“W-What…” Daybreak looked around frantically, completely stunned. All she could see in any direction was darkness, except for right in front of her, where her mother was holding her in a tight, loving embrace.
Chrysalis had her eyes shut. She squeezed Daybreak and ran a hoof through her mane. “It never should have gotten this far,” she whispered.
“S-Stop it!” Daybreak pushed against her mother, trying to break the hug. “Don’t pretend you care now!”
Chrysalis took a deep breath and set Daybreak down. She looked into her daughter’s teary eyes and frowned. “I do care. There’s nothing I care about more than you.”
“Then why do you want to leave me?” Daybreak swiped a hoof through the air dramatically, then stomped a few paces away and sat down with her back turned to Chrysalis.
“I don’t, I just…” Chrysalis sighed and shook her head, unsure of what to say.
There was a rush of air as the shadows swirled near Chrysalis, and then a thump when Twilight appeared and landed heavily on the ground.
“I’m sorry I’m late,” Twilight said, “I was just—Gah!” She jumped in shock when she glanced down and saw the void of darkness under her hooves. She tapped the space below her with her hoof a few times, and it seemed to be sturdy enough, but she still eyed it suspiciously. “I, um… Geez, this place is freaky. How do they stand it here?”
Twilight and Chrysalis both waited a minute, hoping Daybreak would say something or otherwise react to Twilight’s appearance. When she didn’t, Twilight frowned and started talking again.
“Daybreak? Honey?”
Daybreak ignored her. Twilight sighed.
“I know you’re hurt, but we’re here to talk. Please, just come talk to us.”
“Mm,” Daybreak grumbled. “You’re not gonna listen to me.”
“We will,” Twilight assured her. “That’s why we’re in this place. I could’ve just asked Fluttershy to stop you, but I didn’t. I told her to send us here, and she promised not to let us out until you ask her to.”
Daybreak wiped her eyes and looked back over her shoulder at them. “How do I know you’re not lying?”
“I…” Twilight sighed. “I don’t know how to convince you to trust us. I think you’re just going to have to give us a chance.”
Daybreak traced her hoof along the hollow blackness beneath them and thought. After a moment, she stood up and walked closer to her parents, although there was still a fair amount of distance between them when she sat back down. “Um… Can Angel come help me?”
“Of course,” Twilight said. “Chrysalis, you don’t have a problem with that, do you?”
“It sounds like a good idea,” Chrysalis said. “Angel Trifle is unlikely to take our side. Daybreak, do you think having her be the mediator instead of Fluttershy would help you trust us?”
“Maybe… I guess.” Daybreak looked down, avoiding her parents’ gazes. “Yeah.”
“Alright, then,” Twilight said. “Angel, I imagine you heard all of that?”
“Yeah.” Angel’s voice came from beside Daybreak, where the shadows twisted and turned as they took shape, and a moment later Angel was sitting beside them as though she’d always been there. “Hey.”
“Hello, Angel,” Twilight said. “So, are we ready to talk now?”
“I, uh…” Daybreak rubbed her legs together anxiously.
“Talk to them,” Angel said.
“I’m gonna, I just…” Daybreak trailed off again.
Angel sighed. “Is it alright if Daybreak and I speak in private for a moment, Mrs. Sparkle?”
“Whatever you need,” Twilight said.
“Thanks.” Angel waved a hoof, and shadows rolled in and removed Daybreak’s parents from sight.
Once they were alone, Angel reached over and smacked Daybreak in the back of the head.
“Ow!” Daybreak whined and rubbed her head. “What was that for?”
“Seriously? What was all that?” Angel glared at Daybreak and raised her voice. “You knocked out a dozen ponies! You tortured Rainbow Dash!”
Daybreak flinched and backed away a bit. She’d never seen Angel so worked up before. “I-I didn’t want to,” she argued.
“You could’ve fooled me.”
“I didn’t!” Daybreak frowned and looked away. “I had to do it.”
“Oh yeah?” Angel got up and stomped closer to Daybreak so she could prod her in the chest with a hoof. “Why? What reason did you have for all of that?”
“I had to make them stop,” Daybreak said. “It’s the only way they’d listen to me!”
“Is that it? So they’d listen? Cuz I thought you said it was so they’d care. Or that you’d be evil enough for them to notice. Or you just wanted to kill them yourself!” Angel huffed and took a step back. “Somepony could have died, Daybreak, and you don’t even know why.”
Daybreak stood up and glared back at Angel. “Why’d you even come here if you’re just gonna yell at me?”
“Cuz apparently I’m the only one willing to actually do it!” Angel stomped her hoof down. “I let you do all this cuz I thought you actually knew what you were doing, but even now that your plan worked and your parents are begging to talk to you, you just wanna go out and terrorize more ponies.”
“No, I don’t! I wanna talk, I just can’t trust them.”
“Open your eyes, Daybreak. What more are they supposed to do? I mean, if you just can’t trust a word they say, then what was the point of this? Huh?”
“I…” Daybreak shut her eyes and shook her head. “You just don’t get it.”
“No, you don’t get it.” Angel stepped forward and shoved Daybreak. “You said over and over that you wanted to talk to them, and now you won’t. You wanna go out and be bad some more cuz you had fun. You liked hurting ponies. You loved being evil. You were gonna kill your mom, and you would have—”
“Shut up!” Daybreak sprang forward and tackled Angel to the ground. As she stood there, staring down at her friend, tears started rolling down her cheeks. “I’m not evil! I can’t be evil!”
“Then prove it,” Angel said. “Do what you said all this was for, and talk to them. Prove that you actually want this to go well.”
“I… I do want that.” Daybreak sniffed and stepped away from Angel. She sat heavily on the ground and laid her head on her hooves. “I’m sorry, Angel.”
Angel pushed herself up and walked over to sit beside Daybreak. “There’s a lotta ponies you have to apologize to before me.”
“Did I go too far?”
“Yes.”
“No, I mean…” Daybreak took a deep breath. “Are ponies just gonna think I’m evil now?”
“Maybe. I can’t really say.” Angel shrugged. “If you quit doing evil stuff, they’ll forget eventually, though.”
“Are you mad at me?”
“Yes.”
“Oh…”
“But, I’ll forgive you eventually.” Angel reached over and patted Daybreak on the shoulder.
The two of them went quiet for a bit. Angel stared out into the darkness, watching it intently, while Daybreak buried her head in her hooves and silently cried.
After a few minutes, Angel spoke up again. “Just… Let me know when you want to go back, and we’ll talk to them.” Daybreak nodded, and once again there was silence.
Eventually, Daybreak took a deep breath and wiped her eyes. “Okay,” she said, “I think I’m ready.”
“Do you know what you actually want?”
“I already told them what I want, they—” Daybreak caught herself, realizing she was getting worked up again, and lowered her voice. “I… Yeah, I know what I want.”
“Okay.” Angel nodded and waved a hoof through the air, and the shadows rolled aside like a curtain to reveal her parents, huddled together and whispering to each other. When Twilight saw them, she shushed Chrysalis and smiled softly towards the girls. “Hey. You ready?”
Daybreak quietly walked closer to them and sat down a few feet away. She took a long breath in, then slowly let it out, and finally nodded. “Mhm.” Angel walked up and sat beside her.
Twilight nodded back. “Alright, well… The floor is yours.”
Daybreak looked down at her hooves and was quiet for a long moment. Eventually, Angel got impatient. She reached out and prodded her, which just got Daybreak to quietly hiss “I’m thinking.”
“Well, quit it,” Angel whispered back. “Just say something.”
“Ugh.”
Daybreak wrapped her hooves around the back of her head and huffed. She gritted her teeth, trying to work herself up to it. Finally, she slapped her hooves down and blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
“I don’t wanna lose you!”
Her parents frowned. Twilight reached a hoof out in a sympathetic gesture. “You’re not going to lose us,” she said. “We’ll always be here for you.”
“You don’t know that! You keep leaving me to save the world and I never know if you’re gonna come back.”
“We’re the leaders of Equestria,” Chrysalis said, “we have a lot of responsibilities.”
“I don’t care about Equestria! I want my moms!”
“We can’t just ignore problems, we have to—” Chrysalis started, but Twilight interrupted her with a hoof on her shoulder.
“Daybreak, we want to be at home with you. Really, we do. It’s not something that can happen overnight, though. If we’re going to set up a system that can keep Equestria safe, it’s going to need development time, testing, changes in regulations—The point is, it’s going to take some time, and somepony needs to be keeping Equestria safe in the meantime.”
“But why does it have to be you?”
“It’s our job,” Chrysalis said.
“Isn’t it your job to be there for me, too, though? Why doesn’t that matter?” Daybreak’s voice cracked. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to stay calm. “How many other jobs are more important than me?”
“They’re not more important than you,” Chrysalis said, “it’s just… It’s difficult to see the whole picture sometimes.” She sighed and looked down at her hooves. “Daybreak, I’m really not sure what to say, here. I’m not good at this. Any of it. I can apologize when I make mistakes, but past that, I just… I don’t know.”
“Just stop lying,” Daybreak said. “That’s it! Why can’t you just stop lying to me? We could have just gone home like a normal family, but you lied and ruined it!” Daybreak sniffed hard. A tear rolled down her cheek. “If you’d just gone to get help like you said you would, everything would be fine! But you lied, just like you always do, and you lied when you said you’d talk to me, and you lied when you said you’d stop lying, and you lied about being evil, and now I’m gonna be evil and it’s all your fault!”
“Daybreak, I…” Chrysalis paused, unsure of what to say. Eventually, she settled on “You’re not evil. I promise.”
Daybreak fell to the ground, her head in her hooves, and sobbed. “Liar.”
There were a few moments of quiet, the only sound Daybreak’s quiet crying. Then, without warning, she felt a wing wrap around her and pull her close. She jumped in shock and looked up to see Twilight, having moved over beside her, with a kind smile on her face.
“Daybreak, evil creatures don’t cry about being evil,” Twilight said.
“I-I…” Daybreak stuttered, trying to find words before eventually just leaning into Twilight’s embrace and continuing to sob.
“Shhh.” Twilight gently hummed and stroked Daybreak’s mane. “So, how about this. Tomorrow, bright and early, I’ll get to work on finding a way to keep us out of danger. In the meantime…” She sighed. “It’s not a particularly elegant solution, but I’ll speak to Fluttershy and see if she’d be willing to keep an eye on us. That way, she could pull us out of the way if anything bad happens.” Twilight leaned down and kissed Daybreak’s forehead. “How does that sound?”
Daybreak nodded weakly. “I… I guess it’s fine, but… What about the lying?”
Twilight thought for a moment, then frowned. “I’m not sure, sweetie. I don’t know how to prove to you we’re not lying, other than for us to just not lie for long enough that you’ll trust us again.”
“And until then?”
“I guess you just have to give us a chance.”
“Mm…” Daybreak tightened in on herself and put her chin on the ground.
“Hmm…” Twilight put a hoof to her chin and thought. “How about this. From now on, if you ever catch us in a lie, you get… A wish.”
“What’s that mean?”
“It can mean anything you want,” Twilight told her. “Well, anything we’re capable of, at least. We wouldn’t be able to give you control over the sun, but we could, like, build a new wing of the castle with, uh… A place to go bowling? Do kids your age like bowling? Everyone’s gotta like bowling, right?”
Daybreak let out a quiet chuckle, which she quickly stifled. “I guess that could work,” she mumbled.
“Yeah?” Twilight squeezed Daybreak lovingly. “Well, hey, if you decide you’re not happy with any of that after sleeping on it, we’ll hear you out, okay?”
“Yeah, okay.” Daybreak yawned and leaned against Twilight. “I, um… I think I’m ready to go home, now.”
“Yeah?” Twilight smiled and nuzzled Daybreak. Around them, the shadows started slowly melting away, revealing a bright, colorful, somewhat messy bedroom.
A moment later, Twilight and Daybreak found themselves sitting on Daybreak’s bed. Chrysalis was standing near the door, while Angel seemed to have vanished along with the void they were in.
Twilight got up and gently tucked Daybreak into bed, then punctuated it with a kiss on the nose. “I’m glad you’re back.”
“Mm—Oh!” Daybreak gasped. “Where’s Gooey?”
“Gooey is at Fluttershy’s house for now,” Twilight said. “Now that they’re, um… Sentient? Well, they need a home. We’re going to see if somepony will adopt them.”
“You won’t?” Daybreak asked, frowning.
“Well… Frankly, dear, I think trying to take care of both of you would be too much for us,” Twilight told her. “Just between you and me, though, I wouldn’t worry too much. Rarity’s been hounding Rainbow Dash about adoption for a while now, so I think Gooey’s probably gonna end up in the castle with us either way.” Twilight rustled Daybreak’s mane and stood up. “Now, it’s bedtime. Goodnight, sweetie, I love you.”
“I love you, too,” Daybreak said. “Night.”
Twilight turned and trotted out the door, but Chrysalis lagged behind. After Twilight was gone, she shut the door and walked closer to the bed.
“Daybreak…”
“Hm?” Daybreak hummed, looking up curiously.
Chrysalis looked down at the floor. “I’m… Sorry I’m not a better mother.”
“Mom, I—”
Chrysalis put a hoof to Daybreak’s mouth and shook her head. “I’m not trying to make you feel bad or guilty. I just felt I owed you an apology, and… I’m going to do better. I promise.”
Chrysalis got up and walked towards the door. She was nearly out when Daybreak spoke up again.
“Mom?”
“Yes?”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
And, with that, she turned off the lights and stepped out the door.