//------------------------------//
// Chapter 57 
// Story: Pandemic: Picking up the Pieces 
// by Halira 
//------------------------------//

Sunset Blessing made her way past the tents towards the woods. Ponies sat outside their tents glaring back towards the woods. They no doubt had been abruptly woken up by the initial clearing. She felt some sympathy for them, but they'd better get used to this fast. There was a lot of work to do and it was being done for them. In just a few days this particular stretch of woods would all be residential housing, fit for both ponies and humans. It would be tightly packed, but they only had so much space to work with and had more residents on the way as well as businesses and industry to build.

She hadn't slept well at all. Not having Tonya there in bed with her, and knowing that Tonya was being held in town hall had made the night restless for her. That might be rectified tonight though. Tonya would be free again, but she might be mad enough about it to sleep in another room. 

Tonya wasn't aware yet that she wasn't going to be facing any legal repercussions for what she had done. Tonya also probably wasn't going to be very happy about the fact she was going to walk free. These things had been set in motion well before Tonya's sudden need to confess her sins though. Sunset might have to endure Tonya's anger later today, but at least she wouldn't have to worry about Tonya being charged with anything by normal authorities. It was a fair price to pay.

She reached where the beginning of the woods had been. They had already made a large clearing. Sitting at the front was a human man and earth pony stallion who were looking over plans on a fold out table that had been set out, with the earth pony stallion using a fold out chair as a step stool. 

"Good morning gentlemen, I'm Sunset Blessing," she announced herself as she came up to them. "I have already seen the plans back at town hall, but wished to see how things were going as you start. Any early difficulties or problems?"

"Good morning to you as well, Ms. Blessing," the human answered. "Everything has gone well so far. We had one group that arrived a little too late last night to be of much use today, but we have plenty of men to begin. Would you like me to go over the plans? I know the blueprints for this development are not typical."

"I have the gist of it," Sunset said as she glanced over at the table. "Grid streets with buildings packed closely together. Residential buildings are all four stories with each story extending over the street slightly more and the roofs will create essentially a new street level covered with dirt and grass with secondary entrances on the roofs."

"Exactly," the foreman answered. "Craziest designed places I've ever had to work on. On the plus side every one of these residential buildings is pretty much copy and paste. The bottom street won't be very appealing, but from the air it will look beautiful."

Pony designers thinking outside the box and drawing on various inspirations had worked hard on these designs. The design for each building was a product of practicality. There simply wasn't enough space to provide comfortable housing for the amount of residents that she was expecting to have. 

Each building was designed to leave as limited a footprint as possible. The bottom story would be brick and would be where the bathroom would be, as well as where they received deliveries--no tubs, just showers. The next story up would overhang over the street slightly and have the kitchen area, the next story up would overhang farther over the street and would have the bedrooms, the next story up would have the living or family room and would overhang the street even farther. The roof would be flat and covered with soil which would be deep enough for grass and a small flower garden. Each roof you would be able to walk from one to the next by a connecting path and bridges to cross the street would be placed every ten houses as well as rampways to go back down to street level. An entrance to the house would also be placed on the roof, and be the designed as the preferred entrance.

It was very unorthodox in design but it fit the needs she had while still providing a comfortable living space for the residents, despite their tight quarters. It was well suited for both ponies and humans. The streets would still be usably for human cars and the upper roof level made it so ponies and humans alike could travel freely on hoof or foot without concern about cars in a nice grassy area like God intended. 

The commercial areas would incorporate some of these designs as well to a lesser extent. And would be placed close enough to the residential districts that ponies could easily walk to them while humans could still drive if they choose to do so--though she was going to make a hard push for the use of strictly electric cars. The industrial district would follow more traditional city planning, and older buildings and neighborhoods would be preserved as they were.

There were some things done that could hasten construction and reduce the fire hazards. Pony crap was surprisingly flame resistant, and with a few simple added ingredients became an excellent building material that was a better insulator than most products available. The walls of most these buildings would essentially be made of the stuff plastered over a stick lattice where it would harden. A whitewash would be applied over it giving it a nice attractive look, take away the smell, and sealing it against the elements. It was also extremely easy to alter and  repair. This actually an old medieval building technique that had been brought out of retirement with them now having superior crap.

All of this was important, but that wasn't the primary reason she was here so early.

She turned her eyes to the clearing that was going on. "How deep into the woods should your clearing be by noon today? I'd  need to give some progress reports to the government and will be giving my first around then."

"With the amount of workers we have here we can clearcut about a square mile a day. If you would let us burn it would go faster," the foreman answered.

She was hoping for more with the amount of workers and equipment on site, but it was good enough to past the murder site. 

"No, I don't want that much smoke in the air. My pegasi teams would struggle with trying to deal with that much burning. In any case, it's a waste of perfectly good lumber that we can make use of," Sunset said firmly. 

"Your right about it being a waste, and I'll take your word about the smoke being difficult to control. I'm just suggesting it because it would speed things along. Even with the amount of workers we're hoping to hire on locally we're going to be struggling to keep up with the deadlines you've set," the foreman explained.

The edge of her mouth twitched toward just slightly. "When you get more ponies working for you then you'll find that the job will go much faster than you originally anticipated. I've already arranged for a large amount of ponies from Augusta to join the construction workforce next week. You'll have twice the number of workers that made the pyramids before this is done. I set tight deadlines, but they're deadlines you can meet. Before the year's out I'll have this city completed and fully operational."

"It may be overly ambitious to think that possible," the foreman replied. "Even with all those workers the pyramids still took a generation to build."

"They didn't have heavy construction equipment and ponies with magic," Sunset said crossly. "Construction shall go from dawn to dusk every day until it's done. You'll get this done in the time I ask or before. You've been given the people, equipment, supplies, and funding to do so. Make it happen; I expect to see those first houses completed in a week's time so I can start moving these ponies from their tents."

"Even if we get the houses done by that point there is no way the power grid will be ready yet," the foreman answered with a gesture of his hand towards the tree line.

Lord, save me from humans! Was I ever this ignorant? Sunset thought to herself. "They have no power now, they can go a while longer without. I promised them shelter and I will deliver--which means you will deliver."

The foreman shook his head, clearly not agreeing. "Whatever you say, Ms. Blessing. I'll do everything I can to try to make it happen."

"Good," Sunset said. She then turned around and walked away, flicking her tail at him as she went.

She walked by the tents again. Most ponies were up now. Some were still glaring towards where the clearing was going on, but most seemed ready to just go on about their day. Many ponies waved at her as she walked by and she waved back at them as her bad mood from dealing with the foreman melted away. Just being out among ponies was nice. She spent so much time cooped up in an office that left her little time to just enjoy being around ponies.

As she got past the tents she came to an abrupt halt. Sitting out on the edge of the road was a black car and Director Baker standing beside it. He gestured for her to come over to him. Why was he here looking for her? She didn't have any meeting scheduled with him today, and even if she did that would happen back at the town hall.

She trotted over to him and the man smiled at her as she got close. "Sunset, you're up early today. I thought we could take a drive and have a little talk away from the office."

She glanced at the windows of the car. There was no one with Baker. He was trying to have a conversation off the record then, with no one listening in. 

"Of course, Director Baker," Sunset said with a smile that only reached her lips.

"Please, call me Jonathan. We're familiar with one another to do away with titles in private," Baker said what looked like a warm smile.

"Whatever you say, Jonathan. Did you have a destination in mind?" Sunset replied as she walked around to the front passenger door.

"No destination, just a little drive around for a few minutes and then back to town hall," Baker said as he got back into the car. 

She got into the car and shut the door behind her. There was no point in trying to buckle up since seat belts weren't designed with ponies in mind. Baker started up the engine and pulled onto the road.

Baker didn't continue with pleasantries. "I'm not going to beat around the bush with you, Sunset. I'm aware of what happened to Swift Strike, the role you likely played in it, and aware that all evidence of what happened is being destroyed as we speak. Tattered Wing told me all about it right after finding the body the morning after. I figured you would be here making sure that evidence was indeed being destroyed."

Sunset's eyes opened wide in shock as she jerked her head around to look at him. Dealing with the Broken One with this was one thing, but dealing with the federal government was another matter entirely. She decided her best course of action at the moment was to wait for him to continue rather than potentially digging herself a hole by speaking. Silence was damning, but Baker already seemed sure of what happened.

Baker continued. "You don't need to worry about any potential repercussions. I personally pressured Tattered Wing into sweeping this under the rug. Swift Strike was the type of pony that we'd prefer the news media not find out about, and the fact that ponies murdered him is something we'd just as much want to keep under wraps."

"I agree," Sunset said in an even tone.

Baker kept his eyes on the road and his tone businesslike. "My current concern is whether there is going to be another dead body appearing. Shadow Dancer seems very convinced that your daughter is going to kill him no matter how much security is put around him."

This was treading into dangerous territory for Phobia. It was one thing if Sunset herself had to face the government coming down on her, it was an entirely different matter if they came down on her loved ones--especially Phobia.

"I'm not sure what all is involved in that," Sunset stated with honesty. 

"But you do know something."

Despite everything she started to sweat. "I'm not in a position I can really disclose what I know. I'm under a magical compulsion to keep my mouth shut about those matters. There's no compulsion stopping me from telling you there's a compulsion though."

Baker took that information at face value without so much as a blink. "Are you able to tell me if you think I'm going to have another dead pony to worry about?"

"I really don't know," Sunset said. "These are night pony matters. I'm not a night pony. You are better off asking night ponies."

"We've tried," Baker said with a sigh. "After Shadow Dancer's claims that he was going to be punished word was sent back to Washington about there possibly being some secret night pony justice system. Night ponies were promptly questioned here and elsewhere. They've either claimed complete ignorance or stayed firm to a line of there are controls in place and not giving us anything else."

"I'm sorry to say I can't provide anything but more of the same," Sunset said firmly.

"Actually, you already have," Baker said, tone unchanged. "You said your under a compulsion to keep it secret. That might explain the stonewalling we have seen in the night ponies. We hadn't heard anything about a compulsion from them."

"Since I'm a unicorn I might be a special case," she pointed out. "I would not take my compulsion as the standard. I don't know if the night ponies use such a thing among themselves."

Baker gave a short nod in agreement then continued. "You also are the mother of Phobia Remedy. Night ponies have been asked about her. We've asked about her and then asked about random other night ponies as well in the same conversation. Almost universally among those saying there are controls in place the name Phobia Remedy invokes an emotional reaction."

"I'm not able to discuss that," Sunset said firmly. "Even if I could I wouldn't do so. I'm not going to betray the trust of my daughter. She's a good pony, she isn't going to do anything that will disrupt the government."

"Any person or organization that takes the law into its own hands...or hooves...is a disruption in itself," Baker asserted.

Sunset sighed. "Look, we're both concerned about the wrongs that can be done with magic and making sure order can be maintained. What's going on keeps order with the night ponies. Consider it them policing themselves. We're just not equipped at this time to combat ponies like Shadow Dancer, but the night ponies are. There are controls in place. I recommend they not be questioned, only accepted."

"The government was not equipped to deal with magic users in general but we're adapting by hiring on crystal ponies to aid us in that. If night pony magic requires night ponies to combat it we could easily do the same with night ponies instead of whatever this is," Baker replied. 

"Take that up with my daughter if you wish. I can't be of use to you in this," Sunset said with a shake of her head. Then turned to him and glared. "Mind you, if you try to move against my daughter in any way you'd better have an army of night ponies willing to back the government over her. I have a feeling you won't find that or that it will help. Maybe she'll work with the government if you ask nicely."

Baker pulled the car to a stop and looked at her. "I intend to question her and see where that goes. There is another matter I need to discuss as well. Princess Luna of Equestrians made an unauthorized visit to this town last night. She was seen in your company going to Phobia Remedy's residence. You failed to notify anyone in the government about her arrival or what she was doing in your company. Having a pony that is given as much political power as you are meeting with a foreign power in secret is not something the government can shrug off."

Sunset smiled. "Actually, I have no compulsion about Luna, I say everything about Luna."

"Then start talking."

"Gladly," Sunset said still grinning. She could twist this around great without technically lying. "That alicorn showed up and basically demanded that I escort her to my daughter. From what I gathered Luna had been asserting authority over our world's night ponies in secret. What happened yesterday with my daughter was a sign that our night ponies had rejected her foreign control. She went to my daughter because she was unhappy my daughter and the night ponies had turned against her authority."

She was bending the truth a lot, but it was meant to reaffirm one thing; that Equestria had tried to assert authority on Earth and failed. Phobia might end up telling what actually was happening and Sunset could just claim ignorance in the matter if so. She wasn't a night pony after all, she was just a casual observer. Of course she might have misinterpreted some things when she wasn't partial to night pony secrets. Anything that cast suspicion on the Equestrians and reaffirmed Phobia as somepony that was playing for Earth's team rather than some extradimensional world's was worthwhile. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and she wanted to be clear the enemy was Equestria.

Baker gave her a suspicious look. "I'm still going to need to speak with your daughter. The fact that she and you were meeting with a foreign dignitary is still suspect."

"Jonathan, let's be honest with one another. I have no interest in working with Equestrians and you know why," Sunset said sweetly. "My loyalty is to Earth and Earth's interests, even if not all of us see eye to eye. I want a pony world, but one governed by our world. The Equestrians are not to be trusted. Didn't Sunset Shimmer's vision try to assert pony loyalty to Celestia by using her image? Celestia claims Sunset Shimmer was acting against her wishes, but evidence shows Sunset Shimmer had a clear view of who she thought should rule Earth. Things only went the way they did because Twilight Sparkle acted on her own against Celestia's wishes and Celestia was forced into a position of deniability."

"That's just conjecture," Baker said, "and having the Equestrians gone would definitely suit a pony interested in a new ETS well. As it stands we don't have to worry even if you do figure it out, because the Equestrians will stop it as it starts."

Sunset continued to smile. "I want willing transformations. Popular opinion may one day turn my way, and who's to deny the will of the people? I'm allowed to try to further encourage the world to freely see things as I do. It's part of our blessed democracy that I can, if I'm not hurting anyone or breaking any law. I want a free thinking pony United States that chose to be pony, not a pony principality of Equestria that's been brainwashed to accept Celestia's rule. They would never accept a world of ponies that didn't have obedience through their brainwashing. I'm their enemy as much as humans are their enemy. You might not agree with my views that we're all better off as ponies, but I'm not forcing anyone to accept anything."

Baker scowled at her. "You're a fanatic, Sunset. The government tolerates you, but we trust you less than the Equestrians."

"But I'm a loyal fanatic who is open and honest. The Equestrians are the duplicitous ones that undermine our democracy," Sunset asserted. "We don't have to agree on everything to be on the same team. Our team fights for the sovereignty of our nation. If I'm unsuccessful in convincing humans to be ponies then that's the will of the people which won't be denied. Can you say the same for Celestia who the vision encouraged ponies to bow down to after being transformed against their will?"

Baker frowned. "That's not for me to decide. Though you're trying to distract from the issue I'm still going to investigate your daughter."

"By all means, go speak with her. You'll see she is no Equestrian pawn," Sunset said with confidence.

Hopefully Phobia would have some answer to give them that would satisfy the government. Still, this had a chance to work out in the positive as Luna's appearance further cast doubts on Equestrian benevolence. Every opportunity should always be capitalized on as best she could.