There was a certain feeling to passing through the Grand Terminal that couldn’t really be felt anywhere else. It was a sense of motion and purpose, a press of ponies, mules, griffons, and more that pulsed together to a beat measured in whistles and the hands of great clocks that hung over them like moons from some crazed painting.

Shady Blossom squinted, letting her lashes shade her eyes just enough so that the moving shapes below dimmed in her view, forming blurring lines that snaked their way across the flow, merging and splitting. With a little imagination one could paint the great train station as if it were outdoors, with little rivers washing around hard, blocky terminals and kiosks. The light streaming in through the great arched windows could have been sunlight dappling off a pond. Perhaps I should try my hoof at painting again. A little impressionism never hurt anypony.

“Mom! Do ya see them?” Babs Seed shouted up at Shady as she stood on a bench. Ponies parted around her, giving the rose-maned filly annoyed looks. The girl had a pair of lungs on her that she was not reluctant to use.

Ducking under one of the big clocks hanging from the ceiling and steadying herself with a hoof on the metal latticework, Shady shook her head. “Sorry, dear. I got distracted,” she called back, and scanned the platforms and terminals. Spying a cowboy hat among the mass of equinity, she pointed a hoof, “I can see them over by the tofu stand now.” Unsure if her daughter heard or not, she kept pointing until Babs started moving through the crowd, then dove down to meet her.

Three small heads were peeking over the lid of a food cart, watching long slices of tofu sizzle and pop in a tub of oil in fascination. A burst of hot juice sprayed against the glass shield protecting them, though they darted back in surprise anyway. Regrouping, they clustered around a blonde Earth pony mare in a worn cowboy hat, dumping a few shiny silver bits on the counter.

Finding a reasonably clear space, Shady Blossom gave a quick bark of, “Look out, below!” and flapped her wings, putting herself down by the cart. A surprised colt bounced out of the way, and she offered him a small smile in apology. His stare continued, and she turned away to find the three fillies she had been watching gawking at her. They had little cartons of fried tofu on buns, and the little orange pegasus was happily scarfing hers down, even though her eyes were still locked on to Shady.

“Shucks, girls, clear a path for ponies. Don’cha go blockin’ the way,” the golden-haired mare chided, and chivvied the girls out of Shady’s path. When she saw that the other mare wasn’t moving, however, she squinted up at her and started slightly. Then she grinned, holding a hoof out. “Well, I’ll be! Sorry, Shady Blossom, I plumb didn’t notice you there.”

“How can’t you have?” the pegasus filly protested. “She’s just about the most impossible to miss thing I’ve—”

Thud! The mare’s hoof lodged firmly into her mouth, cutting the rest off. The carton spilled to the ground, with the half-eaten bun splitting.

“Kids these days! Scoot, I am going to tan yer sorry hide, don’t think I won’t, your parents made it crystal clear I was t’make sure you behaved.”

“No, Applejack, it’s all right,” Shady Blossom said, putting a hoof on Applejack’s shoulder. Moving over to the filly, she knelt on her front legs in front of her. Applejack removed her hoof with a little pop. “Scootaloo, right? I’ll bet you haven’t seen somepony like me before.”

“Ah...” the filly murmured, now scrunching down shyly. Her friends were no help, trying to look as innocent as two fillies who had clearly been thinking the exact same thing could be. With her pink tail wrapped around herself, Scootaloo glanced down at the floor. “Once, actually. Back when Princess Luna visited Ponyville for Nightmare Night, last year.”

“Well! That’s more than most ponies, certainly,” Shady said. She laughed softly and tilted her head forward. Tossing her inky mane out of her face, she tilted Scootaloo’s face up with the tip of her hoof to look into her eyes. “I can’t say how grateful I am to you and your friends for helping my Babs out. As far as I’m concerned, you can stare as long as you like.”

The remaining girls were scuffing their hooves and trying not to look directly at Shady. Extending her wings, she touched the tips to their noses, drawing their attention back. “That goes for you girls, too, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle,” she said, her tone warm and inclusive. “I only wish I’d known about the bullying earlier, so you wouldn’t have had so many troubles when she visited, but Babs couldn’t stop talking about how you girls rose to the challenge and made her a part of your lives. You, all three, are little heroes.”

There was a moment of silence, and the girls spoke up. The yellow one with the red mane was first, “Ah’m sorry. I didn’ mean to stare, honest; it ain’ right to judge a pony by how she looks—”

Sweetie Belle was almost on top of her, hopping forward with a contrite look. “I’m really, really, really—”

Laughing again, louder and happier still, Shady Blossom stood, spreading a foreleg and her leathery wings, gesturing them down. “Girls, girls! It’s okay, really. No harm done.”

Applejack chuckled. “They’re good kids. Some of the time, at least.”

“Jeepers, what’s with all the racket?” Babs Seed’s voice broke into the little gathering as the red-maned filly pushed her way among them. “I could hear you lot halfway across the room! Apple Bloom, you ain’ blubberin’ like a lil crybaby again, are ya?” she demanded of her cousin, but her grin belied the words.

Apple Bloom tackled her to the ground at once, and the two fell to play-wrestling on the ground, squealing with joy.

“Hey Babs,” Sweetie Belle said, waving a pale hoof.

“Sup?” Scootaloo asked, picking her spilled tofu off the ground and considering it. Applejack quickly snatched it away and chucked it into a trash bin, returning to the vendor.

“N’much,” Babs slurred, her face smooshed to the ground by Apple Bloom’s hoof. She had her lower legs free, though, and managed to tilt herself and her cousin sideways, then squirmed free. By the time the pair stood up, they were giggling quite enthusiastically.

“We were talking to yer mom. How come y’never mentioned she was a... ahm...” Apple Bloom trailed off, searching for the word.

“Thestral,” Scootaloo supplied.

“What, somethin’ wrong with that?” Babs asked, taking an immediate defensive tone. A leathery wing tucked around her midsection calmed her, and she gazed bashfully up at her mother.

“Nothin’!” Apple Bloom declared, and sounded proud to say it. “I ain’ got nothin’ against no pony. It jus’ surprised me is all! Why, of all of us, Applejack was the one who got all jelly-legged when a zebra came to town, an’—”

“I think that’s enough history lesson for one day, Apple Bloom,” Applejack declared, talking over her sister as she returned. Offering a fresh carton to Scootaloo, she had to snatch her teeth back before the little filly’s enthusiastic chomp nearly took a bite out of her nose. Eager to finish her meal, Scootaloo downed the bun in two bites.

Sweetie Belle, who had been delicately nibbling at hers, turned a delicate shade of green at the sight. “Maybe I’ll finish mine later,” she muttered.

“Aw, shucks. Ain’ you always tellin’ me to do my history homework?” Apple Bloom complained.

“What year was the Ponyville dam laid down?” Applejack asked.

Apple Bloom stared at her sister in mute horror for a moment. Cogitating, she tapped out numbers on the floor with a hoof. “Uh...” she said at last. “A long time ago?”

“See? Then you need to do your history homework.”

“You don’t know what it is, either, I’ll bet!”

“Yup,” Applejack said, grinning. “‘Course, I ain’ in school no more, so I don’t need to remember.”

“They laid the first scaffold in 933. Mayor Sparks commemorated the opening early in 935,” the vendor supplied, leaning out from the side of his cart. “Oh, and you’re blockin’ custom. Scoot.”

“Huh?” Scootaloo asked, looking up.

“Come along,” Shady Blossom said. gesturing with a wing. “Barry should be here by now, girls.” Turning, she trotted through the crowd at a brisk pace, with the no-nonsense look every Manehattanite adopted to get through a crowd without being bumped aside. Her daughter fell back with her friends to chat, while Applejack moved forward to join her.

Though she lacked the look, no pony was inclined to stop a heavily-muscled Earth pony who seemed as though she could plow through a brick wall without noticing it was there, and so the two had no trouble at all clearing a path for the fillies to follow in. “Bit of an awkward first meetin’,” Applejack said.

“Oh, no, it was all right. Actually, I’m glad I got to see it—that was a very sweet little scene. Those little fillies certainly have what it takes to lift anypony’s spirit.”

“Yeah, well, they could stand to be better mannered, still,” Applejack grumbled.

“Not going to argue there, but fillies grow up in their own time,” Shady said, glancing back over her shoulder to watch the girls cantering behind them.

“True enough. Ah suppose I had a lot of growin’ to do, done a lot of it since I left this place last,” Applejack mused as they passed through the concourse and to the wide, broad steps that led out from the shelter of the foyer to the street below.

Under a bright summer sun, the small group spilled onto a wide open area lined with rearing pony statues, on the level just above the street. An elderly griffon was tossing bread crumbs to pigeons, while a couple none-too-subtly snogged from the bench next to his. In front of a tall, free-standing arch, a group of fillies and colts were playing an impromptu game of hoofball. All around them, the streets were filled with teeming masses, ponies walking purposely or running franctically to and fro everywhere, as if every one of them had somewhere to be that was of earth-shattering importance. Carriages pushed and shoved their way through, the drivers harnessed to them shouting at pedestrians, other drivers, and sometimes each other. Embracing them all was the Manehattan skyline, its towering edifices of concrete speaking of wealth and power the ordinary rural pony could never dream of achieving.

Applejack took it all in with one, long look, then grunted sourly. “Ain’t changed much.”

“Perhaps it might surprise you. A lot of things change in ten years,” Shady Blossom suggested.

“Can change the spots on a leopard, don’t make it any less what it is.”

“Mmm, well, I’ve only lived here a few years,” Shady agreed, her tone noncommittal. Spying a red mane among the carriage, she grinned. “My husband would probably know more. Barry loves this city like no other place, almost as much as he loves his family. I’ll bet he could find something even somepony like you could like.”

Meeting Shady’s amusedly challenging gaze with a skeptical one, Applejack snorted and waved her hat in front of her face, as if trying to rid herself of a bad smell. “Place stinks to high heaven and that’s that.”

“We’ll see,” Shady said, lightly. Trotting over to the girls, she arrived just in time to accidentally intercept a spiraling hoofball tossed in her daughter’s direction. Startled, she flared her wings and caught it in one with a neat little gesture, only to find a tide of foals poised to bowl her over. Without time to yelp, she found herself plowed under by tiny bodies.

“Oof,” she complained, after the sea of children had washed off her. Shady could swear that she could hear tiny hoofprints pounding still. A big, shorn hoof with dark green fetlocks presented itself in front of her, and she took it to be hauled up by a powerfully built stallion with a mane of light red hair. “My hero,” she gushed in faux girliness, and tilted her chin up to kiss her husband with decidedly unfeigned affection.

Oblivious to Scootaloo’s gagging, Shady Blossom held her husband so for a time before they parted and nuzzled one another, him at her mane and she at his chin, breathing in one another’s scent before turning to the others. Barry Seed put one huge hoof out and crushed Applejack to him. “There’s my favorite niece! What’re ya doin’, lettin’ my wife get herself trampled like that?” he said, his own thick accent mirroring his daughter’s.

“Gak!” Applejack wheezed at the grip, her ribs creaking.

“Thought as much. Hey, you,” he told his daughter, grinning, “introduce me to your friends, why don’cha?”

“Sure thing, pop,” Babs Seed answered. “This is my cousin Apple Bloom and our friends Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle!” Each of the three fillies, when introduced, hopped on to the back of the pony before her, until Sweetie Belle could extend a hoof at the proper height for shaking the hoof of such a tall pony.

Barry Seed did so, laughing. “So these are the little fillies who started it all. Y’know, I got parents bangin’ on my door about this Crusade of yours, demandin’ t’know what it is and why my lil girl is recruitin’ foals for it.”

“You big oaf,” Shady interrupted, poking her husband in the ribs, “you’re not letting Applejack breathe.”

“Oh! Whoops,” he slackened his grip, letting Applejack free.

Wheezing, she gathered her breath and collected her hat from where it had fallen. Then she cracked Barry in the ribs herself. “Nice to be seein’ you, too, uncle.”

Eyes watering with the effort of not holding his side and keeping down a gasp of pain, he wheezed back, “Apple family legs still work.”

“Your family seems to smack each other around a lot, Babs,” Sweetie Belle observed, confused.

Babs shrugged. “It’s just how we say ‘hello’ around here.”

“Oh, gosh, I should have had Rarity pack me some hoofball pads.”

“Babs is just teasing,” Shady Blossom assured the relatively delicate unicorn. “The Seeds are just a demonstrative folk.” Looking up at the latest member approaching, she amended her statement. “Mostly.”

Deviating strongly from the stocky appearance of her sister and father, Babs’s older sister approached the group on tall legs. A high-stepper, she was thin and graceful, with a long red mane in the same lighter tone of her father sweeping along her knees and a long, straight red tail that was dyed with a blue stripe.

“Hey, all. Sorry to leave the cart, but Dandy’s getting a little antsy, Shady,” she said, with most of the Lower Manehattan accent scrubbed out of her voice. “Hey, Applejack. Girls.”

“Hey, Lin Seed, how ya doin’?” Applejack returned.

“Oh,” Shady Blossom said, fluttering her wings. “Thank you, Lin, I’d better see if she needs feeding again. I swear, she’s insatiable.”

“Healthy appetite!” Barry declared, winking at his wife. Shady batted him with a wing, and leapt off with the sort of speed only a pegasus could manage, clearing the ponies in the way with a single bound and flap of her wings.

“Wait, uhm, why did Lin call you—?” Sweetie Belle asked, but Shady was already carrying herself out of earshot, landing beside the family carriage. Inside were two young foals, just as she had left them. One, curled up on the back seat, looked bored, though his fluffy ears perked up with interest at his mother’s approach, cat-like eyes coming alert. The other, wrapped warmly in a basket, squealed at the sight of her mother and held up a pair of tiny hooves.

Climbing inside, she settled herself and slipped the baby foal out of her basket. “It’s all right, momma’s here, Dandelion,” she cooed, holding her up against her.

“Can we meet the new ponies, momma?” the tiny colt asked, buzzing his little bat wings excitedly. He was far too old now for spontaneous flight—for which Shady Blossom was profoundly grateful, given the trouble a baby pegasus of any sort could get into—and so he stayed where he was.

“Of course, they’ll be here in just a moment,” she reassured, reaching out to ruffle his reddish-blue mane. “You’ll have plenty of time to get to know them, Hop. They’ll be here for a few weeks, after all.”

Hopping over her to the other side of the carriage, he pressed his hooves against the side and peered out. “They’re the Cru... cru,” he struggled.

“Crus...” she prompted, smiling at her son.

“Crusaders?” he asked, eyes wide as he looked at her.

“That’s right!” she congratulated him, and Dandelion made a squealing cheer as well, clapping her tiny hooves. Shady nuzzled his mane, and he tucked himself up against her.

With her daughter calmed and son energized, she got up in time to open the door for a pile of fillies and a teenaged daughter, who squeezed into the front seat in lieu of the driver’s harnesses. Applejack took her place alongside her uncle, and, together, they took off into the street. Barry insulted his fellow drivers good-naturedly, while chatting with Applejack.

In the back, the girls were swaying back and forth with the carriage’s motion as if they were loose marbles on a tilting ship. The Ponyvillians stared up at the enormous Manehattan architecture on one side only to tumble back and gawp at the enormous statuary of the plaza in front of City Hall. Babs Seed delivered commentary, leaning back over the front seat she shared with her older sister. Lin Seed, smiling at the fillies’ antics, added a few points here and there as well, pointing out landmarks Babs was ignoring. Hop, for his part, had lost his nerve and was tucking himself into his mother’s wing to hide.

“Why does everypony wear a hat?”

“It’s just a thing stallions do.”

All of them except for Sweetie Belle. The unicorn’s head was low as she contemplated the floor of the carriage, sitting next to Shady Blossom.

Remembering the filly had wanted to ask her something, Shady deliberated. Well, not many things that question could have been. The question is, do I tell her, or... ah, yes. She offered her unoccupied right wing to the filly. Sweetie Belle glanced up, and allowed herself to scoot closer, and have the wing folded over her shoulders like it was a leg.

“Something the matter?” Shady asked, her tone gentle.

“It’s just, you know...” said Sweetie, glancing away again, albeit clearly for a much different reason than she had at the station. “I was just thinking. Looking at you, and Babs.”

“Tell you what,” Shady murmured, giving her a little squeeze with her wing, “why don’t you ask Babs about it later? I’m sure she’d like the chance to explain to such a good friend. Speaking of, your friends will probably want to share this trip with you. Don’t spend that time worrying about a grown mare, all right?”

“Well,” Sweetie glanced down, where Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were toppling over one another to try and get a look at one of the tallest buildings in Manehattan, glimpsed over a pair of shorter buildings.

“Sweetie, come look at this! Wow, that place must be awesome to fly from!” Scootaloo gushed.

“It is,” Shady Blossom assured her. “Maybe I’ll take you up sometime, if Applejack says it’s okay.”

“Really? Great!” Scootaloo leapt up, buzzing her wings. Sweetie Belle had to catch her tail in her teeth to keep her from flying out the window, and then both of them fell down to where Apple Bloom was, landing in a pile.

I do so love kids. Shady Blossom giggled, and tucked her daughter against herself, watching the girls’ antics cheerfully.

---

Hop Seed rode into the front room of the family brownstone on his father’s head, the stallion pretending to buck and stumble while the colt squealed with delight, flapping his tiny wings for balance. Outside, carrying her foal, Shady Blossom was shepharding the girls out of the carriage and up the steps.

Applejack waited with Lin Seed on the sidewalk, her eyes wandering up and down the neighborhood, lingering on the healthy trees growing in little patches of earth interspaced here and there. “Seems I remember this place being a bit more rundown, last I saw.”

“Gentrification,” Lin Seed said, sounding distinctly pleased. “We’re probably one of the few families to move up with it, actually. There’s some nice little shops around here now.”

“Well, can’t say I can complain about family gettin’ a good break,” Applejack admitted.

“There’s some nice parks here, too, and a nice school opened up a couple blocks down,” Shady Blossom added.

“Where Babs got teased so mercilessly,” Lin Seed muttered, kicking a loose bit of pavement. “I still cannot believe I didn’t notice.”

“None of us did,” Shady told her, and glanced to Applejack. “Babs would come home most days pretending nothing was wrong. Even when we did notice she was feeling down, she made up stories—minor things, so we wouldn’t worry.”

“‘Till you did notice and sent her my way?” Applejack asked, starting up the stairs.

“Walked in on her getting teased by some of the girls who had their cutie marks,” Shady confirmed. “Thanks again, by the way.”

“You already thanked her twice, Shady,” Lin Seed pointed out, as she joined her cousin.

“Can’t do it enough,” Shady Blossom asserted.

“It did get her to open up a lot more, though,” Lin admitted.

Applejack waved it off, and held the door open for them. “Shucks, y’all are gonna make me blush. Just call it family lookin’ out for family.”

Within the cozy embrace of the living room, the girls had already donned their capes. Apple Bloom flared hers dramatically a few times, seeming to be practicing the move. “I can’ wait to see the other foals you got to join, Babs. I wanna be there to officially open up the Manehattan Chapter of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.”

“I thought she already did that?” Sweetie Belle asked. The little unicorn still looked a little concerned, but it was clear that spending time with her friends was recharging her.

Scootaloo scoffed. “Yeah, yeah, but it’s not official until we’re there to present them with their capes.”

Shady Blossom beamed to see Babs looking so excited with her friends. There was a sight that had become hard to come by. Depositing her infant in a cradle by the door to the kitchen, she said, “You can meet Babs’s new friends tomorrow, girls. It’s such a nice day, your father and I thought we should take you girls out to see Coneigh Island.”

Three sets of eyes glanced at one another in confusion, but Blossom’s daughter practically sprang into the air with glee, bouncing around the others. “Coneigh Island! Yes! Ye’re the best, mom!”

“What’s ‘Coneigh Island?’” Sweetie Belle squeaked, curiously.

“Only the best place! You guys gotta see it. It’s like a beach, see, except there’s awesome rides and great snacks and tons and tons of games and other cool stuff.”

“Ah don’ think I’ve ever even seen the ocean,” Apple Bloom said, a tinge of awe entering her voice. Her cousin’s enthusiasm was infectious, and before long all four fillies were bouncing around the living room, singing in dubiously keyed voices about what they imagined they might find. Even Hop Seed, who had been watching in fascination from the couch, joined in, the toddler bouncing along behind the girls.

Lin Seed and the adult ponies all moved into the kitchen. Busying herself, Shady Blossom went over to a rack by the hall and started taking down coats to pack into her saddlebags.

“I don’t think we’ll be needing those, Blossom,” Lin Seed objected. “There’s no scheduled rains for a few days.”

“Never hurts to be prepared. The weather team sometimes surprises ponies, especially if some big wig wants to shuffle around rain and sun days for some unexpected event. Remember the time your dance class was caught out in the park during a rescheduled thunderstorm?”

Lin Seed made a face, while Applejack snorted. “Don’t remind me. One of ma best friends is the weather captain back in Ponyville, and ah swear she doesn’t know what she’s going to do from one day to the next. She changes her mind more times than Rarity changes her outfits.”

“I was hoping she’d come, too,” Lin Seed said. “I’ve always wanted to meet her. Ever since her designs hit the market in Canterlot, she’s been a household name among the girls in school.”

“Well, you know how it is for some careers—big event came up and she couldn’t miss it. If there’s a bad week at the farm, I may not even be able to stay as long as ah’d planned,” Applejack said, sounding rather hopeful.

“Ah, come on now, AJ,” Barry Seed said, prodding her. “Ya won’t be disappointed, I swear. There’s more ways to live in Manehattan than my cousins would have you believe.”

“Eh,” Applejack grunted. “Besides, Rarity said she’d try to make it in a week or two. Mayhaps she’ll be more excited about the city.”

“Speaking of,” Lin Seed said, “when were we planning to hook up with the Oranges? Weren’t they going down to Cape Sod?”

“March’s Vineyard,” Barry corrected, rolling his eyes. “Hob-knobbin’ with the summer crowd from Canterlot.”

Applejack made a face. “Perfect waste of good cropland. I swear, you could feed Manehattan from that island alone.”

“But we don’t have a food shortage here,” Lin Seed said.

“Ain’ the point!”

Still busying herself, Blossom poured each of them a glass of apple juice, and slid them onto a tray on her back. Her husband gave her a bemused look, though he took one of the drinks. “Don’t tire yourself out already, hon. Day’s barely started.”

“Sorry, can’t help it. Mommy thing,” she said, giggling, and took one for herself once the mares had their own.

“Actually, speaking of crops, is that loam I smell?” Applejack said, sniffing the air. She pushed open a door near the back of the kitchen. Shady Blossom winced, and moved to join her. Taking the place of the tiny, insignificant backyard most houses of this sort had was a little greenhouse, the top and back covered in glass, slightly dirtied from the frequent rain.

“Oh, for the love of Celestia... Barry, have you been mutilating plants again?” Applejack scoffed, taking the opportunity to rib her uncle. “I’d call it a metaphor for something, but really, I think you just stink at raisin’ anything that grows out of the ground.”

“Yeah. Seems I’m better at raising kids than crops,” Shady Blossom said, stepping in after her.

Applejack stiffened. “Uh.” Her eyes tracked back, coming to rest on Shady’s flank. A trio of blooming white flowers rested there, their stems tied together.

“It’s my garden, yes,” Shady confirmed, stepping in. She let a wingtip brush one of the wilting flowers, and gave her a wan smile. “I used to have a really beautiful garden in Canterlot. This one is being a lot more stubborn. Once the girls are back in school I hope to give it proper care and attention.”

“It’s okay,” Barry said, tucking his wife against him. “She’s a fantastic cook. Also, drop-dead gorgeous, did I mention that?”

“Once a day. I wouldn’t mind hearing it more often, either,” Blossom purred.

“Get a room, you two,” Lin Seed groaned, rolling her eyes.

“There’s an idea,” Barry agreed, grinning wider.

“Nuh uh,” Shady protested. “No way. I have four little fillies to take to Coneigh Island, buster. Besides, somepony needs to get something from the corner drugstore so that some poor, beleaguered mother doesn’t end up pregnant unexpectedly. Again.”

“I dunno, doesn’t sound like such a bad idea to me!”

“You try flying with an infant on your back and another in your belly. See how you like it.”

Blushing brightly, Applejack fled the garden with Lin Seed.

Shady Blossom giggled, glancing up at her husband. “That’s adequate payback for the crack about my garden, I think.”

“I’d like to continue that conversation about you bearin’ my foals again.”

Batting her husband with a wing, she started out, only to get a swat on her own rear. “Oh, you are so in trouble,” she promised.

“Lookin’ forward to it!”

---

With Hop Seed and Dandelion Seed dropped off at a playdate, the Seed family and their guests piled back into the carriage and took off towards the ocean. The girls were almost disappointed not to see any large buildings on their way, with Lin explaining that all of that sort of construction is limited to Uptown and a few other commercial centers near the wharfs.

They perked up when they crossed one of the smaller suspension bridges. Indeed, the traffic was so thick—with everypony else taking advantage of the nice day to visit—that Shady Blossom opened the doors and walked out with them. “We’ll meet you down by the ferris wheel,” she told her husband.

“Go on with them,” Barry insisted to Applejack, “I can move this thing on my own, especially if everypony is so callously abandoning me.”

Applejack rolled her eyes. “Fine, fine. Guess it won’t hurt to see what all the fuss is about,” she agreed, and gazed ahead at the great wheel rising over the low shops and amusements, along with a great wooden rollercoaster lined against the late morning blue sky. “Looks kinda like a county fair, actually.”

“Not far off,” Shady agreed. “Didn’t the Oranges ever take you down here? I know it was around back then.”

“They made it sound like I’d be robbed and foalnapped within minutes if I so much as looked at it. In hindsight, ah probably shouldn’a been that gullible.”

“Good foals listen, don’t they?” Shady Blossom asked the girls. All four fillies grinned up at her with the most innocent little smiles—halos could have popped over their heads if they had been a smidgen more sweet looking. Naturally, she didn’t believe them for a minute.

Indeed, as they started across the bridge’s walkway, Applejack had to haul Scootaloo back from the rail of the bridge by her teeth on one occasion. The filly had become fascinated by a pair of colorful yachts passing underneath, and appeared to have an alarming lack of concern for heights for one who hadn’t yet developed the wing power to fly.

Evading the carriages trying to park, the group approached the entrance. It was a great arch, glittering with lights and evoking all of the glamour of a movie. Four great spoked wheels were bolted to the gate, festively colored and glowing with neon light. Ticketmaster booths lined the center column, and large queues were stretching across the field. Many ponies were simply bypassing it—the tickets were all for specific rides or attractions, to help cut down the lines deeper inside, not to enter the park.

Slowing to a halt, Lin tugged on Blossom’s bags for a moment. “I see some friends of mine in line. How about I get some tickets, we can meet up later?”

“Sure. Let’s say...” Shady tapped a hoof against the ground in thought. “The ferris wheel, the Wonderbolt ride, and how about the Luna ship?”

Applejack dodged a pair of colts rushing by with massive cotton candy balls. “Luna ship?” she asked, as Lin Seed nodded and stepped off to join a group of young mares already in line.

“Oh yeah,” Babs said, hopping up, “It’s great! There’s this big ship, see, and it’s got wings like the princess, and it takes you up to see that moon!”

Blanching, Applejack looked ahead. “That sounds all sorts of wrong.”

“Oh, it’s all right. After Nightmare Night last year, Luna said she wanted ponies to remember her fondly. Some entrepreneur took that very seriously, and made a whole park devoted to her. I think it’s lovely, if a little commercial,” Shady Blossom announced.

“Yeah, I bet. I mean, all that tradition with the thestrals, it’s gotta feel pretty close to home, right?” Scootaloo asked, and then thought better of it, lowering her ears. “Uhm, not that I mean to imply anything... I just think thestrals are cool...”

“I told you, I don’t mind,” Shady said, tapping her chin again to lift her head. “Besides, it is rather nice seeing ponies appreciate the moon rather than being afraid or uncertain, and the foals love it. Though, again, it is very commercial.”

“You mean awesome! C’mon, let’s go!” Babs demanded, tugging her mother’s tail. Shady laughed, gesturing her on with a wing. “All right, though we need to wait for Lin to get tickets, first. Why don’t we go down to the boardwalk, play some of the games?”

The fillies looked between one another, and then, as if it had been coordinated beforehand, they clapped their hooves together and shouted, “Cutie Mark Crusader Game Masters, go!”

“What—?”

Applejack hauled Shady Blossom out of the way, before the four girls could accidentally plow her under. They were off like a shot, barreling through the crowd towards the beach. “Best just to let them get it outta their system.”

Following their wake of displaced ponies, Blossom shook her head in wonderment. “How in the world do you deal with this every day?”

“Mostly? By giving them a tree house so they don’t wreck the farm, and warning ponies when they get particularly crazy. You can rein them in once they’ve tired themselves out. After a while, they figure out they haven’t gotten their cutie marks and get disappointed.”

“How long does that take?”

“Oh, dependin’ on what they’re doing... four to six hours.”

“...oh dear.”



Damage control for four overly energetic fillies ended up taking up most of Applejack and Shady Blossom’s time, which left them little opportunity to talk. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were up and down the boardwalk, bouncing up and down with abandon as they participated in as many games as their meager allotment of bits allowed them, stuffed themselves on candy apples, popcorn, cotton candy, and gallons of soda. Indeed, it was during their little food coma that the two mares finally had a chance to settle down.

Glancing over at the older of her two nieces, Blossom wondered how she was going to get Applejack to open up. For all that she clearly had her life together, what with running her own farm, raising her sister, and even saving Equestria on at least two occasions that Shady knew of, it was clear that Manehattan was a difficult place for her to be.

Not that I don’t know what it’s like to feel trepidation in a place that holds ugly memories, she reflected, sighing. Babs, who was laying on the bench against her, stretched and yawned, rolling off. Apple Bloom joined her, the two looking at a curtained off area which displayed a number of fish with three marks down their sides, all of them marching around to a small flap. Every so often, a griffon or even a diamond dog would push the flap open and enter or leave. A young dragon popped out with a huge sack thrown over one shoulder.

“What’s that place about?” Apple Bloom asked, pointing a hoof. “I don’t see any ponies going in there.”

“Oh, uh...” Babs said, and hesitated, looking uncomfortable. “You don’t wanna go in there. Ain’ really a place for ponies, y’know.”

“Why’s that?” Apple Bloom asked, the light of curiosity burning in her eyes.

“They sell fish in there.”

“Oh? That sounds cool, why wouldn’t I want to see that?”

When Babs looked too uncomfortable to continue, Shady Blossom rose, but Applejack beat her to the punch. “Because the fish they sell are dead, Apple Bloom. It’s a food court.”

The fillies immediately went shades of white and then green as they contemplated that, their eyes focusing on the cheerful fish curtains in horror.

“Remember that talk about not judging ponies—or anyone else, for that matter—about their oddities?” Shade reminded them, gently.

“Yeah, but...” Scootaloo protested, at a loss.

“Winona eats fish, too,” Applejack said. “You know that, Apple Bloom. We get it processed in cans, but you don’t think we’d let poor little dogs and cats across Equestria starve, would ya? Besides, fish don’t talk the same way even woodland critters do. You can ask Fluttershy, she’ll tell ya.”

“I guess,” Apple Bloom admitted, glumly, and kicked a discarded can with a hoof. As she contemplated, a new light went up in her eyes, and she lifted her head to speak.

“No,” Applejack commanded, stuffing a hoof into her mouth. “No Cutie Mark Crusader Fish Liberators. I ain’ lettin’ you get thrown in jail.”

“I guess that would be kinda wrong, too. I mean, if we took their fish away, some of them would have to go eat other animals, wouldn’t they?” Scootaloo pointed out. “Best they stick to the ones that don’t have the same sort of, uh... specialness that other critters do. And if we stopped them from eating all critters, they’d starve.”

“See? Not so hard,” Shady encouraged, ruffling Scootaloo’s pink mane. The young pegasus beamed up at her. “Now go scamper off, and remember, we’re meeting in front of the ferris wheel with Dad and Lin, so don’t go too far.”

Needing no further encouragement, the Crusaders zipped off, leaving little trails behind them as they went in search of fun.

“Ye’re a good mom, Shady,” Applejack offered, in the silence that fell between them.

“I try. You’re not so bad yourself, Applejack,” Blossom replied, beaming back at her.

“Shucks,” Applejack muttered, kicking the same can her little sister had a moment ago, then picking it up and turfing it into a trash bin. “I just try to do right by Apple Bloom and those girls. Ain’ always easy, lemme tell you. Sometimes, they just go haring off, doing things I can’t understand.”

“I know how you feel. Lin Seed, well... she needs a mom, I can tell, but I don’t know if I can ever be that for her.”

“When my folks, well...” Applejack took her hat off, glancing up at the cloudless sky for a moment. “It ain’ easy, not on young fillies nor old ones. Ain’ easy on big, strong stallions, either.”

“You all have each other, though, and you have your friends. I don’t know much about the things that you do, Applejack, but from what I’ve heard, those mares will support you through anything.”

“Heh, you ain’ wrong,” Applejack said, smiling.

“Though, I bet you wish you were back there with them,” Blossom murmured, testing the waters.

Applejack didn’t immediately brush her off, though she did go a little stiff. “A little, yeah, Farm’s waiting for me, and I know Big Mac can handle most of it, but it ain’ really his temperament, you know? He don’t like managin’ things—prefers to let the world flow around him, y’know.”

“Well, not really, we haven’t met yet, but from what I’ve heard he sounds like he’s very thoughtful. Still, this place must be tough to come back to.”

“See you won’t be deterred,” Applejack muttered.

Shady Blossom tucked her wings at her sides, scraping the ground. “It’s okay, we don’t have to—”

“Nah,” she brushed it off, with a slightly forced dismissal. “It was just filly stuff is all.”

“Sometimes, the things in our foalhood are very important to us when we’re mares,” Shady Blossom murmured. She was keenly aware of the fact that she had only, perhaps, the greater portion of a decade on the other mare, but she wasn’t going to let the chance to talk to her slip by.

“S’pose so. I just thought I could fit in, like I could... belong here,” Applejack said. They both turned to look at the Manehattan skyline. The Orange family penthouse faced west, which meant they were looking at it from the wrong angle, but the meaning was hardly lost on either of them.

“Who’s to say you coudn’t have?” Blossom asked, drawing a look from her niece. She smiled. “I think you have it in you to be anypony you like, Applejack, and probably did back then as well. I don’t know what drew you back, but they’re family the same as Barry and the same as Big Mac and your grandmother. Think about it—maybe you would have had a positive influence on them?”

Applejack snorted. “Not likely. They were drivin’ me crazy, with all their fancy, stuck up rules. ‘Twas Rainbow Dash that brought me back. She lit up the sky with a sonic rainboom, and it was like a call home for me. I knew I belonged there, then.”

“What drew you to Manehattan in the first place, then? Surely it must have been something.”

Looking embarrassed, Applejack glanced away. “Movies, really. Stories. Glamour. I wanted to be a big pony in a big world.”

“A starry-eyed filly dreaming of making it big?” Shady asked, giggling.

“Laugh it up, cat-eyes,” Applejack muttered, hiding her eyes under her hat. It couldn’t hide her rosy blush, though, nor the way she scrunched her face up.

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that! Heck, that’s why I came here from Canterlot. Of course, I didn’t have connections like you did—I thought I could break in somehow.”

“Guess that didn’t work out too well?”

Blossom cocked her head. “Well, yes and no. On the one hand, I was one of the only thestrals auditioning, so I got parts all right. Plays, a couple short movies. Problem was that they were all, you know, typecast sorts of roles. Casting directors didn’t really see me as leading lady potential, if you get my drift.”

“Anypony who doesn’t see you and my uncle together would, maybe,” Applejack said, snorting. Still, she looked intrigued. “Is that how you met him?”

“Pretty much. I was upset because I was cast as yet another two-bit villain. My friend took me down here, actually, to cheer me up. She was trying to point out that if the director and the audience liked me, that if I made a good impression, I might be able to break into better roles. More villain roles, of course, but once you have a little leverage in the business you can push people around a bit, yourself.”

“So, what, you met in a bar down here?”

“Again, getting ahead of yourself,” Blossom chided, waggling a hoof at her with a grin. “Actually, he was working janitor. You know, to help pay for the schooling, one of about a dozen jobs, after his wife died.”

“And he swept you off your feet?” Applejack asked, grinning.

Blossom socked her one for that pun. “Totally didn’t notice him, actually! It sounds like a play, when I talk about it now, come to think of it: out-of-his-league actress, the earnest part-timer. I swear I had a bit role in a movie like that, once. Anyway, he basically made a nuisance of himself. Telling me I was the prettiest actress he’d ever seen and that, not only should I be the leading lady in a play, but he’d come see every one of my showings.”

“Ah, I get it. Naturally, y’told him he was a punk and to get lost.”

“Of course! He’s five years older than me, had a corny accent, and looked like he’d just blown in off the street,” Shady said, and then grinned wider. “But here we are talking about me when I asked you all about your past. You can hear me gushing about how Barry and I bagged each other later.”

“Now that’s just no fair,” Applejack protested, stamping a hoof. “I was gettin’ into the story!”

“Tough beans, sister. Call it incentive for you to make up for your end of it!”

“Fine, fine,” Applejack grumbled, putting her hat back on. For all that she made it sound like it was a great imposition, though, Shady Blossom could see that sharing her story had allowed her niece room to breathe. Doubtless, it had also helped her feel closer to Blossom, which was important, given how little they knew about one another.

If there was one thing that Applejack couldn’t resist, it was family, after all.

“Yeah, I guess I could have made it work. Maybe if I had gotten to know Barry Seed and my other family here a bit better, and had a chance to even out all the froo-froo stuff with more normal things...”

Taking a leap of faith, Shady Blossom leapt into the silence Applejack had trailed off into. “You feel like it’s all been a big missed opportunity. That if you had just stuck it out, you could have made a life for yourself here, and you’re wondering what it would have been like if you had. Maybe, you’re even wondering if it would have been better for you.”

Applejack’s head jerked up, stricken. For a moment, Blossom worried she had gone too far. The look in her eyes was so conflicted, it made her wonder if she had crossed a line, or perhaps insulted her niece.

“Haunted by the past... heh,” she muttered, glancing at the wood panels under their hooves. “Well... it’s complicated. No, stop lookin’ at me like that, I ain’ mad. Ye didn’ strike me as the kind to come out and jus’ say somethin’ like that.”

“We can talk about something else,” Shady offered again, quickly.

“No, it wouldn’t be, y’know, terribly honest of me if’n I just hushed it up. How do you say it?” she asked. “It’s a bit of everything. Jus’ a big jumble I haven’t looked at in so long.”

“And here you are, being confronted with it every day,” Shady murmured, offering a sympathetic hoof, which Applejack accepted.

“Don’t get me wrong, I am glad I didn’t become a namby elitist,” Applejack said, giving a disgusted look. “I’ve seen that sort, before and since, here and in Canterlot, and it ain’ for me. That’s not the sort of life I could live. I’m especially glad I got to meet up with all my friends in Ponyville. Maybe the world could have found another Element, but that would have made me the one left short for not knowin’ them.”

Searching the skyline, though, she did exhale heavily. “Still, sometimes ah wonder if perhaps there was a way to do it all. Hold on to being ma’self and also bein’ somethin’ a little more, y’know... heh, there’s this unicorn back in Canterlot, by the name of Fancypants. For all his name is ridiculous, and he does things I think are plain boring, he has the air of a pony who is totally in control. He sets his own rules in the upper class world, and he makes it bend to him, rather than the other way ‘round.”

“Perhaps it’s not too late,” Shady Blossom encouraged. “You’re the scion of a big farming empire, you’re close to the Princess. I can’t imagine it would be too hard to break into any scene you chose on those credentials.”

“Eh,” Applejack waved it off. “That’s all in the past now. Ah’m a diff’rent pony now. I’ve seen big parties like the Gala and the junk Rarity gets up to. Ain’ my scene.”

“Not even if you can make your own rules?”

“I won’ drag my connection with the Princess into it, neither,” Applejack said, quickly. “That’s personal, between her and my friends and me.”

“No, but you were seen at the Gala, and with this Fancypants character. You do also have other connections, like the Oranges still, and the extended Apple family.”

“It ain’—” Applejack paused, as they heard something from further down the boardwalk. This in itself was normally a difficult task, for Coneigh Island was noisy at the best of times, let alone on a crowded sunny day, but this was a noise that had special importance to both of them: fillies scuffling.

“Stop, stop!” Sweetie Belle was shouting, crying helplessly as she watched her friends. They were in the middle of a ferocious tussle with what looked like a griffon and a slightly older pegasus filly. As it was three-on-two, the fight wasn’t going well for the pair, but Shady Blossom and Applejack weren’t exactly inclined to see how it would play out. They immediately dove into the wrestling ponies, prying them apart with hooves and teeth.

Shady Blossom was worried she might have to sit on her daughter to keep her from getting back into the fight, but she collapsed against her mother’s legs instead, sniffling. Tears were steaming down her face, and she pushed her head into Blossom’s chest. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, for their part, were trying to fling themselves back at the two girls while Applejack sat on both of their tails. The griffon was nursing a shiner, while the pegasus favored one of her hind legs, glaring daggers at the other girls.

“Fine! Hide behind your monster, she’s not your real mommy anyway!” the pegasus shouted, flaring her little wings to take off. The griffon blanched a little, but quickly clawed into the air after her friend, leaving the confused adults behind.

“What happened?” Applejack demanded of her fuming sister.

“Excuse me,” a somewhat older stallion said, stepping forward and rubbing his mustache nervously. “I don’t mean to intrude, but I saw how it started. I was stepping in, but you two were on top of ‘em right quick, had ‘em apart in a flash of light.”

“Ain’t right,” a mare could be heard murmuring, but in response to what was unclear, as she and most of the crowd moved along.

Shady Blossom slid a foreleg around her daughter. “Thank you, sir, I think I’d like to hear it from their mouths, first,” she said, and looked down at Babs. She nuzzled her mane for a moment, soothing her. “You heard the nice man, Babs. I can hear it from him or I can hear it from you.”

“That witch called you a monster, twice!” Scootaloo growled, beating her wings furiously, as if she hoped to overcome gravity and chase them down in spite of Applejack’s grip on her.

“You are my mom,” Babs insisted, pulling her face away. “I-I don’ care what anypony says! I d-don’t c-care if you aren’t my birth mom! I’ll do it again, I-I’ll—” she broke off, sniffling and pressing her face against Shady Blossom again.

“And you’re my daughter,” Shady Blossom said, her own voice a little thick. “My little girl. My Babs.”

“Well, ah’m sure y’all had a good reason, but that ain’ excusin’ the fact that y’all started a fight,” Applejack said, grimly. “We’re goin’ back to the house, right now.”

“No!” Sweetie Belle cried, leaping forward and skidding in front of Applejack. “I started it, I did! Send me home, don’t send them home!” It couldn’t have been more painfully obvious that she was trying to make up for not leaping to her friends’ defense. Applejack didn’t look like she was having any of it, either.

“No, it was me!” Babs Seed said, pulling away from her mother, looking up at the mares desperately.

Glancing between each other, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo raised their hooves.

“Ah did it.”

“No, me, I started it! Stupid ugly face, couldn’t help myself.”

Shady Blossom couldn’t help herself. She started to laugh. The fillies all looked mortified, but they kept it up anyway, each one trying to take the blame onto herself so her friends wouldn’t be stuck going home. “What do you say, Mister?” she directed at the bystander. “Who started this little fight?”

He looked between the four crying girls, and adjusted his hat. “Ma’am. Those two girls who were so gosh darned unkind started it. Said you were a monster, that they were all blank flanks, and then threw the first punch. Celestia’s truth.”

Liar. Sweet, blessed liar.

Applejack rolled her eyes. Shady Blossom met her gaze, quirking a smile. Her niece heaved a sigh. “Fine. But if it happens again, ah’m chuckin’ ya all into a barrel and nailing the lid shut, no matter who started it, y’hear me?”

The four fillies swarmed Applejack, hugging her. They then tackled the tourist and Shady Blossom in turn. “My little heroes,” she said, giggling, and kissing their little heads. “Defending my honor like that. Why, I wouldn’t be surprised if that earned you your cutie marks.”

Gasping, all four girls turned to examine their sides. When confronted with equally blank expanses of hair, though, they drooped. Taking the advantage, Blossom rose and nudged them with her wings, drawing them close. “Don’t worry. Just keep it up. You girls are on the right track. One day, you’ll all find where you belong... and you’ll do it together, because you’re all such great friends.”

Applejack rolled her eyes again, but grinned this time. “Is being a good mom all cheap tricks?”

“Some of them are very expensive, but a good heart carries you through life better than material goods, anyway,” Shady Blossom answered, sweetly.

“Okay, now I know ye’re tryin’ to make me gag.”

“Guilty!” Shady admitted. “All right, girls, let’s go see Barry and Lin. They’re probably waiting for us.”

“Yay!”



“So, why did we go through all the trouble of meeting at the ferris wheel if we’re actually going to ride it last?” Lin asked, as they filed into line at Luna Park. Ahead, the park itself was sheltered in a vast tent, with an enormous expanse of canvas covering the area within.

“You really can’t beat sunset on a ferris wheel, at least if you don’t have an airship handy,” Barry insisted. He winked at his wife. “Of course, you won’t really fully appreciate it until you have a very special somepony to share it with.”

Lin Seed tossed her long mane, harumphing. “I’d have a very special somepony if it weren’t for an overprotective father who growls when boys come anywhere near me.”

“The last guy had a black denim jacket. Didn’t trust him.”

“And Pierre? He came from a great family!”

“Too fancy. Didn’t trust him.”

“So my boyfriends can be neither too low, nor too high, can they?”

“Well, sure, but they also can’t be too average. My princess deserves the best.”

Seeing the Crusaders start to perk up, Applejack glowered at them. “No, not after the Cheerilee and Big Mac incident, and ah’m still watchin’ you lot. Meddlin’ with special someponies oughta be the last thing on yer lil minds.”

“Aww,” they complained, pouting.

Giving each other confused looks, the elder Seeds decided not to inquire further. Shady Blossom, at the least, was looking forward to Luna Park, as she always did. Spying her enthusiasm, Applejack poked her. “I thought you said this was kitschy.”

“Mmm, well, yes,” she agreed, but couldn’t keep herself from grinning. “Yet it’s my kind of kitschy. You have to understand, this is the sort of stuff I grew up listening to—every young thestral hears the tales growing up. The Tale of the Lost Comet? I still read that to my babies when they’re sleepy. The Tears of the Night Mother can still make me cry, and you wouldn’t believe how you can move a bar full of us with a rousing telling of the War in the Stars.”

“She’s not lying. I saw an old man with one eye get up and dance near the climax. It was terrifying,” Barry concurred.

“It’s like a trip back into my foalhood—all the best and brightest parts of it. And you know the best part? It’s all in the dark, with the only light no stronger than moonlight. You can’t really tell the stories in broad daylight,” Blossom sighed happily. “The sun is nice, but it chases away all of the mystery. The most beautiful flowers are the ones that bloom at night, not in the light of day.”

“You can’t stop her when she gets like this,” her husband said in a stage whisper to the others. “She can wax poetic for hours.”

“You’re still not off the hook for earlier, mister.”

Lin Seed rolled her eyes, presenting her ticket to the stand and collecting a token, one that resembled a full moon. “It’s all right. I still prefer Dreamland.”

“Oh, sure, if you like raging fires and hammy actors,” Shady scoffed.

“Considering her recent boyfriends? I think she does,” Barry agreed.

“Ugh!” Lin protested, tossing her mane again as she strode inside.

Within, it was light being in a little village. Storefronts and little houses marched along their streets. The tent canvas blocked out the sun as promised, and hung from it were dozens of lights, forming constellations, while in the very center hung a radiant clock, its faces as bright as the moon and bathing visitors in its gentle radiance. Night flowers, with their sweet fragrance, bloomed everywhere, and some ponies clearly found it so relaxing they lay together on the grass and simply talked, cuddling together in the semi-darkness.

As always, there were more than a few thestrals, some strolling, others gliding along, taking in a bit of the pleasing atmosphere before they had to thrust themselves back under the harsh glare of night. For once, Shady Blossom didn’t feel like she was being judged for walking with her own family, pressing close to her husband and drinking in the sensation.

“You’ll always be my night blossom,” he murmured into her ear. It made her feel as if she was floating, lifted up on a cloud of warmth and love.

“Mom, jeeze,” Babs Seed said, reaching up to grab her mother’s black tail and haul her back down by her teeth.

“Oh!” Shady gasped, putting her hooves back on the ground and blushing. “Sorry, just got a little carried away.”

They all laughed, and, together, went into the park.



It seemed as if the day couldn’t be more full. Walking along behind tireless fillies, Shady Blossom felt light-headed, her feet and wings sore. It was a good soreness, though, a pleasant sensation of family that left her feeling whole and complete. With her husband at her side, her niece to talk to, and even her stepdaughter being pleasantly good-natured, it was hard to think of any way it could have been improved. After swimming in the beach for a while to cool off, they were all about ready to go home.

The ferris wheel was one good option. With the sun lowering towards the horizon, it was getting to be the perfect time to ride it, which meant that they’d have to get into line very early indeed to catch the perfect window of opportunity.

Another good option, though, would have been sleep. Looking at the line and the amount of time she’d need to spend on her feet, Shady contemplated the benefits and flaws of waiting. On the one hoof, it would be a nice bit of time spent with Barry Seed, and she could tip the operator to pause them at the top so they could cuddle. On the other hoof, with her yawning loudly, that would probably not be terribly romantic.

“Shady? Shady Blossom, is that you?” a mare’s voice called, sparing her from further contemplation.

In fact, it perked her up immediately, seeming to drain some of the fatigue from her bones. “My ears must be failing,” Blossom declared, rubbing at one of them. “I swear I just heard an old ghost.”

“Who is it, ma?” Babs asked, surprised. A unicorn mare, her curly mane hanging off one shoulder, approached the group and met Shady Blossom in a hug.

“Look at you!” the unicorn declared, looking her up and down. “You know, it’s funny, I swear your last letter had claimed you were pregnant, but by the stars I call you a liar. You’re as trim and fit as a girl.”

“Twice, in fact,” Shady declared, and smiled at the others. “This is an old friend of mine from the theater, Velvet Curtain.”

“We’ve met,” Barry said. “As I recall, you referred to me as a leering layabout.”

“I was absolutely correct, too,” Velvet Curtain agreed, waving at the others. “I can’t believe my luck, running into you like this. Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friends and family?”

“Of course! This is Babs Seed, my daughter,” Blossom said, tucking a hoof about the filly’s side. “This is her cousin, Apple Bloom, and her friends Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Applejack here is Apple Bloom’s big sister, she’s a farmer from out in Ponyville.”

“Hey,” Applejack said, keeping her distance for now, watching the others.

“And my other daughter, Lin Seed,” she said. Lin let it pass, smiling at Velvet. “My other foals are back with some neighbors, a little young for Coneigh Island.”

“They must be darling,” Velvet beamed. “You know, for a long time, I thought you were crazy for leaving the theater, but seeing these faces I don’t have to wonder any more. You look so happy you could burst, dear, and I’m glad for you.”

Shady Blossom blushed, rubbing the back of her head. “Yeah, well, the first pregnancy was just such a surprise, and then there were all these family emergencies. It would have been impossible to hold down a rehearsal schedule, really. Always did want to go back, but the time never seemed right.” She glanced back at her family, and beamed. “I’m pretty much over it now, though.”

“No, don’t make excuses. You’re doing a beautiful job and I can see that,” Velvet said, waving her down. “It’s hard enough to keep going, sometimes. I’m glad you found something worthwhile.”

“You know, it’s funny,” Applejack spoke up. “My aunt here was just tellin’ me about how y’shouldn’t let opportunities fly by, even if you feel like ye’re too old and busy to do it.”

“Oh, did she?” Velvet asked, grinning. “So, not pining for the stage at all, are we?”

Shady Blossom stared back at Applejack. Her niece put on an innocent look, crossing both sets of legs in a cocky posture. You traitor!

“Sweet, mom, ye’re goin’ back into theater?” Babs asked.

“You’re an actress?” Sweetie Belle squeaked, her eyes going wide.

“Well, I was—”

“She was in a coupla movies and everythin’!” Babs told her friends. “Ah’ve got ‘em all back at home.”

“Wow, really? Ah can hardly believe it, that’s so cool,” Apple Bloom gushed.

“Yeah, she was a villain and everything!”

“Awesome!” Scootaloo said, grinning.

Hooking a leg through one of Shady Blossom’s own, Velvet Curtain looked at her old friend thoughtfully. “You definitely still have the look. Tell you what, why don’t you come talk to some friends of mine? We’re just getting some drinks down at the waterfront. A few actors, some set designers, and a director from Applewood.”

Against her will, Shady’s ears perked. “Applewood?” she asked, a little breathless in spite of herself.

“Applewood,” Velvet repeated, the words possessing a magic all of their own.

“You don’t mean—” Scootaloo gasped.

“—the place—” Apple Bloom said, staring.

“—where stars are made?” Sweetie Belle squeaked, her eyes filling with stars of their own.

“Oh, get going already,” Barry said, nudging his wife in the ribs. “We’re going to be all evening at this. Go on, I want to hear all about it.”

“I, uhm,” Shady said, finding it hard to breathe. “Wow. Okay.”

“I’ll bring your mother back intact, don’t worry, dears,” Velvet promised Babs and Lin, the latter looking wan. Even she couldn’t hide a little look of excitement, though.

“Good luck,” Lin said.

“Y’all have fun now, y’hear?” Applejack said, waving an orange hoof, with the smugest expression Blossom had ever seen on a pony.

It was as if all of the soreness had drained out of her. Shady Blossom found herself walking by her old friend almost in a daze. I’ll probably just have to tell them no. I have a pair of tiny foals and Babs, and I want to get back to my gardening and my painting... just a quick drink and a little reminiscing. Yeah, that’s the ticket. This’ll be quick.

---

“...and can you believe they have a renowned foal care system?” Shady Blossom gushed, as she had been gushing for what seemed like the entire trip home. “Some of the best tutors, and they travel around with the shoot, so you’re never far from your kids.”

“That would take Babs away from school, though, wouldn’t it?” Lin Seed pointed out.

“Psht, like I care,” Babs said, climbing up on the back of the seat. “I’ll get to see movies being made!”

“I still can’t believe that went as well as it did. You are right, though, Lin,” Shady Blossom said, rubbing her forehead. “I really should look into all possibilities. My family comes first. Just, you know... eeehehehe!” Her hooves pattered on the seat as she squealed, her wings flaring.

“I guess I haven’t really seen you this excited in a long time,” Lin Seed murmured. “I... if you can do this, you should do it. I think it could be... good.”

That was it. The way Lin Seed was smiling at her. That capped her day.

Perhaps we can’t be mother and daughter, but we can be family of some sort.

Then, quite suddenly, the carriage jerked to a stop. Catching herself, she checked to make sure the fillies were all right before hopping over the front seat. “Honey, AJ? What’s wrong, did you hit something?” she asked, concerned. Flapping her wings, she hovered over them, glancing at the road to find it largely empty, aside from a few parked carriages. The street lights were on, lending the early evening a quiet, contemplative feel. It was always a nice time for flying, in her mind.

Then she started to put certain facts together. For one, there were indeed a few carriages parked, but almost all of them were clustered in front of her house.

For two, her husband and Applejack hadn’t hit anything, for there was nothing to hit. Indeed, their faces were locked forward, staring at the brownstone. Slowly, Shady Blossom craned her head up.

Shattered windows. Broken glass. A pair of pegasi in city police uniform, scanning the horizon from high above. Police carriages, their occupants going over every inch of ground. Her neighbors, talking to the police, their eyes wide and frightened.

Feeling numb, Shady Blossom floated towards her house, unable to believe what she was seeing. Slit eyes drank in the light, seeing the door blown inward, chairs tossed out onto the sidewalk.

“Sarge!” one of the police unicorns shouted, and flared her horn defensively. The scene was interrupted, however, when Barry Seed, freed from his harness, came up and roared, “What in the name of Tartarus is going on here?” His booming voice startled the unicorn so much that she dropped her spell, and Blossom drifted down to join her husband, who put a hoof about her.

“This is my house, officer. What happened here?” he demanded of the gathered police again, who had all gone rather understandably defensive at the huge, hostile looking Earth pony approaching.

They all looked to him, then to Shady. “Sir, please calm down,” said one of the older officers, a greying mare with marks of rank on her shoulder, stepping forward. They all had to step back, as he and his wife walked up to the top of the steps, looking in.

The living room was trashed completely. Somepony had managed to not only up end the big couch, but fling it so hard that it embedded itself into the plaster of the wall and exposed the stone beneath. The light had been torn town. The glassware broken.

Smeared on the wall, in what seemed at first blood but what must have been Shady Blossom’s own paints, were words, scrawled in angry lettering:

---

Shady Blossom couldn’t quite remember what had happened after that. In vague terms, she understood that she had been screaming. She had flown from room to room, searching, screaming the names of her babies. It wasn’t until Applejack had managed to pounce her out of the air and pin her to the ground that they were able to remind her that both Dandelion and Hop had been left with neighbors, and were safe. It wasn’t until her toddler and infant were delivered into her embrace that she could feel anywhere close to all right again.

By the time her sobbing had abated enough for her to be coherent, for the haze of fear and despair to clear out of her mind, the police had already conducted most of their investigation. They were still questioning the neighbors, a process that would go on for hours still, but even as she got up and walked back to her front room, some of the stallions and the unicorn mare from before were helping a trembling Lin Seed and a grim-faced Barry take some things out from the house and into the family carriage.

With Dandelion and Hop in her bags, both blessedly sleeping, she found her way to Applejack, who was sitting with the fillies. All four had signs of recent tears, though Scootaloo and Babs in particular were trying to look brave. When they saw Shady Blossom approaching, all four rushed up and thudded into her, hugging her tightly. Possessively, Blossom swept her wings around them, sheltering them in their embrace.

Applejack stood up, affixing her hat to her head and going to join the girls, giving Shady a brief hug and looking her in the eye. “Are y’feelin’ all right?”

“No,” Shady murmured, and tightened her grip about the girls. Her face felt numb and her throat sore, but she put on as good a face as she could muster. “No, I’m not. But... I have you all, that’s what’s important.”

“Lawponies will be wantin’ to ask you some questions,” she said, evenly.

“I wagered they would,” Shady murmured, and sighed. “I don’t want the kids to hear any of this, especially not the little ones, could you...?”

“‘Course. Don’t even need to ask.”

It was difficult to let any of them go. Shady Blossom felt that letting her foals or even Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle go would have meant the possibility of losing them. Another look into Applejack’s agate eyes allowed her to slacken her grip, though—not all the howling hordes of Chaos would get past her. It wasn’t hard at all to believe that her niece was a hero worthy of saving Equestria, just then.

Going out into the street, she could overhear one of the locals being questioned. Mister Black Vein, the old retired prospector, was standing before a uniformed officer and a detective in a heavy coat and fedora.

“...like black lightning! Woosh, in from the sky, crashing through the windows!” the ancient pony was telling them, gesticulating wildly with his cane. “All clad in black armor, cat eyes glowing like Nightmare Moon h’self! Oh, I got up from my seat, started out towards the door with my old sword, but the legs are so creaky, by the time I got m’self down to the street, woosh! Gone! Like black lightning!”

“How long did that take you, about?” the detective asked, her tones clipped and precise.

“Mayhaps ten, twenty... or thirty minutes.”

“When would you say this was?”

“No more’n an hour ago. Matty, when was it?” he asked his granddaughter. “Smart girl, always gets these things right.”

Matlock, his granddaughter, shook her head, vibrant green mane swinging. “It was just a few minutes before the hour, I know because it’s when Grandpa gets his pills evening.”

“So a few minutes before eight?”

“That’s right,” she confirmed. Her eyes shifted, and she caught sight of Shady Blossom. For a moment, she looked afraid, and shrank back. Seeming to realize what she was doing, she straightened, her eyes apologetic.

“Mistress Shady Blossom,” the detective acknowledged, her blue eyes and smooth face giving nothing away. “Go ahead, officer,” she said, and moved to join Blossom.

“Detective...?” Shady asked.

“Noir, ma’am. Detective Petite Noir.” Her eyes glanced upwards. A pegasus officer was shadowing the two of them. “I’m sorry if this question comes across as rude, ma’am, but I’m obliged to ask. Where were you at eight o’clock this evening?” Her face softened for a moment, and it did seem as though she was sincere in her apology.

Taking it for what it was worth, Shade nodded. “With my family, in Coneigh Island,” she Blossom answered, her tone dull. She still felt so drained. All of the day’s soreness was back, with interest. “I had just gotten some drinks with some ponies. I can name them.”

“I would appreciate that, ma’am.”

“Velvet Curtain, an actress. Film Reel, a director out of Applewood. Quick Lime, a stage designer. A few other actors: Sans Nom, Class Act, Vaudeville, and James Li.”

“James Li?” she asked. Her hat flipped up enough to reveal a unicorn’s horn nestled in her black mane, and she was scribbling notes on a pad in a blue aura.

“It’s a stage name.”

“All right, do you know where any of them can be reached?”

“Velvet Curtain has an apartment uptown. I’m not sure about the others.”

“All right, thank you. Would you mind answering a few questions?” Noir asked.

“Not at all,” Shady answered, reaching up to rub her hoof against her head. A fantastic headache had been another reward for her screaming and carrying on earlier, and now her forelegs were throbbing as well, the scars pulsing. The sight of her husband approaching helped set her at ease, and she flashed Barry a small smile to let him know she was all right, waving one of her wings.

“Do you know anything about what happened here?”

“I know somepony attacked my house,” Shady answered, plainly. “They smeared scary messages on the walls and smashed everything up.”

“Can you speculate as to why? It’s all right if you give me the best information you have, ma’am, or even just some idea. Why they wrote ‘traitor’ on the wall, for instance.”

Shady Blossom sighed. “Subtle, Detective, but, no, only a little, and I don’t like thinking about it. If it will help, though...”

“Please,” Noir encouraged. “I want to help you and your family get over this incident. If there’s anything, even a tiny bit of information, it might make a difference.”

“When I was younger, there were some... ponies. Thestral ponies,” Shady said, slowly. Letting her mind sink back, down into the depths of her childhood. Not all of that foalhood had been as bright as it could have been.

Barry was almost there, but his wife’s gaze stopped him before he could reach out to her. She turned it back on Noir, answering quietly. “You have to understand, there’s a lot of stories we’ve kept alive, our kind. We don’t really share them with other ponies, since they wouldn’t appreciate or even understand a lot of them. While everypony else was celebrating Nightmare Night to propitiate a legend they barely remembered, we... well. A lot of thestrals liked to remember Luna differently.”

Looking up at the moon, bare of the terrible face of the Mare of Darkness that the Princess of the Night have become, Shady Blossom gathered what strength she could from it. “We remembered Celestia as the tyrant and Luna as the brave upstart, the rebel. We so loved the night, how could we turn our backs on it? It was wrong, and foolish, and most of us understood that. Princess Celestia had been so good to us over the centuries, trying to help us even when other ponies didn’t trust us any more...”

Noir spoke, as Shady Blossom had trailed off. “There is more to it, though.”

“You know about that already,” Blossom murmured.

“Please, ma’am,” she said, gentle. “What you know of it may be more important. If you know the story differently than we do or parts of it that we don’t know, now is the time to find out.”

“All right,” Shady agreed, and gathered another shuddering breath. “Yes. There are some thestral ponies who... didn’t buy it. It’s a stupid kid thing, for the most part. A young buck or mare wants to be bold and edgy, so they denounce Princess Celestia and bring back the old stories. They get paranoid, seeing her as a controlling, stingy dictator instead of what she is.”

“And for the ones that don’t grow out of that phase?”

Shady shut her eyes. A midnight banner, with a crescent moon swallowing the sun. A burning cloud house. Screaming.

“Ma’am?”

“It’s gone, now,” Shady Blossom said, her voice quiet and strained. “When Luna came back, that was supposed to be it. She didn’t hate Celestia, she didn’t want to overthrow anything.”

“But before that?”

“Yes. There was the Order of Eternal Night, who wanted to bring about Everlasting Night as Nightmare Moon had foretold,” Shady said, hot. She stamped a hoof, flaring her wings. “They hurt everypony around them. It wasn’t enough just to avoid them. You were with them, or you were... you were...”

Noir didn’t supply the word. It was still smeared on the Seed living room wall, after all. Taking pity, she exhaled, scribbling notes. “Yes, we’ve heard of them. We had... well, every guardpony and policepony in Equestria thought they were gone, too. Disbanded when Princess Luna returned,” she said. “Do you know anypony who might have been in the Order who held a grudge against you or members of your family? Your family by marriage or birth.”

“Just a couple who would still be alive. There was a big push against them, a few years before Princess Luna returned. A fair number died, the worst of them, the ones who hurt... other ponies,” Shady murmured, lowering her head. “I honestly thought the rest had gone back to their lives after the end.”

“If they’re still carrying on their activities in secret, they may have pretended to do so,” Noir said. “We’ll check up on them. Don’t worry, we won’t run anypony in on hunches or old names.”

Brushing her long mane back from her face, where it had fallen, Shady lifted her head and nodded. “There were a couple who harassed my family, back in the day, then. Star Gazer, a mare. I think she became a teacher. There’s also Bell Tone, another mare, not sure what happened to her. Black Cloud, though he was just a kid. Arc Light, he was pretty nasty, though I think he took up sailing. I know Light, Gazer, and Cloud all made amends, though, or tried to.”

“Sometimes, ponies can surprise us, ma’am,” Noir said, and glanced over at Barry. He stepped forward to nuzzle against his wife. “We’ll leave a few officers with you to make sure you’re safe. I’ll try to keep you apprised on the investigation’s progress.”

“Thank you,” Shady Blossom murmured. “Please, just help keep my family safe. They’re all I have.”

“My duty, ma’am,” she replied, tipping her hat to the pair, before taking off.

Gradually, the sounds of hooves on pavement, talking police, and carriages faded away. Silently, Shady Blossom began to cry again, and her husband held her helplessly. The ruins of what had been a perfect day crumbled around them, becoming so much dust on the wind.

---

It had been a very long time since Shady Blossom had been in a bed with so many other ponies. With a half-dozen foals snuggled about her, she felt very warm indeed and, even if she could have moved, she had absolutely no desire to. If only she could sleep in it—yet she feared what dreams may come as much as she feared somepony swooping in through the window and taking what was hers to protect while she slept.

The Oranges had, of course, immediately had their apartment opened up for the displaced family, answering an express message with one of condolences and sympathy. For all that they could be stuck up and elitists, the Oranges understood the importance of family.

A great dark mound on the floor shifted, and Barry turned over, his hooves in the air. He wasn’t sleeping, either, and probably wouldn’t for some time to come. Without a doubt, Applejack and Lin Seed, who were sharing the guest room, weren’t getting much shut eye, either.

Even as she reflected on this, however, she jerked, realizing her eyes had begun to droop against her will. Evidently, the day’s stresses were catching up to her. Fighting it for a few minutes, Blossom eventually surrendered. She laid her head down near her daughters and closed her eyes.

Darkness followed her.

The moon rose over a foggy moor. Black shapes, eyes aglow, drifted like shadows. They were coming, to take everything she had.



Coming to take her.



All she ever had.



Everything...

“Mom! Mom!” Hooves shook her. Voice and touch alike cut into her dream. Jerking, she barely caught herself short of clocking the watching heads about her. Babs was there, shaking her. Hop was beside his half-sister, still shaking her with his tiny hooves. Dandelion was crying, and so many other faces were watching her.

Sunlight streamed through the penthouse windows, revealing her family gathered about her. Applejack and Lin’s hair was disheveled, indicating that at least two other ponies had been able to sleep. Rising, Shady Blossom herself felt like a mess. Her long black mane was tangled. Her tail was askew. Her coat was matted in places.

“Honey? Where’s Dandy?” she called, slurring. “Need to feed her.”

“Got her, right here,” Lin Seed answered, the flailing baby sobbing in her foreleg. Lin was trying to comfort her sister with poor success, pressing her against her body.

“Sweetheart, you should—whoa!” Barry said, catching Blossom when she tried to get off the bed, stumbling.

“Baby, hungry, scared. Worry about me later.”

“Worrying about you now,” he insisted, using his greater strength to pin her back on the bed. “Lin, we brought the formula and put it in the fridge, go take care of it.”

“Is she okay?” Scootaloo asked, worried. Her cape was gone, hung up in the hallway with the others. “Is she sick?”

“No, no, I’m doing better,” Shady Blossom said, trying to get up. Her husband wasn’t having any of it, however, and kept her down.

“C’mon, girls. Aunt Blossom needs a little bit,” Applejack said, shuffling them out. She picked Dandelion up in her teeth, hauling him out by the scruff.

At first, she was prepared to give her husband a good tongue lashing, when she realized that all four of her legs were shaking terribly. For a good few minutes, she hadn’t even realized how dehydrated and drained she felt. Her heart raced, faster and faster, and she felt as though she was crashing, as if she were choking in mid air.

It took a few minutes for the attack to pass. Stomach-crunching, chest-squeezing anxiety made it difficult for her to breathe, let alone stand. Eventually, though, Barry helped his quivering wife up. He even helped run a brush through her mane and tail, the rhythmic motions helping her feel once again like she was in control.

If there was any word that encapsulated how she felt right then, it was control, or the lack thereof. So few ponies experienced a breach of peace so severe as they had, in the secure society of Equestria. Fewer still could claim that they were haunted by the spectres of the past. It was stupid, and it was silly and maybe even a little foalish, but getting her appearance back in order was a symbolic step towards gaining just a little control back over her life. It was small and symbolic, but it was enough to start on.

The next phase of normality involved going out and facing her family. There was nothing that needed to be said, of course. No pony begrudged her little panic attack. When she took on the Oranges’ kitchenette—finding it stocked well for haute cuisine if a bit bare of raw ingredients—that was another step to normalcy. Some eggs, cream, peppers, chopped onions, tomato, and liberal dashes of the Oranges’ spices made for generous helpings of omelettes, which she and Applejack slid onto the dining room table.

“Never thought I’d see this kinda fare on this table,” Applejack said, her hair resting on the back of her chair. She poked at the omelette in front of her. “I’m half expectin’ Aunt Orange to break through the door and pronounce it an abomination.”

“Then we can feed her one of them and watch her entire life crumble,” Lin Seed said, immediately stuffing her face. “Soh goofd.”

“I’d have a go at you for insultin’ our absent hosts, but I’m gonna have to agree with that,” Barry Seed said, chuckling as he ate.

The four fillies had snarfed down their breakfast almost as fast as it had been put down, and the Crusaders were now at the Penthouse window, pressing their faces to the glass and staring down at the city far below.

Glancing back from them, Shady Blossom smiled wanly at Applejack. “I guess you’ll be wanting to get them back, soon, hmm?”

“Well, actually,” Applejack said, nibbling at her own omelette. “When ah messaged Rarity, she told me she was coming for Sweetie Belle herself. Normally, I’d tell her to give me a break, but she pointed out that if somepony really wanted to get at us, they’d hit us somewhere really vulnerable, like a train in transit, where there weren’t nothin’ we could do about it.”

“Do you think she’s bringing in your friends?” Lin Seed asked, eyes wide.

“Dunno. Wouldn’ put it past her,” Applejack muttered, and turned to Blossom. “Maybe she wants to bring more than that. So I don’ suppose we could get an explanation? Y’were out talkin’ to that detective pony for a good long time.”

Shady Blossom turned her head to stare meaningfully at the children.

Applejack waved a hoof. “They’re gonna hear it anyway. Better they hear it now, from you, rather than some garbled eavesdropping attempt or a secondhoof account.”

There was a suction noise as the girls peeled their faces off the glass, turning and gazing up at Shady Blossom.

Reluctantly, Shady nodded. “I’m not sure I really approve, but... all right.” Taking a breath, she launched into her account. It came a little easier than it had the night before. Talking about it the first time had evidently helped get the weight of it off her back. She omitted very little, careful to leave out the names and some of the unnecessary details that might potentially scare children. Of course, she needn’t have bothered—if anything, the uglier details seemed to excite the girls more, if the way their eyes gleamed was any gauge.

Barry. who had heard none of this before last night, leaned heavily on his chair. Lin Seed simply blanched.

Applejack in particular looked incensed. “Are you tellin’ me ah busted myself freein’ Princess Luna from her thousand year curse, and there’s these ponies running around who think the whole Nightmare Moon bit was s’posed to be a good thing? Don’t they know everlastin’ night would—”

“—kill every pony in the world and more?” Shady Blossom said, with a nod from Applejack. “Yeah, that part never made sense to me. Not that any of it ever made sense to me. I don’t understand how a pony can go so wrong.”

“There’s always been criminals and such. Ah guess an impressionable pony hearing the wrong sort of thing at the wrong time can have an effect.”

“But why would they wanna hurt you?” Apple Bloom asked, coming up to Shady’s chair and planting her forelegs on her side.

Picking her up in her forehooves and smoothing her mane, Shady sighed. “Before I moved out here to Manehattan, before I met your uncle, I lived in Canterlot. Well, above it. My family had a little cloud house; mother did work on the weather team, father was a Night Guard for Celestia, one of the few in those days. I had a bunch of little siblings who adored me and we all lived together pretty well.”

After the events of last night, it all felt so strangely distant to her. The sense of shock at the violation of their safety had affected all of them pretty badly, and for Blossom, it was tenfold for how it dug at her memory...

---

I couldn’t stop the fire. Nothing worked. Water only made it hotter. Wind only fanned it further. Red and unnatural under the evening stars, it consumed the cloud substance of my home as I screamed helplessly. Above, the Mare in the Moon watched the scene above the clouds pitilessly.

Desperate, I dove into the smoke, crashing through a window. I choked and coughed, searching. I had to find them, I had to!

There. In the hall. They were lined up, beneath the banner. The flames licked at the walls, making them sag and drip. The banner of the crescent moon swallowing the sun. My own voice teared at my skull, unwilling, uncomprehending. My hooves were singed, burning...

---

“...Blossom?” Apple Bloom asked, her voice small and worried.

For the second time that morning, Shady Blossom jerked, freeing herself of a terrible dream. She looked down at the filly, then up at the others, then down again, looking at the faint scar lines on her hooves and ankles, just visible as white marks. Had I really never noticed them before?

“Y’don’t need to say a thing,” Applejack said, firmly.

Barry closed his mouth, apparently about to say the same thing, and nodded firmly. He got up, going over to his wife’s side, and nuzzled at her mane. “You won’t lose us. I swear it.”

“I’m sorry. Thank you,” Shady murmured, and nuzzled Apple Bloom briefly before putting her down. “I’m sorry, for ruining your vacation, girls. I’m sorry, everyone.”

“It ain’ your fault. When ponies do bad things, it’s on them, not on their victims.”

“I should have been better prepared.”

“For what? Y’said it yourself. Luna put a stop to all that foolishness, or you and she and everypony who knew about it thought so.”

“AJ’s right, Shady,” Lin murmured, reaching over to cover her stepmother’s hooves with her own. “There was nothing you could do to anticipate this.”

Perhaps they were right. Letting her shoulders slump, allowing her family to give her some comfort, it did seem silly and foalish to blame herself. Shaking the feeling that there’s more she should have done was difficult, however. At the very least, she could try to prepare for the future.

Shaking the cloud of ill thoughts from her mind, she forced a smile for the benefit of the others. “Well, I suppose you and the girls are still my guests, Applejack. As long as you’re here, I don’t think... I don’t think we should let somepony terrorize us.”

“That’s my girl,” Barry murmured, tightening a foreleg about her.

“I can get behind that,” Applejack agreed, brightly. “What didja have in mind?”

“Well,” Shady said, looking down at the girls, “I seem to recall someponies talking about opening up a chapter of their club here in Manehattan. It would be a shame if they missed out on that. And, you know, while we have a police escort anyway, it might be nice to lend a little air of officiality.”

Four sets of eyes widened, and Applejack laughed.

“Oh dear,” Lin Seed murmured. “Are you sure it’s all right to encour—”

“Cutie Mark Crusaders club house opening, YAY!” The windows rattled in their casing, and Shady Blossom’s liberated laughter echoed out into the daylight.

---

In the quiet days since the attack, the Seed family and their guests had managed to recover much of their lost cheer. It was amazing how ponies could bounce back from disaster, given the right encouragement. Where before they huddled in fear, they could find themselves striding about as if nothing had happened at all. It was the resilient will that had served them well for so many years.

Even the continuing presence of a police escort couldn’t dampen Shady Blossom’s mood at that point. The two pegasi were out of uniform and kept themselves at a respectful distance, enough that an unobservant eye might have mistaken their presence as unrelated to the family. They had certainly been helpful at times. Seeing a police escort at the Cutie Mark Crusader club house grand opening in downtown—with a small annex over a shop generously provided by the Oranges at Barry’s request—had filled their new friends from Babs’s school with a sort of ecstatic awe.

Not to mention, having a pair of burly pegasi around to help clean up the damage done to the house or carry groceries back from the market could be nice.

The markets near Uptown had just about anything a pony could dream of. Spices and exotic wares shipped in from across the seas. Products from every corner of Equestria in such abundance that even Applejack had to admit that the Ponyville market seemed bare by comparison.

“Where else could a pony find a set of top-quality farm tools forged by Griffon claws, just a few hoofsteps away from your favorite apple cinnamon tarts?” Blossom asked, prodding her niece in the ribs.

“In a few business days? My barn,” Applejack said, before taking up a pen and writing her address down on a card attached to the boxed up tools.

“True enough,” Shady agreed, smiling over at the girls, who were sitting in on a street performance, where a pair of minotaurs were putting on a puppet show featuring a green dragon and an army of pegasi. “It’s a shame we can’t afford to let them out of our sight, now,” she murmured. “Manehattan isn’t an unsafe place for foals.”

“‘Tis when there’s a crazed evil cultist on the loose.”

Shady Blossom’s ears twitched, and she glanced around, almost as if expecting to see a dark streak in the sky. A thestral in broad daylight would have been easy to spot, however, especially against the brightly colored pegasi and griffons who winged their way overhead between the tall buildings around them. Still, her eyes lingered on the gargoyles and statues and flagpoles looming from above, where somepony might hide from the ground if they were careful enough.

“Ain’ gonna jump us now. Probably,” Applejack reassured her, placing a hoof on her back.

“Yeah, well... can’t hurt to be too careful. Actually,” she said, taking a look at one of the shops nearby, “let’s go take care of something while we’re here.”

“What’s that?” Applejack asked, trotting by her side. The two pegasus ponies settled down, one by the fillies and another at the entrance of the shop. It was a quaint little ground-level store, the lighting intentionally dim to put the incense-scented, dark wooden-furnished inside to best effect. Applejack scrunched up her face at the pungent odors. “Is this an herb shop?”

“Indeed,” she said, nodding towards the rows of bottles containing powders, liquids, pickled ingredients, and more lining the shop’s exterior and interior partitions. An elderly Earth pony was mixing ingredients in a mortar for a waiting stallion, his grey beard stained and shriveled from ages of being held too close to heat sources. “More of an alchemy shop, really.”

“What’re you lookin’ for?” she asked. Applejack went over to a bowl of speckled eggs, frowning down at them.

“Just some things. When they came against my family last time, well... they used some fairly nasty potions.”

“How do you know what you might need to counter, though?” Applejack pointed out. She was about to reach for a jar of what looked to be fermented lizard skins before the owner’s glared warned her off. “Ah mean,” she continued, “there could be a dozen, a hundred possible things.”

“Yeah, but some things never change. Poison, fire, explosives,” Blossom said in a grim tone, selecting a few bottles from the shelves.

Applejack blanched. Following her around the shop, she asked. “All right, I s’pose if’n you know what ye’re doin’. Where’d ya learn alchemy, though?”

“Cooking, sort of,” Shady answered, piling the bottles on the counter to wait for the owner to finish with the other customer. “My mom taught me.”

“Warn’t she a weatherpony?”

“Yes,” Shady nodded, “but she had other skills. Thestrals don’t really go visit villages very often, so we kind of had to be self-sufficient. If somepony breaks a tooth the day after the weekly food run, it becomes a big hassle to go back down to the earth to pick up a potion.”

“Still seems a mite paraniod, but it is yer family after all. Our family.”

“What happened before won’t happen again. I won’t let it.”

The alchemist exchanged bits with the stallion and came over to join them, adjusting his spectacles. “Ah, what have we here,” he said, in a manner that indicated he said that as a conversation started, “a pair of pretty mares, and—a... what have we here?” The second time, the question sounded a lot more sincere, as he examined the powders and flowers and more that Blossom had collected.

“I’m making a few potions,” she said, tapping the counter with a bag of bits.

“You’re making a few gallons of potions, from the looks of it. Young mare, you know that many of these are exceedingly toxic, yes?”

“I’m familiar with all of the contents, yes,” Shady Blossom said, feeling a little agitated at the questioning. It seemed to her that his eyes roamed just a little too much. “I’m making some antipoisons, among other things.”

“Well, if you’re going that route, why don’t you try a little jack’o’wisps, it’ll counteract a huge variety of—” he said, reaching to a shelf and putting a jar by the others, only to leap back when Shady Blossom slammed both of her hooves into the counter, shaking the bottles.

“It also causes blindness, loss of coordination, and acute respiratory problems in subjects with weak constitutions! On a foal, it could seal their lungs shut in sufficient concentration! Are you trying to kill my children?” Shady demanded, shouting at him.

Stunned, Applejack and the apothecary were both silent, watching Blossom snort through her nostrils. “I di-didn’t,” the stallion stammered, “I mean—tiny, insignificant doses...”

“For Luna’s sake, I’m trying to protect my family! Just who—”

“Enough!” Applejack shouted, and when she slammed a hoof in anger, the entire store shook. “Take wha’cha need, pay the stallion, and leave, Shady. What in tarnation has gotten into you?”

For a moment, Blossom herself wasn’t sure. Staring at the stallion, and then at Applejack, it seemed to her that she should have been angry for some reason. Instead, she just felt drained.

Sliding off the counter, she looked, and saw that she had collected an enormous stack of ingredients. Two rows deep, three rows high. Most of them weren’t safe to store without great care, let alone use. Gently, she divided the stack, taking only a few bottles which would serve for fire suppression and for a variety of antipoisons—including the jack’o’wisps. With the stallion still quivering in terror, she weighed them herself on the scale, put a stack of gold bits on the counter, added a few in silent apology, and left.

The police pegasus had stepped in, her eyes wary. She looked to Applejack and Shady Blossom questioningly, and Applejack shook her head. “Waren’t nothin’, just a temper flare.”

Though skeptical, the policemare didn’t see any damage. The apothecary had fled behind the counter, so he wasn’t in sight. Shrugging, she stepped outside, scanning the sky as she had been.

“Feelin’ a little frayed?” Applejack asked, once they were outside.

“More than a little,” Shady murmured, trying to remember just what it was that she had been feeling. It wasn’t really anger, precisely. “More like... like everything is about to fall apart, and I need to fix it.”

“Sweet jack rabbits, auntie, y’can’t go around shoutin’ at folks like that because you’re scared.” Applejack sighed, patting her back with a hoof. “Not that I need to tell ya.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry. I should have told him I was sorry.”

“Well, he sure won’ give a mare’s thighs the eye ever again, that’s for sure.”

Shady Blossom giggled, unwillingly. Her eyes, too, had turned to watching the sky, however. The sunlit world was always dubiously welcome, but now its light seemed harsh, the shadows cast by the skyscrapers looming ominously.

---

The day Rarity came to town was exciting. As they had when Applejack and the Crusaders had arrived, the Seed family packed into the carriage and went down as a unit to Grand Central. Dandelion Seed had spent the previous evening dancing on the ceiling, and so she now wore a belt around her midsection with a leash attached to her big sister Lin. Like all pegasus and thestral babies, the earliest stages of flight were extremely important to later development, so they had to put up with the leather-winged little ball of fluff bouncing around the carriage’s innards on the way there.

“No, honey, you’ve already fed,” Shady Blossom protested, nudging her youngest daughter away from her with a hoof when the filly tried to paw at her belly. “I swear, you’re worse than your daddy.”

“Mom!” Lin Seed said, scandalized. Her eyes widened as she realized what she had said. Flushing and sputtering, she stammered, “I-I mean, Shady. That was, uhm. Crude.”

“You know, I’ve been meaning to ask about that,” Sweetie Belle said, popping her head up between the seats. “Why don’t you call Shady Blossom your mom?”

“Sweetie!” Applejack called back, from where she was pulling the carriage alongside her uncle. They were just pulling back to a stop and freeing themselves from the harnesses. “Don’t you ask uncomfortable questions!”

“No, it’s all right,” Lin called forward. She smiled awkwardly at Sweetie Belle. “Though that may not have been the most polite question.”

Sweetie smiled bashfully, her ears drooping a bit below her mulberry mane.

“When I married Lin’s father,” Shady said, popping the door open and letting the girls spill out, “she was already a teenager. It was only a couple years ago, after all.”

“Just a few months after Nightmare Moon came back,” Apple Bloom supplied.

“That’s right,” Lin Seed said, nodding. “And, well... I’m sorry if it does come across as rude or callous to you, but... it’s hard to look at Shady Blossom and see her as my mother.”

“But why?” Sweetie asked, her eyes wide as she backed up to keep in front of the older ponies. “She’s so nice! I’d be happy to have her as my mom if I didn’t have mine.”

“It’s not that simple, Sweetie,” Shady said, turning her around before she could plow into the elderly griffon on his way to feed the pigeons. “Lin’s nearly a grown mare. I wouldn’t mind being her mom, it’s true, but she needs to find her own way. I’m content to help her along as much as I can.”

“I, well...” Lin smiled at Shady. “In different circumstances, maybe. I do kind of give you a bit of grief.”

“You’re a teenager, it’s natural,” Barry Seed said, coming to join his family. Unlike before, they had a policestallion to guard the carriage, and none of them felt like letting the kids go. Dandelion flew down to Lin Seed’s head and started to gnaw on one of her ears enthusiastically. Hop, of course, went to sit on his customary place atop his father’s head.

“You were there for Babs Seed when she really needed it, though. When mom, well...” she looked to the girls.

Babs, who had been keeping silent, spoke up. “Ain’ no pony is a better mom than my mom,” she declared, challenging anypony to contradict her with a blush and a glare.

“And you are the mother of my other siblings, so that’s close enough. Ow, Dandy, stop it,” she whined, pulling the filly off her head. Dandelion went back to buzzing over their heads, staring wide-eyed at everything around her.

Scootaloo fluttered her wings, hard, managing to clear a few feet, enough to bump noses with the baby thestral. She fell to land on Applejack’s back, her face split in a wide grin. “Yeah, yeah, enough mushy stuff, let’s go!”

Taking the stairs up into Grand Central Terminal, their party drew a lot of stares. Shady Blossom herself felt them, knowing that ponies were putting two-and-two together at seeing the thestral children and her standing with Barry. It was always strange and a little sad to her how ponies could be so accustomed to multiracial marriages, but even a thousand years after the end of the tribal era they still looked with shock on a more unusual pairing.

Somehow, though, the station seemed more stifling to Shady than it had the last time she had visited. In objective terms, the press of ponies was no greater, but it seemed to her that, if anything, it held more dangers. Past the Earth pony vendor selling clockwork toys, there was plenty of space for an assassin to hide. Up above, a whole wing of thestrals could be hiding behind the clocks hanging from the ceiling.

Shaking the thoughts from her mind, she focused on locating the platform where Rarity’s train should be coming in within the next few minutes.

“So I was thinkin’ about settin’ up an office here in Manehattan,” Applejack said, pointedly glancing at anything but Shady Blossom. “Alongside the Oranges.”

“Oh, yeah?” Barry asked. “Don’t suppose you’d need the help of a good lawyer—I know a couple.”

“Nah,” Applejack shook her head. “Already talked it over with the Oranges. Said they’d be happy to, y’know... come on by to discuss it.”

By all rights, Shady Blossom should have been happy for her niece taking a step towards overcoming her own difficult past. She was still trying to put aside the strange feeling that they were being watched, however, and an obscure noise wasn’t helping her concentration. Shaking her head, she tried to clear her ears. “Wish they’d stop that buzzing,” she muttered, “must drive everypony crazy.”

“What buzzin’?” Apple Bloom asked, cocking her head.

Shady blinked, and glanced around. The sound was gone, as was the feeling.

“Glad to hear it,” Barry said, sounding enthused. None of the others seem to have heard Shady Blossom. “Will let us see each other a lot more often.”

Stopping by the tofu frier, Shady Blossom shook her head again. The vendor had to ask her order twice before she heard him.

“Twenty-one,” she said, glancing at the squishy white blocks swimming in the bubbling oil.

“Uh... you sure?”

“Yes!” she snapped. “Of course I’m sure, I—”

Pausing, she contemplated that. What in the world did she need so many tofu burgers for? She glanced around at her small party of seven who could actually process such a thing.

Three times as many, in case we needed to make a run for it and couldn’t rely on getting food, she realized. “No, just seven, please. Sorry.” Her head was starting to throb now, pulsing behind her left temple. The buzzing returned, and it seemed to her that if she just cocked an ear and listened, she could hear somepony speaking.

“Yeah, whateva,” he said, shrugging, dishing food.

As they approached the platform, Shady Blossom tried not to listen to the buzzing. For some reason, it didn’t feel like a good idea. Her certainty that she was being watched increased tenfold, however, and she started to scan the station continuously.

It was when they were about to settle down to wait that she shouted, “There!” and sprang into the air with powerful thrusts of her wings. Dive-bombing, she tackled a dark shape lurking behind one of the pillars, behind a stack of luggage, and there was a surprised wuff of another pony losing all of the air in his lungs.

He struggled, hooves flailng, but she was fast, faster than she could have believed. Wrapping her lower legs around the dark pony’s midsection, she spun them around and slammed him into the ground again, now sitting on his back. Pinning his rear hooves to his sides, she reached down and yanked his forehooves around, pinning them behind his back, eliciting a girlish squeal.

It was at that point that her head cleared. Quite abruptly, Shady Blossom realized she was straddling and rather effectively disabling another pony. It was, moreover, not another thestral, but merely a grey-coated pegasus stallion with a midnight mane. His camera had clattered to the floor beside him, popping open and spilling a roll of film out.

Stunned passerby cleared quickly when station security and both pegasus police officers dove in to the scene.

“What happened?” the policemare demanded, moving to push Shady Blossom up and take up pinning the strange stallion.

Before Shady could answer, another mare in the crowd shouted, “That stallion was taking photos of ponies from behind the luggage!”

Even as the other pegasus picked up the camera to peer at the film, Shady Blossom’s memory went into a film rewind of its own. Reflecting, she realized she had caught the gleam of a camera lens from behind the concealment of the stacked bags and boxes.

How in the blazes had I been able to do that? she thought, stunned.

“Celestia’s flanks. Can you believe it?” one of the station guards said, disgusted.

“Next time, ma’am, please report this to someone in authority,” the policestallion informed her, closing up the camera. “That was dangerously close to excessive force.”

“I’m sorry,” she muttered. “I thought... I thought he was the thestral.”

The two police officers looked down at the stallion, sharing a quick nod. “If a pony saw this guy in the dark, she could think he was a thestral, especially if he was covered up,” the mare suggested.

“Yeah, though it’s pure speculation,” the stallion agreed, with reservation. “Still, it’s worth asking him some questions. Can run him in for stalking, at the very least.”

“Well, ma’am,” the pegasus mare said, chipper. “If this is our culprit, we may owe you an apology for not catching him sooner.”

“Heh,” Shady Blossom said, looking wonderingly at the stallion she had knocked down. The buzzing, hte soreness in her legs, and the headache were all gone, as was the sensation of being watched. She didn’t recognize him in the slightest, but if he had been taking photos of her and her family, that indicated a rather unwholesome interest of some sort.

“Whoa, that was so cool!” Scootaloo said, hopping up, clearing the way faster than the others with her rapidly beating wings. “Where did you learn those awesome moves? Woosh, bam!”

“I...” Shady said, searching. “My dad. He taught me. Night Guard.”

“You gotta teach me. Rainbow Dash has been showing me some kung fu, but that was neat, too!”

“Sure, kiddo,” she said, her voice strangely dull. The others raced up, the younger of them looking in awe at the catch. Barry Seed and Applejack, however, were both giving her uncertain looks.

“Wow, mom, didja catch the bad guy?”

“Huzzah... somepony get the number on that thestral...” the grey pegasus slurred, as he was hauled up by the policestallion. The policemare stood by, not trying to fade back into the crowd after this incident.

It seemed ridiculous to think that this was the end of it. A staged attack, pulled by a stranger, and then foiled in broad daylight by pure coincidence. Were it not for the fact that the sense of danger had passed and the buzzing had gone, Shady Blossom might have been waiting for the other hoof to drop.

Instead, she smiled radiantly, and embraced her husband. “I don’t know, honey,” she told Babs, “but I’m feeling a little better about things, at least.”

“Sweetie Belle! Darling!” a high, cultured voice called.

“Rarity!” Sweetie squealed, and leapt to tackle a white unicorn wearing a sunhat who had gravitated to the scene. The sisters collided and bounced off an enormous train of luggage behind the older mare. “It was so cool! Shady Blossom just took down the bad guy, right in front of us!”

“Oh! That’s just wonderful, dear. Excellent for you,” Rarity said, beaming as she greeted the others, extending a polished hoof. “I was worried I’d have to take Sweetie home with me, and that would have been a terrible disappointment to her, I’m sure.”

“Darned right,” Sweetie Belle agreed, her curly tail practically wagging.

“It’s very nice to meet you,” Shady Blossom said, taking the hoof. “Lin Seed and Sweetie have told me a lot about you. I actually wore a variant of one of your Gala dresses to an event with my husband. The Starry Night?”

“Twilight’s dress!” Rarity gushed. “Yes, of course, that would look marvelous on you. Though, I might say, I’d have altered it considerably to take in the effect of your wings. A silver chain, just so, would set them off beautifully.”

“I’ll have to remember that. Come on, let me introduce you to the rest of the family. Lin is dying to meet you,” Shady said, gesturing with a wing.

With her husband helping with the luggage, they started on their way back to the Oranges a few minutes later. Shady Blossom practically pranced, light with joy. It seemed as if the nightmare was finally over.

---

With the help of Rarity and the policemare, fixing up the house was an easy task, especially now that everypony’s spirits had been raised. The fillies ran around with dust bins in their teeth, while Lin Seed fixed up the kitchen. With the damaged windows and walls patched up by a contractor, the replacement furniture was easy to move in with some muscle and magic.

Up in the master bedroom, Shady Blossom and Applejack were righting a few things. They’d replaced the sheets on the town bed and taken down the damaged outfits in the closet.

“Can’t believe that’s it. I s’pose they’ll be figurin’ the story out by the station,” Applejack said, wonderingly. She swept her hat off, wiping sweat from her brow as they finished righting a dresser. “What do y’think might have driven him to it?”

“Who can say?” Shady Blossom murmured, shaking her head. “It’s not impossible that he was hurt by the Order, too, some time in the past. He could have wanted to get back at any thestral he found. Maybe he didn’t like Barry and me being together? Maybe it had to do with Barry, one of his business rivals getting back at him? For all I know, this was just a sick act and he needs help?”

“Darned right he needs help. Ain’ no pony with sense does somethin’ like that,” Applejack growled.

“Oh, gosh,” Shady Blossom announced, looking in the closet. “I can’t believe it!”

“What is it?” Applejack asked, coming to look.

“My hope chest,” she growled, pulling it out from the closet. A white wood box bound with black bands, it slid across the floor to rest in front of the bed at her prodding. She pointed a hoof at the lock, which was dangling, torn off by what seemed like great strength.

“Now that’s all sorts of sick. Think he was lookin’ for blackmail, maybe?”

“Can’t imagine what he’d find. Maybe he is just a sick pervert,” Shady said, but hesitated, one hoof on the lid. For some reason, the chest felt intensely private, for more reasons than just its relation to her wedding. Something’s wrong... something... oh, don’t tell me the buzzing is back again!

The room suddenly seemed a lot smaller than it was, the sense of eyes on her again. Going to the window, Shady Blossom stared out, trying to see if there was anypony watching.

“Well?” Applejack asked, still fixated on the chest. “Let’s have a look and see.”

“Wait, don’t!” Shady Blossom shouted, feeling as if a vice were on her. She leapt for the chest, but it was too late. Applejack’s hoof had kicked it open.



Blossom’s head was screaming now.



The buzzing had become a roar, voices howling at her.



They wouldn’t leave, they wouldn’t stop.



Applejack stared at the contents of the chest. Stacks of jars were packed carefully, sealed with lead but for a thin filament leading from each one. Papers were stacked, lists of names, locations, and times. A diagram of the above-ground rail lines around town, another of the lines leading to and from Manehattan with locations circled and noted. A map of City Hall was marked in similar fashion. Hoof knives, wing blades, vials of clear liquid, needles, darts, and more lined the sides of the trunk.

The night will last forever, voices around her were chanting, heartfelt and eager. Down with the sun! Down with the Tyrant! Down with Celestia!

Above them all, pinned proudly on the underside of the lid, a midnight banner hung. Its upturned crescent moon was swallowing the sun, and rays of deep blue and purple radiated off it.

Light was dawning in Applejack’s eyes. Her face turned white, and she looked at Shady Blossom uncomprehendingly.

Raise the black banner! The night shall last forever!

“I’m sorry, AJ,” Shady Blossom said, her voice dull. Faster than either mare could believe, she snapped a hoof into Applejack’s throat and crushed her windpipe. It wasn’t enough to seriously hurt her, but it made her stumble back and kept her from crying out. Applejack stumbled back. She tried to stand, barely managing by pushing on her Earth pony durability and built-up strength to get back up. Snapping a pair of knives out from the chest, Shady Blossom advanced to finish the job.

“Why?” Applejack wheezed, weakly, her legs trembling too much to allow her up. “How?”

Shady stopped, her mind racing. Images flooded across her mind. Potions of fire held in her mouth, pouring on to a cloud house. Babs Seed, crying in her forelegs. Fighting with another thestral, his hoofblades cutting into her. Pushing, struggling to birth Dandelion. Wiring together alchemical explosives, freshly wrapped burns on her hooves. Barry Seed, kissing her, filling her world with love and light.

“I...” Shady Blossom said, sweat breaking out. “Applejack...”

She had to be silenced. Then she could smash the place up, break the window from outside, and claim she’d seen the whole thing. They’d never suspect her.

Warm mouths nuzzling at her, seeking out her life-giving milk. The happy faces of the Crusaders as the made them breakfast each morning, begging for seconds. The weight of a lover.

Shady Blossom was paralyzed. Her legs wouldn’t move, her wings were stiff and still. “Applejack... I can’t... I’m sorry, I’m not...” Her mouth was so dry it was hard to speak, let alone with how stiff her muscles were. “Please. Help.” she begged, forcing the words out, her eyes wide and terrified.

Applejack heaved. She didn’t understand what was going on, and leaping foolishly at an armed opponent was a good way to get yourself killed. Applejack, however, was the last pony to turn down a heartfelt request for aid. Shady Blossom instinctively ducked aside. Still, she managed to slow herself enough for the other pony to clip her, her great strength sending Blossom to the wall. The shock of it stunned her, but. more importantly, cleared her head a bit as well.

Somewhere downstairs, voices were rising. It sounded like Noir, the detective, and Barry Seed. “...thing is, Velvet Curtain said she’d run out after only a half hour.”

“That stallion didn’t have anything to do with it?” Barry was asking, startled.

“He’s being stubborn, but we found press credentials on him. Seems somepony in the department leaked the story, or maybe one of your neighbors did.”

“Wait, did you hear something? Shady?” Barry called.

“Mom?” Babs called. “You okay up there?”

Turning towards the window, Shady Blossom threw it open. Not knowing what else to do, not knowing who she could turn to, she did the only thing she thought might help.

Screaming at the moon, she lifted her hooves imploringly and shouted, “Luna, help me!”

It was as if the world stood still. With the wind whipping her mane, Shady Blossom stood there, lost and alone in her own body. Somewhere outside the room, her family was coming to aid her, not knowing what they would find. Near her feet, Applejack was gasping for air still, her throat struggling to let her breathe.

For her children, for her husband, for her family, Shady Blossom begged the one pony in all of Equestria who could have saved her.

To her utter amazement, a shadow crossed the moon. It flashed down, quick as lightning, and a wave of stars encased in inky blackness washed past her. It slammed against the door as it started to open, knocking it closed and making Barry thud against the far wall.

Out of the cloud pressed a mare of darkness, her black armor and crown sparkling with a hidden light. In her mane was contained all the starry universe, and she looked at the scene with pity as she held the door shut with one black-shod hoof.

Awed, unable to speak, Shady sunk to all four of her knees. Memory was rising up in her, bubbling out of the sick morass in her skull. In the presence of the princess, it was all becoming clear. She could remember the last time she had met the Princess of the Night...

---

Shady Blossom tapped her armored hooves against the stones of the old castle, beneath the bare moon, her eyes scanning the horizon. Her helmet was off, letting the wind catch her short mane.

“Do you see Her?” Black Cloud asked, the teenager practically bouncing in his ill-fitting armor. “Is She here?”

“Shut up,” Bell Tone said, swatting him with the butt of her spear. “The Queen comes on Her own time.”

“I still can’t believe what happened,” Star Gazer said, morose. She perched on top of a crumbling parapet, looking down into the remnants of the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. “I thought this would be over already.”

“If it were,” Shady said, with quiet conviction, “She wouldn’t need us. Our Queen has called, and we will respond at last.”

“But... but She was beaten,” Star Gazer said, squirming uncomfortably. No pony raised a hoof to her. They all felt what she was voicing, after all. “Weren’t the Elements of Harmony supposed to aid us? They just... took Her power away like it was nothing, and then the Tyrant came back and they embraced each other, like nothing at all had happened!”

Arc Light lifted his face to speak, but then lowered it, rubbing at his missing eye. For a moment, Shady Blossom worried that he might strike at her. It was definitely within him. Of all of them, though, he had seemed the most broken up by the events of the previous day.

It was a day that hadn’t been supposed to come, either. Nightmare Moon had declared to the world that night was everlasting, and then dawn had risen in stark defiance.

“It’s a trick. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. She’s been wounded, but not beaten,” Shady Blossom said, rubbing the scars on her forelegs. They were throbbing particularly badly tonight. “It has to be, or...”

“...or it’s all been for nothing,” Arc Light whispered. “Everything we did. All the preparations we made. Everypony we hurt.’

Silence reigned.

Just as it seemed they might all give into despair again, a shout went out from one of the towers. “The Queen! It’s her!”

As if the words were a spark to oil, thestrals all around the castle leapt into action, soaring up to get a look, and then down, in through the holes of the ruins, to gather in orderly ranks in the main hall, leading up to where the Elements of Harmony had once awaited their representatives. Midnight armored grey ponies, all of them armed and ready, waited patiently. Shady Blossom stood in the front row, as near to the spot as she could, her heart pounding.

Part of her knew that this was it. This was the moment that all of her long years of devotion would pay fruit. She would look into her lady’s eyes and see the gratitude in them.

Past the great windows, a black chariot passed by, sharp and foreboding as it swept through the air. The thestrals raised themselves slightly, then quickly bowed, waiting.

After a few minutes, somepony coughed. The kneeling Order of Eternal Night began to shift uncomfortably.

Eventually, somepony went over to the doors, peeking through. “Ah. Dread Majesty?” he called, his voice echoing in the empty hall. “We’re meeting in here.”

“Ah, of course, our apologies...?”

“B-B-Black Cloud, Dread Majesty,” the stallion stammered.

“Thank you, Black Cloud, thou art a fine young buck,” Her voice said. He fell to his belly at once, overwhelmed by the honor of being addressed so.

Striding into the room, flanked by a set of Night Guard, was the Princess of the Night. A slim mare with a short, powder blue mane, She projected power and confidence. Rather than be disappointed by the sight of the Princess, who was barely taller than Shady Blossom herself, she felt awe. Her Mistress came among them in a beautiful, pleasing guise, a sign of Her favor if anything.

Coming to a stop near Shady Blossom, she turned and looked over the gathered crowd. Some fifty ponies, all of them waiting on Her word. It must have been Shady’s imagination, but she thought saw sadness in those eyes.

“My little ponies,” Princess Luna called, Her voice booming over the gathering. “I extend mine gratitude to thee for coming on such short notice.”

“For you, my Lady, we waited a thousand years,” Star Gazer gushed. She squeaked, realizing she had spoken out of turn in her excitement, and lowered her face.

“Yes, thou hath,” Luna murmured, and looked to her. “What is thy name?”

“St-St-St...” she squeaked at the ground, squirming.

“It is all right, my little pony. Thou mayest look upon me, I hold thee no malice. Clear thy throat, take thy time.”

“St-St...” she trailed off again, and swallowed, daring to look up after a moment. “Star Gazer, your Majesty.”

“That is a lovely name, child. Tell me, what wouldst thou be doing, were thee not bound to my service?”

“I, uhm...” Star Gazer blushed brightly, looking around. Shady Blossom prodded her. The Queen had asked her a question, which could not be denied. “I-I was going to st-study to be a teacher, Dread Majesty.” Her blush deepened, particularly as the gathered warriors snickered. Shady herself looked at her in some surprise.

“And thou?” Luna asked. Shady started, realizing that she was being addressed.

“With you, ma’am!” she answered at once, snapping to attention.

“Forgive me, what is thy name?”

“Shady Blossom, my lady.”

“I see upon thy flank flowers of oleander. What is thy special talent?”

“Alchemy and poisons, my lady. Oleander is a poisonous plant,” she said, proudly, lifting one of her scarred hooves. “I got it mixing in your service. I’ve been with you since foalhood.”

Now Shady knew she was imagining things. The Princess’s eyes, looking into hers, seemed utterly heartbroken. For a moment, she wondered if she had done something to displease Her, and felt her ears drooping.

“Majesty... is something wrong? I...I can change if you like.”

“Oh, Shady Blossom, thou canst scarcely conceive how much we wish that were true.”

“...Majesty?” Shady asked, confused. Against her own better judgement, she stepped forward. Her hooves were throbbing painfully, and she withered inside to see her Princess behaving so.

“If I asked thee to abandon my service, to cast aside thy weapons and armor, wouldst thou?”

It sounded like banishment. Shady Blossom felt herself quaking, her eyes wide. “Majesty?” she asked again. It felt as if her entire world might crumble. “N-no, I mean, I-I would do anything you say. Please, please don’t send me away.”

Throwing herself at the feet of the alicorn, Shady Blossom looked up at her imploringly, abandoning all decorum. “You’re everthing to me. I’ve done... I’ve done so much in your name, I can never go back. Please, I’ve never had a life of my own.”

Above her, the Princess’s face was lined with pain. Her eyes shut, and tears started to stream from them. “Then I shall give it to thee. I shall give thee a life of thine own, free from me.”

Midnight light flared along Her whorled horn, and filled Shady Blossom’s vision.

---

Taller, stronger, and possessed of her ancient strength, Luna flared her horn once more, and her deep cyan magic swallowed the room. Applejack, the chest, Shady Blossom, and Luna herself were sucked away, only to reappear in a dizzying flash on the roof of a nearby building, looking over the ocean and a bank of clouds that was being herded in for tomorrow’s rain. Above, the moon hung full in the sky, while below the city pulsed with light.

Stepping over to the downed Earth pony, Luna lowered her head and touched magic light to Applejack’s throat. She coughed at once, her breathing passageway clear, though the bruise didn’t go away. Luna kept her from getting up too quickly, steadying her with her forehooves. “There, there. Take it easy.”

“What...” Applejack groaned. Her voice still wheezed. “Princess? What in the... hay is going on?”

“It was me, Applejack,” Shady Blossom whispered. “It was me the whole time.”

“Why? How?” Applejack demanded, echoing her earlier questions. “Your own family, your husband and kids!”

“I... wasn’t always a terrible gardener, or a mediocre painter, or an aspiring actress,” she said, staring at her own hooves. They were the scarred hooves that symbolized her broken foalhood. “Once upon a time, I was a member of the Order of Eternal Night. I’ve always been one, for as far back as I can remember.”

“But how? You... it don’t make sense.”

“I didn’t remember. It would happen when I was asleep, tired, drunk, or scared. My old self would just... pop out. I can remember doing all those things. I remember flying all over the countryside when I was supposed to be in bed at home, scouting out positions. I remember spending long nights mixing potions. There were times when I’d go out and set fire to things just so I could scream in frustration at the world, because I always felt trapped.”

Princess Luna sat down to listen, her starry mane blowing in its own ethereal wind. She did not interrupt, watching the two with deep sorrow in her eyes.

“I was trapped by a new life. I had found a pony who loved me and I cared for his children and bore his foals. I had fun acting. There were friends and parties and wonderful things under the sun. Oh, Luna... it was so beautiful,” Shady moaned. Tears came hotly, and she sobbed piteously. “The life you gave me was so wonderful, I felt loved like I never had been. No mother or father, just me and my master. He was so cold, all I had to cling to was your memory. I sang to you, every night, hoping you would answer and come down to me. You did, eventually, you gave me that life of my own.”

Luna didn’t answer. Applejack did, after a stunned silence. “The Princess... you wiped her memory, but it didn’ take, did it?”

“Indeed, Applejack. I fear the blame for this lies rather squarely on my own shoulders.”

“It’s my fault,” Shady Blossom sobbed. “I... I did all of those horrible things, I trashed my own house and threatened my own children. I am a monster, I am.”

“No!” both Applejack and Luna shouted together, and started, the two glancing at one another sheepishly.

“Shady...” Applejack said, coming over to put her hoof around the thestral’s shoulder. Shady jerked, casting it off, but she forced it, holding her tightly. “You listen to me. I ain’ seen love like that in a pony in... in a long time. Ye’re as good a mother as m-my own.”

“Then why did I do it? I couldn’t have loved them if I hurt them so badly!”

“You didn’t hurt them,” Luna said, her voice quiet, yet firm. “Never once did you lay a hoof on them, neither hide nor hair. No matter how your angry, hateful other self raged, it could never strike at your family directly. You protected them, and did so from my failure.”

“I attacked Applejack!” Shady countered. “I smashed her throat in and was going to kill her when she found out!”

“You didn’t. You didn’ kill me, ah mean,” Applejack said. “Ye looked into my eyes and begged me to save ya from yerself. Ah could see that.”

“Listen to her, Shady Blossom. She is not the Element of Honesty for no reason,” Luna murmured.

Breaking down again, Shady fell against Applejack, her wails echoing out over the night. She clung desperately to her beloved niece, still able to remember the feeling of her throat under her hoof as if it were her own. She could have cut her heart out with those knives.

Rising, Luna strode over to them and pulled the pair against her, tucking her head around them. “Forgive me. I should have been checking up on you. I should have known that the spell would falter. On ponies with such strong needs and conviction, it should have been no wonder that it would have such difficulty.”

“What am I going to do?” Shady Blossom moaned. “My children... how can I face them again? No. I should go. I should leave and take it with me... just... go.”

“Luna, please,” Applejack said, softly. “Help her. Her family needs her.”

“I’m violent, Applejack. I’ve done... I’ve done some things, very bad things.”

“I know what I see, Shady Blossom,” she said, firmly. “You ain’ that pony any more.”

Princess Luna stepped back, looking down at them. “Shady Blossom... in spite of my error, will you trust me?”

Staring up at her Princess of the Night, Shady silenced herself. Slowly, she nodded, her childhood hero filling her eyes.

“Do you want to remain with your family, to give them the care and comfort that you have so ably provided in the past?”

“I... I... I don’t want Babs to grow up without a mother again,” Shady murmured. “I don’t want to abandon Lin Seed. I want Dandelion and Hop to know who their mother is.”

“And what of you?”

Closing her eyes, Shady Blossom drew in a deep, painful breath. “I love them so much... I want to be with them again, even if... even if I am a monster.”

“No pony, no one, is a monster if they really and truly love another being. Take it from one who remembers being a monster, who remembers hurting ponies and laughing about it, who sought to drown the world in darkness and consume it. There is a better way.”

“I’ll be there for you,” Applejack said, firmly. “I swear it.”

“Peace, Applejack,” Luna said, with a smile. “I wouldn’t dream of doing this without your help. All right, then... Shady Blossom.”

“Yes, Princess?” she asked, lifting her face again.

“Let me start by removing this,” she said, and her horn lit up. The contents of the chest drifted out in her aura, and she looked at them distastefully for a moment, before lifting her head and flinging them all far into the sky. Somewhere, far above, there was a burst of light, as the explosive potions detonated.

That felt strangely good. The brief little spark of light was like a falling star, leaving Shady Blossom’s life forever. She felt herself smiling at the sight.

“Then, let me place another spell on you. Another spell of forgetfulness.”

“But, Princess—” Applejack began.

Lifting a hoof, Luna forestalled her with a gentle touch. “I know. It won’t be the same spell. It will be gentler. It will help you forget this night and what you have learned, but only for a time. In your dreams, you will not lash out, but you will come to remember and, I hope, understand who you once were. I have learned, in my time with Twilight Sparkle and her friends, that the only true path to redemption is in forgiveness.”

Lowering herself on her knees to look more closely at Shady Blossom, she touched her nose to her mane, briefly. “The most important step in that is forgiving yourself. You must make amends, and do so at your own initiative. It’s a long, difficult journey, but I believe you are up to it, especially with such fine ponies around you.”

Lowering her face, Shady sniffed. “I... I don’t know if I can forgive myself, my lady, but... but... thank you. I will try. You... you’ll always be the lady of my heart. My Qu-I mean, my Princess.”

“Thank you, Shady Blossom. We will meet again, and soon, once you’ve had a chance to work yourself out some. Perhaps I might ask you to send me regular letters to keep me apprised of your progress,” she said, sharing a smile with Applejack at that last.

“Now,” Luna went on, and lowered her horn, touching it to Shady Blossom’s head.

Her voice started to waver, as Shady felt tiredness sweeping over her. She laid her head down on her forelegs, feeling like her head was being stuffed with cotton.

“Sleep. Perchance to dream. For what dreams may come, I will be there, watching over you.”

---

Standing on the platform in Grand Central Station, Shady Blossom marveled at how much had been crammed into just a few short weeks. Standing there, hugging Applejack, Rarity, and the girls, she felt exhausted. From the first day and its harrowing night, to the rambunctious adventures of four young girls and their growing cadre of Crusader friends, to the night where the crime committed against her family was resolved and sealed by the hoof of Princess Luna herself, it seemed as though there was nothing left in the world for her to do.

Of course, she knew that to be a lie immediately. Her family still needed raising, her husband needed supporting, and she had an appointment with a casting director that her stepdaughters were practically shoving her into. There was so much left for her to do that it seemed a wonder that she could get any of it done at all.

Lingering around her neck, Applejack whispered into her ear. “You hold on tight, I’ll be back as soon as ah can.”

“You’d better,” Shady Blossom said, laughing. “You have a business here, too. You must be insane, shuttling back and forth.”

“Yeah, well... some things really just are that important,” she said, tilting her hat to hide her face and blush.

“Come on, dear,” Rarity said. “We’ll miss the train. Oh, and, Shady Blossom?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t let bad dreams get you down. In the morning, there will always be smiling faces waiting for you.”

“I won’t, thank you,” Shady Blossom said, and reached up to rub at her eyes. To her surprise, she found them wet, her cheeks stained. “Good bye, everyone.”

“It’s not truly goodbye if we’ll see one another again. Farewell,” Rarity said. She had to resort to levitating Sweetie Belle out, since her sister appeared to be trying to seep into Babs’s side.

“So long! I’ll be back in Ponyville soon!” Babs called, waving a small hoof.

“Bye! See you soon! You’d better show me those awesome moves again!” Scootaloo called.

“See ya next time, cous!” Apple Bloom said, standing on her hind legs to wave both of her front hooves.

With so much waving going on, by the time the train did pull out of the station, they felt as those their forelegs might fall off. Lifting up to drift a bit over the crowd, Shady Blossom felt the wind rush through her mane, and did a lazy roll to look at the train as it started out west.

It was a good life, and she wouldn’t leave it for anything in the world.

THE END