Pandemic: Starting Over

by Halira

Chapter 13: Get Away

Lántiān landed in the grass near me, and I walked over to meet her. "Thank you for being punctual. Did you enjoy your flight?"

She finished a quick stretch of her wings before doing a quick flap of them before returning them back to her side's. "Yes, ma'am. Where are my brothers and my daughter?"

I gestured with my head towards the house. "They're inside. Trixie is watching them, and Starlight just joined them."

Her brow narrowed. "The clownmare and the traitor?"

"My friends, and you need to try to be a little more respectful towards them," I stressed. It seemed giving her time away hadn't cooled her off that much.

She gave an agitated flap of her wings and a flick of her tail. "Yes, ma'am. I won't call the clownmare or the traitor what they are to their faces- or would it be more respectful for me to only address them directly that way instead of describing them that way in private?"

I slapped a hoof to my face. Of all the disrespectful… "You will not use those terms at all, or any other disparaging names." I poked her with my leg. ”You don't have to like them, but you will not be rude."

She glared at me. "Very well, ma'am."

Try to be nice. How hard can it be to be nice to her? "So… where did you fly to? Did you see anything you thought was interesting?"

"I don't know the names of any locations around here, and you forbade me from talking to anyone, ma'am. I didn't even land anywhere because I was unsure what was allowed in this country," she said in a short tone.

"You flew the entire time you were gone?" I asked in surprise.

"Yes, there weren't any strong winds to wear me out, ma'am. Did you think I'm a weak flyer?"

"Well, no. I just assumed since you were young that it might be harder to stay in the air that long," I explained.

That earned me a flat look. "How much do you even know about foals and teenagers, ma'am?"

I glanced downward. "Admitably, not much. My own daughter was full grown when ETS happened, and I never really foalsat for her. I showed up for my grandfoals' births, birthday parties, holidays, and an occasional just drop in, but I was never really involved with them."

She visibly groaned. "I was required as a prospective mother to learn everything there is to know about pony growth and development, ma'am. It would seem I know more than you. It's unfair that my siblings and I are in your care instead of them being all under mine."

I snorted. "Complain to your mother about it. I didn't ask to take care of you. Your mother and my wife forced this on me."

Lántiān stomped a hoof and turned away from me. "She shouldn't have even killed herself!" The sudden fervor in her voice out of nowhere took me off guard and I took a few steps back.

"So what if the authorities wanted knowledge?" she continued to growl and hiss. "Was that knowledge more important than all of us? Were we not important enough for her? She could have given it to them and stayed with us! She could have said we mattered more than whatever her duties were for once. Instead she was selfish and tossed us to some stranger."

The filly broke then into sobs and tears. "She could have cared."

I had never been the comforting type, and I didn't know what I was supposed to do here. She just went from annoyed at me to sobbing about her mother at a drop of a pin. How was I supposed to respond to that?

"She died so you could get away," I said as soothingly as I could manage. "I don't know much about your relationship, but I know she loved you enough to die to protect you."

She rounded on me. "She could have just told them what they wanted to know and everything would have been good! We would be together, back home, treated well, and safe!"

My eyebrows narrowed. "And the entire rest of the world would have suffered for your sake. Does that not matter to you? You selfish little filly!"

"The world outside of China," she growled.

I advanced on her quickly and slapped her across the face. "So, it's okay for me, my daughter, my grandfoals, and all the people living in this country and elsewhere to suffer and die so you can have your precious little life kept the same?! Your mother and I have never been fond of one another, but I can tell you one thing; your mother had an impossible choice to make, and she did the best she fucking could! Have some God-damned respect for the mare who not only gave you life, but gave her own to make sure you had one that wasn't stained with the blood of millions- if not billions of lives!"

She sneered at me. "And do me and my brothers not matter?"

I sneered right back. "If you didn't matter to her she could have just let them do whatever they wanted to you and told them it didn't matter. Don't you get it? You were her breaking point. If they had hurt you she would have cracked under the pressure. She'd have traded the world for you, and that's why she died making sure you'd be safe."

The filly sat there snorting and breathing heavily. I was half expecting her to pound me in the face again. After all, I had just struck her. She surprised me by forcing herself to attention and holding my gaze. "May I be excused to go attend to my brothers and daughter, ma'am?"

I waved a hoof dismissively. "Go on. I don't think there is any point in carrying on this conversation any further at the moment. You'd probably beat the crap out of me if we did, and there wouldn't be much I could do to stop you. I still expect you to compile that list I asked for, but we both need time to cool our tempers."

"Agreed, ma'am," she said through gritted teeth. She then turned and marched back into the condo, shoving Starlight aside as the unicorn stepped out onto the patio.

Starlight glanced back at the filly then walked out to meet me. "I'm guessing your talk with her didn't go that great."

"That's an understatement," I replied.

"Want to talk about it?"

"She's an ungrateful, disrespectful, selfish brat!" I declared, stomping a hoof with each word.

Starlight frowned. "I might not be a parent, but my experience with teens is they can be a little headstrong, and she's got a lot to be upset about."

"I understand she has reasons to be upset. She has every reason to be upset," I explained with outrage. "But she blames all the wrong people for what happened, and she doesn't seem to care about anyone but herself."

"I've done that in the past, and so have you," Starlight replied. "I'm not sure you've stopped doing that, if you want me to be honest with you."

I grimaced. "I'd rather you not."

She sighed. "Fine, but you are a parent. You dealt with Phobia as a teen. Surely she had her moments where she behaved similarly."

I shook my head. "Not really. Phobia was always very quiet, and kept mostly to herself. The only real major beef she and I had was she had a best friend I didn't agree with her having, but I have since learned I was wrong about that, and I ended up marrying that friend. Otherwise, she didn't give me much trouble as a teen."

"Marrying your daughter's best friend seems a little creepy," Starlight said slowly, and took a step back when I glared at her. "Not that I'm passing any sort of moral judgement. How about your experiences with your own parents? My mom died when I was really young, but I know I wanted nothing more than to get away from my overprotective dad and gave him a hard time."

"I don't know, maybe I could've been a pain sometimes when I was a teen. My parents and I haven't spoken in decades," I said quickly. "We had a falling out that had been building through my college years and blew up shortly after Phobia was born."

Her ears fell. "I'm sorry to hear that. I know I avoided my dad when I was finally away from home- and still do a little, but I know how much he loves me and I love him. I started talking to him again a few years ago. He's really not so bad, in limited doses. At least now that he sees me as a grown mare and not his little filly to protect. Are your parents still alive? Believe me, it hurts knowing you never got to say things to a parent who passed away. There's so much I'd like to say to my mom that I'll never get a chance to. Maybe they can even give you some advice, since Lántiān seems to share a similar temperament with you."

I gave her the stink eye, but she was unphased. "Oh please, you know you have a temper as well. She and you are very similar from what little I've seen. Or at least she's more like you than Phobia was. So I think asking your parents for advice might be a good idea… if they're alive."

I looked out towards the mountains in the west. "They're alive… I recently researched what became of them- which wasn't easy. They're a pair of earth ponies living in Pony Hope."

Starlight blinked. "Pony Hope, really? That isn't far from here at all. You haven't reached out to them yet?"

I shook my head. "There were some really hurtful things said last time we spoke. I didn't even know if they were alive still until recently. Also, my previous human identity isn't something most people know unless they really dig for it. So while they almost certainly have heard of Sunset Blessing, they probably don't know I'm their daughter."

Starlight came and sat down beside me. "I've got a spot in Pony Hope I'm authorized to teleport to at any point, provided I let them know to make sure it is clear. I could take you to Pony Hope and you could just call me when you're ready to come back. Trixie and I can watch the foals. You could use a few hours away from Lántiān."

"Do you realize just how much she detests both of you?" I asked. "I'm not sure leaving you two with her is a great idea."

Starlight rolled her eyes. "Trixie and I have faced far bigger challenges than an angry filly and a few younger colts. We can deal with them for a few hours without the house burning down, and you need the break from each other. I don't think you two getting ready to tussle in the grass is a sign that you're doing great with her."

"I'm not sure talking to my parents would exactly cool me off," I objected. "I told you, we stopped talking because we had a major falling out."

"And does whatever happened that many years ago still matter, even after everything your world has gone through since then?"

I looked down. "I don't know."

"What was the fight about?"

I snorted. "Politics."

She raised an eyebrow at me. "Politics? Seriously?"

"Politics in the US can get very heated," I said with a hint of shame. "I started off like my parents, what conservatives in the US call far-left. It wasn't really that far left to tell the truth, at least in the scheme of world politics, but it is in regards to the far-right, if that makes any sense to you."

She shook her head. "Not really, but I'm guessing that it changed."

I nodded. "In college my views shifted to the far-right and friction started between us. It got progressively worse, and after I married and had a baby we had one particularly nasty argument and I just cut them off.

"Were you or they in politics back then?" Starlight asked in confusion.

"No, but that doesn't mean much," I replied.

"Okay…" Starlight said as she shook her head in bewilderment. "I'm glad it's Twilight and not me who does most of the political stuff, because I don't get it. Regardless of that, all that stuff was at least twenty-five or more years ago, right? Even if everything hadn't changed with ETS that seems like a lot of time to get new perspectives. You aren't the same person you were back then, in more ways than one."

I exhaled slowly. "I am in some ways, but you're right that a lot has changed. I guess I'm just afraid of meeting them again after all this time. I mean, it's an old hurt."

We both jumped in fright as Lántiān came storming out of the house, throwing the door back so hard I wondered if it was going to come off its hinges. "Ma'am, that clow- that- that pony in there has filled my brothers' heads with Equestrian words! I demand you tell her to undo it!"

"Come again?" I asked while blinking.

She huffed. "That blue unicorn has used her spell to make my brothers able to understand and speak Equestrian. I know this was not something you requested, ma'am. I also don't like it!"

"Urgh! Trixie!" I groaned. "Now I'm going to have to learn yet another language so those two can't have a conversation I don't understand behind my back."

"She needs to just undo it, ma'am!" Lántiān raged.

Starlight shook her head. "Undoing something like that is a lot more complicated than doing it in the first place. It's better if we just do the same to you two so you can understand what they are saying."

The filly spat. "I am not learning their filthy tongue!"

I rubbed my head. "Did she at least use the spell to teach Hé Líng English like I asked?"

"She did that before I walked out here," Starlight replied.

I continued to rub my head for a moment then stopped and looked at Lántiān. "You'll be learning Equestrian, we both will. You don't have to actually speak it, but you need to know it in case your brothers try to use it to hide conversations from us."

The filly looked like I'd just slapped her again. "We can just forbid it be spoken, ma'am."

"Yeah, like that will work," I replied dryly. "We're just going to have to adapt to the situation. And to make it clear, any forbidding of anything is done by me, it is not a joint decision with you.. Starlight, can you kindly tell Trixie to not do things like that without asking my permission?"

"You can tell her that yourself, ya know," Starlight replied.

I shook my head. "Fine. Lántiān is right, what Trixie did was out of line, no matter if she was just trying to be nice. Lántiān, do your brothers know how to swim?

"They do, ma'am," the filly replied, seeming a little calmer now that I was agreeing with her about Trixie.

"Great, then Starlight and Trixie can take them to the pool and supervise them there. That should keep them from getting too bored," I asserted. "Make sure they are dry before they come back inside."

"What will you be doing?" Lántiān asked, sounding almost hurt that I would be leaving so quickly after finally taking her side on an issue, or perhaps just hurt that she wasn't given some supervising authority.

"I'm taking Starlight up on her offer," I answered. "As soon as I'm done explaining at length to Trixie that she is never to cast such an invasive spell on a minor without a parent or guardian's permission, and if she tries it again I'll make her the pathetic and bald Trixie, I'd like to go to Pony Hope."

Comments

[Lawra]

Personally I would like to know at some point what Lántiān ends up doing on her adventures and what ponies or humans she meets on her journeys.

[horses are fuckin weird]

I just realized the cover art uses the font from Sonic the Hedgehog lol.