Devon stepped out of the car with Jessie cradled in her arms. As Paul was getting out of the car she looked around the rooftops and noticed a large amount of night ponies about; there had to be at least forty or fifty of them scattered across the rooftops in the immediate area. Some kept a close eye on her and Paul, but most seemed to be just socializing.
"Guessing this is just the central hangout for night ponies. Think half the night ponies in town are here," Paul said as he followed her gaze.
"Well, ponies are highly social creatures. It figures the night ponies would pick a place to gather and socialize. This is where all the shops are and they like to keep guard over things so right here makes sense," Devon said as she reasoned out the presence of so many night ponies in one place. "Tattered Wing's office is here too, so this keeps them close to her if she needs to have them go deal with any crimes that are called in."
Paul glanced around. "Still kind of creepy having this many night ponies watching us."
Devon didn't respond, but she definitely agreed. The night ponies had a reputation for aggressive behavior, and the fact they all answered to the Dreamwardens reminded her how uncomfortable she felt about the Dreamwardens still.
The night ponies suddenly grew silent and
as a group turned to look down the street. Devon and Paul turned to look as well, curious what had caught their attention. For about half a minute they saw nothing. Then large vehicles came into view, hauling construction equipment. A full convoy of construction equipment was being hauled into town.
They watched as it passed by, going deeper into town. It was a stready stream of vehicles passing them for over five minutes, while they all silently watched. A few of the night ponies departed their perches on top of the town's red bricked buildings to follow after the convoy by air, though most stayed where they were at. Towards the end trucks carrying large amounts of sewer pipes, large metal girders, huge rolls of electric cables, eighteen-wheelers containing who knew what, and then a number of vans for carrying workers rounded out the caravan of construction.
"It might be even better we're getting out of town for a few weeks. I have a feeling it's about to get very noisy around here. The ponies aren't going to be too happy with the noise," Paul observed.
Devon nodded, but was happy to see that construction and expansion was about to start in earnest. The ponies had said it was coming, now it was here. That was a lot of construction equipment.
The remaining night ponies on top of the buildings resumed their socializing and Devon and Paul turned and started walking up the stairs of town hall.
After going through the large double doored entrance of town hall they found several more night ponies in the front lobby of town hall. Most looked liked they had just been socializing as well, though one was watching the information desk. All the conversation ceased as the two humans walked in though.
Okay, my son is night pony, night ponies aren't creepy. They're just on alert, that's all. Devon reassured herself as she found four sets of night pony eyes on her and Paul.
"Devon? Paul? What are you doing here?" Asked a familiar voice she definitely wasn't expecting to hear today.
She turned to a pitch black night pony mare with the purple and red mane. The mare had a mark, a martini glass.
"Mom? Is that...you?" Devon asked increadulously as she looked at the mare.
"Ms. Townsend?" Paul asked wide eyed as he looked at the mare.
"Yeah, it's me," the mare said in a bemused voice as she spread her wings out slightly. "I've been meaning to find out what happened to you, but things have been really busy." She raised an eyebrow at Paul. "Never could get you to call me Mom. No more of that Ms. Townsend business though. If you aren't going to call me mom then call me Nocte, Nocte Bellatrix is my new pony name."
Devon tried to think back to her Latin classes from school. "Night Warrior?"
Nocte beamed. "Very good, but keep it in Latin--it sounds better. I'm glad you haven't forgotten your Latin. I spent way too many hours trying to help you pass those classes for you to forget."
Devon couldn't believe it. Here was her mom, and her mom was a night pony. "Have you been okay? Phobia had said she'd try to track you down if you were a pony, or at least ask Rosetta do it for us. I wasn't expecting to see you so soon."
Nocte went a little wide eyed. "You've been talking to Phobia Remedy? I don't know her personally, but she has a... reputation with night ponies."
Devon nodded. "I'm well aware. Robby is a night pony and Phobia sat down with us and explained everything. We know all about her and what she does...even though we aren't supposed to talk about it."
Nocte turned and glanced back down the hall behind her then back at Devon. "Yeah, best not to talk about that here. Never know who is listening. As for me I've been doing great. Joined in with the Enclave the day I was done transforming. I kicked around some misbehaving humans in Charleston for a while and then they moved us all here. Word is the Enclave is opening up a few officer slots in the future and I'm aiming for one of those."
"That doesn't seem very much like you," Devon said uncertainly.
Nocte waved a hoof dismissively. "Becoming a night pony opened up a whole new world to me. I always felt so helpless and afraid. Now I'm the one creeps are afraid of, and I love the fact I can finally make a difference."
Devon shook her head in mild disbelief. It was hard to equate this rather fearsome night pony to the woman that had raised her. Nocte sounded like her mom, but the personality was greatly changed. Robby had gotten much more protective and tried to show a fierce nature since becoming a night pony. Her mom showed that far more, and seemed to have fully embraced every aspect of it.
Her mom's eyes fell on Jessie and widened. The pony beat her wings and brought herself into a small hover while holding her hooves up to her mouth. "Is that little Jessica? She transformed too? Is she healthy? Where's Robert?"
Devon cradled Jessie into one arm so her mom could get a better look. "Yeah, this is Jessie, and she's definitely healthy. She's all done with surges, walking on her own, and even seems to be getting a grasp on what's being said to her. Robby also got ETS, and he's a night pony like you. That's how we got to talking to Phobia. Robby can dreamwalk already. Phobia and Rosetta are foalsitting him right now."
Nocte brought her hover close to Devon. "Can I hold her? My only regret about this last month is I didn't know what was going on with all of you. I really should have taken the time to find you."
Devon carefully put Jessie into her mom's forlegs and Nocte cradled Jessie while smilingly happily.
"She's such a pretty little foal," Nocte said lovingly. "It's a shame you two didn't transform as well. It must be rough taking care of foals while human."
Devon felt uncomfortable with that statement. "Do you think we were better off transforming?"
Nocte bit her lip. "Yes, I do, but I don't love you any less because you didn't. I think you would've been happier as a pony, and I want the best for you. It's not your fault that the Equestrians stopped ETS. We just have to make due with how things turned out, and find ways for humans and ponies to work together. I'm sure you'll do a good job raising your foals, no matter if you're a human still."
Her mom was one of those types of ponies then. At least her mom wasn't going to reject her because she was still human.
"Speaking of Equestrians, Paul and I are here looking for one," Devon said calmly. "We were told that there was a pony named Starlight Glimmer that was here to help us."
Nocte's eyes narrowed and Devon saw her mom briefly grit her teeth. "What do you need to do with that one? Equestrians in general I don't trust, but that one I have a particular dislike for."
Devon's eyes widened slightly. "Why? What's so bad about her?"
"She was one of the ones at the forefront of stopping ETS. She's a villain, and I'm disgusted she's even here now. I'm shocked Sunset Blessing let that pony into town," Nocte all but hissed.
Devon doubted Sunset Blessing had much choice in the matter since Luna brought her here. When Luna had been telling her about Starlight Glimmer the red furred unicorn had looked ready to blow a fuse.
"Paul and I had some mind magic used on us from his sister, Tonya. Starlight Glimmer is supposed to help see if anything can be done to dispell it," Devon explained. Sunset and Devon's mom seemed to share a lot of opinions and would likely get along great.
"Tonya is Paul's sister!?" Nocte said in shock as she looked at Paul. Paul gave her a nod. "I had heard her last name, but there are a lot of ponies and humans with that last name around these parts. I didn't even know you had a sister."
"It's complicated," Paul said flatly.
"I guess so," Nocte replied. She then chewed on her lip again and glanced back down the hallway once more before turning back to them with a defeated look. "If that's the case I guess you should see what that damned Equestrian can do. I can forgive your sister for wanting to nail Swift Strike to a wall for what he did, but the way she did it with mind magic disgusts me. Some lines shouldn't be crossed."
"So where do we find her?" Devon asked.
Nocte gestured with her muzzle down the hallway she hadn't been glancing down on and off. "She's in with Tattered Wing right now. Feel free to just go walk in on them; I don't think they're really talking. The two of them are both just glued to their respective computers."
"Do you mind sitting right here with Jessie?" Devon asked. There really wasn't much question to it, but it was general politeness.
"Jessie will be safe here with her granny. Do what you need to do and I'll be right here when you come out," Nocte said, then frowned. "If that Equestrian hurts you I'll charge in there and break her horn off."
Yep, she's definitely picked up that night pony aggressive protectiveness. Devon thought with a frown. She doubted that Starlight Glimmer was going to do anything to incite her mom to go charging in anyway. Her mom's new instincts were going to take some getting used to. Much as she hated to admit it to herself, it might be best to limit Robby's time with his grandmother or she might become a bad influence.
They walked down the hall to the appropriate door. Devon did one last glance back towards her mom and saw her mom tenderly rocking Jessie on her forelegs, smiling happily. With a deep breath she turned and knocked in the door then turned the handle to let her and Paul in.
Inside Tattered Wing sat in her normal office chair casually clicking away at the computer. She didn't have anything in her mouth to type with so she must just be browsing through links. On the opposite side of the desk a purple unicorn mare with a mane that was a darker purple with aquamarine highlights sat working on a laptop.
Tattered Wing looked up from her clicking and smiled. "Well Ms. Glimmer, it seems you're patients have arrived on their own and you won't have to wait till morning to see them."
The unicorn looked up at Tattered. "I told you, just call me Starlight. Ms. Glimmer is just so formal. Why do you all insist on so much formality here?" The unicorn turned to them and smiled. "I'm glad to see you. In case you didn't catch it, please call me just Starlight. I was told you needed specialized services for dealing with mind magic."
"Yes we do, Starlight," Devon said as she came more fully into the room. Paul followed beside her and didn't look as confident.
The unicorn hopped out of her chair and approached them. "Well, you've got the right pony for the job. I have a lot of experience with mind control. "She blushed and coughed into a hoof. "And having to dispell it. I got the short explaination of the situation, but needed to ask a few questions before I start."
Devon spread her hands. "Ask away."
Starlight looked at each of them, and took on a more businesslike expression and tone. "Have either if you been experiencing any headaches?"
The two of them shook their heads.
"Any strange or erratic behavior you can't explain, or periods of blackouts you can't remember anything from?" Starlight continued.
Both of them shook their heads again.
"Any extreme flare ups of temper that don't seem reasonable?"
Devon looked over at Paul. Paul crossed his arms and shook his head. Devon frowned at him. "Paul, you know that isn't true."
"It was perfectly reasonable for me to defend my sister," Paul said flatly.
"Because she commanded you to," Devon said as she gripped her hand into a fist.
Starlight looked between them and gave a forced toothy grin. "I'll take that as a strong maybe. How about telling me how long it's been since the incident occurred."
"Three days, I think," Devon said as she looked to Paul for verification. He wasn't helpful, as he just shrugged.
"I think that's enough for me to work with," Starlight said with a more legitimate smile. "If the two of you could just come sit down in front of me I can get to work finding what was done and finding out what I'm capable of undoing."
Devon and Paul did as instructed, though Paul looked reluctant about the entire thing.
"This shouldn't hurt at all, though you might feel some tingling and see a few spots in your vision," Starlight explained. "I'm not actually going to do anything to try to unravel anything yet. I'm just finding out what I'm dealing with for right now."
They nodded, not really knowing what kinds of questions to ask. Starlight lit her horn up after they accepted and Devon felt a slight buzzing sensation in her head.
"Do you mind if I talk while I work?" Starlight asked. "I wanted to find out some things about your town. Luna was very cryptic when she said she had business here tonight."
"Um, yeah, ask away," Devon replied as the buzzing got more intense.
"Are all the ponies and humans getting along alright?" Starlight asked. "I noticed a few of the ponies seemed fairly hostile to me. While I'm intrigued that I'm finding ponies here that aren't as passive as the ones that came from Lazy Pines I was concerned about it."
"I think it's the Shimmerists that were hostile to you. They don't seem to like Equestrians much," Devon replied. "They don't seem very hostile to humans from what I've seen though. Everyone seems to get along fine."
Starlight narrowed her eyes. "That's interesting...speaking about the spells you two have on you, not what you just said....though that's interesting too. You said this was done about three days ago?"
"Yes," Devon said, head still buzzing.
Starlight flicked an ear. "You each have a different mind magic spell that was set clearly by a different pony sometime more recent than that. If I had to guess it was within just the last few hours."
Phobia had said that there would be a compulsion. "We know what that is, we don't want to have that one removed."
Starlight raised an eyebrow. "Oookay, I still need to check it over to see how it is interacting with these early compulsions that are here. Overlaid mind magic can do crazy things. I once overlaid a few different mind magic spells on some friends of mine and...well it didn't go so well. Twilight had to sit there untangling it for a while even though they were rather fresh spells and it left my friends kind of hung over even after that."
"You mind controled your friends?" Devon asked in shock.
Starlight grimaced. "Not my proudest moment. I was still kind of new to being Twilight's student at the time, and had some not so well thought out logic going on. Call it extreme social ignorance. Don't worry, I'm a much better pony now and can laugh at how incredibly ignorant I was back then."
How ignorant did you have to be to not know mind controlling your friends was a bad thing?
Starlight's horn stopped glowing, and she continued. "That was quick and easy to look over. I can say with certainty that I can remove the primary compulsions."
"Primary?" Paul asked.
Starlight coughed into her hoof. "Okay, I should explain that a little better. There is magic in you that forces you to think or do things a certain way. It won't let you consider other alternatives than what it says to do. I can remove that, no problem. The thing is, you've had this in you for a few days and your thoughts have fallen in line with it. I can't just make your thoughts go back to what they were before, not without wiping your memory of the last few days in the process."
"So you can't fix it then," Devon said with frustration. "I definitely don't want to have my memory of the last few days wiped."
"I'd have problems with wiping your memory anyway if you want to keep that compulsion that was set more recently. That's tied into your recent memories so I can't wipe them and leave it in place," Starlight explained. "What I can do is remove what is forcing you to think a certain way. That leaves you open to outside ideas again and the possibility of not thinking that way eventually. It's a strong set of compulsions that were laid down, but they are pretty simple ones that are poorly applied. An amateur clearly did this--an amateur with a lot of power, but still just an amateur. That other one was much more finely done and I'm not sure if I could break it if I tried. Whatever pony did that spell knew exactly what they were doing. I'd love to find out how any pony on Earth got that skilled with mind magic in so short a time."
Probably a Dreamwarden thing. Devon thought to herself, though didn't say that out loud.
"I suppose that's better than nothing," Devon said resignedly. She looked over at her husband. "Is that alright with you?"
"I can live with it," Paul said, looking unhappy.
Starlight nodded and flashed her horn brightly. Spots appeared in front of Devon's vision and she rubbed her eyes.
"Sorry," Starlight said in an embarrassed tone. "I tend to just do things without thinking to warn others sometimes. I'm trying to work on that. But those compulsions are gone now."
Devon looked at the unicorn in confusion. "That's it? I was expecting something more...I don't know...more. Luna couldn't do that?"
"Luna's really good at a lot of mind magic, but she's also extremely cautious about it when it's had time to sit," Starlight explained. Then scrunched up her muzzle. "She also wanted to distance herself for some reason. She wouldn't explain why. She told me that she was going to take me and Twilight to observe some sort of trial...in a dream...or something in a day or two and I'd understand then."
Phobia had told her that another pony was being tried for using mind magic the day after tomorrow, that must be what Starlight and Twilight were going to see. Devon kind of wanted to see that too, just so she knew what Tonya was going into. She'd been told that because she had no magic of her own it wasn't possible.
Every night pony that would be asleep at that time and could dreamwalk was going to be there as an audience though. She'd already planned on keeping Robby awake extremely late that day so he wouldn't see that. Maybe she could ask her mom to tell her what happened. Her mom seemed to be in on all the night pony secrets so she'd probably be there.
Devon looked at her husband. He was still being quiet and unhappy about everything. Time would tell how he ended up reacting to all this now that the compulsions were gone.
The two of them stood to their feet and Devon smiled down at the unicorn. "Well, thank you for your help. We really do appreciate it, and we're glad we didn't hold you here too long."
Starlight yawned. "No problem. I'll probably just take a nap and then start working on getting back to the base camp. It will take me a lot more teleport jumps than it took Luna, and me looking over Google maps some more to get locations for the teleports, so I need to get some rest."
It was time to head back to their own base camp. Though she had a feeling that they weren't going to be leaving first thing in the morning as planned.