//------------------------------// // Chapter Nine: Once Upon A Time // Story: Jumping In At The Deep End // by Anotherrandom //------------------------------// "Thanks for the ride, guys!"  Spike waddled up to the mumbling purple mare laying on the cobblestone road, offering Twilight a claw and helping her back up. “Come on, Twilight, you can do this!”  “But I don't want tooo!” she whined. “Everything hurts! I swear I will never fail a PE class ever again. That private tutor the Princess hired is a crazy pony!”  Her laments fell on deaf ears, probably because Spike technically didn't have any. “I dunno,” shrugged Spike. “Celestia recommended him, so he must know what he's doing.”  Twilight gave him an empty stare. “He shot a crossbow at me, Spike.”  “I thought he just made you play dodgeball?”  “That is how he played dodgeball.” The young drake scratched the fins on his head. “Well, we have a job to do. Don't you remember what Celestia said?” Twilight brightened up, gesturing for the dragon to hop on her back. “You’re right. I am her student, and I’ll do my royal duty!” Her renewed vigor only lasted for a few seconds as the weight of the baby dragon caused her legs to wobble, but Spike remained totally oblivious to her struggle. “Great! So we'll go and try to make some friends, like the Princess wanted you to?” “Ah-What? Ehm, no,” Twilight said, trying to keep standing. “I meant checking on the preparations, and then studying on the return of Nightmare Moon.” The young drake tugged at his caretaker's mane. “Twilight! At least try! Who knows, maybe the ponies in Ponyville have interesting things to talk about!” Near the two was Pinkie Pie, watching them curiously. Spike gave Twilight a pointed look, at which Twilight rolled her eyes and approached the pink mare. “Um… hello?” she tried.  At which Pinkie gasped, jumped into the air, and vanished, coming dangerously close to breaking the sound barrier in the process.  “Well, that was interesting alright,” said Twilight. “Let's get this over with so I can do something actually important.”   Spike produced a checklist, and gave Twilight directions to their first stop in town. Bon Bon watched them walk away towards Sweet Apple Acres. Sweetie Drops was giddy, almost jumping into the air. This was it - the most important mission in the agency's history. Something they had trained for for years. All the scheming and planning and- "Spring, anything you want for lunch?" Lyra asked Anon.   -and she, the best agent they had, was stuck watching from the sidelines, keeping an anomaly from destroying everything.  It was unfair, and the injustice stunk. Why? What purpose did this charade have? So the Boss didn't want to imprison the entity, sure. But she could have just let the entity loiter around the palace. That would let Boss monitor Anonymous even better, and wouldn't risk compromising the entire operation.  There must have been something else at stake, but of course, the Boss wouldn't tell.  And then there was the entity's own plan. Sweetie Drops didn't understand why Anonymous would steal scraps of rusted metal, or search through bin bags behind Rarity's boutique, which, considering that the fashionista sometimes made her own cloth dye, could not have been very pleasant. Anon was also doing something in the Everfree. Sweetie Drops just didn't know what. Her attempts at trying to stalk into the forest had all failed.   The Boss wanted to keep Anonymous away from danger - away from Nightmare Moon. For what reason she didn't say.  Were she and Nightmare Moon collaborators? Was the entity in the dark alicorn's thrall? Not likely, considering that whatever was Anonymous planning, the Boss didn't mind, even ordering Anon's protection. That implied it would help somehow, but was still dangerous enough to cause worry.  Sweetie Drops went over the materials Anonymous gathered. Rusted metals, assorted chemicals, mostly sulfur. Was the entity making a poison, or maybe a bomb?  Nightmare Moon was an alicorn. What would a little explosion accomplish? Killing an alicorn was impossible. Imprisoning one? Hard, but doable with enough magic. Hurting? Maybe. But killing?  Alicorns were made of magic, like normal ponies were made of water. It built them, sustained them. An alicorn was more energy than flesh.  And energy doesn't just vanish into nothing.  What else could Anonymous use? The entity possessed a few anomalous items - were they the key to understanding her plans? A spork, a roll of bandages that never ran out, a few other knick knacks with no discovered properties. The Sun orb was the only one of interest.  The fact that the entity had the Sun orb on itself was deeply worrying. The Sun orb, and its sister the Moon orb, were extremely powerful versions of magelights. A storage device for magical energy. Normal magelights would simply store a spell for later use, but the Sun orb could store nearly infinite amounts of raw mana and allow the wielder to use spells without using their own magical reserves.  But Sweetie Drops never saw Anonymous utilize this. She knew how it looked when one was using the Sun orb, the lack of telltale glow from the horn made it fairly hard to track -  making it an ideal tool for a prankster - but there were still signs a very perceptive pony could pick up on.  And yet, nada. Nothing! The orb was using magic, be it a subtle healing spell, or just feeding energy into Anon, but nopony was doing it! It was like the orb controlled itself somehow!   Anon's plan had something to do with the orb, she could feel it! But what? What diabolical schemes had she concocted? What strange machinations had the entity conceived?  Anon looked to be in intense thought. “I would like some apples, if it isn't too much trouble.”  Or maybe she was thinking about lunch. Bon Bons’s stomach grumbled. She found herself also thinking about lunch.  Lyra raised an eyebrow. “Apples? For lunch?” “... I like apples?” defended Anon weakly.  “The Apples' stall is closed for today, Spring,” Lyra said, in an apologetic tone. “Family reunion. Isn't there something else you want?”  Sweetie Drops got an idea. Keeping the future element-bearers safe was an integral part of the mission, so having a good excuse to follow Twilight and keep an eye on Anonymous was a win-win scenario. “Actually, I talked to Applejack yesterday,” Bon Bon interjected. “I promised to stop by and drop off the sweets they ordered for the banquet. Knowing her, she won’t let us go until we try something.”  Lyra gave her a look. “You sure? Little fillies need their nutrition!”  “I'm sure. It's the Apples we’re talking about.” Lyra tapped her shin, pretending to think about the hard decision of letting somepony else make food for them. “Well, you've convinced me,” Lyra shrugged and began walking towards the orchard. ”Onwards to Sweet Apple Acres!”  Bon Bon giggled. “Lyra, I need to stop at the shop to get their order first!” The unicorn stopped mid-step and turned around. “To the shop!”  Sweet Apple Acres.  Anon couldn't help but think of the night not so long ago, bleeding and limping in the shadow of apple trees, reaching for the houses standing like a beacon in the fields.  Now there was light, music and dance. A family reunion, with everything families offered, on a bright, colorful day. Let's hope it isn't the last.  Just outside the porch, the same porch Anon had collapsed on, were tables, and ponies around them. Eating and dancing to cheerful songs played by a lone earth pony with a fiddle.  Lyra raised a brow at this. “Is that Octavia?”  "Howdy Bon Bon!” Applejack welcomed them. “What a fine day we are havin’!”  Shudders went down their collective spines.  Applejack didn't look normal. Or sane.  Anon started to get worried. Not because Applejack's eye was twitching, not because her smile looked more and more unhinged. No, Anon was worried because of the big, metaphorical light bulb lit above the farmer's head. Applejack had gotten an idea, and Anon was ready to run for the hills, screaming.  "Just here to drop this off-" Bon Bon pointed at the box balanced on her back. "-and then we can get out of your mane." In Applejack's mind, something clicked.  Ideas are strange things. You let your thoughts wander and, sometimes, they come back with a souvenir.  Or a bomb.  "Don't ya wanna stay for brunch?"  Lyra, perceptive enough to notice the mad gleam behind the farm pony's eyes, backed off a little. "We wouldn't want to impose." Even Anon, who was willing to risk a lot for the promise of a good meal, decided to cut their losses. “Yup, totally that's the problem,” she nodded. “Imposing. Not fearing for our lives.”   Desperation marred Applejack's muzzle. "Impose? Nah! Y’all basically family!" she said a little too forcefully.  Lyra opened her mouth, but Bon Bon raised an authoritative hoof. "Applejack, what's really happening?" The farm mare collapsed to the ground, clutching her stetson close to her chest. "I can't stand it! They've been bickerin' for hours!" "Who?" asked Lyra.  "My grand uncles, Strudel and Golden Delicious!" Applejack yelled. "I tried to separate them by sittin' this fancy Canterlot unicorn between them but now they just shout louder! My head been hurtin' somethin' fierce from it all, I just had to get some fresh air. And I live on a farm! There's only fresh air!” Bon Bon raised an eyebrow. "So you want us to sit between them to separate them further?" "Not exactly," Applejack waggled her hooves in the air. “Ya see, if you three join, we oughta change the whole seating arrangement. This way, we can use template seven point eight, category C. That should fix the issue, lickety split!” The jumper's gaze shifted between the enormous pile of apple-related foods on the tables behind Applejack and the orange mare's crazed stare. “Yeah, I'm not sure I trust that.” "Please, stay for brunch!" begged Applejack, only her family pride preventing her from falling to her knees. A whole day of having to listen to two of her relatives argue about nothing for hours was too much to bear. "I'll give you anything!"  "Sure then. Give us lunch, a pillow for me to sit on, and two glasses of cider from your stash - cold." Bon Bon and Anon stared at Lyra. "What?" she shrugged. "Just because Bonnie is the business mare doesn't mean I'm a pushover."  Applejack, who frankly was quite ready to give them half the farm and Big Mac's hoof in marriage, shook Lyra's hooves, lifting the poor mare and shaking her in the air, while Lyra grimaced. "Thank you, thank you! You won't regret it!" Anon felt the universe itself smirk, their impending doom drawing closer. "Oh, I'm sure we will." Just think about the food. Applejack's idea hadn't backfired. Backfired implies fire. The food is good. This was more of an explosion.  And unfortunately for Bon Bon and Lyra, they found themselves in the epicenter.  "And this is Macintosh," Granny Smith pointed a shriveled hoof at a picture of Big Mac, from long before he'd earned the 'Big' part of his name, happily sleeping in his crib. "Ain't he cute in his nappy?" Meanwhile, the adult Big Mac was hit with a blast-wave of embarrassment, tearing at his self-esteem, quickly followed by a fireball of awkwardness, searing his cheeks with a blush so potent it showed through his already red fur. He did not make it. "Awww," cooed the ponies surrounding the pair and Granny Smith in unison. At first, it all seemed to go well. The seating changed, and while Lyra and Bon Bon enjoyed their cider and Anon her lunch, the bickering uncles, now separated by a wall of ponies and three whole tables, were content to just glare at each other.  But there was one detail poor Applejack missed. That being bringing a pair with a foal to a family reunion and introducing them as old family friends would have a few unexpected side effects. It started innocently enough. An anecdote here, a joke there, few stories shared between them, and before she could think of the consequences of her actions, Lyra mentioned how she and her partner were foster parents, still learning about being proper guardians for a foal. This, of course, resulted in every parent at the table immediately showering them with their advice, tips, horror stories and the doom and gloom of having to deal with a child entering puberty. Escalating in scale until Granny Smith pulled out the most dreaded weapon of mass embarrassment known to ponykind.  The family album. At which point, everypony not yet having foals of their own promptly evacuated, knowing the inevitability of pointed looks, small nudging and the questions like, “And when are you going to get me some grandfoals?”  More annoyingly for Bon Bon, Twilight had somehow snuck away during the chaos, defeating the entire point of being there.  Apparently, Twilight had mastered the finicky art of teleportation, and was using it to avoid awkward social interactions.  Fair enough, thought Bon Bon, being shown another photo - this time of a young Applejack in a frilly dress, eliciting pitiful, squeaky noises from the farm mare as she was totally eviscerated by embarrassment. And yet somehow, Anon had it worse. Pain is the only constant. Suffering is the only law. "Aren't ya a little cutie," said one of the old mares sitting next to Anon, trying to feed her the twenty-sixth apple fritter.  God please end me now. Anon was wondering for a few moments where all the children were, but she knew now. They were hiding.  From the herd of grannies. They were merciless. Pinching her cheeks, calling her cute, and feeding her an astronomical amount of desert. Encircled, with no chance of escape, Anon had to devise a plan so devilish, so cunning, and so clever that nobody could stop her. A plan so genius and flawless-   “Ehm, excuse me, I have to use the bathroom” Or that. That also works.  Anon went past many ponies who were celebrating a little early. Dancing, singing, playing. Simply being with their family. It hurt.  She entered the family home, the scent of applewood strong inside.  You’ll find your way home. You’ll see them again.  Silence. A moment of silence was all she needed. To steady herself, just a moment. Nothing more. She sat by the stairs, struggling for breath.  And that’s where the yellow filly with a big, pink bow in her mane found her.  “Howdy, I'm Apple Bloom! Who-” she stopped herself, the green filly averting her eyes. “Are you crying?”  Anon stopped and turned, hoof reaching to her own face - wet. “Apparently yes,” she said, ignoring the twisting, cold feeling in her chest. “Got something stuck in my eye.”  Apple Bloom hesitated for a moment. "Ehm, need some help? Want me to get tweezers?" "No, it's good." Anon struggled to breathe and show a fake smile at the same time. "It's just tears." "Oh." The doors outside opened again and in was practically thrown Lyra, with Bon Bon slipping in, closing the door, and catching Lyra out of the air. "Now, we have to get-"  "She's here!" interrupted Lyra. "Great!" Bon Bon put the minty unicorn down, two glasses of cider levitating by her head.  "Get ready, Spring, we're getting out of here!" Anon got up, survival instincts kicking in as Bon Bon frantically started barricading the doors.  "What the hell is going on?" Lyra gave her a guilty smile. "I maybe, just maybe! Kinda sorta started an intergenerational war." Blink. Anon pinched herself.  Nope, this is real. Lyra tapped her hooves on the floor. "Just a small one! Nopony is injured… I think." "I told you," Bon Bon held the doors as they shook from impacts, the sounds of vicious battle raging outside. "Never compare Granny Smith's and Bumpkin's cooking! It can only end badly."  "All I said was that Bumpkin's fritters are less chewy!" cried out Lyra. "How was I supposed to know that it would start a food fight?" "The food fight started already?" The three ponies attention snapped to the inconspicuous yellow filly, smiling in a very concerned way and rubbing her hooves together, before vanishing into her room, and coming back with a large sack filled with pies. "I can't believe I nearly missed it. The food fight is the best part!" With a feat of strength typical of earth ponies, the filly ripped the doors open while a stunned Bon Bon watched Applebloom dive into the fray, a pie in each hoof. "Geronimo!" "This is a strange family," concluded Anon, watching the Battle of the Apples unfold. "Yeah, I can't imagine what it must be like living with such silliness," said Lyra, climbing onto the window frame. “Well, time to jump out the window and escape! Let's go! …Ehm, Bonnie? I can't move.”  “You got stuck, didn't you?” sighed Bon Bon. "... Help." “I don't think I ever want to see a single apple ever again,” Anon moaned.  Too. Many. Apples.   The trio was back in town, Bon Bon walking side by side with Lyra, the unicorn leaning on Bon Bon and Anon following behind, deep in thought.  She'd had a day. The hour of Nightmare Moon's return was creeping closer and closer, and if everything went well, she would resume her quest soon after.  Anon sighed. This world was a reprieve, but she would have to leave it behind.  It was for the best. The ponies of this world deserved their peace, their lives. She was an intrusion upon this world, nothing more. But, despite the thought leaving a bad taste in her mouth, Anon had to admit she would miss this one a little.  And it might have been all a lie. Lyra didn't buy toys for Anon. Bon Bon didn't bring an interdimensional intruder to the doctors. Didn’t cook three meals a day for a dirty thief.  They did it, they cared, for Spring Break. However short her stay was. However fake her existence was. They cared.  Spring Break was a lie. But it was a nice lie, and Anon found herself wanting to keep lying, to continue being Spring Break, for just a little longer.  Coward! You have a home! A family! You've stolen enough from them already.  The jumper grit her teeth. She had her mission, her goal. Her quest. Plenty of reasons to keep going until it was all done. All she did was take. A coward, a thief, a liar, and a fake. They would be better off without her, and by leaving she would give them back their chance at happiness .  She owed at least that to them. Her musings were cut short as she saw a purple unicorn walk the streets towards Rarity's boutique, talking with a purple drake on her back. Is that Twilight?  Except something was different about her.  This being that her mane looked like it had been hit by a tornado filled with electric eels. Spike snickered, and could barely hold back his laughter every time he looked at her.  Anon glanced at the sun. Still pretty high in the sky, so she had plenty of time. The only thing she had left to do was prepare her equipment, and that would only take a few minutes at best.  Twilight entered the boutique.  Anon thought about following inside under the guise of wanting another dress, but decided against it. She wanted to follow Twilight to the apple orchard. Going through the farm and getting too close to the edges of Everfree forest was improbable, but possible. The monsters residing inside were getting more and more agitated and if Twilight got hurt, the whole world was basically screwed. But the boutique? Twilight would be safe there. From the file she had on the fashionista, Rarity didn't strike her as somebody who would do harm unto others, with maybe the exception of anyone insulting her latest designs.  But even then, she probably wouldn't maim them too much.  On second thought, maybe making sure Twilight walked out of there alive wasn't such a bad idea.  "Hi there!" "Agh!" Anon yelped in a very dignified way, definitely not squealing like a velociraptor.  "Your invitation!" Pinkie Pie had materialized out of the blue, with a big, wide smile on her face. In hoof was a piece of paper covered in drawings of balloons and some, for the jumper, unreadable scribbles. "Enjoy the party! And be careful of mosquitoes, wink wink!" Before Anon could muster a reaction, the pink pony bounced away, leaving her with the invitation. “Huh.”  Wait, does she know I threw the knife at her? Lyra leaned over her shoulders. “A surprise party in the library? You want to go?” Anon looked at the card. “Whose party is it?” The minty unicorn squinted at the tiny, decorative hoof-writing. “A unicorn named… Twilight Sparkle.” Anon thought about it. It was another chance to be near Twilight and the five mares on the night of Nightmare's return. A critical time deciding the fate of this entire world, even if the chance of anything going wrong was slim until tomorrow morning. Attending another social gathering wasn't exactly tempting. She swallowed her fear. Would this world branch be any different than the others? Would Nightmare Moon arrive early? Later? Not at all?  She didn't need to be at the party, technically. At least she hoped not. The seals holding Nightmare Moon would break tonight, but she would arrive at dawn. But what if this world branch was different from the previous ones? What if Nightmare Moon returned a few hours earlier than expected?  Bon Bon coughed, snapping the distracted filly back to reality. “I think I should go, it's polite to welcome a new pony to Ponyville, after all.”  The green filly's eyes hardened. “I want to go too,” Anon said. “But first I need to get my dress.”    Parties. Parties meant many things for many people. A place to have some fun together with your friends, a chance to get so inebriated one's breath can be used as a makeshift flamethrower, or something to avoid if the idea of a big room filled with sweaty strangers isn't particularly enjoyable.  For Pinkie Pie, parties were more than simple social gatherings - they were works of art and science at the same time. Fun distilled and concentrated, the essence of everything that made life worth living. Prepared and curated to perfection.  And as it goes with most distilled and concentrated substances, too much and you risk either a hangover, poisoning, or a fiery explosion.  But Pinkie Pie was an expert in her field, the best of the best, unstoppable in her mission of providing fun and laughter.  The pink mare walked toward the punch bowl, somehow summoning from her puffy mane a comically large spoon, a tool rivaling the true spork in its destructive potential, and took some of the punch into it. Her muzzle scrunched up, as the light blue mare responsible for preparing the punch sweated bullets as she waited for the judgment passed on her by the pink one.  "Neat." The aspirant, spared death, doom, and further perspiration, let out a sigh of relief, as Pinkie Pie bounced off to rearrange individual pieces of confetti for reasons known only to her. Anon, who had watched the whole scene, decided that Celestia must have made some terrible mistake when she said that Pinkie Pie needed protection. As far as Anon was concerned, everybody needed protection from her. The library tree of Ponyville was seeing the most activity in decades, with dozens of ponies sneaking in to help surprise the new arrival, acting like they were doing something secret and hidden, despite the public invitations and the very loud party pony leading the charge.   The jumper had to admit, despite at first abhorring the idea of being surrounded on all sides by this many strangers in a room this small, so far it had been… not bad.  Anon tugged at her dress, shifting the weight of her hidden equipment underneath the fabric.  The dress itself was another present from her caretakers, one she never thought she would use. Right now, it served to hide the fact that she was geared for war, and to make her dangerously cute. If she couldn't defeat Nightmare Moon by force, she would definitely give her diabetes with excessive cuteness.  Anon let the calming weight of her gear ground her, filtering out the noisy party preparations around her.  She would withstand it. She was ready.  Her caretakers were close by, chatting with ponies who came by, asking about their day and wishing them a nice Summer Sun Celebration. Anon took a deep breath.  She was confident, prepared. Her powers were at the highest point they had been in months, if not years. There was nothing that could scare her, nothing that would stop her now, she was- Somebody touched her on the shoulder. A few things happened quickly.  First, Anon nearly jumped out of her own skin, and maybe this dimension altogether. Her horn lit up on instinct as she turned to face whatever threat had just appeared. Second, Silver Spoon nearly screamed as she came face-to-face with a suddenly both very scared and very scary green filly in a pretty green dress.  Third, Diamond tiara stifled a laugh as both of the foals stared at each other, Silver Spoon giving a sheepish smile. “Hi?”  Anon sighed, the magic in her horn powering down. “What do you want?” she said coldly, while trying to remember where she knew these two from.  Silver Spoon was taken aback, but Diamond stood undeterred by her tone. “We wanted to talk to you.”  “Why?” was the simple retort.  Diamond gave Anon the patented 'You serious?' look. "To apologize, obviously." "For what?" Anon asked.  The two rich fillies exchanged a sidelong glance. "For calling you lame, duh," said Diamond. "And uninteresting!" chipped in Silver Spoon helpfully. It took a few seconds before a spark of realization hit. "Oh yeah. Forgot about that."  "You forgot?" Diamond raised an eyebrow. "Just like that?" "Yup." Diamond paused. "So you don't care?" "Not particularly, no." Diamond stared at the green filly. Anon was getting less comfortable with the conversation by the second. Silver Spoon, seeing the developing awkward silence, sacrificed herself before the shame and embarrassment forced them to shave their manes and become reclusive monks in Yakyakistan. "I like your dress!" Silver Spoon blurted out. "It's green, like you!" Anon blinked, trying to decipher if there wasn't some kind of language barrier between her and the natives, undiscovered before this moment. "Thanks, I think."  There were a few more moments of contemplating the pros and cons of entering a vow of silence in the mountains, before Silver Spoon recovered. "But, eh, isn't the front bit too rigid?" The gray maned filly pointed with her hoof at Anon's chest. The fabric of the dress looked stretched there, as if something smooth and solid was underneath.  "Nope, that's just how this dress looks." "Really? That's strange, it-" Anon never learned what Silver wanted to say after that, as Pinkie Pie suddenly shook, her tail started spinning, and the pony started yelling orders. "All hooves on deck! She's coming! Go go go! No slacking! I see you Wind Chaser, go to your position!" Before Anon could muster a response and ask what's happening, and why everybody was running around like headless chickens, Bon Bon walked to her side. "Don't worry, it's just Pinkie being Pinkie. But we should definitely hide before-" pitch darkness befell the room. "-she turns off the lights." There was stillness and anticipation in the air as they waited for their prey to walk through the doors. Bon Bon smiled, waiting for the right time to spring a trap always left her excited like a little filly and this was a feeling nearly identical.   "So how do you like the party so far, Spring?" she whispered to the air next to her.  Silence. She reached a hoof into the empty space where she expected Anon to stand. "Spring?" Nothing, but the feeling of draft from an open window. She ran, she ran as fast as her tiny legs allowed. The whispers in her head were unceasing.  Past the town square, past the celebrating ponies in the street, shouting after the crying and running filly.  Run! Run anywhere! There was a house she knew. The end point of her previous journeys outside - her hooves led her back. A house that wanted to be a home.  The voices didn't stop, calling on her from the darkness. Whispers getting louder. Rushing through the entrance, past the living room and the kitchen. Everything was a blur, quickly fading as it was consumed by darkness. Anon entered the bedroom and slammed the door behind her, shaking too much to even attempt to manipulate the lock.  No attention was given to toys in the corner, to her surroundings. Safety. She needed safety.  Tears flowing, her whole body was shaking, becoming like static. Phasing through the floor. The dress and the gear hidden under it fell from her body and hit the floor heavily with a metallic thud as Anon blinked in and of reality. Her breathing was fast and her face was wet. The voices from the dark were now screaming. Screaming and begging for help and salvation. Human, animal, alien. Changing and morphing, losing its shape, becoming less and less recognizable  Her voices. Her old voices.  Light! She needed light!  The Sun orb!  From under the dress, Anon hefted the orb and pulled it close to her chest. She curled up in the pillows and blankets on the floor, heaving and struggling for breath.  The phantoms of her past were still there, only held at bay by the weak barrier of the golden light. Around it was a black void, filled with screeching ghosts. You abandoned me! Yelled a blurred face of someone she used to know. You betrayed me! Screamed someone she used to be. You killed me. Whispered a voice she didn't recognise anymore. Anon's grip around the orb tightened, sobs leaving her.  "I'm sorry," she said, to family she left, not on her own accord. "I'm sorry," she said to strangers, to friends. Dead now, because she ran away. "I'm sorry," she said to herself - to the parts of herself that she'd let die. All those hopes and dreams, abandoned, faded, and nearly as lost as she was.  The darkness continued to swirl around her, suffocating her, slowly snuffing out the meager light. And then the door to her room opened. "Shh, it's okay. I'm with you." A voice not of the dead or lost. Present, real.  Alive.   "I'm here," Bon Bon said, at first with hesitation, but then with conviction. "I'm here and I'm not going anywhere." The shadows were cast away, the room got its color back, the lights were working again. And there was a pony holding her, whispering to her ear. "Shh. It's okay. It's okay." Anon was being held - she didn't like being held. It was constraining, caging. It took away her choice. Her freedom. But, despite this, Anon found that she didn't want to be let go.  The jumper stopped phasing, the static was gone. Just a filly was left, crying in the hooves of an earth pony mare. "I-I," she choked on the phlegm forming in her throat, her eyes red and puffy from tears. "It's okay. Breathe. Take your time."  Anon wanted to say something, anything. But she couldn't. She just was. But maybe being was enough. Bon Bon grit her teeth, seething with anger. At herself. So caught up in her mission, blind to what was right in front of her. She refused to see Anon as anything else but an entity. A mission. And so she ignored the signs. Spring Break was a made-up name. The entity wasn't a foal.  But the sobbing green furball in her hooves was real. Her anguish and tears were real - she was supposed to take care of Anon. Make her feel safe. And what a terrible job she had done so far. Several clanking noises came from downstairs, followed by wheezing sounding like an epileptic fish. "Bonnie! Spring!" Lyra called out, trying to catch her breath. "Where are you?!" "Upstairs, Honey!" A disheveled, ragged Lyra climbed the stairs, wincing with every step. "Bonnieee, my sweet Bonny-Bon, please," Lyra said between pained gasps. "You want to tell me-"  Lyra stopped mid-sentence, seeing Bon Bon and Anon, sitting on the floor in a hug. The filly still sobbing gently into her hooves. "What happened?" "M-my f-fault," Anon wiped her tears, her voice raw and shaky. Lyra's shoulders sagging at the sight. "I freaked out and ran." "It's alright," whispered Bon Bon.  Anon cursed under her breath. Alright? Alright?!  She had traveled so far, survived so much, and now she keeps breaking down and crying? She was better than this! She was supposed to have control over herself! Why- Deep breaths. Control your emotions. I'm lucky that Bon Bon didn't see me phasing when she found me. At least I hope. The filly tensed up, shutting her eyes, shaking more, gasping for air, despising the closeness of Bon Bon's warm hug, but at the same time hating the idea of the uncaring, dark world outside the safety of her embrace.  Bon Bon had seen Anon's tail clip through the floor. If Lyra noticed… Panic gripped the agent. She had to calm Anon down, but how? A note rang out, testing the waters. Anon's ears twitched but otherwise she didn't budge, curled up in Bon Bon's hooves, fast, panicked breaths leaving her. Lyra continued to play.  The instrument sang, amber magic strumming the strings perfectly. Each chord helping to build a tapestry from the sound. The song was slow and nostalgic. Just a few notes, dancing off each other and settling in the filly's mind, overpowering the whispers and doubts. "Feel better?" asked Lyra, her instrument levitating back into its case. She let the lyre fall in carelessly - she had more important things to worry about.  Anon took a deep breath, she was solid once more. Real once more. In control.  “Mhm.” Anon nodded.  The jumper pried herself free from Bon Bon's hooves, suddenly feeling incredibly silly, and yet… Better. "Want us to stay for tonight?" offered Lyra.  Anon stopped, hardly believing she was giving it a serious thought. She was an adult! You're still playing a role, technically… It would be strange for a child in her position to refuse. To keep up appearances, she had to accept. And for no other reason whatsoever.    “...Yes please.” With an excited glee, Lyra grabbed a book from the bookshelf and jumped. “Want me to read you a bedtime story?”  Bon Bon crossed her hooves and stared down the minty unicorn, now sheepishly smiling while sitting on the floor. “Honey, you’re not sleeping on the ground.” Lyra gave Bon Bon her best puppy eyes. “Bonnie! Don't ruin the fun!” But the agent was immune to such underhanded tricks. “I'm not letting you sleep without proper back support. I thought you learned your lesson from that time we went camping. You were moaning in pain for weeks.” With that, Bon Bon lifted the surprisingly light mattress from the unused bed in the room, throwing it on the floor, where it puffed out and stretched before retaining its previous shape.  Bon Bon glared at the unicorn. “Honey, care to explain why your prescription cloud bed is in Spring's room?”  Lyra gulped, ears drooping. “I gave it to her?” Before Bon Bon could reply, Anon did, the filly sounding hurt. Lyra flinched just hearing it. “Why? I said the old one was fine…”  “I-I… I wanted to have this place feel like a home for you.”  Anon froze, mouth open, unable to find words. Lyra laughed uneasily, trying to lighten up the mood but failing. “Beds, well, it sounds silly, but they are kind of symbolic, y’know?” she shot a look at Bon Bon. “Home is the place where we feel safe, secure. And beds, well, they represent it.” The unicorn mare sighed.  “And when you didn't want to sleep in the bed we gave you, I thought that maybe if I just make it better that… that you would feel a bit better in turn.”  Lyra, foolish as she felt right now, slouched down in defeat, ears pinned to her skull. Her attempt with the bed didn't work out at all, the only thing she succeeded at was making climbing the stairs a torturous experience, but she would try again. Spring Break deserved as much. “That was never the problem.” Anon was… upset, yes. Still shaking after, well, breaking down and crying.  “The bed was never the problem," she repeated. "I just… can’t sleep when I'm too comfortable. It isn't something you can fix with a better bed." Bon Bon realized something, the information from the doctor’s examination, from her own experience. All fell into place.  “You should’ve said so,” said Bon Bon simply, appearing casual despite the picture now formed in her head. "Lounges, Lavatories & Leeward are having a sale. We can get you a bed there that's better for you. Sounds good?" Anon nodded, a faint smile on her muzzle. “Sounds good.” “Now, who wants to read some Daring Do!” exclaimed Lyra. “It's about an explorer traveling through all these dangerous places and collecting artifacts. Doesn't that sound exciting?” The jumper giggled. “Yeah, it kinda does.”  And so they read, laying next to each other on the floor, pillows, and one enchanted cloud mattress in Lyra's case, until snoozing filled the room in the house that wanted to be a home.  And in the morning, the sun failed to rise.