Paul snuck a glance into the bedroom as he left the bathroom. Devon was fast asleep on the bed with Jessie curled up against her. His daughter hadn't known what to make of the bed when she'd been put on it, and had stepped around it gingerly. She had only gotten comfortable with the bed when Devon had joined her.
He gently shut the door and went out to the living room where Robby was watching anime at the moment, and Paul was sure it wasn't really age appropriate for his son. Robby seemed to get incredibly bored with the Disney Channel type offerings, and Paul could only take so much of that saccharine programming himself. They both preferred a bit more action.
He sat down next to Robby and noticed that Robby was frowning. "What's up? Is this getting to intense for you?"
"I don't like D," Robby grumbled as he flicked his tail.
D was the vampire Hunter main character in the movie. "Why not? He's an awesome warrior of the night. I thought you'd like that."
"He keeps killing the Barbaroi," Robby explained as he laid his ears back.
"What's wrong about that? They're trying to kill him. They're the monsters," Paul said as he glanced at the television.
Robby shook his head. "They're not monsters. They're trying to just protect that vampire and human girl. They're like night ponies. D is mean, he's just trying to bring that human girl back to her family for money, even though she doesn't want to go to them. He's not protecting anypony. The humans are bad too. None of them care about that human girl, they just want money. They're bad."
Paul frowned. That was actually a lot of insight for a five year old. Of course, Robby was obsessed with protecting. It wasn't that surprising that he would Immediately be drawn to sympathize with creatures that were essentially body guards in the movie and see them as the heros.
"And it doesn't bother you at all that they're scary monsters?" Paul asked.
"They're just different. It helps them better protect," Robby asserted then paused as if something occurred to him and looked up at Paul will hurt eyes. "Do you think I'm a scary monster, Dad?"
"No, why would I think you're a scary monster?" Paul asked in confusion.
Robby sat doing his serious consideration face. It was easy to tell when Robby was trying to think hard about something. He would tilt his head and stare down at his hooves with this unfocused look in his eyes. He did this for a full half a minute before he looked back up.
"Well, I just want to be like them, and protect everypony," Robby said very slowly. "And I'm not human like you, and the humans in the movie are all scared of the things that aren't human--except the one girl they're protecting, she's nice. You got scared of Jessie and she's really little, and you acted scared of me too."
How was he supposed to answer this question? Robby wasn't stupid, he clearly had been paying attention to everything that had been happening in the family. Robby might not understand it all, but he definitely hadn't missed it.
"Robby, you're right, I was scared," Paul said as he touched a hand to his son's head. "You're a smart boy so I'll try to explain this to you like you're a grown-up, okay?"
"Okay," Robby said uncertainly.
"I started getting scared when your mom had to go to the hospital. Do you remember that day?" Paul asked.
Robby sat and considered it. "It's hard. It's hard to remember things right before I was a pony."
Paul frowned. Robby had shown he had an excellent memory as of late. With all the anxiety of that week he should have remembered this well.
"Try to remember the night that we went to the hospital. I know you can remember things really well." Paul instructed.
Robby sat and thought. "I was asleep and you woke me up. You told me to get dressed and we were going to the hospital. Mom was crying really loudly, like she was hurt or something."
Paul nodded and then realized he was going to have to explain some of where babies come from. "Jessie was in your mom's tummy. All babies come from their mom's tummies. They're supposed to stay there till they are big enough to come out. Does that make sense to you?"
Robby blinked then nodded silently
"Well, Jessie wasn't supposed to be big enough yet, but something went wrong and she was coming out too early," Paul explained. "It's bad when a baby come out too early because they aren't strong enough to handle things outside of their mom's tummy yet."
"So why couldn't you just put her back in?" Robby asked in confusion.
Paul shook his head. "It doesn't work like that. You can't put them back in. We had to get your mom to the hospital right away...so we could protect your sister from being outside too early. Understand?"
Robby perked his ears up and nodded more enthusiastically. He understood protecting.
"So, what else do you remember?"
Robby went back to his deep consideration, and after a few seconds his ears dropped. "You were holding mom up as we went to the door. You grabbed my..." Robby looked down at his hoof and let off an involuntary shiver. "Dad, I don't like this. Do I have to remember this? I don't want to."
Was it that traumatic at the time? It didn't seem like Robby was that upset at the time. He had stopped on saying hand. Was it actually disturbing to him remembering being human? If he was having a hard time remembering things from before he was a pony, and bringing up memories of him being human upset him like that, then maybe Robby had suppressed those memories...or had them suppressed.
It was a worry for another time though. He was not having this conversation to upset his son or to try to dig up suppressed memories. He was having this conversation so his son could understand him.
"Don't worry, if that upsets you I won't make you think too hard about it right now," Paul said soothingly. "But getting back to the subject. I was really scared that night, and so was your mom. We thought your sister was going to die because she was way too early and way too weak."
"But she didn't, you and Mom got her to the doctor and she got better," Robby replied.
"She didn't just get better, Robby," Paul said sadly. "She was really weak and small when she came out. She couldn't breathe right, she couldn't eat, and the smallest little germs could have killed her."
"But she got better... she's fine now," Robby said.
"We didn't know she was going to get better," Paul explained. "That's why we stayed at the hospital and had you stay at your friend's house."
Robby looked down. "I was really scared there. I didn't know when you were coming back. There were scary sounds all the time. They said it was just pipes, but they were scary." He began to get worked up. "Then everypony got sick and they made us all go to the school and locked us inside...and you weren't there and..."
Paul smoothed his son's mane. "Hey hey hey, I know. It was scary for us too. They locked us in the hospital and wouldn't let us go find you, and your sister got sick too at the same time and we thought that would be the end for her. We were really scared we were going to lose both of you."
"But everything got better, right?" Robby asked. "I can remember the day everything got better really good." He seemed comfortable remembering this and spoke rapidly. "I was having a nightmare again then the white mare came and told me I could make it so other ponies didn't have nightmares anymore, and that I could help everypony feel more happy with being a pony. Then I woke up and they said they were letting us all out and you came and got me, and Jessie was there and she was all good."
"I didn't know about how your vision went, but to tell you the truth your mom and I were still scared," Paul said he shook his head.
"Why?" Robby asked in confusion. "Everything was fixed."
"You've got a very good memory after you turned into a pony. Don't you remember how stressed your mom and I were?" Paul asked. "We didn't know how to take care of ponies. We didn't know if you were even you anymore. You changed a lot, and not just your shape."
"You tried to make me stay awake all day sleep at night," Robby said accusingly with his ears laid back.
"Because we didn't understand night ponies," Paul said. "As a human boy you should have slept at night, and you did before you transformed."
This made Robby pause and think again. Paul watched as Robby tried to remember his old sleeping habits, and then shiver again.
He smoothed his son's mane again. "Don't worry about trying to remember, just trust me, okay?"
"Okay," Robby said with a relieved nod.
"We tried to do our best with you and we were trying to take care of your new sister at the same time," Paul continued. "Then Jessie hurt me...she didn't mean to, but she hurt me pretty bad."
"You had to go back to the hospital, I remember," Robby said with a worried face. "How'd she hurt you? She's so little, and you're so big."
Paul put a hand to his ribs. They still hurt when he moved to quickly. "You're mother tells me she was having a surge of magic because she's really small and it's still settling. You know that grown-up earth ponies like Ms. Amanda are really strong, right? When Jessie was surging she had grown-up earth pony strength. She kicked me with that grown-up earth pony strength."
Robby's eyes got wide. "She was strong like Ms. Amanda?"
Paul nodded. "Maybe stronger, surges are apparently no joking matter. Your mom told me you saw Jackie's surges in action, that let her fly even though she should be too small for that."
Robby gasped. "She could go really fast, and go from sitting still to full speed right away."
"And I doubt even most adults take off at a super fast flight from sitting still," Paul added in. "So when Jessie was surging I might have been better off if Ms. Amanda had kicked me."
"But she doesn't surge anymore. Those go away," Robby said.
Paul looked his son in the eyes. "I didn't know that at a time. Think of how I was feeling. I was already scared that we didn't understand you two and had been scared for a long time before then. Then my newborn baby cracks my ribs with a kick." He looked down in shame. "It just became too much, and I chickened out."
Robby jerked back from him and looked at him with a hurt expression. "But you're my dad, you're not supposed to do that."
"I'm also a person who was scared and at a loss at what to do," Paul said as he leaned forward and crossed his arms on his knees. "I'm sorry for that. I screwed up, screwed up bad. Your mom and your aunt both yelled at me for it."
Tonya had done a bit more than yell, but no need to tell Robby that. At the end of everything Paul still felt like what Tonya had done ended up being for the better, intentional or not and completely moral or not.
"But you aren't going to do that again?" Robby asked fearfully.
"I'm not making that mistake ever again," Paul assured him. "I love you too much to do that to you again. There should never have been a first time. All I can say is I'm sorry."
Robby sat and considered him. "But are you scared of me and Jessie still?"
Paul gave him a long look. "I'm scared for you, not of you. I'll never be scared of you again."
Robby looked perplexed. "I don't get it."
Paul sighed. "The stuff you are learning from Ms. Rosetta and Ms. Phobia is really hard for me to understand without being worried about you. You're grandma, she's really all into this night pony stuff and doesn't seem like the same person at all anymore. She flat out told your mom that she wished your mom had turned into a pony. It makes me wonder if she looks down at us because we aren't ponies."
"But Grandma is really nice," Robby insisted. "She even dreamwalked with me when I was asleep today."
Paul frowned. So much for having Robby avoid Nocte. There was really no way of keeping her away from him when she could just enter his dreams. They could tell her not to, but that would only cause a fight, and there was no way to actually make her stop it. There was no way to stop any night pony from visiting Robby in dreams. When it came to them they had literally no control over who had access to their son. There was nothing stopping Nocte from getting into Jessie's dreams either. Nocte could be teaching and influencing his foals constantly going forward and he wouldn't be able to stop her. If she really did look down on them for being human telling her not to might not even work since she might not think they were worth listening to.
"Can you do me a favor? Can you tell me from now on when she visits you and what kinds of things you talk about?" Paul asked.
"Okay," Robby agreed. "Today she was just asking me all kinds of questions about how I've been since I got to Riverview."
Paul put a smile on his face, even though he didn't feel it. "That's understandable. I'm sure she was eager to hear all about it. Tell me also if any other night ponies visit you too."
Robby seemed eager to share. "Ms. Rosetta visited me for just a little bit too. She was really surprised to see Grandma with me. Ms. Rosetta just asked Grandma and me how we were doing and if everything was okay, then she left. She was there really quick and then she was gone."
Maybe he could have in and ask Phobia for advice on the subject. If every night pony was as afraid of her as claimed she might be able to step in and order ponies not to be visiting Robby's dreams without his and Devon's permission. They might not listen to Robby's human parents, but they sure as hell would listen to her.
He turned and gave his son a hug. "I'm just like you Robby. I just want to keep my family safe, which includes you."
Robby gripped as tightly as he could with his wings. "I'll keep you safe too. We'll all protect each other and then everything will be good."
Paul certainly hoped so