Tonya sat in the hospital lobby staring at the doors that went back into the emergency room. Velvet had been back there for a while and there had been no word yet on whether she'd be alright.
She'd already called Sunset to let her know what happened, and Sunset said she'd be over to the hospital as soon as she could. That had been about thirty minutes ago. Tonya sat and tried to work out in her head how long it took to get from the vaults to the hospital, but couldn't come up with a clear answer. It took several minutes just to get down to the vaults from the entrance of the Bastion, and more time to get from the Bastion to the hospital.
The lobby was empty with the exception of her and the person at the reception desk. There were lots of seats but they seemed unneeded. In Riverview there weren't supposed to be emergencies like this. When she'd been human ER lobbies had always been packed when she had to go to them. The emptiness of the lobby was a good thing, but it felt disconcerting at the same time. It was like she was the only one worried and unsure of what was to come. It was a type of loneliness that needed a special word for it because saying afraid and alone did it no justice.
The door to the ER opened and she jumped to her hooves as a human doctor came out to her.
"Your friend is going to be alright, for now," the doctor said. "We pumped her stomach and got her heart rate and breathing stable. We had actually gotten a notice from the OMMR responders shortly after her arrival that she was in danger, it wouldn't have been fast enough if we had relied on that. She's lucky you found her."
She wanted to call Phobia to yell that they really needed to speed up the response time at the OMMR. That wasn't fair though. The OMMR emergency alerts depended on volunteer responders and those were in short supply at this time of day. The Dreamwardens likely had to find a responder outside the area who had to in turn track down the contact information for the Riverview hospital after just waking up. It would hurt Phobia's feelings to condemn what had been one of her proudest ideas because it wasn't efficient enough. Especially since no one was willing to fund a group of professional responders in order to make it efficient.
Tonya was a volunteer OMMR responder herself. That was a bit of irony because that meant she could have likely alerted authorities about Velvet being in danger much sooner if she had just slept in. She didn't even care if it was likely Sha'am Maut she would be getting the alert from.
"Is she awake? Can I see her?" Tonya asked.
The doctor shook his head. "She's still asleep and will be for a little while. Her body needs time to recover from what happened so we don't want to wake her up unnecessarily. She has no contacts for emergencies listed on her insurance. Do you know of any family of hers we can contact?"
Tonya shook her head. "She had some pictures of family up in her walls, but I never heard her talk about it. I'm her counselor and was getting ready to have her referred to a fully licensed psychologist. I think she might have already had one though if you check who prescribed her those pills to begin with. They might know someone to contact."
The doctor nodded. "We'll look into it. It's a sad thing whenever someone attempts this. It's a regular public health crisis with the night pony mares."
There were a disproportionate amount of unmarked night pony mares on the list of volunteers for the temporary transformation experiment. She only knew the next five ponies on the list at a time, but they were all unmarked night pony mares out of the next five. That was a potential issue because that was a lot of potential subjects who weren't in a good mental state before the experiment. If these experiments were going to continue they really needed help.
"If you come back tonight I'm sure she will be able to take guests then," the doctor said as he seemed prepped to leave.
She nodded. "Alright. Let her know that I was here and I'm very worried about her."
As the doctor walked away she hung her head and sighed. At least Velvet was going to be alright. She'd have to come back tonight and talk to the night pony. She needed to try to find out why she had lied about being on medication, find out who her actual psychologist was, and figure out what steps to take from there. It took a few times repeating it to herself to remind herself this could have been worse.
She started to raise her leg in order to call her wife again when Sunset came through the hospital doors. The unicorn raced over to her looking frazzled. "I'm sorry. I came as quick as I could. I was down in the vaults with Wild and had to escort her out, otherwise I'd have been here quicker."
"It's okay," Tonya said in a quiet voice.
Sunset came up to her and hugged her. "Is she alright? Did the doctors get to her in time?"
Tonya nodded into her wife's shoulder. "Yes, she'll pull through. She's sleeping right now."
"Thank God," Sunset said as she gave Tonya another squeeze before releasing.
She looked down at the floor. "Sunset, ponies aren't supposed to do things like this. We're not supposed to feel so helpless about our lives that we think we're better off not living."
"There are always exceptions who are troubled. We'll get her help so we can try to fix the way she's feeling," Sunset said soothingly.
Tonya looked up at her. "This is an epidemic with the night ponies, not some occasional individual. Sunset, there are a lot of night ponies on our volunteer list. We have a whole tribe that feels hopelessness."
Sunset sat down and lowered her ears. "Look, I understand they're going through a rough time right now with their tribe. They're dealing with a severe gender imbalance that has them at each other's throats, they feel like their leaders have been taken from them, and they feel like outsiders from everyone else. They're desperate for something to fix their problems. That's why we have so many volunteers from them. These things will pass, and once we get this project working we can give them some relief."
"Sunset, until we are sure we know what we're doing I don't think we should experiment with night ponies anymore," Tonya said firmly. "They aren't in a good place emotionally to deal with the failures. I don't want to have to find any more of them like I found Velvet. They can't take it. I can't take it."
Her wife frowned. "That's the majority of our volunteers on the list for ponies. That leaves us with few options and we need to be able to show this is working right with ponies. I'm not sure we can afford to take the night ponies off the list."
"Are there other options?" Tonya asked as she stared her wife in the eyes. "I don't want anyone else who is mentally unwell being exposed to this. Not when things aren't right yet. I won't be a part of it if we do. I told you, I can't take it."
Sunset hung her head and spoke in a near whisper. "There's one I can think of off the top of my head."
"Who?"
Her wife turned her head away. "Tom, he's on the list."
She felt no jealousy that Sunset was showing concern about Tom. She knew that Sunset never stopped loving him. Sunset just recognized she didn't have the right type of love for him to be married to him. "Are you prepared to move him to the front of the list, knowing we aren't sure this first round of mind magic will work?"
Sunset licked her lips. "I'll talk to him, both him and Amanda about it. She has a right to know what he's volunteered for. I'll explain where we are at in term of research and let them make the decision."
"Amanda isn't going to be very happy."
Sunset let off a sad laugh. "I might not get along with her, but I do understand how she thinks, at least a little. She knows how much this will mean to him."
"I'm not so sure," Tonya replied. "She's the one who wanted to give their foal a pony name, and the one that uses a pony name publicly."
Sunset nodded. "I know, but I've heard her talk to him. She encourages him to embrace the fact he is a pony because she wants him to be at peace with himself and happy. Knowing there are options might change her mind. I sometimes wonder if she has her own desire to be human again, despite her apparent pony-positive disposition. Perhaps she may volunteer as well."
Tonya didn't feel comfortable still. "You need to make sure the spell is cut short this time if needed. Don't let it just keep running till it expires. The first sign of distress and you have the crystal ponies pull the plug on it. Don't let it run its course if they are getting upset."
"We need more data on how long it lasts and why it lasts different amounts of time on different people," Sunset insisted.
"We can get that later once we have gotten confident we have things right with the rest of the spell," Tonya countered. "We aren't trying to have a finished product ready to go by Sunday. Just enough to show its promise. This is Tom you're doing this to. Do you want to have him traumatized? We were ignorant about what could happen before, but we aren't now. I'm supposed to remind you when you are crossing lines that shouldn't be crossed. Please, take me seriously with this."
Sunset frowned and nodded. "You're right. There are ethical concerns that we need to take into account. How are Melissa and Megan doing? Not as bad as Velvet, I hope."
Tonya glanced up as a human man and woman came running in through the doors to the reception desk, looking worried. The unicorn paramedics teleported straight back to the hospital so there might have been someone brought in the last few minutes.
She dropped her voice further. "Megan is still pretty shaken up, but not as bad as Velvet was. I haven't heard from Melissa but will call her and arrange a counseling session with her as well. I had her on a call me if you need me order, but given what happened with Velvet I want to have an actual sit down with her no matter what."
Sunset nodded again. "Wild and I went over the mind magic we'll be incorporating into the next round of tests. I also showed her the footage of the last round of tests and discussed with her what the mind magic we were including would hopefully address. Had to explain to her that you weren't doing the mind magic because she was under that impression for some reason. She's going to talk to her mother now about volunteering."
"I'll make the call to Melissa," Tonya replied. "Please wait until I've had time to sit down and talk with her before we do the next round of tests. I know we're on a deadline, but we need to be aware of the after effects. Melissa seemed fine, but I want to be sure."
Hopefully there were no negative side effects with Melissa.
Wild hopped out of her limo once again. Going place to place by car was aggravating, but couldn't be helped. She just couldn't go walking down the street like the average person without having to concern herself with security issues. It felt like everything in her life had to be closely monitored; what she said in public was all carefully rehearsed, her travels from place to place required security present at all times, and her every action put under a magnifying glass. It went well beyond what a celebrity would endure, and it was beyond tiring. She wished she could just escape it all.
Maybe sometime in the future she could use the temporary transformation spell herself, just to be able to go out unnoticed into the world for just a few hours. Was it selfish to want a few hours of being someone else?
"I'll send a call out when I'm ready to leave. You can take an hour break somewhere else for now," she instructed her limo driver. She was still going to be stuck with a security guard standing outside the house, but no need to keep the driver waiting here.
"Yes, ma'am," the human driver replied. He them got back in the car and started it back up. A moment later he drove off, leaving her and her crystal pony guard standing in front of her parents' house.
"Stay on the porch. I don't know how long I'll be. If there's trouble don't hesitate to call for backup. I don't want anything happening to my family," Wild instructed the guard. She didn't really think there would be any real threats, but it was always best just to keep everyone alert, just in case. It was the attacks she didn't expect that she was vulnerable to.
They walked up to the house. It was a simple two story dwelling that had been here before the majority of Riverview was built. The porch had four flags flying; the Clemson University flag, the South Carolina flag, the new Puerto Rico state flag, and an updated US flag. Her family had celebrated when they finally got to put those last two up, after the government finally decided that it wanted no questions about Puerto Rico's status as part of the United States. There was a pegasus running for US Senate on a Harmonist platform there that claimed to be her cousin to boost his publicity. She'd found out he actually was a sixth cousin when looking into it, though she didn't think that really counted.
The guard took his position on the porch as she let herself in. The house was quiet. Both Jose and Miguel were effectively moved out at this point, and were staying at a hotel in town. The twins still had rooms here, but since starting college they wanted their own space and privacy.
From what she could tell Jose had more than one reason to desire privacy. She really should have made more effort to speak with his girlfriend yesterday and get a feel for the girl's personality. She hadn't learned much about her so far; the two attended the same college and the girl didn't seem familiar with southern pony culture, that was about all she knew so far. Well, that and the relationship was serious enough that the girl came with him to Thanksgiving instead of going home to her own family. Jose and his girlfriend had taken off to a hookah bar after dinner yesterday, but that didn't bother her. If she weren't pregnant she might have joined them to spend some time with them.
So many months left where she had to go without her usual distractions, and she'd have to drastically cut down on those even after her foal was born. She needed some new hobbies once her mother was taken care of.
"Hey," Rosetta said as she walked into the front room.
Wild gave her sister a questioning look. "Hi, what are you doing here? Are you going to try to stop Mama from agreeing to try the temporary transformation?"
Rosetta pursed her lips and flicked an ear. "I'm here to listen in to what is being discussed, and if I have concerns I'll express them."
"So, that's a yes," Wild said with a small sneer.
Her sister walked over and gave her a sad look. "It's a statement that I'll express my concerns. I'm not completely opposed to this idea to tell you the truth. I want Mama better too. I just want to be sure this is safe. I don't want anyone getting hurt. I want to protect the family."
"You're just being a protective night pony then?" Wild asked as she stared at her sister.
Rosetta frowned. "I would say that I'm being a loving daughter and big sister who cares about her family. Not every time I'm protective has to be attributed to my tribe. That's rather tribalist if you really want to get into it."
That made Wild blink. "I thought you had a great deal of pride in that night pony protectiveness. I wouldn't feel you'd take that as an insult."
Rosetta sighed. "I don't take being protective by nature an insult. But I do take having my concerns dismissed as me just being any overprotective night pony somewhat insulting. I'm your sister and part of this family. If I was a human or any other type of pony I would still have concerns about this."
"Do you think I would be doing this if I felt it would hurt Mama?" Wild demanded with a stomp of her hoof.
Rosetta raised her head up high. "By your own admission you have poured years of effort into this. You now see a potential finish line and you have a deep emotional commitment to this. Don't you think that might impair your judgment slightly?"
Wild snorted. "I was just reviewing footage of the last experiments and going over with Sunset how to resolve what problems we saw. It won't hurt Mama."
"And you have confirmed that these problems are getting resolved by whatever adjustments you're doing?" Rosetta asked with a raised eyebrow. "You've also confirmed you don't have other problems other than what you observed? If Sunset is so confident in this version of the spell maybe she should have it used on herself to verify its safety."
"The human to pony transformation spell is somewhat different than the pony to human one," Wild replied with a groan. "So that wouldn't be that much of a confirmation for her to do in Mama's case."
"Have you had any successful experiments of humans to ponies?" Rosetta asked skeptically.
"One." It had some extenuating circumstances, but what they learned my Megan's experiment gave them the knowledge to prevent a repeat of the failures. Mentally lining up that a person was what their temporary body happens to be was needed. Some of that had been found in the runes for ETS, but surprisingly not as much as expected. At least by what Sunset said. Wild knew about runes and made use of them more than the average earth pony--she needed to in order to have fine control of her powers, but she didn't know as much as most unicorns. A certain amount of trust had to be given that Sunset knew what she was talking about.
Rosetta seemed to consider for a moment. "Out of how many people?"
"Two," Wild answered. "We still have other human volunteers if she wants to see more testing first. The failure was due to emotional trauma that we realized our mistakes on, not a problem with the transformation itself."
Rosetta flicked her tail. "I guess I'll listen to you explain it to Mama and I'll ask questions then. Come on, let's go upstairs."
Her sister led the way and Wild followed without a word. She considered the stairs as she went up them and whether her mama had a lot if trouble with them. It might have been better for her parents to move to one of the human apartments before now. Elevators had to be better than stairs for someone suffering from Parkinson's. The house was also far bigger than they needed with just her parents left here. The neighbors would be closer in order to turn to for help as well. Whether her mama agreed to this or not it might be a good idea to suggest a move.
They went to their parents' room and found the door open. Her papa was sitting in a chair and seemed tired. Her mama was on the bed and she was just making lots of random movements that served no purpose at all, a small child that couldn't sit still wouldn't have been moving around as much as her mama was on top of the bed.
"Hello girls," her mama greeted them as they walked in, still not ceasing in her constant movement, a side effect of the medication wearing off that would last up to a day. It couldn't really be helped. She really had no control over her body while like this, it was pure luck she was still able to speak clearly. It was this or having her unable to think or speak.
They kept their distance as their Mama's legs could sometimes kick out unexpectedly, sometimes those kicks were hard, sometimes they weren't, but they were completely unpredictable. Their mama seemed like she would try to bring an arm up to lean on only to drop it and do the other before flailing each of them. Fists would clench, then unclench, and she'd squirm and seem to roll around slightly. Muscle spasms would rock her body in-between all these movements. This would go on until medicated and had to be physically exhausting. Things would only get worse as time went on. If things continued to progress it would reach a point to where all she was doing was spasming to the point everything was locked up tight. She wouldn't even be able to speak then, just be trapped in a body that did not work.
"She's speaking well today, almost no stutters," their papa informed them.
"I'm right here, Roger. I can speak for myself," their mama chided him as she continued to twist in place.
"Force of habit, dear," her papa replied.
"Let me talk for me. I can do it right now. I don't get many chances," her mama pleaded.
"We know, Mama," Wild said sadly. "Did Papa tell you what I'm here to talk to you about?"
Her mama looked like she tried to nod but her head just did a few jerks instead. "He told me you have a way of making me a pony for a while and I'm not la-like this when I'm that way."
Wild nodded. "I need to tell you what has happened with those who have tried this already and explain what it can and can't do."
"If it will give me control of my body again that's all I need to know. I don't care if it's a p-pony body," her mama said quickly.
"Well, I still need to explain some important things," Wild replied. "We've had two test runs with turning humans into ponies temporarily. One went great, the other had some issues I need to discuss. We think we fixed the problems with the one that didn't go right, but I still need to tell you what went wrong and what we had to do to fix it."
Her mama just continued to move about and twitch without responding. Her mama's eyes couldn't even focus on her because she kept turning her head in different directions constantly. This was only the side effects of the medication wearing off and it was hard to watch.
Wild sat down as she began her explanation. "The one that didn't go right didn't have control of their body to start. It took them a long time to get where they were even able to move what body parts they wanted, and it wasn't well controlled. We have added mind magic that will give your brain the basic operating instructions for your body. We're pretty sure we have that part right now."
"But if you're wrong she's still trapped in a body she can't use," Rosetta chimed in as she gave a hard glare.
Wild glared back. "As I said, we think we have it fixed, and if we haven't gotten it fixed we can get to where we do have it right with some adjustments. If she goes in knowing there might be problems she won't be as upset by them, and we can try again later with the adjustments."
"That's risky, doing a bunch of failed bits of mind magic. The failures can do unexpected things, possibly bad things," Rosetta insisted.
"I understand the risk," their mama cut in. "Anything else I sh-should know?"
Wild looked back to their mama. "Yes. There was distress from that patient that we attributed to not having a pony sense of self, and having their human mind warring with the fact they were in a pony body and rejecting it. We're going to have mind magic to do something about this as well added in."
She took a deep breath and added. "We are not as sure we have that right."
"¡Su sentido del yo es una gran puta cosa para desordenar!" Rosetta growled at her like she wasn't aware of how bad that could go. What did Rosetta think she was, stupid?
"¡Haley, maldiciendo!" Her papa shouted. Rosetta just continued to glare, not even budging at the use of her human name or being called out for foul language like a foal.
Wild decided to just give a blanket reassurance to her mama. "Sunset gave me a call on the way here assuring me that we'll have crystal ponies standing by to help cancel out the spell if anything goes wrong. Even if we don't have everything right yet we can with time. We just need someone who is willing to help us get it right if we need multiple attempts to do so."
"What about your successful person?" Rosetta questioned.
Wild gave her a flat look and laid her ears flat. The fact that the night ponies almost certainly knew about Melissa's secret and said nothing to anyone annoyed her.
When Wild answered she couldn't keep the frustration from boiling over into it. "Era Melissa Rivers, y tengo la sensación de que sabes por qué funcionó para ella y he estado callada sobre lo que es."
Rosetta flattened her ears and looked down. Yeah, Rosetta had definitely known about Melissa's little secret and hadn't said a word to anyone. The damn night ponies were still secretive after all this time.
"The actual transformation part works though, and it doesn't carry over the Parkinson's?" Her papa asked before Wild and could continue to press her sister.
Wild turned to him and nodded. "The doctors checked. The pony bodies are fully healthy and functional. We don't determine tribe or anything like that, so there's no telling what tribe she might come out as. Both our previous subjects came out as night ponies. One we have a clear idea why, the other we have some guesses, but we don't think it is stuck just doing night pony. If it is we can figure out later why."
"Hold it, isn't the Equestrian temporary transformation spell you're trying to base this off of supposed to transform them into what you choose? Why don't you know what tribe?" Rosetta demanded.
Wild turned back to her. "Because this obviously isn't the same spell. We're working on our own spell with theirs as inspiration. We have seen the Equestrian version and it has issues we can't afford to have in ours."
"What kinds of issues?" Rosetta asked.
Wild frowned. "This is a little beyond my full understanding and I leave it to Sunset and her mages to know what they are talking about. What they said is that the Equestrian version decays the morphic resonance with repeated use in a short period of time, and we cannot afford to have that happen. A full new spell had to be made."
"Decaying anything sounds bad," her papa said warily.
They had no idea. Apparently there was talk of China trying to make a weapon that would decay the morphic resonance of everyone in a large area. It would be a magical weapon capable of killing millions if they accomplished it. She'd only learned of that today and the thought of it made her shiver. There were a lot of things she learned today that made her fearful of the future.
She turned around. "Because it is bad. Your body will start failing, become deformed, or who knows what if that resonance decays, and there's no fixing it. We're looking for something that can have repeated use over a long period of time. We can't do something that will decay that resonance. That's why the Equestrians never used their spell here to try to give the effect we're trying to do. Their spell won't work for constant repeated use, but ours will. We resolved the issue in our form."
"How are you developing more advanced spells than what the Equestrians have? It doesn't seem possible," Rosetta asked in confusion.
Oh, if her sister only knew how far along magic on Earth really had developed. When you have more unicorns than there are ponies of any tribe living in Equestria. You gave them an idea what they can do, mix in some stolen knowledge, a strong drive to learn, and fresh perspectives from the Equestrians it added up to some rapid advancement. It was probably part of Sunset Shimmer's plan from the start, even though she'd seriously miscalculated how much she'd altered instincts to where it wouldn't have happened had things gone unstopped. In a sense stopping Sunset Shimmer's main plan had been the catalyst for the parts that would have failed on their own to succeed.
However, with this spell part of it was Sunset Blessing was literally lifting whole parts of the spell from Sunset Shimmer's spell. They had taken the Sunset Shimmer's spell apart and were stitching parts of it together with a bunch of new parts they'd developed on their own. It had been quite the revelation when she found that out earlier today. The unicorn had refused to say how she had even gotten ahold of Sunset Shimmer's spell; it should have been impossible. She even claimed that the government knew she had it.
"I'm not allowed to really give an answer on that. There's national security things tied into that," she answered instead. "Just trust me that we have."
Rosetta flicked her tail angrily, but didn't respond. Wild could feel a certain amount of empathy in this case.
"So, it will temporarily make me a pony, and I'll feel like I should be a pony while it's in effect?" Her mama asked as she continued to move about. She seemed to be moving about faster.
Wild nodded. "That's how it is supposed to work. I should warn you too that one of our subjects didn't have magic before this experiment, but is reading she has weak magic now. The other subject already had magic and it increased slightly." She turned to Rosetta. "Have something to say about that?"
Her sister shook her head. "Lots of humans have magic. There are clear ways that is handled. If Mama isn't concerned about gaining magic then I'm not. Though I'm guessing your failed experiment didn't have any going in, and hope you have considered if that might have been a cause."
"We don't believe it is, but the option is under consideration," Wild replied. "We got a little overconfident after the first test and realized mistakes were made. We're being much more careful now. We won't let this do anything bad."
"I'll do it," her mama declared. Rosetta looked like she wanted to say something, but her mama didn't give her time. "Rosetta, I understand you're worried, but this is my one real chance to be functional again. I understand they might need to go through multiple attempts to do it right, an-and that it might not be pleasant when it doesn't work. It can't be any worse than what I'm dealing with now though."
Rosetta looked down and took a deep breath. "Fine. It's your call." The night pony shook her head. "I'm going down to the kitchen and getting something to drink. I'll hear the details of when things are going to happen in a few minutes."
Rosetta turned and walked out of the room with her tail dragging behind her.
Wild frowned as she looked at the door and then turned back to her parents. "Alright, there's not much more to say at the moment. We can get you in for the first round of attempts at eight in the morning tomorrow at the Bastion. Don't come medicated, and try to be well rested as you can. You can't tell the twins or anyone else about this yet. Rosetta really shouldn't even know, but I trust her to keep a secret. No one keeps a secret like a night pony. If things go well we will be making a public announcement about it Sunday and you can talk about it with everyone then."
"Getting her to the Bastion unmedicated is going to be difficult, but we can manage it," her papa replied. "We'll be there."
Wild turned towards the door. "I want to talk to Rosetta. I'll be back up in a few minutes."
"That might not be a good idea. It might be better to give her space," her papa cautioned.
Wild shook her head. "I need to ask her some questions about some other things anyway. We won't fight." That last part was probably a promise she couldn't keep, but she'd at least try to keep it.
She walked out of the room and went down to the kitchen. The house wasn't really built with ponies in mind and as such had much higher kitchen counters. Rosetta was perched up on a kitchen counter staring into a mug of something gripped between her forehooves. Her sister's ears twitched as Wild approached, but Rosetta didn't look at her.
"Rosetta, I..." Wild began, but was cut off by Rosetta raising a wing.
"Save it, Wild. You're right, it's her choice, not mine. Mama's made her choice and I can't argue," Rosetta said, still not looking up from the mug. "I'm not even sure if it's something I should be arguing about or not."
"I wanted to ask you some things," Wild said as she sat down below where Rosetta was sitting on the counter. "I was told that almost all of the pony volunteers for testing were unmarked night pony mares. I had guessed when I heard it that they tried night ponies because the lot of you are very good at keeping secrets, but they are telling me that it's because those were the ones who actually seemed to show interest."
Rosetta set her mug down and hopped down from the counter. "I believe it. I've told you how bad things are with my tribe right now with the fighting for mates, but there are other things that are problems on top of that. That a lot of our worst off would want to just get out of being night ponies makes sense."
Wild rubbed one of her legs. "The thing is, Tonya just asked Sunset to pull all of them off the list for testing."
Rosetta jerked her head up. "Tonya what?! That's a really bad idea."
Wild looked at her sister like Rosetta had just grown another head. Rosetta had just been completely opposed to what was going on. This was a very quick change of opinion.
Rosetta seemed to notice her confusion. "You have to understand; these ponies feel like people keep taking everything away from them. Now you're denying them this when they volunteered. These are angry and desperate mares and they will not take being told they can't have this well. I may not feel comfortable with this temporary transformation, but I understand how important this must feel to many in my tribe."
"We're only taking them off the list until we're sure things are right," Wild clarified. "There were concerns their emotional state could cause additional problems. This is for their safety."
Rosetta whinnied slightly. "I agree with you, but they won't see your concern that way. The fact that they've been singled out will be noticeable to them even if you don't tell them. This is going to spark further outrage from an already outraged group."
"So what are we supposed to do?"
Rosetta looked her in the eyes. "You'd better be pretty damn clear that they are going back on the testing list after you resolve whatever it is you need to resolve. Otherwise you'll have a riot to deal with."
She nodded back. "I'll talk to Sunset about it."
Rosetta's ears were still flattened back, but didn't object instead she looked down. "I'm sorry again for calling you a slut yesterday. I think I let my own sexual frustration get into how I looked at you."
Wild blinked at the sudden shift in subject. "That's alright. Us yelling insults at one another isn't anything new. Is something wrong with you and Phobia?"
Rosetta shrugged. "Yes, no, not really. It's that she never has gotten completely over her rape. She'll make love with me, but it's infrequent, and she has to be the one to make the first move. It's not her fault, but I feel neglected all the same."
Wild came up and cuddled close to her sister. "Have you talked to her about it?"
Rosetta let off a long breath and laid back her ears again. "We've talked. She understands how I feel and has tried to come up with compromises. She can't just force herself to have sex when she isn't comfortable doing so. I wouldn't want to do that to her either, it would be like me raping her. She suggested me getting...a fling...on the side. It makes me feel dirty thinking about it."
"She wants you to cheat on her?!" Wild asked with wide eyes.
Rosetta shook her head. "Well, she'd be in the know about it, so I'm not sure I'd call it cheating. She doesn't seem to have a problem with the idea of me having a marefriend on the side to just have sex with. I would never consider such a thing normally, but I'm just so lonely when it comes to that kind of attention. I think that's what has my tail in a twist whenever the unmarked mares come up anymore. I feel a certain kinship with them."
"So are you going to do it?"
Rosetta nodded. "There's some clubs and bars that cater to lesbians in town. I was wondering if one of these evenings you could come by the house and help Phobia watch the foals while I'm out doing...that."
Wild gave her sister a nuzzle. "Sure, I don't mind. You do what you've got to do. I know it isn't lucky you're in this kind of situation with Phobia, but it is lucky you have..."
"Don't say it," Rosetta hissed. "This is hard enough for me as it is. No matter what it feels like a betrayal on my part. I should be stronger, for her sake. I'm not even sure if it will work out or if I'll just feel too ashamed to have this help anything."
"Well, she at least cares about what's important for your sake," Wild said sadly. "She'll be unhappy if you're unhappy, and wants to see your needs met. When's the last time she's been to a psychiatrist by the way?"
Rosetta let of a bitter laugh. "She hasn't since the Dreamwardens went public. What psychiatrist is going to feel qualified to sit down and discuss a Dreamwarden's issues? Not to mention how bad that would look if anyone found out. Psychic Calm talks to her some, but they've all got a load of shared issues. Phobia doesn't go into detail about it, but I get the impression that whatever process was done to make them Dreamwardens left its own scars. There's a lot about her I know next to nothing about. It's like there's the mare I know and love, but there's also all this other stuff that's been downloaded into her. It frightens me sometimes how much else there is in her other than just her."
The Dreamwardens were famously tight lipped about a lot of things. Even Princess Luna had publicly tried to get them to open up about what goes on in their heads, but to no avail. They wanted trust, but even now they still kept a lot strictly to themselves. It seemed they even kept those things from their loved ones.
That still left her unable to come up with a good way of comforting her sister. It sounded like there was a lot of stresses in that marriage.
"I'll come by and watch them. You just tell me when," Wild said soothingly. "I'm assuming Phobia is watching them right now?"
"Partly," Rosetta answered. "She's doing paperwork for the OMMR in her office. Tempest is foal sitting."
Wild suppressed a laugh. She wondered who was worse off in that arrangement. The Equestrian unicorn or the night pony foals.
Jessie looked around as her dad let her out of the car. There were always a lot of night ponies just hanging around this particular house. Some on the roof, some in the yard, and some out in the street. a lot of them were watching her and her dad. There wasn't a single stallion or colt out of all of them. She'd only seen a stallion here once, and it had caused the mares to break out into a fight.
There were a few older fillies mixed in as well, and she was pretty sure she recognized one of them from being in her fourth level calculus class. She rarely remembered classmates, but that class only had six students in it. The night pony's name was Layla, if Jessie remembered right. She also stood out to Jessie in class because Layla actually had a math related cutie mark--much to Jessie's jealousy--a full moon with stars around it and a pi symbol on the moon.
She noted for the first time that Layla's wings were marked. Had they been marked before and she hadn't noticed, or was this new? She guessed that meant Layla wasn't going to be a threat to her brother. A lot of these mares were unmarked though, and most of the fillies.
Her dad noticed her looking at them. "Don't worry, they won't try anything with Robby here. They're here because of Phobia, and they won't do anything that may end in her sending them away."
Jessie wasn't so sure of that. Phobia Remedy hadn't sent them away when they got into a fight that one time. Having all these night ponies watching her always made her nervous. Maybe their desire to be near a Dreamwarden would be enough though.
Her dad started walking towards the house and looked up at the night ponies perched above the porch. "You ladies having a nice day?"
"It's been slow," one of the mares called down. "Protesters don't like coming by when we're around. We're just waiting for the day ponies to arrive and take over watch."
There weren't nearly as many non-night ponies that came and did this, but there were some that seemed to have the same loyalty to the Dreamwardens that the night ponies had. While there were too many night ponies to keep track of who came here Jessie knew the names for most the non-night ponies. Her favorite was a crystal pony named Crystal Dreams who would sometimes have candy.
She followed after her dad. When they got to the door her dad gave a few quick knocks. A moment later the door opened and Tempest Shadow was standing there, wearing a red and white cheerleader outfit for some reason.
"Your colt is inside. Do you want me to fetch him for you?" Tempest asked without giving any greeting.
"Jessie was actually hoping to talk to Phobia Remedy while she was here. Phobia had shown some interest in a project Jessie was working on," her dad explained.
Tempest looked down at Jessie and raised an eyebrow. "The Dreamwarden's time is a valuable commodity. She is currently very busy. If you wish to speak to her here you may be waiting a while. I can pass on the message that you wished to speak to her and she could possibly dreamwalk to you later."
"I can wait a little while," Jessie responded. She then cocked her head. "Um, Ms. Tempest, why are you wearing a cheerleader outfit?"
Tempest glared down at her. "Because it is comfortable and easy to move around in. Why aren't you wearing clothes?"
"I don't normally wear clothes. I only wear a hat on Sundays to church," Jessie answered.
"It would seem like you aren't really qualified to judge other ponies' choice of attire then," Tempest said stiffly. "Come inside, the Dreamwarden will see you when she is ready."
She and her dad walked inside. Inside was a simple room with a couch, some pillows, and a lot of windows with the curtains drawn shut. There was some light provided by a dim lamp and she could see a few night lights plugged into walls here and there that provided a little bit of light, but the entire inside of the house was still pretty dim.
Tempest walked by them. The bright cheerleader outfit actually made her easier to see in the dark.
"Wait here and I'll inform the Dreamwarden of your request. I'll also send Robby down to you; I believe he is drawing upstairs," Tempest said as she walked towards the stairs.
"Where's Rosetta Stone?" Her dad asked.
Tempest turned to him for a brief second. "She is not currently at home." The broken horned unicorn walked on with no further explanation.
After Tempest went upstairs Jessie sat down and pulled her saddlebags off. This place was kind of creepy with how dark it was, all the night ponies outside, and Tempest not being really friendly. That was why she normally didn't come when Robby stayed here overnight.
She looked around at her surroundings some more with her ears flattened. Night ponies might like living like this, but she didn't like it at all. Maybe having to live in the dark like this was why Tempest was so grumpy. The little night lights really didn't do much to show their surroundings, and she kept looking at the shadows wondering what was in them.
Something touched her tail and she jumped into the air and screamed.
"Ow! Don't be so loud!" Came a familiar voice behind her.
She turned and looked at her assailant. Charlotte was crouched low to the ground holding her ears and giving her a dirty look.
"Well, don't scare me!" Jessie yelled at the night pony.
Charlotte winced. "Sorry, no more yelling. Please."
Jessie took a few deep breaths to calm down. "Why'd you sneak up on me?"
Charlotte looked to the stairs then back at Jessie. "We want you to help us. We're trying to get the cookies."
Jessie frowned. "Are you not supposed to get cookies? Why don't you just ask your mom or Tempest?"
"Because that's not part of the game," Charlotte replied.
Jessie blinked. "Game?"
Charlotte smiled and nodded. "Yeah, it's like tag. We gotta get the cookies and get away with them before we get catched by Mama. Mama isn't here, so it's Tempest we gotta get not catched from."
"It's don't get caught, not get catched," Jessie corrected.
Charlotte looked at her in confusion. "That's what I said."
Jessie suppressed the desire to argue the point. She wasn't supposed to treat other foals like they were stupid, even when they said stupid things.
Tag didn't seem like too bad an idea though. She like tag. There wasn't much talking involved with tag.
"Okay, I'll play," Jessie replied after thinking about it. "Where are the cookies?"
Charlotte smiled. "They're in the kitchen, at the highest place, and they got a lock on them."
Jessie blinked again. "That sounds like they really don't want you to get the cookies. How are you going to get them unlocked?"
Charlotte pointed at her. "Well, you're really smart. You can figure out how to get the lock off."
"You're sure this is just a game?" Jessie asked doubtfully. "It really sounds like they don't want you getting the cookies."
Charlotte nodded quickly. "It is a game. We play it all the time."
She looked at her dad, and he seemed uncertain for some reason as he looked back at her. He then sighed. "You can play with them if you want. Please, don't break anything."
That wasn't ominous or anything. She really wasn't sure she should agree to play with them. If her dad seemed like he wasn't sure about her playing with other foals that meant something bad might happen.
"I'm not sure," she said hesitantly to Charlotte.
"Come on," Charlotte pleaded. She then lifted her head. "Mommy always says we should face our fears. If you're afraid you should definitely play then, and beat those fears."
Jessie wasn't used to being lectured by other foals, at least not ones close to her age. The fact it was Phobia Remedy's advice that Charlotte was passing on did make her consider it again. Phobia Remedy had given her a lot of advice yesterday that seemed good, and was doing things for her. She wanted to impress the Dreamwarden just like she wanted to impress Wild. Doing this when she was nervous about it might impress the night pony.
"Okay, I'll play," Jessie agreed. Nothing that bad could happen. What could possibly go wrong?
This was bad, really bad. How had she let the demons talk her into this?
"You're doing great! Just try hopping a little more and it will come loose," Charlotte called up to her in a loud whisper.
It coming loose was exactly what she was afraid of. She had her legs tightly wrapped around a chain while sitting on the cookie jar. The chain and jar were both hanging from the ceiling. With the chain wrapped around the jar and lid tightly. Who the fudge hangs a cookie jar from a chain in the middle of the kitchen ceiling!
The three demons were below. Tabby and Alfie had a blanket held between them to catch her and Charlotte was trying to encourage her into dislodging the chain from the ceiling so she and the cookie jar could fall. This was the most insane thing that she had ever done!
"We'll catch you. It will be okay," Charlotte assured her.
"Why couldn't one of you be up here and I be down there helping catch you?" Jessie whimpered.
"Because none of the three of us is heavy enough. You are," Charlotte explained.
Outrage overrode fear for a second. "Are you calling me fat!"
"You're like a whole year older than us, and earth ponies are heavier than night ponies," Charlotte replied. The demons had clearly put some thought into this.
"I'm scared," Jessie whimpered again as she shut her eyes. She would have gripped tighter, but she couldn't hug the chain any tighter.
"You won't get down till you get the chain out," Charlotte reminded her.
Fudge...fudge...fudge! She repeated in her head. She wanted to use the worse word, but couldn't bring herself to say it in her head or out loud.
She was shaking as she opened her eyes and brought her hindquarters down as hard as she could on the cookie jar. The chain shook when she did, but didn't come loose.
"Keep doing that!" Charlotte called out in a hushed tone as she did worried glances towards the entrance to the kitchen. Why hadn't Tempest come checking on them yet? They weren't being that quiet.
This was still insane and she just wanted to be done with it all, but she had to get down first. She held her breath as she brought her weight down on the cookie jar a few more times. The chain did a sudden jerk. When she looked up she saw the hook in the ceiling was coming loose.
"Almost there. One more good bounce!" Charlotte called out.
"I'm going to fall!" Jessie whimpered, starting to cry.
"You'll be okay, trust us," Charlotte replied. "Do what Mommy says, face your fears."
Jessie wasn't sure that this was what Phobia Remedy meant when she said that. At this point she had no choice but to knock the chain loose from the ceiling. They'd better fudging catch her! She took a deep breath, and with one last hard pound down on the cookie jar the hook came loose and she and the cookie jar plummeted down. She hit the blanket that the demons were holding and it pulled free from their teeth, but had given enough buffer to stop her from hitting the kitchen floor at full force. The cookie jar had hit it a second before and bounced away, and she had heard it shatter against something.
"Cookies!" She heard Alfie call out in glee.
She looked up and saw Alfie grabbing a sealed package of fudge spiral cookies in his mouth. It wasn't even homemade cookies, just store stuff. She felt cheated because she knew Phobia Remedy baked all the time.
"So...the game is afoot," came the dreaded voice from the entrance to the kitchen.
They turned as a group and saw Tempest standing at the entrance of the kitchen. The unicorn was crouched in a fighting pose and her broken horn was sparking. This was bad.
"Run!" Tabby yelled out and made a beeline for the back door.
"I already locked it, little ponies" Tempest said with a sinister chuckle. The unicorn's eyes went wide a moment later as Tabby jumped up and grabbed the handle and the click of the door opening could be heard. "How?!"
The rest of them starting running to the door as Tabby worked to pull it open. Tempest was faster and jumped over them to shut the door. The three night ponies turned on a dime and started running the opposite direction towards the entrance Tempest just vacated and Jessie was pulled along with them as Charlotte and Alfie yanked her around into the corrected direction as they passed.
Wait a minute, didn't Alfie just have the cookies? She then noticed that Tabby now had the package of cookies tight in her jaws.
Tempest took off after Tabby and as Tabby was running she looked like she deliberately dropped the package which was then grabbed up by Charlotte. Tempest tried to make an abrupt turn to get Charlotte but ended up tripping due to the odd angle and speed. All four foals quickly exited the kitchen.
They ran out into the living room and her dad called out to her as they did. "Please, don't break anything!"
"Keep running to the stairs! She's coming!" Tabby yelled.
Without thinking Jessie did as instructed and the four foals started making their way up the stairs as fast as their little legs could carry them. Robby was laying in the staircase drawing and Alfie literally ran right over him. "Hey! Watch where you're running squirt!"
"Sorry, Robby!" Alfie called out as he continued up the stairs.
"You better run faster, Jessie. Tempest is fast," Robby called out to her as she passed.
As she reached the top of the stairs there was a sound of tumbling and cursing behind her. "Why are you laying on the stairs!" Tempest could be heard shouting.
"Why'd you try to run right over me!"
"Because I didn't expect you to be laying on the stairs! Don't lay on the stairs!"
Tabby was ahead of them and pulled a box away from the wall to reveal an open air vent. They couldn't be serious!
"Get inside, quick!" Tabby called out.
They were serious. Fudge!
The four of them hurried into the vent and Jessie struggled to pull herself in. She was a little bigger than the others and it was a tighter fit for her. Maybe her dad shouldn't have fed her eggs before she came here. That was it, no more eggs!
Inside the vent the air duct was a bit more open and it wasn't as bad. The night ponies started walking and the sound of hooves on metal echoed as they went in a single file line through the duct. Just as Jessie moved away from the vent she let off a yelp as Tempest's hoof came reaching into the vent, just missing grabbing her.
"This way, hurry!" Tabby called back.
They hurried through the duct, passing by several other vents that were also open and could have let them out to freedom. The night ponies eventually settled on one down the line and exited out it one at a time.
Jessie had to work to squeeze out of this one just like she had to squeeze into the first one. When she exited out she found herself under a small table with the other three foals huddled around her. She also realized they were not alone in this room. Phobia Remedy and Tattered Wing were sitting at a desk and it looked like they were doing paperwork.
Before anything was said the door slammed open and Tempest came into the room. Phobia Remedy and Tattered Wing didn't seem really concerned about Tempest barging in like that.
Tempest crouched down and looked under the table. "Gotya now!"
Charlotte passed the cookies to Jessie and yelled. "Run!"
Jessie didn't need much prompting she took the bag of cookies into her mouth and started running behind where Phobia was sitting while the three night pony foals ran around the other side of the desk. She heard one of them collide with Tattered Wing's chair.
"Foals, where are your manners?" Phobia Remedy said calmly.
"Hi, Ms. Tattered Wing, sorry, Ms. Tattered Wing," the three demons called out in chorus.
"Jessie, you as well," Phobia Remedy said without turning to look at her.
Jessie stopped as she rounded the desk and dropped the cookies. "Hello, Ms. Tattered Wing. I'm sorry, Ms. Tattered Wing--ack!"
Alfie and Charlotte started dragging her by her tail and Tabby shoved the bag of cookies back into her mouth. "Mommy didn't say stop running!"
They ran around the entire room in a circle with Tempest chasing after them. Alfie started trying to scale a small bookshelf and the entire thing came crashing down in front of Tempest while he jumped clear.
"You're helping picking that up later, Alfie," Phobia Remedy said without looking up from her work.
"Yes, Mommy!" Alfie yelled out.
Charlotte gave Jessie a nudge to turn her towards where the fallen bookshelf was and she saw a larger opening in the wall. Guessing that the demons wanted to go there she made a break for it.
She ran through the hole in the wall and the demons ran in right after her, shoving her forward.
"Don't stop! She can reach us!" Alfie yelled.
Jessie started moving forward, still carrying the stolen package of cookies in her mouth. They weren't in an air duct now. Now they were just in the wall proper. She could see the wood skeleton of the house and all the insulation, though it looked like someone had cleared lot of the insulation out at a height for foals to walk through. Clearly not one of the adults. The devious demons had done some serious damage to the inside of the walls. She wondered if the adults knew.
She followed along the path and was forced to climb up over the air duct on occasion. The path eventually split.
"Go right!" Tabby instructed.
"No, go left!" Charlotte countered.
"We need to get to the front door!" Tabby fussed.
"We can take the line!" Charlotte countered again.
"I'm the oldest, you have to listen to me," Tabby said irritability, seeming to forget Jessie was there and older than any of the three night ponies.
"By thirty seconds," Charlotte growled.
"Thirty-two," Tabby growled back, like the extra two seconds mattered.
Since she was in the lead and didn't really see much difference in the paths or what the demons plans were she just picked a direction and went left. Her choice was in no way made by the fact there were cobwebs she could see down the path to the right.
"We should have gone right!" Tabby complained.
"Ha! We're going left!" Charlotte said smugly.
"Tempest is going to hear us," Alfie added in. That shut the two bickering twins up.
There was a long board laid out on the path ahead that acted as a ramp to go up. Jessie started climbing but as the night ponies started following it started to feel unstable.
She set the cookies down and turned around and looked at the other foals. "I don't think this can hold all four of us."
"It holds the three of us all the time," Tabby replied.
"Well, now there are four of us and I'm heavier, as you three liked to point out. Alfie and Charlotte need to get off until you and I are up, and then they can follow."
"Why us?" Charlotte whined.
"Because you two are in the back!" Jessie almost shouted. That should have been obvious.
The two in the back got off the board with some grumbling. The board still didn't feel right. Maybe trying to hold that much weight before had cracked it? She couldn't see any crack. If she were older she'd have been able to feel out the board with earth pony magic, but then again, if she was older the board likely wouldn't have held just her by herself.
She grabbed the cookies again and made it to the top of the suspect ramp. Tabby followed right after her. When Charlotte and Alfie saw them reach the top they started running up the ramp. That's when she heard the crack and the two night ponies stopped dead in their tracks on the board. A second later a louder crack could be heard as the board gave way under them. Jessie covered her eyes in fear as it did.
Instead of the sound of screaming in pain she expected she heard moans of disappointment. "Aww, there goes our ramp. Now we got to get a new one." She heard Charlotte complain.
She uncovered her eyes and looked. Both of them who had been onto the board were latched onto the insulation on the side of the walls by their wings. It was really impressive that their wings were able to hold their whole bodies like that. She'd watched them do it yesterday with the garden walls, but this was the first time she saw it up close. Robby didn't typically climb things.
The two of them scrambled up the wall and onto the higher level with her and Tabby. "We need to keep going to get to the line," Charlotte instructed.
Jessie wasn't really sure what the line was, but she was eager to get out of the walls. Hopefully Tempest had just given up by now.
They started walking again and another hole in the wall could be seen. Better yet, she could see actual daylight peaking through the hole. She quickened her pace and exited out the hole into their new location.
She found herself in the crawl space at the top of the house. It was probably a proper attic for a pony, but she knew this house had been built originally with humans in mind and adjusted for ponies later on. The light was coming through a small open door that led out to the roof.
She set the cookies down and looked at the other foals. "Can we eat the cookies now? I'm hungry from all that running and being scared."
The night ponies looked at one another and then Alfie carefully crept to the open door and peeked out it quickly before pulling his head back. "Tempest is at our tree house. We can't go down the line or she'll catch us."
Jessie still wasn't sure what the line actually was, but it didn't seem to matter at this point. "So can we sit here and eat then? She's there and we're here."
Tabby nodded. "Yeah, let's eat. I'm ready for cookies!"
"Keep your voice down," Charlotte scolded. "She'll hear us."
"No she won't," Tabby said with a defiant flick of her tail.
A shadow passed over them, blocking out the light. "Actually, I will, but only because I already spotted your brother and am up here now. Game is up, little ponies. I win."
They all sat and gaped for a moment at Tempest. How had she even gotten up here? The unicorn didn't have wings or have the ability to climb like a night pony.
The three demons reacted quickly though. Alfie grabbed the package of cookies and the three of them took off. They reached the door that dropped down to the second story and undid the latch with the three of them standing on it and the three of them dropped right away.
Jessie hurried over the way that the three demons had gone, but when she reached the hole she looked down and realized for a pony that couldn't climb that was a straight drop. There was nothing to cushion her landing either.
A second later a pair of forehooves came down on either side of her and she looked up. Tempest was smiling down at her. "Well, at least I caught one of you."
Tempest then reached down with her head and grabbed Jessie up by the scruff of her neck. Jessie was about to struggle, but Tempest chose to jump down the hole while holding her. She just went limp in the unicorn's grasp as Tempest calmly carried her down the hallway and then down the stairs.
Tempest finally dropped her in front of her dad and Robby in the living room and Jessie looked sheepishly up at her dad.
Her dad looked down at her with a blank expression. "I think you've had enough excitement for one day. We need to get your brother home so he can get some sleep. Tempest already told us Phobia will take time to dreamwalk to you tonight."
She looked at Robby and Tempest quickly and they were giving her blank expressions too. Was she in trouble? She normally didn't get in trouble. She never did things like this, and she didn't know what to expect now.
"Come on, get your saddlebags and let's get going," her dad instructed. "We'll talk about your little escapade when we get in the car."
Her ears flattened and her tail dragged behind her as she went and grabbed up her saddlebags and carefully fastened them back on. Her dad and Robby were at the door already and her dad was holding it open for her. She followed and went out the door. When they got out on the porch her dad briefly thanked Tempest for watching Robby and explained that Robby would need to spend the night again tonight since Grandmare Nocte wasn't going to be home till tomorrow. The door then shut and her dad started leading then to the car.
As she walked one of the night pony mares called down to her. "Hey, you actually made Tempest have to show off. Crazy unicorn actually jumped all the way up there from the ground. That unicorn can get some serious air on her jumps. Would have made a great basketball player." Well, that solved that mystery.
Her dad opened the back seat door for them and Robby hopped in first then her. The door shut behind her and she tried to tell if it seemed like it shut harder than it normally did or not, she couldn't tell. Her dad then got in the driver's seat and shut his door behind him.
"So...you got into some mischief," her dad began.
"I didn't mean to," she hurriedly starting trying to explain. "First there was the thing with getting up to get the cookies, and then they weren't even homemade cookies, and then Tempest was there and everyone was running, an..."
"Jessie, hush," her dad instructed. Jessie bit down on her lip, bracing herself for the lecture that was coming.
"You also had me get run over...three times!" Robby added in.
She looked at her brother in confusion. "Three? I thought..."
"She ran over me again trying to get down the stairs," Robby said flatly.
Her dad sighed. "That was your own fault Robby. She told you not to lay on the stairs."
Robby looked up at him. "Well, someone had to run interference for Jessie."
Huh?
Her dad shook his head and started laughing. This made her really confused. Why was that funny? He finally looked at her with a smile. "I hope you had fun. It's good seeing you get up to more foal-like activities. Let's not make a habit of grand theft though, okay?"
She silently nodded, still completely confused. Now that it was all over she realized she actually did have fun. It had been scary at the time, but it had been exciting too. The only part that she regretted was she didn't get any cookies after all that running.
"Look in your saddlebags," Robby whispered into her ear.
She gave him a baffled look, but then did as instructed. As she started reaching her head in the smell hit her. Cookies!
She reached in and pulled out several cookies one by one, and she found a note too.
Come play again
"Charlotte came and slipped the cookies into your bags right before Tempest brought you down," Robby explained. "I think you made friends with the demons."
She brought one of the cookies up with her hooves and bit into it. She might just come play again sometime after all.