Partial

by Halira

Chapter 7: Sibling Squabbles

Jessica awoke and looked at her phone–an hour till noon. She'd barely get to spend any time with her brother, niece, nephew, and sister-in-law before they went to bed. The little ones were probably already tucked in. At least she'd get more time in the evening with them; that was a positive.

She had a few messages; only one of the messages was from a job, and it was from Bev, who expected slow replies, so there was no rush to answer. The rest she decided to worry about after coffee and breakfast–well, lunch now. Half of the messages were from people in the house, so if there was anything urgent, she could hear it from them directly. It was unlikely to be anything critical; otherwise, they wouldn't have let her sleep in. Today was Friday…what was she supposed to be doing on Friday?

She sat up in a rush. Apartments! She had a meeting with someone about an apartment in less than two hours! If all went well, she could be signing the lease shortly after. If she didn't do it today, it wouldn't be until next week at the earliest that she could finalize anything. She needed to get ready.

First thing after getting up, she went to her computer and checked the simulations. She was on vacation, but she'd been doing this as a habit for years, like breathing. There were no days off. Vacation was dedicating less time to it, not abandoning it. The Devourers didn't take days off, and neither did she. The Devourers did slow down and pause for repairs. What she was doing now was more or less that. She was slowing down to repair her mental and emotional state so she could function at peak efficiency.

The downside of this was that simulations kept running without her constantly checking, and without her checking, they tended to pile up. She paused the simulations and then sorted probability matches from greatest to lowest.

Her eyes widened when she saw multiple probability matches in the double digits. There were a 17.6%, a 13.48%, a 14.92%, and even a 25.07%. That had two of the highest probabilities she had seen since she started doing these simulations. That wasn't even counting twenty-three others on today's list that she counted that were not at 10% but were still higher than 5%. She felt lucky when she got one simulation a day that reached the 5% mark; she never got results like this.

You're supposed to be on vacation. You are supposed to be getting ready to go get your apartment. The world won't end by this evening. This can wait. She scolded herself.

Exercising phenomenal self-control, she saved the data to look at later and kept the simulations paused; then, after realizing she hadn't, she backed up the data to a separate drive. If she didn't, today would be the day something happened to her computer, and she would lose all that data. Fearing Murphy's Law striking today might seem paranoid, but she would not tempt it.

With that taken care of, she got dressed, brushed her hair, quickly stopped by the bathroom, and finally headed downstairs.

"Morning," she greeted as she entered the living room.

Robby and Nightscape were on the floor in front of the television, pounding on a pair of arcade joysticks as their fighters on the screen pulled off complex combos.

"Morning," Robby greeted without taking his eyes off the game. He then jumped up and started prancing in place. "Yes!! I got you! Take that!"

Nightscape glared at her husband as he did his victory dance. "You only won because you kept playing those cheap-ass horn blasts, and my guy moved like molasses and was too big to dodge."

Robby smirked. "You're the one who decided to play as the yak."

"He looked cooler," Nightscape said with a pout.

Jessica frowned. "You two are going to break Dusk's controllers if you keep abusing them like that. Be a little more gentle."

Robby bumped the controller with his hoof. "Don't worry. These things are built to take a beating. That's part of why they cost so much. Did you know that when you were little, they used to make you buy a whole separate game system?"

"The controllers are the system, and you need to not break them. Mom and Dad paid a lot to get Dusk those things," Jessica scolded. "They'll pitch an even bigger fit than him if you damage them."

Nightscape snorted. "We aren't going to break them. The only thing I will break is my husband's pride when I decimate him in the next match."

Robby hunched back down and tapped a button on the control. "Oh, it is on! Prepare to watch me teabag you again!"

"Don't promise me a good time," Nightscape cackled.

Jessica rolled her eyes and proceeded to the kitchen.

Umber was still awake and following Jessica's mother around the kitchen like a lost puppy. Her mother walked from the table to the sink; Umber followed, eyes glued to her. Her mother walked from the sink to the refrigerator, and Umber followed again, still gazing up at her.

"Jessie, coffee just finished brewing for you. I know you have a busy day ahead of you. Sorry, but I'm going to be heading out as well in a few minutes. I need to pick your little brother up from school. There's a bus driver strike. I expect there's going to be a car line a mile long at the middle school, and I want to get there early."

Jessica pointed at Umber as she headed to the sink to grab her favorite mug. "I see you picked up an admirer."

Her mom looked at the tiny foal. "Yeah, he's been doing that. You did the same thing around his age. You were timid around strangers and didn't like to leave my side. The only difference is that you were a lot more vocal about your need to stay with me and demanding what you wanted. We never had to wonder what was on your mind–you told us, loud and clear."

"Well, by his age, my vocabulary was larger than his older sister's, and he can't even talk yet. I can't help that I figured speaking out faster than other kids. I don't understand why it takes every other kid so long to figure out basic language," Jessica said as she poured her coffee.

Her mother smirked. "You figured out cursing in your first few words. You were very proud of yourself."

Jessica blushed. "I was told what I said was fudge, which is not vulgar."

"You said fudding since you couldn't get the sounds quite right. However, you still say fudge, and you do it as a substitute for an F-bomb, just like you did back then when copying us doing that. If you're substituting for the word, you might as well be saying the word," her mother said with a smirk.

Jessica giggled. "Well, fudge, Mom, you got me there."

"Don't say that in front of Umber! Robby and Nightscape won't leave me alone with their foals anymore if that ends up being Umber's first word!"

"As you wish. Oh, by the way, Jordan ended up being the one duped into taking Auntie's mansion."

Her mom paused and raised an eyebrow. "Saying she was duped is not a kind thing to say about your best friend, and I still fail to see how getting a mansion and a method of affording it is a bad thing. I know you know things the rest of us don't, but unless she has a flesh-eating monster in the basement that no one knows about, it seems like a good deal to me."

Jessica took a sip of her coffee. "There might be a monster in the basement for all we know. Auntie has a habit of going over the top with security measures. Remember how she managed to lock down the Bastion so well that even Princess Twilight couldn't penetrate its defenses, but Auntie also managed to lock herself out in the process because she had no failsafe to get in?"

Her mom hastily made a shushing motion. "You know not to talk about that! Your father still breaks down crying at the mention of that. You survived your adventure during the Cataclysm, if just barely; we don't need anyone speaking about things that remind him of who didn't– even if he isn't here right now. It's something we can't get comfortable doing."

Jessica swirled the coffee in her mug, staring at it rather than looking at her mom. "That reminds me; I've had an uptick in anxiety attacks again the last few days. Last night it got horrible."

Her mom hurried over to her, almost tripping over Umber in the process–who let off an annoyed yap that resembled the union of a squeak, a whinny, and a chirp. Her Mom paused briefly to make sure she hadn't stepped on him but continued over to Jessica after seeing Umber hiss at her in displeasure, which indicated the only thing hurt was his feelings–although her mom ignoring his display of defensive aggression might lead to him soon adding out a thunderous cry to complete his vocal orchestra.

"Do we need to contact the psychiatrist?" her mom asked. "I know you don't like going, but there's nothing wrong with getting a little help. This is a stressful time for you–starting a new career, moving into your own place for the first time, deciding to see that awful movie, not to mention the fact you spend hours on end looking at those simulation results and adjusting simulations. It might be worth it to see the doctor."

"I'm actually on vacation from the Dreamwardens' task," she replied, although she very much wanted to take a closer look at today's results. "I'll be fine. Jordan will be in town tomorrow, and having her around should help lighten the stress." She paused before continuing. "By the way, I know I told you not to tell me, but how bad is the movie?"

"It's got some emotional moments, especially near the end, and the second act gets rather frightening–though the part where you use a trash can lid to skateboard across falling debris seems far-fetched and breaks up the tension a bit."

Jessica raised an eyebrow. "I what?"

"They took some liberties, sweetie. Did you really expect they wouldn't do some over-the-top action sequence? They also played up your friendship with Wild Growth more. The entire movie practically celebrates the earth pony tribe since it shows the strongest earth pony and the smartest. Earth ponies couldn't stop fawning over it."

Jessica rolled her eyes. "At least if it steers far enough into fiction, I can make it through without issue."

Her mom looked like she wanted to reply, but Umber had enough of being ignored.

"WHAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Before Jessica or her mother could attempt to calm the crying foal, Robby ran into the kitchen.

"What's wrong, buddy? You okay?" Robby asked as he nuzzled his son and wrapped a wing around him. Umber promptly stopped bawling but continued to sniffle.

"He was upset at getting ignored while we were talking," Jessica explained.

Robby rubbed his son's back. "Someone might be overtired. It's almost noon." He looked up at their mom. "Are you sure you'll be fine bringing him and Eve with you when you pick up Dusk? I know Eve will sleep through the entire ride, but Umber can be a little finicky about sleep. He still has that infant sleep cycle where he's asleep for an hour or two and then wakes up crying without knowing what he's crying about."

"It will be fine. I dealt with you, Jessie, and Dusk; I can deal with my precious little grandbabies for a few hours at a time," their mom assured him.

He looked skeptical. "Dusk is a human kid; I was human when I was that young, and Jessie…Jessie was just weird."

Jessica stuck out her tongue and held up a middle finger at her older brother; he stuck his tongue out at her in turn.

"Look at my two mature, adult offspring," their mom said long-sufferingly.

Jessie set her mug down. "He started it."

Robby chuckled. "We're only this way with each other. It's all good. It wouldn't be right if we weren't ribbing each other. It's been our thing since Jessie started talking in full sentences."

"Not quite that early; there was about a year of peace. Jessie had to advance from sentences to paragraphs. The obscene gestures started around when you hit your preteen years," their mom corrected. "Umber and Eve won't be a problem. I'm sure they aren't that different from human kids, and I only have to deal with them for a few hours. That's the benefit of being a grandma; I don't have to deal with them for extended periods. I get them in short stints where I can adore them, then give them back to you to be your problem."

"That is so cliche," Jessica remarked.

"Would you prefer I didn't love my grandbabies?" their mom cooed as she bent down and looked at Umber. "It may be cliche, but I love being a grandma. I miss having small children around. You two are all grown up. Dusk is entering puberty. I miss this."

Umber let off another chirp cry as he buried his face in his father's fur.

"You miss foals crying?" Jessica asked. "That's just weird. You know, Mark doesn't cry. He's a quiet kid."

Robby looked up at her in confusion. "Who's Mark? You didn't have some secret love child, and didn't tell your brother?"

She couldn't help it; she briefly sneered at him before catching herself. "You know better than to even joke about that."

He looked away. "I'm sorry. I don't know why I said that. I know–"

She shook her head and her hand. "It's fine. Let's forget it happened. Mark's a young partial kid that Dad has been working with. That's who I've been helping out with at the hospital. Dad didn't mention him to you?"

Robby shook his head. "I was curious about why you were at the hospital, but I assumed it was something routine if neither Mom nor Dad was making much of a deal about it, and talking about work just doesn't flow naturally for me since I'm primarily a stay-at-home dad and I don't discuss dream work. Nightscape might have heard about it, but she said nothing to me. So…partial kid? That's rare. How young are we talking about?"

"Four," Jessica answered. "He's a possible orphan. No one else has gotten him to talk except for me, but he really hasn't said much at all. He gives me one-word responses to questions, but he speaks clearly when he does speak."

"So he responds to a human with pony parts?" Robby asked.

She sighed. "Go ahead and say partial. Don't bother dancing around it, but thank you for trying to avoid it."

"You sure?" Robby asked. "I know how you view yourself."

She nodded. "Yeah, it's fine…for this conversation. Anyway, he seems to respond to being around another partial. I might keep visiting him, at least until he gets comfortable with other people."

"It's good you're doing something to give back to the community and help someone out, even if just one person," her mom congratulated. "Maybe you should let the media get wind of it. It could be perfect for your public image."

"Mom! I'm not looking for publicity!" Jessica objected. "I can't believe you'd want me to do something like that."

"I'm always going to be concerned about the success of my children," their mom replied, unfazed at being reprimanded ."Yes, you should do it because it is the good and right to do, but the media hearing about this might get people to remember you for something other than what you did when you were six."

"I'm in the science textbooks of every student in the sixth grade and up. I have plenty of good publicity," Jessica reminded her mom.

Her mother gave her a flat look. "Sweetie, I say this in the most gentle way possible; most of us don't know the first thing about advanced physics. We do understand an outsider who ended up becoming successful helping out an outsider who is at the bottom of society. Everyone likes those stories."

"I'm not informing the media, and I'll be very unhappy with anyone who does," Jessica said firmly.

"I don't think it would have as much of a positive impact as you think, to tell the truth," Robby said. Umber started whimpering again, which made Robby pause to snuggle his son. "Hush, hush. Daddy's here and holding you." He then looked back up. "The larger majority of humans think partials are diseased or something. They aren't going to care about a partial taking care of a partial. They'd probably sneer at it or try to turn it around somehow into an excuse for more restrictions on partials–I don't know how, but I know they'll think of something."

Their mother crossed her arms. "That's just a loud minority."

"A loud minority that can rouse up a mob and have politicians at their mercy," Robby replied.

"Yeah, common sense at work," Jessica muttered. They both knew her saying about common sense. It was one thing she was quoted by others about most often–often without giving her credit.

"Why must you be so cynical?" her mother lamented.

"Because it's logical to be cynical. In an uncontrolled system, it is always a higher probability that an outcome results in a move toward disorder. For instance, yes, there is technically a chance a room full of monkeys could produce a masterpiece of literature, but it is far more likely that each monkey will pound out gibberish and make a mess, and those chances remain that high for each pounding of their fists on the typewriter. If anything orderly appears, it is quickly overtaken by the disorder. This applies to science, psychology, sociology, economics, and everything. That's why Murphy's Law is a scientific principle, not just something people say. It is an extension of entropy."

Umber started to wail, and Robby devoted his full attention to his son.

"There, there, buddy. We'll get your mama to feed you, and then you should sleep for a while after that."

Jessica gestured. "See? Murphy's Law in action–crying toddler."

"An overtired one," Robby said. "After Nighty nurses him, he'll drift off. I don't get stressed about this after going through it with Eve. This is just normal behavior for a toddler. Dealing with it can, at times, cause exhaustion, but it only stresses me so much as I let it. I'm happy knowing they won't have to go through the crazy stuff we went through as foals. They'll have nice, peaceful, mundane lives–hopefully completely obscure. We have enough famous people connected to the family." He knelt, and Umber climbed onto his back, gripping Robby's neck tightly with his legs.

Robby stood back up. "I'll be back in a few minutes. Time to halt Nightscape from her PVE to feed him, and I'm going to dig our sunglasses out. It's cloudy out today, but I'd still rather be safe avoiding the sun. Clouds are thinner out here."

"You're still going to come with me to the apartment?" Jessica asked. "It's kinda late for you."

"I'm not letting my little sis get cheated out of her first apartment. I'll be coming along," Robby confirmed.

She scowled. "I appreciate your company, but I'm capable of dealing with an apartment manager. I'm not a child."

"Have you ever had to deal with an apartment manager before?" Robby asked. "Look, we both know people will take every opportunity to discriminate against you, and people like you are not protected by civil rights legislation. Anyone in housing is more likely to discriminate due to them worrying about you upsetting other tenants. It isn't certain this apartment manager will, but it might be better to have your big brother standing by to put some pressure on. I can also drop Phobia's name if need be."

Her fists clenched as she tried to control her tail and ears. She didn't need Phobia Remedy's help to get through life. She'd done plenty without someone else propping her up.

Robby gave her a sympathetic smile. "You know, one of the advantages of being shorter than you is I notice your hands faster. I'd only bring up Phobia as a last resort. It isn't like she's never been helpful. She is the one that insisted you publish your work when you were a kid. If not for her, Middleton's Law would have a different name because someone else would have defined it first. It was inevitable someone would have done so. She helped you beat them to the punch."

She no longer bothered holding her tail and ears in check. She loved her big brother and knew he wanted the best for her, but that didn't mean he didn't seriously underestimate how she felt about things at times. He should have just dropped the subject.

"I'm going to go by myself," she announced as she walked by her brother.

"Jessie, I'm sorry. Don't be like that," her brother protested.

She was already out of the kitchen and into the living room. Nightscape sadly watched her as she grabbed her purse, no doubt having heard what had just happened. Ponies might not hear as well as she could, but they heard better than humans. At least Nightscape had the sense not to protest.

She was already out the front door when she heard Robby sigh in the kitchen. "Why does she have to be so prideful?"

"Don't say that; she can still hear you," her mother said.

"Well, she knows she is overly prideful. She's too smart not to be at least a little self-aware," Robby countered in a frustrated tone. "Jessie, if you're listening, I'm sorry for suggesting dropping Phobia's name to help you out. I think you're overreacting, but I won't do it if it bothers you that much. I could have had more tact as well. Can you please come back? We came here to spend time with you, not fight."

Her hand was on the handle of her car door, but she didn't open it. If she took off now, she'd look very childish. She probably had already made a fool out of herself, storming out the way she had. That's what people did when they got angry; they lost all intelligence and wisdom. That's why it was her auntie's favorite tactic against her foes. That was the nature of common sense, and even she was not immune to it. The question was whether she looked worse for continuing to leave or if she relented and returned inside.

She sighed and released the door handle, returning to make amends with her older brother.

---

"Why are you reading? Shouldn't you be packing?" Jackie asked from across the table. "You're leaving for the airport in just two hours."

Jordan lowered the book she'd been reading just enough to look over it at her sister. "It's a fully furnished mansion. Aside from some books and mementos, which are already packed, what do I need to bring with me?"

Jackie fluffed her wings. "I don't know. There's got to be something. You're going across ls the country." The pegasus mare lowered her head. "It isn't like the other side of the state. It's too far away."

Their father, sitting to her left, swallowed his oatmeal and smiled. "I think someone is just sad her little sister is moving away." He then broke down into a coughing fit.

Jordan set her book down and looked on worriedly as Jackie touched a wing to their father's side. Their mother was already reaching for his medication.

"You okay, Dad?" Jackie asked him.

He didn't answer, and they waited as their mother helped administer his medicine. When she was done, she led him away to the living room, presumably to lie down on the couch.

"You can't leave me here to take care of them alone," Jackie said in a low whisper.

Jordan lowered her head as if that would help keep her voice down as well. "Mom can take care of Dad just fine. You don't need to worry."

Her sister shook her head. "No, Mom needs to be taken care of too. Something isn't right with her. You just have been so caught up with graduating high school, your birthday, then starting college to see it. Have you seen all that junk mail lying in the corner of the living room? She refuses to throw it away! She even yells at me if I try, and she keeps getting all this extra useless junk from flea markets that she is never going to use. On top of all that, she's started muttering to herself."

"Lots of people mutter to themselves," Jordan countered. "And so what if she buys some extra stuff because it looks cool or whatever?"

Jackie shook her head again. "She never muttered to herself before, and she does it for hours at a time sometimes! Plus, how do you explain the junk mail she doesn't want to throw away? Like, I can go out there right now and see offers for floof implants, timeshares in the Caribbean, offers to join the Birds Aren't Real Society, and letters from questionable African princes. You know that stuff is all garbage that should go straight into the trash. Fluffball has even used some of the pile as a litter box; it's disgusting!"

Jordan blinked. "The cat has been using it as a litter box? Has his box not been changed?"

"It has, but he isn't going to object to the convenient one left out in the living room," Jackie said with disgust.

Jordan's ears sagged. "Okay, maybe something is up, but it sounds like she needs professional help. I'm not qualified to deal with that kind of stuff, and neither are you. Maybe we should talk to Phobia about it. She's a psychologist."

"Her specialty is fear; this is something else entirely," Jackie replied. "I think this is some sort of early onset dementia. Maybe something got screwed up in her head all those years ago when she was temporarily human, and it's just now starting to get bad. Then there's Dad. You saw it just now. His lungs are getting worse from the damage they sustained during the Cataclysm. She can't keep taking care of him if she needs to be taken care of herself. You leaving dumps this all on me."

Jordan scowled. "You were fine when I left to go to Winthrop."

"You were just two hours away. If something came up, you could be here the same day. Denver isn't somewhere you can get here from in the same day if there's an emergency," Jackie countered.

Jordan shook her head. "What am I supposed to do in an emergency? I don't understand diseases of the mind or medical stuff. If Dad needs to go to the hospital, he can get there without me. If Mom needs mental help, Phobia can at least recommend someone. I love them, but we're not qualified to handle this. Talk to Phobia."

Jackie fluffed her wings. "You talk to her. You're closer to her than me. Maybe she likes you more because you're her half-sister, and I'm just her stepsister. Maybe that makes a difference, but you have an easier time getting an in-person audience with her."

Jordan flicked her tail. "Don't talk like that. We're all sisters. We don't need to attach those extra parts like step or half. I've never looked at you or her and thought of you as just half-sisters. You're my sister; she's my sister. It would be best if you viewed it the same way. If you ask for an audience with Phobia, she'll immediately see you. You're her sister."

Jackie gave her a long look. "Jordan, you don't see how much more favored you are over me. You spent way more time at her house. You also got personal magic lessons from Sunset Blessing, and the old mare just gave you her mansion without even considering me. I'm not mad you get to be the favorite. After all, you're my favorite sister, and I like seeing you get ahead, but I don't get all the support you do."

"I spent most of my time at Phobia's house doing self-defense training," Jordan countered. "You got out of most of that because you started doing flight team, which took you away from most of the time training with the rest of us. I never got out of it for clubs or anything, but they gave you that privilege."

"Only because Tempest didn't have any pegasi to teach me how to fly to the best of my ability, and night ponies and pegasi don't fly or fight in the air the same way. She couldn't give me proper training. Flight team gave me the training she couldn't provide, that's why they let me do that instead of train with the rest of you, not because they were doing me a favor," Jackie explained. "She might not have had any unicorns around either, but she used to be a unicorn herself, so she still understood enough to train you."

"Well, that just shows they took extra consideration with you," Jordan affirmed. "As for Auntie teaching me magic–besides Dad and her one son, I'm the only unicorn in the family. She doesn't teach Dad anything because he doesn't want to know. She'd teach others if there were any. It isn't because I'm special. She also offered the mansion to others before offering it to me. I think I did get a heads-up for being a unicorn, but that didn't put me at the top of the list even then. She even offered it to Jessie before me."

"You aren't related to Sunset Blessing; neither of us is. We aren't in her family," Jackie replied.

Jordan held up a hoof. "Only by traditional American standards. In Equestria and some other cultures, where they have a much more complex and broad understanding of family, they have familial terms for relations like what Auntie us in relation to us. A lot of it doesn't translate right, so we hear it as cousin or uncle or aunt, but they describe familial positions we don't have designations for."

"You are such a nerd," Jackie muttered.

"You're such a jock," Jordan said in turn.

Jackie's ears sagged. "In high school, but not so much anymore. Now I'm just kind of here, with nothing that makes me special or stand out, and I need help with all this stuff."

"What's that about my filly not feeling special?"

They both turned to see their mother coming back into the kitchen.

"Um, how much of that did you hear?" Jackie sheepishly asked.

Their mother retook her seat. "Just that you weren't feeling special and needed help with something. What do you need help with? Is this to do with your stallionfriend?"

Jordan felt a wave of relief, and she was sure her sister did too. They still needed to divert the conversation.

"Jackie is upset that Auntie skipped over her to give me the mansion. She feels like she wasn't special enough and that I'm getting handouts where she isn't," Jordan said quickly.

It wasn't a lie, and it kept the conversation from discussing their mother's possibly deteriorating reasoning. Whatever was going on with their mother, it was in the early stages. If they brought it up incorrectly, they might offend her and lose any possible cooperation from her. No one wanted to be told they had a mental problem. It was best to let their mom figure out she had a problem and then assist her with getting help.

Their mom started muttering something under her breath, which continued for an uncomfortably long time. Jackie met Jordan's eyes. Yeah, their mom didn't use to do this. Jordan felt ashamed she hadn't been paying attention to these signs. She'd heard her mom mutter on and off over the last year or so, but it wasn't until now that she noted how detached her mom seemed while doing it, like she forgot she was talking to them.

"Yeah, Jordan's getting mansions handed to her, and Sunset Blessing doesn't leave me so much as an ugly animal statue or a gift card. I mean, what the fuck?" Jackie said, rolling with the excuse.

Their mom stopped muttering and let out a growl. "That mare, turning my little fillies on against one another! She couldn't accept that you two always get along and are like two peas in a pod. She had to do something to screw it up. That gift is nothing but poison. Jordan, you really should tell her thanks but no thanks."

"I'm not giving it up. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Jordan stressed.

"I don't want her to give it up either. I think most of my frustration is how much I will miss having her close by. Maybe if she could delay going there, it would be easier for me," Jackie said in a hurry, trying to quell any thoughts they were at each other's throats.

Jordan shook her head. "Amicus said I had to reside there as part of the receiving conditions. I'm not just getting the house; I'm the guardian of its secrets. I can't guard them very well if I'm not there."

Jackie flicked her tail. "Security at that place is already insane. It's Sunset Blessing who put it in place. She probably has a hundred death traps put in place. If she could keep Twilight Sparkle out of her last set of vaults, Indiana Jones himself couldn't get in her current vaults."

"Always assume you're up against someone smarter and stronger than you," Jordan quoted. "It says so in Auntie's book."

Her mom gave the book she was reading a look of disgust. "Why are you reading that? I don't like the idea of you embracing her ways of thinking."

Jordan lit her horn and opened the book again. "I figured I might as well read it. She's giving me a mansion. It might be nice to understand how she thinks. It doesn't mean I'll agree with her about stuff."

Jackie eyed the book. "Isn't that one of her religious works?"

Jordan nodded. "Yeah, but for being famous for being a very religious preacher, she spends a lot of time being critical of Christianity. Like right here, she says, what is the difference between someone calling themselves a devout Evangelical Christian and someone calling themselves a devout Satanist?– Both serve the same master, but one is being honest with you about it. I also don't understand a lot of her complaints. Some I understand, like complaining about missionaries not doing anything to help anyone but preach and hand out Bibles, but she also spends a full chapter complaining about how public prayer is a sure sign someone is going to Hell. I know I only go to church on Easter and Christmas Eve, and maybe once or twice more a year, but I thought I understood church stuff better than this. Maybe Dad can explain it to me."

"Sweetie, you have to understand, she hates who she was as a human and hates who she was as a Shimmerist, so she spends a lot of time condemning anything associated with that. It's her way of confessing her shame," their mom explained, then her face hardened. "One thing that hasn't changed is she's always up to something. I don't buy for one minute this talk about how she has to go to Equestria to protect her family. The mare understands transformation magic better than anyone. She could easily go into hiding with all her kids in human forms, and no one would be the wiser. I think this is all some elaborate hoax that she's going to Equestria. She's going off the grid and sending body doubles to Equestria."

That felt dangerously close to wild conspiracy theories–the type that could indicate a mental imbalance. Jackie was right; something was wrong. Still, Jordan knew she was correct too, and they weren't qualified to deal with this. She'd contact her eldest sister as soon as she could. Phobia would know what to do.

---

Paul walked to the nurse's desk again with a netted sack full of toys slung over his shoulder. Rachael looked up at him and smiled as he approached.

"My! It looks like someone is playing Santa today!" Rachael said with a grin.

He set the bag down and smiled back. "My daughter was here late yesterday. She went to bed without telling me how it went, but I hope she managed to make more progress with Mark, and if she did, he might be a little more up to socializing today."

Rachael's smile slipped. "She's making progress. She managed to bathe him and trim his mane. He even snuggled up to her. Unfortunately, that hasn't translated to him reacting any better to anyone else."

Paul blinked. "I expected she made progress since she was out so late; I didn't expect she made that much. He snuggled up to her?"

"Yeah, she seems to have a magic touch with him that no one else has yet to replicate." Rachael looked at the camera. "He's at the window again, but I guarantee he'll duck under the bed as soon as you walk in. He has for everyone else today. We've tried replicating your daughter's methods, but it isn't working for us. We're unsure what she did in the bathroom to get him to let her pick him up. We don't have a feed from the bathroom, and she didn't tell us."

"All we can do is keep trying, right?" Paul asked. "If I keep coming by and am non-threatening each time, he might warm up to me."

"I hope so. I just know he likes her and doesn't seem to like anyone else. I wish you luck. He's a cute foal, and we all feel awful for him."

Paul nodded. "We'll help him. I expect my office will be sending paperwork in to take custody of him early next week–unless there's some health problem that we need to be aware of."

She shook her head. "No, his bloodwork came back, and while he was malnourished when he got here, he's been eating well since arriving. We haven't found anything else troubling about his health. However, it can be hard to say for certain with partials since their basic biology and anatomy vary so much from individual to individual, so he requires ongoing study. That's not even getting into what happens if he starts developing magic."

"Can't envy the kid for that. My daughter had to have a crystal pony constantly with her for over a year due to her powers, and she still had to have regular visits for a long time after that. I could tell she hated feeling like a subject to be studied and having a constant babysitter, even if she never complained much about it–she hated her powers going berserk even more. At least this kid can get a proper rehumanization or ponification in Equestria once he gets old enough to make a choice."

"Yeah, he'll make such a cute unicorn colt when he gets older," Rachael agreed. "It's sad they are still basically exiling people to Equestria for that. When I was younger, I had a partial cousin that went to Equestria to finish becoming a pony. He thought he could come back, and legally, he technically could, but the government put up so many obstacles and red tape to it that he functionally can't. I heard he's got a family over there now. My uncle gets letters from him every once and a while."

"Well, I'm sure he'll be happy, no matter what choice he makes," Paul said as he hefted the dack again and headed towards the room. "Hopefully, he'll like these toys. I want to see him happy now, not just years in the future."

Author's Note:

Sorry for delay, been caught up playing Tears of the Kingdom, but now that I've beaten the game, and don't have the will to chase down my 700 missing koroks, I'll be less distracted.

Comments

[Gargon94]

What order did you do the four main Stage quests in? (Rito, Zora, Goron, Gerudo)

[Halira]

11610328
I did Rito, Goron, Gerudo, then Zora, mainly because I have a strong dislike of water temples and wanted to put it off till last. (If I had known about the fifth sage earlier I would have even done that before going to Zora.)

[Gargon94]

11610331
Aw, cool.

[AvoidingFever17]

Oh Jessica
You dont need to worry about the Devourers
They will come when they come
Stories will end when they are ready to end (usually)