Perchance to Dream

by Ether Echoes

Chapter 1: The Big Apple...

The wheels of the shopping cart creaked behind Shady Blossom. Shelves full of groceries glided by on either side. Though all the lights were out and the grocery was dark, she could make out just enough light to see. A jug of milk joined a bag of cornmeal in the hitched cart, and she carefully felt two watermelons before selecting the smaller, firmer one.

It wasn’t enough, though. Just a little more, here and there.

The cart soon became heavy with great stacks of cans, bags of flour and oatmeal, and enough hay to feed an army. After dragging the cart to the counter, she passed it without notice, departing into the night.

No one to see, no one to hear. Softly, silently into the night.

The moon hung white and full in a clear sky devoid of stars. The heavy cart dragged at Shady’s every step, but she pressed on beneath the watchful gaze of the moon. Silvery light lay in slats across the street, slotted through the towers of Manehattan here and there.

She stopped, realizing suddenly that she was going the wrong way. Forward led to Canterlot, along high roads to a mountain far away. Her family lay behind her, not in front of her.

They needed her. They were everything she needed. Everything she ever wanted.

Her ears twitched, and she turned her head. A distant cracking sound was echoing through the hollow streets. The earth was shaking.

“Mom! Mo-o-om!” The voice came from someone bouncing on her sheets. Small hooves pounded on her.

Shady groaned and shifted. Her eyes creaked open slowly. “Sto-o-op, honey... mommy’s sleepy...”

Babs Seed beamed down at her. “We’re going to be late, Mom! Come on!”

“All right...” Shady slid up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. “All right... go wake your daddy. We’ll go right away.”

While Babs went to stomp on her father, Shady went into her bathroom to freshen up and ready herself for a new day.

“Are we late, Mom?” Babs Seed asked. Blowing her red mane out of her face, she stared up at a clock. “I thought Apple Bloom’s train was supposed to be here at eight or somethin’.”

“Let me check, dear.” Leaping into the air, Shady Blossom flapped her wings and flew into the air. They carried her up and over the concourse, coming to a hover beside the board announcing arrivals. There, she could see that the train from Ponyville had come early. Which means that my guests have arrived before I could greet them. Isn’t life grand?

“Hey, lady,” a pegasus stallion said from atop the billboard, where benches had been set up for fliers, “don’ block the view. Folks below need to see the board, too, ya know.”

“Oh, of course,” Shady Blossom apologized and then lifted herself up higher to search through the crowd.

There was a certain feeling to passing through the Grand Terminal that couldn’t really be felt anywhere else. It was motion and purpose, a press of ponies, mules, griffins, and more that pulsed together to a beat measured in slamming doors, emphasized in the way hot air from the train tunnels buffeted against her, and the scent of fresh newsprint mingled with the sweat of porters and the dust of travelers from a thousand destinations, the sensations wafting up to her aerial viewpoint. All order in the station’s little universe was managed by the hands of great clocks that hung over the throng, each one round, white, and glowing like moons from some crazed painting.

Shady Blossom squinted just enough so that the moving shapes dimmed in her view, forming blurred lines that snaked their way across the flow as they merged and split. With a little imagination, one could paint the great train station as if it were a scene set outdoors, with little rivers washing around hard, blocky terminals and kiosks. The light streaming in through the great arched windows could have been dappling through trees.

Reminds me of something, but what? Perhaps I saw it in one of Lin’s paintings...

“Mom! Do ya see them?” Babs Seed shouted up at Shady, her hooves planted on a bench overlooking the concourse. Ponies parted around her, glaring at the rose-maned filly. The girl had a pair of lungs on her that she was not reluctant to use.

Ducking under one of the big clocks hanging from the ceiling and steadying herself with a hoof on the metal latticework, Shady shook her head. “Sorry, dear. I got distracted,” she called back and then scanned the platforms and terminals below. Spying a cowboy hat among the mass of equinity, she pointed a hoof. “I can see them over by the tofu stand now.” She kept pointing until Babs started moving through the crowd, then dove down, unsure if her daughter had heard or not.

Three small heads were peeking over the lid of a food cart, each filly watching long slices of tofu sizzle and pop in a tub of oil, the heavy tang of soy sauce hanging around the card like a miasma. A burst of hot juice sprayed against the glass shield protecting them and the girls darted back. They clustered around a blonde earth pony mare in a worn cowboy hat, who was dumping a few shiny silver bits on the counter.

Finding a reasonably clear space, Shady Blossom gave a quick bark of “Look out below!” and flapped her wings to land down by the cart. A blue-coated colt bounced out of the way, and she offered him a small smile in apology. He continued to stare at her, his jaw slack as he took in her appearance.

A little filly, who must have been the colt’s sister by their similar blue coats, tugged at her mother’s tail. “Mommy? Where did her feathers go? Did they fall out?”

“Hush, dear. It’s rude to point.” The mare tugged her children away into the crowd after a glance at Shady Blossom.

Shady sighed a little and turned away to find the three fillies she had been watching gawking at her as well. They each held little fried tofu burgers, and the little orange pegasus was happily scarfing hers down, even though her eyes were still locked on to Shady.

“Shucks, girls, clear a path for ponies. Dontcha go blockin’ the way,” the golden-haired mare chided, and chivvied the girls out of Shady’s path. After Shady didn’t move, she turned and squinted up at her. Then she grinned, holding a hoof out. “Well, I’ll be! Sorry, Shady Blossom, I plumb didn’t notice you there.”

“How can’t you have?” the pegasus filly protested. “Just look at her! She’s just about the most impossible to miss thing I’ve—”

The orange mare’s hoof lodged firmly into her mouth. The burger spilled to the ground, with the half-eaten bun splitting open and the tofu patty smearing the floor. “Kids these days! Scoot, I am going to tan yer sorry hide—don’t think I won’t. Your folks made it crystal clear I was to make sure you behaved.”

“No, Applejack, it’s all right,” Shady Blossom said, putting a hoof on Applejack’s shoulder. She moved over to the filly and then knelt in front of her. Applejack removed her hoof. “Scootaloo, right? I’ll bet you haven’t seen somepony like me before.”

“Ah...” Scootaloo murmured, now scrunching down. Her friends were trying to look as innocent as two fillies who had clearly been thinking the exact same thing could be. With her magenta tail wrapped around her, Scootaloo glanced down at the floor. “Once, actually. Back when Princess Luna visited Ponyville for Nightmare Night last year. There were some ponies just like you pulling the Princess’s chariot. Night Guard types, you know, in the blue and black armor.”

“Well! That’s more than most ponies, certainly.” Shady laughed softly. Tossing her inky mane out of her face, she tilted Scootaloo’s face up with the tip of her hoof to look into Shady’s own catlike eyes, her fluffy ears tilting forward attentively. “I can’t say how grateful I am to you and your friends for helping my Babs out when she visited Ponyville. As far as I’m concerned, you can stare as long as you like.”

The remaining girls scuffed their hooves and tried not to look directly at Shady. Extending her wings, she touched the tips to their noses, drawing their attention back. “That goes for you girls, too, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle,” she said, her tone warm. “I only wish somepony had told me about her behavior while she was there, so you wouldn’t have had so many troubles when she visited, but Babs couldn’t stop talking about how you girls rose to the challenge and made her a part of your lives. You, all three, are little heroes.”

There was a moment of silence, then the girls spoke up. Apple Bloom was first, her red mane and ribbon drooping, “I’m sorry. I didn’ mean to stare, honest; it ain’ right to judge a pony by how she looks—”

Sweetie Belle was almost on top of her, hopping forward. “I’m really, really, really—”

Laughing again, louder and happier still, Shady Blossom stood. She spread a foreleg and her leathery wings to gesture them to stop. “Girls, girls! It’s okay, really. No harm done.”

Applejack chuckled. “They’re good kids. Some of the time, at least.”

“Jeepers, what’s with all the racket?” Babs Seed’s voice broke into the little gathering as she pushed her way among them. “I could hear you guys halfway across the station! Apple Bloom, you aren’t blubberin’ like a li’l crybaby again, are ya?” she demanded of her cousin, but her grin belied the harshness of her words.

Apple Bloom tackled her to the ground at once, and the two fell to play-wrestling, squealing the whole while.

“Hey, Babs,” Sweetie Belle said, waving a hoof.

“’Sup?” Scootaloo asked, picking her spilled tofu off the ground and considering it. When she half-opened her mouth, Applejack quickly snatched it away and chucked it into a trash bin, before going back to the vendor.

“N’much,” Babs slurred, her face smooshed to the ground by Apple Bloom’s hoof. She had her lower legs free, though, and managed to tilt herself and her cousin sideways in order to squirm free. By the time the pair stood up, they were giggling quite enthusiastically.

“We were talking to yer mom. How come y’never mentioned she was a... um...”

“Bat pony?” Sweetie Belle supplied.

“Thestral,” Scootaloo corrected her friend. “They’re like pegasi, except they see in the dark better and other things. Luna’s Night Guard is made up of ’em.”

“What, somethin’ wrong with that?” Babs asked, raising her voice and stepping forward. A leathery wing tucked around her midsection calmed her, and she gazed up at her mother, who smiled and tightened her grip briefly.

“Nothin’!” Apple Bloom declared, and puffed her chest out. “I ain’ got nothin’ against no pony. It jus’ surprised me is all! Why, Applejack was the one who got all jelly-legged when a zebra came to town, an’—”

“I think that’s enough history lesson for one day, Apple Bloom,” Applejack said, talking over her sister as she returned with a burger in hoof.

Apple Bloom stamped a hoof. “Aw, shucks. Ain’ you always tellin’ me to do my history homework?”

Smirking, Applejack leaned forward. “What year was the Ponyville dam laid down?” Offering the fresh burger to Scootaloo, she had to snatch her teeth back before the little filly’s enthusiastic chomp nearly took a bite out of her nose. Eager to finish her meal, Scootaloo downed the meal in two bites.

Sweetie Belle, who had been delicately nibbling at hers, turned a shade of green at the sight. “Maybe I’ll finish mine later,” she muttered.

Apple Bloom gaped at her sister for a moment. Cogitating, she tapped out numbers on the floor with a hoof. “Uh...” she said at last. “A long time ago?”

Applejack snorted. “See? Then you need to do your history homework.”

“You don’t know what it is, either, I’ll bet!”

“Nope!” Applejack said, grinning. “Course, I ain’ in school no more, so I don’t need to remember.”

“The point of learning the date ain’ to learn the date, li’l girl, it’s to understand the significance of the event in the course of time,” the tofu vendor supplied, leaning out from the side of his cart. “Time of mine which you’re wastin’. So scoot.”

“Huh?” Scootaloo looked up at the sound of her name.

“Come along,” Shady Blossom said, gesturing with a wing. “Barry should be here by now, girls.” Turning, she trotted through the crowd at a brisk pace, taking on the no-nonsense look every Manehattanite adopted to get through a crowd without being bumped aside. Babs Seed fell back with her friends to chat, while Applejack moved forward to join Shady.

Though she lacked the look, no pony was inclined to stop a heavily-muscled mare—particularly not one who seemed as though she could plow through a brick wall without noticing it was there—and so the two had no trouble at all clearing a path for the fillies to follow.

“Bit of an awkward first meetin’,” Applejack said.

“Oh, no, it was all right,” Shady said, chuckling. “Actually, I’m glad I got to see it—that was a very sweet little scene. Those fillies certainly have what it takes to lift anypony’s spirit.”

“Yeah, well, they could stand to be better mannered, still,” Applejack grumbled.

“Not going to argue there, but I wouldn’t be worried. Fillies grow up in their own time,” Shady said. She turned her head and glanced back over her shoulder to watch the girls cantering behind them.

“True enough. I suppose I had a lot of growin’ to do; done a lot of it since I left this place,” Applejack mused as they passed through the concourse. From the terminals, they passed up the stairs into a long gallery lined with shops and tourist traps underneath an arched glass ceiling. An aged, bald earth pony with tiny tools was fixing up clockwork behind one counter, while a trio of musicians played next to a fashionable little cafe.

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom stared at one of the food vendors with their jaws slack and eyes glassy. “Can we—?”

“No, we’re eatin’ at their place.” Applejack steered them back to the concourse.

“Actually, we were thinking of taking you and the girls out somewhere,” Shady Blossom said, trotting past the tables, where cafe goers sipped from little cups of coffee, “and the others are waiting for us.” At one table, a rough stallion who looked like he had desperately tried to clean up to impress his pretty date was kneading his hat to pieces with a hoof. That made Shady smile broadly. It didn’t seem so long ago that she had been a pretty date, with her hair cut short, her hooves carefully wrapped, and a big stallion overly conscious of his size and gruffness trying to show her a good time.

So distracted, she hardly noticed the colt until she had almost plowed right into him. Starting at the feeling of a body against her forehoof, she snapped her wings forward and halted in midair, wide eyes staring down. The little guy, equally startled by her hoof, stared up, his blue eyes widening into saucers as he took in the bat-winged pony that towered over him.

“Are you a vampire?” the colt asked, his voice quivering.

“Oh my gosh, I am so—what?” Shady tucked her wings as she stared back through her curtain of black hair.

“A vampire. You’re going to suck my blood, right?” He gazed back from under his newscolt cap, his eyes brightening more and more by the moment.

“I, uh...” Shady Blossom hesitated. She fixed her mane with a hoof. Glancing around, she spotted the Crusaders looking at the scene and winked at them. “Yes, I am. I’m not hungry for your blood today, though, so you can go free, little morsel.”

He gasped and bounced up and down. “Cool!” With his face breaking into a broad grin, he scuttled off, tiny hooves scrabbling on the hard tile. Along the way, he banged into a newsstand, setting it tilting crazily. Applejack stuck a hoof out to halt its teetering, even as she laughed, and Shady went over to help her, stifling her own giggles.

“‘Small Medium at Large’?” Sweetie Belle said aloud, reading one of the headlines. A mugshot of a pint-sized earth pony mare with moons and stars dangling from her mane graced the front page, along with a posted reward.

“Oh yeah, I heard of her. She was takin’ folks for a lotta dough, tellin’ them she could talk to their dead loved ones,” Babs said, her tone frosty. “Guess she broke out.”

Shady Blossom tucked a hoof around her daughter, drawing her close. “Don’t let what other ponies do bother you, dear. They’ll catch her.”

“‘Study Shows Decrease in Science-Related Cutie Marks: What Does This Mean For Tomorrow’s Research?’ Future quality of research may suffer for lack of qualified applicants, but public figures remain undisturbed,” Scootaloo read from another paper. “‘Mysterious Fires Stun Public’? Private buildings burned in a series of shockingly violent fires. Witnesses report ‘unnatural red hues.’”

Picking that paper up from Scootaloo, Shady Blossom frowned as she read down. “Two drug stores on Monday and an alchemy shop Wednesday, last night, burn to the ground despite heavy rains and a rapid response from the Manehattan Fire Department. Investigators believe the incidents to be related...”

“‘Stories of Ten-Million Bit Crochet Fabricated’?” Apple Bloom scrunched her face up. “And I thought the Foal Free Press didn’ have anythin’ fit to print.”

“Are you guys gonna just read, or ya gonna buy?” the newsstand proprietor asked, giving the fillies a scowl.

“Let’s go, y’all,” Applejack said, shuffling the girls along towards the exit. It didn’t take the little group long to reach the wide, broad steps that led out from the shelter of the foyer to the street below.

Under a bright summer sun, the small group spilled onto an open plaza lined with rearing pony statues on a level just a few yards above the street. An elderly griffin tossed bread crumbs to pigeons, while a couple none-too-subtly made out on the bench next to his. In front of a tall, free-standing arch, a group of fillies and colts played an impromptu and entirely unregulated game of hoofball.

All around them, they saw that the streets were filled with teeming masses, ponies walking purposely or running frantically to and fro everywhere, as if every one of them had somewhere to be that was of earth-shattering importance. Drivers harnessed to carriages literally pushed and shoved their way through, shouting at pedestrians and each other.

Over some of the streets, trains rattled along elevated rail lines, even passing through an arch in one of the larger buildings. Embracing them all was the Manehattan skyline, its towering edifices of concrete speaking of wealth and power. Above even that, a blimp lazed its way to one of the tallest skyscrapers, where tiny black shapes darted out to catch its mooring lines and pull it towards the building’s airship dock.

Applejack took it all in with one long look, and then grunted sourly. “Ain’t changed much.”

“Perhaps it might surprise you. A lot of things change in ten years,” Shady Blossom suggested.

“Can change the spots on a leopard—don’t make it any less what it is.”

“Mmm, well, I’ve only lived here a few years,” Shady agreed, her tone flat and noncommittal. Spying a red mane among the carriages, she grinned. “My husband would probably know more. Barry loves this city like no other place; almost as much as he loves his family. I’ll bet he could find something even somepony like you could enjoy.”

Meeting Shady’s challenging gaze with a skeptical one, Applejack snorted and waved her hat in front of her face, as if trying to rid herself of a bad smell. “Place stinks to high heaven, and that’s that.”

“We’ll see,” Shady said lightly. Trotting over to the girls, she arrived just in time to accidentally intercept a spiraling hoofball tossed in her daughter’s direction. She flared her wings and caught it with a neat little gesture. Blossom turned a bit to look for somepony to toss it back to, only to find a tide of foals poised to bowl her over. Without any time to yelp, she found herself plowed under by tiny, colorful bodies.

“Oof,” she grunted, after the sea of children had washed off her with the hoofball bouncing wildly over their heads. Shady could swear that she heard tiny hoofprints pounding still. A big, shorn hoof with dark green fetlocks presented itself in front of her, and she took it, allowing it to haul her up. The owner of the hoof was a powerfully built stallion with a mane of light red hair, a bucket visible on his flank. “My hero,” she gushed in faux girliness, and tilted her chin up to kiss her husband.

Oblivious to Scootaloo’s gagging, Shady Blossom held her husband so for a long time. Eventually, they parted and nuzzled one another, him at her mane and she at his chin before turning to the others.

Barry Seed put one huge hoof out and hauled Applejack in, crushing her against his side. “There’s my favorite niece! What’re ya doin’, lettin’ my wife get herself trampled like that?” he said.

“Gak!” Applejack wheezed at the grip, her ribs creaking.

“Thought as much. Hey, you,” he told his daughter with a broad grin, “introduce me to your friends, why don’t ya?”

“Sure thing, Pop,” Babs Seed answered. “This here is my cousin Apple Bloom and our friends Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle!” Each of the three fillies, when introduced, hopped onto the back of the pony announced before her, until Sweetie Belle, at the top, could extend a leg at the proper height for shaking the hoof of such a tall pony.

Barry Seed did so, laughing. “So these are the little fillies who started it all. Y’know, I got parents bangin’ on my door about this Crusade of yours almost every day, demandin’ to know what it is and why my li’l girl is recruiting foals for it.”

“You big oaf,” Shady interrupted, poking her husband in the ribs, “you’re not letting Applejack breathe.”

“Oh! Whoops.” He slackened his grip, letting Applejack free.

Wheezing, she gathered her breath and collected her hat from where it had fallen. Then she cracked Barry in the ribs herself. “Nice to be seein’ you, too, uncle.”

Eyes watering, he wheezed. “Apple family legs still work.”

“Your family seems to smack each other around a lot, Babs,” Sweetie Belle observed, confused.

Babs shrugged. “It’s just how we say ‘hello’ around here.”

“Oh, gosh! I should have had Rarity pack me some hoofball pads.”

“Babs is just teasing,” Shady Blossom assured Sweetie. “The Seeds are just a demonstrative, physical folk.” Looking up at the latest member approaching, she amended her statement. “Mostly.”

Another young mare was approaching the group. A teenager, she had a long mane that swept just past her knees, its color identical to Barry Seed’s aside from the blue stripe dyed into it. Deviating strongly from the stocky appearance of her sister and father, she was a high-stepper, all long, graceful legs and a slender body, with a painter’s palette and brush on her flank. Swishing her full, straight tail, she smiled at the gathered ponies.

“Hey, all. Sorry to leave the cart unattended, but you really need to have a look at Dandy, Shady,” she said. Most of the Lower Manehattan accent had been scrubbed out of her voice, leaving behind only a few faint echoes. “Hey, Applejack. Girls.”

Babs waved. “Yo, big sis.”

“Hey, Lin Seed, how ya doin’?” Applejack returned. “See you’ve just about grown up.”

Barry Seed laughed, chuffing Applejack on the shoulder. “Yeah, my little girl was all worried about being coltish her whole life, then all of a sudden she turns around and discovers she’s a beaut. Naturally, I didn’t like it.”

Lin Seed rolled her eyes. “Dad, you’re just mad because I’m noticing boys.”

“You noticing boys wouldn’t be such a problem if they didn’t notice you back.”

“What’s up with Dandy, Lin?” Shady interrupted, stepping forward. She fluttered her wings slightly, glancing towards the carriage before looking back at Lin, her face intent.

Lin Seed turned towards her, meeting her eyes. “Oh, she’s getting really fussy, Shady Blossom. I tried to hold and pat her, but she just kept crying. I think she might be hungry.”

Shady groaned. “Thank you, Lin, I’d better see if she needs feeding again. I swear, she’s insatiable.”

“My kids have a healthy appetite!” Barry declared, winking at his wife. Shady batted him with a wing, and then leapt off with the sort of speed only a pegasus could manage, clearing the plaza with a single bound and a flap of her wings.

“Wait, uhm, why did Lin call you—?” Sweetie Belle asked, but Shady was already carrying herself out of earshot, landing beside the family carriage. Inside were two young foals, just as she had left them. One, curled up on the back seat, looked bored, though his fluffy ears perked up at his mother’s approach, cat-like eyes coming alert. The other, wrapped warmly in a basket, squealed at the sight of her mother and held up a pair of tiny hooves. Her own slit eyes were puffy and red.

Climbing inside, Shady settled herself and slipped the foal out of her basket. “It’s all right, Momma’s here, Dandelion,” she cooed, holding the filly up against her. The tiny foal nuzzled against her and pressed her face into her mother’s warm coat. It didn’t seem like she was hungry at all to Shady, as she began to settle down at once. “Just wanted your mommy, didn’t you?”

“Can we meet the new ponies, momma?” the tiny colt asked, buzzing his little bat wings excitedly. He was far too old now for spontaneous flight—for which Shady Blossom was profoundly grateful, given the trouble a baby pegasus of any sort could get into—and so he stayed where he was.

“Of course, they’ll be here in just a moment,” she reassured Hop, reaching out to ruffle his reddish-blue mane. “You’ll have plenty of time to get to know them, Hop. They’ll be here for a few weeks, after all.”

Leaping over her to the other side of the carriage, he pressed his hooves against the side and peered out. “They’re the Cru... cru,” he struggled.

“Crus...” she prompted, smiling at her son.

“Crusaders?” he asked, eyes wide as he looked at her.

“That’s right!” she congratulated him, and Dandelion made a squealing cheer as well, clapping her tiny hooves. Shady nuzzled his mane, and he tucked himself up against her.

With her daughter calmed and son energized, she got up in time to open the door for a pile of fillies and a teenaged mare, the latter squeezed into the front seat. Applejack took a harness in lieu of Lin Seed, and, together with her uncle, they setk off into the street. “Out of the way, you putzes!” Barry called at the other drivers on the street, practically shoving in among them to make room for his family.

“Who you talkin’ to?” somepony shouted back, annoyed.

“You, ugly!”

Applejack groaned, loudly. “See you ain’t changed a bit, neither.”

In the back, the girls were rolling and sliding back and forth with the carriage’s motion, as if they were loose marbles on a tilting ship. The Ponyvilleans stared up at the enormous Manehattan architecture on one side only to tumble back and gawp at the enormous statuary in front of City Hall. Babs Seed delivered commentary, the filly leaning back over the front seat she shared with her older sister. Lin Seed, smiling at the fillies’ antics, added a few points here and there as well, pointing out landmarks Babs was ignoring. Hop, for his part, had lost his nerve and was tucking himself into his mother’s wing to hide. The little colt wrapped himself up in it like a blanket, while the girls bounced around at the bottom of the carriage.

All of them except for Sweetie Belle, however. The unicorn’s head was low as she contemplated the floor of the carriage as she sat next to Shady Blossom on the cushioned back seat.

Remembering that Sweetie had wanted to ask her something, Shady deliberated. Well, not many things that question could have been. The question is, do I tell her, or... ah, yes. She offered her other wing, spreading it out. Sweetie Belle glanced up, allowed herself to scoot closer, and let the wing fold over her shoulders.

“Something the matter?” Shady asked, her tone gentle.

“It’s just, you know...” said Sweetie, glancing away again, albeit clearly for a much different reason than she had at the station. “I was just thinking. Looking at you, and Babs.”

“Tell you what,” Shady murmured, giving her a little squeeze with her wing, “why don’t you ask Babs about it later? I’m sure she’d like the chance to explain to such a good friend.”

“Well...” Sweetie glanced down, then started, squeaking, “Your hooves! What happened?” Her own pale hoof reached out to touch one of Shady’s grey ones, planted in the seat next to her. The hoof traced a white scar that faded into the hair of her ankle before she snatched it back, looking sheepish.

Shady grimaced slightly, but smoothed her features. “I’m surprised you didn’t notice before, actually.” Indeed, it was hard to see how anypony could have. White scar tissue ran up both of her front hooves, marring the wall and continuing onto her ankles all the way up to her knees, though the upper reaches were hard to glimpse through her grey coat.

Ignoring them was easy enough, most of the time. She could forget that they were there, and often did—everypony staring at her wings, ears, and eyes instead. Not noticing a little thing like the scars on her hooves. There was a dull heat that seemed to linger in the cracked and and bubbled walls of her hooves and the veins of her ankles, intensifying as she studied them. The roar of a fire echoed somewhere in the back of her mind, the smell of burned hair—No. Shady shook herself free. Now is really not the time.

Shady patted Sweetie’s fluffy hair, giving her a smile. It wouldn’t really serve any purpose to worry her with more information than she really needed. “It’s nothing, really, just some old burns.”

Sweetie Belle hesitated, her lip trembling slightly as she gazed up at Shady. Even as she contemplated what to say, though, her rambunctious friends intervened. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo toppled over one another to try and get a look at one of the tallest buildings in Manehattan, which they glimpsed over a pair of shorter buildings.

“Sweetie, come look at this! Wow, that place must be awesome to fly from!” Scootaloo gushed.

“It is.” Shady Blossom reached down to rub Scootaloo’s mane. “Maybe I’ll take you up sometime, if Applejack says it’s okay.”

“Really? Great!” Scootaloo leapt up, buzzing her wings. Sweetie Belle had to catch her friend’s pink tail in her teeth to keep Scoot from accidentally shooting out the window. Then both of them fell down to where Apple Bloom lay, landing in a pile.

I do so love kids. Shady Blossom giggled and tucked Dandelion against herself, watching the girls’ antics with a contented smile.

Hop Seed rode into the front room of the family brownstone on his father’s head, the stallion pretending to buck and stumble while the colt squealed, flapping his tiny wings for balance. Outside, Shady Blossom was shepherding the girls out of the carriage and up the steps.

Waiting alongside Lin Seed on the sidewalk, Applejack's eyes wandered up and down the neighborhood, lingering on the healthy trees growing in little patches of earth. “Seems I remember this place being a bit more run down, last I saw. No trees, lots of dirty kids runnin’ around. These houses had like three or four families each.”

“Gentrification! This whole neighborhood changed over the last couple years; a lot of families had to move out when the property prices went up.” Lin Seed lifted a hoof to gesture up at the narrow three-story townhouse. “We’re probably one of the few families to move up with it, actually.”

“Well, can’t say I can complain about family gettin’ a good break,” Applejack admitted. “Yer dad worked hard to get you there.”

“You’re telling me. It was just the three of us for a while there, while Barry was getting the new business started,” Shady said. She reached inside the carriage and took out Dandelion’s basket. Her youngest daughter’s eyes were open wide, the foal excited by the trip and the presence of other ponies. She reached her hooves out, and Shady leaned forward. Dandelion scampered up her side, and then perched herself on her mother’s back before staring around with owlish curiosity.

“Heh, yeah,” Lin Seed murmured, “just the three of us. That was, well... interesting.” Perking up, she gestured down towards the far end of the street “There’re a lot of nice little shops around here now. They really cleaned up the place. That mom-and-pop store we went to as fillies is still there, and they still give out the best taffy, too.”

“There’re some nice parks here, too, and a good school opened up a couple blocks down,” Shady Blossom added.

“Where Babs got teased so mercilessly,” Lin Seed muttered, kicking a loose bit of pavement. “I still can’t believe I didn’t notice.” Coming alert at her sister’s discomfort, Dandelion leapt abruptly from her mother’s back and landed on Lin Seed to cling to her. Lin laughed and tugged her barnacle-like baby sister off to cuddle her. The tiny foal began to chew on her sister’s long mane at once.

“None of us did.” Shady glanced to Applejack. “Babs would come home most days pretending nothing was wrong. Even when we did notice she was feeling down, she made up stories—little things, minor problems that covered it all up, so we wouldn’t worry about her so much.”

“Till you did notice and sent her my way?” Applejack asked, starting up the stairs.

“Walked in on her getting teased by some of the girls who had their cutie marks,” Shady confirmed. “Thanks again, by the way. Getting Babs out of the city was the best possible thing we could have done.”

“You already thanked her twice, Shady,” Lin Seed said, tucking Dandelion against her as she walked up with Applejack.

“Can’t do it enough,” Shady Blossom asserted in a firm tone. “It’s like I said, those girls made all the difference.”

“Yeah, I guess I can’t deny that. Practically the first thing she did on coming home was ask me to help her with the bullies at school.”

Applejack waved the sentiment off and held the door open for them. “Shucks, y’all are gonna make me blush. Just call it family lookin’ out for family.”

The door sported a fresh coat of brown paint and a shiny new number nine. Not so long ago, Shady Blossom recalled, she had been led up to a much more worn entryway and edifice by a large stallion who was practically falling over himself to apologize for the state of the place. Once upon a time, the living room beyond had been poorly lit and dingy, with a scraggly little foal and a skinny filly staring up at her from a ratty couch.

Here and now, the room beyond was brightly lit by broad bay windows and new lamps, with a new carpet and repaired walls lending it a cozy embrace; the reupholstered furniture showed its age, but wore the years well. The girls had already donned their capes, forming a little circle in the center of the room. Apple Bloom flared hers dramatically a few times, seeming to be practicing the move. “I can’ wait to see the other foals you got to join, Babs. I wanna be there to officially open up the Manehattan Chapter of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.”

“I thought she already did that?” Sweetie Belle asked. The little unicorn shuffled her hooves, her ears still drooping, but spending time among her friends was perking her up again.

Scootaloo scoffed. “Yeah, yeah, she got the recruits and signed them on, all right, but it’s not official until we’re there to present them with their capes. We’re the founders! We get special privileges like that.”

Shady Blossom beamed to see Babs looking so excited with her friends. There was a sight that had become hard to find of late. Taking Dandelion from Lin Seed and depositing her infant in a cradle by the door to the kitchen, Shady went back to the family room. “You can meet Babs’s new friends tomorrow, girls. It’s such a nice day, your father and I thought we should take you girls out to Coneigh Island.”

Three sets of eyes glanced at one another with a complete lack of comprehension, but Babs sprang into the air bouncing around the others. “Coneigh Island! Yes! You’re the best, Mom!”

“What’s Coneigh Island?” Sweetie Belle squeaked, cocking her head.

“Only the best place! You guys gotta see it. It’s like a beach, see, ‘cept there’s awesome rides and great snacks and tons and tons of games and other cool stuff.”

“I don’ think I’ve ever even seen the ocean,” Apple Bloom said, her voice wavering with a tinge of awe. Her cousin’s enthusiasm was infectious, and before long all four fillies were bouncing around the living room, singing in dubiously keyed voices, “We're off to Coneigh Island—” a pause and a beat “—which is really hard to rhyme, where there's lots of treats and games, to help you waste your time!” Even Hop Seed, who had been watching from the couch, joined in, the toddler bouncing along behind the girls.

Lin Seed and the adult ponies all moved into the kitchen. Shady followed them in last, asking, “Does anypony want a drink?”

Barry went over to the dinner table. “I could do with one. Pulling a carriage filled with ponies is hot work.”

Busying herself, Shady Blossom went over to a rack by the hall and started taking down coats to pack into her saddlebags.

“I don’t think we’ll be needing those, Blossom,” Lin Seed objected. “There’s no scheduled rain for a few days.”

“Never hurts to be prepared. The weather team sometimes surprises ponies, especially if some bigwig wants to shuffle around rain and sun days for some unexpected event. Remember the time your dance class was caught out in the park during a rescheduled thunderstorm?”

Lin Seed scrunched her face up, while Applejack snorted. “Don’t remind me. One of my best friends is the weather captain back in Ponyville, and I swear she doesn’t know what she’s going to do from one day to the next. She changes her mind more times than Rarity changes her outfits.”

“Oh! Rarity! I was hoping she’d come, too,” Lin Seed said, springing to life at the mention of the name. She ran a hoof through her long mane, adjusting it to fall about her knees so as to show off her best side. “I’ve always wanted to meet her. Ever since her designs hit the market in Canterlot, she’s been a household name among the girls in school.”

“Don’t tell her that. After the big show there became a hit, her head’s gone and swollen like a melon left too long in the sun.” Applejack laughed. “And she wanted to come with Sweetie Belle to see the Big Apple and all, but you know how it is for some careers—some big event came up and she couldn’t miss it. If there’s a bad week at the farm, I may not even be able to stay as long as I’d planned.”

“Ah, come on now, AJ,” Barry Seed said, prodding her. “You won’t be disappointed, I swear. There’s more ways to live in Manehattan than my Orange cousins would have you believe.”

“Eh,” Applejack grunted. “Besides, Rarity said she’d try to make it in a week or two. Figure she’ll be tons more excited than me.”

“Speaking of,” Lin Seed said, “when were we planning to hook up with the Oranges? Weren’t they going down to Cape Sod?”

“March’s Vineyard,” Barry corrected, rolling his eyes. “Hobnobbin’ with the summer crowd from Canterlot.”

Applejack frowned. “Perfect waste of good cropland. I swear, you could feed Manehattan from that island alone.”

“But we don’t have a food shortage here,” Lin Seed said, looking at her cousin and tilting her head.

“Ain’ the point!”

Shady Blossom poured each of them a glass of apple juice and slid them onto a tray, which she then loaded onto her back. Her husband gave her a bemused look as he took one of the drinks. “Don’t tire yourself out already, hon. Day’s barely started.”

“Sorry, can’t help it. Mommy thing,” she said, giggling, and took one for herself once the other mares had their own.

Applejack took one of the cups and sipped. “Ah, now there’s Apple Family produce; I’d know the taste of my own apples even if they were painted pink!” She smacked her lips, then slapped a hoof against the floor. “Speakin’ of, I almost forgot! Brought a little somethin’ to share, for those old enough to ‘preciate it.” Reaching into one of her saddlebags, Applejack pulled out a small iron-bound cask, stamped with an apple brand.

“That’s not fresh apple cider, is it?” Barry asked, grinning.

“Sure ain’. That’s fermented, it is. One of our reserves,” Applejack said, screwing a tap into one side and propping it up on the counter. “Bit belated of a housewarmin’ gift, but all the same.”

“I’ll take it,” Barry said, pouring himself a mug. “Care for a sip, Lin? Be a shame if you didn’ at least get to taste it.”

Applejack poured a mug after Barry let his eldest have a quick sip, before extending it to Shady Blossom. Quickly, Shady retreated from the proffered drink. “No, thank you. I don’t drink, really,” Shady shook her head slightly. At Applejack’s raised eyebrows, she elaborated, “I stopped when I got married. Didn’t want to drink while pregnant, never really picked the habit up again.”

“Fair enough,” Applejack said, and downed the mug herself. As she savored the taste, she sniffed at the air. “Actually, speaking of crops, is that loam I smell?” She wandered towards the back of the kitchen. Shady Blossom winced and moved to join her, as Applejack pushed open the back door.

Spread out before them and taking the place of the tiny, insignificant backyard most of the neighbors’ brownstones had was a quaint greenhouse. The top and back of the yard were covered in glass, which had been dirtied by the frequent rains and definitely needed some cleaning.

“Oh, for the love of Celestia... Barry, have you been mutilatin’ plants again? I thought you were stickin’ to designin’ landscapes these days instead of tryin’ to grow them,” Applejack scoffed, looking out of the corners of her eyes at him and elbowing him in the ribs. “I’d call it a metaphor for something, but, really, I think you just stink at raisin’ anything that grows out of the ground.”

“Yeah. Seems I’m better at raising kids than crops,” Shady Blossom said, stepping in after her. Half-turning, she displayed her side.

Applejack stiffened. “Uh.” Her eyes tracked back, coming to rest on Shady’s flank. A trio of blooming white flowers rested there, their stems tied together.

“It’s my garden, yes,” Shady confirmed, walking over to one of the planters. She let a wingtip brush one of the wilting flowers and gave her a wan smile. “I used to have a really beautiful garden in Canterlot. This one is being a lot more stubborn. Once the girls are back in school, I hope to give it proper care and attention. I’m just so tired most days, they really take it out of me, and I end up lazing around instead of working on them like I should.”

“Kinda funny, that’s an oleander cutie mark, ain’ it? I don’t see any here.” Taking a hoof and checking over the leaves, Applejack grimaced at the brown and black specks. “You’re gonna need to do more’n that. Most all of these plants are blighted. I don’t think you could save them with the Princess herself on yer side.”

“I had some in my old garden back in Canterlot, but I didn’t think it was a good idea to plant any until Hop and Dandelion are past the age they’ll eat random flowers. It’s so poisonous, after all, I just don’t like the risk.”

“It’s okay,” Barry said, walking up and tucking his wife against him. “She’s still a fantastic cook. Also, drop-dead gorgeous, did I mention that?”

“Once a day. I wouldn’t mind hearing it more often, either,” Blossom purred, “even if you are a liar.”

“About your cooking? Maybe, but there ain’ another mare like you out there.”

“Get a room, you two,” Lin Seed groaned, rolling her eyes.

“There’s an idea,” Barry agreed, grinning wider.

“Nuh uh,” Shady protested. “No way. I have four little fillies to take care of today, buster. Besides, somepony needs to get something from the corner drugstore so that some poor, beleaguered mother doesn’t end up pregnant unexpectedly. Again.”

Applejack and Lin began to look uncomfortable, glancing at one another.

Barry tucked a hoof about Shady. “I dunno, doesn’t sound like such a bad idea to me!”

“You try flying with an infant on your back and another in your belly. See how you like it.” Shady rolled her eyes, prodding him in the ribs.

“You were even more beautiful like that,” Barry insisted. He narrowed his eyes and his grin turned wicked. “All this talk of fresh earth, seeds, and foals is makin’ me wonder why we’re just standin’ around here talkin’ about it.”

The others blushed brightly, Applejack stammering helplessly for a moment. Both she and Lin Seed fled the gardens as quickly as their legs would carry them, Lin Seed going so far as to kick the door shut in passing.

Shady Blossom giggled, glancing up at her husband. “That’s adequate payback for the crack about my garden, I think.”

“Sure is,” he agreed. “Mind, I’d like to continue that conversation about you bearin’ my foals again.” His hoof reached around her side to rub at her thighs.

“Oh, you!” Batting her husband with a wing and fending off his advances, Shady Blossom started back towards the kitchen door, which earned her a swat on her own rear. Barry leered at her as she squeaked and jumped. “Oh, you are so in trouble,” she promised, giving him a glare, the ice in her eyes quenched by the warmth of her smile.

“Lookin’ forward to it!”

With Hop Seed and Dandelion Seed both far too young to enjoy Coneigh Island, Shady Blossom stopped by a neighbor’s and dropped them off at a playdate with their foals. With the foals squared away, the Seed family and their guests piled back into the carriage and took off towards the ocean.

“Aw,” Scootaloo said, peeking out. “Why aren’t there any tall buildings out this way?” All along the way to the waterfront, they could see no building taller than four stories, many sporting rooftop entrances for pegasi.

“Local ordinance,” Lin Seed explained. “They keep all of that to the big commercial centers in uptown and near the wharfs.”

“That’s boring,” Scootaloo declared. The other girls nodded with her, the four of them in a tight ball by one of the windows.

“It’s so no pony living out here has to stare up at huge buildings every which way, and everypony can enjoy the sun and sea air.”

“See? Boring. I’d build them everywhere.”

It wasn’t until their destination was in sight that they started to perk up. The carriage queued up in traffic on a small suspension bridge, while the wind whistled merrily through the ribbed cables holding the bridge aloft. Poking her head out of the carriage to look at the stacked up lanes, Shady Blossom wagered that they wouldn’t arrive at Coneigh Island for at least another hour, if that—doubtless, they weren’t the only family taking advantage of a good day.

Being responsible for four overly excitable fillies, she elected to take a more pragmatic route and threw the door of the carriage open. “Honey?” she called to the front. “I’m going to take Applejack and the kids ahead. Why don’t you meet us at the Ferris wheel?”

“Sounds good to me,” he responded, prodding Applejack when the mare hesitated. “Go on ahead with your aunt, AJ. I can move this thing on my own, especially if everypony is so callously abandoning me and lightening the load.”

Applejack rolled her eyes. “Fine, fine. Guess it won’t hurt to see what all the fuss is about.” She gazed ahead at the great wheel rising over the low shops and amusements, along with an enormous wooden rollercoaster lined against the late-morning sky. “Looks kinda like a county fair, actually.”

“Not far off,” Shady agreed. “Didn’t the Oranges ever take you down here?” Lifting her wings, she could feel the sea air tugging at her, carrying a refreshing hint of salt and sand past the greasy whiffs of carnival food.

“They made it sound like I’d be robbed and foalnapped within minutes if I so much as looked at it,” she said, and then paused. “In hindsight, I probably shouldn’a been that gullible.”

“That’s all right! Good foals listen, don’t they?” Shady Blossom asked the girls. All four fillies grinned up at her with the most innocent little smiles—the only way they could have looked more sincere would be with halos over their heads. Naturally, she didn’t believe them for a minute.

Indeed, as if she were reading Shady Blossom’s mind and was determined to prove the older mare’s doubts correct, Scootaloo almost immediately slipped off the side of the bridge when she ran too fast to the edge, forcing Applejack to snatch her up by the tail. “Sometimes, Scoot, y’got more gumption than you’re built to handle,” she muttered around the pink mouthful, with the filly swaying beneath her head.

“Aww, c’mon, Applejack. I was just looking at the boats!”

“You certainly display an alarming lack of concern for heights,” Shady Blossom observed, chuckling. “If you’re that restless, why don’t we do a little flying right now?”

“Oh, oh, can I?” Scootaloo begged, flailing her limbs.

“Well, if’n it’ll burn off some energy, might as well,” Applejack conceded, and let Scootaloo drop to the sidewalk. The filly bounced around Shady Blossom, who spread her wings again and held out a hoof. While her friends watched, Scootaloo took the offered limb and braced herself.

Beating her leathery wings, Shady Blossom took off. In truth, her motives may have been a little more elemental—what pegasus could pass up a chance to spread her wings a little? Seeing Scootaloo’s face light up as they cleared the earthbound ponies below merely sweetened the deal.

Tiny orange wings beat furiously, giving Scootaloo a few moments of unsupported air before she had to fall back to Shady’s hoof. It was deeply reminiscent of Babs’s swimming lessons, and Shady Blossom smiled as she lazily drifted towards the distant fair. A riot of colors greeted from the ground, vividly painted shops and theme parks glittering along the shoreline.

“Your parents teach you, right? Just remember their words. Relax, let the air carry you,” she said. They were flying so slowly that her mane was barely being disturbed, though she kept her tail slightly elevated for balance, particularly with a flailing filly on one hoof.

“Oof!” Scootaloo grunted. Shutting her eyes, she tried to concentrate on beating her wings and untensing the rest of her body at once. It was a mixed success; her outspread legs were slack, but her neck and lower body were both rigid.

Feeling her charge’s buoyancy fade and the filly start to sink, she encouraged her again. “Let your legs go, open your eyes. Breathe in the sea air and just think of soaring out over the ocean.”

With a reluctant twinge, Scootaloo opened one eye, and then the other. Her gaze fell across the water, and she took several deep breaths, one after another, evening out her breathing. It wasn’t immediate, nor was it complete, but the muscles in her neck and barrel unknotted, her legs dropped, and her wings even slowed for a moment.

“Not bad,” Shady complimented her passenger. “Of course, if I remember Babs telling me right, one of your teachers is also Rainbow Dash, isn’t she? Small surprise you’re as far along as you are.”

“She’d take me up like this a lot,” Scootaloo murmured. “I’ve never seen the ocean though. I wonder if she’d fly me out there?”

“Worth asking. You’re a lucky girl to have ponies like those to look up to.”

“I’ve never met anypony as amazing as Rainbow. Did you ever have anypony to look up to when you were a filly?” Scootaloo asked, her tail flying out behind her in a gust.

“Oh, well, I...” Shady began, and then hesitated. A confused welter of images bubbled up inside her, robbing her of certainty. “I-I suppose I didn’t, really. My parents, I suppose. I don’t think I really had anypony else.” A strange sense of vertigo reared up in her—no common ailment for pegasi nor their thestral cousins.

Scootaloo flailed, losing her concentration as Shady’s own balance shifted. “Whoa!”

Startled, Shady Blossom steadied Scootaloo at once, using both of her forehooves. Her heart was pounding furiously, yet her passenger hardly seemed to notice, yelping more with glee than fright. Scootaloo’s small body tensed, and she stuck her legs out ahead and behind her, as if hoping to dive.

Feeling a powerful need to be on the ground again—like a weight in her gut, dragging her down—Shady obliged her. Tucking her wings, they swooped down towards the ponies below. Shady deposited Scootaloo by her friends and then landed by Applejack, before brushing her mane back a few times to settle it—rather more than was necessary. Her heart pounded, yet Applejack didn’t seem to notice, focused ahead.

The group approached the entrance, evading the carriages trying to park,. It was a grand arch, glittering with lights and evoking all of the glamour of a movie. Four great spoked wheels were bolted to the gate, each festively colored and glowing with neon light. Ticketmaster booths lined the center column, and large queues stretched across the field. Many ponies were simply bypassing it—the tickets were all for specific rides or attractions, to help cut down the lines deeper inside, not to enter Coneigh Island itself.

Slowing to a halt, Lin tugged on Blossom’s bags for a moment. “I see some friends of mine in line. How about I get some tickets; we can meet up later?”

“Sure. Let’s say...” Shady tapped a hoof against the ground. “The Ferris wheel, the Wonderbolt ride, and how about the Luna ship?”

Applejack dodged a pair of colts rushing by with massive cotton candy tufts. “Luna ship?” she asked as Lin Seed nodded and stepped off to join a group of young mares already in line.

“Oh yeah,” Babs said, hopping up, “It’s great! There’s this big ship, see, and it’s got wings like the princess, and it takes you straight up to see the moon!”

Blanching, Applejack looked ahead, as if trying to find someone to glare at and blame. “That sounds all sorts of wrong.”

“Oh, it’s all right. After last year’s Nightmare Night festival, Luna said she wanted ponies to remember her fondly. Some entrepreneur took that very seriously, and made a whole park devoted to her. I think it’s lovely, if a little commercial,” Shady Blossom said.

“Yeah, I bet. I mean, all that tradition with the thestrals, it’s gotta feel pretty close to home, right?” Scootaloo asked, and then thought better of it, lowering her ears. “Uhm, not that I mean to imply anything... I just think thestrals are cool...”

“I told you, I don’t mind,” Shady said, tapping Scootaloo’s chin again to lift her head. “Besides, it is rather nice seeing ponies appreciate the moon rather than being afraid or uncertain, and the foals absolutely love it. I’m glad to see her portrayed in such a good light, really, especially with all the uncertainty that came out of her return. Though, again, it is very kitschy.”

“You mean awesome! C’mon, let’s go!” Babs demanded, tugging her mother’s tail.

Shady laughed, gesturing her on with a wing. “All right, though we need to wait for Lin to get tickets first. Why don’t we go down to the boardwalk, play some of the games?”

The fillies looked amongst themselves, and then, as if it had been coordinated beforehand, they clapped their hooves together and shouted, “Cutie Mark Crusader Game Masters, go!”

“What—?”

Applejack hauled Shady Blossom out of the way before the four girls could accidentally plow her under. They were off like a shot, barreling through the crowd towards the beach. “Best just to let them get it outta their system.”

Following their wake of displaced ponies, Shady shook her head. “How in the world do you deal with this every day?”

“Mostly? By giving them a tree house so they don’t wreck the farm and warning ponies when they get particularly crazy. You can rein them in once they’ve tired themselves out. After a while, they figure out they haven’t gotten their cutie marks and get disappointed.”

“How long does that take?”

“Dependin’ on what they’re doing... up to six hours.”

Shady stared ahead for a long moment. “Oh dear.”

Damage control for four overly energetic fillies ended up taking most of Applejack’s and Shady Blossom’s time, which left them little opportunity to talk. The Cutie Mark Crusaders raced up and down the boardwalk, bouncing with abandon as they participated in as many games as their meager allotment of bits allowed them. They stuffed themselves on candy apples, popcorn, cotton candy, and gallons of soda. Indeed, it was during the fillies’ little food coma that the two mares finally had a chance to settle down.

They sat and let Shady Blossom rest her hooves—Applejack’s own hooves and legs were nigh-indestructible, but she tolerated the wait patiently enough. "I suppose ya aren't used to dealin' with so much bundled energy, huh?" Applejack asked, tilting back with a bag of popcorn held in one hoof.

“Not as such,” Shady muttered. “It’s... certainly different. When I first met Babs, you couldn’t have convinced me that she might have this much passion in her.” Leaning back to follow suit, she glanced up at the balloons rising over the waves washing upon the sandy beach, ponies playing and splashing. A pegasus was darting around, collecting the lost balloons. “You know, when Barry warned me that he had a pair of daughters, I think he was afraid I’d stop dating him.”

“Yeah? He have reason to fear?”

“More than a little. What did I know about kids? I barely remembered my own... well, I didn’t really spend a lot of time around foals of any age. He was giving me an opportunity to back out before we started to really get serious, and I nearly took it.” Turning her head, she looked at Babs, who was sprawled on the bench next to her. “I didn’t, though. I stuck through it.”

“Ain’ a situation I would want to deal with.” Applejack shook her head. “Ya gotta love a guy a lot first, I s’pose.” Her eyes tracked across to one of the lines of ponies. The queue crawled over the boardwalk, snaking around the corner. Ponies were jockeying for space, butting one another out of the way. Her scowl deepened, and she grunted.

“Troubled?”

“Manehattan, that’s the trouble.”

“Try to resist the urge to beat sense into everypony you see. You’ll never leave the city then,” Shady said, chuckling.

Applejack grunted again, and it seemed to Shady that all of the other pony’s sentiments about being in Manehattan were contained therein. For all that she clearly had her life together, what with running her own farm, raising her sister, and even saving Equestria on at least two occasions that Shady knew of, it was obvious that some scars ran deep.

Not that I don’t know what it’s like to feel trepidation in a place that holds ugly memories, she reflected, sighing. Babs stretched and yawned, rolling off the bench. Apple Bloom joined her as they wandered a little, the two looking at a curtained-off area which displayed a number of fish with three lines down their sides leading around to a small flap. Every so often, a griffin or even a diamond dog would push the flap open and enter or leave. A young dragon popped out with a huge sack thrown over one shoulder.

“What’s that place about?” Apple Bloom asked, pointing a hoof. “I don’t see any ponies going in there.”

“Oh, uh...” Babs hesitated and edged away from the curtain with a pinched look. “You don’t wanna go in there. Ain’ really a place for ponies, y’know.”

“Why’s that?” Apple Bloom asked, the light of curiosity burning in her eyes. As she watched the flap, a young colt popped out and went to a nearby table before eating alone. He was an unusual specimen, even to Shady’s eyes—hippogriffs were, after all, probably rarer than thestrals. Lacking a mane, he had a crest of speckled white feathers in its place, and articulated talons instead of front hooves.

“Wha’cha eatin’ there?” she asked in a bright tone. Babs tried to tug at her side, but Apple Bloom waved her off.

The hippogriff colt looked up, clutching his plate as if he expected somepony to snatch it from him. He looked to the fillies, his long, tufted tail curling up nervously. “Uhm. Nothing.”

“Don’t be shy!” Apple Bloom said, hopping onto the table. “I’m just curious, what sorta stuff is in there, if it ain’ for ponies?”

Scootaloo, spotting the pair, zipped over to join them with a quick buzz of her wings. “Yeah!” she took a whiff of the food and looking at the crusty fried morsels tucked in buns. “Smells great, too. Mind if I try a bite?”

“Y-yeah, kinda,” he said, turning increasingly defensive. His wings folded up tightly at his side, and he scrunched forward in his seat to cover the food as much as he could.

Shady rose and started over to tell them off and apologize when Babs burst out. “Fish!”

“Huh?” Apple Bloom asked, looking to her. “Fish? What fish’re you...” Her gaze settled on the curtains, her features turning pale.

“What?” Scootaloo asked. “I don’t get it. What’s so strange about fish that... you would...” Her eyes tracked down to the sandwich. Orange turned a distinct shade of green.

Slowly, both Scootaloo and Apple Bloom backed away. Their faces were scrunched up, and they were trying not to look directly at the colt.

The little hippogriff looked set to cry, trembling. He was pressed back from the bench and looking around for an escape. The girls’ faces were turning red, and they scuffed their hooves in the deepening silence that surrounded them.

“Girls,” Shady said, raising her voice to catch their attention, “remember that talk about not judging ponies—or anyone else, for that matter—about the things that make them different?”

“Yeah, but...” Scootaloo protested, at a loss.

“Winona eats fish, too,” Applejack said. “You know that, Apple Bloom. We get it processed in cans, but you don’t think we’d let poor little dogs and cats across Equestria starve, would ya? Besides, fish don’t talk the same way even woodland critters do. You can ask Fluttershy, she’ll tell ya.”

Babs looked to Shady Blossom for a long moment, and then turned resolutely. Pausing to blow her hair out of her face, she steadied herself and nudged the little hippogriff back into place. “I’m sorry. We didn’t mean it, we just... ain’t used to it.”

The colt was none too eager to remain, but he looked alarmed as the three fillies surrounded him with their eyes wide and glistening.

“I’m sorry, too,” Apple Bloom apologized. “I ain’ ever met carnivore folks before.”

“Me neither,” Scootaloo said, and winced as Apple Bloom’s rear hoof dug into her ribs. “Yes! I’m sorry, too! For acting all weird I mean,” she muttered, then perked up, her eyes widening. “Hey, I know! Why don’t you join our club? We’ll get you a special discount of free and bonus perks.”

“Cl-club?” he stammered.

“We’re the—!” Scootaloo paused, frowning. “Wait a tick.” She ran over to whisper to Shady Blossom, who bent an ear to listen. “Can hippogriffs actually get cutie marks?”

“Yes, I believe so,” Shady answered, nodding.

Zipping back, Scootaloo coughed. “Ahem! Yes, we’re the—”

“Cutie Mark Crusaders!” all three shouted in unison.

“—and we’d like you to join up. We’ve got a Manehattan branch and everything now!”

“Sure do,” Babs Seed agreed, offering a hoof. “Anypony or anygriff who wants to join and ain’t got their Cutie Mark yet is welcome.”

Dumbstruck, the colt shook Babs’s hoof in his talon like someone who had just recovered from a concussion. Still, the good cheer being directed at him was infectious, and even he couldn’t avoid peeking at each of them curiously. “Uh... if it’s okay with my dad, sure...”

“Shucks, we’d be happier than a puppy with two tails if ya’d join!” Apple Bloom gushed.

“Uh,” he asked, hesitant, “is that happy?”

“Sure is!”

The hippogriff looked more poleaxed than reassured by the fillies’ attentions, but he went back to eating in peace as they hopped off the table and rejoined Shady and Applejack.

“That was very sweet, girls,” Shady said. “Though maybe you can try not terrifying potential recruits so much.”

“He’ll be there,” Scootaloo said, confidently.

“What if he doesn’t go to school around here?”

“Oh. You know, I probably should have asked. Lemme go—”

Shady captured Scootaloo before she could run off to bother the hippogriff again, laughing and ruffling her pink mane. “No! That’s enough damage for now. Now go scamper off, and remember, we’re meeting in front of the Ferris wheel with Dad and Lin, so don’t go too far.”

Needing no further encouragement, the Crusaders zipped off, leaving little trails behind them.

“Ye’re a good mom, Shady,” Applejack offered, in the silence that fell between them.

“I try. You’re not so bad yourself, Applejack,” Shady replied, beaming back at her.

“Shucks,” Applejack muttered, kicking a can lying on the boardwalk. “I just try to do right by Apple Bloom and those girls. Ain’t always easy, lemme tell you. Sometimes, they just go haring off, doing things I can’t understand.”

“I know how you feel. Lin Seed, well... she needs a mom, I can tell, but I don’t know if I can ever be that for her.”

“When my folks...” Applejack took her hat off, glancing up at the cloudless sky for a moment. “It ain’ easy, not on young fillies nor old ones. Ain’ easy on big, strong stallions, either. Big Mac couldn’t take over, and Granny was too old. I had to be responsible. I still gotta be responsible.”

“You all have each other, though, and you have your friends. I don’t know much about the things that you do, Applejack, but from what I’ve heard, those mares will support you through anything.”

“Heh, you ain’ wrong,” Applejack said, smiling.

“Though I bet you wish you were back there with them,” Shady murmured, testing the waters.

Applejack didn’t immediately brush her off, though she did go a little stiff. “A little, yeah, Farm’s waiting for me. I know Big Mac can handle most of it, but it ain’ really his temperament, you know? He don’t like managin’ things—prefers to let the world flow around him.”

“Not really, we haven’t met yet, but from what I’ve heard he sounds like he’s very thoughtful. Still, this place must be tough to come back to.”

“See you won’t be deterred,” Applejack groused.

Shady Blossom tucked her wings at her sides, scraping the ground with a hoof. “It’s okay, we don’t have to—”

“Nah.” She brushed it off, with a slightly forced dismissal. “It was just filly stuff is all.”

“Sometimes, the things we do and encounter in our foalhood are very important to us when we’re mares.” Shady Blossom was keenly aware of the fact that she had barely more than five years on the other mare, but she wasn’t going to let the chance to talk to her slip by.

“S’pose so. Back then, I just thought I could fit in, like I could... belong here,” Applejack said. They both turned to look at the Manehattan skyline. The Orange family penthouse faced west, which meant they were looking at it from the wrong angle, but the meaning was hardly lost on either of them.

“Who’s to say you couldn’t have?” Shady asked, drawing a look from her niece. She smiled. “I think you have it in you to be anypony you like, Applejack, and probably did back then as well. I don’t know what drew you back, but the Oranges are family the same as Barry and the same as Big Mac and your grandmother. Think about it—maybe you would have had a positive influence on them?”

Applejack snorted. “Not likely. They were drivin’ me crazy with all their fancy, stuck-up rules. Rainbow Dash brought me back. She lit up the sky with a sonic rainboom, and it was a call home,” she said, and tapped her chest. “Could hear it right here. I knew I belonged back on the farm, then.”

“What made you want to move to Manehattan in the first place, though? Surely it must have been something.”

Applejack glanced away, refusing to meet Shady’s eyes. “Movies, really. Stories. Glamour. I saw a film when I was knee high, it never left me,” she murmured, her eyes turning distant again. “What was it called again? Ya think I’d remember the name at least. It was one of those Silver Screen films. You know her stuff, all fancy and polished, with beautiful mares and handsome stallions whirlin’ about. I wanted to be a big pony in a big world.”

“A starry-eyed filly dreaming of making it big?” Shady asked, giggling.

“Laugh it up, cat-eyes,” Applejack muttered, hiding her eyes under her hat. It couldn’t hide her rosy blush, though, nor the way she scrunched her face up.

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that! Heck, that’s why I came here from Canterlot. Of course, I didn’t have connections like you did—I thought I could break in somehow.”

“Guess that didn’t work out too well?”

Shady cocked her head. “Well, yes and no. On the one hoof, I was one of the only thestrals auditioning, so I got parts all right. Plays, a couple short movies. Problem was that they were all, you know, typecast sorts of roles. Casting directors didn’t really see me as leading lady potential, if you get my drift.” She lifted one of her hooves to examine the white lining of the scars there.

“Anypony who doesn’t see you and my uncle together would, maybe.” Applejack snorted. Still, she looked was looking at Shady now with her eyes alight. “Is that how you met him?”

“Pretty much. I was upset because I was cast as yet another two-bit villain. My friend took me down here, actually, to cheer me up. She was trying to point out that if the director and the audience liked me, that if I made a good impression, I might be able to break into better roles. More villain roles, of course, but once you have a little leverage in the business, you can push people around a bit yourself.”

“You haven’t done that in a while, though,” Applejack pointed out. “I guess you didn’t have time after you married Barry?”

“Well... no, that’s not entirely true,” Shady admitted. “Actually, until I got deep into that first pregnancy, I worked small jobs around the neighborhood to help out. But, well... I do enjoy acting, but sometimes it felt like I was just covering up for something. I didn’t have any people back home, so acting was a way for me to feel like I belonged, I guess. After Barry took me in, and especially after I got to know his kids, I didn’t really feel the need any more, you know?”

“I can see that. You still wouldn’t mind going back, though, wouldja?”

“No,” Shady said, giggling. “But we’re getting sidetracked. My friend took me down to Coneigh Island to cheer me up, like I said...”

“So, what, you met in a bar down here?” Applejack stepped around a larger mare, careful to avoid knocking into her.

“Again, getting ahead of yourself,” Shady chided her niece, waggling a hoof at her with a grin. “Actually, he was working as a janitor. You know, to help pay for the schooling, one of about a dozen jobs, after his wife died.”

“And he swept you off your hooves?” Applejack asked, grinning.

Shady socked her one for the pun. “Totally didn’t notice him, actually! It sounds like a play, when I talk about it now, come to think of it: out-of-his-league actress, the earnest part-timer. I swear I had a bit role in a movie like that, once. Anyway, he basically made a nuisance of himself. Telling me I was the prettiest actress he’d ever seen and that not only should I be the leading lady in a play, but he’d come see every one of my showings.”

“Ah, I get it. Naturally, y’told him he was a punk and to get lost.”

“Of course! He’s five years older than me, had a corny accent, and looked like he’d just blown in off the street,” Shady said, and then grinned wider. “But here we are talking about me when I asked you all about your past. You can hear me gushing about how Barry and I bagged each other later.”

“Now that’s just no fair,” Applejack protested, stamping a hoof. “I was gettin’ into the story!”

“Tough beans, sister. Call it incentive for you to make up for your end of it!”

“Fine, fine,” Applejack grumbled, putting her hat back on. For all that she made it sound like it was a great imposition, though, Shady Blossom could see that sharing her story had allowed her niece room to breathe. Considering how poorly they knew one another, Shady thought that a little trust-building between them could only be a good thing.

If there was one thing that Applejack couldn’t resist, it was family, after all.

“Yeah, I guess I could have made it work. Maybe if I had gotten to know Barry Seed and my other family here a bit better, and had a chance to even out all the froufrou stuff with more normal things...” Applejack stared off towards the buildings in the distance.

Taking a leap of faith, Shady Blossom jumped into the silence. “You feel like it’s all been a big missed opportunity. That if you had just stuck it out, you could have made a life for yourself here, and you’re wondering what it would have been like if you had. Maybe you’re even wondering if it would have been better for you.”

Applejack’s head jerked up, stricken. For a moment, Shady worried she had gone too far. The look in her eyes was so conflicted, it made her wonder if she had crossed a line, or perhaps insulted her niece.

“Haunted by the past... heh,” she muttered, glancing at the boards under their hooves. “Well... it’s complicated. No, stop lookin’ at me like that, I ain’ mad. You didn’ strike me as the kind to come out and jus’ say somethin’ like that.”

“We can talk about something else,” Shady offered again, quickly.

“No, it wouldn’t be, y’know, terribly honest of me if’n I just hushed it up. How do you say it?” she asked. “It’s a bit of everything. Jus’ a big jumble I haven’t looked at in so long.”

“And here you are, being confronted with it everywhere you go,” Shady murmured, offering a sympathetic hoof, which Applejack accepted.

“Don’t get me wrong, I am glad I didn’t become a namby elitist,” Applejack said, giving a disgusted look. “I’ve seen that sort, before and since, here and in Canterlot, and it ain’ for me. That’s not the sort of life I could live. I’m especially glad I got to meet up with all my friends in Ponyville. Maybe the world could have found another Element, but that would have made me the one left short for not knowin’ them.”

Searching the skyline, though, she exhaled heavily. “Still, sometimes I wonder if perhaps there was a way to do it all. Hold on to being myself and also bein’ somethin’ a little more, y’know....” Applejack paused to turn back to Shady. “Heh, there’s this unicorn back in Canterlot by the name of Fancy Pants. He may dress ridiculous, and he does things I think are plain boring, but he has the air of a pony who is totally in control. He sets his own rules in the upper class world, and he makes it bend to him, rather than the other way ‘round.”

“Perhaps it’s not too late,” Shady Blossom encouraged her. “You’re the scion of a big farming empire—well, one of its most important members anyway—and you’re close to the Princesses. I can’t imagine it would be too hard to break into any scene you chose on those credentials.”

“Eh,” Applejack waved it off. “That’s all in the past now. I’m a diff’rent pony now. I’ve seen big parties like the Gala and the junk Rarity gets up to. Ain’ my scene.”

“Not even if you can make your own rules?”

“I won’ drag my connection with the Princess into it, neither,” Applejack said, quickly. “That’s personal, between her and my friends and me.”

“No, but you were seen at the Gala, and with this Fancypants character. You do have other connections, you know, like the Oranges or the other members of the Apple family.”

“It ain’—” Applejack paused, ears perking.

They both heard something from further down the boardwalk. Picking out anything in the din was in itself a difficult task, for Coneigh Island was noisy at the best of times, let alone on a crowded day, but noise had special importance to both of them: fillies scuffling.

“Stop, stop!” Sweetie Belle shouted, crying helplessly as she watched her friends. They were in the middle of a ferocious tussle with what looked like a griffin and an older pegasus filly. Flying, Shady Blossom cleared the intervening ponies and dove in amongst the girls. As it was three on two, the fight wasn’t going well for the pair, but Shady Blossom and Applejack weren’t exactly inclined to see how it would play out. She was in like a flash, shrugging off their blows and forcefully separating the fighting girls with quick, efficient motions, bouncing Apple Bloom and Scootaloo away with her flank, holding her daughter in one hoof, and thrusting the other girls away with her spare forehoof.

Babs reared up, and Shady Blossom was worried she might have to pin her daughter to keep her from getting back into the fight, but she collapsed against her mother’s legs instead and started sniffling. Tears were steaming down her face, and she pushed her head into Shady’s chest. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, for their part, did try to fling themselves back at the two girls before Applejack sat on both of their tails. The griffin was nursing her eye, while the pegasus favored one of her hind legs while glaring at the other girls.

“Fine! Hide behind your monster; she’s not your real mommy anyway!” the pegasus shouted, before flaring her little wings and taking off. The griffin stammered something incoherent to the Crusaders, her eyes uncertain. Glancing up at her friend, she clawed into the air after her, leaving the confused adults behind.

“What happened?” Applejack demanded of her fuming sister.

“Excuse me,” a somewhat older stallion said, stepping forward and rubbing his mustache nervously. “I don’t mean to intrude, but I saw how it started. I was stepping in, but you were on top of ‘em right quick, had ‘em apart in a flash of light.”

“Ain’t right,” a mare murmured, but in response to what was unclear, as she and most of the crowd began to move along.

Shady Blossom slid a foreleg around her daughter. “Thank you, sir, but I think I’d like to hear it from their mouths first.” She looked down at Babs. She nuzzled her mane for a moment, soothing her. “You heard the nice stallion, Babs. I can hear it from him, or I can hear it from you.”

“That witch called you a monster, twice!” Scootaloo growled, beating her wings furiously, hoping to overcome gravity and chase them down in spite of Applejack’s grip on her.

“You are my mom,” Babs insisted, pulling her face away. “I-I don’ care what anypony says! I d-don’t c-care, you are my mom! I’ll fight her again, I-I’ll—” She sniffed and pressed her face against Shady Blossom again.

“And you’re my daughter,” Shady Blossom said, her own voice a little thick. “My little girl. My Babs.”

Applejack harrumphed and stood up. “Well, I’m sure y’all had a good reason, but that ain’ excusin’ the fact that y’all started a fight,” she said grimly. “We’re goin’ back to the house, right now.”

“No!” Sweetie Belle cried, leaping forward and skidding in front of Applejack. “I started it, I did! Send me home, don’t send them home!”

Judging by the look on her face, the set of her jaw reflecting sternness, Applejack could clearly see what Sweetie Belle was doing, and she didn’t look like she was having any of it, either.

“No, it was me!” Babs Seed said, pulling away from her mother to shove Sweetie aside and instead stand beneath Applejack’s glare.

Glancing between each other, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo raised their hooves.

“I did it,” muttered Apple Bloom.

“No, me,” Scootaloo insisted. “I started it! Stupid ugly face, couldn’t help myself.”

The fillies kept it up, each one trying to top the others over Applejack’s most dire looks and insistences that they cut it out. All so their friends wouldn’t be stuck going home.

Shady Blossom couldn’t help herself. She started to laugh. The fillies all looked mortified, but they stared steadily at Applejack and Shady regardless. “What do you say, Mister?” she directed at the bystander. “Who started this little fight?”

He looked among the four crying girls and adjusted his hat. “Ma’am. Those two girls who were so gosh darned unkind started it. Said you were a monster, that they were all blank flanks, and then threw the first punch. Celestia’s truth.”

Liar. Sweet, blessed liar.

Applejack rolled her eyes. Shady Blossom met her gaze, quirking a smile. Her niece heaved a sigh. “Fine. But if it happens again, I’m chuckin’ y’all into a barrel and haulin’ you off to Sweet Apple Acres in the luggage compartment, no matter who started it, y’hear me?”

The four fillies swarmed Applejack, hugging her. They then tackled the tourist and Shady Blossom in turn. “My little heroes,” Shady said, giggling, and kissed their little heads. “Defending my honor like that. Why, I wouldn’t be surprised if that earned you your cutie marks.”

Gasping, all four girls turned to examine their sides. When confronted with equally blank expanses of hair, though, they slumped. Taking the advantage, Shady rose and nudged them with her wings, drawing them close. “Don’t worry. Just keep it up. You girls are on the right track. One day, you’ll all find where you belong... and you’ll do it together, because you’re all such great friends.”

Applejack rolled her eyes again, but grinned this time. “Is being a good mom all cheap tricks?”

“Some of them are very expensive, but a good heart carries you through life better than material goods, anyway,” Shady Blossom answered sweetly.

Scrunching her face up, Applejack glared at Shady Blossom. “Okay, now I know ye’re just sayin’ sappy stuff t’make me gag.”

“Guilty!” Shady admitted.

“All right, girls, let’s go see Barry and Lin. They’re probably waiting for us at the Ferris wheel.” Nudging them along, she gave Babs a nuzzle and pushed them on with her hooves.

“Hey, uhm, Babs... this kinda reminded me of something I asked your mom about back in the carriage,” Sweetie Belle said as they started off.

“Yeah, what’s that?” asked Babs.

“Why doesn’t Lin call Shady ‘Mom’?”

“Sweetie!” Applejack protested. “Don’t you go around askin’ folks uncomfortable questions.”

“Nah, it’s all right,” Babs said, pausing to blow her hair out of her eyes. “I mean, when she first came around, I wasn’t really all that peachy about her myself. When she married Da, all of a sudden we had somepony who was practically a stranger in the house all the time. Just meetin’ her a couple times didn’t really do it, you know?”

“That was just a coupla years ago,” Apple Bloom supplied. “It was a few months after Princess Luna came back.”

“I missed my mom real bad, still, even though it’d been a while,” Babs said, looking down at the ground. Shady’s reassuring touch on her back encouraged her, though, and she went on. “I wasn’t exactly nice, neither. I screamed a lot. Fought all the time.”

“We worked things out,” Shady murmured, smoothing back her daughter’s mane with a wing. “Lin was already a teenager, though.”

“Yeah, she didn’t want no pony as her mom no more.”

“But why?” Sweetie asked, her eyes wide. She walked backwards to keep ahead of the others, watching them as she backed up. “She’s so nice! I’d be happy to have her as my mom if I didn’t have mine.”

“It’s not that simple, Sweetie,” Shady said, turning her around before she could plow into an elderly griffin on his walker. “Lin’s nearly a grown mare. I wouldn’t mind being her mom, it’s true, but she needs to find her own way. I’m content to help her along as much as I can.”

“She still cares,” Babs insisted. “It’s not like it was before. You couldn’ even get Lin to speak if Shady was in the same room, and she kept tryin’ to drive her and Dad apart the first couple months.”

“I don’t think she knew how to handle it when I got pregnant,” Shady murmured. “But when Hop was born, that was pretty much the end of the fighting.”

“Family is family,” Applejack preached, “whether it be by kin or kine.”

“And you called me cheesy,” Shady teased, laughing. They trotted on, towards the Ferris wheel that revolved gracefully before them.

“So, why did we go through all the trouble of meeting at the Ferris wheel if we’re actually going to ride it last?” Lin asked as they filed into the line for Luna Park. Ahead, the park itself was sheltered in a vast tent, with an enormous expanse of dark blue canvas covering the area.

“You really can’t beat sunset on a Ferris wheel, at least if you don’t have an airship handy,” Barry insisted. He winked at his wife. “Of course, you won’t really fully appreciate it until you have a very special somepony to share it with.”

Lin Seed tossed her long mane, harumphing. “I’d have a very special somepony if it weren’t for an overprotective father who growls when boys come anywhere near me.”

“The last guy had a black denim jacket. Didn’t trust him.”

“And Pierre? He came from a great family!” Lin glared at her father.

“Too fancy. Didn’t trust him.” Barry was grinning now.

Lin ground her teeth. “So my boyfriends can be neither too low, nor too high, can they?”

Barry tapped his chin. “Well, sure, but they also can’t be too average, neither. My princess deserves the best.”

Lin stamped one of her hooves. “Daddy! Ugh, I’m never getting a coltfriend at this rate.”

“Suits me just fine!” Barry ruffled his daughter’s head.

Seeing the Crusaders start to perk up, Applejack glowered at them. “No, not after the Cheerilee and Big Mac incident, and I’m still watchin’ y’all. Meddlin’ with special someponies oughta be the last thing on yer li’l minds.”

“Aww,” they complained, pouting.

Raising eyebrows at one another, the elder Seeds decided not to inquire further.

For her part, Shady was feeling excited. She peeked over the heads of the crowd, looking towards the pavilion entrance, where two thestral statues stood holding the flap open. Already, she could hear the soft music from within piping out, and a whiff of rice cakes and moon pies on wafted the air. Shady closed her eyes and breathed in, letting her mind drift back. It seemed to her that she could just capture a night long ago, when she sat on the edge of a cloud and watched the lights of Canterlot and nibbling on a soft rice cake filled with ice cream with the treat held delicately between bandaged hooves. She tried to remember if it had been strawberry or chocolate, attempting to pull more of the moment back to her.

When she opened her eyes, she ruffled her wings and spread them slightly, as if prepared to leap forward over the crowd and into the pavilion, line or no.

Spying her enthusiasm, Applejack poked her. “I thought you said this was junk.”

“Mmm, well, yes,” she agreed, but couldn’t keep herself from grinning. “Yet it’s my kind of kitschy junk. You have to understand, this is the sort of stuff I grew up listening to—every young thestral hears the tales growing up. ‘The Tale of the Lost Comet’? I still read that to my babies when they’re sleepy. The ‘Tears of the Night Mother’ can still make me cry, and you wouldn’t believe how you can move a bar full of us with a rousing telling of the ‘War in the Stars’.”

“She’s not lying. I saw an old stallion with one eye get up and dance near the climax. It was terrifying.” Barry shivered.

“It’s like a trip back into my foalhood—all the best and brightest parts of it. And you know the best part? It’s all in the dark, with the only light no stronger than moonlight. You can’t really tell the stories in broad daylight.” Shady sighed happily. “The sun is nice, but it chases away all of the mystery. The most beautiful flowers are the ones that bloom at night, not in the light of day.”

“You can’t stop her when she gets like this,” her husband said in a stage whisper to the others. “She can wax poetic for hours.”

“You’re still not off the hook for earlier, mister.”

Lin Seed rolled her eyes, presenting her ticket to the stand and collecting a token, one that resembled a full moon, complete with pockmarks. Shady was pleased to see they had gotten rid of the ones with the image of the Mare in the Moon—that had been downright tasteless. “It’s all right. I still prefer Dreamland.”

“Oh, sure, if you like raging fires and hammy actors,” Shady scoffed.

“Considering her recent boyfriends? I think she does,” Barry agreed.

“Ugh!” Lin tossed her mane again as she strode inside.

Within, it was like being in a little village. Storefronts and houses marched along their streets.  It was dark as deepest twilight within the tent, the thick canvas blocking out the sun as promised. Dozens of tiny lights descended from the ceiling, their placements forming various constellations—Canis Major and Minor, Orion and his belt, the big and little Dippers. In the very center of the mock-night sky hung a luminous clock, its four faces glowing warmly with the four major phases of the moon, bathing visitors with its gentle radiance. Night flowers, with their sweet fragrance, bloomed everywhere, and some ponies found it so relaxing that they lay together on the grass and simply talked, cuddling together in the semi-darkness.

As always, there were more than a few thestrals, some strolling, others gliding along, taking in a bit of the pleasing atmosphere before they had to thrust themselves back under the harsh glare of day. For once, Shady Blossom didn’t feel like she was being judged for walking with her own family. She pressed close to her husband and drank in the sensation.

“You’ll always be my night blossom,” Barry murmured into her ear. It made her feel as if she was floating, lifted up on a cloud of warmth and affection.

“Mom, jeeze.” Babs Seed reached up to grab her mother’s black tail and haul her back down by her teeth.

“Oh!” Shady gasped, putting her hooves back on the ground and blushing. “Sorry, just got a little carried away.”

They all laughed, and, together, went into the park. Shady couldn’t help herself, and started to sing:

“Blue moon of Canterlot, keep on shining
Shine on the one that's gone and left me blue
Blue moon of Canterlot, keep on shining
Shine on the one that's gone and left me blue
It was on one moonlight night
Stars shining bright
Whisper on high
Love said goodbye
Blue moon of Canterlot keep on shining
Shine on the one that's gone and left me blue!”

Appreciative hoof stomps echoed from a gaggle of young foals, and Shady bent a knee with a little giggle. Rising, she paused as her eyes fell on a pretty thestral mare with the group. Several years younger than Shady, she had short blue hair raked over one eye and a cheerful smile. When their eyes met, they jolted in mutual recognition.

Seeing the two mares staring at one another, a filly lifted her head curiously, looking between them. “Do you know her, Miss Star Gazer?”

Star Gazer’s smile became strained, but she nodded slightly. “Yes, uhm... hello, Shady Blossom.”

“Star Gazer,” Shady acknowledged, her tone a little uncertain. Her body language was no clearer, and for a moment Shady didn’t know whether to let her wings hang open or tuck them against herself. She settled for leaving them open and glanced at the kids. “Class from Canterlot?”

“Yeah, they’re... yeah,” Star Gazer answered. She seemed determined to look anywhere except at Shady Blossom’s eyes. “It’s a field trip to the city. We’re stopping by here on the way to see the Statue of Harmony.”

“Ferry at the pier?” Shady asked.

“Yeah,” said Star Gazer. It hadn’t really been a question, but she appeared eager to keep the conversation going rather than letting it lapse into silence. Looking past Shady, she saw something that caught her attention, and Shady followed her gaze to see the Seeds and friends. Babs and the Crusaders had, from the looks of it, noticed Shady’s lack of progress and were coming over to investigate. “Are you here with, your, uhm... family?”

“I am, yes.”

“Good, that’s... that’s good. I’m glad. They look really nice.”

Shady nodded, sliding a wing down over Babs.

Again keenly aware of the silence between them, Star Gazer sputtered, “I’m really happy for you.”

“What’s up, Mom?” Babs asked, blinking at the thestral stranger.

“Are you okay, Miss Star Gazer?” the filly with Star Gazer asked, nudging the other mare with a leathery wing, her fluffy ears alert. “Is something wrong?”

“N-no, I mean, yes, I mean, no n-nothing’s wrong and... I...” Star Gazer stammered, meeting the little girl’s gaze.

Star Gazer seemed especially conscious of her ward's opinion, doting on the small filly and trying to find an explanation that would make sense to her enclosed world view, whilst remaining at least somewhat faithful to the truth. Shady Blossom stepped forward. “Nothing’s wrong. We’re just old acquaintances is all.” She took one of Star Gazer’s hooves. The mare stared back at her, blushing brightly, though only Shady and the other thestrals could see it in the dim light. She glanced away, eyes downcast, but didn’t pull free. “You’ve got a lovely little class. I’m sure you’re learning a lot from Miss Star Gazer, aren’t you?” Shady looked down to the filly.

“We sure are! No pony knows more about the night sky than she does!” the young thestral gushed, eyes bright.

“Then she has a lot to be proud of, I think,” Shady insisted.

Star Gazer bit her lip, looking first at the foal, then up at Shady Blossom. “Thank you,” she murmured quietly.

“It’s okay,” Shady whispered back. “Go on, have a good time. Are, ah... are you staying in town for a while?”

“A day. I wouldn’t... I mean...”

“Maybe we can... talk sometime. Clear the air a bit,” Shady offered. “Where are you staying?”

“A hotel, the Sunset Inn. Well, uhm... thank you, again. I hope things are going well.” Star Gazer caught her breath.

When Shady Blossom released her hoof, she was like a puppet briefly cut from her strings, wobbling. At the filly’s prodding she recovered herself, though, and turned to trot back to the group with her. She glanced over her shoulder once, but said nothing.

“What the heck was that about?” Scootaloo asked around a moon pie. Evidently, Barry had treated them while Shady was gone.

“Just someone I knew.” Shady watched her go. “Way back in Canterlot.”

Sweetie Belle stepped forward, looking up at Shady Blossom. “Were you friends? Did you have some sort of falling out?”

“No. We weren’t friends,” Shady said. She looked up at the false moon in the sky and sighed. “But, well... maybe we can be. You can’t hold a grudge forever, right?”

Scootaloo opened her mouth to disagree, but Babs swatted her. “C’mon, Mom, let’s show them the rides!”

“All right. Come along, girls, let’s go take a trip to the moon,” Shady Blossom said, smiling as she started down the thoroughfare. The past could wait for another day.

It seemed as if the day couldn’t have been more full. Walking along behind tireless fillies, Shady Blossom was light-headed, her hooves and wings sore. It was a good soreness, though, a pleasant sensation of family that left her whole and complete. With her husband at her side, her niece to talk to, and even her stepdaughter being pleasant, it was hard to think of any way it could have been improved.

After swimming at the beach for a while to cool off, they were all just about ready to go home. However, the four fillies all wanted to get in one more ride, and their puppy dog eyes meant neither Applejack nor Shady could possibly say no.

The Ferris wheel was one good option. With the sun lowering towards the horizon, it was getting to be the perfect time to ride it, which meant that they’d have to get into line very soon indeed to catch the ideal window of opportunity.
 
Another good option, though, would have been sleep. Looking at the line and the amount of time she’d need to spend on her feet, Shady contemplated the benefits and drawbacks of waiting. On the one hoof, it would be a nice bit of time spent with Barry Seed, and she could tip the operator to pause their car at the top so they could cuddle. On the other hoof, with her yawning so loud, that would probably not be terribly romantic.

“Shady? Shady Blossom, is that you?” a mare’s voice called, sparing her from further contemplation.

In fact, it perked her up immediately, seeming to drain some of the fatigue from her bones. “My ears must be failing,” Shady declared, rubbing at one of them. “I swear I just heard an old ghost.”

“Who is it, Ma?” Babs looked up to Shady. A unicorn mare, her curly mane hanging off one shoulder, approached the group and met Shady Blossom in a hug.

“Look at you!” the unicorn declared, looking her up and down. “You know, it’s funny, I swear your last letter had claimed you were pregnant, but by the stars I call you a liar. You’re as trim and fit as a girl.”

“Twice, in fact,” Shady declared, and smiled at the others. “This is an old friend of mine from the theater—Velvet Curtain.”

“We’ve met,” Barry said. “As I recall, you referred to me as a leering layabout.”

“I was absolutely correct, too,” Velvet Curtain agreed, waving at the others. “I can’t believe my luck, running into you like this. Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friends and family?”

“Of course! This is Babs Seed, my daughter,” Shady said, tucking a hoof about the filly’s side. “This is her cousin, Apple Bloom, and her friends Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Applejack here is Apple Bloom’s big sister; she’s a farmer from out in Ponyville.”

“Howdy,” Applejack said. It seemed to Shady Blossom that she was keeping her distance for now, watching the others.

“And my other daughter, Lin Seed,” Shady said. Lin let it pass, smiling at Velvet. “My other foals are back with some neighbors; they’re a little young for Coneigh Island.”

“They must be darling.” Velvet beamed. “You know, for a long time, I thought you were crazy for leaving the theater, but seeing these faces, I don’t have to wonder any more. You look so happy you could burst, dear, and I’m glad for you.”

Shady Blossom blushed, rubbing the back of her head. “Yeah, well, the first pregnancy was just such a surprise, and then there were all these family emergencies. It would have been impossible to hold down a rehearsal schedule, really. Always did want to go back, but the time never seemed right.” She glanced back at her family and beamed. “I’m pretty much over it now, though.”

“No, don’t make excuses. You’re doing a beautiful job, and I can see that,” Velvet said, waving her down. “It’s hard enough to keep going, sometimes. I’m glad you found something worthwhile.”

“Y’know, it’s funny,” Applejack spoke up. “My aunt here was just tellin’ me about how y’shouldn’t let opportunities fly by, even if you feel like ye’re too old and busy to do it.”

“Oh, did she?” Velvet asked, grinning. “So, not pining for the stage at all, are we?”

Shady Blossom stared back at Applejack. Her niece put on an innocent look, crossing both sets of legs. You traitor!

“Sweet, Mom, ye’re goin’ back into theater?” Babs asked.

“You’re an actress?” Sweetie Belle squeaked, her eyes going wide.

“Well, I was—”

“She was in a coupla movies and everythin’!” Babs told her friends. “I’ve got ‘em all back at home.”

“Wow, really? I can hardly believe it, that’s so cool,” Apple Bloom gushed.

“Yeah, she was a villain and everythin’!”

“Awesome!” Scootaloo said, grinning.

Sweetie Belle bounced. “We should watch them when we get back!”

Wincing, Shady Blossom waved a hoof dismissively. “Uhm, maybe that’s not such a good idea. They’re really not all that good...” she said, trying to discourage them, but there was no helping it now. The fillies had the bit in their teeth.

Hooking a leg through one of Shady Blossom’s own, Velvet Curtain looked at her old friend thoughtfully. “You definitely still have the look. Tell you what, why don’t you come talk to some friends of mine? We’re just getting some drinks down at the waterfront. A few actors, some set designers, and a director from Applewood.”

Against her will, Shady’s ears perked. “Applewood?” she asked, a little breathless in spite of herself.

“Applewood,” Velvet repeated, the words possessing a magic all their own.

“You don’t mean—” Scootaloo gasped.

“—the place—” Apple Bloom said, staring.

“—where stars are made?” Sweetie Belle squeaked, her eyes filling with stars.

“Oh, get going already,” Barry said, nudging his wife in the ribs. “We’re going to be all evening at this. Go on, I want to hear all about it.”

“I, uhm,” Shady said, finding it hard to breathe. “Wow. Okay.”

“I’ll bring your mother back intact, don’t worry, dears,” Velvet promised Babs and Lin, the latter looking wan at the words ‘your mother.’ Even she couldn’t hide a little look of excitement, though.

“Good luck,” Lin said.

“Y’all have fun now, y’hear?” Applejack said, waving an orange hoof, her face plastered with the most smug expression Shady had ever seen on a pony.

It was as if all of the soreness had drained out of her. Shady Blossom found herself walking by her old friend in almost a daze. I’ll probably just have to tell them no. I have a pair of tiny foals and Babs, and I want to get back to my gardening... just a quick drink and a little reminiscing. One drink won’t hurt. Yeah, that’s the ticket. This’ll be quick.

“...And can you believe they have a renowned foal care system?” Shady Blossom gushed, as she had been gushing for what seemed like the entire trip home. “Some of the best tutors, and they travel around with the shoot, so you’re never far from your kids.”

“That would take Babs away from school, though, wouldn’t it?” Lin Seed pointed out.

“Psht, like I care,” Babs said, climbing up on the back of the seat. “I’ll get to see movies being made! That meeting must have gone great, Mom; you were out for a long time.”

“I still can’t believe that went as well as it did. You are right, though, Lin,” Shady Blossom said, rubbing her forehead. “I really should look into all possibilities. My family comes first. Just, you know... eeehehehe!” Her hooves pattered on the seat as she squealed, her wings flaring.

“I guess I haven’t really seen you this excited in a long time,” Lin Seed murmured. “I... if you can do this, you should do it. I think it could be... good.”

That was it. The way Lin Seed was smiling at her. That capped her day.

Perhaps we can’t be mother and daughter, but we can be family of some sort.

Then, quite suddenly, the carriage jerked to a stop. Catching herself, Shady checked to make sure the fillies were all right before hopping over the front seat. “Honey? AJ? What’s wrong; did you hit something?” Flapping her wings, she hovered over them, glancing at the road to find it largely empty aside from a few parked carriages. The street lights were on, lending the early evening a quiet, contemplative feel. It was always a nice time for flying, in her mind.

Then, as she studied the scene, she started to put certain facts together. For one, there were indeed a few carriages parked, but almost all of them were clustered in front of her house.

For two, her husband and Applejack hadn’t hit anything, for there was nothing to hit. Indeed, their faces were locked forward, staring at the brownstone. Slowly, Shady Blossom craned her head up.

Shattered windows. Broken glass. A pair of pegasi in city police uniforms, scanning the horizon from high above. Police carriages, their occupants going over every inch of ground. Her neighbors, talking to the police, their eyes wide and frightened.

Feeling numb, Shady Blossom floated towards her house, unable to believe what she was seeing. Slit eyes drank in the light, seeing the door blown inward, chairs tossed out onto the sidewalk.

“Sarge!” one of the police unicorns shouted, and flared her horn, red light preparing to grab Shady.

The scene was interrupted, however, when Barry Seed, freed from his harness, came up and roared, “What in the name of Tartarus is going on here?” His booming voice startled the unicorn so much that she dropped her spell, and Shady Blossom drifted down to join her husband, who put a hoof about her.

“This is my house, officer. What happened here?” he demanded of the gathered police again, who had all gone rather understandably defensive at the huge, hostile-looking earth pony approaching.

They all looked to him, then to Shady. “Sir, please calm down,” said one of the older officers, a greying mare with marks of rank Shady could not identify on her shoulder, stepping forward. They all had to step back as he and his wife walked up to the top of the steps, looking in.

The living room was trashed completely. Somepony had managed to not only upend the big couch, but fling it so hard that it had embedded itself into the plaster of the wall and exposed the stone beneath. The light had been torn down, the glassware broken.

Smeared on the wall, in what seemed at first blood but what must have been Lin Seed’s own paints were words, scrawled in jagged lettering: