//------------------------------// // Chapter 56: Peer Pressure // Story: Pandemic: What you are Meant to Be // by Halira //------------------------------// The two night ponies and Wild Growth sat eating food with the rest of the family. They were enjoying the fact they were capable of gripping spoons in their fetlocks and using them. It was just soup so they were more than capable of just drinking it straight from the bowl, but the clumsy display that they could do it made them smirk at Rosetta's gaping brothers. "Okay, that confirms it. There are no downsides to being a pony," Miguel declared. Remedy looked at Rosetta as her ears dropped. Wild's ears angled towards Rosetta and a look of concern came to the younger sister's face. Rosetta had been planning on talking had been with her parents about her feelings after dinner, and that declaration made things harder. The parents caught that something was up as well. "Boys, finish up your dinner outside. I think it is time for the adults to have some time to talk alone," Jean said. "Why's Wild get to stay," Jose complained. "Wild's an adult. Ponies are adults at seventeen. Plus she has a career, and is the main breadwinner of the family. When you pay all the bills you can be counted as an equal adult too," Jean said. Remedy didn't know if seventeen fully counted as an adult or not for ponies. Adulthood age was partly a cultural consideration though and it seemed perfectly acceptable to her that any full grown pony was an adult, which counted Wild Growth. The argument seemed to work on the boys as they shuffled out. "You know, it hadn't even occurred to me that I'm going to be paying all the bills for a little while. I don't mind at all, but it hadn't occurred to me," Wild said thoughtfully. "You don't actually have to if you don't want to. It's your money, not ours. We would appreciate it if we could get some help getting on our feet after the move though," Jean replied. "Of course I'm going to do everything I can for all of you. I don't need seven million dollars a year. I'm going to make sure you all have somewhere big and spacious to live, pay off your debts, pay off Rosetta's debts, and pay for college for Rosetta and the boys," Wild insisted. "Wait, your going to pay for me to go back to school for my masters and doctorate?" Rosetta said in shock. Wild looked at her older sister like her sister was asking if fish had fins. "Definitely, you want to do that and I want to help you. Do you think I'm willing to be a guardian of your foal if the need comes and not willing to help you with school? What good's all this money if I'm not helping my family?" Wild said in disbelief that anypony had failed to anticipate that she would. "Thanks sis, that's very generous of you," Rosetta said in still shock. "Ponies are generous, ponies are loyal," Wild recited off in response. "Why do you all do that on and off? The reciting ponies are this and that creed like it has been drilled into from birth?" Roger asked in confusion. "Um, in a way it has, at least from the day we fully transformed. You'd have to have experienced it yourself. Even knowing it is night pony meddling it still leaves a strong impression," Remedy answered. She then realized this conversation could go really off the rails if they start discussing the vision, and decided to head that off. "We'll tell you about that in detail sometime, but for right now I know Rosetta wanted to say some things and I have some things I needed to ask about after that." Rosetta gave Remedy a uneasy smile and Remedy gave her a kiss for reassurance. Rosetta took a deep breath and looked at her family. "I need to apologize. I realized this morning that I was wishing you had been infected and turned into ponies too. That was unfair of me and stinks way too much of the stuff that Remedy's mom prattles on about. I shouldn't have been wishing you were forcibly transformed against your will," Rosetta said quickly as she stared at the floor. Jean and Roger shared a silent look for a moment. Remedy was a little surprised to note that Wild's gaze turned to the floor in shame as well. Rosetta wasn't the only one that had been thinking that, or was perhaps still thinking that. "If we had known how things ended up turning out we may have done just that. I know it might seem unfair, but if the twins had gotten infected we definitely would have gotten ourselves infected as well. We thought the two of you were better able to take care of yourselves if worst came to worst and we had the boys to worry about," Roger said. "If we're all being honest I do kind of resent you for isolating me away from the family when I was infected. I was scared and alone and you weren't there for me," Wild said as she continued to stare at the floor, a sob entering into her voice. "Catherine..Wild...my little baby girl, we're sorry. We were all scared and didn't know what to do. If we had it to do over again we'd have kept you with us," Jean said. "Wait, you're saying you would rather be ponies?" Rosetta asked in confusion. "Probably, now that you're having a foal that you don't trust us to help with because we're still human, the twins constantly clamoring about it, moving to a pony dominated community, and hearing constantly about the joys of ponydom from Sunset Blessing. Now we're hearing this from you two. If that unicorn came up with a way of transforming humans tomorrow we would likely sign up right away and tell the boys they're getting their wish. Maybe it's just stress talking, but at this point that seems about right," Jean said as she slumped against Roger and he wrapped an arm around her and rubbed her arm. "Mama...I don't even know how to respond to that. I guess it doesn't really matter at this point," Rosetta said. Wild nodded sadly in agreement. "I do understand why you did what you did, I really do. I'm just waiting for my emotions to catch up to what I know in my head. They'll get there. I still love you," Wild said as she tried to wrap her forelegs around her parents, failing because they were too short. "I'm sorry if we made you feel pressured about this. That was unfair and wrong. I love you both too," Rosetta said as she came and joined in the group hug. Remedy sat and watched, wondering what her mom would say if she saw this. Would she feel happy at the family bonding? Mad that Rosetta was backing herself up from saying she would be happier with them as ponies? Did her mom Even consider pressure like this on humans a bad thing? It occurred to her that might be what she was hoping to achieve in part. The new town would have a minority of humans, and the pressures to want to be ponies themselves was going to be real after a while. Her mom's goals were Shimmerist humans first and foremost. Her mom likely didn't see this as being forced into transformations, it was exactly what she herself had gone through in college when she reinvented herself under peer pressure. In her eyes this was a simple willing choice to be a pony, never mind the fact they might not make that choice under no pressure. "Come over here and join in the hug, Remedy. You're family too," Roger called over to her. Remedy smiled as she gave into a different type of peer pressure and came and wrapped her wings around as many family members as she could. After a long minute they finally broke the hug and went back to their respective spots. "Okay guess it's my turn to talk now," Remedy said with a smile. "Hopefully something less emotional," Rosetta said as she fanned a tear away with a wing. "Definitely less emotional," Remedy confirmed. "My mom asked me to go tomorrow for a day and night to go scout out Riverview and get a feel for the place. She suggested we all go and make it a family outing. She said she would cover any gas costs or other costs we might have on the trip." "We could look around and see where we might want to live," Wild said as her ears picked up. "It sounds like a good idea. What exactly does she want us to scout for though?" Roger asked. "She wasn't very specific. She said she just wanted us to get a feel for the place since reports only told her so much. She is sending other ponies too," Remedy said. "We'll happily take her up on that offer. We could all use a family day out away from here, and it will be nice to see this new place," Roger said with a smile as he gave Jean another hug and kiss. Just then the camper door slammed open and Jose stuck his head in looking worried. "All of you might want to get out here. It looks like Remedy's mom and that weird unicorn with the broken horn are about to have a fight," Jose said hurriedly.