//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Background Noise // Story: Pandemic: Monsters We Make // by Halira //------------------------------// Jessie laid in the backseat of the car listening to the hum of the electric motor and trying to catch glimpses of the sky between blocks as they passed through the pony residential neighborhoods where much of the view of the sky was blocked from view by the tightly cramped and tall houses. Her brother sat next to her, sitting up and looking out his window. She didn't know what he was looking at other than the boring houses. From street level, they all looked the same other than house numbers and the occasional cutie mark that adorned a door. It was up on top where everyone walked around, and that was where everything was pretty and unique. Down here, where the cars drove, it was just dull, and a little creepy due to the houses jutting out over the street and blocking out the light. Her brother probably liked it that way. Night ponies didn't care much for daylight. She wasn't a night pony, though. After failing to catch her glimpse of the sun, she decided just to sit up and try to see if anything was interesting about their surroundings. To her surprise, there were some differences from the usual way things were. There were many more cars parked up next to the houses than there typically were; normally there were almost none. There were some humans and ponies out talking by the vehicles. These were pony houses, but ponies almost always had at least some human family somewhere; they'd all been humans just a few years ago, after all. According to her parents, she had been born human, even if she'd only remained that way for a week--it made sense, even though it was hard to believe, human parents can't make pony foals. All these humans must be visiting family members for Thanksgiving. "Robby, don't encourage them," her dad chastised her brother. She turned her head just in time to spot some night pony mares by one of the houses on Robby's side of the car. Her brother had been looking at mares a lot more lately when he thought Mom and Dad weren't going to notice. She didn't have time to see if their wings were marked or not, but if their dad was scolding him, they must not be. "We're just driving by..." Robby protested. "Doesn't matter," her dad cut him off. "You don't so much as make eye contact with a mare who doesn't have her wings marked, got it?" "Yes, Dad," Robby replied unhappily. Jessie turned back to her window. Her parents had always been like that with Robby, but he seemed to be getting more unhappy about it lately. Her big brother being unhappy, bothered her. He was her best and only friend, and the only one she needed as far as she was concerned. She didn't like him being unhappy. Maybe today it was because he was up earlier than he'd generally be, and he was tired and cranky. She got cranky when she had to get up too early. They finally reached the end of the regular pony houses, and she could finally get a good view of the sky. The car then turned and drove parallel to the pony residential area. This left her staring at the houses again. She pinned her ears back in annoyance and glared at the houses, and then got up from her seat and went next to her brother on his side of the backseat. This way, she could look out his window instead. Her brother shifted where he was sitting to give her space. There was a small park area between the residential area and the businesses and shops beyond. Above them was a monorail train track, and she could see the closest monorail stop just down the road, though it didn't look like many ponies were out at it today. Most ponies at her school got there by the monorail. She came in by car with her mom each day. Her mom had to work, and she had to go to school at the same place, even though she'd never actually gotten to attend any of her mom's art classes. Her mom taught the elementary grades on the lower floors, and she'd skipped all those. Robby had gotten to attend her classes when he was her age. They passed by the monorail station and kept going. Her Aunt Tonya's house was a big house all the way down by the river. It took a little while to get to because you had to go to the very end of the residential area and then turn onto a side street. She'd never actually been in it, but her parents had picked Aunt Tonya and Sunset Blessing up at its gates a few times. The big wall around the yard always looked really imposing, and she only caught glimpses of the yard through the security gate--not even the house. Today would be her first time ever going past the gate. It was kind of exciting getting to finally see that well guarded place at long last. The street came to an end where they had to either turn left or right, directly in front of them was a clinic and fire station. If they went down the right turn and kept the houses to their sides there were lots of things that weren't normal businesses that ponies wanted close to them; clinics, fire stations, daycares, and the central stations for the many taxi services if they really needed to call a ride to get someplace fast. There were streets like this every few miles of the residential district, but this was the area where the river was and things came to an end. They instead turned right and this area had a bunch of offices for companies, some hotels, and a few mansions. What it also had at the moment were a lot of people on the sides of the streets holding signs and yelling. "Crap," her dad growled, using one of the many words that she got in trouble when she used them. "It's Thanksgiving! Don't these people have families to be home with? They come and disrupt our city often enough as it is, but it's a fucking holiday!" Jessie ears fell all the way back and she cowered in her seat at her dad's anger. If he used the word fucking instead of fudging that meant he was really mad because he never said it around her, it had been forbidden from being said in her presence. She'd used the word fucking once when she was mad and her mom had threatened to clean her mouth with soap; which wasn't fair because Robby only got scolded for saying it specifically in front of her. She heard a lot of her classmates use the word a lot, and even read it in some books. Denying her the word was some weird way of asserting she was just a little filly. Her parents only slipped with denying it when they were extremely angry. "Calm down, Paul, you'll upset the foals," her mom said in a level tone. Her dad didn't respond, but he could be seen glaring at the people on the sides of the road as they began to pass by. Jessie looked out her window at them as the car drove past. There was a lot of them, and there were a lot of signs. There was a sign a human was holding that said Babylon = Riverview. There was another sign that said No More False Gods! No More Dreamwardens! that a unicorn was waving around in her magic. That unicorn was yelling back and forth with at a night pony that had a sign clutched in her hooves that said Leave Night Pony Affairs to Night Ponies! Let the Dreamwardens Govern Night Ponies! Save Our Tribe! Others she saw were Down With The UN, No Tax Money to Foreign Governments, The Best Way to Keep Kids Safe Is No Monsters' Foals In School, Protect All Foals and Children!, and End The New World Order. There were a lot of others that had pictures and slogans she didn't understand. Some were shouting at the car, some were shouting at each other, and some were just shouting, but they all seemed really angry. "These people aren't even from around here," her dad started muttering again. "They have no business here." "Don't get so stressed," her mom said calmly. "It's like Sunset Blessing said Sunday at church; let the dogs bark. We have the lion of truth on our side and the dogs can't hurt the lion." Her mom liked to quote off things from the sermons from church. Jessie wanted to point out that both lions and dogs could both eat them, but her mom didn't like it when she did that kind of thing. Jessie found the sermons at church boring. The music was good, especially when Aunt Tonya sang, but Sunset Blessing just seemed to make lots of unneeded allegories to make everything sound more important. Her mom thought they were great though, and would scold her for falling asleep during the sermons. The car finally came by the familiar wall that marked Aunt Tonya's house. The wall was pretty high and made of white stone, with metal spikes jutting out at odd angles near the top like some nightmare thorn bush. There were more protesters here as well, and they were even louder and meaner than the ones just down the road. Her ears flattened all the way as she heard one of them yell something about how the Dreamwarden's foals should just die to teach the Dreamwarden a lesson. "Jessie, get down on the floorboards," Robby said in a serious tone. She didn't want to admit it, but she was scared. These protesters seemed really angry and cruel in what they were shouting. Her parents didn't say anything. Jessie crawled down from her seat to the floorboards and Robby came down with her and protectively draped a wing over her. She snuggled closer to her brother as he did. The car came to a halt and her dad partially rolled down the window. "Middleton family, we're expected." "I have your pictures on file, you're good to go. Don't worry about these wackos; they like to shout, but they won't be getting in. House is far enough back from the gate that even the ponies can't hear all this. We've got extra security between here and the house too. Try to enjoy your Thanksgiving," came the voice of someone unfamiliar just outside the car. The gate could be heard opening and a moment later the car began to move again. Then the sound could be heard of the gate closing behind them. Robby removed his wing from her and gave her a nuzzle. "Coast is clear, egghead." He then climbed back up into the car seat. She followed after him, still feeling a bit fearful as she looked out the window to finally see what was hidden beyond the gate. What caught her eyes first were all the trees. There were lots of trees. They were spaced out evenly and looked like saplings that had been planted with care. The next thing she noticed were humans and ponies walking around wearing security vests. She turned her eyes to the front of the car. Off in the distance she could see the house. It looked like one of those white plantation houses from her history books. It was two story, and had a big front porch with massive colonnades. Before the house was a gardened area that seemed to loop to either side of the house, though immediately in front of the house was a cleared area and what looked like a small parking lot. There were three cars in that parking lot already. The house was indeed very far from the front wall of the yard, but the side walls were much closer. The distance from the house to the front wall was perhaps the distance of several soccer fields, but the distance to either of the side walls was perhaps half a soccer field each. She could see what looked like office buildings not far beyond those side walls. She knew the river had to be very close behind the house with how far back they were. Her dad drove the car into the tiny parking lot and brought it to a stop. As soon as the engine turned off Robby used a wing to open the door and hopped out of the car. She sat still as her parents unbuckled themselves up front. "Getting out, baby girl?" Her mom asked as she glanced in the mirror. Her mom was really heavily pregnant and was carrying a green bean casserole so she couldn't really turn around to look. "I'll get out in a second," Jessie replied. She really wasn't ready to leave the safety of the car. All those people saying those mean things had shaken her up. She imagined them storming the gate and coming up and burning down the house. Her dad reached around and touched a hand to her mane while giving her a small smile. "It's okay, no one is going to get you here. You saw all that security, and Wild Growth is going to be here too. Do you really think anything bad could happen with Wild Growth here to protect you?" That was true. She couldn't imagine anything that Wild Growth couldn't protect them from. Wild Growth could make a wall of brambles to block the protesters, just pull a wall of stone straight up from the ground, or split the ground so there was a chasm between them. Nothing could hurt them with Wild Growth here. She cautiously got up and hopped out of the car. Up on the porch were a bunch of adults. There was Mr. Miguel and Mr. Jose, who she knew were twins, but she wasn't sure how she was related to them even though she knew they were family. There was a young human woman she didn't know who was next to Mr. Jose. There was Ms. Amanda and Mr. Tom, but she didn't see Jackie and Jordan anywhere. Maybe Jackie and Jordan were inside. They were all talking at the moment. The sound of the car door closing behind her made her do a little startled jump, and that made her feel embarrassed as she looked back at it quickly. When she turned back around she saw her brother hurrying up to the porch and Mr. Tom and Ms. Amanda heading into the house, wrapping their tails together as they went. "Come on. You can't just stay by the car. You have to come inside and see the rest of the family," her dad said as he and her mom started walking up to the house. She followed after them. Doing a light gallop to close the distance they'd already gotten ahead of her. When they got up to the porch Mr. Miguel held the door open for them and her parents started to walk in, but she stopped. Her dad looked back at her, then looked at the twins, and then back to her. "Do you need a few minutes to settle down? I know the trip here made you nervous. It's okay if you just want to sit on the front porch and take in nature for a few minutes if you want." She wasn't feeling particularly articulate at the moment. If she started talking she'd start crying, and then everyone would treat her like a little filly. Instead she just nodded. "Okay, you take a few minutes and come in when your ready. Stay in sight of the porch," her dad instructed. He then headed inside. She turned around and looked out at the garden and the saplings beyond. Like any earth pony there was something calming about seeing lots of plants around her. Growing things wasn't what she wanted to do, but that didn't mean she didn't appreciate plants. She loved admiring them, smelling them, just basking in being around them. Her magic was still too weak for her to feel them that way, but she could almost imagine she could. This wasn't as great as the park, but it was still nice. Despite that, her eyes kept drifting down the path they drove down to the wall and gate far off in the distance. She strained her ears to try to pick up sound of the protesters. She thought she heard something just faintly, like some background noise just beyond her perception, and the longer she listened the more she imagined them shouting meaner and meaner things. The gate looked so fragile a thing to keep them out. Without thinking about it she tucked her tail between her legs. She shouldn't be scared, no one else seemed scared, but she was. That made her feel embarrassed again and made her want to cry. "It's alright to be scared," came a voice from right behind her, causing her to jump again. Phobia Remedy stepped up beside her and sat down. The Dreamwarden had never said much to her beyond a passing greeting when they dropped or picked Robby up from the Dreamwarden's house, and typically wasn't even seen. The grey night pony was wearing pearl earrings and a green dress that matched her mane, and she clearly had makeup on. Looking at her now Jessie decided she was one of the most beautiful mares she had ever seen. The night pony stared out at the gate and looked almost serene as she did so; completely contrasting with the normal night pony trope. She didn't look that strong, but there was something about her that seemed wise and powerful despite her delicate features. The idea the Dreamwardens were some sort of divine beings was ridiculous, but staring up at the night pony it didn't feel quite as ridiculous. She wondered if this is what ponies in Equestria felt like when they looked at the alicorns. Jessie felt like she was expected to say something. "I shouldn't be scared. You don't seem to be scared. Those people are like monsters, but you're not scared." "Oh, but I am scared. I'm very scared that someone will hurt my family," Phobia Remedy replied, still in a perfect calm. "So why aren't you angry? Why do you let them say those things? You could stop them, you're a Dreamwarden." It didn't feel right that people could threaten foals like that. The Dreamwarden seemed to consider her answer before turning to look at her. "Let me tell you the most important lesson the Dreamwardens ever learned. The worst thing you can do is look at others as monsters. The Dreamwardens, when we were still new to our jobs, looked out at the world and saw nothing but threats and monsters. That was the worst thing we could have done, because we stopped treating them like people. They were monsters in our eyes and didn't deserve to be treated like anything else. We gave them no rights, we were brutal in how we treated others, and we were determined to show no weakness and very little mercy to them. We wanted them afraid of us and we succeeded all too well. We became monsters to fight perceived monsters, and it was wrong." Jessie had a hard time picturing the pony in front of her as a monster. "But they're scary and mean. They say all those horrible things and are so angry. The only night pony yelling was yelling for you to help. You never did anything to those people. They say a lot of mean things about you, and you aren't bad. Doesn't that make them like monsters?" Phobia shook her head. "People say mean things sometimes when they're scared. It's important to remember that they're just scared. They want to protect themselves and their families from what they think is a threat. For a long time Dreamwardens were a threat because Dreamwardens treated people like they weren't people, and people's anger and fear can be understood because of that. This was earned, and it will be a long time before they stop being angry, if ever. It was a hard and painful lesson to learn." "But there is no threat now, they're threatening us...threatening you, threatening the family. The rest of us never did anything wrong. Plus, that was mainly night ponies you did that stuff to, and they aren't mad at you." "Ironically, night ponies actually respected that kind of behavior from us. They saw it as a show of strength, and are now mad we aren't doing it anymore. It's a clear sign of how out of whack night pony instincts are. If it weren't for the fact we had a growing number of mind magic users that aren't night ponies we might have been better off staying doing the same thing, bad as that sounds. There were just so many non-night ponies using mind magic. I don't know if that was some design by Sunset Shimmer to add controllers to the population or random chance, but we couldn't continue on like that. We shouldn't have even done that with the night ponies to begin with." Phobia sighed and frowned at the ground. The sense of regret coming off the Dreamwarden was strong. Again, Jessie could not picture this pony as a monster. The night pony then turned and looked at her, serenity restored. "But just because we aren't a threat now doesn't mean they can't be scared. Always remember they're just concerned about protecting their loved ones. Sometimes you can misinterpret a thing as a threat. It doesn't make you a bad person if you do. They may be threatening to us as a result, but it isn't because they're bad. Always try to understand why someone is threatening you. Remember this, because this keeps you seeing people instead of monsters. It keeps you from becoming a monster who doesn't care about other's concerns. Do you understand?" "I think so," she replied. It didn't really address what she was supposed to do about the angry people outside that didn't feel the same way. People that were willing to be monsters to fight monsters. She did however feel calmer talking to the Dreamwarden for some reason. Phobia Remedy's calm seemed to radiate out from the night pony and soak into Jessie. It was like magic, though she could feel no magic at work. Was there some some magical quality to the Warden of Fear that made fears go away from around her? The Dreamwarden stood back up and softly smiled at her. "I'm glad you do, and glad you see the good in me rather than my past misdeeds. It's comforting to feel there is hope things can move on after all that has happened." Jessie looked up at the Dreamwarden. The Dreamwarden was still calm and serene, but there was a hint of sadness to her now. "Maybe they'll figure out you're not bad if you keep being good." Phobia Remedy continued to stare off at the gate. "Perhaps in time, but that's a long way off. The Dreamwardens are tolerated and worked with because there's no getting rid of us, and the world's governments aren't going to refuse being given controls we didn't have to let them have. We try to earn trust, but it may never completely come. There are mistakes that people make that can plague them for a lifetime. Pray that you never make such mistakes." The idea of making a mistake that could make people hate her for the rest of her life was a scarier thing than the people outside the gate. The night pony turned as if to walk away, but looked down with a smile one last time. "Enjoy looking at my mother's gardens, she is very proud of them. I hope you'll join us inside soon. Remember, we're family, and you don't ever need to think you need to walk small around me." The Dreamwarden departed and Jessie sat looking at the gardens again. The anxiety from earlier seemed to have evaporated in that short exchange. There were other things that it made her think of, but the dread of the people outside now didn't seem so bad. She took a moment to admire the colors of the flowers and smiled. She then got up and went into the house. When she got into the house she saw that her brother had been accosted by all the winged foals, who were now begging him to show them how to fly. That would be the three demons and Jackie. Jackie's little sister Jordan was sitting a little bit away watching all the other foals shyly. All the adults were seated around the room talking to one another. She didn't see her Aunt Tonya, Sunset Blessing, or Wild Growth. Jessie confined herself to a corner as she watched the various winged foals question her brother about flying. She felt a mild amount of jealousy that they were taking all his attention. She knew she shouldn't feel that way, but it didn't stop her from doing so. Still, she was supposed to be socializing. Her parents would be upset if she didn't make an attempt to socialize. With that in mind she turned to the purple unicorn filly with a yellow mane that wasn't pestering her brother. "Want to do some coloring together?" She asked Jackie's shy little sister. The purple filly blinked and looked uncertain. "Color?" Jessie resisted the urge to groan. Why did other foals have to be so hard to talk to? "Yes, color. You know, drawing on paper with crayons? You know how to draw, right?" "I can draw," Jordan said in a low voice, and seemed to cower a bit. Why did Jordan have to be so shy? Jessie never could tell what she was supposed to do with foals her age. Her dad said she needed to stop treating other foals like they were stupid. She didn't mean to; she just honestly didn't know what foals her age were supposed to be able to do and understand. Jordan wasn't even her age; Jordan was more than a year younger than her--fifteen months younger actually. Finding out what Jordan was capable of doing was essential to being able to socialize with her. Jessie had been reading before she could draw, but she didn't think Jordan could read yet. That made the question of whether Jordan could draw a perfectly reasonable one to ask as far as she saw it. Actually, she didn't know for sure if Jordan could read. It was worth finding out. "Jordan do you know how to read?" She asked curiously. Jordan smiled and nodded enthusiastically. "Mommy reads with me. I can read The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham really good. I like Green Eggs and Ham, it's funny." "Really well, not really good," Jessie corrected. "You can't do things good. You do things well." "But I do read good!" Jordan protested with a stomp of her hoof. "My mommy says so! She says I'm a good reader!" Okay, it was pretty clear she'd had a breakdown in communication. Her first instinct was to just shout at Jordan that she wasn't trying to say Jordan was a bad reader...even though Jessie had moved passed reading Dr. Seuss before she was even two. She knew logically that was probably a bad idea though, even though she really wanted to do some yelling of her own. It wasn't fair. This kind of stuff always happened when she tried socializing with foals close to her age. It wasn't her fault that Jordan didn't understand the difference between good and well. She needed an adult. While Jordan was still tearing up about thinking Jessie was picking on her Jessie spotted the closest adults. Ms. Amanda and Tom were talking with her mom and Ms. Phobia over by one the chairs. That would be perfect. They could explain to Jordan what she meant and Jordan would listen to them. Jessie had a small hope that her mom would realize that she wasn't going to do well trying to get along with the other foals and tell her she could sit with the adults. Yeah, there was no fudging chance that was going to happen, but she could dream. She walked over to the trio of adults and her mother looked down at her. "What is it, sweetie?" "Jordan thinks I'm picking on her because I corrected her about saying she does things well instead of saying she does things good," Jessie answered as she pointed to the unhappy unicorn filly. Amanda let off a sigh as she turned and hurried toward her younger filly. "Oh, my little plum butter, let mommy explain something to you." Jessie's mom shook her head as the pink earth pony walked over to the filly. "With how often she calls Jordan that I'm surprised she didn't just name her that. It sounds like a perfectly decent pony name." The green unicorn stallion, Tom, shook his head. "We debated it. Amanda wanted to go with a pony name, but I convinced her that if Jordan wanted a pony name that she could pick her own name out when she was older. Imagine if we named her that and she doesn't even like plums? I still think the whole pony naming thing is silly." "It's just another naming convention. Some of us like having descriptive names, or keep a human name and pony name both like Amanda does. Still, letting a pony pick out their own pony name doesn't seem like a bad idea; pony names are very personal after all," Phobia replied. Ms. Amanda's pony name was rarely used around the family, but Jessie knew that it was Treasure Finder and that Ms. Amanda used that name when teaching school and with strangers. Jessie also knew her little brother was going to have a pony name, even though he was human. She wondered how her mom felt about them saying those things. "So, did you try to explain to Jordan you weren't trying to pick on her?" Her mom asked. The tone indicated that her mom had her doubts about it. Jessie tucked her tail between her legs and her ears fell. This made her mom give her a disappointed look. "Jessie, we talked about this. You need to start trying to deal with problems like these on your own. You can't always run away from them and have an adult fix them for you. You're not going to get better dealing with others if you don't try to resolve things yourself. You're one of the smartest persons in the world; you can do this if you actually try." "But..." "No buts," her mom cut her off. "Think about your classmates at the high school. You don't see them running for an adult every time they get into a disagreement with one another. Most of them are expected to be functional adults. When you're an adult you don't have anyone to run to most of the time and you have to deal with things yourself, but adults learn how to do that while they're kids." Jessie hung her head. This was one of the few times she wanted to point out she was just a little filly, even though she didn't normally like admitting that. Her mom knew how to read her. "Jessie, if you were like any of the other foals your age I wouldn't be so stern about this, but you're different. You're going to be seven in the spring and you want to push yourself into the adult world already. You've got more book smarts and raw intelligence than just about any adult, but when it comes to things like this you're just a little filly. Many of the children your age are actually more advanced than you in dealing with these things because they actually try. It's my responsibility to prepare you for the world. You don't need any more preparation in terms of education, you likely know more than most people with regular college degrees, but you still need a lot of preparation when it comes to social interaction." Jessie didn't really see the big need to be very social. You didn't need to be social to run equations. Doing math was one of the things where being social was least useful. That's what she wanted to do for NASA, come up with the math and physics equations that would help get the people of Earth to the stars. She'd been working in a special set of math equations that she knew would get her noticed. If she could finish them and show them to an important pony like Wild Growth or Phobia Remedy she would definitely be able to get into NASA. She was sure she almost had it solved, she just needed a little more work. "Did you hear what I just asked?" Her mom questioned. Jessie blinked. She'd been so lost in thought thinking about her math she'd tuned her mom out. "Sorry, I was thinking. What did you ask?" Her mom let off a groan. "I asked if you would go over and try to play with Jordan again. I hope you were thinking about how you can be more social and not math problems." "Um..." "Jessica Ann Middleton, go play and stop focusing on school work or math for one day," her mom said crossly. "Yes, Mom," she said with resignation as she turned back around and started walking to where Jordan and Amanda were sitting. Amanda watched her expectantly as she walked over and gave Jordan a nudge. "Alright, plum butter, what are you going to say?" Jordan looked at Jessie with lowered ears. "Sorry for getting mad." Jessie rubbed her hoof on the tan carpet. "I'm sorry for being picky about how you said things. I'm sorry if I made you feel stupid." Amanda smiled. "There, all better now, I hope. Jordan knows all about what saying you do something well means now too. Now you two play and be good." Jordan looked confused. "Aren't we supposed to be well?" Amanda sighed and looked briefly at the ceiling. "Alright, we still have some work to do with use of the word well. We'll talk about it later. Just play and have fun." "Okay, Mommy," Jordan said as she rubbed her head against her mother's side. As Amanda got up and walked back to the rest of the adults Jessie looked at Jordan. "So do you want to draw?" Jordan reached back with her head and pulled a book from her saddlebags. Jessie spotted the title, The Chocolate Touch. It looked like a very simple book, but considerably longer than anything by Dr. Seuss; probably over a hundred pages and actually a simple novel rather than a picture book. The book was definitely more advanced than what Jordan had implied she could read. It was something that would take at least most of an hour to read. Jordan put the book down in front of her. "Mommy says you're really good at reading...or well at reading. This book has a lot of words--like a thousand-thousand--and I need help. I got it because it had a funny picture on front, but it's too hard for me. Can you help me read it?" Jessie doubted there was a million words in it, maybe twenty or thirty thousand if she had to take a quick guess. It looked like it might be a fun read though, even if it was much simpler than what she was used to. She walked over to the purple unicorn filly and sat down with her while smiling. "Sure, I can help you read it. You start reading, and I'll read over your shoulder. I can tell you how to say any words you have problems with." The other filly clapped her hooves together and then gave Jessie a hug. Jessie didn't think it was that big a thing to be excited about, but at least she was getting along with Jordan now. "Let's find a good spot to lay down and we can get started," Jessie instructed. The other filly nodded with excitement in response. Tonya swooped down and did a slow circle around the house. She spotted the security guards out in the yard and gave them a wave to indicate it was her and not some random pegasus trying to sneak onto the property. They had actually discussed adding this new security system that tracked incoming flyers and would set off an alarm if they came in without wearing a special chip in their Pony Strap. So far there hadn't been enough reason to, but better safe than sorry. She was mainly concerned some random large birds would constantly be setting off the alarm. Any decent sized bird of prey or buzzard could possibly trip it. She didn't want to be woken up with alarms because an owl went hunting for mice in the yard. She came in for a graceful landing on the porch. The twins and the one twin's girlfriend were all outside. The girl seemed a bit anxious for some reason. "Something wrong?" Tonya asked the trio. The girl shook her head. "Just tobacco cravings. Jose didn't tell me this whole city was smoke free, even in private residences." Tonya did a light chuckle into her hoof. "Yeah, we ponies don't like our air getting polluted with that stuff. We actually have a ton of hookah bars out in the entertainment district though. Regular smoking is allowed there in addition to the hookahs. They're really popular; popular enough that most ponies will visit one sometime over the course of a month just to socialize. I sometimes meet clients there for a smoke and a drink because it's a relaxing informal place for them that helps them feel at ease. You could try going out to one of those after dinner." The girl looked confused. "Wait, ponies can't stand smoking, but bars set aside specifically for smoking are popular enough that just about every pony in town goes to them at some point? That makes no sense." Tonya shrugged. "It's weird I know. When the no smoking law was passed they made exceptions for those kinds of places so we didn't deter humans that smoked from coming here...at least that was the logic we had at the time, I know that isn't much of a non-deterrent. Anyway, humans would invite ponies to come hang out with them there to socialize. Ponies are very social creatures and they started doing the same with their friends and it kind of just spiraled from there until ponies basically took over the whole industry we had set aside for humans. We can control the climate inside them with magic so it doesn't really get smoke filled, so it doesn't really bother us. It's an indulgence when just trying to hang loose with some friends." "You said they're bars. Do I have to be twenty-one to get in?" The girl asked. Tonya shook her head. "Only to purchase alcohol, they'll card you for that no matter who you are. Getting in they're actually really lenient about though. I know they'll let high schoolers with cutie marks in and just kind of look away, but ponies are pretty lax on enforcing age rules on teens with cutie marks. My nephew could likely get in by himself with no question if he really wanted to, and he's thirteen. Heck, I see pony parents bring their teens with them there all the time and see no problem letting them use the hookahs. With humans getting in they just go with do you look old enough. The only ones they will card you at the door for are the...um...special ones where they put aphrodisiacs in the stuff. No one under eighteen is getting into those bars. Oh, and you can buy cigarettes and stuff there one at a time, but they check you when you're leaving to make sure nothing leaves out the door--the no smoking ban is still strictly in place outside those doors." "This city is weird," the girl said with a befuddled expression. Tonya shrugged. "We have our own ways of doing things here in Riverview. Those places pay special taxes and fees to the city, and make the city lots of money that we reinvest into improving the city, so no one is likely to try to shut them down." "I'll see about checking them out," the girl replied. "Thanks for the information." Tonya smiled as she opened up the door. "No problem. I like being helpful." She went inside and did a quick glance around. It looked like everyone was here in the living room except Wild and Sunset. She had spotted Wild's limo en route to the house when she was flying over. Sunset was probably in the kitchen. "Tonya, it's good to see you. Where were you at?" Her human brother, Paul, said to her as he walked over to her. She gave him a smile. "Just taking care of some private business. Had a human that needed some counseling. You know how stressful the holidays can be for some people." "How's the counseling job going?" Paul asked. "It's nice seeing you finally settle into a career." Her smile widened. "It's good. I don't get a lot of clients since I'm not certified, but I get enough to keep me busy." She actually had plenty to keep her busy. Her counseling job was her official job, but she also did a lot of odd jobs for her wife. There were ponies to be contracted into top secret jobs, and those required assurances that they wouldn't discuss what they were doing with anyone. Many magic restrictions had been lifted over the years, but there were still things that the general public was neither allowed to do or be allowed to know could be done. Those assurances of secrecy came in the form of compulsions from her. It wasn't done against their wills. They had to sign forms of consent and have it explained at length what she was going to do. There was also one project that she personally was tied to. It was one of the most important of all the projects that happened below the Bastion, and she was the key. In short, she was a busy mare. If she had a large clientele for her counseling she'd have no time for herself. Paul gave a pointed look at his daughter Jessie. "I know your wife has some sort of research centers spread about the country. I was wondering if my daughter could be taken to visit one of them. She's really hung up on getting into NASA, but I thought it might be good to broaden her horizons a bit and show her that there are other things she can do too. I don't want her getting so attached to one idea and if it doesn't work out having her feel like she doesn't have options." There were plenty of lesser security research centers that were public knowledge mixed among the secret ones. The projects were still guarded secrets, but more on a corporate level than national security. Any of them would love a brilliant young mind like Jessie's. Sunset had actually already opened a file on Jessie in hopes of one day swaying her over to working in the labs. "I'll be happy to talk to Sunset about it," she replied. There was no need to even lie about this. "I'm certain Sunset would be thrilled to show Jessie that she could have a great future working at one of the various SPEC research facilities. We've already had many researchers make groundbreaking scientific discoveries in our labs and I'm sure Jessie could eventually as well." "I don't want to pressure her," Paul cautioned. And got close to Tonya in a crouch before continuing in a very low whisper. "I'm just wanting her to see that there are lots of options, and that maybe she can take some more time deciding what to do with her life. She's so focused on her goals right now she's worrying me and Devon. She needs to step back, slow down, and actually enjoy life." Tonya gave her big brother a quick hug with her wings before releasing him. "Understood. I'll pass that information on to Sunset and we can see about when a tour can be arranged." Paul nodded then looked around the room briefly before putting a hand close to her ear and whispering. "Are you still taking volunteers for that project? I might be interested." Tonya looked around the room briefly. Out of those present only Tom and her brother knew about the temporary transformation project for sure. Phobia likely did, since Sha'am now knew about it after the screw up with Megan's transformation, but Phobia hadn't said anything to indicate it. She lowered her voice. "We still have some kinks to work out. We're close, but we've underestimated the amount of mind magic we need involved with it. You know how your wife feels about mind magic, so she won't be happy about you doing anything involving us messing with your mind. Plus, we need to focus on some more pony volunteers and sickly humans so we can impress the delegates and present this in a way they'll go for." "Devon might make an exception for this. You know how big this is for the humans around here," Paul reminded. Tonya was well aware. Most of the long-time human residents of town followed Shimmerist Christianity, her brother and his wife included. When word went public about the temporary transformation spell they were going to have more human volunteers than they knew what to do with. To get the general public beyond Riverview on their side they needed ponies showing interest and having successful transformations to humans. The days of the rehumanization clinics were done, but there were still those who wanted ponies returned to humanity. "Testing is going to be going till Saturday and then we'll see what the government says on Sunday in terms of what kinds of restrictions they'll be placing on this. We need to put a good show on for them," Tonya said quietly. "I'll let you know how things progress, and when we'll be taking healthy human volunteers again." Paul nodded. "You might want to go check on your wife. She's barely left the kitchen since we got here." She groaned to herself. Hopefully Sunset wasn't obsessing too much. "I'll go see her now. Wild should be here any minute and then everyone will be here," Tonya replied. "I'll see how long we have before dinner is ready." She quickly took her leave of her brother and headed back towards the kitchen, giving quick hellos to people as she walked by. When she entered into the kitchen. It looked like nothing was actually cooking and there were a large number of dishes laid out ready to serve. There was no smell of anything burnt, by all means it looked like everything had gone smoothly with preparing dinner. So why was Sunset in the corner holding her forelegs around herself and rocking back and forth? Tonya cautiously walked over to her wife. "Sunset, sunshine, what's wrong?" Sunset looked at her with red, bloodshot eyes. "Phobia's plotting against me." Tonya gave the red unicorn a doubting look. "I highly doubt that. Why do you think Phobia is plotting against you?" Sunset pointed a shaking hoof in the general direction of the food. "She brought buttered-baked spiders. I can't bring myself to eat one of those." That sounded completely unappetizing, but no more unappetizing than cold turkey. She didn't understand why night ponies tried to imitate their Equestrian counterparts' diets. "Why's this a sign she's plotting against you? I know spiders freak you out, but these are definitely dead. I'm a little confused." Sunset started crying. "Because Rosetta will look down on me more when I don't try one!" Yep, as predicted, Sunset was obsessing over winning over Rosetta and Amanda's approval again. She could get a little loopy when she did this, add to that her general fear of spiders and you had the makings of a full on meltdown.. "I'm sure you aren't going to be the only one not eating any of them. If anyone other than the night ponies do I'll be surprised," Tonya said soothingly. "If Rosetta was going to look down on you for not eating one she'd have to look down at the rest of us too." Sunset just stared at her blankly. Tonya sighed. "If you're so hung up on thinking Rosetta's going to look down on you for not eating one maybe you should just close your eyes and just imagine they are nice crunchy apples or something." Sunset looked horrified. "But... they're spiders. Really big spiders, you know I don't like even being around spiders." "Consider it your ultimate revenge on them. You fry spiders on sight with your magic, you're just eating them this time around." She caught sight of their black cat making a move towards the food out of the corner of her eye and turned and flapped her wings at it. "Back! Back Satan! You've got food upstairs!" Satan took off in a rush out of the kitchen into the living room. Squeals of excited foals greeted the cat's entrance. She wasn't particularly fond of that cat--he always tried to get the feathers on her wings--but Sunset was fond of cats. She suspected that the cat gave Sunset something to pamper like a foal. That made the cat's presence even more of a sore point since Sunset was strongly against them having foals, much to Tonya's chagrin. Sunset said she was too old to be dealing with a new foal, but Tom was her age and he was raising foals. It wasn't like Tonya was asking Sunset to get pregnant, Tonya could carry it or they could adopt--she'd even go full time stay at home mom and do most of the raising herself. At twenty-six years old and seeing most other mares her age now as parents she really wanted to be raising her own foal. At least she wasn't the only mare in the family without foals. Wild somehow managed to stay foal free with heavy doses of birth control. Whenever Wild finally got pregnant as well then Tonya would press the issue some more. She wasn't going to be the only grown mare or woman in the family that wasn't a mother. Her being technically step-mother to Phobia didn't count either. She wasn't claiming her step-parent status to a pony only a few months her junior that she'd grown up with. Rosetta chose then to walk in. "Sunset? Mom? We about ready for dinner? The natives are getting restless." Tonya rolled her eyes. Rosetta did that just to annoy the two of them for her own amusement. She'd never call Sunset Mom no matter how much Sunset wanted her to, but she'd call Tonya Mom specifically because Tonya didn't want her too--and to rub it in Sunset's face that Sunset wasn't getting called Mom. Rosetta seemed less aggressive a night pony to some, but she just channeled it into passive aggressiveness. If there was anything weirder than being called Mom by a childhood friend that was younger than her it was being called Mom by her childhood friend's wife who was actually older than her. "Is Wild here?" Tonya asked. Rosetta nodded and pointed one of her tattooed wings towards the front of the house. "She just got dropped off. She's outside talking to the twins right now." "We'll have everything ready in a few minutes then. Sunset's got everything under control," Tonya said with a smile. Rosetta looked at Sunset, who was still sitting in the corner looking miserable and gave her a doubting frown. "So I see. I'll get everyone ready, you two just make sure to be ready to serve some food in the next ten minutes." Rosetta then turned and walked out of the kitchen, giving a strong flick of her tail in their direction. Tonya sighed again as Sunset started crying again. Holidays were a pain in the flank. Wild stepped into the house and did a quick look around. Assuming Tonya and Sunset were elsewhere in the house it seemed that everyone was here already. She quickly spotted her parents and her sister together over by one of the couches. That was convenient for her. She wanted to break the news about her pregnancy as quickly as possible just to not have the dread of waiting to tell about it hanging over her all through dinner. She hurried over to them, saying hello to others as she passed. Little Jessie seemed a bit disappointed that she didn't stop to talk to her, and she made a mental note to herself to sit down and talk to her strongest admirer in the family later. There were important matters to attend to first though. Rosetta gave her a considering look as she approached. "You look stressed. What's got your tail in a knot? More trouble with work?" Wild came up close to the three of them and sat down quietly, not answering right away. She looked at her mama. The older woman looked a little dazed. That probably meant she had her medication recently. Hopefully soon the days of needing medication would be at an end. That was if Sunset could solve the mental issues. "What's wrong, sweet pea?" Her papa asked her with a strong hint of concern. She took a deep breath and flattened out her ears before answering. "I'm not going to beat around the bush. I'm just going to say it straight out. I'm two months pregnant. No, I don't know who the father is. Yes, I'm keeping it." The three of them gasped. Even in her foggy state that news registered to her mama. It seemed that all three were working on an appropriate response after she stated all the pertinent details. Rosetta was the first to recover. "Phobia likely already knew and didn't say a word! I know she isn't supposed to divulge private information, but this is family." "Wild telling you the news, dear?" Phobia called out across the room. "Yes! She's telling me the news!" Rosetta shouted back and then refocused on Wild. "I thought you were on birth control. Not just regular birth control either, you had the normal medical stuff and magic. How'd you get pregnant?" Wild rubbed one of her forelegs absently. "Well, over the counter stuff isn't foolproof. As for the magic, you know how it takes a lot of magic to do anything to me? Well, from what I had explained to me, because my magic is so powerful it kind of overwhelms spells set on me so they fail faster. The birth control spell essentially failed much earlier than it should have because of that." "And you have no clue at all who the father is?" Her papa said in a tight voice. She hung her head and shook it. "I sleep with maybe twenty to twenty-five stallions a month on average. I can't even remember the majority of them. I can guess where the father lives...Algeria, based on when it happened, but that's about the best I can give you." "Algeria? Seriously?" Rosetta said with frustration. "How many ponies actually live in Algeria? Did you sleep with every stallion in that country? This slutty behavior was going to get you into trouble sooner or later." Wild's eyes narrowed as she glared at her sister. "Excuse me? Did you just call me a slut?" Rosetta glared back. "You're the one that quoted off twenty to twenty-five stallions a month. I think those figures speak for themselves. That's between two-hundred-forty and three-hundred a year, and you've been at this for a few years now. At a certain point you go from being sexually liberated to being a slut. I think two-hundred something stallions a year is definitely in that territory." Wild's temper flared and she took some deep breaths to calm herself. After getting her temper under control she decided to just give a full explanation. "Alright, I'll admit I have far more sex than the average pony...by a lot. I'm always on the road doing important work. I get stressed, I get lonely, and I'm generally horny. That same magic that gives me the power to change the world also gives me a sex drive you wouldn't believe. Since I'm a PREQUES of at least eight I get the super sex drive package, because apparently earth ponies have magic reproductive systems and the more magic the more libido; it just doesn't come up with earth ponies normally because they aren't anywhere near this high up on the magic scale to put their drive out of whack. So...yeah, I typically have a libido that would make a rabbit blush. It's part of what I am, and what I do with other consenting adults isn't your business to criticize or throw slurs at me for." Rosetta blinked and then bit her lip before answering, "You've never mentioned that. If it's really that big a problem I could ask Phobia to get in touch with Yinyu for you. Yinyu is good at helping with those kinds of problems. She knows how to adjust anything with sex drives and sexuality if you convince her there's something hurting you about yours. It's completely confidential, other than a report about what she did getting filed with the OMMR. I know a lot of night pony mares go to her for help." Wild frowned and shook her head. At least Rosetta was backing off calling her names for her high sex drive. Talking to the Dreamwarden of Lust might be an option later on, but it wasn't needed right now. Having a bun in the oven seemed to dampen the drive considerably. She still had some drive, but it was a more normal level right now. Maybe after this foal was born she might explore options. She didn't like the idea of her having a report on her doing something like that in some bureaucrat's files that could leak to the press. Having a Dreamwarden for a sister-in-law was bad enough press, going to them for help with personal problems would be a fiasco if it leaked. She was curious about something though. "What exactly does Yinyu do for night pony mares that comes up so often?" She asked. Rosetta gave a sad sigh and lifted a wing up to show the tattoos that marked her sexual attraction to mares. "Yinyu's Blessing. I didn't take or need it, obviously, but I had my wings done anyway to mark that I wasn't fighting for stallions. They want to escape the stigma. Everyone treats night pony mares like they're dangerous pedophiles because they'll search out any male night pony for a mate, even underage ones as eventual mates. The pressure to escape that stigma and infighting makes many of them turn to having their minds altered so they actually have options when looking for a mate. It's going to be many years yet before the night ponies' gender imbalance resolves itself, and most night ponies living today won't live to see it. Yinyu doesn't really like it, but the desperate mares have made their case clear that going without her blessing is detrimental to them." Wild blinked. She knew about the stigma. Devon treated any straight night pony mare that came near Robby with a huge amount of hostility, and it didn't seem unfounded in a lot of cases. She'd also heard the term Yinyu's Blessing before, but had thought it just a slang term for lesbian, not actual mind alteration that had been done. She never really considered why the night pony mares sat there trying to flirt with young colts. It seemed obvious now that it was explained to her, and gave her new insights into her sister's tribe. Rosetta wiped her eyes where they had started to water. "Fuck Sunset Shimmer for how much she screwed up with the night pony tribe. My chances of getting eventual grandfoals from my daughters are slim, and I wouldn't blame them for going to Yinyu as well when they grow up. Even their generation will be facing this. I don't want them being treated that way." Wild frowned. There had to be something she could do to help the night ponies out. Maybe encourage large scale night pony sperm donations so they could at least artificially inseminate the night pony mares. That may help with getting more foals born to help even out the numbers sooner, but wouldn't help with the current adults wanting relationships and trying to stick it out as straight mares. Some sort of public campaign to raise awareness of the night ponies' plight? She had to do something to help take care of the night ponies. She wasn't going to discuss it with her sister. The response she would get was the same tired one about how she didn't have to be responsible for caring about everyone and everything. She'd give her own response about how she had the power to make a difference so she should be trying. It would descend into a fight and she'd do what she could to help anyway. Better just to skip the fight and figure out what could be done on her own. Ponies needed her help and resources. If she wasn't using her power and wealth to help others there was no point to any of it. Her papa took a deep breath and she waited fearfully for his response. Disappointing him always hurt the most, and she knew he was disappointed with her. "I'm not going to discuss the circumstances that led to you getting pregnant," her papa finally said. "You're having a foal and that's all that matters. I'd like to say I would do anything to help you out that I could, but your mother's health is my main focus." Wild glanced at her mama. Her mama seemed to be not even half aware of what was going on around her. She just seemed to be in her own little world. This medication was just not helpful enough if it left her like this. She rather have her mother trembling and able to understand what was going on around her than this. Medical routes were failing her. Hopefully the effects would clear up enough soon that her mother could understand. "There's another thing I need to discuss with you, concerning Mama," Wild added on as she tried to work up the courage to discuss this. Her papa looked at her curiously. "Did your researchers find a better medication than this?" She shuffled her hooves and wrapped her tail around one of her hind legs. "Kind-of-sort-of...this is really big. We're presenting it to the government this Sunday." Rosetta's eyes narrowed. "I heard about delegates are supposed to be arriving in town Saturday for something Sunset's presenting. Having Homeland Security and Department of Pony Affairs involved doesn't seem like simple medical research and breakthroughs. What are you and that unicorn up to?" Wild lowered her head and indicated her sister and papa should huddle close together with her. They gave her questioning looks, but Rosetta got close by her and her papa crouched down close to her. She kept her voice at a low whisper. "We've developed a way to do temporary transformations of humans to ponies and ponies to humans." The other two gasped but she continued on. "While temporarily transformed all illnesses and physical ailments are gone. It only lasts a few hours at a time, but over those few hours Mama could be fully functional." Rosetta growled. "You're treading on dangerous ground. You know how most of the world, including our government, feels about transforming humans. You could also spark new fears that the government will try to force ponies to rehumanize as well. This could go wrong in so many ways." "That's why we're bringing the delegates in," Wild whispered. "We want the government to feel like they have the power to control and regulate this. We also want to present it in the best light possible. This could help so many people, both humans and ponies. It isn't just people like Mama. Think about Tom who has never been really completely happy as a pony. We can give him temporary humanity, and he isn't the only pony that wants that--not to mention humans and ponies dealing with debilitating injuries and illnesses that temporary transformation can give them relief for where nothing else will. The spell can be reapplied when needed after wearing off. It's a medication, the ultimate medication for those with no hope of getting better." "But they just go back to being sick when it wears off from what you described," Rosetta said harshly. Wild nodded. "But they aren't while it's applied, and it reverts back to where it was before the transformation. We could extend the lives of those in critical care by a long period with regular applications of the spell. We could give cancer patients with weeks to live months or even years instead, all while improving their quality of life because they won't be hurting during those transformation times." "And this is ready to be used?" Her papa asked with wide eyes. Wild sucked in her breath. "Not yet, but it's close. We have the actual transformation part down. There's some problems on the mental end we haven't resolved. We didn't want this to be like ETS where it overrode so much of a person's old personality and instincts with new ones, so we didn't do much to impact them mentally. We're coming to learn that we made a mistake by doing virtually nothing on that end. We still need to find the right balance of what is just enough mental changes to make things right without changing too much." Rosetta's gaze hardened. "Now you're pulling mind magic into it. You're messing with things you don't understand. Have you even informed the Dreamwardens about your mages doing mind magic?" "I was told Sha'am Maut has been informed that we're going to start using it, and that we're busy writing up the legal informed consent paperwork and it will be reviewed by office at the UN shortly. All the regulations will be met. We're doing everything with care," Wild said dismissively. Rosetta gave her a disapproving stare but it softened into one of concern. "Wild, be careful. There is going to be an uproar when news of this gets out. I know I like to talk you up like you're invincible, but as you reminded me you're not. There are a lot of angry people just outside the gates of this property. If enough people try to hurt you due to your connection to this someone is going to get lucky enough to put a bullet into something vital at close range. And please, don't use something that's not ready on Mama." Wild frowned. "Well, that's why I keep security, so they don't get that chance to hurt me. If they can't get close enough they can't get a shot off that will have enough impact to do anything. I'll keep you safe as well. I'll protect and take care of everyone, and I'll make sure this is ready." "Sweet pea, you can't be sure you'll be safe," her papa said sadly. "You're powerful, scarily powerful, but you aren't powerful enough to protect yourself all the time or everyone else. The twins used to talk about you being a superhero, but even Superman has his kryptonite. Yours is you try to carry everyone on those powerful shoulders of yours and thinking there are no limits to what you can do. You're so focused on trying to save the world you lose track of some important things. You have a foal on the way, don't endanger yourself or your baby if you don't have to. We can find another way if what your sister says is true. I have nightmares about what people will do to you, your sister, and the foals. You've risen so far up it has become its own danger." Wild grit her teeth. "Mama needs me to fix this; so many needing people need me to fix things for them. I have poured years of effort into this and I will see to it this research is followed through; for Mama and everyone else. I am strong enough to protect myself and everyone else in this family, and this can do too much good to turn away from it." "This is so risky Wild," Rosetta said in a pleading voice. "You can't just do this to Mama with these kinds of risks, even if you're willing to expose yourself to them." Wild took a deep breath. "You know, you're right. Let's see what she has to say about it when she is more lucid. I'll talk to her tomorrow when she isn't medicated. It's her choice to go through with it, not mine, not yours, not anyone else's, hers. This is a good thing, and I think she'll agree with me." Their conversation was interrupted by Sunset Blessing walking out into the living room. "Hello everyone. I'm sorry about the delays, but dinner is ready. Everyone gather up their plates of food, but don't eat yet. We need to say grace first." Wild looked at her papa. "We'll talk more after dinner."