//------------------------------// // Nightwatch: A Ray of Hope // Story: Sigil of Souls, Stream of Memories // by Piccolo Sky //------------------------------// “La-la-la-la-la!” The pink-haired girl sang to herself happily as she bounded down the crude, unpainted, unfinished wooden stairs two at a time. She even made a little game out of it; picking a different way to hop down each set. She skipped down one, hopped with both feet down another, and tiptoed to yet another. The whole time, a cheerful, energetic smile was on her face and a glow radiated about her. Her sunny personality was matched only by the way she chose to groom herself. Her clothing, while handmade and inexpensive, was full of bright colors and pastel hues. A sharp contrast to the gray, dull hardness of the house she was in. Even more shocking was her thick, voluminous mass of pink, curly hair that seemed to bounce up and down with her descent. It would have caught anyone’s attention from a block away if her own enthusiastic behavior didn’t first. As soon as she hit the bottom, she merrily skipped across a dull, bare, and somewhat rotting floor for the back swinging door. She nearly broke through it at her full speed, but stopped herself at the last second and opened it carefully; minding the fact it was barely holding on by one hinge. As soon as she was out, she basked in the sun and took a deep breath, focusing entirely on the blue clear sky and not on the dismal, dead environment about her. The “house” she had just exited was really a three-room shack on which two small rooms had been stacked on top of a third. It was meant originally only as a staging area for the stone quarry it was located smack dab in the middle of, but that had been before the Lunar Fall caused the workers there to pack up and leave. Now only the Pie Family lived there. The matriarch of the family, an older woman with a bun in her hair and spectacles on her nose gathering dirt, was currently working up a sweat at the site’s water pump. The reservoir had nearly gone dry long ago so she was having to heave especially hard to get water to flow into the refining trough, but aside from showing a bit of discomfort from the strain she patiently kept at it. The pink-haired girl cheerfully bounded up alongside her. “Hi mom! Where’s dad?” “Your father is speaking with the social service official,” she answered in between slight expressions of strain. “The new moon is upon us and we have been given three new quotas to fill.” “Okie-dokie! Tell him I headed over to the Cakes!” The older woman closed her eyes and sighed tiredly. “Do have a care, Pinkamena.” “You bet!” she cheered back before heading off. Her cheerful skipping soon took her past an assortment of abandoned pieces of equipment and digging sites. While the quarry seemed to have been quite active in past years, now it didn’t look much better than abandoned. The massive chasm it was in had lines for several different stone cutting and dressing sites that could have supported hundreds of laborers, but most of those had been left in favor of just one nearby the shack. And rather than a large team working it, only two gray-haired young ladies were going about the arduous task of loading up a single intact cart with finished stonework. Considering it was only two of them and that most of their equipment was old and falling apart, it took them both quite a bit of effort to move just one piece using a hand-powered crane and pulley system. It didn’t help that the one with long hair covering one eye looked particularly shy while the other had a perpetually cross look on her face. “Pull harder, Marble! You want this slab to land on my foot?” She meekly hummed a “uh-uh” as she pulled the rope a bit tighter, lifting up the slab enough for the other to get it over the cart. They slowly sat it down a moment later on top of another stone, and both paused to catch their breath as the pink-haired girl came up to them. “Hey Limestone! Hey Marble! Just letting you know I’m heading over to the Cakes for the day!” “Eh, who’s stopping you…” the cross one, Limestone, muttered, although the other one, Marble, looked more anxious just at the mention of that. “Just make sure you stay out of trouble, alright?” “Okie-dokie-lokie!” Limestone paused for a fraction of a second before looking up to her. “And I don’t care what mom and dad say. You don’t let anyone know you’re from here and you sure don’t let them know you’re a Gaiatian, you hear me?” Her cheerful mood ebbed a little as she sighed; having heard this before. “Alright, Limestone…” “I mean it! You could make trouble for the whole family!” “Sheesh, ok… I’ll just swing by Maud real quick then I’ll be off.” She began to bounce along, but shouted over her shoulder as she went. “I’ll bring you all back cookies!” Limestone frowned and turned back to her work while Marble winced once before doing the same. Undaunted by either reaction, she began to hum to herself cheerfully as she skipped along. The path leading out of the quarry was fairly straightforward, making a series of turns up and out until level ground was reached. Many of the trees around the area had been cleared years ago and the main path, still looking like a main road even after eight years, went south and around a stretch of uneven, wooded country to get to town. The pink-haired girl ignored that completely, however. Her attention was on a small work area near the foliage for more formal dressing of cut stones. Another gray-haired girl was there with a composed, if not dull, look. She slowly but methodically went about chipping away at her current stone; looking almost identical to how she looked the day before. In spite of her virtual lack of emotion or acknowledgement, the pink-haired girl ran right up to her and waved excitedly. “Hi Maud!” “Hello Pinkie,” she answered in monotone, continuing to work. “I got you those hazelnuts you wanted.” She gestured to one side. Pinkie gasped in delight to see a burlap stack filled almost to bursting with hazelnuts. Moving like a flash of lightning, she snapped across the yard and was right in front of it, pressing her nose into the bag in delight. “Oooo! You got so many! Thank you, Maud! The Cakes are going to love these!” She wrapped her arms around the sack in a big hug and clutched it tightly to her. “We’re going to make this fantastic faux chocolate pie and I’ll bring you the first one out of the oven! Hey! That’s a great name! ‘Fantastic Faux’! I should call it that! Or wait! If we could put four different kinds of hazelnuts into it, we could call it a ‘Fantastic Four Faux’!” “Pinkie.” “And for short, we can call it the ‘FFF’! Nah…heh, that’s silly. Sounds like someone can't remember the name. Oh, oh! How about the Triple F?” “Pinkie.” “No wait! Maud, since you got us the ingredients, we’ll name it after you! Instead of a Mud Pie, you can pick up a Maud-” “Pinkie.” Maud’s very slightly higher inflection on her voice was somehow enough to make Pinkie stop in her diatribe. She turned and saw that the woman had stopped her work and was looking her in the eye. “Pinkie, I think it would be better if you didn’t go to Sugarcube Corner.” Her happy look deflated slightly. “Huh? Why not?” “I have a bad feeling about today. If you still want to go, I won’t stop you, but I will tell you to be careful. You should listen to what Marble told you. And if anyone starts asking you about being a Gaiatian, you need to come home right away.” “Aw…” she whined, “but it gets so boring here on the quarry…” “Today it’s too dangerous. There are men from the capitol in town,” she answered as she returned to her work. “Dad was trying not to show the family he was scared when he left for the vouchers this morning, and you should be too. And remember what I told you if you run into any trouble.” Pinkie kept frowning but unhappily nodded. “Yeah, yeah, I remember…” “You better get going now, then. I’m sure the Cakes need the hazelnuts, and the earlier you get there the longer you can stay.” She perked her head up. “Oh yeah! That’s right! Bye Maud!” She turned and took off, not for the main road but rather straight for the forest. A footpath entrance poked just between a pair of trees. Day or night, most people in Greater Everfree wouldn’t be caught dead in a forest this close to Equestria anymore, but Pinkie merely cheerfully sang again as she hopped, skipped, and jumped right in. Even with the sack over one shoulder, she didn’t have much trouble making her way along the narrow trail. She didn’t seem the least bit scared of how many shadows were in it, how rough and uneven it was, or how far away from any scrap of human civilization it was either. To her, it was merely a shortcut, and she was scared neither of the quiet parts, the dark parts, nor the silence as she cheerfully made her way along. The quarry was soon left far behind her, although it was impossible to tell before long as nothing but empty woods came around her and stretched in front. Yet as time went on and she still ran into nobody, none of it removed the cheerful spring in her step. Seemingly out of nowhere came a break in the woods ahead, after she had gone a good two miles from the quarry. The open road lay just beyond it. Still humming to herself, she bounded right for it and though it…only to nearly run right into an older man on the road sporting a sour look, a shotgun under one arm, and a crude black hair piece over a bald spot. He cried out in alarm at her suddenly popping out, and Pinkie herself went wide-eyed before stopping herself so abruptly it almost looked like she halted herself in midair to keep from running into him. Nevertheless, he still staggered back and fell on his rear end in shock, while she planted her feet soon after. A moment later, she broke into a smile. “Oh, hi Cranky! Fancy running into you here! Or maybe that’s ‘fancy almost running into you here’!” The old man frowned and grumbled a little to himself. “Hello Pinkie…” he half-muttered. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised you don’t use the road like everyone else either… You best stick to it today though, if you know what’s good for ya’.” “Oh?” she asked inquisitively, even as she reached out a hand to him. He took it and allowed her to help pull him to his feet. “What’s special about today? Is there going to be a parade? Or a circus? Or International Show Love for Your Roads Day is today and I forgot?” “Rabid dogs,” Cranky retorted. She looked confused. “That doesn’t sound very fun. Not many people are going to take the road for rabid dogs.” He sighed. “Not on the road. Some folks have been seeing a big dog foaming at the mouth wandering around out here. That’d be enough trouble for the youngin’s in town, but nowadays all we need is for it to wander to the borders of Equestria, run into a Light Eater, then come back as a Nighttouched. That makes ‘em more than twice as bad. I heard there was one over in Appleloosa that damn near wrecked half a town. I’m out here trying to put it down.” “Really?” Pause. “Wait…how will calling it names help stop it?” Cranky frowned again, before holding up his shotgun and gesturing to it. “Ooooooh…” she cooed in acknowledgement. “Well, good luck with that Cranky! I’ll catch you on the way back!” She began to happily bounce along again. “Stay on the road next time!” he shouted after her. “Hey there, Coconut Cream!” “Hi Pinkie! What’s in the bag?” “Oh, nothing…but maybe you ought to tell your mom there’s gonna be a whole lot more faux chocolate at the bakery today!” “Wow, really? Alright!” “Hi Marigold! The new orchids come in yet?” “Not yet, but I’m going to give them another week before I uproot and try again.” “Stop by Sugarcube Corner on Friday! We’ll have more mint pudding!” “Oh! Thank you!” “Hello Matilda! How’s school going?” “Harder and harder the closer summer gets, I’m afraid. I can barely get the kids to sit still a half hour before recess. Are you going to be making any more shortbread today?” “A fresh batch of the soft baked tomorrow! I’m making it ‘specially for your birthday!” “You’re so thoughtful, Pinkie!” Considering the number of greetings that she exchanged as soon as she caught sight of the first resident of town, it took Pinkie another forty minutes after she finally arrived in the city proper. It too even longer to make her way through the streets to the urban area and, shortly thereafter, to the brown, yellow, and pink pastel “frosting themed” shop of Sugarcube Corner. It stood out as a bright spot among most of the surrounding buildings, as the new paint job had been applied after the first major war four years ago had left much of the surviving districts of Braystol stained with either smoke, dirt, or gunpowder haze—leaving it the only building in the main urban area not a muted gray color. She didn’t bother with the cupcake-styled front door but walked around to the back entrance and right in. She emerged into the small yet well-equipped baking area. Mr. and Mrs. Cake were as busy as they were most days and, as a result, had brought their twins down and set them up in their crib in the hall connecting the baking area to the shop floor. From the looks of it, the large steam-powered mixer had broken down for the third time that week, and Mr. Cake was forced to use the hand-powered mixer to make his latest batch of dough (much to his overworked chagrin). Mrs. Cake, on the other hand, was working up a sweat trying to pull double duty for them both in getting everything else ready. However, both looked up from what they were doing on her walking inside. “Oh, Pinkie Pie!” Mrs. Cake announced, before her eyes went to the sack. She nearly gasped. “Is that really…?” “Yup!” she cheered as she walked to the counter and set it down; five of the nuts bouncing out of the bag when she did. “I told you Maud and I would get you all the hazelnuts you need!” “Pinkie, you are such a lifesaver! Let’s get started on shelling them right away!” The girl happily obliged by going to the nearest cabinet for a big bowl, and balanced it on her head as she grabbed a pair of stools and nutcrackers and brought them over to the counter. Mrs. Cake quickly worked to finish her current preparations as Pinkie sat down in one and began to dig in. “Ever since that embargo drove the price of cocoa up so high there’s no way we can keep chocolate in anything at a price anyone can afford. Thanks to you and your sister we’ll be able to make enough faux chocolate for a good long time. It looks like there’s two weeks supply here!” “Well if you need any more, we have plenty around the quarry! Lots of trees that are both nutty and hazel-y!” “Oh…oh no, I couldn’t possibly… It worries me sick that you even cut across that forest to get to Braystol. By the way, how much do we owe?” “Oh, tee-hee!” Pinkie laughed, waving her hand at her. “No charge!” This actually made Mrs. Cake pause in her work. “No charge? It had to have taken a while to get all of these hazelnuts…” “Mom and dad said so long as I get to work for you, that’s payment enough!” Now, Mr. Cake hesitated as well; both him and the missus looking uncomfortably at one another while Pinkie continued to happily fill the bowl with fresh-cracked hazelnuts. After a while, they smiled and looked back down to one another. “Well, we truly appreciate it, Pinkie. We’ve very grateful. This is a tremendous help to us.” She giggled. “I know! That’s why I suggested it to Maud in the first place! If it helps you out, then it’s all worth it!” “Let me just get this filling done and I’ll get the pans ready… Oh! The turnovers!” About thirty minutes later, Mrs. Cake had finished her own tasks: removing and packing a fresh batch of blackberry turnovers the fire chief had ordered before finishing mixing a large batch of filling for the first third of a considerably large order of strawberry tarts. It was delayed longer thanks to the failure of the mixer, but Mr. Cake was busy combining the dough and filling for their larger oven by the time Pinkie had filled up the bowl with shelled hazelnuts. Three separate trays were loaded with them and put in the smaller oven while Pinkie and Mrs. Cake finished readying another three. “Alright, this will do for now. Let’s get out the chocolate and start melting it on the stovetop.” “Okie-dokie!” Pinkie cheered as she began to go for the saucepans next. A hand-bell ringer sounded from the front of the shop. Mr. Cake looked up in a rather frazzled state. “Oh no, don’t tell me they’re early! We don’t even have the first batch in the oven!” He winced as he rapidly pulled off his apron, rose from his stool, and ran out of the kitchen for the front. “I sure hope they aren’t early…” Mrs. Cake fretted. “I was hoping to sneak one more feeding in before we had to start packaging the first part… Pinkie, I may need you to finish off the faux chocolate.” She had hardly finished setting the saucepan down when she wheeled to Mrs. Cake with a surprised gasp, before she lit up again. “This is the first time you’ve ever let me make the faux chocolate by myself! My first real batch! Oh…now I have to think of how I want it to be like! Do I want it block-like or a spread? Do I want it thin or creamy? Do I want it smooth or fluffy? Ah, so many things to decide!” As Pinkie’s smile began to turn into anxiety at the choices she had to make, Mr. Cake reentered the kitchen. She wasn’t looking at him at the time, and therefore didn’t notice he was walking much slower, and that although his face was still anxious it was no longer in a rush. Mrs. Cake was too busy with her own task to look up to him. “Was that Ms. Ruby?” “Actually…” his voice was quiet, hesitant, and a bit stilted, “it’s…Mr. Brown again.” Mrs. Cake slowed down in her own work. Her expression became much the same as his. “He…brought a friend this time.” For a moment, Mrs. Cake nearly cupped a hand to her mouth; barely stopping herself. Pinkie remained oblivious to all of this, still fretting over her first faux chocolate recipe. The older woman looked at her nervously and paused for a moment before she moistened her lips and forced a smile. “Um…Pinkie?” “If I make it too dark, they’ll think it’s burnt! But if I make it too light, the customers will think we skipped on the chocolate, and they’ll go nuts! No…hazelnuts! Huh?” she abruptly looked up; her train of thought broken. “Could you…deliver the blackberry turnovers to the fire chief?” “Oh, sure!” In a flash, she abandoned her current work and shot over to the prepped boxes, easily scooping them up and balancing them on her poofy hair. “But are you sure? It’s just a block away…” “Oh, but you know…we really shouldn’t be calling the chief away from his duty. And take your time while you’re at it! Say hi to some folks!” “Hmm…” she rubbed her chin, “I’m pretty sure I already said hi to everyone on this side of town, but I’ll bet I missed one so ok!” Beginning to sing to herself, she started to walk toward the hall leading to the front. “Oh, oh…the back door, please!” Mr. Cake quickly cut off, moving himself physically in the way. “You know what I told you about Mr. Brown! He gets nervous about new faces, heh!” “Okie-dokie-lokie!” Pinkie cheered before spinning around and heading out the back. This wasn’t the first time that Pinkie Pie had been sent off to deliver an order whenever Mr. Brown came to place one, although it did occur to Pinkie that day that she always seemed to be sent off to make a delivery every time Mr. Brown came by. However, this was the shortest one. Normally she’d be sent to deliver whatever order was as far away as possible out of all the current queue. However, even accounting for the time she spent looking around the neighborhood for anyone she hadn’t yet said “hi” to coming into town, it simply didn’t take that long. Within five minutes, she was already walking back to Sugarcube Corner. As she neared it, she placed a finger to her chin and thought aloud. “Hmm…y’know, I’ve never actually seen Mr. Brown before. Maybe if I did and introduced myself, the Cakes wouldn’t have to be worried about me scaring him off! Maybe I can catch him while he’s walking out!” Changing her path, she steered away from the back door and began to walk to the front. However, just as she reached the edge of one of the store-front windows for the bakery, she froze. “But what if he’s still in there and I scare him off?” She puzzled about this for a moment before she lit up with an idea. Reaching into her hair again and fishing around, she emerged with a cracked half of a compact she had picked off the ground last year while walking into town—specifically the mirror portion. Holding it out to one side of her, she angled it toward the window and looked at the reflection. It took a moment to get the right perspective, but she soon spotted the front counter. Both Mr. and Mrs. Cake were there, still looking stressed and anxious. Mr. Brown and his “friend” were also there. They were rather imposing, dark-looking men in bowler hats and suits; definitely not the kind of person Pinkie was used to seeing in Brayton. They didn’t look too friendly either. Their eyes were stern and cold as they spoke. “Hmm…they should have placed their order by now… I wonder what they’re talking about?” She thought again for a moment, before she snapped her fingers with another idea. Reaching back into her hair, she emerged this time with a small drinking glass. She smirked at her reflection in the mirror. “Pinkie, you’re such a genius!" She told it, before she 'answered' for herself'. "I know!” Placing the glass against the window as close as she could get without revealing herself fully, she put her ear against it and listened. “…really thought about it.” It was Mr. Cake talking. “I mean, she and the Pies have lived in Trottingham for years. Before us even…” “That wasn’t what I asked you.” A new voice spoke--one that Pinkie assumed was Mr. Brown. “Again, does Pinkamena Diane Pie currently have her legal residency documents?” “We…” Mrs. Cake’s voice spoke up. “That is…we had a friend who knew another Gaiatian and sent her to apply for legal residency, but they told us she wasn’t eligible because she didn’t have a national enrollment card. And all Gaiatians are forbidden from receiving one of those because they’re declared non-citizens…” “So the answer is ‘no’?” “It’s…it’s just that the way the system is set up there’s no way for her to become a legal resident. In fact, it sort of looks like the government is making sure she can’t. Especially since…since our friend told us that there were people at the City Registrar who looked like they would arrest any Gaiatians who tried to apply…” “If you have an issue with national ordinances, Mrs. Cake, the correct response is to contact your local governor; not to decide for yourselves whether or not you should obey the law.” Pinkie’s brow furrowed. That didn’t sound like they were placing an order. In fact, it sounded like they were talking about her. “For the third and final time, does Pinkamena Diane Pie currently have her legal residency documents?” A long pause, before Mr. Cake quietly replied. “No, she does not.” “Alright. Are you aware that no non-citizen who lacks legal residency documents is eligible for employment, local government assistance, charity, education, or medical care, and must remain 100 yards outside of all city limits for urban areas that contain a minimum of 500 residents?” “She’s…she’s not an employee, officer…” Pinkie’s eyes widened on hearing that last word. The same word that her father, her mother, Limestone, and Maud told her to avoid each and every time she went to town and to flee if she heard one was coming. “She works here and collects a daily wage, does she not?” “I’m only teaching her how to bake,” Mrs. Cake interjected. “There’s no harm in that. And may I ask who accused us in the first place of employing a Gaiatian?” “I’m asking the questions here, ma’am, but suffice to say anyone who reports a Gaiatian violating federal law is insured anonymity. So you do not pay her formally or informally?” “No, she doesn’t earn a wage.” “That would be an example of formal. What about tips or off-the-books payments?” “No, never.” “What about charity? Charity is also illegal.” “We’ve never given her so much as a penny, officer.” Pinkie began to look uneasy, as she knew full well all of those things were untrue. She had worked there for a while and the Cakes had paid her every day out of pocket in cash. Yet she remembered how many times Maud had warned her never to tell anyone she “worked for the Cakes” or “worked for Sugarcube Corner”, and to definitely never tell anyone she had been paid by them. “This is ridiculous, though!” Mrs. Cake cut in again. “Since when is giving charity to someone illegal?” “Since the Amendment to the Homeland Act was enforced two months ago, ma’am. Now I take it that news of that might not have reached Brayton yet. As such, no previous violation of that amendment is considered a criminal act at this time. However, be advised, now that you are aware of it any future violations will be considered criminal activity. Among those is the association clause. Any individual who is found to be assisting a Gaiatian in the realms of employment, local government assistance, charity, education, or medical care and does so knowingly and willfully will be subject to a fine of up to 5,000 pounds and imprisonment for anywhere from 18 months to five years.” Pinkie gasped. The Cakes themselves were rendered mute. The silence lingered for several seconds. “I don’t think you two are being straight with me, so keep that in mind. We’ll be monitoring this business regularly from now on and interviewing some of the locals. It’ll be much easier for everyone involved if you simply comply with the law. Good day.” Soon after, “Mr. Brown” and his “friend” left the front of the shop. It was a good thing they didn’t look to the side of the building where Pinkie was hiding, because at the moment she had slumped on the ground. The glass she had been holding against the window had been left to fall to the ground and out of her hands. She herself was on her knees with a hollow look on her face at all she had just heard. Even her hair seemed to have flattened somewhat and her pallor lost some of its bright “glow” about it. She wasn’t sure what the Cakes did next or how long they stayed in the front of their own shop, or what they decided. She simply sat there for ten full minutes in that same position, before she finally let out a great sigh and rose again. Ignoring the shop completely, she turned around and began to make her way back home. Pinkie’s trip back was a marked contrast to her one out. She didn’t skip or sing this time. When people greeted her, she acknowledged them with a half-hearted response, but didn’t call out to anyone new. She hardly seemed to notice them or anything else as she left the city and headed down the road back to the trail, and once she was back into the forest the trip took even longer. Where before she would have merrily skipped and hopped over any logs or dips in the path, even without the presence of her sack of hazelnuts her whole body felt heavier and slower. She only very gradually picked her way over each one. Her head remained bowed the whole way. After a while, she weakly smile in a vain effort to cheer herself. “Well…being forced to leave the bakery under threat of arrest isn’t so bad. I mean, I always got the quarry. Yup…nothing but fun, fun, fun at the quarry. And we got all the rocks a girl could ask for. All sorts of things we can do. We can dig for rocks and cut rocks and sculpt rocks and sit on rocks and…load rocks on wagons…yeah… We even got rocks that…that…” She winced and sniffled. “Look like…hazelnuts…” She sniffled again, wiping for her eyes as she entered a dip in the valley. She kept walking along a bit further, before she heard a growl just up ahead. In spite of her sad state, she slowly looked up to what had made the sound. Not more than fifty away was a rather large dog. It had to have been one of the bigger breeds, but even one who wasn’t familiar with the largest dogs would realize something was off about this one. It was gyrating in short spasms while foam and drool dribbled from its mouth, which itself was hung open and baring all teeth. In addition, one of its forelegs was grossly misshapen and deformed, and the hair on it had turned into dark clumps. One could almost hear a creeping sound as the discoloration slowly spread up and over its shoulder joint. Pinkie regarded the whole scene dully. “Oh. You must be that rabid dog Cranky was looking for.” Her voice was practically as monotone as Maud’s. The rabid animal, obviously, didn’t respond; save to look at her and begin to growl in its throat. She idly glanced at his leg, then back up again. “It looks like you went too far north and into Equestria too, just like he was afraid of.” The canine’s growl became a snarl as it started to turn toward her. She sighed. “And by now I guess you want to tear me to pieces or whatever…” As the dark color crept into its back and torso, the snarl became more monstrous and distorted. It took a step toward her. Pinkie glanced to one side and through the trees. She could tell just about twenty yards to one side of her the forest opened up. “Well, the road’s just over there, but I don’t think anyone’s around to see or hear anything…” The beast dug its nails in as it reared back, ready to lunge right for Pinkie’s neck. She looked back and shrugged. “I guess that means Maud won’t mind if I ‘show off’.” With a monstrous roar, it leapt at her. About twenty minutes later, Pinkie, looking a little better than before, emerged out of the woods into the quarry. She began to walk back down the hairpin turns; a little of the spring in her step back although still looking a bit downcast. It didn’t take her long to reach Maud, who was still shaping rocks. It almost looked like she was still shaping the same one. She looked up and quickly assessed the girl based on her appearance. “What happened?” “Oh,” she answered quietly, coming to a stop next to her, “nothing. Just…I don’t think I can go to Sugarcube Corner for a while…” Maud was quiet a moment. “Did policemen come there today?” “I think so… The Cakes told me to go make a delivery, but when I came back I overheard them say they’ll punish them if they let me keep working there… So I left and came home without going in.” “You should have at least told them you were leaving, Pinkie. They care about you.” “I know…I should have. I’ll go back and do that tomorrow. It’s probably best that I stay away for the rest of today, though…” “It won’t be forever, you know. They're good people and you're their friend. They wouldn’t do that to you.” She looked up and smiled slightly. “Yeah…I know it won’t be forever. I finally realized that coming back home. I just kinda wish forever was right now and not a couple weeks from now…” Maud turned back to her rock. “Did anything else happen?” “Oh, I ran into a Nighttouched on the way back. Well, he was turning into one anyway.” The older sister paused. She looked back up at Pinkie and glanced her over. She noted there wasn’t a mark on her. “…No one was around, were they?” She smiled wider and shook her head. “Come on, Maud. You taught me better than that.” “What…what the…?! What in b-b-blazes…?!” Cranky, unfortunately, couldn’t express any better response than that an hour later when he finally found his quarry. The rabid animal or, more appropriately, what was left of it was inside out, folded in half, and left hanging from a tree limb at the side of the road by its own broken hind legs tied into a bow.