There were some things Tonya could do well. Sitting around in a waiting room was not one of those things. She was just too energetic an individual for just sitting and doing nothing. The clinic's waiting area just had nothing to do though. There was no television to watch, no magazines to read, nothing at all to do but sit and be bored. If she was going to be up this early she would hope that she was going to at least have something to keep her interest.
Given no other outlets to entertain herself she turned to chatting with the crystal pony watching the desk to pass the time.
"Scott, right? What do you do to pass the time while on your shift and nopony is here?" She asked the stallion sitting behind the desk.
The crystal pony pulled out a notebook and set it open on the desk. "I spend time writing and practicing my penmanship. I'm to the point now that I can actually write better with my mouth than I could write with hands when I was human. I also attempt to do drawing."
"What do you write about? Do you write poetry, songs, stories, social commentary?" Tonya said as she placed her forehooves on the desk, which had it's legs sawed off to make it lower to the ground for ponies, and looked at the notebook with interest.
Scott blushed as he tried to cover the pages, "I'm trying to write an adventure story, set in Equestria. I'm kind of just making up what Equestria is like since I don't really know anything about it."
"An adventure, that's cool," Tonya said as she tried to peek between his hooves at what was written. "Tell me the plot. Who's the hero? Who's the villain? What's at stake?"
Scott ears perked up. "Well, it's a heroic crystal pony stallion and his companions out to save the kingdom from the tyrannical rule of the evil night king who had enslaved all the crystal ponies."
Tonya smirked knowingly as she looked him in the eye. "Night king huh? Guessing he's a night pony...like your boss."
The stallion turned bright red in the face and made an even greater effort to cover up the notebook by laying his body over it. "That's just a coincidence. No hidden messages or anything like that here. Just a fun little adventure story."
"Right," Tonya said with a giggle and a wink.
Scott paled as he glanced to the door for the hallway. "Please don't say anything to doctor Patel. I want to keep my job."
Tonya brought a hoof up to her mouth and giggled. "Your dirty secret is safe with me. You said you draw too, right? Let me see your drawings."
The crystal pony seemed to relax a little and then quickly flipped the book back towards the end. Tonya was actually very impressed with how adroitly he flipped through the pages with hooves.
When he reached where he was going she bit her lip and one corner of her mouth twisted down while the other twisted up.
"Those are some nice drawings of pigs," she was fairly certain those were pigs. It looked like a kindergartner's attempts at drawing pigs anyway.
"It's supposed to be ponies," Scott said as his ears flattened to their sides.
Whoops! She instantly felt bad for insulting his artwork. "Of course it is ponies, that would have been my second or third guess." Tonya said with an embarrassed laugh. Shut up Tonya, you're insulting him more. You're being a stupid pony again.
She was saved from further embarrassment by the front door of the clinic opening up and a young woman walking in with a bundle of clothes in her hands. Tonya took the chance to withdraw from Scott and her unintended insults of his artwork.
"This is the town clinic right? I'm supposed to be dropping some clothes off here," the woman said as she came up to Scott's desk.
Scott put away his notebook and smiled. "You're in the right place. I'm guessing those are the clothes for Miss Rivers. I'll let nurse Mist know you're here." He pressed the com button and spoke into the microphone. "Nurse Mist, the clothes have arrived for Miss Rivers. Should I send them back or did you want to come get them yourself?"
"Thank you, I'll send Tattered Wing out to you to get them," Lavender Mist's voice came over the intercom.
"Tonya Middleton is still out here waiting by the way," Scott said into the microphone as he glanced Tonya's way.
Lavender could be heard sighing over the com. "Let her know I appreciate her patience, we're almost done here. Just a little while longer and I'll be able to see her."
Scott turned to Tonya to relay the message but she cut him off with an upraised hoof. "I heard her, that wasn't exactly private. I understand everypony is busy, don't mind me being bored out here."
Tattered Wing came out the hallway door as Tonya finished speaking and hurried over to the human with a grateful expression on her face. "Thanks Megan, I appreciate you doing this. I'm sure Melissa appreciates it even more."
"Did everything go okay with your friend getting turned back into a human?" Megan asked Tattered as she drapped the clothes over Tattered's back.
Tattered shifted a little, making sure the clothes wouldn't fall to the floor. "Everything seems perfectly fine with her. She'll probably spend another night here while we figure out where to house her. She wants to keep close to Dan anyway. I'd like to get her out walking about today though. She's been stuck in bed for weeks."
Tonya's ears perked up. This was a chance to find out more about one of the other enigmatic Broken Ones. Since she couldn't just use mind magic on Sunset to get her over her grudge with Tattered maybe making friends with Melissa could be a first step.
"Sorry for interrupting, but I'd be happy to take her for a walk around town after I'm done here. I don't have anything else planned for today other than watching Wild Growth do her magic on the fields," Tonya cut in.
Tattered gave her a considering look, then glanced at Megan with a frown before looking back at Tonya again. "I'll ask Melissa if she wants to do that. Since she was asleep most of the night I suppose she'll be back on her day schedule again anyway. If Megan is willing, do you think you can bring her along as well? Megan had expressed interest in working for your lover and I'm sure you could put a good word in for her."
Tonya gave the human a look over. Megan clearly hadn't expected this from the initial look on her face, but now appeared hopeful. Sunset had said something about Tattered having a human sister who was moving into town. Helping Megan out would hopefully help mend some things between the leader of the Enclave and Sunset. Plus, it would make Tattered less inclined to double back around and restart her plans to investigate Swift Strike's death. Sunset was in dire need of an assistant to help keep her organized anyway.
"If she's interested in working for Sunset I don't mind spending some time with her and getting to know her," Tonya said as she brought herself into a cheerful hover, then realizing she was indoors dropped back down to her seat with a hint of a blush.
"I'll leave that to Megan to decide if she wants to do that. If you'll excuse me, Melissa is probably eager to get out of her hospital gown," Tattered said before turning and leaving for the hall again. Leaving Tonya and Megan to start their own discussion.
Tonya trotted over to Megan and raised a hoof up to her. "Hello, since we weren't properly introduced, I'm Tonya Middleton."
Megan gripped Tonya's hoof as best she could and gave it a shake. "I'm Megan, Megan Rutledge. You are friends with Sunset Blessing?"
Tonya brought her hoof back to her muzzle and chuckled. "A bit more than friends. She and I are a couple. I'm guessing you're Tattered Wing's sister. Sunset mentioned you were moving into town."
Megan's brow creased. "She has already heard of me?"
Tonya nodded and frowned as she remembered Sunset complaining about it. "Your sister went to Sunset the other day and basically told her in so many words that Sunset had better see to it you were given every aid possible getting a mortgage or your sister would make life difficult."
Megan sighed as she went over to one of the chairs and sat down. "She shouldn't have done that. That is not the first impression I'd want to make getting a job."
Tonya hopped up on a seat next to the human. "Don't worry too much about it. Tattered's a night pony, it's in her nature to be extremely protective. These things can be brushed aside with that in mind. You shouldn't think any damage has been done."
Megan shook her head in frustration. "I hope not."
"You just need to present yourself well, don't worry about what goes on between your sister and my marefriend," Tonya asserted as she patted Megan's back with a wing. "So tell me what you have to offer as skills. Sunset does need an aide to help keep her organized and make arrangements on her behalf."
Megan sat up straight and smiled. "I was until recently enrolled at Harvard as a double major poli-sci and criminal justice. My father was very involved in politics and spent a great deal of time making sure I learned the ins and outs of campaigning. I'm very familiar with how fundraising drives are run, I am an excellent scheduler, good at doing any research on anyone she wants me to research, and can put order to any filing system she might need."
Tonya's eyes widened again. This sounded too good to be true. Megan was a bit young, so she couldn't be that experienced, but she did seem to have the kind of background that Sunset needed in an aide. That youth also meant she wasn't set in her ways. Add in the bonus of making some peace with the Enclave and it was what Sunset would call a gift from God--even though Tonya didn't believe in God.
"I'm impressed. How about a more uncomfortable question then. You can guess by her name that Sunset is a Shimmerist, I am for that matter too. Are you comfortable working for a Shimmerist?" Tonya asked as she held Megan's gaze, looking for hesitation.
Megan didn't hesitate in her answer. "I'm told that the government is comfortable with her beliefs so I can't believe they're too bad. While I don't want to be used as a token I would think that she would want to hire on humans to show that there's no reason to be concerned she is a Shimmerist."
Megan paused for a moment as she seemed to consider how to continue, that was the hesitation Tonya was expecting. When Megan continued it was far less confident. "Do you think you can clarify for me what her stance is in regards to Shimmerism and how it might effect her policies?"
That was a fair question. The honest answer might be uncomfortable for Megan to hear though. "We believe humans are all better off as ponies, and hope that someday it will be an all pony world. We don't hate humans though, we want to encourage humans to want to be ponies. We here, in Riverview, also believe transformation should be a choice. We have no desire to unleash a new ETS pandemic.
"As for how that will impact policy. We do intend to put on display what ponies are capable of doing and providing for the world. We intend to do all we can to benefit humans and make humans long for the ability to do what we can as well," Tonya finished out and waited for a reaction.
Megan blinked. "You're being suprisingly up front and honest about your feelings. You're basically patronizing humans, and hoping humans will drink the pony kool-aid sometime in the future because you hope we get tired of being inferior."
Tonya shrugged. What was she going to do, lie? "That's much harsher than I would have put it, but that's about right. Mind you, our timetable on actually making humans into ponies is sometime so far in the future it loses all meaning for anyone alive today. It isn't something you need to worry about."
Tonya watch Megan weighing options. She could imagine the thoughts running through Megan's head and was fairly certain what they were. Megan was probably wondering if she was going to be treated with respect. She was also probably wondering if she was going to be pressured into a Shimmerist view.
Megan took a deep breath and looked Tonya back in the eyes. "If I am treated with the same respect as any pony, and she really is concerned about improving quality of life for everyone, then I'm comfortable working for her."
Tonya clapped her hooves together. "Good! I'll take you to meet her in a little while. I just need to pick up a small package from here first, then head out to the fields to watch Wild Growth in action. Sunset will be there."
It was an excellent start to the day. Not only could Megan hopefully bring some much needed order to Sunset's organization systems, she might fit into some plans Sunset had mused about to Tonya once or twice before. Being able to provide Sunset with such a great gift brought a smile to her face.
Devon woke up to pounding on her head, not pounding in her head, but something pounding on her head.
"OW! What in the world!" Devon winced as she sat up.
"Baba!"
Jessie was rushing around the tent frantically, looking around it for something. Paul was slowly stirring from his sleep due to the commotion. Amanda and Jackie were out at the moment. Devon knew her friend tended to go out very early for her breakfast.
"What's wrong, baby girl?" Devon asked as she tried reaching out for the distressed filly.
"What's going on?" Paul asked as he pushed himself up from the mat that Robby would often sleep on.
The filly immediately started looking around her father, still crying as she searched. "Baba? Baba?"
Devon tried reaching for Jessie again but the filly eluded her grasp. "I don't know what's gotten into her. This is the first time she's done this."
"Baba!" Jessie continued to yell.
Paul moved so Jessie could continue her search. "Um, I don't think that's random baby babble. What's baba? Does she want her bottle?"
Devon quickly considered. Jessie wouldn't be looking for a bottle since she hadn't used that in days. The only thing she could be looking for was...
"Baba is her trying to say brother!" Devon said with excitement. "She's looking for Robby. Robby is always around when she wakes up and this morning he isn't here. That's what's upsetting her."
"She's a month old, should she be saying her first word yet?" Paul asked in confusion. "I thought that was something to expect around nine months to a year in."
Devon shook her head while wide eyed. "I was told foals start picking up understanding of language around a month in, but it takes them much longer for them to actually start talking. I guess if she can understand a word she might attempt to say it, even if she can't get it out clearly. I told you she was smart."
"Well, happy as I am that she sort of said her first word, what are we going to do to calm her down?" Paul asked as the filly continued to cry and search.
Devon picked up a blanket with a sigh. "We go pick up her brother. I think we should drive this time, just so I can set her down in the car with no fear of her running off. I'm not sure if she'll keep next to us walking, and I really don't want to deal with holding her the whole way with her this upset."
"Baba!" Jessie continued to scream.
Amanda came back into the tent at that moment with her ears flattened.
"What has her tail twisted in a knot?" The earth pony asked, wincing at the wails.
Devon grabbed the crying filly up in a blanket and held her tight against the struggling. "She's upset that Robby isn't here. We're about to go over to Rosetta and pick him back up."
Amanda's ears perked up. "Mind if Jackie and I tag along? It's still a few hours before Wild Growth is supposed to do her thing, and seeing that was the only thing I had made plans for today. I'm looking for more opportunities to get out and about."
"Doesn't matter to me," Paul said as he gathered up his keys.
"I'm fine with it as well," Devon said. Amanda might be able to help calm Jessie down in the meantime too, the earth pony was fairly effective at doing that, or perhaps Jackie could distract her.
Amanda's ears flattened as Jessie let off another wail. "Maybe I can help try to calm her down along the way."
Devon let herself smile despite Jessie's distress. What would she do without Amanda?
"Let's get going," Paul said as he gestured for them to head out.
"I'm coming!" Rosetta called out as she walked to the door, Robby following closely behind her. She hadn't expected Devon to come for Robby for another hour or so.
She reached the handle for the door and grabbed it with two hooves to pull the door open. She then blinked in suprise to find her sister instead of Devon at the door.
Wild looked down at Robby with a bemused expression upon spotting him. "Damn sis, you popped that one out and grew them fast."
Rosetta rolled her eyes. "We're foalsitting for a future coworker of mine. This is Robby."
Wild held a hoof out to Robby. "Nice to meet you, Robby. I'm Wild Growth, Rosetta's my sister."
Robby touched hooves with Wild as Rosetta had shown him over the night to do, and looked up at Wild curiously. "Does that mean you're going to be my cousin too?"
Wild gave Rosetta a questioning look and Rosetta stifled a laugh. "I'll explain all that to you sometime. Are you just coming by for a casual visit or did you need something? I thought you'd be busy today."
Wild gave the little colt one last brief glance before turning to her again. "Growing those fields won't take much of my time today. I actually needed to talk to you about something."
Rosetta laid her ears back slightly. "This isn't a continuation of our conversation from the other day is it?"
"No," Wild said, shaking her head. "It's something else entirely. Mama and Papa might not be happy with me talking to you about it, and I wasn't going to, but the more I think about it the more I think you have the right to know. I know I'd be upset if the subject was kept from me."
Rosetta laid her ears further back. This sounded like something that was going to piss her off. She didn't want to lose her temper in front of Robby though.
"Dad, Phobia," she called to the upstairs. "Can you come down here? I need your help for a few minutes."
A moment later a clatter of eight hooves came down the stairs.
"Are you leaving the door hanging open again?" Tom demanded as he glared at the door. "Why can't anyone ever just come inside or outside?"
She gave an irritated flick of her tail. "Dad, I swear your cutie mark should have been something involving doors."
"What do you need?" Phobia asked.
She sighed. "Can you two watch Robby for a few minutes without me? Wild and I need to have a private discussion."
Phobia raised a brow at them. "Not more yelling, I hope?"
Wild gave an emphatic shake of her head. "Hopefully not, she has no reason to be angry with me about this."
That meant she had something to be angry at her parents about instead. Great.
"We've got him," Tom said as he walked over beside the colt. "Go on outside and try to keep it down and not make a scene."
She was going to object that there wasn't going to be a scene, but she had a bad feeling she might be lying. Something told her she was going to want to storm over to her parents' house about something in a few minutes.
"Are you ready?" Wild asked as she stepped back to let Rosetta out.
She nodded and followed; time to find out what the newest source of drama was going to be. Tom shut the door behind her after she exited.
"So what is going on that Mama and Papa don't want me to know about?" She demanded as she sat down on the porch.
Wild bit her lip before answering. "Please don't get mad at them. They're worried about upsetting you more while you're dealing with being pregnant and what happened to Phobia. They were going to talk to you about this sooner or later."
"Yet you seem to think it's a big enough deal that I should know now," Rosetta stated flatly.
Wild's ears sagged as she sat down and hung her head. "Mama has Parkinson's, she's known for about two months."
Rosetta's ears went from laid back to flattened to the sides as she tried to process what was just said.
Wild continued, "They wanted to sit down with all of us after I graduated high school to talk to us about it. Papa said it would be too much of a distraction during my senior year, and they didn't want that."
Anger started to kick in and bring her out of shock as Rosetta glared at her sister. "That might have been a decent excuse to keep it from you, but it wasn't a good reason to keep it from me."
Wild stomped her hoof and glared in return. "They wanted to discuss it with all of us at once. How would you feel if I was told and you weren't?"
Rosetta snorted. "It seems that's exactly the case already."
"I got Papa to spill the beans when I had him off balance. They hadn't planned on me finding out yet either," Wild said with a flick of her tail.
Rosetta took a deep breath. Wild was right, there was no reason to be mad at her about this. Getting mad at their parents wasn't going to help anything either. Her mama was dealing with a debilitating disease and didn't need their anger.
"What's the timetable on how it will advance?" She asked after calming herself down.
Wild shook her head. "I don't know. I don't know what all they've been told already, and I haven't had time to do any research of my own yet about the subject. I was hoping you and I could go talk with her about it tonight, together."
Before Rosetta could answer a car pulled up in front of the house and she could see Devon and Paul in it, along with Amanda. It was time to bring this conversation to a close for now.
"Come by here tonight at sundown and get me. We'll go talk to Mama together after that," she said as calmly as she could.
"I will," Wild said as she turned and perked her ears up in curiosity at the party coming up to the house.
Both Rosetta and Wild, along with Amanda, all flattened their ears as a scream was let off from the little earth pony filly Devon was carrying.
"Baba!"
Next thing they knew the front door was open and Robby came running out the door, wings spread aggressively, to come to the aid of his little sister.
"Baba!" The filly squealed as she spotted her brother. Devon set the filly down and Jessie immediately ran towards her now confused looking brother.
"Congratulations Robby, you're apparently her first word," Paul said with a laugh. "She was not happy you weren't there when she woke up, not at all."
The colt stood looking confused for a moment while the filly tried in vain to climb the stairs of the porch.
Rosetta leaned over to his ear and whispered, "Maybe you should go down to her before she hurts herself trying to get to you."
Robby blinked then headed down the stairs then he was quickly tackled by his excited little sister.
"Baba," Jessie said with contentment. Rosetta started smiling, that was adorable. She couldn't wait till her own foal was born so she could be exposed to more of this adorableness.
Robby looked over at his mother in confusion. "She's saying baba."
Devon gave him a smile. "That's her word for you. I think it is baby talk for brother. She definitely missed you; woke me up pounding on my head and screaming to alert me you weren't there."
Robby blinked and seemed to consider this as his little sister aggressively cuddled him.
"Should I see about getting him back to you earlier on in the morning from now on? I'd hate to have all your mornings start off that way. I can bring him to you so you don't have to get up," Rosetta asked.
Devon gave her an uncertain look. "We don't want to make it a hassle for you."
Rosetta waved it off. "It's no hassle. It gives me an excuse to drag Phobia out of the house in the morning. Speaking of whom." She turned to her spouse-to-be now standing in the doorway with Tom. "Weren't you two supposed to be watching Robby? How'd he end up running out here?"
"I watched him," Tom said defensively. "I watched him make a break for the door at full speed, and I opened the door before he collided with it and broke either himself or the door."
Phobia shrugged. "I'm not going to stop a night pony from rushing to the aid of a filly in distress."
Rosetta's eyes narrowed. "If we end up having a night pony foal I think we might need to divide who makes the rules when they are awake and when they are asleep."
"I already intended to have you be the boss when we're awake," Phobia said in her normal casual tone, earning a blink from Rosetta. "It balances out the fact that I have absolute authority when we're asleep."
Rosetta saw the reactions of Wild and Tom. Tom looked confused and Wild gave an involuntary shiver.
"Am I missing something?" She heard Paul ask from behind her.
She turned and faced the other visitors. All three; Devon, Paul, and Amanda looked confused. A brief explaination, without breaking her oaths, was needed.
"Night ponies have their own magic for dreamwalking. Dreaming for us really is a whole other world we spend several hours a day in," she explained calmly. She needed to be honest without giving too many details. "When it comes to dreamwalking I submit to Phobia's authority completely. She knows more than me, and she will almost certainly always know more than me on the subject."
"You haven't introduced me to your friends yet," Wild said.
Rosetta resisted giving her sister a grateful smile for sidetracking the conversation away from Phobia. And started gesturing to each of their guests in turn.
"Wild, this is Devon, Paul, Jessie, and Amanda," she named off in turn until her hoof came to be pointing at the Pegasus filly hiding behind Amanda's legs. "I haven't been introduced to the other little filly so I don't know her name."
Amanda beamed as she stepped aside to reveal the filly, only for the filly to duck behind her again. Amanda shook her head with a smile.
"She isn't anywhere near this timid when she's at our tent, but this is my daughter Jacquelyn, Jackie for short," Amanda said.
Rosetta nodded and gestured back at her family. "Well, all of you can meet my little sister Wild Growth then. Amanda, you can also meet my future father-in-law Tom, and my future wife Phobia."
Amanda's eyes went wide as she looked at Wild. "You're Wild Growth? The Wild Growth?"
"Um...yeah," Wild said as she looked over at Amanda uncertainly.
Rosetta imagined Amanda letting off a silent squee as the mare looked at her sister. "I think you have a fan, sis."
Amanda gave an embarrassed blush as she looked over at Wild. "Sorry, I try really hard not to let my earth pony nature intrude into my thinking...but what you can do is awesome."
Wild blinked. "I appreciate the compliment, but what's wrong with thinking like an earth pony? I know I fully embrace my earth pony nature and am happier for it."
Amanda gave a nervous flick of her tail as she looked down. "I just don't want much to do with most earth pony activities. I'm a teacher, not a farmer. I don't really feel like I need abilities like super strength or magic to help plants grow. Being an earth pony just isn't that great for me."
Wild frowned and looked ready to say something about the greatness of earth ponies. Rosetta readied herself to cut her off but Tom drew attention to himself with a cough before she could.
"There's nothing wrong with feeling that way, and don't ever let anyone make you feel bad for it," Tom said as he gave Amanda a considering look. Amanda smiled with visible relief at Tom.
Rosetta saw an opportunity to get her other relative out of the house more too. Tom was as much a shut in, or worse, than Phobia. Maybe getting him to make friends with a pony that he could empathize with would be the push he needed to actually socialize more. She understood he was dealing with his own struggles, but staying inside all the time was just going to push him into full on depression. Ponies needed the company of others, and Tom was a pony whether he liked it or not.
"What were your plans for the day?" She asked Devon; asking Amanda would be too obvious.
"Well, Amanda was eager to have us all watch your sister in action later, so we were going to do that. Paul and I were going to try to work on finding a place to live after that," Devon answered.
Rosetta smiled, this would be easy. "Dad, Phobia and I could use some alone time with nopony else in the house for a while. Maybe you should tag along with them. Hanging around with a group that is mostly humans might be more your thing."
"I'm not sure...I don't like leaving you two by yourselves," Tom said hesitantly.
She decided to play her trump card. "You need to get to job hunting too. Phobia is probably end up being a stay-at-home mom for at least a few years. I'm not paying for your expenses; not with me having to cover expenses for me, Phobia, and our foal. Unless you want to spend the rest of your life living off the wonderful free hay they provide us you will need to work to pay for your own food."
That got his attention. He looked positively ill at the suggestion.
"I guess getting out of the house for a little while might not be a bad idea."