Relief and anger mixed in Dan as he looked at his friend across from him. Melissa was in the process be of giving Tattered a tongue lashing for thinking that she could feel that way at all. Dan hadn't as of yet said anything.
Around them ponies milled about in the shared dream. Phobia and Yinyu had returned and were a short distance away in the very heated conversation with Twilight Sparkle and Luna. Starlight Glimmer sat by that group, keeping her head down. In truth, it was mostly just Twilight and Yinyu yelling at one another with Phobia and Luna sitting back letting them yell themselves out.
All around him he heard angry words and he flattened his ears against them.
"Get off Luna's case, she doesn't get a say in what we do!" Yinyu yelled. "We were given a job, we'll do it as we see fit!"
"She's responsible because she chose all of you. It was completely irresponsible to put this kind of power in ponies that would use it this way," Twilight fired back.
"Oh, the high and mighty Princess of Friendship doesn't like how we do things," Yinyu mocked. "We get results. If we tried being nice and gentle then right now you'd be up to your wingpits with humans calling for night pony blood. Being nice would doom our tribe."
Dan shook his head and tried to block out listening to that conversation. There was plenty of yelling coming from Melissa already.
"And what was that about how you destroyed Swift Strike's body?" Melissa demanded. "They said they only brought things from inside you to the surface. That's a pretty big detail to be hiding from us. We're supposed to be upholding the law."
Dan was curious about that too. He hadn't paid it too much attention at the time it was said, but after the shock of what had happened to Tattered had faded it had come back to him.
Tattered looked down. "We found it the very next morning after the murder. The government pressured me about making the whole thing go away."
"You're supposed to protect!" Melissa yelled. "That's not protecting, that's covering up a crime. On top of that you lied to me!"
Dan felt anger rise at the thought of Tattered lying to Mel. "Why give into the pressure? Why lie to your friend?"
"I was in a situation where there was no right answer and I had to make a decision. I went with the one I thought would hurt less ponies," Tattered explained. "You know what would have happened if I did what I should have technically done by law? I would have had to arrest and push for prosecution of a pony that was mind controlled into killing another pony. I would have screwed over how humans view us even more than I already have. I might have had the town that welcomed us then turn on us as dangerous. On top of that the pony actually responsible would walk free still. It would have accomplished nothing other than hurt ponies that didn't deserve to be hurt."
"And lying to Mel? Why'd you do that?" Dan demanded.
"I was ashamed!" Tattered yelled with tears in her eyes. "I was ashamed of what I had done and didn't want her to know. Plus the less who knew about the whole thing the better. I told her part of the truth, just not the whole truth."
"You know, I would have appreciated hearing about that from you rather than secondary sources," came a voice from behind them.
They turned to see Phobia stepping up to them. Behind her Twilight and Yinyu were still completely engrossed in their argument and Luna and Starlight had stepped slightly away to have a conversation. Twilight and Yinyu didn't seem to take notice that their audience was leaving them.
"Are you just going to leave those two screaming at one another?" Dan as as he pointed at the two angry mares.
"I really do not like screaming that much, and those two are both very passionate. They'll wear themselves out sooner or later...I hope. No way of knowing how much stamina for an argument two immortals have," Phobia said with a sad shake of her head.
"You didn't seem to have much trouble with screaming when you were torturing my friend!" Melissa yelled at the Dreamwarden.
"Taking the form I did had advantages, one being I couldn't show my feelings," Phobia said in a low voice. "Tattered, I wanted to apologise for how things went as far as they did. I didn't realize when I brought that out of you that it would be that bad. It was a struggle to watch and it was a struggle keeping your mind intact through it all. I could have done you permanent harm with my negligence."
Tattered blinked. "Um, apology accepted, I guess. I feel fine though, really."
Phobia sighed. "You're only fine because I had to keep reinforcing your mind through the entire thing. The experience has made me hesitant to use that kind of method going forward. I'm unhappy about a lot of aspects of how this trial went, but I think what you endured upset me the most."
"You're not the only one unhappy with it," Tattered said with a pointed look over at the arguing alicorn and Warden of Lust.
Phobia glanced back at them again. "My sister is actually just as unhappy about how things went. Half the reason she's yelling so much at Twilight is she actually agrees with her."
"Why is she arguing with her then?" Dan asked in confusion.
"Because we did our best we could under the circumstances," Phobia said. "We really need a lot more time to figure out better ways of dealing with things, but we just don't have it. It forces us to be very totalitarian and since we don't have better options at the moment she feels the need to defend our methods, even though she really doesn't agree with them. We would love to have advice that was helpful in doing our jobs more mercifully. The fact Twilight doesn't have any advice useful to us for the moment but sees fit to denounce our methods makes my sister twice as angry."
"Shouldn't Luna be able to give advice?" Tattered asked.
Phobia shook her head. "Luna was in much the same situation when she became Dreamwarden. She had to use similar methods for a while and after some time she just had the night ponies in Equestria cowed and certain things just became part of their culture. She never really figured out a better way, things just resolved themselves as time went by. Since we know things worked out eventually with those methods were just kind of emulating them."
"Is that why she didn't step in when you were punishing Tattered?" Dan asked.
"That's half of it, the other part is she doesn't want to be seen interfering with our authority. It would make night ponies start looking to her as who is in charge instead of us," Phobia explained.
"So, what are you going to do about Twilight Sparkle? She's really pissed," Tattered asked.
Phobia shrugged. "Let her and Yinyu continue yelling it out for a few minutes and then step in and tell Yinyu to go find some pony to screw or something. Then I'll try talking to her again. She seems more responsive to me than Yinyu."
Dan smirked. "Probably because you don't spend your time yelling obscenities at her."
"Probably," Phobia agreed.
"What am I supposed to report?" Melissa asked. "I really wasn't given a lot of information about what I'm supposed to do. I still can't recall the names of any of the Wardens except for yours "
Phobia turned to Melissa. "To be honest I was going to make you an offer so you report what I want you to report."
"You're going to bribe her?!" Dan asked with outrage.
"Yes," Phobia said flatly. "Do you have a problem with that? I'm having to do damage control from what Tattered spilled. I won't have her lie, just give a more limited report."
Melissa crossed her arms. "You're asking me to sacrifice my integrity for this. What are you asking me to leave out?"
"That Twilight Sparkle, Starlight Glimmer, or Luna were here for starters," Phobia began. "I want the mention of Equestrian involvement left out of the report. Second, I want you to tell them Shadow Dancer received horrific torture for his actions against humans."
Dan went wide eyed as something occurred to him. "Wait, you didn't punish him in front of all of us like you did Tattered, you were kind of vague about a lot of things with his sentencing."
"Because we're still arguing amongst each other about it," Phobia said with her ears lowered. "Sha'am and Ghadab are pushing for much harsher punishments than the rest of us. Aside from cutting him off from dreamwalking for the time being and trying to get him to fix what he did the rest of his punishment is undecided."
"For the time being?" Tattered asked.
"If we think he's turned the corner and really reformed we intend to return the ability to him, eventually. He doesn't know that though," Phobia said in a whisper.
"But you want me to describe horrific torture even though there might not be any?" Melissa asked in confusion, then hardened her look. "Plus, you did do horrific torture to Tattered when she was guilty of a much lesser offense. I'll be honest, that actually makes me angry."
"What happened to Tattered was a mistake," Phobia insisted. "Why do you think I was being so insistent on telling her how to end it? Yes, I wanted her to get better and more able to do understand her fears, but more urgently I wanted that to end but couldn't let all these night ponies realize that we had gone farther than we intended. I screwed up and was forced to roll with what happened so we didn't seem to second guess ourselves in front of more than half a million night ponies."
"But why do you want the government to think that you're cruel and harsh?" Dan asked, also confused.
"It makes them think the night ponies are well controlled and removes them as a concern. It makes them think there is nothing they need to do to police night ponies," Phobia explained.
"It keeps the government out of night pony business," Tattered said in an understanding tone. "Because they're more concerned about what we're capable of than whether we're being mistreated."
Melissa looked uncomfortable and glanced between Dan and Tattered before her shoulders slumped. "Okay, I'll tell them what you want, for the sake of keeping my friends safe. Just promise me you really are trying to find better ways of dealing with things and you won't hurt Tattered like that again."
"I promise," Phobia said with wings outspread as she bowed her head. "However, I can't promise we'll find better ways, only that we're desperately searching for better ways. It may end up just like it went for Luna where time is the only thing that fixed things. For the time being we have to reinforce the idea that no night pony would dare cross us."
Dan really didn't like the idea of them forcing Mel to misrepresent things she saw. She needed a pretty big payback for this.
"Can you do something for me and Mel if you are going to ask her to do this?" He asked the Dreamwarden.
Phobia raised an eyebrow at him. "What's your request? Tell me it and I'll give a yes or no."
"You Dreamwardens shapeshift in dreams really easy," Dan said as he looked at Melissa quickly. "Can you teach me and Mel how to do that in her dream?"
Melissa blushed as she realized what he was after, but she didn't raise any objections.
Phobia took a moment to register why they were asking her that, but realization dawned in her eyes. "This seems more like a Yinyu thing you're asking for. Perhaps I should refer your issue to her. I'm sure she'd be more than happy to help."
"Please, could you? I know it's selfish, but it would make some things much easier," Melissa said hopefully.
Phobia turned away and walked over to where the alicorn and Warden of Lust were still arguing hotly. Dan watched Phobia tap Yinyu on the shoulder and then whisper in her ear. The orange night pony's scowling turned into a grin as her eyes lit up. Dan noted to himself that if he ever wanted to get on Yinyu's good side all that was needed was to bring up sex.
Yinyu walked away from the befuddled looking alicorn and Phobia spoke softly to the alicorn before those two walked away.
The orange night pony was grinning happily still as she reached them. "I heard we had a pony and a human interested in some private fun time with one another. I'm happy to help."
"Could you teach me how to take a human shape in her dreams sometimes and her be able to take a pony shape sometimes in her dreams?" Dan asked.
Yinyu looked at the two and considered before turning to Dan. "Well, I could definitely do that with you with a little practice. Her I'm not so sure about. At least not where she could hold it through... distractions. She doesn't have the magic to lock down a form so it won't dissipate when she isn't focusing on it, and your magic isn't strong enough to hold her form for her either. If you want to be the same species in the dream it might have to be just human."
Melissa frowned. "He doesn't have the power to lock me in a form here, but do you?"
Yinyu frowned. "I like helping others with their sex fantasies, but I can't just come on call whenever you want to have one."
Melissa shook her head. "I mean doing something permanent to me here. So I'm always in a pony form when I dream."
Dan looked at Melissa wide eyed. "Melissa, you don't have to do that! I was hoping we could share time in each form, for the sake of each of our comforts."
"I'm human in the waking world and I want to be with you. I can stand to go full time here as a pony again," Melissa explained.
Yinyu frowned. "I could do it, but I'd want to do some things to your mind to make you comfortable with your form while here; otherwise that could make the entire thing become really distressing. The thing is, that might have an impact on your mind when you're awake too. I'm not sure what that would be. I'm not sure if I'm fully comfortable with that idea; not when I don't know what will happen with your mind in the waking world. Mind magic is tricky, and can behave in ways you don't expect."
"I could give you a status update once a week and let you know if I'm experiencing any problems. Just until we're sure everything is fine. If you decide there's too many problems you can put an end to it," Melissa offered.
Yinyu scrunched up her face. "If you're consenting and this is what you want then I'll do it, but your coltfriend better come to me right away if he notices any problems." She looked Dan in the eyes. "As soon as you notice problems; let me stress that. I don't want problems to fester and cause harm that I can't easily fix because they've been going on too long. If you're unable to sleep you go find my sister in the waking world if you have to."
"Do you really think there are going to be big problems?" Tattered asked. "I don't want my friends getting hurt."
Yinyu shrugged. "I have no idea. I don't have any past experiences from Luna or any other Dreamwarden from the past to draw upon for this kind of situation. This is new ground, and I just want to be cautious. I'm feeling a lot more need for caution with everything after what went on today with this trial. It might be perfectly fine, and that's great, but I'm not going to let it continue if there are clear problems that could hurt her."
"I understand and will get in contact with you right away if there's a problem," Dan assured the Warden.
"Just to clarify, do you mean report any changes to how I think while awake or just anything that seems to be a problem?" Melissa asked.
Yinyu looked at Melissa. "Report anything that changes and then we'll figure out if it's a problem. Again, it might not be a problem, but I'm not letting anything go ignored. I'm taking this seriously and will want everything carefully monitored until I'm sure you aren't getting hurt by this. Understood?"
Melissa nodded. "I understand. Thank you for doing this. You can do whatever you need to do when you're ready."
Yinyu sat down and rubbed her forehooves together. "Okay, let's get with this. I can pull your old pony form pretty easily from your memories, give you your night pony sense of self here, and the full night pony instincts package. Going to try to separate this from your waking mind as much as I can."
There wasn't even a flash of light or anything. Where Melissa had been standing as a human now stood Melissa as she had looked as a night pony before she had gotten hurt. She was a dark grey fur with a dark yellow mane and tail, with a stripe of blue that ran through the yellow. Her eyes were larger, but still had the same bright yellow.
Melissa blinked then held a hoof up to her face for a moment and just looked at it. She then turned and looked at her wings and did a few careful flexes of them.
"It's like I'm right back where I was the day I finished transforming," Melissa said in wonder as she flicked her tail. "Everything, not just the body, but the mindset and instincts too. I hadn't really missed this when rehumanized, but now it just feels right."
"That's great...for here," Yinyu said as she watched Melissa testing out her body parts. "I want to know how it impacts you when you're in your human form when awake. I'll personally check in on you tomorrow. I have a good feeling of your mind now, so I can find you even with it being fainter."
"You look good, really good," Dan said as he looked at her.
Melissa blinked and looked at him then got a sly smile. "And thanks to me having my pony instincts again you look pretty sexy yourself."
Yinyu grinned. "And this is where I move you two back to your dream so you can have some private time. Have fun!"