//------------------------------// // Chapter 62: Answers // Story: Pandemic: What you are Meant to Be // by Halira //------------------------------// Remedy woke up before Rosetta. She was deeply troubled after her meeting with Luna. The question of what her mom was up to was something that had been bothering her more and more, but now it seemed more urgent to find out. If he mom was really getting herself dug in for a fight she needed to know against who, she needed to know why, and she needed to know before that fight actually happened. She didn't want her mom or anypony getting hurt. She looked at the sleeping form of Rosetta and it occurred to her that if there was something or somepony that was going to come at her mom it could very well hurt Rosetta, their foal, and the rest of the family too. She needed to start getting answers tonight, and there was one pony nearby that might have some. She nudged Rosetta to wake her and was greeted with one half open eye. "You're up a little early. I can still see the sun isn't setting yet. We went to bed pretty late, why are you waking us up?" Rosetta asked sleepily. "I'm going to go out and deal with something. I didn't want you to worry when you woke up and I wasn't here. You can go back to sleep, I just wanted to make sure you knew," Remedy said. "Okay, I guess I'll meet up with you at whatever gathering the town is having. It shouldn't be too hard to find. Is everything okay? You seem a little agitated," Rosetta said with concern. "I'm going to go find Number Crunch and find out some answers about what my mom has going on. I'll talk to you later about it. I just don't like not knowing what goes on in my mom's head," Remedy explained. "Alright, just come back to bed if you finish up with her quickly. I don't think you're going to get much out of her," Rosetta said sleepily. "Maybe I will maybe I won't, but if it goes fast I'll be right back. I love you," Remedy said. "Love you too," Rosetta said as she closed her eyes again and quickly fell back asleep. Remedy actually thought she might have a chance of digging some information out of Number Crunch. Her mom had called Number Crunch a gossip. On top of that there was what Luna said about how Remedy had gotten Tempest to open up to her. Maybe she could do the same with Number Crunch. She quickly left the camper and took to the air. The first thing to do was figure out where Number Crunch even was. That shouldn't be too hard. If she didn't find her quickly she just had to ask any of the ponies that had accompanied the unicorn here. It didn't take her long to find one of those ponies. Amber was in the air high above the business district. Remedy gained some altitude and met the pegasus. "Hi Phobia, you are up kind of early aren't you?" Amber said as Remedy reached her altitude. "Was wanting to find Number Crunch. Any idea where she might be at?" Remedy asked. "Definitely. She's over at the old high school for the town. Big building at the far end of the east side of town, can't miss it. Place hasn't been used in years apparently, not enough students. She said something about trying to buy it and some other run down buildings near it," Amber explained as she pointed a hoof off in the appropriate direction. "Thanks for the info. What are you doing anyway?" Remedy asked. "Just checking to make sure everything lines up with the maps we saw before of town. Easy enough to do from the air and pegasus eyes are better than fuzzy satellite images. Some of the others are checking out the land that is supposed to be set aside for us to develop on the outskirts of town in each direction. We should all be finishing up soon," Amber explained. "Well, I guess I'll see you at the thing the town's doing if all of you are hanging around for that," Remedy said. "Yeah, you will. Supposed to be like a block party or something. Crunchy said we could spend time at that before we headed back to the church. See you soon," Amber said as she went back to doing her assigned task. Remedy quickly lowered her altitude and took off in the indicated direction. It didn't take long to find the place. The school was a large three story building of brick that looked like it was built to accommodate more students than there were currently residents in the town. Her best guess was it might have served as the local high school for the nearest towns as well to be built for so many. Many of the windows were boarded and it clearly was long abandoned. She couldn't imagine the last time this might have been used. A quick look around the grounds had her spot the unicorn in question. She had a camera in her magical aura and was taking pictures of the school. Remedy flew down to meet her. "Hello, you are up early, and by yourself as well. I'm guessing you sought me out if you're over here. What can I do for you, Phobia?" Number Crunch asked with an eyebrow raised in curiosity. "I wanted to find out what my mom is up to. Why is she having you buy this particular place? What kind of special projects is she intending?" Remedy asked as she gestured a wing at the dilapidated building. "That's sensitive information. I might like to talk, but I am very careful about anything involving business," Number Crunch said cooly. "And what kind of business were you involved in before? You know how to hide money from the government, you seem to be an accountant or something but you're rich in your own right. You seem like you might be pretty shady. Why is my mom trusting a pony like you with all the financial things?" Remedy asked with narrowed eyes. Number Crunch stared at her for a moment and seemed to be considering how to respond. Traces of anger at the accusations could be seen on her face. Finally she sighed and put the camera back in her backpack before sitting down. "Alright then. You want to have this talk, we'll have this talk. Sit and listen, little mare, because my first thought is whether to see how well you fly with six feet of dirt piled on top of you. Your mother would likely throw me to the wolves for that though. You'd better keep your muzzle sealed about this," Number Crunch snarled at her. Remedy's first reaction was wondering if she should just take off. Number Crunch had just threatened her. She knew there was no escaping the unicorn if she tried though. Number Crunch could ground her in an instant if she tried to fly away. All that she could do was comply. She sat her rump down on the ground and did her best to meet the angry accountant's gaze. "Your mother knows all about me. I confessed all my sins I did as a human to her. You might not believe it, but I'm doing my best to be a good pony instead of the despicable human I was. I've never personally killed anyone, but I've arranged for people to die. All in the name of money and power. When it came to business you didn't get much dirtier than me," Number Crunch said through gritted teeth. Remedy gulped. Rosetta might fear Remedy's mom, but Remedy's mom didn't have anything on Number Crunch right now in terms of intimidation factor. "She makes use of me because I know how to get things done better than any other pony she has available when it comes to money. As I said I'm determined to be a better pony than I was a human. I believe in what your mother is doing. I believe what she is doing is for the good of all, and I want to be part of that. Lucky for all of us she has you and Tonya to keep her moral compass straight. If she relied to heavily on me there's no telling what direction it might point," Number Crunch said as she worked to calm herself. Remedy thought she could see tears in Number Crunch's eyes. Number Crunch paused to catch a breath and Remedy continued to sit still in silent. Number Crunch lit up her horn and Remedy flinched at the sight of it. All that happened was Number Crunch floated a pack of cigarettes out of her backpack and removed one from it with her magic, putting it in her muzzle. She floated the pack back into her backpack and used her magic to ignite the cigarette. She took a long draw and then floated the cigarette from her mouth as she let loose a plume of smoke. "Fuck it. Between dealing with these crazy townspeople that want to demand prices for this old dump like it's a New York skyscraper in Times Square, and then dealing with you, I'm back to this. Was over this after the transformation. I'm just stressed out though," Number Crunch said irritably. The unicorn returned the cigarette to her mouth and took another draw before taking it away again. "You want to know what buying this property is for? Place is an old bomb shelter from the days everypony was living in fear of nukes coming down from the skies. Everything about it from the ground floor up is a waste of space, an asbestos ridden piece of crap. Down below though is a reinforced concrete and steel basement. We need a place for unicorns to experiment with magic without fear of hurting anypony. We're dealing with forces we don't understand and if something blows up in our face it's better it happened where it can be contained. We don't have the time to be careful, we need to learn and we need to learn fast," Number Crunch said in a calmer voice. "Learn what fast, and why the urgency?" Remedy finally spoke as she gained a little confidence at the fact Number Crunch seemed to be calming down. "We need to learn everything we can about magic. Long term we hope to be able to duplicate the transformation spell, and we hope we are the first to figure it out. We aren't the only ones in search of that information though. There are other Shimmerists out there, and they don't care about free choice and things like that. Somepony is going to crack how to do it eventually, and if it isn't us first this world is fucked," Number Crunch said as she glared again at the school. "Why is it so important that we learn how first?" Remedy asked. "Weren't you listening? There are other Shimmerists out there, and they will unleash a new ETS if they get it first. If we find it first we will know enough to stop them. It needs to be a choice. If they do that then every nation will turn on us, and it will be genocide. Who knows what those damned Equestrians will do either in that case. Maybe they'll just try to purge magic from this world. We can't let that happen," Number Crunch said as she looked down at the ground and then took another draw from her cigarette. "Which is why the government is willing to help my mom. She is giving them their own team of magical researchers separate from Equestria," Remedy said. "Bingo," Number Crunch said as she snuffed out the embers. "There is no telling if and when they might turn on us as well though. So we have to have insurance against them as well. They say that they are willing to let us do transformations to humans if the humans choose it, but who knows how that'll actually play out. It's doubtful they will be okay even with us doing things the right way. We have to be prepared to defend ourselves against them as well if they stab us in the back. We have to be able to defend both the ponies from the government and the humans from the other Shimmerists," Number Crunch said. "It seems a very wretched way of living, scared of everything around you being out to get you," Remedy said with a sad shake if her head. "Your mom is working hard to try to make sure we don't end up like that. She has a plan to try to turn Shimmerist thought in our direction instead of the one involving forced transformations. I have my doubts about it but she seems pretty confident in it. You'll have to ask her about that if you really want to know," Number Crunch said with a sigh. "I guess I got my answers," Remedy said as she looked at the school. "Yes you did, but let me tell you something now. You had better not discuss this with anypony. Not your family other than your mom, not the Equestrians, not the government, not some random pony on the street. If you do I'll bury you so deep worms won't find you. Your mom may murder me in response, but I'm expendable and so are you. We will not lose this war though," Number Crunch said with a menacing stare.