Restless in Hoofington

In the back room of her arcane shop, Rune’s horn is lit and her tongue sticks out one side of her mouth as she focuses. With a few more strokes of magic, she lets the glow fade, admiring the now enchanted gem in front of her. Lifting it with her hoof, she feels something tugging her in a specific direction, the force remaining constant no matter where she moves her hoof.

“Perfect.” She smiles at herself as she reattaches the gem to the necklace it came on, stowing her notes with her formulas in her safe. She double checks the product one more time before nodding and trotting out to the waiting mare with the saddle. “Here you are, ma’am, exactly as you ordered. You’ll now be able to track your bracelet with this, or vice versa.” Setting the jewelry down next to the piece she had worked on a moment ago, she starts discussing payment and soon has a very satisfied customer exiting the shop and leaving her a bag of bits wealthier than when she came in.

Rune giggles to herself as she stows the money. “I love ponies that have personal projects. Interesting, custom, and profitable. Wins for everypony.” Seeing nopony else in the shop, she shrugs and plops herself down on her nice cushion, pulling a book out from under it and cracking it open.

She barely gets a couple paragraphs in before the door opens, two young ponies walking into the shop, one of whom she recognizes very well. “Hi, mom!”

Standing up, Rune walks over and bring Autumn into a quick hug. “Welcome back, sweetie. Who’s your friend?”

Autumn smiles, gesturing to the thestral following behind her. “This is Nightshade. She’s the new student I told you about yesterday. Nightshade, this is my mother.”

Smiling at the huggy mare, Nightshade holds out a hoof. “Nice to meet you, ma’am!”

Rune smiles back, letting Autumn go and taking the other filly’s hoof. “Well, aren’t you a polite young thestral? No need to call me ‘ma’am’, though; just Rune is fine.”

Blinking, the batpony nonetheless smiles and shakes the hoof. “If you say so, Miss Rune.”

The mare lets go, looking between the two of them. “So, I take it you two had plans then?”

Autumn shrugs sheepishly. “Sort of, but not really...we planned to spend the day together, but not really how we would.”

“Ah, going spontaneous.” Rune nods understandingly. “Well, be sure to let me know if there’s anything I can do to help out. I’ll be heading home in an hour or two, so you’re more than welcome to hang out there if it’s what you decide.”

The young unicorn smiles. “We’ll keep it in mind. For now, though, we’re probably just going to walk around town for a while. I just wanted to check in with you and introduce you to Nightshade.”

The batpony waves. “Hi!”

Giggling, Rune waves back. “Hello! Quite the new friend you’ve got here, Autumn. I like her.”

Nightshade puts her hooves in the air. “Woo! Parental approval!”

Autumn giggles. “You’re so silly, Night. Is it okay if I call you Night?”

“Yep!” She nods, smiling. “I don’t think I have a short name for you yet… I’ll think of one eventually.”

“Good luck. Not much to work with. My name’s already just ‘Autumn’.” She laughs a bit to herself.

“I’ll think of something… it’s a challenge now.” She puts a hoof to her chin in thought.

Autumn rolls her eyes playfully. “Well, while you think, should we start walking? We can stop by that produce shop and see if they found out whoever stole from them.”

Nightshade’s ear had perked up at the word produce, but they fold back down halfway at the mention of stolen goods. Rune’s do the same thing, though her eyes grow sharp and maternal as she raises an eyebrow at the two of them.

The mare speaks directly. “Autumn… exactly what are you planning on doing at that recent crime scene?”

The unicorn blinks, surprised. “Huh? Nothing, mom! I mean...Alloy and I heard yesterday that the guy running the place got robbed, and...well, I just wanted to know if they found the pony yet. That’s all!”

“Ah…” Rune eases up a bit, her usual smile coming back, though a little calmer than normal. “Alright then, I suppose that’s a fair question. I just didn’t want you getting into anything dangerous, sweetie.” She leans down and nuzzles her affectionately.

Nightshade lets out an “Aww…” as she watches. Autumn, who was nuzzling back, jerks away self-consciously with a slightly reddened face when she is suddenly reminded of somepony else being in the room. Now it’s Rune’s turn to let out an “Aww…” though this one has a much different tone.

Autumn coughs awkwardly as she composes herself. “S-Sorry...Night just startled me.”

Suddenly, she is swept up by surprisingly strong yet soft green hooves, her mother nuzzling her unabashedly before setting her back down and fixing her mane with a little magic. “Nopony can escape a mother’s love. Now, I believe you two had a little exploring to do?”

Blushing brightly, but giggling a bit, Autumn nods and looks to Nightshade. “Sh-should we get going?”

She nods. “If you’re ready. I can wait if there’s more nuzzling that needs to be done.”

“I think we’re done.” The young unicorn looks to her mother almost expectantly, smirking slightly. “Are we?”

“Hmm…” Rune thinks a moment before nodding. “I think so. I can always give you another nuzzle when you get home anyway.” She sticks out her tongue cheekily.

Autumn giggles and sticks her own tongue out back at her. “I’ll hold you to that.” Smiling, she trots to the door and opens it. “Let’s go, Night. Bye mom!”

“Have fun and stay safe you two!” The little bell above the door signals the two teenagers’ exit back into the city.

As she and Alloy did the day before, Autumn finds herself leading the way down the road by various shops and small businesses. Since it’d be a short while before they got to the produce shop, Autumn decides to start up some conversation.

“So, Nightshade...” she begins, pausing briefly. “I don’t mean to sound insulting, but...what are you, exactly? Mom called you a ‘the-’ something...”

“Thestral,” the young mare corrects, not minding. “It’s the proper name for my tribe. Someponies also call us batponies, but that’s more slang than anything else. I take it I’m your first?”

Autumn nods. “I actually haven’t met any ponies aside from earth, pegasus, or unicorns at all. Hoofington doesn’t seem to be very diverse in that regard...” She shakes her head for a moment. “So, um...what do thestrals eat? You don’t suck blood like a vampire, do you?”

“No, think less ‘vampire bat’ and more ‘fruit bat’,” Nightshade explains simply and openly. “We do like the juicy ones the best though, and we can get a little odd when we eat the fruit sometimes, but no, no blood.” She pauses in thought. “Although… we do like to bite and nibble when we’re playful…”

Autumn blinks at this. “Playful…?”

Realizing she mused out loud, the batpony giggles sheepishly. “Umm, yeah. Like… siblings and friends will sometimes nip eartips occasionally, and couples will… let’s just say there’s more. It’s affectionate.”

“Oh...” The unicorn flicks her own ear in thought. “Never really considered biting to be a form of affection, but...alright then.”

“It’s not like it’s full on teeth-sinking stuff,” she defends. “Think like… barely brushing your hoof on somepony, but with your teeth. Occasionally you do it a little harder, but never to hurt.”

Autumn nods slowly. “I guess that makes sense...” She looks up as a familiar shop comes into view. “Oh, we’re here!”

Looking up at the shop, Nightshade keeps her expression blank, if tense. After a moment, she pulls out an orange from her saddlebags, sinking her teeth into and sucking lightly, calming down.

Her friend notices this and tilts her head. “Is something wrong?”

The thestral shakes her head, smiling around the fruit but not making an effort to take it out of her mouth as she drinks from it. She motions forward with a hoof. Still a little concerned, Autumn sighs and trots into the shop.

The shopkeeper, standing behind his counter writing a few things down, looks up at them as they enter. “Ah, what can I do for you two fillies today?” His eyes momentarily look at the fruit in the thestral’s mouth, but he just chuckles and looks at the one of them that can actually speak.

“Well, you’re definitely feeling better,” Autumn notes with a smirk. “Found out what happened a couple nights ago?”

The friendly smile sinks somewhat. “What happened was never in question. It was who and why.” He makes one more stroke on his paper. “Cops aren’t making too big of a deal about it, and after I had a night or two to sleep on it, I guess it far from bankrupted me. Still wish I could get my hooves on them, but beyond that…” He shrugs.

“Hey, at least with all the commotion it’s caused, I doubt they’ll try again.” Finished her conversation, Autumn begins looking over the products available, glancing back at Nightshade occasionally.

The batpony just sucks at her fruit, her eyes roaming over the inventory.

The owner looks at them curiously. “What’s got you so curious about this nasty business anyway, little lady?”

The unicorn shrugs. “For one thing, curiosity. I did sort of walk in on you discussing things with the police. For another, it’s something interesting to talk about, at least. School talk gets boring after the first few sentences.”

Nightshade giggles as the storepony lets out a short laugh. “Ain’t that the truth? Well, I guess all that makes sense. Here I thought with a cutie mark like yours, you were trying to do a little investigating for a future with the guard.”

Autumn giggles, glancing back at her mark; a silver shield with a red leaf on it. “It’s more just to represent my ability with shield magic. I don’t think I’d be good at the whole ‘officer’ or ‘guard’ thing.” She looks at Nightshade once more, eyes narrowing a bit. “Okay, no way is there any juice left in that. Say something. You’re creeping me out.”

Taking the citrus fruit out of her mouth with a wing, the now hollow fruit collapsing in on itself like a deflated ball, she smiles apologetically. “Sorry, didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable…”

The unicorn sighs in relief, giggling. “For a while there, I thought you went mute.” She goes back to looking over the available foods, soon adopting a look of confusion. “Now that I think about it...who would steal from a produce shop? Furthermore, who would take so little? Not a lot went missing, like you said.”

Throwing her orange peel away, Nightshade offers her two cents and two words. “Hungry ponies?”

The shopkeeper shrugs, waving a hoof in the air in a circle. “Honestly, if I had to put bits on anyone, it’d probably be on that Restless gang that popped up a while back.”

“Restless?” Autumn turns away from the shelves to look at the shopkeeper. “Who’re they?”

“Nopony really knows,” the produce pony answers. “Heck, nopony even knows what they look like. They’re always in these uniforms that cover them from head to hoof.” He leans forward a bit, his voice lowering. “They haven’t minded being seen when they do certain things, usually scaring somepony into doing something, but other little crimes that happen around town might be connected to them as well. Nopony can get a real connection between them though, so unless one of them gets actually caught, nothing can be done.”

Nightshade listens attentively, tufted ears perked. Autumn listens as well, though less interested and more confused. “What do they do, exactly?”

“That’s the thing; the only things they’ve been seen doing is stuff like vandalism. You know; breaking windows, trashing things, writing and leaving messages.” He hums thoughtfully. “It makes them sound like just a group of teenagers rebelling and being a general pain in the flank. Then you get stuff like this we think they did, but can’t prove it. This makes them seem like some sort of professional criminal group, but the crimes are always relatively small.” He shakes his head. “It’s all very strange…”

“Huh...” Autumn takes a moment to think to herself about this, eventually snapping out of her trance. She turns to Nightshade, trying to steer the topic in a new direction. “Hey, want another orange? I’ll pay.”

The thestral lights up from her more glassy state that she had been in since they entered. “Really?! Umm…” She scuffs her hoof against the ground. “Actually, could I have a peach?”

Autumn giggles as she takes out a small pouch of bits, turning to the shopkeeper. “Sure thing. One peach, please.”

“Sure thing.” Within moments, the produce pony has a peach in a small paper bag. “That’ll be two bits.” Nodding, the unicorn pays for the fruit and levitates the paper bag to her thestral friend.

She licks her lips, but doesn’t immediately dive in yet. Looking at her friend, she smiles. “Thanks Autumn.”

Autumn smiles back. “No problem.” Waving goodbye to the shopkeeper, she leads the way out, back into the street. “So, where to now?”

Shrugging, Nightshade digs her treat out of the bag. “I dunno. You seem to be fun and nice wherever we go, so it doesn’t matter to me.” She opens her mouth to bite into the fruit, only to pause and look at the other young mare coyly. “Bet you’re happy I bite fuzzy fruits instead of fuzzy pony necks, huh?”

The unicorn shudders, putting a hoof to the side of her neck. “Not something I want to think about.” Still, she smirks back. “I don’t think I’d taste very good anyway.”

“I could always let you know for sure.” The batpony snaps her teeth playfully in Autumn’s direction. “I could be gentle.”

Her smirk doesn’t fade. “Careful; I might take you up on that.”

“And I might call that bluff. Aren’t we a pair?” Night giggles, sticking her tongue out and closing one eye.

Autumn laughs, bumping shoulders lightly with the thestral. “I think we’re gonna get along just fine.”

A little bit later, the two schoolfillies walk through one of the more budgeted housing areas. Nightshade leads the way, going over to a particular house that isn’t rundown or anything, but most would prefer something a little more. Still, one cannot deny this is a home.

Pausing at the door, she turns to her friend. “Umm, one thing I forgot to mention; my dad works the night shifts at his job, so he sleeps during the day. So… just try not to make too much noise, even if he is a heavy sleeper, okay?”

Smiling, Autumn nods. “I’ll be as quiet as I can.” She mimes zipping her mouth closed.

“Heh, you probably don’t need to be worried too much. Just no yelling.” Turning around, she opens the door with a small key. Motioning for her friend to follow, she walks inside the dark house.

Opening up some blinds, the thestral sheds light into the cosy abode. It certainly isn’t as bare as one might assume from the outside. Paintings adorn the walls, mostly of mountains, suns, and moons, but there are quite a few of thestrals as well. Half of the furniture appears to be the usual wooden or fabric affair, but the other half like tables are actually stone. Quite a few different hues and textures are in evidence as Nightshade motions towards the small kitchen.

“Want anything to drink?” she asks.

“Sure,” Autumn replies with a smile, keeping her voice down. “Just some water, please.”

After a moment, Nightshade returns with a glass of water balanced on her wing, her other one tucked so she can get through the doorways. “Here you go.”

The unicorn giggles as she lifts the glass up. “Thank you.” She sips from it as she looks around at the interior of the room.

The batpony rubs the back of her head. “Yeah… it’s not too big, but at least we have all our stuff from our house we had before.”

“How did you get the stone furniture in here, if I may ask?” Autumn looks towards the stone coffee table in the living room. “It looks...really heavy.”

“It is, but dad said we’d never need another one as long as we had this one. It doesn’t rot or anything like wood does, and it doesn’t damage easily.” She starts walking towards the hall. “It did take a bit to get it in though… they had to take breaks.”

Autumn follows her. “Stone furniture, huh...I’d try it, but I think mom would have a fit if she found a rock chair or something in the living room.” She snickers.

“Heh, I’m sure it’d be a surprise.” She enters the first room on the left, setting her bags down next to the door. “Here we go, my room. Cozy, soft, and smells like fruit. Also black as a cave when I want it to be, but that’s just when I want to sleep.”

The room is modest, a one-pony bed with the head against the wall being the main eye-draw. It has what looks like four different layers of blankets on it and is obviously well used. There is a chest against another wall, and a closet in another. A small vanity sits a few feet away from the door, only a few things on it. There’s only one window, average size. The walls are painted a greyish colour while the carpet is dark, but the bit of color of the furniture and items makes it pop a bit more.

“Ooh...nice place,” Autumn says, slightly forcing a smile at the small room. She takes another drink of water to avoid having to say anything else on the topic.

“Thanks!” She literally dives onto her bed, shimmying under the topmost blanket and becoming nothing more than a moving bulge for a bit until she pokes her head out the bottom of it. “So let’s see… if stereotypes are to be believed, we should now braid manes, give makeovers, talk about colts, and do copious amounts of giggling, ending with a pillow fight.” She blows a raspberry. “While some of those sound fun, I’m not sure about all that. Plus we can make up our own fun.”

Autumn starts laughing, nearly spitting out her drink. “R-Really? That’s what you think friends do?”

Nightshade sticks her tongue out. “I didn’t say I believed it, I just said those were things that ponies think fillies our age do. I moved here, it’s not like we can go play in caves or fields like I’m used to.”

“Well, there’s always the park, or we can just head outside the city for a while...long walk, though.” Autumn sits on the bed beside the batpony. “So...what parts of that list do you think sound fun?” She smirks.

From under her blanket, Night thinks. “Well… playing with manes and tails could be fun… colts and makeovers are meh, giggling will happen anyway, maybe pillow fight.” She shrugs, pawing through the blanket at Autumn’s tail, not succeeding in doing much more than moving it.

The unicorn notices the pawing and grins, flicking her tail around. “Yeah, Alloy and I don’t really do much of that when we hang out either. Sometimes we end up in a pillow fight, but it’s really just unorganized smacking one another with a pillow for a few seconds because of a bad joke or prank.” She giggles at a recent memory of such an event.

“Sounds fun…” Her voice trails off as she narrows her eyes, trying to get the tail pinned while under the blanket it’s on. “What else do you and Alloy do then?”

Autumn keeps her tail still, only to flick it out of the way again at the last second, enjoying this little game. “Nowadays? Just sort of what you and I are doing now. Talk, goof around, maybe go for a walk or something. If we have a sleepover or something, sometimes we’ll indulge in those ‘stereotypes’ you brought up, but just for fun for a little while.”

“Yeah, sounds really like we’d just do best winging it unless we come up with something good…” She’s got all four hooves working under the blanket to get the tail now, providing the amusing visual of a determined head attached to a wriggling blanket. “Gonna get you…”

The unicorn finally relents, letting her tail stay still rather than flicking it out of the way, finding more entertainment in watching Nightshade slowly tangle herself up. “Making it up along the way is usually how I live my life, so it’s nothing new to me.”

Nightshade has just enough movement left to pin the tail between two hooves. “Gotcha!” She starts giggling before she notices she can’t really go anywhere now, having essentially tucked and tangled herself from within the blanket. “Oh… still got you… so umm… what did you mean by ‘nowadays’ that’s what you and Alloy do?”

Autumn sighs, her tail flicking lightly once more, though not of her own accord. “Long story...you’d probably be better off asking Alloy about that. She can explain it better.” She turns and lies on her stomach across the bed, levitating her now-empty glass onto the vanity.

The thestral under her tries to wiggle free. “Hey! No using me as a bed when I can’t say no! I can’t even talk to you face to face now… I just have to talk to your tail…”

Giggling, the unicorn rolls off of her and turns around so their heads are beside one another. “Better?”

“Yes, though it’d be a little better if you let me out. I’m starting to think you like me like this, all trapped.” Leaning her head, she flicks her mane up and down against Autumn. “Take that, you!”

Smirking, Autumn grabs the mane gently in her magic. “If you wanted out, you just had to say so. Though really, it is funny to see you tangled up like this.” She swats playfully at the thestral’s ear with one hoof as she stands up and hops off the bed, turning and starting to help get the blankets off of her.

Nightshade sticks her tongue out as she slowly gets untangled. “Maybe we should wrap you up in blankets then.”

“What makes you think I won’t just use magic to free myself?” Autumn sticks her own tongue out back at her, finally getting the blankets off completely.

“Well, if you’re going to be like that, I’ll just have to use these!” The thestral suddenly stands up tall, spreading her green leathery wings fully in a dramatic pose.

The pose is met with a slightly amused look and giggle. “You know there’s not a lot of room to fly in here, right?”

Nightshade mutters. “You were supposed to be impressed…” Clearing her throat, she lowers herself a bit. “Wings can be used for more than flying you know…” She smiles widely and mischievously as she narrows her eyes at Autumn, wings still spread.

The unicorn’s amused look slowly fades as she backs up a step. “Okay, getting creepy again...what are you doing?”

“Pouncing.” She does just that, launching herself at the unicorn and bringing the two of them down on the discarded blanket behind her. After a brief tumble, they end up laying side by side, the batpony’s wings wrapped snuggly around the unicorn, keeping her pinned. One wingtip playfully brushes across the blue horn of her friend as she speaks in a sing-song voice. “Who’s trapped now~?”

Mumbling incoherently as she is pressed against the thestral’s body, Autumn struggles feebly to free herself. She lights her horn to try and pry the wings off with magic, but as soon as it starts to glow, she gasps and the light goes out, interrupted by the brushing. Her struggling dies down a bit as she mumbles again.

“I know I have better hearing than you, but it doesn't help when you’re both quiet and incoherent.” Night giggles to herself as she watches the unicorn, her tail swishing happily.

Grumbling, Autumn starts trying to worm her way free once again, or at least get enough space around her muzzle that she can talk. After a few seconds of failing to achieve either goal, her struggles get a bit more frantic as she tries pushing Night away directly.

The thestral loosens up a little, but still holds onto her friend. “Umm… you aren’t claustrophobic, right?”

Finally able to get her face free, Autumn gasps for air, finally calming down her convulsions. She replies sheepishly, “K-Kind of...but the main problem was that I couldn’t breathe...” She sighs, finally stopping her struggles completely.

Night’s ears fold down as she quietly replies. “Oops… sorry… didn’t mean to do that…” She nuzzles her a little in apology. “Are you mad?”

Managing a smile, Autumn shakes her head. “No...just got a little freaked out for a moment...it’s fine.” She returns the friendly nuzzle.

“Good… I don’t want to hurt my friend.” She smiles once more, laying her head on the blanket. “Hey, quick question… how come you’re fluffier than most thestrals I’ve known? We’re usually pretty fluffy.” She wiggles her tufted ears for emphasis. “But you’re even fluffier than me! What’s your secret?”

The unicorn smirks playfully. “If I told you, it wouldn’t be a secret, would it?” Giggling, she shakes her head again. “I just got it from my mom, I guess. She’s really fluffy too. Apparently that got passed down to me.”

Giggling, Night thinks out loud. “I wonder if that’s why she likes to hug and nuzzle so much…”

“Maybe. I don’t mind, anyway. I like it too.” She snuggles against the thestral’s body.

This only causes the batpony to laugh more, squirming a little. “To think at one point I thought we should wrestle… this is much nicer.”

“Yup!” Autumn snickers at her friend’s reaction. “What’s wrong? Ticklish?”

Night tries to shy away, but really can’t at all due to holding Autumn to her, especially with one of her wings partially beneath them both. “Umm… maybe…” Her voice is a little nervous.

Autumn giggles. “I’m not gonna tickle you, don’t worry. I’m too comfy right now. You’re warm.” She snuggles closer again, more carefully this time, and rests her head on the blanket alongside Night’s.

“Heh, yeah… same to you…” The batpony’s tail wags a little more as she adjusts the wing on top of them, moving it from near Autumn’s horn to something more comfortable. Resting her head against her friend, she closes her eyes and sighs happily. “Now this is a good thing to do.”

“Agreed.” Autumn smiles and closes her own eyes as well, enjoying the comfort and the company in blissful silence.