//------------------------------//
// Cycle 2: Day 1 - Marked 
// Story: Pandemic: of Twins and Tails 
// by Seven Fates 
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It'd been almost five days since the President of the United States declared the end of Equine Transformation Syndrome. In that time, restrictions on the ponies in Jacen's group slowly relaxed. Chloe and the pegasi were finally allowed to go outside and fly, while Jacen, Alexa, and the other earth ponies were given supervised time outside in the Veterans Memorial Garden. Although the group's first thought was to figure out weather manipulation and earth pony magic, they recognised that it would not be appreciated if they converted the garden into a farm.
The first thing they'd all realised upon having their restrictions relaxed was that a distinct shortage of staff in the hospital. Despite their best efforts, containment of the virus to the ward had not been successful; the late revelation of an infected individual's hair being the ETS transmission vector had resulted in rampant spread of the precursor flu through the hospital and the city. It seemed like the only ones still present were those who'd already gotten over the flu but not yet started showing, or those very few fringe cases of immunity. 
It also meant that food was becoming more scarce due to absenteeism closing down all sorts of retailers and hampering deliveries of food. Somepony had straight up gone to a farm on Thursday and brought back several two-string hay bales. None of the ponies in the ETS ward were all that amused because it was about as flavourful as pre-chewed bubblegum, but tolerated it because it at least edible. That it allowed the other food reserves to go towards the other patients kept them happy; it was generosity and a kindness.
Jinxi, on the other hoof, didn't get the opportunities the day ponies got. As a nearly strictly nocturnal pony, she was up as the sun started to go down, and if she pushed herself, she could make it as far as nine in the morning before things got hard for her. As a result, she only got maybe six hours each day where there were opportunities to interact with her brother. Even then, neither really had any idea how to act with one another; they had an adult mind, but as ponies their bodies were definitely not fully-grown. Plus, they used to be the same person, but they were quickly noticing both were evolving in different directions, which made it hard to relate.
For the most part, the brother was serious, knowledge-oriented and—for the most part—logical. He could express himself just fine, and had his own moments of mischief, but his emotions were more guarded and he rarely spoke outside his 'new normal' monotone. Jacen still had a degree of obsession with cleanliness and order, but it was thankfully not in an extreme germaphobic state. It was that alignment towards organisation, however, that allowed him to get permission for the day ponies to 'wrap up winter' in the garden and bring it to life early.
The sister was more whimsical than the original had been. She more openly expressed her emotions—even if she didn't always intend to—and seemed more drawn to experiences, rather than facts. That wasn't to say that she was less intelligent as a result of the transformation, but rather her priorities had shifted. Rather than analyse the actions of the terrorist that had created ETS, she was simply grateful that the virus had given her life. She was perfectly content to live in the moment.
There was a tension building in her, however. She had a drive to protect, but nothing she actually could. Her pony charges were perfectly safe where they were. The best she could get was patrolling around the hospital at night, and trying to help out however the nurses and hospital staff would let her. She couldn't do much as a volunteer. They were hesitant to let her loose in the NICU to provide physical contact and affection to newborns—even if they would probably love fluffy pony snuggles—and a lot of patients were kind of hostile towards ponies... especially those showing early signs of infection. Being a gopher courier for staff was about as best as she could get.
Unfortunately, it quickly became apparent that her shifted priorities was creating her own internal conflict. As much as she wanted to play, explore, and live her new life to the fullest, her night pony instincts were making things difficult. Each night, she ended up restless if she wasn't doing something to protect those around her. Every time Chloe's filly had a nightmare, she attempted to soothe her, but her continued failure to fulfil her purpose just made her mood worsen.





Despite the sun streaming in through the window, the room hospital room is unnaturally dark. What little light that is present casts shadows at impossible angles. To the night pony alone on the bed, it almost feels like they're alive and searching for something. That's stupid, though; shadows aren't alive, and have no eyes with which to watch. "Night ponies have nothing to fear from the dark itself," she whispers to herself as she looks over at the room's other empty patient bed. "We are supposed to chase away the things that lurk there."
Yet as she sits there in the unwelcoming room, she once-more feels the call of the call of the nightmare in the next room. No matter how many times she tries, Jinxi just can't seem to rid poor little Alexa of her nightmares. Still, I can't give up, she thinks as she hops down from the bed. The shadows part slightly, as though intimidated by her presence. If I give up on her, what good am I? I've got to figure out how to help her!
It's odd. As she exits the room, she finds no sign of any being, pony or human, out in the hallway, yet it feels as though she's being watched. The lights over the nurses' station are all out, as were all of the patient rooms. Yet somehow, as she stands before the open door, the room assigned to Chloe and her foal seems darker than the rest.
Despite the distinct lack of light in the room, she can clearly see the pegasus sitting upright on the bed. Her helpless gaze is fixed upon the sleeping foal at her hooves. "Why can't you help my filly?" the mare asks, glaring at the night pony as she hops up on the bed. "Why do her nightmares keep coming back?"
"I'm trying my hardest," she says before beginning to hum Take Me Home, Country Roads. She reaches out her wing and brushes the little foal's mane out of her face, slowly transitioning to gently patting the her side. Try and try as she might, though, the answer for how to alleviate the child's nightmares does not come to. All she can do is soothe the foal and hope that whoever has actually been helping her dreams hurries up.
The foal's condition only worsens, as her lullaby has apparently grown worthless. Her twitches slowly become more violent and she begins to sob out loud. It's not working anymore... It's only making it worse. I'm making it worse.
Then, to Jinxi's horror, Alexa goes rigid and her eyes snap open before she lets out an ear piercing scream. No pony should be capable for screaming this loud and this long without stopping to breathe, and yet it continues, on and on, until finally, she stops. It's over. It's finally over.
Though her eyes are open, the filly does not rouse. She continues to lie there, stiff as a board. It finally hits them that the foal is not breathing... Had Alexa's nightmare grown so bad that she had straight up died of fright? With a mournful howl, the mare throws the night pony from the bed, and then embraces her apparently dead foal.
She hits the floor hard, and when she scrambles to her hooves, her wing won't properly close. Even as she flees the room, the mare shouts, "How are you so useless that you couldn't save my baby!?"
"Feelings of helplessness and misplaced guilt are some of the most common causes of nightmares," Jinxi hears an unfamiliar mare's voice say as she picks herself up off of the floor. "I pity the ponies of this world for what Sunset Shimmer has inflicted upon them. This pony has nothing to feel guilty for, and yet she has been forced to bear the weight of the well-being for all those around her on her withers."
She glances around, but there's nopony other than Chloe there. The sheer vitriol in the grieving mother's eyes is enough to convince the night pony to leave, crying. Back into the hallway she goes, her eyes searching for the source of the voice. Unfortunately, the hallway is as empty as the first time she passed through.
"Hello?" she calls out, wandering through halls that feel much too long. "Where is everypony?" Her voice echoes all around her. "Jacen? Doctor Weintraub? Nurse Kate? Hell, I'll even take Nurse Emma... Just please, don't leave me alone here!"
The young night pony wanders down another impossibly long corridor. Strangely, she comes out in the ward's day room. Much like Chloe's room, even though it's pitch black in here, she can see Tara perfectly well in the middle of the room. The unicorn mare's back is to her, and she seems to be slouched over something, sobbing. "Doc? What's wrong?"
When Jinxi comes around the side of the dark-blue unicorn, she's unable to suppress a terrified squeak. The doctor is covered in blood, At her hooves lies the still form of one of the older ponies from their little cluster, an older stallion she'd seen Jacen conversing with over the days—Jordan, she thought his name was. It appeared as though he had been shot in the chest, and Tara had tried to help stop the bleeding, but it was clear that the stallion was dead.
Much like Chloe before her, Doctor Weintraub looked up at Jinxi with hate-filled eyes. "Where were you?" she screamed, grabbing the smaller pony up with her magic and pulling her muzzle to muzzle. "How are you supposed to protect us when you can't do anything to stop this. You can't even do anything to protect us during the day!?"
Again the night pony finds herself hurled through the air. This time, she's not so lucky as to leave unscathed. A scream escapes her as one of her wings is crushed between her and the wall. When she hits the floor, she can't quite get her hooves under her... and instead drags herself away from the mourning pony.
"In a way, this young mare is lucky," the unfamiliar mare speaks once more. Jinxi can't get a bead on where the voice is coming from. It seems to be nowhere, yet everywhere. "She could easily have found herself in similar circumstances to your acquaintance, but she's extremely conscious of the difficult position Sunset's shortsightedness has put her in. Many ponies—and not just night ponies like you or her—are now facing similar difficulties reconciling what their new instincts have them expecting of themselves with the world that they now live in."
Jinxi forces herself to her hooves, taking a breath to centre herself. It seems like everything in her life is crashing down around her, and despair is tightening like a noose around her neck. Even as hoofsteps can be heard somewhere in the halls, the little night pony shuts her eyes. This is wrong. This can't be real. Letting out a drawn out breath, it hits her. It isn't real.
"What's she doing now?" another voice asks. This one is younger, but still sounds more mature than Jinxi's body. In response, the diminutive night pony's ears flick. All around her, the shadows begin to retreat back to normal proportions. The endless hallways resolve into a single well-lit hall. "The dream is changing."
When Jinxi opens up her eyes, two figures manifest nearby. Both are pony-shaped, although not entirely present... like voids cut into the fabric of reality. The only hints as to the identities of the figures are their shape. One is taller, with what appears to be a horn and a flowing mane, possibly even pegasus wings based on slight protrusions. The other is harder to figure out at first; if they have wings, they are closed at their sides, so the only distinguishing features are the tufted ears—another night pony.
"She is becoming lucid," the taller mare says, turning to glance at her companion. "Although it may be more accurate to say that our presence has hastened her lucidity. Notice how our appearances are still undefined." The taller mare steps forward, wings fidgeting at her sides, and although her figure doesn't appear to possess any eyes at present, Jinxi still feels her gaze bearing down on her. "I apologise for our intrusion, my little pony. I am Princess Luna of Equestria."
Before the mare can introduce her companion, the dream jolts slightly. "Why are you here?"





"Why are you here!?" Jinxi awoke with a shout, startling the crystal pony who had been shaking her awake. There was the sound of something falling, and once she shook her white mane out of her face, she saw Kate on the floor, rubbing her flank. The mare had a pained expression on her face. With a glance at the clock, on the wall, the night pony frowned. It's only three in the afternoon for crying out loud! "Nnnh, why'd you wake me up?" After a moment's consideration, she quickly added, "Sorry about that, by the way."
She fixed Jinxi with a dark look as she puffed up her sparkly yellow chest fluff. Probably upset at having fallen off the bed. "Doctor Downey wants everypony to report to the day room for an announcement," Nurse Kate explained as the smaller mare stretched and hopped down from her bed. "Somepony from the government wants to speak to all of us who've transformed."
One the night pony was down on the floor, the pair made it out of the way out of the room and down the hall. As they went, the yellow mare's agitation became apparent. Something was bugging her, or maybe she even knew what was up and that was upsetting her. Regardless, the grouchiness from the mare was nothing new.
Kate had been growing more and more agitated as her days as a pony went on. She'd all but been demoted from nurse to patient, and all the while, the crystal pony wasn't even being allowed to resume her work. One evening, she even disclosed in confidence that she had no clue as to her purpose as a pony. Unlike the earth ponies, unicorns, pegasi, or even Jinxi, there was no magic lesson in her dreams telling her what a crystal pony did, and she didn't feel the same connection to the earth that Jacen and Alexa did.
It was something the small grey pony could relate with. Her own understanding of her night pony magic seemed almost faulty and as she was quickly finding out, the repeated failure to ease the sleeping minds was making her feel useless. On top of that, she knew deep down that she wasn't going to be able to protect anypony being this small. She was small, and useless.
"So what was that all about earlier?" asked the crystal pony as they walked. "You looked like you were having a nightmare."
Shooting Kate a guilty look, she frowned. "I can't do my job as a night pony and it's starting to get to me," Jinxi morosely answered, stopping short of the nurse's station. They were just out of earshot of Nurse Emma, who was leaned up against the Nurse's station as she watched all the ponies in the day room. "I can't cure nightmares, and if I tried to protect anypony through physical means, I'd just get myself hurt... then I can't protect anypony, and protection's really important in my new instincts."
To her credit, even though she quite literally looked down at her, the taller pony didn't seem to be looking down on her. Instead, she regarded her with a thoughtful smile. "If it's hard to ignore that instinct, it sounds like you need to redefine what protection means to you," she said after a moment's consideration. "You can protect somepony in other ways. Give them peace of mind... Give them a reason to smile. Protect them by helping them."
"I... I can try..." Jinxi murmured, following after the mare as she continued toward the day room. "I envy you, though. You don't have the instincts demanding you be a certain way... You're free to define what being a pony means to you."
When they reached the day room, Kate moved off to join Doctor Weintraub, while Jinxi took up a position near Jacen and his quickly growing circle of ponies. It struck her as funny. Despite his smaller stature, a lot of the ponies isolated to the hospital ward seemed to look toward him for guidance. He'd never been much of a leader prior to transformation, but his calm, rational demeanour seemed to put the others at ease. Advocating for them also seemed to earn their trust.
"Alright, that's everypony here," Jacen announced, looking from the tired night pony to suited woman standing beside Dr. Downey. "What's all this about?"
The woman looked down on Jacen, her lips drawn tight. Glancing at a clipboard held close to her chest, she asked, "Mr. Jacen Cadlow, aged twenty-five, correct? You and that one—" She gestured to the night pony sibling. "—are listed as the primary case for the region." When he nodded, she shook her head. "I'll be speaking to the two of you more tomorrow, but for now, my name is Grace Rowlins. I am here on behalf of the premiere's office to inform you of your immediate futures."
Everypony listened patiently as the woman explained what she meant. Now that ETS was over and most ponies' transformations had completed or otherwise reached as far as they would go, the provincial government was consolidating all of the province's fully and partially transformed into one place. As it turned out, until the Canadian Government could better understand ponies, their magic, and whether they could reintegrate with human society, they wanted to limit the 'potential damage' ponies could cause, as well as potential danger posed to ponies by angry humans. The plan was to grant the ponies a tract of land where they could build a settlement under the oversight of the government.
Until that land could be procured, ponies were going to be housed at a community centre on the other side of the harbour. They would continue to be permitted supervised outdoor excursions at this new location, and the earth ponies were even being granted garden plots in order to explore their affinity for plants. One of the other earth ponies in the group snarkily commented that they were really just hoping the earth ponies would be able to grow their own food and save them the money.
"So what, ya're gonna treat us like the Indians, an' stick us on some sort o' dinky little reserve?" the unicorn, Carruthers, commented. "Gonna seize our property too?"
Several of the ponies in the group turned to stare at him. Of all of them, only Tara, Kate, and Jinxi looked like they particularly agreed with him—maybe not the politically incorrect phrasing, but the sentiment, at least. The rest of them were glaring at him, as though the concept of returning to their old lives or keeping their old human belongings was an absurd idea.
"We're being given a space to live away from humans," Chloe argued, her wings spread in an aggressive manner. "We'll be safer in our own little community." To Jinxi's surprise, her other half stood right by the mare's side, nodding.
"I gots a family ta feed," Jordan growled. "I'm going back to work to provide for ma boys. Ya heard the American president; ETS is done and over with, so what the White Mare showed most of us ain't coming ta pass. Better to integrate and show we ain't a burden!"
Jacen stepped forward. "We're not saying we isolate ourselves forever." He was speaking in a soft voice. "I imagine we'll eventually be contributing a fair amount of produce, but if we can provide for ourselves for even just a few years, we can ease the strain on the supply chain that the flu and the ETS aftermath is causing."
While everyone else in the room started breaking into a heated debate, the tired night pony took to the air and began to languidly hover in front of Ms. Rowlins. "What I'd like to know is what happens to those of us who don't want to be put in seclusion. I'm an American citizen too, and I've got a pair of idiot stallions I need to check up on near ground zero. They haven't answered their phones or emails in days. Is the government going to hinder my movements?"
Grace fixed the tiny guardian with a flat look. "Ponies will be given an opportunity to opt out of this relocation, but may face some challenges. Those who remain in the cities won't be afforded any special privileges, and although you're all still citizens, any matters of discrimination may be slow to be addressed." Glancing from the night pony to her other half, the woman looked fairly surprised. "You and your 'brother' are a special case for matters that will be addressed in our meeting tomorrow, but there will be no active hindrance to the movement of ponies."





Some time after the question and answer period with Ms. Rowlins, Jinxi and Jacen returned to their room. The winged sibling was still somewhat lethargic as she belly-flopped onto the bed, even though it was now closer to five. Part of her really wanted to get back to sleep, but there was a lingering fear that she might just slip back into another nightmare. Until she could find some way to reconcile her inability to do something as simple as help a filly's recurring nightmares with the fact that she still needed to do something to 'protect' ponies, she wasn't gonna get a good day's sleep for a while.
There was also the matter of what she'd been woken up in the middle of. Although it had been pushed aside by the meeting with Ms. Rowlins, she hadn't forgotten that there had been somepony in her dreams. Not just one, but two! One claimed to be an Equestrian princess, but the other was some other night pony. They were definitely real, but they hadn't been anywhere near her. That meant that she didn't need to be around a pony to help with their dreams, right?
The question is... how?
"Penny for your thoughts, Jinxi?" Jacen interrupted as he hopped up onto the bed and settled onto his pillow. "You've been really agitated lately, and although you say it's night pony stuff, it's clearly getting to you." It might've been comforting had it not been for the fact that he was completely monotone. "What's on your mind?"
A frown creased her muzzle as she considered what to say. "Where do I even start?" she muttered. "It's all one big mess, Jace."
Ever the opposite of her, he smiled. "The beginning is probably the best place to start."
Regarding him with a tilt of her head, Jinxi considered it. "Well, let's start with night ponies..." 
Slowly, she started to go over everything she knew about being a night pony. There was a lot of emphasis placed on protecting others, and the helplessness she felt in her inability to do so. Despite his monotone, he seemed genuinely shocked by just how much it was bugging her. That was to say nothing of the fact that people with firearms were a thing, even if they were nowhere near as prevalent as back home.
Then, she explained how night ponies were tasked with watching over the dreams of ponies. The fact that she couldn't even do anything for Alexa made her feel worthless... She was getting the credit for some successful dreamwalker helping the poor filly. Worse, it made her feel defective. She couldn't enter anypony's dreams, and she couldn't even protect her own.
When it was all over, Jacen regarded his sister with a thoughtful expression. "It sounds to me like you need to recontextualise what it means to protect," he said in a quiet voice. "You're putting too much emphasis on what the White Mare showed you to the point that you're trying to define yourself by it entirely. Rather than help the way your vision told you to, should you not find your own way to live up to those ideals? Do what feels right, rather than follow your instincts."
A sigh slowly escaped her lips, and she looked over to the table that held her deck of cards. "That's kinda what Nurse Kate was saying earlier," she replied. Something prickled at the back of her mind as she stared at the Tarot deck. "Maybe you're right."
Although hooves were still plenty unwieldy, Jinxi had been practising manipulating objects with hers. It was getting easier to grab an object in her fetlock, and she'd even managed to tear open a bag of potato chips once. Sure, it made a mess, but it was progress! "I got so caught up in it that I never even considered..." Jinxi quickly forgot that she was in the midst of a conversation, and reached out to the table. She had zero issues grabbing the deck box and freeing the cards. Shuffling them was a bit more of a challenge, but she managed with her wing thumbs. Fanning the cards out on the bed in front of her, she focused on what she wanted to ask. What is the source of Alexa's nightmares?
Rather than grabbing the cards with her hooves, she used the longest finger of her left wing to drag three specific cards into a side-by-side line. One by one she flipped them over, taking note of each card and their meanings. While she did so, she rubbed her chin in thought. Hmm...
"You're not seriously entertaining the thought that you can use those... those pieces of paper can somehow help ponies, are you?" her brother tried to interrupt. There was just the slightest bit of disbelief slipping past his monotone. "They're just cardstock. There's nothing magical about them."
She ignored him, instead focusing on the three cards before her. If Alexa is the upright Page of Cups, the dreamer full of innocence... Her eyes drifted from the first to the next. Then the inverted XVIII - The Moon is representing her fear and anxiety. The last card in the array was the Eight of Swords.
"She's afraid because she feels trapped," she whispered aloud. "Is it the isolation? Or does she feel trapped here?" Shutting her eyes, she tried to picture what could make a child feel that way while she slept. "Maybe it's not even the meaning of the card itself, but the symbolism... Eight... Swords..." 
The number eight appeared in her mind's eye, surrounded by swords—four to either side. It was not a steady image, and it almost looked like the swords were wavering. Wait... It couldn't be something that simple, could it? Could she be afraid of spiders? As she focused on the mental image, a strange feeling washed over her. 
When Jinxi looks down at herself, she finds that she is lying on the bed in the other room, snuggled up underneath the protective wing of Chloe. Wait, When did I open my eyes? Its rather odd—not because of the intimate contact, but because Chloe seems even bigger than normal. How could she have gotten there and become so small?
Unless I'm seeing something from Alexa's point of view, she thinks to herself, trying to sit up. Quickly, however, she finds that she is bound to the bed. In fact, it's like there are thousands of tiny somethings crawling across her coat. That's a lot of spiderlings.
Up above her, on the ceiling, is a massive spider. It fixes her with a baleful eight-eyed stare, hungrily flexing its pedipalps as it watches. Every so often, one of its many scimitar-like legs twitches. Yet that's all it does—it just sits there, watching.
Her eyes jerked open, startling Jacen. He'd gotten a lot closer since she'd closed her eyes, so she had no idea how long she'd actually been like that. Ignoring the disgruntled noise he made as he fell onto his back, she spread her wings and took to the air. Before anypony could even complain, she'd darted out into the hall, and over to the day room.
The small earth pony was seated on the floor, staring up at the television. Evidently, the Last Unicorn was back in rotation on some movie channel, and the foal was entirely entranced by it. Chloe was seated nearby on a cushion, reading a romance novel, turning the pages with her largest primaries. Rather than approach the foal, she landed quietly on the floor, nearby and slowly approached the mother instead.
"Oh, hey there, Jinxi," Chloe greeted as the night pony drew close. "I'd have thought you'd have gone back to sleep. Must be hard suddenly being stuck on a night-shift worker's sleep cycle."
Her tufted ears twitched slightly, and Jinxi glanced away from the larger mare. "It certainly makes getting woken up during the day a lot worse for me, but that's not important right now," she commented, looking back to her. "I was wondering if we could talk about Alexa for a moment."
Immediately, Chloe set down the book. Every muscle on her body appeared to tense, as if she was ready to spring into action. "It's nothing bad!" Jinxi quickly added. "Rather, I'm trying to get to the bottom of her nightmares... They keep happening, so I figured something in the real world might be causing them. Has she said anything to you about them?"
With a nod, Chloe said, "She told me once that there was a monster spider in our room, so I imagine that might be her nightmare." Finally, the mare glanced over at her daughter. "She's been terrified of them ever since her bastard of a father took her to a spider exhibit at the Museum of Natural History."
That confirms it, then, the night pony thought. She followed Chloe's gaze to the tiny green earth pony. That must've been her nightmare I'd experienced... but how did I do that? She's clearly awake now, so it's not like it could've been a live feed.
"I have a..." She didn't want to say that she'd had a vision of some sort telling her what the filly's nightmares were about, so she'd have to lie a bit. "I have a hunch as to what the problem is," she explained, tilting her head back toward the hall that led to their rooms. "Do you mind if I poke around in your room?"
"Why?" she asked, rising to her hooves. "What do you hope to find?"
"Presumably, the monster spider in your room."
As the pair walked back to the older mare's room, Jinxi felt... She didn't exactly know how to describe what she felt. Anticipation? Satisfaction? Elation? The negativity that had been wearing her down over the last week was finally starting to ebb away. It finally seemed like she was actually doing something to protect somepony. Kate and Jacen were right... I just needed to find my own way of protecting them.
As they stepped in, the night pony started going for all the typical dark spots in the room. Behind and under the furniture were the first places she looked, using her superior night-sight to take in everything obscured by shadows. Nothing was present on the ground level, but as she looked up towards the ceiling, she thought she could see the makings of cobwebs. I don't think they've really had anypony come through to clean since the quarantine, so that makes sense.
Gesturing to the spots she saw the cobwebs, Jinxi commented, "Even if we don't consciously notice things, our brain is always taking notes. I've been told that things in our environments can subconsciously affect our dreams." When Chloe saw the cobwebs, the mare gave a disgusted little shiver of her own. "Where there are cobwebs, there are spiders..."
Her eyes flicked over to the tall cabinet in the room. The space above it seemed to have more than a few strands of the webbing, and it looked like there were even a few colourful pony hairs caught up there. Taking off again, she flew up to where the biggest concentration was. Sure enough, nestled in where the wall met the ceiling was a decent sized northern yellow sac spider. She looked around quickly for any more of the little critters, but it seemed to be the only one in the room.
As she stared at it, an odd thought crossed her mind. Bats often feed on bugs, and though ponies can't seem to eat meat... She shook her head in disgust. To even think about eating another living being, even something non-sapient, was something that never sat well with her when she was a human. Although it might have been possible that she could eat the thing, it didn't mean she should.
Instead, she reached out with her hoof and out loud said, "Squish!" The pegasus mare let out a small gasp as the night pony slowly descended back to the floor. "Might want to get somepony in to take care of the cobwebs, but if you tell her the spider's been eliminated, she might rest easier."
Jinxi was rather surprised when Chloe immediately rushed over, an excited look on her face. "Oh my goodness! You've got one!" the mare exclaimed loudly, pointing to Jinxi's hindquarters with her wing. "You got one of those cutie marks like the equestrian ponies!"
All at once, it seemed like the entire herd of ponies living in the hospital wing had crowded into the hallway, trying to peer in through the doorway, even as Jinxi looked at it herself. Sure enough, there on her flank was a white card bearing a black stylistic eye—a tarot card, she imagined. The card itself looked to be getting cut by a pair of scissors. "What does it mean?" Chloe couldn't help but ask aloud. "And why would you get a mark like that for squashing a spider?"
Before Jinxi even thought about an answer, she saw her brother half slip through the crowd. He was smiling, although by the way he was shaking his head, she imagined Jacen could scarcely believe what he was seeing. "She used her tarot cards to find out why Alexa kept having the nightmares... she used it to bring an end to her fears," he answered. "I imagine the scissors and the card represent solving misfortune." As he casually joined his sister and his friend, he let out a laugh. "I don't buy that the cards actually have any power, Jinxi... but clearly you do."