“What did you do to me?” demanded Jessica Velasquez, as she barged into Celestia’s room at the Brightly Inn without so much as a knock. “What in Tecumseh’s name did you do to my mind?”
Both Luna and Celestia looked up in surprise from their breakfasts at the intruding human, before Celestia waved their protective RCMP officer to stand down. The constable paused for a moment, looking from the furious human to the surprised, but calm Equestrians, and resumed his watchful stance. The officer’s face was stoic, but his eyes were frisking Jessica’s body for weapons as thoroughly as any pat down, and it was clear to all that if the American attempted anything physical she would be on the floor in seconds.
“Whatever do you mean, my Voice?” Celestia responded, finishing her recovery from surprise with a bite from a pancake. “Luna and I promised that you would be secure in both mind and body, and not to change either, unless you requested it.”
“And perhaps not even then,” Luna added, having finished her abridged story about her time with Rios only a few minutes before. “Has something occurred?”
“I’ll say,” seethed the young woman, long braid flicking back and forth as she shook her head in obvious frustrated anger about something. “You put some sort of compulsion in me, didn’t you? That’s the only way I can explain what happened.”
“Jessica, why don’t you sit down, have some tea and explain what’s going on?” Celestia asked, pulling out a chair with her golden magic.
“You… really don’t know what happened, do you?” Jessica asked, shifting from furious to furious embarrassment as her face took in the blank looks she was getting from both Equestrians. “Oh god, I feel like such an idiot now.”
“Perhaps you would feel less so, if you told my sister and I what has happened?” Luna offered, before adding, “Trust me when I say that it cannot be anything more embarrassing than what I’ve done.”
“Oh Coyote, why do you love me so?” Jessica asked rhetorically, dropping into the offered chair with all the grace of a sack of potatoes.
Things went quiet for a few moments after that as the two ponies gave the woman time to compose herself with a cup of Earl Grey and donut. The moment dragged on as Jessica chewed the donut and sipped the hot drink, until Luna found herself unable to withstand the silence any longer.
“Jessica, according to what folklore I have read from Foxfire’s library, one cannot refuse if asked something three times. So I ask for a third time, what has happened?” Luna asked, her ears pointed forward to catch even the smallest whisper.
“I couldn’t file the story,” Jessica said, in a quiet voice. “I had it all typed up and ready to send, along with all my notes. It would have guaranteed me a career at Fox for years to come, and I just couldn’t do it.”
“Why not?” Celestia asked, setting aside the remains of her breakfast. “We did say that we would not interfere with your earlier decision to broadcast the story of the missing forty-seven gems.”
“Because you don’t understand humans,” explained Velasquez. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, for ponies you’re pretty good people.”
“For a human, you are a pretty good pony,” Celestia interjected.
“I deserved that,” Jessica responded, touching the coyote pin on her blouse. “And don’t think I haven’t thought about it either. Which is sort of why I thought you had messed with my head, that and realizing that I couldn’t file the story. Not if I wanted to be able to look at myself in the mirror again. Either as a person or a pony.”
“No tail or hooves for you today, my Voice,” Celestia replied, with a small smile. “But go on, you were saying I didn’t understand something about humans?”
“Yeah,” Jessica began, pausing as she tried to assemble her thoughts into words. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you don’t get a fundamental truth about humanity.”
“Which is?” Luna asked, again prompting the somewhat reticent American.
“We’re greedy,” Jessica stated. “I think it comes from being part predator. We see something good, we want it. We want it, we try to take it, and God help anyone or anything that stands in our way.”
“But the people of Brightly have almost been universally generous to us,” Luna argued. “They are true inheritors of Lee Ung’s determination to help the community around him through giving.”
“Princess,” Velasquez replied, turning to look directly at Luna, “a single person or community is fine. But one person or even one town is just too small a sample of what we’re like. Brightly is, and don’t let anyone hear this, a backwater hamlet in the middle of nowhere that’s so isolated it doesn’t even have proper internet access yet.”
“So what you are saying is… “ Celestia trailed off, letting the newest member of her entourage fill in the gap.
“To quote: ‘A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals’,” Jessica said. “If I gave the story to my bosses, about how there are forty-seven or more stones of nearly unlimited power scattered around the world, there would be a massive panic, followed by a global feeding frenzy. Every nation and corporation that could would descend on this town and rip it to shreds looking for those stones.”
“I think it’s been made quite clear that the stones aren’t here,” Celestia tentatively replied. “Even your own research showed that they were sold off, and that none are still here.”
“Panicky, dangerous animals,” Jessica repeated, her tone becoming almost pleading as she tried to make the diarchs understand what she was driving at. “Reason and logic will get thrown out the window. People won’t care what the facts are in the frenzy to find those jewels, and they will swarm this town under like a pack of wolves.”
“Surely thou jests!” Luna exclaimed.
“Princess,” Jessica said, “let me give you an example. There’s an island on the east coast of this continent called Oak Island where pirate treasure was buried according to legend.”
“And is there treasure there?” Celestia asked, tilting her head in curiosity.
“No treasure trove has ever been found, but people still dig in search of it,” Jessica stated, leaning forward and putting a hand on Celestia’s hoof. “Families have fallen apart under the stress of the search, and still they dig. Fortunes have been spent, bankrupting people, and still they dig. Men have died, and still. They. Dig.”
Both of the senior princesses of Equestria looked at Velasquez in wide-eyed shock, realizing perhaps for the first time that humanity really was an alien species to them, but the woman wasn’t finished yet.
“We aren’t the strongest species on this planet. We aren’t the fastest, or the heaviest, or equipped with the best natural weapons. In almost any environment on Earth we are at a disadvantage compared to the animals there,” Velasquez continued, bowing her head. “But we have an advantage that every other species lacks.”
“Your minds?” Luna ventured, her own ears back almost against her head.
“No, if it was this wouldn’t be a problem,” Jessica answered, lifting her head, and as she did so something dark and primordial seemed to envelop the slim woman, making her presence fill the room until it seemed full to bursting. “We are persistence hunters, unrelenting in our pursuit. Run all you want from us, but when you pause for breath and look behind, there will be a human doggedly following your trail. Kill that human, and you will only find that another has picked up the scent and taken their place. Once we learn of something we want, we will not stop until it is ours. No matter the cost in time, or lives.”
“Incredible,” Celestia breathed. “I’d wondered what it was about humans that makes you so special. Now I know.”
“It’s our strength, and our curse,” Jessica stated, the atavistic shadow around her fading like old memories. “You know how there is an archeology team digging up the site of Leung’s old warehouse? Imagine that across the entire town.”
“And not just the town, but the ponies, I mean people here, as well,” Luna said, in realization. “Any connection to Lee Ung, no matter how small would be investigated, every lead to a stone, pursued. Sister, it would be Foxfire’s worst fears come to life. I have made a fearful error in judgement.”
“We both did, Luna,” Celestia admitted. “We made a decision that would have been right in Equestria, but we forgot that Earth is an alien world. Jessica, I do not find fault in your people for this, though I admit such ruthless determination is somewhat frightening.”
“It’s what we are,” Jessica said, shrugging her shoulders. “And you needed to know.”
“Our trust in you was well placed,” Celestia replied, placing a hoof on Jessica’s shoulder. “Well done, and thank you.”
“Ma’ii báʼóltaʼí jó,” Velasquez answered, and this time the flare in the brown depths of her eyes was not subtle at all. “The Coyote teaches well.”
“What now?” Luna asked, catching her sister’s eye over Jessica’s head. “Do we try to bury what you have learned, like Windweaver wanted to?”
“Can’t,” Jessica flatly stated. “Everything I looked up is already in the provincial archives. If I found it someone else will as well. Which is why I did something that I hope was a good idea.”
“What did you do?” Celestia asked, tilting her head in curiosity, before coming to a realization. “You told someone, didn’t you?”
“I did,” Jessica replied, taking a deep breath and looking very much like the unsure young woman the diarchs had first met. “As a mob, humans are dangerous and panicky, which is why we have governments.”
“You told the American government, didn’t you?” Luna asked, though it was more of a statement than a question.
“I contacted the US State Department and sent them an email with everything I know,” Jessica said, before adding, “And I also contacted the Canadian government as well with the exact same information.”
“Well,” Celestia commented, taking a sip of her cooling tea. “This is certainly going to prove to be interesting.”