Jordan took a deep breath and descended the stairs to the basement. She hadn't even been in Wabash Manor a week and was already dealing with an intruder. This one hadn't breached the house and had been more interested in getting away from the manor, but it was still an intruder. She'd just completed issuing her statement, which Blanche, Rebecca's bodyguard, had carefully scripted. Now it was time to talk to the prisoner. Why did she agree to take this place? She was a schoolteacher, not the dictator of some multi-acre fiefdom. According to the guards and Rebecca, the dictator of a fiefdom was effectively what she was now. The government was not going to give her help, and her word was practically law once you entered the fence surrounding the house grounds. She really should have read the fine print on this deal.

Bursa was in the center of the room, with six different guards aiming weapons at her. Jordan felt this was overkill, especially considering Bursa was missing half a leg and was constrained to an oversized medical bed. Still, everyone had stressed that Bursa was just that dangerous, so Jordan had caved and allowed it. The strange creature was awake, and its eyes followed Jordan as she finished descending the stairs.

"You're the one in charge? With a heart and a book for a cutie mark?" Bursa asked with a scoff. "Figures that yet another weakling pony is holding me. Ponies always hold me against my will."

Okay, she didn't want to be the one dealing with all this, but, like it or not, it was her responsibility. It was time to show this bug that she wasn't weak.

"My name is Jordan Streak, and this is my house. I was personally selected by Sunset Blessing to be the guardian of her secrets, and I know her most dangerous offensive spell, so don't take me lightly," Jordan declared as she stepped off the staircase.

The part about the spell was a bit of a bluff. She wasn't lying when she said that, but she omitted the fact that she couldn't cast that spell. It wasn't a matter of power in its case. Any unicorn who could manage to levitate a feather had enough power to cast the spell. What made it near impossible was it required you to thoroughly analyze the inner workings of your opponent's spell in a split second and come up with a unique puzzle piece of runework to meld with it and cast in that same split second. It was nye impossible to react that quickly to a hostile casting, but if you could, the weakest unicorn could potentially defeat or even slay an alicorn. In a magic duel, it was the ultimate display of skill over raw power.

It also supposedly left you flat on your flank and magically exhausted for days afterward, so you better hope whoever you were using it on didn't have a friend with them because you couldn't pull the same trick twice or do much of anything else for a short period. Sunset called the spell her desperation throw and had used it only a small number of times. The first time had earned her scars which she still bore.

Bursa looked pointedly at the guards. "The big bad unicorn still has guards pointing guns at my face while I'm strapped down with a broken leg."

She frowned and looked at the guards. She did think it was overkill.

"Lower your weapons," she instructed.

"Mrs. Streak, that is not advisable," one of the guards said as he hefted his gun to point at Bursa's head.

She sighed. "I might not be my auntie-"

"Aww, you call her your auntie!" Bursa mocked.

Jordan grit her teeth briefly, then continued. "-but I'm no pushover. I can deal with her. Lower your weapons."

The guards reluctantly lowered their weapons, and she saw Bursa grinning.

"Don't try anything. Jessie's listening to this conversation, and she can pull that sound trick again, and I'm pretty adept at shields," Jordan warned.

Bursa's smile dropped. "That was a dirty trick with the sound. That hurt!"

"Well, let's have a civil conversation, and you don't need to worry about that,'' Jordan said slowly.

Bursa pulled at her restraints. "Maybe if you unchain me, I will."

Jordan snorted. "Don't push your luck, and I know you're perfectly capable of breaking those chains if you try or transforming to something smaller and slipping out of them. Rebecca told me all about you."

Bursa blinked. "I don't know anyone named Rebecca."

Jordan tilted her head. "You know, The Marshmallow, one of the Dreamwardens, has white fur and is really fat? She said she met-"

"The fat pegasus! She is so annoying!" Buesa hissed.

"You remember me!"

Rebecca appeared in her regular pegasus form, floating a short distance from Bursa's head.

"I'm so glad I made an impression," Rebecca told the bug with a smile.

Bursa laid her head against the medical bed and rocked it back and forth. "Why couldn't that shadow monster have eaten you?"

Rebecca cartwheeled in the air, then zoomed through Bursa and back out again. "I might be extra fluffy, but I'm not that filling. I go right through people."

"I did not come back to Earth to deal with you!" Bursa snapped at the Dreamwarden.

Jordan held up a hoof. "Um…Rebecca…I was about to question her. Can I go ahead with that, or did you need something first?"

Rebecca backed away towards the ceiling. "I can wait. Do your questioning. We can do good cop and bad cop. Psst! You're the bad cop!"

That earned Jordan giving herself a facehoof. "We aren't doing that! Bursa, I just want to know how you ended up with Charlotte."

"I grabbed her from the Autobot base and forced her to take me to Earth," Bursa answered. "Will you let me go now?"

"What base?" Jordan asked in confusion.

One of the guards coughed politely. "I think she's playing games with you, ma'am. She's talking about transformers."

Bursa growled. "I'm not playing games. The transformers are from the same world as the care bears! I was part of the scouting party to learn about that world, and so was that annoying human and her annoying elephant."

Rebecca turned upside down and floated near Bursa's face. "And you saw an opportunity to come back to Earth that you couldn't resist, didn't you?"

The bug tried to take a bite out of Rebecca, but her mouth passed right through. She then grimaced. "Yes."

"What about the rest of the scouting party?" Jordan asked.

"You said you only wanted to ask me about the annoying human!"

Jordan stomped a hoof. "I changed my mind. What happened to the rest of the scouting party?"

"I don't know. They're still back on that world. They were fine last time I saw them," Bursa said with a lack of concern.

Jordan narrowed her eyes. "And I'm assuming that Charlotte was their way back home? Charlotte, who isn't with them anymore."

For the first time, Bursa's arrogant and angry sneer dropped. "....yes?"

"You traitor," Jordan said darkly. Bursa actually flinched.

Rebecca did another flip. "See that? She feels bad. Bursa's not a bad bug. She just doesn't think things through."

"Don't call me dumb!" Bursa yelled at the Dreamwarden.

Jordan looked up at her non-corporeal friend. "Whose side are you even on?"

Rebecca went still. "I'm on everybody's side because I want the best for everyone, even if they don't know what's best for them. I'm also the good cop, remember? You're doing an excellent bad cop."

"I'm not being the bad cop!" Jordan shouted

"Could have fooled me," Bursa muttered.

Jordan groaned in frustration and looked back at Rebecca. "I got my answer, for now. I need to think about what else to ask. Go ahead and do whatever it is you're here to do."

Rebecca cartwheeled in the air again. "Thank you very much!" She then turned her attention to Bursa. "So…despite everything, you managed to get to Earth, only to get captured… like… immediately. What a bad turn of luck."

"That girl tricked me!" Bursa protested.

"Eh, possible, but I doubt it," Rebecca said nonchalantly."The big question is, what to do with you now."

Bursa shook the table. "You won't send me back! I'll never return to Equestria."

Rebecca made one of her hooves into a hand and shook a finger at Bursa. "Never say never, but I wasn't planning on trying, so don't worry. You see, the portal to Equestria is a very public place, and the government doesn't want you within a hundred miles of it. They also don't want you wandering around all fancy and free, and you don't want to be locked up. That is a bit of a pickle to resolve, don't you think?"

"I'll escape and go into hiding," Bursa asserted.

Rebecca shook her head. "Yeah, about that…I'll give you the heads up that the government isn't going to let that happen. They won't hesitate to shoot you dead the second you leave the safety of Wabash. I don't want you shot dead either, and even though Jordan over there is being a grumpy gus because you made a big boo-boo stranding your comrades on a hostile world, she doesn't want you dead either."

"I'm not staying imprisoned here!" Bursa yelled.

"Definitely not," Jordan agreed. Let that thing near her kids? Never!

Rebecca went back to smiling. "Well, lucky for you, I'm here, and I told the government I would offer you a deal." Rebecca transformed into a big piece of parchment that had a face and that had the word contract written at the top. "We Dreamwardens love to make contracts, cut deals, work out agreements, and almost every nation respects them. They're very binding, nigh unbreakable. I know what you want, and it isn't your freedom, and the Dreamwardens are the only ones who can give it to you…for a price."

Bursa's sneer returned. "What could I possibly want more than my freedom?"

Rebecca shifted to her amorphous blob form and smiled wide. "Answers. Who were you? Where did you come from? Do you have family still living?"

Bursa stiffened, and her eyes widened as far as they could go. Jordan watched Bursa's face go through a string and mix of emotions in a brief few seconds- hope, fear, and then suspicion.

"Luna searched my mind; she said she could find nothing. You wardens searched my mind too, and the government supposedly did an investigation," Bursa said slowly. "Were they all lying, or are you?"

"No one was lying, but the situation has changed," Rebecca explained. "The dead have no secrets, and guess who up and died while you were in Equestria?"

Bursa's eyes narrowed. "Rossman."

Rebecca bobbed in place. "Yep, and with that comes new leads. He didn't know everything, but he knew enough for us to track down the rest in a short period of time. I promise you; we have enough information from him to get you all your answers."

Bursa was silent for a few seconds before answering. "I'll agree to whatever contract you want."

Rebecca frowned for the first time. "You haven't heard what I want from you yet."

"Don't care," Bursa replied.

Rebecca rolled her eyes. "You're lucky I'm the nice Dreamwarden and don't milk that for all it's worth. You'll get a visit from our lawyers soon to discuss the details. Please listen to them carefully and ask questions. We need you to understand fully what you're agreeing to. You'll get your answers upon signing, but not until we are sure you fully understand and you've given your word to abide by it to Arbiter. She's the one who will bind it. Don't rush the lawyers. After we give you your answers, we have already arranged to move you elsewhere. The government won't stop us if we have the contract."

The floating blob looked at Jordan. "That's all for me! She's all yours. Well, not all yours; you don't own her. Now I need to go talk to the newest warden to make them do some odds and ends so I can cuddle with my hubby. Hooray for seniority!"

Rebecca abruptly vanished, leaving Jordan to figure out what to do next.

"Are you going to unchain me now?" Bursa pointedly asked.

Jordan sighed. "If you run off, the lawyers can't find you, and if you try to hurt anyone, there won't be anyone to find. Do we understand one another?" The last part was a bluff, but she hoped it worked.

"We understand one another," Bursa agreed.

Jordan gestured at Bursa's restraints. "Go ahead and unchain her. She has no reason to be hostile, and it is easier for me to question her if she isn't bound up like that."

The guards seemed hesitant, but she had given them a direct order. Several of them hefted their guns back up to be trained on Bursa as one of the guards approached the bug to do as instructed. He undid the chains and then backed away quickly.

Bursa moved to get up, but despite having more appendages than a pony, she ended up losing her balance and falling to the floor with a crash. The medical bed was knocked over as she landed. Jordan couldn't help feeling sympathy for the thing.

"Someone call Shǔguāng," Jordan instructed as she listened to Bursa whimper in pain. "He's the best doctor I know and one of only two who can be trusted to see this. I'm unsure what he can do for her, but we need to do something." She softened her expression and tone as she refocused on Bursa. It might be a monster, but it was a monster that was miserable and in pain. "Hey, I'm going to hold off on interrogating you further for right now. I'm going to try to get you some help. What do you eat? If you are going to make any recovery, you need food."

"I can eat anything, but it goes right through. None of you can provide what nourishes me," Bursa cried.

Probably something from Equestria then, Jordan figured to herself. She couldn't do much to help that. Shǔguāng would have to come up with answers. Right now, she needed a break from this. She didn't like being in this kind of authoritative position. This was nothing like being in charge of a class. She held the lives of others in her hooves, and that was more responsibility than she wanted to bear.

Rebecca zoomed formlessly and invisibly past the city of Skytree into the unincorporated outskirts to a nondescript-looking cement building with a front door, gravel parking lot fit for maybe six cars, a large loading bay around the back, and no windows. A small sign hung on the front door reading Eternal Dream Mortuary, a rather fitting yet at the same time ironic name.

She didn't bother with most of the building and simply descended into the ground and to the basement, where a thin earth pony stallion sat surrounded by corpses on slabs, one of which he was applying makeup to.

"Hiya, Moses!" she shouted.

The earth pony jumped with a yelp, falling off the stool he had been sitting on.

She winced. "Sorry, I forget you don't notice me immediately outside the dream realm. You aren't hurt, are you?"

He picked himself up and dusted himself off. "No, I just need to take a few seconds for my heart and breathing to slow down."

The door at the top of the nearby staircase suddenly flew open. "Miss Rebecca! Miss Rebecca! You need to see the pretty picture I-"

That was as far as the speaker got with that idea before tumbling down the metal stairs and hitting the bottom. Their leg ripped off somewhere along the fall and was left sitting on one of the stairs above. Moses hurried over to the downed form.

"Patches! We know not to run down the stairs like that! See what happens!" Moses shouted in concern as he sat next to the filly and started inspecting her.

"Sorry," the filly said, sounding more embarrassed than hurt, despite black goo leaking out of her wound in a puddle. "Um, we're missing a leg. Can we fix it?"

"Let's make sure none of our bones are broken first. We could have cracked our skull," Moses answered as he continued his inspection.

Rebecca hovered closer to get a better look. Patches' primary body, three legs, and head were made from one filly, but the now missing leg was from an entirely different source– no telling if it had been part of a filly or colt. Her eyes were mismatched, one green and one purple, and it was possible neither originally went with that skull. Most of her fur was a dull blue, but there were several areas where different fur that did not match the color had been sewn on. One of her ears was green and the other yellow. She had no mane whatsoever, and her tail lacked any fur, leaving this odd stub that looked like it belonged on a rat with half its tail chopped off. There were obvious stitches all over her body, and she was also missing her lips and part of her gums on the right side of her face. The leg on the stairs was pink and leaking out the same morbidly black goo that the stump it attached to on her body. Rebecca had never met the filly in the flesh to experience it, but she had heard that she smelled like rot.

"Our bones aren't broken," Moses announced. "We still need to be careful running down the stairs. Take them slow. We aren't that well put together."

"Okay, Moses," Patches agreed, then held out her stump. "Can we fix us?"

Moses sighed and glanced back at Rebecca. "Give me a few moments. It is best to take care of this before it sits too long."

Rebecca floated back. "Sure, do your necromancy thing. I can wait here a bit longer. I'm the one coming to ask a favor. I don't want to interfere with…." She made a vague gesture at Patches. "...this stuff."

He nodded and got up, heading to the other slabs to inspect corpses.

"Miss Rebecca! Did you look at my picture I drew!" Patches shouted happily, unconcerned she was oozing her insides all over the place and showing no sign of discomfort. She glanced around, spotted a piece of construction paper, and pointed with her stump. "See! Over there!"

Rebecca floated over to it and looked at it. It was a simple picture of some flowers, a sailboat, and a lighthouse, all drawn with the care of a five-year-old child, each item with a different color crayon and filled in with only moderate respect for where the lines were. The most interesting thing was the flowers seemed to be growing out of the water rather than on land.

"It is a beautiful picture," Rebecca complimented. It wasn't a lie. Art was all a matter of opinion, and this piece had the feel of an innocent child, which was something that Rebecca found very pretty.

"I knew you'd like it!" Patches said happily.

"This one will do," Moses announced as he stood next to the corpse of a middle-aged human woman. He sat still for a few seconds; then, the corpse suddenly sat upright. It blinked once, then turned its attention to Moses.

"We should lock that door, so we don't interfere with our work," the newly risen corpse announced.

"We know, but we feel sad when we are locked out and can't visit ourselves," Moses answered.

The new one flexed its fingers and toes as if checking to make sure they worked. Once satisfied that all was in working order, it got up and headed toward the stairs. Rebecca moved further out of the way.

The dead woman paused briefly to look down at Patches. "We need to take more care. It is undignified to be lying on the ground, missing limbs, and pouring rot on the ground. No running on stairs, filly."

Patches looked down in shame. "Yes, Sha'am. Will we sew our leg on now?"

"But of course, dear filly," the woman replied. She continued on to the stairs, pausing briefly to test the strength of her legs before taking a few steps up them to retrieve the leg.

Moses came over with a sewing kit and sat it down beside Patches. It hadn't been there before, but that old creepy doll had somehow appeared next to Patches, and Moses nudged it closer to her. Patches cheered as she noticed it and grabbed it into a hug with her still attached forelimb, hugging it lovingly. Sha'am Maut returned with the leg and sat down beside the filly.

"Not going to greet me, Sha'am?" Rebecca asked.

Sha'am looked briefly at her before looking back down at Patches and beginning her work. "I believe we have greeted you twice, both Moses and Patches. Are you so greedy for attention that you need us to greet you a third time in as many minutes?"

"I guess not," Rebecca answered. She always got the impression that Sha'am didn't like her, which was upsetting because Moses and Patches were Sha'am too, and they liked her. It felt strange dealing with an aspect of them that didn't care for her. "Hey, I had a question. My memories I inherited from you seem to have some holes. I've been trying to make your recipe for the bundt cake you served on your son's fifth birthday, but I can't get it right. Any suggestions on what I could be getting wrong?"

"What type of milk are you using?" Sha'am asked, not looking up from her sewing.

"Whole milk, duh," Rebecca answered quickly.

"Whole cow milk?" Sha'am asked.

Rebecca blinked. "Oh! That's right; you had goats. I need goat's milk, don't I?"

"That is correct," Sha'am confirmed with a slight nod. "Now leave us be and go bother that newer incarnation of us. We are busy."

"Um, yes, ma'am," Rebecca replied, drifting away from the dreaded ex-Dreamwarden and the young undead filly towards the newest Dreamwarden.

"Don't mind us. We look down our noses at everybody but children," Moses said calmly, gesturing at his previous incarnation. "We don't like being brought back into awareness either, but Sha'am does the best stitching of all of us, at least those of us who don't freak out at waking up. Sha'am is pleased you only questioned her about baking this time."

"Moses…you're weird," Rebecca said dryly. "Anyway, I need a favor. I'm sending Bursa over to Arachne, and I need you to make a visit and make it triple clear she's to treat Bursa nicely. You're more intimidating than me. I could also use some help with some digging up of old records. I can give you the rundown in the dream realm about those."

He frowned. "How much digging for old records? I have a busy schedule this week– lots of bodies I need ready for funerals. Arachne shouldn't take much time, even if I don't like being around so many people, but she's just across town and keeps isolated in her mansion. However, research takes more time. I'm assuming this is stuff we aren't allowed to just pick out of minds."

"There may be some living that would have to give permission and would not understand what we want or why, or they may feel it is invasive," Rebecca answered. "I'm not sure how long the research will take. Arbiter says we have plenty of good leads to start it off. I haven't looked at them since I haven't been properly asleep yet. I made promises that this would be done."

He sighed. "Fine, I know you've got enough on your plate already. I guess I can carry my fair share, but you owe me a favor sometime."

"I can throw Patches a big birthday party next month. I can even find some guests who can deal with her unique qualities," Rebecca offered.

He raised an eyebrow at her. "You can find foals and parents who can stand to be around a patchwork reanimated abomination?"

"If any fool can, it is her. Take the offer," Sha'am said from across the room.

"Birthday party!" Patches yelled with unbridled joy.

Rebecca had forgotten that all the incarnations heard what Moses heard. Hard to make surprise plans for Patches when Patches was Moses. They may have different personalities, intelligence levels, temperaments, maturities, and desires, but Sha'am and Patches (along with untold legions of others) were just extensions of him– a hive mind that did not see themselves as fully distinct entities, but part of a single whole. Other aspects of the same soul, different lives that Moses had once lived before this one. Reincarnation and necromancy created some odd results, and it only got messier when the soul had been through the Eternal Dream and came out of it. Still, it made Moses exceptionally useful in some areas.

"You have a deal," Moses said. "I'll get plenty of disinfectants and incense to cover her smell. Patches doesn't carry any disease or viruses since her body temperature is too low for most of those to live in, and reanimated bodies have extra defenses that the living don't. Still, her spit acts like the most attractive petri dish you have ever encountered once it is outside her body and away from my magic. We need to be careful about where she puts her mouth."

"Will keep that in mind," Rebecca assured him. She didn't want to get anybody sick, and she was sure Patches didn't either. "Anyway, thanks for the help, little bro. You're a lifesaver! Keep up the good work with the drawing, Patches!"

"Thank you, Miss Rebecca!" the filly replied with a giggle as Sha'am continued to stitch her leg back on.

Chore done; Rebecca let her projection go. It was time for some needed R&R with her hubby.

Author's Note

Be kind to your small undead friend.