Wild pulled herself from bed. Today was going to be a long day, longer than even yesterday.

First thing today, she had to be put on display for the leader of the incoming ponies from Augusta. Ideally she was going to be learning how to deal with these ponies and get involved with the inner workings of the collective pony south. When she asked why she needed to learn Sunset Blessing had explained that Wild would have to eventually deal with government officials herself, and it was better to start learning what went on behind the scenes now. If she was going to be brought into the inner circle, she needed to be able to contribute more than just money. Sunset actually seemed indifferent about Wild's money, focusing instead on her image.

Speaking of image, after dealing with meetings with pony leaders Wild would be meeting Number's husband and the designer that was working on pony clothes. They were going to take measurements and show her different designs for outfits that were supposed to make her look more professional. She was also getting a much needed mane cut. They promised she'd be the very image of a corporate business pony after they were done.

After dealing with that her day still wouldn't be done. She had to spend time going over investment options with Number, and getting an education on how to judge different investment opportunities. Number apparently had a few pony related test products that she was receiving today that the companies were interested in having Wild invest in the production of and help promote.

And this was just the beginning. Sunset and Number had her schedule packed with things all the way till she began doing shifts at Westvaco, and they were talking about giving her homework to do even while dealing with that.

She was very happy that Number said at the end of the night they could have a few drinks, and just unwind. Number had apparently found some weaker alcohol that they probably could drink more of before intoxication set in, and if they misjudged it again, at least it was the end of the day. Getting just a little intoxicated at the end of what would be a stressful day didn't seem like that bad a thing. She had a friend coming over to play cards with them, so Wild was getting introduced to poker night.

For right now she just had to get up and get ready for the day.

She got out of bed and went over to the window. She pushed the window up with ease with her hooves and took a moment just to smell the backyard and the morning air. She never had appreciated how good that smelled as a human. Then again, she had a much weaker sense of smell as a human. The greater sense of smell was a double edged sword though, things like car exhaust made her want to gag. She was getting a little better dealing with the smell of them, but she felt the car industry seriously needed to invest in more electric cars.

After a few moments just enjoying the morning air she shut her window again and trotted out into the hallway and towards the bathroom, which she found occupied. She perked her ears up and listened to the house. She picked up the voices of both her brothers and her papa downstairs, and she heard some movement in her parents room, that meant Abuelita was the one in the bathroom. That meant it could take a while. So much for a morning shower before she started the day off.

Not willing to have this dampen her start of the day she just trotted down the stairs. Once reaching the bottom of the stairs a smell struck her nose that made her want to throw up.

She looked into the kitchen and saw her papa cooking on the stove, he was cooking sausages, and the scent of roasting meat was strong in the air.

"Hi Wild, want to come eat breakfast with us," Miguel called out to her from within the kitchen, apparently ignorant about her stomach's potential rebellion.

She silently shook her head and waved a hoof in their direction then put more distance between herself and the kitchen. She wasn't upset with her family for cooking meat. Meat was part of a balanced human diet after all, but she just couldn't take that smell.

With a hoof up to her muzzle she made her way to the front door slowly on three legs. Walking on three legs wasn't that hard, but it made her go slow, and she debated just going back to four so she could escape outside away from the smell faster.

Her papa hurried past her to the door and opened it for her, and gave her an apologetic look. "Sorry, should have waited till you were up and out for the day before I started cooking. Me and the boys were just all really hungry."

She quickly hurried past him to the outdoor air, and took a deep breath. She could still smell the sausages from here, but the outdoor smells muted them somewhat. "It's alright. Can you do me a favor and get me my purse? I'll probably just pick up something from one of the restaurants today, since they should be reopening again."

"Sure thing, sweet pea," Roger said as he retreated into the house to find her purse. She was thankful enough not to have to go fetch it from the kitchen that she wasn't even going to complain about the nickname. That kind of worry likely didn't matter anymore anyway. Every pony in town could now recognize her and knew her name.

A moment later her papa returned with her purse and slipped it over her head for her. She smiled up to him gratefully.

"I'm going to be back late, or possibly in the morning. I have to deal with town stuff all day long, then talk about investing, and all kinds of other boring stuff. I'm going to end my day over at Number Crunch's playing cards," Wild explained as she adjusted the position of her purse for comfort.

Roger frowned down at her. "You aren't planning on drinking again are you."

Wild flicked her tail in annoyance. "That's my personal business, but to be honest, yes I am. That's why I said it might be morning when I get home, just in case I'm not good to walk back tonight. It's going to be a long stressful day and I intend to end it having fun."

"You don't need to drink to have fun."

Wild laid her ears back. "You're right, I don't, but tonight I am going to. It's my call, Papa, don't get on my case about it."

Roger shook his head. "Fine, but please, don't overdo it. Also, don't let your brothers see you drunk, and don't discuss drinking in front of them. They look up to you, and I don't want them getting a bad example from you. Better yet, just don't come home drunk, wait till you're completely sober."

She glanced past him to where she could see her brothers through the hallway still in the kitchen. They likely couldn't hear this conversation and didn't show any signs of trying to listen in.

She looked back at her papa. "I'll keep it out of sight. I need to be able to unwind though from time to time. I'm far too dangerous if I get to stressed out. I've never really pushed myself to my limits or even close to my limits when it comes to my magic. I don't want to find out what those limits are because I lost control while too stressed. You saw what happened with me in the backyard the other day. Can you imagine me doing that with my full power? I can't let that happen."

"It might not be as bad as you're thinking; your powers are for growing plants, not ripping apart the ground," Roger answered.

Wild shook her head. "I think it can be that bad." She turned her body and pointed at her mark. "See this mark? Everypony pays attention to the big tree on it, but they don't pay attention to the fact that tree is sprouting out of a big fissure in the ground. If I can split the Earth with the same power I can use to grow things that means I'm potentially very dangerous if I lose control--well, even more potentially dangerous than just what the plants can do."

Roger crossed his arms. "There are better ways of coping with stress than going and getting drunk. Considering getting drunk drops inhibitions that might actually be counter-intuitive to be doing if you're concerned about losing control. You're right that with the fact the family is dependent on you we can't tell you what to do, but I really need to stress how this is can be harmful. That's me speaking as someone who cares about you."

Wild sighed. "Look, I'm just choosing for tonight to do this, not as my go-to way of dealing with things. I promise I won't do any other drinking this month."

"I'll hold you to that. Please be careful, Catherine, this can easily spiral into a problem if you aren't careful. Even if you weren't a super powerful earth pony I'd be concerned."

"I'll be careful, and I'll see you tomorrow. I'm not sure when, because they're probably going to have me busy with other things," Wild said as she turned to get to walking.

"Just as long as you check in sometime early on to let us know you're safe and you come home tomorrow night I'll understand," Roger said, he seemed to still be disappointed and unhappy.

Wild's ears sagged. Maybe she should tell Number that she'd reschedule for a different time. She was going to be pretty exhausted by the end of the day anyway. When night came around she'd see how she was feeling.

Waiting for the Augusta leaders to arrive was not happy-fun times for Tonya.

Sunset had gathered together every single pony officially important pony in town. Sitting waiting were Sunset Blessing, Tonya, Pale Oak, Tattered Wing, Wild Growth, Amber Flowers, Rudra Patel, a crystal pony stallion named Garnet Cut, Number Crunch, and a crystal pony Tonya knew named Calvin. In addition she had brought in Megan, and a human town councilman named Walter Smith. It was a pretty even spread of the town's demographics. Tonya didn't know of Sunset did that by design or by accident, but it did send an inclusive message.

The group was all subdivided into groups that we're talking among themselves. With Tonya we're Sunset, Megan, and Mr. Smith. Tattered, Rudra, and Garnet Cut we're talking among themselves. Wild, Number, Calvin, and Pale Oak formed another talking group. Amber was hovering in the air getting reports from pegasi on and off, though she would occasionally come down and chat with ponies at random.

Tonya spotted that Amber now had her cutie mark, a cloud with two suns--one above and one below. Tonya had no idea in the least what that was supposed to mean. She'd have to ask about it sometime. Garnet Cut had a jeweler's eyepiece as a mark on his garnet red flanks. The only pony unmarked was Calvin.

The crystal ponies' presences here were actually mystery to her. She vaguely remembered Calvin, but was completely unfamiliar with Garnet Cut before meeting him today. She hadn't thought the crystal ponies' had any leadership in town with their low numbers. She wasn't going to ask Sunset about it in their earshot though. Maybe they were here just to round out Sunset's perfect two of each group, but from the little exchange that Sunset and Garnet had when he first arrived she wasn't sure that was true. Garnet, at least, seemed to be here for a reason.

Amber flew down by Sunset and gave an update. "My pegasi report that the delegation should be reaching town in about three minutes, so expect them here at town hall in five. Two large military vans. Our flyers have been spotted by them and are escorting them now."

Sunset nodded. "Good, let everyone else know. Cloud cover is good to stay in place right? We don't want to be upsetting Shadow Dancer."

Amber gestured with her head up at the clouds. "Won't be any direct sun coming down on y'all today, don't worry."

"Good," Sunset said with a smile. She then flared her horn to cause a flash to get everypony's attention. "Listen up, everyone. It's almost showtime. I want everyone on their best behavior, we want to put on a good show that we have everything well under control here. Making sure Shadow Dancer and his delegation are cooperative is our goal. We have a lot of work to do in order to get these Augusta ponies settled here without problems and we have to make a good impression with their leadership. God is giving us a great challenge, but we are ponies and we shall meet it. Can I count on you all?"

Calls of affirmation came back in response, some louder than others. Tonya noted the less vocal ponies, Tattered Wing, Rudra Patel, and Calvin. Tattered and Rudra weren't surprising, and Calvin was a little shy from what Tonya recalled. Still, they did respond that they would give their best. It was in their own interest to do so.

After another minute or two two army vans drove up and parked in front of town hall. Director Baker and another similarly dressed man exited out the passenger side door of each of the vans, and several soldiers exited out the back of the first van. Baker and the other man made their way to the back of the second van and opened it and several ponies got out.

It was very easy to pick out which one was Shadow Dancer. He was a night pony stallion with pitch black fur and a dark grey mane and tail that seemed almost black themselves. On his flanks was a cutie mark of a full moon partially darkened. With him were a pair of unicorn stallions, an earth pony mare, a pegasus stallion, a crystal pony mare, and another human man.

The crystal pony mare, who had light blue fur and a white mane, quickly got close to Shadow Dancer and seemed to almost glue herself to his side while the others kept more distance. Perhaps indicating the pair were a couple. The mare's cutie mark was a simple red heart without any further design; yet another cutie mark that could mean anything. Cutie marks were so hard to interpret sometimes.

Director Baker and the other human went up the stairs to Sunset Blessing first. Baker gestured to the other human. "Sunset Blessing, meet Director Maxwell of Georgia. Director Maxwell, meet Sunset Blessing."

Maxwell frowned at Sunset. "I've heard a good deal about you. While it concerns me I'm having so many Shimmerists in power between you and Shadow Dancer, I'm told you are fairly reasonable to work with. I hope you are the organizational miracle worker reports say you are."

"She doesn't need to be a miracle worker, she just needs to make sure she doesn't get in my way," Shadow Dancer said as he walked up the steps. Great, starting off on a pretty sour note. Nopony from Riverview had even opened their mouth yet and the Augusta ponies were already stirring up trouble.

The crystal pony mare gave Shadow Dancer a hard punch on his shoulder and glared at him. "Shadow, you promised you wouldn't be like this. We talked about it and you promised."

The stallion grimaced. "Alright, Crystal, I'll be nice." He turned back to Sunset and gave her the fakest smile Tonya had ever seen. "I hope something can be worked out where the Augusta ponies can properly settle here with no trouble."

Sunset narrowed her eyes and Tonya could see her lover's jaw clench. This was not the way things needed to start off. Worse, there was nothing Tonya could do to smooth things over this time around. There was no way she could use her powers in this situation, even if she risked trying. Shadow Dancer was a night pony and likely would figure out something was up right away, and if he didn't that crystal pony mare at his side would definitely catch her. That didn't even take into consideration that Tattered and Rudra were both close by and watching her too.

Tonya took a deep breath and laid a hoof on Sunset's shoulder. Sunset turned and looked at her and let her jaw unclench. When Tonya removed her hoof Sunset turned her attention back to Shadow Dancer.

"Well, welcome to Riverview, Shadow Dancer. As you may have heard I'm Sunset Blessing. We've done a great deal of good work here in Riverview and have great plans for the future. We hope that your ponies, and you, can be included in our future accomplishments."

Shadow Dancer sneered at her. "I've heard you have practically given yourself over to trying to act all human, that you're trying to drag out ponies back to behaving like the substandard species they used to be. That doesn't sound like progress, it sounds like regression to me."

Okay, this guy wasn't just a Shimmerist, he was a radical Shimmerist with an extreme nasty streak.

Sunset clenched her jaw again briefly then forced a smile. "Haste makes waste, Shadow Dancer. Some foolish ponies want to try to change the world faster than is possible, and who risk everything in doing so. The path to a brighter future is a long one, and will be taken side by side with humans. I hope you're not one of those foolish ponies that who sacrifice everything thinking we shouldn't try to work in conjunction with humans."

Tonya heard Tattered muttering about having to listen to this 'Shimmerist bullshit' off to the side and Shadow Dancer glanced briefly at the Enclave leader and flicked his tail. Tonya sort of agreed with Tattered; this was not the type of argument to be having in front of humans, or in front of non-Shimmerist ponies for that matter.

Shadow Dancer gave a sinister looking smile, and gestured back at the human man that had exited the van with him. "Of course the humans should work with us. Our humans are ready to embrace working the pony way, not the old tired ways. They've been enlightened."

Things suddenly clicked in Tonya's head, terrible things. She was pretty sure that those same terrible things were clicking in Sunset's head as well.

Tonya leaned over to Sunset's ear, held up a wing to block her talking from view, and whispered as low as she could so Shadow Dancer wouldn't hear. "We need to get Lavender Mist out here and have her check his party, especially the human, for mind magic being used on them. I can go get her, just keep our night ponies and crystal ponies close to you so he doesn't try to pull anything on you."

Sunset kept her eyes on Shadow Dancer through the entire time Tonya whispered and gave a silent nod to Tonya once she was done whispering. Tonya immediately started making her way over to Tattered Wing as Sunset began speaking again. "I appreciate your desire to make a better community, but I think you'll see that that isn't a sustainable or advisable thing to try to do. I hope that today we can show you that we here have a plan to make this soon to be city a model for how ponies and humans can get along in benefit to one another."

Shadow gave some sort of response but Tonya didn't pay it any attention. This stallion was dangerous, and he would almost certainly try to use mind control on Sunset and others in town. Not some gentle nudge that Tonya would give, but pure overriding of freewill. He had to be stopped before he tried to do that kind of thing to Sunset or anypony else.

She reached Tattered and Rudra and started whispering to them. "I'm pretty sure this pony is going to try to use mind magic to get his way. You need to watch him and stop him if he tries it. I'm going to go get Lavender and see if she can find evidence he has done it already."

Tattered went wide eyed and draped a wing over the two of them and pulled her into a tight hurdle to speak in private. "Are you sure? This isn't just to distract from us watching you? That's a very serious accusation to make."

"I'm can't be absolutely sure, but I'm almost positive," Tonya asserted.

Tattered looked sickened by what was being said to her. "Okay, here's what's going to happen. I'm going to send Rudra to go get Lavender, I'm going to stay here and watch Shadow Dancer and let the glitter bombs know to watch him also, and you're going to go get Phobia. If what you accuse him of is true then this is for her to deal with, not us."

Tonya really didn't want to be the one going to Phobia if they were going to have her pulling out whatever justice there was involved in mind control. "Um, maybe we should reverse those..."

Tattered hissed at her. "You will go get Phobia. I don't care what kind of guilty conscious you have. You're time is coming, but it's clearly not yet. It might even make things go better for you if you're the one appealing to her about this."

That was a very strong argument for her to go fetch Phobia.

Tattered turned and whispered a few words to Rudra behind a wing and then turned her attention back to Calvin and started whispering to him as well. Sunset and Shadow Dancer were still doing a bit of verbal exchange, though it seemed to have toned down a little bit. Sunset was very good at talking ponies down, but Shadow Dancer might just be waiting till he caught her with no ponies that would be able to catch him in the act. The crystal pony mare who was with him was watching the activity going on between Tonya and the others though and had her ears flattened. She clearly knew something was up.

Tonya decided to not waste any more time and took to the air the same time Rudra did, and the two of them took off in opposite directions to find their respective targets.

It only took a minute of flight for Tonya to reach her best friend's house. She came to a landing on the front porch and started knocking loudly on the door.

"Just one minute, don't break the door down. I'm coming," she heard Tom yell from somewhere in the house. A moment later she saw his magic aura envelope the door and after a brief clicking sound it opened up to reveal the green unicorn.

"Is Phobia up and awake? I need to see her now, like right now," Tonya said urgently.

"I'm pretty sure she turned into bed early, her and Rosetta both," Tom said as he gave her an appraising look. "If you come back tonight I'm sure she can see you "

Tonya hurried into the house. "No, it has to be right now. This is urgent, really urgent."

Tom let off a aggravated snort. "Whatever problem you've got with the night ponies because of your magic can wait till tonight."

Tonya shook her head. "This isn't about me, there's another night pony in town and I'm pretty sure he is doing the no-no stuff that is a big deal to her. I need to talk to her before he does something really bad."

She tried to take flight for the staircase and was stopped in midair by Tom's magical aura. The unicorn pulled her back towards him and set her down on the floor. "What is this pony doing that won't let you wait?"

Tonya groaned. Why did Tom have to act like such a gatekeeper? "He hasn't done anything here yet, but I'm pretty sure he'll try to. He mind controls ponies and humans into doing things his way. If we don't put a stop to him now he's going to cause all kinds of harm to this community and ignite open hostility with the humans. I understand why the humans were so hostile to ponies in Augusta now if he was the one leading the ponies there."

Tom blinked. "And my daughter can do something to stop him?"

Tonya stomped a hoof. "Yes, she's Phobia Remedy. She makes ponies who do this kind of thing shit themselves. That's what she's around to do, kick flanks on ponies that abuse night pony magic."

Tom sighed. "Fine, go wake her up and tell her about this pony."

Tonya didn't even wait to say thanks. Immeduately she took to the air again and went flying through the house and up the staircase to the bedroom. She opened up the door to their bedroom and hurried inside.

She found both the night ponies sleeping inside and started shaking both awake
"Wake up, I need you, the town needs you. Time to be a scary pony."

Phobia woke up with a gasp and took off like a blur to a corner, gasping for breath as she crashed into a wall. She then wrapped her wings around her head and started crying, as the gasps went into full on hyperventilating.

Before Tonya could try to calm her friend down a hoof collided hard with her face, sending her staggering back, and a second later a lot more than a single hoof collided with her side and knocked her down on the floor. The next thing she knew all the air was knocked out of her chest as a full pony's weight came crashing down on top of her with her belly up on her back.

"Don't you dare do something like that again to her! If you do you won't walk out of here without some broken bones!" Rosetta screamed straight into Tonya's face from atop her.

Tonya blinked and felt an irony taste in her mouth; something was bleeding. Her vision seemed a little blurred and her head ached. Perhaps it hadn't been the best thought out idea to come in and try to shake Phobia awake. Rosetta hit really hard.

"Rosetta..., I can explain..." Tonya said in pained tone.

Rosetta had her muzzle right up in front of Tonya's face. "Phobia is having a panic attack because of you. I was actually making progress with her before you woke us up. Do you think you can give me any explanation that doesn't end with me kicking you out of this house?"

"There's a night pony using his powers to make humans Shimmerists. Much as I like the idea of Shimmerist humans, I don't want it because of mind control," Tonya explained. "He'll probably try to pull some stunt with his powers on Sunset to make her do what he wants."

Phobia's crying and whimpering came to an abrupt halt and Rosetta stepped off of Tonya as the night pony looked at her lover. Tonya took a few deep breaths and rolled over so she wasn't belly up any more.

"Are you sure?" Phobia said in a frighteningly dead calm considering she was in a panic just a moment before.

"Lavender is going to verify, but I'm pretty sure. He claims he has five thousand human Shimmerists and the way he said it makes me think he did it through forced mind altering. He said he enlightened them. The guy has no charm or people skills to him. He opened his mouth and Immediately started antagonizing. There is no way he just convinced them without magic," Tonya explained as she stood back to her hooves.

Phobia sat and watched Tonya for a moment with an unblinking stare and Tonya took a few hesitant steps back. Phobia then frowned and stood to her hooves. "I would need to have what he has done verified, but even if it's verified there isn't much I can do about it at the moment since I'm not finished with my training yet. One of the others like me will have to be informed. I'm sorry, but I can't personally help you."

Tonya blinked. "Lavender is going to be going to see about verifying it today. How long will it be till one of the others like you can take action?"

"He'd need to be asleep, and we'd need to have received that verification from Lavender about the humans, and we'd check the minds of any supposed pony victims in their sleep too. Once he is asleep and Lavender is asleep for us to get verification from we can move fast," Phobia explained.

"But what do we do about him right now!" Tonya demanded as she pointed in the general direction of town hall. "He's here now, and probably going to try to pull something before he goes to sleep. He's also being a general ass that is going to make getting the ponies from Augusta moved here turned into a disaster for sure. It was already going to be a huge problem, but if the first five minutes dealing with him is any indication this is going to ruin the lives of thousands of ponies and wreck things with trying to get along with the humans."

Rosetta gave Phobia a worried look as she held a hoof up to her mouth. "I know you aren't supposed to exert any authority in the waking world, but maybe you should put in an appearance and suggest to this stallion he should be more cooperative."

Phobia looked back at Rosetta. "I don't even know if this pony is dreamwalking yet and therefore aware of who I am. I could possibly put in a suggestion to try to get along, but I can't make him take it, and if he hasn't dreamwalked yet he might not have any clue who is making the suggestion. That's not something we can sit there explaining in front of everypony."

Tonya sat down and put her hooves up in front of her in a begging gesture."I'm sure we can figure out if he has heard of you. Please come and help. If he hasn't heard of you at least you can sit by and watch him to verify if he is a danger on your own. If he has heard of you then maybe you can apply a tiny bit of pressure to help fix this for the good of everyone."

Phobia looked between Tonya and Rosetta and then took a deep breath. "Alright, take me to see this night pony."