I stepped into the family room and immediately realized I forgot a critical detail.
I was knocked onto my back as a wave of foals hit me. This time they were not shouting for joy, this time they were crying. One foal had wrapped their legs around my neck, while the other foals, each did the same with each of my legs.
"Auntie! We thought you were going to dieded!" How did Líng mess up that word when the translation spell was supposed to give him accurate use of the language?
"I wanted to come protect you, but they didn't let me!" Shǔguāng exclaimed through sobs.
"Auntay Sunsat!" Mèng wailed. Josie must have helped him with his pronunciation because that was a much clearer attempt than his previous ones.
"Old Sis!" Sinker wailed.
Qīng Yǔ just wordlessly bawled. She was the one that had a death grip around my neck.
Unfortunately, the Youngs were right behind me, and a second round of yelling and crying ensued as the humans started panicking at the sight of the vicious pony attack.
The Youngs started trying to retreat, but Starlight put an end to that with a shield. This just added to the confusion, and there was shoving, yelling, and tripping going on.
"Those things can't be trusted! They attack even their own!" the eldest son yelled.
"It's a double-cross!" John hollered.
"Let us through!" Lauren screamed.
"I don't want to be eaten!" one of the children cried
"Ow! Watch it! Someone stepped on my tail!" Jess yelped.
This was a headache on its own, but the chaos was still escalating. The commotion with the humans gave the foals a fright, and then they started running and screaming in turn. The majority of them went running back towards the adult ponies. Shǔguāng was the exception. Bless his brave, foolish, little heart; he went charging after the humans.
"You bad humans, you leave Auntie Sunset alone! Cowabunga!" Shǔguāng yelled, screaming his battle cry as he charged, horn lowered, into the fray. Running over my face in the process and slowing my response time even further.
"Oh no, you don't," Jess yelled and lurched forward from where she'd been apparently knocked down to the ground, grabbing the unicorn colt in the middle of his charge. "Got ya! Pew! You stink. Did you pee on yourself?"
"Let go of me, weird human!" Shǔguāng screamed as he struggled against her grasp. "And I did not pee on myself!" He had been one of the colts grasping my back legs, which had been soaked in piss.
"Enough! Starlight bellowed. I felt my whole body being grasped and held still by her magic and cries of alarm from everyone that indicated I was not the only one being held still against their will.
"Ack! The humanses got me!" Sinker yelled.
"Why are you grabbing Trixie! What did Trixie do?" Trixie cried out with affront.
"Release us, alien!" the eldest Young son ordered.
There was another pulse of magic, and suddenly there was a magic gag in my mouth. I hadn't even been running and yelling!
"Now that everyone is still and quiet, I need you all to listen to me," Starlight said with elevated volume. "No one was attacking anyone. The foals were just worried about Sunset and went straight to her when she came in. They were a little too rambunctious, but they weren't hurting her; they were hugging her. Everypony, the humans aren't attacking you. They got scared and therefore ran and yelled. Everyone needs to calm down!"
There were several seconds of silence while Starlight let her words settle in.
"Now," Starlight continued in a calmer, lower volume. "I'm going to release everyone, and everyone is going to remain calm. Let's start over without the running, yelling, and accusations. I put all the kids under ten years old asleep. It won't hurt them and will last for about two minutes before they're up again. It is the only way I can be sure they'll calm down."
The magic released, and I flipped over so I could get back on my hooves. My face still was sore from getting run over, but it wasn't that bad.
"Hey, I'm not asleep," Jess said.
Starlight narrowed her eyes as she glared at my niece. "Would you like to be?"
Jess shrank back from the glare. "No."
"Then don't complain. I'm not in the mood," Starlight snapped.
I saw Lántiān gallop over to her daughter's still form, and my parents do the same for Sinker. Trixie went to check on Líng while Josie—who was still here—went to check Mèng. It didn't seem like Malcomb or Number were present. I turned and saw the Youngs checking their two youngest, and Paul went to help Jess up. Jess was still holding Shǔguāng as he slept, and she didn't seem to know what to do with him. She then opted just to put the colt in her father's hands rather than figure out what to do, and left Paul now looking at Shǔguāng in confusion. Silvia was standing unsteadily, looking dazed, and glowing brightly. A lone SPEC security guard who had been in the room was rubbing his arms as if they were sore. Starlight was glaring at everyone, as if challenging them to do something wrong.
"Hey, why's that pony glowing?!" the eldest son demanded to know as he pointed at Silvia. The teen girl ducked to hide behind her older brother.
I got to my hooves. "She's a crystal pony. They absorb magic, and when they do, they glow. Starlight just hit her with one whammy of a spell. Are you okay, Silvia?"
The crystal mare sat down. "I think… I think I need to just sit here for a few minutes and process this. I haven't felt anything that strong since the ETS counterspell."
"Well, that could have gone better," I said as I shook myself to loosen up my joints.
"That's a gross understatement," Jess muttered. I heard similar comments from all around.
The displeased mutters around me escalated to demands for apologies and statements saying I should have prepped everyone more. My ears sagged.
"Okay, I'm sorry. That's all on me," I said in frustration. "I should have come in here, by myself, and made sure everyone was ready to do this."
"I think you owe all the foals an apology when they wake up," Josie said crossly. "They had them terrified for your safety and when you came in with the people they were afraid had hurt you right on your tail."
"And you promised these people here that they wouldn't need to get close to ponies. Of course they panicked when a bunch of little ones seemed to charge you," Paul said as he gestured to the Youngs.
"You had us all terrified," Mom said accusingly as she started to cry. "All those police in here. We didn't know what was going on. Then you waltz right in here with those people without a warning."
Dad gave me a sympathetic look. "I know you didn't intend for it to go down like this, but everyone's stress levels were through the roof before this happened. We just want you to be a little more considerate of what everyone is feeling."
"Ma'am never thinks of how her actions affect others," Lántiān all but spat.
I had been prepared to be yelled at, but this felt worse than I had anticipated for some reason. I don't know why. There wasn't much actual yelling going on, just hurt and disappointed looks. My ears and tail hung limp as I looked around at everyone.
"Fine, I'm a screw-up," I whispered as a tear leaked from my eye. "I already knew that. Maybe it would be better if you all sort this out without me."
Before anyone could stop me, I lit my horn and teleported.
I appeared on the third floor, which was about the extent of my teleport range, although I didn’t feel as drained as I did the other times I used the spell. A guard on duty near the stairwell yelped in surprise and almost drew his gun on me, before seeing who it was and relaxing.
"Everyone is down in the family room, including the humans that were in the bunker. There's no need to stand guard all around the house anymore," I informed him. "You should take a break. You guys have earned it."
"We'll need to go call Miss Crunch to get new orders," the guard replied.
"Go do that then," I replied in a tired voice. "I just want to be left in private for a few minutes."
The guard headed back down the stairs. Probably to consult whoever his superior was here, and I was left in peace.
I had half-expected Starlight to go teleporting after me, but as seconds stretched on to a minute, it became clear she wasn't going to do that. She probably felt that I had dumped all the responsibility for keeping things in order down there on her, and couldn't afford to leave as well. I suppose I had done just that, unless someone else took the lead. I wasn't sure who else would, though.
I walked over to the wall and leaned my head against it. "Tonya, why did you think I could handle all this? I can't do it. I always mess up, and it is always other people that suffer for it."
Minutes passed with me just wallowing in self-pity. Ten minutes, fifteen minutes, maybe more. No one came and bothered me. I knew what I was doing, and I knew it was pathetic, but it didn't stop me from doing it. There was no sound of gunfire, or yelling, or anything exploding, so I guess things were going fine without me. That just reinforced that I wasn't needed.
My ears perked as I heard something. I turned my head and looked down the hall at the tower room. Was that a dog barking? That was the same room that Líng had said that he heard dogs in before, but had turned up empty. All the humans were downstairs, so they couldn't be up here making the sound.
I frowned as I continued to listen and stare at the door. It was not my imagination, there was definitely something that sounded like dogs barking behind that door, but there was something off about the sound. I couldn't place what it was. The pitch, the resonance of the sound, something wasn't right about it—other than there shouldn't be a sound like that at all. I wished Tonya was here. She understood how to describe sounds and how all that stuff worked better than I did.
There was only one thing to do. I needed to go check the room. Clearly, I had missed something last time. I owed Líng an apology for doubting him. That colt knew something wasn't right, and I had dismissed it after one cursory search. I needed to take what he said more seriously in the future.
The barking continued as I slowly crept towards the door. I kept my pace slow, afraid on some level that if I moved too quickly I would scare away whatever it was, and also on some level afraid of what it might be. My thoughts drifted to the paintings of the dogs and I shivered, then shook my head. I didn't believe in ghosts— Actually, no, I did believe in ghosts. My wife was a ghost, but I didn't believe in dog ghosts that haunted the waking world. Something was making that noise, something real, and I was going to find out what.
Barking could still be heard as I reached the tower door. It was louder now, and there was no mistaking it was coming from that room, not somewhere outside. I took a deep breath, brought up my feeble shield, and put my hoof on the handle of the door.
"Charlotte! There you are!"
I turned and saw my mother coming down the hall, looking relieved.
She smiled softly as she approached me. "Starlight said you'd only teleported up to the third floor, but I wasn't sure if I believed her or not. You shouldn't have run off like that."
I turned and looked at the door again, flexing my ears. The sound was gone. I kept listening, but there was no trace of any sound beyond the door. It was just like when Líng had told me about it. The second someone else arrived, it went away. No… that wasn't right. That guard had been up here for who knew how long, but hadn't reported anything about dogs. I needed to find and question him, but I was sure something would have been mentioned if he heard anything. What was this puzzle?
"Hey! Don't ignore me!" Mom shouted.
The room could wait. I needed to stop jumping into situations unprepared. I needed to get Starlight up here with me to help check it out. That could wait. If the sound was there over multiple days, it would still likely be there later.
I turned back around. "Sorry, trying to figure something out, but I think I can put off it off for now. What happened after I left?"
Mom frowned. "Almost immediately after you left, everyone started fussing at Starlight for putting the kids to sleep. The humans were worried she might have hurt them, and all us ponies kind of felt the same way. I know we should have trusted her, but like we told you, everyone is under a lot of stress."
"And did that stop when the kids woke up?" I asked.
She shook her head. "No, not really. I think we were all just trying to vent, and Starlight was the only available target. What stopped it was this high pitch static that started." She started rubbing an ear. "It was loud, and it hurt everypony's ears, even the humans and Starlight. That crystal pony suddenly grabbed onto that partial girl and it stopped."
I raised an eyebrow. "Jess had a surge?"
Mom nodded. "I guess so, if that's her name. She thanked the crystal pony, then she started yelling at everyone. She called us all morons and said that we were stressing her out. Then she just started barking orders. Said the humans were going to sit over in this place and the ponies were all going to sit in that place, and we were all going to stop arguing because we all seemed to be on the same page about being unhappy about how things had been handled and magic had been used on the kids. She said that was a great starting point for showing people were just worried and scared and weren't out to get anyone. No one else had taken charge after you left, so we all listened to her."
My eyes widened in disbelief. "Jess… Jess took charge? And everyone listened to her? She's eight year old!"
Mom gave me a befuddled look. "Eight? It may feel like we've always been ponies, but I know how to judge a human age still. That girl is a teen. I actually wondered if she was older than she looked, one of those people that always looks several years younger than they are. She's definitely not eight, though. I'm not that out of touch with with my humanity. Anyway, I think the basement dwellers feel safer listening to another human than a pony, because they didn't argue with her at all."
I'd be damned. The Lord provides. I knew Jess was capable of stepping up and taking charge, since she'd done it to help save my grandfoals during the Cataclysm, but I didn't expect her to be able to pull the same thing with adults. Bravo to her for that. Although, she would probably be insufferable for the next few days reminding Paul about how she had taken charge, at least if I judged her ego correctly. That girl always had a massive ego around her intelligence as an earth pony filly, and from what little I had seen, it had likely only grown as she transitioned into a human teen. Teens believed they knew everything normally, and her being a super-genius would only exacerbate that.
She gently touched a hoof to my face. "You can come back down, everypony—excuse me—everybody is ready to be nicer to you. We were all just stressed and upset. We're calmer now. Despite that mix-up at the end, you've done a great job dealing with the humans. We wouldn't be talking with them if not for you. You just needed a little help landing things at the end, but nopony should feel like they have to be responsible for everything."
I laid my head into her surprisingly strong hoof. "Just like when I was a kid. You don't let me get down on myself when I fail."
"Failures are just lessons," she said gently. "You say your talent is taking advantage of what you've been given and making more out of it than the sum of its parts, right?"
I nodded. "That's correct."
"Well, you have a house full of friends and family. I think you can make something special with that, if you try."
I embraced her and closed my eyes. "Thank you, Mom. I love you."
"Love you too, my baby girl."
There was still much to do; foals to care for, relationships to mend, mysteries with the house, but she was right. I wasn't in this alone. I had a great family, and nothing could overcome us. I guess I was ready to write my first friendship report.