//------------------------------// // Chapter 29** // Story: Pandemic: Picking up the Pieces // by Halira //------------------------------// Tonya walked around the crowds chatting pleasantly. While she enjoyed the company of others. she had an ulterior motive in chatting up the crowd; she needed to know that what she had just done with that song wasn't going to have any sort of lasting effect. She was desperate for an outlet to use her magic that wasn't going to hurt anypony, this felt like something safer than what she was doing before. This time had to be different, this time she had to have actually done good. She wasn't forcing thoughts or suppressing anything as far as she could tell, she was just temporarily trying to get people to display all the support for Wild that she knew they had. Wild needed to hear that encouragement, she needed to feel that pride as she worked her magic. And it seemed to have worked. Wild Growth walked around with her head and tail held high now. Everypony seemed happy, and nopony was behaving weird. Hopefully this time there was no screw-ups, and she was finally using her powers positively. "Tonya, I finally caught you." Crap, she wasn't prepared to deal with Paul yet. She froze, unsure what to do, then turned to face Paul with a smile. "Hi, bro, what can I do for you?" Okay, that was probably not the best way of responding after the last time seeing him. Paul looked at her and frowned. "Devon and I had been worried about you after you took off the other day. Are you alright?" She lifted her tail and gestured around her at the crowd. "Never better. Just glad I could get the crowd in the mood to help Wild out." Paul rubbed the back of his neck. "About the other day...I'm really sorry for what I said to you. I was out of line. I've been out of line with you for a very long time, and I just wanted to apologize." Tonya kept her smile on her face but she wanted to scream at him that he was only thinking this because she made him think it. That thought filled her with a ton of shame though. Instead she waved a hoof dismissively. "I was completely out of line too. I said and did some things that I shouldn't have. You really shouldn't be apologizing to me. I owe you an apology for what was said and done." Paul seemed like he was going to insist on apologizing again. Tonya sincerely hoped he wouldn't, hearing those apologies made her feel filthy. Thankfully, Paul seemed to move on from the subject. "If everything is cool between us, would you mind having dinner with me, Devon, and the foals tonight? Robby likes to talk about how he thinks you're funny and I'd like to get to know my little sister better." Tonya's ears lowered and she looked to the ground. Why did this have to be so wrong? Why did she have to make this into something perverse? This should be good, but the fact she knew why it was happening ruined it all. She raised a hoof to her medallion and thought about what to do. They needed to find out what she had done; she owed it to them, but she worried she'd ruin everything for them if she did. Why couldn't there be a way she could just make this right? She put on her best smile and looked up at her brother. "Sure, I'll come by your tent around sundown and then we can all go to the school to eat together. Hopefully with all these fresh crops the restaurants will be opening again soon, and then we can have something a little nicer in a few days." Paul nodded to her. "Sounds good, I'll be waiting for you tonight." She took the opportunity to get away from Paul and got into the air and started scanning the crowd. Amber and Pale Oak were near the crops speaking to a large group of both ponies and humans while making gestures out at the crops. They were most likely organizing the harvest itself. That wasn't something Tonya had any real desire to be involved in. She'd already done her part in making this possible. She spotted Amanda and Tom together speaking with a pair a humans that looked like they had been in the process of transformation when the counterspell went out. She felt a strong pang of sympathy for them. They were so close to a better life, yet denied it. The fact the government wouldn't allow them to complete the transformation made her blood boil, but there was nothing that could be done for now. Megan and Melissa were both chatting with Sunset. Tonya had just introduced them to Sunset shortly before going over to Wild. It was better to say that Megan and Sunset were chatting and Melissa was standing around looking at the crowds while the other two chatted. Tonya would have to do more to get Melissa involved with socializing, but that could wait a moment. Wild Growth and Number Crunch were speaking to one another, along with several ponies that seemed to be eager to speak with the magically powerful earth pony. Tonya needed to introduce Megan to Number Crunch so Megan could see about that mortgage. Dealing with Number Crunch was an even bigger dread than dealing with Paul and Devon though. She hadn't even spoken to the blue unicorn since the night they had dealt with Swift Strike. Tonya frowned as she tried to build up her courage. There were things that needed to be done. She couldn't spend her time just feeling sorry for herself. She took a deep breath and glided down to Sunset and the pair of young women that were with her. Sunset looked over to her with a loving smile. "There you are. I was wondering what where you had taken off to. Great work with dealing with the crowd and getting Wild motivated." Tonya beamed under the praise. "It was nothing, just doing what I can." She looked over at Megan. "And how are things going here?" "I think I may have found my new assistant," Sunset said as she gestured at Megan, earning a smile from the human. "Megan, if you could come by my office in city hall tomorrow around nine in the morning we will discuss your salary and get you started. I have a busy day tomorrow and will need an assistant to at least take notes." "Yes, ma'am," Megan said with an eager nod. "I will be there promptly and ready for whatever you can throw at me." Tonya walked over to her lover and gave a quick nuzzle before looking her in the eyes. "If you don't mind, Sunset, I need to introduce Megan to Number Crunch. Her sister will be very disappointed in her if she doesn't make some arrangements about starting to find a home, and we don't want Tattered to get frustrated." Sunset grimaced then nodded. "I suppose you're right. There's no reason to rile the Broken One up." Melissa coughed into her fist. "Excuse me, but can you please refer to her by name instead of title. I'm a Broken One too, and I would appreciate it if Tattered, and the title, were treated with a bit more respect." Come on, Sunset, please apologize. I can't just use my magic to help make you get along with them. Tonya thought to herself as she looked at her lover with pleading eyes. Sunset swatted some non-existent fly with her tail and looked over at Melissa. "I'm sorry, force of habit. Tattered Wing and I have some disagreements about how she dealt with a particular situation and I'm still working on getting over the issue. It is inappropriate for me to come off as rude though. I will do my best to not be rude to her or your office." Melissa looked down at the red unicorn with a frown. "What kind of disagreement?" "Something I'd rather not discuss in public," Sunset said as she glanced around. "We can discuss it sometime in private, if she doesn't discuss it with you first. Perhaps now that you're active she won't make the same mistakes again." Not perfect, but more diplomatic than Sunset typically was on her own. Tonya was relieved that was dealt with without Sunset making an enemy out of a second member of the Broken Ones. If Tonya wasn't going to use her powers on Sunset anymore they really needed to come up with new ways of dealing with Sunset's temper. At least this incident had ended with no blow-up. Sunset looked over at Tonya. "I'm going to need you with me all day tomorrow. There is a pony delegation coming in from Augusta. They may be moving their pony population here, and that's going to be a major strain on our resources." This was new, she blinked at the news. "How many ponies are we talking about? Another few thousand?" Sunset shook her head looking bewildered. "They had a much higher rate of ETS cases there than in Charleston. Half the city is ponies. The humans are being exceptionally hostile though. We're looking at nearly ninety-thousand ponies and perhaps five-thousand more humans they're trying to dump into Riverview and the surrounding towns." Tonya's eyes bulged. "What the fuck! We're in no position to support that many! We barely have the resources to support what we have now. What is the government thinking?" Sunset scowled. "We are the closest large pony community that has a welcoming human population. They're saying with the amount of resources they have allocated to us we should be able to find ways of incorporating them. That leaves us trying to build a city out of an area that barely qualified for the title village a month ago. I'm going to have Number Crunch get on calling every damn building contractor in two states offering work. We need to get to building apartment complexes and businesses pronto and expanding our farmed land. I'll be expanding the staff we have working on organizing." "What about Atlanta? What's happening to the ponies there?" Tonya asked. "Their ponies are being moved into Brooks, Georgia and they'll have a similar population as we will when it is all said and done," Sunset explained. "Most of the rest of the southern states aren't moving the bulk of their pony populations to new centers, but Georgia and South Carolina are, and North Carolina and Tennessee are planning on gathering a large pony community in Saluda, North Carolina using ponies from both states. There will be Saluda, Riverview, then Brooks as major pony focused centers and the rest of the ponies in the south will stay put." "So, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee are going to try to separate us from the humans while the rest of the south carries on as usual? I know this gives us a chance to build cities our own way, but I can't help feeling those four states are doing this because they don't want to be seeing ponies around," Tonya growled. Sunset sighed. "I'm just going to take it as an opportunity. That's three pony centers that can put what we can do on display. It will make some things easier. Saluda is at least on a major highway and can be used as a commerce point, Brooks isn't too far off from a major highway, and we're a central location between those two. Florida definitely looks like it will maintain large pony populations in most it's large cities for sure, and I'm hearing hopeful news from most the rest of the south." "But we're the most isolated of the three and we have major human cities between us and them. They have us cut off from one another," Tonya said as she flicked her tail with annoyance. "We'll figure something out. Brooks at least is fairly easy to access from the other states," Sunset said with a shake of her head. "We have humans who can drive ponies back and forth between the three cities with no problems. Maybe that's just a new business opportunity for the humans. Every opportunity to get humans and ponies employed should be utilized after all." "Maybe," Tonya conceded. "Still sucks that they are giving us three centers but completely isolating those centers from one another." "It could be much worse," Sunset said as she glanced to the street. "I'll be on the government's case about improving the road system to and from here, since we are the worst off in the case. We need to move a lot of building material in and want to be attractive to prospective businesses, we need our infrastructure up to snuff. We'll build the damn roads ourselves if given permission." Megan interrupted with a cough. "I'll get on making calls for you starting tonight if you want me to arrange meetings. I know some tricks for getting around some of the bureaucracy." "Excellent," Sunset said with a smile at the human. "I like the fact you're ready to get right into things and start making yourself useful. Just come to the office tonight around eight instead of tomorrow and I'll have what I need for you. We'll discuss your salary then as well." "Not to be an additional burden," Melissa cut in. "But if the Enclave are going to be policing a city of over a hundred thousand we are going to need weapons." Sunset frowned. "That might be hard. There are no weapons designed for ponies, and I doubt I could get the government to help change that. They are going to be very hesitant to arm ponies." Melissa frowned. "I'm not having my night ponies ending up in hospital beds or dead. If the population is going to be that high there's inevitably going to be human criminals or nutcases with guns. We can't count on the army indefinitely for armed backup." "Perhaps you can focus on hiring on more humans?" Tonya suggested. "The goverment will likely be more open to arming them." "Not an excessive amount, but enough you can call on for support," Sunset said firmly. "I will not stand to have a primarily pony population policed by a primarily human group." "I'll talk to Tattered and Dan about it. They are definitely going to want even more Enclave members if the population is growing as much as you're saying it will," Melissa said with a sigh. Sunset seemed to stop and think for a moment. "I'll reach out to the pony leaders from Augusta and see if they can put out an early word to their migrants about working with the Enclave. Your antics in Charleston might win you some recruits from their night ponies, but may not win you many friends with their other ponies." "We'll take what we can get. We need more ponies," Melissa replied. Well, it seemed that Melissa was going to be jumping right into a leadership role for the Enclave. The fact that she seemed amenable to working with Sunset made Tonya smile. "So, where's Number Crunch? I don't want to take too long getting what else I need done today," Megan cut in. Tonya's smile dropped again. She really wasn't looking forward to dealing with Number Crunch again yet. On the plus side, she only had to introduce Megan and be on her merry way. Tonya took to the air and looked down at Megan. "Just follow me. I'll find her in this crowd." She didn't really need to do much looking around. Wild Growth and Number Crunch were still chatting together, along with a few curious humans, where she last saw them. She quickly flew over to where she was above them and watched as Megan weaved through the crowds. When Megan was finally near them Tonya came back down to the ground with a final snap of her wings as she landed next to Wild Growth. "Hi again, Wild," Tonya greeted the earth pony. "Good work. I knew you had it in you without getting angry." Wild gave her a grateful smile. "Thank you for encouraging the crowd. It meant a lot to me seeing all those ponies and humans giving support like that." Tonya laughed. "They only did it because they wanted to see you succeed." She looked over at Number Crunch and flinched at the sight of the scowl that the unicorn was giving her. She had been worried about dealing with Number Crunch because of guilt, not because she thought the unicorn was mad at her. Number Crunch had never looked at her like that before. Had what she did caused some sort of negative backlash against her? "Hi, Number. I have a human that wanted to talk to you about a mortgage," Tonya said with a forced smile on her face as she pointed a wing at Megan as the young woman approached. "This is Megan Rutledge, Tattered Wing's little sister; Sunset might have mentioned her to you." Number looked over at Megan and then nodded in greeting to her. She then looked back at Tonya scowling again. "I'll see what I can do for her. Is there anything else you personally needed from me?" "Um, no not really..." Number took a threatening step towards her with teeth bared. "Then I suggest you get out of my sight. I don't want you near me after what you did the other night!" Tonya cowered and took a few steps back. Number Crunch had figured out what she did? That didn't seem possible. Number Crunch as far as she knew had no knowledge of her abilities. How had she found out? "I-I'm sorry. I don't know what to say to make this better. I regret what I did," Tonya stammered as she stepped backwards. Number let her horn flare to life. "You have no idea what you even did! Get out of my sight, now!" "Number calm down. There's no need to get angry," Wild said as she touched a hoof to Number's shoulder. Number glared over at Wild. "Wild, you're my friend, but don't try to calm me down. You have no idea what this little turncoat did." "Talk to me about it then, but please don't make a scene here," Wild said firmly as she kept her hoof on Number's shoulder. Number looked at Wild's hoof and her ears sagged. "I can't. I want to, but this is something I really can't talk about with anypony, even my friends." Okay, at least Number wasn't ratting her out. That was a good thing. She hopped back in the air. "I'll just get going then." She looked over at Megan. "I'll be back with Sunset and Melissa when you need me. If you end up going off to the bank with Number Crunch just give me a quick heads up." "Hurry up and get out of here, before you betray any pony else!" Number growled up at her. Tonya's eyes misted over. She deserved this, and she was just lucky Number wasn't saying anything to anypony about it. Without anything else said she flew off to the other side of town. Tattered left another dream with a satisfied smile. She was making good progress on getting the night ponies in town all dreamwalking. There was no telling what time it was, but so far she had covered more than sixty ponies who were now dreamwalking with ease. With Rudra helping caution them there hadn't been any more that had faced any discipline either. It was a very productive day. The group with her hadn't grown much. Most of the night ponies she had started dreamwalking were taking their opportunity to spread their proverbial dream wings and explore what they could do in the dreamscape. The group moving from dream to dream consisted of her, Dan, Lavender, Rudra, and recently was joined by Rosetta and Sha'am. Rosetta had joined them out of curiosity. Sha'am had joined them because following them around saved her time and effort. "How many more ponies are you planning on visiting today?" Sha'am asked her. Tattered bowed her head to the Dreamwarden. "There are about forty more in town. I could stop if you want me to Dreamwarden." Sha'am shook her wings slightly. "No, continue by all means. You've been very effective in getting them to give the Oaths to me without me having to resort to harsh measures. Every pony I don't need to discipline is a victory. Yinyu might revel in her fun, but I find no joy in discipline." Tattered didn't mention that Sha'am's discipline made Yinyu's look like a pat on the back. Some crazy thrill seeker might get a kick out of Yinyu's idea of discipline after all was said and done. Sha'am's nopony could possibly want to deal with. Sha'am turned to Rosetta. "Before I forget; I must congratulate you on your instruction of one Robert Middleton. I found the colt doing his first dreamwalk today, and was impressed not only that he was dreamwalking, but that he had already started to learn his oaths." Rosetta put a hoof to her mouth as she gasped. She looked worried as she replied, "Robby is dreamwalking already? I didn't think a colt his age would be able to do that. If I did I would have made absolutely sure he had everything perfect already. Please say he didn't need any discipline." Sha'am snorted. "I'm not going to discipline a colt that's making a full and honest effort to give me the Oaths. He needed some talking to in order to get the Oaths right, but talking is all that was needed or done." Rosetta let off a visible sigh of relief. Tattered saw Rudra and Lavender do the same, and she felt a tightness in her chest release as well. "We have so few foals for night ponies," Sha'am lamented with a shake of her head. "There's hope for the future though. There are almost as many night pony foals in wombs as there are foals already. With a little more breeding we can hopefully maintain and grow our tribe." Tattered raised an eye. "You can tell what kinds of foals are in wombs?" Sha'am nodded. "Every pony mind has a feel for it. With practice even all you will be able to tell one pony type from another. The unborn's minds float in-between consciousness and dreams, and can't be said to be doing either early in their development. I can catch glimpses of those minds, and still feel what type of pony they are." "Can you tell me what type of foal Phobia and I will be having?" Rosetta asked as she fidgeted in place. Sha'am perked her ears up then looked at Rosetta. "Both of you are carrying night pony foals. Their minds are still too undeveloped for me to determine a sex for either." Rosetta all but charged at the Dreamwarden. "Wait, Phobia is pregnant with a foal too? Are you sure?" Sha'am took a calm step back and flicked her tail. "I'm a Dreamwarden, I'm sure. You're both carrying night pony foals." "I'll run a pregnancy test tomorrow on Phobia Remedy when you bring her to the clinic, just to confirm it, but I trust a Dreamwarden's word," Lavender said to Rosetta. Sha'am summoned forth a table of food again, which seemed to be her favorite thing to do, for whatever reason. The old night pony looked over at Rosetta again as poured herself a drink. "You are actually carrying twins and my sister is carrying only one foal." Rosetta's eyes bulged. "Say what?" "I said, you are carrying twins and my sister is carrying only one foal." Tattered grinned. Rosetta and Phobia were going to have their hooves full going forward. She didn't envy them that at all. Rosetta pulled herself together and shook her head. "I really need to talk to Phobia about this." Sha'am shrugged. "Perhaps you should get back to working on penetrating her nightmare. You now have a new incentive to do so." Rosetta nodded and seemed to be getting ready to leave before Sha'am interrupted her. "Before you go, there is a small matter I wish to question you about. Do you know anything about a pegasus by the name of Tonya?" "Tonya?" Rosetta asked with a raised eyebrow. "Yes, she's Phobia's friend. Why are you asking about her?" Sha'am looked up at the stars and back down again. "The little colt Robby informed me she was using mind magic today. I gathered many details from him as we went through getting his Oaths correct. Another pony type than night ponies using mind magic is not an impossibility, but is exceedingly rare to find. What was described to me didn't qualify as an abuse of that power, but I have concerns." Tattered and Lavender looked at one another before Lavender stepped forward. "I have spoken with Tonya about her powers. I had actually given her a medallion to block their use until she could be properly trained to use them without abuse. She had done one incident that clearly qualified as abuse, but she was very upset about it and hadn't done it on purpose." Sha'am's expression darkened as she turned to Lavender. "Tell me, what exactly has she done that qualified as abuse?" Lavender shuffled her hooves and glanced between everypony around her before answering. "She forcibly compelled her brother and sister-in-law into thinking a certain way. It seemed like it was done in an outburst of anger and she instantly regretted her action. I would urge mercy for her, she did not do this maliciously." "Phobia knows about Tonya's powers, too," Rosetta added in as her ears flicked nervously. "Phobia didn't go into full detail because Tonya isn't a night pony, but she warned Tonya that there would be consequences if Tonya deliberately misused her powers." Lavender gasped. "That would explain how Tonya seemed to know about Dreamwardens. She was extremely scared that she was going to draw the Dreamwardens anger with what she did." Sha'am sat down and seemed to consider what to do. "This is not a clear cut case that requires immediate action. A full council between the Dreamwardens will be needed, as well as further observation of her. That will be made difficult since she is not a night pony and not doing anything in the dreamscape, and her supposed victims are humans that we cannot examine ourselves." Tattered realized that she actually had a way of being of assistance and stepped forward. "I've already planned on having the Enclave watch her so she doesn't discuss night pony secrets. I can that up that further so we can tell if she is doing anything wrong." Sha'am nodded. "That would be acceptable. If you find any sign of wrongdoing you only need call to me in the dreamscape and I or another Dreamwarden will answer your call." Rosetta continued to look nervous. "I know Tonya. I can't believe she would do anything to intentionally hurt anypony. I'll tell Phobia and ask her talk to Tonya again." Tattered gritted her teeth. "Tonya is Sunset Blessing's little minion. I'm going to remain suspicious of everything she does because of that." Sha'am nodded and spread her wings. "All seems in order here for now. I cannot stay asleep indefinitely though. Krik will be coming to take the Oaths from any further ponies on this side of the world." At that moment a pale white night pony stallion with a black mane and tail appeared sitting among them. Sha'am gestured at him with a wings. "Krik is not one for talking. He is aptly named the Warden of Silence," Sha'am explained. "Please give him your Oaths and he will collect the Oaths from others as well." And with that Sha'am disappeared without so much as a goodbye. Tattered looked at Krik, wondering what tortures this Dreamwarden would cause to those that refused to comply. The stallion just sat there silently staring directly at her, her specifically. Alright, time to say the Oaths again and get back to finding the rest of the Enclave's dreams. "Psychic Calm, we prom..." Everypony was trying to give the Oaths and they we're all slightly out of unison, causing them all to be talking over one another. Tattered turned to face Rudra so she could tell him to wait or to get themselves in unison, but was shocked to see Krik now sitting beside the other stallion. Krik was still staring right at her. Rudra was staring just to her side with a confused expression on his face. She whipped her head around to see what Rudra was staring at and saw Krik standing there too, again just staring at her. She turned around to look at where he had been a moment before when they first saw him and found him there as well. "How the fuck is he moving that fast, and why is he only watching me?" Dan hissed as he glanced around rapidly. "No, he is watching me," Rudra said. Lavender looked at them with confusion. "What are you all going on about? He hasn't moved, he's still right there in the same place, staring at the stars like he has been the whole time." Okay, whatever Krik was doing he wasn't doing to the Equestrian. That wasn't really useful information, but it was nice to know. Tattered spread her wings and took command of the situation. Hopefully Krik wouldn't take issue with it. "Everypony just look at where he started. Rosetta, say your Oaths first then go do what you need to do. After that I want you, Rudra, to say his Oaths and go visit some ponies we already got dreamwalking so you don't have to deal with Dreamwardens any more today. Dan you do the same as Rudra, you've had a long day. Lavender and I will continue working." "I actually think I should go with Rosetta," Lavender corrected. "Phobia Remedy's mental health is still my biggest priority going forward. Tattered frowned but nodded agreement. "Fine, I'll stay here alone with Krik and continue getting ponies up to speed." Rosetta said her Oaths, and then both she and Lavender departed. Rudra then Dan said their Oaths and left in a rush. That left her alone with the Dreamwarden of Silence. "Psychic Calm, we promise ponies shall dream in peace. Yinyu Wu Yan, we shall not allow our passions to lead us to folly. Ghadab, the Wardens' anger is unyielding and just. Phobia Remedy, fear of the Wardens keeps us safe. Tikhiy Krik, we shall keep the secrets of the Wardens. Sha'am Maut, better to die than to face the Wardens' justice." After she said her Oaths Krik finally did something other than stare; he nodded and went back to staring. She sighed. This was going to be a long day. There was no point trying to strike up a conversation with the Warden of Silence, so she summoned forth the next dream and went into it. Krik was already inside when she entered in. Just staring at her as she found the next Enclave member to speak to.