The two stone cherubs merely stood guard. It was considered an even worse taboo for
gargoyles to cheat death by transferring into a new body once they had reached
'adulthood' than it was to transfer the spirit of a flesh and blood being into the vessel of a
gargoyle.
And Free and Equality, were simply happy that they had lived long enough to see the end of
the curse that had plagued their Man companions centuries before.
+++++++++
Judias' considered going to his Bast dogmatic siblings and scaring the tails off them with
his newfound power. 'But that's not exactly the Christian things to do is it?' Thought the
Catholic cat. 'And the days of converting others with displays of power have come and
gone.'
Eliza, due to her mental link with her child, knew much. Eliza and Marie still had different
souls and separate Egos however (while Julie, Fran, and Darla considered their sense of
similar self a badge of honor). And Eliza said simply, "Now now, she may now be the most
powerful being in the world, but she's still my daughter."
The blond pups, Maddex's heads, Betty and Lawrence all looked at the victorian era
dressed human.
"And we can stay in, oh right, Glendale until this awful business with the curse is over, and
the all seem like very good people. But Marie and I don't exist in a void. We're on a
vacation, so we're free to spend it where we like. But after that I have a job back home,
sadly on the other side of the planet, and I have family and friends there. Just a my Marie
does."
Alice stayed silent, Samantha and Abbey started. They didn't want to be rude, but they
really hadn't considered the idea that Marie had friends or a place to be already.
"I said I didn't have a pack, I didn't say I didn't say I didn't have people who thought about
me each day… I couldn't ask your friends, family, and all the rest to simply move to the
other side of the world. And I can't ask my school mates, teachers, or grandparents, all to
move to Glendale . . . besides, in the world within all mirrors, everywhere is just three steps
away remember? We can visit each other like we lived across the street anyway."
THe three blond pups, one wearing the dress of the famous Alice, and the two smaller
ones wearing inverted versions of it, started and looked at each other, they HAD forgotten
that!
Marie-Eliza was also trying to keep it from her mother's mind that she was realistically
considering staying in the mirror world as much as possible so she wouldn't spend as
much time as immortal glass. 'Though that would mean limiting my interact with people
which wouldn't be a good thing. I could bring my toys with souls here… I created so many
when I got this power, I was so reckless and inconsiderate on how they were people and
not just toys who could think back… But what about all my other friends back home? No
easy answers. No cheap and fast solution.'
Marie's avatar with Judas assuming the guise of a bronze lupman pup statue observed the
injured, hurt and recovering lupmans. 'With just a gesture of power I could heal all of
them . . . but for what purpose? None of their lives are in danger. All of them are going to
recover anyway. And if I healed just them, my next logical step would be to heal everyone
at Glendale's hospital. And the one after that, and the one after that… ' Marie knew that
the first taste of using her power would be all it would take to start down the sliding slop.
She also knew to any outsider observer with a shred of sanity or compassion she'd look like
a ice hearted brat. 'After all, less police means more eager criminals, and that means more
people hurt . . . what shall I do about that? Be a super hero until I decide to cut out the
middle man and be judge and jury and remake criminals into useful members of society by
either turning them into slaves and over-writing the person they already are?'
Marie-Eliza had a new appreciation for God. 'The problem with being all powerful… is
doing anything.'
Marie-Eliza's avatar considered granting Rick's demented wish of becoming a little girl, or
separating that desire from him and turning it into a twin of her. But Marie didn't trust
herself with this power, and she didn't dare trust someone else. And a girl born from a
wish of escapism wouldn't be exactly restrictive on such god like power.
++++++++++
In one of the many doorless bathrooms of the manor Anne checked the test results… this
was the forth test. Lupman had perhaps the single least amount of modesty and sense of
shame ingrained into them and their culture as any of the races of men (gargoyles were
humanoid by convenience only), but Anne still felt a bit like hiding.
"I'm going to be a mother . . . " Anne whispered. "Megan, Ashley, Margot, they were all
right . . . I am pregnant . . . " Anne just hoped she could explain to the twins that they
weren't being replaced. In the storm of a thousand plots and thousand intentions, Anne's
pregnancy was just a little thing, such a tiny thing.
The moment Lawrence set foot outside the mirror world with help from Samantha Anne
realized she needed to tell her husband and ran like mad though the mansion, finding the
white wolf formally lithe now muscle bound (she wished she had done a better job of
helping him realize God loved all them regardless of how they looked).
She leapt into his arms at once, nearly sending him through a wall and declared,
"LAWRENCE WE'RE GOING TO HAVE BABIES I'M PREGNANT!"
Considering everything Lawrence had learned in the last few days listening to Marie-Eliza's
tale (not knowing he had barely escaped ceasing to exist as Lawrence), and everything that
had happened to the pack as of late. He had just one reply to that, "Finally, something
normal." He then kissed and hugged his wife.
+++++++++++
Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto said to Monkey King. "So they're going to disassemble us and
place us in Amy's Shinto shrine once everyone is healed?"
"Want to bail out? Unlike Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto, you and Uke Mochi
aren't bound by any pregnancy and can simply LEAVE and start up your lives again in the
moving world."
"What about you?"
"Meh. This is the path I chose, I'm going to see it to the end."
"I can understand that… and … actually I'm not scared… I'M EXCITED! I can't wait for it!"
"Aren't worried it's gonna be like being chopped into pieces?"
"A little. But everything I've seen about your transformation has proven to be peaceful,
calm, and serene. And we're not being broken or melted down, you said your Transform or
Dare prevented that. So we're just being naturally taken apart, and being put back together.
Let me try something."
For a moment there were two twin statues of Sarah the she-wolf, both half the size of the
original, then she was once again the likeness of Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto.
"And how was that dear?" Monkey King asked.
"It didn't feel like I was being cut in two, it felt like I was simply in more than one place.
Since we don't have brains, a nervous system, or eyeballs, or ears, I think our awareness is
equally distributed among our forms."
"What about you Uke Mochi? It just takes a thought to walk away. Heck, you could leave
and come back once the move was done."
" . . . No . . . I want to see through to the end."
"Don't be silly… it's not an end! Simply a new beginning!"
"Oh right, thank you."
"A little over poetic but once." Thought out Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto.
+++++++++++++
"So . . . so everything ready?" Madam Serenity called, not wanting to mention to Gillie they
had two cartoon horses living with them in the church at the moment.
"I'm not the mayor Serenity." Gillie said over the cellphone. "But everything on my end is
looking good . . . We're ready to go at the drop of a hat, and you?"
"We'll have a enough cure ready in two days. I double checked with the fathers, they said
that as long as one does the blessing at the water station itself, and another with the radio
and some loud speakers, it shouldn't MATTER if some people don't hear it or not!"
"It feels like you're almost TRYING to figure out a way to escape the cure for someone
else."
"No. Just covering all my bases. So what about you, booked the brainwasher yet to cheat
fate and leave me all alone?"
" . . . I told you I wouldn't do that until AFTER the game was dead."
"I know . . . "
"So," Asked Never-Star, "Could you have your priesthood send someone to run a chapel for
our farm? Since we live so far away from the city and we prefer to keep a low profile for
obvious reasons. We don't want to be exploited or sued by a toy company."
"And live for eternity as a cartoon horse?" Father Mike asked simply.
"Everything's got it's price, it would be cheating if it didn't." Valentines said simply. "That's
why we FARM our food instead of just wishing for it to grow itself."
Father Paul meanwhile used sign language, the only form of self expression he had besides
writing even now that was now half human instead of a full orangoutang.
'If you wish me, I will go, I am already pretty much not human, and if you desire one of the
faith with you, I will help you. It's my duty as a priest.'
"Brother." Father Mike whispered.
'We didn't shrink from our duty to accept our fates and kill the curse within ourselves. I
won't shrink from our duty now.' He signed.
Father Mike was so distracted by his brother decision (which he was quite steadfast) he
accidentally sent some of the cure instead of some holy water to the address the Ponies
provided (in the middle of nowhere but still had a viable location . . . until it decided to
shift to insure it's occupants happily-ever-after as it nearly had when Kurse was ready to
turn the world into soup).
This included instructions for what it for and how to use it.
The delivery man figuring he was at some estate run by some insane toy lover who got
their hands on the game, delivered the package and got of there in a flash and felt no need
to tell anyone about it however that would cause trouble.
The Ponies couldn't hide forever, and didn't plan to, they simply didn't wish for Ponyland to
become a tourist attraction.
Night and Day examined the package, read the instructions, figuring it was for them, and
found a hoe, and began to dig a circle around Glendale's city limits, the work going much
faster than they thought it would.
"Hope we don't run out." Said Day, and the salve containing the cure didn't run dry until
they had completed their circle around Glendale, and not once they had been seen by any
except innocent children.
By fate, part of the water system happened to JUST run under part of the circle the Ponies
had made. And no wind would blow by that would disrupt the circle the ponies had made
in service of the church.
+++++++++
Kaylee whispered to her husband in bed, her sister wives asleep like a log, "Dear, when
this all over… let's go on a second honeymoon."
"Eh?"
"I think we need it."
"… I have to agree."
+++++++++
"Hey. Mind if we stay for a while?" Kathy asked to the little lion with tabby like coloring who
had opened his front door for her.
+++++++++
Then the day came. Many had gathered in the townsquare. The cure was in the water
system.
And Father Mike spoke the incantation… and just like that, with no fan fare, no drama, no
last minute surprise, it was done. It was done. The game was dead.