Perchance to Dream

by Ether Echoes

Chapter 2: ...If You Can Make it Here...

Shady Blossom couldn’t quite remember what had happened after seeing her house. In vague terms, she recalled that she had been wailing. She had flown from room to room, searching, shouting the names of her babies. Horrible images had flashed through her brain as she tore open cabinets and pulled shredded covers off beds, searching. She could see the claw marks through Hop’s sheets and imagined his blood staining them, pooling on the mattress. When it seemed clear that they weren’t in the building, she pictured her babies screaming for her in a bag, heaved into the river where their struggles faded and died as the bag soaked through and sank.

Preparing to leap out a window, she found herself abruptly intercepted. Applejack had finally caught up and tackled her out of the air, pinning Shady to the floor.

“Let me go!” Shady cried, squirming against Applejack’s immense strength to little avail. She couldn’t even twitch. “I have to find my babies!”

“Shady!” Applejack shouted, cutting through Shady’s cries. “For the love of Luna, listen to me! Your kids are fine! The neighbors, we sent them to the neighbors! They’re right outside.”

Whimpering, Shady went slack. Her chest heaved as she panted, staring at a wall. The word “traitor” stared back at her, red paint still dripping slowly down the wall like old blood. Her legs came up around Applejack, and they held each other for a long time while Shady Blossom sobbed. Lin Seed, her face ashen, came up with Dandelion and Hop clinging to her, and it wasn’t until Shady could hold and nuzzle both of them that she felt anywhere close to all right again. Dandelion was asleep, peaceful, while Hop cried silently, holding tight to his mother. Thankfully, he fell asleep shortly thereafter.

Applejack helped her up, and together she and Lin Seed aided her back downstairs, while she held her babies close to her. In the living room, some of the policeponies were helping a grim-faced Barry Seed carry something out from the house and into the family carriage. He moved to nuzzle Shady Blossom, enfolding her and the other girls in his forelegs.

When they parted, Shady dug up her foal carriers and slid Hop and Dandelion on either side. Going down the front steps to look for the Crusaders, she found them when they thudded into her, hugging tightly. Possessively, Shady swept her wings about them, sheltering the girls in her embrace. All four had signs of recent tears, though Scootaloo and Babs both glared out at the world. Babs in particular looked livid, her eyes tracking to the windows on the front of the brownstone.

Setting her hat on her head, Applejack joined them and laid a foreleg on Shady’s back. “Are ya feelin’ all right?”

“No,” Shady murmured, and tightened her grip about the girls. Her face felt numb and her throat sore, but she put forward a steady face. “No, I’m not. But... I have you all, that’s what’s important.”

“Lawponies will be wantin’ to ask you some questions,” she said evenly. “That unicorn said they could start as soon as you were ready.”

“I wagered they would.” Shady sighed. “I don’t want the kids to hear any of this, especially not the little ones; could you...?”

“Course. Don’t even need t’ask.”

It was difficult to move from her spot sheltering the girls. Shady Blossom found it hard to shake the feeling that letting her foals or even Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle go would have meant the possibility of losing them. Another look into Applejack’s hard eyes allowed her to slacken her grip, though—all the howling hordes of Chaos could not get past Applejack. It wasn’t hard at all for her to believe that her niece was a hero worthy of saving Equestria right then.

Going out into the street, she could overhear one of the locals being questioned. Mister Black Vein, a old retired prospector who was as leathery as he was hoarse, was standing before a uniformed officer and a detective in a heavy coat and fedora.

“...Like black lightning! Whoosh! In from the sky, crashing through the windows!” the ancient pony was telling them, gesticulating wildly with his cane. “All clad in black armor, cat eyes glowing like Nightmare Moon h’self! Oh, I got up from my seat, started out towards the door with my old spear, but the legs are so creaky, by the time I got m’self down to the street, whoosh! Gone! Like black lightning!”

“How long did that take you, about?” the detective asked, her tones clipped and precise.

“Mayhaps ten, twenty... or thirty minutes.”

“When would you say this was?”

“No more’n an hour ago. Matty, when was it?” he asked his granddaughter. “Smart girl, always gets these things right.”

Mattock, his granddaughter, shook her head, vibrant green mane swinging. “It was just a few minutes before the hour. I know because it’s when Grandpa gets his evening pills.”

“So a few minutes before eight?”

“That’s right,” she confirmed. Her eyes shifted, and she caught sight of Shady Blossom. For a moment, she shrank back. Seeming to realize what she was doing, she straightened, her eyes apologetic as she shuffled her hooves awkwardly.

“Mistress Shady Blossom,” the detective acknowledged, her blue eyes and smooth face giving nothing away. “Continue taking the statement, officer,” she told the uniformed pony before moving to join Shady.

“Detective...?” Shady asked.

“Noir, ma’am. Detective Petite Noir.” Her eyes glanced upwards. A pegasus officer was shadowing the two of them, hovering over the street and watching like a hawk. “I’m sorry if this question comes across as rude, ma’am, but I’m obliged to ask it. Where were you at eight o’clock this evening?” Her face softened for a moment at the apology, then returned to a civil mask.

Taking it for what it was worth, Shady nodded. “With my family, in Coneigh Island,” she answered, her tone dull. She felt drained, her ears and wings drooping. All of the day’s soreness was back, with interest. “I had just gotten some drinks with some ponies. I can name them.”

“I would appreciate that, ma’am.”

“Velvet Curtain, an actress. Film Reel, a director out of Applewood. Quick Lime, a stage designer. A few other actors: Sans Nom, Class Act, Vaudeville, and James Li.”

“James Li?” she asked. Her hat flipped up enough to reveal a unicorn’s horn nestled in her black mane, and she scribbled notes on a pad held in a hazy blue aura.

“It’s a stage name.”

“All right.” Noir added an annotation to her pad. “Do you know where any of them can be reached?”

“Velvet Curtain has an apartment uptown. I’m not sure about the others.”

“All right, thank you. Would you mind answering a few more questions?” Noir glanced past her shoulder before meeting her gaze again.

“Not at all,” Shady answered, reaching up to rub her hoof against her head. A fantastic headache had been another reward for her screaming and carrying on earlier, and now her forelegs were throbbing as well, the scars pulsing. The sight of her husband approaching helped set her at ease, and she flashed Barry a small smile to let him know she was all right, waving one of her wings.

“Do you know anything about what happened here?”

“I know somepony attacked my house,” Shady answered plainly. “They smeared scary messages on the walls and smashed everything up.”

“Can you speculate as to why? It’s all right if you aren’t sure, just give me the best information you have, ma’am. Even some idea of what might be the cause could be helpful. Why they wrote ‘traitor’ on the wall, for instance.”

Shady Blossom sighed. “No, I can’t. Perhaps a little, and I don’t like thinking about it. If it will help, though...”

“Please.” Noir gestured with a hoof. “I want to help you and your family get over this incident. If there’s anything, even a tiny bit of information, it might make a difference.”

“When I was younger, there were some... ponies. Thestral ponies,” Shady said slowly, letting her mind sink back down into the depths of her childhood. Not all of that foalhood had been as bright as it could have been.

Barry was almost there, but his wife’s gaze stopped him before he could reach out to her. She turned it back on Noir, answering quietly. “You have to understand, there’s a lot of stories we’ve kept alive, our kind. We don’t really share them with other ponies, since they wouldn’t appreciate or even understand a lot of them. While everypony else was celebrating Nightmare Night to appease a legend they barely remembered, we...” Shady sucked in a breath, hesitating. “Well. A lot of thestrals liked to remember Luna differently.”

Looking up at the moon, devoid of the terrible face of the Mare of Darkness that the Princess of the Night had become, Shady Blossom gathered what strength she could from it. Princess Luna may not have been looking down on her right then, but it was the best she could get. “We remembered Celestia as the tyrant and Luna as the brave upstart, the rebel. We so loved the night; how could we turn our backs on it? It was wrong and foolish, and most of us understood that. Princess Celestia had been so good to us over the centuries, trying to help us even when other ponies didn’t trust us anymore...”

Noir glanced up from her notes as Shady Blossom trailed off. “There is more to it, though,” the detective said, gesturing with her pen.

“You know about that already,” Shady Blossom murmured.

“Please, ma’am,” she said, her tone gentle, “what you know of it may be more important. If you know the story differently than we do or parts of it that we don’t know, now is the time to tell us.”

“All right.” Shady gathered another shuddering breath. “Yes. There are some thestral ponies who... didn’t buy it. It’s a stupid kid thing, for the most part. A young buck or mare wants to be bold and edgy, so they denounce Princess Celestia and bring back the old stories. They get paranoid, seeing her as a controlling, stingy dictator instead of what she is.”

There was a noticeable pause before Noir went on. “And for the ones that don’t grow out of that phase?”

Shady shut her eyes as images crowded about her consciousness. A midnight banner, with a crescent moon swallowing the sun. A burning cloud house. Screaming. The street around her started to fade away even as she tried to push the sensations aside.

“Ma’am?” Petite Noir lowered her notepad and took a step forward.

Shady felt as though she’d just been yanked up and had to catch her breath. “It’s gone now,” she said, her voice quiet and strained. “When Luna came back, that was supposed to be it. She didn’t hate Celestia, she didn’t want to overthrow anything.”

Noir took up her pad again and wrote dutifully. “But before that?”

“Yes. There was the Order of Eternal Night, who wanted to bring about Everlasting Night as Nightmare Moon had foretold,” Shady said, hot and angry. She stamped a hoof, flaring her wings. “They hurt everypony around them. It wasn’t enough just to avoid them. You were with them, or you were... you were a...”

Noir didn’t supply the word. It was still smeared on the Seeds’ living room wall, after all. She exhaled, scribbling notes—taking pity, Shady surmised. “Yes, we’ve heard of them. We had... well, every guardspony and policepony in Equestria thought they were gone, too. Disbanded when Princess Luna returned,” she said. “Do you know anypony who might have been in the Order who held a grudge against you or members of your family? Your family by marriage or birth.”

“Just a couple. There was a big push against them, a few years before Princess Luna returned. A fair number died, the worst of them, the ones who hurt... other ponies.” Shady lowered her head. “I honestly thought the rest had gone back to their lives after the end.”

“If they’re still carrying on their activities in secret, they may have pretended to do so,” Noir said. “We’ll check up on them. Don’t worry, we won’t run anypony in on hunches or old names.”

Brushing her long mane back from her face, where it had fallen, Shady lifted her head and nodded. “I... there is one. I met her today, actually. Star Gazer, a mare; she’s a teacher from Canterlot. She’s staying at the, ah, Sunset Inn. I think that’s off Greenway.”

“It is. Anypony else?”

“There’s also Bell Tone, another mare; I’m not sure what happened to her. Black Cloud, though he was just a kid. Arc Light, he was pretty nasty, though I think he took up sailing after. I know Light, Gazer, and Cloud all made amends, though, or tried to. I just met Star Gazer and she was... well, I thought she was contrite.”

“Sometimes, ponies can surprise us, ma’am,” Noir said, her tone remaining dry. “And you yourself were never part of this Order in any capacity?”

“No! No, of course not,” Shady said, shaking her head vigorously. “I could never hurt anypony.”

“Of course.” Noir glanced over at Barry. He stepped forward to nuzzle against his wife. “We’ll leave a few officers with you to make sure you’re safe. I’ll try to keep you apprised of the investigation’s progress.”

“Thank you,” Shady Blossom whispered. “Please, just help keep my family safe. They’re all I have.”

“My duty, ma’am,” she replied, tipping her hat to the pair before taking off.

Gradually, the sounds of hooves on pavement, talking police, and carriages faded away. Silently, Shady Blossom began to cry again, and her husband held her. The ruins of what had been a perfect day crumbled around them.

It had been a very long time since Shady Blossom had been in a bed with so many other ponies. With a half-dozen foals snuggled about her, she felt very warm indeed and, even if she could have moved, she had absolutely no desire to. If only she could sleep in it—yet she feared what dreams may come as much as she feared somepony swooping in through the window and taking what was hers to protect while she slept.

The Oranges had, of course, immediately had their apartment opened up for the displaced family.  They had answered an express message to March’s Vineyard with one of their own, full of condolences and sympathy. For all that they could be stuck-up elitists, the Oranges understood the importance of family.

A great dark mound on the floor shifted, and Barry turned over, his hooves in the air. He wasn’t sleeping, either, and probably wouldn’t for some time to come. Without a doubt, Applejack and Lin Seed, who were sharing the guest room, weren’t getting much shut-eye, either.

She jerked, realizing her eyes had begun to droop against her will. Evidently, the day’s stresses were catching up to her. Though she fought it for a few minutes, Shady Blossom eventually surrendered. She laid her head down near her daughters’ and closed her eyes.

Darkness followed her.

The moon shone. Shady Blossom’s juvenile wings beat furiously against a powerful headwind to reach a cloud house, its silvery vapor alight with unnatural flame. All around, laughing black shapes with eyes aglow raced ahead of her, darting into the flames and dancing. The sinister one-eyed face of Arc Light loomed out of the darkness, lightning wreathing his wings. No matter how hard she beat her wings, she couldn’t get closer. They were coming for her.

One of the figures flew forward, her eyes burning from the slits in her helmet and her mouth agape.

Dodging desperately, Shady felt hot knives burn into her neck and chest. Even though she couldn’t get any closer to the burning house, its radiant heat found her nevertheless. The edges of her front hooves, stretched in desperate flight, burst into flames that blackened the tips, while Star Gazer looked on, uncaring. The hard wall bubbled and cracked, filling with fire. The flames advanced up her ankles, curling the hair into ash. Coming to take her.

The mare swooped back again, screaming.

Ahead of her, on the cloud, Lin Seed was walking into the front door, heedless of the flames dancing about her, shriveling her long mane. Babs Seed stood wreathed by orange light in an upstairs window, staring out at her with empty eyes. All she ever had.

Shady started to scream. The black figures crowded around her, their mocking laughter melding into the roar of the flames. Somewhere above, a dark blue shape circled high in the night sky, silhouetted the moon...

Everything she ever...

“Mom! Mom!” Babs shouted, while hooves shook her. “Are you okay? Mom!”

Voice and touch alike cut into her nightmare. Jerking, she barely caught herself short of clocking the watching heads about her with her hooves.

“Honey? Where’s Dandy?” she called, slurring. “Need to feed her.”

Babs was at her side, shaking her. Hop sat beside his half-sister, shaking their mother as well with his tiny hooves. Dandelion cried. The other’s faces watched Shady. It was almost as if she’d been injured.

Rising, Shady Blossom felt like a mess. Her long black mane was tangled. Her tail was askew. Her coat was matted in places.

“Got her, right here.” Lin Seed held the flailing baby sobbing in her foreleg. She had Dandelion pressed against her body and was gently coddling her, whispering sweet words with no real progress on calming the baby.

“Sweetheart, you should—whoa!” Barry caught Shady Blossom when she tried to get off the bed and stumbled in the process.

“Baby, hungry, scared.” Shady tried to push him off. “Worry about me later.”

“Worrying about you now, honey.” He used his greater strength to pin her back on the bed. “Lin, we brought the formula and put it in the fridge, go take care of it.”

“Is she okay?” Scootaloo asked. “Is she sick?”

“No, no, I’m doing better.” Shady Blossom tried to stand. Her husband wasn’t having any of it, however, and kept her down.

“C’mon, girls. Aunt Shady needs a little time to herself.” Applejack shuffled the fillies out. She picked Hop up and hauled him out bodily.

She was prepared to give her husband a good tongue-lashing, when she realized that all four of her legs were shaking terribly. She hadn’t even realized how dehydrated and empty she felt. Her heart raced, faster and faster, and she felt as though she were crashing, as if she were choking in mid air.

It took a few minutes for the attack to pass. Stomach-crunching, chest-squeezing anxiety always made it difficult for her to breathe, let alone stand. Eventually, though, Barry helped his quivering wife up. He even helped run a brush through her mane and tail, the rhythmic motions helping her feel once again like she was in control.

Indeed, if there was any word that encapsulated how she felt right then, it was control, or the lack thereof. So few ponies experienced a breach of peace so severe as they had, in the secure society of Equestria. Fewer still could claim that they were haunted by the spectres of the past. It was stupid, and it was silly, but getting her appearance back in order was a symbolic step towards gaining just a little control back over her life. It was a small step, but it was enough to start on.

“What happened?” Shady Blossom asked her husband and tore her gaze away from the small mirror she had been straightening her mane in.

“You were thrashing in your sleep. Sweetie ran to get me, and by the time I got there, you had started screaming.” Barry pulled her close to him.

Allowing herself a nuzzle against him, she shivered. “I’m sorry. I just...”

“Shh, it’s okay,” Barry muttered, but his eyes belied his calm. He didn’t say anything else, but Shady knew her husband well enough by now. There was only so much that muscle and courage could do.

Shady nuzzled him again, rubbing up against his neck. “Thank you. I’m glad you’re here for me.” If pulling together helped him feel like he was helping, then she would pull together. There was a certain irony to finding comfort in helping someone else find that same contentment in succoring you. Gathering herself, she smiled up at him through the curtain of her mane with a coquettish look. “You’ll always be my hero.”

Barry snorted, but kissed her all the same.

The next phase of normality involved going out and facing her family. No words were exchanged at first, but none needed to be. No pony begrudged her little panic attack, after all, and their concerned looks were blunted by her facade of good cheer and purpose. Darkened windows and moonlit halls lent very little light to the apartment on their own, and so somepony had gone and lit a few candles around the dining area rather than turn all of the lights on. To the ponies huddled on the couch, it lent a warm glow that forgave little imperfections like tear-streaked faces.

Shady Blossom walked into the kitchenette and pulled down a pan. “Would anypony care for something to eat?”

Glancing out at the still-dark sky, Applejack shrugged and looked over at the fillies.

“Well, I’m not getting any sleep for a bit.” Sweetie Belle grimaced.

“Sure, then, I could use a bite. Need any help?” Applejack asked.

“No, no, just set the table up,” Shady Blossom said. “I can handle it.”

When she took on the Oranges’ kitchenette—finding it stocked well for haute cuisine if a bit bare of raw ingredients—that was another step to normalcy. Some eggs, cream, peppers, chopped onions, tomato, and liberal dashes of the Oranges’ spices made for generous helpings of omelettes, which sizzled satisfyingly in cast iron skillets. By the time she slid them onto the dining room table, she felt almost like herself again.

“Never thought I’d see this kinda food on this table.” Applejack let her loosened hair fall across the back of her chair. She poked at the omelette in front of her. “I’m half expectin’ Aunt Orange to break through the door and call it an abomination.”

“Then we can feed her one of them and watch her entire life crumble.” Lin Seed stuffed her face. “Soh goofd.”

“I’d have a go at you for insultin’ our absent hosts, but I’m gonna have to agree with that.” Barry Seed chuckled as he ate.

The four fillies had snarfed down their breakfast almost as fast as it had been put down, and the Crusaders were now at the penthouse window, pressing their faces to the glass and staring down at the city far below. Its glittering lights almost reflected the sky above, the hallmark of a sleepless city.

Glancing back from them, Shady Blossom smiled wanly at Applejack. “I guess you’ll be wanting to get them back, soon, hmm?”

“Well, actually.” Applejack nibbled at her own omelette. “When I messaged Rarity, she told me she was coming for Sweetie Belle herself. Normally, I’d tell her to give me a break, but she pointed out that if somepony really wanted to get at us, they’d hit us somewhere really vulnerable, like a train in transit, where there weren’t nothin’ we could do about it.”

“Do you think she’s bringing in your friends?” Lin Seed asked, eyes wide.

“Dunno. Wouldn’ put it past her.” Applejack shrugged. “Maybe she wants to bring more than that.”

There was a longer silence as Applejack finished her food. After she had eaten, she pushed her plate away and turned towards Shady Blossom. “So I don’ suppose we could get an explanation? You were out talkin’ to that detective pony for a good long time.”

Shady Blossom turned her head to stare meaningfully at the children.

Applejack waved a hoof. “They’re gonna hear it anyway. Better they hear it now, from you, rather than some garbled eavesdropping attempt or a secondhoof account.”

There was a sucking noise as the girls peeled their faces off the glass, turning and gazing up at Shady Blossom. They watched her with their ears cupped forward intently.

Reluctantly, Shady nodded. “I’m not sure I really approve, but... all right.” Taking a breath, she launched into her account. It came a little easier than it had the night before. Talking about it the first time had evidently helped get the weight of it off her back. She omitted very little, careful to leave out the names and some of the unnecessary details that might potentially scare children. Of course, she needn’t have bothered—if anything, the uglier details seemed to excite the girls more, if the way their eyes gleamed was any gauge.

Barry, who had heard none of this before last night, leaned back on his chair with a heavy settling of wood. Lin Seed simply blanched, her face going ashen once more as she contemplated the possibility of an entire group of ponies who might wish harm on others.

Applejack in particular looked incensed, her brows furrowed and the muscles of her neck tight. “Are you tellin’ me I busted my behind freein’ Princess Luna from her thousand-year curse and there’s these ponies runnin’ around who think the whole Nightmare Moon bit was s’posed to be a good thing? Don’t they know everlastin’ night would—”

“—kill every pony in the world and then some?” Shady Blossom said, and Applejack nodded. “Yeah, that part never made sense to me. Not that any of it ever made sense to me. I don’t understand how a pony can go so wrong.”

“There’s always been criminals and such.” Applejack shook her head and glowered out the window. “I guess an impressionable pony hearing the wrong sort of thing at the wrong time can have an effect.”

“But why would they wanna hurt you?” Apple Bloom came up to Shady’s chair and planted her forelegs on the mare’s side.

Picking her up in her forehooves and smoothing her mane, Shady sighed. “Before I moved out here to Manehattan, before I met your uncle, I lived in Canterlot. Well, above it. My family had a little cloud house. My mother was on the weather team; Father was a Night Guard for Celestia, one of the few in those days. I had a bunch of little siblings who adored me, and we all lived together in harmony.”

After the events of last night, it all felt so strangely distant to her. That intrusion had shot a lightning bolt through her and left her complacency in ashes. The memories of her family were seen as through a pane of soot-stained glass, cloudy and indistinct. They may as well have belonged to someone else, a set of photographic plates she could hold up to the light and see through a glass dimly some other pony’s life. It only made her want to clutch at her new family all the more tightly.

“But... you don’t have people,” Lin Seed said quietly. It was an awkward question at the best of times and, coming from her, it could easily have been an accusation. At one point, it might have been. Today, however, her face held nothing but worry. “Did these Order ponies... do something to them?”

“They did.” Shady Blossom let Apple Bloom down, which was just as well, because her forehooves had burned and ache again to the point where even resting them against her skin felt like agony. Her head pounded as intense memories crowded against her consciousness. Colors in the room began to bleed, one into the other, as her vision came unfocused...

I couldn’t stop the fire. Nothing worked. Water only made it hotter. Wind only fanned it further. Red and unnatural under the evening stars, it consumed the cloud substance of my home as I screamed. The Mare in the Moon watched the scene from above the clouds, pitilessly. Hot wind blew my mane back as I dropped the bucket and let it plummet to the earth below. I was heedless of anything but the sight in front of me.

Desperate, I dove into the smoke and crashed through a window. I choked and coughed, searching. I had to find them—I had to!

There. In the hall. They were lined up, beneath the banner, tied together. The flames licked at the walls, making them sag and drip. The banner of the crescent moon swallowed the sun. My own voice tore at my skull, my mind unwilling, uncomprehending. I tried to reach them, but the fire was so hot. I reached forward, and the coat on my forelegs burst into flame; the hooves cracked and ran like wax...

For the second time that morning, Shady Blossom jerked, freeing herself of a terrible dream. She looked up at the others, then down again, studying the white, bubbled scar lines on her hooves and ankles. From the way they were aching and throbbing painfully, it was as if the alchemical fires that had inflicted them were still burning.

She became aware of Lin Seed’s and Sweetie Belle’s sobbing, and a horrible sinking feeling settled into Shady’s gut. Evidently, she had just unintentionally narrated her own thoughts.

Rising from his seat, Barry Seed came over to her at once, closing her up in his hooves again. His mouth opened, and then snapped shut. “Why?” he asked, though to whom or about what Shady could not have said.

Applejack stared at Shady for a long while—Shady might have expected her to be angry for frightening the foals, but she did not see any of that on her face. Seeing her aunt have such a public breakdown couldn’t have been any easier for her than it was for Barry. Trauma is never pretty.

“I’m sorry.” Shady shut her eyes. “I’m sorry for ruining your vacation, girls. I’m sorry, everypony.”

“It isn’t your fault. When ponies do bad things, it’s on them, not on their victims,” Barry said with quiet fervency.

“I should have been better prepared.”

Barry shook his head. “For what? Y’said it yourself. Luna put a stop to all that foolishness, or you and she and everypony who knew about it thought so.”

“Dad’s right, Shady.” Lin reached over to cover her stepmother’s hooves with her own. Her eyes were puffy, but she wasn’t crying any more. “There was nothing you could do to anticipate this.”

Letting her shoulders slump, Shady reluctantly had to admit that it did seem silly and foalish to blame herself for the attack. Shaking the feeling that there was more she should have done was difficult, however. At the very least, she could try to prepare for the future.

Banishing the cloud of ill thoughts from her mind, she forced a smile for the benefit of the others. “I suppose you and the girls are still my guests, Applejack. As long as you’re here, I don’t think... I don’t think we should let somepony terrorize us.”

“That’s my girl.” Barry tightened his forelegs about her.

“I can get behind that.” Applejack nodded. “What didja have in mind?”

“Well,” Shady said, looking down at the girls, “I seem to recall some ponies I know talking about opening up a chapter of their club here in Manehattan. It would be a shame if they missed out on that. And, you know, while we have a police escort anyway, it might be nice to lend a little air of officiality.”

Four sets of eyes widened, and Applejack laughed.

“Oh dear.” Lin Seed covered her mouth. “Are you sure it’s all right to encour—”

“Cutie Mark Crusaders Clubhouse opening, yay!” The windows rattled in their casings at the shout.

Just as they were cleaning up and preparing to go back to bed, however, a buzz came at the door. The adults exchanged looks, and Lin Seed moved to grab the Crusaders before any of them could rush for the door. Shady slotted her children into her foal carriers and waited by the window, while Applejack and Barry went to the door. Barry stood to one side with his shod hooves ready and Applejack peeked through the eyehole.

“It’s the detective,” she hissed. They all relaxed a little, though they remained in their positions until Applejack had opened the door and the trenchcoat-wearing mare had stepped into the apartment, then they moved around the table to greet her.

“Good evening, Detective.” Shady slid her sleepy babies onto the couch and sat with them nestled against her side.

Petite Noir nodded, setting her hat down on the table. “I’m sorry for intruding at this hour. I had a squad of pegasi sent to the hotel you mentioned right after our conversation, but it seems the fire department beat them to it. Star Gazer’s room was firebombed shortly before your house was hit.”

There was a collective gasp. Lin Seed stared at her, scuffing her hoof. “So this Star Gazer mare didn’t attack us?”

“I didn’t say that.” Noir shook her head, turning to face the family. “Point of fact, neither her nor anything belonging to her was found in the hotel room. The night clerk said she’d left in a hurry not long before the attack. We’ll be questioning train staff, but most likely she either fled cross-country or remained in the city. What we did find is something we identified tentatively as the Banner of the Night strung up over her bed.”

“Their banner.” Shady swallowed. A cold pit settled deep in her stomach, and she stared out the windows, wondering if she could spot anything. Her forehoof went around Hop and Dandelion, holding them close.

Noir nodded. “The fire was started in the living room, over a pile of furniture. There were a lot of warped metal pieces there we might be able to make something out of, but if there were incriminating papers, identifying clothing, or other material there, it’s doubtful we’ll be able to extricate it.”

“I’ll guess the papers noticed, then,” Barry said.

“Not much we could do about that. Two thestral-related attacks in the same night? It’ll be in the morning print. For the next few days, I’ll be surprised if I don’t see most thestrals in groups of two or more everywhere they go. Present company excluded.” Noir grimaced and shook her head. “I’ve managed to keep you and yours out of the paper so far, but it may only be a matter of time until somepony talks. In the mean, I’ve assigned some MPD cops to protect you around the clock. Try and work with them.”

“I should take a couple days off.” Barry grumbled. “Hopefully they won’t run the place into the ground while I’m gone.”

“Thank you, Detective,” Shady said. “Can we help you with anything else?”

“No, ma’am, I think that’s about it. Have a good night.” Petite Noir took her hat and stepped back out. The family stewed on the information in silence.

That night, there wasn’t much sleep to be had for anypony.

Under the awning behind a bustling deli, Babs Seed glared at the rain. There was very little rain—indeed, it was really little more than a sporadic drizzle—but it evidently earned a scowl nonetheless. Her short tail flicked back and forth, twitching in an arrhythmic pattern. Watching her from steps leading up the back of the building, Shady Blossom bit into a sandwich. Above her, the sounds of moving furniture echoed out of an open door leading into the second floor space. Sweetie Belle popped out long enough to sweep the entryway with her tail before hopping back in.

“It’s just a little sprinkle. They’ll be here.” Shady Blossom stuck a wing out, letting a few droplets catch on the leathery surface. Though she could not recall ever having joined her mother in her weather patrol duties, she had still been the beneficiary of enough pegasus education to make an educated guess about the weather’s probable course. “It’s going to let up in a few minutes, anyway. I can feel the pressure shifting.”

“That’s not gonna help, Mom!” Babs pointed a hoof at the sky. “No pony’s gonna come out in the rain! They’re probably all still at home or somethin’.” She plopped her head down on her forelegs, blowing hair out of her eyes. “Probably didn’t want to come anyway.”

“That’s just nerves talking, Babs.” Shady reached down to ruffle her daughter’s mane and smooth it back. “It’s still a little early yet. Why don’t you go practice with the girls?”

“I already practiced, for, like, hours!” As usual, Babs pushed her mane back, which caused it to fall over her eyes again. “Dunno how I ever thought I could do this. Must be crazy.”

“It’s just for a few of your friends. You can handle talking to ponies, Babs. Well, that and a hippogriff.” Shady giggled. “You know, how did you let him know where we were?”

“Sweetie Belle’s got some cards Rarity made for her in her cape; she slipped him one before we ran off.” Babs frowned more deeply. “It isn’t just that though, Mom. Some of them said they’d bring their friends.”

“I’d think that’s a good thing. Wasn’t your club supposed to be about helping ponies feel like they belong?”

“Well, sure, but shucks, Mom, what the heck do I know about running a club?” Babs lifted her head to meet Shady’s eyes. “It’ll be a lot of foals lookin’ to me for what to do.” Her foot stuck on one corner of her cape—which had come askew—and tipped her off balance. Babs landed in a heap, looking decidedly miffed as she glowered out at the offending sky. The clouds had already begun to clear, and the lot behind the deli gleamed with shiny wetness in the renewed sunlight.

Laughing quietly, Shady bent down and fixed Babs’s cape, cinching it a little tighter about her daughter’s neck. “Come on, now. Is that the sort of attitude you gave those bullies? I heard about how you dealt with those fillies from Ponyville. You have activities planned, your friends from Ponyville are here to help, and you’re the toughest, bravest girl in the city.”

Babs blushed and pressed herself into Shady’s side. “It isn’t that easy, Mom. They were just some stupid kids who were buggin’ my friends. This is a whole bunch of ponies lookin’ up to me!”

Considering Babs for a moment, Shady smiled, resting a hoof on her back. “Do you want me to tell you a secret?”

Babs nodded, and lifted her ears to listen.

“I was a terrible actor at first. That part isn’t the secret, so much—most ponies are rubbish when they first start out, unless they have a natural inclination. I didn’t really hit my stride until a few months in, when I got my first real break in a speaking role and nailed it.” Shady glanced up over her daughter, looking nowhere in particular. “The thing I haven’t really told anypony is that acting, for me, was a way to get away from myself.”

Babs gaped. “I thought you liked acting! You wanted to be famous and stuff. And what do you mean by gettin’ away from yourself?”

“Of course, eventually I wanted those things. Once I’d tasted a little success, it was hard to go back.” Shady smiled ruefully. “The thing is, though, for a good chunk of my career, acting was like one long scene of me running away. Every role I took was a new attempt to bury myself in a part.”

“But why? I don’t get it.”

“You never wondered why I didn’t just take up gardening in Canterlot?” Shady asked. “I tried that for a while, but it was... hard. Everywhere I went, there was always something reminding me of what had happened there. My hooves took years to heal right, too, and so I spent a lot of time in bed or a wheelchair. Making funny voices and trying technique with the other patients in the hospital gave me something to do.” Brushing back Babs’s mane again, she sighed. “When I was pretending to be somepony else, it became easier to put aside my real feelings for a bit. It got to the point where I didn’t even want to use my cutie mark for a while, because of how painful it was. It was like they’d taken who I was, and I was just living a lie, so pretending to be somepony else was a blessing.”

Babs lapsed into silence, listening. Her eyes searched her mother’s face, though they glanced briefly down towards the scars on Shady’s limbs.

“It would have been horribly cliche if your father entering the picture had been enough to complete my life, and if I had been the pony I was at the beginning of my career, that might have been the case. When my identity was stripped from me with my family, I wanted to crawl up on a cloud and just hide until I felt better again.” Shady exhaled heavily. “Instead, though, I’d managed to make a new purpose for myself by expressing a creative outlet I didn’t know I had in me. Being a leader isn’t unlike being an actor, Babs—you convince others that you know what you’re doing, and, even if you really don’t at first or find that it’s hard to stage it, you discover that, over time, you become accustomed to it. Leaders grow into their roles.”

“So you’re sayin’ I’m gonna do a terrible job and everypony’s gonna be there to see it?” Babs asked, but it was with a sly look.

Laughing, Shady rubbed her mane. “Yes! It’s okay, though, because they won’t really care after a few weeks. You just have to do the best you can and keep trying to do better. Besides, look at it this way...”

“Yeah?” Babs’s ears cupped forward.

“Getting your cutie mark is a part of your identity. It’s finding out who you are and where you belong in the world. Part of what helped me to feel less like my life was just a lie after the attack was when I found somepony very special to care for.” Shady bent down to nuzzle at Babs. “In a very real sense, you helped me find who I was again, and so you can count one success to your scoreboard already, as far as I’m concerned.”

Babs’s freckled cheeks rosied and she squirmed, scuffing her hooves awkwardly. “Mooom, don’t get all mushy.”

“You’re my little girl; I’ll be however mushy I like.” Shady giggled. Glancing across the field, she saw a pair of heads poking around a red brick corner, and then a pair of young foals stepped out before nervously stopping. Above her, in the loft, Applejack and Apple Bloom hung a banner against the window overlooking the lot, one depicting a rearing caped foal that was picked out in yellow thread against a blue background.

“Show time, Babs.” Shady pushed her daughter forward.

Babs took a deep breath. When she let it out, she lidded her eyes and put on a cocksure smile that creased her freckled face. Her father couldn’t have done it better. “Hey! You! You here for the Cutie Mark Crusaders?” she called.

“Uh...” One of them, a black-coated unicorn filly, gave a hesitant nod.

“Great!” Trotting over, Babs hooked the two foals in her forelegs. “I’m Babs Seed, and this here’s our club house! You’re Gee’s friends, right? Where’s she at?”

“Well, ah, she kinda sorta, uh...” The filly glanced away. “Got her cutie mark yesterday.”

The other, a green pegasus foal, nodded vigorously. “Yeah, her horn just went whoosh! Then she flew up into the air. Her folks got a letter from Fillydelphia saying she’d gone and gotten her cutie mark.”

“Well! That’s great for her.” Babs grinned broadly. “You stick with me, you’ll be just like her.”

“What, flung into the sky?”

“No, you’ll get your Cutie Marks!”

Rising, Shady Blossom strode up into the clubhouse. Within, bunting hung from the ceiling, softening what had been rough corners, and a podium had been set up at the end of the main room in front of dozens of little cushions. Applejack took down an Orange family emblem off a door leading into a kitchen and tossed it into a box with the health code certification and the other few remaining signs that had come with the place.

From the front balcony, a pair of uniformed officers were pushing in through the door, tucking their wings up as they entered. Shady Blossom trotted over. “Hello, officers.” She smiled at their chaperones. The two policeponies, a pegasus mare and stallion, glanced up at her approach. “Just got back from your patrol?”

“Yes, ma’am.” The mare offered Shady Blossom a friendly, if professional, smile.

Shady shuffled her wings. “I don’t suppose you’ve heard anything about... about Star Gazer, have you?”

“I’m sorry, ma’am, we haven’t been informed of any developments yet.” The stallion gave her a sympathetic look. He then glanced past her, taking in the decorations.

Glancing past Shady Blossom as well, the mare waved a hoof. “Nice little setup your kids have here. What is this, anyway?”

“Oh.” Shady Blossom laughed, turning aside so they could see the banner reading “Cutie Mark Crusaders” behind the podium. “This is my daughter’s clubhouse. Her friends from Ponyville formed a club a couple years back for young foals without their special talents to get together and socialize. They try different activities and try to find where they belong in society. This annex was donated by our cousins

“That sounds adorable.” The policemare grinned. She doffed her cap and straightened her braided blue mane as she took in the sight.

The stallion chuckled. “I can certainly sympathize. Took me a long time to find my talent. Might have been nice to share the blank years with other foals.”

“I’ve got a little sister who is despairing of ever finding hers. Maybe I’ll suggest this to her.” The mare glanced over at her partner. “You know, we’re supposed to be watching over them anyway.”

“Hmm? Did you have something in mind, Jay?”

“Why don’t we make this look a little more official for them, Surf?” Jay waved a hoof in the direction of the audience. “A little MPD escort.”

Surf pursed his lips, glancing back outside. “We’re kind of on duty.”

“We’ll still be on duty. Everypony we’re protecting is going to be in here for a while, and it won’t be all that long. We can go on patrol right after, and the foals’ll love it.” Jay beamed.

“Well.” Surf fiddled with his cap for a minute before nodding. “All right.”

Shady laughed as she walked back across the room with them. “Thank you. My daughter’s going to be thrilled.”

More foals trickled in throughout the morning. Some of them had parents in tow, others older siblings, while most simply came on their own four feet. All of the young ponies were in awe of the sight, as if they’d never even heard of a clubhouse before. The two officers of the law were standing at attention by the podium, as though they were flanking the mayor, and foals sitting closest were gaping. Even the young hippogriff colt made an appearance, an imposing griffin carrying him in on her back from the balcony .

“Shucks, she’s a sight bigger than the last griffin I saw. Her stallion’s gotta be one tough pony,” Applejack observed, watching the pair come in as she and Shady set out snacks. Applejack turned a skeptical eye towards the wagon they had brought for supplies—they had already dwindled their stocks down to almost nothing.

“You never know. Maybe she likes the quiet, bookish type?” Shady Blossom giggled. Her eyes tracked to the balcony. Designed for pegasi and other airborne races to land on, it was a convenient way for many second-story establishments to attract clientele. Theirs was modest, though many places uptown, particularly those catering specifically to pegasi, had lavishly decorated balconies that were like little foyers. For some reason, though, Shady Blossom felt as though there should be curtains to draw across it at that moment. The great big windows on either side of the building made it seem terribly exposed.

There came a tug at her mane, and she looked down to find Babs staring up at her. “Mom? I’m, uh, goin’ up now. Wish me luck?”

Beaming, Shady nuzzled her daughter. She did it quickly and surreptitiously, so the filly wouldn’t feel embarrassed at such a critical moment. “Knock ’em dead, honey.”

Swallowing past a lump in her throat, Babs trotted across the back of the room, passing her friends from Ponyville, who were sitting at a table with forms, capes, and patches laid out in front of them. She surmounted the podium and stared out.

The room was filled. The clubhouse had smaller rooms that were open, but no one wanted to stay where they might miss something. The cushions had two to three foals each, and chaperones hung out in the back. They all quieted as Babs rose up, looking towards her expectantly.

Apple Bloom mouthed to Babs, “Hit it!” Babs remained silent, however, eyes wide.

Sweetie Belle tugged on her mane, as if trying to hide herself behind her own curls.

Scootaloo, grinning suddenly, banged her hooves on the desk like it was a drum set. The remaining whispers died down, and Babs gave Apple Bloom a quick, uncertain look. Whatever passed between them seemed to do the job, because when Babs straightened she had on the confident, self-assured look she’d taken when first welcoming ponies to the clubhouse.

Rising up on her rear hooves, she took in the room. “Welcome to the grand opening of the Cutie Mark Crusaders Manehattan Chapter!”

The pot of water glared balefully back at Shady Blossom. It just wouldn’t boil, no matter how long she left it on the stove. She checked again, but the flames were definitely rising from the gas cooker, coating the bottom of the pot in blue fire.

There was a strange sound upstairs, a hissing, gurgling noise. Preoccupied by the dinner, Shady called to her husband. “Barry, can you check the pipes? I think they’re acting up.”

Barry cocked an ear. “Are you sure? I don’t hear anything.”

“I think they are. Be a dear.”

“Your wish is my command.” He offered a grin as he rose and started upstairs.

Hop Seed started to bang his hooves on his high chair, and the water was still refusing to boil. Exasperated, she turned. “Lin, could you calm your baby brother down, he...”

Shady stared. Sand, coarse and black, was pouring down the stairs. It hissed softly as it cascaded down, the grains running over the top of one another as they started to fill the room. Barry pushed his way downstairs through the dry mass, paying it no heed as he joined Lin Seed at the table. Far from panicking, Lin was stroking Hop’s mane, soothing him, while Babs read her homework at her end of the table.

“Barry, what’s going on up there?” Shady demanded. Outside the windows, sand was falling in great clumps, then waterfalls. The kitchen continued to fill.

“Hmm? Oh, I checked, didn’t see anything offhoof.” Barry shrugged. “I’ll give it a more thorough look later, might have to call a plumber if it’s bad.”

“Can’t you all see what’s happening?” Shady gaped at the sand pouring into her house. “We have to get out of here!”

“What’s up, Mom?” Babs looked up at her. She didn’t even seem to notice as a tide of black sand swept up against her chair. Barry was walking through some of it on his way to the cupboard. A wave of sand flooded out of the compartment, and yet he simply pushed through it to reach for the coffee within.

“The sand!” Shady shouted. She dove, picking Hop Seed up, but the kitchen was nearly full already and no pony was moving. Shady stared with a look of utter incomprehension as her family looked at her as if she was crazy, trying to go on about their day even while they were buried, no matter that they were becoming sluggish and unresponsive.

With a final sob, Shady turned to the window. Outside, she could just make out the presence of a tall, dark blue figure. Hoping she wouldn’t hit anypony, she bucked the window, shattering it into shards. She flew out, only to find that she was gazing right into the burning eyes of a mare garbed in black armor...

“Honey, honey!” Barry hissed, his voice low and urgent as he shook his wife awake.

“Barry?” Shady slurred as she came to. “Everypony’s in... danger...”

“We’re fine. It’s okay.” He stroked her tangled mane with one huge hoof as the other held her close against his chest.

Slowly, Shady started to realize that there was, in fact, no sand choking her; all she felt was the warm presence of her husband. He smelled of work—dirt, leaves, and flowers. For all that her husband was hopeless at growing things, he could move earth well enough, and if not him. then one of his staff did the actual planting. The smell meant he had been to work, and that brought her back to the here and now. “Dreaming?” She reached her hooves up to rub at her eyes. “I was… a nightmare.”

They were alone, for once, aside from Dandelion snoozing away in her crib. On this, the third day of their ordeal, the fillies had elected to sleep in their own bed. The Oranges’ master bedroom seemed almost too spacious to Shady Blossom just then. She felt keenly the minor separation from her family members. That same sense of exposure she had felt in the clubhouse was back in full measure, and her hooves throbbed painfully.

“How are you feelin’?” Barry Seed kept his voice low. They had been lucky not to wake the baby when he called her out of her dream, and parents swiftly learned not to push that boundary.

Shady shook her head, pressing up against him as if to absorb herself into his substance entirely. “Terrible. Better, but still terrible.”

He didn’t respond, and Shady glanced up to see his broad face looking worn and even a little uncertain; the lines around his eyes had deepened. His whole body sagged into the bed as if a terrible weight had settled on his back.

“It’s not your fault, you know.” She reached up to run her hoof along his face.

Barry heaved a sigh, lowering his head. “Of course it isn’t my fault. Don’t mean I have to like it. I’ve got a wrecked home, a wife who has awful nightmares, and there isn’t a darned thing I can do about any of it.” He snorted. “Plenty not to like there, let me tell you.”

“Fair enough.” She turned to wrap a wing about him as she glanced at the wide windows. They were shaded, letting only the faint glow penetrate. This far up, sound did not really carry from the street below, and so the night was as silent as could be. They might as well have been living on a cloud to have such serenity.

Of course, if anything, living on a cloud would expose them more.

“I wonder if the pegasi patrol that window,” she mused aloud.

“Probably,” Barry muttered, distracted. As a long few minutes passed, he said, “There is one more thing. Minor, really. Well, no, not at all.”

“Spit it out already, love.”

Barry eased her up in bed, with her mane falling over her side. “You know, you’re absolutely beautiful.”

“Flattering, but also not the point.” She giggled. “You aren’t trying to butter me up for a roll in the hay, are you?”

“No!” Barry protested. “Well, yes, but for a purpose.” He took a deep breath. “I want to have another foal.”

Shady’s mouth worked silently for a moment before she could respond. “Barry, I... I mean... a foal? Again?”

“We’ve been talking about it.” He rubbed a hoof behind his head. “Well, we were talking about it. I know, I don’t want to pressure you, but we said we’d talk about this after Dandelion’s birthday and it’s been a couple months now.”

“Is this really the time?” Shady lowered her eyes. “Another foal, right now?”

“Well, maybe not right now, but we could at least start trying.” He rested a hoof against her side. “You’ve said before you wouldn’t mind another. Always wanted a big family, right?”

“Barry...” Shady sighed, pulling her forelegs about herself. “I don’t know any more. It’s... this, it’s all this.”

“Didn’t you say yourself that we shouldn’t let this keep us from living our lives?”

“I did, I know what I said,” Shady said. That indefinable sense of exposure was, if anything, getting worse. She tightened her grip about herself, and Barry watched helplessly. “It just doesn’t feel right for me to... to bring life into the world.”

“I don’t understand.” Barry put his hooves around her. “We’ve already had two beautiful children.”

Shady sniffled, pulling deeper into her husband’s arms, her breath coming faster even as she started to cry. “I just don’t feel like I can any more. I’ve been... I’ve been thinking about my family a lot, my old family, and I just don’t know if I want to bring another pony into the world who might have to face that kind of horror. Hop and Dandelion are already being threatened, and what they might have to grow up facing.”

Pulling his legs tighter about her, Barry nuzzled at her mane. “If that was a reason not to have kids, no one would have families at all, love. I know you’re scared, but I’m not going to shy away from living my life the way it should be lived, just because some ponies can’t get with the times.”

“I... I just...” Shady drew a shuddering breath. “It’s easy to pretend I’m not scared in front of the kids, but I am. Every day we go out there—”

“Shh,” Barry hushed her gently, stroking her hair. He turned her face up and kissed her softly. “It’s okay. Forget I asked, I was just… I want us to be a happy family.”

Once Shady’s tears dried, and her breathing slowed, she rubbed at her face. “I’m sorry. Sometimes I wonder if I’m the same girl you married. I’ve felt so weak since the attack...”

“You’re my flower, no matter what anyone says or does. It’s just shaken you up.” Barry frowned slightly. “Though I wish you had told me about what happened to your family.”

“Sorry. Again.” Shady wormed deeper into his embrace. “I wouldn’t say I forgot, just... it never seemed like the right time. How do you even broach that topic?” Exhaling, Shady closed her eyes. “Maybe... maybe when this is all over we can talk about growing the family more. I know how much it means to you, and I... I do want to go on living. It’s just... so hard, sometimes.”

Barry nudged her and lay his head on top of her. “You call the shots there. I’m just here to help.”

Shady tucked her head under his. “Mmhmm, and you will face that harsh duty with stern resolve?”

“Darned straight.”

Shady giggled, but her eyes searched the windows past her husband’s shoulder. Shadows seemed to loom in the dark, between the slats of the blinds. A second glance proved that it had been her imagination, a trick of the light.

The markets uptown bustled with life and noise. Here, near the beating heart of Manehattan, ponies didn’t stop for anything, plowing through any tourist foolish enough to stand still too long on the sidewalks. The markets themselves had just about anything a pony could dream of. Spices and exotic wares shipped in from across the seas. Products from every corner of Equestria in such abundance that even Applejack had to admit that the Ponyville market seemed bare by comparison. Taxis careened wildly along the street, cutting across lanes to pull up to waving passersby. Applejack had to dive to pull Apple Bloom out of the way when one cab flew across a corner, bouncing up onto the sidewalk, and shouted at the mare hitched in front.

“Ya crazy nut! Where’d ya learn to drive?”

“I didn’t,” the mare responded, “it’s a gift!” A pony in a top hat dove into her cab, and she took off at once, zipping down the street. Shady shook her head and laughed before turning towards Applejack.

“Where else could a pony find a set of top-quality farm tools forged by griffin claws, just a few hoofsteps away from your favorite apple cinnamon tarts?” Shady Blossom prodded her niece in the ribs.

“In a few business days? My barn,” Applejack said, before taking up a pen and writing her address down on a card attached to the boxed-up tools.

“Fair enough.” Shady glanced over at the girls, who were sitting in on a street performance. A pair of minotaurs were putting on a puppet show featuring a green dragon and an army of armored pegasi. “It’s a shame we can’t afford to let them out of our sight now. Manehattan isn’t an unsafe place for foals.”

Applejack gave the sky a stony look. “Sure is when there’s a crazed evil cultist on the loose.”

Shady Blossom’s ears twitched, and she glanced around, almost as if expecting to see a dark streak in the sky. A thestral in broad daylight would have been easy to spot, however, especially against the griffins and brightly colored pegasi who winged their way overhead between the tall buildings. Still, her eyes lingered on the gargoyles and statues and flagpoles looming from above, where somepony might hide from the ground if they were careful enough.

“Ain’t gonna jump us now. Probably.” Applejack placed a hoof on Shady’s back.

“Yeah, well... can’t hurt to be too careful. Actually,” Shady said, taking a look at one of the shops nearby, “let’s go take care of something while we’re here.”

“What’s that?” Applejack trotted by her side. Jaybird and Surfline, the two pegasus officers—who were presently out of uniform to blend in—settled down to earth, with the former landing by the fillies and the other alighting at the entrance of the shop. The shop itself was a quaint little ground-level store, the lighting intentionally dim to put the incense-scented, dark wooden-furnished inside to best effect.

Applejack scrunched up her face, evidently at the pungent odors wafting out. “Is this an herb shop?”

“Indeed.” Shady nodded towards the rows of bottles containing powders, liquids, pickled ingredients, and more lining the shop’s exterior and interior partitions. An elderly earth pony was mixing ingredients in a mortar for a waiting stallion, his grey beard stained and shriveled from being held too close to flame. His eye wandered, lingering a little too close to her and Applejack’s thighs for comfort. “More of an alchemy shop, really.”

“What’re you lookin’ for?” Applejack went over to a bowl of speckled eggs and frowned down at them.

“Just some things.” Shady began to peruse the shelves. “When they came against my family last time, well... they used some fairly nasty potions.”

“How do you know what you might need to counter, though?” Applejack was about to reach for a jar of what looked to be fermented lizard skins—Shady identified them at once by their discoloration—before the owner’s glare warned her off. “I mean, there could be a dozen, a hundred possible things you’d have to try and prepare for.”

“Yeah, but some things never change. Poison, fire, explosives,” Shady said in a grim tone, selecting a few bottles from the shelves.

Applejack blanched. Following Shady around the shop, she asked, “All right, I s’pose if’n you know what you’re doin’. Where’d you learn alchemy, though?”

“Cooking, sort of.” Shady piled the bottles on the counter to wait for the owner to finish with the other customer. “My mom taught me.”

“Warn’t she a weatherpony?” Applejack frowned.

“Yes,” Shady said, nodding, “but she had other skills. Thestrals don’t really visit day pony villages very often, so we kind of had to be self-sufficient. If somepony breaks a tooth the day after the weekly food run, it becomes a big hassle to go back down to the earth to pick up a tooth-growing potion.”

“Still seems a mite paranoid, but it is yer family after all,” Applejack said. “Our family, really.”

“What happened before won’t happen again. I won’t let it,” Shady muttered.

The alchemist exchanged bits with the stallion and came over to join them, adjusting his spectacles. Once again, his eyes lingered on them in a fashion Shady found off-puttingly forward. “My, what have we here? A pair of pretty mares, and—ah... what have we here?” The second time around, the question sounded a lot more sincere as he examined the powders and flowers and more that Shady had collected.

“I’m making a few potions.” She tapped the counter with a bag of bits and pushed her irritation with his gaze aside.

“You’re making a few gallons of potions, from the looks of it.” His eyebrows raised. “Young mare, you know that many of these are exceedingly toxic, yes?”

“I’m familiar with all of the contents, yes.” Shady Blossom’s eyes tightened at the questioning. It seemed to her that his eyes roamed just a little too much. The thought occurred that, perhaps, he wasn’t merely ogling them, but had something to hide, and she allowed herself to glance around, to see if perhaps somepony was hiding in the shadows. “I’m making some antipoisons, among other things.”

“Well, if you’re going that route, why don’t you try a little jack’o’wisps; it’ll counteract a huge variety of—” He reached to a shelf and put a jar by the others, only to leap back when Shady Blossom slammed both of her hooves into the counter, rattling the bottles.

“It also causes blindness, loss of coordination, and acute respiratory problems in subjects with weak constitutions! On a foal, it could seal their lungs shut in sufficient concentration! Are you trying to kill my children?” Shady shouted at him with her wings flared.

Stunned, Applejack and the apothecary were both silent, watching Shady snort. “I di-didn’t,” the stallion stammered. “I mean—tiny, insignificant doses...”

“For Luna’s sake, I’m trying to protect my family! Just who are you working with, huh? I’ll—”

“Enough!” Applejack shouted, and shook the entire store with a stomp of her hooves. “Take whatcha need, pay the stallion, and leave, Shady. What in tarnation has gotten into you?”

For a moment, Shady herself wasn’t sure. Staring at the stallion, and then at Applejack, it seemed to her that she should have been angry for some reason. It was as though somepony had pulled a cork out and let all of the emotion drain out, so suddenly it left her feeling drained and dizzy.

Sliding away from the counter, she looked, and saw that she had collected a frankly enormous stack of ingredients. Bottles and boxes were stacked two rows deep and three rows high. Most of them weren’t even safe to store without great care, let alone use in any setting short of a full alchemical workshop. Gently, she divided the stack, taking only a few bottles which would serve for magical fire suppression and a few more for a variety of antipoisons—including a small box of jack’o’wisps she pulled from a nearby shelf. With the stallion still quivering, she weighed them herself on the scale, put a stack of gold bits on the counter, added a few with an apologetic glance, and went to the door with Applejack on her heels.

Jaybird had stepped in, her eyes wary. She looked to Applejack and Shady Blossom with a quirked brow, and Applejack shook her head. “Weren’t nothin’, just a temper flare.”

Though her face appeared skeptical, the policemare looked around anyway, but didn’t see any damage. The apothecary had fled behind the counter, and did not pipe up, not that he would have been likely to recognize an officer out of uniform in any event. “You all right?” she asked Shady Blossom, who nodded quickly. Then she stepped outside, returning to scanning the sky.

“Feelin’ a little frayed?” Applejack asked once they were outside.

“More than a little.” Shady tried to remember just what it was that she had been feeling. It wasn’t really anger, precisely. “More like... like everything is about to fall apart, and I need to fix it.”

“Sweet jackrabbits, Shady, y’can’t go around shoutin’ at folks like that because you’re scared.” Applejack sighed, patting her back with a hoof. “Not that I need to tell ya.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry. I should have told him I was sorry.”

“Well, he sure won’ give a mare’s thighs the eye ever again, that’s for sure.”

Shady Blossom giggled, a little unwillingly. As if to punctuate the point, a colt in a newscap was standing atop a pile of papers and shouting, “Extree, extree! Read all about it! Mysterious arsonist burns thestral-owned business!”

Shady’s eyes darkened, and her ears lay back. It seemed to her that the sunlight had turned harsh, and the shadows cast by the skyscrapers loomed ominously about her.

The morning of the day Rarity came to town held almost a festive air for the beleaguered family, one that was desperately needed. For the Ponyvillians, particularly Sweetie Belle, it was a joy to see somepony from home again. For Shady Blossom, it meant that the burden would be shared just a little more. As they had when Applejack and the Crusaders had arrived, the Seed family packed into the carriage and went down as a unit to Grand Central. Dandelion Seed had spent the previous evening dancing on the ceiling, and so she now wore a belt around her midsection with a leash attached to her big sister Lin.

“No, honey, you’ve already fed,” Shady Blossom protested, nudging Dandelion away from her with a hoof when the filly pawed at her belly. “I swear, you’re worse than your daddy.”

“Mom!” Lin Seed gasped. “Right in front of the... uhm...” Her eyes widened. Flushing and sputtering, she stammered, “I-I mean, Shady. That was, uhm. Crude.”

“See? I knew you’d come around eventually,” Sweetie Belle said as she popped her head up from between the seats.

“Sweetie!” Applejack called back from where she was pulling the carriage alongside her uncle. They were just now coming to a stop and freeing themselves from the harnesses. “Don’t you butt into other ponies’ business!”

“No, it’s all right.” Lin smiled awkwardly at Sweetie Belle. “It was a slip of the tongue, Sweetie. I don’t think of Shady as my mom. I never have.”

Sweetie blushed, her ears drooping.

“Don’t feel bad.” Shady popped the door open and let the girls spill out. She bent down and rubbed Sweetie Belle’s back. “It doesn’t hurt my feelings. Lin and I came to an understanding a while ago.”

“That’s right.” Lin nodded. “And, well... I’m sorry if it comes across as rude or callous to you. It’s not meant to be.”

“Doesn’t that get a little confusing?” Sweetie’s eyes were wide as she backed up to keep in front of the older ponies. “It’s like having two different ponies in the same house! One’s Babs’s mom, the other’s your stepmom.”

Shady laughed and turned Sweetie Belle around before she could plow into an elderly griffin on his way to feed the pigeons. “Not really. I can be ‘Mom’ to Babs and ‘Shady’ to Lin easily enough.”

“I, well...” Lin smiled at Shady. “In different circumstances, maybe we could have had a different relationship, you know?”

“You’re a teenager, it’s natural,” Barry Seed said as he joined his family. Unlike before, they had a policestallion to guard the carriage, and none of them felt like letting the kids go, so they all went as a unit. Dandelion flew down to Lin Seed’s head and started to gnaw on one of her ears enthusiastically. Hop, of course, went to sit on his customary place atop his father’s head.

“You were there for Babs Seed when she really needed it, though. When Mom, well...” she looked to the girls. “Babs needed somepony after that, and maybe I did, too. And you’re the mother of my other siblings, so that’s close enough. Ow, Dandy, stop it,” she whined, pulling the filly off her head. Dandelion went back to buzzing over their heads, staring wide-eyed at everything around her.

Sighing, Lin looked over at Shady Blossom. “I guess I mean to say that... that I do appreciate you. A lot.”

Shady wrapped her forelegs about the younger mare, who returned the embrace heartily. Sweetie Belle sniffled, rubbing her eyes.

Scootaloo fluttered her wings and landed on Applejack’s back. Her face scrunched up. “Yeah, yeah, enough mushy stuff. Let’s go!”

As they took the steps up into Grand Central Terminal, Shady found that their party was drawing a lot of stares. She knew that ponies were putting two and two together at seeing the thestral children and her walking alongside Barry. It was always a little sad to her—no wonder the hippogriff’s mother had looked so challenging.

Somehow, though, even without the stares, the station seemed more stifling to Shady than it had the last time she had visited. In objective terms, the press of ponies was no greater, but it seemed to her that, if anything, it held more dangers. Past the earth pony vendor selling clockwork toys, there was plenty of space for an assassin to hide among the boxes and hanging machinery. Up above, a whole wing of thestrals could be hiding behind the clocks hanging from the ceiling.

A whole wing of thestrals couldn’t hide from an entire station filled with ponies who can’t possibly mean you harm, she chided herself. Shaking the thoughts from her mind, she focused on locating the platform where Rarity’s train should be coming in within the next few minutes.

Shady was still trying to put aside the strange feeling that they were being watched, however, and an obscure noise she was picking up in one ear wasn’t helping her concentration. Shaking her head, she tried to clear her ears. “Wish they’d stop that buzzing,” she muttered. “It must drive everypony crazy.”

“What buzzin’?” Applejack asked, cocking her head.

Shady blinked, and glanced around. The sound was gone, as was the feeling.

“Glad to hear it,” Barry said, evidently in response to Applejack’s comment. No pony other than Applejack seemed to have heard Shady. “Will let us see each other a lot more often.”

Stopping by the tofu frier, Shady Blossom shook her head again. The vendor had to ask her order twice before she heard him.

“Twenty-one cubes,” she said, glancing at the squishy white blocks swimming in the bubbling oil, “and make it fast,”

“Uh... you sure?”

“Yes!” she snapped. “Of course I’m sure, I—”

Shady paused with her mouth hanging open. What in the world did I need so many tofu burgers for? She glanced around at her party, consisting of seven who were grown enough to even eat burgers and two who weren’t.

Three times as many, in case we needed to make a run for it and couldn’t rely on getting food, she realized as she thought back on her actions. “No, just seven, please. Sorry.” Her head was starting to throb now, pulsing behind her left temple. The buzzing returned, and it seemed to her that if she just cocked an ear and listened, she could hear somepony speaking. Her forelegs started to ache.

“Yeah, whateva.” He shrugged and began to dish food out, which Shady then distributed among the others.

As they approached the platform, Shady Blossom tried not to listen to the buzzing. For some reason she couldn’t quite put her hoof on, it didn’t feel like a good idea to try. Her certainty that she was being watched increased tenfold, however, and she started to scan the station continuously. They reached the platform and the fillies hopped up onto a bench to wait.

It was when the others were about to settle down that she glimpsed something glinting among a stack of luggage laid out on the platform. She shouted “There!” and sprang into the air with powerful thrusts of her wings. Dive-bombing, she tackled a dark shape lurking behind one of the pillars and hiding among the stack of luggage, and there was a surprised gasp of another pony losing all of the air in his lungs.

The figure struggled, hooves flailing, but she was fast, faster than she could have believed. Wrapping her lower legs around the dark pony’s midsection, she tilted her whole weight and spun them both around, slamming him into the ground a second time. Pinning his rear hooves to his sides, she reached down and yanked his forehooves around, immobilizing them behind his back, eliciting a girlish squeal from her captive as she tugged.

It was at that point that her head cleared. Quite abruptly, Shady Blossom realized she was straddling and rather effectively disabling another pony, one half again her own weight. It was, moreover, not another thestral, but merely a grey-coated pegasus stallion with a midnight mane. A camera, one that he had evidently been using, had clattered to the floor beside him, popping open and spilling a roll of film out.

Stunned bystanders cleared quickly when station security and both pegasus police officers dove in to the scene. The crowd formed in a circle around them, heedless of the scattered luggage as they clambered for a better look.

“What happened?” Jaybird demanded, moving to push Shady Blossom up and take up pinning the strange stallion.

Before Shady could answer, another mare in the crowd shouted, “That stallion was taking photos of ponies from behind the luggage! I saw him snapping pictures!”

Even as Surfline picked up the camera to peer at the film, Shady Blossom’s memory rewound as well. She realized she had caught the gleam of a camera lens from behind the concealment of the stacked bags and boxes. It was as if she could see the scene in a different light, the camerapony revealed in her memory where she had thought she’d only seen a blur before.

How in the blazes had I been able to do that? Stunned, she stared at the pegasus she had struck. Spot a tiny thing like that in the middle of a crowded station...?

“Celestia’s flanks. Can you believe it?” one of the station guards said, disgusted, as he held back the crowd.

“Next time, ma’am, please report this to somepony in authority,” Surfline informed her, closing up the camera. “That was dangerously close to excessive force.”

“I’m sorry,” Shady muttered. “I thought... I thought he was the thestral.”

The two police officers looked down at the stallion, sharing a quick nod. “If a pony saw this guy in the dark, she could think he was a thestral, especially if he was covered up,” Jaybird suggested. “Maybe wearing armor, he’d pass for one without too much effort, if no pony could see him clearly.”

“It’s pure speculation.” Surfline shook his head, frowning. “Still, it’s worth asking him some questions. Can run him in for stalking, at the very least. This guy has a whole reel of the Seed family.”

“Well, ma’am,” Jaybird said, chipper. “If this is our culprit, we may owe you an apology for not catching him sooner.”

“Heh,” Shady Blossom said, looking blankly at the stallion she had knocked down. The buzzing, the soreness in her legs, and the headache were all gone, as was the sensation of being watched. She didn’t recognize him in the slightest, but the photos of her and her family indicated a rather unwholesome interest of some sort. Sufficiently so that she didn’t feel too bad for plowing his face into the floor.

“Whoa, that was so cool!” Scootaloo hopped up and cleared the distance faster than the others, thanks to her rapidly beating wings. “Where did you learn those awesome moves? Whoosh, bam!”

“I...” Shady said, searching her memory. “My dad. He taught me. Night Guard.” That sounds right; of course he taught me. She could remember receiving lessons back in her cloud home, now that she stopped to think about it, with memories of a hard-jawed thestral staring at her.

“You gotta teach me. Rainbow Dash has been showing me some kung fu, but that was neat, too!”

“Sure, kiddo,” she said, her voice strangely dull. The others raced up, the fillies looking on in awe. Barry Seed and Applejack, however, were both giving her uncertain looks.

“Wow, mom, didja catch the bad guy?” Babs asked.

“Huzzah... somepony get the number on that thestral...” the grey pegasus slurred as he was hauled up by Surfline. Jaybird stood by, not trying to fade back into the crowd again, but staying close to the Seeds.

It seemed ridiculous to think that this was the end of it. A staged attack, pulled by a stranger, and then foiled in broad daylight by pure coincidence. Were it not for the fact that the sense of danger had passed and the buzzing had gone, Shady Blossom might have been waiting for the other horseshoe to drop.

Instead, she smiled radiantly and embraced her husband. “I don’t know, honey,” she told Babs, “but I’m feeling a little better about things, at least.”

“Sweetie Belle! Darling!” a high, cultured voice called.

“Rarity!” Sweetie squealed and leapt to tackle a white unicorn who had gravitated to the scene. The sisters collided and bounced off an enormous train of luggage behind the older mare. “It was so cool! Shady Blossom just took down the bad guy, right in front of us!”

“Oh! That’s just wonderful, dear. Excellent for you,” Rarity said. She beamed as she greeted the others and extended a polished hoof. “I was worried I’d have to take Sweetie home with me, and that would have been a terrible disappointment to her, I’m sure.”

“Darned right,” Sweetie Belle agreed, her curly tail practically wagging.

“It’s very nice to meet you,” Shady Blossom said, taking the hoof. “Lin Seed and Sweetie have told me a lot about you. I actually wore a variant of one of your Gala dresses to an event with my husband. The Starry Night?”

“Twilight’s dress!” Rarity gushed. “Yes, of course, that would look marvelous on you. Though, I might say, I’d have altered it considerably to take in the effect of your wings. A silver chain, just so, would set them off beautifully.”

“I’ll have to remember that. Come on, let me introduce you to the rest of the family. Lin is dying to meet you,” Shady said, gesturing with a wing.

With her husband helping carry the luggage and the foals clustering around Rarity, they all started on their way back to the Oranges..

Lin Seed sat rapt as Rarity nattered on about her time in Canterlot. The teenaged filly had taken a minute to polish herself up in Mrs. Orange’s powder room and throw on a simple dress. It struck Shady Blossom that her stepdaughter had armored herself, as if overwhelmed by the presence of the fashion designer and in need of additional protection.

With the mixed stories she had heard, Shady Blossom herself had half expected Rarity to be either a socialite to the core, demanding and impossible to please, or a saint, and was pleased to find that her latest guest was a happy medium instead. She lodged no complaints about the accommodations, opting instead to complain about the noise and crudeness of the city ponies. Her small talk, light and airy, served as a pleasing distraction for Shady and Lin around the dinner table, even if Barry, Applejack, and the girls were more interested in a board game on the coffee table.

Eventually, though, Rarity moved on to weightier matters. “Absolutely dreadful business, the matter that brought me here. I put my affairs in Canterlot on hold and came as soon as I could, of course, though I wish I could have arrived sooner. Better, have come with Sweetie Belle in the first place.”

“It’s all right,” Shady said, having anticipated the response as well. “With any luck, it’s been resolved, and we’ve all sort of gotten used to it. It’ll be sad to see the girls go, of course. We’d been all set to receive them for a couple weeks, but this whole mess has just, well...”

“Been a mess,” Lin agreed.

“I don’t see why that need change, actually,” Rarity opined. “Why, if the danger has passed, why not permit the girls to stay on?”

“Even if it was—and I’m not saying I entirely believe that it is,” Shady said, “our house is a wreck. We’re not going to lay claim to the Oranges’ apartment for several weeks.”

“Au contraire, Miss Blossom,” Rarity said, looking at her over the teacup she floated delicately before her with a sly smile. “I live in Ponyville, and there have been more than a few disasters there I’ve had to help clean up. I cannot fix gross structural damage, of course, but a little household magic should straighten it up as good as new, with some help moving the heavy things and arranging it to your liking.”

Shady blinked and smiled back. “That would be marvelous, actually. Thank you.”

Lin Seed opened her mouth, doubtless prepared to steer the topic back to fashion and Canterlot, but a knock at the door interrupted her. Rising, she went to check the peephole before opening the door. “Detective Noir! Nice to see you again,” she said, stepping aside.

The detective mare stepped in. She had neglected to wear her trenchcoat, though she still wore her fedora over her black mane. “Thank you, Miss Seed. I was wondering if I could have a word with... ah, Mr. Seed and Mrs. Blossom, yes,” Petite Noir said, nodding towards the couple.

“Ah, yes, of course.” Shady gestured her over. The board game was abandoned as the others crowded about.

Noir gave the fillies a skeptical look, but Barry waved her on. “It’s all right. They’ll find out anyway.”

“Very well,” she said, her hat lifting to reveal her glowing horn as she levitated her note pad. “There were a few questions I wanted to ask Mrs. Blossom, and I thought I’d catch you up on the developments in the case while I was here.”

“You can call me Shady. What did you find out, Detective?” Shady asked.

“We questioned the stallion you brought in. He’s being stubborn, but we found press credentials on him—the Fillydelphia Tribune. Right now we’re operating under the notion that somepony in the department or one of your neighbors leaked the case to him. He’s still considered a suspect, and we’re contacting his editor to see what assignments he was on.”

Shady deflated. Unless he’d been assigned to watch them before the incident ever occurred, she knew that meant she had not, in fact, caught the right pony. Barry Seed set his big hoof on her shoulder, giving her a quick embrace.

“More encouragingly, the Canterlot Guard says they’ve detained Miss Star Gazer, and we should get that report soon. They’ll question her, and, with luck, we can put an end to this whole affair.”

“Well, hopefully that settles it.” Shady shook her head, feeling a little disappointed as she contemplated the possibility. Star Gazer returning to her old ways was a tragic and fairly dark way for this to end. She wondered what it bode for the other members of the Order who had also supposedly reformed.

“There were just a few loose ends I wanted to tie up, too,” Noir went on. “Velvet Curtain also left that night. I was wondering if you could give us a forwarding address?”

“Ah? Yes, of course.” Shady nodded. “She should be with one of the Applewood studios; I can give you the name and address before you go.”

“Right. Has anything unusual happened over the last few days? Any strange ponies, any peculiar incidents?”

“Not really.” Shady shook her head, glancing to the others. Each of them repeated her gesture in turn, and Petite Noir made annotations in her little booklet.

“I think that should be all, thank you. Ladies, gentleman.” Noir put her hat back on and tilted it towards the family.

Lin showed her to the door, and Shady fetched her the contact information she had promised. When she returned to the table, Rarity twirled her curly mane about a hoof.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Lin asked.

“It occurs, dears, that perhaps we ought to have brought this matter to the attention of certain important ponies long before this,” Rarity said.

“Wha’d’ya mean?” Applejack asked, looking up from the board game, which had evidently resumed.

“Should we not inform Princess Luna that elements of her—” Rarity made a scrunched face “—let us say cult have re-emerged?”

“Shucks, Rarity, we can’t go botherin’ the princesses for every little thing.”

“It’s hardly a little thing for a family to be attacked by a nightmare, Applejack,” Rarity chided, giving her friend a wry look.

“Fair point,” Applejack muttered. “I s’pose we could send off a letter, askin’ if she knows anything.”

“Or if she wants to help.”

“Yeah, well, that too.”

Shady blushed, squirming. “I’m not sure how comfortable I’d feel soliciting help from Princess Luna, of all ponies.”

“She’s kind of a big deal to thestrals,” Scootaloo said, in a tone that suggested she was now an expert. “They’ve got a park devoted to it and everything.”

“It’d be great to meet a princess.” Babs looked to her friends. “What’s she like, anyways?”

“Tall.” Scootaloo waved a hoof above her head.

“Beautiful,” Sweetie Bell gushed.

Apple Bloom swept part of the board, planting a token triumphantly. “She’s real nice, even if she talks kinda funny sometimes. Always lookin’ out for other ponies, makin’ sure they’re safe and stuff.”

Shady waved a hoof at Rarity. “Seriously, don’t impose.”

“Nonsense, dear! She won’t mind at all.” Rarity rose and liberated some of the Oranges’ stationary. “I’ll have a letter out without the hour. It should arrive tonight if I catch the afternoon pickup time.”

“Oh, dear.” Shady grimaced.

“Might have to take extra care cleanin’ up the house, if there’s a chance of royalty visiting,” Barry said. “What say we head down later and get to preparing?”

“Cutie Mark Crusaders janitors, yay!”

With the help of Rarity, Jaybird, and Surfline, fixing up the house was a surprisingly easy task, considering the damage dealt. The fillies ran around with dustbins in their teeth, while Lin Seed fixed up the kitchen. With the damaged windows and walls patched up by a contractor, the replacement furniture was easy to move in with some muscle and magic. Rarity’s spells cleaned hard-to-reach fixtures, repaired damaged frames and photos, and even spruced up the decorations. She replaced their fading wallpaper and old curtains, sewing the latter and then attaching them with a flash of power.

By the time night fell, they were tired but just about done. Up in the master bedroom, Shady Blossom and Applejack were cleaning up. They’d replaced the sheets on the town bed and taken down the damaged outfits in the closet.

“I hope Rarity can do something for these.” Shady sighed, looking at a shredded dress and one of Barry’s suits—he might actually be pleased the latter was destroyed, given how much he complained about the fit.

“Can’t believe that’s it. I s’pose they’ll be figurin’ the story out in Canterlot.” Applejack swept her hat off and wiped sweat from her brow after they finished righting a dresser. “And that photographer. If he did it, what might have driven him to it, you reckon?”

“Who can say?” Shady Blossom shook her head as she started for the door. “It’s not impossible that he was hurt by the Order, too, some time in the past. He could have wanted to get back at any thestral he found. Maybe he didn’t like Barry and me being together? Maybe it had to do with Barry, one of his business rivals getting back at him? For all I know, this was just a sick act and he needs help. Most likely, his editors just wanted him to follow up on the story and Star Gazer was the one who did it.”

“If so, she needs help. Ain’ no pony with sense does somethin’ like that.” Applejack growled. On their way down they passed Surfline and Barry, who were going into Lin’s room.

The garden, for its part, had been mostly left alone, aside from the greenhouse windows—a section of them had been smashed in completely. They swept the broken glass up, and then Shady Blossom left to fetch a stepladder for Applejack to help her in patching the broken part. As she returned, she found Applejack staring at the soil in the back.

“Yes, I know, those flowers are completely diseased and need to go.” Shady rolled her eyes with a smile.

Applejack nudged the earth, which was covered with dead, blotched flowers. “Ain’ that. Look, someone’s gone and completely uplifted this part.”

Shady frowned, looking at the planter. “I don’t see anything wrong.”

Applejack gave her a puzzled look. “Ain’ you a gardener? Well, nevermind, let’s have a look-see.” Her hooves worked the earth, digging it away.

“Applejack, wait a second.” Shady glanced back at the house. “Shouldn’t we call for Jaybird? What if something was left there?”

“Sure was.” Applejack tapped something hard.

“Oh, gosh,” Shady Blossom said, looking at the exposed object. “I can’t believe it!”

“What is it?” Applejack asked, staring down.

“My hope chest,” she growled, pulling it out from the planter with help from Applejack. A white paneled box bound with black iron, it slid out the hole to rest in front of the planter. She pointed a hoof at the lock, which was dangling, torn off by what seemed like great strength.

“Now that’s all sorts of sick. Think she was lookin’ for blackmail, maybe?”

“Can’t imagine what she’d find,” Shady said, but then hesitated, one hoof on the lid. “Why did she bury it, anyway? How did she get it out of my closet?” For some reason, the chest felt intensely private, for more reasons than just its relation to her wedding. Something’s wrong... something... oh, don’t tell me the buzzing is back again!

The greenhouse suddenly seemed a lot smaller than it was, the sense of eyes on her again. Staring up, Shady Blossom tried to see if there was anypony watching. Outside there was nothing but shifting shadows, which could have held anypony or no pony at all.

“Well?” Applejack asked, still fixated on the chest. “Let’s have a peek.”

“Wait, don’t!” Shady Blossom shouted, feeling as if a vise were on her. She leapt for the chest, but it was too late. Applejack’s hoof had kicked it open.

Flames leapt in Shady’s vision. A terrible keening wail pierced her thoughts.

The buzzing became a roar. Voices howled at her.

They won’t leave, they won’t stop. Why can’t I stop them? What—

Applejack stared at the contents of the chest. Stacks of jars filled with orange jelly were packed carefully, sealed with lead but for a thin filament leading from each one—there was space for two that were not there. Papers were stacked, lists of names, locations, and times, including the movements of important city and state officials. There was a diagram of the above-ground rail lines around town and another of the train tracks leading to and from Manehattan, with locations circled and noted. A map of City Hall was marked in similar fashion, red marks indicating structural lines and emergency exits. There was a map of the city, with thestral-owned houses and businesses stenciled in. Hoof knives, wing blades, vials of clear liquid, needles, darts, and more lined the sides of the trunk.

The night will last forever, voices around her were chanting, heartfelt and eager. Down with the sun! Down with the Tyrant! Down with Celestia!

Above them all, pinned proudly on the underside of the lid, a midnight banner hung. Its upturned crescent moon was swallowing the sun, and rays of deep blue and purple radiated off it.

Light was dawning in Applejack’s eyes. Her face turned white, and she looked at Shady Blossom, her face slack and uncomprehending.

Raise the black banner! The night shall last forever!

“I’m sorry, AJ,” Shady Blossom said, her voice dull. Faster than either mare could believe, she snapped a hoof into Applejack’s throat. The thrust crushed her windpipe immediately.