Return of the Mare

by Victoria


Part III - Chapter 12: Haunted By the Past

Chapter 12 Haunted By the Past

I jumped to the side instinctively to avoid the spell, but Starlight’s hastily raised shield deflected it back to the hostile unicorn. He managed to redirect it to the ceiling, however, where it went right through it, leaving a gaping hole.

Starlight counterattacked by firing an energy beam at her enemy, but it disappeared in a black sphere that he had cast before him. After absorbing the spell, the sphere glowed in an angry red and rapidly shot itself in our direction, exploding right on Starlight’s face. She protected herself by hiding inside an impenetrable crystal.

I wanted to help, but it was too dangerous for me to get involved. Besides, I saw two of the earth ponies dashing after me, waving their batons around. Ruby tackled one of them into the ground, brutally bucking him in the stomach as he tried to get up, but another one intervened before she could finish him off. He threw a series of punches at her which she successfully blocked, giving his friend time to recover. Behind them I saw Rarity fighting two ponies at once as well. That left me one-on-one with my own opponent.

Jumping back on my hooves, I cast a spell I had practiced so much as he swung his baton at my face. I sighed in relief when my own magical shield appeared around me to stop his attack. My relief proved to be short-lived though, as he continued to hit it repeatedly. Holding the spell became harder with each hit and soon, despite all of my efforts, the shield cracked and disappeared, leaving me defenseless.

“Gotcha,” the pony grinned savagely and hit my horn.

My whole head rang from a sharp pain and I raised my foreleg to block his next swing. I grimaced as his baton connected with it painfully, but it was nothing compared to the first hit. I batted his weapon to the side and punched him in the eye before he could react. My hoof was pretty firm, so I hoped it was just as painful as his own attack.

While he was reeling from my punch, I tried to throw him against the wall with my magic, but trying to cast it only caused me a surge of excruciating pain, like I was trying to lift something with a strained arm. It gave the stallion time to recover and he bucked me with his hindlegs. I realized what was happening only at the last moment and jumped back, but couldn’t avoid it completely.

The force of the kick was enough to throw me on my back. I struggled to breathe and desperately tried to get up, but failing miserably. The pony slowly approached me with a triumphant smile, picking up the baton he had dropped on the way.

Just as the pony was about to crush my face, an enraged scream sounded behind him. Ruby landed on his back a moment later, grabbed the baton off his hooves and used it to deliver a few powerful hits to his skull. The stallion dropped under her and lay motionless. Despite the fact that he was just about to kill me, I hoped he was alive himself. I wasn’t evil.

I stood up with Ruby’s help and looked around to assess our situation. It was clearly going in our favor, with Ruby’s opponents on the floor. My eyebrows rose in surprise when I found Rarity jumping around her own opponent — an earth pony mare — and hitting her fast from every side. The other pony who had been attacking her had already been defeated. I hadn’t been expecting her to be able to do that, but then I remembered that she and her friends had saved the world a few times.

Soon, Bright was the last one standing, or more correctly, levitating all over the place, with Starlight following him and trying to hit him with a stream of powerful spells. He managed to avoid every attack and even sent a few powerful comebacks that she barely managed to deflect in time.

Seeing that he was on the losing side, Bright disappeared in a flash of light only to reappear next to Rarity, who was standing separately from us. She didn’t have the time to react as he struck her with some kind of electric spell, making her fall with a shriek onto the floor, twitching. A corner of his mouth lifted up in satisfaction as he glanced back at Starlight.

I felt anger and fear for my friend boiling up inside me. As he was distracted with Starlight, I concentrated some magic in my horn through the terrible pain I felt, and released it in a simple punch at him. His smile vanished as he noticed it, right before it sent him flying into a row of boxes.

He landed on four hooves and looked at us with eyes full of contempt. Starlight joined us, preparing another spell as we advanced on Bright together. He had probably realized that his chances were slim against all of us, because he teleported away the next moment, but not before casting his most devastating spell yet.

A wall of truly infernal fire spread from his horn right before he disappeared, heading straight for us. Starlight immediately cast a protective shield around us, but I gasped in horror after realizing that Rarity was lying unconscious right in its path. Concentrating hard, I grabbed her with my magic and pulled her inside the shield with us, falling over from an agonizing pain in my horn right after.

The wave of fire ended, leaving everything around us in flames. The ponies we had been fighting were burned to a crisp and half the boxes around us became nothing more than ashes. Only those protected by spells were still holding on, but even they weren’t going to survive for long. And considering all the explosive potions inside them — we wouldn’t survive for long either.

“Everything is going to blow!” Ruby screamed, realizing it as well.

“Hold onto me!” yelled Starlight, levitating me and Rarity towards her and waiting until Ruby jumped on her back. After that, she followed Bright’s example and teleported us all as far away from the warehouse as possible.

***

We reappeared on the street adjacent to the warehouse a second later. All I wanted to do was just lie on the ground and rest, but I forced myself to stand up and check on Rarity, with the others watching in concern. Her mane was slightly burned at the ends, but otherwise she appeared fine and was already opening her eyes. I helped her to get back on her shaking hooves and she nodded towards me thankfully.

“W-what happened?” Rarity asked in a quivering voice.

“That bastard shocked you…literally,” answered Ruby and I frowned at her terribly inappropriate pun. Rarity chuckled weakly nonetheless.

“I can still feel it…”

“Girls, I think we should—”

Starlight was interrupted by a series of loud explosions from inside the warehouse. We all turned to watch as the building that was engulfed in flames slowly crumbled. It was kind of magnificent to behold, but not everypony was able to enjoy it as I did. The guards who hadn’t been among the ponies who had tried to kill us were running around in the yard, shouting in panic. The poor ponies probably had been kept in the dark about the real purpose of the building they were hired to protect and now were desperately trying to figure out what had happened.

There was no point in sticking around any longer — Bright could return with reinforcements to finish us off at any moment — so we trotted back to the hotel as fast as possible in our roughed-up condition.

While we walked in silence through the night-time city, I thought about the meaning of our discovery. The warehouse had been used to store explosives, enchanted armor and Celestia knows what else – all of which were highly illegal, obviously. Why the Doctor would need all those items was much less obvious, however. Perhaps he was trading them in the black market, but in my heart I knew that something much more sinister was at play.

Whatever the deal was, I was sure the police would handle it from here. Our little investigation had clearly gone beyond our control and it was time to alert them to what was going on. Now, after a known associate of the Doctor was directly involved in the attack on us, the chief would have no choice but to take us seriously and if not — Twilight definitely would if she still had any doubts.

I remembered the ponies who had died at the warehouse because of Bright’s spell. I didn’t know who they were and why they had tried to kill us on his orders, but I still felt uncomfortable at the thought that our actions had caused their deaths. I tried to take comfort in the fact that it was Bright’s fault, not ours. I found myself hating that pony even more than the Doctor. Maybe because I’d never met him as far as I remembered, so Bright was a living representation of his evil deeds for me.

“Ruby,” I called to my friend, “Do you know this Bright?”

The unicorn had been acting like he knew both of us personally and I wondered what our relationship in in the past had been. I suspected we were far from friends though.

“Yeah, I know that bastard,” Ruby answered with poison in her voice. “He was the Doctor’s protege at the college and was one of the members of the expedition. He used to be a lot nicer.”

Soon we returned to the hotel. The receptionist pony who was napping in his workplace in the foyer woke up and followed us with his eyes, no doubt wondering why we were coming back in the middle of the night with such a beat-up appearance. I wished my night had been as peaceful as his… We gave him a nod and followed right past him to our room upstairs.

Once there, we could finally relax. I dropped on the bed — I was exhausted after the fight we’d had and was still suffering from the pain in my horn and chest where I had been hit. Rarity was the only one who had gotten hurt more than me, while Ruby and Starlight had walked out almost without a scratch. I was actually surprised at Rarity’s prowess in fighting. Until Bright’s intervention, she had been doing fine for herself and had managed to defeat two opponents while I wasn’t even able to handle just one.

As soon as we got to the room, Rarity rushed to the mirror to assess the damage to her once fabulous appearance. I saw her devastated face in the reflection as she saw scorched spots all over her body; her mane looked no better. She locked herself in the bathroom a moment later, asking us not to bother her for a few hours as she would try to recover her former beauty.

Though I felt sorry for her, at the moment I was concerned more about myself. I told Starlight what had happened to me during the brawl and she grew worried immediately. She took a close look at it and cast a spell to check it for any serious injuries and we both sighed in relief when she had found none. As she explained to me later, a unicorn’s horn was very sensitive, especially during or after casting a spell, and Starlight warned me that it may cause some discomfort for me to use magic for a day or two, but it should pass with no permanent damage. I was happy to hear it — it would be horrible to lose my ability just as I was starting to rely on it so much.

“I’m going to send a letter to Twilight now,” Starlight told us.

I was going to offer the same — the Princess needed to know everything. With the help of Ruby and me, we quickly composed a letter for her, describing the events that had happened to us that unfortunate day. After the letter was done, Starlight rolled it into a scroll and cast a spell that caused it to burst into flames. Ruby and I gasped at the same time, but she only chuckled at our baffled faces. We did too after she revealed it was just a special method to send it via Spike. Thanks to him, Twilight would get the letter at once, though she wouldn’t be able to send her answer the same way.

After we got the biggest concerns out of the way, I found myself dozing off. There was still one tiny issue remaining before we could hit the hay though. Because we had only two beds and four ponies, each of us had to sleep with somepony else and we had to decide who would share the bed with whom. However, the choice had been made for me before I could even voice my own opinion. Ruby was so thrilled to share a bed with me that I just couldn’t find the resolve to argue, even though I was inclined to pick Rarity. Because she gave me the impression of being a more stable co-sleeper, not for any weird reasons.

“Keep telling yourself that, pervert,” Ruby poked me in my flank teasingly after I said it out loud.

We settled on opposite sides of each other and I managed to fall asleep almost at once, even despite Rarity’s mutterings from the bathroom, and slept until the very morning. I only woke up once somewhere in the middle of my slumber, when Rarity had finally finished her business and went to her own bed.

When I was ready to get up I discovered that my suspicions about Ruby had been correct. She was a terrible co-sleeper. Apparently, half the bed wasn’t good enough for her. Ruby took my own side as well and not only that — she also engulfed me with her limbs like I was some giant pillow for her. I should have fought harder for Rarity…

It felt very warm and comfortable, but also a little weird, so I carefully started to disentangle myself. She only made some disgruntled noises and tightened her strong embrace around me even more, as if I was a toy somepony had tried to take away from a baby. It was going nowhere at this pace. As much as I didn’t want to disturb her, there was no other way.

“Ruby, wake up!” I yelled in her face.

That produced a much more powerful effect than I had planned, as she shoved me off the bed in blind panic. I fell on the floor with a loud thump. “Ouch.”

Ruby’s wide-eyed face leaned over me from the bed.

“Sundae, why are you on the floor?”

“You were snuggling me,” I accused her instead of answering the question. Ruby blushed heavily and dropped a pillow on my face.

I batted it to the side and climbed on all fours to see Ruby giggling on the bed like a crazy pony. I couldn’t allow an insult against my dignity to go unpunished. Grabbing a pillow in my mouth, I threw it back at her and rushed straight for the bathroom to do the morning routine. Our little commotion had woken up the girls and so I had to get there first before anypony else claimed it.

It took two long hours for all of us to clean ourselves up after yesterday’s brawl. Rarity looked almost as great as ever now. I praised her appearance out loud — skipping the word “almost” — to lift her mood.

“Thank you, darling,” she said, grinning happily. “You have no idea how long it took to trim all the burned hair…”

I found my saddlebag, which I had left in the room before going on our adventure, and put it on my back using levitation, noticing that my horn had fully recovered. I felt no discomfort using it now, which improved my mood considerably. After everypony was finally ready, we all gathered around to think through our strategy.

“That Ironcuff won’t listen to us,” Ruby voiced her concern first. “She’ll just throw us out again.”

“She’s the chief of the Manehattan police for a reason, darling,” retorted Rarity with a slight condescending tone. “Even though our first meeting with her was rather unpleasant, I’m more than sure she won’t dare to dismiss us that easily now. Before, all we had were some wild guesses and accusations, while now we have some actual facts at our disposal. Not to mention we’re all witnesses to Bright’s attempt to murder us. And, as I understand, he’s the Doctor’s closest supporter.”

“We have zilch,” Ruby waved her hoof in exasperation. “Everything is gone along with the warehouse. And Bright escaped and there is no proof he’d even been there. It’s our word against his.”

“There should be enough left to support our claim,” said Starlight. “And Rarity here is an ex-bearer of one of the Elements of Harmony. If she says somepony has tried to kill her and we all confirm it, they’re bound to listen to us.”

“I think you’re underestimating her stupidity. She made her hate for the Princess very clear,” said Ruby and closed her eyes for a second, probably recalling some unpleasant memory. “I’ve met nobleponies like her before —all they care about are ponies of blue blood. They won’t listen to ponies like us.”

“Maybe we should wait for Twilight’s answer,” I voiced my humble opinion. “She’ll know what’s the best thing to do. The chief can think whatever she wants – Twilight is still an authority and she can ask Princess Celestia for help if the chief keeps acting unreasonable.”

“Time is of the essence, dear,” Rarity told me. “We don’t know when we’ll get Twilight’s answer and the more we wait, the more time the Doctor has to cover his tracks.”

“I agree,” Starlight nodded. “We’ve wasted enough time as it is.”

That argument decided it. Nopony wanted to give the Doctor more time, so we had to risk going to the police again despite Ruby’s reservations and mine.

***

Five hours later.

I sat on the cold brick floor and watched my friend’s sullen faces across the small room, wondering why everything had gone so wrong. We had spent a few hours in this prison cell already and I didn’t know how much longer we would have to remain here. Everypony was silent; no one wanted to talk after what had occurred earlier. We should have seen it coming really, but that was easy to say in hindsight.

***

Five hours ago.

The chief predictably didn’t want to meet us at first, but she changed her mind when she learned we knew something about the warehouse explosion last night. Apparently, it was the big news at the station by the time we had arrived. We were led into her office with two policeponies escorting us and we saw her sitting behind her desk with the same cold expression that I remembered. The policeponies left the room, leaving us with her alone.

“You said you know something about the warehouse explosion?” Ironcuff asked us without any preamble.

“We do,” confirmed Rarity. “In fact, we’re all direct witnesses of the event.”

The chief frowned after hearing this.

“So you were at the scene last night?” she asked another question.

“Of course we were. What part of direct witnesses do you not understand?” Ruby said rather rudely; maybe we should have asked for her to wait outside.

“Just tell me what happened,” Ironcuff said without any visible reaction to Ruby’s outburst. Somehow it worried me more than if she had thrown a fit of rage as I had expected.

Rarity told her the story. We made a few alterations to it beforehoof, of course, like skipping our illegal break in into the store and some more questionable details of our investigation. Ironcuff just sat there speechless for a whole minute, digesting our tale. I don’t know what she was expecting us to say, but obviously not that. She slowly leaned forward, having come to some kind of conclusion.

“So you’re saying you broke into a private warehouse and got attacked by one of the owners of the company it belonged to?” she asked, narrowing her stare.

I knew immediately what she was implying and my friends got it too, judging by their concerned expressions. I should have guessed this mare would interpret the situation in the worst possible light for us. But we had come up with an explanation — or a blatant lie — just for a question like that.

“We heard screaming for help from the inside,” I told her, holding a calm expression on my face. “They’d stopped when we got there, but then we found all the illegal stuff Rarity told you about. That’s when Bright attacked us.”

“Just send somepony there and you’ll find it,” said Starlight. “Some items would still survive even after the fire. Maybe you’ll even find the remains of the poor ponies he left there to die.”

“A team of my best ponies are already working there,” Ironcuff told us coldly. “They should report back soon, but I think we already got the lead suspects.”

“You don’t mean us, do you?” Rarity asked, drooping her ears.

I had no doubt in my mind that we were exactly who she had meant, so her next actions came as no surprise for me.

“Officers!” she called the policeponies waiting outside. “Put those criminals in jail.”

We had no choice but to surrender. Ruby was about to make a fuss, but I managed to talk her out of it — resisting would only cause more trouble for us. With a resigned sigh, Ruby finally agreed to go quietly. I fully shared her frustration myself, everypony did. The officers put a special ring on my fellow unicorns’ horns and mine, but I didn’t know what they were for yet. Then we were escorted to a temporary holding cell in the same building.

***

Present time.

As Starlight explained to me later, the rings suppressed our magic, so we couldn’t escape even if we wanted to. We didn’t, of course — that would only lead to more trouble. If we wanted to get out, we had to act smart. Anyway, that ring was a nasty little device that couldn’t be removed by the usual means. It was enchanted so only the pony with a special key could take it off.

There was a tiny hope the chief would change her mind when her ponies found some evidence of our story in the warehouse’s ruins. That is if she wasn’t actually on the Doctor’s side to begin with. I wouldn’t put it past her with her unhelpful attitude. Putting us in jail like that would give her and the Doctor plenty of time to hide everything important.

“I think it would be best if we denied ever being in the warehouse,” Rarity finally said, breaking the long silence. Everypony looked at her in confusion and she explained her idea further. “No one saw us there except for Bright and his unfortunate henchponies.”

“But we’ve admitted everything to Ironcuff already,” Ruby said, hitting the wall in frustration.

“Please, darling…She was alone when we said it and it wasn’t even recorded. Besides, she obviously has some prejudice against us. It wouldn’t hold up in any court.”

Starlight nodded in support of her friend’s idea and her ears perked up.

“That could work,” she said thoughtfully. “Unless Bright claims he saw us at the warehouse.”

“No, he won’t dare to say anything if we deny ever being there,” Rarity shook her head. “It would be he alone accusing the four of us, close friends of the princess, of sneaking into the warehouse and somehow blowing it all up for no good reason. It would sound crazy and nopony is going to believe it. Besides, I don’t think he or the Doctor are the type of ponies who resolve their disputes in court.”

“That all actually sounds reasonable,” I found myself agreeing with her proposal. “But that leaves us back at square one. Our whole trip in Manehattan was in vain.”

“Not in vain,” Rarity put her hoof on my shoulder in reassurance. “We know much more about the Doctor and his operations now. And I’m sure that Princess Celestia herself won’t dismiss us as quickly as this nasty police mare. Knowing from us that he’s up to no good, she will be able to launch an investigation against him to find some new evidence.”

We all quickly agreed to our new plan of action. All we had to do now was to wait until somepony released us, but it was easier to do it knowing that not all hope was lost. If Ironcuff proved as unreasonable as ever and refused to let us out, Twilight would know and come to our rescue. I was so calm now that I even fell into a nap.

***

I was woken up by the pleasant sight of Twilight herself standing behind the bars. I realized that I was the one behind bars here, but it just looked that way. Twilight wasn’t alone, however, and the pony accompanying her ruined my mood just by being here. Chief Ironcuff stood with an unreadable expression on her face, but I could almost physically feel her loathing of the princess and us.

I noticed a couple of new ponies along with them too — a yellow earth pony mare and a blue pegasus stallion. Both had dark sunglasses and the same short manecuts. They also wore similar black ties and collars on their neck, making them look like some typical government agents.

Twilight didn’t look amused. In fact, she was downright angry. I just hoped she was angry at the chief, not at us.

“The chief here claims you were in the warehouse that burned down last night and had a fight against Morning Bright, co-owner of the company it belonged to,” Twilight began in a neutral voice, skipping the greetings. “However, she failed to provide any evidence to her claim and Morning Bright himself stated he had no idea what had caused the fire during our meeting with him. So, have you or have you not been in the warehouse?”

Only the deaf or dumb wouldn’t pick up on her thick attempts to hint us towards the right course of action. We were neither and, besides, we had come up with the same idea earlier.

“Of course not, darling,” said Rarity, chuckling at the very absurdity of it. “Why would we sneak into some warehouse in the middle of the night?”

“That’s it,” Twilight turned to the chief with a triumphant smile. “You have no reason to keep them detained and you’ll be in some serious trouble if you do.”

Ironcuff didn’t appear surprised by us going back on our own words. She had probably regretted her decision to meet us without any witnesses. Gritting her teeth, the mare took out a key and opened the door of our jail cell. She moved her head, showing us out. We were only too happy to oblige.

“Let’s go,” Twilight told us.

We left the building promptly with the two strange pony agents following us, stopping only to remove our suppressor rings. I was grateful for Twilight getting us out like that, even though I hadn’t expected her to come to Manehattan so quickly. And it looked like she had already managed to have a meeting with Morning Bright.

I took a deep breath of free air once we had gotten outside, before turning back to my friends. I could tell the others were bursting with questions, but we were reluctant to talk freely with the two agents listening to every word. We became more at ease, however, once we had a proper introduction.

“First of all, I’m glad to see you’re alright,” Twilight said, addressing all of us and giving each a quick hug. “I was so worried after getting your letter, so I flew straight to Manehattan. I also wrote to Celestia and told her everything; she sent these two honorable ponies to help us. You can trust them with everything.”

“I’m Agent Broom and my partner is Agent Clipper, CSS,” the earth pony mare introduced herself to us. Though I had no idea what CSS was, it sounded pretty important. “I already know your names, so you can skip the introduction.”

We trotted through a street going nowhere in particular while sharing with Twilight all the details that we couldn’t fit into our short letter. In turn, she told us everything she had done after arriving in Manehattan herself, with Agent Broom adding something to her story from time to time.

Our letter had told her we planned to go to the police, so when Twilight didn’t find us at the hotel, she knew where to go and what to expect from the chief. We were already locked up by the time she had arrived and Ironcuff predictably refused to let us go, holding our own foolish statement against us. Twilight had no choice but to ask help from Celestia and she gave it in form of her most trusted agents in Manehattan. As I had learned, CSS stood for Celestial State Security, a special division within the Royal Guard that specialized in more subtle dealing with enemies of the state than direct attack, and Celestia judged it was the job for them.

Twilight and the agents visited the ruins of the warehouse, but they couldn’t find anything. The police team on the site promised to look for anything suspicious, but either the fire had been too powerful to leave any evidence or the Doctor had had time to clean up in the short time he had. Whatever the answer was, the warehouse was a dead end now, though Agent Broom promised to keep an eye out for any potential discovery. Their next logical step was to meet the Doctor himself, but unfortunately he had left Manehattan the same night. Instead, they found Bright in his place, who claimed to be in shock after the disaster that struck the company.

Even though they couldn’t accuse him, that gave Twilight an idea to use the same trick against the chief — complete denial of our involvement. It was a return to the status quo, but it was the best way out of the situation and everypony, even the agents, had agreed with that. After all, our methods yesterday weren’t exactly legal and we didn’t even have anything to show for it.

Our mood was high despite the apparent failure. The most important part was that Celestia believed us and had tasked the CSS to thoroughly investigate the Doctor’s company. That meant we could finally relax and let the professionals do their job. I glanced at Twilight and realized that she didn’t look as happy as the others.

“What’s wrong?”

“I should have asked Celestia for help earlier,” Twilight hung her head in shame. “You wouldn’t have had to risk your lives if I had. But I was so obsessed with that damn mirror…”

“I told you it was—,” I lashed Starlight with my tail before she could continue. Twilight looked upset already; there was no need to make it worse.

“Twilight, darling, it was our own choice that put us in danger,” said Rarity, throwing a burning stare at Starlight. “You couldn’t have known the situation would escalate this much. It was reasonable of you to assume the police would help us.”

“I agree with her, Princess,” Agent Broom said. “It wasn’t really our level of threat before, but now it looks like it is. We missed a whole criminal organization thriving under our own muzzles. I was afraid something like that would happen after the mayor put that noble horse Ironcuff in charge of the police. Her actions raise some questions about her loyalty and competence. I can’t imagine the same thing happening under the old chief. Be assured, we’re going to bring them to justice now that we know what to look for.”

“Thanks, guys,” Starlight told both agents, even the ever-silent Agent Clipper.

They went on their way soon, leaving us alone with Twilight. We quickly found a nice place to eat since we all were pretty hungry after spending half the day in jail. I ordered noodles for myself and happily enjoyed them, ignoring the conversation around me until my plate became empty.

“Can we return to Ponyville now?” asked Rarity. “I can’t believe I’m saying it, but I’ve had enough of Manehattan for a long while.”

Starlight and Ruby exchanged weird glances after her words and Twilight sighed. I looked at her with curiosity.

“You still haven’t told her, have you?” she asked and they both shook their heads.

“I just wanted to pick the right time…” Starlight said without conviction.

I had no idea what they were talking about at first, but then I realized they were keeping some kind of secret from me. I immediately grew worried. It was probably connected to my past in some way and it couldn’t be anything good if they were hiding it.

“I’ve learned from experience that the longer you wait, the worse it’s going to be,” Twilight scorned Starlight slightly.

Her ears went flat against her head and she mumbled sorry. Ruby appeared no less distressed by Twilight’s words.

“What are you talking about, girls?”

“Your-parents-live-in-this-city-and-Twilight-thought-you-should-meet-them!” Ruby blurted out so fast that I could barely understand it. My eyes grew wide when I finally did and I heard Rarity gasp almost inaudibly.

Twilight glared at Ruby with annoyance.

“I said it would be good to meet them, but that’s entirely your choice, Sundae,” Twilight assured me. “I would advise you to do it though.”

I was completely disorientated by the news. I knew that my pony family lived somewhere in Equestria, but I had shoved those thoughts to the back of my mind while living in Ponyville — I’d had enough problems to deal with as it were without adding family issues to the mix. My tail twitched in annoyance; I was already dreaming about going back to Ponyville, but now I couldn’t leave. Not until I’d met my real parents.

I could have pretended they didn’t exist before when I didn’t know who they were and where they lived, but now being in the same city as them I just couldn’t turn my back on them. They’d been thinking their daughter was dead for half a decade and I would feel pretty rotten for keeping them in the dark any longer. I looked at my friend’s worried faces and I let out a long sigh.

“Tell me more about my parents.”

***

The building where my parents lived wasn’t anything fancy. It was tall and had a lot of different apartments for middle class ponies in it. The same kind of building was a common sight in this neighborhood. My mum and dad were typical ponies just like hundreds of others inhabiting it, but they were special to me.

I remembered what Ruby and the others had told me about them. My mum worked in an office for some small company, while my dad was a construction worker. Both of them were earth ponies. I was surprised to learn that at first, but then Twilight explained that it wasn’t strange for ponies of one tribe to have a child of the other. I was also their only child.

Their apartment was close to the top floor and the higher I climbed the stairs, the more doubts I had. They had lived without me for six years; surely they would survive a few more days. Or weeks, or months…I was on edge and I tried to calm down, but it wasn’t easy. I always hated important meetings.

Ruby walked close to me, watching me and trying to guess my thoughts. My other friends followed us too, though they decided to keep themselves to the background, letting me and Ruby handle the reunion ourselves. To be honest, I would prefer it to be the opposite. Why can’t Twilight go and talk to them?! Because she wasn’t their daughter, I told myself. You are.

Finally, there was a door with the right number on it. I reached my hoof forward to knock, but hesitated at the last moment. Then I put my hoof back to the floor and turned to Twilight.

“Maybe we should come another time?”

“Too late to chicken out, Sundae,” Ruby answered instead and knocked on the door loudly.

I froze in terror as she just winked at me.

No one was answering for some time. A hope that no one was home grew in me, but it died when I heard some noise from the other side. A mare’s voice asked us to wait a bit while she found the key, and soon the door finally opened. A tired pony who fit the description of my mother stood there and looked at us with a bored expression. Maybe she thought we were going to sell her something.

She was tiny for a pony — almost half a head lower than me — and she wore thick glasses on her muzzle. Her coat was a dark orange shade. I looked at her, trying to get it into my head that she was my real mother –the pony who had given me birth and raised me –even though I didn’t remember any of it. The mare continued to look at us quietly, waiting for us to begin our sales speech, but then a spark of recognition flickered in her eyes.

“Sundae?” she gasped and fell on her haunches.

“Yep, that’s me…mum,” I managed to say.

“Hello, Ms. Milkshake,” Ruby said in a much more lively fashion, waving her hoof in greeting. “Sundae’s back!”

I felt like I ought to do something to calm the shocked pony, so I approached her reluctantly and gave her a hug, which she returned. But instead of calming down, she started to sob more and more. A large stallion came out to check out the commotion and froze in the door frame. I guessed he was my dad because he had the same coat color as me — brightly yellow.

“Sundae? Is that you?” he asked me unsure.

I could only nod in the answer, seeing tears welling up in his eyes. I felt quite emotional myself and was afraid that if I opened my mouth, the rain of tears would be unstoppable. The pony approached us and embraced both me and my mum in a big hug. That went on for some time until we decided it was enough for now and broke it up.

Just as everypony was starting to slowly come to their senses, Twilight made her appearance and threw our established peace into disarray. My mum jumped at her, praising her name and thanking her for bringing me back, with my father joining her example. Twilight was brightly red from embarrassment and no doubt regretted coming along at all.

“I didn’t save your daughter,” she denied stoically, but my parents completely ignored her. “Well, maybe technically I did because I helped with the portal restoration, but it’s no big deal...”

She shouldn’t have mentioned this technicality, because it only renewed the fervor of my parents. Rarity and Starlight giggled at the whole situation; even I couldn’t withhold a smile. Eventually, we managed to pacify them and after hugging one more time my mother rushed us all into the living room. She promised to make a feast in celebration of my miraculous return.

The apartment looked casual from the inside. It wasn’t as poor as Ruby’s room in Canterlot, but also wasn’t quite up to the hotel’s standards. It was somewhere in the middle, though I liked it that way. I sat back on a sofa with my dad and Ruby settling next to me.

Now, after he had calmed down a little, my father wished to know more about me and my life all these years away from them. I promised to tell them all about it as soon as my mother returned from the kitchen. We had discussed what I was going to tell my parents in advance and decided to skip the part about the Doctor completely. It was Ruby’s idea and we all agreed with her reasoning. She didn’t want my parents to end up like her when she went against the Doctor alone and he destroyed her career for it.

Thankfully, we didn’t have to wait for long. My mum brought a few dishes from the kitchen, making it an improvised feast. We barely touched the food though as I was telling them my story, starting from my life in the human world until this very moment. My parents were shocked and devastated when they learned about my lost memories, but I reassured them that even if I never reclaimed them, we were going to make new ones together. That earned me a new round of hugging and tears.

“You’re welcome to live with us if you want, Sundae,” my mum offered me.

“Oh…” I said in surprise.

It was nice of her, but I had to politely refuse. Even though I had spent only a week in Ponyville, I had already grown very fond of it. Besides, living with them would only endanger their lives because the Doctor could strike at me again at any moment, especially after what we had done to his warehouse. Though technically it was Bright’s fault, but I knew he wouldn’t see it that way.

Another reason for staying in Ponyville was learning magic. I’m sure that my parents were nice ponies, but as good as they were — they didn’t know a thing about unicorn magic, with both of them being of the earth pony race. I promised to visit them as often as I could though and they were thrilled at the idea of visiting Twilight’s castle.

Our talk slowly shifted to Twilight herself. Turns out my parents were huge fans of her, unlike Ironcuff. They were out of themselves with excitement that she was now sitting in their very room. That excitement was only doubled by the fact that they still thought of her as my savior.

My mum also knew a thing or two about clothes, which made her a pony of interest for Rarity. The two chatted about fashion for quite some time. At some point I joined their conversation as well — after all, I used to wear clothes all the time when I’d been a human, so I thought of myself as an expert. I’d never been so wrong in my life…

We stayed up talking right into the night and my parents generously offered us to spend it in their apartment. I gladly accepted, though Twilight had to politely refuse. There were simply not enough beds for everypony. In the end it was me, Ruby and Starlight who stayed for the night with Rarity and Twilight going back to the hotel. No one said it out loud, but Starlight stayed in case there was some attack, though I prayed to gods that it wouldn’t happen.

***

It was time for us to leave the city. Our adventures in Manehattan were pretty dangerous and I was happy to finally return to a peaceful life in Ponyville. It was sad to say goodbye to my parents though, but more so for themselves than me. After all, I had just known them for a day and simply hadn’t had enough time to become properly attached, while they had known me for their whole lives, raising me as a filly.

We were now having a farewell dinner in a small cafe at the train station. My parents told me a few funny and slightly embarrassing stories from my foalhood, hoping to spark my memories that way, though I warned them it was unlikely to work. It didn’t, but at least everypony had some laughs listening to my silly misadventures as a filly.

Our train was due to leave by noon, so we had roughly half an hour left to say our goodbyes and board the train. My parents promised to visit me in Ponyville as soon as possible to catch up on all the time we’d lost. My father kept his emotions mostly to himself, but my mum was crying openly, saddened by my leaving so soon after our reunion. I hugged her and assured her that I wouldn’t disappear anymore, even though it wasn’t guaranteed with the danger of the Doctor hanging over me. I skipped that last part, of course.

I was worried the Doctor would decide to harm my parents somehow. I shared my concerns with Twilight this morning and she promised to write a letter to Celestia to ask her to dispatch somepony from the CSS to protect them in secret until the Doctor had been dealt with. It slightly reduced my fears.

The announcement over our heads warned us about the train’s departure in five minutes and asked all the passengers to board the wagons. It was finally time to say goodbye.

“Take care of our little filly, Ruby,” my mum kept asking my friend.

“I will, Ms. Milkshake, I swear.”

My other friends promised the same, which put my parents at ease. The promise from Twilight played the most important role in it, I suspected. Mum and dad walked with us to the train and we hugged one last time before going inside to find our places. In a few minutes, the train slowly began to move, accelerating with each second. I watched the city of Manehattan vanish before my eyes and didn’t regret leaving it behind.