//------------------------------// // Chapter 58: Wild Goals // Story: Pandemic: What you are Meant to Be // by Halira //------------------------------// That evening the two night ponies did a full shift stocking at the grocery store. It had been a much larger truck than had previously come and by the time morning finally rolled around they were more than ready to just lay down in the camper and sleep as the family drove to Riverview for the day. Jean and Roger were in the church talking with Remedy's mom. They were going to be getting the money for gas and food for the trip. They were taking much longer than they should have and Remedy had a sneaking suspicion why, though she wasn't going to bring it up to anypony right now. Her mom wasn't going to be getting the power to turn humans into ponies. Saying something about them being interested in that happening would likely just embarrass them and cause unnecessary tension. It wasn't something she was going to be the cause of, especially over something that wasn't going to happen. She might talk to them in private sometime, and see what she could do to help them with their anxieties. "I'm so excited. I get to help pick out a new house for everypony in the family," Wild Growth said as she pranced in place. "Everyone not everypony; Mama, Papa, and the twins aren't ponies," Rosetta reminded her. "Well, same thing, I get to help pick out three different houses. It is like the biggest Christmas present ever," Wild said happily. "Three?" Remedy asked with a raised brow. "One for you two, one for the rest of the family, and one for me," Wild said as if stating the obvious. "You're moving out from Mama and Papa?" Rosetta asked in surprise. "I'm going to be making more than enough money to support myself comfortably. There's no reason to be still living under their roof if I can do that. Your houses are going to be your spaces, but I'm going to have my own place with my own rules," Wild insisted a little defensively. "Why can't we get our house too?" Miguel chimed in from the other side of the camper. "Because you two are kids. When you grow up, and get good jobs, I'll be more than happy to help get you out from Mama and Papa's hair. You won't be freeloading off them or me though," Wild said sternly back at them. "Your making us get jobs because we compared you to the Hulk, aren't you?" Jose asked. "No, but that didn't win you any brownie points either," Wild said crossly. "You got a lot less fun since you turned into a grown up," Jose pouted. Wild showed how grown up she was by blowing a raspberry at her brothers. The night ponies had to stifle giggles. "I don't disagree with you getting your own place, sis, but have you told Mama and Papa yet? It might be a little bit of a shock to them if you haven't mentioned anything yet. They'll still have the twins, but you're still the baby girl to them," Rosetta said after she finished her giggle. "By the way, is Abuelita coming? I know she stayed back at the apartment for now, but you can't leave her here alone." "I'll tell them about it when we get on the road. And of course Abuelita is coming. It's just a matter of who she wants to stay with, that's up to her," Wild said as she flicked her tail dismissively. "Do you know if Baker ended up saying anything to my mom about what happened last night?" Remedy cut in. "Nope, I even asked about it," Wild said. "He said while her getting into a shouting match with Tempest wasn't something he enjoyed hearing about she didn't do anything legally wrong. She wasn't the one to detonate a car. She never came back out last night though. Tonya eventually did, and said that Sunset was busy dealing with some things." "Your mom gives me the willies," Rosetta said. "I don't mean to be rude, but she does. She is nice enough to everypony-with a few notable exceptions-and nice to all the humans, but she's a plotter and she makes me nervous. I know you love her because that's your mom, but I sometimes feel like she's a mob boss or something that will put me in cement shoes if I cross her." "Sunset's nice," Miguel protested. "She says that me and Jose deserved to be super powered ponies like you and Wild, and asks us how we're doing all the time." "No comment," Rosetta said in a neutral tone as she looked at Remedy. "How do you feel about my mom, Wild?" Remedy asked, curious about where her future sister-in-law's leanings went. "She's nice to me. She got me those lawyers, and she encourages me. The government guys like her and think she's okay too," Wild said in defense of Blessing. "How do you feel about her believing humans are better off as ponies?" Remedy pressed. She could feel Rosetta tense up next to her. "Um, if they want to be they should be able to be. It seems unfair to tell them they can't be," Wild said slowly. "Because it is unfair!" Miguel shouted. "Hush," Rosetta yelled over to the twins."What about ponies that want to be turned back into humans?" "I suppose that's okay too, if that's what they really want," Wild said with a confused tilt of her head. "Why are you even asking these questions?" "Just figuring out how you feel about things. My mom's what is called a Shimmerist. That mean's she wants an all pony world and thinks ponies are inherently better than humans. She isn't very kind to ponies that want to be humans again, at all," Remedy explained. "I kind of got that she was a Shimmerist from everypony, and I vaguely knew what that meant. I didn't know about the part about her not liking ponies that want to be humans. I haven't actually met anypony like that so I didn't think about it. If they want to be human I have no problem with that. I guess that makes me not a Shimmerist," Wild said with a shrug. "I'm a Shimmerist!" Miguel yelled. "You're annoying! And nopony cares what you are," Wild yelled back at her brother. Remedy actually begged to differ. Her mom almost certainly cared if a human was a Shimmerist. In fact, she probably cared more if a human was a Shimmerist than if a pony was. She didn't need to convince most ponies to be ponies, she did need to convince most humans to be ponies though. The door to the camper open up and Jean and Roger filed in. They were immediately beset upon by the twins. "Mama, Wild won't buy a house for just me and Miguel, but she's buying one for herself," Jose ratted to his parents. "You don't need a house for yourselves for a long time yet," Roger said to the twins. He then turned to Wild. "But what's this about you buying a house for yourself?" Wild gave a glare at her brothers. She then sighed and looked back at her parents. "I'm going to get a house for you and the boys, and another one for Rosetta and Remedy, but I'm going to get out on my own with my own place. I make more than enough money to support myself. I'd still come by often; I just want to be under my own roof with my own rules," Wild explained calmly. "Are you sure your ready? I don't mean to be offensive but a lot of times when kids go away to college or whatever and aren't living with their parents for the first time they go a little...well, wild," Jean said carefully. "I wasn't going to bring it up yet, but I'm going to be away from you regularly anyway. Part of my new contract is I do two months of traveling a year for Westvaco. We set it up so it's two months straight rather than two days here and three days there because that could inadvertently cause it to end up with more than two months and just be exhausting. I'm going to be out of town with just executives for those two months every year though," Wild said with a sigh. "I thought you were going to focus on remaining local, when were you going to bring this up?" Roger asked. "I will do local work for seven months of the year, but two months will be spent elsewhere, and I get three months of paid vacation every year. There are some other things in there too for different circumstances; sick leave, personal days, maternity leave, bereavement leave, short term disability leave, signing bonus, there's pages and pages of stuff. They initially offered three times as much money, but wanted me on the road for eight months a year. We talked them down from that," Wild explained. "Thank god," Jean breathed. "When do you actually start?" Roger asked as he sat down. "Technically I already have. I'm just starting my time on vacation. I have three months of vacation, seven months working local after that, and then I need to hit the road for two months. I already have my signing bonus in a bank account, and will be getting my first paycheck at the end of this week," Wild said in a low voice. "That's moving really fast," Jean said as she shook her head in disbelief. "Everything is moving really fast these days, Mama. In less than a month everything we ever knew has changed," Rosetta said. "Speaking of moving fast we should probably get going. Rosetta and I need sleep in the afternoon and we'd like to see what the place looks like in the day too," Remedy said. "And I want to get as much time looking at properties. I want to see if there is a green house for sale anywhere," Wild said excitedly. "Green? Really?" Rosetta said with a mock chocking gag. "What? I like green. Haven't you noticed I wear it all the time?" The green earth pony said with a smirk. The rest of the family facehoofed or facepalmed depending on the species.