//------------------------------// // Chapter Four: Home Sweet Home // Story: It's Going Down // by Nerdz //------------------------------// It didn’t occur to Nyx until she was on the Island that she had no real plan of what to do once she arrived. In her haste to get away, she’d completely neglected that key detail. Usually, newcomers went to ‘Housing’, a large warehouse where they could get a cot until they could get their affairs in order. This situation was different, however, and she had no idea if there were even policies in place for ponies returning to the prison, because no one had ever left it in the first place. She quickly shook any thought of going to Housing out of her mind. She was a traitor in the eyes if the Island’s inhabitants. Going to the hub of the most desperate of them would only mean danger. At least until she’d gotten her old reputation back. The first step should be accommodations. Her old home should still be standing. But empty was another question entirely. Which is why she stood before the dilapidated old castle she’d grown up in. It had once been the home of the general that had first tried to settle the island and his family. Before the filly was born, Nightmare Moon had cleared out the walls of the bottom floor and turned it into the thrift store where she made her living. She’d send out her minions, and later Nyx, to fetch whatever they could find of value from the garbage barge, and then she’d turn around and sell it for whatever price she could squeeze out of it. The store was bare now, no doubt raided when everyone realized the infamous monarch of the Island wasn’t returning. She shrugged her bags further up her shoulder and picked her way over broken wood and glass to the lockbox hidden in the space under a false piece of flooring. Not only had someone taken whatever the box held, but the box itself was also missing, along with the board that concealed it. Whatever, she never liked the store anyway, and it wasn’t like they’d even needed it back then. Nyx was good at stealing anything she needed, and everyone was too afraid of Nightmare to ever deny her anything. It was more of a way for the mare to fight away boredom and, the girl now realized, probably a way to get her out of the house before she was old enough to realize that her mother didn’t want her around all the time. Nyx made her way to a staircase that lead to the apartment they’d lived in. She paused, one foot on the first step. One day she might open the store again. But for now, it was best to leave it. Without her old reputation, it would just be a foolish endeavor. Other than there being a much thicker layer of dust than there used to be, the upstairs apartment was just as it had been when she’d left six months before. Even after she was gone, looters were too afraid of Nightmare to disturb her living space. Same broken, old-fashioned furniture. Same sparse walls, smashed windows. Same cold atmosphere. Her bedroom, too, was virtually untouched. The graphitti she’d tagged the stone walls with, while still mostly intact, had faded and chipped away. The old mattress she slept on was still tucked away in the corner of the room. It wasn’t made, and she couldn’t recall if it ever had been, but the ratty blanket she’d slept with since fillyhood was still piled exactly where she left it. And there, in the corner, sat a medium-sized crate, filled with the mostly-empty cans of spray paint she’d collected over the years. The filly leaned heavily against her door jam. She threw a glance over her shoulder, at the bare rooms behind her, the bare walls. A little redecorating would calm her nerves while she came up with a game plan. For now, however, she couldn’t stand a blonde mane. It wasn’t her. Time to get back into her old groove. *** “I don’t see why he has to come, Lady,” Shade aimed a glare at the young king, “Obviously Nyx doesn’t want to see him right now, and I don’t blame her. She needs us, not him!” he practically spat the last word. Lady had barged into Shade and Flare’s room, dragging Will by the ear behind her with her magic. Once she explained the situation, Flare had to physically restrain the older colt from hurting Will. Presently, she was digging through the boys’ closet. She tossed out an old moth-eaten shirt, a faded leather jacket, a pair of ripped jeans, and a cotton beanie. “Because she loves him, and he needs to apologize.” The grey colt muttered a few colorful words that earned him a glare from the Changeling. Flare spoke up, “It’s not just his fault, you know.” “What?” the other three said in unison. “Well, I mean, we’re her friends too, right?” he said, gesturing between himself, Lady, and Shade, “We should’ve realized something was wrong. We should’ve helped her.” The Changeling nibbled worryingly on her lip. “You’re right. We’re the closest thing to family any of us have.” she turned to Will, “You and Shade are about the same size. Wear this, maybe you’ll blend in better.” “Hey, I didn’t agree to-” “Shade, save it, or I swear-” “Alright, fine!” the Unicorn let out a huff as Flare cleared his throat. “Have any of you noticed how much she’s been zoning out lately?” he paused, letting the others nod their confirmation, “I think those might have been panic attacks.” “I thought those were like, you know, crying and the whole ‘walls closing in’ thing,” Shade protested. “Sometimes, yeah, but not always.” the colt tapped a hoof against the screen of his phone, pulling up an article he’d saved. “A lot of ponies go without a diagnosis because they think that’s the only kind, but panic attacks are classified by symptoms, not by what they look like. Sometimes they’re big and loud and noticeable, and sometimes they’re quiet and no one else around knows what’s happening. Nyx was in here earlier and she zoned out for a bit, and I thought it was weird, so I looked some stuff up and did some research. I was gonna bring it up to her next time I saw her, but, well…” “So Nyx may have an anxiety issue, and she’s on the Island,” Lady summed up, “Great. You,” she said to Will, “Get dressed. Shade, you don’t wear these anymore, right? Mind if I cut wing holes?” “I can just use magic to disguise myself,” Will spoke up for the first time. “No magic on the Island, remember? Luckily you’ve been hiding the whole ‘half-Draconequus’ features for years. I doubt anyone there knows you even have wings, so this could work to our advantage.” The filly, having gotten nodded consent from the garments’ owner, began tearing fresh holes in the shirt. Her aura split from the task and plopped the beanie over the colt’s horn. “Keep this pulled low. Hide your horn and your face as much as you can.” The girl stepped back and the other boys moved forward, each looking over the young king. “Not bad. As long as no one sees your face, I doubt you’ll get recognized.” “Remember the carriage you guys came here in? They finally got replaced with actual cars. I have access to where they’re kept, we can use them to get to the Island.” “Well at least you’re useful for something,” Shade sneered, “Let’s go.” *** Nyx stood outside a ramshackle studio. ‘Mayhem’s Mane Care’ was sloppily painted over the door in alternating green and purple letters. When her daughter was born, The Mane-iac started going by her real name again. The mother-daughter duo was a bit of an oddity on the Island: they actually had a fairly good relationship. The Alicorn took a deep breath and pushed the door open. The filly in question was standing in the middle of the room, sweeping away tufts of black hair, humming a nonsense tune to herself. Everything about the girl was small; short stature, dainty lips, pert nose, and small eyes, one green, one blue, covered by pink-framed glasses. She was coffee-brown in coat, apart from the specs of hair dye mishaps, with a mane of bright blue and dark purple, the small strip of pale green at her scalp showing her natural hair color. Her mane was the only thing that betrayed her small nature. It was a large, frizzy ball of kinky curls she’d somehow managed to pull into two round, fluffy pigtails at the top of her head. “Uh, excuse me? I don’t know if you kno-” The girl turned around and gasped, “Nyx! Oh my gosh, you’re back!” “Okay, I guess you do.” “What did you do to your hair?!” Nyx subconsciously ran a hoof through her mane. “It’s kinda a long story...Poppy, right? Think you can help?” The filly, Poppy, let out a low whistle. Her eyes roamed over the poorly done bleach job, wincing at the gaudy pink streaks that were supposed to take away from the blonde but in the end only made it worse. She gave a shrug and patted a seat. “I’ll give it a shot.” As the Alicorn complied, dropping her saddlebags next to the seat, the Earth filly looked through a small crate filled with different homemade dyes. “I’m guessing you want your purple back? I don’t think I have anything that’ll get you back to your old color exactly, but I can get you a nice purple.” She selected a few bottles and set them out on a table, next to a bowl and a paintbrush. Next, she ran her hooves through the older girl’s mane. “Box bleach?” she asked. “That obvious?” “Oh yeah. Your hair is pretty dead. Feel how dry it is?” she ran her hooves down through the hair, starting from the top, and pausing at the filly’s shoulders. “I can salvage about this much. The rest really needs to come off,” she paused, giving the filly a critical look, “How far can I go?” Nyx gave a wicked smirk. “I need to get my old reputation back, but I’ll need to look worthy of it. Do whatever you want, have fun.” Poppy closed her eyes and sighed. “I’ve been waiting to hear that since I started working the shop!” She squealed and grabbed an almost empty bottle of shampoo. “How long have you been working the shop?” “Not very long. It’s mostly sweeping, a few simple cuts, a dye job here and there.” “Should I be trusting you with this?” the Alicorn nodded towards the dye. “Oh, I do a lot more than mom knows about.” “Really?” “Yep,” she said, leading Nyx to a pump sink in the corner of the room, “She’s had some trouble, uh, remembering things lately. Is that too cold? I can warm it up, but it’ll take a while to get the stove going.” “No, it’s good. What do you mean?” “Well, you know how she became The Mane-iac, right?” Nyx lowered her head in the sink, “She fell in some vat of chemicals, right?” “Yeah, and there was some lightning involved, I think. Anyway, she became unhinged and became a supervillain. Then she was sent here, she met my dad, and had me, and she kinda gave up on the whole evil thing, but whatever those chemicals did, her mind is still...deteriorating, I guess. She forgets what she’s doing, sometimes, in the middle of doing it. Or sometimes she won’t recognize someone, or she’ll forget she’s not in Equestria, or sometimes she forgets dad died.” the filly let out a sigh, and let the Alicorn lift her head, “I don’t think she’s gonna get any better, and she’s probably just getting worse. I wish she’d let me take over the shop fully. She’s not going to be able to work much longer, and I’d feel better knowing she wasn’t in here every day with sharp objects and chemicals. “Anyway,” she continued, leading Nyx back over to her chair and picking up a pair of scissors, “You’re back! What’s that about?” Nyx huffed. “Long story short, I don’t belong in Equestria. This is my home.” “I don’t suppose Lady came with you?” “I didn’t know you knew Lady.” “Oh yeah! She’d work here whenever she could get away from her mother.” Poppy paused after clipping off a tuft of hair. She smiled sheepishly. “You...weren’t supposed to find out about that. I forgot Nightmare banished them.” The Alicorn laughed. “It’s fine. Lady and I are friends now. Roommates, actually. And no, she didn’t come with me. She might not even know I’m gone yet.” “You didn’t tell her you were leaving?” “It was kind of an impulse decision, you could say.” Poppy let out a low whistle. “Some impulse!” “Yeah,” Nyx replied. The fillies continued to catch up as more and more blonde hair drifted to the floor. Once the cutting was finished and Nyx’s mane had dried, Poppy began mixing dye. “It’ll be darker than this once it’s on your hair,” she said, showing the older girl a bowl full of thick, pink liquid, “I know it looks pink but it’ll be really purple once it takes. If I had any bleach, I’d touch up your roots but there’s not much there, so I should be able to blend this in alright.” The dye sat in the filly’s mane for an hour and then was rinsed off in cold water. Poppy combed through the hair as it dried, fluffing it in places. “Alright,” she said, turning Nyx to face a cracked, old mirror. Her mane was wavier than it had been long. It framed her face in a wild, untamed manner, as if her head was wrapped in magenta flames. The color was much lighter than her natural plum; the blonde in her hair had made the dye take lighter and brighter in a bright, almost pink, magenta. She looked fiery, fierce. It was perfect. “There I am,” she said smoothly. She dug through her bag and pulled out a few rings she’d gotten from a thrift store. The band wasn’t real gold, and the gems weren’t real rubies, but she knew it would be worth something more here than the seventy-five cents she’d paid for it. “Will this cover it? It’s not real but-” “Are you kidding?!” the younger filly cried, taking the ring and examining it, “Real or not, this is way more than I’ve ever been paid!” “Keep the change then!” Nyx laughed. She pulled her bags onto her shoulders and turned back to the mirror to run her hoof through her mane. The door opened. “What are you doing here?” Nyx heard Poppy ask nervously. “Collecting rent,” an all too familiar voice snarked in reply, “Fork it over, runt.” The Alicorn listened as the register opened and metal clinked together. She peered around the side of the mirror in time to see a large Satyr drop a handful of shiny coins and the ring she’d just paid with into a pouch tied to his waist. “This isn’t your territory, Dion,” she said, stepping out fully from behind the mirror. “Think of it as payment for not-” the Satyr cut himself off as his eyes landed on the filly, “Well, well, well, what do we have here? Oh, just wait ‘till Cappella hears you’re back.” “Still taking her orders, huh?” Nyx smirked. Dion’s hand shot out and gripped her throat. His eyes burned. “I could hurt you,” he whispered. Despite the threatening situation she found herself in, Nyx looked bored. “Not without little miss Siren’s permission, I’m sure.” After a few tense moments, Dion let go, swearing under his breath. Nyx smirked knowingly. “Run back to your mistress. I’m sure she’s wondering where you got to.” The Satyr growled, but he did leave. Once he was gone, Nyx passed the pouch he’d carried back to Poppy. “Guess I still have a few skills.” *** The drive to the Island took most of the remainder of the day. By the time Lady, Flare, Shade, and Will had even reached the bridge, it was already dark, and the perpetual gloom over the Island promised to make their mission even more dangerous. They pulled slowly off the bridge into a marketplace that had been abandoned for the night, and parked in a small empty warehouse. “This feels so weird,” Lady said, climbing out of the car, “Being back.” “Help me with this,” said Shade as he pulled something out from the trunk. The three other teens helped the colt pull a large black tarp over the car, making it blend in with the shadows. Flare looked around cautiously, “We gotta keep a low profile. The last thing we need is our parents finding out we’re here.” The Changeling gave a nervous nod. “I didn’t even think of them.” “Don’t worry,” Shade laid a comforting hoof on the girl’s shoulder, “They won’t find us. We’ll be gone before they get the chance.” Lady nodded. “Yeah, you’re right, we-Will what do you think you’re doing?! Get away from there!” Said colt gave a start and backed away from the tunnel he’d been peering down. Despite being the slightest bit older than the girl, he found himself as blushing and sheepish as he was whenever his mother caught him with his hoof in the cookie jar. “N-nothing!” he stuttered, but he cast a glance over his shoulder as he walked back to the group. “Totally off-topic, but, what’s down there?” “The Wharf,” Shade said severely, “You’ll wanna stay far away from there.” The colt gave the tunnel a calculating look. “Besides, Nyx wouldn’t have made it down there yet. Not with,” he shot a look at Lady and Flare, “You-Know-Who there.” “Who?” Will questioned. “Not my place,” came the gruff reply, “Anyhow, she’ll avoid it for as long as she can.” “You knew her best while we were here, Shade. Where would she go?” Shade chewed his lip. Where would she go? The question would’ve been difficult before, what with their territory being so vast, but now the girl’s options for refuge were so limited, did she even have anywhere to go? ‘No,’ he thought, ‘Nyx is smart, she knows how to survive. She knows this place is dangerous, she’ll keep a low profile until she’s built back her old reputation. For now, she’ll someplace she knows will be abandoned. Someplace familiar.’ “Bargain Barn,” he said aloud, “She wanted to go somewhere familiar, she’d go to her foalhood home.” Flare gave a shrug. “Makes sense to me.” “If nothing else, it’s a start. Now let-” Lady cut herself off, borderline annoyed look crossing her face. In one quick motion, she’d dropped her disguise and whirled around, snatching the little hoof that was busy digging through her pocket, holding fast to the culprit, and let out a deafening hiss. But the anger on her face evaporated just as quickly as it appeared. Her disguise melted back into place once her eyes landed on the thieves. Two young Changelings, barely older than Larva and Pupa, stared back at her. Her heart skipped a beat. They were just as bruised and broken and painfully thin as she had been at that age, as her sisters had been. Her own hoof delved into her pocket and produced a small red coin purse. It was practically empty, apart from one or two spare bits that held little to no value on the Island. But the purse itself would fetch the little ones a few days of meals. “Here,” she whispered, offering the purse to the oldest foal, a colt. “Take it. Before somepony sees you.” The colt gave her a grateful look, then snatched the purse away with one hoof and tucked his little sister under his other and buzzed away into the shadows. Lady sighed as they disappeared. She turned to Will. “You can’t do that. No helping.” “What?” the young king sputtered, “But they’re kids! And you just-” “Ah! Do as I say, not as I do!” she snapped, again using that tone that made anyone who heard it feel like a small child. “Look,” Shade laid a hoof on Will’s shoulder, “If you’re going to blend in, you need to act the part. Walk with confidence, and you’ll generally be left alone.” Will nodded and puffed his chest out a bit. “Don’t do that. That looks stupid.” He deflated. “Just,” Lady said, “be cool. Act like you don’t care about anything going on around you. Don’t look anyone in the eye, and don’t let yourself look weak. Don’t invite attack, and don’t do anything that could be considered a challenge.” “Just be chill,” Flare added, “And if anyone tries anything, act tougher than them and they’ll back off. Probably.” “Okay, and if they don’t?” the young king asked. “Look frightening,” Lady replied, “Intimidate them.” Moments after the teens began their trek to the castle, Will got his chance to put this advice into practice. Will was lost in thought on what to say to Nyx when they found. What could he say? What could any of them say? How long had she been struggling with this? Was this the only thing she was struggling with? How could he have been so blind? It was at that moment that someone bumped into him. “Watch it!” a voice broke through the colt’s internal monologue. “You watch it!” Will snarled, eyes blazing as he whirled around to face the shocked newcomer. “Hey wait, I know you, don’t I?” the newcomer, a colt, asked. Shade swore under his breath and shot a pointed look to Lady and Flare as the colt cocked his head and leaned closer to Will. “It’s Rhys,” he hissed, “He’s one of her gang!” Flare repeated the swear which earned him a sharp eye and pursed lip from Lady. “I don’t think so, man,” Will spoke, his sudden nerve dissolving. “You sure?” the colt, Rhys asked, “You look so familiar… Wait! I do know you! You’re King Will!” “Uh-” “Time to go!” Shade gave Will a shove. “I know you too! Hi Shade! Flare and Lady too, hi guys!” Rhys called as the four teens disappeared around a street corner, “Oh, are you busy? Guess so, uh, well, bye then!” he waved. *** “This is it.” Will’s eyes traveled up the stone building. Though similar in build to a castle, it would barely count as a townhouse by modern standards. Still, he supposed it was the most impressive building he’d seen since entering the Island, despite the cracked walls and rotted wood. “So,” he began in response to Shade’s statement, “This is where she grew up?” “Nope,” the silver colt replied then gestured out into the streets, “That’s where she grew up; where most of us did. That,” he pointed again at the castle, “Is where she slept. Sometimes. We weren’t always allowed home.” The young king cringed. What could a child possibly do to not be welcome in their own home? Then again, did Nightmare need much of a reason to leave a filly out on the street? He felt a brief pang of hatred for his father. It was his fault anyone even lived on the Island. Of course, no one expected the prisoners to have children, but when they were discovered, no one made any move to rescue them. What great leaders Equestria had; always ready to claim they were doing what was best for everyone while children were born, abused, and died in this wretched, putrid, wasteland. But then again, if the children had been taken from the Island and placed with competent parents, would Nyx, Shade, Lady, and Flare have ever met? Would Lady even know she had sisters? Would he himself have ever met them, ever met Nyx? He chided himself on his selfishness. It wouldn’t matter if he never met her, not if she had a loving fillyhood. “What are you waiting for?” Lady interrupted his thoughts, “Go on.” “You’re not coming?” Shade rolled his eyes. “Negative, ghost rider. You’re the reason she’s here, you get to talk to her first. She’s probably upstairs. Just go inside, you’ll see the staircase, just go on up.” “How do we even know she’s here?” Shade craned his head back to look up at one of the smashed windows on the second floor. “There’s movement up there. She’s here.” “Couldn’t that be anyone?” “Trust me,” the colt grinned, “Even with Nightmare gone, nopony’s gonna risk going into her house.” Will steeled himself and entered the castle. Sure enough, he found the staircase against the back wall and made his way up to the second floor. He paused on the landing, listening to the silence, wondering if Nyx was even home. But then a sound like that of an aerosol can spraying reached his ears. A smile twitched at his lips. She always loved painting. He followed the sound to what he guessed to be the living room. She stood on a crate she’d pushed up against the wall opposite the doorway. Before her was the makings of a mural. While nowhere near complete, Will could see what the picture was supposed to be. It depicted an Alicorn, waist up, reaching for some orb that could be the sun or the moon. The Alicorn’s body had partially been filled in black, up to the neck, but the rest still only an outline. Thorns and briars clung to the Alicorn’s body, ripping into the picture’s flesh and keeping it from reaching whatever that orb was. With the picture’s eyes closed and the mane as yet unpainted, he couldn’t be sure of exactly who it was supposed to be a picture of, but the face looked awfully familiar. “A little dark, don’t you think?” he asked, causing the girl to drop the can of spray paint she’d been using as she whirled around, face a mingle of anger, fear, and confusion, “It’s been a while since you’ve painted anything. I’ve missed watching you.” Will gave a half smile to the filly and an appraising look at the mural, “Still as talented as ever, I see.” “Will?” Nyx shot a glance at the doorway, “How-what are you doing here?” He tried to step forward, pausing as she flinched. “I’m sorry, Nyx. About everything, I...I shouldn’t have yelled, I should’ve understood, or at least tried to. You’re right, this whole thing has been so unfair to you. Like you said, I’ve been preparing my whole life for this, you got thrown into it only six months ago! And you’ve done it all alone…” “Will-” “Come home,” he pleaded, “Come home, and we can work through this together. Just please,” Will reached a hoof into a pocket on his chest, producing the ring she’d given back with her letter, “Please come home.” Nyx sighed, rubbing her temples. She sat down on the crate and allowed Will to take a few steps closer. “Will, I tried...so hard-” “Lady told me. Everything. About how you’d work yourself sick, and for what? The approval of a few ponies that don’t even matter?!” “Few ponies?” the Alicorn scoffed, “You mean your entire kingdom? The position I was in, their approval meant a lot. I learned quickly that being in a spotlight meant everypony saw my every mistake, and my mistakes were amplified ten times over!” “That’s not tru-” “Isn’t it?!” she rose forcefully, eyes blazing, “They hated me. They hated me the moment I stepped foot off this hellscape, and I was condemned the second you gave me that ring. Not for anything I’d ever done or said, but for what I am! What I represented! Who I look like, who raised me! I couldn’t even look in the mirror because all I saw was her, and I can hear is her taunting, reminding me of who she raised me to be and what my purpose was! “She ruined me! She ruined me before I was even born! I’m-” her voice cracked, raw from screaming, and her eyes welled, “I’m tainted,” she finished in a whisper. “Nyx,” Will whispered, stunned. She was in much worse a state than any of them thought. “Nyx, you’re not tainted, you’re good, you’re so good!” “But I’m not good enough. Not for you, and not for your kingdom.” Nyx held her chin up. “You need to do what’s best for Equestria, and that’s not me.” She lowered her eyes. “You should go. Before someone sees you.” “Nyx, please,” the girl turned away, and Will shot out a hoof to grab her own, desperate, “Please come home! I love you!” A beat passed. Her wings flared, knocking away his hold. Her voice was hard, masking the tears spilling down her face. “It’s time for you to leave,” she said venomously, “Get out, before I make you.” Will waited, hoping, but she didn’t say anything else. Slowly, he made his way out of the room, heart aching. He paused in the doorway. “I’m not giving up on us. On you.” He left, the sounds of spray paint filling the void he left behind. *** “So,” Shade began when Will exited the store, “There was a broken window, so we heard, uh, all of that.” “That was,” Flare added, “Pretty bad.” Lady rolled her eyes. “That’s all you have to say?” “I’m not done here!” Will snapped, “I’m not leaving without her!” “None of us are,” the Changeling assured, “We just need to let her cool down a bit. The wound is...obviously still raw.” The young king huffed and stepped away. “I dunno Lady,” Shade whispered, “You know her best, maybe you should talk to her.” “Maybe...But you knew her longest! And we all can help her, maybe we should all go up?” she glanced up, “Will, get back over here!” “With pleasure,” a gruff voice answered. A young Satyr slunk from the shadows. “Dion!” Lady hissed. “‘Ello, dearie!” he sing-songed in a fake Trottingham accent, head tilting as if it were unhinged. The Unicorn bared his teeth. “How’d you even know we were here?” “Oh, Nyx and I had a little run-in earlier!” he said airily, “I was coming by anyway to extend a little invitation, you see, Cappella heard she was back, and wanted a little chat, and Rhys came in and told us you three were also back in town, and had something that might,” his head cocked the other way, with a sickening crack, “‘tip’ the scales in her favor.” his head straightened. “If you want your king back, Nyx should come to the restaurant on the Wharf.” he licked his lips, “And she better be alone.”