Rosetta woke with an intense need to vomit.
She unfurled her wings from her head and squinted at the daylight filtering in under the window shades. She weakly pulled herself to her hooves and tried to move as quickly as she could to the bathroom as she felt the bile rising in her throat.
The bathroom was too far a trip, and she ended up retching up in the hallway. Having already failed to reach the bathroom she simply choose to lay down where she was so any further puke was contained in one centralized location.
Congratulations, Rosetta, you've arrived at the morning sickness phase. She thought as she spit out bits of bile that hadn't completely exited her mouth.
After she was sure nothing else was coming up, and she could breathe again without laboring to do so, she went and searched out some towels and got to work cleaning up her mess. She then discarded them into a hamper that her parents had brought over, with the intention of taking them to her parents' house for washing sometime soon.
How long was morning sickness supposed to keep going once it began? She wasn't looking forward to finding out. It wasn't even morning, it was late afternoon. What should night ponies call morning sickness? Afternoon sickness? Early evening sickness?
She went to the bathroom and washed her face off and lapped up some water to rinse her mouth out with. Once she was satisfied that she didn't have overpowering barf breath anymore she returned to the bedroom.
Phobia had managed to stay asleep through all of that. A small part of Rosetta's mind was resentful that her mate had not awoken to notice that she was in distress. She quickly silenced the thoughts though. Phobia really needed her rest still, and this sickness from pregnancy was going to be a regular thing anyway for a while. Furthermore, Phobia would be dealing with the same thing in a month or so time. In a few weeks they'd both be up running to the bathroom, maybe trying to fight for who got the privilege of vomiting into the porcelain throne. She wouldn't resent Phobia getting a little time more to wake up without nausea.
She'd failed again to penetrate Phobia's nightmare over the afternoon, but had felt like she'd made good progress today. Increased confidence in her abilities really had helped and she had penetrated deeper than she had before. She'd get back to work on it early in the morning, along with another bit of dreamwalking that she was eager to see if she could do.
For right now she and Phobia needed to have a talk about what she had learned today.
After giving her lover a bit of nuzzling and some light shaking Phobia woke with a sleepy few blinks and glanced at the window.
"It's really early," Phobia said as she blinked a few more times. "Why are you getting us up this early?"
"Wild and I are going to be going to visit my mama in a little while to have a talk with her. I needed to talk to you about something first," Rosetta explained. "I figured we could get to sleep earlier tomorrow as well. There isn't any real need for us to be up all the way to noon."
"What's so urgent to talk about?" Phobia asked as she rolled on her back and yawned.
Rosetta took a deep breath and laid down so her face was closely facing Phobia's.
"I talked to Sha'am Maut last night. She gave me some information about my pregnancy...and let me know that you're pregnant as well."
Phobia's eyes went as wide as they could go and her pupils dilated and she rolled back over so she was laying on her belly again. "C-come again?"
"Sha'am said both of us are pregnant. All night pony foals. You've got one and I've got two," Rosetta said as she watched Phobia's face.
Phobia closed her eyes and shook her head in disbelief. "No...I can't be pregnant; definitely not because of him."
Rosetta's ears sagged low. "I'm sorry...I can't claim to completely understand how you're feeling, but we'll get through this. We can go to the clinic tonight after I'm back from my parents', instead of tomorrow, so Lavender can confirm it."
Phobia shook her head some more and started crying. "It can't be true. Up until a month ago it would have been impossible for me to be pregnant. I haven't even had a period or anything since becoming a pony. I can't be carrying a foal because of him."
Rosetta pulled Phobia into a hug and Phobia let the tears break free into full on sobs as she cried onto Rosetta's shoulder. Rosetta gently stroked Phobia's mane as the other mare trembled and sobbed.
"If you..." Rosetta had to stop to take a deep breath. She didn't want to suggest this. "If you want an abortion... I'll understand."
Phobia went stiff against her, and the sobbing came to an abrupt end. She just sat like that, not moving for a long minute, leaving the room feeling oppressively quiet.
"I-I won't do that," Phobia finally said. "I don't know what I want to do, but I won't do that."
It was a relief to hear that. She didn't think Phobia would do that, but the possibility was there. She wouldn't have blamed her if she had said she wanted an abortion though.
"We're going to go to the clinic tonight then," Rosetta said as she sat up. "Do you want your parents to come along with us or do you want to wait to tell them?"
Phobia sat up slightly and didn't answer right away. It was a good thing though. Making Phobia think about making immediate plans distracted her from thinking about the fact she was having a foal from a rape. While Rosetta waited for Phobia to consider her ears twitched as she picked up voices in the house. Tom must have come back, and he had company.
"I'll ask them to come with us," Phobia finally said with a sigh. "I have no idea how they'll react to the news. I don't even know how to react to the news."
"That's understandable." Rosetta nuzzled Phobia again. "You and I are going to get through this. We can see if we can get help since three foals are going to be a lot to deal with. I'm going to talk to Luna and see if she has any suggestions too."
It went unsaid that she was terrified of what this would do to Phobia's already daunting nightmares. She hadn't even gotten past Phobia's protective shell yet on her own to help her, and now things were going to no doubt get worse.
"What about your family? Do you want to bring them along too?" Phobia asked. Phobia seemed to be trying to put on a good face about this, but Rosetta could pick up on her body language; Phobia was scared.
She'd already considered that. "I'm supposed to be going over to my parents house in a little while to talk with my mama. I'll tell them then. There's no need to have the clinic packed and you getting smothered."
Phobia bowed her head and looked on the verge of tears. "I'm sorry about all this."
Rosetta flicked her tail. "You've got absolutely nothing to be sorry for, at all, so don't start acting guilty. You've done nothing wrong. I'm the one who was involved with that sonofabitch that did this to you. I'm even carrying around not one but two foals from him. I even slept willingly with him and feel filthy for it. I'm the one who should be sorry."
Phobia looked up at her. "You don't have anything to be sorry for either. I'm actually feeling a little guilty that you're having twins and suddenly I'm going to be a focus of attention again." Phobia shook her head. "I just hate having everypony worrying over me. I know I'm not okay, but I'm not going to be okay for a long time. I don't want to pull things down with everypony worrying over me constantly."
Rosetta touched a wing to Phobia's face. "We're having twins. These foals are ours. Three little lives that we're going to be mothers to. We're going to be going through all the joys of pregnancy together too; weird food cravings, mood swings, feeling fat and bloated, waking up and wanting to vomit, lots of pissing..."
"Yep, you're really selling how wonderful this is going to be," Phobia said with a flat look. "We haven't really asked that many questions about those kinds of things either. We got some answers from Lavender about how things go, but I think we didn't ask nearly enough."
"We'll do that later. She'll probably tell us even worse things." Rosetta giggled as she tried to lighten the mood. "And just think, we get three time the nightmares from surging foals."
Phobia's eyes widened for a moment then she blinked. "Maybe I can take a little advantage of my position and temporarily lock them out of the dreamscape."
"You can do just temporarily?" Rosetta asked. She was actually hoping that was true. She really didn't want to deal with three times the nightmares while these three surged.
Phobia shrugged. "I don't really know. I won't have an actual clue what I'm capable of until I'm bound to the dreamscape. You could ask Sha'am, Yinyu, or Luna what I will be able to do in that regard. I really don't know right now, being bound will be what essentially teaches me everything."
"What exactly is all the training for now then if you're just going to learn everything when you get bound?" Rosetta asked with a raised eyebrow.
"How to actually survive to get bound," Phobia said as she looked Rosetta in the eyes. "I get put into the raging furnace of the magic that's the true nature of the dreamscape. It will kill me if I'm not ready. All my training is just so I can buy Luna time to bind me once I go in. Technically, anypony can learn to do what I'm doing on their own, but without the binding by a Dreamwarden they'll still die after a minute or so. Once I'm bound it can no longer hurt me, but until then I'm in mortal danger of it ripping my mind apart. She needs only seconds, but I need to be prepared to give her those seconds."
Alright, this was new information, and it was bad. "Why's it so dangerous? I thought dreams couldn't hurt anypony."
Phobia sat and seemed to try to think about how to explain. "Except for the Dreamwardens, ponies don't actually experience the dreamscape. The dreamscape you experience is just an illusion that makes it manageable and comprehensible. The true dreamscape doesn't follow the normal rules of the universe, it has no shape, no sense of space, time flows there but it's more flexible; it's just magic and minds and nothing else. Getting put into the true dreamscape and trying to experience it will break a pony's mind and kill them. There's too much magic and too many minds with all your other senses gone."
Knowing that there was a chance that this could kill Phobia if something went wrong put a whole other level of urgency on getting Phobia's nightmares under control. She knew Luna wouldn't put Phobia in if she wasn't ready, but the idea that Phobia could die if something went wrong filled her with dread.
"Let's head down and do what needs to be done for tonight. You can go talk with your parents and I'll see if Dad can get in touch with Mom. I'm pretty sure I heard him downstairs, along with Amanda if I recognize the voice right," Phobia said as she stood up. Phobia must have better hearing than her if she was able to identify everypony downstairs. She just heard muffled voices. She wouldn't have heard anything as a human of course, but it was still interesting that Phobia heard things better than her.
They went downstairs and did indeed find Tom and Amanda talking in the living room, with Robby and Jackie sleeping in a corner next to a bag that she assumed belonged to Amanda. Tom's ears perked up as he watched them come down the stairs.
"You two are up earlier than normal. Did you have plans?" Tom asked as he looked at them quizzically.
This was going to be fun. She took a deep breath before answering. "We're moving Phobia's doctor appointment up to tonight instead of in the morning."
Tom's ears laid back as he looked at his daughter. "What's wrong? Are you hurt? Are you sick?"
Phobia shook her head. "Not sick yet, I'm guessing that will be coming sooner or later. Congratulations, Dad, you're getting a grandfoal directly from me; I'm pregnant."
Tom's eyes went wide and he shook his head. "That's not possible. You can't get pregnant. You weren't even female until this month. We don't even know for sure that you have those parts working."
Phobia laid her ears back and flicked her tail rapidly. "Dad, I'm trying to keep calm about this and don't need you saying shit like that. I have the parts and they work. I may not have had them a month ago, but I also didn't have wings, a tail, or hooves a month ago and all those work perfectly well too. You know how it happened too, and that is something I really don't want to think about; please don't be a dick!"
The irony that Phobia had just made that same argument herself was not lost on Rosetta. Phobia wasn't thinking straight.
The unicorn flinched back with his ears flattened. Rosetta draped a wing gently over Phobia's back, making sure Phobia saw her doing it. She then looked over at the two other ponies and took charge of the situation for Phobia's sake. "She's actually doing very good dealing with the news so far, but I'm expecting a full breakdown later. We're going to deal with things tonight before she's a sobbing mess again. For now, could you please get in touch with Sunset and get Sunset to come over here right away. She wants both her parents at the clinic when they confirm this."
Tom gathered himself up and flattened out his ears. "It will take me a little while to get her. I know she's probably at the town hall right now, but I don't have a phone. I'd have to run down there to get her. You'd probably get to her faster than me."
"I've got a phone," Amanda offered as she hurried over to the bag. "It's probably dead, but I have the charger too. I'd been considering just getting rid of it if it weren't for the fact I had contact information stored in it. It's really hard to use with hooves, even pulling out the stylus is a pain in the ass."
"If it has a stylus I can use it," Tom said as he went over to join her.
Amanda pulled open her bag and looked into it glumly. She then sighed and just upended the bag with her hooves so everything fell out. "Sorry about the mess, it's the easiest way of getting anything out. My only other option is trying to pull out each thing with my mouth until I found it."
Tom quickly found the charger and the cell phone in the clutter. "Don't fret, and don't worry about trying to repack. Just let me get this plugged in and I'll pick it all up for you."
Amanda smiled. "You don't need to do that. I'm perfectly capable of doing it myself; I packed it after all."
"You're doing me a favor by letting me use your phone," Tom said as he plugged the phone into a nearby outlet. "You only have to pick up that stuff due to me. I should be the one taking care of it."
Robby stirred from his sleep, returning his wings to his sides instead of around his head. One of the wings caught Jackie as it moved, and the little filly stirred from her sleep too; blinking and looking around as she tried to figure out what touched her.
Amanda looked apologetic. "Sorry, I didn't intend to wake you two up."
Robby glanced around from where he was laying and got a big smile on his face when he spotted Rosetta. "Miss Rosetta! I dreamwalked!"
Rosetta gave the colt a smile. "So I heard. I thought about checking on you but was busy with Phobia. I hope you had fun."
Robby looked confused. "How'd you know already?"
Rosetta glanced at Amanda and Tom before looking at Robby again. "We have a mutual dreamwalking friend that told me about it. She was very impressed. I'm sure Phobia is impressed too."
Phobia looked at Robby. "Dreamwalking already? Were you a good colt when you were dreamwalking?"
Robby nodded. "I was very good. I said all my things right and ate lots of cake!"
"And did you visit any dreams?" Phobia asked.
Robby's ears dropped. "I wasn't really sure how. After I got out of my dream..." He looked at Amanda and Tom who we're both looking at him with confusion on their faces. "Um, I'm not sure I'm allowed to say what happened. Ms. Phobia, am I allowed?"
Phobia looked at Rosetta. "Same one as told you about my pregnancy?" Rosetta nodded back. Phobia turned back to Robby. "So, you met an old pony then and she gave you sweets."
Robby nodded.
"And you stayed out of trouble with her?" Phobia asked.
Robby nodded more enthusiastically. "She made sure I did everything right, and asked me a lot of questions about Aunt Tonya's singing."
Rosetta caught Phobia's attention. "I talked to the old mare about that too. I think you're going to need to have another talk with Tonya."
Tom stomped a hoof. "Can you please give me and Amanda a better explanation about what's going on? Wild Growth seems to have some clue, but she's just as closed lipped as you two. Getting anything out of her was like pulling teeth."
Rosetta scowled. "And what did my sister say that she had no business talking about? She shouldn't be talking about night pony secrets."
Tom looked at Phobia. "She said something about how you make sure night ponies behave themselves and that they're afraid of you. That's all we got out of her. I still don't understand how you're so scary to them, and I don't understand the need for all this secrecy."
Amanda raised a hoof. "And I'm really confused about why Tonya singing was a big deal."
Robby flapped his wings in frustration. "I told you, Aunt Tonya was using night pony magic. Why doesn't anypony believe me?"
"We believe you," Rosetta said, as she gave him a sympathetic look. "And I'm pretty sure by the time they all wake up every night pony in town will know about it and believe you too."
"As for the secrecy," Phobia said as she sat down. "Night ponies have a collection of magic powers that are extremely easy to abuse, far more abusive than other tribes abilities. They can be abused even by ponies that don't mean to hurt anypony. This means the use of such abilities has to be strictly monitored and controlled. All the humans and the other pony tribes are completely incapable of doing that; we have to do that. Until the point is reached that we can prove those abuses won't happen we have to keep our methods of control secret."
Rosetta gave an internal groan. Why did Phobia have to be this open with these kinds of things? Tonya getting told some things was understandable, but there was no reason for Wild to find out. Now she was talking to Tom and Amanda about the subject. Since Phobia was one of the Dreamwardens she wasn't bound by the same Oaths as every other night pony, but this was risky.
Rosetta took a deep breath and addressed this as best she could. "Phobia, you agreed that I'm the one who makes decisions while we are awake, right?"
Phobia turned to her with ears perked and nodded.
Rosetta gently touched a wing to her lover's face. "Then can you please not discuss this with them. Every pony you discuss this with puts our family in danger. We have foals on the way we need to think about. I'm sure Amanda and Dad are well intentioned, my sister too, but everything they know are things that can be used by somepony to try to hurt our family. These are also things that you know can be used to hurt our tribe. I will not allow anything to hurt you or our foals, even loose tongues."
Phobia frowned as she glanced at her father and Amanda, who both looked on in confusion, then looked back at Rosetta and bowed her head in agreement. "You're right. Some of these secrets are not meant to be kept forever, but I'm far too quick to open my mouth."
Phobia turned back to the other two adult ponies. "Please, just accept that things are being done to keep you safe, and it is happening out of sight with things you don't need to worry about."
Phobia then turned to Robby. "And the rules still apply to you. You don't discuss this with anyone other than another night pony, even your family. The rules keep you from getting hurt just like the rest of us. You're a night pony and you must protect your tribe, yourself, and your family."
"Not even Ms. Wild Growth or Aunt Tonya?" Robby asked.
"Not even them," Rosetta confirmed.
Tom stomped a hoof, startling everypony. "What are you so afraid of? They're supposedly all scared of you, but you seem terrified of something yourself."
Phobia gave her father a long look then turned back to Robby. "Robby, what above all other things, even me, should every night pony be afraid of and make sure never hurts the innocent? I know Rosetta taught you what it was, you have my permission to say it."
Robby blinked then looked down. "The most scary, most dangerous thing in the world...scarier than all the monsters and bad guys put together...is ourselves."
Amanda gasped and slammed her own hooves on the floor. "You can't teach Robby to think that way about himself!"
Phobia held up a wing at Amanda and kept looking at Robby. "And since that is true, what is your responsibility as a night pony?"
Robby held his head up high. "I've gotta make sure I never ever become a monster that hurts other ponies while I'm protecting them against the bad guys and monsters. I've gotta have responsibility so I stay good."
Rosetta smiled that her lessons had taken so well. "Night ponies live to protect others, even if it means against ourselves sometimes. It is our duty, our purpose, and our pride. Are you proud to be a protector, Robby?"
"I'll never ever let any monster or bad guy hurt my family, or Ms. Amanda, or Jackie, or anypony else. I'll protect them and keep the safe," Robby said as he puffed out his chest. "And I'll never be a monster or bad guy, even though I could be. I know how to fear myself. Fear keeps me safe."
Amanda looked helplessly at Robby, then Rosetta and Phobia, then to Tom. She then gave a sad shake of her head. "Night ponies are crazy. What do you think about all this, Tom?"
Tom looked at Phobia with a hard glare. "It feels like some sort of indoctrination. I can't approve of this."
Phobia glared back at him. "You've no idea the harm we night ponies could cause if left to ourselves. That vision that everypony got? That's just the tip of the iceberg. We can invade your mind and there would be nothing you could do to stop us. Controls on us have to be put in place, and we're the only ones that can put those controls in place. It's our responsibility and duty to see you're protected from us."
Tom sneered. "You talk about it as if you're all criminals. Criminals typically don't write the laws they are governed by."
Phobia sighed. "Only potential criminals, like everypony else. Even politicians pass laws determining ethics violations on politicians. You don't need to understand night ponies, Dad, but please trust that we are doing everything we can to not be monsters."
Amanda snorted and pointed at Robby. "And you think that little colt is a potential monster?"
Phobia nodded, earning a gasp of dismay from Amanda. "He can dreamwalk. Expecting a five year old to do right dreamwalking without controls is as foolish as if you handed a five year old human child a loaded handgun and telling them to go play with their friends, expecting no potential tragedy to happen. Night ponies are weapons, and we have to learn as soon as we start dreamwalking, or even before if possible, to be responsible--otherwise ponies are going to get hurt."
Rosetta flicked her ears as she zeroed into a sound that she had been hearing in the background for a while. She took a quick sniff and then turned to the front door. "You can come in Wild. You don't have to keep sitting outside the door listening into the conversation."
The door handle jiggled a moment or two and then stopped. "Um...the door's locked." Came a muffled call from the other side.
Tom lit up his horn and the lock could be heard clicking on the door before opening in his magical aura. Wild then sheepishly walked in. Tom closed the door behind her after she entered.
Wild looked at Rosetta and scraped up hoof across the floor in embarrassment. "Sorry, didn't mean to eavesdrop. Just didn't want to interrupt."
Rosetta gave her sister a hard look. There was no telling how long Wild had been standing out there before she finally noticed. The earth pony had clearly been going out of her way to keep quiet.
"We'll discuss it later," Rosetta said, having decided not to argue the point. She looked at Amanda and Tom with a raised eyebrow. "Can we count this discussion done for right now? I don't want you upsetting Phobia. Between everything going on with her she doesn't need ponies getting on her case about her doing her appointed job. I've got two buns of my own in the oven and don't need the stress either."
Wild's mouth dropped as she looked at Rosetta. "Two? You're having twins? Wait...did you just imply Phobia..."
Rosetta cut her sister off. "We'll talk about it on the way to the other house." She looked at Tom and repeated her question. "Are we done for now? I know you have a call to make, Phobia needs to de-stress, and I have a few things to discuss with my mama."
Tom sighed. "I guess for right now. We'll continue this some other time. I do trust you two, but I'm not sure whatever you're doing is the right way to do...whatever it is you're doing. You're right that we have other things to worry about for the moment."
Amanda still looked on defiantly. "Robby is my best friend's foal. I'm concerned about what kind of things you might be teaching him. That is not normal things to be teaching a foal, at all."
Rosetta nodded. "That's fair. It's good you are concerned about his welfare. You're a good friend to Devon and a good pony for being concerned. Robby's a night pony though, and night pony foals come with a whole different set of concerns than other foals; concerns a non-night pony wouldn't understand on their own or be able to address. I'll be happy to sit down with Devon and explain those concerns to her, but she has to trust night ponies are the ones who'll have to teach him certain things."
Amanda sat down and crossed her forelegs. "I'll tell Devon and let her decide. I want to trust you, I do. I stood up for you when he was saying Phobia was scary and his parents were getting upset because of that; but him talking about how he should be afraid of himself sounds like teaching him to look down on himself, and a lot of what you say sounds like some weird religious indoctrination."
Rosetta gave a sympathetic dip of her head. "I know how it must sound, but our goals are to make sure he doesn't get hurt and nopony gets hurt because of him. Tell Devon I'll talk to her tomorrow night about Robby, and I'll tell her what I'm allowed to say about the dangers he faces."
"I'll do that."
Alright, crisis averted for the moment. Rosetta felt a certain amount of pride in herself for taking charge of the situation and defusing it for the time being. She'd probably have an angry mother screaming at her tomorrow in all likelihood, but that was tomorrow. Tonight she still had to make sure she didn't end up screaming at her own mama or her future mother-in-law, those were the two angry mothers she needed to be focused on.
She exited the house with her sister in tow. They were at the end of the yard before Wild finally broke her question again. "What's this about you're having twins, and is Phobia pregnant too?"
Rosetta crossed her eyes at her sister. "I'm pregnant with twins and Phobia is pregnant with a single foal. I'm not sure what you are missing in that, it sounds pretty clear to me. You shouldn't be shocked I'm having twins. Name one member of our family that has more than two kids who doesn't have twins. There's like a fifty-fifty chance with every pregnancy in our family that it'll be twins."
Wild's tail twitched as they walked. "I know about how the twins thing works with the family. I'll probably end up with twins too if I ever have foals. It was still a surprise to hear. Phobia's having a foal too was more a shock to hear."
Rosetta hung her head and flattened her ears. "Yeah, that was a surprise. I guess the silver lining is that her foal and my foals will be biological siblings. I really want to find that bastard, rip him apart, and decorate the yard with his guts."
Wild looked like she was going to be sick. That was kind of expected. Day ponies didn't take well to descriptions of extreme violence. You didn't even have to go that in depth and if they weren't green already they'd turn green. That's part of why they needed night ponies to defend them, day ponies were just too gentle and pacifist by nature; with a few notable exceptions that didn't really make Rosetta happy knowing about.
Rosetta dropped her blood-lust and continued. "Phobia and I are going to the clinic to get her checked out tonight after this talk with Mama is done. We'll be bringing just her parents along. She'll be stressed out enough without bringing everyone else."
Wild nodded. Then gave Rosetta a considering look. "About that argument you were having...what am I actually allowed to say to anypony? I barely know anything but they're pushing me for answers. I trust Phobia, but keeping her secrets is putting me in a rough position."
"Just keep your mouth shut and refer them to us or another night pony," Rosetta replied gruffly. "I'm sorry you're carrying that information around with you. You shouldn't have been told."
Wild ran in front of Rosetta and stopped them. "Why do you need to be so secretive, sis? Why can't you trust me, your family? This isn't like you."
How could she explain this to her sister? How could she explain this to any of her family? Phobia and the Dreamwardens had their whatever reasons for all their secrecy, but for Rosetta this was personal. If news about what Phobia was and what that meant got out it could make life for the two of them and their foals a living hell.
She put her mouth up to her sister's ear and spoke softly. "I keep secrets because it's the rules, and I also need to make sure my foals lead happy and normal lives. These foals and Phobia are my direct family, the rest of you are extensions of my family. If I've got to choose between being open with my extended family and protecting my direct family then direct family comes first. You'll understand someday when you have a family of your own."
As she pulled back from speaking in her sister's ear she could see her sister clenching her jaw.
Tears started to build up in Wild's eyes. "Why does there need to be any god damn choice? We're all family! You're my big sister, the big sister I looked up to for years. Now you're telling me that I don't matter? That you have to shut me out for the off chance that it might have some minuscule chance of hurting you, Phobia, or the foals sometime in the future? Even though you know I would never do something to hurt you?"
Rosetta sighed. Wild was taking this the wrong way. "It isn't that you don't matter, it's that I have to prioritize and do everything I can to protect my family. This is a huge deal, and not something I can screw up with. There is no harm done to you by me keeping night pony secrets from you, there is potential harm to my family if I give them out. You still matter very much to me, I love you, but I have to prioritize the needs of Phobia and my foals above you. I would slap you silly if you told me secrets that could put loved ones at risk by telling."
Wild went suddenly very rigid. Something that Rosetta had said struck a huge chord with her somehow. The question was what kind of chord.
"I think I understand," Wild said slowly. "I have a secret too, and it could be dangerous to talk about."
Rosetta raised an eyebrow at this. Wild had some dark secret? That was suprising. Perhaps earth ponies had their own tribal secrets since night ponies did. If there was ever an earth pony that would be in on such a thing it would be Wild.
"If it is something I don't actually need to know then keep it to yourself," Rosetta asserted. "Better to keep silent and keep those around you safe than to run your mouth and endanger somepony."
"You think way too much in terms of protecting," Wild said.
"I'm a night pony; it's in my nature to be protective, and I embrace that part of me. It might not define every aspect of my life, but it's still part of what I am," Rosetta said as she spread her wings and put herself on display. "Even if I wasn't naturally protective, keeping my family safe would still take precedence over indulging your curiosity."
"Okay, I trust you, and won't push about this," Wild said with a sigh.
"Good, because I was getting ready to start wing slapping you to try to knock some sense into you and I wasn't looking forward to hurting my wings on your hard head," Rosetta snarked as she walked around her sister.
Wild trotted back beside her and have her a grin. "Well, we earth ponies are built pretty solid, best not to hurt your delicate little wings."
Rosetta gave her sister a good smack off side the head with a wing, and winced as it actually did hurt. Wild wasn't kidding, it was like hitting a brick wall. It was a small consolation to her pride that it staggered Wild tiny bit.
"OW!" Wild hissed. "You didn't have to smack me that hard!"
Rosetta shook her wing to try to dull the soreness. "Don't worry, I think it hurt me more than it hurt you, no joke. Do you have concrete in your diet or something?"
"Glad it hurt. That's what you get for doing that," Wild answered as she glared at Rosetta's wing. "And I'm just really muscular."
Rosetta looked her sister over. Now that she was taking a more critical eye to her sister she could see that Wild really was extremely muscular, much more muscular than most earth ponies. Did all that extra muscle come with all that extra magic power? How much was Wild holding back when she used that earth pony strength of hers? She knew her sister didn't like her strength being asked about too much, but it did get Rosetta curious about exactly how strong Wild actually was.
Wild noticed Rosetta looking her over and scowled as she kicked some dust up off the road. "Before you ask, I don't know, and I don't plan on trying to find out. I grow things, and that's what I want to be known for; not how strong I am."
Rosetta looked straight ahead at their parents' house. "Wasn't going to ask. I know it's not your favorite subject. Just taking note of things for the first time."
"Good," Wild said as they started walking up the path through the yard to the front door.
Wild casually pushed open the door and Rosetta frowned at the fact it wasn't locked. There should be more concern for safety. She then realized what she was doing and shook her head. Maybe she really was letting her night pony instincts get the better of her. She needed to rein them in or they'd drive her to paranoia.
This was actually the first time being at her parents' new house since they moved in. The house looked to be completely unpacked by this point. Familiar furniture was out in the living room, there were family pictures hung up around the walls--some of which she hadn't seen in many years, and it had a feeling of home despite being an unfamiliar place. One of the regular constants of home was her twin brothers parked in from of the TV playing video games.
Apparently video games weren't that enticing, because the twins paused their game and rushed Rosetta soon after she walked through the door.
"Rosetta! We haven't seen you in forever!" Jose cheered as he came up and tackled her in a hug.
"Mama! Papa! Rosetta's here!" Miguel shouted loudly.
Rosetta eyes her brothers suspiciously. "What're you two trying to get out of me? Love you both, but you're never this affectionate with me."
"Yeah, what gives? You don't come charging me with hugs and kisses every time I walk through the door," Wild said, ears flat.
"Wild you live here, so we see you all the time. We never see our favorite sister, Rosetta," Miguel did in an unconvincing fake whine.
Okay, that sealed it. The twins were definitely up to something. Question was, what could they possibly be trying to get out of her? She had no money, and not much for possessions.
"Rosetta's your favorite sister?" Wild asked with her ears still flattened. It clicked in Rosetta's head what they were trying to do now. They were trying, if overdoing it, to make Wild jealous, and hopefully getting Wild to give them things to earn back the title of favorite sister. They really needed to be more subtle about if they expected to have that work.
No reason she couldn't play along though. "I know, I'm so great. Never in the history of the world was there a sister so great and wonderful as me," she said with a haughty smile, laying it on thick as she could.
Wild let off a low rumble in her chest. "Rosetta, I think we should focus in getting what needed to get done completed. I know you have a lot to do tonight. Especially since you have a better set of twins on the way than these two layabouts."
"Wait...what?" Jose said as he pulled back and stared at Rosetta. "You're having twins? When did you suddenly say you were having twins?"
"Tonight, and we aren't playing a joke either. I'm having twin night pony foals. There is going to be a cuter, more adorable, and more spoilable set of twins coming into the family," Rosetta said with a smirk. She then let the smile die and put a serious look on her face. "Phobia's having a foal too, which makes this kind of like triplets. Now, go tell Papa, so he knows. Wild and I need to go talk to Mama about something important, and we want some privacy."
"Um, okay," the twins said in that weird unison way that always weirded her out when they pulled it. She hoped her foals never learned how to do that. They then rushed to the backdoor and out into the backyard, letting the door slam behind them.
Rosetta looked at her sister after their brothers exited. "You know they're just trying to make you jealous to get things out of you, right?"
Wild blinked then rapidly nodded. "Yeah, I knew that."
Rosetta shook her head. "Sure you did. Anyway, lead the way to Mama."
Wild headed towards the stairs and Rosetta followed. This house was a bigger than hers, but it had a somewhat similar design. Wild led them up to a similar upstairs hallway and they quickly found their parents' room with the door open. Inside their mama was sitting on the bed rubbing one of her hands and she looked like she had dropped a book on the floor. She looked up at them and smiled as they entered.
"Rosetta, it's good to see you out of your house. Come over here and give me a hug," Jean said as she leaned down and spread her arms.
Rosetta walked over to her mama and reared up so she could wrap her forelegs and wings around her. The two embraced for a long moment before letting go and Rosetta sat down where she was at.
"Mama, the three of us need to talk," she said as she gestured with a wing for Wild to come over.
Wild came over beside her and sat down. "Jumping right into this then, huh?"
"Jumping right into what?" Jean asked as she looked down at the two of them.
Rosetta took a deep breath. "First thing first, I guess, then the big thing. Just to let you know, I'm carrying twins, and Phobia's pregnant."
"That's not the big thing?" Jean asked in shock. She then licked her lips. "Well, I suppose twins isn't that surprising. I was half suspecting it would happen. I can tell you from experience that twins is not a fun pregnancy to deal with. How's... how's Phobia coping with...her news."
"She just got it, so not sure it has sunk in yet. We're going to the clinic after I get back home. Just me, her, and her parents. Trying not to have too many others around her than we need. She's already jumpy from...you know."
"Yeah, I know," Jean said sadly.
Rosetta took another breath before continuing. "Since I'm kind of in a hurry because of that I'm going to have to jump into the main reason Wild and I needed to talk to you. I will give you updates on the foals as I get them, but for right now Wild and I needed to talk to you about your health."
Jean bit her lip and looked at the two of them then looked down at the book laying on the floor. "You two found out then."
"Yeah, I got it out of Papa the other day. I'm surprised he didn't tell you," Wild said, then glanced at Rosetta briefly. "I told Rosetta yesterday, I couldn't keep this from her if I knew."
"We're not mad at you for not telling us," Rosetta began then decided to be honest. "Or if we are mad we at least understand why you didn't tell us at the time you found out. We just want you to talk to us about it now."
"You really shouldn't be worrying about this. You have so much going on in your lives right now. I'm fine, and will be fine for a while," Jean insisted.
"Cut the crap, Mama. Wild and I are always going to have stuff going on. She's got a big career and I'm going to have three foals and a career of my own to worry about. Now stop stalling," Rosetta said firmly.
"Rosetta!" Wild growled. "Don't talk to Mama that way!"
Rosetta leveled a glare on her sister and pointed at their mama. "She'll keep putting this off until she's put on the spot and made to talk about it. If I have to be firm I will. I have a fiancée dealing with being raped, three foals on the way, and other stresses to deal with. This talk is getting done now so we know what all is going on."
"Funny thing for you to be going on about; getting things out in the open," Wild said tersely.
Rosetta got right into her sister's face. "Don't go there right now."
Wild held the glare for a moment then backed down, turning her head to glare at the floor.
"Girls, please don't fight. I'll talk about it with you now," Jean said. She looked like she was getting ready to cry.
The two ponies looked at each other for a moment then hung their heads in shame.
"Sorry, Mama."
"Sorry, Mama."
Jean took a moment to collect herself before continuing. "It's okay. I know you two have had a lot of stress lately. I don't blame you both for being a little high strung."
Jean patted the sides of the bed to either side of her and the two ponies hopped up on either side beside her. She then put an arm around each of them.
"I have been having problems on and off for the last year; trembling in my hands, sudden bursts in anxiety, periods of depression. Your father started taking me to the doctor to try to find out what was going on. We went through a lot of different medications trying to treat things. Eventually one of the doctor's looked at our family history and asked if he could run some tests on my levels for certain body chemicals. When they came back exceedingly lower than they should have he diagnosed Parkinson's."
Rosetta hadn't been around much, so she hadn't had a chance to see this. Wild had been busy with school so it wasn't surprising she had missed it too.
"So, what are you doing for treatment?" Wild asked.
"I was supposed to have a follow up with the doctor, but then all hell broke loose with ETS," Jean said with a sigh. "They were going to run some more specialized tests and then discuss treatment options. Wish I knew at the time I could have just caught ETS myself and this would have gone away. I wouldn't have left Wild's side."
Rosetta looked over to her sister. Wild was just looking down at the floor with her jaw clenched. Wild had been very bitter for a while that she had been isolated from the family while she was transforming. Hearing this might reignite that bitterness. Wild seemed to be holding her mouth shut though.
"Alright, so you aren't sure what your treatment options are yet," Rosetta said calmly. "Now that we know we can see about getting you to see someone again and seeing what can be done. Did the doctor say anything about how this will progress?"
"It doesn't go in a straight line of progression," Jean explained. "Things will get worse, then better, then worse again. There will be times when it is crippling, and other times it will seem like nothing's wrong at all. Like it's turning on and off, but it will get to where it is on more and more as I get older, with worse and worse severity."
"And treatments are to help you keep it off more and limit how bad it gets when it's on?" Rosetta asked.
"Yeah, that's right," Jean said with a nod.
"I'll find a way to fix this, Mama. Call your doctors tomorrow and get things going again. I'll pay for everything," Wild finally spoke up as she hugged their mama gently, like she was afraid she would break her. Given Wild's strength that might actually be something to worry about.
Jean ran a hand over Wild's mane. "Sweetie, there isn't anything you can do to fix this, but I appreciate all the help you are willing to give to make it a little better."
Wild seemed to stiffing up. "No, Mama, I'm fixing this. I just need time, and help. I'm going to make you better."
"You know, she's right, we don't know what kinds of healing might be possible now that magic is an option," Rosetta added in hopefully. "I'll ask Lavender when I'm at the clinic tonight if the Equestrians might have any ways of treating you."
Jean sighed. "Okay, babies, you two do what you can, but don't get your hopes too high."
They sat silently cuddled together for a few minutes until Wild finally spoke up. "You probably should get going. Phobia and her parents are going to be waiting on you. You've got to go take care of her."
Rosetta reluctantly nodded and then hopped down from the bed. Time for a different round of family drama.