Pandemic: Starting Over

by Halira

Chapter 64: Hawks and Hens Remix

We walked back inside, and as we were entering the family room, I bent down to speak to Shǔguāng.

"I need to talk to the Youngs. While I am doing that, how about you and the others decide what you want to do for a game together that I can join in. Feel free to include my parents, Sinker, and whoever else wants to join in. You can ask around to see who wants to be included."

"Okay, Auntie," Shǔguāng replied as he went scurrying off towards his brother.

John, Lauren, and Mike were huddled together in a group off to the side and looked at me expectantly as I approached them.

"I have spoken with Wild Growth. She says she is going to be sending extra security later tonight and that she is going to be installing cameras around the property with full-time monitoring," I announced. "As for getting anyone who wants to be housed elsewhere temporarily, she says that we are to work out who wants to head out and tell Number, and she will make arrangements. It would only be a temporary move until the matter with the barking is resolved. So… what do you want to do?"

John looked at his wife and son before looking back at me. "We're still unsure exactly what the threat is. Can you explain it better?"

I half-frowned. "I wish I could, but I'm unsure as well. At the moment, this barking seems to be just barking. It can be viewed as a threat, much like someone making a threatening gesture, making threatening phone calls, or even cyberbullying. However, they're doing it through a very elaborate magical means that has stumped three of the best magical experts you're likely to ever meet—me, Starlight, and Twilight. That's worrisome because we're unsure what the person responsible is capable of doing."

"And why would anyone be threatening us?" John asked.

I shrugged. "There's a long list of people that don't like me. In fact, a group of ponies tried to lynch me just a few days ago. The next option after that's that it has something to do with the foals. Their mother is a Dreamwarden, and there's almost as long a long list of people that don't like Dreamwardens. Finally, it could have nothing to do with us specifically, but instead, be some Scooby-Doo plot to get us to abandon the property so that Wild will sell it."

"In short, they are after you or your kids, who Wild Growth promised could always live here, or they are trying to scare us all away," John summarized.

"That's the best assessment I can give," I confirmed.

John gave a meaningful look at his wife and son, and they nodded to him. He then looked back at me again. "We're staying, and I think you should too. I don't want to have any lowlifes thinking they can make us go running. However, we would like our guns back so we can defend ourselves if we need to."

Giving the crazies their guns back was not an appealing idea at all, but if I flat out refused, I would lose trust.

"We will have armed security here already," I reminded them. "And if these mages decide to do more than harass us, I'm not sure what a bunch of people not trained to fight mages will help accomplish."

"It will make us feel safer," Lauren said through gritted teeth. "You aren't the only one here with kids."

It was time to compromise. I couldn't have the Youngs turning on me. "How about I meet you halfway on that," I replied in a neutral tone. "I let you have your guns back, but you keep them locked up in a gun case unless there is an immediate threat. You could keep the case in your bunker, with only you having the key. If stuff starts to go down, everyone can retreat down there, barricade yourselves in, and be ready to defend."

"You said yourselves rather than us with you included," Mike cut in.

I nodded. "I will not be joining you. If they are coming for me or the foals, then I am going to be out here. I'm no fighter, but I make excellent bait."

And if someone came with the intent to hurt my family, I had full intention of committing murder, and I didn't want the foals to see that. It was best they be safe and hidden while I went down in flames if need be, making those who threatened them pay in blood. Phobia got raped. Tonya lost her life. Lántiān saw her mother due right before her eyes. With God as my witness, there would be no more. I might generally be a coward, but I was also the mother of this family. There was nothing more dangerous than a mother frightened for her loved ones.

Hopefully, this was just petty threats and nothing more, but I didn't believe it, not after Poly Glot.

"We can agree to that," Lauren said, surprisingly firm. I wasn't the only frightened mother here. "We'll keep the kids safe. No one will touch them."

I looked over at my parents, who currently had Shǔguāng trying to rope them into playing with us. Out of the corner of my vision, I could see Lántiān playing stuffed animals with Qīng Yǔ. Devon and Paul talked to Jess as the girl lifted her giggling baby brother into the air, making rocket noises. I wondered what dreams Rosetta and the foals were dreaming upstairs.

I turned towards the Youngs. "I hope it doesn't come to it, but don't tell anyone I'm staying up here if trouble goes down. Lie to them. Tell them I'm on the way," I whispered. "They'll try to stop me, and that endangers them. I'm trusting you."

"Asking us to lie for you isn't going to inspire trust in us," Mike muttered.

"Keep your voice down. Ponies have excellent hearing. I wouldn't ask you to if it wasn't important," I whispered. "You have to understand why I'm asking you to do this. I have to keep them safe."

Mike crossed his arms in defiance. "We can keep them safe, and you can do whatever you want, but we aren't going to lie about what you're doing."

"He's right," John said. "Us protecting everyone is the right thing to do, but if we lie about anything, it could come back and haunt us. We aren't going to do anything that makes Wild Growth think we aren't trustworthy."

"We won't volunteer what you intend to do, but if anyone asks directly, we'll tell them," Lauren clarified. "We don't want anyone getting mad at us. We're kinda dependant on Wild Growth liking us."

I resisted the urge to stomp. "Fine. If security does their job, we don't need to worry about it anyway." I turned and walked away.

Shǔguāng took that as a sign it was okay to talk to me and hurried to head me off. "Auntie! Sister, Sinker, Líng, Grace, Bobby, Jess, and Qīng Yǔ all said they would play with us!"

Shifting into having fun with the foals was a lot to do right after discussing possible life-threatening situations, but I did promise and the game would relieve tension in the house. It wasn't like I had anything productive I could be doing about the barking until security arrived anyway.

I raised an eyebrow. "Qīng Yǔ said she would play? I didn't think she could say much more than mama."

"Well, Sister said Qīng Yǔ would play with us," Shǔguāng clarified. "We're going to play Hawk and Hens with three teams. Sister already decided on the teams."

"Okay… I might need the rules explained to me," I said with a smile. "Let's go gather the others and play your game."

It took a minute or two for the colt to get all the participants into the center of the room. The non-participating adults formed a rough circle around us as they prepared to watch.

"I shall explain the rules," Lántiān announced. "The hawks and hens will be me, Jessica, and Ma'am."

Jess scratched an ear. "Um, which am I, a hawk or hen?"

"Both," Lántiān snapped. "Don't interrupt, human."

Jess gave a disgruntled snort. "Fine, pony."

Lántiān ignored Jess and held out a wing to gesture to all the other kids. "They shall all be the chicks. Each team will start with hawk-hen having two chicks each. The goal is for the hawk-hen to capture the other hawk-hens' chicks and add them for their own. Each time a chick is captured, there will be a pause in the game so they can get situated in line with the other chicks. The line should always be from tallest to shortest, and the hawk-hens can only go after the last in each line."

"What happens if we lose all our chicks?" I asked.

"You continue to try to capture chicks. The game only ends when one hawk-hen has all the chicks," Lántiān answered.

Jess crossed her arms and muttered. "Great, I'm the only one who gets snapped at."

"Hush, human," Lántiān scolded. "Now, each chick will bite onto the tail of the one in front of it and not let go unless caught."

"Grace and I don't have tails," Bobby said as he pointed to his sister.

Lántiān blinked and stared at them as if this was news to her. "Well… hold on to the other's pants."

I realized a big problem with this right away. "And what are foals supposed to do if they are in line behind them? I hope you aren't suggesting they bite onto a pants leg and try to hold on. That seems like a good way for a foal to get kicked in the face."

"The Great and Powerful Trixie has a solution!" Trixie announced as she pulled off her hat. She lit her horn, and two long chains of colorful cloths started to stream out of the hat. They went out and wrapped around the waist of each human child and tied into a loose knot, with a trail of them hanging off behind. "Tadda! Tails!"

"That will work," Lántiān said with a nod. "Each hawk-hen will try to grab a foal with hooves, wings, or hands, preferably by the tail, but anywhere will do. There is to be no flying or magic used."

I looked at Jess and Lántiān. I was at a distinct disadvantage here. Jess and Lántiān had much more reach than I did since they had extra limbs to block or grab with—not to mention they were far younger and faster than me. I could tell who wasn't winning this game already.

We were divided into starting teams by Lántiān. I got Sinker and Líng. Jess had Bobby and Grace—because, of course, Lántiān would put all the humans together. Lántiān had Shǔguāng and Qīng Yǔ. Everyone got into their lines, with a brief delay for Sinker and Líng to figure out who was taller—it ended up being Sinker by a half-inch, and the game began.

I knew I would need to put the others in defense if I wasn't going to lose chicks right away. Jess was smart, and she had to realize mine were the easiest prey. Lántiān probably thought Jess's were the easiest prey, considering her low opinion of humans. If I went on offense against Jess, that could lead to her being double-teamed and keep her on the defense. I wasn't sure I could get around her, but if Lántiān was also after her, I could try to keep an eye out for an opening there while she was distracted.

To say my plan didn't work out would be an understatement.

I tried to charge by Jess to get at Grace and almost slammed into one of Jess's legs as she blocked me with it. The girl took a wide squatting stance with both her arms spread out. I barely had time to change course before I needed to turn and block Lántiān from picking off Líng behind my back. Unfortunately, turning to stop the filly just exposed the two colts to Jess, and she snatched at Líng's tail and got it. I'd lost my first chick. Damn human arms and their long reach!

We waited as Líng got in line behind Grace and got a mouth full of Grace's impromptu tail. Then the game began again. I went full defensive, trying to keep my distance from the other two teams. My new goal was to try to circle the outskirts and pick Líng back off Jess. The longer line was more challenging for her to guard, and Líng's reactions were hampered by the fact he couldn't see well past the humans towering in front of him.

Jess must have realized her handicap and my plan because she decided to remove me as a factor by charging me. I tried backing up in vain, but she had a much bigger stride, and she didn't need to get around me. She went straight forward towards me, bent down over my head, and grabbed Sinker that way. I'd lost both my chicks to her in quick succession. That time, Lántiān had stayed back the entire time and hadn't even made a move towards either of us. I understood her reasoning. She'd let Jess take Líng and Sinker, trust that I would fail to get any foal back, and then pick them off one by one from Jess.

The part about me failing certainly proved true. I ran myself ragged, trying to pick any foal off either of them, but both quickly blocked me each time. The only thing I accomplished was creating enough of a distraction that Jess and Lántiān spent several rounds trading off Qīng Yǔ. Lántiān was able to acquire both Qīng Yǔ and Líng at one point, but the tiny pegasus filly continued to be a hot potato between the two even after Líng was firmly behind his sister. The two easily held three, but their fourth kept going back and forth between the two with little headway.

After many rounds passed, I eventually picked Qīng Yǔ off of her mother as her mother tried to dodge a grab from Jess. The next round had Lántiān pick Sinker off of Jess. Lántiān now had all three colts. Jess was back where she started with just Bobby and Grace. I had the smallest foal of all, but at least I had one now.

I expected that Lántiān would try to take this opportunity to regain her daughter, but she surprised both Jess and me by circling back on Jess after a fake charge at me and adding Grace to her line of chicks, leaving Jess and me with just one each. Having a human on her tail must have thrown Lántiān off her game because Jess was able to acquire Líng in the next round and Sinker in the round after that. The next round, I lost Qīng Yǔ to Lántiān, and I promptly fell on the floor panting.

"I'm out!" I called out. "This is too much running around for a mare in her fifties! You two can battle it out."

Sapphire gave me a smug grin as I retreated to the adults. "Lasted longer than I expected, preacher. Without you as a distraction, those two could be at a standoff for a while."

"I hope so," I said as I looked over my shoulder. "Both of them need more time not trying to be adults. Jess isn't much older than the rest of those kids—I'm pretty sure Bobby and Grace are older than her, despite how it looks, and Lántiān has been forced into an adult role since she was Jess's age."

She frowned for some reason as she looked out at the still playing kids. I frowned as well. "Something bothering you?" I asked.

The pegasus moved to shake her head no but paused and looked at me as if she could find some answer just staring at me. She then sighed. "Since you're asking, yes, there’s something I want to hear from you. Best to get some privacy if I'm going to ask you."

What did she want? I racked my brain for what it might be but came up empty. "We can go just outside the door."

We exited the room, and she partially closed the door behind us for some additional privacy.

She shook her head as she looked at me. "You do it well, being this nice, caring old pony—"

"I'm not that old," I protested.

"You seem like a nice kindhearted pony, but there’s a history there," she said. "You aren't the only person that I deal with that can smile with sincerity, and I have a question or two I want to hear you answer."

Digging up my past again? "I will try to answer them."

"The groups you used to have working for you, how much did you direct their operations? Ones like UMAD, for instance.”

It took me a few seconds to connect the dots back to an incident years ago that was very costly. "That's the group that blackmailed your friends, right? The group that made you so angry you pulled the biggest stupid cockamamie stunt I ever heard a pegasus doing."

"That group, among others that you had on your payroll."

"I believe I told you before I was not involved, and I'm not lying about that," I answered. I chewed on my lip. "As for why I hired those types… I was building a political and economic empire from the ground up in a very short time. I tended to put a lot of people with… questionable ethics into positions to further my power. I knew they were capable of doing illicit activities to further my goals; that's why they were there. I was pissed that they tried to blackmail your friends, but not because they did something illegal. I was mad because there wasn't a return worth the risk if something went wrong. I can be ashamed to admit that now, but back then, I wouldn't have been."

“I don’t really care how ashamed you are of your past. The Princesses have put a lot of trust in you changing for the better. I can feel that you’ve changed for the better," Sapphire said in a tired voice. "But there are a lot of others that are concerning, like did the government know the crap you and your people pulled?"

Ah, I saw what this was about. My answer would bring her no comfort. "Yes. There were members of the House, Senate, Cabinet, CIA, FBI, and more who were all very much aware. It wasn't everyone, but it was enough people with influence that I rarely had to worry about government interference. Normally they turned a blind eye to my shadier actions, and sometimes they covered them up. I can't tell you who they are; that was part of my release conditions, that I never implicate anyone involved. They rarely gave me orders, primarily just let me do my thing, but I did occasionally get orders to quietly take care of something for them. I was a means to an end that they were willing to take."

Sapphire's eyebrows narrowed. "Like murder?"

I shook my head. "I'm happy to say I never had anyone killed. I primarily just funneled information to the government, but sometimes I turned to bribery, extortion, blackmail, and even having some ponies roughed up. You have to understand, peace between ponies and humans has often been very tenuous. Some ponies could have inadvertently broken that peace either deliberately or through their foolish actions. With that on the line, it was worth getting my hooves dirty. I'm sorry about my methods—in some cases, in some, they deserved it, but I'm not sorry I helped keep the peace. Even as a Shimmerist, I understood we couldn't afford an interspecies war."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night," Sapphire said in a low voice. "It would have been nice to believe they released you as a favor to Luna, but I guess the real reason was they wanted to cover their asses."

"Making it seem to Equestria to be a goodwill gesture probably made it easier," I mused. "But they couldn't afford what revelations may have come out of a trial. It would have been a massive scandal that would have lost the government's credibility with just about everyone. I should be thankful to Luna. I wouldn't have been surprised if a lot of powerful people wanted to arrange for me to have an accident, and her efforts gave them a less messy alternative."

"An accident like magic that would target you while you or somepony you care about was alone.”

I shrugged. "Possible. I have a lot of enemies. I used to plan for the government stabbing me in the back, but those plans are all infeasible now. Anyway, I don't think it is the case. Something happening to me right after I took Yinyu's foals would heighten tensions even further with China since China would inevitably be blamed. While there are certainly hawks who might want that, since the US always needs an enemy to point at, and China makes a great target to point at, I don't think any of them would be that stupid."

"You’ve never worked customer service, have you?" Sapphire snorted as she fluffed her wings slightly. "I have been here much longer today than I intended, and this place is a little crowded. Watch over your family, preacher."

I watched her leave. While I doubted the government would make a move on me, it did remind me of why I now had the foals. I wondered if someone else got the same idea China had to use a Dreamwarden's foals as leverage to get information from a Dreamwarden. If that was true, this house had not only Yinyu's foals but Phobia’s as well. I shouldn't have been discounted as a possible leverage tool against Phobia and Tonya. Half the Dreamwardens had people they dearly loved here, and having us all in one place was dangerous.

Maybe I should have fought a little harder to keep a powerful ally around….

Comments

[keroko]

My memory is being a bit flimsy, what blackmailing incident is Sapphire talking about?

[Halira]

10774228
From Desert Getaway.

Essentially, the SPEC owned land holding company (UMAD) that held the deed to the property to Oasis tried blackmailing several of Sapphire's friends and forcing them to work for SPEC. Sapphire did not take well to this, and dropped a major storm on what was more or less a desert outpost, causing massive property damage. This is the primary source of the early tension between Sunset Blessing and Sapphire. Sapphire viewed Sunset as essentially a crooked mob boss, and Sunset viewed Sapphire as a reckless overpowered pegasus that could have gotten people killed with her antics, and did cause her lots of property damage bills.

TDesert Getaway

• MLP: FiM
• Slice of Life

A group of weather ponies take a much needed vacation out west to a little Oasis in the desert... Oh, and they're not exactly there to see the sights.

• Profanity
• Human
• Alt. Universe
• OC
• Bat Pony

TikiBat · 21k words  ·  35  5 · 674 views