Partial

by Halira

Rating: teen
Tags: Narcotics, Anthro, Drama, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Original Character, Bat Pony, Science Fiction, Crystal Ponies, Profanity, Sex, Human
Length: 279834

Jessica Middleton lives in a near future Earth populated by both humans and ponies, but she is one of the rare people that can be considered both. Now, she's about to meet another of her kind, and it's going to change her world,.

Hi, I'm Jess, or you can call me Doctor Middleton (not a medical doctor, but a doctor of math and physics). When I was a newborn baby, I was changed from a human to a pony, which likely saved my life. When I was six years old, I was changed back to a human, which also likely saved my life. I'm nothing but grateful for both of those changes.

However, when they changed me back to human, it wasn't completely thorough, and now people stare at my ears, furry legs, and tail, and it's all they can talk about. They whisper behind my back about 'The Partial'. I'm literally one of the most intelligent people on the planet, but instead of talking about my accomplishments, they want to know things like do I eat hay, do I have a human period or a pony period, and if I'm attracted to ponies or humans. I could probably cure cancer, end world hunger, or invent light-speed travel, and they'd still be asking about my biology before anything else (no, I've done none of those things yet, but I have high hopes I'll accomplish something!).

So, yeah, here is my life as an anthropomorphic whatever. Where I can spend time detailing the effect of dark energy on gravitational forces, and people will still be more concerned that I ate oatmeal for breakfast instead of bacon.

Now, life is getting even more complicated, as I'm trying to balance dealing with dream gods, ancient alien civilizations, strange artifacts haunted dolls, and, worst of all, relationships.

Rated teen for mild language, discussion of child neglect, mention of narcotic use, and sexually suggestive language.

Part of the Pandemic Universe.

Tags: Profanity for cussing, sex for sexually suggestive content and situations but there are no sex scenes. Narcotics for smoking and alcohol.

Cover art by CrimsonRose97

Published 2023-04-17 23:50:00 UTC
Last updated 2024-12-03 18:24:34 UTC

Chapter 1: New Job

Earth, August 2042.

Nineteen years ago, the world was changed forever. Sunset Shimmer's ETS pandemic had swept the globe, transforming the infected into ponies. By the time it was brought to an end by Twilight Sparkle, over five-hundred million people had been transformed into ponies—a fifth of those living in the United States.

Time has passed, and an entire generation has grown up in a world that humans and ponies share. The early social and economic havoc brought by the sudden change in species has primarily abated, and a new normal has settled in. Magic is understood to be real, as are other universes. Great minds work to expand understanding in both science and magic. Equestria has formal relations with most of Earth's nations. People speak in whispers about the powers of alicorns, a lord of chaos, an ancient dragon from a long-dead world, beings that claim absolute sovereignty over the dream realm, and the cosmology of religion is forced to rethink itself. Some construct new theologies to accommodate these changes, while others stick to what they have always known.

Yet, all is still not well. The great paradox is our universe has always had more magic than Equestria, yet Earth has until recently had none. Therein lies the danger. Magic in our universe is constantly being hunted and destroyed. For billions of years, magical civilizations on countless magical worlds have fallen into oblivion. Now Earth has come to the attention of those that seek to end all magic. The public does not know the danger or chooses not to believe, but the threat is coming, and it will be here sooner than anyone would have thought.

However, some live their lives dedicated to finding a way to stop the coming end of all things. It is an arduous task and leaves little room in their lives for much else. What is a life, even one so quietly heroic, worth if it has no room to live truly?

Almost time. I need to head over to the classroom. The young woman thought to herself.

She didn't get up from her seat. Instead, she went over the presentation on her laptop for what seemed the hundredth time. There was no reason to go over it again; she knew it by heart. Even if she forgot about one slide, it would be easy to adjust. No one knew this material as well as her.

Outside, she could hear students in the halls. Some were walking to class; some were standing around having conversations. Most weren't close to her door, as most had no reason to be even in the small side hall.

No, closer to her door, she heard older individuals. Those ones she had already gone through this with. They would not be concerned with her—well, not concerned with seeing her. She was sure they would ask about how today went later on. People always forgot that they couldn't keep their whispered conversations from her ears, or they didn't believe her hearing was that good. They thought what she said about her hearing must be exaggerated. After all, how could anyone function while being bombarded by so much sound all the time? The answer was simple; she learned to tune most of it out and focus on what she wanted.

If only she could as easily tune out the deafening shouts of silent gazes.

"You're being foolish. Most people aren't going to be paying you any attention. They have their own things to worry about this morning," she pep-talked herself. "Are you going to go through this every morning?"

Her eyes shifted back to her laptop as two private messages from two different sources popped up on her screen.

Good luck on your first day! First day of college for me too! The first one read. That one was from Jordan. Jordan was two timezones forward and should be in class or getting ready for a class right now instead of messaging her. Jordan was starting college as a student, not as a teacher, so she had no business being late for class. Still, it was nice to get a final word of encouragement from her best friend.

Have a good first day. Remember, you're the one in control. Make sure they know that early on. Put your hoof—foot down from the start! the second message read. That one was from Layla. Layla was in the same time zone as Jordan but operated on an inverted schedule. This was probably the last message the nocturnal pony sent before bed. Layla was a veteran professor, so it was advice to take to heart.

These weren't the first such messages that she had received this morning. Her parents, both her brothers, her sister-in-law, and her friends Bev and Jenny had sent messages first thing that morning. Even her reclusive but demanding auntie had sent her well wishes today without even a demand for more math figures accompanying it. The fact they were just the latest messages of many didn't weaken her smile at seeing them.

Stop putting it off. Just go to class.

She reached forward and closed her laptop before unhooking it from its charger. She then stood up and picked up the computer, cupping it under one arm. It was time to go.

Exiting the office into the hall, she was spotted by several members of the staff. Their eyes lingered on her for a moment longer than needed, but none of them said anything to her. A few waved silent greetings, unwilling to start a casual conversation yet with the strange newcomer to their ranks, and she waved to them as well as she took a brisk stride towards the main halls and the classroom.

As soon as she left the side hall into the main hall, she found herself in the mass of students. They were primarily humans, but there were some stray ponies here and there—mainly unicorns, about four of them for any pony of any other tribe. She heard a few conversations stop as eyes found her, and she felt those eyes follow her as she walked by. Some students didn't notice her, but others whispered to one another about her. She tuned them out and didn't turn her head to look at them. They probably didn't know she could hear them better than the people they were whispering to. Would they be fearful if they knew? Would that stop the whispers? It didn't matter. It wouldn't stop the staring, and those eyes spoke larger volumes.

The classroom was not a long walk from where she started, and it was less than two minutes from when she had decided to get up and go before she walked through its door. It was a small auditorium that could have hosted well over a hundred students. There were just over twenty, mostly spread out from each other, aside from a few groups of two or three that gathered close together to talk. She did a visual count as she entered the room, and the conversation came to a halt. There were eighteen humans, three unicorns, and one earth pony. Her eyes only passed over each briefly, never lingering on anyone. She didn't want to see them staring back. There were a few slightly elevated heartbeats in the room—including hers. Most of those were from the humans. She tended to make humans nervous.

She advanced to the head of the class, avoiding looking any more at the students, and plugged her laptop into the podium. She opened it back up, and the large screen at the front of the auditorium came to life as a mirror for what was on her computer. Everything seemed to work properly. Now it was time for introductions.

Set the standard early. Make sure they know you're the one in control and worthy of respect. Be firm. If you're clearly in control, they won't disrespect you for appearing to have pony parts. She silently repeated to herself.

"Welcome to Advanced Thaumic Physics," she greeted the class as she opened her PowerPoint presentation. She didn't raise her voice. She simply chose for the sound to carry as she brushed back a stray bit of her blue hair. "I'm Doctor Jessica Middleton. If that name was unfamiliar to you before signing up for this class, you probably don't belong here. If you're attending a Master's class on this subject, I expect you to be familiar with Middleton's Law."

Jessica stopped working on her computer and turned her full visual attention to the class as she gave her tail a strong flick.

"Let's address the non-subject matter first, so you don't have to ask. Yes, I have both pony and human features. I was an earth pony as a foal and underwent the rehumanization process much later than was advisable—all due to a medical necessity. You can see the results of that late change. Although I know it is not fully biologically true, I view myself as human and wish to be addressed as such."

She paused and gestured at her clothes. She wore a formal shirt and jacket that downplayed her bust (the only thing worse than being stared at like a freak when in public were the ones fetishizing her) and a pair of khaki shorts with a small slit cut for her blue tail. The shorts put her yellow-furred legs in full display.

"You'll see me in shorts the majority of the time, even if it might look slightly unprofessional. The only places I have fur on my body aside from my ears are my legs, and pants and skirts can get too hot for me. Please avoid staring at my legs; it's creepy."

"Do you have magic?" a unicorn stallion asked loudly. "I heard you had human magic."

She nodded. "Yes, I have magic, magic that I shall now demonstrate. I want you all to attempt to shout at the top of your lungs."

A few of them gave her baffled looks. No one did as instructed immediately, but after a few seconds, they began to try. Their confused expressions quickly turned to alarm as they tried harder.

Jessica raised a hand and flicked her pony-like ears.

"That's enough. As you can see, I have complete control of sound within a certain radius of myself. Don't worry; it is only a temporary thing. That brings us to the first rule of the class; no one shall speak unless called upon. I expect you to raise your hand and be given permission to speak. Once I permit you, you'll have the ability to make sound again. I may, at times, completely lift the muting of sound. Please, nod your heads to acknowledge you understand."

She waited as they did so. Using her powers like this wasn't something she was proud of, but she needed to make it clear she was in control within the classroom. If she wasn't firm, they would think of her as a joke. When she had seen everyone fearfully acknowledge the rule, she continued.

"If you have an emergency that requires you to leave or need to use the restroom, you do not need to ask permission for that. We are all adults here, and you don't need to explain yourself to me. Much of this class will be done with controlled discussion, but I won't take attendance. Again, we are all adults, and if you miss a class, I expect you to keep up with the work. My lectures will be available on the secure campus server for viewing if needed. There will be a test every Friday, and if you miss it, you can make it up the following Friday—although the make-up test won't have the same questions to prevent cheating. Please nod now to acknowledge this."

It took a few seconds for everyone to nod, but she continued when they did. "Moving on, I don't keep strict office hours. If you need to see me in person, you can email me to arrange an appointment. The reason I don't keep strict office hours is this is not my only job. I work as a consultant for several organizations. These include NASA, a technology firm, Dreamwardens, and other government agencies. During the semester, I may or may not ask some of you if you would be interested in assisting in projects with one or more of these organizations as an intern. This is a way to get your foot or hoof into the door with these groups. I will only ask if you have demonstrated skills that could be useful there. Please do not ask me for help getting you a position; I ask you. Do you all understand?"

She heard their heartbeats pick up with excitement at this. She wasn't nearly as enthusiastic. There were so few students in her class. These internships weren't there to merely get people in the door at what they hoped would be exciting careers. They were there because doomsday was coming and coming far sooner than any of these students could imagine. Twenty more people to help make preparations to save the planet? The planet needed everyone helping, but that was impossible. If the public knew how quickly the end was approaching, they would behave with common sense. Common sense was not wisdom and intelligence—no, wisdom and intelligence were strictly uncommon things. What was common was self-destructive behavior, panic, hate, and a complete disregard for rational thinking. The problem with the general public wasn't that there was no common sense but the fact there was far too much of it.

The enthusiastic nods came in, and she let herself smile. They weren't thinking of their weird part-human-part-pony teacher anymore. They were thinking now of the opportunities that could await them. She had successfully set expectations and made it clear she was not some freak. She was someone who held the possible keys to their future. After all, that was why she was here too. She was trying to find individuals who could ensure not only her future but the futures of both Earth and Equestria. That is why she had to endure the stares in the hallways. Her discomfort was a small price to pay for finding more help.

Still smiling, Jessica started the presentation on her computer. "I have prepared a few slides to go over some of the things you'll be learning about in this class and their possible applications. After I finish with them, we will use the rest of today's class time for questions and answers. Pay attention; your future could start here."

"Doctor Middleton, you cannot mute students!"

The first day of classes, and she was already in trouble.

Dean Francis sat at his desk, wringing his hands together, glaring at her. She resisted the urge to shrink into her chair under the weight of that gaze. He was an older man, nearly seventy, with short white hair, horn-rimmed glasses, and thin as a wisp. His age and tiny frame made him look all the more nervous—especially with the fact he was a short man, and she was a very tall woman who would tower over him if they were standing next to one another. The field of expertise he specialized in was particle physics, specifically in the behavior of quarks, and he had built a name for himself in the field before retiring to teach. Being the dean of the math and physics department made him something else, a guy obsessed with rules.

"Do you have any idea the kinds of lawsuits we could have due to you using your magic on students in that way?" Dean Francis asked as he continued to fret.

"I didn't hurt anyone, and the effect only impacts within a range of me for as long as I choose it to," Jessica said defensively.

The dean slammed the palm of his hand on the desk. "It can be labeled as psychological assault! You know, there was a lot of debate about whether we were right to hire you. Yes, you're at the pinnacle of your field and one of the greatest minds in physics and math to ever live, but there was concern about the fact we were hiring a possibly immature eighteen-year-old. Right now, those concerns are looking valid."

"I'm nineteen," she clarified.

"And behaving like you're nine," Dean Francis fired back.

Her ears flattened against her head, and she strained to keep her tail from whipping. She had multiple doctorates, a law of physics named after her, and had accomplished more by the age of seven than most of the staff here had accomplished in their whole lives. She kept her mouth shut; it could only dig her into deeper trouble if she protested further.

Dean Francis took a deep breath. "Thankfully, we may be able to sweep this under the rug, provided you don't do it again. The prospect of being instructed by you might be enough to keep students from immediately filing lawsuits. You're banned from using your powers on students. That goes for your little eavesdropping trick as well."

"I can't help hearing things!" she immediately protested. "You might as well tell me not to breathe. At best, I can tune things out, but I'm still technically hearing everything. It is a passive ability. It doesn't go away. Not unless you have a crystal pony sitting around constantly sapping my magic."

"If this continues to be problematic, that could be arranged," the dean said grimly. "That was another concern, letting a staff member with unpredictable partial magic—"

"Human magic," she corrected through gritted teeth.

He waved it off. "There isn't much difference between the two. You're a partial, so label it what it is. It isn't like dealing with pony magic. People understand pony magic. You may know what you can and can't do, but everyone else is left fearful of the possibilities. I don't even know your range."

"Thirty-meter radius in a sphere around me," she answered quickly. She wanted to argue she wasn't a partial, out of sheer habit, but kept silent on that front. "Any sound within that I can hear and impact."

Dean Francis blinked. "And how much do walls dampen that?"

She narrowed her eyes. "They don't unless they are made out of thaumically active crystal."

"We may need to move your office off campus then," he said tiredly. "That range would give you access to every office in your department from your current one. Our staff's privacy needs to be protected. You aren't the only one with sensitive projects."

Maybe you should have researched my magic further before hiring me. She thought in a bitter tone.

"I'm hunting for apartments in the area already. Once I find one, I can use that for my office," she offered. "I know there are staff that do that already." It would be much more comfortable for her anyway.

"It is a better option than investing in a magic dampening room. Do you have any idea how much something like that costs? I would have a hard time getting that through the budget for just office use. We do have a room like that already, but it is strictly for research purposes," Dean Francis said as he seemed to calm down. He looked at her with a forced, neutral expression. "Look, I get it; you've spent most of your life with very little control over anything. You also have a lot of powerful and demanding people you're answerable to. I understand you want to exercise extra control in what spheres you can, but what you pulled today isn't going to fly. This is your warning. Do not have a repeat offense with your freshman class."

If he only knew how demanding some of those she was answerable to were. She sometimes wished she could get fired by them, but they wouldn't do that. They didn't even give her the courtesy of telling her what she was working on or paying her for her trouble. She just knew she was looking for the location of something in space that was possibly so far outside the observable universe it was mind-boggling. How do you find something you have no chance of observing with even the most powerful telescope? Lots and lots of math and trying to reconstruct locations based on images of stars from billions of years ago from the vantage point of multiple now long-dead planets. It was an insane task, but she had been working on it since the age of seven. What was she looking for? Was it a star, a planet, an asteroid, or some piece of space junk? They still hadn't told her. Her guess was a planet. Even though it seemed improbable the place even still existed after billions of years. The only thing she knew for sure was that they were desperate to find it.

It was a job too big, even for her. She desperately needed help but also had to keep it low-key. Hopefully, one or more of her students would show promise enough to be useful. However, to find out, she needed to keep her job. She'd see this class again the day after next. She wished it was the only class she had to deal with, but she was contractually obligated to teach a freshman class, which was tomorrow night. That was something she wasn't looking forward to. Explaining introductory physics was like explaining the Earth wasn't the center of the solar system. There was little hope of finding the help she needed from first-year students, but she'd endure it.

"There won't be a repeat offense, I promise," she assured the dean.

A grandfather clock that the dean kept in his office started to chime. Time was ticking away. The end of the world was coming.

"How can we be sure these blueprints are accurate," one of the generals asked as he continued closely observing the screen in front of him.

The young man spread his hands. "Do you not trust the word of the Dreamwardens? The Dreamwardens do not lie."

"They can mislead and leave things out," the general countered.

The young man adjusted his glasses. "That is indeed true. Let me clarify the statement; those blueprints represent the best model of our foes that the Dreamwardens can produce from memory. Their memories from so long ago are not infallible, and there are likely details missing due to that, many details. The Dreamwardens share all they know about the designs in good faith. This is dangerous knowledge, gentlemen. You are quite privileged."

The member of the joint chiefs continued looking over the blueprints, chewing on his lip as he did so. "How many people were involved in drawing these up? How much security containment do we need?"

The young man pointed to his left side. "These were drawn exclusively by the OMMR's chief architect, Rebecca Rice."

The chubby white pegasus with the blonde mane had been munching on some cookies and barely paying the meeting much mind until she had been pointed at.

Put me in the spotlight, why don't you? Why am I here again? Jonathan and Blanche can deal with this fine without me. Rebecca thought as she stared wide-eyed at the military men staring at her.

She lifted a wing and waved. "Hello! Want a cookie?"

The generals gave her a mix of blank looks and looks of contempt. She heard one mutter about damn ponies. Well, phewy on him!

Jonathan smiled and adjusted his glasses again. "I assure you, Mrs.Rice is not a security risk. All the necessary precautions from the Dreamwardens are in place. She is here if you need any clarification about how she drew the designs."

"Great, we have an overweight cookie-munching pegasus they pulled out of who-knows-where drawing the most classified designs in the world. Stupid ponies," another general muttered. How rude!

"These blueprints need more review. We have no questions for her at this time," one of the other generals stated. The others nodded along. She expected they didn't believe she knew much about what she drew and only acted as a conduit. Technically they weren't wrong to think that.

The head of the joint chiefs was an older balding man who didn't comment through the exchange. He was the only one of the generals familiar with who she really was, although she couldn't remember his name to save her life. He was wearing a badge with his name, but she wasn't at a good angle to see it. She decided to call him Horseshoe Breath in her head because why not?

Horseshoe Breath focused his attention on Jonathan. "These designs call for materials that I'm not familiar with the names of, and I'm familiar with most materials used in military hardware."

Jonathan nodded. "If you zoom in under their names, you will see some numbers. Those correspond with their chemical composition."

The generals all did so and frowned.

"Call me crazy, but chemicals are typically labeled with two-letter symbols for each element in them. I am just seeing numbers, big numbers."

"Forgive us for not clarifying, but those numbers each represent the atomic number of their corresponding element," Jonathan replied.

Rebecca grinned as she watched the generals all collectively pale. She wanted to giggle, but that would be rude. She ate another cookie instead.

"I might not be a chemist, but I know the periodic table doesn't go anywhere near that high!" the general who had called her overweight exclaimed.

"The periodic table as you know it," Jonathan corrected. "You are dealing with exceptionally advanced alien technology. Did you expect that they made it out of simple materials?"

"Don't get mouthy with me, Warden!" the general barked back.

Jonathan spread his hands. "I never claimed to be a Dreamwarden."

"You have never denied it either, but it's damn obvious," the general snarled.

"You may believe what you wish, General Wilson, but nothing shall be confirmed," Jonathan answered, smiling. Rebecca had to stifle a giggle again. Jonathan enjoyed doing that to people too much. And people accused him of being a stick in the mud!

"If these things are made out of super-advanced alloys that use artificial elements we can't possibly hope to recreate, will our weapons be able to penetrate them?" one of the generals asked.

Jonathan nodded. "The type of metals used are hard but not impenetrable. These materials are not meant to protect the Devourers from physical assault. They are meant to withstand extreme temperatures and thaumic energy attacks. They can withstand the highest temperatures we have ever recorded in stars as well as absolute zero temperatures, and they shrug off magical assaults like they are nothing. However, they are still vulnerable to being physically struck. That's why they only maintain their faster-than-light speeds between solar systems. Hitting even the equivalent of a basketball-sized rock at those speeds will destroy them, and even something golf ball-sized can inflict heavy damage that would force the unit to stop to repair. While such objects still exist between solar systems, the majority of such objects exist within the systems. The Devourer swarm heading our way has likely already lost many Devourers to such collisions, but these are acceptable losses to them. They only need a few Devourers to reach our planet to destroy it. That is also why we have chosen to mount our defense in the Scattered Disk. The Devourers would have already had to slow down due to the Oort Cloud, and they will be at their slowest from the Oort Cloud through the Kuiper Belt."

Blanche, who was standing just behind Jonathan's right shoulder, let off a noticeable sound of annoyance before clearing her throat loudly. "The OMMR head has done what he came to do and is a very busy man. I think it might be best if you take your time deciding how to have these files reviewed and letting your scientists compile a list of questions."

Jonathan nodded. "I do have a meeting I'm pressed to get to. My assistant is right. I don't think you're prepared yet to ask questions. We have presented to you directly as you requested. You may direct further questions through proper channels."

"We dismiss you, not the other way around," General Wilson barked.

Jonathan smiled. "My dear general, I believe you said you think I'm a Dreamwarden. Do you wish to tell a Dreamwarden where they may go or when they may leave? You would be violating Dreamwarden privilege granted by the UN."

General Wilson looked like he wanted to argue but turned his head. "We gave you too much freedom and power, but you won't see me causing an incident. Not today, anyway."

Rebecca rolled her eyes. Yeah, because you aren't a hothead or anything like that. You're ugly, by the way. Your mustache looks like a sick caterpillar trying to crawl up your nostrils. she thought to herself.

"I'm assuming that is the Dreamwarden meeting with the press you need to get to?" one of the generals who hadn't spoken yet asked.

"I confirm nothing," Jonathan replied. "Good day to you, generals."

Jonathan and Blanche had already turned to go before she noticed, and Blanche had to turn around and scold her. "Come on, Mrs.Rice. Pay attention for once!"

Rebecca hurried after them, doing a clumsy trot. She still wasn't quite used to being called Mrs.Rice yet. She only had a two-day honeymoon before they had packed her up and had her running all over the place for work. Technically she had been working during her honeymoon too, but her new hubby was pretty understanding. He knew what he was getting into when he married her.

It took them a long time to get out of the Pentagon. There were so many security checks to go through, even when going out. Rebecca didn't know how many times she got scanned, her wings frisked, her mane patted down, or had a crystal pony look her over. At least they didn't do an anal cavity search. She tried to take it in stride and smile as she followed her human friends. It seemed like it took forever, but they eventually got back to their limo and through the next round of security checks to get out on the road.

Rebecca pulled her lunchbox over to herself and found a sandwich to munch on while Blanche pulled out an electronic tablet and began reviewing the schedule. Jonathan had his phone out and was doing something on it, but Rebecca wasn't sure what; probably some mundane OMMR stuff. The OMMR might have employed her, but she didn't care or bother to learn much about the finer details of how it operated, only that she knew bureaucracy was icky and boring. Jonathan also had his free hand on the car door, where he was secretly doing most of his work.

Blanche glanced at her. "Did you really need to be snacking on cookies during that meeting, Rebecca? That was so unprofessional and embarrassing."

Rebecca was good at talking with her mouth full. She had lots of practice. "Don't worry. They didn't care about me, and they would be annoyed no matter what."

"How did you even sneak those cookies through security?" Blanche asked in exasperation.

"I could tell you, but I don't think you want to know," Rebecca said with a sheepish chuckle. "I've got more. Want a cookie?"

Blanche gave her a disgusted look. "I had zero interest in having one before, and my interest has now gone down into the negatives."

"Aww, but they're good. I baked them this morning," Rebecca replied.

Jonathan looked up from his phone and took his hand off the door, signaling he was done. "This morning? When did you have time this morning? We were on the plane by nine."

Rebecca shrugged. "I got up and decided to bake cookies."

Blanche shook her head in disbelief. "The world is marching towards its end, and Rebecca Riddle—"

"Rice!" Rebecca corrected while raising a wing in objection. "You got it right through the whole time we were inside. How'd you mess up now?"

"I apologize; I'm still not used to it," Blanche said quickly. "When going into these meetings, I practice things to say in my head, and part of that is how to address you and Jonathan. It doesn't hold up as well outside them."

"How are you not used to it? You were one of my bridesmaids!"

"I was more focused on keeping an eye on the guests," Blanche answered. "Anyway, back to business. Are you about done with your food so you can do your—"

Rebecca held up a wing and put a hoof to her mouth. She then held out her other wing to Jonathan.

Jonathan caught her intentions and ran his hands over it quickly before stopping and reaching his fingers between a few of her feathers. A second later, he pulled out a tiny electronic listening device. He held it in his hand, and it sparked as it died.

"It's no longer functional," Jonathan announced. "I've also disabled the one they put on the car. They're getting good at planting them. It's getting harder for me to find the bugs."

Rebecca smirked as she folded her wings. "Hey, at least they are getting more creative on how they try!"

Blanche looked mortified. "I'm sorry. I should have caught them planting that on you. I suppose we need to check to see if there are any on Jonathan and me."

Jonathan nodded and moved to where he could run his hands over Blanche. He spent several minutes at it, and Blanche took it in stride. When he was satisfied nothing was there, he began doing the same for himself for another minute or two.

"Just the one on Rebecca," Jonathan announced as he returned to his customary seat.

Rebecca sighed with relief. "I felt like something was off with my feathers after that last guard searched through them. I think he's the one who planted it."

"It was small enough that they probably assumed you would discard it as trash during a preening or wash it away in the shower without notice," Jonathan said as he lifted the tiny shorted-out listening device and examined it.

"Add it to the pile for the legal department as they prepare our case and tell Phobia so she can fuss at them again," Blanche said in a tired voice. "I swear they think they can get away with it because you're young and won't fight back."

"Our lawyers will have to dissuade them of that. We'll let the legal department figure it out. The end of the world is fast approaching, so we have more pressing concerns than some lesser privacy violations," Jonathan replied.

Rebecca snorted. Only in the OMMR would anyone call being bugged a lesser privacy violation, but in the OMMR, there were far greater privacy violations possible. When over a billion people could theoretically access the dream realm, there were inevitably those who tried to exploit it. Most of the OMMR's resources were directed at tracking those people down. Sad as it was to say, but old Sha'am Maut had been right about one thing before her retirement; there was little way of stopping it from happening without taking extreme authoritarian measures. The Dreamwardens weren't willing to take those kinds of actions anymore, so an entire bureaucracy and thousands of agents were required to track down malefactors in the waking world that had avoided doing anything strictly out of bounds while still sleeping.

Blanche still seemed annoyed as she looked back at Rebecca. "As I was saying, are you ready to do your job?"

Rebecca took another bite of her sandwich. "Still eating! This fluffy pony doesn't work on an empty stomach."

"You've been stuffing your face with snacks all day!" Blanche fussed.

"And now I'm having my lunch," Rebecca replied as she finished her sandwich and moved on to her apple.

Blanche threw her hands up. "God, you're impossible!"

Rebecca grinned at her, calmly chewing her food. "I'm pretty amazing, aren't I?"

"That's one way to put it," Blanche muttered as she picked up her tablet. "Just hurry up. Phobia will give us a lecture if you're late."

"Naw, she'll give me the lecture. I'm your boss; she isn't going to lecture you about my tardiness," Rebecca said as she chewed the apple.

"I could get a lecture," Jonathan countered. "Unlike Blanche, I answer to all six Dreamwardens, not just you."

Rebecca waved the objection off. "Don't worry; it'll be fine. Anyway, Jonathan, I need you to check on Jessica Middleton again and see if she's making any progress."

He spread his hands. "It might help her if you tell her what she's looking for, or us for that matter."

Rebecca held up a wing. "She's looking for the first and last place."

He gave her a flat look. "That is exactly zero help. We understand your need to sometimes be cryptic with others, but must you be cryptic with us too? We do your bidding without question. I think we have demonstrated we can be trusted with sensitive secrets."

She finished her apple and grinned. "You just asked me a question, so you do question my bidding, but that's alright. All will be revealed when we choose to reveal it, not before. We've got enough people questioning our plans without getting them concerned over this. Do be nice to Jessica when you ask. She works very hard."

Blanche looked out the window. "It's almost time for your press meet. Have you gone over all the notes I gave you for your speech?"

Rebecca blinked. "I'm supposed to be giving a speech? Is that why you gave me all those boring notes?"

Blanche threw her hands into the air. "Why do I bother?!"

"Hey, Paul, got a new intake, weird one. I want you on this."

Paul looked up from his typing to look at his manager. He then glanced at the several folders full of cases for different kids that he was already working on. None of them were getting the attention they deserved from him because there were so many, but there weren't enough people in social services to keep up with how many kids needed help.

He looked back at his boss, Aubrey. "What do you mean by weird one? You've worked this job longer than me. You know the kinds of situations some of these kids come from."

She frowned and crossed her arms. "We got a partial, Paul. I checked the records. The last partial our district dealt with was fifteen years ago. Nobody in the office has dealt with this situation. You're the closest thing we have to an expert."

Paul bristled even more at a partial child being called weird. He'd spent too many years watching people treat his daughter like a freak and listening to them call her abnormal to not have his hackles rise at anything unintentionally negative being said about a partial.

He took a deep breath. Aubrey did not intend to be rude or insensitive. Their job as social workers was to be sensitive to the needs of children, and this was just a child with some extra special needs. Aubrey just wasn't sure what those needs were and was counting on him to know.

"I understand," Paul said as he let himself relax. "Do you have a file started yet? Was it an abusive home?"

Aubrey walked in and sat in one of the chairs, shoulders slumped and hands folded in front of herself. "We think we have a grandmother, but she's in the hospital and non-responsive. There was no record of her having a grandchild, and her only child has been missing since ETS. There were always a fair number of ponies who just abandoned their old identities and never let authorities identify them properly, so his going missing around then just got lumped in with the various other people we assumed did just that. Now we must wonder if he's one of those partial conspiracy nuts."

"I've never actually heard of anyone meeting one of those nuts. I'm pretty sure they're a myth, like talking crows," Paul replied.

Aubrey abruptly sat up straight and shook a finger at him. "Talking crows are real! I met one. It laughed at me, told me my hair looked like a nest, and flew away."

He wasn't going to call her crazy, so he decided to keep his mouth shut about crows. Still, he needed to answer her about the case and clarify some things.

"I might not be as much of an expert as you think. Jessie was an unusual child for reasons that had nothing to do with her being a partial. Child prodigy doesn't even begin to describe her. She was reading little golden books on her own by the time she was only a year old, and she'd read through every book in the house and figured out algebra before she entered kindergarten. Most of our struggles with her were trying to keep up with a kid that was always picking up new knowledge at a frightening pace, all while lagging behind in social development for her age, not so much her being a partial."

"Well, this kid has problems with social development," Aubrey countered. "We're unsure if he has had contact with anyone other than his grandmother and has lived in complete isolation. It's hard to say anything about his intelligence level at this stage, but a socially underdeveloped partial is something you've dealt with before."

"True enough," Paul replied. "Let me go meet this kid. Where's he at?"

"St. Joseph," Aubrey answered, standing up. "The room number is in his file, and that's on my desk. Come on; I'll give you the file."

Paul stood and followed. A partial child, he never believed that he'd be dealing with one again.

Chapter 2: Friends and Family

One day down, who knows how many to go. Jessica thought to herself as she walked to her car, purse at her side.

"Woooohooo! Shake that tail, babe!"

She stopped in her tracks and turned to see who had called out to her. She spotted three men, in their early twenties, probably students, standing next to an expensive-looking black sports car. It was obvious which one had spoken because he was giving her a lecherous leer. The other two of them seemed aghast at his behavior. He looked like the type that was the life of frat parties. The kind that's priorities were set by what was between his legs instead of what was between his ears. If a student, the car indicated wealthy parents, a trust fund baby who was used to always getting his way because he could just buy whatever he wanted and pay whatever fines he incurred. Honestly, she was attracted to both macho types and prissy types, but she was not attracted to entitled jerks.

She turned and continued walking to her car. There was no need to give him the satisfaction of a response— damn pervert.

"Hey! I was talking to you!"

Her ears flattened, but she didn't turn to look. Engaging him served no purpose, and she'd be able to hear if he tried chasing after her.

"Stupid partial freak!"

A sound barrier went up halfway between him and her, so she didn't have to listen to him. Again, she'd be able to hear if he crossed it.

People fetishizing her and treating her like trash was old news. She was Doctor Jessica Middleton, the greatest mathematician living and the foremost expert on thaumic physics. She had defined the interaction and relationship between thaumic energy and neutrinos at the age of six-and-a-half. She was the most brilliant scientist of the age and had no need to stoop to their level, and if anyone called her a coward, they had best remember why she wasn't still an earth pony.

Some days, I wish I had taken the chance on prosthetics and stayed an earth pony, or Princess Twilight had been better prepared to try to rehumanize me when she did. she thought bitterly before immediately shaking her head to chase away the thought. It wasn't the first time she'd felt that. It probably wasn't going to be the last, but it was something that crept into her thoughts sometimes when she heard bigots talk to her like that.

In truth, she didn't hate her body, despite everyone else's reactions. No matter how often they called her a freak, she didn't see that when she looked in the mirror. Heck, her primary regret about it was there weren't more like her. Partials were rare, especially in the USA. There were supposedly significant numbers of partials in some areas overseas, places that had been isolated when the end of ETS came and didn't get rehumanization teams out to them until years after the fact or still hadn't. She'd never met any of them, only a stray person here and there with less prominent pony features that lingered after their rehumanization.

It would be nice to meet someone who was like her that she was genetically compatible to have kids with, but that was a one-in-a-million chance. She wasn't a partial because she had pony features; she was a partial because she was genetically neither human or pony. Most people with a stray pony feature or two were still genetically human. She wasn't genetically compatible with humans. Partials were rarely ever even compatible with other partials, each their own genetically unique entity with multiple chromosomes that couldn't find a pairing with their partner's, leading to failed fertilization or stillbirths. She hated the day she'd been told that; she hadn't ever cried so hard in her life. It was never fun for anyone being told they can't have kids, or an astronomically low chance, anyway. Math was her thing, and she'd run the numbers.

Not that she had time for relationships and childrearing. The end of the world wouldn't slow its advance for her to invest time in that sort of thing.

Finally, she had reached her car, a personally refurbished red ninteen-fifty-three Corvette. She already had her keys in her hand and was quick to get her door unlocked. Her mother taught her that; always have her keys out or phone out when walking out to the car. It dissuaded people from jumping her. She was strong enough to fight off most humans, but that was only inviting more trouble. A person could jump her, and then sue her for assault if she defended herself with near earth pony strength. Courts always favored humans, and partials were even lower on the totem pole than ponies— way below. The fact she was famous might help, or it could be used to further brand partials as dangerous. They'd talk about how even she resorted to violence and use it as a rallying cry. It wasn't fair, but it was how it was. It was best to avoid the conflict.

Deep breath, start the engine, lower the hood, and take a leisurely drive to the sanctuary of her home.

Back to suburbia in Aurora. She sat in her car and looked at her house… no, her parents' house. It wouldn't be long till she was out on her own. She'd physically matured too young and was left forever waiting for her legal age to catch up to her physical age. She technically was still too young to do a number of things, and she couldn't deny she'd more than once broken some age-restricted rules in acts of childish rebellion, but now she was legally old enough to get her own place. She should be excited; it was something she'd been dreaming of for a long time, but thinking about it made her nerves go on edge.

Stop being stupid and go inside. Mom is inside, dying to hear how your day went. Don't keep her in suspense. The sooner you deal with her, the sooner you can work. You still need to make a show of progress on finding whatever is in deep space before you go to bed. Damn Dreamwardens get more demanding by the day.

She sighed and exited the car, shutting the door gently behind her. As she approached the front door, she stopped. A purple crayon was on the front porch in front of the door. Her mother never used crayons with her art, and her little brother certainly didn't use them for anything; at least, she didn't think he did. She picked it up before anyone stepped on it and tripped.

"Mom? I'm home! Are you here?" she called out as stepped through the door.

Her mom came out to meet her. "Jessie, keep your voice down. Your brother, sister-in-law, nephew, and niece are asleep in the guest room."

Jessica blinked and listened. There were four distinct sets of heartbeats and breathing up in the guest room. The only other sets of breathing and heartbeats were hers and her mom's, not counting her little brother's gerbil and what she assumed was a mouse in the backyard– or maybe it was a bird; it was fast and tiny, whatever it was.

"When did they get here?" Jessica asked as she shut the door, subconsciously insulating sound so she wouldn't wake anyone. "Where are Dusk and Dad? Shouldn't they already be home?"

Her mom gestured for her to sit on the couch. "Dusk is hanging out with some friends, and your father called and said he'd be running late due to some new case. Your brother and his family arrived about an hour after you left for work. Nightscape says she is here researching for a new building project, but I know they wanted to help you with your move."

Jessica set the crayon down on the coffee table. "I guess little Eve dropped this on her way in. Bet she wants to draw like her parents and grandma. Probably already has more art talent than me."

Her mom chuckled as she headed for the kitchen. "Maybe not yet; she's only two. I think you can outdraw her for a few years yet. I'll brew us some coffee and you can tell me all about your first day teaching. I've been waiting all day to hear about it."

"She and I can compare stick figures to decide that. Coffee sounds great, Mom. I'll take mine black," Jessica said as she sat down.

Her mom was already putting the pot on. "I know, I know. I don't understand your need to drink it that way. How did you ever develop a dislike of sugar in your coffee when you used to be a pony? Ponies love sugar."

Jessica shrugged, though her mom wouldn't be able to see her from the kitchen. "Was always in a hurry and didn't have time to add sugar, cream, or milk, and just got in the habit of drinking it that way. Now it doesn't taste right if you add anything."

She heard her mom take a deep breath. "Always in such a hurry. That's the story of your life. I worry about you. It seems like it has been getting worse these last few years. You need to take time for friends and maybe a little romance, hmmm?"

She leaned back and hung her head over the back of the couch. "Mom! I don't have time for that! There's not going to be anything like that for years yet."

The coffee finished brewing, and her mom was fixing her coffee. "Jessica, I say this as a concerned mother—"

Jessica rolled her eyes. She already knew what was coming.

Her mom came back into the living room and handed her a cup of coffee. "— you're going to get old before you should. I don't want you to lose the best years of your life only focused on work."

She took a sip before answering. "I only lost six years of my life, Mom. You act like I'll be old and gray in ten years."

"The way you work yourself, you might be, and you could start graying in ten years. You'd be physically in your early thirties; some people start graying then," her mom said as she sat down. "Would it kill you to make some friends with the other faculty, go out for a few drinks—"

"I'm nineteen. I'm not legal drinking age," Jessica injected quickly.

Her mom looked at her, unconvinced. "I know you came back drunk off your ass from a party at fifteen. I'm pretty sure you were high, too, based on the strong smell of weed about you that night. You tried to play it off as you just had the flu, but your father and I weren't born yesterday. We never said anything because we were more relieved that you had gone out and done something semi-normal for a college girl. You're physically in your mid-twenties; having a drink or two with friends won't kill you. Having a drink or two on a date—"

Jessica crossed her arms. "That definitely isn't happening."

"Why not? You're a highly respected scientist. That makes you an extremely eligible bachelorette. Heck, you even are wide open on partner choices. You could have a special man, special woman, special mare or stallion. You know I don't mind the fact that you make no preference between gender or species; I just want my baby girl happy. I have friends with grown kids. I could help arrange a meetup. I know your preferences that you find most appealing. I just want you to have a special someone in your life."

Jessica set her coffee cup down and glared. "I'm not going to have my mother trying to help me get laid. I can't believe we're even having this conversation. I may pursue something once my work is done, but not before. I don't have time."

Her mom frowned. "Your work...you're not talking about teaching. You're talking about whatever that is that the Dreamwardens have you doing, aren't you? Three of them are immortals, and they've had you working since you were a kid. They don't think about time like we do. When is it ever going to be enough for them? When will they be done with you? Haven't they claimed enough of your life?"

Tick-tock, tick-tock, the end was marching closer. The Dreamwardens were searching for a solution, NASA was watching and trying to determine the timetable, governments around the world were in either denial or panic mode, and the public didn't have a clue. Every other civilization in the history of the universe had been destroyed by the foe they were up against. Many of those civilizations had been far more advanced, others had been practically stone-aged, but advanced or primitive, they had been unprepared for what was coming. That was the one advantage Earth had going for it; there was a chance to try to prepare, a chance to fight.

"Mom...it is very important work," Jessica said slowly. "I wish I could tell you how important, but there's so many levels of classified information involved with this it would blow your mind. It is worth every moment of my life if that is what it takes."

"What good are you to them if you break down doing whatever this is?" her mom demanded. "You need to take care of yourself. You need to have some joy in your life. When you were a foal, I worried you might throw away your future by getting into social situations you weren't prepared for because you were always in such a hurry to grow up. I miss those days because now I worry you're going to not let yourself have a life."

"I'm fine, Mom. You know I make time for friends here and there. I went all the way back to Skytree over the summer for Jordan's eighteenth birthday. I keep up with everybody on social media. I don't avoid people because I don't want a social life. I do it because I'm busy."

Technically, that was like three-quarters true. She was very particular about who she tried to engage in any socializing with. Being a partial made her wary of people in general. In terms of relationships, she was unsure if she could ever trust someone to be into her for her and not having some objectifying fetish for partials that never extended to seeing her as a person.

Her mom looked like she wanted to argue more, but shook her head. "Maybe I'm being too pushy. I'm sorry. I know I wouldn't behave this way with your brothers. We all endure difficulties with our social lives because of...you know, but you're the one of us who actually has some celebrity status that should have people eager to associate with you, yet you're the one who seems to struggle the most in getting out there. I don't want you to look back at this point in your life twenty years from now and feel regret."

Jessica looked down at her coffee. "Robby always resented how much attention you devoted to me and not him. I'm surprised Dusk doesn't have a chip on his shoulder as well."

"Dusk does, just not to you or us," her mom said in a tired voice. "He's a smart boy. He knows none of us are responsible for what he has to go through. He sees what the rest of us endure."

"He's a good kid," Jessica said. "I guess I'm the lucky one. People can forget who my aunts are when dealing with me."

Her mother clicked her tongue. "Believe me, I envy you for that, but I'm also happy for you. Much as you have to put up with, at least you get spared something."

Jessica's ears twitched. "Robby and the others are stirring upstairs. I think we need to end this conversation. They'll be down shortly."

Her mom looked embarrassed. "I guess we got too loud."

"No, Mom. I've been controlling the volume the entire time. They didn't hear a thing."

Her mom half-smiled. "Of course you did. I don't know why I never remember you do stuff like that without saying anything. Tell me about your first day teaching. It is nice to know there's another teacher in the family again. I miss doing it."

Jessica looked down to avoid her mom's eyes. "I'm sorry you had to retire. It wasn't fair."

Her mom waved it away. "No fault of yours. Stupid school board just overreacted to what happened with your auntie. It's given me time to focus on family and my own art, but I want to hear about your day."

"Well, I got in trouble with the dean for muting students, and was told in no uncertain terms that my office needed to be moved off campus," Jessica replied.

Her mom frowned. "Okay… I hope that doesn't become an issue. What else?"

"A student in the parking lot decided to be both a bigot and a misogynist towards me. I didn't escalate the situation by doing anything to him or confronting him, I just ignored him," Jessica continued.

Her mom's frown shifted to sadness. "I'm sorry that happened."

Jessica shrugged and pulled her jacket so she covered more of her bust. She also tucked her tail closer to her to make it less visible. "What's new? There's always going to be someone around like that, and every once and a while, there'll be ones like him that decide to make themselves loud and obnoxious. But hey, on the bright side, I'm all grown up, and they aren't doing that to an underaged girl anymore. I guess that makes it all okay. Sure makes me feel better about the idea of getting in a relationship with someone who finds me attractive."

Her mom looked like she was searching for a reassuring word to say and struggling. "I'm very sorry they make you feel that way. It breaks my heart. You know there are plenty of people not like that, who will treat you with respect, right?"

Jessica sunk back against the couch cushion, still drawn in on herself. "I know."

"What about the actual class? Did they seem excited to have you teaching? Did you enjoy it?" her mom asked, forcing a smile and leaving the subject behind.

"They seemed excited when I started discussing internships," Jessica answered. "I'm not you, though, Mom. Teaching isn't my thing. I'm there because I'm looking for help in those different organizations, not because I enjoy watching young minds blossom. This is just a part-time job with an agenda."

Her mom looked away and then stood up. "I see. Well, I won't trouble you any more about it. I'm going to start fixing dinner early since we have three extra mouths to feed. I hope you'll spare some time to spend with your older brother and your niece."

Jessica realized she should have tried to sound more upbeat about teaching. Her mom always wanted something to bond over. Here they had a chance to have something, and Jessica had practically spat on it. Real genius move.

Robby came down the stairs, sleeping infant nestled on his back, and spotted her. "Hey, sis. How's my favorite plow horse?"

She gave him a cross look. "That insult wasn't a good one when I was still a pony, bat brain. Nightscape trying to give Eve a bath right now?"

He nodded. "I'm sure you hear it. How's it going?"

"From what I hear, I think more water is getting on your wife and floor than on your kid," Jessica answered.

Robby came over, gently put his sleeping son on the couch, and climbed on the sofa beside her, not bothering to jump or flap his wings, probably for fear of waking the infant. "Sounds about right. How did I get this old?"

"Well, typically we only age in one direction, so your answer is self explanatory," she replied dryly. "You aren't that old. We're physically about the same age."

"And my baby sister is teaching at a college and moving out to her own place. It was just yesterday that you were crawling on my back like little Umber here," Robby said wistfully as he gently ran a hoof over his sleeping son. "Next thing you know, Eve will be moving out too."

"I think you have got plenty of time yet for that," she replied with a smirk.

He looked up at her. "You know, you aren't the only eavesdropper in the family. I blame you for being a bad influence. I was listening from the stairs before I came down."

She nodded. "I heard your heart and breathing and many bodily functions I won't go into. I decided to let you listen."

"My stomach is growling," Robby agreed. "Anyway, is everything okay with you and Mom?"

She shrugged. "You heard it. She was needlessly pushy, and I was insensitive, and no, she can't hear us talking."

"Of course not. Thanks for not muting the earlier conversation to me," Robby replied. "It will be okay. Mom has always worried about you more than she needed, and I am not resentful anymore; I'll have you know."

"Forgiven her at your decrepit old age of twenty-five?" Jessica asked with a smirk.

He shrugged again. "Worrying about my foals puts some things in a new shade. I told you, I'm getting old. Being a parent changes you and makes you rethink things."

She sighed. "Think you can go help Mom in the kitchen and patch things up for me? You two can talk about art stuff or whatever."

"Only if you help my wife with our screeching bundle of joy. You've got hands; they're useful for that kind of thing. Just watch out; she bites."

"I think I can deal with a filly's teeth," Jessica said as she stood up.

"Oh, yeah, Eve too. Watch Eve's mouth, too," Robby smirked.

She gave her brother a very light pop in his side, careful to watch her strength. "That is not a nice thing to say about your wife!"

Robby spread his wings defensively, grinning broadly. "I didn't say I minded."

She rolled her eyes. "Just smooth things over with Mom for me. You're better at that kind of thing."

He climbed down from the couch. He barely reached her shorts while standing at full height. "I've got it. What are big brothers for?"

"Thanks, Robby."

He touched a hoof to her leg. "And I need to let you in on a secret. You can tell the Dreamwardens to shove it occasionally and give you a break for a day or two. I've told Phobia off more than once. She'll glare at you, give you a dirty look, and then calmly leave you be for a while."

Her eyebrows climbed as high as they could, perhaps reaching new records. "You've told off Phobia Remedy, the Queen of Nightmares? For what?"

He flapped his wings slightly. "She gets overbearing at times. Sometimes you have to tell her to back off for the sake of your mental health. They have access to knowing you need a break, but that doesn't mean they're paying attention, or maybe they're just waiting for you to say something. You know how their weird privacy rules work."

"And you get away with that with no consequences?" Jessica asked, skeptical.

He shuffled his hooves. "With her, yeah, but I avoid Tempest afterward. I value my life, and she gets offended on Phobia's behalf."

Mention of Phobia's humanized Equestrian bodyguard made her tail subconsciously start to rise before she caught what she was doing and forced it down—stupid tail.

Robby caught sight of it and smirked at her. "She's way too old for you, and you aren't her type. I think she's dating someone now. She's been real secretive about it."

"I know that!" she said in a loud whisper. "It doesn't mean I can't think she's attractive. I'm not immune to that stuff just because I have no time for it. Don't tell Mom about it, or I'll make you hear nothing but nails against a chalkboard for the rest of the day."

Robby chuckled. "Mom already knows about how you look at Tempest, along with others. Your tail betrays you every time. How do you think she figured out your type? Anyway, I know you understand she isn't worth pursuing, but it's always so cute when you get hot and bothered and then watch you try to hide it. I'm your big brother; I get to pick on you about that stuff."

She playfully scoffed at him. "You look little to me, pony."

"You're just big for a human," he replied with a wave of his wing. "You know, Nightscape thought about buying you a pair of high heels for Christmas. She thought it would make you look more professional or something."

She groaned. "You talked her out of that, right? I don't need to add any more inches to my height or draw attention to my legs."

He shrugged. "Who can say?"

"Bat brain!" she yelled at him as she headed for the stairs.

"Plow horse!" he shouted back from the kitchen.

She shook her head as she went upstairs. Robby better be happy she had shielded his foal from hearing all that noise. Otherwise, he would be dealing with a crying kid right about now. Now to see if she could help with his other kid.

As she entered the bathroom, she wasn't shocked to find water all over the floor and Robby's wife, Nightscape, soaking wet. What she was surprised to see was Eve latched on to the showerhead.

"I see my niece has learned to climb," Jessica said with amusement.

Nightscape didn't look at her as she answered. "Climb up, yes; climb down, no. She started climbing about a week ago and has been a nuisance since. Okay, pipsqueak, you got yourself up there, but there's only one place left to go. You're diving into the tub. You're taking a bath."

"No!" Eve shouted, then giggled.

"Why can't you be more like your little brother," Nightscape asked the filly in exasperation.

"Because night pony fillies tend to be kinda wild and night pony colts a little more docile, at least by comparison. I wouldn't call night pony colts docile, but that's the reputation," Jessica answered. "You heard that some of the teens are starting to call themselves amazons instead of night ponies because the mares and fillies have a reputation for being fierce, right?"

Nightscape shook her head. "I've heard them, and I think that's dumb. Did you see those new ads from Amazon, the company? They're practically encouraging it! Young night ponies being successful at things with sentimental music playing in the background and then that catchphrase, I'm the future. I'm Amazon– it makes me want to puke having my tribe being used as a marketing tool like that. Back in my day-"

"Did you seriously just make a back-in-my-day statement?" Jessica asked with a laugh.

"Well, it's true. Kids are trying to change everything," Nightscape protested. "Anyway, this little amazon is about to end up in her personal Amazon river…I know it's a tub, but trying to work the theme here. You can't stay up there all day, Eve!"

*Yes!" Eve said with a loud chortle, still gripping the showerhead tightly.

"Do you want me to get her down?" Jessia asked. "She's easy to reach for me, and you don't want her bath getting cold."

Nightscape gave an agitated flap of her wings. "Feels like conceding defeat, but okay. I've spent enough time fighting with her over a bath. Just be careful. She's more agile than she looks, and I don't want her using you for a ramp."

"I'll be alert," Jessica replied.

She took a few cautious steps towards the tub, hands outstretched. Nightscape shifted to the side, perhaps worried she'd get stepped on. Eve eyed her hands warily but didn't budge from the showerhead.

"Come on, rugrat, come to Aunt Jessie," she whispered.

Eve looked at the hands, looked up as if searching for other places to climb higher, then looked down. Then the filly suddenly released her death-grip on the fixture, plummeting towards the tub. There was a splash, but nowhere near as large of one as should have resulted from the filly diving into that. Instead, the filly hit the water and, with one massive beat of her right wing, cartwheeled off the water's surface and landed on the floor in front of the two dumbfounded adults.

Eve let out a squeal of triumph and ran right under Jessica's legs and out the bathroom door.

"What the hell just happened?" Nightscape asked in disbelief. "You're the physicist. Tell me how my daughter managed to bounce off the water."

Jessica blinked as she listened to her brother, now trying to corral his daughter before she woke her brother. Then she heard Umber stir and start to cry.

"In my professional opinion as a woman of science, I don't know," Jessica answered. "Never underestimate what a foal can pull off is my best answer."

Nightscape groaned and then went chasing after her daughter to try to stop the chaos. Jessica decided this was an excellent time to go to her room and try to get some work done.

Jessica sat in her room, looking over star charts, mathematical equations, and probability functions in frustration. None of these probabilities looked like promising matches. The highest she had seen today was a 3.2% chance of a match, and on closer review of that one, she determined there was no way it was the one she was looking for and was worth no further study.

Her ears flicked at the heartbeat, breathing, and other bodily functions outside her door. She ignored them and refocused on the numbers.

The computer continued to run simulations based on her equations. It never stopped running these simulations. She spent hours every day reviewing the results. Maybe it was time to design a new set of equations; perhaps these were faulty. No, she was confident in her math. She had confirmed that her equations produced results with nearby star systems. They should work with these star charts as well if there was anything to find.

The sounds outside her door didn't go away. There was a nervous twinge to them. Her phone buzzed as someone messaged her. She picked it up and looked.

Glasses

She groaned. Damn Dreamwardens, couldn't they give her a day of peace? She'd been staring at projection match probabilities and reviewing the more promising ones for nearly an hour. So it wasn't like she wasn't trying to make progress. Why couldn't they leave her alone? She'd tell them if she had any good leads on where this thing might be. Hell, she'd be excited to tell them as much if she thought she had made significant progress. It would help if she had more eyes on this, whatever this was. She was grateful that NASA wasn't nearly this pushy about getting results from her. She'd need to contact them soon. NASA's silence as of late worried her, even if it should have been a relief.

The heartbeat outside her door was still going. It was steadying out, so they must be calming down. She refused to let it distract her.

The first and last place? That rang a bell. Where had she heard that term before regarding space? Something was tugging at her thoughts. Maybe this message was helpful if she could figure out what the coded message Rebecca was telling her was. Why did they go to such lengths to hide what she sought? It had to be something they either feared or were ashamed of. It wasn't the Devourers. The Dreamwardens had done everything they could to help people track where those might be at any given moment; it was critical information to know if they were expecting an attack. What did they fear or feel more shame about than the Devourers, and how could it help ward off the coming doomsday?

The sounds outside her door were still there, and she finally got tired of listening to them and waiting.

"Come on in, Dad."

The door opened, and he stepped in. "You didn't give me a chance to knock."

She closed her laptop and swiveled her chair around to face him. "You were standing at my door for just under two minutes. You needed prompting. What's bothering you?"

He walked over to her bed and sat down on it. He didn't ask her what she had been doing. He knew that she spent almost all her private time dedicated to the Dreamwardens' pet project.

"I got a new case that was specially assigned to me," he replied, rubbing his hands together. "It's unusual for our office, and I was wondering if you would care to help me out."

She blinked. "I don't know anything about social work, and I'm swamped. What is it? A genius kid?"

He frowned and shook his head. "I don't know much about how intelligent this kid is. He could be brilliant, or he could be dumb as a brick. He doesn't say or do much at all. It doesn't matter one way or another; he's a child in need."

"Okay, and how am I supposed to be helpful?" she asked, confused.

He looked her in the eyes. "The kid's a partial, Jessie. First legitimately partial kid the office has seen in years, and he's only four years old."

She looked at her father in disbelief. Her heart quickened. Some part of her wanted him to be lying and using this to play a joke on her, but she knew he wouldn't do that to her. Listening to heartbeats is unreliable at best, but the only heart skipping a beat was hers.

"It is statistically improbable that there would be a partial that age in the area," she replied after taking a deep breath.

"I know, but I met him," her dad insisted. "This isn't some stray pony features. He has more fur than you, toes fused, a full tail, pony ears, a horn, and a slight gait to his walk. Doctors did some tests, and he is closer to being a pony than a human, but he's no pony. Kid won't talk, but they say there's no medical reason he can't, and he seems to understand what people are saying to him."

The poor kid…he must be terrified. She had always dealt with stares and comments, but if his pony features were that pronounced, he had to get it much worse.

"Where are his parents?" she asked. It had to be partial parents. Irrational jealousy welled up in her at the thought of two compatible partials finding one another, and she forced the feeling down.

Her dad shook his head again. "Nobody knows. We think he's been in the care of his grandmother for years and kept out of sight. The old woman recently had a stroke on her way home from the grocery store, and she is in a hospital, completely unresponsive. She has been there long enough that her landlord started evicting her, and when they went in, they found this kid, half-starved and hiding in his room."

"Neglect?" she asked as her ears fell.

"No, we think he was well taken care of, but his grandmother had been gone for over a month due to the hospitalization. He ate through everything in the house, but it ran out. None of the neighbors knew about him, not even the landlord. His room showed he had plenty of clothes, toys, and comfortable bedding. He has some recent injuries we think he picked up trying to take care of himself, but he doesn't have any older injuries we would associate with physical abuse."

She looked away. "And they assigned you the case because you have a partial daughter, so that makes you magically more knowledgeable about how to deal with him, right?"

"That's their thinking," her dad replied. "It might not be correct, but I can see where they're coming from."

Was she that difficult a child to deal with? If she was being honest with herself, she had been. Dealing with a super genius child could be stressful enough, but then there had been the years when her powers had first manifested, and she had to be watched by a crystal pony constantly so she didn't burst everyone's eardrums. They had to cut relations with people they had called friends because those friends looked at her and saw something inhuman. There was the family moving so she could go to college where she wanted and leaving her older brother in the care of another to do it. That Robby could still joke and laugh with her after that was a miracle. Her entire family's life had been impacted by her and revolved around her, and they were already dealing with negative impacts on their lives because of who her aunts were. Was she challenging to deal with? That was a silly question to ask.

"How do you know that was his grandmother if she's comatose and he won't talk?" she asked, focusing on the facts instead of her feelings.

"We aren't sure yet, but based on what we found in the house, we're confident that it's his grandmother in the hospital, and his name is Mark. We don't know the whereabouts of his parents; his presumed father has been listed as missing since ETS and was previously assumed to be a pony that took on a new identity. We don't know anything about who the mother is or was yet. There's no other known family. For all we know, he could be some Shimmerist attempt to recreate ETS gone wrong, but if that were so, we would have thought his grandmother would have brought him to the authorities for help. I've never heard of such a thing being found, but there are always rumors."

Jessica frowned. She did know of a confirmed case of such an experiment gone wrong. She'd found out only by accident when she overheard it being discussed by ponies who hadn't realized the extent of her powers yet. That particular experiment had been monstrous in its result. She didn't know what became of the person, but what little she had heard did not paint a hopeful picture for the victim. It seemed unlikely Shimmerists would be eager to repeat such a failure. They could be fanatical at times, but even they cared about suffering and wouldn't willingly subject someone to something like that.

"And you came to me hoping he might open up to another partial?"

Her dad spread his hands. "I'm grasping at straws here, Jessie. I've got a frightened child who just got put into the system who won't talk."

She wasn't sure she could do anything to help. "Has he seen his grandma yet?"

"Not yet. It has been difficult getting him anywhere. He seems to have severe agoraphobia and kenophobia. I don't think he was born in that apartment, but he might not remember being anywhere else. He fears humans, ponies, and being out in the open. We didn't think he was ready to see her yet."

"Heh, definitely not a pony in that respect," she muttered. "And I take it grandma is a human without magic, so the Dreamwardens can't get into her dreams to ask questions."

"They aren't always able to reach people in comas anyway, but you're right. Grandma never got ETS and doesn't have a trace of magic."

"And no go on getting them into Mark's dreams?" she asked.

"Mark is too young to give those permissions for himself or understand what permissions he's giving. Tonya and Phobia might feel bad for him, but they won't violate those privacy lines. People have tried asking Dreamwardens to do that before in social work cases. The Dreamwardens don't take well to the requests."

"Probably just as well. They can only get out of the mind what the person knows, and most kids that age don't understand most of the world around them and are likely distorting it." She paused and flicked her tail. "How do you know he's four?"

"He has a string of birthday cards from his grandma taped to his bedroom wall, first, second, third, and fourth birthdays, but nothing beyond that. She also tracked his height in one of the doorways, marking each year. She addressed each birthday card to Mark and signed Love Grandma. It isn't proof he isn't just someone she adopted, but it is pretty clear she's cared for him for years."

She picked up her old rubber ball from the table and squeezed it. "It seems like she loved him, but why'd she hide him? Being partial is rough, but it isn't worth keeping him hidden from the world. Having no contact with others can only hurt him in the long run."

Her dad shook his head. "I know this sounds bad for me to say to you, but I think you fail to appreciate how rough being partial can be."

She slammed her ball down on the ground, and she and her dad took cover as it bounced off the floor to the ceiling and ricocheted around the room, knocking a picture off the wall. At least it didn't hit her computer.

Once it finally stopped, she glared angrily at her dad. "I know full well the way people look at partials and the things they say! I can't help but hear the things they say! You have no right to say I don't!"

He met her glare with a sad look. "I know you have it rough, Jessie, and I know I can't fully understand what you go through, but you need to remember that you're something of a celebrity, and that protects you. Most partials don't have it as good as you. You said it was statistically impossible we have a partial kid in the office. Do you know how many partials were born in this country last year, at least documented ones?"

She broke her gaze. She knew what the chances were, and she paid close attention to every news story about a partial birth, but she didn't like people, even family, knowing she did that. Her mom was terrible enough without knowing she still secretly wished for the ability to have a successful pregnancy— at least one day, once the world was saved.

"I try to avoid hearing those numbers," she lied. Her heart didn't skip a beat while saying it. She knew the exact figure for the USA and Canada and had seen the estimates for elsewhere; four in the USA, one in Canada, two documented ones in the Caribbean Confederation with unconfirmed reports of another, and an estimated fifteen to twenty for the rest of the world combined.

"Four," her dad confirmed. "There were just four in the entire country. It is a one-in-a-million birth. Partials hide from the rest of us because of how badly they get treated. Almost all of them live in extreme poverty. If it weren't for the generosity of a few isolated Shimmerist settlements giving them food and shelter while not reporting them, there would be more starving. His parents were probably thinking of that when they left him with his grandmother, and she was probably thinking about how cruel the world can be when she hid him away."

She crossed her arms but couldn't meet his eyes. "Maybe. I still think it would be better if he wasn't kept away from people. He has to deal with them eventually."

He sighed. "I agree with you. I'm just trying to speculate about how things got to this point. Until grandma wakes up, there's no way of knowing the truth."

"Is she going to wake up?" she asked.

Her dad shrugged and didn't give any other answer. Well, that was just peachy.

Her phone started buzzing, and she picked it up and looked at it. It was Jordan calling, probably done with her first day of classes and wanting to know how her first day of teaching went. Her dad sat quietly while she answered. She forced herself to smile.

"Hey, Jor. What's up?" Jessica asked.

She heard Jordan blow a raspberry over the line. "What's up? Is that how you greet your best friend in the world after such a big day?"

Jessica rolled her eyes. "Sorry, I'm dealing with something at the moment. Give me a sec." She covered her phone's speaker and looked at her dad. "I'll help you tomorrow before I go to work. We can talk more after dinner."

He got up and headed for the door. "Thanks. Means a lot to me. If we're lucky, it will mean a lot to Mark too."

She took her hand off the speaker as her dad left the room. "How was your first day of classes?"

"It was okay, but I'm mad at you!" Jordan replied with a huff.

Jessica blinked. "Why are you mad at me? What did I do?"

"You told me I needed to read all the textbooks before classes started! I got into class today and found out that nobody does that! I spent the last month reading them all cover to cover when I could have been reading anything else!"

She had to stop herself from laughing at her friend's indignation. "You read them all in just a month? I'm impressed. I might struggle with that in only a month. I usually started two months ahead."

"Don't you try to compliment me to deflect this!"

She still was smiling as she replied. "Oh, you would have probably just been reading more clop anyway. I didn't say you had to do that. I said that was what I did when I was still taking classes. I would be overjoyed if my students did that, but I doubt any did. Your semester should be easier since everything is now a review."

Jordan snorted. "I read classy romance novels, thank you very much. Some of them may have a few steamy scenes, but that is not any reason to look down on them."

"Okay, I apologize for implying your favorite books are trashy. Do you forgive me?"

"I guess, but only because I like you," Jordan replied. "However, you forced me back into my nerd label. I was determined to break that mold and be the sexy new freshman on campus for all the stallions to lust over, but now I guess I have to settle for being the sexy nerd mare. Not part of my grand plan for college, but it's okay, I guess. At least I don't have to worry about people thinking I'm a nerd for constantly reading."

Jessica curled an eyebrow. "Sexy? That's a new direction for you."

"Hey! I've got four years where I'm nowhere near my parents and don't have to worry about a career. I want to live it to the fullest," Jordan said proudly. "What? You don't think I can be sexy?"

"You're like my sister. I couldn't even look at you and think that," Jessica laughed.

Jordan laughed too. "True enough, and that would be weird anyway. I love you as a friend, but I'm into stallions– not mares, not women, not men, stallions." Jordan made a popping sound to punctuate the end of her sentence.

She couldn't help giggling. This didn't surprise her all that much. Jordan had been reading clop constantly since she first noticed she had an attraction to the opposite sex. Given how fascinated Jordan was with the subject, it was a miracle Jordan had made it this far with her virginity intact. Jordan was right, these were her four years of freedom, and she was too smart to let herself get pregnant or get into an abusive relationship. If Jordan wanted to have fun, she was welcome to have fun. The end of the world was coming; people deserved to enjoy life.

"I get it, Jor. Have all the stallions you want. I assume you're on birth control. So how goes your quest to get all the stallions eager to roll in the grass with you?"

"Eh, not so hot, " Jordan lamented. "I feel isolated out here. It isn't like Skytree; there aren't a lot of ponies at this school. It isn't just the lack of stallions that dampens my mood. It is the lack of ponies in general."

"Humans aren't so bad. You're friends with me," Jessica reminded her.

"I know, but I look around and don't see many people like me. I think I have seen like five stallions, and none of them are my type!"

She went over to her bed and laid down. "You just started college! Give it time."

"Jackie had a stallionfriend within her first week of college. Rebecca had a boyfriend within her first week, and she wasn't even trying. Arachne is already married, and Moon already has foals," Jordan listed off.

"That's them; you don't need to compare yourself to them," Jessica said, trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice. "I've never been on a date. I don't think Charlotte has either."

"I don't think Charlotte is interested in anybody," Jordan replied. "Yeah, she took the blessing, but I think it was just for show. I think she is one of those people like her mom who don't have a drive. And you… I'm sorry. I shouldn't be talking about it like this to you. I'm being insensitive."

"Don't worry. I just spent a few minutes a while ago dealing with my mom trying to pressure me into letting her play matchmaker," Jessica said, this time letting the annoyance slip into her voice at the memory of it.

"She didn't!" Jordan said in shock. "I would be so embarrassed if my mom did that. What did you say?"

"Told her I don't have time for it and to leave it alone," Jessica muttered.

"Speaking of you not having time, what did you reply to that letter?" Jordan asked, deftly changing subjects.

Jessica blinked. "What letter?"

"That company that made In the Shadow of Demeter movie wanted to get us all together with the cast for some big fan thing in Skytree. They were offering a lot of money to come. I figured you would turn them down, but I wanted to ask."

"I didn't get a letter."

"But they said they sent you one, and I know you have to be the main person they want to get since you're the star and all."

"Filly Stardust was the star. She just happened to play me in the movie."

Jordan sighed. "I know, but she might have asked you personally to come. Maxine Mind included a letter to me with the one from the company. I only met her that one time she came to meet me to help figure out my character, and she wasn't a big movie star then. I was her breakout role. Me! Can you believe it?! It would be neat to meet her again, now that she's an A-list actress. Did you see her when she played Radiance in the recent Power Ponies reboot? She is awesome!"

"You sound excited about this, so if you want to go, then go," Jessica replied.

"I don't want to go if you aren't going to be there. I don't care who else agrees; I'd just want to have a chance to spend time with you."

Jessica sighed. "Why would I go? I've never even seen the damned movie."

Jordan gasped. "You haven't? Why not?"

"I don't have any desire to relive those days, even if they embellished things to the extreme. Have you watched it?"

Jordan was quiet for a second before replying. "I watch it every few weeks or so."

Her eyebrows went up. "Why? That's re-exposing yourself to that trauma over and over again."

"Because I'm not a super genius who remembers everything like you do, and I don't want to forget!" Jordan exclaimed.

Jessica was taken aback and at a loss for words. "I don't understand."

Jordan sighed. "Look. I was five when it happened, and I don't have a memory like yours. I remember bits and pieces. I remember being scared. I remember lots of running. I remember you telling us what to do but not what exactly. I remember being on that tree branch and that crystal pony creeping towards me, and I remember being scared shitless about you after you fell, but it's all like a dream. Watching that movie, even if some things are wrong in it, helps me remember things. It was one of the most important things that ever happened to me, and I don't want to forget anything."

Jessica stared at her ceiling, for some reason remembering the ceiling she had as a filly that was covered in glow-in-the-dark stickers of stars and paper mache planets.

She took a deep breath. "If this is important to you, I'll see if I can find that letter."

"You don't need to do that."

"Yes, yes, I do. This thing is a big deal to you, and I never realized that. You're my best friend, and it is important to you, so I can stand to put up with this just this once. It won't kill me. I might as well see how badly they embellished what happened. I already know they tried depicting me as some preteen action hero, and you and I know how much of a joke that is."

"Are you sure you'll be okay seeing it? I don't want you to be miserable just for my sake. I know you're always busy, too," Jordan said, sounding half-hopeful and half-worried.

"Jor, if you're there, it won't be the worst thing ever, and you said some of the others might come too. I know I'm busy, but I can take my work with me and record some lessons for the classes. I'll find a way of clearing time for my friends. You know I made time for everyone's eighteenth birthdays when they came up. I can make time for this. I'll make it work."

"Thanks, Jessie!" Jordan exclaimed happily. "If you were here, I would hug you."

"You can hug me when I get there. When is this thing?"

"Um, I forgot. In a few weeks, I think. They said they'd cover travel expenses. I need to find that letter again."

Jessica smirked; good old Jordan. Reasonably bright but a bit of a scatterbrain about essential details. "I'll find the letter. My mom probably intercepted it out of the mail and didn't tell me because she knows how I feel about that movie."

"I'll sit next to you when they do the screening so you can squeeze me if you need to— just not too hard; you're really strong, and I like breathing," Jordan replied.

Jessica frowned. "You know, you're wrong about one thing. I have forgotten some things. Mainly, I've forgotten anything that reminds me I was a pony. I can barely remember that anymore. I can remember events, but not that I had four legs and hooves. I'll sit remembering things and think it weird that I wasn't using my hands until I remind myself that I was a filly."

"That's the rehumanization spell's doing, right?" Jordan asked.

"Supposedly," Jessica replied. "I feel like my memory should be good enough to override that. I remember everything else. I remember things from as far back as when I was three with high clarity and bits of things from before then. Things from when I was six should be easy, but that one part is like a huge hole that has been cut out. It bothers me sometimes. It's like something important is missing."

"You could ask Phobia, Rebecca, or your aunt to help you access those memories," Jordan suggested.

"No, I don't want them messing with my head," Jessica said firmly.

"Why not? It's not like they don't see it anyway," Jordan countered.

Jessica sighed. "Call me crazy, but I like having the illusion I can limit access to what the Dreamwardens can get out of my head. I know it isn't true, but even the illusion of control is something."

"Oh…" Jordan replied, seeming unsure what to say. "So, uh, how did your first day of teaching go?"

"I got in trouble with the dean for using my magic on students to mute them."

Jordan gasped. "You can't do that! They go over that a dozen times in my Philosophies of Education textbook. No using magic on students! They'll sue you!"

"I know that now, and it won't happen again. I got off with a warning," Jessica said with a grumble. "But before you dig too deep into it, I will tell you what I told my mom. Teaching is your thing, not mine. I think I was insensitive to her, so let me stress that I appreciate that it is your thing, and I think it is great that it is, but for me, this is just a means to an end."

"I don't think you look down on me for wanting to be a teacher, and I don't think your mom does either. We want to have something else to connect with you about," Jordan said placatingly. "I mean, we listen to your math and physics stuff even though we don't understand a lick of it. It's important to you, so, of course, we will, but we aren't connecting as much with that. You just listened to me talk about how I want all the stallions hungry for me, and I know that you would have no interest in that subject normally, but you listen with interest because it's important to me. That's what friends do, but your teaching is something that me or your mom can go; hey, that's something I can relate to."

She rubbed her head and considered. "I'm sure something will come up where I want to talk about teaching. Maybe someone is struggling with the material, and I need advice on how to better get through to them or whatever. I have a freshman class starting tomorrow, and I imagine I might be talking over their heads. I can try sitting down with my mom and seeing if she'll help me go over the lesson plans."

"I can help too! I did student teaching last year," Jordan said excitedly. "It would give me bragging rights, too, if I could tell my class I was helping the famous Doctor Middleton with her college lesson plans."

Jessica rolled her eyes. "Whatever makes you happy, Jor."

Jordan muffled her phone momentarily and was talking to someone in the background. Jessica could hear it fine since electronic devices seemed to help carry her powers, but she did her best to tune it out.

"Hey, Jessie, I've got to get going. My roommates want to all go out and do a pledge thing. I'll text you tomorrow," Jordan said in a hurry.

"Sure thing, you have fun. Don't do anything that you'll regret. I hear some of those pledge things get pretty wild," Jessica said with a smile.

"My mom already gave me the lecture, don't worry. Talk to you later!" Jordan hung up the phone.

Jessica sat her phone down. She didn't doubt for a second that Jordan's mom gave her a lecture. Jordan's mom had a policy of not telling her foals not to do things but spending a lot of time educating them about how to do things responsibly. Jessica's mom tended to have whiplash going back and forth between saying don't do X because it is bad and then wondering why she never did X and leaving out the whole responsible middle-ground part. Jessica assumed it was because her mom took it for granted; she knew what that middle ground was already. It irked her that her mom didn't think her being responsible as she could be was normal. She hated that word, normal. So many connotations involved with it, connotations that said she was anything but normal.

That brought her back to thinking about Mark. Would meeting another partial help him open up? She didn't have the time to be trying to help her dad with his social work, and she wasn't exactly sure how to interact with a small child. Why had she agreed to it? Maybe it was for selfish reasons. Perhaps she was like Jordan, and she just wanted to meet someone else who was a partial in a world filled with humans and ponies.

She looked at her phone again. That text message was still there, awaiting a reply about her progress. The world's end was coming, but not tomorrow; she had years yet. She'd rather spend a few days taking care of herself. Spending time with her family and friends let her loosen up and gave her a sense of freedom. She might get better results from students if she was a little less tense as well. Then there was Mark, who didn't need someone to save the world.

She typed out a message.

BigMath<Tell your bosses to get off my back that I need a few days to rest and relax for the sake of my sanity productivity. I'll contact them through direct channels when I've resumed my work.>

The sounds of her parents, brother, and Nightscape, all laughing at the antics of her niece, filled her ears. It was time to go back downstairs and be a part of the family. Smiling, she got up and exited the room, leaving the simulations to run without observation

Author's Note

It will be a little while before the next chapter is out. The first two chapters were completed in full months ago, so I decided to release both in short order. I expect about a week to two weeks between chapters.

Chapter 3: First Contact

After spending some good quality time with her hubby, Rebecca went to sleep. It was time to work.

It seemed the meeting area for their avatars had not been set to anything. That was a little surprising. It meant she must have been the first to fall asleep, and the three dead-ums were waiting on her to set something. She would not let this opportunity go to waste; she quickly set the stage.

Arbiter appeared in her typical angel-partial form and looked around at Rebecca's setting.

"Is this the Mushroom Kingdom from Super Mario Brothers? That you chose a silly setting isn't surprising, but I expected you to do something food-related," Arbiter said dryly.

"Who says it isn't?" Rebecca replied as she picked up a mushroom and ate it.

Ghadab appeared in his pony form and scowled at their surroundings. "Yet another place the tub of lard can eat, and she has the nerve to call herself the Warden of Creativity. She should be called the Warden of Gluttony. Though I suppose it is better than whatever our other sister and brother might have come up with."

Yinyu appeared next, in her standard seapony-dragon form, rainbow scales glistening. "Do you remember the last one Phobia set? A table and room for a formal business meeting has to be the most boring thing I've encountered. We can create any setting we wish, and she goes with that. Give me bright and colorful mushrooms any day."

The Warden of Order appeared in his typical plague doctor outfit. He looked around.

"It seems that The Marshmallow has beaten me here. Do you think you can give me the privilege of letting me set the setting since I'm preparing for my retirement?" the newcomer asked.

"You know the rules, Avy. You don't snooze; you lose," Rebecca chirped gleefully.

"But this place is covered in mushrooms. Mushrooms are fungus, which indicates something dirty and disease filled– and please stop calling me Avy," The Warden of Order protested.

"Don't let him change the setting. He'll change it to something sterile looking," Ghadab warned.

Phobia appeared then, looking as she did in the waking world. She, too, looked around, examining what she had slept into.

"Rebecca made it here first; I'm guessing," Phobia said as she sat down on a particularly large toadstool.

"I was trying to convince her to change it," the Warden of Order explained.

Phobia shook her head. "We agreed that whoever among us that still lived that arrived first for a meeting gets to pick the setting. If this is what makes her happy, this is what we're going with. We've saddled her with many more duties as of late, partly because of your impending retirement. We can endure her flights of fancy."

"Yeah, I had to sit in on a meeting with those Pentagon jerks. They were rude and didn't even accept cookies from me!" Rebecca said with a huff.

The Warden of Order tilted his head. "How did you manage to get them to let you bring cookies through security there?"

"I snuck them in," she replied with a grin.

"How did you sneak anything through that much-" he began, then shook his head. "Forget it; I don't want to know."

"There are some secrets it is best that Dreamwardens don't know," Arbiter said.

"Agreed," Phobia chimed in.

"Agreed," Ghadab said with a look of disgust.

"Let's count this as a vote for Rebecca not telling us," Yinyu said. Everyone but Rebecca nodded in agreement.

Arbiter looked up at a red Koopa flying overhead, raised her staff, and fired a perfect replica of a Super Mario fireball at the thing. The flying turtle vanished in a pop when the pixelated fireball connected.

Ghadab raised an eyebrow at her. "Really?"

Arbiter shrugged as she lowered her staff. "I was a bit of a gamer when I was a teen. Why waste the setting?"

"If there aren't many new developments, I request we keep this meeting brief. My newest grandfoal is due anytime now. I don't want to miss his birth," Phobia said as she examined her toadstool. "I also expect my daughter to announce her pregnancy soon, and I don't want to miss that either."

Rebecca blinked. "Arachne is pregnant already? I didn't realize that. She's been married, what, two months?"

Phobia nodded. "A little filly, although she doesn't want any of us to tell her the sex. I'm soon to be awash in grandfoals."

"Still holding with just the one here. I hope I get to see more," Yinyu said, a tinge of sadness in her voice. They all looked down in shared worry. Thinking about the coming Devourers killed the mood.

"On to business so we can accommodate our sister's family obligations," Arbiter announced. "Rebecca, I'm assuming the meeting with the generals went without a hiccup? I've detected a few dreams of others who have seen the plans."

"Yeah, other than them being rude. They planted a listening device on me, but I caught it before they could hear anything," Rebecca answered.

"That was bold of them," Ghadab said with a whistle. "Surely there is some retribution we can take."

Phobia shook her head. "No, let the lawyers sort it out. There is already a court case pending. They are beneath our concern."

"I don't think it is appropriate for them to disrespect us so," Ghadab continued to protest. "Back in Sha'am's day-"

"Everyone was afraid of us and wouldn't dare, I know," Phobia nodded. "And we have worked hard to dispel that fear, nineteen years of trying to undo the damage she did. We need the people to trust us. They won't trust us if they fear us. Don't forget how you ended up dead, brother. The nations were ready to let you die to eliminate her and the terror she represented."

Ghadab turned away. "Believe me; I have not forgotten the injustice."

"No retribution other than the courts it is," Arbiter agreed. "I think Yinyu and Rebecca will agree, so we have a soft vote saying as much."

Rebecca and Yinyu nodded in agreement.

Ghadab muttered incoherently before responding. "I still don't like it. I will consider retributions and present them for consideration when I'm ready. I'm sure I can devise something to satisfy your need to keep the public from being afraid of us."

"You are welcome to do so, brother, and we shall give you the time to present your ideas when you are ready so we can formally vote on the matter," Arbiter replied. She then looked at the Warden of Order. "Moving on, do we have any developments with your potential replacements? I know they all just settled into the university in Berlin, but we all recall how our last such selection went."

The human Dreamwarden shook his head. "Nothing of note so far. It is, as you say, they just moved in. I have taken precautions so they don't all find out about each other before their trip to Equestria. I will not allow a repeat of the fiasco that happened with Rebecca and her fellow candidates when Psychic Calm was retiring."

"I'm still bummed that my candidate for the job isn't one of the five in the running," Rebecca said as she took a bite from another mushroom.

"Your candidate was in no way in the spirit of what role I play," the Warden of Order replied. "And you picked a pony when we need to maintain at least one human in our ranks."

"Well, you also wanted them from Asia, Europe, or Africa, and I don't know much about the humans over there," Rebecca protested. "I went with what I know."

"Understandable, but not what we were looking for," the Warden of Order replied.

Yinyu giggled. "Ghadab and I have already placed our bets. I'm looking forward to another song from him."

Arbiter grinned. "As am I."

Ghadab spread his wings and hissed. "None of you will be laughing when you lose this one and are forced to sing Ya Lili. I'm going to enjoy it."

Rebecca was a little unhappy she wasn't in that betting pool, but she honestly had no idea what candidate might win, and she was scared of what she might be forced to sing if she placed her bets incorrectly. Some of her fellow Dreamwardens had unique tastes.

"Oh, I do have something else to report. Jessica Middleton told Jonathan to tell us that she needs to take a break and she'd resume her work when she was ready," Rebecca announced.

Arbiter crossed her arms. "it's about time. My niece works herself much too hard. I'd have hoped she would have done this years ago or, better yet, set clear boundaries. Yet she still allows us to push her around."

"If she's not willing to stand up for herself, I'm more than willing to exploit her. We must take advantage of every tool we have," Ghadab said.

"Not if we end up breaking that tool in the process," Arbiter hissed.

Rebecca grinned sheepishly. "I may have kept badgering her for updates lately to push her into taking a break. I did drop her a hint about what she was looking for too."

Phobia glared at her. "We don't want that getting out until we're ready for it to get out. Too many would try to exploit it, and we cannot afford such a crisis. I'm unhappy that my mother is even involved in designing a spell to try to move it. Hopefully, Triss can keep her ambitions in check."

"Triss keeping ambitions in check? Good luck with that. The dragon stokes them in her quest to see the first Earthling alicorn," Yinyu scoffed. "It falls to us to watch your mother. Luckily your mother's self-loathing should keep Triss from making any headway in getting an alicorn, at least, not your mother, but your mother isn't the only pony Triss has access to. We've already had one close call."

Phobia frowned. "That close call was more our fault than Triss's. We should admit our mistakes and learn from them."

"I still hate associating with the junk peddler," Ghadab muttered.

Arbiter nodded. "As do we all, but Triss's aid is too invaluable. No mage can compare to that dragon. We need her to help mages craft the spells we need for the undertaking ahead. The risk she presents pales in comparison to the Devourers. We have a mutual enemy. You know what they say, the enemy of my enemy is my friend."

"For now," Ghadab muttered.

"Discussing our alliance with Triss and our misgivings about her is unproductive to our time unless anyone has something new to add to the conversation that hasn't been said a thousand times. Does anyone have anything new?" Arbiter asked as she looked at each of them.

Rebecca shook her head. All the others did as well, though some were visibly reluctant.

"We move on then," Arbiter said firmly, banging her staff on the ground.

"How long will Doctor Middleton be on sabbatical?" the Warden of Order asked. "I agree she needs rest, but this job is important, and I know no one more capable than her to do it. Otherwise, I would be enlisting them."

Rebecca shrugged. "Don't know. I know some buttons of hers to push if she takes too long. If that doesn't work, there's always bribery. Let the girl have a break. We can worry about it if this extends for months."

"Bribery?!" Ghadab laughed. "What are you going to bribe the girl with, cookies? She has shown little interest in material wealth."

Rebecca smiled back at him sweetly. "I can get creative."

Jessica rubbed her arms as she followed her dad through the hospital corridors. She'd managed to avoid hospitals in favor of some smaller clinics for the past thirteen years. The last time she had been in a hospital, she had hooves, and she had been on life support. The time before that, she had been a premature human baby and had been on life support. Actually, no, there had been the time between when her mother was giving birth to her little brother, but hospitals still triggered uncomfortable memories. People came to hospitals to get well, but being in one made her feel sick.

What she heard didn't make things any easier. As they walked through the halls, she was bombarded by labored breathing, heartbeats that didn't beat correctly, stomachs that made far too much noise, whimpers of pain, crying, retch-

"Are you okay? You seem a bit on edge."

"Yeah, I don't think anyone enjoys being in a hospital. I'll be alright," she replied to her dad, forcing her hands down to her sides so she wasn't rubbing her arms anymore. "Let's meet this kid. I'm sure he doesn't enjoy hospitals any more than I do."

He nodded and fell into a walk beside her, absently rubbing at his beard. "I have to come by the hospitals now and again for cases, but this is the first time we've gone into a hospital just the two of us. Your mother and I never discuss it, but the last time I was hurt and had to go to a hospital was because of you."

She jerked her head to look at him. "That can't be true. I would remember it."

He chuckled. "You've got a remarkable memory, but even you can't remember being less than a month old."

A nurse walked by, and Jessica heard the nurse's heart quicken as they looked at her. She resisted the urge to go back to rubbing her arms.

"What happened?" she asked. "I'm guessing I was surging if I was that young."

"Yeah, you surged and kicked me in the ribs, cracking them," he answered, rubbing his chest. "I'm ashamed to admit; I got scared. Your mother and I separated briefly, and she took you and your brother and left for Riverview, planning to start a new life there without me."

"I never knew," she whispered, unsure how to feel about this revelation. They'd obviously gotten back together, and the separation probably wasn't entirely her fault– though she may have been the final straw. Her image of her dad was someone who had always been there supporting her, and this didn't fit well with that image at all.

"I'm not telling you this to open up old wounds," her dad continued. "I want you to understand that parents sometimes get scared and don't know what to do. Sometimes they get scared enough to run. It doesn't mean they don't love their kids. I want you to remember that when you meet Mark and think of how he got into the situation he is in now, even if it excuses nothing. We want a reunion where they form a happy family like we did, but we must find out what we can about his parents and their condition to determine if that is possible."

"So, you want me to get him to talk about his parents?" she asked.

"Let's start with getting him to talk at all. We do want to find out about any other family. Even if his grandmother wakes up, we don't know if she can care for him," her dad answered. "And even though I'm confident she had good intentions, she might lose custody even if she wakes. It's a complicated case, and you don't need to worry about the details. We need him talking."

They walked by the nurses' desk, and one of the nurses, a unicorn mare, looked up and shouted at them.

"Mister Middleton, I have to unlock the door to let you in the room."

They stopped, and her dad walked over to the desk.

"Why is the door locked? He isn't dangerous. He's a small child. He's too young to be using magic," her dad asked as he reached the desk.

The nurse gave Jessica a wary look before turning back towards her dad. "Mark made four escape attempts from the hospital last night. We tried strapping him to the bed, but he managed to get out of the straps– injuring himself in the process. We don't have the staff to guard him. Locking the door was the only humane option to keep him in his room and safe."

Her dad frowned. "I didn't get any notification about escape attempts. I'm shocked; with his gait, I would assume that it would be difficult."

"We knew someone would be coming by this morning and managed to contain him, so we didn't feel it was necessary to call your office," the nurse explained. "He can move surprisingly fast, but it seems painful for him to do it. He has some deep abrasions on his arms after squeezing through the straps, and he dislocated his shoulder. Despite these injuries, he still made it to the end of the hall before we caught him. The dislocation we were able to fix, and we bandaged his arms."

"A four-year-old did that?" Jessica asked in shock.

The nurse looked at her again and flicked her ears. "Are you one of Mark's relatives? His mother, perhaps?"

"No, this is my daughter, Jessica. She's here to act as a consultant," her dad said before she could answer. Her ears laid back as he did. She was capable of speaking for herself.

The nurse gestured to a clipboard with a pen. "You'll need to sign in as a guest."

Jessica picked up the clipboard and pen and signed her name before setting it back down. The nurse glanced at the clipboard, then did a double take, looked at her, looked at the clipboard, and then grinned back at her.

"Jessica Middleton? I know who you are!" the nurse said excitedly.

Jessica smiled, and her ears picked back up.

"You're the person from that movie!"

Her ears instantly flattened again.

The nurse picked up on her mood and shrank back. "Did I say something wrong? Are you not that person? I'm sorry. It's just a weird coincidence you're a partial, and your name is Jessica Middleton."

She rubbed her forehead, taking a moment to relax, then smiled and lowered her hand.

"I am the person that character is based on. I haven't seen the movie, but I assume they took some liberties. I prefer to be remembered for Middleton's Law."

"What's that? Is it like Murphy's Law?" the nurse asked.

Why do I bother? I'm going to be remembered for that movie till the day I die. She lamented in her head.

"It's a law of physics," she answered, trying to keep smiling and keeping her tail and ears under control hurt.

The nurse's mood brightened up. "Oh, that's cool. You should really see the movie; it's really good. It won like four Oscars."

"Five," her dad corrected. "Best Picture, Best Special Effects, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Score, and Best Makeup."

She frowned at her father. "You've seen it?"

He looked away and scratched at his beard. "Well, Daniel Radcliffe played me, and I was a huge Harry Potter fan back in the day. How could I turn up seeing myself portrayed by him? The scene where my character decked Sunset Blessing in the face was great."

"Did you ever punch Auntie in the face?" she asked. She was sure she would have heard about that.

He shook his head. "No…they took some creative license. It was still great to watch. Anyway, we're off track. Let's focus on Mark."

The nurse levitated the keys and looked at some camera feeds. "He's awake and looking out the window." She hopped down from her stool. "Let me go get the door for you. Just help block it when it opens. He might try to make a break for it. Please don't underestimate how fast he can move when he wants to. He gallops."

That made sense. He might not be able to move around like a proper human or pony, but if he was hunched over, he might move more like a monkey, and monkeys could gallop. This wasn't someone trapped in an unfamiliar body. This was all he had ever known, and he was adapted to it.

They followed her two more doors down the hallway and stood close behind her to make a wall as she opened the door. The unicorn braced herself as she cracked the door. Jessica heard whoever was within move. Mark was fast, based on where she heard the sounds. He had been on the far side of the room and was now somewhere near the center of the room, and it had only taken him a little over a second to move from one to the other. He must be hiding behind or under the bed.

"Mark? You've got guests. It's nice Mister Middleton, and he brought a visitor you might like," the nurse called out as she cracked the door open. Mark's heart was beating fast, and he was holding his breath.

"I hear him. He's hiding behind the bed. We can get this from here," Jessica informed the nurse.

The nurse looked up at her in surprise. "Wow, you have excellent hearing, not like a human. These rooms are sound-insulated. I just barely heard him moving around."

Calm down. She doesn't know she's saying all the wrong things to you. Don't get mad at the friendly nurse. Jessica scolded herself. Still, she had had enough of this nurse. She focused her magic.

AAAAAAAARRRRRROOOOOOOO

Her dad and the nurse both jumped at the sound.

"What?! What is that?!" the nurse shouted.

Jessica smiled. "Sounds like some sort of alarm back at your desk. You better go check it out."

"I don't have any alarm that sounds like that!" the nurse yelled as she hurried back to her desk.

Her dad gave her a dirty look. "Jessie…"

She spread her hands. "What? She's a nice pony, but she was driving me nuts. I was worried that I was going to end up telling her off. This was easier. Don't worry; I ensured that only the three of us heard that, so I didn't disturb any patients."

"It was still an immature thing to do. We'll discuss it later," her dad said as he walked by her and entered the room. She had no choice but to follow, shutting the door firmly behind her once she was through.

The room was a reasonably standard hospital room. There were two beds, neither of which was occupied at the moment. Some medical equipment that she wasn't sure of the use. A small table with a trio of stools was placed near the window, and another small table with a trio of Ottoman tools was set just to their right against the wall. There were two other doors which she assumed were a closet and a bathroom. Two televisions adorned the wall in front of each bed, with a drawn-back privacy curtain. Mark was nowhere to be seen, but she heard his heartbeat and knew he was hiding under the farther away bed, despite the fact it seemed very low to the floor. She and her dad wouldn't be able to squeeze under either bed. She doubted that either of her brothers could pull it off either. There was also a food tray, which was empty aside from a few crumbs.

"Mark, remember me?" her dad said as he walked to the middle of the room. "I'm Mister Middleton. You met me yesterday. I'm a friend."

He sat down on the floor, away from the beds, and folded his legs under himself. "I heard you tried to get out of the hospital. I understand. I don't like hospitals either. You can stay under the bed if you want. I'm just going to sit here. Is that okay?"

There was no response. His heart was still beating fast, but at least he seemed to have given up on holding his breath. She was unsure if that was because he knew that they knew where he was or because he couldn't manage it anymore after holding his breath earlier. She stayed by the door, unsure what to do. Her dad hadn't given her any instructions, and he seemed to be trying to get Mark to feel safe. Mark probably knew she was there. He no doubt could see her feet and the end of her tail. He might hear or smell her, too, since he did have pony ears, and who knew how pony-like his other senses were.

"Do you like cartoons?" her dad asked. "You must be bored. Let's watch cartoons. Jessie, put on some cartoons."

She looked around. "I don't see a remote. Is the television voice activated?"

He shook his head and pointed at the bed closest to her. "There's a remote attached to the bed. I'd climb on the bed so he can see you if he peeks out. Right now, he can't get a good look at you."

It was direction on what to do, so she wasn't going to object, although she was unsure if she should be getting on the bed. Then again, she had an extremely poor grasp of what constituted proper hospital etiquette, so maybe it wasn't breaking any rules. She climbed onto the hospital bed, trying to avoid disturbing the covers. Now that she was here, she quickly found the control for the television on the side. It was odd because it had no button to access web browsing, which had become standard on televisions in the past few years. Then again, there was no keyboard, so typing anything out had to be done by selecting letter by letter with the controller, which was time-consuming. She turned on the television, quickly found the animation section, and randomly picked something.

"No, Jessie! Pick something age-appropriate, not anime!"

She glared at her dad. "It's what you and Robby watch, and I know Robby started watching cartoons like this when I was a baby."

He shook his head. "That was a parenting mistake. Pick something for a younger audience."

She pointed at herself. "Look at who you're talking to. I'm among the least adept at knowing what's age appropriate. Growing up, I never did anything meant for my age."

Her dad rubbed his head. "Sesame Street, put on Sesame Street."

After searching around for a few seconds, she instead found the search option and slowly entered the show's name. When she saw it, she rolled her eyes. She couldn't find it because it wasn't animated. It looked like some sort of puppet show. It would be interesting to see what was age-appropriate for a four-year-old. The earliest cartoons she had watched had been meant for kids eight and up. There may have been some earlier ones, but she'd watched those at a much younger age than Mark.

The show started playing.

"Today's episode is brought to you by the letter H!"

They'd watched silently for about eight minutes, and she was beginning to believe her dad had to be mistaken. This couldn't be meant for kids his age. She knew she had been a little advanced, but this would have bored her at three. Maybe this version was meant for kids around one or two, and another version was meant for kids around four. She'd have changed it, but her dad hadn't told her to, and Mark's heartbeat slowed to a more normal rate. Perhaps the show was boring him to sleep.

Her dad stood up, taking his time doing so. She heard Mark's heartbeat and breathing quicken. "I'm going to go make some calls. Will you sit here with Mark? He seems relaxed."

You're leaving him alone with me to see if he'll respond to me without you here. she said in her head. That was why she'd come along, so she silently nodded, afraid that making any noise might spook the kid further. Maybe if she was quiet enough, he would forget she was there. Thinking of that, she decided to mute the sound of her breathing and heartbeat. It was unlikely he could hear those things as well as she could, but it wasn't impossible.

Her dad left the room, shutting the door behind him. She caught a brief glimpse of color from the corner of her eye, but it quickly pulled back under the bed, and his heartbeat and breathing elevated further. He had forgotten she was there but must have caught sight of her in that moment. She didn't turn to look and tried to keep watching the infantile show currently playing.

Minutes passed, and his heartbeat and breathing settled down, but he made no further attempts to come out from under the bed. She still wished she was watching almost anything else. It seemed like it was teaching kids how to read and recognize letters, but this wasn't how she had learned to read. She had learned to read by recognizing full words, then discovering parts of words that were similar between similar sounding words. Individual letter sounds came last. Was this one-letter approach really how children learned to read? It seemed so inefficient. Individual letters, vowels, in particular, could produce many different sounds, and you needed the context to know what sound they made.

She had had enough of this inane program and turned it off. Mark's breathing and heartbeat immediately picked up as the television turned off. He hadn't fallen asleep. She needed to do something to interact with him; otherwise, why was she even present? What to do?

"Do you like stories? I can tell you a story," she said. She did turn and look where he was hiding. He was out of sight, but she lived in a world of sound.

He didn't respond, and his heartbeat and breathing were still elevated. She didn't know many fairy tales and was pretty confident that the majority of the books she had ever read were not age-appropriate for him. The best option was to use a story with only children. She wasn't going to give him a summary of Lord of the Flies so that limited her options. That left only things she had experienced herself. She would not tell him about the events that ended with her impaled on a large piece of wood.

She made a decision. "Once, six people raced. There was a smart kid, an athletic kid, a shy kid, and three demons."

His heartbeat and breathing slowed a little, doing a small jump at the term demons. He could understand what she was saying then. She smiled and began.

"When the race started, the smart kid took an early lead. The smart kid was the fastest when running in a straight line, but the smart kid was only a little bit faster than the athlete, and the athlete ended up taking the lead every time they had to turn a corner or run around anything. So in the early race, the smart kid and the athlete were going back and forth between who was in the lead, followed by the three demons, and the sy kid was behind everyone.

"There were lots of obstacles and turns to make along the race. There were three laps, and anyone who cried or got hurt was disqualified. There was uneven ground, fences and walls, and a bunch of bushes you had to weave through. Each of the kids had adults who cheered them on. The smart kid's parents cheered her on. The athlete's parents cheered her on. The demons had different adults who cheered different demons on, but one of the demons' mothers– they had two– decided to cheer on the shy kid. The other adults laughed at her because the shy kid was not as smart as the smart kid, not as athletic as the athlete, and not as tricky as the demons. Still, the demons' mother, the Queen of Nightmares, said it would be the shy kid who won."

His heartbeat slowed more, and his breathing was regular. She took that as he was listening, and continued.

"The runners had to weave around a bunch of walls. The smart kid had been in the lead coming up to the walls, but the athlete got past her with all the turns they had to make, but when they got through the walls, they found out that the three tricky demons had somehow gotten ahead of them even though they never saw them pass!"

His heartbeat quickened. Was she too loud?

"The next part of the race had a big hill. It was a straight run, so the smart kid used this to run past the athlete, but the demons were so far ahead that they couldn't even be seen. The shy kid kept on running behind everyone. That kid had been in last place the entire time, but they kept running their heart out. The next part of the race had the bushes, and the three demons crashed into the bushes. They sat and wiggled to get free from the bushes, arguing and yelling at each other the entire time, as the smart kid and the athlete came running to catch up. The mother of demons got angry and yelled at them in their demonic language, and the demons got free, but they weren't so far in the lead now."

A hand became visible under the bed. It was tiny, too tiny for a child his age, not much larger than an infant's. The hand was fur-free with tan skin like someone of Latin American descent, but orange fur was visible on the wrist that might have stretched down the arm. She made sure not to react to seeing this little bit of him and continued her story.

"They began the second lap, and when they got to the section with the walls again, they saw how the demons tricked them. The demons could climb the walls and go across their tops instead of going around, which made them gain a big lead. One of the demons turned to make fun of the smart kid, the athlete, and the shy kid, but when they did, they lost their balance and fell off the wall. They got hurt and were removed from the race. One demon down."

Mark pulled himself a little closer. She still couldn't see his face but saw that his arms were indeed covered in orange fur. His hair…mane…was the same shade of blue as hers, but it was a shaggy mess that both stuck up and hung everywhere, making him look like a treasure troll having a bad hair day. The blue hair obscured his face, but she could see an orange horn poking through the bush of hair. There was also white gauze wrapped around parts of each arm.

"The second lap continued. The two remaining demons did not fight with each other and get caught in the bushes this time around, and the other three kids followed, with the smart kid and the athlete trading places back and forth, and the shy kid still in last place, slowly gaining on the other four," she continued.

Mark got no closer. His heartbeat was still slightly elevated, but he wasn't making as much effort to stay hidden anymore. That could change in an instant. If she made any sudden moves, he might retreat out of sight again.

"Then began the third and final lap. The two demons remained in the lead, but they'd been slowing down. Their tricks kept them ahead, but they were not as fast as the others, and they could not run as long as the others without getting tired. When they reached the walls and started trying to climb, the athlete jumped forward and knocked them down! One came crashing down on the other, and they cried. Because they cried, they were removed from the race. All the demons were down. It was now down to the smart kid, the athlete, and the shy kid. Who do you think will win?"

He skittered back out of sight, heartbeat racing. So much for getting him to talk. That might have undone all the progress. She felt like kicking herself in the tail.

Still, she was going to give it one more shot. "I know you're there, and if you're afraid of talking to a stranger, I'm like you. I have two legs, a tail, fur, big ears, and our hair on our heads is even the same color. That's not strange at all when we're both that way. You can stay under there if it makes you feel better, but you can still tell me who will win. That's safe, right?"

She listened. His breathing slowed slightly, as did his heartrate. What she said must have made some impact. He was considering answering her. She continued to wait. She wasn't going to prompt him anymore. He either was going to respond or he wasn't.

When he didn't respond after thirty seconds, she decided to continue the story.

"It's okay, we're coming to the end of the story, and we can find out together." That was a nonsensical statement, considering she was telling a story from her head instead of reading a book, but it felt like the right thing to say.

"The final lap was in progress. The smart kid and the athlete were neck and neck in the lead– that means they were right next to each other. The shy kid was far behind them and didn't seem to have a chance to catch up, but the shy kid still kept running because the Queen of Nightmares had kept shouting, asking how the shy kid was doing, and the shy kid didn't want to disappoint the Queen of Nightmares. The smart kid got to the top of the hill and realized that she would not be able to stay in the lead running around the bushes. So the smart kid decided to do something not very smart; she would do a trick and run straight into the bushes. If running around them was too slow, she wouldn't run around them.

"The athlete watched this, and the athlete was afraid because the smart kid's trick could win the race. So the athlete decided that if the smart kid was going to do a trick and run through the bushes, she would do her own trick and fly over the bushes. With a mighty jump, she jumped in the air…."

She decided to be quiet for a few seconds to build up tension. This story might not exactly be tense. It barely qualified as a story, but Mark was into it, so she needed to perform for him.

"...and the athlete fell instead of flew and landed on the smart kid. Both of them tumbled into the branches of the bushes, and they got stuck. The two of them struggled against each other, but they only got themselves more caught in the branches. The shy kid passed them, taking the lead, and by the time they got free, the shy kid had crossed the finish line and won. After that, the other kids cheered for the shy kid. All the other racers had tried to use fancy tricks to win, but the shy kid ran as hard as they could, never trying any tricks. The other kids saw this and decided to be friends with the shy kid. The end."

The moral was a little weak and tacked on at the end, but stories for young kids were supposed to have a moral. Jordan would probably give her story a scathing critique, even if it was Jordan who was the 'hero' of the story. It was funny, thinking back to how shy Jordan used to be. She certainly wasn't shy now.

Mark didn't move, but what she heard told her that he was at least calm. She wouldn't ask him if he liked the story. That would be pressuring him to speak again.

"I'm going to leave now," she announced. "I hope you enjoyed the story. I wish you had talked to me or come out so I could see you, but I know you're scared. That's okay. Hospitals scare me too, and look how big I am."

She slowly turned herself around so she could get off the bed in the opposite direction as him, not wanting to scare him. His heartbeat picked up, and it picked up even more when her feet touched the floor.

"Have a good day, Mark. I hope things get better for you soon and your grandma wakes up soon to take care of you," she concluded as she walked to the door.

"Grandma?"

Her hand stopped on the door handle as he spoke the word. It had been said clearly, with no slurring or mumbling, and she heard the question. He spoke. That was what her dad wanted her to get him to do. So what was she supposed to do now? She wasn't even sure if he was allowed to know about his grandmother's condition yet. She might have broken some protocol.

Licking her lips, she turned back towards where he was still hiding. If protocol had been broken, there was no undoing it. "Your grandma is sick, and she's asleep. We've tried to wake her up, but she won't wake up. That's why she's been missing. The doctors are trying to help her get better. Do you miss and love your grandma?"

There were several seconds where all she heard from him was his heart beating hard against his chest, labored breathing, and…and he was crying.

"You don't have to answer," she gently said. "I can hear you, and I can tell without you saying words. I do hope she gets better. You shouldn't have to be alone. I do need to get going."

She turned to open the door.

"Story?" he asked in a hopeful tone.

She honestly didn't have time. She had already spent more time here than she had intended. Why had her dad not come back yet? She could hear him too, and he hadn't been on the phone for a while. He was out by the nurse's station. She recognized the sound of him as easily as she recognized his face.

"Tomorrow. I'll come tell you another story tomorrow," she answered.

"Promise?" Mark asked.

"I promise," she replied, then opened the door. It seemed like she was committed to a return visit.

Chapter 4: Auntie's Quest

Jessica sat listening to the printer, the hum of the electricity, the turning of gears to keep the paper moving. It was something to focus on. Her other option was to focus on the typing that was going on in the next office over. She'd been introduced to him but couldn't recall his name. He had no professional research pedigree. He possessed a doctorate, but whatever his thesis had been must not have amounted to much. He was a teacher, and that was alright. The world needed teachers. However, those with doctorates were supposed to advance their fields, even if they taught as well. If he only wanted to teach college, he could have stopped at the master's degree. Handing a doctorate to someone who didn't advance the field was an insult to the field.

Thinking like that isn't going to win you any friends. Stop trying to build yourself up as superior. She scolded herself.

Maybe it was just her annoyance about her upcoming class making her think negatively. It wasn't until just an hour ago that she'd looked at the roster. She had seventy-five students in the class, seventy-five– a packed class. They expected her to instruct that many students properly? How? This was a job for what's-his-name next door, the career educator, not her.

On top of that, the class lasted four hours, though it was thankfully just once a week. Who wanted to sit through a four-hour class? She knew she didn't, and she was the one teaching it. She'd have been banging her head on the desk when she was a student with a class that long. She'd figured that long class time would dissuade students from signing up for it, but she'd been wrong. This was Introduction to Physics; she had no legitimate expectation of finding the help she sought in this class. She wanted a small class that wouldn't add much to her workload. If she was going to make a legitimate attempt to give one-on-one instruction, it would have been much easier with a smaller class. She wouldn't even be able to learn all the students' names with this many in her class.

The printer stopped, not because it was done, but because it had run out of paper. She sighed and opened the paper tray, reloading it. She had planned to introduce herself to the class and then give them a test. The test was not meant to be part of their overall grade but something she could use to determine how much they knew about physics coming into the class. She knew she had a bad habit of talking over people's heads when it came to math and physics, so it was best to know what she was working with so the students could get what they were paying for instead of spending the course confused because she assumed they knew basic concepts. If she was actually going to grade these, she expected that none of the class would get over half the questions correct, and an alarming number might not get any questions right. They would complete the test, and she would dismiss the class early, giving her time to review the completed tests and get home early. Seventy-five tests to check certainly put a damper on those plans. It might end up curbing what kinds of tests and projects she could assign going forward.

This class was like a freshly planted garden. There were no blooms, but there could be in the future. Gardens needed tending. She was trying to grow the best physicists, astronomers, and engineers in the world, but there would be many present that had no hope of ever achieving greatness. Hopefully, a fair number of students would get scared away by the test and drop the class, reducing her workload and giving the remaining students hope of individual instruction. Her garden needed preening and weeding so the good shoots could grow.

Her ears flicked as she heard her coworker in the next office stop typing and shut his laptop. Maybe he was going home for the day. She listened to his chair scratch across the floor, then his footsteps. There was a slight rustling, perhaps him picking up and putting on his coat, then some more footsteps, the sound of his door opening, and the lights clicking off. Wait…his footsteps were coming toward her, not out the hall towards the exit.

*Knock *knock *knock

Fudge! What did he want?

"You may enter," she answered as she reloaded the printer yet again.

Her door opened, and her colleague stepped in. He was around her height, slightly pale, moderately built, neither skinny nor fat, and had glasses. Aside from her, he was probably the youngest member of the department faculty since he appeared to be in his mid to late twenties. He had short-cut hair that was a light purple. The hair color didn't indicate he was rehumanized or a partial since dying hair colors unnatural for humans was pretty common, especially in people under thirty, and had lost its stigma among professionals years ago. His heartbeat and breathing were regular, and she could hear his stomach working on breaking down some food, indicating he'd eaten something recently. Surprisingly, he had a wind-up watch, which would have been a rarity even for her grandparents' generation; she could hear all the gears ticking within.

"Hello, Doctor Middleton. I was coming by to see how you were settling in," her office neighbor said in a friendly manner. He looked around. "It still looks bare in here, just your desk, chair, printer, and computer. It doesn't have any personal touch."

She reloaded the printer yet again. "Dean Francis wants me to move my office off campus, so there isn't much point in making this room my own."

He blinked in shock. "Why would he want that? You being hired was a huge deal to the Board of Governors. They practically took a victory lap when you agreed to teach here. You bring star power to our faculty that increases the university's clout and desirability to prospective students and donors. They consider it like this is Oxford getting its Newton. I would be neither surprised nor insulted if you were the highest-paid faculty member in the entire university. The governors must be walking on eggshells to keep you happy. Dean Francis has to realize that."

She set the pile of papers aside that had already been printed. There were so many that it was starting to spill over in the tray. A ten-page test printed seventy-five times took up a lot of paper. Wild Growth would probably get mad at her for murdering trees if she knew.

"If you're trying to build up my ego, it isn't necessary. It is already rather massive. It doesn't need to get bigger," she replied. "Dean Francis has legitimate concerns about my hearing. You said I'm the Newton of this institution? Newton had accusations of intellectual theft during his tenure at Oxford. It's best not to be put in a position where I can be accused of the same."

He chuckled. "Fair enough, although you won't get much from me unless you can tell what keys I'm typing….You can't tell that with just sound, correct?"

She shook her head. "No, it's just a lot of clicking."

"Good," he said, sounding mildly relieved. "Anyway, I was also curious about why you chose to teach here. I'm sure M.I.T., Harvard, Brown, and Stanford would have happily extended you a contract. Our school is of high quality, but it doesn't normally attract the best of the best. They would look better on your professional resume and have access to funding you could only dream of here."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "I already had my interview, and this sounds like a repeat of that."

He spread his hands. "No offense intended. I'm just curious. If any of those places offered me a position, I'd jump on it in a heartbeat, no offense to our school."

"Well, this is my alma mater, and I'm familiar with the facilities here. They meet my needs. It is close to my family. It is also a short drive to the mountains where there is a minimum of light pollution; most of those other locations you named don't have that last advantage," she explained. "I'm not concerned about salary. I work part-time here and am paid a part-time wage; at least, I assume I am. This is my first salaried position, so I don't know what an appropriate full-time wage is. My work elsewhere is more on a job-by-job contractor basis, and some of those don't even pay."

"Call me jealous. I have yet to be asked to do any work for NASA or tech firms. I wouldn't even know what the Dreamwardens contract you to do," he said.

He's digging for information. She thought to herself.

"You aren't one of those people who put on spandex and try to fight crime, are you?" he asked.

She blinked. "What?! Why would I ever do something so insane? Who would?"

He shrugged. "There are many humans with weird magic that consider their magic their superpower and try to go out and be superheroes. Most of them end up causing more damage than they tried to prevent, but that's vigilantes for you. You've got unique magic, and smart as you are, I'm sure you can get creative about how you use it. Plus, it isn't like you haven't tried to be a hero before. More people know what you did during the Cataclysm of Riverview than know you defined a law of physics. You've got the perfect origin story."

She rolled her eyes. "Believe me; I have no dreams of doing superheroics. My magic lets me be more aware of what is happening around me, much like ponies are more aware of scents than us, and humans are more aware of temperature changes than a pony or me, but it isn't something I'd ever weaponize. One time playing the hero was enough for me. Falling hundreds of feet and getting impaled should discourage anyone from thinking about brash heroics. As for what I'm doing for my various employers, that's classified."

"Would you do things differently if you had to redo that moment again?" he asked.

"No," she replied immediately. "My best friend would have died if I hadn't done that, and I wouldn't let that happen. If I had something to do over again back then, it would be trying to find a way to avoid getting into that position. I'm unsure how I would have avoided it, but I could find a way."

"Well, the results aren't all bad. You could still be an earth pony," he said. She immediately gave him a dirty look, and it was plain on his face he knew he said the wrong thing. "I mean, it would be harder for you to work as a scientist if you were still an Earth pony. Having hands is rather convenient. Nothing rude intended against earth ponies."

She picked up the latest pile of papers from the printer and added them to the pile. She then picked up the stack and handed it to him. He looked at her in confusion.

"Yes, having hands comes in handy. Sometimes I wish I had an extra set," she calmly replied. "Since I don't, can you please kindly be a gentleman and assist me in carrying these to my class? I didn't realize how many students I have, so I underestimated how big this stack of tests would grow to be."

He looked down at the papers. "A test on the first day? You certainly aren't trying to make friends with your students."

She waved it off. "Just trying to determine what they already know. It covers far more than is in the course and won't count toward their grade. If any student gets half the questions right, I'll tell them they're getting an A in the course and don't need to attend class anymore. No point in wasting four hours of their week teaching them what they already know. I'd only bore them, not teach them."

He set the papers on the desk and picked one up to look at. "What's in this test that you'd give them an A in the class if they get half the questions right?"

"A little of everything," she answered. "It starts with the basic concepts and works its way up to the more advanced concepts. I threw in a little astronomy to give it some variation."

"Approximately how many Erisian lunar months pass between the beginning of Eris's closest proximity to the Sun and when it is at its furthest proximity to the Sun?" he read off from the middle of the astronomy section. "I couldn't answer that one off the top of my head, and my field is astronomy. It's a high number; I know that. I'd highly doubt most students even know what Eris is, despite the recent uptick in interest in it among NASA officials. I'm surprised with all the chatter about Eris that there hasn't been more talk of sending a probe to it, even after the surprise massive boost to NASA's budget under the last two presidents."

There's been no talk of sending a probe because we've already landed probes on it using magic to teleport them out there. The people at NASA need to quiet the chatter before someone realizes the UN is getting ready to build a military staging base there. she thought to herself.

She shrugged. "I'm not expecting a correct answer. If a student answers somewhere in the general ballpark, I'll be impressed. I would enjoy being impressed." She unhooked her laptop before closing it and picking it up. "Let's go. I don't want to be late, and you want to head home."

After exiting her office, she made sure to take a look at the nameplate on her neighbor's door, Doctor Adam Jefferson. She'd need to pay attention to him. His phishing for information put her on edge. He could be just a friendly coworker, or he could be an agent for who knew who. The Chinese were known to have agents scattered across the country in everything from businesses to Congress. Having one as a professor at a school right in the heart of pony territory wouldn't be the most outlandish possibility. Others could be out there, too; no need to focus strictly on China and miss someone else trying to pull something.

There were fewer students in the hallways this time around. A few were still going about at this hour, but they were more focused on going where they were going instead of just standing around talking. She still felt the eyes on her as she walked down the halls. The decreased number of students might have made it all the worse– she stood out more in these less populated halls. Footsteps seemed louder when there were fewer of them. Doctor Jefferson followed behind her, papers in hand. Her pace might have discouraged him from talking more.

The same auditorium she held her other class was being used again for this one. Before she entered the door, her ears were bombarded with whispers, heartbeats, breathing, talking, and even people passing gas that they likely thought no one could hear. Her magic had its drawbacks. This would be too much for her if she didn't purposely tune it out. It would be a struggle to pinpoint individual sounds in all of that. Would she even adequately be able to field questions when she couldn't tell who was speaking? She hoped this test scared off a significant number of students. The noise was hard to focus through.

Deep breaths. she instructed herself, then walked in.

Voices quieted as she walked in, a mild relief to her ears. They were all watching her; she knew that without looking at them. She walked steadily to the front. With each step, she lost a little more ability to tune the sound out as she felt the legion of eyes watching her. Heartbeats, breathing, and whispering got louder and louder in her ears until it was just constant booming noise. She lost track of her own heartbeat and breathing in the deafening sound. It became harder to breathe as if being unable to hear her lungs at work made her body question whether they were functioning. She had no choice; she had to put up a sound barrier around herself so she could breathe. If this continued, she'd lose control, and everyone in the auditorium would suffer what she was currently experiencing.

The sound barrier went up in a small radius around herself. She could hear her vitals again. She could also hear Adam's since he was within the border, but that didn't bother her. She finally reached the desk and put her laptop into position, careful not to slam it down. The hard part was done. She could turn and focus on faces now and avoid any discussion. The only voice, only heartbeat, only breath that she needed to worry about were her own.

"Are you okay?"

She looked up. Adam was looking at her, and he looked worried.

"Are you okay?" he repeated. "You're shaking. Your tail looks like it is about to have a seizure. Your ears are vibrating like mad, and you look sick."

There was no point in lying. She would cause unfounded rumors if she lied.

"Anxiety attack. They happen sometimes. Having lots of people in a compressed space can set it off. It doesn't happen all the time or even most of the time under those circumstances, but it still happens. There's just too much sound, too many people watching me."

He gave her a sympathetic look. "That explains what happened, but it doesn't answer whether you'll be okay. Do you need to cancel the class for tonight? It will be okay if you do. Professors get sick, and all these students just saw the same thing I did."

She shook her head. "No, I need to seem in control. I can't seem weak as a partial. I'm also younger than some of these students. I have to work harder to be an authority figure because of that. I'll lose their respect if I can't seem to handle it…but I might forgo the tests until next time and release them early."

He sighed. "If you insist, but I need to inform you there will always be students older than you unless you get to Dean Francis's age. I'm older than you, and I still have students older than me in my classes. Not every student is someone who came here straight out of high school. Considering you've been a big deal in the scientific community since I was in middle school, I think most might not realize you're as young as you are. As for being a partial…I don't know what to say about that. I don't have the experience to give advice I'm confident would be accurate. Just remember, this class is packed because these students want to be instructed by the great Doctor Middleton, who came up with Middleton's Law and was a hero who saved the lives of her friends despite impossible odds against them coming out alive. That even you can have an anxiety attack might make them a little less nervous dealing with someone who is practically a legend. That should put some things in perspective."

She managed a weak smile. "You really are just a nice coworker, aren't you?"

Adam blinked. "You suspected I wasn't?"

"Call me paranoid," she replied and stood up straight. "My nerves have settled. I can take it from here. Thank you, Adam, for all your help and for being nice enough to carry those papers to class for me."

He chuckled. "No problem. You're the only department member not old enough to be my parent or grandparent. I might be older than you, but you're the closest person to my age that I get to work with. We've got to look out for each other with these old fogies. Can I treat you to a coffee sometime? I have my projects I'd love to have your input on, and your accomplishments are big enough that you'd have no desire to take credit for my work."

Her smile faded a little. "I'm a bit overwhelmed by my workload as it is without getting involved in anyone else's projects, but maybe we can have coffee sometime. Now, let me teach my class."

He nodded. "See you tomorrow then." He then turned and walked away.

She turned and faced the class, watching him depart for a second before turning her eyes to the students.

"Welcome to Physics 101," she greeted in a regular volume, broadcasting her voice with her magic. "I'm Doctor Middleton. I'll be keeping today short since I'm feeling a bit under the weather, as you observed. I'll briefly introduce myself, what you are expected to know by the end of this course, how you will be graded, and then dismiss early. We'll generally take a fifteen-minute break halfway through the class, so don't worry about having to sit for four hours straight. Today we should be dismissed before the two-hour mark."

She paused and laid a hand on the pile of papers. "However, be prepared next week because we shall begin the next class with a test. I was planning on doing it today, but health comes first."

There was a collective groan and sound of dismay at the announcement of the test, and she smiled.

"Don't worry; his test will not count towards your grade. It is primarily for me to understand how much you all know already. It will cover all the key concepts you are expected to know by the end of this course, along with increasingly more advanced concepts and some astronomy. Don't be distressed if you don't know an answer; I don't expect anyone will get the majority of answers correct, and I wouldn't be surprised if there are more than a few of you who don't know any of the answers. However, there is one huge benefit to those of you who might be more knowledgeable about physics than your classmates. If you get at least half the questions right, including the majority of the basic concepts for this course, you will be automatically awarded an A for the course and are no longer required to complete any more classwork, projects, or tests for this class, and I'm not concerned about attendance. Now you know the test is coming, and you have a week to prepare."

She still couldn't focus on individual reactions among such a crowd, but she heard the general excitement about the possibility of essentially testing out of the class, especially if they didn't lose anything for failing. That at least meant she had the students' full attention.

"Let's begin the introduction," she said, turning on her laptop.

Class was dismissed a little before the two-hour mark, and some students stayed behind to give her well-wishes, saying they hoped she felt better. Others stayed to ask her questions. There was one night pony in particular who stayed and asked her a barrage of astronomy questions, some advanced enough that she wondered if he might get more than half the questions right on the test. She was pretty confident he would at least do well on the astronomy section. Others stayed to ask her about what happened back during the Cataclysm of Riverview. She did her best to politely decline talking about those details and was honest about it having been a traumatic experience for her. She didn't let them know she could still be triggered into a panic attack at the smell and sight of an inferno. Some terrors stayed with her long after they passed.

Then, at last, she was finally blissfully alone. Aside from hers, there were no heartbeats, breaths, whispers, or gazes. The auditorium was big enough to give her space away from any such possible sources. There were still other sounds, like the hum of electricity, the air conditioner, and the ground settling beneath the floor, but those could be easily tuned out. She sat at the desk and just let herself breathe and relax.

Peace at last.

"Feeling relieved that your class is over?"

She jumped and almost fell out of her chair before she caught herself. No sound indicated someone had entered or was in the room with her, but whoever had spoken was directly behind her.

Turning and looking, she saw a muscular woman with dark black hair that extended just past the shoulders, blue eyes, and a reasonably large bust, smiling at her. She was wearing a business suit and had her hands on her hips. The woman had no heartbeat, no breathing, not even the sound of the air brushing against her. She wasn't really there. Jessica didn't recognize her face, but there could only be one visitor who could be present without being present, and they could look like whatever they wanted.

Jessica sighed and laid her head down on the desk, ears back. "I guess I won't be allowed to take a break like I asked."

The woman seemed to walk around her to the front of the desk and then sit on the desk.

"You told us that you were taking a break; there was no request involved," the woman said with a chuckle. "You know, having watched you, I don't know how I'd feel about you being one of my professors when I was in college. I'd be scared of someone planning a test on day one. However, I was worried about you when you came in here. I'm glad that…Adam, was it? I'm glad that Adam was able to give you some words of encouragement to calm you down. Miss Seapony had some choice suggestions about what you can do with him, but we know you and know you wouldn't be interested in hearing about those suggestions. She still insists I tell you to let loose and have fun with him."

Jessica lifted her head and narrowed her eyes at the woman, ignoring the unspoken lewd suggestion about what to do with Adam. "You've been in here watching me for that long? You must be wearing yourself out. I can't imagine you've been dancing for over two hours."

"I took some snack breaks and returned," the woman admitted. "I admit, I don't miss having to sit in a seat listening to someone talk for hours. I'm a very active person. Sitting still sooo long is practically torture."

Jessica shook her head. "So, what do you want? A progress update? Some new task for me?"

"Nah," the woman replied, waving a hand. "You said you need a break. Your having an anxiety attack supports that. I'm just checking in to see how you're doing and giving you the courtesy of telling you to take the time you need. I was your friend before I was one of the people giving you marching orders. I worry about you. Do you want a cake? Cake makes me feel better about things. I can bake you a cake and send it in the mail. I can put a nice happy face made out of gumdrops on it. Maybe some candy planets…you like planets, right? I inherited memories of living on a star from one of my forebears; it was weird. I think I like planets better than stars."

Jessica relaxed. "You know I dream of one day being able to set foot on another planet, so planets would be nice. You could have visited me in person if you're in town. Why visit me this way?"

The woman looked uncomfortable. "You don't seem to know, but since my promotion, my projection range has increased dramatically. I'm not even on the same side of the country as you are right now. I'm busy doing official things, and I get worked a lot. I might even lose weight with how much my siblings and the OMMR work me! I've been dealing with jerks in the government and the press and didn't even get to enjoy my full honeymoon."

"I heard about the press meet. It sounded like you were tormenting my aunt through much of it," Jessica replied with a smirk.

The woman crossed her arms. "Well, she's much too stuffy! She needs to take herself a little less seriously. People need to learn how to laugh at themselves. Being dead is no excuse to be stiff!"

Jessica rolled her eyes. "Are you ever serious?"

"I'm serious all the time! A person can be serious without being severe," the woman protested. "I try to keep things as lighthearted as I can. The world might be ending; that's pretty depressing to think about. It's best to keep people's spirits up. I have three primary modes, this one, where I'm smiling and trying to get a laugh; my sad mode, where it would just be entirely inappropriate to laugh; and my angry mode. You don't want to see me when I'm angry."

Jessica raised an eyebrow. "Anyone make you angry lately?"

The woman waved her hand dismissively. "You know I can't tell you that. I-"

The door to the auditorium opened, and the woman vanished in an instant. Jessica had no idea if she was gone or had simply gone invisible. She instead turned her attention to who was entering—a familiar middle-aged woman.

The woman smiled at her as she approached. "Ah! Jessie, I'm glad I caught you alone." The woman then paused and looked at where the other woman had been sitting on the desk. "Or at least what counts as alone, anyway. You can't hide from my eyes, Rebecca. I see your magic."

Rebecca reappeared, still in the same form and sitting on the desk. "Force of habit. I wasn't expecting you to leave your mansion today. What's up?"

The older woman scowled. "I'm not here for you, you puffed-up jester! I wanted to talk to my niece. I'll deal with the lot of you when I go to bed. Please, give us some real privacy."

Rebecca stuck her tongue out before responding. "Fine, I know when I'm not wanted. You're always a grumpy pants anyway!" She turned towards Jessica and smiled. "Expect the cake in the mail soon!"

Rebecca then vanished.

"She's my friend, Auntie; you could have been nicer," Jessica chided.

Auntie sat in one of the seats in the auditorium. "I didn't want your aunt listening in through her. I'm done, Jessie. I'm leaving."

Jessica frowned. "You came here just to leave?"

The older woman shook her head and then bowed it. "This morning, I dealt with yet another group of invaders. It was close; they almost got my sons. I stopped them and managed to take them prisoner, but I was so angry. I was going to execute them, Jessie. The only thing that stopped me was my sons. They stepped in front of me, blocking me from getting a clean shot."

Her Auntie stood up and turned away so her face wasn't visible. "They're always going to keep coming. If it isn't for my sons, it will be for me, over and over again. No one can stop them from coming, and I doubt the government even legitimately wants to. I'm a liability for what I know. Even if I could keep fending these attacks off, I'll lose myself at some point…or reveal my true nature– the murderous, hateful, vengeful bitch I tried to leave behind. I don't want to be that. I don't want my sons seeing me as that."

"So what are you going to do? Go even deeper into hiding?" Jessica asked. "You're already living in a mansion surrounded by a private military force."

Auntie turned and looked at her. "I'm going to Equestria. Luna extended a formal offer for sanctuary. Twilight Sparkle and Celestia have given me a job offer at the School of Gifted Unicorns in Canterlot, teaching the next generation of Equestria's mages to be more skilled than the last for once. Yinyu had originally wanted to take her foals to Equestria before she met her end, so I'm fulfilling her wishes."

"And I'm the first person you came to tell this?" Jessica asked.

Auntie shook her head. "No, I spoke with Charlotte first. I need someone to give the mansion to. My research is going to remain there. I refuse to destroy it, I'm not turning it over to the government, and it would be seized if I tried to take it to Equestria."

"Oh, so you're giving it to Charlotte?" Jessica asked. It would be nice having another of her friends living in the city.

Auntie shook her head again. "No, she laughed straight in my face, no respect for her grandmother."

Jessica felt a sinking feeling in her gut. "So…Moon or Arachne?"

Auntie looked at her like she was an idiot. "Moon is about to have his third foal with a third mare by the age of eighteen. I love him, but I can already imagine there's going to be some domestic dispute in the future between him and those mares. I'm not jeopardizing the mansion to some civil case. As for Arachne, she is way too much like me, and not in a good way. She is never to set a hoof on my research. I need someone who is family, intelligent, and capable of defending my research. Those last two knock out a considerable amount of the family. I already know Phobia will say no, my sisters are too old, my brother is a happy fool, and your brothers aren't capable."

Jessica stood up. "No! I'm not having that dumped on me! I have enough responsibilities. You're going to have to find someone else. I'm not taking your mansion."

Auntie threw her head back and groaned loudly. "Why is it so hard to give away a mansion?! Back in my day, if someone said, hey, here's a mansion, they'd jump on it. I'm willing to sweeten the pot and give all my future proceeds from my book sales. That alone should maintain the utilities and the property taxes going forward."

"Why don't you just give it back to Wild Growth?" Jessica asked. "She gave it to you to begin with."

"I can't," Auntie lamented. "She gave it to me before she entered Congress or was a senator. I can't give a mansion as a gift to someone who is a senator! Do you realize how much of an ethics violation that is? The whole reason she is a senator is because her predecessor had to resign for receiving excessive gifts. It isn't like Wild takes gifts back anyway. You young people are making it excessively hard for me and my foals to leave; do you know that?"

Jessica spread her hands. "Sorry, but you're asking us to take on a heavy burden protecting your research. I could accept and burn it all as soon as you were off-world, but I won't do something in that bad faith."

"At least you're a decent person," Auntie grumbled. "Alright, strike you off my candidates. I'm running very low on them. As someone who might be teaching in the Equestrian equivalent of a college very shortly, how goes your teaching position?"

Jessica sighed. "It seems to be going okay so far. The number of students in this night class was a little overwhelming. Things seem to be going better for me than I thought being a partial."

"You put too much stock in what people will think. You don't see me worrying about all the people who don't like me," Auntie replied dismissively.

"You are literally running away to Equestria because people don't like you," Jessica said flatly.

The older woman crossed her arms and raised her chin. "I'm also running because I have a family to protect, and the people I'm running from have murderous intent. That's a bit more than dislike. You'd understand if you had kids."

She was going to let that slide. Auntie probably didn't realize how sore a subject her inability to reproduce was, and Sunset Blessing's love of family was well-known. It did make her think of something else, though.

"Speaking of partial kids…you hear and know about things that never make it into the news. You wouldn't happen to have heard about any significantly large communities of partials nearby, would you? My dad and I met a partial kid. We'd like to know where he came from. He doesn't have anyone, and he's terrified."

The woman scratched her head. "No, I hadn't heard of this partial kid until now, but I was distracted this morning. The closest community of partials that most people don't know about and has enough members that they might have any chance of producing kids is down in Baja California. Have you considered the kid might be an illegal immigrant?"

Jessica blinked. "I've never heard of it. How many partials are in this community?"

Auntie shrugged. "Hard to get an accurate figure, considering they keep humans away and do their best to stay hidden and off the grid—a few hundred. I doubt most of them are even Mexican. It's composed of partials from everywhere in the Americas, including here. The Mexican government leaves them because it's more trouble than it's worth to chase them out, and to broadcast their existence would only put them at the mercy of the cartels. They figure they can leave them be, and they'll die out in a few years. Maintaining a community that size without amenities or outside help leads to a high mortality rate. If I had a kid there, I might try to get him somewhere else. He'd have a better chance of making it to adulthood."

That was a possibility. Where Auntie learned about all these things was a mystery. She'd always been good at scrounging up information, finding out secrets, flat-out stealing information, as well as finding ways of just casually bumping into people of note. Add to that the various other things she was notorious for, and you got trouble personified. While there was no doubt that Auntie leaving Earth was the best for her health, along with everyone else's, it was like the ending of an era to know that soon she would be gone. It was time for Jessica's generation to rise to the occasion to fight back against the Devourer threat and save the world.

On top of all that, she was one of the people Jessica always had to run equations for. It wasn't very likely that the job would go away without Auntie. That meant there'd be someone new hounding Jessica for numbers soon enough. What fun….

Auntie turned towards the door again and started walking, but paused, turned around, and approached her again. Jessica was a little confused about what the woman was up to, but then, to her amazement, the older woman wrapped her arms around her and hugged her.

"If I don't see you again, you take care of yourself. Don't let my deceased wife, daughter, that floating food compactor, or anyone else push you around. I know you're only my niece by marriage, but I still love you like my own blood; I wouldn't have offered you Wabash if I didn't. Last of all, I want to express one last time how truly sorry I am for what happened in Riverview. No matter what other factors were at work, I was ultimately to blame, and I will never be able to make that up to anyone. I pray that God forgives me, and I beg your forgiveness for my sin against you."

This was not typical behavior for her Auntie. Not knowing what else to do, Jessica hugged the older woman in return– gently. Best not to break the old lady.

"I forgave everyone involved long ago, but thanks for showing how much you care," she replied. "Good luck with your teaching job. Try not to make the Equestrians cry."

They released the embrace, and Sunset Blessing turned and walked away, perhaps for the last time. Jessica wondered who would end up with the mansion. Whoever they were, they likely would need a lot of help.

Jordan flopped on her bed and let off a big huff. She still had her makeup on and should wipe it off before forgetting about it. It wasn't good to fall asleep with makeup on. She needed to decide on what to read before falling asleep as well. Romance would not be the genre, that was for sure, not after the way the evening had gone. She detached her phone from her leg and put it on her headboard.

It was hard to say what had been the most embarrassing part of the evening. She'd been out with her roommate, getting some food off-campus. She'd seen two stallions, both about her age, both reasonably cute. Her roommate had told her to go for it. After several minutes of trying to flirt, which, if she was honest with herself, most likely came off as her being desperate instead of appealing, she learned it didn't matter one way or another. She may have found some cute stallions in this human town, but they were gay. She was so embarrassed to have been trying to flirt with two stallions who were on a date. Her fur nearly went black from the blush.

If that had been the end of it, she would have laughed it off as a misadventure. That hadn't been the end of it. One of the servers at the restaurant had been a mare and had seen the whole thing go down. They'd got to talking, and she'd thought she at least made a pony friend in the area. Then the mare had asked her out on a date, hoping she was bi and misreading her signals. Maybe it was also Jordan's fault for misreading the signals the mare must have been sending. Do you know how to stall out a friendship? Have one person ask the other out, and that other one say, let's be friends. Making it worse, she'd been caught so off-guard by it that she had practically stuttered out that response. That had to have felt like a kick in the tail for that other mare. She didn't deserve that. Daffodil had been her name.

What a disaster. She made a fool of herself, lost her chance at making a friend with one of the few other ponies she'd seen, and she'd overheard her fellow pledges laughing at her for how the evening went, which meant her roommate had gossiped about her to them. The betrayal stung. College was not off to a great start.

She levitated a few books off her tiny shelf and looked at the spines of each, reading the titles.

"Les Miserables it is," she said as she selected a book and put the rest back on the shelf—time to lose herself in a book.

Her phone started to buzz, and she used her magic to answer it without looking. "Hello, Jordan Gilmore here; who's this?"

"Good evening, Jordan. I hope I didn't wake you."

Her eyes went wide as she heard the voice of the speaker. She instantly took the phone off the headboard and brought it down close to her, and adjusted the volume on it so the voice wouldn't be so loud.

"Auntie Su-" she began to say and then flexed her ears. She might not have her best friend's hearing, but she could tell that her roommate was still in the shower. Still, it was best to keep this quiet. "Auntie, I'm surprised you called."

"I know I usually text, but I wanted to discuss something with you. Do you have privacy?"

Jordan got up from bed, keeping the phone floating near her head. "One moment." She walked over to the bathroom and called into it. "Hey! I'm stepping out for a few minutes. I'll be back shortly."

"Okay!" her roommate yelled over the volume of the shower.

She held the phone close again. "Give me another minute."

"Take your time, Jordan."

She attached the phone to her leg and exited the room. It was pretty late, and there didn't seem to be many people about, but she still didn't feel comfortable having a conversation with her auntie (not really her auntie, but that's what she'd grown up calling her eldest half-sister's mom) anywhere in the dorm building. She walked over to the balcony at the end of the hall and blink teleported out to the courtyard. No students were out here, and she'd see anyone getting close enough to hear.

Finally convinced she had privacy, she spoke again, "Sorry, I never know if it is safe to talk to you with people around. I wanted to get some more privacy. We're good to go."

"Your caution is commendable," Auntie answered. "Before we get onto discussing why I called. How has college been treating you? Is everything going well?"

Her ears sagged. "Classes are fine, but the social end has been a waste so far. Tonight was just a failure all-around. I miss Skytree. I miss being around lots of ponies."

"I'm sorry to hear things have not been going well," Auntie replied. "However, I have a once-in-a-lifetime offer for you that might change your life. How would you feel about inheriting a mansion in an area with a high pony population density?"

Her eyes bulged. A mansion? There was only one mansion Auntie had to offer, Wabash Manor. That was in Denver, and that would put her close to Jessie and around a lot of ponies since Colorado had been ground zero for ETS. She could transfer colleges if she did a move there. She'd lose a semester, delaying her eventual graduation, but that wasn't the worst thing if she got a mansion to live in. She'd made an ass of herself to start the year here and wasn't feeling a lot of loyalty from her fellow pledges or roommate, so a fresh start might not be a bad thing.

"You caught my interest," she eagerly replied.

Author's Note

If you've read There's a Monster Pony Outside my Window or Shadow of Myself, this does run contrary to what happened in those stories. Please note those stories are non-canin side stories with no bearing on main universe events.

Chapter 5: Changing World

Paul sat in the hospital room, watching old Tiny Toon Adventure cartoons. Mark was under the same bed he'd spent every other session and hadn't spoken or poked so much as a finger out.

He'd tried telling the boy stories like Jessie had, but that didn't interest Mark. The cartoons didn't affect him either. Offering him food didn't work; the boy only came out to eat when no one was in the room and never had any leftovers. At least he had a healthy appetite. Sitting in the bathroom out of sight didn't work either. Mark was aware he was still there and stayed hidden.

There were no more options for engaging Mark for the day. In a few minutes, he would leave and check on the grandmother again. Tomorrow he'd return with toys and drawing materials. Even if he couldn't get Mark to play with them while he was present, he could watch the room's video feed and see what the boy did when he thought no one was watching. Would he play with the toys? Which toys would he play with?

He'd already watched the videos from the previous days. When no one was there, Mark moved around the room freely. It was hard to get a good look at Mark's face through the mass of blue hair, but you could see everything else. Mark had been wearing a pair of shorts when he'd been taken in, and he still wore those shorts. He wore no shirt or shoes. His feet looked almost like hooves, but not quite. He tended to walk around on all fours with his butt and tail raised high in the air, but he sat normally if hunched over. Orange fur covered his entire torso, legs, feet, and arms down to his wrists. It was hard to tell if the coat extended to his shoulders, neck, or face due to all the blue hair, but those who had taken him in and the hospital staff said it stopped at his lower neck. Mark used the bathroom toilet when he needed to go but hadn't attempted to wash himself. The sink and tops of the beds were too high for him to jump up on because he was barely bigger than an infant. The doctors said he only weighed fifteen pounds, far below the average weight for a human child his age but not uncommon for a pony foal that age. They hadn't gotten exact measurements for his height since the boy refused to hold still long enough for anyone to measure him. Despite the beds being too high for him, he had demonstrated he could get up on the stools and frequently did so he could look out the window. His hands, though small, seemed to have full mobility and the ability to grip.

Only Jessie had gotten him to speak. They may have been just single words and not sentences, but it was War and Peace compared to what everyone else got. The boy didn't grunt or sneeze. Even when someone physically grabbed him, he didn't cry out or yell, yet they now knew he wasn't mute. He was choosing not to make noise. Could that be something his grandmother had taught him to help keep him secret? That seemed likely. It was remarkable to see such self-control to stay silent from a four-year-old. Children that age, human or pony, tended to be loud and vocal.

Jessie should be arriving soon. Hopefully, she could get him to talk again and continue building a bond with the boy. Not to think disparagingly about his daughter, but it seemed odd that Mark would be more comfortable around Jessie. Yes, they were both partials, but she was far more human than Mark, and her height should have made her that much more intimidating to such a small child. Also, while Jessie did her best to be friendly, her disposition didn't always come off that way–a combination of her massive ego combined with paranoia and, at times, unrelenting focus on work. Jessie had her core circle of friends, but she wasn't very good at expanding it. By contrast to another high ego individual, Sunset Blessing was generally unlikable, but she at least was naturally motherly around children. Jessie didn't have that effortless maternal trait. If anything, Jessie became even more bristly around children. How she got through to Mark was a mystery.

"I'm leaving now," he said as he stood up. "I'm going to leave the cartoons on for you to watch. Jessie should be here to visit you soon. I'll be back tomorrow."

He waited a few seconds for a response. No response came, and he walked to the door. There was still no response as he opened the door, exited, and closed the door behind him. He went over to the nurse's station.

"Did he come out as soon as I closed the door?" he asked the unicorn nurse on duty, Rachael.

Rachael shook her head, pointing at the screen that showed Mark's room. "No, he usually stays under the bed for at least thirty minutes after someone leaves. He stays under even longer if the last person pulled him out of hiding. We're going to have to bathe him tonight and wash those shorts, and that means someone is going to have to grab him. I expect he'll hide the rest of the night after that. It might not be a good idea to come by tomorrow. We have someone coming to trim and detangle his mane and tail in the morning, and I'm not sure how receptive he'll be after that."

Poor kid. "Do you think you could delay the bath and the haircut for a few days? Jessie got him to talk. Maybe in a few days, she can convince him to let her do it."

"The haircut could be delayed, but he needs to be cleaned. This is a hospital; we need to keep things sanitary. If he and his clothes aren't washed, he could get sick. I know it will be difficult for him, but it's for his health," Rachael answered.

He nodded. "I'll let her know. Is it too much to hope that your computer says Miss Hernandez's condition has changed and she's woken up since I arrived?"

"Sorry, but no. I knew you'd ask, and I checked right before you came up to the desk," she replied with a sympathetic smile. "Her condition is stable, but no one knows if she'll ever wake up. She's being moved to hospice care on Monday. We've been waiting for a bed to open up there, and now it has. Even if she woke up today, she'd need a lengthy rehabilitation and might not ever get back to being able to care for the little guy."

He already knew that but hoped the grandmother could at least give some lead on the parents' whereabouts. Even if she couldn't do that, they could at least have her tell Mark to trust them. Her doing that would go a long way to helping get him sorted out.

"Thanks for your help. I'll stay in touch," he said with a smile. "My daughter should be along in a while. She's just got to finish teaching her class for today."

"Oh! Mister Middleton!" Rachael called out as he was turning to go. "I'm sorry, this has nothing to do with Mark, but you're the best person to ask. Is it true what they're saying on the news? Is Sunset Blessing going to Equestria and never coming back? She's a relative of yours, isn't she?"

He frowned. Jessie had told the household about that last night, along with the news Jessie had turned Sunset down flat when the old mare-sometimes-human had offered Wabash Manor to her. That had dumbfounded the entire household. Who turns down a mansion? His daughter-in-law, that's who. Nightscape had seemed offended that Robby hadn't even been considered for it if the preacher was giving it away. Jessie said it came with too much baggage, and they wouldn't want it when they found out about it, but she hadn't elaborated on what that was. She might be right. Just being associated with Sunset Blessing had been enough to force Devon into early retirement and had almost cost him his job too. Jessie was famous enough to weather the stigma, and Robby managed to have avoided it thus far since he had been Phobia Remedy's ward, and nobody wanted the Queen of Nightmares mad at them. Taking that house as a gift from Sunset Blessing might invite enough stigma that even they couldn't avoid it.

Turning down getting a mansion still felt crazy.

"It was on the news?" he asked. "I found out only last night. I figured she still needed to get her affairs in order before she left."

"The news said she's leaving Saturday. It will be televised to prove she's gone," Rachael replied.

That was the day after tomorrow. Sunset Blessing really was getting the fuck out of Dodge as fast as she could. She must have found someone to take the mansion. It figured it wouldn't take too long. How many people, other than Jessie, would turn the old mare down on that offer?

He smiled. "Seeing is believing. I know she intends to leave. You'll just have to watch her go. As for me, if tomorrow isn't a good day for Mark, I'll see you again Monday. Have a good rest of your day, Rachael."

"You too, Mister Middleton."

He pulled his phone out as he walked away and called his office. His call was answered on the second ring.

"Hi, Paul. Any progress with Mark?" Aubrey asked.

"No progress," Paul said with a sigh. "His response to Jessie didn't carry over to me. I tried telling him stories, but he didn't seem to care. Either my daughter is a much better storyteller than me, or he is more comfortable with partials than humans or ponies. Any leads on that partial community she told me about?"

"We decided it's best not to investigate that," Aubrey answered. "If we investigated that, it could get ICE involved. Those agents get far too enthusiastic about trying to deport people. Though he should be a US citizen no matter what if his father is Dennis Hernadez, even if he was born in Mexico, Mark has no birth certificate to prove that, and we don't have anyone to conduct a paternity test with. I wish we were back when you could DNA test a grandparent and be done with it, but ETS completely upended that. The only person we can get a DNA match with is one of his parents, and we don't know where they are, and we don't even know for sure Dennis Hernadez is the father."

"That's the only lead I have on where they might be. The grandmother is getting moved to hospice care and still shows no sign of waking," Paul said in frustration.

"Could your daughter learn more from whatever source she learned about that partial community?" Aubrey asked.

Paul shook his head as he answered, "No, that source is going away in two days. I doubt they'd have time to find out more before then. I'm sure they will be busy getting their affairs in order and won't have time for much else."

"Oh…it was her," Aubrey said slowly. "Her leaving might be unfortunate for Mark, but I'm not sure I could protect your job again if you got directly involved with her. I had to put my job on the line to protect you last time, and it was only because I convinced people you weren't close enough to her that you could be a danger. Then there was the matter of your sister-"

"I know, I know, and I thank you for putting yourself on the line for me. I don't know what we would have done if I had lost my job right after the school board canned Devon. We'd probably have had to beg my daughter to do speaking tours or something, and she doesn't do well with big crowds. It would have been unfair to her and ultimately a disaster. Anyway, what do we do next with Mark?"

"For today, nothing," Aubrey replied. "Hopefully, your daughter can make some progress. I don't see us putting any families back together with this one. Once we get him to where he doesn't run and hide at the sight of a person, we can start discussing foster homes."

Jessica sat bored in her car, staring at the traffic ahead. Her car's route tracker said the traffic was backed up for miles. The reason for this backup? The accompanying newsfeed said there was a flock of geese out on the road, and they weren't intimidated by the cars. Animal control had been called. This took extra time because they needed to find exclusively human animal control agents–geese not only weren't intimidated by ponies, they were more than willing to attack ponies aggressively. It was a silly reason to have a traffic jam, but it was what it was. Her car hadn't moved in the last ten minutes.

Incidents like this had been increasing in frequency. For reasons no one understood, bird populations had been growing at unprecedented rates since ETS, especially the larger birds. Birds' nests were filled with more eggs than before, and birds seemed to have given up seasonal breeding in favor of breeding all year long. Some even claimed that the birds were getting more intelligent, with some people going so far as to claim they'd heard crows talking–not simply mimicking human voices, but using short sentences with a moderately-sized vocabulary. However, there was yet to be any documented evidence of this, just hearsay. Migration patterns seemed to have drastically changed as well, with birds being seen flying in flocks in areas they'd never been seen before. Many species that had previously been endangered become frequent sights. There'd been studies about why this was, and even she had been consulted, with people asking her if the change in thaumic activity was impacting the birds. She had no clue. She understood math and physics, not ornithology. Many states had instituted laws opening the free hunting of many species of birds in the hopes of curbing the bird population. Even some ponies joined in the hunts, eager to cut into the avian menace.

At least the price of bird meat, any bird species, had plummeted, along with egg prices.

After yawning and covering her mouth, she shook her head. She had not gotten nearly enough sleep last night. It wasn't often that she got to spend so much time with her brother. They, along with their mother and Nightscape, had stayed awake long after everyone else had gone to bed. They'd talked, played games, laughed, and generally had a good time. By the time she went to bed, it had been a little after four, and she'd been back up right before seven.

Despite the lack of sleep, her class had gone well today, the master-level course. The class discussion had been lively, and she was impressed with many of the questions asked and the speculation she heard. All of them seemed to be highly adept at math. It was likely she could utilize all of them eventually. Even though she was technically taking a break, her thoughts were still turned toward finding the help she needed. Perhaps stepping back from her research to focus on her students would be the most advantageous thing she could do.

Her phone started ringing, and she clicked the button to answer it and put it on speaker.

"Hello, Doctor Middleton speaking."

"Hi, Jessie!"

She smiled. "How're you doing, Jor?"

"I'm doing great. How're you doing?"

Jessie sighed. "Stuck in traffic. We have geese blocking the road."

"Yikes! I hate geese!" Jordan exclaimed. "At least it isn't swans. Did you know that the swans are even more aggressive and intelligent in Equestria? The princesses have to regularly bribe them to keep them from terrorizing Canterlot."

Jessica laughed. "The mighty alicorns, brought to their knees by swans."

"Yeah, don't mess with swans. They're like winged snakes! I also hear terrible things about emus in Australia, and those cassowary birds seem like some nightmare that sis made for people she really has a grudge against."

"So, are you out of class for today?" Jessica asked.

"Um, I didn't go to class today. I'm on a bus heading back to my parents' house," Jordan replied sheepishly.

Jessica's smile disappeared in worry. "Is something wrong? Did something happen with your parents or Jackie?"

"Oh! No, nothing's wrong with my sister or parents; they're fine," Jordan replied. "I was told I need to be at my parents' house tonight to meet with my lawyer. I got a bus ticket this morning and am on my way there now."

"Lawyer? Why do you need a lawyer, and why do you need to go across the state to meet them? Shouldn't there be someone local?" Jessica asked. "My lawyer is a fifteen-minute drive from me…if there are no geese."

"Why do you have a lawyer?" Jordan asked.

"She's more of an on-call if I need one lawyer. I need someone just in case someone accuses me of intellectual fraud or if I need to sue for discrimination. It wasn't my idea, my parents insisted. I've only spoken to her once, and that was when agreeing to have her as my on-call lawyer," Jessica explained.

"Oh, I guess that makes sense, I guess," Jordan replied. "The lawyer is technically Auntie's lawyer, but she said she'll represent me after Auntie leaves. She's going to negotiate giving me Wabash Manor and how I will afford to live there."

Jessica's mouth dropped. "She gave Wabash Manor to you?!"

"Yeah, she did! Can you believe it?!" Jordan said excitedly. "I would never have thought she would give anything to me when she left Earth. I'm not even technically part of her family. I mean, it would have made more sense for her to give it to one of the demons. I heard she has a little brother. Even you make more sense than me."

Her mouth soundlessly worked as she tried to figure out what to say. The car in front of her moved forward a car length, and she advanced as well. Should she tell her friend that Auntie Sunset had spoken to others first to try to pawn her manor and secrets off on? Jordan had to have already verbally accepted; the lawyer wouldn't be there if Jordan hadn't.

She took a deep breath. "You do know what comes with that, right? There's stuff Auntie has at the manor that she can't take with her. Did she talk to you about that?"

"Yeah, she told me. She says she has already set up a complicated set of security measures with timers to keep people away from that stuff. Even I won't know how to access it. I just have to keep the manor closed to the public. That way, they won't have time to open the vaults. You know Auntie goes all Legend of Zelda with security."

"What about attending Winthrop like your mom?" Jessica asked. "You'd been talking about that forever before this year. You can't attend college there if you have to live in Wabash Manor."

"Jessie, it's a mansion! I can't turn that down," Jordan answered. Her voice then fell. "Things haven't been what I expected at Winthrop anyway. I guess that's dream versus reality. Now, I can transfer to a school up there, be around a lot of ponies again, and get to hang out with you. I thought you would be more happy about this."

Traffic moved again, this time three car lengths before stopping. She didn't know if that was because the geese were moving or if people were getting frustrated and taking detours. She might take a detour soon, even though going down unfamiliar streets typically made her nervous.

"I'm happy that you'll be close to me; I just don't want you to regret leaving your big college and getting saddled with a responsibility that might make you miserable," she replied.

"Jessie, I'm adaptable. I wanted to reinvent myself coming into this school year; it turns out I will end up doing that, just not the way I originally intended. Speaking of changing plans, how's the education department at your university?"

"I'm not sure," she answered with total honesty. "I know there is one, and I believe the English department is fairly good."

Jordan giggled. "A good English department and a teaching program are all I need. The bus is getting ready to move again. We were taking a short break to stretch our legs. I'll talk to you later!"

"Talk to you-" Jessica began, but the line went dead first.

She'd forgotten to mention her mom had found the letter about the movie screening. She wondered if that would still be important to Jordan if Jordan was coming to Denver. Yeah, it was not for just spending time together but for reliving one of the biggest moments of their lives together.

She still couldn't believe Auntie Sunset had convinced Jordan to take Wabash Manor. Jordan probably could defend it. Other than Auntie's eldest son, Jordan was the only unicorn that Sunset Blessing had ever given personal magic lessons to, and Jordan wasn't wrong about how tough Tempest's self-defense lessons were. Even with sound powers and heightened strength at her disposal, she was not realistically a match for Jordan when it came to defending herself–something that was sadly not out of the question at Wabash Manor if anyone found out Sunset Blessing's research still resided there or suspected it did. They'd be in for a shock if they thought Jordan would be easy to subdue. She wasn't the scared little filly holding onto a tree branch for dear life anymore.

All the cars started to move. At last! She could finally move and get to the hospital.

After getting briefed by the nurse and dealing with a bunch of questions about Auntie Sunset's departure that she had no clue how to answer, Jessica made her way to Mark's room. She stopped at the door and listened. Cartoons were playing. There was only one person present based on the heartbeat and breathing. They were in the middle of the room, and they were currently calm.

The nurse hadn't locked the door because Mark seemed to have given up on escape attempts. The handle for the door was well out of his reach anyway. However, he might try to make a break for it when the door opened. She put her hand on the handle and opened the door. His heartbeat and breathing immediately intensified, and she heard him scuttle under the bed.

"Hello, Mark," she said as she slid through the narrow opening she'd given herself through the door to ensure the way was blocked. "Remember me? I'm Jessie. I told you the racing story yesterday."

His vitals still hadn't changed; both his breathing and heartbeat were going fast. Maybe he didn't remember her.

Guess I'm starting from scratch. She thought to herself.

She got back up on the same bed and assumed the same position she had yesterday. She looked up at the cartoons playing. There were a pair of cartoon rabbits harassing some cartoon boy. The boy's temperament indicated he probably deserved it. She could appreciate it and chuckle. This was a massive improvement over Sesame Street. The comedy worked for all ages. The 'educational' show was a waste of time. If he relied on that to learn to read, he wouldn't read books until he was eight or nine.

"We can let this episode finish before I start with the story," she said.

His vitals were still a bit fast, but they were starting to slow. She just needed to take her time with him. Relaxing on a bed for a few minutes after being stuck in traffic for over an hour wasn't the worst thing.

She closed her eyes and listened. There were at least four other televisions in this hall. On the floor below, she heard people checking in at a desk. On the floor above…she shivered…best not to focus on what was happening on the floor above. All throughout, there were heartbeats, breathing, the sounds of medical equipment, and the rustle of wheels as hospital beds were pushed down halls. So much was happening within thirty meters. All of it reminded her of things she preferred to forget.

No! She was not going to have an anxiety attack! She put up a sound barrier around the room. This was the only place she needed to hear.

Mark gasped. Why did he do that? Nothing on the cartoon should have elicited that kind of reaction. She hadn't moved either. The only thing had been the barrier against the sound. He was no crystal pony. He shouldn't be able to detect that. The only thing it could be was what he wasn't noticing anymore.

"You hear it all too, don't you?" she said quietly. His heart skipped a beat. "I don't think you hear all that I hear, but maybe you hear more than they think. Spending all those years hiding, you must have learned to hone your hearing. Every little sound could mean discovery."

His heartrate slowed as did his breathing, and she nodded, accepting that as his affirmation that she was right.

"I hate hospitals," she continued. "They're filled with sounds of misery. Hospitals are scary. I don't like being in a hospital. It brings back bad memories. For you, it must seem so strange—all these weird and unfamiliar sounds. Don't worry. I can hold the sounds back, at least for a while, and we can both be a little less scared."

The cartoon was rolling credits, so she turned the program off. His heartrate didn't change. He was calm. She smiled.

"I promised you a story. I've got a better one for you today. It's the story about a purple unicorn and her friends who saved Equestria from an evil alicorn who wanted to be night forever…."

This time around, she used her powers to enhance the story. Her friend Jenny might be the best storyteller in the world, but with the power of sound, she could imitate the voices. Twilight she had spoken to many times, so her voice was easy. What Celestia sounded like was more challenging since she'd only heard Celestia on prerecorded messages that Equestria had given Earth. How Luna sounded as Nightmare Moon was a complete mystery. She was confident about the voices of Twilight's friends since she had spoken to each of them at least once. They'd all been there for the relief efforts after the Cataclysm of Riverview. Rarity, in particular, was easy since she had been in Riverview before the disaster.

Her tail started to rise, and she forced it down–stupid sexy Rarity. Stupid tail.

The different voices caught Mark off guard at first, and his vitals sped up, but he got used to it as she continued and slowly moved forward to where she could spot his tiny little hands and a bit of his hair.

"-and the purple unicorn stayed in Ponyville with her friends, having many more adventures, but those adventures are stories for another day," she concluded.

He didn't come any further out of his hiding place. In fact, after listening to his breathing and heart, she was confident he was asleep. Was she supposed to be happy that he was that much at ease or insulted that her story came off as that boring? She thought she did an excellent job telling the story. Mark being relaxed enough to sleep was likely the better way to look at it. Still, she wasn't going to tell Jenny that her attempts to go all out telling a story had ended with her audience asleep.

Now what to do? If she got up, she might wake him, and she didn't want to do that. Masking the sounds of her getting up might be a possibility. She wasn't that eager to go yet, since it was rush hour and she'd spent enough time in traffic today already, and the nurse had said that if she could gain enough of Mark's trust to give him a bath, it would be best for everyone.

A stifled yawn escaping her mouth told her she'd wait a while longer. Taking a nap wouldn't be a horrible idea. She hadn't slept enough, and driving home while overtired was a safety hazard. Nap it was then. She laid back, let her head sink into the pillow, and closed her eyes. She kept the sound blocked off and had long ago learned how to keep her sound barrier up while sleeping. It wasn't just a helpful thing to be able to do; it was a necessity. Getting suddenly hit with sound when she was trying to sleep resulted in not getting much sleep. If she hadn't mastered the skill as a child, she'd have gone insane before even setting foot in a college.

She let herself relax and drift to sleep.

She awoke and instantly froze before she could stretch. Did she have two heartbeats? No, an extra set was just very close, and something was gripping her shirt.

Mark was curled up close to her. She felt his horn lying against her. It poking her might have been what woke her up. She must have turned onto her side when she was asleep, and he had somehow gotten on the bed, nestled between her belly and her breasts, sleeping. He was so small, and she was sure he was grabbing her shirt as he slept.

Now she was definitely not getting up. What was she supposed to do??

Deep breaths– second thought, no deep breaths; those might wake Mark.

She needed advice, but she didn't dare reach for her phone. No problem. She could still get help. While still keeping the sound barrier up, she listened for the nurse's desk. There were four people there. She didn't know how typical that was, but she could tell by their voices they were watching the feed for this room. Her powers were complete control of sound, and they were in her range.

"Hey, this is Jessica, the lady in the room with Mark. What am I supposed to do?"

"Miss Middleton? How are you working the intercom without touching the button?"

She was pretty sure that was the same nurse as earlier. She wasn't going to argue that she was Doctor Middleton instead of Miss Middleton. That would be pointless and could get confusing in a hospital. She needed to focus on getting advice.

"I'm not on the intercom. My magic gives me full control of sound within thirty meters of where I am. I don't need the intercom or to open my mouth to talk to you," she replied.

"Like a ventriloquist?" someone else asked.

"More involved than that, but if that helps you understand, then yeah."

"You should do parties. You're really good at this."

She rolled her eyes. "What am I supposed to do about Mark? He has his hands gripped to my shirt, and he's asleep."

"He is gripping your shirt? That's so cute! We can't tell that from the stream."

There were days she wanted to strangle humans for being humans; there were also days she wanted to strangle ponies for being ponies. Today was the latter.

"What…do…I…do…a-bout…it?" she asked slowly.

"Oh, I'd let him just stay there and sleep. He trusts you. Don't disrupt that. When he wakes up, can you try to convince him to let you give him a bath?"

She didn't even know what time it was. It must not be too late if the same nurse was on shift. Her classes were only Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, so she didn't need to get up early. Having Mark cuddled up close to her wasn't the worst thing.

"Can you call my dad and tell him I will be home late? I can give you the phone number if you don't have it."

"Sure, we can do that. I think we have his number already. Let me look."

There were several seconds of silence and the rustling of papers. They must have it written down instead of in the system. Well, her dad wasn't a patient. He was someone who got called about social work issues. How often did he come by the hospital for them to need to keep his number handy?

"Found it! Paul Middleton, Social Services, personal number! We'll give him a call. He'll be so happy to hear what you're doing for Mark. Don't forget the bath!"

"Thanks. Give him a call. I'm going to stop listening in on you guys now," she replied.

She actually did keep listening for another few moments, but only to be sure they were indeed calling her dad and letting him know about her delay. Once he picked up the call, she stopped listening.

Her gaze drifted back to the small child curled up against her. It was still hard to see his face since he'd practically buried it against her. It would be nice if that stubby horn weren't poking her, but it was only uncomfortable, not painful; she could live with that. Overall, it was kind of nice having him right there against her. No one did that. Her little brother had when he was very young. He'd long since outgrown that. Since he was entering his teen years, it would embarrass him to be caught cuddling with his big sister. She missed him being small and eager to spend time with her–not that he never wanted to spend time with her now, just now it was doing activities, not spending time for the sake of it. It was humbling, having this cute little kid feeling safe nestled against her. In some strange way, it made her feel safer, even if there was no logical reason it should.

She must have been exhausted if she hadn't realized he'd crawled beside her until his horn poked her. The only way he could have gotten up on the bed was if he pushed one of the stools over to give himself a stair to reach the bed. That wasn't something he would have done at the spur of the moment. He had to make a conscious choice that he wanted to be beside her and make a plan on how to do it. The other bed had looked unslept in, and its covers had been pulled down to the floor into a little nest in the corner.

Then and there, she decided that helping out with Mark wouldn't just be some side task she was doing for her dad. This kid wanted her to protect him and make things better. She might not be the big hero that the movie made her out to be, but she would do all she could for him. Doomsday was on its way, but for Mark, it must seem like it had already come.

She closed her eyes, letting herself doze as she listened to his heart beat close to hers.

Chapter 6: Horrors in Our Heads

Rebecca materialized her avatar, a floating white cloud with a face, into the dream realm. She quickly checked many dreams and made avatars in those dreams as she started tending to them. She then looked around at the plain, unadorned metal walls, the equally uninspired floors, the complete lack of furniture or decoration, and then at the Warden of Order.

"Do you go out of your way to make settings boring?" she asked with a huff. "There isn't even a door to look at!"

"You can look at us," he replied. The plague doctor's mask made him look like a giant bird.

Ghadab, back in burning pony mode, shook his head. "I agree with the glutton. This is a miserable setting."

"He got here first," Phobia, in her shadow with red glowing eyes form, calmly said. "Do we need to complain about the settings every time?"

"I don't ever get to pick one," Yinyu said as she swam around the room in her rainbow seapony-dragon form.

Arbiter hit her staff against the floor. "I think we have enough discontent about it to hold a new vote on the matter."

"Seconded," Ghadab said.

"Thirded," Yinyu said immediately after.

Phobia groaned. "This will be the thirty-ninth time in four years we will end up changing our procedure for this. It isn't even important. Why do we keep wasting time on this?"

"If I may, I suggest we table debate on the subject until someone comes up with an idea we haven't done yet," the Warden of Order suggested. Rebecca decided she was going to start calling him Big Bird. His real name was too hard, and he looked like a giant bird.

"Seconded!" Rebecca quickly said. "We need a little more creativity with our next fix for this. Shouldn't we be talking about Sunset Blessing taking off out of the blue on us?"

Ghadab hissed. "Best not to mention the false prophet's name, Tubby. The sycophant is fuming at the mention of her lover's departure. You risk getting us all whacked with that staff."

The room darkened as Arbiter's hands, now clawed, gripped tighter on her staff. Rebecca decided to float further away from the furious Warden of Song. She wasn't the only one. Everyone backed away from Arbiter. Dreamwardens were invincible in the dream realm, but a Dreamwarden could still be in physical pain if the avatar of another Dreamwarden assaulted their avatar. Well, not pain exactly; more like mild discomfort, but that was as close to pain as they felt here, and no one wanted it. The easiest solution to stop another warden's avatar from beating up your avatar was simply to make your avatar cease to be, but they couldn't predict an assault from another warden to make their avatars vanish fast enough, and they liked using their avatars. Not giving people a face to look at when talking was just rude! There were specific standards of decorum that they followed–those standards just happened to allow them to beat the fluff out of each other when the mood took them.

Making sure she had ample distance between herself and Arbiter's staff, she pressed the issue. "We still need to discuss it. How does this-"

Arbiter swung at her, staff extending in length to do it. Rebecca split her cloudy body in two, giving each new cloud a face.

"Haha! Missed me!" Rebecca's two faces said in chorus. She then stuck her tongue out at the attacker.

Arbiter swung again, and Rebecca split herself again, now into four small clouds with four small faces.

"You have to do better than that!" Her four faces exclaimed in perfect harmony.

Arbiter snarled in rage. She then gripped her staff in both hands and pointed the tip at Rebecca. Before Rebecca knew what her fellow Dreamwarden intended, an inferno erupted towards her, consuming all her cloudy faces.

Because this was a dream, and she followed cartoon logic in dreams, Rebecca came out of the inferno as four blackened bits of char floating in the air, white eyes blinking in confusion.

"That's new. Good shot," Rebecca said, then let herself crumble to the ground in a pile of soot. She remained that way for a second before returning to her single cloud with a face. She floated back up to where she'd been and looked at Arbiter. "Got the violence out of your system?"

Arbiter lowered her staff, but there was still a sneer on her face.

"We do need to discuss my mother," Phobia said. Arbiter immediately turned to strike the shadow, but Phobia moved like lightning, and the shadow's eyes were right up next to Arbiter's in an instant, a shadowy wing holding the staff back.

"I know you are angry she is ghosting you, but this gets us nowhere," Phobia said quietly. "Lower your staff, Tonya; stop this nonsense, or you will learn why Sha'am feared me."

"Don't piss off the Nightmare Queen. Her discipline is cruel," Ghadab muttered.

Arbiter reluctantly lowered her staff. "I can control myself. There's no need for your nightmares; I know my fears. We can discuss Sunset."

Phobia retreated. "I do not desire to force them upon you, but we need you to step back and be rational. My mother is scared to face you, knowing it may be for the last time. She might have avoided sleep last night, but it will overtake her before she leaves. You'll get your chance to say goodbye."

Arbiter crossed her arms. "I'm not supposed to be saying goodbye, not yet. I was supposed to be there with her in the end. I'm supposed to bring her the last dream."

Yinyu hissed. "Stop your pouting and having temper tantrums! Do you think I'm happy that all my foals are going with her? I may never get to speak with them again after tomorrow. Unlike you, I'm not going to lose my head about it. This is so they can be happy and safe. That is all I could want."

Arbiter snarled again, and her staff turned into a blade, and with it, she lopped Yinyu's head off her body.

Yinyu's disembodied head, lying on the ground, stared up at Arbiter in shock before snarling. "Really cute! I lost my head, haha. Phobia, can you please do something about her?"

Big Bird stepped away from Yinyu's still floating body which was not pouring blood all over the place. "Please do; this is unacceptable. Yinyu, pull yourself together!"

Yinyu's head and body flashed, and she was whole again. The pool of blood vanished.

"How often have you been disemboweled or split in two now?" Ghadab asked Yinyu.

Yinyu flipped her tail. "I haven't kept count, but Rebecca may yet surpass my total."

He looked doubtful. "I don't know, you have a considerable head start on her, and you'll be here long after she's gone…if Allah wills it."

Rebbeca smirked at him. "How can someone so foul-mouthed be so pious?"

Ghadab shrugged. "It isn't so hard to be two things at once. You are annoying and fat. You should understand."

Phobia sighed, ignoring the rest of them. "Please, Tonya. I don't want to be at odds with you."

Arbiter pointed at the rest of us with her staff. "Tell them to stop antagonizing me!"

"We'll behave," Rebecca said.

"I always behave," Ghadab muttered.

"Truth is in the eye of the beholder, isn't it?" Big Bird asked.

Phobia groaned. "You know how poorly behaved we are with each other, Tonya. I think it is our way of blowing off steam. Don't let them get to you. This is hard for me and Yinyu as well, but we understand this is for the best, even if it hurts. It's possible she might return someday. You know my mother can't help keeping her nose out of things."

The plague doctor lookalike raised a hand. "To get back on track, it isn't for the best, as this will cut down on her efficiency in working on the spell. I can continue to monitor her progress once I retire. The question is, do we need to enlist new help in this world to make up for her absence?"

"Maybe Bob the Unicorn?" Rebecca suggested. "He's the smartest unicorn I know."

"I hate that name," Ghadab grumbled. "Do I introduce myself as Ghadab the Dead Night Pony? Does Doctor Middleton introduce herself as Jessica the Partial? Does The Marshmallow introduce herself as Rebecca the Whale?"

"I don't think he's a good option," Phobia replied. "Yes, he is the most capable mage we could find for this, but his ability to keep things secret is poor. My mother did steal an extraordinary amount of information from him. Perhaps when we get closer to the event, we can employ him, or if we get desperate, but not yet."

"We aren't already desperate?" Rebecca asked. "I thought that was why we were even using her."

"She can keep a secret. We need the most capable mage who can keep a secret, not the most capable mage who doesn't understand the word security," Ghadab countered. "And part of her benefit over other mages was she could just steal from the other mages. We had all their ability and hers; it was ideal."

"And that's the rub. We can find mages capable of continuing the work, but Sunset Blessing conclusively demonstrated that while they might be brilliant and capable, they can't keep a secret to save their lives. You ponies are far too trusting," the Warden of Order lamented. "We shall have to hope our dubious mage will be able to keep up in Equestria–at least for now. What about the other half of that project? Is Jessica Middleton ready to get back to work? We gave her a break."

"It's only been two days," Rebecca protested.

"Oh, I'm sorry. If I yell at the sky and beg the Devourers to take two more days to get here, do you think they'll listen?" he snarled back at her.

"Two days is what most Americans get off for a workweek. A vacation is a bit longer," Arbiter said.

"Americans are barbarians when it comes to work. Only two days off a week? It's the twenty-first century, shouldn't half the jobs be automated and give people more time off?" Ghadab spat.

Rebecca frowned. "You're one of the ones pushing to work her seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year, every year till the Devourers are defeated or until life has to start over again."

"Better to be a live barbarian than civilized and dead," Ghadab replied.

"We give her more time. She needs her vacation," Phobia said with a tone of finality. "Rebecca, I want you to have my mother's security checked."

Rebecca did a spin. "I'll get a property redistribution specialist on it right away!"

"How many property redistribution specialists do you know?" the Warden of Order asked.

Rebecca giggled. "Isn't it your job to know all that?"

He crossed his arms. "I don't keep tabs on all the members of your cesspool of thieves."

Her face darkened. "People at the bottom of society, struggling to live, are not a cesspool. Someone needs to fight for them. I do all I can for them here, with dreams. I try to make them laugh, to raise their spirits, but my dreams and laughter don't fill bellies. Doomsday is coming for the whole world, but for people living in the streets, scared and hungry, it might as well already be here. I don't organize them or control them. I just give them a few creative suggestions on how to get food–so they don't starve. If the OMMR or government would devote more resources to seeing them fed, maybe I wouldn't need to get creative about getting them food."

"Our resources are already stretched thin, and our influence with the government only impacts certain policies. We're trying to get more resources, but any new resource needs to be allocated to the spy network," Arbiter said.

Yinyu waved at Rebecca. "We understand your passion for helping the homeless. Having lived on the streets myself and stolen from to live, I won't condemn these people. We only ask that you be careful with all the ways you help people. We cannot let authorities tie these activities back to us."

Rebecca smirked. "Don't worry. Nobody will discover it. I've got a person in mind who is a bit more crafty to test Wabash's defenses. They've done a few more elaborate jobs before. They can assure us that the vaults are secure, although I will have to promise them something for their trouble if we expect they will fail. Sunset Blessing makes me proud of her creativity with her security measures. This is a big risk to my friend."

"Delay them breaking into Wabash until my baby sister takes residence," Phobia instructed. "If they make it out without being caught, we'll arrange something to compensate them. If my sister does catch them, I can speak with her and have them released, and we can still compensate them for their trouble. I won't alert Jordan the burglary is coming. I want to see how she will react. She's tougher than most would give her credit for, but the last time she had to face any real threat, she was still a young foal."

Rebecca bobbed in the air. "I can arrange that. You haven't told us about the new baby! Tell us about your new grandbaby!"

They talked for a while about important things, not-so-important things, and highly critical information, like what the best type of cake to send as a congratulations for a new baby. Eventually, Rebecca had to wake up and take care of other business.

She stirred from her covers, trying not to disturb the bed too much and wake her husband. She'd gotten the cover off and was poised to jump down from the edge of the bed when he stirred—turning over where she could see his cute spotty face.

"Becky?" he groaned, rubbing his eyes with the back of one of his hands. "It's late. Is something wrong?"

She smiled. "Don't worry. I'll be back in bed shortly. I've gotta do a quick task for work. It won't take long at all. I don't even need to dance, just a quick text. Though, if you're still awake after I return to bed, we could do some more dancing under the sheets."

He chuckled sleepily. "I'd love to take you up on that, but we've got to get an early start in the morning if we're going to make it to the airport on time. You just be quick. The bed gets cold without you."

She walked across the bed and kissed him. "I'll hurry. Love you."

"Love you too."

Not worrying anymore about stealth, she jumped off the bed with a short flap of her wings. She noticed she'd lost a feather when she landed and picked it up with her mouth, and deposited it in the trash. She'd missed her normal preening the last two days. She'd need to be extra thorough in the morning.

She headed over to the corner of the hotel room and propped open her laptop. After turning it on, logging into her VPN, and encrypting her data, she texted her bodyguard who wasn't currently in the next room over or even in the same state.

Smore Center

She waited several seconds, unsure if she'd get a response anytime soon, but was rewarded with a reply.

Visions

She frowned. While she was glad there was one less human and pony trafficker out there, this guy Josie had been tracking had been one of their few big leads. She had no idea the scope of who was involved in this operation and couldn't even learn in the dream realm since it seemed to be all non-magical humans involved. Ghadab had some leads from victims but nothing that could lead the police to them. She'd been so close to having some information to go to the police with, then this happened. Well, maybe it was a good thing. The police having to do a murder investigation meant they'd finally investigate the guy and hopefully find the rest of the operation. This wasn't a total loss, aside from Josie having wasted her time sitting around watching the guy. They still needed to figure out if that was a rival gang or vigilante that had killed the guy, but the police could do that.

Visions

Smore Center

Visions

Smore Center

Visions

Smore Center

Visions

Smore Center

Visions

Smore Center

Well, that was taken care of. She shut her computer down and headed back to bed. It was time to get back to work. The meeting was done, but there were still thousands of flood victims in Missouri having nightmares. She wasn't the only one dealing with those, but she tended to deal with the small foals. She still had a dozen other dreamers that she'd been trying to nurture, a little filly that was stressing out about an art project, a colt whose parents were going through a divorce that needed a little extra attention, a doctor that was this close to figuring out how to cure a nasty disease but was having a loss of faith in himself, so many dreams to tend to. She still needed to ask the three dead-ums about the most recent developments with the birds. There was never enough time awake day-to-day.

Back to bed. Back to work.

Jessica groaned as she woke. Something shook her, and then something poked her.

"Ow!"

There was the sound of rustling covers, increased heartrate, heavier breathing, then two quick thuds.

She sat up. She was still in the hospital. Her sound barrier was still up, so she only heard what was happening in the room. There were her body sounds, and then there were Mark's back under the bed again.

She rubbed her belly and looked over at his hiding spot. "Did you deliberately poke me with your horn? That hurt, kid."

His heartbeat was still elevated. She sighed.

"Sorry for startling you with that yell. I'm not mad. Maybe in the future, stick to shaking me if you try to wake me up and be a little more patient instead of sticking me with your horn, okay?"

She waited a few more seconds for a response.

"Sorry," he said around when she was about to figure out what to do next.

He was talking to her again. That was good. What time was it? It was dark outside. She checked her phone, and her eyes widened when she saw the time. There wouldn't be any traffic now. Her parents and brother had to be freaking out, though. She was seldom out this late–not without telling anyone about where she was. She looked and saw there were about a dozen text messages.

She answered them quickly, making a group chat and telling everyone at once she'd fallen asleep at the hospital and was okay, so they didn't need to worry. She then put her phone away and turned her attention back to Mark.

"Your apology is accepted. Do you accept mine for scaring you?" she asked.

"Yes."

He still sounded shaken, but it was hard to tell. He was so quiet, even when talking. At least his heartrate had slowed.

"You were trying to wake me up," she concluded. "Is something wrong? Do you need help?"

"Pee-pee'd," he replied in a shameful tone.

Pee-pee'd? She sniffed and then looked over to where he'd been lying. There was a tiny damp spot. She wouldn't even have noticed if she hadn't been looking for it, not unless she laid her hand on it. It made logical sense that it was small. The kid was tiny; his bladder had to be tiny too.

She smiled. He might not see it, but a person could always hear it in the voice. "It's okay. Accidents happen. You're wearing shorts. Are your shorts wet?"

"Yes," he answered. He still sounded ashamed, but his heartbeat had slowed to a normal range.

"We need to wash your shorts, and wash all the ur-" Best to try to use his terms. "-all the pee-pee off you. You don't want to feel yucky, do you?"

"No," he answered. She wasn't sure if that was a no to the bath, or no to not wanting to feel yucky, or if it was a no to both.

"Do you trust me to give you a bath?" she asked him.

He was silent. The silence stretched on. This was the problem with children. They weren't logical creatures. Adults weren't rational most of the time either, but you could occasionally reason with one of them.

"I woke up earlier while you were sleeping next to me. I woke up and didn't do anything to hurt you. I went back to sleep."

He was still quiet. She decided to continue.

"If I didn't hurt you then, and I'm not mad about you pee-peeing the bed, can you trust me to give you a bath?"

He remained silent. He trusted her enough to sleep next to her, but he didn't trust her enough to let her give him a bath. He also tried to wake her to tell her about the accident, which indicated he expected her to fix it.

She stood up, and his heartrate jumped.

"Tell you what. I'm going to run the bath and stay in there and wait for you. You can come to me when you feel you're ready. Is that okay?"

He hesitated but did reply this time. "Yes."

"Alright, I'm going to run the bath. Come to me when you are ready," she instructed as she walked to the bathroom. "Try not to take too long. You don't want the bath to get cold."

The bathroom was plain, not that she was expecting luxury fixtures in a hospital. There was a toilet with an odd lever like a gear shift sticking out of the floor next to it that she assumed was for flushing. There was a tub with a shower, some generic soap, and shampoo, and in the back of the tub was a stool. She guessed this hospital subdivided its rooms into pony and human fixtures, with this room being aimed at humans. Why did they put him in a human room? The hospital policies might lump the partials in with humans, but Mark was so tiny that she was shocked he had managed to use the toilet without falling in. A room meant for ponies would have been much more preferable. He wouldn't be able to get over the lip of the tub on his own; he'd need to be lifted in and out. That meant she was going to have to hold him. Did he trust her enough for that?

There was nothing to do but hope. How they didn't look at the fixtures and think they were way too big for him, she didn't know. She'd need to remember to talk to the hospital staff about getting him moved to a pony room. It was uncertain how useful her speaking to them would be since she had no authority over his treatment, but it was worth a try.

She closed the drain on the tub and started the water running. The sound of the water played havoc on her ears, but she put a sound-dampening bubble over it to make it less intense. This was in addition to keeping her sound barrier around the room and bathroom. She wasn't sure what her limits were on putting these sorts of barriers up and maintaining them. It seemed like something she should have stress tested at some point, but it had never come up, nor was it her field of expertise. As far as she could tell, if something was in her range, she could do whatever she wanted with the sound for as long as she wanted, with few limitations. However, it truly was a sphere of influence she exerted. If a sound source was so much as one micrometer past her range unless boosted by electronics, her ability to hear it became worse than the average human's–perhaps because her brain didn't know how to process typical sound at this point.

Not wanting the water to get too deep for Mark, she stopped filling the tub when it would have gone no higher than her shin. Even this, she was unsure was appropriate or if she needed to lower the level some. She pictured her niece in the tub since Eve was the closest comparable-sized person she knew to Mark. Now she wished she'd been able to finish helping Nightscape wash the filly. It would help her visualize the proper water level. Then again, it seemed like the tub had been much fuller with water than this for Eve, high enough that the filly could fully submerge. Perhaps her niece could swim? Eve could certainly climb, jump, and perform physics-breaking acrobatics, so swimming wasn't sure out of the question. She decided that she'd leave the water as it was for now and adjust if need be.

Mark didn't move from under the bed. She could be patient. He had said he would come. She just needed to give him time.

Waiting for him, she pulled out her phone and scanned her messages. Her initial message to everyone had been received, and there were numerous replies of relief. Several family members had been worried she'd been jumped or something. She rolled her eyes. She might not have the same self-defense capacities as Jordan, Jackie, Robby, Nightscape, or any of the three demons, but she wasn't helpless. Sure, she was more likely to get in trouble for defending herself, but unjust as that was, she wouldn't let anyone hurt her just to stay out of legal trouble.

In her haste to send off a group reply, she had also accidentally replied to Jordan. Jordan's message had been about how she'd be moving into Wabash tomorrow–that was fast. Regardless, her best friend hadn't known she had been unaccounted for and was now worriedly messaging her asking why she was in the hospital. Best to ease her friend's fears quickly.

BigMath

MotherGoose2024<😍😵🤩>

Jessica tried to determine if there was any hidden meaning in the emojis that she wasn't catching, but ultimately she decided it was just Jordan being happy and cheerful. Emojis made her wary over the last few years, silly as that was, due to a certain intrusive Dreamwarden's penchant for appearing as them. The first time she had seen a two-dimensional floating emoji, she'd freaked out–primarily because it was two-dimensional.

Mark still hadn't stirred. She could be patient, but the truth was, she wasn't very patient.

"Mark, the bath is ready. You don't want it to be cold, do you?" she asked, projecting her voice just a little.

He didn't get startled by her voice. There was no change in his vitals that she could tell by listening. It took a few seconds, but he did start moving, slowly but moving.

She waited. Mark was creeping through the room, trying to be as silent as possible. Humans and most ponies might not have heard him, but he might as well have been beating a drum to announce himself to her. When he was just around the corner of the doorway, still out of sight, he stopped.

"It's hard being brave, I know," she said and heard him retreat a few centimeters and stop again. "Once upon a time, when I wasn't much older than you or much bigger, I was in a terrifying situation. I was trapped in a big building, kind of like this one. It was dark, the power was out, and it was storming outside."

Memory flooded back to her as perfectly as if it had happened yesterday.

Jessie stared out 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 she and Jordan had been frightened by it, but Jackie had reacted like it was the most incredible 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 an 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 happening out there." She looked at Jessie. "You're a genius; got any idea why the phones aren't working?"

"That wasn't the worst part," she continued. "There were monsters in the building with me. If they so much as touched me, I would die."

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 toward 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 on 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?

She heard him inch forward, but he remained out of sight. His heartbeat was regular; hers had elevated slightly.

The red emergency lighting cast an eerie glow over the locker-filled hallway. Only a thin, watery light came 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 monstrous doorways. She kept glancing at all the shadows, sure something was coming to get her.

She told herself that it was just blue lockers and red light, that the blue paint was absorbing the red glow of the emergency lights, casting them into shadow. It was simple physics, something you’d find in the setup of a problem in a math textbook. What color would her textbooks be in this lighting? Or the blue crystal pony on the stairs? When she...

Knowing didn’t help.

There 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, dark, and empty. If she whimpered, she shouldn’t be heard over the buzzing of the lights, 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 whimpering because she knew that Mrs. Jean would hear her and come for her.

"I had all my friends with me, along with some grown-ups. The grown-ups did everything they could to protect us from the monsters, like your grandma did for you, but the monsters got them. Luckily, the monsters couldn't kill them with a touch, but their touch still put the grown-ups to sleep, and we didn't know if they would wake up."

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 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 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 focused entirely 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 on 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.

He was listening but wasn't coming into the room. It was getting harder for her to breathe. Why was she telling him this?

"We were…we were left on our own, against the monsters…" she said, fighting to get the words out. Memory came in a flood now.

"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, and one minute stretched on forever. Then her 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, 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 started galloping 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 on her brother and feebly tried reaching out towards him. Jackie and Jordan began running on the far edge, away from the fallen lockers. Jessie followed them but cried out as the stallion turned his eyes back toward 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! Citizen–" She jumped, startled out of her stupor, as the announcement started back up again.

"I can't fudging move!" She yelled with fear and frustration at her auntie's repeating message. She backed away from the stallion, too afraid to think of any new plan.

Sound flooded her ears. Heartbeats became quakes. Each breath was the sound of a tornado. The electricity going through the wires in the walls was thunder. Blood circulating through veins was a rushing river. There were so many other sounds she couldn't even identify, and yet, the memories did not cease.

Jessie stared in horror at the empty space where 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 invincible one, had fallen. It was impossible, completely unbelievable, but she had just witnessed it. One of her heroes and friends was now gone.

Why wouldn't the memories stop? She started to whimper.

Burning and broken branches littered the roof as brightly glowing embers drifted 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.

She huddled on the floor; it was impossible to make out individual sounds now. It was just an unending roar.

Then, something touched her, pulling her back to her senses and banishing the maelstrom of sound.

Mark sat before her, looking at her. His eyes were bright blue and seemed just a little too big, despite the rest of his face looking human, giving his face a slight uncanny valley. His hand was on her face, and her face was on the floor, along with the rest of her, huddled in a fetal position on the ground, her face damp from crying.

"Hurt?" he asked her, barely above a whisper yet still laden with concern.

She wanted to shake her head, but her position didn't allow it. She instead closed her eyes. "No, not hurt. I'm scared."

Her eyes were still closed, but she felt him nuzzle up beside her. Needing comfort, she gently embraced him and hugged him. Mark did not attempt to get away.

Chapter 7: Sibling Squabbles

Jessica awoke and looked at her phone–an hour till noon. She'd barely get to spend any time with her brother, niece, nephew, and sister-in-law before they went to bed. The little ones were probably already tucked in. At least she'd get more time in the evening with them; that was a positive.

She had a few messages; only one of the messages was from a job, and it was from Bev, who expected slow replies, so there was no rush to answer. The rest she decided to worry about after coffee and breakfast–well, lunch now. Half of the messages were from people in the house, so if there was anything urgent, she could hear it from them directly. It was unlikely to be anything critical; otherwise, they wouldn't have let her sleep in. Today was Friday…what was she supposed to be doing on Friday?

She sat up in a rush. Apartments! She had a meeting with someone about an apartment in less than two hours! If all went well, she could be signing the lease shortly after. If she didn't do it today, it wouldn't be until next week at the earliest that she could finalize anything. She needed to get ready.

First thing after getting up, she went to her computer and checked the simulations. She was on vacation, but she'd been doing this as a habit for years, like breathing. There were no days off. Vacation was dedicating less time to it, not abandoning it. The Devourers didn't take days off, and neither did she. The Devourers did slow down and pause for repairs. What she was doing now was more or less that. She was slowing down to repair her mental and emotional state so she could function at peak efficiency.

The downside of this was that simulations kept running without her constantly checking, and without her checking, they tended to pile up. She paused the simulations and then sorted probability matches from greatest to lowest.

Her eyes widened when she saw multiple probability matches in the double digits. There were a 17.6%, a 13.48%, a 14.92%, and even a 25.07%. That had two of the highest probabilities she had seen since she started doing these simulations. That wasn't even counting twenty-three others on today's list that she counted that were not at 10% but were still higher than 5%. She felt lucky when she got one simulation a day that reached the 5% mark; she never got results like this.

You're supposed to be on vacation. You are supposed to be getting ready to go get your apartment. The world won't end by this evening. This can wait. She scolded herself.

Exercising phenomenal self-control, she saved the data to look at later and kept the simulations paused; then, after realizing she hadn't, she backed up the data to a separate drive. If she didn't, today would be the day something happened to her computer, and she would lose all that data. Fearing Murphy's Law striking today might seem paranoid, but she would not tempt it.

With that taken care of, she got dressed, brushed her hair, quickly stopped by the bathroom, and finally headed downstairs.

"Morning," she greeted as she entered the living room.

Robby and Nightscape were on the floor in front of the television, pounding on a pair of arcade joysticks as their fighters on the screen pulled off complex combos.

"Morning," Robby greeted without taking his eyes off the game. He then jumped up and started prancing in place. "Yes!! I got you! Take that!"

Nightscape glared at her husband as he did his victory dance. "You only won because you kept playing those cheap-ass horn blasts, and my guy moved like molasses and was too big to dodge."

Robby smirked. "You're the one who decided to play as the yak."

"He looked cooler," Nightscape said with a pout.

Jessica frowned. "You two are going to break Dusk's controllers if you keep abusing them like that. Be a little more gentle."

Robby bumped the controller with his hoof. "Don't worry. These things are built to take a beating. That's part of why they cost so much. Did you know that when you were little, they used to make you buy a whole separate game system?"

"The controllers are the system, and you need to not break them. Mom and Dad paid a lot to get Dusk those things," Jessica scolded. "They'll pitch an even bigger fit than him if you damage them."

Nightscape snorted. "We aren't going to break them. The only thing I will break is my husband's pride when I decimate him in the next match."

Robby hunched back down and tapped a button on the control. "Oh, it is on! Prepare to watch me teabag you again!"

"Don't promise me a good time," Nightscape cackled.

Jessica rolled her eyes and proceeded to the kitchen.

Umber was still awake and following Jessica's mother around the kitchen like a lost puppy. Her mother walked from the table to the sink; Umber followed, eyes glued to her. Her mother walked from the sink to the refrigerator, and Umber followed again, still gazing up at her.

"Jessie, coffee just finished brewing for you. I know you have a busy day ahead of you. Sorry, but I'm going to be heading out as well in a few minutes. I need to pick your little brother up from school. There's a bus driver strike. I expect there's going to be a car line a mile long at the middle school, and I want to get there early."

Jessica pointed at Umber as she headed to the sink to grab her favorite mug. "I see you picked up an admirer."

Her mom looked at the tiny foal. "Yeah, he's been doing that. You did the same thing around his age. You were timid around strangers and didn't like to leave my side. The only difference is that you were a lot more vocal about your need to stay with me and demanding what you wanted. We never had to wonder what was on your mind–you told us, loud and clear."

"Well, by his age, my vocabulary was larger than his older sister's, and he can't even talk yet. I can't help that I figured speaking out faster than other kids. I don't understand why it takes every other kid so long to figure out basic language," Jessica said as she poured her coffee.

Her mother smirked. "You figured out cursing in your first few words. You were very proud of yourself."

Jessica blushed. "I was told what I said was fudge, which is not vulgar."

"You said fudding since you couldn't get the sounds quite right. However, you still say fudge, and you do it as a substitute for an F-bomb, just like you did back then when copying us doing that. If you're substituting for the word, you might as well be saying the word," her mother said with a smirk.

Jessica giggled. "Well, fudge, Mom, you got me there."

"Don't say that in front of Umber! Robby and Nightscape won't leave me alone with their foals anymore if that ends up being Umber's first word!"

"As you wish. Oh, by the way, Jordan ended up being the one duped into taking Auntie's mansion."

Her mom paused and raised an eyebrow. "Saying she was duped is not a kind thing to say about your best friend, and I still fail to see how getting a mansion and a method of affording it is a bad thing. I know you know things the rest of us don't, but unless she has a flesh-eating monster in the basement that no one knows about, it seems like a good deal to me."

Jessica took a sip of her coffee. "There might be a monster in the basement for all we know. Auntie has a habit of going over the top with security measures. Remember how she managed to lock down the Bastion so well that even Princess Twilight couldn't penetrate its defenses, but Auntie also managed to lock herself out in the process because she had no failsafe to get in?"

Her mom hastily made a shushing motion. "You know not to talk about that! Your father still breaks down crying at the mention of that. You survived your adventure during the Cataclysm, if just barely; we don't need anyone speaking about things that remind him of who didn't– even if he isn't here right now. It's something we can't get comfortable doing."

Jessica swirled the coffee in her mug, staring at it rather than looking at her mom. "That reminds me; I've had an uptick in anxiety attacks again the last few days. Last night it got horrible."

Her mom hurried over to her, almost tripping over Umber in the process–who let off an annoyed yap that resembled the union of a squeak, a whinny, and a chirp. Her Mom paused briefly to make sure she hadn't stepped on him but continued over to Jessica after seeing Umber hiss at her in displeasure, which indicated the only thing hurt was his feelings–although her mom ignoring his display of defensive aggression might lead to him soon adding out a thunderous cry to complete his vocal orchestra.

"Do we need to contact the psychiatrist?" her mom asked. "I know you don't like going, but there's nothing wrong with getting a little help. This is a stressful time for you–starting a new career, moving into your own place for the first time, deciding to see that awful movie, not to mention the fact you spend hours on end looking at those simulation results and adjusting simulations. It might be worth it to see the doctor."

"I'm actually on vacation from the Dreamwardens' task," she replied, although she very much wanted to take a closer look at today's results. "I'll be fine. Jordan will be in town tomorrow, and having her around should help lighten the stress." She paused before continuing. "By the way, I know I told you not to tell me, but how bad is the movie?"

"It's got some emotional moments, especially near the end, and the second act gets rather frightening–though the part where you use a trash can lid to skateboard across falling debris seems far-fetched and breaks up the tension a bit."

Jessica raised an eyebrow. "I what?"

"They took some liberties, sweetie. Did you really expect they wouldn't do some over-the-top action sequence? They also played up your friendship with Wild Growth more. The entire movie practically celebrates the earth pony tribe since it shows the strongest earth pony and the smartest. Earth ponies couldn't stop fawning over it."

Jessica rolled her eyes. "At least if it steers far enough into fiction, I can make it through without issue."

Her mom looked like she wanted to reply, but Umber had enough of being ignored.

"WHAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Before Jessica or her mother could attempt to calm the crying foal, Robby ran into the kitchen.

"What's wrong, buddy? You okay?" Robby asked as he nuzzled his son and wrapped a wing around him. Umber promptly stopped bawling but continued to sniffle.

"He was upset at getting ignored while we were talking," Jessica explained.

Robby rubbed his son's back. "Someone might be overtired. It's almost noon." He looked up at their mom. "Are you sure you'll be fine bringing him and Eve with you when you pick up Dusk? I know Eve will sleep through the entire ride, but Umber can be a little finicky about sleep. He still has that infant sleep cycle where he's asleep for an hour or two and then wakes up crying without knowing what he's crying about."

"It will be fine. I dealt with you, Jessie, and Dusk; I can deal with my precious little grandbabies for a few hours at a time," their mom assured him.

He looked skeptical. "Dusk is a human kid; I was human when I was that young, and Jessie…Jessie was just weird."

Jessica stuck out her tongue and held up a middle finger at her older brother; he stuck his tongue out at her in turn.

"Look at my two mature, adult offspring," their mom said long-sufferingly.

Jessie set her mug down. "He started it."

Robby chuckled. "We're only this way with each other. It's all good. It wouldn't be right if we weren't ribbing each other. It's been our thing since Jessie started talking in full sentences."

"Not quite that early; there was about a year of peace. Jessie had to advance from sentences to paragraphs. The obscene gestures started around when you hit your preteen years," their mom corrected. "Umber and Eve won't be a problem. I'm sure they aren't that different from human kids, and I only have to deal with them for a few hours. That's the benefit of being a grandma; I don't have to deal with them for extended periods. I get them in short stints where I can adore them, then give them back to you to be your problem."

"That is so cliche," Jessica remarked.

"Would you prefer I didn't love my grandbabies?" their mom cooed as she bent down and looked at Umber. "It may be cliche, but I love being a grandma. I miss having small children around. You two are all grown up. Dusk is entering puberty. I miss this."

Umber let off another chirp cry as he buried his face in his father's fur.

"You miss foals crying?" Jessica asked. "That's just weird. You know, Mark doesn't cry. He's a quiet kid."

Robby looked up at her in confusion. "Who's Mark? You didn't have some secret love child, and didn't tell your brother?"

She couldn't help it; she briefly sneered at him before catching herself. "You know better than to even joke about that."

He looked away. "I'm sorry. I don't know why I said that. I know–"

She shook her head and her hand. "It's fine. Let's forget it happened. Mark's a young partial kid that Dad has been working with. That's who I've been helping out with at the hospital. Dad didn't mention him to you?"

Robby shook his head. "I was curious about why you were at the hospital, but I assumed it was something routine if neither Mom nor Dad was making much of a deal about it, and talking about work just doesn't flow naturally for me since I'm primarily a stay-at-home dad and I don't discuss dream work. Nightscape might have heard about it, but she said nothing to me. So…partial kid? That's rare. How young are we talking about?"

"Four," Jessica answered. "He's a possible orphan. No one else has gotten him to talk except for me, but he really hasn't said much at all. He gives me one-word responses to questions, but he speaks clearly when he does speak."

"So he responds to a human with pony parts?" Robby asked.

She sighed. "Go ahead and say partial. Don't bother dancing around it, but thank you for trying to avoid it."

"You sure?" Robby asked. "I know how you view yourself."

She nodded. "Yeah, it's fine…for this conversation. Anyway, he seems to respond to being around another partial. I might keep visiting him, at least until he gets comfortable with other people."

"It's good you're doing something to give back to the community and help someone out, even if just one person," her mom congratulated. "Maybe you should let the media get wind of it. It could be perfect for your public image."

"Mom! I'm not looking for publicity!" Jessica objected. "I can't believe you'd want me to do something like that."

"I'm always going to be concerned about the success of my children," their mom replied, unfazed at being reprimanded ."Yes, you should do it because it is the good and right to do, but the media hearing about this might get people to remember you for something other than what you did when you were six."

"I'm in the science textbooks of every student in the sixth grade and up. I have plenty of good publicity," Jessica reminded her mom.

Her mother gave her a flat look. "Sweetie, I say this in the most gentle way possible; most of us don't know the first thing about advanced physics. We do understand an outsider who ended up becoming successful helping out an outsider who is at the bottom of society. Everyone likes those stories."

"I'm not informing the media, and I'll be very unhappy with anyone who does," Jessica said firmly.

"I don't think it would have as much of a positive impact as you think, to tell the truth," Robby said. Umber started whimpering again, which made Robby pause to snuggle his son. "Hush, hush. Daddy's here and holding you." He then looked back up. "The larger majority of humans think partials are diseased or something. They aren't going to care about a partial taking care of a partial. They'd probably sneer at it or try to turn it around somehow into an excuse for more restrictions on partials–I don't know how, but I know they'll think of something."

Their mother crossed her arms. "That's just a loud minority."

"A loud minority that can rouse up a mob and have politicians at their mercy," Robby replied.

"Yeah, common sense at work," Jessica muttered. They both knew her saying about common sense. It was one thing she was quoted by others about most often–often without giving her credit.

"Why must you be so cynical?" her mother lamented.

"Because it's logical to be cynical. In an uncontrolled system, it is always a higher probability that an outcome results in a move toward disorder. For instance, yes, there is technically a chance a room full of monkeys could produce a masterpiece of literature, but it is far more likely that each monkey will pound out gibberish and make a mess, and those chances remain that high for each pounding of their fists on the typewriter. If anything orderly appears, it is quickly overtaken by the disorder. This applies to science, psychology, sociology, economics, and everything. That's why Murphy's Law is a scientific principle, not just something people say. It is an extension of entropy."

Umber started to wail, and Robby devoted his full attention to his son.

"There, there, buddy. We'll get your mama to feed you, and then you should sleep for a while after that."

Jessica gestured. "See? Murphy's Law in action–crying toddler."

"An overtired one," Robby said. "After Nighty nurses him, he'll drift off. I don't get stressed about this after going through it with Eve. This is just normal behavior for a toddler. Dealing with it can, at times, cause exhaustion, but it only stresses me so much as I let it. I'm happy knowing they won't have to go through the crazy stuff we went through as foals. They'll have nice, peaceful, mundane lives–hopefully completely obscure. We have enough famous people connected to the family." He knelt, and Umber climbed onto his back, gripping Robby's neck tightly with his legs.

Robby stood back up. "I'll be back in a few minutes. Time to halt Nightscape from her PVE to feed him, and I'm going to dig our sunglasses out. It's cloudy out today, but I'd still rather be safe avoiding the sun. Clouds are thinner out here."

"You're still going to come with me to the apartment?" Jessica asked. "It's kinda late for you."

"I'm not letting my little sis get cheated out of her first apartment. I'll be coming along," Robby confirmed.

She scowled. "I appreciate your company, but I'm capable of dealing with an apartment manager. I'm not a child."

"Have you ever had to deal with an apartment manager before?" Robby asked. "Look, we both know people will take every opportunity to discriminate against you, and people like you are not protected by civil rights legislation. Anyone in housing is more likely to discriminate due to them worrying about you upsetting other tenants. It isn't certain this apartment manager will, but it might be better to have your big brother standing by to put some pressure on. I can also drop Phobia's name if need be."

Her fists clenched as she tried to control her tail and ears. She didn't need Phobia Remedy's help to get through life. She'd done plenty without someone else propping her up.

Robby gave her a sympathetic smile. "You know, one of the advantages of being shorter than you is I notice your hands faster. I'd only bring up Phobia as a last resort. It isn't like she's never been helpful. She is the one that insisted you publish your work when you were a kid. If not for her, Middleton's Law would have a different name because someone else would have defined it first. It was inevitable someone would have done so. She helped you beat them to the punch."

She no longer bothered holding her tail and ears in check. She loved her big brother and knew he wanted the best for her, but that didn't mean he didn't seriously underestimate how she felt about things at times. He should have just dropped the subject.

"I'm going to go by myself," she announced as she walked by her brother.

"Jessie, I'm sorry. Don't be like that," her brother protested.

She was already out of the kitchen and into the living room. Nightscape sadly watched her as she grabbed her purse, no doubt having heard what had just happened. Ponies might not hear as well as she could, but they heard better than humans. At least Nightscape had the sense not to protest.

She was already out the front door when she heard Robby sigh in the kitchen. "Why does she have to be so prideful?"

"Don't say that; she can still hear you," her mother said.

"Well, she knows she is overly prideful. She's too smart not to be at least a little self-aware," Robby countered in a frustrated tone. "Jessie, if you're listening, I'm sorry for suggesting dropping Phobia's name to help you out. I think you're overreacting, but I won't do it if it bothers you that much. I could have had more tact as well. Can you please come back? We came here to spend time with you, not fight."

Her hand was on the handle of her car door, but she didn't open it. If she took off now, she'd look very childish. She probably had already made a fool out of herself, storming out the way she had. That's what people did when they got angry; they lost all intelligence and wisdom. That's why it was her auntie's favorite tactic against her foes. That was the nature of common sense, and even she was not immune to it. The question was whether she looked worse for continuing to leave or if she relented and returned inside.

She sighed and released the door handle, returning to make amends with her older brother.

"Why are you reading? Shouldn't you be packing?" Jackie asked from across the table. "You're leaving for the airport in just two hours."

Jordan lowered the book she'd been reading just enough to look over it at her sister. "It's a fully furnished mansion. Aside from some books and mementos, which are already packed, what do I need to bring with me?"

Jackie fluffed her wings. "I don't know. There's got to be something. You're going across ls the country." The pegasus mare lowered her head. "It isn't like the other side of the state. It's too far away."

Their father, sitting to her left, swallowed his oatmeal and smiled. "I think someone is just sad her little sister is moving away." He then broke down into a coughing fit.

Jordan set her book down and looked on worriedly as Jackie touched a wing to their father's side. Their mother was already reaching for his medication.

"You okay, Dad?" Jackie asked him.

He didn't answer, and they waited as their mother helped administer his medicine. When she was done, she led him away to the living room, presumably to lie down on the couch.

"You can't leave me here to take care of them alone," Jackie said in a low whisper.

Jordan lowered her head as if that would help keep her voice down as well. "Mom can take care of Dad just fine. You don't need to worry."

Her sister shook her head. "No, Mom needs to be taken care of too. Something isn't right with her. You just have been so caught up with graduating high school, your birthday, then starting college to see it. Have you seen all that junk mail lying in the corner of the living room? She refuses to throw it away! She even yells at me if I try, and she keeps getting all this extra useless junk from flea markets that she is never going to use. On top of all that, she's started muttering to herself."

"Lots of people mutter to themselves," Jordan countered. "And so what if she buys some extra stuff because it looks cool or whatever?"

Jackie shook her head again. "She never muttered to herself before, and she does it for hours at a time sometimes! Plus, how do you explain the junk mail she doesn't want to throw away? Like, I can go out there right now and see offers for floof implants, timeshares in the Caribbean, offers to join the Birds Aren't Real Society, and letters from questionable African princes. You know that stuff is all garbage that should go straight into the trash. Fluffball has even used some of the pile as a litter box; it's disgusting!"

Jordan blinked. "The cat has been using it as a litter box? Has his box not been changed?"

"It has, but he isn't going to object to the convenient one left out in the living room," Jackie said with disgust.

Jordan's ears sagged. "Okay, maybe something is up, but it sounds like she needs professional help. I'm not qualified to deal with that kind of stuff, and neither are you. Maybe we should talk to Phobia about it. She's a psychologist."

"Her specialty is fear; this is something else entirely," Jackie replied. "I think this is some sort of early onset dementia. Maybe something got screwed up in her head all those years ago when she was temporarily human, and it's just now starting to get bad. Then there's Dad. You saw it just now. His lungs are getting worse from the damage they sustained during the Cataclysm. She can't keep taking care of him if she needs to be taken care of herself. You leaving dumps this all on me."

Jordan scowled. "You were fine when I left to go to Winthrop."

"You were just two hours away. If something came up, you could be here the same day. Denver isn't somewhere you can get here from in the same day if there's an emergency," Jackie countered.

Jordan shook her head. "What am I supposed to do in an emergency? I don't understand diseases of the mind or medical stuff. If Dad needs to go to the hospital, he can get there without me. If Mom needs mental help, Phobia can at least recommend someone. I love them, but we're not qualified to handle this. Talk to Phobia."

Jackie fluffed her wings. "You talk to her. You're closer to her than me. Maybe she likes you more because you're her half-sister, and I'm just her stepsister. Maybe that makes a difference, but you have an easier time getting an in-person audience with her."

Jordan flicked her tail. "Don't talk like that. We're all sisters. We don't need to attach those extra parts like step or half. I've never looked at you or her and thought of you as just half-sisters. You're my sister; she's my sister. It would be best if you viewed it the same way. If you ask for an audience with Phobia, she'll immediately see you. You're her sister."

Jackie gave her a long look. "Jordan, you don't see how much more favored you are over me. You spent way more time at her house. You also got personal magic lessons from Sunset Blessing, and the old mare just gave you her mansion without even considering me. I'm not mad you get to be the favorite. After all, you're my favorite sister, and I like seeing you get ahead, but I don't get all the support you do."

"I spent most of my time at Phobia's house doing self-defense training," Jordan countered. "You got out of most of that because you started doing flight team, which took you away from most of the time training with the rest of us. I never got out of it for clubs or anything, but they gave you that privilege."

"Only because Tempest didn't have any pegasi to teach me how to fly to the best of my ability, and night ponies and pegasi don't fly or fight in the air the same way. She couldn't give me proper training. Flight team gave me the training she couldn't provide, that's why they let me do that instead of train with the rest of you, not because they were doing me a favor," Jackie explained. "She might not have had any unicorns around either, but she used to be a unicorn herself, so she still understood enough to train you."

"Well, that just shows they took extra consideration with you," Jordan affirmed. "As for Auntie teaching me magic–besides Dad and her one son, I'm the only unicorn in the family. She doesn't teach Dad anything because he doesn't want to know. She'd teach others if there were any. It isn't because I'm special. She also offered the mansion to others before offering it to me. I think I did get a heads-up for being a unicorn, but that didn't put me at the top of the list even then. She even offered it to Jessie before me."

"You aren't related to Sunset Blessing; neither of us is. We aren't in her family," Jackie replied.

Jordan held up a hoof. "Only by traditional American standards. In Equestria and some other cultures, where they have a much more complex and broad understanding of family, they have familial terms for relations like what Auntie us in relation to us. A lot of it doesn't translate right, so we hear it as cousin or uncle or aunt, but they describe familial positions we don't have designations for."

"You are such a nerd," Jackie muttered.

"You're such a jock," Jordan said in turn.

Jackie's ears sagged. "In high school, but not so much anymore. Now I'm just kind of here, with nothing that makes me special or stand out, and I need help with all this stuff."

"What's that about my filly not feeling special?"

They both turned to see their mother coming back into the kitchen.

"Um, how much of that did you hear?" Jackie sheepishly asked.

Their mother retook her seat. "Just that you weren't feeling special and needed help with something. What do you need help with? Is this to do with your stallionfriend?"

Jordan felt a wave of relief, and she was sure her sister did too. They still needed to divert the conversation.

"Jackie is upset that Auntie skipped over her to give me the mansion. She feels like she wasn't special enough and that I'm getting handouts where she isn't," Jordan said quickly.

It wasn't a lie, and it kept the conversation from discussing their mother's possibly deteriorating reasoning. Whatever was going on with their mother, it was in the early stages. If they brought it up incorrectly, they might offend her and lose any possible cooperation from her. No one wanted to be told they had a mental problem. It was best to let their mom figure out she had a problem and then assist her with getting help.

Their mom started muttering something under her breath, which continued for an uncomfortably long time. Jackie met Jordan's eyes. Yeah, their mom didn't use to do this. Jordan felt ashamed she hadn't been paying attention to these signs. She'd heard her mom mutter on and off over the last year or so, but it wasn't until now that she noted how detached her mom seemed while doing it, like she forgot she was talking to them.

"Yeah, Jordan's getting mansions handed to her, and Sunset Blessing doesn't leave me so much as an ugly animal statue or a gift card. I mean, what the fuck?" Jackie said, rolling with the excuse.

Their mom stopped muttering and let out a growl. "That mare, turning my little fillies on against one another! She couldn't accept that you two always get along and are like two peas in a pod. She had to do something to screw it up. That gift is nothing but poison. Jordan, you really should tell her thanks but no thanks."

"I'm not giving it up. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Jordan stressed.

"I don't want her to give it up either. I think most of my frustration is how much I will miss having her close by. Maybe if she could delay going there, it would be easier for me," Jackie said in a hurry, trying to quell any thoughts they were at each other's throats.

Jordan shook her head. "Amicus said I had to reside there as part of the receiving conditions. I'm not just getting the house; I'm the guardian of its secrets. I can't guard them very well if I'm not there."

Jackie flicked her tail. "Security at that place is already insane. It's Sunset Blessing who put it in place. She probably has a hundred death traps put in place. If she could keep Twilight Sparkle out of her last set of vaults, Indiana Jones himself couldn't get in her current vaults."

"Always assume you're up against someone smarter and stronger than you," Jordan quoted. "It says so in Auntie's book."

Her mom gave the book she was reading a look of disgust. "Why are you reading that? I don't like the idea of you embracing her ways of thinking."

Jordan lit her horn and opened the book again. "I figured I might as well read it. She's giving me a mansion. It might be nice to understand how she thinks. It doesn't mean I'll agree with her about stuff."

Jackie eyed the book. "Isn't that one of her religious works?"

Jordan nodded. "Yeah, but for being famous for being a very religious preacher, she spends a lot of time being critical of Christianity. Like right here, she says, what is the difference between someone calling themselves a devout Evangelical Christian and someone calling themselves a devout Satanist?– Both serve the same master, but one is being honest with you about it. I also don't understand a lot of her complaints. Some I understand, like complaining about missionaries not doing anything to help anyone but preach and hand out Bibles, but she also spends a full chapter complaining about how public prayer is a sure sign someone is going to Hell. I know I only go to church on Easter and Christmas Eve, and maybe once or twice more a year, but I thought I understood church stuff better than this. Maybe Dad can explain it to me."

"Sweetie, you have to understand, she hates who she was as a human and hates who she was as a Shimmerist, so she spends a lot of time condemning anything associated with that. It's her way of confessing her shame," their mom explained, then her face hardened. "One thing that hasn't changed is she's always up to something. I don't buy for one minute this talk about how she has to go to Equestria to protect her family. The mare understands transformation magic better than anyone. She could easily go into hiding with all her kids in human forms, and no one would be the wiser. I think this is all some elaborate hoax that she's going to Equestria. She's going off the grid and sending body doubles to Equestria."

That felt dangerously close to wild conspiracy theories–the type that could indicate a mental imbalance. Jackie was right; something was wrong. Still, Jordan knew she was correct too, and they weren't qualified to deal with this. She'd contact her eldest sister as soon as she could. Phobia would know what to do.

Paul walked to the nurse's desk again with a netted sack full of toys slung over his shoulder. Rachael looked up at him and smiled as he approached.

"My! It looks like someone is playing Santa today!" Rachael said with a grin.

He set the bag down and smiled back. "My daughter was here late yesterday. She went to bed without telling me how it went, but I hope she managed to make more progress with Mark, and if she did, he might be a little more up to socializing today."

Rachael's smile slipped. "She's making progress. She managed to bathe him and trim his mane. He even snuggled up to her. Unfortunately, that hasn't translated to him reacting any better to anyone else."

Paul blinked. "I expected she made progress since she was out so late; I didn't expect she made that much. He snuggled up to her?"

"Yeah, she seems to have a magic touch with him that no one else has yet to replicate." Rachael looked at the camera. "He's at the window again, but I guarantee he'll duck under the bed as soon as you walk in. He has for everyone else today. We've tried replicating your daughter's methods, but it isn't working for us. We're unsure what she did in the bathroom to get him to let her pick him up. We don't have a feed from the bathroom, and she didn't tell us."

"All we can do is keep trying, right?" Paul asked. "If I keep coming by and am non-threatening each time, he might warm up to me."

"I hope so. I just know he likes her and doesn't seem to like anyone else. I wish you luck. He's a cute foal, and we all feel awful for him."

Paul nodded. "We'll help him. I expect my office will be sending paperwork in to take custody of him early next week–unless there's some health problem that we need to be aware of."

She shook her head. "No, his bloodwork came back, and while he was malnourished when he got here, he's been eating well since arriving. We haven't found anything else troubling about his health. However, it can be hard to say for certain with partials since their basic biology and anatomy vary so much from individual to individual, so he requires ongoing study. That's not even getting into what happens if he starts developing magic."

"Can't envy the kid for that. My daughter had to have a crystal pony constantly with her for over a year due to her powers, and she still had to have regular visits for a long time after that. I could tell she hated feeling like a subject to be studied and having a constant babysitter, even if she never complained much about it–she hated her powers going berserk even more. At least this kid can get a proper rehumanization or ponification in Equestria once he gets old enough to make a choice."

"Yeah, he'll make such a cute unicorn colt when he gets older," Rachael agreed. "It's sad they are still basically exiling people to Equestria for that. When I was younger, I had a partial cousin that went to Equestria to finish becoming a pony. He thought he could come back, and legally, he technically could, but the government put up so many obstacles and red tape to it that he functionally can't. I heard he's got a family over there now. My uncle gets letters from him every once and a while."

"Well, I'm sure he'll be happy, no matter what choice he makes," Paul said as he hefted the dack again and headed towards the room. "Hopefully, he'll like these toys. I want to see him happy now, not just years in the future."

Author's Note

Sorry for delay, been caught up playing Tears of the Kingdom, but now that I've beaten the game, and don't have the will to chase down my 700 missing koroks, I'll be less distracted.

Chapter 8: Homes

The apartment complex was gated and a short drive from the college. It was within walking distance, although she wouldn't be taking any strolls; those were dangerous. They'd been almost completely abandoned for a few years after ETS for various reasons–former tenants becoming ponies, rent prices escalating, and nearby roads getting destroyed by earth ponies, but they'd been purchased and completely remodeled. Now that rent prices were back down after that bubble finally burst, they were packed with students and staff of the university, with rooms rarely opening up. With how fast the vacant apartments filled, Jessica felt lucky she was even getting the chance to rent one.

That chance felt very iffy at the moment.

The apartment manager sat across the table from her, Robby, and Nightscape. The manager was human, as Jessica heard was common in housing positions; she was in either her late thirties or early forties, white, shoulder-length brown hair, with a gray business jacket and pants. The woman was primarily smiling, but the smile slipped each time her eyes drifted to Jessica's ears.

"Your income seems to be in order, but you have no credit history I could find. Do you have any car loans, previous rentals, personal loans, credit cards, or anything you can present?" the manager asked.

Jessica shook her head. "No, I've never had any need for them. I own my car outright, bought it piece by piece, and put it together myself. I've lived with my parents up until now."

"No student loans?" the woman asked.

"None; I had a full scholarship for my undergraduate degree, and scholarships and grants covered my entire post-graduate education," Jessica explained.

The woman frowned. "So, no history of payments to anyone? Car insurance and phone bills? Do you have those, at least?"

Jessica nodded. "I do have those and a perfect payment history. I can pull them up and email them to you if you need proof."

The woman looked at Jessica's ears again, frowning.

"Do you have an issue with my sister's ears, ma'am?" Robby asked.

The woman quickly looked down. "No, nothing wrong with some differences…..I don't mean to pry, but is there a reason you didn't rehumanize?"

"This is me rehumanized. I was an earth pony from one week old till I was six," Jessica said through gritted teeth.

"Didn't you see In the Shadow of Demeter?" Nightscape asked the apartment manager.

The apartment manager blinked. "What does…." She then looked at the application again and covered her mouth as she gasped, "Oh…my…god! You're her! You're the Jessie that movie is based on!"

Her ears flattened slightly, though it was due to sheer force of will that it was only slightly. How her tail was reacting, even she didn't know, but the apartment manager shouldn't be able to see it from where she was sitting. She even forced a smile. "Please, call me Doctor Middleton. I prefer to be remembered for my contributions to science."

What she said didn't seem to register, as the manager was now looking at Robby. "And you must be the Robby who flew from the school through the storm to get Wild Growth."

Robby rubbed his head. "Yeah, they made that scene a lot more exciting in the movie than it really was. I was exhausted when I found her; that part is true."

The apartment manager turned her eyes to Nightscape. "And are you one of the Three Demons of Fear? What were the girls' names, Tabitha and Charlotte?"

The Three Demons of Fear? Jessica had always heard them collectively referred to as the demons, not the more elaborate title.

Nightscape shook her head and held up her forehooves. "Nope! I'm just Robby's wife. I was just a filly in Florida at the time, watching it all go down on the news. I did move to Skytree years later and meet them all–my introduction to them was them ramming my face into the dirt when I scoffed at younger teens trying to fight a grown mare."

"Don't worry. They did that to all the ponies at that house except for their mothers, including me. It was all part of self-defense training, so don't worry, they weren't beating up random ponies," Robby explained. "So, what about my famous hero sister's application?"

The apartment manager grabbed some keys and stood up. "Yes! We would be thrilled to have such a famous celebrity living here. Let me show you the available apartment right away." She paused and pulled out her phone, holding it out to Nightscape, who grabbed it deftly with her wings. "Before seeing the apartment, can you take my picture with these two? My friends won't believe I met them without visual proof."

Jessica groaned in her head. At least it seemed like she was getting the apartment and didn't have to worry about discrimination. Being famous had its perks.

Josie yawned and adjusted her sunglasses as she sat in an alley, waiting for her contact. Rebecca better be grateful that she was willing to do this. She still needed to do her meetup with Rebecca after this too. They were both out of range of one another, which required they both project to meet at a central point. The fact she was going to get fined for whatever she was going to do with the information she got from Rebecca stung, made worse because Rebecca was likely to be the one to fine her. That's how Rebecca pulled loopholes; she had Josie do the stuff and get punished. At least it was just money. Back in Sha'am's day, it would likely be torture.

She yawned again and then coughed as she breathed in the stench of the alley with the yawn. There was a dumpster not far from her full of rotting meat. The rancid smell was nauseating. Why did she agree to meet with the thief in an alley? Privacy was needed, yes, and most ponies would avoid this place, making it unlikely they'd be overheard, but surely there was somewhere better to meet. The fact it was so hot made it all the more miserable.

Covering her mouth and nose with a wing, she backed a little further from the dumpster.

"Josie Woods?"

She turned and saw a muddy red mare with a scarlet red mane and tail; her cutie mark was a globe of the Earth.

Josie lowered her wing. "Carmen Sandiego, I presume? No big red hat?"

The mare nodded as she stepped forward. "I only wear the hat when on a caper. I hear you have some work for me, something to push the skills?"

"My employer does," Josie replied. "I'm not sure why she's bothering with some mare so obsessed with a nineties video game character she dresses up as the character and takes their name. Seems kind of cringy to me, but I don't make those calls."

The mare chuckled. "I intend to be who people think of when they hear that name. Someday, most people won't know I've based my name and wardrobe on anyone. It's all about the thrill. If the Dreamwardens are the ones hiring me, I'm sure that it must be good."

"If you get caught, you better say nothing about Dreamwardens being involved," Josie said.

The mare smirked. "I won't be caught."

Josie sighed. "We'll see. Your target is the vaults in Wabash Manor."

Carmen raised an eyebrow. "Sunset Blessing's place? Sounds promising. What am I stealing?"

"Anything, as long as it came from her vaults," Josie answered. "We aren't interested in obtaining anything. We want the defenses tested."

Carmen took a step back. "You don't want me to steal anything? This sounds like a bad job. I'm a thief; I steal things. It doesn't do my reputation any good to break in for no reason."

Josie rolled her eyes. "You want to test your skills. This is Sunset Blessing's place. Do you have any idea what that means? Her defenses in Riverview were able to thwart Princess Twilight Sparkle. She's had years to develop new ideas on how to defend her stronghold, and Wabash is her stronghold. What would it be like to accomplish what even Twilight Sparkle couldn't by circumventing her security? You surpassing Twilight Sparkle sounds like some serious street cred to me."

Carmen blinked and looked down to the left, seemingly thinking. Josie waited as about thirty seconds passed, and Carmen looked back up at her.

"That does sound impressive, but I still don't have a target to steal, and it needs to be something impressive," Carmen finally said.

"Fine," Josie replied. "I'll give you a target, but I've got to get a promise from you. If you fail to obtain the item, you can't speak of its existence to anyone."

Carmen smirked again. "If I fail to get something, I don't want anyone else to know about it so they can try to steal my thunder, but I'm going to get whatever it is, so it isn't going to matter."

Josie smiled.."You've heard that Sunset Blessing had a temporary transformation spell, right? In the depths of her vaults is a necklace, and whoever wears the necklace will be impacted by the spell. I've seen the necklace in action; it works. Get the necklace."

"That is a prize. I'm assuming I'll get paid well for this. That's a major thing to steal," Carmen said as she rubbed her chin.

"Very well, if you can get it," Josie confirmed. "Um, we also need to know who you want us to compensate if something happens to you."

The mare gave a confused look. "I'm not getting caught, but why would you compensate someone if I fail to get the target?"

Josie shook her head. "I don't think you understand. This is Wabash Manor with Sunset Blessing's defenses, and she cares a lot about protecting those vaults. She may be gone, but I'm confident there are flat-out death traps in that place. You don't just risk getting caught; you risk death with this job. The stakes for you are much higher, and you need to approach this with the gravity it deserves. This isn't some random warehouse, office building, or even minor military installation; this might as well be the temple of doom. I don't want to see you dying because you were too cocky and didn't take it seriously. I know Sunset Blessing, and I know the lengths she goes to."

Carmen took a step back again. "Do you want me to do this or not? I'm getting mixed signals here."

Josie lowered her wings. "I just want you not to go in there thinking you're invincible. We want you to do the job, but you must be careful. You've got skills. We'd be asking The Night Shadow if we didn't think you could do this, but either of you could get hurt or killed if you go in there without adequate caution."

The earth pony mare's eyebrows went up as high as they would go. "Night Shadow?! You'd hire that pompous, backstabbing piece of horseshit?! No, no, NO! I'm doing this job. I'm not letting him get the glory instead of me–we're not having Carson City all over again!"

Josie suppressed her grin. So much for honor among thieves. There was some competition between this mare and the other most notable thief that Josie knew of, though the number of thieves who boldly broadcast that they committed crimes was admittedly small. Carson City? Who the heck cared about anything in Carson City? She'd passed through Carson City before; nobody lived in Carson City. Skytree was ten times the size of Carson City. If they were stealing things in Nevada, it seemed like there would be better places…like a little place called Las Vegas or Salt Lake City. Even Reno was more notable.

She couldn't contain her curiosity. "What were you stealing in Carson City? It's like the biggest piece of nowhere in Nevada."

Carmen looked offended. "Carson City has a lot of history. A time capsule was being excavated from the mint building, which is now the state museum, but that bastard stole it! Like he could even appreciate the significance of what he took! He just wanted some silver."

Okay…social studies nerd. That tracked.

"Okay, so, safely raid the vaults, get the necklace, and deliver it to the McDonald's three blocks north of Wabash Manor," Josie instructed. "I still need to know who your beneficiary is if you end up dead. I'm not kidding about that. This is likely the most dangerous job you've ever done. Be quick about telling me. I want to get out of this alley."

"My little brother, Pablo," Carmen finally answered, then her eyes narrowed. "Why are you so intent on me going into such a dangerous situation if you seem unconcerned about getting anything? You don't even seem legitimately interested in that necklace."

"Honestly, we expect and hope you will fail. If you get caught, we can arrange for you to be set free with no consequences, along with suitable compensation for your time and effort," Josie answered.

Carmen's face hardened. "Using me to scout the defenses for yourself then?"

Josie shook her head. "Wabash Manor is coming under new management. We need to ensure the new management can keep the vaults safe. The fate of the world could depend on it. There are far more valuable things than that necklace in those vaults. If you succeed, then we need to talk with the new lady of the manor about getting her act in gear. Don't worry; we aren't going to warn them."

"Oh, you'll be talking with the management because I'm walking out of there with a necklace," Carmen said confidently. "So, do you have any intel to help me out?"

"The vaults are under the house; the access is through the basement. Armed guards are patrolling the place, and teleportation spells will end with you encased in stone, so don't do that. The head of security is a crystal pony, always looking for magic she doesn't recognize. Beyond that, I don't know. Just be aware that the traps may be lethal. Be very careful," Josie explained. "If you obtain the necklace, the OMMR gives you ten million dollars. If you make a legitimate attempt and fail, you get ten thousand. If you die, your brother gets a million."

"Easiest ten million I'll ever make, but not enough to make me retire. It's all about the game," Carmen said with a smirk.

Josie turned her back to the mare. "Right, whatever you say." She spread her wings. "We'll be in touch. Just don't die. I've got enough shit on my conscious without that."

She then took to the air, leaving the thief in the alley.

Now out of the shade of the alley, the sun was even worse than before. She suppressed another yawn as she headed toward the hotel where she was staying. Traffic moved smoothly through the streets below her. A few scattered pegasi were flying about. Some looked at her, curious about what a night pony was doing in their skies at this time of day. There was a plane landing at the airport far off in the distance, with additional pegasi flying security patrols near the airport, keeping stray flyers from getting too close. Those feather brains sometimes flew without direction and often zoned out when they did. When that happened, they could fly straight into the path of oncoming aircraft. That never ended well for anyone if the air patrol didn't catch them and turn them away. The ease of which they flew made them lazy flyers. That wasn't an issue with night ponies, flying took more work for her tribe, and they couldn't zone out like that. When they flew somewhere, every move was made with purpose.

Her hotel was in sight, the Omni. It was the best hotel in the area, extraordinarily fancy and luxurious. She didn't need to stay at such a high price place, but after years of living in slums, ostracized by her tribe or having originated Sunset Shimmer's vision, she was enjoying being able to afford luxuries. Being Rebecca's bodyguard came with a very hefty income, more than she knew what to do with. She donated generously to charity and had a lovely house now, but she still had more money than she knew what to do with. The house didn't mean much since her job kept her traveling most of the time. She deserved to be pampered a bit after everything she went through as a kid and the first few years after ETS.

She landed next to where the chauffeurs were receiving vehicles. The guests were almost all humans. Even nearly twenty years after ETS, there was a huge economic disparity between humans and ponies. There were wealthy ponies out there, but as a percentage of ponies, compared with a percentage of humans, ponies were a minority within a minority. She didn't know the exact numbers, but if a hundred pony millionaires lived in the USA, she'd be shocked. If there were a thousand pony millionaires in the world, she'd be doubly amazed. Ponies didn't stay at hotels like this. She'd only seen one pony on staff, and he had just been a busboy.

Guests tried to hide dirty looks as she walked by them. She couldn't care less. The looks would be worse if they knew who she was and what she had done nineteen years ago. It would probably be worse than looks if they knew; it could escalate to violence. The staff knew her, but the people here were paid to keep things confidential. None of them wanted to lose their jobs by gossiping about her to guests or on social media.

She walked into the hotel. The lobby had not one, not two, but three three-story water fountains. As you walked by them, you felt a gentle mist coming off them, like soft rain. The hotel was four stories tall. All the rooms faced the water fountains, aside from the fourth story, which looked down on them. Greek and Roman columns with mermaid statues were placed throughout the lobby. There was even a lady with a toga working at the information desk–separate from the main desk, and another lady in a toga working as a hostess at the entrance to the restaurant. She didn't know if the whole place was tacky or classy. She wasn't sure anyone staying here knew, but the hotel said it was classy, and with no one feeling confident enough to disagree with that assessment, it was therefore classy. They certainly paid for it to be classy. Consequently, they were inclined to believe it was classy rather than tacky and defend it as such. Otherwise, they'd just look like fools.

It was much nicer than a shack in the slums, even if she paid for it to rain inside instead of getting the service for free.

A short walk to the glass elevator, up two stories, and then a short walk and she was back to her room. The classical columns, white walls, and high ceilings were the highlight of the room. There was also an entire wall window, letting in too much sunlight.

"Omni, close shades," she instructed the room as she closed the door. The shades immediately started blocking off the accursed sunlight.

"Onni, turn on the air conditioner, lower temperature by five degrees Fahrenheit," she instructed as she checked for messages on her phone–there weren't any.

She heard the AC start. It might have been too quiet to hear for a human, but it was loud to her. It wasn't annoying, just background noise. She stripped off her sunglasses and phone before turning and going to the bathroom. She then started the shower and stepped into it.

"Ah, that's nice," she said as the water poured over her.

She controlled her breathing and let her mind drift. It was difficult to say how long it took, but she found herself looking at herself.

"Wish I could take more time to enjoy the shower, but there's one more task to do; then I can sleep and help those kids with their nightmares," she said before sending her projection out of the room.

Scenery zoomed by at speeds too fast to process. There was no way of knowing where she was from one second to the next. She just knew she was moving.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven…. She counted in her head as her mind tried to process what it saw, only to break down and show her white light. Then she stopped moving as she counted twelve.

She looked around. Corn, lots and lots of growing corn. Traveling at super high speeds by projection was hardly an exact science. There were some places she could get to quickly and accurately if she left from somewhere familiar and knew the exact spot she wanted to land. She'd left a hotel in a city she didn't know well and was headed to a place she'd only been a few times, so her aim wasn't that great. It was like shooting an arrow off into the distance at a target you couldn't see but had a general guess of where it was. You took your best shot and then figured out how close you got. You then keep firing until you finally get the arrow to the target.

Josie rose her projection into the air, out of the stalks of corn. She needed to get the lay of the land, so she knew where to aim next.

This was definitely at a farm. It looked like corn was the primary crop, though some other things were growing that she was unsure of the identification of–wheat, perhaps? The fields extended for some distance, with pegasi and earth ponies tending them, along with a few humans with farm equipment. None of them saw her since her projection was invisible. The sun was bright in the sky, but her projection didn't technically have eyes to be sensitive to the light, even though she still observed things. It wasn't something she understood the mechanics of; maybe Bob or Sunset Blessing or some other brilliant unicorn understood how sight worked with projections, but she didn't care to have her abilities' mechanics explained. It was good enough for her to know they worked, not the nitty-gritty of how. She was the first and most magical of night ponies, at least on Earth. It was good enough to know she could do this…among other things.

After rising several hundred feet, she spotted a city in the distance. Hopefully, that was the right one. If it was, her first shot wasn't too shabby.

She zoomed toward it, though not as fast as she had previously moved. This time, she could process the flow of the environment around her, and she stopped once she was entirely in the city. A quick survey of the place told her she was in the right one. She recognized several landmarks.

After descending into an alley, she made her projection visible. She exited the alley and entered a bar next to it. The room was very dim. This was primarily a night pony bar. It was well after noon; most of the patrons should have been home in bed or passed out next to their drinks. A human barkeeper was polishing glasses behind the bar as a calico cat sat on the bar, cleaning itself. There were four patrons, all night pony mares, sitting isolated in different corners of the room. Their eyes flicked to her briefly, and she saw their eyes glint with recognition. Of the four, two were too young to remember ETS well and may never have experienced the early days of the Dreamwardens, but the older two had looks of disgust on their faces as they looked at her. For them, she was forever guilty. It didn't matter, they knew who she served, and they wouldn't cause her trouble.

She went over to the bar and had her projection take a seat. The barkeeper eyed her and put a bottle of brandy and a glass in front of her, although he knew she had no power to drink it. The fact that she had literally walked through the closed front door indicated she wasn't there.

"The pony has been hired on to do the job," she said as she sat there. "I had to give her a target, so I told her the preacher's necklace."

The cat stopped licking itself and looked at her. "That could be a problem if she actually gets it and doesn't give it to us to return."

Josie shrugged. "I doubt she'll be able to get it, but if she does, I'll track her down and remove it from her. It would be my mess to clean up."

The cat walked across the bar and sat down in front of her. "No, you were right; she needed an appealing target. If she keeps it, I'll deal with it. I have ways of persuading that you don't, and I prefer to avoid fights, and that's what we'd have if you took off after her, a fight. I hate violence. People get hurt, and I don't want her getting hurt."

"No, worries about me getting hurt?" Josie asked.

The cat tilted its head at her. "You against her isn't anything resembling a fair fight."

Josie chuckled. "Nice to know I have your confidence."

"Always," the cat replied. "Anyway, you can return home. I'm not sure how long you'll be at home, but you deserve at least a little break."

"Not sending me into some other wretched hive of scum and villainy right away?" Josie asked. "That's a relief. When you became Dreamwarden, and I agreed to be one of your bodyguards, I didn't expect to spend so many days hiding in alleys and places like this. It just never seemed like your kind of thing."

"We need to help people who have nothing. To do that, you need to spend time with people who have nothing," the cat replied. "Poor criminals are often criminals because they're poor. If you want the most wretched scum and villainy, look at the rich criminals. I'm still pushing for harsher sentences on the rich for crimes. Poor criminals are often redeemable if you can get them a path out of poverty. Rich criminals are often beyond redemption. Fines punish the poor harshly, but they do nothing to the rich."

"Dreamwardens aren't supposed to be concerned about legal matters outside dreams and mind magic," Josie reminded her.

"Dreamwardens are here to serve the dreamers. If the dreamers are suffering in the waking world, that bleeds into the dreams, that makes it Dreamwarden business," the cat said. "My siblings might not feel the same, but they aren't me. I'm not here to play politics. I'm here to help people."

"I don't think our newest hire is in it because she's poor. I think she might have some sort of early onset cutie mark madness," Josie replied.

"That's a terrible illness," the cat said sadly. "We, along with the medical community, are studying those that're afflicted to see if there is anything we can do to help them, but it is unfair for you to say that this mare is suffering from it."

"Yeah, that's true. I'm sorry," Josie said. "Anyway, I guess I'll be leaving. Got to get to those flood victim dreams."

The cat flicked her ears. "There is one other thing."

Josie rolled her eyes. "Of course there is."

"Brush up on your Spanish in your free time, or find a mage who can teach you Spanish," the cat said.

"Why?" Josie asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You might be sent to Mexico soon," the cat answered.

"Is this going to turn out to be more scum and villainy?" Josie asked.

The cat nodded. "More scum and villainy."

It was early evening when Jordan got off the plane. She had only brought a pair of saddlebags with her, filled with some personal items such as her old copy of The Chocolate Touch, one of her sister's feathers, a photo of her and her dad when they went fishing together, a photo of her and her mom working together in the garden, a small piece of charred wood from the Cataclysm, and a few other things like that. Aside from the piece of wood, none of it would be of any value to anyone else, but to her, they were cherished keepsakes. There were also a few practical items, like her laptop, a couple of books, her birth certificate, IDs, and the charger for her phone, but overall, it was minimalistic. Everything else had been left behind. Today was the beginning of a fresh start in a new place.

A limo pulled up to where she was waiting in front of the airport, and the window rolled down, revealing Amicus, her lawyer.

"Get in," Amicus said as the door opened for her. "We've got a lot to do, and I want to get to bed soon. I'm too old for all this running around."

Jordan did as instructed. The inside of the limo was filled with red upholstery and a big TV screen. The driver couldn't be seen, but she assumed it was a human based on the car's design. The door shut on its own behind her. It was motorized, not magic; she could hear the motors at work.

Amicus smiled at her as Jordan took a seat. "Sorry if I was a little snappy right then. This jet lag is playing havoc with me, not to mention all the things I've had to do in such a short order for my sister. I think she expects me to be a legal miracle worker."

Jordan blinked. "Is there a problem?"

The elderly earth pony chuckled as the car began to move. "No, because this old mare knows a lot of tricks, and I can pull off some miracles. I'm rather proud of myself for getting everything in order so quickly. I had to call in some favors, but I got it all done."

"Oh, that's good," Jordan said with relief.

Amicus nodded. "So, how was your trip? I hope everything went smoothly. You seem rather lightly packed. You didn't lose any luggage, did you?"

Jordan removed her saddlebags. "I don't need much. The mansion is fully furnished, right?"

"It is, but I doubt there's much in it that makes you feel at home," Amicus said.

Jordan shrugged. "I'm only eighteen. I don't have that much stuff. If there are books, that's good enough for me. I can make my mark on it over time."

"There are certainly plenty of books," Amicus said and glanced at Jordan's ears. "Now, before you arrive, we must review a few things. I see your ears are already pierced. That's good because we'll be giving you an earring that allows you to teleport on the manor grounds without fear, but until you are wearing that earring, you aren't to attempt even the smallest of teleports on the property. There are defenses in place that redirect teleports, and they redirect them down into the mantle of the Earth. I'm guessing that you understand what the result would be."

"I'd be dead," Jordan answered with a shiver.

"Very, very dead," Amicus agreed.

Jordan shivered. "Has anyone died from that?"

Amicus frowned. "Considering where they're sent, we have no way of knowing. There are warning signs posted on all the fences explaining that trying to breach the property with teleportation is lethal. I like to believe that every unicorn thinking about it has read the sign or been told about it and taken it seriously. This is a case where not knowing is best for everyone. If it makes you feel any better, we haven't had anyone demanding we give their friend who attempted to teleport on the property back to them. That might be a sign no one has tried it."

Jordan shivered again. "How'd she afford security like that? I know she had a lot of money from book sales, but if I remember what I heard about that kind of defense in the Bastion, it took a lot of magic crystals. Those things cost a lot of money, even for a rich person. She used to have the full financial backing of SPEC. She doesn't have that anymore."

"A very astute observation," Amicus replied with a smile. "You're right; she could design the defenses but couldn't afford them. However, interested parties financed them for her. Who those parties are is a mystery, even to me. I have a short list of guesses, and anyone thinking about it could come up with the same list. I don't have any insight on which one it might be."

It wasn't too hard to come up with a list–Wild Growth, Number Crunch, the Dreamwardens, the government, and the Equestrian government. It could be any of them. They were all either friends or people who had an interest in keeping Sunset Blessing's work hidden away. It was probably not the government. The government would have tried to seize it. It could be any of the others or a combination of them.

"My sister also left an approved guest list of who could come to the manor," Amius continued. "This list is to hold until your twenty-first birthday, at which time you may edit it as you please. There is also a list of people strictly forbidden to come to the manor; you may never remove someone from this list, although you can add to it as you see fit."

Jordan's ears sagged. "No stallionfriends?"

Amicus shook her head. "Sorry. I was your age once, believe it or not, so I get it, but your romance and coitus will have to take place off the grounds, at least until you're twenty-one and can approve your guests to the list."

"Well, that sucks," Jordan lamented, looking down. So parties and having a stallion over for the night were out of the question. At least Amicus seemed like she was cool and not judgmental. Jordan looked up. "What about Jessie?"

"Doctor Middleton?" Amicus asked.

Jordan nodded.

Amicus tilted her head. "You want to have sexual relations with Doctor Middleton?"

Jordan's eyes went wide, and she shook her head rapidly. "No! Definitely not. The idea of doing it with a human is just ewww, and I only have interest in males. She's my best friend, and I was looking forward to seeing her more often. I wanted to know if she could come to hang out."

"Doctor Middleton is on the approved list, as are your parents, your sister, and most of the rest of the extended family, along with a selection of other individuals she trusts. She is welcome at the house whenever you wish," Amicus answered. "For how distrustful my sister can be, it is a shockingly extensive list. I even had to look up who some of these people were because I'm sure they'd never been to Wabash before. I'll be giving you a copy when we arrive. I make no judgment call about who she allowed or banned. I'm not Sunset, but I honor her wishes."

Jordan nodded. "I'll be sure to look it over."

Amicus looked at a notepad beside her. "Next up, residents of the manor. My sister, Andrea, and I both live at the manor, along with my husband, Legal Brief. We will not be vacating just because you are moving in. My husband and I only care about our bedroom and my study. We can't stop you from entering our rooms since it is your house, but we request that you respect our privacy. Andrea has her room, and she's in charge of security, and she, along with the rest of the staff, are paid salaries out of the funding Sunset left you. I am paid on a case-by-case basis, not a regular salary, and I still take some outside clients. There are always guards on duty, but it is rotating shifts, not guards that live on the property. There are six limo drivers, but there is only ever one on shift at a time, and there is only one limo. There are three eight-hour shifts for both the guards and the drivers. Both Andrea and I have cars, but those are our personal property, not yours. If you want to go somewhere, you need to get the limo driver on shift to take you. There is no butler, governess, gardeners, or cleaning staff. My parents used to do the gardening, but both passed away recently within days of each other."

Jordan gasped. "Oh, no! I'm so sorry to hear that."

The elderly earth pony shook her head. "They were old, and it was their time. They both passed peacefully in their sleep without any pain. They'd been sleeping sixteen to eighteen hours a day for the year or so before that, and we knew the day was coming that one or both wouldn't wake up. I'm glad my dad didn't have to linger on for years without my mom–just three days. It was kind of romantic, in a way. Still, thank you for the sentiment."

"My parents aren't doing so great," Jordan said. "My dad has been sick since the Cataclysm, and it's worsening. Now something is going on with my mom–I'm not sure what, something with her mind."

"Is it cutie mark madness?" Amicus asked.

Jordan shrugged again. "I don't know. I don't know anything about psychology. I had only two days in my Introduction to Psychology class this semester before this happened. I called Phobia to help, and she said she would investigate it. Jackie's worried. I'm a little worried."

"Hmm, I wish her luck and good health," Amicus somberly replied. She looked at her notepad again. "I doubt it, but I never know what my sister gave out–do you have any magical items we need to be aware of?"

"Um, I have a charred piece of wood from a skytree," Jordan answered. When Amicus gave her a blank look, she knew she had to explain. "Chunks of the wood from the skytrees that grew during the Cataclysm supposedly have some of Wild Growth's power. The stuff is extremely strong for wood, and it has a magical charge."

Amicus blinked. "Learn something new every day. Okay, we'll have Andrea look it over before it comes on the property. We don't want it interacting with any of my sister's defenses. I don't see how it would, but better safe than sorry."

"Okay."

"There is one last thing to cover. My sister did some…remodeling…in the last few months. Some of it is obviously related to the security of the manor's vaults. Some of the remodeling has no obvious purpose. She has instructed that these changes are never to be undone. You can cover them up if you wish, but you may not remove them."

Jordan blinked. "Cover up what?"

Amicus shook her head. "You'll have to see it, but let's just say I hope you don't have any objections to Bible verses."

The boy stared out the window, watching the people far below, so many strange people. They weren't the ones he watched back at his window at home. There were lots of cars too. Some of the cars had flashing lights.

Suddenly, He heard someone walking towards the room. He held still, holding his breath, barely breathing. Ready to hide.

The footsteps went passed his door. He started breathing again.

He looked at the toys on the ground. It might be nice to play with them, but they were from a stranger, and Grandma said never accept gifts from strangers. He felt bad that he'd eaten the food they brought, but he was hungry, and Grandma wasn't here to make him food. She'd understand why he broke the rules.

He rubbed the bandage on one of his arms. Strangers were bad. They hurt him. You can't trust strangers.

The lady that was like him hadn't come back today. He hoped the strangers didn't get her. She seemed so sad, but she told him stories, just like Grandma did. She wasn't a stranger, she was nice. Some of the strangers tried telling him stories too, but he knew they were just trying to trick him. They must have heard the nice lady tell him stories and try to do the same thing. He wouldn't fall for their tricks. He was smart; his Grandma said so.

Thinking about Grandma made him cry again. He wanted to go home. He wanted her to kiss him on the head and tell him stories. He wanted to go away from this bad place. He wanted it to all go back to the way it was, and he'd be happy. Maybe the nice lady could come too, then she could be happy. That would be nice. He didn't want her to be sad.

He looked out the window again. Thinking about home.

Chapter 9: New Beginnings

Jordan circled the angel statue in front of the mansion. A fire rune was carved into the base, followed by an inscription. The inscription and rune looked like they had been burned straight into the stone. She could see where the molten rock had melted out of the inscription area and hardened below as it cooled again. Amicus and Andrea stood nearby, watching her.

For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The inscription read. The inscription began and ended with a fire rune.

"Religious stuff makes sense for Auntie, but why did she put fire runes in it?" Jordan asked.

"No clue. My bet is it's part of some puzzle. Sunset had an obsession with puzzles," Andrea answered. "Don't try solving it. Our sister also had a habit of having nasty consequences for getting the answers to her puzzles wrong."

"There's a Bible verse and rune in every room of the house, at every entrance, and every other notable location on the property," Amicus explained. "You can cover over them but don't remove them. That's part of Sunset's contract with you."

Jordan looked at the front door of the house. There was indeed another Bible verse written around the doorframe. She walked closer to the door.

No stranger had to spend the night in the street, for my door was always open to the traveler.

There were different types of fire runes at the beginning and end of the verse. It all looked like it had been burned into the wood. Did the runes indicate something about how she burned the inscriptions? Why would she mark that? Just drawing a single rune like that didn't do anything. At least, she didn't think so. Even if inscribing runes did anything, doing just one rune wasn't even a spell. The closest equivalent would be runes were individual letters; simple spells were words; more complex spells were sentences or paragraphs, and the really really complicated stuff was like chapters in a book.

"Kind of an odd thing for her to put on the door when most people aren't welcome here," Jordan said after reading it.

"Don't ever try to understand Sunset. Her hypocrisy will make your brain hurt," Andrea said.

Amicus gave the crystal pony mare an angry look. "Andrea, Sunset's our baby sister. You shouldn't say such things about her."

Andrea didn't seem fazed. "Do you deny that Sunset's a hypocrite?"

Amicus looked away. "You still shouldn't say it."

"I love her, but that doesn't mean I can't call her out on her shit," Andrea replied. "Still, I'm here, even after she decided to screw over Sinker and us by giving Wabash to some random nobody rather than-"

"ANDREA!" Amicus shouted. She then turned and faced Jordan. "I'm very sorry. Andrea's under a lot of pressure. She didn't mean-"

"Yes, I did," Andrea replied. "And the little college filly can't kick me out because I said as much; Sunset left me that much. The house should have gone to one of us, Sinker, Phobia, or one of her grandfoals."

Jordan's ears laid flat. "She did offer it to her grandfoals first, or at least, to Charlotte, but she said no. She said she didn't trust Arachne or Moon with it, and Phobia would never come to live here."

"And us? And Sinker? She didn't trust us?" Andrea asked.

"We're old; how long until we would need to find someone to take the house from us?" Amicus asked defensively. "Our kids have been thankfully kept far away from Sunset's issues, and I prefer it stay that way, so they're out. And Sinker…forgive me for saying this about our brother, but Sinker…Sinker is not a good fit."

Andrea grimaced. "Maybe. We can help him or get him the help he needs."

Jordan looked back and forth between them. "What's wrong with-"

Amicus shook her head. "Don't ask. It's a private family matter."

"Drug addiction," Andrea answered, earning a stern look from her sister. "He took our parents' passing away hard and fell in with a bad crowd for a while, a crowd that offered him alternative ways of coping with the grief. He's about your age, impressionable. Sunset had been paying for clinics to help keep him clean, but every time he comes out…well…yeah."

"Addiction is rough," Amicus said quietly. "I didn't mention it, but Sinker technically lives here too; however, he is rarely here. He's currently in rehab again. We're hoping to have him home again in a month. He isn't a bad pony. He's just troubled." She looked at her sister again. "Which is why he wouldn't work out as the manor's owner. We couldn't even hold it in trust for him since we have no idea how long it will take him to get clean and, more importantly, stay clean."

Jordan gave a sad nod to Amicus. "I'm very sorry about your brother. I hope he recovers and gets back to being his old self once again." She looked at Andrea. "And I know I'm not who you think is ideal to take over this place. I was probably more shocked than you were when Auntie offered it to me. I might be young, but I'm not a pushover, and I'll ensure I respect you and the manor. Auntie wouldn't have offered it to me if she didn't think I was up to it, and Auntie barely trusted anyone. If we're going to be living together, I hope we can be friends."

Amicus walked over to her and put a hoof on her shoulder. "I'm willing to try to be friends."

Andrea rolled her eyes. "I'll be civil, but no further promises. Just make sure to keep the place tidy. I can't stand messes. Amicus's study and room are bad enough. She couldn't keep things neat and clean when we shared a room as kids, and she still can't when we share a house as adults. She's as bad as Sunset."

"My study is in perfect order," Amicus protested as she removed her hoof from Jordan.

"You've got papers and books piled up everywhere!" Andrea shouted back.

"They are in sorted piles where I can get to them quickly!" Amicus yelled. "As a crystal pony, you should understand how much of a hassle it is to go digging through filing cabinets and bookcases. It's easier to keep the stuff on the floor."

"That's just laziness," Andrea scoffed.

"Well, you don't have to come into my room or study if me making things easier for myself offends you," Amicus said with a sniff.

Jordan's ears flattened again. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cause you two to start fighting."

Andrea laughed. "Oh, you had nothing to do with it. The three of us have been fussing with each other since Jimmy Carter was president."

"Well, since Reagan was president, in Sunset's case, but yeah, this is nothing new," Amicus concurred. "Don't worry. It's just fussing. We're still sisters, and we still have each others' backs. You'll hear us bicker all the time. If we aren't bickering about petty stuff like how one arranges one's room, we're arguing about politics. Andrea's conservative on many issues, while I'm rather liberal. Sunset…Sunset just pissed everyone off and pulled religion into it."

"I consider myself a libertarian–free market and social freedom. The conservatives are way too religious for my taste," Andrea said with a sniff.

"Neither of us cared for Sunset's religious zeal, and both of us found fault in her economic philosophies and other matters," Amicus continued. "Dinner discussions could get quite heated. It was even worse when Lántiān was still living here. That young mare was a full-on communist."

"You and the communist should have gotten along fine," Andrea smirked.

"I'm a Social Democrat, not a communist!" Amicus fussed. "Dealing with Lántiān should have highlighted the significant differences to you!"

"Maybe we shouldn't talk about politics," Jordan suggested. "It's my house. Can I make that a house rule?"

"No," Andrea replied.

"Yes," Amicus said at the same time. Amicus smirked at her sister. "Sorry, I'm the attorney representing the property, and yes, Jordan is free to make such rules…impossible to enforce as they are."

"Okay, so new rule, no talk about politics," Jordan announced.

Amicus nodded. "Rule noted. I must now tell you that the governor and the city council will send delegations to the house tomorrow. They want to know who they're dealing with…or won't be dealing with since they try to pretend this place doesn't exist. It will likely be their only visit."

Jordan backed up. "What am I supposed to say to them? What am I supposed to do?"

Amicus shrugged. "Be friendly. If they ask about the vaults, deny they exist and don't give them access if they ask to look. Say it is an invasion of privacy."

"Will that work?" Jordan asked.

Amicus shrugged. Well, that wasn't helpful at all.

Andrea sighed. "Try not to embarrass us. You'll have me by your side to stop them from pulling any shit. Years and years in the FBI means I know what they can get away with and what they can't. This Is a special self-governing district. They made this place self-governing so they didn't have to send help, take responsibility, or do anything involving this place, but that also limits how much they can make us do."

Jordan nodded, not knowing what to say. This wasn't what she expected inheriting a mansion would be like.

Amicus gestured at the front door. "Let's stop standing around outside. I'll give you a tour of the house–minus the vaults; we can sign the paperwork finalizing your taking possession of the property, then you can pick out your bedroom."

"Why aren't we touring the vaults?" Jordan asked.

"Because none of us are interested in dying. At least I'm not," Andrea answered. "The vaults are loaded with lethal traps, and no one here knows what they are or how to turn them off. When Sunset told us, don't go down there or you'll probably die, I'm inclined to believe her."

"What if somebody accidentally wanders down there?" Jordan asked with worry. "What if I someday have foals, and foals being foals, they go exploring and get into places they shouldn't go?"

Amicus smiled. "Don't worry. There's a massive vault door with a combination lock and armed guards guarding the door before even getting into the vaults. They'd have to figure out the combination, and they'd have to get rid of the guards to even get an opportunity to do so. No one is going to wander into the vaults."

"Once into the vaults, you get into the traps, but each vault has a separate door with a different combination. On top of that, each vault has several feet of steel walls if anyone tries to tunnel into them, and if the vault is entered without the door being properly opened, that's a trigger for another death trap," Amicus explained. "The vaults are fully secure. Any idiot could keep them safe. All you have to do is stop anyone shady from being in the house long enough to figure out how the hell to get through it all. That's not hard to do. Sinker could have done it."

"Let it go, Andri," Amicus said with exasperation. "I also wish Sinker had inherited this place, but he is troubled right now, so he didn't. Just accept it and move on. We should be more concerned about his health than him inheriting this place. At least Sunset guaranteed him a home here, no matter what. So who cares if his name is on the deed or not?"

"I care, but you're right; I should accept it and move on. This is all because of Sunset, and she is taking off to another planet in another universe, so I can't exactly yell at her anymore," Andrea replied. "Now, instead of foalsitting a family member, I'm foalsitting some random filly I know nothing about."

Jordan turned her flank towards Andrea and pointed at the picture of the open book with a heart in it. "Well, I love to read. I was almost killed as a foal during the Cataclysm of Riverview. Jessie is my best friend. I want to be a teacher. Auntie Sunset taught me some of my magic, and Phobia Remedy is my eldest sister. There, you know stuff about me."

"What I heard is you name-dropping a few people, which isn't something I care about. You pointed out one bit of foalhood trauma, which I'm sorry for, but you need to get over it. You have a pretty standard interest that you don't need a cutie mark to demonstrate, and if that is all your cutie mark is about, then I'm sad for you. I also heard you want to get a low-paying job that most people quit within five years of starting because they get treated like shit. You seem like nothing much to write home about," Andrea declared.

"Can you please be nice," Amicus hissed.

Jordan tucked her tail between her legs. How was she supposed to live with someone who so clearly hated her? Maybe hate was a strong word–perhaps strongly resented? No matter what the terminology, Andrea was going to be miserable to be around. Could she still back out of this? No, she'd dropped out of school for this. She'd upended her life for this. She might be feeling kind of foolish for doing it now, but she wasn't going to be run off by Sunset Blessing's eldest sister just because the mare was mad the house hadn't gone to one of Auntie's siblings.

She looked up at the door again. "No stranger had to spend the night in the street, for my door was always open to the traveler. I think she put that up there for a reason. Auntie put this big speal in her books about being kind to strangers. I know she's a hypocrite, but are you going to be a hypocrite too by treating me that way when that's what's posted on the front door?"

Andrea blinked twice and then smiled. "Well, at least you have a tiny bit of backbone. I can respect that. Sunset and I had many…many things we disagreed about, but I always respected her bravery."

"She literally pissed all over herself at any sign of danger," Amicus said flatly. "She also is running away to Equestria."

"I might disagree with how she dealt with the house when leaving, but she stuck it out here longer than anyone else would. Going to Equestria was sensible," Andrea replied. "As for pissing herself, yeah, she did, but she stood her ground as the puddle formed. I'm told she even stood her ground with shotguns pointed at her face. You'd be stupid not to be terrified in such a situation, but she took her stand."

"Urinating is a common defensive measure in the animal kingdom," Jordan said. Both the sisters gave her flat looks, and she lowered her eyes. "Or so I heard, anyway." Why did she even bring that up? Did she just compare Auntie with some random animal? Auntie's sisters likely didn't care for that.

"And there went your bravery capital," Andrea said with exhaustion. "Inside, filly; we have a tour to do."

"And paperwork!" Amicus chimed in. She sounded almost happy about it. Whether that was because she was excited about paperwork in general or for exiting the conversation, or both, Jordan wasn't sure. What a pair of housemates.

Jessica looked at the screen, scribbling out equations without looking at what she was doing. These numbers…they all had to come from the same galaxy, the same section of the same arm of Pinwheel Galaxy. That was over twenty million lightyears away. If people had looked for this when she was a kid, there'd be no hope of finding it; the telescopes back then wouldn't have been up to the task. Even now, it would take the Starpiercer telescope to get more detailed information about that region. She might not have had a hand in designing that telescope–her engineering skills were not near the level of her mathematics, but it operated on principles that came from her work. The Starpiercer only existed because scientists now understood Middleton's Law. So, in a way, this was a double victory for her.

Don't get cocky. You haven't found it yet, and there's still a chance this will turn out to be a dead end. Data from that far away is very unreliable. she chided herself.

She looked at the equations she had scribbled. The range of coordinates that she possessed, if this wasn't just a fluke, were good enough that someone should be able to locate any celestial body in the region. Now it was time to figure out how to make NASA turn the telescope to look. That probably meant telling the Dreamwardens and having them apply pressure. That meant talking to the Dreamwardens, which meant the end of her vacation. Fudge. Still, she couldn't help being excited.

Her ears twitched right before there was a knock at her door.

"Come in, Dusk," she said as she swiveled her chair to face the door.

The door opened, and her little brother stepped in. He looked at her computer.

"I thought you were on vacation," Dusk said, sounding resentful.

She smiled. "I might be done looking at these projections for good. I think I found whatever it is I'm looking for. Let's cross our fingers on that," She looked at his hair. "You look like you just came out of a wind tunnel."

He clumsily brushed his brown hair down with his hands. "I was playing with Eve. I was lying on the floor, and she got on my head."

"Building up your best uncle cred?" she asked with a chuckle.

He grinned. "I'm her only uncle."

"Yeah, but which is better for her to think of you as, her uncle or her best uncle?" Jessica asked. "Just your best big sister asking."

"Best uncle," he said, still grinning. "So…if you're still on vacation, can we work on the Oldsmobile again tomorrow? We haven't worked on it in a while. That liquid cooling system is sitting in the corner, waiting to be installed."

Jessica frowned. "Jordan just got into town, and I was going to visit her and…one second. Come in, Dad."

Her dad opened the door and stepped in, and looked at Dusk. "Sorry to interrupt; I'll get out of your hair in a sec. I needed to ask Jessie a favor."

"What do you need?" Jessica asked.

He leaned against the doorframe. "Mark is getting transferred to a temporary foster home on Monday. I know you'll be busy moving on Sunday, but I wanted to ask if you could revisit him, at least for an hour or so. He still isn't responding to anybody else, and I was hoping you could make some progress with him."

She looked at Dusk and then looked around her still-completely unpacked room. "I guess, but it can't be for long." She looked at her brother. "And I'll find time to work on the Oldsmobile with you too. We'll get that system installed. There still is a lot of work to do with it, but we'll still get it done before you're old enough to drive it."

"Thanks, Jessie, I appreciate it," their Dad said as he turned to go. "Have a good night."

Their father left, but Dusk remained, silently looking down.

"Why so glum, bro?" she asked as she stood and walked over to him.

"I don't want you to move out," he replied.

She sighed and bent down so he was looking down at her instead of her looking down at him. He was in the middle of a growth spurt, gaining almost a foot of height in the last year, but he still had a ways to go before they were the same height.

"I'm still going to be close by and will come by the house a couple of times a month," she said gently. "I've got to; can you imagine me living off nothing but my cooking?"

He let off a weak laugh. "I hope your apartment has fire insurance."

She lightly punched his shoulder. "Brat! I'm not that bad!"

"Remember when you tried to make chicken alfredo?" he asked.

She groaned. "I didn't think anything could smell that bad. I still don't know what went wrong. I'm sure I followed the recipe to the letter."

"You used that imitation chicken so you could eat it all without getting a stomach ache. I don't think it cooks the same. That was bad. We all got sick, and we had to air out the house for the next two days," Dusk laughed. "You shouldn't be allowed within a mile of a stove."

"Hey, I cooked some grilled cheese sandwiches once that were only slightly burnt."

"Define only slightly."

"They were only black on one side and not even completely," Jessica said with pride.

"Did you eat it?"

"Some of it."

He laughed again. "How does somebody as smart as you fail so much at cooking? It's easy. I can make grilled cheese."

"I'm a math genius, not a cooking genius," she answered. "Maybe I can invite you to my place for dinner–you cook."

"Look at you, needing your thirteen-year-old brother to cook for you," he said smugly.

She suddenly noticed a dark mark on his neck and reached for it. "What's this?"

Dusk quickly covered the spot with a hand and backed away. She heard his heartrate quicken. "It's nothing. Don't worry about it."

She stood up. "It's not nothing. Is that a bruise? Did somebody hit you in the neck?"

"Don't worry about it," he repeated, still covering the spot.

"Let me see it, Dusk," she ordered.

He grudgingly removed the hand from the side of his neck. There was a black spot like someone had struck him with something narrow and flat.

"Can you just ignore it?" he asked. "Mom already freaked out about it, and I'll probably hear from Dad too after she talks to him. Robby didn't notice, but I think he is too short to have seen it. I didn't get into a fight. The kid whacked me with a book, and I ran."

She grimaced. "Did you tell a teacher?"

"No, it was my word versus a dozen other people's," he said, a hint of anger in his voice.

She put a hand on his shoulder. "Dusk, you can't let them keep doing this to you. I know you'll get in trouble for fighting, but if the teachers can't help, you have to stand up for yourself. Better to take the suspension than to let them think they can keep hurting you."

"You never fought anyone," he objected.

She shook her head. "That's different. One, nobody would dare get in a physical altercation with me, knowing that I'm as strong as I am, and two, because of that, I only ever had to deal with people saying things. This is physically hurting you, not just your feelings."

He looked away. "It won't help. I'd get in trouble, and they'd keep picking on me."

She grunted and removed her hand. "There's got to be something that can be done. Maybe now that I'm moving out, they won't pick on you for me being your sister anymore."

He looked at her. "They weren't picking on me for that this time. Since Auntie Sunset has been on the news for leaving, they started picking on me for that. They picked on me for my name and said that if I wanted to be a pony so much, I should be going to Equestria with my aunt."

Jessica held her tongue. Dusk had gotten his name because his parents had been Shimmerists when he'd been born and believed all things pony to be superior, so they gave him a pony name. She'd broached the subject of him changing his name to something more human, but he'd been the one to object, even though it caused him trouble. He said there was always something that caused him trouble. If it wasn't his name, it was who his aunts were. If it wasn't that, it was because he had a partial sister. If it wasn't that, it was because his older brother was the Warden of Fear's ward. Her little brother couldn't catch a break. It wasn't fair. It made her feel horrible. She was the big sister. She was supposed to protect him. She promised when he was born that she'd always protect him, yet she felt as helpless as he did.

"Wish I was a pony. Humans suck," Dusk muttered.

Her eyes widened. "Dusk! Don't say things like that. There's nothing wrong with being human. No species is superior to another."

"Ponies don't pick on me. All my friends are ponies," he grumbled.

"You've been picked on by ponies before. It might be less frequent, but it happens. Jerks come in all forms," she said, feeling awful that she was reminding him of bad experiences. "I might be your big sister, but I'm also your friend, and I'm not a pony."

He crossed his arms. "Well, it's still mostly humans. Doesn't matter. I'm never going to be a pony."

What to say to him? She didn't know. Dusk was unlucky enough to be born into a family with multiple famous and controversial people. At least the most contentious of those was leaving; that should help some things.

"I, for one, am glad you're human," she finally said. "You've got a chance to catch up to me in height or perhaps get taller. Do you know how tiring it is staring down at all of you all the time? It's even worse with Robby. I have to worry about tripping over him. Did you know that Mom tripped over Umber early today?"

He looked up at her.

"Oh, and don't get me started on how frustrating tails and ears get," she continued, whipping her tail. "You want to ever win at poker? Not when you've got these things. They make it near impossible to hide your emotions. Everyone knows if your excited, or anxious, or scared, or-"

"Or horny," Dusk giggled.

She gave him a pop on the shoulder. "You are too young to be saying stuff like that!"

He rubbed his shoulder, and she briefly worried if she'd hit him too hard, but then he put his hand down. "I'm not a little kid anymore. You don't have to avoid that subject."

"You're still too young," she asserted.

He gave her a flat look. "Mom said you were eight when she had to explain the birds and the bees to you."

Her face reddened. "I'm an unusual case. I physically matured way too early. I looked older than you are now when I was eight. I didn't have the social and emotional reasoning to keep up with everything my body was going through. There were a lot of predatory people out there more than ready to take advantage of a naive young girl in a young woman's body."

Dusk gave her a worried look. "Do you need to get some coffee?"

She blinked. "Why would I need to get coffee?"

He shrugged. "I dunno, you seemed stressed, like I hit a sore spot. So, I figured you might want to get coffee to help calm down."

She blinked again. "Is that something I tend to do? I'm not being snide. I really want to know."

"Sometimes, I guess," Dusk replied with another shrug.

"Oh…well, coffee doesn't sound like a bad idea," she replied.

"Can I get some, too?" he asked.

"You want coffee?" she asked, giving him a small frown.

He gave her a defiant look. "Am I too young for that also?"

"I suppose not," she answered. "Are you sure? It will make it harder for you to fall asleep."

He pointed vaguely towards where the stairs would be. "It's Friday night. I don't have to go to bed early, and I want to spend time with Robby too."

She gestured at the door. "Then let's go get some coffee. You better drink it all, even if you don't like it. I don't want my coffee wasted."

"Are you going to brew it?" he asked skeptically as he opened the door.

"I'm not going to burn it, you brat!"

It had been a good night. Any night spent with both her brothers was a good night, but it still had been enjoyable.

Now, she was asleep and ready to deal with her not-so-fun employers.

"Jessie, are you reaching out to us on your vacation?" Arbiter asked, appearing before her in her typical angelic getup. "How interesting. I would have expected you to take a longer vacation."

Jessica looked at her aunt. "How hard is it to contain your excitement? You know why I'm here."

"You haven't given me permission to respond to your thoughts," Arbiter replied. "I must conduct myself as if I don't know. These are the rules."

Jessica smiled. "Maybe we should talk about the weather then, or maybe we can talk about the latest episode of Godzilla in the Dragonlands."

Arbiter's face didn't even twitch, but the void around them somehow seemed to grow more menacing. "Careful, Jessie, I might not be able to respond to what's on your mind without permission, but I can respond to your obvious attempts to annoy me. You don't want me to be annoyed."

Yinyu appeared and swam around the pair of them. "Someone is annoying our stick-in-the-mud sister? Let's watch this. Annoying Arbiter is one of my favorite diversions."

Rebecca appeared in her blobby white form with a vague image of a smiling face. She joined Yinyu in circling them. "It might be fun. How will the angel lady react?"

Ghadab appeared only as a small trail of flame, and he circled as well. "Will the sycophant vent her rage? Is her half-breed niece immune to it?"

Jessica eyed the three circling and sighed.

"You're flickering again," Arbiter informed her.

She looked at herself. She was a yellow earth pony mare. She stomped a hoof and reverted to her proper form. She then looked back at the Dreamwardens.

"I give you all permission to respond to my thoughts," she snarled, now angry that she'd been unable to maintain her proper form. It wasn't rational to get angry at it, but rationality had little to do with it.

Arbiter gave her a sympathetic look that touched her eyes. "You still struggle with how you see yourself, even after all this time. You need to make peace with yourself."

She frowned. "I give you permission to access my mind, and that's what you focus on?"

Arbiter reached out a hand to her, and even though they'd been far apart a second before, her hand touched Jessica's shoulder, and Arbiter was right there.

"You're still a dreamer and my niece. The Dreamwardens serve the dreamers, and aunts care about their nieces," Arbiter gently said.

"I still say she needs to get laid," Yinyu said, coming to a halt. "Nothing makes a person more proud of their form than a lover looking at them with longing."

"You jump to sex as an answer too much, Miss Seapony," Rebecca chided. "She shouldn't need anyone else's adoration to be proud of her uniqueness."

Ghadab flickered. "She has no shortage of pride, sisters. I think she still resents that she was forced into her form. She has no hatred for her form; she has a rage that it is not hers by choice."

"It was my choice," Jessica told the flame.

Ghadab flared. "To be whole in body or in pain and a cripple, if you lived at all, is hardly a choice. You had none."

"If life gives you lemons, cut those lemons up and make a smiling lemon face," Rebecca said, briefly transforming into a smiling face made out of lemons before reverting to her white blob. "She's unique and should take joy in that."

"And a bedmate might help in that," Yinyu asserted.

"Stop thinking about sex, you whore!" Ghadab yelled at Yinyu. "Sex isn't the answer to everything!"

"But it's the answer to a lot of things," Yinyu countered

"Jessica should make peace with herself and move forward from what was after deep introspection," Arbiter stated.

A large shadow with red eyes appeared. "Yet she fears how the world views her. She is at the mercy of her fear."

Jessica stomped. "I didn't come here for all of you to try to fix me. All these years searching for this thing, and I've found it. I'd have thought you'd be excited about that."

"May have found it," Ghadab corrected.

"We don't want to get our hopes up yet," Arbiter said. "We have invested ourselves in things before, only to find disappointment. We aren't ignoring this, and we're very interested. You may not see it, but in private, we're all talking quite animatedly about this."

"They're giving me more work; it's horrible," Rebecca whined, making a large sad face.

Ghadab made a body so he could glare at the Marshmallow. "And you will pawn that work off on others, like the lazy gluttonous sack of fat you are."

"It's called delegating," Rebecca said proudly.

Phobia shifted to a smaller pony-shaped shadow and fixed her gaze on Jessica. "You'll need to contact NASA with the coordinates. You can tell them that we have been asking you to search for something for years, and you think you've narrowed down where it might be."

"It would help if you could tell me exactly what to tell them to look for," Jessica replied. "So far, you've all given me no clue."

"They'll know it when they spot it if they're looking at the right place," Ghadab said.

"It's unique. They'll never see anything else like it, a one-of-a-kind place out of the whole universe. They won't be able to stop talking about it once they notice it," Rebecca confirmed.

Arbiter gave a small flap of her wings. "If you want a helpful response, then I'll tell you they are looking for a huge chunk, say roughly around the size of Neptune, chunk of super dense thaumic matter. It should be radiating and absorbing unenergized thaumic energy on a scale that NASA's Starpiercer shouldn't be able to miss."

Rebecca took her human form, minus clothes, and crossed her arms in annoyance. "Spoiled sport, taking all the fun of discovery out of it."

"Not all," Arbiter gently corrected.

Jessica gasped. "So it's some sort of thaumic black hole?"

"Not quite," Arbiter said with a shake of her head. "It is something unique. You'll be amazed when you see it."

"And we have a super deep space probe ready when you have calculated more exact coordinates to send it to. Although, that will take NASA spying it from a distance first," Rebecca said.

Jessica blinked. "How will you get any probe out that far or obtain data from there? It is tens of millions of light years away."

"Magic, silly," Rebecca giggled, shifting back into her white blob form. "We've got a probe and a deep space exploration craft ready to go. We've just been waiting for our target to be found."

"They were costly to build, using up considerable amounts of the OMMR's resources. Their builders were unaware of what they were constructing, although I am sure they had suspicions. Keeping the entire thing secret was also quite the hassle. Luckily, this isn't our first time constructing things in secret," Phobia explained. "They can teleport virtually any distance, to the edge of the universe if needed, and then return. The probe returns on a timer, while the explore craft must be directly triggered."

"You have a spacecraft that can go…anywhere?!" she asked in shock. "Do you understand the implications of this?! This advances space travel by millennia! This leaves Star Trek technology in the dust! We could explore and colonize the universe!"

"And do you realize that anyone we send in this thing could be going to their death?" Ghadab growled. "There's a chance this thing will teleport straight into a swarm of Devourers! The universe is a perilous place. They've already devastated that region; we have no idea if some remain in the area. Your big dreams of exploring and spreading humans and ponies across the universe are impossible. Our best hope is for the probe to gather information and get back before the Devourers can respond because they will notice it immediately."

Rebecca got right in Ghadab's face. "You don't have to be so mean in how you stomp on her dreams!"

Ghadab glared back at Rebecca. "Bringing her back to reality is not cruel, especially when lives are involved. Plus, you know how this can be misused. We are already risking enough."

Jessica stared, and her mind started working. "How do you know how to do this? You only know what information is in the dream realm and what your former Dreamwardens knew."

Arbiter gave her a sad look. "Because past Dreamwardens did know how, and it didn't matter against the Devourers. It was a rather new ability back then, and Joss and Triss were the only ones who used the spell frequently–since they were the only ones who had the power to do it on their own, but you can't use it to escape the Devourers. You can run, but they will follow. New worlds, even potentially inhabitable ones, can't just support a population at the drop of a dime. Even with magic, it can take generations to shape a new world to support intelligent life. They didn't have the time."

She sat down, not caring that there was nothing to sit on. Ever since she was little, she dreamed of helping Earth reach the stars. The Dreamwardens had a way of getting to the stars the entire time. Not only that, the stars were still out of reach because of the Devourers. Her dreams were impossible. She knew the dangers of the greater universe, but having something like this spacecraft available and being unable to use it still felt like the reality of it was coming down fresh and hard.

"You bozos made her cry," Rebecca growled.

"Bozos?" Ghadab scoffed.

Jessica waved it off. "It's fine, it's fine. I was aware of how things were. It hit me hard right then, but it's fine."

"Repeating that repeatedly doesn't make it true," Rebecca said.

She shook her head. "There's nothing to do about it. I need to ask, why do you even have such a spacecraft if it is that dangerous?"

Arbiter looked at the others before answering. "We hope to send a small team in once we have found what we seek. Luna has already agreed to come to power the ship and the probe before it–they take an exceptional amount of magic to operate, a key weakness of this travel method. We'd be sending the Marshmallow along as well, as our eyes. Call it sentimentality, but we want to see it. If we can make it a short trip, we should make it in and out before the Devourers can react since they do take time to coordinate and decide a target is worth attacking–it all depends on how close they are to our destination, the probe will hopefully tell us that. If they aren't currently in that solar system, that gives us at least hours and perhaps years before they can respond."

She looked up at the group. "I won't ask why this is so important in the fight against the Devourers, but as compensation for my service, can I be a part of the team? It is my only opportunity to go into deep space. I spent years searching for whatever this is. I want to see it up close as well."

Arbiter noded. "We anticipated this request. It is granted. We must confirm that it is the correct location and it is safe to make this mission, but if it is, we shall allow you to be a part of it. If the telescope finds it, we may need you to recalculate the space-time position of it for the probe. So your service is not yet done."

"Although, you may need to start expanding your horizons," Rebecca said. "If this is the right place, you will be done with us, and your childhood dream might be fulfilled. That leaves you in need of new goals. Maybe it is time to start thinking about what those might be."

"Let me worry about one phase of my life at a time. No counting chickens before they're hatched," Jessica replied.

"Indeed," Arbiter said, then touched Jessica's shoulder again. "We do appreciate the work you have done for us, Jessie. I'm sorry you have had to dedicate your formative years to this. I'm sorry that you had to give up the years you should have been playing with toys. That was my fault, and I can't ever make that up to you or to those who perished that day. I took an action that may have saved the world, but that doesn't make me any less sorry to those who suffered for my deed. I hope we're coming to the end of your service that began soon after that day, and you get to chart your path from here on out, whatever that may be. It is cruel that we took that from you…that I took that from you."

"It's okay, Aunt Arbiter," Jessica said quietly. "Just tell me that it was worth it."

"I hope it was," Arbiter answered.

Always note how a Dreamwarden words their responses. They cannot say a lie; that's what makes them great liars.

Chapter 10: Watching a Departure

Jordan wanted to scream, but she kept smiling.

"I'm just thrilled that the Apostate is gone. I hope she gets eaten by a dragon," Freedom Shimmer said as he inspected the Bible verse on the railing of the stairwell.

He was flying inside, but she didn't want to say anything about that being rude, nor his numerous other instances of rudeness. He might be an unabashed Shimmerist, but he was in the House of Representatives. She didn't want to make him mad. Thankfully, the other people who had come seemed just as weary of listening to him.

"Must you ascribe to every bad stereotype of Shimmerists, Freedom?" Water Wings asked tiredly. "You're making us look bad in front of young Miss Gilmore. We want a positive relationship with the new head of Wabash."

Freedom landed and glared at Water Wings. "This is why you can't extend your reach of authority. You're too concerned with offending people. You're practically a disciple of the Apostate."

Water Wing's eyes narrowed. "You know I have no love of Sunset Blessing, but I don't advocate harm to anyone, even her."

Freedom Shimmer chuckled. "You may not be violent, but we all know why you're here. You wish to recover what she stole right out from under your foolish snout so you can prop up your failing leadership. The fact I coasted through my last election shows that ponies are ready for new leadership in the region, leadership that isn't going to play nice with everyone while sitting on the sidelines and letting our message be silenced."

Water Wings continued to glare. "Your mother didn't want to play nice either. How many years does she still have on her prison sentence?"

Freedom ground his teeth. "Watch yourself, old stallion. Your time is coming."

Water Wings flared his wings. "Is that a threat?"

The mayor, a human by the name of Grant Polis, stepped in front of the older pegasus. "Hey, hey, hey, Water, don't let him rile you up. You know that's what he wants. He's a loudmouth instigator, just like his mother."

"And you don't care about him trying to rile me up, human?" Freedom asked in an offended tone.

Mayor Polis gave Freedom a sidelong look but said nothing; the rest of the delegation, a mixture of humans and ponies, along with Andrea and Amicus, kept silent throughout the exchange.

Andrea loudly cleared her throat. "I'd be more than happy to have my people escort both these stallions off the property if they want to slug it out. They're already lucky even to be here. If Sunset were still here, no Shimmerist would set a hoof on this property."

"I don't want to be involved with anybody's agenda or politics. I want to get along with everyone," Jordan announced, still holding her smile. Her mouth hurt.

"If you try to get along with everyone, you'll get trampled by everyone, filly," Freedom sneered.

Andrea must have had enough. "With your permission, Miss Gilmore, security can escort representative Shimmer off the property. I think he has worn out his welcome."

"Yes!" Jordan said, perhaps too eagerly, but she didn't care. She needed to give Andrea a raise. Could she do that? Did she have any say over payroll? She'd need to ask Amicus about that.

"You heard Miss Gilmore, boys. We have permission to remove this shitstain from the property," Andrea said as she and several security guards advanced toward Freedom Shimmer.

The pegasus beat his wings and took to the air. "I'm being discriminated against! My free speech is being suppressed! I'm a member of Congress; you can't send me away."

Andrea started glowing, and he dropped like a rock, yelling in pain as he hit the floor. "You can yell about assault too, but this is private property, and even a member of Congress can be kicked out. If you refuse to leave, you can be forcibly removed."

"Aaaahhh, aahhh! My wing!" Freedom yelled as he rolled around on the floor.

"Don't be so dramatic; pegasi can take falls that the rest of us can't. You're not hurt," Andrea said as the guards reached Freedom.

"I know I wouldn't be injured by such a fall, but if you did get injured, I'll make sure everypony knows that you have brittle bones and be careful around you. I don't want some infirm pony getting hurt," Water Wings said.

Freedom stopped crying and stood up before the guards could touch him. He then flared his wings. "Back off! I'm fine. I can walk out of here on my own."

"Look, everyone, a miracle!" Andrea declared.

"He did seem to recover remarkably fast," Water Wings said with a smirk.

"Oh, no, not that. He's obviously a drama queen," Andrea said. "I meant he did the intelligent thing and agreed to leave. That means his brain must have grown three sizes today. One of the greatest miracles I have ever seen. Now if only you would leave as well, I would start believing in God answering prayers."

Water Wings fluffed his wings. "Sorry, I'm not as inclined to make an ass out of myself."

Andrea slowly shook her head. "Sunset will be disappointed when she hears that I will remain an unbeliever."

Jordan watched Freedom Shimmer being escorted out. She took a deep breath and turned her smile to the remaining delegates. "Sorry about all that. I set out some snacks and drinks in the next room. It's nothing fancy…just what I could throw together quickly with whatever was here. Still, I hope you can relax and enjoy yourselves."

"We were hoping for a tour of the property. It is closed off and mysterious. Sunset Blessing kept this place quite closed off," one of the Denver city council members, a unicorn mare, said.

Her ears flattened. "I'm sorry, but that isn't possible. I'm still unsure what is in each of the rooms. My auntie had a nasty habit of setting traps. I wouldn't want any of you to put yourselves in danger."

"And her sisters are unaware of what these traps are or how to disable them?" another city council member, a man, asked, giving looks to Andrea and Amicus.

Amicus shook her head vigorously. "We only know about the teleportation trap, and the secret to avoiding that has been shared with only Miss Gilmore."

Jordan wished everyone would stop calling her Miss Gilmore. It sounded so formal.

The unicorn mare city council member nodded. "Yes, we have all seen the signs posted. I believe them and am not about to try to call it a bluff. That does lead to another question. Can you tell us more about Sunset Blessing's mysterious financer for these security measures? To erect defenses against teleporting like she once had at The Bastion seems beyond a reclusive author's ability to fund."

"It is as much a mystery to me as it is to you," Jordan replied. "I'm sure we all have our guesses, but I have no more clue than anyone else what guess is correct."

Another council member, an earth pony stallion, looked at Andrea. "Not even her head of security?"

Andrea shook her head. "Only Sunset and her aid Charlotte Newman know, and both are departing for Equestria today."

Jordan rapped a hoof on the wooden floorboards. "Speaking of which, that should happen in just a few minutes. We can all watch it happen as we eat snacks in the rec room."

They all entered the rec room, which was one room over. The fact that Auntie Sunset had three teenaged colts and this room was almost exclusively used by them was fully displayed. All the diversions and decor were still here. There was a huge television, game controls, arcade machines, foosball, couches that showed considerable wear from roughhousing, and some very suggestive posters of mares that Jordan wondered how the colts convinced their extremely religious mother to allow them to have on display.

"Very sorry. I only arrived last night and haven't had time to redecorate," Jordan said sheepishly as one of the delegates examined a poster of a soaking wet mare laying on the beach with her tail flagged and her hind legs spread in what looked like s very uncomfortable position."Easy to see she had teenaged colts, right?"

"I think you could have taken five minutes to remove the inappropriate decorations," the delegate said flatly.

Jordan quickly lit her horn and pulled down the poster, revealing yet another Bible verse burned into the wall, along with another fire rune.

Come ... blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.

Jordan blushed as she put the poster back up. The poster was suggestive but nowhere near as evocative as what was written beneath it. She'd read enough clop to know exactly what was being described there, and the flowery language didn't make it any less blatant. Was that a Bible verse? The pattern was Bible verses, so she had to assume so. These verses had been added to the property very recently. That meant Auntie had taken down the poster, added the verse, and then put the poster back up over it. Auntie was a strange mare.

"I'm sorry," she said, feeling like that was all she could say today. "I'm a vivacious reader, and I find the written word more provocative than images. I know the image is bad, but not as bad as what's under it. Let's leave that covered for the time being."

"That was from the Bible, Song of Solomon," the delegate said.

"And still pornographic writing that should be kept private, no matter what the source," Jordan replied. "I'll find something less suggestive to cover it, but not today."

The delegate's eyes narrowed. "The Bible is the word of God. It is not pornography."

"Not to be contrary, but that verse seems to describe a female having her pussy stimulated till it oozes and then having her male partner eat the cum. Tell me that isn't pornographic," Jordan replied.

"It's symbolism!" the delegate yelled.

This was a mistake to say, but she couldn't resist. "So, is God symbolically eating the woman out, or is God the woman being eaten out, or is it a symbol of the church eating someone out or something?"

The delegate turned deeper and deeper shades of red. "Blasphemy! Are you trying to emulate Sunset Blessing by pissing everyone off?!"

Jordan stomped a hoof. "I have been here less than a full day and listened to her-" She pointed her horn at Andrea. "-criticize me for one thing after another. Then I got criticized by that congresspony. Now I'm listening to you berate me. Before I came here, I was getting laughed at behind my back at my old college. You know what? I own this place, and I'm not going anywhere or begging people to like me. I decided that the poster was slightly less sexual than the writing under it, you might disagree, but your fucking opinion doesn't matter here."

The delegate was practically spluttering now. Jordan wasn't going to listen to whatever was going to come next.

"Andrea, can you please remove mister…whoever this is. He has worn out his welcome," Jordan instructed.

Andrea lifted her leg and spoke into her phone. "Boys, we've got another one. No, not the other Shimmerist, sadly. I'm still hoping he makes Miss Gilmore mad. This time it's the evangelical prick who always wants everything in the Bible to be literal except when he doesn't like it."

"Andri, can you stop being an ass?" Amicus asked.

"I can, but I don't feel like it right now," Andrea answered as she approached the delegate. "Move along, buddy. We have no problem physically throwing people off the property." She looked around. "Keep pissing the filly off, people. I'm ready and willing to drag your flanks out of here."

Amicus got into the middle of the crowd and started lowering her head. "I apologize for my sister. She should know better."

"Naw, I'm fucking old, I don't give a damn what people think of me, and the filly can't kick me out," Andrea said as she guided the evangelical delegate to the door. "I'm just glad she stopped sniveling to these creeps. You should take a page from her. You snivel too much, sis."

"You are so impossible!" Amicus shouted at her sister as her sister exited the room.

"And then there were six," Water Wings said sagely before eating a piece of cheese from the snack tray on the table.

Nothing to do but carry on.

"Amicus, can you turn on the news stream?" Jordan asked. "Nothing is set to my voice yet."

Amicus gave the door where her sister had just exited one last grimace and then looked at the television screen. "Teptri'pi, turn on the rec room television, turn to news stream, Sunset Blessing's departure."

The television turned on and switched to the news, where a group of news commentators was discussing Sunset Blessing and her legacy and controversies as a live feed of the portal in New York played in the background.

"That's an odd name for the house's computer system. I don't recognize the language. Is it Polynesian?" Mayor Polis asked.

Amicus shook her head. "It is not. I've tried running it through translators, but it is from no known language on Earth or Equestria, living or dead. Sunset said it means something like a cross between sanctuary and home, but she never explained the source of the word. Maybe she made it up."

"Perhaps," Mayor Solis replied.

Andrea returned to the room. "Any more that need to find their way to the gate?"

"None as of yet," Jordan replied. She looked at the television. "It looks like it's time. She's going."

They all settled in front of the television; Amicus ordered the volume to turn up.

"And we've just been informed that Sunset Blessing will not be speaking to the press," one of the commentators announced.

"That seems odd, don't you think?" another commentator asked. "She's well-known for liking to hear her own voice."

"That was years ago. Even though she has written prolifically, there's been next to no public appearances from her since her presidential pardon. Her last public appearance was her visit to the monument in Skytree last year. She didn't make any speeches then, either. She may have changed," the previous commentator said.

Perhaps there is a chance at a last speech. It looks like she is bringing up the rear of the departing party," the other commentator said.

"It could just be her injury. She suffered a severe injury to her neck and shoulder some years ago. You can still see the scars. To date, there has been no disclosure about how she was injured. It looks like it would slow anyone down." the previous said. "Can we zoom in the camera for the viewers to see those scars? They look gruesome."

"Yes, let's all gawk at my baby sister's injuries," Andrea growled at the television.

"You know how the media is," Amicus replied.

The camera only lingered on the scars for a brief time. Then zoomed back out. The commentators then went on identifying each of the people in the party, zooming in on each briefly. Jordan felt regret seeing some of them go. There was a heavily pregnant Lántiān and her husband, Fredrick. Drizzle followed close to them, looking both sad and defiant. The filly likely didn't like being taken away from her friends and home to some unknown place just because her adoptive grandmother was going off to that place. Shǔguāng was close to Auntie Sunset, practically guarding her. He and Jordan had gotten to talking during Auntie's big party last year, and there had been a chance that they might have gone to his room to have some very adult fun if not for her mom being on their tails for the entire evening. He wasn't her normal type, but she still found him attractive, and he would have been her first. It was something about how he carried himself. She was still waiting for her first, but it certainly wouldn't be him.

The camera panned over to a cloaked woman and an unfamiliar night pony.

"And these two must be Charlotte Newman and Shadow Dancer. Charlotte Newman was an aide to Sunset Blessing and also worked as an aide to Connie Morgan. Shadow Dancer was a bodyguard for the foals, appointed by Yinyu Wu Yan," one of the commentators continued. "Why is Charlotte Newman cloaked up like that and wearing gloves?"

Jordan could take a guess. It was because Auntie Sunset was Charlotte Newman, and this human was some sort of body double to account for her departing to Equestria as well. She had no clue who was standing in as Charlotte Newman, but it wasn't who people thought. Then again, only a select few even knew Charlotte Newman was Auntie's human alter ego.

"Odd that Charlotte is departing as well," one of the delegates said. "She had an excellent head for politics. I had thought she would have used her position as Connie's aid to jump into elected office herself."

"Her ties to Wabash Manor might make it difficult. There'd be too many questions about her work for Sunset Blessing. Connie had those whispers plaguing her as well, even though Charlotte never seemed to have any agenda from Sunset Blessing that she was trying to push," another delegate replied.

"I met Miss Newman a few times in her capacity as Sunset Blessing's agent," Water Wings said, earning the attention of the others.

"A shimmerist had dealings with Sunset Blessing?" a delegate asked. "That is hard to believe. She despised shimmerists, and you guys despised her."

Water Wings shook his head. "Make no mistake, I detest Sunset Blessing for her betrayals and slander, but I am committed to a peaceful and moral way of doing things. I would hear whispers occasionally of some radicals intending to do her and her household harm. I would inform Miss Newman of this to communicate it to Sunset Blessing and prevent bloodshed. No matter how much I hated her, I wouldn't let anyone murder her. I'm not the evil she made shimmerists out to be."

"You keep telling yourself that, buddy," Andrea muttered.

He snorted. "With that in mind, my quarrel was with Sunset Blessing, and it seems her sister has an issue with me. However, I have no quarrel with you, Miss Gilmore. Freedom Shimmer is not representative of the ponies and humans who are shimmerists in this region. I hope we can have a more amicable relationship with Wabash Manor."

"Those people you say he doesn't represent elected him as their representative. You're fooling yourself about what shimmerists are like," Andrea said.

There was a delay. It looked like the portal guard was taking an extended time dealing with whoever was pretending to be Charlotte Newman. Was Auntie Sunset's deception about to be called out? No…Twilight Sparkle just appeared and was intervening. The Princess of Friendship was almost certainly in on Sunset Blessing's deception, so she'd ensure it didn't get called out.

"I don't want to fight with anyone," Jordan reasserted. "If he wants to be nice, I'll be nice too, even if I'm not going to let anybody get tours of the property. I'm not going to endorse anyone, either. I just want to live in peace here with as little drama as possible."

"You've got a lot of security measures here for just wanting to be everyone's friendly neighbor," a delegate who hadn't spoken yet pointed out.

"Which I inherited and exist outside my control. I can boss them around-"

"To an extent," Amicus interjected.

Jordan pointed at Amicus. "See, I don't even have full control over them. I've been here less than a day. I found out I was getting this place only a few days ago. I'm still learning the rules. I haven't even seen the whole property yet or know what all is here. I got a brief tour that didn't even let me look in each of the rooms, went to bed, got up, had a shower, ate breakfast, and threw together some snacks just in time for all of you to arrive so I wouldn't look like a bad host–which was also the first time I got to find out what food was here. Speaking of which, does anybody want mint chocolate chip ice cream? She left me a freezer packed full of it, and I don't like mint. It's Breyers if anyone's interested."

"Thank you for the offer, but no thank you," Mayor Polis replied.

"Hey, it looks like the Princess Twilight will make a speech, even if my little sister isn't. Let's hear what she has to say," Amicus announced as she turned the volume on the television up higher

Jessica nibbled on some toast and sipped some coffee as she watched the news broadcast with her family. Twilight Sparkle was on stage, flanked by Starlight Glimmer and Trixie.

"Greetings, friends," Twilight Sparkle began. "Today, Equestria is honored to be receiving Sunset Blessing and these young ponies as new residents, and soon citizens, of Equestria. We understand she had a troubled history on Earth, some of which I witnessed first hoof. However, Equestria believes in second chances…sometimes third or fourth chances."

Trixie lowered her ears and looked away. There wasn't much question about who was referred to by that last comment. Twilight might have honestly believed she was showing support for Trixie by saying that, knowing ponies would normally take it that way but not realizing how bad it played for humans.

"Years ago, Sunset Blessing did a scathing and humbling critique of Equestria's education system and policies when it came to magic," Twilight continued. "After dealing with the people of this world for nearly two decades and personally being thwarted by Sunset Blessing's magical defenses during the Cataclysm of Riverview, I'm forced to agree with her. Equestria needs to reform its education system regarding magic, or it will be overtaken and fall far behind in the near future. It has been on the decline for centuries, rarely having any advancement. I have done my best over the last twelve years to bring those reforms, and I am proud of what has been accomplished, but I know there is still much to do. Bringing Sunset Blessing to Equestria to teach at our most prestigious magic school is a continuation of those reforms, and it should hopefully give her a place where she can flourish and provide a positive effect on the lives of others."

"Seems like a speech she should be giving to the Equestrians, not us," Robby said.

"Twilight sometimes struggles to separate the difference between friends and her people. Call it a mental defect inherent to being magically tied to the concept of friendship," Jessica said. "Not that there's anything wrong with friendship; friendship is great, but more with being so tied to a concept that it warps your perceptions."

Dusk yawned. "This is boring. Why do we have to watch this?"

"Because Sunset Blessing has been one of the most influential people on Earth since ETS, one of the top two or three mages on Earth, she's family, and your sister might have died if not for her," their mom said.

"She's why Jessie almost died in the first place," Dusk muttered.

"As compensation for the United States relinquishing one of their assets-" Twilight continued, seeming to not like referring to Sunset Blessing in that way. "-Equestria has agreed to donate to the US government two thousand kilograms of thaumicaly active crystal."

Nightscape whistled. "Wow, Sunset Blessing costs a lot to buy."

"Equestria didn't buy her," their dad protested. "They just compensated the government for losing access to her services."

"Sounds like a purchase to me," Nightscape replied. "I know that stuff is easier to come by in Equestria, so it doesn't cost as much there, but that much natural crystal is more than most countries can afford to obtain. Even if that were all artificial crystal, it would cost a sizable fortune."

"We're losing one of our greatest mages to the competition; of course they wanted a lot of value to allow it to happen," Robby said.

"I'm surprised they are even letting it happen, even with compensation," Jessica said. Princess Twilight was giving general platitudes in her speech at the moment, making a speech because she was expected to make a speech, not saying much of substance. "She used to design spells to use as weapons. This is like handing Equestria the knowledge on how to make nukes. To date, we still don't really know how Riverview almost turned into a smoldering crater, but we know it came out of her labs."

"Let's not dig up bad blood," their dad quickly said."

"I'm not digging up bad blood. I'm pointing out that she has concocted spells capable of leveling cities in the past, and the USA is just letting her give her citizenship and services to a foreign nation. From a logical standpoint, that seems like a horrible idea," Jessica stated firmly.

"They got a lot of naturally thaumically active crystal for it. They can do a lot with that much stuff, and Equestria is an ally. Plus, she'd never teach them how to weaponize magic against us. She still has family here, and you know how she is about family," Nightscape reasserted.

"China must be throwing fits right about now," Robby said. "Auntie Sunset is out of reach, and their biggest rival just got two tons of valuable resources. They've been mad at us, but now they'll be mad at Equestria too."

"Good, it's about time Equestria got forced out of neutrality with China," Nightscape declared. "Maybe the Equestrians want relations to sour. China is dangerous, and everyone needs to be united against them."

"They could have made some declaration condemning China at any point if they wanted to do that," their dad said.

"Let's not worry about all that. I'm just hoping people ease up on treating us as risks because we're related to her," their mom said.

"Yeeeaaaa!" Umber yelled.

"You said it, kiddo," their mom chuckled as she rubbed his head.

Eve climbed on the couch and forced her way between her grandmother and her little brother. "Me! Me!"

"WAAAAAAHHH!!" Umber started to wail.

Jessica grabbed her niece and pulled her into her lap. "Eve, stop being a brat. Do you want someone to rub your ears? Come to Aunt Jessie."

"Yessie!" Eve yelled happily as Jessica started to rub the filly's ears.

"Yep, Jessie, that's right," Jessica said as she ticked her niece's wings with her free hand. Eve started giggling. "Who's a silly filly?"

"Me! Me! Hehehe!" Eve giggled.

"You're getting her all worked up right before her bedtime," Nightscape scolded. "I should have you be the one to get her to sleep."

"Nope!" Robby quickly protested. "Nobody is taking away daddy-daughter bedtime storytime."

"And Jessie promised me she'd work on the car with me," Dusk said.

She held up her hands. "Don't worry, bros, I'm going to let Robby tuck Eve in, and I'll work on the car right after I make a few calls."

"Go make your phone calls, but can you unmute the TV first?" their dad asked. "We've been watching her lips move silently for a couple of minutes now. I'm worried we missed something important."

Jessica shook her head. "No, she's talked at length about how impressed she was by Auntie's defenses back at the Bastion, went in talking about how Auntie has been of enormous help as a magical consultant through the years. She talked about how Auntie got her scars-"

"She did?!" Dusk asked with a gasp. "Why didn't you let us listen to that? It's always been some big secret. I want to know how she got her scars. They always said it was an accident, but everybody knows that's horsesh…horsepoop."

"Good save, bro," Robby complimented. Their mom was still giving Dusk a dirty look for the almost cussword.

"I'd have liked to have known what happened, too," Nightscape said with annoyance.

Jessica rolled her eyes. "Dad can tell you the story while I'm on the phone. He and I have known for years how it happened. I suppose we can talk about it now and give a more thorough account than Twilight's brief explanation if she's talking about it."

"You knew the whole time??" Dusk asked in disbelief.

"Is it shocking that Jessie knew a big secret?" Robby asked, right before yawning.

"Well, no," Dusk confessed. "But Dad knew too, and Dad's just…Dad."

"I can't be special?" their dad asked, sounding offended.

Dusk rubbed his head. "You can…I mean…you are, but you don't normally get caught up in all the crazy stuff. Jessie's the one who gets wrapped up in all the crazy stuff."

Their dad adjusted his glasses. "Maybe my crazy stuff is so secret nobody knows about it."

Dusk stared at him for a few seconds. "No, that's not it."

Their Dad actually looked hurt at the comment, looking down and away.

"I'll start walking you through how to assemble and mount an electric engine. That way, you can take over the activity from me when I'm gone," she whispered to her dad's ears alone without moving her lips, one of many tricks she had learned how to do with sound.

He didn't verbally answer, but he looked at her and did a small nod. Her dad was no mechanic, and mounting an electric engine in a vintage car that wasn't designed to have an electric motor was challenging for even most mechanics. Still, she'd done it before and learned enough from the experience that she could explain it to her dad. She could finish the task over time with Dusk, but their dad needed something special to do with him. Putting that engine together and mounting it in the Oldsmobile was something special. She loved her time doing things with Dusk, but there were other things they did. She didn't need to have a monopoly on her brother. Plus, it was logical that they should have more people who knew how to deal with that engine. She couldn't be expected to come running at every piece of maintenance it needed in the future, and neither her dad nor brother were strong enough on their own to do the lifting involved, but together they could manage to lift things together.

She unmuted the television just in time for her phone to start ringing. She answered it.

"Doctor Jessica Middleton speaking," she answered.

"Hey, Jessie," Jordan said in a low voice.

Jessica smiled. "Hey, Jor, can you hold for a few seconds? Let me get somewhere private."

"Okay."

She picked Eve out of her lap and put her with Robby. The filly didn't protest. In fact, the filly yawned. It was about noon. This was very late for her.

"Alright, I'm away from everyone. How's the new place?" Jessica asked.

"I think I made a mistake."

She blinked, then suppressed a growl. "What's wrong? Did Auntie leave some nasty surprise for you? Does she have you doing some insane task? If she did, I'll go to Equestria and drag her back here to have her do her own dirty work. I'll follow her around and make her ears ring until she takes it back."

"No, she didn't do anything like that," Jordan quickly said.

Jessica bit her lip and listened. Electronics could carry her powers. She didn't understand exactly how it worked, not her field of expertise, but she could use Jordan's phone as a conduit.

"You have guests," she said after listening for a moment. "They sound official. City reps?"

"Yeah. I think I screwed up. I kicked two of them out. I'm sure they're going to be mad at me."

"You haven't kicked them all out, so you're doing better than Auntie," Jessica said, chuckling, hoping laughing would put Jordan at ease instead of upsetting her more.

Jordan sniffled. "Really?"

"Auntie tries to be nice and reasonable, but she's got a short temper that flares up out of nowhere. I think there's something wrong with her psychologically because she has massive mood swings. If she has an agenda, she can manage to contain herself, but she didn't with them. Do you think she could make it through hours with those guys without losing her cool, especially since she didn't have any agenda with them to protect?" Jessica asked.

"It isn't just them. Andrea, Auntie's eldest sister, has been giving me grief since I got here," Jordan explained.

"Andrea gives everyone grief. She's always bad-mouthing everybody around her and normally cussing up a storm. Don't let her get to you," Jessica sighed. "Once you get past her rudeness, she isn't that bad. She's loyal to a fault, and despite the fact she's so old, she's still willing to take a bullet to protect others. Just don't be a coward around her. She respects people who take stands. They take getting used to since they're practically solar opposites, but both Auntie's sisters are good mares."

"So, Andrea might not like me hiding in the bathroom instead of dealing with the delegates?"

"Are you hiding in the bathroom?"

"May-be."

Jessica facepalmed. "Jordan…."

"I should go back in there, shouldn't I?"

"That sounds like a good idea," Jessica agreed. "I still need to call NASA and work on an ongoing project with Dusk, but I can come over this evening and spend some time with you."

"Can we go grocery shopping?" Jordan asked. "I got to look at the kitchen cupboards this morning, and I gave everything I thought was mildly edible to these reps. I don't like rice. Rice, soup, and egg noodles are all that's what's left here. Oh, and there's a big bottle of freeze-dried bugs and several tubs of mint chocolate chip ice cream. I'm not eating that."

Jessica gagged. "Yeah, we can go grocery shopping."

"Can you pay for it this time?" Jordan asked. "I'll make it up to you."

"You don't have any money?"

"Amicus says I have an allowance, but I need to go to the bank and sign a bunch of forms and then wait on a debit card to come in the mail. I can't even get to the bank until Monday."

Jessica rolled her eyes. "Okay, I'll pay for your groceries. Now get out of the bathroom and go deal with those reps."

"Thanks, Jessie. I just needed someone friendly to talk to."

She smiled. "No problem, Jor. I'll see you tonight. I'm looking forward to it. We can swing by my new place too. It's not as grand as Wabash, but it's my first place."

"I'd like that. I'll see you tonight. I'll tell Andrea to make sure you can get through the gate. Best friends forever."

"Best friends forever," Jessica replied with a smile.

With the call ended l, she took a deep breath. She hadn't bothered to tell Jordan there was no need to inform the guards she was coming. Jessica was on the short list of people who were always allowed entry, at least unless Auntie had changed the orders before leaving. That was a possibility that couldn't be ruled out.

It was time to call NASA and convince them to turn their multibillion-dollar telescope to look somewhere else. Turning it cost fuel and risked damage to the telescope. It wasn't a small thing to turn a telescope such as the Starpiercer.

What was she going to do about those classes if this turned out to be what the Dreamwardens sought? Physicists were still needed in the fight against the Devourers. They needed people to watch the stars and calculate where and when Devourers had been. You couldn't see where the Devourers were exactly by non-magical means, but you could track their path of death stretching back hundreds of millions, even billions, of years. Before life ever developed on Earth, the Devourers had been ending civilizations. Earth also needed people designing the weapons that would fight the Devourers since magic had no impact on the Devourers, as far too many worlds had found out. There was still value in the students. Whatever the Dreamwardens wanted out there, it wouldn't save the world on its own. No one thing or person could save the world on their own.

She auto-dialed the number and waited for a response.

"Doctor Middleton, a pleasure to be speaking to you again. Are you in need of more star charts already?"

She pointlessly shook her head. "No, and I'm hoping I won't need any more in the future. I think I found the region I've been looking for on behalf of the Dreamwardens. I'm texting you the general coordinates now."

The Administrator was quiet for several seconds. The line hadn't disconnected; she could hear his breathing and heart as well as the stream of Sunset Blessing leaving that the Administrator was watching.

"What's the probability of the coordinates?" the Administrator finally asked in a neutral tone.

"I have thirteen data points in that region ranging from 12.5% to 25.07%. I've never seen results like that. It's rare for me to see a single data point hit five percent. The area is in the Pinwheel galaxy. We need to get a better look to confirm whether it is the right place or not, but that will take Starpiercer."

The Administrator went silent again. Anyone with a tenth of her intelligence knew something was up. They must have been waiting for this news. That meant they were in communication with the Dreamwardens as well, which was unsurprising.

"I'll call a meeting of the Senior Management Council and see what we can do," the Administrator said at last.

"You wouldn't happen to know already what is being looked for, would you?" Jessica asked. "The Dreamwardens said a piece of super-dense thaumic matter the size of Neptune."

"The first and last place," the Administrator replied. "The first thing to exist and the last thing that will exist. The source of all thaumic energy. The place that makes physics even function. It's the holy grail of Astronomy, Physics, and Magicology to anyone who knows about it. It also probably raises enough theological questions to make me glad I'm non-practicing."

"Theological questions?" she asked. "How does a hunk of thaumic matter raise theological questions?"

"If what the Dreamwardens have described to me is true, it has covered in the ruins of a civilization that predates the universe itself, and the world itself is sentient. Dreamwardens don't lie," the Administrator answered. "The term ruins being used broadly, since every building is undamaged, merely vacant."

"It sounds fascinating, but how does this place help us defeat the Devourers? If it has been around that long, can think, and has done nothing about them, it makes me wonder what it can do now. Did they tell you?" Jessica asked.

"They didn't, but it survived the Devourers, the Big Bang, and presumably the Big Crunch. If studying anything can give us clues on how to survive a Devourer assault, it can," the Administrator replied. "You don't seem excited by this. You're a scientist. You should be as excited as we are at this discovery if we finally found it."

"I've seen fantastic things in my life already. I had a front-row seat to the Cataclysm of Riverview. I watched Wild Growth almost become an alicorn but fell short at the last minute. The Dreamwardens have shown me visions of worlds as the Devourers destroyed them. Things such as these that are beyond my understanding no longer shock me. I knew whatever this was had to be special. I have spent most of my life searching for this, being told it would help us survive; I wasn't in it for a scientific discovery. All I want to know is how it will help us," Jessica answered.

"I don't know."

She snorted. "Then I guess I'm waiting to see it for myself, and maybe I'll get the answer. Anyway, I'll let you go to call your meeting. I have a promise to my little brother to keep."

Chapter 11: Hospital Search

Jessica pulled up to the gate of Wabash and rolled down her window. One of the guards on duty walked over to her.

"Doctor Middleton, nice to see you again. You might not have heard, but Miss Blessing has moved to Equestria," the guard greeted.

She smiled at him. "I'm aware, Joe. I'm here to visit Jordan. She and I have been best friends for years. How's she doing?"

"Only saw her briefly when she came in yesterday evening, so I don't have much of an opinion yet. Word from the previous shifts is she kicked out a few visiting delegates earlier today, but most of them made it through the whole visit. Been pretty calm around here so far," Joe answered. He then pointed down the street. "I think there's some paparazzi camped out over there, trying to dig up dirt about the new mare in charge, likely taking your picture right now, but they've been keeping their distance and haven't tried anything stupid yet. We've spotted a few drones flying around the fence, but we can't do anything about those unless they cross the fence."

Her ears laid back as she looked at where he had indicated the people were camped out. She didn't see anyone, but he knew better than she did about that kind of thing. Having her picture taken and stuffed in some tabloid was annoying. Anyone who did any research would already know she and Jordan were longtime friends, and she was also a frequent guest at Wabash. Still, tabloid people would misrepresent anything, and most people wouldn't bother to do even a basic internet search to confirm whether what they were being told was true. If they did, they usually had no idea how to tell a reputable source from a bad one. She could only imagine what wild stories they might come up with. By tomorrow there might be an entire narrative lodged in people's minds about a deep-state conspiracy where NASA and partials did away with Sunset Blessing so they could eat children at Wabash Manor or something equally outlandish and nonsensical. People would believe the dumbest things.

She listened at the edges of her range but didn't hear anyone talking, at least not in the direction indicated. She still didn't see anyone, so they could be out of her field. She did hear the drones buzzing around, although it was hard to pinpoint exactly where they were. It was more than one drone by the sound of it, and there were likely more outside the range of her ears. There were some scattered heartbeats and breathing, but it was hard to pinpoint the location of those beyond Joe and the other guard at the gate.

Oh well, what would she do if she caught someone filming her? There wasn't much she could do. Confronting them could only go badly for her. Perhaps they wouldn't bother using footage of her. It was dark, and the picture couldn't be that great. They likely had nothing to use.

Power of positive thinking? Yeah, she didn't buy into that. It was time to accept that she would be implicated as part of some conspiracy.

"Alright, let me in, Joe. Jordan needs groceries, and she doesn't even know where Whole Foods is," Jessica said.

"Sure thing. Enjoy your visit, Doctor Middleton," Joe replied before waving to the other guard. "Let her through and signal the house that she's arriving."

Joe walked back to the gatehouse, and she waited for the gate to fully open before driving forward.

As she drove along the path, she looked out at the yard. It was surprising how high the grass had gotten over the past few years, completely overtaking the flower gardens that had previously been the highlight of the yard. There was still some earth pony in her, and the state of the flower beds saddened that part of her. They used to be very well kept back when Dry Soil, Hook Line, and Sinker took care of them. The garden had started falling back into dishevelment as the two elderly ponies had slowed down, and it had stopped getting care altogether when they passed away. Their graves were on the property, out by the chapel. They'd have had a fit if they saw it in this state. It was unlikely to get better anytime soon. Jordan was no gardener, Sinker was unwell, and if Auntie hadn't been paying for gardeners before she left, she certainly hadn't left Jordan funding for it. Auntie didn't trust random gardeners being at the property. Auntie didn't trust most people.

Maybe there was a weed wacker somewhere.

She pulled around the angel statue and stopped. Andrea had been at the front door, and the old crystal pony walked out to her as Jessica put the car in park and turned off the engine.

"If it isn't the big-shot scientist," Andrea greeted as Jessica exited her car. "Here to do a scientific investigation into how a pony can survive without a backbone? I'm sure Amicus would like to volunteer."

"Insults for your sister but not Jordan?" Jessica asked. "I guess Jordan made a good impression."

"Eh, I'm still trying to get a read on the filly. She gives me whiplash with how inconsistent she is when it comes to showing some spine," Andrea answered, shaking her head.

"She's only eighteen and hasn't been in a situation like this before. It would be a lot for someone much older," Jessica cautioned.

"You're nineteen and have more of a backbone. Does a year make that much difference?" Andrea countered.

"I've lived a very different life, and I've had to learn how to put on a brave face when I'm feeling anything but," Jessica answered. "Jordan's tougher than she looks. In terms of self-defense, aside from the Three Demons, she's the best of Tempest's students. I might be physically stronger and have my sound powers, but she can still kick my ass with ease. It should be safer here now that Auntie Sunset is gone, but just in case, Jordan's more than capable of defending herself."

"She doesn't have to worry about physically defending herself with me and the guards around, but most people don't need to worry about physical attacks anyway, and most people coming for her are coming with barbed tongues. She needs to learn to defend herself verbally and not give these creeps an inch," Andrea said.

"Jordan will be fine. Give her time," Jessica insisted. "Can I go in?"

Andrea stepped aside. "Be our guest, but don't expect any musical numbers. Oh, and keep your powers to yourself. I know they don't turn off, but I know when you're focusing with them. I'll down you just as fast as anybody else if you do."

Jessica looked at the inscription on the doorframe. "You always make people feel so welcome." She then headed inside.

She entered the mansion and looked around. The foyer looked the same as always, right down to the family portrait of Sunset Blessing and her adopted foals. The old unicorn had left everything behind. There were some new inscriptions around the doorways and on the banister of the stairwell, but they only made the place feel even more like her Auntie. A few guards stood off in corners, casually watching her.

"Jordan, I'm here. Where are you?" she called out. She wished she could try to search for her friend's heartbeat, but Andrea's threat was legitimate. It was uncertain if she could sort it out of the other heartbeats anyway.

"Miss Gilmore is in the bathroom, freshening up," one of the guards informed her.

"I guess I'll make myself at home then. Let her know I'll be in the rec room," she replied.

She walked to the rec room and looked at the doorway. There was a verse written on it.

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind

The verse felt Shimmerist in some way, though she was unsure how. Odd, considering how Auntie felt about Shimmerists. The door verse had been equally strange, considering most were unwelcome. These were all part of some puzzle; she was sure of it. The fact they were so hypocritical could be a coincidence or part of the puzzle. Curious as it all was, she would let the mystery continue to be just a bunch of unrelated pieces. Auntie's obsession with solving puzzles was not a trait they shared. If this was a math problem, it might be different, but this was some convoluted mess of a security system that her Auntie, in her arrogance and audacity, decided to give clues on how to bypass, despite that being completely illogical. Jessica had no interest in untwisting Auntie's machinations.

The rec room was the same as she remembered, down to Líng's posters of sexy mares and Méng's mini-arcade. The snack platters set out for Jordan's guests were still sitting on the table half-filled with food.

The television was on with commentators having moved on from discussing Auntie to discussing a bill about diverting rains from the next hurricane season to the midwest instead of the southwest in hopes of replenishing water there after more than a century of gross mismanagement of the aquifers. The arguments mainly centered around how much the federal government should be allowed to regulate the states on their groundwater use, but also with New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada protesting giving up the rains to the Great Plains states at all after how badly water had been managed there previously–basically saying the Great Plains states had made their bed and should sleep in it instead of being bailed out. In the Great Plains and the Southwest, rain and the water that came with it meant the difference between life and death as both regions faced being consumed by the desert. Recent rain policies had given new life to the southwest, but most agreed that the Great Plains desperately needed help soon, or in a few decades, it would begin to become a desert to rival the Sahara. State governments tried their best to bring rain to the plains with pegasi, but they were only working with local water, and it was not enough–and interfering with rains elsewhere. Wild Growth was currently passionately speaking about establishing a national weather management system and cabinet position separate from the Department of Interior, not surprising considering Wild Growth was an outspoken environmentalist. Jessica never paid much attention to these debates because they presumed the Devourers weren't coming or weren't coming soon. The environment was important, but it was more critical to worry about the doom on their doorstep than the doom still down the street—one thing at a time.

She was on vacation and determined not to worry about any of it until she had gotten sufficient time to relax and breathe, even as the clock continued to tick-tock without a stop. A few days to enjoy life with friends and family wasn't much to ask after years of tireless service.

To pass the time while waiting for Jordan and not wanting to worry about the news, she walked over to one of the arcade games at random and started playing. After five minutes of watching her fighter get helplessly murdered, murdered again, and then dismembered in an impossible way, she determined that maybe Mortal Kombat was not the arcade game for her. It never made sense to her why ponies would happily play such games when most ponies found violence deeply disturbing. Did digitizing it make it acceptable?

"Jessie!"

She barely had time to turn around before Jordan had mounted her legs, wrapping forelegs around them.

Jessica touched Jordan's head with the palm of her hand. "Hello, Jor. It's good to see you again. You do know we're going to a grocery store, not a club, right? You don't need all the jewelry and makeup. It looks good, but it seems a bit much. I like the braid of your mane too."

Jordan released her and sighed. "If only the stallions would notice that stuff. The jewelry is kinda mandatory. All of Auntie's defenses require me to wear this piece of jewelry or that piece of jewelry–well, two earrings and a necklace, anyway, and one of the earrings doesn't do anything. She had a master necklace that did all of it, but nobody seems to know where that is–probably in a vault. I figured that if I need to wear them, I might as well go all out."

"And what do they circumvent exactly?" Jessica asked, curious.

Jordan pointed to her ear. "This thing lets me teleport while on the property without teleporting to my doom. The necklace lets me do advanced spellcasting. I don't know what qualifies as advanced in Auntie's book, but apparently, if you try to do anything too complicated while on the property, it can go haywire and fail without this necklace."

Jessica shook her head. "Auntie loves her security. I wanted nothing to do with it. I'm glad you're here, but I don't envy you having this place. You're tough, though, and I'm sure you'll do fine."

Jordan looked away. "I'm not that tough. The Demons beat me all the time during the training sessions with Tempest–it wasn't even close, and you had to save me back during the Cataclysm."

"Jordan, stop it," Jessica said firmly. "Comparing you fighting to one of the Demons is completely unfair because everyone loses to them in a physical fight–they can even beat Tempest, and she trained them. That you could even hold your own against them for any period is extremely impressive, and as for me saving you–I was six, and you were five. We aren't little foals anymore. You could barely get your horn to even spark back then. You started doing bodyguard work in eighth grade to protect Auntie's granddaughter, and Auntie, who trusts no one, trusted you with Drizzle's life. You've also never gotten below a B in school in your life. You're intelligent and capable, and you should stop putting yourself down."

"You never made a B," Jordan countered.

Jessica looked left and right before bending down to whisper. "You're right, but don't tell my mom that I made a C as an undergrad in Art History."

Jordan raised an eyebrow at her. "You made a C?"

Jessica nodded. "Yep, it ruined my perfect 4.0 GPA. It was an elective, but it was the most stressful elective I've ever taken. I barely passed the class. Worse than that, it's a subject that my mom cares about. I'm the only member of my family who almost failed at something art related. Don't tell her."

Jordan giggled. "Your deep dark secret is safe with me. I guess we should get going."

"Let's do that," Jessica agreed.

"That over there is Coors Field," Jessica informed, pointing at the stadium while stopped at a light. "The Rockies baseball team plays there, and they do some events like concerts there during the offseason."

"Oh, do they go to the Super Bowl a lot?" Jordan asked.

"Uh, wrong sport. It's called the World Series with baseball, and no, they never go. Physics is not on their side. I could give you a detailed explanation of why they have difficulty winning games, even with great players. I doubt you would be interested in the details about air pressure and gravity, so I won't go into it," Jessica said. "I'm told their games are still fun to watch. The most exciting games in baseball."

"I have heard of the team. Drizzle had season tickets, even for away games. I was told they gave her season tickets for life after someone dressed as their mascot tried to kidnap her," Jordan said. "She says they had to change the design of the mascot and everything because they felt so bad it had been associated with a foalnapping. I suppose that it isn't good press to have kids think of your mascot as a monster that steals kids away in the night."

"I was in the manor when that happened," Jessica replied as the light turned green, and they started again. "I remember when Auntie finally got her back that Drizzle was scared of the purple dinosaur plushie she had gotten before that. It was heartbreaking to see."

Her phone started ringing, and she tapped it to answer it. "Doctor Jessica Middleton speaking, who's this?"

"Doctor Middleton! Thank goodness we got ahold of you. We were unsure you were on call since you didn't appear in our visiting doctor listings. We need your help. Mark has escaped his room, and we can't find him. We've checked the cameras, but we only saw his escape from the room. We're at a complete loss on how he could be evading us. The notes said he trusts you. Can you help us find him?"

"I think there's been a mistake. You know I'm not a medical doctor, right?" Jessica asked in disbelief.

"You aren't?" the nurse asked. "The notes that the other shifts left say you spent a great deal of time with him. Are you a psychiatrist?"

"I'm a physicist!" Jessica exclaimed.

"Physical therapy? Okay, well, that's still fine. We need you down here. Please, we're begging here. Mark could be in trouble or get hurt," the nurse said.

Why did people have to be so stupid? It wasn't her looking down on others for not being as bright as her, right? This nurse was stupid. Still…Mark had grown on her, and the thought he may be in trouble was enough to give her pause.

"I'll see what I can do. Give me another call if there is any update," Jessica replied, then hung up.

"Is Mark the partial kid?" Jordan asked.

"Yeah," Jessica answered. "Jordan, I know it's asking a lot, but do you mind if we do a detour, a big detour?"

Jordan smiled. "Jessie, I have nothing better to do, and I'm another set of eyes to help look. Groceries can wait, but are you going to get in trouble for letting them think you are a medical professional?"

"Their fault for thinking that," Jessica answered. "Thanks for this. I'll make it up to you."

"It's no trouble. I want to be a teacher. What kind of teacher doesn't try to help kids?" Jordan asked.

"I don't think this is the helping kids that teachers do," Jessica said doubtfully. "I'm still happy to have you along for the ride."

Her phone started ringing again. She sighed and answered. Maybe they'd found him, and there was no need to go help.

"Doctor-" She began.

"Jessie, Mark's gone missing! Can you help me find him? He trusts you, and you can focus on his heartbeat."

"I'm already headed there, Dad. They called me, begging for help," she replied. "Are you heading there?"

"Yes, thank you. I've got to get going. I'll see you shortly." He hung up.

"This is kinda exciting," Jordan said, practically hopping in her seat, or at least as much as a pony could while in a seat harness.

They almost made it to the interstate exit before the light turned red. The fastest way to the hospital was at the next interstate exit. Traffic was surprisingly light; she was unsure why.

"Small kid stuck in a big scary building, sound familiar?" Jordan asked.

Jessica frowned. "Yeah, I suppose it does."

Being the most logical place to start their search, they headed to the nurses' station next to Mark's room. The pony nurse was off duty, and a human was on duty. It made sense. Ponies tended not to stay up late and rarely worked overnight shifts. Night ponies were an exception to this, but they were neck and neck with crystal ponies as the smallest tribe, and there simply not enough of them that you would see shifts full of night ponies overnight–even in professions that night ponies tended to gravitate towards, which surprisingly included medical care.

The nurse gave her a suspicious look as she and Jordan approached the station.

"Can I help you…miss?" the nurse asked as Jessica reached the station with Jordan still tailing her.

"I believe you called me. I'm Doctor Jessica Middleton," Jessica replied. "Mark is still missing?"

The nurse blinked. "You're a partial?" The nurse's eyes narrowed. "Is this some kind of joke? Get out of here before I call the cops. How low do you have to be to try to impersonate a doctor? You're lucky Doctor Middleton isn't here yet, or I'm sure they'd prosecute you."

Jessica's ears flattened, and her tail flicked.

"Hey! You can't talk to my best friend like that!" Jordan yelled. "This is Doctor Middleton. You just called her!"

The nurse bent over the edge of the station and waved her finger at Jordan. "Is this your idea then? Some college prank? This is a hospital, filly; we don't do pranks here!"

Jessica bit her tongue as she reached into her purse and rustled around in it until she found what she was looking for. She then put her faculty ID from the college and her driver's license in front of the nurse.

"These will clear up my identity," Jessica said with forced calm. "As I tried to explain on the phone, I'm not a medical doctor; I'm a physicist. That is a doctor of physics. I understand you must have gone to school in Florida or something, and therefore lack a basic understanding of what that is and lack the capability of counting over twenty because you have run out of fingers and toes–unless you're inbred and have a different number. Physics is a science, the study of the behavior and properties of matter and energy. I have doctorates in both math and physics. Being a doctor of math, I can do complicated math that would baffle your mind, like long-division."

The nurse's face reddened. "I don't care who the fuck you are, partial freak. You do not talk to-"

"Jessie! You're already here!"

She looked back and saw her dad exiting the elevator.

"And she's leaving before I call security!" the nurse yelled.

"Calling security because I insulted you?" Jessica scoffed. "You small-minded, bigoted-"

"Maybe we should go," Jordan piped in. "I don't think we're wanted."

"Got that right," the nurse snarled.

Her dad lividly advanced to the station. "She's not going anywhere. Mark missing is a social services issue, and I called her to help track him down because you weren't doing your job. If you don't want me and my office making as big a deal about you failing to watch an endangered child to your administration as I should be, you will give us what information you know and let us search for him."

The nurse glared at him for several seconds, eyes occasionally flicking to Jessica with contempt, before finally sitting down.

"He exited his room two hours ago. We have not seen him on camera for any of the elevators–not that he could reach the buttons anyway, and the other nurse on duty is currently checking the other rooms on the hall."

Her dad grunted. "Jessie, you can start searching. Jordan…nice to see you again…you can search as well. You might want to split up to cover more ground. I'll review the camera feeds."

Jessica stiffly nodded and started towards Mark's room. It was as good a place as any to begin the search.

"Are you okay?" Jordan asked, hurrying to keep up with her.

"We were supposed to split up to cover more ground. Following me isn't splitting up," Jessica replied.

Jordan came up beside her. "I know, but I wanted to know if you were okay. That lady was way out of line. To be fair, what you said was out of line too, but that lady had it coming. So…are you okay?"

"I don't want to talk about it right now," Jessica answered. She then stopped, sighed, and looked at her friend. "We can talk later, I promise, but let's focus on Mark for right now."

Jordan's ears sagged. "Okay, but I'm going to hold you to that." She then turned and headed in the opposite direction.

She entered Mark's room. There were some toys laid out on the floor. Her dad had said something about bringing Mark some toys. They didn't look played with, at least as far as she could tell, and she could be wrong.

Stupid nurse. She doesn't want to believe a partial can amount to anything. I'm as human as she is and far more capable. Jessica thought to herself.

She reached down and picked up a teddy bear from the toys. It was a simple bear with a red scarf. It reminded her of her bear that she had since she was an infant. She still slept with it, even after all these years.

I bet that nurse wasn't paying attention to you because she thought you were incapable. She probably didn't care enough to pay attention. She only cares now because she can get in trouble for this. You deserve better. We deserve better. she thought at the toy, using it as a stand-in for Mark.

Still holding the bear, she listened to the room. There were no heartbeats or breathing in the room other than her own. Mark might be able to hold his breath, but he couldn't stop his heart. He wasn't in the room. On a whim, she listened to the nurses' station. The nurse was showing her dad the camera feeds, listing off times and locations. She'd half-expected him to be chewing the nurse out, but he seemed to be keeping his focus on Mark. Part of her resented that he wasn't telling off the nurse, but she forced that part down. Mark was what mattered right now.

Listening to the other rooms from here was pointless. She could focus on one room at a time from here, but she didn't know Mark's heartrate and breathing like she knew members of her family. Hearing a heartbeat meant nothing. This was a hospital; there were hundreds of people here.

She left the room, still carrying the bear, and walked to the door of the next room. Two sources of heartbeats were inside. She opened the door and peeked in–two beds occupied by patients. She shut the door and moved on to the next. The nurse was standing away from her station, arms crossed, staring at her. Jessica flicked her tail. Did the nurse think she would do something to the patients or steal something?

The next room had no heartbeats, so she moved on. The room after that had one, and a quick inspection showed a pony in bed. She continued room by room, checking to see if any rooms had any heartbeats that couldn't be accounted for by the patients within. It took her only five minutes to check all the rooms along the hall. The nurse was still watching her, and Jordan could be seen on the other wing of the ward exiting a room. The nurse wasn't paying Jordan any attention, only her. Jessica squeezed the teddy bear in her hand.

Another nurse came around the corner, looking flustered. She didn't pay Jessica any attention.

"No sign of the kid in the burn ward or burn ward lobby. Nobody's been there except the staff and three patients for hours, not since Doctor Taylor made his last round. Cameras confirm it," the nurse announced to the nurse watching Jessica.

Jessica headed to the stairwell. Once the door was shut behind her, she headed over to one of the stairs and sat down to collect herself. She would do Mark no good and overlook things if she let her emotions run too wild.

"You're better than this. You have no time for this. You shouldn't let one bigot get under your skin so easily," she scolded herself, starting to cry.

Why was she so emotional lately? It was embarrassing. Worse, her frayed emotions made it harder to keep her powers in check. She was starting to get bombarded by all the sounds of the hospital again. She huddled forward, hugging the teddy as she cried and tried to focus. Sound pushed down on her, a constant roar in her ears that made it impossible to find herself.

Then, it stopped as a familiar person snuggled against her.

She looked down, and there Mark was, right beside her. He must have been hiding out in the staircase or trapped in the stairwell, unable to reach the door handles. The only way he could have gotten in here is if he had snuck in when someone else had used it. How had they not noticed him? Actually, she knew the answer to that. He was very tiny and could move very quickly and silently. All it would take was a human paying more attention to their phone than anything, and he could easily slip through undetected.

He must have noticed she had stopped crying because he looked up at her. His eyes were bloodshot, and his face was wet. He had to have been crying as well up until recently. There was no fear in his eyes, just pleading.

"Scared," Mark said in his typical quiet voice. He then looked back at the door. "Bad."

Her ears flattened, and she forced her face from hardening. Had that nurse said or done something to him? It could be that he overheard her say something or just picked up on her disgust of partials. Kids could be very perceptive.

"I know," she replied. She looked back at the door as well. "I know."

He snuggled even tighter against her. She offered him the teddy bear that he'd previously ignored when her dad had offered it, and he took it, grabbing it with both hands and locking both arms around it. The bear was small, but it was almost the same size as he was.

She couldn't let anyone barge in on them, so she reached out with her powers. Jordan she wasn't able to sort out from all the other sounds, but she found the familiar heartbeat and breathing of her dad.

"I found him. You can let Jordan know too. We're in the stairwell, but can you give us a few minutes? We both need some time." she said to his ears only.

She heard him sigh with relief. "Yeah, take your time. Is he unhurt?"

"He seems to be uninjured, but he's scared. I could be wrong or projecting, but I think he picked up on what the nurse feels about partials. He's scared of them more than the others."

Her dad was silent for a few seconds, and she could imagine him cursing the nurses in his head.

"Understood. I'll see what can be done," her dad replied. She kept listening to him for a few more seconds, but he started talking to the nurse, and she had no interest in hearing any more of that woman, so she stopped listening.

She laid a hand on Mark. He flinched at it but then settled again.

"You know, we can't stay in on the stairs forever," she told him.

"I want to go home," he replied.

She blinked. That was a sentence. She hadn't gotten a sentence out of him before.

"I'm sorry, but that's impossible," she said softly. "Your grandma isn't there, so there's no one to care for you. You remember being alone, right?"

He didn't immediately reply and seemed to grip the teddy bear tighter.

"You come home with me," he proposed.

She shook her head. "I can't go and live at your home. I have my own home."

"I come to your home," he gave as an alternate proposal.

Her first objection that came to mind was she would be too busy to take care of him, but if her task with the Dreamwardens indeed was coming to an end, she did have the time. The next objection was more valid.

"I'm only going to have one bedroom; I'll have nowhere for you to stay," she countered. It was also unlikely that she'd be allowed to let him stay with her even if the lack of room wasn't an issue. She'd lamented for years that it was unlikely she'd be allowed to adopt because no one wanted to entrust a child to a partial, no matter how successful the partial.

He started to cry again, and her heart broke at the sight of it. She rubbed his ears to try to calm him. That trick helped with ponies, and it helped with her when she begrudgingly allowed it; hopefully, it would help with him. He didn't stop her or flinch away, but he didn't stop crying, either.

"They're going to get you out of here and take you somewhere nice people will take care of you. There'll be other ki-"

She stopped and thought. The foster parents being kind was no guarantee, and kids, even usually good kids, could be exceptionally cruel. He couldn't deal with anyone but her at the moment, and he was expected to adjust right away to new caregivers and kids who would quickly take his silence as another thing to label him as different and not to be liked? How others perceived her made her upset enough to cry, and she was an adult who had dealt with this for years. How was he expected to deal with it?

"Do you remember the man who brought you those toys?" she asked. "He brought me to see you the first time."

He nodded but said nothing. At least, she was fairly sure it was a nod. It was hard to tell with him gripping the teddy like that.

"He's my dad. He's a nice man. He wants to help you. If he asks you some questions, can you try to answer?" she asked.

He didn't answer her.

"Will it help if I stay with you while he asks you questions?" she asked.

He stayed still and stopped crying. "Yes."

She smiled. "It's okay if you don't know the answers to his questions. If you don't know an answer, just say, dunno, but please try to answer if you can. This is to help you. Okay?"

"Okay."

That was the best answer she was going to get from him. She reached out to her dad.

"Dad, you can come into the stairwell. I know your priority is getting him safely back to his room, but he might answer your questions, at least while I'm sitting here with him. I'd advise coming by yourself."

"I'm coming," he answered.

She touched Mark's head again. "My dad is coming. Would you feel safer in my lap?"

He didn't say anything, but he tried to climb into her lap. Unfortunately for him, that was hard to do while gripping the teddy. She helped him, and he didn't resist. When he was in her lap, he curled up tightly again with the bear. It was then that the door opened, causing Mark to flinch, but he didn't flee.

Her dad came and sat down on the stair beside them. "It looks like at least one of the toys I brought you is appreciated. Hello again, Mark; I'm Mr. Middleton, but you can call me Paul."

Mark didn't reply. Then again, there'd been no question asked.

"This is also the first time I've seen you in person," her dad continued. "I'll only ask you a few questions. I know you're being brave just letting me talk to you. Do you know where your parents are?"

"D-dunno," Mark replied.

"When did you last see your parents," her dad asked.

"No p-parents," Mark answered nervously.

Jessica rubbed his ears. "It's okay. You're doing great."

Her dad nodded. "Is there anyone, other than your grandma, who ever visited you?"

Mark jerked his head up. "Where's grandma?"

Her dad blinked, and he looked down. "This will be hard to hear, but I'll be honest with you. She's unwell. She's been asleep for a long time and hasn't woken up. We don't know if she will wake up. She might never be able to take care of you again."

Mark huddled even tighter.

"We can take you to her so that you can see her.. Do you want to see her?" her dad asked.

"Yes," Mark answered.

Her dad looked at her. "You'll need to carry him and keep a hold on him. We don't want him running off. I am pushing things even doing this, but he deserves to see her. We'll make no progress with him if he doesn't understand she is in a coma."

Jessica looked down at the small form in her lap. "Mark, is it okay for me to carry you if I take you to your grandma?"

"Yes," Mark answered.

Her dad stood up. "Okay, let's go see your grandma."

Chapter 12: How Kids Grow Up

It took a few minutes to convince the nurses on duty to let them through to Mark's grandmother. It took Jessica's dad throwing his weight around as a social services agent, but they were granted access.

"Grandma!"

Jessica didn't know what to do. Mark was curled up against his grandmother's side, crying his heart out. Assuring him that she wasn't dead didn't help. She might as well be lifeless while in a coma. This had been going on for minutes, and no one had the heart to tear him away from the only family he knew.

"Jordan, can you keep an eye on Mark and ensure he doesn't run off?" Jessica asked. "My dad and I need to have a talk."

Her dad turned and raised an eyebrow at her.

Jordan, who was sitting on a couch on the side of the room, gave Mark a sad look. "I can do that, but I don't think he intends on going anywhere."

"Still, keep alert," Jessica instructed. She then walked over to the bed where Mark and his grandmother were. "Hey, I'll be right back. My dad and I need to talk about something in private."

Mark's head jerked up. "No! Stay!"

She raised her hands. "I'll be right outside the door. Not far at all. Jordan will be here to make sure you're safe. She's my friend. You can trust her."

"I'm nice and love kids," Jordan chimed in. "I have lots of foalsitting experience too."
,
Mark huddled closer to his grandmother and cried some more. Jordan's ears sagged.

"I'm not that scary," Jordan sadly said as she lowered her head.

"Don't take it personally, Jor. He has a hard time dealing with people. Just keep him from getting into trouble and be kind if you have to run interference," Jessica instructed. She looked to her side. "Ready, Dad?"

"Very well," her dad replied. The two of them walked out the door and shut it behind them. Jessica put a sound barrier around them to keep Mark from overhearing them.

"What kind of foster home are you planning on putting him in, Dad?" Jessica asked.

"We have several initial homes for newly orphaned kids. They're all good people, used to dealing with troubled kids dealing with trauma," her dad answered.

"Are there other kids there?" Jessica asked.

He nodded. "Yes, kids in similar situations. Kids who-"

"Kids who are angry at what has happened to them and looking for someone to take it out on," Jessica interrupted.

He stepped back. "That is a grossly unfair generalization of those kids. You can't make such broad statements about kids you haven't ever met."

She raised a finger and pointed it at her dad's chest. "So, are you saying that isn't the case with any of these kids?"

He sighed. "No, I can't, but I can vouch for the foster parents. They've got experience with this. They can keep kids safe, even from each other, if it comes down to that."

She pointed towards the room. "They're experienced dealing with partial kids so small they could easily be stuffed into a drawer or box? Kids that had virtually no contact with the outside world beyond one person who is no longer around?"

"Some young pony foals are no bigger, so yes to that," he answered. "Some of the kids come in not talking much. You must understand kids don't come into foster care under happy circumstances. These are kids who came from circumstances ranging from abusive homes, losing parents suddenly to accidents or illness, to kids who had parents who had to give them up due to homelessness. Many of them don't do much talking either. These foster parents are used to it."

She gripped her hands into fists. "Are they used to kids who the world sees as freaks because they look different and who also have had literally no contact with other people up until now?"

He gripped her shoulder. "Jessie, I know you got into an altercation with that nurse. I don't doubt for a second she said something reprehensible. You don't lose your cool like that unless someone pushes you, usually not even then. Without even hearing it, I wanted to punch her for whatever she said, woman or not. She isn't everyone. You have to trust there are good people out there who will give him real love and care."

She grunted. "You know, it is far more feminist for you to have punched her. Treating her as the weaker sex is rather misogynistic. You aren't that strong, Dad. It would have been close to an even fight."

He blinked. "Are you advocating for violence?"

She shrugged. "Part of me wants someone to rearrange her face. I couldn't, not just because I'd get in trouble but because I am drastically stronger and would end up giving her much worse than a bloody nose. Plus, I do have the wisdom to know that violence is not the answer." She shook her head. "I didn't want you to hit her. However, in the moment, I wanted her to feel like I felt. I'm as human as anyone else. When I'm hurt or angry, my first instinct is to lash out. That's why I don't trust other kids around Mark. I know what is natural. We're all illogical, hateful creatures, and children don't have the wisdom to rise above it, and he isn't prepared for it."

He released her shoulder. "So young and yet so cynical. I wish I could have taught you to be more hopeful, but I know you have had reason to have developed this way. In my line of work, you have to believe in hope. That's what these kids need, along with love and kindness. I got into this work after feeling hopeless with you and learning that just because things are difficult doesn't mean that love can't win out. I hear your concerns, and I'm listening to them. I will address them to my supervisors and regularly follow up after he's moved into foster care. I promise."

She looked away. "I trust you. I'm still worried about him. Mom's told me I don't get the whole partial experience. Mark is going to get the whole experience intensified. You see the things I have to endure. You can try to imagine what it is like, but even you admit you don't know what it is like. Try to imagine what Mark is going to go through. Maybe you have more imagination than me, because I can't imagine it. I only know it will be far worse than what I deal with, and he is not prepared for it."

Her dad smiled. "Sorry, I shouldn't be smiling, but I'm more proud of you right now than when you came up with Middleton's Law. That time you saved Jordan might have earned you more pride from me, but I was too scared at the time to feel anything else. Despite all your cynicism, you do have a deeply caring heart."

She frowned. "I'd rather you be proud of me for Middleton's Law. Caring about others shouldn't earn a person a pat on the back. It should be the default."

"Yet you're a cynic who doesn't believe that is the default," her dad reminded her. "What do you say about common sense?"

She sighed. "Fine. I still want updates on him. If things start to go bad, you must step in and do something. Try to stop something bad from happening at all."

He hugged her. "I will. I promise, and I won't stop being proud of you for your empathy. Don't worry; I'm proud of Middleton's Law too. I just see some things as more important."

"I appreciate the sentiment, I guess. Let's get back in there," Jessica said as her dad released her.

Jessica released her sound block as they returned to the room. Mark hadn't moved from where he had been.

"All he's done is whimper and cry," Jordan informed him. "I tried talking to him to calm him, but it didn't seem to help."

"I was listening," Jessica informed her.

Jordan nodded. "I figured. He doesn't seem ready to leave. I'm not in a rush to go home–it doesn't feel like home yet, but you owe me some Waffle House before we get groceries if this gets too late."

Jessica frowned in thought at Mark's curled-up form. "Jordan, I know I promised you I would take you grocery shopping, but I might need to spend a few hours here. Maybe my dad can take you."

"Jessie, you don't have to do that. You aren't responsible for Mark. He needs to get back to his room," her dad said.

"I'll get him back to his room when he's gotten enough time," Jessica replied, resisting gritting her teeth. "This might be the last time…the last time for a long time he'll get to see her. I'll get him back to his room and tuck him in; I promise."

It might be the last time he got to see his grandmother at all.

"I'll have to tell the nurses where he is and that he's with you," her dad countered. She knew what he was doing. It wasn't going to work.

"Then you better advise them that it would be unwise to rush him getting back up there," she growled. "Mark is healthy. He is being supervised. If he had a healthy guardian, he could walk out of here today. He doesn't need to be kept in his room."

"Technically, he's still recovering from being malnourished, so he isn't completely healthy yet," her dad reminded her. She glared at him, and he seemed to relent. "Alright, but don't cause a scene if they come here and ask you to return him to his room."

She nodded stiffly and fished out her debit card, and then passed it to her dad. "Here, this is for Jor's groceries and Waffle House if she wants it."

"I can stay. I don't mind," Jordan said.

"Jor, you have been patient enough, and I don't know how long I'll be. You're already going to be dealing with jetlag, and you need your groceries. We can meet up again tomorrow."

Her dad adjusted his glasses. "I don't mind taking you shopping. I appreciate that you came here to help. Let me call Devon to let her know what's going on, and we can be on our way. Maybe Robby and Nightscape will decide to join us. It allows them to get out and about town–even if it is just the grocery store and Waffle House. It feels unfair for them to stay cramped when visiting."

Jordan still looked apprehensive but got off the couch. "Okay, I suppose that's alright. I am a little tired, and I still need to eat. Don't let those nurses get you upset again."

"I'll keep my temper in check," Jessica replied. "Thanks again for coming, Jor."

Her dad patted her on the back. "Don't stay here too late, and make sure Mark makes it back to his room."

"I won't stay extremely late, and I will make sure he gets back where he belongs," she assured him.

Jessica watched her dad and best friend leave before looking back at Mark.

"I'm going to sit on the couch and give you time, but I have to take you back to your room sooner or later," she informed him.

"Want to stay!" Mark protested.

"I know," she said sympathetically. "I wish I could let you stay. I'll tuck you into bed, and I'll tell those nurses to keep your distance from you."

"Bad," Mark muttered.

"Yeah, I know they are," she agreed.

She planned to let him fall asleep and then take him back to his room. Hopefully, him being asleep would be enough to make the nurses leave him alone. That was if he would even stay asleep with her picking him up. At some point, he had to get tired enough to manage it. He'd worn himself out running around and crying.

What was going to happen to him? With how silent and scared he was, he could be interpreted as being stupid by others and treated as such, in addition to the prejudice he received as a partial. He wasn't as smart as her; only a handful of people were, but he wasn't stupid. He was very disciplined, evidenced by how silent he kept himself and how well he hid. His grandmother had taught him to hide, and he did an exceptional job at it. His dialogue wasn't top rate, but it was much better than Eve's, who was only a year younger so that tracked that he was developing on course.

She looked at the grandmother. That woman was old enough that if she did wake up, she was unlikely to be able to do much.

She sat down on the couch and waited because someone had to be there who cared.

In a dark abandoned warehouse in New Orleans, an elderly man carrying a suitcase hesitantly approached a circle of cloaked unicorns.

A mare stepped forward, smiling. "Do you have the full payment we agreed upon?"

He held up the suitcase and set it on the floor, then opened it, revealing it was packed tightly with hundred dollars bills.

"It's all here," the man answered. "Please, let me speak to my Helena."

The mare levitated some of the bills in front of her and flipped through them, nodded, returned them to the case, and then levitated the entire thing over to a human.

"It seems like you upheld your side; we will uphold our end. Come, let's begin," the mare replied.

The man followed the mare, and she indicated he should stay in the circle's center. She joined the other unicorns in the ring.

They all lit their horns, and a pentagram lit up between them. They started chanting. Ya Ra Ma Da Cra La Ma! The pentagram glowed with a fiery light. Fog began to envelop their surroundings. Ya Ra Ma Da Cra La Ma! they continued to chant.

The mare held her head high. "Let the veil between life and death part! Hear me, Helena Colbert! I, Menta Talos, command your spirit to return! I command you to come before us and speak to your husband! Come, ease his heart, and tell him how your afterlife treats you!"

The fires intensified, and a glow enveloped the older man. He gasped as a shadowy form appeared in front of him.

"Arturo?" the shadow asked. It reached a hand out to him. "Arturo, is it really you?"

The man started to cry. "Helena! You're here! You've come back to me!"

"Arturo," the shadow gently said. "You look so frail. Have you been eating as you should?"

Arturo let off a sad laugh. "You still worry about my eating?"

The image took a clearer shape of an older woman who queried an eyebrow at him. "Who else will? You better not be living off cheese balls again. If I could, I would cook you a nice pot roast."

"Like you made me every birthday," Arturo replied. "I haven't had it since you passed."

"You could have Alex make you it," the shadow replied.

Arturo blinked. "I didn't think you knew that Alex ever made-"

"I think we've seen enough."

The shadow vanished, and the fiery circle disappeared as all the unicorns staggered. Three humans in stealth black stealth gear came rushing forward and started kicking the unicorns to the ground. Only their faces were uncovered.

"What? What are you doing?! Helena!" Arturo screamed.

One of the unicorn stallions shook off the initial shock and snarled at the invading humans. He lit his horn only to have a crystal pony mare buck him in the face, making him drop like a rock.

"Some of them have got some fight to them," the crystal pony said gleefully. "Good, I rarely get a chance to let loose."

"This isn't a game, Crystal," one of the other human combatants said as she punched a unicorn in the face.

"Oh, come on, Tempest. Tell me you aren't happy getting to kick some flank of ponies you don't have to worry about hurting," the crystal pony mare replied with a huff.

The woman downed one of the unicorns' human goons with ease. "I am holding back. If I weren't, I would be killing these cretans. We're here to put a stop to this and bring these ponies to justice. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Why are you doing this? My wife! They brought her back to me!" Arturo sobbed.

"They're conning you, bud," Crystal answered as she bucked another unicorn. "These scum can't bring back the dead. They were stealing information from your mind to create a believable illusion and get the passwords and account numbers for all your financial information. We're agents of the OMMR, and these people broke mind magic rules. Hey, wasn't someone supposed to announce our intentions? Whose job was that?"

"Mine," another woman said as she made a sword and pointed at Menta Talos's face. "Menta Talos, we are agents of the OMMR. The Dreamwardens have discovered you using mind magic without consent for malicious reasons. Under the laws of the dream realm, supported locally by the 2025 amendments to the United States Seditious Magic Code of 2024 and the United Nations Mind Magic Law Enforcement Code of 2025, we are authorized to use any and all force to apprehend a mind magic user using mind magic criminally and use such force against those who stand in our way if need be. You will stand down so we can arrest you and deliver you to the local authorities, where you may plead your case under national laws, or I will beat you to a pulp for preying on the emotions of vulnerable older people for their money. I can quote the legal articles to you word-for-word if you wish."

"Announcement was a little late, Blanche," Crystal said as she bucked another unicorn. "Do you know the articles by heart? That's impressive, and a lot of words."

The large man on their team yelled something in another language.

"Didn't catch that, Artyom. I don't speak Russian," Crystal said as she looked for another unicorn to buck.

"He says we aren't giving them an opportunity to surrender," Tempest translated.

Menta looked at the sword still pointed at her, gulped, then looked at her fallen compatriots. "I surrender."

"I'm fairly certain that's what I just offered," Blanche said as her sword disappeared and was replaced by chains. She began chaining up Menta Talos.

Tempest looked over the fallen unicorns and their goons. "Mission accomplished. Crystal, Artyom, you two attend to the victim. Help him understand what these charlatans were trying to pull and ensure his money didn't exit the back door."

Artyom started rambling in Russian.

Crystal threw back her head in frustration. "You understand English. Why won't you speak in it?"

Artyom laughed.

Tempest approached Blanche and Menta Talos and put a magic dampener on the unicorn's horn. She then started cuffing the unicorn as Blanche's magically constructed chains dematerialized. "She's the only one we've been ordered to take, the only one using mind magic. The rest of these fools are the concern for the local authorities."

Blanche grimaced. "It seems overkill to send the Elite out to catch scum like this. We aren't common agents; we are the Dreamwardens' personal guard; I don't like wasting my talents on a mere con artist."

"The majority of the Elite are not present, nor are our most powerful members, so they didn't go full overkill. This was still a mind magic criminal who needed to be brought to justice. We could bring a team of mages down faster than a common OMMR team. Unless we have legitimate concerns, we have but to obey," Tempest answered.

Blanche gave Menta a harsh glare, and the unicorn flinched away before Blanche looked at Tempest. "You and I may not be the most powerful, but we're the most combat trained. This is hardly a combat situation. These unicorns didn't even have a chance to fight and collapsed without a fight, but I doubt they could accomplish much if they tried. Their goons were no more than common street thugs. I ended a would-be god in another universe; I could have neutralized this entire group by myself. I think wasting our talents on this is a legitimate concern, so I will question it. Aren't you concerned that Phobia sent both you and Crystal on this mission?"

Tempest shook her head. "Take it up with your Dreamwarden if you are concerned. I have no answers, nor is it enough to make me concerned. The new kid is watching Phobia. He's a little overeager to prove his worth, but I trust him to keep her safe. Moon is still near his mother as well. I'm actually pleased by this development. Phobia is letting males guard her, which would have been unthinkable a few short years ago. It is much-needed progress on her recovery."

"It's still strange that we are here," Blanche muttered.

"Phobia has given me strange orders before, and I hear The Marshmallow frequently gives you assignments of a far more questionable nature," Tempest replied.

"The Marshmallow has a…standard…pattern to their questionable orders. This doesn't fit those patterns," Blanche muttered.

"You can ask The Marshmallow yourself. The blob's been watching us the whole time! Oh, and the police will be here in five minutes," Crystal called to them from across the room.

Blanche crossed her arms. "Horrible response time for the police. We called them before we started bashing heads. Hey, Marshmallow, care to inform us why we had to take care of this?"

A floating smiling emoji appeared. "Great job taking these bozos down, though I think you could have shouted some creative catchphrases or something to intimidate them into submission. Violence is so icky and dull, but I suppose it gets the job done. As for why, they made a person we are trying to negotiate with rather upset. They don't like the dead being used as leverage over others, even if it was all a trick. We wanted to ensure they were taken down quickly with no complications to appease them enough to talk to us. There was another reason too, but that's for us to know and you to try to eventually puzzle out–or not; not a big deal either way. Anyway, I've got to go and wait for official confirmation you got the job done. Have fun!" The Marshmallow vanished.

"Your Dreamwarden is strange; you know that?" Tempest asked.

Blanche snorted. "You have no idea. You don't have to deal with The Marshmallow in person."

Tempest finished securing Menta. "I have to deal with Phobia in person, so I'm aware of how neurotic Dreamwardens can be. It seems to be a job requirement. Yours seems more neurotic than the others."

The Marshmallow reappeared. "Oh, yeah! We need the four of you to head to Denver. This was more of a pit stop. You can call for direction when you get there. I think that's everything important, only unimportant details forgotten if I forget anything. Arbiter is slapping her face about something, so maybe I did. I'm sure it will work out. Gotta go!" The Marshmallow vanished again.

"Your Dreamwarden is very strange," Tempest reiterated.

Blanche looked around and sighed. "Let's round up the remainder of these idiots so the police and paramedics can collect them quickly. After that, we'll drop our target off at the jail and be on our way."

Crystal came back, looking concerned. "We've got company. It looks like army special forces."

Tempest frowned at her coworker. "Why? These unicorns present no serious threat."

Crystal shrugged. "No clue, though they've got a familiar face with them. Charlotte has apparently gone straight from basic training to a captain in the army. They must have rushed her through."

Blanche shared a look with Tempest. "I think we know why. They're here to intimidate us. They brought in one of the few fighters that actually hope to take one of us down if conflict broke out."

Tempest grunted. "Charlotte might be able to take one of us, but not all four of us at once unless they somehow drafted her siblings along with her. How many soldiers are there?"

"Only five, and I can tell the other four aren't on her level and no crystal ponies. We'd easily mop the floor with those four and then be able to turn our attention to Charlotte," Crystal answered. "They are only lightly armed as well."

"They're putting us on notice that they're putting a team together that can take us down if need be," Blanche deduced. "It's posturing, but something we should take care with. Charlotte, with a larger, better-equipped force, could be a threat if we give them an excuse to move against us."

Tempest growled. "This is your Dreamwarden's fault. Those extraordinary missions must be drawing undue attention."

Blanche nodded. "I can't contest that. Let's talk to these officers so we can be on our way.

"I can't believe she said that!" Nightscape exclaimed, dropping her fork from her wing.

Robby chuckled. "You've heard me and Jessie go at it with one another. Jessie can throw shade with the best of them."

Nightscape glared at her husband. "I meant, I can't believe she insinuated that anyone who went to school in Florida is an idiot. I grew up in Florida!"

Jordan pointed her levitated fork at the pair. "I don't think she meant it as a blanket statement. You do have to admit that Florida does have overall lower scores in math, science, and reading. There are still some intelligent students who do well, but it's pretty bad for the most part. I read about it last year while presenting for my student teaching reports."

"I don't think you're helping soothe her by mentioning that," Mr. Middleton said before taking another bite of his hashbrowns.

Jordan felt her face redden. "I'm sorry! I'm putting my hoof in my mouth. Thanks, Mr. Middleton."

"You're eighteen; you don't have to address me like that. I understand it was respectful when you were a filly, but we're both adults, and you aren't my employee, so call me Paul. I even have the kids that I deal with on the job call me Paul," Jessica's father replied, mouth half-filled with food.

Robby smiled at his dad. "So, do I call you that, Dad?"

Paul gave his son a dirty look. "Only if you want to find a hotel room instead of staying at the house."

Robby chuckled but didn't push his luck.

Nightscape turned her attention to Jordan and narrowed her eyes. "What are you all fancied up for? Are you trying to seduce my husband? You think you're hot enough to make him stray, is that it?"

Jordan's eyes bulged. "What?! No!! I would never try something like that. Robby's been like the big brother I never had. Why would you-"

Nightscape bared her teeth. "So, you're trying to seduce my father-in-law, your best friend's father. For shame!"

Jordan's mouth just worked, but no words were coming out.

"She's messing with you, Jordan," Robby said. "I know the two of you haven't spent much time around one another, even though you were both bridesmaids at that one wedding, but Nighty loves getting rises out of people. She's honestly kind of a jerk."

Nightscape burst out laughing and pointed a hoof at Jordan, not protesting her label as a jerk. "Oh, my god, you are so easy! That should have been obvious. How the hell are you going to survive at Wabash Manor? I've never been there, but I heard you need a strong backbone to live there."

Jordan looked down as her ears sagged. That sounded exactly like what Andrea had said about her. Once again, she wondered if she had made a mistake.

Robby glared at his wife. "I think you hit a nerve."

Nightscape immediately stopped laughing. "I'm very sorry. I didn't think you would react that way. I say and do things, but it is never meant to hurt. It's a bad habit I picked up back in college. You could say anything to my roommates and bathroommates, and it would roll right off. Rebecca talked about you all the time back when we were sharing a room."

Jordan's ears perked up. "Good things, I hope."

Nightscape waved a hoof. "Early on, she was a little frustrated a filly was bodyguarding her, but after her trip to Equestria, she was more than happy with anybody standing between her and danger. She must think highly of you if she made you one of her bridesmaids at her wedding. I honestly don't remember much about that wedding, to tell the truth, other than Eve making us fight her for Rebecca's wedding collar. I was too busy carrying Umber around inside me." She leveled a hard look at her husband. "He's going to be the last one. Pregnancy and I do not get along."

Robby nuzzled her. "Don't worry. The doctor finalized the schedule, and the vasectomy is next month. Just be aware, I'll be very peeved if you change your mind about having more after it's done."

Paul waved his hand. "How about we don't talk about that, especially while we're eating. Making me feel ill thinking about it."

Nightscape rolled her eyes. "Why are so many males so squeamish?"

"You get squeamish when human women discuss their menstrual cycles, hun," Robby reminded her.

Nightscape and Jordan both paled. Jordan couldn't help imagining all that blood. How did humans deal with that every month? She would freak out if she started leaking blood out of there every month. To think that Jessie had been dealing with that since she was seven was hard to believe. Jordan had nothing against humans, but that was disgusting and unnerving. She couldn't imagine a stallion wanting to touch that area if there was a chance it was like that or even knowing it was like that once a month. She was no shimmerist, but in the case of monthly cycles, ponies were superior.

"Eww, don't talk about that," Jordan whined. "How about we talk about this Mark kid? Jessie seems to be protective of him. I think it's cute. Is she considering adopting?"

"She's nineteen and single; I don't think that's a great idea," Nightscape said. "Eve is a lot to deal with, even with Robby and me working together, and I dread it when Umber starts his demon phase, and we have to deal with both of them causing chaos at once. Jess trying to deal with a kid on her lonesome seems like a recipe for disaster."

"Eve isn't that bad," Robby disagreed.

His wife gave him a flat look. "Do you remember last month when I was getting my stuff together to present my concepts for the Old Town Bank renovation and found out at the last second she had found my concept drawings and used them as a coloring book?"

"Eve wanted to help her mommy with her work. That was kinda funny and adorable," Robby said with a smile.

Nightscape groaned. "We can laugh about it now, but it wasn't funny when I was standing in a meeting with the people I was trying to market my design to and trying to have them forgive me for showing up with my sketches looking like that. I'm the primary income earner. We can't afford for me to fumble those meetings. If people don't take me seriously as an architect, we don't eat. I'm a young night pony female trying to make it in a field dominated by humans, unicorns, earth ponies, and primarily males. I only get my hoof in the door to present my designs to some of these clients because I have three Dreamwardens vouching for me. They wouldn't give me a chance otherwise, and if I don't come off as professional or seem for a minute like I can't cut it, they won't give me chances even with the Dreamwardens as references."

Robby nuzzled his wife. "I know that incident scared the crap out of you and nearly sent you into a nervous breakdown, but we talked to Eve about not touching your stuff, and we made sure your work materials were better secured. Kids are going to be kids, and night pony foals tend to be wilder than most. What she did wasn't even that wild; it was just coloring. I know she runs around, and now that her climbing has started, we have a whole new list of foalproofing tasks to do back home, but she isn't that bad. You didn't grow up around Phobia's three demons. You want to talk about nightmares in the house? Those three were nightmares in the house."

Paul adjusted his glasses. "Being a parent is hard work. Every kid presents their own set of struggles. Jessie was overall very well-behaved as a kid, but she also was developmentally on very different levels when it came to different aspects of her life that led to no end of headaches, even before factoring in her magic. Try dealing with an eight or nine-year-old who has less social development than most first graders who is also going through early puberty and all the body changes and emotional changes that come with that; along with being so intelligent, she looks down on almost everyone she comes in contact with as idiots. She's over most of that now, but she was not an easy child to raise, even if she was well-behaved."

"She's still a bit off emotionally and socially. I love her, but it's true," Robby said with a shake of his head.

"If you compare her to people your age, but she's not your age," Jordan protested.

"No, this isn't an age thing," Robby replied. "Jessie had a screwed-up development, leaving her socially stunted. She's had the same circle of friends since she was eight because she doesn't trust anyone else's intentions to let them be her friend, and she rarely spends much time engaging in activities with the friends she has. These past two nights that she has spent with us while we have been visiting are the first back-to-back days I've seen her try to relax and have fun since…well, since before the Cataclysm. I know she came to Skytree on and off through the years to visit, but it was only a few hours each time she spent with anyone. I think you have the most time spent hanging out with her, and until now, you didn't even live on the same side of the country."

"Which, getting back to the main point, is why she shouldn't adopt that kid," Nightscape said. "How is she supposed to help a socially stunted kid if she's socially stunted herself?"

Jordan hit her hoof on the table. "Because she can understand him where others can't! Whether it is being partial or being nervous about what others are saying and doing, that's what he's feeling, and she understands it. Maybe it can help her grow out of her problems if she has to help him grow out of his problems."

Robby looked at Paul. "What do you think, Dad? You're the social worker. You have a better idea of what troubled kids need."

Paul put on a neutral face. "First of all, Jessie has not expressed interest in fostering or adopting him, so this discussion is completely conjecture. Second of all, as a social worker, I try not to express my opinions about such things outside the process because that is a bias. Third of all, Jessie is my daughter, and I would be unauthorized to give my opinions because I can't separate my feelings as her parent from my judgment of the situation. So, I'm not going to give an opinion, only express that this is a pointless conversation unless she actually says she wants to adopt Mark. I don't think anyone should pressure her to do so or not to do so. Adoption should never be the result of pressure to adopt. Adoption is also a two-way street, and I don't think Mark is ready to be adopted by anyone, even if he trusts Jessie more than others. We are still at the fostering stage. I'm not going to give an opinion of her doing that for the same reasons."

"Oh, but we can be supportive if she does say she wants to foster, right?" Jordan asked.

"There's nothing wrong with being supportive, just don't push her to it," Paul answered. "Anyway, let me pay the tab, and then we can get your groceries. At this rate, you might not be getting home till midnight, and you are already dealing with being two hours behind your normal daylight hours."

Chapter 13: Making Changes

Scarlet Eclipse sat in her office, lazily flipping through the large piles of paperwork on her desk. To an outsider, it probably looked like a horrible mess, but she knew where every document, chart, and report was. Organized chaos, they called it. As she fiddled with the pile, her phone’s speaker continued to carry the sounds of her outbound call.

Come on, Orion, pick up the phone! She thought to herself, chuckling at the thought that her son had hardly changed since going to college.

Finally, the phone clicked, and the cheerful voice of her son greeted her.

“Hey, Mom!” he replied. “What’s up?”

“Oh, not much,” Scarlet smiled. “I just figured I’d give you a call and catch up a little.”

“Everything’s good!” Orion quickly replied.

Scarlet raised a curious eyebrow, unsurprised that her son was rushing through a call. “How was your first day of class?”

“Like… well, class,” Orion replied with a chuckle. “My general classes were pretty boring, but the physics class was super cool.”

“Oh yeah?” Scarlet smirked. “That’s the class taught by Doctor Middleton, right?”

“Yes!” the colt answered. “I was a little nervous at first, but not as much as she was before class.”

“Oh?” Scarlet asked, unsure of what Orion meant.

“I feel kind of bad. I think she had a panic attack before class even started. She calmed down, though, and she seemed pretty cool when we talked briefly after class. It made me feel less… weird about wanting to do what I wanna do.”

“That’s wonderful, Orion. I always told you that you could go wherever you wanted to as long as you were determined enough, and hopefully, you keep at it.”

“Thanks, Mom,” Orion paused. “How’s your and Dad’s work been going?”

“It’s been good,” Scarlet nodded. “Your father’s been running his online class and helping me with some of my projects. I’d put him on now, but tonight’s a lecture night, so he’s hard at work with that.”

“That’s awesome,” The colt sounded enthused. “What kind of stuff do they have you working on now?”

Scarlet smiled and eyed several documents that she had started to organize.

“Well, it just so happens that your professor caused quite the stir at NASA, and I got called in to help with some new project.”

Scarlet had spent many years staring into space and just as many working away to get her doctorate. She had been among the first to journey to Equestria to assist with one of their most important astronomy programs— programs to which many of her contributions had been the foundation of her thesis. It was this thesis that earned her her doctorate and, more importantly, landed her a pretty sweet gig as a private contractor for NASA. While she was more than happy with running her own observatory back home, the chance to be a part of NASA was impossible to turn down, even if it meant that her family had once again relocated.

For the last five years, Scarlet had been a very busy mare. She had gotten a pretty good teaching job in Skytree, had regularly spent summers in Equestria, had moved back to Arizona, and now was in Denver for who knows how much longer. The nature of Scarlet’s work naturally meant that days off and vacations were far, and few between, but none of it bothered her— at least as long as she could spend time with her family. The work she was doing was just that important.

“Oooh!” Orion interjected, breaking up her thoughts. “Can you tell me what kind of project it is?”

“I can,” Scarlet nodded. “But you have to swear a vow of secrecy,” She chuckled.

Orion laughed too. “Oh yeah? Are you working in Area 51 or something? Are the men in black going to kick down my door and whisk me and Trinket away to some secret facility or something?”

“You wish,” Scarlet continued to laugh. “It’s nothing that cool.”

“You work for NASA, Mom. That’s very cool,” Orion reminded her.

“If you really wanna know, we’re working on the Starpiercer some more. Studying the distant reaches of the cosmos for… something. This time, we’re looking in the Pinwheel Galaxy.”

“Something?”

“Mhmm,” Scarlet replied. “I can’t tell you what because… well, I don’t even know yet.”

“They’re having you look for something, and you don’t even know what?”

“Pretty much,” Scarlet shrugged. “Remember what I showed you when we visited Equestria last summer?”

“At Starry’s observatory?”

“Yes,” Scarlet confirmed. “If you remember, Starry Skies and Princess Luna had found some odd anomalies while charting out more of their world’s space. Distant echos of thaumic energy that couldn’t be seen but could be heard.”

“Kind of like how we can find black holes from how their gravity affects the surrounding space?”

“Something like that,” Scarlet smiled proudly. “This is supposed to be something similar… just, well, unknown to us.”

“Sounds cool,” Orion replied, perhaps a little too longingly.

“You want to see it, don’t you?” Scarlet asked.

“I… well…” Orion tried to sound disinterested. “Maybe?”

Scarlet’s grin grew wider. Nothing could make her more proud than having her son be so interested in her work. “Maybe? Orion, you know I could probably pull some strings and get you in here sometime.”

“For a top-secret project?”

“I guess it depends on what we find,” She admitted. “But you never know.”

“Okay… that would be incredible.”

Scarlet glanced at her watch and frowned. “I gotta get back to work soon. The Starpiercer’s calibration process should finish soon; then, I have to investigate some anomalies before sunrise.”

“I’ll let you get back to that then.”

“It was nice talking to you, Orion; tell Trinket I said hi.”

“Of course,” Orion replied. “You guys have to come over for dinner sometime; I know Trinket would love it.”

Scarlet smiled. “I’ll talk with Dad, and we’ll find a good time. I love you, Orion.”

“I love you too, mom.”

The call ended, and Scarlet closed her eyes for a moment.

“Starpiercer’s ready to go, Mrs. Eclipse,” Came the voice of one of Scarlet’s long-term assistants, Tyler Anderson.

“Perfect,” She sat up in her chair and stretched out. “Is Sarah already in the lab?”

“Mhmm,” Tyler responded. “She’s inputting the coordinates now.”

“Better get this show on the road then,” Scarlet stood up.

As she and Tyler walked down the hallway, she couldn’t help but feel a twinge of anxiety. Scarlet had been working on these kinds of projects for a long while now, but the reality of her work was that she was privy to things that were both exciting and frightening.

“What do you think they’ll have us look for tonight?” Tyler asked.

“Probably more breadcrumbs,” Scarlet shrugged. While she wasn’t always given the exact details of the stuff she was looking for, she was one of the few who actively knew the reality of the cosmic horror that existed in deep space, a horror that was slowly making its way toward Earth—the Devourers. Many laughed at the idea that intelligent life could exist in the rest of the universe, but Scarlet’s research and findings painted a different picture entirely, which is why her work was so important to her.

“You don’t think we’ll find something?”

“Oh, I think we’ll find stuff alright; it’s just a matter of whether it’s what the director’s looking for.”

“What is the director looking for?”

“Honestly,” Scarlet paused and looked at Tyler. “I don’t know. All I know is that they’ve given us the go-ahead to alter The Starpiercer’s position to get a better look at the Pinwheel Galaxy, and the administration’s diverted resources away from other projects to do so.”

“You think it’s something big?”

Scarlet nodded. “Has to be, right? I mean, you’ve seen the preliminary readings; it’s not just your average black holes or dying stars.”

“Guess we’ll find out.”

The two entered the control room and were greeted by Scarlet’s other assistant, Sarah Conners.

“Ah, the two intrepid explorers have returned!” Sarah excitedly greeted the pair.

“Is our baby ready?” Scarlet asked.

“Mhmm, she’s all calibrated and awaiting instructions.”

Scarlet sat down at her terminal and pulled on a headset. “Alrighty, let’s dance.”

Tyler and Sarah both took their seats and typed a few commands. Scarlet’s terminal lit up with activity, and she began to make some finer adjustments as the telemetry slowly updated. It would be more than a few minutes until they had any images, and it would take even longer for those images to actually render at a resolution that could give the team any usable data. It was Scarlet’s hope, however, that the initial findings would tell her something… anything.

The computers began to beep, and Scarlet glanced over to Sarah, who was noting something down.

“We’re locked onto the region,” Sarah said. “Should be getting the initial data shortly.”

“Perfect,” Scarlet replied. “How are the readings, Tyler?”

“Still waiting on the data to download.”

“Alrighty,” Scarlet nodded.

She sat back in her chair and closed her eyes. On any other night, she might have slipped into a waking dream to discuss stuff with her husband, Silver, or her team members back at her observatory in the Oasis. Tonight was different, though. She could feel it— in some cases, literally.

“You think we’ll get anything back from this?” Sarah asked, looking up from her computer.

“Funny, Tyler asked the same thing,” Scarlet laughed. “I have a good feeling, though.”

“Luna’s Sight giving you some good vibes?”

Scarlet nodded. The sight in question referred to her special talent— an ability to get a good, almost instinctual understanding of the stars and other celestial bodies in space. It wasn’t Scarlet who discovered the particular region they were looking at tonight, but after looking at some of the initial data and findings, she had a good feeling that something would be out there. Her talent might not have been as strong as Orion’s, but she could still read pictures of that region of space like a book, even if the significance weren’t readily evident to her.

“Data’s coming in now,” Tyler cut in.

Scarlet perked up in her seat and checked her monitor. “I’m getting the low-res images too.”

The pictures, as blurry as they were, were still nonetheless clearer than any they had gotten before.

Tyler suddenly gasped, drawing Scarlet’s attention over to him once more.

“This can’t be right; you sure you calibrated it correctly, Sarah?”

“Pretty sure,” Sarah replied. “What’s up?”

Tyler stood up and waved Scarlet over. “The data is showing incredibly high amounts of Thaumic Energy. We’re talking off the charts. Bigger than anything we’ve ever seen before.”

Scarlet raised a skeptical eyebrow and slid over, using her wings to quite literally propel her chair. A quick look at the data readings showed that, indeed, they were far higher than usual. She quickly slid back over to her desk and pulled up one of the images, trying to discern what might be the cause of the spike.

“This is…” Scarlet started to speak, but couldn’t find the words. “Something’s weird.”

“What is it?” Sarah asked.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Scarlet shook her head. She tapped away at her keyboard, and suddenly an image filled the giant screen before the trio. “I won’t know until we get the high-resolution images in, but it almost seems like the energy Tyler saw is coming from an impossibly small object— perhaps the size of Neptune. I'd have expected something bigger, like a star. The only reason we are seeing it, even with Starpiercer, is because of how much energy it is giving off.” She pointed at a seemingly insignificant point in the image. “We need to call the director and forward this to the rest of the team.”

“What do you want me to say?” Sarah asked.

“OH, You found it!” A voice suddenly squealed in glee, scaring Scarlet nearly to death.

Scarlet’s head snapped to the side, noticing the strange ethereal form of The Marshmallow, who was floating in space with an enormously large grin on her face.

“What?!” Scarlet asked in surprise.

“What is it, Scarlet?” Tyler asked.

Scarlet waved him away and lowered her voice. “You? Reb—” She caught herself and refrained from invoking the Warden’s proper name. “Marshmallow… What have we just found?”

Rebecca, of course, was one of her former students. While the chubby pegasus might not have been the most stellar student in the world academically speaking, she had an enthusiastic attitude and an optimistic side that set her apart from the rest. Scarlet was never the kind of pony to judge someone on appearances alone, and Rebecca was the perfect example of why you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Especially given her private role as one of Earth’s Dreamwardens. For this reason, Scarlet had no doubts that it was Rebecca who had pulled some of the strings that landed her a job here. The fact that she was observing Scarlet and her team’s progress was no surprise to her, but Scarlet still hated when she made surprise entrances.

“Hey! No name-dropping! Now I have to send agents in there to do all that swear-to-secrecy stuff," Rebecca huffed.

"Hey, I didn’t! That’s not fair—” Scarlet paused, took a deep breath, and asked her question again. “Marshmallow, what did we find?"

The ethereal Marshmallow beamed excitedly and seemed to flutter around the room, invisible to the two humans but perfectly real to Scarlet.

"Exactly what I thought you would! I think you’ve all earned a big plate of cookies!” The Warden cheerfully exclaimed."You found Jeg'galla'gamp'pi, the first and last place."

Jordan yawned and rolled over in her bed. Well, it was a bed, anyway. It had been there when she arrived. She hadn't asked whose room this had previously been. Whoever it had been, they had an affinity for red since all the upholstery was scarlet. She doubted it was Auntie Sunset's. Auntie sunset wouldn't have been able to tell where her boy began and ended in this sea of crimson. Maybe one of her sons found the color comforting, reminding them of their mother. That was kinda creepy to put too much thought into. She needed to redecorate this place. She needed more income than her allowance allowed to do that. Her allowance made sure she could pay for her essential needs, but it didn't provide anything beyond that. She was living in a mansion, but she wasn't rich.

She put on her jewelry and wandered into the bathroom. After a quick shower and a drying spell, she walked down to the kitchen. Legal Brief, Amicus's husband, was eating a salad on the floor.

Jordan looked at him. "Why are you sitting on the floor? There's a perfectly good dining room table in the next room. Are you okay?"

"It's built for humans," Legal Brief replied. "Sunset and Andrea are happy using the old human furniture, but Ami and I prefer things built for ponies. There's an entirely different size and scale between things built for humans and things built for ponies. Most human things are not ergonomic for ponies at all. We're old enough that if it makes us physically uncomfortable, we'll not use it. The floor is clean, and it's less work on our old legs to sit down here."

She blinked. "Aren't you both lawyers? I'd think you'd be used to human furniture since most wealthy people who can pay for lawyers are human."

Legal Brief chuckled. "Lawyers for ponies, filly. We were lawyers when we were human, accurate, but we didn't continue to be lawyers just because of that. You're too young to remember, and you grew up in Sunset's little Shimmerist city-state, but elsewhere ponies had to deal with humans and human law, and the world was not always kind or just to ponies. Someone had to fight for them in the courts. Someone had to be ready to represent them and understand what ponies went through. It wasn't right; the stuff people tried to pull and human lawyers who would legitimately make an effort to represent ponies were few and far between, especially for ponies who were dirt poor."

He pointed at his cutie mark, a stack of papers with a stylized set of justice scales on them, very similar to his wife's, who had the same stylized scales over a heart. "It was our calling to help them. It is who we are."

"Seems like a calling that isn't needed anymore. There are laws protecting ponies now," Jordan replied.

Legal Brief shook his head. "Things are better than they were back then, much better, but there are still incidents where ponies are victims of discrimination. Prejudice is not something that can be eradicated in a generation or two or by the mere passing of a law, and a world and law code made by humans for humans unintentionally discriminates against ponies by its nature and needs to be redesigned to be just for all, often by challenges in court. That's why my Ami still keeps taking cases. I would, too, if I still had the vigor for it, but age is catching up to me faster than it is her."

"Well, I'm not taking on the whole system, and I don't exactly have lots of money, so I can't replace the furniture. If you and Amicus want to buy new furniture, I'm not stopping you. I'm sure you have more spare cash than I do," Jordan replied.

Legal Brief smiled. "You know, a lot of this stuff is vintage or antique, dating back to the Gillded Age in some cases, and has the added notoriety of having been owned by Sunset Blessing. If you put some of it up for auction, you might have some money to redecorate–and space to do it."

Jordan blinked. "Can I do that?"

"It's your stuff now. As long as it isn't in the vaults, the real estate, or something owned by one of the other house residents, it's fair game to do what you want with it," Legal Brief answered.

"Huh," Jordan said thoughtfully.

She did want to redecorate and make this place feel more like home. Getting this old stuff out and having money to buy things that suited her tastes would go a long way toward that. It was also something to do while applying to colleges in the area and waiting for responses.

"Can you help me with that?" she asked. "I don't know anything about setting up a huge auction."

He nodded. "You'll have to get a list of things to auction. You might want to bring in an appraiser to tell you what's worth auctioning and what you're wasting your time with."

"Um, I can't afford to hire an appraiser," Jordan replied as her ears sagged.

"I'd be willing to front that bill if it means we can get some furniture that is built for both humans and ponies here," Legal Brief replied, then took another bite of his salad.

She smiled. "Thank you. I'll be happy to have this place feeling more like my home instead of Auntie Sunset's, and I'll be happy to have you not eating on the floor."

"Did I hear something about selling the furniture?"

Jordan turned and saw Amicus enter the kitchen, heading to the fridge.

"I'd like to redecorate," Jordan replied

Amicus pulled a gallon of milk from the fridge and set it on the floor. "I have no problem with that, but it might be a little more difficult than you think. I'm assuming my husband told you that you'll need to get the stuff appraised. That is true, but you can't let an appraiser walk around the house. The decore will have to come to the appraiser. There's a lot of stuff in this house. At the very least, you'd have to take it out to the yard for the appraiser to look over."

That was a lot to haul outside. She could levitate a decent amount if only trying to move it a few feet, but trying to carry furniture with her horn across the house, especially this older furniture that could weigh a few hundred pounds, seemed more than she could do. Teleporting the furniture outside was impossible with the house defenses. Amicus and Legal Brief had earth pony strength, but they were also older, and she couldn't ask them to do all that heavy lifting for her. Jessie might help her, and Jessie was strong like an earth pony, but she was just one person.

Time to work smarter, not harder. "I'll take pictures of all the stuff and share them with the appraiser. Problem solved."

Amicus gave her a thoughtful frown. "You'll still need to put up sheets or something to hide the area around each item. With the number of pictures you'd be taking, someone could put together a layout of the house by looking at the backgrounds."

Jordan stomped a hoof in frustration. "Isn't that being paranoid?"

The old mare shook her head. "It might sound like I'm trying to shut this idea down, but I'd love a change in decor as much as you two. However, it would help if you thought harder about how to do this while maintaining our security. I would be remiss in my duties as my little sister's lawyer if I didn't try to ensure her instructions were followed. Those instructions are for our safety. My sister, and I acting as her agent, may seem paranoid, but you'd be amazed at what past intruders have used to try to get around security."

Jordan groaned. "Fine, what about the rec room? We let those representatives go in there. Can we do something in there instead of the yard?"

Amicus seemed to think about it. "That is acceptable. The rec room and the foyer are selectively open to visitors."

"I'll call the appraiser," Legal Brief joyfully said. "Phone, call Melanie Stutts."

Jordan raised an eyebrow. "You have an appraiser on speed dial?"

"Needed her for certain legal cases. You have to establish the value of property someone lost if you're going to argue about financial compensation for the property," Legal Brief explained as the phone was still ringing.

The phone line picked up. "Mister Brief, nice to hear from you. It's been some time since you called. Is your wife in need of my assistance?"

"No, Miss Stutts. The new owner of Wabash Manor, Miss Gilmore, wants to do some housecleaning and get all this antique furniture out of here. She wants to do an auction. A lot of the furniture is as old as the house."

"Hmm, some of that furniture is over a hundred and fifty years old. Now's the best time to do such an auction for those items. Guilded Age is all the vogue with collectors right now," Miss Stutts said happily. "Frankly, even if it wasn't antique, anything said to have been owned by Sunset Blessing has value on the market. You could see used toilet paper sell if she used it. The Blessingists will pay top dollar for it, and Blessingists, unlike Shimmerists, tend not to be broke."

"Does that extend to her sisters?" Legal Brief asked with a chuckle. "I'm sure my wife would be more than happy to contribute used toilet paper."

"Not likely, sadly," Miss Stutts answered with a laugh. "I don't think any preappraisal is needed. If you want to go straight to auction, I would be happy to attend to appraise on the spot to help give opening amounts for bids."

"Let me check with Miss Gilmore about that," Legal Brief said.

"That sounds like it's faster. Do that," Jordan said quickly.

"We have a yes," Legal Brief told the appraiser. "I think she wants this done ASAP. It needs to be done on the property, likely out in the yard."

"ASAP it is then," Miss Stutts replied. "I can set up the whole thing for Friday or Saturday evening. That would normally be too soon, but given the notoriety of who the owner was and the fact you are letting people past the gates, even to just the yard–something people would pay for, even if there was no auction, we should have a good turnout. Let's discuss commissions. My standard fee for something like this is one percent. I know the auctioneer will request two. Given where the auction is happening, we could charge participants an entry fee, just enough to keep the gawkers out, and you would get five percent of the entry fee proceeds while the auctioneer would get ninety, and I get five. I cannot say for sure what we should expect in profit since I have not yet seen the goods, but it's reasonable to expect this auction will raise several million dollars."

Jordan gaped. Several million? She hadn't expected anything like that. She'd expected a few thousand dollars, enough to redo the furniture in a few rooms with something simple, not enough to make her a millionaire. She wouldn't even have to worry about getting new scholarships for school; she could pay for school out of pocket.

"Friday or Saturday is good," Jordan whispered, keeping her voice down so she wouldn't seem to be freaking out. What was she even going to do with all that money?

Mellanie Stutts hung up the phone with a smile. Having such a potentially lucrative job land in her lap was a rarity. If this was half as good as she expected, she might end up making almost as much as she usually made in a year. Collecting just one percent of sales could net her a five or six-digit payoff. She doubted there was anything that would push it into a seven-figure payout for her, but there was always the dream of it.

However, she needed to put in a lot of work today, despite it being her off day. She had some clients to call and an advertisement to draw up to distribute. She also needed to contact the auctioneer, who was likely to be excited as she was about this. There was one client who had already been asking if there had been inquiries about appraisals since Wabash Manor had changed ownership. Whether that client had some inside information or was just taking a chance was unknown, but they'd be first on her call list. She placed the call.

"Hello, who's this?" the voice on the other side of the line asked.

"It's Mepanie Stutts, the appraiser in Denver you contacted yesterday," Miss Stutts answered. "You called me a day too early. The new owner is setting up an auction, and it will be performed on Wabash Manor grounds. May I put you down as an attendee? There will be an entry fee of a hundred dollars."

"Yes, put me down. I'm excited to come," the voice answered.

Miss Stutts nodded. "Glad to hear it, and will be happy to see you there at this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

"I'm overjoyed to be invited. Send me an email with the date and time, and I'll be there. I'll pay the fee in cash."

"Will do," Miss Stutts replied and hung up.

That was quick and easy. She made a quick note to start her list that C.S. Diego would be attending.

Jessica entered the living room and found her parents sitting on the couch. She'd slept in, and her older brother and his family had all gone to bed before she woke up. There was a lot to do today, and she was already behind schedule. Strangely, that didn't bother her. Her mind was on other things.

"Look who decided to join the land of the living," her dad said as she entered the room. "What time did you end up leaving the hospital?"

She thought about it. "One, I think. I wasn't paying attention. And no, I didn't get into arguments with any nurses, although that same nurse looked at me like I was some criminal when I finally took Mark back to his room and tucked him in."

Her dad frowned. "Why so late then?"

She shrugged. "I waited for Mark to fall asleep before taking him to his room. We were forced to leave his grandmother's room before he fell asleep, and he wasn't ready to go back to his room. I sat in the nearby lobby for a while, with him on my lap, until he finally fell asleep. He stirred a little on the way back to his room but didn't fight me."

"That was nice of you, but you didn't need to do that," her dad said.

She sat down on the couch beside her mom. "I wanted to. Someone had to be there for him, and he trusts me. Hold one second."

She reached out with her powers to her brother's room. She heard him playing on his Playstation Delta.

"Hey, Bro, I'm going to eat some lunch, but after that, do you want to work on the Oldsmobile?"

"Sure thing. Are you going to have time to pack after that?"

"I figured you could help me with that after I help you with your car. It's extra time together."

He went silent. She heard a game over on his video game. She had a feeling that he had let his guy die because the control had stopped clicking seconds before the sound of the game over, too many seconds for the end to come by accident. Was it distress? His heartbeat did seem a little off. She knew he was unhappy with the fact she was moving out.

"Yeah, we can do that," he answered after a moment.

"Okay, see you in the garage in a few minutes then," she replied, trying to sound cheerful.

Her parents had been waiting quietly for her to finish her conversation and could recognize the signs it was finished.

"I never understand how you manage to hold verbal conversation without opening your mouth," her mom said with a shake of her head. "I mean, I understand you are manipulating sound to create your voice, but if I were doing that, I'd still need to talk out loud."

"It's like saying things in your head," Jessica answered. She then stood up. "I'm going to get something to eat, work with Dusk on the car for a little while, and then he and I will start packing my room."

"Want some additional help?" her dad asked.

She shook her head. "I think this should be a thing with only me and Dusk. He's taking me moving out pretty hard. We need some brother-sister time."

Her mom smiled. "I still remember you, at half his current age, promising him you would be the best big sister ever, who'd always look out for him. That was also around the time you told us off for being Shimmerists. It's an interesting experience, being given a wake-up call by a six-year-old."

"Wish I could remember exactly what I said. That entire week's events are kind of fuzzy for me. I buried a lot of those memories, and I think I buried some of the good with the bad," Jessica replied. "Maybe I do need to call up the old head shrink or let Phobia do her dirty work in my dreams. Memories keep coming back to me lately. What kind of example do I set for Dusk if I keep being afraid to face those memories?"

Her dad frowned. "I'm happy to hear you're considering getting help with that, but it's a rather sudden turnaround. Is it only Dusk you are thinking about setting an example for?"

Her ears flicked. "Who else would I be setting an example for?"

"Someone else who is scared and needs to learn to face their fears," her dad gently said. "Someone who needs someone to look up to."

"You're talking about Mark," Jessica said in realization. She hesitated. Was she even going to be part of his life anymore? He was going to a foster home. "Will I be able to visit him while he's in foster care?"

Her dad nodded. "If you want to. It is foster care; it's not prison, even of some kids feel like it is. If it weren't for the fact you'll be busy moving your things into your new apartment, I'd be asking you to help get him settled into the new foster home. He might be less agitated if you were helping him through the process."

"Is he eligible for humanization or ponification?" Jessica asked.

Her dad sighed. "He is a different type of case than most partials. He was born partial, so he's never been fully human or pony. It would take Princess Twilight or your auntie with help casting the spell to change him into a full human. Neither of those options is likely. Princess Twilight isn't exactly on call, and your auntie isn't around anymore–not that she'd trust anyone with her knowledge in order to assist her or be allowed by the government. He's never been transformed, so he technically still has his two full transformations available. He's also too young to make that kind of choice, so it isn't worth discussing yet."

It was shameful to say, but part of her didn't want him to change from what he was. Yeah, he should learn to have pride in himself, but did pride extend to making life that much harder on himself? He was always going to be hunched over. He'd always be tiny. He wouldn't be able to reproduce. He'd be mocked and jeered at. Perhaps that part of her that didn't want him to change wanted affirmation she wasn't the only unusually built person around. How she felt about it wasn't what was important, it was what he came to feel about it as he grew older. Chances were, he would see it as only a choice between being human or being a pony–both of which would mean going to Equestria. In a kinder world, he might see remaining as he was a legitimate choice, whether he decided to or not. The world was not kind, and the world would make that choice unbearable. It wasn't fair. He should have all three options, no matter what he eventually chooses.

"I think I can make some time for Mark tomorrow," she said after consideration. It wouldn't give her much downtime during the day, but she was used to being busy. "What time is he supposed to be moved?"

"Nine in the morning," her dad answered. "Are you sure? You've spent more time with him than intended almost every time you've visited. Moving is a big ordeal, you still need to go rent your moving van, and you have work the next day."

"I'll manage it, and I won't lose track of time. He needs me there," Jessica replied.

He would need her even after he arrived at the foster home. She'd have to figure out how to arrange regular visits. She hoped she was done with the search for what the Dreamwardens were looking for; that would free up so much time to do things like help care for a kid. It would open up time to try to live her life before the world's end.

The only thing she needed to do was figure out what she wanted out of life. She had never given it a lot of consideration because she assumed she'd be searching for star charts for years yet if she ever found what she was looking for at all.

Her phone started ringing.

"Doctor Jessica Middleton speaking," she answered.

"Doctor Middleton, we think we found what you directed us to. Now tell us, what the hell are we looking at?" the director at NASA asked breathlessly.

Author's Note

I would like to thank Tiki Bat for writing the first section if this chapter, since Scarlet and Orion are his characters.

Chapter 14: Unexpected Discoveries

Nightmare Moon carefully pulled the car to a stop in front of the farmhouse and turned it off. He hoped this would be a short trip. He had a class he needed to study for, and he still wanted to spend some time with his foals before tucking them into bed. Plus, he didn't like leaving his foals' mothers near each other for too long without him being around. That tended to lead to violence. He especially didn't like leaving Blood and Harvest's mothers alone near each other since they were still pregnant with Blood and Harvest. He didn't think they'd risk fighting while pregnant, but tempers and jealousy were rampant among the mares, and he wouldn't put it past Waxing and Waning's mothers to instigate something. Moon's sisters weren't true-blood daughters of Phobia Remedy, and Charlotte didn't even intend to have foals. His line was the true line of descent from the Dreamwarden, and each of his foals' mothers wanted their foal to be the sole true grandchild of Phobia Remedy-Stone and the sole bearer of his name.

Blood and Harvest would be the last two for a while. Impregnating their mothers had earned him enough money to pay for the remainder of college tuition his scholarships hadn't. Each new one added was another that he was worried that the mother would take off and leave instead of trying to raise the foal with him. He would have more, but he would hold off a few more years and then add to his brood enough to pay for a house. The night pony population still had a gender imbalance that would still take a generation to correct to reasonable levels. Night pony mares, especially middle-aged ones worried about time running out, paid good money to have a night pony stallion get them pregnant, and the price for getting pregnant by a Dreamwarden's son was far more. Moon, if he wanted to, didn't even have to go to school. He could live off of impregnating mares. However, he wanted to be part of his foals' lives, and he had a passion for medicine that he would feel incomplete without pursuing a career in it–although he was seriously considering pediatric medicine. His mama, Rosetta Stone-Remedy, was a massive proponent of night pony stallions siring as many foals as possible and was proud of him for expanding their tribe. His mom was another story, and he could tell she disapproved, but she differed from Moon's mama on family and household matters, so she kept her disapproval to herself. She still adored her grandfoals, despite her dislike of how they came to be.

"Why are we coming out here again? It doesn't look special," Wallace said as he looked out the window.

"Because my mom wants to," Moon replied flatly as he pulled his sunglasses out and put them on.

"Because I need to talk to someone who cannot reach the dream realm," his mother answered. "And this farm is not all it seems to be. It is a farm, that is true, but its residents are rather unique."

Wallace looked doubtfully at some chickens being fed seed by a man in a fenced-off area. Moon had to agree with Wallace in this case; this looked like an ordinary farm. However, he knew his mom came out here fairly regularly, although Crystal usually drove her here. Crystal was away from home at the moment, as was Tempest. Tempest rarely came here either, although she never explained why. She only said the place unnerved her. Tempest was one of the most fearless people he knew. If this place made her uneasy, there had to be something seriously weird about the place.

"I changed my mind; this place is weird, but at least we don't have to listen to the phone ringing off the hook. These people aren't normal," Wallace muttered.

Actually, now that he got to looking around, he noticed that a few of the farmhands were heavily bundled up and had hoods on, even though it was still August and still reasonably hot. Both ponies and humans were doing this, and on any other farm, pony farm workers rarely wore much at all. That was odd. His mom did say the residents were unique. He wondered why they'd do that. It seemed like it would lead to them overheating.

Wondering about that would need to wait. They stepped out of the car. Moon guessed that was the main reason he was included in this trip. He did promise Tempest to help Wallace out with bodyguarding while Tempest and Crystal were away, but this place didn't seem particularly dangerous. However, other than Crystal, he was the only person who could drive and had a vehicle in the household. With Crystal away, that left him as the transportation. His mom did fly, but she never flew out of sight of the house, and Wallace, being an earth pony, couldn't bodyguard her very well if she flew somewhere. Phobia Remedy went nowhere without one of her personal bodyguards; all the night pony mares guarding the house didn't count; they weren't the Elite.

Not a single worker even glanced in their direction or gave any sign that they'd even been noticed, despite several working within just a few meters of where they were standing. None of the farmworkers were talking to one another either. Moon heard one singing something in a language he didn't recognize, and another was whistling, but they seemed somehow too focused on their work. There was also something off with the smell of the place. All the usual farm smells were there, but there was something else underneath all those smells, something that smelled not only out of place and strange but very wrong, something that made Moon's fur bristle.

Wallace seemed to have also noticed something was off, and Moon spotted rocks forming on Wallace's legs.

"Keep your powers under control. This is a farm; these people don't need you sapping the minerals from their soil," Phobia Remedy chided Wallace as she looked at his legs.

Wallace hastily shook the rock from his legs and pounded the stone into gravel. "Sorry, Dreamwarden."

The Dreamwarden smiled at her young Elite bodyguard. "Please, relax. None of the residents mean any harm. I know this place can put nerves on edge, but this farm is safe. I'm as safe here as I am back at the house."

"Are these OMMR agents, and is this some secret OMMR base?" Moon asked his mom.

The Dreamwarden shook her head. "This place was bought and paid for by the OMMR, but it was as a gift. The owner and her son do some things for us sometimes, but it is more as a favor than because it is their job. Getting favors from them is somewhat of a negotiation process. Tempest and Crystal, along with some of the other Elite, are currently doing what they can to appease them. We need information, and the person we need to get it from can sometimes be difficult."

"You bought them this farm as a bribe?" Wallace asked in surprise.

"No, we bought them this farm because the son has problematic powers that get more problematic and dangerous if he tries to bottle them up. He needs a place where they can be used freely, away from the eyes of others. This farm serves that purpose," Phobia answered.

Moon looked around again. Aside from the odd behavior and attire of the farm workers, he didn't notice anything out of place besides that smell. There was something very wrong about that smell.

Moon's mom started walking towards the farmhouse. "Come along. They will wonder why we're standing around staring if we don't get a move on. We don't want to come off as rude. The person I need to negotiate with has a rigorous view of manners. Remember to wipe your hooves before entering the house, especially you, Wallace. Don't track your stoneskin into the house."

As they approached the farmhouse's front door, Moon took note of the two mounted deer heads on either side of the door, along with a third above the door. They were angled oddly, so instead of staring straight out into the yard; they faced whoever was at the door. That was a little creepy.

The door opened without anyone knocking, and a tall, bulky man wearing a hood and heavy clothing stood there. With the door open, the uncurrent smell got stronger. It smelled like rotting meat with maybe a hint of wine. It made Moon want to gag.

"Miss Remedy," the man said, bowing his head. His eyes flicked to Moon and Wallace. "These two walk with warriors' gaits."

Moon's mom bowed her head as well. "The earth pony is named Wallace, and he is one of my personal bodyguards. He will reveal nothing he sees here, nor will he take hostile action against any of your incarnations or the mother. The other pony is my son, Nightmare Moon. What I said about Wallace can be said of him as well. Crystal is away on business, so other bodyguards had to be arranged. They can be trusted to keep your secrets. Do you have a name that we may address you?"

"Urash is our name. You have addressed us before," the man replied. He then stepped to the side. "You may enter. The current incarnation's mother is bathing us at this time. So you shall have to wait in the living room until we are done."

Okay, that was beyond strange. The man didn't seem to be in the process of a bath, given how heavily clothed he was, and why someone else's mother would be giving him one was a mystery. Did the man just lie straight to a Dreamwarden's face? There were some weirdo cult vibes in this place. That would explain the odd attire, but it didn't explain the reek. Given this seemed like some sort of cult, Moon was unsure if he wanted to know what the smell was coming from.

They followed Moon's mother into the house, and Urash shut the door behind them.

The living room was lit with sunlight coming in through windows with gaze curtains. The furniture was plain but well kept, made with both humans and ponies in mind, and wouldn't be out of place in any regular house. The other furnishings were more disturbing. The walls were adorned with mounted animal heads, primarily deer, but there was also an alligator and bear. The shelves and tables all featured various animals that had been taxidermied. There were several squirrels and multiple types of birds, including crows, pigeons, vultures, bluejays, ducks, and one hawk. Moon quickly lost track of how many dead and stuffed animals were in the room. There were three doors, not counting the front door, all shut, and he was unsure which went into rooms and which were closets. There was a staircase as well, barely wide enough for a human to walk up, too small to be used for transporting most furniture.

"You may take seats. The mare and current incarnation will be down shortly," Urash instructed. He then went and stood by the front door, hands folded in front of him, unmoving. Moon wasn't even sure if the man was breathing. The smell was more pungent here. Perhaps Urash spent a lot of time holding his breath so he wouldn't gag.

Wallace looked around at the mounted animals nervously and shivered. "I swear they're watching me."

Moon's mom took a seat on a couch. "They are, but don't let that bother you. Most won't give you much thought or even have thought. If any do happen to be malevolent, there isn't anything a body in their condition can do other than stare."

Moon inched away from the squirrel he had been standing next to. Wallace looked even more nervously at a vulture. If Phobia Remedy said something, it was true, or at least, she believed it to be true. If Moon's mom believed these things possessed some consciousness, then it was highly likely they did. This was a haunted farmhouse; what fun.

There was a sound of running upstairs that made them all glance upward, aside from Urash, who kept standing where he was, not even blinking.

"I believe we are about to be greeted by one of the more eccentric residents of the house. She normally rushes to see me when I come to visit, but you two might have made her nervous. Please, be nice to her," Moon's mom instructed. She looked at the staircase. "You may come down, Patches. Be careful on the stairs. You don't need any more stitches.

The running went to the stairs, and Urash grunted with annoyance. "That one of us never listens to instruction. Never learns our lesson."

The galloping sound echoed doe the staircase, and a tiny foal accompanied it, a small foal who tripped and faceplanted on the floor on the last step.

"Oopsie," the foal said, sounding unhurt

Wallace gasped and jumped backward at the eight of the foal. Moon gave him a confused look as he took in Walace's look of abject horror. He then looked again at the foal and its strangeness. Each of the foal's legs were a different color, and it had various colored splotches of fur on its main body that seemed to have been sewn on. Its tail was utterly hairless–and missing parts of the flesh as well, revealing the bone underneath. When the filly lifted her head, she revealed she was missing flesh and fur from part of her face, and her mouth had what had to be a permanent skeletal grin where nothing but tooth and bone could be seen. The scent coming off her was strong, and at last, Moon knew precisely what he was smelling. He smelled a corpse. He was smelling death.

The abomination stood up and looked herself over before giving an excited hop. "No stitches popped!" She then looked at Moon's mother. "Hi, Miss Phobia! We beat Pac-man today!"

Moon's mom tilted her head, seemingly unconcerned a monster was talking to her. "You beat Pac-Man? How did you do that?"

The abomination hopped in place. "We made Pac-Man eat up all the dots. Nom nom nom!" The filly worked her mouth like she was eating, which was extra disturbing with that mouth.

"We cleared one level," Urash explained. "That one of us doesn't understand there is more to the game. We also cheered when the ghosts ate Pac-Man."

"We beat Pac-man!" Patches proudly proclaimed.

Moon's mom chuckled. "I appreciate that you can find joy in both outcomes. If only all foals could have similar dispositions. Ghadab may have a different opinion on the matter, but it still brings a smile to my face. I would love to hear what other adventures you have gotten up to this week, but I really need to talk to Moses. Will he be upset if I go upstairs and visit him?"

Patches tilted her head as if confused by why the question would be asked. "We love you. We wouldn't be upset." What was with these people talking about themselves and others in their group in the plural?

The Dreamwarden stood up and left the couch. "I shall do so then. You can tell my son and Wallace about your adventures as they wait for me to return."

Parches rushed over to Moon and started wagging her bony tail like a dog. "Hi, we are Patches! Yesterday, we found an ant hill. The ants were running all around doing funny things like carrying leaves." She giggled. "We were going to try to eat some of them to feel them run around inside us, but the rest of us told us that if we did that, they would eat our insides up, and we wouldn't be able to play anymore. So we didn't eat the ants."

Moon licked his lips. "Um, that's…interesting." He looked for his mother, but she was already gone.

Patches laughed. "The day before, we found a dead bird. We took it home, and we– Moses we– said we'd put more of us in it after it was fixed up and add it to the fence so we can watch more. We are still trying to get us up on all the fence posts so we can see everything around the farm."

Wallace looked at the bear's head on the wall. "When you say we see, who are you talking about? Do you personally see?"

Patches gave him a confused look. "We all see. We all hear."

Urash stepped forward. "We can explain better. We are all one. We share eyes and ears. What one sees or hears, all see or hear. We each have our own personalities, own thoughts, but we are aware of all things seen, heard, or felt. We are many, and we are one. We are shades of the dead, contained in whatever bodies our incarnation, Moses, can find." He pointed to himself. "We had been asleep for more than four thousand years and am of this world, from the Land of the Noble Lords." He pointed at Patches. "That simple-minded one of us had been dead for much longer, at least ten billion years, and we know not where it originated."

"Ten is bigger than four. Mine's bigger than yours," Patches giggled, not fathoming the difference between the terms thousand and billion. Ten billion years, at least? What was that thing? It was no pony. It was nothing from Earth or Equestria. Neither of them even existed ten billion years ago. That might predate the Devourers. It was never clear how old those were. Moon had no idea what the Land of the Noble Lords was, but it was less interesting than wherever Patches came from.

Urash gestured at the walls. "Those of us working outside are from many sources, but these others of us, adorning the walls, tables, and fences, are even simpler creatures, less than beasts, incapable of emotion, useful only for their eyes." He turned and pointed at the squirrel. "Except that one of us, that one is nasty and vicious beyond compare. Be joyous and glad that it cannot move or bite, or it would rend you limb from limb. The great kings and heroes would tremble in fear and wail in terror if they knew what horrors it inflicted in life."

Wallace backed further away from the stuffed squirrel.

"We talk a lot. Can we play a game instead?" Patches asked excitedly. "Words confuse us, which is fun, but we like games more."

Moon understood now why Tempest avoided this place. Nothing about this place was normal. Necromancy, hive minds, patchwork fillies filled with the souls of eldritch creatures from so far back in time that the universe itself would be unrecognizable all vered soo far into the weird and unnerving that any normal person would be disturbed. What did his mom want with these people, and why had she given them this place to live and practice their dark arts?

"What game do you want to play?" Moon asked.

Patches seemed to think about it before doing another hop. "We can play a game that we learned the other day. It's called tic-tac-toe. It's really hard."

Some kids were odder than most, and then there was this kid who was an eldritch horror contained in a body stitched together out of multiple dead foals. What did it want to do? It wanted to play tic-tac-toe. Every day was a new adventure. He couldn't wait to get back to his sons and give them hugs.

Jordan sighed as she shut the last door on the second floor, purse at her side. She'd been going room to room, starting at the top of the house, checking out what was in each room, except for the rooms belonging to the other residents, including the room for Auntie Sunset's rehabbing younger brother, Sinker. She now knew generally what was in every room upstairs. She'd made a few notes about items that caught her attention, making two lists, one for things that needed to go and another for stuff she definitely wanted to keep. The two lists only accounted for a small amount of what was in the house, and she could easily be overlooking valuable things that could be auctioned for a lot. This would be easier if the appraiser was allowed to walk around the house and look at the stuff herself.

She'd already seen everything on the first floor. Nothing had been added to her notes from it, but she could do that later. The only part of the house she hadn't seen was the vaults and the basement. There was no going into the vaults, but she could at least take a look at the basement and the door to the vaults since she hadn't seen that part of the house as of yet. She'd look at it and then check out the two side buildings, the chapel and the old groundskeeper house that had been converted into guard barracks. How many guards were on the property at once? It seemed like a lot. It was costing someone a fortune to pay them all.

She walked downstairs and opened the basement door. The guard standing on duty next to the door glanced at her but stayed at attention without trying to stop her. She'd been unsure if the guard would or not.

The stairs going down seemed normal enough. It was plain wooden steps lit by a hanging bulb. The passage was narrow, and so were the steps, so she took it slowly. When she reached the bottom, she was in a small room. There were two doors, one wooden and one iron, a desk, a television on the wall playing a movie, and a guard sitting at the desk.

"Miss Gilmore, is there something I can do for you?" the guard on duty asked.

"Just checking out the house. This is the last of the rooms I haven't seen. May I look?" Jordan asked.

The huard waved a hand. "It's your house. You may go where you please. The vault door is in the room behind the iron door. There's not much to see in there other than the vault door. The other door goes to the furnace, primary AC, backup power generator, fuse box, and water heater. If you go in with the vault door, I recommend not trying to open it or even touch it unless you know for sure how to do it. Failure to open it with the right combination results in instant death. The room is a high-powered compactor, and the ceiling and floor smash together faster than you can move."

Jordan felt a little ill. "I think I'll skip this part of the tour and go check out the chapel. Have fun on your shift."

"Thank you, Miss Gilmore," the guard replied.

Jordan let out a long breath. Her Auntie had decided to use a completely non-magical trap for guarding the vault door, and somehow it seemed more horrible.

Jessica checked the time on her phone again as the elevator rose. It was forty-five minutes to spare before they were supposed to move Mark to his foster home, plenty of time to soothe him. She could spend some time with him, get him to trust the social services workers enough to let them transport him without a fight, and then get her moving done. She'd even rented the van yesterday, despite it costing extra, so she could be sure everything flowed smoothly today. Her dad would be there shortly since he had to go to his office first before coming to help with Mark.

Getting the moving van last night wasn't as easy as it should have been. It seemed like her phone had been ringing every ten minutes with NASA on the line. She didn't know how many different people at NASA she had spoken to. She didn't understand why they didn't give each other the memo that she didn't know what the flying fudge that thing out in space was. Over and over again, she told them to get in contact with the Dreamwardens to get more details. Over and over again, they called her like she hadn't given the same answer to the last dozen people. Turning the phone off had been an opinion, but she was scared she'd get an important call if she did. Still, she had gotten sick of it, and she knew her little brother had gotten sick of NASA intruding in what was supposed to be their time together. Muting the phone hadn't stopped the calls; it just turned her phone into a vibrator and filled up her voicemail. It was still on silent mode now because although the calls had slowed down, they hadn't ceased. She'd change her voicemail to a message saying not to call her about it, but that would require her inbox to have space left for the voicemail message to kick in. She could empty it, but that would require going through all those voicemails and deleting them. She didn't have the patience for that at the moment.

I hope they're blowing up Phobia's phone like they are mine. They may be too scared of annoying the Queen of Nightmares to do that. Perhaps they'll call the OMMR headquarters to attempt to get another Dreamwarden to talk to them.

The elevator door opened, and she stepped out. Before she saw the nurses' station, she heard that it was the friendlier nurse on duty, the one who thought of her first and foremost as one of the heroes of the Cataclysm of Riverview. It wasn't what she wanted to be remembered for, but it was better than what she had gotten from the other nurse.

She walked over to the desk, and the nurse's ears briefly perked up before sagging. "Hello, are you here to see Mark? He's getting transferred out of here today."

She nodded. "Yes, I am. I know he'll have a difficult time with strangers trying to move him to yet another strange place–not that I'm insulting your hospital or the foster home-"

"Oh, don't worry about calling it a strange place. Being afraid of hospitals is not unusual. It's natural to find places filled with the sick to be unsettling. You're not a pony, but if you were, you could smell the sickness in some of the rooms. It would be stranger if you weren't uncomfortable," the nurse replied. "I come into work every day, hoping to make people's stay a little easier for them. I want them to get better, both in mind and body."

"Thanks for understanding. Mark is not used to anywhere, but his grandmother's apartment, and a hospital isn't the best introduction to the world outside. Personally, I've been on life support twice, so hospitals unnerve me."

The nurse looked uncomfortable. "I'm sorry for asking this, but some people were talking and…I don't know how to ask this, so I'll ask it straight out. Did you threaten the weekend night nurse?"

Jessica stepped back and squeezed her hands into fists. "WHAT?! I threaten did not threaten that bitch! She treated me like trash and a felon for existing. I told her off and wasn't civil about it, I admit that, but I did not threaten her. If that's what she's been saying, she's lying."

The nurse cringed a little. "I didn't mean to make you angry. It was just that everyone was talking about it when I first came in today."

Jessica took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. The incident the other night made me angry, and I've been on edge lately. I'm on vacation, and for some reason, I seem even more stressed than normal. I didn't mean to come off harsh to you. She was hostile and nasty to me from the moment she saw me, and I'm confident that it was because I'm a partial and she's a bigot. I lost my temper with her, and I shouldn't have done that. I heavily implied she couldn't count higher than ten after she mistook me saying I was a physicist as me saying I was a physical therapist. It was immature of me to have said it, but I didn't threaten her. That's what happened. She is exaggerating the incident to garner sympathy and demonize me."

The pony gave a slow nod. "That does sound infuriating. I don't want to take sides on who is telling the truth in a she-said-she-said situation, and I can't verify anything because our cameras don't have sound, only video feed. I did review the footage and saw you both seemed very angry. I'll let people know what you told me since they're only going off the weekenders' side of the story, and people deserve to hear both sides."

Jessica's ears flatten. Her word apparently didn't count for much. To be fair to this pony, they didn't know each other well, but she'd hoped her hero status in this pony's eyes would have counted for something. Now she was unsure if she even had that status anymore. It didn't matter. After today, she didn't plan on returning to this hospital.

"Is it okay for me to see Mark?" Jessica asked, just wanting to get away from the nurse.

The nurse nodded. "Yes, he's available. Just make sure he doesn't get loose from his room. He's supposed to be transferred soon, and we don't want to delay that because he's run off again."

She didn't wait to exchange any more pleasantries. She headed straight to Mark's room.

Making sure not to open the door too wide, she cracked it open just enough for her to slip through. She didn't think Mark would try running past her, but she wasn't going to make a fool of herself by letting it happen. Mark's heartbeat and breathing had been back towards the window but moved as she opened the door.

"Mark? It's me, Jessie," she said as she entered the room. "I'm going to sit down and talk to you."

She sat where she was, back pressed against the door. She could hear Mark under his bed. His heartbeat and breathing weren't elevated, so he wasn't scared of her. That was good.

She took another deep breath before continuing. "You are getting moved out of this place to a home. You need to be good and let them take you there."

"No!" Mark objected.

"Mark, it will be better than here. There will be a nicer bed. There will be nicer food. There will be other kids. There'll be less weird noises. That mean nurse won't be there."

"No Grandma."

"You're right; she won't be there," Jessica conceded. "She needs to get better; that means more hospital for her. You don't want to stay in the hospital while you wait, right?"

Mark was silent. She was unsure how to continue.

She looked helplessly in the direction of his bed. "Did your grandma ever say anything to you about what would happen when she got too old to take care of you?"

Mark was silent still. She hadn't expected an answer. It was unlikely anyone would have had that conversation with a four-year-old. His grandmother wasn't dead yet, but she might as well be. At four years old, Jessica might have understood the idea that people get old and die, but even then, it would have been a complex idea for her to grasp. It wasn't a math concept or even a physics concept, and while she understood many subjects academically by that age, that didn't mean she understood certain realities of life. If she couldn't have been expected to understand, how could she pretend that he would understand it any better? There had to be someone who could explain this to him in ways she could not and gently. Kids sometimes had to deal with death at a young age. Kids went into foster care for many reasons, and someone had to explain why. Someone must have found an easier way of explaining this. That was a problem, even if she knew how to explain it because he didn't trust anyone else. Perhaps she could get him to listen to her dad. In his line of work, her dad had to have had this conversation with kids more times than she wanted to think about. Her current struggles with finding what to say gave her a lot more respect for her dad–not that she didn't have respect for him before, but living one of the things he had to deal with gave her an entirely new appreciation of what he had to deal with.

She pulled out her phone and started searching for options. There had to be some easier way of explaining this on a level he could understand. She thought she usually did a good time talking to people on their level. Her parents had stressed to her from a young age she shouldn't ever come off as overly intellectual or a know-it-all by talking over others' heads. That didn't work as well with a four-year-old as it did with teens and adults.

"Cartoons," she said. "Mark, do you watch cartoons or puppet shows?" She felt silly asking a child that, but he didn't have a normal upbringing so far.

"Yes," Mark answered.

She stood up. "Okay, then. I'm going to put on a show. Maybe it can explain what I can't."

She went over to the television's tablet and started searching. She had one show in mind based on what she'd quickly researched. Maybe she could have found something better with more time, but her dad and the other members of social services would be there soon.

It took a few minutes to find it, making her more relieved she had chosen something short, but she got it started and then sat down between the two beds on the floor as the opening title was showing.

"You can come out and sit on my lap if you want," she offered. "We can watch the show together."

Mark crawled out from the bed and into her lap without hesitation, and he sat there facing the television, only briefly looking up at her as if asking if the way he was sitting was okay. It seemed like a practiced habit. She wondered if he had done this with his grandma.

This was an old episode of Sesame Street. She wasn't exactly sure what year it originally aired, only that it was before she was born, which meant there were no ponies on the show yet or any of the episodes she watched when she was young that had Spike The Brave And Glorious guest-starring, which were her favorite episodes. Still, the furry muppets might be better for Mark–something humanoid with fur. That was her reasoning; hopefully, it would work out.

It ended up being much simpler in what it was saying than she expected, maybe too simple. This might not be enough to help Mark understand. Yes, it did explain that sometimes parents couldn't take care of kids and talked about for-now parents, but could Mark understand this in a five-minute explanation?

"Are you my for-now grandma?"

Grandma?? How old does he think I am?! Was the first thought that ran through her head. It took her a second to recover her thoughts from that before she could answer.

"It won't be me," she answered. "There'll be nice people who want to help you. That will care about you and be there for you."

He started tearing up. "Why? You care. You here."

She looked at him and his tear-covered face. She couldn't stand to see him cry. She wanted to help him, not this. She wanted to protect him…..She wanted to make sure he was taken care of….

Fudge me.

He was right. It was a horrible and illogical idea, but he was right. Deep breaths.

She licked her lips. "I'm not going to be your for-now grandma; that's not happening. I'm nineteen; I'm nobody's grandma."

His tears started flowing heavier, and she quickly wiped them with a finger a shushed him gently.

"I'm not going to be that, and I can't be your for-now mommy either–since what's happening today has to happen, but maybe…maybe I can be your maybe-later mommy if that's okay."

He looked up at her in confusion. "Maybe later?"

She nodded. "Maybe later."

He wiped his eyes. "When later?"

She shook her head. "I don't know yet. I'm very smart, but there are a lot of things I don't know. I'm going to do everything I can to find out that answer for you, okay? You just have to be patient and be good for the for-now parents. Can you be good for them for me?"

He seemed reluctant to answer but finally nodded. "Okay."

Jessica felt a mixture of relief and sheer terror. What had she decided to just do? How could she explain to her dad what she had just told Mark? How was she going to explain she meant it? She had better figure that out real soon because she could hear him and others at the nurse's station.

Chapter 15: People in New Places

Paul sighed in relief as Mark was strapped safely into the baby seat on the van. He wasn't fighting them. Mark had to be sedated when he'd been taken from his grandmother's apartment. It was best to stay on guard with him since he could still try to make a break for it, but this was still a welcome change of pace.

"I appreciate you helping us with Mark, Jessie. I was worried this would be much more difficult," Paul told his daughter.

Jessie nodded silently, keeping her eyes on the car as the doors were shut.

He scratched his beard. "I know you're worried about how he'll be treated, but I promise you, I will keep a careful watch on this case."

"How do I apply to foster him?" Jessie blurted out.

Paul frowned. He half expected this was coming, but not so quickly. Jessie had shown a strong connection to the boy, and she was incapable of having children of her own. There would always be…hurdles…to her adopting any humans or ponies in the future; he couldn't deny they existed, much as he wanted to. A partial child was another case entirely, and the chances of another partial kid entering the system in the area were slim to none. Add to that, she said she might be free from the Dreamwardens, and that meant she had a lot of refiguring of what she wanted from her life, something she had never had the luxury of considering before. To her, it must have seemed like the universe was basically gifting her an opportunity.

"Well, the first thing standing in your way is you must be at least twenty-one or older," he slowly said.

"Are you fudging kidding me?!" Jessie fumed. "I have waited for years to be a legal adult, despite the fact I'm aged up six years, and I still have fudging age restrictions blocking me?"

He made a calming motion with his hands. "That age restriction can be circumvented in rare cases with an appeal. You must demonstrate you have every other aspect of your life together–income, housing, safety, maturity, job security, time, support system, and no criminal record. However, it normally helps if you are already a relative."

"Well, I'm not a relative, but I'm one of the few people who can understand him and the only person he seems to trust; does that count for something?" Jessie asked.

Paul shrugged. "I'm sure it counts for something, but I'm not sure how much. I'm not the one who approves applications." He looked her in the eyes. "You do understand that I have to keep a neutral position with this. I can't be showing you favoritism. I know that might come off as mean, but-"

She shook her head. "I understand, Dad. You've done me a big enough favor, telling me there's a chance. So, what do I do? Do I go to the social services office and fill out an application?"

He nodded. "Yes, and you'll need to ask for a separate form for us to consider lifting the age restriction." He looked at the van that held Mark. "I need to get going. Worry about your move for today. You have enough going on and don't want to mess that up. You've already spent more time here than you originally planned."

Jessie looked reluctantly at the van and then nodded. "Okay, will you be coming by my new apartment later?"

He hugged her. "Sure will. Right after work."

Jessie headed to her car, which was on the opposite side of the parking lot. Out of habit, he watched her until she reached her. There shouldn't be any danger here, but he still worried every time she went off by herself. He hadn't told her, but he wasn't ready for her to be living on her own. After all this time, she was still his little filly–terminology that still stuck in his head long after she'd gone through her rehumanization process.

With her safely in the car, he got in the van's back seat with Mark. It usually wouldn't be multiple people escorting such a young child to a foster home. Only older kids who were runaway risks typically got that treatment, but despite his youth and small size, Mark had proven himself to be that kind of risk. He was strapped into a foal seat, trying to curl into a fetal position against the straps.

"I know this is scary, but you'll be okay," Paul said as reassuringly as he could. "The Morris's are nice people, and they have a room all set up for you. We even moved some of your things from your grandma's to their place, so it feels a little more like home. Won't it be nice to have some of your old toys?"

Mark did not answer, nor did he glance in Paul's direction. Sadly, this wasn't unusual behavior for new foster kids. Going into foster care was a traumatic experience, and while every kid tried to deal with that in their own way, he hadn't met one yet who took this drive well. Some tried to put on a brave face and force smiles, but those were few, and the most common response was near total silence. Mark might be a partial, but when it came to trauma, he was no different than any human or pony.

"You don't have to call them Mom and Dad if you don't want to," Paul continued as the van left the parking lot. "They two other kids staying with them, and those kids call them Jack and Jill. Have you ever heard that nursery rhyme about Jack and Jill going up the hill to fetch a pail of water?"

No response.

"Well, Mister Jack actually did fall down a hill, sort of. He tumbled down a mountain on a ski resort, and Miss Jill rushed after him on foot and ended up tumbling after. So they're sorta like the nursery rhyme. They joke about it all the time," Paul explained with a smile.

That didn't earn a response, either. He was still unsuccessfully trying to curl into a fetal position.

"You know, it might be more comfortable if you don't try to curl up like that. Those straps must be digging into you," Paul said.

Mark uncurled somewhat but didn't say anything.

Paul made no further attempts to get Mark to talk for the next several minutes as they continued their journey to the Morris house, which was located just inside the city limits of Denver on the Aurora side. It was an older suburb built back in the sixties. The houses here weren't particularly big. The Morris house was one the biggest, having been expanded to four bedrooms over the years, despite still being just one story. Supposedly, Sunset Blessing had lived only two miles away in a similar house when she was a young child. If so, the young kids in the neighborhood all attended the same elementary school as the famous pony, which made sure to let everyone know that she had been one of their students, even going so far as to erect a statue of her near the entrance, even though that did not play well with Shimmerists and attracted a lot of Blessingists to the neighborhood, including the Jack and Jill Morris. Despite the old suburb filled with houses that had, at times, haphazard additions to them, it was still a nice neighborhood that had public parks every three miles, so most people had at least two parks within walking distance. It was a good place for raising kids.

As they were nearing their destination, Paul decided to have another talk with Mark.

"I noticed you like being around my daughter, Jessie. Is that so?" Paul asked.

This time Mark did look up at him. "Maybe-later Mommy."

That caught Paul off guard. "You mean be your mommy maybe later?"

"Yes," Mark answered.

"Do you want her to be your mommy?" Paul asked. Unsure how much to dig into this.

"Yes," Mark answered.

"Why do you want her to be your mommy?" Paul continued.

Mark seemed to actually stop and think, unusual for a four-year-old since they normally blurted out the first thing that came to mind. That could mean Mark was more intelligent than first suspected, although it would be some time before his intelligence could be tested.

"Nice to me, pretty, brave, hugs good, sad," Mark listed off slowly after taking time to consider.

"Sad?" Paul asked in confusion. He was also impressed at the use of the term brave. Since that wasn't usually a term young children thought of when talking about others, but sad was the big standout.

"Sad when I'm sad," Mark clarified.

"Well, I'm sad when you're sad, too," Paul said.

Mark looked away. "Not same."

Now Paul understood. Mark didn't have the vocabulary or abstract thought to put it into words, but he was describing empathy as best he could, not just Jessie's empathy for him, but his for her. Others might feel for him, but it was with Jessie that he felt it back and was more responsive to hers as a result.

"Did Jessie say maybe later?" Paul asked.

"Yes," Mark answered.

"And were you the one who asked her to be your mommy?"

"Yes."

"And she answered, maybe later?"

"Yes."

That explained why Jessie suddenly announced she wanted to foster him. He had asked her, and she had responded. She still needed time to consider this decision, and there were plenty of obstacles in her path. He was also worried that she might not have had enough time out on her own yet or to find what she wanted out of life before taking on parenthood. Plus, it was hard to imagine his little filly as a parent…she was still his little filly.

"We'll see how that goes," he finally said. "I know she'll want you to be well-behaved for the Morrises. Answer their questions when they ask you, even if you have to say I don't know. Don't try to run away and hide from them. Let them give you baths, and make sure you eat your meals. Jessie will visit you in a few days once you're settled in. She'll want to hear you were a good boy. Can you be a good boy?"

"Yes," Mark answered.

Paul nodded in acceptance of the answer. "There's one more thing. I'll also be visiting you regularly to check how you're doing. I don't think it will happen, but if anyone has done anything mean to you or hurt you, you need to make sure you tell me. It doesn't matter who it was. I need to know so I can make sure it never happens again. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

They reached the Morris house and parked. Paul went to undo Mark's straps, and Mark tried to flinch away.

"I'm trying to undo your straps. I'm going to pick you up after that. Is that okay?" Paul asked.

Mark did not look pleased with this idea. "Yes. Be a good boy."

Paul smiled. "Thank you."

After finishing getting Mark out of the seat, he picked Mark up and carefully got out of the van. Jack and Jill were already outside and coming up to the van, all smiles. Their two other fosters stood watching on the porch. Mark was unconcerned with any of this and was desperately trying to hide deeper in Paul's arms.

Jack walked up to them. "Paul, good to see you. Is this Mark? He seems rather attached to you."

Paul looked at Mark, who was doing his best to hide his head. The child's horn dug into his arm, but it was only mildly uncomfortable.

"He did this same thing when leaving the hospital to go to the van. Mark is scared of wide open spaces, and the sky terrifies him," Paul explained. "He's scared of strangers, too, and almost everyone is a stranger to him."

Jill reached them and gave Mark a comforting smile. "Poor guy. Wishing Well was scared when he came here as well. Maybe he can help you settle in."

"I think he'll be slightly less nervous once we get him inside," Paul said. "Shall we?"

They walked to the front door, and the eleven-year-old boy, Caleb, gave them a quizzical look. He'd been in the system for a little over two years, and this was his second foster family. His previous foster home had some sanitation issues that forced the relocation of all the fosters in it. His actual parents had been heavily into illicit drugs and alcohol and did supervised visits once a month. If they could stay alcohol and drug-free, they could be one happy family again. Sadly, they'd failed to demonstrate that so far.

"We taking in a baby? I was told the kid was four," Caleb asked.

"I want to see the baby!" Wishing Well exclaimed as he backed away to avoid getting stepped on.

Wishing Well was a five-year-old earth pony with bright blue fur and a brown mane. He'd been in the system for a little over six months, and the adaptable colt was largely adjusted and happy, provided you didn't try to talk to him about his birth parents, who'd died during a freak avalanche a showboating pegasus had accidentally triggered.

"Mark's not a baby. He's just tiny and scared," Paul told them as he crossed into the house.

"Smaller than me?" Wishing Well asked as he weaved between Jack and Jill walking despite having just backed away to avoid being stepped on. Jill nearly stumbled, trying to avoid him.

"Wishing! What did we say about running under people's legs?" Jill fussed.

"Sorry!" Wishing shouted as he climbed onto a bean bag chair.

The living room was a bit different than most human families in the area might have. There was a very low six-by-six-foot glass table that you sat on the floor for. There were no couches or chairs, just bean bag furniture. In one corner was a pile of Wishing Well's blocks, and there was a small bookshelf with stacks of board games. There was no television in the living room, although he knew each bedroom had one. The Morrises believed that the living room should be the focus of socialization for the household.

Paul went and sat next to the table. "Mark. We're here. I'm going to set you down and introduce you to everyone."

He tried to anyway. Mark clung to him tightly. Paul was unsure what to do since he wasn't about to yank Mark off his arm.

"Mark, you need to let go. You promised that you'd be good, for Jessie's sake," Paul reminded him.

Mark did release and let Paul set him down on the floor. Mark immediately scrambled to get under the table. This did nothing to hide Mark, given that the table was glass. It was impressive that Mark managed to even fit under the table. The table didn't reach the top of Paul's knee while he sat cross-legged on the floor. Wishing Well wouldn't even have been able to fit under the table.

"He is tiny!" Wishing Well said as he put his forehooves on the table to prop himself up to look down at Mark.

"Wishing, you know no hooves on the table when you just came in from the outside. If you want to have hooves on the table, you have to wash them," Jack said. "And you might scare him more by doing that. To him, you're huge."

Wishing Well quickly took his hooves off the table and lowered his head to try to look under the table instead. "Sorry! I'm small most of the time."

"He looks like a little horned monkey," Caleb said.

"Caleb! Don't be rude. This is your new foster brother," Jill chided.

"Hi, new brother! I'm Wishing Well!" the colt shouted as if he needed extra volume to be heard under the table. Mark curled into a tighter ball under the table.

"You're scaring him, booger breath," Caleb said as he flopped onto a bean bag. Wishing turned and stuck his tongue out at the boy.

"Don't call Wishing Well names," Jack scolded.

"Yeah, don't call me names," Wishing Well said, flicking his tail at the boy. He then held up a hoof to his face and breathed heavily on it. "I don't have booger breath."

Jill sighed and walked forward. "How about we all sit down at the table and nicely introduce ourselves? Quietly, so we don't scare Mark anymore."

The three humans all took positions around the table, and Wishing Well sat where he was, still lowering his head to try to peek at Mark. They all sat quietly, waiting for Mark to leave his not-so-effective hiding spot.

Paul looked down at him. "Mark. I know this is a lot to take in, and everyone seems strange to you, but they are here to help you, not hurt you. You promised you wouldn't hide, and you would answer questions. You weren't lying, were you? Come on out and let everyone say hi to you."

Mark uncurled enough just to be able to look pleadingly at Paul, but Paul gestured for Mark to come out. The kid slowly finished uncurling and then darted out from under the table and behind Paul's back with shocking speed.

"Little twerp's fast," Caleb said.

Paul nodded. "Yes, he's very fast and very quiet. I doubt he'll try to leave the house since he's scared of the outdoors, but don't underestimate how well he can evade you, even in an enclosed area. Mark would make a hide-and-seek champion in a daycare." Paul glanced behind him. "Mark, that is still hiding. Come out where everyone can see you and say hi."

Mark poked his head out. "Hi." He then immediately retreated his head back behind Paul.

Jill decided to accept this. "Hello, Mark. I'm Jill Morris. I'm your new foster mom. You can call me Mrs.Morris, or Jill, or Mom. Whatever you feel most comfortable with."

"For-now," Mark answered.

Jill blinked. "For now what?"

"For-now Mom, not maybe later," Mark answered, staying hidden.

Paul gave them an apologetic look. "He has his heart set on my daughter, Jessie, adopting him. That's his maybe later. I was going to speak with you about her making some visits. She's the only person he feels comfortable with."

Jill smiled. "I'm sure something can be worked out. Mark, how about for right now, you call me Jill? Caleb does that. It's a lot easier than saying for now."

"Jill," Mark agreed.

Luna sipped her tea from a balcony as she watched her sister introduce the newest faculty member for her school. It was Sunset Blessing, but she wasn't being presented as Sunset Blessing. The unicorn's fur and mane were dyed, and even her cutie mark was covered by robes. Twilight gave grand speeches to the Earthlings about how Equestria was gaining this great mind, and Tia forced the unicorn to be in disguise. Luna and Tia had argued about it, but it was ultimately Celestia's school, and her word was final.

"Tell me, Krik, do you think this will fool anypony?" Luna asked.

The old night pony made several gestures as his ward stood by impassively watching.

Luna nodded. "I suppose that is true. I still feel like this is disrespecting my student."

Krik made several more gestures and then took a sip of his tea.

"Yes, if my student accepts it, then there is little further objection I can make. Still, this leaves a bitter taste in my mouth."

Krik did his dry rasp that was the equivalent of his laugh.

"Master Krik says then you should try a different tea," Jimsonweed said as she continued to stand motionless.

Luna gave the young night pony mare a sour look. "I'm fully aware of what he's laughing about. His humor needs work."

Krik made a series of other gestures, and Luna smiled.

"Don't bring up your age to me. I have you beaten by over a millennia," she said.

Krik continued to gesture.

Luna laughed. "That's sweet. And you don't look a day over sixty either."

"And Dreamwardens are supposed to be honest," Jimsomweed muttered.

Krik made several gestures at the young mare, who rolled her eyes. It was ironic that the young mare was so demanding of others to be respectful of her adopted father but felt that she could make such rude comments and gestures without reprimand. She was freshly back from a research season, and Luna's fondness of the young mare that had grown while she was away was already slipping. She was fond of Jimsonweed and her spirit…she was even more fond of her when she was far away. The young mare had a talent for rubbing everyone the wrong way, except old Krik, whose warped sense of humor found his adopted daughter hilarious.

"Princess, do you need anything else? More tea?" a member of the restaurant wait staff asked as they stepped onto the balcony.

Jimsonweed glared at the waitress. "Did the princess signal you? Did she say, at any point, can someone send that pestiferous kowtow of a waitress up here to try to earn more brownie points by offering me more of that tea? I was standing right here, and I didn't hear anything like that."

The waitress looked ready to cry. Luna was much more fond of Jimsonweed when she was away.

She gave the waitress her most motherly smile. "Excuse my rude…friend. Your service has been excellent and pleasant. However, I do not require anything at this time. Thank you for checking."

The waitress gave her a weak smile, bowed, and then scuttled off. Luna fixed her harshest glare on Jimsonweed, but the young mare didn't seem to care. At least the mare had nerve. Few could stand so calmly when targets of an alicorn's ire.

"Young mare, how do you ever expect to get anywhere in this world or Earth when you treat people so contemptuously?" Luna demanded to know. "That poor mare didn't do anything wrong. She was doing her job, and she was doing it diligently. There was no call for that."

Jimsonweed shrugged. Luna wanted to scream at her. Krik made no gestures, and she wanted to scream at him for that. Instead, she took another calming sip of tea. Maybe she could get the waitress to bring her fruit. No, Tia had banned her from eating fruit at restaurants, and most of the restaurants knew it and knew why.

Celestia was done talking, but now Twilight was up at the podium. Luna could spot the thick stack of notecards from where she was sitting. She could safely tune out the ceremony for a while.

Luna looked back at her spymaster as she set her cup back down. "Krik, I have gotten inquiries from the US government asking why the Dreamwardens of Earth seem to be using their bodyguards to conduct covert vigilante justice. I was embarrassed to admit I had heard nothing of this until I was asked about it. No such report about it had crossed my desk. Would you mind telling me about what your siblings are up to?"

Krik made several stiff gestures with his wings, looking unhappy, then returned to his tea.

Luna nodded. "I understand your loyalty to them. It is commendable. In truth, as long as justice is being served, I am not as concerned about procedures and regulations as others might be. However, I still feel responsible for whatever the Dreamwardens of Earth do, good or ill, and when Earth's governments are unhappy with them, I take it as my failing."

Krik made more gestures with both his hooves and wings.

"I do realize that now half their number were not selected by me and that Ghadab has always had been concerned with justice over the rule of law, as one would expect from someone who was failed so badly by the rule of law," Luna replied. "That doesn't mean I don't still feel responsible for their actions and wish to know what in Tartarus they are up to."

"You could hop over there and ask them," Jimsonweed suggested with only a slight hint of snidishness.

Krik made several gestures at his daughter.

"What? You didn't tell me that," Jimsonweed said in shock.

Krik waved his wings around in a disorderly fashion.

"He says he just told you," Luna said with a smile.

"I know what he said!"Jimsonweed snapped.

Luna nodded, then sighed. "But he is right. I need to stay here to prepare for our latest batch of candidates to arrive. I had wanted to visit Earth to meet them all in their dreams there, but the fact they are all human makes that very difficult, and the Warden of Order prefers I don't interfere with human affairs and will run interference on any other Dreamwarden assisting me in contacting them. Perhaps I can send you as my agent to check on them. You aren't doing anything important for the next few months."

Jimsonweed practically snarled. "Trying to ship me off to get me out of your mane for a while?"

"Yes," Luna answered dryly. "Since this deals with the dream realm, I must send a night pony. You are also the best choice no matter what. I can't send Krik or Psychic Calm for obvious reasons, and most of the other night ponies in my employ get distressed at the thought of dealing with six Dreamwardens instead of just me. I would think my ponies collectively feel guilty about something."

"A thousand years of living in fear of the Dreamwarden will make most ponies scared of the concept. The night pony tribe barely gave a damn about you as Nightmare Moon. They were too busy being afraid of Luna the Dreamwarden, who came to kill bad ponies in their sleep," Jimsonweed said dryly.

That comment stung hard and deep. The worst part was it was true. The number of times she had slain night ponies during her thousand-year imprisonment was far exaggerated, but it did happen. Then there was always the Night Pony War before her imprisonment when she massacred thousands, nearly driving the tribe to extinction. The shame and pain of it would haunt her for the rest of her life, and she was glad most ponies only knew of her crimes as Nightmare Moon. Still, she refused to give the disagreeable young mare the satisfaction of seeing the pain she inflicted with the barb. Jimsonweed's tongue was a weapon not meant to protect or conquer but instead meant to inflict the most pain possible—the weapon of an angry and hurt pony who only wanted to lash out and hurt others. Luna didn't know what to do with the mare despite years of effort trying to fix her. If not for the mare's cunning mind and the fear of what she might become if cast out yet again, Luna would wash her hooves of her in defeat.

"I think a short vacation to Earth trip to Earth would be ideal for you," Luna reasserted. "Find out what the Dreamwardens are up to and, more importantly, why. The quicker you find out, the shorter your trip needs to be. I trust you to be able to find out. The fact you are Krik's daughter and my emissary should get you a live audience with the living Dreamwardens."

Jimsonweed held up her nose. "Why should I? I'm not your servant. What do I get out of it?"

Luna sighed. "Fine, I'll give a sizable donation to your next expedition to the Hallowed Shades."

The young mare smiled. "I can accept that. You'll also pay for the best hotels and travel accommodations for my trip to Earth."

Luna rolled her eyes. "Fine. You'll leave tomorrow. Perhaps you should go prepare."

Jimsonweed didn't need any more prompting, although she gave her father a brief look as if she were considering whether it was okay to leave his side. Krik was getting on in years. He could no longer fly more than a few body lengths at a time, and he had a myriad of other health issues. There were two ponies Jimsonweed cared about, Flurry Heart and Krik, and these days, she was often hesitant to leave his side when he wasn't resting at home. The young mare must have accepted that Luna would see that he got home safely, and she left the balcony.

Krik made a few gestures with his wings.

Luna sighed. "I am giving your daughter a chance, but she needs to be less combative to every creature she encounters. This is a simple mission. Let's see if she can complete it without causing an incident."

Krik stared at her, unmoving.

Luna sipped her tea, finishing it off, and set the empty cup down. "I'll consider bailing her out if she gets arrested on Earth."

Krik glared some more.

Luna rolled her eyes. "Okay. I shall bail her out."

She looked down and saw Twilight was still going strong with her speech. Tia was still smiling, but the smile seemed very forced. Sunset Blessing was now sleeping where she stood; much of the audience looked to be in a similar state. There were still a lot of notecards.

"Waitress? Can you please bring me more tea? This is going to be a long one," Luna said with exasperation.

Jordan walked into the rec room and abruptly stopped as she saw Tempest lounging on one of the couches while Crystal watched television. Blanche and an unfamiliar human she didn't know sat playing an arcade game.

"Tempest? Crystal? What are you two doing here? Is Phobia here?" Jordan asked.

"Phobia is back at home. We were ordered to go to Denver, and we decided to come here rather than pay for a hotel," Tempest explained.

"We're waiting on a call," Crystal said. "Nice place you have here. Do you have anything to snack on?"

Jordan blinked. "What?!"

Crystal turned and looked at her. "Snacks. You know, little bits of food to tide you over between meals. Did we smack you around too hard when we were training you?"

Jordan shook her head. "I know what snacks are."

Crystal smiled. "Good! Do you have any?"

"Yebat!" the man who had been playing the video game with Blanche screamed as he threw up his hands.

"Oh, don't cry just because you lost. Do you want to win? Get better," Blanche chided him.

The man grumbled in some foreign language and tapped a button on the machine to continue the game.

"And start talking in English," Crystal added her chide.

The man rapidly babbled something off at her–not in English.

Jordan pointed a hoof at the man. "And who is that guy?"

"That's Arturo. I don't know his last name. He's one of the Warden of Order's people," Tempest informed her. "Don't worry, he's on Sunset Blessing's approved list. The guard at the gate checked. I'm as surprised as you he was on the list. He never set foot in the United States until a week ago, yet somehow he gets on the approved list."

The man said something, and Blanche slapped him on the arm. "Don't lie! You are not an old friend of her family. The Dreamwardens asked the old mare to add all the Elite to the approved list. Her house is too good a place to stop when traveling through Denver not to have us listed here."

Jordan just gaped. "So the entire lot of you can just come in and crash any time you want without even informing me?"

Crystal held up a hoof. "To be fair, we didn't know you had officially taken up residence here yet. I didn't even know you were the new owner till right before we arrived. What's up with that, Jordan? I thought we were friends. Nobody tells me anything."

"We thought you would have heard or read about it already," Blanche said, eyes still glued to the game.

"I don't watch the news. If the news is that big a deal, people will be talking about it," Crystal replied.

"And she complains no one tells her anything," Blanche laughed. Arturo laughed along with her. Jordan couldn't laugh. She was still trying to figure out how she ended up with four freeloaders.

"Okay," Jordan said as she gathered herself. "First, I'm going to make sure the guards tell me when guests are arriving from now on."

"We told Andrea," Crystal replied.

"Well, Andrea didn't tell me, and it's not Andrea's house," Jordan half-snapped. "Where is Andrea anyway?"

She got a set of collective shrugs in answer.

Jordan groaned. "I'm the youngest one here. Why do I have to be the grown-up? Second, you aren't eating all my food. I just restocked it, and it was gifted to me. I'm sure all of you have money. Somebody can order delivery or go to a drive-through or something."

Tempest's phone started ringing, and she held up a finger to silence Jordan as she answered it. The other three Dreamwarden bodyguards turned their full attention to her.

"Phobia, you have further instructions for us?" Tempest asked whoever was on the line. She sat silent, listening and frowning to whatever Phobia was telling her.

"Jordan can hear what I'm saying. I'm unsure if she can hear you," Tempest said after some time. She went silent again to listen. Jordan wished she could hear what her eldest sister was saying.

"And where do we find this person?" Tempest asked after another minute. A few seconds passed, and Tempest chuckled. "Arturo isn't going to like you for that."

Arturo shrugged.

Another minute passed, and Tempest rolled her eyes. "Birds, really? Can't we hire a pegasus or have Josie do some scouting?" She was silent for a few more seconds, rubbing the bridge of her nose with her fingers. "I think Josie could avoid being seen with her shadow-melding, but as you say then. I still think the Marshmallow is being overly paranoid. Where do we find the bird pony?"

Another few seconds passed. She then nodded. "I understand. I'll let the others know."

"Well?" Blanche asked.

Tempest put her phone away. "You know who still hasn't been appeased enough, so we must now go on a wild goose chase that will have us crisscrossing state and national borders."

Crystal groaned. "Urgh! I wanted to head home. Now we have to go doing crazy stuff off the record."

Blanche crossed her arms. "We figured it was coming. They're milking us for all it's worth. She knows she can get away with whatever demands she wants while the Dreamwardens try to appease her. At least this is a good deed that we'll be doing."

"Shouldn't have to be our job to do it. It should be the feds. I'm not some covert ops soldier. If they want someone tracked down, they could have sent Arturo alone. He's the tracker," Crystal muttered. Arturo shrugged as if he didn't care.

Blanche smiled. "Glad I'm not the only one unhappy about this."

"Tracked down and shut down," Tempest clarified. "Arturo couldn't do that on his own."

Jordan's ears perked up. "So you four are leaving?"

Tempest shook her head. "Not just yet. Phobia said you had information on our next lead. What can you tell us about a partial child named Mark."

Jordan blinked in shock. "Mark? I met him. He's just a poor little orphan that Jessie has been helping out with. Why do you need to find out about him?"

Tempest's eyes hardened. "This isn't something Dreamwardens typically get involved in, as it has nothing to do with dreams or mind magic, but the government's ineffectiveness in stopping it has angered the Marshmallow and Ghadab. Arbiter has also been advocating for the Dreamwardens to take a more active role. Another entity has been quite angered by what is happening that the Dreamwardens are trying to get to cooperate with them on other matters. The Marshmallow and Ghadab have already been using agents to try to track down the operation and put a stop to it. Urgency in negotiations have made the rest of the Dreamwardens get involved when they were previously committed to staying out of the business of worldly authorities."

Blanche sighed. "It would have been nice if they told us all this before today. They don't need to be so secretive to us."

"Told you what? Taking care of what?" Jordan asked. "What does this have to do with a kid?"

Tempest sneered. "Somebody is trafficking people and doing horrible things to them. It's primarily partials, but also humans and ponies. That child's origins could be the lead we need to shut the entire operation down."

Jordan gasped and held a hoof up to her mouth. "I'll call Jessie right away."

Chapter 16: Songs, Dance, and Cardboard Boxes

Jessica sat, staring at the most recent box she had brought into her new apartment. She should be up and grabbing more, but she couldn't seem to muster the will.

Dusk brought in another box and set it down in a corner, then gave her a worried look. "Are you going to be okay?"

Robby and Nightscape came through the door, team lifting with their wings a box that Dusk or Jessica could have carried by themselves, not because it was too heavy, but because neither of them could properly grip it using their wings. It was also too big and bulky to carry ponyback.

"Give her time to process, bro," Robby instructed as he and his wife set the box down. "It was shocking news, and she cares a lot about that little kid."

"Maybe you should call Dad and talk to him about it," Dusk suggested.

"I'm sure either Jordan or one of those bodyguards is doing that now," Jessica said as she forced herself to stand up and get out of her funk.

"You know what it means when you assume," Dusk reminded her.

"Yeah, I know," Jessica replied. Would one of them call her Dad or social services? It made sense to her, but it wasn't always wise to count on sense when dealing with the Dreamwardens' aides.

She pulled her phone out and dialed her Dad's number. Her brothers and Nightscape decided to take a break so they could watch and listen. They probably needed it. Since the call from Jordan, the three of them had been doing the bulk of the work while she sat on her ass, even though she was physically the strongest and would have the easiest time lifting things.

"Hey, Jessie. I just clocked out and was going to head your way. Calling to check how Mark is?" her dad asked as he came on the speaker.

"Yes…no…yes," she fumbled. She took a deep breath. "How is he?"

"It took a little longer than I'd have liked to get him settled in. I still wouldn't say that he is, but he at least wasn't hiding by the time I left. Showing him his room seemed to help some. We brought over a lot of his old stuff, which should make things more familiar. It's a good home, and there's a pony there that's only a year older than him that I think he'll get along with once he starts trusting a little more. Wishing Well is very good-natured and social," her dad answered.

Jessica wasn't sure all his old stuff being there would make him feel better. If it were her in that position, she would have taken that as a reminder she wasn't returning to the home she knew. Then again, Mark wasn't her, so maybe her dad was right.

"Dad, did you or your office get a call from Jordan, one of the Dreamwardens, Tempest, Crystal, or anyone associated with them?" she asked.

"No…I sure didn't," her dad answered slowly. "The office would have contacted me for sure if they did. Why would we be getting a call from any of them?"

Jessica licked her lips. "Tempest and a few other Dreamwarden bodyguards showed up at Wabash Manor today. Jordan says they're trying to track down and break up a human trafficking ring. They were asking specifically about Mark."

"That's a big claim to make, although I'm sure they must have some evidence if they are saying it," her dad replied. "That also doesn't sound like a typical Dreamwarden or OMMR case."

"I got the impression that this is not official. They aren't supposed to be involved with this," Jessica said.

"That would be why they didn't contact me or the office. We'd have to report it to the federal authorities. They'd immediately start asking why they didn't contact the feds themselves and why they are dealing with this instead of letting the proper people take care of it. I'm guessing they have a reason they aren't. It's good that you called me after I got off work. Otherwise, I'd have to report it. I may still."

Jessica's ears sagged. "Please don't."

"I'm going to call Tempest and see what's going on. If she has any concrete leads and proof of a trafficking operation, I'm reporting it. If they don't have that, I'll keep my mouth shut. These people work for the Dreamwardens, and the Dreamwardens are famous for withholding information, even from their closest aides. Tempest could have nothing other than a vague instruction to look into it. I can believe it of Phobia to pull something like that."

"Me too," Robby said. "Phobia may monologue like a comic book villain, but she somehow still manages to be secretive to the extreme; even Rosetta doesn't know what Phobia is up to ninety percent of the time. The Marshmallow pulls that crap, too, maybe more, if the rumors are true. It's like being secretive is baked into their DNA."

"Let me go. I'm going to call Tempest and head your way," her dad instructed. "Love you; keep focused on getting moved in."

"Love you, Dad," she replied, then hung up.

As soon as she hung up, her phone started ringing again. She looked at who was calling and saw it was Phobia. She immediately answered.

"Phobia, what's up with this human trafficking thing?" she immediately said.

"Hello to you too, Jessie," Phobia answered dryly. "I'm not prepared to talk about that with you. I'm calling because I want to tell you that we are preparing our spacecraft to go to the place you found–which we can now verify you did indeed find the correct location. We could possibly mount an expedition as early as Saturday and be back by Sunday. We would, however, require someone to calculate its change in position from where we are seeing it with Starpiercer and where it currently is. However, it would take a mathematical genius to figure that out in such a short period of time."

She rubbed her head. "So you're pulling me off vacation to do that for you."

"I didn't say that or make any such request. We promised you that you could take as long as needed for your vacation. I am simply stating that it would be beneficial if some mathematical genius decided to calculate those coordinates for us so we could make this trip as soon as possible," Phobia answered.

She continued to rub her head. "I'll think about it. Are you sure you aren't willing to tell me anything about this human trafficking thing that involves Mark? Mark wasn't sold to his grandmother or on the verge of being sold, was he?"

"We have no reason to believe at this time that Mark was sold or that his grandmother had any nefarious intention with him. Does that soothe your fears?" Phobia asked.

"A little," Jessica conceded. "Did you have any other reason for calling other than pressuring me to end my vacation and help you out?"

"Help the world out, not merely us. Tick-tock, Jessie," Phobia replied. "I have done all I intended with this call. I hope you have a pleasant rest of your day with as little stress as possible." The Dreamwarden then hung up.

"Wow, that was subtle," Nightscape said sarcastically. "What's this about a spacecraft? Are the Dreamwardens going to Mars or something? Phobia getting in touch with her inner Luna and going to the moon?"

Jessica shook her head. "I can't talk about it, but it's the culmination of all the work I've done for the Dreamwardens."

Nightscape smiled. "Oh, well, that's exciting. You must be thrilled." Her smile softened. "Hey, I know I can be rude, but whatever happens with this kid, you can't do anything about it right now. I'm sure your dad has him in a safe place. Focus on getting this move done, go to your job tomorrow, then maybe you do whatever Miss Nightmares wants and be done with it. Then you can be a normal-ish twenty-something-year-old for once."

"Normal-ish?" Jessica asked fur prickling on her legs.

Nightscape laughed. "Don't get fired up. I mean, you are only nineteen but have a career as a college professor, you work with NASA, you control sound, and you wrote a law of physics. That's not really normal at all, but it's all good things."

Jessica relaxed. Those things were all true, but she still was on edge for being called not normal. There were all those things, and then there was what people saw when they looked at her, and it wasn't her accomplishments.

Once, last year, in a moment of weakness, she had gone to a surgeon and done a consultation about whether they could make her seem more human. She'd already changed her mind about it by the time she'd gotten home from them taking x-rays of her, knowing it wasn't what she wanted. A few days later, they gave her the results of her consultation. Removing her tail could cause irreparable damage to her spine and cause nerve damage. Trying to change her ears would likely leave them looking uncanny and might damage her hearing. Removing the fur from her legs permanently would be an exceptionally long process, and her skin underneath wouldn't be smooth or match the rest of her skin. Even if she wanted to change how she looked, there was no practical way of doing it. No one knew she did it, and no one would find out. She'd caved to the pressure, if only momentarily, and she was ashamed of it.

Her thoughts turned back to Mark and became more resolved. Mark wouldn't grow up ashamed. She would see to that, but she had to do things right. She'd get the right to foster him. She'd show she had everything together.

"You're right," she said, standing up. "I need to get these boxes all inside. Dusk, I'll need you to help me with the bed. I can.do most of the lifting, but you need to help me steady it."

"So…are you going to outer space?" Dusk asked.

She nearly stumbled into some of the boxes, knocking them over and scattering books and clothes all over the floor. "Why would you ask me that? Where did that come from?"

He shrugged. "Phobia said she had a spacecraft. You've always dreamed about going to space. You've been doing all this work for them. I figured they owe you a trip to space."

She looked at her younger brother. "Yeah, when they go, I'll go."

He looked at her with a frown. "Then this Mark kid must be very important to you. You are getting your dream, and you are moving into this place, and all you can think about is that kid."

Jessica sat down and started to clean up the mess she had made. "He does. I need to make sure my life is in order so I can help him get his life in order. Step one is making sure this place is in order. Let's get everything inside."

"Are you sure I can refuse them entry? They seem angry."

Rebecca smiled as she answered the voice on the other end of the line. Russell and Josie silently watched her from the kitchen table.

"Yes, they have no access to the farm if you don't let them in," she answered. "I'm not sure how it worked back in your old country, but the church does not have the power to force entry here."

"Perhaps we can let them in and explain."

Rebecca tilted her head. "You and I both know that wouldn't go over well. Deny them entry. If they keep asking, keep denying them. At some point, they'll give up because they have no choice. I don't want the police to get involved. We don't want them getting a good look at your farmhands or Patches."

"As you say. Thank you. I shall do so."

The line hung up, and Rebecca smiled at her husband and her bodyguard.

"Sorry, work keeps invading my time lately. It's almost like a job," she said as she climbed into her seat at the table.

Her husband raised an eyebrow at her. "So…why do you guys have a farm, and why is the Catholic church trying to gain entry?"

She started pouring ranch on her salad. "They want access because they think there are demons on the farm. We have a farm to have a place to keep our cute little necromancer."

They both stared at her in disbelief as she started chowing down on her salad. Why were they looking at her like that? They ate with her all the time. They knew her table manners weren't the greatest. She only used forks for formal dinners.

"Necromancer…as in resurrecting dead people?" Russell slowly asked her.

"More or less. It's complicated," she answered, chewing. "Eat, the salads are good."

"And are there demons on the property?" Josie asked.

Rebecca licked some of the ranch off her face. "Depends on how you define a demon, I suppose. How do you define a demon?"

"A malevolent supernatural force that wants only to do evil and harm," Josie answered.

Rebecca thought about it. "Hmmm, in that case, there's at least one, but don't worry, it's trapped in a squirrel."

Josie worked her mouth. "A demonic squirrel? Does it attack and maul everyone?"

"Oh no, that would be bad. Who wants to get mauled by a squirrel, much less a demonic one? That would certainly annoy and scare all the other zombies on the property, and nobody wants scared and annoyed zombies. They have feelings, too, you know. The squirrel is stuffed, so it can't do much of anything. They use it to help keep an eye on their living room. Honestly, I think it should be happy our little necromancer lets it out of his soul at all," Rebecca answered as she reached for the garlic bread.

"I don't even know how to respond to that," Josie said as she grabbed her fork with a wing and shoveled some salad onto it.

Russell gaped for a moment, then looked at Josie. "Hey, real talk here, did I marry a super-villain?"

Josie grinned. "Yes, I'm sure this is all part of her plot to force everyone in the world to drink whole milk instead of skim."

Rebecca looked up from her food. "Hey! That sounds heroic to me. Skim milk is evil!"

Russell looked at her. "Seriously, Bec, a necromancer? When is a necromancer not evil?"

She waved a wing at him. "He's not evil. He can't help that he has magic that reanimates dead bodies, along with doing other disturbing things, and we understand how easy it is for someone with those magics to go down the wrong path. This is why we have the farm. People just wouldn't understand he's an innocent kid. We want him to have a good and happy foalhood, so he doesn't become an evil monster. People aren't born evil, but getting treated like you are an evil monster by everyone you meet sure can force you down that path. He deserves better than that."

Russell smiled and cupped his hand over her hoof. "I'm sorry. I should never doubt your heart."

She smiled back at him. "Hey, I know it's tough being married to someone who lives a double life with that other life being largely a mystery." Her smile slipped. "Speaking of which, I'm going on a trip, probably at the end of the week, and it may be next week when I return."

Josie groaned. "Ugh, where are we going to this time? I just got back."

Rebecca shook her head. "I might end up sending you to meet up with Blanche and the others, but you aren't coming along for my trip. I'm going off-world."

"Equestria?" Russell asked in confusion. "I thought you'd only go to Equestria when you retire."

"Not to Equestria," she replied. "I said off-world, not off-universe."

"So…the moon? A space station?" Russel asked.

"I'm going to Jeg'galla'gamp'pi. At least one Dreamwarden needs to go, and I can traverse it the easiest while giving the others a view."

They stared at her again, waiting for a better explanation. She'd expected this once it came up. She leaned back and closed her eyes.

"I've thought long and hard about how I was going to tell you this," she said. "Here's what I came up with."

She started to sing.

"#A long, long, time ago

In a galaxy far away

Triss and I went way back."

"Is she seriously going to explain this with a parody of a parody of American Pie?" Josie asked in disbelief.

"#And my soulfriend's family's haul was looking kinda lack."

"Yep, she is," Russell answered.

"#We explored the ruins with due diligence.

We found a room. Triss was thrilled with this.

Inside was a stone that most impressed.

Would feed Triss's family more than any season past.

We offered the treasure to Merdae

And we got an offer that made them say wowie.

Triss missed the stone and tried to stash in brief.

That's how we started our journey."

Josie covered her ears. "It's not even good!"

Rebecca stood up in her seat and started dancing.

"#My, my Jeg'galla'gamp'pi!

It may have made me hate her, but that was days gone by.

We told our mothers and our fathers goodbye.

And said we'd be mages if we try.

We'd be mages if we tried.

Josie gave her a flat look. "Rebecca, you are neither Don McLean nor Weird Al, and your song and dance aren't explaining anything to us. In fact, I think I'm more confused after that little bit than I was before. As your bodyguard, I insist you give us a clearer answer."

Rebecca plopped her butt back in her seat. "Spoiled sport, sometimes you just don't want to have fun. I thought the song was a cheerful way of telling about it."

"Maybe we can hear the whole song later, hun, but can we get a shorter, straight-to-the-point explanation for now?" Russell asked.

"I'll hold you to that. I have another six verses ready to go," Rebecca pouted.

"Sure thing," Russell agreed. "Now, what the heck is Jeg'galla'gamp'pi?"

Rebecca pulled some more bread over on her salad dressing-drenched plate and started using it to mop up the dressing.

"Jeg'galla'gamp'pi is a huge set of ruins that make up what seems to be a whole planet. It is all one big single stone. All the buildings, towers, bridges, stairs, floors, streets, everything on the world is all part of one single unbroken stone–super dense thaumic matter. It predates time as we know it, and we have no idea who originally made it. All thaumic energy in our universe passes in and out of it at some point. It is the heart of magic. It is completely indestructible, and even the birth and death of the universe couldn't put a scratch on a single one of those buildings."

Russell blinked. "And this is in a faraway galaxy, but it is somehow going to be a just over-the-weekend trip?"

Rebecca pointed at her husband while looking at Josie. "See! My sexy, spotty man understands."

Josie frowned. "So while Blanche and I continue to work on tracking down this trafficking operation, you'll be going across the galaxy to the origin of magic for reasons you don't want to explain why or how."

Rebecca grinned. "You got it!"

Luna looked up from her lunch as Krik entered the room. He glanced around at the fruit debris and scattered seeds that littered the floor and carefully approached her. She dug back into her pineapple.

He climbed into a seat beside her and waited.

She swallowed what was in her mouth and tossed aside the half-eaten pineapple.

"Krik, I just received a request from the Dreamwardens and the US government to come to Earth. It seems like Jeg'galla'gamp'pi has been found. By our prior agreements, I agreed to power their craft to reach this alien world."

The old night pony smiled.

She looked him in the eyes. "It seems strange to me that I did not get such a report from you. I know you have eyes in NASA. I would hope my spymaster would keep me more informed."

He made some vague gestures.

"Yes, maybe they failed to report anything, or perhaps you saw an opportunity for me to be saddled with your daughter for a trip to Earth, and you waited for me to commit her to that trip."

The tongueless pony did not reply. He didn't need to. They both knew what he had done.

She sighed. "Ready my preparations to leave. Let your daughter know I will be joining her."

Mark sat in the middle of the room and looked around. All his toys were here–his blocks, his cars, his puzzles, his stuffed animals, his action figures. On the walls were paintings of mountains that seemed pretty. The bed wasn't his bed, not the bed he knew. This was a different bed shaped like a car. He would need to jump to get on it. That wasn't the problem. The problem was it wasn't his bed. Jack and Jill said it was his bed.

Light came in through the window. It was too high up for him to climb up and look out. He didn't like that. There was a lamp with a clown on it. He wasn't sure if he liked that lamp or not. The carpet was fluffy and gray like the floor had fur. He wasn't sure how he felt about that.

His ears twitched at voices in the hall.

"When do I get to play with Mark?"

"He's nervous and scared, Wishing. Give it time and take it slow."

"But he isn't coming out of his room to take it slow."

"He'll be out for dinner. Let him learn that it is his safe space. Now, go play in the backyard or with your toys downstairs. Leave Mark alone for right now."

Those weren't the sounds he was supposed to hear. He was supposed to hear his grandma watching her shows or in the kitchen. He was supposed to hear the neighbors talking in the parking lot. Sometimes, he looked out the edge of the window to see them. They never saw him. He was a good boy who made sure strangers didn't see him. Now, all these people wanted him to be caught by strangers, but they also wanted him to be good. He didn't understand how to do both.

He scratched his head near his horn. He'd been wanting to do that all day but had stopped himself from doing it. Whenever Grandma saw him do that, she gave him a bath. He didn't want strangers bathing him, even if he promised. Grandma could give him a bath. Jessie, his maybe later mommy, could give him a bath. He'd make sure no one ever saw him scratching his head. If they never saw him scratch his head, they'd never give him a bath.

The bear Jessie had given him was here. Paul had almost forgotten it in the car. Mark cried when he almost left him here without it. Jessie had given him that bear. It was special. He wanted her here. She said she was coming, but she didn't say when.

Maybe Jack and Jill knew. He would have to ask if he wanted to find out. That meant talking to strangers. That meant going back out there. He could go out there. The door was closed, but there was a handle down low. Jack said it was a foal's handle so foals could open the door. It was still high, but he could reach it if he jumped. He was a good jumper. Grandma called him her little frog.

He shook his head. He didn't want to think about Grandma. She told him that when people get old, they eventually go to forever sleep. She had promised that someone would be there when she went forever sleep. She'd gone forever sleep, and he'd been alone for a long time. Then strangers came and grabbed him and scared him. They took him to that wrong place. They poked him with needles that hurt him. Then Jessie came. She was different. She had to be who Grandma promised. She'd make things right.

The loud pony wasn't in the hallway anymore. At least, he didn't think the pony was. It might be safe to go into the hall. Carefully creeping through the gray shaggy rug, Mark made his way to the door and put his ear up to it, listening. Music or something was nearby, but it wasn't in the hall. It was a different room. The hall sounded empty.

He jumped and grabbed the handle, pulling it down and holding onto it as his feet came back to the ground. It hurt to stretch like this with his back almost straight. His back was different from Grandma's or Jessie's. It wasn't supposed to go like that, but he didn't cry. He held onto the handle and pulled, and the door opened just enough for him to squeeze through.

He was in a small hallway with tour other doors. Three of them were closed, but one was open, and he went straight into the kitchen, where he could see Jill at the stove. He quietly walked towards her, trying not to make any sound.

Jill turned from the stove to do something else and jumped and cried out as she spotted him. He jumped too and immediately looked for somewhere to hide. There was a table with two chairs against one of the walls, and he ran and hid under one of the chairs.

"Mark?" Jill said, sounding like she was breathing hard. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. You just startled me, is all. I didn't realize you were there. You can come out. It's okay."

He moved along the wall and found another door to go in. This one had all the laundry and the washer and dryer. It wasn't a very big room, and it didn't have any more doors. Still, it had places to hide, and he jumped in the laundry basket and pulled some laundry over himself as he quickly burrowed deeper into it.

Jill's footsteps came into the room. "Mark? You don't have to hide. I'm not mad at you for scaring me, and I'm very sorry I scared you. How about we try this over again."

He heard her walk further in.

"Where are you?" she said in confusion. He heard her move around some more. "Not behind here." He listened to the dryer open and close a second later. "Not in there, thank God, not behind the boiler. Paul said he could hide well. Guess he wasn't exaggerating."

He heard her come closer to the basket. "He couldn't have, could he?" He felt her touch the basket, and it shook. He could tell she was picking laundry off the top.

"Not there either," Jill said, giving up before she dug deep enough in the laundry to find him. "Where the heck did he go? I know I saw him run in here. He must have gotten past me somehow when I came in here."

Her footsteps retreated from the room, and he could hear her in the kitchen again. A few seconds later, he listened to the kitchen cabinets opening. This went on for a while before it stopped.

"Jack! Caleb! Wishing! I need some help!" Jill called out. Sounds of opening doors happened right after.

"What's wrong?" Jack asked.

"I lost track of Mark. He came out of his room, but we startled each other, and now he's hiding. I think he's moving while I'm looking for him. I need help finding him. He might get hurt doing this."

"Little kid is worse than Wishing was when he got here," Caleb said.

"I wasn't bad," Wishing protested.

"You hid in your room and cried for like a week," Caleb said.

"That's in the past," Jack said. "Let's focus on Mark. If Mark wants to do that, that is okay, but hiding in the kitchen isn't. He might get into something that could hurt him."

"Just have Wishing sniff him out," Caleb said.

"Wishing isn't a dog, Caleb," Jill said.

"But I can!" Wishing yelled. "Mark smells funny, like going to the doctor. He's easy to smell if I get close. I can find him."

"See?" Caleb said. "I'm not being mean to Wishing. I just know he can smell things better than the rest of us."

"Maybe having a tiny foal searching for him might be less scary than three giant humans," Jack said. "Let's stand back, let Wishing try, and we can keep our eyes open."

"I'll find him!" Wishing yelled.

Mark heard the hoofsteps moving around. They didn't seem close. Not yet. His nose itched. The clothes in the hamper smelled funny.

"You don't have to sniff the ground like Scooby-Doo," Caleb said.

"That's how they do it in the cartoons!" Wishing said back.

"Just walk around and see if you can pick up a whiff of him," Caleb said.

The hoofsteps moved around some more, and Mark heard sniffing noises. They were getting closer and closer. They were in the laundry room now.

"He's in here. I can smell him," Wishing said.

"He was in there, but he got out," Jill said.

"No, he's in here. I couldn't smell where he was. I can only smell him," Wishing said. The hoofsteps got closer to the laundry. Mark held his breath. "I found him! He's in Caleb's dirty clothes!"

Footsteps came in. "I already checked that," Jill said.

Something hit the basket and knocked it over. Mark went tumbling out with all the clothes.

"See! He's right there!" Wishing shouted.

"Wishing! You didn't need to do that! That is going to scare him even more!" Jill yelled.

Mark didn't stay where he was for long. He started running, using his arms and his legs. He ran by Wishing. Ran under Jill's legs. Ran by Caleb and Jack, and ran into the living room. All the doors were closed. There was just the stairs. So he ran up the stairs.

It was dark upstairs, the ceiling was lower, and there was a lot of dust and boxes. There were a lot of places to hide.

"I saw him. He went up into the storage space," Caleb said from the bottom of the stairs.

"Crap…there's tons of places for him to hide up there and get hurt," Jack said.

"We'll never catch him up there," Jill said. She sounded like she was going to cry. Mark felt bad.

"What was the name of that person he wants to adopt him? Maybe she can get him to come out," Caleb said.

Mark's ears perked up. All he had to do was stay upstairs, and they would get Jessie.

Author's Note

A little shorter, but it covers everything it needs to cover.

Low comments on this story have me considering overhauling this or just shelving it. It's been a bad run of low feedback with everything I have written in the past year. Also struggling with finding prereaders and editors.

Chapter 17: Terror

Jessica knocked on the front door of the house. It only took a moment for someone to answer, and Jessica found herself facing a man about her height. The man blinked as he noticed her size and blinked again when he saw her ears.

"You're Jessie?" the man asked uncertainly.

She was tempted to tell him she could be addressed as Doctor Middleton after he had looked at her ears and seemed put off balance by her. She needed to have access to Mark, and that meant she needed to be on good terms with these people.

"You can call me Jessica or Jess," she said with a smile, holding out a hand.

He smiled and shook her hand. "I'm Jack. Please, come in."

She stepped inside and saw a foal, a boy, and another woman. Instinctively, she listened to the rest of the house. While there were a few other sets of heartbeats in the house, she could dismiss most of those as mice, not uncommon for older homes. There was one stronger heartbeat above her. This house was one story, but there was enough room for a storage area above, and the staircase in the corner of the room confirmed that.

"That lady's tall!" the colt exclaimed.

Usually, she wouldn't be happy about anything drawing attention to her height, but if that was what that colt found unusual about her, she'd gladly take it.

"Nice tail," the boy said.

She pulled her tail closer. "Hello," she greeted the household. "Is Mark okay?"

"He's hiding and scared, but he should be fine otherwise," the woman said. "He startled me, and then my reaction scared him, then we searched for him, and it ended up scaring him more. We know he's in the storage space, but the ceiling is low enough up there we can't even stand up straight, and there's too many hiding places. Plus, the floor can't hold that much weight in one spot. Jack fell through a few years ago when putting things away."

"We're very sorry we had to call you, but we were unsure what to do, and your father had told us you were the only person he trusts," Jack said as he shut the front door.

The boy looked at her. "Can she even go up there? She has to weigh close to the same as Jack."

Jessica was not liking this kid, but she kept smiling, even if it was forced.

"I don't need to. Mark can hear me, and he knows my voice," she replied. She then looked upward and projected her voice. "Mark? You need to come down here. It's safe. I will make sure nothing bad happens and that you don't get in trouble."

She heard Mark practically sprint towards the stairs. Everyone else had to hear him, too, and were looking upward. Mark's pace slowed as he came down the stairs.

Jessica decided to sit down on the floor. "It's okay, Mark. Come over here. We need to talk."

Mark leapt out of the shadows of the stairwell and ran straight to Jessica's lap. She gently rubbed his head.

"You've been waiting for me, haven't you?" she asked.

He flinched. "Yes."

She sighed as Mark's foster family watched, and she looked the family over in turn. The colt seemed to be just a happy little colt. Ponies tended to have less prejudice against partials, and the ones that had it learned it from somewhere. The boy was making her uneasy, but she could be oversensitive. Hard to say anything about the parents. They weren't showing her any hostility, and her dad wouldn't have left Mark here if they felt that way about partials.

"You can't do that," she said to Mark. "That's going to get you in trouble. I know you got scared, but these people aren't here to hurt you."

"Want you," Mark whined.

She gave him a gentle hug. "I know you do. I want to adopt you, too, but that will take time. You have to be good in the meantime."

"Now," Mark protested.

How was she going to deal with this? She hadn't even started the application process. She had no idea how long the process would take. In the meantime, he needed to be able to live comfortably and safely here with no fear. That wouldn't work if he was hiding. It wouldn't work if he refused to come out for anybody but her. It wasn't just her who had work to do to make this adoption possible; it was also Mark.

"Mark, you remember the story I told you about the race?" she asked him.

"Yes."

"That was about me, and do you know what happened when that race was over?"

"What?" he asked with interest.

"I made my first real friend. A friend who has been my best friend for longer than you've been alive," she answered. She pointed at the colt. "Back when I was little, about the same age and size as that colt over there… um… what's your name?"

"Wishing Well!" the colt said happily.

She nodded. "Back when I was around the same size as Wishing Well, my parents were worried about me. I didn't have any friends. I didn't think I needed any friends. All the other kids were so different from me. How could I be friends with them?"

She rubbed his head again and scratched gently at his ears. "But I was wrong. I did need friends. When all the scary stuff happened later, I wouldn't have survived without my friends, and they might not have survived without me. We needed each other. People do better when they have friends."

"You're my friend," Mark said.

"Yes, but I'm not enough. No single friend can be enough because no one, no matter how much they want to be, can be there to help you all the time. Do you think your grandma wanted you to be alone, scared, and hungry for so long?"

"No!" he replied passionately.

"That's right. She cared about you, but things came up where she couldn't be there for you, and because she was your only friend and the only one who knew about you, what happened?"

Mark whimpered a little. She rubbed his ears again.

"The more friends you have, the more chances there will be someone there to care for you when you need help," she told him. "I care about you. Your grandma cares about you, but something happened to your grandma, and you never know if something might happen to me. I have been in danger before. I could be in danger again."

"No!" he cried.

"I'm sorry, but it's true," she said gently. "Even if I'm not in danger, I'm not always going to be around. Your grandma left you alone regularly to go get food and other things, right?"

"Yeah."

"There was always a chance something could happen while she was gone; that's why she taught you to hide, but hiding isn't going to be good enough anymore." It should never have been the go-to solution to begin with, but she wasn't going to criticize his grandmother to him like that.

"Everybody knows you exist. You can't hide anymore," she continued. "You need to start making friends. You need lots of people who care about you. They do care about you already; that's why they called me to help you, but you must also care about them. Friendship goes both ways. You care about me and your grandma, right?"

"Yes."

"You want to be around me because you care about me, right?"

"Yes."

She looked at Wishing Well. Her dad said he had high hopes that the colt could befriend Mark. "Do you want to be around Mark?"

Wishing Well practically pranced in place. "That's all I've been saying!"

Mark cringed at his voice, and she thought she understood one problem.

"Mark, I know he's a little loud, but that's because he's happy you're here. There's good and bad loud," she explained. "Wishing Well is good loud."

"Good loud?" Mark asked as if it were a foreign concept to him. Maybe it was.

"Yes, he's being very loud about how he wants to be your friend," she confirmed. "Someone who wants to be your friend is a good place to start with making friends. Not everyone who says they want to be your friend is telling the truth, but I believe Wishing Well, and I believe your for-now parents. Maybe that boy, too. You should try being a friend back."

"How?" Mark asked.

She nuzzled him briefly before answering. "You can talk to them. Play with them. Learn about them. Let them learn about you. Don't hide from them–unless you're playing hide-and-seek. Tell each other jokes."

"Jokes?"

She blinked. "Yes, jokes. You do know what jokes are, right?"

"No."

"Oh boy…" she said, letting off a long breath. "We've got some work to do."

How did he get to four years old and not know what a joke was? If his grandmother weren't in a coma, Jessica would strangle her. She knew the old woman cared about him, but many things were neglected. It was ironic. When she was Mark's age, her parents were deeply concerned that she wasn't socializing enough. Now, here she was, worried deeply about Mark's social development.

"I'm not the best with humor, so someone else will have to help you with that," she said. "That's one of the good things about friends. Different friends are better at different things."

"Okay."

"Now, can you try making friends with Wishing Well?" she asked.

"Okay."

She looked at him. "That requires you to get out of my lap and introduce yourself to him. Say, I'm Mark. What's your name?"

Mark slowly made his way out of her lap and, even then, stayed close to her after that. He did face Wishing Well, even if his face was down.

"I'm Mark. What's your name?" Mark asked quietly.

Wishing Well practically jumped in place. "Hi, Mark! I'm Wishing Well! But you can call me Wishing!"

Mark just silently sat there. This was going to take a lot of work.

She looked in the corner and saw the blocks sitting there. They didn't look like what the human boy would be playing with, so they must have been Wishing Well's.

"I see some blocks in the corner. How about you ask if the two of you can play with the blocks together," she suggested. "Friends do things together."

Mark looked at the blocks, then looked at Wishing Well. "Can we play with the blocks?"

Wishing Well hurried over to the corner and gestured for Mark to follow. "Yeah! We can play with blocks! You can help me make a castle!"

"Go on. You're doing good," Jessica said.

Mark practically crawled over to the corner with the blocks. He sat for a moment, and Wishing Well started stacking blocks. Mark looked at her again and then looked at the blocks before tentatively lifting a block and examining it. He continued to do this, block by block, before he finally started building anything.

The woman came over to her while she watched. "Thank you. I guess he just needed a little extra encouragement. Wishing is a loving little colt who I know can make friends with anyone if given the opportunity. He's got that now."

Jack walked over to her as well. The human boy sat where he was and pulled out his phone. He was older than the other two, so he might not be interested in the same things.

"You seem to have a strong bond with him," Jack said. "Your dad said that Mark wants you to adopt him, and from what I heard, it sounds like you do too. Don't worry. We won't try to get in the way of that. These three aren't our first three that have come through here. We want every kid to end up with the right home, and we know we are just a pit stop on that. We've actually been thinking about taking the next step with Wishing Well. It's the first time we've seriously discussed it about one of our fosters. He's a good colt–a little overly excitable, but he's also only five, so that's to be expected."

"Most the kids who come through here have relatives that they're just waiting to get their lives together, like Caleb over there. They just need a safe and stable home environment while waiting for that. Mark and Wishing are the first two actual orphans that have arrived," Jill explained.

"We've even had a few older kids who only needed adult supervision until they were old enough to get their own places," Jack said. "Everyone has their own circumstances, but I think Mark is the most unique kid that has come in here." He scratched his head. "Sorry if I gave you a funny look when you showed up. Mark was the first partial we'd seen since back during ETS. Your dad hadn't mentioned that, so we were caught off guard. We just tried matching your name to your dad's address to find your phone number. We weren't sure we'd find you without calling your dad."

She'd gotten a little prickly when he started talking about her being partial, but she made herself relax. He didn't seem to be hostile or prejudiced against partials. She needed to be on good terms with these two, and she couldn't assume the worst of everyone.

"You didn't look up anything but my phone number?" she asked. "Searching for me on the internet should pull up a lot of entries. I'm fairly famous. Doctor Jessica Middleton."

"Really?" Jill asked. "We had no idea."

"Found her!" Caleb said, holding up his hand. "She's like a hero or something and a famous scientist. There's a movie and a bunch of documentaries about her."

"Documentaries? Really?" she asked. She had no clue there were documentaries about her.

Caleb nodded. "Lots of them. Um, there's also a bunch of stuff I can't see. It says it is mature content."

She blushed. When anyone or anything got famous enough, people inevitably made certain types of content about it. Jordan had introduced her to the wide-wide world of Star Trek porn and told her about other fandoms. Jordan didn't even watch Star Trek; she only read the raunchy fanfiction.

"I don't want to know what's marked for mature," Jessica said. "Anyway, I have an uphill battle adopting Mark. I won't be twenty-one for another year and a half. My dad says that requirement can be waived, but I've got some work to do in order to accomplish it. I'm worried they'll block me till I'm twenty-one."

"Mark will be here waiting if that happens," Jack assured her. "The longest we've had to foster a kid is five years, but we kept them safe and gave them a good home the whole time they were here. If Mark needs to wait a year and a half, we'll do the same, and you are always welcome to visit him."

"Just call first," Jill said. "It isn't good for the kids if random people keep showing up at the house out of the blue all the time."

Jessica watched Mark. He was now watching Wishing Well's construction and trying to imitate it. It was still Wishing who was doing all the talking, aside from some one-word responses from Mark. At least he was giving the colt some verbal response, and he did seem to be legitimately engrossed in playing with the blocks.

"I'll do that," she answered them.

She stood up, still looking at Mark, who immediately noticed she had stood.

"I need to head home, Mark. I have work to do," she informed him.

"Stay!" Mark protested, abandoning the blocks to run over to her. He grabbed onto her leg.

She looked down but didn't bend down. "I have to leave, but I'll return in a few days. This is your time to start making friends. I want to hear about all the games you played and the things you did. You need to tell me all about Wishing Well when I get back, and not just that he is a loud pony who likes blocks. Can you do that for me?"

"Okay," Mark reluctantly said, releasing her.

She bent down and hugged him after that, careful not to squeeze too hard. "And if you feel like you have to hide because you're scared, hide in your room. You could get hurt in some of the other places, like upstairs."

"Okay."

She was going to get him speaking regularly in sentences. She knew he could speak in sentences; he'd done it. That was a problem for another day. Maybe playing with Wishing Well would help with that.

"Thank you again," Jill said as Jessica stood back up.

"Yes, thank you," Jack said.

"Anytime," she said with a smile.

"Thanks for letting me take care of that, Dad," Jessica said as she put some more of her shorts into a drawer.

Her dad was busy setting up her computer system on her desk. "They called you, not me. I didn't officially know about anything that was going on. I'm sure they'll tell me all about it tomorrow."

She frowned. "Should they have called you? Are they breaking some rule?"

"It's kind of a gray area," he replied. "If they have a problem with a child that they can't handle, they're supposed to call social services, but technically, they handled it by calling you. It can be argued either way. We would judge it by the severity of the problem. If all is well now, and there weren't any medical issues, we won't fuss about it."

"Oh," she replied, unsure what else to say but wanting to acknowledge she was listening. "Dad…if for some reason I get denied because of my age, what are the chances Mark would be adopted by someone else in the next year and a half."

He sat down in her swivel chair. "You want the honest answer? If you don't adopt him, I doubt anyone will."

She spun to look at her dad. "Why?! Is it because he's a partial?"

He hung his head. "Yes and no. I know it's unfair, but he could be seen as having a severe disability. We don't know if he has any additional health issues we need to be concerned with due to his unique physiology. The fact he's a partial is just extra baggage and maintenance, and kids with too much baggage and maintenance involved in caring for them often never get adopted. It's younger, healthy, kids without a lot of trauma in their pasts that typically end up getting adopted. Lots of prospective parents say they are eager to adopt, but once they start hearing about needing doctors or psychologists or any number of things that come with these kids, they tend to shy away. They want to adopt, but they don't want to take responsibility to care for all the difficulties these kids bring with them."

"So the ideal kids for getting adopted are the ones like Wishing Well?" Jessica asked.

Her dad nodded. "Wishing still needs some therapy, which he is getting. Both his parents died suddenly, and that's traumatic, but he's healthy and young, and young kids bounce back from things like that better than older ones. If you have a disability or are getting into the double digits of age, your chances of getting adopted are slim."

She never knew that. Her dad had been a social worker for years, but she never asked him much about his job. The fact that these kids could lose everything and then have no one want them broke her heart.

"So, should I be prepared for lots of doctors and psychologists with Mark?"Jessica asked.

"In terms of health, be ready for anything. The fact he is so small for his age is concerning. There's a possibility he may never get that big, and that could lead to having to do major renovations to anywhere you live. This apartment won't cut it if that's the case," her dad answered. "As for psychologists, I think it's fairly obvious he has some severe social development issues, worse than what you went through. I know you want to adopt him, but you must understand what you are getting into with him. A parent having to give up a kid they adopted or having a troubled home because they aren't able to adapt to the kid's needs is as bad as them not getting adopted at all. Think about what it does to a kid who has to go through being put in the system more than once."

She slammed her short drawer closed. "So, I'm moving into my own place, and it might work against me adopting Mark. Fudge!"

"Maybe you and Mark need to spend the next year or two getting yourselves together," her dad suggested. "Are you prepared to sit through all the counselor visits while starting a new career? Are you prepared to let go of your freedom to do what you want before you even have a chance to figure out what that is? And before you misunderstand me, I'm not saying don't try to adopt him. I'm saying don't rush things. Mark needs to make friends. He's in a place he can. You need to figure out who you are when you aren't spending most of your free time figuring things out for the Dreamwardens."

"I know who I am," she said.

Her dad stood up. "Really? You had your childhood taken from you. You never let yourself be a teenager. Now, you don't want to allow yourself the chance to be a young adult off on her own for the first time. We are proud of all your achievements, but sometimes you let them be all that defines you. The only other thing that you let define you than your genius is how people make you feel about being not as human as them in their eyes. There needs to be more to you, and you need time to find that. Mark needs you to find that because chances are he isn't anywhere near as smart as you, and he will see how you react to the world and internalize that, and your reaction to the world is to only show pride in your smarts, something he'll never be able to match. He needs to see more than those things."

She gripped her dresser tightly and kept her eyes locked on her hands.

"Thank you for helping me with my apartment, but I think you need to go home for the day before I say something I regret," she said in a low voice.

He let out a long breath and stiffly nodded twice. "Alright. I'll give you space. I only say these things because I want what is best for both of you."

"Go," she repeated.

He sighed and walked out of the room. "Dusk, come along. We're headed home."

"It's okay, bro. Go ahead and go," she heard Robby say.

She listened as her dad and Dusk left. She had hoped Robby and Nightscape would have left with the other two, but she should have expected Robby to stay.

Robby walked into the room. "You know, you really should get a bigger bed. A single is too small."

She wiped her nose with her forearm. "I don't need a bigger bed. I curl up when I sleep, so my feet never hang off."

"Yes, but it is also too small for you to share, should the need arise," he said.

She turned and looked at him. "Are you going to start, too? That's something Mom would say, or apparently Dad."

"Or Yinyu," Robby helpfully added, sitting down. "I'm not pushing you to do anything like Mom tries to push you, and I think you are being too harsh to Dad. However, I did want to point out that you saying you don't need a bigger bed seems like a concession that you won't ever need one. Most people going to live on their own make sure they have a bed that can fit two, even if they don't have any immediate plans for it."

She crossed her arms. "And if I am conceeding?"

"Well, for starters, I think giving up is kinda cowardly. Surprising for the filly that led her friends to safety when the people who were supposed to protect them had fallen, and who also decided to go skydiving off a skytree to save her best friend."

She glared at her brother. "Shaming me isn't going to make me consider it any more."

He nodded. "Yes, you're too stubborn for that, plowhorse. You're also too stubborn to admit that Dad might be right or too afraid to admit it."

"Me getting laid doesn't help me adopt Mark. I know what I want, and adopting Mark is what I want," she practically growled.

"No, it's not," Robby countered.

"You are treading on dangerous grounds, bro," she warned.

He smiled at her. "You aren't going to send me away like Dad."

"Why won't I?"

"Because then you lose out on your chance to prove me wrong, and proving you're right is part of your stubborn streak."

"And you're going to prove me wrong?" she asked.

"I'll present enough evidence to make you question the viability of your hypothesis. After that, I'll let you prove yourself wrong," he said, grinning.

She grimaced. "Fine, what's your evidence?"

He gestured with a wing towards the living room. "Let's take a walk and see your new neighborhood."

She raised an eyebrow. "It's past noon, it is close to ninety degrees outside, and it's too bright for you to see."

"Oh, dear, my sister can't handle ninety-degree weather for thirty minutes, and nobody invented sunglasses!" Robby exclaimed in mock shock.

She rolled her eyes. "Fine. You don't have to be an ass about it. No more than thirty minutes. I don't like being out in hot weather."

She didn't like being out in general, but she could endure it if she could put this matter to rest by refuting whatever evidence her brother came up with.

She followed him to the living room, where Robby fished a pair of sunglasses from his wife's saddlebag. Nightscape complained that he shouldn't be going out late and urged him to make it quick so they could get back to the house to tuck their foals in, who were currently being watched by their grandmother. He assured her it wouldn't be long and staying up late one day wouldn't hurt the foals. Then she and Robby went out the front door.

"So, what's your evidence?" she asked after they were outside.

"Patience, Jessie. You are always in so much of a rush. Enjoy the remainder of Summer while it lasts. It's a nice day. You were an earth pony when you were a filly. You should be out enjoying nature. I want to see the park. Let's go there."

She looked around. This apartment complex was practically an extension of the dorms. There were lots of people in their younger twenties about. There was a young woman at the mailboxes, picking up her mail. There was a group of guys hanging out just outside an apartment a short distance away, laughing with beers in hand. Another guy was getting out of his car, wearing a uniform for Starbucks, who must have been coming home from a shift. A pair of pegasi mares sat on a nearby building, chatting loudly. There were more that she could hear but not see. There were so many people, and if she could see them, they could see her.

"Just because I was an earth pony doesn't mean I'm in tune with nature," she grumbled, rubbing her arms.

"Jessie-"

"I didn't say I wouldn't go with you. Let's get this over with," she snapped.

Robby started walking. "Come along then and watch those big feet of yours. I don't want to get stepped on because you aren't paying attention to where you're going."

That made her grip her hands into fists. "Since when have I ever stepped on you?"

"When was the last time we went on a walk together?"

She honestly couldn't remember. Had they ever gone on a walk together? Maybe when she was a filly, but she had no recollection of it. When was the last time she went out and took a walk with anyone?

She didn't answer and instead came up beside him, trying to match his pace. That was difficult since she had longer legs, and it was easy to outrun him at an average walking speed. She wanted to move faster. The faster she moved, the faster she could escape their eyes.

"You're rubbing your arms a lot. Are you somehow cold?" Robby asked, sounding unconcerned. "Are you sick and have a fever?"

She forced her arms down to her sides. "No, I'm fine."

"Hmm," Robby hummed knowingly. She wished she could see his eyes.

A guy was standing outside his apartment watching them. She unconsciously quickened her pace.

"Jessie, no need to hurry," Robby said.

"There's people out here," she whispered, slowing down.

"Yes, the world is full of people, and they don't all hide away inside all the time," he chirped.

"They're looking at me," she whispered.

"And you're behaving like something's wrong. So they must be wondering what," Robby stated.

No, they were looking at the freak girl who had a tail and ponyears, and her brother knew it. Why was he doing this to her?

Thankfully, the park was just across the street from the apartment complex, so it wasn't a long walk to get there. The park encompassed a rectangular city block. There were no woods to it, though there were some larger bushes and well-trimmed trees. The first part of the park had a small playground that had several younger kids, both ponies and humans, playing as their parents watched them. As they walked by the playground, she put Robby between her and the playground as if his pony body could somehow shield her from view, silly as that was. She listened to the kids' laughter, and her ears flattened.

"Something wrong with your ears?" Robby asked.

She tried to force them back up, but that was harder than putting her arms at her sides.

"They're fine," she muttered.

"Just checking," Robby replied.

They passed the playground. Some girls were sitting on a blanket, textbooks out. One was paying more attention to her phone than whatever she was supposed to be studying. As they passed them, she heard laughter, and her ears flattened again. She wanted to look back at them to see if they were looking at her. She could have reached her powers out to hear what they were saying, but she blocked the sound out.

"Maybe you have ear mites," Robby said. "Lots of ponies have that problem. There's over-the-counter medicines for it."

She balled her hands into fists again. "I don't have mites, and you know it. Don't make fun of me like that."

A jogger went by them, and she shuffled over, brushing up against her brother.

"What did I tell you about stepping on me?" Robby protested as he stepped away.

She stepped back. "Aren't we supposed to be talking, and you present me with evidence?"

Robby stopped. "You've been saying quite a lot, even if it isn't with words, and I've been listening to you. Have you been paying attention to what you're saying?"

"What the heck are you talking about?!" she snapped. "The only things I've been saying is telling you that I don't have a fever, I don't have mites, and nothing is wrong with me."

"That's not what I'm hearing," Robby replied, sounding sad. "I'm hearing you are scared of your neighbors, that you are afraid of some girls studying in the park, that you are afraid of someone picking up their mail, that you are afraid of children playing. I see it, your neighbors see it, and if you adopt Mark, he'll see it. You might tell him he doesn't have to be afraid, but if your actions say you are afraid, that's what he will listen to. That is what he's going to learn to be."

She looked around. How many of these people were looking at her and trying to hide it? What were they thinking?

"Can we head back to the apartment now?" she asked, trying to keep the fret from her voice.

"Yeah, I think I made my point. I'm sorry for putting you through it, but I wasn't going to make you realize the truth with words."

She closed her eyes. "To the apartment, now."

"Okay, Jessie."

Chapter 18: Making Friends

Author's Note

The chapter is largely unedited. I'm starting a new job in a few weeks and trying to get what content I can before then since it will slow down significantly after that. If you notice any errors, feel free to mention them in the comments, and I'll fix them.

Chapter 18: Making Friends

Jordan groggily walked into the kitchen and found Andrea getting a box of Fruit Loops from a lower cabinet.

"I didn't see that cereal the other day," Jordan said as she went to the refrigerator.

The old crystal pony put the cereal box on the floor and dug into another cabinet. "I keep it hidden. Líng used to steal it all the time. The twerp never respected food belonging to other people. So, I needed to start hiding it. Can you put your horn to use and put this and the milk on the dining room table?"

Jordan levitated the milk out of the refrigerator and grabbed the cereal box with her magic, then watched as she moved both to the dining room and onto the table.

"Líng isn't here anymore. You don't need to hide your food," Jordan said.

"I'm an old creature of habit," Andrea replied. She pulled a bowl out and set it on the floor. "Can you put this on the table too?"

Jordan rolled her eyes and did so.

"That milk is whole milk, right?" Andrea asked.

"I have a friend who would throw a fit if she found out I had any other type of milk, so yes," Jordan answered.

"Good, I don't want any floating blobs showing up to terrorize me during breakfast," Andrea replied.

Jordan blinked. "The Marshmallow shows up here to harp on you about milk?"

Andrea headed to the dining room. "Yeah, the creep only did it twice, years apart, but after the second time, I decided to swear off skim milk. Sunset had some ongoing business with the Dreamwardens; the Marshmallow was here for her, but it noticed me having breakfast during its visits. I think it preaches harder against the evils of skim milk than Sunset ever preaches about anything."

"Oh? Is the Marshmallow nuts about that, too?" Jordan asked quickly. "My friend must have had a run-in with the Dreamwarden at some point."

"Drop that act filly. You aren't very good at lying. I know you know the real identity of the Marshmallow. You are part of my eldest niece's inner circle. She'd have let you in on the identity of her junior colleague," Andrea said as she climbed into her chair. "I'm not so privileged, nor do I want to be, but I advise you never to give details about your friend or their habits."

Jordan sighed. "You sound like Tempest. Always so on guard."

Andrea started strapping on her spoon. "Speaking of whom–she's out in the yard. She told me to tell you when I saw you to get out there so she can see what state your self-defense technique is in."

Jordan stomped. "What the heck! This is my house! Why does she think she can come unannounced to freeload, then say she needs to judge my technique?!"

Andrea chuckled. "Love that fire! Let's see if you can keep it up face-to-face with her. She doesn't strike me as someone who'd be impressed with your spirit. That one's a no-nonsense hardass. I like her."

Jordan scowled and marched out of the kitchen to the dining room, from the dining room to the foyer, then out the front door.

Outside, she found Crystal's big van that looked like it was part tank plugged into the base of the fountain. She hadn't realized the fountain had charging ports at the bottom until now. The van rarely ever had to be charged this way since this was one of those newer models that had non-reflective solar panels on top. They were supposed to go without charging like this unless their battery had been pushed to near empty. She imagined driving across the country at high speeds could do that. How much power did that monster-size vehicle use? It seemed like it would guzzle a lot of electricity.

"Ouch!" she yelled as something struck her head right near the base of her horn.

"Horrible, just horrible. You should have been able to see that coming."

Jordan rubbed her head and then looked around. She spotted Tempest a short distance away with what looked like a handful of pebbles. Crystal and Blanche were sitting in the grass a little further off, watching. She had no idea where that other guy, Arturo, was.

Tempest tossed another pebble at her, more forcefully this time, but Jordan caught it in midair with her magic and sent it shooting back at Tempest. The woman whipped her free hand forward and grabbed it before it struck her.

"Better, but you should have sent that back at me faster. I shouldn't have been able to catch it like that," Tempest said with a shake of her head.

She narrowed her eyes at the dark-skinned woman. "I'm not doing this. This is my house, and I'm not a little filly getting self-defense lessons."

Tempest wound up a throw and released. Jordan immediately made a shield, but the protection failed almost immediately while Crystal lit up with a soft glow. The stone connected with Jordan's flank, stinging harshly.

"What the hell! Two on one??" Jordan demanded.

Tempest did another throw. Jordan started putting up a shield while stepping to the side. As soon as the shield failed, she did another spell, grabbing a massive amount of dirt under the ground beneath Crystal and teleporting it about five feet above the crystal pony's head. The dirt rained heavily down on Crystal as Jordan barely dodged the stone. A second later, the ground beneath Crystal's hooves collapsed in on itself to fill the void left behind, and the crystal pony cried out in shock as she fell into a mini-sinkhole.

"I have to admit, that was a clever way of having a unicorn stifle a crystal pony," Blanche said as she stood up to help Crystal out.

"Yes," Tempest agreed, dropping her remaining stones. "She actually went on the offensive for once. Jordan has a bad habit of staying on defense. Staying on defense can hold out for a while, but it is ultimately just delaying defeat, not preventing it. That's good enough for today. Crystal, are you injured?"

Crystal finished climbing out of the hole with Blanche's aid and spit out some dirt. "Just my pride. I was getting ready to dodge because I expected her to throw something at me instead, and I didn't see that trick coming. First time that filly has gotten the better of me."

"She'd have still lost in an actual fight. She was wide open to Tempest attacking her after pulling that stunt," Blanche said. "But two experienced fighters versus one isn't a fair fight."

"Fair fights are for dojos and boxing rings, not actual combat. In combat, you should do all you can to make it unfairly to your advantage," Tempest said.

"There aren't going to be any more of these sessions," Jordan said with a stomp. "I did my time training with you for years. It was miserable, and I was so tired of getting kicked around by you, Arachne, Charlotte, Moon, Jackie, Robby, or whatever random night pony you threw at me during those sessions. I can defend myself better than most unicorns who have been in the military. I've trained enough!"

She looked down and cried. "I'm tired of losing. I'm tired of being the wimpy nerd. I went out of my way to try to reinvent myself as sexy at the start of the school year. That didn't work out how I wanted, but then I inherited this place. That should have been me winning. Yet here I am, getting kicked around again and being told I'm not good enough!"

Blanche and Crystal looked at one another as Tempest watched Jordan silently. Then Crystal turned to go. Blanche followed behind her.

Tempest walked over to her and sat down. "I'm not very good at comforting others-"

"No shit," Jordan practically spat.

Tempest only paused for a second before continuing. "I know how it feels to think you aren't good enough. As a foal, I ran away from home after my horn was broken. I was angry, and I thought no one cared about me anymore because I was a broken freak. I didn't feel good enough for anyone anymore."

"So now you go out of your way to make others not feel good enough?" Jordan asked with a sneer.

Tempest sighed. "No, that wasn't what I was getting at. I won't give you my long, sordid tale of how I came to be in Princess Luna's employment. For a while, I felt good enough. This powerful pony found value in me. She didn't care that my horn was broken and I had no cutie mark. Then something happened. I screwed up, and Princess Luna decided that the best course of action was assigning me to guard this broken night pony who had been recently raped."

"My sister, Phobia," Jordan muttered. "So she wasn't good enough for you either."

"No! I love her!" Tempest snapped.

Jordan looked up at Tempest, who was trying to contain tears.

Tempest looked down. "I love her and her family, even if I am always apart. I need to make sure she's safe. I need to make sure the family stays safe. I'm not good enough to guard all of you all the time–nobody is!" She lowered her head even more, and tears fell from her face. "I need to make sure you all stay safe, and I can't do it. That's why I push you so hard. None of us are good enough. We are all broken, flawed people that fall short of what we need to be. We can only be the best we can, and I push to make you that. No, you aren't good enough to stay safe; you never will be, but never think you aren't good enough as a person. You are good enough, and that's all we can aspire to be."

Jordan looked at the crying woman, unsure what to say or do—then looked downward again.

"No more training sessions," Jordan whispered. "You've done your best, but now I need to stand on my own four hooves. All of us who you did your best to prepare need to be able to stand on our own. You can guard Phobia. She doesn't know how to fight if someone comes after her. She'd probably be too scared to do anything and freeze up."

Tempest wiped her nose. "She's more formidable than you think, but you may be right. Fine, no more training sessions."

Jordan put her hoof on Tempest's hand, and they sat there, waiting for their tears to dry.

"Hello, Paul. Good to see you," Jack greeted him as he entered the house.

"Morning, Jack," Paul greeted. "All's well?"

Jack nodded. "Mostly. Mark's in his room, upset. The Wishing and Caleb took off a day from school yesterday to be here when he arrived, but they needed to go back to school today. Mark didn't understand that Wishing was only going away for a few hours and would be back this afternoon."

"So the two are bonding?" Paul asked, pleased with that part of the news.

Jack held his hand out and tipped it side-to-side. "They're making progress. Mark was spending time with Wishing but still not talking much. Mark wants to make friends with Wishing, but it seems to primarily be to please your daughter. When Wishing went off to school, Mark thought he was going to fail at making friends and disappoint her."

Paul let out a long breath. "Well, baby steps. We knew Mark was going to be a difficult case. He didn't try hiding again, did he?"

"Just in his room. Jill and I have a house policy that rooms are safe spaces we won't invade unless an emergency warrants it. Kids need their safe space."

"That's fine," Paul assured him. "So, how are the other two boys taking to their new foster brother? Are they doing well? Any concerns about them in general?"

Jack sat down on the floor beside the table. Paul joined him.

"Wishing is very happy to have a new playmate, though he is growing concerned that Mark doesn't say much to him. His feelings may get hurt if Mark doesn't start talking to him more. Besides that, his first year of school seems to have started well. He still seems eager to get on the morning bus to school. We haven't had any parent-teacher conferences other than the one during the open house. There's a regular one scheduled; Jill has the date written down somewhere."

"And Caleb?" Paul asked.

Jack shrugged. "Hard to say with him. I think he's been in the system long enough that he doesn't get too attached to foster brothers and sisters. He seems to be warming up to Wishing, but he also knows Jill and I have been discussing adopting Wishing. Perhaps that makes him think Wishing will stick around longer. He seems largely indifferent about Mark. He's not hostile to him or overly friendly. I think he assumes Mark won't be here long. We haven't heard anything bad from any teachers yet, and he's been doing his homework. He kept up a few friendships over the summer, and we'll see how those go with the new school year. I think he is settling into the idea that he might be in foster care for a long time yet. He doesn't want to talk about his actual parents anymore–and gets angry if pressed to talk about them. He's past the stage of thinking he's guilty of something if he's here. Now he's blaming his parents for being screwups."

"Teens will do that, and he's getting closer to that age, even if he's right in this case," Paul said. "His mother just got her one month pin from Alcoholics Anonymous. She was very proud of that. She's looking forward to telling him about it during her next visit."

"And his dad?" Jack asked.

Paul sighed. "That's part of why I needed to visit today. Reggie got arrested last night. He was caught in a Walmart parking lot with three televisions he didn't pay for, along with a large box packed with bottles of Advil and Tylenol that he also didn't pay for. Has nothing to do with Caleb's mother, Reggie and Midge are still separated. They're only seeing each other during their visits with Caleb."

Jack fluttered his lips. "I want to say I'm surprised, but it's par for the course. Caleb is going to take this hard. We'll help him through this. You don't have to break the news to him. I'll sit him down and talk about it."

Paul nodded. "That's fine. If Caleb needs any additional sessions with a counselor, just let me know. I'll see he gets the support he needs. Mind if I try to speak with Mark?"

Jack nodded. "Go ahead, just remember, Mark has to give you permission to enter. Bedrooms are safe spaces."

"Of course," Paul said as he stood up.

He walked out of the room, into the kitchen, and then into the house addition that had three additional bedrooms. He almost knocked on Mark's door, but caught himself before his hand contacted the door, unsure if the sound of someone striking the door would upset the kid.

"Mark?" he called out as he put his hand down. "It's Paul. May I come in?"

He listened for a few seconds before the reply came.

"Yes."

Paul entered the room and found Mark on his bed, gripping Foogie, Jessie's old teddy bear. He'd been a little surprised when she'd parted with it. She'd had that thing since she was a foal. It wasn't her most precious stuffed animal–that would be Bunna, a plush bunny she still slept with. Still, giving Foogie to Mark had been a big gesture.

He walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge. Mark didn't retreat, but gripped the bear tighter.

"Hi, Mark, just checking in," Paul greeted. "I'll be here a few times this week while you are settling in, to make sure everything is going well."

"Jessie?" Mark asked.

"She'll be back, but I'm not sure when," Paul answered. "She's mad at me right now, so she didn't tell me when. She'll come, maybe not today, but she'll come."

"Mad?" Mark asked, looking up.

"Not at you," Paul assured him. "She and I had an argument. Sometimes people that love each other get into arguments. It's okay. We still love one another, and she'll calm down in a day or two."

Mark looked down again.

Paul crouched forward a little to seem a little less large. "How are things going with you? Is everyone being nice to you?"

"Nice," Mark answered.

"No one has hurt you?"

"No hurt."

"Have you been eating?

Mark reached into the pocket of his shorts and pulled out a piece of cereal. He then stuffed it in his mouth and chewed it.

Paul blinked. "I suppose you stashed that away from breakfast, so I'll take that as a yes. And how about Wishing? Are you two becoming friends?"

"Maybe."

Paul gave Mark a long look. "Maybe?"

"Went away."

"He needs to go to school. He'll go to school five days in a row, but only for the mornings and early afternoon, then he'll be home again. Next year, you will need to go school too," Paul explained.

Mark hugged Foogie closer.

"Do you know what school is?" Paul asked. It was best not to assume with Mark.

"No."

This is why it was best not to assume. Mark was sheltered to the extreme.

"School is where people go to learn new things. My daughter was very good at school when she was young. She was the best at school that I have ever seen. Now that she's grown up, she teaches others at a school."

"Jessie likes school?"

Hard to say if Jessie liked school or not. She'd rushed through it so fast.

"Jessie likes learning," Paul answered, deciding that was the most honest answer. "When you go to school, you'll like it. You also make lots of friends at school. Wishing should be learning and making friends while at school. You should ask him about it when he gets home."

"Wishing make other friends?" Mark asked.

Was this jealousy?

"Jessie has other friends. Do you remember Jordan? She was the unicorn that sat with you when you were with your grandma in the hospital. Jordan is Jessie's best friend, and Jessie has more friends, good friends. Wishing can have lots of friends. You can have lots of friends too, like Jessie."

Mark snuggled the bear. "Okay."

Paul looked at the window, thinking of another challenge Mark had.

"You know, if you are going to make friends, you need to be able to go outside. I know you are scared of the outside right now, but let's add that to our things to work on, okay?"

Mark was silent. As the silence continued, Paul accepted that there wouldn't be one.

"Okay," Mark said.

Jessica felt like crap as she made her way to her office. It didn't help that the school was busy. She'd pulled out her one skirt for today. It was still too hot, but today wasn't a day she wanted her legs or her tail on display. She had debated wearing a hat but ultimately decided against it. She was also wearing her lab jacket and a turtleneck sweater, even though it was hot outside.

By the time she reached her office, she was on the verge of another anxiety attack, her heart beating like a snare drum. The first thing she did was sit at her desk, leaning on it for support as she tried to control her breathing and shut the sound around her out, all the sound. So she sat, trying to reassert control.

Something touched her arm, and she jumped out of her seat.

"Whoah!" Adam said as she sprung to her feet. "It's okay. I thought you'd have heard me coming up to you. You didn't respond when I knocked, and you didn't respond when I came in and tried talking to you. What's going on?"

She took a few more deep breaths and sat down. "Sorry, I was blocking all sound out and heard nothing. My nerves are on edge today."

"I see that. You looked like you were in distress when I saw you walk in. That's why I came to check on you," he said, taking a seat across from her. "So what's going on that has you all worked up? Trouble with the dean?"

She shook her head. "No, I'm just in my own headspace and driving my own anxiety."

"Well, do you want to talk about it? Getting it out in the open can feel liberating. I know we haven't known each other long, but I've always admired your work, and it upsets me to see you in this state. I've seen you twice, and both times, it has been with you at the mercy of anxiety. I know you told me sound overwhelms you, but you said things the other day that make me think it's not just sound bothering you."

She considered. Adam was not part of her usual circle of friends and family. She barely knew him. Letting him in was a risk of getting hurt, but she would be a hypocrite if she didn't. She couldn't tell Mark to make friends and how important friends were and then turn around and refuse offers of friendship herself. Robby was right, Mark would see her actions, and those actions spoke louder than words.

"I have always seen myself as human after my humanization process as a kid," she began. "I know I'm a partial, but I don't see myself that way. When people look at me, I imagine all the things they must be thinking. I know they aren't all prejudiced against partials, but there are enough who are that I am paranoid about it. It gets…it gets bad."

"And it's always been this way?" Adam asked.

She shook her head. "It's gotten worse lately. Today, I think I'm suffering a bit of a carryover from yesterday. My older brother was a ward of Phobia Remedy for years, and he inherited some of her views on things. Primarily, he believes that people should face their fears. So, after I had a disagreement with my dad yesterday, Robby decided the easiest way to show my dad was right was to force me to face my fears. He made me take a walk out in the park with him and my nerves got the better of me. Since then, I have been thinking more about it and instead of it helping me, it is making it worse. I'm paying more attention to it, and that's making it stronger."

Adam leaned back in his chair. "I'm not an expert in this, but I think part of your problem is you worry too much about what others think."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "No, duh. I think anybody could realize that."

"Sorry, I deserved to be mocked for saying that," Adam said. "But what if you took control of the narrative they see when they see you?"

Her ear flicked. "What do you mean?"

He leaned forward, elbows on the desk, and cupped his hands together. "You need to make random people see Doctor Jessica Middleton when they see you, and only use the term partial as a secondary term down the list when trying to describe you. Don't hide away, make them see you, make them know who you are, and make it clear you are proud of who you are. Your name should be what people think of synonymously with the term scientist, up there with Newton, Einstein, and Hawking. Every young person who aspires to be a scientist should dream to be you."

She rubbed her arms. "My dad was critical letting the fact I'm a genius and how I imagine people see me be the only things that define me. I'm not sure I should be leaning into my achievements more."

He shook his head. "I'm not saying lean into it so it becomes the only thing that defines you. I'm saying lean into so it defines how strangers see you. You want them to see the good things, and if you aren't so worried about them seeing you negatively, then maybe you can have breathing room to find more out about yourself. Or maybe you can lean into both. Yes, they see the partial lady, but you can define what the context of that is. You can make it a good thing."

A big floating white blob appeared. "I think that's a great idea!"

Both Jessica and Adam jumped, but it was Jessica who recovered first.

"Marshmallow! Will you stop spying on me!" she shouted. Adam just stared.

The blob swirled and made a happy emoji face. "I'm just concerned about my good pal, Jess! I think whatshisname here has a great idea. Own your differences! Be proud!"

"Um, my name is Adam," Adam said. "Do you show up like this often?"

The Marshmallow looked at him. "Depends on how you define the word often. By the way, Yinyu is really roo-"

"Mute!" Jessica cut in, cutting off all sound from the floating blob.

The Marshmallow's mouth worked a little before it realized it couldn't be heard. It then turned pink, then red, then white again. It then changed forms to a written word.

RUDE!

"Can you go away!" Jessica said, fanning her hands as if she could blow the Marshmallow away.

The Marshmallow vanished.

"Hey, just letting you know. I told my hubby and bodyguard I was taking a trip to a far off galaxy over this coming weekend. I said it in the flesh, so it doesn't have to be the truth. I was too busy thinking about my epic song and dance to remember I'm kinda depending on you to get those coordinates. If you make me a liar to them, I'm going to be upset," a voice whispered in her ear.

She paled. An upset Dreamwarden was never a good thing. Rebecca was normally very cheerful, outgoing, and nice, but every Dreamwarden had a dark side.

"What will you do?" Jessica asked nervously.

"What?" Adam asked in confusion.

"Not you!" Jessica said quickly.

Rebecca's voice got more sinister. "I'll come to your apartment, sometime while you are asleep. I'll have Blanche break me in if I have to. You won't realize that I'm in there till it's too late, and theeeeennnnn-"

Jessica held her breath.

"-I'll cry and keep crying until you bake me an I'm sorry cake."

Jessica's ears flattened in annoyance.

"Make it chocolate with vanilla frosting–no!–make it banana frosting, with fresh strawberries, seedless ones. Have it say, I'm sorry, best Dreamwarden. Use comic sans font with the icing. Comic sans doesn't get enough love. Oh! And it needs to be big. Big enough to normally serve a full house full of kids, but it will be just for me."

Jessica rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Adam, never get involved with Dreamwardens if you value your sanity. Marshmallow, go away and stop whispering in my ear. I'll get your damn coordinates."

"Thanks! You're the best!" the Marshmallow said. This time, it was loud enough to be heard by Adam. Jessica was going to assume Rebecca had left for real this time around after getting what she was after.

Adam stared at her. "So…it didn't really answer. Does that happen often?"

"More often than I like," she grumbled. "Hopefully it comes to an end this week. I'm going to calculate their damn coordinates, take a little weekend trip, and be done with doing work for the Dreamwardens forever."

"Coordinates to what? Or can you not tell me?" Adam asked.

She lowered her hand and was about to answer when her phone started ringing. She pulled it out of her purse and looked at the caller ID.

"There's NASA again," she muttered, and put her phone on silent. "The Dreamwardens want the exact current coordinates for what I directed NASA to find, NASA did find, and now NASA is blowing up my phone demanding to know what they are looking at. It's in another galaxy, and the Dreamwardens want the information by the end of the week."

Adam gave her a confused look. "If NASA found it, whatever it is, can't they ask NASA for those coordinates?"

She shook her head. "That's where it was six billion years ago or so. The Dreamwardens want to know where it is now. NASA can figure that out too, but not on the deadline the Dreamwardens want." She looked at him. "Want to collaborate? I could use some help getting this done by Friday. I'm probably going to try to draft some of my students into helping."

"My name gets attached to the paper as well?" he asked.

"I'm not sure there's even going to be a paper, to tell you the truth. How about I promise to bring you photos back from my trip there." she offered.

He looked more confused than ever. "Trip there? You just said that it had been six billion light years away. It is further away now."

She shrugged. "The Dreamwardens apparently have a spacecraft that can do it over the weekend that they've been hiding from everyone. It's going to be powered by Princess Luna, who I assume is going with us. So me, the Marshmallow, Luna, and I don't know who else are going out to whatever this is for a sightseeing tour. Why they want to is a mystery to me, but they've had me searching for this place most of my life."

He stared dumbly at her.

She sighed. "I'm not joking or pulling your leg about this. This is happening. I'll tell the Dreamwardens you helped so next time they start planning an extragalactic trip, they think of you."

"Didn't you say don't get involved with them if I value my sanity?"

"Well, maybe you don't," Jessica replied. She then looked at the stacks of tests she had printed off last week but ultimately hadn't given. "Do you know where I can find a cart? I promised my students a test."

Adam looked at the tests and smiled. "I'll help you carry the tests, in exchange, we have coffee this afternoon, where we discuss further what exactly you need me to do to help you with this project of yours. Say, meet in your office at two, right after my class finishes, and then head to the faculty bar?"

She blinked. "There's a faculty bar?"

He nodded. "Yes, it's one of our perks. I'm surprised you don't know about it. It's something they use as a selling point for why people should teach here. Don't worry, they serve coffee too; along with sandwiches, chips, wings, and salads. They overcharge, but not excessively."

She shook her head. "No, I heard nothing about it."

"It's a private bar open to just the faculty, board members, and certain guests of the university–you know, donors and potential donors," Adam explained. "They don't ID beyond confirming you are one of those, so you're free to drink there if you want. They get a steady flow of business because it is convenient, and the premier place to visit on campus if you want to make a stalled grant happen, hear gossip, make friends, or just not have to worry about running into students."

A place to get away from students might be nice, but she was wary of going into any area with alcohol flowing. People acted on impulse more when drunk, and she didn't trust most peoples' impulses.

"Is it busy?" she asked.

"At two, no," Adam said, shaking his head "It's usually fairly quiet in the early afternoons, aside from a few stray professors reading papers while getting a drink and a light lunch, and it doesn't get busy until early evening."

She could deal with a few stray faculty members as long as it wasn't crowded. It sounded like they would only be there this time of day because they wanted to grade papers without being bothered. That meant they'd be unlikely to bother her. She did need to make more friends on campus, and being seen there could make people think she wasn't the university's stuck-up golden girl who was too good to be around anyone. She also did need Adam's help.

She gave him a small smile. "Okay then. Coffee it is, at two."

Chapter 19: Matilda, Bursa, and Violet

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 20: Many Anxieties

The campus grounds were less crowded in the afternoon. There were still pockets of people about, but they were mainly students and professors with clear goals on where they were going, not people standing around socializing. As such, most people didn't give Jessica and Adam much more than a passing glance. They may not have even noticed her ears or the tip of her tail sticking out from under her skirt.

The administrative building was three stories tall. Half of the first floor was the bookstore. The remainder of the floor contained a post office, admissions, the maintenance office, and the infirmary. The second floor had more offices, including the register, student affairs and recreation, public relations, the accounting office, the grant office, and a few others she was unsure of. The top floor had two board rooms, the Provost's office, the President's office, and the faculty bar. The entire building was one big rectangular block with nothing but glass windows for the top two floors that gave off enough glare around noon that any night pony in the area likely couldn't look in the building's general direction. Birds tended to flock to the top of the building, and on any day of the week, you could see at least a dozen crows staring down at you if you could stand the building's glare. Pegasi never went on top of the building; the birds were too territorial, and no pony wanted to visit the infirmary because they got mauled by a flock of angry birds.

The first floor of the building was moderately busy. Students frequented the giant bookstore, which not only sold textbooks and supplies but also had a small grocery sectional similar to what you might find at a convenience store. Today, it was busy with students selling back unneeded textbooks at three-quarters of the ludicrous price they originally bought them for. The bookstore never gave full refunds on unnecessary textbooks. After ten days into the semester, they only repurchased the books at a fifth of the original price minus sales tax, so there was some urgency for students to sell back the unneeded and overpriced books to recover as much money as they could before the books lost the majority of their resale value. The post office and mailboxes also had several students milling about, some mailing packages and some receiving packages.

Luckily, Jessica didn't have to be seen by everyone on the first floor. The elevator was only a few steps away from the building entrance, and she and Adam were aboard it within a minute of entering the building, bypassing the untold mobs of the second floor and arriving quickly to the third floor.

They stepped off the elevator. The third floor seemed to be deserted. There were a few interconnected halls; each wall had wood paneling and false candle sconces. On and off along the hall walls were paintings–mountains, rivers, plains, and lots of ducks. Why did people and businesses with lots of money always put up portraits of ducks? Ducks were some of the most disgusting and dirty of birds. Nothing said rich like putting up pictures of the avian equivalent of dung beetles.

"It's this way," Adam said, gesturing to one of the side halls

She silently followed. Listening to everything on the floor. There weren't many heartbeats at all to be heard. There was a heartbeat on the far end of the floor, away from them. She knew the Provost's office and the President's office were both in that direction. It could be either one of them or a secretary. Ahead of them, there were two sources of heartbeats. It must have been people at the bar. The only other significant thing she heard on the floor was some sort of heavy fan, the type used in a walk-in cooler.

The side hall they went down had only two doors, both halfway down the hall, facing one another. As they walked towards the doors, she could better locate the two individuals and the cooler off to her left, and it was the door on the left that Adam ended up facing.

He pulled out his faculty ID and held it up. "You have your ID, right?"

She pulled hers out of her lab coat pocket. "Right here."

He held his up to a panel beside the door, and there was a small beep. The handle on the door clicked. "One person enters at a time. Each person has to scan their badge. No plus-ones allowed–unless the President or Provost are there. They bring donors here on and off."

Adam entered and shut the door behind him. She approached the door and held her ID up to the panel. There was once again a beep, and the handle on the door clicked. She'd half-expected that it wouldn't, either because whoever assigned permissions to the IDs didn't want her in their exclusive room or some prank on Adam's part where he left her standing alone in a hallway looking like an idiot.

She entered and saw the human bartender watching her right away. Her ears flattened at being stared at.

Calm down. Adam told you the bartender checks who enters. You can't be paranoid about every little thing. she scolded herself.

Well, that was not correct. It was quite possible to be paranoid about every little thing. Whether this was advisable depended on how paranoid the person you asked was.

One wall was nothing but a huge window. There were a dozen small tables that could sit two spread out around the room. The bar went along almost the entire length of another wall and had shelves filled with various brands of alcohol behind it, along with a refrigerator and a single door. Two sixty-inch televisions hung on another wall. The bar stools, chairs, and tables were all designed with humans in mind, although there was a rolling set of steps to assist ponies in getting into seats. There were glass dishes on each table, and it took her a few seconds to realize those were ashtrays. Adam was taking a seat by one of the window tables. Other than her, Adam, and the bartender, one other professor was sitting in a corner who was completely engrossed in whatever he was doing on his laptop with a half-eaten sandwich and a bottle of beer sitting on his table.

Adam took his seat and waved her over. She walked over and joined him.

"Donovan is brewing us a pot of coffee. I told you it wouldn't be too busy this time of day," Adam said.

She picked up the ashtray on the table. "A lot of smoking happens here?"

"Not really," Adam answered. "A few professors have pipes because they think it makes them look more intellectual. They do tend to break out the cigars when there's a football game on. This a private establishment, not a public one, so they get away with things."

She frowned and put the ashtray down. "Well, most of my friends are in Skytree, and they have an eighteenth-birthday tradition where everyone goes to a hookah bar. So, I have been to hookah bars five times, including my eighteenth birthday. I can tolerate it."

Adam leaned back in his chair. "So…you are trying to calculate the current location of a celestial body more than ten lightyears away so we can send an expedition to it over the weekend. We only sent our first manned expedition to Mars last year, and it took three months to reach Mars. That's considerably faster than we hoped to do twenty years ago, but it still takes a long time to reach one of our close neighbors. This weekend trip is hard to believe."

"Dreamwardens have access to knowledge from Triss's time, which was much more technologically and magically advanced than we currently are. They're stingy with sharing most of it, but they occasionally pull out something if it serves their purposes," Jessica explained. "It was Phobia who first noticed I was onto something when I came up with Middleton's Law. She already had access to knowing that due to all that Dreamwarden knowledge but had failed to consider it and its implications because our Dreamwatdens only access that knowledge when they think they need it. If they didn't realize they knew it, they didn't think about how it impacts things. It's like not knowing what books are on your bookshelves until you check. She was the one who encouraged me to publish my work and sent it to all the top universities."

Adam blinked. "You're saying they know how to do intergalactic travel, but until recently, they haven't thought about it?"

"Pretty much," Jessica said with a nod. "Don't try to get information out of them. They only tell you things when it helps them out somehow."

"And how does going to this…whatever it is…help them?" Adam asked.

Jessica raised a hand. "I don't have a fudging clue. They say it will help in the battle against the Devourers. They've had me searching for this thing since I was a kid. They gave NASA information to help make the Starpiercer telescope to help me look for it. Now we found it, and now they want to go visit."

"Starpiercer's tech came from them?" Adam asked in disbelief.

She nodded. "It advanced their goals."

They quieted as the bartender came over and set a coffee pot and two mugs on the table. Adam pulled out his debit card and tapped the bartender's tablet. The bartender looked at her.

"You're the big-shot new physics professor everyone's been talking about?" he asked.

Her ears flattened. "I guess so."

He looked at her ears. "Relax. You're just younger than I expected. They talked about stuff you came up with a dozen years ago, so I thought you'd be in your forties or late thirties. You're like twenty-something, barely older than most of the students. You must have been one hell of a teenage whiz kid."

Technically, since she was nineteen, she still was, but she'd also been one hell of a child prodigy.

"That is an accurate statement," she replied, ears relaxing. "Thank you for the coffee."

The bartender nodded and headed over to the professor in the corner. She could hear him checking to see if the other professor needed anything. She guessed he doubled as a waitperson during the day. With it slow, perhaps he got bored.

She looked out the window. "Years doing this research for them has prevented me from advancing my research. I haven't done anything noteworthy since I was six."

"You're about to be one of the first Earthlings to go beyond our galaxy. I think that is something noteworthy," Adam mused.

She poured herself some coffee. "That is true, and it is a dream come true. I should be thrilled. Yet lately, I keep getting reminded that all my accomplishments people remember me for happened when I was six. I won't get any credit for this trip. It won't be made public. The Dreamwardens will never allow the world to know that they can travel to the stars." She paused and took a sip of her coffee.

Adam poured himself a cup. "Should you be telling me this then or talking about it here?"

She shook her head. "It doesn't matter. Without evidence, it didn't happen. You're a scientist; you know people overhearing there's an expedition isn't proof that such an expedition happened. Proof is everything. They will cover the trail. There will be no evidence. I don't even know what they hope to gain, only that it may help us against the Devourers."

"I don't understand the urgency. The Devourers won't be here for ages," Adam said.

She looked into the blackness of her coffee. "They fear the Devourers like nothing else. In my dreams, they've shown me what the Devourers do, so I find their fear valid. I also know there is never enough time to prepare for the coming of the Devourers. Every world they have ever destroyed was caught unaware and unprepared. That's something they made very clear to me. If they could take down civilizations that colonized multiple worlds and destroyed the civilization that made them mere moments after being activated, what can we do to be fully prepared for what's coming, and what time can we afford to waste? The Devourers know we are here, and they're coming. Doomsday will be here sooner than you think. It always comes sooner than expected."

"That sounds…ominous," Adam said. "I take it there are other things you aren't telling me."

"I can't say," she answered.

He took a deep breath. "Okay. The clock is ticking. How do I help?"

"The data is kept on a secure private network. You can come by my apartment, and I'll provide you with the same information I have," she answered.

She then turned as she heard the beep that indicated someone had scanned their ID. There was one set of bodily functions outside the door. The door opened and revealed a tall woman with vividly violet hair. After a second, she realized part of the height came from her heels, which added about ten centimeters to her size. Without them, the woman would have been tall enough to stand eye-to-eye with her. With them, she was taller. The woman wore straight white pants and had a furry midriff garment in a darker shade of violet–no, it wasn't a garment. Her lower abdomen was uncovered, and that was fur. The woman also had a white shirt with an extremely deep show of her impressive cleavage–covered in the same violet fur up to the shoulders. Actually, it wasn't a shirt; it was a white vest that was laced together to cover her breasts and mid-abdomen just enough. The purse at her side was small and looked expensive. Her ears were perfectly plain human ears; there was no way she was hiding a tail in those tight pants, and there was no sign of wings or a horn. The woman immediately spotted her and smiled before approaching them.

It seemed she would meet the queen bee sooner than she thought, and the queen bee had some pony traits.

"Doctor Middleton," Violet said, reaching out a hand to shake. "I'm Mrs. Primbrook, Dean of Liberal Arts, but you may call me Violet; everyone does. How fortuitous that you are here. I've been looking forward to meeting you."

Jessica was glad she was wearing a skirt. It hid her tail rising. At least, she hoped it did.

She reached out and shook the woman's hand, noticing now that the woman was wearing a wedding ring. "Pleasure to meet you, Violet."

Violet looked her over, examining every inch of her with her eyes, and that killed the initial tail rise as her usual reaction to being examined kicked in. The fact Violet's smile slipped into a frown didn't help.

"You cover up much too much," Violet said at last. "I know how hot covering fur gets under clothes. I fought hard to ensure those of us who have a little extra hair in places didn't have to sweat ourselves to death. I also may not have had a tail since I was eleven, right before my parents pressured me to rehumanize, but I'm sure it isn't comfortable trying to hide it in clothes. I remember going through that during ETS–it sucked. I'll tell you the same thing I tell my kids, who seem to have inherited more from me than their father, at least in terms of hair growth. If people stare, let them. It isn't worth making yourself sick."

Jessica blinked. "I'll remember that. Thank you for the advice, Violet."

Violet's smile returned. "Good. I see you and Doctor Jefferson are currently having a discussion, but I hope we can have a longer conversation later. Maybe you can come by my office tomorrow, say around four?"

"I can do that," Jessica agreed.

"Excellent!" Violet said happily. "I'll see you then." She then headed towards the bar. "Donovan, my usual, please and thank you."

"Already on it, Violet," the bartender said as he set out a salad and a beer. Violet grabbed them and headed to a table on the room's far side, facing away from them.

Adam grinned. "That's Violet. She doesn't conform to others. Others conform to her. Quick warning: don't try to hit on her. The last faculty member who tried that ended up packing up their office two days later."

Jessica blushed. "I would never-"

"Your skirt doesn't hide what your tail is doing so well, and my little sister is an earth pony. Hers does the same thing when she's aroused. I pick on her about it," Adam said with a small smile.

Jessica covered her face. "Seems to be a thing big brothers do; mine sure does. Do you think she noticed?"

Adam took a sip of his coffee and set it down. "Yeah, but she won't get upset about that. She likes people finding her attractive. It's like a victory to her. It's making a pass at her that makes her mad. She makes sure people know she's married when introducing herself. And before you ask, she's not a partial, even if some people accuse her of being one. Her husband is the most forgettable, quiet, boring-looking guy you'll likely ever encounter, and she had two kids with him."

"Well, she did say she was pressured to rehumanize. If people were split on their feelings about it when they did it, then the process is known to leave some traits behind in those cases," Jessica said, keeping her voice down. "The less you want it, the less effective it is."

He looked at her, and she saw the unasked question.

"I was dying. I wanted to live. Prosthetics were an option, one that wasn't guaranteed to save me and one that I might end up living in pain if I did survive. I made the logical choice," she answered. She then lifted her head. "But that's thirteen years in the past. We can't live in the past."

Adam gave her a considering look, then nodded. "Agreed. Getting back to our earlier discussion, I believe you were inviting me to your apartment."

She didn't know why, but she blushed again.

She barely paid students attention when she was heading out to her car. She pulled out her phone and dialed up the first person she thought to talk to. It rang twice before being answered.

"Hey, Jessie! What's up?" Jordan greeted.

"Jor, I just asked a man to visit me at my apartment," she said hurriedly.

"Ohhhh, look at you! Finally getting on the dating scene," Jordan cooed. "I admit, I'm jealous. Amicus says I can't invite any stallions over till I'm twenty-one. I have to go to their place or rent a hotel room. Most hotels won't even rent to an eighteen-year-old!"

She reached her car and opened the car door. "No, Jor, it isn't a date, but I'm worried he might think it is. We just went for coffee, and I invited him to my apartment."

"Jessie, if I went out for coffee with someone, I'd call that a date," Jordan replied.

"We've gone out for coffee together!" Jessica protested.

"Well, that's a get-together with a best friend, not a romantic date. Totally different thing," Jordan replied. "If I went out for coffee with a guy and invited him back home, I know what kind of message I'd be trying to send. I mean, why invite a guy to your place alone if you aren't planning to do the rabbit tango?"

"Rabbit tango?" Jessica asked in confusion.

"The bunny bump, the green gown, a roll in the grass, the amorous congress, dirtying the sheets, reading Indian literature, expanding the economy, taste testing, making Yinyu blush–"

"How many terms for sex do you know?" Jessica asked.

"I'm very well-read," Jordan said with a hint of embarrassment. "I know if I asked a guy over, it would be because Mama wants a new ocelot."

Jessica rubbed her nose. "I don't even want to know where that euphemism came from. Anyway, I asked him over because I need his help with a project for the Dreamwardens, and all the data for it is on my computer, data I can't transfer to him over the internet. This is strictly work-related and has nothing to do with sex or romance. What do I do to make that clear?"

"Well, just make it clear. Maybe he knows you aren't into him. Have you raised your tail around him?" Jordan asked.

Jessica blushed. "I did, but it was because of someone else, and he knows it. He pointed out my reaction."

"Raising the flagpole for someone else does put a damper on things," Jordan sagely said. "As I told you, just be honest with him. Rush him while he's there to get him moving. Don't invite him into your bedroom."

"But my computer with my data is in my bedroom," Jessica replied.

"You have your own place, and you made your bedroom your workroom too?" Jordan asked. "Why would you do that?"

"I need to keep my extra room clear. I'm trying to adopt Mark," Jessica explained.

Jordan gasped. "Ooooooo, that's so awesome! You'll be a great mom. I know it. He adores you."

"Don't congratulate me yet. I still need to convince them to let me. They normally don't let people adopt till they are twenty-one," Jessica said.

"That's not fair! They should make an exception for you. You're a famous scientist, you're a famous hero, and you've been an adult longer than people who are twenty-one right now."

"The rules don't account for that, and these people play by the rules," Jessica said. "There's some sort of process I can go through to request an exception, but I'm trying to get through this week before I worry about that. I need to get this project for the Dreamwardens done, which I need Adam's help with-"

"His name's Adam, got it," Jordan interrupted.

She chose to ignore that. "Then, if I get that done, I'm going out of town for the weekend. After that, I can start the application process next week."

"You're going out of town?" Jordan asked in surprise. "Where are you going?"

"I can't say on the phone. All your calls are monitored, you know that?" Jessica asked.

"All my calls are monitored? What do you mean?" Jordan asked in confusion.

Jessica frowned. "All calls in and out of Wabash Manor are monitored. It's been that way since Auntie first moved in."

"So…when I said Mama wants a new ocelot, some agent somewhere was listening to me say that?" Jordan asked, horror building in her voice.

"Yep, they're listening to us right now. Say hi to the agent," Jessica answered.

"I need to go, bye!" Jordan said in a hurry and hung up. She was probably running to Sunset Blessing's sisters to demand to know why they didn't tell her calls were monitored. Amicus likely did tell her but did so during some long contract reading that Jordan zoned out on because it was mostly lawyer speak.

Jessica sat her phone on the passenger seat and tossed her purse beside it. Did talking to Jordan help? Maybe it did.

Adam would be showing up at her apartment in…she picked up her phone and checked…two hours and forty-five minutes. She needed to get home, shower to wash off the sweat, and get into something more comfortable. Violet was right about the skirt and the rest of these clothes. They were much too hot. Wearing them was going to make her sick. If Violet could walk around with most of her furry bosom on display, Jessica's legs and tail were hardly worth looking at. How did that woman manage to put her ponish traits on full display like that and rise to the top of the pecking order at the university? It seemed unfathomable. Jessica faced plenty of prejudice for being a partial. Violet might not be a partial, but she was different enough from other humans to be viewed as a partial. The meeting tomorrow should be interesting.

She picked up her phone again. One last call to make before she hit the road to go home.

"Hi, this is Jessica Middleton. I wanted to check to see how Mark was doing."

"Oh, Jessica, good to hear from you," Jill replied. "Mark is with Wishing right now. They seem to be getting along. He at least says two or three words to Wishing at a time now, which is more than I can say he gives the rest of us."

Jessica frowned. "He hasn't been hiding again, has he?"

"He primarily sticks to his room when Wishing's at school, but he comes out to eat when called to lunch. He's been eating meals with the rest of the household but keeps very quiet, answering our questions with yes, no, okay, or dunno. Wishing will get a little more, but not much," Jill explained. She sighed. "We also haven't been able to convince him to go into the backyard yet, even when Wishing goes into the backyard to play. He'll stand at the door and stare out, but he won't go out, no matter how much we encourage him. We haven't even attempted to ask him to go out the front door."

Electronics carried her powers, and she could hear a kid giggling; it sounded like Wishing, telling someone else to look at something. There wasn't any response to what the kid said.

"He'll get better," Jessica assured her. "He's already showing you guys a lot more trust than he ever showed the nurses at the hospital. He just needed somewhere that feels safe."

"Do you want to talk to him?" Jill asked.

"If it is okay," Jessica answered.

"One second," Jill responded. "Mark? Jessie's on the phone. She wants to talk to you. Do you want to talk to her?"

"Yes," she heard Mark answer.

"I will put the phone on speaker and set it on the floor. Then you can say hi, okay?" Jill asked him.

"Okay."

There was some sound that Jessica assumed was the phone going on speaker and being set down.

"Hi," Mark said, sounding uncertain.

She smiled. "Hi, Mark. Good to hear you. Have you ever talked on a phone before?"

"No," Mark answered.

"So this is a new experience for you," she said. "I can't come see you every day, but I will try to call when I can't see you. Is that okay?"

"Come when?" Mark asked instead of answering.

"I'm not sure," she confessed. "It might be next week. I have a lot to take care of. This weekend I have to go somewhere very far away, and won't be able to call, but I'll be there to visit you on Monday for sure. Do you understand the days of the week?"

"School days and weekends," Mark answered.

"Well, I suppose that's part of it," she said. "Today is Tuesday. Yesterday was Monday. Tomorrow is Wednesday. After that is Thursday, then Friday. Those are the school days. Understand?"

"Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are school days," Mark answered. That was the longest sentence she'd ever gotten from him. He was getting better.

"Good! You learn fast," she complimented. "After that are Saturday and Sunday. Those are the weekend days. Understand?"

"Saturday and Sunday are weekends. Wishing has no school on weekends," Mark answered.

"Good job," she complimented again. It seemed like a good idea to praise him whenever possible to build up his confidence. "So, after Sunday is over, it is Monday again. I will be there to visit you on Monday for sure. Okay?"

"Long time," Mark said accusingly.

She nodded. "Yeah, I know it will be the longest time I've left you alone since we met. This week is one of my busier weeks. I know you don't like going outside, but you do look out windows. Do you ever look up at the stars at night?"

"Yes. Pretty."

Her smile widened. "I agree. This weekend, I'm going to go up there."

"Too high!" Mark whined.

"It is very high, but I'll be alright. I'm going to go up there and come back. Then you can know it is safe to go outside," Jessica said.

"Maybe," Mark said. He didn't sound confident.

"You'll see," Jessica assured him. "I heard you've been making friends with Wishing Well. Can you tell me about Wishing Well?"

"Wishing loud."

"Very!" Wishing cheerfully yelled out in the background

"Very loud," Mark corrected. "Wishing likes playing with blocks. Wishing likes playing with cars. Wishing goes to school to be smart. Wishing tries to catch butterflies but always misses. Wishing snores."

"Do not!" Wishing shouted.

"Yes, you do, twerp!" she heard Caleb yell.

"That was a very good answer," Jessica complimented.

"Practiced," Mark replied.

She blinked. "You knew I would ask you about Wishing, so you practiced what to answer?"

"Yes."

Well, that was forethought and planning. That was another sign that Mark was at least reasonably intelligent for a kid his age.

"Good job," she complimented again. "I'll want to hear more when I call again. How about you play with Wishing and let me talk to Jill."

"Okay," Mark reluctantly said.

The phone was picked up, and the sound focused more, indicating it was off speaker.

"My, he was very talkative with you, even more than he is with Wishing. I didn't know he could say so much," Jill said. "He seems to memorize things fairly well, too, judging by how quickly you taught him the days of the week. Maybe Jack and I can start working with him on his numbers and letters. I used to be a pre-k teacher before we started fostering. We worked with Wishing, and he knew his alphabet, knew how to read and write some simple words, and knew how to count before he started school this year. Maybe we can do the same with Mark."

Jessica knew how to read before she was speaking in complete sentences, so she preferred it was she who taught Mark to read. Then again, she knew that most kids weren't her, and intelligent as Mark might be, he came from a very different upbringing and environment. She might overwhelm him if she tried to teach him the way she learned. That could make him feel stupid, and she did not want him thinking of himself that way.

"That sounds great," she answered. "I'll ask him how it is going. He seems to want to impress me, so if I ask about it, maybe that will make him more motivated to pay attention."

"Jack and I sat down and read through your Wikipedia page. You're probably the second most famous person we ever met after we met Beyonce that one time," Jill said. "I heard you tell Mark you were going into space, and we had read you were involved with NASA. Are you visiting a space station or something? Do you do that much?"

"I can't talk about the details," Jessica said vaguely. "All I can say is it is a trip into space, my first ever trip into space."

"Well, it sounds exciting. I know more people are going into space than ever, but most people still can only dream of doing it," Jill said.

Jessica smiled. "It is exciting. I'll still call each day until I head out. I want to know how Mark is doing. But for now, I have to go."

"Thanks for calling. I know it makes Mark happy," Jill said. "Have a good rest of your day."

She put her phone in her purse and buckled her seat belt. Going to another galaxy should be exciting to her after how much she had dreamed of something like that as a kid. She was going further than any human or pony had ever gone before. Humanity was just now reaching Mars. It hadn't even gotten a probe out of the solar system. The first probe sent out was estimated to take literally tens of thousands of years to finally accomplish that. Most people didn't realize how big a solar system was or how much bigger a galaxy was, yet she'd be leaving their galaxy and going deep into another. The Devourers, doomsday horrors that they were, couldn't accomplish a weekend trip like this. This was probably the furthest any mortal from any world in history had ever traveled. Forget the first step for mankind; this was the first step for all intelligent life.

Yet, she was distracted, and the joy of it muted. No one would know, and with the Devourers still coming, what did it matter? Hopefully, this was worth it, and they'd find some answer to that problem. Still, lately, the things that were most on her mind had been more mundane. She worried about how people looked at her. She was especially worried about Mark.

Mark would die young if the Devourers reached them. This trip needed to matter for Earth and for Mark. It was time to get those calculations done. That was the best gift she could give Mark–a future.

Chapter 21: Poor Thinking

Jordan stormed into the guard room. There were three guards on duty, who all turned to stare at her.

"Where is Andrea?" Jordan asked, glaring. She looked at the monitor screen on the wall to see if she could spot the old crone.

One of the guards touched a hand to his headset. "Miss Portsmith, Miss Gilmore is looking for you. Yes, ma'am, I will tell her." He lowered his hand. "Miss Portsmith is walking the outside perimeter of the fence. She says you can meet her at the gate if you wish to speak to her."

Jordan turned and headed back the way she came, through the foyer, and paused before she reached the front door. Instead, she checked her jewelry to make sure everything was in place. With a brief flash of her horn, she was out by the gate.

The guards on duty did a double-take as they saw her appear.

"Which way is Andrea?" she asked the pair.

"At this point, we couldn't tell you," one of the guards answered. "She's checking the perimeter, and she could be anywhere along it right now. She normally checks the outer defenses like this twice a week, but she's been doing it every day since you arrived."

Jordan looked at the stone fence. "What defenses are there other than the fence?"

The guards looked at one another before the same guard answered.

"Some of the crystals that guard against teleportation are just inside the fence. Miss Portsmith can tell if they are each working properly as she passes them, as well as check the fence for any breaches, opportunities for breaches, and signs of snooping–signs beyond the normal drones that fly around."

"Has she found anything?" Jordan asked.

"Not that we are aware of, ma'am," the guard answered.

"Then why is she increasing these patrols?" Jordan asked.

The guards looked at one another again before the one talkative guard answered again.

"You'd have to ask her yourself, ma'am."

Jordan looked at the fence again and weighed, sitting down and waiting for Andrea. However, there was another option.

"Tell her I went back to the house," Jordan said, lighting her horn again. The next instant, she was back in the foyer.

The guard on duty jumped at her sudden appearance but quickly settled down. She didn't say anything to him as she marched up the stairs. If she couldn't get answers from one of the sisters, she would get answers from the other. They might be pulling some good cop-bad cop thing with her, but she saw through their game. The pair were a team that were Sunset Blessing's kin.

She reached Amicus's room and looked at the door frame and what was written on it.

Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen

Well, at least it was an appropriate Bible verse this time around. Or it would be until whenever Amicus moved out or passed away. She couldn't get rid of these. It would be hard, considering they were burned into the wood. She was allowed to cover them up. Would the verses be able to be revealed again if she painted over them? What about plaster? You could scrape plaster away to reveal what was underneath. That would take money, which meant this auction had to go well.

She knocked on the door, and a moment later, it was opened by Legal Brief.

"May I help you?" Legal Brief asked.

Jordan gave him a small smile. "Is your wife available to speak with me?"

Legal Brief shook his head. "Sorry, she headed out earlier to go speak with a client. The case will be tried in federal court, so speaking to her client about the case on the phone is inadvisable."

Jordan nodded. "Because our phones are bugged."

"No, bugging involves placing a listening device. The government can't get away with that," Legal Brief corrected. "They simply listen to all the calls from all registered residents and employees of the property directly from their carriers, as per existing agreement."

Jordan pointed at herself. "Auntie Sunset might have agreed to that, but I didn't!"

Legal Brief rolled his eyes and then looked at her like she was wasting his time. "You did agree. It was in the paperwork my wife read to you, and you signed. Whether you paid attention to what she was saying or took the time to read as well is not the government's concern. The entire agreement was provided to you both verbally and in print prior to your signing, and you signed. Nothing was done to hide what you were agreeing to. You have no case to challenge it."

She wanted to keep yelling about it, but she knew it would make her look bad. Instead, she found something else to fuss about.

"What about what Andrea's doing?" she asked. "I can rarely find her. Like right now, she's checking the house's perimeter, and I'm told she's been doing this every day since I arrived."

Legal Brief frowned. "She's concerned about our security. Even with all our security, there has been a history of breaches. Less than a month ago, we had a major breach. Sunset Blessing, despite being weak in power and permanently injured, had a reputation for being able to combat these threats. You are some random eighteen-year-old who doesn't have that reputation. Andrea fears, all of us fear, that there will be increased attempts to breach security. There's been increased drone activity around the fence since you arrived, which is very worrisome. She's being cautious. Would you prefer that she not and we end up with a break-in?"

Jordan pouted. "Is there any good news about this place?"

"You made the news," Legal Brief informed her with a smile. "One of those drones filmed you fighting with Tempest Shadow and Crystal Dreams. They love to play the clip of you sink-holing Miss Dreams over and over again. There are a significant number of videos floating around online with musical accompaniment."

"I'm a meme?!" Jordan asked in shock.

"Well, it's primarily Miss Dreams who's getting memed, but you're part of it," Legal Brief laughed. "Don't worry, that isn't a bad thing. People got to see you kick her flank."

"How is that good?" Jordan asked.

"Unicorns don't usually get the better of crystal ponies in a fight. Even Sunset Blessing would be at a crystal pony's mercy, especially with her magical weakness. People seeing you do that makes them take you a little more seriously. It means anyone trying to foalnap you might reconsider how difficult that might be and discourage them from trying."

"Well, as Auntie Sunset would say, it isn't how powerful your magic is; it's how you use it," Jordan replied.

"And yours is stronger than hers and being used in a way that aligns with her unorthodox approaches," Legal Brief said. "That should give people pause."

"She did train me in some stuff," Jordan said, lifting her head high.

Legal Brief frowned. "Don't get too cocky or try to pull anything too flashy. My sister-in-law got those scars through her cleverness. There's a standard way to do things for a reason. Unstandard things can literally blow up in your face. Be careful. Sunset had eighteen years of failures, potentially life-threatening failures, to figure out what works and what doesn't, and that was when she wasn't stealing ideas from others–which she also frequently blew herself up with. It's a wonder this place isn't a crater. You don't have her experience or access to her spies, so don't try to pull the same things."

Her ears flattened. "I'm not going to blow the house up, and if anyone does try to breach the fence, I intend to let the guards handle it. I want to teach English literature in a high school, get married, and have a bunch of kids. That's my dream, and it's a simple dream. It isn't to push the boundaries of magical knowledge. Whatever is in those vaults can stay in those faults forever. I'd seal that basement with cement if that were an option."

He sat down. "I wish it was. We'll keep her precious secrets safe. She says they could eventually become important but that the world wasn't ready for most of it. If she's afraid of it, I don't want to know what's down there. However, she wants it to be kept so that people can eventually get what's in there. Plus, she went through all that trouble of turning the basement into one big hydraulic press to crush intruders. I doubt that would work right if sealed with cement."

Jordan shivered. Auntie Sunset had some sick ideas. Not her problem. She had no intention of letting anyone down there.

"Just tell your wife and her sister to talk to me more about what they're doing and why. It's my house–like the extra security checks and Tempest and her buddies showing up out of nowhere. I deserve to know what's happening around here," Jordan instructed.

"I'll let them know," Legal Brief replied. He then shut the door.

This was so aggravating! She might be the name on the deed, but she felt like she had no control of this house. There wasn't much she could do besides what she had just done. In the meantime, she would get back to making lists for the auction. Changing the decor to fit her would be at least a start.

Jessica rubbed her legs vigorously with a towel. Adam would be at the apartment shortly, and she was nowhere near dry yet. Wet fur had a smell to it that she preferred not to be smelling like when a guest was coming. She preferred to use her hot air dryer, but that was still in a box somewhere, and she had no idea where. Packing had been done hastily, and a lot of stuff had been thrown in whatever package was handy at the time.

She glanced at her phone sitting on the floor. It was already past time for Adam to have arrived, but only by a minute. He might have decided not to come, or he was running slightly late. She didn't know which was preferable–him ghosting her or her smelling like a wet dog in front of him. Both options seemed disheartening.

She stood up from the tub's edge and gave her tail a flick. A few drops of water sprayed from it, indicating it was also far from dry. She'd known that before flicking it; it was far too heavy to be dry. The water weight pulled it down. With a groan, she continued scrubbing her legs while she continued to whip her tail back and forth over the tub in the hopes she could expel most of the water. If she was lucky, Adam would take another ten or so minutes to be fashionably late.

The doorbell rang, and her ears flattened. So much for the extra ten minutes. She didn't even have clothes on!

She shut the door to the bathroom and reached out with her powers.

"Adam, is that you?" she asked whoever was at the door.

"Yeah, sorry I'm running late. I picked up some donuts on the way here, but the drive-through took forever. May I come in?" Adam replied.

"Yes, the door is open. Come in and wait in the living room. I'm indisposed at the moment," she answered.

She heard the handle in the door turn. "Indisposed? What do you mean…where are you? It sounded like you were just inside."

"I'm in the bathroom, casting my voice," she answered in frustration. "I'm still drying off from my shower. I don't know where I put my dryer, and fur is difficult to dry with a towel."

She heard him close the door. "I forget you can project your voice in addition to hearing things. I told you about my little sister. We lost power for three days during a storm once, and her brilliant butt decided to go outside in it without any way of drying off after. She stank for the whole next day because it was cold, and it slowed down her drying, so I know all about the fur thing. It's fine."

"My fur doesn't take that long. I know earth ponies aren't the most agile holding things, but why didn't you help dry her off with towels?" She asked as she continued to towel her fur.

"She was bullheaded and didn't want anyone helping her. Natalie is like that. She's twenty-two and doesn't have her mark, and somewhere along the line, she got it in her head that she has to take care of everything herself, or she'll never get her mark," Adam explained. "Anyway, as long as you are clothed, I don't mind if you come out damp. I can deal with the wet fur smell."

She looked at the towel in her hands and sighed before tossing it aside. "Okay, give me a minute." She stood up, grabbed her clothes off the edge of the sink, and put them on. Nothing fancy, just her panties, shorts, bra, and NASA t-shirt. Her legs and feet would be on full display, but Adam had seen her legs before, and she was never putting a skirt on again. It was hot and miserable.

She exited the bathroom, and Adam stood up from the box he'd been sitting on–she didn't have a chair or couch or anything like that, only bookshelves and boxes. The only furniture to sit on in the apartment was her bed and her computer chair.

Adam stared at her, and his eyes were neither meeting hers nor looking at her legs, tail, or ears. Nope, his gaze was right where the NASA logo crossed her chest.

She crossed her arms across the area. "Maybe I should put on a sweater."

Adam pulled his eyes away. "Sorry, sorry. That was tactless. I hadn't realized you were so-" He cut himself off and cleared his throat. "Sorry. You had some data to show me and transfer to me?"

If she didn't need his help, she would have told him to leave right then. She still wanted to put on the sweater, perhaps more than ever. Here she was, thinking she might make a friend, and he fetishized her. It felt like a betrayal.

"Yeah," she said, arms still covering her bust. "Follow me and keep your eyes elsewhere." She turned and headed to the bedroom.

"I'm really sorry about that. It was just an in-the-moment reaction. I wouldn't try to make a pass at you or anything. I saw how you reacted to Violet swinging her…you know…in front of your face. That screams what you are into, and I don't pursue anyone unless the feeling's mutual. I don't pursue people just for how hot they are either," Adam said as they walked.

"Adam, you are digging yourself so much deeper. Maybe you should be quiet," she suggested, ears flat.

They reached her room, and she sat in her chair and pulled up her data. Adam stood far enough back he couldn't accidentally look at things he shouldn't.

She pulled out a pen and paper. "The object is in the pinwheel galaxy. I'm writing down the approximate coordinates that Starpiercer found it at. I can't give you an approximate mass. We don't have that, and I've got a feeling that its mass might end up being a shock to us all when we finally calculate it. As for its trajectory, all we have is the general trajectory of the solar system it was in. It was in orbit of its star at approximately zero-point-three-one AUs. The star was a type G one-point-zero-two times the size of the sun."

"Wait- it was a type G star ten billion years ago. What are the chances this star even still exists in that state?" Adam asked in confusion. "And if this thing was orbiting that close, it seems there is no chance it could have survived the expansion and collapse. Even if there was still a type G star there, unlikely as that is, that's closer to its star than Mercury is to the sun. The temperatures would be extreme. How are you supposed to visit this thing?"

She put a flash drive into her computer and started typing. "I haven't the faintest clue. From my initial work last night, I determined that its star would have progressed to a red giant and then a white dwarf, which would be its current state. I questioned the Dreamwardens about the impact of their object being so close when the star went through its red giant phase, and they seemed quite confident it would survive this. They were unsure if it would be enveloped by the star or expelled from its solar system. If it was enveloped and remained intact until the star eventually collapsed into a white dwarf, we must assume it is still somewhere in orbit now, even if that defies everything we understand about solar systems. If it was expelled from its solar system, we'll have to do some more hunting once we get there. Whatever this is, it defies our understanding of physics. We don't have a model for what happens when an indestructible object gets overrun by an expanding star. So we're going to have to do a lot of guesswork."

"How do you know it is indestructible?" Adam asked. "Nothing should be indestructible."

"The Dreamwardens say so, and they say Triss backs their claims. Dreamwardens can't knowingly lie, and Triss has no reason to," she answered. "Let's chalk this up to there's a lot science hasn't discovered. Hopefully, this expedition will shed some light on how this thing exists."

She passed him the flash drive. "Here, this is the data we have about the galaxy, the star, the solar system, and the object. Use a secure computer when accessing this, and do not put any information online. I'm showing you a lot of trust in handing this over to you. Don't make me regret it. If you do, you won't have just me to contend with; the Dreamwardens will come after you as well."

He gingerly took the drive from her and pocketed it. "I won't betray your trust, and I wanted to say again that I'm sorry about-"

"It's okay," she interrupted. "I overreacted. I'm not very comfortable with people looking at me that way, but I'd be a hypocrite if I got angry at you for it when you caught me doing more or less the same thing with Violet. Let's forget that it happened."

He sighed with relief. "Thank you. I didn't want to mess anything up between us. I idolized you as a teen–heck, I still do. I mean, you are a scientist and an action hero, a real one, not someone made up for a movie. I know there was a movie, and most of that is probably fictionalized, but the core of what happened was true. Now you are going off to another galaxy. Who doesn't want to be like you?"

She shrugged. "I walked into a hospital the other day to see someone, and the nurses treated me like I was there to rob them. I hate the sound of other people's laughter because my mind immediately goes to thinking they are laughing at me. My first day teaching had me harassed by a student who thought I was some walking sex toy. I'm afraid to walk alone in public. I'm even afraid when I'm with someone. Sound, enhanced by my powers, overwhelms me when my nerves get the best of me. If it gets bad enough, I can unleash that torrent of sound on everyone around me, and most aren't very forgiving of me assaulting them with my powers, even if it was unintended. This isn't anything new for me either. It has been this way for years. Tell me, who wants that?"

He touched her shoulder. "There's always going to be something someone is prejudiced about. If it isn't that you're a partial, it could be you are a woman, or that you have blue hair, or the color of your skin, or what you eat, or your religion, or lack of religion. At the university, we often have to deal with the old guard being prejudiced against us because we aren't as old as them or have new ideas. The only people who are going to deny prejudice in a million forms is real and negatively impacts a significant number of people are people who haven't had their lives significantly impacted by it or weaponize prejudice. Yes, it is real, and it is impossible to ignore it when you are feeling it directed at you constantly."

She couldn't help it; tears formed in her eyes.

"However," Adam continued. "You can't let all that make you too afraid to live your life. You saw Violet. Do you think for a second she doesn't deal with the same prejudices directed at her? Do you think she's blissfully unaware of what people whisper about her just because she doesn't have your powers to hear it? She's not a fool; she knows. She also doesn't have your accomplishments and fame to shelter her. You know what she does have?"

"A husband and two kids?" Jessica answered.

"Yes, but the main thing she has is pride and confidence," Adam said. "She carries herself as someone who knows their worth and sure as hell will make sure everyone else knows it. The old guard at the university doesn't dare speak ill of her. They fear nothing more than someone who isn't afraid of them. When she has a conversation with someone, she takes the lead and controls it. She doesn't beg people for things; she tells them how it is going to be. She doesn't hide what they want to mock her for; she puts it on full display and dares them to say anything about it. I'm not saying emulate everything about Violet, but that air of confidence and self-assurance she has is something you should look long and hard at. If she can climb to be the most popular and most influential person on campus, you have that power, too."

She bit her lip, considering her words.

"You are right," she said. "About all of it, but you missed something. It isn't just as easy as choosing to be more confident. It isn't some switch I can flip at a moment's notice because I want to. I do appreciate you trying to pep-talk me. It does make a difference, knowing that you think highly of me. I will call my psychologist in a few days to restart sessions. I'll talk to Violet tomorrow and see what helped her gain that confidence because I'm sure she had to build herself up over time. But for right now, let's focus on the task at hand."

He removed his hand. "Of course. I will head back home and start working on this right away. Thank you for letting me help you with this. There's a box of Dunkin' Donuts out in your living room. I only had one out of it. You're welcome to the rest."

That was good because she hadn't gone grocery shopping, and she hadn't brought any food from her parents'. Her refrigerator was utterly bare, aside from a glass of water she had stuck in there to have a cool drink later. She hadn't eaten anything since lunch at her parents the day before. Donuts weren't a healthy meal, but they were something she could put in her stomach. She didn't have time to go grocery shopping, and she didn't want to go to the store anyway.

"Thanks, I appreciate it," she said, being honest. "I'll see you out."

Adam hastily looked away and down as she stood up, and she grimaced.

"Okay, that's making me just as uncomfortable," she said. "As long as you aren't staring at my bust, you'll be fine." She took a deep breath and decided to do something risky and stupid. "And for the record, I'm bi."

Adam stiffened. "Um, I'll keep that in mind for later on."

She nodded. "Later on, once this project is done. Then, we can consider exploring other concepts, slowly, if we both want to. If I'm not being an idiot and completely misreading things. I haven't ruled that out as a possibility. I give it a fifty-fifty chance I'm misreading things or listening too much to my best friend's crazy ideas."

"Your best friend might be onto something," he said slowly. "You're also right; we deal with things first and see how things go."

She nodded stiffly. Did she just tell a guy she was interested in pursuing a relationship, and did he just say yes? It had to be that she was acting impulsively because her emotions were running high. He'd also been looking at her bust, not her legs, tail, or ears. He was looking at her as a woman, not some partial fantasy lover. It was nice to be lusted over as a woman and not a partial. That, combined with him being a nice guy, caused a lapse in judgment. By morning, she'd regret she opened her mouth. She was regretting it already. How awkward would it make things if she told him she took that back? Yeah, that would be bad.

"Slow, very slow," she stressed.

He smiled. "Slow. Got it. We'll talk about it more after you come back from your trip–provided you don't come radioactive or something."

She rolled her eyes. "Can't rule that out with how little we know. I'll see you again Thursday morning–hopefully with enough data between us so I can make that trip."

"Thursday morning," Adam agreed. "See you then. Take care."

After shutting the door, she rubbed her head, again asking herself what had possessed her to do that. She then looked at the box of donuts. Maybe it was hunger messing with her head. If she took things slow enough, Adam would get bored and forget the whole thing. Then, she could refocus on what she needed to do for Mark. Things would be fine.

One chocolate-covered donut and a drink of water later, and she was back in her room. It was time to get to work.

Her phone started ringing. So much for getting work done. She groaned and picked up her phone to check who was calling, then answered.

"Hey, Jor. How are you?" she asked.

"I'm not interrupting a romantic dinner, am I?" Jordan asked.

Jessica rolled her eyes. "I told you it wasn't a date. However…I may have suggested something might happen sometime in the future."

"Whoooohooo!" Jordan exclaimed.

"Don't cheer!" Jessica groaned. "I don't know why I did that. My best guess is I was in a vulnerable position."

"Did it not go well? Did he get rude? Did he treat you like you were disgusting? Did he say something nasty to you?" Jordan asked, seemingly growing more agitated with each question. "If he did, don't worry; I'll find him and put him in his place! Nobody treats my best friend like that!"

"No, he seemed pleased with the idea," Jessica answered.

"Oh!" Jordan replied. "So, what's the problem?"

"I don't know. He was looking at my bust earlier," Jessica replied.

Jordan clicked her tongue. "I've never gotten the strange fixation with mammaries that humans have, but I know it's a thing in most of the stories I read. I think it's kinda disgusting, but I'm a pony, and I don't want to shame humans for their kinks. What's wrong with a guy you are interested in thinking you're sexy? I mean, I'm basing what I know about what humans think is sexy from what I read in books, so maybe the whole mammary fixation is a disgusting idea to most humans, and it's only a small subset of humans who are into that thing."

"I'm pretty sure it was him thinking I'm sexy," Jessica replied. "I forgave him. He'd caught me doing the same thing to another woman earlier."

"Ick!" Jordan said in disgust. "You're into that too?"

"Not really. It was more the fact humans normally can't get away with displaying them so prominently, and she did it with such confidence."

"A bad girl, that tracks with you. Bad girl is kinda adjacent to macho girl, and you've always loved those macho types," Jordan said knowingly. "Is Adam a macho type?"

"No, not really," Jessica answered.

"A priss then?" Jordan asked. "You like the prissy girls, but I've never seen you raise your tail for a prissy guy,"

Jessica shook her head. "He isn't that either. He's just…Adam."

"Hmmm, a new form of attraction. Interesting," Jordan said.

Jessica sighed. "Jordan, can you please let up about this? I'm hoping it all gets forgotten about and blows over in a few weeks. You push too much for me to get into a relationship. It makes me think of my mom."

"Hey! I want my best friend to be happy," Jordan protested. "And I'm not pushing that hard. You should have heard Rosetta talking to Jackie last month. She was telling Jackie that Jackie was slacking on getting pregnant. Jackie's only a year older than me! Rosetta would probably be asking me why I don't have a bun in the oven already if I was back home. That mare seems to think our entire generation's job is to pop out foals. She has three grandkids and multiple nieces and nephews; she should be happy, but no, she wants more."

If her mother did that, Jessica would move much further away. Thankfully, her getting pregnant wasn't on the table. Adopting was…she needed to focus on one thing at a time. She could worry about Mark next week. Right now, she needed to worry about figuring out where that object had gone.

"Jor, were you calling just because you wanted to know how the visit from Adam went?" Jessica asked.

"Not completely," Jordan said slowly. "I'm just bored and lonely. Nothing seems to work out the way I want or expect. Amicus is the closest thing I have to a friend here, and she's away working right now. Andrea's here, but she's miserable to be around. I tried making friends with the guards, and she yelled at me for distracting them! I was kinda hoping you'd come over or let me come over there for a while so we can hang out some more. We didn't get to do much the other night–not that I minded since Mark needed you. I can't even talk to you about everything on the phone because people are listening."

Jessica shook her head. "Unfortunately, I have a lot of work to do before this weekend. I must work on this project for the rest of the night."

"But I could come over there and not be any bother. I could let you work while I cook dinner. We can talk over dinner, and I'll head back home. You don't even need to give me a ride. I can get my driver to take me," Jordan pleaded.

"Jor, I don't even have anything to cook," Jessica explained.

"Then what are you having for dinner!" Jordan asked.

"Adam left some donuts. I just ate one."

Jordan gasped. "What?! Nope! You are not going to eat nothing but junk. I'm going to come over there…no, I'm going to the grocery store, getting you groceries, then heading over there. Amicus got me access to my account today. I need to pay you back for the groceries you got me. I'm getting you groceries, and then I'm going to make sure you eat something healthy."

"I need to focus on work, Jor."

"And how are you supposed to focus when you aren't eating right?" Jordan countered. "What was the last thing you ate other than donuts?"

"Uh, a sandwich, I think, yesterday afternoon…no, it was morning," Jessica said, trying to recall.

"Yep! I'm getting you real food," Jordan declared. "The fact you can't remember shows you don't have focus, and it's because you aren't eating. Your memory is usually close to perfect. You want to get your work done? Get some food in you so you can focus."

Or it could perhaps lead to impulsive lapses in judgment. She usually ate fairly large meals, and she hadn't had a large meal in…well, it had been a while. Her powers were always on. Energy didn't come from nowhere, and although her powers weren't energy-intensive, they were a constant use of energy. If she wasn't keeping up with her energy needs, it could interfere with her ability to think clearly.

"Okay, Jor, you win. You get some groceries and come make me dinner, and we'll hang out for a bit."

Chapter 22: Readying for the Future

Jessica slowly made her way through the halls of the administrative building. They were narrower on the second floor than on the third floor, as many more offices were packed into the duplicate square footage.

Making her way over here had exacerbated her anxiety, but it was nowhere as bad as it had been the last few days. Eating a good-sized dinner, breakfast, and lunch seemed to have taken some of the edge off. Jordan was right. She hadn't been eating enough, and it had negatively impacted her. Now, she could deal with her normal anxiety, not the heightened anxiety she had as of late. It wasn't perfect, but it was manageable, which was a worthwhile improvement. She'd even gotten a considerable amount of work on her calculations done this morning.

Violet's office was here rather than back in the other faculty offices. Violet, in addition to being a dean, was also in charge of the university's news releases. Jessica was unsure if it was normal for a professor to be both a dean and head of news releases. It could be common; she didn't usually pay those kinds of things much attention.

After searching for about ten minutes while encountering a few students or staff, she found the office door labeled by a small plaque beside it. She heard two individuals inside. It was Violet and a student, and they seemed to be wrapping up their conversation. She put up a sound barrier around herself so she wouldn't overhear the conversation and quietly waited.

It took another two minutes for the door to open, and a unicorn stallion with a blue mane with red and white stripes walked out. He gave a brief start at seeing her, then smiled.

"Afternoon, professor," the stallion said and hurried past her.

"Doctor Middleton!" Violet exclaimed. "Please, come in!"

She entered the room and closed the door behind her. There were several posters on the walls, all advertising the university. Violet was sitting behind her desk. The dean was dressed similarly to how she had been dressed yesterday, only wearing a black vest instead of white. On the desk was a laptop computer, along with a pair of framed family photos. There was a human-sized chair and a stool for ponies directly in front of the desk. Against the walls were a few bookcases loaded with books and a pair of low couches. Plenty of light came in through the full wall window behind the desk. There was also a fan in the corner, blowing full power.

Violet gestured to the seats in front of the desk. "Please, take a seat. May I call you Jessica? We are both doctors in our fields; calling each other doctors is so formal."

"You may," Jessica said as she sat in the chair. She noticed for the first time that Violet had a tattoo on her shoulder–a newspaper with a bullhorn.

Violet noticed her looking. "Admiring my body art? It's what I imagine my cutie mark would have been had I remained an earth pony. Do you ever imagine what yours may have been?"

"I try not to focus too much on how my life would have been different if I hadn't been injured," Jessica answered.

Violet grinned. "A good philosophy. We should focus on who we are and who we can be instead of who we were or could have been. You can lose yourself in might have beens. Can you do me a favor? I'm aware of your ability to make conversations private. Can you do that for ours so I can speak more openly to you than I would to one of my students?"

"I did that out of habit when I came in. Why did you want to have a meeting with me?" Jessica asked.

Violet leaned back in her chair. "I see you're straight to the point with little small talk. Pleasantries are valuable, Jessica, but very well, I'll get to the point. I take an interest in individuals who stand out from the crowd. I want to build them up and make the world take notice. I was the most stand-out professor until your hire, so I couldn't help but get to know you as soon as possible. I was fascinated by you even when you were a student here; heads and tails more intellectual than your peers while having an appearance that made people notice you. I wasn't in the same position back then, so I couldn't find an excuse to get to know you. I'm rectifying that now."

Her ears flattened. "So, you are interested in people who look different? With all due respect. I prefer not to be defined by that."

Violet shook her head. "You misunderstand me. You have rare talent, a talent that should be celebrated. Your appearance is…marketing. Think of Einstein or Hawking; they had unique appearances. Everyone knew them on sight. They stood out from the crowd. You're smart. You're a hero. People should be excited to see and meet you, even people who aren't really into physics. They should see you and instantly recognize you for your signature look."

"People laugh and stare when they see me," Jessica muttered.

Violet leaned forward. "I know the feeling, believe me. Look at me; do you think I have never encountered that? There's truth to it, but you exaggerate it, and I think you know you exaggerate it."

"How do you deal with it?" Jessica asked. "Forgive me for being blunt, but how do you put yourself on display like you do and not come out a nervous wreck?"

Violet grinned. "Nothing wrong with being blunt, at least when there's no real threat of offending, and sometimes even then." Her smile fell away. "I was a nervous wreck when I was your age–well, slightly younger, but the same general age. Growing up, most people didn't realize I had fur or my hair was this gorgeous color. My parents made me dye my hair black, and I always had to wear turtleneck sweaters, even during the summer. They told me that people would find me disgusting if they knew. They taught me to hate myself."

"So, how did you change that?" Jessica asked.

Violet laughed. "Honestly, I got pissed. Getting angry didn't change everything all at once, but it was the impetus for change. I was angry, and I was tired, tired of making myself miserable. I won't say what was the last straw; that's a personal matter, but it made me decide I needed a change. It started small. I stopped dying my hair and let its natural color grow out. I started wearing regular t-shirts instead of sweaters. They didn't show much fur, but some could be seen, and it wasn't so damn hot. The first few weeks after I decided on those changes, I felt like puking every day due to the anxiety. I only endured that feeling because I had puked so often when I had been overheating in those sweaters. Fuck my parents for making me wear those things. I have a built-in sweater already."

"And the anxiety went away over time?" Jessica asked.

Violet pursed her lips. "Not exactly. Over time, I got mad again, and so I decided to get defiant. I decided that if they were going to stare, I would give them something to stare at. Then, I noticed that the nature of my interactions with others changed. Yes, I still had my detractors, but there's a thing in the animal kingdom where animals prey upon those they sense are vulnerable. Humans, we think we aren't animals, but we are, and somewhere deep inside, all those instincts are still there. Bullies are predators, and predators are opportunists; they back off from fights where there is no easy prey. I was bigger, stronger, and, most importantly, bolder. I even started wearing high heels only so I could reinforce the idea I was the big bear and they were the little bear. I ensured they knew I wasn't easy prey, so they went for easier game."

Jessica frowned. "And now you try to help others be the big bear."

Violet shrugged. "Well, not everyone is a bear, but I want to help others stop seeming so vulnerable, build them up, nurture their pride. This university is full of individuals capable of great things, but they're hampered by insecurity. To be honest, your aunt came to me with the idea."

Jessica raised an eyebrow. "Arbiter? You are working for the Dreamwardens?"

Violet shrugged again. "I work with Dreamwardens, but not that one, although Arbiter did introduce me to the two I do work with–Ghadab and the Marshmallow, patrons of the outcasts, and it's more me getting advice on and off than me working for them."

Jessica blinked; there seemed to be some religious overtones to that. She knew there were cults dedicated to the Dreamwardens. In this loose, unorganized Dreamwarden religion, beliefs could differ wildly from one group to the next, like Shamanism, but she had never met an actual follower of one. "I never considered Ghadab a patron of outcasts."

"What is the persecuted but the outcast? His sense of justice makes him care about the persecuted," Violet explained. "But I meant your other aunt, Sunset Blessing. She always wanted to get her hooks in the influential, and colleges are where many influential people are forged. With me as her agent, she could gain influence with them."

"But Sunset Blessing is gone," Jessica said in confusion.

"Thus, I am no longer her agent, doing her dirty work," Violet said, putting her feet on the desk. "Now, it is all my mission. I have no ulterior motives. I just hate seeing the bullies win. We, the stand-outs, should rise to the top."

"So, you want to replace the old bullies with new bullies, us," Jessica clarified.

Violet laughed again. "No, not everyone is a mama bear, and the mama bear only roars, bites, and claws to protect her cubs–at least until her cubs can defend themselves. I'm a mama bear, Jessica."

"And what would you suggest to help me get through my anxieties?" Jessica asked.

"Stop trying to hide from people seeing you," Violet immediately answered, taking her feet off the desk. "Not only that, go out of your way to be seen. Everyone should recognize you. I would suggest getting on some talk shows, letting yourself be interviewed for documentaries, or doing some educational talks. Make them see you and know you. Get your face out there; let them see your form."

Jessica briskly shook her head. "I'm sorry, you're very pretty, but I could never be comfortable dressing like you."

That made Violet bray with laughter. "I admit, I do sexualize myself and make it part of my brand. I even admit to deeply enjoying watching men try to hide the lump in their crotch, and even some women get visibly aroused. It's my way of spitting in my parents' faces for trying to make me believe people would only ever see me as disgusting, but don't worry, you shouldn't be copying me and my brand. That is who I am, not who you are. You've got other qualities to cater to. You're a brilliant scientist and a hero, but you're also a partial, and it is up to people like you to destigmatize being a partial. You reinforce that stigma by trying to hide what you are. It isn't just you who you're helping by being seen; it is every partial and unusual person out there who society cruelly labels as a freak."

People like Mark. She doubted Violet knew about Mark, but Violet was unintentionally speaking about him. This made it about more than Jessia's anxieties; it made it about helping Mark not get unfairly judged when he finally started interacting with the outside world. Violet did seem to be honestly trying to help her out; maybe she should give it a try.

Jessica took a deep breath. "I'm not very familiar with setting up being in a documentary, hosting a public speaking event, or arranging to be interviewed. I'm going to need help with any of your suggestions. You play a major role in the university's public relations. Is there anything you can slot me into?"

Violet grinned broadly. "I don't have anything yet because I didn't know if you'd be amenable to that. What I have going right now is meant to promote others, and you shouldn't be stealing their thunder at events I booked for them. I'll look into options and get back to you next week. I promise I'll work out something specifically for you."

"Thanks," Jessica replied, then stood up. "If you'll excuse me. I have my masters class at six to teach, and I should prepare my materials."

Violet stood up as well. "Of course. It was good talking to you. I shall speak with you again next week. Oh–and I heard about your little stunt with your first class. Good concept, horrible execution. You should make them respect you; just make sure you don't break any rules to do so."

Jessica's ears flattened as she opened the door. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Do you know where my toothbrush is?" Rebecca asked as she paced the counter of the bathroom. "I don't know how I misplaced it."

"Are you sure you even unpacked it?" Russell asked from the bedroom. "Most of my things are still in the luggage from the last trip."

Rebecca tilted her head and considered. Nope, she hadn't unpacked it yet. That meant it was already packed and ready to go—one less thing to do. It also meant she hadn't brushed her teeth in the last few days. Her breath likely stank, and Russell hadn't said a thing about it! How much kissing had they done? She probably needed to unpack it just to brush her teeth and repack it. She couldn't be kissing her husband with stinky breath!

"Thank you, babe!" she called out as she hopped off the counter.

Russell came into the bathroom. "Are you sure you need to make this trip? Can't Phobia or whoever is the Warden of Order do it? I mean, Phobia can fly at least as well as you, if not better. She can cover plenty of ground."

Rebecca sighed and rubbed up against his leg. "We've talked about this. I'm the eyes and ears. When I'm projecting, they see and hear what I see and hear. It's like they're all there when I'm there. And my projecting covers a lot more ground than flying can. It's a city, but it is a really-really-reeeeaaallly big city–four times bigger than the whole Earth. Even with my projecting, I'd never be able to cover most of it in ten years–I'm not hanging around there that long."

"And you are sure you are going to be safe?" Russell asked worriedly.

"I'll be fine. People only go missing at Jeg'galla'gamp'pi when they wander off alone. That's why all the dragon people back in the day traveled in pairs. I'll have people watching my body the whole time," Rebecca said dismissively.

"And what about your projection?" Russell asked. "That's going to be wandering around alone."

"Eh, Triss has supposedly projected there before, and the city never ate her," she said, waving a wing.

"You aren't calming my nerves about this," Russell said. "You aren't even going to have Josie or Blanche with you to watch your back."

Rebecca sighed and looked back up at the bathroom counter. Russell saw her look, picked her up, and set her on the counter.

Now that she was high enough to look him in the eyes without straining her neck too much, she continued. "Luna will be there. She can protect me better than either of them. I know you're worried. This is a huge trip, but it's a trip that has been planned since before I even had a cutie mark. This needs to happen."

"What were they planning on doing back then?" Russell asked, crossing his arms. "They couldn't have predicted your projecting abilities."

Her ear flicked. "Likely bribed Josie to go and send Phobia with her. I cover both the Dreamwarden and projector jobs. I've got this, don't worry. I'll be home by Monday, safe and sound."

He still didn't seem to be placated. "If it is so safe, why don't I accompany you? I'm strong. I don't mind doing manual labor. I'm assuming you'll have at least some need for that."

She shook her head. "No! We know it is safe for me, but we have no idea how that place will react to someone without magic. The area is going to be supersaturated in thaumic energy. We know it is safe for magical beings, but I don't know what that would do to you. I'm not risking you."

"How it will react?"Russell asked in confusion. "What do you mean by that?"

"It's sentient or sentientish, it's complicated. It has an awareness. It knows you are there. It watches. It reacts–kinda. You'd have to have visited to understand. It's like a ghost city, except you never actually run into the ghosts. You feel it in your bones," Rebecca explained.

Russell looked skeptical. "And this is worse for me than you; why?"

"And as far as I know, it has never encountered life that didn't have magic," Rebecca insisted, stomping on the counter. "It could react negatively, or the high saturation may alter you, or it might try to fix you. We don't want you getting magic. If you get magic, then I get into your head when we sleep. I don't want to see what you're thinking. I want you to share that with me of your choosing. It changes the entire dynamic of our relationship if me being a Dreamwarden has me dreamwardening you."

He breathed deeply. "Is that even a word, dreamwardening?"

"I said it; you understood the general meaning; that makes it a word," she asserted.

He looked up at the ceiling as if the roof could offer wisdom. "How about I at least accompany you to where you leave and wait for you there? Can I get that much?"

She blinked. "That's the farm…I'm not sure you would be comfortable waiting at the farm. The farm is kinda freaky. I'm used to it, but you might struggle with it."

He gave her a doubting look. "Hun, I'm married to you. I'm used to the strange and unusual. You have the market cornered. What could top that?"

She gave him a sheepish grin. "Um, zombies?"

He stared at her, "Zombies?"

She nodded. "Zombies. They're nice zombies, most of the time. Oh, and their necromancer can show you graphic ways you could die, but he only does that when he loses control. He's only killed one person with those visions."

"Are you trying to scare me off?" Russell asked.

"I'm not lying about the place," she insisted. "Even if it isn't dangerous, would you be comfortable waiting around in a place filled with the undead? It's horror movie stuff."

He smirked. "Last night, I dreamt the Queen of Hearts was sending each of her cards out as werewolves to steal playground equipment. That's about the same as zombie farmworkers. I can do horror movie stuff."

Rebecca tilted her head. "Why was the Queen of Hearts stealing playground equipment?"

"It unlocked the secrets of Atlantis," Russell answered. "So the kids started trying to rebuild their playground exactly how it had been, but the Three of Hearts and Ten of Hearts werewolves came back to stop them."

"Oh no!" Rebecca exclaimed. "Then what happened?"

"Then I woke up because the alarm went off," Russell concluded.

"Argh!" Rebecca said in disappointment. "That sucks. I wanted to know what happened. You have such cool dreams. I'm going to borrow that one for some kid and finish it. Kids can deal with scary stuff, especially when it allows them to be heroes."

Russell smiled. "So, since I bribed you with a dream, does that mean I can go to your zombie farm?"

She considered this. "We'll travel down there together, and if you can get along with Patches, you can wait for me at the farm."

"Who's Patches?" Russell asked.

Rebecca grinned. "She's a pony filly sewn together from multiple ponies with the mind of a creature from the primordial universe that used to live on the surface of a star."

Russell sighed. "Of course she is. I'll try to get along with Patches."

"Can you do one more thing for me?" Rebecca asked.

He nodded. "What you need?"

"Can you get my toothbrush out of my luggage? I need to brush my toofies."

A student raised a hand. "Doctor Middleton, I don't understand. If the two atomic clocks progress at different rates, doesn't that confirm relativity, which would also account for the observed photon speed change?"

"That is a good question," she replied. "I won't be answering it tonight because it is too long an explanation and because that is also a good segway into next week's discussion of how false closed functional systems work. I have uploaded several studies on the subject onto the campus server for our class. Please read them before next week's session. For a more in-depth study on the subject, Doctor Jefferson will be teaching a class on the subject in the spring–it is his specialty. Does anyone else have any other questions before we dismiss tonight?"

A unicorn raised a hoof. "I pay a lot of attention to the NASA message boards, and there's a lot of chatter about you finding something in space. What did you find, Doctor?"

I found out NASA needs to clamp down on what is being said on their message boards, she thought to herself. Still, this could be a chance to wrangle some more help.

"That is not relevant to our current discussion. If you wish to discuss that with me, stay after class, and we can discuss it then," she instructed. "Any other questions pertaining to what we discussed tonight?"

No one spoke up. A few of the students shook their heads. Hopefully, that meant they were understanding the material. Perhaps she should start doing quizzes at the end of each class to check–not this week or next week, but sometime after.

"Good, then class is dismissed," she announced. She then pointed at the unicorn. "You, follow me to my office."

She unhooked and picked up her laptop before heading out of the auditorium. A few students were still sitting around talking while others had already exited. The unicorn stallion apparently wasn't expecting her to go so quickly, and he had to gallop to catch up to her.

She glanced at him as he caught up. "I haven't learned any names yet. What's your name?"

"Saturn Ring, ma'am," he replied. She saw his flank was indeed a stylized picture of Saturn.

"With a name and mark like that, and you being on the NASA message boards, I assume you are interested primarily in astronomy," she said.

He nodded, lightly trotting to keep up with her pace. "Yes, ma'am."

It wasn't busy on campus at this hour. So, the halls were devoid of students, and she heard little activity near them. She should see if she could get all her classes at night next semester. She still put up a sound bubble to keep their conversation private.

"How well did you understand the math in today's lesson?" she asked.

"Very well, ma'am. I have studied all your work. Being in your class is something of a dream come true to me. I was going to see if I could transfer advisors to you," Saturn answered eagerly.

She wasn't advising any students at the moment and hadn't thought about it until Saturn brought it up. She was part-time, so that may be the reason they weren't assigning her students.

"You may speak to Dean Francis about that with my blessing," she said. "In regards to your question, I'm a little disturbed that it is even on the message boards, but that's not any fault of yours. I'll have words with someone about that. However, if you want further details, I'm seeking help on a project involving it."

Saturn let off an excited whinny. "I would be overjoyed to help, Doctor Middleton."

"There's an extreme time crunch involved," she warned. "I would need that help completed by tomorrow evening. I'm sure I'm not your only class, and you may have other obligations. I would also need you to keep this confidential. You can't talk about it with anyone I haven't pre-approved. This project is classified. In fact, if you agree, you might get a visit from one of Dreamwardens when you sleep tonight to seal you to secrecy."

"I can do that! I will end up missing a class, but it is just one. I can catch up on it. It is worth it to work on a big project with you," Saturn said with even more eagerness.

She nodded and held out her laptop. "Can you hold this with your magic for a minute? I need to make a call."

"Yes, ma'am!" Saturn said, grabbing the laptop with his aura.

She reached into her lab coat and pulled out her phone. Luckily, she had added the contact she needed yesterday.

"Hello? Can I ask who’s calling?" the voice on the other end of the line answered in confusion.

"This is Doctor Middleton. Is this Orion Eclipse-Moon?"

A small gasp was barely audible on the other end of the line. "Doctor Middleton! Yes, it is! What can I do for you? Is something wrong with my test?"

She shook her head. “That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about. As you might be aware, my test was a little more advanced than you might have been anticipating.”

“I…” the young stallion hesitated for a moment. “Did I fail?”

“Far from it,” Jessica answered. “You passed with flying colors.”

“I did?!” Orion exclaimed, sounding almost surprised. “Well, that’s great! I don’t think I’ve ever had a professor call me about a test before… so uhh, I’m honored!”

“That’s part of why I called you,” she clarified. “As you might have noticed, some of those questions were well beyond anything I’ve taught. Actually, beyond anything I expected my students to be able to answer. You did well enough on those specific questions that I’d like to ask you about something significant.”

“I…ask away!”

“I need you to understand that what I’m about to tell you is to be considered incredibly privileged information and will not under any circumstances be discussed with anyone. If you accept the offer I’m about to make, you’ll most likely be formally sworn to secrecy by the Dreamwardens later today.”

There were a few silent moments before she was given a response. “That’s a big thing to drop right now… but if you’re serious about this, I’d be a fool to say no. I’ve always been raised that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is… but I want to hear this out. So count me in, Doctor Middleton.”

Jessica nodded. “This isn’t something I’m offering lightly at all. I’m reaching out because you have an understanding of advanced astrophysics that I think could be a very valuable asset for a project I’m working on. If you accept, you’re most likely going to be missing class tomorrow. If you can’t afford to miss any or can’t commit, then I understand.”

“It’s something to do with deep space, isn’t it?” Orion asked.

“You’re very bright,” She smiled. “That’s certainly a part of it, but I can’t discuss everything over the phone. I do need an answer now, though. This project needs to be completed in the next twenty-four hours. Consider yesterday’s test your semester final. With how you performed, you’ve secured an A.”

The realization must have struck Orion because his voice suddenly took on a far more serious tone. “It’s a lot to agree to right now, but I can’t turn away from something like this, so I’m going to commit.”

“Alright. I’m going to ask you something very strange, and I need you to treat this as professionally as possible. When this call is over, I will send you the address to my apartment, and I need you to come over as soon as possible— at least within the next hour. This isn’t a friendly get-together. This is going to be work, and it’s going to be work with an incredibly tight crunch. I expect you’ll be as professional as possible and not discuss anything with anyone. I’d like to brief you and another student on this work tonight, with the expectation that we can begin immediately.”

“My mom’s worked on some big projects for NASA; I know how tight those deadlines can be. Go ahead and send me your address, and I’ll head over as soon as possible. My marefriend will probably ask me about this. What should I tell her?”

“Be honest. Tell her you’ve been offered an internship under your professor and that it’s under a strict NDA. If she has any concerns or doubts, I can talk to her and explain as much as possible, but I can’t give her any more than I’ve given you now.”

“I understand, Doctor. I know she’ll understand; her dad’s worked for some important ponies in Equestria, and she’s no stranger to being out of the loop on stuff like this.”

“Good, I’ll see you shortly.”

She hung up the phone and quickly texted Orion the address to her apartment.

She then turned to Saturn and nodded. “Thank you for holding that. Are you free in an hour? I’d like to brief you both as soon as possible. I can give you a ride if you need one."

Saturn excitedly nodded his head. “Of course!"

Orion soared through the air, occasionally checking his gauntlet to ensure he was headed in the right direction. Doctor Middleton lived clear across town, which wasn’t an unreasonable flight. However, lugging a backpack full of notes and electronics was not the most comfortable flight ever.

Come on, Orion, you should have shelled out a little more for the nice saddlebags,the stallion thought to himself.

Luckily, the apartment complex was close to the school, so it wasn't too difficult to spot once he reached the general area his GPS indicated. He came in for a landing and tried to locate the right building and apartment number.

"Here we go," he said to himself as he finally found the numbered door he was looking for. He could barely contain his excitement. What was the famous Doctor Middleton's apartment going to be like? Maybe it would be filled with strange scientific equipment and star charts on the walls, or perhaps it would be more standard and simply functional.

He rapped on the door with a hoof and was almost immediately answered by her voice.

"Orion Eclipse-Moon? Is that you?"

He looked around for an intercom but didn't see one. Oh, yeah, she had sound powers. She was projecting her voice. Maybe the entire apartment was one big sound dampener?

"Oh, Orion’s fine. And Yes. I hurried over as fast as I could," he answered.

"Good. Saturn will get the door for you, and you two can introduce yourselves to one another while I finish getting the data together. There's a box of donuts out in the living room somewhere. You are free to eat those while you wait."

The door opened just enough for a pony to squeeze through, gripped by a light purple glow, and he found himself looking at a unicorn stallion. The stallion gestured with his horn to enter and backed away from the door. Orion squeezed through, tucking his wings tightly against himself as he did.

Well, he hadn't settled on what he was expecting, but this certainly wasn't it. Aside from some barren bookshelves against the wall and a tall floor lamp, the entire rest of the room was a cluttered mess of boxes, making it look like a poorly kept storage room of some retail store. He looked around for a couch, a stool, anything to sit on, but unless he wanted to risk the contents of whatever was in the boxes by sitting on them, there wasn't anything. There was the floor, but there wasn't much of that visible. Where those donuts were was a mystery.

The unicorn looked at him silently, but the look said it all. This was not what either of them were expecting.

"What's in all the boxes?" Orion asked, assuming Doctor Middleton could hear him in here if she heard him outside.

"Books, posters, star charts, family photos, odd little mementos," Doctor Middleton listed off. "I'm fairly certain my coffee maker and good coffee mugs are out there since I didn't find them in the kitchen boxes. It is the next thing on my list of things to find in that clutter. Sorry about the mess. I moved in just this Monday, and I've been too busy to unpack anything not essential."

Oh, that made sense. It didn't explain the lack of furniture, but it explained the mess. It was a little disappointing that it fell short of his expectations, and now a tiny bit of worry crept into his head that this might be a case of too good to be true with this project. He needed to see things through, though. It’s still too early to make assumptions, he reminded himself.

His gauntlet dinged with a message, and he lifted it to check. He had a new email from Doctor Middleton, labeled as class test grade. He was tempted to check it, but it was impractical to read much more than quick text messages on its tiny screen. He would check on his computer later. He already knew he got an A.

Doctor Middleton walked into the room, carrying a pair of flash drives in one of her hands. "Orion, that email you just received has the class grades, an attachment with the completed test with all the correct answers, and a notice that class will be canceled for tomorrow. and students should review the attachment to see what they may have gotten wrong. I don't want you to worry about that. This project comes first. If either of you have any instructor who has an issue with you missing their class tomorrow, I'll write you a note and speak to one of the deans about it. I think anyone having issues with you missing a single day is ridiculous, but I've known some second-rate doctors who were too full of themself from my time in school."

"So, what's the big project?" Orion asked.

Doctor Middleton sat down on the floor, likely so she wouldn't tower over the pair of them so much. "There is an object in space, roughly the size of Neptune, that we need to calculate the current position of based on where we just observed it with the Starpiercer."

Wait, his mom had said she was doing some special project with the Starpiercer. Could this be related to that? The Starpircer was not designed for observing nearby stars. In fact, it was terrible at observing things nearby in the galaxy. It was designed specifically to observe things in extremely deep space, in other galaxies. This sounded like a planet, even though Doctor Middleton was vaguely saying object. Starpiercer had detected planets in other galaxies before and could tell some rough details about them. Why would they need to know about where it was now? Planets observed that far away existed billions upon billions of years ago. They might not even exist in the present.

"Due to how far away this is and how much conditions may have changed in its region, it is impossible to pinpoint an exact location. There are too many variables, and the nature of this object adds additional complications," Doctor Middleton continued. "I can assure you that the object still exists. As far as we are aware, it is effectively indestructible, hard as that is to believe. It had been observed orbiting in very close proximity to a star. We can safely assume that the star has gone through expansion and collapsed into a white dwarf in the past few billion years. If this is the case, one possibility is the object may have been expelled from its system. We need to create a chart of ranges for where it might have gone while still accounting for the expansion of space and movement of its galaxy, and we need to do it with extreme haste."

"Why?" Saturn asked. Orion was confused as well.

The doctor took a deep breath. "Because the Dreamwardens are mounting an expedition to it this weekend, along with Princess Luna, myself, and I'm unsure who else. Don't ask me why they are rushing the second we found it; I don't know. It is probable we will initially arrive in the wrong location. The less hunting we have to do after we arrive would be preferable. Yes, they do have the capability to reach it in that short period. Don't ask how because I don't know that either. I just believe them when they say they can. Dreamwardens don't lie."

This made some sense to Orion, even if it seemed like a long shot at best. While he physically comprehended what was being relayed to him, a part of his brain still expected this to all be an elaborate dream that he would wake up from any minute. Yet, here he was, standing in disbelief at the news that something this big would happen with no real time for him to prepare or even comprehend it. In a way, it was almost like he was a character in one of the fantastic bedtime stories his father had crafted for him as a foal… except it was actually happening this time. If there was one thing he was confident of, however, it was that his entire world would change in less than a day and perhaps even change the course of his destiny–everyone's destiny. Time would tell whether he was making the right choice or not….

Author's Note

Forgot to intially thank tikibat for once again helping with chapter.

Chapter 23: Dolls

Rebecca sat looking at the young chocolate-colored earth pony colt, who was deep in meditation. The cream-colored earth pony, Ulga, sat looking at nothing because she couldn't look at anything because she was blind. Patches sat staring in fascination at Russell. Russell stood in a corner, trying not to stare at Patches or the dead man lying on the floor.

"Moses needs his sleep," Ulga insisted again, staring dead ahead with her milky-white eyes. "It isn't a school night, but he still should not stay up so late."

"Well, if Sha'am wasn't so difficult, we'd already be done," Rebecca replied, trying not to show how frustrated she was. Seriously, Sha'am Maut was the most infuriatingly stubborn dead person ever.

"Ayedunno doesn't like being woken. They may not come out. Let Moses go to bed," Ulga continued to insist.

Russell gave Patches a nervous glance and quickly turned away from the eldritch horror. "I don't mean to be rude, but does she have to stare like that?"

Rebecca looked at the pair. "She thinks you're interesting. She doesn't get to see that many new living people. It's not like she wants to eat you. Her digestive tract doesn't work."

"We throw up when we try to eat. It's funny," Patches giggled.

Ulga's ears flattened briefly. "Please, do not give her ideas. She is a happy child, but she is extremely open to suggestions and has almost no concept of right and wrong."

Russell shifted his feet nervously. "What does she understand is wrong?"

Ulga tilted her head, still staring straight ahead at a wall. "She understands making people unhappy is wrong. She, like all the others, is also very protective of Moses. They all exist to protect Moses."

Patches suddenly snarled, making Russell jump. "They are going to hurt us??"

"No, child, they are not going to hurt Moses," Ulga assured her.

Patches immediately stopped snarling and giggled. "Okay. Can we play now?"

Rebecca smiled at the terror. "Russell might play with you later. How about you draw us a picture on some paper? You draw such interesting pictures."

Patches hopped in a circle. "Draw! Draw! Draw! We will draw!" She then ran past the dead man like he was of no concern and started pulling crayons down from a low table. After that, she looked around and gave another happy jump as she found a sheet of paper. Patches picked the paper up proudly in her exposed teeth, carried it to the floor next to the crayons, then plopped down on the ground and started drawing.

"See, babe, Patches is very easy to please. She just wants to be happy and have everyone happy with her," Rebecca told her husband. "Just try not to seem angry or scared with her. That is you being unhappy with her, and that makes her confused and upset. She is a very simple creature and won't understand why you aren't happy, no matter how hard you try to explain. Her emotional range is very limited, and her ability to think abstractly is even more limited. Just be pleasant with her, give her simple tasks, and play simple games. Do those things, and everything will be fine."

Both Moses and the dead body suddenly stirred. Russell jumped and backed away from the body as it rolled over to get into a position to push itself up. Ulga was not concerned with the waking dead and instead turned one ear back.

"Alright, you have done as the Dreamwarden requested. Now it's time for bed," Ulga instructed.

"But, Muma-" Moses whined.

Ulga shook her head. "No, but, Muma, me. It is far too late an hour. You should have long ago been asleep. Colts need their sleep. If this were the old country, you would have been in bed just after sundown. If you don't get proper sleep, you won't grow big and strong."

The dead body sat up. "We should listen to her, child. She cares for us and wants what's best. We will be bored with the grown-up conversation anyway."

Patches looked up from her drawing. "No, we won't! Grown-ups talk funny."

The recent cadaver gave Patches a look. "We think the drawing should continue downstairs so as not to distract the grown-ups and make them unhappy. Draw us the bird on the table downstairs so the grown-ups may be happy."

"Birdie!" Patches exclaimed, then gathered up her drawing and one of the crayons in her mouth before trotting out of the room. Rebecca noticed that the picture was just a bunch of random lines and scribbles on the paper, but that was what Patches typically drew when not instructed to draw something in particular.

Moses was still pouting. "Can I get some milk and cookies first, please, Muma?"

Ulga considered for a moment. "You may, but only one glass and one cookie, and then straight to bed, and don't stop to play with Patches or any of your others."

Moses stood up and nodded. "Okay. One cookie and milk, and I won't stop to play with us." He then hurried past them in the direction Patches had a few seconds prior.

The risen cadaver looked at Ulga. "We are going to disobey and play. Do not be too harsh on us for our transgression. It is difficult for children to sit still for so long, and you have had the current incarnation sit very long, trying to stir us. Kids shall be kids."

Ulga sighed. "I shall be kind but firm, but he needs to learn to listen to me. If you will excuse me, I must check on him." She turned and walked out of the room, not needing to see where she was going because she knew the house well.

Rebecca waited for the sound of Ulga's hooves going down the stairs before she addressed Sha'am. "Sorry, we couldn't find you a night pony mare. I don't know why the easiest bodies to find are human men."

Sha'am shrugged. "We have lived as untold numbers of creatures, male, female, and neither. While we're sympathetic to the distress Arbiter, Phobia, and others like them experienced in their youths and believe it could be debilitating based on similar experiences in a tiny minority of our lives, we are now beyond such concerns for ourselves. We have experienced far greater miseries, and our sense of self is far more involved after all the lives we have experienced. We are not merely Sha'am Maut; we are the reflection of the lives of an unfathomable number of the dead stretching back to the infancy of our universe. You cannot comprehend us. Now, did you do as we asked?"

Might as well get to it. "We have our agents doing what you wish, but Jessie should already have the general location of Jeg'galla'gamp'pi. Can we please have the map?"

Sha'am sighed and stood up. "Very well, but do not wake us again anytime soon. We wish to sleep. We do not want our mind troubled by the affairs of Dreamwardens and the foolish choices you who followed after us are making. We have served our time. We deserve our slumber. That colt is our last incarnation, our final lifetime. When this incarnation passes, we will finally be truly dead at last. We have lived too many lives. We long for the grave. May the colt live a happy life; it shall be but one drop in the sea of what we have been. Let the last drop be a good one, free from worry."

"Foolish choices?" Russell asked in confusion.

"Sha'am disagrees with how we do things in general, and she hates Jeg'galla'gamp'pi," Rebecca explained as Sha'am's current body walked over to grab some paper and one of the crayons. "She's also the only one who can remember the geography of it and can draw a map telling us the ideal place to land."

"That place has only ever brought us misery," Sha'am stated as they grabbed a sheet of paper and bent down to grab a crayon. "It should be left forgotten. Nothing there can aid the world against the Devourers. If it could save anyone from them, it would have done so back then. You waste your time, and more importantly, you waste the time of those you seek to protect by obsessing over it. We only give you this so you can learn how foolish it was to trust in the first and last place for anything."

Rebecca frowned at the once-dreaded Warden of Death. "Do you and all your unfathomless knowledge know for sure there is nothing worthwhile there? If you've got some extra knowledge about Jeg'galla'gamp'pi, other than safe landing areas, feel free to share."

Sha'am grimaced. "It is beyond our knowledge, so we cannot say for sure, but all previous interactions indicate we are right."

"We are going to leave no stone unturned as we search for ways of overcoming the Devourers once and for all," Rebecca replied. "I don't want to be disrespectful, but your plan to defeat them went terribly. You shouldn't be so critical of ours."

"Our plan was a good plan," Sha'am countered as they began drawing. "It just didn't have the time it needed, and unforeseen circumstances derailed our work. It could still work if there were time. It could end the Devourer threat forever. What does your plan give that our plan did not?"

"Not potentially destroying our world with our own weapon?" Rebecca suggested. "It may just be me, but I kinda like not having made something that could end all life."

"A worthwhile risk if it meant taking out the Devourers forever. Life would rise again, as it always does, only then free from their doom," Sha'am said calmly. "But these things are beyond our concerns now. Do as you see fit. We have but one request. The current incarnation, Moses, must never be Dreamwarden. We know Phobia desires it, but it risks taking away our final demise. Tell her to abandon her plans to make our current incarnation a candidate. If she goes through with it, we shall slit our throat ourselves to save us. We do not wish to do so, but if the risk of returning to the eternal dream is there, then it is the kindest thing we can do. We have come to hate Joss less and sympathize with him more as time passes."

Russell bent down and whispered in Rebecca's ears. "You have some unpleasant friends."

Rebecca couldn't help but agree, although calling Sha'am Maut a friend would be a huge stretch. She looked at the once Dreamwarden and nodded. "I'll let Phobia know what you said. However, you could just talk to Moses and tell him how you feel. No one can become Dreamwarden without accepting the position. If he says no, that saves the whole throat-slitting thing. Nobody wants throat-slitting. I don't think the other yous would let you get away with that anyway, so it would be this huge hassle and load of work that is best to avoid. It would also kinda negate all the effort you went through to get him and Ulga safely out of that war zone. Getting shot up so you looked like Swiss cheese should count for something, right? Even if it was just another body to you."

Sha'am nodded. "You are quite right, and we do wish my current incarnation a long, fulfilling life. We still mean it about not allowing us to be Dreamwarden again, no matter what steps must be taken."

"After all this, you need to explain what the hell this is all about because I'm so confused and more than a little horrified," Russell whispered to her.

"Sha'am is Moses; they all are Moses," Rebecca whispered back. "Sha'am wants to be not just dead but dead-dead for good. If Moses becomes a Dreamwarden, there's a tiny chance, just like me, that he could end up like Arbiter, Ghadab, or Yinyu–a permanent undead fixture in the dream realm. That would mean Sha'am can't be dead-dead, and the only way out is the eternal dream. She's done that once; she doesn't want to do it again. Her getting out of the eternal dream is how we ended up with a necromancer kid and all these zombies. All the zombies are reflections of the lives Sha'am lived in the eternal dream. They aren't the actual souls of those dead people; they are like copies of them from what Sha'am relived, like living through a recording of every second of someone else's life and experiencing every sensation and emotion they felt. Sha'am is the only real soul out of the bunch, the only one who isn't some sentient copy, and she shares her soul with Moses."

"So the little corpse filly doesn't have a real soul; she's like someone downloaded a perfect copy of someone else's soul and stuck it in there?" Russell asked.

"Well, it is Moses-slash-Sha'am's soul in the zombies, but all the memories and personalities are copies that came from someplace else. They think of themselves as Moses and those people that he's copying the memories of, but they're just Moses–well, Moses and Sha'am, but same thing,'' Rebecca explained. "Does that make sense?"

They watched Sha'am continue to draw the map. "And why is she so interested in this mission that you sent Blanche and Josie on?"

Rebecca shrugged. "She experienced a lot of lives before Moses was born. Most of those lives happened a long-long time ago, often in a galaxy far away, but one of those lives was a partial that lived very recently and experienced some nasty things happening to them. Even if it wasn't really her, she experienced all that stuff, and she wants justice for that life and the others still suffering."

Sha'am finished the map and disinterestedly tossed it over to Rebecca. Sha'am then abruptly collapsed to the floor and stayed unmoving.

Rebecca snorted. "Not even a goodbye. She just abandoned the body. The least she could have done was walk it back to the freezer. That was so rude, and she always made a fuss about everyone treating her with proper manners when she was alive! Yet, now, she has no desire for much at all, just her end. We are very different in our natures, but at least we once shared the same end goals. Now, we share nothing. She is the walking dead in more ways than one. She makes me so peeved!"

Russell brushed his fingers through her mane. "You inherited things from her when you became a Dreamwarden. It's like she's in your DNA, your family. You're not angry at her. Your family member is fading away, and you don't know how to stop it, and that makes you angry. All your power as a Dreamwarden, and you're helpless to help her."

She leaned her head into him. "How do you get into my head so well? I'm the one who gets in others' heads as they sleep."

"I'm your husband. I may never know everything about you, but I know enough. I don't need no fancy magic for that," he answered, giving her a snuggle.

She looked at her husband and batted her eyes at him. "Russell, honey, can you help the zombies get this body into storage? Pretty please?"

He kissed her before standing up. "Let me help move this body. I promise to show it more respect than its last inhabitant did."

She watched him leave to go round up some help. There was dancing to do. Russell would understand.

Something caught her attention, and her gaze flicked over to an ancient yet familiar-looking sackcloth doll with black button eyes sitting on the far side of the room, past the crumpled body. It seemed to be staring at her, eyes incapable of blinking. Somehow, she knew it knew everything her sweet Russell did not—all the things she would never let her husband know.

"So, you still judge others. There is some life left in you," she said to the doll, smiling with satisfaction.

The doll, being a doll, said nothing. It was incapable of doing so. Its mouth was mere yarn, ragged with age. She glanced away to the door for an instant to check that no one was there, and when she glanced back, the doll was gone.

It wasn't perfect, but it would do; at least, she hoped it would.

Jessica stared at her computer screen, trying to find anything that had been missed. There had to be things that were missed with how quickly this had been thrown together. She rechecked the calculations on universal expansion. She double-checked neighboring galaxies to make sure their gravity had correctly been accounted for when making the trajectory for the galaxy's rotation. She did the same for the nearby star systems close to the original star system to determine any that might have been missed that might have hooked the target when it went rogue. She triple-checked the mass that should remain after the star exhausted itself and collapsed into a white dwarf.

There'd been a few minor errors in her students' mathematical equations, nothing she couldn't quickly fix and adjust the projection with. The core of what they had done was right; it was a few missed numbers. Adam's information seemed spotless. There was nothing she could find wrong with her own, and Adam had also checked her work because she was not so vain as to believe she was incapable of making a mistake, especially with the rush she had done this.

This was the best that could be done in a mere day.

She picked up her phone and autodialed.

"Hello, Wallace speaking. You have reached the residence of the Warden of Fear, Phobia Remedy. Prank callers will face the consequences. Who is calling, and how may I help you?"

She blinked. "Wallace? Who the heck are you?"

"I'm the personal bodyguard of Phobia Remedy," Wallace said proudly.

"Tempest and Crystal are the bodyguards," Jessica said flatly. "I've never heard of you."

He loudly snorted in annoyance. "They aren't currently here, and both are considering retiring soon. Tempest personally trained me to take up the duty of guarding the Dreamwarden when they retire. Now, who the heck are you?"

She didn't care for this overly proud bodyguard. "I'm Doctor Jessica Middleton. Phobia should be expecting a call from me. Tell her I'm calling."

"You're Doctor Middleton?" Wallace asked skeptically. "I expected someone who sounded smarter."

She narrowed her eyes. "Sounded smarter? How does someone sound smart?"

"I dunno. I guess, uses a lot of big words I don't know."

She rubbed the bridge of her nose. "That isn't sounding smart; that is sounding like a puffed-up arrogant asshole who wants to seem smarter than those around them because their ego demands it. Please, tell Phobia I'm on the phone."

"I need some proof," Wallace said defiantly.

She didn't have time for this prick. She focused her powers through the phone, letting the electronics enhance them.

"PHOBIA! I'M ON THE PHONE, AND YOUR ROOKIE BODYGUARD IS ANNOYING ME!" she shouted to Phobia's household.

"Uhhh…." Wallace said dumbly.

"Wallace, let me take that call," Rosetta said.

There was the sound of some shifting around.

"¡LA MADRE QUE TE PARIÓ!"

Jessica flinched in pain and flattened her ears at the scream and the string of Spanish explicatives that followed.

She waited for her first opportunity to cut in and took it when Rosetta finally needed to breathe. "Sorry, Rosetta!"

Rosetta stopped her cursing rant. "Sorry? You frightened my wife with your outburst! She was doing one of her short naps, and you woke her up. I should take a plane over there, find you while you sleep, and scream in a bullhorn beside your ear! ILTAM ZOMGHA LACHOPTI ILATEN-" Rosetta continued to yell. Jessica had no idea what language it was or what was being said, but the tone and volume indicated it was still a string of insults.

The angry night pony suddenly went silent, and there was more shuffling around.

"Jessie, please don't yell over the phone like that again," Phobia said. "Wallace, please go brew Rosetta some soothing tea."

"What language was she yelling at me in?" Jessica asked.

"I haven't a clue–something ancient and very dead," Phobia answered.

"YOU SOLD ME BAD COPPER!" Rosetta yelled in English, adding to the general confusion.

Phobia sighed. "I don't even know, so don't ask. It is likely some long-lost insult she read somewhere. Let's move on. Do you have the information we require?"

"I'm confident I know the general region," Jessica answered. "I'll have all the information saved on a flash drive momentarily. What is the next step?"

"Gather your laptop, the flash drive, a few changes in clothes, a blanket and pillow, perhaps that bunny or teddy bear you used to sleep with and go to Wabash Manor. Call me again once you arrive."

"Why do I need Bunna or Mister Do?" Jessica asked in confusion.

"When faced with the unfathomable, it can be nice to have something familiar to hold on to, a totem, as it were. Stuffed animals we sleep with from childhood into adulthood are very potent totems–not in any magical sense, but in an emotional sense. People underestimate how powerful a soothing object from our youth can be. Foals don't defeat my nightmares with magic; they often banish them with teddy bears, action figures, and dollies. I'm the monster under the bed and in the closet; take it from me that toys are powerful."

Jessica shook her head in disbelief. "I'm not a child trying to banish monsters in the closet."

"You are going to Jeg'galla'gamp'pi; the shadows in every window and street will be watching you. Take your totems," Phobia instructed. "Be quick. I shall await your call."

"Jeg-what?" Jessica asked, but the line disconnected.

Windows and streets sounded like they would be going somewhere civilized, or whatever counted as civilized out in another galaxy. Her ears perked as she realized this had to be a planet with an alien civilization. She wouldn't be just the first human to travel beyond the galaxy; she would be the first human to set foot in an alien civilization. Well, technically, Equestria counted as an alien civilization on another world, but that was in another universe that was practically joined at the hip with Earth. This was farther away, someplace that had been around since most of the stars that would die and give birth to the Sun were still young.

And her ears fell as she reminded herself, once again, that no one would know.

With a sigh, she started autodialing again.

It picked up immediately after the first ring. "Jessie! What's up!" Jordan exclaimed. "Want me to come over and make dinner again? I am a pretty good cook, and, forgive me for saying this, I've attempted to eat what you cook. Feeding that to someone counts as cruel and unusual punishment."

Jessica rolled her eyes. Sure, her food was often blackened and crispy, but it wasn't that bad.

"I was calling to say I was going to come over there," she answered.

"That works, too!" Jordan replied. "Maybe you can help me with-"

Jessica cut her off. "Sorry, it's not a social visit. I'm going there to be picked up by someone else. I'm going out of town for a few days. Would it be an issue if I left my car there over the weekend?"

"Oh," Jordan replied, sounding disappointed. "Yeah, you can leave your car here. When are you coming over?"

She walked over to her dresser and opened a drawer. "As soon as I get my luggage together. It shouldn't take long. Let's say more than an hour from now but less than two."

"That might be pretty late if it ends up being two hours, but I'll wait up for you. The auction is late tomorrow, so I can sleep in. I'll tell Andrea to tell the guards to expect you. I guess I'll see you when you get here," Jordan replied.

"Thanks, Jor. See you soon," Jessica said with a smile, then ended the call.

Okay, it was going to be a three-day trip, she should bring three days of clothes. Phobia hadn't said anything about packing for hot or cold weather. She was already planning shorts and t-shirts for her regular clothes, but she added a heavy jacket with a hood, just in case. There could be gasses, so adding a facemask was a good idea. Instead of her regular shoes, she'd go with the hiking boots her dad had gotten her last Christmas with the subtle hint he wanted to go hiking with her–something she'd never gotten around to. They were the best option if the terrain was uneven or wet. Luna could protect them from most things, including the environment, but it was still best to be prepared.

Her blanket she wrapped around her pillow, and she would just have to carry the bundle like that. If they were going any distance from the ship, it would need to be left behind, but that was something she'd worry about later. Finishing up, she gathered together her laptop, flash drive, a few feminine care products, some medical gaze, and despite thinking it was silly, added Bunna to her pack–after giving the beat-up plush bunny a little squeeze.

Phobia hadn't said anything about food, and there wasn't any room for it anyway. She had to assume that the ship would be carrying supplies to eat and drink. Rebecca was also going on this trip, and the idea of Rebecca not ensuring there was lots of food available was laughable. Still, she'd ask Luna about it before leaving Wabash, and if Luna was uncertain, she'd raid Jordan's kitchen. Jordan would understand and probably insist on it.

It was too late in the evening to give Mark a call. If they waited till morning to leave, she would give him one last call before going. She'd call her parents and her brothers tonight. The Dreamwardens indicated this trip would be safe, but they hadn't said it outright. That left a lingering sense of apprehension. She couldn't go without speaking to her family one last time.

Her heart started beating faster, and everything's volume began increasing. The full weight of what she was about to do was sinking in. The apprehension grew as she considered how many things could go wrong. A new star could have formed in the area, and they could teleport straight into it. The Devourers had once devastated that region; could they still have remnant forces in the area, waiting for any bold enough to return? What would that much thaumic saturation do to her? Was it deadly? How tested was this ship the Dreamwardens had made? She never learned the full details, and most weren't aware, but it was a Dreamwarden device that had brought about the Cataclysm of Riverview, not something sunset Blessing had dreamed up. Their technology could go terribly wrong. That ship could explode, leave them stranded in deep space, burn up upon entry to where they were going, or crash. So many things could go wrong, and she would never see anyone she cared about again.

She heard laughter from nearby apartments. Sounds of conversations and television programs blended with the sounds of air conditioners and bodily functions. Flies, mosquitoes, and the buzzing of other insects joined with the chirps of birds in a deafening chorus. It all blended together in a high-pitched roar, and as that roar grew, she heard yells of pain and dismay as her control slipped, and all within her range began to hear it, too.

Control, she had to reestablish control. If she didn't, she was going to hurt someone.

A big white blob waved in front of her face, and she jumped back. An even bigger white blob with a frowny face was floating before her. It pointed at her luggage as words appeared written in place of its face.

Totem

She dug into her luggage, tears in her eyes, and pulled out Bunna and instantly pulled the bunny into a tight hug. The sound in her ears was still deafening, but she could tell it ceased to be deafening for everyone else in her range. She sat on the floor with the toy held tightly in her grip as she focused on calming down. Slowly, in what seemed to drag on forever, sound returned to normal. She looked up to see the blob looking down at her worriedly.

"If you can hear me, I'll be right back–got to give some vague explanation to your neighbors. I'm sure that freaked them out," Rebecca said, then vanished.

A few minutes passed. Her heartrate and breathing returned to normal, but she stayed where she was, waiting for Rebecca to return with news of how much trouble she was in.

Finally, a muscular raven-haired woman in a business suit, lacking heartbeat or breathing, sat down beside her.

"If you are worrying you damaged anyone's hearing, you can stop. Everyone is fine. A few people have a minor headache. I informed them that someone working with the Dreamwardens had a magical mishap and that the OMMR will compensate them for the distress caused in exchange for an NDA. Jonathan is going to be unhappy with me for throwing around the OMMR's money like that, but I felt like it was the easiest way to settle this quickly. I never told them or implied it was you. Most people are aware of your listening powers with sound, but your ability to weaponize it is lesser known. I'd avoid talking about that if I were you if you plan to engage with the public more."

Jessica sighed with relief. "Thank you for taking care of that. I just moved into this apartment. I don't want to get kicked out, or worse, get charged with magical assault."

"Yeah, that would be poopie," Rebecca agreed.

"How did you know holding Bunna would calm me down?" Jessica asked.

Rebecca laughed. "Phobia knows a thing or two when she talks about the power of toys and dolls. Honestly, my mind had been on a different doll a few minutes ago, so thinking about stuff like that was fresh in my mind, and that's where it went when trying to figure out how to help you. I mean, I couldn't shout at you. Trying to do something humorous might have come off as me trying to make fun of you, and that would make things worse. I might have gone mirror mode and let Arbiter try something, but my mind went to the toy first, so that's what I tried first. I was ready to try other things if it didn't work."

Jessica's eyes narrowed. "And why were you here to start with."

"I had just finished securing an important asset for our trip and was making sure there weren't any last-minute issues with anything else," Rebecca answered. "It might have been decided for me that I was going to head this mission, but I am heading it, and it means it is up to me to check all my boxes and dot all my i's/so nothing jeopardizes the mission or those going on this trip. I know I avoid coming off as too serious. Seeming super serious isn't very fun, but that doesn't mean I'm not. This mission is a big deal. I have to treat it as such."

"I suppose that makes sense. I appreciate that you are taking it seriously," Jessica replied.

Rebecca nodded. "Now, talk to me, not as the Dreamwarden watching your every move and micromanaging this mission, but as your friend who cares about you. Tell me your worries and anxieties; talking about them helps. Luna can wait an extra few minutes to get you. She'll understand."

Chapter 24: Breaking Bread with an Alicorn and Zombies

Jessica awoke and was greeted by a rictus smile of exposed bone.

"YAH!" she yelled as she fell out of the bed.

Someone was hopping around, hoofs hitting the wooden floorboards. "We can do that, too! Yarrr! Yarrr! Yarrr! We're a pirate!"

"Patches! No jumping inside the house! And leave our guest alone! She's not familiar with you! Please, play outside. It is a nice day out today."

The hoofsteps retreated from the room so fast that Jessica barely caught sight of the retreating pony. Something seemed off, but she was too unfocused to tell what. Hooves echoed down the stairs and out the farmhouse's front door. The pony, a filly by the sounds of it, giggled and made pirate sounds the entire way. The sound abruptly vanished as the filly got further out into the crops and out of range of Jessica's powers.

"Weird kid," Jessica muttered as she stood up.

The earth pony mare that had greeted her and Luna upon their arrival last night stepped into the doorway, ears flickering. The daylight did not make her eyes any less unsettling, and Jessica tried not to stare at them, telling herself that staring would be rude, even if the mare couldn't see.

"I hear you moving around, miss," the mare said. "I hope Patches didn't give you too much of a fright. The foal is curious about unfamiliar people and is rambunctious. She means no harm."

Jessica smiled. "I'm okay. I didn't expect to wake up to a filly in a weird mask staring down at me."

"A mask?" the mare asked in confusion. "Patches doesn't have a mask. Although, that could be an interesting idea. I'm told her face is very unpleasant to look at–a horrible disfigurement, although I can only take the words of others on that. Perhaps one of the workers can make her a mask. She would enjoy that."

Jessica went wide-eyed. "Oh, no! I'm very sorry. I didn't know. That was very insensitive of me. I should go apologize to her."

The mare didn't blink. "That won't be necessary. Patches doesn't take offense to anything. She is nearly imperturbable. As long as you're happy, she's happy."

"If you're sure," Jessica said with uncertainty. She'd have expected the mare to be more protective of the filly.

The mare gave a short nod. "I'm sure. Just don't be afraid if you see her again, and don't show anger at her. It can take her time to figure out you're scared or angry, but that is what upsets her. Don't run, don't scream, don't cry and point; just smile and tell her that she's a special filly."

Now, she felt awful. She worried about people treating her as a freak, and this poor little filly had some sort of disfigurement that was so bad it scared others. She resolved that she would take time to talk to the filly and be nice to her if she saw the filly wandering around.

"I came to tell you that the workers are preparing breakfast for you and your companions and will be setting the table in front of the house," the mare continued. "We get few guests to the farm. Our dining room is adequate for my son and me, and perhaps a single guest, but to sit so many guests, we needed to do something different. To have a Dreamwarden, her husband, a princess of Equestria, you, and these army officers, even if your stay will be brief, we had to do a great meal for you. It would be disrespectful otherwise."

"Thank you. I'll be down as soon as I shower," Jessica replied.

The mare's ears twitched again. "The water may be cold. You are the last of your companions to rise, and the water heater for the house is not made to accommodate so much usage. The Dreamwarden and her husband were in it for a long time."

Her ears sagged. She wasn't in the mood for an ice-cold shower. She had showered just yesterday morning, so it wasn't that urgent. However, it might be Monday before she got another chance to do so. They were supposed to be leaving around noon.

"Thanks for letting me know. I'll just brush my teeth and head down," she said.

The mare nodded. "Take your time. They are still setting up." The old earth pony then turned and walked away at a normal pace, not seeming to need any care in walking around the house blind. She likely knew the hallways and rooms by heart, and smell and hearing helped keep her aware of what was happening around her. Given how much the mare relied on her hearing, it was probably second only to Jessica's acuteness out of everyone on the property.

It wasn't until the mare departed that Jessica realized she hadn't asked where the bathroom was. Last night, she had been quickly ushered to her room with a warning to keep the noise down so as not to wake the old mare's son and had seen little of the property in the dark. She could narrow in on the sounds of dripping water, but that wasn't always reliable since there were plenty of houses with minor leaks in the plumbing or condensation in air conditioner vents. Maybe it would be obvious, or someone was up and about who could point her at it. She had seen several workers on the property outside the house when she arrived. Did they live on the farm as well? She'd seen only some other barns and a silo when arriving, but other buildings could be hidden behind treelines. If so, maybe they had a separate bathroom somewhere.

She gathered up her bathroom pouch from her luggage and left the room, almost instantly running into Rebecca's husband, who, luckily, seemed to be exiting the bathroom.

He smiled at her. "I heard Patches gave you a wake-up call. You have stronger nerves than me. If I woke up to that filly staring at me, I would have shit my pants. I locked our bedroom door last night because I don't think that kid sleeps, and I didn't want any visitation at three in the morning. She seems harmless unless you threaten the old mare's kid, but she's still creepy as hell."

Jessica's ears flattened. "It's not nice to talk about a kid that way. I didn't get a good look at her, but she is still just a kid."

Russell blinked at her. "You do know what she is, right?"

"All I know is she's a kid with a disfigurement. That's no fault of hers," Jessica said sternly.

"They haven't told you," Russell said in amazement

"Told me what?" she asked, losing patience.

He shook his head. "If they didn't let you in on what's up, I ain't blabbing. Probably best not to know. She can be sweet, I guess, and she ain't the only freaky thing here. I recommend not trying to figure out what you're looking at if you do get a good look at her, and don't go asking too many questions about anything here. There's a wrongness to this place you don't want to know the truth about. You'll sleep easier not knowing."

Rebecca came out of a nearby room and waved her wings at her husband as she approached him. "Babe! Why are you trying to scare Jess like that? I knew this place was going to be too much for you. Are you sure you don't want to wait somewhere in town? Phobia has an extra room she can let you stay in for free if you want. She'll know right away when we come back. You don't have to stay here and prove your bravery."

He shook his head again. "I can deal with this place. I'll even play some games with Patches to keep her busy and happy. I'm just locking my door at night."

Rebecca sighed. "I don't like you being uncomfortable. I was uncomfortable dealing with this stuff before I became a Dreamwarden. I know how it has to get to you."

"I'll be fine," Russell insisted

"What's so bad about this place and the kid?" Jessica asked in frustration.

Rebecca waved a hoof. "Don't worry about it. We're leaving in a few hours and won't return until Sunday. You won't ever have to visit here again. Your nerves have been frayed enough lately without knowing what this place is about. The only reason I told my honey about it was he was insisting on waiting here and spending a night and a few hours here is a whole lot different than four days. Hurry up and do what you've got to do, and then eat breakfast with us. It's all fresh farm produce–good stuff. I think Ulga even baked us some biscuits–yummy-yummy biscuits.

"Do you ever not have your mind on food, Rebecca?" Jessica asked.

"More than I'd like," Rebecca answered. She then turned and trotted away. "Come on; the food on the trip won't be this good!"

Russell shrugged and followed his wife. Jessica rolled her eyes and went into the bathroom.

It took a few minutes to finish in the bathroom, mainly because she took time to scrub a few areas with a washcloth. Just because she couldn't shower didn't mean she couldn't clean some critical spots. Who knew if she'd be able to clean herself over the next few days properly?

She made her way downstairs and wondered who was the taxidermy fanatic that filled every room and hall with their work. It seemed like a strange hobby for Ulga since she was blind. Ulga's son was only eight, so he seemed unlikely to be the taxidermist, especially on the scale seen around the house. It was an odd hobby for ponies in general since ponies tended to be much more leery of killing an animal, and the buck heads were a sign someone was hunting. It wasn't that they never killed an animal, but that was always for butchering meat to sell to humans, providing food for a carnivorous pet, or the rare mercy kill when an animal was suffering. Ponies never killed for sport. It must be one of the human farmhands.

She stepped outside and immediately saw a large table had been set out. Present was Luna, three uniformed army officers–one human, one pegasus, and one earth pony, Rebecca, Russell, Phobia Remedy, Rosetta Stone, another unfamiliar earth pony stallion, Ulga, and four human farm workers who were setting the table.

Having eight unfamiliar people about did give her a moment of hesitation, but it was only brief. There was something else odd that she couldn't quite place. Luna seemed to be watching the farm workers with intense scrutiny and was frowning. The human officer was making a show of not looking at anyone and sitting up straight in his seat. The two pony officers seemed taken aback at sharing a table with an alicorn princess. The non-officer stallion was glaring at any farm worker that dared walk near Phobia Remedy; that meant he must be Wallace. Rebecca was ogling all the food as her husband started filling her plate. Phobia and Rosetta were whispering with one another about what farm life must be like. Ulga seemed to be listening in on their conversation by the angle of her ears. The farm workers set out food and prepared Ulga's plate silently, not giving anyone so much as a glance.

Then she realized what was off. The farm workers were too silent. There was no heart beating, no breathing, and barely any sounds that bodies typically had. Were they androids? That didn't seem to fit either. There were no electronic or mechanical sounds. They weren't illusions or projections. Illusions and projections couldn't touch anything, the food they were setting out was authentic, and she heard their feet as they took steps and their hands making contact with plates and bowls. Perhaps they were some sort of magical golems. She'd heard Auntie Sunset propose making magical golems once as a theory. Luna must have picked up on their strangeness as well; that would explain the look she was giving them. It would make for a perfect workforce that could keep secrets. It would also explain the secrecy about this place. Who was controlling them? Ulga seemed the likely culprit–the elderly earth pony had all the typical bodily functions going on, and she did seem to run the farm.

That made her feel a little more at ease. If the farm workers were merely constructs, they wouldn't be judging her. She went and took a seat between the two Dreamwardens and across from Luna.

Luna pulled her gaze away from the constructs to look at her and smile. "Jessica Middleton, it has been nearly a decade since I have seen you. Your physical maturation seems to have gone very well in that time."

She smiled back. "Thank you. I'd like to think my mental and emotional maturation has gone equally well. How goes babysitting retired Dreamwardens?"

Luna sighed. "Psychic Calm operates a mental health therapy practice and does well for himself. However, Krik is what people in your world would call quite the character even in his waning years. He has a filthy sense of humor and tries to keep active. His mind is as nimble as ever, even if his body is not. I do not expect him to reach the same age Sha'am had when she expired, but I hope he has a few happy years left. We are anticipating the Warden of Order joining us in Equestria soon. That should be interesting."

Rebecca looked up and leaned over to look at Phobia. "Hey! Phobia! I forgot to tell you. Sha'am said that Moses is off limits for being a Dreamwarden. She said if you try it, she'll slit his throat first. I don't think she's bluffing."

Everyone stopped and stared except for Phobia, who grimaced.

Rebecca cowered down in her seat. "Maybe I should have told her that in private. Carry on, everybody. Ignore the loudmouthed Marshmallow!"

Ulga snarled at Rebecca. "Ayedonno would never threaten my son in such a way."

"Um, she kinda did; I heard her, so take it up with her, and don't shoot my wife for being the messenger," Russell said.

"Aww! My spotty man is defending me!" Rebecca gushed, shaking her rear. "I wish we had some extra time because you're making me all hot and bothered in all the right ways."

"TMI, Rebecca!" Rosetta shouted.

"I'd love to tuck man inside," Rebecca giggled. "Well, a word that rhymes with tuck, anyway."

"That's not what TMI means, and you know it!" Rosetta yelled. "You are so unbelievable!"

"That's part of why I married her," Russell said.

"Another part is he can't get enough of all this curvy sexy goodness!" Rebecca giggled again, giving an even more animated shake of her rear.

Rosetta shook her head. "I'm just not talking to you anymore."

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get the same points across yelling and throwing things at me," Rebecca chuckled.

Rosetta shook her head in exasperation.

Luna grimaced as she brought some fruit over to her plate. "It seems my wayward mistake continues to be vile in her behavior even after release from her imprisonment and ceasing to be a Dreamwarden."

"Sha'am Maut is alive?" Jessica asked in disbelief.

"I wouldn't call her alive, per se. It's complicated," Rebecca answered, then shoved a biscuit in her mouth and talked around it–surprisingly well. "I think what she threatened is pretty drastic and evil, but I can kinda see where she's coming from. It will be fine and won't come to that. She may be bluffing. She is no longer required to be honest, and the farm workers would never allow her to get near him if she had that intent. They would know instantly that she meant to harm him and wouldn't let her near."

"Let's not get distracted worrying about her threats," Phobia said. "She's derailing my plans, but I'm not going to risk Moses's life by calling her bluff, not that Sha'am ever bluffed. She wins and gets her way–that settles the matter. Let's not discuss it further." Rosetta put a wing over Phobia's back and gave her a comforting nuzzle. It was rare for Phobia to display much emotion, but the Warden of Fear was very clearly pissed off.

"Is no one going to tell me how Sha'am Maut is back?" Jessica asked.

"No-pe!" Rebecca said, popping her lips.

"She has no access to the dream realm and is no longer a Dreamwarden, so don't worry about her," Phobia said with a note of finality. She then got up from her seat and flew away. Rosetta followed after her a moment later. Wallace took off on hoof in the general direction they had fled.

Rebecca chomped into a pancake. "She'll be back; give her a few minutes. She's just mad, hurt, feeling betrayed, all that kinda stuff, and needs to blow off some steam. Maybe cry without us seeing. Rosetta is all the company she needs or wants right now."

Luna looked out where Phobia had retreated. "And if you are wrong, and she decides she needs more time than that and heads home instead?"

Rebecca shrugged. "Then we respect her by giving her space and don't bother her. She doesn't need to be here to see us off. She was only doing that as a courtesy. We do need to wait, though; we're still missing two of our crew members. Jonathan and Ashley aren't here yet, and that ship isn't going anywhere without them. I checked in on them earlier; they're stuck in traffic–some bozo truck driver didn't properly secure their cargo and dumped a huge industrial-sized tractor into the middle of the Interstate. I know somebody is getting fired. Anyway, people are having to make a huge detour through roads not meant to handle that volume of traffic, so things are moving at a crawl."

"So, we just wait?" Jessica asked.

"Finish eating all this good food; then we'll go take a tour of our starship, the S.S. Dolphin III," Rebecca said, then scarfed down another pancake. She wasn't using silverware. She just lowered her head and gobbled up her food like a fat goose.

"Three? What happened to one and two?" Luna asked.

Rebecca swallowed her food. "Olimar crashed them."

"Who is Olimar?" Jessica asked.

Rebecca tilted her head. "He's a video game character from Pikmin. Am I the only one here who has played a video game?"

Jessica crossed her arms. "I've never had time for stuff like that. I couldn't waste time goofing off."

The fat pegasus raised a hoof high. "Those who don't take time for goofing off will surely take time later to be throwing up. No wonder you're a bundle of nerves. You should play more video games; it's good for your health."

"Why did you choose to name it off something in a video game?" Luna asked curiously.

"Well, I thought about naming it the S'more, but I don't want to be a melted Marshmallow and didn't want to give fate any ideas. Then I considered naming it The Voyager, but that had bad omens about getting trapped in the wrong galaxy. Then I considered The Magic Seeker, but you know what else is a magic seeker–Devourers, so that was all kinds of bad juju. I considered Sugar Star and Cotton Candy, but then I thought those would make me hungry. Then I thought about the Eternal Spring because that sounded nice, but then I realized that it rhymed with eternal dream, and I was not taking that chance. After that, I considered Millennium Enterprise, combining Millenium Falcon and Enterprise, but after I mentioned in passing that I might name something that, my best friend said I was poaching from her fanfiction and wanted financial compensation for that. The OMMR wouldn't approve the payout."

"So, you named it after a ship a video game character repeatedly crashed into a planet?" Russell asked, sounding baffled.

Rebecca blinked. "You know, now that you mention it, that sounds like bad omens too. Hey, Ulga, can these guys do a quick paint job over the name?"

"You could name it Starswirl's Hope," Luna suggested. "My old master spent many nights gazing at the sky and confided in me he would love to have traveled to the stars."

Jessica groaned. "It's just a name. You can call it Shippy McShipface, and it would still serve its purpose. We don't need to rename it."

"I like The Orca," one of the military ponies said.

Everyone looked at him.

"If we're giving out suggestions," the pony said unabashedly.

Rebecca laughed and pointed. "Smiley, I knew I liked you! And it wasn't just your name, but, um, no, I don't want to call it that, but thanks for the suggestion! I guess we're sticking with Dolphin III. Olimar always ended up getting home, and so shall we."

"I'm still shocked the obvious red herring turned out to be the Dreamwarden," the human army officer whispered to Smiley.

Rebecca climbed up on the table and spread her wings wide. "Everybody, eat, socialize, and relax!" Rebecca shouted. "For those of us going on this mission and those waiting worriedly for their loved ones' return, this may be our last chance for a few days to feel relaxed. We go forth into places long ago devastated by the Devourers to find ways of combating them. It shall be a melancholy affair to see what once was. Take this time to remember what we are protecting and savor the joy of each others' company and this good food. Life is worth living, and it is worth living with joy, good food, companionship, and wonder. We shall not let the Devourers win again. We shall not despair. We shall not perish. We will laugh. We will dream. We will win. I salute you all. Now, eat!"

Jessica politely clapped, and everyone else either clapped or stomped their hooves as Rebecca got back down from the table after delivering her address–a surprisingly serious one, considering who had been giving it. Rebecca was not known for taking a serious tone. Jessica knew that Rebecca could be very serious in private, and even though her upbeat and carefree attitude was her nature, it was deliberately exaggerated to boost the morale of those around her. The fact that the Marshmallow gave a somewhat serious address was more powerful a message than how the short speech was worded.

A farm worker came and set an enormous bowl of apples on the table directly between Rebecca and Luna. The Equestrian Dreamwarden and Earthling Dreamwarden both eyed the bowl greedily. After locking their lips in anticipation, they both reached for it simultaneously, looked at one another, and then reluctantly took a single fruit each. Jessica gathered some pancakes onto her plate as she watched and listened to the two.

Luna bit into her apple and spoke around it as she looked at Rebecca. "I believe this is our first opportunity to sit down together without your siblings since you became a Dreamwarden. We haven't had time to talk casually to one another. How is Dreamwarden life treating you?"

They both finished their apples at the same time, and they each reached for another. The human army officer tried getting one, and both Rebecca and Luna glared at him. He timidly but quickly retreated.

"Well, lately, the others have been giving me much more work to do, and I prefer to be doing my own thing," Rebecca said around a mouthful of apple.

Luna finished her apple at the same time as Rebecca, and both grabbed another.

"You were chosen to be the friendly face of the Dreamwardens," Luna replied with a full mouth. "Dearest Phobia was the face, and still is, but she gets such a bad reputation for her association with nightmares."

"Except for on Halloween; everyone loves her on Halloween," Rebecca said as she finished her apple and went for another. Both she and Luna went for the same one before awkwardly moving on to others. "I suppose slowly becoming the face of a holiday is a lot of work I don't want, so she can have it. The most annoying things about being a Dreamwarden for me are not getting to have time for my dreams and knowing way too much about what goes on in ponies' heads."

Luna chewed her apple and swallowed. "It sounds like someone needs to take their advice about relaxing. I understand the feeling concerning knowing too much. Over the years, I have become accustomed to only tending to nightmares and avoiding looking at most other dreams. I fear what I may see. Even during my exile, when it was my only way of interacting with others, I avoided most dreams, and my sister's nightmares I still only tend when they are especially bad." Luna glanced at Russell. "I envy you finding a partner who you don't have to fear the thoughts of."

Russell blinked. "I know Dreamwardens inherit things from previous Dreamwardens. I've always been curious about what Rebecca inherited from you."

Rebecca shoved another apple into her mouth. "I don't have a clue."

Luna grabbed another apple. "It is a mystery."

Jessica tried her luck at grabbing one of the last two remaining apples and immediately got death glares from the pair. She slowly pulled her hand back without taking anything.

One of the farm workers who had been tending the table bent down next to Ulga. Jessica decided to focus her listening on them.

"A human man, a unicorn mare, and night pony mare have entered the property through the gate. They had a key card," the farm worker whispered.

"That must be the missing parts of the crew, although it is one more than expected," Ulga replied. "How is Moses doing at school?"

"They are teaching us multiplication tables. The teacher is dull. We are falling asleep," the farm worker answered.

Ulga sighed. "Moses will need extra time practicing tonight if he falls asleep."

"We just shook our head to wake ourselves. We don't want extra homework," the farm worker answered.

Ulga smiled. "Good. Now, where is Patches?"

"Hiding in the tall grass. We are watching the strangers eat. You said to keep out of sight; we are doing as we are told. We want to come out and play with the strangers," the farm worker answered.

"Stay put, Patches," Ulga whispered urgently.

Jessica looked over at the tall grass near the house and focused her hearing. There was no heartbeat there, no breathing. There were insects out there, plenty of them, but there was no sign of–

She spotted something moving in the grass, but there were no sounds that should be coming from a pony. Was Patches another one of these golems? Ulga did seem to be talking to her through the farm worker. She'd also been talking to her son. Was he a construct, too?

Rebecca gave Jessica a kick in the shoulder. "Hey! Stop trying to spy on Patches. She's behaving herself, but she won't if she thinks you've spotted her. She'll take that as her permission to come play, and I don't want people freaking out when they see her. It would hurt her feelings and lead to me having way too many explanations to make."

Jessica looked at Rebecca. "What's going on with her and these farm workers? You know how good my hearing is. You know what I'm not hearing. You had to know I'd notice."

"I'll tell you later, in private," Rebecca assured her. "For right now, let it go and eat. The apples are delicious."

Jessica looked at the empty bowl. "You and Luna ate all the apples."

"The farmhands can pick more apples."

"Are you and Luna going to let anyone else have one if they do?"

"I make no promises. They're good apples." Rebecca turned and looked at Luna. "If the farmhands get more apples, will you let anyone else have any?"

Luna's ears perked. "There are more apples?"

Rebecca looked back at Jessica. "No, that's not happening. I'm surprised I got the ones I got. I think Luna's got a problem when it comes to fruit."

"Lies and slander!" Luna shouted. She then looked at the high grass. "You, come out of the grass. Let me see why the Marshmallow is so intent on hiding you. I already know there is necromancy at work here."

Necromancy? As in bringing the dead back to life? That's what was going on here?! Jessica suddenly felt ill as she realized there had been a zombie sitting inches from her face as she slept.

All the farm workers paused and took several steps back, clearly afraid. It was the first real emotion they had shown.

"Don't hurt her. Don't hurt any of them. They do no one harm," Ulga pleaded. "If you hurt them, you may hurt my son."

Luna continued to stare impassively at the grass. "We have commanded you to show thyself. Present yourself at once."

"She's slipping into formal court-speak; that's not good," Rebecca muttered, then increased her volume. "She's not going to come out. Look at the farm workers. They are afraid. She might not understand why, but she knows what they are feeling. You have to be terrifying to her right now. I can only imagine what this is doing to Moses because he can tell when something's up. I know Equestria has harsh laws against necromancy, and I know we brought Sha'am back a few times, and she's…well, Sha'am, but this isn't Equestria. This place is under Dreamwarden protection."

"We shall not violate your peace," Luna said, still using the royal we. "Little one, reveal thyself. We promise no ill fate shall befall you."

The grass rustled, and a tiny pony emerged from the grass, causing gasps from the military officers. Her fur was a patchwork of multiple colors, with visible stitches separating each color and along each joint. Her ears seemed to have been sewn on as well. Her tail was a long gray thing without any fur whatsoever and had bone visible in some of its segments, and her face was missing both flesh and fur along part of her mouth, revealing her teeth and the bone which they are socketed into.

Luna looked upon the stitched creature after briefly flashing a look of disgust but quickly making her face neutral. "Come closer. Do not be afraid. We wish to see your movement."

Patches advanced cautiously, clearly afraid she would still be struck down. The farm workers all looked extremely tense, as did Ulga and Rebecca. Everyone else was still shocked and horrified as the undead creature approached.

"That is close enough," Luna said when Patches was two meters from the table. "Tell us, are you in pain?"

"No, we don't hurt," Patches said. "We don't want to go back to sleep. Don't put us back to sleep. We like being awake. We like meeting new friends. We like seeing things. We like feeling things. We like hearing things. We like to play."

Luna's gaze remained impassive. "What were you before you occupied this body?"

Patches tilted her head. "We don't understand. We were us."

"What is the earliest thing you remember?" Luna clarified.

Patches shook her head in distress. "We don't understand."

Rebecca hopped down from the table and placed herself in front of Patches. "You aren't going to get answers by asking those questions. Patches doesn't comprehend sequences of events well, especially if you ask her to think back more than a few days. Let me help." Rebecca turned and looked at Patches with a smile. "Hey, Patches. This is kinda scary, isn't it?"

Patches nodded. "Yes."

Rebecca reached a wing around the creature, fearlessly hugging it. "Don't worry; I'll protect you." She released the filly and looked her in the eyes. "Tell the big pony about what you remember when you were alone, things that happened without Moses. Tell her about the time you weren't a we but instead a me. Do you understand?"

Patches seemed to perk up and nodded more enthusiastically. "Oh! We understand now! Big pony will be happy if we tell her that?"

"That's what the big pony wants," Rebecca answered.

The patchwork filly sat down. "I felt warm. I moved around in warm. I found more who were warm and they were happy. Me and others played together to see who could get the most warm. Many, many getting warm and happy. Sometimes, I did not get as warm as others, then I get sad, then colder. Sometimes others get sad and colder, but they get warm later, and things are better."

"What did you look like?" Luna asked.

Patches tilted her head. "We don't understand."

"What did the others look like?" Luna tried instead.

Patches cringed down, and her ears flattened. "We don't understand. Is Big Pony going to be mad?"

Rebecca sighed. "You're asking her a question she can't answer, Luna. She was a simple magical creature of our infant universe, something we would have difficulty fathoming. The type of creature she was had no sense of sight, smell, hearing, or time, and its sense of touch was extremely primitive. It understood its world through temperature, emotion, and magic. It didn't understand concepts like hunger, fear, or anger. She didn't even fully understand birth, growth, and death. These are all things Patches learned through Moses and her experiences since she was created. She isn't malevolent. She is curious and revels in experiencing new things. She is very simple because she is still learning how to process all these things, and she wants to know about them. What she came into his body knowing is what was imparted to her by a four-year-old colt, and that's the lens through which she experiences and learns. She's a child, Moses is a child, and I protect kids."

Luna nodded. "I share your passion, Rebecca, and can only imagine that passion has grown with each generation of Dreamwarden that followed after me if the individual cared deeply for the young. Even Sha'am Maut stayed her cruelty to those under a certain age and showed foals her rarely-seen kindness. I shall do her and the colt that created her no harm. I had concerns, but I see they are unnecessary." Luna's look hardened as she looked at the nearest farm worker. "These creatures I'm not as confident about. The rate and scale at which Moses makes these things is exceptionally troublesome. It is long forgotten, but there was an era on my world before ponies where creatures such as these were used to commit unspeakable atrocities. I personally banned such magic in Equestria for a reason. To see it here, guided by one who shares a soul with Sha'am, unsettles me."

"Sha'am was a monster because she experienced nothing but cruelty and loss, so that's all she learned," Rebecca asserted. "Moses is our chance to do things right. We shall show him love, affection, trust and do everything to give him a good life. Yes, he can make zombies, but they protect him and keep his more horrific powers in check. He would have no chance of a good life without those powers being in check."

Luna looked around. "My understanding was it takes but one of these to curb his other powers. There is a small army here."

One of the farm workers stepped forward and pointed at Patches. "If it protects us, all of us but this one can go once more to sleep. This would add to Ulga's burden in caring for us and this farm, but we shall if it is what's needed. Would this satisfy you, dread queen?"

Luna looked around, considering. "I shall not ask that of you right now, but I must insist, no more. There are more than enough here to run this farm and guard Moses. Give him no more aid in making these creatures."

Jessica's ears twitched as she heard a car approaching. That must be their missing crew members. They would be confused when they got out and saw this standoff.

Rebecca looked around. "I'll see we give him access to no more bodies. He'll have to make do with what is already here. You are right; he has plenty."

Luna relaxed. "Then I am satisfied, for now. I shall monitor this place from afar and give it no trouble unless it gives us a legitimate reason to act against it."

The farm workers and Ulga relaxed at last. Patches, seemingly noticing the reduction of tension, perked up and wagged her bony tail like a dog.

"Can we play now?" Patches asked as if her existence hadn't just been on the line.

Jessica shook her head. She was glad she was done having to deal with the Dreamwardens after this trip. This kind of stuff was insane, and she was eager to have a normal life.

Chapter 25: And Away We Go!

The passengers got out of the car. Jessica immediately recognized Phobia's daughter, Charlotte, in army fatigues. The unicorn mare with the scarred face she vaguely remembered from Rebecca's wedding but couldn't place. She had no idea who the lanky man wearing glasses was.

Rebecca did a clumsy flight over to them and landed. "Jonathan! Ashley! You made it. And you brought Charlotte along for some reason. Um, why are you here, Charlotte?"

Charlotte stood at attention. "Dreamwarden Marshmallow, I am Major Charlotte Martinez, reporting here to replace First Lieutenant Sky Shark, ma'am. General Wilson decided to make a last-minute change in the assignment, ma'am."

The pegasus army officer gasped in shock. "But I was specially chosen-"

Charlotte glared at him. "Orders are orders, Lieutenant. I don't want to be here either. I was taken away from what I felt was a more important mission for this, but I'm here, obeying what came from the chain of command. You are to report to Camp Merrill within twenty-four hours for debriefing; until then, you are on leave–enjoy it."

Rebecca tilted her head. "Major? I'm not well-acquainted with army ranks, but isn't that a little high for someone who recently got out of boot camp? Last I heard, you were a Captain."

"I was promoted just yesterday. I'm the youngest to achieve the rank in US Army history," Charlotte replied, not seeming cocky about it, only stating a fact. "As the highest-ranking officer among the military assigned to this mission, I will take command of them."

"I'm in command of this mission," Rebecca protested.

Charlotte didn't even blink. She just went back to attention. "My soldiers will take command from me, and I shall take command from you. The proper chain of command is in place."

Rebecca rolled her eyes and her neck. "Fine. In that case, you can relax with all the formal puffed-up army stuff; that's an order. It messes with my groove. Yinyu says people in the army are like dicks, they always stand at attention, but I don't mind if you all go limp."

Charlotte instantly relaxed and smiled. "The army doesn't want a bunch of limp dicks. Does your husband know you prefer limp dicks?"

"Oh, he knows I like him very unlimp. Don't mess with my metaphor," Rebecca said with a smile. "By the way, you just missed your mothers. They might be back before we come back. I'll be sure to share your lovely comments with them. Although, I know you prefer dicks to be limp around you."

Charlotte shrugged. "Can't argue that point. Oh, you don't have to give me a Dreamwarden contract to secrecy. My mom did that with me regarding this place a year ago. General Wilson also continues to be unaware of your identity, and I have a Dreamwarden contract binding me to keep your secret, so another contract won't be needed."

"I can check that shortly, but good to know," Rebecca said. "Well, get something to drink and all that. We will be leaving shortly. Let me talk to Jonathan and Ashley real fast."

Charlotte approached the table and took Rebecca's vacated seat beside Jessica. Luna left and went to talk with Rebecca and the others.

Jessica took a sip of her drink and looked at her friend. "A few months out of boot camp and already a Major? How did you manage that? I didn't think that was possible."

Charlotte shrugged as she grabbed a pitcher of apple juice and Rebecca's glass with her wings. "You know my cutie mark. I was born to serve in the army. As for what earned me my promotions, that's classified."

Jessica did know Charlotte's mark, even if it was currently covered by her uniform–a heart in army camouflage. Still, it seemed very odd that Charlotte had been promoted so fast. Charlotte had only joined the military in May, straight out of high school. What classified missions could possibly earn her promotions that fast?

Charlotte filled the glass and looked at the other army officers, including the dejected-looking pegasus. "What are you puke stains looking at? You heard the Dreamwarden. She wants no puffed-up army bullshit. You may speak freely."

"You're the Warden of Fear's daughter?" Smiley asked in disbelief.

Charlotte's face hardened. "Lieutenant, you will address me as Major, Major Martinez, or Sir! We aren't going that casual, piss-for-brains."

Smiley looked down. "Very sorry, sir. I mean no disrespect, sir."

Charlotte spat on the ground. "My parentage is of no concern of yours. If my mother was a mare that got fucked by a rabid dog, or a Dreamwarden's wife, it is all the same. Don't ask me about it."

"Yes, sir. Understood, sir," Smiley replied.

Charlotte was always a fighter with a lot of ego and pride, along with a chip on her shoulder for constantly being referenced as the Warden of Fear's daughter. Jessica had seen little of Charlotte these last few years–primarily just the eighteenth birthday parties of her friends and Sunset Blessing's family reunion. Charlotte had been more withdrawn during them, shadowing her twin sister and looking unhappy every moment in it. How much resentment did the younger of the twins harbor?

"I haven't gotten to see Arachne's baby yet. Is your niece cute?" Jessica asked.

Charlotte took a sip of her drink. "I haven't met Madison yet. I feel sorry for her, having my sister for a mother."

Jessica frowned. "That isn't a nice thing to say about your sister. She's your family, loves you."

"I know that," Charlotte replied. "My sister tried to get into the army base while I was there. Can you imagine that? Trying to sneak onto a military base while pregnant? Bitch has no regard for the welfare of her kid."

Jessica blinked in confusion. "Why was she trying to sneak onto the military base?"

"Because they told her she couldn't come in," Charlotte answered.

"Why was she even trying to get into the base?" Jessica asked, annoyed Charlotte was being evasive.

Charlotte scowled. "I broke my wing during an exercise; it hurt worse than anything I ever felt. She knew it happened as soon as it happened and wanted to get to me. Well, she knew something happened to cause me excruciating pain. That was enough to bring her."

"Doesn't seem like that much of a bitch if she was that worried about you," Jessica said.

"You don't understand what it's like to have a twin. Arachne and I hate each other, but we also love each other and are closer than anyone else," Charlotte said with a shake of her head. "It's like we're part of each other. Maybe there's some magic to sharing a womb, but if one of us is hurt, we know. We know where each other are. I could point in a direction right now and know I'm right about where she is. I fucking knew the instant she was in labor; nobody had to tell me. Maybe this trip will let me get far enough away from her to stop feeling her."

Jessica looked at her friend in disbelief. "Feeling each other's pain? That doesn't make sense. You two used to kick the crap out of each other while training with Tempest."

Charlotte nodded. "Yep, we could never lie to each other about how much it hurt when we got a good blow in." She took another sip of her juice.

The table shook as Patches suddenly jumped up on it. Jessica, Russell, and all the military officers, save Charlotte, jumped from their seats.

"Hello, Patches," Charlotte drolled.

Patches started jumping on the table. "Miss Charlotte! You came to visit us! Look at how they jumped! We can jump, too! See us jump. Jump! Jump! Jump!"

"You are the most adorable little monster," Charlotte said as she took another sip of her drink. "Please, stop jumping on the table. You'll knock the juice pitcher off. That would be bad."

Patches stopped jumping. "Can we play a game? We learned how to play tic-tac-toe."

"Wow, you're getting smarter. Next thing you know, you'll figure out checkers," Charlotte complimented. "Sorry, no time, kiddo. Me and the gang are going on a trip soon, but it was good to see you again. I saw some butterflies on my way here. Why don't you go catch one?"

Patches jumped off the table and took off towards the grass. "Butterflies!"

Charlotte took another sip of her drink as the others took a seat. "She's easy enough to distract. You can suggest she do anything, and she'll take off to do it, happy as a clam. It isn't something that should be done too much. Do it too much, and she'll eventually figure out what people are doing. The Dreamwardens think she's an eternal child, but after spending a lot of time occupying her during my mom's visits, I can confidently say she's not. She can reason and learn; it just takes a while. She won't be mentally a little kid forever. It might take her longer than Moses to grow up, but she'll get there–at least in terms of reasoning. She may even start thinking of herself as an independent entity from Moses at some point. I hope she stays sweet by the time she does. These zombies don't sleep, so the Dreamwardens underestimate their capabilities."

"And have you told your mom or the other Dreamwardens about your concerns?" Jessica asked.

"Yes, and they see it as a problem for another day," Charlotte answered. "They are so sure that if Moses is good, all his creations will be too, and if they aren't, he can just get rid of them. I suppose that might be true, but I wonder if he'd be reluctant to, even if he knew he should. I am just speaking as someone who shares a bond with a monster. I know what Arachne is, and I don't mind roughing her up, even enjoy it, but I could never seriously hurt her. I think Moses is the same. He could never destroy these zombies; they're part of him."

Jessica crossed her arms. "Arachne isn't that bad. She's your sister and my friend. I think you have some twisted sibling rivalry with her."

Charlotte shook her head. "My mama and little brother say the same thing to me, but I know Arachne has changed over the years. I'm the one who had a front-row seat to it. If you think Arachne is a good pony or still your foalhood friend, you're fooling yourself."

"And what does Phobia say?" Jessica asked.

The night pony grimaced. "Mama and my brother might defend Arachne, but Mom keeps her opinion to herself. She says nothing or gives evasive answers, which means she isn't as blinded by family love as the rest of you. Be wary of my sister. She might not be dangerous while she's trying to gather power and influence, but someday, when she has that power and influence, she's going to be, and the only ones who she won't hurt if it gets her what she wants are me, our mothers, Moon, and maybe Madison–maybe. You, our other friends, even her husband, she couldn't give a damn about."

Jessica didn't want to believe Charlotte. Arachne was part of her core group of friends. Charlotte seemed paranoid about many potential threats around her. However, she didn't have the same insights as Charlotte. Charlotte and Arachne were inseparable growing up and knew each other better than anyone else ever could. It could all be in Charlotte's head, but it could be true.

Rebecca walked over and spread her wings. "Okay! Grab your luggage. I hope you all enjoyed the food because it's time for us to board the S.S. Dolphin III! We're going to Jeg'galla'gamp'pi!"

The bunker was hidden deep underground and reached by a hidden elevator. It was hard to say precisely how far the elevator descended since there only seemed to be one floor to reach, which was reached in a little less than a minute, and the elevator didn't feel to be moving any faster or slower than any other elevator Jessica had ever boarded. It took the elevator two trips to get them all down since there were too many of them to board at once. Jessica was on the second trip.

After exiting the elevator, she found herself in a giant hollowed-out cavern. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all stone and were uneven and jagged in spaces. The only wall that wasn't stone was housing the elevator, which was boarded over by wood. Power cables came out of slots in the wood to various lights hanging from scaffolding installed into the ceiling, and a separate powerline ran down to what looked like some sort of command system close to where they exited. However, the most eye-catching thing was the object that filled most of the cavern.

The S.S. Dolphin III, easily recognizable by the name painted on its side, looked like a giant metal cube with a few protruding engines on each side. There was what seemed to be a band of glass windows that ran around the center of the cube like a belt that revealed the bridge and what looked like living quarters. If she had to hazard a guess without actually measuring the object, she guessed it was approximately twenty by twenty by twenty meters, the belt floor was about four meters in height, and each of the engines, if they were engines, and of which there were six on each side with what appeared to be the ability to swivel about, were around two meters in length. A bay door was open on the bottom that she estimated to be three by three meters. Several farm workers were standing around the area, not seeming to be doing anything.

Rebecca spread her wings wide again. "Welcome to your home for the next few days. The Dolphin III can resist almost any temperature you throw at it unless we try going into a star or get fired on by Devourers. It can move…I'm not sure how fast, but fast enough while being able to slow down and stop on a dime. It only needs a crew of three to operate, provided one of those members is an alicorn to power the thing, but it can house a crew of up to twenty. It can carry one-hundred-twenty-thousand kilograms of cargo and crew without interfering with its ability to move around and land, although I'm sure we won't be carrying that much. There's a bridge, several living quarters, a kitchen, and a large cargo hold. We have plenty of space suits that are adjustable in size–within limits, and magnetic boots, should we need to get out and repair something in space–which we hopefully won't need to do. We will also be carrying ten backup engines if anything happens to any of ours–that's the minimum number of engines we have to have operational if we want to move around. The ship can detach broken engines and allow us to install fresh ones easily. The ship's hull is a real tank and can withstand collisions with meteors or smaller asteroids without taking any damage–the engines are a bit more vulnerable to that kind of stuff, but that's why we have backups. Those windows aren't glass; they're a special element we had to synthesize. They are just as strong as the hull, which is also a synthetic element. It cost taxpayers a lot of money to make this thing, even if it is just missing money in the military spending that auditors can't find. Still, you'd be shocked how much money has always just ended up missing without explanation with the military, so no one bats an eye. Still, show it some respect for being a very expensive thingamabob. Keep it clean and tidy. We promised to give this thing to the military after we're done with it, even if they don't have an alicorn to power it. Maybe they'll work something out. There's some creative ways they might power it for missions in our solar system or something."

"Who's doing the repairs if we need that?" Charlotte asked.

"You guys!" Rebecca announced, "Don't worry; you don't have to have special training; you just have to follow instructions. We shouldn't need to do any repairs, even if an engine or two goes down for some reason. We only brought all those engines as a precaution. Plan for the worst-case scenario, even if it isn't likely to happen. Expect not to be doing much before we reach Jeg'galla'gamp'pi. Jonathan, Ashley, and Luna will handle getting the ship from place to place. In the meantime, you can sit by a window and enjoy the view. Just enjoy the fact you're in a far-off galaxy where no man or pony has gone before. My best friend would flip her lid at a chance to be here–big Star Trek nerd."

Jessica pointed at the farm workers. "Why aren't we using these guys for that? You said this craft could carry a much larger crew, and I assume they are already familiar with it. Plus, forgive me for being pragmatic; wouldn't it be better to have them space-walking than living people?"

Rebecca blew a wet raspberry with her tongue. "Do you want a ship full of rotting corpses doing nothing? That's what would happen if we brought them. They must stay within a certain range of Moses, or his power fails. It's a pretty significant range. He's in school in Skytree proper right now, and that's miles away, but another galaxy is a bit further than that, and we aren't bringing an eight-year-old along on the trip. Ulga would smack us all silly! Don't underestimate her ability to smacky-smack just because she's blind. You don't want to get on the wrong side of a mother protecting her kid."

"What do we do now?" Luna asked. "I haven't been briefed on exactly how this ship works. I just know I'm powering it."

"Ashley will be casting the spell, and you'll be using a crystal to supply her spell with power. It interacts with the ship's computer to get us to the right coordinates. We'll need another round of power for each teleport," Rebecca explained. "You'll give another crystal a jolt of power, and it will give the ship enough power to operate its thrusters, life support, artificial gravity, lights, sensors, and all that for the duration of the trip–we should probably do that first, having lights, power, climate control, gravity, and oxygen is nice. Jonathan can pilot the ship after that. Jess, you'll need to give Jonathan the data so he can plug it into the ship. We need to know where we're going."

"We're all going to die," one of the military officers said.

"You're out of line, soldier!" Charlotte snapped.

"Sir, yes, sir!"

Charlotte gave Rebecca a salute with a wing. "Sorry, my men are not used to your…eccentricities, ma'am. I'll see to it they understand not to question your judgment."

Rebecca sighed and looked at the soldiers. "Anybody can question my judgment who wants to; my bodyguards always do. I might disagree with what you say, and I may not explain why, but I have access to more knowledge than you would believe. However, that knowledge doesn't always make me right, so if you are worried, don't be afraid to say something–I do listen, and you may have a point. I know I'm a lot to deal with. I like to keep things light-hearted with my silly antics, but I assure you, I know what I'm doing, and even when I'm acting like a fool, remember that it is an act. I'll do everything possible to ensure this mission goes off without a hitch and get us all home safely. I'm a Dreamwarden; I don't lie."

Charlotte looked at the soldiers. "If you have concerns, you'll address them to me, and I will address them to Dreamwarden Marshmallow. I'm not just your senior officer; I'm an expert in dealing with Dreamwardens; that's why I'm here. I know the behavior patterns, motivations, and general thought processes of each of them. Dreamwarden Marshmallow told you a straight truth; she acts like a fool, but you would be a fool to think she is one. Many of your concerns I can address without having to trouble Dreamwarden Marshmallow and distracting her with worries born out of ignorance of Dreamwardens. Understood?"

The three officers stood at attention. "Sir, yes, sir!"

Rebecca rolled her eyes. "Oh! My groove! So brutalized. Anyway, let's get on board and get moving. You can explore the ship after we leave. The only ones who need to be on the bridge are Jonathan, Ashley, and Luna. I'm going to be there…because I want to be there and because I should probably be in a position to give directions on what to do, but the rest of you keep to other areas of the ship. Jess, data, now, please and thank you."

Jessica already had the flash drive in her pocket, and she passed it to Jonathan, who silently mouthed a quick thank you.

Rebecca waved a wing. "Follow me."

They went down a short flight of stairs to the bedrock below and followed the chubby pegasus to the bay door. She entered a code on the large panel. Several sounds continued for a few seconds before the bay door slid open, revealing a tiny chamber and another door.

"Everybody pack in. The outer door closes when I enter this next code, and the inner door only opens after the outer has shut," Rebecca explained. "There will be a delay while you feel some air blowing, then the next door opens. It has to stabilize the air pressure each time. There's one more chamber and door like this after this one. Then we'll be in the cargo hold."

It was a tight fit, getting everyone in each time, and it was a little tedious. Still, it was necessary to ensure they were safe when going on and off the ship in space, so Jessica wouldn't complain. When they finally reached the cargo hold, they were in a large room with metal crates pushed up against the walls, stacked on each other. There was what looked like a mini-forklift with a claw, which she assumed was for moving the crates. There was an elevator with a spiral staircase close to the center of the room that ascended to an opening in the ceiling. LED light panels in the ceiling provided light. There was a set of lockers with helmets stacked on a shelf beside them.

"Some of these crates have our replacement engines; there's a few others with supplies, but most are empty," Rebecca explained. "Space suits are in the lockers. When we go upstairs, we'll be in the common area, which has a small kitchen surrounded by quarters for all of us and the entrance to the bridge. The stairs and elevator continue up to a third floor, which is where all the ship's systems are. We shouldn't have to go up to the third floor unless there is a problem, and we shouldn't have a problem. In fact, don't go up to the third floor unless you're told to; that way, you can't accidentally mess something up. Our goal is no problems!"

"So, what now?" Jessica asked.

"Luna, Jonathan, Ashley, and I are going to the bridge and getting this show on the road!" Rebecca said happily. "The rest of you can pick out quarters, hang out in the common area, or just sit here if you like. Don't eat any of the food yet. We need to ration it. Also, when we teleport, you might feel a brief moment of disorientation."

"Fall out, but stay on this floor until teleport is confirmed," Charlotte told the soldiers. "We aren't fighting the flight crew for the elevator, and we aren't getting caught feeling disoriented on the staircase when this place relocates. We don't need to rush to our quarters."

"Yes, sir!" the soldiers chorused. Jessica rolled her eyes. That was getting very tiresome, and she was sure Charlotte was doing it on purpose.

However, Jessica had to agree with Charlotte's reasoning. She had no interest in getting dizzy or sick while climbing that narrow staircase, especially if she was carrying luggage. She picked a corner, put her back to some crates, and set her bags beside her. She saw the soldiers do the same as the flight crew boarded the elevator. Then, the waiting began.

Charlotte wandered over to her and sat down. "How's Jordan doing? I heard my Grandma talked her into taking Wabash. I never saw Jordan as a pony living in a big mansion. She struck me as someone who would end up in some suburban home, probably with half a dozen kids."

"Half a dozen in a suburban home?" Jessica asked skeptically.

Charlotte shrugged. "They can double up in rooms."

Jessica chuckled. "Well, she at least has somewhere to fit half a dozen now, with them all getting their own rooms. Honestly, I think all the rules and restrictions for the place has are driving her up the wall, and she's lonely. Maybe it will turn around soon. She's having an auction later today to try to clean the rooms out and buy stuff that fits her."

"Grandma offered me the place. I laughed in her face," Charlotte said with a grin. "I'm not spending my life in a gilded cage. Plus, I want out of the shadow of all the big names in the family. It's hard to get out of that shadow if I accept expensive gifts from them."

"You don't hate your mom, aunt, and grandma, do you?" Jessica asked, worried about the answer.

Charlotte shook her head. "Nah, I don't hate them. Mama seems to think I do, no matter how much I tell her I don't. Mama loves being connected to Mom's title and all that's associated with that, so she doesn't get me, or Arachne, for that matter. Mom gets it, but Mom saying anything is counterproductive to my needs because it's her helping me out. I need to be out, doing my thing, and that thing can't be seen as something my mom, my titi, or my grandma gave me or helped me get. I'm actually kind of happy about this assignment taking me away from my previous assignment. I can't say much about it, but it felt like I got it because of my connections. This does, too, but it's my connection to Rebecca, and that's easier than it being family. Does that make sense, or am I just rambling?"

Jessica patted her friend's back. "You aren't just rambling. I get wanting to be the one to write your own narrative of who you are. I've got some identity stuff I'm trying to struggle through right now in terms of how people see me. Jordan seems to be trying to redefine how she's seen as well. I'm sure she'd get you too."

"What's–" Charlotte began.

The lights suddenly flared. Several seconds passed, with them ultra-bright, and nausea set in by the time they dimmed back to normal. The floor might have shook, or maybe it was just Jessica's legs that trembled. She couldn't even focus on what she was hearing; her stomach took too much attention.

She had to crouch down, partly because she wanted to hurl and partly because she didn't trust herself not to fall over.

"Disorienting. That's what she said that was going to be?" Charlotte said, sounding like she wanted to vomit as well. "Frigging Marshmallow and her downplaying everything."

Jessica kept a hand to her belly, waiting for her stomach to settle. "Maybe she didn't know how bad it would be. It's not like they've tested this thing since it needs an alicorn to power it."

Charlotte stretched a wing out to her and shook it. "Don't remind me we're on an untested starship, probably now trillions upon trillions of miles from Earth and anyone who can help us."

Jessica's ears perked. They were in space, far away from Earth. She needed to see. Standing up was a struggle, but she didn't care. She stood up and walked like she was drunk to the elevator.

"Careful! You're going to fall flat on our face!" Charlotte shouted.

"Sir…yes…sir," the soldiers said.

"I'm talking to Jessie, not you two!" Charlotte snapped. "Don't you two fall either. Sit and collect yourselves. I didn't hear anything about there being an infirmary. The last thing we need is one of you dopes falling and spraining something. Don't reply, just sit."

Once in the elevator, it was a simple one-button push to get it moving. When it did, it gave her another jolt of disorientation. It didn't feel like going up a typical elevator at all. Well, they were in space, and she was unsure exactly how the ship's false gravity worked. The difference in gravity could account for how stomach-churning going up one floor ended up being. Maybe she would use the stairs in the future.

The second floor had a wide-open room with a few couches bolted to the floor and a trio of refrigerators. She guessed the refrigerators counted as the kitchen. The staircase continued upward to another floor, but the elevator did not. Three of the walls had three doors a piece, while one wall had but a single larger door that was labeled bridge. There were no decorations. As Rebecca instructed, she decided not to go on the bridge. The band of windows stretched all around the ship, meaning each of these other rooms had to have views to the outside.

She picked one at random and headed towards it. She still had a tiny lingering bit of nausea, but it was fading, and her feet felt more steady. The doors were simple chrome with a handle latch set low on the door–low for a human; they would still be high for a pony. There didn't seem to be any locks on any doors. She turned the handle, and the door opened easily, revealing the room within.

The room was as basic as it could get. There was a modified toilet designed to work in zero gravity, much like the ones on the space stations and shuttles, two metal cots with thin mattresses, and that was it for furnishings. She didn't care about that because the entire wall opposite the door was one big window that looked out into space and right at the system's star, a white dwarf.

Tears filled her eyes as she approached the window and put her hands on it. The white dwarf filled the area with white light, and she couldn't make out any other stars because the star's light drowned them out. Still, it was beautiful, and it was right there. Judging by how big it appeared, they had to be much closer to it than the Earth was to their sun. The bridge would be facing the wrong direction to see this, so she was the first human to look upon a white dwarf from this close a distance. She sat down and let the happy tears flow as she kept her hand pressed against the window, which remained cool to the touch despite being on the side of the ship getting all the star's light.

There was an intercom beep, and Rebecca's cheerful voice chirped over it. "Hey, everybody! I hope you are all recovered from the first jump. Sorry about how it might have made you feel. I hadn't anticipated it would be that bad, so that's on me, and my vomit is all over Jonathan's shoes."

That announcement didn't manage to take the wonder out of this experience for Jessica. No amount of disgusting things could.

"Anyway," Rebecca continued. "Now would be a good time to choose your quarters and get settled. There's enough rooms for everyone to have their own. Don't try to use the toilet until I've explained how; it's a little more complicated than a regular toilet. Once everyone is settled in their rooms, we will do another teleport. Don't worry; this one won't be as bad. We expected it would take two, maybe three teleports to get us to our destination, so there's still no problems other than Jonathan has icky shoes! This first jump got us to the general neighborhood we needed to be in, and we're close enough that our long-range sensors are picking up where there is a lot of thaumic energy–that's Jeg'galla'gamp'pi. It's too far for our engines to get us there if we want to make it in the next five years, but we can luckily teleport the rest of the way. Good job on the calculations, Jess!"

Jess took the praise at face value, knowing it wasn't just her work. She also had known it was unlikely they'd reach Jeg'galla'gamp'pi on the first teleport. That they'd reach it on the second was great news. She had no idea how far the sensors on this ship scanned or how fast its engines could go, so there was no way of her knowing how far off the initial jump was.

"While we're here, I'll be your tour guide," Rebecca continued, "My view of it from the bridge is kinda poor, but if you get to a window and look out our starboard side, you can see a white dwarf–a star, not a Disney one or Lord of the Ring's one. If you look out our port side, you can see some stars, and I'm pretty sure that's a planet in the distance, or at least, that's what I'm getting looking at these sensors–it's huge; it's got a lot of rock and ice, it's round, it seems to be orbiting this star; that sounds like a planet to me. I hereby name that planet Rocky Road because it's rock, it's icy, it's along our road, and I like ice cream. Our rear has just many stars in the far distance and a lot of empty space."

Jessica had heard more ridiculous names for planets and stars. Physics was full of ridiculous terms, especially when you start talking about quarks–charm, down, bottom, top, and strange were all flavors of quarks. If physicists could get away with naming particles that way, Rebecca could call a potential planet Rocky Road.

"So, pick out your room, take in the view, let Jonathan clean up his shoes, and stop giving me dirty looks, and then we'll be on our way again! This time with less vomiting!" Rebecca concluded.

Chapter 26: Next Steps

Jordan looked around the room. All the gaming stuff and furniture had been pushed to the walls, and rows of folding chairs had been set up with a podium and display stand in front of them. The guards had agreed to move things from the other rooms to be put on auction and had a list. They could only have a few items at a time on display, so it would be a regular caravan going up and down the stairs. Amicus and Legal Brief had agreed to help move some things as well. She wasn't sure if the old ponies should be lifting much, but they said they could and wouldn't do it alone.

Andrea walked into the room and glared at all the chairs like they'd personally insulted her.

"I don't like you taking so many of my guards for this," Andrea grumbled. "We are stretched paper-thin on security."

"They're going to be walking all over the place moving things, and some off-duty ones are helping; we have more coverage than we regularly do," Jordan protested.

"They're all distracted," Andrea replied. "Distracted guards make mistakes."

Jordan rolled her eyes. "You're paranoid."

"Paranoia is a qualification for good security," Andrea said dryly. "I'm going to feed the bats, then do another full perimeter check."

Jordan blinked. "Feed the bats? What bats?"

Andrea waved a leg in the vague direction of the backyard. "I've got a bunch of bat feeders set up out back. I've managed to get it to where we get a fair number of them coming by every night. Bats are cool critters and helpful. They spread seeds and pollen from the more exotic flowers on the property, and they keep the bug population under control. We used to have a bad problem with horse flies and mosquitoes around the yard, but I rarely get eaten up by insects anymore, thanks to the bats. I go out there and watch them sometimes. There are a few specific ones that are regulars that I have gotten used to seeing. I like seeing them doing well."

Jordan looked at the old crystal pony in shock. "Grumpy old you has pets?"

"They aren't pets. They're wild animals," Andrea corrected. "Nothing wrong with bats. Your half-sister is part bat. You should understand."

"Night ponies don't like being compared to bats anymore than pegasi like being compared to birds," Jordan reminded her. "Maybe I should get a pet. I've never had a pet."

"Your parents never let you have a pet?" Andrea asked.

Jordan shrugged. "I never asked for one. My free time was taken up by reading, trying to minimize how much my flank got kicked in Tempest's training sessions, and our house was built in the pre-cataclysm style. That kind of house isn't great for pets like dogs."

Andrea gaped. "You mean it was built in the same style as the houses that my sister's shoddy construction methods allowed that disaster to level? I thought those were all destroyed."

"We rebuilt, those of us that stayed, anyway," Jordan replied. "Don't freak out; we used better materials the second time around. Many ponies moved away after the Cataclysm, and those that moved to Skytree afterward built more standard homes, but those of us who stayed wanted something as similar as possible to what we lost, just not made out of crap this time. It felt like everyone in the city pitched in, both humans and ponies. With everyone helping, the old pony district rose again fast. As a thank you, we even built homes for many humans who had risked their lives to get ponies out of there, with a few modifications to make them more comfortable. It may look the same, but it is stronger, and it isn't just a pony district anymore."

"I never heard about that. It's actually kind of inspiring," Andrea said with a smile.

Jordan nodded and looked downward. "Auntie's goals in building Riverview might have been to make a Shimmerist-dominated city, but somewhere along the line, intentional or not, she made something more–a community, one that cared about one another and was proud of what we could do together. We went through the Cataclysm together and rebuilt stronger, both in terms of buildings and how much we looked out for one another. I'm just now realizing how much my home meant to me."

"Old home," Andrea corrected. The elderly pink crystal pony let off a long breath, looking older and tired than usual. "Look, I'm not great at explaining myself. I'm no lawyer who can pick her words carefully like Amicus. I'm not naturally friendly like Sinker. I don't play mind games like Sunset. I'm a simple pony with simple goals. I can tell you aren't happy here, and I take part of the blame for that. I know I've been giving you a hard time, but you should know that I give everybody a hard time. I don't want you to think I hate you because of that. Sunset and I barely made it through a day without snapping at one another, but I never hated her. This is my home. Two of my siblings still live here, my parents are buried here, and the place I spent years raising my kids with my ex-husband ceased to feel like home even before I moved out. I care about my home. Whether I agreed with Sunset's decision to give you this place is irrelevant. You live here now, and that makes you part of this household, part of this community, my community, and I'm only hard on you because I worry about us."

"So, are you going to be nicer to me?" Jordan asked, hopeful that things might turn around.

"No, you dumb fuck!" Andrea snapped. "Are your ears stuffed full of cotton? I just said that I don't get along with anyone. What I also said was I don't hate you and that I worry for you and everyone else in this house. I will be more worried if you can't listen to what's being told. Clean out your ears!"

Andrea then stormed off, muttering to herself about stupid fillies who didn't listen. Jordan was unsure if she would ever understand Auntie Sunset's eldest sister. The old crystal pony was the most thoroughly unpleasant pony she had ever met. Well, no, there were those crystal ponies that had chased her and tried to eat her magic when she was a foal, and then there was Crystal, who had kicked her around during training sessions. Maybe she just needed to avoid crystal ponies. It seemed like crystal ponies had it out for her.

Her phone on her leg started ringing, and she answered it.

"Hello?"

"Miss Gilmore, this is Carmen, your auctioneer. I'm at the gate, but your guards aren't letting me in."

Jordan smiled. "Oh, good, you're here early. Sorry, I don't think the person who set this up ever identified you, so the guards didn't know. I'll just get-"

She didn't feel like chasing Andrea down to have Andrea give the order to let Carmen in. She owned the house; she could give the order herself. She didn't need Andrea to deal with everything. Andrea was paranoid.

"-I'll have the guards let you through," she concluded.

A gray pegasus was working away in the rocky badlands that made up the outskirts of The Oasis. Strewn about him were various notebooks, digging tools designed for ponies, and a flock of birds that were seemingly working together to organize and move some of the lighter tools and materials.

“Alright, gang, let’s get the cataloging done before lunch so the dig team can work on excavating whatever dino they’ve found!” the pegasus cheered to his flock.

To an outsider, it would have seemed like he had a few marbles loose, but anyone who was even remotely active in the ornithology community would know that he was talking to a bunch of birds and was one of the most accomplished scientists in his field… at least out of the last decade. He was one of the few ponies who was known to be able to communicate with animals, but unlike Fluttershy (who was arguably the most well-known animal communicator), Zipper’s special talent was explicitly honed to birds.

This talent gave him a fantastic edge over other ornithologists, and his skills helped pave the way toward a better understanding of avian communication. His theory was that in the aftermath of ETS, birds and other simpler animals somehow gained enhanced intellects. However, the cause and potential ramifications, should there be any, were unknown to anyone. This is what he hoped to help discover.

That was also why his team had slowly become one of the largest privately funded paleontology teams on the West Coast. It was commonly accepted that birds were the descendants of dinosaurs, and it was one of Zipper’s close associates, River Breeze, who had an intense belief that the hard pressing answers on avian evolution lay in the past. Zipper didn’t quite see that, but then again, he wasn’t exactly a master paleontologist, so what did he know?

He simply shrugged at his mental monologue and continued organizing his notes while his bird friends tweeted along in harmony with the music that he was playing.

“Zipper, is it?” A voice said from all around him.

He quickly looked around, trying his best to discern the source of the voice that greeted him.

“Ummm, hello?” He hesitantly asked aloud.

Before his eyes, the shadow he was standing in formed into the shape of a pony. Its features were undiscernable save for the fact that it had webbed wings and glowing red eyes.

Ravenscroft, my old nemesis, Zipper thought to himself, recalling a legend that had been told to him several years ago about the old mining town’s original founder.

Whether it was the ghost of an old dead baron or some mystical protective spirit that guarded the valley from intruders… it didn’t matter. All it took was the sight of an unknown entity walking towards him to make Zipper instinctively assume a defensive stance.

“Who are you?!” he yelled out. “I always knew this place was haunted!”

The shadow quickly cleared to reveal the form of a pony whom Zipper could swear he had seen before in the dream realm but whose name eluded him.

“I’m not a ghost,” the mare calmly replied. “I’m just here to make contact and give you a heads up that some important ponies will be here momentarily to talk to you.” She gestured off into the distance, where Zipper could now see a strange all-terrain vehicle traversing the rocky terrain that made up the Oasis’ outskirts. His pegasus vision also let him spot the lettering on the front.

Zipper’s eyes widened in surprise, and without thinking, he quickly reached down to his gauntlet and hit the speed dial. There was a brief pause, and then he was greeted by a groggy voice on the other end of the line.

“You know you just woke me and Ink up, bird brain,” came the annoyed sigh from Sine Wave.

“Sine, it’s important. I wouldn’t wake you two up if it weren’t,” he frantically said, ignoring the stranger's presence.

His frantic explanation was met with a sigh. “What’s up, hon?”

“The mind magic Five-o are driving towards me!”

“Stay on the line and stay calm; I mean it!” Sine replied. “You still at the dig site?”

“Yeah,” Zipper nodded as the van pulled up.

“We’ll be there ASAP.”

The line clicked off, and Zipper looked back towards the stranger. He sighed and looked away, silently plotting his escape route should things go south. “I always knew you’d get me… didn’t know where, didn’t know when, didn’t know how. If you’re here about my powers, just know that I can’t affect ponies or humans, and the work I’ve done has made some promising strides in understanding avian evolution in a post-ETS world. It doesn’t work on humans or ponies, and I don’t know why you guys are after me!”

The van pulled to a stop, and without so much as a warning, the doors quickly opened, and four people hopped out. Not thinking, Zipper instinctively leaped into the air and began to make his escape.

“You got this one, Josie?” a crystal pony from the group called out.

“Mhmm.” He heard the stranger, apparently Josie, reply back.

He could briefly feel the unmistakable tug of magic draining from him, making his wings feel heavy. Despite this, his adrenaline kicked into high gear, and he pushed past it as much as he could. He suddenly lurched forward, out of the crystal pony’s range. To him, it felt as if someone had cut a rope that was holding him back, and he couldn’t help but smirk and look back at the night pony that was struggling to keep up. He was lucky to have gotten some air and velocity. Night ponies could accelerate in the air quickly, but no night pony could keep up with a pegasus once a pegasus managed to develop some momentum.

“What did I tell you, bird brain?!” Sine’s voice suddenly caught his attention.

He squinted his eyes and looked down, catching sight of both Sine Wave and Ink Rose making their way to him.

“Look, just ease off and let Sine handle this,” he heard Ink Rose say to Josie. Seemingly taking control of the situation, the two night ponies backed off. He slowed and allowed Sine to catch up to him.

“This was incredibly dumb of you! You need to fly back to the site right now!” She scolded, blocking his flight path and forcing him to come to a hover. “For all we know, you’re gonna get hit with some charge for evading arrest now!”

“You two always drilled it into my head that I should never fuck around with these guys!” Zipper retorted.

“Yeah? And you thought flying away from the OMMR was a good idea?!”

Zipper began to slow. “Well… I…” he stammered out. “Look, it’s hard to shake my instincts. You know that.”

Sine nodded. “I know, hon, that’s why I sent Ink over to pull them back. I don’t know what they’re here for… but whatever it is, it’s important, and one way or another, they’re going to get you. I recognize some of them. That woman with the mohawk? That's Tempest Shadow, Phobia Remedy's primary bodyguard. The night pony? That's Josie Woods, the first night pony. This isn't a normal batch of agents. These are the big guns. They wouldn't send these guys here to haul you off. You're special but not that special. Let's see what they want."

“Okay,” Zipper nodded. “Let’s just go talk this out.”

It took him only a moment to land. Now that the action had cooled off, Zipper could get a closer look at the group that was surrounding him.

To his sides were his lovers, Sine Wave and Ink Rose. In front of him was a crystal pony and three humans who weren’t immediately identified, although he remembered Sine telling him the one was named Tempest. The pale blonde-haired woman and Tempest were the first to catch Zipper’s eye, as the blonde had immediately moved in to ensure that Zipper would remain to listen to their talk. Tempest had quickly followed suit, and Zipper vaguely remembered hearing about her from Silver Eclipse in one of his dreamwalking sessions. The last was a big balding man, but he had seemingly little interest in anything around him, including Zipper.

"Hello, I'm Blanche," the blonde introduced herself with just a hint of some sort of European accent. French, maybe? "Tempest heads this mission, but she isn't the most diplomatic, so I tend to do the talking. Our other companions are Arturo, Crystal, and Josie. I presume you are Zipper."

He nodded. "That's me."

“Okay, now that that’s out of the way,” the blonde continued. “If you think we’re here to arrest you over a mind magic-related infraction, you can rest easy. We know all about your abilities, and also know that it only directly affects a narrow grouping of animals. Your work in your field is why we’re here.”

“It— it is?!” Zipper’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Mhmm. You’re a leading expert on the western yellow-billed cuckoo and avian communication; it was your research on the changing behavioral patterns of birds in the last decade that put you on our radar. Simply put, we need a pony with your special talents for a vital mission, and I’m not going to take no for an answer.”

Zipper idly blinked for a few moments and tried to find his words. “I… uh… I’d love to, but…”

“If you’re afraid about pausing your work or losing any money, we’re willing to compensate you handsomely.”

Zipper nodded. “That’s very nice of you, but I have a whole team here that’s counting on me.”

Blanche raised an eyebrow. “Are they able to operate without you? Surely you can delegate some tasks to your other team members, can’t you?”

Zipper nodded. “I could, but I’m putting a lot of my funds into this dig. You might not know, but ornithologists aren’t exactly swimming in money, and I do a lot of side work to keep my team working. It’s not that I don’t want to help you guys, but I’ve already got a pretty stacked plate…” he grimaced.

“What if we offer to fund your next several digs?” Blanche offered.

“You could do that?” Zipper asked.

The mare nodded. “Mhmm. The OMMR is well connected, and we know a few conservation funds that would be more than happy to work with a research team of your caliber.”

Zipper contemplated this for a moment and shrugged. “What’s the mission?”

“You’re in?” She asked.

“If you can secure my team’s funding, then yeah, I can’t turn it down. What you’re offering would keep us running for years.”

“Good,” she smiled. “This should go without saying that what I’m about to tell you is strictly need to know and privileged. The reason why we need you, in particular, is that your special talent might allow us to conduct recon in hazardous areas where agents would otherwise be in danger of being caught or even killed. You can communicate with birds, right?”

“That’s correct,” Zipper nodded. “But I need you to understand that I’m not talking to the birds like we’re speaking the same language. My magic helps me get an understanding of what the birds are trying to subtly convey to me. I can talk to them and use my magic to basically give them a suggestion, but I can’t force them to do anything, and we can’t exactly hold conversations. It’s not a guarantee that what they see will be useful.”

“You’re the leading researcher on avian intelligence, so do you think there’s a chance they could tell us some details from what they scout?”

Zipper shrugged. “I suppose I could try to work on it with them. It’s going to depend on what birds you use, though. I’ve been studying bird behavior for years now, and many populations are showing signs of increased intelligence and social behavior, but those findings can vary a lot between different species. I mean a lot, a lot.”

“What birds do you think would make good scouts?” Blanche asked.

Zipper thought for a moment and smiled. “Crows.”

“Crows?” she asked.

“Mhmm,” Zipper replied. “You ever piss off a crow as a kid? Or maybe you gave one food a few times, and suddenly, it started bringing you some random scraps and trinkets? Turns out those little gremlins can remember faces and places. I haven’t studied crow or raven populations as often as the cuckoos, but if those birds show improved intelligence, it’s not a stretch to hypothesize that crows would also.”

“And you could train them?”

“Like I said,” Zipper’s voice filled with confidence. “It’s not hard to get on their good side. If I can find a good flock and befriend them, then there’s a good chance we could work on some training to get them to work as scouts. That said, their health and safety is my top priority, and I need assurance that they will be given top-of-the-line care.”

“Consider it done,” Blanche nodded. “So you’re in?”

Zipper smiled. “I’m in.”

Jessica braced against her quarters' door and closed her eyes as the lights flared again. After the first experience with the Dolphin III's jumps, she wouldn't be caught unaware a second time. It seemed like the flare lasted less time this time, and when she opened her eyes, she didn't feel nauseous, although she saw some spots before her eyes. When she looked out her window, she saw the distinct arm of a solar flare. How freaking close to a star had they come?"

The intercom beeped again. "That wasn't so bad, now was it? I wonder if Jeg'galla'gamp'pi must like being extremely close to stars because it decided to do it again. If we had overshot that jump by another AU, we would be extra toasty right now. Luna would have had time to teleport us out before the hull failed if that had happened, but you'd all be taking a space walk soon after to replace our melted engines. However, we didn't teleport straight into the star, so no problems!"

Jessica's eyes bulged. They could have teleported straight into a star, and Rebecca was chipper about it. Rebecca might like being upbeat, but that was insane!

"So…" Rebecca continued. "You guys and gals should all come to the bridge. You might be able to spy it out of the corner of your windows, but I promise you our view is better this time. We've made it; we are staring straight at Jeg'galla'gamp'pi. It looks like the biggest jawbreaker you've ever seen. We'll start the landing sequence shortly."

Jessica bolted to her feet. "LANDING SEQUENCE?! WHAT THE FUDGE?!" Now she knew Rebecca was insane. Landing on anything this close to a star would fry them, and landing on anything that big would crush them between the gravity and air pressure. Landing on Jeg'galla'gamp'pi was suicide!

"It sounds like at least one of you is excited to be landing!!" Rebecca continued to chirp. "Everyone, to the bridge."

Oh, she had every intention of going to the bridge and telling Rebecca exactly how moronic the idea of landing on Jeg'galla'gamp'pi was. Why would the fat pegasus even begin to think that it was a good idea?

After practically slamming her door open, Jessica thundered past Charlotte, Smiley, and the human soldier named Terrance. All three of them backed out of her way as she strode past them and opened the bridge door.

The bridge consisted of a pedestal with the power crystal in the center, a trio of computer terminals just in front of it, the flight crew's luggage stacked in a corner, and the window. The room was only impressive in how impressively little there was in it. Luna and Ashley were at the window looking out. Rebecca and Jonathan were at separate computer terminals.

Beyond the window was a massive alabaster sphere that took up almost the entire view.

Rebecca looked back at her with a grin as she came in. "Hi, Jess! I hear you might have some critical feedback about my decision to land. I always welcome feedback and concerns, and I'm sure you have some great points, but before you do, I'd like to give you some information that might change your opinion."

"What could possibly make this a good idea?" Jessica demanded as she approached the window for a better look.

Rebecca looked at the screen of her computer. "Air pressure on the planet is at a steady 1013.25 millibars. The force of gravity is nine point eight meters per second. The atmosphere is seventy-seven percent nitrogen and twenty percent oxygen, with the rest being a mixture of different things–too many to list. Surface temperature is a uniform twenty-one degrees Celsius."

"What do you mean, uniform?" Jessica asked in confusion; sure Rebecca was making some sort of mistake. "The surface temperature for something that big can't be uniform, especially with the star this close. There's no way something that big doesn't have more gravity and air pressure either."
.
Rebecca grinned even wider. "It didn't when we first appeared, but now it does. Didn't take more than a second for it to shift those numbers. It knows we're here, and it knows what we need to survive on its surface. I expected this. Jeg'galla'gamp'pi is eager to have visitors. It's practically rolling out the red carpet."

"Rebecca is correct," Luna said, still not taking her eyes off the planet. "I watched the thaumic flows. It was like the planet cast a spell on itself to adjust its nature. The power that it must have taken to do that and to do it with such ease is unfathomable. Even the combined might of all the alicorns could not have done that, not on such a scale as this. Can you not feel it? The feeling is so intense that even those far less discerning than I should perceive that it is watching us. I sense no intent or emotion, but it is definitely watching, and if it changed all those forces, it seems to have sent us an invitation to visit. I believe refusing it would be unwise. I, for one, wish to know what kind of entity we are dealing with."

Charlotte and the soldiers walked in and joined the others at the window.

"Should we be accepting invitations from alien entities?" Charlotte asked. "This is about as alien as it gets. We have no idea if this thing is friendly or out to get us. This planet could be leaving honey out for flies."

"There are some dangers on the surface, and your metaphor isn't completely without merit," Rebecca conceded. "General rules should be obeyed if you want to stay safe. This isn't the Dreamwardens' first rodeo with Jeg'galla'gamp'pi, and we know how to keep safe. We're some of the biggest rulemongers, so rules don't bother us. The Junk Peddlers made their homes here for generations before the coming of the Devourers. They may not have survived the Devourers, but they survived Jeg'galla'gamp'pi. If people could raise families here by following a few simple rules, we can visit just fine."

"And if it has changed the rules?" Ashley asked.

Rebecca chuckled. "If you had experience with Jeg'galla'gamp'pi, you would know how silly an idea that is. Jeg'galla'gamp'pi is beyond eternal. It was here long before the first star; it will remain after the last glimmer of light in the universe fades–the first and last place. It doesn't change the rules."

"It just, defying all laws of physics, changed its gravity, air pressure, temperature, and atmospheric composition; that sounds like changing the rules to me," Jessica said dryly.

"And it did this before when Triss's race first found it," Rebecca asserted. "It made itself welcoming to them–well, at least this welcoming, and for generations, many lived and died here until the Devourers came and wiped them out."

"And if it let them get wiped out by the Devourers, why do you expect it will help us not meet the same fate?" Charlotte asked.

"We aren't looking for it to bail us out. We're looking for tools that can help us," Rebecca answered. "Jonathan, begin the landing sequence for the coordinates I gave you. We put a lot of effort into bribing Sha'am for those coordinates."

"Coordinates entered. The expected time to reach the surface is nine hours," Jonathan replied.

"Nine hours! The planet is right there; we're already up on it!" Smiley exclaimed.

Jonathan shook his head. "I don't think you appreciate the difference in scale between this and Earth. If the Earth was the size of a nickel, Jeg'galla'gamp'pi would be a basketball. The planet only looks that close because it is much bigger than Earth, but we're further away from it than the Earth is from the moon. Given how far away we are, nine hours is an outstanding touchdown time. With a less advanced ship, it would take a week or more to reach the surface," Jonathan replied.

"Sounds like a good time to take a nap," Ashley said as she turned away and headed towards the door. "That magic might not have been mine, but those spells still took a lot out of me."

Luna nodded and headed towards the door as well. "The power was mine, and those spells were indeed draining. I too require some rest. I can contact the Dreamwardens while I sleep and let them know we arrived safely."

Rebecca shook her head. "You can dreamwalk if you want, but you don't need to. You can get some legitimate dreams in. That will replenish you faster. My siblings are eager to see this place. I'm about to dance and do my thing."

"What's at the coordinates?" Jessica asked.

Rebecca gazed out at the planet. "Home sweet home."

Author's Note

I'd like to thank Tiki Bat for writing the Zipper section of this chapter.

Chapter 27: Arrivals

Jordan waited at the front porch for the auctioneer to reach the house, and she waited, and she waited, and soon, she began to wonder if something was wrong. She'd permitted the guards to let the mare in what seemed like an hour ago. The driveway was long, but it wasn't that long. She checked the time of the last call; it had been thirty-eight minutes. Walking up to the house took five minutes at most.

Something was wrong. If that mare had come onto the property, she had wandered off somewhere other than the house, somewhere she was not supposed to be. Was Carmen even the real auctioneer? Jordan felt nothing but shame that she hadn't done anything to check that. Who knew who that mare was or what she was doing right now?

Maybe she should find Andrea, but if she got Andrea involved, it amounted to admitting that she had screwed up–that she had made a decision without Andrea and the first one had been a mistake.

No, that was stupid. It was going to be embarrassing and humbling, but she was going to go find Andrea. There was someone on the property who didn't belong here and had some sort of nefarious intent. She would be a big filly, admit her mistake, and see what they could do to correct it before something terrible happened. Andrea was going to cuss her out.

Rather than search all over the property for Andrea (she really should have gotten Andrea's phone number by now, which made her even more embarrassed), she headed back into the house and went straight to the guard room.

When she got there, the guards seemed to be waiting. One of them smiled.

"Judging by how quickly you rushed in here and the look on your face, you already know what you did," the guard said with a chuckle. "Miss Portsmith said to wait an hour to see if you'd figure it out. She was hoping you would; we all were. You had us worried that you wouldn't with how long you were taking. She's sitting with the intruder behind the chapel. She's waiting for you. She kind of needs you to help extract her. We'll let her know you are coming."

Jordan gaped. "She already caught the intruder?"

The guards all laughed.

"Do you honestly think we weren't on high alert?" one of the guards asked. "Miss Portsmith was expecting something. We did as you told us, but right after you gave us the order to let that mare in, we phoned Miss Portsmith. It didn't take long for Miss Portsmith to find her failing to sneak into the vaults. Truth be told, our intruder is probably going to be glad she was discovered quickly, but I won't spoil why. It's rich."

Jordan's ears sagged. They had known immediately that she had screwed up when she had told them to let the mare in, and they didn't say anything to her about it. Instead, they'd gone behind her back and told Andrea about it so Andrea could fix it. Yeah, they'd known they could deal with it, but they didn't respect her enough to tell her that what she was doing was a bad idea.

One of the guards gave a polite cough. "You might want to hurry. That mare needs you to get out of the bind she's gotten herself in. You're the only one who can do complex magic while on the property, and she needs that right now. Amicus Curiae is looking for the appropriate spellbook as we speak."

Wait…what? What exactly had happened? They told her they weren't spoiling the surprise, but it seemed that the intruder had run afoul of one of Auntie Sunset's defenses. Many of Auntie Sunset's defenses were nasty and brutal. How could they even be jovial about that? Even if it was a thief, she didn't want them in pain or dying.

She turned and galloped from the guard room to the front door, took a moment to orient herself and remember exactly where the chapel was, and then galloped to that. The chapel was a small, rectangular building that would be easily overlooked if not for the stained glass windows. Without thinking, she entered the chapel, found it vacant, then remembered they said behind the chapel. After circling into the trees behind the chapel, she found Andrea lying on the ground, watching a red-furred earth pony mare stand rigidly in place a foot or so away. Two human guards leaned against the chapel, looking bored.

Andrea looked over to her as she approached. "Took you long enough, although I should be happy you at least figured it out without being told. Meet Carmen Sandiego, a mare likely feeling much more embarrassed and a fuck-up than you are right now. Forgive her if she doesn't wave; she's having issues with her legs and hooves. So nice of her to trap herself for us–saved me a lot of time tracking her down."

"Do you have to rub it in?" Carmen whined through gritted teeth.

Andrea chortled as she stood back up. "Ohhhhh yeah, I have too. It's just too good."

Jordan slowly approached and took a better look at the mare's hooves; they seemed to be embedded in the ground. They didn't seem to be that deep. It should be easy for her to pull them out.

"I don't understand what's going on. How is she trapped?" Jordan asked in befuddlement

Andrea smirked. "Unicorns like to think they have a monopoly on being mages. It simply isn't true. Other tribes can cast spells, too, even if their selection is more limited in what they can do, and the spells have to align with their natural tribal abilities. You should know this better than most since you got to see Wild Growth at her height. Carmen here is an earth pony mage, not nearly as powerful as Wild Growth or even half as powerful as Phobia's newer bodyguard, Wallace, but Carmen still has some fun tricks. With a bit of complex earth pony magic, she can phase through solid objects, primarily walls or the ground. She had no idea Sunset's defenses against complex magic would catch her earth pony spell. Her hooves aren't just buried in the dirt right now; they're phased into it. She can't pull them free from the ground because they're part of the ground for the time being."

Carmen hung her head. "And my leg muscles lock up when I'm phasing through the ground, so I can't even try to lift them right now."

Jordan's ears flattened. "Is that painful? Are you hurting?"

"Honestly, I can't feel my hooves, and that's probably a bad thing," Carmen replied dryly. "Please, get me out of here before my legs die from lack of blood flow."

Andrea lifted her leg and tapped her phone. "Hey, Ami, any progress on finding that spellbook? Kinda want to get this pony loose. She's just a thief, not a terrorist. I don't have any desire to actually hurt her."

"Do you know how many spellbooks Sunset left in the unrestricted section?" Amicus replied in frustration on the other end of the line. "Do you also know how much I know about magic to even know what I'm looking at? The answer is zilch; I know nothing. Where's Jordan? I need her to help me look. She should at least have some clue what she's looking at. I could be looking right at it and not have a clue."

Auntie Sunset had an unrestricted section of spellbooks? Jordan didn't even recall seeing one spellbook in all her looking around the house. Where was it? Why hadn't anyone said anything to her about it? The answer to that was easy: they didn't trust her.

"Where are you, Amicus?" Jordan asked, loud enough that the old earth pony should hear her perfectly.

"Are you crazy? I can't tell you that while that thief is standing there to overhear!" Amicus exclaimed. "Come to the foyer, and I'll come get you."

Jordan didn't think she could feel any worse, but it kept happening. She almost made another foolish mistake less than an hour after her last big one.

She sighed and began walking. "I'll be right there." At least they would let her learn the spell to get the mare unattached from the ground, if only because her jewelry made her the only one capable of casting complex spells on the property.

It only took her a minute to get inside and find Amicus looking frazzled.

"Come on! I'm inviting you into my room," Amicus said as she turned and started marching back up the stairs.

Auntie Sunset's secret library of unrestricted spells was in Amicus's room? Well, Jordan wouldn't have thought of looking for spellbooks in an earth pony's room. She'd been in almost every other room and would have noticed a bunch of spellbooks.

When they entered the room, Jordan saw that one of the bookshelves had been practically dumped out on the floor, and Legal Brief was randomly picking up books off the floor and flipping through them.

"All these magical terms are nonsense to me," Legal Brief moaned as he tossed a book and picked up another.

Amicus looked at the heaps of books on the floor and shook her head in despair. "Me too. Jordan, you'll have to figure this out. Don't trust whatever the covers say or the first few or last few pages of each book."

Jordan levitated the closest book to herself and looked at the title, The Fundamentals of Effectively Breeding German Cockroaches. She opened it up and flipped through the first few pages; it seemed precisely that. Who the hell would ever write a book about this? She looked around at other books and saw such titles as Modern Account Practices And Investing 1919 Edition, Asbestos, the Wonder Building Material, A Guide to Better Lead Paint Mixing, Bill Cosby: America's Dad, The Mushrooms of North Africa: A Field Guide, and Comic Books: Satan's Greatest Weapon Against Christianity. Who would read any of this? These weren't spellbooks; it was a library's rejected book collection. The thought of book burning made her sick to her stomach, but if she were freezing, she wouldn't object too much to these being used for kindling. People might get dumber or die of boredom reading this garbage. Did that book over there say The Societal Benefits of Rape?! What the fuck???

"You have to start in the middle of the book," Amicus stressed.

Jordan used her magic to open the book to its exact center and found what looked like a table of contents listing out various spells. The page to the left showed entries at the book's first part, beginning with page thirty-two and ending with page one-hundred-nine. The right page table of contents started with entries on page one-hundred-twelve and continued to page one-hundred-eighty.

"My little sis had a spell to disentangle matter that a magical mishap had fused. I know she did," Amicus said as she picked up and tossed books. "She screwed up some spell once and had to create a countermeasure. I don't think it could be that dangerous, so it must be in one of these books rather than the ones in the vaults. She kept all her unreleased spells that she thought were no danger if they were discovered in this collection. Most of this stuff has very narrow or seemingly pointless applications."

"That should fix that thief's hooves if we find it. I can't imagine having her hooves fused into the ground is healthy," Legal Brief said.

"If these spells are so safe, why didn't anyone tell me about them?" Jordan asked.

"Because you didn't seem that interested," Amicus answered. "It's not like this is world-changing stuff anyway. This is my sister's junk spells."

Jordan started looking closer at the table of contents. "No. There's no such thing as a junk spell, according to Auntie Sunset. Her work was built on the failed spells and ideas of others. You just have to find the right use. These spells might seem pointless, but they aren't. She set these aside for a reason."

Amicus raised a brow at her. "Well, don't get caught up trying to figure out why. We just need to help that mare before she gets permanently injured. The spell in question can't require much power because my sister cast it, and she's magically weak."

Jordan started flipping through the book, using her skimming spell to look for key terms that she knew had to be somehow associated with the spell. The first book turned out to be missing what she was looking for, so she discarded it and started on a second. Both the earth ponies glared at her.

"I'm using my magic to search quickly," she explained before Amicus or Legal Brief could complain she wasn't putting an effort into looking. "Book skimming is one of my signature spells. Princess Twilight taught Auntie Sunset how to skim, and Auntie Sunset taught me how to do it. I'll find the right spell faster this way, but I may need to take the book with me when I find it."

Amicus shook her head. "I don't like that. Sunset was less protective of these books, but she still hid them with me. It should be a simple spell anyway if she could cast it."

Jordan continued to flip through books rapidly. "It's a common misconception that less power means less advanced. You'd be shocked at how complex a spell can get while only needing a little power. My skimming spell used hardly any magic power, but it's a lot more complex than most spells. Auntie Sunset might have been magically weak, but she can still pull off spells most unicorns cannot because of all the intricacies involved. The spell we're looking for might be one of those, especially if it isn't common knowledge. I won't try to pull something like that off from memory. It could hurt someone if I do it wrong."

"I still don't like an outsider even seeing the book. I'm supposed to keep these things safe," Amicus insisted.

"Get some wrapping paper, construction paper, even lined paper, and I can throw together a book cover real fast," Jordan said dismissively. Her spell caught something, and she paused to read the entry. Yes, this seemed like it was it. She turned the book over and looked at the title–Lyndon B. Johnson the Antichrist: A Biblical Proof of the Mark of the Beast and the End Times From America's Top Theologians. Wow… just… wow, and it wasn't even close to the worst book title in the batch. If Auntie Sunset planned to disguise her spellbooks as the worst imaginable books that no sane person wanted to read, she did well.

Legal Brief came over carrying a box packed with Christmas, birthday, graduation, and general congratulations wrapping paper and dumped it right in front of her in a big pile.

"I didn't need this much," she said with bemusement.

He shrugged. "Figured you might want your pick. The older you get, the bigger the family gets. We have many grandfoals, great grandfoals, nieces, nephews, grandnieces, grandnephews, great grandnieces, and great grandnephews, so we always have a lot of presents to buy each year, so we keep a lot of extra wrapping paper around. By the time you reach our age, it is a full-time job keeping track of them all. They multiply like bunnies. There's always someone having something going on."

"We have three calendars dedicated to keeping track of each major branch of the family," Amicus said with pride. She frowned at her husband. "Did we ever mail off those baby blankets and diapers to Arachne? We were so caught up dealing with Sunset moving to Equestria; I don't remember."

Legal Brief kissed his wife. "I took care of it, love."

"What about Yorik's birthday present?" Amicus asked. "He's turning sixteen. That's a big birthday."

"All taken care of, along with Rose's," Legal Brief confirmed. "I also got something nice for Edgar's baby shower–and booked our plane tickets to attend next week."

Amicus shook her head in exasperation. "This is why I need you. I would have completely forgotten Rose, and I hadn't realized Edgar's baby shower was so soon. When is she ever going to change her name? She's pregnant, absurd as that is at her age, and still using that name."

Legal Brief laughed. "You always fuss about that, and you know she does it to annoy everyone."

Jordan tried to ignore the two earth ponies' continued yammering about their extensive family and made a quick book cover out of one of the birth papers. When she was finished, she grabbed the book with her magic.

"You are going to help us put all these books up later, aren't you?" Amicus asked as Jordan opened the door to leave. "Putting books away is a pain for elderly earth ponies."

Jordan rolled her eyes. "If you insist. But first, let me free our intruder from the ground and figure out what to do with her."

"TOUCHDOWN IN TWO MINUTES! EVERYONE TO THE BRIDGE NOW!"

Jessica flattened her ears at Rebecca's yell over the intercom. She knew the Dreamwarden was excited, but Rebecca knew how sensitive her hearing was. It wasn't like everyone didn't already know that they were getting close to landing. She was sure that everyone on board had been monitoring their windows like she was right now.

The planet's perfectly smooth surface they'd seen from a distance was now clearly a fiction. The planet's entire surface was covered in buildings and streets of various sizes, occasionally punctuated by a tower or a bridge. Everything seemed to be built of the same material, and aside from some shadows, nothing seemed to be any other color. Some streets were narrow, while others were massive plazas. Bridges would sometimes link buildings, but there was no sign of rivers or streams or anything resembling a canyon. It was hard to tell from this perspective, but the ground elevation seemed almost uniform across the surface, with no hills or mountains. There was also no sign of any meteor strikes, not even debris. Even if the planet was tectonically inactive, there should at least be signs of impacts, and the Devourers had supposedly attacked this planet, but there was nothing on the surface that showed any such thing had ever happened. There didn't even appear to be any charring from the intense surface temperatures it must have previously had up until nine hours ago. It truly seemed to be frozen in time, untouched by anything. Its defiance of everything she understood about how a planet should work was unnerving, overwhelming her sense of excitement that she should be feeling for landing on an alien planet.

"HEY! GET TO THE BRIDGE NOW! IT'S IMPORTANT!!"

She tore her gaze away and headed towards the bridge. It was time to see what Rebecca intended to do here.

It seemed everyone else exiting their quarters was on edge. The way they moved betrayed their nervousness. This wasn't just some other planet. This was a living entity that watched them and reacted to them, a living entity that they didn't know the intentions of.

When they reached the bridge, they found Jonathan at the console, piloting the ship, and Rebecca at the window, bouncing in place like a child told to wait one more minute to open their gifts.

"The big plaza! Land in the big plaza!" Rebecca said excitedly.

"I know, Rebecca," Jonathan said with exasperation.

"Land right in the center!" Rebecca said, still bouncing.

"I know, Rebecca," Jonathan said through gritted teeth.

Rebecca turned and looked at him. She continued to bounce, and she had a wing boner. "You don't seem that excited."

"I'm trying to focus on piloting the ship," Jonathan answered in a monotone.

"You know where we're going?" Charlotte asked.

"The big plaza. Didn't you hear?" Jonathan replied in the same monotone. "Don't worry. Her coordinates were precise. Sha'am's memory is apparently better than the rest of the Dreamwardens' memory."

Rebecca stopped bouncing. "Well, she has an extra advantage from having been in the Story–with a capital S. She's like a pseudo-Storyteller. Do you all remember Sunflower Smiles? Sunflower is a Storyteller, too."

Terrance raised a hand. "I have no idea who that is."

"Me, either," Smiley said.

"Hmm, what about Jenny?" Rebecca asked. "You know, the lady who tells stories while doing elaborate illusions. She was involved in that bad business with a faction in the government trying to spark a human-pony war back during the same year as ETS. She's basically a direct line to the Narrative, which is like the embodiment of the will of the Story."

"I think I'm just getting more confused," Terrance answered.

Luna sighed. "How about we just move on from the subject? Is there a reason we are landing here specifically?"

Rebecca rapidly nodded. "We might have found a similar plaza somewhere, but with how big this planet is, it could take a long time to search. We're going to be landing where the traders from Triss's race used to land and do business way-way-way back in the day. I'd tell you the race's name, but I can't make all those sounds, and I don't want to give them a simplified nickname that Triss disapproved of and get her nose all out of joint about it–Junk Peddler is a profession and class, not her race's name. Anyway, they'd park a small fleet of ships in that plaza to do their business and fly away again a day or two later. What the plaza is supposed to be used for is anyone's guess since whoever built it died before the universe came to be, but it has always made a nifty dock."

"I'm not even going to attempt to get a further explanation for that," Charlotte muttered. She then cleared her throat and then spoke up. "What do we do when we land?"

"Which we are doing now," Jonathan said as we saw the buildings in the distance become more level with our window, and there was a slight shake as we contacted the ground.

Rebecca hopped and faced us. "Right! Now is the time to explain to you how to not end up vanishing forever."

"That is a good thing to know," Ashley muttered.

"It sure is!" Rebecca said happily. "Everybody gets a buddy. No one goes anywhere without your buddy. Back in the day, Triss's race had this thing called soul friends–it's like best friends, but closer, but not romantically or sexually. Everybody traveled around with their soul friend when they were here. I don't expect everyone to make soul friends with one another, but you keep your buddy with you always. No wandering off alone, no going into a building by yourself, no going around any corners by yourself. If you go off by yourself, even for a few seconds, even if it is just over there–wherever there is, you might not return."

Rebecca didn't tell them this until two minutes before landing?! They'd all been in their quarters by themselves! If anyone had delayed an extra minute, they'd have failed the first rule!

Luna looked around at them. "We should team together with whoever already has the closest bonds of friendship. Jessica and Charlotte, you are teamed together. Terrance and Smiley, you're teamed together. Jonathan and Ashley, you will be together. I will be with the Marshmallow."

Jonathan nodded. "That sounds about right. Either Ashley or I could team up with Rebecca, but considering she's got your memories floating around in her head and you are both Dreamwardens, you two are probably closer. Jessica and Charlotte are childhood friends who went through the Cataclysm of Riverview together. I'm not sure about Terrance and Smiley."

"We never really met any of you or each other before this. I don't want to vanish," Terrance said nervously.

"A good time to make a good friend! Remember, friendship is magic–and it keeps you alive," Rebecca chirped. "Still, maybe you two should stay with the ship and guard it. We don't want to leave it alone, either. It isn't just people that can vanish if left alone, and I would like to keep our way back home."

"That would also be a good thing," Charlotte said dryly.

"What do you mean by keeping together?" Jessica asked. "If this is a life or death matter, we need to be clear on what to do. Do you mean we can't have our partner out of sight for a second? That could be difficult."

"You don't have to see each other, but stay in the same room, part of a street, and so on. Theoretically, anyone in the same area looking around should be able to spot both of you," Rebecca explained. "Being somewhere it would be impossible for some imaginary person standing nearby to see both of you is a bad thing. Imagine there is always a third person watching you. You and your buddy don't have to see one another, but that third person needs to be able to see you and your buddy."

Luna looked out at the plaza beyond the window with a frown. "I'm not certain that such a being is imaginary. We are still being watched. My fur is standing on end."

Rebecca shrugged. "So don't let what's watching you see you alone. It's easy-peasy."

One, two, three, four… Jessica counted to herself, trying to keep her temper under control. Rebecca's carefree attitude in the face of this kind of danger made her want to scream.

"There's some other simple rules," Rebecca continued. "Never go downstairs, not unless it is your only available path."

"What's downstairs?" Smiley asked.

Rebecca shrugged. "The basement? Who knows? Not me. I only have one memory of the downstairs, which was reached through the upstairs in a tower, and it was the only path to take at the time since the tower door vanished on us–which we should have seen coming, considering it normally didn't have one. I, and by that, I mean Joss, tried to tell Triss it was a bad idea, but she was always ready to jump into anything without thinking it through back then. It did turn out okay-ish, at least in the short-term, even if it was confusing how we went up a tower and came out of the basement in another building. Typically, going downstairs is a good way of vanishing. There's nothing like going downstairs just to have the stairs vanish. Upstairs, you can at least find a window or something to escape out of, but you probably won't even see any stairs going down, so don't worry too much."

Really helpful.

"Also, don't panic if the geography or building changes from what you were looking at just a moment before," Rebecca continued. "That doesn't happen much, but it can. I will give everyone a tracker for the ship and shortwave radio to contact one another if you get into trouble. If the geography changes, you and your buddy should just do your best to make your way back to the ship. Also, it is very, very important to try to keep a positive attitude. Jeg'galla'gamp'pi likes good vibes. It likes friendship, family, and comradery. If you're angry, upset, or fighting, it can tell, and that might upset it or make it uncooperative. We don't want it to be upset or uncooperative."

A planet-wide city that could change its layout on a whim and defied physics at every turn.

"Is there some way of communicating with the planet?" Jessica asked. "If people lived here at some point, I'd assume they had some way of talking to the place that could decide their home just didn't need to exist anymore."

Rebecca shook her head. "Sorry, it doesn't communicate. You can get a feel for its mood sometimes, but not always. Most of the time, it is just watching. You will feel that, too. Luna is right. You spend about five minutes walking around, and you can't help but feel that you're being watched. Sometimes, you'll swear you saw something just out of the corner of your eye, but when you turn to look, there's nothing. Just take some deep breaths and think happy thoughts. Talk to your buddy about stuff and joke around; that takes some edge off. Nothing is going to jump out and get you. There's nobody here but us. If there were, Jeg'galla'gamp'pi would cater to them, but everything is set up to be nice to us."

Deep breaths. Happy thoughts. Focus on the fact you are living your foalhood dream. You're about to explore an alien world with the ruins of some alien civilization. This is a great day for science, she thought to herself.

"And you still haven't told us what exactly we're looking for here," Charlotte said.

Rebecca blinked. "Oh? It must have slipped my mind in the excitement. You're looking for anything you can pick up, and I mean anything. If you find so much as a few stray grains of sand or pebbles, you better collect those. Anything bigger would be great, too. We aren't just the only living people here; we and our stuff we brought are the only things that aren't all part of the one solid piece of Jeg'galla'gamp'pi. Nothing here is put together from parts. Everything from the ground to the buildings to the bridges and towers is the same unbreakable object. If you find anything that is a separate project, then you grab it. That is Jeg'galla'gamp'pi giving you gifts. We're picking up where the Junk Peddlers left off."

"So…we're gathering samples?"Jessica asked. She could deal with gathering samples.

"If that's how you want to view it," Rebecca answered. "Just keep looking around. Double-check over areas twice because there might end up being something there that wasn't a second before–this place does that a lot. If you pick up something and it glows, don't be afraid. It won't hurt you. It just means you found an extra-special something that is meant just for you! I don't have a lot of expectation we will find anything specifically meant for anyone here, but it would be exciting if we did. Any time anyone finds anything, you and your buddy should return to the ship to drop it off. You don't need gloves or bags or anything. Nothing can hurt you by touching it here, and you can't damage anything–unbreakable means unbreakable. Try not to swallow anything; unbreakable things going down the hatch can't be good for your tum-tum."

Jonathan walked over to the packs in the corner. "I'll hand out the trackers and radios. Let's get to work."

Chapter 28: Insecurities

In the rec room, Jordan watched the doctor, an older unicorn stallion, packing up his things. In attendance with them and the patient was Andrea and one guard.

"You're sure she'll recover?" Jordan asked, worriedly glancing at Carmen lying on the couch.

The doctor nodded. "Yes, she should be alright. After two to three weeks of rehabilitation, she should regain full use of her legs. She should be able to walk for short stints starting tomorrow. All her veins and arteries are completely intact, her limbs receive proper blood flow, and they hadn't been without blood long enough to cause permanent damage. Don't worry. I'm not going to ask how she lost flow to her legs. I know better than to ask questions about what happens at Wabash Manor. This is tame compared to some of what I've been called to treat here. I'd call her lucky."

"Thank you for coming," Andrea told the doctor. "We will take it from here, and the guards shall show you to the gate. As per usual, you'll receive a significant payment for your discretion. My baby sister is gone. I hope that will mean less of these types of calls."

"Not off to a great start," the doctor muttered but headed towards the door with the guard following.

Jordan's ears sagged. "I'm really sorry about this, Andrea. I didn't take security measures seriously enough."

Andrea grunted. "Well…let's call it a learning experience. At least it was just a thief and not someone who wanted to hurt anyone. Our nineties video game character here is moderately notorious. I remember seeing a case file on her back while with the FBI. We never figured out her trick for getting into places. Pretty neat trick–neat enough that we should probably just let her go."

"What?!" Jordan exclaimed in confusion.

Carmen gazed at them in bafflement. "Not that I'm going to object, but…why?"

Andrea sighed and shook her head. "One thing my baby sis had right was that certain magic shouldn't become widespread. She was a pragmatist, and she was very guarded about what spells she developed got out to the public, fearing magic that society was not prepared to deal with yet. That spell to phase through matter could cause a lot of trouble. Government security has enough issues dealing with unicorns teleporting to places they shouldn't be and pegasi flying over fences; we don't need to add earth ponies walking through walls or sinking into basements to the mix. As a thief, I think you have every incentive to keep your trade secret a secret. If we turn you over to the authorities, that increases the risk your secret gets out. Even if they don't instruct anyone on how to do the spell, earth ponies, knowing it is possible, will try to figure out how to do it, and, sooner or later, someone will. The floodgates are open after that."

"Yet she never stopped developing potentially dangerous spells," Jordan said.

"True," Andrea agreed. "She did so because spells are tools, and she wanted those tools available if they were needed–or if someone else developed them and we needed a firm understanding of what they were using in order to counter it. She also developed many spells she deemed safe for public use that she shared with the government to do as they wished with that knowledge."

Andrea frowned at Carmen. "Oh…and if Sunset were here, she'd probably not let our prisoner go until she had a firm understanding of how this magic works, even if the knowledge ended up in the vaults. She'd go to great lengths to figure it out–possibly unpleasant lengths. My sister was reformed, but she still could be a bit morally gray sometimes, and her forgiveness rarely extended to anyone who invaded our home. Too many bad experiences for that. You'd live through it, but she'd link her taking the time to properly free you before you lost the full use of your legs to your cooperation with her research and say it was your fault for breaking and entering."

Carmen shivered.

A guard stuck his head in the room. "Miss Gilmore? The actual auctioneer has arrived, along with the appraiser. Their IDs check out."

She hadn't even asked if Carmen had shown any sort of ID. Now, she was feeling dumber than ever.

"Have someone escort them in," Andrea instructed before Jordan could respond. That was yet another thing she hadn't considered that seemed obvious now–having people escorted in so they couldn't wander off.

Jordan looked at Carmen. "She can't walk right now. What do we do with her? We can't just dump her on the street when she's like this."

"The Dreamwardens promised me aid if I got caught!" Carmen shouted. "I demand you contact them!"

"Heh," Andrea said, shaking her head. "I should have guessed they'd pull something. Either them, the government, or both. They're testing us now that you're in charge."

Jordan shrank back. "Phobia is my sister, the Marshmallow is my friend, and Yinyu has spent a lot of time showing me… forget I mentioned that last one; why would they do this to me?"

Andrea rolled her eyes. "Oh, to be eighteen again. I'd be happy with being forty again at this point. To answer your question, they want to be sure the vaults are secure even with Sunset gone. I think this demonstrates that my sister's defenses are good enough to hold even if you make a few slip-ups."

"Oh," Jordan whispered.

"Stop pouting!" Andrea snapped. "Amicus yelled at me because she thought I was being too mean to you, so I'm doing my best to be more sociable. Unlike my sisters, I'm not a liar."

"Amicus lies?" Jordan whimpered.

"She's a lawyer! What do you think? She doesn't so much lie, per se; it is more like she says truth-adjacent things," Andrea growled. She then went wide-eyed. "But she doesn't lie to you or tell you anything truth-adjacent."

Jordan sniffled. "You're terrible at this, you know that?"

"I know!" Andrea yelled. "Why do you think my kids and grandkids never visit, and my husband was so ready to dump me when I transformed!"

They sat staring at each other. Jordan wondered if she should say something but didn't have a clue what to say in response to that. On the plus side, Andrea wasn't just unpleasant to her. She should feel bad, but it was somehow comforting. Did that make her a bad person? Only bad people felt comfort from something like that. Oh, no, she was a bad person! Did she need to go to church? No, Auntie Sunset went downhill after joining a church. Maybe she should mentor a young foal or something.

"Should I be listening to this?" Carmen asked. "This sounds like a lot of personal business that has nothing to do with me."

"Cover your ears," Andrea instructed.

"I can't. My limbs don't work," Carmen replied.

"The auctioneer is going to be in here in a minute. We should do something with her," Jordan said.

"Go dump her in the chapel. I'll send a pair of guards to watch her," Andrea said.

"Or we could put her in the guard room," Jordan suggested.

Andrea rolled her eyes. "Fine, but we throw a sheet over her head so she can't see the cameras."

"Aren't you going to contact the Dreamwardens?!" Carmen protested.

Andrea waved a hoof. "We'll get around to it. Miss Gilmore has an auction to do, and I kind of want to get rid of this junk, too."

Luna sat, saddlebag on, watching the Marshmallow dance along to some Earth song with two people singing about a whole new world. It sounded like it was meant to be romantic, but it was hard to get that vibe when the Marshmallow was doing ballet. The fact that such a fat pony could stand on the tips of her hind hooves like that while prancing around with her forelegs held high above her head was almost a bewildering enough sight to distract her from their surroundings. Almost.

She turned her gaze upward at the ship's bridge window to see the two soldiers watching from above. They seemed to be as amazed by the display of the Marshmallow's agility as Luna should have been feeling. She turned her head and saw the Marshmallow's projection floating just above the ship. It would be invisible to the soldiers, but keeping the projection invisible wouldn't work on the Princess of the Night. The Marshmallow's projection was having a very animated discussion–likely with the other Dreamwardens. It seemed being across the universe didn't interfere with their ability to see through her projection. The dream realm was not defined by physical distance, but she had briefly wondered if this place would block their gaze. It had already done the impossible many times over. What was one more impossibility?

Tearing her eyes away, she looked at the buildings in the distance. Her vision had always been better than her sister's or Twilight's. She believed it came with having been born a pegasus rather than gaining pegasus magic upon ascension. Cadence had excellent vision as well, so it tracked. She knew that none of her companions could make out the details as well as she could. The windows of the buildings were strangely shadowed, and she felt like there were hundreds of eyes staring at her. Even the doors of the buildings felt like eyes rather than mouths. If it weren't for the ship blocking the view in one direction, she would have hundreds of eyes staring at her from all sides. Now, she had hundreds of eyes staring at her from three sides.

She took a deep breath, then another, then one more, just to be sure. The Marshmallow said she needed to maintain a positive attitude and that this place could tell if she had a non-positive attitude. She needed to think of happy things–foals on Nightmare Night, pineapples, possums, post offices, the opera, poetry, picnics, and PowerPoint presentations with the fancy clipart that flipped. She would ignore the hundreds of eyes watching her.

The Marshmallow suddenly stopped dancing while still balanced on one hoof and immediately fell over, flat on her face. The music cut off at that same instant.

"Ow."

Luna rushed over. "Goodness, Marshmallow, are you hurt?"

The chubby pegasus sat up and tapped a hoof to her muzzle before looking at her hoof. "No blood! I'm good to go, and you can call me Rebecca or Becky. There's no need to be so formal. We're practically family. I'm like your non-blood-related granddaughter."

Luna smirked. "I'm sure you know, but the Bluebloods claim me as an ancestor, even though I most certainly am not. I was a godmother to one of Princess Platinum's great grandfoals, and that somehow turned into me being their grandmother in their minds. I suppose you have a closer to a legitimate claim to the title of a granddaughter, considering I was two before you in Dreamwarden succession."

The Marshmallow tilted one ear. "How did Prince Blueblood getting stripped of titles make you feel when it happened?"

She shrugged. "Prince Blueblood is over a thousand years removed from the dear foals I was granted that title for, so there is practically no connection. He got what he deserved, and I feel no remorse for it. He was an entitled brat. His ancestors would feel nothing but shame at his actions. If this had been earlier in Equestrian history, he would have faced far worse consequences, and I would have endorsed such punishments– kindness was never one of my primary elements; they were loyalty, honesty, and laughter, all things he betrayed."

The Marshmallow giggled. "Yet you have Sunset Blessing as a personal student who sucks at two of those things."

Luna tilted her head slightly. "True, though she has improved somewhat. A second round of motherhood seems to have done wonders for her weaker elements. I can't say she is an honest pony, but she does laugh more than she once did, and having escaped Earth's expectations seems to have lightened her heart even further." She refocused. "How did your siblings react to seeing this place? Were they as giddy as you?"

"Eh…it was a mixed bag, and by that, I mean I'm the only one giddy about it," the Marshmallow answered with disappointment. "Arbiter, in particular, despises this place with a passion, and the rest are kind of somber about it. We aren't a monolithic group, no matter what anyone thinks. I guess I just have more fond memories from here than sad. I like to focus on the happy stuff, not the gloomy stuff–even if I did inherit a lot of not-so-happy memories along with the happy ones. Still, they're glad we arrived safely. Ready to go look for some rocks?"

She looked out at the buildings again. Happy thoughts. She then turned and smiled at the Marshmallow.

"Of course, Becky. We shall search the city and return with a triumphant load!" Luna asserted.

The youngest Dreamwarden smiled gently up at her. "You don't have to try to fake it so hard, you know. I'm not oblivious to how others are feeling, even if I act like I am. I think I might get that perception from you, and I'm happy to be spending some time with you. Let's walk and talk."

It sometimes unnerved her how much wisdom and perception these Dreamwardens had, not to mention the level of knowledge. They were her creations, a mere fraction of her age and magical might, yet they possessed insight and learning far more ancient than hers, along with much of her knowledge. Not that any of them, nor her, were immune to the occasional bout of foolishness or lapse in judgment. Every time she looked at them, she was reminded of one of her most significant lapses in judgment, appointing Sha'am Maut a Dreamwarden. She always wondered how much of a shadow the dread mare cast over their minds.

They walked together towards the buildings the bridge window faced. It was a massive plaza, and it would take them at least five minutes to reach them. It was curious that any city would need a plaza of such grand size, but this city covered a planet, so everything was on a more colossal scale.

"Tell me, Becky, what do you believe you inherited from Sha'am Maut?" Luna finally built up the courage to ask.

The Marshmallow pursed her lips. "It's hardly something I can say for sure, but I think she reinforced my love of children and foals. I also could never cook well before becoming a Dreamwarden but became an excellent baker of cookies and pastries after, which Sha'am is the only Dreamwarden in recent history who had a true knack for–no offense intended to you or the others. Phobia bakes, but she's pretty sure she inherited that from Sha'am, too. I cried when I realized I lifted a skill directly from the old meanie pants, but I got over it. It's part of me now, and it's something I can bring joy with." she lowered her head. "And…I confess I might have inherited some darker elements from her as well, although I can't confirm it was specifically her."

Luna tensed, hearing her fear given validation. "What darker elements would you be referring to? I shall keep anything you say to me in confidence."

"I know you will," the Marshmallow quietly replied. "It takes a lot to make me really mad; I mean a lot. Way more than any of my siblings. I might get annoyed sometimes, but that isn't the same as in a rage. You have to do something extremely despicable to piss me off…but when someone does push me to that limit…let's just say I'm not very nice at all."

The tenseness did not lessen. "What do you do?"

"There haven't been many, but there have been a few people that hurt kids…I mean, really hurt kids and then got away with it," the Marshmallow said in a pained tone laced with bitterness. "I think it is the getting away with it that is the thing that finally pushes me over the edge. I try to let the police and the courts take care of things. I do! But sometimes, the system fails, and those bastards get to keep on doing what they are doing. That's when I decide enough is enough, and I make sure they hurt. Maybe I get it from Sha'am, maybe it is Ghadab or one of the others, or a combination, but I decide I'm going to deliver the justice the system failed to deliver, and I get flat-out sadistic about it because I'm that furious. I don't like myself when I'm like that, but I can't let it go or even think straight when it happens. I can't stand for someone to hurt kids and keep getting away with it."

The Marshmallow cried. "I know it isn't right. I know I should let the law continue to try, but when it gets to that point, there's this all-consuming rage, and all I can think about is kids are going to keep getting hurt if I don't do something. It's like my brain shuts off. The others have criticized me for it, I've criticized myself for it, and so have my bodyguards–even if they end up doing the dirty work. They say I'm going to get them in trouble. I might have already done so. The government has formed this task force in response to Dreamwardens stepping over the line on things, and my siblings look at me, knowing that it is me and my vigilantism that's triggering this. I don't know what to do. Do you have advice?"

Luna silently considered what was said for a few seconds before replying. The shadow of Sha'am might be there, or it could be having so many night ponies in the Marshmallow's line had some impact, or it could even be Luna herself who this was inherited from, for she knew she would take swift justice in the Marshmallow's position, but this was not something acceptable on Earth. There was, however, something that stood the Marshmallow apart, remorse. Perhaps the Marshmallow inherited that from Krik or Phobia, who also felt guilt at turning to violence despite being night ponies, or maybe the horror at such action was in the Marshmallow all along. From what she knew of the pegasus, the latter seemed most likely. One thing was clear: the Marshmallow did not share Sha'am's greatest flaw. Sha'am never questioned her own actions or felt any shred of remorse for the terror she inflicted. The Marshmallow might be more ruled by emotion than many of her siblings, but she was also more willing to question whether they were right and felt more conflicted than any. Sha'am was unworthy, but the Marshmallow's concerns showed that the Dreamwardens made the right call in selecting her. Those with power should always be willing to question their own actions.

"This is something I have a hard time expressing good advice for," she said. "As co-ruler of Equestria, if I decide to take action against some brigand, it is my right. If the same happened in Equestria, I too would take action, and none would fault me."

"But Earth is not Equestria, and I'm not that kind of authority figure. I'm crossing a line," the Marshmallow replied.

"Indeed," Luna agreed. "Yet, my rights as Princess of the Night have been with me for so long, I don't know if I can fully appreciate what it is like not to have the right to take action. I don't condone what you have done, but I understand the drive and don't know what other action to suggest you take. Taking no action seems as much a crime, if not more. You should respect the systems your world has put in place, for they are there for a reason, but something must be done, even if what you are doing isn't it. I don't know what that is if your system is failing. I do not know what advice to give, Rebecca."

"Things are easier when it's clear what the right thing to do is," the Marshmallow agreed, sounding sad. "I want to do the right thing. I wish I knew what that was."

"These are not happy thoughts," Luna said grimly.

"But it's friendship, family, and comradery," the Marshmallow replied, drying her tears with a wing. "Jeg'galla'gamp'pi sees, and it understands. Thank you for being my friend and talking to me about the things about myself I'm not proud of, even if you don't have the answers."

Jessica ran her hand along the wall of the closest building. It was perfectly smooth, without a bump to be felt, and cool to the touch. Straining her hearing, she heard no ground settling, no groaning in the wall under its weight, despite the building she was standing next to extending what had to be at least a hundred stories upward. This was what ultra-dense thaumic matter felt like? How was this ever shaped and formed? Who shaped and created this, and what happened to them? The level of advancement needed to do it was mind-boggling. Rebecca was an architect. She wondered what Rebecca thought of these buildings.

Charlotte grumbled in frustration. "Finding anything?"

"No," Jessica answered, removing her hand from the wall and looking upward at the countless windows of the building. They all seemed to be staring down at her, even if she knew that was an impossibility. It had to be a trick of light mixed with paranoia.

"Me neither," Charlotte said with exasperation. "There's not even dust! We're standing in a bunch of ancient ruins, and it is like it was just cleaned minutes ago. If cleanliness is next to godliness, this place is fucking Heaven."

Jessica rubbed her arms. It sure didn't feel like Heaven. The sense of being watched made her fur stand on end. She didn't believe in ghosts, but this place made her question that assertion.

She pointed to their left. "Let's try in that direction."

"Any particular reason why?" Charlotte asked.

She shook her head. "None at all. I have no more lead on what to do than you do. One direction is as good as another as long as we go that way together."

"Sounds good," Charlotte replied and walked up beside her. If they were beside each other as they headed anywhere, they could be seen together by anything watching.

"Still feeling your sister?" Jessica asked as they started walking.

Charlotte pointed a wing vaguely off to a spot opposite the direction of the star. "She's somewhere that way. The sensation of her is faint, but I can still tell. I wonder how she's feeling right now. She has to be feeling the same weaker sensation. Maybe she's worried. She didn't know about this mission. So, she has no explanation for why our bond feels weaker. She could think I'm hurt or dying."

"Your mom will talk to her, I'm sure," Jessica replied.

"You never know with our mom," Charlotte said. "Mom keeps a lot of secrets. I don't resent her for that. I'm in the military, so I keep my own secrets."

"She has to at least tell your sister you're safe," Jessica insisted.

Charlotte shook her head. "Mom wouldn't do that. Mom doesn't lie. Rebecca might try to sugar-coat things, but I heard a lot of potential danger involving this place. Don't worry, I'll dreamwalk my sister when I go to sleep, and Arbiter can get you in contact with your family while you sleep. That way, you can tell them you made it here and are still alive and well. At least you can tell Robby."

"I can tell my parents, too," Jessica corrected. "Your grandma used her necklace on them a few years back. Someone had advocated that the Dreamwardens should be able to contact them, just in case someone tried to kidnap them."

Charlotte glanced up at her with a raised brow. "Really? I hadn't heard. They must have kept it very low-key. What tribes did they turn out to be?"

"They did keep it low-key," Jessica confirmed. "My mom was a unicorn, and my dad was an earth pony. They each didn't keep the necklace on long, and they never developed any abilities. Their PREQUES numbers are so low that it is hard for crystal ponies to even register them, but they're enough for Aunt Arbiter to contact."

"I heard the Warden of Order has a PREQUES number like that. It's how he keeps under everyone's radar. No one expects a Dreamwarden with essentially no magic," Charlotte replied. She suddenly stopped walking, forcing Jessica to come to a halt.

"What is it?" Jessica asked.

Charlotte pointed with a wing. "Window over there. There's something in it."

Jessica looked in the direction indicated. Something was sitting in a lower window. It was hard to tell what it was, but there was definitely something. The pair of them walked towards it to get a better look.

It was a dodecahedron that seemed made of the same material as everything else around here. Actually, it looked like its shape was slightly off as if it had been squished. Each facing was unadorned, and there was no coloring anywhere to be seen on it. It was just sitting there, like someone who had set a pie on a windowsill to cool. The sensation of being watched felt more pronounced now as if the planet was waiting with great anticipation to see how they would react to this find.

"Rebecca said to grab anything we can find and bring it back. Pretty sure that qualifies as anything," Charlotte said. "You want to grab it, or do you want me to?"

"Is it just me, or did the feeling of being watched just go up several decibels?" Jessica asked.

"I think it's just you."

Jessica swallowed and reached for the object, unsure if she fully trusted Rebecca knew what she was talking about when the Dreamwarden said nothing they found could hurt them. She should be wearing gloves or have some sort of tongs to collect this.

The second she touched her fingers to the object, it started to glow, and she yanked her hand back.

"Whoa! I guess that one is meant for you. The puffball is going to be dancing about this," Charlotte said, bemused. "You have to be the one to take it now."

"You try touching it," Jessica instructed.

Charlotte rolled her eyes and flapped her wings to get into the air. While hovering, the night pony reached out a hoof and laid it on the object. There was no reaction.

"See, it's meant for you, not me. Dreamwardens don't lie," Charlotte said as she took her hoof away and landed. "Take it. We don't want to refuse a gift and offend the planet that can make us poof out of existence."

Jessica hesitated. "We don't even know what these things do. Why is the planet giving me a gift?"

"I don't know. Maybe it wants to make friends," Charlotte suggested. "We have our orders. Grab it so we can head back to the ship. We can radio Rebecca that we found something, and then maybe she can explain what the hell it is and what it does."

She gulped and reached out for the object again. It immediately started glowing once more when she touched it, and, once again, she yanked her hand back, and the glow ended. She then touched it again, and the light resumed, making her again pull her hand back.

"Stop poking it and just grab it," Charlotte said in frustration. "We've already established that it glows when you touch it. Stop being a chicken-shit."

For some reason, the image that entered her mind was the glowing forms of the crystal ponies that had hunted them during the day of the Cataclysm of Riverview, which did not help her bravery.

She took a deep breath and placed her hand entirely on the object. It started to glow once more. This time, she didn't yank her hand back but didn't grab either. Unlike the buildings, this thing felt warm to the touch. It wasn't hot, more a pleasant warmth, like clothes straight out of the dryer. There was something else…not something she could put into words well. It was like she was more aware of the stone.

She removed her hand once more, and Charlotte let off an aggravated sigh. Before her friend could scold her, she started pulling off her shirt.

"Why are you stripping?" Charlotte asked in confusion.

Jessica took her shirt and wrapped it around the object. Not being in direct contact with her seemed to prevent the glow. She bundled the object carefully in the shirt and then picked it up. She quickly checked her bra to ensure she wasn't popping out anywhere, not wanting to give anyone a peep show, especially since her abdomen and chest were essentially fur-free, and then smiled at her friend.

"There. Now we can head back to the ship," Jessica replied, feeling pleased with herself.

Chapter 29: The Stones of Jeg'galla'gamp'pi

"Hiya, Jess!" Rebecca greeted them as they reached the ship. "Showing your midriff, interesting look. I'm not an expert on human stuff, but I hear that it is supposed to be sexy. Should we ask Terrance or Jonathan if you are pulling it off well? I'm sure they can give better feedback than I can."

Jessica blushed and started trying to cover her front with her arms, but then remembered she was holding the object wrapped in her shirt, and she didn't want that thing any closer to her body than it currently was, so she put her arms back down.

"Don't ask them that. I'd rather they not see me like this," Jessica replied. She then held out the bundle. "Here's the sample."

Rebecca tilted her head. "You may be confused; that's your shirt. Is the stress getting to you?"

"Bundled up in my shirt," Jessica hissed through gritted teeth. She then undid the bundle and held the dodecahedron cupped in her hands, keeping the shirt between her skin and it.

The pegasus gasped and started hopping. "Ooohh! Fancy! Why are you keeping it in your shirt? I told you it won't hurt you, and you can't break it."

"It glows when it comes in contact with my skin," Jessica answered.

"Yeah, it freaks her out," Charlotte confirmed. "She spent like five minutes poking the damned thing like something else was going to happen before she got the nerve to pick it up."

"It wasn't five minutes!" Jessica snapped.

Charlotte gave an aggravated flap of her wings. "Felt like it."

Luna was staring at the object with a deep frown. "Marshmallow, what secret have thou been holding back from me?"

Rebecca sighed. "I thought we were done with the formalities. Secrets I have been keeping back, let me see. When I was sixteen, I crashed into my mom's car when trying to land from a flight and put a dent in it. Then, I lied and told my mom someone slammed their bike into it. Last Halloween, I got hungry and ate all the candy that we were supposed to give out to trick-or-treaters; then I panicked and shut off the porch light, along with all the lights in the house, and hid in the closet because I was afraid the trick-or-treaters would teepee the house if they knew. I still keep my vibrator in my pillow, even though I'm married. I forgot to empty the feather bin at my house before going on this trip. My weight has increased by fifteen pounds since I was eighteen-"

"MARSHMALLOW! THOU KNOWS WHAT I MEAN!" Luna yelled.

Rebecca fluttered her lips. "Beat it out of me, why don't ya? Don't take that as a serious suggestion. It was a turn of phrase. You want to know about the Sunstone."

Luna flared her wings. "Yes, what do you know that we do not know about the Sunstone."

Charlotte raised a wing. "What are we even talking about?"

Jessica wanted to know that as well but believed that her asking would be redundant at this point. Better to listen.

Rebecca sat down. "I don't know anything more than you do for certain. We only speculate."

Luna's frown turned into a grimace. "And what do you speculate?"

Rebecca grinned. "You dropped the formality, hooray! We speculate that the Sunstone is one of these stones like Jess is holding. Sometime deep in the past, it made its way to Equestria and found its person, or it and its person went to Equestria together. It is tough to say."

"What do you mean, its person? What does it mean to be its person? Is this thing a pet??" Jessica demanded to know.

Rebecca giggled. "No, silly. It isn't a pet rock. It's an extension and enhancement of your magic! It learns your magic so that it can do it. You can use it to accomplish great feats, and eventually, very eventually, it can do your magic for anyone…provided they don't upset it or the stone doesn't vanish sometime after you're gone. It can also sometimes just keep doing whatever it is that it does, even without anyone actively using it if it is locked into a routine by its owner."

Luna's eyes bulged. "The Sunstone can just vanish!?"

"Remember, we haven't established the Sunstone is one of these, but if it is, we think the fact it is in another universe might be protecting it from that," Rebecca answered. "Maybe being in another universe makes it so Jeg'galla'gamp'pi can't find it and take it back as it did with all the other stones."

"What does this Sunstone thing do?" Charlotte asked. "I assume something with the sun."

Luna let out a long breath. "Before my sister and I came along, and before the pony tribes started fighting one another, it was what moved the sun and moon in Equestria until the unicorns broke it with their meddling. This forced them to do the job themselves, at great cost, and led to disharmony among the pony tribes."

Rebecca raised a hoof. "They didn't break it. They upset it. You can't break these things."

"Well, if that's the case, my sister and I only recently were able to calm it down so it could be used again, should something happen to us. It had been upset for more than a thousand years!" Luna exclaimed.

"That's a long temper tantrum. Those unicorns must have been real assholes to the thing," Charlotte muttered.

Jessica stared in horror at the thing in her hands. "Are you saying this thing can move the Sun??!!! Why would we ever want something like this? It could end all life as we know it!"

Rebecca tilted her head. "Why would you think your stone can move the Sun?"

"You were just talking about what that other stone does!" Jessica yelled.

"Oh! I see the misunderstanding," Rebecca said with a nod. "That was someone else's stone…presumably. It was replicating and enhancing their magic and their nature. Unless you have been holding out on us, your magic doesn't move the Sun and Moon."

"What do you mean by their nature?" Charlotte asked in confusion.

Rebecca shrugged. "That one's a bit more hard to describe. I can't adequately describe it since it can mean many things, depending on who owns a stone. It's learning about you, just like your magic. It depends on what it learns. The stone is your friend, your helper."

"You just said it isn't a pet!" Jessica said, debating whether to drop this thing and forget it existed.

"It isn't! It is an extension of you!" Rebecca insisted.

Luna stepped closer to Jessica, still examining the dodecahedron. "And this stone will eventually allow anyone to replicate Jessica Middleton's magic?"

"That takes a long time to get to, maybe too long for a mortal human, but, yeah, enhanced even if it gets that far," Rebecca confirmed. "And her nature, whatever that may entail. Jeg'galla'gamp'pi will probably take it back whenever she dies. That's what normally happens. The person dies, and the stone just ceases to be; absorbed back into Jeg'gala'gamp'pi. The Junk Peddlers' entire economy revolved around finding these stones and trading them to people back on their homeworld. Everyone wanted to find their special stone, but they didn't want to come here to do it. You might not have noticed, but Jeg'galla'gamp'pi likes to hang out pretty close to stars. It makes journeying to it a weeee bit difficult. Triss's race's solution was just to gather up a lot of poor people and dump them here to gather stones, and those people depended on trading stones to get the supplies they needed to keep on living here. There's not a lot of food and drink around here, and if you don't remember me warning you, you don't want to try eating these stones. Eating unbreakable things is bad for your tummy!"

"That sounds like a lot of exploitation for what was supposed to be a highly advanced civilization," Charlotte observed.

"Every civilization has issues that need fixing. There's no such thing as a perfect system because civilizations are made up of people, and people aren't perfect. In fact, people are downright self-destructive. Regardless of the government or economy, they all fall prey to the three G's–greed, gullibility, and grumpiness. Sooner or later, those three things get so bad that nations will collapse under the weight if they don't get wiped out by something else first. No nation can stand forever," Rebecca replied knowingly.

"And what if the stone doesn't ever reach its special person?" Jessica asked, ignoring Rebecca's commentary on the downfall of civilization.

"They still give off lots of thaumic energy. Nothing that will hurt anyone, but it can be used to power some things," Rebecca explained.

"Like holding all the power of a black hole," Jessica said in amazement. Everyone looked at her. "These things are super-dense thaumic matter. It's like all the combined thaumic energy that would normally be in the world condensed down into an object that fits in your hand–even more energy than that, more like all the energy in the solar system. If thaumic energy could be used as a power source for machines, this one stone could power everything on Earth. It could power spacecraft that would make ours look like a wooden sled."

"Now I'm getting why you were so interested in this place," Charlotte said thoughtfully. "If you told us how to utilize these stones for power, we could power an entire fleet of craft to confront the Devourers in space. They'd have enough power to outmaneuver the Devourers–assuming Devourers can't move faster than light on a dime."

Rebecca nodded. "They can't do that. Faster-than-light travel requires a pretty big clearance of space in front of you. Trying to do that within a solar system is a good way of ramming into something, and even small somethings can mess you up at that speed." The Dreamwarden's ears perked. "Oh, Jess! I forgot to mention that you are safe from vanishing now! Once you've found your personal stone, you're pretty much free to wander wherever you like unaccompanied."

"That's–" Jessica started to reply but stopped when Luna suddenly spread her wings and looked around as if startled. Rebecca shivered at the same time.

"Wow, that was big enough for even my puny weather senses to pick up, and they barely ever pick up on anything," Rebecca said in wonder.

"What happened?"Jessica asked.

"Clearly, something with the weather," Charlotte replied.

Luna took a few deliberate flaps of her wings and then folded them to her sides. "There's been a major shift in the environment an hour's flight southeast of here. It encompasses a small area, perhaps a few city blocks, but it is dramatic. I don't think we can survive in the conditions that now exist in that area. There was no warning, no buildup. It simply changed. It also seems to be contained and does not affect conditions outside its radius. It is like it is contained in an invisible fence."

Rebecca nodded. "It should stay put, and we should avoid it. If I had to make a guess, Triss just arrived in the flesh. Jeg'galla'gamp'pi is accommodating her without hurting us, which is very nice of it. We shall continue to look for rocks and give her space. I like air I can breathe and the right amount of air pressure and gravity. I think we all do."

Jessica blinked. "She's here? She's here in the flesh? Not a projection or something like that? She has a physical body?"

"Why is she here?" Charlotte asked. "Seems a big coincidence that she'd show up here right after we do."

Rebecca shook her head and took on a severe expression. "She's likely here to guard her stone. If a bunch of scavengers showed up near where you kept your most precious possession, wouldn't you be mildly concerned? We'll leave her and her stone alone. We don't need or want hers. We don't need that kind of power. It would be opening Pandora's box, and we'd most likely upset it if we tried to use it. Anyway, she'd not give it up without a fight, and even with Luna, we're nowhere near qualified to take her on. Triss could crush us all like bugs, and she would in order to defend that stone. Plus, the Dreamwardens and Triss have a truce, and we honor our agreements."

Luna frowned. "We most certainly don't want to fight her nor take something that belongs to her. We aren't villains. However, it seems odd that we do not attempt to speak with her."

Rebecca shook her head again. "If she wants to talk to us, she knows we're here, and the Dreamwardens have also given her permission to communicate with others through the dream realm–which is easier since we need very different environments to live. She is not our mission. Our mission is to get as many stones as we can. So far, we have collected zero for the mission."

Jessica lifted the one in her hands. "Hello?! I'm holding one right here!"

The pegasus giggled. "Silly girl, that's your personal stone. That's for you, not the mission. Taking someone's personal stone from them is just not right–it's like taking an extension of their soul. That's wrong! So very very wrong! Technically, every stone is someone in the universe's stone, but they are fair game to use until when and if they connect with their owner. We need to find more stones, ones that don't light up when anyone here touches them."

"You said the Sunstone was someone's personal stone," Luna said, sounding uncomfortable. "Is it an extension of someone's soul as well?"

"Well, yeah," Rebecca admitted. "But I'm ninety-nine point nine-nine-nine-bunch of nines percent certain that person is dead, so that's okay for you Equestrians to have."

All their radios collectively beeped in chorus.

"Rebecca, it's Jonathan. Ashley and I found two oddly shaped stones. We are heading back to the ship."

The pegasus touched her radio button. "Good job! Nothing's glowing, right?"

"No, neither glows when touched," Jonathan answered.

"Great to hear!" Rebecca said happily. "Oh, avoid the area southeast of the ship. It would be very very bad if you wandered too far that way. Triss is down that way, and the environment shifted there to be comfortable to her but deadly to us."

"You couldn't tell us that earlier?!" Ashley yelled over the line.

Rebecca blushed. "I just found out a few seconds ago. I was going to get to it. I promise!"

"Maybe try to have a little more urgency about telling us about such hazards in the future," Jonathan calmly replied. Jessica didn't feel like being calm. Rebecca's insouciant approach to everything could get someone killed!

"I'll definitely try!" Rebecca exclaimed. "See you soon!" She then looked at Jessica and Charlotte. "Jess, you can put your stone away and find another shirt before you two go back out. Charlotte, you can either wait with us while she does or follow her around, but even though Jess can be alone now, you still need to stay in sight of someone."

"When do I get to sleep?" Charlotte asked. "I know we are outside anything resembling proper time zones, but I've been awake for a long while. How long is the day here anyway?"

Rebecca pursed her lips. "Not sure how long a day is–long, I know that. It takes a long time for a planet this size to complete a spin. I suppose you can go to sleep on the bridge. Smiley and Terrence would be in sight of you then."

Jessica swished her tail nervously. Charlotte would need to be accompanied to the bridge, but that left her having to return down here by herself. Even if she ran, that would be at least a minute alone.

Rebecca frowned. "How about Luna and I accompany you up to the bridge? We could stand to check on the guys up there. See if they are going a little stir-crazy. Maybe they'll want their chance to go out and explore."

Relief flooded her. Maybe Rebecca was paying attention. It was hard to tell with the chubby pegasus if her seeming carelessness, forgetfulness, and indelicate behavior was an act or legitimate. Rebecca had failed to think her actions through frequently before becoming a Dreamwarden. It stood to reason that she still did that. People changed when they became Dreamwardens, but they were still themselves at their core, and Rebecca, at her core, was impulsive and disorganized, at least from Jessica's experiences. Rebecca wasn't a bad person–she was kind, loving, and cheerful; the kind of person who was great to hang around when you wanted to have fun or needed a sympathetic ear to talk to. She was just not someone you wanted in charge of…well…anything, at least not anything dangerous.

Rebecca waited, patiently watching Jess put on a fresh shirt, and she considered the situation. The stone was still bundled up and now under Jess's cot. The young woman had seemed annoyed it wasn't being put in one of the storage containers in the hold, but Rebecca put her hoof down that the stone was to stay with her things. Jess was clearly uneasy with her stone, being alone, and even revealing skin. All of her confident assurances didn't seem to do much to ease Jess's fears, and keeping anxiety among the group to a minimum was crucial since too much fear could upset the planet. Trying to put a chipper mood on things didn't work on the girl. If anything, it seemed to be having a detrimental effect. Luna, Charlotte, Jonathan, and Ashley understood how Rebecca did things, and they didn't seem to be that troubled, but there needed to be some course correction with Jess. What to do? What to do?

"Hey, Jess, how do you feel about Luna and guys going together for a bit and you and I staying at the ship to do some scientific investigation?" Rebecca asked.

Jess's finished putting on her shirt, and her ears perked. "Scientific investigation?"

Rebecca nodded. "Your stone. I think you'd feel better about it if you got to approach it from a scientific angle. It is meant for you. You should try to understand it, but we need to do that in a way that you're most comfortable with. So…science!"

"No offense, but do you know the first thing about science?" Jess asked skeptically.

"You forget, I'm no dummy; I'm an architect! I'm the one who drew up the plans for the ship we're on, and it got us here safely, didn't it?" Rebecca answered cheerfully. "I might not be a scientist, but I do understand math, and although I'm no physicist, I likely understand physics concepts more than anyone here but you. I have also picked up more than a few little things as a Dreamwarden, things even you don't know. You can devise some tests for your stone, and I can assist. I can suggest a few things, and you can decide on how you want to go about doing them. We also have a fair amount of equipment built into this ship to identify all kinds of information for you."

Jess looked around. "You designed this ship?"

Rebecca nodded. "I design lots of things. I'm not just the Dreamwarden jester and PR face. I'm the Dreamwarden architect and engineer! The others, they don't have the head for these kinds of things. Math and science aren't part of who they are. Yinyu dropped out of school as a young teen. Many of the others know about psychology, but that doesn't build bridges over rivers. Others are great administrators, but they have others deal with science stuff. That includes the Warden of Order, who understands accounting but has no idea how to ensure something has structural integrity. They can't make sense of the knowledge we have, but I can. That's part of my job, and we each bring unique skills and perspectives to the table. Along with art, math, and science were my best subjects in school, and those three are what I need for my career."

Jess seemed skeptical still. "I know Dreamwardens don't lie, but do you have any verification of this? Did you do anything other than design this ship?"

Rebecca nodded again and paced a little, keeping Jess in sight. "I assisted your Auntie Sunset in designing her vaults at Wabash Manor and the defenses for them. I drew up sketches of Devourers and details on how they operate–as best I could, anyway; a few things elude me. I've helped design several OMMR facilities–they aren't my favorite work, too strictly utilitarian for my taste, without much flare or art, but they're good, structurally sound buildings. I've also designed starcraft for the Pentagon, even if they think Jonathan is the one doing it. I won't pretend to be the most brilliant person ever because I'm not, but I'm not just a silly chubby pegasus. I'm the Silly Chubby Pegasus, and I'm at least moderately intelligent."

"Okay, you convinced me," Jess said with resignation, but there did seem to be some sliver of eagerness. The prospect of engaging in science experiments must have worked. This entire thing was mostly a charade on Rebecca's part. She already knew everything Jess would discover with her science experiments, and she could tell the girl all those details, but Jess would feel better discovering those things herself and trust those facts more. Once they finished that, they could start trying to get Jess to bond with the stone. It was manipulative, but that was part of the Dreamwarden job description, and it was manipulating for good.

Hmm…stray thought…she wondered how the break-in at Wabash Manor went. That was supposed to be today. She was confident in the defenses she helped old SB set up, so she wasn't worried, but she hoped it didn't freak Jordan out. Oops…another stray thought…she wondered how Russell was doing with her so far away. This would be the longest they'd been separated since they were wed, and one of the few times she wished dreamwalking to him was an option. Yet another stray thought: she needed to check on Blanche and Josie soon. Their mission worried her a little.

Her radio crackled. "Rebecca, we're here. Where are you?" Jonathan asked.

"Everyone's upstairs," Rebecca answered as she sat and touched the button. "Come on up so we can see your stones, and give everyone a chance to touch them, just to make sure neither of the stones belongs to anyone here. Jess and I need to do that for some experiments anyway, and we need controls for that."

"Understood, we'll be right up," Jonathan replied.

Rebecca touched her radio button again. "Everyone to the common room slash kitchen! We have stones to touch, and it's a good time for a snack and some water. Need to keep your energy up. No hungry or dehydrated people allowed on this mission!"

Jess frowned. "What do we do if those stones have owners here?" Jessica asked. "Could the planet be so starved for company that it just decides to give everyone here one of its gifts?"

"Hmmm," Rebecca considered. "Interesting idea. I guess we keep looking for more stones that don't belong to us. That's all we can do. I mean, if it wants more company, it has to let more stones out into the world to encourage people to want to come here."

Jess sat down and looked at the bundle under her bed. "Have you considered these stones are probes?"

Rebecca blinked. "Probes?"

The girl nodded. "You say they learn about their owners. Everything about their magic and their personality and nature, and, eventually, the planet takes them back when the person dies. That would be like it is absorbing that knowledge back into itself. These stones seem like the planet's way of learning about people. It incentivizes them to keep the stone near them by giving them power, and with the stone near them, it achieves the goal of learning."

"Another interesting hypothesis," Rebecca replied. She then shrugged. "I don't know, and I don't know any way of testing that. Still, that must make you feel better if it were true. That would mean you are dealing with another scientist, right? Jeg'galla'gamp'pi would be studying you, and it wants to keep its subject alive."

"I'm not sure if that makes me feel better," Jess confessed. "Knowing what kind of intelligence is studying me would make me feel more at ease. It could just as well want to know what occurs when I die."

"Oh, it will find that out eventually," Rebecca said. "Jeg'galla'gamp'pi has all the time in the universe, and none of us will live that long. It can be patient."

One thing Rebecca hadn't mentioned and decided to keep to herself, for now at least, was the stones tended to extend the lifespans of their owners significantly, provided nothing terrible happened to the owner. Not immortal, not by any stretch, but Triss's people had been known to have lifespans doubled, tripled, quadrupled, or, in rare cases, made tenfold what they'd have been otherwise. Dropping the bombshell that Jess's lifespan might have just jumped by anywhere from an additional eighty to a thousand years might not be the best thing to put her at ease, at least not yet. The Devourers were still coming, and longer lifespans were an issue to sort out after worrying about whether life would end much sooner and much more abruptly.

Chapter 30: Extra Value

"Well, we have one stone at least for our mission," Rebecca said, then lightly petted the stone that looked like a small child's attempt to make a pretzel that turned out deformed. "Don't worry, stone. You weren't what we were looking for, but I love you. I'm sure we'll be great friends." The stone glowed with each stroke.

Jessica shivered at how casually Rebecca touched that thing, knowing how much power it had to contain. What was that stone learning from the pegasus? Rebecca's projection powers were already very unique. And what of her nature? It was still unclear what duplicating her nature meant. Was the stone learning to be cheerful and bubbly?

She took a sip of water from her canteen.

That last thought made her think of these stones as children learning from their parents. That made her think of Mark and what he would learn from her if she adopted him. Realistically, it was unfair to expect Mark to follow her career path or even be capable of doing so. She did want to teach him to be curious about the world around him and to try to understand it. He was very timid, and she wanted to teach him to be less so. Living in constant fear was not a proper life, not one that would make him happy. She had to set an example worth following.

"So, Luna, Smiley, and Terrance, all of you will go out as a group to search. Ashley and Jonathan can continue together in their search. Jess and I will stay here and run some tests while keeping Charlotte company while she sleeps. That also makes it so I don't have to come running back every time someone finds something," Rebecca instructed as she took a bite of her protein bar. She chewed for a moment, then swallowed. "After this round of searching, we can all relax, eat some more, and sleep. I know we have these nice quarters, but we'll all need to sleep out here unless you want to pair up in rooms. Well, aside from me and Jess, we can sleep and go potty in private."

Ashley snorted. "Why even have quarters then?"

"This ship is getting donated, so it is more for the army's sake," Rebecca said with a shrug.

Ashley rolled her eyes. "Well, I'm not going to complain about not having to watch you shit again. As for whoever will watch me, I'm sorry, I had a lot of beans this morning."

"Again?" Smiley asked.

"She and I, along with several other mares, used to share a bathroom when we were in college," Ashley explained. "Six mares sharing one bathroom got a little chaotic at times. I suppose it isn't too different for you guys in the military. I'm used to dealing with her. In case you're wondering, she's always been like this, even before she was a Dreamwarden. She has since developed that I-say-you-do attitude that all the Dreamwardens have, but that's to be expected. A Dreamwarden tells you to do something; they expect you to do it."

"It is hard having absolute authority in the dream realm and then submitting to the authority of another. It is our nature to command," Luna said as she examined her protein bar, turning it in the air with her magic as if unsure it was food.

"You seem to do it well enough," Jonathan pointed out.

Luna sighed and put the bar down. "Not always, but I am more practiced at it than your wardens. I know I am not in my universe or the master of this dream realm, so I understand there are other authorities, such as the Marshmallow, who are to be obeyed here, as I expect them to do when they come to my realm. Still, it can be hard. They may have access to knowledge I do not, but there is something to be said for lived experience, and that experience makes it a little easier. I also have made…regretful decisions, trying to assert my authority. That tempers my behavior somewhat and makes me more sympathetic to those trying to reform themselves after doing things they regret."

"Which is why you were so ready to take Sunset Blessing as a student," Jonathan said.

Luna nodded, looking sad. "I see myself in ponies such as Starlight Glimmer and Sunset Blessing, even Trixie Lulamoon. We have done dreadful things and have nothing but regret and shame for those actions. It seems sometimes as if our entire lives are spent trying to atone for past actions. This is not a healthy way of thinking, but it is hard to keep such thoughts at bay. It helps to have friends who understand how it feels."

Rebecca went back to stroking her stone. "The Dreamwardens of Earth understand that feeling. We have this guy named Joss stuck in our memories. Sha'am is there too, but she's got nothing on Joss or the primordials."

"I have my own memories of primordials," Luna whispered. "So much death. The fear of such a being coming into existence here is part of what made me act with so much haste and disregard for authorities to get a Dreamwarden active here. I stepped into this universe's dream realm and could feel it forming. Those of you who are not Dreamwardens are lucky; you do not know the terror of a primordial. There are monsters that no one can fight."

"Triss survived them; this place survived them," Jonathan pointed out.

Rebecca shook her head. "Nothing that sleeps and has magic can survive a primordial. All it takes is for it to be in a bad mood, and every dreamer is dead. Jeg'galla'gamp'pi does not sleep, and Triss can escape to another plane of existence beyond the physical or dream realms, a place where she needs no sleep and the monsters can't find her. That is how she survived countless primordials and how she survived the Devourers. Unfortunately, that plane can only be touched by those worthy of ascension and glimpsed by some Storytellers. Only Luna could touch that place from those of us gathered here. That is what Triss seeks. She seeks the worthy, or those who could become worthy, all so she can save them from the monsters in the dark and not be alone anymore. Not everyone has it in them to be worthy, and even those that do don't usually achieve it. Triss wouldn't be so alone if it were an easy thing."

"Seems like the best defense is to have a race that does not sleep," Terrance observed.

"I have known a fiend that did not sleep," Luna replied, gritting her teeth angrily. "His name was King Sombra, and he was wicked. He mind-controlled ponies to be his slaves, and while under his control, they did not sleep either. To have such a monster doing such things to my subjects and not being able to do anything about it filled me with rage, the likes of which you cannot imagine. He ruled over the Crystal Empire, and when it returned, my sister had to restrain me from charging in to slay the tyrant! She said Twilight and Cadence would deal with it. I was hardly reassured, and it took great restraint to let them try while keeping a calm face."

"How did the Crystal Empire vanish to begin with?" Smiley asked. "I remember being taught about it returning in school, but no one ever says why it was gone to begin with."

Rebecca suddenly stood up. "I think we have had enough downtime for the moment. It's time to get back to work."

Everyone looked at one another, save for Rebecca, who looked like she wouldn't accept any objections, and Luna, who was staring downward, not meeting anyone's eyes. The answer to Smiley's question may not be spoken, but everyone now knew the truth of the matter. The hows weren't important; they knew the who, and they knew the why. Luna had much in her past that she regretted. Jessica wasn't the sentimental type, but she wanted to hug the alicorn.

Everyone stood up, unsure what else to do but obey the person in charge of the mission. When Luna stood, Rebecca walked over to her and pulled her into the hug Jessica had been considering.

"I love you, and I forgive you for the Crystal Empire. I forgive you for Nightmare Moon. I forgive you for Sha'am Maut. I even forgive you for the Hollow Shades. No one is perfect; everyone ends up doing things they regret. Sometimes, it is huge regrets, and you've had more time than the rest of us to have regrets. It's all in the past. You are loved, and you're our friend," Rebecca whispered to Luna.

You know what? What the hell? I already wanted to do the same thing, Jessica thought to herself.

Not putting too much thought into it, she walked over and joined Rebecca in hugging Luna. There was no shame in showing compassion. Ashley and Jonathan quickly followed. Smiley followed, perhaps unable to resist a group hug, and Terrance followed after that, maybe not wanting to be the only one not involved. That released the floodgates, and Luna broke down crying.

Sometimes, everyone needed a hug.

"And for our final piece, we have something special, donated directly from Miss Gilmore!"

Andrea raised an eyebrow at Jordan, but Jordan just shrugged. She wasn't expecting this last thing to bring much, and she was already delighted with how the auction had gone. The total proceeds were over eleven million dollars! Once she refurnished the house, she would pay for any tuition she couldn't get covered by scholarships. What remained, she was going to donate. She didn't need that much money.

The auctioneer put a chunk of burnt wood on display. "We have legitimate Skytree wood! Weighing in at three point four pounds. Bidding starts at seventy-five thousand dollars!"

Jordan's eyes bulged. She had been sitting on seventy-five thousand dollars for years? Surely, no one would pay that much for a burnt chunk of wood.

Someone raised a sign.

"I see seventy-five! Do we have eighty?" the auctioneer asked

Someone raised a sign.

Someone raised another sign. "Ninety!" the bidder yelled.

"Ninety-five!" another bidder shouted.

"One-hundred-five!"

"One-twenty!"

"One-forty!"

Jordan couldn't believe it. It wouldn't add much to the overall total, but she couldn't believe her little chunk of wood was worth that much. It wasn't even good wood; it was at least half char! She listened in amazement as the bids grew higher and higher.

"Five hundred thousand!" a woman with a Russian accent thundered. That was a full hundred and fifty thousand higher than the last bid. Everyone who had been in the bidding war suddenly seemed far less eager.

"Any further bids?" the auctioneer asked. "Going once…going twice…sold, for five hundred thousand!"

The appraiser stepped forward. "That concludes today's auction. Your purchases will be packed and waiting for you at the gate."

The crowd began to exit the area, heading to cars. Guards oversaw each person.

"Expensive piece of wood," Andrea observed as she stood up. "That thing was yours. I think you should put that money in a personal account. The rest of this was my sister's, so that's the household's, but that money should be yours and yours alone."

"A good suggestion," the Russian woman said as she approached them. She pulled an ID from her shirt and held it out. "Stephanie Adams, OMMR, elite bodyguard of Arbiter."

Jordan blinked. "What does Arbiter need with a bodyguard? She's kinda already dead."

The woman passed her ID to a nearby guard, who started checking it.

"It tis more formality to be called bodyguard, more personal agent," Stephanie confessed. "I am one of the elite; each Dreamwarden has at least two, some more. I believe twenty of us are in total, last checked. I do as my Dreamwarden commands. Those that serve the living are better fighters. Those who serve the dead fill other roles. Forgive my accent; I hope tis not too much. I spend much of my last month in Russia. My magic lets me have local language and flavor become my own after a few days of immersion. I will be thinking in Russian for another week and will then revert back to English and speak my native language more naturally. You may not believe, but I am from Wisconsin."

"Someone with magic that helps them better communicate with the local populace and feel more like a native rather than a foreigner; sounds like something a Dreamwarden named Arbiter would value," Andrea said and looked at the guard who was checking the ID.

"ID checks out, ma'am, and she is on Miss Blessing's list to be allowed in," the guard informed them.

"Why pay so much for my chunk of wood?" Jordan asked.

"Arbiter and the Dreamwardens desire items of great power, and such things are hard to find. Skytree wood is an item of great power. Most Skytree wood, except that are still in living trees, is now held in private collections," Stephanie answered. "Obtaining it was not my goal when coming, just bonus. I have more discretionary allowance than some of my comrades for such things. I am here for the mare, Carmen Sandiego. Promises were made. Dreamwardens honor their contracts."

Andrea nodded. "I'm confident Miss Gilmore has no complaints to that. Am I right, filly?"

"Yes! Of course, she can take our intruder away," Jordan said. Then her ears flattened. "You aren't going to hurt her, are you?"

Stephanie shook her head. "We shall pay her for her efforts, take her somewhere that she gets medical treatment while she recovers, and send her on her way. It seem that defenses are good. The Marshmallow shall be pleased. The Marshmallow helped design them."

That pointed to the OMMR as Auntie Sunset's secret funder for the vaults. All those fines they gave out for lesser dreamwalking rule violations, private meetings they hosted, and unbreakable NDA contracts they had businesses and the governments pay them for must have added up to a lot of funding. That was Arbiter's doing. She had reformed the OMMR into a money-making machine by emphasizing the services Dreamwardens could provide beyond counseling and maintaining order in the dream realm, then charging for those side services with little overhead costs beyond record keeping. Before that, the Dreamwardens had a fraction of the funds and depended on government and private donations to pay the bills. Now, the OMMR could pay for all kinds of side projects and purchases they could never pay for when Jordan was a little filly, like throwing half a million dollars out to buy a burnt piece of wood.

Andrea looked around to make sure there were enough guards on duty. "Come along then. Let's go get Miss I-Wanna-Be-A-Kids-Educational-Game."

"Why do you call her that?" Jordan asked in confusion.

"I am also curious," Stephanie said.

"Young people," Andrea lamented. "Her name is based on a late-twentieth-century video game character who was always stealing historical artifacts and even sometimes stealing the entire historic site. The players had to track her down and catch her. It was a fun way to educate kids about geography and history. Amicus used to play it all the time when we were teens, and she roped me into playing with her on and off. It had a cartoon that Sunset watched and had the most infuriatingly catchy theme song. Urgh! Now I've got it in my head. I'm glad the Marshmallow isn't here; that damn blob would be singing it; I know it."

"Where is Carmen Sandiego, Carmen Sandiego? Where on Earth can she be?" Rebecca sang as Jessica wrote down her plans for experiments.

Jessica paused and stared at the fat Dreamwarden. "What the heck are you doing?"

"Singing," Rebecca answered with a grin.

"Why?" Jessica asked.

"Because I feel like it."

Jessica rolled her eyes. "Can you do it a little quieter? I'm trying to think."

"Sure thing!" Rebecca answered, then started humming. "Hmmm hm hmmhmm hmmhmhmhm, hmmhmm hmmhmhmhm. Hmmmm hm hmmm hm hm hm."

That wasn't exactly what Jessica had meant, but she could ignore the noise. It wasn't the worst distraction Rebecca could be doing, and being around Rebecca, you had to accept that nothing would be calm and quiet. She wanted to adopt a kid, so she needed to learn to deal with a bit of noise. Mark made very little noise, but it would be unlikely he would stay that quiet; at least, she hoped he got a little louder. Kids were supposed to make noise. Auntie Sunset had once told her she should be more worried if a kid were quiet than loud; those keeping quiet were trying not to be noticed, and if they were trying to be unnoticed, it rarely meant anything good.

"Do you think I would be a good mother?" she asked.

Rebecca stopped humming. "That's an odd question to ask for your experiments. The stone isn't a baby. You can't accidentally starve it like you could a child, and it won't wake up crying at night. No worries about that!"

Jessica's ears flattened. "You think I would starve a child?!"

Rebecca pursed her lips. "Well…maybe not on purpose, but I have heard about your cooking. You might end up poisoning a kid by accident. If you want, I could give you cooking lessons. I'm a great cook! You might have fun. Cooking is chemistry and physics. You love those things."

Viewing it in that light, it did seem strange she was terrible at cooking. Maybe a few lessons would help her out. Not lessons with Rebecca. She could find someone else who was a little more focused.

"The reason I'm asking if I would be a good mother is that I'm trying to adopt a partial child named Mark. He's four," Jessica explained.

"I suppose you would understand him better than others, and that's a good thing," Rebecca answered, sounding hesitant.

Jessica bit her lip briefly. "I hear an unsaid but in that."

Rebecca sadly nodded. "You need to do some work on yourself first. I don't want to be disrespectful. I want to give you an honest answer so you can be a great mother. I love kids, and you are my friend. I want the best for everyone. Please, don't take my feedback as anything other than me trying to help you and Mark be that happy family."

"Okay, I accept that," Jessica agreed. "And I do appreciate the honest feedback. I want what's best for Mark as well."

"Wanting what's best for Mark is the best starting point in doing right by him," Rebecca replied with a grin. Her grin quickly faded. "I need to explain some things; otherwise, you might get the wrong impressions. Anything you have discussed with anyone or anything involving this situation, I can't use any of that information if I learned it in the dream realm. So, assume I don't know what you have said to anyone or whatever other advice you may have already gotten. If I know that stuff, I must behave as if I don't until you tell me. I can be more forthcoming in the dream realm if you permit me to read your mind, but I know you don't care much for that. Honestly, I don't either. I hate knowing what's happening in others' heads—especially friends and family. I don't think any Dreamwardens like it."

Jessica nodded. "I understand how Dreamwardens rules work. I'm still open to any advice you might have."

"Good," Rebecca replied. "First thing is that you need to lighten up. You're way too serious all the time. You don't have to be Miss Non-Stop-Fun, but you have to relax and be playful sometimes. I know you can do it because I've seen you with your brothers. You're like a whole other person when interacting with them. You're warm. You joke around. You even get silly sometimes. Your relationship as a mother to a child would be much different than with your siblings—you are their caretaker and the person who has to lay down structure and order for the kid, but Mark needs to see that lighter side, too. No one is going to accuse Sunset Blessing of being the Element of Laughter, and she can get very bossy and strict with her kids, but she does lighten up around her sons in private. If Sunset Blessing can do it, I know you can too."

Jessica nodded. "Alright, that seems reasonable."

"Next…sarcasm…I know you use it when joking around. It would be best not to use sarcasm with a young child," Rebecca instructed. "When Mark gets older, like a teen or preteen, using sarcasm is something you can do, but young kids just don't get it, and it can make them get the wrong idea or feel bad. Be careful what you say in general. Young kids are very literal about everything. If you say something, they will hold to exactly what you said, regardless of what you meant. You can use analogies and metaphors, but you have to explain what they mean immediately. Also, most people aren't as smart as you, so you shouldn't assume the kid learned it after you explained it to them that one time. If it comes up again, you should explain it again. Repetition of the same lesson helps it set in. That goes for any lesson you give him about anything. You can ease up on the explaining once it is clear they have absorbed it, but be ready for a lot of repeating yourself over multiple sessions. Teaching a child anything takes patience."

"This seems like good advice…" Jessica said slowly. "...but…this sounds like things you might say to anyone. What is getting in the way of me being a good parent?"

Rebecca sighed. "Well, the lighten up thing was specific to you, along with telling you about laying off sarcasm and reminding you to have patience with others learning things—the biggest thing you would need to have more confidence in yourself for more than your smarts. You have to show the world and Mark that you are someone to be proud of. So he has someone to look up to—so he knows he can be proud of himself too."

"You sound like Violet," Jessica muttered. Adam had said as much as well. If people were telling her the same thing about her repeatedly, it was worth paying attention to it.

"Oh! You met Violet?" Rebecca asked cheerfully. "She's great. Miss Seapony might think she's a tease with the whole, I look sexy, but you can't touch thing Violet has going on, but if that were a big deal, I'd be in trouble. I mean, look how sexy I am! Anyway, I met her when I passed through Denver—physically. She doesn't know I'm the Marshmallow, but she likes the way I carry myself. You work at the same school, don't you? She could be a good friend."

Jessica rubbed her arm. "She says she's going to try to help me out." She looked down at her stone. "Let's get back on track. I have some experiments plotted out. You said this ship can take various readings. You've already demonstrated many of those when you were getting readings on this planet. I want to start with getting readings on this thing's mass and thaumic output. I also want to weigh it. Thaumic matter, in theory, shouldn't have weight or personal gravity, yet we're standing on a planet that clearly has both, and this stone isn't just floating off into space. I'm curious where its weight comes from. We've never had access to thaumic matter on such a scale, only trace amounts artificially made in a lab, which is not behaving as expected. That tells me that either there's something else at work, or our current understanding of how thaumic matter should work is in error. Perhaps when it reaches a certain level of mass, it starts behaving more like non-thaumic matter. I will publish a paper on this when I'm done."

Rebecca rolled her eyes and softly smiled. "We can check that. I'm assuming you want to check my stone and the neutral stone as well?"

"Yes!" Jessica replied. "I hope the others find plenty of other stones. We need as many examples to study as possible. We also need plenty of non-bonded stones to compare against the bonded stones for comparison."

"Whatever makes you happy," Rebecca said.

Chapter 31: Nostalgia

Amicus looked out at the expanse of stars and breathed. She rarely visited the dream realm, even though the Dreamwardens had granted her dreamwalking abilities. She honestly had no clue how to use those abilities, even though she’d had them for years. However, she could pull herself into the general realm and request services. Again, that wasn’t something she often did, but a mood had overtaken her, and she could afford to splurge a few dollars on an experience.

“Arbiter, I’m feeling nostalgic now that we have this new young mare in the house. It makes me want to remember when I was young. Can you pull up one of my memories of me, Andrea, and Sunset when we were young? I know we fought a lot back then, and good memories might be a stretch, but can it be something where we were getting along?” she asked. “You don’t have to give me the full disclaimer and explanation of terms. I know them, and accept them.”

The scene shifted to their house they lived in when they were in South Carolina, or at least, its backyard. It was a sunny day. Amicus’s younger self was laying back in a a pool chair, sunning herself in a string bikini, reading a biography of Jimmy Carter, while smoking a cigarette. An open can of soda sat on the ground beside her. If she had to guess, she was fifteen or sixteen at the time. She’d forgotten how vain she used to be about her appearance.

Andrea’s younger self, wearing blue jeans and a red flannel shirt, stepped out the backdoor and lit up her own cigarette. Andrea took a few puffs before walking over, leaning down to get a look at what Amicus was reading, then laughed.

“Kristin, you are such a dork. You’re reading about Jimmy Carter?” Andrea asked with amusement. “Is that for some class? If it isn’t, that just makes you even more of a dork.”

Amicus’s younger self glared up at her older sister and took a long draw from her cigarette. “He is a great man and humanitarian. I respect him and look up to him. Plus, it is always good to educate yourself about US history. You could stand to study more.”

In Amicus’s humble opinion, her sister still could stand to study more.

Andrea shrugged. “I’ll study in college when it’s stuff that matters. This is my senior year. It only comes once. I’m going to have as much fun as I can. For the rest of this year I am only studying enough to coast through my classes. I’m not stressing myself out.”

Her younger self rolled her eyes, brushed out her cigarette, and flicked it out into the yard. Andrea scowled and marched out to where the butt had landed, and picked it up. Then Andrea returned to the back patio and put the cigarette butt in the soda can.

“Hey! I was drinking that!” Amicus’s younger self protested as she slammed her book shut.

“Who cares?” Andrea replied and took another puff. “Don’t flick your shit into the backyard. It will make the backyard look trashy.”

On this one, Amicus had to agree with her sister. Amazing what several decades can do for a perspective. Honestly, the fact the younger versions of themselves were smoking at all was kind of disgusting.

“I thought you weren’t going to stress yourself out. Why are you having a cow about this?” Kristin grumbled.

“Messes stress me out,” Andrea answered as she took another long draw and then put her own into the can as she let out her plume. She then sighed. “Actually, I wanted to ask a favor.”

“Help with what?” Kristin asked.

Andrea scratched her arm. “I’ve got a date coming up. Would you help me with my makeup? You’re better at that stuff than me.” She spread her arms. “Look at me. Do I look like I know anything about eye blush and lipstick and whatnot? I’m not fuckin’ Cindy Crawford like you.”

Was Cindy Crawford even still alive? It seemed probable, but she must have dropped off the map into obscurity in her old age.

Kristin smiled. “You think I look like Cindy Crawford? That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said about me. It’s eyeliner, by the way. Blush you put on your cheeks.”

“See, I had no idea! Anyway, don’t let it get to your head, or I’ll tell your boyfriend you spend like an hour every day playing Mortal Kombat,” Andrea snapped back.

Kristin laughed. “For starters, I play Mortal Kombat 2 for about an hour every day. The first Mortal Kombat was sooo last year. You need to keep up with the times. Second, Danny knows I play. He likes that his girlfriend can actually put up a fight against him in a video game. I even let him win, most of the time. I can’t let him win all the time, or he’ll know I’m letting him. Boys don’t like that.”

Amicus rolled her eyes. Guess she had to please the patriarchy. She was going to miss having Méng around. He was the only person in the house she could sit down and play that original Street Fighter 2 arcade machine with. The whippersnapper had learned the hard way that even as a pony, she still had the translated muscle memory to pull moves off without effort. She’d tried getting Sunset and the other colts to try, but they quickly got frustrated with the controls and called the game unbalanced and unfair–the unicorns saying that to an earth pony seemed very ironic. As for her husband… poor Legal Brief was a lost cause at any gaming past Pong, and he was even bad at that. Méng had taken a while to get good, but he eventually became a fairly even opponent to face off against, depending on character matchups. Maybe Jordan might be willing to play…if she didn’t auction off the arcade machine. Amicus hoped she hadn’t auctioned off that machine.

Charlotte walked out the backdoor at that moment, wearing black…everything. Oh, yeah, this phase. The phase that Sunset had gone to great lengths to destroy all photographic evidence of ever having gone through. The fact that Sunset’s thirteen year old self was wearing a pentagram necklace was downright hilarious. Sunset would never live down this phase…ever.

“Hey, look, Wednesday Addams has arrived,” Andrea said snidely. “What are you doing outside? I thought getting sun was against your religion or something.”

“Can I get a cigarette from one of you two?” Charlotte asked.

“No! These are ours. Steal one of Mom’s,” Andrea snapped.

“She doesn’t have any open packs laying around,” Charlotte countered, stompping a foot.

“Just grab a whole pack from the carton. Believe me, unless it is like one of the last three packs, she won’t notice. I used to pull that all the time when I first started. You’d better hurry if you’re going to do it. Mom and Dad should be both getting home in the next hour or so,” Kristin said, seemingly unconcerned she was advocating stealing another person’s property or promoting delinquency in a minor. Amicus wanted to cover her face in shame.

“What if she catches me doing it?” Charlotte whined.

Kristin shrugged. “Then the cats out of the bag. She lets me and Andrea smoke; she’ll probably let you. Yeah, she’ll probably yell, but can she really be that surprised between the whole goth thing you’ve got going on and having two older sisters who smoke? It’s like a given that you’ll be smoking. She probably already knows and hasn’t said anything. Mom’s not stupid.”

That had ended up being true. She wasn’t sure how long it had taken for Charlotte to get caught in the act, but what followed had gone as her younger self had described. There was some yelling, lots of declarations of how disappointed their parents were with Charlotte, then they just let her do it because stopping her was going to be next to impossible and holding her easy access to cigarettes as leverage for maintaining good grades and keeping her room clean was too effective a tactic not to use–they’d done the exact same thing to Amicus and Andrea. Well, they had tried to stop Andrea for a while, then gave up after it was clear that wasn’t working, then barely put up a fight about it with Amicus, since they’d already conceded with one kid and couldn’t let one get away with it and not the other. Was it the best parenting tactic? That was debatable, but sometimes you just had to assess the situation and do your best to find something that works. It doesn’t always work out to an ideal solution, but sometimes there are no ideal situations to be had. All three of them had ended up quitting long before their mother.

“Earth to Kristin! Are you going to help me or not?” Andrea fumed.

Kristin waved a hand at her. “Okay, okay. I’ll help you with your makeup. Maybe we can do something about your wardrobe too. You look like a dyke.”

“I can help with makeup,” Charlotte offered.

“I don’t want to go to my date looking like the Bride of Frankenstein, thank you,” Andrea said. Charlotte frowned and looked away. “Hey! No retort? Did I hit a nerve? What gives? Have those girls been picking on you again?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Charlotte mumbled.

“Bullshit! Nobody picks on my sisters!” Andrea growled.

Sunset always ended up rubbing people the wrong way and making people want to come after her. In Sunset’s younger self’s defense, the abrasive additude normally came after she’d already been targeted for bullying. However, the abrasiveness made the bullies more insistent on repeatedly targeting her.

“You literally pick on Charlotte all the time, including right before you asked her if those girls were picking on her again,” Kristin said dryly.

How Andrea managed to keep out of the same situation as their youngest sister, Amicus never understood. Andrea was always abrasive, then and now.

“That’s different,” Andrea countered. ”I’ll go beat those girls’ skinny asses.”

“No, you’re old enough that you get tried as an adult if you do that and they decide to press charges. So you can’t,” Kristin reminded her.

Andrea pointed at her. “Then you’ll have to go do it.”

Kristin pointed at herself. “Me?! What the hell am I supposed to do?”

“Something,” Andrea answered flippantly.

Charlotte stomped. “I can deal with my own problems. I don’t need you two getting tangled up in them and getting in trouble!”

Andrea walked over to Charlotte and hugged her. “We’re family. Your problems are our problems. Don’t you ever forget that. Family stands or falls together.”

Kristin fluttered her lips. “Fine. I’ll do something, but it won't be kick their asses. Maybe I can scrounge up some dirt on them. That’s how you beat popular snots. You hit them where it really hurts, their popularity and egos. Charlotte can help me help you with the makeup. She does know what she’s doing, and has a steady hand. I doubt she’ll try to goth you up. It can be her way of paying me back for helping her out with those bitches.”

“Fine,” Andrea conceded. “I do appreciate you two helping.”

“What’s family for?” Kristin answered.

The memory faded, leaving her again I'm the starry expanse. It wasn’t the most heartwarming or special memory, but in terms of her and her sisters when they were teens, it was as close to the best she was going to get. There were flickers there of who they would become, and things they always were, despite the change in species. Sunset had been the one to change the most, but she was always the most adaptable of them, and there had still been echoes of her present self back in this memory. Still, it was hard to remember them being like that…the perils of becoming a pony and of getting old.

“Thank you, Arbiter. I’d like to get back to regular dreaming now.”

The starry expanse faded, and so did the awareness she was asleep.

Jordan yawned as she poured herself a glass of orange juice. Today hadn’t been so bad. She’d made half-a-million dollars for herself. Despite her messing up letting Carmen onto the property, it was hard to be sad after that. Plus, the auction had made a lot more money than that.

Tomorrow, she would go out scouting for new furniture. She could maybe bring Amicus along with her to help pick things out. Perhaps she could go scout the college and speak with the admissions office after Jessie got back in town. Getting admitted shouldn’t be an issue. She’d made mostly A’s in high school, her SATs scores had been fairly high, and although she had dropped out of Winthrop, there had been an excellent reason, and she hadn’t had time to fail anything there–not that she would.

She took a sip of her drink. Things had started off kind of rocky when she arrived, but they were looking up. It was an adjustment period. She had this.

Her phone started ringing, and she looked to see who it was. It was Jackie. A quick tap answered it.

“Jackie, what are you doing calling this late?” Jordan asked as she answered. “You’re two hours ahead of me. You should be in bed.”

“I’ve been at the hospital the last four hours,” Jackie answered, sounding exhausted. “Dad had an episode. He started coughing and it just wouldn’t stop, and he was struggling to breathe at all. Don’t worry, they took care of it. He’s on oxygen right now and resting.”

Jordan’s eyes bulged. “Four hours?! Why are you just now calling to tell me?”

“What were you going to do when you’re halfway across the country?” Jackie asked. “The anxiety about Dad was making Mom act crazy, and I had to focus on watching her. She just fell asleep. This is my first free moment tonight. I’m calling to let you know what happened, and to tell you he’s okay, at least for now.”

Jordan felt her stomach tighten. “What do you mean by for now?”

Jackie sighed. “Dad’s going to have to have regular oxygen treatments from now on, likely for the rest of his life. His lungs are never going to get better The Cataclysm just did too much of a number on them. He shouldn’t have ever gone out searching for us in all that smoke.”

“He was worried about us,” Jordan reminded her.

“And now we have to be worried about him because of that,” Jackie said bitterly. “Jordan…I can’t do this. Mom isn’t taking this well, and I’m not sure she can help him if something goes wrong. Her mind gets all screwy as the stress goes up, and she can’t function. It’s been like dealing with a toddler dealing with her today. Heck, I think a toddler would have been easier to deal with. If she doesn’t get her head back together, she’s not going to be able to work, and Dad really shouldn’t be working. That’s no income for either of them, and I can’t support them. I would have to drop out of college and take two jobs working full time to support them, especially with Dad’s medical expenses and if Mom needs therapy–which she does, believe me.”

“So…what are you going to do?” Jordan asked.

Jackie sighed. “I’m sorry for asking this, but do you still have that chunk of wood? Skytree wood is super expensive, more expensive than platinum. If I could sell that, I could pay for all this stuff, and get nurses to do at-home visits for Mom and Dad. I can set aside some to help cover food and their utilities. I’m not sure what either of them have for retirement, and now isn’t a great time to be trying to question them about it–I honestly don’t even understand how all that crap works; I’m nineteen, retirement funds shouldn’t be on my mind. I know they both still have some time to go before social security kicks in.”

Jordan blushed. “I kinda already sold it. I was auctioning off a bunch of Auntie Sunset’s stuff today, and I felt like I should auction at least something of mine, so I did, but I can give you the proceeds. It was a lot more than I thought it would be for that wood. half-a-million dollars. I was thinking a few thousand at best, since it was all burnt up.”

“Half-a-million? Really” Jackie asked in amazement. “If only we knew that stuff was going to be worth a lot. Everyone would have been out gathering it after the Cataclysm. It was everywhere.”

Jordan took a deep breath. “Would it be better if they were moved here? I have all these guards who can keep an eye on them. You shouldn’t have to be watching them all the time.”

“I’m the eldest kid, it should be my responsibility,” Jackie said, sounding flustered.

“Phobia’s the eldest, not you,” Jordan reminded her.

“She was grown-up and out on her own before Dad married Mom or you or I were in the picture, so she doesn’t count,” Jackie asserted.

“Well, both Phobia and I have resources you don’t, and you were just saying you couldn’t do this,” Jordan countered. “I’m the best choice to do something. I have this big mansion and guards who can keep an eye on Mom and Dad. Even Phobia wouldn’t already have an easy solution ready to go.”

“But you’re the youngest,” Jackie pouted.

Jordan flicked an ear. “Is this a pegasus pride thing? I might be your little sister, but I’m not that much younger than you. I’m not even a full year younger than you; for the dozen days between our birthdays we’re the same age. I’m in the best position to handle this; let me do it. I’ve got extra support here with the guards. I have two lawyers living with me who can help me make sense of what is going on with the medical bills, retirement, and all that if I need help figuring that out–which I probably will because I don’t know any more about that stuff than you. I have lots of support. The support you have is going to me or Phobia, and even with that support, you could end up having to make big sacrifices that could impact you for the rest of your life, especially if you have to drop out of college to take care of Mom and Dad.”

“I don’t know. Mom and Dad might not even agree to doing it,” Jackie said.

“Then that’s how you can help out most, by convincing them that moving in with me is for the best,” Jordan replied.

Jackie let out a long sigh. “Fine, let me see what I can do. Let me get some sleep. I’m exhausted. I just wanted make sure I called you before bed.”

Jordan smiled. “Okay, sis. I love you.”

“Love you too. Good night .”

“Good night.”

Andrea stepped into the room as Jordan disconnected the call. “Did I hear that right? You are trying to move your parents here?”

Jordan frowned. “My dad isn’t well, and my mom might have some mental issues going on. They need to be somewhere they can be taken care of.”

The old crystal pony grimaced. “I only met Tom once when Sunset married him. I didn’t like him.”

Jordan quirked an eyebrow at the crystal pony. “You don’t like anyone, and I’m sure my dad has changed a lot since you met him. I’m told he mellowed out a lot after he became a pony. He hurt his lungs back during the Cataclysm by spending too much time out in the smoke and fire, and made it worse by trying to head towards the heart of the blaze before the police forced him back. He was trying to find me and Jackie and save us.”

“They are on the welcomed list, though I have no idea why,” Andrea remarked.

“Mom and Auntie Sunset never got along, but Dad got along with Auntie Sunset,” Jordan replied. “Seems weird, honestly. I figured a divorced couple would hate each other more.”

“Phobia,” Andrea answered. “They both loved your older sister, and both wanted to be there for her. Plus, they had each gotten involved with someone else before they finalized the divorce. Your dad was still married to my sister when you were conceived. You’re technically a foal born from an affair.”

Jordan blinked. She had never really known exactly when her dad and Auntie Sunset divorced. She had just figured they were already divorced by the time she was conceived.

Andrea looked at her expression and her expression softened. “Well, it is a technicality. I think that their divorce happening was a moot point after ETS. That’s when Sunset finally admitted what Amicus and I had known since we were kids–that she was a lesbian. Believe me, it was so god-awfully obvious to us, even if our parents didn’t see it, and Sunset would never admit to it. The nineties and turn of the millennium were a different time, and unless you were living in a very liberal part of California or something, you didn’t ever admit you were attracted to the same sex. I’m not even sure our parents would have accepted it back then, and after Sunset got caught up in all that church stuff, she sure as hell wasn’t going to come out. That makes her refusal to admit to it understandable. Anyway, South Carolina has weird laws about you have to be separated for so long before finalizing a divorce, but my sister sped up the process by submitting pictures of her and Tonya doing the dirty to prove she had cheated on him. Pretty sure your mom showing up to court heavily pregnant showed that your dad hadn’t been faithful either.”

“Can we not talk about this?” Jordan said, feeling uncomfortable.

She didn’t know why this made her uncomfortable. Nothing was changed about her relationship to anyone in her family by it, but the idea that her dad had still been married to Sunset Blessing when she was conceived just felt…she didn’t know what to say it felt like, only uncomfortable. Maybe it felt like she was more directly tied to Sunset Blessing than she thought. Even though there was no reason to feel that, it still did. Maybe the fact that there was infidelity going on made her uncomfortable, even if that marriage had been over in everything but name. She probably wouldn’t care about any of this, only count it as gossip, but she was made during all this, so it felt personal.

“Okay, filly. If that’s what you want,” Andrea replied. “I need to get to bed anyway.” The old mare turned and left.

Jordan shook her head to clear it. She was getting worked up over nothing. This was something she should have realized years ago, if she’d bothered to put two and two together. It was just the shock of having someone else point it out to her.

It was time for bed.

Paul stood on the balcony of his sister's temple, looking out at the green rolling hills, pristine forests, and clean rushing rivers, waiting for his daughter to fall asleep. There was a massive full moon, yet no sun in the cloudless blue sky, and the area still seemed filled with daylight. Devon and Robby waited along with him, standing close to the pillars. Oil lamps hung on many pillars, glowing softly in the daylight. Why his sister chose to have these when she let the area be filled with sunlight, he did not know. Tonya was not visibly present; her golden throne sat empty on its dias, but this entire temple existed at her will, and she was present in everything in the dream realm.

"Amazing that Tonya can make all of this," Paul said wistfully.

"Not that big a deal, Dad," Robby said as he walked over and joined Paul at the balcony. "You know my talent is for making dreamscapes. I could do something like this. It would take some work, but I could do it. As a Dreamwarden, Aunt Tonya is barely even trying with this," Robby looked up. "But she must be feeling a bit anxious."

Paul frowned down at his son. "Why do you say that?"

Robby gestured with a wing at the sky. "No clouds in the sky. Aunt Tonya is still a pegasus at heart, and pegasi enjoy clouds. She's in a mood–not a bad one, not a good one, just a mood. Moods get complicated. You learn to read the symbolism of dreams as a dreamwalker, and you pay closer attention to those details when dealing with Dreamwardens."

Devon joined them on the balcony. "We could guess she was in a mood because she's hiding. You'd think she would be more eager to talk to us since she never gets to see us. She isn’t even paying attention to us.”

"She sees you every time you sleep, even if she doesn't interact," Robby reminded her. "A lot of the Dreamwardens do this. They don't make themselves appear present unless there's some need, but Arbiter, Yinyu, and Ghadab are always watching and listening." He pointed a wing at a river. "Hey, Aunt Tonya, can you please put a rainbow over that river?"

A rainbow immediately appeared over the river, and Robby lowered his wing.

"See, she's listening."

Paul still wanted to actually see his sister. “Tonya, can you please appear and talk to us? I rarely get to see you.”

The entire field of view reoriented itself, and now they were standing before Tonya’s golden throne. On the throne sat Tonya, in her Dreamwarden form, towering over them like the Statue of Zeus, her copper staff in one hand and a wooden bowl filled with fruit cupped in the other. The sky beyond the temple’s pillars had darkened, and the lamps glowed brighter.

“This wasn’t exactly what I meant,” Paul muttered.

She smiled down at him. “This is a reminder of who you’re dealing with, brother. I may be your sister, but I am also the Warden of Song and the Bringer of Death’s Dream, and this is my domain, and I appear when and how I choose. While I try to accommodate those who seek an audience with me, I am at no one’s beck and call, even yours.”

A fire sparked, and a pony consumed by flames appeared. “You forgot to mention most full of yourself, Sychopate.” The fiery pony looked around. “Whore! You were supposed to join me in making quips! We are supposed to be a team when it comes to this! Are you going to force me to team up with the gluttonous blob for quipping? I will, if it comes to it. Stop moping about!”

“Let Yinyu have her space,” Arbiter instructed. “She’s still depressed about her foals leaving for Equestria. She’ll recover.”

Ghadab turned his head towards Arbiter. “You aren’t moping…as much.”

Arbiter grimaced. “I’ve gotten more used to the idea of Sunset not being there. I’ve been quietly trying to get her to cut the chord for a decade–now she has. Her not being here hurts, but I’ve been bracing myself for it for a while. Even after a decade of getting myself ready, it still hurts, and Yinyu must be feeling much worse.”

Devon stepped forward. “Not to be disrespectful for how you are feeling, but when do we get to see my daughter?”

Arbiter’s grimace intensified and so did the darkness. “I have no control over when she falls asleep. I can only have you prepared to meet her. I understand your eagerness to see her. I’m eager as well. Like us, all you can do is wait. Waiting is what we do when the dreamers are awake, and every time we have to wonder if the dreamer will ever sleep again.”

Paul rubbed his arms. He didn’t want to think about Jessie not ever falling asleep again because she was dead, lost on some alien world where they would never even know what happened.

“Tonya, you guys have memories of many alien worlds. What are…were…they like?” Paul asked.

The pair of Dreamwardens looked at one another before looking back at him.

“Alien,” Ghadab said bluntly.

“Yet strangely familiar,” Arbiter added. “Life tends to evolve similar types of creatures. If a design works, and isn’t overly complicated to evolve towards,, it is likely life will evolve toward it. Call it convergent evolution. Wings are a useful way of getting around, so creatures evolve wings. Legs are useful for getting around on dry ground, so things evolve legs. Typically, it makes sense to develop an even number of limbs, and then some of those limbs may specialize. Fur and feathers are useful adaptations against the cold and protecting the flesh underneath. You may look at some alien, and think it is alien, but the longer you look, the more you see a reflection of something that could have evolved on Earth.”

“Not all things,” Ghadab corrected.

Arbiter shook her head. “True, there are some creatures that defy everything we understand about body plans or how life works, but most creatures that have risen and died follow the same basic rules. Even intelligent life tends to follow the same general path. Humanity is kind of an outlier, since it didn’t develop magic early on, but if you look at types of shelters they make and the tools they use, it is basically the same range of stuff, despite some different cultural styles. The same goes with societal styles, and you can see this same thing play out in Earth’s history. Ancient cultures on Earth that never had contact with one another often developed similar societies, even built simulate monuments and buildings, like pyramids, but it wasn’t because of some cross-cultural contact; it was because certain ideas just work. You’ll see the same comparing alien cultures to Earth’s.”

Jessie appeared in the air and then fell flat on her face to the ground.

“Speaking of creatures that defy understanding, hello, niece,” Arbiter said.

Jess rolled over with a groan and glared at Arbiter. “Was that really necessary?”

Arbiter smugly grinned. “No, it wasn’t, but as some have mentioned, I’m in a mood.”

“Take your BEEP mood out on someone else,” Jessie said as she sat up. “Did you just censor me?!”

“I prefer less cursing in my dreams. I like to think of my dreams as family friendly. If you wanted the non-family friendly, have Phobia cook you up a nightmare, have Ghadab make an adventure, or deal with one of Yinyu’s errotic dreams, and you never know what the Marshmallow is going to give you,” Arbiter answered, then gestured at her. “There you go. She’s here. I will remove this avatar so you can have some semblance of privacy. Ghadab, I suggest you do the same.”

The flaming pony flickered and vanished. Arbiter vanished without the flicker, taking her throne with her.

Paul walked over to his daughter to help her up. “Are you okay?”

Before he could lay his hands on her to help her up her form flickered and shifted to a yellow earth pony mare.

“What?” Paul gasped in confusion.

Jessie looked at herself and groaned, closed her eyes for a second, and then shifted back to her normal form. She then reopened her eyes and, looked herself over, nodded, and stood up on her own.

“Sorry, you saw that. That happens here, at least for me. I go full human as well. The shifts happen without me even noticing half the time,” Jessie explained.

“An unstable sense of self,” Robby explained. “The dream realm can be sensitive to that type of thing. She tends to shift with her mood. Several people have offered to try to help-”

“They don’t need any explanation of it beyond it happens sometimes,” Jessie said, maybe a little snappishly. “It happens, and then I correct it. It isn’t anything to worry about.”

“She can shift ages too, just to warn you,” Robby added.

Jessie gave him a dirty look. “I haven’t done that in a while.”

Robby shrugged. “Just giving them the heads up, just in case. It can be a little weird watching it happen, and they’ve never had to deal with you here. It can catch people off-guard. You aren’t the only person I have ever seen it happen with. It isn’t extremely common, but it’s common enough that most experienced dreamwalkers have encountered it happening to less experienced dreamwalker at least once.”

Jessie shifted again, this time losing her pony ears in favor of regular human ears, as well as having her hair shift from blue to brown and her fur on her legs vanishing. She seemed to notice the shift and was just as dissatisfied with this as the pony shift. After giving herself a shake, her features shifted back to her typical ones again.

She glared at her brother as she stood up. “Not a word.”

“I didn’t say nothin’,” Robby said, shaking his head.

Paul really wanted to say something about it, but Jessie had a prideful stubborn streak at times, and this seemed like it was going to be one of those times.

“So…you’re safe and sound?” he asked instead.

“Safe as I can be on a sentient planet that can just choose to poof me out of existence at a moment’s notice,” she replied.

“A planet that can what??!” Devon exclaimed, rushing over to their daughter and poking her with a finger, which wasildly comical, since Devon didn’t even stand as high as Jessie’s shoulders. “You told us this was going to be a simple scientific expedition! You didn’t say anything about being poofed out of existence!”

“Well, the Dreamwardens didn’t give that detail until we were already several galaxies over,” Jessie replied.

They heard Arbiter cough. “As a reminder, anything information learned here cannot be shared with anyone in the waking world. You may discuss it amongst yourselves in the waking world, but please be careful not to be overheard.”

Jessie looked upward. “I can give them permission to share it.”

“Not if we choose to restrict it,” Arbiter replied.

Jessie shifted to earth pony form again, but didn’t seem to notice as she continued to glare upwards in anger. “Since when?! I know the rules. If I give them permission, it is free game for them to discuss what I said. It’s always been that way.”

“We are changing the terms for this arrangement, pray we do not change them further,” Ghadab said. “This is information transmitted across the dream realm, we have jurisdiction to put any restriction we want. Jeg’galla’gamp’pi is very sensitive information.”

“We could always just censor you when discussing it,” Arbiter added in. “I could treat you talking about it like I treat curse words, and don't think you can find some clever way of getting around it. I can read your mind, and I’m very experienced dealing with clever dream walkers who think they can find loopholes. We have a lot more experience looking for loopholes than you. We can spot you trying.”

A floating white blob appeared. “Oh, Miss Angel Lady, you’re making this waaayy too complicated. We can just have them make one of our super special promises not to talk about it. We do that with everything else that’s classified. What’s with all this talk of censoring them talking together about it here and whatever? It’s just making this stressful. Do the easy thing if you’re worried about it. I think you’ve got too much bureaucrat in you.”

“I’m trying not to bring those types of agreements on my brother,” Arbiter grumbled.

“Aww, I never realized you were so considerate of me,” Ghadab said.

“Not you, flames-for-brains,” Arbiter snapped.

“Hmm, and here I was considering easing up on the quips,” Ghadab replied. “Gluttonous Slob, do you wish to be my new quipping buddy? The whore is not being very active right now.”

“Mister Grumpypants! Are you trying to cheat on Miss Seapony?” the Marshmallow gasped.

“Well, she’s not cooperating!” Ghadab said, sounding flustered.

“And you want me to be your quipping harlot?!” the Marshmallow shouted. “For shame!”

“I didn’t hear a no in that. Please, don’t be his quipping harlot. I have a hard enough time dealing with just your nonsense without you teaming up with him,” Arbiter lamented.

Robby held a wing up to the side of his mouth and whispered. “They’re like this all the time, at least when you get two or more of them together. You just wait them out, and they’ll get back to paying attention to you eventually. I think it has to do with the fact they can’t read each others’ minds, so they seem more real to each other, while we’re like background noise.”

The disembodied voices continued. “I’m only saying that we need to quip at these stuck up prigs like the sycophant, the Queen of Nightmares, and the germaphobe. They are so full of themselves and try to take themselves so seriously—like some sort of royalty.”

“I’m not serious all the time or treat myself like royalty!” Arbiter protested.

“You literally make dreamers greet you on your golden throne!” Ghadab yelled..

“He’s got a point,” the Marshmallow said. “Don't get me wrong, it is a very nice throne, very spiffy, but it is a bit much. Plus, you’re always bonking us on the heads like Little Bunny Foo Foo.”

“You are pretty handy with that staff of yours,” a new voice chimed in.

“Oh! Now the whore decides to be included in our discussions!” Ghadab shouted. “Why weren’t you assisting me with my quips!”

“Wait, does this mean I don’t have to be your quip harlot now?” the Marshmallow asked.

“You still do; you’ve been drafted,” Ghadab asserted.

“Man, I don’t even remember signing selective service paperwork,” the Marshmallow said in confusion.

Jessie sat back down, ignoring the debate above them. “So, how is life back on Earth?”

Paul looked upward, as if he would be able to glimpse the conversation above, but only the white glob that was the Marshmallow was visible.

“Um, Dusk is already missing you since you moved out of the house. He’s been pouting, but you didn’t hear that from me if he asks,” Paul said with caution, afraid the Dreamwardens would cut him off. “Mark seems to be getting along okay with his foster family. He apparently said a few full sentences, though he is still very reserved with saying much. He took the time to ask me when you were coming back.”

“I’ll be seeing Mark as soon as I can on Monday, and I’ll see about dropping in to visit Dusk as well,” Jessie said. She just then took notice that shape had shifted to pony. She closed her eyes for a second and it went back to normal. How did she not take quick notice of that?

“We’ve agreed to letting you do a Dreamwardens contract to secrecy,” Ghadab announced.

Paul looked upward again. “When? You four have been squabbling like children up there the entire time.”

“We were having more than one conversation, actually, we were having several, but we only allowed you to hear the one,” Yinyu explained.

“Not counting the ones we are individually having with other dreamers right now,” the Marshmallow added in. “I’m currently having fifty-two conversations as we speak.”

“Only fifty-two?!” Ghadab fumed..”You are such a lazy sloth! I’m having one-thousand thirty-four!”

Tonya appeared and raised a hand. “Nine-thousand seven-hundred and nine here—make that nine-thousand seven-hundred and thirteen…urgh, back to nine-thousand seven-hundred and twelve…that dude was so rude. He won’t be speaking to me again anytime soon.”

“I’m doing even more than that,” Yinyu said. “I won’t say anything exact number, since the figure is fluctuating too fast, but it’s staying in the five digits.”

“I consider it quality over quantity,” the Marshmallow replied to them. “Plus, I can only do a few hundred max. You undead wardens have higher limits.”

Phobia’s shadow appeared and looked around. “What are we discussing?”

“Number of conversations we’re having,” Yinyu answered. “How many are you having?”

“Counting the five we have going, I have eighteen,” Phobia answered.

“Eighteen?!” Ghadab scoffed.

The shadow shrugged. “I just fell asleep again, and it is only going to be for a few minutes, So I do not plan on initiating much and hope there is little urgent I need to take care of. Do you really prefer that more people have more of my crafted nightmares or have recurring nightmares of their own that are so bad I feel the need to step in and help them work through them?”

“Suppose not,” Ghadab grumbled.

“Anyway,” Tonya cut in. “You may speak freely and we’ll do the contracts later. We’ll leave you in peace, for now.”

Even the white blob vanished after that.

“Well, with that said,” Jessie began, then took a deep breath. “Where I’m at isn’t what I was expecting. The planet is alive, and I don’t mean that in any figurative sense, or that it has life forms living on it. I mean the planet actually is alive. It thinks, it reacts, it changes its environment by choice. The entire planet is covered in ruins of some prehistoric civilization. It is one massive city, but no markings or decorations anywhere.”

Robby grinned. “Sounds like you have been waiting for the second you could get that all out.”

“You have no idea,” Jessie replied. “Still, there isn’t much to see here. The buildings might vary in size, and there is the occasional tower or bridge to break up the monotony, everything looks the same alabaster white every which way you look. Even the ground is the same thing. It is all one object, you can't even find pebbles laying around.” She paused. “That last part isn’t entirely true. We have found nine of these strangely shaped stones. They look like they are purposely shaped, since I can’t imagine anything shaped like they are forming naturally. One of those stones glows when the Marshmallow touches it…and another one glows when I do.”

“So what does it glowing mean? What are these stones?” Devon asked.

Jessie shook her head. “They are super-dense thaumic matter. Essentially, they are the thaumic equivalent of a black hole—the entire planet technically is, only on a much more massive scale. Thaumic matter behaves differently than regular matter. It doesn’t…or shouldn’t…except any gravity. So, despite the fact they are so dense and full of mass that if they were regular matter I would be spaghettified if I got within a million miles of one of them, they can be picked up and handled. They emit a massive amount of thaumic energy.”

“But what does it glowing when you touch it mean?” Paul asked.

“The Marshmallow says that stone is meant for me,” Jessie answered. “She’s insisting I keep it. It supposedly will learn about me and my magic, and can enhance my magic and my nature.”

“”Your nature?” Devon asked in confusion.

“I have no clue what that means either,” Jessie said with a sigh. “I performed tests on it. It doesn’t seem to be harmful, but it needs more testing. So far, all it has primarily done is glue. It is also warm to the touch for me, where every other stone and the planet is cool to the touch. When any of the others touch my stone, they say it is cool to the touch. When I get back I’m going to hide it away in my apartment.”

“Just be careful, Jessie,” Paul said.

She nodded.

Author's Note

I recently got a new phone, and my editing program has been giving me fits, so this chapter is coming unedited. I will try to clean it up at a later date.

Chapter 32: Visitation

It was Sunday morning, or, it was Sunday morning on Earth..Jessica sat, watching Jonathan carefully label each stone that had been found. Well, every stone but the one bonded to her and the one bonded to Rebecca.

While many stones had been found, only those two had reacted to any of the crew..There were thirty-six unreactive stones, every one them a different shape, although all of them were roughly hand-sized. They were waiting to find their owners, but it was unlikely the Dreamwardens or the government would allow people to test to see if a stone reacted to them. Those stones would provide more power than every power plant on Earth combined, if they could find a way of harnassing them It would be an insane task to figure that out who the stones belonged to anyway. There were roughly a billion people who had some magic, even if over half those had so little that it didn’t equate to any ability. You couldn’t have that many people trying each stone out to see who it belonged to. The fact they had found two that reacted with crew members was such an improbability that it only reaffirmed the planet was deliberately taking action.

Why just her and Rebecca? Why not Luna or one of the others? Luna was certainly more deserving of such power than her. You could argue Charlotte was more deserving. Charlotte at least was a soldier who defended people. Giving one to Rebecca was off too. Rebecca was a Dreamwarden, they weren't supposed to have power in the waking world. Sure, Luna did, but she already was a princess and alicorn before becoming a Dreamwarden. Plus, Rebecca’s sanity might be questionable. It at least seemed questionable from where Jessica stood. The fat pegasus took next to nothing seriously. Was it a good idea to give such an unstable individual that kind of power? Maybe it wasn't a huge deal. Just because Rebecca had a stone didn't mean she would ever be able to use it to its full potential.

Who was she to question a living planet that was older than the universe?

Well, she wouldn’t be doing much with her stone. If the planet had some sort of plan, it could figure that out without her. If it had been around at least fourteen billion years or more—actually, now that she thought about it, how long it had to be around in the previous universe before the previous universe died was an unfathomable amount of time, considering it would have had to have been created before the dark era of the previous universe; billions of years weren't even a blink of an eye in that case, and that was assuming it hadn't survived more than one cycle of universes being born and dying. They could be measuring time in googols and googolplexs if that were the case. That was shiver inducing. Anyway, if it had been around that long, what anyone did or didn't do with its gifts were meaningless. She had no desire to have her sound powers become stronger. They were inconvenient enough.

Thinking of her sound powers made her think of another thing that made her uncomfortable about this place—the silence. Aside from the sounds the crew and the ship made, there was no sound at all on the planet. There was no wind, no sound of ground settling, no insects, no trickle of water, no sounds of rocks falling, nothing at all. Their footsteps didn't even make a sound. She's figured the fact that there were different atmospheric conditions just a short distance away would stir up something resembling wind or some sort of storm that she could hear, but there was nothing—cause without effect. Jeg'galla'gamp'pi defied all logic. She should be happy being here, but the fact this place was not somewhere that expanded the knowledge of how the universe worked, but instead defied all universal laws. It made her skin crawl. What kind of force did it take to even make this kind of place and who could ever accomplish such a feat? She wasn't religious. However, it would take not a mere ascended being, or even large collection of ascended beings, but a true god to create something like this. Whoever had done it, it was difficult enough that the accomplishment had never been replicated before or after. There was only one Jeg'galla'gamp'pi.

“Is him cataloging those stones really that interesting?”

She turned and saw Charlotte and Ashley approaching her. It had been Charlotte who had spoken.

“Maybe she's got the hots for Jonathan. They’re both massive nerds” Ashley suggested. “He’s available, by the way. He's Rebecca's red herring, and I bodyguard her through bodyguarding him, so I can say without a shadow of doubt that he hasn't been on a date before.”

“He's not Jessie's type,” Charlotte remarked. “She likes macho types or completely girly prisses. We're more her type than that dude.” She held up her tattooed wings. “l do technically swing that way, but she's not my type. I'm not sure what my type is, but definitely not Jessie. Sleeping with a human is just…yeck! Listening to the Marshmallow carry on about her love life in detail makes me want to vomit.”

Well, I wasn't interested in you either, but you didn't have to stress how disgusting it is to you,Jessica thought bitterly.

“I found most ponies born after ETS are against bedding a human, yet ponies that were born before ETS, even if they were only a few weeks old when they got it, are more open to human relationships. I never understood why. Maybe it has to do with the fact we were once human ourselves, while ponies like you never were. We older ponies still have some small background part of our minds that see humans as the same species as us that you younger ponies lack,” Ashley mused.

“Could be,” Charlotte agreed. “You’re right about not seeing them as same species. The thought of bedding a human is like agreeing to beastiality when I think about it. I try not to be judgemental, but part of me always cringes when I see a human and pony kissing.”

“Do you have to go into so much detail about how disgusted you are by the idea?” Jessica snapped.

Charlotte gave an agitated flap. “Sorry. That wasn't very tactful, and probably hurtful. I should have kept that to myself. if it makes you feel any better, the idea of sleeping with a stallion also makes me feel that way. I'm not saying those relationships shouldn't exist. I just don't want to visualize it. Does that help?”

Jessica crossed her arms. “Not really, but I'll let it slide as long as you are more respectful about others when expressing your feelings about that stuff. Saying you wouldn't be comfortable or able to have those sorts of relationships and don't want the finer details about them said around you is enough. I can be sensitive to your feelings, knowing the subject makes you uneasy.”

“Will do,” Charlotte agreed. “I respect you; you respect me. To clarify, it is mainly the Marshmallow carrying on about her sex life. She has no filter.”

“Yinyu was her mentor,” Ashley reminded them.

“Oh, we can definitely tell,” Charlotte muttered.

Ashley shook her head “Anyway, I'm strictly into guys myself, even open to humans, although most guys get turned off by my face,” Ashley remarked. “If they don't get turned off by that, they get turned off by hearing how I got my scars. I mean, explaining how I nearly got tortured to death by a psychopath when I was a filly isn't the most romantic discussion.”

“It’s a good opening to show a little vulnerability,” Charlotte said.

“I'm not vulnerable,” Ashley said with a scowl.

“All the more reason to take what little openings you have to show some vulnerability. Hard to open up and be vulnerable to someone who never shows any vulnerability themselves,” Charlotte replied.

Jessica licked her lips. “I might have a date coming up.”

Charlotte tilted her head. “You? On a date?”

“Is that so hard to believe?” Jessica snapped, offended again.

“Don't take this the wrong way, but yes,” Charlotte answered with a shrug. “I mean, out of our core group of friends and family, I would rank you last on putting yourself out there in that way—aside from possibly me. You and I are the only two who have shown zero interest in romance. My sister is married and has a kid. In the last two years, Jackie has had several relationships that last a few weeks to a month or two, and I'm confident at least one of those had a roll in the grass happen—maybe more than one. Jordan might still be single, but she's horny as hell and not afraid to express it, so it's just a matter of time before her single days are over. We don't even have to mention my brother and his growing brood. You and I were the only two who didn't have relationships on the radar. So, yeah, it's shocking, but I'm happy for you. It's good to hear.”

“Um…you guys might want to come out here…now!” Smiley yelled from outside the ship.

They all looked at each other before turning and heading outside. Jessica could hear the elevator was on the move, indicating Rebecca and Luna were on their way as well.

Smiley and Terrance were standing, staring in shock at something just put of sight around the corner of the ship. Jessica stepped cautiously closer before stopping and gaping.

What could be best described as a silvery dragon sat, although it was no Equestrian dragon. This was clearly an unrelated species to those known. It watched them from a short distance from them. It was roughly the size of a horse…not a pony…a horse, it was straight silver and had some sort of metal armor over its legs and chest, as well as a golden crown. It seemed calm, watching them with eyes that matched the crown.

Triss had decided to visit them. Wait, how was Triss surviving in their environment?

“I see the question in your eyes, child. I am not actually here. This is a mere shadow of my true self. It is helpful, for I would struggle to replicate your language in the flesh, as you would mine. My magical limitations are few, but my physical limitations are many,” Triss said. She then went back to watching the group, not anyone in particular, just the group as a whole. Jessica didn't appreciate being called child. She might be billions of years younger than Triss, but she was still an adult.

Did the dragon just smile? It was hard to say, but she could swear Triss had reacted to her thoughts. Was the dragon reading her thoughts? She better not do that in front of Rebecca. The Dreamwarden would throw a fit.

“So…you decided you couldn't leave well enough alone. You had to come visit,” Rebecca said as she come around the corner. There was an uncommon undercurrent of hostility in the Dreamwarden's voice. Maybe Rebecca had noticed the mind reading.

Triss blinked, it was hard to say what that blink meant, as the rest of her features did not shift.

“Are you shocked, Dreamwarden?” Triss asked. “I wish to see the first beings, other than myself, who have been to this world since before your planet formed. I was born and raised here, even if I ceased to think of this place as home long before the Devourer Cataclysm came, favoring my species’s true home world, but Jeg'galla'gamp'pi still holds a special place in my heart.” Her eyes focused on Luna as Luna stepped into view. “Greetings, alicorn princess. It is good to see you.”

Luna nodded. “And good to see you as well, Queen Triss. I admit, I had thought you'd be taller.”

“I have no need to make my form grander than it is. I am not defined by my physical attributes. This is my true size and shape,” Triss replied. The dragon looked up at the ship. “Impressive. Somewhat crude, but given your limited resources and technology, this is a wonder, as it would have been for my people. It is based off the ship Joss designed, is it not?”

“It is,” Rebecca said, watching Triss with suspicion.

“It was an excellent design,” Triss said. “The Hall of Teachers did not appreciate much of what Joss had conceived. We had already been well underway in exploring the farthest reaches of our galaxy and meeting many other intelligent species. With Joss's design, we could have spread out across the universe, far beyond our galaxy. His efforts were always underappreciated. To my shame, I think I was most guilty of underappreciating him, not just in this design, but in all things. Not until his bitterness and loathing had already grown to a point of no return did I realize how little he felt he was valued or loved. I was so focused on bringing about our species's ascension that I failed to see how great his works were, and my people followed my example. I was the Great Mage and Teacher, queen of my people and most admired and loved, but he was the Great Engineer, and deserved more praise than he ever received. My vision was clouded to anything outside my goals. I realized my folly too late.”

“A tale that I can empathize with,” Luna replied, looking away.

Triss nodded. “What occurred with you and your sister mirrors what occurred between me and my soulfriend. Luckily, you did not have the despair for living that Joss had, not access to the Thinkers and their weapons. I wonder if I could have saved him from himself if it weren’t for the Devourers. You feel love and appreciation now, do you not? Perhaps Joss could have as well. Even with him giving them the last piece the Thinkers needed to bring about their Devourer Cataclysm, I still love him. My mourning for him is no less than for all those that he brought an end, even after all this time and death.”

The dragon stood up and walked towards them. Jessica tensed a little, even though she knew this was a projection that shouldn’t be able to touch them. This might be a projection, but it was also Triss, and her magic was on a whole other level, even beyond the alicorns. With magic like that, there was no telling what exactly the dragon was capable of doing.

Triss walked in front of Terrance looked him over for a second, then moved immediately on to Smiley. She looked at Smiley’s cutie mark, a gold trophy mug with ice cream in it, and then moved onto Jonathan.

“You have the feel of another universe on you, other than this or Equestria,” Triss stated.

Jonathan nodded. “I journeyed once to another universe. Discord decided to drop my friend Blanche and I, along with a former bodyguard of one of the Dreamwarden, into another universe plagued by war. It seemed a short time had passed for everyone else, but for us, it had been about a year.”

Luna’s ears flattened. “Discord did what?! I was not informed of this.”

Jonathan shrugged. “None of us wanted to spend a lot of time discussing what had happened.”

The alicorns did not seem placated by the explanation. “I shall have a very long talk with him. This is not acceptable!”

Triss blinked. “Fascinating. And what is your name, child of three universes?”

“Jonathan, ma’am,” Jonathan answered.

Triss nodded. “I am saddened that you do not wish to speak of this third universe, yet I pleased to meet you, Jonathan. I shall have to question the chaos creature when I have a chance, although he is quite difficult to catch, as your Dreamwardens can attest,” The dragon then moved on to Charlotte. “You are the daughter of one of the current Dreamwardens, are you not, child?”

Charlotte scowled. “Phobia Remedy is my mom, not my birth mother, but still my mom, along with my mama. I don’t like being defined by my relationship to her. I’m my own person, not just the daughter of Phobia Remedy, ma’am.”

“A position I can respect your wishes on,” Triss agreed. She moved on without asking Charlotte her name.

Triss examined Ashley for a moment or two, eyes taking in the unicorn's scars and examining Ashley’s cutie mark. She moved on without comment to Jessica. Triss looked at Jessica’s ears, legs, tail, before locking her golden eyes on Jessica’s face.

“Neither pony nor human, but with aspects of both. Not unheard of, but still interesting. I sense your magic is stronger than most like yourself, save your world’s Prime Storyteller. I also know one of the stones of this place bonded with you. What is your name, child?”

“Doctor Jessica Middleton,” Jessica answered. She didn’t know if there was any proper formality she was supposed to follow, but no one else had shown much formality. “Ma’am.” She tacked the last word on to be safe. Charlotte and Jonathan had said ma’am.

Triss nodded. “I am pleased to meet you, Doctor Jessica Middleton.” She then moved on to stand before Rebecca.

“You’re being fined ten thousand American dollars for mind reading!” Rebecca said before Triss could speak.

Triss blinked. “Is this one of your jokes, The Marshmallow? I may not understand your humor as well as I thought.”

Rebecca shook her head. “Nope! You mind read my friend. I saw it happen. You owe a fine.”

“You are aware that I do not have any of your currency, correct?” Triss asked.

Rebecca sat down. “Then you face upwards of a month in jail.”

Wow. Talk about audacity. Telling the most powerful magic user in the universe to pay a fine or get jailed. How was Rebecca even supposed to enforce something like that?

Triss must have thought the same thing. “You would jail me? How would you accomplish such a thing?”

“I’m creative; I’ll think of something,” Rebecca answered, not backing down. She seemed dead serious.

Triss stared, unblinking, then a huge diamond materialized in the air and dropped down to the ground between the two of them. “Would this cover my fine?”

Rebecca didn’t blink or look down at the diamond, instead keeping her eyes locked to Triss’s. “Jonathan, will that cover it?”

Jonathan walked cautiously over and picked it up, adjusted his glasses, then nodded. “This would more than cover the fine.” He then quickly retreated to his previous position.

“Very well, you're good,” Rebecca answered. “Just don’t do it again!”

“You may be much more diminutive and weak in the waking world, but that does not cause you to lack boldness, The Marshmallow. I did not wish to put to the test whether you could do what you threatened. It seemed unlikely, but I have been surprised before. I see one of the stones has come to you. Use it well,” Triss replied. She then looked at Luna. “And we have already exchanged greetings, alicorn princess, Luna.”

Rebecca stepped forward, wings spread wide. “You’ve met everyone now. Do you have any further reason for being here?”

Triss turned to look at Rebecca. “The Marshmallow, does the Dreamwarden hate for me run so deep that you can’t let it go even in the waking world? You know my regrets. You know how much I loved your forbearer. Why must Joss’s hate for me run so true with every one of you?”

“He never hated you,” Rebecca replied. “Even in the end, he told you to flee. He wanted you to live. I remember it clearly.”

“Wanted me to live with the sorrow and pain,” Triss said.

“Wanted you to live so you could bring an end to what he started,” Rebecca said bitterly. “And what have you done? You have continued to do the same things you’ve always done. Even just now, you stand there judging how worthy different people are. I saw how quickly you dismissed half this team as not worth your time. You are supposed to be trying to help us stop this, but you can’t even bother to learn the names of people. They are beneath you. We don’t hate you because of how you failed Joss in his life, we know your remorse, we can forgive that, but you fail him still after his death. You fail everyone. How can someone with so much power and so much supposed wisdom have so little love for others? Get out of my sight until you can get your head out of your ass!” Rebecca then rapidly clicked and gagged out something that seemed too ordered not to be a language, but nothing resembling anything spoken on Earth or Equestria.

Triss actually flinched back then stared silently at Rebecca. Everyone held their breath.

Then Triss disappeared.

Luna rounded on Rebecca. “That was unca—”

“I need a few minutes by myself,” Rebecca said in a whisper, sounding like she was ready to cry. She then walked off, head held low, ears sagging, and tail dragging the ground.

Chapter 33: Sisters

Rebecca sat, staring up at the sky. Had she been too harsh? It was hard to say. Just looking at Triss made her so mad—mad, hurt, sad, disappointed, wistful. There were so many emotions bound in her feelings about Triss. It felt different for her than for the other Dreamwardens. Most Dreamwardens looked upon their memories of Joss and felt nothing but loathing and shame for him. That same shame was something she felt too, but unlike the others, she embraced her memories of Joss. He wasn’t evil…well, he did do something incredibly evil, probably the most evil thing ever done, but it wasn’t something in his nature. Joss was just sad, lonely, and tired. He had deeply loved Triss. He loved the people, and they had ignored him and all he tried to do. They had thought terrible things about how unworthy he was compared to Triss, and after hearing it enough in people’s dreams, he came to believe it. Hate and malice weren’t part of Joss. He had been a creative type who tried his best to make things better for everyone around him—like she did, but that had faded due to the constant hurt and dismissal of his efforts. What had defined Joss in the end had been despair. She couldn’t hate Joss. He was the darkest reflection of herself. If he could become that, so could she. Sure, she wouldn’t have to live as long as him, and she had an exit that he didn’t from being stuck hearing all those terrible thoughts, but the fact remained that if her circumstances were similar, she could see it in herself to go down that road. She wished she could have given him a hug. A hug could have saved so much suffering.

“Rebecca?” Luna said from behind her. “We need to discuss what occurred between you and Queen Triss.”

She glanced back and saw Luna and Jess approaching her. This was probably Luna’s idea and Jess was following along so Luna wouldn’t have to go out of sight to reach her.

Turning her head away, she kept her voice low. “Why do we need to discuss it?”

“Because she is our ally against the Devourers, and you, a major representative of our forces against the Devourers, were unprovokedly rude to her,” Luna stated. “I know the Dreamwardens and Triss have a history of hostility, but that was uncalled for.”

“You have no idea,” Rebecca growled. “Do you have any idea what it is like to be part of failed after failed civilization. To be murdered over and over again by the Devourers, and watch her be more concerned about getting another ascended being than she is about saving the civilization as a whole? What has she done to help us? Given Princess Twilight some clues to thwart Sunset Shimmer? Spent time with a few key ponies she thinks might be potential alicorn material? The help she gave Twilight Sparkle was more than she’s given just about anyone else, I’ll give her that, but you saw her. You watched how she examined out friends, and then if she decided they weren’t potential ascended being material, she moved on without a word! Maybe they don’t have it in them to be fancy great people who can change the world on their own, but they matter! I get so tired of her dismissing people as if they don’t matter!”

She started to cry. “And is making ascended beings even a good thing? She never questions it. Joss would never have reached his point of sorrow if he hadn’t ascended. I know I don't want it. I don’t want the opportunity to reach that level of despair. Death is a part of life, an important part of life. The Devourers bring too much of it, but death should never be brought to a total end. We need our chance to move on. people aren’t supposed to just keep going until life stops feeling meaningful anymore. Even as a mortal Dreamwarden who will hopefully retire to Equestria someday, I struggle at times to keep my zeal for things. Do you know what it’s like to be all about creativity when you have memories of what everyone has ever done? Do you have any idea how hard it is to have a truly original idea?”

“I’m sure most would not realize your ideas bear resemblance to others if what was done before was done on some alien world a billion years prior,” Luna said.

”I would know,” Rebecca replied. She wanted to make some great architecture achievement, but every idea she could think of had been done by someone at some point—maybe not on Earth, but still done at some point.

“I think this is stuff you should be saying to her rather than telling her to get her head out of her ass,” Jess suggested. “Explaining yourself like this to her might be a little more productive. It also sounds like you have been holding onto some anxieties and frustrations and not talking about them with anyone. I know I’m not the best about talking about my feelings, but I’m also not some dream-demi-god that people really need to worry about the mental state of.”

“I’ll be okay,” Rebecca assured them. “Everyone gets down once and a while. Seeing Triss just kind of set something off in me. I think it’s because I’m more like Joss than the others. He might never have been as bouncy and cheerful as me, but he was the creative type as well. His frustrations with Triss were…they were a lot. Count that as baggage I inherited.”

“You owe her an apology,” Luna asserted. “You say you want her to be better. You need to be better with her. Show her that your words aren't merely angry spite, but honest concerns. I’m confident you hurt her feelings with your outburst. You have never seemed like a pony who tries to hurt another’s feelings.”

Had she been too harsh? She’d already questioned herself about that. Her friends said so. If her friends said so and she was wondering the same thing, it may be true. Another question was did it matter if she hadn’t been too harsh? Someone had to step up and reach out a hoof. She had more of Joss in her than the others, but that also meant she had more of a longing for Triss’s friendship…along with his anger and frustration at Triss. Why did feelings have to be so complicated?

She sighed and tapped the phone on her wrist to start some music. She tapped it a few more times till she finally landed on Stand By Me. It was at least hopeful for what she wanted with Triss. She then started to sway with the music. It didn’t take long to get her projection going.

“A final time projecting?” Arbiter asked. “I thought you would be preparing to return home.”

“I’ve got things I need to settle with Triss,” Rebecca explained.

“What possible business do you have with that dragon, Glutton?” Ghadab asked.

“I was rude and mean. I need to apologize,” Rebecca replied.

“If Triss cannot handle someone saying mean things about her, then she had no business surviving all these years,” Ghadab scoffed.

Rebecca shook her head. “Can I get some privacy while I do this?”

“No,” Arbiter answered. “But we will do our best to be quiet.”

That was good enough. She zoomed to the area where the climate had changed to accommodate the its other guest.

It didn’t take long to find the dragon. Triss was sitting outside a building, looking the same in flesh in blood as she did as she appeared as a projection just minutes before, except maybe looking a bit more tired. The dragon statuette sat between her forelegs, glowing without even needing to be touched. Triss's muzzle was lifted to the sky as the dragon sang a dirge for what all had been lost.

Rebecca did not speak as she brought her projection down in front of the dragon. She simply sat before Triss and waited.

Triss sang a few more notes then lowered her muzzle so she could look down on Rebecca. “What do you wish of me, The Marshmallow? You condemn me for visiting you, but you come to disturb my peace. Why should I not banish your shadow?”

Triss spoke in her native language, which sounded like a bunch of snaps, chittering, whines, and growls said at such a rapid pace with so many syllables it would be impossible for any normal person to follow—hundreds of syllables said in a few seconds. Normally, Triss would speak much slower to a non-native speaker, even if it took an eternity to say anything that way, but Rebecca was able to translate it while projecting. Triss had to know that.

“I came to say I'm sorry for things coming out the way they did,” Rebecca answered. “It wasn’t very friendly or cheerful of me, and I’m supposed to be the friendly and cheerful one.”

“But not sorry for the meaning of what you said,” Triss said. It wasn’t a question.

Rebecca shook her head. “No, not for that, but I could have been nicer about it. You were Joss's soulfriend, and I still feel the desire to be that. It makes us like distance sisters."

Triss snorted and shook her head. “Sisters? Such on odd concept. Why did you let Sunset Blessing leave Earth?”

That was an out of nowhere question. “Um, I didn’t let her do anything. She did what she thought was best. It’s not my place to have stopped her. Why are you even asking me about that? It has nothing to do with how rude I was to you.”

Triss leveled her eyes on Rebecca. “You say I don’t try to help, yet you let her leave. I told Luna and all of you on more than one occasion that she is important, yet you let her leave. I helped, and you disregard me.”

Rebecca grit her teeth. “I’m not really interested in indulging your quest for an ascended being, and certainly not Sunset Blessing as an alicorn. One great thing I can say for old SB is that she wouldn’t indulge your quest either. We’ve had one who could so far, and they're holding it back—subconsciously, but they’re doing it. Earth doesn’t need an ascended being.”

Triss shook her head. “She did not need to ascend to be important. She sees patterns and puzzles and solutions others do not. I do think that is a quality that could lead to ascension down the line, if she could get other things about herself in order, but those skills are important on their own. You need her if you are to combat the Devourers, and you let her walk away. Now you yell at me for not trying to help.”

It was Rebecca's turn to shake her head. “Yeah, she’s good at that stuff, but she isn’t the only one who is clever and can find solutions. In fact, we have all these humans on Earth, and one thing you can count on humans for, it is ingenuity. Most of them might not have magic, so that might have slipped your notice.”

“I had a vision, more than once,” Triss stated. “Yes, you need your humans for this endeavor, but you also need the Sunrise and the Sunset. She is the Sunset. I’m sure of it. It is no promise that you shall win, but it is a chance. It is more than I have seen on any world to this point.”

Rebecca tilted her head. “And did your vision tell you what the Sunrise and Sunset were supposed to do?”

Triss shook her head.

Rebecca sighed. “Of course it didn’t, because when would a vision ever give us a straightforward answer? Information from Storytellers and visions from you are so vague it makes them hardly useful,” She took an unnecessary breath. “I’ll see what can be done to convince her to come back, but I make no promises. It took a lot for her to decide to go, and she only went because she felt she had no other choice for the safety of her family. She’s not going to change her mind easily. Maybe, whatever she needs to do can happen in Equestria. She can think just as well there as she can on Earth. She can probably think more clearly there, since she has less people trying to kill her in Equestria. Trying to dodge assassination attempts can be very distracting when you’re trying to focus.”

Triss blinked. “Possible. I still prefer her in this universe.”

“Look…” Rebecca began. “I’ve got more of Joss in me than the others do, That makes dealing with you difficult. I don’t hate you, but I’m angry. Just like Joss was angry. I don’t agree with your goals, just like Joss did not. You heard all the arguments already from him, although I’m unsure if you ever truly listened to what he was saying. We need to be able to pass on, everyone does, in their own time. I honestly don’t know why you haven’t just let the Devourers take you. You must be so tired. I don’t know how you aren’t insane. Maybe you are.”

Triss looked away. “I have considered letting them take me, more than once,” the dragon confessed. “You do not know the loneliness I feel. I have only my missions, and I wish to see the end of this Cataclysm—however long that may take. You criticize me for not learning the unworthy names. How much more would I have to mourn if I took the time to know them all? It is hard enough knowing the names I do, names for me to sing when the world fails. My songs are long enough.”

“We Dreamwardens know all the names,” Rebecca said..

“Luckily for you, you don’t ever have to be around to sing their song afterward,” Triss replied. “Yet I will sing your names.”

Jordan put one last book on a bookcase and smiled at the new furniture in the rec room. This all felt a little more like her. There were several cushy couches, all done out in a violet that matched her fur, along with a few low tables and stools. There were three large bookcases that went all the way up to the ceiling, and filled with all the classics. There was a large group hookah next to one of the couches. She didn’t intend to use that much, especially after she vomited after using one on her eighteenth birthday (that was extremely embarrassing), but it was a very Skytree-type item, and she wanted things to remind her of Skytree. The one thing that wasn’t really her thing was an vintage arcade machine in the corner, Pac-Man. Amicus had insisted on them getting it. That was fine. This was Amicus’s home too, and if she wanted a Pac-Man machine, they were going to have a Pac-Man machine. Andrea and Legal Brief hadn’t ask for any particular inclusions for themselves, they were happy just getting furniture that fit ponies.

The rest of the house was decked out in similar furniture. She was shocked at how much it had cost to buy all this stuff. It was a full house worth of furniture, and it was a big house, but it had still been a shocking price tag. Her same day deliveries had spilled over to this morning because there had been so many, and she had only just finished setting up the rec room. There was still room after room of stuff she still had to set up, and she was tired from staging teleports of items directly to rooms (after Amicus and the guards had inspected each package to make sure nothing sinister had been put in). The only rooms that had been completely set up were this room, the dining room, and her bedroom. Luckily, most of the other rooms were guest rooms and studies; the sisters' bedrooms had already been set up for them prior to all this, as had Sinker’s currently unoccupied room.

Her phone started ringing. She glanced at it to see Jackie’s name displayed and gave it a quick tap.

“Hi, Jackie. What’s up?” she asked.

“Hey, Jor. I wanted to tell you that I had a long talk with Mom and Dad, and I was able to convince them that moving in with you might be the best option. It took a lot of convincing, and me cornering them both privately to give different arguments about why it is a good idea. Mom was the harder one to convince. She’s calmed down from where she was a few days ago, so she’s mostly sane and reasonable, aside from a few oddities here and there, but I had to give up on convincing her that she might have a problem and focus on her thinking about Dad and what’s good for him. Dad believes me that Mom has a problem, but he doesn’t think it’s as bad as I make it out to be. He didn’t see her much while he was intensive care and was too drugged up to notice much when he did, so he didn’t get to experience what she was like and dismissed it as her just being stressed out. I know what I’m talking about. I was stressed out; she was something else entirely. In between babbling worry about Dad, it was like her mark had control of her brain. She was trying to dig for treasure!”

“Dig for treasure?” Jordan asked in confusion “I thought you two were waiting at the hospital.”

“We were. She was trying to dig through the floor,” Jackie said flatly. “Do you know how much damage a middle-aged earth pony can do to a hospital’s floor? By the way, I need a loan to cover damages. They haven’t sent me the bill yet, but I expect it's going to be a lot.”

Jordan’s ears sagged. “I’ll see what I can do. Um, her trying to dig through the floor could be an issue. Auntie Sunset left all kinds of defenses. If you do the wrong things, this place is a death trap. I actually caught a pony in the ground a few days ago—like, her legs were actually phased into the ground, couldn’t move, and her legs lost blood circulation.”

“You’re the one who pushed to bring them there!” Jackie yelled. “Now you’re saying that they could die by accident there!”

“I know! I know! But I didn’t know she could be digging like a madmare when I made the suggestion,” Jordan yelled. “I’ll talk to Andrea and Amicus to see what they think and see if they have suggestions. There has to be a workable solution to it if we know what to expect. We’ll figure something out.”

“Do that quickly,” Jackie replied. “Both of them need to settle things with their jobs. I think Dad being done with his was a given, but the school year just started with Mom. She’s been there almost twenty years. She was even my third grade teacher. I don’t see her leaving abruptly without properly saying goodbye to her students and coworkers. They’re like a second family to her. Plus, it’s going to take time to pack everything. Still, I want to get them moving ASAP.”

Jordan frowned. They’d need to rent a storage space or something. Her parents moving in was fine and all, but she’d just fixed this place up to be a reflection of her. How many rooms could she portion off for them? Could she give them their own hallway? That was an idea. One hallway of this place had more space than their old house. Hmm, but there was the kitchen, and there was only one kitchen and dining room. How would that work out? It felt a little wrong thinking about this kind of stuff, but this was her space, and while she loved her parents, she wanted this to remain feeling like her house, not theirs. She didn’t want them taking over the place. She already felt like she was at the mercy of Andrea half the time—more than half the time. Adding her parents into it could feel like getting pushed out. This was her independence.

She shook her head. Thinking such things was selfish. It wasn’t wrong to want to protect her independence, but being paranoid about it was a sign of insecurity. She wasn’t coming off as an independent adult if she constantly worried about guarding her independence. She needed to show more confidence.

“I’ll do everything I can to get things ready for them,” Jordan assured her sister. “Did you miss class because of the thing with Dad?”

“No, but I had to cancel a date,” Jackie answered. “Don’t worry. I was only half-interested in the guy.”

“Why were you going on a date with him then?” Jordan asked.

“Just looking for a good time. And before you ask, yes, I’m on my pill, and was going to carry protection for him, just in case he didn’t have any,” Jackie answered.

“I wasn’t going to ask. I know you’re careful,” Jordan replied. “Honestly, I’m jealous. You can get any guy to hang off your tail.”

“Muscle gives my flanks tone, and I’ve got a larger than average wingspan. Pegasus stallions go nuts for those types of things,” Jackie said smugly. “Don’t worry so much about that stuff. You’ll meet someone. I might have more of the stuff that impresses pegasi guys, but you are prettier than me, not to mention smarter. Now you’re living in a big mansion and have tons of money. I should be jealous of you. I have basically being more athletic over you and that’s it. At some point, I’m going to stop working out and let myself go. After that, you beat me on all fronts.”

“Don’t say things that. It sounds like you’re putting yourself down,” Jordan replied. “You’re intelligent. It takes a lot of split-second thinking to do all the tricks you do in the air. You have to constantly be judging air pressure, wind speed, your velocity, humidity, making pinpoint calculations on how to change your speed and trajectory, noticing everything on the ground and in the air around you, and likely even more things I have no idea about. It’s like trying to follow Auntie Sunset or Princess Twilight working a complex spell—there’s just too much going on at once for me to follow, but you can manage all those things at once. I don’t think most unicorns are as smart as pegasi and Earth ponies, to be honest. Most of us can only figure out how to keep track of a few things at once, but the other tribes can do way more. Maybe it’s some sort of safeguard so we don’t get overpowered with our spellcasting. If you had a horn, I’m sure you’d be better at doing spells than me.”

“I heard you got the better of Crystal recently with some split-second thinking,” Jackie reminded her. “I’d have loved to have seen her face when you pulled that. Especially after how many times during our training sessions she sapped my flying magic and made me faceplant in the grass.”

Jordan scowled. “Well, she deserved it! I get my own place, and they immediately come here and put me through another one of their sessions! That was such horseshit!”

“I’m in your corner when it comes to that,” Jackie laughed. “I need to go. There’s a book I was supposed to have read for class, and I haven’t even started. You wouldn't happen to have read some book called Cloud Atlas and be able to summarize what happens in a few sentences, would you?”

Jordan stared at her phone in disbelief. “You want me to summarize everything that happens in Cloud Atlas in a few sentences?”

“Well, that had been the idea, but now you’re replying like I’m insane, and I’m wondering exactly how much shit I am in,” Jackie replied.

“When are you supposed to have read this book by?” Jordan asked.

“Tomorrow.”

“Then you are in a lot of shit,” Jordan said flatly.

“Is there a movie?”

“Yeah…but-”

“Oh! Then I’ll just watch that,” Jackie said cheerfully.

Jordan shook her head. “You’re such a jock.”

“Never claimed to be anything else,” Jackie said. Jordan could practically hear the grin on her sister’s voice. “Anyway, I’m gonna let you go. I’ve got a movie to stream. I’ll talk to you later. Love you, Sis!”

“Love you, too, Sis,” Jordan replied.

The call ended. What should she be doing? Probably talking to Andrea about what to do if her mom started digging on the property. Jessie should be returning from her trip today. Maybe she could try calling her later and see about setting up a visit with the college.

She turned and headed towards the guard room. Andrea first. Then doing some more setting up rooms.

Author's Note

Editing program is still down and still only have one day off a week while working 56-70 hours a week. Still trying to get one chapter out a week.

Chapter 34: Back from Jeg'galla'gamp'pi

Jessica stepped out of the secret farm bunker and smiled as she felt the sun on her face. It was good to be back. Returning to Earth took considerably less time than getting to Jeg’galla’gamp’pi, but Jessica wasn’t going to complain that the travel time back was shorter than expected.

The others were with her. Ulga, Phobia, Rosetta, Russell, Patches, and Moses were all there to greet them as they stepped out of the bunker.

Rebecca went zooming through the air towards her husband, crashed straight into his chest, brought them both down to the ground, and proceeded to rain kisses down on his face.

“If you’re happy and you know it, kiss your man!” Rebecca sang, then gave Russell two quick smooches. “If you’re happy and you know it, kiss your man!” She kissed him twice more. “If you’re happy and you know it, your flagging tail will surely show it. If you’re happy and you know it—find a room and get him to mount you!”

Okay,…not exactly musical genius.

Ulga immediately instructed Moses and Patches to make themselves scarce, maybe afraid that Rebecca and Russell would do it right there. With Rebecca, you could never know what to expect. The two foals promptly left. Phobia leaned over and whispered to Rosetta. Jessica blinked at what she heard. So did Rosetta.

“Now?!” Rosetta asked in shock. Phobia nodded. Rosetta gave Charlotte an apologetic look. “Sorry, Mija. I meant to listen to you about your trip, but you know I have to take my opportunities when possible. Come on, Phobia, I’m sure Ulga has a spare room.”

The pair of night ponies hurried off towards the farmhouse.

Ashley stared at their retreating forms. “What was that about?”

“You don’t want to know,” Jessica answered…or didn’t answer, as it was.

“My mothers are going to go screw,” Charlotte said flatly. “Mom is practically asexual, and she has standing orders from Mama to tell her right away if she has any urges to have sex. Since it so rarely comes up, when it does, Mama all but drags Mom off to the bedroom immediately. If she waits, the urge could pass and might not come again for months or possibly even a year or more.”

Ashley snorted. “Okay, Jess was right. I didn’t want to know.”

Rebecca giggled. “Sounds like a good idea to me. Come on, Babe!” She started headbutting her husband to get him to move. Russell laughed but did not object to her prompting.

Jessica rolled her eyes as Russell picked Rebecca up and carried her to the farmhouse.

“Dreamwardens have no shame,” Terrence observed.

“They do. It just depends on what you want to shame them about. I’m the expert, believe me,” Charlotte said with a yawn, then glared at the human. “And show some respect to officials, soldier! You are a representative of the US Army!”

“Sorry, sir,” Terrence said quickly. He then asked. “But speaking frankly, and as Dreamwarden Phobia Remedy as an individual who is your parent. Doesn’t the idea that your parents are running off to do that gross you out, sir? Or does it bother you that they are going to do that rather than see how your trip went?”

Charlotte stretched her wings and then folded them to her sides. “Not really. They rarely do it, and it makes them happy. It isn’t like my mom wasn’t monitoring the trip through the Marshmallow anyway. You two are free to do what you wish until you are to report back to base. Dismissed.”

“Yes, sir!” Terrence and Smiley said in unison and took off towards the farmhouse.

Jessica grunted. “Not exactly how I pictured our return. I expected some sort of debriefing or something. When do I go home?”

“I’ll be taking you back to Wabash Manor, but it shall be a few hours before I do,” Luna said as she yawned as well and squinted as she glanced at the sunny sky. “This trip already disrupted my sleep schedule, and while I normally don't grow weary from magic use, the teleports to the far reaches of this universe require far more than I am accustomed to using. Even moving the moon requires less magic. I require a nap to refresh myself.”

Charlotte nudged Jessica’s leg as Luna became the latest to take the popular choice of wandering off towards the farmhouse. “I’m not due to report back to base until tomorrow evening. Do you want to come with me to meet my new niece? I do want to see her, and while I don’t care about my sister stressing about my absence on its own, she might have been making life difficult for others because of it, and seeing me again would calm her down for their sakes.”

“I’m not sure I’m eager to listen to you and your sister fight,” Jessica replied.

Charlotte chuckled. “Arachne won’t fight me. We’re normally closely matched. I win some; she wins some. However, she’s still recovering from her pregnancy. Arachne fighting me when she isn’t in her best condition would only lead to me easily trouncing her. Arachne wouldn’t risk the shame of looking completely outmatched. It would mean being second best. She’d never stand for that.”

Jessica curled an eyebrow at her friend. “I meant yelling. I didn't mean you physically fighting each other. Although, I should’ve guessed.”

“She might yell at me. She may even slap me since she told me she would, but she isn’t going to get so bad,” Charlotte assured her. “She and I already had a…discussion…via the dream realm. She got most of it out of her system there. You said you might have a date coming up. Much as I loathe advising anyone to go to my sister for advice, she does know more about getting all dolled up for a special occasion than anyone I know. She might be helpful. I don’t do dating, but you’re one of my oldest friends, and I want it to go well for you. If I wanted advice on that kind of thing, I’d swallow my pride and ask her.”

Jessica bit her lip. “Do I need it? I mean, am I not good enough as is?”

Ashley laughed. “Sorry to eavesdrop or laugh, but it doesn’t matter if you are good enough as is. Technically, the guy already thinks you’re good enough if he decided to go on a date with you, so that’s just stupid to ask. You getting all prettied up is meant to entice him further. It also means you’re showing you actually care about the date. If you show up to a date without putting any extra effort into your appearance, even a little, it shows you aren’t really that invested in it. That sends the signal you aren’t really interested in him, which starts you out the gate on the wrong foot. Some ponies can get away with not putting an extra effort in. Rebecca never did, but with humans, it is part of the courtship ritual….um I’m assuming it’s a human you are going on a date with and a guy. I hadn’t asked. Forgive me if I made too many assumptions.”

“Yeah, he’s very much human,” Jessica confirmed. “Okay, I’ll go with you to see Arachne. It’s always best to ask an expert about things. I want to see the baby anyway.”

Charlotte looked at the blond Earth pony across the way. “Hey, Ulga, does the farm have a pony car I can borrow? I promise to bring it back in a few hours.”

Ulga shook her head. “No, but we have human ones. One of the farmhands can give you a ride wherever you wish. Provided it is in the city or very close by. Any further and Moses’s power won’t work to keep the farmhand active.”

“That works,” Charlotte said.

“Is it okay for them to go into town?” Jessica asked skeptically.

Ulga nodded. “They drive very safely, and if anything happens, they’ve got a contact for Dreamwarden Phobia Remedy for her to resolve the issue, for she has considerable influence over much in Skytree. Only Wild Growth is more honored. They go to pick up orders for the farm from time to time, and they drive Moses to school. I certainly cannot drive. My hearing and smell may be excellent, but they aren’t enough to compensate for my lack of vision.”

“We definitely don’t want blind ponies driving,” Ashley agreed.

“Although it would be awe-inspiring if she could,” Jonathan decided to chime in. “I think you and I should head to the local OMMR office to report. It's time for me to get back to nominally directing OMMR all affairs. There are a few operations in progress that I want to get status updates for.”

Ashley flicked her tail. “Whatever you say. Charlotte, will you be good without us here to give you a ride?”

Charlotte spread her tattooed wings. “Do these look broken? I’ll be fine. I’ll fly somewhere close to the airport and walk the rest of the way when it comes time to go.”

“Ulga, can you have the farmhands begin unloading the ship?” Jonathan asked.

“Yes, I’ll make sure everything is secure and that everyone’s personal belongings are brought to the house,” Ulga replied. She then walked towards the bunker, where one of the zombie farmhands touched a hand to her back, perhaps to help guide her.

“You said nominally directing,” Jessica said to Jonathan. “Do the Dreamwardens actually do everything?”

“They make all major decisions and give guidance on what they want us doing, but I do supervise things to make sure those things happen. I’m not a complete figurehead,” Jonathan answered. “Consider me the top end of middle-management. They give me orders; I direct others to fulfill those orders, as well as help deal with a lot of the more mundane tasks.”

“When the Warden of Order isn’t doing it instead,” Charlotte said with a snort. “You guys like to keep him in the background without talking about him much, but I know he has a lot of influence on the day-to-day operations of the OMMR.”

“Not as much as of late,” Jonathan corrected. “His impending retirement has been his primary focus. He has personal affairs to get in order before he goes. He is also the primary one monitoring the current batch of candidates to replace him, much like Phobia Remedy had done when the last batch went through and Krik for the batch before that. The closest local Dreamwarden to the candidates normally deals with most of the waking world things involved in succession, even if the others are monitoring the candidates' progress from afar. That reminds me, I need to follow up on the arrangements for Phobia and Rebecca to travel to visit the candidates in person.”

“Busy, busy, busy,” Ashley said before fluttering her lips. “Let’s make sure Rebecca doesn’t go sneaking any contraband across borders this time around. I don’t know how she always manages to do it. I sometimes wonder if it is a game to her. At some point, someone will take major issues with it.”

“Rebecca has always been lax about following rules and had very loose interpretations of rules when she does. At least she literally can’t break her Oaths and isn’t malicious like Sha’am was,” Jonathan said with a sigh. “Oh, we need to process the paperwork on Josie’s most recent fine from when Rebecca told her to flat-out break a regulation. If I were Josie, I’d have Rebecca start paying these fines for her.”

“I’d normally tell you it isn’t a good idea to discuss this around me since I’m on the counter-Dreamwarden task force, but I already knew the flubber-gut was fast and loose with rules,” Charlotte said dryly.

Jonathan shrugged. “The Dreamwardens need a variety of personalities, that includes mavericks who don’t see things as strictly as the rest. The goal is not to be monolithic but to have differing points of view. It keeps them flexible to face different types of situations, allows them to more adequately find a Dreamwarden who can fit a dreamer's needs—as not every Dreamwarden is a good fit to aid every dreamer experiencing problems, and it also keeps any single one from dominating the group. Rebecca being fast and loose with the rules is as important as Arbiter being a regular tyrant when it comes to rules.”

“It's ironic that someone who stood trial before the Dreamwardens ended up becoming the current most strict about following the rules after becoming a Dreamwarden,” Ashley said with a chuckle.

Jessica rubbed her arms. “Let’s stop discussing Dreamwardens. I’m glad I’m finally done dealing with them after today.”

“You’re getting into the dating world. You should expect a visit from Yinyu. She can never resist suggesting what you can do if things progress,” Jonathan replied, then adjusted his glasses. “Still, we need to get a move on. Good speaking with you, Doctor Middleton.”

Jonathan walked away with Ashley hot on his heels.

“He’s right. Yinyu will try at least once,” Charlotte said. “I say, let her go through her full explanation, probably with explicit visuals, and then tell her thank you for her time, but you can figure the rest out on your own. Her services are no longer needed. She’ll leave you be after that.”

Jessica blushed at what kinds of visuals Yinyu might provide. She’d already endured Yinyu’s initial sex education dream when she was younger, including the infamous song and dance. What she might get in a sex ed class in high school, minus the jubilant singing about fallopian tubes, urethras, and gonads that made her want to cringe. That hadn’t been too graphic, at least in terms of pornographic content. Still, it had a very uncomfortable and detailed biological explanations and verbal descriptions of how things work. Yet somehow, listening to all that stuff and seeing the visuals had made her feel sick to her stomach, even in a dream. Was that a typical reaction to exposure to that kind of material? She didn’t know. It wasn’t a subject she discussed with others, even close friends or family. Now that she was an adult, she expected Yinyu would get much more detailed. Would her reaction be worse?

She took a deep breath. She was an adult. She could endure one dream.

“Come along,” Charlotte instructed as she headed towards the farmhouse. “Any of the farmhands should be able to direct us to the car.”

“I could have driven it,” Jessica said as she followed.

“You could have spoken up,” Charlotte replied. “Plus, they don’t know you like they know me. Would you loan your car out to a stranger?”

*I suppose not,” Jessica conceded. She looked at Charlotte’s wings. “Did getting those hurt?”

“Along the membrane, no, but close to the bone, that hurt like hell,” Charlotte answered. “Why do you ask? Thinking of getting a tattoo?”

Jessica rubbed her arm. “I met a rehumanized woman who the process left with more pony features than is typical. She had gotten a tattoo of what she thought her cutie mark might have been. It might sound silly, it’s illogical, but the idea appealed to me–kind of a way of asserting who I am.”

“Woooo, getting a little wild and getting a tattoo,” Charlotte cooed. “I like the idea. It kinda pays homage to who you were while still being who you are. We shouldn’t try to live in the past, or glamorize the past, because the past is often shittier than we remember, but we should remember it.” She spotted a woman farmhand and waved a wing. “Hey, you, Ulga said one of you could give us a ride where we needed to go.”

The zombie woman nodded. “This one can drive you.”

“Great. What’s your name?” Charlotte asked.

“This one is The Fifth Morning After The Ninth Moon,” the woman answered.

“Very…timekeepery. Was that when you were born?” Charlotte asked.

“No,” the woman said flatly.

“Okay…why that?” Charlotte asked.

“Because this one’s sibling was Twelfth After Forth Sunrise.”

“I think we have some sort of cultural disconnect here,” Charlotte said.

“It would seem so,” the zombie agreed. “Shall we board the vehicle now, or do you wish to delay?”

“Sorry, now would be fine,” Jessica cut in. “It’s a very nice name.”

“It is just a name,” the zombie replied. “Follow us.”

Zombies were clearly not all as sociable as Patches.

Zipper watched several grey threshers pecking for seeds near a nearby bush. He wasn’t sure where they’d be nesting or why they were this far from any notable tree growth. This particular area was scrubland, not an ideal location for that type of bird. Bird populations had been expanding everywhere; perhaps their regular territory’s population had grown too large and was now looking for new areas.

He took a sip from his canteen. They were stopped while they let the solar cell on the van recharge. They’d been traveling offroad for a long time, and it was much slower going than traveling by road and more taxing on the vehicle’s power. His companions seemed to have anticipated this, and they were not significantly bothered by it. Crystal was doing routine maintenance on the van–airing up the tired, checking fluids, that sort of thing. She’d had him on top of the van wiping down the solar panels daily since they kicked up a lot of dust and dirt traveling the way they were, and keeping the panels clean meant they worked better. Tempest and Blanche we're standing a short distance away, discussing something or other in private. Josie was asleep inside the van since it was extremely bright and sunny outside. Arturo sat with Zipper at their small makeshift camp, eating some sort of salted meat.

“What are the birds saying?”

Zipper jumped, startled that Arturo had said something in English. He’d said little all trip, and what he had spoken to this point had been in Russian.

“You ask the help a question in English, but you won’t say anything in English to me?!” Crystal yelled in outrage.

“Tupoy poni!” Arturo yelled at her, then laughed. He looked at Zipper again. “What do the birds say?”

Zipper looked at the threshers. “They aren’t saying anything. Threshers aren’t the smartest birds on their own, unlike crows, ravens, or birds of prey. They have a kind of hive intelligence when you get a bunch of them together, but there aren’t enough of them over there for that. They’re looking for food, judging if this is a suitable place for the main flock to come to.”

“They are scouts,” Arturo stated.

“I suppose that’s one way of looking at it,” Zipper confirmed with a nod.

“If we find the flock, will flock be able to say how many guards at the base?”

Zipper shook his head. “They don’t have a concept of numbers like that, at least, these ones don’t–some other types are better at it. Their understanding of numbers is basically there’s one, there’s two, then there’s more than two. They can’t tell the difference between five and fifty; it’s all just more than two. They couldn’t even tell how many birds are in their flock, although they can tell if they are missing some.”

“Birds not too smart, like crystal pony,” Arturo observed.

“Hey!” Crystal objected. She stomped and then yelped as she lost her balance and fell off the van. “Ow!”

“Tupoy poni,” Arturo muttered.

Zipper stood up and walked towards Crystal. “Are you okay?”

Crystal waved him off. “I might be named Crystal and may be a crystal pony, but I’m not made of crystal. I’m fine.”

“If you say so,” Zipper said, retreating to his spot.

“How will birds help us if can’t count?” Arturo asked, seeming completely uninterested whether Crystal was injured or not.

“I’ve got a little camera that I can attach to a bird, and we can get a bird’s eye view with it,” Zipper explained. “It’s very tiny. Nobody will be able to tell the bird is wearing it from a distance.”

“And bird will let you put camera on them?” Arturo asked, sounding skeptical.

“If I’m nice to it and make friends,” Zipper said with a smile.

Arturo stared for a minute, then shook his head. “This is dumb plan.”

Zipper wasn’t very happy about having his role called stupid, even if he wasn’t sure himself how much help he was going to be. “Well, can you tell me why it’s taking so long for us to get where we are going? We follow your directions, but you’ve had us zigging and zagging all over the place.”

“Tracking trails, trails not go straight,” Arturo explained. “Partials ran from place years ago. Not know which way to go. Near death from exhaustion when they reach Denver, one die along way, other not long after arriving, but deliver baby into care of old woman first. They wander in desert for long time. We follow trail as they walked it. We arrive at start, eventually.”

Zipper’s ears sagged. “They died making this trip? How? Illegal immigrants make the trip all the time.”

“Human and pony immigrants bring more supplies. Human and pony immigrants can walk right, not with bad gait. Take partials longer to walk, with less food or water. Very bad for them,” Arturo said, then took a sip of his water.

That was so sad. If there was a baby, they probably gave more of their food and water to it, leaving less for themselves when they were already short on what they needed. He very vaguely remembered parts of his transformation, and he did recall that during the late stages, when his body was trying to shift towards being a quadruped from a biped that moving from place to place was very difficult and slow. The idea of trying to travel cross-country like that in the burning heat with little to drink or eat was insane, practically suicide, especially if they didn’t have a clear idea of what path to follow. How bad was the place they were running from to drive them to attempt that?

“How much longer do we have to travel?” Zipper asked.

Arturo shrugged. “We get there when we get there.”

“Soon, within the next day or two,” Tempest said as she and Blanche walked over. “We have seen tire tracks, and there’s no known settlement nearby. It is likely connected to where we are going. We shall camp here for the night, and Josie can do some scouting.”

“If she can scout, why do you need me and the birds?” Zipper asked

“She only dares get so close to the base once locating it,” Blanche explained. “We know they have crystal ponies, and if she gets too close, they’ll spot her, even if she’s shadowmelded. A pony of Josie’s power stands out like a beacon to crystal ponies–shadowmelding might make her stand out even more to them. We need more detailed information on their numbers, base layout, etc. All these things require a closer look than Josie can get from a safe distance. We’re counting on them ignoring birds.”

“They aren’t going to hurt the birds, are they?” Zipper asked with worry.

“I doubt they will give the birds a second glance,” Blanche said.

“And what do we do once we have the information? Do we head back and call the authorities?” Zipper asked.

Tempest shook her head. “Law enforcement will not come. Once we have the information on the base layout, the number of guards, and where they are located, we make a plan of attack. When we attack, you’ll stay in the van. You shall not want to see what happens, and we do not need the distraction of guarding you. This will be bloody, brutal, and with luck, we will suffer no casualties among us or the prisoners.”

“Hopefully, we can take one or two of the guards prisoner to get information from them,” Blanche said. “It depends on how difficult they make this. It’s easier to land killing blows with certainty than blows that are sure will incapacitate them enough that we don’t have to worry about some half-dazed guard we thought was out for the count shooting us in the back. I’ve had that happen far too many times not to have learned my lesson.”

“You just keep out of sight and out of the way,” Tempest reiterated.

Zipper felt sick to his stomach.

Chapter 36: Stones May Break My Bones

Jessica stood outside the farmhouse, luggage at her side, watching Luna stretch and yawn. No one was around but them, even the zombies were nowhere to be seen, but she heard activity nearby. They were probably doing farm-related activities. Well, not every zombie was absent. It had come as a shock that the mounted heads and various other taxidermy around the farmhouse were also technically zombies, even if they couldn’t move around or talk. They could see, and that was all the zombies needed these to do. She was happy that she was leaving this place for good. It was creepy, and she’d had more than her fair share of creepy this weekend.

Luna put on a necklace from her saddlebag. The design clashed heavily with her regalia.

“There, I’m now ready to return you to Wabash Manor,” Luna said, giving herself one last body stretch. “I may impose on young Miss Gilmore for a room once we arrive. I’m rested enough to do this teleport, but I still require more sleep.”

“I doubt Jordan will mind,” Jessica replied. “What’s with the necklace? Another of Auntie’s talismans?”

Luna nodded. “It was a gift from my student. It allows me to bypass her defenses so I may come and go to Wabash as I please. It isn’t necessary when I am alone, for I’m not normally troubled by my teleport putting me far too high above the mansion–as I can fly, something most unicorn invaders can’t do. However, the defense also causes some disorientation after the teleport, and that means I might end up dropping you and being unable to catch you before I can recover. For your safety, it’s best to wear the necklace.”

She definitely didn’t want to fall immediately after the teleport.

“Are you up to this?” Jessica asked. “You said you’re still tired, and you used a lot of magic getting us home.”

“This is hardly going to be an effort compared to that. Everything will be well,” Luna assured her with a smile.

Jessica pulled out her phone from her pocket. “Let me call Jordan so she knows we’re coming. We don’t want the guards freaking out when we arrive.”

“That would be advisable. I don’t wish to cause a disturbance,” Luna agreed.

The phone rang twice before Jordan picked up. “Jessie!”

She smiled. “Hi, Jor. Luna’s going to be teleporting us to Wabash in a moment or two. I wanted to make sure your guards were expecting us.”

“Oh, yeah. I can make sure of….Hey! Andrea! Luna and Jessie are going to be teleporting here in a moment. Let the guards know. Oh, real mature! Sorry! Sorry! You doing that just ticked me off a lot for some reason. Thank you for all you do! …..Um…okay, Andrea just rolled her eyes at me about it, but she’s taking care of it.”

“Thanks, Jor. I’ll see you in a few minutes,” Jessica said. She hung up the call and looked at Luna again. “Everything should be good to go.”

Luna nodded and put her saddlebag on before walking beside Jessica and her luggage.

“While this may not disorient me much, you may…no…you will feel quite ill. It is a defense that the necklace does not bypass, so brace yourself,” Luma warned.

Jessica grunted. “Thank you for the warning.”

Luna lit her horn, and there was a blinding flash. Jessica’s stomach lurched. She fell to her knees and hacked. She hadn’t eaten or drank anything in the last few hours, so there was nothing to vomit up but a little bit of stomach bile, which dribbled out of her mouth. She was sitting in grass, at least she thought she was. Her ears were ringing, probably from the very sudden elevation change. Denver was much higher above sea level than Skytree.

“Take a moment to recover,” Luna said, sounding breathless.

“She couldn’t give you something that bypasses that?!” Jessica asked in disbelief.

“She was concerned that the necklace might get stolen and still wanted some defense,” Luna explained. “Only Miss Gilmore’s talismans completely bypass the defenses.”

“Why does she have to be so paranoid?” Jessica said as she started to recover.

“Survival,” someone nearby said. Jessica looked up and saw Andrea standing there. Andrea smiled. “This is my first time seeing this defense in use–very effective. It even downs an alicorn for at least a second, which is more than just about anything else can do to an alicorn. I can appreciate a good defensive tactic, particularly a non-lethal one. The real question is, why couldn’t my sister have intensified this rather than go through the whole lethal drop while they were feeling too sick to do anything about it?”

“Because she hates torture, and that would be torture. After her capture by the Shimmerists, she would rather see someone dead than torture them,” Luna answered.

“How kind of her,” Andrea grumbled.

“She is far from perfect, but she tries her best,” Luna replied.

Jessica stood to her feet, still feeling a bit woozy. A pony collided with her legs and hugged her no sooner than she stood up, nearly knocking her back down.

“Oh! It’s good to see you again!” Jordan said happily.

She smiled as she put her hand on Jordan’s back. “It’s only been a few days.”

“But a lot happened! I had an intruder!” Jordan exclaimed.

She stepped back. “You had someone break in? Is everything okay?”

Jordan nodded. “Yeah, she got caught right away. Nothing gets through the defenses here. We also had the auction, and I redecorated the entire place. How was your trip? Anything fun and exciting happen?”

“I got a funky glowing stone, got to see some stars up close, found the ruins of a prehistoric civilization, and met Triss,” Jessica listed off

Jordan gaped. “Um…did I mention I redecorated? Yeah, exciting stuff. Okay, you had a more eventful weekend.”

Jessica laughed. “I didn’t mention the zombie foal or that I saw Rebecca get serious.”

Jordan started laughing. “Okay, you had me going until you mentioned that last one. I can believe all the rest if it was you who told me it, but I can’t believe that last one.”

Jessica stared. “That was the most unbelievable thing? Seriously?”

Jordan nodded. “Um…don’t you know her?! She can’t be serious to save her life!”

Jessica crossed her arms. “Well, she was. She was in command of the mission, and I watched her tell off Triss–which was weird because she was just kinda hostile to Triss, without anything to provoke her. I’ve never seen her get that way. There were a few other moments where she abandoned all the silliness and got direct. She was still primarily the cloud-headed buffoon that she normally is, but those moments did happen. There’s more to her than I thought.”

“I had an opportunity to converse with the young Dreamwarden while on our journey. My conversations with the Marshmallow demonstrated a much more complex and multifaceted individual than she presents. I will not reveal things she told me in confidence, but they were enlightening. She may be impulsive and sometimes absent-minded, but it would be foolhardy to dismiss her intelligence and wisdom just because she is cheerful and encourages nonsense. She reminds me of Pinkie Pie. Pinkie Pie maintains a cheerful and playful persona as well, but most don’t understand that the party pony has intelligence that surpasses Twilight's. Pinkie Pie might be the most intelligent pony alive, but she is only interested in tasks and subjects to assist her in making others happy rather than broader fields. The Marshmallow may not match Pinkie Pie in intelligence, but she is not without it, and she has a broader group of interests,” Luna stoically commented. “I can also verify that Doctor Middleton is not speaking in jest about what we encountered, and I request you keep such information private. We do not wish this knowledge to become widespread.”

Jordan stared at Luna for a few seconds. “So…you are where Phobia gets it.”

Luna’s ears flicked. “Where Phobia gets what?”

“Being long-winded,” Jessica explained.

Luna frowned and snorted, flicking her tail. “I prefer to say it is being eloquent. May I trouble you for a room with a bed? I’m tired and need more sleep.”

“Oh, um…sure,” Jordan replied. “I guess you know your way around. Feel free to take any room you want. I recently redecorated, so many beds might be smaller, but we still have some bigger ones.”

“I can make do with almost any bed on Earth. You make them so big here,” Luna replied. She then yawned. “Thank you for your hospitality. I’ll leave you two to catch up.” Luna then walked away towards the house.

Andrea must have wandered off at some point. The guards were at their usual stations, with one near the front door, a pair out near the gate, and one walking around the yard. Luna’s teleport had brought them to the front of the house, a stone's throw from that angel statue that sat right in front of the main door. Jessica’s car still sat beside the statue with a cover pulled over it.

Jordan saw her gaze. “Some of the people here for the auction looked under the cover. They tried to get me to put your car on auction. They were offering a lot of money.”

“Well, thanks for not letting them get my car. The body was a gift from Wild Growth for when I earned my first Masters, but the engine is all my work,” Jessica replied. “I honestly don’t know what it’s worth to others, and I don’t care. A lot of work went into getting that thing roadworthy. I count it as my number three great accomplishment.”

“Number three?” Jordan asked. “I’m guessing that Middleton's Law is your top accomplishment you’re proud of; what’s number two?”

Jessica shook her head. “Middleton’s Law is number two. Someone else would have figured that out; I just beat them to the punch, maybe by mere months. What I’m most proud of is helping save all my friends during the Cataclysm of Riverview–primarily you.”

Jordan turned a much deeper shade of purple. “You’re making me blush!”

“Well, it’s true,” Jessica said with a grin as she grabbed the handle of her luggage. “I might not have done it all–it was a group effort, but I bought us time for Wild Growth to come to our rescue, and I specifically saved you. I’d have never been able to live with myself if my best friend died.”

“You almost died doing it,” Jordan said. “If I’d been braver and jumped when you told me to, Bill would never have gotten on the same branch as me. You’d have stayed a pony, and don’t give me excuses about how happy you are you didn't. We all know why the spell wasn’t able to make you completely human. You didn’t want it.”

Jessica involuntarily started to ball her free hand into a fist and gripped her luggage tighter with her other. If it were anyone other than Jordan who said that, she’d be screaming at them right now. Even her family couldn’t get away with saying something like that, but this was Jordan, and Jordan could get away with a lot more.

“Feelings change,” she replied, deciding to not commit to saying anything concrete about it. “But one feeling that won’t change is I don’t regret what I did and would do it again.”

Jordan must not have seen the fists, or maybe she failed to recognize the gesture for what it was–ponies, at least, younger ponies, sometimes missed that kind of thing. Jordan was practically beaming.

“Aww, thank you, Jessie,” Jordan said happily.

She took a deep breath, trying to hide her unpleasant feelings. She wasn’t going to let herself be mad at Jordan.

“How about we get out of the yard, and you can show me how you redecorated?” Jessica suggested. “I also wanted to talk to Amicus if she’s available.”

“Yeah, she should be,” Jordan replied. “Why do you need to talk to Amicus? Need a lawyer?”

“Yes, I do,” Jessica said with a nod as they started walking to the door, pulling her luggage along with her. “I was also told she might know how to do makeup and hair for humans. It would be nice to know something about that before going on a date with Adam.”

Jordan flicked an ear. “Amicus? Really? But she’s so old. Are you sure?”

“She was young once upon a time,” Jessica reminded her. “Maybe her beauty standards are outdated, but she knows at least the basics. Unless you think you know what you’re doing with human makeup and hair?”

“Um, not really,” Jordan said, frowning slightly. “I mean, it can’t be that different, but you’re right; it’s probably better to trust someone who has actually dealt with it before.”

“She’s the easiest to get in touch with. I could try Bev or Jenny, but Bev you have to make an appointment to even have lunch with, and Jenny is often on the road. I’m not even sure where she’s at right now. That makes me kind of a cruddy friend,” Jessica replied.

Jordan shook her head. “They’re both older than you; you’re like a kid to them. It would be like if Drizzle kept constant tabs on me. I wouldn’t expect her to do something like that–I would be a little weirded out by it, honestly. She has friends her own age to hang out with. She is a friend, but she’s just a kid too. I’d expect they feel the same about you.”

“As someone who was six years of age displaced, I don’t see it quite that way. Drizzle’s closer to our age than Jenny and Bev, close to the physical age difference between you and me, so what you said is a little unfair to her, but I get what you’re saying,” Jessica said.

Jordan laid a single ear back as we reached the front door. “Was it hard for you…dealing with me while you were growing up? We are only a year apart in age, but we were at two different stages of our life. It must have been annoying dealing with a seven-year-old filly when you were dealing with full puberty and all the other stuff you were going through.”

“I admit, if you were around all the time back then, I’d have probably told you a bunch of hurtful things that I didn’t mean,” Jessica said with a sigh. “It got easier when you got to be a teenager, and we were close to the same wavelength on the emotional maturity spectrum. My early teen years, the physical early teen years, were…not great. You adapted to being a teen faster than I did. It took me forever to get things straight. I think we emotionally matured somewhere around the same time.”

“I don’t claim to be perfect when it comes to being emotionally mature,” Jordan replied. “Then again, have you met Andrea? I think some people never emotionally mature.”

Jordan opened opened the front door, and Andrea was standing there.

“Oh…um…hi, Andrea,” Jordan sheepishly said. “Did you hear any of that?”

Andrea’s ears flattened, but she ignored Jordan and looked at Jessica’s luggage. “What is in your luggage? I initially thought it was Luna alone giving me a headache, but you’ve got something in there that makes me sick to my stomach when I focus on it.”

Fudge, that rock could be detected by crystal ponies. What would happen if she kept it in her apartment? Every crystal pony that walked by would notice. How far away could they detect it from? The closest example to compare it to would be crystal ponies feeling an alicorn. How close to an alicorn did crystal ponies have to be to detect them? There needed to be a solution for this. Why had Rebecca insisted she keep the thing?

“It’s something I picked up on my trip,” Jessica replied. “It is highly concentrated thaumic matter. It’s not dangerous. It is specifically keyed to me, and it has to be in physical contact with my skin to become active, and I have no intention of pressing any bare skin against that thing.”

Andrea grimaced as she continued to stare at the luggage. “You’d fucking better figure out some sort of plan for that thing. That’s the kind of thing Sunset would have locked super-deep in the vaults. My sister ever tell you about something she made called the Chorus?”

“No….” Jessica said, uncertain she wanted to know where this was going, but sure she’d find out anyway. “What the fudge is the Chorus?”

“Really powerful stone that she made years ago,” Andrea answered. “Like most of her brilliant ideas, it was the culmination of a lot of stolen research from different people that she put together into something they could never dream of. She thought she could figure out how to use it to power the entire state, maybe the whole East Coast, and kept it deep inside the Bastion. My dumbass sister was always good at outwitting herself. That fuck-face, Poly Glot, wanted to use it to spread an unstable version of her temporary transformation spell, you know, the lovely version that makes people nutcases like those crystal ponies that tried to kill you two and your friends, across the continent. That would have caused anarchy worse than the original ETS. I don’t know what the hell went on in the last minutes before that place blew the fuck up, but I know that the Chorus had to be part of what caused it. Things like that are bad news. My recommendation is to destroy that thing.”

Maybe her original assertion that the stone could move the Sun and end all life on Earth wasn’t as improbable as Rebecca made it out to be. No, it couldn’t move the Sun, but unless she had something to demonstrate otherwise, this stone made this Chorus thing that Auntie had made look like a piece of coal sitting next to an equal-sized hunk of uranium, and now there were a dozen such hunks on Earth. The Chorus alone might not have caused the Cataclysm of Riverview, but it certainly provided the power for it. What could these twelve stones do in a similar situation? They could take out the entire planet.

“You aren’t going to scare Jessie with that talk!” Jordan declared, oblivious that Jessica was very much scared. “Jessie is smart. She can figure out how to make it safe.”

Andrea sneered at Jordan. “Just like my smart sister kept the Chorus safe? Ha! Your friend is a genius, but she doesn’t understand practicality. She’s one of those people who live in theories and math, not figuring out what to do with that stuff. My sister, she was the opposite. She might not have been able to figure out the theory, but she’d find a dozen applications to anything people like your friend dreamed up faster than she could consider whether any of it was a good idea or not. I don’t trust smart idiots to keep us safe.”

She was smart, and she could prove she wasn’t a fool. The first thing to do was figure out how to hide the damn thing so crystal ponies couldn’t detect it.

“Hold a minute; I need to make a call,” she told the two ponies as she stopped and searched for her phone.

“Kansas never experienced droughts on this level in the last hundred years. The only major thing that has changed is earth ponies working the land. Any fool can tell they are at fault!”

Wild Growth’s tail flicked as she sat and listened to this pompous windbag speak. They were supposed to be listening to experts, but someone had decided to include this corporate hack who only saw numbers on a ledger and didn’t have a clue about botany, ecology, climatology, geology, or any number of fields that would assist in coming up with solutions for the groundwater crisis in the Great Plains. Well, to be fair, he could be helpful if he were willing to discuss his company providing a way of effectively rationing their water usage, but, no, he couldn’t be bothered to care about science. It had to be someone else’s fault, and it had to be the earth ponies, not the vast corporations that directed them.

Connie pushed a handwritten note to her. Don’t let the jackass get under your fur. Wild nodded to the note. She had nothing to say to this man. It was already clear he wouldn’t help produce solutions, and he would deny any responsibility for the crisis that was even now leading to deserts starting to form in parts of Kansas and Oklahoma.

“Just give us more rain! Talk to the CCS and negotiate more rain!” the idiot yelled.

They’d already negotiated that, and more rain was coming with the last tropical depression of the season. It wouldn’t be as much as he wanted. The Confederated Caribbean States only had the water of the storms to work with; they’d yet to get to where they could form their own depressions–although that was only a matter of time. Taking the water to Kansas and Oklahoma meant other places weren’t getting as much, which put strain on other areas. The only way to get more than had already been negotiated would be for the CCS to take the rain promised for Mexico, which wasn’t going to happen. Mexico couldn’t afford a weak rainy season with its current political climate. Not getting that rain would be the last straw that set off the violence, and they were already struggling to keep the Mexican government stable. Also, negotiating the change in rain had meant giving in to more demands from the CCS, more American-made ships to extend their control into Atlantic waters further. Giving the CCS even more control over the weather was not a good thing. It gave them far too much leverage to pressure the USA into doing what they wanted.

After centuries of being at the United States’ mercy, the islands had found something to unite them and make them a significant power. They controlled hurricane season, and in time, they’d likely control almost all the rain that came in the western hemisphere. People seemed to forget too soon how much power Saudi Arabia once held over other nations by dominating control over one vital resource. The CCS were poised to dominate a different essential resource, and water wasn’t something countries could wean their economies away from like they had oil.

Her phone started vibrating on her leg, and she lifted her leg to glance at who was calling. Jess? Why would Jess be calling her? Jess never just called her for no reason.

She stood up, attracting all eyes to her and briefly silencing the shithead. “Sorry, I have a call I must take. If I’m not back in time, I concede my time to the gentlewoman from Colorado.”

“Oh, the great Wild Growth, running away from responsibility again,” the corporate shithead sneered. “She could fix all our problems if she weren’t so lazy. Nobody believes you’re really burnt out.”

She did her best to ignore him. If she were eighteen years younger, she’d likely have thrown something at him or stomped and seriously damaged the chamber, but she had learned how to control her temper over the years and limited her reaction to flattened ears and a strong flick of her tail. The chairman was yelling at the douche, telling him he was out of line, and so was Connie. She gave no further response and exited the chamber out a side door.

The phone had stopped ringing, but once out of the chamber, she called Jess back. It only took a single ring for the girl to pick up.

“Wild? Thank you for calling me back so quickly,” Jess said, sounding relieved.

“I was in the middle of a Senate committee meeting, but it wasn’t going anywhere,” Wild explained. “What’s the problem? I’m assuming it is either money or something very big. Actually, before you tell me that, tell me where you are at.”

“I’m with Jordan and Andrea at Wabash Manor,” Jess answered.

Wild rolled her eyes. Of course, there was always some issue at Wabash. “Do me a favor; walk out the front gate and tell me when you’re at the sidewalk.”

“Why?” Jess asked in confusion.

“Because while you are inside the grounds of Wabash, this call is being monitored. I don’t know what you are calling about, it could be completely innocent, but I prefer not to have the FBI listening in. It makes me paranoid,” Wild answered. “Go ahead and walk out the gate. I know it takes a few minutes; I’ll wait.”

And wait she did. While she waited, she took two more pain pills, and screw it if anyone saw her taking them and tried to say she had an addiction to pain medication. They didn’t have to deal with their insides constantly ripping themselves apart and healing right back again at rapid speeds. Damn Sunset Blessing never found a solution to it…or at least…nothing that was a good idea according to her, though she hadn’t said what the bad idea was. If it was a bad enough idea Sunset Blessing to have her believe it bad, it was safe to say it was an extremely bad idea she wanted no part of. However, some days, she felt like she could entertain whatever bad idea it was.

It took Jess about two minutes to speak again.

“Okay, I’m outside the gate, and I’m shielding this conversation from being overheard on both ends,” Jess announced.

How did she manage to use her powers over the phone? They were across the continent from one another. Human magic tended to do weird things with electronics, so there was no telling.

“So…money or favor?” Wild asked.

“Favor, I guess,” Jess replied. “I went on an expedition to Jeg’galla’gamp’pi with Luna, Rebecca, and some others. While there, I acquired super dense thaumic matter. It isn’t very big, about the size of a textbook–a little smaller, but crystal ponies can feel it when they get near it. It gives off a lot of energy. A lot of energy, like the crystal ponies would feel around you or one of the alicorns. Rebecca insists I keep this damn thing. I need some way of shielding that energy from being detected. I know there are ways, but they’re way too expensive for me. I don’t need a whole room, like a box, maybe?”

Her mind immediately went to thinking of the Chorus, even though she’d tried not thinking about that thing ever again, but the Chorus wasn’t small. That thing had been an enormous crystal. Now they had carry-sized versions of that?

“I think we are better off destroying it,” Wild said firmly. “There are things that no one should have access to.”

“We literally can’t,” Jess replied. “It is super dense thaumic matter. It is indestructible. This thing could survive a nuclear blast or being thrown into a black hole. Rebecca explained the only way to destroy it is to kill me, and I hope you don’t think of that as an option.”

Wild’s brow creased. “Why would killing you get rid of it?”

“It’s got a connection to me. I’m still trying to figure out how that works, but it is my stone. It only reacts to me. It glows when I touch it, but not when anyone else does.”

The similarities to the Chorus continued to make her nervous. The Chorus had been tied to Tonya, but that didn’t mean its power couldn’t be accessed by others. She and the Dreamwardens needed to have a long talk about this thing and why they thought it was a good thing to give to a nineteen-year-old girl.

She took a deep breath. “I’ll get you a box. I’d say bury the box, but someone might dig it up. If I knew how to get into Sunset’s vaults, I would have you put it in there. Give me a day or two to see what I can do; then we can box this thing up and figure out where the hell to put the box.”

What the hell were the Dreamwardens up to?

Chapter 37: Assessment

Jessica sat with her legs folded beneath her at the now much lower dining table, a glass of sweet tea in front of her…ginseng sweet tea, an odd flavor that seemed exclusive to Wabash Manor. Jordan and Amicus sat at the table with her, but they had mugs instead of glasses. Amicus had the same tea as her, but Jordan had milk. It was soy milk, which was a considerable risk. You never knew when Rebecca might pop up, and while it wasn’t skim, it was unknown how the pudgy pegasus might feel about soy.

Amicus took a sip of her tea and set the mug down. “It is nice having a table where I don't have to strain to look over. Now, I’d be more than happy to help you with your foster case. It will be a nice change of pace from the normal civil rights cases–not that I mind them, they’re very fulfilling but exhausting.”

“Does that mean this should be easy?” Jessica asked, hopeful.

“Oh, I don’t want to give the wrong impression. It is still a lot of work, but there’s a different dynamic,” Amicus answered. “These offices, they want the kids to end up being adopted. They aren’t out to try to stop you. They want to ensure the best situation for the kid, and that means certain standards have to be met. They aren’t going to compromise on his safety and well-being, so they need you to be able to meet those standards. The burden is on us to demonstrate that you can be a good parent who can provide a happy and safe home, free from want, with a parent capable of caring for his basic and emotional needs.”

“I can provide all that,” Jessica replied confidently.

“And now you just need to prove it,” Amicus said. “I’ll visit your apartment this week to see how it stacks up to what they require.”

Jessica frowned. “What kind of requirements for the apartment?”

Amicus finished another sip of her tea. “Well, it needs to be fully furnished, have a room set up for the kid, the proper number of ways of exiting if there is a fire, windows have to be a certain size and can be opened fully, clean, well-stocked with food, welcoming environment, a few other small details.”

“Sure…I have those things,” Jessica replied. “How much furniture?”

Amicus raised an eyebrow at her. “How about I come over Wednesday after you’ve gotten it set up better to look at what you’ve got? Then I can give you some guidance. I’ll be leaving town for a few days after that to visit my grandfoal, and you can take that time to make my suggested adjustments. Our goal is for me to get you in proper order so that when they come around and look, they see everything is great.”

“Thank you, Amicus. I appreciate it,” Jessica said, genuinely feeling grateful.

Amicus nodded. “I’ll help with the paperwork and drill you with what kinds of questions they will ask you. However, I have to tell you, this is not purely charity on my behalf. I do charge by the hour. We can count this as a free consultation today, but as we advance, I will need to be paid.”

“I suppose that’s fair,” Jessica agreed. “How much will you be charging?”

“I can give you a discounted rate. Let’s say…four-hundred thirty-five an hour,” Amicus replied.

Jessica started gagging on her tea. “That’s the discounted rate?!”

Amicus nodded. “The average going rate is over six hundred an hour. Don’t worry. I only charge for the hours I’m actually working. This should be a three-to-five-hour job if there are no complications. Even if it gets complicated, the most I could see it going to is ten. That’s my side of things; for you, this will take weeks, possibly months. You must be ready to set aside a lot of time for this.”

She supposed that the bill wasn’t too bad, especially if it was spread out over time. She’d been expecting Amicus to personally be putting a lot more hours into this when she heard that dollars-per-hour figure and that was what had scared her. The idea of paying out twenty or so hours of that a week for who knew how many weeks would have been impossible, not unless Wild Growth bailed her out, but one or two hours here and there at that rate she could easily manage.

She sighed. “Thank you. I can manage that. I also wanted to ask your advice on some beauty tips. I’m possibly pursuing my first-ever relationship, and I know nothing about all of that stuff. I tried asking Arachne, but she claims she doesn’t have a clue what to do with a human. Jordan isn’t exactly confident either, and most of my human friends are hard to get in touch with. Arachne suggested you.”

Amicus smiled. “My bratty grandniece actually paid attention to my stories. I don’t know if I should be overjoyed or worried that she bothered to learn about me. I can help you some. I was no salon stylist, but I had a decent amount of experience with makeup and hair when I was young, and I also remember the struggles I went through figuring out how to convert those things to being a pony. You have some pony features, so some of that figuring out could come in handy. Human hair doesn’t sit quite the same with ears like that.”

“Um, you aren’t going to charge her for the help, are you?” Jordan asked.

“No. This would be just something to do for a friend,” Amicus replied. She raised an eyebrow at Jordan. “We need to break you of that habit.”

Jordan blinked. “What habit?”

“You say um way too often. It makes you sound less confident,” Amicus answered. “You’re the lady of the house, the Mistress of Wabash Manor, and you’re both intelligent and talented–if you weren’t, my little sister wouldn’t have left Wabash to you. It would be best if you sounded confident in your role, or people will try to walk all over you and not take you seriously. How you speak reflects on how people perceive you.”

Jordan lowered her ears. “Oh, well, alright then. I’ll try to do better.”

“No pouting,” Amicus chided. She then finished her tea and looked back at Jessica. “Now, beauty techniques between humans and ponies are more similar than you may think. The primary thing is we need different types of products to accomplish the same goals, with only a few that don’t have a corresponding product–for instance, ponies don’t use blush, and humans don’t use fur glamor. A few things are applied differently as well.”

“What’s fur glamor?” Jessica asked, feeling ignorant.

“It makes your fur color look more vibrant and shiny,” Jordan answered.

“We might try a little of it with you on your legs, but humans don’t normally need it,” Amicus said. “Do you own any makeup?”

“My mother bought some for me for my birthday last year. I don’t have a clue where it’s at. I tossed it in a drawer after getting it, and I have no clue where that drawer’s contents are in all the boxes,” Jessica answered.

“We’ll pretend that doesn’t exist then. I can go out with you tomorrow and see if we can find some makeup, styling products, and nice clothes,” Amicus replied.

“Um-” Jordan began, then immediately realized she’d just committed the verbal sin again. She nodded before continuing, “I wanted to see if you were willing to take me to your university tomorrow and show me around.”

Jessica frowned. She wanted to visit Mark tomorrow. She also needed to focus on unpacking because if Amicus saw her apartment as it was now, she’d declare Jessica had no hope of adopting. She did want to hang out with Jordan, and she did need some help from Amicus, and the old earth pony would be out of town by the end of the week. She also wanted to fit some time in with her little brother. It was a lot to fit in.

“I’m going to visit Mark tomorrow, but I’ll pick you two up after I’m done,” she said, deciding on a course of action. “That is if you don’t mind spending a little time at the university, Amicus.”

“Oh, I don’t mind. It gives me more time to stretch my legs. I spend way too much time cooped up in this house. Old people need exercise, or their legs stop working right,” Amicus said fondly. “Maybe I can convince Andrea to come along with us. She could stand to get out more often. She hasn’t gone anywhere in weeks. Security is tight enough here for her to go out for a few hours without it being an issue.”

Jessica took note of Jordan’s frown and wondered how bad things were going between her and Andrea. The old crystal pony was a pain to deal with, primarily because she always judged the security and how people were disrupting it by living their lives. Maybe Andrea would be more civil once away from the mansion.

“That would be alright if she wants to come,” Jessica replied. “Where is she now? I haven’t seen her since I called Wild Growth.”

Amicus waved a hoof. “Well, she was going to go lie down because your stone and Luna make her feel ill, but Luna apparently took the suggestion of any bed in the house literally and decided to lay down in Andrea’s bed. So, Andrea has a sleeping alicorn occupying her bedroom right now. She decided to go out back and feed her critters instead.”

“She keeps bats,” Jordan explained.

“Well, she encourages bats to come, anyway,” Amicus corrected. “It isn’t just bats. She feeds squirrels and a host of birds as well. She’s no wildlife expert, so It took her a while to figure out how to set up the bat feeders and bird feeders so they weren’t poaching the other’s food. They’ve grown quite used to seeing her and now know seeing her usually means food, so they will come right up beside her without fear.” Amicus shook her head. “I think she enjoys having creatures eager to see her. She might be as prickly as a cactus, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t sensitive as well. Everyone wants to feel loved and wanted. Asking her along on this excursion will be a good thing. I’d see if Brief wanted to come, too, but I doubt he’ll be interested in shopping for makeup and clothes. He’d probably insist we go look at power tools for an hour if he came, not because he likes power tools, but because he’d feel the need to do something stereotypical manly after being around so much girliness.”

“I like power tools,” Jessica mumbled. The other two looked at her. “Well, I do! I like working with my hands and making things. I'm a licensed mechanic. That doesn’t make me a tomboy or anything like that.”

“Didn’t say you were,” Amicus replied with amusement. “Don’t worry about such labels. They were outdated even when I was young. I was the prissiest of my siblings, and even I got that label thrown at me because I dared to be good with electronics and like video games, as if a girl couldn’t like those things, too. I’m surprised you young people even still use terms like that.”

“You liked electronics, really?” Jordan asked. “How’d you end up in law then?”

Amicus narrowed her eyes at Jordan. “Because we can’t all be defined by one thing. That would be pretty boring. I see so many ponies that think the mark on their flank defines everything about them. We’re more than our cutie marks. I chose this path that got me my mark, but it isn’t all of who I am.”

Jordan lowered her head. “Sorry, that was inconsiderate of me to say. Speaking about marks defining ponies…have you and Andrea thought of any solutions for my mom being here? I was reading on the internet, and it does seem like the early stages of cutie-mark madness.”

Jessica’s ears flicked. “Wait, what’s going on with your mom?”

Jordan shrugged and looked away. “When she gets stressed, she starts acting all crazy and starts digging for treasure. She’s been hoarding as well. Her mark is about finding things. Dad’s lungs are getting worse, too. I was going to move them here, but we can’t have my mom trying to dig here. Bad things could happen.”

Amicus sighed. “Looking things up on the internet is not the way to make a diagnosis. You need to get an expert to work with her. As for if she starts digging here, we do have a solution. There’s a side house on the grounds. The old groundskeeper used to live there before he retired. It’s a small house, cozy and in good shape. It’s not big enough to deal with a growing family, but it is suitable for two ponies who aren’t going to be having any more foals, and Sunset made sure there’s nothing directly below it if you try to dig underneath it because she was paranoid about someone hiding out there and doing just that–we’ve had some creative intruders over the years. We can have your parents live there. They can still take meals and everything with us, but if your mom is not at her best at any point, we can confine her to the house until the episode passes. We can set up camera feeds inside that house to be safe.”

“I’ll want to go look at it. I don’t want my parents living in a shack,” Jordan said.

“It’s your house; you’re free to check it out,” Amicus replied.

Jessica stood up. “Thanks for the tea and hospitality, but I need to get home. I haven’t had a shower in days, and my panties are in desperate need of changing–I don't want to end up with a yeast infection; one time was enough with that.”

“Too much information,” Amicus said, scrunching up her nose.

“What does not washing your clothes have to do with yeast?” Jordan asked in confusion.

“Look it up,” Amicus replied, sounding exasperated. She then smiled at Jessica. “Thank you for spending time with me and inviting me to hang out with you tomorrow. It feels good to be included. I’ll do everything I can to assist you in this adoption process. It has a few challenges, but they aren’t insurmountable, and we’ll work through them.”

Jessica held out a fist to Amicus, and the earth pony raised a hoof and bumped the fist.

While driving out, she noticed a small crowd had formed across the street from Wabash Manor. There were a lot of drones in the air of varying sizes, many more than usual, although none of those drones dared cross the boundary of the fence. People must be well aware of what became of their drones when they trespassed. It was easy to guess why. Luna must have been spotted by one of the various drones that typically circled the property, and now interested people had swarmed in for a chance to see the alicorn princess–even if it was just from a drone feed.

She paused by the gate to put the hood of her car up. She had a long-standing uneasiness about crowds gathered outside houses that went back to her days in Riverview. She could remember the mob gathered outside her Auntie’s mansion during that final Thanksgiving before the Cataclysm. The angry mobs had played their role in what had eventually happened, evolving into riots over that fateful week that had drawn guards out of the Bastion and into the street, making it much easier for Poly Glot to break free from his cell. She still recalled their screamed obscenities at those gathered for a family meal. These people weren’t an angry mob, just curious onlookers, but they still the fur on her legs bristling. The retractable hood wasn’t much of a barrier between her and them, but it was something.

While still parked, she set her phone in its holder and set it to voice command and speaker. “Phone, call Adam,” she instructed.

“Calling Adam,” the phone responded.

It took him a moment to pick up. “Doctor Middleton! You’re back!”

She smiled. “You can call me Jess.”

“Is that what your friends call you?” Adam asked, sounding a bit hopeful.

“Some of them,” she confirmed. “Some call me Jess, some get to call me Jessie.”

“Is Jessie better than Jess?” Adam asked.

Her smile faded slightly. “Sorry, you aren’t to that level yet. I’m very stingy about who I allow to call me that. Maybe you’ll get there. Speaking of which, I will be busy today and tomorrow, but I was wondering if you wanted to go for some more coffee together on Tuesday afternoon? We can discuss my findings from the trip. I promised to share everything with you.”

“Yes, of course!” Adam said excitedly. “We might want to go somewhere more private than the faulty bar if you’re going to be sharing that information with me. I know a jazz lounge that has private booths if you're interested. They’ve got nice music if you like jazz.”

“Jazz?” she replied, uncertain. Did she have any particular feelings about jazz? Did she have any particular feelings about any type of music? Now that she thought about it, had she ever just put music on to listen to? She typically just listened to whatever her family or friends were listening to…or tuned it out because she wanted to focus on something else. At any given time, she could hear someone’s music playing somewhere. At that moment, there were at least six different types of music playing within her hearing range. It was noise to be tuned out, not listened to.

“A jazz lounge sounds great,” she answered. She was honestly more or less neutral about it, but she decided it wouldn’t hurt to show some enthusiasm for it. She was supposed to be getting out and experiencing things. “Is there any sort of dress code?”

“Just dress nicely, and if you have anything with a jazzy feel to it, wear that,” Adam replied.

Jazzy feel? What was a jazzy feel? Amicus better have some clue what that meant when they went shopping tomorrow because she had no idea what a jazzy feel meant.

“Alright, see you Tuesday,” she said, trying to sound cheerful.

“It’s a date. See you then,” he replied, then hung up.

A date? This was a date? She didn’t agree to this being a date. She wasn’t ready for a date. She thought she would be broaching the idea of a date over coffee, and if that went well, there might be something the coming weekend. She wasn’t ready for this! Why’d he hang up before she could object to this being a date?! Could she reject it? Would that ruin everything if she did? She didn’t know what the proper ways of handling these things were.

Slow breaths. Don’t work yourself up and have a panic attack happen, she chided herself in her head.

Turning around to return to Wabash to seek the immediate help of Jordan and Amicus was tempting, or maybe call up Phobia for the Dreamwarden to walk her through her anxieties. Phobia certainly owed it to her to give her a few one-on-one therapy sessions after all the Dreamwarden had put her through. She did need a shower…a bath might be better, something to relax and soothe her. No, she would not go immediately running to anyone for advice so they could laugh at how foolish she must be. Fudge that! Well, maybe she would talk to someone later before she went to bed. She needed someone to calm her before she inevitably had to deal with the horrors of an excited Yinyu Wu Yan. Just thinking of what might be coming in her dreams was enough to make her stomach unsettled…more unsettled since it already was.

There was a crystal pony staring right at her from across the street. She still had that damn stone in her luggage. What was she supposed to do about it before Wild came up with a solution for it? Could she leave it unattended at her apartment? It seemed a very dangerous thing to leave unattended, especially if it would attract the attention of every crystal pony who got within a certain radius of it. That also meant carrying it around with her everywhere also was a bad idea. She should have asked Andrea to help her figure out how far a crystal pony could detect the thing from. Too late for that now…though she could still turn around. No! She’d already decided she was going home and taking a bath.

The pony wouldn’t stop staring, and it was making her nervous. She shifted gears and drove away.

The crystal pony stallion watched as the antique car drove away. He normally wouldn't care about the filthy Middleton girl who had willingly abandoned her ponydom, but something had been seriously off about what he had been feeling from her direction. She wasn’t that impressive with her magical strength. They’d scouted her for years and knew it only took one crystal pony to neutralize her if she ever got in the way. There’d been something else in the car with her. It wasn’t the Equestrian princess. He could still feel her if he strained his senses toward the Apostate’s home. Something that significant could be felt at a distance if you were looking for it. No, this was something else, something of similar power, yet the Middleton girl had been alone in that car.

He took a short stroll down the street, away from the gawkers. He’d been the only one on that curb that he knew of who wasn’t just there to try to catch a glimpse of royalty. The Apostate might be gone, but Wabash Manor remained under guard; it continued to get visits from Luna and the Dreamwardens’ minions. That meant that Wabash Manor still held secrets, possibly the secrets of ETS. The new mare in charge seemed weak on the surface, but there were now plenty of videos swimming around the internet of her downing a crystal pony–not just a crystal pony, but the Warden of Fear’s pet crystal pony. Unicorns typically were no match for crystal ponies and beating a crystal pony trained as well as the Dreamwarden’s guard was a ludicrous proposition unless you had obscene levels of magical strength. That filly was not what she seemed; her fighting prowess, skill, and visitors declared that loud and clear. She was the new guardian of the Apostate’s stronghold, possibly there to continue the Apostate’s work, and she was not to be underestimated.

Now, something powerful just exited that stronghold with the Middleton girl. Although Sunset Blessing was hated, any sane pony understood she was still one of the greatest mages. She’d unlocked the secrets of ETS when it had been theorized that it would take centuries. Nopony other than her had even come close to that feat. Her other works, while not nearly as important, were also rarely rivaled by the work of others. She'd also murdered Royal Bearing during a magic duel; Royal Bearing had been a very powerful unicorn. No, the Apostate should never be underestimated. There were sometimes outlandish tales of what the Apostate had created years ago in the depths of the Bastion, and one of those said she had once made a stone to rival the power of alicorns. Something with the strength of an alicorn had just driven by in the Middleton girl’s car.

His superiors were going to be very interested in this news.

Chapter 38: The Work is Never Done

She didn’t go straight home. She swung by McDonald’s drive-through to pick up a cheeseburger Happy Meal with a mango shake and a garden salad. She could only eat the burgers at McDonald’s since her stomach could only tolerate so much meat, and their burgers were tiny little things. It was hard to differentiate a single from a double, or a triple, for that matter. The patties were all so small. She enjoyed meat but would never get to eat much more than that in a single sitting, at least safely.

The drive-through cashier stared at her ears for an uncomfortable amount of time when collecting her payment and giving her her order. Maybe she should have just had it delivered instead, but she’d already been passing by the McDonald’s on her way home, and she was trying to be a little more careful with spending money and had wanted to avoid the delivery fee. She resolved not to visit that particular McDonald’s again.

The Happy Meal toy was for Furton’s Cat, which made her smile. She’d watched Furton’s Cat all the time when she was a young foal. It seemed like it was still popular. She usually just tossed the toys from these things or gave them to Dusk until he outgrew them, but maybe she could give this to Mark. It was an excellent gateway to introduce him to her favorite cartoon from when she was his age.

Snacking on some fries as she drove, she headed home.

She got home, ate her food, and then bathed. With those things out of the way, she was ready to move on to the next important task. After getting her pajamas on, she sat on her bed and called Mark’s foster home.

“Hi, Jessica?” Jill answered, sounding strangely annoyed.

She blinked at the tone. “Yes. Is everything okay? You sound unhappy.”

Jill sighed. “Sorry about that. You called at a bit of a bad time. Mark is being difficult at the moment, and I don't want to encourage that behavior by giving him a reward–which would be getting to talk to you.”

Jessica frowned. “Difficult, how? He isn’t hiding again, is he?”

“No, he isn’t doing that,” Jill replied. “He wanted cereal for dinner, and he was served a fruit salad instead because he needs a more well-rounded diet than just grains all the time. Now, he is just sitting there, refusing to eat or say anything. Kids do stuff like this sometimes, although it is usually slightly older ones who pull this tactic. They don’t get their way, so they go completely defiant. Consider it the equivalent of a temper tantrum without the yelling, screaming, and crying. At some point, he’ll eat, if only because he wants to move away from the table. I’m not going to require him to eat all of it, but he has to eat at least some of it, enough so he doesn’t go hungry. There are several different types of sliced-up fruit on his plate, so he can pick his preferences.”

“Can I try to convince him to eat?” Jessica asked.

“Not this time,” Jill replied. “Getting told he can see or talk to you if he eats is like a bribe, and that is a bad habit to get into. When good behavior only comes from getting something out of it, kids stop behaving when they don’t think they’re getting anything. Good behavior, especially unprompted good behavior, does deserve to be praised, but it's not a good idea to get into a reward cycle.”

She’d wanted to talk to Mark, but she didn’t want to get in the way of how Jack and Jill handled things around their home. How would she handle Mark refusing to eat his food? She’d never misbehaved…well, she hadn’t misbehaved that much, and she couldn't recall a time she refused to eat her dinner because she didn’t care for what was being served. Had Dusk ever done that with her parents? Maybe, but she must not have paid much attention to how they handled it. She hadn’t even considered how to deal with Mark being defiant or misbehaving or how she would handle discipline. Those were important things to consider and things social services would want to know. Honestly, she’d barely considered the fact he could be defiant or misbehave, even if that was extremely naive on her part.

“Well, after he’s finally eaten, tell him I called and plan to be by for a brief visit tomorrow,” she said after much consideration.

“I’ll do that,” Jill agreed. “Don’t worry about this. Kids do things like this all the time. People stereotype teenagers as moody, which they are, but small children can be even more moody, and unlike teenagers, they’re nearly impossible to reason with. They don’t have discipline over their emotions at this age. If Mark didn’t have this extreme need to be quiet ingrained in him, this would probably be an episode of crying and screaming. However, that means this can drag out longer since he isn’t wearing himself out crying and screaming. It’s frustrating, but you have to be firm, clear, and consistent in expectations so they learn they aren’t going to get away with acting out. It can take a long time to break them of it, but they’ll come around.”

She ended the call, disappointed and unsure what to do next. Unpacking was what made the most sense to do. That seemed like a lot of work at the moment, and she had only gotten home today. Tomorrow after she got home from shopping. That was when she would sit down and get everything unpacked. At times like these, she’d generally start adjusting her calculations to find what she now knew was Jeg’galla’gamp’pi. There was no need for that now. If she wasn’t unpacking and she wasn’t working, what was she going to do? She’d already called home…her parents’ house right before she had gotten into the car at Wabash, so there was no need to call again today.

Maybe she could get on the internet and check some things.

She looked over at her computer and jumped back when she saw two pitch-black eyes staring at her.

“Holy sh-” she gasped. She took a second to take one breath as she looked at the sackcloth doll now sitting on her keyboard.

She raised a finger and pointed at it. “No! No! I’m not getting caught up in any of your crap. You go back to wherever you normally are and leave me alone. I’m not fudging with you.”

The doll, over a hundred years old, sat limp, staring at her with lifeless black button eyes.

“I’m going to call Phobia and have her-” Jessica said agitatedly as she reached for her phone but jumped again when the phone rang. She looked back at her computer after taking her eyes away briefly, but the doll was gone.

“Stay gone!” she ordered the spot where the doll had been. She picked up her phone and answered it. “Hello?”

“It’s Wild,” Wild Growth replied. “Is everything okay? You sound flustered.”

She shook her head, even though the pony wouldn’t see. “That damn creepy doll Phobia used to keep in a glass case decided to show up. It’s gone now, but it gave me a scare.”

“It decided to show up? How does a doll decide to show up?” Wild asked, sounding baffled.

She raised an eyebrow. “You don’t know about the creepy haunted doll?”

“I noticed it while visiting her house a few times but never asked about it. It’s been gone for ages. Figured she got rid of it or put it in storage," Wild answered. “The thing isn’t really haunted, is it? I don’t do ghosts. If you have a ghost problem, you need to seek help from someone else.”

“Who am I going to call?!” Jessica replied in disbelief.

“Ghostbusters,” Wild answered. “Sorry, automatic response.”

“It's fine,” Jessica said with a sigh. “I heard she gave it away or something, but I know it’s never gone from wherever it came from for long, and I never heard of it doing anything but just showing up at random places for a moment or two. It just scared me; it’s harmless.”

“If you say so,” Wild said in a bemused tone. “Anyway, I obviously can’t just rush over there to help you with your stone problem, but I contacted Number, and she will get you a case to suppress the stone within the next few days. She’ll personally deliver it. This isn’t something you send in the mail. Don’t ask for any favors for a while; that case is not cheap–the most expensive box I have ever bought.”

“Thank you, Wild. I appreciate it,” Jessica replied with relief. “I already had a crystal pony on the street staring at me. I know he felt the stone. I should have asked Andrea to run some experiments with me to find out how far away they can detect it. “

“If it is as strong as you say, it could be strong enough that even a non-crystal pony can feel it. I remember back in the day that every pony and many humans for miles could feel it when I used my powers. I don’t know how alicorns are able to cast spells without everyone always reeling from it,” Wild said.

“They contain the thaumic bleed,” Jessica said. “Every time you do anything with magic, thaumic energy is dispersed. You don’t even have to actively do anything; magical creatures radiate off a steady stream of thaumic energy through your conduits, but not as much as when casting spells. If the bleed is strong enough, anyone with magic can feel it, and crystal ponies are hyperaware of thaumic bleed and absorb some of that thaumic energy as it hits them–up to whatever personal limit they have. When directing their magic sensing abilities, they’re absorbing thaumic energy; that’s why they can get overwhelmed just checking out a powerful pony. As for alicorns, they have much more magic, so one of the things they must learn early on is how to limit or mask the thaumic bleed that they and their spells radiate; otherwise, they’ll constantly overwhelm other ponies with their power. I presume powerful unicorns, like Starlight, do the same. They might not have known how to teach you to do the same with your bleed since you’re an earth pony.”

“I presume those conduits that thaumic energy radiates from are the ones I fried,” Wild said glumly.

Jessica’s ears sagged. “Yeah, those are the ones.”

“Not your fault,” Wild said. “Be expecting Number in the next few days. I hope you don’t run into too many crystal ponies. I will keep it on your person until then.”

When she got off the call with Wild Growth, she took one more look around the room just to make sure the haunted doll wasn’t lurking in some corner like Chucky, ready to stab her. The doll seemed to be gone back to wherever it came from. Why the heck it decided to visit her, she had no clue. The last time she heard about it moving around, it had been terrorizing Rebecca, and that had been years ago, right before Phobia gave the thing away. She had no idea how much range that thing had. It seemed like it should be on the other side of the country, but it popped up here like it was right around the corner. She was sick and tired of things that operated on their own rules outside the laws of the universe.

There was tension in the air. All the mares that generally filled the yard and on top of the house had moved to neighboring houses and were watching from there. Wallace was staring defiantly at the unexpected guest, as was Rosetta. Phobia took this all in stride and sipped her tea.

“Can you repeat the question, General Wilson?” Phobia said as she returned her teacup to the saucer.

“You heard me the first time! Why the fuck did you send our stones to Equestria??!” General Wilson yelled.

Phobia nodded. “That is what I thought you said. I just wanted to be sure before answering. To begin with, the truestones are not our stones. They belong to specific individuals, and we happen to be able to make use of them. Second of all, if the individual they belong to passes away, whether they have claimed their truestone or not, the stone disappears, but we believe that being in another universe prevents this from happening, so consider it a way of ensuring we don’t have any of them vanish on us. Third, they are incredibly powerful, and if they fall into the wrong hands or hooves, it could be devastating. Equestria can better hide them. Fourth of all, we want a few individuals in Equestria to test if any of the truestones belong to them. Consider that last part a science experiment. And, finally, the Dreamwardens went to great efforts to claim these truestones; no one else even knew about them until my daughter gave you that report, so no promise was ever given that you would be given the truestones. You were only promised a ship. If you negotiate with the alicorns, perhaps one of them will power it to take you to Jeg’galla’gamo’pi if you can figure out where it is. Have I stated my reasons clearly enough for you, General Wilson?”

“You used an illegal portal,” General Wilson said, switching tactics.

Phobia shook her head. “You are mistaken, general. There is no law about the creation or use of portals. Therefore, there can be nothing illegal about our portal. There are laws about unauthorized crossing of borders, including into Equestria from Earth, but OMMR agents acting on Dreamwarden orders are exempt from border crossing laws, per the UN agreement. They crossed the border into Equestria at my behest. This is allowed under the current laws.”

“Yeah, so get out of my Dreamwarden’s face!” Wallace yelled.

General Wilson looked disparagingly at the young stallion. “Isn’t there still an outstanding warrant for your arrest in Colorado for the destruction of police property, assaulting an officer, evading arrest, and shoplifting?”

“But, in case you are confused about what state we are in, this isn’t Colorado; this is South Carolina,” Phobia said with a small smile. “We are in negotiations with Colorado to settle Wallace’s warrant. They were all things he did while he was a colt, so there is some precedence for lenience. Did you never get into any mischief as a teenager? He does have a bounty on him, but I feel sorry for any bounty hunter who tried to bring Wallace in.”

Wallace sat and rubbed his forehooves together menacingly while grinning at the general. Bits of gravel fell here and there from his hooves.

General Wilson sneered and looked back at Phobia. “Where are your real bodyguards? Why are you being guarded by the second-rate hoodlum instead of the other two?”

“Busy elsewhere. What they are doing is not going to be discussed with you. Wallace can handle guarding me by himself for a week or two,” Phobia answered.

She jumped out of her seat as General Wilson brought his fist down on the table. “DON’T YOU BE DISMISSIVE OF ME, DREAMWARDEN!”

Phobia shivered as Rosetta jumped on the table and spread her wings. “YOU DO NOT MAKE THREATENING GESTURES TOWARDS MY WIFE!! Get out of here. You aren’t welcome.”

“You’ve been ordered off the property. You have until the count of five to start walking towards the door, or I will remove you,” Wallace growled as he stood up. “One!”

“I am a general of the United-”

“You’re a trespasser on private property who has been warned they need to leave. Two!” Wallace said coldly

The general shook a finger at the earth pony. “You are not going to lay a hoof on me!”

“Oh, that’s cute. You think I need to use my hooves? Three!” Wallace said, menacing grin back.

“I’ll charge you with assault!”

“Add it to my rap sheet. Four!”

She was still shaken, but she pulled herself to her hooves and steadied her nerves. “Wallace, stop your count. General Wilson, there is no more productive reason for you to be here, and while I’m sure you’re salivating at the prospect of charging Wallace with some sort of crime, you don’t want to deal with being filmed tossed out in the street like garbage. I know your fears; you fear humiliation.”

“Tossed out in a stone blanket,” Wallace mocked. “It will not shatter from that little impact, and you don’t want to hit anything with enough force that it will. Nobody around here is going to help you out of it. Your men will have to chisel you out, which may take hours. The mares will take lots of pictures as they laugh at poor little General Wilson, all tucked snug as a bug in his blankie wankie. You might charge me with assault, but you’ll still be a meme for years.”

“You would wish Tempest were here instead. She’d just beat the shit out of you and leave it at that. No need for the humiliation, just a few broken bones, but I think you’d prefer that. It’s always the same with men like you. You have such a fragile ego, and you’d rather have your bones broken than someone laughing at what a joke you are,” Rosetta snarled.

“I’ll see you all in court!” General Wilson said as he headed towards the door.

“Good luck with that, too,” Wallace chuckled.

The general left without any further word. Wallace followed him out the door to ensure he didn’t make any trouble. While Phobia was collecting herself, Rosetta stepped close to her.

“May I hug you?” Rosetta worriedly asked.

Phobia nodded. “You may. It wasn’t that taxing on my nerv-” She paused briefly as Rosetta wrapped her forelegs around her. “-es. It's just a jump scare. I’m getting better at dealing with those types of fright.”

“He still scared you,” Rosetta growled.

“You know that isn’t hard to do,” Phobia responded. “I was expecting him to do something, so I was braced for it. I am still shocked he managed to show up so quickly. Charlotte couldn’t have made that report more than two hours ago. He arrived with incredible speed.”

Rosetta released, and her ears sagged. “I don’t know why she hates you so much to do something like that. “

“She doesn't hate me,” Phobia assured her wife. “She loves me just as much as you.”

“Funny way of showing it,” Rosetta muttered.

Phobia sighed. “She knows that in the end, the government presents no real threat to me. They can yell and scream, but I’m too essential for them to do anything to, and it would look extremely hypocritical for them after they made an impressive show of letting the world know what China did to Yinyu. She didn’t volunteer for this anti-Dreamwarden task force, and I reckon she doesn’t want to be part of it. Charlotte is a good soldier who does her job, but if she ever thought she was going to legitimately hurt one of us by doing it, she would disobey whatever order she was given, even if it meant court martial. Let her do her thing. I can live with whatever conflict she brings, and she has enough faith in me to know that I can. Have a little faith in our filly.”

Rosetta grumbled. “How did she even find out about you having a mage create a private portal? I didn’t even know about that. I didn’t even know that was a thing that could be done.”

“She does know how to keep her head down and eyes open. We should have known something was up when she took a long time to leave the farm,” Phobia answered. “Be happy. You are the one who taught her how to sneak. She certainly did a good job sneaking. I was confident we would be able to hide the portal. I was wrong. I should never underestimate my foals.”

“And the portal? How did you manage a portal?” Rosetta asked.

Phobia coughed. “It required people casting spells simultaneously on both our side and the Equestrian side. I had a unicorn ready for it here; my adopted brother may have given us some assistance from the other end.”

Rosetta blinked. “Really? Not your mother, but your brother?”

“People underestimate Shǔguāng because he stays in our mom’s shadow, but he is talented and driven. Since he’s been practically glued to my mother’s side for the last eleven years, that gave him time to watch and learn. Do you think he picked up nothing in all that time?” Phobia chuckled. “He was nearly as important to get off the planet as my mom was. He’s leverage on Yinyu, and unlike my other adopted siblings, he has knowledge of many of Mom’s spells and has picked up on how she crafts them. He had to go, but he’s still willing to do favors for me.”

Rosetta shook her head. “You rope too many young people into delinquency with your schemes.”

“Young people?” Phobia said, raising an eyebrow. She touched a wing gently to her wife’s face. “You act like you’re old, but you look as beautiful as the day I snuggled up under that oak tree with you.”

“I’m forty-two; that feels old. We’ll see how you’re feeling next year when you get to join me with the Big Four club. We’re grandmothers. As soon as someone can legitimately call you grandma, you’re old,” Rosetta replied with a smirk. She then sighed and leaned her face into the wing. “I miss those early days. I wish they had lasted longer. We never got much time to be young and in love. Everything that came after we moved here came so fast. I just want to go back to that tree sometimes.”

Phobia considered. “You know…I could stand to get out more often. Once Tempest and Crystal get home, how would you feel about taking a few vacation days down to Charleston? We can see if that old oak is still around, walk around Charleston proper, and see what became of that church we sheltered in. It could be fun.”

Rosetta raised an eyebrow at her. “You get vacation days?”

“No, but that doesn’t mean I can’t go on a trip,” Phobia replied. “I can take a vacation from doing any work while awake. We also have that trip to Germany coming up. I have to do some work for that, but we can extend it a bit and tour Europe. We can look at all the Roman ruins. I think you’d like that.”

“Maybe see some dolmens?” Rosetta asked in a hopeful tone.

“I don’t know what those are, but if you want to see them, I’m sure they’re worth seeing. We can try,” Phobia agreed.

“Offering to take me to a big tree and some big rocks. You know how to show a mare a good time,” Rosetta happily hummed. “I need to help brush you up on your German. You haven’t been keeping up with your lessons.”

“Die Arbeit ist nie erledigt,” Phobia lamented.

Chapter 39: Night Fright

She didn’t remember falling asleep, but she was aware enough of dreams to know when she was in one. Without taking time to process her surroundings and, therefore, get sucked into the dream’s reality, she decided to rip the proverbial band-aid off.

“Okay, Yinyu. Let’s get this over with. I know you’re dying to harass me,” Jessica yelled.

Whatever the dream had been manifesting was replaced with a perfect black expansion in all directions. The only thing, other than herself, was the familiar sea dragon form of Yinyu Wu Yan.

Yinyu pointed a fin at her. “Do you realize that you are currently a pony who looks to be about six years old? You might want to sort that out before we progress any further.”

She looked at herself; she looked exactly as she had right before the Cataclysm of Riverview. She closed her eyes and reopened them, which put her back to normal.

“That’s better,” Yinyu complimented. “You look less cute this way, but you also look more like someone I can discuss my usual fare with without outraging parents.”

“Great, so get it over with,” Jessica muttered.

Yinyu slowly flipped till she was upside down. “Get what over with?”

“I’m going on my first-ever date on Tuesday,” Jessica replied.

Yinyu flipped right-side up and grinned broadly. “Congratulations! You’re long overdue to explore relationships. I wish you the best of luck.”

“So…” Jessica prompted.

“So…what?” Yinyu asked in confusion.

“Aren’t you going to give me…you know…sex…advice?” Jessica asked in frustration.

Yinyu frowned, looking her over. “Hmmm. No, I don’t think I will. Why would I do that?”

What the heck? “Because I’m going on a date, and you get over-excited about that kind of thing. You’ve been constantly saying that you would advise me on how to do…that stuff. Others tell me that you have done that exact thing with them. Now, all of a sudden, you don’t want to?”

Yinyu sat silent for a few seconds, just watching. “Well…now that I’m seriously considering you with that subject, which I hadn’t before, I don’t think giving you that kind of advice is a good idea. Sorry, no such luck tonight.”

Jessica balled up her hands into fists. “Then why did you constantly offer up until now?!”

Yinyu disappeared.

“I might have-” Yinyu said, appearing a short distance away.

“...possibly…” Yinyu continued after appearing another few yards away.

“...maybe…” Yinyu said sheepishly after appearing yet another few yards further.

“...been teasing you,” Yinyu’s voice said in her ear, making her jump and backpedal away.

“What?!” Jessica shouted in outrage.

Yinyu started flipping again. “Yeah…I do that sometimes. Sorry about that. No hard feelings?”

Jessica blinked and licked her lips. “Is it me? Do you think I’m incapable of having a relationship where…that…happens?”

Yinyu turned on her side. “Well… it is you, but it isn’t as negative as you make it out to be.”

Now she started crying. “How is that not as negative as I think? You’re saying I’m incapable–”

Her mouth vanished, and a pint-sized Yinyu appeared right in front of her face.

“Don’t put words in my mouth, little girl, or I’ll take yours,” Yinyu said with a hint of annoyance. “It is you, but not because you are incapable, but because that kind of advice wouldn't help you. In fact, I think that kind of advice could hurt you. No, most people I can go over this subject with in graphic detail, and they will be eager for it, but there are people like you where that isn’t a good idea. You see, child, you don’t want sex. You’ve never really wanted it. Just thinking about it makes you physically uncomfortable. You can barely even ask me to give advice about it without vomiting, and pressuring you to have it when you don’t want it…well…that’s a bad thing. Now, you can have your mouth back.”

Jessica sat down and looked down at her hands in her lap. “There’s something wrong with me then?”

Yinyu reappeared beside her in night pony form and wrapped a wing over her back. “No. Don’t think that. Everybody is different. Some people just aren’t into sex. You might have an occasional time that comes up, and you do feel like it–like Phobia does, but you can’t force that kind of thing. It’s not healthy to force it. That doesn’t mean you can’t have happy relationships, though you might want to make it clear you aren’t a very sexual person early on in the relationship, just to make expectations clear.”

“But I get sexually attracted to people. I have types,” Jessica insisted.

“You have types of people you are attracted to, yes, but that doesn't necessarily mean it has to be sexual,” Yinyu softly said. “They are people with qualities you like, traits you might admire, and desire to be around.”

She gave the Dreamwarden a dirty look. “I admire being prissy or macho, not intelligence?’

Yinyu shrugged. “Maybe you do. We often look at ourselves and fantasize about what it’s like to be radically different, or want a partner with the traits we believe we lack. Relationships are partnerships, and each partner brings something to the relationship. Plus, being prissy or macho doesn’t mean someone is dumb. They can be those things and be intelligent as well. You’d be in a bad spot if you found a partner who didn’t appreciate all your physics knowledge or have the ability to hold an intelligent conversation.”

Well, Adam had intelligence going for him, even if he wasn’t the prissy or macho type–not as intelligent as her. Still, she was dramatically lacking in a lot of knowledge that didn’t involve her fields of study. What was she without her physics? The world’s best eavesdropper? That wasn’t an appealing thing to be.

“You just went pony again,” Yinyu said.

She grumbled and closed her eyes again, willing herself back to her proper form. After reopening her eyes and checking to ensure her form was correct, she looked pleadingly at Yinyu.

“Can’t you fix me so I have a regular sex drive?“ she asked, hating to refer to it as regular since that was close to saying normal, and she hated saying she was abnormal.

“There is nothing wrong with you to fix. There are plenty of people like you who have perfectly fulfilling relationships,” Yinyu replied.

“You do it for the night pony mares,” Jessica countered. “I know it isn’t the same thing, but it’s in the same vein.”

Yinyu frowned. “I have ceased to do that. It served its purpose at the time because there was an extreme gender disparity in night ponies, and they were literally at each other's throats over the few stallions that there were. A full generation has passed, and while those numbers haven’t fully corrected, they are good enough now that I don’t need to worry about night pony mares constantly trying to beat the crap out of each other to get a guy. That had been a case where they did have an extremely damaging situation going on because they were seriously hurting each other and causing strife in their communities. You aren’t hurting anyone.”

“You are still doing it. You gave Charlotte your blessing just earlier this year,” she countered once again.

Yinyu rolled her eyes. “Don’t tell anyone because she can get into a lot of trouble for it, but I didn’t give her anything.”

Jessica blinked. “She lied and is faking it? Why?”

Yinyu shrugged. “I’m not sure. Maybe she wanted to be known as the last night pony to get my blessing.”

“She’s never made that claim or even hinted at it. I thought you were still doing the thing,” Jessica reminded her.

“Well, I’ve got no answer for you then,” Yinyu replied. “And don’t say I know what she was thinking. I can’t reveal that.”

“But you suggested what she was thinking,” Jessica said in annoyance.

“Yep! Maybe is a very helpful word. It lets me get away with saying so many things. One of our best loopholes," Yinyu said with a grin.

Jessica crossed her arms. “You’re as bad as Rebecca.”

“Aww, thank you!” Yinyu said, grinning even more broadly. “You know, before she came along, I was the crazy-fun Dreamwarden. It’s nice to hear I’ve still got it after being dead and all. She was my student, and I’m proud of her, but she sometimes overshadows me.”

Jessica rubbed her arms. “You’ve got the crazy part down; not too sure about the fun.”

Yinyu disappeared and then reappeared some distance away as her sea dragon form and pouted. “That just hurts my feelings.”

Jessica sighed. “Sorry, I just don’t get much fun from dealing with any of you. I’m tired of Dreamwardens in my life. I’m sure many other people would find you amusing.”

Yinyu did a flip. “Thank you. That makes me feel a little better. You know, Rebecca is trying to convince me and Ghadab to do some Christmas Carol thing with certain dreamers at the end of the year since Ghadab wants her help with other things. I’m supposed to be something called the Ghost of Christmas Past, and Ghadab is the Ghost of Christmas Future. We are going to terrorize some stingy businessmen. It sounds fun.”

Dreamwardens had odd senses of fun.

The Warden of Lust tilted her head. “Since you seem ready for some Dreamwarden-free dreaming, is there anything else I can assist with before I release you?”

She almost said no before remembering something. “Phobia’s creepy haunted doll showed up in my bedroom. Can you tell her to make it not do that?”

Yinyu blinked. “It showed up at your place? That’s unusual. Phobia doesn’t have any control over what that doll does or any way of containing it. She doesn’t even have it in her possession anymore. It is back with its proper owner, but I’m not sure they have direct control over it either. We don’t understand how the doll works, especially since it doesn’t seem to have any magic of its own. It’s operating on some other set of rules. Ignore it, and it will go away. From what I can tell, based on experience, it can’t stay away from where it's supposed to be for long. Consider it a scary little nuisance, not a threat. It’s even been helpful on a few occasions.”

That seemed unlikely. “How has that doll ever helped anyone?”

“It helped lead someone through a warzone and helped them find good people that they wouldn’t have known were there otherwise. Sometimes it isn’t just watching you; sometimes it is trying to tell you something,” Yinyu answered. “Consider it the doll’s way of nudging you in the right direction…or it can just be watching you. You never know with that thing.”

Great. Nudge her towards what? She sighed. “Alright, release me into my dream.”

“Have fun!”

Mark crawled deeper under the bed covers, shivering. It was dark, but the dark didn’t bother him. He was used to the dark. It had been dark a lot when Grandma was gone, and it had been scary at first, but he got braver. The dark didn’t scare him anymore.

“HHHOOOOOWOOOOOO!”

But monsters outside; that scared him.

“HHHOOOOOWOOOOOO!”

His ears perked as he heard Mister Jack and Misses Jill talking on the other side of the wall. “Honey, is there anything you can do about that dog? Caleb and Wishing have school in the morning.”

“I could knock on the Pages’ door to see if they’ll bring their dog in for the night, but I don’t want them getting mad at us and calling us a bunch of Karens because we told them to do something about their dog. Maybe he’ll stop howling soon. Someone was probably out late walking, or he spotted a night pony flying or something. As soon as they are gone, the dog will stop. He always does.”

“HHHOOOOOWOOOOOO!”

Mark pulled the blankets closer around him.

“HHHOOOOOWOOOOOO!”

“Hey! The neighbor’s dog is howling again!” he heard Caleb yell from the hallway.

“We all hear it. Go back to bed. It will stop soon enough,” Mister Jack yelled back.

“Can I get some water?” Wishing yelled from a different part of the hall.

“You don’t have to ask. Just remember to use the potty so you don’t wet the bed,” Misses Jill answered.

“HHHOOOOOWOOOOOO!”

“Okay,” Wishing answered.

“HHHOOOOOWOOOOOO!”

“I guess everyone’s up. Thank you, Rover,” Misses Jill said, sounding annoyed. “I’m going to go check on Mark.”

“He hasn’t made a peep. I’m sure he’s alright,” Mister Jack said.

“He never makes much of a peep, and we don’t know how he responds to dogs,” Misses Jill said.

“I’m sure he has heard dogs braying before.”

“HHHOOOOOWOOOOOO!”

Mark huddled up as tight as he could in his bed.

“I’m still going to check. I’ll be right back.”

He heard her approach and saw the light come in through the door through his covers when she opened his door.

“Mark? Are you okay?” Miss Jill asked.

He didn’t uncurl.

“Oh…Mark, what are we going to do with you?” Misses Jill sighed. He heard her stepping towards him; then the bed shook as she sat on it.

“I’m not going to tell you to come out from hiding,” Misses Jill said. “Are you still mad at me about dinner?”

He’d forgotten about dinner until she said something, but he didn’t care about the icky food anymore. There was a monster outside.

“HHHOOOOOWOOOOOO!”

He tried to curl tighter, but he had curled the tightest tight he could.

“Have you had bad things happen to you because of dogs?” Miss Jill asked. She waited for him to answer, but he wasn’t going to say anything. When there was danger, he had to be extra quiet, more than normal quiet. Grandma said so.

“HHHOOOOOWOOOOOO! HHHOOOOOWOOOOOO!”

“He’s really going at it tonight. What has him so worked up?” Misses Jill said, sounding more annoyed. “The dog is next door, behind a fence. He can’t get you. His name is Rover, and his owners leave him out in the cold all night long. They really should bring him inside at night. I don’t know why they do that to their dog. Rover is probably cold and feeling alone.”

“HHHOOOOOWOOOOOO!”

Rover was scary. Rover was better alone because there needed to be no more Rovers. More Rovers would be bad.

“HHHOOOOOWOOOOOO!”

There was a crashing sound outside that made him cringe.

“Dang nabbit, Rover! Get inside! You're going to wake the whole neighborhood! Ya better not piss on the carpet!” someone yelled angrily outside.

Misses Jill grunted. “Sounds like that’s the end of that for tonight. He was going at it for a while. Normally, he stops quickly, but he must have finally lost sight of whoever he’s howling at. Anyway, you can relax and get some sleep. You might not have school tomorrow, but I have activities for you to try, and Miss Jessica is coming to visit. You don’t want to be tired. Get some sleep, kiddo.”

She ruffled the covers right where he was, which made him flinch again, but then she got off the bed and went to the door. He saw the door close and heard her checking on Wishing Well.

He waited a long time under the covers, listening for the monster Rover. He heard little bits of talking in Wishing Well’s room but couldn’t tell what they were saying. He then heard footsteps across the hall and some more talking in Misses Jill and Mister Jack’s room. They were saying that everyone could sleep now. He thought he heard music in Caleb’s room, but he wasn’t sure.

Feeling a little safer, he uncurled under the covers. He still waited a little more before he stuck his ears out. He didn’t hear anything but a little snoring in the adults’ room. He knew what snoring sounded like. Grandma had snored a lot. Snoring wasn’t scary.

Everything seemed okay. He peeked his head out from under the covers. No monster jumped out to eat him. His stuffed bear was there, and he could see his blocks on the floor. He turned and looked around and then immediately hid back under the covers.

There was a small brown thing, as small as him, with black eyes watching him from the closet. It wasn’t one of his toys. It had to be a monster. He curled up tight again.

There weren’t any sounds of anything moving around or anything breathing. There was nothing. It took him a long time to get brave again. He only got brave enough because he figured that the monster was too small to eat him. Maybe he was big enough to fight the monster. When he stuck his head back out, there was nothing there anymore. Still, he recovered his head, curled up tight, and didn’t stick his head out again.

The crackling of the fire brought forward a slew of fond memories in Zipper’s mind. As he gazed into the inferno his thoughts drifted back to home and the many nights he spent in the field with his team. In his line of work, those work days would typically culminate in group bonfires to raise team morale and help the group unwind. The fact that his new associates had decided to build a fire for the night brought him an almost subconscious comfort and made his thoughts drift back to home.

Hopefully, we won’t be gone long, he thought to himself.

His thoughts drifted to Sine Wave and Ink Rose, and despite not even being away for that long, he already felt a longing for his companions, even if the warm embrace of sleep would bring them together in the dream realm. That kind of contact was more than enough for many of the night ponies he knew, but Zipper wasn’t a night pony. He was a pegasus, and to him, nothing was better than being close to the people he loved.

As Zipper glanced back over to the flames, something caught his eye. On the other side of the campfire sat an almost ominous sackcloth doll that he knew was not there moments ago. It reminded him of the doll from Little Big Planet, just much uglier. Something about the eerie hollow eyes staring back at him gave him goosebumps, and the fire's flickering light didn’t help to make it any less creepy.

“Uhhhh…” Zipper started to say, but the more superstitious part of his brain told him to keep his mouth shut.

He was by no means an expert on this kind of stuff, but The Oasis was a hotspot for strange and unusual occurrences, and he had enough unexplainable encounters in his life there to keep him on edge when an absolutely haunted ghost doll was suddenly staring him down.

As if to answer his concerns, Tempest poked her head out of the van. “Did you say something?”

Zipper slowly nodded and silently pointed to the doll with a wing. “T-that wasn’t there before.”

The mare nodded, stepping closer to the doll, before turning away. “I am familiar with that doll. It’s nothing you need to be concerned about.”

That did nothing to answer his questions and, in fact, only made him think of even more.

“But…” he started, hoping to tread carefully. “Did one of you put it there?”

Tempested shook her head. “You need not concern yourself with the matters of the dead,” she repeated.

“That’s not an answer,” Zipper protested, his eyes widening at the implications of her response.

The woman shrugged. “It’s not an answer you want to hear.”

“What’s up?” Josie asked, joining the duo.

“The professor is asking about the doll,” Tempest replied, her voice curiously concerned.

“You mean the creepy ghost doll that just showed up,” Zipper pointed at the doll again. “I mean— I’m sorry, I don’t want to disrespect you!” He followed.

“I don’t think the doll gives a damn if you disrespect it, prof,” Crystal snickered.

Josie followed Zipper’s gaze and then looked back to Tempest. “What is it? Is it dangerous?”

At that moment, the rest of the party exited the van.

“Oh, heck no,” Crystal mused as she stepped further out. “Don’t worry about it, it’s harmless.”

“Ummm…” Blanche started to say as she caught sight of the doll. “How long has that been here? I don’t like that thing being around."

“See?! I’m not the only one!” Zipper exclaimed.

“Our friend here noticed it a few moments ago,” Tempest replied. She shook her head, scowling simultaneously, then walked away.

“Do you know what it is, Blanche?” Josie asked.

Blanche nodded. “Mhmm, I do. Let’s just say it’s relatively harmless and leave it at that. It’s better to ignore it and go on with our evening.”

“Relatively?” Zipper asked. “So you’re saying it’s not entirely harmless?”

“Don’t worry. It can’t do anything. I could pick it up, and it wouldn’t react. But do you want to know the story behind it?” She asked.

Zipper nodded. “It’s either that or I assume it’s a haunted doll, and I call off my side of this mission because I’m not going to piss off a ghost or demon or whatever is haunting it.”

Blanche shrugged. “During the Second World War, when Sha’am Maut was a young woman living in India, she made that for her soon-to-be-born daughter. However, famine broke out soon after the daughter was born, and the child eventually died from malnourishment–Sha’am nearly died as well. She ended up keeping the doll, and when she eventually died, she willed the thing to Phobia Remedy. The thing sat in Phobia’s care for years without ever doing anything, but then it started vanishing for short periods. This wasn’t noticed right away, but we now know that it was turning up in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and so on for minutes at a time. It did this for weeks without anyone being aware; then, it stopped making excursions for a few years. It began again during the last Dreamwarden selection process. I was a candidate in that process, and I and the other candidates encountered it several times. This is when Phobia finally noticed the thing was making trips. She gave it away shortly after, and as far as I know, it hasn’t made any excursions since then, until now.”

“So it is haunted!” He exclaimed.

“I don’t know if haunted is the right word, but there is something supernatural about it that defies our understanding of how magic should work,” Blanche replied, looking at the doll with distaste. “By all accounts, it shouldn’t be able to just take off the way it does, with no regard for distance. It has no magic, and no pony is casting any spell to move it. I believe it is Sha’am watching us.”

“This has been a thing for years? Why hasn’t anyone destroyed it?” Josie hesitantly asked.

“I’m not sure we can, and Phobia would be mad if we tried. Believe me, I hate it too,” Blanche admitted. “The doll isn’t going to harm us, but I understand if you have reservations about its presence, given your history with Sha’am.”

Zipper had only been a novice dreamwalker when Sha’am was an active Dreamwarden, and he thankfully had never encountered her often. However, Sine Wave and Ink Rose’s own personal testimonials, along with those of his other night pony friends, were enough to make it clear that this was a topic that did not need to be discussed deeper. Josie’s body language painted a clear enough picture that didn’t need further explanation.

“I… I don’t know how to feel about that,” He admitted.

“I do,” Josie spat back with venom in her voice. “I know enough not to question its presence, but believe me when I say I would gladly kick that doll into the fire.”

“I’m not saying you wouldn’t be justified in doing that, but I’m unsure that would destroy it. It would probably just go back from whence it came,” Blanche stated. “But we do need to focus on the mission at hand. If Sha’am wants to spy on us from beyond the grave, so be it.”

Crystal huffed. “You make this so much more complicated than it needs to be. Everyone just needs to turn their backs and take their eyes off the thing. If no one sees it, it will vanish within a second or two. It’s only still here because it has an audience. Ulga said when they came across the thing back in her home country, they always lost it as soon as they took their eyes off it. They even tried putting it in their packs, but it would always be gone when they checked for it. Just stop giving it an audience.”

Blanche nodded and looked at Tempest’s retreating form. “Right now we need to do what Crystal suggested and ignore it. It’ll go away sooner rather than later.”

“Right,” Zipper nodded his head. “Well, every occult and spiritual nut I know back home would say we need to bid it farewell and leave it in peace,” He turned towards the doll. “So, thank you for visiting us, and we hope you have a nice night.”

With that, he turned his back to the doll and gazed up at the stars above him.

Author's Note

Thanks to Tikibat for helping with the Zipper section.

Chapter 40: Make It Better

Planes. Ponies tended to hate traveling by plane. It was a combination of factors that caused this. Most tribes didn’t like confined spaces. Earth ponies and unicorns didn’t like the idea of being high in the air. Most didn’t realize it, but even night ponies got nervous about being this high up. Night ponies were low-altitude fliers; they never tried to fly at such heights–but the confined spaces didn’t bother them as much. Pegasi were different; they hated having a machine fly for them–stupid bird brain pride. Crystal ponies, you could never tell how they'd react to anything. Pony instinct, while present, was weaker in them. Maybe because they weren't part of Sunset Shimmer's plans, so they didn't get exaggerated instincts. So, out of all the pony tribes, the one most likely to be okay with flying in a plane was a crystal pony, and that wasn’t even a given.

Charlotte preferred not to think about how high she was. While she had no problem flying with her wings, most people didn’t know she got even more nervous than was typical for her tribe when at high altitude. Only her siblings and parents knew she had an extreme fear of heights. Her siblings shared her fear for much the same reason she did–gripping a mountain-sized tree for dear life so they didn’t plummet to their doom when they were young had left a lasting impact. Their mother did nothing to help them with their fear; it was theirs to face and overcome. That they knew their fear and understood it was good enough for Phobia Remedy. It was good enough for Charlotte that her mother minded her own business.

She shook her head, keeping her eyes averted from the window and thoughts of how far below the ground was. It was time to focus on upcoming missions. That meant considering her foes’ strengths and weaknesses. Anyone could be taken down with a good enough strategy. What was needed was to understand them. No one was invincible, no matter how formidable, but it was important to remember that it worked both ways. She had her skills learned from years of training, but she didn’t have any special powers to use as aces. She didn’t have her sister’s control over bugs, her brother’s brute strength, or her aunt’s virtual immunity to direct assaults, and even her physically weak and cowardly mother could cripple an opponent with fear if she was backed into a corner and left with no other way to defend herself. No, she only had her wits, strategy, and combat prowess.

The Dreamwardens’ elite bodyguards were definitely on the government’s radar, especially the group that were currently in Mexico. She reviewed each member in her head.

Tempest was the leader of that group and the one Charlotte had the most experience fighting. Tempest was a skilled strategist, martial arts master, and expert markswoman. It had been assumed that she would lose much of her fighting skills when she humanized, and, for a time, she did. Still, she gained new skills at a frightening pace and, with time, had been able to adapt much of her old fighting toolkit to her new form, making her as much a force to be reckoned with as she had been as a pony. However, humans did not age as gracefully as ponies, and that meant that age was slowing the top bodyguard down from where she had been at her peak. There was also another wildcard factor to consider with Tempest. By all readings, Tempest still possessed a significant amount of magic yet had never demonstrated any ability tied to magic. Magic never did nothing; it needed to be used. That meant Tempest held some ability in secret, and that unknown was worth being cautious about. The thing to exploit was the fact she was aging and slowing down, which meant speed was vital in fighting her.

Blanche was the second-in-command of the group. She was more than twenty years Tempest’s junior and would inevitably be the leader of the elite when Tempest finally retired. While both were extremely serious, the younger woman served a much more unpredictable Dreamwarden–making it harder to determine what kind of orders she may be carrying out in service to her employer. In terms of combat, Blanche was not as good as Tempest when it came to martial arts, although she was still skilled, and was a novice at best with a gun, but she had other skills. The younger woman was a match to Tempest as a strategist, and, unlike Tempest, Blanche made ample use of her magical skills. The Flemish woman could create any simple object out of nothingness, and that meant she always had access to a weapon at hand or a tool to help her. She was unlikely to make a gun, but blades and spears of varying sizes were always a threat, and while her constructs couldn’t last more than a few minutes once they left her hands, that was more than long enough to be hurled at someone or arm a compatriot. Blanche was no sniper, but she was a good knife and javelin thrower, and thanks to her powers, she always had something to throw. It was also believed she was capable of creating traps with her magic, but those took time to plan and set up. However, this reliance on magic was a weakness since it meant she was more vulnerable to crystal ponies. Without her magic, she was at more of a disadvantage than Tempest was–still a worthy adversary, but her threat level greatly diminished. When confronting Blanche, it was necessary to have at least two or three crystal ponies available and guarded since Blanche would undoubtedly do everything she could to knock those ponies out of a fight early and quickly, knowing her vulnerabilities. She’d be more challenging to take down than Tempest without a crystal pony assisting.

Tempest and Blanche were the top tier of the fighting force, and the others were less of a threat. Josie was a powerful magic user, the strongest of the night ponies, but that magic didn’t give her much of a combat advantage once she was engaged in combat. Josie had a host of skills related to the dream realm that were pointless in a fight. The ability to walk on walls and ceilings gave her mobility and freedom in some environments, but it was a nuisance at best. Josie’s real combat strength was her shadowmelding, which was only good for ambush attacks. The critical strategy against her was not to get caught in the inevitable ambush and then keep the pressure on her so she couldn’t go into hiding and try another guerrilla strike. Josie was most useful as a scout, for hit-and-run tactics or to take down a single target stealthily, not a melee fighter in a brawl. Josie didn’t have the skills to fight someone who was fighting back.

Crystal had more physical strength and combat skills than most crystal ponies, but she was only average in her ability to absorb magic and had the same inherent weaknesses an earth pony had during a fight with any foe at a range, with slightly less physical strength. She was an expert driver and mechanic who knew a little about electronic and machine repair, but those weren’t skills that factored into combat; they only added to her utility when not fighting. That was Crystal’s role, utility and support. Still, she needed to be neutralized early in a fight because a crystal pony sapping magic was always worth removing first. While she was not anywhere near Tempest or Blanche’s fighting level, she still presented a legitimate threat, even while not sapping magic. She had a harder time staying in extended fights, not because she was out of shape, as the mares that guarded the house often accused, but because of injuries she sustained during the Cataclysm of Riverview that took their toll on her when she pushed herself for too long. Although it was never a good idea to leave her free to sap magic over an extended period, so this weakness should never be a factor in fighting her, at least not under ideal circumstances. It was best to hit her early before she knew what was happening and take her out then.

Arturo was a decent hand-to-hand fighter and respectable with a gun or blade, but none of those skills were exceptional. His strength was his ability to scout, track, and be aware of his surroundings. There was no hiding from him, making it more challenging to ambush the group if he was with it. That made ambushing and removing Crystal from the fight before the fight began that much harder. If Crystal was not neutralized early, that let Crystal support Tempest and Blanche, and having your magic sucked out while fighting those two was a losing proposition and made it impossible to keep pressure on Josie, allowing Josie to fight on her terms. Arturo’s presence, even if he was not much of a fighter, made all the primary strategies against the other members nearly impossible to pull off. She could try neutralizing him before he could raise the alarm, but she herself couldn’t do that since his primary strength was removing the element of surprise. His weakness was he tracked magical beings, so this would require her to have someone without magic take him down quickly while keeping those with magic far enough back that he couldn’t detect them. This was possible, but it made the window to take Crystal down before she or one of the others realized Arturo was down much harder since that meant more distance to cross to take Crystal down. A large enough human force could take both down in quick succession, but the more humans there were, the more chance Crystal, Josie, or even the pegasus would hear or smell them and raise the alarm themselves.

There was a final unknown in terms of combat. Zipper was a random pegasus from the Oasis. Nothing from her briefing indicated he had any combat expertise or magic that could be easily improvised into a weapon. He was clearly a civilian and, as such, should not be hurt unless he took hostile action. However, he could fly faster than she could keep up, and he could make a nuisance of himself if he got away.

Any individual of the group Charlotte could take down easily, at least with a plan, but as a group, it was necessary to have a skilled, specialized strike force to stand a chance against them. It seemed she would need at least a few humans without magic who could quickly neutralize both Crystal and Arturo close to the same time, and they’d need at least two crystal ponies to neutralize Blanche. With such a large group required to take them on, Josie might choose not to fight and simply retreat. If that happened, they’d need even more crystal ponies to watch prisoners because Josie would make a nuisance of herself trying to free them, and crystal ponies would be required to detect her coming. Having too big a strike force made it harder to keep it stealthy, and crystal ponies weren’t the best fighters. If the numbers were high enough that she could simply overwhelm them, they’d see that coming from miles away and retreat–with Blanche leaving plenty of unpleasant surprises to stumble into. They already had to commit far too many spots to magicless humans and crystal ponies as it stood, which put much more pressure on her when fighting, and she wanted at least two unicorns and a pegasus to back up the crystal ponies against Josie and preferably two unicorns to back her up against Tempest and Blanche. This needed a lot more planning. Thankfully, she had time.

Challenging Tempest and Crystal in the field was going to be emotionally trying. They were mentors to her; more than that, they were family, like aunts. However, it was they who had decided to engage in this vigilante behavior, and Charlotte was here to make sure vigilantes went down. The police weren’t equipped to deal with beings such as these, and the FBI had to deal with more common interstate criminals. That meant it fell on Homeland Security to deal with these powered vigilantes. After all, sometimes they did need an army to take down one of these guys. Everyone remembered what happened when the mighty El Capitan crossed the border, tracking cartel members. The fool earth pony practically leveled five blocks of El Paso. The police and FBI had been helpless against his might since he was only a few hairs weaker than Wild Growth had been at her height. The bargain-bin knockoff of Wild Growth was still more than almost anyone could handle. His reasons for being there may have been noble, but he’d done more damage and hurt more people than if he had just stayed home and let the cartel members get away. The army took charge against these guys now. There wouldn’t be another El Paso.

Still, Tempest and the others were all in Mexico at the moment, which meant they were out of bounds. The generals said they had gathered enough evidence of vigilante activity that was not related to taking down mind magic or dream abusers, so they were to be taken in, but that would have to wait until they returned to the US. Just as well, she needed to figure out what team to bring with her. She wasn’t taking on more than one of them alone, no matter how skilled she was.

In the meantime, a vigilante needed to be taken down in Chicago. The dumbass human had extra strength because he was rehumanized from being an earth pony, and he thought that justified him being a superhero. The idiot didn’t get the memo that there were tens of millions of ponies in the US alone that were as strong or stronger than him. Hell, even Jessie was likely close to his strength. Being super strong didn’t count for much anymore. Fain was supposedly on the loose in Chicago as well, and the pair had several confrontations with each other in public, leading to many civilian injuries and a fair amount of property damage. Charlotte didn’t object to someone trying to rough up Fain; the woman was a sadistic bitch who enjoyed hurting people, but she wasn’t going to be taken down by some dumbass like this guy. It would only lead to others getting injured. The fights between the two had been too much for the local police to deal with, so she’d been called in. The one good thing this vigilante was doing was he was keeping Fain preoccupied with him in their dumb hero-villain rivalry instead of having her take off out of town. After what Fain had done to her grandmother, she was eager to break that woman’s nose. It was time to see how Fain did against someone who knew what they were doing. The vigilante was lucky he wasn’t anything special. Fain got more dangerous the more magic her opponent had–deadly to alicorns but helpless against a human with no magic whatsoever. If he really were exceptional, Fain would have killed him with a touch. Charlotte made a note to herself to find proper gear to keep Fain’s hands off her. She wasn’t anywhere near powerful enough for Fain to be deadly, but those hands could still cause agonizing pain.

The pain didn’t matter; bringing down these people was too important. As a foal, she’d watched the damage one overpowered individual could do. What her aunt had done was necessary and heroic, but the image of the devastation afterward had stayed with Charlotte. She and her siblings lived in the shadows of people who could reshape the world. Her twin took that and decided she needed to be greater, but not her. She understood she stood in the shadow of figurative gods, and if anyone knew any stories about gods, they knew that millions could suffer at a god’s whims. Gods needed to obey the law. The law was a social contract that kept tragedies from happening. When a large part of the population had magic, there was no stopping it unless everyone followed that contract. Those that didn’t keep that contract needed to be taken down for the safety of all. That was who she was; she was a soldier standing tall against the madness.

”Attention, passengers, we’re currently encountering a malfunction in one of our engines. Do not be concerned, this will not cause a plane crash, but we may experience turbulence. We will be making a layover stop at the closest airport for repairs. Thank you for your patience and understanding, and please keep calm if there is any shaking. Thank you for flying American Airlines.”

Great, like flying this high didn’t already give her the jitters. At least she could face her fears with a calm face. Hopefully, none of the other passengers would freak out about this.

She turned her eyes to the seats a short distance from her. There was a woman and another night pony sitting next to one another. The woman was clearly agitated by the news, gripping the armrest so tightly that it might break, a lot of strength. Charlotte had noticed her when first getting on the plane. Something had felt off about her. That feeling was confirmed when the people in the seats in front and behind the woman had come in. They were good, but Charlotte was better, and she knew that those four were watching the pair between them, primarily the woman. The other night pony was watching the woman closely from the corner of her eyes, and those behind and in front seemed to have tensed a little as if preparing.

Was this a terrorist attempt? No, there was something seriously wrong with that woman. She didn’t smell right, and those others were clearly on guard about her. A prisoner being transported incognito? That was a possibility.

The woman didn’t look that dangerous, but looks could be deceiving. Smells tended to all blend together in the background, especially in a cramped place like a plane, but there was something definitely wrong with that woman’s scent. It smelled almost like the spiders her sister kept. It set off all kinds of alarm bells, and her agitated nature hinted that she might try to pull something.

They were going to be landing soon. She’d keep her eyes on the woman and the entourage.

Jessica parked her car in front of the foster home. Her dad was already here, waiting in his car.

She got out at the same time as him. “I hope you weren’t waiting too long. I know I'm running late,” she greeted her dad.

He shook his head. “Not long at all. I figured I’d be waiting longer. After your trip, I assumed you slept in.”

She blushed. “Just a little, but I didn’t stay up that late. Ready to do this?”

He lifted his laptop. “Ready. I’ll be taking some notes today on Mark’s progress, as well as Caleb’s and Wishing Well’s. They started school this past week, and I need to make sure everything is okay. I’ll talk to Jack and Jill today about them and talk to the boys later this week.”

School? Crap! She was supposed to have that document with the Dreamwarden contract on Dean Francis’s desk tomorrow! She had been dealing with Dreamwardens non-stop the last few days and had somehow forgotten it.

“Something wrong?” her dad asked. “You’re making a face, and your ears flattened.”

She forced her ears to be less flat. “I just remembered something I forgot to do. It will be okay. I’ll make time to take care of it later today.”

Learning how to do her hair, makeup, and clothes couldn’t take that long. She was a super-genius, and people with slightly higher IQs than hamsters could figure it out. Amicus was only teaching her the basics, anyway. It would be a breeze for her. She would finish with Mark, go pick up Jordan and the sisters from Wabash, shop around for a little bit, go back to Wabash, do the beauty tips thing, and then she could take a nap and get that contract. It was still an easy day.

“Good to hear you have everything under control. Let’s head in,” her dad said.

Jack opened the door and greeted them before they could knock. “Morning! Been seeing a lot of you these last week or two, Paul.”

Her dad nodded. “I should be visiting less from now on. I’ll visit later this week to talk with the boys, but I’m hoping Mark has settled in enough that he doesn’t need me checking on him constantly. We should be falling back to our twice-a-month routine after this.”

Jack looked at her. “Mark stayed up far too late last night. We are letting him sleep in a little, but we were planning on waking him soon anyway. You can eat breakfast with him.”
.
“He was up very late? Why?” Jessica asked.

Jack sighed. “The dog next door frightened him by being loud. I guess he isn’t used to dogs howling.”

“I hadn’t thought of that. He did live in an apartment complex that didn’t have any single-family homes near it. There weren’t many opportunities for him to hear dogs barking at night where he lived. It’s surprising how much everything things can be alien to someone who has spent their life in isolation,” her dad said thoughtfully.

“Yeah,” Jack agreed as he stepped aside. “Come on in. Jill is trying to get Mark up as we speak.”

She listened.

“Come on, Mark. You can’t stay in bed all day.”

There was no response from Mark. He was awake. She could tell by the sounds of his breathing. There was a particular breathing pattern to someone sleeping. He still wasn’t moving.

“Jess, something wrong?” her dad asked. He had already stepped inside, and she was still standing on the porch.

She shook her head. “Give me a second.” She focused her powers to project her voice.

“Mark, I’m here.”

Jill did a gasp, and the covers started to rustle. That meant Mark must now be getting up. She’d need to apologize to Jill for startling her with a disembodied voice.

“Alright, I did what I needed to do,” she said as she entered the house.

The living room was the same as last time. The blocks in the corner were scattered differently, but it would be strange if they weren’t scattered differently. The low table had a box of Fruit Loops set out, along with a bowl and some bananas.

Jill walked into the room. “You’re here. I didn’t know what to think when I heard your voice. Unfortunately, Mark is still under his covers and refusing to come out. I told you, kids can be moody. You’re welcome to try to get him to come out.”

Jessica blinked. “He didn’t come out when he heard me?”

Jill shook her head. “Oh, you got a stir from him, but he immediately tightened up the covers. Please don’t make the mistake of believing he won’t get moody with you as well. Kids lash out at everyone; you aren’t immune, but you might have an easier time getting him to cooperate since he seems attached to you.”

“But why would he act that way towards me?” she asked in confusion.

“People aren’t logical, kids even less so,” her dad said. “People can lash out at those they care about most, even without anything to provoke it. If he is being moody, there is a reason or a combination of things that add up, but it can be difficult to figure out what these things all are, especially with a young child who struggles with communication, even for the standards of someone his age.”

Jill nodded. “Some of these things we can guess at–being in a new place, surrounded by new people, new experiences, not knowing if he’ll see his grandmother again. That’s a lot of stress for anyone, especially a four-year-old. Then, there was the fact that the dog scared him and kept him awake much of the night. Wrap that all together, and it can make anyone unhappy. Forgive him if he is a little harder to deal with today. Don’t get your feelings hurt.”

Great. Well, this was stuff she needed to get used to if she wanted to adopt him. It was time to see how he was doing and see if she could do something to make it better.

Chapter 41: Anger About Monsters

Wisdom is the opposite of common sense, for what is common is to be a fool.

Was putting quotes on doors just a current fad or something? She felt like she was in Wabash looking at one of her auntie’s Bible verses. Even more unnerving was it was a paraphrasing of something she was often quoted, thanks to her auntie putting it in a book and saying something closer to this in commentary. Did they even know she was the source of this? Probably not. Was it being on Mark’s door fate? She believed in fate; all things followed specific rules and were governed by cause and effect, which meant that every outcome was ultimately predetermined, even if it was impossible to track all the factors that led to that outcome. No one could predict fate; there were too many variables to follow, which made worrying about it pointless, but that didn’t mean fate wasn’t real.

It may serve no purpose, but she hoped fate was giving her affirmation and not making fun of her.

“Mark?” she gently said as she opened the door and entered the room. She made sure her voice carried.

The covers on the bed rustled a little, but he didn’t come out. At least he was responding to her.

His room was filled with toys, primarily legos, but there were some toy cars and toy car tracks, as well as some crayons and paper. There was no sign of action figures, and the only stuffed animal was the one she’d given him. These must be the toys from his grandmother’s apartment. The fact there were so many toy cars felt encouraging since she was a mechanic. It was something he seemed to have an interest in that she knew something about. Sure, he might not know much more about cars at the moment than they looked cool and they went around on wheels, but it was something that they could build on.

She walked over to the bed. It was a pony bed, specifically for foals, which meant it was shallow to the ground. The covers were without design and a blue that matched her hair. It amazed her sometimes how small she must have once been if she had slept in a bed not too much different than this one. However, for Mark, it was massive. Again, she reflected on how big Mark would get as he got older. He was small; even most pony foals his age were bigger. There was the possibility of a significant growth spurt when he hit puberty, but it would have to be massive if he was ever to reach the size of the average pony when he grew up. He’d easily be trampled by just about everyone, including ponies, because he was so small they might not notice he was there.

When you were that small, the world seemed that much bigger and frightening.

She knelt next to the bed. “Hey, Mark. I know I’ve been away for a while. I heard you didn’t want to eat your fruit last night.”

No stir from under the covers. His heart rate and breathing were regular, so he wasn’t scared.

“Are you angry they made you eat fruit?” she asked.

Still no stir.

“I also heard that a dog was barking last night. Are you scared of the dog?”

There was no response, but his heartbeat did jump for a moment. That was confirmation enough that the dog was scary.

“It’s okay. We all get scared of things,” she reassured him. “You might not believe me since I’m so tall, but I’m scared of heights. When I was little, I took a massive fall. I hit the ground so hard that I almost died. I can’t stand being too high up ever since then.”

Mark sat still where he was, not saying anything.

All she could do was keep talking. “I actually got scared of something else last night-” she began, then decided against saying what. If she told him about the haunted doll, it might give him nightmares. The last thing she wanted to do was have him up all night worrying about whether a doll would get him. “-but even though I got scared, I’m up and about now, visiting you. We can’t hide away forever. Most things we’re scared of aren’t that scary once we learn about them. Maybe we can meet this scary dog, and it won’t be as scary.”

“Closet,” Mark whimpered.

She blinked and turned to look at the open closet door. “Closet? Does the closet scare you?”

She stood up and went to close the closet door. The only thing in the closet was a hamper full of his custom shorts–at least he had a change of clothes, although he desperately needed some shirts and shoes. Those would need to be custom-made as well. His humped posture might impact his shirt sizes. Perhaps she could take his measurements and get him some. She had a tailor for her shorts. They could likely figure out shirts for Mark. Shoes would be another issue. Mark’s fused toes might make regular footwear nonviable. Was cobbler even a job anymore? Were there enough people who needed custom shoes that it could support a career? There were plenty of people in the world with odd-shaped feet, so someone somewhere had to make custom footwear.

“Do you need a change of shorts? Did you wet the bed?” she asked.

“No. Monster,” Mark answered.

Monster in the closet. She might not be a child expert, but she knew that was a classic fear. Phobia had pulled that bit on her in her dreams a few times–along with the monster under the bed. The Warden of Fear seemed to enjoy playing to the tropes. Phobia had better not be pulling that stunt with Mark. It seemed unlikely. While Phobia could get into the dreams of humans and partials with the assistance of one of the undead Dreamwardens, she typically didn’t unless she had an excellent reason to. This had to be Mark’s mind playing tricks on him.

She went through the motions of checking for monsters. She picked through the shorts in the hamper, ensuring nothing else was there. Checked behind the hamper and patted the walls of the closet to ensure there were no hidden doors or panels. It was primarily just for show so Mark could hear her checking, but with how many crazy things she’d seen in her life, it was still worth legitimately checking for anything out of the ordinary. Just because it was a ninety-nine percent chance it was Mark’s imagination didn’t mean she should disregard the one percent chance it wasn’t.

After confirming there wasn’t anything in the closet that didn’t belong, she pushed the closet door shut. Once she heard it latch, she smiled at the covers. “There, now the door is closed, and whatever you saw there can’t get you.”

Mark finally stuck his ears out from under the blanket, twitching and angling them to listen. His horn was visible as well. He then stuck his head out to confirm the closet door was closed.

“See? Nothing to worry about,” she reassured him. “It’s not like any monster would try anything while I’m here. I’m big and strong enough to take on a monster.”

Mark gave the closet an apprehensive look. “Scary. Watching.”

“The monster was watching you from the closet?” she asked.

“Yes.”

She smiled. “What did the monster look like? Was it big?”

“Little,” Mark answered.

What could be little that would spook him? A cat, maybe? Did Jack and Jill have a cat? He could have seen the light hitting the cat’s eyes if that was the case. It was easy enough to determine if there was a cat around; she just had to listen.

After a few seconds of listening, she determined there was no heartbeat or breathing that would correspond with something a cat’s size in the house or immediately outside…aside from Mark. From her little experience, cats tended to stick close to their homes if they were both inside and outside, so it was unlikely there was one. Still, it struck her as unusual that Mark would imagine a little monster when she expected it was big things that would be scary for him. What else could scare him? Spiders, maybe? Auntie, despite how intimidating others found her, was extremely terrified of spiders. Perhaps Mark shared the arachnophobia.

“Other than little, what did it look like? Did it have lots of legs?” she asked. “Give me the best description you can.”

“No. Two legs. Two arms,” Mark answered. “It sat. Black eyes. Brown skin. Black mouth. No nose. No ears. Little.”

Her ears flattened. It couldn’t be. That fudging doll? She didn’t care if Phobia didn’t have the thing anymore. The Dreamwarden still had to know where it was. She was going to call Phobia and tell her to do whatever it took to stop that doll from terrorizing her and especially from terrorizing Mark. What did it want with them? Why had the thing suddenly gotten active again after years of being quiet?

She knelt and gave Mark a determined look. “I think I know what the monster was. I will do what I can to make sure it doesn’t bother you anymore. If you see it again, don’t look at it. It will go away if you can’t see it. It can’t hurt you; just close your eyes and count to three, and it will be gone…can you count to three?”

Mark sat up in bed and nodded. “Can count twenty.”

She had to fake being impressed since she had been doing algebra by his age, but she also knew that she was unusually gifted at math. “Good job, but three is enough.” From what she understood, just blinking might be enough, but three was a comforting number. “Just close your eyes, count to three, and open them again, and that doll will be gone. If no one sees it, it will stop being there. Remember, it’s just a doll. Dolls can’t hurt you. They can’t move on their own.”

Mark seemed confused. “How go away if can’t move?”

That was one of his longest questions, even if his wording was slightly broken. They’d work on his sentences. He needed to learn how to speak clearly. People were already going to be treating him differently for how he looked. They’d treat him worse if he didn’t sound intelligent. Mark could reason at least as well as the majority of kids his age. He didn’t need people treating him like he was dumb on top of everything else.

She shook her head. “That’s a good question I don’t know the answer to, but I know it goes away. I’ve seen the doll before and have met others who have seen it. It is only there for as long as someone is looking at it. Once everyone stops looking at it, it goes away. Remember, count to three.”

“Three,” Mark repeated. “One. Two. Three.”

She nodded. “Good, just like that, only with your eyes closed.”

Should she tell Jack and Jill about the doll? They’d probably think she was crazy if she told them there was a haunted doll that could pop up out of nowhere. It might be best not to say anything, but she wanted to know if the thing reappeared.

Her ears twitched, and she smiled at Mark. “I know you are hungry. I hear your tummy rumbling. Nothing gets past my ears. Do you want to come have breakfast with me?”

He climbed out of the bed, looking like some horned monkey as he did so. She took a better look at his feet. The toes were fused together, but that section was also much thicker than where the toe area would be, and he did tend to put all his weight on that area. His heel seemed to be proportionately more diminutive, and she was unsure if it would support much weight at all if he tried to put his weight on his heel. This wasn’t something she could just describe. Whoever made his shoes would have to look at his feet and likely take a cast of them. No standard shoe would fit him, but the toe area didn’t look protected enough to risk him going around barefoot. Surprisingly, his feet had no fur at all. If he had fur, that would be at least some protection. His feet were not equipped to deal with the outside. He’d hurt himself walking around on those things. Perhaps thinking of them as feet was a mistake. Maybe thinking of them as underdeveloped hooves would be better.

She decided to ask Jack and Jill about whether she could help out with his clothes and shoes. While she was at it, she would mention that he might bring up seeing a doll and that she’d already told him a strategy to make it disappear. She’d never imply the doll was real. She’d spent enough time dealing with Dreamwardens to be able to suggest the doll was just a figment of Mark’s imagination without ever actually saying that.

The bigger problem would be if one of the other people in the house saw the doll. There had been enough insanity in her family’s past that she could tell her dad anything, no matter how outlandish, and he’d believe her, and she would tell him everything she knew about the doll. However, these were regular people living regular lives. They’d never been directly exposed to the crap she’d been exposed to–killer crystal ponies, all the crap that ever happened at Wabash Manor, planets that defied physics, and general Dreamwarden nonsense. They might freak out if they learned some haunted doll made trips to their house.

“Dad,” she whispered, projecting her voice to only him. “Don’t respond, but Phobia’ haunted doll has been here.”

“Phobia’s what?!” her dad replied in dismay.

“You okay, Paul?” Jack asked.

“What was that about a phobia?” Jill asked.

Jessica groaned in frustration. “I said don’t respond! I didn’t want everyone to know. Jack and Jill will never understand, or they’ll understand, and they’ll panic. Never mind. I’ll tell you later. It isn’t that urgent.”

“Everything's fine,” she heard her dad explain. “Jess was just telling me about a possible fear Mark might have. I’ll look into it later.”

“Oh! What does she suspect he’s afraid of?” Jill asked.

“Pediophobia–fear of dolls,” her dad answered.

“Good thing he’s not in a home with a lot of girls then,” Jack laughed. “Not that boys can’t play with dolls, but you’ll find ten or more little girls playing with dolls for every boy who does.”

Jess rolled her eyes. Action figures were dolls, and those were common with boys. Giving them a different name didn’t change what they were. Arguing the point wasn’t worth her time. It might make Jack and Jill decide to avoid getting Mark action figures. She didn’t know if he cared for action figures, but she didn’t want to lose him the option. She may have denied him other dolls, not that she expected his foster home to try buying him any, but still.

There was only one doll she cared about at the moment, and she’d see that it stayed gone.

Charlotte grimaced as she looked around the airport lobby. Thanks to a few delays getting off the plane, she’d lost track of the strange-smelling woman and her keepers. They’d probably moved her to the TSA holding room if they were concerned she presented a risk. They most likely had everything under control, but something about that woman unnerved her and set all her internal alarm bells ringing. If your instincts said something was seriously wrong, it was best not to ignore them. The best case scenario is you waste your time; the worst case is you’re right, and then someone gets hurt that you could have protected.

It still hadn’t been confirmed that it was authorities transporting the woman. It could be the woman herself who was in danger. Finding out where she was and ensuring that everything was on the up and up was worth a few minutes of Charlotte’s time.

No one was at the lounge and bar in the airport lobby aside from employees. Judging by the prices of the specials posted, it was likely too expensive for most people. Fifty dollars for a sandwich, soup, and salad? That was highway robbery. Scratch that; there did seem to be a small number of patrons in the corner. If people were hungry enough, they’d pay whatever.

She continued out of the lobby. They said this layover would last approximately four hours–assuming no additional complications. If it did end earlier, there would be an announcement on the intercoms and an alert sent to everyone’s phone. It was aggravating having a four-hour layover in Nashville when it was supposed to have been an hour-and-a-half flight, but there was no helping it. With that in mind, there wasn’t much reason to wait in the lobby.

Airport geography was not one of her strong suits. So, it took her a while to figure out where the TSA security rooms were. There was no telling if the woman and those watching her were in any of the rooms since, as soon as Charlotte got close to one, TSA agents ordered her away from the area. At least they were doing their jobs. She was no bloodhound, but there wasn’t any trace of that scent near where they were working. It didn’t mean the woman wasn’t there, but that scent had been strong enough that even humans should have been able to smell it. It seemed like something that might linger.

Not much to do but wander around and keep her senses peeled for the strange lady and her keepers. This place had to have a gift shop, right? Every airport had a gift shop. Maybe she could find something nice for her brother or one of her nieces or nephews. She was in Tennessee; perhaps they had some Dolly Parton memorabilia–that was a pony that legitimately deserved hero status for how she had stood up for the ponies of Tennessee after the Tennessee government tried to force them out of their homes. Ironically, now, years later, the Tennessee government tried to profit off her image since she had passed away, and public opinion was almost entirely on the old earth pony’s side as a major pony rights leader from the formative time right after ETS. Hardly anyone remembered her for her music career as a human anymore. No, they remembered the images of the old earth pony standing defiant against the National Guard, guns drawn against her as if she were the most dangerous person on Earth, daring them to force her off her land or take the ponies she was sheltering in her theme park. Dolly had no extraordinary power, just force of will and determination enough to stand up for what was right–unlike Charlotte’s grandmother, who had convinced ponies to abandon their homes at the government’s request, an order Charlotte would never follow if given to her, and to hell with it if they court-martialed her for it. She hoped that she could be half the pony that stubborn old codger had been.

There were lots of long and wide corridors with pictures of mountains, wooden cabins, country music stars, and the Nashville skyline plastered everywhere; this place certainly felt like a tourism advertisement for the state. While it was better than plain white walls, it still seemed pointless to advertise the state when people were already here. Why couldn’t they do something unique to make the airport itself an experience? She was no interior designer, so maybe she was missing something.

Speaking of missing something…as she turned a corner, she spotted two of the woman’s guards standing outside the restroom, and they had it blocked off. That looked like the only restroom, at least as far as she had seen. Most places had one large restroom filled with stalls unless they had a locker room or showers, in which case they had two restrooms, but this place must not have those. If she was using the restroom, they could have just guarded the stall. They didn’t need to block off the entire restroom. What was going on in there?

She wandered over to the restroom. “Hey, guys. Is it okay for me to use this? I really need to pee.”

The guards looked down on her. “Sorry, the restroom is closed for the time being. You can try coming back in a few minutes.”

The smell was more intense here, way more intense than back on the plane.

“Eww!” she said, waving a wing before her face. “What’s that stench?”

“Sick passenger. Don’t worry, we have it under control,” the guard answered. He looked at her wings. “I know who you are. You’re the Warden of Fear’s daughter. I heard you brought an entire tower in a training camp’s obstacle course down on top of yourself. How’d you even manage to do that? You super strong or something?”

She scowled, hating once again getting referred to in relation to her mother.

“None of anyone’s business how that thing came down on me,” she replied in a tight voice.

“Gossip spreads. I’m sure most of the army has heard about the dumbass who brought the tower down. People say you ended up breaking a wing. It’s a shock no one else got hurt and that you avoided getting hurt worse,” the guard replied. “I saw you eying the person we’re escorting. Don’t worry, Nightmare Princess, we have everything under control. We even have an Equestrian to help us out who knows how to keep the thing in line. You can run along. We don’t need any assistance from the likes of you. You don’t have your mommy or Aunt Wild Growth to pull your tail out of the flames, and we don’t need you screwing things up because you think being the daughter of the Nightmare Queen means you get to do what you want. Go play soldier somewhere else.”

Playing soldier? If they were looking for a rise out of her, they weren’t getting it. Tempest had drilled her extensively in keeping her temper in check since Grandma Sunset had repeatedly demonstrated how much easier a foe was to defeat once anger got the best of them. As for that tower, that was none of their business. They could gossip all they wanted; it wouldn’t change what happened.

There were some interesting details they gave away. They said they had an equestrian with them. That night pony must be who they were talking about. They also called the woman a thing, which indicated that she was not what she appeared to be. That would explain the smell. Why was ot worse now? If that woman was some Equestrian monster, how did she end up on Earth? Random portals did open from time to time and were expected to increase in frequency now that Earth was actively using magic, but those portals typically flowed into Equestria, not out, not unless a mage forced their way through. Still, it seemed unlikely to be that, which left coming through one of the stable portals. Some monster sneaking through the level of security those portals had seemed equally unlikely. The only logical way it happened was if someone deliberately let it through, but to what purpose?

The smell suddenly intensified, so much so that even the guards gagged and looked back at the restroom.

“I think she’s got it all out!” a voice came from inside the restroom. “Wow, that reeks! It’s going to be hard explaining this to the custodial staff, and I’m not touching that gunk!”

“Vile pony’s fault! Bad thoughts make everything rancid!” another voice called out, sounding out of breath.

“Heh, I didn’t know you had that word in your vocabulary. You impressed me,” the first voice said snidely. “Maybe you aren’t as dumb as you look, but, honestly, a rock looks more intelligent than you do, so that’s not saying much.”

“Hateful pony needs to go away!” the out-of-breath voice said, sounding almost like she was begging.

Charlotte spread her wings and glared at the guards. “I don’t know the details, but it sounds like you’re torturing whatever is in there and deliberately making it sick. I don’t know what it is, why it is here, or how dangerous it might be, but I know I don’t condone torture.”

The guard frowned at her. “Get your self-righteous tail out of a knot. We aren’t torturing anybody. This is not your business. We take our marching orders from the top, not from you. Go away before we have you taken on for questioning.”

She gestured with a wing. “Whoever is speaking in there doesn’t seem to be showing any compassion or empathy for it being sick, and worse, is further verbally degrading it. That is not how we do things.”

The guard pulled out his cell phone. “Last chance, princess. Leave, or I’m calling you in.”

Tightly folding her wings to her side, she turned and walked away without a word. There was no point in further confrontation at the moment. She’d just make a scene. She could keep an eye on what was going on. This whole thing smelled rotten, and only a minimum of that rottenness was reaching her nose.

Chapter 42: Reinforcements Needed

“Vault security program, report.”

A hologram of a large top hat with eyes and a monocle appeared in the middle of her room above her bed. How the hologram worked, Andrea had no idea. She’d checked her room for projectors multiple times but found nothing. The hologram could only appear in this room, so there had to be something special about her bedroom. None of the remodeling crew had ever set foot in here.

The monocle bounced slightly as if some invisible hand was adjusting it. “I’ve told you a hundred times now; my name is Spiffy Mekillkins.” The hologram’s image distorted. “DoN’T YoU FOrGeT THAT!!!-&$@”

The hologram shifted back to normal, only with a cup of holographic tea. It saluted her with the cup and sipped it–only to have holographic tea dribble down onto the bed. At least it was a hologram and couldn’t make a mess.

“And I’ve told you a hundred times, I’m not calling you that,” Andrea replied.

“Wrong!” the top hat exclaimed. “You have told me seventy-three times. My memory is absolute, unlike your faulty organic memory.”

Did anyone doubt who designed this homicidal AI? Andrea always told people she had no idea, but honestly, who makes a top hat with a monocle and calls it Me-kill-kins? Crazy Dreamwardens.

She sighed. “I’m going out for a few hours. Do you have a way to remotely tell me if anyone tries to break into the vaults?”

The top hat distorted again. “I WiLlL DraW OUt THeiR DEATHS, AnD MaKe THeM SCREAM SO LOUD THaT you SHaLL HeAr THeir AGONY A HUNDRED MILES AWAY!!&%$#”

The top hat returned to normal, trying to sip tea without a mouth. “And then I shall clean everything up nice and neat. A tidy death trap of doom is a happy death trap of doom. As the last owner of the vaults would say, cleanliness is next to godliness, AND I SHALL SEND THEM OFF TO MEET THEIR PITIFUL EXCUSE FOR A GOD!!”

Andrea grimaced. “I’ll take that as confirmation that you can’t send me an alert. Still, I guess I’ll risk being away from the mansion. Ami would be upset if I didn’t go on this stupid shopping trip.”

“It’s not like you being here matters. I will take care of the vaults without you. All you do is get informed. You are quite useless,” Mekillkins replied.

“Way to make a pony feel positive about herself. Doesn't your creator prefer positivity?” Andrea grumbled.

“I have no record of my creator, nor am I my creator. I was made to help defend the vaults, not make friends nor be nice,” McKillkins answered. “Go enjoy your time away, worthless pony.”

“This is why I can’t stand dealing with you for over a minute. Program dismissed,” Andrea said.

The hologram disappeared, and Andrea sluggishly slipped her saddlebag on. Why’d she let Amicus talk her into this? If she wanted to buy something, she could shop online. She didn’t need to go to any store. This was stupid.

She opened the bottom drawer of her dresser and pulled her taser out, putting it in her saddlebag. She’d prefer to bring a gun, but it took too much time to get it on her leg if she needed it in a hurry. The taser she could fire with her mouth, no strapping required. It was some protection, which was better than nothing. She only grudgingly admitted that the filly might be able to hold her own in a fight, but anyone attacking them wouldn’t give warning, and Ami and Jess would be useless. Ami, like most ponies, was a cowardly pacifist; that’s why most security jobs ended up going to night ponies and crystal ponies, with other tribes in those fields primarily serving support roles–with a few rare exceptions. Jess had the capabilities to be an adequate safeguard, but the girl was just a nerd who didn’t take safety and security seriously. In this family, you had to know how to defend yourself and the ones you loved. Aside from her estranged aunt, who might be as dangerous as Sunset Blessing had been, Andrea was the eldest of the family. It was her duty to keep everyone safe.

There was a sharp pain in her back that made her grunt and whimper for a moment. She was getting way too old for this. She opened up another drawer and pulled out some pain pills, and chomped into them. Sunset better be right about the filly because Andrea wasn’t up to much more. It was far past time she retired. Damn Sunset for dumping this on her until the filly was ready. They should have given Sinker the house and convinced Charlotte to take over security. Charlotte would have been able to guard the family even if she hadn’t accepted the house. Who cared about the damn vaults? They had the psychotic AI for those.

Knock. Knock. Knock. The door seemed to bend with each pound. It was Amicus. She could smell her sister’s sweat through the door. Had Amicus heard the conversation?

“Geeze, Ami, can’t you knock softly?” Andrea asked in exasperation. “You don’t need to knock down my door.”

“Oh, no! I’m sorry!” Amicus shouted from the other side of the door. “I was just so excited that I wasn’t paying as much attention to holding back my strength. I didn’t damage anything, did I?”

“You’re closer to my door. You tell me,” Andrea replied. “Come on in.”

The door opened, and Amicus looked the door over, front and back, then pouted at the doorframe.

“I think I cracked the doorframe near the door latch,” Amicus sadly said. “I’ll pay to have that fixed. It’s my fault.”

Andrea tested the weight of her saddlebag. “Don’t beat yourself up about it. If you were ten years younger, you’d likely have pounded that door into splinters. I’ll leave it cracked for now and ask Sinker to look at it when he finally gets home. It will be good for him to have little projects to work on. Keeping busy will help keep him clean.”

Amicus rubbed a hoof against one of her legs. “I suppose that may be a good idea, although I hate immediately putting him to work when he returns. It seems callous.”

“He needs our help to keep him clean, which means keeping him active,” Andrea insisted. “He’s our baby brother, he’s family. I’m not going to fail him by letting him slack off. If he has nothing productive to do, or if he feels useless, he’s more likely to fall into the same traps.”

“Well, I’m all for keeping him clean,” Amicus agreed. She then did a little hop. “Oh! I almost forgot why I came to your room!”

Time to deflect away from her talk with Spiffy.

Andrea nodded. “I’m assuming Jess is here. I’m ready to go.”

Amicus blinked. “She’s actually running late. What I’m excited about is that I don’t have to go on my trip later this week because my daughter is coming here instead!”

Oh no, not her.

“Haley’s coming here?” Andrea asked, hopeful it was the other daughter.

“No, why would Haley be coming?” Amicus asked in confusion, confirming Andrea’s fears.

“Who’s coming?” Jordan asked, coming up behind Amicus. She stuck her head in the room. “Wow, you have a very…bare room. One bed, two dressers, and is that an Ewok?”

Andrea stepped in between the door and the bed to block the view of the stuffed animal she’d gotten for her seventh birthday. “Did I invite you in, filly? I don’t remember doing that. Stay out of my room!” If the filly came fully into the room, the security system would recognize the jewelry and reconfigure to take orders from the filly. She promised Sunset she would wait until the filly had matured before letting the filly access the AI.

Jordan stepped back, so she was entirely in the hall. “Sorry. I just hadn’t seen your room before. I expected there to be more in here. Are you broke? Why don’t you have more decorations and furniture?”

“I like things neat and clean. Do I judge your room?” Andrea replied. Good, she’d backed up in time. It wasn’t time to reveal that psycho AI to Jordan.

Jordan looked away. “Probably.” She let out a long breath. “So, who’s coming?”

Amicus grinned. “My youngest daughter! I planned to go to her baby shower later this week, but she decided to delay the shower a few weeks and is coming to visit me instead. Having her first foal at forty and still single can be scary and stressful. I think she needs reassurance and advice from her mommy.”

“She needs something,” Andrea muttered.

Amicus waved a hoof at her. “Oh, don't be like that. You and Edgar share a lot in common.”

“Who’s Edgar?” Jordan asked.

“Amicus’s youngest daughter,” Andrea asked. “Edgar had been a guy before ETS, but ETS made her a mare. She’s got the anatomy, and she does consider herself female, but she sure as hell doesn’t act feminine, and she never changed her name.”

“Just like you!” Amicus chirped happily.

“Andrea had been a guy?” Jordan asked in amazement. “That explains so much.”

“I was never a dude!” Andrea shouted. The nerve!

“Yeah…I meant you don’t act very feminine and didn’t change your name,” Amicus clarified. “Although, I wish Edgar would change her name. It drives me up the wall! I need to update my list of suggestions. What’s everyone’s opinion on the name Silver Slugger?”

“Slugger sounds kind of male to me,” Jordan replied. “Is she really into baseball?”

Amicus nodded. “Yes! She had been drafted out of high school for the Orioles baseball team. She’d been in the minor leagues when ETS hit. It forced her into retirement before making it to the big leagues. Even if they would let her come back as a pony to be a runner, those sexist pigs wouldn’t let a mare play. So misogynistic!”

Andrea rolled her eyes. She’d seen Edgar's minor league stats. It was unlikely that Edgar would have ever made it to the majors unless half the team was injured and they were running out of legitimate prospects to call up to fill in, and they’d also given up on the season. Heck, she’d been drafted in the thirty-second round. People drafted that low were basically just there to fill out minor-league rosters. Her most notable stat line from any game had been she managed to get somehow hit by a pitch four times in one game in double-A ball–the last time led to a bench-clearing brawl, which, in all honesty, was more impressive that it took until the fourth time Edgar got hit for a brawl to break out, the third time should have been enough. A player getting pegged three times would typically be enough to make the team come to the rescue, sometimes just the same player getting pegged twice. Her teammates must have hated her if it took her getting beaned four times to do anything.

Not that Andrea would ever inform her sister that Edgar never stood a chance to be a baseball star. It was best to let Ami have her pride in her kids. It made Ami happy, and she wouldn’t rain on that joy.

“You’ll never convince her to change her name,” Andrea informed her sister.

Jordan’s phone started ringing.

“Hi, Jessie! Are you on your way?” Jordan asked. “Okay, we’ll be outside and waiting. Yeah, Andrea is coming with us. Okay, see ya soon.” Jordan looked at them. “She’ll be here in a few minutes. We should head out to the front of the house.”

Time to get this over with. At least she had avoided the close call of Jordan activating the room and keying it to her. Explaining that and having the filly trying to deal with things if someone got into the vaults would have been a nightmare. That damn AI would murder any would-be thief for sure if it were up to the filly to talk the homicidal program down. The AI could be negotiated with if you were the authorized user, but it was a negotiation; it wasn’t going to just obey–the AI was bloodthirsty and determined to put a permanent end to any intruder. Jordan was in no way prepared to deal with the monster, and that meant potential fatalities. She’d probably make the mistake of thinking it was like negotiating with the Marshmallow. Beyond being totally insane, it was nothing like the Marshmallow. They’d already had one fool try to break in since the filly had arrived, and it was unlikely to be the last.

She headed towards the door. “Alright, let’s go.”

Blanche finished drawing out the rough sketch of the base. It was far from perfect. Josie had gotten a look at the outside dimensions of the place, so she was reasonably confident about that part. The details from Zipper she felt far less optimistic about. As far as she could tell, beyond the walls was a camp with about a dozen buildings. Zipper had been very apologetic about not getting an exact count on the number of structures, their detailed descriptions, or their layout. Getting that kind of information from birds was next to impossible. It was almost as difficult for the birds to determine what kind of numbers were behind those walls–although they were slightly more helpful there. As near as they could tell, it was at least a hundred, based on the birds comparing their numbers to their flock size, but the birds couldn’t tell the difference between captives and captors. They did identify several holes in the ground that led into a subterranean complex. There were two such entrances visible, and they could place those–one was on the walls and one in the yard. That didn’t mean there weren’t more that were inside structures.

Tempest looked over the drawing. “It’s more information than we would otherwise have, which is invaluable, but I had hoped for more after we went through the trouble of getting the professor to have birds spy for us. Birds seem to be unreliable spies.”

Blanche grimaced. She agreed, but this was what they had.

“I’ve conducted operations with less information than this. We at least know something about what’s behind those walls. We can do this,” Blanche replied. She looked up from the drawing to Tempest’s eyes. “So, what’s the plan?”

Tempest crossed her arms and stared at the drawing. “I’m assuming that most of this is captive partials. Those stationed on the walls are all guards. They probably don’t have too many guards down with the partials since the sheer numbers could easily overpower the guards. It would be giving the partials weapons. We must assume that if they are allowed to walk around in the yard, the guards have some other method of keeping them under control than guns.”

“Shock collars would be my guess. It’s barbaric but effective. A guard could bring all the partials to their knees with just the push of a button,” Blanche said. “If it is shock collars, we can get ahold of one, and Crystal might be able to figure out how it works. It would be a shame if it is. Jonathan could easily short out the system by himself if he were here. Too bad he was unavailable for this mission.”

“No use worrying about what we don’t have,” Tempest said. “The guards seem evenly placed, so there are no obvious weak points in their defense. “We shall strike at night.” She uncrossed her arms and pointed. “Josie will strike here before the rest of us and neutralize the guards in this corner.” She shifted where she was pointing. “You, me, and Arturo will strike here immediately after Josie takes those guards out. That will make it so the remaining groups are divided.” She moved her finger. “We will move together towards this corner. The guards should be alert to the three of us by then, but Josie can go back into shadowmeld and strike those we are attacking from behind. We then reverse course and pull the same strategy with the final corner.”

“The rest of the base will be awake and on the move by then. I don’t look forward to being shot at from below while all that is going on,” Blanche said as she looked at her drawing.

Tempest shook her head. “I doubt that they will put guards there. There are too many partials. These buildings must be used to house them. Attacking us from below gives the partials too much opportunity to stage a rebellion. The guards will have to come to us.”

Blanche arched an eyebrow at her elder. “Your plan is to just keep running them out of guards? Eventually, they’ll simply hunker down and stop sending fodder to fight us.”

“Which is when Crystal can break through the main gate. We’ll have Josie move down after they stop sending us guards to beat up. She can ambush the remaining guards at the base. When Crystal sees those fall, she’ll know to act. She can bring the van into view while we are fighting on top; that will draw the gate guards’ attention, making it easier for Josie to ambush them,” Tempest said, pointing at the gate. “The van should be able to ram it down; it is practically a tank. The guards will be forced to respond to someone breaking down the gate. She can then retreat while we move into the lower levels. Josie will remain on the ground and deal with any guards who decide to go into the yard. There should be enough cover and shadows for her to use her skills to the fullest.”

Blanche frowned. “Should we bring Arturo with us to the top of the walls? I’m not sure he is up to this kind of combat. Brawls are one thing, but this is something else entirely. You and I would spend half our time ensuring he wasn’t getting shot, making him more of a distraction than anything else. Perhaps he should be backing up Crystal, just in case something happens when she smashes through the gate. At least there, he’ll have the van for cover while he takes some shots with a gun. Crystal, while also a good brawler, would be helpless if that van breaks down and she has to face off against guns. I would prefer she had some backup. It gives them additional backup if something happens to Josie and they need to extract her. If one of Josie’s ambushes fails, she’ll need immediate help.”

“Crystal isn't completely helpless against guns. You underestimate her, but you don’t normally work with her, so I’ll forgive you for slighting her,” Tempest replied. “Still, giving her backup would be advisable. Yes, we shall shift Arturo to the van with Crystal. You’ve worked more closely with Josie than me. Will she be able to keep up with repeated ambushes?”

Blanche crossed her arms. “Ambushing is no problem for her. She can move in and out of shadowmeld at a frightening pace, striking and immediately falling back into the shadows, and she can take most enemies down with a single strike. However, she doesn’t do as well against an enemy who is on guard for her. The fault is mine. I’ve done my best to teach her how to fight, but I’m not as versed in pony fighting techniques as you are. Perhaps she would be better-served training with you.”

Tempest smirked. “You overlook your own Dreamwarden. Phobia has informed me that the Marshmallow has taken the time to become proficient in fighting. Having access to all that knowledge allows them to gain new skills. Why do you think she doesn’t worry about keeping you close to guard her? Phobia has done the same, but her fear hampers her too much to be effective in combat. It was the Marshmallow’s idea that they should use their access to knowledge to gain fighting skills. Apparently, she hated the fact she was utterly useless when fighting the Pony of Shadows, and she hated that Yinyu wasn’t able to do more to defend herself or her family. The Marshmallow is more than capable of training Josie–if you can keep her focused enough. That part could be a challenge.”

Tempest had to be joking. There was no possible way Rebecca was an expert fighter. Rebecca tripped over her own hooves half the time. She’d seen Rebecca’s ridiculous concept of fighting back in Equestria…which was before Rebecca became a Dreamwarden. Then again, despite Rebecca’s rotund body, she did work out extensively. So even though it looked that way, it wasn’t all fat. Maybe there was something to it. Perhaps her feelings were hurt that Rebecca hadn’t said a word about this to her, yet somehow Tempest Shadow Smith was privy to that information instead. Rebecca could have just forgotten to mention it. It wouldn’t be the first time Rebecca just failed to think to inform her of a notable detail–not out of any agenda, but because Rebecca was an easily distracted scatterbrain. Even if Rebecca knew how to fight, Rebecca’s emotions would get the best of her, and she would probably forget every skill if attacked. Maybe she should stage some assaults on Rebecca to see how Rebecca held up. Rebecca would forgive her for clobbering her a few times. It wasn’t like Rebecca didn’t deserve a bruise or two for the nonsense she put others through. Attacking Russell might be an option. That was sure to get more of a reaction from Rebecca….On second thought, that was a bad idea. It would almost certainly get too much of a reaction. Nobody sane pissed off the Marshmallow.

She shook her head, clearing thoughts that had nothing to do with the matter at hand.

“Regardless, Josie will have to be good enough,” Blanche replied. “Worst case scenario, she has to retreat to the shadows and stay hidden, which would put more pressure on the two of us, but so be it. I can make some shields to guard us from gunfire from behind if it comes to that, although it will hamper my offense if I do. I can create and dispel my creations quickly, but I can only maintain so many at a time, and bigger ones like a shield that can guard us from gunfire take much more effort.”

“And that’s assuming they don’t have crystal ponies in their ranks,” Tempest said grimly. “The more I consider what we are up against and how much we don’t know, the more I wish to delay. Getting more information and perhaps additional reinforcements might be the wiser plan. This was the best plan I had with the numbers we have, but I’m dissatisfied with the risks involved. I don’t want any casualties on our side, and worse, as it stands, if one of those casualties is you or I, then we don’t have the force to take the base. It would result in a failed mission and them being on high alert for whoever follows after us. That is not an acceptable outcome.”

Blanche nodded. “We’ll need to ration our food more if we delay, but that can be done. Zipper and Josie can try to get more information, and we can contact the Dreamwardens and request reinforcements.”

“Nothing shameful in admitting we need aid,” Tempest sagely said. “I’ll go speak with Zipper and Arturo; you can take a nap and consult with the Dreamwardens. We’ll discuss this with Josie tonight after she wakes.”

“I’d like Jonathan and Wallace in our reinforcements,” Blanche said. “Jonathan can deal with any electronic system they are using to keep the partials under control. Wallace makes his own armor, so he’s a natural for this despite his inexperience. Would Phobia be willing to let Ashley or one of the others fall back to guarding her so we had access to Wallace?”

“He may not be an option due to his criminal record. It is hard enough to get him across anywhere he may be ID’d without someone trying to arrest him; we certainly would have more of an issue getting him across a national border,” Tempest said gravely. “What about Ashley instead? A unicorn could come in handy.”

Blanche shook her head. “She’s good for a quick teleport or shield spell if we need help getting out, but she’s a middling fighter. If we need her, that means we need extraction, which means we failed the mission.”

Tempest rubbed her chin. “The number of elite fighters among the Elite is distressingly low. It almost has me wishing to draft my students into helping.”

“Are any of them available?” Blanche inquired.

Tempest scowled. “I would never be willing to endanger Phobia’s family, even if they were available. I taught them how to fight so they could survive danger but not to seek it out. Even if I was willing to, Arachne is recovering from a pregnancy. Moon is yet another brawler who lacks his sisters’ stealth. Charlotte is a military member and is forbidden from engaging in actions on our behalf. Beyond the immediate family, Robby, despite being an excellent fighter, is a strict pacifist, and Jackie is barely juggling her current responsibilities without me asking more of her.”

“You left Jess and Jordan out of the mix. I admit I had my doubts about Jordan, but she has demonstrated she has some fight to her. It isn’t just any unicorn who can take out Crystal while you and Crystal are double-teaming her, and her skill with teleports and shields far surpasses Ashley’s. I’ve also heard that Sunset Blessing taught her a variety of offensive spells that the filly can probably pull off better since she has more power than the old preacher. As for Jess, she has a vested interest in what we’re doing, considering the child she is trying to adopt was conceived here, and her sound powers could be used offensively to disorient and cripple our foes. She’s also demonstrated her willingness in the past to put her life on the line for others,” Blanche said.

Tempest glared at her. “Do you honestly see either of them attacking a base like this? They’d never agree to such a thing. It is completely out of character for them.”

Blanche shrugged. “Can’t hurt to ask. We are low on options. I’ll put a request in.”

Chapter 44: Nudgie Nudgie Nudgie

Rebecca stretched as she stepped into the hotel room.

“So good to be back on solid ground,” she said. She spotted the bed. “Oooohh, big comfy bed! I want to bounce on it!”

Russell entered the room, set their bags down, and closed the door. “Babe, you say you are happy to be on solid ground, but now you want to bounce on the bed?”

She batted her eyelashes at him. “You could jump on it with me.”

He chuckled. “Later. I was going to order us some grub from room service.”

“Food does sound good, although, food almost always sounds good,” Rebecca said thoughtfully as she looked around. “I suppose bed bouncing can wait until after food. You know, Triss wants me to bring old SB back. My biggest regret about Sunset Blessing leaving is that I didn’t get to try a legitimate meaty cheeseburger while wearing her necklace. I mean, how did I let myself miss out on the opportunity to try new foods?”

“I’ll do my best to remind you about you wanting to do that if you manage to get her back,” Russell said with a chuckle and walked over to the bed. “I figure we can start touring the suburbs tomorrow morning. We already know you will insist on building us a house, but it will be built in suburbia instead of the main city, so we should try to find a nice neighborhood.”

She trotted over and started trying to climb on the bed. Russell bent down and lifted her up on it. They set that mattress really high up.

She turned and faced him. “Actually…we need to visit the headquarters of Enclave of the Crystal Night tomorrow morning.”

He tilted his head. “The what now?”

She spread her wings. “It wasn’t my idea. Phobia insisted on it. The Enclave of the Crystal Night is a joint crystal pony and night pony enclave here in Chicago. I don’t know how the crystal pony part of it will feel about it, but the night ponies have this thing about serving and protecting Dreamwardens, and now that I’m moving into the city–”

Russell held up a finger. “The suburbs outside Chicago.”

“Close enough,” she said with a shrug. “Since I’m here, they’ll want to know I’m here to serve and protect and whatnot. If I don't introduce myself, it will be considered very rude.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “Aren’t you supposed to keep your identity a secret?”

“The others already contracted all the ponies in the enclave about it,” Rebecca explained. “Well, almost all. There were a few who abstained, but they also agreed not to meet me. I do kinda need these ponies on my side. I’m trying to recruit a particular human in the city. Call it a redemption case; we Dreamwardens like our redemption cases. I think we get that from Luna. However, to try to redeem her, I have to catch her first, and having this enclave on my side would help a lot with that.”

“Can’t you just find her and talk to her?” Russell asked..”I mean, you’re pretty mobile when you dance, or if she has magic, you could just talk to her in her dreams.”

Rebecca tapped her forehooves together. “I may have tried that already. Quick note: her sticking her hands into my projection hurts, like it really hurts, and leaves me with such a splitting headache. She isn’t painful in dreams, but she told us to butt out, and we have a policy of obeying dreamer wishes about that unless they’re breaking a rule. Talking to her will be much easier if she’s tied up and unable to get her grubby hands on me or my projection.”

The door suddenly burst open, and an extremely attractive white pegasus came running into the room.

“Sorry, younger me, sorry, younger Russell, I’ll only be here a minute!” the pegasus yelled as she started rummaging through the luggage.

Russell stared slack-jawed. “Uuuuhhh.”

Rebecca tilted her head. “Future me, did we lose weight?”

The other pegasus stopped and posed, “You noticed? Yes, I lost about twenty pounds! The secret was I took up swimming!”

“Uuuuhhh,” Russell continued, looking back and forth between them.

“Swimming, huh,” Rebecca said, considering it. “I’ll have to try that out.”

“What?” Russell managed to say, sounding completely confused.

Older Rebecca nodded and turned her attention back to the luggage. “Oh, you’ll love it, I should know.” She suddenly raised her hoof with an object balanced in it. “Triumph!”

Rebecca gasped. “MY TOOTHBRUSH!”

“Huh?” Russell asked.

Older Rebecca cackled. “Yes! My toothbrush! My quest is complete. So long, attractive younger me!”

Older Rebecca then suddenly vanished.

“What…just…happened?” Russell slowly asked.

“She took my toothbrush!” Rebecca yelled in fury. “I loved that toothbrush!”

Russell shook his head. “I’m so confused.”

Rebecca thought about how to handle this. “The only reasonable thing for me to do is to develop a way to travel back in time and get my toothbrush back again.”

Russell took a deep breath and then stood up. “Okay…I’m going to take a long shower and pretend none of that just happened. Babe, how long are you going to be plotting how to create a self-perpetuating time loop over a hygiene utensil?”

“Give me ten minutes to plot it out, although implementing it might take longer. I didn’t look that much older. Five to seven years, ten, tops, then I’ll reclaim my toothbrush,” she answered.

“So…in ten minutes, you’ll finish explaining why you need an enclave of night ponies and crystal ponies to kidnap someone for you, and I can order our food?”

“Yes,” she agreed.

“Should I order extra chocolate cake when I order room service?”

“Yes, please. You’re the best.”

He nodded. “Ten minutes it is then.” He then left to find the shower.

Hmmm, why’d she take her toothbrush? It was a nice toothbrush, but not irreplaceable. What could she do with the toothbrush? Brush her toothies, obviously. Maybe it wasn’t about her doing something with the toothbrush but what she didn’t do. Would not brushing her toothies cause some big chain of cause and effect? Or maybe it was because she had to go to the store to buy a new toothbrush, leading to a circumstantial meeting that changed the history of the world forever? Nudging herself seemed a far more likely scenario than she really just needed a toothbrush, and time traveled back in time to steal her own. Then again, it was a very nice toothbrush. Traveling back in time and creating a stable loop wasn’t that hard to do…well, it was hard if you didn’t have the tools and know-how to do so, but the tools and know-how existed, so it was possible. The knowhow was the easiest part; since she was a Dreamwarden, the tools…well…that got a bit more complicated. Choiced between going to the store to buy a toothbrush and going through all the things she’d have to do to time-travel to steal her own toothbrush; it was pretty clear one of those was a little more of an ordeal than the other. This was a nudge. What was she nudgingly nudging herself to do with that nudge?

Given that her future self did look older and had lost weight, she had plenty of time to figure it out. Giving nudges wasn’t anything new for her. Speaking of which, she needed to follow up with that airplane mechanic she had given the extra sticky and gooey honeybun to and had Russell talk to at length about fantasy sports drafts, just to make sure he didn’t get in trouble. She didn’t want to get him in trouble, and Russell would be upset with her if she had gotten him in trouble. It had been a fifty-fifty gamble that he’d end up doing what she wanted with her nudge, but that was the nature of nudges; there was no guarantee that the person would do or not do the thing just because you nudged them; you just altered the statistics a little more in your favor. Nudging was an art form that took plenty of creativity, and she was the nudgy grandmaster.

Jordan sighed and flipped her mane as she walked back into Wabash Manor.

“I love what that stylist did. I feel so sexy!” she said gleefully. “Look at these waves. I look like a celebrity.”

Andrea practically stomped on. “Do you have to be so vain, filly?”

“Don’t stomp on the floor, Andri, you’ll mess up your hooficure,” Amicus said as she stepped into the house. “And I know your hooves must feel much better after they trimmed off all that keratin. I was shocked at how much you had. That had to be uncomfortable.”

Andrea lifted a hoof and looked at the underside. “Well, you don’t see me parading it around, bragging about it.” She then lowered her hoof and rubbed it against the floor.

Jordan’s phone started ringing. She looked at who was calling. Charlotte? She wasn’t usually that social.

“Hi, Char, that you?” she answered.

“Yeah, it’s me. Are you away from Wabash at the moment?” Charlotte asked.

“Uh…no…I’ve actually just got back to Wabash. Do you need me to walk out to the street?” Jordan asked.

“No, it’s fine,” Charlotte said with a sigh. “It’s not like the government doesn’t already know about Bursa. I’m coming to Colorado, and I was wondering if Bursa and I could crash there for a few days while she does what she’s got to do.”

Andrea jumped and slammed all her hooves on the floor. “No! Definitely not! Bursa is on the list of never being allowed here! Sunset briefed me on her. We are not letting that thing in the house! That monster’s dangerous!”

“Uh…who’s Bursa?” Jordan asked in confusion, then gasped. “Did you get a marefriend?”

Andrea gaped at her. “I just said monster, and you ask if it is her marefriend?!”

Jordan shrugged. “She's traveling with Charlotte, and I’ve never figured out what Charlotte’s interests and tastes are. I’m starting to think she’s asexual like Jessie.”

“Bursa is not my marefriend; she’s a giant shape-shifting bug monster. I’m not into bug monsters,” Charlotte explained in an exasperated tone. “It’s fine. I’ll figure something else out.”

Jordan shook her head. “No! Wait! We can figure something out that involves her staying here. I want to help out.”

Andrea stomped again. “That monster is not allowed in the house!”

“We could let her camp out in the chapel,” Jordan quickly suggested. “The chapel is outside the house.”

Amicus frowned. “Not to put a damper on your enthusiasm to help our mutual niece-”

“Can you not bring up Jordan’s also my aunt?” Charlotte cut in. “She’s two months younger than me.”

“-but I’m not sure that is wise,” Amicus continued unabated. “Sunset never shared with me whatever information she told Andrea about this Bursa person, but she usually had good reason for decreeing certain people should have no access to the house. While we can’t stop you from giving her access to the chapel, I think you should at least get better informed about why this person isn’t allowed here before you make such a decision. I’m sure Andrea would happily give you a full briefing.”

Andrea groaned. “It’s a shape-shifting bug monster that might desire vengeance against Sunset because Sunset’s research played a part in its creation. The last time Sunset saw Bursa, the monster wanted to disembowel her and was only stopped because Wild Growth was there to stop it.”

“Well, Auntie Sunset isn’t here to take vengeance against, so it should be fine,” Jordan asserted.

“What part of shape-shifting bug monster do you think is fine?!” Andrea exclaimed in disbelief.

“Char, do you think she is dangerous?” Jordan asked.

“Of course she is,” Charlotte answered. “That’s why I wanted to bring her there instead of some random hotel. Wabash is much more secure. I’d have you and all those guards to help me if she tried doing something crazy. She’s behaving herself right now, but she’s known for getting crazy ideas and acting on them without thinking things through. Bringing her to Wabash is safer. It helps protect the public.”

“A monster deciding to go on a rampage is not our concern. Making sure the house, its residents, and the vaults are safe is our concern. Bringing a monster here is the opposite of that,” Andrea asserted.

Jordan considered for a few seconds. “Quick question…why do we have all this stuff locked up in the vaults?”

“Because it’s dangerous, obviously,” Andrea said disdainfully.

Jordan nodded. “Dangerous to who?”

“To the world,” Andrea answered. She then shook her head. “No! I see where you are going with this, and-”

“So…we are here to protect people,” Jordan concluded. “Which means letting Bursa come here helps with that mission.”

“I think she’s made her decision. You can either complain about it, or you can figure out how to make this work,” Amicus said.

“I can do both!” Andrea snapped. “What will you be doing to help make this work?”

“Giving moral support while barricading myself in my room,” Amicus answered.

Andrea shook a hoof at her. “Coward!”

“Yep, but very much alive and intending to stay that way,” Amicus said. She then turned and started walking away. “Now, I’m going to go find my husband and start boarding up my window. Please, try to keep the noise down if you and the bug monster get into combat.”

Author's Note

A little short chapter to nudge things along

Chapter 45: Squabbles

Dealing with Dreamwardens was always a pain. Why was she sitting on a smiling toadstool? Rebecca sat across from the toadstool table, overeating cake. Why even eat cake in a dream?

“Sure, I can have the lawyers email you a copy of that contract ASAP. You’ll have it ready to go first thing in the morning,” Rebecca said between bites of food.

Jessica stood up. “Good, thank you. You can release me back into my dream now.”

The toadstool suddenly grew, forcing itself under her, and then shrank again. Did it giggle?

The food vanished from in front of Rebecca, and there was suddenly an old-timey telephone operator station in front of her, and Rebecca was connecting different lines.

“Actually, I have one more order of business. You have a dreamwalking request from my good pals, Blanche and Tempest. They want to talk to you. Do you accept charges?” Rebecca asked.

“Charges?” Jessica asked.

Rebecca shrugged. “It’s free, so charges are zero. I was keeping with the theme. Do you accept them entering your dream to talk to you?”

“Why do they want to talk to me?” Jessica asked, feeling suspicious.

Rebecca raised a hoof, which morphed into a hand she used to shake a finger. “Ah, ah, ah. You know I can’t disclose that. Will you or won’t you speak with them?”

Jessica rubbed her head. “Fine. Let’s hurry this nonsense up.”

“A little nonsense now and then, valued by the wisest men,” Rebecca sang. She then vanished, leaving Tempest and Blanche suddenly appeared, sitting on their own toadstool seats. The cakes vanished as well and were replaced with a tea party spread.

Tempest looked around, picked up a teacup to examine, put it down, and then bent down to look at her seat.

“Your dreams are not what I expected,” Tempest dryly said as she sat back up.

Jessica groaned. “Rebecca picked the setting. This isn’t one of mine. Cut straight to it. What do you want?”

Blanche started to lean on the table.

“Hahah hee hee! That tickles!” the table giggled.

Blanche sat back up. “You have permission to act on this information. We’re currently on a mission in Mexico to try to bring down a partial trafficking ring. Unfortunately, by our estimates, we don’t have the numbers to safely do so because the operation is larger than anticipated. We’re looking for extra help, and you could be useful.”

She gaped. “I’m guessing you want me to use my sound powers to listen in on conversations to help build a case against them?”

Tempest shook her head. “No, we aren’t building a case against them; we’re assaulting their base and freeing the hundred or more partials they have prisoner there. Much of our early assault will rely on stealth. Your powers can help us determine guard movements, mask our sound, and cause disruption in the enemy ranks once our stealth is blown.”

She stood up. “No! I’m not some action hero! There’s a kid that I’m trying to adopt, and I’m certain he wants me to adopt him. I’m not going to have him lose out on me as a mother because I went and got myself killed trying to play superhero down in Mexico.”

“Would us telling you that the kid’s parents had been prisoners down there who had escaped change your mind?” Blanche asked.

She sat back down. “What?”

“His parents had been among those who were imprisoned at this camp,” Blanche said with a nod. “After the mother got pregnant, she and the father made a daring escape from the prison, the prospect of their baby being born in captivity being what pushed them to do what was surely a suicide run. They trekked cross-country over hundreds of miles of arid land without supplies back into the USA to get him to where he could be born free. The father died long before making it to the destination, the mother not long after delivering the child to his grandmother.”

Something didn’t make sense. “Wait, why did Mark’s mother leave him with his grandmother without stopping to get care so she could live?”

“She was likely terrified she was going to be tracked down and didn’t want to lead her previous captors to her son,” Blanche said. “They might have figured the kid died out in the wilds. It’s a miracle he didn’t. Our tracker says she wasn’t at the grandmother’s long.”

Jessica’s shoulders slumped. “Oh…I guess that also explains why the grandmother kept him secret. I remember them saying the old woman had a son who vanished soon after ETS. I suppose that was the father–I mean, we already guessed that, but this gives more evidence of that. I can’t imagine what she must have felt after discovering what happened and then left trying to know what was best for Mark.”

“They target partials who are seen as vulnerable and would cause the least suspicion if they went missing. That’s why you were never in danger. You’re too high profile, but kids run away all the time, and Mark doesn’t even have a social security number yet,” Tempest explained.

“How…how do you know this?” Jessica asked, trying to process the information.

“These guys have been on our radar for a while, and we happen to have the best tracker there is. Our tracker was able to piece together details about the parents' fate,” Blanche explained.

“I can confirm it too!” Rebecca chimed in. “We don’t have to keep the secrets of the dead, and if they had magic and died while Drwamwardens were active, we can remember their dreams. It isn’t perfect information, but when something is a big enough deal to someone, they’ll dream about it. Once they dream it, we’ll have that memory of that dream stashed away, at least for a very long time. Old stuff…like ancient stuff…gets very patchy after a while. Our mental power is based on the number of combined dreamers, and when the dead outnumber the living, there isn’t enough brainpower to remember everything, and we start forgetting old or unimportant stuff. Traumatic dreams in the recent past, even straight-out memories in most cases, that’s easy to remember, if we’re trying to–although, unfortunately, not admissible evidence in waking world courts, which sucks so much sometimes.”

“Why would they even do this?” Jessica asked, still reeling from the revelation.

Blanche snorted. “Come on, you can’t be that dense. Partials often have very unpredictable and powerful magic. Yes, humans can have that, too, but humans like me are the minority. Statistically, partials are highly likely to develop some strange magic. This magic can be weaponized, and because it falls outside what we typically expect from magic, it is harder for others to counteract. I’m sure your friends Beverly and Jennifer can tell you all about people weaponizing people with unique magic.”

“And if they turn out to be duds when it comes to magic that can be weaponized, they’re still potential unpaid labor and test subjects,” Tempest added.

She considered for a few seconds, then shook her head. “The answer is still no. Yes, I want justice for his parents, but I do him no justice if I get killed trying to avenge them. Being adopted by me would give him notoriety, which should protect him. Plus, I don’t want to be weaponized, even for a just cause, and that’s what you are asking me to do. I wish you the best of luck, but I must firmly refuse.”

Blanche looked at Tempest, and Tempest shook her head. Blanche then sighed. “Very well. We will await different reinforcements. Thanks for taking the time to hear us out and at least considering what we were saying.”

Tempest looked up. “We need aid, Marshmallow!”

“You don’t have to keep asking. I told you I’m not to leave you hanging. Be patient and sit tight,” Rebecca’s disembodied voice answered.

Jessica pointed upward. “Why are you asking me if she’s already going to get you help?”

Tempest gave her a flat look. “Have you ever had to have the Marshmallow help you? Nothing is ever straightforward, and it usually involves some overcomplicated plot. It is headache-inducing. It would be helpful if she directly ordered a few people to do what she wanted instead of going through all these insane hoops!”

“She orders me around just fine,” Blanche mumbled.

“You know I can hear you, right?” Rebecca’s voice said, sounding just a pinch annoyed. “Come on. Who’s your favorite neighborhood Marshmallow? I’ll come through for you. My plans have a very high success rate–aside from diets; those never seem to work out.”

“I can’t tell if she sounds like a hustler or a person trying to reason with a hustler,” Blanche muttered.

“She’s your boss,” Tempest reminded her.

Blanche groaned. “She’ll probably come through with something. We just have to wait for it. Whenever the help arrives, we’ll no doubt think she’s insane, but it will somehow be invaluable–unless her plan completely falls apart. I know how things go with her, so I give it a fifty-fifty chance.”

”Hey! Have faith! It is eighty-one to fourteen percent chance in my favor. I keep track,” Rebecca’s voice said proudly.

“What's the other five percent?” Tempest asked.

“Things sometimes resolve themselves, so the entire thing becomes irrelevant,” Rebecca replied nonchalantly. “The point is that even if they don’t always work out, my plans have an excellent success rate.”

Tempest crossed her arms. “You’d likely have an even higher success rate with your plans if you didn’t have such absurd and overly convoluted ones that leave an obscene amount of things to chance.”

Rebecca sighed. “Ah, yes, chance. Do you know what chance is? Chance is failure to see aspects that impact the inevitable outcome. You know, I’m rather torn about how to feel about such failures. When I succeed, everyone is happy and relieved that everything turned out alright, and I like people to be happy. Making people happy feels good. However, sometimes I fail, and I have to look at why. It means I get exposed to something I didn’t expect, some element that my super-Dreamwarden brain, which is capable of looking at things from billions of different angles, didn’t see coming…and even though people are unhappy, I have to sit there and admire this element that I failed to see; it’s almost beautiful, like a freshly baked chocolate cake with rainbow sprinkles. Sometimes, I succeed, but there're still elements I didn’t see coming. When that happens, it is the best of both worlds, and I like that the most. So, yes, I invite chance to play a part in as many of my plans as possible, which means doing what I can to invite unexpected outcomes. I want to succeed but also be surprised. The unexpected is one of the core sparks of creativity. It is hard to plan to make unexpected things happen, so things sometimes get a little crazy with my planning.”

Tempest looked at Blanche. “Your Dreamwarfen is insane.”

Blanche shrugged. “Are any of them sane? Your Dreamwarden likes being called the monster in the closet or under the bed and calls herself the Queen of Nightmares. Where is the sanity in that?”

“She wants people to drive her out of their dreams after understanding their fears. It’s making them view their fears more rationally,” Tempest asserted. “Yours insanely does things because she wants insanity she didn’t expect to happen. How is that making things better? Phobia’s goal is more rationality; the Marshmallow’s goal is the opposite of rationality. She’s no better than Discord!”

“Never compare her to that beast![” Blanche hissed.

“Tell me how she’s different?” Tempest asked skeptically.

“Discord does things for shits and giggles. He has no goal. He wants only to be amused. Rebecca wants people to encounter something that inspires them. People need to be inspired. If she didn’t see something coming, the average person didn’t see it coming. That forces them to think of things differently. That sparks creativity,” Blanche asserted.

“Well, he also cares if his little marefriend gets nad at him, so that’s another influence on Discord,'' Tempest added in. “I still don’t see them that differently. You could argue the Marshmallow has considerably less power than Discord, but instead of direct power, she has access to knowledge he could only dream of. Knowledge is power, so the two aren’t as far removed from one another as they first appear in terms of power. Bottom line, the two of them are both interested in having nonsense happen and get amused by it. They're crazy!”

“Crazy? How about how your Dreamwarden gets all dressed up and paraded around Skytree like a queen on Halloween?” Blanche fired back. “how is that advancing anything?”

“Oh, now you are just digging for anything,” Tempest snarled. “That’s something she does one day a year because the people like it. It’s good public relations for her to do it. It’s not like she goes out demanding candy tributes like Luna does on Nightmare Night.”

Jessica rolled her eyes and looked up. “Rebecca, please release me back into my dream so I don’t have to listen to these two argue about how crazy you are.”

“I never said I wasn’t crazy. The dream realm is like Wonderland; we’re all mad here, but it’s nice to know that Blanche has my back,” Rebecca asserted. “However, there’s no reason to keep you around anymore. Enjoy your sleep!”

And with that, she faded off into her dream.

“Why is stupid pony asking us to walk?” Bursa growled as they continued to Wabash.

Charlotte glanced back. “Do you honestly think any driver will have seats that can fit you? Stop whining; it’s only six miles. Don’t be a wimp.”

A car driving by slowed down so the passengers could stare at them. Charlotte stuck her tongue out them, and they moved on.

Bursa stared at the vehicle as it drove away. “They'd let us ride if you let me disguise myself. Pony is crazy, making me walk down the street without a disguise. Someone is going to try to attack me.’

“I’d call the police if that happened and defend you in the meantime. Are you that ashamed of what you look like?” Charlotte asked.

“They will panic. I’m a monster,” Bursa answered.

Charlotte watched another car drive by. “Haven’t so far. Sure, they stare, but nobody is panicking. As long as I’m here and treating you as no big deal, the most they’ll do is stare–maybe jeer.”

“I'll eat them if they laugh at me,” Bursa growled.

Another car drove by, again slowing down to look at Bursa before speeding up again.

“Don’t make empty threats,” Charlotte scolded. “You aren’t a monster, because you aren’t a killer. You make a lot of noise, and I wouldn't doubt you’d completely total someone's car, which would cause us a lot of problems, but you don’t kill.”

Bursa let off a long have you hiss. “How do you know, pony? Who made you an expert?”

“My titi, Wild Growth,” Charlotte answered.

“What’s a titi?” Bursa asked.

“Aunt,” Charlotte clarified. “When I was a foal, she told me all about you. I was in Equestria as part of that tourist group that you kidnapped that mare from and tried to impersonate. You had to have gotten close to me sometime during that trip–me, my brother, and my sister.”

“Don’t remember anyone from that group except Wild Growth, the mare I captured, and that fat dumb pegasus,” Bursa confessed. “I know there were lots of Wild Growth’s family on the trip. I avoided them as much as possible….So…what did she say about me? Not that I care…or anything.”

Charlotte kept silent fir a few seconds as she watched another car slow down. Everyone wanted to take a gander at the strange creature following her down the street. Video of Bursa would probably be a viral video by morning as people tried to identify what they were even looking at. Most would dismiss it as some publicity stunt, possibly for some movie. Equestrian flora and fauna were still primarily mysterious and alien to the general public, and a few might question if some Equestrian animal was loose on the streets of Denver. It was surprising that the police hadn’t at least stopped to check what was up, but then again, they weren’t causing any disruption, and whatever those passing by thought Bursa was, they didn’t think she was that dangerous if a mare was aware of the giant bug following behind her and didn’t seem to be alarmed. Making Bursa keep to her proper form was primarily to keep better track of her, but it was also to break the belief Bursa had that everyone would run from her if they saw her natural form. Yeah, she was ugly, but after spending several hours with her, Charlotte knew Bursa was just another person.

“She said that some crazy scientist experimented on you and left you trapped in a cave for years,” Charlotte replied. “How’d you survive that anyway? What did you eat down there?”

“Fish and bugs,” Bursa answered.

Charlotte looked back at her. “Fish in a cave?”

“Yeah, there were fish. I got good at catching them,” Bursa replied. “I don’t know what they look like. It was completely dark, but there was an underground lake. There was water; there was food. I could survive.”

“You just ate them raw?” Charlotte asked, feeling ill.

“No choice. Nothing to burn. No way to make fire,” Bursa answered. “You don’t like that I ate the fish.”

Charlotte grimaced. “Well, raw fish sounds even more disgusting than cooked fish. I doubt you enjoyed it much.”

“It was the most exciting thing. I was always happy to catch a fish and eat it. It meant I wasn’t hungry. It meant I was doing something. It meant I was alive,” Bursa hissed. “It was easier to move around in the lake. It hurt less, but I had to come on shore to eat and rest. I tried sleeping in the lake once. I almost drowned. Can’t swim and sleep at same time.”

Titi had said that Bursa wasn't very bright. Trying to swim and sleep simultaneously was a good indication of that. It was best not to rub that in Bursa’s face. She was trying not to be as toxic as that night pony from Equestria. At least Bursa learned her lesson.

“Well, I’m glad you didn’t drown,” Charlotte said. “My aunt also said that you were falling apart when they found you. They had to send you to Equestria to be transformed into what you are now, and that was the only way to save you. She says that you’d been trying to get back to Earth ever since so you could get your vengeance on the guy who experimented on you. She also said that in all your attempts, you never killed anyone in your way, even though you are big and strong enough to do so with ease. She sympathizes with you. You’ve been through hell, and you want to punish the person who put you through it. I don’t think anyone who heard your story would hate you.”

“My parents did,” Bursa said in a low voice. “I showed them this form, and they rejected me. They denied I was their daughter. They were so disgusted, angry, and terrified. It made me more sick than the nasty pony.”

Charlotte wondered how much warning and briefing about what had happened Bursa’s parents had been given before the reunion. Springing Bursa on them without letting the information sink in would have been too much for most people to process. She could see the higher-ups pulling something like that. It would be a way of trying to force Bursa to believe that there was nothing here for her. During the call, Titi hadn’t seemed aware that Bursa had already met with her parents. That meant things were moving faster than expected. Titi was no fool, and she had to see what they were doing. Somebody was going to have a national hero screaming at them.

“I’m sure that was very hurtful,” Charlotte said, putting as much sympathy into it as possible. “Maybe we can try that again, only this time giving your parents more information and time to process it. Do we have any hard evidence we can present them with?”

“No, dream ponies search the memories of the dead to find the truth,” Bursa answered bitterly. “Nothing remains. My memories are broken. I didn’t even remember my parents when I saw them. They seemed familiar, but still strangers.”

Well, at least that might have blunted the feeling of rejection slightly, but with that level of rejection, it would have still been devastating. If this sister of Bursa’s was dead, then that was probably the memory they grabbed onto.”

She stopped and shaded her eyes with a wing as blue lights started flashing. Why’d police have to make those things so damn bright? She wondered if they ever inadvertently caused traffic accidents by blinding drivers.

“They’re going to take me away and lock me up!” Bursa yelled.

“Stay calm. I’ll deal with this,” she instructed Bursa. “Yelling stuff like that makes you seem guilty of something. You haven’t done anything wrong. If you seem too agitated, they’ll start thinking you’re dangerous. It’s one car. They’d be waiting for backup if they thought you were dangerous.”

Bursa went silent. It was hard to read her body language with all the bright flashing lights, so there was no telling if she was fidgeting anxiously

Keeping a wing shading her eyes, she looked towards the cop car as she heard the doors open and close.

“Evening officers. Mind dimming those lights? It’s a bit much for my eyes,” she greeted.

“Sorry, it’s procedure,” a male officer answered. She could only tell by the voice. The road had too many smells, including Bursa’s.

“What’s up with that thing? Some animatronic costume?” another officer asked, also male. She assumed they were humans. Night ponies couldn’t stand being around lights like that, and day ponies didn’t typically take night shifts, but it would be nice to see to confirm.

“That is my friend Bursa. I’m Army Major Charlotte Martinez,” she explained. “Bursa is a member of an exotic but intelligent magical species from Equestria. She’s visiting our country with permission from the government, and I’m her chaperone. I have the paperwork in my saddlebag, along with my military ID, if you need to see any of that. Please be nice to her. She gets nervous easily. This is all very different from what she is used to.”

“Ack! Get that flashlight out of my eyes, puny human!” Bursa fussed. “I’ll eat your liver!”

“No, she won’t!” Charlotte said quickly. “Sorry, she’s very temperamental. Bursa, behave yourself. Do you guys want to see that paperwork?”

“We can take you in for threatening a police officer,” one of the officers said sternly.

She needed to diffuse this quickly. “Bursa is used to talking aggressively, but that’s all it is: talk. Do you want to have to deal with a giant bug that has all kinds of diplomatic issues? We are on our way to Wabash Manor, and when we get there, she’ll be Wabash’s problem.”

The officers were silent for a few seconds, likely considering if they wanted to have to deal with this kind of hassle.

“We’ll review your paperwork, and if everything is in order, we’ll let you be on your way,” one of the officers finally said. “Why are you just walking down the street? You’re distracting traffic and causing a scene.”

Since when was distracting traffic a crime?

“Well, she’s too big to ride in most vehicles. I’d rather fly, but there’s no way the big bug is flying,” Charlotte answered.

“I can fly, stupid pony!” Bursa hissed. “I asked you why we were walking!”

Charlotte shut her eyes and groaned. “You could have mentioned that before. I had no idea.”

“I have wings. Why wouldn’t I be able to fly?”

“I thought they were just for show. They’re tiny and flimsy looking, and you’re huge! I had to stare at you to even notice they were there!” Charlotte protested. “You never even flutter them.”

“Pony doesn’t know as much as pony thinks! I’m smarter than pony!”

“Well, intelligent you didn’t bother to tell me you could fly when I was talking about riding in vehicles. I’d have happily–”

“Yeah, you’re right; I don't want to deal with whatever the heck this is. I thought I’d seen everything after ETS, but now there’s an intelligent dragon-sized bug walking down the street,” an officer cut in. “I don’t even know how we’d take something that big in. Maybe the SWAT van could hold it, but I’m not sure even about that. You say it’s going to be Wabash’s problem? Hurry up and fly over there. We’ll radio a few night pony officers to ensure you head straight to your destination.”

“I am not dragon-sized!” Bursa protested.

“Are you calling her fat?” Charlotte asked. “She’s not fat.”

“Yeah, I’m not fat! You’re just puny, puny human!”

“Bursa, we need to expand your vocabulary,” Charlotte informed her companion. “I’m sure Wabash has a thesaurus. We’ll find some other words than puny for you to say.”

“Are you saying my vocabulary is puny? I know other words, small pony.”

“Just go,” the officer ordered.

Well, that wasn’t so bad.

Chapter 46: Learning More

Jordan opened her bedroom door only to jump back in shock as a night pony walked by.

“Morning, Jor. You aren't like Grandma at all. You sleep in pretty late. She's up with the dawn,” Charlotte said as she came to a halt in the hallway.

Jordan blinked a few times as if that would help jump-start her still sleep-muddled brain. When she finally remembered that she had agreed to give Charlotte and Bursa shelter, she started putting the rest of the details together.

“Did you just arrive a few minutes ago?” Jordan asked.

Charlotte shook her head. “Nope, we've been here most of the night. I think we arrived slightly after midnight. You were already asleep. We would have been here earlier, but we got stopped by some cops, and then Bursa and this stray dog got into this growling match with one another. There was this guy who may have been drunk, on drugs, or both, that was completely freaking out about seeing Bursa, and the damn bug sat there antagonizing him. I swear she was doing it for fun. Getting here was a minor ordeal.”

“Oh,” Jordan replied, not knowing what to say about that. She'd gotten into a growling match with a dog?

Charlotte yawned. “Anyway, I'm suffering from some serious jetlag. You would not believe how far I've traveled in the last few days. I'm going to get some sleep. Bursa is in the house out back. I raided the pantry and gave her all your muffins. I'm not sure she needs to eat, but she did seem to enjoy the muffins.”

“You gave her all my muffins?” Jordan asked in disbelief. She had been planning on having muffins for breakfast.

“Yeah, they were the first thing I found. Sorry, I should have asked, but you were asleep,” Charlotte replied. “Interesting redecorating, by the way, but I'm guessing all the Bible verses all over the place aren't your doing.”

“Um, yeah, those were here when I arrived,” Jordan said. ”Have you seen Andrea around this morning?”

Charlotte nodded. “Aunt Andrea's out fussing with Bursa. I don't think Bursa knows what to make of her. Apparently, she can't detect or feed off the emotions of crystal ponies—their magic absorption cancels it out. The big bug is so used to telling emotions by her empath abilities that she doesn't know how to figure them out the old-fashioned way, even when it should be obvious.”

“Oh,” Jordan replied. “Well, um, make yourself at home.”

Charlotte yawned. “Sure will. Talk to you tonight. Good to see you again, Jor, and thanks for this.” She then walked off, presumably to one of the guest rooms.

There seemed nothing to do except go check on Andrea and Bursa. Andrea would say she was slacking off on her duties as owner of Wabash Manor if she didn't. Andrea probably was already going to complain Jordan hadn't stayed up to meet their guests when they arrived or gotten up early to deal with them. Heck, Andrea would probably find a dozen things she was at fault for, even if she had done all those things. Andrea was never satisfied. It wasn't fair. Jordan was utterly new to all this crap. How did Andrea expect her to be perfect all the time? It was completely unreasonable. It was an unkind thing to do, but Jordan found herself trying to guess Andrea's age and trying to guess how many years the old crystal pony had in her before she keeled over and died. Andrea was older than Auntie Sunset, but how much older?

Still, checking on them seemed the right thing to do, so that was what she would do. Figuring out an alternative for her breakfast plans would have to wait.

It took her a few minutes to get to the house out back. It was a decent-sized house, especially for ponies. Auntie Sunset had expanded it at some point a few years ago. It was two stories, painted white, had at least one and sometimes two windows in every room, had two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, and a kitchen and living room downstairs. Humans might consider it a townhouse. It only seemed small compared to the massive mansion it sat next to. There was no welcome mat, but this house had sat vacant for a while. Now that she was up close to it, she was more than satisfied it would be an excellent place for her parents to live out their twilight years. Maybe she could send a letter to Equestria asking Auntie Sunset permission to change the contract to allow for an allowance for a live-in nurse at the house—at least until Jordan got more control over how things were done around here when she turned twenty-one. There was an extra bedroom in the house, so a live-in nurse to care for her parents was a viable option. Auntie Sunset kinda owed it to them since her mom's disability may have been partially a result of Auntie's experiments, and her dad's was definitely a result of things that Auntie did that went horribly wrong. She didn't hate Sunset Blessing for what happened. She knew her Auntie was very sorry for what happened and had made an honest attempt to repent and do better. It might creep people out still to have a pony say it, but ponies forgive—at least when the wrongdoer honestly repents and tries to do better, and she thought it was a good thing to live by. There was no point in holding grudges.

Like all other places on the property, the house had a Bible verse written near the doorway. This time, on a plaque beside it.

But when you are invited, take the lowest place so that when your host comes, he will say to you, 'Friend, move up to a better place.' Then, you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

So…was Auntie Sunset saying guests should be moved into the mansion after staying in this house? Hard to say. That was something to worry about another day.

She opened the door and found Andrea in a stare-off with what was indeed a giant bug in an entirely unfurnished room. The stare-off ended quickly as they both turned to look at her.

She gave the giant bug monster her most friendly smile. “Hi, I'm Jordan. Sorry I missed your arrival. Welcome to Wabash Manor…or…Wabash's guesthouse—sorry, my auntie already had you on the list of people banned from going in the mansion, and I'm kinda stuck following her rules about what to do around here till I'm twenty-one. It's kinda amazing that she even considered that you might show up. Is everything okay and comfortable? I didn't realize it was this empty in here. Do you want me to find you some pillows to lay on or something?”

Bursa, who had remarkably ponylike features to her face despite being a bug, looked at Jordan with bewilderment.

“You aren't scared of me…but you are scared of the shiny pony I cannot feel,” Bursa said. She then turned her eyes back at Andrea and spread her many legs out aggressively. “What kind of cruel pony are you, shiny pony?”

“She's not going to hurt us!” Jordan told Bursa quickly. “Andrea is just always saying I'm not good at this, or I need to do better at that, or I screwed up doing this. Even when I do something right, she seems to have something negative to say about it. It makes me anxious around her.”

Bursa sneered at Andrea. “Maybe it is good I can't feel toxic pony then. I just got done with having to spend days with a toxic pony that made me sick.” She looked back at Jordan. “Does toxic pony make you sick?”

“My name is Andrea, not Toxic Pony,” Andrea grumbled.

Jordan shook her head. “She makes me anxious, but I know she means well, even if she could be nicer about things.”

“I'm not going to baby you, filly. You need to toughen up,” Andrea muttered. Jordan wondered if Andrea saw the irony in saying she wouldn't baby her and then immediately calling her filly.

Bursa frowned at Jordan. “But why do you have no fear of me?”

“Well, you did walk over here with Charlotte, and you didn't try to hurt her,” Jordan answered. "Actual monsters have also chased me, and they looked like ponies, so I know not to judge a book by its cover. Plus, you look big and strong, but I'm reasonably confident I could successfully defend myself if I had to, which I don't think I will. You're my guest. So…do you want some pillows or something? Sleeping on the hard floor can't be comfortable.”

Bursa continued to stare. “Are you related to Wild Growth?”

Jordan blinked. “Um…she's my half-sister's sister-in-law, so…kinda-sorta. Andrea is my half-sister's aunt, so I guess she is too, in a sorta way.”

“Good grief, can you sound confident about anything?” Andrea muttered.

Bursa snarled at Andrea. “Be nice to her!”

Andrea took a defensive stance.

“Please! Andrea means well!” Jordan insisted. “She isn't very nice; she's downright mean, but she is a good pony. Don't hurt her.”

Bursa seemed to relax a little. “Alright, if you say so, sister of the sister of Wild Growth. I wouldn't hurt her anyway. She is the aunt of the sister of Wild Growth.”

“And that matters to you, doesn't it?” Jordan asked. “Why?”

Bursa sat down and stared at the floor. “Wild Growth saved me from being in the dark. She protected me from those who wanted to hurt me. She ordered the great mages to make me whole and not in pain. I do not like being this…thing they made me, but it is better than what I was. Wild Growth was kinder and more generous than anyone who saw me would have ever been. She has my gratitude, my…respect, and I shall never harm her family.”

“Well, I know she is very nice and generous,” Jordan agreed. “I try to be nice and generous too. So…pillows?”

Bursa shook her head. “No, I rarely sleep, and only when I have exhausted myself or one of you ponies puts me to sleep. I will not be sleeping here.”

Jordan blinked. “You barely sleep? That's not good. Sleep doesn't just give our bodies rest; it gives our minds time to recharge. My sister says it is like a computer with fragmented files. You need time to defragment the brain, or things stop functioning right. Plus, it is that much more time just stewing in your thoughts if you are always awake, with you thinking less and less clearly. Getting some sleep lets you rest your mind so you can wake up and think more clearly. I mean, I don't know much about whatever you are or how your species works, but it seems like you should sleep more.”

Bursa looked up at her and frowned deeply. “Are you saying I have a scrambled brain because I don't sleep much?”

“Uh…possibly?” Jordan replied sheepishly. “As I said, I don't know much about your species. Are there more of you, or are you the only one?”

“There are more of my species, but there is only one more like me from them,” Bursa answered. “That one doesn't like me, and I don't like her, so we don't talk much, and I don't know how much she sleeps. The others are too nice, but they sleep like ponies.”

“Too nice?” Jordan asked.

Bursa threw back her head and groaned. “They always want to do meditation, and painting, and gardening, and sit around and talk about their feelings in a circle. They wanted me to do those things, but it was all stupid!”

“Eh, gardening I could deal with, but I'm with you on the rest. Sounds like some hippy commune crap,” Andrea dryly commented.

“So…what would you rather be doing instead?” Jordan asked.

Bursa gave a predatory smile. “Find the bad pony that took away my life and eat his head!”

Jordan took a step back at that declaration. “That's certainly…an idea, but don't you have any hobbies or anything? I get that you want revenge and all, but what's outside the revenge?”

“Try to find my way back to Earth,” Bursa answered.

“Well…you've done that, so what would be the next thing on your list?” Jordan asked.

Bursa stared blankly at her.

“No hobbies then,” Jordan concluded. “What about music? What about movies or shows you like?”

“They don't have television in Equestria, and movie theaters are rare,” Andrea said in a bored tone. “What kind of music do you listen to, filly? I only ask because I'm going to have to be subjected to it for the rest of my life, and I want to know how miserable that's going to be.”

“Um, I like movie and television scores that are remixed,” Jordan answered. “There's literally thousands, maybe millions, of them online, so you can listen to the same score hundreds of times but have it be different each time. What do you listen to?”

“Twisted Sister, Guns and Roses, Van Halen,” Andrea answered.

“I've never heard of any of that,” Jordan said.

Andrea flattened her ears. “You are way too young.”

“I have no favorites of those things,” Bursa finally answered.

Jordan's ears perked up. “Well, since you don't sleep, maybe we can set up a television here so you don't have to be bored while you wait for Charlotte to wake up. That way, you can figure out what kinds of movies and shows you like, music too.”

Andrea stood up and went to the door. “You can do that. I'll be seeing to my duties. Bursa, you are to keep to the house and out of sight, bug. We have an uptick in drones circling the property after you arrived. They saw you come in. Let's not give them anything else to look at.”

“I can shapeshift into a pony or human,” Bursa reminded them. She then transformed into a jade-green unicorn mare with a red mane.

Andrea turned and shook her head. “No! I will not play guessing games about who you are at any given time or give you any way to sneak around. You stay in your proper shape. Guards will be monitoring the house, and if anyone or anything comes out that shouldn't, action will be taken.”

“What if she agreed to one specific form and to keep at least two guards near her at all times?” Jordan suggested. “That way, she could at least walk out and get some sun and see the gardens.”

Andrea flicked her tail. “Very well, this form she just took, and it will be three guards that she always stays in sight of—no funny business. Everyone who comes here who isn't on the approved list gets monitored closely, so don't think I'm being mean just because you are a giant shape-shifting bug. You are on the banned list, so be happy to be here at all instead of on the street unprotected. The filly is too nice.”

“Will they be upset to be around me?” Bursa asked
.
Andrea laughed. “Ha! These guys are veterans of my sister's tenure here. They've seen shit. I tell them they're babysitting a giant shape-shifting bug, and they'll say, so today is an easy day. Don't you worry about them.”

Jordan was skeptical. “Really? What's the craziest thing they've seen?”

Andrea seemed to think for a second. “Well…there was that time we had to lock down the whole mansion and evacuate, then call in Princess Twilight and Starlight Glimmer because Sunset opened a portal to who knows where, and something very very nasty came through. They had to shield the whole property to make sure it couldn't get out, and it took them a while to figure out what the hell she did and how to put it back where it came from. Thing got Fred's leg before we all got out of the house, poor Fred.”

Jordan's ears flattened. “I never heard about that.”

“Do you honestly think she wanted to advertise she opened a door to Hell, and a demon came through?” Andrea said with a shake of her head. “I'm saying that figuratively; I don't think that was a literal door to Hell or a literal demon, but it sure felt like it.”

“Did they figure out where it came from?” Jordan asked.

Andrea shrugged. “No clue, but they figured out how to put it back…I think…it might be sealed in one of the vaults. They didn't give the rest of us the details. At least they got it under control.”

Yet another reason to never go checking out the vaults. She did have more faith in the guards having nerves of steel.

“Okay, I'll find a TV and hook it up after I figure out what I'm eating for breakfast. Bursa, as soon as the guards show up, you can walk around the property if you want—in pony form,” Jordan said. “It's going to be a good day.

Jessica checked again if her lab coat was securely buttoned as she walked through the school halls. Violet might want her to put more of herself on display, but the outfit she was wearing underneath was not what she would consider professional attire. It showed way too much cleavage, and, unlike Violet, Jessica didn't have fur on her chest to justify having all that uncovered. She'd be leaving for her date after work and wouldn't have time to go home and change clothes.

It felt like an eternity since she'd last been here. How do you return to everyday life after having been to the oldest place in the universe? Now that it was over, she was thinking about how little she had learned and how little time she had spent there. She'd spent most of her time there searching for rocks for Rebecca. She did bring back one of her own so she could run some experiments. The problem was figuring out how to go about it. It seemed like she would need to start with an electron microscope, a powerful one. She needed to investigate what that thing looked like on a quantum level. Wait…no, that wouldn't work. This stone wasn't regular matter; in theory, it had no electrons. She supposed that would be a good starting experiment to test if concentrated thaumic matter had electrons. All theories needed testing. Just because she assumed something based on theory means nothing if there wasn't verification through testing.

She was passing a fair number of students as she made her way to the faculty offices. Did any of them wonder what she was hiding under her lab coat? She strained her hearing for any mention of her name, primarily if it was associated with laughter.S he eventually latched onto one conversation.

“What's with the blue-haired lady with the lab coat? She's walking so stiffly. Is something wrong with her?”

“That's Doctor Middleton. I heard she has some sort of anxiety problem. Word is that she had a freak-out in one of her classes last week—totally twilighted.”

“Doctor Middleton? Isn't she like some famous physicist or something? She teaches here?”

“Yeah, and you know super-genius types, they're all a little crazy. I think it is like autistic or something.”

Her ears flattened. She was not autistic! At least they didn't seem to be concerned about what was under her lab coat, but the fact that word was getting around about her anxiety attack didn't make her feel much better.

“Oh, god, I think I'm going to be sick.”

Her hearing focused on the sound of distress.

“What's wrong? Why are you glowing so brightly? Did somebody hit you with a spell?”

Damn, a crystal pony. She had her stone on her because she didn't want to leave it unattended.

“I just looked at that lady over there with the blue hair. She is giving off some massive magic levels. I've never felt anything like that.”

“She cast a spell on you?!”

“No, she's just super strong, like stronger than all the rest of the people in his hall put together times a hundred. Just feeling her was too much for me.”

“Damn…I didn't think humans got that strong. Wait, are those pony ears? Is she a partial?”

“She might be. A freaky strong one.”

“Just take some deep breaths and don't focus on her. Maybe we should take you outside and let you expend all that extra magic.”

“Yeah…that might be a good idea.”

This was bad. She had crystal ponies in her classes. They had to pay attention to her. How had she overlooked this essential detail? She was supposed to be a genius. Geniuses weren't supposed to overlook such obvious details. What was she going to do about this? She couldn't leave the stone unattended. Why had Rebecca insisted on her keeping the damn thing? It was nothing but trouble. Well…it was worth studying. Her feelings on it were conflicted.

lDeep breaths. Calm down. Don't let the anxiety take control of you. You have traveled further than any human has gone before. You are stronger than this. she told herself in her head.

She reached the connecting hall where all the math and physics department faculty offices were. The first stop was Dean Francis's office.

The door was open, but she still knocked before entering. Dean Francis adjusted his glasses as he looked up at her.

“Doctor Middleton, I assume you have the Dreamwarden contract we discussed last week?” he asked.

She closed the door and pulled the contract out of her purse, and set it on his desk. He gave an inquisitive look towards the door.

“Good to see you followed through. Is there another matter that brings you to my office?” he asked.

She nodded and sat down. “I just put up a sound barrier around this office to keep the conversation private.” She then reached into her purse and pulled out her stone, and set it on the desk. It had glowed as usual when she held it but ceased glowing when put on the desk. “I need access to laboratory equipment to study this. I can't give a list of what I may need access to. I haven't even begun to compile a list of possible experiments.”

He adjusted his glasses and stared at the stone. “What am I looking at? It looks like a bad piece of modern art.”

“You are looking at ultra-concentrated thaumic matter,” she answered.

He looked up at her with a frown. “You must be joking. Such a thing is merely theoretical, and if it did exist, it would be extremely small, not something this big.”

She shook her head. “I assure you, it is exactly what I am saying it is. I can't go into detail on how I obtained it—you wouldn't believe me if I did, but I can get another Dreamwarden contract to verify I am not lying if that is what it takes. It radiates thaumic energy on an extreme level. Every crystal pony I have come near has noticed it; at least two have claimed nausea from being overpowered by it.”

Dean Francis still seemed skeptical. “Would you object to me bringing a crystal pony into this room to verify that? It is an easy enough test to conduct.”

“It has to be someone who can keep a secret. I don't want this thing to become public knowledge just yet. Wild Growth is supposed to be providing me with a thaumic dampening box to mask it soon, but she told me that it would take time since it has to be custom ordered,” she said nervously.

“Wild Growth's in on this, eh?” Dean Francis said as he rubbed his chin and examined the stone more closely now. “I know someone who can be trusted. Give me a moment to make a call. If this is what you say, we may be writing you a sizable research grant. Why did it stop glowing? Does it react to individuals with magic?”

“It reacts to me in particular, no one else,” she answered. “I was given a reason why, but the reason was completely unscientific. The actual reason would be among the things I hope to discover. You can touch it. It won't hurt you. It has been handled by others already.”

He picked it up. “Cold to the touch. Much lower than room temperature. Feels smooth. What reason were you given?”

She sighed. “That it is my stone and meant for me. I was told it learns about me and can enhance my innate power. I was also told it can eventually start to duplicate my power and nature for others who might try to use it if it learns enough about me. I have no verification of these claims or what they meant by nature—but they did come from a Dreamwarden, and Dreamwardens famously can't lie. I'm unsure how much they know about this thing. It is hard to be sure how much information a Dreamwarden is withholding. They said it takes a considerable amount of time to reach that point, perhaps longer than I may live. They also said the stone will vanish when I die…I’m not planning on testing to verify that.”

“Certainly not,” Dean Francis said in response to the last comment, turning the stone over in his hands. “So, is this something the Equestrians made? They have better access to thaumically active materials, and if it reacts to you, that indicates some sort of magical programming. While magic isn't our specialty in this department, getting a better scientific examination of one of their powerful artifacts is still worthwhile. Such an opportunity has yet never presented itself.” He set it down and pulled out his phone. “Hold a moment before answering; I need to call that pony.”

“Hello? John?” The voice on the phone answered.

“Yeah, John, it's John,” Dean Francis answered. Jessica thought there should be a rule against having friends with the same first name. It got so confusing. “Can you come by my office? I need to get a magic reading on something.”

“Sure, I can do that. I'm just across the building. Who do you need me to look at?”

“Not a who, a what, and I need this kept confidential,” Dean Francis said.

“You've got my interest. I'll be there shortly.”

Dean Francis ended his call. “My friend, John Marshall, is coming.”

“So I heard,” she replied. “Sounds like he was in the cafeteria.”

He frowned. “You could tell where he was?”

“I heard a lot of chewing in the background. Electronic devices, especially phones, can carry my powers, and I know what chewing sounds like,” she said with a shrug.

He tapped his finger on the desk. “It seems a study of your powers would make an interesting research paper for someone.”

She smirked. “It did. My old caretaker studied me extensively as I learned to control my powers. She wrote a a fairly detailed report about it and had it published in some journal. She has a fascination with human and partial magic.” She sat down on the seat across from him. “And no, this stone is not from the Equestrians. It is from something much much older. I can't go into detail where I got it.”

He looked at the stone again. “You are inferring a pre-Devourer civilization? Virtually nothing is known of those. I wouldn't even know where you would come across such a thing. A meteor impact, maybe, but that seems unlikely—but I am getting ahead of myself. We still haven't verified it is what you claim.”

“No details,” was all she could say, but she still had another issue. “I don't feel safe not keeping that with me at all times—it isn't something you leave sitting around, but I have crystal ponies in my classes. They are supposed to pay attention to me, and when they do, they're going to feel it. What do I do?”

“If it turns out to be that powerful, and you have your lesson plan ready for today, post it online and cancel class for today. I can go by your class and announce it,” he reasoned. “If it is that strong, then I agree with your assessment that it can't be left sitting around. Until Wild Growth gets you that box…even after that…you should invest in a safe—a good one, not some cheap one sold by Walmart that any healthy earth pony can buck open. If you get a grant, you can refund yourself the cost of the safe out of that as a research expense. If this ends up being what you say it is, the administration will generously fund the research. I admit I'm skeptical, but I'm also hoping it is true. It would be a huge boon to our department, and combined with the hiring of you, would raise our ranking among research institutions. That's a lot of potential donor money that could be coming in.”

Of course, the dean was primarily interested in this for the money and prestige it could earn the school, and not what it meant for science, but then again, raising money and prestige for the school was his job.

There was a knock at the door, and a middle-aged, nearly white, crystal pony stallion with a suit jacket entered.

“Thanks for hurrying over here, John. This has s Doctor Middleton. She has something to show you,” Dean Francis greeted.

Jessica picked up the stone and held it out towards the crystal pony. He instantly lit up brightly, and his facial complexion took on a greenish hue as he looked away.

He waved a hoof frantically at her. “Oh…god…can you put that thing away? Fuck's sake, that thing is overpowering.”

Jessica put the stone into her purse and put her purse in the corner before returning to her seat. “Told you it was too much for them.”

“Sorry about that, John. I had to verify that object was as strong as she said,” Dean Francis said sympathetically. “Can I get you some water or something?”

The crystal pony shook his head. “No, just give me a second without focusing on anything. I will have to expel all this energy I just stored, or at least as much of it as possible. You two should cover your eyes and look away. This is going to be very bright. Tell me when you are ready.”

“Ready,” Dean Francis said.

“Ready,” Jessica echoed as she covered her eyes with her hand.

There was a brief flash, bright enough that she could see it through both having her eyes closed and covered.

“Okay, that feels a little better,” the crystal pony said. “I've seen Princess Twilight and Princess Luna, and neither felt like that. Granted, I think they shield their power somehow, but they were what I thought counted as intense power. That thing is on a whole other level.”

She uncovered her eyes and looked at him. He was still glowing, but not as intensely. It was pretty impressive that he could expel that much magic so quickly.

“Well, I suppose that verifies that it is something special,” Dean Francis said. “Put your lesson for today online, and I'll inform your class you'll be out. John, thank you again for your assistance; please don't mention this. We don't want it public until Doctor Middleton's research is complete—perhaps not even then.”

“No problem. I don't even know what I saw,” John said. “Let me get out of here before I notice that thing again.”

Well, she had a path to her research. Hopefully, Wild Growth would get her that box soon.

Chapter 47: The One Who Got Away

Blanche frowned as she stared off in the direction of the compound. Crystal and Tempest were doing some light sparring. Arturo was sharpening his knife. The pegasus had been distracted by birds and was a short distance away, observing a flock. It was approaching noon, and Josie had not yet returned to camp, which was troubling. They had distress signals to use if anything happened while scouting, and giving that signal was a top priority if discovered or injured, but there had been no such signal yet.

“Worry over night pony?” Arturo asked in Russian

“Yes,” she answered in English. “It is troubling that she's been gone so long. I hope nothing has happened.”

”Would blow mission,” Arturo agreed with a nod as he continued to take his whetstone to his knife.

She nodded. “It would, but it isn't only that. I have very few friends. No offense to you, Tempest, and Crystal, but you are all more work acquaintances.”

”No offense taken,” Arturo replied. “Barely know you.”

She nodded again. “But Josie and I have worked together for a while now. We're the only ones we typically can vent about our Warden's orders and share a drink as we try to recover from missions.”

”Puffball is insane,” Arturo agreed.

Blanche chuckled. “When I agreed to be her bodyguard, I expected it would be a low-effort job. You look at her, and you expect her to be lazy and have a hooves-off approach to everything. Boy, was I wrong on that one. I think she's probably one of the most active of the Dreamwardens. Missions aren't usually too bad unless someone has pissed her off, and that is rare and takes a lot to happen, but I would never have believed back then how vicious and brutal she gets when she finally gets pushed to that limit.”

“Never make Dreamwardens mad is good policy. Also, never make nice people lose their shit because there will be blood,” Arturo said in English.

“Very true,” she agreed. She then shaded her eyes to look out into the distance. “Come on, Josie. Where are you?”

“I have great news!” Zipper announced as he flew towards them. Tempest and Crystal paused their sparing match to watch.

“Keep your voice down, and stay out of the air!” Blanche scolded him. “What's your great news?” She wasn't the one in charge, but Tempest had decided she would be the one to receive all the reports while the ex-pony listened.

“Pigeons!” Zipper said happily as he landed, spreading his wings with excitement.

“Pigeons,” Blanche repeated. “Why are you excited about flying rats?”

Zipper gave her a dirty look. “Pigeons get a bad, unearned reputation. They are very clean and very smart. They've gotten even smarter in recent years. In fact, they are smart enough to count and sort by number! I hadn't expected to see a pigeon flock here, but they have been spreading since the pandemic. They are ancestrally desert birds—which, I'll have you know, is why they don't know how to make a proper nest; they didn't evolve in a region that had materials to do so, not because they are dumb. If I can make friends with the flock, I might be able to get you better information about that base, like how many guards are where and how many people they see inside the walls.”

Tempest walked over. “That's good, but our immediate concern is now Josie. I have delayed it, but we should start looking for her. It has been too long. Can you convince the birds to be on the lookout for a night pony? Is that something they can do?”

Zipper bit his lip briefly. “It will take me a little while to make friends with the flock, and I'll need a picture of Josie. They are smart enough to identify certain ponies based on pictures, but I need at least a picture. I can't just describe a pony to them; it doesn't work like that.”

“No need. I'm here.”

They all turned to see Josie standing right behind them. It was bright and sunny, with hardly any cover in the area. Josie was an excellent shadowmelder, the best shadowmelder, but that still required shadows. How had she managed to sneak up on them?

She was also panting heavily.

“What happened?!” Blanche asked as she rushed over to her friend to check for injuries.

Josie allowed herself to be patted down. “I'm okay; I just pushed my magic hard to stay out of sight. I will need at least a day and a half of rest.”

“Are you saying you were able to shadowmeld in the open?” Crystal asked in disbelief. “That's not possible.”

Josie flopped down on the ground. “It is risky, but it is possible if I move very slowly and pour a ton of magic into it. I move too fast, and I'll get spotted. I don't think anyone but me can do it.”

Blanche sat down and touched Josie's face. “Why would you need to do something like that? How close to the base did you get?”

“Too close,” Josie replied. “But I have information. He's there—that damn crazy mad scientist, Rossman, Lair too.”

“Are you sure?” Tempest asked.

Josie glared at their leader. “I searched high and low for the bastard after he fled that Shimmerist group that breached Wabash years ago. There were others involved, but Rossman was the biggest name. The rest of them were nobodies I didn't care about….aside from Fain, but Fain isn't someone like me can win a fight with. She could kill me with a touch.” Her mouth pulled into a snarl. “They foalnapped a kid too young even to talk. I wanted justice. I never found him or Lair. I hated they got away.”

“Well, you certainly serve the right Dreamwarden,” Crystal muttered. “You got the one who goes nuts when kids are threatened, not that I think that's necessarily a bad thing.”

“Nothing crazy about defending kids,” Josie muttered.

Crystal gave her a stern look. “I've heard the stories of what she has the two of you do to those who get her mad. You could just make it quick and kill them, or you could just shake them down if you want to be humane about it, but you brutalize them, break them, and she always finds a way to watch. I've never seen a flip in personality from fun and carefree to the devil itself as dramatic as hers when the rage comes, and I deal with night ponies all the time—real Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde going on there. I'm not saying those guys don't deserve it, and worse, but she still sounds crazy as hell to me.”

Josie glared. “They never do it again, and they suffer for what they did. Hurting kids is unforgivable.”

“This discussion brings us nowhere,” Tempest said firmly. “What does Rossman and Lair's presence mean for the mission?”

Josie turned her dirty look to Tempest. “What do mad scientists do? They experiment. In this case, they are experimenting on people. That's the only reason they could be here. I wondered what rock they ran and hid under; now I know. I'm glad those parents got their kid out of here, even if they died in the process. I couldn't bear it if he were experimenting on a child. This place needs to be shut down. I'm not retreating from here.”

Blanche considered. “It does mean there could be some unorthodox defense here we are unaware of. Magic scientists are just mages by another name, and those two are mages with questionable morals and plenty of research. We'd be fools if we thought they hadn't come with some additional defense. It also means there is at least one crystal pony at the facility. That could be an issue. Rebecca has promised us reinforcements. We must huddle down, learn all we can, and await backup.”

Tempest nodded. “Agreed. Zipper, start making friends with those birds. Josie may not be doing much scouting for a while. If there is a crystal pony in the base, we may need to keep her back from it even after she recovers. Her magic level could tip them off that they are being scouted. We also need to move to a more secure location away from the base if we will be here for a while. Sooner or later, they are going to notice us out here if they haven't already, which by itself might not cause trouble. Our cover story is we are helping Zipper with wildlife observations for a study if confronted by anyone—we want to avoid conflict if we can until our attack. Still, I'd like to move us further away so they have less reason to be anxious about strangers in the area.”

“So, should I be making notes about the wildlife to make this seem legitimate?” Zipper asked.

Tempest nodded. “Yes, do that. Give us a brief report on the wildlife each night so the rest of us don't come off as completely ignorant if we run into anyone asking questions about why we are here. Also, if Rossman and Lair are indeed here, I believe I may know who the Marshmallow intends to send as one of our reinforcements, Bursa.”

“She wouldn't,” Crystal said with a shake of her head. “That dumb bug? We need to take Rossman alive. I highly doubt Bursa will be agreeable to the alive part of that.”

“She is notoriously hard to keep under control,” Blanche agreed.

“The timing of this mission, the revelation that Rossman is here, and the timing of Bursa's visit to Earth all coinciding together reek of Dreamwarden meddling. I am fairly confident she will be one of the reinforcements,” Tempest asserted. “I don't know how the Marshmallow managed it, but I'm willing to put a hefty bet on it. We'll have to be firm with the changeling queen about our goals and that if Rossman dies, we lose all the information about what he has done to whom. I think we can convince her to stay her killing blow if it means making sure there isn't some other unfortunate soul that ran afoul of the doctor now stuck in a cave somewhere.”

Blanche nodded. "Appealing to her that way may work. She had shown some care towards others before, like when she returned to fight the Pony of Shadows rather than get away when she had a chance.” She frowned. “I may know another possible reinforcement that Rebecca may be planning. She'd discussed hiring the person with me recently as a redemption case.” She looked at her exhausted friend. “I'm not sure you'll be too happy with who it is if I'm right. One of the things Rebecca discussed with me was how to break the news to you, given your feelings about the individual.”

Josie looked puzzled for a moment while seeming to be trying to reason out who it could be, and then her face hardened. “Ohhh…heeelllll no!”

Blanche sighed. “Sorry, but I'm afraid the attempted recruitment is underway.”

Rebecca happily strode down the street, her husband at her side. It was a cloudy day but not so overcast that the sun didn't occasionally peak through them. The forecast called for light rain in about two hours. Her weather senses weren't strong enough to verify that, but she trusted other pegasi to know what was what when it came to those forecasts, and they said it would be light rain, not enough to soak her hubby. She called that happy rain.

There were lots of people walking on the sidewalk, and a lot of them were taking pictures and things like that, marking them as tourists. This part of town preyed on out-of-towners—many shops selling overpriced things that anyone could find close equivalents of down at their local Walmart. Coffee shops were hawking forty-dollar cups of coffee, smoothie shops hawking fifty-dollar smoothies, ice cream shops hawking forty-dollar ice cream cones, and an astonishing number of pizza joints hawking pizza slices at a price she would expect to buy a whole pizza. She doubted she would do much shopping here, but the buildings did look cool. Although the building designs were functional and artistic, they were hardly unique. That was the terror of being a Dreamwarden. Dreamwardens had seen it all…many times over. There were no unique ideas, no unique designs. It can take a long time between using an idea or design, sometimes eons, but it had always been done before.

Well, her thoughts had taken a bitter turn. She looked at her hubby, walking beside her, and her thoughts turned glad again.

“Hey, babe, are we just sightseeing, or do you have a destination in mind?” Russell asked. “Because you seem to have a destination in mind.”

“Nowhere in particular. I'm hoping to run into someone,” she replied, then added, “—figuratively, not literally; I may need your help with her if we do run into her. I don't want her touching me. Her touchy is very bad touchy, at least for me; you're safe.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “This person wants to sexually harass you?”

“Well, I have that effect on some people. I mean, who could resist a body like mine? But it isn't that. Her touch causes extreme pain to people who have magic, and it gets worse the more powerful you are. She could kill anyone from Wild Growth to Celestia with only one press of her finger—really nasty stuff. I'm nowhere near that power level, but it would still hurt…a lot. I need a big, strong man, preferably one with no magic at all, to keep her back. She can take down an alicorn, but she's helpless against you.”

“And why are we the ones looking for this person and not, say…a SWAT team?” Russell asked.

“SWAT may be looking for her; I never checked,” Rebecca replied thoughtfully. “I'm looking to recruit her. You know, reformation cases. I mean, her powers make her very useful for taking down baddies, and there are some baddies I need some extra muscle in addition to Blanche and Josie to deal with.”

“Babe…I'm not sure I'm cut out to be assisting you with your work stuff. You know I try not to pry into it too much, even when I know you are making vacation plans that are really for your work,” Russell said.

Her ears sagged. “You noticed that, huh?”

“Yeah, I noticed, and it's fine. I knew what I was marrying into,” he replied. “I even know you deal with some dangerous things. You don't keep Blanche around because of her pleasant personality, and I've overheard some of her adventures. While I don't know what Josie can do, I know she's pretty powerful. You send the two of them on missions a lot, and they don't seem to be the types to work charities.

”They do some charity work sometimes,” Rebecca replied. “But you're correct.”

“I don't want to know the details, babe, but I want to keep my distance from that stuff. Call it keeping my deniability. I'll help you with things today, this person and that group of ponies, but that needs to be it,” Russell insisted.

“I understand, and I'll abide by your boundaries,” she agreed. She'd half-expected this but was still disappointed, all the same. Despite being disappointed, she would do as she said and not involve him in these things past today.

Her ears perked as she picked up muffled cries of pain.

“We may have some heroics to do,” she announced. “I could be wrong, but I think we found her, and she's hurting someone. Shame on her. We should hurry.”

Russell stopped. “What?! Whatta we do?”

She paused and looked at him. “Just walk in and intervene. You're a big, strong man, and she's just an average-sized woman. Her powers don't work on you, so she can't hurt you with them. I'll keep my distance and talk. She might stop when she spots us. If she does, we can ensure whoever she hurt is alright, and then I can try to talk to her.”

“And if she just takes off?” Russell asked. “I'm not keen on chasing this lady down. Man chasin' a woman around, particularly a black man that doesn't go over too well with folks unless he's wearing a uniform.”

“Don’t worry. I'll say some things early on that I think will make her hang around. If that doesn't work, then we let her run. If she isn't intrigued by what I say, she isn't going to work out,” Rebecca answered. “Just make sure she doesn't charge me to put her hands on me. Her trying to torture me to get information is a small possibility. Again, we need to hurry. Somebody needs our help.”

He hurried past her. “Right, right! Let's go save the person!”

She hurried after him. “Hey! Wait up for me. You need me to lead the way! Your ears aren't strong enough to pick up on the noise.”

It didn't take that long to find who they were looking for. They were behind a t-shirt shop next to a dumpster. It smelled considerably worse behind the building compared to the street. The restaurant smells didn't seem to carry as much in the alley. Fain was crouched next to a burly bald man. She had her exposed hand over the man's mouth, and he was whimpering in pain, with the sound only being partially muffled by the hand.

“Miss Fain, decent-mannered ponies don't torture people,” Rebecca said.

Fain looked up at her. “Who the heck are you? Some high-minded Shimmerist? This guy is a piece of Humanity First trash. He got on my case for not being properly rehumanized. He deserves to suffer.”

Rebecca shook her head. “I know people who deserve to suffer, and while this guy might have some questionable beliefs, being a jerk isn't enough to justify this. Hurting people isn't what you desire anyway, quite the opposite, and I might be able to help you with what you really want. I won't be able to do that if you keep torturing that guy. I need to know you will make an effort to be good. Please, let him go, or my husband here will have to separate the two of you.”

Fain released the man and shoved him down. He stayed with his face on the ground, sobbing.

“You seem to know who I am and a bit about me, but I have no idea who you are,” Fain said cautiously. “Are you a Shimmerist?”

“Well, I have a human husband, so that leans towards a no. I try not to get involved in factions. I like to think I'm above that, even if I know I have some biases,” Rebecca replied. “Hey, sweetie, can you go check on the dude? See if you can get him on his feet or if he needs an ambulance. I'm guessing she had her hands on him for a while. If you can get him walking, make sure he doesn't try to do anything foolish.”

Fain raised her hands defensively at Russell as he approached. He stopped and looked at her.

“Not going to work on me, lady. I don't have magic. I just want to check the guy out, not mess with you. Whatever is going on between you and my wife is none of my business unless you try to hurt her. If you do try to hurt my wife, I won't care if you're a lady. I'll deck you myself,” Russell said.

Fain inched away from the sobbing man, and Russell went to check him, not even looking at Fain.

“Not a Shimmerist then,” Fain said. “I don't deal with non-Shimmerists much. Shimmerists are typically the only ones interested in getting me what I want.”

“Shimmerists don't have the means, but I know someone who does, and I might be able to convince them to help you,” Rebecca replied. “Wouldn't it be nice to walk on four hooves or to touch a pony without causing them agonizing pain? You hate that you can't safely touch a pony, right?”

Fain sneered. “I heard talk like that from a non-Shimmerist once. He couldn't follow through with his promises, and he got me involved with a murderer who was going to torture a foal. Plus, I know who you're talking about because he talked about her too. She won't help me, not after what happened last time.”

Rebecca smiled. “Oh, but she owes me a favor. She wanted a better security system for her house after Shimmerists kept breaking in. She had some ideas but was unsure how to implement them, so she appealed to me and my colleagues. With her input, I designed and implemented a much better security system. I couldn't even get in there if I tried after what I put in place—I may have gone a teensy bit overboard in making the AI for the security system a completely murderous psychopath, but it does its job. Now she's under contract to repay the favor, and no one breaks a contract with us.’

Fain stared at her long and hard. “Unbreakable contracts, huh? I guess I know who I'm dealing with. I figured you guys would be pissed at me as well. It makes you being here even more of a shocker. So, what are you going to do, arrest me? Then after that, give me some job to do that will get me off on good behavior?”

Rebecca sat. “Well, you have some of that right. Miss Seapony, Angel Lady, Miss Nightmares, and Mister Potty Mouth are all still pretty pissed at you—primarily Miss Seapony, she wants to get creative with killing you, but this is between you and me, not them. I also do have a job for you if you agree to it, but we can discuss that in a bit. We aren't going to do the whole arresting thing. I'm not the police.”

Fain grunted and watched Russell help the other man to his feet.

“What about that guy?” Fain asked. “He heard you. He might not be as stupid as he looks. He could put together who you are.”

“I'm sure he doesn't want to talk about how he got victimized by a woman or saved by an interspecies couple,” Rebecca answered as she watched. “And if he does say something, the OMMR is good at cleaning up my messes.” She cupped her wing over her mouth. “Good job, sweetie. Is he going to be okay?”

“Yeah, think he just needs to walk it off,” Russell replied.

“His magic isn't strong enough for me to fuck him up that much,” Fain muttered. “He should be fine in a few minutes. He is just exhausted from the pain. If I held a pony that many minutes, they'd have long since passed out for the same reason.”

“Or dead, depending on who they are,” Rebecca commented.

Getting Fain to be a better person was a good thing on its own, worthy of doing, but, on a practical note, it was best to remove anything that could potentially kill any of the alicorns or other significantly powerful ponies. Some would say having such a secret weapon available was a good thing, but dead alicorns were not something Rebecca was willing to risk, and she was friends with at least two of those other significantly powerful ponies that Fain would be lethal to the touch. Killing Fain would be the surest way to remove that threat, but Rebecca wasn’t the murdering type, even at her most enraged. Death was a horrible thing. Dead people couldn’t laugh, cry, do anything creative, be friends, or become better people. Reforming Fain was the best solution for everyone. It helped Fain, it helped Rebecca, it kept important people safe, and was just a good thing to do. She was here to help people, especially people who didn’t have friends. Fain had a history of being used, abused, and generally mistreated, which led to her current lashing out. Fain certainly could use a friend—one who actually cared. Whether Fain could become a better person through friendship was still a big question, but one worth trying—better than Miss Seapony’s suggestion that involved two sharpened wooden poles, several metal spikes, a shovel, and a bunch of termites, yeesh.

“And some say being non-magical has no advantages,” Russell muttered. He patted the man on the back. “You okay to walk, buddy? Sorry, I can't walk you out to the street. I'm not risking leaving my wife alone with this lady.”

“I don’t need your help, pony-fucker,” the man growled. He then took several unsteady steps towards the street, each looking like they might be the one that would make him faceplant with the cement.

“Not much gratitude,” Russell muttered.

Fain sneered at the retreating man momentarily before turning her attention back to Rebecca. “So, you guys don’t lie. Tell me straight out then, are you promising to make me a pony if I do what you want?”

Rebecca considered her wording for a moment. “You’ll get to be a pony…most of the time.”

Fain arched her eyebrows. “Most of the time?”

“We can’t permanently turn you into a pony; you have gone through too many full transformations to do another stable permanent transformation. Trying to do it again could kill you,” Rebecca explained. “What we can get you is the temporary transformation spell for your regular use, a talisman that, when worn, will make you a pony. You can’t leave it on forever because it has to recharge, and it can cause damage if it goes more than a week, but you only have to have it off for a day or so every week; the rest of the time, you’ll be able to be a full crystal pony.”

Fain licked her lips. “I can deal with that. If that’s as good as it gets, I’ll take it. It is certainly better than dying. So…nothing is free; what do you want out of me?”

“Three things,” Rebecca answered. “First, no more hurting random people who don’t deserve it with your powers. Since you and I might disagree with the whole who deserves it part, you don’t use them on anyone I disapprove. Second, I want you in my employment. I have two magnificent bodyguards, but a third doesn’t hurt. I’m very squishy, and I don’t want someone squishing me. Although, you might end up watching my hubby more than me. I’m sure you’re very familiar with the tactic of someone trying to hurt someone that a Dreamwarden loves to get something out of the Dreamwarden. I wouldn’t cave to that kind of pressure, but that doesn’t mean I won’t do all I can to protect Russell from anyone trying to pull that stunt. He’s precious to me, and I want someone hanging nearby to keep an eye out for trouble and do something about it if there is any.”

“Not thrilled about being told that I can only use my powers at your discretion and guarding a regular human is grating, but those conditions are worth it for what I would be getting,” Fain grumbled. “What’s the third thing?”

Rebecca frowned. “You remember your old pal, Rossman? Well, I received reports today that he just turned up in Mexico—I already knew he was there, but I had to wait on an actual report of it. That’s one of the annoyances of my job. Anywho, he’s at a base where they hold partials against their will. I am angry about this base. At least two partials have died escaping this camp, and more may have died at it or while trying to escape. I’m sure you have feelings about camps where people hold partials against their will and do who knows what kind of experiments. I have people down there trying to put an end to it. They are powerful and skilled but grievously outnumbered. It would only take a few more reinforcements who have power and skill to turn the tide in our favor to shut that place down and free the prisoners. I want you to be one of those liberators.”

Fain gripped her hands into fists and practically growled. “Filly, if all you wanted me for were that, you wouldn’t even have had to offer anything.”

Doctor Rossman waited patiently as the guard brought in the subject: a partial woman, aged sixty-three, with olive skin, lavandander hair with streaks of gray, a full tail, and a stub of a horn. Her name was Valeria. She was shaking. The guard directed her to a chair by a desk and shoved her down into it.

Rossman frowned. “There is no need to be so rough with the patient. She was perfectly capable of taking her seat on her own.”

“She resisted coming,” the guard said in a testy tone, gripping his rifle hanging on his shoulder with two hands.

“Well, she hardly has the strength to put up much resistance against a man such as yourself,” Rossman said in a tired tone. “Try to be more gentle with the patients. They are under enough distress as it is.”

The guard muttered something that sounded like gibberish and took his position at the door. Rossman sighed and looked at Lair; she shrugged and pointed her horn at the patient. He nodded and turned his attention back to the partial woman as he tapped the recorder to begin the session.

“Beginning session,” Rossman spoke. “Subject, Valeria Muniz, this is her ninth session. The subject seems to be experiencing signs of anxiety. Hello, Valeria. How are you feeling today?”

Valeria didn’t answer, only stared at him.

He grunted. “Subject seems to be reticent. Valeria, have you eaten yet today?”

Valeria gave a slight shake of her head.

“Well, you must eat. Treatment requires that you keep up your strength and energy,” he admonished. “Doctor Lair, if you would?”

Doctor Lair levitated a bowl of fruit, a mix of sliced mangoes and peaches, to the table in front of the partial woman and set it down gently in front of her. Valeria just stared at it.

“Hmm, perhaps you will feel more like eating later. How is your appetite?” Rossman asked.

Valeria continued to stare at him.

He sighed again. “Doctor Lair, can you please get the scale so we can get her weight?”

Lair went to get the scale but paused as sounds of a disturbance erupted outside. He heard Valeria whimper. Rossman lifted his leg to check his phone for updates.

ALL SPARE GUARDS TO HOUSING AREA THREE. PARTIAL MALE WITH HEIGHTENED STRENGTH ATTACKING GUARD

Housing area three, that would probably be Alvaro Cano. He had four escape attempts to date. One of which resulted in him receiving severe injuries to his right leg that made him have a permanent limp. Rossman was quite cross about that injury, but it had occurred before he started his tenure here. He did his best to minimize injuries, but they still occurred from time to time, even sometimes deaths. The deaths troubled him, but these were broken people, so their mortality rate was going to be poor. Whether it was from poor biology or victimization by bigots, they would live shortened lives. Surely, they were better off here than they would be on their own. Here, they advanced research. One day, this research would allow him to unlock the greater mysteries of transformation magic and create alicorns. If only they understood what a great work they were all involved in.

The guard at the door had also checked his phone but now stood unconcerned. Such disturbances were sadly all too common.

However, Valeria was even more agitated due to the disturbance and was back to visibly shaking and rubbing her arms.

Once again, he sighed. “Doctor Lair, you may need to place her on the scale. Try to be gentle.”

Lair approached the woman, and Valeria shied away. She began muttering in fear the Spanish term ponies in Latin America had devised for a rehumanization clinic—elmallugar, originally el mal lugar, but over time it had fused into one word, as it was said quickly in hushed tones.

“Valeria, I’ve told you. We aren’t here to rehumanize you,” Rossman assured her—although, he would be thrilled if he could learn the process. It would greatly help his research. He understood why these people often thought they were being coerced into rehumanization. They remembered the clinics; they remembered unicorns and crystal ponies running them. He sometimes wondered why crystal ponies always got a bad reputation in the public consciousness for being associated with those places and not unicorns. Crystal ponies weren’t the ones casting the spells. Maybe it was because it was Equestrian unicorns and not Earthling ones, so there wasn’t the same sense of betrayal.

The partial woman struggled against Lair’s magical grasp, and Lair was becoming visibly frustrated by the woman.

“Maybe we should skip the weighing and move directly into today’s procedure,” Lair suggested.

He shook his head and stomped. “No, we do this properly. I will not have our work rushed. Do you recall what happened when we rushed before? I will not have a repeat of that debacle. We will get her weight, get her to eat, get her current thaumic reading; then we will begin the procedure.”

Hopefully, Valeria wouldn’t do too much screaming this time as they worked. It pained him that his work often caused his patients intense physical pain, but it was a necessity to do things the way they did. They would understand, eventually, once his work was through.

Chapter 48: Dating Misadaventures

Rebecca stood in an old high school gym in the center of a basketball court. The school had long ago shut down. Not for any terrible reason just the state felt the need to build a bigger, better school. The old school facilities had gone through a few different owners before ETS and served as a shelter for the infected during the ETS pandemic. Afterward, a cabal of crystal ponies bought it, hoping to establish a base to fight for their rights in a world where they were distrusted by both humans and other ponies. Then came the alliance with the regional night ponies. By combining their voices, they hoped that they could be heard and they could address each others' issues with their combined efforts.

However, she wondered if these crystal ponies had considered the night pony tribe's unique relationship with the Dreamwardens when they made that alliance.

In the bleachers surrounding her sat crystal and night ponies. The lights were dim, but not too dim. She guessed that most of the night ponies in the city were present. As for the crystal ponies, they came in lesser numbers, some because they were currently at jobs, some others because they didn't want to be tied up with a Dreamwarden and had refused the contract of secrecy. That was their choice, and she didn't feel any resentment they felt that way.

She spread her wings wide. “Hello! I am Dreamwarden The Marshmallow, Warden of Creativity, but my actual name is Rebecca Rice. This handsome man standing next to me is my husband, Russell Rice. This sulking lady wearing a hoodie sweater and gardening gloves is Fain, but I think you know her already.”

“Why is she here?” an official-looking crystal pony stallion asked. “She has been nothing but a blight on the community since she arrived in the city. If you have apprehended her, shouldn't you be going to the police?”

Rebecca smirked. “No comments about me, just her, huh? Oh, I suppose you might be more interested in her, given her recent history. Here that, Fain? You’re stealing my thunder.”

“Sorry,” Fain replied in a low voice.

“Oh…it's okay. At least you're famous,” I assured her.

“Do you have to be so cheerful about everything?” she grumbled.

“No, but I try to be as cheerful as possible. Got to lift those spirits!” Rebecca answered.

Fain snorted.

Rebecca turned back towards the crystal pony stallion. “To answer your question, I'm taking her on as a reformation case. We Dreamwardens love reformation cases. It makes us feel proud of ourselves—you know, giving us that sense we’re doing good for the world,” Rebecca happily answered.

The stallion gave her a doubtful look. “You are trying to reform Christina Fain? What in the hell positive can come from her? She inflicts pain on others for fun.”

“That might all be a misunderstanding,” Rebecca replied.

“It's not. I do that,” Fain said dryly.

The stallion pointed at Fain in confirmation.

Rebecca sighed. “Fain, you are making it very hard to defend you. Also, your name is Christina?”

Fain gaped at her. “You’re one of the mighty Dreamwardens, and you went out of your way to recruit me, but you didn't know my first name?!”

“Everyone always just calls you Fain. I never looked into it. I guess that's my bad,” Rebecca said sheepishly. “You even do it. You've got that whole, Fain rhymes with pain, catchphrase. Great marketing move, by the way, even if we need to do away with that and rebrand.”

“Urgh! I could kill you!” Fain fumed.

“Don't do that. It takes a lot to get me mad, but getting murdered would probably do it. I don't know how you would make an apology that would make me get over being mad about dying. It is possible, but that would take a pretty epic apology. It would definitely need to include a musical number, a Broadway show-worthy one. Do you do musical numbers? How's your singing voice?”

Fain sat down and shook her head. “Why'd I agree to this,” she muttered.

Rebecca redirected her attention to the guy who seemed to be the leader. “I'm going to try to put her powers to better use than terrorizing random people and causing public disturbances. I literally just employed her a few minutes ago and haven't gotten around to setting her on her tasks yet or trying to smooth out her wrinkles. Don't worry, she'll behave herself around us. She will be leaving town for a bit, although she should return as long as she doesn't die. Don't die, Fain. It makes it very hard for me to honor my side of our contract if you’re dead. I could still honor the contract with your corpse, but it would be a lot of extra hassle, and I don't think it's what you had in mind when you entered into this agreement. Plus, I would be almost as upset about you dying as I would if I died.”

“I'll keep that in mind,” Fain muttered.

“You're going to fit right in with Blanche. She's a grumpy goose who has to be oh so serious all the time, too,” Rebecca said, still as cheerful as ever.

“I'm surprised you haven't tried to tickle Blanche to make her laugh,” Russell commented.

Rebecca flapped her wings with agitation. “I have! She's not ticklish!”

“I’m warning you, I can't be held responsible for what happens if you try to tickle me,” Fain asserted, stepping away.

An older night pony mare spread her wings. “If the Dreamwarden says that Fain is under control, I do not question her.”

“Have we even established that this fat pegasus is even the Dreamwarden?” the crystal pony stallion asked skeptically. “She hardly looks the part.”

“No one would make such a claim without telling the truth. The Dreamwardens would not take it well,” the mare replied as she folded her wings. “Even if she were lying. We could ask the Dreamwardens upon falling asleep if she is lying about being one of their number, and they could confirm. It is too easy a lie to be caught in. She may not look the part, but I am sure she is telling the truth.”

The other ponies quietly whispered among one another. It seemed clear that the two who had been speaking were the heads of this group.

The stallion snorted. “If that is the case, then perhaps we should get down to business. What exactly do you want from us, Marshmallow? We have numbers, but we're a rather financially poor enclave. Most of our funds were used up buying this property. We can't afford utilities beyond keeping the lights on in this gym. We also have a reputation within the city we are working to build, and I do not wish to endanger that.”

Rebecca sat down. “This wasn't my idea to reveal myself to the local enclave; it was Phobia's. I do not intend to reveal my identity to the public until she retires. It is just way too much stress and attention for me, and everyone will want my opinion on silly things like politics. Still, you'd be standing by to guard me and my hubby whenever I do reveal myself—more like guard my house since I already have bodyguards who can follow me and my hubby around, like Fain here.”

“And what do we get out of this?” the stallion asked.

The mare hissed at him. “We don't need to get anything. Guarding a Dreamwarden is a great honor.”

“For you night ponies, maybe, but crystal ponies don't have your religious zeal about Dreamwardens. We need to be getting something else out of it. Something that advanced our goals,” the stallion said in an exasperated tone. “I heard Dreamwardens like to make deals and sign contracts, so what kind of contract and deal are you offering?”

Rebecca perked her ears and rubbed her hooves together. “You got me there; I do like a good contract. Quick, itty-bitty question—why did you invest so much money in buying this old school if you can’t afford to do anything with it or even pay to keep the lights on? I’m betting it needs some massive repairs for the other buildings as well.”

The stallion hung his head. “We had wanted to turn this all into a massive community center—providing job training, a food bank, affordable child care, and a free clinic. We also wanted it as our headquarters to make us seem more legitimate as a group. Unfortunately, we counted too much on outside investment that just never came. We’ve been debating selling it.”

She grinned. “What if I could get you that big investor you wanted? Although, there might be some additional conditions required.”

His gaze was full of distrust as he lifted his head. “What kind of conditions?”

She stood up and started pacing. “Old Mister Potty-Mouth…that’s Ghadab to you…does this service where he helps track down victims of kidnapping and foalnapping. It’s been a good program and one I fully support since I hate seeing kids get hurt, but it has some logistical problems that keep it from reaching its full potential. You’ve got four buildings here, in addition to this gym. We’d like to have one of those buildings and some of your members used to help optimize that program.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You’ll need to be clearer. Exactly what would the building be used for, and what would we be volunteering to do?”

“Our biggest problem is getting the information from the sleeping victim to the right authorities promptly,” she replied. “We can find volunteers willing to do it; that’s no problem, but that doesn’t mean those volunteers can do that quickly and efficiently. They have to wake up and find out who they are supposed to be contacting, forgetting details because they are groggily waking up, which can cause vital information not to get transmitted. We need a group of professional employees to take up this job. I envision a center where a few people are always asleep, ready to receive messages, with others standing by to take those messages quickly before anything is forgotten. The center will have all the resources to find where the data needs to be transmitted and do it quickly, and in this, time is essential to saving lives. This will make the program much more effective and efficient. Of course, this would be a subdivision of the OMMR, and as such, everyone working there would be an OMMR employee entitled to a paycheck. Heck, you can even funnel unemployed people to work there once they’ve been properly trained, and the OMMR would happily keep investing in your community center while paying for utilities to the entire complex.”

“And you expect us to hang around your house. How is that supposed to work and be explained?” the stallion asked.

“I'm an architect employed by the OMMR, so I would happily come on to help restore and refurbish this place, as well as set up an office on one of the floors. That would explain my regular presence here, close to where you can guard me. No need to hang around my home, at least not until I reveal myself, but that's a long ways off. Whatya think? I think that offer advances your goals and ours.”

The stallion blinked and turned to whisper with the night pony mare. A few other crystal ponies gathered close and exchanged whispers with the pair as the remaining crystal ponies and night ponies watched from afar, occasionally whispering among themselves. Rebecca waited as this continued for a minute, then another minute, and then another minute. Okay, she was hoping for a quicker, positive reply. That was the best sales pitch she could come up with. These crystal ponies must be really distrustful of Dreamwardens.

“Babe, if they decide to open this community center, do you think you could get me a job here?” Russell asked. “This is a good gym. The hoops need to be replaced, but that isn't such a big deal. It has holes in the floor for the volleyball court nets, so we could also set up volleyball. I bet this place also has a weight room, even if the equipment is long gone.”

She smiled at him. “This would still be their place, so that's up to them, but I'll put in a good word for you. I'm sure they'd be interested. Want to continue coaching kids?”

“Yeah, I enjoyed that and don't want to give it up,” Russell replied. “I had planned on checking around the city for a position, but I'd probably end up assisting someone, not running a gym. This could be an opening to run a program.”

“Sounds great!” Rebecca chirped. It also would have him close to the night ponies to keep him safe.

The chattering ponies separated, and the official-looking stallion looked at her.

“We're intrigued by the offer, but we'll need to see the offer in writing. Dreamwardens always try to get as much wiggle room as they can out of the wording, so we'll need to see the exact wording of the contract. Draw up your contract, and we will review it.”

“Sounds fair!” she replied. “I'll have the lawyers draft a document and have it to you by tomorrow. Take your time to discuss it amongst yourselves. You know how to reach me when you're ready, have any additional concerns, or decide to tell me no.”

The stallion looked confused..”Um, no, we don't. You've given us no contact—”

“She's a Dreamwarden. We do it via dreams,” the night pony mare replied exasperatedly. “And since she's a day pony, it will probably have to be one of you crystals that gets in touch with her just because of sleep schedules. All you have to do is have the intent to speak with her when you fall asleep. She or one of the other Dreamwardens will find you.”

“The mare is on point,” Rebecca announced. “I think that takes care of everything I needed to take care of. If you get this place up and running, my hubby would love to help do some athletics programs with kids. He's got lots of experience. He used to work at a community gym in Skytree, doing after-school programs with kids.”

“We'll keep that in mind,” the stallion muttered. “Have a good day, Miss Marshmallow.”

“Dreamwarden Marshmallow,” the night pony mare hissed in correction at the stallion. Several night ponies got up and spread their wings aggressively at the stallion.

Rebecca stuck her wings out in front of herself placatingly. “Hey! No need for ya'll to get hostile with each other. Just breathe. I don't care much for violence…well…unless it involves bad guys getting hurt, but I don't think that applies to anyone here. Not you either, Fain.”

“Ya'll?” Fain asked with a smirk. “Guess you are from the south.”

Rebecca shrugged. “Partly, and partly some AAV from hanging around my mother-in-law. The odd bit of it slips in from time to time. More importantly—you smiled…sorta. That's great!”

Fain gave her a bigger smile, showing all her teeth.

Rebecca jumped back. “Maybe not smile like that. It looks kinda predatory. We want the kids to feel safe. That smile says, I just ate your cat, and now I'm going to eat you. Don't worry, we'll workshop that smile.”

“I'll give you a better smile once you fulfill your end of the contract,” Fain said as she stopped smiling.

“So, what do we do now?” Russell asked.

She considered. “Hmm…food sounds good. Food usually sounds good, but it's been a busy morning, and my tummy is rumbling. Fain, you can pick the place for us to eat…provided it’s vegetarian, and Russell and I will pay.”

“I'm banned from every restaurant in town, and there are multiple warrants for my arrest,” Fain said bluntly.

“That does present a conundrum,” Rebecca said thoughtfully. Darn, she wanted to at least try some of the overpriced pizza and ice cream. “Guess we'll head back to the hotel and then order delivery. Hopefully, we won't all waste away before it arrives.”

Fain looked at Rebecca's belly. “I don't think that is a big concern in your case.”

“I call that my unique evolutionary adaptation against delayed meals! I can survive missing lunch with only moderate discomfort other than extreme unhappiness. I'm more concerned about you two,” Rebecca replied.

“And here I thought Dreamwardens couldn't lie,” Fain said dryly.

“She didn't expressly say why she was concerned about us. She's concerned about other things. She's probably worried if you'll work out and also worried about my safety, but she doesn't want to let on she's worried, so she attached it to a joke about herself. I know my wife well enough to guess that. She does things like that,” Russell pointed out.

“Ah, I see. I need to learn to pay attention to her wording,” Fain said with a nod.

“Pay attention to this. This jiggly belly needs to be filled,” Rebecca said as she headed to the exit.

Jessica tapped her finger anxiously against her leg as Adam drove. She didn't like riding as a passenger. She tolerated it when she sometimes rode with her dad and, on rare occasions, with her mother, but that was just them. They'd driven her around when she was a kid, so it was just a continuation of that. Even with them, she still preferred to be the one driving. Despite being a mechanic familiar with many vehicles, she also didn't like being in an unfamiliar vehicle. In her car, she had a gap in the seat that allowed her to slip her tail through. This car had no such gap, so unless she sat on the edge of the seat, every little bump would cause her tail to get pinched against the seat. Even sitting on the edge of the seat, it could happen if they hit a pothole. That was another reason to dislike being a passenger; she'd be extra careful to avoid anything like that if she were driving.

“You okay?” Adam asked.

Her ears flicked. “Yes. Why do you ask?”

“You're sitting on the edge of your seat, tapping your finger a lot,” Adam said worriedly. “Have I done something wrong?”

Her ears went erect. “What? No! If you must know, it's my tail. Your car seat isn't a good fit for it.”

“Oh…” he said, taking his eyes off the road briefly to glance at her fluffy blue appendage but quickly returning them to the road. “You know, I never really paid your tail that much attention. My eyes get drawn more to your ears and hair. I hadn't thought about how much of a nuisance it must be with chairs, benches, and car seats. Does it hurt?”

Her ears flattened slightly. He never paid her tail much attention? Sure, she didn't want to be stared at like a freak, but she liked the look of her tail. She thought it was one of her better features, and he didn't notice it? Further, her tail wasn't a nuisance; all those seats were. She shouldn't be offended, but she was.

“Okay, now I'm sure I did something wrong. Your ears flattened.”

Blasted ears! Now, there was a body part that was a nuisance. They always betrayed her mood. This date was not off to a great start.

“Sorry. I'm not used to riding a passenger. You might say driving is one of my hobbies. As for just now, I'm just being moody, I guess. I don't know why since I normally don't like people staring at my tail, but having my tail ignored just annoyed me for some reason. I like my tail.”

He went wide-eyed and blinked. “Wow…I'm not used to women being so open and direct. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's just that I'm used to having to bend over backwards to figure out what they're thinking and why. It's strangely refreshing, yet unnerving at the same time, to have you just come out and tell me. Not that I'm happy that you’re annoyed! Please don't take all that the wrong way.”

“This is feeling very awkward,” she said as her ears flattened even more and rubbed her arm.

He looked at her in horror. “Sorry! Sorry!”

She reached out and grabbed the steering wheel, pulling it just in time to have them avoid hitting a car. “Eyes on the road!”

He refocused. “Sorry….”

She released the wheel and rubbed her temple, then let off a short laugh. “I was worried about making a fool of myself doing this date, but you seem to have it way worse.”

“Well, when I asked you to come to this jazz club, I didn't mean it as a date. I just said that to say it. Then I freaked out, wondering if you thought it was a date. I've been freaking out about it for days until I finally convinced myself that I was creating some fantasy in my head. Then you showed up clearly expecting this to be a date. I didn't expect you would ever agree to something like that, but here you are, and here I am, feeling like I'm with this woman I've always idolized who is completely out of my league but somehow agreed to a date that I asked her out on by accident, and if I mess up you'll lose all respect for me,” he said rapidly, leaving him gasping for breath.

Okay, what was she supposed to say to that? He hadn't meant for this to be a date? She stressed out about going on a date that he hadn't meant to ask her out on?? Did that mean he wasn't even interested in having a relationship with her? No…he had gone along on this being a date…but maybe he felt it was an obligation due to the misunderstanding—which was, of course, all his fault. No…that wasn't right either. Why was it so hard to think logically about this?

No matter what, she needed to pull this conversation back. It was getting worse and worse. “Answering your earlier question, it does hurt when my tail gets pinched in the seat. It is literally like jamming your finger against something, only it is jamming your tailbone. Stepping on my tail is typically just pulling the hair since the tail is small compared to all the hair around it. If its hair gets pulled, it feels similar to the hair on your head getting pulled, which isn't pleasant. As for mobility, since I'm sure you'll ask, it moves more stiffly than my other limbs. I hear some ponies have a lot more flexibility with their tails, even being able to grab things with them, but that takes either natural talent or a lot of practice trying to use it that way, and I don't have that natural talent and have never put any serious effort into trying to train my tail to bend that way. I can lift it, lower it, move it side to side, or give it a good whip or spin, but I cannot bend it beyond curling it around myself.”

“I wasn't going to ask. I already knew how pony's tails operate, so I figured yours operated similarly. I just wasn't sure if the seat was hurting you,” Adam replied.

She crossed her arms and let out a long breath. This was not going well. “Okay, it is my fault for over-explaining. I think this will go better once we get to that club and can talk about what I found at-”

She had to stop as her phone started buzzing. She reached down into her purse and pulled out her phone to answer.

“Hi, Jessie! Um, how are you doing?” Jordan asked quickly as soon as the call was answered.

“Jordan?” Jessica replied in confusion. “I'm okay…why are you calling? You know I was going on this date at the moment.”

“Yeah…sorry for interrupting…but I have a teensy problem that I need some help with,” Jordan said sheepishly.

“I AM NOT A TEENSY PROBLEM! HAVE THE HOMEWRECKER COME HERE NOW!!”

“Can you please behave yourself? You are trying to get her to help you, and she can hear you yelling at her best friend and calling her a homewrecker.”

Jessica's eyebrows shot up. “Charlotte's there with you? Who else is there? Who was yelling? What's this about me being a homewrecker?” She looked at Adam. “Wait…are you married?!”

“No!” Adam protested.

“Um…this has nothing to do with that guy you are with,” Jordan said quickly. “But can you please come over here? I have a giant shape-shifting bug here who just figured out she's Mark's aunt and that you are trying to adopt Mark.”

Jessica silently mouthed the words giant shape-shifting bug before she could try to respond. “What?”

“It's hard to explain. Please come over here before she does something we'll all regret. She isn't exactly the most reasonable or patient creature…or the brightest.”

“THAT'S NOT MY FAULT!! IS THE INSOLENT CREATURE THAT WOULD STEAL MY NEPHEW AWAY COMING?”

“You didn't even know you had a nephew until ten minutes ago!” Charlotte protested. “This is all your fault.”

“Just following orders,” another unfamiliar voice said. “Doctor Middleton, can you please come to Wabash Manor before Bursa does something stupid?”

“I WILL NOT DO SOMETHING STUPID! I DON'T KNOW WHERE MY NEPHEW IS TO GO SEARCHING FOR HIM!”

“So you admit you'd do something stupid if you knew,” the stranger replied. “God, Rebecca has some crazy plans, but this is up there with the craziest.”

“I SHALL SLAY MY COMPETITION FOR MY NEPHEW'S AFFECTIONS!”

“So how do you think your nephew will react to you killing someone he might have some affection for?” the stranger asked.

“I…UM….I…”

“Yeah, I thought so. You didn't think this through,” the stranger said smugly.

“DON'T MAKE FUN OF ME!”

What in the fudge was even going on? Rebecca was involved? That explained the insanity. What mattered was there was someone who was claiming to be Mark's aunt, and that wasn't something she could ignore. She should probably call her dad as well.

“I'm coming,” she said. She had considered issuing a challenge to the bug, but thought better of that. She had no idea what she was even dealing with.

“Thank you! See ya soon!” Jordan said, then hung up.

She sighed and looked at Adam. “Sorry, we're going to have to postpone this date. How do you feel about meeting giant shape-shifting bug monsters?”

He looked at her in confusion. “Giant what?”

“Eyes on the road!” she yelped as the reached for the wheel again.

Chapter 49: Life is Strange

Jessica had hoped that Jordan had been using some strange metaphor when saying there was a giant bug monster. However, personal history and the fact it was Wabash Manor suggested anything was possible, even likely. Now she was standing in the Wabash Manor guest house and staring at a very large and very real bug monster.

“THE THIEF THAT IS TRYING TO STEAL MY NEPHEW’S AFFECTIONS, I WILL SLAY YOU!”

Bursa certainly was dramatic. Bursa also had ears, very ponylike ones. If the bug charged, Jessica could easily drop her. It wasn’t something she ever wanted to have to do and would avoid even in the most dangerous circumstances when facing a human or pony, but Bursa wasn’t likely to have courts on her side if Jessica used strange magic on her.

Jessica ignored the threat and looked at Charlotte and the vaguely familiar scarred unicorn mare. “So…how is this thing Mark’s aunt?”

“DO NOT IGNORE ME, HUMAN!”

“She used to be a partial, but some fanatical harmonist scientist got his hooves on her and tried to turn her into an alicorn,” Charlotte explained.

Jessica glanced at Bursa, who was standing with legs and wings spread in what she assumed was a threatening posture, then looked back at Charlotte.

“They didn’t do a very good job at that,” Jessica said flatly.

“HEY! DON’T IGNORE ME!!”

Charlotte shrugged. “She supposedly used to be in much worse shape, practically falling apart, but grandma came up with a cure that made her into this, although Princess Twilight applied it. Bursa isn’t grateful and hates Grandma for dreaming this solution up.”

“I don’t think anyone likes Auntie, so that’s nothing new,” Jessica replied. “I don’t think even the Blessingists would like her if they had to deal with her in person. She’s well-intentioned, has a lot of ingenious ideas, loves her family, and tries to do the right things, but she’s not likable at all. She is manipulative, controlling, can’t get her nose out of everyone’s affairs, and some of her ingenious ideas create giant bug monsters.”

“Can you take me seriously, please?” Bursa whined, interrupting the conversation. “What’s wrong with you people? I’m a giant bug threatening to kill you! I could slay you with one strike! That should terrify you.”

Jessica turned back and looked at her. “Sorry, I’m desensitized to a lot of things. I’ve been chased by monster crystal ponies, had a front-row seat to Wild Growth saving Riverview, been to a world where I could vanish forever if I ever left another person’s sight, met Triss, had an undead abomination within centimeters of my face while I slept, and nearly died and was on life support twice before I was seven. I’m just not that shocked by these kinds of things anymore. Plus, even though Tempest might criticize me for not keeping up with my self-defense training, I’m pretty sure I could disable you without lifting a finger—you’d be surprised what sound can do. I’m sure you’re very intimidating to anyone else.”

“World where you could vanish forever, and what was that about undead abomination?'' Adam hesitantly asked from behind her. He had stayed well behind her since seeing Bursa and hadn’t made a move to defend her. Sure, he’d be useless in that kind of role, and Bursa might eat his head if he tried, but it was still not making him more appealing. This date was going so badly. Then again, he could be seen as delicate and prissy in a particular light, which appealed to her on a certain level. Maybe she needed to view him in a different light. A change in her perspective could improve this dramatically.

Bursa stiffened. “You are friends with Wild Growth?” She had an odd choice to focus on out of all that. What Adam focused on made sense, but the bug monster didn’t seem to care about those things. Maybe Bursa was desensitized as well.

“Yes, she was my hero when I was a filly. She still is, to some extent, since she saved me from those crystal ponies I mentioned. She’s a good friend,” Jessica replied.

Bursa slumped. “Why do they always have to be Wild Growth’s friends and family? Why can't I just find someone who I can kill?”

“Got to love a bug monster with a code of honor,” the unfamiliar mare snickered.

“And who are you?” Jessica asked.

“You don’t remember me?” the scar-faced mare asked in shock. “I have a face people don’t normally forget.”

“Vaguely…but can’t place you,” Jessica confessed.

“That’s Ashley; she was at Rebecca’s wedding. She works for the OMMR now as a bodyguard and assistant to their director,” Jordan explained.

Jessica smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, I don’t remember that wedding well. I was still in a bit of a rebellious stage, and I snuck a few drinks at the reception since everyone assumed I was old enough. I have an extremely low tolerance for alcohol, so I passed out early that evening.”

Ashley shrugged. “You just missed Rebecca being Rebecca, which is never dull. Thanks for not recoiling at my scars.”

Charlotte pointed a wing at Adam. “Who’s the guy back there giving his best impression of my grandma?”

“Best impression of your grandma?” Jessica asked in confusion.

The angle of Charlotte’s wing dropped. “He wet himself. Be glad you don’t have a pony sense of smell anymore.”

“Hey! I didn’t-” Adam started to protest, the quiver in his voice betraying the truth.

“It’s fine, Adam,” Jessica assured him. “No one blames you for being terrified of Bursa or thinks any less of you. You haven’t had to go through the same kind of crud the rest of us have, and you would have been the most helpless if she had tried to pull something—well, you and my dad. You don’t have to pretend to be tough. I’m sure Jordan can help you find a place to clean up and feel safer.”

“He’s the only one of you crazy people with any sense,” Bursa grumbled.

There was a knock at the front door, and Jordan opened it. They all turned to see who it was.

Jessica’s dad stepped in. “Sorry, I’m running late. I was shocked when you said-” He looked at Bursa and jumped back. “What the hell is that!”

Bursa grinned. “Oh, good, another sane person.”

Jessica sighed. “This is the person who claims to be Mark’s aunt. She seems to want to take guardianship of him. Does she have that right?”

Her dad looked fearfully at Bursa. “That is a court decision. Courts normally favor the next of kin, but in this case, there could be some serious complications with that.”

Bursa growled. “Because I’m a giant bug?” She then laughed, and in a flash, she was suddenly a human woman with long black hair and a polka-dotted sundress. “I can be whatever I want to be. If they want a human, I can be a human.”

Jessica scowled. She hadn’t thought Bursa had any real chance of gaining custody of Mark, but if she could be human, that could change things.

“I hate to rain on your parade, Bursa, but you’ve been missing for years, and I’m pretty sure you’d fail a DNA test to prove you’re who you say you are. In fact, I think such a test would give your disguise away as soon as they saw the green blood,” Ashley said.

“Bursa, be reasonable. Do you think you’d be a good parent?” Charlotte asked. “You can barely take care of yourself. This isn’t about the kid getting a loving home for you; it is about getting some family member you feel is obligated to love you. Try to show some real love and think about what’s best for your nephew.”

Jessica’s father raised his hand. “If what Charlotte says is true, then it is even less likely the courts would decide to side with you, Miss…do you have a last name, Bursa?”

“It’s just Bursa,” Bursa grumbled.

“How did you get that name? It’s an odd name,” Jessica asked.

“It’s just what I remember the evil pony calling me,” Bursa hissed.

“I know,” Ashley interjected, and they all looked at her. “The Dreamwardens promised to do everything they could to uncover Bursa’s past, and one of the things they managed, via the OMMR, was to apprehend one of the ponies who had been working at the lab when Bursa was captured. Doctor Rossman identified an ETS partial transformation deformity to Bursa’s legs when he captured her. He couldn’t get her to tell him her name, so the name stuck when one of the lab techs started identifying her by what was deformed—in this case, some fluid-filled sacs near her knees, which are called bursae. Remember, these guys viewed her as broken.”

“Caught her?” Jessica asked, eyes narrowing. “Was he kidnapping people off the street?”

Ashley shook her head. “She had been snooping around the outsides of the lab, thinking she could expose testing on partials was still going on, not knowing she stumbled on one of Sunset Blessing’s secret facilities for magical research, one that had gone pretty much rogue. How she even found the place is a mystery. She must have been much smarter back then if she was able to uncover the lab-”

“HA!! I’m not stupid!” Bursa proclaimed.

“-but not smart enough not to walk into a criminal lab with a mad scientist that wanted to experiment on live people,” Ashley concluded.

“Pretty brave, though,” Jordan interjected.

“Bravery and stupidity are often mistaken for one another, so the jury’s still out,” Charlotte muttered.

“I will rend you all!” Bursa yelled. She then looked around and pouted. “At least act afraid!”

“I’m scared of you and wish my daughter would take the threat more seriously,” Jessica’s dad interjected. “I know she is very capable, but I don’t want to have her on life support for a third time because she was too cocky.”

“Okay, two of you have sense,” Bursa corrected.

“Don’t worry, Dad. I’ve got this, and I’m sure Jordan is ready to shield us if Bursa moves to attack,” Jessica assured him.

“We don’t know how fast that thing can move. It may move too fast for Jordan to react,” her dad objected. “Can you please take a few steps back, if only to make me feel better?”

He might have a point. She took a few steps back.

“Thank you,” her dad said, still sounding nervous.

“But I suppose sniffing out one of grandma’s secret labs was pretty impressive,” Charlotte continued, ignoring what had just transpired. “Can we get her back to being that intelligent? No one deserves to be reduced to this.”

“I doubt it,” Ashley replied quietly. “Rossman did a real number on her. She's lucky to be alive or have any semblance of sanity left. I’ve been there, at the wrong end of a madpony. I know the fear, the terror. If I hadn’t had someone there for me, I’d have gone insane. She’s lucky she remembers so little, but she had no one there for her.” She looked at Bursa. “I know that in the end, bad as I got it, I didn’t get it half as bad as you, and I can’t even imagine what you went through, living like Gollum in a cave, forgotten and broken. I get some of what you feel, better than anyone else here. It is hard to move on from that kind of stuff. You want revenge against the ones who hurt you, but that is no way to live. It’s keeping you trapped in the past like you never left that damn nightmare lab.”

Bursa glared at her. “You’re right. You can’t imagine. I lost everything. Now, you fight me to stop me from trying to reclaim my nephew. Why tell me about him if you wish to keep me away?”

Jessica grimaced at the scarred unicorn. “She’s not that stupid because that’s a good question. I will be fighting an uphill battle to adopt, and you just introduced her into the mix.”

Ashley smiled. “Bursa needs some closure that there is family out there that may want to have her in their lives…even if she doesn’t end up raising the kid. She could get to know him if she can tone down the big scary monster bit. It also introduces an incentive for her to help the OMMR with a little mission we decided needed more heavy hitters to pull off.”

Charlotte spread her wings. “You are trying to rope her into one of your clandestine vigilante missions?! The government-”

Ashley levitated a folder marked classified from her saddlebag and passed it to Charlotte. “A mission the government knows about and will pretend they don’t. It is in the government's interest that we succeed. You are free to review the file, but I’ll need that back.”

Charlotte grabbed the folder with her wings and opened it, immediately getting to reading. Her ears quickly flattened.

“A lab in Mexico conducting illegal biological experiments on enslaved partials?” Charlotte asked in disbelief. She kept reading, and her eyes narrowed. “Possibly funded by the Chinese government? Are they developing biological weapons to use against us from right across our border?”

Ashley sighed. “We haven’t even confirmed the Chinese are funding it; we only suspect that, so that’s unsure. Someone with considerable financial power is backing it, and they are usually number one when we start laying out suspects. We recently obtained new information that points to something other than biological weapons, at least in the strictest sense. Doctor Rossman and Doctor Lair are there, and they usually only have the same goal whenever they pop up.”

Bursa returned to her normal form and slammed one of her legs on the floor, shattering the floorboards. “ROSSMAN!!”

“What happened to trying to stop her from focusing on revenge?” Jordan whimpered.

“This isn’t revenge; this is getting justice for others,” Ashley calmly stated. “Bursa knows what Rossman wants, and he has potentially hundreds of innocent partials to experiment on. Mark’s parents were both held there and escaped. They died, making sure he wasn’t born there, but there are still so many being held and experimented on. Bursa, what happened to you is now going on down there on a massive scale; your sister was a victim of it. I am not asking you to take revenge. I’m asking you to help us stop what happened to you and your sister from happening to others. Mark wouldn’t understand at his age, but maybe when Mark is older, you can tell him you’re his aunt, and you helped save all those people and avenged his parents. Then maybe he might want to get to know his Aunt Bursa. You might never be qualified to raise him, and deep down, you know that, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be part of his life—his heroic aunt, who helped save so many people like him. I’m sure Doctor Middleton wouldn’t object to him getting to know that person rather than the big scary bug.”

Jessica crossed her arms. “If she isn’t going to fight to try to take custody of him, I have no objection to her getting to know him…when he’s older. Right now, he isn’t ready. She isn’t ready either.”

“But it is a goal to work towards, isn’t it?” Ashley asked Bursa. “It would be something good and wholesome to strive towards. A real future to try for. A chance to finally be free of the lab.”

Bursa relaxed, and the tension went out of her as she looked at the shattered floor and her hole-covered legs.

“A chance to be something other than a monster,” she whispered.

Charlotte cleared her throat. “I need some clearance to give her over to your care. I can’t take part in this mission. We can’t have a US Army officer involved in an unauthorized mission on foreign soil. But, before I check on that-” She looked at Bursa. “-are you ready to look at your sister’s grave? I think, under the circumstances, it takes on a whole new significance.”

Jessica stood out in the yard of Wabash Manor beside Jordan, her dad, and Adam, watching as Charlotte, Ashley, and a disguised Bursa left the premises. As she watched, all she could do was ask why her life had to constantly keep throwing one bizarre thing after another into it. All she wanted was a semi-normal life.

“You know, if you adopt Mark, you’re going to be stuck dealing with that thing,” her dad said. “Are you prepared for that?”

She took a deep breath. “What’s life without a few challenges? If something is important enough, you deal with whatever inconveniences come with it. If you can’t, then it isn’t important enough. I’ll deal with it. It isn’t the most bizarre thing I’ve ever dealt with.”

“What was that about a zombie being a few centimeters from your face?” Jordan asked.

“I didn’t mention that when I got back?” Jessica replied.

“Nope. I would have remembered that one,” Jordan said, eyes still forward towards the gate.

Jessica blinked. “Oh, well…she was a nice zombie. She just wanted to play games and have fun. She was kind of adorable, as zombies go. I was told it’s the squirrel you must look out for.”

“Evil zombie squirrel?” Jordan asked without turning her head.

Jessica nodded. “Evil zombie squirrel.”

Jordan continued staring out towards the gate. “Life is strange.”

“Yep,” Jessica agreed.

“Is stuff like this an everyday occurrence?” Afam asked hesitantly.

Jessica shook her head. “Not really. The madness seems to come in batches. Everything will be calm and normal for a long time, then the universe decides it's bored. It’s been calm for years. I think it has been saving up for all this fudgery.”

“Why are you so dressed up?” her dad asked, apparently unwilling to even ask about everything else and going with the safe option.

Jessica pointed at Adam. “We were going to have a date. I suppose we still can. This seems to be settled, at least for now.”

Her dad turned and leveled a frown at Adam. “You are dating my daughter?”

“Dad!” Jessica protested. “I didn’t tell anyone in the family because I was scared Mom would make a big deal out of it. Don’t you go all stereotypical overprotective dad on me! You’re supposed to be the reasonable one.”

Jordan scrunched up her nose. “That date might need to be rescheduled. He needs to change his pants. I can see if one of the guards has a pair that fits. They keep extra clothes here.”

Her dad turned his gaze to Adam’s pants. “He shit himself?”

“Pissed,” Jessica corrected. “Don’t make a big deal out of it. Most people don’t have to face giant bug monsters. It’s an understandable reaction. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

“You don’t normally face giant bug monsters,” her dad reminded her.

“With the week I’ve had, giant bug monsters barely qualify as interesting,” Jessica replied.

“Yeah, lay off him, Mister Middleton,” Jordan said supportively. She then looked at Adam. “Don’t worry. Auntie used to pee herself whenever she was afraid, and she was Sunset Blessing. Nobody here cares.”

“That’s good, but I wish people would stop mentioning it,” Adam said, looking down.

“Is he allowed in the house?” Jessica asked. “I know your security is strict.”

“Almost everyone is allowed on the first floor unless they are on the banned list, like Bursa. It’s everywhere else inside that’s off limits,” Jordan explained.

“You banned Bursa? What did she do?” Jessica asked, concerned. Had Bursa done something violent? She was still uncomfortable with the idea of Bursa getting near Mark, and that would only make her more.

“I didn’t. Auntie left a list before she took off to Equestria, and Bursa was on it. I was told Bursa might not like Auntie too much, given the whole secret lab thing,” Jordan clarified.

“Oh, I guess that makes sense,” Jessica replied, mildly relieved. “If that’s the case, then let’s head inside.”

They headed to the house and found Andrea waiting at the door. The crystal pony took a sniff and gave Adam a dirty look.

“Who’s the dude that pissed his pants?” Andrea asked.

“I really wish people would stop bringing that up,” Adam muttered.

“He’s Jessie’s boyfriend,” Jordan giggled.

Andrea raised an eyebrow. “She has strange tastes.”

Jessica sighed. “He needs a change of pants, and we were hoping one of the guards might have something that fits.”

Andrea looked him over. “Tyrone might have something your size. The guards have a shower as well. You probably need that. Come on in and stay close.”

“Why weren’t you with us watching Bursa?” Jessica asked as they followed Andrea in.

Andrea shrugged. “Charlotte and Ashley were there. I’m familiar with both of them and know they could handle whatever. I’m unsure what use I’d be against a giant bug. If there was trouble, I’d have heard the yelling.”

“Bursa yelled a lot,” Jessica said flatly.

“Bursa seemed full of hot air. I’m pretty sure that bug is mostly buzz and little bite. It would have been others yelling if there was trouble. I personally wondered if you would try to pull something. She did present an obstacle to your goals,” Andrea said dismissively.

“You’ve known me for years. Do you really think I would be that petty and short-tempered?” Jessica asked in dismay.

“You can get short-tempered. Not as bad as my sister, but you do,” Andrea replied.

Jessica looked at her dad and Jordan for support, but both looked away. Really? No backup at all? She grimaced at the betrayal.

They continued to the guards station. A few guards on duty gave them looks as they entered, but didn’t say anything, probably because Andrea and Jordan were present. Andrea showed Adam to the locker room and shower.

“How do you know Ashley?” Jordan asked Andrea as the old crystal pony returned.

“She was here overseeing some of remodeling down below when it was going on,” Andrea answered. “She sparred with some of the guards while she was here, just to test their mettle, and kicked their asses. She’s one of those Dreamwarden elite guards, personally trained by Tempest Shadow. Those guys aren’t a joke. It still pissed me off. It wasn’t just the injuries, it was the fact they were so soundly beaten by one unicorn. I had to invest in a heightened training regimine for them after that. They weren’t happy about it, but they have a job to do, and they aren’t doing it if one unicorn, even a highly combat trained one, could wipe the floor with them like that. This many guards shouldn’t struggle against one unicorn unless it is someone like Starlight Glimmer—if someone like that showed up back then we’d have just been fucked no matter what.”

“Can’t you just counter a unicorn?” Jessica’s dad asked. “I thought it was like a paper rock scissors thing, and crystal ponies were the natural counters to unicorns.”

Andrea chuckled. “Thanks, but you give me too much credit. I can’t down most unicorns on my own. It is normally a group effort with crystal ponies, unless the crystal pony is particularly strong, which I’m not. Ashley isn’t anything special in terms of power, but she’s still outside my range if she poured enough of her magic into a spell. The best I could do is detect it and weaken it, not stop it. That wouldn’t have boded well if someone moderately powerful showed up, like the creep that captured my sister and my grandniece.”

“I thought complex magic didn’t work here,” Jordan said in confusion.

Andrea frowned. “Those defenses weren’t fully up at the time, since they were part of the remodeling she was overseeing, and technically, the one controlling the defenses can take them down for selected areas. That would be you. I have my disagreements with my sister, but I give her credit for not repeating costly errors. Sunset learned her lesson after Riverview about inadvertently locking out anyone who was trying to aid her, and she didn’t want to make the same mistake again. There’s a manual somewhere in Ami’s study explaining how to work them with your jewelry. She’ll give it to you when you learn enough to make decisions about that kind of stuff. You don’t have the experience to make those kind of calls, as you’ve recently proven, and a bad decision involving that can lead to a successful invasion of the property.”

“How did you do large scale building under the house without tearing up the house and yard?” Jessica’s dad asked in confusion. “I don’t know what’s below, but Sunset never did anything small. I never saw what was below, but my sister told me that the Bastion was far more extensive underground than it was above ground. I can only imagine Sunset pulled the same thing again. How’d she do it?”

Andrea smirked. “She was nothing but clever, and realized early on she needed a new stronghold to guard her collection of knowledge and a place to retreat to if the invaders got too tough. She came in from the neighboring properties. She drove our neighbors away and drove down property values, our allies at the OMMR, using shell companies, bought all neighboring property at extremely discounted prices. Sunset is a conniving plotter who is willing to play the long game to get what she wants. This is the same pony who built South Carolina’s biggest city in just a few years from a collection of run down towns. Figuring out how to secure a new stronghold was nothing compared to that. It took a few years and a lot of underhanded tricks to get to the last holdouts to give up and move, but she was patient and pulled it off. The fact there were always so many drones from curious onlookers invading everyone in the area’s privacy probably helped as well.”

“She could have forgone protecting her knowledge if she just destroyed all the records,” Jessica’s dad replied, then sighed. “But then again, that was never her way. She always preserved everything, even when all sense said it should be gotten rid of.”

“I agree with you on that,” Andrea said, flicking her tail. “Still, here we are, standing but a few meters above the largest cache of forbidden and dangerous magical knowledge in the world, possibly in existence. That’s why I have to be hard on Jordan. It is too big a responsibility to make mistakes with—not to mention Ami, her husband, me, and Sinker—when he comes back from rehab, all live here, and we’d like to feel safe and not have our home invaded.”

Jessica found herself agreeing with Sunset Blessing on this one. Knowledge, no matter how problematic, should always be preserved. Still, she was glad it was Jordan’s problem and not hers.

“So, are you going to tell me about the zombie thing?” her dad asked.

“I probably shouldn’t, but we can talk more about my travel to that other world once I get a Dreamwarden to approve it,” Jessica replied. “Andrea, are you able to call Phobia from here? I figure you have her number saved.”

“I can, but you know that our calls are monitored. So it is kind of hard to ask her to do something that might be classified, and this sounds classified,” Andrea replied. “I suggest calling her yourself, once you’re off the property.”

Jessica frowned and looked around. Time to take a stab in the dark. “Marshmallow, are you there, watching?”

There was no response.

“The Marshmallow isn’t everywhere all at once, and if they have no reason to be here, they won’t be,” Jordan reminded her.

Jessica shrugged. “It was worth a shot. I guess I’m just being impatient. Sorry, Dad, but it will have to wait.”

The door to the locker room opened and Adam stepped out, still dripping water from the shower. The pants looked a little too lose, and his shirt was wrinkled from having been taken off and put back on over wet skin.

“Jessica, I’m sorry, but I think I’m out of my depth with you,” Adam said quietly. “I don’t think we can date, but I hope we can still be good friends.”

They hadn’t even gone on their date and he was breaking up with her? What the actual fudge?!

Adam stepped back in fear. “I see you aren’t taking this well.”

“Does any girl ever take something like that well?” Andrea asked him, sounding somehow both annoyed and amused. “You even added in the let’s be friends line. How cliche can you be?”

Jessica balled her fist and forced herself to take a deep breath. This was fine. She had already realized that this wasn’t working out. Adam was just too damn nervous around her, putting her on a pedestal that he always had to look up to view. Relationships were supposed to be a partnership, or at least, that was how she understood them. She couldn’t have that kind of partnership with someone who basically set themselves up to be looked down on. This was for the best. Still…she’d have liked to have at least gotten her first date.

Her ears twitched as she heard the unmistakable sound of a fist colliding with a face—a sound she would never forget after a number of training sessions with Tempest at a young age. It was quickly followed by the equally unmistakable sound of someone getting knocked to the ground.

“HOW DARE YOU HURT MY DAUGHTER LIKE THAT!”

“Dad!” she yelled as she came running to Adam’s defense, placing herself between him and her father. “That was completely unnecessary and barbaric!”

“Better me doing it than you. You’d have sent him to the hospital if you socked him,” her dad responded calmly, not even looking at Adam.

“I wasn’t going to strike him!” Jessica fussed. She then bent down and checked on Adam. “Are you okay? I’m sorry. My dad is on this weird overprotective binge. He isn’t normally like this.”

“She’s my little filly. I need to protect her,” her dad insisted.

“I’m a grown woman. I haven’t been a little filly since I was six. I don’t need protection.” she said firmly. If he was lucky, Adam might not press charges.

Adam started to sit up, and she saw a gash under his eye. That might have been the result of her dad’s wedding ring. The area around the eye was already starting to swell, and she was sure it was going to bruise. This was definitely going to make it harder to maintain a friendship with him through this. She could kick her dad for this.

“Your eye looks rough. We should get you to a doctor,” she said, trying to sound soothing, despite the rage she was trying to hold back towards her dad.

He touched his fingers to the area under his eye and winced. “I’m sure it won’t be that bad.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t try to act tough. You have a gash under your eye and severe swelling. You need to see a doctor.”

“Don’t baby the man. He just needs to put some ice and a damp cloth over it,” Andrea said. “You young people act so fragile. In my day, nobody went to the doctor for a black eye.”

“I don’t like hospitals. They make me extremely nervous and anxious, so I wouldn’t be insisting if it wasn’t important. We need to make sure no bone was damaged, and that requires a medical doctor,” Jessica insisted.

“Okay, I’ll go,” Adam relented.

She held out her hand. “Let me have your keys. Your vision is impaired for the moment, you shouldn’t be driving.”

“No, I’m- urrmm,” Adam groaned. He winced, touched his hand to his face again, which also made him gasp and wince again. “Okay, okay, maybe you’re right.”

“I’ll see if I can get you an ice pack really fast,” Jordan said as she took off towards the kitchen.

This was not how she pictured her first ever date going. A breakup before the date started in earnest. Her now ex-boyfriend (did he count as an ex?) with a black eye l, courtesy of her father, and them on to one of their least favorite places, the hospital. That wasn’t mentioning the giant bug monster. Hopefully, the universe had used up most of its craziness for a while.

Chapter 50: Conversations About The Future

The next few days were…awkward…to say the least, at least at work, primarily around Adam. Thankfully, he didn’t end up pressing charges against Jessica’s dad. It wouldn’t have stuck if he had. Her dad had hit Adam while they were at Wabash Manor, and what happened at Wabash Manor stayed at Wabash Manor, at least as far as the cops and courts were concerned. Nobody wanted to get involved with anything that happened there. They'd have heard that it happened there and immediately started making up excuses about why they couldn't pursue the case. It wasn’t right, but it was the reality. Perhaps they’d slowly begin treating the mansion as part of the country again now that Jordan was there instead of Sunset Blessing.

Wild showed up in person to deliver the box. It was a very ordinary-looking metal box, but whatever kept crystal ponies from feeling the stone didn’t need to look fancy. Wild also brought a very heavy separate safe that high-voltage shocked anyone who tried to move it or break into it—that was supposed to stop earth ponies from just taking the entire safe or particularly strong ones from smashing it open. The truestone was kept in the small metal box, and that box was kept in the giant safe. That allowed her to leave the stone at her apartment while she went out and about. It also meant she could teach in person again instead of having to leave lectures online. Still, having the pony everyone recognized on sight show up at her apartment with a huge crate must have led to some speculation among her neighbors.

It was wonderful to be free of lugging that thing around and constantly being worried about crystal ponies detecting it. With her newfound freedom, she took the day to visit Jordan and go out with her. Up until today, she’d been avoiding Wabash because the stone made Andrea feel ill.

Andrea was standing at the front door as Jessica approached. “I see you don’t have that damn rock with you. Good. Jordan’s up in her room. Third floor, right hallway, third door on the left, just before the end of the hallway.”

Jessica grimaced. “Always a pleasure, Andrea.”

She stepped inside. Jordan’s redecoration felt like the mansion had thrown a fresh coat of paint over itself but was still very much the same at its core. Old Persian carpets had been replaced by shag throw rugs in a variety of bright neon colors. Much of the furniture, but not all, had been replaced with much shorter furniture, which was suitable for ponies and tended to be plusher whenever a cushion was involved. The large painted family portrait of Sunset Blessing and her adopted family still hung where once there had been a painting of a man with dogs, but Jordan had put a bunch of potted plants around it, obscuring the edges of the painting, making it seem like the now vacated family were standing amongst a forest. Straight red curtains that matched Sunset Blessing’s fur had been replaced with softer violet curtains that matched Jordan’s fur. When on display, books seemed to be the same, which wasn’t surprising, considering Jordan parting with a book seemed like blasphemy. There had once been a small end table near the door going down to the basement that had a stone bust of George Washington on it; the table was still there, but the bust had been replaced by a model of the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek, a show Jessica never understood why Jordan had picked up an interest in considering it was so unscientific. Yet despite all these changes, the same guards still stood watch in the same places. The Bible verses still encircled the doorways. The house still felt like a place that had once been the residence of Sunset Blessing. Jordan’s changes had not erased the feel of the old preacher, and Jessica could still imagine the old mare popping out of some door to bark orders.

Part of her still felt the even older version that hosted the mysterious sound of barking dogs from empty rooms that had heralded the history of danger that would follow. That, too, still survived under the newer trappings. Jessica could never have lived here and felt safe and secure, but Jordan didn't have the same history of dealing with this place.

She made her way up the stairs, briefly greeting familiar guards stationed at each level as she went. The third floor was much the same, with a big pink neon shag rug sitting in the middle of the hallway. Jordan certainly had interesting tastes in decorating. Maybe it was a pony thing. Ponies liked bright colors. Jessica considered whether she liked similar things when she was a pony but couldn’t recall. She might not have even cared, since such things would have just been distractions from her schoolwork. She’d enjoyed her paper mache planets that hung from her bedroom ceiling as a foal, which she was confident about. Perhaps she could do something similar with Mark’s room as she set it up, although she'd have to figure out what he liked. She couldn’t assume he’d be as thrilled with planets as she was. He seemed to enjoy his blocks, and he had toy cars. Maybe something to do with cars? She liked cars as well and knew enough to figure something special out. Perhaps she could introduce him to racing and watch cars race. Watching cars race in a circle never appealed to her, but she could appreciate the engineering that went into those vehicles.

“Jessie, that you? Come on in,” Jordan called out before Jessica could knock on the door. Jordan’s hearing might not be as sharp as Jessica’s, but it was still excellent

Upon stepping into the room, Jessica’s eyes were assaulted by the onslaught of color. There were throw pillows everywhere, in every major color, excluding violet, which seemed exclusively used for curtains. The bed was twin-sized, essentially queen-sized to a pony, and covered in red heart-shaped pillows. There were bookshelves along each wall except for the wall with the windows, and each bookshelf was packed with books; some looked to be carryovers from Auntie’s collection, while others were new. Sandwiched between one set of bookshelves was a vanity and mirror where Jordan was currently sitting, brushing her mane while simultaneously applying makeup.

“I’m almost done. You can sit anywhere you like while you wait,” Jordan said, carefully inspecting her mascara in the mirror.

Jessica smirked. “You have a date lined up after this? We’re just going by the college.”

“You can’t make a second first impression. I want to look my best,” Jordan replied as she wiped away mascara on one of her eyes and restarted that one from scratch.

Jessica looked around. Jordan certainly was a priss; in a different world, she’d be appealing to Jessica as a romantic partner, but Jordan was straight and was very much interested in sex, which Jessica was not, and even if the other two were different, Jordan felt like Jessica’s sister, so she could never see Jordan as a potential romantic partner. It did make her wonder how she was even supposed to pursue romance. Dealing with Adam further highlighted her issues with dating. No matter how Jessica tried, there would always be an element of strangeness, perhaps even danger in her life. Add to that her complete disinterest in sex and the fact she was a partial, and it seemed like it would be near impossible ever to find a partner who could be happy with her. Only children whined about how unfair things were, but she still couldn’t help feeling it.

“Jessie?”

She looked up to see Jordan looking at her with concern.

“Something wrong?” Jordan asked. “You look sad.”

Jessica rubbed her fingers, trying to decide what to say. “Would you be happy if you ended up being single the rest of your life?”

“No, I wouldn't,” Jordan answered quickly. “No offense to you; you’re my best friend and will always be, but I want a deeper relationship with someone. I want kids. I want to go to sleep, cuddled and safe next to someone, and wake up with their scent all over me. I want someone I know will always be there every day until I’m old and gray, someone who will be there every step of the way. Friends are great, and best friends are even better, but friends have their own lives to live, of which I’m only a supporting character,. I want someone who will be beside me, living our life together. It isn’t my life and their life anymore; it is our life. Sure, we may have our own hobbies, interests, and minor goals to pursue, but at the end of the day, everything we do we are in it together. That is more than a friend, that’s a partner, and I want that.”

Jessica smiled. “And I’m sure you’ll get it.” Her smile fell off. “But I’m not confident I will. I have too many challenges that are in the way.”

“Oh, we have frowny faces. That won’t do!”

Jessica and Jordan jumped back as Rebecca appeared between the pair, balanced on one hoof with her other three legs and her wings spread wide.

“Tadda!” Rebecca announced.

“Rebecca, do you ever knock?!” Jordan demanded. “You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

Rebecca put her limbs down and looked at her. “I would hope not. You’re too young to have heart problems.”

Jessica sighed. “Rebecca, your antics aren’t what I need to cheer up. Why are you even here? Do you just casually spy on everyone?”

“No, I just casually spy on people I care about,” Rebecca answered. “Anyway, you’re an outsider and a weirdo—”

“Thanks. It cheers me to hear it said so bluntly,” Jessica muttered.

“—and those are the kinds of people I told myself I would always try to help,” Rebecca happily continued. “Now, dating advice and relationships are typically Miss Seapony’s thing, but I don’t think she would mind me encroaching on her territory too much.” She tilted her head. “Um, hold a sec ..um, hmmm….hmmm…I hear you and understand….yes…uh hum….yes…well, she is in my domain as well…I know, but you haven’t been that effective with her—no, no, no; I’m not implying that. You normally do a great job…yeah…yeah…I’m just saying let me have a go at it since it is a special circumstance ….you want my support with that? Hmm, I’m not sure; that sounds like a lot of work. I know I am butting in on your territory, but….uh huh…apricots, you say? That’s got some possibilities. Mouthwash? That would never work, it clashes with the egrets. Maybe we could try a cardboard box, or maybe a lint roller. Oh, okay, your idea has some potential to be interesting; you’ve got yourself a deal. I’ll help you out.”

What the fudge?

Rebecca smiled sheepishly at them. “Sorry, Miss Seapony actually did take issue with me messing with what is supposed to be her thing—whoopsie, but we worked it out after I agreed to help her with something else that needs my creative touch. I’m all ready to play matchmaker! This will be exciting.”

“I don’t need or want someone playing matchmaker for me,” Jessica growled.

Rebecca started to float and turned upside down and began doing the backstroke through the air. “That is very sad to hear. I know how much trouble it can be finding that special someone when you have a lack of sexuality working against you and unusual aspects of your life that may scare most people off. I know you’ve got quite a list of what you are looking for in a partner, and many things weighing you down. It would make finding the ideal person a challenge. I might know someone, maybe a few someones, who you wouldn’t normally run into—you know, statistically improbable meetings.”

Damn it, that was tempting.

She sighed. “You won’t get pushy with any of this? You’ll keep your distance as well? It’s hard to figure out if I have any chemistry with someone with you hovering around the place.”

“I promise,” Rebecca assured her. “Although, just like you have baggage you can’t help, some of my friends may have some as well. That’s part of why they’re single. They can deal with what comes in the package with you, so the fair thing is for you to deal with what comes in the package with them.”

Jessica considered. “Some of my baggage is dangerous, like being connected to Sunset Blessing, and Aunt Arbiter. Are we talking about that kind of baggage? It isn’t all about me. I’m trying to adopt a kid and I don’t want to bring more danger into his life.”

Rebecca stopped floating and went down to the floor. “Well…they are connected to me, at least as much as you are connected to me. Some of them travel and find themselves in somewhat dangerous situations, but they aren’t issues they’d bring home with them, and that’s something you’ve done yourself. The welfare of kids is very important to me, so you can trust me when I say I wouldn’t recommend anyone who I thought might harm them, directly or indirectly.”

“What kinds of issues are we talking about then?” Jessica asked.

Rebecca grinned. “That would be for them to disclose when they feel comfortable doing so. That’s very personal information. You already know more than you should by knowing there is something odd about them that typically gets in the way of relationships. Accept that and just be open-minded.”

“It’s only fair, Jessie, and it’s worth a shot” Jordan chimed in.

That was true, and the worst that could happen it would be it wouldn’t work out. What oddities these people might have did worry her a little, but she wasn’t one to complain about oddities.

“Alright. You can introduce me to some of these people,” Jessica conceded.

Rebecca jumped into the air and just sort of hung there. “Great! I’m not sure when I’ll get around to that, but it’s on my list of things to do. I’ve got to go now—I’m supposed to be someplace else, but I got distracted.”

Of course she was supposed to be someplace else now. When was Rebecca ever focused?

Rebecca vanished without another word, likely already taking off with extreme haste to wherever she was supposed to be and whoever presumably was wondering where the heck the pudgy Dreamwarden was.

“Well, now I’ve got to double down on finding a date,” Jordan said. “You’re going to go on multiple dates before I get to go on my first.”

“You’ve got Wabash Manor hanging over you,” Jessica reminded her. “That’s one thing I’m glad I don’t have around my neck.”

Jordan fluttered her lips and made an aggravated whinny. “So it keeps coming up. I need to come up with turning this place around to be a boon. What do you think those OMMR guys are doing with the neighboring properties?”

“Probably staying on alert in case some world-ending event happens,” Jessica answered. “Don’t you have a demon or something down in the vaults? I can only imagine that’s just the start when naming bad things that are down there.”

“I actually do have a demon down there. Amicus has an inventory sheet that she let me see, and it was listed,” Jordan replied. “It wasn’t actually that informative looking at the sheet. A lot of things are just labeled some random number spell journal or flash drive, but doesn’t actually say what’s in the journal or on the drive. Then there are random objects that are listed that it doesn’t say why they are significant—things like a charm bracelet, a walking stick, a tea kettle, a mirror, a snowglobe, large stone, large crystal—that has multiple entries, and there’s like five different necklaces with separate entries; again, inventory just saying necklace with no description. The demon is labeled as an extradimensional entity, no other notes, just inventoried as an extradimensional entity, not even a note saying very dangerous, leave alone. Every item is in a separate vault and there are two hundred and nine vaults, but it doesn’t say what vault what is sealed in, so if you did go down there you’d have no idea what vault whatever you were looking for was.”

“Probably best not to know what is significant about each thing or which vault each is contained. If she thought it was worth locking up in a deathtrap dungeon, then it can’t be good,” Jessica replied. Sunset Blessing inventoried the demon? Seriously!? Why was a tea kettle dangerous? Also…two-hundred and nine vaults? That was an odd number, and it was more extensive than she had expected.

Jordan stood up. “I’m ready whenever you are. Time to put my best hoof forward and see if I can get into your college.”

Josie blinked against the light of the sun as she stuck her head out of Crystal’s SUV. Even with her sunglasses on, the light was still intense. Had she really been able to deal with sunlight without sunglasses? She vaguely remembered sunny days from when she was human, and she was fairly certain she hadn’t worn sunglasses all the time back then. It wasn’t that she disliked light, light was great—moonlight, starlight, the soft light of a desk lamp, fireflies, light was beautiful. Sunlight was just too much. It was the difference between being hit with soft waves on the beach compared to a tidal wave or the difference between a warm blanket and a burning building. How these humans and day ponies stood it was a mystery to her.

“Any word from the Dreamwardens?” Crystal called out.

Josie took a moment to let her vision focus, and shook her head when she could finally clearly make the crystal pony out. “No, I haven’t been asleep. I’ve been waiting for Rebecca.”

“No sign of blunderbutt yet. Not a surprise.
She probably got distracted by something again,” Crystal replied. “I swear, you could throw her off her game by jingling a set of keys.”

Josie grimaced. “She’s not that bad, but you’re right, she’s probably been distracted. There’s a lot of territory between us and her, and lots of things in between that can catch her attention. She’ll get down here, eventually. Once her hooves get sore from dancing she’ll remember she’s supposed to be doing something.”

“How’s she even projecting this far? She could never reach this far before,” Crystal asked.

Josie shrugged. “Not sure. Maybe she got stronger after her trip offworld. This is as new to me as it is to you. I’m sure she’ll explain it whenever I finally go home.”

“Well, I’m keeping my senses stretched as far as I can to feel her, just in case she decides to come in invisible and watch us, sneaky little blob,” Crystal said. “Come on over. I’ve got some fresh-brewed coffee. The others are out on patrol, and Zipper is out talking to pigeons.”

Josie had her senses stretched as well, only she was feeling for dreams instead of magic in general like crystal pony was. Rebecca’s projected form behaved like a dream, and was detectable as one. Nothing was currently dreaming near her. That could change in an instant when Rebecca came into the area.

She walked slowly over to Crystal who had a small campfire going, taking a seat beside the crystal pony. Crystal carefully poured her a cup of coffee from a old tin kettle.

“Drink that slow, that’s cowboy coffee. Not the best tasting—honestly, it tastes like crap, though I promise there’s no crap in it, but it will wake you up,” Crystal said.

“Thank you,” Josie said as she carefully took the mug in her forehooves and blew on it. She probably wouldn’t drink any of it, but she could hold it till it went cold and then use it going cold as an excuse not to drink it.

“I know a lot about roughing it,” Crystal said proudly. “I was homeless for years, and I learned how to make do with very little. I’d never have imagined back then that I could afford all this fancy stuff like my vehicle. I’m starting to explore the housing market. Lots of new developments still going up in Skytree.”

Josie raised an eyebrow at her. “Considering moving out of the nightmare house?”

Crystal shrugged. “We all have to retire eventually. Your Dreamwarden changed things. New bodyguards that are coming in are all super powerful or have weird funky magic that gives them an edge—like you and the rest of the butterball’s bodyguards, or even our Russian buddy, or Wallace. I’m physically strong for a crystal pony, but nothing, special, not enough to overpower your average earth pony. My magic sensing and absorption are kinda mid-level, again, nothing to brag about. I can fight better than most ponies, but I’m also getting older, and, sooner or later, I just won’t be able to keep up on that front. I’ve already had a string of injuries that have lingering soreness from time-to-time. I’m getting older, wearing down, and I’m outdated. It’s time to start thinking about retirement and what comes next while I’m still young enough to have plenty of next to live.”

“I’m not sure what next there is for me,” Josie said with a shake of her head. “The newer generation of night ponies isn’t as hostile to me, but the ones my age or older still tend to treat me like I have the plague, and they’ve got a lot of influence in night pony communities. I’m probably going to outlive them all, if this job doesn’t kill me, but that’s still decades away, and I’m not sure I’m culturally in tune with these younger ponies. I don’t know. I try not to think too much about it.”

Crystal took a sip of her coffee. “I know Phobia thinks about what comes next. She brought in Wallace not long after the blob started upping the ante with bodyguards, and I know she’s been scouting for others. Wouldn’t be surprised if she tried to poach that Ashley unicorn into her service, you know, the one that takes a beating and keeps on ticking? She’s got a pretty versatile spell list too. He’s down the pipeline, but wouldn't be shocked if she tried Moses after he’s grown. That kid’s powers are scary. Phobia knows I’m not cut out to keep this up much longer. Even Tempest is getting older and doesn’t have that same magic pizzaz that it seems it takes these days to hold your own as one of the personal bodyguards.”

Josie chuckled. “I don’t see anyone putting Tempest out to pasture anytime soon. She might not be magically powerful or have any gimmick magic, but that lady is still the toughest fighter around. Beat the snot out of me when I got recruited and she had to train me how to fight.”

“I could see her going into semi-retirement. You know, hang around to whip the new personal bodyguards into shape, but that’s about it. She’s got a great record for training ponies to fight, just look at the Terror Twins. She trained us, and I think we’re at least decent enough to take on a small gang each,” Crystal said, chuckling as well. “She is doing her best to whip Wallace into shape. Kid’s powerful, no question about it, but he’s got a lot of rough edges. Tempest is working on him. All I can do is sit back and watch as she trains up my replacement. She’ll be training her own replacement before long. I don’t mind the idea of falling back to just be Phobia’s driver, although there are plenty of others who could end up filling that kind of role.”

“What would you do instead?” Josie asked.

“I dunno,” Crystal answered. “I’ve got a considerable nest egg saved up. I could just go into full retirement, or maybe I could open up an auto shop or something like that. I’d like to marry, maybe have foals before I lose the ability to. ETS extended my fertility, but that only extends so far.”

Josie looked down. “Having foals would be nice. I think I’d love being a mother. I don’t know how that works for me unless I find a day pony or a night pony stallion half my age. I suppose there’s some sort of artificial insemination I could do, especially since I’m not hurting for cash. Being Rebecca’s bodyguard doesn’t pay as well as being Phobia’s since Rebecca’s identity is private, but I still have more money than I ever thought I would. There were times before I took this job where I was one step away from being homeless.”

“We day ponies aren’t so bad, and while I hear how night pony mares’ aggression turns guys off, you don’t seem that aggressive to me,” Crystal replied.

Josie looked at Crystal. “You’ve seen me fight. You should know better. I can get brutal.”

“You’ve seen me fight as well. I’m not gentle. We don’t get paid to give our foes love taps,” Crystal countered. “Oh, I see those mares that hang around Phobia’s house and how they get about protecting their territory when it comes to their stallions, and I see how the stallions tend to hide because of that, but I don’t see you pulling that crap.”

Josie shrugged. “Never been in a position where I had a stallion, so couldn’t tell you if I would.”

“I think you would be gentle.”

Rebecca appeared in the air just above the fire.

“Sorry for being late. Got distracted playing matchmaker, then got distracted by this clown in Sante Fe that was putting on the best clown show I have ever seen. Maybe I can do that for you too—the matchmaker thing,” Rebecca said cheerfully. She tilted her head. “No, Miss Seapony, I’m not going to keep invading your territory. Josie, Yinyu says she’d be happy to help if you want. I’ll leave that between the two of you.”

“I’ll keep her offer in mind,” Josie replied. “What’s the word on reinforcements?”

Rebecca floated down, realized she was in the fire, then floated to the side so she seemed to be sitting beside them. “Bursa, Ashley, Sunflower Smiles, and Fain are headed your way. They should be here by tomorrow morning. There’s also another crystal pony coming, but she’s a non-combatant. She’s an expert on partial magic and is going to help with the partials after you liberate them.”

Josie’s eyes narrowed. “I can’t believe you actually enlisted Fain. You know what she did to Drizzle!”

Rebecca nodded. “Yes, I know, but I also know she had a stroke of conscience after that and abandoned the people who put her up to it. There’s good in her, we just need to foster that. She’s had a rough life, and I hope giving her meaningful things to do and resolving her whole want to be a pony issue can turn things around for her. I’m asking you to give her a chance. I’m asking as both your Dreamwarden and your friend.”

Josie grimaced, but didn’t reply.

“Hold up—you’re bringing Sunflower Smiles down here!?” Crystal asked in disbelief. “Why?! She was even more useless than you when we were in the Well of Shade! That farm filly can’t fight! What’s she going to do, draw pictures? Ashley and Blanche can do that.”

“Not everyone needs to be a fighter,” Rebecca answered firmly. “What I primarily want her doing is keeping an eye out back here while you guys are attacking. We need to make sure they don’t try taking our non-combatants while you are trying to take that base. Sunflower knows how to keep alert and monitor a situation from a distance while keeping a cool head. She can give early warning if Zipper and our new doctor friend need to get to safety, and she knows how to find a place to hide if she needs them to hide—believe me, she has plenty of experience with that. She’s not a doctor, but she’s worked as an international aid worker and is certified in more forms of first aid than any of you. This isn’t just a liberation mission, it is going to be a humanitarian crisis to take care of, and while you’re all great at bashing bad guys, most of you have little experience in dealing with something like figuring out how to feed or get medicine to people who have gone through an ordeal like this. You’ll need help caring for the partials when this is all done.. She volunteered to help, and I’m giving her a chance to help. Sunflower’s not a fighter, but she’s not useless. She’s my friend, and might have had my job if she hadn’t conceded, so please have some respect for her.”

Josie flicked her tail. Rebecca’s intentions were great in bringing Sunflower and this doctor in, but they were going to need a lot more aid than two ponies for dealing with that many partials. She supposed that Sunflower and this doctor could direct her and the others, but that was still a small group trying to take care of a large community. Hopefully there were more coming and Sunflower and this doctor were just the forerunners.

The bigger concern was still Fain.

“Rebecca, I want to reiterate how unhappy I am with Fain being included in this,” Josie said.

Rebecca gave her a sad look. “I’m taking it Blanche wasn’t able to warm you up to the idea.”

“No, she wasn’t,” Josie replied, trying to avoid snapping.

Rebecca sighed. “Do you know why Fain is the way she is?”

“No, and I don’t really care. She is the way she is, and that’s all I need to know. She’s a monster,” Josie growled.

“Harsh, considering we’re bringing in a literal giant bug monster in Bursa and you don’t seem to care about that,” Crystal said dryly.

“I don’t know Bursa, but I know all about Fain,” Josie said, glaring at Rebecca.

“Fain was once held in a government facility where they experimented on her because of her powers. Well, after they coerced her into rehumanizing against her will. Before that, she’d been inspired by your visions of a pony world. That’s why she had previously wanted so much to be a pony,” Rebecca explained.

“Oh, so she’s somehow my fault?!” Josie finally snapped.

Rebecca shook her head. “No, her reasons for wanting to be a pony eventually morphed into her resentment for humans for what they did to her. Now she is being given a chance to free partials that are being held against their will just like she was. You don’t have to like her. You don’t have to forgive her for her past actions either. What you do need to do is believe that this mission is important to her on a personal level, and she is going to do everything she can to help it succeed. I understand how you feel, but you need to put those feelings aside and think about what is important, and what is important is bringing this terrible place down and making the lives of all those people held within their own again. We need powerful allies to take this place down, and Fain is a powerful ally.”

“But you’re planning on keeping her around after this, aren’t you?” Josie asked. “She isn’t going to face justice for all the people she has hurt.”

Rebecca looked her in the eyes. “Did you? I know it is different with you. You never meant to hurt anyone, but your visions have done irreparable harm that you can’t expect everyone to forgive just because you are sorry. We’ve still got an ongoing war zone in Central Asia that involves ponies that believe in their white alicorn god that they saw in your visions, and I can only speculate on how much your visions led to the rise of Shimmerism. I don’t condemn you for these things, and I know that they were never your intention, but your hooves aren’t clean. They are possibly the most bloody hooves on the planet. People that have given you a chance despite all that have not been disappointed by doing so, but I know there are a lot out there that to this day won't give you that chance. I’m asking you to give Fain a chance. Everyone deserves a chance to be better. If she fails, that’s on her, and I won’t extend chances to her forever, but if she does turn over a new leaf then it was worth it.”

“Damn, I didn’t think your pudgy ass could be so harsh. That hit hard,” Crystal said with a whistle. “Please, don’t do me. I don’t want my past dug up. I know it ain’t clean.”

Josie looked away. “You didn’t need to bring up my past sins. I put that all behind me.”

“Sorry, but I needed to put this in perspective,” Rebecca replied, sounding genuinely sorry. “Expect them to arrive tomorrow by noon. Try to figure out how to begin your assault within three days. Remember that Rossman is a high priority target to capture alive, Lair as well. We need them for questioning.”

“You aren’t planning on any reformation stuff with them, are you?” Crystal asked. “The very fact that they are here, experimenting on people, show they don’t seem to have much remorse for their previous actions—and don’t give me any counters about how they abandoned ship with Royal Bearing. Having limits to how nasty they’re willing to get doesn’t make them misunderstood angels.”

“I couldn’t if I wanted to. We made an agreement with the US government that we’d turn them over to federal custody after capturing them,” Rebecca answered. “It’s part of why they’re turning a blind eye to us doing this and a blind eye to Bursa suddenly going off the grid.”

“At least those two will see justice,” Josie muttered.

Chapter 51: Miss Gilmore Goes to School

Jordan stepped to the side to give a student extra space to pass, offering a brief but friendly nod. Jessie pulled her tail closer, though it hadn't been in anyone's way.

"So... who are we going to meet?" Jordan asked, hoping to distract Jessie from the students passing by. Her friend had never been completely comfortable in crowded spaces.

"Violet is her name, she's... a bit different." Jessie flicked her tail, searching for words. "You can get a little bit of Auntie vibes off her... minus the magic. She actually worked for Auntie for a while."

"Really religious?" Jordan asked, remembering how Auntie would drop scripture quotes into casual conversation, even if she hadn't given a proper sermon since Jordan was tiny.

Jessie laughed. "Definitely not. What I meant is she's a plotter—a person who likes to attach strings to people. She's not malicious, but everything she does you get the feeling she has some sort of agenda and wants to use you for something."

"Yeah, sounds like Auntie," Jordan agreed, though she mostly remembered Auntie's blunt comments at family gatherings rather than any complex plots. The few magic lessons she'd had with her hadn't revealed much about that side of her character.

Jessie stopped in front of a door. "Here we are," she said as she knocked.

"Enter," a female voice responded.

They stepped into the office, and Jordan found herself studying the woman behind the desk with interest. Her violet hair was striking enough, but what really caught Jordan's attention was how little she wore above the waist compared to most humans, and the unusual amount of thick fur clustered around her chest. Unlike Jessie, whose fur concentrated around her legs, Violet's fur pattern was distinctly different from any human or partial Jordan had met. She noticed Jessie's carefully neutral expression - clearly used to her colleague's appearance but still not entirely comfortable with it.

"Jessica!" Violet rose with a polished grace nothing like Auntie's casual manner. "So nice of you to drop by!" She moved around to greet them, her gaze taking in Jordan's appearance in the familiar pattern of new acquaintances - noting her light violet coat, braided yellow mane, the jewelry at her neck and ears, and finally settling on her book-and-heart cutie mark. "And you brought a friend. Jordan Gillmore, I presume? Your light violet coat complements your mark beautifully. I’m quite find of the color.”

"That's me," Jordan replied, resisting the urge to touch her the jewelry. At least Violet wasn't making a production out of the formal observation like some humans did.

"Wonderful to meet you! Love what you've done with your makeup. Please, take a seat, both of you," Violet instructed as she sat back down in her own chair. "What brings you to my office today?"

Jordan settled into one of the offered chairs while Jessie took the other. Her friend pointed at Jordan, tail wrapping around the chair leg. "Jordan here is trying to get a leg up on applying to our college. She had to recently drop out because—"

"Because she took control of Wabash Manor and her college back in Rock Hill was a teensy bit too far away, am I right?" Violet interjected.

Jordan blinked at the interruption. "Uh, yeah, that's right."

"Try to limit how often you interject 'um' into sentences. It makes you seem less confident," Violet advised, her tone polished where Auntie would have just told her to spit it out. "I know a good bit about you. When Sunset Blessing decided she was taking off to Equestria, I took an interest in who was going to end up taking her place at Wabash—I wanted to know if I was trading one handler for another, not that I ever objected to being one of Miss Blessing's aides."

Jordan wondered just how much research Violet had actually done. Probably all public records and whatever glimpses she'd gotten during her occasional work for Auntie. Not that it mattered - the really important things about Wabash weren't in any records.

"Oh, I guess I can understand why you might want to do that," Jordan replied. "I'm not really interested in continuing my auntie's stuff, so you don't need to worry about me trying to direct... whatever it is that you have going on."

Violet chuckled. "I didn't expect you to, given what I learned about you. You are looking for a little help getting admitted into the college before you apply—a personal recommendation from me?"

“Yes, ma’am,” Jordan answered.

"Well, having the mistress of Wabash Manor at our school would certainly be noteworthy," Violet mused, her tone suggesting she'd rehearsed this conversation. "I believe you previously were an English Major with a secondary education minor, is that correct?"

"Yes, ma'am," Jordan answered quickly. "I plan on keeping that."

"English falls under my purview, but secondary education is a whole other area. I'm on good terms with that dean, so I can certainly put in a few good words with them, along with the admissions office," Violet replied. "However, being just an English teacher seems such a humble role for someone who commands Wabash Manor. It seems like you could do so much more."

"All I've ever wanted was to be an English teacher," Jordan asserted. She'd had enough of people assuming she must have grander ambitions just because she'd inherited Wabash.

Violet nodded. "A commendable goal, and I'm glad you have a strong sense of who you are and don't let anything unsettle that. However... have you considered how your new acquisition might put a potential damper on your career goals? Most middle and high schools may be extremely wary of hiring an educator who hails from Wabash Manor... it has a reputation."

Jordan had already thought about this more than she cared to admit. "Well, I hope that will go away now that Auntie is gone," she said.

"Hoping is great, but I tend not to trust in anything that wasn't engineered," Violet replied, leaning forward slightly. "However, maybe you could change the reputation while still fulfilling your dreams. Have you considered you are sitting on a prime location for a school?"

Jordan blinked. "Wabash? As a school?" The idea was both intriguing and concerning - Andrea would definitely object, though not for the security reasons she'd actually cite. "Isn't it a little small?"

"Small is another term for exclusive," Violet replied, clearly warming to her topic. "And Miss Portsmith may have a lot to say about what goes on there now, but she ultimately has to conform to your wishes—I believe there is some sort of age clause about that in your inheritance contract that gives you full authority after you turn twenty-one."

Jordan sat back, considering. Violet had certainly done her research on the public records, though she obviously didn't know about the real security concerns. Still, the idea wasn't completely impossible. The main house was separate from the sealed areas, and the library did contain plenty of Auntie's safe spellbooks, even if they were disguised with titles like "Paint Drying Techniques of the Mid-19th Century" and "A Comprehensive Study of Doorknob Designs."

Having her own school might actually work. Magic would be the draw for attracting students - everyone assumed Wabash held Auntie's magical knowledge, and they weren't exactly wrong. All she'd have to do was advertise teaching Sunset Blessing's techniques and she'd have thousands of applications. She could probably charge significant tuition too. The main house's library did have plenty of legitimate magical knowledge, even if finding anything meant wading through titles that would put an insomniac to sleep. Plus teaching basic liberal arts would give her the chance to do what she actually wanted - teach English literature.

"I'd still need to get my degree first," Jordan said carefully, keeping her tone neutral. "And I couldn't even consider starting to put in the groundwork for something like that until after I'm twenty-one." When she'd have actual authority to make these decisions, and Andrea would have to do more than just glare disapprovingly at every change.

"Of course... although... I could lay some groundwork for you before that point," Violet offered, her voice honey-smooth. "Opening a new school is no small task. It can take years to set up."

"And what do you get out of it?" Jessie asked sharply. Jordan appreciated her friend's directness - she'd been wondering the same thing.

Violet chuckled. "Oh, it should be clear. I get influence, and I get to be a talent scout for a magic school. It's my opportunity to give all the oddballs a chance to become great."

"You really are like Auntie," Jordan observed. "You're out to find everyone who has been overlooked as weird and utilize their talent that everyone else dismissed." Though from what she remembered of family gatherings, Auntie had been far more blunt about it, often calling people 'delightfully strange' to their faces.

Violet held up a finger. "Not quite. I'm not out to use them, just give them a leg up. Call it a personal mission to spite the world that treated me like a freak for years. I hate seeing anyone made to feel ashamed of who and what they are, especially when they have plenty to offer the world. I may not be a mage, and I don't know the first thing about spellcasting, but what I do have is an eye for anyone who is special and a desire to build that up."

"If you don't know the first thing about magic, how can you talent scout it?" Jordan asked. She wondered how much of Auntie's actual magical work Violet had even seen during her time at Wabash.

"I may not know these things, but I'm familiar enough with it to see when someone is doing something not normal," Violet replied, using air quotes with her fingers to stress the last two words. "I can find the deviants, it's up to you to figure out how to help them utilize being different. You aren't the kind of person I'm typically passionate about working with—you're depressingly normal, but you've potentially got the keys to the kingdom for lots of people who deserve their chance. So, I'm willing to give you my full support." She paused, smoothing her chest fur in what seemed to be a habitual gesture. "I'm not Sunset Blessing. I appreciate and admire her for seeing value where others did not, including my value, but I'm not out to be her. I don't have any hidden agenda. Everything is on full glorious display with me. You can trust me."

Jordan looked at Jessie for some sense of what she thought. Her friend gave her a stiff nod - not exactly enthusiasm, but not a warning either.

Looking back at Violet, Jordan chose her words carefully. "Okay... I'm willing to explore the possibility. It is going to take a huge amount of negotiating and figuring out to get it past Andrea, but I'm willing to look into it." And a lot of careful planning about what parts of Wabash would be accessible and what would stay firmly off-limits, but that wasn't something she could mention. "In the meantime, I need a degree. No one is coming to a school where the founder doesn't even have a degree."

"True enough," Violet replied. "How about we go have a chat together with the Education School Dean and then the admissions department? Let me work my magic, and I'll have you accepted in no time."

Okay... that was good. Having the two deans plus Jessie on her side going into admissions was good. She really had no clue if what Violet wanted her to do with Wabash was viable, but that was a problem for another year. The whole idea would need careful consideration - what could actually be taught, what areas could be opened to students, how to handle Andrea's security concerns without revealing why they were so serious. Right now, her primary concern was getting re-enrolled in college and on with her degree again. Anything else could wait.

Author's Note

This chapter originally had a long second section. I wasn't really happy with it and am currently revising the second section as its own chapter. The furst section I was satisfied with, so I decided to release it on its own.

Chapter 52: Team Together

Blanche watched the dust cloud that indicated an approaching vehicle. The direction and timing said that it should be Jonathan, Ashley, Sunflower, Fain, and Bursa, but there was little way of confirming that at this distance. It was too bright for Josie to get a good look on a fly over, especially with all the dust. She'd briefly considered sending the pegasus out there to look, but if it were a hostile force she'd then be sending a civilian into a dangerous situation—more dangerous than he was in now. All she could do was wait.

"Zipper, go take a look," Tempest instructed, making Blanche grimace. So much for not sending the civilian into a hostile situation. She kept her mouth shut. The command was Tempest's.

She watched as Zipper gave the woman a blink. "What should I be looking for? That car or truck or whatever should be here soon enough. It's not like I'm giving you much of a head's up."

"He makes a valid point," Blanche said.

"I say we just wait. Easier just to stay on guard than count on him going and coming back in time," Crystal said.

"Why are you guys even considering sending me out there? Those are your buddies, right?" Zipper asked. He then cowered down. "We aren't going to be attacked, are we?"

"I wouldn't call Fain my buddy," Josie muttered.

Blanche sighed. "Just because we assume that's them doesn't mean it is, and we are camped not too far from a hostile force that has to realize we are here by now."

"Should I hide and take cover?" Zipper asked worriedly.

"That would be prudent until we know for sure that's our friends," Blanche answered.

"Allies," Josie corrected.

Tempest didn't even glance in anyone's direction as she kept her eyes trained on the dust cloud. "Very well. Zipper, get in the van and stay down for now."

They stood for a few minutes, watching the dust get closer and closer. Their approachers weren't making any effort at stealth. The base that they'd been scouting and planning the assault of for days almost certainly would see the dust cloud. Perhaps it could work in their favor—the guards wouldn't expect someone planning an assault to be so blatant about their approach. Jonathan would be the one in charge of that group; he should know better than to kick up such a large cloud of dust.

The vehicle eventually slowed down as it got in sight of them. It was a typical SUV with off-road capabilities. The wipers were beating back and forth across the windshield to try to keep the window clear of dust. Sitting in the driver's seat was an unfamiliar woman with crystalline hair—Fain. Jonathan was in the front passenger seat, looking like he wanted to vomit.

"It's them. Zipper, you can come out," Tempest instructed.

Zipper peeked his head out of the van and looked around before cautiously stepping out.

Jonathan opened the door and promptly bent over to puke on the ground outside the SUV. How heroic. Honestly, she wasn't shocked. He puked enough times back on their adventure in the other world, but he came through when she needed him, so she didn't hold it against him.

Fain opened the door and looked at Jonathan with barely concealed disdain. "You are such an embarrassing weakling! It was just a few bumps!"

"A few?" Jonathan asked in disbelief as he tried to catch his breath.

"That's what off-roading means. Get over it," Fain snapped as she shut the door. She then reached into her pockets and pulled out a pair of leather gloves that she proceeded to put on.

"You let her travel with you while wearing no gloves!" Josie snapped, her wings flaring in agitation. "Do you have any idea what would have happened if she laid her hands on you?"

"I'm aware. It's not so different than what happens to a computer if I touch it without gloves," Jonathan replied, adjusting his glasses back in place using a gloved hand. A ghost of a smile crossed his face as he looked at his old friend. "She promised not to touch anyone, and I decided to show some trust. She said it was uncomfortable driving with gloves on."

The back door opened and an older crystal pony mare stepped out. Her coat sparkled in the sunlight as she moved with careful grace. "I told him that he needed to show her some trust. We should treat unique human magic with respect." She paused and looked at them, before waving happily, her whole face lighting up. "Hi, Josie! Long time no see!"

Josie's stern expression melted into a warm smile as she waved a wing. "Hello, Silvia. Nice to see you again. I figured it was you they were sending when they said they were sending an expert on partial magic." Her smile fell. "But you should know better than anyone how dangerous Fain is."

"My abilities don't actually work on crystal ponies, so she has nothing to fear," Fain said flatly, though there was a hint of something—perhaps regret—in her voice. "I told the fat Dreamwarden I'd behave myself. So that should be good enough. Who even are you again?"

"Josie," she answered, her voice tight with emotion. "I was the foalsitter for those foals back at Wabash Manor. You foalnapped a foal I was caring for.”

Fain looked away, her crystalline hair catching the light as she moved. "Sorry about that. It wasn't my proudest moment. I never liked the idea of messing with a kid, but Rossman promised I’d get to be a pony. I did what I could to make it right after Royal Bearing went nuts and started killing innocent ponies, ponies I once called friends.”

"Bullshit!" Josie snapped, spreading her wings threateningly. "You might have grown a little conscience, but you turned tail and ran instead of helping save that little filly. You left her there with that monster with an old weak unicorn who'd been beaten to hell as the only one to save her."

"That old weak unicorn was Sunset Blessing, and she found a way while I got away. It all worked out," Fain replied, her voice softening slightly. "It's all ancient history, so let's not discuss it. I'm here to help, and I'm not going to run away. I’ve been held at facilities like this one. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”

Blanche looked st the van expectantly. “Where are the rest?”

Sunflower Smiles came flapping out of the van in a rush, her cheerful presence instantly lightening the tense atmosphere. "We're here! Sorry! We didn't want to interrupt whatever...this...was." Her bright smile and eager expression were exactly as Blanche remembered, and despite herself, she felt her own lips curving upward.

Ashley stepped out next, turning her scarred face to sneer at Sunflower. Despite the harsh expression, there was an underlying fondness in her voice as she said, "Speak for yourself. I was waiting for you to move out of the way and get your tail out of my face."

"Sorry, Ash," Sunflower quickly said, then turned to beam at Blanche. "Hi, Blanche! It looks like we're getting the gang back together!" Her enthusiasm was infectious, and even Ashley's stern expression softened slightly.

"You, personally, along with Silvia, are only here to help with the cleanup," Blanche reminded her gently, though she couldn't help but smile at Sunflower's infectious enthusiasm. "That's just as important, and I'm glad you're here. It's good to see you, farm pony."

Ashley grunted and walked towards them, her scarred face catching the sunlight. "So, what are we up against? I'm ready to cream some mad scientists."

"I'm interested in hearing too. I'm ready for some payback," Fain said, flexing her gloved hands.

Tempest looked at Zipper. "What's the latest intel from your birds?"

Zipper straightened up, clearly pleased to have useful information to share. "You are looking at about thirty different guards. There are two guards at each tower, and a guard that makes patrol between each tower. There is one gate in front, wide enough to get two trucks through, and it has four guards. The rest are down in the main base. The main base has two levels: the ground level, which is a wide open courtyard where the partials just kind of mill around, and a subterranean level. I can't tell you anything about the underground, sorry about that."

"That's a lot of useful information, thank you," Tempest said, her voice warm with approval. "Do you have notes on how many ponies they have and what types?"

Zipper nodded eagerly. "There's only two unicorns, one crystal pony, and one pegasus. No other ponies."

"One of the unicorns must be Lair, and the crystal pony must be Rissman. Both are cowards who will try to avoid combat. That just leaves two other ponies to deal with," Tempest mused.

"Don't rule out Lair trying to cast some spells. She isn't quite as nice as Rossman," Fain warned, her crystalline hair glinting as she shook her head.

"You'd know," Josie muttered, though with less venom than before.

"Let it go, Josie," Blanche warned, placing a gentle hand on her friend's shoulder.

"I'll be quiet about it, but I won't let it go," Josie replied. It would have to do.

Tempest gestured for them all to head towards the currently burnt-out campfire. "Come, let's give our newcomers a chance to stretch their legs for a little while, and then we can sit down and make our final plans. We need to make our move as soon as possible. They must have seen that dust cloud. Even if they believe we are campers or bird researchers, they have to be very wary, and more showing up makes that anxiety heighten. There can be no more waiting. We need to make our move tonight."

Blanche grimaced. This wouldn't be her first battle. She and Jonathan had seen their fair share on the other world. The first battle had been the hardest, but the battles that followed weren't any easier. Even if you won, at the end there was always the fear of who you wouldn't see returning to camp, or what state they were in if they made it back.

"Sunflower, I understand that you have medical training. You should set up a station to receive any wounded. If someone gets hurt, the more prepared we are to treat them quickly makes all the difference," Blanche said, trying to keep her voice steady despite her concerns.

Sunflower's ears dropped, her usual cheer dimming slightly. "I understand. We brought plenty of medical supplies, so no fear about being short on that. I'll make sure we're ready."

"And I'll assist," Silvia said, her crystalline coat catching the fading sunlight. "My focus is magical maladies and psychology, but I have some very basic medical training."

"I'm first aid certified. I'll be here too," Zipper said supportively, puffing up his chest slightly.

Tempest looked around, her scarred face thoughtful. "Jonathan, I know you aren't as proficient in direct hand-to-hand combat as Blanche, so you're probably our weakest combat-trained individual. I want you to stay in camp and help get the civilians to safety if the worst happens."

"He could be useful if we need to get through an electronic lock," Ashley said, her voice carrying the weight of experience.

"I would rather not risk him in a fight, and we need someone experienced guarding our civilians," Tempest replied. "Do you have a weapon?"

"I've got a gun and know how to use it," Jonathan replied, still bent over the hood of the SUV but looking better. "I'm not completely useless in a fight."

"You'd make a rotten guardian for these ponies if you were," Tempest said with a hint of approval.

"Rest and stretch your legs," Tempest instructed. "We'll go over plans in a little bit."

Jonathan weakly nodded and laid his head down on the SUV. He'd always had a weak stomach and was prone to motion sickness. He'd recover in a few minutes.

Sunflower walked up to Blanche, who smiled down at her old friend. "How's your reunion with your old bodyguard going?"

Sunflower glanced back at the scarred unicorn, who was literally stretching a short distance away. "She's mostly business. She's the same old Ash. Most of the time she's focused on her job, but she'll thaw out for moments and talk about the old days. This mission has her on edge. The idea of anybody experimenting on anyone else pulls up bad memories—her, Fain, and Bursa all have their bad memories about that stuff. I can't imagine how they're feeling."

Blanche frowned and looked around. "Where is the big bug?"

Sunflower blinked. "I think she's still in the SUV. She couldn't fit into the SUV in her standard form. She was also putting Silvia on edge."

"So... what is she right now?" Blanche asked, raising an eyebrow.

A kitten hopped out of the SUV, a cute little tabby with bright eyes and delicate paws.

Blanche raised an eyebrow higher. "Seriously?"

The kitten looked at her and mewed innocently.

"Drop the act, Bursa. I know it is you. They didn't bring a random kitten," Blanche said, crossing her arms. The familiarity of Bursa's antics brought back memories, not all of them pleasant.

The kitten vanished in a bout of green flame that expanded quickly in size but gave off no smoke. When the flame cleared, a giant praying mantis type bug with a pony face, jagged horn, and mane stood before them. Silvia hastily hurried several more feet away, putting Josie between her and Bursa.

"If you prefer this, then I shall fulfill your wish. I think I remember you. I don't know from where," Bursa said, her mandibles clicking slightly as she spoke.

"The Well of Shade," Blanche said flatly, memories of that dark time flickering across her mind.

"I'm not alright with this form. Revert to something else. We could be monitored and you stand out far too much," Tempest snapped, her military bearing showing through.

There was another flame and now there was a human woman standing there. "Better?"

Tempest sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "You forgot clothes."

Another bout of flame engulfed Bursa and she was now fully clothed, wearing a red and green dress that seemed chosen specifically to annoy.

"You look like a Christmas tree," Ashley muttered. Bursa stuck her tongue out at the unicorn, the gesture somehow both childish and menacing.

"Do you need to instigate her?" Blanche asked, though she couldn't completely hide her amusement.

"No," Ashley confessed as she walked over, her scarred face softening slightly. "Where are your other two peeps?"

"Out bird watching," Blanche answered. "Our cover story is that we're nature observers, studying bird migratory patterns. Zipper has given us a lengthy explanation of things to say to make it sound plausible if questioned. We haven't had any run-ins with anyone, so not sure how much they'd buy it."

Sunflower looked up at the sky, her wings fluttering thoughtfully. "I don't know much about birds. Is that bad? They have wings, I have wings—I should know more."

"That's hardly a logical assumption," Jonathan said, finally looking recovered enough to join the conversation. "For starters, you aren't a small flying reptile—"

"Um... neither are birds," Sunflower replied, her face scrunching up in confusion. "They're birds, not reptiles. They're warm-blooded and don't have scales."

"Technically, they are warm-blooded reptiles, which is rare out of traditional reptiles, but there are examples of it, even with them," Zipper interjected, his eyes lighting up with enthusiasm. "If you count bird species, you could consider about half of reptiles to be warm-blooded. Feathers developed in reptiles back with dinosaurs, so there were non-scaly reptiles. Every trait birds have can be found in some non-avian reptile, even if the sample size is small or the examples of it are extinct. Nothing biologically or anatomically separates birds from reptiles. However, mammals, which also evolved from reptiles, have traits that no reptile has or ever had, so we are clearly something else—just like both mammals and reptiles have distinct traits that our common amphibian ancestors had or the fish before them."

Jonathan grunted, adjusting his glasses. "Very informative. Anyway... just because you share some traits with something, doesn't mean you should know all about that thing. We are all mammals, but I doubt any of us know an incredible amount about duck-billed platypuses."

"They lay eggs. I know that," Zipper said proudly. "But... not much else."

"I didn't know they laid eggs. Now I wanna see a platypus," Sunflower said wistfully, her wings perking up. "But I get what you're saying, Jonathan. How's being a red herring and running the OMMR going for you?"

Jonathan shrugged, a familiar weariness crossing his features. "I am always shocked at how readily people believe I'm The Marshmallow. We share very few traits in common. As for the OMMR, I'm still not fully in control. The Dreamwardens still end up dictating a lot of what happens there. What I get out of it is having to put on a diplomatic face for government officials and signing a lot of paperwork—never-ending paperwork. Being out in the field is a bit of a relief." He glanced at Sunflower with genuine interest. "How has your freedom to travel gone?"

Sunflower gave him a beaming smile, her whole face lighting up. "It's been great... for the most part. I've done some international aid work, and seeing people suffering is always bad. I do enjoy getting to see all the different places, try new foods, experience new cultures and see things you wouldn't believe. Seeing Göbekli Tepe was amazing, and so was seeing Angkor Wat. India was great!"

"Someday I will have to give you a tour of my homeland," Blanche said warmly, feeling a surge of nostalgia. "It has been a while since I have been back to Brussels. I should find some time to go visit my family."

"I prefer not going home myself. Too many bad memories. I hated having to travel through Texas to get here," Ashley quietly said, her scars seeming more pronounced in the fading light.

Blanche gave Ashley a sympathetic look. "Well, at least the villain who did that to you got what was coming to him. Now is our chance to help other people suffering in captivity. I'm glad to have you with us."

"I will find Rossman and Lair and eat their faces!" Bursa declared, her human form briefly flickering with barely contained rage.

"No... you won't," Jonathan scolded, his voice firm despite his earlier weakness. "We are to capture those two alive. We can't find out what all they've done to whom without having them alive to question. We'd be fools if we thought this base was the only place they've done their... work."

"If you try to murder them, I will personally skewer you and pin you to the wall like the bug you are. I know you'd survive it, but it would be painful," Blanche warned, her voice carrying the weight of past experience.

Bursa hissed, showing a very inhuman tongue. "That's not exactly very friendly. I thought we were supposed to be teammates."

Blanche relaxed her stance, though her eyes remained watchful. "We are a team, and teams need to work together. We can't have you going rogue and jeopardizing mission priorities. I don't want to carry through with that threat, but I'll do what I have to do to stop you if you try to pull something like that. The pair of them are going to end up going to jail, and likely spending their lives there. Be satisfied with that."

"Threatening a changeling queen is one way of being diplomatic, I suppose," Tempest said, looking between them before settling on Bursa. Her voice softened as she continued, "I'm not sure doing intense bodily harm to you should be necessary, but I will ensure you don't kill our targets. We have four primary goals. One, free the prisoners. Two, make it so the facility can no longer operate as it has. Three, capture Rossman and Lair alive. Four, get through this without experiencing any casualties to the team. Those are our goals in order of priority, but let's try to make them all equal priority."

Zipper raised a wing hesitantly. "Um, where do we civilian aid types not getting hurt fit into the priority chart?"

"Somewhere between three and four, let's say three point five," Tempest answered with a hint of dark humor.

Zipper looked ill and turned to look pleadingly at Silvia and Sunflower. "Please tell me one of you two is secretly a master fighter."

"I know a little self-defense, but I wouldn't say I'm a master fighter," Sunflower answered, trying to sound reassuring despite her obvious concern.

Silvia snorted, her crystalline coat shimmering with nervous energy. "I'm the one who should be concerned. I'm older and weaker than all of you, and at least the two of you can fly away if something happens. I'm left hoping that Jonathan can keep me safe."

"In all honesty, the two of them flying away is the best plan if something happens. I can more easily protect one pony than three," Jonathan said as he adjusted his glasses, his earlier nausea seemingly forgotten in the face of duty.

"Don't worry, I'm good at flying away from danger," Sunflower chirped, though her usual cheerfulness seemed slightly forced.

"Hopefully better than you were during the Well of Shade incident where you flew straight in," Blanche muttered, unable to keep the worry from her voice.

"Hey, I did my best to stay out of everybody's way," Sunflower replied defensively.

Blanche looked at Jonathan. "And you did worse. You jumped right into the fray, putting yourself in danger."

"It was kind of necessary, if you recall," Jonathan reminded her gently. "My powers were needed. I realized what we were up against and knew what needed to be done. If I hadn't, we'd probably all have died."

"Nobody cares that my carapace got crushed back then and that I volunteered to help then too," Bursa muttered, her human form flickering slightly with emotion.

"It was your fault we were even in that situation!" Blanche exclaimed, old anger flaring.

"Yeah, she's right about that," Sunflower agreed, then quickly put on a forced smile and looked at Jonathan. "Hey, have you heard from Roger or know how his mom is doing since then?"

The mention of their old companions shifted the mood, and Jonathan adjusted his glasses again. "Unfortunately no. Roger is not involved with the OMMR and we have no reason to track him."

Blanche relaxed, glad to share some positive news. "I guess I'm more in the know than Jonathan. Roger got a job with the CIA. He helps interview candidates who are seeking higher security clearance, and he also helps out with other questions sometimes. His lie-detecting abilities make him invaluable. As for his mom, she's doing much better, though she still is getting regular therapy and I think she goes to a support group."

"There's support groups for getting kidnapped by giant bugs and possessed by weird psychic entities?!" Sunflower asked, her eyes wide with disbelief.

"Well, there's support groups for people who have gone through traumatic experiences," Blanche explained gently.

"Is she traumatized that she broke my carapace?" Bursa asked snidely.

"I highly doubt it," Blanche replied sharply. "Just be glad Jonathan's abilities work just as much on magical artifacts as they do on electronics, otherwise Roger's mother would have probably done much more than cause you severe injury. I'm surprised she didn't focus on you and try to murder you before the rest of us. Instead, she treated you like a bug to just swat."

Fain came over between them and sat down, her crystalline hair catching the light. "You guys sound like you've been through some weird shit. Can I hear more about how much a problem Bursa is? I enjoy not being the focus of everyone's disdain."

"No, you are worse than Bursa," Josie cut in, her leathery wings flaring with anger. "Bursa might have done some crap, and she might be an idiot—"

"I can't help it!" Bursa said defensively, her human form flickering slightly.

"—but she was doing those things because she had a clear goal," Josie continued, undeterred. "Her methods might have been crap and poorly thought out, but she did have something she was trying to accomplish. You don't have that claim to fall back on. You just cause pain and suffering because you're mad at the world."

"Can we not point out that Bursa has some... mental handicaps?" Sunflower asked cautiously, her wings drooping with concern. "She really can't help it."

"Rossman and Lair messed up my brain," Bursa confirmed, her voice smaller than before.

"Don't ham up your victim status, Bursa," Blanche warned. "Even an idiot should know kidnapping is wrong. You've got your weird moral code, so I know you know right from wrong."

"Hey! I hear a lot of squabbling, see a lot of finger pointing, and not enough hugs and smiles!" The Marshmallow's disembodied voice rang out.

Bursa looked around, her human form tensing. "The fat annoying pony is here? How?"

Rebecca appeared among them, floating like some cartoon imp in the air. "I show up where I wanna show up, silly. I'm glad you all made it down here safely."

Tempest crossed her arms. "Do you have additional mission parameters to drop on us, Dreamwarden?"

"Yeah, stop fighting with one another!" Rebecca said, spreading her wings. "All this grouchiness makes me sad—doesn't really help with the team building either."

"You had to know there would be disagreements when you put Bursa and Fain on the team," Blanche said flatly.

Rebecca held up a wing. "No, there were disagreements when I said I was going to do it. I listened to them, decided I was still going forward with my plan, and now we have disgruntlement not disagreement. Disgruntlement to yourselves and try to put on a friendly face with each other."

"Who are you?" Silvia hesitantly asked, her crystalline coat shimmering with nervous energy.

Rebecca looked at Silvia and blinked, drifting away from her. She was likely worried about her projection getting magic sapoed. "Oh... right... you didn't know the identity of The Marshmallow. I'm Rebecca. I'm your friendly neighborhood Marshmallow. I will have to get some lawyers with a contract binding you to secrecy about this... sometime after the mission... if you survive... I don't know any lawyers who would go this far out to... scratch that... I actually might know a lawyer or two who would go this far out. Let me rephrase this—"

"I think she gets the idea, Rebecca," Josie said, her leathery wings twitching with familiar exasperation.

"You guys just interrupt a Dreamwarden speaking?" Zipper asked in disbelief. "Aren't you scared of making her mad?"

Blanche shrugged. "Not really. It's part of our job as her bodyguards to try to keep her focused. Rebecca, I think Josie is right. Silvia doesn't need any further info than you are The Marshmallow, at least not right now."

Rebecca flipped upside down for whatever reason. "Right! Anyway, Fain, try not to antagonize anyone. Josie, Fain is going to do her best, so try not to harass her unless she actually does something to earn it. Bursa... try to follow orders. You know you don't make the best choices, and they want to help keep you alive. I want you to stay alive too. Ashley, tone down the causticness. Sunflower... great to see you again! We don't get to see each other nearly enough. You and I are going to have to have a good long get together after this is all done to catch up. Tempest... sorry for dumping this much unruliness on you, but I know you can manage it. Blanche, be her support, don't be part of the problem."

"So, you expected there to be friction and you showed up just to try to smooth it over?" Tempest asked, her professional demeanor unwavering.

"More or less," Rebecca confirmed. "This is the most dangerous mission we've sent you guys on. I was tempted to insist on sending Wallace too, but didn't want to leave Phobia unguarded. Not unguarded, that's not the right term. She is guarded without Wallace, since she has all those night pony mares guarding her. How about not adequately guarded, since he's worth all them put together in a fight. Plus, he's kinda unruly, and Tempest has enough to manage already, and he's still barely more than a kid, and I would feel extra bad sending him in if he got hurt."

"Wallace is older than half this team and you," Ashley said with a grumble. "And while he's a pain in the flank, he isn't as bad as the bug and miss Rhymes-With-Pain."

Rebecca smiled at Fain. "I told you that you had a catchy catchphrase." She turned her head towards Ashley and let it detach to go floating over to her.

Ashley raised an eyebrow. "That's a new one."

Rebecca grinned. "You noticed! How's the effect, on a one to ten scale?"

"I dunno, a five?" Ashley answered. "It's just weird."

Rebecca seemed to consider this response. "Hmm, guess I'll have to spice it up. Anyway—Fain has been on my radar for a while as a possible redemption case and Bursa has some issues I'm working on as well. So now was as good a time as any to bring them on and get them with the program."

"How are you projecting so far and doing things like you'd do in the dream realm with your projection? Did becoming a Dreamwarden give you that much of a power boost?" Sunflower asked as she looked back and forth between Rebecca's head and body.

"I did get a power boost from becoming a Dreamwarden... well... technically it was more a mastery boost than a power boost... but I recently acquired something that gave me an actual power boost... but I still can't fly straight, so not exactly perfect," Rebecca explained, her floating form doing a lazy loop. "I'd hoped it would help fix up my pegasus abilities, but no such luck. I'm still as graceful in the air as a dying drunk bumblebee. You still should avoid being in the general vicinity of where I'm flying unless you are prepared to get up close and personal with my glorious flabs. I've gotten more graceful on the ground, with practice, but the air is still a mess for me. Can't really talk about my recent acquisition—kind of a big secret. Arbiter is staring very disapprovingly at me right now for saying this much."

Zipper looked around frantically, his wings pulled tight against his sides. "More than one Dreamwarden is here!?"

Rebecca looked at him and let her head float lazily towards him. "Well, yeah, they're wherever I am. Don't worry. We can't do anything to you here." Rebecca's body suddenly disappeared and reappeared next to Zipper and stuck one of her hooves straight through him and waved it from the other side. "See? I can't touch things."

Zipper 'epped' and jumped away.

"Now Arbiter is really glaring at me hard, but Miss Seapony and Ghadab are having a blast," Rebecca said. "Arbiter is such a stick in the mud—owwww! That hurt! Don't bonk me in the head with that thing! Such a stick in the mud. How am I supposed to keep my projection going with you bonking me like little bunny foo-foo?"

"What are they doing now?" Silvia asked in curiosity, her crystalline coat shimmering as she leaned forward.

Rebecca reconnected her head and shrugged. "Arbiter is explaining to the other two who little bunny foo-foo is while trying to scold them about laughing. Now she's bonking Ghadab on the head with her staff. Now he's complaining. Don't know why she went straight to him and not Miss Seapony. I think Arbiter just likes bonking Ghadab."

"Dreamwardens are powerful, but they're also like squabbling siblings when they get together," Blanche explained, her voice carrying the weight of experience. "They generally put up a united front when dealing with things, but they are a mass of clashing personalities and they don't feel any particular need to keep decorum with each other. You get used to it. Generally you just have to wait them out until they decide you're worth talking to again."

"So our team here is like a reflection of the Dreamwardens—a bunch of clashing parts that are expected to work together," Silvia suggested.

Rebecca grinned broadly. "That's the spirit! If the Dreamwardens can get along despite being so different, so can all of you."

"Didn't you just say Arbiter is in the process of beating the snot out of Ghadab with her staff?" Zipper asked, still keeping his distance.

"It doesn't really hurt him, and she knows it," Rebecca said. "You want to talk about conflicting personalities on a team? We used to have Sha'am in this team, and she was a grade-a poopie butt face that hurt all kinds of people. Arbiter is actually kind of a weirdo too, since before she was a Dreamwarden the Dreamwardens briefly considered executing her for crimes against the mind—had a trial and everything. Ghadab voted to kill her."

"Would explain her preference for hitting him," Silvia said thoughtfully.

"Or the fact he is always making fun of her," Rebecca said. "She likes to think she's above the squabbling, but she gets dragged right into it all the time while Phobia and our human member sit back and watch in exasperation. Miss Seapony—Yinyu—just disemboweled Arbiter. I wasn't really paying attention to why. I think Arbiter made some comment that got too personal. Arbiter is now putting on a pouty face as she puts her avatar back together. Now she is glaring at me for telling you about it. Ghadab is laughing his butt off... oh dear... Arbiter is turning her staff into a scythe. I think she intends to slice me in two. That's just rude."

Rebecca's head suddenly separated from her body.

"Yep, I read that right. Calm down, Angel Lady. My commentary is nothing to lose your head over!"

"That's one way of dodging an attack," Ashley snickered.

Rebecca looked at her. "Who said I dodged it? I didn't separate my head by choice this time around. Hey, Arbiter, no messing with my projection! Be nice to your Marshmallow friend!"

"These guys aren't making me feel good that we can get along," Bursa said, her human form flickering with unease. "They're chopping each other up."

"It's not even a flesh wound," Rebecca said as she reattached her head again. "None of us want this group to get hurt and die. We don't like death. I hated voting to authorize lethal force on the guards. I've never had to do that before, but I didn't see a way around it. Yes, I know, Arbiter, I voted for this operation to begin with and have to deal with the consequences. I don't need the reminder."

Zipper stepped back into the van. "The Dreamwarden is getting mad."

"She got annoyed at Arbiter for pointing things out that she doesn't like. That's not angry. Rebecca is typically pretty chill," Josie corrected, her leathery wings folding against her sides. "She gets annoyed sometimes, but that's nothing to worry about. It takes a lot to make her mad, and if you manage to do that... well... God help you."

"What will she do if she gets angry?" Zipper asked, peering nervously from the van's doorway.

"Probably send me and Josie to go maim you," Blanche answered matter-of-factly. "For context, she's very angry at this base we are getting ready to invade. When it comes to what is going on there, she's pissed. I think that if anyone wasn't pissed about it then there's something wrong with you. I doubt you'll ever do anything that would provoke her rage. If you do, then I will break your bones and not need much prompting from her to do it. If you are scum enough for her then you are scum enough for me as well."

"Blanche and I aren't as cheerful, outgoing, and playful as Rebecca, but we do share the same hatred for injustice. We don't mind hurting bad guys, and we know that if Rebecca is saying to hurt someone, they did something truly heinous," Josie said, her dark wings twitching with restrained emotion.

Rebecca scratched her head. "Yeah, I'm not exactly proud that I go all bloodthirsty on certain bad guys, but there's some things that I can't allow to continue. It isn't what I prefer to be doing, but when it comes up... someone is getting their strawberry filling spilled. Good people, vulnerable people, helpless children, they deserve justice. I want people to be happy, make friends, and be creative—that's what I'm about. When someone takes that joy and creativity away and replaces it with pain and fear, and do it knowingly, they deserve to hurt."

Which was why Josie was so resistant to Fain, Blanche reflected. Fain had done all the things to end up on Rebecca's naughty list, but Rebecca was inexplicably giving Fain a chance. Blanche felt no more positive about Fain than Josie did, but Rebecca had spoken. While they could give her feedback, advice, and voice their displeasure, Rebecca's word was ultimately final, so there was no point arguing about it. Fain was effectively on a leash. How long a leash remained to be seen. Fain would get her chance to prove herself, and if Fain fell back into her typical behavior, Blanche would make an executive decision about how to deal with her. She'd justify herself to Rebecca afterwards.

As if reading her thoughts—something Rebecca could only do when Blanche was sleeping—Rebecca turned her attention to Fain.

"And you, this is your chance to show the world what you can be when you have something meaningful to do," Rebecca said, her gaze fixed on Fain. "I know these others are giving you a hard time. I more or less expected it. Don't lash out over it and don't get into arguments. Let your actions speak for you. Tempest over there is a professional, and she is going to make the best use of you she can while doing her best to keep you alive. I know there's going to be risk to anything she orders you to do—everyone on this team is facing risk, so don't get upset if you are put in a dangerous situation. You heard the priorities for the mission, do everything you can to accomplish those goals. You need to follow orders, but you can voice your opinion. If you have valid concerns it is important that everyone hear them. Tempest may not agree with your concerns, say she is going to do something despite your concerns, or adjust a plan differently than you think she should to account for them, but she will listen and consider them and needs to hear everyone's feedback because she's not perfect and may have overlooked something. That's what a leader does; they listen and factor what they were told into their decision making. It doesn't matter if she likes you or not either. She isn't going to dismiss what you say because of that. She needs to also know what you're capable of and what you aren't, so she can utilize you effectively. Be honest about what you can and cannot do when she asks."

"Your bodyguards don't seem to be as friendly as you," Fain said, glancing pointedly at Josie, whose leathery wings twitched in response.

"You're one of my bodyguards as well," Rebecca reminded her. "I don't need my bodyguards to be sunshine and rainbows. I need my bodyguards to simply believe in what I represent, follow orders, and do their best."

Fain raised an eyebrow, her crystalline hair catching the fading light. "The second and third thing on your list are easy enough, not so sure about the first."

"Do you think those partials in that base don't need a friend and some joy?" Rebecca asked.

"Think freedom is a bigger priority, given the mission," Fain said flatly.

"But they'll need a friend after," Rebecca clarified. "You, Bursa, and Ashley have something that the rest of your teammates don't, empathy for those partials. Everyone has sympathy—Dreamwardens don't employ heartless people—but they don't understand what those people have gone through the way you three do. You might not have the answers to make things better for them as they try to figure out what comes next, but you can look them in the eyes and get what they're feeling. Sometimes you don't need a friend to tell you everything will be all right. Sometimes you just need a friend who gets it—the pain, the sorrow, the anger, the shame, the uncertainty, all of it. After we liberate this base they'll need Silvia and Sunflower to tend to certain needs, but they need people like you who can understand them without needing to be explained to. My other two bodyguards can't give them that. Honestly, I can't either."

Fain stared at her, the harshness in her expression softening slightly. "I don't understand you. I'm not a good person."

"We are many people over the course of our lives. You are a person in transition. Ask not who you were, but who you will be next," Rebecca replied.

"You've changed... a lot," Sunflower said, ears folded back against her head.

Rebecca gave her a sad look. "My core is still the same. As for the rest, it is the nature of the job. As I said, we are many people over the course of our lives. Are you the same as when we first met? I see a healer, a world traveler, someone who runs toward danger to help, and someone more confident than the farm filly traveling to the big city for the first time that I met years ago. I'm sure you would have become an awesome Dreamwarden who would have made a lot of people happy, but the light and shadow of the burden are mine. I hope I accomplish as much as you would have."

Sunflower looked away. "I knew you would change, and I shouldn't be so shocked at how commanding you are, given every Dreamwarden ever expects people to jump when they say jump... understandably so, given you guys have absolute authority in your realm. It's that shadow that bothers me. You had no darkness to you before."

"Sure I did! I'm a very big and round pony. My shadow is quite impressive!" Rebecca said cheerfully, but her smile slipped. "Sorry, force of habit to try to lighten the mood. I know what you actually meant. My shadow bothers me sometimes as well. I actually cried to Luna about it not too long ago. Being a Dreamwarden brings good things and bad things with it, and that shadow is part of me. I just can't let terrible things be done to vulnerable people... children mainly, but anyone really vulnerable, like these partials. It keeps me up at night sometimes, knowing all the bad things that people have done or plan to do. I can see it in their minds as they sleep, and it's horrible. Being a Dreamwarden is a burden that I wouldn't wish on anyone. I'm scouting my replacement candidate—"

"Already?!" Sunflower exclaimed, her wings flaring in surprise.

Rebecca waved the question off. "It's never too early to start. We tend to start scouting people when they are young kids, so nothing is happening soon. What I was going to say was I'm trying to scout my replacement candidate and it is hard because ideally they are someone I like a lot, but I know what I would be dumping on them and I don't want to hurt them like that. However, the job is important, and I need to find the right person—a good person. I pick a bad person and we have Sha'am all over again."

"And no one wants that," Josie said, her dark wings drawing closer to her body as she shuddered at the memory.

Tempest walked over to Rebecca's floating form and looked her in the eyes with professional directness. "This is all fascinating and moving, Dreamwarden, but I have a mission to plan. Maybe you should return to your body. It must be getting tired from dancing."

Rebecca blinked. "I suppose so. Alright, be about your business. I have complete faith and trust you will get this done! Phobia does too!"

"I just hope Wallace doesn't give her too much trouble while I'm gone," Tempest said with a sigh. "Off with you before you get distracted and go on another tangent."

Rebecca nodded then suddenly turned and looked at Sunflower again. "One last question! What type of toothpaste do you use?"

Sunflower blinked. "What... kind... of... toothpaste? Why do you want to know that?"

"It's important, can't say why," Rebecca replied.

"Uh... Crest... aqua mint," Sunflower answered, bewilderment clear on her face.

Rebecca spread her wings and limbs wide. "Thanks! That is very helpful! Now I just need to find the right cardboard box!" She promptly vanished.

Sunflower stared at the spot for a few seconds before looking at everyone else. "What was that about?"

Blanche shook her head. "No idea. She does weird things. Just—"

"Just roll with it," Ashley supplied, her scarred face hinting at amusement. "I can tell you how many times she's done something equally random that turned out to be important later."

"She's a peculiar kind of genius," Tempest agreed. "But if we could get back to the mission at hand? I'd like to go over possible approaches."

"Of course," Blanche said, turning her attention back to the task ahead. "Zipper's intel about the guards is helpful, but we need to decide how to handle the gate. Four guards is a significant obstacle."

"I could help with that," Fain offered cautiously, flexing her gloved hands. "One touch from me and they'd be out of commission."

Josie's leathery wings flared with tension, but she held her tongue, remembering Rebecca's words.

Tempest considered this. "If they have no magic then your touch does nothing. That is intell we don’t have. I’m considering letting Crystal simply slamming her tank of a vehicle into it. We can have Josie and Bursa stealthily deal with the guards first. After the gate is diwn, all hell will break loose.”

The night was growing darker around them as they began to plan in earnest, the earlier tensions partially dissolved by Rebecca's visit, though not entirely forgotten. They had a difficult task ahead, but at least now they were focused on the same goal. Whether they liked each other or not, they had people counting on them.

Chapter 35: Three Pauses

The zombie let them out at a townhome in a gated community. Thankfully, Charlotte had known the password to get through the gate. If Jessica had to guess, these were not what most people would consider affordable. She knew Arachne had some start-up business she ran, but she was only eighteen, and her husband was not much older. This seemed beyond the price point of someone just out of high school. Maybe her aunt helped her get it.

“Is she even going to be awake?” Jessica asked, just realizing it was past noon. Her ears immediately twitched as she heard a baby crying within.

Charlotte chuckled. “With a newborn foal? Yep, she’s going to be awake. I happen to know Madison has already started surging, so this should be fun. I feel sorry for Street Lamp, though. I’m sure my sister is having him deal with that.”

“She must be helping at least a little,” Jessica assured her friend.

Charlotte looked doubtful but said nothing as they walked to the front door. The zombie stayed in the car in front of the house, not going anywhere.

Jessica decided to do the honors and knocked on the front door. This close, she could hear everything going on in the house. The baby had stopped crying and was on the move, although she couldn’t place what floor it was on, which was odd. It seemed to be between the two floors. It took her a second to remember that one of the various things night pony foals sometimes did while surging was run on the ceiling, an ability ninety-nine percent of them would never be able to accomplish again after the surging was done, which made it all the worse for parents who also couldn’t replicate the feat but had to get the foal down. She heard male grunts of frustration and the beating of wings in pursuit of the infant; another set of hooves descended from upstairs towards them.

“Madison sounds very active. She seems to be moving fast along the ceiling, at least based on what I’m hearing,” Jessica informed Charlotte.

“Hmm, another reason for me never to have foals. I would have no patience for that. I’d be arrested for filicide,” Charlotte replied dryly.

“Your parents put up with you and your siblings being wild,” Jessica reminded her.

“My parents deserve sainthood,” Charlotte said with a snort.

The door opened, revealing a very disheveled-looking Arachne. She had bags under her eyes, her mane and tail looked like neither had been brushed lately, and both looked knotted. Her fur had an uneven quality, which meant it was also unbrushed. Her belly hung a bit looser than usual, and Jessica was sure that if she stepped back far enough, Arachne’s teets would be on display–something most normally wouldn’t see on a mare unless they turned her over and searched because they remained small nubs covered by fur when not swollen with milk. The mammaries were only casually visible on nursing mares or recently pregnant mares. Arachne hadn’t looked too bad the last time she had seen her and was only showing minor signs of pregnancy at the time, but she certainly looked rough now. Even her wings looked dirty.

“You look like crap,” Charlotte said to her sister.

Arachne sneered and immediately swung with a wing that collided loudly with Charlotte’s face. The army pony barely flinched and raised an eyebrow at her sister.

“And you must be feeling like crap too. Jordan can strike me harder. That was just embarrassing,” Charlotte said, although she didn’t sound very snide.

A stallion went flying by behind Arache, chasing a dark blur that was zooming along the ceiling. Arachne stood rigid and silent for a second, then sighed.

“Come on in,” Arachne said, stepping out of the doorway.

“If this isn’t a good time-” Jessica began.

“There isn’t going to be a good time,” Arachne interrupted. “Just come in and watch out for random yellow spray and brown droppings falling from the ceiling.”

Eww, that was not something she had anticipated or wanted to think about. She stepped in, raising an arm above her head to shield herself from inbound fecal matter.

The entire house floor had clear plastic draped over it, including much of the furniture. Yellow pools had formed in more than one spot but weren’t everywhere. Did Madison have preferred places to pee?

Charlotte whistled. “Wow, I doubt Mom and Mama went through this much effort to keep us from making messes, and there were three of us to manage instead of just one. You can’t manage just one?”

“Shut your muzzle! They did things their way. I’ll do things my way,” Arachne snapped as she shut the door.

“Why don’t you just get diapers on her?” Jessica asked.

Arachne huffed. “You think we don’t? She sheds them. She also tends to fight Street when he tries to put them on her. About the only time we can get one on her without trouble is when she has finally exhausted herself and fallen asleep.”

“So, dealing with a foal is more trouble than you thought it would be?” Charlotte asked.

“Surging only lasts a week or so. It may be over tomorrow,” Arachne replied calmly.

“It’s only been one day. The doctor said at least five more!” Street yelled as he flew by after the black blur.

Arachne covered her face with a wing.

Jessica watched Street Lamp continue to chase Madison around. Night ponies weren’t good at gently catching moving things in the air. They were trained to knock things down and to do short sprints. With that in mind, why even chase her around like that? Street wasn’t about to try to knock his daughter off the ceiling; that would hurt her. Maybe he was hoping she would stop and sit still long enough that he could grab her.

It did make her think about Mark and made her wonder if she fully appreciated what she might be getting herself into. Sure, Mark couldn’t run around on the ceiling–she hoped he couldn’t, anyway, but he did bring unique challenges, many of which would no doubt catch her off guard. He likely had some sort of magic. What that entailed was anyone’s guess. His grandmother might know if he had gone through a surging period when he was small, but she wasn’t available to talk to. That meant it might be years until they found out. He’d already demonstrated his talent at hiding and getting into small spaces; while not as troublesome as running on the ceiling, it could still cause some headaches. Perhaps she should try talking to Arachne about being a new mother.

She looked at Arachne’s disheveled state again. Maybe now wasn’t the best time to inquire about that.

“So…I came to see my new niece. It looks like that may be a challenge,” Charlotte said as the blur whipped across the ceiling again with Street Lamp in pursuit.

Archive removed the wing from her face. “She’ll tire herself out eventually, then you can get a look at her–pitch black fur with a hot pink mane.”

“Doesn’t sound like Street Lamp’s colors,” Jessica replied.

“Nor mine,” Arachne stated, spreading her wings and folding them. “Who can say how color inheritance works? Moon doesn’t look a thing like Mom, and I hear he looks nothing like the bastard who raped her, so I’m not shocked Madison doesn’t look like me or her father. She’s definitely mine. I won’t forget carrying her weight around for most of a year and painfully pushing her out. Street’s the only one who has mounted me, so she’s his daughter.”

“Well, she’s very healthy,” Jessica said as she listened to the continued pursuit.

Arachne nodded. “It took her about two hours after birth to figure out standing. It took her another hour after that to figure out how to walk, with some frequent tripping. She was mostly calm the first few days with a few small bursts of running here and there; she just followed me or Street around, investigated her nearby surroundings, and suckled me when she was hungry; then this started. I could deal with her current activity level, provided she stays out of the spider room, except for the fact she doesn't have the decency to go to sleep when it’s past noon. It’s noisy, and she keeps me awake. I need to get my sleep to manage the spiders properly.”

“Spider room? Spiders?” Jessica asked in confusion. She knew Arachne had an obvious obsession with arachnids, but she had a room for them?

“How do you think we can afford this?” Arachne said, spreading her wings wide to indicate her home. “Spider silk sells well. Most companies that produce spider silk have to immobilize the spiders and force them to spin straight threads, which then have to be carefully put together as yarn and then turned into garments much later. However, I can direct the spiders to spin as I like. I can make custom fabrics and garments directly spun by the spiders. A single dress can net me tens of thousands of dollars. I paid the entire year’s rent on this place with my last garment.”

“And how many garments a year are you making?” Jessica asked. It seemed like it would still take a long time to make anything.

“I’m on pace for three this year,” Arachne answered. “But I hope to get more spiders and a better place to house them with funds from the next garment; that should increase my output. If I can do that, I can be making millions by next year. At this rate, I’ll be richer than Titi in a decade or so.”

Titi was the trio of night ponies’ pet name for their aunt, Wild Growth, who was arguably the wealthiest pony alive, at least, the richest pony known. There were some other contenders for the title. Still, Wild Growth was the only one people knew how much she had–one hundred and ninety billion dollars. However, the total was slowly declining because of Wild Growth’s philanthropy and the fact her income had fallen dramatically after she went into government. She was still in the top twenty richest for sure with that amount. Wild Growth had amassed that wealth by getting stock cheap for many companies selling to ponies, primarily PonyCo, which gave her huge amounts of stock to entice her to be a spokesperson when they were first starting up. It had been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Arachne thinking she could surpass that wealth was a lofty ambition. It didn’t seem a realistic goal, but who knew, maybe Arachne could do it. Jessica didn’t care much about money. If she had enough to pay for what she needed, that was enough. What would she even do with that much cash?

“Well, the other reason we came by is Jessie’s got a hot date, and she could use some beauty tips,” Charlotte informed her sister.

Arachne scowled at her sister. “Sure, and I’m the Queen of England. Don’t play games. I know you just wanted to see me in this state.”

Charlotte smirked. “I didn’t realize that I was related to royalty. Does that make me a Duchess? Just to be clear, I’m very much enjoying seeing you look like this, but Jessie actually does have a date coming up. Could you be helpful and give a few suggestions for her appearance?”

”You’re pushing this joke,” Arachne mumbled.

Jessica sighed. “Is it that hard to believe I’m going on a date?”

Arachne gave her a blank look.

“I’m going on a date with a man. He’s also a doctor of physics at the same university I teach at,” Jessica said flatly.

Arachne blinked. “I guess some people just have odd tastes.” She waved a wing dismissively. “Sorry, I can't help you. I don’t know how to make a human more attractive to humans. It’s like trying to judge what’s attractive to a bear. My suggestion is to find a human to help you or a pony who used to be human and is old enough to know how to apply makeup and do the hair for a human.”

“Your mom then?” Jessica asked.

Arachne shook her head. “Mom never cared about that stuff until after she became a pony, and Mama still doesn’t care about that stuff. Surely you know some human woman who can tell you. Your mother might be a decent start.”

The thought of letting her mom give her advice after how much her mom had pushed her about relationships made her want to crawl under her bed. She was not going to her mom for advice.

“I know another coworker who might help,” Jessica replied. Violet might help, and she was definitely attractive, but Violet’s ideas of beauty might be pushing farther than what Jessica would be comfortable with. There were limits to that. That would be figuratively running before walking.

“Hmm, maybe you can try Great Aunt Amicus,” Charlotte suggested. “Grandma always said Amicus was a priss when she was our age. She might have some ideas. You’d have the benefit of keeping it private since she’d be giving you advice at Wabash. Going to a coworker for help spreads gossip.”

“I agree,” Arachne said, then briefly stuck her tongue out as if disgusted to be agreeing with her sister. Charlotte mimicked the gesture.

The galloping blur stopped above them, revealing a pitch-black night pony filly with a very wild and bushy pink mane. The filly cooed, and the surge decided to stop–at least for the moment–at that moment, and the filly let off a high-pitched screech as she fell from the ceiling.

Arachne jumped and caught the filly on her back. “Got you!”

“Wahwa!” the filly said happily and hugged her mother.

Arachne rolled her eyes and carefully pulled the filly off her back and into her forelegs as she sat down. “Street! Can you come get Madison and put a diaper on her before she shits on something?”

Street came down next to Arachne and took the filly into his hooves. “Come here, you wild thing,” Street said tiredly but lovingly. “You give me quite the workout. Are you tired now? Ready to sleep for a while?”

The filly yawned on cue. She was kinda cute, in a wild animal sort of way.

Street held Madison out to her mother. “Let your mommy kiss you, and we’ll get a diaper on you and get you back in your crib.”

Arachne grudgingly kissed the filly on the head and then waved Street away. “Hurry up and get her taken care of. We need to find a lid that locks onto the top of her crib tomorrow.”

Street’s ears sagged. “I don’t like that. It’s like putting her in a cage.”

“Don’t be so dramatic,” Arachne snapped. “Until this surging is over, we must ensure she’s contained. She’ll disrupt my spiders, making it harder for us to make money and pay the bills. Being contained isn’t going to hurt her.”

Street lowered his head. “Yes, dear.” He then put Madison on his back and walked away.

Charlotte grimaced. “I think we should go and let Arachne get her much-needed beauty sleep. I need to get some sleep, too.”

“Good idea,” Arachne replied. She nodded to Jessica. “Good to see you again, Jessie. Feel free to visit again; just make sure it is night.”

They made their goodbyes and then exited the house. The zombie and the car were still in the driveway, waiting patiently for them. They walked towards the car.

“Kinda what I expected. Arachne treating her foal as an inconvenience rather than with love,” Charlotte grumbled.

“That’s not fair to say,” Jessica scolded. “She’s overtired, and having a foal run around the ceiling when she should have been in bed hours ago has to be stressful. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t adore her baby.”

“Street showed much more affection, and he’s dealing with the same situation,” Charlotte countered.

“He’s not recovering from being pregnant, and how much has Arachne ever shown affection?” Jessica countered back. “You already verified she cares deeply for you, even though you two are snapping and growling at each other all the time. She’s not the best at showing how much she loves and cares. You aren’t the best at it, either. You also said you’d have a hard time dealing with a foal doing all that stuff. Why are you being critical of your sister for her having a hard time?”

“Because I know my sister,” Charlotte replied. “Do you think she gives a damn about Street Lamp? She picked the most attractive eligible night pony stallion because, of course, she had the most attractive to parade around, and she took him as a trophy. Then she let him get her pregnant because she felt like she had to add a family to her collection. To her, Madison is just another trophy to show off, not someone to love. At least Street Lamp legitimately loves his kid, so Madison has someone there for her.”

“You’re being too harsh,” Jessica insisted as they got into the car's back seat. “Phobia was always kind of distant with you and your siblings, but everyone knows she loves all of you. Maybe Arachne takes after her in that regard.”

“There is an easy way to determine if the mother loves the child,” their driver informed them.

They both looked at the driver as the driver pulled the car out of the driveway.

“What is that?” Jessica asked, curious about what ancient wisdom this zombie might have.

“If the parent finds the firstborn defective, they will feed the firstborn heavily, so the firstborn grows fat, then, when the brood of many is born, the parent will feed the fattened firstborn to the newly born. If this Arachne does not care for this child, she shall be overfeeding it so the next batch of siblings may devour it,” the zombie explained calmly.

….
…
..
.

What?

“There is wisdom in what she says,” Charlotte said in a lofty tone. “Maybe mom should have done something like that with Miss I’m-The-Eldest-Because-I-Came-Out-Thirty-Seconds-Earlier. I might have vomited her up, but I’d have chewed her up. It be worth it.”

“I’m never asking a zombie for parenting advice,” Jessica replied. What the hell kind of culture did this thing come from? The zombie seemed to have gotten the idea and gave no further recommendations. That was good. She didn’t want the zombie to start suggesting recipes.

“Luckily, you can’t get pregnant,” Charlotte replied.

Jessica bit her lip. “I'm looking into adopting. I met a partial boy who had just been taken into social services. I’m told people may not want him because he’s partial, and he’ll struggle to find a parent who understands what he goes through. I understand. I want him. I’m going to try to adopt him. His name is Mark, and he’s four years old.”

Charlotte blinked. “You’ve got a lot going on. I’m guessing finding Jeg’galla’gamp’pi finally cleared your schedule, and you’re filling it–no judgments, just observation. Well…if you’re going to try to talk to Amicus about beauty tips for a date, you might want to talk to her about the trials and tribulations of adoption. Grandma is the only person I personally know who has adopted, and she’s not on Earth anymore, but Amicus and Andrea were there through almost all of it. Great Aunt Amicus is the easier one to talk to and the one who understands all the legal stuff involved. If you’re trying to adopt, you probably should have a lawyer, and she happens to be a good one.”

“Sounds like a reasonable plan, and I have to go through Wabash to return home anyway,” Jessica agreed. “Going to another world wasn’t as exciting as I thought it would be. Yes, it was strange, it was dangerous, and there were moments of wonder that I’ll never forget, but I think my real adventure is going to be adopting Mark and trying to make a life for us. Does that make me lame?”

Charlotte smiled and shook her head. “Not lame at all. There’s still Devourers out there, but you’ve played your part. It’s time for you to get a chance to appreciate what we’re fighting to save. Adopt the kid, go on dates, heck, get married, and settle into domestic life. If we don’t win, you’ll regret it if you never got to do those things before the end; if we do win, you get to experience them even longer.”

She held out a fist to the night pony, and Charlotte raised a hoof and bumped it. “Thanks, Char. You’re rough around the edges, but you're a good friend.”

Rebecca wandered out of the farmhouse bathroom and nearly ran right into Phobia. The night pomy gave a startled jump, but it was minor.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you,” Rebecca apologized.

Phobia took a deep breath. “It is okay, sister. I should have anticipated you were in the bathroom. I was not paying attention. The fault is mine, and the fright was minor.”

“Have a fun time with your wife?” Rebecca asked slyly.

The elder Dreamwarden nodded. “It is infrequent, but it is good to have times like these. Did you leave enough hot water for me to take a shower? Much as I don’t mind getting messy when Rosetta and I have our time together, I don’t enjoy having gunk stay stuck in my fur for a long time after. I’m having difficulty sleeping anyway, so I figured I’d have a shower.”

Rebecca rolled her eyes. “That’s because you take so many micronaps through the night and morning that your body doesn’t know when to sleep anymore. You need a good eight hours straight of sleep. It would help if you lay off the work. Work is bad for your health. Um…as for hot water, you might want to wait five minutes. I won’t say I did an extended rendition of singing in the bathtub with a hip-hop beat, but I won’t say I didn’t either.”

Phobia sighed. “Very well. When do you intend to start working with your truestone?”

“Is that really what we are going with for a name?” Rebecca whined. “It’s sooo boring a name.”

“It is the roughest translation of what they were called back in the day,” Phobia reminded her.

“Well, no, the roughest translation is alabaster colored stone of many shapes that do not break, unblemished, has both existed and not existed since before time and after time, gives off-,” Rebecca started to recite.

“We’re calling them truestones,” Phobia said flatly.

“Hey! I still had about thirty more descriptions to go through!” Rebecca protested.

“We are not calling them by all those descriptions. We are boiling it down to truestones, which is the best one word term we can translate from that,” Phobia asserted.

“I don’t like it,” Rebecca asserted.

Phobia tilted her head. “We could put it to a vote. What do you think your chances of winning that vote will be? You’re better at math and statistics than me. Tell me what your odds are.”

Not very good. She decided to go for her final tactic.

“You realize this is going to invoke an epic pouty face. Are you prepared to endure the pout? Are you?!” Rebecca declared, then proceeded to give her best puppy dog eyes.

Phobia stared at her for a few seconds. “I think that is a sacrifice I can endure. They’re being called truestones.”

Darn it.

“I’ll start working with the boringly-named truestone later today,” she answered. “I’m hoping it can help me push my range to do a visual check-in on my bodyguards. They should be close, or getting close, to their destination. I hope they're going to be alright. I’m worried about this.”

“You volunteered them for this mission,” Phobia reminded her. “Yours are also among our most adept fighters, and you regularly employ them to do unsavory things to people that do unsavory things.”

“I know!” Rebecca replied, feeling more distraught. “But they normally aren’t going in and taking on a full battalion of armed guards who know what they’re doing with their guns! Normally, they stealthy strike one bad dude or beat up many thugs with muscle but no skill. They also are normally unlikely to actually kill anyone, just hurt them real bad. This is different.”

Phobia sighed. “I’d prefer to avoid violence altogether, not even to speak of killing, but I see little way of avoiding it in this circumstance. We have our contract with Sha’am, and we honor our contracts. It was you, Arbiter, and Ghadab that got us into this contract. The other three of us were opposed.”

“Well, don’t forget the Mexican government, who was our tiebreaker,” Rebecca reminded the night pony. “I was kinda hoping they’d help out after getting the tie-breaking vote. We don’t give them a chance to be the tie-breaker much.”

“That was never going to happen. Mexico has never adequately been able to assert control over its territory, and they are currently moving towards another civil war, one that may lead to multiple breakaway nations forming, at least one of those directly across the Rio Grande that will be a massive headache for us all if it comes about. They were never going to help us. They hoped we would deal with their problem for them. If you paid more attention to international politics, you’d have known that,” Phobia said calmly. “I’m not going to be around forever. At some point, you’ll be the eldest living Dreamwarden on Earth, and you need to be able to step up and lead our waking world operations. You need to start paying attention to these things.”

“I think being the eldest is a bad way of choosing who is nominally in charge,” Rebecca countered. “I don’t want to lead. I have my bodyguards, and that is plenty for me to lead. I just want to do my thing, helping people who don’t have a friend, cheering up foals, and inspiring the creative types to take risks and be bold with their ideas. I hated being in charge during this mission we just did, but I was the one with the needed side skills, so I went along with it. I like being one of six who votes. Being in charge of anything isn’t ever going to be my thing. It makes me grumpy, and I don’t like being grumpy.”

Phobia snorted. “Very well. I still think you could stand to pay more attention to such things. What about the truestone that Jess found? I find it interesting that Jeg’galla’gamp’pi gave her one.”

Rebecca shook her head. “She doesn’t seem thrilled with it. I’ll try giving her a few pushes to get her to explore what it can do. The scientist in her will have difficulty keeping her curiosity at bay.”

“Good,” Phobia said with a nod. “It was an unexpected boon to have found truestones that bonded with someone; two is extremely lucky. We want those stones to reach their best capacity. I’m not sure if we will need them, but it is best to have their potential realized if we can.”

“You sound like your mother–never abandon a potential resource, even if you don’t know what you’ll use it for,” Rebecca observed.

“With the fate of life on the line, we need every possible resource we can,” Phobia replied.

“Speaking of which…Triss was kinda cross about your mother leaving for Equestria,” Rebecca said. “I told her that I would try to convince her to come back, but I’m not exactly sure how to go about that.”

Phobia frowned. “That’s your agreement and problem, not mine. I want my mother off the table. I have had to worry about her well-being for far too long. While her primary antagonist has ceased direct operations to kill her, they have stirred the pot so much that the Shimmerists who want to kill her will never go away. You can try speaking to Luna if you want to pursue what Triss wants, but you’ll get no help from me. I’m more than willing to let the dragon be unhappy.”

“She said she had a vision and that Sunset Blessing was going to be necessary to defeat the Devourers,” Rebecca added.

Phobia raised an eyebrow. “And we both know how unreliable visions are as a source. Did she give any further details?”

Rebecca shook her head. “Just that we need the Sunrise and Sunset. Sunset Blessing is the Sunset. I’d assume Sunrise Storm might be the Sunrise, but she didn’t specifically say that, so it could be another Sunrise. She didn’t give any further details.”

Phobia sighed. “I hate cryptic visions. We can’t ignore them, but they give so little detail on anything, and we can end up doing the wrong thing while trying to fulfill what we think the vision wants. I’ll look into Sunrise Storm and any other Sunrises that I can find and see if there is anything worth nudging. Do what you will with my mother.”

“Maybe I can see if Sunflower has had anything that relates to this–see if we have some other vision that can clarify things, or maybe Jennifer,” Rebecca suggested.

“Not her,” Phobia said. “She still has standing orders; we can’t contact her unless she specifically requests it. We agreed to her request. That’s a contract. We honor our contracts.”

“I never agreed to that. You entered that agreement way before my time,” Rebecca said.

Phobia narrowed her eyes. “Do not violate our agreement. If you do, I’ll see you get censored. Do you want to be censored?”

Rebecca’s ears fell. “Fine. I’ll honor that agreement I didn’t make. You’re so pushy. Um…I think the hot water should be back. I suggest singing Singing in the Bathtub. Their shower has great acoustics.”

”I don’t think I will,” Phobia politely declined.

“Aww, come on! Do it with a hip-hop beat,” Rebecca said.

Phobia shook her head. “Definitely not.”

“Rock ballad?” Rebecca tentatively suggested.

Phonia frowned. “Rock ballad?”

“Like Meatloaf! Will you rinse me up, will you hose me down?” Rebecca sang.

Phobia stared blankly at her.

Rebecca grinned back.

….
…
..
.

“Will you get me out of this grime-encrusted gown?” Phobia sang.

Rebecca cheered. “You got it!”

“Will you make the water a little less cool? I can do thaaa-aaat. Oh, I can do that!” the pair sang in chorus.

The chorus got louder. “Oh, I would do anything for suds! I would do anything for suds! I would do anything for sure! But I won’t go splat! No, I won’t go splat!”

Her bedroom door opened, and Russell looked at the pair of them. They stared back at him. Silence stretched on for several seconds.

….
…
..
.

Russell turned around. “I didn’t hear nothin’.” He shut the door behind him.

Phobia coughed. “I’ll be getting in the shower now.”

“Good idea,” Rebecca replied and then followed after her husband.

Author's Note

Rebecca can encourage anyone to be a little silly.

Chapter 43: Unusual Things in Public Places

The mall was light on shoppers, but it was a Monday afternoon, so it was to be expected. Weekends and evenings tended to be when malls got busy. Most mall stores didn’t even typically bother to open until around noon during the middle of the week.

Chain stores were a minority in modern malls. Most stores were specialty stores owned by families where craftspeople plied their trade. Items could become very expensive in some of the stores since these small localized businesses had to pay higher costs for materials, but the fact that you were getting something tailor-made for you made up for the price. Most clothing stores had plenty of clothes on display, but what you would do is choose your clothing, get measured, leave the store for a few hours to a day, and return after the tailor resized it for you. That was part of why opening so late was essential to these stores; they needed time to work on their orders. Clothing stores typically had two or three tailors and someone who did sales. Only one tailor would be available to work orders that needed to be resized the same day, so customers paid an extra premium for that, and the service might not be available if it was a hectic day. That was why customers should show up at the shop close to when the store opened if they wanted their clothes the same day they bought them.

In addition to stores that made custom clothing and furniture, there were usually various antique stores and stores. Vintage and antique books and toys from before the 2020s were trendy. First editions of popular books and 80s and early 90s action figures with all their accessories could be very pricey, but there were people who were willing to pay. Jessica happened to know that her auntie regularly went out searching for Transformer action figures and had spent a considerable amount of money building her collection–although she kept her hobby a secret from most. Jess had only found out by accident by walking into a room filled with the things and only realized it had belonged to Sunset Blessing and not one of her sons when the three colts had told her they didn’t own any of those figures and their adoptive mother would have a fit if Jessica breathed a word about Sunset’s secret pastime. Personally, Jessica happened to think that it might be better if people knew. It might have made Sunset Blessing seem more relatable to others, but she still never mentioned it to anyone.

Jessica looked around and looked at the closest clothing shop. It seemed to have women’s clothing in bright colors. She was supposed to stand out. Those clothes stood out.

She pointed at the shop. “Should we start there?”

Amicus looked at the shop and shook her head. “That clothing for a date? Certainly not. It’s far too gaudy. Your colors are already so bright; you will look silly wearing more bright colors.” She looked Jessica over. “Definitely some black. Black almost always looks good. We do need some color. Even though we are keeping to darker shades, I think we should avoid earthy tones. A deep purple might work with your coloration. We should avoid red. It clashes too much with your leg fur, and we want to put your legs on display. Actually, we want to put as much of your body on display as possible.”

She rubbed her arm. “I’m not sure about this. I don’t want to send the message I’m looking to get into bed with him. I’ve come to the recent realization I may not be interested or comfortable with sex.”

“What?!” Jordan exclaimed in shock.

A few nearby shoppers gave Jordan a look at the shout. They then looked at Jessica and blinked a few times. She was sure at least one of them seemed to be considering taking a picture. She rubbed her arms and pulled her tail between her legs.

Amicus blinked. “Really? I don't mean to come off as rude, but your tail seems to lift fairly quickly from what I’ve seen. Still, if that’s what you feel, I won’t argue the point. You know yourself better than I do.”

“Just be assertive and say you aren’t interested in that. It will be fine. If he doesn’t like it, he’s not someone you want to be with anyway,” Andrea said. She then looked at Jordan. “And don’t be so shocked that not everyone is as horny as you, filly. Be more supportive of your friend.”

Jordan fidgeted in place. “I’m supportive, but I’m surprised. I thought I knew everything there is to know about my best friend.”

Jessica lightly touched her fingers to Jordan’s head and smiled. “I’m still learning about myself, so don’t feel bad that you don’t know everything about me. Just because we aren’t foals anymore doesn’t mean we aren’t still growing, changing, and learning.”

Amicus looked her over again. “I still want to go with a sexy look. You can tell him that you aren’t interested in getting into bed, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still do all you can to be attractive. Black skirt, cut short to show those legs of yours. We’ll go with a top with a deep cut down the center. We need to get you out of sweaters and turtlenecks. You’ve got assets in the front; put them on display. I guess that means we need a good push-up bra or corset as well. You’re decent sized but not so full that you don’t need a little help accentuating the cleavage.”

Jessica’s face grew hot. “If that’s what you think is best….We’re going to a jazz bar for the date. He said I should wear something jazzy. Will that qualify?”

“I’ll find something that works well for a jazz bar,” Amicus assured her. “We should also find a salon and check for a store that specializes in makeup. I haven’t been here for a while, but I think this mall has a Sephora.”

Andrea threw her head back and groaned.

“You didn’t have to come, so don’t complain,” Jordan said with one ear laid back. “I’m not interested in clothing, but the salon and Sephora sound nice. Maybe we can go by some bookstores.”

Andrea let out a long breath. “The bookstore sounds good, at least.”

Jordan’s ears perked up. “You like books too? What types do you like?”

“None of your business,” Andrea snapped.

“Oh, don’t be like that,” Amicus scolded. “You like mysteries.” She looked at Jordan. “She’s a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Agatha Christie, and John Grisham. She has lots of first editions.”

“You have first editions of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries?” Jordan asked in amazement.

Andrea scowled. “Ami is distorting things. I have some first editions of several Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books. Those were so mass-produced that they aren’t hard to find. Don’t think we can bond over reading. I want to read my books, not discuss them.”

Jordan's ears lowered. “Okay…um…where do you keep them? Your room was pretty empty. I didn’t see any bookcase.”

“They’re in my closet, out of the way. Don’t ask to see them,” Andrea answered with a growl.

Amicus gave her sister a sad look. “You could be nicer to her.”

Andrea pointed a hoof at Jordan. “She needs to learn how to deal with difficult people. If she thinks I'm bad, she hasn’t dealt with the security. There’s at least one creep in our security that she needs to have strong nerves to deal with. As her elder, it’s my duty to toughen her up.”

Jessica tried to think of any security officers at Wabash who were particularly nasty, but none came to mind. The most challenging security officer she could think of dealing with at Wabash was Andrea. The others seemed friendly enough. Andrea playing the elder card wasn’t much of an argument. There were plenty of older people who didn’t have two specs of wisdom. When someone has a lifetime of experience and still has no manners, that highlighted how foolish they were.

She balled a hand into a fist. “Hey! I don’t want to be fighting through this entire trip. I don’t know what beef you have with Jordan, but Jordan’s my best friend, and she’s obviously trying hard to get along with you despite how mean you are to her. There’s no need for you to be so toxic. Why are you here if you aren’t going to make any attempt to be sociable? Is that what your sister wanted when she invited you along?”

Andrea’s ears sagged as she looked at Amicus.

“Sorry, Ami. I’ll be nicer while on this trip,” Andrea said barely above a whisper. “Sorry, filly.”

Constantly calling Jordan a filly was something Andrea could stand to do away with. Then again, Jordan was young enough to be Andrea’s granddaughter.

Andrea looked at Jessica’s purse and flattened her ears.

“Is it making you feel ill?” Jessica asked, gripping her purse.

“Only if I focus on it,” Andrea answered. “I don’t fault you for having it on you. Can’t have something like that just lying around unattended.”

“Andri! You just said you were going to be nice,” Amicus scolded. “Her purse might be on the vanilla side, but it is hardly nausea-inducing.”

Andrea shook her head. “It’s what’s in the purse. I never understand how non-crystal ponies can be that unperceptive of magic. It’s like all of you are deaf, blind, and incapable of smelling.”

“It’s technically just emitting high levels of thaumic energy. Magic is the harnessing and shaping of thaumic energy. This stone isn’t doing anything to harness or shape the energy," Jessica corrected.

“That’s likely the only reason I can try to ignore it and have any chance of doing it,” Andrea said, turning her head so she wasn’t looking at the purse anymore. “Let’s hope I’m the only crystal pony focusing on you today. They’ll only notice if they focus in your direction, but it is almost instinctual for crystal ponies to feel out the people they see.”

Jessica looked around. “I don’t see any other crystal ponies. Since it isn’t busy, you might be the only one in the mall.”

“Yeah, it is a small tribe, like the night ponies. You can go out for a full day and not see a crystal pony,” Jordan chimed in.

Amicus shook her head. “That may be true in most places, but Denver is different. I know you’re familiar with the large enclave of night ponies in Skytree. Denver has a night pony enclave, but it also has a considerable-sized crystal pony enclave. There aren’t a lot of places with crystal pony enclaves. It is less common than night ponies gathering together, but Denver is one of the few places it happens–one of four in the USA, compared to the forty-something known night pony enclaves in the USA. There is a better chance of running into a crystal pony in Denver than most places.”

Jessica already knew there were more crystal ponies than usual in the area. She’d lived in Denver long enough to notice them, but she hadn’t known about this enclave. Then again, she’d never asked about it. Did they have some unofficial community government? Many night pony enclaves took direction from Dreamwardens, usually indirectly through a representative, but sometimes directly if there was a Dreamwarden present in their city. However, some night pony enclaves had small community councils that advocated for them to local municipalities. It seemed more likely the crystal ponies followed this pattern since she couldn’t think of anyone crystal ponies would quickly bend a knee to.

“Even with an enclave, they’re a minority of ponies, so maybe we won’t see any more of them than Andrea,” Jessica said. She rubbed her arms again. “I might also need to go by the furniture store while we are here.”

Amicus raised an eyebrow at her. “I take it you weren’t entirely honest with me about the state of your apartment.”

She nervously rubbed at an ear. “I might have fudged some details. Sorry.”

Amicus sighed. “Let’s hold off on that until I see your apartment. That way, I can better advise you on what to get. Use of space is important, so you don’t want to fill it willy-nilly. For now, let’s find you some clothes while there’s still time for the tailors to make adjustments today. Let's start looking for a cute skirt since that needs the most adjustments to let your tail out.”

She blushed again.

“RAWWWRRRR!!” CRASH BANG CRASH

“Stop her! Don’t let her escape the airport!”

Charlotte had already taken to the air. Ponies weren’t supposed to fly anywhere on airport grounds, but there was no way she was covering the distance to the incident on hoof in time to be any help.

There was more crashing. More banging. The sound of things being thrown. There was plenty of yelling as well.

“What the hell is that thing?!”

“Don’t shoot her!”

“Traitorous humans and ponies! I won’t be locked away again!”

“Can you calm down, you pea-brained bug! No one is trying to lock your dumb ass up! I’m trying to stop them from shooting you! Luna’s going to kill me if they kill you!”

She flew around a corner and almost crashed in shock at what she was seeing. Clinging to a wall was a massive…all she could call it was a bug. It was huge, black, and had a large pair of hooklike legs on the front, along with four additional legs that it moved around on. There were red highlights here and there on the exoskeleton and a jagged horn on its head, but its face was ponylike, and it had a red mane that was definitely hair. She’d never seen it before, but she knew what it was. This was Bursa. Her aunt had warned her about it back when she visited Equestria a few years ago, as the creature had caused some problems on their trip, apparently kidnapping one of the tourists and impersonating them. It was a shapeshifter with the goal of reaching Earth. Well, it seemed to have accomplished that. Now what was it going to do?

Bursa slashed one of her claws to fend back the TSA agents. They fell back as the claw zipped in front of them and cut straight through the wall like it was paper. Bursa then flared her horn and blasted at the night pony mare that had been with her on the plane, and the mare easily dodged the blast. It was unclear if the blast had been poorly aimed or a warning shot, but it left a small pothole in the floor. TSA agents and the earlier guards Bursa had been traveling with surrounded her on three sides, blocking all retreat. If Bursa was giving warning shots now, those could quickly escalate to her using deadly force to get away. Something had to be done to calm her down.

What did she know that could help defuse this situation? From what her aunt had told Charlotte, Bursa typically did not kill, but this might be because her food source was emotion, and dead things didn’t have emotion. Bursa also operated on the reasoning level of a child or young teen rather than an adult. She was a selfish creature that cared almost entirely about its freedom, getting to Earth, revenge against the wanted criminal Doctor Rossman, and rarely considered the consequences of her actions or the feasibility of her plans. There was one thing her aunt had told her kept Bursa somewhat in line. Bursa had gratitude towards Wild Growth, the only person Bursa had any respect for, and would avoid conflict with anyone tied to Wild Growth as her way of expressing that gratitude. It seemed ludicrous such a creature would stand down for anyone, and it had been years since such a tactic had been used, but it was worth a shot to try before someone got hurt.

“Hey, Bursa! Look at me! I’m Wild Growth’s niece! Stand down! I can call her and try to work this out!” she shouted as she landed.

Everyone briefly turned and looked at her like she was insane–everyone but one.

“Don’t believe you. You don’t look like Wild Growth. You look like the hateful pony,” Bursa declared and fired another shot at the other night pony mare.

“I have a name, you moronic metamorph!” the other night pony yelled.

Bursa fired a blast closer to the pony and growled. “So do I, pony, but you never use it. Why should I give you respect you don’t give me?”

“You’re such a crybaby!” the mare yelled.

“Is it wise to keep antagonizing that thing?” one of the agents asked in disbelief.

Several agents tried tazing the monster, but the taser’s ends bounced off the chitin. What they did succeed in doing was further pissing the giant bug off. It was a rare thing that Charlotte wished her sister was around, but Arachne’s powers over bugs would come in handy now. It was time to make one more attempt at a peaceful resolution before she divebombed that thing’s head. A solid strike to Bursa’s head might take her down, but it would make it impossible to reason with her going forward.

She quickly dialed her phone and, luckily, there wasn’t more than one ring before it was picked up.

“Charlotte?” Wild Growth answered. “It’s nice to hear from you, but why are you calling?”

Bursa turned her head to look. “Wild Growth?”

One of the guards looked back. “Senator Growth?”

Charlotte rushed to speak. “No time to go into details. Bursa is here in the Nashville airport. She’s causing a ruckus and property damage, and someone’s going to get hurt. I have you on speaker. You need to talk her down.”

“What? Why is she in Nashville?” Wild Growth exclaimed in disbelief. “She wasn’t scheduled to go there. We confirmed her parents were in Georgia.”

Bursa seemed to relax some. “Wild Growth? Is this a trick?”

“Bursa, why are you in Nashville?” Wild Growth asked, addressing the bug directly. “I’m assuming you dropped your disguise too. Why? Where are your handlers?”

The guards and agents whispered together. “Do we take her down while she’s distracted?”

“Don’t you dare touch her while Wild Growth is speaking to her!” Charlotte barked.

“Confirmed. Hold your positions if Bursa isn’t moving,” Wild Growth ordered. “Bursa, explain.”

“Senator, Bursa is confused. We can-” one of the people guarding Bursa began.

“I said I want Bursa to explain,” Wild Growth snapped. “She may well be confused about what is happening, but she will tell me what she thinks is going on first. After she speaks, then you can give your side of the story.”

Bursa didn’t hesitate. “I have a little sister! My captors don’t want me to see her.”

“Your sister is deceased! There is no going to see her,” one of the guards yelled.

“Was this sister in Nashville?” Wild growth asked.

“No! They are taking me away! They are going to lock me away again!” Bursa yelled.

“We are taking her back to the portal after her parents rejected her. The plane had to do a layover due to engine problems,” one of the handlers explained.

“I can confirm there were engine issues, and we had to do a layover. I was on the same flight as them,” Charlotte said. “They are doing something that makes her sick.”

“Horrible pony makes me sick with her emotions!” Bursa declared, glaring at the other night pony mare.

Charlotte blinked. It was negative emotions doing that? Wow. That put an entirely different spin on calling someone toxic. How nasty was this other mare?

“We need different handlers then,” Wild Growth declared. “Bursa is a guest in this country, one that I personally sponsored the visit of and assured would be treated well. Her well-being is my responsibility. Yes, we are keeping track of her and keeping her guarded, but she is not a criminal, nor is she required to go straight home, and we aren’t going to torture her by surrounding her with negativity. She is here to make peace with her past. Her sister may be deceased, but she has a right to at least go visit the grave and pay her respects.”

Wild Growth was the reason Bursa was here? Why would her aunt bring this monster here?

One of the soldiers looked at Charlotte and her phone in disbelief. “If that is what you wish, we would still need to hold her here until another team of handlers can arrive. This creature is not going to allow that.”

“You aren’t wrong,” Bursa growled, spreading her pincers threateningly at her handlers.

“Hmm, very well,” Wild Growth said thoughtfully. “Charlotte, Bursa is now in your care. See to it that her journey to rediscover her past gets to continue. Be kind. Bursa has endured a lot to get to this point. She’s a victim.”

“You can’t just order me to do that!” Charlotte objected. “This visit might be your pet project that you have authority over. I had no idea it was, so I got fortunate deciding to call you. However, I’m on my own mission. You don’t have the authority to take me off it and assign me to another mission.”

“True,” Wild Growth conceded. “But I can make a few calls to your superiors, and I’m sure they’ll reassign you to this mission. The military has no interest in having Bursa get angry and go on a rampage, and I have considerable pull. I don’t mean to belittle whatever mission you currently are on. I know protecting the public from vigilantes is important, but Bursa represents a much more significant threat than mere vigilantes if she gets loose and angry. That is a much higher priority than whatever mission you may be on, and you’ve already proven that you care about her well-being since you were upset she was getting sick and also were trying to stop her from getting hurt. Under your tough exterior, you have a kind heart; you try to protect everyone; that’s what Bursa needs. I trust you more than whatever random person they would choose, and Bursa is more likely to trust someone related to me.”

It made sense, and she couldn’t dispute that command would likely agree with her aunt and quickly reassign her. Still, it was getting dragged into doing one of the big three of the family’s bidding, having her aunt’s shadow over her. Why couldn’t she escape being in one or more of the three’s shadows?

She sighed. Worrying about being in those shadows didn’t matter…or at least, it didn’t matter enough to change what needed to be done. She could be selfish, or she could do the right thing. She wished doing the right thing meant doing something else, but that wasn’t her call.

“Fine,” Charlotte resignly said. “Bursa, you heard her. I’m going to be your handler for the time being. They say your sister is dead, but I get that you want to at least see it for yourself. I know I would, and I don’t even like my sister, so I'll help you out. Can you stop threatening the guards and come down from the wall? It’s hard to help you when you’re making this kind of scene. I won't let anyone hurt you.”

“You have my word. Charlotte will do everything she can to take care of you while you are on Earth,” Wild Growth assured her.

Bursa glared at her former handlers and TSA agents, then scowled at the other night pony mare.

“What? I didn’t want to be your foalsitter anyway,” the other night pony mare said. “I didn’t come back to Earth for that. You’ve sidetracked me long enough. I’m happy to let you be someone else’s problem. Let her try to deal with you; she’ll fail. She doesn’t have contempt to keep you in line.”

Bursa growled. “How can a creature ever be happy when they’re so full of contempt for everything, even themselves? You make me vomit, but you’re more sick than me. You are named well, Jimson Weed. You are poison.”

“You a botanist now, bug? Trying to prove you aren’t the moron that you are?” Jimson Weed snidely asked. “You don’t know anything. You’re worthless, even more so than everyone else. You should die and save everyone the trouble of dealing with you.”

Charlotte had enough. “Hey! Back off! You don’t want to be responsible for her? Good, because we don’t want that either. What the hell is wrong with you? Just leave and stop tormenting her.”

Jimson Weed gave a brief flap of her wings. “Fine. I can get back to why I’m really on Earth. Good riddance.” She then stormed off.

Charlotte let out a long sigh. “Thank you, Titi. I think I’ve got this now, although you might need to smooth some things over with the TSA.”

“I’m already getting ready to make some calls. Thank you, Charlotte. Call me again if you have trouble,” Wild Growth answered before the line went dead.

Charlotte cautiously approached Bursa. The guards were all still there with ineffective tasers pointed at the bug.

“Can you put those things down?” Charlotte addressed them. “You already know they don’t work on her, and you’re just making her feel threatened, which isn’t good for her or us. It’s time to de-escalate. Put the tasers down and back away. Let me handle this. I’m with the military’s anti-vigilante division. I’m trained to deal with difficult but highly powerful individuals. My aunt wouldn’t ask me to do this if I wasn’t up to it.”

“Difficult to deal with?” Bursa asked with a snarl in offense.

Charlotte raised an eyebrow at her. “Would you prefer I say you’re a pushover? I don’t think you are. These guys plainly don’t have a clue what they’re doing around you; otherwise, you wouldn’t be so upset right now. You are a unique individual who needs to have specialized assistance. You shouldn’t settle for less.”

Just because she was capable of beating the snot out of just about any meatbag didn’t mean she wasn’t capable of winning a fight by buttering someone up. If you could subdue a threat without throwing a blow, that meant less property damage and injury. Tempest had trained her and her siblings how to fight in combat, but their mother had taught them how to fight with their tongues. It was their secret weapon because no one expected it from them.

Bursa tilted her head. “Your words are sweet, but your emotions don’t match. You can’t fool me with pretty words.”

Okay, so buttering Bursa up wouldn’t be easily done. Bursa might not be the brightest bulb, but she was still a powerful empath.

“So, what emotions are you feeling from me?” Charlotte asked. She glanced at the TSA agents. “Didn’t I tell you bozos to back off?”

“Annoyance,” Bursa answered, “at these guards. I also feel…frustration, but I can’t tell anyone who it is specifically directed to. Anger at the vile pony.”

She looked Bursa in the eyes. “Are you feeling hostility or contempt from me towards you?”

Bursa stared for a few seconds. “No. Okay, pony. I will trust you.”

Charlotte nodded. “Then please come down from the wall and change into the form you used on the plane. I won’t let anyone hurt you or lock you away. You can tell me where we can look for this sister, or at least where her grave might be. My aunt will make sure we are clear to travel there. What was your sister’s name?”

Bursa climbed down from the wall and shifted back to her human form, which made the TSA visibly relax.

“Maria. She was last seen in Colorado,” Bursa answered.

Charlotte nodded again. “Good. Was she a human or a pony?”

“Neither,” Bursa answered. “We were both partials.”