Rebecca stretched as she stepped into the hotel room.
“So good to be back on solid ground,” she said. She spotted the bed. “Oooohh, big comfy bed! I want to bounce on it!”
Russell entered the room, set their bags down, and closed the door. “Babe, you say you are happy to be on solid ground, but now you want to bounce on the bed?”
She batted her eyelashes at him. “You could jump on it with me.”
He chuckled. “Later. I was going to order us some grub from room service.”
“Food does sound good, although, food almost always sounds good,” Rebecca said thoughtfully as she looked around. “I suppose bed bouncing can wait until after food. You know, Triss wants me to bring old SB back. My biggest regret about Sunset Blessing leaving is that I didn’t get to try a legitimate meaty cheeseburger while wearing her necklace. I mean, how did I let myself miss out on the opportunity to try new foods?”
“I’ll do my best to remind you about you wanting to do that if you manage to get her back,” Russell said with a chuckle and walked over to the bed. “I figure we can start touring the suburbs tomorrow morning. We already know you will insist on building us a house, but it will be built in suburbia instead of the main city, so we should try to find a nice neighborhood.”
She trotted over and started trying to climb on the bed. Russell bent down and lifted her up on it. They set that mattress really high up.
She turned and faced him. “Actually…we need to visit the headquarters of Enclave of the Crystal Night tomorrow morning.”
He tilted his head. “The what now?”
She spread her wings. “It wasn’t my idea. Phobia insisted on it. The Enclave of the Crystal Night is a joint crystal pony and night pony enclave here in Chicago. I don’t know how the crystal pony part of it will feel about it, but the night ponies have this thing about serving and protecting Dreamwardens, and now that I’m moving into the city–”
Russell held up a finger. “The suburbs outside Chicago.”
“Close enough,” she said with a shrug. “Since I’m here, they’ll want to know I’m here to serve and protect and whatnot. If I don't introduce myself, it will be considered very rude.”
He raised an eyebrow at her. “Aren’t you supposed to keep your identity a secret?”
“The others already contracted all the ponies in the enclave about it,” Rebecca explained. “Well, almost all. There were a few who abstained, but they also agreed not to meet me. I do kinda need these ponies on my side. I’m trying to recruit a particular human in the city. Call it a redemption case; we Dreamwardens like our redemption cases. I think we get that from Luna. However, to try to redeem her, I have to catch her first, and having this enclave on my side would help a lot with that.”
“Can’t you just find her and talk to her?” Russell asked..”I mean, you’re pretty mobile when you dance, or if she has magic, you could just talk to her in her dreams.”
Rebecca tapped her forehooves together. “I may have tried that already. Quick note: her sticking her hands into my projection hurts, like it really hurts, and leaves me with such a splitting headache. She isn’t painful in dreams, but she told us to butt out, and we have a policy of obeying dreamer wishes about that unless they’re breaking a rule. Talking to her will be much easier if she’s tied up and unable to get her grubby hands on me or my projection.”
The door suddenly burst open, and an extremely attractive white pegasus came running into the room.
“Sorry, younger me, sorry, younger Russell, I’ll only be here a minute!” the pegasus yelled as she started rummaging through the luggage.
Russell stared slack-jawed. “Uuuuhhh.”
Rebecca tilted her head. “Future me, did we lose weight?”
The other pegasus stopped and posed, “You noticed? Yes, I lost about twenty pounds! The secret was I took up swimming!”
“Uuuuhhh,” Russell continued, looking back and forth between them.
“Swimming, huh,” Rebecca said, considering it. “I’ll have to try that out.”
“What?” Russell managed to say, sounding completely confused.
Older Rebecca nodded and turned her attention back to the luggage. “Oh, you’ll love it, I should know.” She suddenly raised her hoof with an object balanced in it. “Triumph!”
Rebecca gasped. “MY TOOTHBRUSH!”
“Huh?” Russell asked.
Older Rebecca cackled. “Yes! My toothbrush! My quest is complete. So long, attractive younger me!”
Older Rebecca then suddenly vanished.
“What…just…happened?” Russell slowly asked.
“She took my toothbrush!” Rebecca yelled in fury. “I loved that toothbrush!”
Russell shook his head. “I’m so confused.”
Rebecca thought about how to handle this. “The only reasonable thing for me to do is to develop a way to travel back in time and get my toothbrush back again.”
Russell took a deep breath and then stood up. “Okay…I’m going to take a long shower and pretend none of that just happened. Babe, how long are you going to be plotting how to create a self-perpetuating time loop over a hygiene utensil?”
“Give me ten minutes to plot it out, although implementing it might take longer. I didn’t look that much older. Five to seven years, ten, tops, then I’ll reclaim my toothbrush,” she answered.
“So…in ten minutes, you’ll finish explaining why you need an enclave of night ponies and crystal ponies to kidnap someone for you, and I can order our food?”
“Yes,” she agreed.
“Should I order extra chocolate cake when I order room service?”
“Yes, please. You’re the best.”
He nodded. “Ten minutes it is then.” He then left to find the shower.
Hmmm, why’d she take her toothbrush? It was a nice toothbrush, but not irreplaceable. What could she do with the toothbrush? Brush her toothies, obviously. Maybe it wasn’t about her doing something with the toothbrush but what she didn’t do. Would not brushing her toothies cause some big chain of cause and effect? Or maybe it was because she had to go to the store to buy a new toothbrush, leading to a circumstantial meeting that changed the history of the world forever? Nudging herself seemed a far more likely scenario than she really just needed a toothbrush, and time traveled back in time to steal her own. Then again, it was a very nice toothbrush. Traveling back in time and creating a stable loop wasn’t that hard to do…well, it was hard if you didn’t have the tools and know-how to do so, but the tools and know-how existed, so it was possible. The knowhow was the easiest part; since she was a Dreamwarden, the tools…well…that got a bit more complicated. Choiced between going to the store to buy a toothbrush and going through all the things she’d have to do to time-travel to steal her own toothbrush; it was pretty clear one of those was a little more of an ordeal than the other. This was a nudge. What was she nudgingly nudging herself to do with that nudge?
Given that her future self did look older and had lost weight, she had plenty of time to figure it out. Giving nudges wasn’t anything new for her. Speaking of which, she needed to follow up with that airplane mechanic she had given the extra sticky and gooey honeybun to and had Russell talk to at length about fantasy sports drafts, just to make sure he didn’t get in trouble. She didn’t want to get him in trouble, and Russell would be upset with her if she had gotten him in trouble. It had been a fifty-fifty gamble that he’d end up doing what she wanted with her nudge, but that was the nature of nudges; there was no guarantee that the person would do or not do the thing just because you nudged them; you just altered the statistics a little more in your favor. Nudging was an art form that took plenty of creativity, and she was the nudgy grandmaster.
Jordan sighed and flipped her mane as she walked back into Wabash Manor.
“I love what that stylist did. I feel so sexy!” she said gleefully. “Look at these waves. I look like a celebrity.”
Andrea practically stomped on. “Do you have to be so vain, filly?”
“Don’t stomp on the floor, Andri, you’ll mess up your hooficure,” Amicus said as she stepped into the house. “And I know your hooves must feel much better after they trimmed off all that keratin. I was shocked at how much you had. That had to be uncomfortable.”
Andrea lifted a hoof and looked at the underside. “Well, you don’t see me parading it around, bragging about it.” She then lowered her hoof and rubbed it against the floor.
Jordan’s phone started ringing. She looked at who was calling. Charlotte? She wasn’t usually that social.
“Hi, Char, that you?” she answered.
“Yeah, it’s me. Are you away from Wabash at the moment?” Charlotte asked.
“Uh…no…I’ve actually just got back to Wabash. Do you need me to walk out to the street?” Jordan asked.
“No, it’s fine,” Charlotte said with a sigh. “It’s not like the government doesn’t already know about Bursa. I’m coming to Colorado, and I was wondering if Bursa and I could crash there for a few days while she does what she’s got to do.”
Andrea jumped and slammed all her hooves on the floor. “No! Definitely not! Bursa is on the list of never being allowed here! Sunset briefed me on her. We are not letting that thing in the house! That monster’s dangerous!”
“Uh…who’s Bursa?” Jordan asked in confusion, then gasped. “Did you get a marefriend?”
Andrea gaped at her. “I just said monster, and you ask if it is her marefriend?!”
Jordan shrugged. “She's traveling with Charlotte, and I’ve never figured out what Charlotte’s interests and tastes are. I’m starting to think she’s asexual like Jessie.”
“Bursa is not my marefriend; she’s a giant shape-shifting bug monster. I’m not into bug monsters,” Charlotte explained in an exasperated tone. “It’s fine. I’ll figure something else out.”
Jordan shook her head. “No! Wait! We can figure something out that involves her staying here. I want to help out.”
Andrea stomped again. “That monster is not allowed in the house!”
“We could let her camp out in the chapel,” Jordan quickly suggested. “The chapel is outside the house.”
Amicus frowned. “Not to put a damper on your enthusiasm to help our mutual niece-”
“Can you not bring up Jordan’s also my aunt?” Charlotte cut in. “She’s two months younger than me.”
“-but I’m not sure that is wise,” Amicus continued unabated. “Sunset never shared with me whatever information she told Andrea about this Bursa person, but she usually had good reason for decreeing certain people should have no access to the house. While we can’t stop you from giving her access to the chapel, I think you should at least get better informed about why this person isn’t allowed here before you make such a decision. I’m sure Andrea would happily give you a full briefing.”
Andrea groaned. “It’s a shape-shifting bug monster that might desire vengeance against Sunset because Sunset’s research played a part in its creation. The last time Sunset saw Bursa, the monster wanted to disembowel her and was only stopped because Wild Growth was there to stop it.”
“Well, Auntie Sunset isn’t here to take vengeance against, so it should be fine,” Jordan asserted.
“What part of shape-shifting bug monster do you think is fine?!” Andrea exclaimed in disbelief.
“Char, do you think she is dangerous?” Jordan asked.
“Of course she is,” Charlotte answered. “That’s why I wanted to bring her there instead of some random hotel. Wabash is much more secure. I’d have you and all those guards to help me if she tried doing something crazy. She’s behaving herself right now, but she’s known for getting crazy ideas and acting on them without thinking things through. Bringing her to Wabash is safer. It helps protect the public.”
“A monster deciding to go on a rampage is not our concern. Making sure the house, its residents, and the vaults are safe is our concern. Bringing a monster here is the opposite of that,” Andrea asserted.
Jordan considered for a few seconds. “Quick question…why do we have all this stuff locked up in the vaults?”
“Because it’s dangerous, obviously,” Andrea said disdainfully.
Jordan nodded. “Dangerous to who?”
“To the world,” Andrea answered. She then shook her head. “No! I see where you are going with this, and-”
“So…we are here to protect people,” Jordan concluded. “Which means letting Bursa come here helps with that mission.”
“I think she’s made her decision. You can either complain about it, or you can figure out how to make this work,” Amicus said.
“I can do both!” Andrea snapped. “What will you be doing to help make this work?”
“Giving moral support while barricading myself in my room,” Amicus answered.
Andrea shook a hoof at her. “Coward!”
“Yep, but very much alive and intending to stay that way,” Amicus said. She then turned and started walking away. “Now, I’m going to go find my husband and start boarding up my window. Please, try to keep the noise down if you and the bug monster get into combat.”