Amanda did her best to hold her squirming filly in place. Trying to hold Jackie still was proving to be difficult though.
"Come on, my little magic missile, you need to be preened. You'll feel much more comfortable after I get this done," she said as Jackie smacked her in the face yet again.
Jackie let off an incoherent cry of protest and kept crying and trying to get away. This would be so much easier if Amanda had a horn to hold Jackie still, or if she had more practice at this because she had wings of her own. The one thing that she had going for her is her cutie mark actually was coming in handy, if in an unexpected way. The same powers she used to tell what was beneath the soil helped her locate which feathers needed to go--at least if she could get her hooves on Jackie's wings long enough to feel them.
"Are you sure you don't want help with that?" Devon asked from the other side of the tent where she sat with her family.
Amanda took yet another wing slap to the face and shook it off. "I appreciate the offer, but I have to learn how to get this done by myself. Until Jackie gets old enough to do this for herself, or at least gets to the point she allows me do this without a fight, I'm going to have to be able to take care of her struggling on my own."
Jackie let off another wail and another flurry of wing beats into Amanda's face. They didn't hit that hard, Jackie was far too young to hit hard with her wings. They were an annoyance though, and we're making it impossible to get the task done.
Amanda had enough. She did the only thing she could think to do; she lifted herself up and then put her body down on the thrashing filly to pin her body, and used both her forehooves to pin each of Jackie's wings. She was careful not to bring her full weight down in her daughter, and she found herself in a very uncomfortable position between how her legs were spread and her trying to support her body weight like this without falling down.
Jackie continued to squirm, but made no headway on getting free. Amanda gave her daughter a smile in victory. "Now, let's get this done quick so it's all over with and you can get to giving me sullen looks until you remember that you need me for food."
She stuck her muzzle into her daughter's feathers and located the first feather that needed to go. With a quick yank it came out with no problem. Just to be sure she looked over the base of the feather for any signs of bleeding. Seeing no blood she spit the feather out and grinned in satisfaction.
"That's one, a dozen more to go...on that wing," she said before she moved in for the next feather.
There was a lot involved in preening, she had to remove damaged feathers or feathers that were only partially joined to the wing. She had to shift feathers around, she had to search for any bugs that had managed to make a home in her daughter's wings, and she had to remove sheathes from new growing feathers. All and all, it was a completely unpleasant experience to be doing. Pegasi apparently found no distaste for all this and enjoyed doing it to some extent. Jackie certainly didn't enjoy her doing it, and she shared the sentiment. It still had to be done from time to time. If she had her way Jackie would learn to preen herself soon after she started talking in full sentences.
Jackie relented in her struggling about halfway through the first wing. Amanda decided to take a chance and stood up in a more natural position while still pinning down Jackie's wings. The little filly continued to not struggle. Amanda bent down and searched out the next broken feather and pulled it free from the wing and was rewarded with a contented little coo from Jackie. Amanda raised an eyebrow at that. Maybe, pegasi really did enjoy being preened. Jackie just had to settle down and realize that she wasn't going to get hurt.
"If I release your wings and try to do this without pinning them down are you going to fight me?" She asked the filly. She didn't really expect an answer; Jackie hadn't said her first word yet, though she showed occasional signs that she could understand certain words.
Jackie, as expected, didn't answer. Amanda took the risk and released Jackie's wings. The little filly looked at her in confusion and stood up to her hooves. She immediately rubbed against Amanda and started extending her wings out.
"Oh, now you want me to finish preening you?" Amanda said with amusement. She then put a hoof against one Jackie's wings to locate the next feather and quickly reached over and plucked that one.
"Well, that didn't take you too long to master," Paul observed with a laugh.
Amanda pulled three more feathers out in quick succession before speaking again. "I guess not. She just had to get used to it. I'm still making her do this herself as soon as she's old enough...at least most of the time."
As she got back to work on Jackie's wings Devon started speaking to her. "We needed to talk to you about something. Paul and I have picked out a house, but won't be moving into it for a month. We're going to be heading back to our old apartment while the house is being worked on, just to get our things from back there in order."
Amanda finished one wing and spit a feather out in the floor. She looked at Devin with lowered ears. "Oh...I guess I can't fault you for that. You'll need to move all your stuff and settle up your bills. I know that takes time."
Devon looked at Paul and then back to her. "We were wondering if you'd be interested in coming back with us so you can do the same types of things, get your old affairs settled. All you ponies did just kind of leave just about everything from your old lives behind. We figured you have some things you still need to do."
That was something she needed to stop and think about. She hadn't been as caught up in the vision as some ponies because it really failed to sell her on the earth pony experience. That didn't mean it didn't initially have some impact on her. Had she done something foolish while caught up in that early point?
She turned back to Devon. "It sounds really stupid now, but for a little while after I turned into a pony I was thinking about some perfect world where everypony just provided for one another and we all lived simple, happy lives. I think all of us who became ponies did. You're right, it might be a good idea to come back for a few weeks and take care of a few things."
Devon looked at her with slight confusion. "Why'd you all think that everything was going to be perfect, and why'd you change your mind?"
Amanda took a moment to consider while plucking another broken feather from Jackie. After adding that to the growing like of feathers she answered. "When we all got that vision it showed us this perfect idealistic world. I think we all kind of bought into it."
She pulled out another feather before continuing. "As for how my mind changed; first was the fact we didn't all get the same vision. My vision didn't even mention humans in it, though some who finished transforming after me did have humans in it. It was pretty obvious at that point humans were going to still be around, but nothing in my vision accounted for how they fit into everything. Then we come here and everyone is suddenly talking about get a job, get a paycheck again. At that point it became increasingly clear that idealistic world was just a fantasy, and there was no way that would actually work. It was like a pure communism world where no government, crime, money, or greed existed; a nice fantasy, but didn't account for the reality of how the world works."
"And you all bought this?" Paul asked her in disbelief.
Amanda tried to explain it, because she understood how it sounded. "It was like a religious experience for a lot of ponies. And it seemed so simple; everypony just had to be kind, loyal, generous, honest, and full of joy and it would all work out. It seemed like nothing but good things. Even those of us who weren't as enraptured with the vision couldn't deny everypony had gotten it and wanting something about that world."
Devon ran a hand across Robby's sleeping form. "Robby said that the night ponies spread that vision, and he said it was wrong. Or at least that's what Rosetta was teaching him. He said even he did it, even if he is unsure how. He just says the vision showed him when I asked him. I'd love to know where that vision came from to start, and why the night ponies turned on it after initially spreading it."
Amanda plucked the last remaining broken feathers as she waited for Devon to finish and then replied. "Would be nice if they were more open about everything. How're we supposed to trust them with how closed mouthed they are? They say they tried to brainwash us on a scale never before seen, getting right into our heads, and then they backtrack and say they were bad, but now everything is going to be okay, and we should just trust them now even though they cloud everything in secrecy in an almost cult like way. I want to trust them, I really do, but they make it so hard to trust them."
She forced herself to stop. She was getting worked up about it and Devon might take it the wrong way considering her son was a night pony. Tom wanted to trust them too because of his daughter, and Tom was getting to be just as good a friend as Devon. She liked having another pony that understood her, and she wanted him to be right that Phobia Remedy could be trusted.
Devon sighed and gripped her hand into a fist. "Hopefully they'll open up a little to me and Paul tonight when we go talk with Phobia. As I said before, they have to let parents of a night pony know what their foal is being taught. I'm not even getting into agreeing with what's taught, I'm just talking about finding out what he's learning."
Amanda nodded. Even super religious parents that disagreed with evolution and sex education being taught to their children at least knew what was being taught. You didn't just tell them they weren't allowed to know what their children were being taught.
"Our general plan is to head back to Goose Creek tomorrow afternoon," Paul said. "We can hold off if you need more time. We'll get you wherever you lived too, and help with whatever you need too."
"I might," Amanda said slowly. "I haven't done much to really plan where I'm going to live eventually here. I want to talk to Tom and find out what arrangements I really should be making. His estranged wife is the town leader, that probably means he has some clue what I should be doing."
Devon chuckled. "You've been spending a lot of time with Tom since you met him. Do you have a pony crush?"
Amanda blushed. "He's just a friend. There aren't a lot of ponies I'm comfortable opening up to about certain things, and he gets me. He also has problems with being open with other ponies, even more than me. It's just nice for each of us to have another pony to talk to without being afraid of judgement. Plus, he's a married stallion."
"Who is almost certainly going to be divorcing his wife because his wife is very openly in a relationship with Tonya," Devon pointed out. "You don't have to feel like a homewrecker if you're interested in him."
"He's fifteen years older than me," Amanda protested. Despite her protests she suddenly started to wonder if she was interested in him or not. She hadn't really thought of whether he was potential dating material.
"Tonya is ten years younger than you and with a mare in her forties," Paul added in. "You all age very well. Unless a pony is clearly a senior or are a foal I have a hard time telling pony ages at all."
Why'd they have to go and put this idea into her head? Now she was going to be thinking about it, and that was going to make things awkward being around Tom. She just wanted at least one pony that she was comfortable around and she had that with Tom, but this was going to mess with that.
Devon raised an eyebrow at her. "I was just trying to pick with you. I didn't mean for you to take it seriously. I'm a little suprised you're reacting so strongly to the suggestion. Is there something to it?"
Amanda shook her head. "We're just friends."
And I'm not going to mess things up with my one good pony friend by raising my tail at him.