“Ugh!” Daybreak kicked the concrete wall of their clubhouse feebly. “I hate them!”
As she paced angrily up and down the room, Angel flopped down onto a cushion and watched her. Gooey stood by the entrance, staring expressionlessly at the others.
“What’s going on?” Angel asked.
“My stupid parents,” Daybreak grumbled. “I’m sick of them.”
“Alright,” Angel said. “So, what? You’ve gotta go back eventually.”
“No, I don’t,” Daybreak replied. “I don’t need them.”
“What about food?”
“Canterlot’s full of angry ponies.”
“You’ll get bored.”
“I’ll just go steal some comics or something. I mean, I’m half changeling, I’m not gonna get caught.”
“That seems like a bad idea.”
“I don’t care.” Daybreak spun towards Angel and swiped a hoof through the air dramatically. “The only reason I don’t do those things is cuz they made me feel bad about it. They say that only bad guys steal. Well, if they get to be heroes, maybe I should get to be a bad guy!”
Angel sighed and shook her head. “You would hate that.”
“Would I, though? My mom was a bad guy, and she wouldn’t have done it if she hated it.” Daybreak huffed and frowned. She sat back against the wall and grumbled under her breath. “Maybe if I was evil they’d actually care about me.”
“Well, look, I’m not gonna help you steal stuff,” Angel said bluntly. “I’ll keep my mom off your back, but that’s it.”
“Fine,” Daybreak said. “Just leave me alone, then. I’m used to it.” She broke eye contact and stared at the wall, trying hard to convince herself that she didn’t care.
When she looked back again, Angel was gone.
For a while, Daybreak sat in silence. She traced a hoof along the floor in intricate patterns. She tapped out a slow, disjointed rhythm. She grabbed her tail and examined it closely, unsure of what she was looking for. She did anything at all to keep her mind off of the crushing loneliness that was bearing down on her.
Finally, Gooey broke the silence. “Daybreak?”
“Gah!” Daybreak jumped and nearly fell over. “O-Oh, Gooey. I… Kinda forgot you were there.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s fine,” Daybreak mumbled. She got up and wandered over to a cushion, and made a motion for Gooey to join her. Gooey either didn’t understand or just ignored it outright. “What’s up?” Daybreak asked.
“What are we doing?”
Daybreak shrugged. “Nothing, really.”
“Ah.”
There was another pause before Gooey spoke again.
“I’m bored.”
“Okay?” Daybreak raised an eyebrow. “And?”
“Let’s go do something.”
“You can go do whatever you want.”
“I want you to come.”
Daybreak groaned. “Why?”
“Because I like you.”
“I’m not really in the mood for games,” Daybreak told them.
“Let’s do something else, then,” Gooey suggested. “You said you wanted to be a bad guy. Why not do that?”
“You think that’s actually a good idea?”
“I think that it is something to do.”
The light of a full moon sparkled and glistened off the water of an ornate fountain in downtown Canterlot. The wide brick road was alive with the bustle of the city’s nightlife. Couples whispered to each other as they walked shoulder to shoulder. Young ponies in expensive suits flaunted their wealth in all the most expensive establishments. Ponies of all kinda vanished down dark alleyways, although none ever seemed to come back out. It was a place and time completely separate from the Canterlot of the day.
Daybreak had never felt more out of place. She’d come prepared, of course, transformed into the guise of an adult unicorn. Her fur was a soft, light blue, and her short mane was a brilliant glowing orange. Even disguised as she was, though, she couldn’t help but feel like everypony knew she didn’t belong.
The heavy saddlebag strapped to her back didn’t help. She shifted uncomfortably under the lopsided weight, and inside the bag, the catlike form of Gooey shifted in turn. They would’ve preferred to walk, but Daybreak stuck out enough without the help of a pony made of technicolor water.
“Are we nearly there?” Gooey whispered through the bag.
“Mm-hm,” Daybreak hummed back. “Just gotta find… There.” She grinned and ducked into an alleyway, her eyes trained on a nearby stallion. He was young, with a slicked-back mane and a wrinkled brown suit, and shaking his hoof furiously at the door of the building Daybreak had just hidden beside.
“Lousy crooks!” The stallion huffed and spit on the ground. “I’ve never cheated once in my life. Pah. Cheating. I’ll show you cheating, just wait til—”
Daybreak stopped listening to his rambling and unclasped her saddlebag so Gooey could hop out. “He looks like a jerk, right?” She asked uneasily.
“I have no way of knowing that,” Gooey replied.
“Right.” Daybreak took a deep breath, then nodded. “Okay, I’m gonna do this. Um… How much should I take?”
“How much would a bad guy take?”
Daybreak bit her lip. “As much as they could, I guess, but…”
“But?”
“Nothing.” Daybreak shook her head. “Okay. Let’s do this.”
After a final moment of hesitation, Daybreak focused on the stallion and lit up her horn.
She didn’t hold back, and the impact was immediate. The stallion’s eyes went wide, and his breath caught in his throat. He clutched feebly at his chest as he fell to his knees, and nearby ponies started to take notice of him.
Daybreak hardly noticed his reaction. The rush of energy she got as she drained away the stallion’s wrath was unbelievable. Adrenaline coursed through her veins as the jagged essence of his emotions flowed into her. It felt like the anger was slicing through her, cutting away her exhaustion and sadness and filling the space with pure, raw power.
In the street, as concerned ponies gathered around the stallion, he fell to his side and started to tremble.
In Daybreak’s mind, the torrent shifted. The well of fury ran dry, but beneath it was something else, something darker that churned violently as it surged outwards.
His fear.
And Daybreak didn’t stop. She took that fear as quickly as it grew, and she feasted on it. It was like a tsunami of energy slammed into her, threatened to wash her away, but she stood strong. She fought back. She was stronger than that mountain of force, and she knew it. All she had to do was let it in, and she could make it her own.
The more she drained, the more afraid the stallion got, and as his fear grew and grew, so too did Daybreak’s hunger, and she devoured every ounce of energy he served up to her.
Then, suddenly, it ended. There was a pop, and all the fear vanished like someone had flipped off a switch. Daybreak staggered backward, her head swimming and her ears ringing.
As the noise in her head slowly disappeared, she started to hear a commotion from the streets. When she finally had her wits about her enough, she shook her head to clear away the fuzziness and looked out to see a crowd of ponies gathered around a ragged, unconscious stallion.
Before she could get a good look, though, one of the onlookers caught sight of her and gasped. They pointed up towards Daybreak, and more and more eyes shifted towards her.
“Uh-oh,” Daybreak mumbled. Instinctively, she lit up her horn and disappeared in a flash of magic.
A few blocks down, she reappeared in another alley and started breathing heavily. She grabbed her head and staggered back against a wall as she tried to process the rush of energy that was still flowing through her.
Gooey looked up at her. “Daybreak, are you alright?”
Daybreak nodded. “Yeah, yeah, I’m… I’m okay.” She took one final, deep breath and stood up straight. “I’m fine.”
“That’s good,” Gooey said. “Have we been caught?”
“Huh? Oh, nah, I’m good.” Daybreak grinned and transformed herself into a yellow pegasus with a flowing white mane. “See? No way a pegasus could’ve done that.”
“Oh, alright. So, how did it go?”
“That was…” Daybreak paused. She wasn’t entirely sure how to feel. “I don’t know. Let’s… Go back to the clubhouse.” After a quick peek to see if they were being watched, Daybreak turned back into herself and teleported the two of them away.
Once they were back, she let out a sigh of relief. “Clubhouse, sweet cl—” She froze.
They weren’t alone.
“Ah, finally. I knew I’d find you here eventually, darling, although I must say it is terribly impolite to keep a lady waiting so long into the night.”
A fearful look grew on Daybreak’s face. “M-Miss Rarity?”
Rarity was sitting patiently on a cushion at the far end of the room, her legs crossed in front of her. There was a steaming kettle beside her, along with two teacups, and she’d pulled another cushion up on the other side of the kettle. Smiling kindly, she patted the other cushion. “Can we speak?”
“Um… Okay.” Nervously, Daybreak crossed the room and sat beside Rarity. Gooey followed and curled up in a warm spot nearby.
Rarity poured them both tea as Daybreak walked over. “Please, don’t be anxious, dear,” she said softly. “I’m not here to scold you.”
“Uh…” Daybreak shifted around on the cushion, finding it difficult to get comfortable. “Do my parents know I’m here?”
“Oh, of course not, silly.” Rarity chuckled and lightly pressed a hoof to Daybreak’s nose. “I made you a promise to keep this place a secret, didn’t I? I’m not going to break that promise just because you ran away.”
“Really? But… But aren’t they looking for me?”
“Oh, they’re searching high and low, absolutely,” Rarity said. “I just didn’t see the need to point them here when I’m perfectly capable of checking in on you myself.”
“Oh.” Daybreak looked down and rubbed her hooves together. “Well, um, thank you.”
“Please, dearest, you mustn’t be so tense,” Rarity said.
“I’m not going back,” Daybreak said tersely.
“Well, I would imagine not. You’ve only just left.”
Daybreak looked up at her, wide-eyed. “You’re not here to bring me home?”
“I’m here to bring you tea,” Rarity said. She chuckled to herself. “Darling, I’m not your mother. It isn’t my job to tell you right from wrong. My job, at least as I see it, is to be on your side even if you are wrong. It can be a terribly lonely world out there for a child with no adults on their side.”
Daybreak smiled softly. “Thank you, Miss Rarity.”
“No need for thanks. I do it out of love.” Rarity leaned over and kissed Daybreak’s forehead. “Now. Tell me everything. All I’ve actually been told is that you ran away, and I want every little detail, otherwise I’ll never stop wondering. Come on, then. Spill it.”
Daybreak chuckled quietly. She took a deep breath, sipped her tea, and began to tell Rarity her story. “Okay, well, um, I guess it started a long time ago…”