"Still no sign of her?" Devon asked as Paul walked back into the tent.
Paul shook his head. "My vision isn't the best, but it doesn't look like any of those pegasi flying around are her. The night ponies are starting to join them. She said she'd already be here by now."
Maybe his sister had just bailed on them. It wouldn't be the first time Tonya had chickened out and hid herself away. With the night ponies watching her she was probably trying to keep a low profile. He could get frustrated about it, but he couldn't really get angry with her about it.
"You two should just head on over there without her," Amanda said from where she was sitting entertaining the fillies with a game of catch the tail. She was actually speaking around a stylus gripped in her mouth and was reading texts on her phone. Cell signal in the area had recently improved, probably due to malfunctioning towers being fixed.
"I just don't want to miss her if she does come," Paul said as he glanced again at the tent flap.
"If she comes by I'll let her know you already headed out to the night ponies' house. She can reach there in under a minute by wing," Amanda said and then dipped her head to tap-in a message on her phone.
"Are you still chatting with Tom? Can you let them know we're coming now?" Devon asked as she set the brush down.
Amanda nodded. "Chatting with him, but also chatting with my brother and my mother. I'll let him know."
"You haven't mentioned anything family to this point. Since you're chatting with them are they still human?" Devon asked.
"My brother is, my mom's a unicorn. Neither of them live near here," Amanda said as her eyes remained fixed on the little phone screen for a brief moment more. She then carefully set the stylus down next to the phone. "They knew what was going on with each other for a while, but they just heard from me for the first time since ETS broke out. They knew I had come down with ETS, but that was back when I was still mostly human."
"Want us to send them a picture of you before we go?" Paul asked.
Amanda looked up with excitement. "Yes, please. I sent a picture already, but all I could manage with the phone laying on the ground was a blurry picture of my face. They still haven't seen Jackie."
Paul walked over and picked the cell phone off the ground. He did a few quick brushes with his hands to make sure the camera was clear of any dirt that might be on the lens and pulled up the camera app.
Amanda meanwhile stood up and tried to get her daughter's attention. The two fillies had descended into rough and tumble play again and Devon had to walk over and remove Jessie from the area. Paul heard his daughter let off a whiny of protest and visibly reach out for her playmate as she was taken out of the way.
The earth pony mare pulled Jackie in front of her and sat down. She then did some coaxing with her hooves before Jackie finally sat down in front of her in a similar position. The little filly gazed up in curiosity at the phone in Paul's hand after that.
Paul sat there and did his best to get a good shot of the two. "Say cheese!"
"Cheese!" Amanda said with a smile.
Paul took a few steps to the side and held the phone up for another pic. "Let me get a picture of you're cutie mark too. I know those marks are big deals to all you ponies."
Amanda frowned for some reason. "Yeah...okay. Probably a good idea."
Paul lowered the phone. "If you prefer I not take a picture of it I won't. I just thought..."
Amanda waved a hoof and sighed. "No, you're right. I just have kind of a love-hate relationship with my mark. I love it because it shows I have a special talent, and I enjoy using that talent, but kind of hate it because ponies think I should be focusing on that talent and it's a purely earth pony type talent."
"Oh, I don't really get it, but guess it's a pony thing," Paul said as he scratched the beginnings of a beard on his face.
Amanda shook her head. "It's not a pony thing, it's a me thing. Go ahead and take the picture. The rest of my family should see I'm marked. It will head off awkward rehumanizing discussions about me. My mom, she said she's thinking of rehumanizing--she's got nopony else near her and she feels so alone. They haven't gotten around to asking me what I want to do yet."
Paul really had no idea what he was supposed to say to all that. Instead he just nodded along in agreement because he had no clue what the else to do. "Okay."
The earth pony stood up and presented her flank and put on a smile that said I'm okay, don't worry about me.
Paul took the picture, saved it, and then put the phone back down on the ground in front of Amanda. The mare nodded her thanks and repicked the stylus up with her teeth and got back to her text conversations.
"Come on, time for us to get going. We don't want to keep Ms. Phobia and Ms. Rosetta waiting much longer," Devon said as she motioned for Robby to follow.
Robby gave a little twitch of his wings as he stood up. "Am I spending the night there? I want Ms. Rosetta to teach me more night pony stuff."
Paul was still very undecided on Robby's future education or association with other night ponies. He gave the best answer he could give under the circumstances. "We'll see. You're mom and I are going to have a long talk with Phobia. How that talk goes decides what we're going to do."
"Oh, okay. Ms. Phobia said she was already expecting us and that she was ready to talk to you too," Robby said with excitement.
Paul felt a small chill at those words. He'd learned enough about night ponies to know where Phobia had spoken to Robby. For Robby that might be the most natural thing in the world, but to Paul that was hearing that a pony he had feared was dangerous had open access to his son's mind while he slept. Worse yet, he had no way of stopping it from happening.
"Well, I'm...glad...she says she's ready to talk," Devon said in an uncomfortable tone. Paul knew she was thinking the same kinds of things. How were they supposed to defend their son from ponies that could just go into dreams?
Paul bent down and got his daughter's attention. The little filly hurried over to him with a happy smile on her face.
"We have to leave you here with Amanda for a bit, little girl. Are you going to be a good girl for her?" He asked the filly as if he were talking to an older child. There was no way she understood him, but Devon insisted that they talk to her like she would understand.
To his utter shock her smile dropped straight to unhappy frown at the mention of being left behind. She glanced back at Amanda and then at him, and tears started to form at the edges of her eyes.
Maybe foals really do start understanding language at a very young age. Paul thought to himself. This meant he really did need to talk to her like she understood him.
"Don't cry, little girl. We'll be back soon. Mommy and Daddy love you," Paul said with as soothingly as he could, hoping to avert the incoming tantrum.
Averting a tantrum from a foal her age was just as impossible a task as averting a tantrum from a human child her age though. The crying increased and the filly let off a high pitched wail to let the world know she was unhappy and they'd share in her unhappiness as the world listened to her protests.
The ponies didn't take the high pitched wail well. Robby laid down on the ground and wrapped his wings around his head. Amanda flattened her ears then covered them with her forehooves. Even Jackie tried to bury her head into her mother's fur. Paul and Devon even both winced as their daughter demonstrated her very healthy set of pipes in all their angry glory.
Devon looked over at him and yelled. "I think she's winning this battle. We'll bring her along. I am not subjecting all our neighbors to that. If it's hurting our ears it has to be much worse for them."
"You have no idea!" Amanda yelled just loud enough to be heard through the screaming.
"Make it stop! Make it stop!" Robby yelled from beneath his wings.
Paul took action and picked his screaming daughter up and cuddled her close then picking her in his arms. "Calm down, calm down. You can come with us. We aren't going to leave you. Shhhh...shhhh."
Jessie's wailing abated to just normal crying. The rest of the ponies started uncovering their ears, giving their heads a good shake, and flucking their ears as their hearing recovered. Paul continued to rock his daughter and the crying died down as she seemed to grow content again.
The wailing must have been exhausting, because within a minute Jessie had fallen asleep.
Devon unclipped the keys from where the hung on Paul's belt. "I'll drive this time. Just keep holding her and keep her happy. I hope this doesn't become a new habit with her every time we tell her we're about to leave."
Paul frowned. "Well, she's smart, and she just learned that worked the first time pulling this. Probably not our best parenting moment, but I'm not sure what we should have done instead. Robby, don't get any ideas from your little sister."
"I'd never yell like that, Dad. It hurts too much," Robby said as he kept his ears flat and tail twitched.
"Come on, let's get going," Devon said as she starting walking out the front of the tent.
Paul and Robby followed after. Once outside they found a few nearby ponies glaring at them due to the noise disturbance. Paul ignored them, but wanted to give them some dirty looks back.
They got out to the car, which was parked on the side of the road near where the tents began. They were about to get in when a pegasus stallion flew down near them.
"If you folks are planning on driving into town you might need to walk. Road's blocked at the moment. We're going to have some ponies trying to fix it as soon as possible, but their's no way you're getting a car through that way right now," the pegasus explained.
"Blocked how?" Paul asked as he looked off in the distance and saw a lot of pegasi and night ponies clustering in the air some distance down.
The pegasus seemed uncertain how to explain as he glanced in the same direction. "You'll have to see it to believe it. Somepony had a big magic surge down that way and it really did a number on everything immediately around them. Nopony got hurt, but there's a lot of damage down that way; a collapsed building and good chunk of road destroyed. Everypony is still trying to figure it out and clean up. If you're going that way you'll definitely see it."
Devon let off a groan as she looked off in the distance. "Thanks for letting us know. I guess we're walking."
And so they walked. After about twenty minutes of walking they reached where the magic surge had happened and gaped at it. Where before this had all been flat ground it now had what appeared to be a small steep raceface running a few hundred feet across and perhaps fifteen to twenty feet high at it's highest point. It ended at the road, but half the road was gone and the rest was covered with debris. Ponies were working hard to clear the debris out if the way and many others could be seen hotly debating what to do about the rest.
"A single pony did this?" Devon said as she looked wide-eyed at the change in topography.
Paul found his eyes being drawn to the broken remains of the building on the side of the road. He knew what that building had been from his exploring town before, that had been the town clinic and impromptu hospital. They said no one was hurt, which meant they must have had time to evacuate it, but if things had gone just a little differently people--ponies included in that term--could have died. As he looked at it he found himself being more supportive of what Rosetta and Phobia had been saying before. Pony magic could be dangerous, and strict rules and oversight needed to be in place so people didn't get hurt.
They walked around what was going on as best they could, though they still had to step over some debris as they went. The ponies were apparently already hard at work trying to make a temporary dirt road that wrapped around the upraised earth and reconnect the two halves of the road.
They walked on for another twenty-five minutes and finally reached the night ponies' house. They knocked on the door and after a moment a haggard looking Tom opened the door and gestured them in.
"Phobia is just waking up," Tom said as they came in. "Scared me half to death today. Both of them upstairs, my wife, and more we're all out at that clinic today when it came crashing down. They got out safely, but...I could have lost them all."
"What happened?" Paul asked.
Tom flicked his tail and laid his ears back. "They won't tell me! They said there'll be a public statement about it soon, but they weren't going to talk about it till that was ready. Why does my entire family have to be so secretive?"
"You look exhausted," Devon said with sympathy.
Tom sat down and glanced back at his hindquarters for a second before looking back at them. "Ever since Rosetta returned with Phobia on her back I've been practicing my shield spell. Damn thing is exhausting to try to do. I never wanted to be able to do it, but it's what I've got available to defend my family with. I've almost lost her twice in just a week. I need to stop being stubborn and make sure that if needs be I can protect them with what I can do."
The sound of hoofsteps coming down the stairs made them all turn in that direction. Rosetta and Phobia looked tired as they came into view and walked into the living room.
Tom sighed. "I guess I'll make myself scarce if you're going to be wanting to have more secrets."
Phobia shook her head. "No, please stay. I've discussed some things with Rosetta and with the others, and decided if you can be sworn to secrecy you have a right to know everything about me...or at least enough about me that you have some idea what's going on. You live with us and would be caught up in anything bad if our secrets got out." She looked at Paul and Devon. "The same goes with your son's education as a night pony. You can't be expected to know what's right for him if you don't know what's expected of him. There's a reasonable explanation to let the night pony only rules be lifted for you."
"And if we don't promise to keep this a secret?" Paul asked.
Phobia shook her head. "Then you simply won't be allowed to know. This is done to protect night ponies. We don't intend on keeping these things secret forever, but the world is still coping with the implications of what has happened in the last month and a half. Humans are scared, and they don't need another thing for them to be scared of right now or it will be bad for everyone, night ponies in particular."
"We have to let you know there will be a small compulsion to keep the secrets safe if you agree. It's mind magic used to do that, and mind magic needs to have informed consent to be used... it's one of our rules," Rosetta cut in.
"Please do it," Robby pleaded. "I want to be able to talk to you about my night pony stuff."
Phobia looked at them. She seemed different than before, a cold authoritarian now. "His education will continue whether you choose to accept this or not, nothing can stop that. It's easier for him and you if you make the promise to secrecy. I can't promise you peace of mind about everything involved, but I can promise you'll at least know."
Paul looked over at his wife. He didn't like this cloak and dagger stuff, especially when it was being applied to his son's upbringing.
"I want to know, Paul. This is our son we're talking about. Whatever it takes to find out I'll do. If you don't swear, I will," Devon said with firm conviction as she gripped his hand tightly.
Tom stood up. "If that's what it takes to finally learn the things you've been keeping from me I'll swear to it."
Paul took a deep breath and nodded back to the night pony couple. As he did he heard Robby let off a happy squeak.
"Very well, so you will all keep what you're going to hear today secret from non-night ponies, swear it," Phobia said in a slow emotionless tone.
"I swear not to reveal anything I hear today to anyone but a night pony," Paul said as he looked the mare in the eyes.
Phobia nodded and turned to Devon and Tom who both swore in turn.
Phobia seemed to relax a little after that and actually smiled. "Now that's done we can finally talk. I'm going to tell you all about who the six Dreamwardens are, the rules we enforce, why we enforce them, and the consequences we enact upon those who don't obey the rules. Let me start by reintroducing myself. I'm Phobia Remedy, the Warden of Fear. There's a lot to discuss so make yourselves comfortable."