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// Chapter 54 
// Story: Pandemic: Picking up the Pieces 
// by Halira 
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Paul sat in the tent waiting for his wife to return. Amanda and Jackie were sound asleep in their area of the tent. Jessie was cuddled up close to him asleep and he tried not to move too much for fear of waking her.

He was dreading Devon returning. His running away from Phobia when she was going to explain what Tonya did was just another in a long line of moments of cowardice on his part. Looking back at it he felt pretty bad for scaring the mare. Phobia's position might bother him, but that was no excuse for him being a total dick and leaving her cowering where she was. Maybe he could apologize to her when tomorrow on the way back to Goose Creek.

That was if they went to Goose Creek first thing tomorrow. There was still no sign of Tonya anywhere. With all the trouble she was potentially in he didn't want to take off and leave her without support again. She was right, he should have at least given her a bed to sleep on when their parents kicked her out instead of leaving her homeless. She had a right to be angry with him about that. They were family, and family shouldn't leave each other in those kinds of situations. Tonya needed him now, and he wasn't going to leave her hanging again.

He looked up and saw Devon walking into the tent, without Robby. She probably left him with the night ponies so he wouldn't be exposed to the argument that was surely coming.

"Hi," Devon said in a low, tired voice as she walked in. "Figured I would find you here. Had hoped you would come back, but..."

"I should have. I'm sorry," Paul replied quietly. He ran a hand over his sleeping daughter as Devon came towards him and sat down.

"You missed the Equestrian princess showing up," Devon said with an empty laugh. "I'm not even joking. One of the Equestrian princesses just showed up out of the blue to talk to Phobia. It's been a crazy night."

Well, if even a quarter of what Phobia said was true then she was pretty important, important enough foreign royalty probably did want to talk to her. He really didn't care though. 

"How's Robby?" He asked, still keeping his voice down.

Devon pulled herself close so they could talk low and be understood. She ran her own hand over Jessie before answering. "He was little worried about you when you weren't there when he got back. I had to assure him that you weren't going away again. Had to assure myself as well, to tell the truth."

He shook his head. "I'm not going to abandon you and the foals again."

Devon looked at him with an expression he could read and then looked down at the ground. "We need to talk about Tonya. I had Phobia tell me what Tonya did; took a while to do, she was pretty shaken up."

He started feeling that defensive anger for his sister again. "I already said it doesn't matter. We're fine."

Devon sighed. "If it doesn't matter then you shouldn't be getting so worked up about it. Unfortunately, after hearing it I think it does matter. Are you going to let me talk to you about it or are you going to storm off again? Just to let you know, if you storm off again I might not be here to come back to."

Paul jerked his head up to look at her. "I know what I did was wrong, but not that wrong. We've been doing really well the last few days. I thought we were past giving ultimatums."

"Are you going to listen to what your sister actually did to us or not?" Devon asked. She looked at Jessie and started to tear up. "It changes some things...maybe...I don't really know. I do know though that it's important for us to talk about if we're going to have an open and honest relationship."

There was no getting around discussing this it seemed. He really didn't want to know what Tonya did, all it could do would make him upset with her and there was clearly no damage done so why make an issue of it? 

"Fine, what did she do?" He asked in defeat.

Devon didn't answer right away, instead looking briefly at Amanda to make sure the mare really was asleep. When she looked back at him she looked a little watery eyes. 

"Tonya used her mind magic to forcibly fix both of us," she said as she looked into his eyes.

He raised his eyebrows. "Fix us? What do you mean by that? What needed fixing?"

Devon chewed on her lip a moment before answering. "She made me accept you back. She forced you to accept her as your sister rather than your brother. She also forced you to see our foals as foals rather than transformed children--I know that sounds odd, but it's an important distinction."

So Devon hadn't accepted him back on her own. That hurt to know. He didn't know how to feel about the rest because those were how he felt now about things. He tried to think back to how he felt before and couldn't make himself agree with it. If anything trying to do so made him start to feel angry with himself for how he had felt before.

Devon kept looking at him while he thought things over. When the silence persisted too long she spoke up. "How do you feel about what I just told you?"

He shook his head. "It's hard to think those are bad things because that's how I feel now. Sure, that might be just because she whammy-jammied my mind, but I can't see how feeling those things is bad no matter how much I try." He paused then took a deep breath. "How do you feel?"

She looked down at the ground again. "I feel like the last few days I've been living a lie. That all the improvements our family has had with you and me haven't been legitimate. We didn't actually grow and change, we had our minds forcefully changed for us."

"I don't see where what was done was bad though," Paul insisted. "As I said, we're fine. Tonya didn't hurt us. We're better off than we were before."

Devon looked him in the eyes again. "I actually spent some time trying to think of scenarios where this could go badly on my walk back here. What would you say if Robby said he wanted to rehumanize?"

"That he should stay a pony for his own good," Paul answered immediately. "You heard them, he's extremely talented. He shouldn't be throwing that away."

Devon nodded with a sad expression. "And just a few days ago you were saying he should be rehumanized."

Paul nodded. "See, thanks to Tonya I can better see what's good for him."

Devon shook her head. "All you've done is switch which course you are pushing. You aren't thinking about what Robby wants still. No, Robby hasn't turned around and said he wants to rehumanize, but you just showed you can't be counted on to respect his wishes if he chooses the wrong thing in your opinion. You're programed to think of him as your foal and only your foal. What Tonya did sounds good intentioned, but it could lead to problems."

Paul crossed his arms. "Well, if Robby wants to stay a pony it won't be an issue. If that changes then we'll figure something out. There is no reason for us to be mad at Tonya for this. Tonya didn't do this on purpose so of course there are some things that might not be perfect, but it's still better overall."

"You're right, she didn't do this on purpose. I'm not mad at her for this," Devon said slowly. "I'm concerned about how this impacts us though. I want to know my husband is doing things because he legitimately wants to and not because he's a puppet to some commands."

"It isn't a big deal, we're fine."

Devon shook her head in frustration. "And have you noticed how fiercely you defend her? You went from barely being able to tolerate her to all but declaring her sainthood. You got so mad earlier when her actions were called into question. You standing up for her was one of her commands."

"I...it isn't...," He shook his head. "She's my sister. I'm supposed to fight for my family."

Devon crossed her arms and glared at him. "Which is yet another one of her commands. I want to give you a chance." Her eyes went wide and then she put a hand over her face. "Fuck it...which is yet another one of her commands. Do you see how screwed up this is? We don't know if what we're thinking is even coming from us or if it's coming from Tonya making us do it. I want to know I'm dealing with you and not what Tonya made you."

Paul slumped forward where he was sitting. "So what are we supposed to do about it? Whatever Tonya did is set now."

Devon took a deep breath. "An Equestrian who knows about mind magic just arrived in town. They've apparently known what happened for days now and were just trying to find someone who could deal with this. We can see them before we leave tomorrow. They don't want to be here too long anyway, they're apparently very busy."

"That Equestrian princess?"

Devon shook her head. "No, pretty sure she's already gone. She said she wasn't the best pony for the job anyway. She can detect mind magic with ease, and can counteract it if it hasn't had much time to sit, but we've had this for days. She brought someone she felt was better qualified for dealing with this kind of thing. They're in the town hall now."

Paul carefully got to his feet, trying not to disturb his sleeping daughter. "Why wait then? Let's go see this pony now."

Devon looked up at him then stood to her feet. "Alright, they want to be done and out of here fast anyway. Let's go have a talk with this Starlight Glimmer."