Pandemic: Starting Over

by Halira

Chapter 58: Full House

I was sitting in the living room once more, sipping my tea. All the adults were seated together on couches and the floor having breakfast, and having light conversation. All the kids, every one of them but Qīng Yǔ and her mother, were out doing laps, even Jess and the Young children. I was a bit confused about what had earned Jess sharing in the punishment, but Tempest only said that Jess had failed to keep herself adequately conditioned and was too valuable an asset to leave herself vulnerable. Jess had complained, but one glare from Tempest had her running. I was apparently not counted as a valuable asset, I guessed, because she didn't yell at me about my conditioning. I didn't want to run laps anyway, but it stung that I didn't qualify as important to Tempest.

Screw her and her funky mohawk anyway.

"So," Rosetta said as she set down her coffee mug. "Have you banned them from anything absurd yet?"

I narrowed my brow. "No, I haven't banned anything. I require them to speak English, but they can use Mandarin to communicate with the younger ones. I've considered banning Tom and Jerry cartoons, but haven't made up my mind on that."

Everyone stared at me like I was insane.

"Tom and Jerry? The cat and mouse? Why would you ban that?" John asked incredulously.

"It's senselessly violent, and Jerry is a psychotic jerk," I said with a snort.

My mom shook her head. "She always rooted for Tom to win, and it just never happened. I think she's holding a grudge."

"I'm not holding a grudge. Jerry is evil," I replied with calm commitment.

"She's holding a grudge," Dad said with a nod.

"Yep," Mom said with a nod of her own. "Always was a cat person. Couldn't stand that the cat didn't win. Always so opinionated, even when she was a kid."

Rosetta got an evil smile. "You wouldn't happen to have baby pictures and embarrassing stories about when miss preacher pony was a kid, would you?"

My ears flattened.

Mom gave my devilish daughter-in-law a happy smile. "Well, the photos are all in storage, but we have lots of stories. You know, Sunset was a bedwetter, one of the worst I've ever heard of."

Rosetta propped her hooves under her chin. "Do tell."

"Please don't," I whined.

Mom brushed my pleas off. "Oh, you grew out of it. Sunset wet the bed every night without fail up until she was twelve and often wet her pants at school. We tried everything. Making sure she went before bed, denying her anything to drink two hours before bed, taking her to a psychologist. Nothing ever helped. She got so hyper-focused on things she wouldn't get up and go to the bathroom."

I wanted to run and hide again.

Rosetta gave my mom a genuinely curious look. "So what brought it to an end?"

Mom shrugged. "As I said. She just grew out of it. She started doing it less frequently around thirteen or so, and by fourteen, she'd stopped. I always thought it was just some force of will on her part. She was so embarrassed she got better at recognizing when she needed to go and doing it."

Rosetta frowned. "I was hoping for a better answer than that."

"Something else more embarrassing?" I muttered.

Rosetta shook her head. "No… well, yes, but not really. Alfie wets the bed sometimes, and I wouldn't mind some tips for helping stop it. My three are a hoof full and a half to deal with, and each of them has their unique issues and challenges, and they are only getting more unique from one another as they get older. Two years ago, I would have said one set of problems for Alfie and another for the twins, but Charlotte and Tabby have been developing much more distinct personalities from each other lately, and with those come distinct problems. Alfie has his issues too. I'm not above accepting parenting tips."

"I recall my grandcolt being shy yet protective and the twins being primarily just competitive with one another," I said with a small frown. "I know I have missed a lot in the past year. A year doesn't seem like much, but it can mean a lot of changes for foals their age."

Rosetta sighed. "Those things you remember are still true. However, Charlotte now gets in trouble a lot for fighting with other foals, sometimes adults too, and I constantly have to stop her from hitting her siblings. She's got a lot of anger for a foal her age. I think it is because of how much attention she gets as Phobia's daughter and how often she has to hear things about Phobia. It can be stressful, even to a foal as young as her, and she lashes out at everyone."

"I understand trying to deal with a kid who is lashing out," Paul said wearily. "Jess is always trying to push her limits and can get angry when she's pushed back. I don't even know what age group I'm supposed to treat her as. In some ways, she's as mature as any adult; in other ways, she's a teen, and in others, she is still a young child. I never know which she is going to be at any given moment. I know it's not her fault, and she is dealing with unique circumstances, but that doesn't make it any less stressful for Devon and me."

"The girl does seem to fluctuate between being the most level-headed in the room and a complete temperamental brat," I observed dryly.

Rosetta smirked. "Are you describing Jess, or are you describing yourself?"

"Hey! Lay off my daughter! She doesn't deserve that abuse!" Mom fussed.

I waved it off. "It's okay, Mom. Rosetta gets a pass on any rudeness towards me, as does her sister, Wild Growth. I hurt their family by turning their mother into a magic-sucking monster. I understand how they feel. They know I regret it, but neither will ever forgive me. I should be grateful they can stand to be in the same room as me or allow me to see my grandfoals. If our positions were reversed, there might have been a murder already."

"If you hadn't shown any regret, there would have been," Rosetta spat. "Let's not dwell on that. It makes me want to make your face even uglier."

John looked uncomfortable. "This Wild Growth person… the one you keep saying will help us… she feels the same way about you?"

I nodded. "She probably hates me even more, but she's better at hiding it. Don't worry; she won't deny you help just because she despises me. Wild Growth is too much of a saint for that."

"My sister is hardly a saint," Rosetta said with a roll of her eyes. "But she'll treat you right."

I chuckled. "You should read about the lives of saints sometime. A number of them are very colorful. Anyway, you told us about Charlotte and a little about Alfonso; how is Tabitha doing?"

"Tabby has the least concerning issues," Rosetta answered. "She's at that stage she has discovered she's a filly and has gotten it in her head she wants to be pretty, like Phobia. So she has Phobia teach her about makeup, mane and tail styling, and all that stuff I generally suck at. However, Tabby has also gotten into a habit of adopting every creepy crawly thing as her pet. She has brought roaches into the house, which I've luckily gotten out before they could cause an infestation. She also catches spiders, centipedes, and scorpions for her collection of pets. How she catches the scorpions without being stung is a mystery to me. They sit on her wings and legs like they are perfectly content there, but if anyone else tries to touch them, they start trying to strike."

My ears flattened to their sides. "Spiders?"

Rosetta smirked at me again. "Don't worry, Miss Muffet. I know you're afraid of itty-bitty spiders, and I won't let her bring any spiders in here. Fun as it would be to see you squirm, you incinerating Tabby's little friends would traumatize her. I don't want you burning down the house either. It would ruin my vacation."

"Hello? Is there a megalomaniacal preacher at home? I'm going door to door selling death rays to raise money for college and heard there might be an interested buyer here."

I looked over at the door and saw Sapphire trotting in.

"Did you let yourself in?" I demanded to know.

"Of course not, Wild Growth said I could head on in,” Sapphire flapped her wings and flew the distance between us. “So what’s up with the penal colony for kids? Running around in circles with a woman who looks like a Mad Max reject watching over them doesn't sound like my idea of fun and games."

"Wild is here, now?" I asked.

Sapphire pointed a wing back towards the door. "Yeah, she's outside, trying to get a word in with the kids as they run. Mohawk out there won't let the kids stop, so it makes the conversation difficult."

I creased my brow. "And what are you doing here?"

"Wild told me she was in the area to check in on something going on here and decided it would be a nice time to drop in on my friends," Sapphire explained with a toothy grin. "And really, what did those kids do? Jessie looks like her lungs are about to give out, and she’s going to cuss Mohawk out. I know that look well; it's the look you give me every time you see me."

"How do you know that’s Jessie?” I asked.

Sapphire blinked. "I don’t normally go about saving fillies from mile-high trees. So when I do, I tend to take an interest longer than five minutes. I would like to see her stop being force-fed human growth hormones, though. You have to be; she looks like an amazon.”

A thundering of hooves and feet cut off any response, as all the kids came running into the living room… well, some running, some gasping for breath.

"The winner, and still champion, me!" Charlotte shouted as she bounced about excitedly.

"It wasn't a race!" Tabby yelled.

Charlotte turned and faced her sister, sticking out her tongue. "You're just sore that I finished my laps first!"

"Yeah, well, you’re just trying to make up for the fact that you'll always be the second born!" Tabby fired back.

It looked like a fresh fight was about to break out between the sisters, but Tempest quickly walked in and lifted both by the scruffs of their necks and brought them up in front of her face to glare at them.

"Were you two considering getting into another fight?" Tempest asked with a raised eyebrow. "I hope not, not after I already told you I wanted no more fighting between you two for the remainder of this trip. I can think of things other than laps to keep you occupied."

"No, we were just playing," Charlotte said quickly.

"Yeah, just joking around," Tabby said and gave a big grin.

As Tempest was putting them back down, Jess stumbled in and went straight to the first unoccupied couch she could find and belly-flopped on it. "I'm just going to lay here and… just lay here and… I don't know what. I'm done."

"Don't be too done," Silvia called out. "We need to do your daily control exercises in a few minutes."

"Sure… just let me get feeling in my legs again first," Jess replied and rolled over, so she was no longer facing anyone. “I’m human; I don’t have earth pony stamina.”

Speaking of earth pony stamina. Líng and Sinker entered side by side, looking like they were ready to run another hundred laps. Shǔguāng and Mèng followed behind, looking completely pooped. Sinker ran over to our parents and began excitedly telling them how well he did. Robby and the Young children were next in. The humans looked tired, but happy, and they picked up their step when they saw their parents and started telling them how much fun they had. I guess with how little they got out, running in circles was a big deal for them. Robby looked perfectly fine and went to check on his sister, and was quickly joined by their father.

Bringing up the rear was Wild Growth. She wasn't wearing her typical business clothes and looked as tired as the kids. She did a quick glance around, then started walking over to the other adults and me.

"Forgive me, I haven't been sleeping well this week," Wild said with a yawn as she reached us.

"You need to take better care of yourself. You always try to do too much," Rosetta said in a firm, but slightly worried tone. "How's the pain doing?"

Wild shrugged. "Right now, it is fine; the last few times I've woken up or needed to go to bed, it has been pretty bad. Not much to do about it other than take some painkillers and try to push through it."

Rosetta's ears fell. "The doctors haven't come up with anything better?"

"They tried having a team of crystal ponies try to drain some magic off me, to relieve some pressure, but all it managed to do was leave the crystal ponies bright and glowing with migraines," Wild replied.

"How many crystal ponies were in the team?" Silvia asked in a small voice.

"Twenty-five," Wild casually answered with a shrug, like a team of twenty-five crystal ponies draining her was nothing. A team that size trying to drain any other pony would probably kill them within seconds. I'd be dead within a millisecond.

Both Silvia and Malcomb shuddered, and for some reason, Trixie did too. I knew some Equestrians got a little nervous about the idea of crystal ponies draining magic; perhaps that was the reason.

Wild finally turned her attention to the humans. "John and Lauren Young?"

"That's us, and my son Mike and daughter Alice," John replied.

Wild nodded. "I'm Wild Growth, but you can call me Wild—or if pony names feel weird for you, Cathy or Catherine, although I rarely ever use that."

"Pony names are fine," Lauren replied.

"We’ll call you the Queen of England if you want, as long as you help us get our lives back," John said. "Sunset here has been talking you up quite a bit."

"Just Wild will do," Wild replied. She then looked at me. "I don't want to be short, but I'm on a tight schedule. How is the task you were assigned progressing?"

"I was going to do some more study today and hope to start writing out ideas tomorrow," I answered.

Wild nodded. "Go study then. Number and the Youngs can brief you about the results of this meeting later. Bursa needs help as soon as possible, Sunset, and she can't wait."

"What have you got this witch doing now, Wild?" Rosetta said with a growl.

Wild looked at her older sister. "Work for Princess Twilight at my request. Like it or not, Sunset is an expert in fields many mages don't know much about, and her unorthodox methods lead her to solutions no one else would have even considered—which is something we desperately need right now since all the other mages are stumped over this problem, even Princess Twilight. Considering she has a lot to make up for, and that I'm giving her room and board, she can stand to make herself useful."

"I would want to help even if you weren’t making it an obligation," I added in.

"Just work fast. Bursa is getting worse by the day," Wild said with a grunt.

I looked over to Lántiān, who had been conspicuously silent through all the exchanges, and I had caught giving Rosetta of all ponies glares.

"Now seems like a good time to get your flying in," I said. "Perhaps you can have Sapphire continue to help you. I know you are now suddenly interested in art, but there's no reason you can't be good at art and flying. My parents can watch Qīng Yǔ."

“Actually, can I see some of this art? Ya know I’m something of an artist myself,” Sapphire interrupted.

Lántiān scowled. "I would rather not. I have just begun, and my work is merely foal scribbles of lesser quality than even my brothers' drawings. I know I have no natural talent for art, but I will master it in time. Ma'am has bought me books to help guide me."

I was going to make a point of asking Yinyu what was going on with that next time I slept. People didn't suddenly take up new directions in life that they neither loved nor had talents for unless they had reason to. I hadn't heard anything said about Yinyu being an artist, so I didn't have a clue where all this was coming from. The filly seemed like she would be much happier as a weather pony, which was good work. Being an artist was risky, especially if she had no natural talent at it or love for it. They were called starving artists for a reason.

“Well, if you want to be a Debbie Downer about that, why don’t we get a little exercise by giving some of these little ponies rides around the building they were so happy to gallop around? Give all these old people some time to talk," Sapphire suggested.

"I think my parents are eager to meet my grandfoals," I said. "But perhaps you could take her brothers for a flight."

Lántiān looked at her brothers and flicked an ear. "I could carry Mèng, but the other two are too heavy for me."

Sapphire waved a wing. "Not too heavy for me, but I'll still deal with them one at a time. Safer that way. It's hard for two foals to hang on at once, but easy for one. We can keep it low, too, just in case anypony slips."

"You're going to fly?! Can we watch?" Bobby exclaimed.

Grace turned to her parents, who were whispering quietly with Wild. "Can we watch the pretty pegasuses fly?"

John looked up and blinked. "Um… sure. I still don't know how a pony is supposed to get into the air with wings like that and how heavy they are, but you can go see. Mike, Alice, can you go watch your siblings so we can talk to this pony in peace?"

The two older siblings nodded, and the younger ones did a big cheer.

I nodded. "That seems settled. I will be in my room, studying."

I made it about four steps before my grandfoals headed me off.

"You aren't spending time with us?" Alfie asked with big puppy dog eyes.

I sighed. "Granny needs to work, and I know your aunt is busy, but my parents, your great-grandparents, would love to meet you and spend time with you. They came out here just to meet you. Just be gentle with them. I'm old, but they're really old and fragile. They can't take getting tackled like you did me."

My parents walked over with Sinker in tow. My mom smiled down at my grandfoals. "We heard a lot about you and would love to hear about all your adventures from you."

"We can tell you about the time we dropped a locker on grandma," Charlotte said proudly.

"Our other grandma," Tabby clarified.

"She was trying to eat us," Alfie added in. "We didn't want to get eaten."

"It was kinda scary," Tabby continued.

"But exciting!" Charlotte said with a hop.

"And then we got stuck in a big tree," Alfie explained.

Tabby spread her wings wide. "It was so big! The biggest big tree ever! It was bigger than our school!"

"Bigger than a mountain!" Charlotte said.

"And Jessie fell off, we thought she died, and when we saw her again, she was a human-pony," Alfie said in a low voice.

"I wonder if we would be human-ponies too if we fell off the tree," Tabby wondered aloud.

Mom gave a few rapid blinks and then gave a soft smile. "That does sound very exciting and scary. How about you come tell us all about it from the beginning. Don't leave anything out."

Rosetta settled back on the couch. "And I'm going to relax right here. Tempest, you can relax too. No one is going to hurt the foals here, and hopefully, they’ll be tired out enough from all this to get to sleep without too much fuss."

Tempest shook her head. "I'm going to observe and assess Miss Middleton's magic exercises."

Rosetta gave the human a flat look. "Really? You know barely anything about her magic."

"That's why I'm observing and assessing."

Rosetta groaned. "Do what you want. But you really should lighten up. You're stiff as a board and half as charming. I think you have become even stiffer after the species change."

Dad gave me a smile after putting Qīng Yǔ on his back. "Go do your work, hun. We got this."

I looked around. Sapphire and Lántiān were rounding up the other foals. Sinker was with my parents and my grandfoals. Trixie was looking up something on an electronic tablet. Number was standing by Wild, taking notes as Wild spoke with the Youngs. Silvia and Malcomb had joined Robby and Paul in trying to rouse Jess. The Young children were all waiting impatiently on the two pegasi. Rosetta was lounging on the couch. Tempest was standing with her arms crossed, mainly watching Jess, but also looking over everyone else.

Everything seemed in order. I nodded to myself and went to go work.

Comments

[Shrouded Lunes]

OK, I just gotta say, knowing Sunset's history, that the only thing I could think of at the end of this chapter was the line "God's in His heaven, all's right with the world."