Planes. Ponies tended to hate traveling by plane. It was a combination of factors that caused this. Most tribes didn’t like confined spaces. Earth ponies and unicorns didn’t like the idea of being high in the air. Most didn’t realize it, but even night ponies got nervous about being this high up. Night ponies were low-altitude fliers; they never tried to fly at such heights–but the confined spaces didn’t bother them as much. Pegasi were different; they hated having a machine fly for them–stupid bird brain pride. Crystal ponies, you could never tell how they'd react to anything. Pony instinct, while present, was weaker in them. Maybe because they weren't part of Sunset Shimmer's plans, so they didn't get exaggerated instincts. So, out of all the pony tribes, the one most likely to be okay with flying in a plane was a crystal pony, and that wasn’t even a given.
Charlotte preferred not to think about how high she was. While she had no problem flying with her wings, most people didn’t know she got even more nervous than was typical for her tribe when at high altitude. Only her siblings and parents knew she had an extreme fear of heights. Her siblings shared her fear for much the same reason she did–gripping a mountain-sized tree for dear life so they didn’t plummet to their doom when they were young had left a lasting impact. Their mother did nothing to help them with their fear; it was theirs to face and overcome. That they knew their fear and understood it was good enough for Phobia Remedy. It was good enough for Charlotte that her mother minded her own business.
She shook her head, keeping her eyes averted from the window and thoughts of how far below the ground was. It was time to focus on upcoming missions. That meant considering her foes’ strengths and weaknesses. Anyone could be taken down with a good enough strategy. What was needed was to understand them. No one was invincible, no matter how formidable, but it was important to remember that it worked both ways. She had her skills learned from years of training, but she didn’t have any special powers to use as aces. She didn’t have her sister’s control over bugs, her brother’s brute strength, or her aunt’s virtual immunity to direct assaults, and even her physically weak and cowardly mother could cripple an opponent with fear if she was backed into a corner and left with no other way to defend herself. No, she only had her wits, strategy, and combat prowess.
The Dreamwardens’ elite bodyguards were definitely on the government’s radar, especially the group that were currently in Mexico. She reviewed each member in her head.
Tempest was the leader of that group and the one Charlotte had the most experience fighting. Tempest was a skilled strategist, martial arts master, and expert markswoman. It had been assumed that she would lose much of her fighting skills when she humanized, and, for a time, she did. Still, she gained new skills at a frightening pace and, with time, had been able to adapt much of her old fighting toolkit to her new form, making her as much a force to be reckoned with as she had been as a pony. However, humans did not age as gracefully as ponies, and that meant that age was slowing the top bodyguard down from where she had been at her peak. There was also another wildcard factor to consider with Tempest. By all readings, Tempest still possessed a significant amount of magic yet had never demonstrated any ability tied to magic. Magic never did nothing; it needed to be used. That meant Tempest held some ability in secret, and that unknown was worth being cautious about. The thing to exploit was the fact she was aging and slowing down, which meant speed was vital in fighting her.
Blanche was the second-in-command of the group. She was more than twenty years Tempest’s junior and would inevitably be the leader of the elite when Tempest finally retired. While both were extremely serious, the younger woman served a much more unpredictable Dreamwarden–making it harder to determine what kind of orders she may be carrying out in service to her employer. In terms of combat, Blanche was not as good as Tempest when it came to martial arts, although she was still skilled, and was a novice at best with a gun, but she had other skills. The younger woman was a match to Tempest as a strategist, and, unlike Tempest, Blanche made ample use of her magical skills. The Flemish woman could create any simple object out of nothingness, and that meant she always had access to a weapon at hand or a tool to help her. She was unlikely to make a gun, but blades and spears of varying sizes were always a threat, and while her constructs couldn’t last more than a few minutes once they left her hands, that was more than long enough to be hurled at someone or arm a compatriot. Blanche was no sniper, but she was a good knife and javelin thrower, and thanks to her powers, she always had something to throw. It was also believed she was capable of creating traps with her magic, but those took time to plan and set up. However, this reliance on magic was a weakness since it meant she was more vulnerable to crystal ponies. Without her magic, she was at more of a disadvantage than Tempest was–still a worthy adversary, but her threat level greatly diminished. When confronting Blanche, it was necessary to have at least two or three crystal ponies available and guarded since Blanche would undoubtedly do everything she could to knock those ponies out of a fight early and quickly, knowing her vulnerabilities. She’d be more challenging to take down than Tempest without a crystal pony assisting.
Tempest and Blanche were the top tier of the fighting force, and the others were less of a threat. Josie was a powerful magic user, the strongest of the night ponies, but that magic didn’t give her much of a combat advantage once she was engaged in combat. Josie had a host of skills related to the dream realm that were pointless in a fight. The ability to walk on walls and ceilings gave her mobility and freedom in some environments, but it was a nuisance at best. Josie’s real combat strength was her shadowmelding, which was only good for ambush attacks. The critical strategy against her was not to get caught in the inevitable ambush and then keep the pressure on her so she couldn’t go into hiding and try another guerrilla strike. Josie was most useful as a scout, for hit-and-run tactics or to take down a single target stealthily, not a melee fighter in a brawl. Josie didn’t have the skills to fight someone who was fighting back.
Crystal had more physical strength and combat skills than most crystal ponies, but she was only average in her ability to absorb magic and had the same inherent weaknesses an earth pony had during a fight with any foe at a range, with slightly less physical strength. She was an expert driver and mechanic who knew a little about electronic and machine repair, but those weren’t skills that factored into combat; they only added to her utility when not fighting. That was Crystal’s role, utility and support. Still, she needed to be neutralized early in a fight because a crystal pony sapping magic was always worth removing first. While she was not anywhere near Tempest or Blanche’s fighting level, she still presented a legitimate threat, even while not sapping magic. She had a harder time staying in extended fights, not because she was out of shape, as the mares that guarded the house often accused, but because of injuries she sustained during the Cataclysm of Riverview that took their toll on her when she pushed herself for too long. Although it was never a good idea to leave her free to sap magic over an extended period, so this weakness should never be a factor in fighting her, at least not under ideal circumstances. It was best to hit her early before she knew what was happening and take her out then.
Arturo was a decent hand-to-hand fighter and respectable with a gun or blade, but none of those skills were exceptional. His strength was his ability to scout, track, and be aware of his surroundings. There was no hiding from him, making it more challenging to ambush the group if he was with it. That made ambushing and removing Crystal from the fight before the fight began that much harder. If Crystal was not neutralized early, that let Crystal support Tempest and Blanche, and having your magic sucked out while fighting those two was a losing proposition and made it impossible to keep pressure on Josie, allowing Josie to fight on her terms. Arturo’s presence, even if he was not much of a fighter, made all the primary strategies against the other members nearly impossible to pull off. She could try neutralizing him before he could raise the alarm, but she herself couldn’t do that since his primary strength was removing the element of surprise. His weakness was he tracked magical beings, so this would require her to have someone without magic take him down quickly while keeping those with magic far enough back that he couldn’t detect them. This was possible, but it made the window to take Crystal down before she or one of the others realized Arturo was down much harder since that meant more distance to cross to take Crystal down. A large enough human force could take both down in quick succession, but the more humans there were, the more chance Crystal, Josie, or even the pegasus would hear or smell them and raise the alarm themselves.
There was a final unknown in terms of combat. Zipper was a random pegasus from the Oasis. Nothing from her briefing indicated he had any combat expertise or magic that could be easily improvised into a weapon. He was clearly a civilian and, as such, should not be hurt unless he took hostile action. However, he could fly faster than she could keep up, and he could make a nuisance of himself if he got away.
Any individual of the group Charlotte could take down easily, at least with a plan, but as a group, it was necessary to have a skilled, specialized strike force to stand a chance against them. It seemed she would need at least a few humans without magic who could quickly neutralize both Crystal and Arturo close to the same time, and they’d need at least two crystal ponies to neutralize Blanche. With such a large group required to take them on, Josie might choose not to fight and simply retreat. If that happened, they’d need even more crystal ponies to watch prisoners because Josie would make a nuisance of herself trying to free them, and crystal ponies would be required to detect her coming. Having too big a strike force made it harder to keep it stealthy, and crystal ponies weren’t the best fighters. If the numbers were high enough that she could simply overwhelm them, they’d see that coming from miles away and retreat–with Blanche leaving plenty of unpleasant surprises to stumble into. They already had to commit far too many spots to magicless humans and crystal ponies as it stood, which put much more pressure on her when fighting, and she wanted at least two unicorns and a pegasus to back up the crystal ponies against Josie and preferably two unicorns to back her up against Tempest and Blanche. This needed a lot more planning. Thankfully, she had time.
Challenging Tempest and Crystal in the field was going to be emotionally trying. They were mentors to her; more than that, they were family, like aunts. However, it was they who had decided to engage in this vigilante behavior, and Charlotte was here to make sure vigilantes went down. The police weren’t equipped to deal with beings such as these, and the FBI had to deal with more common interstate criminals. That meant it fell on Homeland Security to deal with these powered vigilantes. After all, sometimes they did need an army to take down one of these guys. Everyone remembered what happened when the mighty El Capitan crossed the border, tracking cartel members. The fool earth pony practically leveled five blocks of El Paso. The police and FBI had been helpless against his might since he was only a few hairs weaker than Wild Growth had been at her height. The bargain-bin knockoff of Wild Growth was still more than almost anyone could handle. His reasons for being there may have been noble, but he’d done more damage and hurt more people than if he had just stayed home and let the cartel members get away. The army took charge against these guys now. There wouldn’t be another El Paso.
Still, Tempest and the others were all in Mexico at the moment, which meant they were out of bounds. The generals said they had gathered enough evidence of vigilante activity that was not related to taking down mind magic or dream abusers, so they were to be taken in, but that would have to wait until they returned to the US. Just as well, she needed to figure out what team to bring with her. She wasn’t taking on more than one of them alone, no matter how skilled she was.
In the meantime, a vigilante needed to be taken down in Chicago. The dumbass human had extra strength because he was rehumanized from being an earth pony, and he thought that justified him being a superhero. The idiot didn’t get the memo that there were tens of millions of ponies in the US alone that were as strong or stronger than him. Hell, even Jessie was likely close to his strength. Being super strong didn’t count for much anymore. Fain was supposedly on the loose in Chicago as well, and the pair had several confrontations with each other in public, leading to many civilian injuries and a fair amount of property damage. Charlotte didn’t object to someone trying to rough up Fain; the woman was a sadistic bitch who enjoyed hurting people, but she wasn’t going to be taken down by some dumbass like this guy. It would only lead to others getting injured. The fights between the two had been too much for the local police to deal with, so she’d been called in. The one good thing this vigilante was doing was he was keeping Fain preoccupied with him in their dumb hero-villain rivalry instead of having her take off out of town. After what Fain had done to her grandmother, she was eager to break that woman’s nose. It was time to see how Fain did against someone who knew what they were doing. The vigilante was lucky he wasn’t anything special. Fain got more dangerous the more magic her opponent had–deadly to alicorns but helpless against a human with no magic whatsoever. If he really were exceptional, Fain would have killed him with a touch. Charlotte made a note to herself to find proper gear to keep Fain’s hands off her. She wasn’t anywhere near powerful enough for Fain to be deadly, but those hands could still cause agonizing pain.
The pain didn’t matter; bringing down these people was too important. As a foal, she’d watched the damage one overpowered individual could do. What her aunt had done was necessary and heroic, but the image of the devastation afterward had stayed with Charlotte. She and her siblings lived in the shadows of people who could reshape the world. Her twin took that and decided she needed to be greater, but not her. She understood she stood in the shadow of figurative gods, and if anyone knew any stories about gods, they knew that millions could suffer at a god’s whims. Gods needed to obey the law. The law was a social contract that kept tragedies from happening. When a large part of the population had magic, there was no stopping it unless everyone followed that contract. Those that didn’t keep that contract needed to be taken down for the safety of all. That was who she was; she was a soldier standing tall against the madness.
”Attention, passengers, we’re currently encountering a malfunction in one of our engines. Do not be concerned, this will not cause a plane crash, but we may experience turbulence. We will be making a layover stop at the closest airport for repairs. Thank you for your patience and understanding, and please keep calm if there is any shaking. Thank you for flying American Airlines.”
Great, like flying this high didn’t already give her the jitters. At least she could face her fears with a calm face. Hopefully, none of the other passengers would freak out about this.
She turned her eyes to the seats a short distance from her. There was a woman and another night pony sitting next to one another. The woman was clearly agitated by the news, gripping the armrest so tightly that it might break, a lot of strength. Charlotte had noticed her when first getting on the plane. Something had felt off about her. That feeling was confirmed when the people in the seats in front and behind the woman had come in. They were good, but Charlotte was better, and she knew that those four were watching the pair between them, primarily the woman. The other night pony was watching the woman closely from the corner of her eyes, and those behind and in front seemed to have tensed a little as if preparing.
Was this a terrorist attempt? No, there was something seriously wrong with that woman. She didn’t smell right, and those others were clearly on guard about her. A prisoner being transported incognito? That was a possibility.
The woman didn’t look that dangerous, but looks could be deceiving. Smells tended to all blend together in the background, especially in a cramped place like a plane, but there was something definitely wrong with that woman’s scent. It smelled almost like the spiders her sister kept. It set off all kinds of alarm bells, and her agitated nature hinted that she might try to pull something.
They were going to be landing soon. She’d keep her eyes on the woman and the entourage.
Jessica parked her car in front of the foster home. Her dad was already here, waiting in his car.
She got out at the same time as him. “I hope you weren’t waiting too long. I know I'm running late,” she greeted her dad.
He shook his head. “Not long at all. I figured I’d be waiting longer. After your trip, I assumed you slept in.”
She blushed. “Just a little, but I didn’t stay up that late. Ready to do this?”
He lifted his laptop. “Ready. I’ll be taking some notes today on Mark’s progress, as well as Caleb’s and Wishing Well’s. They started school this past week, and I need to make sure everything is okay. I’ll talk to Jack and Jill today about them and talk to the boys later this week.”
School? Crap! She was supposed to have that document with the Dreamwarden contract on Dean Francis’s desk tomorrow! She had been dealing with Dreamwardens non-stop the last few days and had somehow forgotten it.
“Something wrong?” her dad asked. “You’re making a face, and your ears flattened.”
She forced her ears to be less flat. “I just remembered something I forgot to do. It will be okay. I’ll make time to take care of it later today.”
Learning how to do her hair, makeup, and clothes couldn’t take that long. She was a super-genius, and people with slightly higher IQs than hamsters could figure it out. Amicus was only teaching her the basics, anyway. It would be a breeze for her. She would finish with Mark, go pick up Jordan and the sisters from Wabash, shop around for a little bit, go back to Wabash, do the beauty tips thing, and then she could take a nap and get that contract. It was still an easy day.
“Good to hear you have everything under control. Let’s head in,” her dad said.
Jack opened the door and greeted them before they could knock. “Morning! Been seeing a lot of you these last week or two, Paul.”
Her dad nodded. “I should be visiting less from now on. I’ll visit later this week to talk with the boys, but I’m hoping Mark has settled in enough that he doesn’t need me checking on him constantly. We should be falling back to our twice-a-month routine after this.”
Jack looked at her. “Mark stayed up far too late last night. We are letting him sleep in a little, but we were planning on waking him soon anyway. You can eat breakfast with him.”
.
“He was up very late? Why?” Jessica asked.
Jack sighed. “The dog next door frightened him by being loud. I guess he isn’t used to dogs howling.”
“I hadn’t thought of that. He did live in an apartment complex that didn’t have any single-family homes near it. There weren’t many opportunities for him to hear dogs barking at night where he lived. It’s surprising how much everything things can be alien to someone who has spent their life in isolation,” her dad said thoughtfully.
“Yeah,” Jack agreed as he stepped aside. “Come on in. Jill is trying to get Mark up as we speak.”
She listened.
“Come on, Mark. You can’t stay in bed all day.”
There was no response from Mark. He was awake. She could tell by the sounds of his breathing. There was a particular breathing pattern to someone sleeping. He still wasn’t moving.
“Jess, something wrong?” her dad asked. He had already stepped inside, and she was still standing on the porch.
She shook her head. “Give me a second.” She focused her powers to project her voice.
“Mark, I’m here.”
Jill did a gasp, and the covers started to rustle. That meant Mark must now be getting up. She’d need to apologize to Jill for startling her with a disembodied voice.
“Alright, I did what I needed to do,” she said as she entered the house.
The living room was the same as last time. The blocks in the corner were scattered differently, but it would be strange if they weren’t scattered differently. The low table had a box of Fruit Loops set out, along with a bowl and some bananas.
Jill walked into the room. “You’re here. I didn’t know what to think when I heard your voice. Unfortunately, Mark is still under his covers and refusing to come out. I told you, kids can be moody. You’re welcome to try to get him to come out.”
Jessica blinked. “He didn’t come out when he heard me?”
Jill shook her head. “Oh, you got a stir from him, but he immediately tightened up the covers. Please don’t make the mistake of believing he won’t get moody with you as well. Kids lash out at everyone; you aren’t immune, but you might have an easier time getting him to cooperate since he seems attached to you.”
“But why would he act that way towards me?” she asked in confusion.
“People aren’t logical, kids even less so,” her dad said. “People can lash out at those they care about most, even without anything to provoke it. If he is being moody, there is a reason or a combination of things that add up, but it can be difficult to figure out what these things all are, especially with a young child who struggles with communication, even for the standards of someone his age.”
Jill nodded. “Some of these things we can guess at–being in a new place, surrounded by new people, new experiences, not knowing if he’ll see his grandmother again. That’s a lot of stress for anyone, especially a four-year-old. Then, there was the fact that the dog scared him and kept him awake much of the night. Wrap that all together, and it can make anyone unhappy. Forgive him if he is a little harder to deal with today. Don’t get your feelings hurt.”
Great. Well, this was stuff she needed to get used to if she wanted to adopt him. It was time to see how he was doing and see if she could do something to make it better.