//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6: Learning Curve 
// Story: Pandemic: Monsters We Make 
// by Halira 
//------------------------------//

Tonya and her wife sat in Amanda and Tom's living room. The other married couple were down at the street level talking with Paul. Sunset had advised them that they might want to have the foals elsewhere for this conversation. Amanda had made a call over to Paul to see if he could take them to the park for a little while, and luckily Paul was already out with Jessie and Robby at the time. This hopefully wouldn't take too long, but that all depended on how Amanda reacted to the conversation.

Sunset sat examining the many family pictures on the wall. Tom liked to stress to Jackie and Jordan that Phobia was their sister and that Phobia's foals were their nieces and nephew. So pictures of Phobia's family were hung right along the pictures of Tom, Amanda, Jackie, and Jordan. There were also a few pictures of Amanda's mother and her human brother's family as well. 

The living room had clearly been designated as the foals' play area. Large wooden blocks looked like they had been shoved haphazardly out of the way rather than properly cleaned up. Crayons and markers were scattered amongst a mess of loose papers and coloring books. Small stuffed animals and dolls were seen in random locations throughout the room. There was a neater area in a corner with some mats for laying on, and a small bookshelf next to it that had been filled with books meant for very young readers. Looking at these surroundings made her start thinking of having a foal again. Did Sunset get any of the same types of feelings looking at all this?

"Tom and Amanda have a nice home," Tonya said to try to get conversation going.

"You know these houses are all built the same," Sunset replied as she studied some themed photos. The theme was first day of school and had Jackie's kindergarten and first grade photos, and Jordan's kindergarten photo. Not a surprising theme considering Amanda was a teacher. Sunset was being deliberately dismissive of the surroundings and Tonya had a good idea why.

Tonya walked over to where Sunset was standing and looked at the small bookshelf below the pictures. Amanda kept yearbooks from school going back the extent of her fourteen-year teaching career, and it looked like she kept all her old college and high school ones when she was a student herself. It was tempting to pull out one of the ones from before Amanda was a pony to see what Amanda looked like as a human, as it was like looking at embarrassing baby pictures, but she didn't want to disturb anything.

"The home is what you fill the house with. This one feels like love and family," Tonya replied as she looked over a picture of a newborn Jordan being cuddled between Amanda and Tom with a very curious Jackie trying to investigate the little unicorn. Tom's horn was lit in most of these pictures, indicating he was the one taking the picture. He was certainly quite the shutterbug. Maybe he should have had a camera instead of a shield for a cutie mark. He made exceptionality powerful shields, but he rarely used the ability. A good example of a pony not defined by their cutie mark.

"You're trying to get me thinking about foals," Sunset said dryly, but continued looking over the pictures.

"Is it working?" Tonya asked playfully.

Sunset stopped and looked around the room. "Perhaps a little. I hope Tom and his wife get up here soon, before you get me all wistful for the sounds of little hooves. You know how to play on my emotions without using your powers."

Tonya bit her lip for a second. "I don't mean to be emotionally manipulative. Seeing all this just makes me think about the subject more myself."

Sunset looked at the photos again and her ears sagged. "It's okay. Seeing these photos would impact me no matter what. Tom and I never took pictures like this with Phobia when she was young. Oh, we took some pictures occasionally, but not nearly this many. Phobia was a quiet and withdrawn child, and a lot of our interactions with her after she turned four were often frustrating ones. In all these photos he, Amanda, and their foals look much happier than the way our family was back then. I'm glad he has a happy life with Amanda, but I can't help feeling a little jealous that he seems so much happier than he was with me. It makes me think I was the reason why there was so much friction back then."

"Well, part of that was your needs and desires weren't being met, so you were unhappy," Tonya reminded her as she gently touched a wing to Sunset's side. "I hope between your work and me that those needs are being met now."

Sunset smiled. "They are. I wasn't being true to myself back then. I was trying to play the role of obedient stay-at-home mom, and trying to convince myself I sexually desired Tom. I can't even really completely credit my homophobia to human bigotry, because even after becoming a pony and admitting I had an attraction to mares it took even longer to admit I had no attraction to stallions. I was still ashamed to admit I'm purely lesbian even when I got with you. I'm also certainly not the type of mare who would be satisfied confining herself to a homemaker role like I did back then, and I was an idiot for trying to be."

"But I am the type of mare that could be satisfied with that," Tonya interjected. "I know when you had Phobia you went full time stay-at-home mom, but that won't be the case this time around if we have a foal. It's a completely different situation that you don't need to be afraid of repeating the same mistakes with."

Sunset firmed up her expression. "Tonya..."

"Are we walking into a private conversation? Do we need to give you two some time?" Amanda said from the stairs, frustration lacing her tone. "We're lucky Paul was gracious enough to pick Jackie and Jordan up rather than heading straight home from Phobia's. I'd like to know that we didn't rush him and keep Robby from getting to bed for nothing."

Sunset shook her head as she turned to greet them. "No, it's an ongoing marital debate that we can put on hold for right now. We're here to discuss other things. I'm sorry about the short notice. This is a sudden change of plans we needed to act on quickly "

"Alright," Amanda said as she walked into the room with Tom following her. Like most ponies in town they favored low couches, pillows, and small coffee tables for furniture. The couple made their way over to one of the couches and made themselves comfortable, with Tom briefly taking time to remove some stuffed animals from it.

Tonya and Sunset each took up separate throw pillows nearby. Tonya just made herself comfortable and ready to listen. She wouldn't be speaking much since this was Sunset's project; not unless there was something she felt was being left out or she was called upon to speak. She was fine with that. She'd also step in if she felt Sunset was getting too pushy, which wasn't an uncommon occurrence.  

"So, has Tom discussed the experiments I have been conducting?" Sunset asked the earth pony mare.

Amanda gave her husband a considering look with her ears laid back. "No, he hasn't. What experiments? What's this about Tom?"

Sunset held up her hoof. "Don't be angry at him. He was required to keep things secret. Tonya actually had a compulsion on him to keep it secret. He accepted the compulsion voluntarily, but it was triggered to come off when I contacted the two of you today, it just required a key phrase."

Amanda gave Tonya a dirty look. This didn't bother her much. She was used to getting dirty looks about her compulsions. 
No one trusted what she'd do to someone's mind, but she was far better with taking care of those she used her powers on than she once was. All her compulsions were now triggered to end when a particular phrase was said or period of time has elapsed. Tom's phrase had been pretty pink poodle polkadot plush pajamas. Sunset thought her phrases were unnecessarily silly, but they were easy to remember and were things people were unlikely to ever hear said by accident. The fact that she could say something like she was buying a pair of pretty pink poodle polkadot plush pajamas wasn't so outlandish a thing that she couldn't somehow slip it into a conversation to trigger an end to a compulsion. She had a set of about a dozen key phrases she used. She kept a log of which phrase went to who, but if ever in a bind and unable to get to her log she could simply start saying each of them as long as she had the person isolated from anyone else she may have used compulsions on.

Tom cleared his throat. "They've been working a spell that grants short term humanizion. They contacted me as a possible volunteer for testing it out."

Amanda looked at him with her mouth held wide then started shaking her head. "Why? Why would you volunteer for that."

Tom looked down. "I wanted to remember what it was like to be human again. Even if it was something that was temporary."

Amanda opened and closed her mouth. "But...and...I don't..." She took a deep breath and turned to glare to Sunset. "How long? How long does this temporary spell last?"

"We have had differing time periods the spell has lasted; the longest has been eight hours, the shortest five. We still aren't sure why it isn't being consistent with how long it lasts," Sunset explained.

"Sunset, you're bending the details a little," Tonya scolded lightly. 

Amanda lifted an eyebrow at Sunset and Sunset's ears sagged. "We've actually developed two similar but separate spells. One is for temporary pony to human transformation, the other is for temporary human to pony transformation. We've only actually had one run with the pony to human transformation and it lasted six hours...and we should have cut it short at five hours."

Amanda's eyes narrowed. "Why?"

Sunset hung her head. "Because the subject started feeling very upset after five hours and has been extremely emotionally unstable since then...she tried to commit suicide this morning."

"What!" Amanda screamed as her eyes dilated. "No! I am not letting Tom subject himself to that."

Okay, a little more open and honest than Tonya wanted Sunset to be. Velvet's suicide attempt didn't need to be told to them. There were also extenuating circumstances with that. That it had caused Velvet extreme distress would have sufficed. 

"We have reason to believe that the pony was emotionally unstable before the experiment happened," Tonya cut in, hoping to salvage this. "She hid from us that she was on depression medication, some really strong depression medication. This was probably a huge contributing factor for what happened with her. Tom is not dealing with those kinds of issues. We'll cut the spell early this time at the first signs of distress."

"We also did no mind magic in the first round of tests," Sunset continued on. "This time around we will give that human sense of self when transformed and..."

"No, no mind magic," Amanda said crossly.

"But we're trying to stop any distress from happening. We don't want anyone hurt by this," Sunset tried to explain.

Amanda looked at Tom and then back at Sunset. "Tom has expressed on more than one occasion that he doesn't know if he thinks the way he does because he was programed to do so. If you use mind magic you are definitely putting some sort of programed thinking into him. Tom has been a pony for six years. One way or another this is how he thinks now and it has developed as part of him, regardless of what may have happened six years ago. If he does this I want him to have no doubts the way he feels about it comes from him and not what you put in his head."

Tonya had her own experiences with body dysphoria, and knew how unpleasant that could be. What Velvet and Megan went through dialed that up to an eleven though. Going without that proper sense of self to match the body was a mistake.

She looked at her wife. "I'm not sure I'm comfortable with this happening without the mind magic."

Sunset nodded then looked to Tom. "What do you want to do?"

"I want to try it," Tom said quietly. "I can't let a chance like this slip away."

Amanda gave Tom a hurt look. "Regardless of how we ended up this way we've built a good life. Being a pony isn't wrong. We have a filly that never even spent a day in the womb as a human. Can you look at her and tell her that she shouldn't exist?"

Tom shook his head. "I love both Jordan and Jackie dearly, and don't for a second question that they should be ponies and not humans. They were born ponies and saying they should be anything else is as wrong as what was done to us. I'm not planning on going human full time and leaving you or them, but I do want to reconnect with my humanity."

"Can Sunset and I have a moment to discuss things, privately? I'm sure you two want a moment as well," Tonya interrupted.

Amanda turned and nodded. "Yeah, some private conversation sounds good right now. Tom and I are going to go downstairs again and have a talk about this and you two can have some privacy while we do."

Tom and Sunset gave quiet agreement and Amanda quickly marched her husband downstairs. Tonya didn't really feel much satisfaction in being right that Amanda wouldn't take this well. Hopefully this didn't introduce any strain on Tom and Amanda's relationship. Regardless of that, there was an important detail that needed to be done until with Sunset. 

"Sunset, if he does this without the mind magic you need to cut the session much shorter on purpose, no more than two hours," Tonya declared. "Two hours or when signs of distress appear, whichever comes first."

"I can agree to that," Sunset said with a nod. "Though if he does alright with the two hour session we can try increasing the time slightly with later sessions. Slowly work him up till we find what the limit is, or when the problems start. Maybe taking it in smaller sessions will be enough. We didn't want to use mind magic when we began this project anyway."

"And Jean..."

Sunset shook her head. "Jean is a different matter. She was never a pony and doesn't have any past experience to settle her. She's getting mind magic and I'll wait until signs of distress from her to pull the plug. We need to know if it actually will make it so they're emotionally stable with the mind magic, and we need more information about why it goes different lengths of time for different subjects. Also, do you really want to cut short that woman's time with a working body if we don't have to?"

That was a hard point to argue with, but it still needed care. "That one I suppose we can leave up to her. Explain to her all the factors and let her decide if she wants to possibly reach a point where it's causing her distress. I only say that because she is distressed with her body already, so there is a possibility that it won't hit her as hard since she's used to that."

Sunset nodded. As she did Amanda and Tom returned up the stairs. That was quicker than expected.

"To confirm, no mind magic and first sign this is causing him to get upset and you're going to put an end to it?" Amanda asked.

Sunset nodded. "We discussed it. We'll agree to no mind magic, and we'll be putting a time limit it on it as well. Whichever comes first, him getting distressed or the time limit we set being reached."

Amanda creased her brow. "How long?"

"Two hours," Sunset answered. "The previous subject started showing distress at three hours, and the spell dissipated on it's own at five hours. Knowing they were getting upset at three we want to cut it short before then."

Amanda sat for a moment and just stared at her husband before speaking. "Will two hours satisfy you?"

"It will do," Tom replied with a barely perceptible nod.

"Just to be clear. We were hoping to do repeat sessions and slowly work our time up. Not repeat sessions in one day," Sunset clarified. "We need data, and to do get that we need repeat volunteers."

Amanda scrunched up her nose. "We'll see. I have an additional condition; I want to also do it, and at the same time."

Sunset blinked. "Why?"

Amanda looked at her husband again. "I want to understand exactly what he experiences. I'm his wife, his partner, and I need to be there for him."

That caught Tonya off guard. Maybe there was something to Sunset's view of Amanda. Still caution had to be given.

"You realize that if there is any distress caused by this you're subjecting yourself to it as well," Tonya said, careful to try not to ruffle Amanda's fur too much. "You don't have Tom's same commitment to wanting to do this so it might impact you even more."

"I can deal with two hours," Amanda said dismissively. "Just give me something to use my hands on that I can't do well as a pony to keep me occupied. The novelty of having hands again should keep me distracted."

That wasn't a bad idea. She was sure she could find something that could work out with that. Maybe some puzzles? Earth ponies typically struggled with puzzles with a lot of small pieces. That sense of self was essential though. Tonya had no doubts that no matter how much Tom said he wanted to do this or Amanda said she could distract herself that lack of proper sense of self would get to them in time. Velvet had been all gung-ho about this and that didn't stop it from turning into a living nightmare for her. Hopefully the shortened time would work. Don't give it time to start being disturbing rather than just odd.

"Alright," Sunset said with a small smile. "I have our human to temporary pony test subject lined up for tomorrow morning. How about we have you two come to the Bastion around three. We should hopefully be done with everything concerning our other experiment by then. You’ll just need a foalsitter for a few hours."

Amanda nodded. "I can get Devon to watch the fillies around then and keep them until close to bedtime. It gets us time to get our heads screwed back on right."

Tonya hoped so. Going into this without mind magic again scared her. She didn't want any more upset patients. As soon as they got home she was going to take a nap and dreamwalk Melissa--now that she knew she could--and make a call to Megan along the way. 

She looked around at all the toys scattered about the room again. She could probably find some time before her nap to research what doctor she wanted to see Monday about her options. Sunset was opening up to the idea a little. It was safer to start really start thinking about that kind of future now.





Jessie gave her sleeping brother one last look before getting out of the car. He had said he didn't mind napping in the back seat for a while. Her brother was very accomplished at falling asleep just about anywhere when the sun was at its zenith. He'd just curl up and wrap a wing around his head. A few moments later he'd be snoring. 

Seeing him sleeping in the backseat right now she couldn't help but notice how much bigger he'd gotten in the last year, basically doubling in size. She didn't think about it normally, but seeing him take up the extra space in the backseat like this made it stand out more. She remembered when he didn't take up much more space than her, but now he was probably closer to an adult's size than her size--even if he wasn't full grown yet. It was a reminder of how much he was changing, and she wondered how long it would be before he didn't have time for his filly little sister. He'd be too worried about trying to be near those naughty night pony fillies that were going to get him in trouble.

"Come on, Jessie. Time to get out and enjoy the park. We aren't going to spend a lot of time here," her dad instructed.

She hopped out of the car door and her dad shut the door quietly, but firmly, behind her. She joined the other two fillies.

Jordan was laying next to some bushes and seemed highly focused on watching them for some reason. Jackie sat with her head turned up to watch a flock of birds that had just taken off out of some trees. 

Her dad walked between the trio. "The three of you can do whatever you want to do, but you all need to stay in sight of me, got it?" 

"Yes, Mr. Middleton," Jackie answered.

"Yes, Dad," Jessie said right after.

Jordan gave a little nod, but seemed to be holding her breath as she stared into the bush. 

Jessie walked around a bit and admired the plants. This time of year not a lot was actually blooming. There were earth ponies that came and helped keep the park looking nice through the fall and winter, but there were still a lot of trees with no leaves. Most of what was still lush and green was grass and bushes. She enjoyed the smell of each and the feel of the damp grass beneath her hooves, but she still wished there were some flowers like there were at her aunts' house.

Her dad was probably expecting Jessie to continue to try to socialize since she was here with Jackie and Jordan. She'd made friends with Jordan, but Jackie it was hard to call a friend. They'd been closer a long time ago, before Jessie had gotten focused on math and wanting to get into NASA. They'd never even seen each other in school because Jessie had never attended kindergarten. They still saw each other sometimes when one or the other was being foalsitted, but largely ignored one another during those times--aside from some short races and games of tag.

Jackie seemed to take note of her sister's focus and walked over next to the little purple unicorn. Jessie joined the two of them a second later. 

After staring for a solid minute without noticing anything Jessie decided to ask the question. "What are we looking for?"

"There's a ladybug in there," Jordan answered, eyes glued on the bushes still.

Jessie flicked an ear and stared harder. "I haven't seen anything."

"If Jordan says there's a ladybug in there it's true," Jackie assured her before taking a moment to start preening a wing. Talk of bugs probably triggered an instinct to preen. Pegasus wings were magnets for bugs to get into, and a lot of preening was them making sure their wings were bug free.

Jessie had no intention of questioning her friend's honesty, but she was still confused about why this mattered. "Why are we looking for the ladybug?"

"Because a colt in my class said his brother did magic when a ladybug landed on his horn. I want to do magic," Jordan answered as she continued to stare into the bush.

"What kind of magic?" Jessie asked skeptically.

The unicorn's ears dropped slightly. "I don't remember, but he said it happened when the ladybug landed on his horn."

Jackie looked up from her preening with interest. "Maybe a ladybug landing on my wings will help me fly."

"I called the ladybug first!" Jordan said with a whine as she turned and looked at her sister..

"You can share. Mom and Dad say we should share things," Jackie countered.

Jordan flicked her tail and went back to staring at the bush. "I guess so."

Jessie didn't know much about magic, but she knew that wasn't how magic developed. "How old is your classmate's brother?"

Jordan's ears dropped a little more to where they now hanging below her yellow mane. "Ten, I think."

"He probably got to where he could use his horn because he's ten," Jessie concluded.

"But I want magic now," Jordan said as her eyes started to water.

"Jordan, we're too little to use magic. We'll get to use lots of magic when we're older though," Jessie explained calmly, hoping that reason would soothe her friend.

The younger filly did not take well to reason and the watering eyes went into full scale tears.

Before Jessie could say anything else Jackie slapped her with a wing. "You made Jordan cry!"

Jessie's muzzle hurt from being hit with the wing. She saw her dad watching them, but not coming to her rescue. She knew what that meant. He wanted her to resolve this herself.

She turned and laid her ears back and flicked her tail as she glared at the pegasus. She couldn't help it, that wingslap hurt.  "I didn't mean to. I'm sorry I made her cry."

Jackie laid her ears straight back and spread her wings threateningly. "You still did it. You made Jordan cry yesterday too. Stop picking on my sister!"

"I'm not picking on her!" Jessie shouted.

"Then why does she keep crying?" Jackie demanded. "I should make you cry and see how you like it!"

Jordan gasped and turned to her sister. "Jackie, no! She's my friend!"

"Then why do you keep crying?" Jackie asked the little unicorn.

Jordan hung her head. "I'm just being stupid again."

"You're not stupid," Jessie and Jackie said in unison. The pair of them turned to one another right after and stared at each other in confusion. Jessie didn't even know why she said that. It just seemed like the right thing to say. 

Jordan started inexplicably giggling which made them turn back to her. "That was funny."

Jessie hung her head. "I'm sorry if I made you feel stupid--again. I really don't mean too. I'm bad at being friends."

"Yeah, you are," Jackie said snidely. Jessie felt a strong urge to box the pegasus.

"She's my best friend," Jordan said snappingly at her sister. Then continued in a mumble. "My only friend."

"I'm your friend," Jackie replied defensively.

Jordan looked at Jackie with ears slightly pulled back. "You're my sister. You have'ta be my friend. Mom and Dad will be mad at you if you aren't."

Jackie raised her muzzle up high. "I don't have to be your friend. Mom and Dad can't make me. I'm still your friend though."

"We're both your friends," Jessie added in.

"I don't make you cry," Jackie said and pointed a wing at Jessie. "She's making you cry. Friends don't make friends cry."

"Jackie, stop being mean to Jessie!" Jordan shrieked, then started crying again. 

Jackie's ears flattened and she looked down. "Sorry."

Jackie was right that Jessie was the cause of Jordan crying. Okay, what would a good friend do here? Jessie had read lots of books that had characters that we're friends, that should tell her what she was supposed to be doing. What had started this whole thing? Jordan had been wanting a ladybug to land on her horn so she could do magic. Telling Jordan that wasn't how that worked had been a bad idea, and there was no way Jordan was going to just develop her magic right away. What was she supposed to say? She had to make Jordan feel better. 

"Jordan, you'll get your magic eventually," Jessie said. "I'm sure you'll be really good at it when you do get it."

"But it's taking too long," Jordan said sadly. "Don't you want your magic right now?"

Jessie frowned. "Um, I want my cutie mark, if that counts. I don't really care about my earth pony magic."

That seemed to get Jackie's attention and cause the filly confusion. "Jordan wants to be able to cast spells. I want to be able to fly. Why don't you want your earth pony...stuff? What do earth ponies do?"

"We can do lots of stuff!" Jessie said indignantly. "Like grow things, are super strong, can...wait...your mom is an earth pony and so is Wild Growth, shouldn't you know what we can do?"

The pink filly looked a little embarrassed. "Never really noticed what mom does. She never does much magic. Wild Growth is Wild Growth; she's supposed to do special things."

Jessie shrugged. "Anyway, it isn't really important to me. I like math, and I don't need my earth pony magic to do math. I could be any type of pony or a human and still do math."

"You don't care about being an earth pony?" Jordan asked in confusion.

Jessie thought back to her poster of Wild Growth that cheered about being an earth pony. "I like being an earth pony. It's just I don't see where my earth pony magic is that important. Every earth pony gets really strong and can help grow plants and stuff, but not every earth pony can do math. It makes me feel special doing math."

"Wild Growth is really special because of her magic," Jackie pointed out.

Jessie flicked her tail. "Well, she's like the best earth pony, and she does other things too. She helps a lot of people too."

"Nobody would care if she didn't have a lot of magic," Jackie pressed.

Jessie wanted to tell Jackie that they would still care, but she suddenly wondered if that was true or not. If they really wouldn't care did that mean no one would care about what she could do if she didn't have special magic too? She wasn't going to be developing her magic for years yet, and chances were that it would probably be just normal earth pony magic--not like Wild Growth's. Her anxiety started rising again.

Maybe they could get their magic working earlier. Robby had told her that his night pony magic for dreamwalking had started working when he was her age. That wasn't all his magic, but it was at least some of his magic. Some was better than none, right?

"Maybe we're just looking at the wrong magic," she said slowly. 

"What?" Jordan asked as she cocked her head.

She looked at Jordan and Jackie. it was time to look at things from a different angle. There was no way that Jordan was using her horn yet, and the same could be said about Jackie's wings. They were focused on those and those just wouldn't work. What other types of magic did unicorns and pegasi have that didn't involve those things?

"What types of magic are you supposed to get that don't involve your horn?" Jessie asked.

Jordan looked very confused. "My horn is for all my magic. I don't think there is anything. Horns are like everything to unicorns."

Jessie frowned. She could think of one unicorn that the horn wasn't everything too.

"Have you ever been to Ms. Phobia's house?" She asked.

Jordan shook her head no. Jackie watched and cut in. "You have. We've been to our sister's house."

Jordan looked unsure. "I don't remember."

Jackie flicked her tail a few times. "It was a while ago. Maybe you were just too little. We've been there."

Jordan nodded. "Okay, but I still don't remember."

"There's a unicorn there that has a broken horn," Jessie explained. The thought of a broken horn must have been pretty scary because Jordan gasped and put both her forehooves up on her horn as if to protect it. "She must know what kinds of magic unicorns can do without a horn. We should ask her. Just because your horn isn't working right yet doesn't mean something else couldn't be."

"Oh," Jordan said as her eyes widened. "Do you think so? Do you think I could have other magic than my horn that works?"

"Tempest Shadow is Phobia Remedy's main bodyguard, but has a broken horn. If Tempest is good enough at things to be a Dreamwarden's main guard she has to be able to do something special still," Jessie reasoned. "Maybe she knows magic that doesn't need a horn. Maybe that magic is good for any pony." She turned to Jackie. "Earlier today she jumped all the way from the ground to on top of the Dreamwarden's house. It's not actually flying, but that's like flying."

Jackie's ears went high. "You think she could teach me?"

"We can find out," Jessie replied, now smiling. This idea was working.

Jordan's ears suddenly dropped again. "But what if we're too little, like you said."

That was a possibility. What evidence was there that foals their age could learn magic? Robby did when he was their age, but he could be merely outer statistical occurrence, that didn't line up with the mean statistical range. There had to be something that showed a strong statistical probability all foals could do magic to really be sure. After a moment of pondering it she thought of something she had witnessed that seemed unlikely if foals couldn't learn magic.

"The demons!" She said excitedly. "They can climb way better than they should if not using some sort of magic. The fact that all three of them can do it shows a high rate of occurrence and increases the likelihood that it is not an outside statistical variance within the population!"

Jordan just held her mouth open. "Wha?"

"We don't know what you just said," Jackie said with annoyance.

Jessie groaned. Why did she have to have a language barrier with other foals? "Because the demons can all do magic it probably means that all foals have a chance to do magic."

"Why didn't you say that first?" Jackie asked.

Jessie stomped her hoof. "I did! I just said it a more math related way."

"They aren't here to help us," Jordan pointed out  "And Daddy says that Phobia and the demons sleep in the afternoon."

"But Ms. Tempest doesn't," Jessie reminded them. "I can get my dad to call her and we can ask her about it."

"Let's go then," Jackie said eagerly as she started trotted back towards the car.

"Wait for me!" Jordan said as she hurried after Jackie. Jessie hurried to along as well.

"Dad!" She called out as they approached him. "Can you call Ms. Tempest? We wanted to ask her something."

"Tempest?" Her dad asked in confusion as they approached him. "That's an odd request. What did you need to ask her?"

Jessie came to a stop in front of him and stared up. "We needed to ask her about magic. I'm pretty sure she knows what kinds of magic unicorns can do without a horn."

Her dad frowned down at her. "Jessie, I think Tempest's horn is a very sensitive subject to her. I don't think she will be happy bringing up the fact that it's broken."

"But we're trying to get help from her. We aren't trying to make her feel bad," Jessie continued.

Her dad looked back towards the residential district and ran his hand through his hair slowly. "How about you ask your aunt Sunset Blessing instead? She knows a lot about magic and is a very accomplished mage. She likely knows about what magic unicorns can do without a horn too. I'm sure it would make her very happy to have you three asking her about magic."

She didn't really like Sunset Blessing much. Why she didn't she really didn't know. Maybe it was just the boring sermons that the unicorn gave that her mom made her listen to. Still, Sunset Blessing was better than nothing.

"Okay," Jessie replied, still not happy that her initial idea had been rejected. Tempest just seemed like the ideal pony to know about this.

Her dad pulled out his cell phone. "She might not answer. She was busy with Jordan and Jackie's parents, but I'll leave her a message if she doesn't."

He quickly did a few finger strokes on the phone and it started ringing. A second later it was answered on speaker. "Hello? Paul? Something wrong with the foals?"

"No," her dad answered. "The foals were wanting to ask you some questions about magic. I know you're busy right now, but maybe we can set up a time for them to..."

"Oh, I'm finished. I can spare a few minutes on the phone now." There was a hint of eagerness in Sunset Blessing's voice. Maybe it really did make her happy that they were asking her about magic.

"I'll let Jessie ask you," her dad said before kneeling and holding the phone out towards her. 

Jessie came a foot or so from the phone and started speaking. "Aunt Sunset, we wanted to know if there is magic that unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies can do when they're little. The demons can climb much better than they should without magic helping. Is there some things me, Jordan, and Jackie can do too?"

"Hmm, nothing very applied I'm afraid," Sunset Blessing replied. The three foals all dropped their ears as one. "However, Jordan may be able to see the runes in spells with some practice. Unicorns have a strong affinity to doing that and it doesn't require their magic to be fully developed to do so. She can't use them yet, but she can start recognizing them."

Jordan's ears picked back up at the news there was something she could do. 

Sunset Blessing continued on. "As for Jackie, pegasi can pick up on things like how much moisture is in the air and various other things concerning the weather. She can't impact these things yet, but may well be able to detect them before she can fly."

Jackie looked around at the sky as if wondering what she was supposed to be able to notice.

Sunset carried on. "As for you, you should be able to pick up some information about the health of plants with direct contact and focus. It will be some time before you can make any changes to the plant with your magic, but you should be able to tell that much now if you set your mind to it."

That didn't seem particularly interesting. She could probably tell if a plant was healthy or not just by looking at it without having to have any magical information. It might be fun just to feel what using that little bit of magic was like though.

Plus, this seemed to verify that she was right in her theory that there was magic they could do. Having a hypothesis confirmed gave her some pride. It would take independent confirmation still, but she trusted Sunset Blessing knew what she was talking about.

Still, it felt underwhelming. "Are you sure? There seems like there should be more to earth ponies than plants and strength."

"Well " Sunset said in a thoughtful tone. "Different elements and minerals might have a different feel to them to you if you touch and focus on them. Two objects that look the same but are actually made out of different things might have a different feel to you."

"So I can possibly identify minerals?" Jessie asked. This seemed a little more interesting than whether plants were healthy or not.

"It would be up to you to learn what sensation lines up with what kind of material. Early on all you would be able to tell is one thing is different than another," her aunt clarified.

It would take experimentation then. That wasn't so bad; it offered up a whole new realm of learning. The ways of applying it to her love of space exploration immediately occurred to her. She could get different mineral samples from asteroids or other extraterrestrial objects and be able to identify what they were made of with a touch. There were other ways of doing this without magic, but to be able to touch some rock from Mars and know what it was made of filled her with excitement thinking about it.

"Any other questions?" Sunset Blessing asked. 

Jessie shook her head as she realized she was zoned out thinking. "No, Aunt Sunset."

"Glad I could help then," Sunset replied. "I should tell you there may be other things you can all do, but I am not an expert when it comes to early magic development. I tend to work with magic on an adult level. I learned magic watching others do things and taking what I observed and experimenting with it. Learn the basic elements and get creative with what you do. The biggest breakthroughs are done by thinking outside the box."

"I'll do that, Aunt Sunset," Jessie agreed. This might get to be an opportunity to add some study of chemistry to her study of math and physics, if her aunt was right.

Her dad stood back up and spoke to the phone. "Thanks for answering their questions. If you're still with Amanda and Tom let them know I'm getting ready to bring Jackie and Jordan back. I expected you all to be busy for a while longer, but I really need to get Robby home to bed. Jessie might want to nap as well."

Nap? Why would she want a na...oh, Phobia Remedy. She'd almost forgotten about that when she had gotten excited about the fact she might actually have magic she could use.

"I will," Sunset replied. "Take care. I hope to see you at church on Sunday. I also hope you take the time before then to prep for the sermon, Book of Josie four-nineteen. Let Devon know that next week I'll be talking to her about her application to be a Sunday school teacher. I would this week, but this Sunday is going to be very busy for me."

"Will do. See you then," her dad answered before hanging up the phone.

"Aww, do we have to go?" Jackie complained. "I was going to try out what she said."

"You can try that at your home," Jessie's dad replied. "Plus, I'm sure Jordan will want to see if she can see the runes in your dad's spells. You want to give her a chance to try things too, right?"

Jordan gave Jackie puppy dog eyes and Jackie relented. "Alright."

Jessie wished she could spend a little more time in the park, but it wasn't the best place for experimenting with purer minerals anyway. On top of that she did want to take that nap so she could talk to Phobia Remedy, even though she normally didn't like taking naps.

The three foals followed her dad to the car and jumped in when he held the door open for them--being careful not to wake Robby when they did. 

As her dad started up the car and pulled away from the park Jackie nudged Jessie with a hoof. "You cheered Jordan back up. Sorry for saying you were picking on her."

"Well, she told you we were friends," Jessie replied.

Jackie glanced at her sister. Jordan's ears were turned towards them, but the little purple unicorn was staring out the window. 

The pegasus turned back to Jessie. "My mom and dad always tell me I'm supposed to make sure Jordan is treated nice. They say it's my job as a big sister. I just wanted to make sure she wasn't getting picked on."

Jessie thought about Robby and how he said to her yesterday. "Robby always looks out for me; so I guess I understand. I'm getting a little brother soon. Robby says I'm supposed to look out for Dusk after he is born."

Jackie took on a highly serious expression for a filly. "My mom and dad say that being a good big sister is one of the most important things ever. You should make sure you're a good big sister too."

She hadn't really considered her duties as an older sibling till now. If she was being honest with herself she'd been kind of dismissive of what her big brother had told her yesterday. She'd always assumed that Robby would just look out for both her and Dusk which put no pressure on her as the big sister. The very idea that she'd be the big sister hadn't even fully registered.

Looking over at Robby now something obvious occurred to her though. There was going to be the same age gap between her and Dusk as between her and Robby. When Dusk got to be her age she'd be a teenager like Robby and Robby would be a grown up doing grown up things...probably with those night pony mares that were so interested in doing adult things with him. He might even have his own foals by then and not have time for her and Dusk--making her an aunt in addition to a big sister. She was going to have to take up her brothers mantle as the protective order sibling. It was a paradigm shift that was hard to contemplate, but logic said it was going to be that way. Her world was about to drastically change.

Wild Growth had an older sister and younger brothers. She wondered how Wild Growth dealt with it when her little brothers were born and she had to suddenly be the big sister after getting used to being the youngest.

She looked back at Jackie. "I'm going to try my hardest to be the best big sister I can be. Maybe you can help me learn how to be a good big sister?"

Jackie nodded. "Sure, I can be your friend and help you be a good big sister. We can start a big sisters club."

The pegasus might have different experiences considering she was closer to Jordan's age than Jessie would be to Dusk, but it couldn't hurt anything. She'd probably turn to Robby and Wild Growth for advice more. It was nice to hear Jackie wanted to be friends though, and made her feel warm inside.

"I think I'd like that," she said with a smile. "We'll help each other be the best big sisters we can be!"





Wild got out of the limo again, this time in front of her own mansion. There was enough security about that she didn't need a guard following her up to the door. She did have the head of the house staff greet her at the door though; George, a graying human with a very slight accent that indicated he was British. He had been hired on as the head of her household after several high recommendations. The previous family he had served had gotten ETS in the UK and decided to retire to a small farming community, leaving him jobless.

"Ms. Growth, Number Crunch is here and has been awaiting your return," George I formed her.

Number was here? Was there some problem? "Thank you, George, anything else I need to be made aware of?"

"No ma'am. Everything has been very peaceful. Some of the staff were curious about what room you were setting aside for a nursery and if you were going to be hiring on a governess and nanny."

Wild looked up at him. "A what?"

"A governess, ma'am, a full-time stay at home tutor for your foal or foals," George explained. "For a person in your position having a governess for your offspring is all but a necessity considering the security concerns."

Wild shook her head. "It's way too early to be thinking about my foal's education. I'll possibly start looking into candidates for a nanny soon. As for the nursery, I want something next to my bedroom. Setup that room I was using for storage that is just to the left of mine. My bed is next to that wall and that will let me hear what's going on over there."

"Very good, ma'am, though I do recommend that it is never too early to start lining up candidates for a governess."

Wild walked by him into the house. "I'll think about."

This was annoying. She hadn't even fully adjusted to the idea that she was going to be a mother and already her staff were trying to prep for the baby. She did pay them to anticipate needs, but this felt too soon. If only everyone would let her get used to the idea first. The foal was coming, but there was still plenty of time yet before it was here.

"Welcome home, Wild. Ready to do some foal shopping?" Number called out as she entered.

Et tu, Number Crunch?

"No, I am not," Wild called back as she saw Number sitting at the large group hookah in the corner. "And can you get away from that? I'm not supposed to be around smoking. You're asking me about my foal and here you are smoking around me."

Number pointed a hoof at the special fan and vent above her. "I believe containing the smoke is why you have those things right there. Are you planning on having this removed? Having a friend whose house has a living room that is a registered private hookah bar is rather nice. I'd miss having a spot to smoke that I don't have to go down to the entertainment district for."

"No, it's staying. I have to keep this place ready to host SPEC social functions," Wild said as she glanced between the hookah and the actual bar not far from it. She was going to need to stay away from this section of her living room to avoid temptation; unfortunately you had to walk by the alcohol bar to get to the kitchen unless you took an indirect route through the house. "Why aren't you at home? Is something wrong?"

Number sighed and took a long draw from the hookah before exhaling it straight up towards the vent. "I could be at home, but that would leave me having to listen to my husband and his boyfriend fuck. It is nowhere near as much a turn on as you would think to listen to two men screwing across the hall from me. I decided to come spend time with you instead."

"You could ask them to go get a hotel room," Wild suggested, then scrunched up her muzzle at her friend. "Number, please stop with the hookah. It isn't about the air quality it's about causing me temptation. Trying to go cold turkey on alcohol and smoking is bad enough without watching you. If I'm not here you can use that all you want, but don't do it right now."

Number hung up her hose from the hookah and turned to Wild. "Alright, you win. Anyway, I can't ask them to do that or word might get out that my husband is screwing another man. It might not be so bad if he was screwing a woman, but society has strange rules that escalate things from gossip to scandal."

That brought to mind the talk with Rosetta earlier today. How much care was her sister planning on taking to make sure what she was going to do was private? Rosetta put a lot of thought into Phobia's public image, but never really considered her own or how she fit into Phobia's public image. It was like her sister considered herself a non-entity next to Phobia. She and Rosetta needed to have a talk about that before Rosetta started frequenting any lesbian bars. Maybe Phobia already had this talk with her, but it was best to make sure.

"Well, we can hang out for a while I suppose. I don't think that I can go shopping for anything for foals yet, except maybe Christmas shopping for my niece's and nephew," Wild offered.

"Why not?" Number asked. "You're two months along. You should at least go out window shopping for ideas of what you want for a crib, how you want to set the nursery up, things like that."

Wild groaned. "Everyone wants me thinking about this stuff. I don't even know if I'm having one foal or twins, don't know the tribe, don't know the gender, I don't have any information other than there is definitely a foal in me. It's like it isn't a person yet, just the concept of a person."

Number gave her an odd look. "Why don't you know the tribe and how many yet?"

Wild slapped a hoof on the floor. "I have a doctor's appointment next week where I'm supposed to find that out. Would have had this appointment already, but I spend so much time traveling it is hard to get with a regular doctor. Now it's a holiday weekend that I'm waiting through."

"Um, why don't you just ask your sister-in-law what you are having?"

She gave the unicorn a blank look.

Number looked amused. "You do remember she can tell information about what your foal is well ahead of everyone else. She can read it's little partially formed mind-or minds if it is twins. Phobia probably already knows and you just haven't bothered to ask her."

Okay, that really had slipped her mind that Dreamwardens could do that. It wasn't one of their abilities that got talked about much.

She raised her leg up. "Alexa, call Phobia Remedy."

"You have a reminder in place to not call Phobia Remedy between noon and eight at night," Alexa alerted.

"Disregard reminder, call contact Phobia Remedy!"

"Calling Phobia Remedy."

The phone rang a few times before being picked up. "Wild? Is that you? What's the emergency?"

"What am I having?" Wild asked quickly.

Phobia grumbled. "You'll have to be more specific than that. My answer right now is you're having a Dreamwarden get grumpy with you because you woke her up at one in the afternoon."

"What kind of foal or foals am I having?"

"You waited till now to ask me this? If you waited this long you could have waited seven more hours."

"Please, Phobia, just tell me," Wild pleaded.

"Alright," Phobia could be heard yawning. "You're having one foal, and it's a pegasus. I'm going back to bed now."

Okay, just one, and a pegasus. That was going to be interesting. That was information she needed when setting up a nursery. "Wait! What gender?"

"Don't know. Go ask a doctor. Let me go back to bed," Phobia said with a hint of annoyance.

"Why don't you know? You know virtually everything," Wild asked in disbelief.

Phobia chuckled. "Um, not even close to everything, but thanks for thinking so highly of me. As for why I don't know, I read the foal's instincts in its mind, not what it's body parts are--not unless I do something extremely invasive to its mind. The instincts that tell it what gender it is don't actually develop until very late in a pregnancy; it's one of the last major instinctual things they develop before you push them out. Tribal identification and species identification instinct develop much earlier so I can tell those already. Go ask a doctor if it has colt parts or filly parts."

"But what about..."

"No more questions right now or I'll be giving you nightmares tonight about endless mountains of dirty diapers. I want to get my sleep!" The phone clicked off.

"Do you think she really will give you nightmares about dirty diapers?" Number asked.

Wild shook her head. "No, Phobia likes to bluff." 

She sat down on a pillow and ran a hoof over her tummy again. Knowing that it was definitely one foal and a pegasus made the situation more real to her. It made the little pony inside her less of a vague concept and more a person she was going to get to know soon. There was going to be a little colt or filly pegasus that was going to need their mama, and that mama was going to be her. She got misty eyed as she thought about it. 

Number came and sat beside her then laid a hoof on her back. "Starting to hit home now?"

Wild nodded as more reality started crashing into her. She was having this foal and she was going to be a single parent who spent much of her time in the road. Could she bring her foal on the road with her? She was subject to regular assassination attempts; she couldn't expose her foal to that. Who was going to be watching her foal while she was working? She needed to start researching who will be the nanny and who will be the governess. They'd be just as much a part of her foal's early life as she was; she couldn't let them be just anyone. 

She was a single parent; did she need to start seriously dating to find a proper father? How was she supposed to do that when she traveled so much and they knew she was pregnant? Her foal deserved a father, but she didn't know where to begin with that. She'd never had a relationship with a stallion before, at least not a relationship that went past having a few drinks and then moving right on to screwing.

Oh, she was so not ready for this. There was zero evidence she was going to be capable of being a good parent. She'd be left neglecting her foal to be raised by aides. She'd never spend the time with her foal that she should. She wasn't even sure she knew how to be a properly loving mama when she did have time for her foal. What about how much her foal was going to have to be constantly watched? With all the security that would always going to have to be around was she going to put her little pegasus in a gilded cage?

Number gave her a sympathetic look. "Hey, it will be alright."

Wild shook her head and started crying. "No it's not, I'm going to be a horrible mother. One of those horrible parents that are always at a distance, are too strict, and leave the raising of their kids to others."

Number raised an eyebrow. "Too strict? Really? Distant? I doubt it. You're the pony that got me to open up and lighten up, the pony who took the chance on being friends with me and taught me how to be a better person. You're the most compassionate and generous person I have ever met, and you're going to be a wonderful mom for your foal."

"You're just trying to make me feel better," Wild muttered. "There is no evidence I can cut it as a mother."

Number's horn glowed blue and Wild felt a yank on her tail. "Yes, I'm trying to make you feel better. There's plenty of reason to believe you'll be a good mother though. The main reason being is how much you care. You care about everyone and everything, and you'll bring that same caring nature to raising your foal. You won't neglect them because it matters too much to you that your foal has a good life where it feels loved."

"I don't know," Wild replied as she rubbed her leg. "I'm just so busy, and can't imagine I can spend the time I should with my foal. Plus, the security I maintain is stifling to me; I can only imagine what it might feel like to a foal."

Number stood up. "Let's go out shopping then. Remind yourself that you can just go out once and a while. Just bring one guard along, not the whole big entourage. Go out and be just another expecting mother out shopping for her foal."

That made her laugh at the absurdity of it. "You do realize it is Black Friday right now, don't you? The crowds out in the commercial district are going to be insane. This is the worst possible day to pull something like this."

"It's the best possible day," Number countered. "Everyone is focused on shopping. No one will care that you are there shopping as well, most people will be so focused on trying to just buy things they won't even pay attention to the fact you're there. If anyone wanted to try to pull something with an attack on you they'd have to wade through mobs of shoppers to get to you, and your one security guard could spot something like that happening. No one will be prepared with anything planned to take you down either because it will take them off guard that you even went out. You could use some unpredictability in your routine."

"When they see me shopping for foal supplies tongues are going to wag," Wild replied.

Number snorted. "Let them wag. You aren't going to be keeping the fact you're pregnant secret for long anyway. You were mainly keeping it a secret because you wanted to tell your family face-to-face first before they found out through others. You've done that, so there's no more reason to hide it."

"Don't you think the media finding that out will impact the stock prices?" Wild asked as her tail twitched.

Number looked down her muzzle at her. "You know that it will probably help the Westvaco stock. It would put an end to speculation about your health. When it was announced you were taking time off that hit the stock price hard. I'm the one who taught you all you know about business and the stock market, so I know you know better. You're making empty excuses now."

Wild sighed. "I know. I'm just nervous. I have gotten so used to having to worry about these things that even though I hate them I can't stop instinctually focusing on them."

Number started walking to the front door. "Well, let's break that chain. If the world is feeling too controlled for you then you need to do something spontaneous. Trust me, you'll feel better when you do things that make you think about how wonderful having your foal will be."

Wild raised an eyebrow. "Weren't you the one that was reminding me how stressful it will be and laughing about it?"

Number blew a raspberry. "You know I was just poking at you. If I knew how concerned you were about this I wouldn't have done that. You normally are so confident that you can take care of everyone, so why should I have guessed you have doubts about your ability to take care of your own foal?"

"I didn't even consider whether I was up to the task until today," Wild admitted. She then got to her hooves. "Fine, we'll go out browsing what kinds of things I want for the nursery. Where do you want to go?"

Number shrugged. "We don't need to go anywhere fancy; Walmart, Target, the normal places. It's a shame so many of the old big department stores like JCPenney were forced to finally shutter their doors after ETS. I miss those. I think there's a pony who has a shop in one of the strip malls that specializes in baby supplies for both humans and ponies."

Wild walked towards the door. "I think I'd prefer to just go there then. It sounds like somewhere that has a more personal touch and an expert to consult with. Unless you have some secret education on setting up nurseries I'd like to be able to ask people questions. If it is someplace privately owned and run I prefer to support those kinds of businesses anyway; they can struggle sometimes."

Number laughed. "There's the Wild Growth I know. Perhaps you can cut them a good supply deal for the inevitable line of PonyCo pregnant mother products your engineers are likely already dreaming up there with hopes of having you being able to show them off to the world."

Yeah, that was definitely going to be coming. As soon as she had informed the acting CEO there about her pregnancy he had likely called up the R and D department to get making products she could push as a famous celebrity mom-to-be. There was no escaping business. 

She really needed to look into all her various business contracts she had for her services with different companies and see what loopholes there were for terminating them early. Most of the businesses could survive without her marketing their products at this point. Westvaco would be the only one that actually needed her. She might still be able to renegotiate her contract with them to something that gave her more time with her foal. 

The whole reason she had embarked on getting this deep into the business world was basically done now. Soon her mama would be able to go temporary pony and not suffer so much. There were still plenty of things she wanted to help with, but the era where she needed to accumulate huge amounts of wealth was done. It was time to reassess her goals. Her mama had been wonderful to her growing up; it was time to try to be a wonderful mama to her own foal.

It caught her security by surprise that she was leaving again so soon, but no complaints were raised. She and Number were quickly back in the limo with her one crystal pony guard. The drive to the commercial district didn't take long at all. 

It looked like getting out of the commercial district was going to be a whole other matter. The parking lots were jammed full of cabs and buses. The cars that belonged to human residents were often forced to park in grassy areas far from the shops because every spot was seemingly taken by the cabbies and bus drivers--with the busses taking up whole stretches of parking spaces. The areas where the traffic was exiting out of the commercial district were at a complete standstill. Riverview didn't have streets that were built for high amounts of traffic or parking lots built for this many cars at once.

"I didn't realize there were this many cabs and buses in the city. Never thought I'd see a traffic jam in Riverview" Number said with exasperation as she looked out towards the street as the limo continued to circle the lot looking for a spot. "Why is everyone taking cabs today instead of the monorail?"

Wild rolled her eyes. "I warned you it's Black Friday. They're probably taking cabs because they're going to be purchasing too many things to be carrying around with them. The monorail just isn't going to work for most shoppers today."

Number turned to her window again. "At least business is booming. I had considered bringing up the suggestion of retrying proper malls again. I think that they be better suited for pony shopping styles. Someplace they can wander around with speciality stores. What do you think?"

Wild groaned. "I'm trying not to think about business...but it sounds like a good idea. Food courts and sitting areas are great socializing centers and are lacking in places like Walmart, and there are plenty of ponies who try to set up specialized shops that would thrive better in a mall if we kept the rent relatively low."

Number turned and gave a happy smile. "Glad you agree with me. I may start looking into setting up construction of something after the new year."

Wild took a deep breath. "I want to try to start distancing myself from business."

Number lost some of her smile, but nodded. "I understand." The unicorn took a deep breath. "You know, I've been helping you a lot these past few years. Maybe it's time for me to just make that my full time gig. That way you can have more time with your foal and still have time to do your good works and act in a leadership role in SPEC."

"I appreciate the offer, but you can't do that and run your bank."

Number sat silent for a second before replying. "I can retire from my position at the bank to do so."

Wild went wide-eyed. "You don't have to do that. We're friends, but I know how much your bank means to you. I wouldn't want to have you drop that to take care of all my business affairs for me."

"Wild, you succeeding is more important to me than my bank," Number said as she looked her in the eyes. "I'm more than just your friend, I'm a pony that believes in all the good you can do. You do everything you can for others without asking for anything in return. Let me give you the opportunity to keep doing the good that you do."

Wild looked her friend over as the limo finally found a space to park. "Number, I appreciate the faith you have in me, but don't you think quitting a job you love to help me out is a bit...extreme? It's a nice gesture, but it's too much."

Number flattened her ears. "What's more important to me is seeing that people are taken care of and that the future is built on the right kind of foundation. You taught me how to be a good person; and I say person inclusive of ponies and humans. You teach the world how to be caring and generous with all that you do. Seeing that as the foundation for the future is what is important to me."

Wild shook her head. "Number, let's not talk about this now. I've got enough things on my mind. I'm not prepared to think about your offer and I think you need time to consider whether that's really what you want to do."

Number looked like she wanted to say more, but just nodded instead. What the unicorn had been saying felt uncomfortably close to what radical Harmonists like to say to her. It didn't seem likely that Number had gone down that rabbit hole, but it still made her uncomfortable hearing things like that from her best friend. 

Her driver and security opened the doors to let them out of the limo. She was just going to put this talk out of her mind and focus on trying to prepare for her foal. Her life was changing fast now, and thinking of it all made her anxious.