A pair of pegasi looked up as they walked through the south gate of Everfree. A slightly younger pegasus landed in front of them. "Got your message," Featherdancer said, "I'm the only flyer, so the others are waiting."
Midnight - currently a bat pony, but wearing his harness - nodded. "Hope nopony was too worried."
The younger colt shook his head. "Nah, most everypony figured she'd wind up finding you."
Moonchaser's scandalized tirade became the background rhythm for their walk to Palatial Lane.
Dust Runner came trotting up as they neared the house. After the requisite checking up on Moonchaser, she looked over at Midnight. "We've got a problem. Sunbeam got in touch with her contact network to see if any of them knew where Moonchaser was. Obviously, they didn't find her, but Sunny found out about somepony else who needs help. She's inside with her right now, Midnight, you and Featherdancer should probably go talk with them. Moonchaser, your... Lady Starshadow is waiting for you in her room... She also said to tell you that she understands if you don't want to see her."
Moonchaser stepped into the room slowly. Glancing around, she made several observations about the state of the room... and it's occupant. She could hear Dust runner shutting the door behind her and glanced back to see that her friend had stayed outside. She wasn't sure whether to be grateful for the privacy or hurt by the abandonment.
Sighing, she began walking again, coming to the edge of Starshadow's bed. She could hear the mare breathing on the other side of the curtain hanging from the canopy, but it seemed as if she was waiting for Moonchaser to speak.
The young mare let out another sigh, "I... I'm sorry. I'm sorry for what I said yesterday. I was hurt, and angry, and... and I don't know what else. Honestly, I'm still hurt and angry. It will take me a while to get to the point where I'm not. But... but I don't hate you. And I'm willing to... no, I want to heal our relationship. It'll probably never be quite the same again, but..."
She trailed off as a weak pair of hooves gingerly wrapped around her neck. Opening the eyes she didn't know she had closed, Moonchaser looked down at the shaking form of the frail mare. Gently, she wrapped her own hooves around Starshadow and pulled her off the bed, gently cradling her to let her know she wasn't going to disappear. "Oh Mother..."
The pair sat in silence after that, the rest of the world nonexistant.
"Before I say anything else, I want one thing clear from the outset. I don't want anypony to ever ask me if I love my mother or not. That mare is a sadistic bitch that Equestria and the world would be far better off without."
Midnight blinked in surprise at the mare sitting before him. Her name was definitely fitting, everything about the unicorn seemed to pour flames and thorns. Her tan, almost peach coat providing the wood fueling the burning in her red mane and yellow eyes, her cutie mark of a burning rose, even her voice.
This was Firebrand Rose.
He had been introduced to her by Featherdancer and Sunbeam when he walked in to the small sitting room (A different one, they were still fixing the hole in the wall on the other one), but conversation had been held off for a while until Dust Runner had entered and told them that Moonchaser and Starshadow were going to be awhile. Apparently she was an old friend of Sunbeam's from the early days of her thieving career.
Suppressing a sigh, Midnight prepared mentally to help another mare realize that her mother wasn't as bad as she thought she was, only to turn in shock as Sunbeam spoke.
"Yeah, sounds about right."
"Wh-what?"
The former thief rolled her eyes. "Oh come on now Midnight, you don't really think that everypony's decent, do you? Not all the bad ones wind up in the guard like Ever Wyte."
Firebrand coughed. "I should probably explain... My father was an amazing stallion, and I'm proud to be called his daughter. His wife Vinegar on the other hand..." She shook her head. "I still have no idea how my parents wound up together. The orphanage was my dad's life, but her... I seriously don't know where they could have met, let alone how they ended up hitched to the same wagon. After Dad died two years ago, I honestly expected her to cut and run.
"Shame she didn't, it would have left me free to run the orphanage and actually help them. Now? She's just soaking up the funding and running extras on the side. If I weren't pulling strings behind the scenes, we'd probably be a brothel by now. That's what she seems to think is the most profitable at least, given the number of times she's tried to sell Updraft.
"Last week though, I realized how far she's upped her game. There have been a couple of in-and-out orphans since Dad died, but I was never able to get too close to them. Then we had another one show up, a griffon chicklet. This one wasn't quite as shy as the others, less scared of us. Oh, and one more thing:
"She's not an orphan.
"Not uncommon to hear, 'they're coming back for me' and all that, so I brushed it off at first. Which is when she got angry and told me she'd been foalnapped. Chicknapped? Whichever.
"So I snuck into the main office and checked her file, only to find she didn't have one. Vinegar thinks she's so clever keeping her valuable documents in a secret compartment in the desk." Furebrand rolled her eyes. "It might have been a little safer if Dad hadn't shown it to me more than once while I was growing up.
"Anyway, long story short, this little grifflet had been taken as leverage. Her parents were causing a bit of a stir, so she had been taken hostage to rein them in. Same thing had been going on with most of the other orphans that arrived after Dad died.
"The problem is, I looked into all the others and found that they all matched with seriously bad stuff going down. Usually it involved that family dying.
"Second problem? I think the Draconequi are running out of use for us. Our funding is drying up, and the short-timers have been less and less often over the past six months. Another few months and the orphanage will starve."
Midnight's eyes had been closed while he was listening. He opened them an tipped his head to one side as he met the unicorn's eyes. "So why are you coming to us?"
Featherdancer spun to face his brother. "You can't be serious! You're not going to help!?"
"I didn't say that, I was just wondering what made us special enough that she would come to us for help."
"Why would that matter!? She needs help and-"
Dust Runner cut him off, "Featherdancer, I think he's trying to figure out what exactly she's expecting. What she's heard about us and our circle of friends."
"Who cares what she's heard!? Ponies need us to-"
"Oh for crying out loud!" Sunbeam shouted in exasperation, "For somepony whose special talent is angles, you're terrible at subtlety! Since all hope of being covert about this is out the window at this point... Featherdancer. Midnight is trying to figure out is she knows."
"If she knows wha-" Featherdancer trailed of mid-exclamation. "Oh... Oops... Sorry?"
The other three let out gentle signs of tired patience and turned back to their guest. Sunbeam was the one who asked, "So do you know?"
Firebrand shook her head. "No. I'm guessing that you're all protecting some kind of secret, but I have no idea what it is. I came to you because you have Sunbeam. First and foremost because she's my friend, but also because she's the Mare in the Mist. Sunbeam, you're the best thief in Everfree, so I've got two potential jobs for you. I need you to help me get the money I need to keep the orphanage running.
"But before we do that, I need you to help me steal a grifflet."