were strong enough that it would take a small army of pegasi to counteract them. What wasn’t normally debated was that Sapphire was far more willing to throw around her might. Ponies that crossed over that PREQUES six rank were just too much to try to fight on their own terms. Sapphire was somewhere in the high-six to mid-seven range by best estimates, the next strongest pegasus in Riverview was a high four, that was a huge gap in power to bridge and absolutely none had anywhere near the expertise of the Equestrian trained pegasus.

Another series of lightning bolts rained down, and one of them must have hit a transformer, because even from where she was standing she could see the power go out in street lights and traffic lights in the distance. Just what they needed on top of everything else, a blackout.

"Alexa, call contact John Trimble," she said to her phone.

"Calling, John Trimble."

The phone only rang once before being answered by her current head of security. "Yes, ma'am?"

"I'm going into the protests. I do not want security following me in," she said gravely.

"Ma'am, with all due respect-" the crystal pony on the other end of the line began.

"That's an order," she said harshly. "There's already chaos going on, and I'll need to be moving fast. I'm more concerned about your safety than mine. Your primary duty as my security is to keep alert for danger so others around me don't get hurt. I'm walking into a situation where I'll be surrounded by danger, so there's no need to be warned that it's there. I won't get hurt, you can. Continue to search the fields without me."

"Ma'am, if someone shoots a gun at you at point blank range even you can be hurt. You aren't invincible."

"If someone is bound and determined to get that close to me they'll do it in a planned and controlled setting, not in a situation like this," she countered. "I'll take my chances. Do as you're ordered."

"Yes, ma'am," her security head with displeasure, before the line hung up.

She withdrew her magic from trying to search the fields. The prolonged use had already made her very tired, and if she had to do more prolonged use out in the crowds she may yet end up planting her face into the cement. Hopefully she could regain some of her magical stamina on the run over there, but she wasn't positive that would be enough time. It didn't matter though, her mama, and possibly the ponies of Riverview, needed her. All she needed to know was that as she set off at a gallop towards where the riots had been breaking out.

Jessie stared at the window as the rain finally seemed to have stopped, leaving clouds so dark that it seemed like it was night. The storm had picked up out of nowhere and had raged for several minutes with so much intense lightning that the sky had been too bright to look at. Both her and Jordan had been frightened by it but Jackie had reacted like it was the greatest show she had ever seen. What the pegasus didn't like was the fact that the storm had knocked the power out, and the only sources of light were the windows and the occasional red emergency light in the hallways. Ms. Rosetta, the demons, Robby, and Layla had somehow slept through all of it.

"Fuck!" Crystal growled loudly from the teacher's desk. The bodyguard then looked over at them and flattened her ears. "Pretend you didn't hear that. I said fudge if anyone asks."

Jessie looked at the lone adult awake. "What's wrong?"

Crystal pushed the desk phone away with annoyance. "The school phone lines are dead, and I don't know why. Even with no power we should have the phones working. On top of that I always get abysmal signal on my cell phone in this place, and can't keep a bar up long enough to make a call. We're effectively cut off from communicating or finding out what's going on out there." She looked at Jessie. "You're a genius, got any idea why the phones aren't working?"

Jessie shook her head. "I don't really know how phones work. I didn't even know they were supposed to keep working with no power. You probably know more about that stuff than me."

Crystal groaned. "Seriously? Nothing at all?"

"I don't really know a lot about electronics," Jessie replied sadly. "I could tell you how phone calls work in terms of concepts in physics, but I don't think that will help."

Crystal shook her head. "No, it won't. Probably silly for me to even think you would. Do me a favor and give Rosetta and Layla a shake. Hopefully Rosetta knows, and Layla has gone here for years, so she might."

She did as instructed, first going to Ms. Rosetta. It took some nudging, but eventually the night pony mare uncovered her head from her wings and gave a big yawn.

"Hey, Rosetta," Crystal called out. "The power's down and phone line isn't working. Shouldn't the phones still work?"

Ms. Rosetta stretched. "The ones in the classrooms won't. They’re on the VOIP system, and no computer means no phone. I used to work at a call center when I was a human, and it did the same thing there. The phones in all the main offices should be working though. Those have direct lines."

"And do you know why the cell coverage is so bad?" Crystal asked, as she held up a leg to show her phone.

Ms. Rosetta blinked and looked at her own phone. "Honestly, I don't know why it’s still bad. There's a blocker that keeps us from using cell phones in here normally; so students can't use their phones in class, but with no power that should be down."

Crystal sighed and lowered her leg. "Well, I'm assuming there's some generator somewhere for a place like this. What should still be working?"

"Not a lot, honestly," Rosetta replied. "Emergency lighting, phones down in the office, the power locks to the main doors. The elevators technically work, but they are programmed only to operate for emergency crews until main power is restored, just finish going to the next closest floor and open up. Intercom system should still be working too. The generator is kind of cheap, and is mainly there to make sure no one gets stuck anywhere and instructions can be given out to students and teachers if we need to evacuate the building."

"This is a big and important school... and its generator can't keep anything useful running?" Crystal asked in astonishment.

Ms. Rosetta shrugged. "It's my mother-in-law you can thank for that. She's cheap and cuts corners everywhere. Why do you think most ponies in this city live in houses made out of literal crap? Think the only things in town she didn't cut corners as much as she could with are the Bastion, hospitals, factories, and the monorail system, and only those because she had to impress federal regulators. You can't build a city this size at the rate she did, and on the budget she set, without cutting corners left and right to where she was meeting bare minimum standards--and even some of those standards were creatively accomplished, as she puts it."

Crystal frowned. "How did she get away with all that?"

Rosetta flicked her tail. "It's not that surprising, ponies out west were remaking everything in Equestria's image. A lot of them still live like that. Sunset promised the government a city, built to be the model of what an integrated city of ponies and humans living in a human way would look like, and she promised to do it relatively cheap. Despite the massive amount spent on this city, she still did it at a fraction of the cost it should have taken. Do you really think they weren't willing to overlook however many corners she cut to get it done? They don't question her miracles, and quietly blackball anyone who does."

"So...nothing is built up to proper standards, and they let her get away with it because it looks good," Crystal said thoughtfully.

"And for the moment, it functions as it should," Rosetta continued. "But all it takes is one major disaster and her cost cutting will come back to bite us all." She sighed. "I'm not saying her ideas are bad. She just doesn't put all the work and money that needs to go into them into them. That's why we are standing in a school with a crappy generator and ponies are living in crap houses, among other things."

Jessie was unsure if she still needed to wake Layla up or not, and she didn't want to upset her new friend by waking her up unnecessarily. Jackie was still standing on a chair, looking out the window, eager to see the sky put on another show while Jordan was looking over the various posters hanging on the walls of the third grade classroom they were staying in. Jessie didn’t have anything to distract herself with and still a little nervous about the sudden storm and the power being out; she wanted some protection. Walking over to where her brother was sleeping, she snuggled up close to him. Without waking he draped the wing he wasn't wrapping over his head over her instead. Even asleep, her brother still seemed to know she was there.

Ms. Rosetta didn't go right back to sleep. She instead walked over to the window and tried checking her phone. She then shook her head in frustration. "Yeah, the block is definitely still up. If it wasn't I should at least be getting some signal right here, even if it wasn't great. I'm clueless why it is still up with the power down, unless those cheap ass electricians wired them into the generator circuit." She glanced out the window. "I can't tell much at all about what's going on from this view. We're on the wrong side of the building to see anything but Skytree and the fields. Maybe I should go check one of the views from the other classrooms."

"No can do," Crystal said firmly. "We're in an emergency situation, that means you don't go wandering off without a guard, even down that hall. When Pin Point and Alexis get back up here for Layla to relieve Alexis we'll let you take a few minutes to check."

Ms. Rosetta gave an irritated flap of her wings. "Don't you think you're being a little anal about that? We're locked tight in one of the most secure buildings in the city. We're perfectly safe."

"It's my job to make sure all precautions are taken," Crystal replied, flicking her tail in turn. "Tempest would have my head if I didn't do it right, and Phobia would do worse than that if something happened to you."

The night pony mare gave another irritated flap of her wings before snapping them shut and sighing. "You're right, I shouldn't interfere with you doing your job. I'm just stressed and going on short sleep. How long until the other guards get back here?"

Crystal glanced up at the digital clock on the wall, which must have been battery powered since it was still working. "Well… now that you mention it, they're running late, and I hadn't noticed while we were talking. Give me a minute--I don't do this often, and with all this magic saturating the area I’ll need to really focus."

Jessie peaked her head up to see what Crystal was doing. It didn't seem like she was doing anything at all. The crystal pony had her eyes closed and face contorted in concentration. Was she trying to dreamwalk while awake? She heard some ponies could do that, with practice. She'd never heard from anyone that Crystal was any powerful dreamwalker though. It then occurred to her that she was overlooking the obvious. Crystal was searching out magic signatures with her crystal pony powers.

Crystal opened her eyes wide and gasped. She then jumped down from her seat at the desk and moved towards the door. "Get Layla and the others up, now! We've got trouble!"

Ms. Rosetta started moving right away towards her foals. Jessie didn't question the order, it gave no room to be questioned. She just started shaking her brother. She caught sight of Jackie and Jordan huddling together at the intensity of Crystal's sudden change in mood.

Layla stirred on her own, and looked up at the crystal pony. "What's wrong?"

Crystal didn't respond to her, instead turning to Ms. Rosetta quickly. "If going downstairs to the offices there isn't an option for getting to a phone, where else can we go? Or is there somewhere these blockers don't work?"

The night pony considered for a split-second before pointing a wing up. "Some of the offices at the top floors have landlines, and worst case scenario the blockers shouldn't work from the roof. What's wrong? Did rioters get in here?"

Crystal gave a worried shake of her head. "Worse than that, your mother and Bill are here, and I'm pretty sure they already got Pin Point and Alexis. They are coming this way. I don't know if they can sense us or not, but they are definitely moving with purpose. We need to get away from here, now."

Jessie shivered as her brother gripped her tightly. The way Crystal was talking she was talking like Ms. Jean and the other pony were monsters. Weren’t they supposed to be safe in here?

Tonya dejectedly looked through Sunset's special contact book for the appropriate phone number for Sarah. The book was kept in plain sight in Sunset's office library normally, though most people wouldn't be inclined to pick it up. The title of the book according to the cover and binding was An Introduction to Library Science Volume Three, the other five volumes of the series were actually present on the shelf, and actually what they claimed to be. They were also written by an exceedingly boring author who brought the exact opposite of flair to the table when trying to interest people in what already seemed a dull subject. Getting through even a page of any of the other volumes was such a chore most wouldn't bother to check if volume three was any more interesting than any of the others. Just in case they did this volume only had twenty pages two-thirds of the way in that were actually dedicated to recording Sunset's contacts.

This was actually one of the easiest books to get information from out of Sunset's library. Her wife liked to hide lots of things in these books, in a variety of different ways. Some had ciphers and text to be deciphered, some had microchips hidden within their binding that interacted with Sunset's special reading platforms in different ways, and some were what they said they were with no tricks or whistles. Tonya herself didn't actually know what all was hidden in Sunset's library, or what interacted with what. She knew randomly experimenting with laying out books on the podiums could go very badly, and wasn't about to try. She knew only this contact book and how to open the vault for sure. That was all she needed to know, and more than she wanted.

She found the appropriate contact. Labeled only as History of Chaco Canyon with a phone number scrunched together between letters to make this section seem like some strange example of book filing. She sighed and looked over the dozens of other entries on the page. She wasn't even sure who half these people were, so there was no point even trying to contact them. She'd need Sunset to figure out who things like The History of Cooking Flour or An Introduction to Making Lead Based Paint could possibly refer to. However, she did know some of them, and would make those calls. Any fool who figured out these were contacts could just randomly start dialing numbers and see who picked up, or simply trace the phone numbers. So it seemed like it was pointlessly made over complicated to her. Sunset had a penchant for doing that with lots of things in her security here, and Tonya imagined that Sunset did it just to piss off any would-be spies, or cause them so much delay they inevitably got caught.

After dialing the number with a wing she sat and waited as the phone rang. It kept ringing for more than a dozen rings before being picked up. "Hello? Who is it?" Sarah's voice came over the line.

"The history of Chaco Canyon," Tonya replied.

"Who is this? You’re not...the one I normally speak with," Sarah asked suspiciously.

"I’m her wife," Tonya replied as she hunched down over the desk. "She has a big favor to ask out of you. Are you alone and free to speak?"

"Depends on the subject of this call. My daughter, Sunny, is visiting, and is in the other room," Sarah replied in a stern whisper. "If it’s about my nephew then this isn't a good time."

"I apologize for the bad timing, but it's kind of urgent," Tonya said in a whisper of her own, just in case her voice carried loudly over the phone line. "Have you spent much time with your other daughter lately, or spoken to her recently?"

Sarah's breath caught. "No, not in the last two weeks, but that isn't unusual. She's out on her own, and likes to have her own space so she can try to focus on writing. Is she in some sort of trouble again?"

"Not as far as I know, but she might have information we need, or at least her special friend does," Tonya replied, trying to keep a businesslike tone like her wife did on these calls. "Has she been getting any heavy activity from that lately that you know of? Twilight Sparkle said that she has. Normally we wouldn't care, but we think it might be referring to something bad happening down here. Twilight doesn't trust us enough to share what's going on, so we're trying to find out if you know."

Sarah sighed over the line. "I'm sorry, but I don't know. She's my daughter, but we aren't really close. My sister's closer to her than I am. Jenny is a shrewd young woman, and I'm very proud of her for that, but I sometimes worry that she suspects what I'm doing with our organization. It makes spending too much time around her uncomfortable sometimes. I'm afraid she'll figure it out and call me out on it to Bob and her sister."

"But you're not afraid Sunny will do the same?" Tonya asked.

Sarah gave a sad chuckle. "Sunny has many excellent qualities, and one of those is being exceedingly trusting. It's surprising she hasn't lost that trust given how many times people close to her have tried to use her. Jenny is the cynic of the two. Both my daughters are very intelligent, but Jenny is far more perceptive of something not being right. I hate keeping secrets from them, and Bob, even if I know what I'm doing is for the best."

"So no use even trying to pry, because she'll probably figure it out, right?" Tonya asked regretfully.

"How important is this?" Sarah asked pensively. "If she figures it out then my reputation with my family might be hurt beyond repair, and that will hurt like nothing ever has, but if somepony's life is on the line I'll do it."

There were times where what someone answered could determine another's fate. She knew that this might be important, and that it could impact a lot of people, but she also knew that she would destroy Sarah's life in the process if Sarah's secrets got out. Sunset might weigh the two and look at the good of the many over the few, but Tonya wasn't her wife. What she saw was a maybe weighed against an almost certainty.

"I don't think it's important enough for that," she replied after a moment of silence. "Thank you for being willing to do that, but it's not necessary. I value your happiness too much to risk it on this. With that in mind, I needed to tell you personally that your services aren't going to be needed anymore."

"What!" Sarah all but screamed, and could be heard immediately muffling herself. "Stay on the line. I need to go do something real quick. I'll be right back."

She waited patiently and could hear faint conversation in the background. After a minute Sarah returned. "I needed to have Harold take Sunny somewhere away from where she could hear this, just in case I get loud. Now tell me why, after all I've done and sacrificed for this organization, you think it's okay to just give me a pink slip!"

"Sunset's retiring," Tonya replied calmly."We don't know for sure who will be taking over, and we're shutting down her network of agents, just in case the wrong person takes over."

"She's quitting? Just like that?" Sarah demanded angrily. "I thought I was working for someone dedicated to advancing the use and applications of magic, not someone who was just going to quit out of the blue! Plus, she funds my research, what am I going to do now?"

"I'm sure your work over the last six years has earned you more than enough of a reputation that someone else will help fund you," Tonya answered, trying to keep calm.

"No one with as deep pockets," Sarah muttered. "And you haven't answered me about why she's quitting."

"I can't really discuss-".

"Oh, yes you will!" Sarah yelled. "Let me make this clear, Tonya Blessing; I have stolen information from my nephew on a regular basis for you, information he only gave me access to because he trusts me. I only did it because I truly believed I was helping make a better world. Do you have any idea how much it hurt to do that to him? Your wife made me believe in the greater good over my credibility with my own family, and now she's saying she's quitting! It was hard enough to look them in the eyes before, and now I'm being told I did it all for nothing? How dare she!"

Tonya lowered her ears. "Sarah, we appreciate all you've done for us, and we have made a lot of breakthroughs with your nephew's work. Your efforts really did help." She took a deep breath. "And you're right, with all that you have risked we owe you a better explanation."

"Talk," Sarah replied.

Tonya looked around the room as she began her explanation. "Sunset had a revelation of sorts. That it was our duty to bring magic to the humans in addition to ponies."

"That's great! I can get onboard with that. I've always been onboard with that to tell the truth. I was never comfortable with her Shimmerist ideals, so if anything, that should only make me more comfortable working with her. I still don't see where that requires she quit," Sarah snapped.

Tonya chewed on her lip. "I'm not sure if you've been keeping up with recent events, but she recently revealed a temporary transformation spell. The side effect of that spell is that humans gain magic permanently."

Sarah gasped. "That's actually great news! I still don't understand why that has her quitting and me being effectively let go."

"She believes that her part in giving humans magic is done. All it’ll take is time now," Tonya replied, then sheepishly rubbed her head with a wing. "But she is also starting to have a crisis of conscious about how she's conducted business, and she's ready to raise a family with me," she spoke for Sunset, not knowing if the last part was actually true or not yet.

Sarah let off a long breath. "Look, as a pony who has to deal with a constant crisis of conscious doing what I do for her, I can understand how that feels. I can appreciate wanting to raise a family too, but this is important work. We are providing new breakthroughs and opportunities for everyone in the end. It needs to continue."

Tonya sighed. "And we hope it will. Wild Growth will hopefully take over for Sunset. If she does you might be able to convince your nephew to work for her in a legitimate way. Wild Growth is a good pony, and I'm sure that she will be someone willing to see things get better for everyone, but she does not approve of Sunset's methods. This is a good thing. No more stealing, and Bob can have access to resources directly. Wild isn't that fond of me, but she'll listen to Rosetta. I'm sure Rosetta will put a good word in for you if you ask her. She might even if you don't, she’s always been a big fan of your work."

"Rosetta's sister would be ideal," Sarah said thoughtfully. "But you said you don't know who will be taking over."

"We don't," Tonya admitted. "We're banking on the fact Wild will see all the good she can do with the chairpony position of SPEC. We can't guarantee that she'll take it, and even if she does there's the possibility the government will want someone else in charge of Sunset's research and development departments. We have no idea what kinds of intentions or directions an unknown figure might have for all those projects."

Sarah groaned. "I guess that makes sense. If Wild Growth takes control I'll suggest to Bob that Wild Growth might be a good pony to partner with. Not having to lie and steal from him will be a relief. Maybe I'll even be able to connect with Jenny some more now that I don't have to worry about her finding out my dirty secrets. I don't even pry directly enough to find out if she's seeing anyone, and I'd kind of like to know what my prospects of getting grandchildren from her are. I worry sometimes she doesn't think I care, or I think less of her because she's human, or something along those lines; all because I avoid her so much out of fear."

"I need to say again, we appreciate you and everything you have done," Tonya said quietly, as she thought of the impacts on Sarah's life. "I know when Sunset first started funding you that you took her aid reluctantly. I'm glad you came around to being such a passionate supporter. I just want to be sure that we repay your efforts by not ruining your family life. Wild will hopefully be taking the reins of SPEC by the new year. You should take your time between now and then to figure out how to sell Bob on working with her. It will all work out in the end."

Muffled voices could be heard in the background again. "Sunny and Harold are back, so I should get going," Sarah said quickly. "Thank you for letting me know about the shake up in leadership, and thank you for caring about my relationship with my daughters and nephew. If this is the last I'll be dealing with you and your wife, then I'll count it as ending on a good note."

Tonya didn't want to say that if Sunset had been on this call instead that she might not have cared as much about Sarah's family relationships. Her wife was great at many things, but she could be callous about how she treated others sometimes. It was part of why Sunset needed her by her side, to remind her wife to show compassion when focused on goals. She hoped that whatever information Jenny had wasn't so important that failing to search it out would come back to hurt them, but she couldn't bring herself to hurt Sarah to find out. Instead she just smiled. "I'm glad. Take care of yourself, Sarah." And with that she hung up the line.

She sagged in her seat as she looked at the other contacts. Just dealing with Sarah had been exhausting. Who'd have thought six years ago that unicorn would become such an ardent supporter of their work? If any of the others were like that she needed to take a break before making those calls, just to try to collect herself.

A quick check of the computer gave her the local news, and it was all bad. Riots had indeed broken out, as predicted. She knew she should probably read the reports, but she really wanted to clear her head first. Instead she got down from her seat and headed out for a walk around the complex. Being bottled up in here was going to be miserable, she couldn't even really stretch her wings, but a walk might help a little.

A short walk down the hallway outside the office brought her into the Chorus room. There were no researchers looking it over today, but the power readouts were still displaying on the screens in lime-green numbers. Still at ninety-eight percent after being fully charged just the day before. They typically had her recharge it when it got down below thirty percent. She hoped she would still be able to help out with this after Sunset retired. It still had a long way to go before it worked, but the idea that one pony could power whole cities, maybe more than whole cities, was something that could really change the world. This would never have been made without Sarah's help, and likely needed someone like Bob to figure out how to finally make work. She hoped Wild did take control, and that Sarah would be able to convince Bob to help make things like this a reality.

She stepped out into the hall while the door for the Chorus room closed and locked behind her. The white floor, white walls, and white ceiling stretched out to either direction, broken by numbered doors and security keypads. She could hear the sounds of humans walking echoing from deep down the halls, but no sound of pony hooves upon the floor. She was a lone pony in the facility right now, and combined with the knowledge she was deep underground, far from the open sky, it made everything feel more lonely and oppressive. A pegasus's place was in the air, not deep underground. It was bearable when she was here with her wife, but alone like she was now it made her feel claustrophobic.

She set of aimlessly in one direction. With how well she knew there halls there was no fear of getting lost. What she didn't know was what lay behind many of the doors. A great many of the projects done here she was privy to, but a great many others she wasn't. This was the equivalent of Area Fifty-One for magic, where science fiction and fantasy became reality. In theory, only Sunset knew what all went on down here, but by virtue of how much went on it was safer to say no one truly knew the extent of the wonders that occurred behind closed doors here.

Magic that could help change and better the world was being developed here all the time, but also magic that could potentially bring about catastrophe. The Chorus was an excellent example of this. It could power an untold amount of things once they finally figured out how to safely do it, but It also was a crystal that held the equivalent power of an alicorn within it, power that if poured into the wrong type of spell could do untold destruction. Other things here had similar duel promise of doing great good or great evil based on how you made use of them. That was why she had cautioned Sunset to be wary of whoever might follow her as head of this facility. Sunset wanted to change the world for the better, to make a new Eden, but someone else might see the weapons potential behind many of these projects.

Her hoofsteps echoed across the halls as she walked and turned to take a stairwell up to another level. The sound of those footsteps echoed louder as she went through the stairwell. Were they always this loud? She'd never paid it much attention because she was always traveling with someone else. She felt so isolated, and alone right now. Maybe some of the human guards from the military would take time to talk to her. Worst case, she could just go back to Sunset's office and start making more calls. Anything to banish the loneliness.

Another hall that mirrored all the others greeted her on the next floor, and she just picked a direction without thinking and began walking. After a minute of walking her ears and tail picked up as she saw two humans in army fatigues coming down the hall.

"Hi, anything interesting to report?" She asked as she stepped in front of them.

They looked at each other briefly then back at her. "No, if there was we would have alerted someone," replied the darker skinned of the two, a man with the name Malone embroidered on his jacket chest. "Is there something that we should be on the lookout for?"

"Um, no…" she replied. "Do you two enjoy your jobs here?"

"There are worse places to be stationed," the other man replied, a light skinned man with the name Smith embroidered on his jacket.

"That's good to hear," she said cheerfully. "What's the worst place you were ever stationed?"

"Mrs. Blessing," Malone said with a suppressed groan. "I realize ponies naturally try to make friends with anyone they come across, but is there something you need? I don’t mean to sound rude but we're supposed to be making rounds."

Her ears and tail sagged. "No, I guess there isn't anything I really need. I'm sorry for distracting you from your jobs. I didn't mean to be annoying."

Malone rubbed a hand across his shaved head. "It isn't really annoying. We don't mind ponies being so friendly. Makes us feel appreciated to have the people we're protecting be so friendly. I got some pony relatives that're much nicer people now than they were back in the day when they were human, so I ain't complain'n. We just have jobs to do. You understand."

She nodded, picking up her ears at his compliment to ponies. "Maybe we can talk sometime when you're off duty. I haven't talked to the soldiers around here half as much as I would like to."

"That would be fine," Smith replied. "But if you don't mind stepping aside…"

She hastily moved out of the way. "Oh, yeah, sorry."

The two soldiers continued their walk down the hall. When they were a distance away they started whispering, but they were quiet enough, and far away enough, that she couldn't make out what was being said. She decided to just continue her walk. Maybe she'd come across some who were standing stationary somewhere to guard something, who would be more open to having some conversation.

Her path through the halls and through staircases continued on for several minutes. On and off she would pass some more soldiers patrolling, but she didn't attempt to do more than passing greetings to any of them. She was dying for some conversation, and the prospect of making more calls was becoming more and more appealing as her walk continued on.

Red emergency lights started flashing suddenly, as the automated voice on the speaker blared a warning. "Emergency. Security breach. Third level, sector two. Emergency. Security breach."

Third level, sector two? She was on the third level right now, but in sector four. She quickly went over the geography of the facility in her head to determine what was in sector two, as she started hurrying back towards the nearest staircase to get off the level. Several human guards came running past her as she did. It was then that her stomach seized up in realization of what was in that area, Poly Glot. It wasn't a guarantee that it was him, but her gut told her that it was. Humans running towards a crazed unicorn of Poly Glot's magical caliber seemed like suicide to her, but she was unsure if any ponies were even available. The military recently started enlisting some ponies now that they'd developed a pony corp in each branch. They even did all they could to encourage enlistment with very appealing benefits, but ponies were largely pacifists. The majority of pony military recruits who actually made it through basic training were night ponies. There were some others, but the numbers were so low that encountering a pony soldier was rare.

A heavy blue gas quickly began filling the hall, and she started running in terror. Gas in the hall usually meant one thing, that the hall was about to be purged by fire in order to destroy whatever had gotten loose or was invading. Why were the soldiers running straight to Poly Glot if the hall was about to be set on fire? She didn't have time to think about it, she needed to get off this level now or she would be purged along with everything else on this floor.

She quickly got into the closest stairwell and slammed the door shut. To her horror the blue vapor seeped through the cracks in the doors like it was seeking her out. Only just now it was starting to register to her pegasus senses that this wasn't gas in any traditional sense. It was something else, something magical, and looking up and down the stairwell she could see that it wasn't contained on just one floor. She racked her brain as she started hurrying back towards where the vault was. Getting out of the facility was a no-go. The entire place would be on lockdown so nothing could escape. She couldn't sense any real gas in the air, so perhaps the failsafe for flame purging hadn't been activated. That was good, because she wasn't eager to be fried to a crisp, but it didn't explain what all this blue mist was.

Having no choice, and knowing that time was a factor, she flew down through the mist to get to the vault. A sudden intense pain shot through her entire body, and her wings froze up, sending her crashing awkwardly down the stairs, tumbling helplessly until she came to rest on the next landing. Pegasi were built to take crashes from minor heights like this, but she didn't take this unexpected landing well at all, and when she came to a stop her entire body was throbbing with pain. She struggled to think though the blindingly intense stabs of pain as parts of her spasmed, twisted, and contorted. Her breath caught while feeling the agonizing sensation of her bones start to stretch and reshape themselves. Spasming uncontrollably, she lay on the floor whimpering and screaming whenever she could find her voice; wishing she would just die.

After what felt like an eternity, the pain suddenly vanished, ending so abruptly and without any lingering effects that she couldn’t help but question if it had ever existed. It hadn’t faded away, it had just stopped, leaving her feeling like it had never happened at all. Only now she felt an alien sense of cold.

Trembling almost uncontrollably, she pushed herself up into a sitting position and looked down, and then let off a new shriek of terror as she saw pasty white flesh and hands where her forelegs and hooves should have been.

Chapter 23: Face Your Fears

Tonya sat slumped with her back pressed against the Chorus, weakly pressing her hand against her bleeding arm. The pain from her wound was intense and she had lost so much blood that it was a struggle to maintain consciousness. Glancing up at the camera showing the hall outside; Poly Glot was still out there--distracted currently by his efforts with a temporary pony he had dragged in front of the camera to make her watch as he slowly and methodically dissected the poor former human. Seeing the grisly act, even obscured as it was by the mists, made her turn and wretch. Unfortunately, she was forced to rely on his atrocities to hold his attention as long as possible so he wouldn’t resume his efforts to get into this room. His morbid need to take others apart was the only thing keeping her alive and the Chorus out of his possession.

It was becoming harder to maintain the weak compulsions she had placed on herself to stop from going crazy. Sooner or later they would fail and she would be like those poor souls that she had watched on the monitors literally try to rip their skin off. The end was rapidly coming near. It was just a matter of whether it would come from blood loss, Poly Glot getting in and using her as a plaything, or from her own madness. There was a small chance that someone outside would be able to get through this death trap, take Poly Glot out, and save her--but she saw no way that could happen in time. She only had a few minutes before one of those fates befell her.

Her head dipped and she jerked it back up. She shook her head and blinked at the monitors, trying to focus on them. The Chorus was still draining, but the process was agonizingly slow. It now stood at eight-six percent power. On the monitor showing the hallway outside she saw Poly Glot had returned to hacking at the door. It was a testament to the security that he hadn't made it through, but it was only a matter of time. This was the most secure door in the facility, with the highest security measures, but he'd already gotten this far. Thankfully, he just didn’t have the attention span to stick to one task that wasn’t causing harm for longer than a few minutes.

She shook her head to try to keep herself awake and did her best to reinforce her self-compulsions. She put a hand up to her shoulder and winced as she brushed her blood-soaked appendage. It was still bleeding, and it was now fully soaked through her impromptu bandage. It really needed to be changed out, or better yet taken to a doctor, but there was nothing she could do.

Forcing herself back to her feet, she gripped the side of the console and braced herself against it. Very carefully she dialed her wife again, accidentally smearing blood all over the controls. A small part of her mind worried at what the blood would do to them, but at this point she wasn't sure that mattered anymore.

"Sunset...can you hear me? Are you there?" Speaking was hard, but she needed to hear her wife's voice.

"Tonya, I'm here. How are you holding up? We're doing everything we can to try to figure out how to counteract the spell gas and get ponies in there to help save you. I've got everypony that isn't assisting with trying to pacify the riots working on it. Twilight Sparkle is looking over every option for how to bypass the teleport barrier, or to get in without releasing the gas to the public."

"Sunset...I don't think there's time," she breathed out. "You need to start figuring out how to stop it before he gets in here. If you...if you don...if you don't stop it..."

"Hush, we'll stop it." She could hear Sunset holding back tears. "You're going to be okay. He isn't going to get in there. We'll make it in there, and take him out. Everything is going to be okay. God isn't going to let you die."

She shook her head again as darkness started creeping into her vision once more, and she had to grip harder onto the console as she almost lost her balance. She wanted to believe everything would be alright, but the world literally was going dark for her.

"Just save your strength, Tonya. Don't exhaust yourself. It will be okay. Just hang in there."

"You need...you need to just destroy th-this place. Even if I'm still here," she breathed out.

"No!" Sunset shouted. "You're going to get out, safe and sound. I'm not losing you. You're going to survive, you and I are going to have a foal together, and we're going to be happy."

"Sunset...we can't let him do this," she cried.

"Destroying the facility isn't an option," Twilight Sparkle cut in. "I still haven't learned how far this mist can self-replicate, but that seems to be an inherent part of the spell. There's too much risk of that spell gas escaping. Even if I shield the entire area, it still seems to ignore normal magic shields, and I need to figure out something that can better contain it. I'm working hard to figure this out. Just hang on a little longer."

"Okay..."

She had to hang on as long as she could. Once he made it through she was the last line of defense before he could reach the Chorus. There was no fantasy where she could fight him off, but she could delay him. Every moment counted at this point, and if she could buy seconds it was worth it, even if it cost her life. Maybe he would get distracted again and begin dissecting her, and that would buy more time.

The world dimmed some, and her mind went fuzzy, as she slumped back down. Her body felt numb. There was no telling if she were freezing or burning up, even if her sense of temperature was familiar to her. Maybe she should be freezing, as she wasn't wearing any clothes, and Amanda and Tom had complained it was chilly down here when they'd been transformed. She wondered what would happen when she died in this body. Would it revert back to her natural form, or would she be some unknown human, mixed in with dozens of other dead down here? Poly Glot was probably going to dissect her, so the question was probably moot.

Songs played in her head as she let herself hunch forward. She needed to take it easy, preserve her strength to fight off Poly Glot. Shutting her eyes for a few minutes wouldn't hurt anything. Just a little rest before he got in.

"About time," a voice snapped.

She looked up, suddenly feeling much more alert. Before her were a pony on fire and a skeletal pony. That could only mean one of two things; either the Dreamwardens had secret powers to manifest in the real world that they weren't telling anyone about, or she was asleep.

"Asleep," Sha'am confirmed as she glared with empty sockets. "We've been waiting for you to properly fall asleep, you've been drifting in here a little at a time for some time now, but we didn't want to try to touch you while you were in such a state. Your mind is barely holding things together as it is, and we need you."

"There is still a risk in what we're intending on doing, but it cannot be avoided," Ghadab followed up.

She looked around at her surroundings. She still seemed to be in the Chorus room. It wasn't until she tried to stand up that she realized she was in her pegasus form and how slightly off everything looked.

"What do you want? I can’t be asleep, I need to defend the Chorus," she said as she glared at the two undead Dreamwardens.

Sha'am hissed. "Ponies have gotten so disrespectful since we did away with the Oaths; no proper respect, no manners."

Ghadab turned and looked at his companion. "Quiet, Mother of Bitches; the mare is simply trying to fight for the lives of others. It is a worthy cause, and one that she can't be blamed for not giving you your pleasantries while doing. If we're successful you won't be needing to be concerned about such things much longer anyway."

"What's so important that you're keeping me here instead of letting me guard against Poly Glot," she demanded as she stomped a hoof. Sha'am could complain about her rudeness all she wanted.

The skeleton snorted. "Fight? You can barely stand. You heroic fools, and your grandiose belief in what you can accomplish. It would be laughable, if it weren't so sad. Sit down, filly, our goals coincide with yours. We too want that beast dealt with."

"Why didn't you deal with him before now? Why'd you let it get this far, if you could stop him?" She demanded in a rage.

"Do you think we didn't want to?" Ghadab asked as he let his fires extinguish. "Our Oaths are not mere words. There was nothing we could do unless he broke a rule, and right now he is wide awake and outside our grasp. Unfortunately, by the time he sleeps again he will have done incalculable harm to the world using that device behind you."

Tonya slapped herself with a wing. "I need to wake up then, so he can't do that."

"Stop being stupid!" Sha'am snapped. "You can't put up a fight. There is something else you can do though. You have the capability to stop him...it just will come at a high cost."

Her ears laid back. "If I'm going to die doing it then it will be still worth--"

Ghadab held up a wing and made a loud sound in his throat that sounded like he was getting ready to hack up a loogie. "It is more than you just dying. What we want from you will cause death and destruction in your home."

Her ears now flattened against her head. "Why would I do that?"

"Because it's the only way, and if you don't it will be tens-of-millions if not hundreds-of-millions who will die," Sha'am explained in a somber tone. "It is the lesser of two evils. We wish there was another way, but the only other way is to let him have his way and let this world plunge into chaos. Chaos that will erase any hope of the world ever holding back the Devourers. Tragedy happens all the time, but I won’t allow anything to prevent the world from combating them. We don't have the centuries the chaos he will unleash will take to settle."

She shook her head as she again considered the scale of harm that could happen if Poly Glot reached the Chorus. "What...what're you wanting me to do? I'm not saying I'll do it, but tell me what my options are."

Ghadab stepped forward and waved a wing. An image of the black sphere that was kept in Sunset's vaults appeared, the thing the Dreamwardens had her make. "You're going to destroy the Chorus, and all the magic contained within, using this."

She gazed at the sphere, even in a dream it was unsettling. "What is it? You never told us. We've studied it, and still have no idea what it does, or how it is supposed to work."

Sha'am stepped forward and ran a skeletal wing over the sphere. "A prototype Devourer, even then it’s far less advanced. We had intended in time to make a proper one to act as a Trojan horse to the other Devourers, destroying them from within. We realize now we simply don't have the time. This device was made to test for vulnerabilities and exploits in their workings that we can't properly determine in the dream realm. It's still capable of absorbing the magic of the Chorus, and his infernal cloud. It will detonate when it does, though; with enough force to consume all the lives in Riverview."

Her eyes went wide as Ghadab started speaking as soon as Sha'am quieted. "The way your facility is built will help buffer against much of the explosion, but shall not be enough. We ask that you reach out to Twilight Sparkle, and let her know that the Chorus is going to detonate, and that she needs to shield against the blast as best she can. Phobia shall back you once you do, and we'll be searching for more help to assist her. We'll do our best to keep as few dying as possible...at least I will, but even if every effort we have in doing so is successful, much of your city may still be leveled."

"You can alert your wife to start evacuations, before activating the sphere. That should save many. There will be a delay from when it absorbs and when it explodes, but we're unsure how long," Sha'am said, picking up the conversation again. "You may call me heartless for saying the truth, but what happens to the residents of Riverview is ultimately unimportant, as long as the world doesn't plunge into chaos. You can work to save who you can, but in the end this must happen, regardless of the casualties to your city."

"You will be dead from the explosion instantly when it happens--vaporized. You won't even feel a thing. No one in your facility will have time to feel a thing. Depending on how effectively Twilight Sparkle can shield, how effective you evacuate the most vulnerable areas, and depending on how long it takes to detonate, you may be able to limit the deaths just to those underground," Ghadab finished.

With Poly Glot's random killings she wondered how many in the facility were even still alive.

"Time is of the essence before he reaches you," Sha'am snapped. "Are you willing to do that much? Because that's only half of what we ask of you."

"What else can you possibly demand I do when you're already asking me to commit suicide, destroy my wife's work, and possibly Riverview as a whole?!" Tonya asked in wide-eyed shock.

Ghadab raised a wing and images flooded her mind, many of them terrifying. She whimpered at what she was seeing, but when they ended she knew the price they were asking.

"You can't be serious!" She gasped in disbelief.

"You have the choice to refuse, but if you do then the efforts to stop Poly Glot will fail, and so shall Earth when the Devourers come," Sha'am replied in a menacing tone.

"There has to be another way," she sobbed. She didn't want this.

"We don't ask it lightly of you, and if it weren't the only way to assure you knew how to operate that sphere we would not pressure you so," Ghadab replied in a quiet voice. "You have the right to refuse, but the consequences to everyone else shall be dire. I believe you'll make the choice to do what needs to be done to save others, rather than worry about what will be done to you. I would not ask this of you if I did not. I believe you place the well being of others above yourself enough that you will make this sacrifice."

Ghadab was right, she would do whatever it took to help save others, but she never imagined that price would be so steep. What they were asking from her was a fate worse than death, a fate only few had ever met in all of history. Tears ran down her face as she nodded.

"We have an accord then," Sha'am announced. "Awaken briefly to let your wife know to begin evacuations, and inform the alicorn of what she must do. Be quick, staying awake right now will be difficult in your current state. Every moment counts for you to save lives."

She suddenly felt weary again, as the two undead Dreamwardens vanished. She was back in the waking world, and she knew by the shadows on the edge of her vision she didn't have much time here. She raised a hand and grabbed the edge of the console again, and struggled to pull herself up. She remembered this time to just hit the redial button, and she waited for a reply.

The phone was quickly picked up. "Tonya? Is he close to getting in? We're still doing all we can to-"

She cut her wife off with a pained groan. "Sunset, you need to listen to me. Evacuate the pony resident sector, and everything near the Bastion. Get everyone as far from here as you can. We don't have time, and I'm going to do what I have to do."

"What do you mean...what you have to do?" Sunset asked worriedly.

"I'm d-destroying the Chorus, and taking out this cloud. I can do it...but it's going to explode when I do. You have to get everyone away. I-it's going to be like I set a nuclear bomb off here." She wet her lips. "You need to tell Twilight Sparkle she needs to shield the city from the blast."

"Tonya, no! We're going to save you!" Sunset cried.

"How?" Twilight cut in again. "What are you going to do that can stop that cloud? Maybe I can-"

"You can only try to shield us all from the blast," Phobia sleepily cut in. "She is set on what she is going to do, and it will save millions. We have to do our part to prepare. Mom, I'm sorry, but you need to call for evacuations now. Time is of the essence."

"But Tonya..." Sunset cried.

"Has made her choice, and she's going to save a lot of people," Phobia said sadly.

"Sunset...I'm sorry. I can't let him hurt everyone," Tonya cried, and wiped her nose with her good arm. "I'm taking that bastard out with me. Help me, Sunset. I don't want anyone else to die. Do the right thing. Help save the world. Do this for me."

"Fuck the world if you aren't in it," Sunset sobbed.

She labored to respond. "My sunshine… Please...don't let anyone get hurt because of this. I-I need to go. Know that I love you."

She hung up the call before Sunset could respond back, and cried hard. She couldn't even feel the pain in her shoulder through the pain in her heart.

One of the worst lessons to learn in life was life isn't fair. Right now life wasn't just unfair, it was unnecessarily cruel.

"Maybe, you have to do something first?" She suggested frantically, as her brother slammed a hoof repeatedly on the desk in frustration. "Or maybe it is dialing and we just can't hear?"

Robby lowered his head and wrapped his wings over it in frustration. "I don't know! It gives me a dial tone when I pick it up, but when I dial a number there's just nothing! I don't know what to do!"

They were in an office at the far end of the hall. The door was open and all the foals kept looking off in the distance, expecting any minute for one of the monstrous crystal ponies to appear at the far end of the hall. This stretch of hall was around the corner from where the stairwell was, and looking down it they just saw a dark hall full of lockers, and windows at the far end that didn't let in enough light to banish the shadows. There were no emergency lights here, and a series of small square skylights let in dim light from the roof. They too weren't doing a very good job, maybe because it was so dark outside. There were normally a few regular lights on, but now that there was no power it really showed how much of the light actually came from them. A clock hung above the windows, and showed that it wasn't yet evening.

While Jessie tried to help her brother figure out the phone, Jordan and Jackie suddenly found that being aunts meant it was their responsibility to be what the distraught demons cried on. The twins had latched onto Jackie, and were bawling loudly over the fate of their mother. Alfie had likewise latched onto to a confused, and very upset herself, Jordan. The demons incessant cries of Mama were understandable, but it made it very hard to focus, or think. She wanted to yell at them to be quiet, but didn't have the heart to do so.

Jessie whimpered, as after yet another failed attempt, Robby took his forelegs and just threw the phone off the desk.The other foals cried even louder, and now her older brother buried his face in his forelegs and began to sob as well. "We're not getting out of here. Rosetta put her faith in me, and I can't even make a phone call."

The crying and sobbing seemed deafening, and Jessie held her ears flat against her head, trying to hold her own tears. She looked around the office, trying to find any answer, anything at all that could help them get through this. She read the titles of the books sitting on the bookshelves; The Twenty-Four Hour School-Day: Teaching Humans and Night Ponies After Midnight, Developmental Differences in Foals by Tribe, Magical Hijinks: Disciplining Unicorn Foals Effectively, Managing an Interspecies Classroom, Fundamentals of Secondary Education, New Standards and Education Practices for Integrated Schools, How to Effectively Help Teen Mothers Stay in School, Integrating Extracurricular Activities Between Tribes and Species: The Challenges and Opportunities, Species Neutral Reading Recommendations; Second Edition...none of these were at all helpful for their situation at all.

"If Ms. Rosetta and everyone else is asleep, won't they call for help in the dream realm?" She asked, trying to think outside the box.

Robby shook his head sadly, and got down on the floor, next to the now broken phone. "No, when someone is hurt really bad they don't dream right. It takes a Dreamwarden actively seeking them out. Phobia might go looking for them, we can hope, but with all the stuff going on she might be awake. She keeps really weird hours because she takes constant naps. Sha'am notices anyone that's dying, but a coma isn't dying."

"Could you go to sleep and get help?" She asked.

He shook his head. "Not right now. I'm too worked up to sleep, pretty sure the adults were too. Not a lot of night ponies can do that thing where you can dreamwalk in a trance. Phobia can't even do that, and I don't even know how she can just fall asleep at will like she does. That's why they didn't do that. Not that sleeping when someone is hunting you's a great idea anyway." He then paused and squatted down next to the phone staring at it. "Fuck!"

She winced at his curse. "What?"

He pointed a wing at the edge of the phone. A tiny label that had fallen loose underneath said dial nine first to get an outside line. "We just had to hit an extra key, and now I've gone and broken the phone!"

Her head dropped in despair, but she then picked it up and frantically continued to look around the room for anything, anything at all, that could help them. Her ears perked up, and she dared to hope as she spotted something worthwhile. "Robby, look! Keys!"

Her brother stopped crying and followed her gaze to a set of keys hanging beside the door. He flapped his wings and flew over to them, grabbing them with his mouth, before settling down to the floor and taking them into his wings to examine them. Then his face fell again. "No key to the front door, or the other stairwell. They're all labeled. These are all to the classrooms for the top three floors, and one for the roof."

Her ears fell again. She had hoped that there was a set for the front doors below and the other stairwell. They could have run down the other stairs by ramp and gotten to the front door to get out. Locking the classroom doors wouldn't be much help if the crystal ponies were just able to break down the doors.

All hope might not be lost though. "We could get up to the roof, and you could fly for help."

The other foals quieted as she spoke, but Robby flattened her ears. "But Rosetta said I had to protect all of you. I'd be leaving you all alone. They could get you while I'm gone."

She stared at her brother and forced herself to accept uncomfortable, but logical, facts. She then walked over to him and spoke a hard admission in a quiet whisper. "Robby...you're my big brother, and I know you'll do anything to protect us ...but if all the grown-ups couldn't protect us, then you can't either. You need to find help. If you don't...if you don't we're not going to make it."

Robby stared her in the eyes, and blinked a few times. "Jessie...you're right. I'll do what you said." He then looked down. "It's embarrassing that I'm twice your age and you have to be the one to tell me the right thing to do, because I'm too afraid to think straight. When did my egghead little sister get so brave?"

"I'm not, I’m scared, really scared," she replied in a half-croak, not able to hold back the emotion. She was admitting her brother couldn't protect her, and that was painful. "It's just everyone else is crying and-and...and someone has to think."

"Bravery is a response to fear, not the absence of it," Robby replied, as if quoting off something he had been told. It sounded like something Phobia Remedy would say. "But we need more of a plan than me flying for help. Something to help buy time for help to get here."

She looked at the other foals, and then out into the hall. They needed a plan. She was smart, so she needed to come up with it. Just the idea of Robby going for help had been hard. It was hard to think when all she wanted to do was cry and hide.

Think logically, break down the facts that you know. She said to herself. What information did she know? First thing she knew was that they couldn't let the crystal ponies touch them. The adults had made it very clear that the drain of magic was enough to possibly kill any of the foals. The next thing she knew was that they seemed to be able to track where magic was, and with all the adults pretty much drained they'd be moving on to the next biggest targets; which were almost certainly her and her brother. That meant that if there was any sort of trap that she and her brother were the primary bait. After that, she knew that Ms. Jean at least was stronger than her, Layla, and Ms. Rosetta combined, and that she could probably break down any door that they locked. Simply locking a door wouldn't work to keep them away. It might slow them down a little, but not for long.

The crystal ponies were also big, and might not be able to fit into small spaces. She thought about how she and the demons had fled through the walls from Tempest. She looked around the room and spotted a vent on the ceiling. It looked big enough that any of the foals, except Robby, could get in it, but it was also in a place on the ceiling that only Robby could reach it, and a quick glance down the hall showed that same pattern of the vent being well away from any wall or thing to climb on to get to it.

"Are you strong enough to carry us up one at a time to the vent there?" She asked her brother, as she pointed to the ceiling.

Her brother gave the vent a doubtful look, then walked over to her and gripped her. He started beating his wings and they gained a little height, but they ended up collapsing down to the ground after getting just two or three feet off the ground. Robby groaned. "Sorry, if I was a pegasus or full grown I could probably do it, but I'm just not a strong enough flyer to be carrying that much extra weight. I maybe could get Jordan up there if I tried hard enough, since she's the smallest, but that's a big maybe."

That wasn't going to work then. They could try stacking things to climb up there, but with it being dead center in the room she already knew how unsteady that would be. Plus, she didn't think it was a good idea to be separating Jordan off from the rest of them. She needed to think of something else. What else did she know? She knew crystal ponies couldn't drain crystal ponies, but they were without their crystal pony defender now, since she had gotten hurt.

Thinking about Crystal made her look out into the hall. Crystal was really strong too, but she'd been hurt and taken down by the lockers falling on her. Lockers were one of the things that they had in abundance. Could they deliberately bring the lockers down on the two monster crystal ponies? She didn't know how reliable that was, or if these lockers were exactly like the ones below, and not properly bolted to the wall. That was missing information.

"Robby...can you check something?" She asked as she tried to put together the plan in her head. It was still a work in progress, but it hinged on one particular piece of information.

"What do you need?"

She pointed out into the hall. "Can you check to see if those lockers are bolted to the wall, and how loose they are if they aren't bolted?"

Her brother looked out at the lockers. "How do I tell that? I don't want one falling on me."

She pointed upwards. "Fly up and try shaking them from up high, but if they're loose try not to knock them over."

Robby nodded and with a running jump took to the air towards the lockers. The other foals quieted down to sniffles as they watched her plan start to come together, perhaps comforted that something was happening to try to help them. Robby hovered near one of the lockers and reached out his forehooves to give it a little shake. Shake it did, very easily. There was no way that locker was properly bolted to the wall. He checked several others, and it was mixed results, with maybe one in four lockers being loose. It would need to be lined up just right.

"But, how do we make them fall at the right time?" She asked herself out loud.

"We can do it!" Charlotte shouted excitedly. Jessie whipped her head around to look at the night pony that looked most like a mini-Ms. Rosetta. "It's just like when we're trying to get things in the way of Mama, Crystal, and Tempest. The three of us are really good at knocking things over."

Tabby stood up and looked at the lockers. "We can climb up on top of them if we have some desks or something to climb on first. It isn't as high as the ceiling."

Alfie flattened his ears as he looked out at the lockers. "But they might fall down while we're trying to climb up."

She looked at the lockers again. "Maybe we can brace them with something so they don't do that. Just the first lockers you need to climb up."

"The same desks the demons would be using to climb up," Robby cut in. "Jessie and I can hold the desks steady against the lockers, and if they accidentally fall down then the desks will block them from hitting us."

She perked her ears up again, as it seemed like this might actually work. They had their bait, and they had their trap. She didn't want to hurt anyone, but it seemed like the only way to slow the two crystal ponies down long enough for Robby to have time to get away and come back with help. If they didn't do something to make the crystal ponies at least slower they were all going to die here.

"Here's the plan," she announced. "When they come down the hall Robby and I'll be in plain sight at this end of the lockers. Demons, the three of you will be up on top of the lockers being very still. Jackie and Jordan, you two will be hiding on the edge of the lockers, ready to run. They will come after me and Robby, and the demons will knock the lockers over on top of them. When the lockers hit them everyone needs to run for the staircase-" It just occurred to her that the demons would be up on top of the lockers when they needed to be running for the stairs. She looked at the twins. "Um, are you going to be able to get down from the lockers okay?"

Tabby flapped her wings and hopped while nodding. "We can do it. We ride bookshelves and stuff down all the time! Riding the lockers down will be just like that." The other two demons nodded eagerly in agreement.

"Well, if you're sure, I guess that's no problem," Jessie replied, choosing to trust her friends to know what they were doing. They were trusting her after all. "After that we'll all run to the roof. Robby, you'll fly ahead of us with the keys, because that will get you going for help faster. You just have to leave the roof door open for us, and leave the keys in the outside of the door so we can lock it behind us when we get up there. If we hurt the monster ponies they might have a harder time breaking down a locked door, even if they start chasing us again. That buys more time."'

"I can't…" Jordan cried. "It's too scary!"

Jackie nuzzled her sister gently. "You can do it. You can bite my tail and just follow me. I promise I won't run too fast for you. You just have to hold on and keep watching me instead of the bad guys."

Jessie nodded. "Yeah, just follow your sister. Jackie isn't going to let anything bad happen to you. Big sisters protect their little sisters."

Jordan looked at her sister, and then meekly nodded. "Okay."

Robby walked out into the hallway and then gestured with a wing for the rest of them to follow. "Come on, we need to hurry to get ready. We don't know how much time we have before the demons' grandma and that other pony come looking for us."

Jessie and the others followed him out. This had to work. If it didn't, she'd just sealed their fates. She wished her mom and dad were here, or Wild Growth, or Phobia Remedy. Her friends were trusting her, and she hoped that she didn't let that trust down.

"Wild Growth! Stand down!" A member of the National Guard yelled out to her.

She glared at the members of the military, and their guns. Being military, chances were that someone among them actually had something that could seriously hurt her. At the moment she didn't really care about that. She was more concerned about those guns being turned on other people. Those guns had been fired. She still smelled the faint residue of gunpowder and other things in the air.

For what had seemed an eternity she had been running through the crowds of rioters, forcibly bringing an end to violence. Had it been minutes, hours, days? She didn't know. She knew that her barrel burned from exhaustion. She knew her head pounded like it never had before, and she knew she had made a promise that no one else was going to die today.

She had slipped on something wet and fallen, right before she had run into these people. Finding a bunch of guns pointed at her when she picked herself back up was not a pleasant surprise.

"I'm helping bring an end to this violence," she called out to them angrily. "Do you really want to stop me? Are you really that eager to shoot someone?"

"Ms. Growth, look around you. The riots are dispersing," the same guard called out. "We cannot condone your vigilantism, but we have to admit that you've been more than successful. Someone can discuss your actions with you later. Stand down, you're obviously injured, and need medical attention."

She looked around her. There were no signs of violence, and only the guards were near her, all looking fearful. They still had guns pointed at her, and right now guns put her in a very uncooperative mood. She'd found way too many people for her liking that had guns today.

Her ears perked up as she heard gunfire in the distance again, off towards the central green. She noticed the guard look up as well. The violence might have been cleared here, but who knew how far the riots had spread. She wasn't even sure where she was at right now. Lifting up her leg she saw that her phone was cracked and broken in several places, maybe from the fall she had just taken, maybe from something else, there was no way of knowing.

"Wild Growth! Please stand down! Do not attempt to continue this. It is for your own safety!" The guard yelled out as she turned to head towards the gunfire.

She looked back at them. "No more guns, no more violence, no more death or hurt," she said slowly and clearly.

As a few guards started readying weapons, she decided that she had enough of them all. Her power surged through the earth, and a massive wall of brambles broke through the concrete between her and them, blocking their view and path to her. There would be no more violence. They wouldn't be hurt, or be allowed to be in a position to hurt others. She had a job to do, and that was to protect everyone, and nothing or no one would stop her from doing so. Not while she still heard gunfire and screams in the air.

"Attention! Citizens of Riverview and visitors!" Sunset Blessing's voice rang out loudly, carried by some unknown means. "This is a critical emergency announcement! The Bastion is going to explode in an unknown amount of time. It is vital that everyone evacuate everything within or surrounding the central green, the monorail, as well as the entire pony district. If you are in an area within a mile of the central green, I plead to you, get away now! If you are protesting, whatever you are protesting can wait a day for the sake of your lives. Expect severe earthquakes, fires, and explosions! Don't wait to pack! Don't take time to gather your belongings! Get out! Those things are not as valuable as your lives. Emergency teams will be setting up operations just beyond the fields, the military base, and Old Town. Move now, this is not a drill, or a joke!"

Her ears rang at the deafening sound of Sunset's voice. When they finally stopped she turned towards the brambles, still filled with resolve. "I'm going to get those people away from the central green. I think your priorities are getting people away from here. Help me make sure no one else dies today."

She didn't wait for a reply. She just galloped off towards her new destination.

"Attention! Citizens of Riverview and visitors! This is a critical emergency announcement--"

Jessie stood stiffly as she stared down the hall, waiting for the crystal ponies to appear. Her auntie Sunset's voice had sounded off loudly earlier, terrifying all of them. Now it repeated regularly. What it had said added a whole other level of precariousness to their situation, but the fact remained that they needed to alert someone that they needed help. On the plus side, if that kind of warning had gone out then Phobia Remedy had to be checking on Ms. Rosetta if she knew she was here. They weren't going to change their plan though. If the crystal ponies got them first it didn't matter if help came.

Robby stood beside her, as the two of them made themselves bait. The demons were all crouched down on top of the lockers, still as statues, and barely breathing for fear they'd accidentally knock a locker over early. Jackie and Jordan stood tensely at the edge of the lockers, awaiting their signal to run. The world was still and quiet, and the air seemed to barely move. This was either going to work, or they would die. It didn't help knowing that some disaster was coming that might kill them anyway, but one problem at a time. At least Robby would be able to fly to safety. Hopefully he would get help to them in time.

"Attention! Citizens of Riverview--

She watched the clock, trying not to listen to the announcement, and the ticking of it seemed to echo through the halls. One second turned into five, five seconds turned into a minute, one minute stretched on forever. Then her my muscles tightened as she heard a new sound, the sound of a door opening. The time had come, and so had their pursuers.

Her lungs were tight, as she listened to uneven hoofsteps slowly approach. The form of a mare stepped into view, silhouetted by the dim light of the window beyond. The shadow turned its gaze down the hall, and Jessie could feel those hungry eyes lock onto her and Robby. She wanted to run right now, but she knew she had to stay still. Ms. Jean had to get caught in the falling lockers. The mare turned and started towards them as the stallion came into view behind her.

Fudge! They weren't moving at the same pace! That meant that they might only end up hitting one of them. This could mess up the entire plan and ruin their hopes of getting out of this. She should have realized they weren't moving the same way, the stallion had gotten caught in that earlier locker fall and was already hurt. Ms. Jean wasn't hurt though. She was still healthy and ready to take them.

"Attention! Citizens-- She did not need that blaring alarm right now!

Ms. Jean was starting to gallop towards them, with the stallion stumbling far behind. There was no more time. The trap had to be sprung on Ms. Jean and they'd have to improvise with the stallion. "Now! Bring the lockers down on her now!"

The demons jumped into action. They galloped along the tops of the lockers, pushing off each locker hard as they went. Some merely shook, while others toppled over. Jessie and Robby stood still as the crystal mare rapidly approached them. She closed her eyes, unable to look anymore, and then she heard the deafening crash.

She opened her eyes up and blinked. Only two feet in front of them, Ms. Jean was pinned under a locker, with her eyes closed. They had gotten her. However, the victory wasn't assured yet. The stallion was still stumbling towards them, and not a single locker had come close to hitting him. That was a problem, a huge problem. Not only did they need to get by him, but the path was littered with fallen lockers.

She shook her head and her rump, as she readied herself to run. "He's hurt, and slow. Robby, try to distract him in the air, while the rest of us run by! Everyone move!"

Robby took to the air and started flying above the stallion's head. The stallion focused up at her brother, and feebly tried reaching out towards him. Jackie and Jordan started running on the far edge, away from the fallen lockers. Jessie followed after them, but cried out as the stallion turned his eyes back down towards her. Jackie and Jordan had raced by him, and the demons were by him as well, but he was now blocking her path, and she couldn't see a good way of getting around him. She ground her hooves to a screeching halt, staring in horror as her brother desperately tried to draw the stallion's attention back to him with shouts.

"Attention! Citizens--" She startled, as the announcement started back up again.

"I can't fudging move!" She yelled with fear and frustration at her aunt's repeating message. She backed away from the stallion, too afraid to think of any new plan.

There was a sudden bright flash of light that blinded her. When she finished blinking away the spots before her eyes there was a golden unicorn stallion with a blue mane standing between her and the crystal pony stallion. She gaped in confusion as he seemed to briefly get his bearings.

"Phew! Give me a second to catch my breath; been teleporting straight down one floor at a time looking for you," the new stallion said in a rugged breath. He then looked at her and stepped towards her. "Don't be afraid. I'm with emergency services. I'm here to help you all evacuate safely. I just need to gather you close to me and I can get you outta here."

"Watch out behind you!" Robby screamed.

The unicorn tried to turn around, his horn flaring to life in alarm, but the crystal pony was on him, and she let off a wordless shriek. Their would-be rescue tried to put up a fight, twisting and bucking instinctively only loosened the crazy ponies grip but he was able to hold on. The magic around the unicorns horn flickered out before could resist further and he slumped to the floor weakly trying to push the crystal pony away.

"--and Old Town. Move now, this is not a drill, or a joke!"

She ran. She ran as hard as she could to get by the stallion while he was distracted. The fallen lockers forced her to get dangerously close to him, only just out of reach if he chose to grab for her. However, the new adult seemed too tantalizing for the crystal pony, and he ignored her as she ran by. Robby turned his course towards getting away as well.

As she turned the corner towards the stairwell she saw that once again the crazed crystal ponies ignored them for the highest magic target. This hadn't gone as planned, and she felt awful for that stallion who had come to help, but time had been bought. The vampiric ponies would take time to eat, and now both were hurt. Those injuries might make it harder for them to get through the door on the roof. There was no telling when anyone would realize that something had happened to the unicorn, or if the next would meet the same fate. It was more important than ever Robby get to someone and tell them the kind of danger they were in, and make sure that the next round of help was prepared.

"Attention! Citizens--"

She saw the other foals, waiting fearfully by the stairwell, and she yelled at them as she saw them. "What are you doing! You should be running up the stairs!"

"We were scared for you!" Jordan yelled back.

"I'm okay!" She yelled back, still galloping down the long hall. She had to think of how to make this easy and clear for her friends. "We need to get to the roof and spread out to make it harder for them to catch us. It's going to be like playing tag. We all know how to play tag, right?"

"Just like we play with Mama, Tempest, or Crystal?" Tabby asked loudly.

"Just like that!" She confirmed as she reached them, then passed into the stairwell. Robby had already gone through and was on his way to the roof and out by wing. He'd been flying faster than she'd ever seen him fly before. "Now keep moving! We can't let them tag us!"

"--Get out! Those things are not as valuable as your lives--"

As Tonya woke again she laid and sobbed at what had been done to her, and all that she had experienced. Sha'am and Ghadab had not been gentle, but she couldn’t fault them, there wasn't room for being gentle right now. She forced herself to stop crying and to ignore the pain in her arm. There was work to be done. There would be time for tears later.

"Attention! Citizens--"

She got unsteadily to her feet, and turned towards the hallway that led to the administrative offices. It was time to go down to the vaults and fetch the thing that would kill her. Some small part of her mind actually hoped that Poly Glot had already killed all the guards so that she wouldn’t be directly responsible for their deaths. The idea of killing anyone made her sick, and none of those guards deserved what was happening to them. She silently wept as she thought about that. Whether Poly Glot killed them or what she was about to unleash did, they were doomed. It wasn't right. It wasn't just. It was also a cold hard reality, and she hated it. She prayed that everyone outside would have time to evacuate. If any more died, her soul couldn't take it.

The hallway was free of mist, but there were emergency lights flashing that gave it a menacing feel. She weakly made her way through the hall, into Sunset's office. Carefully, she made her way over to the bookshelf. She'd have to trust her legs here, as she had to use her one good arm to get each book over to the proper podium. It was a long and grueling process to carry each book over to where it belonged, and try to use her uncoordinated hands to open each book to the proper page for the microchips in the bindings to activate. Her use of her hand would have been far from perfect to begin with, and the loss of blood and weariness that she felt made it tremble violently as she used it. She had to flip, and reflip, through pages; missing her intended page more than once on each book, before they were finally correct.

The passage leading down to the vaults below opened, and she almost stumbled going down it, just catching herself at the last second. The door opened easily enough, but she tripped over her own feet trying to go through, and came down on her limp and bleeding arm. She cried out at the searing pain, and it took her a long minute before she could force herself back into a sitting position.

There it was, the black sphere that her life had been spared in exchange for its construction. The black sphere that she always felt hungered when she came near it. It didn't help knowing now that it truly did hunger, hunger for whatever magic it could absorb. It was silly to think of it like that, it wasn't alive. The thing simply ate and then destroyed. The Dreamwardens had planned on testing it in a controlled environment, where it couldn't hurt anyone. They'd already been considering making Sunset or one of their other contractors create a testing bunker just for that purpose, where electronic devices could record and analyze everything about it. The hope was that they could learn something of value to help fight its cousins. Testing was supposed to continue with different models over centuries, but now they knew that they simply didn't have that kind of time. The plan might have been a good one, if they had time; but they had decades, not centuries.

With extreme effort, she pulled herself back to her feet. Devourers, and the threat they posed, was a concern for another day, for those who would survive to see it. Right now the priority was making sure as few people as possible died now. This monster was about to be put to use to save the world. Maybe the only good thing a Devourer had ever done. May God forgive her for unleashing it.

"--is going to explode in an unknown amount of time. It is vital--"

Wild Growth slipped again, and hit the ground awkwardly. For a second...or at least she thought it a second, she laid their panting, before pulling herself back to her hooves. Her head swam, but she couldn't stay here.

The repeating emergency message was now just background noise, and she no longer registered the individual words. Despite the overuse of her magic, she stood firmly, and reached out again, searching for anyone that hadn't yet fled. Most were gone, and she had helped in that. Where they were too bottlenecked together she had used her powers to rip down walls and already abandoned buildings, in order to make new paths of escape. Property damage meant nothing at the moment, as the emergency seemed to indicate all of this might well be destroyed anyway. What was important was everyone had a path to escape. No one else was going to die today, not if she could help it.

She could barely think, and everything was a labor. Her nose felt clogged, and her fur wet. The storm must have soaked the grass of the central green, because she kept finding herself slipping in it. But until she was sure everyone was safe she couldn't leave, couldn't rest.

The immediate area felt clear of people, but she felt others in the distance. With shaking steps she began in the direction, not even sure what way she was headed, only knowing there were more people to help.

"Wild Growth!"

She blinked and looked around for the source of the voice. Was the National Guard trying to stop her again? She didn't see anyone, or feel anyone near her. Then a form from above came crashing down in front of her. It took a few seconds for her to realize that it was Robby, he looked as exhausted as she felt.

The teenaged night pony colt looked up at her. "My sister, the other foals, they're trapped in the school!” he exclaimed before having to stop and take a few breaths. “Your mom and that other crystal pony are chasing them. You're the first person I could find to help! Everyone else is gone!"

Her mama? She had completely forgotten the entire reason she had been out in all this chaos to begin with. It took another second to register the rest of what Robby had said. Her mama was after the foals. If she caught them…

Her eyes focused on the school in the distance, it wasn't far from her. “Get to safety,” she responded, taking off with renewed energy towards the tall building, without waiting to hear if Robby had anything else to say. The foals were going to be safe. Her mama wasn't going to become a killer.

No one else was going to die today.

Author's Note

Next chapter: The Cataclysm of Riverview.

If you haven't yet, be sure to vote in the You Decide Poll. Voting ends at the publication of chapter 24. Next week 9 a.m. EST.

Chapter 24: The Cataclysm of Riverview

Tonya stared at the object her life had been ransomed to create, and now was going to take the life from her. Her foolishness, and reckless quest for vengeance years ago, had indirectly led to its creation. She had escaped judgment so it could be made. There was no escaping the consequences of such horrible crimes, and it was time to pay for them. She wondered how God would judge her now that she was about to use this monstrous device. She might never know, a price had been paid to use this, and that price was her immortal soul. Was it worth it? She believed so. She wouldn't be here preparing her own demise if it weren't.

It was no longer floating. Now it was cradled in between her legs as she sat on the floor of the Chorus room. Poly Glot was back to working on getting the door open. She really shouldn't be hesitating to just put the sphere to use. Time was short, and if he got in before she could activate it, then this was all for naught. Killing one's self was not something any sane being willingly did.

She considered trying to make one last call to Sunset, then sadly dismissed the idea. What else was there to say? I'm about to kill myself, hope you have a good life? Sorry, we couldn't have that foal? I hope you can find happiness again? There was nothing that could ease her wife's pain or her own. Death could be a kindness, but all too often, it was cruel, as cruel as its Warden. This time, it felt particularly brutal, even though she knew she was doing the world a mercy.

"The end draws near,
There is no more fear.
Where is hope, I pray?
I give it to others, for me, it tis flown away."

"Any moment now, Ton-ya. I've almost fixed your little keypad," she heard the psychopath call out from the other side of the door. She sighed. That settled that, no more delays. It was now or never.

Placing her usable hand on the surface of the sphere, she traced her fingers along it in a difficult to follow pattern. The smallest deviation and nothing would activate. The instructions had to be put in perfectly. There were no grooves, no markings on the sphere to indicate where to start or begin; all anyone looking at the sphere would see was the smooth roundness of it in an obsidian black. There was more to it, though, hidden from both the naked eye and any tool known to any living race.

This device might be primitive compared to its archetype, but it was still far more advanced than anything produced on Earth or Equestria. More advanced, even, than what ninety-nine percent of all civilizations that had ever been in this universe could create. The people on Earth liked to dream of super-advanced alien species that were out there traveling the stars in science fiction spaceships. The sad fact was that any race that was significantly enough advanced for efficient deep space travel had no doubt reached their magical awakening. As such, they had perished at the unflinching directives of the Devourers. If traveling that deep into the stars without magic was even possible, the Thinkers themselves, as they had called their kind, hadn’t managed that. The Devourers used the magic they destroyed, not as much as they released, but enough. Or at least, the Wardens thought so; they admitted to not understanding all of their memories of how Devourers worked. The Dreamwarden at the time didn't understand it all, so neither did they.

Even the very race that had made the Devourers had found themselves the first victims of their terrible invention. The Thinkers thought they had no magic. They were, of course, tragically mistaken. The irony of ironies, their magical awakening had already begun, much as Earth's had before Sunset Shimmer came. It was weak, but it was enough that a fleet of freshly launched Devourers had devoured them first. Like so many after, they hadn't seen it coming.

She hated that she had to learn that. Hated learning everything the Dreamwardens knew about these abominations. The Devourers indeed were indiscriminate. They would destroy all magic users on a world, then used the discharge from their collection systems to eradicate all remaining life from that world. Conditions had allowed for magic to arise once there, after all, and they were thorough. The Devourers were not just an affront to magical life, but all life. They were the most evil things in existence.

And now one was sitting in her lap; perhaps it would even be the savior of her world. And she was the one with the unenviable task of activating it.

As she finished tracing in the commands, the machine came to life. It didn't light up in any way; it took the light into it. This was the boot-up process; there was no stopping it now. In a few minutes, it would begin doing the wretched thing it was designed to do. Thankfully it had a much more limited range than its cousins out in space. Enough to take out all the magic in the facility, and anyone who ignored the evacuation orders and stayed in the Bastion. Enough that she'd probably die from it absorbing every iota of magic from her long before it exploded in her face.

"Ah! The keypad is fixed, Ton-ya!" Poly Glot called out from the other side of the door. "I'll hack the code and be in there soon to plaaay."

She turned to the door and considered it. Death by whatever Poly Glot did to her or death by this thing, that was an unappealing choice, but it was all the choice she had left. An hour ago, she would have chosen differently, but after seeing what she saw, her decision went a drastically different way.

"I'll save you the effort, you sick freak," she called out. "The passcode is nine-five-four-two-nine-one-one-eight-seven-zero-one. Do you need me to repeat that for you? Hurry up. I don't have a lot of time."

"Ton-ya?" Poly Glot called out bemused. "Are you playing games, Ton-ya? It sounds like you have a surprise waiting for me… how thoughtful, and it isn't even my birthday."

"Oh, I think this one will surprise you," she answered back. "You'll never guess what it is."

"Ooooh, let me try," Poly Glot said excitedly. "Is it a gun? Are you going to try and shoot me? No… maybe a knife to stab me? A pipe to bludgeon me over the head with? If it were then, I would be disappointed in you, Ton-ya. Thinking I would fall victim to such mundane things."

"Not even close," she replied smugly. She hoped she had the opportunity to see his face when this thing finished booting up and sucked every drop of magic from him. She'd likely die before she could see it register, but it would be such a nice thing to see.

"Such a tease. Could it be a syringe full of some chemical or poison? A venomous spider? A rock?" Poly Glot questioned with a burst of cruel giggles.

"Still coming up empty," she shouted back. "What's taking you so long? Surely you aren't afraid of whatever I might have in here, right? I told you that I don't have all day."

"You're putting up such a brave show, Ton-ya. I misjudged you. You're very good at playing pretend," Poly Glot purred.

She hated him. Legitimately hated him. Being hateful wasn't in her nature. She'd only felt this way once before towards another person, and that had been for Swift Strike. He was a monster with no remorse, that hurt people for his own need to feel power and control over others, and he was the reason she was in her current position. It was petty, but she wanted to hurt him before she went out. As payback for all that he had done, not only to her but for each one of his victims. Unfortunately, she had to be satisfied that he simply wouldn't ever be able to hurt anyone ever again.

"You're a sick, perverted, freak," she growled. "Most monsters out there, I can find something to have sympathy for. Something that the world did to them that made them that way. You aren't like that. You were broken from the start."

"You know nothing about me, Ton-ya," Poly Glot laughed.

"I know you haven't come through that door yet, even though I gave you the code," she challenged. "What's wrong? Too afraid of what a human with only one good arm can do to you?"

"You wouldn't have given me that code if you didn't have some sort of plan," Poly Glot could be heard half-laughing and half-sneering through the door, no longer playful at all. "I'm no fool."

She shook her head. "Poly Glot, come through that door or not, you and I are both going to die down here, and nothing can stop that from happening. If you want to come in here and try to feel power over someone one last time, you're out of luck. Game over, Poly Glot, we both lose."

"Some sort of auto-destruct mechanism then," Poly Glot replied in a menacing voice. A fine-fingered hand silently opened the door, and the monster slowly made his way inside, trailing something she hadn’t smelled in years- the scent of raw meat.

She'd been unable to see him clearly on the monitor or in the halls. The angle of the monitor just hadn't presented a good angle. The type of light and density of the mist outside had obscured her vision as well. Now she had a good angle with less of the enshrouding mists. What she saw was a thing of nightmares.

Four thick, muscular arms carried him to the center of the room, thick, calloused hoof-balls- no, fists holding him awkwardly up. Two more arms emerged from his back, the smaller ones used on the door, a fifth scratching his gray beard, a sixth twirling a combat knife. His grin was awkward, not entirely fitting onto an elongated face bereft of fur. The horn, strobing with light, twisted and deformed as he moved, yet never disappeared completely, always pointing towards her. Worse still were the eyes- human and light brown, small and piggish on a pony head surrounded by tan skin, flickering here and there in worry, juxtaposed with that horrific face. The skin continued back, breaking into tawny fur in patches across his body, and ending in a leathery lump underneath his seventh arm and hand, where his tail would have been. That one was raised, and carrying a duffel bag filled with electronic repair tools- presumably, what he’d been using on the door.

She looked at him impassively. "I've got to hand it to you; you remade yourself to be exactly the monster that you are. Now, can you stop wasting time and kill me? I'd rather be cut up and dissected alive than die to this thing."

Poly Glot approached her cautiously but was obviously far more curious. "What is it that you have there, Ton-ya? Your fuck-buddy never had me work on this. It’s fascinating."

She looked down at the sphere. "This? This is what kills you. It kills me too if you don't hurry. This is a Devourer, and in a few seconds, it will eat every last shred of magic in this facility." Not truly a Devourer, but close enough. He didn't need to know that.

Before the monster approaching her could answer, the monster in her lap flared to life. The time had come. All the magic within her violently started leaving her body. In a mere second, she was back in her pony form, and the bullet that had been lodged in her arm hit the floor. The pain was excruciating, and she closed her eyes and tried to be brave through her last moments. She heard the monster who had just come through the door scream in pain and terror but couldn't find any satisfaction in it as everything went out of her.

She struggled to speak her final words before her end came. "I'm s-sorry we cou-couldn't have the life we wanted together, Sunset."

Then there was no more.

Wild struggled to put one hoof in front of the other as she climbed the stairs. She was still not releasing her magic and was even now reaching out and searching for the shapes of ponies nearby her. She had found four below, no one she knew, and all unconscious. She'd tried waking them, but nothing had made them stir. Her magic had given her a false lead a few floors down when she had mistaken several mannequins in a classroom for ponies, and she lamented her wasted time. There were three more pony shapes on the floor she was coming up to.

She was tired, so tired her vision was fading in and out. Her head swam in a way that felt familiarly like she was drunk, though she hadn't had any alcohol in days. She needed to release her magic and rest, but if she released her magic, she might miss her mama, Rosetta, or any of the foals. She was sweating heavily enough that her fur was damp, and possibly more, based on the metallic scent.

The next landing came up, and she stumbled as she came in it. She picked herself back up and made her way through the door to see who these pony shapes were. The hallway was dark, and the red lights didn't do much to help her vision. She saw fallen lockers and three pony shapes. One of them was stirring, and she hurried over to that one. She released her magic for the moment so she could rest a little as she investigated.

It was her sister's bodyguard, Crystal Dreams. The crystal pony looked as bad as Wild felt, and was struggling, and not succeeding, at freeing herself from the fallen lockers. A night pony a few years younger than Wild lay still nearby that she could just barely see was breathing. Despite her weariness, she helped lift and shove the lockers out of the way. Her fatigue was not of her muscles, and she was still the most muscular pony around.

"Thank you," Crystal whispered, then gasped in pain. "I think I broke a leg, and my vision won't focus. Think something else might be broken too."

"What happened?" Wild asked.

Crystal squinted up at her as if trying to make her out. "Wild Growth? Is that you? Why are you all black?" The bodyguard stopped and coughed out some blood before continuing. "Your mother, and Bill; I tried to hold them off. I was doing well, had Bill down and dazed, and was fighting your mother. She's strong, real strong, much stronger than him, or me. She knocked me back, and I collided with the lockers, then the lot of them came down on me. I think I've been out for a little while."

Wild's ears sagged low. Had her mama done this? "Where's my sister, and the foals?"

Crystal craned her neck back. "They...they were behind me."

Wild's stomach knotted as she looked towards the pony on the far end of the hall. A rush of adrenaline gave her the ability to gallop down the hall towards the still form, and she choked as she saw it was Rosetta. Bending down, she pressed her head to her sister's side and was relieved to hear a heartbeat and breathing. She lifted her head back up and looked her sister over. Aside from some light bumps and cuts, she didn't seem to be in that bad of shape. She was out cold and would need to be taken to a hospital.

"Alexa, call emergency services," she ordered quickly. Then she remembered that her phone had been damaged in the riots. She turned to Crystal. "Can you call for medics?"

Crystal groaned and shook her head. "If we could call for medics, we would have called for help when we realized we had rogue ponies chasing us. We were trying to make it upstairs to get to a phone, but couldn't outrun them with the foals."

The foals, where were the foals! She reached her magic out around the floor to search for any foal shapes and came up empty. They weren't on this floor. She pushed a little harder and felt the floors above and found them, or at least most of them. There were six foal shapes on the roof. Her eyes widened when she realized that just a floor below were two other pony shapes, adults. She didn't have to guess who those were.

She turned and galloped towards the staircase, weariness forgotten. Crystal shouted as she went by. "What's wrong?"

"The foals are in danger!" She shouted with no further explanation, as she crashed through the stairwell door, shattering it like it was made of brittle twigs. Everyone on this floor was alive and could be helped later, but her mama could not be allowed to reach the foals. If she did…

She rapidly ascended the stairs at reckless speeds. She kept her magic going, keeping full awareness of where every pony above was. Now she cursed herself for not waiting an extra few seconds earlier to get the full story from Robby. He would have almost certainly told her that she needed to get to the roof. If she had been thinking at all, she might have already figured that out. If he had been trapped in here, that was the place he had to have escaped from.

As she reached the top of the stairwell, she let off a bestial cry as she realized her mama and Bill had moved up to the roof. The foals had scattered, and we're all towards the edges. This stairwell door met the same fate as the one below as she charged straight on through. Without even thinking, she mapped the floor with her magic and knew where the other stairwell leading to the roof was. The hallway blurred by her as she moved at full speed to her destination. She had said no one else was going to die today, and she meant it. She kept repeating that oath to herself as she moved.

No one else was going to die today.

She found the final stairwell and ran up it as fast as she could. The door up here had already been broken down, and she could hear the foals yelling and screaming for their lives just beyond. As she passed through it, the first thing she saw was her mama trying to chase down Alfie. The little colt was doing everything he could to keep out of her reach and was using what obstacles were on the roof to his best advantage. She caught a glimpse of Bill pursuing another foal out of the corner of her eye but was unable to see which one. She did see that he was limping, and her mama had an odd gait to her as well. Those injuries were slowing both down enough that they were no longer able to keep up with the foals.

Their pursuit of the foals came to a sudden halt as they realized she was there, both turning their eyes on her. They were both filthy and had crazed looks in their eyes. She tried to find her mama in the mare that was looking hungrily at her, but looking into those eyes, she saw no sign of love, only animal need.

"Mama?" She called out softly, stretching out a hoof to the blue crystal pony with the knotted pink mane. She only now noticed her hooves were coated in blood. How had they gotten so bloody? "You know me, right? I know you want some magic. Take it from me. You want a big meal, not them. Leave the foals alone."

She turned her head to look at Bill, just to make sure she had his full attention. She shifted her position, so she was facing both. Alfie, Jackie, and Jordan were all in her field of vision as well. A quick check with her magic located the other three foals generally spread out behind her. Jessie was behind her to her left, but she was unsure which of the twins was which without directly looking, and she wasn't taking her eyes off her mama and Bill.

Why hadn't the pair moved on her yet? She was by far the biggest possible meal. Were they still trying to get away from her? "Everyone get behind me," she ordered. "I want my mama and Bill to have no distractions from me."

"Titi...?" Alfie asked in in whimper. "You're-you're hurt."

She turned her eyes partially towards her nephew. "I'm fine; I need you to get to where I can keep you safe." The colt just cowered down.

"You're covered in blood, Titi. It's scary," Tabby called out somewhere to her right. That at least clarified which of the twins was which.

Her vision faded briefly, and everything started going black.

No! Stay awake! You're going to be needed! A voice yelled out to her in her head.

Her eyes popped wide open, and she took some labored breaths, just now noticing how truly tired and in pain she was. She had to release her magic; it was too much effort to keep holding it.

She shook her head to try to clear it. "Jessie…can you tell me how bad it is? Can you see a wound?"

"Y-you're completely coated in blood, it’s everywhere," Jessie whimpered. "If I didn't hear your voice, I wouldn't know it was you. I can't even smell you through all the blood."

She shook her head. How had this happened? Yes, she had taken a few gunshots, but they had been entirely ineffective. Even then, that shouldn't wholly coat her in blood. Every inch of her body ached and burned, and she couldn't understand it. "You didn't answer me, do you see a wound?"

"N-no, the blood is just everywhere," Jessie replied. "What hurt you so bad? Nothing hurts you."

She refocused on the two crystal ponies. "I...I don't know. I'm fine. Just...every foal needs to get behind me."

None of the foals moved, neither did her mama or Bill. All eyes were fixed on her. On the positive side, at least the foals weren't being pursued anymore. She felt a tiny bit better now that she released her magic. Keeping her vision focused and fighting the urge to fall asleep was hard, though.

No one else was going to die today.

"Come on, Mama…don't you want to give me a hug?" She tried again. Was she in bad enough shape that she was even scaring the two adults?

No one else was going to die today.

No one else was moving, so she took a labored breath and stepped forward. That seemed to snap Bill out of it, and he was on her in a second. A moment later, her mama joined her. Both of them gripped onto her tight and seemed to struggle with their grip through her wet fur. Still, they gripped on as best they could. She could just barely hear the foals screaming. She'd never felt this tired at any point in her life. She'd been holding her magic for so many times longer than she ever had before. She felt so stretched thin and tired, but even now, she couldn't feel the draw on her magic from her mama and Bill.

No one else was going to die today.

She was shaken violently, and it took her a second to realize it wasn't just her. There had been an earthquake or something. The foals were still crying and screaming, and the quake hadn't helped that. There had been some sort of emergency alert earlier, and she struggled to remember what it was, something about the Bastion.

She turned her eyes toward where the Bastion was. From this high up, she had an unobstructed view. Instead of seeing the Bastion, she saw a tremendous purple dome of magic and fire within. The Bastion was gone, and the earth shook again, causing her to drop down on her haunches briefly before pushing herself back up. She stared out in the distance, mesmerized by what she was seeing.

Putting one hoof in front of the other, she moved forward towards the edge of the roof, carrying the two crystal ponies along with her. Her eyes stayed fixed on the unbelievable sight before her. She kept walking until she reached the edge of the roof.

It wasn't just the Bastion, much of the central green had been ripped asunder by whatever had happened. The dome of magic encompassed it all, holding the conflagration within. Even from a distance, she could tell that the dome would not hold. Cracks were appearing in it as if it were a solid object instead of a construct of magic. The fires raged against it from within, and when it finally gave, they would spread out who knew how far. Hundreds, maybe even thousands, might get caught in it. Definitely everyone now on this rooftop.

No one else was going to die today.

There was no thinking involved. No thought was given to her weariness and pain. There were only her promise and purpose. No one else was going to die today, and she meant it. Pulling on every scrap of magic she had, she pushed it down through the building, into the ground far below, and out towards where the cataclysm was taking place before her. She found seeds, and she pumped her magic into them with all her might, commanding them to grow. A new force shook the earth as her seedlings burst forth from the ground.

Her seedlings proliferated into mighty trees, each as large as Skytree itself, and she forced them to grow up around the magic barrier as an extra layer of protection against the flames within. She prepared layer on layer of trees, tightly wrapped around the shield. The lack of oxygen would eventually smother the flames. For every tree incinerated, three more would grow in its place. No one else was going to die today.

The earth rumbled now with the rapid growth of a forest, unlike any other. The central green was utterly consumed in a sea of tree trunks, all curving inwards to reinforce the barrier against the blazing inferno within. She stretched her power out further beyond and felt the unstable soil below much of the surrounding area. She forced the roots of the trees deep and wide. The earth shook with her efforts, but whatever damage it might do was nothing compared to what she was preventing. Today the earth would hold, she had enough of death, and it was not going to claim one more victory. Not while she had breath in her body.

The effort was excruciating, and every fiber of her body burned with the strain. Her vision went red as blood dripped into her eyes, but she didn't blink it away. She understood now where the blood was coming from. Her body wasn’t capable of handling the constant strain being put on it by sustained use of her magic, and she had pushed it beyond her limits. Power such as hers was not meant to be in constant use. She didn't need a doctor or mage to explain these things to her; she could feel the impact of it all in her bones. It may destroy her to do it all, but no one else was going to die today. On and on, she repeated that to herself, and that gave her the strength to keep pushing through the pain, causing her to use her magic long after her body had screamed enough is enough.

The roots met the river, and she drew in water, fast enough to drain it. Her wood would be engorged with water, to help prevent some of the burning. Anything so that when the magic shield went, her shield of life would hold. She kept piling on the trees but allowed there to be an opening in the top for the explosion to funnel upwards when the time came. All that power and energy had to go somewhere, and she intended to push it up instead of out. Her trees would be thick enough that up would be the path of least resistance. There may be debris and cinders that would rain down from her impromptu volcano, but it was better than the city taking the blast head-on. Hopefully, the weather team could act fast to help bring rain to help put out any fires that might start afterward, and disperse the cloud of smoke and ash that would come in that eruption. No one would die, not today.

The mass of trees kept growing in circumference, adding strength to each highly packed line of trees inside, like rings in a tree trunk. The diameter grew to such a distance that the outer edge was now coming right up next to the school, and the branches of the trees scraped and broke off in places as they rubbed the cement sides of the building. At this point, both the crystal ponies yelled out in pain as they released her, having far more fill of magic than they could endure. Hopefully, that would keep them from going after anyone else for some time. She was sure that they were effectively overstuffed by now.

Her vision started to fade again, and her head felt light. She didn't know how much longer she could do this.

You need to stop, you heroic fool! You can't save everyone! You'll burn yourself out! A voice, not her own, screamed clearly into her head.

The shock of hearing it, combined with what was said, brought her back to being fully awake. She ground her teeth and shouted a challenge to the invisible speaker. "No one else is going to die today! Just watch me!"

Not even knowing where she was pulling from anymore, she drew even more magic, forcing it through the earth. She cried out in agony, but she did not stop. This wasn't about her. This was about making sure that others were safe. Nothing would make her stop. Not until she was convinced that her vow was fulfilled.

With her magic, she now could feel everyone in the city. The central green, or what had been the central green, was clear of all people. The buildings on the perimeter of the green were another story. There were, of course, those that were at the school with her, but the main hospital was full of ponies and humans. She forced even more growth near both the school and the hospital, hoping to give additional shielding. The pony residential sector was rapidly emptying, as well as the nearest parts of the other districts. She felt cars and trucks carrying people away. The rioters had all abandoned their area, and we're even now falling back into other neighborhoods. She spared a small glance at the sky and saw it was clear of flyers. They were wise to what was coming and had retreated from it so they wouldn't be caught in the coming explosion. Aside from the hospital and the school, it seemed like most were getting well clear of where the danger was.

Everything suddenly lurched, and she cried out again. The magical shield had failed, and the built-up pressure had been devastatingly released. A quake the likes South Carolina had never seen rocked the city, as flames towered thousands upon thousands of feet straight up into the air. The school shook so hard she felt some of the floors below collapse, and chunks of the side of the building break away. Similar damage happened in a wide radius around the city, the worst being the pony district--in one mighty shake, every building in the pony district collapsed as the shockwave radiated outwards.

Burning tree branches, bark, and ash rained down from the skies as smoke filled the air. She pushed harder, still refusing to stop, to regrow trees to hold the still towering inferno. As one tree gave way, two more took its place. She would not allow it to win.

Now she couldn't just feel forms. Now she was one with everything in Riverview. She felt every heartbeat, every breath, every speck of dust upon the ground. She was the earth; she was the people; she was life. As they screamed in terror, she screamed in defiance and pain at the thing that wished to extinguish her. Her vision became a blur and full of shadows.

A new terror rose within her, though. She could not stop, but for the first time she felt it; her magic was reaching the ends of its limits. There was nothing left to give, yet there was more that needed to be done. She looked forward and saw not the trees and the inferno, but an endless sea of lights. The lights of all the ponies and humans, the lights of every tree and blade of grass, the light of every insect that crawled within the soil. She felt the light of life, and the need to protect it, but there was nothing left.

Then she felt something else, something deep within her core. There was more there, waiting to be harnessed. Something that resonated with her oneness with the lights and her need to keep them safe, an offer of power to go beyond these mortal limits that she had broken. Something that would forever bind her as the protector of the light of life, its avatar, and its steward. She had only to accept it and let herself become one with it, now and forever.

She hesitated. If she did this, there was no going back. Everything would change. There was a heavy burden of responsibility in making such a choice. She was the only one who could make it. The fires raged, the people screamed, and she felt herself weakening at a rapid pace--already too weak to stand as she hunched forward under the pain and pressure of her power. Could she carry this extra burden?

In the infinitesimally short time, it took for her to make the realization of what this precipice was, a light went out, a specific and special light, and with it, shock filled her, and she wailed in anguish at it. She felt blood running down her hind legs as her hold on her magic was finally released. The deeper power faded from awareness, as did her ability to carry on. The world went black as gravity took her forward.

Jessie stared in horror at the empty space that Wild Growth had stood before she had collapsed lifelessly over the edge of the building. The greatest earth pony, the one capable of raising mountains and growing forests, the one that was invincible, had fallen. It was impossible, completely unbelievable, but she had just witnessed it. One of her heroes, and friends, was now gone.

Beside her all the other foals were crying. She sat unmoving, with her mouth agape, trying to process what had just happened. Wild Growth’s magic in those final moments had been so intense that she felt like it was burning her. Ms. Jean and the other crystal pony had certainly reacted like they had been burned by it, and had let her go. In the final moment, Jessie had sworn she had seen the faint outlines of a horn and wings along Wild Growth's body. Then the waves of magic had just stopped, and Wild Growth had tumbled forward. Ms. Jean had cried out Wild Growth's human name and tried to grab her back, but had been too slow. The crystal pony still cried her daughter's name in between sobs now.

Burning and broken branches littered the roof as brightly glowing embers drifted down through the air. Overhead, the sky flashed with lightning arcing through the thick clouds of black smoke. The trees that had held back the explosion that had engulfed the Bastion continued to grow, the trunks creaking and groaning as they reached up towards the dark sky, uncaring that their shepherd Wild Growth no longer urged them on. The sounds of crying from the foals and Ms. Jean deafened out the sound of the still growing trees. She wanted to yell out to Phobia Remedy to end this nightmare, because this couldn't be real life. This wasn’t how things should be. It was too surreal, too otherworldly, too wrong.

She tried to figure out the moment when she must have fallen asleep, to put together how everything had reached this point. She had woken up this morning to go to school, like any normal day. Aside from the fact she had been spending a few days at Phobia Remedy's house it wouldn't have been any different than any other Tuesday. Crystal had driven them to school. Was Crystal even still alive? She didn't know. Looking off in the distance, everything was dwarfed by the ever growing trees, but surrounding the trees was fire, ash, and the broken skeletons of once tall buildings. Behind them the crops burned, though the Skytree still stood tall and unharmed, as if it were the only thing big and strong enough to ignore all that had happened.

Was anyone alright right now? It felt so wrong and unfair that she should be standing here alive and after being in so much danger only to find that everyone else wasn't alright. She wanted her mom, her dad, and Robby. She wanted to know they were safe. What about Dusk? She was supposed to be the big sister that protected him. How could she protect him against all this? If it was too much even for Wild Growth what could she hope to do? She'd felt small and helpless many times in the last few hours, but right now she couldn't imagine feeling more helpless and confused. She wanted her parents here to hold her. She wanted someone to make everything be alright again.

"Mama...Titi!" Charlotte wailed, as the other demons echoed her. As she heard that she realized she was wrong, she could feel even smaller. As awful as she felt, the demons had just witnessed one of their mothers being drained into unconsciousness by their own grandmother, before watching their aunt plummet to her death.

Her eyes drifted out towards where the pony district had been. There was nothing but decimation. Ms. Amanda and Mr. Tom had been out there. Had Jackie and Jordan even realized what might have happened to their parents yet? Should she even say anything about it? No, if the worst had happened, it was best to wait to think about it. Her parents had been out in Old Town, hopefully that was far enough away that they were safe. Her aunts worked in the Bastion though...it- it was best not to think about it. Thinking about it would just make her more upset. She was smart, but right now she didn't want to think about anything. She wanted to be numb and empty, because the alternative was too much right now.

Her ears picked up as she heard a groan. The crystal pony stallion was stirring. He shook his head and stood unsteadily to his hooves, and his eyes slowly fell on them. This couldn't be happening. After everything that had happened, they were still somehow in danger. Why couldn't the crystal ponies just leave them alone? Hadn't they just had enough magic to last them a lifetime? The others noticed the stallion, and started crying louder.

She looked around frantically as he began to haltingly approach. Where could they go? There was no one left to help them, any safe path was blocked by burning branches, doom was coming. She looked out towards the trees and an idea formed; a reckless, stupid idea, but the only one she could come up with. When all good options were gone, they needed to go with something crazy and stupid, just like when she raced Jackie.

"Run and jump into the tree branches!" She shouted as loud as her lungs would let her.

The demons needed no more prompting than that. They took off as fast as their legs could carry them and jumped straight off the side of the building into a branch that carried them upward as it grew. Their expert climbing skills allowed them to quickly scuttle along it towards the trunk and safety. Jackie and Jordan didn't move and stared at her dumbfounded.

"Are you crazy!" Jackie shouted, and looked fearfully back at the approaching adult. He seemed dazed and confused, but he definitely had his eyes set on them. He didn't need to be fully functional to remain a deadly threat.

Jessie turned and shoved the pegasus to make her start moving. "We don't have a choice! Move!"

She took off at a full gallop after this and jumped for a branch. The branch was huge, thicker than she was wide. She landed hard and clutched as tightly as she could with her legs. It was big enough she could likely stand up on it, but not until she felt secure. The fact that the tree was still pushing upward didn't make her feel secure at all. It shook slightly as a second later another body collided with it. She turned her head and saw Jackie gripped onto the edge of the branch, in a far more precarious position, but she at least seemed to have a good grip as she latched all four legs and her wings around the branch in a death grip.

Where was Jordan?

She looked down at the roof, as the tree continued to carry her away. Jordan, the youngest of them, the pony that was always in the rear, the first real friend she had ever had, was sitting petrified with fright. The stallion was almost to her. If he touched her that would be it, her friend would be gone forever.

She cried as she shouted as loud as she could down to her friend. "Jordan, you have to jump! Please! I know it's scary, but you can do it! You have to do it!"

Jordan shook in place as the stallion steadily approached her, and Jessie begged silently for the filly to move. The stallion reached out a hoof and the little unicorn let off a loud cry and bolted blindly to the side and then straight off the building, luckily she was caught by a rising branch, wedging herself tightly within a split. Jessie let off a long breath of relief, but gasped as the stallion took off after Jordan. He jumped off as well. If he had been more steady on his hooves he might be on Jordan already, but since he wasn't, he just barely reached the same rising branch.

The branch they were on was not as thick as the one Jessie shared with Jackie. Jordan screamed for her life as she wriggled where she was being held tightly by the tree. The stallion also had a grip on the branch and was slowly pulling himself towards his prey. Jordan was still in mortal peril.

"Stop it! Leave my sister alone!" Jackie screamed down at the stallion. The stallion continued to inch closer to Jordan, who was unable to move, and she might fall if she managed to free herself. Jackie cried helplessly to her sister. "Jordan!"

Then, to Jessie's shock, Jackie loosened her grip on the branch and spread her wings wide. The filly stared down hawkishly at the scene below, and took a few deep breaths before flinging herself off the branch. The pink pegasus filly beat her wings savagely to try to take to flight, and for a moment hung suspended in the air as a reward, but it was short lived. Jessie watched in horror as her friend dropped down, still flapping her wings as hard as she could. The flaps must have made some impact, because the filly's course changed, and she went crashing down on a branch several feet below her sister. Safe from crashing into the ground, but nowhere near destination.

The failed rescue didn't seem to even go noticed by the stallion or Jordan. At least Jackie was safe, but nothing had been done to change the fact that Jordan was moments away from death. The branch was shaking from the stallion's efforts to inch towards her, and if he didn't reach her he would surely shake her loose at this rate. Something had to be done, but Jessie was out of ideas.

What would a grown-up do in her position? She thought about Ms. Rosetta, Crystal, Layla, and Wild Growth, all the ponies that had tried to protect them, and she came to one grim conclusion. When someone you cared about was in danger you had to do whatever it took to save them, even if meant that you might not come out alright yourself. That was the grown-up thing to do. None of those grown-ups wanted to be put in the position of having to do that, but being a grown-up meant doing things that were hard. Right now, she was the oldest. She had to be the grown-up, and do the grown-up thing for those she cared about. Her friend was in danger, Jackie had made a big gamble to try to save her, and come up empty. Now it was only her who could make a difference.

"Stop! Leave her alone!" She shouted down at the stallion. He didn't seem to hear her. She hadn't expected him to listen, but it was worth trying before she tried her other remaining option. Now she knew she only had one. It was logical to explore all her options...at least that was the best excuse she could come up with for her delay from doing what she had to do.

She carefully pulled one hind leg up onto the branch and then one of her forelegs, breathing hard the entire time. If she slipped it was all over, and for nothing. This branch was thick enough for her to stand on, and earth ponies had the sturdiest stance of all the tribes. At least that was something she had heard. She'd never really had to put that to the test before. Carefully, ever so carefully, she brought each leg up on the branch till she was cowered down on all fours. The task completed, she just as carefully stood up.

There was a problem; her back was technically turned to the stallion below. That meant what she needed to do was going to be much harder. She was already terrified of doing this, and she wasn't even a hundred percent sure she could pull it off. If she failed, then Jordan would die. The scary part wasn’t that whether she failed or succeeded; it was how likely her death was. Not a hundred percent chance, but she didn't have enough information to actually run the math on what her chances were. They were low, that was something she was capable of estimating off the top of her head. Knowing her actual chances of survival would probably only make this harder.

She squared up her body as she looked at her target. She didn't know what the wind speed was, she only had a rough estimate of his weight and her weight, an even less rough estimate of the distance, and was utterly clueless about her athletic prowess to even be attempting this. None of the factors she really needed to know were known to her.

This was insane. This was illogical. This was flat out stupid. But it was what she was going to do for her friend. She was going to do this for Jordan. Jordan who liked to read books with her. Jordan who wanted to be a teacher when she grew up like her mom. Jordan who raced her heart out, even though she knew she was slower than everyone else. Jordan who was better at drawing than her. Jordan that had declared it the best Thanksgiving ever when she found out they could be friends.

She was just so scared. She gulped and repeated the things Phobia had told her.

It's okay to be afraid, because there is danger. But I shouldn't be at the mercy of my fear. Being at the mercy of my fear doesn't just hurt me, it hurts everyone around me. Right now it’ll hurt Jordan. Don't be at the mercy of fear.

Looking down, she took a few tentative steps back, trying to line herself up better. Between the stallion's continued advance and her steps backward she was lined up well. He was getting dangerously close to Jordan too. If she waited any longer there wouldn't be any more time.

She wanted to close her eyes, but she couldn't afford to. She took one last deep breath and braced herself to do it. "Don’t worry, Jordan. I’ll save you." That said she leapt off the branch with all the strength she could, aiming straight at the stallion. She shouted the only battlecry she had. "FUDGE!"

Down she hurtled and within a second she hit her target. The stallion yelled out in shock as he was struck, and tumbled off the branch. He flailed his legs trying to catch himself, one of them striking her hard, sending her spinning out of control to follow the stallion down towards the ground.

She fell back first, watching her friends race away from her upwards. Jessie saw that Jordan was still safely on a branch and she let herself smile, happy that her friend would be safe, and that was all that mattered. Even if she couldn’t help but wonder how much this would-

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Author's Note

Poll's are closed. I was surprised how close the voting was between so many different characters.

There's still over 40,000 words of story left. Two more chapters and the Epilogue. Will release on each Saturday 9:00 a.m. EST.

Chapter 25: Those Who Remain

... The rancorous chaos that was loosed by the daring sacrifice of the Faithful Attendant shows little sign of calming, the air still choked with fire, smoke, and magic. The baleful Instrument that had been crafted from the ancient knowledge barely understood by the Hidden Masters had fulfilled its purpose with destructive aplomb. The Deformed One and his mad plans had been thwarted permanently, but at what cost to the Realm? What was left for a would-be self-styled Queen to rule? And what of the fate of the brave Earth Guardian whose awe-inspiring display of--

"Stop. Just stop."

The Narrative immediately fell silent.

Jenny Tanner uttered a windy sigh and drew her feet up onto the sofa, folding her legs under her as she stared at the television. On her right lay her laptop, where a chapter lay half-finished as it had for the past few days. Absently she reached for the forgotten mug of tea on the end table on her left before frowning in disgust when the stone cold brew touched her lips.

She set the mug down with a thump, splashing cold tea on her hand. She glanced at the laptop, at the story she would much prefer to get back to. Certainly her publisher would have preferred that, as he would soon start hounding her for it as her deadline slipped, even if he did sometimes balk at happy endings.

I don't revel in tragedy, came the Narrative's comment in a sanguine tone.

"Sometimes it feels like you do," Jenny countered, though there was little conviction in her voice.

I revel in turning points. In the weaving together of plot threads. In the events that shape the Story.

Jenny sighed and pulled the laptop into her lap. She looked at the TV as the scene switched to a view from a news helicopter, where they were commenting on the enormous trees that had sprouted up around the site of the explosion, a tell-tale sign that Wild Growth had a hoof in events.

All the media could do was speculate. Speculate on the cause, speculate on the casualties, speculate on the responses of "no comment at this time" from government sources, speculate on just how bad it really was considering rumors of Twilight Sparkle bringing in the Element Bearers to assist.

Jenny ran a hand through her hair. "Maybe we should have done more to stop this."

I cannot predict the future, Jenny.

Jenny glanced at the laptop. She had been writing a story that was effectively a retelling of an event that happened in a kingdom a million years ago on a world on the edge of the Andromeda galaxy before things started to go south in Riverview, and the Narrative had shifted her focus onto it instead.

She raised her eyes to the TV again. A group of pegasi were warning off the helicopter. Past them, more of their brethren were whipping up a storm cloud, likely to send rain down on the fires that the firetrucks could not reach.

People had died, and she knew exactly who some of those casualties were.

"Maybe you could have been a little less cryptic," Jenny muttered. "You knew things that people like Twilight didn't. What's the point of being a Storyteller and trying to help when I don't get enough information?"

It's a delicate balancing act, Jenny, the Narrative replied. The idea is to nudge things along, not prevent things from happening that must happen.

"And this had to happen?"

Yes.

Jenny remained silent, having no words of response. All she could do was stare at the TV while her mind deciphered what she had already been told by the Narrative of events in Riverview.

We did help. Things could have gone far worse.

Jenny didn't see how, but she admitted that even with the knowledge imparted to her by the Narrative, she didn't understand the whole picture. She recalled how her older sister Sunny had sought more control over her life, and how she had felt that her transformation had given that to her. It felt as if Jenny had inherited that need to seek control, and it still eluded her.

She had instead reached an accommodation with the fact that she may never have that control, that it was illusionary from the start. Yet sometimes it still nagged at her. Sometimes she felt like she was still the feckless teen with far too idealistic a view of her world.

Jenny actually smirked at this thought. She had overheard her mother once say that Jenny had become cynical as she grew up. She was sure that had to be influence from her Aunt Eileen.

Being a Storyteller is not the same as being a superhero, the Narrative continued. It's about helping the world do its part to move the Story along.

"But we are trying to influence it," Jenny said. "The ultimate goal is to stop the Devourers, isn't it?"

That has not changed.

"But I guess you'll just tell me that tragedies like this ultimately will get us there."

The Narrative did not respond, as it realized it had no need to, as Jenny already knew the truth of her own statement. While the details were still vague, it had been clear that the "Deformed One" had been planning something truly cataclysmic. Had it come to fruition, it would have set back efforts to face and defeat the Devourers, perhaps permanently.

Jenny frowned as the news helicopter pulled back to a long view of the disaster area. She wanted to blame Sunset Blessing for this. That was far easier than what she had used to do, which was to blame Sunset Shimmer. Blaming the living gave a better sense of purpose, however false, than blaming the dead.

Yet there was a lot of blame to go around. She could guess as to exactly who the "Hidden Masters" where and what that "Instrument" had been. Seriously, were the Dreamwardens truly insane? Did they really think that the proper way to defuse a bomb was to create another bomb just like it? Ultimately, yes, it had served a purpose, but she hoped the Dreamwardens wouldn't pull that stunt again.

She closed the lid of her laptop and set it aside. She would have to call her publisher and tell him that the manuscript would be delayed. Perhaps he wouldn't mind, as he was likely just as riveted to the news networks as many Americans were. She felt a pang of guilt that they may never truly know exactly what happened; that it would all be cast in a pall of mystery likely to prevent this from souring human-pony relations (or Earth-Equestria for that matter, as some still blamed Equestria for our woes).

Or to cover up Sunset's connections to the government.

Or to prevent knowledge of the impending arrival of the Devourers from leaking too soon.

Or any number of reasons that she had yet to fathom. All she could take comfort in was that they all were essential to the Story, and to the ultimate climax that this part would reach when the Devourers did come.

Perhaps a hundred feet above the flaming husk of the trees grown by Wild Growth, Sapphire Sky continued to flap her powerful wings as she struggled to push a storm cloud into position alone. Each wingbeat moved her closer, but the upward swell of hot air exhausting upwards like a cannon threatened to take her storm with it up into the sky. She needed it to stay low and in position to douse the blaze inside that was loud enough to hear high above it. The entire structure couldn’t be allowed to go up in flame, so she needed to work quickly.

“Just a… little… further,” she grunted out, watching below as the top of the trees became visible. A plume of black smoke suddenly rolled up the side, making her cough and hack, squeezing her eyes tightly shut from the stinging fumes.

Unable to see, she continued on for a little longer to be satisfied that she was completely over her target. Trailing a hoof along the clouds surface, she flew up to the top, and went to the very center before gathering a large amount of magic. The cloud was taller than it was wide purposely to drop as much water as she could directly into the blaze. Having enough power, she gave a single strong buck downward, imparting it all into the cloud.

A wave rippled across the surface as a chain reaction made its way through the cloud, rapidly dropping the pressure, and changing it from vapor to liquid all at once. For a brief instant it seemed to hang in place before dropping like a stone down into the flaming ruins. Only staying in place long enough to see the world’s largest water balloon be swallowed up by the smoke, she took off before she was as well.

She exited the smoke, not even hearing the crash of water hit whatever remained of the Bastion and it’s underground complex. The only way to tell anything had happened was the pillar of smoke abruptly paused, before resuming with a much lighter flow that wouldn’t disrupt the second pegasi team with a solid wall of updraft. They were following up with another cloud filled with enough water to rain for hours and ensure the massive trees would be too wet to become an out of control bonfire.

Seeing that they were moving into position, she was about to head over and help them get it into place faster. But she caught sight of a flash of pink down among the tree branches next to the remains of a tall building partially destroyed by the massive trunks and roots. Her ears laid back as she saw that up on the roof a glittery pink and blue crystal pony form.

Pulling into a sharp dive, she headed towards the splash of color in the branches first as the crystal pony was semi-safely on a roof. Coming to a gentle stop next to a quietly sobbing purple unicorn foal trapped in a branch, she glanced up at three crying night pony foals above, and a pink pegasus just below.

“Hey now, it’s okay,” she gently whispered, reaching out to pull the small foal free and hold to her chest. “You’re safe now,” she gave the completely limp filly a nuzzle and nickered softly, wishing that she could take the foal's fear away. Feeling like she had a firm enough grip, she gently went down to a slightly older pink pegasus perched on a branch large enough for her to land on. The little pegasus gathered the unicorn up into a hug and the two cried together.

“Are you three alright up there?” she called up to three night pony foals that were all clearly related. The trio were also crying, with tear stains on their fur, but they were all on branches that looked sturdy enough to hold them safely. They also had their wings, so they could keep a better grip. “I know it’s gotta be scary being up this high when you can’t fly, but I can’t carry all five of you at once, so I’m going to get these two down to safety first then I’ll come back for you. Think you can hang tight for a minute?”

“We.. we can,” a filly with navy fur and purple mane responded with a sniffle.

Sapphire nodded. “All of you are really brave, what’s your name?”

“Cha.. Charlotte,” the filly answered hesitantly before adding pleadingly. “Jessie fell, help her first.”

“Fell?” She glanced over the edge, barely able to see halfway to the ground with all the branches and leaves in the way. Not many ponies would live through that, she realized, grimacing internally. “I’m going to get these two down first and I’ll take a look before coming back to you,” she answered, trying to sound a little hopeful.

“Please save our friend,” a little colt pleaded.

She nodded up to him, and gathered the unicorn and pegasus up in her forelegs as best she could, holding them tightly against her body. “Alright girls, try not wiggle too much.”

Spreading her wings, she leaned forward and pushed off to glide from the branch at a gentle downward spiral. Her precious cargo didn’t even seem to realize they were being carried by her wings, too engrossed in their mutual emotional suffering. The only roof close and stable looking enough was the tall building directly below which had the brightly glowing crystal pony sobbing uncontrollably at the edge.

Halfway down on her slow descent, a group of six local pegasi formed up around her with a green furred stallion speaking up first.

“The storms in place, Mrs. Sky. What’s going on down here?” he asked.

“One of the missing temporary ponies is down there on the roof, and I found some foals stuck up in the trees. There are still three more up there, and one more that fell,” she answered looking back up where the trio of night pony foals were waiting. “Any of you mind if we shift to making sure these kids are safe before we continue fighting fires?” she asked, not expecting any of them to disagree.

“Not one bit,” he nodded. “Hailstorm, Jacob, and Windy, you three go get those foals and get them back to the muster point.”

“I’m going to hand these two off to you,” Sapphire indicated two of the remaining pegasi as she delicately landed on the buildings roof before turning to the stallion who led the group. “I need you to stick around and keep an eye on that crystal pony while I go down to find the one that fell and make a call so she can get ported out.”

“Well, I could go down and do that,” he objected, nervously glancing at the mare towards the edge of the roof. No doubt having heard the warning about Jean and Bill.

“Cell towers are dead and I’m the only one with a satellite phone, just keep an eye on her, and if she starts coming after you, just take off,” she ordered flatly. The two foals she had carried down were reluctant to move, their crying having devolved into sniffles and occasional coughs from inhaling the smoke. “It’s alright girls, these nice ponies are going to take you someplace safe,” she gently encouraged, not wanting to just push them away. All of them had clearly been through something awful. She wished she had the time to let them calm down, but there was simply too much going on right now for that.

“Oh wow, is that Jordan? And Jackie? What are you two doing out here?” a pegasus asked as she leaned in closer. “Your parents must be worried sick.” She paused before explaining, “I live pretty close to them. Or… used to,” she finished with a dejected look out towards the ruins of the pony district.

“See that they get back to them safe,” she shifted away from the pair who protested at being separated as they were gathered up by the two pegasi.

Checking once more that the crystal pony hadn’t moved, she turned and patted the stallion on the shoulder. “You got this,” she said to be reassuring. As far as they knew the two transformed humans hadn’t yet figured out how to drain magic they weren’t in contact with so he should be completely safe.

Launching herself off the side of the building, she made a quick tight circle inspecting the mess of tree limbs obscuring the ground far below. “Alexa, call Princess Twilight,” she activated her phone, hearing it go immediately to voicemail.

Frowning at the lack of clear paths down, she snorted before diving down through the thick tangle of branches. It wasn’t pleasant, they snagged at her coat, and tugged on her feathers but she had to find out what happened to those who had fallen. Crashing through the last layer near the ground, she flared her wings to a stop in a hover above the floor of leaves and broken tree limbs and gave a little shake to get rid of the debris that was clinging to her.

“Alexa, call Princess Twilight,” she tried to call again, this time it actually started to ring before clicking off and going to voicemail. Snorting in annoyance she would try again in a minute if Twilight didn’t return her call.

The first pony she noticed was Wild Growth, lying closest to the building with a cluster of tree limbs beneath her. She looked awful, leaves and small branches stuck to her fur that was matted down with a layer of blood drying to an ugly shade of brown. Wild was obviously battered from her fall and her breathing was unsteady.

A flickering light alerted her to the presence of a crystal pony buried underneath a layer of leaves. Not wanting to risk moving an injured pony, she delicately landed, and with a quick flap of her wings created enough of a wind gust to blow away the thick blanket of leaves exposing a crystal pony stallion. His eyes were half-opened, but there didn’t seem to be anyone home as they were glazed over. He clearly wasn’t going to be getting up and running off but for falling from such a height he looked to be in decent shape. All the branches and leaves must have broke most of his fall.

Throwing the leaves off had also revealed a much smaller form, one that made her throat clench and chest hurt to look at. A young foal, barely older than her own was impaled on a branch, her limbs broken and twisted at unnatural angles. She was bleeding from where the branch stuck through her, and if it wasn’t for the tiny halting breaths, would be easily mistaken as dead.

“Alexa, call Princess Twilight, now,” she said through gritted teeth.

The phone rang once before it was picked up. “Sapphire what is it? I am extremely busy right now,” the princess asked, a loud crowd speaking in the background almost drowning out the alicorns voice.

“I found the missing crystal ponies, but also Wild Growth, and a foal who’s hurt really bad. Uh… her name is Jessie; she’s been impaled, and it looks like she broke half the bones in her body. Please come quickly to where I am. She needs to get teleported to the hospital right away,” she explained urgently.

“I… I’m sorry I can’t,” Twilight responded. “I’m still recovering from casting that shield spell. If I force a teleport right now it’s going to be too rough, and more likely to kill her than bring her to safety. I’ll need to find a unicorn to do it.”

“How long?” she demanded.

“I don’t know, everyone here is stretched so thin. No one was prepared to deal with this kind of disaster and we’re still scrambling to catch up.”

“Princess, please. There has to be somepony who can do it, this cannot wait,” she pleaded.

“I understand, I’m just trying to think of who I can send. I also need to know what the two crystal ponies are up to?”

“Bill is laying near the dying foal, he’s not going anywhere soon, and Jean is on top of the building crying over Wild falling,” she answered.

Twilight muttered something that was covered up by the sound of her hooves on tiles. “I’ll get someone there, five minutes tops, or I’ll risk it myself. But I’m going to need you to make sure Mrs. Martinez does not leave.”

She glanced down at the poor filly slowly dying at her hooves, imagining her own daughter in that position. “I can’t leave her to die alone.”

“Is… is she conscious?”

“No,” she answered softly, thankful for that small mercy.

“Then I have to ask you to do it. You’re the only one in the area who can safely keep an eye on her. If Mrs. Martinez gets away she may start killing anyone with magic that she comes across, and we won’t find her in this mess.”

Firming her jaw, she took in a deep breath. “Fine. Please hurry, Twilight.”

Rarity floated a jug of water in her blue magical aura over to one of the hospital patients. "Here you are. I'm sorry it's taking so long for the doctors to get to you. Things are hectic at the moment."

"Thank you," the man said quietly, as he took the jug into his hands. He just sat with it after, wincing in pain.

Her expression fell. She was doing her best to keep an optimistic air to her, but it was difficult. There were so many here that were injured, homeless, and awaiting word of their families. All of this had happened so abruptly, and it was hard for anyone to process to make sense of it all. All she could do was provide what help she could.

She lit her horn, and began pushing her supply laden cart down the cramped hospital hallway once again. The entire place was packed to standing room only. Every bed was filled, and every chair, and still there wasn't enough room. There weren't even clear patches of wall left to stand against, and she found herself having to carefully maneuver the cart around individuals who were forced to stand or sit in walkways.

Everyone was dirty. Ash and soot were thick in the air outside. In many areas there were thick clouds of it that hung over full city blocks. It was impossible to go a short walk without walking through the clouds, and many of the people here were coughing due to all they had inhaled outside. If anyone tried to look out a window they'd not be able to see much, there was simply too much smoke. Weather teams were working to clear it, and assured everyone that It would be gone soon. Fighting the still-raging fires was the first priority, with the second priority of searching for anyone still in need of rescue.

Rainbow Dash was supposed to be coming to help with that. Word had been sent to all their core group of friends that they were needed here. It had actually gone out shortly before the disaster, but getting everyone here that quickly was a tall order. Applejack and Fluttershy had arrived already, as they had both been close to a private airfield in Georgia when the call went out for them. Fluttershy was out in the fields now, helping set up camps for refugees there. Applejack was somewhere in this building, also helping distribute supplies. Rainbow was stuck waiting on security to allow her through the portal. Pinkie would be inbound with Luna soon, as it was faster for Luna to teleport her than for her to wait on a plane.

She paused and passed a lone blanket to a couple with several young foals. She didn't have nearly enough supplies for everyone in this hallway. She was being forced to make hard choices about who would get supplies now, and who would have to wait. More was on the way, at least it had been promised, but right now she needed to be stingy with what she gave out. She hated being stingy, it was the opposite of her nature, but there simply wasn't enough to go around. It broke her heart having to be the one to decide who would go with and who would go without.

Minutes passed, and all too soon her cart was empty. It had seemed so full when she had first started walking this hallway, but it felt as if hardly anyone had gotten anything from her. It was time to refill with what she could and make another round.

She boarded an elevator with her cart and pushed the appropriate button with her magic. In short order she was back down on the ground floor, but when the door opened her ears fell. She could see that there was barely anything left in the makeshift supply station, and even now more refugees were being moved into this area. There was a line of empty carts against the wall, with ponies and humans standing by, waiting to load them, but it seemed they would be waiting a long time.

As she rolled her cart in line with the others she heard a voice call out to her from down the hall. "Rarity! Twilight has somethin' we need to do."

She looked up expectantly as Applejack ran up to her. "What is it? I'll do whatever I can to be useful right now. I feel so disheartened, looking at all this misery and not being able to help."

"Do you think you’re up to teleporting seven ponies at once?" Applejack asked, seeming doubtful.

She pursed her lips. "How far do we need to teleport to and from with them? I may have greatly improved my abilities over the last few years, but I have my limits."

"It would be to the other side of all them there trees, and then back to where Twilight is at in the hospital," Applejack replied, gesturing towards the front door. There was little question about about what trees were being discussed. At this moment in time, there was only one set of trees that anyone in Riverview could discuss.

She nodded in affirmation. "I can manage it if it is within the city. I was afraid she was going to ask me to try to help bring in rescue workers from the outside. I'm better at magic than I used to be, but I'm no Starlight Glimmer… Speaking of which, where is Starlight? We could really use her help."

"Twilight's got her reading up about the original transformation spell, back in Canterlot," Applejack said, as she glanced around. She lowered her head. "Not sure what all Starlight could do to help with all this anyway. I'm happy that somethin' specific for us to do has come up."

"I'm guessing this is a rescue mission," Rarity conjectured. "Who are we rescuing, and how are we to find them?"

Applejack didn't look happy. "There's three badly hurt ponies, and another that might be kinda crazy. Sapphire is near them, and she has a satellite phone that's still working so we can lock onto her position. It's Wild Growth, the two humans that got turned into crystal ponies, and a foal named Jessica."

Her eyes went wide and started to water. "She doesn't mean poor little Jessie Middleton, does she? I can't stand the idea that that adorable little filly is hurt."

Applejack nodded sadly. "Maybe, I don know. They got some other foals there too, but they aren't hurt. Some members of the weather team are getting them to safety, but the others are so hurt they don't want to move them any way but teleport, and the unicorn paramedics are all busy everywhere else in the city. Twilight wants all them ponies brought straight to her anyway."

Rarity nodded and lifted up her leg to display her more fashionable phone. "Let's not waste any more time then. Diva, can you please call Sapphire Sky."

The phone began to ring, and was immediately picked up. "Who is it? Twilight, is that you? I really need somepony here, pronto. Wild, and these others aren't in good shape, and I don't like that I'm stuck watching Jean instead of with them."

"It's Rarity, and I have Applejack with me," she replied quickly. "We'll be right there, I just need to lock onto your GPS coordinates so we can find you. Um, what exactly am I teleporting into?"

"I'm on top of what's left of that big building on the other end of Wild's mass of trees. Think they said this was a school, but I think school's out for the summer… and winter. Roof has a few air conditioning units and stuff up here, but aside from them, and some charred branches, it is clear of obstructions. Please hurry, they need to get help immediately."

"Understood, and I have your location," Rarity replied, as she looked at the map that appeared on her phone's small screen. “We’ll be with you in a few seconds." She put her leg back down and looked at Applejack. "Come stand close to me, so we can get going."

Applejack complied and Rarity gave one last look at her map just to be sure she was absolutely sure she knew where she was teleporting to. She then lit up her horn and they vanished in a flash. The next thing she knew she was dropping, coming to a harsh stop after a short fall.

"Rarity, I think your aim was a tad off there," Applejack groaned, shaking her legs out.

She pulled herself to her hooves and dusted herself off. "You try teleporting to an unfamiliar place and trying to judge how high an elevation you need to be at. I think I did very well, thank you very much." She then took in her surroundings and her ears fell.

There were the remains of burnt out branches everywhere on the roof. Looking out towards where they had just left all that could be seen were the massive trunks of trees and the splintered branches. At first she thought she was just staring at one massive tree, but a second look revealed that it was hundreds of trees pressed so tightly together it was difficult to see they had separate trunks. She couldn't even tell where the trees ended as she looked up, as their canopy seemed to be the still oppressive cloud of smoke and ash above. She wondered if this was what an ant felt like when staring up at a typical tree.

"Sweet Celestia," she let out with a squeak.

Applejack whistled in appreciation at the trees. "Whoa nelly, no fruit, but I reckon I'd recognize an apple tree anywhere. An I'd hate to have to try and buck one of those beauts. It's a shame they ain't going to be able to survive, crowd'n each other out like that. Not ta mention all the nutrients they'd need from the soil. Gonna be a lot of dead wood in a week or so."

"Will you two stop gawking at the trees!? We already wasted enough time!" She heard Sapphire scream at them from close by.

She turned and looked in the direction of the voice. Sapphire's blue coat and feathers were soot stained, like everything else out here. Beside her a faintly glowing crystal pony sat sobbing. She blinked and looked at the glowing pony again. The mare might well be glowing brightly, but the glow was masked under layers of dried blood and the aforementioned soot. The crystal pony had a few areas she had obvious swelling, and at least one nasty gash on the side of her muzzle. It was hard to tell through the mess on her coat if there were any cuts or lacerations on her body.

"Where are they?" She asked the pegasus.

Sapphire hurried to the edge of the building, always keeping her eye on the crystal pony, and pointed a wing over it. "Straight down, ground level. Wild Growth fell from here, and from what little I could gather the other two fell from the trees, higher up."

They fell that far? She hurried over to the edge and looked over it. All she could see was branches and leaves, with no sign of the ground below.

"Aside from some broken tree limbs, and a thick carpet of leaves, there is a clear area from about the second story down," Sapphire explained. "Might want to give yourself a few feet to fall, just to avoid teleporting straight into the tree limbs. They don’t really have time for you to be careful."

She took a deep breath, and backed up a few steps to try to estimate where she needed to go. Sapphire rushed over and pushed her roughly to the side.

"What's the big idea!" She shouted angrily at the pegasus.

Sapphire gestured at the crystal pony. "You were backing up right towards her. She's still dangerous. Same goes with that stallion down below. He's hurt, severely, but he's still not in his right mind either. Watch yourself with him."

Rarity gave the crystal pony mare a wary look, and then nodded over to Sapphire. She then went back to the edge of the building and did the rough calculations for the teleport in her head. "Applejack, dear, I need you close to me again. I apologize in advance, this may be another rough landing if I'm to avoid the obstructions."

Her friend joined her, putting up no complaints about the possibility that this would be another fall after teleporting. Rarity lit up her horn, and in another flash of light she had nothing under her hooves again. The fall was short, and luckily was cushioned by the copious amount of leaves that blanketed everything below.

They got their bearings. There were indeed a great number of downed branches scattered about the area, primarily closer to the building walls where the accumulated in mass after snapping against said walls. There were also three pony forms on the ground; one closer to the school building, another two a short distance from each other closer to the trees.

With a shared glance, they wordless agreed on who would check whom. Applejack hurried over to the body closest to the building, while she hurried over to the other two forms. Leaves still fell from high above in a steady stream as if it were the running of the leaves back home, and that meant that both the forms were partially covered by them. She reached the smaller of the two and used her magic to clear those away, and gasped at what she saw.

It was indeed Jessie. The most obvious and horrific injury that could be seen immediately was that she had been unlucky enough to come down on a fallen branch, angled through her barrel and exiting from the side. She was bleeding heavily, and had probably ruptured an organ. Both of her legs on her right side were twisted in ways that no pony's skeleton could successfully bend, and her left foreleg looked to be in a similar state. There were gashes and cuts all over the filly's body, some already scabbed over, some still bleeding into the bits of fallen branches surrounding her. Her barrel rose and fell in irregular, shaking breaths, showing that she was still thankfully alive...at least for now. Rarity was no doctor, but anypony could tell that if something wasn't done soon, Jessie wouldn't make it. There was a dreadful thought that even if something was done soon that might not be enough.

She was afraid to even move the filly in her current state. Trying to remove the branch that was impaling her could cause more harm coming out than leaving it where it was for the moment, despite the threat of infection. There was no time to waste, she needed medical attention now...if it wasn't too late already.

She looked over to Applejack, and gasped. Her friend had picked up the injured crystal pony stallion and had him draped over her back. The stallion was somehow awake, despite having injuries that should have him unconscious. What was more troubling was that he was obviously draining magic from his carrier.

"Applejack, what are you doing! Put him down this instant!" She screamed in fear.

Applejack gave her a quizzical look. "Um, something wrong with me carrying him? He can't move on his own."

She shook her head in disbelief, frozen in horror at what was happening. "He's draining you! I don't want you in a comma!"

The earth pony raised an eyebrow at her. "I'd think I could tell if he were hurt'n me any. I'm fit to run an Appleloosian rodeo."

Horror shifted to confusion. The stallion was definitely draining magic from Applejack. She could see his coat glowing brighter and brighter. Why wasn't the country pony feeling it? "Applejack...what is your PREQUES number?"

Applejack blinked. "The same as you and the rest of our friends, between eight and nine."

Rarity shook her head. "That's when we are working as a group using the power of the elements, dearie. What is it when you aren't? I know I'm a mid-four."

"I do'n know. They said they couldn't get a good read on it. Not somethin’ I'm that concerned about."

She wasn't serious, was she? "Applejack...are you telling me you're super powerful like Wild Growth, and just aren't living up to your potential?"

The earth pony just shrugged, barely shifting the crystal pony on her back. "Don't need any fancy magic for farmin’. Just good, honest, hard work."

That explained why Twilight had chosen Applejack to come along. The earth pony wouldn't be impacted by the crystal ponies, and Twilight almost certainly knew what all their power levels were. She'd personally been proud of her somewhat high four rating, and it had motivated her to learn a greater variety of spells after she'd learned of it. Now her vanity took a slight hit as she realized she wasn't sure if that counted as strong among her friends. Rainbow had bragged loudly about her seven score when learning of it, Starlight Glimmer (as everyone knew) was the most powerful unicorn since Starswirl, and Applejack's unknown number clearly was up there as well. Did Fluttershy and Pinkie have similarly high scores, and like Applejack just not discuss them?

"What the hell is taking so long!?" Sapphire screamed from somewhere up above. “I’m not hearing the sound of a teleport!”

She shook her head. How powerful she was in relation to her friends was not important. They were a team, and everyone contributed. Right now her contribution was she needed to get these ponies back to Twilight. "We'll discuss your magic at some later date. How is Wild Growth?"

"A mess," Applejack answered. "I don't see any injuries, but she looks like she took a bath in her own juices. She's breathin’ pretty hard, too. Out cold, couldn't wake her."

She nodded in acknowledgment. "If she's safe to move I'll levitate her close to Jessie. Then teleport the five of us back to the doctors before coming back for Sapphire and Mrs. Martinez. Let's be quick about it."

Hopefully they weren't already too late for Jessie.

An impromptu base of operations had been set up in the old town hall of Old Town. Tempest sat dutifully nearby Phobia Remedy, keeping alert of any potential assassin in all the flurry of activity. Phobia was quite busy, as busy as Tempest had ever seen the Dreamwarden be. Some might not recognize the level of activity that Phobia was doing though. The Dreamwarden went to checking over papers, to consulting with Princess Twilight Sparkle, to suddenly falling asleep for a minute or two--as if she were narcoleptic.

The Dreamwarden suddenly awoke again, and turned to the alicorn princess. "I've reviewed with the others the contract my mother-in-law and Bill signed. We all agree that they knowingly consented to allowing corrective mind magic in the advent that something was not right. You're free to proceed."

Twilight Sparkle didn't even wait to thank the Dreamwarden. She just went rushing off to where the two crystal ponies were being kept under guard. Phobia promptly went back to sleep. This wasn't a state of rest for the Dreamwarden; this was her immediately moving on to the next task on her agenda.

Tempest continued to scan the room with her eyes. Her charge was in the open, completely vulnerable to any danger. She'd tried to convince Phobia to at least do this in a private room, instead of right out in the open like this. The Dreamwarden was insistent that she be seen working, and that she be easily accessible to anyone who needed her on a moment's notice. She admired the Dreamwarden's dedication, but it still seemed an unnecessary risk. It wasn't her place to try to overrule Phobia, though. She'd given her recommendation, but she'd follow the Dreamwarden's will, as was her duty.

Sunset Blessing sat in a corner, unblinking and unmoving. The unicorn seemed to be in shock. Tempest was unsure if the leader of Riverview was fully aware of what was happening around her. Everyone seemed to want to give the red unicorn space, and not to disturb her, despite the fact that she was--for the moment--the one who should be leading these operations. The fact that Tonya had died was too much for the unicorn to cope with, and only Twilight Sparkle ever made an attempt to discuss anything with the preacher; and then only to briefly consult about the temporary transformation spell, before leaving Sunset Blessing in peace again.

The unicorn's location was ideal for observing the entire room, better than where Tempest now stood. After a brief moment of hesitation, she walked over to the unicorn who had inadvertently led to her long stay on Earth. Sunset Blessing didn't respond to her approach, didn't even look at her as she took a seat next to the unicorn. The preacher just continued to stare blankly ahead.

They sat in silence as Tempest continued to watch the activity for any potential danger to Phobia Remedy. People would glance at the Dreamwarden here and there, but it could easily be seen as curiosity about the pony that was snoring right in the middle of the busy room. There was no sign of hostility. There were furtive glances in Tempest's direction as well, but she knew these were aimed at the unicorn beside her. She'd remain vigilant, but there didn't seem to be any danger at this time. There was a dull background roar of voices, as various aspects of emergency operations were discussed and put into motion.

"You have my condolences," she said in an even voice to the unicorn beside her, not turning her eyes away from the crowd.

She could see the unicorn on the edge of her vision, and saw no response. She hesitated again, then decided to say a little more. "Even though the damage is immense, and we still don't know if anyone else died in it, what your wife did was a brave and heroic thing to do. If she had not acted, a far worse outcome would have happened. She laid down her life for the lives of others. She was a good mare, you should be proud of her."

Sunset Blessing still stared blankly ahead. There was no indication that the unicorn had even heard her. Tempest continued to watch the crowd. She had said her peace to the preacher, and couldn't fault her for not responding. They had their animosity between one another, but she wasn't heartless to what the preacher was going through right now. In the past six years the Dreamwarden's family had become like her own. She spent as much time with Phobia Remedy's foals as Phobia Remedy herself did. They had been in great danger through this entire ordeal, and the thought of what might have happened to any of them made her wonder if she wouldn't be in much the same state as the preacher of one of them had died.

Family, loved ones, that was what they were to her. It was something she hadn't had for most of her life in Equestria. Her own parents she hadn't been close to. The loss of her horn had hit them hard, and while they weren't cruel or abusive to her as a foal, they'd become distant. It had taken her a long time for her to realize that they were hurting as much as she was, and were at a loss at what to do. Their cold distance from her was not a sign of not loving her, but one of having so much hurt that they walled themselves off to avoid feeling it. She exchanged regular correspondence with them now, and they were proud of her. However, Phobia's family was still the family she felt most a part of, especially the foals she helped raise and teach. She'd almost lost them today, and only after almost losing them did she realized how much they meant to her.

"She was a good mare. A far better one than me," Sunset said quietly, surprising Tempest. She hadn't expected any response. She was even more surprised when the preacher continued. "I apologize for any wrong I have ever done you. I cannot justify anything I have ever done, not anymore. I can't make up for it either. Thank you for your kind words for...f-for her."

Still watching the crowd, she considered what else to say. Was it appropriate to say anything else? This was a rare moment, and she didn't know if it would be cruel to respond or not.

"I need to ask you a question," she said, after some self-deliberation. The preacher didn't respond, verbally or physically. The question was still hanging though. "Why did you not ask me if I wished to take part in your temporary transformation experiments?"

The red unicorn sat as unresponsive as she had been, and Tempest resigned herself after a minute of no response that none would be coming, but once again she was surprised when the preacher spoke. "I honestly hadn’t considered it. I don't know why. Perhaps because you didn't seem to be suffering or debilitated, so it didn't stand out to me that this would help you."

That was enough to make her turn her gaze briefly away from the crowd to look at the preacher. Only briefly though, before turning her eyes back. "I don't know if I should be insulted that you didn't consider how things impact me, or if I should be honored you don't think me a cripple. I've grown used to humans, and don't think I'd mind being one for parts of the day. Occasionally I just want to be able to go out and not be the scary broken-horned unicorn. I would have said yes if you had asked if I would volunteer."

"Perhaps some part of me bore resentment to Equestrians still," the preacher answered. Seeming to get angrier word by word. "And as such I didn't even consider helping one. That would be like me, wouldn't it? Me and my stupid, petty, foolish hatreds. See where they have brought us? See where they brought her? It should have been me...not her...it should have been me."

Tempest sat, still doing her job. Now was not the time for harsh recriminations. Now was the time to try to be kind, even if Sunset Blessing had never earned it. "I can say it is equally my fault. I had the ability to go to you and volunteer, but I chose not to. It was my pride that got in the way, and my prejudice to you. Pride and prejudice make us do foolish things."

Sunset stared at the crowd, but her eyes seemed to focus on the humans in particular. "You're right, and it is a lesson that has come too late for me. Have you been listening to what is going on around us? I have. The humans, when I ordered the evacuations they drove out to the pony residential district to help the ponies to flee. No one asked them to do that. They did it because they cared about their fellow people, and they put themselves in danger to give those ponies a chance to get out. That is something worthy of God's kingdom, something more worthy than anything I have done." The preacher bowed her head. "I thought...I thought when we became ponies we became something better. I was wrong. I became more prideful than ever, and believed that humans were less than ponies. I see it now, finally, that humans are just as worthy of God as ponies. I was a fool."

"At least the lesson has been learned," Tempest responded somberly. "If only all the Shimmerists could learn the lesson you have."

For what seemed the first time, the preacher blinked. She then looked around the crowd until her eyes fell upon another unicorn. "Number! Come here, please!"

Tempest watched as the confused blue unicorn mare came to them. Sunset Blessing spoke quickly. "I need a pen and paper. I need to write out some things."

"Are you sure you should be working right now?" Number Crunch responded warily. "You just suffered a big loss. Maybe you should just go home and try to sleep."

The preacher shook her head rapidly. "No, I need to do something, something worthwhile. Something she would want me to do. When I don't want to think about uncomfortable things I need tasks to do."

"What can you possibly do right now that isn't already being done?" Number Crunch asked skeptically.

The preacher lowered her head. "I need to write out the papers ceding control of SPEC to Wild Growth, at least once she's recovered...if she recovers. I also want to write a plea to all the Shimmerists, to give up their hatred for humans, to see us all as one and the same people as us. In addition, I need to give Twilight Sparkle the full details of every aspect of the temporary transformation spell...just in case I'm no longer available to consult; I'm almost certain I'll be arrested soon. I'm also stepping down as mayor and appointing you and Melissa as my temporary successors until a new election can be held. I would pass it to Megan, but she's still dealing with the after effects of my botched spell."

Number Crunch looked ready to object, but looked at Sunset Blessing with pity. "Maybe we can start an ex-Shimmerist support group," the blue mare said with a forced chuckle. "I'll do as you ask. Just try to take it easy. Welcome to the right side... Charlotte."

"It's still Sunset Blessing. I'll bear my name as my reminder of my shame," the preacher responded. "Thank you, Number, but please, hurry. Agents will be here for me soon, and I want to have everything written out before they arrest me."

Tempest perked her ears up. "Can I get something to write with as well?"

Number Crunch looked at her in confusion. "Um, definitely, but what do you need to write out?"

Tempest looked at her charge, Phobia Remedy. Who had been her friend as well as pony to guard these past six years. "I know I don't show it well, but these past six years have brought me happiness. Earth has become my true home in that time. I'm giving my formal resignation from Luna's service. I'll be staying on with Phobia Remedy, if she will have me. I don't want to take the chance that I am withdrawn from there."

"Resigning from your job might end up causing just that," Number replied skeptically.

Tempest licked her lips. She was committed to this path. "I'll also be applying for citizenship here, in the United States. I don't want to leave my home."

Number Crunch gently smiled. "Alright, well you may want to think about doing that before resigning from the thing keeping you here legally. I'll get you that and figure out who it needs to be passed on to." The blue mare then hurried off.

The two of them went silent again, as they went back to staring at the crowd. One trying to make sense of things and the other looking for danger. Perhaps both contemplating their futures. Tragedy was a horrible thing, but it brought with it change, and action. Nothing would be the same again after today. Today was a very dark day, but that didn't mean the future couldn't be bright. Tempest knew that she had a family here, and with that she had a lot of great things to look forward to.

Twilight finished working the spell that would fix the two unfortunate ponies' minds. It had been a long day, and physical exhaustion was starting to take a toll, to speak nothing of emotional exhaustion. She wished that she could be like Phobia, and do her work in her sleep. It would certainly make some things easier.

As she turned to relook over her notes she caught a glance of the trees in the distance, and shivered. The magic that Wild Growth had channeled had been unreal. She was happy that the earth pony had backed up her efforts. There was no real shame in the fact that her shield had not held, that was her brother's talent, not hers. No, it was something else that made her eyes linger.

What caused her shiver wasn't the fact that Wild Growth was as strong as she was, but the fact it put her own power in perspective. If an earth pony could do that, even the strongest of all earth ponies, then what was she herself truly capable of? She sometimes took for granted how much power an alicorn actually possessed. Celestial and Luna moved heavenly bodies, daily, and that should give anyone paying attention some clue. She grew up with that though. It was mundane, not something anyone thought much about. The power involved in such a daily task made what Wild Growth had done today seem trifling. Twilight had never truly unleashed the full might of her power. She'd certainly pushed out a lot of power in the past, but her need to control and focus what she was doing held that back. Exhaustion came not from the channeling, but the focus. What was she capable of if she truly let herself go and let loose everything? Faced with the evidence of what Wild Growth, Luna, and Celestia could do she was frightened of ever being put in a position to find out.

She looked over the readings she had on the two resonances. Bill she was confident it was still safe to end the spell, and that would heal his current injuries. That didn't do anything for his injuries he had when he was human, but right now his pony injuries were far worse anyway. She'd need to do that soon, or he would drift into a dangerous range with his resonance.

Jean Martinez was a different story. She'd been under the influence of this spell for a full day more than Bill had, and that had taken a toll. Her resonance reading was deeply concerning, and canceling the spell to let her revert back to human could be dangerous for her. After consulting about the readings with Sunset Blessing, the unicorn had mournfully given the recommendation that the only viable option was transforming Jean Martinez permanently into a pony. It wasn't a surprising conclusion for a Shimnerist to give. However, her own conclusions backed that would indeed stabilize the resonance; the preacher's recommendation was merely a second expert opinion, and it reinforced her own in this case. She was just desperately looking for other options.

For right now they would maintain the temporary transformation spell, as she looked for those other options. How to best do that was a challenge as well, and added to the compound problem that the true resonance would continue to destabilize under the false one. She didn't like it, but saw no other choice. She wouldn't risk the woman's life by ending the spell and having her resonance collapse. At least she had stabilized the mind. There would be no more animal hunger for magic.

Until Starlight came with her research there wasn't any more that could be done. She'd give the instruction for them to end Bill's spell, and to make sure Jean's was maintained. She called a few of Sunset Blessing's mages that were standing by and gave the order. They put up no objection. The unicorn had ordered them to follow Twilight's instructions to the letter. Sunset Blessing had been nothing but compliant to whatever Twilight needed in the last few hours. That was good; because from the sounds of things outside, there were other things to be taken care of right now.

She stepped outside into the hallway and immediately had a pony yelling at her. "Where are my daughters?! Where are the foals?"

On the edge of the hallway, blocked by guards, was a very frantic looking pink earth mare with a yellow mane. A green unicorn stallion with a dark blue mane stood right behind her. The mare was doing all she could to push her way through, and if there weren't earth ponies among the guards she'd have already done so.

She walked towards the couple, extending a wing in greeting. "You must be Mister and Miss Gilmore. Your foals are safe. I had Rarity transport them to the hospital. I'll take you to them. Guards, you can let them through."

The guards stepped aside and the pink mare gave them a dirty look, before turning her gaze back to Twilight. "They're safe? If they're unhurt, then why are they in the hospital?"

Twilight glanced past the couple and saw that Phobia was still sleeping, and that Tempest had moved close by the Dreamwarden in a defensive position, while staring at the couple. They must have tried Phobia first, and failed to get by her guard. She gave the couple a gentle smile. "They're just shaken up really badly, but they have no serious injuries. Doctors are treating them for some minor bumps and scratches, as well as some breathing treatments since they were out in that smoke. They've been through a very traumatic experience, but are doing very well considering what they just went through."

A human couple came barreling in out of nowhere. "What about my foals?" The woman yelled in tears. "Where's Robby? Where's Jessie?"

Her ears fell. This must be the Middletons. "Robert is being treated for smoke inhalation, but is otherwise alright. Jessica...we'll talk about Jessica when we get there."

"What's wrong with my daughter!?" The woman screamed, causing everyone in the lobby turn to look at her. The only exception being Phobia, who continued to snore.

"You'll see," Twilight replied in a low voice. "Give me one moment to fetch Phobia and we'll be on our way. She has been eager to get to her own foals, but was helping with a few tasks for me."

She blink teleported right next to the Dreamwarden. She then flinched as a hoof almost collided with her face, but stopped abruptly just an inch away from her eyes. Tempest gave her an angry snort, and then settled back into a sitting position, staring at the crowd as if nothing had happened. The bodyguard was certainly excellent at her job.

As she was about to wake the sleeping Dreamwarden she turned and saw several official looking humans and crystal ponies surround Sunset Blessing. Over the quiet roar of activity she could hear Miranda rights being read to the leader of Riverview. This wasn't unexpected, but she hadn't anticipated it happening so soon. She still needed Sunset Blessing's knowledge of the temporary transformation spell.

Before she could intervene, a blue unicorn mare stepped in her way. "I apologize, but she wanted me to make sure you didn't interfere." The mare levitated a few papers towards her and whispered. "She left these for you, the complete details of her spell."

Twilight hurriedly grabbed the papers in her magic, before the federal agents could notice that she was being passed potentially classified information. She didn't want to be duplicitous, but this was a necessity. She gave a leary glance at the other papers the unicorn was holding in her magic. "What are the rest of those?"

The unicorn floated another paper towards her. "This one is Tempest Shadow's resignation from Luna's service. You might need to be the one to deliver that. I'm not even sure what the official channel to take with it."

She took that paper in her magic as well, and paused as she noticed the name it was signed under. "I think there's been a mistake. This is signed-"

"There's no mistake," Tempest said hurriedly, almost anxiously. "Luna will recognize the name."

She raised a quizzical eyebrow at the broken-horned bodyguard. "Okay then." There were still other papers in the blue mare's magic. "And the rest?"

The mare glanced at them. "For others to receive. Documents ceding control of SPEC and her mayoral duties. There is also her final manifesto to the Shimmerists."

"After everything that's happened, she takes the time to spout off more of-"

The mare shook her head. "You might be surprised at what it actually says." The paper floated towards Twilight. "Here, read it yourself. It isn't secret. I'll need that back when you're done."

Frowning, she took the paper into her own magic and gave it a brief read. She blinked and her eyes widened as she did so. "This is a complete course reversal. This won't be received well by the Shimmerists."

The paper was returned to the blue mare, who gave a sad nod. "At least she's trying. Her words carry weight in the Shimmerist community, so some might listen. More likely the humans than the ponies, but who knows? To tell the truth, I don't think it will go over well either. She'll be condemned by most Shimmerists for this. Given how high profile her relationship with Shimmerism has been, it's going to be a very nasty breakup. They'll be demanding her head for what happened today, as a way of taking vengeance for her betrayal of their beliefs."

Twilight wasn't sure if Sunset Blessing should get off from facing responsibility for what happened today. The fault didn't lay squarely on the preacher's shoulders, but her past decisions played a large part in it. It wasn't her call though. That was for the American courts to decide. She'd be noncommittal in her assessment if asked her own opinion. There were many details that she didn't know about what happened today, and might never learn. That made her wary of laying guilt on Sunset Blessing, contrary to her first instinct.

She returned the very un-Shimmerist manifesto to the unicorn. "Thank you for delivering these...I didn't catch your name."

The unicorn bowed her head slightly. "Number Crunch. If you're hanging around the city for a while you'll be dealing with me. I'm one of the ones she appointed to take over her duties. I also help with Wild Growth's business affairs." Number Crunch then hesitated. "How is Wild doing? She isn't just my employer, she's my best friend."

Twilight shook her head. "I'm unsure. I'll be getting an update about her in just a few minutes. She was alive when they brought her into the hospital, but hadn't made an assessment yet. Anyone else with those injuries would be dead already."

Number Crunch nodded. "Well, she's not anyone else. I have faith she'll pull through. I've never seen her get an injury she hadn't recovered from in a few days. She's taken gunshots like they were bee stings."

Enough bee stings at once could be fatal. "I hope you're right," Twilight replied. Then looked back at the sleeping Dreamwarden. "Thank you again, but I need to get back to gathering up Phobia. I have several distraught parents eager to see their foals, and their patience with me isn't going to last much longer."

The unicorn glanced over at the Middletons. "Tell them that Jessie is in my thoughts and prayers."

Twilight just nodded. She wasn't looking forward to telling them about Jessie. Thoughts and prayers wouldn't be enough for the condition Jessie was in. Jessie needed a full scale miracle, and today fate wasn't being generous with miracles.

Jean still lay miserably in the room she had been brought to when she first arrived here. Twilight Sparkle had done something to her that made thinking become increasingly easier, but right now she wasn't sure if that was a blessing or a curse.

The last two days were a literal blur in her mind. Details about anything were sketchy at best. There were broad parts of it she couldn't remember at all, and what few images she could remember made her shudder. She'd hurt ponies. She was sure of that. Those memories seemed to crawl their way to the surface when nothing else would. Worse, she had hurt both of her daughters...maybe even killed them. She had been coated in Catherine's blood. Twilight Sparkle said that she wasn't responsible for that blood. That didn't seem like it could be true. If she wasn't responsible for all that blood, why was she covered in it? She vaguely remembered attacking Haley, somewhere dark and cramped. Was Haley alright? They hadn't given her word yet about either of her daughters, only her grandfoals. Had she attacked her grandfoals too? She couldn't remember doing that, only remembering seeing them during Thanksgiving.

So much was missing. The last really clear memories had been her coming to her daughter's house. She remembered she had gone to bed with Roger. She remembered them happily laughing at their clumsy efforts to be intimate after so long. After that, she remembered small pieces of the next morning. Arguing with Catherine about something. A car ride to somewhere...it wasn't clear. It got progressively more foggy as the day went on. She wasn't sure about anything after that car ride. Images of different places she had been, but not how she had gotten there. Bill crying because he was so hungry. Feeling that hunger herself. Images of ponies fighting her. It was like she was looking at the broken memories of somepony else.

Her head lifted at the sound of the doorknob turning. A human man walked in, carrying what looked like a big piece of quartz. He walked over to her and set it down in front of her, before backing away. "I was told to bring you this. If you feel like you might be getting low on magic you can absorb from that."

She looked at the crystal in disgust. Her need for magic, that was the root of all the hurt she had caused. "I don't want it. I don't want to even think about absorbing magic. Why isn't she just ending this spell, so I don't hurt anypony else?"

The human gave her a wary look. "She said it might not be safe to let the spell end. It needs to keep going until she feels that it is safe to end it. You need to absorb magic in order to do that."

"And if I refuse to absorb any more magic?" She sorrowfully challenged. "You can't force feed me."

He shook his head. "If you don't...well, I'll have to call her to see what she wants to do. She's taking care of a lot of people right now; please, don't make this difficult. Everyone is already having a hard enough time."

She reached her hoof out towards the crystal, and then kicked it away in defiance.

The man sighed. "It's going to be like that then? Fine, let me call her and find out how she wants to deal with this."

Before he left the room she called out to him. "Do you have any word about my daughters, Wild Growth and Rosetta Stone?"

He paused. "I don't have any word about the Dreamwarden's wife, but I know Wild Growth has been taken to the hospital. That's all I know."

She stared at where the crystal now lay in the corner of the empty room. "If you can bring me word on both of them I'll absorb the magic from that thing."

The man let off a long breath. "I'll see what I can do." He then left the room.

Minutes passed by. The sounds of activity could be heard outside, a lot of activity. Something had happened, but she was unsure what. There was a barred window, but the view from where she sat just showed a darkened sky. Whatever had happened didn't really matter to her. She just wanted to know that her daughters were both still alive, nothing else mattered other than that.

Her ears picked up as she heard a familiar voice just outside the door. Roger was there, arguing with the man who had entered the room before. She quietly begged that Roger didn't come in. She couldn't stand the idea of facing him right now. How do you face your spouse when you just tried to kill your own daughters? There was no greater crime than murdering your own offspring. He had every reason to hate her, and he would be right to do so. She was a monster, unworthy of his love.

The arguing came to an end. She held her breath as the doorknob turned, and cowered into her corner as she saw him enter. She kept her head down, watching his feet. She didn't want to look up and see the accusation that must be in his eyes. Her jaw was tight from wanting to yell out that he needed to go away, but too ashamed to open her mouth. Instead she just squeezed her eyes shut, awaiting the coming condemnation.

The sound of his steps ended right in front of her, but she didn't open her eyes. Seconds stretched on as she waited for his declaration he was done with her, that he never wanted to see her again, that their daughters were dead and it should have been her instead.

Instead, arms wrapped around her, and pulled her close. She found herself held tightly in his embrace, the scent of him filling her nose. It was a light, musky scent, mixed with the smells of soot and sweat, the wool of his sweater, and something almost like freshly cut grass. He was breathing in a way that made her think he had been crying hard up until recently. His muscles were tense, and she could feel minor spasms in them. There was so much to his presence; her quiet, gentle husband who gave so much of himself for his family. Haley, Catherine, Jose, and Miguel had been lucky to have a man like him as a father, an example for their lives.

"I was so worried about you," Roger whispered. There was no accusation in his voice, no condemnation, just worry and love. She should have known there wouldn't be. Her Roger didn't know the meaning of the word hate. She wasn't even sure if he was even capable of it; no matter how much he should hate her.

"They told me you wouldn't take care of yourself until you heard the news about our kids," he continued.

She stiffened, but nodded enough for him to notice. She still hadn't lifted her head to look him in the eyes.

He let her go and sat down in front of her, legs folded under him. She heard a paper being unfolded. "This is the early medical report they gave me about Catherine. They're still examining her, but these are the things they know." He cleared his throat and coughed into his hand. Then cleared his throat again before reading. "Severe critical hematidrosis throughout the entire body, critical dehydration, acute exhaustion, critical blood loss due to hematidrosis, compound fracture of the third rib, compound fracture of the upper left forefemur, inoperable acute rupture of the external thaumatic flows, acute magical fatigue, critical hemorrhage on the lower abdominal muscles due to high impact abrasion, and... miscarriage."

A few of those terms she didn't even know. What was herma--she wasn't even sure what the word was? What was an inoperable acute rupture of the external thaumatic flows? She recognized enough of what else was said to know it was all bad. "Is she...is she going to live?"

Roger took a moment to answer. "They don't know yet. She's lost so much blood. They said anyone else would already be dead. The baby is gone, though. No question about that."

She began to cry. "I-I did this."

"No, you didn't," Roger replied sharply. "From everything they can tell. She did this to herself. She did it to save everyone in the city. You, me, the foals, thousands of others." He took a deep breath. "I don't know how much you're aware of what happened, or have been told, but a lot more was occurring than her trying to deal with you. They're still trying to gather information about what caused it, but the Bastion exploded. It exploded with enough force that it could have killed everyone in the city, or at least most of the city. Our daughter is a hero who threw everything she had into protecting us from that. They told me that the government intends to tell everyone exactly that before the day is out."

There had been burning branches, and smoke. Those memories had been there, but she thought them a dream. "And Haley?"

Roger sighed. "Phobia found her in the dream realm, so she's still alive. Phobia is also confident that she only has minor injuries, other than needing time to recover from an extreme magic drain. You did drain her, but you weren't in your right mind when you did it, and you didn't kill her doing it. They have a rescue team getting her and the others trapped in the school building. There's a lot of damage inside the school, and what Phobia learned in the dream realm doesn't tell the team about the current state of the hallways. Luckily, nothing collapsed on her or the others during the quakes, but there are obstructions to getting to them. They're confident they'll have them safely out soon."

She didn't respond. All that she could think of was that her daughter wouldn't even be trapped in that building if not for her. No...she could think about the fact that her other daughter was dying of blood loss right now.

When she didn't respond right away, her husband continued. "Rosetta told Phobia she wants the chance to talk to you in the dream realm, if she doesn't wake up soon. Phobia can get you into her dreams. She's worried about you, we all are. What happened to you isn't your fault, and the only one angry at you is you."

"They don't arrest people and keep them under armed guard if they didn't do anything wrong," she muttered.

Roger glanced at the door and frowned. "We're still waiting to hear if anyone you attacked is going to press charges. Twilight Sparkle is going to talk to their families, and Phobia is talking to the ponies that are still recovering. They're explaining what happened and why. There's a good chance that if anyone gets charged with anything it will be Sunset Blessing, since it was her mistake that caused this. The police just have to hold you for the time being, for your protection and everyone else's."

"If they are worried about other people then why haven't they ended the spell yet?" She demanded harshly.

Roger was quiet for a few seconds. "Because it might kill you to do that. Your human resonance might be broken. Do you remember Wild telling you about the danger of that happening? It was yesterday morning."

She blinked, and tried to remember. They'd argued about something, but she couldn't remember the details. Yesterday morning was so blurry.

"If you can't, that's okay. Twilight Sparkle said that the further your mind went from being reasonable the harder it would be to remember things from then. You definitely weren't acting like yourself when you were told about it."

She looked at her legs. "So...am I going to die?" The possibility of that occurring didn't seem nearly as frightening as it should have.

He bit his lip and then shook his head. "Twilight is working on a solution. She said this form will keep you alive, if it is maintained. To do that you need to absorb magic. We need you to absorb the magic from those crystals they give you, otherwise we might lose you. We all love you, and have been nothing but worried about you. We want you to be all better, but that isn't happening if you don't do what you need to in order to take care of yourself." He started to sob. "Jean…please...just take the crystal and absorb from it. We…I can't lose you. I wouldn't be able to take it. I love you too much."

She looked up at his face; her sweet and gentle husband. Then turned to look at the discarded crystal in the corner. Taking a deep breath to steel herself, she got to her hooves and began walking towards it. She was still angry at herself, and couldn't bring herself to do this for her own sake. It wasn't her own sake that moved her now. She just didn't want to hurt her family anymore, not Catherine, not Haley, not Miguel or Jose, or her grandfoals, and definitely not him. They'd all suffered too much because of her, and she wouldn't repay that by selfishly punishing herself. She wasn't sure if anything would ever be alright, but she could do her part not to make it worse.

Robby sat near his parents. He'd only recently gotten away from having an oxygen mask put over his face, and they'd told him that if he started coughing or having any shortness of breath to let someone know. His barrel felt a little tight, but he didn't think that was because of all the stuff he breathed in on the way here. No, the reason why was what was on the other side of the door they were standing outside.

The doctors hadn't come out and said what everyone seemed to know. They kept saying they'd do all they could. There were a lot of them, human doctors and pony mages, that were in there, and more kept being added. Twilight Sparkle herself was there now. Whenever one walked out the same message was repeated. That they were doing all that they could. He could see the truth in their eyes, and so could his parents. His little sister was dying, and soon they'd be forced to say that they were sorry, they couldn't save her.

His mom was being held tight in his dad's arms, and she wouldn't stop crying. Dusk was in a cradle in front of his grandmare, and Dusk also wouldn't stop crying, no matter what his grandmare tried to do. He wanted to cry as well, but he wanted to be brave for his family.

The period of self-recrimination had passed. He had briefly blamed himself for having fled his sister and the foals, leaving them to fend for themselves. Jessie's words came back to him, though. He wouldn't have been able to protect them. If he hadn't gotten Wild Growth they might have all died. For all he knew, if she wasn't on top of the school when she was she might not have been able to save everyone in the city. Jessie had been right to send him for help. Jessie was almost always right about things. He was lucky to have a sister like her.

He was just unsure how much longer he would have his sister. A part of him, the night pony part, actually swelled with pride at what she had done. Jessie had been brave, and a hero. She had stood her ground when Jean had charged her in the hallway, and when Jordan was in danger she had literally lept to the rescue. Any night pony would cheer her for what she did. A second part of him, the part that was a big brother, selfishly wished that she hadn't. He wanted his sister to live.

Amanda and Tom hurried over to his parents. He hadn't even heard their hoofsteps in all the noise of the hospital. Jordan was asleep on Amanda's back, and Jackie was asleep on Tom's. His dad let his mom go and she immediately crouched down and hugged the earth pony, while Tom went to his dad and they pressed hoof against palm in somber greeting. That was how men and stallions were supposed to be, showing calm and strength in the most dire of situations. He hoped he was doing a good job at that. It was hard to do; especially knowing his sister was fighting for her life.

A doctor exited out of the room, and ran down the hallway. The door was briefly open before swinging shut again. In that short period of time he heard small pieces of conversation within. Words like organ failure, blood loss, and rupture; all words no one wanted to hear. He wasn't sure if his parents had been able to hear, as they gave no additional reaction, but he caught sight of Tom's face, and knew that the stallion had heard it too.

He listened into conversations around him. Amanda was trying to say something comforting to his mom, and had already told her about how Jordan and Jackie had been sedated to get some rest.

"She's...dead?" Her dad whispered in horror.

Robby whipped his head around in despair, to see what doctor had brought the news. There was no doctor, just his dad and Tom. His dad had bent down and Tom had reached up and hugged him. Both of them were crying.

"Jessie's...dead?" Robby whispered. His mom was shaking her head in horror and disbelief.

Tom turned to them and flattened his ears, still crying. "Not Jessie...sorry for scaring you about her. It's...it's Tonya, she's dead. I'm sorry. I just learned about it a few minutes ago."

"My sister...I didn't even know...I should have thought…" his dad haltingly muttered through tears.

Robby felt like someone had kicked the air out of him. They were sitting here dreading the worst with Jessie, and out of nowhere they learned this. He didn't even know how to react. He had been spending the last hour prepping himself for the worst with Jessie, and then learnt that his aunt was already dead. He loved his aunt Tonya. She was always cheerful, and tried to talk to him like the cool aunt when they were around each other.

His mom hurried over to his dad and hugged him tight. "I'm so sorry, Paul."

"She was right at the heart of the explosion...at least...at least she died quickly," his dad sobbed. "I didn't get to say goodbye...I'm not even sure what the last thing we said to each other was." His dad wiped his nose on his sleeve and stood up. "I'm sorry, I need a moment."

He watched as his dad walked down the hall, sniffling and still wiping his eyes and nose. His mom sat down with her back against the wall. He went over to her and nuzzled close to her, and she laid a hand on his back.

"Here we are again," she whispered, holding back tears. "This is where our long, crazy journey started. Jessie in the hospital, with them telling us that there's no hope." That hadn't been said in words by any doctor yet, but the understanding was there. "You'd think only having to go through this once would have been enough."

"I'm here this time. Last time you sent me away," Robby whispered in turn, his head held low.

"You were Jessie's age last time," his mom responded in a low voice. "We didn't want to expose you to the fact your newborn sister was dying. At least, that's what we thought was best back then. I'm still not sure if we made a mistake with that or not. Who could have predicted that a pony from another universe was going to show up and try to transform the entire world into ponies? What sane person would have anticipated anything like that?"

"Today was pretty insane," he replied.

"You're right. I think I preferred the madmare from another universe trying to transform us all into ponies," his mom mirthlessly chuckled. Then stared downward. "Your sister at least got a miracle out of it back then. We need another one now."

"Maybe...maybe they could do the temporary transformation spell?" Amanda suggested hesitantly. "I know it's the last thing anyone wants to think about, given being chased by temporary ponies was how she ended up in this state, but it would buy time."

"A day, maybe," his mom said bitterly. "She reverts back to what she was before it was cast, and they've already shown they can't safely keep it cast on her indefinitely, not in its current state. I'm not saying no to anything that could buy her more time, but I've got to face the facts. It won't save her. We need something more."

"And way too much time has passed for a proper rehumanization spell, not that she ever had any memories of being human to draw on anyway," Tom added in sadly.

The door opened again, and Twilight Sparkle stepped out. She gave them all sad looks, unable to meet their eyes. No words needed to be said. They had known. There was no way to save Jessie.

"She's not dead yet," Twilight Sparkle whispered. "I promise, while she's still alive, I'm still trying everything I know to keep her that way." The alicorn then paused. "That being said, the doctors will be taking a short break in a few minutes. When they do, you will get your chance to see her...just in case you don't get another."

Author's Note

Special thanks to ASGeek2012 for writing the Jenny section, and to Lawra for providing the Sapphire section.

Next chapter, a character exits the Pandemic series as a whole.

Chapter 26: Lament

A field of flowers and a grove of trees, that was all there was for miles around. Above her, a starlit sky with no constellation she could recognize. The flat expanse of the field was never-ending, with no hills or horizon. It didn't take a genius to realize she was in a dream. With only one destination available, she walked to the grove.

She walked among the trees, oaks all, and entered into the clearing within. A night pony laden with gold and silver jewelry sat waiting for her. Though she appeared young, Wild knew that wasn't so. There was a certain symbolic feeling to this. She had almost been the alicorn of life, and here sat her opposite.

"Sha'am, what are you doing in my dream?" She asked as she walked forward.

The Warden of Death sauntered towards her. "Tying up some loose ends before I go for good. My time of punishment is upon me, and there is only so much business I can finish before it comes."

Wild raised an eyebrow at the most hated of the Dreamwardens. "And what loose ends do you have with me?"

The Warden of Death sat silent for a moment. "Why? Why did you push yourself so hard when I warned you that you'd burn yourself out."

"Because people were in danger," Wild said flatly.

Sha'am gave her a condescending look. "People are always in danger. The world is a monster waiting for the moment to swallow us up. Our relationship with nature is it wants to kill us. This is inevitable; even with all your efforts, people still died. I am the bringer of their last rites… or at least I have been for these past six years. I am more familiar with death than anyone."

"Then, why do you even care?" Wild demanded as she gritted her teeth.

The night pony stared at her. "Because you had power. You were not at the mercy of the world. I was always at the mercy of the world, and it chewed me up and spat me out. I watch dreams, and I see this time and time again everywhere. Why risk what separates you from everyone else? Why risk misery?"

Wild looked at the night pony in confusion. "With all your knowledge and all you can see, you aren't familiar with someone laying down all they have for others?"

"I see it, but they don't have all that you had," Sha'am said through a snarl. "You burnt yourself out, you fool! I told you not to do it! You didn't listen to me!"

"I heard you," Wild said flatly. "It was you who even alerted me to what was going to happen. I thought you wanted me to try to do what I could to save people."

"Not at the cost of yourself!" Sha'am snapped. "You didn't have to push that hard. You could have done enough without pushing that hard. Sure, more may have died, but how many more do you think are going to suffer now without your power there to help them anymore? I told you to stop! I told you that you had done enough!"

"And I told you to shut up and watch because I was going to make sure no one else died," Wild growled.

"And how well did that work out for you? There's a death specifically on your head," Sha'am replied with an icy glare.

Rage welled up in her at the implication, and her muscles tensed in preparation to just charge the Dreamwarden and see how well the ancient night pony held up to having her head separated from her body. The rational part of her brain just barely held on, though, just barely. Assaulting a Dreamwarden in the dream realm was pointless. They couldn't be hurt that way.

Another thing struck her about what the Dreamwarden had repeatedly said, though it had taken time to register. "Do you mean it? I burned myself out?"

Sha'am settled back and seemed to lose some of the hostility. "Yes, I do. There's a price to be paid for pushing beyond your limits. Your magic is still there, but it is locked inside you forever. The flows that let you channel magic into the earth are beyond the hope of mending. No pony, but an alicorn, could safely channel that much magic into spellwork. You couldn't grow a piece of grass now, and you never shall again, nor shall you be able to feel anything within the earth again. You have your strength, your durability, your healing, perhaps longevity, but all the rest...you have no more power than you did as a human. Now you're just a muscle-bound brute. Damn fool of a pony."

She shook her head. She didn't want it to be true. Growing things, it was such a central part of her. This negated everything that her cutie mark stood for, negated so much of what she was. She could stand it if her power had just been weakened, even if it had been weakened down to an average pony, but to be completely cut off? What was an earth pony who had no connection to the earth?

As she started to cry, the night pony walked up to her and stared her in the eyes. "Sinking in now, how much you threw away? Was it worth it, earthshaper? Was it worth it to let yourself fall to less than your fellow earth ponies? What crops for the hungry will you grow now? Who will regrow the forests that have been consumed in flame? Not you, that's for certain. You will be sitting to the sides knowing that once you mattered, and now you don't."

Wild wiped her eyes and gave a sullen glare back at her tormentor. "Is that how you feel you matter? Making sure everyone else feels powerless? Is that why you once tortured ponies? Phobia banned you from doing physical torture, but you still can't resist finding ways of hurting others. You're pathetic, Sha'am."

"Being at the mercy of the world is pathetic," Sha'am countered with a sniff. "I spent well over a hundred years at its mercy before I finally tasted power. You have no idea what suffering is, to have everything you ever loved taken away time and time again. To have nothing you ever did make a difference. To know that if you died, no one would care, and you would die alone and unloved." Then something happened that Wild never thought she'd see. The Warden of Death started to cry. "All this while trying to be good, trying to be righteous, trying to be worthy of some kindness, and never getting anything but pain! There is no justice, there is only having the power not to be crushed under someone's heel, and you gave it up. Why?"

"You have no real body, so you can't cry unless you're choosing too," Wild said darkly. "Stop trying to get me to pity you. Because I'm not buying it."

"My form is still a reflection of me and how I feel," Sha'am replied mournfully. "This body is as real as anything else. You spend most of your life in the waking realm, so you believe it to be the true reality. My realm is no less true in its reality."

"If you feel that way, that just makes your past tortures all the more despicable," Wild growled. "But as for your woe-is-me story, your life couldn't have been all bad. Everyone has to deal with pain." She was still enraged at the Dreamwarden, but was trying to calm herself.

The night pony glared at her. "You're the despicable one. You killed your child."

Wild didn't even think; she just swung and hit nothing. The Warden of Death was just out of range of that swing.

"You know, out of all things, killing a child is the injustice I hate most. Children are the one thing I hold most sacred. The one thing you didn't protect," Sha'am continued, her calm belying her anger.

Wild charged forward and struck again, and again came up empty, with Sha'am just out of range.

"Out of all that suffer, there are two groups alone I have mercy for; the young, and the dying." A doll appeared, cradled lovingly in the night pony's wings. It was old and worn and covered in dirt. "I once thought I would have some happiness. My precious little baby, taken far too soon. You are a monster for killing yours."

Again she charged, again she came up just out of range of the Warden of Death.

"You want me to think you some paragon of virtue, and I some morally defunct villain, but your actions cost the life of your foal," Sha'am continued, as she gazed into the doll's black-button eyes. "I never married...no one wanted me for a bride. I had nothing. I was a slave in all but name to those filthy British colonialists. I traded my body to them for food and shelter. Her father wouldn't even acknowledge her, called her a savage mongrel."

Wild didn't charge again. There was no point other than to play into Sha’am’s attempt to torture her. She just stared and listened.

Sha'am kept staring down at the doll and stroked its head. "When the famine started, I gave her all my food, and ate but boiled leaves and grass for myself. The British, they didn't go hungry. I tried trading my body once again. They used me, but they gave me nothing. They laughed at my requests. My poor little girl died starving in my arms."

"I'm sorry that happened to you," Wild said in a low voice, trying to reign in her temper. Hearing this, she did feel some pity.

Sha'am didn't acknowledge that she heard anything, and gripped the doll close to her. "While I slept that night, they took her body, tossed it in a mass grave, like garbage. I didn't even get to give her proper cremation. All I was left was her doll and her empty bowl, and those became my symbols for life and death. Again a child grew within me. I lost that one to disease when they were young. They were always sickly, and I traded my body many times to try to get medicine for them. It earned me nothing. I could have stolen it, but was afraid of the wrath of the Gods for doing such an action. I had suffered so much, why invite more wrath?"

Wild was even sure what Sha'am's religion was. Probably some sort of Hindu belief, but she didn't know anything about the faith, so she didn't feel qualified to say anything. It still seemed an inconsistent moral code to her all the same.

"A new child grew in me, and I stopped trading my body. It was clear my body held no value," Sha'am said in a bitter voice. "Through it all, I worked hard, did whatever task I could. We barely got by. When he grew into a man, he married, and I thought at long last there might be some stability. Then the partition happened, and he died in the violence. He had a child with his wife, but her family took her and the child back to them and abandoned me. I was filthy, untouchable. I worked hard, I was honest, I did no unrighteous thing, but there was no reward."

"Again, I'm sor-"

Sha'am didn't stop speaking, "I tried going to the swamis, the gurus, the divine men. I wanted answers. I wanted to know why there was no justice. They gave me answers full of fluff. They told me that I was too focused on the troubles of this world. I tried a few times to accept their teachings; they gave me no peace. Their disciples mocked me for being a filthy woman covered in dirt. I came to a realization. This was a reflection of the divine, and the divine was hateful. I lost my faith in any divine justice."

"And you've been hateful ever since?"

"Oh, I tried to live a righteous life after that," the night pony laughed. "If there was no righteousness in the spiritual realm, then I would try to make righteousness in the material. I returned home. By some small chance, the house that I had endured the British in for so many years lay abandoned and decrepit, not fit for human habitation. I claimed it for my own. I spent decades repairing that house. Then my grandson came and tried to take it away from me, and his son after. My own blood betrayed me in my elder years. As I lay dying of flu in my bed, they sat celebrating it in the room outside my bedchamber."

"That was ETS, though, right?" Wild asked, realizing where the story had come.

"Yes," Death said with a smile. "They then tried to beat their child, and my righteous anger as a night pony flared, though I had not transformed yet. The spell had given me the strength I hadn't had in years, and I used that strength and rage to drive those parasites from my house." She looked up. "Then, the vision came, and it gave a picture of a perfect world. I rejected it. I rejected it with all my being, because I knew it was a lie. I hated the vision. Then soon after, Luna found me, curious about why I had rejected the vision. She then offered me power and purpose, and I grasped onto the one gift anyone had ever freely given me, the one chance at power and purpose I had ever had."

Wild stared at the night pony. "And you want to know why I sacrificed everything I have to spare a few lives? How could I risk my power?"

Sha'am stepped forward towards her. "Yes, I do."

Wild sat and considered the wretched Dreamwarden. "I think you're the one who's a fool if you don't know the answer to that after what you told me about your life."

"I was at the mercy of everyone because I was powerless," Sha'am hissed.

Wild stepped forward and locked eyes with the unworthy Dreamwarden. "And tell me, how would your life have gone if those in power had been kinder? If they had done the right thing? I had the power, and I had a choice. I could step back and let people die, or I could step up and spare them heartache. The powerful have a duty to the powerless, and it is a disgrace and tragedy that so many people in your life didn't understand that, but it is a greater tragedy that, after all that, you became the same. You are no better than the British who used you and threw you away. If I had to do it over again, I wouldn't change a thing I did even if I saved only one more person than if I held back. That is possibly one less mother wondering why their child was taken from them, one less child who is left without a parent, one less injustice."

"And what is one less injustice in a world of injustice? What will you do now that you aren't the one with the power?" Sha'am asked.

Wild looked at the doll in Sha'am's wings. "Maybe you should ask your daughter if it would have mattered if she was fed." She locked eyes with Sha'am again. "Get out of my dream, Sha'am Maut, and never return."

The night pony sneered, then vanished without a word. With her departure, the dream faded, and there was a return to pain.

"Oww…" She whispered as she woke.

"Welcome back to the waking world, it's amazing that you're still alive," Phobia said aloud from somewhere nearby.

"Don't move too much, sweet pea," her papa said from near Phobia. "We thought we were going to lose you. Your mother is beside herself, thinking that she killed you."

Her eyes popped open, and she winced as the lights stabbed at her eyes. "Mama? You have her?"

"She's in police custody," her papa replied, though she couldn't focus her eyes well enough to see him. "She seems to be thinking clearly again. Twilight Sparkle and several other mages are looking her over, trying to figure out how to fix her."

She started to sigh with relief, but that brought on a fit of coughing, which in turn racked her body with pain. She didn't think she had ever hurt this much.

"Take it easy. The doctors say you'll recover if you keep healing at the pace you are, but you need to rest," her papa chided. "Anyone else would be dead, they said, or if not dead a vegetable instead. They said that you might be up and on your hooves in a few days, unbelievable as that sounds. Thank God for your magic making you so durable and resilient."

"Is it true...that I burnt my magic out?" She asked in a whisper. "How am I still healing?"

"You burnt out the flows that let you channel it outside your body and into the ground. The magic is still inside you, though, still healing you," Phobia explained. "It won't be able to heal those flows, though. It can only heal physical wounds. You have your magically powered strength, durability, and healing, but everything else is gone forever. Your brothers used to joke you were The Hulk mixed with Poison Ivy from comic books; you're more just The Hulk now."

Her eyes watered as she feebly tried to reach out with her powers. There was nothing, no sensation of anything beyond herself. It was like pushing against an impenetrable wall, and it reminded her of her first days as a pony where she had tried to grow things with no success, before her rage and frustration had unleashed her powers violently into the soil. She would have rather lost her strength and durability than her powers to interact with the earth. Of course, if it had been the other way around, she'd be dead right now.

"At...l-least I did it," she said weakly. "I protected everyone."

"Catherine…" her papa said, and she could hear taking a deep breath. "Your mother's resonance is badly damaged. They have to maintain the temporary transformation, or she'll die. They think they made it so her mind is stabilized, but…she might be dependant on absorbing magic for the rest of her life to live."

Wild blinked away more tears. "At-at least she's alive. Everyone's alive."

"Not everyone…" her papa replied, and she could hear him crying.

She squeezed her eyes shut. "Who? How many?" She dreaded hearing it, but she had to.

"This isn't a good time-" Phobia began.

"Who and how many?!" She shouted through the pain.

"Tonya, for sure," her papa answered. "She was at ground zero of that explosion. It would have turned her to dust. There were members of the military there too, and they're still getting numbers for them. There was a lot of the city that was destroyed, and they are still searching the rubble. Jessie and Bill…they're alive, for now...but…"

She cried harder. Tonya, Jessie, Bill, who knew how many others? She wasn't exactly friends with Tonya, but she didn't want the mare dead. Bill was only in the situation he was in because she had pushed for creating this magic. Jessie was just a foal who had her whole life ahead of her, who had looked up to her. She could add another to that list too. "My foal…"

"I'm sorry, Wild," Phobia said in a low voice, confirming what she already knew.

There was a sound of a door opening. "Phobia… I need your help. We've done all we can to heal her, but we may have only one option left. I need help only a Dreamwarden can provide to talk to her," an unfamiliar voice said.

"I understand," Phobia replied, and then could be heard hastily departing.

"Rosetta?" Wild asked, remembering her sister.

"Your sister and her foals are fine," her papa assured her hastily. "She is sleeping off an extreme drain of magic, but they said she'll recover fully with rest. Amanda and Tom are helping watch the foals. Sunset Blessing is in federal custody, so she obviously can't watch them. Crystal Dreams is unavailable to right now too. She's also getting medical care. She has a concussion."

She blinked away more tears at that small piece of good news. Right now, she felt so powerless and small, right after having stretched her powers beyond their limits. She had said no one else was going to die, but she had failed, and that hurt far more than the loss of her powers. She rolled over and wept; wept for Tonya, those who may yet be found dead, for Bill… for Jessie… and for her unborn foal who she would never get to even meet. If she could trade herself for all of them, she would, but the world was not a fair place, and it had decided to keep a broken earth pony over all those lives that could have had so much promise.

Sha'am Maut was right about one thing. There was no natural order of justice. The natural order was cruel and callous. Wild vowed to herself; she would continue to fight that natural order, though. She might not have her powers anymore, but she would never surrender to just allowing tragedies like this to happen. Even if she didn't always succeed, it was the duty of everyone to rise up against the universe's cruelty and shout defiance. That was what it was to be a thinking sentient being, to be able to fight the natural order, and she'd fight till there was no breath left in her.

Her earth pony powers might be gone, but while she had life, she was not powerless. She'd find new ways of making a difference and helping others make a difference. She would not allow things like this just to happen. This she swore to herself, and to Tonya, to Bill, to Jessie, to everyone else, and her lost foal. This tragedy had not broken her resolve; it had been hardened. She would make a difference.

Jessie groaned as she woke up. Her whole body hurt, really hurt. She opened her eyes and winced at the lights above her. There was a cumbersome blanket holding her down that was rough and smelled funny; the bed wasn't very comfortable either. It wasn't her bed. How had she gotten here? She couldn't remember.

"Don't move around too much. You're lucky to be alive. A lot of people today aren't so lucky."

She turned her head, and her gaze fell on Phobia Remedy. Phobia Remedy wasn't looking very pretty like usual, her mane was a mess, her face had no trace of makeup, and she wore nothing at all. The night pony sat in a chair next to Jessie's bed, and her eyes were red like she'd been crying. The Dreamwarden was usually so calm and a pillar of strength for those around her, but at the moment, the Dreamwarden looked vulnerable and hurt.

Before Jessie could ask what was wrong, the Dreamwarden continued. "So many think that the scariest thing is the unknown. Do you know what's more terrifying than the unknown?"

Jessie wanted to shake her head or respond, but she felt too weak. Instead, she waited for the Dreamwarden to give the answer.

A tear ran down the Dreamwarden's face as she continued. "The scariest thing is knowing, knowing, and being completely helpless to do anything about it."

The night pony turned to her. "You saved my foals, and my sisters, so you have my gratitude. I knew how dangerous Rosetta's mother was. Not just her, I knew about Poly Glot, I suspected how dangerous the protests were going to get...but I'm a Dreamwarden, and that means that I have to keep secrets safe...even secrets that would save so many lives if I told. I have no choice; it is part of my being, and part of my eternal nightmare."

The sound of hooves clicking against the floor, and the door opening followed. "I have brought her, and will be standing by, just in case I'm needed. I hope that I'm not," a new voice said as it entered the room. "Little one, I have a candy I made just for you. It will make you feel better."

The hooves approached, and a leathery wing came into her vision, holding what looked like a peppermint candy. "Let me put this in your mouth," the voice instructed. "I promise you will feel better if you do. My treats banish pain and hurt."

Jessie cracked her mouth open as much as she could, even that hurt. The wing immediately put the candy in her muzzle and pushed her mouth shut. It was a peppermint, but it was unlike any peppermint she ever tasted. It was the best thing she'd ever had. Whoever this other night pony was, she was a good cook. As the candy started to melt in her mouth, the pain and hurt started to subside. It didn't go away completely, but she felt she could move around now.

She slowly picked her head up and was able to see who else was in the room. Another night pony, with her head and shoulders covered in jewelry--with one chain even extending to a ring on a nostril, looked kindly at her. "See? Doesn't that feel better? I have brought you a guest. She has a crucial thing to talk to you about. I hope you listen to her, because I don't want you to have any more need of me. Foals so young requiring me breaks my heart. If anyone should be spared the cruelty of the world, it should be children and foals."

Jessie looked past the strange night pony towards the door, and her eyes went wide. It was Twilight Sparkle! The Twilight Sparkle, come to see her!

Phobia Remedy left her seat and looked at Jessie. "My sister and I will leave the two of you to talk in peace. We will be close by, watching. If you have any need for us, just call out."

Phobia Remedy had sisters other than Jackie and Jordan? She never heard of any other sisters mentioned, or read about any. Who was this other night pony? Before she could think about it too long, Twilight Sparkle approached, and she noticed that the two night ponies had left without her notice; they were speedy.

"Jessica Middleton?" Twilight Sparkle asked as she stepped forward.

"It's just Jessie, my friends call me Jessie," Jessie responded.

The alicorn smiled. "And you can call me just Twilight. I'm glad you're greeting me as a friend, and I hope we can be good friends. Your friends told me about what you did. You're the best friend that they could ask for."

Jessie looked around her, trying to ignore the hurt that was still numbly there. "How did I get here? What happened?"

Twilight frowned. "You had a big fall. You're lucky to be alive at all. My best guess is you hit a lot of branches on your way down, and that lessened the final impact."

Memory came flooding back to her. "Jordan, the others, are they-"

"They're fine," Twilight assured her. "Rescue teams managed to get them out of that tree. It took a long time for poor little Jordan to calm down after we got her down. Not only was she scared about hanging for her life in a tree, she saw you plummet to what she was sure was your death while trying to save her. You're that little filly's hero."

Jessie remembered more. "The other pony, the one that was chasing us. Did he-"

"He's...a complicated situation," Twilight said with a grimace. "He's alive too. We're trying to do what we can for him and Jean Martinez. He was hurt pretty badly, and they both have other complications. They're in their right minds again, though. He says he's very sorry, for everything."

"Everyone is okay?" Jessie asked, as her ears perked up.

"That's...a bigger issue," Twilight said slowly. "Your friends are all safe and sound. Everyone who was at that school is still alive. We are lucky about that, too. Some of the floors collapsed, and the ponies inside were not in a position to get to safety, they were all unconscious." Twilight looked at her with a sad expression. "However, I'm here to talk about you. Out of everyone who was there, you're the one still in danger."

Jessie's ears fell back down. "What do you mean? I don't feel good, but since I just fell really far, that makes sense."

Twilight flapped her wings and landed on the side of the bed. She then touched a hoof to Jessie's and spoke softly with her head lowered. "Having to tell a foal this is… painful to do… Jessie… you're dying. Your injuries are too severe, and it is beyond what doctors can fix with medicine or magic."

Jessie shook her head in disbelief. "Th-that can't be true. I'm fine. I just hurt a lot. I can't be dying."

Twilight started to well up with tears. "It's true. I wouldn't scare you by saying so if it wasn't. Phobia and her friends are helping you as best they can right now, but they can't stop what's happening. That's why I'm here. There is one final option to save you, but it has to have your consent. I can't do it without getting that from you, no matter how much I might want to. This has to be your choice."

"I… I don't want to die," Jessie sobbed.

"No one wants you to. Let me explain to you what the option is," Twilight said as she took a deep breath. "I want to attempt to rehumanize you. I have never attempted a rehumanization spell on a pony that has no memory of ever being human, or a transformed that has spent basically their whole life as a pony. I guess that makes it more a humanization spell than rehumanization. I can't say for sure how it will go. This would be a first in many cases. I only think I can do it because we've learned a lot in the last six years, and your aunt's spell gave me some additional insights into this type of magic. I need to be honest, even with all that, I can't be sure it will work."

"The spell that made Ms. Jean crazy?" Jessie said in terror.

Twilight shook her head rapidly. "No, I did borrow some things from your aunt's spell, but she had already resolved that part before I even came here. This would be different… it's permanent. You have a right to know; this is making a human form for you with far less template than anyone's ever done. As a result, I don't know for sure if there will be side effects, or how severe those will be if there are side effects. That's if this even works at all."

Jessie just sat. She thought she was going to hyperventilate. The spell that had hurt Ms. Amanda and Mr. Tom, that had made Ms. Jean and that other person crazy, the one they say changed who you were so much it was like you were a different person; they were talking about using that on her. Only this time, it would have no going back from it.

Twilight touched a wing to her. "I understand why you're scared. Given everything you've heard and seen, I would be shocked if you weren't. I know more about magic than anyone, and even I don't know what the outcome will be. I promise that I'll do everything in my power to make sure you don't get hurt by this."

Jessie's lip trembled as she looked at the alicorn. "And no matter what, I..I'm going to die if I don't do this?"

Twilight looked down. "There's a chance you might pull through, a slim one. If you do, you may end up crippled and in pain for the rest of your life. You have the option of taking that risk. If you do, then we'll do everything we can for you."

Jessie stared down. What kind of choice was that? This wasn't fair.

They sat in silence for a moment before Twilight broke it. "I have listened to people while I have been here. While your aunt had...questionable reasons for wanting to do this type of magic, Wild Growth dreamed of being able to help those who were hurting or sick. I think what she wanted is a wonderful thing. Things might not have gone right so far, but what she wanted to accomplish is still a great thing to want. Right now, you're the one who can help realize that dream, but if you don't want to, no one is going to make you."

She tried to calm herself down and think about it. That was harder than it seemed. The room seemed to blur and refocus as she did. Twilight looked around with a worried expression. The alicorn must be afraid that she wouldn't be able to think straight with everything being said. The fact she didn't want to disappoint one of her idols helped her focus a little more.

"If I don't do this, and I live, what kind of stuff will happen?" Jessie asked slowly. "You said that you don't know for sure what happens if you try the spell. What will happen in the other case?"

Twilight gave her an astonished look for a second then smiled. "They told me how smart you are. That's part of why the decision was made that you could give informed consent at your age. The fact that you are weighing your options tells me that we were right in thinking that. This isn't something you can feel forced into doing." Twilight's smile slipped. "If you pull through, we have the option of adding prosthetics to you in many areas. This ranges from limbs to organs. Equestria was fairly advanced in prosthetic technology, and Earth is advanced in other areas of it. Our two worlds' doctors have been talking together and are making better ones than ever before because of that. They would need to be changed out and refitted as you grow older, but they should make you functional. We might even try adding some things to make life even easier. I'm not sure if you'll be pain-free, though."

That was interesting, and having metal or plastic body parts might not be too bad. She'd seen science fiction shows where people had things that she'd have to strap on for built into them. That might be fun to have, but not if she was in pain all the time. "What about my parents? What do they say?"

Twilight hung her head. "At the moment, all they know is that we are doing everything we can for you. This is your decision, not theirs, even though they'd normally get a say. I'm trying to avoid pressuring you, and don't want your parents pressuring you one way or another. This doesn't work at all if you don't make a willing choice. If you decide to do it, we'll tell them then, and will do it even if they object. If you decide not to do it, then there is no reason they need ever to find out it was an option, just in case they try to pressure you to go through with it. Also, you have to understand, if you don't pull through, and they find out that there was an option that could have saved you...we can't do that to them."

That was something she hadn't considered; how this would all impact her family, and her friends. She feared death, but she wasn't at the mercy of that fear. If she had been, she couldn't have saved Jordan, but her family fearing her death was a whole other issue. Thinking about how this would impact them, the math said there was only one right answer. It was better to be sure she lived. It would hurt them far more to see her die than to have to relearn how to deal with a different version of her. Wild Growth was willing to deal with a different version of her mom, so her mom wouldn't suffer, and even Ms. Amanda had said that it was worth it in some cases. She'd miss the chance to learn to use her earth pony magic, maybe...she couldn't be sure how it would impact how she thought, or if it wouldn't do other unpredictable things that would have her worse off than if she had to deal with prosthetics, but Twilight wouldn't be suggesting this if she didn't think it gave her a better chance at living. She didn't want to die, and she didn't want to have her family hurt because she died.

"I'll do the spell," she said at last.

The dream realm was a vast expanse, and though it was filled with hundreds of millions of minds, it was a lonely place when the concept of never being able to leave it stretched out to her. This was where she would spend eternity. There was no regret about what had led her to this, but the full ramifications of it were painful to contemplate.

Sunset was awake...or dead. It was a frightening thing not to be able to tell which. When a being was awake, she was blind to them, and until she got word from some sleeping mind that knew or that being went to sleep, there would always be that fear she'd never see them again. Phobia moved between consciousness and sleep regularly right now, and Phobia would tell her if Sunset was dead; at least she hoped Phobia would.

Being an undead Dreamwarden sucked so much. The others didn't want her visiting any dreams, aside from Sunset's, until they worked out an explanation on why she was added to their ranks. That left her sitting here formless with nothing to do but watch dreams; that or contemplate the vast amount of memories she now possessed and the horrors within. At some point soon, she would, but for now, she'd try to keep such things from her mind.

"I'm sorry this was thrust upon you so suddenly. You know we had little choice. It was audacious of you to accept.." Sha’am stated out of the emptiness.

Tonya directed her awareness at her fellow undead, though there was no real direction. They were both everywhere yet nowhere. "It's ironic. I always hated the idea you were always watching as I dreamwalked. Now I'm stuck with you as my company for eternity, you and Ghadab."

"You're mistaken, little sister. You won't be spending eternity with me. You're my replacement."

If Tonya had eyes, they'd be wide right now. She briefly contemplated making an avatar just to go wide-eyed. "What? But you're like me, immortal. You can't go away."

"Poor filly, you're wrong. I intend to bind myself in an eternal dream, never to interact again with the world. The world doesn't need seven Dreamwardens, and of all of us, I'm the one who should go."

"Why? Why so soon? I don't want to be left alone here. Even having you is something."

"The others will join you in time, and Ghadab is here, so don't worry yourself about that. As for why me...I was a tool made to fight a problem that never was. I thought for a long time that the need for me would come, that you'd all see I was right, but it has become clear that I'm a creature unsuited for the type of world that currently exists. Luna thought she needed at least one pony who would do the hard things required of a harsh world. A pony suited for a situation like the war the night ponies and the Equestrians fought over a thousand years ago. That world never came about, and I'm too unbending to change. I need to go and leave it to you others. The six of you are better suited for this right now, even Ghadab."

It shouldn't bother her that Sha'am was going to do this. Sha'am was a horrible pony that admitted on her own shouldn't have been Dreamwarden. Yet despite that, the idea of losing some constant in the vast stretch of what was to come was heartbreaking. Could you mourn losing a monster? It was selfishness that motivated her to feel this way, but she still wanted to cry all the same.

"How long till you do it?" She asked in concern.

“Being that I am no longer needed, I shall be gone in just a short time,” Sha’am answered. “Why are you so worried? You would know all you need to know to do your duties if you but chose to pull the information from your memory.”

"I'm not ready to do that. I'm still in shock from the binding. I don't want to dive back into those memories yet."

"Do or don’t, in time, it will all come naturally, whether you chose to learn or not actively. You're a Dreamwarden, you cannot avoid your nature,” Sha’am said callously before her tone softened. “But you have time, and this is but your first day of many."

"Don't remind me."

"I don't need to. Have you put thought into your title yet?"

"Didn't we just say this was my first day? I haven't had time to do that. I still haven't fully adjusted to the idea I'm dead."

"I knew I was Death before becoming Dreamwarden."

"You had time to consider it. As you said, this just got dumped on me out of necessity all in one day, in a little over one hour. Forgive me if I don't have it all thought out."

"You will do fine. Don't fret. You may have been chosen out of necessity, but you were on the list of candidates they had for my heir before now, even though you hadn't been at the top of the list."

Shock rippled through her being, though there was no physical way of showing it. "Me? I was put on trial for mind control and attempted murder. Why would you ever consider me for the job?"

A sensation almost like a chuckle came from Sha'am. "I had no bearing in the choice. If you wish to know, then ask them."

"And we will answer," Ghadab's voice joined in. "You possess anger, but not for yourself. Your anger is directed at the harm done to others. Even when you committed your crime, your anger was righteous, even if your methods were not."

"And you learned how your passions could lead you to folly as a result," Yinyu chimed in. "We all have strong feelings that can overwhelm us and do things we might regret later. You learned this the hard way, but you did learn this."

"And what do you fear?" Phobia asked. "You fear others being hurt more than anything. You had to struggle to even stand up for your needs because you were so concerned with the needs of others. You are selfless."

"And do you not always strive for peace?" Psychic continued. "We have a hard task moving on from the mistakes we made following Sha'am, and the distrust for us that was sewn when we failed to stand up to her early on. We need a Dreamwarden that will strive for reconciliation and understanding with the world. A clean break from Sha'am. You are such a person."

"You keep secrets safe," was the lone remark from Krik, a massive monologue by his standards.

The sensation of chuckling came again from Sha'am. "You meet their standards. But since we are all here, it is time for me to say goodbye. I had hoped to hear your title before I went, but there is no need. I now cease to matter."

"Will you not wait for Luna to arrive?" Phobia asked. "She has her regrets about you, but she will mourn your passing as much as us."

"There is no need," Sha'am replied. Tonya was unsure if the Warden of Death meant there was no need to wait or that there was no need to mourn.

"For what it Is worth... sister, I'm sorry it had to come to this," Ghadab said in a surprisingly kind tone, without a trace of rudeness.

"I wish you had just taken Luna's offer," Yinyu said mournfully. "We gave you a chance. Why'd you have to be so stubborn?"

"Because I would not let you take my power from me. I also would not let you go without a strong hoof," Sha'am replied. "Ghadab is here now, and at least Phobia shows a willingness to put her hoof down...even if I ended up being the recipient of that. Lastly, I'll not have my punishment taken from me."

She allowed herself to remember what she had gained from Sha'am's memories. Out of all of them, she had the fullest view of Sha'am, due to having access to more of those memories. There was so much heartache, so much anger, and recently so much fear. Sha'am was deathly afraid of what would come next, even though she was putting up such a brave face about it. A pony that had never learned the meaning of compassion because for so long she had never been shown it. In the last few years, when she'd finally been shown it and had access to see it, she couldn't recognize it for what it was. It was one of the saddest things she had ever seen.

"Everything doesn't have to be about punishment and power. Why can't you see that?" Tonya asked sadly, hoping to make one last attempt to break through to the lost pony.

"Because there's nothing to see," Sha'am snapped. "There is no more point in me lingering, with all of you trying to give me some misguided life lesson. I have one more request, and I shall be gone."

"What is your request?" Phobia asked.

"The dying, someone must care for them now that I'm gone," Sha'am replied. "Give them peace in their final moments. The peace I would have been denied."

"I'll take up that task," Tonya said without even thinking. "It's maybe the one worthwhile thing you did. I won't let that little bit of good fade away."

"Good," Sha'am said in a mellow tone. "I hope you have no need of one like me; if you do, the world may be lost. Goodbye to you all." And with that, Sha'am's presence in the dream realm just ceased to be. There was no great feeling of it shifting, or anything to mark the event; she was just gone.

Shock rippled through Tonya and the others at the abruptness of it all, quickly followed by sorrow. Sha'am Maut was now in the eternal dream. An immortal, a being that could not be hurt by any normal means, was now gone. Even knowing her nature, it was a loss to them. This was the first time a Dreamwarden in their universe had gone into the eternal dream since before Joss, the first in billions of years to face a fate worse than oblivion. Tonya noted that in two-hundred years, she might very well be the next to face that same fate.

Something tugged at her awareness, like an itch needing to be scratched, and it took her a second to realize that some dreamer was calling out to her, as if they already knew she was a Dreamwarden. Who would be doing that? No one should know she had become a Dreamwarden yet. It was an unspoken agreement between all Dreamwardens that they did not ignore calls upon them. She focused on the source, and was shocked to discover it was a human, a human that had something very inhuman also in the dream with them. She quickly browsed through the memories she'd recently gained on pure instinct and put a name to the human--Jennifer Tanner, and the other entity she identified as the Narrative.

There was no strict rule that a Dreamwarden had to answer a call upon them, but it was something that the Dreamwardens had generally accepted they should do. The sensation from the others told her that she had their permission to go to who called to her. She formed up an avatar of her recently vaporized body, and sent it into the dream. It was a relatively simple setting—a plain grassy field under the night sky. What appeared to be two matching women in their early twenties stood waiting for her. One with her arms crossed the other, looking almost giddy. They may have appeared the same, but her senses told her that the giddy one was no human or pony.

"You called?" She asked the pair. "I'm not exactly sure how you knew about me already. Is this something to do with your powers?"

The human shrugged her shoulders and pointed to her seeming twin. "Talk to her. She's the one that was insisting on getting your attention. She says you're the new Dreamwarden that's replacing Sha'am Maut, is that true?"

Tonya nodded. "It's true. I literally just started, and she just left. It hasn't been the best day ever, so forgive me if I get a little testy here and there. I kind of just died."

That seemed to shock the human. "Um, sorry to hear that...I guess. You're looking pretty good, all things considered. I don't know you beyond what was in the story; you've always just been the Faithful Attendant to me."

"Thanks," Tonya replied flatly, as she recalled Twilight Sparkle using that term in passing. "And my name is Tonya Blessing."

The Narrative didn't seem like it could contain itself any longer. "That was quite an exciting chapter! Sacrifice, tragic loss, heroic deeds, the bad guys vanquished; I'm only sad that it will be a long time till we can tell that story."

Jennifer shook her head. "I apologize, the Narrative gets so much more animated when we're in a dream. It isn't this bubbly normally."

"Did you have a purpose for summoning me other than reminding me what I just went through?" Tonya asked as the grass around them wilted with her mood.

"I wanted to tell you I wanted to help with the Dreamwardens' problem," the Narrative said enthusiastically.

Tonya raised an eyebrow. "You'll need to be more specific than that. Dreamwardens have a lot of problems."

"I can agree to that," Jennifer Tanner muttered.

"Oh, don't be such grumpy gusses," the Narrative said to them.

"Grumpy gusses?" Jennifer asked in confusion. "Aren't you supposed to be borrowing things from me? I've never used that term in my life."

"You spend way too much time with your aunt. She's rubbed off on you too much," the Narrative scolded.

"Can we get to the point? Not that I don't mind having company other than Ghadab, but I'm not in the best mood right now," Tonya growled.

The Narrative clapped her hands. "I can help you when you bury yourself in the Story!"

"When I do what now?" Tonya asked in confusion.

The Narrative hopped in place. "You call it the eternal dream, but it is the Story. I can help you. As I'm helping Sha'am Maut right now."

Tonya narrowed her eyes. "Helping her how?"

The Narrative stood up straight and gave her a sympathetic look. "It used to be that when Dreamwardens put themselves into the Story, they drifted from one life to the next—experiencing every joy and sorrow as a helpless passenger. But I can direct where you go so that you can see the good things, experience the great chapters. I can also make it so you lose yourself in the story and forget that you're just a passenger along for the telling. I can make you believe you are the lives you experience."

"Can you get us out of the eternal dream?" Tonya asked. A way out sounded great.

The Narrative shook its head, and seemed to lose some of its pep. "I'm sorry, I don't know how to do that. I'm not even sure that's a good idea. I can do my best to make it a good thing instead of a bad thing, though. Eternity is a long time, and I don't want anyone to suffer through it, not even the Warden of Death."

Tonya looked up at the false sky. "Thank you, and we appreciate your assistance. Sha'am believed that existence was endless misery. I want to believe that life can be wonderful." She then smiled. "Sha'am getting a taste of wonderful lives is fitting. Maybe she can finally learn the truth, even if it doesn't matter anymore."

"And what is your truth, Dreamwarden?" The Narrative asked curiously. "Your story has another two-hundred years yet. What kind of story will it be?"

Tonya lowered her head. "I suppose that's an important question. I don't know."

"Truly?" The Narrative asked. "You're still who you were, just more now. What does the Faithful Attendant do with the power of a Dreamwarden?"

Tonya blinked. "I know I want to be kind. I don't want to be like Sha'am."

"Not being a psychopath is a good start," Jennifer replied.

Tonya looked at the human. Without even meaning to, she gleaned waves of information about her from her mind. None of this could be used against Jenny, as she preferred to be called, but it gave her insight. "I...want to help bring humans and ponies together. To open a dialogue. Sunset had been moving to the idea that humans and ponies were equals, and seeing what I have seen in my binding; I have to accept that my views about pony superiority before were wrong."

"Helping facilitate dialogue that helps bring people together, like an arbiter," the Narrative replied.

"Arbiter…" Tonya said slowly like she was tasting the word. "That will be my name."

"Well, suppose that sounds slightly more intimidating than Tonya for a Dreamwarden name," Jenny observed. "So, are you going to be the Warden of Diplomacy then?"

Arbiter shook her head. "No, it needs to be more hopeful than that." She sat and considered what was important to her. She was still herself; this had to be representative of her, not some new identity she wanted to lose herself in. After a moment, thinking it came to her. "Song...in my darkest moments, I always turned to song to look for hope. I want to help inspire hope, and in honor of that, I'm going to be the Warden of Song."

"I hope you don't make us all sit around singing kumbaya in our dreams," Jenny replied in what was supposed to be mock horror.

The thing about that was Arbiter could feel the young woman's mind, and knew that the idea was entirely unappealing. She didn't mean to feel that out; it was as natural as existing. Even now, she was feeling out half-a-billion other minds, even if she wasn't focused on them. It was impossible to put into words what it was like to be aware of all that. What was more impossible to describe was the fact that she couldn't act on the majority of what she was sensing. Luckily, she hadn't planned on trying to encourage the world to sing kumbaya; otherwise she might be stuck doing it even though she knew how unappealing it would be, at least until someone verbally objected to it in order for her to follow the standard patterns of reconsidering. Making any big decision as a Dreamwarden was a maddening concept due to all this. Even as she considered these things, they became second nature. The job would not allow her to avoid becoming one with it, no more than she could stop herself as thinking like a pony after ETS transformed her.

"No, I don't plan on doing anything like that," she said with a chuckle. As she was saying that, she felt a mind she had been waiting to enter into her realm. She didn't want to be rude to Jenny by leaving, and she didn't need to be. She simply made a fresh avatar of herself in that other dream so she could focus on both. Again, it came naturally. She was a Dreamwarden, and could not avoid doing things as a Dreamwarden.

The other dream was a barren, charred wasteland, with blazing fires and sulfurous smoke. She looked around the dream and quickly banished the hellscape, a task that she had never been able to do while living, but now did as second nature. With the clearing of the fire and brimstone, she revealed herself to her wife.

"Well, that's good to hear," Jenny replied in the other dream, unaware that she was no longer the sole focus of attention.

Sunset looked up at her in complete grief and agony. Not aware that what she was seeing wasn't some specter created in her mind. "Tonya...I'm so sorry."

She walked over to her wife and touched a wing to her. "You don't need to be sorry. I made a conscious decision to do this. It was for the greater good. Poly Glot could not be allowed to access the magic in the Chorus. Too many people would have been hurt or killed."

In Jenny's dream, the young woman stepped towards her with a worried expression. "So what are you going to do to try to bring everyone together? I don't want anyone dealing with any Dreamwarden mind control."

In Sunset's dream, the unicorn stared at her with grief. "Of course, I would try to rationalize it. I always try to rationalize things, and see where it gets me? See where it got her? I can't do this anymore. I need to take responsibility for what I have done."

She was in both dreams independently, and in all others--even if they didn't know it. Being a Dreamwarden, she always was, and neither was less a focus than the other. Sha'am had been right; she couldn't fail to be this.

"I still need to think about it. I have nothing but time, at least for the next two hundred years," she said to Jenny. All while speaking to Sunset as well. "Sunset, my sunshine...I'm really here. I'm not some figment of your imagination."

"No, you're not here, much as I want you to be. You're dead, and it is all my fault!" Sunset cried out, and buried her face into her forelegs to cry.

"You've got an uphill battle doing that," Jenny continued. "People are wary of Dreamwardens. You might be a fresh face, but you're still just another ultra-powerful pony to most humans."

She stood and frowned in consideration at Jenny, as she sat and gripped her wife tight. "You have a point. I need to be something other than a pony. I can't call myself a pony anymore anyway," she said to Jenny, all while crying into her wife's fur. "Sunset...I'm real. I became a Dreamwarden just before the explosion. I'm here, just… stuck forever in the dream realm as a permanent part of it."

"Mom, she's really here," Phobia said, as she materialized an avatar into Sunset's dream.

"All the previous Dreamwardens already have divine avatars," Jenny replied. "That doesn't seem to help them much."

Sunset reached a shaking hoof out to her. "You're really here? Like a spirit...or an angel?"

"I have an idea for a form," Arbiter said, and quickly transformed her avatar in Jenny's dream. Where once there was an orange pegasus with purple mane and tail, now stood her human form, with orange wings and purple hair. She tapped on some pony ears as well, and clothed herself in an orange robe. In her hands, she summoned a long bronze staff.

In Sunset's dream, she remained a pony and nuzzled her wife. "I told you, I'm a Dreamwarden now. I'll always be here for you when you sleep."

Jenny stared at her with a slight frown. "Are you going for an angel or a partial?"

Sunset looked at her with tear-filled eyes. "You promise you'll always be here?"

"Yes," she replied to both. Jenny slapped a hand against her own face at the tired response to an either-or question. Sunset gripped her tighter at hearing the promise.

At that moment, she heard one of Sunset's former contractors called out for her, unaware that she was now a Dreamwarden, and at the same time, felt Luna enter into the dream realm. Luna would be hurt that Sha'am had left without a goodbye, and would be curious about her and her selection. Poor Silver Eclipse had merely been trying to search for her as he would any other dreamwalker, and was going to be dealing with the headache that came from trying to find something that was everywhere. Both needed her attention.

Without breaking her conversation with Jenny, or her wife, she made new avatars, and new focuses. There was no time to settle into the job, and the world would not let her take the time. It didn't matter though; she was a Dreamwarden, and she was the job. She just hoped she could make herself something more than that.

Author's Note

Yeah, Sha'am is no dramatic death, but her exiting out of the universe had been planned for some time. She has escaped justice more than once, and I wanted her to have a justice done to her that was more than simple retribution for her crimes.

Epilogue will be released tomorrow. 9:00 a.m. EST.

Epilogue: Stories Close, New Stories Begin

(One week after the disaster)

Luna emerged into the foreign dream realm and looked briefly at the various stars that filled the void. She was merely a powerful dreamwalker here, the most powerful among them, but no Dreamwarden of this realm. That fact made experiencing this realm both a nostalgic return to her days before she was Dreamwarden and disconcerting as it made her feel vulnerable.

Ghadab and the new Dreamwarden Arbiter were certainly watching her right now. They were stripped of mortal form and at their full might, might that she didn't even match back home. The others might be watching her as well. They knew why she was here, and it had taken some convincing to allow her to do what she came to do.

Not wishing to waste any more time, she conjured up a private dream, one that the Dreamwardens had agreed not to look into. Little changed in her vision, as it was merely the endless stars of the dream realm spreading before her. A casual observer would have noticed nothing, but this expanse was now her private dream. With that done, she waited patiently for her visitor.

That wait did not take long. The pearl-colored draconic creature materialized from the darkness before her and gave her a nod in greeting. "Thank you for agreeing to meet with me, and thank you for convincing the Dreamwardens to give us privacy. They are so paranoid about my activities, never allowing me a moment’s peace in this realm no matter how long I walked it before them."

"I have heard that you have not given them much reason to trust you, nor have you given me such reason," Luna said carefully. "I'll hear you out. What is it that you want to keep from them?"

Triss sat and spoke calmly. "The unicorn Sunset Blessing has been imprisoned by her government. I would like you to advocate for her freedom."

Luna raised an eyebrow at this. "Why? She may have broken many of their laws, some quite terrible ones at that. What pressing need is there to release her?"

"She has always had the potential for greatness; you yourself have seen it. Now that she has been broken and humbled, it's time to start rebuilding her, without the darkness that once got in the way of seeing her potential truly realized. She was on a dark path, one that caused far too much misery, but now she has a chance to be on one that could bring about much more goodness and hope--if she is given the guidance and the opportunity to do so."

"So you wish to see her redeemed," Luna replied in a low voice. She then sat down. "I am sympathetic to the idea of redemption. I have been in her position and recently have seen others like Starlight Glimmer be in the same as well. But she is not one of my subjects, and my interference with the American justice system would not be welcomed. If this were Equestria, perhaps I could sway Sister’s judgment, but it is not."

"Petitioning and vouching for her pathway to redemption are not crimes, even under the treaty you hold with the nations of Earth," Triss reminded. "I ask only that you try."

Luna's eyes narrowed. "Why her? Among all the ponies of Earth? There are others far more deserving of an opportunity for redemption who haven't been accused of such troubling crimes."

Triss looked upwards at the stars. "But not many who could rise so high from the ashes. None that could do so much when set upon the right path."

"You're seeking another ascended being," Luna said flatly.

"I hope for it. I will not push ascension on one who isn't ready for it, no matter what the Dreamwardens may falsely believe," Triss said firmly, then her head lowered, and her tone became melancholy. "I did that once. Joss will always stand as my deepest shame and regret. Sunset Blessing may never be ready for that great step, even if she is given this opportunity. There are reasons why others haven't joined me in all these years. I am not so hasty to see another mistake happen. However, she can do much to help the world, even if she is never ready to ascend. I'm asking for you to help give her the chance to do so."

"You ask a lot of me," Luna replied.

"You asked far greater of your sister, but Celestia chose to trust that there was still good in you when you became Nightmare Moon, and she chose to spend a thousand years alone waiting for the chance to see you as you are now. Twilight Sparkle risked similar when she took a leap of faith to trust Starlight Glimmer; would Earth not have been consumed by Sunset Shimmer without her aid? Can you not see a path of redemption for one not so lost as Sunset Blessing?” Triss questioned passionately. “Please, I truly believe that the future will be darker without her aid. If we expect ever to see a sunrise, then first must come a Sunset."

Luna sat and considered. "The problem arises that much of what she is capable of doing will forever be impeded by her reputation, even if she should reform. Sunset Blessing is a leader with no one to lead, a researcher with nothing to research, and a pony of boundless drive with no goals left to reach for. If a redemption had happened years before now, she could perhaps capitalize on all her traits, but now this seems impossible."

Triss actually smiled. "You underestimate her." The dragon-like creature's tail twitched. "There is another request I would make. I was once head of the Hall of Teachers back on my homeworld. More than anything else, that is what I am at my heart. I want my chance to teach again, to inspire mortals to greater heights, and to help the greatest become all they can be. Mortals such as Sunset Blessing, Sunrise Storm, Wild Growth, and many others. The Dreamwardens here block me from doing that."

"They're concerned you're trying to push for a new ascended being," Luna replied flatly. "Given the current volatile environment on Earth, that is something worth being afraid of."

Triss shook her head. "I have already told you that I will not push such a thing on someone not ready. If they are truly ready, it isn't for you, or I, or anyone else but them to decide. What I can do is help try to guide them to their potential. Just because a being may not ascend doesn't mean they aren't capable of doing great things. The Devourers are coming, and we need the best doing their best to stand in life's defense. Intercede on my behalf with the Dreamwardens and let me have my opportunity to teach again so that this world can present its best front."

Luna frowned then looked upward. "Ghadab, Arbiter, and whatever other Dreamwardens may hear my call. I request your presence."

Immediately all the Dreamwardens except Krik appeared, most in their pony forms--save Yinyu, who kept to her seapony form, and Arbiter, who took the form of an angelic partial. They gave Luna curious glances, and they all gave Triss hostile ones.

"What do you wish of us, Luna?" Psychic Calm asked, then he gestured at Triss with a wing. "Do you need Ghadab and Arbiter to chase her away?"

Luna shook her head. "She requests to speak to you and wants to be sure you will give her a fair hearing. I can believe that she has not gotten one thus far from you based on what Yinyu has shared with me. I understand your resentment and suspicion of her after what happened to your forebear Joss and the level of hurt and shame that remains. She hurts just as much or more for it and promises no repeats of what led to that."

"Forgive us, but we have reason to be wary of her," Ghadab replied. "We can't feel her mind, and she's like a foreign presence here. Perhaps if she opened it to us, we would be more believing of anything she has to say." His fellow undead Dreamwarden Arbiter nodded in agreement as she kept her eyes fixed on Triss with unabashed suspicion.

"I’m disappointed, not even a decade as wardens--one of you just days, and you have forgotten what it is like to trust others without reading their minds,” Luna remarked with a shake of her head. “Empathy is not reserved for those who submit themselves to you.”

She didn't know how she felt about Triss herself and wasn't prepared to stand for her at this time. Triss could have called on the Dreamwardens in this manner at any time but had chosen to try to go through an intermediary. That made her believe that the Dreamwardens weren't the only ones at fault in this lack of communication. Neither side had made any serious attempts to mend their bonds.

She didn't depart right away, instead sitting back to watch what might unfold. While this was but a simple conversation, it was a momentous occasion in the history of this universe. Yinyu had described to her the animosity that the Dreamwardens held for Triss, animosity that dated back to when Joss and Triss walked as newly ascended beings so far back in history that dating it would boggle the mind. The grudge between Dreamwardens of this universe and its sole ascended being was perhaps the longest of any universe. To have them sit and try to work out their differences was the type of thing that could change the course of history.

There was a pregnant silence that was finally broken by Ghadab. "So? Do you have something to say to us, junk peddler?"

Triss lifted her head and looked at the Warden of Anger. "You throw that name at me, but your distant forebear was of the same origin."

"Indeed," Ghadab growled. "And the universe would have been better if he had stayed a junk peddler."

Triss looked away. "You don't know how long I have given myself that same recrimination for what he became."

"We have some idea," Psychic said in a calm tone.

Triss looked at the Warden of Calm. "Not in the slightest. You have no memories of those lifeless eons where there was no soul to be found. Where all I could do was contemplate my actions, or how many times over that span I considered ending myself."

"Yet here you remain," Phobia said in a questioning tone. "Why do you remain? When Dreamwardens can no longer bear the burden of our jobs, we join the eternal dream. What drives you after so many eons?"

Triss’ serpentine tongue flickered out to taste the air. "My desire to bring an end to the endless cycle of death and suffering, and... I don't know what lies beyond. For all of you, it is clear, the Story--the eternal dream--is what awaits you. For me… an unknown abyss. If I live, I have some hope of seeing a thriving universe once again. But if I die, all that endless loneliness would have amounted to nothing. Hope that it meant something keeps me going."

"It's ironic," Arbiter said with a hint of mirth, laced with grief. "You want so desperately to avoid the void, yet Joss so desperately longed for it. I just gave up my direct ties to the material world, and I don't know if I'll ever be ready for what comes next. There is some peace in knowing that there is something after this, even if I have no control over it, but it is still frightening. In that, I sympathize with both you and Joss."

"I wonder, Triss, how much would you fear what comes next if not for the actions of Joss?" Phobia mused.

Triss looked at the Dreamwardens mournfully. "That's what it always comes back to, doesn't it? Joss, my mistake, and his eternal damnation of all those with magic."

Yinyu suddenly swam out between the Dreamwardens and Triss, and to Luna's shock, the Warden of Lust faced her. "Luna, I don’t think you hearing this is a good idea. Please, leave now before it is discussed," the seapony guised Dreamwarden pleaded.

"She should stay," Phobia said firmly.

Yinyu rounded towards Phobia. "This isn't the time for one of your fear lessons! This could hurt her! This is Luna we're talking about! Do you really want to hurt her?"

Luna's brows rose, and she spread her wings. "What is the meaning of this? What are you two discussing?"

Phobia stared Yinyu in the eyes. "We all want the best for Luna. It is just that we have differing opinions on what that entails." She turned to Luna and gave her a sad look. "Stay and find out. I'm telling you now that if you stay, you'll be facing your deepest fear. If you can understand it and see it for what it is, you may be stronger for it, but there is a danger it could consume you."

"You know not what risk you are taking, Warden," Triss warned. "Your fellow Warden is right; Luna should leave."

"That is not your call, Triss," Phobia replied calmly, never taking her eyes off Luna. There was a fierce determination in that gaze, as well as hope and fear. "Luna, I invite you to stay and listen. The choice is yours. No one will make you leave if you say you wish to stay."

"I wouldn't speak for all of us like that, Phobia. As you said, we have divergent opinions on this matter," Arbiter scolded. "I may force her away. I'm at full power, and you're not. You wouldn't be able to stop me."

"But I would," Ghadab said, then glanced at Luna and shook his head. "The nightmare monger is right, little sister; it is time to get this out in the open and stop avoiding the issue."

Luna looked at them all. All their faces held fear, trepidation, and worry. Whatever this was, it was no small thing, and the fact it was all focused on her made her feel a chill. There was no way she could turn away from knowing, though.

"I'll stay," she said.

Triss growled. "This is a mistake."

Arbiter stepped forward. "In this, I agree with Triss. I call for a vote. Phobia, you can't simply dictate to us allowing Luna to see what is a private discussion. One that is possibly harmful for her to hear."

"I second the call for a vote!" Yinyu yelled, then turned to Luna. "I'm sorry, Luna. I love and respect you. You know I share with you what I can, but to let you hear this is cruelty."

Phobia sighed. "Very well, you'll have your vote. All in favor of ordering Luna from this dream, please indicate so now."

Arbiter immediately raised an arm high, Yinyu quickly followed. Krik appeared and looked at each Dreamwarden in turn before he cautiously raised a wing; not surprising, given his primary goals were keeping secrets safe. Phobia looked at the raised appendages consideringly. "We have a split vote." She then turned to Triss. "As a participant in this conversation, I would give the deciding vote to you, as is just. Does any Dreamwarden have any objections to Triss being the deciding vote?"

"It is just," Ghadab said in a defeated tone. Arbiter just smiled, knowing she'd just claimed her first victory and making it clear she wouldn't be merely sitting in the background while the others decided things. No one raised objections to Triss giving the deciding vote.

"My vote is she leaves," Triss said firmly.

Phobia sighed. "The vote is passed. Luna, please leave of your own free will or be removed."

"As you wish," Luna replied stiffly. "At least I can take some comfort in the fact that all of you can be civil and cooperative with her in this."

She departed the seven of them and moved on, leaving them to either bicker or make some accord with each other. The rejection from being allowed to listen stung, and she was only left to wonder what caused them to object to her presence. It was something to address in the future. No matter what, this was private information, and her Oaths demanded she respect it if they did not wish for her to know.

She knew the target she wished to visit next, and she dove into her dreams. The unicorn in question sat as if waiting. Those orange eyes looked up in expectation as Luna came into the dream before noticing it wasn't who she expected and grimaced.

"I may be mistaken, but I believe I ordered you out of my dreams years ago," Sunset Blessing said without standing up.

"Do you wish me to leave now, or do you wish to hear why I chose to visit you?" Luna asked.

Sunset let off a sigh as her head slumped. "Do as you wish. If you're here to gloat, I doubt you could say anything I haven't said to myself already. I'm where I belong."

"You don't know me well if you think I take any pleasure in your punishment. The reason I'm here is to ask; what if the world is not done with you yet?" Luna asked.

The red-furred unicorn gave off a bitter laugh. "Then the world is more foolish than me. It doesn't matter anyway. I have nothing to offer the world, and I never did. I was a reckless idiot who endangered the lives of others and inadvertently led to the deaths of many for the sake of my warped vision of the future."

"Yes, I agree," Luna answered, and when she got no visible response, she continued. "Except for the matter of you never having anything to offer or never did anything good. Thanks to you, the ponies in the south didn't fall into the traps the west had fallen into early on. You have done much to innovate society and make others' lives better. And despite their early failures, your temporary transformation spell, along with many other spells, are wonders of magic that will help many in time, and you should be proud of them."

"My grandfoals almost died because of that spell, and Poly Glot used my spells to great effect in taking down all our defenses in the Bastion," Sunset sneered.

Luna nodded her agreement. "And you have learned what reckless pursuit of a goal can do in the process, even if the cost was high. I once tried to impose my own tyrannical reign upon Equestria, and like you, my lessons had a high cost. It also gave me insights into helping others not fall down the same path. Such lessons are harshly learned, but those that have learned them can pass their experiences on to others to help make sure others don't go down the same path."

"Well, I'll be sure to pass my experiences onto are the guards and walls of my prison since that is all who will hear me speak from now on. It isn't like anyone will ever trust me enough to listen to what I have to say, even if I was free."

"Trust must be earned after such a fall, but it can come if you make an effort," Luna said sagely. "If you were given the opportunity to, would you attempt to help the world? If only to caution them away from your failings?"

Sunset sat still for a long moment before replying. "I don't know if I could ever find redemption, but if I could keep others from going down my path, I would do what I could. It's a better direction for my life, a purpose."

Luna rose to her hooves. "That is all I needed to hear. It's said that your talent is making more than it seems possible out of what you've been given. That's a simple but powerful talent. I'll do my best to give you an opportunity at redemption. I hope that you make the most you can out of that opportunity."

And with that said, she departed the dream and began to consider her pleas for Sunset Blessing's release. However, she quickly found herself waylaid into a dream, not of her making.

"I apologize, Luna, but I wanted to have a word with you."

This new dream had no actual shape or form—just more of the endless night sky. The voice was disembodied, but it was familiar.

She lifted her head. "What is it you wish to speak about, Arbiter?"

The partial human form of Arbiter appeared before her. She looked mostly human, except for the purple hair, pony ears, orange wings on her back, and purple tail. "I've had nothing but time to think since I've become a Dreamwarden. I've been thinking about what I can do to be better than Sha'am and what it means to be a Dreamwarden in a world that doesn't need an enforcer."

"A worthy endeavor to be considering," Luna said slowly. She didn't know Arbiter like she knew the others, so she was more suspicious of the new Dreamwarden's intentions. The Warden of Song was undoubtedly quick to banish her from the previous conversation, but Luna chose not to be petty about that. If the new Warden was making an effort to reach out to her, it was best to entertain the gesture. "What do you need to speak to me about in regards to that? I suspect you have my memories up to the point I made your forebears."

Arbiter nodded. "I do, but what I need is help. I have an idea, but I need someone to talk to the world's governments on my behalf in the waking world. Phobia would help, but they are suspicious of Dreamwardens already."

"And they aren't of me?" Luna said with a laugh. "What is it that you want to accomplish? Tell me that first, and I will see what can be done."

Arbiter looked off in the distance. "I want to bring a sense of one people to the world. Not erasing the cultures already there, but helping make them see themselves as part of the whole. I want to make a great shared dream that shall always be there and be accessible by anyone with magic. A place where there are no borders, no language barriers; just the opportunity to relax, learn, and communicate in a safe and peaceful place."

"It sounds like wonderful fantasy," Luna replied. "But this shared dream of yours sounds like it is more something to bring ponies together, excluding humans. That could be divisive."

Arbiter shook her head. "You aren't aware of this dream realm like I am. There are far more humans out there that possess some sliver of magic than anyone imagines. Most can't use it, and for most, that sliver is so small even crystal ponies can't detect it, but it is there. The number of such humans exceeds the number of ponies, though not significantly more. It isn't a small number of humans that I would be giving this key to."

Luna's eyes widened. "We have heard about a magical awakening in humanity, but I never imagined that the numbers would be that high."

"Nor have they, or most of the Dreamwardens until recently. Sha'am knew, but she kept it a secret from the others. Ghadab learned of it when he died, and I know of it now. The two of us have shared this information with the others," Arbiter replied. She turned and looked at the stars. "And we wish to share it with the world. Some things don't need to remain secret."

"How are the numbers so high?" Luna asked, still incredulous at the figures. From what Arbiter described, this pushed the number of magical beings on Earth well over a billion between the humans and ponies.

Arbiter looked back at her. "ETS helped it along greatly, that is for sure. Everyone that contracted ETS at any point has magic, whether they are aware or not, and whether your mages can detect it or not, but there were many others that did before that. It is time that they knew that and time that they know they can reap some benefit from having it. I'm giving them that benefit, the great shared dream."

Luna considered the proposal and all its possible pitfalls. "Is this something they must be forced to accept? Being put into this shared dream?"

Arbiter shook her head. "I plan it to be something they can enter or exit as they wish, without the need for dreamwalking. If they do not wish to be in the shared dream, they simply don't enter, and if they wish to leave they simply leave. Maintaining it and providing whatever they desire within it will be my service to them. I hope that they may use it to break down the barriers between human and pony, as well as one culture and another. However, I don't dictate what they choose to do there...as long as the normal rules are followed."

"And how are they to be informed of the rules?" Luna asked with concern. "And what happens when the rules are broken? Some will inevitably do so."

Arbiter looked at her and smiled. "You don't need to worry. I'm not Sha'am, and I won't be using her as an example of how I should do things. The rules shall be made public knowledge in the waking world, and I, as the servant of those coming into the shared dream, will give them the opportunity to be reminded of the rules each time they enter. If they break the rules, they will simply be kicked out of the dream. There shall be no tortures, no intimidation, just a simple understanding, and agreement. They may return eventually, depending on the circumstances. I want to be about talking and communication, not a bully. That's why I chose the name Arbiter."

"And if they squander your gift without breaking the rules?"

Arbiter shrugged. "If all they use it for is to relax and talk to friends, can I say that it is squandered? It is theirs to use as they see fit. If I suddenly withdrew it, I claim ownership, and it wouldn't actually be a gift. I just come along in the package as the staff."

"That seems a very different tone than your fellow Dreamwardens," Luna observed.

Arbiter laughed. "That's because I see my duties differently than them. They see themselves as enforcers first, and everything else is secondary. That is why you chose them. The dream realm needs enforcing, but it doesn't need six enforcers, and I consider being an enforcer a lesser part of my job. I am first and foremost a servant; the Faithful Attendant is what the Narrative called me. I am here to serve the lights, not to enforce rules. Let Ghadab and the rest worry about making sure the rules are obeyed. I will be here trying to make things better through service."

Luna squinted at the newest Dreamwarden. "I am somewhat familiar with who Tonya Blessing was; you and the other Dreamwardens claim you are her, but you seem radically different from that pegasus in mannerisms."

Arbiter shrugged again. "I'm trying my best to be better and focused. I exist only to serve as Dreamwarden, and I need to give that service a worthwhile meaning because it's all I have. I only have so much time; they gave me the two-hundred-year oath. I can tell you the exact second of the exact day of the exact year that I'll go into the eternal dream. Knowing how much time I have makes me more driven. I want to leave a better world behind than the one I came into."

Luna narrowed her eyes. "I know that they said your additional oaths would be made public knowledge after the new year, but can you share with me what they are now?"

Arbiter held up a hand and started counting on her fingers as she talked. "I just told you I have to retire to the eternal dream after two hundred Earth years if I'm stuck in the dream realm, which I obviously am-- advice, never die, it gets old almost immediately. They almost said two hundred years then felt the need to be more specific to reduce wiggle room. I'm also banned from doing anything that will increase the number of Dreamwardens past seven--they gave a little wiggle room for when we are making heirs. The votes are also binding for me; I can't disregard a vote I don't like--though we can overrule it with a fresh vote. There is a strict rule about not causing or simulating physical pain, unless it is completely unavoidable in performing a duty, no matter how much harder it makes the task to avoid doing it."

Luna considered them. "That first one seems problematically worded still. What if there is no Earth? I was never happy with the concept of term limits. The others are... reasonable... considering recent events. The voting one could become problematic as well, though."

Arbiter gained a conspiratorial look. "I'll tell you a secret; I'm not supposed to make any heirs; the others will choose my heir when the time finally comes, so these oaths are not getting passed down in their current forms. I'm kind of like a guinea pig."

Luna blinked. "I'm familiar with that term. Those extra oaths no longer seem problematic; now they seem cruel."

Arbiter shrugged. "They need ways of figuring out what works and what doesn't. We don't like that term limit oath either, and it was only given to me because of that UN agreement. They are already trying to negotiate with governments to overturn that part of the treaty. Once they do, they can try to work out some new term limit that isn't so restrictive, not that it will help me, but we do like the idea of there being a definite lifespan to us instead of immortality. Two hundred Earth years isn't enough, though, and you're right that they need a better way of defining time. Since I'm just screwed in this situation, I might as well be used as a test subject for any oaths they were considering."

"You seem to take this all fairly well, considering your circumstances," Luna replied in mild confusion.

Arbiter waved a hand dismissively. "Not much I can do about it other than do my best with what time I have. The Narrative and I have an agreement where she'll try to help make the eternal dream more pleasant. She said she's still growing and learning and might be able to do more in the future, hopefully finding a way to move Dreamwardens out of the eternal dream into the realm of the dead."

Luna blinked. "There's a realm of the dead?"

Arbiter chuckled. "Yinyu still has a lot to tell you about from what we learned from our past Dreamwardens. Existence is broken up into many universes, but each of those universes is subdivided into realities, and each of those realities is subdivided into realms. We know so little of what lies out in all of that, not even the extent of what other realms of existence are out there. I don't know if there is a definite realm of the dead, but I'd like to believe in an afterlife everyone goes to--magic or not. Maybe all the Narrative's talks with Discord will help her figure out the problem since he's from a realm that can touch and interact with others."

"And if this realm of the dead is a horrible or unpleasant place?" Luna questioned.

"At least it's the same horrible or unpleasant place everyone goes to," Arbiter replied and looked upwards. "I like to think that at the end of everything that it is nice. It would be a pretty nasty joke if it weren't, and I want to believe whatever true creator there is up above all these universes isn't some sadistic freak."

"You believe in a higher power?" Luna asked, more out of curiosity of getting to know Arbiter.

"It wasn't Triss that decided that Wild Growth was worthy of alicornhood. We would have felt her touch, yet something declared her worthy by standards unknown. Who chose to put that infernal statue into a young Triss's claws, setting into motion the events that have shaped this universe? Who decided that Celestia was worthy of ascension? Something did, and it is something beyond my understanding. My understanding is limited to the waking world and dream realm. My only memories of the ethereal realm come from you and Joss, and neither of you understands that realm well. Some beings exist in realms so alien to us that we can't even comprehend them. We think we know so much, yet we know so little."

Arbiter kept staring upwards. "I didn't use to believe in a higher power when I was human. Sunset taught me to believe in something greater. My feelings about that have changed a little since I ended up here, but I still believe that beyond all this, there is some creator that loves us and has a purpose for all this. I just don't try to guess at the mind of God, now." She looked down and frowned. "My wife's faith has been shaken to the core. She needs to learn to believe in some greater purpose again, just not that she is the mouth of God."

"I hope that she finds it, and it brings about much good," Luna said without any irony. She, too, hoped Sunset Blessing would be reformed and help make the world a better place. The potential was always there; it was time to hope she could capitalize on it.

Luna shook her head. "I have tarried too long in the dream realm tonight. Getting back on track, what you're asking to do will take some convincing for the humans to allow. Are you willing to work with them to earn their trust about this?"

Arbiter nodded. "As I said, I'm not Sha'am, but I can say that over and over, and it means nothing if I don't show it. I'll work with them. I'll let them help set regulations, within reason. Maybe open my shared dream to a few humans at a time of their choosing and let them try it out and report about it?"

"And if they eventually say no, even after your efforts to prove you are doing a good thing?"

Arbiter's ears wilted like any pony's would. "I will honor their choice. I just want my chance to do good and bring people together. If this doesn't get allowed, I'll try something else. I believe in this, though."

Luna nodded. "You have my assistance then, Arbiter. I hope you get to see your shared dream realized."

Arbiter's left ear perked as if listening to something. "We have come to an agreement with Triss. She will be allowed to teach but is still subject to the dreamers' wishes on whether she will be allowed in their dreams, and we reserve the right to step in if we think she is pushing for ascending or making any suggestion of such a thing being a possibility."

Luna smiled, as she prepared to leave. "That sounds like progress. I hope it can continue and finally begin healing the old wounds this universe has suffered."

The world was tumultuous still, but there was hope that things were moving towards a brighter future. Arbiter seemed legitimate in her desire to be a servant of the people, the Dreamwardens and Triss were talking, the government of the United States was opening itself to uses of magic they would have banned out of fear just a few short years ago. A lot of hurt had happened in the last week, but out of it all, there was a light of hope. She would do all she could for her part to see that hope realized.

(Two weeks after the disaster)

Twilight Sparkle waited patiently for her guest to arrive. They'd given her a makeshift office in the old town while she studied Jean's condition. She traced runes in the air before her and frowned as yet again she was left with no solution to the problem, or any clues on how to come up with one. With a sigh, she levitated up her laptop and entered in the latest results.

So far it was looking more and more like Sunset Blessing was right. Jean's human resonance was too badly damaged to be salvaged, and the only thing keeping her alive was maintaining the temporary transformation spell. They had a few charged crystals that were acting as batteries for her to feed off of and maintain the spell, but they were far from an ideal solution. Those crystals had to be regularly recharged by a unicorn, and any break in the cycle of having one ready to go could mean disaster.

They'd also made a makeshift harness for Jean that acted in much the same was a suppression ring acted for a unicorn, only this was geared towards Jean's absorbing powers. It was designed so the only thing she could absorb from was the crystals. It also wasn't an ideal solution, and it left the mare...woman...person in a perpetual state of unease. A better design, that was more comfortable, was already being worked on, but it would still be the equivalent of her walking around permanently in chains.

There was only one viable long-term solution; that Jean be permanently transformed into a pony. That would stabilize her resonance and would take away the need to feed on magic. The government had already approved Jean going to Equestria to have it done; the problem was that Jean made it clear she had no intention of going to Equestria. There was a very real possibility of de facto exile to Equestria in doing this. Her family and home were here, and she was adamant that she wasn't leaving them. A new request had been put in to allow the transformation to happen on Earth, and to allow Jean to stay afterwards.

This request had been met with the expected hostility. Permanent transformation from human to pony was against the law in the United States, even though the temporary transformation spell was likely to get congressional approval. Even if it could be negotiated, having an Equestrian cast such a spell was a political minefield. The only Earth born pony who knew how was currently sitting in jail, awaiting hearing and trial, and there was no telling if she'd be released or not. Even if Sunset Blessing was released, there was serious doubt that she'd actually have enough magical power to cast the spell. Knowing a spell didn't make her strong enough to actually cast it. They'd already requested Sunset take a compulsion banning her teaching or leaking the spell in any way, and the unicorn had complied.

The door opened without a knock and an exhausted looking green earth pony mare walked in, one that a mere two weeks ago had been near death, but now looked fit and healthy. "Sorry I kept you waiting, I've been trying to make sense of all the research and development contracts Sunset had going on behind the scenes. There's a lot of them with private contractors, and I need someone with more tech knowledge than me to figure out what the hell she was doing with them. I'm trying to get in touch with all these people she was channeling unspecified research funds to for some explanation."

Twilight raised an eyebrow at that. "Do you think she was embezzling funds from SPEC? Your justice department has been gathering evidence for a case against her, that would certainly be grounds for it."

Wild Growth shook her head. "No, the government is already going through it and whatever it was, it was definitely research and development within the law. Something was being made, but no one seems to know what. There are legitimate receipts for all the spending; land contracts, electronic equipment, exotic materials, shipping invoices--it's all there, except the first whatever she was making went up in flames in the Bastion and there is no description of what it was or what it did printed anywhere."

Twilight let out a long breath. "That might be for the best...not the not knowing what those projects were, but the fact that she doesn't seem to have been guilty of any wrongdoing."

Wild looked at her quizzically and took a seat across from her. "I didn't expect you to be wanting her to get off the hook. The two of you don’t seem very friendly with one another."

"The Sunset Blessing I met before is not the Sunset Blessing I saw after the Bastion was destroyed. Two entirely different ponies," Twilight said sadly. "What happened broke her and left her in pain that I can't imagine."

"She's not the only one..." Wild muttered darkly. "Do you know how many are now left homeless? How many spend every day looking for their lost loved ones? I go out there, every day, and try to give these ponies hope, but I can't bring back the dead. There are wounds that can't be healed."

Twilight reached across the desk. "Wild, you don't have to try so hard to be strong for them. You need time to heal too."

Wild pulled away from the hoof. "I'm fine. I'm in perfect health," the earth pony said defensively.

Twilight pulled her hoof back. "You know what I mean. You've been cut off from using your magic to do what you love. That is a very disheartening thing for an earth pony, or any pony, to experience. You've lost something else precious too, but miscarriages hap--"

"I don't want to talk about that!" The earth pony screamed.

Twilight briefly considered throwing up a shield to protect herself. Wild was in grief, angry, and hurting. Wild Growth may no longer be capable of using her magic on the world, but her physical strength was still there, and could still shatter even an alicorn's bones. Instead she just looked into Wild's tear filled eyes. "You need time to grieve, too, Wild."

Wild looked down and spoke in a low voice. "I tried so hard, Twilight. I wasn't strong enough to protect everyone, and I needed more strength. I..I almost ascended. I felt it, in the height of everything going on-- when I was trying to hold back the explosion underground, while trying to save the foals, and trying to contain the fallout from the Bastion. In that one moment when I had so much to do, but had already stretched myself farther than I ever thought I could go; it was there waiting for me to take it."

Twilight gasped. Was Wild exaggerating? Wild Growth was powerful, yes, but even she wasn’t capable of brute forcing her way of ascending into an alicorn. All the figures and graphs she had run made it seem impossible that an alicorn could rise in the current generation, or for several more yet to come. Had she been wrong?

"So why didn't you?" Twilight asked in a controlled voice.

Wild didn't look up. "I felt it happen... I felt my foal die. All that power flowing through me, all my injuries, my mama hanging off me like a leech; I don't know what the breaking point was, but I was able in that final moment to feel all the lives around me, and I felt his give out. I couldn't... after... I just couldn't."

"If it happened once, it’s likely to happen again," Twilight said carefully. "You are no less worthy now than you were before, and your disability has no impact on that."

Wild looked up at her. "No... never again, even if it was ever in reach. I don't want it."

"You might change your mind," Twilight said slowly. Strength was not what earned ascension, and she didn't think that was what had opened the door for Wild. The mighty earth pony had been bleeding, exhausted, and it was supernatural that she had still stood; but Wild had carried on, with no thought to her own well being, saving far more than anyone could imagine, despite impossible odds. The universe had stopped and watched, and a guardianship had been offered. For a universe that had seen so much death and destruction, perhaps that is what it cried out for.

Wild shook her head, sobbing. "I can't know for sure, but... I might have killed my foal. I won't ever let myself hold that much magical power again. If anyone is going to be an alicorn... it won't be me."

Twilight didn't know whether to grieve or be relieved by Wild's decision. There was no question that the rise of an alicorn on Earth would cause turmoil, but at the same time it meant that someone worthy of the mantle wasn't living up to who they could be. It was an uncomfortable thing to consider. She could respect Wild Growth's decision, though.

"Getting to the subject of your mother," Twilight said, trying to get away from causing the earth pony distress. "I have explored every option and configuration of spells I can. Sunset Blessing is right, her only option is permanent transformation. Are you sure you can't convince her to go to Equestria?"

Wild sighed as she wiped her muzzle with a hoof. "I could try again. She'd do it if it was an ultimatum where she wasn't allowed to keep the temporary spell going, but I can't give an ultimatum like that to my mama, nor could I follow through with it."

Twilight sighed in turn. "Then we will have to redouble our efforts to petition the government for a one time exception."

"You know what they'll say," Wild said bleakly. "Once you've done it one time, everyone else will be asking for the same. It is opening Pandora's Box."

Twilight snorted. "I think Sunset Blessing already opened that."

"Well, they don't see it that way, and their opinion is the only one that impact us doing this," Wild replied.

Twilight considered. "My next alternative is convincing them to allow her back, if I took her to Equestria just to do the spell with the intention of returning her."

"That might be slightly more possible to convince them and her about," Wild said optimistically. Then her ears lowered. "But I already know what will happen. The same thing that's been going on with all the partials. Endless red tape to get back across the portal to Earth, ending in de facto exile for many. We've barely gotten any of the partials back, just enough to say they are working on it."

Twilight gave a sad nod. "It's ridiculous that they aren't allowing more through their bottleneck, but it's not my call. I can try negotiating about it again to speed along the processing times. Some time has passed, and there's people who are in Congress that ran on the platform of getting loved ones home from Equestria. Maybe the fact that she already is effectively forced to stay a pony forever will make a difference."

"Maybe I really should run for Congress in two years, and do my part to help get them all home. I still want to do what I can to help people, and I can't do that with my magic anymore. It's time I open myself to doing things like that; my philanthropy will continue, but I need to do more." Wild got down from her chair. "I'll try to talk some sense into her again. It might take a few days to come up with some negotiating tactic I haven't already tried. We're having a big family get together later this week. I'll try then."

Twilight nodded again. "By the way. I know you've been busy and haven't gotten to see her, but Jessie seems to be doing well. I've been checking in on her and haven't found any ill effects or lingering problems from her previous injuries."

Wild gave a small smile. "That is good to hear. I was worried that she'd not take to it well, since this was kind of forced on her, and since she never really had a human sense of self any point."

"It was her choice, and she seems for the most part content," Twilight replied, then paused. "With some fussing about a particular unintended side effect. She was very angry with me about that one-- and she told me in very colorful language how angry she was, but seems to have calmed down."

Wild rolled her eyes. "If it is the one I'm thinking about, she'll get over it. Any other kid would be thrilled with that side effect. Only Jessie would complain about that one."

The phone started ringing at that moment. "Excuse me one second, while I answer this," Twilight said as she answered.

"Twilight, darling, you should turn on the news," Rarity's voice echoed over the speaker.

Twilight gave a puzzled frown and flicked the television on the wall on using her magic. The broadcast was showing the president out in front of the White House, beside him stood Sunset Blessing.

"...and in light of the fact that I have seen no evidence that any malicious wrongdoing was done on her part, that the actions that were the direct cause of the disaster were taken by the pony known as Poly Glot-- whom she did take reasonable steps to contain, and that she had no reason to believe that such a disaster was possible, and for her heroic efforts in getting the population of Riverview to safety, I hereby preemptively pardon Sunset Blessing of all charges that have been levied against her. Now, she has a few words to say before taking questions."

"They're giving her a presidential pardon?!" Wild shouted in astonishment.

"Luna said she was going to campaign for Sunset's release. I guess she said something convincing," Twilight said in mild amazement as she watched the red unicorn take the podium. She half expected this, but not so quickly.

Sunset Blessing looked exhausted as she looked out at the audience. "I would like to thank the president for his kind words. However, while I'm very happy that many were saved due to the evacuations, the fact remains that there were many who were not, mainly in our military. While I may not have broken the law, I cannot absolve myself of my involvement in this tragedy. As such, I have a few things that I wish to address before I take questions."

Twilight and Wild watched silently as the unicorn seemed to collect herself. When Sunset looked at the audience there was cold resolve in her eyes. "First, from this moment on I renounce my association with the philosophy of Shimmerism. It is a fundamentally speciesist philosophy, and it's filthy for being so. There is no room in a loving society for such hate. Those hit hardest by the tragedy in Riverview were the ponies, and the ones who were there giving help and aid with kindness and compassion were humans. I tried to reach out and lead the other Shimmerists to a better course, but they won't let their hatred go. To anyone listening to this who was ever inspired to take up the flag of Shimmerism by my words, I want to tell you right now I was wrong!"

Twilight sat back in her chair. Wild just gaped as Sunset continued. "The next matter is that I wish to address the irresponsible use of magic. While there were no laws technically broken in the facility in Riverview, I ignored how dangerous some of our experiments were. I was far too eager to push on to new discoveries without ensuring I understood all the fundamentals involved. We should still learn and advance, but I would like to petition the government at this time to create an independent magic safety commission to investigate the conditions in all current magic research facilities. The harshest teacher can be personal experience, and I have learned at great cost that change must occur. We don't want there to ever be another disaster like in Riverview, and urge for new standards of safety and oversight in all magical research. If anything can be gained by the Cataclysm of Riverview, let it be that."

"Do you think she's being pressured to say all this?" Wild asked skeptically.

Twilight shook her head. She was good at reading ponies, and Sunset Blessing seemed deadly serious.

Wild stared at the television and frowned. "It's got to be a PR move on the government's part. Think about it; the government is ultimately to blame for anything she did, but Sunset takes personal blame for it rather than saying they were involved-- even believes in her personal blame. If there was a full trial, their failings would be put on display. They know there needs to be reforms, but don't want to lose face. They also get a pony that they can point to as having done bad and regrets it, and is now doing good. That's a narrative that sells well these days after stories of Luna and Starlight Glimmer have become popular."

Twilight nodded along in agreement. There was a certain political logic to it. For her part, she was more focused on what this meant for Sunset Blessing, not the political backdrop.

"The next matter is a plea," Sunset said with tears in her eyes. "The people in Riverview have endured a great tragedy. Many have no homes to return to. While many will stay and rebuild, many others need somewhere to go now. I request...I beg the leaders around America, to open up their doors and help find them homes. We are a great and generous nation. When our neighbors are hurting we extend the hand of help. The lost and homeless of Riverview are hurting, don't leave them with nowhere to go!"

"One of Sunset's contractors out in Arizona already contacted me offering a place for refugees to go," Wild said as they continued watching. “Sapphire’s crew is already organizing a place in Michigan for those willing to brave the winters. Number is supposed to be meeting with some officials in Pony Hope as well, to discuss resettlement there, and resettling Lazy Pines.”

Sunset wiped the tears from her eyes. "If anyone asks, I don't know where I go from here. I have lost my wife, I have lost my home, and I have abandoned the things that guided my life these past six years. Like many others, I am grieving, and we all need time to grieve for the ones we lost."

"I'm sure Phobia will let her sleep on her couch at least. My sister already brought Sunset's cat home," Wild speculated. Then snorted in a half suppressed laugh. "Now she has three demons and Satan under her roof."

The former preacher took a deep breath. "I do have an announcement to make for another though. An unexpected announcement to be coming from me. One that the world has been waiting for, not directly related to the tragedy in Riverview, or myself. Sha'am Maut has been committed to the eternal dream, and her heir is in place."

"They didn't...they didn't make Sunset Blessing a Dreamwarden," Wild said breathlessly. "I’ll level Phobia’s house, with her in it, if Sunset Blessing says she is a Dreamwarden."

Sunset Blessing licked her lips before continuing. "I said I lost my wife, but that is only half true. My wife is now Dreamwarden. She has taken a new name and a new title. She is Arbiter, Warden of Song. She is obviously unable to walk up here and introduce herself, as her body..." Sunset suppressed a sob. "As she was there when it happened. She wanted me to be the one to introduce her to the world. She wants you to know that she intends to be a public servant, with an emphasis on servant, and she has made it her mission to help remind the world that we are all one family, just in many branches. Many songs creating a greater melody. I am proud of her..." Sunset broke into sobbing. "...and miss being able to t-touch her so much." Sunset wiped her muzzle and pulled herself together. "I know she'll be more worthy of the job than her predecessor, and I know that you will feel safer knowing she's there to help."

"Okay, that's a little better, but just barely," Wild grumbled, then whipped her head back to face the screen, as if just realizing what was said. "Wait... Tonya's alive?"

"Hush," Twilight scolded.

Sunset went silent and still after that. A man walked over to the podium and spoke to her quietly while cameras flashed. The man then spoke into the microphone. "Sunset Blessing will now take a few questions, but only a few. She has endured a great deal of personal tragedy and distress in the last few weeks, and we should thank her for being brave enough to speak to us."

The man left, and Sunset seemed to steel herself as she pointed out to a reporter.

"Sunset Blessing, do you have any comment on what experiment going wrong caused the tragedy?"

Sunset nodded. "The cause was a lunatic who had gotten access to powerful magic within the facility, mainly due to my own failings in oversight. The device that ended up exploding was an experimental power converter. I cannot go into details about it beyond that, due to the nature of it being classified research. That research will not be continuing anytime soon, and when it does I hope that better safety precautions are put in place, and far more understanding of the basic principles are known." She pointed to another reporter.

"Sunset Blessing, would you say that despite no legal wrongdoing, you could still be accused of ethics violations?"

Sunset let off a bitter laugh. "I don't think you listened. The answer is a resounding yes! While there was no legal violations, there were clearly things that should not have happened, and I was a guiding hoof in those. I must take responsibility for Riverview. We were trying to do too much, too fast, before we even truly understood what we had. I also cut corners for the sake of showing results. I see now the gravity of what we did, and what needs to change. As a result, I will continue to call for reform from here on out. There shall not be another person who was reckless as I was if I have anything to say about it." She pointed to another reporter.

"Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions Ms. Blessing. To clarify on your renunciation of Shimmerism, do you believe that transforming humans into ponies is wrong?"

Sunset took a deep breath. "I believe that you have to consider the circumstances in any case. The vast majority of us didn’t purposely chose to become ponies though most of us chose to remain of our own free will. I firmly believe that a human wanting to become a pony because they believe we are superior is wrong. There are justifiable reasons for desiring a transformation, to become a pony or human. But it should not be because of a feeling of inferiority. No one deserves to feel shame or believe themselves lesser because of who and what we are. My six-year old niece just rehumanized because she suffered severe injuries in the tragedy at Riverview, and I think she did the right thing doing so. She's so very young, and shouldn't have to live the rest of her life dealing with debilitating injuries. She’s so wonderful and talented and I look forward to seeing the amazing life that she will have, no matter what her species." She pointed to another reporter.

"Thank you again, Ms. Blessing. Your work with temporary transformations. What is your stance on that now?"

Twilight had to be impressed with the way Sunset Blessing seemed to thrive under questioning. It seemed with each question the unicorn became more sure of herself and in control. "What I said about magical safety and oversight should be applied to this area as well. I still believe that it has value in the medical field, and should be tested and developed carefully. Like many things I did, I didn't take enough precautions. My hubris, spurred by my then-Shimmerist beliefs, was my undoing, and it caused many to be hurt. The research and possible applications in medicine are still worthwhile, but it needs much longer periods of extended testing, with much better safety precautions first. I ask the government to review the files on what happened in depth, and make better safety precautions, before continuing this line of research-- but I do hope it continues."

"Sunset Blessing would be wasted if she was taken away from this," Twilight said as Sunset began answering another question, this one in relation to the possible refugees from Riverview.

"She's winning the reporters over," Wild said in agreement. "She's hit rock bottom, and lost everything. She just walked out of jail, and already she is starting to rebuild and rebrand herself. She's screaming what she did was criminal, and they are loving her for it instead of condemning her. It's unreal. I hate to say it, but there's no keeping her down."

"Luna said she had the potential for greatness, and I'm starting to see why," Twilight said as she pulled up some social media platforms to try to gauge the average person's reaction. A quick browsing wasn't conclusive, but at the moment Shimmerists were the only ones openly hostile to what she was saying, while others appeared to have cautiously positive to outright positive reception to Sunset Blessing. The more religious Shimmerists had names for her; heretic, apostate, traitor. "Luna had also said she had talked to Sunset about seeing to it that others didn't follow in her hoovesteps and go down similar paths. What she's saying so far seems to fully embrace that idea. I'm glad about that."

"From what I heard from Phobia that's nothing new," Wild replied with a snort. "She latches onto things, and rides them for all its worth. If Luna sold her on a crusade against what she'd been doing before, then Luna's getting her devoted crusader."

"We appreciate the fact you are being so open to us, Ms. Blessing. Can you answer some questions about your wife's new role for us?"

A little bit of the fire seemed to go out of Sunset at that question. Tonya-- or Arbiter, as she was now known-- was clearly still a painful subject. "I can try to answer as best I can."

"Our affiliates have already gotten confirmation in the last few minutes from the OMMR office that your wife has indeed taken the position of Dreamwarden. They have even released a statement saying they were waiting to make the announcement, so as to not overshadow the coverage of the Riverview tragedy. Can you give us some insight into what qualifications the Dreamwardens based her selection?"

Sunset gave a stiff nod. "Please understand, I am not partial to their decision making process. The Dreamwardens keep their secrets tight. Even Ton... even Arbiter only discusses what she feels she needs with me, but I can give you some insights that may have been considered. Not many know this, but my wife was the very first non-night pony to be granted the ability to dreamwalk. She was granted this ability merely two days after the last of the original six Dreamwardens was installed into place. That means she has been a non-night pony witness that was there since the beginning to witness the actions of the Dreamwardens. She witnessed the terror of Sha'am Maut first hoof, and was there for every one of those secretive trials. That gives her more familiarity to their workings than any non-night pony. Others have gained the ability since, but none have seen as much as her."

"And you feel the fact she isn't a night pony gave her a different perspective than the night ponies?" The reporter asked.

Sunset nodded. "Yes. No offense meant to the night ponies, but they're a tribe of fighters that accept far harsher conditions than what most of the rest of us would find acceptable. A different cultural perspective into the dream realm was needed to make the Dreamwardens more open to all. My wife had the familiarity, and that different perspective. I feel that they valued bringing that fresh non-night pony perspective, that still understood the dream realm so well, into their fold. There is no question that they needed reforms, and my daughter, the Warden of Fear, has worked tirelessly to help bring those. Bringing in Arbiter is continuation of that reform process. The president will have more to say about this later. There are changes coming, good changes."

Twilight looked over at Wild. "I haven't mentioned it before now, as it wasn't my place to do so, but Luna has already been talking with Arbiter. And no, I didn't know Arbiter was Tonya, only that there was a new Dreamwarden named Arbiter."

"I'm still shocked she's a Dreamwarden," Wild replied, and then growled. "And Phobia sat there and let us all think she was dead!"

"Well, she technically is," Twilight said in the Warden of Fear's defense, as Sunset Blessing was adroitly answering a question about possible nepotism.

Wild growled deeper. "You know what I mean. When I go to bed tonight I am calling both of them in my dream, and telling them exactly what I think of them keeping this secret from people that were grieving over her."

"The Wardens are known for being secretive, but I can understand some of the reasoning here," Twilight said as she flipped off the television. "I'm going to have to see if I can get a meeting between me, Luna, and Sunset Blessing. If she's going to get this much notoriety, then I would like to see she has some friends in place that will help guide her into making better decisions. Luna said she was going to help with her, but given it is Sunset Blessing, I'd rather double down on making sure she's getting good friends instead of bad ones. I believe in the power of friendship to turn anyone around, but some people need more friendship than others."

"Might want to quadruple down on her then," Wild chuckled.

Twilight gave it a quick thought. "Actually, this might be a good task for Starlight and Trixie. They can empathise with her more, since both of them have had similar... career paths. Sunset is a talented mage, and that could give Starlight something to bond over with her. If she really is on this safety drive that would be a good influence for Trixie; who could really use a positive influence on that. Both Trixie and Sunset do seem to thrive off having an audience, so they can bond over that. I can't force a friendship to happen, but it seems like a good match all around."

Wild got up and headed towards the door. "Do what you want. I read your books, and know about Starlight and Trixie's pasts. If you think they’d be up to the job that’s fine but if in a year they form into a league of supervillians named something cheesy like the Terrible Trio I'm going to point my hooves at you for who to blame."

"Wild, hold on," Twilight called out hesitantly. "I wanted to express my condol-"

Wild shook her head, and held up a hoof. At least this time she didn't seem angry. "You don't have to talk about it. I'm going to be grieving for a long time, but life moves on. Bad things happen, but I'm not going to let even this make me stop living. I find time to cry here and there, believe me about that. I may also get some counseling when things have settled down. I do appreciate you caring, though."

"You're a strong mare," Twilight replied with a small smile.

"Still the strongest," Wild said with a Cheshire grin. "Anyway, you're invited to the party for Jessie we are having next week. I'm sure she'll be happy if you come."

"I’ll be there," Twilight replied. Then considered something. "Do you mind if I bring some guests? I have some people I think Jessie might want to meet."

Wild nodded. "If you wish. I've got to be going now. I've a date with a certain unicorn bartender who thinks I'm still the greatest. I told you that life goes on, and I think I'm ready and need to start trying to find something that isn't just a one night stand."

Twilight gave the earth pony a concerned expression. "Getting drunk isn't a good way to cope."

Wild blinked. "I think you misunderstood me. It's an actual date, at a restaurant. No alcohol involved. The kind where you sit and talk over food. Alex just happens to be a bartender. He isn't serving me drinks. I'm not bringing him home to have sex with either, at least not this time."

"Oh," Twilight replied. Then felt embarrassed about misjudging the situation. "Have a wonderful time."

The earth pony departed, and Twilight stared at the door. Wild Growth had been beaten down, and had everything important taken from her, yet still she seemed to exude life. She was a paragon of resilience. Hopefully the world hadn't heard the last of the pony who was almost an alicorn.

(Three weeks after the disaster)

Jessie stared out her window as they drove down towards Wild's house. She was doing her best to keep her back pressed against the seat, because her physical therapist said she was supposed to work on her posture. It just didn't feel as natural as leaning forward to look did though. It didn't hurt or feel uncomfortable, most of the time, sometimes when she leaned back she pinched her tail, and that hurt, but she was getting better at not doing that. It was just another thing she needed to train her body to do, now that her body was so different.

Her ears twitched as she heard Robby move beside her, and she turned and looked at him. She still hadn't gotten used to the fact she could look her brother in the eyes now. The more limited field of vision she'd barely even noticed, and hadn't noticed she had a harder time making out details in things until someone pointed it out to her. They were all concerned that she'd have a hard time adjusting, but aside from a week or two figuring out how to walk on two legs, and figuring out how to use hands--which she still needed lots of work with-- she had adapted well enough.

"Are you worried about seeing your friends?" Robby asked with a single ear lowered.

She shrugged, a gesture that came surprisingly natural for her. "I don't know. This is the first time they're going to see me since they rehumanized me. I guess I'm a little worried."

Robby laid a wing on her arm. "Don't be worried. You're still the same egghead you always were, you've just been repackaged. A few minutes of talking to them and they'll see that."

"All their parents already talked to them and explained it to them. They've also seen Jean, and understand the concept from that," her dad called back from the driver's seat. "Jordan took some extra talking to because she was afraid it would hurt you or make you crazy. She was really worried about you."

She hoped they understood, and accepted her. It had been decided that she was going to hold off a year, if not two, on going to college and be homeschooled for her last year of high school. She needed to relearn how to write and do a lot of other things, and she was told she'd be given all the time she needed to adjust. She was doing her best to learn how to make use of her hands, remembering she needed to get dressed every day, and other things. Getting dressed she still needed help with sometimes, just because she still had trouble doing buttons with her hands, but she was doing better. Tying shoes was completely beyond her right now, and she had to have her mom or dad do it each time. She honestly still hadn't figured out the purpose for shoes, but her parents wanted her to wear them when outside, so she did. At least they looked pretty.

There were, as there were with all new things, unintended side effects. In addition to her still having her pony ears and tail, she still had yellow fur covering her legs. Her hair was human hair, but it was still as blue as her mane had been. The fact that she spent nearly an hour in the bathroom vomiting after they had her try meat had confirmed that she still couldn't digest it. The smell of it cooking didn't bother her now, and that was part of what prompted the doctors to let her try. Eating it hadn't even seemed that bad at first. It had tasted different than other things she was used to, and she thought she might actually like it, but she'd been wrong...so wrong. She'd never try meat again. The doctors seemed to think she just wasn't used to it, and she should try again, but she'd be happy with vegetarian substitutes.

The biggest unintended side effect was the spell seemed to have aged her a few years; as if when looking at her mind the spell couldn't reconcile it to the age of the body, and decided to tack on a few years, just in case. Thankfully, it hadn't wanted to push her directly into puberty, or beyond. She was still just six and a half, but they said she looked like she was closer to at least ten, eleven, or perhaps even twelve years old. Out of all the things that could have caused her distress, the fact that she was that much closer to having to deal with the dreaded hormones was the worst. She could deal with walking on two legs and learning how to use hands, but being told that she was on the doorstep of puberty, instead of five to seven years away, was the thing that made her break down crying when she heard it.

"We're here," her mom said from the front seat, then turned around to look at her. "Do you need help opening the car door?"

She'd been so deep in thought she hadn't even noticed that that they'd arrived and stopped. "No, I can get it," she replied, and then reached just a single hand over to grab the door handle and pulled to open the door. Gripping things like this was starting to get easy for her; it was doing anything that needed fine control of her fingers that was an issue. She found that she really liked having hands. The extra utility they provided, combined with her new height, made a lot of tasks easier. She just had to get better at using them...and watching her strength with them. She was much stronger than a girl her age would normally be, or an average human for that matter, another thing that had carried over; enhanced further by her new size.

After getting the car door open she let her brother squeeze by her to get out. He liked to be right outside the car whenever she was getting out. She wasn't sure what he was going to do if she fell over, because she was way too big for him to properly catch, but he still always waited for her. When he was outside and waiting she carefully turned and put one leg out and then another. She gripped onto the car door with one hand and put her feet in their pink sneakers down on the ground, then carefully stood up, lifting her tail up for balance as she did. She was told she didn't need to do this, but she found she sometimes pinched it when standing up if she didn't.

She took a few steps and then pushed the car door closed. She could feel a light breeze, and shivered. Her legs were fine, even though she was wearing a pair of white shorts instead of pants; her fur kept them warm enough that wearing pants just got too hot for her. She wasn't wearing a jacket though, and the skin on her arms was largely exposed with the pink t-shirt she was wearing. Her parents had tried getting her to wear blue or yellow, but she liked pink. It was bright and colorful, and it helped cheer her up.

Her mom walked around the car with Dusk strapped to her chest. She stared down at Jessie for a moment and frowned slightly. "We might need to get your first bra in a few months."

Her dad looked dazed by that announcement. "She's aged up, but she isn't that aged up!"

"Just a training bra, but it's needed. Girls can sometimes start needing them as young as eight, and she's physically well past that age," her mom explained. "Her nipples are showing under her shirt, dear. There might not be much else there, yet, but when they start being noticeable under a shirt it's time for a bra."

"It's cold outside, that's the only reason they are," her dad protested. What was so bad about whatever a bra was that had her dad upset?

Her mom sighed. "Dear...your little filly is now a little human girl on the cusp of becoming a young lady, that means she has the problems that come with that to deal with. Considering the fact that spell did age her up some, you'll have to accept that some things are coming sooner rather than later. I had to start wearing a bra around nine, and Jessie is physically older than that right now. Having to wear a bra isn't the biggest shock you'll have to be dealing with soon if she's this developed."

Her mom had surprised everyone by being the fastest to adjust to the idea Jessie was mostly human now. Whenever something came up her mom dealt with it calmly and confidently. It felt weird that the person who had been wanting to be a pony had been the one most okay with her being half human. Jessie had a few days ago asked her mom why everyone else was having a hard time adjusting, but she wasn't. Her mom had just smiled and told her that she'd never been sure what to do with a foal, but she definitely knew what to do with a little girl, and that made her feel more sure of herself than she'd been in a long time.

Her mom gave her dad a gentle touch on the arm. "I know this is a tough adjustment for all of us to make. We're used to seeing a tiny filly when we see Jessie. We adjusted when Robby went from human to pony at her age; we can adjust now that Jessie has gone from pony to human."

"I'm right here. You don't need to talk about me like I'm not," Jessie grumbled.

That made her mom bring a hand up to her mouth and giggle. "And aging her up suits her. She already has that preteen attitude developing."

"Fudge, Mom! Don't talk about that!" She said as she stomped a foot.

Her dad smiled. "Yeah, I can see what you mean." He looked over at her. "We'll try not to talk about you like you aren't here, big girl. You suddenly are my big girl too. It's a lot of changes to take in, but change isn't a bad thing."

"I know, Dad. All of you are having more problems with this than me," she said with a ponylike snort.

"Well, I'm used to looking down at you and now I have to crane my neck up or hover in the air to look you in the face. That takes some getting used to," her brother said from beside her with a hint of mirth. He wasn't wrong. She was five feet tall, only four inches shorter than their mom, and nine inches shorter than their dad. The doctors said they wouldn't be surprised if she ended up taller than either of her parents by the time she was grown up.

Her dad touched a hand to her head, and rubbed her ears. That still felt good and comforting despite her species change. "I'm glad you're adjusting well to this. Just be patient with me, and if your friends need some time too, try not to get upset with them."

She flicked her tail slightly. "I'll try not to get upset."

They started towards the house and her parents were whispering together ahead of her. "Be prepared for some crying fits. You know what the psychologist said; she's still emotionally just six and a half."

"I know what he said," her dad whispered back. "Maybe that will catch up to the rest of her soon, even if he said not to count on it."

She frowned. One of the odd advantages of being a human was her parents seemed to forget her ears were still pony ears, and that she still heard as well as she did as a filly. That let her listen in on a lot of conversations, and there had been a lot of conversations about her lately. They also sometimes forgot she had lost her strict circadian rhythm, and that when they were up late she might actually be awake listening. She had been sleeping on the living room couch--which wasn't that comfortable to sleep on--until they could find a bigger bed for her, and there were a lot of conversations she had overheard after midnight from there in the last two weeks.

One of those conversations that made her mad was them debating whether she should even be seeing her friends since she was aged up. Her parents seemed to have abandoned the idea of trying to get her to give up her friends in favor of older friends, but she had overheard them talking about today. Their idea was that she would simply get bored with hanging out with young foals, and they could introduce her to humans and ponies her own physical age. The idea of making some new older friends didn't really bother her, but that her parents thought she would turn her back on the current friends after all she had gone through with them, and for them, made her cry.

Those were the talks she kept hearing, and what her therapist kept going on about. They worried about her emotional development, her adjustment to being human, and her motor control. They debated whether they should treat her like she was her actual age or her physical age, as if she ever fit in with either of those before. Their talks about what happened when she hit puberty seemed to indicate they were sure she was going to go crazy because of her emotional development, which made her impending puberty all the worse for her. There was also another worry that sometimes was expressed, and quickly silenced; whether people would see her as a freak because she was a human with a few obvious pony parts. She thought that was stupid to worry about. She'd had bullies before, and Robby would protect her like he had then.

It just made her mad they felt like they had to hide these conversations from her, like she couldn't possibly understand. She was smart, she could figure it out. Nothing had changed about her intelligence, and that was something she was proud of, but they didn't seem to have any faith in it. She kept silent and just listened, for right now, but her frustration about it was steadily growing.

They were let into the house by Wild's head of house, and he greeted her without even batting an eye at her species change. That made her smile, and she decided she liked him.

A quick glance around the living room let her see everyone. Almost everyone had been there for Thanksgiving just three weeks before, plus a few others. Twilight Sparkle was talking to two human ladies that Jessie didn't know, and three unicorns she didn't know were at the bar area with Auntie Sunset. Her grandmare and another night pony, that she guessed was Ferris Wheel--based on the cutie mark, were both asleep on a couch in the corner, laying on one another. Phobia Remedy and Crystal were standing next to Ms. Rosetta and Wild Growth, who were both hugging each other tight and looked like they were crying. Amanda and Tom--they had came and visited her and told her calling them Amanda and Tom was okay, were snuggled close together on a couch watching the foals. Layla, her aunt, and a blue unicorn she didn't know the name of were all at the hookah, and she scrunched up her nose in distaste at the fact they were smoking. All the foals had been playing right when she walked in, but now had frozen in place and were staring at her. That last group made her a little worried.

Her breath caught as she spotted Ms.Jean off in a corner on a chair, with Mr. Roger standing by her gently brushing her mane. Ms. Jean was still a pony, and was wearing some sort of weird harness and socks. She had a small glowing crystal strapped right to her chest, and she kept reaching up and touching it with a socked hoof while staring at everyone else in the room. Jessie met Ms. Jean's eyes for just a second, and she wasn't sure if she or Ms. Jean was more afraid. Ms. Jean wouldn't be here if she was all crazy still, but it was hard not to be afraid of her.

The only person she knew well that was missing from Thanksgiving was her Aunt Tonya. That was alright, her Aunt Tonya had visited her last night, and had been visiting her for the last week. Aunt Tonya even looked like her now, human except for a few pony parts. It was nice seeing someone else like her. Her aunt had wings, and she had taken one look at those and decided she was grateful she didn't have them. Getting her tail through her shorts was bad enough; she didn't want to even attempt to put on a shirt over her wings. If she had wings, she'd probably just give up clothes and run around naked.

"How about you go talk to your friends," her mom said gently. "Twilight wants to introduce you to some people like you that she thinks you could make new friends with, but I think your already existing friends should get first dibs."

She looked over at the two ladies Twilight was talking to, and saw all three of them looking at her. "What do you mean like me? Do you mean human?"

"Partially," her dad replied. "But like you that they've been rehumanized, and that she thinks are really special rehumanized people."

Really special? That did stir her curiosity, and warmed her up to meeting the ladies. She really wanted to talk to Jordan, the demons, and Jackie first, before doing that.

She nervously walked over to where all the foals were still staring at her with wide eyes. No one talked for several seconds when she reached them, and gripped her hands tightly together in front of herself. It was Jordan that finally broke the silence. "Jessie? Is that you? You're really tall."

"She's a human-pony now. Human-ponies are tall," Alfie said haughtily.

Jessie considered correcting him that there weren't human-ponies, it was just human, but her tail twitched and she wondered if that might be an accurate description. "Yeah, it's me. Do I really seem that different?"

"You smell close to the same," Jackie replied, and sniffed to demonstrate.

"Can you climb stuff now, like us?" Charlotte asked. "With how tall you are you could climb really high!"

Jessie blinked and looked at her hands and feet. "Um, I haven't really tried. I'm still getting used to having hands, but I might be able to when I get better."

"So, what cool human stuff can you do?" Tabby asked as she moved in closer, and started looking at Jessie's hands. With Tabby down by her legs it really stood out to her how tiny her friends were compared to her.

She didn't really know what they considered cool human stuff. "I don't know. Suggest something and I'll try it."

"Lift up the couch!" Jackie said excitedly as she gestured to a nearby couch.

She looked over at the couch. It was bigger than her, but she was still strong, even stronger than she'd been before. Her dad had challenged her to an arm wrestling match, and she was afraid afterwards that she'd hurt him. If she bent down she could grab under the couch. She walked to it made her best effort. As she tried to lift one side it easily went up, far easier than she thought it would, so easily she didn't just lift it-- she completely flipped it with a loud crash. She flattened her ears against her head as everyone in the room stared at her in surprise. She was sure she was going to get in trouble.

"It's okay, Jessie," Wild called out to her. "No one got hurt, but please don't go lifting and flipping my furniture. I don't think you can damage the furniture, it's reinforced for me, but it is heavy enough that it might hurt someone if it landed on them."

"I'll get it back in place," her dad said as he hurried over and started trying to lift it. He then let off a loud groan. "Okay, maybe not by myself. I might need a little help. This is a lot heavier than it looks."

Amanda hopped off her couch and hurried over to him. She began easily lifting it up while her dad guided it back into place. When it was back in place her dad gave the earth pony a grateful nod. "Thanks. I'd have never have moved that thing on my own."

Amanda flicked her tail and smiled. "No problem. Just remember to call an earth pony, or apparently your daughter, if you need to do any heavy lifting. You'll hurt your back trying stuff like that."

One of the ladies who was talking to Twilight walked over and grabbed the side of the couch. She then scooted it over a few inches before looking back at Jessie's dad and Amanda. "Sorry, you were off center just a little bit, and it was driving me crazy."

Her dad gave the woman a bewildered look. "Um...thanks. I didn't catch your name, ma'am."

The lady smiled and held out a hand to him. "Jenny, Jenny Tanner."

Her dad shook her hand. "Nice to meet you, Jenny." He then winced and rubbed his back. "I think I'm going to go sit down now."

Jessie watched Jenny walk back over to where she had been, and heard the other woman scold playfully as Jenny retook her seat. "Show off." They really were just like her. She didn't see any pony parts on either of them, but that was definitely earth pony strength.

Robby walked over to her and held something out to her that was gripped in his wing. "How about you try this instead." She took the object from him. It was her small pink bouncy ball. The physical therapist had given it to her for her to work on her reflexes and motor control. She bounced and threw it up in the air to catch it for about thirty minutes every day. She was getting kind of good at it, she could even catch it with one hand sometimes.

She took the ball and looked at the carpet. She didn't think it would bounce very good on the carpet. That left tossing it into the air and catching it. She wasn't sure if that would really impress her friends much.

"What's that ball?" Jackie asked.

"It bounces, and I toss it in the air so I can grab it," she explained. She crouched down and held it out to the pegasus. "Do you want to try?"

Jackie walked over to her and gave the ball an appraising look. She tried grabbing it with a wing, but that just knocked it out of Jessie's hands. Jessie grabbed it off the ground and let Jackie try again. This time Jackie tried with both wings, but couldn't get a good grip on it. With a frustrated snort she just reached out with her mouth and grabbed it that way. With the ball in her mouth she didn't seem to know what to do with it.

"So...is she supposed to kick it?" Charlotte asked in confusion.

"She needs to toss it in the air and grab it," Jessie explained.

Jackie didn't seem particularly sure how to accomplish this task. After some consideration the pegasus jerked her head upwards and released the ball. It feebly dropped down on the ground. Jessie frowned. "Try that again, only release later, when your muzzle is pointed up at the ceiling."

Jackie grabbed the ball back up with her mouth and tried again. This time the ball went into the air for an inch or two, and came right back down on Jackie's muzzle. "Ow! That hurt!"

"Show us how you do it!" Jordan said excitedly.

Jessie reached down and grabbed the spit drenched ball off the ground. She rubbed it on her shirt for a second to dry it off and stood up. She tossed it in the air about three feet above her head and then caught it with both hands. The demons and Jordan gave off cheers, Jackie just gave the ball that had assaulted her nose a dirty look.

"That was like magic!" Jordan said excitedly. "You made the ball go way up high in the air and caught it with no problem. Like a unicorn levitating something."

Jessie looked at the ball in her hands. She guessed to people that had a hard time throwing things, and never had to grab something that was moving in the air that could be like magic. It had started to get mundane for her, but she had never really thought about how amazing what she was doing really was compared to what she used to be able to do.

"Maybe we can't throw it good, but maybe we can catch it," Charlotte suggested. "I want to try catching it."

"It's ‘throw it well’," Jordan corrected cheerfully.

"Um, okay," Jessie replied. She lightly tossed the ball underhanded towards Charlotte. The night pony tried grabbing it out of the air with a wing, but just succeeded in knocking it away, bouncing off Jackie's flank near the tail.

"Ow! Hey! Watch it!" The abused pegasus said as she turned her flank away from the group.

"Sorry!" Charlotte said hastily. "I want to try again."

Jessie walked over and grabbed the ball up from where it had rolled. She turned to the expectant night pony and tried tossing it as gently as she could over to her. Charlotte tried with two wings this time, and it bounced off one, then the other, and then bounced off one of her hooves as she brought that up, before rolling away.

"Darn, almost had it that time," Charlotte said with a giggle, undeterred by her failures so far.

"Maybe with just some more practice," Jessie agreed. Her ear flicked as she heard a piece of conversation from Ms. Rosetta and Phobia Remedy about getting some balls and teaching the demons how to play catch. They seemed worried that the foals were having trouble throwing and catching.

One of the unicorn mares that had been sitting at the bar walked over and grabbed the ball up in her magic while looking at all the foals. "The Great and Powerful Trixie couldn't help but notice how impressed you were with flying balls. She will put on a show for you, and make them fly and do tricks in ways you have never imagined."

"She could? Where is she?" Tabby asked.

"I am the Great and Powerful Trixie!" The unicorn said as she stood on her hind legs and spread her forelegs wide.

"So why didn't you just say so to start with?" Tabby asked as she tilted her head.

The Great and Powerful Trixie came back down on all fours and rolled her eyes. "My overwhelming stage presence is lost on some ponies," she said with a mutter. Then smiled as she levitated the ball close to her, and with a flash of her horn turned it into six identical balls. This earned hoove clapping and stomps from Jordan, and gasps of excitement from the other foals. The unicorn then began to juggle the balls in the air and make them glow.

"Jessie," Twilight whispered from beside her. It was weird looking down at a grown up, especially an alicorn. "While Trixie is entertaining your friends, come take a few minutes to meet Jenny and Beverly, they really are eager to meet you."

She followed Twilight back to a table set up with human chairs. Jenny and the lady she guessed was Beverly were both sitting there talking, but stopped talking and looked at her with smiles as she came up to the table. She took a seat at one of the empty chairs and gave them a nervous smile. "Hello."

"Hi there," the lady she didn't know said, and reached a hand out to her with her palm held up. Jessie flattened out her palm and touched it. The lady pulled her hand back. "I was told you were six-and-a-half. I think Twilight might have miscommunicated that to us. I'm Beverly by the way, and this is Jenny."

"I'm Jessie. I'll be seven in March," she replied. As she put her hand back down into her lap.

Twilight clopped her hooves together in a nervous gesture. "Jessie's rehumanization spell was a difficult one, and had some side effects. It took a full half day to do, and it kind of fought us as we were trying to apply it. We had to concede to some of what it wanted to do or not do, otherwise it would have failed. It seemed convinced she was older than she actually is. It actually wanted to push her age even further, and this was the best we could do to reign it in," Twilight stopped her tapping and smiled. "She's really bright and mature for her age, and if it had aged her all the way up to adulthood it would probably take a long while talking to her before you figured out she wasn't really that age. Um, depending on the subject matter."

Beverly beamed at Jessie. "Well, I was told that you are really into science. I'm a scientist myself, more an engineer, but I'm doing new and exciting things."

Jessie's ears perked up. "Like what? Do you do anything involving space, for NASA?"

Beverly chuckled. "Not so much...yet anyway, but we have had some NASA engineers who are very interested in what my new little company is trying to do. We're trying to integrate traditional electronic engineering with magic. We're still figuring out all the things involved in human magic, but we think it might be uniquely suited for working with technology. We heard your Aunt Sunset had been doing some of that, with only limited success, but she only really looked at pony sources of magic."

"So, like a power source?" Her eyes went wide and she hopped in her seat with excitement. "Getting traditional rockets into space takes a lot of delta-v. Fuel weight really decreases the payload dramatically and reduces how far you can send it. Magic doesn't have weight in the traditional sense though. If magic could be used for fuel you can send it much farther in a more efficient way. I'm not sure what the energy conversion of magic to jules would be. It would need study, and I would need to develop equations. Maybe if--"

"Whoah!" Jenny said with wide eyes. "Beverly, this kid is right up your alley. Hears about the possibilities in combining science and magic and she gets all excited and talking in geek speak."

Jessie flattened her ears out to the side. "Well, they technically aren't different. We just need a unifying theory to see how everything works together. Science explains everything, and magic is just a branch of science. We just haven't got together all the rules right yet. The stuff from my notebook was showing some of that. Magic obeys physical laws, you just have to understand how it is obeying them."

Beverly was looking at her with wide eyes. "Jessie, if it weren't for child labor laws I would be offering you a job right now based on what I'm hearing. You're exactly the type of person I'm looking for. I admit, I thought Twilight might be exaggerating a little about you, but you're the real deal."

"Type of person you're looking for?" Jessie asked in confusion.

Beverly crossed her arms in front of her and leaned forward on them. "I need humans that are both scientifically inclined and possess magical gifts. It isn't as easy finding that combination as you might think. I find ones with magic, like Jenny here, but Jenny isn't a scientist. The majority of scientists I find have no magic of their own, and because of that they lack insight into how it works. People like us are a rare breed."

"But, I'm not a scientist, yet. I haven't gone to college. I was going to start next year, but they said I need to wait and get used to being human for another year or so," she explained. She then looked at Jenny. "What do you do?"

Jenny sat up straight. "I'm a storyteller. My magic lets me make the scenes come to life and everyone be a character. I also work part-time with my aunt at a restaurant and sometimes Beverly here calls on me to come help her with some experiment, which really helps out with paying the rent. Since ponies out West don’t have a lot of money to throw around for a magic show, I’m kind of perpetually broke. I don't mind too much, except for when the landlord starts yelling at me."

"Jenny is also an accomplished author," Twilight added in.

"Trying to be, anyway," Jenny corrected. "I have gotten a few short stories published, but It's been a struggle translating what I can do when I'm in storytelling mode to written form. That's part of what I'm hoping Bev can help me do eventually. Maybe some computer that can interact with my magic as I'm in that mode."

"We're still trying things to help with that, and I've got more ideas to come," Beverly said cheerfully, then sighed. "But as I said, I need more magical scientists other than me working on this."

Jenny suddenly frowned and slapped her own ear. "Can you calm down? I thought you finally finished. I can barely hear myself think when you're doing that."

Jessie flicked an ear. "Huh?"

"Jenny has a voice in her head," Beverly explained. “But she isn’t crazy.”

"Not yet. The Narrative is going to drive me crazy sooner or later if it doesn't calm down," Jenny grumbled, then sighed with relief. "Thank you, worse than a child sometimes."

Twilight looked back and forth between Jenny and Sunset Blessing. "Is your friend still calling Sunset the same thing?"

Jenny shook her head. "No, it can't seem to make up what to call her now, and seems to change it around constantly. Might just mean the character identity hasn't settled into anything yet, but it's still talking about her. It has actually settled down a lot recently, but talking to Jessie just got it excited again. Jessie's title has not changed."

"Good to know," Twilight replied with a considering look at Sunset Blessing. Jessie found this entire exchange weird, and wanted to ask more about it, but Twilight cleared her throat and looked at her first. "Anyway, I know you have your heart set on NASA, but as you rightfully pointed out the future of space travel might depend more on technology like Beverly here is trying to develop. Technology that will help not just in that, but possibly every aspect of life. I thought that it might be a good idea to expand your horizons on what you could be doing to help Earth reach the stars, as Phobia says you put it. You're young, and still have lots of time to decide what you want to do, but I think this is where you could make the greatest impact when you're ready to go out into the world. As Beverly said, NASA has already expressed interest in the possibilities of what she is trying to accomplish."

Jessie sat and thought about it. Twilight was right, making the tech that could make interstellar space travel possible was in line with what she wanted. It wasn't working directly with NASA, only indirectly. She wasn't sure how she felt about that. It was also a shift away from her doing just pure math, and instead developing mechanical skills. That might not be too bad. Crystal had come by to check on her a few days ago, and suggested teaching her how to work on a car engine as a new hobby. Looking down at her hands she could see that fate had literally handed her the tools to be good at mechanical stuff. It was just a big change, and she had just gone through a really big change.

"Hey," Jenny said to her. "You're six right? You aren't even legal to work for anyone for another decade. You don't need to rush to figure anything out. If you are really going into college in two years, and you learn as fast as everyone says you do, then you have eight years in college to learn and master all the skills to do what both NASA and Bev here would want out of you, before you need to be going and getting a career. Go to college and just load up on degrees, if that's your thing. Get multiple doctorates while you don't have to worry about a job or rent or anything. Take time to meet more friends and enjoy college life. Then when you turn sixteen, seventeen, or eighteen all these jobs will still be waiting for you, and you'll have a better idea what you want to be doing."

Beverly nodded. "Well, if I'm still in business and haven't gone bottom up already by then, I'll still be there. Jenny is right though, you shouldn't be rushing. You just lost most of your childhood, and that's an important part of your life. You say you've got two years to figure out being human before college? Take those two years and figure out just being a kid while you still can. If you're interested in working for me in ten years, let me know in ten years. If I'm out of business I might even be able to resurrect that business if I get enough talent like you behind me."

She looked over to where her friends were and thought about being a kid. Her friends were excitedly cheering as her auntie Sunset had joined Trixie and the two of them were now magically tossing back and forth balls of fire in a complex pattern. Everyone in the house was watching and cheering--except Wild Growth. Wild was giving those balls of fire a wary look and probably was worried about her house catching on fire or something. It would be nice to just focus on having fun for a while. A lot of the physical therapy exercises that she was supposed to be doing had been given to her in the form of toys and games. It was like she was getting little pushes to just have fun all around. The only one stopping her from focusing on just having fun was her.

"Everyone, Jean and I have an announcement!" Mr. Roger called out as Trixie and Auntie Sunset ended their magic show. "Jean and I have talked about it and we have decided that we're going to accept her invitation to move to Equestria."

There was some cheering and clapping from all the adults. The foals didn't cheer as much. Running for their lives from Ms.Jean was the scariest thing most of them had ever had happen. The only ones who could claim something scarier had happened was her and Jordan, and that had been because Jordan had almost been caught by the other crazy pony. Jessie had to build up the courage to do something insane and stupid, and knock herself and that crazy pony off over a hundred and fifty foot drop. She'd still probably be a pony right now if she hadn't done that, but Jordan might not be alive if she hadn't.

"Jean is going to take the permanent transformation spell," Mr. Roger continued. "And since we'll become permanent citizens of Equestria, I'll be taking it too."

"Roger, you shouldn't be--" Auntie Sunset started to protest.

Ms.Jean cut her off though. "We want to have another foal, and we kind of need to be biologically compatible to do that."

"Mama! At your age!" Ms.Rosetta called out in shock.

"If we're going to be living in exile in Equestria then we still want to be surrounded by family. If we are left to communicate with family long distance it might be time to have one last one," Mr. Roger explained. A few of the mares hurried over to where Ms. Jean was, and while keeping a safe distance, said congratulations to her and Mr. Roger.

"You're calling the twins and telling them!" Ms. Rosetta shouted. "I am not having them yelling at me over the phone again because no one told them anything."

"We didn't yell at you, Mama," Tabby said with her ears flattened to the sides, and her head held low.

"Your uncles, dear. Not you," Ms. Rosetta said with a sigh.

Beverly leaned towards her. "We'll talk later, and exchange emails. Go have fun with your family."

"It was nice meeting you," Jenny added in. "Maybe I'll tell you all a story before I go. I need to corner Phobia Remedy sometime while I'm here, and convince her to give me a refund on my license fee. I've done the Dreamwardens two huge favors. I shouldn't have to pay a fee for an OMMR license."

"It's like twenty-five dollars isn't it?" Beverly asked. "It isn't that big a deal."

"It's the principle of the thing," Jenny grumbled as she crossed her arms.

Phobia Remedy seemed to appear out of nowhere next to Jenny, making the woman jump. "If you want twenty-five dollars I can give you twenty-five dollars."

Jenny scolded down at the Dreamwarden. "I want an official piece of paper saying the fee was waived."

"Um, that I can't do," Phobia Remedy said as she bit her lip.

"Why?" Jenny demanded. "And if you say because it's a rule I'll--"

"Oh my! Nocte and Ferris are just waking up. I better go say hi to them," Phobia Remedy said as she quickly retreated.

"Phobia!" Jenny shouted in indignation.

Jessie got up from here seat and looked over at the foals. Sometime in the last minute they had started doing some horseplay. Lots of pulling of tails, yanking of wings, and general roughhousing. She was definitely too big and strong for that, and she knew she'd end up hurting someone if she tried. It wasn't like she ever enjoyed that kind of play anyway.

"Hey, Jessie, going to ignore me the whole time you're here?" A voice said from below her, making her jump. She turned and saw Layla standing there, with some papers clutched under a wing. "Whoa! Calm down. My fault for sneaking up on you. I forgot you can't smell me standing next to you."

She let out a long breath. "It's okay." She then looked at the papers. "Is that my paper?"

Layla passed the papers to her, and Jessie eagerly grabbed them in her hands. "Yep, all finished as of last night. I've been working on this constantly since I last saw you. I wanted it ready when I got to see you again." Layla then looked her up and down. "They told me they rehumanized you, and even told me you had some leftover pony parts that made you look kind of like an anthropony, they didn't tell me you aged several years overnight."

"I'm still six," Jessie muttered. She removed a paperclip holding the papers together and started flipping through the pages.

Layla laughed. "I'd think you would be happy about it. By the time you actually hit your teen years you'll be full grown, and people are going to look at you right now and see a preteen instead of some small child. I thought you wanted to have people treat you like you're older."

She frowned. "I'm about to hit puberty and go crazy."

Layla gave her a long look, and then bit her lip as she tried to suppress another laugh. The night pony seemed to manage it, and grinned again. "Jessie, except for your foal friends everyone else in this place has gone through puberty. It can be rough, and sometimes scary, but it's part of growing up."

Jessie looked around the room. That was true she supposed.

Layla gave an aggravated flap of her wings. "Can you sit down? You're way too tall for me to keep staring up at."

She did as instructed and crouched down, and Layla came up close to her and spoke quietly. "Right now you're physically aged right in the middle between someone my age and someone your actual age. That means you've got one foot in childhood and one foot in the adult world. With that brain of yours you were already dealing with that somewhat. In no time at all those hormones you're so scared of are going to be causing a lot of changes, but that's a good thing; it means you're growing up."

"It's going to affect my thinking," Jessie muttered sullenly.

Layla shrugged. "So what? It impacted my thinking when I hit those changes. It impacted everyone's thinking who ever grew up. You're still smart, and like the rest of us you'll eventually settle in with it." Layla looked over at the younger foals while frowning slightly. "That said, I think it might be a good idea for you to get as much time in with your younger friends as you can now. You're going to be dealing with complicated new feelings soon, years before it will hit them. In another year or so it will be hard for you and them to relate, and that's on top of them trying to relate to a human."

She looked mournfully over at her friends. "You aren't making me feel better."

Layla patted her with a wing. "I'm just trying to be real with you. They'll catch up, eventually. I actually feel sorry for you for other reasons."

She looked over at the night pony and flicked an ear. "What reasons?"

Layla looked up at her ears. "It's weird seeing a human with pony ears...but the reason I feel sorry for you is you're going to be basically hitting physical adulthood sometime in your early teens. That's going to be tough, because everyone's going to look at you and see an adult, but you aren't."

She flattened her ears. "But I don't want to be treated like just a kid. Shouldn't that part at least be good then?"

Layla shook her head and gave her a sad look. "It's complicated, and I shouldn't talk about it with you before your parents do. Maybe it won't amount to much, but I'm fairly confident it is going to become its own stress. If it does, I'm still available to vent to. I won't get offended if you feel the need to yell about things."

She wished Layla would just come out and say whatever the problem was going to be, but the night pony had said that she'd listen when whatever it was made her mad. One thing she had noticed that had changed about her thinking was that she was more prone to anger now. She didn't know if that was because she was human or because of the hormones starting, or a combination of both. She tried to keep it from showing, because she didn't want to hurt her parents' feelings, but it was hard sometimes.

Actually, now that she thought about it, some of the things that were making her mad with her parents involved them discussing her getting age appropriate friends. That might be what Layla was talking about. She gave the grateful but sad, smile. "Thanks, Layla, I think you're a good friend."

Layla lightly bumped her shoulder with a hoof, then got closer to her. "My aunt has always been there as my psuedo-big sister and best friend; I think I wouldn't mind doing that for you. As a bonus, I actually do understand complex math. That means I'm someone that can actually understand the stuff you're into...mostly, you'll need to teach me about physics, but I don't mind."

Her ears perked up at the idea of having a big sister to go with her big brother, but then they fell. "But you're going to be going away to college after the school year is over."

Layla rubbed a wing against a foreleg. "About that, you might not have heard, but for a lot of ponies this is going to be kind of a lost school year. Our school isn't going to be up and running again until next year, and a lot of the other schools were in the pony district. We have the choice of going to the human area schools, and getting bused to schools all the way in Augusta and Columbia, but those are going to be really overcrowded with students because of that. I'm just going to take a year off, and start senior year again next year. I kind of want to help my aunt and parents get back on their hooves...after our houses got destroyed and everything."

Jessie's ears went completely flat. She hadn't even thought about how many of her friends had their homes destroyed. "So, are you living in a tent now?"

Layla blinked in confusion. "No one told you? I'm living right here; me, my aunt, my parents, the Gilmores, and four other families. Wild Growth said she would house who she could, and this is a big place. Me, my aunt, and a night pony couple are even getting paid to do overnight security for her, in shifts."

"Oh," she replied, and looked around. "Is that where the ponies I don't know are from?"

Layla shook her head. "No, they are all either upstairs or out trying to help with the rebuilding. This party is kind of for you."

Her ears flicked. "It is?"

"Yes it is," Layla assured her. "Everyone here has been wanting to see you. We've been worried about you. Wild Growth and your parents thought it would be a good idea to just gather everyone together, let us see you, and let you know how much you matter to all of us."

She didn't know why, but she felt like crying. Why should she feel like crying? She wasn't upset. This was all really really nice of them. It had to be the stupid hormones fault; causing her to do crazy things.

Layla gave her a sympathetic pat. "Feeling a little overwhelmed? That's understandable. Take a second to go to the bathroom, cry if you need to, and wash your face. People will understand."

She passed the papers back to Layla and then wiped her eyes. "Can you hold this for me? I don't have anywhere to put this right now. I can't wear my saddlebags anymore. My mom said she was going to get me a backpack, but she hasn't gotten around to it yet."

Layla nodded to her as she took the report under a wing. "I'll do that. Go take care of yourself."

Jessie went over to the bathroom. Wild Growth had both a human sized sink and a pony sized one, which was nice. She washed her face, and looked herself over in the mirror. It was surprising how much her features had changed, but how natural they still felt; as if she had always been this way. She thought of herself as human, but at the same time didn't find anything out of place about her ears, tail, or furry legs. It was all part of her, just like her fingers and toes, and it just felt right together. There were mental changes, but they didn't seem so dramatic that anyone thought she was behaving really different. She was still herself. What made her smile was that everyone still saw her as herself, and still cared about her; cared enough about her to do this party for her. She had friends and family that loved her, and that was what mattered.

As she left the bathroom, and almost immediately tripped over a pony in her hurry to get back to her friends. She hurriedly looked to see who she had walked into so she could apologize, but froze when she saw who it was. It was Ms. Jean.

The mare looked up at her, and seemed torn between saying something and running away. Jessie couldn't help feeling the same way. She licked her lips then made herself be brave. "Sorry, I didn't see you there. I'm not used to having to look down for other people, yet. I should watch where I'm going."

Her words seemed to give Ms. Jean some confidence, and the mare gave a small smile. "It's okay. I was probably standing too close to the door." The smile dropped, and so did the mare's gaze. "I wanted to apologize. I never wanted to hurt anypony...excuse me, anyone--Wild and Rosetta keep fussing at me to watch my pronouns--anyway...I don't know how I can ever express how sorry I am about everything. That need for magic, it just drove out all my other thoughts. I can't even remember more than quick flashes of those two days when I was hurting ponies."

Jessie tried to think of an appropriate response. "I forgive you. Um, do you forgive us for dropping a locker on you?"

The mare seemed to lighten up. "I honestly don't even remember that part, and the doctors seemed to have fixed whatever hurt you did before I had a chance to start really remembering things. So, forgotten and forgiven. I should probably be happy that you did drop a locker on me."

"How do you feel about being a pony?" Jessie asked, trying to be polite and make conversation. Ms. Jean still scared her, and might always be scary to her.

"It's just what I am. I figured you might feel the same way about being human," Ms. Jean replied. Then her ears dropped. "I'm not a permanent pony yet. They'll do that in Equestria. I was actually going to see if they could turn me into a different type of pony, any other type of pony; I don't really care what. I don't ever want to absorb magic again after they've done the permanent spell on me. It...it's just...you understand…"

"I understand," Jessie said softly.

Ms. Jean gave a barely perceptible nod of her head. "I'll let you get back to your friends and family. I just wanted to make sure I had a chance to say my apology, even if it will never be enough."

Jessie watched as the mare turned away, then decided she needed to do something. She hurried over to the mare. "Wait!"

The crystal pony turned around just in time for Jessie to bend down and wrap her arms around the mare in a hug. Ms. Jean stiffened, then started to cry as she leaned into Jessie's shoulder. They sat like that for a minute before the pony pulled away and looked at her with tear filled eyes and a smile. "Thank you." Ms. Jean whispered. Then turned and walked away.

The foals were still doing their rough play, oblivious to what else had been happening. So she didn't choose to go back to them yet. Instead she decided to go over to her parents on one of the couches. She took a seat next to her mom who was busy breastfeeding Dusk.

"What did you think of Twilight's friends?" Her mom asked as she brushed a little but of blue hair away from Jessie's eyes.

"They were nice. Beverly wants to give me a job in ten years," she replied, then brightened up. "She was saying that they were trying to develop ways of integrating human magic and technology, and they were really impressed with how smart I am. Beverly said she wanted to exchange emails later."

"Hmm," her mom said. "They are a little old for you, but having human friends that are rehumanized like you is a good thing. I'm glad you're making new friends."

"Well, they didn't treat me like I'm six," Jessie replied, with a tiny bit of angst. "And I'm friends with Layla too. She says she isn't going to treat me like a little child either."

Her mom gave her a long look and she wondered if she had said something wrong. Her mom then looked down at Dusk and sighed. "You know, everyone else believes that spell aged you up because of how smart you are. I don't think it was that at all." She paused and carefully handed Dusk over to Jessie's dad. "Paul, Dusk needs a diaper change. Can you take care of that for me?"

Her dad took Dusk in his arms and grabbed up the diaper bag. "Yeah, I'll go take him in the kitchen real fast. Be right back."

After her dad left her mom smiled at her. "You know, as soon as you get a little better with using your hands I'm going to teach you how to change Dusk's diapers. If you are going to be homeschooled you can help out around the house a little while you're at it. You may need to know how to change diapers someday anyway. Robby knows how to change Dusk's diapers already, and he doesn't have hands."

She scrunched up her nose at what Robby must go through changing diapers. Robby was pretty dexterous with his wings, but she was pretty she he'd need to use his mouth at some point. What would she have done if she had to change Dusk's diapers and was still an earth pony? The thought made her want to be sick. Now that she had hands, and knew she didn't have to use her mouth, it might not be too bad. She couldn't even smell dirty diapers as much as she used to.

"What do you mean you don't think the spell made me older because of my intelligence?" She asked her mom.

Her mom looked at her. "I miss you being small enough to get into my lap. You're almost as big as me." Her mom looked down at her own hands and started fiddling with a loose piece of string. "When you were in that school, with all the adults gone, and your lives were in danger, you were put into a very adult situation. Anyone else in your position would have panicked; your brother told me he panicked, and he's a nearly full grown night pony. You didn't panic. You took charge and got all of your friends safely to the roof even though you had people literally hunting you. Regardless of your age, you had to grow up right then and there, and I'm very proud of you."

"I was really scared, the whole time," Jessie replied.

Her mom rubbed one of her ears. "But you didn't panic. Panic is when your brain shuts off and you stop being able to think rationally because you're so scared. You were scared, but you were thinking. You also recognized that everyone around you was panicking and got them to focus on doing what you told them. I know you haven't wanted to talk about what happened, but the other foals told us bits and pieces of what happened in there. We've been able to put together a pretty good picture of it, and I know I would haven't have done half as well in your position. You weren't a scared little filly, you were a scared young mare leading a bunch of terrified foals. It didn't matter that you were smarter in that part, it mattered that you decided what needed to be done and made sure it happened."

Her mom pulled her into a tight hug. "And after you all got out and were in that tree. You saw that your friend was in mortal danger and you sat there and made a conscious decision that you were going to make sure your friend wasn't going to die. That had nothing to do with how smart you are, because that wasn't smart at all. It was heroic and stupid, and you scared everyone half-to-death. I don't know if I should scream at you or kiss you for what you did. At some point I'm probably going to do both. They say they think the only reason you didn't have your cutie mark after that was because Bill was draining your magic all the way down."

Her mom started crying. "A pegasus found you, down on the ground, barely alive. You'd landed near Bill when the two of you finally collided with the ground, and the leaves were the only thing that cushioned your fall. That was a twelve story fall! You had so many broken bones and failing organs, you'd been run through with a branch; I thought I was going to lose you again."

Her mom wiped her nose. "They got you back to the hospital and had you on life support. They said you'd probably wouldn't pull through, but if you did you'd be in constant pain for the rest of your life, and two of your legs were not going to be usable, with a third one they weren't even sure if it would be. This was the second time I saw my baby on life support and doctors telling me that you'd probably never have a normal life, if you lived at all."

"I remember waking up in the hospital, it didn't seem that bad. Phobia Remedy was there," Jessie said slowly. Why had just Phobia been there? Shouldn't her parents have been there.

Her mom shook her head. "No, you didn't wake up. Not until after the rehumanization procedure. They needed your consent to do it, and they were afraid to do anything to force you awake in your condition. Phobia had to bring Twilight into your dreams and get it. She brought some pony doctors into your dream with her for witnesses, but kept them out of sight. They still almost denied it at that point, but Twilight said they'd do it no matter what, and they weren't going to argue with an alicorn."

"I'm sorry, Mom," Jessie cried.

"Don't you be sorry, my brave, stupid, brilliant little girl!" Her mom cried. "Just please, never do anything like that again. We've gotten two miracles with you. You have tempted fate enough." Her mom let her go and looked her in the eyes. "And you aren't just a little girl. You are a mature young lady, and that's why that spell aged you up, no matter what those fancy mages think. You've got a little bit of filling in the gaps to do on some things, but that's nothing new. As far as I'm concerned you're at least as mature as you look, and I won't treat you as any less. You're always going to be my baby girl, though."

Jessie wrapped her arms around her mom and hugged tight. "I love you, Mom."

Her mom hugged her back. "I love you too, baby girl … but… can you let me go? You might be cracking my ribs."

Jessie released her mom in a hurry and blushed. "Sorry."

Her mom took a deep breath. "It's okay. That part of you decided to mature too, and I'm perfectly happy it did. It means the next time you are in danger you're strong enough to fight back. We just need you to work on controlling your strength. Maybe Wild Growth can help you with that."

"Maybe," Jessie agreed, as her dad came back and sat down to the other side of her mom.

"Everyone, may I have your attention please!" Phobia Remedy called out from the center of the room. "I would like to say a few words."

"Oh no, everyone run! My wife is going to monologue!" Ms. Rosetta shouted in mock terror. Laughter erupted around the room.

Phobia Remedy chuckled. "It is nice to know as the Warden of Fear that my voice is capable of inspiring such dread." More laughter followed and Jessie smiled.

The Dreamwarden cleared her throat. "I wanted to talk about what today means to me. I look around this room and I see friends and family, along with new faces that I've never personally met. Seven years ago many of us were living very different lives, and I don't think any of us could have imagined then the direction our lives would take. If any of us could go back and talk to ourselves back then." Phobia paused, then smirked. "Excluding the few of you who have time traveled." There was some nervous chuckling from Twilight Sparkle, one of the unicorns she didn't know, and her auntie. "Our past selves would see someone who was very much a stranger. The world has changed. We've changed."

Phobia Remedy paused and took a small sip from her drink. Ms. Rosetta took this opportunity to take another shot at her wife. "Oh no, everyone get ready to be here for a while. The mistress of monologues is having to take time to wet her throat. It’s going to be a big one." More laughter came after that.

"I scare everyone but my wife," Phobia Remedy said with a smile, as she set the mug down. "That's part of why I married her. At the end of the day she always has some snarky remarks to give me. It keeps me humble." A few bits of laughter followed this, but a few awes as well.

The Dreamwarden looked at the mug on the table, and lost her smile. "In the past few weeks many of us had our world changed once again. We have faced tragedy and adversity. Everyone of us who were here for Thanksgiving have endured hurt, terror, and heartbreak. It has been a frightening few weeks, and most of us cannot say we are the same people we were a month ago. For so many of us, the world we had grown accustomed to came crashing down, and as before, it can't be put back together again the same way."

Jessie could feel the mood of the room change, and she looked down at her hands in her lap. Her ears flicked as she heard a few people sniffle in different parts of the room. There had definitely been a lot of hurt.

"But we only need to look around at one another to know that despite all of that we have a room full of new beginnings for all of us. Everyone has had their lives changed forever, and just like six and a half years ago that change can be scary. We have no way of knowing what will come next. Change is opportunity though, change is the hope of rebirth, change is inevitable. The changes we face may be scary, but we must face that fear so we can reap the rewards of what can be."

Jessie had tears in her eyes as she looked up at Phobia Remedy again, and she didn't know why. She wasn't the only one. A lot of the grown-ups had tears in their eyes too. Sunset Blessing was openly crying, and Wild Growth had her head down so no one could see her face. No one was laughing now.

"The future has a lot of scary things yet to face," the Dreamwarden said soberly. "For all the fears we've faced, the worst may yet be coming. But we've journeyed this far. We've faced many fears that we would never imagined we'd ever have to face. If we have overcome and moved forward every step of the way up until now we can continue overcoming and moving forward if we have the bravery to do so. We're at our greatest when we're brave, and we're bravest when the world looks darkest. The greater the challenges ahead, the higher we have an opportunity to rise. This is part of why I have always focused so much on fear, as it's what pushes us to show what we truly can do. Life is the scariest thing anyone has ever experienced, and that is why so many accomplish the impossible. I want everyone to remember that, and if you do, then your best is yet to come."

Jessie looked around at all the people in her life. Her parents, her brother, all the foals, everyone. She had a lot of great people in her life. People might talk about how lucky she was to know an alicorn princess and a Dreamwarden, but everyone here had a big impact on who she was. Her life had definitely changed, more than she imagined it could have. She couldn't imagine how her parents must feel. Well, she could, because her mom had told her. The people in this room were what made her life full. In two years she'd start college, and that would be the beginning of a whole new part of her life. Given how everything had gone so far in her life there was no way of knowing how that would turn out. Life was unpredictable, but she was okay with that. What mattered was what she was going to do right now.

She looked at her mom and smiled. "Mom, I'm going to go play."

And went to her laughing friends and did just that, and she laughed too.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading, and special thanks to all my prereaders, as well as Lawra and ASGeek2012 who both provided small sections in this story.

Chapter 1: Preparation Before Dinner

If I looked up, I saw scenes which were familiar to me in my happier time and which I had contemplated but the day before in the company of her who was now but a shadow and a recollection. Tears streamed from my eyes. The rain had ceased for a moment, and I saw the fish play in the waters as they had done a few hours before; they had then been observed by Elizabeth. Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.

"Mom! Jessie's reading instead of getting ready!" She heard her brother call out.

"Jessie, you can take a few days off from reading. It's a holiday. Get ready to go," her mom called out from the bathroom.

Urgh! Why did her brother have to tattle!

Jessie looked up at the two inspirational posters hanging over her reading desk. One had Wild Growth pointing a hoof towards her with the words We're Earth Ponies, and We're Awesome! spelled out in bright letters. The other poster had Twilight Sparkle holding a book with the words Eggheads are Excellent! spelled out in equally bright letters. Both the posters were autographed. Looking at them always made her feel proud of herself.

Her eyes turned to her MENSA certificate that was framed to the side of the Twilight poster and then to the framed news article that had a headline of Local Earth Pony Prodigy Begins High School at 6 Years Old. She smiled to herself. She was awesome, and she was excellent.

She looked back to the posters of her idols and sighed. "Did your brothers ever get on your nerves?"

Being posters, they, of course, didn't answer.

The yellow earth pony closed her copy of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. She supposed she was ahead on her reading list for school. English was her most demanding set of exams, not because she wasn't an excellent reader, but because she couldn't just logically work out answers as she could in her math and science classes. She had to read the books, and that took time.

She was planning on taking her SAT test in May, and she wanted to be sure she could make a perfect score. Her dream was to work with NASA and help colonize new worlds in outer space. Kim Ung-Yong had started work with NASA when he was eight. If she worked hard, she could do that too. She just needed to prove she was smart enough to do it.

Today she was going to have to put studying on hold. Her parents were insisting they all go to this big Thanksgiving dinner at her aunt's house. She was dreading it. They were going to put her at the kid table for sure. Foals, her age, were worthless for conversation. She'd much rather be at the grown-up table.

It wouldn't be all bad, though. Wild Growth was going to be there! Her mom sometimes worried about how much she liked to talk about Wild Growth, but that's only because her mom focused too much on Wild Growth's partying. Her mom almost wholly ignored all the great things Wild Growth did all the time. Wild Growth had the right to have fun because she was the most generous earth pony there ever was.

While conversations with other foals were a lost cause, racing and tag were a lot of fun. She was ready to show Jackie that winged ponies weren't the fastest on the ground.

Jessie went over to her bed and carefully put her saddlebags on. She was tempted to try to sneak in her book, but she knew she'd get scolded if her mom or dad caught her reading when she was supposed to be socializing. Her socializing was a big deal to them. They wanted her to attend all four years of high school, so she'd socialize more, but she wanted to get it done as early as possible. It wasn't like she was learning any new math in high school anyway. She'd seen the senior textbooks, that math was easy. Learning math and physics was what would get her into NASA, not socializing.

Instead of grabbing her book, she instead grabbed her stuffed bunny Bunna from her pillow and stuffed him into the bags that already had all her Pony Strap accessories in them. She then carefully put her Pony Strap on and made sure it was adjusted to be secure but not too tight. After a moment's consideration, she lifted her pillow and pulled her notebook from it, and placed that carefully into her bag as well.

Robby acted like getting ready was some big deal. She'd washed and groomed her fur when she woke up. Her blue mane and tail were already brushed, as were her teeth. Getting ready didn't take a lot of time. She could have gotten through another chapter or two before her parents were prepared to go. Her mom had already told her to take a break from reading, though, and she didn't want to come off as disobedient.

Instead, she walked to her door. When she was next to the door, she reared up on her hind legs and braced herself against the wall with her forelegs. She then stretched and just barely reached the light switch to turn it off. After completing that task, she settled back down on all four legs again. Light switches in their house might be lower than the ones for all human families, but they were still higher than the ones for all pony families. It made her grin in satisfaction that she could reach it now. A month before, it had just barely been out of reach.

She walked out into the hallway and swiveled her ears around. Her mom was in the bathroom, still. Her dad was in her parents' bedroom. Robby was out in the living room with the television on. She turned to the living room. She was going to give her brother a piece of her mind for interrupting her reading.

As she walked into the living room, Robby spoke up. "You finally decide to emerge from your cave?"

"It's not a cave," she said defensively. "I have a lot of reading to do. Why'd you have to be so mean and annoying."

The black-furred night pony colt stuck his head over the edge of the couch and grinned at her. "Because I was bored and lonely out here. Figured flushing out my egghead sister to come to talk to me was better than watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade."

"The parade is fun to watch," she replied as she took a glance at the TV.

"We already saw it this morning," Robby said with a groan. Then he looked down at her with an exaggerated pout. "What's wrong? Don't want to spend time with your big brother?"

"You're annoying."

"You still love me, though."

"Doesn't make you less annoying, bat brain."

"Smartypants!"

"Leather wings!"

"Plow horse!"

Plow horse? Oh-it-was-on. She smirked as she prepared her master insult.

"Somnium Vidisse se Dicat Diem!"

"Hey! No fair pulling out languages I don't understand!" Robby protested, briefly lifting himself into the air with his wings before settling back down. "What did you call me, anyway?"

"Daydreamer, in Latin," she replied with a grin and flick of her tail. Her Latin wasn't great, she'd only read the first-year textbook, but she had learned that one just to get one over on her brother. He was the one that started it anyway, using Spanish on her last time when he knew she didn't know Spanish.

Robby blinked. "Are you pulling my tail? That's a lot of words for that."

"It's kind of rough, but that's what it means," Jessie said with a nod.

Robby sighed. "You're too smart for me, egghead. I concede. I'll get you next time."

Jessie stomped her hooves. "That's thirty-one for me to your nine."

Robby grinned at her. "But who's counting, right?"

"Yeah, who's counting," she said with a giggle.

No matter how much he annoyed her sometimes, Robby was still fun to be with. Both of them were very mature for their ages and got along with each other better than other foals. He didn't even think it was weird she was one--actually, now two--grades ahead of him in school. Robby was the only pony that treated her like she wasn't just a little filly. She'd probably go crazy without her big brother to talk to.

She came and hopped up on the couch with him as they waited on their parents to finish getting ready to go. She saw that he had his saddlebags and Pony Strap on. She knew she shouldn't be, but she was jealous as she saw the yellow paintbrush that matched her brother's mane overlaid on a blue moon cutie mark on his flank. She may only be six, but she was a remarkably mature six, and she knew what she wanted to be when she grew up. She should have her cutie mark too, but her flank was still blank for some reason. Most of her pony classmates had their cutie marks. They might be in high school, but most of them were less focused than her. Ponies would treat you like a grown-up if you had your cutie mark, no matter what your age.

She spotted his art pad, just barely sticking out of his saddlebags.

"Going to draw about Thanksgiving dinner?" She asked.

He glanced at his pad and adjusted his saddlebag so it could be closed. "Yeah, I've never seen the inside of Aunt Tonya's house. It might make a nice setting for a dream."

Her brother's talent was recreating settings in dreams that he saw in real life. He had to get a good picture of them, though, and drawing helped him remember them best. He was an excellent artist. He'd even drawn a picture of her flying on a rocket to the moon that she had hung on her wall. Their mom was thrilled he took after her art interests. Their parents encouraged her interests too, but Robby and their mom had a bond in interests. Her parents couldn't understand her interests in math and physics.

Being super smart had its drawbacks. Every once and a while, she wished she was just average, so she didn't feel so lonely. Everyone treated her like she was weird because she behaved and talked more like a grown-up. Even the adults had a hard time keeping up with what she was saying a lot of times. She'd come to recognize that vacant look they got when she was talking over their heads. Robby at least didn't treat her like she was weird. He'd just laugh and admit he had no idea what she was talking about, but that was better than strange looks.

She wondered what Wild Growth or Twilight Sparkle would do.

"I wonder if Aunt Tonya will let me fly in the house," Robby said thoughtfully.

"You're not supposed to fly in houses," Jessie scolded.

"Different houses, different rules, egghead," Robby said, then bopped her on the nose.

"Mom! Robby bopped me!"

"Don't bop your sister, Robby. You know that she doesn't like that," her mom called out, now from the bedroom.

"I didn't bop her!" Robby yelled back.

"Yes, you did!" Jessie screamed.

"Did not!"

"You're so fudging annoying!"

"Jessie! Language!" Her mom yelled.

"Ooo, you're in trouble now," Robby whispered. She gave him a scowl and punched him on the base of his wing, making him wince. "OW! Jessie hit me!"

"She's half your size and hasn't developed her earth pony strength yet. You'll be fine," their dad called out. "Both of you behave, or we won't let you spend time with Wild Growth or Phobia Remedy."

Jessie's eyes went wide. "We'll be good!"

"We're being good right now. We were just playing," Robby added in.

Their dad walked into the room and looked down at them, arms crossed. "No more bopping, no more hitting, no more cussing, no more fighting. It's Thanksgiving, and you'll behave. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Dad," the two young ponies said in unison.

"Good," their dad said, and then departed back down the hall.

"Want to watch some cartoons while we wait for them?" Robby asked.

"Sure."

The mare adjusted her tie and did one last look in the mirror to make sure her purple pixie cut mane was adequately groomed. Her human assistant stood close-by, ready to take any last-minute instructions.

"Is the chopper ready, Fatima?" The pony asked.

"Yes, ma'am. They're prepared to get you back into the air as soon as you're on board."

"Any security issues that I need to be aware of?"

"The guards are in place to keep the reporters at bay. The reporters have all been thoroughly searched for weapons, and the roof has been checked for snipers, so none of the guards are at risk."

It went without saying that no conventional weapon could hurt the mare. She wasn't invincible, but it would take more than a gun or a knife to hurt her. The security guards weren't nearly as durable, though. She had to go more than once to give her condolences to families of those who had died when they were supposed to be protecting her. Her demands for heightened security over the last two years had resulted in no further incidents, but she was always concerned with the security's welfare. They were meant to keep her safe, but in truth, it was more her responsibility to keep them, and any other innocent bystanders, safe from harm.

"Perfect, Fatima. I hope you enjoy your holiday vacation. I expect to see you in Riverview bright and early January third."

"Happy holidays to you, ma'am. I hope you enjoy them. I hope everything goes well with the delegation."

"Happy holidays to you too, and I also hope everything goes well with the delegation. This is the culmination of years of effort."

"Demeter is about to exit the plane," her inside security detail said into his comm. She hated that call sign. The call sign was descriptive of her, but if the wrong ears heard that, there would be an uproar. She was never really clear why they couldn't just call her by name over the comms. There was some reason, but she'd never learned it.

The pony made one last adjustment of her tie and checked her suit over for lint. Then stepped up to the airplane door. She put on her best fake smile and stepped out the door.

Cameras flashed as the green earth pony mare got off the plane. Reporters from a dozen different newspapers and twice as many paparazzi as well. She could see the microphones being held out on long poles to try to bypass her bodyguards. The distance from the plane to her private helicopter was only about a hundred yards, but it seemed like several miles.

She waved at the reporters then descended the ramp, still smiling as if she were thrilled by the mob of reporters and flashing lights. Her eyes quickly glanced up at the top of the airport building, making sure there indeed weren't any snipers up there. Paranoia about that had saved lives in the past. If she spotted trouble, she could force the crowds away from her, so the bullets only came at her. She could take a shot and be alright. Reporters annoyed her, but they were innocent people who didn't deserve to be shot while just trying to do their jobs.

"Miss Growth, how do you feel about the results of the Sahara project?"

"I'm very pleased with what was accomplished, but there are many barriers to be overcome and research to be completed yet before we do any more with that," she replied calmly as she continued walking forward.

"Chairmare Growth, is it true the board of directors for PonyCo is leaning towards Michael Isinright to take the position of CEO?"

"The board is not prepared at this time to discuss its decision-making process. Mr. Solomon will continue as acting CEO through the remainder of the year, and we shall announce our decision on a permanent CEO sometime after the new year," she replied with a more neutral expression.

"Chairmare Growth, do you feel that the PonyCo sales figures for this holiday season will steady investor confidence following the death of the CEO and the poor western market performance last year?"

"We have corrected our distribution problems from last year, so sales figures should rebound. I know many western ponies will be getting PonyCo products this holiday season," she replied. "Ms. Takkagawa's sudden death was tragic and a sad loss, but it has no impact on our business outlook this holiday season."

"Miss Growth, do you have any comment on what's taking place in Riverview that is drawing government, United Nations, and Equestrian delegates to it this weekend?"

She shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I cannot comment at this time. All details will be revealed Sunday. Until then, you'll have to speculate as you wish."

"Miss Growth, how do you feel about the increased school security that has reportedly been put in place to protect the Dreamwarden's foals? Do you feel that taxpayer dollars should go to protecting your nieces and nephew?"

She wanted to growl. Ensuring foals and children were safe shouldn't be an issue people worried about spending such a small amount of tax revenue on. Some people would allow anything to happen to make a political statement about how they felt about the Dreamwardens.

She gave a tight smile. "I'm not part of that decision-making process, but I feel that increased security benefits all the students, not just the Dreamwarden's. I'm sure no one wants a terrorist attack on a school."

"Miss Growth, as the second-highest-ranking member of SPEC, what do you say in response to Venezuela's claims that SPEC is carrying out pony imperialism in South America?"

"President Alvarez has a long history of claiming the United States has imperialistic intent in his country," she replied dismissively. "This is just a continuation of that same populist rhetoric."

That bastard had been trying to push legislation to effectively make ponies be treated like farm animals in his country, though the press didn't seem to want to cover that. The average person in the United States didn't know or care what was going on politically in other countries. If SPEC wasn't there funneling money to his opposition, he might have already succeeded in getting it passed. He had already been warned by the UN and hadn't seemed to care.

"Miss Growth, is there any truth to the rumors you may be preparing for a congressional run when you become eligible in two years?"

She didn't want to consider doing that. Sunset wanted her to do it. There was an excellent chance she could win the election too. However, she couldn't make the same amount of contributions to the world in Congress as she could be out in the world, actually doing things. If Sunset wanted a pony congressperson from South Carolina, then Sunset could try to run herself.

She gave a smile. "I'm not currently making any such plans. Nor have I considered running for office. The rumors are baseless."

She was almost to the helicopter—just a few more steps.

"Miss Growth, can you tell us why it has been announced you will be taking time off next year from Westvaco? Is it a health concern?"

She frowned. "No comment."

She boarded the helicopter and sighed with relief as her bodyguards closed the door behind her. Dealing with reporters was always exhausting. She had years of experience doing it, but she still wished they'd just leave her alone.

"You look like you could use a drink," Number Crunch said from her seat across from her.

Wild groaned. "I wish I could get a drink. I need to watch drinking, though. I'll have a glass of wine at dinner today, but doctor's orders are to avoid any regular or heavy drinking."

Number nodded knowingly. "Have you told your family yet?"

Wild shook her head. "No, I'll tell them tonight during Thanksgiving dinner. My papa is going to have a fit."

"Well, it isn't like they'll be completely taken off guard. We all figured it was coming sooner or later. You have a reputation. The tabloids are all speculating on it," Number said with a smirk.

"The tabloids always speculate on that," Wild replied flatly. "They have claimed with reliable sources every year that I'm pregnant."

"A broken clock is correct twice a day," Number quoted off. "Next thing will be the speculation on who the father is."

Wild groaned again. "I honestly don't have a clue. I sleep with so many stallions in so many places; it all kind of runs together in my head. That's the part my papa is going to pitch a fit about, not knowing who the father is."

"Your wild lifestyle during your free time was going to catch up with you sooner or later. I warned you," Number chuckled.

Wild gave the blue-furred unicorn a dirty look. "Really? You had to go and use that running pun?"

"It is accurate," Number said defensively.

Wild crossed her forelegs in front of herself and pouted. "Doesn't mean you need to use it."

Number sobered up. "Anyway, you haven't asked me about how testing has gone yet."

"I'm assuming since we're calling in the delegates that it's gone well," Wild replied. She was eager to hear about this but didn't want to rush to the subject. "Is it a hundred percent ready?"

"I don't want to commit to saying anything, but the test with Ms. Rivers went well, and the test with Ms. Rutledge and Ms. Nightshade had...mixed results."

"Mixed results?"

Number ran a hoof through her red mane nervously. "They seemed alright at first, but they got increasingly anxious as time went by. It lasted about six hours for Ms. Nightshade, and by about the five-hour mark, she was in an awful mental state. It lasted about eight hours for Ms. Rutledge, but she was jittery by three hours, and we sedated her for her own good at five."

That was disappointing to hear. Number was her best friend, but Number had a habit of downplaying bad news. Very bad mental state was almost certainly her way of saying completely out of their minds.

"Can it be ended early?" She asked.

"With the aid of a crystal pony to remove the spell, yes."

That was better than nothing. "How long did Melissa last?"

"She lasted eight hours. She was thrilled the whole time. She said she'd love to do it again, both Ms. Rutledge and Ms. Nightshade gave us firm refusals to have anything more to do with it." Number paused. "We found out afterward that some of the rumors about Ms. Rivers were, in fact, true."

It was interesting to hear that the rumors concerning Melissa were right. No one who had ever listened to the stories had been shocked when Melissa signed up as a volunteer. That was not important at the moment, though. Those rumors didn't apply to everyone else.

Wild narrowed her eyes. "This doesn't seem completely ready then."

"We'll be running more tests. Perhaps we just have to find some sort of failsafe to end it early. If we can get enough volunteers for testing after we go public Sunday, we can get a better gauge on what the appropriate time limit is. Tests begin again tomorrow. We'll also be increasing our use of mind magic, and we are even now writing up the legal consent forms to satisfy those requirements. If we can avoid them getting distressed, we can hopefully get more repeat volunteers. This won't be perfect by Sunday, but we can hopefully show enough promise to get an endorsement from the government."

Wild laid down and sighed. "I hope so. After so much time and work, we're so close to having this. My mama needs this, Number."

"Are you going to tell them tonight about it?" Number asked.

"Better them hearing it directly from me than on the news. I've just got all kinds of things to talk about over dinner," she said with resignation. She then shook her head and looked at her cell phone leg-band. "Alexa, call contact sister."

"Calling sister," the leg-band responded. A second later, the sound of ringing could be heard on the band.

It took a moment to be answered, "Hello? Wild? Is that you?" Rosetta's voice came over the phone.

"Yes, I'm..." Wild began.

"Hold that thought! I'll be right back," Rosetta said in a hurry. Sounds of crashing and giggling could be heard in the background.

"Sounds like your nieces and nephew are up to their normal routine," Number observed with a smirk.

Wild nodded in agreement as she waited patiently for her sister to come back on the line.

"¡Pequeños diablos!" Rosetta shouted from somewhere away from the phone. Sounds of more crashing could be heard.

"Yep, definitely up to their normal routine," Wild observed.

Number raised a hoof and chuckled into it. "Listen closely, that's your future going on over there. Doesn't it make you thrilled at the prospect of mothering a foal for eighteen long years?"

Her nieces and nephew were a rambunctious bunch. It was rare she ever encountered them when they weren't play fighting with one another to work out the natural aggression they had as night ponies or putting their collective minds together to get into greater mischief. Her sister actually encouraged a lot of it on. Rosetta said it was good for their more playful natures to be nurtured. The three demons, as they were called, would be perfectly prim and proper around Phobia by contrast. It seemed an interesting parenting method where one parent taught the foals to behave, and the other taught them how to be little devils, but somehow it worked in their case. The foals did seem to know when their mischief would get them in trouble and when they needed to behave themselves.

Moments like this put her mind more into thinking about her impending motherhood. It wasn't often at the forefront of her thoughts yet. Right now, she had a lot of other things that took priority, but she had her moments still. She ran her other foreleg briefly against her tummy as she sat waiting for her sister to come back on the line. She wondered if it would be twins for her, as was extremely common in the family. She had a doctor's appointment coming up next week, when she was supposed to find out.

Other little thoughts like wondering what gender and tribe her foal-or foals-were played at her thoughts.

Having to deal with foals that had to work out aggression regularly wasn't likely. She was pretty sure that she had never slept with a night pony stallion. No matter how drunk she got, she wasn't ever drunk enough to try that. The night pony mares would attack if any non-night pony even considered sleeping with a night pony stallion. She was tough enough to fight those mares off with ease, but it would kill the mood of just wanting to have a fun roll in the grass with a stallion. There was no chance the new life inside her was nocturnal.

Every other tribe was a possibility, though. She had heard horror stories about surges from the various tribes. Crystal pony foals were typically the worst of the horror stories; crystal ponies on Earth weren't much like their Equestrian counterparts. A surging crystal pony foal could seriously hurt non-crystal pony parents and others by sucking too much magic out of them. Sometimes to the point of leaving the adult comatose in the worst-case scenarios. They typically had to be given into the care of a crystal pony until the surging ended, and then everything would be fine after. With her ungodly magic levels, that shouldn't be an issue for her, though. An army of crystal ponies could go at her all day and not put much of a dent in her magic.

Sounds of crashing objects and random curses in Spanish were continuing on the other line. This was taking a while.

"Your sister seems a little busy," Number said, still looking very amused. The foalless unicorn seemed to take great joy in knowing others were dealing with foals and not herself. Number was more than twice Wild's age, so it was unlikely that was going to change. "Maybe you should call her back later."

Wild about agreed before her sister came back. "Sorry, sorry. The foals were trying to make off with Phobia's contribution to dinner tonight. Actually, they did make off with part of it, but Phobia anticipated it and made extra. You better eat your share; tarantulas aren't cheap!"

Wild nodded, even though her sister wouldn't see that. "I just got off the plane and am on a flight back to my home. I wanted to ask how Mama was doing."

"You just got off the plane?" Her sister asked in astonishment. "You were supposed to be back yesterday."

"Weather delayed me. I didn't want to risk a plane crash."

"You're tough enough to survive a plane crash. You can afford new planes too."

She gritted her teeth just a little. "Sis, be reasonable. I might be able to, but my staff and pilot wouldn't. Even if I were flying alone, a plane crash would hurt like hell and have me missing Thanksgiving and be in bandages. I'm pretty damn hard to hurt, but I'm not invincible. I might even hurt someone on the ground with the crash."

Rosetta huffed on the other line. "I know that. I'm just frustrated you're running behind, even if it isn't your fault. I'm guessing you're not bringing anything to eat for Thanksgiving in that case."

Wild frowned. She didn't know how to cook, but she'd honestly forgotten to have a caterer provide something for her to bring. "No, not this time."

"No worries," Rosetta said with a sigh. "Anyway, Mama's not doing so great. That medication your doctors came up with helps with the tremors and twitching a lot, but it makes her mind so blurry she's not aware of much around her. Papa is spending all day every day with her and only medicates her when he absolutely needs to so she can try to talk. Things are getting progressively worse, though. Been on a steady downward spiral for her since Abuelita passed away."

Wild watched as Number lost her amused expression and adopted a more somber one. Number could seem like a heartless bitch sometimes, the unicorn's propensity to laugh at others' troubles and focus on money gave off that vibe, but Number did have a heart. Number would laugh at Wild's unplanned pregnancy, but she wouldn't laugh at people suffering or struggling. It was Number who would suggest needing charities most often to her and did the bulk of the research on them to make sure the money would go to meet actual needs instead of some CEO's or politician's pocket.

She frowned as she looked at her leg band. "Don't worry, sis. I'll have a better way to deal with this soon. We'll talk about it when I get there."

"I hope your doctors have come up with something that can let her be more clear-headed when medicated," Rosetta replied. The sound of fighting foals started up in the background. "I'm sorry, but I need to get going. Be careful on the way here. There are a lot of protesters in from out of town. They're protesting about Dreamwardens, how taxes are spent, the United Nations, the supposed New World Order, and any other thing they can think to be mad about. If you told me they were protesting about the sky being blue, I wouldn't be shocked."

Those protesting the United Nations probably came to town when they heard about the delegation. The rest likely latched on as soon as they heard protest in Riverview. Riverview was a magnet for people from outside it to protest in. It didn't help that Sunset Blessing would feed the protesters when significant events were happening. The preacher unicorn said that was her way of turning the other cheek. The actual residents of Riverview didn't get involved with the protests. They only tolerated them because Sunset Blessing would preach about loving those who curse them, free speech, and how time and kindness would teach the protesters the truth.

"I'll be careful," she said quietly. "Talk to you in a while. Love you."

"Love you too." The phone clicked off after that.

She looked at Number. "One way or another, the procedure needs to be working by Sunday."

"Thank you for doing this, Mrs. Blessing. My sister just hasn't felt right in the last few days," the blue unicorn stallion said as they walked up the stairs.

"It's the least I could do. I consider Megan a friend," Tonya replied.

The night pony mare walking with them let off a low growl. "She wouldn't need this if she hadn't signed up for that fool experiment. I don't know what the hell she was thinking."

Tonya didn't want to fight. She knew what Megan had been thinking. Megan had thought she wanted better to understand her siblings and the ponies of the town. Megan also had a colt that had somehow managed to catch her attention despite the species barrier. Tonya hoped that she could help her human friend recover.

They reached the third floor. Like most houses in town, there was just one window at the end of the hall that didn't let much light in. Most of the light was provided by electrical lighting, though some unlit candles were placed in sconces along the wall as well just in case there was a power outage. The ceiling was too low to fly in, and for a taller human, they'd no doubt hit their head on the ceiling if they so much as took a small hop.

Three doors flanked the hall as well as a second staircase that led to the next floor that had the living room, with a final ramp that led out to the roof. The floor below was the kitchen and storage area. The ground floor was the bathroom and laundry area, as well as where deliveries were made. This was the typical pony built house design in the city. If you had seen one, you had seen them all, except for whatever decorations and furniture the occupants chose to have.

Tonya was a little surprised that Megan chose to live here with her siblings rather than live in one of the human apartments that were better suited for her size. There were plenty available, and the prices were low. All three of the siblings were adults, and each made decent money. She'd assumed they'd all want their own places. It wasn't her place to question family wishing to live together, though.

The unicorn went to the door of the master bedroom and knocked. "Meg, it's Alex, you awake? Tonya Blessing is here and is going to see if she can help you feel better."

"I'm awake," Megan called out in a pained voice from within the room. "I don't want to sleep. If Tonya can help, send her in."

Alex opened the door, and Tonya looked at the night pony and unicorn. "Let us have some privacy. I need to talk to her about some confidential information while I'm helping her. Some of this comes from my wife, and some of this comes from Sha'am Maut."

The night pony narrowed her eyes. "I guess I'll let you have some privacy. I wouldn't want to upset the Warden of Death."

"Or my wife," Tonya added on. "Sunset's not your enemy, Tattered. She didn't mean for this to happen."

Tattered Wing flicked her tail. "But she's still the cause of it. I'll leave you two alone, but only for the Dreamwarden's sake." The night pony then turned and marched to the stairs, headed upward to the living area.

Tonya just now noticed that Tattered had the ends of her wings now tattooed; that was new. They still were red from being freshly inked. Another night pony had succumbed to the pressure and had taken Yinyu's Blessing in desperation. The concept of having wings tattooed sounded painful, but night ponies liked to pretend things like that didn't bother them. She was glad she wasn't a night pony; otherwise, she'd be expected to have hers done that way. Well, that or be treated like crap for the rest of her life. She had no idea how Tattered had endured the stigma as long as she had.

Alex gave Tonya a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry about her. She's just anxious about Meg. Please, help my sister out. We'll be upstairs waiting for you when you're done." Alex then turned and followed his night pony sister up the stairs.

Tonya took a deep breath and walked into Megan's bedroom, shutting the door behind her.

Megan was sitting on the edge of her bed with her arms wrapped around herself. She had lamps turned on, flanking both sides of the bed, the light on the ceiling was on, and a small fan was running in the corner. The human's eyes were bloodshot from crying, and she looked exhausted on top of that.

"Hi, Meg," Tonya said as she walked over to the bed. "Care to talk about it?"

"I don't want to think about it," Megan said in a tight voice. "Can't you just mind magic away the memories or something so I can't remember it anymore?"

Tonya gave a few flaps of her wings to join Megan on the bed, leaving a stray orange feather she'd failed to preen earlier on the floor.

She draped a wing over Megan's back once on the bed. "I can maybe do some mind magic to help you feel better, if you consent to it, but I can't just make the memories go away. I prefer using mind magic as a last resort. We need to talk about it no matter what, though."

"Fine, ask whatever you want," Megan replied tightly.

"So, let's start with how the first few hours went. Those weren't so bad, right? Don't focus on thinking about the sensations or anything; just focus on your actions and emotions from then."

Megan rubbed her arms for a moment before answering. "I was disoriented when I came too. Everything felt weird, and I was having a hard time processing it. The mages were saying things, but it was hard to understand them. Like sound was distorted. It smelled like I was buried in a dumpster. I tried moving one limb just to have another end up moving. Everything was blurry, and I couldn't see things clearly at first."

"You kept your cool through that, though."

"I was just focused on trying to get my body to work right," Megan replied. "Eventually, my vision and hearing cleared up some. Everything still seemed distorted, but I could make out what I was seeing and hearing if I focused. My sense of smell was overloaded still. The mages said it was a success, but damned if I could tell. I eventually got to where I could get my neck to work right. That was when I got my first look at myself."

"And what stood out to you?"

Megan shook her head absently. "At first, I thought I must have had a blanket draped over me; that's kind of what it looked like in my blurry vision. Then I realized that I was looking at wings hanging limply to my sides. I couldn't even tell with how blurry my vision was if they had feathers or not at first. Took a lot of staring to tell they were leathery."

"And how did you feel about seeing those wings?"

Megan let off a low chuckle. "My first thought after figuring out they were leathery was that Tattered was going to gloat. They said it would be like ETS and pick the most appropriate tribe based on my personality and mind. I guess those saying I would have made a good night pony were right...except for the fact it felt so wrong."

Tonya nodded with sympathy. She hadn't seen the event, but she'd heard Sunset describe how badly things had gone downhill with Megan and Velvet Nightshade.

"Is this when you started getting upset?" Tonya prompted.

Megan shook her head. "Not right away. I was just curious at first. I tried to get my wings to flap, or do anything for that matter, but at first, all I could get was random parts of my body to twitch. My hearing and vision continued to get clearer, though, and the mages were asking me all kinds of questions."

"You could understand them, though?" Tonya asked. "They said they weren't sure if you could or not at the time."

Megan nodded. "Yeah, I could understand them. What I couldn't do was answer back. I tried, I really did, but I just couldn't get words to come out right; trying to talk felt weird. Pony voice boxes work a lot differently than human ones. I kept trying to get different parts of my body to work and eventually got to where I could make the limbs I wanted to move. Actually using any of my limbs was a whole other story. I didn't even have the motor control of a newborn baby."

"When did the panic set in?"

Megan licked her lips. "Somewhere around the time, my brain started registering that there were more than four limbs. It wasn't like my arms and forelegs equated to one another like I imagined it does for all of you. It was like my brain was trying to equate my forelegs as my two legs, my hind legs as my two legs, my wings as my two legs, and at the same time, it was trying to equate all of these with my arms. My tail, my brain just didn't know what to do with, and it felt so alien. Everything felt wrong; my sight was wrong, my hearing was wrong, my smell was wrong, my taste was wrong. I was getting other sensations that I didn't even have a way of classifying in any of the senses."

Megan started breathing heavily, and her eyes could be seen dilating. She also started rubbing her arms rapidly and rocking herself as she sat. Tonya gripped the human tighter and tried to soothe her.

"I couldn't control any of it, and there was just too much to try to process," Megan continued as her tone started rising and getting faster. "Then, when I should have started trying to hyperventilate, my brain couldn't even figure out how to make my body do that right, and I just started twitching all over--which just made me panic more."

Tonya put a hoof up to Megan's head and turned the terrified human's face towards her. "Megan, calm down. It's over; you're back to being human; all your body parts work right; everything is okay. Take some deep breaths and calm down."

Megan did as instructed, and after thirty seconds of deep breaths, she seemed to calm down. The two sat in silence after that.

Sunset's mages had underestimated how many adjustments had to be done to a mind to accept a body, or even to control a body for that matter. This could have gone even worse. At least her pony body had seemed to do things like essential breathing without special adjustments, and keeping the heart beating. It was terrible to think that they might not have done that, and they just got fortunate.

They had such high hopes after Melissa had been thrilled the entire time with temporarily having a pony body again. The head of the police force had been disappointed that she had reverted to a human when it was done, but didn't show any signs of distress. It wasn't until after that Melissa had disclosed how much of a pony she had already been in terms of her thoughts and instincts. There had been rumors and jokes before, but this was the first time having them verified as accurate.

Melissa's successful session had lulled them into a false sense of security. Velvet's had been very rough, but not nearly as rough as Megan's early on. That was probably because Velvet still had the basic operating instructions for a human body filed somewhere in the back of her pony mind. That hadn't stopped Velvet from going into her own full-on panic eventually as well. If anything, by the end of it, Velvet had taken being turned into a human worse than Megan had being turned into a pony.

Tonya needed to pay the distressed night pony another visit first thing in the morning. She had already drafted a letter to get Velvet to a fully licensed psychologist, but the pony needed daily checking before her first appointment. Velvet was not well, and Tonya was experienced enough to know when she was out of her league. She was a counselor, but not for things this serious.

Perhaps she could set up some sort of group therapy session between the human and the night pony where they could talk about what happened. It may have been one freaking out about a pony body and one freaking out about a human one, but the extreme body dysphoria the experiment had caused was something they shared and could relate to each other on. That might help them cope while she was waiting to get them to certified professionals. She could temporarily help them a bit with mind magic, but they needed to sit down and talk about their feelings so real healing could happen.

Still, something needed to be done for Megan for right now.

"With your consent, I'll use a little mind magic to try to keep you from thinking about what happened for a day or two," Tonya said, breaking the silence. "I don't want to try to force any solutions that way; it just leads to trouble. This isn't something we should have just suppressed indefinitely. Saturday, I want to sit down and have a session with both you and Velvet Nightshade about your experiences. Maybe, you can help each other cope. I'd like to refer you to a fully licensed psychologist as well. I can help some, but I'd prefer to refer you to someone more educated and experienced. I can have a referral letter drafted tomorrow."

Megan nodded. "You have my consent for all those things. How's Velvet doing? She'd seemed so eager for the chance to be human again for a while. She was hoping for this to turn into something that could let her rehumanize despite having a cutie mark."

Tonya shook her head. "She was as traumatized as you were. We had to restrain her from hurting herself while transformed. Her first words when it was over was she never wanted to even think of being a human again. I think she firmly wants to stay a pony for good now. The idea of being a human terrifies her."

There were other concerns with Megan that she hadn't addressed yet that Sunset would. The crystal ponies registered that Megan had a meager PREQUES number now where she hadn't registered as having magic before. While Megan was temporarily a pony, her PREQUES number had been surprisingly high with at least a five. Sunset would be calling Megan in soon to discuss it with her and give her the legal talk about being a human with magic. Sunset had considered it a silver lining to a failed experiment that she'd inadvertently found another way of giving humans magic.

"What about the Dreamwardens? What did they say about me?"

Tonya frowned. "You took Sha'am Maut by surprise when you showed up in the dream realm dreamwalking. She didn't know what to make of you. She gave us a good chewing out about it. She made sure to tell me to tell you that she hopes she didn't scare you too much. She knows you were terrified and did what she could to help you."

Megan was still in her temporary transformation when they sedated her. Somehow her night pony magic had surged and tossed her into the dream realm while asleep. This led to a very confused Dreamwarden meeting what appeared to be a terrified human dreamwalking. You appear in the dream realm as you see yourself, and Megan's mind was fully human.

"Tell her thank you for me. I appreciated her putting me into a dreamless sleep," Megan replied.

"I'll let Phobia know, and she can pass it along. Talking to dead night ponies is something I prefer to avoid doing. Phobia is the only Dreamwarden I ever want to have to deal with again," Tonya said with a light chuckle.

Megan laughed briefly. "Yeah, I can see where that could feel creepy. It didn't even register on my creep meter at the time that I had a pony that had died two years ago talking to me."

Tonya sobered up her expression. "That being said. Sha'am has locked you out of the dream realm, in case the ability somehow resurfaces. She wants you to keep your mouth shut about having entered into it. The Dreamwardens have only recently gotten the United Nations to start fully cooperating with them, and word of humans wandering into the dream realm would cause a lot of tensions to start again."

"I understand," Megan said with a nod. "I consider that part of my confidentiality agreement I signed before agreeing to this experiment."

Megan's ability to shake off facing the ghost of the Warden of Death was encouraging. The undead Dreamwarden gave Tonya the willies. She was glad the Oaths were primarily a thing of the past now. The Dreamwardens still visited you on your first dreamwalk to lay down the rules, but they had lightened up a lot...provided you didn't do anything to abuse your dreamwalking.

Tonya wondered how she would react to Phobia's ghost if Phobia ended up passing away first. How awkward would it be to attend a friend's funeral and then run into said friend again that very night in the dream realm? It gave her chills just thinking about it. She also wondered how Phobia would deal with seeing her foals, grandfoals, and so on pass away while the Dreamwarden persisted. It was kind of depressing to think about.

"Anyway," Tonya said as she shook her head to ward off creepy and depressing thoughts. "I need you to look me in the eyes, and I'll do my best to give you some temporary calm. It's Thanksgiving, and I'm sure your brother and sister want you to be able to enjoy it with them."

"Think you can add in not feeling disappointed there's no turkey?" Megan quipped.

Tonya stuck her tongue out in disgust. "Eww, don't mention eating turkey. You'll make me lose my appetite. That you can manage to joke about that is a good sign, at least. Now, eyes on mine."

"Not really joking," Megan replied with a grumble, but did as she was instructed and locked eyes with Tonya.

Tonya stared into the human's eyes. "You want to put what happened out of mind and not let it come back to mind till we meet again. All the tension you have been feeling since the experiment I want you to let drift away for today."

Megan blinked and shook her head. "Wow, that feels weird."

Tonya shrugged. "Sorry about that. Never have been able to get that completely under control except for when I'm singing. At least I have a better idea of what I'm doing than I did years ago. It's good that I can be helpful with my powers now. It took so long to get to this point."

"I'm not going to complain," Megan replied as she stood up. "Thanks for the help. I guess I'll see you Saturday?"

Tonya hopped down from the bed. "Yeah, meet me at the front of the Bastion, and you, me, and Velvet can find a private room to talk there. Let's say nine at night; that way, we don't have to rush Velvet."

"I'll be there," Megan said with a nod. "Feel free to exit out the roof. I know you're probably eager to get home."

Tonya rolled her eyes. "Yeah, likely need to get home quick. Guests should be arriving soon there. They probably already have started to arrive. There's a fifty-fifty chance Sunset's about ready to have a meltdown if they have. She gets so worked up when trying to impress the family. She has no problem with officials, businesses, congregations, or random whoevers, but family gives her an anxiety attack."

Megan cocked an eyebrow at that. "Really? That's surprising. I would have never have guessed it."

Tonya walked towards the bedroom door. "Yeah, everyone else, she couldn't give a damn if they like her or not, but with the family, she's got this desperate need to be liked and loved. I can't get it through her head that Rosetta and Amanda are probably never going to go beyond simply tolerating her. Every big family occasion, she sits there trying to impress them, though. I'm not even liked by every member of the family. Devon and Wild are polite, but I doubt they'll ever like me. Can't be friends with everyone."

"Um, about Wild," Megan said, making Tonya come to a halt. "I found out that my brother ended up sleeping with her."

Tonya flicked her tail. "Wild sleeps with a lot of stallions, that mare has a libido about as strong as her magic. It isn't that big a deal hearing some stallion slept with her."

Megan ran a hand through her hair. "The thing is...I don't think Alex understands the concept that Wild Growth just does a lot of one-night stands."

"That sounds like a personal problem," Tonya said flatly. "The chances of him striking up an actual relationship with Wild are pretty slim. I don't think she's the committed relationship type. She's on the road more than she's at home. Heck, she's out of the country more than she's at home anymore. That doesn't work well with actual courtship. She has her fun, and sates her monster libido, but she's just not in a position to settle down."

"That's what I figured, but I wanted to check on his behalf," Megan said with a sigh.

"He won't be the first or the last stallion pining after Wild with no real chance at anything more than a few hours in bed," Tonya said with a shrug.

"He'll get over it." Megan went and opened the door for her "Thanks for coming by. I hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving."

Tonya smiled and nodded before leaving the bedroom. If she hurried home, she could head off the inevitable meltdown that would happen when either Amanda or Rosetta gave Sunset the cold shoulder.

Author's Note

A few notes to help readers not familiar with this series, without having to read the more than million words of backstory:

The ETS pandemic was brought to an end by intervention on the part of Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer. The Sunset Shimmer from this collection of stories is not the show canon Sunset Shimmer. This one sought to defend Equestria from threats by making more ponies, and those additional ponies she made by trying to transform other races into ponies. She tried this first in Equestria with the griffins, before fleeing to our universe after being caught and stopped by Celestia in regards to the griffins. A major difference in the pandemic series from CB stories is Equestria was opposed to the transformation of other races into ponies and actively worked to stop it.
There are powerful "homegrown" magical entities in our universe. The most notable is Triss, a billions of years old dragonlike entity comparable to Celestia. The Dreamwardens, beings with near godlike powers over the dream realm, comparible to Luna. The Narrative, a being compatible to the Tree of Harmony. Triss and the Narrative have little direct involvement with Earth, while the Dreamwardens are public figures. There are no alicorns from Earth, only Equestrian alicorns.
The term night pony is used in place of thestral or bat-pony because the author of the original Pandemic story didn't like the terms thestral or bat-pony.
The ETS pandemic 6.5 years prior transformed humans into ponies over time. It replaced their sense of self as being human as a sense of self that told them they were ponies. There was an effort to get the transformed to turn back into humans, but the majority of fully transformed ponies chose to remain ponies. A minority of fully transformed did choose to return to being human, and the majority of those who had partially transformed chose to return to being fully human. Any pony that gain a cutie mark is permanently a pony and cannot be permanently transformed back into a human.
Dreamwardens are exceedingly powerful beings tied to the dream realm. There are six of them, created by Luna. Within the dream realm they have near godlike power, but it is contained by magical oaths that they cannot break. This highly restricts their abilities to use this power. In the waking world they have little to no powers. If they die in our universe they become permanent residents of the dream realm and have their powers expanded further. Their primary purpose is to keep order and peace within the dream realm.
The United States was hit among hardest by the ETS pandemic since it began in the United States, but the pandemic did spread to many other nations.

Chapter 22: Cat and Mouse

"One step in front of the other," Tonya growled to herself while bracing herself with a hand against the wall. "You did this for twenty years, you know how to walk on two legs. No more falling flat on your face. No more skinning your knees. You've got this."

Walking on two legs was considerably harder than she thought it would be. Despite spending more of her life as a human than a pony she had no conscious memories of walking on two legs. Thankfully her subconscious seemed to have some recollection of how to do it, but she was just now after minutes of trying getting to where she could walk at a somewhat steady pace without faceplanting. Her knees and elbows hurt from constant collisions with the floor. She really needed to run, but she didn't have enough confidence she could do that quite yet. Her size difference and change of perspective also left her disoriented about distances, not to mention her surroundings. It was a struggle just making sure she was going the right way.

The fact that she was too busy being terrified of Poly Glot finding her was probably the only reason the full freakout about being human hadn't set in yet. One terror was apparently capable of overriding another. If the deranged unicorn found her, being human wouldn't even qualify as a worry.

She'd figured out what the blue mist was at least. Sunset had a project a while back that involved carrying multiple spells and transmitting them in gas form. The project had been shelved indefinitely despite significant progress being made on it. Sunset had wanted someone to actually come up with reasonable scenarios where this could be used before developing it further, after it proved a failure in its initial planned application in industrial use. The idea was that it could be brought back into study and development, but there needed to be a purpose. Poly Glot had worked on many spells for Sunset, and Tonya could pretty easily guess at the moment this had been one of them. The sick bastard had weaponized it.

One of the attributes of this mist was it could carry multiple spells that could interact with different types of things placed within it. She could guess what at least one other spell he had fed into this was, the sister spell to the one affecting her. She heard screams of terror from all around the facility, and knew that the humans here were dealing with their own transformation nightmare, only they had far less control of their alien forms than she did. She was pretty sure her magic was still working, at least her mind magic. She still felt it in her, but had no way of testing it out. If she came upon some guards she might be able to compel calmness, and damn the consequences. Can't punish someone for mind magic without consent if they were already dead, after all. Her chances of survival were pretty damn slim.

Another side effect of this spell mist was it made it exceedingly hard for her to see. Everything was covered in this heavy blue mist. If she wasn't hugging the wall she wouldn't be able to see the doors, and their labels. If she didn't see those she wouldn't have a clue at all where she was. Right now she was on the correct floor to get back to the vault and Chorus, but her progress was slow. Sounds all seemed muffled, but she was also dealing with human hearing instead of pony hearing, so it was hard to judge what whether or not the mist was also messing with that. It was still causing her further disorientation though.

A particularly loud scream of pain echoed through the halls. She gulped and then began to sing softly as she continued to try to make her way forward.

"The shadows creep,
My heart does weep.
Where is hope, I pray?
I'm am but a filly who's lost her way.

The monsters roar,
My fear soars.
Where is hope, I pray?
I only wish to live through this, if I may.

The mist surrounds,
My heart, it pounds.
Where is hope, I pray?
Come some light to save the day."

She cut her song off as she heard cries of confusion and fear a short distance ahead of her, along with the sound of something crashing against a wall or something. There was no way Poly Glot got ahead of her, or at least she didn't think there was. It had to be soldiers who were dealing with the adverse effects of the temporary transformation. She picked up her pace. Hopefully she could help them.

The sounds were the only thing letting her know she was getting closer, the mist was just too thick to see more than a foot in any direction. As the sounds were getting louder and louder she thought she felt slight gusts of wind against her bare flesh, and involuntarily shivered. The mist didn't stir with the breeze, though. It was magic, so it didn't obey normal physics.

She almost stumbled on the two ponies when they finally came into view. They were tangled in their human clothes, and they clearly didn't have proper motor control to get themselves untangled. If anything, their struggles were only tangling them in the uniforms even more. One she saw was a pegasus, because their feathery wings had ripped through the garments. He was flapping like mad, and bouncing about a small area like a lame hummingbird. The other was a unicorn, and his horn was sparking wildly.

"Calm down!" She called out to them. "I'm here to help. You've got to stop struggling so I can get you outta those clothes. You're going to hurt yourselves."

They didn't even seem to hear her, and continued to flail about, worsening their situation. Or perhaps they did hear her, and didn't understand; because it seemed like their struggles might have increased after she'd spoken. It was time to see if her magic still worked. Consent was impossible right now, but they were all in danger. Poly Glot was out in the halls somewhere, and if he came upon any of these temporary ponies like this they were easy victims.

She took a deep breath and focused on the closest of the two ponies, the unicorn. "You want to calm down. You need to calm down. You want the human lady to help you."

Nothing. Her magic was in her, but she didn't feel it being harnessed at all. There was no visible effect on the panicked unicorn either. That was disheartening, and scary. Scary primarily because that was her one possible defense against Poly Glot in her current state, and if she couldn't use mind magic to defend herself she had basically no defense. Disheartening because now she wasn't sure how she was going to help these ponies.

She cautiously bent down and tried to lay a calming hand on the unicorn. "Please, you need to listen to me. I want to help you. Poly Glot is out, and if you don't get to safety he's going to kill you. Please, listen."

She touched the unicorn's side, but instead of calming him it just further terrified the temporary pony. The unicorn's horn lit up and she recognized a surge happening. Before she knew it, she, and everything else nearby, were all lifted into the air. She panicked again as she was held helplessly by the surging magic, unable to even struggle against the tight grip. It seemed to last forever, and then it ended abruptly. She dropped down to the ground, there was a deafening bang, then blinding pain in her arm. She screamed as she clutched it, feeling a spreading dampness.

She sat for a moment gasping and crying before she was able to squint her eyes open and look at her arm. It was covered in blood. One of the guards' guns must have been caught in that surge and gone off. Could you die from a gunshot to the arm?

It hurt like hell, but she was pretty sure she could keep moving, just without being able to use the arm right now. She gave the two ponies a forlorn look. She couldn't help them. Even if she somehow managed to get through to them they had no control of their bodies. She certainly couldn't drag them to safety, not now anyway. She stumbled over to the opposite wall, where she could use her other arm to steady herself, and began making her way along it, crying in pain, fear, and despair. She half-whispered, half-sang on, to try to help focus.

"The pain cuts deep,
My blood steadily seeps.
Where is hope, I pray?
My sorrow is here to stay."

She'd made it a short distance from the ponies when she heard them screaming. Not terror, this time, but pain. She held her breath, daring not to be heard. The screams went on for a few seconds before stopping Then, silence reigned.

"Ton-ya? Is that you ahead of me? Where are you Ton-ya?"

Her heart sped up as she began to quicken her pace. She looked at the closest door and noted she only had three more to go. Pushing through the pain in her arm, she made her way forward through the mists. The entire time she could hear Poly Glot laughing and giggling somewhere behind her but oddly enough not his hooves on the floor.

She reached the door to the Chorus and quickly began tapping the code in to gain entry. She had to stop and start over twice, because the normal quick motions she would have made to enter the code seemed all off in this human body. The keys seemed to be all the wrong size, having been designed to fit pony hooves instead of quick typing with human fingers. Carefully as she could, mouthing the code to herself as she went, she entered the passkey.

As she slipped in, she spied her pursuer through the mist. It was merely the outline of his form, but she saw that something was not right about the gait and proportions. It wasn't something human, or pony, or even partial. Poly Glot was something else, something that belonged only in nightmares.

Before going into the door she took her working arm and balled up a fist, slamming it as hard as she could into the keypad. She heard the keypad crunch under the blow as she fell through the closing door. Hopefully the broken keypad would slow him down at least a little. At least she prayed it would.

The mist was in the Chorus room as well, though light enough to just see the far wall. With an anxious look up at the light above the door she felt a small sense of relief when she saw that it had indeed locked behind her. The door was thick and heavy, and it couldn't be bucked down by any pony short of Wild Growth, or blasted down from anything short of an alicorn. The entire facility had crystals embedded in the walls that caused teleports to deviate wildly off course, making any attempt to teleport end with the caster somewhere they had no intention of being, with the possibility that they might teleport straight into rock or cement--bringing instant death. It was one of her wife's more clever applications of something Robert McDermott had dubbed a failed experiment.

She heard movement on the other side of the door and hastily crawled away from it. There was a nearby camera feed that showed what was going on right outside. The mist obscured her view, but there was definitely something moving around out there. She thought she spotted a hand, and then fur, then another and…another hand? She shook her head, sure she had miscounted hands. They were all in odd places anyway.

'"Oh Ton-ya...you’re so considerate. Leading me right to my goal," Poly Glot laughed from the other side of the door.

His goal? Since when had this insane beast ever had a goal, other than causing carnage and mayhem? Was he after what was in Sunset's vaults?

"I have been waiting so long to do what I was sent here for," Poly Glot said gleefully. "I take inspiration from your wife, do you know that? Combining many things into something greater."

"What do you want?" She called out. "Whatever it is, you aren't getting it."

"I think a movie from many years ago said it best. ‘I want to see the world burn,’" Poly Glot replied, and she could hear the grin behind the voice. "The one who sent me appreciated my talents for doing so. They were also aware that your wife was doing powerful things here with magic, and her penchant for not turning away any potential assets, even ones such as me."

Her breath caught. Someone had set it up so Poly Glot would be put in Sunset's possession.

"China?" She asked, already feeling that she knew it.

"China? Shimmerists? Friends of Humanity? Rogue factions of this government? The Warden of Death? So-so-so many possibilities," Poly Glot laughed. "I just had some federal agents dragging me into jail, and next thing I know I've got a guy shadier than me whispering through my cell all about the wonders of your wife's facility. He promised me I would get in here so I could have fun. Wanted me to wreck the place, cause chaos, and to hurt your pretty Sunset. Felt kind of personal. I think your wife has been a naughty filly and hurt someone's feelings."

"She isn't here, so you failed in that, creep," Tonya growled back. She tried to think of everyone Sunset might have possibly pissed off in the past...but the list was too long. She was pretty sure it wasn't Sha'am, but any of those others and many-many more could be on that list.

"Oh...but you're here, Ton-ya. Didn't you notice you were here? I noticed you were here," Poly Glot giggled. "What better way of hurting your pretty wife than by playing with you. Oh, and while I'm at it. I'm going to tear down civilization, just for some kicks."

"Well, that ain't happening!" She yelled back smuggly, trying to put on some bravado despite the fact she was pissing all over herself. "You might have caused some carnage today, but you fall pretty far short of that."

"Oh...but I'm not done, Ton-ya. I'm going to get to that lovely device in there with you, and use its power to cast this mist spell on a far far grander scale. With all the power of the Chorus behind it I could probably impact the entire eastern half of your country. Imagine the chaos, imagine the fear and anger after. It will be like the world has gone mad, and when the dust settles the pure hate will bring about a civil war that will destroy you all. How many will die? How many will sink back down to their most primitive levels? Millions, Ton-ya. I don't care what my benefactor that got me in here wanted. I get to see perfection. Thank you for giving me this opportunity, Ton-ya." He descended into frenzied giggles after he finished speaking.

She cursed rapidly in her head. He seemed fairly confident that he could get in, and she was at the point she wouldn't doubt he could figure out a way in. He'd gotten out from under armed guard after all, with a magic suppressor ring on his horn. How he had managed that was still a mystery, and at this point it didn't matter. What mattered was he was right outside the door and was plotting the worst terrorist attack the world had ever known, and he was going to use her Chorus to do it. There was only one thing to do, she needed to call for help.

She carefully pushed herself up to her feet and walked over to the main console of the Chorus, all while still clutching her still bleeding arm and trying to will the pain away. Her powers might actually have been working to some degree, as her human form wasn't nearly as alien as it should have been, and the pain was being pushed back. Perhaps she could only affect herself and not others. If she was giving herself light compulsions that was a small positive in this situation.

She released her arm and used her good arm and hand to dial out on the console's phone. It barely even rang before being picked up. "Hello? Who's this? What's going on in there? Is my wife safe?" Came Sunset's frantic voice over the line.

"It's me...it's Tonya," she said slowly. "Poly Glot got loose. He's using that mist spell that we had years ago that went nowhere, and he's charged it up with both forms of the temporary transformation spell...the broken versions. The entire facility is full of it."

"Are you hurt? Are you safe?" Sunset questioned fearfully.

She groaned in pain. The pain in her arm was suppressed, but it wasn't gone. "Well, I'm a human at the moment, been shot by a gun in the arm, and that bastard is one locked door away from me. I'm doing better than the guards at least."

"What can you tell me about the mist?" A new voice came on the line. It took her a second to realize it was Twilight Sparkle.

She wet her lips as she tried to think of every pertinent detail she could. "It's really thick and blue, you can't see anything through it out in the halls. I think I was out in it for about twenty, maybe thirty seconds, before it suddenly changed me into a human. It spreads really fast, doesn't move with wind, and seems to get through every crack. It doesn't feel like gas, and doesn't behave like it either. Once it's in an area it's just there, and only gets thicker, not dissipating."

"That's what we're observing outside," Twilight said grimly. "Minus what standing in it actually does."

Her heart dropped. "It's outside?"

"Some of it has leaked into the Bastion," Sunset replied.

"And it seems impossible to even capture a sample of it in a magic shield so I can analyze it and try to find a counterspell," Twilight growled in frustration. "Crystal ponies seem able to dispel it at least, but for the amount inside you're describing we'll need a small army of them. At least a hundred, based on how big that facility has been described, and how thick you're describing the mist to be. It's taking two or three ponies well trained at this working together to deal with the light wisps that are escaping."

"But it will take at least a day to get together that many skilled crystal ponies. Tonya doesn't have that kind of time!" Sunset yelled in rage. "We need a better solution, and now!"

They didn't know how bad the situation really was yet. She opened her mouth to reply and let off a gasp as she almost blacked out and fell over.

"Tonya!" Sunset yelled in alarm.

She steadied herself, and focused so she could give them the remaining details. "Poly Glot is trying to get to the Chorus and use it to cast the spell on a large scale. He says he can impact the entire eastern half of the country with it."

Twilight groaned. "Great, another thing to worry about. What's the Chorus?"

"It's a crystal that stores an enormous amount of magic, alicorn level," Tonya answered.

Twilight could be heard saying something in Equestrian, and even through the musical tones Tonya could tell it was cursing. Sunset gasped while the alicorn vented. "Is that where you are right now? In the Chorus room?"

"Yes, with that psycho right outside the door," she answered quickly. "I broke the keypad before getting back in here, but I don't know how long that will delay him." She licked her lips. "Sunset, why haven't you purged everything with fire yet? He can't be allowed to do that."

"I don't want you to be killed!" Sunset shouted. "It is supposed to happen automatically, but something stopped it. Maybe some side effect of this mist? I don't know what stopped it, but I'm not going to let you die."

"From what I can tell that would do nothing to stop the mist anyway," Twilight said as she seemed to finally compose herself. "Unfortunately your wife's defenses for keeping ponies out are actually exceedingly effective, and put almost everything I've ever seen before to shame. That's before even dealing with the mist no one can safely stand in, and it's really counterproductive to our efforts right now."

"I'm sorry. I was focused on keeping things out. If I considered a way of breaking in it was only to figure out how to counter it!" Sunset yelled. "It's not my fault you Equestrians haven't significantly improved on your magic techniques in the last thousand years, and as a result aren't used to dealing with competent defenses!"

"But...there has to be s-something you're overlooking," Tonya wept, as the full gravity of the situation really started to hit home.

Twilight sighed. "Tonya, I'll humbly admit that your wife, and many others on Earth, have constantly amazed me with how ingenious they can be with magic. Sunset accuses Equestria of being stagnant on magical advancement, and the last few years have shown that she may very well be right. I think my aunt recognized that stagnation, and increased the drive to learn and develop magic in your population as a result. However, right now I really wish your wife wasn't so clever, because every time I turn around some brilliant spell or defense she came up with makes this entire thing more complicated!"

"So...I'm doomed," she said slowly.

"I didn’t say that," Twilight declared. "I don't know how to safely get you out of there yet, or how I'm stopping this yet, but I will find away. I promise. I'm calling every friend I know to help figure this out."

"I'm not going to let you die," Sunset said, and Tonya could hear her bite back a sob. "Whatever knowledge the princess needs to help get you out of this, I'm going to give. I don't care about what's classified and what's not right now. I just want you safe."

Tonya nodded to herself. She knew Sunset would stop at nothing. From what she had heard and read about the princess she trusted Twilight wouldn't either.

"If you can keep thinking clearly," Twilight said, and then sighed again. "Sunset had to be restrained from trying to barge in there herself, not even knowing what that mist does."

"And now that we know what it does I may try again. Just give me a gun and I'll go in there as a human and shoot that bastard," Sunset growled.

That jogged another thing she needed to mention. "Sunset...I don't know what Poly Glot is right now, but it isn't human or pony. He's some kind of monster."

"Well, we'll see how effective a monster he is with a bullet through the eye," Sunset snarled.

"It's not happening," Twilight said. "If he is confident he can cast this spell then he still has access to his magic, and you won't. I'm not going to have another pony I'm worried about saving, and I need your knowledge out here."

"Is there any way to drain the Chorus of its magic before he can get in here?" Tonya asked.

"He's not getting in," Sunset snapped.

Tonya gripped her wound harder, was her vision getting foggy, or was the light getting dimmer? She couldn't tell. "Sunset...please…just tell me how I can help stop him. He's going to hurt a lot of people."

Sunset snorted, then let out a long breath. "The passcode to access the Chorus's systems is...Equestria sucks one zero one, all as one word, all the vowels capitalized, and zero spelled out but not the ones."

"Seriously? You're that petty and foalish?" Twilight exclaimed in outrage. Then could be heard taking a deep breath. "Nevermind, it doesn't matter right now."

Sunset ignored the princess. "The protocol file you want is labeled exhale. It will slowly release the magic from the main crystal. It can take hours to depower, so get started as soon as you can." The unicorn took a deep breath. "But it won't be necessary, God will see you're saved, somehow."

Right now Tonya wasn't sure her faith was up to snuff for believing that, but she prayed she had enough time to make a difference for everyone else.

People shouted in anger and fear. Flesh and fur blurred by as people ran screaming. Rocks and any other object that could be found loose were being thrown. Gunshots rang out over the sounds of yelling and screaming. The smell of sweat and dirt filled the air. In the distance tear gas could be seen being used. Chaos reigned south of the Bastion. The riots had begun.

And Wild was in the thick of it, trying desperately to move to the edges of the disorder where her mama may be hiding in wait for a victim.

So far, there wasn't any sign of her mama and Bill, but this was an ideal place for them to strike. Here there was so much going on that they could openly strike, and it would be pure luck if anyone took notice. She wasn't sure if she even knew what groups of protestors she was trying to move through right now. She wasn't sure the protestors knew either. Humans punched and kicked ponies, and other humans as well. Pegasi, given the option of flight or fight, took to the air in defiance of the no fly zone to escape. The other tribes didn't have the option of flight, and we're left with fight. Unicorns levitated up objects and hurled them without seeming to even aim. Earth ponies smashed vehicles. The night ponies were thankfully mostly gone for the day. If that tribe was here in numbers this might somehow be worse, hard as that was to imagine.

Seeing the violence perpetrated by ponies might have shocked some, who thought ponies too passive and gentle for such things. Anyone who thought that was a fool. A lone pony, or even small group of ponies, might find horror in such wanton violence, but ponies were like any other creature backed into a corner. If they felt threatened, with nowhere to run, they would lash out in defense. The pegasi had been able to run fleeing the sudden deluge that had drenched the crowds, but these unicorns and earth ponies were boxed in by the mass of the crowd. As such, mob mentality set in, and when the first violence had started, the ponies became no less innocent of violence than the humans.

There were indeed more humans here than ponies, if only because most of the pegasi had retreated. That just made the remaining unicorns and earth ponies feel all the more threatened and boxed in, and all the more dangerous because of it. Just like the humans they ended up attacking one another as much as they ended up attacking the other species. Depending on what groups these were, the anger might not have been between species anyway, but politics. The fact that everyone here had already been angry before this began only helped fuel the violence.

She caught sight of an earth pony kicking a car that had several terrified humans in it. Without even thinking she sent her magic into the earth, and vines burst forth from the concrete below the enraged pony. His legs were quickly wrapped in vines and he yelled out in shock. A brief struggle against the vines was all he needed to do to snap them, but it was enough to break him out of his rage. He quickly retreated from the car after gaining his freedom.

There was no opportunity to check on the passengers of the car, as she spotted a unicorn get struck on the back of the head by a pipe welded by a human. As the unicorn lay on the ground the human raised up their weapon to finish the unicorn off. Again she sent her power out and made the ground between the human and the unicorn split, and grew a small sapling between the two. The human fell backwards, and when they got back up they ran away.

One after another, she found incidents of violence, and each one she acted on. This wasn't what she was here for, but she could not stand by and ignore what she was seeing. There was no thought given to who was at fault or an aggressor in all this. The crowd was a mass of fear and rage, and no one was thinking rationally. She wasn't going to let anyone get hurt that she had the power to protect. She grabbed onto her already strained power and went to work.

Things quickly became a blur to her, as she rapidly moved through separating people from one another and bringing halts to aggressive acts; a human kicking a pony, a unicorn that had a human tightly gripped in magic, an impressively strong earth pony that was ripping out the side of a building with his hooves. She spotted a pegasus that had remained behind, and was now dive bombing random humans in the crowd. It took two failed attempts at stopping him before she finally grew a tree straight into his path to tangle him in its branches. There were so many more incidents she couldn't even remember even a second after dealing with them. Time lost meaning, and soon there was no telling how long she had been at this.

Suddenly, something small struck her hard enough on the shoulder that it actually hurt. As she was turning to look another something struck her flank just as hard, before bouncing off. She winced and looked down at the ground then laid her ears back in a rage. Bullets lay close by her. Someone was shooting at her, in the middle of this crowd! A bullet hitting her certainly stung badly, but she was too tough for them to actually penetrate at a distance, at least with most guns. She was no ammunition expert, but these bullets looked pretty mundane, and not the kind of thing she would need to be concerned about impacting her. The impact on anyone else was an entirely different matter.

She looked around rapidly, trying to find what idiot thought they could gun her down with an average gun from a distance. Her durability was well known and well documented. They should know that if they wanted to take a shot at her they either needed to be at close range or bring a much more powerful gun. She grimaced at herself for probably being the only person on Earth who felt the need to be critical of the way someone tried to kill her, not the fact that they were trying to kill her to begin with. It was just a sign of how desensitized she was to the idea of people trying to kill her. Damn stupid idiots, they were going get someone hurt, and it wouldn't be her.

Another shot rang out, and a man, college aged--not much older than one of her brothers--who had been running by her fell to the ground, completely still. She takes in horror as she saw a massive gunshot wound to the side of his head, and the blood now spilling out on the pavement. Her worst fear in these situations had been realized. Someone had received a bullet meant for her, and was dead now. There was no question that he was dead, even standing feet away, no one could survive a wound like that to the head.

She clenched her jaw tightly as she raised her tear filled gaze up beyond where the man lay. In the distance she spotted her assailant, a woman who had what looked like a shotgun or hunting rifle. Wild was no arms expert, and it didn't matter what type of gun it really was. All that mattered was that person had just put the bullet into another person's skull and was loading up that gun again like nothing had even happened. Did she even know she had just shot someone dead? Did she even care?

There was no thought to it. She just unwrapped the woman tightly in vines, causing the gun to drop uselessly to the ground. She then marched purposefully towards the killer with her gaze narrowed and a tight sneer upon her face. The woman screamed in terror at the vines, and screamed louder at Wild's steady approach. The crowd passed and moved around her as she marched, and she paid it no attention. Right now there was just her, this killer, and the tool of death lying on the ground. She wanted to forestall her anger at the weapon, but it didn't pull its own trigger or load itself.

Her march didn't end until she was standing just a foot from the woman. She looked down at the fallen weapon and spat. Her disgust shown, she raised a leg up and brought it down hard on the barrel of the gun, crushing it flat under her hoof. She then looked up at the fear-filled eyes of the woman and just glared.

"Please…" the woman begged, as she started crying.

Wild resisted snapping, it was hard. One of the hardest things she'd done, but she held her rage back. Instead she growled through gritted teeth. "What is your name?"

"C-Cathy…" the woman replied, crying through eyes now clenched shut.

"Cathy what? Full name!" Wild shouted, slamming her hoof down, causing a mild quake. She only faintly heard the cries of shock from the rioters.

"Catherine Henderson!" Cathy yelled out in a loud sob.

She continued to glare at the woman, and spoke in slow-measured tones. "Well, Catherine Henderson, you just shot a man down. He's dead. It's your fault. Tell me, was taking a shot at me worth it? Someone's dead, a young man. A man who had a lot of life left to live. A man who likely had family who cared about him. A man who that family will never see alive again. What do you have to say to that family? Because I'm going to be telling them that he took a bullet meant for me, and that I would have taken that bullet happily instead to see him alive. I'm going to tell them I found his killer, and I want to know what to tell them his killer had to say. Tell me, Catherine Henderson, what am I going to tell them?"

The woman went wide-eyed and then shook her head in disbelief. "I-I didn't...you're lying...I didn't--"

She made the vines pull the woman to her knees and then pointed a hoof back at the victim, who now had a pony and human standing over him frantically yelling into their phones for help while looking back and forth between the body and her. "Look right there! Do you see that! Do you see that man! Were you that focused on trying to hurt me that you truly didn't see him fall?! Look at him, and tell me what you have to say!!"

Cathy shook her head in shock and continued disbelief. "I-I…"

Wild snarled as she turned and marched away, leaving the woman helpless tied up. She went over to the fallen man and stared at it as she spoke to the human and the pony standing nearby. "The person who did this is in those vines over there. Her name is Catherine Henderson. Her weapon is lying on the ground next to her. Make sure she doesn't get away, and that the police get her."

The human looked anxiously at Cathy and then back to her. "Aren't you going to be here to tell them?"

Her ears twitched as she heard other shots ring out, and her sneer deepened. "No…no one else is going to die today. I promise."

With that said, she began galloping in the direction of where she heard gunfire. Promising herself, and everyone else, that this would be death's last victim today. She had the strength, so she had the responsibility. No one else was going to die today.

Jessie gripped as tight as she could to Crystal's back as they continued up the stairwell. Jordan was on Layla's back, and Jackie was on Ms. Rosetta's. The demons were all climbing the stairs on their own, being more adept at climbing in general, and were being carefully shepherded by Robby. It was slow going. She, Jackie, and Jordan were just not fast enough climbing the steps, and the adults had to slow down their pace while carrying them. It was faster than it would have been with the three of them trying to climb the steps themselves, but it was still slow. After several minutes climbing they had only gone up three flights of stairs, and still had six more to go. The red emergency lights bathed the stairwell in a way that made Jessie think of some of the scary movies her brother sometimes watched.

"Mama, I'm tired," Alfie announced, with a belly flop onto the ground as they reached the next landing.

His two siblings didn't say anything, but both gave their mother forlorn looks that echoed their brother's sentiments as they sat down on the landing. Layla carefully set down Jordan and shakingly my took a seat. None of the night ponies had gotten proper sleep, and it was showing.

"Why would they come after us?" Jessie asked timidly.

"Because just like us, they can't get out of here, and they're aggressively hungry for magic," Crystal explained. "Since they already got Pin Point and Alexis, and guessing those maintenance ponies before that, the lot of you are the only sources left for them to feed on here. Rosetta and Layla are probably their primary targets, but I don't think they turn you foals up either."

"Why couldn't we take the stairway with the ramps?" Layla asked. "No offense to the kid here, but she’s starting to get heavy after three flights of stairs."

"Because it's locked and I don't have the keys," Ms. Rosetta replied, as she bent her head down and gave a nudge to get Alfie moving again. "Pick Jordan back up. We aren't stopping."

Layla crouched down and let Jordan scramble back onto her back. "Why would they lock it when we're in here?"

"Because they always lock it normally when the school is empty, so they don't have students try to hide in it. Pony students tend to avoid this stairwell in favor of the one with the ramps. It is easier to hear hoofsteps on these stairs, and harder to hide out here as a result," Ms. Rosetta answered. "They also didn't anticipate the power going out on us. They would have normally locked most of the elevators too. Only this stairwell stays open all the time."

Crystal paused and went rigidly still. She only did it for a few seconds before gasping. "We really need to move." Right after she finished speaking that a door to the stairwell could be heard opening far below. Jessie and the other foals whimpered.

"Fuck," Layla cursed softly. "There's no way we can outrun them carrying the foals, and the foals can't keep up on their own. What are we going to do?"

Ms. Rosetta looked around helplessly as the sound of hoofsteps began on the stairs below. "I don't know. Maybe I can reason with my mama. She has to still be in there."

"Not happening," Crystal said sternly. "All evidence and what has been described by your sister and Sunset Blessing suggests they aren't thinking. Also, Layla's right, we won't outrun them on the stairs."

"Where do we go? Do we stop and try to fight them?" Layla asked worriedly as she glanced between the railing of the stairwell.

"You won't be able to. Jean especially has been described as being exceedingly strong at draining. If either of them get their hooves on you, they’ll drain you of your magic in moments," Crystal replied. Then Jessie could feel the strong pony square up her shoulders. "I'm the only one who can fight them. Crystal ponies can't drain crystal ponies. I need all of you safely out of the way though. There's two of them and one of me, and if one of them gets by me..."

"That sounds risky," Ms. Rosetta replied as she kept looking around anxiously.

"I'm a trained fighter. I can… will be able to handle it," Crystal replied grimly. "Not here on the stairs though. We need to get off the stairwell so I have full range of motion. We need to just go in the closest door, get you well behind me, and wait."

"Maybe me or Robby could head to the roof and fly for help while you do that," Layla suggested.

"The roof is locked," Ms. Rosetta replied. "Crystal could likely buck it open, but the rest of us aren't strong enough for that, and we can't have her abandon the foals."

"And I'm not going to risk the chance they get by me on the stairs and go after you if you head for the phone," Crystal said grimly. "No, we have to make a stand on the nearest floor."

"Okay," Ms. Rosetta replied, then glanced back at Crystal. "Please try not to hurt my mama too much. This isn't her fault."

"I'm not going to hurt her more than I have to, but I will do whatever it takes to incapacitate her. My duty is to protect you and the foals, not her." Crystal took a deep breath. "Phobia made that clear. No matter what, I do whatever it takes to protect the four of you, even before Phobia herself. I'm not going to neglect my duty. Now, let's get off this stairwell."

The group of them hurried through the closest door as the hoofsteps below got closer and closer. Crystal was the last through the door and set Jessie down. "All of you get far away from this door. When they come through I'm going to be ready for them. Barricade yourself in a classroom, if either manage to get by me it'll buy enough time for me to catch up to them before they can get to you."

"This way," Ms. Rosetta instructed, as she walked briskly down the dim hall. The demons, Jackie, and Jordan quickly trotted after her.

Robby and Layla came over to Jessie, and the young mare gave her a hard push on the flank with her wing. "Come on, let Crystal do her job by letting her know we're safely out of the way. You want to be treated like an adult, right? When we get in there you should help me and Rosetta get things pushed against the door while your brother keeps the other foals out of the way."

With a timid nod she started moving. She knew that she was probably almost as strong--if not stronger than Layla, so it was just practical that she help move things, but being able to help ready their defense did make her feel like she was being treated more like a grown-up. However, right now she didn't want to be treated like a grown-up; right now, she was scared and wanted to cry. This was her first time ever being in real danger, and she just wanted someone to protect her and make her feel safe again.

The red emergency lighting cast an eerie glow over the locker-filled hallway. . Only a thin, watery light came in through the window from the cloudy skies. . She knew that they were just lockers, but the dark shapes lining the hallways looked like rows upon rows of monster’s doorways. . She kept glancing about at all the shadows, sure something was out there coming to get her.

She told herself that it was just blue lockers and red light, that the blue paint was absorbing the red light of the emergency lights, casting them into shadow. Simple physics, something you’d find in the setup to a problem in a math textbook. What color would her own textbooks be, in this lighting? Or the blue crystal pony on the stairs? When she...

Knowing didn’t help.

There really was a monster coming for her back in the staircase. She'd always loved being at school, but right now it was the scariest place she could imagine. There were supposed to be bright fluorescent lights in the ceiling, despite the new LEDs being better, and crowds of older ponies pressing in on her. It wasn’t supposed to be quiet, and dark, and empty. If she whimpered, she shouldn’t be heard over the buzzing of the lights, and the dull roar of the air conditioning, and the whirr of the projectors and the computers. Her throat was tight and sore from trying to suppress her own whimpering, because she knew that Mrs. Jean would hear her, and come for her. .

As they entered the classroom Ms. Rosetta slammed the door shut behind them; making not only her, but also everyone else in the room, jump in fright. Her friends all went to hide under the teacher's desk.

"Not under there!" Ms. Rosetta commanded and pointed a wing. "Sorry, go into the corner, over there. Jessie and Layla, help me push the teacher desk up against the door. Robby, move the student desks out of the way to give us a good path. We'll push them against the teacher's desk when it's in place."

Jessie ran over to the desk as instructed, Layla came up next to her, and Ms. Rosetta got to the side of it. "You push and I'll guide the path. Layla, keep your eyes on me and try to help adjust the path as best you can. Jessie, just keep pushing unless told to stop. We need to move fast."

As Jessie began pushing, loud metallic crashing echoed down the hall outside the room. Crystal was shouting something and then there was an even louder crash followed by softer bangs that trailed off.

"Shit, they're here already! Don't pay attention to the noise! Just push!" Ms. Rosetta screamed. Jessie did as instructed, but alternated between whimpering and sobbing as she did. She could hear the other foals crying.

She couldn't see what was happening or how far she was pushing the desk, but she felt the direction of the desk shift a few times.

"Stop!" Ms. Rosetta ordered. "Jessie, help me push this hard against the door. Layla, help Robby push those student desks up against this. Keep your eyes out for anything we can wedge under the door to further brace it. I wish we had a unicorn to help with this."

"I'm a unicorn!" Jordan called out, as the crashing outside continued. "I want to help!"

"I know, sweetie, but I need one who can use their magic," Ms. Rosetta called out exasperatedly. "Just...stay where you are. That will help out the most." As they finished shoving the desk hard against the door Ms. Rosetta turned to Jessie. "If anything starts banging against that door I want you to push against this desk with all your might, and Layla and I will help. If it feels like you can't hold it anymore you run and get with the other foals. Do you understand?"

Jessie whimpered, but nodded. Crystal shouted again, this time sounding like she was in distress before there was another deafening crash, much closer this time that made her jump. The noise in the hall had gone completely silent.

The silence dragged on for a few seconds, and there wasn't even the sound of breathing within the room as everyone sat and waited. Then there was the sound of hooves hitting the floor in an irregular pattern, like someone stumbling about.

Ms Rosetta audibly gulped before hesitantly calling out, "Crystal?"

The sound of hoofsteps stopped again. Then suddenly began again with a full gallop in their direction.

"Shit!" Layla yelled as she hurled her shoulder into the desk and started shoving. "Hold the desk against the door! Crystal must be down!"

Ms. Rosetta began to push against the desk as well, and after blinking for a second Jessie began pushing against it too. Within another second Robby was there, putting all his weight against the desk. Jackie and Jordan were crying loudly, and the demons were shouting cries of terror to their mother.

"How?" Rosetta yelled as she pushed against the desk.. "They aren't trained fighters. How'd they take her down?"

"It sounded like the lockers were getting knocked over," Layla answered as she leaned hard into the desk. "A lot of them aren't bolted properly to the wall. Hit them hard enough and they come loose. I've seen it happen before. They must have come down on her."

The sound of the galloping slowed and came to a stop outside the door. It was just one set of hooves. Through the door she could hear rapid and heavy breathing like an animal sniffing. Something pushed against the door with a fleshy thud, but it didn't budge. There was another attempt right after, but it also got nowhere.

"It seems like she might have taken one down," Layla said as they continued to hold. "That's good, right?"

The pony on the other side of the door suddenly slammed against the door, the frame splintering apart as the lock was broken. Their makeshift barricade lurched out of position before they were able to shove it back into place. The other foals started crying even louder and Jessie braced herself on the floor as tears rolled down her face. Another slam happened, and then another, and another. The desk kept crashing back into her, and her whimpers now were in pain in addition to terror.

"Crystal ponies aren't as strong as earth ponies, but they're still stronger than us, and she's enraged," Rosetta said with a sob. "It's her. I can smell her. We can't hold her indefinitely."

The slamming continued, each time with different levels of force as Ms. Jean struck the door at irregular intervals, and Jessie cried as she did all she could to hold the desk against the door.

"Mama! Please stop! It's your daughter! It's Rosetta, it's Haley! Mama, you don't want to hurt me! You don't want to hurt your grandfoals!" Ms. Rosetta cried out through sobs. "P-please...just...stop..."

Ms. Rosetta's pleas had no effect, and the slamming continued. Jessie screamed in pain as the desk hit hard against her head, and she collapsed briefly allowing the next strike to push them back until the door was almost open before they were able to push it back into place. Struggling back to her hooves, she realized that everyone seemed to be crying.

Ms. Rosetta stiffened, then began to speak in a frighteningly calm voice. "Layla...we can't hold this indefinitely. If my mama gets to us, it might put us in a comma. If she gets to any of the foals it could mean death for them. I need you to stand with me and do your duty as one of the Dreamwarden's guards."

Layla was silent for a second while another blow to the door occurred. "I...I'm afraid, but I'll do my duty."

Ms. Rosetta sniffled loudly. "Robby, listen to me, you need to get the foals up the next three floors and to the office at the end of the hall on that floor. There's a phone there, you can call for help. You need to be brave. Layla and I won't be coming with you."

"Rosetta...I can't-" her brother began.

"You don't have a choice, none of us do!" Ms. Rosetta screamed angrily. "We’re in a bad situation and we have to deal with it. You need to keep them safe. Layla and I will buy you what time we can. Hopefully we can keep them busy long enough for you to get away. When this door goes Layla and I will charge them, and you and the foals need to take that opportunity to run. You will do it because your lives depend on it."

"Mama!" Alfie cried out in sorrow. Tabby and Charlotte quickly echoed him.

"I'm sorry..." Ms. Rosetta said in a long haggard breath. "All of you foals, get close together. When Robby makes a break for it you run...just like a foal race. You're going to run and get to that stairwell, and you're going to run up those stairs even though it's-” SLAM! Mrs. Rosetta winced, though the barricade held. “...hard. I know it’ll be hard but I know you can do it. You’ve been running us ragged for years, there’s no way Abuelita could hope to catch you. Now, you don't look back...do you hear me?"

"But Mama-" Tabby cried out.

"You will do as you're told!" Ms. Rosetta bellowed. "This isn't a game! Tempest has taught you daily that you might someday be in danger. Well, you're in danger now! I'll be...okay, I promise." Jessie heard the lie in the last sentence, and sobbed again.

Layla shoved Jessie backwards. "You and Robby need to get ready to run! As soon as Rosetta and I strike. All of you squirts. Be ready to run!" She made a choking sound. "If you get out of this and I don't wake back up...it's been nice being friends, even for a very short time."

Jessie cried as she stood behind her brother. She couldn't believe this was happening. They were going to be out there, trying to get help, and there would be no adult there to keep them safe. Robby would be there, and usually he would be able to keep her safe, but how could he keep them safe when even the adults weren't capable of doing that? Ms. Jean and the other pony had taken down Crystal, how did they stand a chance against that?

Robby shook himself then flattened his ears. "Foals, get behind me! Be ready to run when I run!"

Her other friends all came and huddled close to her. Robby looked back at them and flicked an ear. "It's just like a race. We have to get to the stairs and up to the finish line. It will be alright as long as we get to the finish line."

But what if they made it there and made the call, but help couldn't get to them in time? The ponies outside had gotten up six flights of stairs really quick. They were only going up three more. Even if they went all the way to the roof they couldn't get away.

After the door slammed again Ms. Rosetta and Layla stepped back from the desk, spread their wings, and took to the air in preparation of dive bombing Ms. Jean. Another hard slam knocked the desk back and the door partially open. She got herself in a running position as a powerful buck rip the door off its hinges and sent the teachers desk sliding across the floor, scattering the student desks.

Then everything seemed to go in slow motion. The two night pony mares dived forward through the opening, Ms. Rosetta letting off a shout. Jessie couldn't even tell what was shouted, but she saw her brother start to run, with Jackie right behind him. She hurried after him, unsure if the other foals were following.

They went through the door and immediately turned to head back to the stairwell. Ms. Rosetta and Layla tackled Ms. Jean, pushing her roughly into the far wall so everyone could run by, but she didn't stop to watch, keeping her eyes forward and as hard as she could. The hallway was littered with knocked over lockers, buried underneath the nearest pile she could see Crystal’s still form. There was a small scent of blood in the air. She didn't know if the bodyguard was alive or dead.

She also saw the other crystal pony who had been chasing them getting up. Layla must have noticed as well, as out of nowhere she came charging in, almost stumbling, straight into the other pony. Jessie didn't wait to see what would happen, she just veered hard to the side to get around them; she spied Jackie doing the same. No one stopped to check on Crystal. She was too dangerously close to the other crystal pony. Robby ran straight over the fallen lockers and the rest of the foals followed dutifully after.

When Robby reached the stairwell door he stopped and held it open while gesturing for the foals to go through. "Hurry! Up the stairs! Jordan, you've got to move faster!"

"I'm trying!" Jessie heard her unicorn friend scream from somewhere behind her. She couldn't tell how far behind Jordan was from the sound. She could see Jackie off to her side, and just barely saw Charlotte on the edge of her vision.

"Jordan, hurry up!" Robby shouted.

Worry got the better of her over good sense, and she came to a halt to turn and see what was happening with Jordan. Jackie at this point did the same. The purple unicorn filly was still scrambling to get over the fallen lockers. Jessie looked beyond her friend and she squeaked as she saw that there was no more fighting going on down the hall. Ms. Jean and the other pony were both standing over the fallen forms of Ms. Rosetta and Layla. The two night pony mares weren't moving. The crystal pony that had Layla had stumbled into was only a few feet from Jordan, though he didn't seem to be paying her any notice.

Jackie ran to go help her little sister, and Robby shouted after her. "Jackie, she can make it on her own! Get to the stairs!"

Jessie just froze, watching their two now glowing crystal pony attackers. The pair didn't seem to be taking notice of them; they were completely focused on Ms. Rosetta and Layla. Maybe they really were going to ignore them till they got hungry for magic again.

Jackie steadied her sister with a wing in her side and ran with the little unicorn. As the two were getting close Jessie turned and resumed her run for the stairs. After passing through the door to the stairwell she saw the three demons were already well up to the next floor. When she began up the stairs as well the two sisters passed through the door too, with Robby right behind them. The door swung shut behind him, blocking their view of the hallway with a harsh metallic slam. They were now on their own, with no adult to help them, against a pair of monstrous ponies that could kill them with a touch.

Author's Note

Don't forget that there is a Poll on what characters you want to see Point of Views from in chapter 25. You're welcome to change your vote up until the point chapter 24 posts.

Chapters should release weekly for the next two weeks. There will be a delay on chapter 25 because its content is determined by the poll.