//------------------------------// // Chapter 17: Legacies // Story: Pandemic: Monsters We Make // by Halira //------------------------------// Jessie woke up to something shaking her. She blinked to clear the sleep from her eyes and looked up to see her dad. "Sorry to wake you, big girl, but I wanted to be here to give you the big news," her dad said with a huge stupid grin on his face. "Big news?" She asked in confusion, not really awake yet. It was just occurring to her that she was on one of Phobia Remedy's pillows in the Dreamwarden's living room. "You've got offers to attend several universities, big name ones," her dad said excitedly. "What? This must be a dream. I haven't applied to any universities yet," she said as she tried to roll over and get back to sleep--despite her apparently already being asleep. "Your dad is overstating things and getting ahead of himself," she heard Ms. Rosetta say from nearby. "You have been contacted by several universities though, or at least Phobia has on your behalf, and you aren't dreaming." She sat up at that and looked around. Her dad and Ms. Rosetta were sitting close by her. Jackie and Jordan were on a couch and looked like they were waking up due to the commotion. Phobia Remedy was sitting at the computer desk reading something. There was no sign of her brother, the demons, or anyone else. "What do they want?" She asked as she looked over at the Dreamwarden. The Dreamwarden kept reading but answered her all the same. "You linked together the work of several different university research teams when you did your work. What you didn't do was give them proper credit and citation when you did it. They are being pretty forgiving since you're so young, but they want their proper credit given. Some of them have also been asking for your school records. You did impress them all with how you were able to draw connections and links between their independent works. They're willing to give you credit for how you did so, but you need to give them their credit for doing the majority of the work." That woke her up the rest of the way. "But it isn't a proper academic paper! I don't even know how to write a proper academic paper other than for school. I mean, I could probably figure it out, but it's just the stuff from my notebook. I didn't mean to do anything bad." "We know you didn't," her dad said as his excitement visibly lowered, but he now seemed amused. "People at universities can just get really picky about making sure they're given credit. Phobia sent them copies of what you did and they immediately started thinking about making sure people knew they helped come up with parts of it. What I think is important is that you got their attention." He turned towards Phobia Remedy. "Which ones were asking for her school records again?" Phobia Remedy stopped what she was reading and looked at something that was written down on a sheet of paper. "Berkeley, Cornell, Stanford, University of Michigan, Yale, and the International School of Friendship. Berkeley, Cornell, Yale, and Harvard are the ones asking for her to include them in giving credit. That makes Harvard the only one that isn't already trying to see if she is a potential student out of the ones she borrowed from." "Some of the others might be interested and just haven't gotten to asking yet, that was a pretty large list of universities you sent her notes off to, and those few moved pretty fast. I don't recall you sending anything to Twilight's school though," Ms. Rosetta said with a chuckle. Phobia shrugged and went back to reading. "I sent it to Twilight Sparkle so it amounts to much the same thing." "Why'd you send them all my notes?" Jessie asked in confusion. Phobia kept reading. "Because I needed to make sure that your work is showing what I think it is showing. To do that I needed qualified professional opinions. I sent it to the majority of the top universities to let the doctors in them take a look. I'm kind of surprised at how fast I got responses back since I sent them out during a holiday, but it seems like your notes created quite a buzz in the academic community--at least among math and physics departments." "You're fudging on the truth, Phobia," Ms. Rosetta scolded. Phobia Remedy turned in her seat to look at her wife. "Are you calling a Dreamwarden a liar?" "I'm saying you aren't being fully honest with her," Ms. Rosetta said without so much as flinching, instead giving her wife a flat look. "You take after your mother in that. Leaving things out to distort the truth." Phobia Remedy flicked her tail and looked back at Jessie. "I was almost certain of it myself, as I know a lot about a lot of subjects. Just because I know a lot doesn't mean I can't be wrong though. My fellow Dreamwardens draw from the same sources of knowledge as me so they can't count as second opinions. Another thing I needed was for the academic community to back what your equations are showing as most wouldn't take a Dreamwarden's word for it." She looked back at her wife. "I didn't lie." "Just fudged the truth by leaving out important details, as I said," Ms. Rosetta said with a smirk. Ms. Rosetta was a very brave pony to be taunting a Dreamwarden like that, even one she was married to. Phobia Remedy sighed and looked back at Jessie. "They apparently already have lots of ideas that they are coming up with based on the connections you made, and they are eager to get to work expanding on those ideas. For the sake of academic integrity they want to see what you did converted into a formal academic paper, properly cited, so that they can in turn properly cite your work when they begin releasing their results." Her ears dropped. "But...I thought this was my project. My thing to figure out." Phobia Remedy gave her a sympathetic look. "You did a lot making the connections you did, and I'm sure you will do other great things in the future. If I didn't think so I wouldn't be telling you how important you are in helping fight the Devourers. You already provided a critical piece in doing so, and minds like yours will be important in that fight. Right now this is going to be worked on by experienced physicists as they develop and better resolve everything involved. You'll have opportunities to do other things in the future." "Big girl, you still did a lot to impress them. I'm sure they think you have a big future in physics if a lot of them are already asking about your school records," her dad assured her as he ran a hand over her ears. "After you go off to college and really get to expanding your education I'm sure you'll be blowing everyone away with the new things you come up with. You'll be like the next Steven Hawking." "I thought I was blowing them away now with this, but they're taking it away from me and saying I need to come up with something new now," she whimpered as she wiped her nose. "And I don't know if I want to go straight to college or not next year now. Things have gotten all weird." "This is still yours, sweetie," her dad said as he seemed to be getting concerned. "I didn't realize how possessive you were of this. They are going to make sure you get credit, don't worry about that." She shook her head. "It's not okay. I was supposed to be doing something big and important and now it is going to be somebody else. I don't know if I'll ever come up with something big like this again. All my friends are here and so is Robby. I don't want to leave them if I'm not doing important stuff." "What?" Her dad asked as he sat back. "The stuff Phobia Remedy was talking to me about," she mumbled. Her dad turned to the Dreamwarden. Phobia looked uncomfortable as she spoke. "I don't have her permission yet to discuss these things with you. I don't think I'm the one you need to talk to anyway. Go ahead and ask her. I'm confident she'll say her mind. She's a very open foal." He turned back to her. "Jessie, do you want to talk about what's bothering you?" She looked briefly at her two friends, who were now awake and looking on at her curiously, before turning back to him while holding back tears. "I was thinking about what happens when I go to college. We'll have to move. When we move I will be taken away from my friends and maybe even Robby. Plus, Phobia was telling me how important I am for fighting the Devourers, but the big important thing I was doing was that stuff in my notebook and I'm not even going to be working on that anymore. It's like everything gets taken away from me." "Jessie's going away?" Jordan whimpered on the couch. "I don't want her to go away." "You're not allowed to go away. You'll make Jordan cry!" Jackie yelled as she scrambled to her hooves while beating her wings for balance, inadvertently buffeting her little sister in the process. Phobia partially covered her head in embarrassment with a wing. "Maybe I should have taken my sisters out of the room before this conversation started." "Ya think?" Rosetta snorted and then moved towards the two fillies. "Jessie isn't going anywhere right now. How about you two come with me and we can bake some cookies together. Robby and the others should be back downstairs soon and we can all sit down and have cookies together." "I guess making cookies would be good, but what about Jessie?" Jordan asked, still looking on the verge of tears. "I'll be there in a few minutes," Jessie called out after calming down a little herself. She even paused and tried to figure out why because it didn't make much sense to her. It seemed like Jordan getting upset should just make her more upset, but something made her gain focus with hearing her friend unhappy. She tried to figure it out and pulled a blank, and not resolving why frustrated her. She needed to ask about this. "I'll come and help," Phobia Remedy said as she hopped down from her chair. Ms. Rosetta laid a single ear back. "I'm not going to accidently poison the foals making cookies. I'm not that bad a cook." "I didn't say you are dear," Phobia Remedy said without stopping her advance to the kitchen. "You're just supervising, not taking over the baking," Ms. Rosetta instructed as she swished her tail about. "Just supervising," Phobia Remedy agreed as she walked into the kitchen. "Making sure no fires start." "That only happened twice!" Ms. Rosetta said as her ears went flat. "Would you prefer I didn't help?" Phobia Remedy called back from the kitchen. The Spanish and history teacher shook her head in defeat. "Okay, but only verbal advice. I'm going to make a perfect batch of cookies." "I believe in you dear," Phobia called out in reply as the sink could be heard turning on in the kitchen. "Aww, but a fire would be cool!" Jackie chimed in as the full group vanished into the kitchen. Her dad sat down next to her and sighed. "Jessie, let me tell you about my life when I was growing up. I know they haven't come by much, but you remember my parents, right?" She nodded. "Meme and Pepaw." She always thought those terms were silly, but they seemed to prefer them. They were both pegasi and lived up in North Carolina. "Your Pepaw was in the military, and we traveled a lot because of that when I was growing up. They called kids like me military brats," her dad explained as he laid a hand on her back. "Up until I was about Robby's age I don't think we lived in the same city for two years straight, sometimes not even the same country. I lived on military bases a lot and the other kids would be going through the same thing where they were constantly moving, but different places than me. It was always new people every year and I didn't really have any long lasting friendships because of that." "So you know how I'm feeling then," Jessie replied as her ears picked up. He nodded back. "Yes, I understand how you're feeling. I always wondered what would have been different if I hadn't moved around so much. I can tell you one thing thing that would have been different though; you and your brothers wouldn't exist." Her ears laid back again. "Huh?" He smiled at her. "If my parents had stayed back where I was born and not moved about I'd have grown up in Louisiana. I'd have probably gone to college there too. Moving around did cause some struggles with maintaining friendships growing up, but eventually we did settle down and I did make friends. I also got put in a position where I would meet your mother." "That doesn't mean good things couldn't happen if I stayed here," she countered. He paused and then brushed her ears again with his hand. "You've got so much potential. You're one of the smartest people in the whole world, and that's not just fatherly pride talking. It's my job, along with your mother's, to see that you get every opportunity to turn that potential into something great. Your mom has been wanting to give you more time here, but she and I both know that to really see you be all you can be that you'll need to move on eventually." "But what about Robby? Phobia Remedy said he might not move with us," she said as tears started building again. Her dad looked down. "Robby is a complicated matter. There's a lot of things that factor in with what will happen with him, not least of which is what he wants to do. Him staying here is an opportunity for him as well. Not many night ponies can claim they get personal training from a Dreamwarden. A lot of those younger mares outside guarding are here because it looks good that they were guards for Phobia Remedy for anyone looking at job applications in the future. Phobia Remedy is a very good person to have listed as a reference and we want to give him every opportunity to succeed in life too." "But leaving him here while we move is too much," Jessie protested as she stood to her hooves and glared at her dad. "We don't know if that will happen yet, and if if did we would still see that he spent part of every summer and every major holiday with us still. We could still call him every day and he could dreamwalk you every night. We wouldn't be removing him from our lives." "What are you two talking about?" She heard Robby ask. She and her dad both turned to see Robby standing at the base of the stairs with the twins standing just behind him and Alfie crawling underneath Robby's legs like he was looking for protection. Ms. Rosetta stepped out of the kitchen with a concerned look on her face. "Diablos, vayan a la cocina," the night pony mare called out and gestured towards the kitchen. The three demons turned and scampered off towards the kitchen, with Alfie giving Robby one last worried look before vanishing out of sight. Ms. Rosetta watched her foals' progress and then looked back at Robby once more like she wanted to say something before glancing at Jessie's dad. After a moment of indecision she then turned and walked away quickly into the kitchen as the only sounds in the house seemed to be the sound of Phobia Remedy instructing her sisters on what ingredients were needed for cookies. "Robby, I can explain," her dad began. "Explain what? That you're thinking about leaving me with someone again to deal with Jessie's stuff, only this time it's permanent?" Robby asked in a near growl as he slightly spread his wings. The sound of his growl made her flatten her ears. "Robby..." she whimpered at her brother's hostility. He looked at her and his expression softened just a smidge. "Jessie, I love you to death. You're my little sister and nothing is ever going to change that. Please don't think I'm mad at you." He turned back towards their dad. "But I always get swept aside for you. From the day you were born, it was clear you were always going to be the one they'd focus on; that I was just in the way. I'm mad at them, not you." "It isn't like that, Robby. If you'd just give me time to explain--" her dad tried to say. "Or maybe I'm wrong," Robby continued over their dad. "Maybe now that Dusk is born she'll get pushed aside too for the new special kid since you don't have time for more than one. Already have her doing sleepovers right after he is born after all." "Robert Middleton, that is enough! ¡Estás siendo irrespetuoso con tus padres!" Ms. Rosetta shouted as she marched back into the living room. "You're free to express your mind, but apologize for your tone now." "I don't need help dealing with this, Rosetta," her dad snapped as he glared her. The mare glared back at him. "Apparently you do. He is a night pony, you must be firm with him when he is out of line. He respects strength, not someone who let's him walk all over them in an argument. Even if he wasn't a night pony you should be firmer." She turned back to Robby and flared her wings. "I expect to hear the apology now, Robert!" Robby glowered for a second then lowered his head and took a deep breath before looking back at their dad. "I'm sorry for my tone, but I'm not sorry for what I said." Ms. Rosetta put her wings back down. "Satisfactory. Be more civil with your father. Argue all you want, but don't you dare take that kind of tone towards him under my roof again. Do I make myself clear?" "Yes, ma'am," Robby said with his head still lowered. Ms. Rosetta's expression softened. "And do let him finish what he has to say to you. You might find you're being unfair in your judgement if you do." She then turned and started back into the kitchen. "You better not have started mixing batter without me! Alfie, don't leave the kitchen," she shouted towards the kitchen. "Robby, let's just sit down and talk about th--" her dad started again, but Robby held a wing up to cut him off once more. "Can we do this later, please?" Robby asked, purposely looking away from their dad. "She wants me to be reasonable, but I'm too angry to be that right now." Their dad ran a hand through his hair and bit his lip. "Okay, that's perfectly fair. Take the time you need to--" He didn't get to finish before Robby opened his wings with an audible snap and flew straight back up the stairs. Her dad sat down with a groan and she walked over to him and laid down against him. "What am I going to do with him? I try my best with him, but don't know how to do right by him." She was unsure if this question was directed at her or rhetorical but she decided to answer anyway. "Why don't you just do what Ms. Rosetta said?" Her dad sighed. "Because I promised myself I was always going to be a reasonable parent who resolved things by talking things through with my kids. My parents were always really firm with me and I felt like I wasn't listened to. I wanted to be better. Maybe she's right, but I can't bring myself to do it." "You do it when it comes to those mares and fillies," she reminded him. "That's different," her dad replied with a shake of his head. He then looked down at her. "And this isn't a conversation I should really be having with you." She pursed her lips before replying. "Both him and I are angry about the same things, kinda anyway, but I do like to talk things out. So you can talk to me." Her dad sat and looked at her and then looked at the stairs Robby had gone up. "I think I agree with Robby about one thing. We need to take a break from the subject so we can get our thoughts together. I want to give you both good answers that you deserve, but I need to get my head in the game and talk to your mother about how to discuss this with each of you first. We didn't think we had to discuss this yet so we didn't have a good plan on how to do it, but it is obvious we'll have to sooner than we thought. Just give me a few days and I promise I'll talk to each of you about it, deal?" She wanted to push, but she recalled what Robby said about her being worse than Jordan and Jackie about not letting questions go. "Okay, if you promise." "I promise," her dad assured her. He then stood up. "I need to get back to your mom. I brought over your books and school supplies so you'd have them in the morning. Phobia said she'd make sure you were at school on time." "How is she getting me to school?" It hadn't occurred to her until now that she had no idea how she was going to get to school. The demons went to school on a completely different schedule than her, and her parents normally drove her to school. "She said that Crystal was getting a new car today and would be getting you there," her dad explained. She frowned. "Um, ponies don't drive cars." Her dad shrugged. "All I can say is that's what she said, and Phobia doesn't have a reason to lie." She'd have to ask about that, but later. Right now she was just going to go bake cookies with her friends. She didn't know how to bake cookies and she wanted to learn. Plus she didn't know how much time she had left with her friends. "¡Fuego!" She heard Charlotte yell excitedly. "Your Spanish is very good, Charlotte, but please step out of the way so Mommy can get the fire extinguisher." "¡No otra vez!" Ms. Rosetta could be heard yelling in despair. Or maybe she was learning more about kitchen safety, whatever worked as long as she got her time with friends in. "I need answers, Sunset," Wild said into her phone. She was in the bathroom because it seemed to be the only place her mama would give her a little bit of privacy. "It doesn't take a magical genius to figure it out, Wild. She doesn't want to transform back and is doing everything she can to keep it going. I'll have them continue to run tests, and in a few days if this hasn't worn off we'll bring it to an end ourselves," Sunset replied over the phone. "She climbed into bed with me last night," Wild whispered back harshly. "Your crystal ponies say that she should have been good to go for the full night on what she had absorbed just before going to bed." "Maybe she just didn't want to risk it," Sunset suggested. Wild shook her head. "This is not normal behavior." "What's normal about her situation at all? We need time to figure that out. Don't go panicking," Sunset replied in an exasperated tone. "She's just being clingy to the person she feels is her lifeline for staying healthy, can you really blame her for that? We can't keep it going indefinitely, but we need data about this. Just be happy she has some time to be healthy." "When are you going to have your mages do a thorough examination again?" Wild asked as her ears picked up the sound of movement just outside the bathroom. She didn't have to guess who was out there. "I'll leave instructions for them to do a full line of tests tonight," Sunset answered. "I've got to switch out who's with you anyway. They've been good sports about it, but the ones with you I didn't give much notice they were going to be spending the night away from their homes and families." She hadn't really considered that. Maybe she should be a bit nicer towards her extra guests considering the inconvenience this was putting them through. Her mama's behavior just had her too much on edge. "I have to do the annual final harvest in a few hours. Do you think she'll be okay being left alone for a few hours or do I need to bring her along with me?" She asked as she tried to figure out how to deal with her mama for the remainder of the day. Sunset was silent for a few seconds before replying. "The world already knows about her so bring her with you and keep some guards near her. No reason to keep her under lock and key. Just keep her away from talking to the media. I’m sure you’ll have Number Crunch with you, have her run interference on that; she knows how to deal with them. I’m only going to be there a little while so I won’t be able to help you." "Where are you taking off to? I need you there," Wild demanded. Sunset snorted. "It's a private matter concerning me and my wife. It doesn't concern you and is none of your business." She lowered her voice to a whisper and brought the phone on her leg almost up to where it was touching her muzzle. "I don’t know what you’re thinking, but this isn't the time for you to be laying low. We've got protests going on and my mama is acting strange while under the affects of your magic. I need you figuring out solutions for helping resolve these bugs and to calm people down." "I'll see that everything is taken care of, but I'm not answerable to you," Sunset replied in a cold voice. "I'll bring it up with the SPEC board," Wild countered. "You're answerable then." "Go right ahead. Maybe you should vote to have me replaced while you're at it," Sunset replied flippantly. Wild blinked. "You escalated that quickly. There's no need to be dramatic." Sunset sighed. "I'm done, Wild. This was my last great project. If you aren't happy with the way I'm doing things then give me a vote of no confidence and take this job for yourself. I plan on stepping down after the new year anyway and we both know you're the one most likely to succeed me." "I'm pregnant, you can't dump everything on me like that. I need time to have my foal, recover, be a mother. I can't be running your secret empire." "You could refuse, but we both know you won't. You feel too much responsibility and can't stop thinking of the good you could do. I know you, Wild." "I know you too, Sunset. You wouldn't just release control like that. You treasure the power too much. You've got some plan to use me as a puppet while you don't have to deal with the fallout yourself if anything goes wrong. There is something wrong already and you aren't doing anything to fix it because you don't want to admit whatever you did isn't right." "No… times change," Sunset said in a low voice. "No hooks, no secret agendas, just you taking over and me stepping away. I've done what I set out to do. Perfecting this spell will be in the hands and hooves of others. There needs to be a pony everyone trusts at the helm through this period and that pony is you. I'm a master at putting together the work of others into something new, but I'm not a creator of fresh ideas. You won't get the solutions you want from me. If you want the issues resolved get a coalition of mages and scientists together to find answers." She bared her teeth at the phone. "You planned to dump this on me from the start. Ensuring your legacy lives on but everyone else has to deal with the fallouts." "Since I've been a pony I've always won. Even the one time I lost I still count it as a win. I'm going to dip out on a perfect record. The person I lost to once asked if I was a gambler, and the answer is no. I know when to take what I've won and walk away. I'll see the future is ensured. That will happen through you because you are too much of a bleeding heart not to see to it." "What if I tell the government what you did to my mother? They'll shut this down if they find out it turns them into magic addicts. What will become of your legacy then?" She snapped. "It will be thrown in the garbage for sure, but that won't happen," Sunset replied dismissively "You need this to be right and you need the experiments to continue. You won't blow the lid off what could help so many. You'll see that the problems are resolved. If you don't your mother and others will suffer, and you won't let that happen. You care too much just to sink my legacy out of spite." That manipulative bitch! The worst part was she was right. There was no way Wild would allow this to be shut down, not with the good it could do. "Why are you so angry, Wild? Do you really think I matter so much in the resolution of the problems? I'm honored you think so highly of my skills as a mage, but they can be resolved without me. We both knew there were going to be some things that needed ironing out. If you're not happy with the way I'm handling it at this stage take control yourself and do it the way you think is best. I know you will do all you can do and you'll find the solutions. It isn't in you not to." "Tell me, and tell me the truth; did you do this on purpose just to force me to take control? Did you deliberately screw up?" She said in a low voice. "Just tell me. Tell me that you did it on purpose and that you already know how to fix it. I'll take your damn job and won't say a thing, please.. just tell me you know how to fix it." "I didn't know this would happen and I didn't do it on purpose. I’m sorry, I don't have any easy fix sitting aside ready to go--not unless you want me to permanently transform her and break the law...perhaps you do as you could just throw me under the bus for it. You seem to think I'm out to hurt ponies to get what I want, but I didn't need to hurt anypony in this case. It is just an unfortunate occurrence. We haven't even confirmed she is hurt by this yet. Do what you think you need to do. One way or another I know you'll see this spell perfected and a perfected version put to use. My legacy is secure no matter what." The phone hung up without a goodbye said and Wild stared at the phone band on her leg for a minute before slamming it against the wall. The wall and the phone were both shattered. She opened up the door to the bathroom with a snarl and forgot that right outside the door she had someone waiting for her. "Catherine...are you okay?" Her mama said with her eyes wide and her ears flattened against her skull. She was cowering down low. All eyes in the living room were on Wild and everyone looked like they were wondering if they should be running for their lives. The anger went out of her as quickly as it had risen as she realized she had everyone deathly afraid of her, even her parents and Number. It has been a long time since she'd lost control of her temper. Her posture sagged and she took a few deep breaths to calm herself. "I'll deal with it. I'm sorry if I scared any of you, was just something over the phone, don’t worry about it." Her mama didn't get up and her eyes glistened. "Oh...Catherine, I… I heard some of your conversation. I didn't mean too, it's just so easy with pony ears. Is there really something wrong with me? I didn't mean to make you mad." "Mama..." How do you have a conversation with your mama about the fact she's an addict? "None of this is your fault, but there’s something not right about your transformation. I'm going to do everything I can to make it better. You're sapping magic way more than you need to be. I understand why you don't want to transform back, but this isn't meant to keep going like this. It's supposed to be reapplied regularly after wearing off. You could be hurting yourself and you're behaving almost like a drug addict when it comes to magic." Her mama crawled backwards a few steps. "I'm...I'm fine I don't need to get magic." Wild frowned down at her. "If that’s true, why were you waiting for me right outside the bathroom? Why do you hang off me constantly and not others? Why did I find you curled up in my bed last night asleep and still sucking magic from me as you slept like a baby sucking on a bottle?" "She what?" Her papa asked in shock from the couch. Wild turned to her papa. "I got her back to your room and in bed without waking you up. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it, but it is a big deal. She's got a problem." "I don't remember doing that. I really don't. Maybe you just dreamed it," her mama whimpered as she shivered on the floor. "Ma'am, I've been watching you since you got up. You have kept glancing in Wild's direction no matter where she is at, even when she's not in sight and no one should know for sure where she is," Number chimed in from where she had been eating breakfast in a chair. "She's locked onto Wild Growth's magic signature. She can tell where it is within a certain range," one of the crystal ponies said thoughtfully. "Usually it takes a while to learn how to do that." Wild raised her eyebrows at the scared crystal pony in front of her. "Is that true, Mama?" "I'm not...how would I know… I don't think I am," her mama answered in a low voice. "She might really not be aware of it. If she considers it her source of sustenance she might be doing it subconsciously," one of the unicorns said thoughtfully as he stared at her mama. "Come to think of it. I'm not sure I've seen her actually eat anything since she transformed." Her mama started to cry in earnest now. "Why is everypony being so mean to me? Ponies are supposed to nice. Just leave me alone!" "We're not trying to be mean to you, Mama. We're trying to figure out what's wrong and how to help you," Wild said as kindly as she could, afraid she'd been too firm with dealing with her. "That's enough!" her papa shouted as he got up from where he was sitting and hurried over to where her mama was huddled on the floor. He bent down and hugged her and she wrapped her forelegs around his neck. He then picked her up--not an easy feat for a man his age considering crystal ponies were second to earth ponies in terms of weight--and gave the room a glare. "I'm taking her upstairs. Give her some space. I don't know what is going on with her but I do know that you're upsetting her and scaring her. And I won't have it." She watched as he started walking up the stairs still holding her mama and she flattened her ears. "Maybe you should let me carry her up. You shouldn't be trying to carry that much weight up the stairs." "You've done enough, Catherine," her papa snapped without even turning to look at her. He very carefully took one step at a time going up the stairs, and she held her breath until she heard him finally reach the second floor. Everyone else in the room seemed to try not to look at her as she turned back at them. George was the first to break the silence as he headed towards the kitchen. "I'll make some calls and see about getting the bathroom repaired and remodeled." He hadn't even seen the damage yet, but he'd probably heard it. For all she knew the whole house might have quaked under her blow. She focused on the unicorns and the crystal ponies who had been eating breakfast. "Are you employed by SPEC or the federal government?" She asked. "SPEC," one of the unicorns answered quickly. She narrowed her eyes. "Then let me make something clear. I expect you all to be trying to figure out what's wrong with her right now. I expect you to tell me what you figure out as you figure it out. Do you understand me?" "We answer to Sunset Ble--" one of the crystal ponies began. "I am the number two person on the board of SPEC and I am the primary financer of SPEC. Your paychecks come from my wallet!" She declared loudly. "I am just as much your boss as her. You either work for SPEC or you work for Sunset Blessing, choose now or you’re fired. Do you understand me?" They all looked at one another with worried glances before one of the unicorns answered. "We understand. We'll get started right away." "Good," she said through gritted teeth, and then walked over to Number Crunch. The unicorn looked at her apprehensively. "What did Sunset say that got under you skin so much?" "How long will it take to get a board meeting called for all the SPEC board members without Sunset's approval?" She asked as she looked her friend in the eyes. Number flicked an ear as she leaned back in her seat. "I could get it together in two days. What's this about?" She narrowed her eyes. "I'm going to call for a vote to have us demand Sunset Blessing's resignation, and if she refuses to step down her firing as chairpony. Some things are going to change around here. A lot of things." "Who's Mama's precious little kitty? You are, yes you are," Sunset said in a voice that dripped affection as she rubbed Satan's back rapidly. The cat seemed to be enjoying the attention immensely. Tonya just rolled her eyes and conceded for the hundredth time that even though she had nothing but animosity towards the scourge of her wings that the cat did indeed make Sunset happy. Her wife was doing moderately well today. There had been a bout or two of crying, but not too bad. The unicorn did seem to be giving her cat far more attention that usual, not that Satan was complaining about his increased worship. Sunset had gone off an unexpected tangent when on the phone with Wild. While she was overjoyed that Sunset was committing herself to stepping away from her work she was more than a little distressed that it seemed like Sunset might have been burning her bridges with the mighty earth pony to do so. Burning bridges with friends was a bad sign that could indicate several forms of depression, as was her sudden new fascination with showing the cat affection. What she was observing today wasn't the most concerning things though. Sunset's dreams had been a severe mass of nightmares, not much different than Velvet's days before. It had taken Phobia stepping in to bring them down to manageable levels where Tonya could even begin to try to start helping Sunset with her issues. Phobia would never fully banish nightmares, but even she admitted no progress was going to be made as things had first stood. Today a lot of things had been her keeping her wife on task. Sunset, have you brushed your mane? Sunset, brush your teeth. Sunset, remember we have to go to the harvest later. Sunset, we're going to the clinic later. The last she really had considered putting aside for another day, because her wife really wasn't in the position to be parenting anything right now, but hope shined eternal that this would pass in just a few weeks; that it was just a funk that needed to be worked through. Sunset also needed her reminders that there was life beyond her job. They were lounging on one of the living room couches with Tonya to one side, Sunset in the center, and Satan taking up the full other side. The television was off as she didn't want Sunset thinking about the news. She'd personally cooked a large breakfast of oat patties, pancakes, and potatoes for the two of them. She really should be getting on doing dishes, but they could wait till later. Right now she was just trying to enjoy this domestic time with her wife for as long as it would last. Sunset sat up from her pampering of the cat, something the cat laid his ears back in displeasure of, and sighed. "I suppose I should be making some calls. I need to see how Bill is doing." "You're supposed to be taking it easy,' Tonya reminded her. "We need to make sure you're taken care of too." Sunset shook her head. "I'll make it through this. Wild's right, I need to be doing more to help figure out what's going on with this spell." "Which your mages can do without you," Tonya said as she pressed a wing to her wife's side. The red unicorn gave the cat another light rub along its back as she hung her head. "She made it seem like I was being heartless and indifferent, that I didn't care, that I'm just some pony out to get what I want for selfish reasons. I don't want to be thought of that way." She turned and laid both her forehooves on her wife. "You can't please everyone, sunshine. Wild's under a lot of stress, understandably so, but that's blinding her to the fact that you're in no condition to be dealing with all this right now. Your goals aren't selfish, but right now you need to be selfish about taking care of yourself first or you won't be able to help anyone." "I'm dragging things down with you worrying about me though," Sunset replied. "You were supposed to be checking on Jean last night but you spent all night dealing with me." "I'll look into her tonight, I promise," she assured her wife. "You were just in too bad a shape for me to leave you." The only interruptions she had last night to dealing with Sunset were getting Phobia to help and one of Sunset's contractors, Silver Eclipse who was trying to find out why he hadn't received any new instructions about the Dreamwarden project at the appointed time this month. She'd blown him off and told him to ask the Dreamwardens directly about it because it wasn't a good time for her. "I promise not to get into things too much, but let me do just a few bare minimum things with this," Sunset pleaded. "I don't want to hurt anypony with this." Sunset was still drifting into pony pronouns, a sign of her distress. On the one hoof Sunset really needed to step back, but on the other she was building up a lot of guilt about being seen as uncaring. Typically Sunset didn't care how she was seen by others, for the most part anyway, but right now her image of herself was distorted. Tonya sighed. "Okay, make a few calls, and get what needs to be done completed. Delegate though, you don't need to be personally involved. You just have to make sure everyone is doing what they should be doing." Sunset left the couch and walked upstairs, presumably to her office. Tonya sighed and gathered up the plates and silverware onto a tray before carrying them on her back and walked to the kitchen to begin doing dishes. She spent several minutes at this, with time spent where she had to shoo Satan away from trying to bat at her feathers and her tail. With the dishes done she gathered up a feather that Satan had managed to dislodge and walked upstairs to her sewing room where she deposited it with the others. After noting that the cat had only gotten the feather because she was overdue for a preening she took a few more minutes doing that and added six more feathers to her basket to be used in her sewing later. She briefly considered working on doing some sewing, as she was trying an experiment where she was making a teddy bear and using her feathers for the stuffing, but noted the time that about thirty minutes had passed and she hadn't heard her wife emerge from the office. She walked across the hall and gently opened the door to step in. She noted there was a privacy spell up around the room, but that was habit for Sunset whenever she was in any office whether at home or at work. "Sunset, are you still busy?" When her eyes fell on her wife she hurried over to her quickly. Sunset was curled up into a tight ball on her chair. "Sunset? Talk to me. What's wrong?" She asked in a frenzied worry. Her wife didn't say anything but did turn and look up at her. Sunset's eyes were bloodshot from crying; the privacy spell had kept Tonya from hearing it. The unicorn gripped onto her with her forelegs and pulled them close together to begin crying anew onto Tonya's chest. Tonya could only wrap her wings around her wife and hold her until the crying subsided. After what seemed like forever Sunset got to where she could talk. "I fucked up. I fucked up so bad." Tonya felt a chill go down her spine at this. Sunset never described anything she did in such a manner, even when she admitted to being wrong she didn't typically get worked up about it like this. "What's wrong? What do you think you did?" “I got a call,” the unicorn sniffled. "The unicorns and crystal ponies got a good examination of Jean in just a few minutes ago. They haven't told Wild the results yet even though she's threatened their jobs. They were too scared to tell her." She frowned hard. "What's wrong with Jean?" Sunset wiped her muzzle with a foreleg getting snot all over it. "She hasn’t been eating at all. Her body is burning up magic she’s been absorbing from Wild. But that's going to be extremely hard on her body when the spell ends. For a healthy human at this point it would make them very ill for a few days to a week if they weren't eating this long under temporary transformation and we let the spell end, but she’s not healthy." "If she's getting energy from magic why is it going to... snap back so hard?" She asked in confusion. "It has to do with the laws of metabolistic energy conversion of magic and cross conversion," Sunset replied. "I’m so stupid for not seeing this before now. It's like her human resonance is being pulled tight like a rubber band and not eating is exacerbating it, pulling it well beyond any safe limit. If it’s allowed to go on it will either break and destroy her resonance or it will snap back hard when we can finally change her back. This wouldn't be an issue if the spell was working in normal parameters, but we've been extending past the normal magical decay of the spell with unaffixed magic." "So just end the spell, won’t it be worse if it’s allowed to go on?" Tonya asked in confusion, trying to figure out what this all meant as those terms just went over her head. The important thing was Sunset understood what all that meant. Sunset sat up and took a few breaths. "Not until we get a few good sized meals into her and cut her off from Wild so her metabolism can get off being fueled by magic, and then we can end it. If we move fast it shouldn’t be too bad. I had them check on Bill and he's fine; his wife made sure he was eating, and he reverted back with no problems. Apparently, no one paid attention if Jean was eating." Sunset choked as a sob escaped her. "But it could have been much worse if I had let this keep going." She grabbed her wife into a tight hug. "But we know now and we caught it." Sunset nodded. "I still want a full team working on ending the spell carefully. I'll call Wild again and tell her to make sure her mother is eating, and eating a lot. We can get her to the Bastion after the harvest festival and bring this to an end carefully. I want to be sure we don't screw anything else up by ending it too abruptly if there has been damage." "Should we be letting it go that much longer if this is a big deal?" Tonya asked. "If she's eating it won't make it any worse than it already is. She probably needs time to digest as well; not just shove food down her throat and end it. We just have to make sure she's eating up till then," Sunset said with a shake of her head. Tonya nuzzled her wife. "So you have the situation under control. Everything is going to work out fine. Don't beat yourself up over it." "Maybe," Sunset replied, seeming more calm now. "I need to make some calls over to the Bastion and have my best mages look over the data. I hate doing it, but I'll probably need to put Poly Glot to work." That killed the mood. "I know you want your best minds on it, but can't you just leave him out of it? I'm ready for us to be done with him." Sunset pulled away and flicked her tail. "This is too important and he's literally the smartest pony at the Bastion. I'm ready to be done with him too, but I'm going to use him up until then. He can be controlled, and once you set him to figuring out something he doesn't stop until he's got it done. This is my legacy, I need to use every resource I have to ensure it's going to start off right before I turn everything over to Wild. If this seriously hurts her mother she might abandon it. I can't have that." "I just don't want your legacy to be stained with his bloodstained hooves," she whispered to her wife. "I'm doing what I've always done. Whatever's necessary," Sunset said firmly as she levitated a phone up and started dialing. The image of Sunset standing over a burning Shimmerist symbol came back to her again. She prayed that they weren't on that path.