I left Lántiān's room and made a pit stop by my room to grab my phone and double-check the colts. After confirming they were still soundly sleeping, I decided the next thing to do would be to check on Paul, but as I was headed that way, I nearly ran into my mother, who was coming downstairs. She jumped higher than you would think a mare her age was capable of doing, then took some deep breaths after she saw it was only me.
"Sorry, Mom, I didn't mean to shorten your life," I said apologetically as she caught her breath.
"I'm already running on an extension, so no harm is done if you did," she breathed. "I don't know how you sleep at night here, not with all that barking."
I laid my ears flat as one of the mysteries had been putting off resurfaced. "Barking… what barking did you hear? Where did you hear it?"
She pointed vaguely upstairs. "I'm sure it was outside, but it sounded like it was coming from that room at the end of the hall up there when I went to use the bathroom. I pulled your father out of bed, but as soon as he got into the hall with me, it stopped."
"Did you happen to see the Youngs up and about?" I asked. They had to have set up some device to make noise; that was the only explanation.
She shook her head. "No, I think they kept to their rooms all night. I'm pretty good at feeling vibrations in the floor, it might be an earth pony thing, and I didn't feel anything that indicated anypony—forgive me, I'm trying to break the habit— anyone was walking around up there. Jess, Silvia, and Sinker all heard it at different parts of the night. Everyone was checking with everyone else to make sure we weren't crazy. We even checked that room, and Silvia felt it out for magic. There was nothing. We thought about coming down to ask you, but it stopped altogether by then. Don't think that was until nearly two, and I didn't want to wake you."
I frowned. "If you hear it again, come get me immediately, or better yet, get Starlight. I don't care if it is two in the afternoon or two at night. I've heard that barking, and so has one of my colts, and I'm sure it is coming from that room."
She shivered. "This place isn't haunted, is it?"
"There's no such thing as ghosts, Mom."
"Your wife is a ghost," she countered. "People used to say magic was fake too, but here we are. If magic can be real, so can ghosts and goblins and every other thing from every fairy tale you ever heard."
I gave her a flat look. "Mom, you're a magic pony with more strength than a plow horse. Any monster would be crazy to try to take you on."
"But in the stories, all the demons and things want to drink unicorn blood," Mom continued to protest.
"I'm the unicorn, not you."
"That doesn't make me feel better!" Mom cried.
I facehoofed. "Mom… I think you had a long night that has left you agitated. You might need to get a good breakfast and a nice cup of coffee to settle your nerves, and then you can think clearer. Then you'll laugh at how silly you're being. If it will make you feel any better, I will personally call Phobia and ask her if there are any such things as ghosts—not counting dead Dreamwardens, and she can personally reassure you with all her infinite Dreamwarden knowledge that there aren't."
She took a deep breath. "You're right; I'm just on edge after not sleeping well in an unfamiliar place."
I glanced at the stairs leading up to the third floor. "Go get some breakfast. I'll be down shortly. I'm going to see if Starlight can help me figure out what is going on with that room. We can't all be imagining dogs barking that aren't there. It may not be ghosts, but something is going on with that room. I have a lot to do today, but I intend to resolve that room. While I have nothing to indicate it's dangerous, it's scaring people."
My phone chose that moment to start ringing. I sighed and answered it. "Hello?"
"Sunset, it's Rosetta. We just got off the plane, and we're trying to find Number Crunch—hold on a moment." She started giving orders in the background to behave in Spanish. "Sorry, the foals have been stuck sitting still in their seats for hours and are now expending all that cooped-up energy— Robby, get over here! You're old enough that you should be helping, not having me worry about you wandering off! Why're you crying, Alfie? Tempest, can you see what his sisters have done to him this time and deal with that? I'm trying to make a call. Charlotte, I don't want to hear excuses; don't hit your brother—don't hit your sister either!"
"You sound like you have your hooves full," I said in a bemused tone. The demons were still demons, it seemed. "Um, you do have Number's phone number if you have any problem finding her, right?"
"Yeah, I have it. I thought it would be easier to find her, but there are a lot more cars out here waiting to pick people up than I expected, and they all have their headlights on and blinding me. The airport is a no-fly zone for ponies, so I can't fly up to look around, even if the foals were behaving enough to allow it. I'm about to have Tempest look around since she can do a better job at that than me when I'm ground-bound and being blinded by inconsiderate people in cars."
"We'll be waiting for you. I'll make sure everyone is up," I replied. At least she was so busy dealing with her foals she wasn't snapping at me. Rosetta was sometimes as bad as Lántiān. My daughter-in-law usually couldn't make it through a sentence with me without displaying her contempt.
"I have to go. I think Tempest just spotted our ride. We'll be there soon," Rosetta said quickly, then hung up without so much as a goodbye.
While I had been on the phone, the house had woken up, perhaps from all the noise I was making. Dad and Sinker had walked by me and had joined my Mom in going downstairs. Lántiān had crossed over into my room to rouse her brothers without being asked with Qīng Yǔ sleepily following her mother. Jess had come down, rubbing her eyes, but was now sitting at the stairwell looking at me with an excited expression. I heard movement from the Equestrians' room and off down the hall going into the other wing of the house—which I assumed was the Youngs getting up.
"Robby is on his way?" Jess asked eagerly, practically bouncing on her butt.
I nodded and then sniffed the air. "You might want to go take a shower while you can, and put some deodorant on."
Her ears flattened. "I don't stink!"
"Don't argue with a pony's nose, human. When’s the last time you showered? It's part of growing up as a human that you learn to at least put on deodorant before you go out and deal with people. It's basic hygiene. Even mares have to wear it sometimes—do you need to wear that deodorant too?"
She gave me a dirty look. "Why would I wear pony deodorant?"
I tried to tread carefully on the subject since I knew she was sensitive about it. "Well, your lower half of your body is a little… different than most humans."
"Auntie Sunset! You don't ask people about their periods!" Jess blurted out in outrage. "And I get normal human ones, not like ones for ponies. I wish I got ones like ponies instead because mine are fucking awful! Ponies are lucky when it comes to that. So no, I don't need that kind of deodorant. I can't believe you asked me that!"
I held up my hoof defensively. "Okay, okay, just checking. No need to get riled up. Watch the language. I have young foals here who shouldn't be hearing that—not that you should be using language like that either. Go get yourself cleaned up before your brother arrives, or you'll probably get a new nickname of stinky."
Jess got up with an aggravated grumble and deliberately stomped back upstairs, flicking her tail at me as she went. "Bad as my mom!"
"I'll take that as a compliment," I muttered to myself. I turned around to see Lántiān looking down at the ground and blushing for some reason. "Something wrong?"
Her blush deepened. "Ma'am, I seem to be lacking something you were just discussing and may need it."
I blinked. "I'll put that on the shopping list. I don't expect you'll be lifting your tail in anyone's face. Can you see that your brothers get breakfast? I need to talk to Starlight about something."
She nodded, looking relieved, and hurried downstairs, with her brothers and daughter in tow. Maybe she had been afraid I would berate her. Why would I? It was my fault for not thinking to get her any. Or did I? Did I buy it and forget to give it to her? I didn't know. Tonya used to keep track of all the mundane little domestic details and keep me focused.
I was off-track, again. I turned and headed back to the Equestrians' room. Trixie was still asleep… doing whatever that was she was doing with her legs. I seemed to recall Starlight complaining Trixie practiced her act in her sleep. Was that what that was? It just looked weird. Starlight was up and checking her messages on her phone, but diverted her attention to me when I walked in.
"Hey, I'm going to need to head out for a while today," Starlight said as she put her phone on. "I'm not on Earth just to socialize, and today is one of the days I'm going to be needed."
That was disappointing. "I understand. Do you have time to look at something before you go? I've looked at it, Silvia checked last night, and we aren't finding anything, but I know something must be up."
"Sure, as long as it doesn't take too long," Starlight said with a smile. "What's up. Sounds like a magic problem if it was you and Silvia looking."
I pointed a hoof at the ceiling. "There's a room upstairs where people keep hearing dogs barking. I know the sound is coming from that room, and it instantly stops as soon as a second person enters the hall, but isn't there most of the time anyway. Líng was the first one to hear it when he took off the other day. I heard it yesterday, and everyone upstairs was hearing it last night. I haven't found any spell causing it, nor did Silvia. I looked around to see if any electronic device was making it, but that room is empty. I even checked outside to be sure there were no loose dogs. There aren't any, and if there were, we wouldn't only be hearing it on the third floor. I asked the Youngs about it, and they deny knowing anything or ever hearing it."
Starlight blinked. "That's odd. It's just barking? Nothing else? You don't feel any magic or anything?"
"There's something off about the barking, but I can't tell what," I replied. "It's the third-story tower room. Do you think you could check it over before you go? Maybe you can detect some device I failed to notice or some spell that somehow eluded both the crystal pony and me. It has my mom freaking out about ghosts."
Starlight put a hoof up to her chin. "As far as I know, there's no such thing as ghosts, even in Equestria. Some non-corporeal creatures are made of magic in Equestria, but there shouldn't be anything like that on Earth. The closest thing would be a Dreamwarden that has died or the Narrative or maybe Triss, and I think it is safe to rule out any of them living in your house. Silvia would have detected any of them anyway since they are made of magic, at least by my understanding, just like non-corporeal beings on Equestria. I'll go take a look, but I would lean towards a more physical answer than a magical one."
"Thank you, Starlight. It will put my mind at ease about that," I replied. "I'm going to go check on the Youngs and then head downstairs. Tell me if you found anything."
"Will do," Starlight said and then quickly teleported out of the room.
I looked at Trixie and saw she was still asleep after all the talking and decided to leave her there. I left the room and headed down the hall to check on the Youngs in the opposite wing.
Their rooms all had their doors closed, and I wasn't sure who of the four rooms belonged to who. I just picked a door at random and knocked.
Grace opened the door, and her eyes lit up. "Pretty pony!" She turned and looked into her room. "Bobby, the pretty unicorn came to see us!"
I smiled. "Do you remember my name?"
She frowned and bit a finger while shaking her head.
"It's Sunset Blessing," I reminded her. "I know you had a lot of names to remember yesterday, so it's okay if you don't remember it yet."
Her eyes widened in recognition. "You're the pony that got sad and went in the corner and also let us pet you! Are you feeling better, Miss Pretty Unicorn?"
"I'm feeling much better, thank you for asking," I replied. "Grace, which one of these rooms is for your parents?"
"That would be over here," John's voice said from behind me. I turned and saw him frowning at me from his doorway, giving me a suspicious look again.
I stepped away from his daughter in a hurry, and she closed her door. "Sorry. I was looking for you and didn't know which room was which. I didn't mean to get your younger children's room."
"It's okay," he replied. "What do you need?"
I tried to put on my most accommodating smile. "My daughter-in-law and grandfoals should be arriving soon, as well as Paul's son and their household bodyguard. All of them are night ponies like Mèng, except the bodyguard. That means they are largely nocturnal and should be asleep through the afternoon."
"They explained the traits of each of your tribes to us while you were asleep yesterday," John said. "I understand what a night pony is and does, at least mostly. They mentioned something about prison guards in dreams or something, but wouldn't elaborate."
"Dreamwardens?" I asked.
He nodded. "That's it. They were open about everything else, but they hushed up like church mice when that got brought up, and they all glared at that girl for even mentioning it. What are you ponies hiding?"
"They were probably not wanting to say the wrong thing and frighten you," I explained in a calm tone. I didn't want to discuss this yet, but it was needed. "The Dreamwardens are people with magic who hold special powers to act as defenders of free will and protect minds from attacks. But more normally, they help dreamers have a good night's sleep. Some people, due to a misunderstanding, are terrified of them because of how powerful they are in what is called the dream realm. My daughter, my foster foals' deceased mother, and my deceased spouse are all Dreamwardens, so they may come up in conversations sometimes."
"That deceased mother, was her being a Dreamwarden what China wanted her for?" John asked.
I nodded. "Yes. As a Dreamwarden, she had access to a great deal of information. They were trying to pressure her to give it to them by threatening her foals. She chose to get her foals out of China and then die rather than let China do that. Details on Dreamwardens get complicated, and I couldn't explain it all in just a few minutes, and would probably make errors in what I say. My daughter-in-law will be here in minutes, and she can explain details better than I can if you wish to speak to her about it. I am inviting you and your family down to have breakfast with us."
He looked at the other rooms with their closed doors. "We'll come down in a little while. I'm not sure how well anyone slept. We're so used to the bunker and sleeping in the same room. This is an adjustment after so long."
I frowned and lowered my voice. "I need to ask you a few things; one of them might be offensive, but I need to know the truth. If it offends you, I understand, but I'm trying to protect your family by knowing."
His frown deepened, and his brow narrowed. "What is it?"
"Mike and Alice," I whispered as I sat down. I tapped my hooves together. "Are they… doing anything siblings shouldn't do? I understand you may all have thought you were the last humans on Earth."
John looked back and forth between two of the closed doors, and he didn't rage at me for suggesting it. He then squatted down so he could look at me face to face.
"No, they haven't, and if I have my way, they won't," he replied in a very neutral tone.
I narrowed my brow. "But there is something." It wasn't a question.
He closed his eyes and nodded. "It's like you said. We thought we were the last. They only had each other for possible future partners, and they knew it and have developed an expectation that they will be. Lauren and I believed it too, and we were divided on what to do. One thing we did decide on was that nothing was going to happen until Alice got older, if anything happened at all. We didn't let any inappropriate touching or anything else occur. You don't need to worry. No incest has occurred, but I understand your concern and am not angry about it. I'm hoping we get to introduce them to more humans and that any attraction they have built up just goes away. I don't know what to do if it doesn't."
I pursed my lips as I thought. "Today is Saturday, which means tomorrow is Sunday. It has been a long while since I have attended a proper Sunday morning service at a church. If I decide tomorrow is a good day to start again, would you like to bring your family? I can pick a small church, somewhere out of the way in a small town, that has both humans and ponies in its congregation. It's a chance to have them start meeting other humans without overwhelming them with too many at once. I know we're probably overwhelming you with ponies and information, but I hadn't planned all this."
He looked back into his room and then back at me. "Lauren and I will talk about it and get back to you. We're starting to trust you and your family, but you'll have to forgive us for still being cautious. This is a lot to take in, and we don't know yet how to verify anything."
"I understand," I replied. "You are doing better than I could have hoped. I know that it's a long road for you, but I want to help you with it. I know Wild Growth will too when she gets here later."
"That's why we are trusting you," John replied. "You have proven you could have just dragged us away and thrown us in cells for life or whatever ponies do. You have done everything you can to keep that from happening, and we can't think of what you would gain by not doing so. That leaves us with the alternative; you are telling the truth, and you really want to help. It's not comfortable saying that because it makes us question why we did what we did and whether we lost eight years of our lives and our children's lives for nothing."
"Sometimes we think we know what's right, and we turn out to be wrong in every conceivable way," I said as I looked down. "I know that better than anyone. It's a horrible feeling. At least you can say you didn't make mistakes that led to anyone's death. You messed up. You messed up big, but you still have everyone you love. If you have that, you can recover."
He looked me in the eyes. "They told us about you and your mistakes. It is hard to believe a pony like you would be so determined to help us."
I let off a dry laugh. "I figured they would. I can't confirm or deny anything because I did my best not to listen. I told you, I've messed up a lot, and I have a lot of regrets. My life is like some crazed writer's story, and they are bound and determined to torture me forever for my sins."
John took a deep breath. "A more exciting story than mine, if true. Eight years in a bunker? I feel shafted. Characters in any good story grow and change over time. Their experiences shape them, and you can't say they are the same as when they first appeared in the narrative. We've made it this far; hopefully, the finale will be a happy ending, with us as better people for all our struggles."
I sighed. "We can only hope. I think I have endured enough tragedies. I would like a happy ending. If not for me, then for my foals. They deserve one. They are too young to have endured the tragedies that they have."
He nodded. "Same. Give my kids a happily ever after, despite all my mistakes. That's all I ask."
"Sunset?" Starlight called out from down the hall. "Can I speak to you for a moment?"
I looked up and nodded, then back at John as I stood. "I hope to see you downstairs soon. This was a good talk. Let me see what Starlight wants."
He got up as well. "I need to get Lauren up and see about the kids. We'll be down when we're ready. Thank you for always talking, Sunset Blessing." He then closed the door.
I walked over to Starlight. "Did you find anything?"
She frowned. "Yes and no. There's no spell that I can detect either, and I used every scanning spell I could to search for hidden devices or anything we can't see. There are none. However, the energy in that room is off."
I flicked an ear. "Off? What do you mean it is off?"
She seemed to be searching for a way to explain it. "Thaumic energy in your universe feels a certain way. It used to feel very sluggish, like it hadn't been stirred in a while, like stagnant water. It has started feeling looser in the past eight years, but still has a definite feel to it. That room, the energy is like a pond someone just threw a boulder into. The energy is agitated, moving far more than normal. There's no trace of a spell ever being cast, but it is acting like someone cast a lot of powerful magic in there without leaving a trace of what they did."
My ears flattened. "What do you think it means?"
She shook her head. "I'm not sure, but I think you should lock up that room. Something in this house isn't right, and it has nothing to do with the Youngs."