Jessica sat listening to the printer, the hum of the electricity, the turning of gears to keep the paper moving. It was something to focus on. Her other option was to focus on the typing that was going on in the next office over. She'd been introduced to him but couldn't recall his name. He had no professional research pedigree. He possessed a doctorate, but whatever his thesis had been must not have amounted to much. He was a teacher, and that was alright. The world needed teachers. However, those with doctorates were supposed to advance their fields, even if they taught as well. If he only wanted to teach college, he could have stopped at the master's degree. Handing a doctorate to someone who didn't advance the field was an insult to the field.
Thinking like that isn't going to win you any friends. Stop trying to build yourself up as superior. She scolded herself.
Maybe it was just her annoyance about her upcoming class making her think negatively. It wasn't until just an hour ago that she'd looked at the roster. She had seventy-five students in the class, seventy-five– a packed class. They expected her to instruct that many students properly? How? This was a job for what's-his-name next door, the career educator, not her.
On top of that, the class lasted four hours, though it was thankfully just once a week. Who wanted to sit through a four-hour class? She knew she didn't, and she was the one teaching it. She'd have been banging her head on the desk when she was a student with a class that long. She'd figured that long class time would dissuade students from signing up for it, but she'd been wrong. This was Introduction to Physics; she had no legitimate expectation of finding the help she sought in this class. She wanted a small class that wouldn't add much to her workload. If she was going to make a legitimate attempt to give one-on-one instruction, it would have been much easier with a smaller class. She wouldn't even be able to learn all the students' names with this many in her class.
The printer stopped, not because it was done, but because it had run out of paper. She sighed and opened the paper tray, reloading it. She had planned to introduce herself to the class and then give them a test. The test was not meant to be part of their overall grade but something she could use to determine how much they knew about physics coming into the class. She knew she had a bad habit of talking over people's heads when it came to math and physics, so it was best to know what she was working with so the students could get what they were paying for instead of spending the course confused because she assumed they knew basic concepts. If she was actually going to grade these, she expected that none of the class would get over half the questions correct, and an alarming number might not get any questions right. They would complete the test, and she would dismiss the class early, giving her time to review the completed tests and get home early. Seventy-five tests to check certainly put a damper on those plans. It might end up curbing what kinds of tests and projects she could assign going forward.
This class was like a freshly planted garden. There were no blooms, but there could be in the future. Gardens needed tending. She was trying to grow the best physicists, astronomers, and engineers in the world, but there would be many present that had no hope of ever achieving greatness. Hopefully, a fair number of students would get scared away by the test and drop the class, reducing her workload and giving the remaining students hope of individual instruction. Her garden needed preening and weeding so the good shoots could grow.
Her ears flicked as she heard her coworker in the next office stop typing and shut his laptop. Maybe he was going home for the day. She listened to his chair scratch across the floor, then his footsteps. There was a slight rustling, perhaps him picking up and putting on his coat, then some more footsteps, the sound of his door opening, and the lights clicking off. Wait…his footsteps were coming toward her, not out the hall towards the exit.
*Knock *knock *knock
Fudge! What did he want?
"You may enter," she answered as she reloaded the printer yet again.
Her door opened, and her colleague stepped in. He was around her height, slightly pale, moderately built, neither skinny nor fat, and had glasses. Aside from her, he was probably the youngest member of the department faculty since he appeared to be in his mid to late twenties. He had short-cut hair that was a light purple. The hair color didn't indicate he was rehumanized or a partial since dying hair colors unnatural for humans was pretty common, especially in people under thirty, and had lost its stigma among professionals years ago. His heartbeat and breathing were regular, and she could hear his stomach working on breaking down some food, indicating he'd eaten something recently. Surprisingly, he had a wind-up watch, which would have been a rarity even for her grandparents' generation; she could hear all the gears ticking within.
"Hello, Doctor Middleton. I was coming by to see how you were settling in," her office neighbor said in a friendly manner. He looked around. "It still looks bare in here, just your desk, chair, printer, and computer. It doesn't have any personal touch."
She reloaded the printer yet again. "Dean Francis wants me to move my office off campus, so there isn't much point in making this room my own."
He blinked in shock. "Why would he want that? You being hired was a huge deal to the Board of Governors. They practically took a victory lap when you agreed to teach here. You bring star power to our faculty that increases the university's clout and desirability to prospective students and donors. They consider it like this is Oxford getting its Newton. I would be neither surprised nor insulted if you were the highest-paid faculty member in the entire university. The governors must be walking on eggshells to keep you happy. Dean Francis has to realize that."
She set the pile of papers aside that had already been printed. There were so many that it was starting to spill over in the tray. A ten-page test printed seventy-five times took up a lot of paper. Wild Growth would probably get mad at her for murdering trees if she knew.
"If you're trying to build up my ego, it isn't necessary. It is already rather massive. It doesn't need to get bigger," she replied. "Dean Francis has legitimate concerns about my hearing. You said I'm the Newton of this institution? Newton had accusations of intellectual theft during his tenure at Oxford. It's best not to be put in a position where I can be accused of the same."
He chuckled. "Fair enough, although you won't get much from me unless you can tell what keys I'm typing….You can't tell that with just sound, correct?"
She shook her head. "No, it's just a lot of clicking."
"Good," he said, sounding mildly relieved. "Anyway, I was also curious about why you chose to teach here. I'm sure M.I.T., Harvard, Brown, and Stanford would have happily extended you a contract. Our school is of high quality, but it doesn't normally attract the best of the best. They would look better on your professional resume and have access to funding you could only dream of here."
She raised an eyebrow at him. "I already had my interview, and this sounds like a repeat of that."
He spread his hands. "No offense intended. I'm just curious. If any of those places offered me a position, I'd jump on it in a heartbeat, no offense to our school."
"Well, this is my alma mater, and I'm familiar with the facilities here. They meet my needs. It is close to my family. It is also a short drive to the mountains where there is a minimum of light pollution; most of those other locations you named don't have that last advantage," she explained. "I'm not concerned about salary. I work part-time here and am paid a part-time wage; at least, I assume I am. This is my first salaried position, so I don't know what an appropriate full-time wage is. My work elsewhere is more on a job-by-job contractor basis, and some of those don't even pay."
"Call me jealous. I have yet to be asked to do any work for NASA or tech firms. I wouldn't even know what the Dreamwardens contract you to do," he said.
He's digging for information. She thought to herself.
"You aren't one of those people who put on spandex and try to fight crime, are you?" he asked.
She blinked. "What?! Why would I ever do something so insane? Who would?"
He shrugged. "There are many humans with weird magic that consider their magic their superpower and try to go out and be superheroes. Most of them end up causing more damage than they tried to prevent, but that's vigilantes for you. You've got unique magic, and smart as you are, I'm sure you can get creative about how you use it. Plus, it isn't like you haven't tried to be a hero before. More people know what you did during the Cataclysm of Riverview than know you defined a law of physics. You've got the perfect origin story."
She rolled her eyes. "Believe me; I have no dreams of doing superheroics. My magic lets me be more aware of what is happening around me, much like ponies are more aware of scents than us, and humans are more aware of temperature changes than a pony or me, but it isn't something I'd ever weaponize. One time playing the hero was enough for me. Falling hundreds of feet and getting impaled should discourage anyone from thinking about brash heroics. As for what I'm doing for my various employers, that's classified."
"Would you do things differently if you had to redo that moment again?" he asked.
"No," she replied immediately. "My best friend would have died if I hadn't done that, and I wouldn't let that happen. If I had something to do over again back then, it would be trying to find a way to avoid getting into that position. I'm unsure how I would have avoided it, but I could find a way."
"Well, the results aren't all bad. You could still be an earth pony," he said. She immediately gave him a dirty look, and it was plain on his face he knew he said the wrong thing. "I mean, it would be harder for you to work as a scientist if you were still an Earth pony. Having hands is rather convenient. Nothing rude intended against earth ponies."
She picked up the latest pile of papers from the printer and added them to the pile. She then picked up the stack and handed it to him. He looked at her in confusion.
"Yes, having hands comes in handy. Sometimes I wish I had an extra set," she calmly replied. "Since I don't, can you please kindly be a gentleman and assist me in carrying these to my class? I didn't realize how many students I have, so I underestimated how big this stack of tests would grow to be."
He looked down at the papers. "A test on the first day? You certainly aren't trying to make friends with your students."
She waved it off. "Just trying to determine what they already know. It covers far more than is in the course and won't count toward their grade. If any student gets half the questions right, I'll tell them they're getting an A in the course and don't need to attend class anymore. No point in wasting four hours of their week teaching them what they already know. I'd only bore them, not teach them."
He set the papers on the desk and picked one up to look at. "What's in this test that you'd give them an A in the class if they get half the questions right?"
"A little of everything," she answered. "It starts with the basic concepts and works its way up to the more advanced concepts. I threw in a little astronomy to give it some variation."
"Approximately how many Erisian lunar months pass between the beginning of Eris's closest proximity to the Sun and when it is at its furthest proximity to the Sun?" he read off from the middle of the astronomy section. "I couldn't answer that one off the top of my head, and my field is astronomy. It's a high number; I know that. I'd highly doubt most students even know what Eris is, despite the recent uptick in interest in it among NASA officials. I'm surprised with all the chatter about Eris that there hasn't been more talk of sending a probe to it, even after the surprise massive boost to NASA's budget under the last two presidents."
There's been no talk of sending a probe because we've already landed probes on it using magic to teleport them out there. The people at NASA need to quiet the chatter before someone realizes the UN is getting ready to build a military staging base there. she thought to herself.
She shrugged. "I'm not expecting a correct answer. If a student answers somewhere in the general ballpark, I'll be impressed. I would enjoy being impressed." She unhooked her laptop before closing it and picking it up. "Let's go. I don't want to be late, and you want to head home."
After exiting her office, she made sure to take a look at the nameplate on her neighbor's door, Doctor Adam Jefferson. She'd need to pay attention to him. His phishing for information put her on edge. He could be just a friendly coworker, or he could be an agent for who knew who. The Chinese were known to have agents scattered across the country in everything from businesses to Congress. Having one as a professor at a school right in the heart of pony territory wouldn't be the most outlandish possibility. Others could be out there, too; no need to focus strictly on China and miss someone else trying to pull something.
There were fewer students in the hallways this time around. A few were still going about at this hour, but they were more focused on going where they were going instead of just standing around talking. She still felt the eyes on her as she walked down the halls. The decreased number of students might have made it all the worse– she stood out more in these less populated halls. Footsteps seemed louder when there were fewer of them. Doctor Jefferson followed behind her, papers in hand. Her pace might have discouraged him from talking more.
The same auditorium she held her other class was being used again for this one. Before she entered the door, her ears were bombarded with whispers, heartbeats, breathing, talking, and even people passing gas that they likely thought no one could hear. Her magic had its drawbacks. This would be too much for her if she didn't purposely tune it out. It would be a struggle to pinpoint individual sounds in all of that. Would she even adequately be able to field questions when she couldn't tell who was speaking? She hoped this test scared off a significant number of students. The noise was hard to focus through.
Deep breaths. she instructed herself, then walked in.
Voices quieted as she walked in, a mild relief to her ears. They were all watching her; she knew that without looking at them. She walked steadily to the front. With each step, she lost a little more ability to tune the sound out as she felt the legion of eyes watching her. Heartbeats, breathing, and whispering got louder and louder in her ears until it was just constant booming noise. She lost track of her own heartbeat and breathing in the deafening sound. It became harder to breathe as if being unable to hear her lungs at work made her body question whether they were functioning. She had no choice; she had to put up a sound barrier around herself so she could breathe. If this continued, she'd lose control, and everyone in the auditorium would suffer what she was currently experiencing.
The sound barrier went up in a small radius around herself. She could hear her vitals again. She could also hear Adam's since he was within the border, but that didn't bother her. She finally reached the desk and put her laptop into position, careful not to slam it down. The hard part was done. She could turn and focus on faces now and avoid any discussion. The only voice, only heartbeat, only breath that she needed to worry about were her own.
"Are you okay?"
She looked up. Adam was looking at her, and he looked worried.
"Are you okay?" he repeated. "You're shaking. Your tail looks like it is about to have a seizure. Your ears are vibrating like mad, and you look sick."
There was no point in lying. She would cause unfounded rumors if she lied.
"Anxiety attack. They happen sometimes. Having lots of people in a compressed space can set it off. It doesn't happen all the time or even most of the time under those circumstances, but it still happens. There's just too much sound, too many people watching me."
He gave her a sympathetic look. "That explains what happened, but it doesn't answer whether you'll be okay. Do you need to cancel the class for tonight? It will be okay if you do. Professors get sick, and all these students just saw the same thing I did."
She shook her head. "No, I need to seem in control. I can't seem weak as a partial. I'm also younger than some of these students. I have to work harder to be an authority figure because of that. I'll lose their respect if I can't seem to handle it…but I might forgo the tests until next time and release them early."
He sighed. "If you insist, but I need to inform you there will always be students older than you unless you get to Dean Francis's age. I'm older than you, and I still have students older than me in my classes. Not every student is someone who came here straight out of high school. Considering you've been a big deal in the scientific community since I was in middle school, I think most might not realize you're as young as you are. As for being a partial…I don't know what to say about that. I don't have the experience to give advice I'm confident would be accurate. Just remember, this class is packed because these students want to be instructed by the great Doctor Middleton, who came up with Middleton's Law and was a hero who saved the lives of her friends despite impossible odds against them coming out alive. That even you can have an anxiety attack might make them a little less nervous dealing with someone who is practically a legend. That should put some things in perspective."
She managed a weak smile. "You really are just a nice coworker, aren't you?"
Adam blinked. "You suspected I wasn't?"
"Call me paranoid," she replied and stood up straight. "My nerves have settled. I can take it from here. Thank you, Adam, for all your help and for being nice enough to carry those papers to class for me."
He chuckled. "No problem. You're the only department member not old enough to be my parent or grandparent. I might be older than you, but you're the closest person to my age that I get to work with. We've got to look out for each other with these old fogies. Can I treat you to a coffee sometime? I have my projects I'd love to have your input on, and your accomplishments are big enough that you'd have no desire to take credit for my work."
Her smile faded a little. "I'm a bit overwhelmed by my workload as it is without getting involved in anyone else's projects, but maybe we can have coffee sometime. Now, let me teach my class."
He nodded. "See you tomorrow then." He then turned and walked away.
She turned and faced the class, watching him depart for a second before turning her eyes to the students.
"Welcome to Physics 101," she greeted in a regular volume, broadcasting her voice with her magic. "I'm Doctor Middleton. I'll be keeping today short since I'm feeling a bit under the weather, as you observed. I'll briefly introduce myself, what you are expected to know by the end of this course, how you will be graded, and then dismiss early. We'll generally take a fifteen-minute break halfway through the class, so don't worry about having to sit for four hours straight. Today we should be dismissed before the two-hour mark."
She paused and laid a hand on the pile of papers. "However, be prepared next week because we shall begin the next class with a test. I was planning on doing it today, but health comes first."
There was a collective groan and sound of dismay at the announcement of the test, and she smiled.
"Don't worry; his test will not count towards your grade. It is primarily for me to understand how much you all know already. It will cover all the key concepts you are expected to know by the end of this course, along with increasingly more advanced concepts and some astronomy. Don't be distressed if you don't know an answer; I don't expect anyone will get the majority of answers correct, and I wouldn't be surprised if there are more than a few of you who don't know any of the answers. However, there is one huge benefit to those of you who might be more knowledgeable about physics than your classmates. If you get at least half the questions right, including the majority of the basic concepts for this course, you will be automatically awarded an A for the course and are no longer required to complete any more classwork, projects, or tests for this class, and I'm not concerned about attendance. Now you know the test is coming, and you have a week to prepare."
She still couldn't focus on individual reactions among such a crowd, but she heard the general excitement about the possibility of essentially testing out of the class, especially if they didn't lose anything for failing. That at least meant she had the students' full attention.
"Let's begin the introduction," she said, turning on her laptop.
Class was dismissed a little before the two-hour mark, and some students stayed behind to give her well-wishes, saying they hoped she felt better. Others stayed to ask her questions. There was one night pony in particular who stayed and asked her a barrage of astronomy questions, some advanced enough that she wondered if he might get more than half the questions right on the test. She was pretty confident he would at least do well on the astronomy section. Others stayed to ask her about what happened back during the Cataclysm of Riverview. She did her best to politely decline talking about those details and was honest about it having been a traumatic experience for her. She didn't let them know she could still be triggered into a panic attack at the smell and sight of an inferno. Some terrors stayed with her long after they passed.
Then, at last, she was finally blissfully alone. Aside from hers, there were no heartbeats, breaths, whispers, or gazes. The auditorium was big enough to give her space away from any such possible sources. There were still other sounds, like the hum of electricity, the air conditioner, and the ground settling beneath the floor, but those could be easily tuned out. She sat at the desk and just let herself breathe and relax.
Peace at last.
"Feeling relieved that your class is over?"
She jumped and almost fell out of her chair before she caught herself. No sound indicated someone had entered or was in the room with her, but whoever had spoken was directly behind her.
Turning and looking, she saw a muscular woman with dark black hair that extended just past the shoulders, blue eyes, and a reasonably large bust, smiling at her. She was wearing a business suit and had her hands on her hips. The woman had no heartbeat, no breathing, not even the sound of the air brushing against her. She wasn't really there. Jessica didn't recognize her face, but there could only be one visitor who could be present without being present, and they could look like whatever they wanted.
Jessica sighed and laid her head down on the desk, ears back. "I guess I won't be allowed to take a break like I asked."
The woman seemed to walk around her to the front of the desk and then sit on the desk.
"You told us that you were taking a break; there was no request involved," the woman said with a chuckle. "You know, having watched you, I don't know how I'd feel about you being one of my professors when I was in college. I'd be scared of someone planning a test on day one. However, I was worried about you when you came in here. I'm glad that…Adam, was it? I'm glad that Adam was able to give you some words of encouragement to calm you down. Miss Seapony had some choice suggestions about what you can do with him, but we know you and know you wouldn't be interested in hearing about those suggestions. She still insists I tell you to let loose and have fun with him."
Jessica lifted her head and narrowed her eyes at the woman, ignoring the unspoken lewd suggestion about what to do with Adam. "You've been in here watching me for that long? You must be wearing yourself out. I can't imagine you've been dancing for over two hours."
"I took some snack breaks and returned," the woman admitted. "I admit, I don't miss having to sit in a seat listening to someone talk for hours. I'm a very active person. Sitting still sooo long is practically torture."
Jessica shook her head. "So, what do you want? A progress update? Some new task for me?"
"Nah," the woman replied, waving a hand. "You said you need a break. Your having an anxiety attack supports that. I'm just checking in to see how you're doing and giving you the courtesy of telling you to take the time you need. I was your friend before I was one of the people giving you marching orders. I worry about you. Do you want a cake? Cake makes me feel better about things. I can bake you a cake and send it in the mail. I can put a nice happy face made out of gumdrops on it. Maybe some candy planets…you like planets, right? I inherited memories of living on a star from one of my forebears; it was weird. I think I like planets better than stars."
Jessica relaxed. "You know I dream of one day being able to set foot on another planet, so planets would be nice. You could have visited me in person if you're in town. Why visit me this way?"
The woman looked uncomfortable. "You don't seem to know, but since my promotion, my projection range has increased dramatically. I'm not even on the same side of the country as you are right now. I'm busy doing official things, and I get worked a lot. I might even lose weight with how much my siblings and the OMMR work me! I've been dealing with jerks in the government and the press and didn't even get to enjoy my full honeymoon."
"I heard about the press meet. It sounded like you were tormenting my aunt through much of it," Jessica replied with a smirk.
The woman crossed her arms. "Well, she's much too stuffy! She needs to take herself a little less seriously. People need to learn how to laugh at themselves. Being dead is no excuse to be stiff!"
Jessica rolled her eyes. "Are you ever serious?"
"I'm serious all the time! A person can be serious without being severe," the woman protested. "I try to keep things as lighthearted as I can. The world might be ending; that's pretty depressing to think about. It's best to keep people's spirits up. I have three primary modes, this one, where I'm smiling and trying to get a laugh; my sad mode, where it would just be entirely inappropriate to laugh; and my angry mode. You don't want to see me when I'm angry."
Jessica raised an eyebrow. "Anyone make you angry lately?"
The woman waved her hand dismissively. "You know I can't tell you that. I-"
The door to the auditorium opened, and the woman vanished in an instant. Jessica had no idea if she was gone or had simply gone invisible. She instead turned her attention to who was entering—a familiar middle-aged woman.
The woman smiled at her as she approached. "Ah! Jessie, I'm glad I caught you alone." The woman then paused and looked at where the other woman had been sitting on the desk. "Or at least what counts as alone, anyway. You can't hide from my eyes, Rebecca. I see your magic."
Rebecca reappeared, still in the same form and sitting on the desk. "Force of habit. I wasn't expecting you to leave your mansion today. What's up?"
The older woman scowled. "I'm not here for you, you puffed-up jester! I wanted to talk to my niece. I'll deal with the lot of you when I go to bed. Please, give us some real privacy."
Rebecca stuck her tongue out before responding. "Fine, I know when I'm not wanted. You're always a grumpy pants anyway!" She turned towards Jessica and smiled. "Expect the cake in the mail soon!"
Rebecca then vanished.
"She's my friend, Auntie; you could have been nicer," Jessica chided.
Auntie sat in one of the seats in the auditorium. "I didn't want your aunt listening in through her. I'm done, Jessie. I'm leaving."
Jessica frowned. "You came here just to leave?"
The older woman shook her head and then bowed it. "This morning, I dealt with yet another group of invaders. It was close; they almost got my sons. I stopped them and managed to take them prisoner, but I was so angry. I was going to execute them, Jessie. The only thing that stopped me was my sons. They stepped in front of me, blocking me from getting a clean shot."
Her Auntie stood up and turned away so her face wasn't visible. "They're always going to keep coming. If it isn't for my sons, it will be for me, over and over again. No one can stop them from coming, and I doubt the government even legitimately wants to. I'm a liability for what I know. Even if I could keep fending these attacks off, I'll lose myself at some point…or reveal my true nature– the murderous, hateful, vengeful bitch I tried to leave behind. I don't want to be that. I don't want my sons seeing me as that."
"So what are you going to do? Go even deeper into hiding?" Jessica asked. "You're already living in a mansion surrounded by a private military force."
Auntie turned and looked at her. "I'm going to Equestria. Luna extended a formal offer for sanctuary. Twilight Sparkle and Celestia have given me a job offer at the School of Gifted Unicorns in Canterlot, teaching the next generation of Equestria's mages to be more skilled than the last for once. Yinyu had originally wanted to take her foals to Equestria before she met her end, so I'm fulfilling her wishes."
"And I'm the first person you came to tell this?" Jessica asked.
Auntie shook her head. "No, I spoke with Charlotte first. I need someone to give the mansion to. My research is going to remain there. I refuse to destroy it, I'm not turning it over to the government, and it would be seized if I tried to take it to Equestria."
"Oh, so you're giving it to Charlotte?" Jessica asked. It would be nice having another of her friends living in the city.
Auntie shook her head again. "No, she laughed straight in my face, no respect for her grandmother."
Jessica felt a sinking feeling in her gut. "So…Moon or Arachne?"
Auntie looked at her like she was an idiot. "Moon is about to have his third foal with a third mare by the age of eighteen. I love him, but I can already imagine there's going to be some domestic dispute in the future between him and those mares. I'm not jeopardizing the mansion to some civil case. As for Arachne, she is way too much like me, and not in a good way. She is never to set a hoof on my research. I need someone who is family, intelligent, and capable of defending my research. Those last two knock out a considerable amount of the family. I already know Phobia will say no, my sisters are too old, my brother is a happy fool, and your brothers aren't capable."
Jessica stood up. "No! I'm not having that dumped on me! I have enough responsibilities. You're going to have to find someone else. I'm not taking your mansion."
Auntie threw her head back and groaned loudly. "Why is it so hard to give away a mansion?! Back in my day, if someone said, hey, here's a mansion, they'd jump on it. I'm willing to sweeten the pot and give all my future proceeds from my book sales. That alone should maintain the utilities and the property taxes going forward."
"Why don't you just give it back to Wild Growth?" Jessica asked. "She gave it to you to begin with."
"I can't," Auntie lamented. "She gave it to me before she entered Congress or was a senator. I can't give a mansion as a gift to someone who is a senator! Do you realize how much of an ethics violation that is? The whole reason she is a senator is because her predecessor had to resign for receiving excessive gifts. It isn't like Wild takes gifts back anyway. You young people are making it excessively hard for me and my foals to leave; do you know that?"
Jessica spread her hands. "Sorry, but you're asking us to take on a heavy burden protecting your research. I could accept and burn it all as soon as you were off-world, but I won't do something in that bad faith."
"At least you're a decent person," Auntie grumbled. "Alright, strike you off my candidates. I'm running very low on them. As someone who might be teaching in the Equestrian equivalent of a college very shortly, how goes your teaching position?"
Jessica sighed. "It seems to be going okay so far. The number of students in this night class was a little overwhelming. Things seem to be going better for me than I thought being a partial."
"You put too much stock in what people will think. You don't see me worrying about all the people who don't like me," Auntie replied dismissively.
"You are literally running away to Equestria because people don't like you," Jessica said flatly.
The older woman crossed her arms and raised her chin. "I'm also running because I have a family to protect, and the people I'm running from have murderous intent. That's a bit more than dislike. You'd understand if you had kids."
She was going to let that slide. Auntie probably didn't realize how sore a subject her inability to reproduce was, and Sunset Blessing's love of family was well-known. It did make her think of something else, though.
"Speaking of partial kids…you hear and know about things that never make it into the news. You wouldn't happen to have heard about any significantly large communities of partials nearby, would you? My dad and I met a partial kid. We'd like to know where he came from. He doesn't have anyone, and he's terrified."
The woman scratched her head. "No, I hadn't heard of this partial kid until now, but I was distracted this morning. The closest community of partials that most people don't know about and has enough members that they might have any chance of producing kids is down in Baja California. Have you considered the kid might be an illegal immigrant?"
Jessica blinked. "I've never heard of it. How many partials are in this community?"
Auntie shrugged. "Hard to get an accurate figure, considering they keep humans away and do their best to stay hidden and off the grid—a few hundred. I doubt most of them are even Mexican. It's composed of partials from everywhere in the Americas, including here. The Mexican government leaves them because it's more trouble than it's worth to chase them out, and to broadcast their existence would only put them at the mercy of the cartels. They figure they can leave them be, and they'll die out in a few years. Maintaining a community that size without amenities or outside help leads to a high mortality rate. If I had a kid there, I might try to get him somewhere else. He'd have a better chance of making it to adulthood."
That was a possibility. Where Auntie learned about all these things was a mystery. She'd always been good at scrounging up information, finding out secrets, flat-out stealing information, as well as finding ways of just casually bumping into people of note. Add to that the various other things she was notorious for, and you got trouble personified. While there was no doubt that Auntie leaving Earth was the best for her health, along with everyone else's, it was like the ending of an era to know that soon she would be gone. It was time for Jessica's generation to rise to the occasion to fight back against the Devourer threat and save the world.
On top of all that, she was one of the people Jessica always had to run equations for. It wasn't very likely that the job would go away without Auntie. That meant there'd be someone new hounding Jessica for numbers soon enough. What fun….
Auntie turned towards the door again and started walking, but paused, turned around, and approached her again. Jessica was a little confused about what the woman was up to, but then, to her amazement, the older woman wrapped her arms around her and hugged her.
"If I don't see you again, you take care of yourself. Don't let my deceased wife, daughter, that floating food compactor, or anyone else push you around. I know you're only my niece by marriage, but I still love you like my own blood; I wouldn't have offered you Wabash if I didn't. Last of all, I want to express one last time how truly sorry I am for what happened in Riverview. No matter what other factors were at work, I was ultimately to blame, and I will never be able to make that up to anyone. I pray that God forgives me, and I beg your forgiveness for my sin against you."
This was not typical behavior for her Auntie. Not knowing what else to do, Jessica hugged the older woman in return– gently. Best not to break the old lady.
"I forgave everyone involved long ago, but thanks for showing how much you care," she replied. "Good luck with your teaching job. Try not to make the Equestrians cry."
They released the embrace, and Sunset Blessing turned and walked away, perhaps for the last time. Jessica wondered who would end up with the mansion. Whoever they were, they likely would need a lot of help.
Jordan flopped on her bed and let off a big huff. She still had her makeup on and should wipe it off before forgetting about it. It wasn't good to fall asleep with makeup on. She needed to decide on what to read before falling asleep as well. Romance would not be the genre, that was for sure, not after the way the evening had gone. She detached her phone from her leg and put it on her headboard.
It was hard to say what had been the most embarrassing part of the evening. She'd been out with her roommate, getting some food off-campus. She'd seen two stallions, both about her age, both reasonably cute. Her roommate had told her to go for it. After several minutes of trying to flirt, which, if she was honest with herself, most likely came off as her being desperate instead of appealing, she learned it didn't matter one way or another. She may have found some cute stallions in this human town, but they were gay. She was so embarrassed to have been trying to flirt with two stallions who were on a date. Her fur nearly went black from the blush.
If that had been the end of it, she would have laughed it off as a misadventure. That hadn't been the end of it. One of the servers at the restaurant had been a mare and had seen the whole thing go down. They'd got to talking, and she'd thought she at least made a pony friend in the area. Then the mare had asked her out on a date, hoping she was bi and misreading her signals. Maybe it was also Jordan's fault for misreading the signals the mare must have been sending. Do you know how to stall out a friendship? Have one person ask the other out, and that other one say, let's be friends. Making it worse, she'd been caught so off-guard by it that she had practically stuttered out that response. That had to have felt like a kick in the tail for that other mare. She didn't deserve that. Daffodil had been her name.
What a disaster. She made a fool of herself, lost her chance at making a friend with one of the few other ponies she'd seen, and she'd overheard her fellow pledges laughing at her for how the evening went, which meant her roommate had gossiped about her to them. The betrayal stung. College was not off to a great start.
She levitated a few books off her tiny shelf and looked at the spines of each, reading the titles.
"Les Miserables it is," she said as she selected a book and put the rest back on the shelf—time to lose herself in a book.
Her phone started to buzz, and she used her magic to answer it without looking. "Hello, Jordan Gilmore here; who's this?"
"Good evening, Jordan. I hope I didn't wake you."
Her eyes went wide as she heard the voice of the speaker. She instantly took the phone off the headboard and brought it down close to her, and adjusted the volume on it so the voice wouldn't be so loud.
"Auntie Su-" she began to say and then flexed her ears. She might not have her best friend's hearing, but she could tell that her roommate was still in the shower. Still, it was best to keep this quiet. "Auntie, I'm surprised you called."
"I know I usually text, but I wanted to discuss something with you. Do you have privacy?"
Jordan got up from bed, keeping the phone floating near her head. "One moment." She walked over to the bathroom and called into it. "Hey! I'm stepping out for a few minutes. I'll be back shortly."
"Okay!" her roommate yelled over the volume of the shower.
She held the phone close again. "Give me another minute."
"Take your time, Jordan."
She attached the phone to her leg and exited the room. It was pretty late, and there didn't seem to be many people about, but she still didn't feel comfortable having a conversation with her auntie (not really her auntie, but that's what she'd grown up calling her eldest half-sister's mom) anywhere in the dorm building. She walked over to the balcony at the end of the hall and blink teleported out to the courtyard. No students were out here, and she'd see anyone getting close enough to hear.
Finally convinced she had privacy, she spoke again, "Sorry, I never know if it is safe to talk to you with people around. I wanted to get some more privacy. We're good to go."
"Your caution is commendable," Auntie answered. "Before we get onto discussing why I called. How has college been treating you? Is everything going well?"
Her ears sagged. "Classes are fine, but the social end has been a waste so far. Tonight was just a failure all-around. I miss Skytree. I miss being around lots of ponies."
"I'm sorry to hear things have not been going well," Auntie replied. "However, I have a once-in-a-lifetime offer for you that might change your life. How would you feel about inheriting a mansion in an area with a high pony population density?"
Her eyes bulged. A mansion? There was only one mansion Auntie had to offer, Wabash Manor. That was in Denver, and that would put her close to Jessie and around a lot of ponies since Colorado had been ground zero for ETS. She could transfer colleges if she did a move there. She'd lose a semester, delaying her eventual graduation, but that wasn't the worst thing if she got a mansion to live in. She'd made an ass of herself to start the year here and wasn't feeling a lot of loyalty from her fellow pledges or roommate, so a fresh start might not be a bad thing.
"You caught my interest," she eagerly replied.