//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: The Great and Powerful Neighbor // Story: Pandemic: Starting Over // by Halira //------------------------------// I tried to puzzle out why my unlikely Equestrian friend was standing at the door. She said she was my neighbor. Why was Trixie my neighbor? "Trixie- what- what are you doing here?" I asked the smiling mare.  Trixie cocked her head to the side. "Well, I saw you had finally come home, and since I'm still wide awake, and very very bored, I came to see you." I facehoofed. "I meant, what are you even doing here in Denver, in the SPEC condos at that?" Trixie waved a hoof. "Oh… that. Starlight had to come to Earth for some extended mission, and I wanted to come along." She paused and took a deep breath. "But… it seems as if the United States is still mad at me for this tiny little thing I did years ago-" "You mean smuggling in things from the group that wanted to set up an Equestria protectorate?" I deadpanned.  She gave a weak chuckle. "Oh, you- you heard about that?" I kept my expression flat. "I had everyone you smuggled information to, except Bob, arrested on treason charges." "Oh… that made this conversation very uncomfortable," Trixie replied slowly. "You didn't go after Bob though?" "No, I didn't." She sighed with relief. "That's good. I always liked Bob." I frowned. "I didn't because I had already been spying on him for some time before that. So I knew he wasn't really interested in any sort of revolution. I was also pissed when rogue members of the government used my information about him to try to assassinate him. And finally, his mother bribed me and it was too good a bribe to turn up." "Oh dear," Trixie whispered, then gave herself a shake. "Anyway, the princesses  don't want me at the Equestrian embassy, and the United States doesn't want me going anywhere unaccompanied, and they want me far from government installations. They worked out a compromise with Wild Growth where I could stay here when Starlight was off doing her important stuff, just as long as I didn't leave to go anywhere without her. I was going to turn them down, but then they mentioned you were staying here too, and I said that might make it better. I haven't seen you since Twilight invited me to that party, but we seemed to hit it off well." "Ma'am," Lántiān interjected from right behind me. "My brothers and daughter need to be put to bed. You said that Hé Líng needed a bath before bed, and a plan for Háo Mèng is needed. Are you going to assign us rooms? Are you going to take my brother to bathe? Tasks must be done, ma'am." "Who are all these foals?" Trixie asked, trotting past me without waiting for an invitation in.  I sighed and shut the door. "They are Yinyu's foals. I'm going to be taking care of them." Trixie flicked an ear and looked back at me. "Whose foals? Is that a close relative of yours?" I turned my eyes upward at the ceiling and did a silent prayer. Help me, Jesus! I then turned my attention back to my uninvited guest. "Yinyu Wu Yan. Are you telling me you haven't heard of Yinyu Wu Yan? Have you watched the news lately?" Trixie shook her head. "It sounds familiar, like a name I should know, but drawing a blank. Trixie doesn't watch the news, Trixie finds it boring." "Ma'am… my brothers," Lántiān said firmly.  Okay, things needed to happen. "Trixie, how awake are you?" "Trixie was bored, so she slept all day. Now Trixie is wide awake," the unicorn replied.  "Good," I replied, marching over to her. I scanned the living room with my eyes till I spotted Méng trying to figure out how the television turned on. ""  The night pony foal didn't do more than give me a twitch of his ear when he heard his name. I didn't actually know how much Mandarin he knew. I knew they said he couldn't say much. His brothers got the idea that I wanted him, and the two of them carefully guided him back towards me. I couldn't help but notice Líng was leaving flecks of dried up mud in his wake.  Once the toddler night pony was in front of me I gestured to him. "Trixie, this is Méng. I'm going to be completely honest with you. I'm exhausted. His siblings are exhausted. Méng is definitely not exhausted. I need a great and powerful favor; I need you to stay up and watch Méng for tonight. I wouldn't normally ask, but if I try to do it I'll end up falling asleep. Can you please help us, Trixie?" Trixie gave him an apprehensive look. "I don't know… Trixie didn't really plan on coming over here to foalsit." I decided to play on her sympathy. Was it dirty? Yes. But these were desperate times. I shifted my language to one none of the foals knew, but I was certain Trixie knew, Spanish. "" The showmare's eyes went wide and then she blinked as they started to water. "The great and sympathetic Trixie has decided she can foalsit for just this one night. I will give this foal the best show he has ever seen performed!" "Try not to be too loud. The rest of us will be sleeping," I reminded her, then smiled. "Thank you. I really do appreciate this. I didn't know how I was going to deal with him tonight. Just to let you know, he doesn't speak any English or Equestrian. His native language is Mandarin, but I don't know how much of that he even knows. Your tricks should keep him entertained though. You have full access to the kitchen if you need to feed him or eat." Trixie gave a relieved sigh. "That's good, because my other reason for coming over here was no one stocked the kitchen over at my place before they left me there. The great and powerful Trixie has a great and powerful rumble in her tummy." I laid one ear back as I looked at her. "You could have been open about wanting food. I wouldn't have let you go hungry. I suppose no harm was done though." I looked over at Hé Líng and then back to her. "By the way, do you know the spell to automatically teach someone a language?" "Do I?" Trixie laughed. "It's an easy spell. Back before I got into… anyway, I used to just sit there and cast that spell on ponies and humans over and over again, all day long. It was so boring. Just casting such a simple spell over and-" Both ears completely flattened. "Okay! You don't have to rub it in!" Trixie stared at me with both eyes wide. "Um, is this one of those times I'm being unintentionally insensitive about something, and have no clue what it is? Because I get the feeling it is. I'm told I have a problem with that sometimes." I looked down and muttered. "I magically exhausted myself earlier today, and earlier yesterday, just casting that spell once each time. I'm so exhausted I can't even levitate anything at the moment without potentially hurting myself. It is too powerful a spell for me." "Oh," the other unicorn replied. "Well, I suppose it is a great and powerful spell, but great and powerful spells just start to feel mundane when you are as great and powerful as the great and powerful Trixie!" I didn't even shake my head at her ego. I just turned to Lántiān. "The great and powerful Trixie will take care of casting the English translation spell on Hé Líng tomorrow, but that will be tomorrow. Right now I'm going to get him bathed and to bed." "With how long you have been talking to this clownmare I could have bathed my brother and gotten him to bed. If you had just told me where the bathroom and appropriate bedroom was, ma'am," Lántiān replied in deadpan. "Clownmare!" Trixie protested.  "Lántiān, please be polite," I said with a weary sigh, and decided to just list off instructions. "Trixie, you've got Méng. Lántiān, there are four bedrooms upstairs. The first one one the right is mine. You can put your brothers in the room directly across from it and take the one next to that for you and your daughter. There's only a single bed in each bedroom, but it is human sized, so sharing a bed shouldn't be an issue. The bathroom is at the end of the hall. You may enter my room and wake me if you need anything through the night. " I paused and tried to think of anything I might still be forgetting. "Have you all eaten?" "Yes, ma'am. We ate while you were sleeping on the plane." Trixie waved a hoof. "I haven't eaten!" I looked at her. "I was talking about the foals. I already told you that you're welcome to the food in the kitchen." "I thought it was an open question to everypony." I scolded. "Please, avoid using that word. I insist the foals learn the more inclusive term 'everyone'." I didn't wait for any further protests or discussion, I just started walking. "" The earth pony colt did as instructed, and followed me up the stairs. We marched to the end of the upstairs hall to the bathroom. My first instinct upon pushing the door open was to use my horn to flip the light switch, but that sent searing pain through my skull, and made me stumble for a moment. "" Líng whimpered from beside me.  I shook my head. "" I then forced myself up, and started to reach up the wall to flip the lights on before realizing I was being stupid, and stopped. "Alexa, turn bathroom lights on," I commanded. An instant later the lights for the bathroom flicked on. I had forgotten that many features of the condo were operated by smart devices.  The bathroom was spacious. With what would be considered a large tub by even human standards, and a separate freestanding shower with glass door. There were two separate sink areas, one set for ponies and one for humans, with three sinks a piece. A tall metal shelf sat against one wall that was filled with fluffy white towels and smaller cloths. There was a large mats made of some spongy material I couldn't identify directly outside both the tub and the shower. There were dryers on the walls near the sinks that could work as hand dryers for humans or fur dryers for ponies.  "" Líng stepped into the shower and I stood on the edge of it and pulled the door shut just enough so water wouldn't splash everywhere. Like most newer showers this one had faucet controls both high and low, and I adjusted the lower faucets to give a lukewarm flow of water. The mud colored earth pony colt hummed happily as the water started, and quickly drenched his blue mane. I grabbed a nearby scrub brush with my mouth and got to work scrubbing him.  "" Líng said contentedly as I was finishing the scrub golf his hooves.  I immediately dropped the scrub brush and quickly turned the water off. He seemed disappointed with the abrupt end to the shower, but put up no objections. I left him briefly to grab a towel, and tossed it on his back when I returned. I patted him down, trying to soak up as much water as I could, and then directed him out of the shower and towards the dryer on the wall.  "Alexa, dryer two, full power, one minute." Líng gave a startled jump when the hot air hit him, but settled back down. I could hear movement from down the hall, and assumed that would be Lántiān getting Shǔguāng settled in. It was best that the two colts were tucked in together. As soon as the dryer ended I checked him over. He wasn't perfectly dry, but he wasn't sopping wet either. He was dry enough that he wouldn't get his bed wet, and that was good enough.  "" I would be so glad after tomorrow when I didn't have to speak in this stiff Mandarin as much anymore. I'm sure it would loosen up with continued use, but I really didn't want to give it continued use. I decided to leave the lights on in the bathroom, just in case any of the foals needed to go to it over the course of the night. I didn't want them struggling around blindly in the dark.  "" Líng asked as he followed me out of the bathroom.  I paused. This was a habit that I'd need to break, as they needed to learn to sleep peacefully without a violin playing, but this was their first night in a new country. Plus, if they were stuck awake for too long that meant it was more likely I wouldn't get proper rest.  "Alexa, play Bach's Chaconne on the house speaker system." Líng cocked an ear as he listened to the music. "" I almost snapped that she was dead, and wouldn't be coming back, but I caught myself. I was determined not to be cruel. He needed to understand the truth, but I wasn't sure how to break that to him gently. The fact that his mother still came to him in his dreams might not help with him coming to terms with her death, although it could be helping for all I knew. I wasn't a foal psychologist. That was something I probably needed to hire, but I had no income of my own.  "" Lántiān was waiting out in the hall and placed a wing around her brother as we came up to her. "I can tuck him in, ma'am. My daughter is already asleep. You should get rest. You are still not well." I didn't detect anything in her tone or wording that I should take offense to. I just nodded, and mouthed my thanks, before retreating to my bedroom and blessed sleep.