Pandemic: of Twins and Tails

by Seven Fates

Day 11: Part 2 - A Sister's First Steps

The moon lights the suburb bordering the woodland. All is calm, quiet, and good in the world. It's early in the evening, and Jinxi is perched atop a streetlight, gazing out at the orderly rows of tight-packed houses. In a yard down below, ponies and humans are gathered before a projector screen watching some sort of sport. When something momentous occurs, the group all celebrates together. Men hug their pony brothers in glee as the game ends.

Not a trace of pollution is in the air, despite cars zipping to and fro on the main arteries in the subdivision. The world is healing, and she happy to know that the more things have changed, the more they stay the same. When the cool autumn breeze whips her mane about, she allows herself a smile.

"It's beautiful, isn't it, Jinxi?" a huge winged mare comments as she glides to a hover beside the night pony. "All these ponies and people coexisting harmoniously."

The small bat-winged pony casts only a brief glance at her visitor, just long enough to take in her aurora mane and the horn atop her forehead. "Mmmhmm," she hummed in response, returning her attention to her vigil. "I couldn't have wished for better."

"Man and pony sharing the same space, living harmoniously—look at how happy it makes them," she observed. "Loving their neighbours despite their differences is a pony trait, but there is good in humans as well. A world together can be built, if only ponies reach out a hoof in friendship."

Something in the world shifted, and now Jinxi could hear a mare and a man calling out two different names from two different places. As the voices both draw closer, the speakers start calling out insults to one another. Blame and aspersions are cast back and forth, but from it all she got the gist of it; the man's son and the mare's filly never returned home for dinner, and for whatever reason the two had been forbidden from seeing one another.

"That hard-earned harmony and balance can quickly be toppled," the winged unicorn advises. "Should things come to blows, lines may once more be drawn in the metaphorical sand. Missing foals are helpless in the dark, and any number of creatures could find them."

Spreading her wings, Jinxi shoots across the sky and lands between the arguing pair. "I know you're both scared, but now is no time to be fighting," she announces, keeping her wings spread to create some space. "Your foals are missing out in the dark, all alone?" When the man, tall and dark-skinned, nods, the unicorn mare just begins to sob. "What are their names, and do they look like?"

After catching the names, description, places the two frequented, she advises them to get into contact with the police as takes to the air. Immediately, she reaches up to her throat mic to broadcast a heads up. "Night Patrol, this is District 5 volunteer Jinxi," she says. "A foal—unicorn filly, green, ten years old—and her human friend—African-American male, eleven—didn't come home this evening. Parents are getting in contact with the police now, but I'd like to request some more eyes in the sky. Over." After rattling off the likely places, she concluded, "I'm gonna start my search above the woods."

The winged unicorn flies alongside Jinxi, a smile on her face as several other night ponies can be seen taking to the skies. "Without technology like that, organising a rapid response would be next to impossible."

There is no response as she rockets towards the woods, but mentally Jinxi agrees with the mare. Instead of paying the much larger pony any mind, her eyes focus on the treetops and clearings in the woodland below. Even if magic could make the world a better place, and her night pony eyes could see so much better in the dark, the modern conveniences aren't something she could easily let go.

Eventually, she could pick up the crying and screams of scared children. Adjusting her course to take her toward the racket, she glances back toward the suburb to pick up a landmark: a water tower. "District 5, Jinxi here; I'm about three klicks due west of the water tower. I think I've got the missing kids." The snarl of a wild animal and the fresh cry of pain from one of the children chills her blood. "Send EMS and somepony from Fish and Wildlife, over and out."

She doesn't wait for a response. The moment she's over the clearing, she quickly analyses the situation. A mountain lion has the child and the foal backed up against a steep drop into a ravine. The boy's shirt is torn, a scrap tied around his forearm. Meanwhile the filly, levitating a tree-branch before her and the big cat and swinging it occasionally when it approaches, has a ragged scratch across her muzzle as her magical aura flickers around the branch.

At Jinxi's size, she can't hope to intimidate the creature, but she wouldn't back down. Night ponies are guardians, rulers of the night sky; what's an oversized house cat to her? With some quick mental maths, she takes up position directly above the big cat as it backs up. The boy points up at her and calls out for help as she sends herself into a high velocity dive.

It's not a moment too soon. Just as Jinxi's four hooves come crashing down on the big cat's back, shattering its spine, the unicorn's magic gives out. The mountain lion is driven hard into the forest floor with a pained yowl, and the night pony gracefully rebounds off of it, coming to land between the kids and the cat. She spreads her wings in a threat display as she bares what little sharp teeth night ponies have, but the animal doesn't get back up. It just lies there breathing in a laboured manner.

After help arrives and the children are reunited with their parents, the white mare appears beside her again. "To put ones own safety on the line for strangers speaks of bravery and compassion," she observes as, with her fetlock, Jinxi unclips a folding knife from her radio belt. Once everypony is out of sight, she closes on the animal and quietly grants it mercy. If the white mare's at all squeamish, she doesn't show it as the night pony ends the animal's suffering. "That you grant security to your fellow man and pony speaks of loyalty, and preventing suffering where possible—even to a dangerous predator—speaks of a great kindness." When Jinxi looks back up, the mysterious white pony adds, "It feels natural, being a protector, doesn't it?"

The small night pony considers this evening's events. Keeping the peace, and protecting others does feel right, even if she'd rather value this life that's been given to her. She nods as somepony from Fish and Wildlife appears on the scene, and takes to the air, quickly flying above the retrieval party guiding the children and parents back out of the woods to some waiting paramedics. "The boy and the filly will be alright," she declares as the stranger flies alongside her. "There'll be some superficial scars, but it could have been worse."

The mare shakes her head. "The physical danger has passed, but even now, this trauma has created a nightmare," she said, pointing out the filly—now draped across her mother's back, fast asleep. "Can you not feel the darkness of her dream? As a pony of the night, you have the power to protect not only their waking bodies, but their dreaming minds as well."

She could feel that creeping darkness, and it brought her disgust; she would not let it stand. Instinctively using her night pony magic, Jinxi reaches out and finds herself in the filly's dreams. The little unicorn is creeping about an unlit house house with no power. Everywhere she looks, she sees the mountain lion's eyes in the darkness, staring back at her, even if she knew the space to be occupied by a mundane object. She tries every pony-height lights which she passes, but none work.

The night pony follows along, immaterial to the dream itself. As the girl creeps down the stairs to the home's main living space, Jinxi knows what she must do. Drawing upon her connection to the dream realm, she pulls forth fleeting memories of the little unicorn's friends and family. Several ponies, humans, and boxes manifest in the darkness, waiting.

When the unicorn filly reaches the bottom of the stairs, the lights in the house all snap on at once, revealing a surprise party, complete with banners and gifts. Ponies and humans alike cry out, "Happy Birthday!" while party poppers spew confetti everywhere. From her unseen place at the top of the stairs, Jinxi smiles up at the winged unicorn beside her.

---

It was late in the evening when Jinxi awoke with a startle. Somepony had just stepped on the base of her—and now that she'd fully transformed, she had surprisingly little problem thinking of herself with that pronoun—tail, and she immediately jumped to her hooves. Her wings were spread, and she whipped her head low as she bared her teeth at the offending party with a hiss. "What's the big idea?"

The guilty party, a white earth pony colt maybe an inch taller than she was, gave her an apologetic look as he sat on his haunches. His forehooves were raised in a defensive manner. "Sorry about that, Jinxi," he replied in a monotone voice the filly didn't know. "I misjudged my jump up onto he bed, and I didn't exactly have anypony to spot for me."

Clicking her teeth at him, the young mare lowered her leathery wings as she recognised who he was. Slowly, he lowered his hooves. "Yeah, well... you gotta be careful!" she grumbled, extending her wings and wrapping them around the front of her as if crossing her arms. "I was having such a good dream, and you almost stepped on my mare bits."

Jacen's purple eyes widened, and a weirdly serene smile spread across his muzzle. "You saw the winged white unicorn too?" he asked. When she nodded, he hummed happily. "The other ponies that have finished their rebirth all saw her as well. What did she show you?"

When the two had been one, they'd never been particularly religious. The way Gage was treated by the people in his family's church when he came out had been atrocious; it bad enough that the idea of following any sort of given faith had been not all that appealing. So what was it about his weird sense of calm that made her eyebrow rise?

Slowly, she recounted everything she'd seen and heard in her dream. The delight in his eyes slowly faded as she told her tale. At first, she thought it was because hers seemed specific to night ponies, but every time she mentioned humans, he bit his lip. Slowly, his ears fell, and he asked, "Are you sure that is what you saw? Are you sure there were humans in your vision?"

She nodded. "I'm positive," she declared. "Everything I saw told me to protect everypony, and I guess everyone, that I could. That co-operation with humans was not only possible, but desirable. Why?"

He turned away to stare out the window, before heaving a sigh. "Jordan, Chloe, and her daughter Alexa..." His voice squeaked when he mentioned the second name. "Like me, they said they had visions of a world only inhabited by ponies, freed from the constraints of technology. There were lessons hidden within the dream, which the white mare helped us uncover. Did she not even mention the five tenets that were key to building a pony world? Not even things like 'A pony never needs to be alone?'"

Why did he seem so distraught when she shook her head? "To be fair, I was woken up, so maybe I never got to that part," she offered in a conciliatory voice as she sat down beside him and draped her wing over his back. "I'm more curious as to why there were humans in my vision and not in yours."

In reality, she was thinking something different. Although she liked the potential future she'd seen in the dream, something was nagging at the back of her mind. Showing an ideal world to everypony was one thing, but these lessons and tenets he mentioned sounded an awful lot like a form of mind control—an idea that made her angry down to her core. She couldn't see Jacen as anything but her twin brother, and the very thought that somepony had fucked with his mind made her want to... to... No, she couldn't resort to violence; something deep down told her that wasn't the pony way. But what if the pony way gets in the way?

When Jacen shrugged her wing away, and crawled across the bed to the pillow, she didn't follow. It was late in the evening, and her new pony instincts told her that he was probably getting super tired right about now. Keeping him up wouldn't be healthy... She'd probably get to spend more time with him in the early morning.

She forced herself to redirect her thoughts. This whole thing felt like some sort of night pony magic on a scale she couldn't quite fathom. Who was responsible for the vision, and what purpose did it really serve? Was it really just a benign nudge in a positive direction, or was there a more sinister reason behind it all? Hell, if they were so intent on making a world of ponies, why bother adding humans to my dream but not Jacen's or those other ponies'.

There were answers to be had, but she had no real way of finding out. Tarot cards were a fascinating distraction, but nothing more. Like some laminated pieces of cardstock could give actual, reliable information. There was also the option of the dream realm—the knowledge of which had been encoded into her brain either by the vision or her transformation—but despite what that vision showed, she got the distinct impression that she had to be asleep to actually access it. Beyond that, how did it even work? Could she even do that with this body that didn't match her—or rather, pre-transformation Jacen's—age?

Once she was sure her brother—Does waking up as a pony first make him the big brother?—was asleep, she glanced over at the table that had held their phone, and the tarot cards and book. It looked way taller than it had been, although that was definitely because somepony had lowered the bed to the floor for easier pony access. That same consideration had not been applied to the adjustable table.

Careful not to disturb Jacen, she hopped down from the edge of the bed without any difficulty. The action felt completely natural, as did moving a few steps away from the bed and the table and spreading her wings to take flight. It took a moment of bobbing up and down before she got the feel for hovering, altitude control, and movement. All of it was instinct, like her brain was wired to do it.

Getting objects off the table was a different matter entirely. She didn't have any fingers like a person's to grasp, and although she could maybe grip book with her fetlock and the right manoeuvring, it was a different thing entirely lifting a flat object off a table without any sort of fingernail. The book and the phone might be easiest, but the cards would be hard. Too much pressure, the cards shoot out, and too little and they just fall free.

Glancing from object to object, she decided the book would be simplest. With one hoof, she pulled it toward the edge of the table, and then quickly pressed it into her fetlock. She considered doing it in three trips, but she wasn't sure how long she was supposed to be able to remain airborne right now. She wasn't exactly feeling winded, but at the same time, flapping her wings constantly wold burn a lot of energy and she'd been asleep since Saturday.

Not wanting to scratch up the screen with her hoof too much, she instead slid her phone over to the edge. Then, with great care to keep her lips across her teeth, she grabbed the device in her mouth. As she drifted backwards toward the bed, she realised it was still plugged in. A careful tug later, the charging cable popped out and she was free to deposit her spoils on the foot of the bed.

As loathe as she was to admit, mouth manipulation was a pretty solid—albeit gross—pony method for moving objects. It was far easier for her to grab the deck of cards the same way she had with the phone. Definitely need to start putting it back in the deck box after, she thought as she grabbed the empty container in her fetlock. She nearly screamed when she turned around and came face-to-chest with an exhausted-looking nurse.

"If you needed somepony to lower the table for you, you just had to ask," she said in a quiet voice, glancing at Jacen's sleeping form and running a hand through her sparkling cherry-blossom mane. Why is there chocolate frosting in her mane? I can smell it from here. Now I'm kinda hungry. There were already fluffy yellow ears poking out from the top of her head, which twitched as a look of frustration crossed her face. A quick glance at the ID on her lanyard revealed her name was Kate, although it looked like somepony had also smeared frosting across the surface where her surname was located. "And please, no flying indoors. I've already had a tray of cupcakes inadvertently launched at me by someone who wasn't paying attention to her wingspan."

Jinxi blinked and then slowly landed on the bed, placing the items down a moment later. "Sorry." She rubbed the back of her own neck with a hoof. "You're probably gonna get that a lot." With a chuckle, she added, "The indoor flying thing, not the cupcakes. Growing pains, you know? Have wings, must fly."

Kate fixed the pony with a flat stare. "Riiight." The nurse didn't at all look convinced. "Anyways, I just wanted to warn you to keep it down if you're gonna be up all night. All the ponies are asleep like your brother, and even the other ETS patients and infected staff seem can't seem to stay up very late anymore." She let out a drawn out yawn as if to put emphasis on this fact. "Do you need anything before I clock off?"

With some consideration, Jinxi glanced at the room's entrance. "One, could you shuffle this for me right quick?" she asked. "Two, could you open that bathroom door before you go, and three, where can I get some food?"

That actually got a quiet laugh from Kate as she picked up the deck of cards and began shuffling it. "Finally, a pony with simpler priorities," she murmured. "All day it's just been those ponies waxing philosophical about these visions they've all had, and far-along patients talking about how much they can't wait until they're fully pony. Not you, though."

A toothy smile crossed the night pony's muzzle, eliciting a wince as the nurse spotted the sharp teeth—probably some sort of food-gripping and piercing evolution. "I haven't had enough time to process that sort of thing. Forget treating it like some sort of religious awakening," she responded, focusing on the deck. "Better to focus on the first level of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. The four S's."

Cocking her head to one side, the nurse regarded Jinxi with an appraising look. "I'm pretty sure it's Three S's," she shot back as she set the cards down. A moment later, she the nurse went over to the table lowered it to a level that could be reached by the bed. "And I could sure use a shower after this shift."

With a giggle, Jinxi reached over with her wing, using its sole thumb to drag the deck of tarot cards closer. "You forgot snacks, didn't you?"

Nurse Kate just smacked a palm against her forehead before walking away, shaking her head. "The charge nurse keeps a bunch of snacks under the counter in the nurses station," she said tiredly. She opened the room's bathroom door as she moved past, but paused in the door. "Otherwise, ask the night-shift nurses to see about getting you something. Oh, and beware Emma."

Waving goodbye to the nurse earned the pony an amused smile. She's a nice pony, she thought as the soon-to-be pony rounded the corner and slipped out of sight. I wonder if she's got her own room here since she's almost done? Or are they letting the staff go home now?

Snagging the pink ear buds off the table, Jinxi struggled for a minute to plug the cable into the phone's headphone jack with her wings' thumbs. Getting the buds into her ears were easier, and it didn't even take using her wings. Using one wing to wake up the display and enter her passcode, she put on the playlist she'd assembled late Thursday night. Poor Jacen's gonna need a stylus to work this now, if he even cares about tech tomorrow.

While Johnny Cash's The Man Comes Around began to play in her ears, she considered the questions she wanted to ask the cards. It was probably best to start with something simple first, before moving on to something more meaningful. What to ask, though? Her eyes flicked over to her sleeping brother and a smile crossed her face.

What is the reason for my brother's voice crack when he mentioned that mare's name earlier?

With a sweep of her hoof, she spread the deck across the linens. A curious sensation of something welling up inside her created a sort of tension in her belly as she hesitantly held that same hoof above the cards. Not paying it much mind, Jinxi picked a card at random... Dragging it closer with one hoof while the other pulled over the book. When she flipped over the card—the Two of Cups, upright—that strange tension vanished. Instead, a feeling of embarrassment and butterflies in her stomach rushed in to replace it as she flipped to the relevant page.

Let's see... As she read the relevant words for interpretation, she paused to glance back over at her brother with a smirk. Attraction, connection, close bonds... Pffft, Jacen? No way. We never once felt any sort of attraction to anypony as a person. Why would that suddenly change? The fluttery feeling left her when she pushed the card aside. That was weird.

The next question came to her immediately, piggybacking off the previous question. Is Jacen asexual? She'd wanted to try a yes or no question after having read about the method in the book, but hadn't thought of anything fun to ask until now. If it's at his expense, it's technically at mine too, right? No odd feeling overtook her this time; she just reached out and pulled a card over to reveal XV - the Devil. According to the book, rather than look at the meanings based on it's position, you're supposed to tally up which meanings are positive and which are negative... She did some quick counting and shook her head. Hard no, huh? Not sure I buy that, but okay.

With the silliness out of her system, she pushed the card aside to join the previous one and cleared her mind. What kind of pony is responsible for the vision? A dull throb had begun to assault her temples as that tension-like sensation returned. As she reached for her answer, a stray thought occurred to her. What if she wasn't actually picking? Could pony magic influence such a thing, or was she being silly?

When she flipped the card over to reveal the upright Nine of Swords, and the tension deep inside her fell away, she nearly screamed as a flood of emotion overcame her senses. An intense fear of... she didn't know what... hit her first, followed by so much anxiety that she nearly threw up on the spot. Is it my imagination, or is it dimmer in here, like the shadows are growing all around me? Finally, she was assailed by a feeling of loneliness so strong that everything began to feel like a waking nightmare.

Jinxi didn't even need to read the book to interpret its meaning. It had all but been seared into her mind... Instead, she tore her hoof away from the card. Pain not unlike somepony smacking the bottom of her hoof with the narrow side of a yardstick quickly followed, eliciting a pained squeak. All of those nasty feelings, save for the anxiety, left her. "What the fuck was that?" she whimpered.

Her head was throbbing with pain now, and it wasn't entirely clear to her if she could properly fly even if she'd been permitted to. That was a shame, because she could use that sort of confidence right about now. No matter the fact that her stomach was most certainly empty, it had decided that it needed to be purged. That left her to pause the music, remove her ear buds, and stagger off the side of the bed. She was forced to all but crawl over to the bathroom because her legs wouldn't hold her up.

The moment face head crossed over the edge of the toilet bowl, time went all fuzzy. It felt like she'd been praying to the porcelain god nonstop for several minutes, but she knew that it couldn't have been more than a few moments. There was nothing to actually rid her body of—just bile. Even then, if it'd been a nonstop stream, she'd have blacked out at some point, right?

"Aww, you poor thing," came a voice from behind her. "Are you not feeling well, little one?"

Jinxi blinked as she peered over her shoulder. There was a human nurse towering over her, but she looked like she had no sign of infection, nor did she have on any sort of protective equipment like the nurses had previously been using, as if she held no fear of infection. Does she think I'm a foal or something? "Just threw up on an empty stomach," she groaned as she wiped her muzzle with a foreleg. Thankfully, it came away dry. "And my head is killing me... so I'm gonna go with no."

Clicking her tongue, the woman frowned. "That's no good, dear," she said, crouching down to pick the night pony up. A squeak of alarm and a hiss escaped her as one olive arm hooked around her back-side. When the other snaked under her forelegs and lifted her from the ground, she had to suppress the desire to bite the woman. "Goodness, and you're so light, too. Guess I'm gonna have to keep an eye on you while I do my paperwork, aren't I?"

To Jinxi's utter horror, the woman carried her out of the room and over towards the nurses station. Several other nurses stared at her captor as she carried the pony in like some sort of oversized cat. She even couldn't tell if the snickers from the other nurses were at the woman's behaviour, or her own expense. "I think this little pony got into something that didn't agree with her," the crazy ponynapper announced. "We should keep an eye on her."

When the evil, evil nurse finally sat down, Jinxi was perplexed as to why she had been draped across the woman's lap. The worst part was that she felt completely helpless, and didn't even have the energy to try and escape. Then, with utter cruelty, her captor began to gently scratch the night pony's chin with one hand, while the other rubbed her ears.

This is completely unprofessional, she thought as a strange, blissful sensation overtook her. Scratch the nurse being evil; the night pony's opinion did a one-eighty, as she decided this was her new favourite human. With a happy sigh, she closed her eyes and decided to just enjoy the physical contact her pony body apparently craved. So why am I okay with this?

Thanks to her big, tufty ears, it was no challenge for the night pony to overhear two other nurses whispering together outside of the angel's hearing. "If it wasn't for the fact that she seems to be tolerating Emma right now, I'd be filing a complaint about her behaviour," murmured a woman nurse with some sort of Asian accent. "So unprofessional."

A male nurse with no distinct accent replied to her with, "But that little bat pony looks like she's enjoying getting scritches... Maybe a bit too much."

Huh?

"What do you—o-oh my," the first nurse whispered back. "Should we tell her?"

"Hell no. I wanna see if she notices before someone walks in and sees this."

Is there something going on? It was getting hard to think, but at least all this pampering was making her headache disappear. And why's it starting to feel so drafty back there?

Author's Note:

And so we see as Jinxi awakens that although both she and her brother share the same memories up until her first conscious moments, their personalities are not the same. Instead, it appears as though different aspects of the original's personality have been exaggerated to extremes and spread between the two.

Comments

[Seven Fates]

Oops. Forgot the date counting in chapter titles was based on "How many days since first ETS symptoms in Jacen, minus two."

[SirCarrot]

Jinxi love them scratchies

[Seven Fates]

11736689
A little too much.