//------------------------------//
// Chapter 62: The Red Dread 
// Story: Pandemic: Starting Over 
// by Halira 
//------------------------------//

I was out again in the gardens. It was a pleasant day outside and didn't seem too hot or cold—not that a pony’s sense of temperature was always that reliable for gauging temperature. No one seemed to be sweating, so I was going to assume I was right. Summer months could be deadly to ponies who became overheated before they realized it. There was a reason one of the few common electric appliances Equestria had before contact with Earth were fans. Priorities.

I looked at the foals and children, who were all huddled together as a group by one of the dried fountains. "Where was this barking coming from?"

"From that old building over there," Sinker said as he pointed to a ruined side building. It looked like part of the roof and wall had caved in when a tree had fallen on it, and wood rot from rain had set in. 

"That's the old chapel," Mike explained. "No one has used that since before we had the house. The tree fell on it not long after we went down below, but the roof had already been leaking and starting to fall in before that."

"Why is so much of this place in disrepair or falling apart?" I asked. 

Mike spread his hands. "We got it this way. Mom and Dad originally had these big dreams about fixing up the place and reselling it at a higher price. They got the inside of the house done but never got around to the outside before they got involved with all these people that said we needed to prepare because the US was going to be going into a civil war or attacked by the rest of the world or whatever. They went kinda nuts and started building a bomb shelter—before the whole ETS thing ever hit."

That was my reminder that even though the Youngs were being somewhat reasonable right now, they were still potentially loose cannons. 

I directed my attention back to the kids. "I would hope you understood this already, but I am going to stress it now. Stay away from these old buildings. They wouldn't be safe under normal circumstances. Further, I want everyone to know they need to find me whenever they hear barking around the house or on the grounds. I don't care what I am doing, or even if I said I need privacy, you find me. Do you understand?"

The kids responded with a collection of nods, yeses, and yes Aunties. They still needed to be watched because since when have kids ever stayed away from the things they are told to stay away from? 

I walked over to the building in question and put the spell Twilight had been using into effect. The air instantly seemed to take on a blue hue, at least to my eyes alone, and it took me a moment to adjust to this strange new phenomenon. I hadn't known what to expect, but it wasn't quite this. After staring for a few seconds, I realized it was like I was surrounded by the aura of magic, and it was moving slowly. I looked upwards towards my horn and saw it had a more pinkish hue around it, and the aura about it seemed to be moving more quickly than the blue aura further away. Streams of pink aura packed with runes drifted down from it, probably into the sides of my eyes. I was astonished at how much more the runes stood out this way. What a fascinating spell!

I looked off in the distance behind me. The foals were an interesting sight. Although blue still permeated everything, I could see hints that aura was a vaguely lighter blue around Shǔguāng's horn, even though it wasn't in use. Sinker and Líng had hints of that pale blue about their hooves. Off in the distance, Lántiān and Sapphire were flying together still, at a low enough altitude that I could make them out, and they left yellow trails that were quickly enveloped by the blue in their wake. Although I was too far to make out the details clearly, I was sure I saw hints of runes in their trails that I would never have seen normally. 

It was like a whole world that I had never seen before had been opened up to me. It had always been there, but now I saw the thaumic energy all around me. It was mesmerizing and more than a little disorienting. I could imagine getting a headache from this, not from the power or concentration involved with the spell, but from trying to separate the physical world from the thaumic one in my head. There was work to be done, and I needed to focus.

I carefully stepped into the chapel and looked around. What I was looking for was very easy to find. In-between the altar and the first two wooden benches was a gigantic mass of dark red. It didn't have any clear shape, just a large amorphous blob, around five feet in height, and I would guess somewhere between three and four feet in circumference at its greatest extents. There was no sign of runes anywhere.

Using a thin trail of magic meant for forming a small globe-like shield, I tried to create such a shield within the red mass. It resisted me; it was like I was working through extreme static and background interference. I tried pushing a little harder to make the spell work, and it quickly became a strain, forcing me to release that spell and almost releasing the other spell that was letting me see the anomaly. Now I understood how Jess had exhausted herself, stubborn girl. Twilight and Starlight hadn't felt the same strain, but Twilight was an alicorn, and Starlight was as strong as unicorns could get. Jess and I were magical insects compared to those two, so it might not have been as evident to them. 

After making sure I could remember all the details of what I was seeing, I released the spell that let me see the thaumic energy. The blob immediately vanished, and nothing was in that spot now. Behind the area, a plain stone altar with an inscription of a cross sat, there were four wooden benches that had seen better days, and the wall off to my right had caved in under a tree that had also taken out part of the roof. Sunlight drifted in through the hole the tree created, but also through several other small holes in the ceiling and a large window with no glass behind the altar. Leaves carpeted the floor and benches. The room also smelled strongly of crabapples.

The question still loomed; what the hell was causing this? 

I used my magic to pick up a stray piece of tile from the roof that had been lying on the floor and chucked it at the spot where the area where the blob was at. It passed through with no effect and shattered against the altar. I reactivated the spell to see the thaumic energy, but noticed no difference. With the spell still active, I grabbed a large chunk of bark near the fallen tree and chucked that instead. It passed through without disturbing anything in the mass. I rereleased the spell. 

What was the next step? That seemed easy enough—compare and contrast the two phenomena. I needed to go back into the house and recheck the third floor. I hadn't been observing it the way Twilight had at the time, and now that I could, I needed to see what it looked like. This wasn't right, and it was making me feel sick to my stomach. Every time something didn't feel right, something terrible ended up happening. I hoped whatever intuition I had gained in these past few years was wrong. I wasn't losing anyone else because I was careless. 

I left the chapel and headed back to the house. As I was walking, the kids spotted me. 

"Did you find the doggies, Miss Pretty Unicorn?" Grace called to me. 

"Just call me, Auntie Sunset," I yelled back in reflex. "No, but what I said still stands. If you hear them, find me immediately—run if you have to. Now, continue playing."

Sapphire and Lántiān landed near the entrance as I approached it. Sapphire smirked at me. "What’s with the rush? You find your ghost dog?"

I paused and glared at the snide pegasus. "Is Twilight still here?" No need to ask about Wild. I could see that her limo was gone.

"She left right before Wild," Sapphire replied. She cocked her head at me and softened her expression. "You alright? You seem a little tense, and it isn't just you not liking my pretty face. What's going on?"

I shook my head. "I don't know, and that worries me. I'm getting a bad feeling that’s making me think that it’s far more urgent to solve this barking mystery. Keep your eyes on the kids, don't lose sight of them. I don't know what we are dealing with or where it will be next."

Lántiān immediately fell in behind me. "I'm going to go check on my daughter and youngest brother, ma'am. There are plenty of eyes on the others, but if you're concerned about safety, I want to double-check them."

Sapphire looked skeptical. "Not that I don’t believe you, but wouldn't Twilight have stayed if there was something dangerous going on?" 

"I don't have any evidence that this is dangerous; it's just a feeling," I replied. "Twilight is working on extreme deadlines as well. She shouldn't have dallied around here as long as she did, but I guess you can't stop the Princess of Friendship from taking a few minutes to be friendly or the element of magic a few minutes to check what just seems on the surface a harmless curiosity."

"But now you’re not thinking it’s so harmless; is that more than just paranoia?" Sapphire asked, looking me in the eyes. 

"Yes, I don't think it is harmless. No, I can't confirm it isn't just paranoia," I admitted. 

Sapphire nodded and spread her wings. "Good enough for me. I can help keep an eye on the kids for a little while."

"Thank you," I said with honest gratitude. 

"You seem pretty confident, so I’ll trust your instincts on this," Sapphire replied. "I can say a lot of bad things about you, but if you say something is wrong with conviction, it’s worth listening to you." She flapped her wings and took to the air, doing a circular flight around the gardens. 

I went inside, and Lántiān broke away from me to go into the family room to check on her daughter. I meanwhile headed straight up the stairs at a partial gallop. 

Upon reaching the third floor, I started the spell again. That same blue hue filled the air, but along the hallway leading to the door, the red hung like a low fog blanketing it. I hastily checked each room to see if the red had spread into any of them, but each room had only blue. I finally turned my attention to the tower room and opened it. 

There was no glob of red here. The entire room was red, without a hint of blue to be seen. I performed the same mundane tests I had done out in the chapel and got the exact same results. Now what?

I decided to walk around the other end of the third floor with the spell still going. I checked each room, no matter how cluttered. Not a single one of them showed any hints of red, not even the opposite tower. I moved onto the second floor and began checking it top to bottom. 

Lántiān nearly ran into me exiting her brothers' room. I could see Rosetta and all the night pony foals, even Robby; all cuddled up together in one big pile on the bed. There were hints of teal around all of them, as there was also around Lántiān's wings, but no hint of red anywhere. 

"Have you found anything, ma'am?" the filly asked. 

I shook my head. "Only what was there earlier, with no change. Do me a favor and gather everyone back into the family room, including everyone outside, but you can let the night ponies sleep for now. We need to have a family meeting about this. I'm going to check the unused wing of the first floor and the basement, then join you."

"Yes, ma'am," she replied. She then quickly flew downstairs. I would be a very crappy alicorn, but I envied the mobility pegasi had. 

My searches of the other wing of the house and the basement turned up nothing but dust and an appreciation for how much old junk this house had stored away. With nowhere else to search, I went into the family room.

Everyone was waiting for me, and once again, I was rushed by foals; thankfully, they didn't tackle me this time. 

"Old Sis! Were you doing mad scientist stuff!" Sinker asked excitedly. 

"Mad mage," Líng corrected.

I rolled my eyes. "I was trying to determine the source of the barking."

"What's this about barking?" Devon asked as she grabbed Dusk while the toddler was trying to make a break away from her with unsteady steps. 

"Is it dangerous?" Mom asked. 

"I don't know," I answered. "To catch everyone up to speed. People have been hearing barking coming from the third-story tower room. There is no animal or electronic device in that room. Today, the kids heard this barking again in the ruined chapel. Again, no animals or electronic devices. This is where I need to ask the Youngs and Malcomb if they have ever heard anything like this anywhere on the property."

Malcomb shook his head. "Never. I told you, this place isn't haunted."

Lauren answered for the Youngs. "We've never heard any barking. As far as we know, there hasn't been a dog on the property for a hundred years or so."

I frowned. "That's what I feared. That means that it started only after the foals and I arrived."

"So… somepony is messing with you?" Dad asked. 

"That's my best guess. I am open to other ideas if anyone has any," I answered as I looked at the group. 

"Maybe it is a time portal, and Auntie Sunset is trying to travel back in time to save the world!" Shǔguāng announced with great enthusiasm. 

"What?! No! Why is that even the first idea you came up with?! I couldn't pull a spell like that off!" I said in shock. "Plus, why would I go here if I did something like that?"

"Grandmare told us you time traveled," Shǔguāng explained.

My mom needed to keep her mouth shut about such things. "It wasn't a real time travel spell. It was broken. Don't believe every story you hear. I didn't actually go into the past. I met it halfway, somewhere else."

Jess sat up on the couch, finally waking up, rubbing her head. "You'd probably kill yourself trying to time travel, even if you were strong enough and knew a spell."

"Starlight and Twilight didn't die when they did it," Trixie helpfully pointed out. 

Jess pinned her ears back and glared at the entertainer. "I'm guessing they did that in Equestria. Equestria has weird physics. If they tried that on Earth, it would kill them."

"Uh, why?" Trixie asked. "I don't see the difference."

The girl looked at Trixie like she was a moron. "Because everything in our universe is constantly falling. We aren't just moving through time. We are moving through space. If they went anywhere with a time travel spell, they would most probably find themselves deep in space with no protective gear. At best, they'd be dead in seconds."

"So she could account for that," Trixie said confidently. 

The girl groaned in frustration. "That requires not only a spell for moving through time but one to move through space further than even an alicorn could teleport. Teleports are near-instant; that's the only reason they work. Even if she could pull off that astronomical magic feat, she would still need to properly calculate her landing point exactly on a wobbling spinning globe that is falling at sixty-seven thousand miles per hour and spinning at a thousand miles an hour."

"Could you calculate it?" Trixie asked snidely as she sat and crossed her forelegs in front of herself like a human would cross their arms. She clearly wasn't giving this idea up.

Jess blinked. "Um...I guess it's possible. It isn't really different than trying to project how to reach any other body in space, but to have someone do that all in their head in the time it would take to do a spell… that's not happening. Auntie Sunset is smart, but she's no super genius."

Trixie sniffed. "Well, if you can calculate all the fancy math…" She paused and made a show of gagging. "... then it can be done."

I shook my head. "Why are we even discussing this? It isn't a time portal! I don't know what it is, but it isn't that. Any other ideas?"

"Could it be a portal like the one that goes to Equestria?" Mom asked. "Don't those things just pop up on their own?"

"Not often and not consistently in the same places," I replied. "This is happening consistently in the same area. Plus, it is disappearing before anyone can reach it and seems to have an intelligence behind it. Those other portals are random occurrences. It isn't sucking anything in either."

"Maybe it would be one way going here," Mom suggested. 

Jess shook her head. "No, that wouldn't work on a random portal, not without someone deliberately forcing it to do that. The naturally occurring ones follow basic physics. The thaumic energy moves from an area of high thaumic density to one of low thaumic density, and in this case, that means it flows from our universe to Equestria—unless, of course, someone finds it and forces it to work differently, or if it just happened to open up in a place in Equestria that was currently doing some potent magic that was condensing a lot of thaumic energy into one place."

I pointed at Jess. "I had no idea it worked that way, but trust the physicist."

"Physicist in training," Paul corrected. 

Jess stuck her tongue out at her dad. "I'll be the greatest physicist in the world the same day I get my degree."

I rolled my eyes. That girl had the intelligence, talent, and drive to become the greatest physicist of the age, but Lord, if she didn't learn to rein in being so full of herself, she would not be well-liked among the physics community and would find it difficult to get anyone to work with her. 

"Are you sure you have ruled out ghosts?" Mom added as a second question. 

I gave her a flat look. "The first thing I do when I sleep tonight is get the Dreamwardens to confirm there are no such things as ghosts, but I'm fairly certain that idea is out."

"So… what do we do now, ma'am?" Lántiān asked. 

I sighed, and my ears fell. "I'm unsure. I will continue to study this. In the meantime, I don't want anyone wandering around alone. I want to be informed immediately of any barking, and under no circumstances is anyone to check that barking out on their own."

Sapphire raised a wing. "Sorry, but isn’t this the haunted house cliche? Why not just leave?"

"It started very soon after we arrived and has been shown it can move locations," I replied. "I must assume it is here specifically for either me or the foals, and if we move, it will only follow."

John raised his hand. "But what about the danger to the rest of us? If it is after you or the foals, is it right to endanger everyone else by staying together? Specifically, is my family in danger by being near you?"

"That is a very valid concern," I said gravely as I looked him in the eyes. "I will need to consult Wild about what to do in regards to it, though."

"I'm not running away from any danger posed to my daughter and family," Dad said proudly. "If you are in trouble, family sticks together."

Devon gave Paul a worried look then turned towards me. "I want to support you, but we already almost lost Jess and Robby once. I don't think I can deal with them being in danger again."

I walked over to her and touched a hoof to her leg. "I get it, and I understand. Imagining what possible danger my foals could be in fills me with dread, and if I knew who to rage at, I would be out there ready to hurt whoever threatens those important to me. You don't need to justify trying to keep your kids safe." I looked at John and Lauren. "None of you do. If there is danger coming, then it isn't right to force you to put your families into it."

"Your foals?" Shǔguāng said in a tentative but hopeful tone. "Are you saying you are our new mama?"

I turned towards the unicorn colt. "I’m responsible for you. What you want might not be what your siblings want, and what I want doesn't come before what's best for you. For now, I am your foster mother, which is not quite the same. However, my world revolves around making sure you have safe, happy, good lives, and I intend to make sure of it."

Shǔguāng sat down and didn't seem to know how to take this answer. Unsure whether it was something to be happy or upset about, he seemed troubled. I wished I could give him a better answer, but I had to do the right thing, and I had to be honest with him. Anything else would be cruel. I wish I knew how to cheer him up.

Tempest sat up from her couch and gave us all a few sleepy blinks of her eyes before yawning. "You are all loud. I will look over everyone tonight. No one will come to any harm while I am here. I have bodyguarded Princess Luna, Phobia Remedy, and Phobia's offspring, all who have much greater threats to them than any foe of Sunset Blessing.  I can deal with this lot of people. Now, take your conversation elsewhere so I can sleep."

"Glad to hear it," I told the former unicorn turned human even if I couldn’t trust her to deal with a magical attack. "I'm going to step out front to call Wild and find out our options. Everyone else may disperse as you wish, but don't leave anyone by themselves."

"Walking off by yourself?" Sapphire asked sarcastically. 

I hung my head, knowing what the obvious question I needed to ask was going to be. "Do you want to follow me and keep an eye on me?"

She just smiled as she stood up. "I’ll come keep you company."

Shǔguāng seemed to come to a decision about how he felt about my answer and the red colt rushed towards me and hugged me. "I love you, Auntie Sunset, and I want you to be my new mama!"

Crap! Why did he need to pull this now? How was I supposed to respond to this? I looked over to Lántiān for help, but she seemed as taken aback and unsure what to do as I did. There was no help there. I could feel all eyes on me, waiting to see how I would respond. I couldn't refuse to say I love you back; it would devastate him, and I couldn't bear to do that to him. At the same time, any positive response to this would only put unfair pressure on his currently watching brother, who was already getting that undue pressure just watching Shǔguāng hug me and make that declaration. This wasn't fucking fair!

"I've changed my mind, Sapphire. Shǔguāng will accompany me," I said, still trying to decide what the hell I was supposed to say to him. "He and I need to have a heart-to-heart talk."

My response, for some reason, caused Sapphire to smile even wider, but whatever, I didn’t care what the blue pegasus found so amusing about the situation.

Hopefully, I wouldn't screw this up.