The news of the great Vanhoover massacre spread through all of Equestria, though most ponies actually didn’t note it too much; it’d happened a lot lately. Rarely did ponies ever die, though; normally it was property damage and injuries. This was the worst death toll since the Los Pegasus Earthquake almost a hundred years ago. Two ponies and one hamster…
Princess Twilight was unlike most of Equestria in that she was the detective and diplomat of sorts out to all of the locations the unfortunate thing happened in, often Vanhoover. She was the one who went to the sites and met the distressed families who lived there, offering them condolences and at the same time doing detective work to figure out the cause of the dragon’s discontentment.
But that wasn’t an entirely emotionless task. An entire string of houses was nothing but ash, and she couldn’t just blink away the tears that came every time she heard of an incident like that. Seeing the destroyed furniture, toys, and just everyday household items just depressed her, and made her heart bleed for the poor ponies.
How in Equestria could she comfort these ponies? They’d lost everything, their homes, neighbors, even loved ones. It sent shivers through Twilight’s spine just thinking about it.
“Excuse me, Princess.”
The voice brought a halt to Twilight’s thoughts. She turned to look at the stallion and forced a smile, “Oh, I’m sorry, Justice. I was just thinking.”
“I know, but we’ll need to go within the next few minutes. It’s almost dinner time.”
“Oh… Okay. Sorry, I guess I lost track of time.” Twilight rubbed her cheek shyly.
“It’s alright, I just figured you should know…”
“Thank you for telling me." Twilight cast one more regretful look at the ruined city, and then trudged towards the golden car Princess Celestia had rented for her.
When they both got in the car, Justice, whose hands were on the wheel already, asked, "After dinner would you like to see the… uh..."
"The dragons who did this?" Twilight finished her temporary assistant's sentence, "No."
"Okay, I just thought it might help with closure or something."
"Thanks... But no thanks. They'll still be there in the morning.”
"As you wish." With that, he stuck his key in the ignition. “At which restaurant do you want to dine at?”
Twilight sighed once again. “The Bishop Memorial Eatery.”
"Alright. To the Bishop." He flicked his wrist, turning the key. The motor turned on with a quiet but satisfying grumble, before he stepped down on the pedal, propelling the car forward.
*****
While Justice and Twilight started eating, she asked the question, the one that stuck on her mind with pestilent determination. “So, do you know anything about the couple that was killed?”
The gray pony looked to Twilight, his eyes snapping away from the window through which he stared. “What?” he asked.
“Do you know anything about the ponies who were killed in the dragon attack? Or the hamster?”
Justice rubbed the back of his head, “Well… One was Noonblaze, a doctor at the Vanhoover hospital, and his wife, Honey Sweet, was a stay-at-home mom who’d sometimes make something for the county fair. To be honest, I didn’t know them too well.”
“Oh… What happened to their son?”
“He was placed in an orphanage, we haven’t found his next of kin. Not so sure about him, though. He kind of kept to himself for the most part.”
“Right…” Twilight sighed and averted her gaze to the window.
“Well… I still can’t tell you how much we appreciate you coming here and talking to everyone.”
“Hmm?” Twilight was a bit distracted, “Oh, uh, it’s not a problem. I’m happy to be here…” Twilight caught herself, “Well, not necessarily glad, but-”
“It’s fine,” he smiled, “I knew what you meant.”
Twilight gave a succinct nod. “Yeah…” For the hundredth time, her gaze slid to the window. “I can’t help but wonder what it is that is making the dragons act so… so aggressively.”
"It's in their nature, dragons are just born that way."
Twilight frowned, "They aren't all like that."
"I know how you feel about them, but doesn't it make you just a little suspicious of the pet?"
Twilight’s magically-lifted fork dropped, clanging loudly against the plate of greens. "You mean Spike?" Twilight asked, flatly. Her eyebrows creased.
"Well...yeah."
Twilight leaned in, “Spike is not a pet! He’s a person; my friend! The idea just-”
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry-”
“He was given to me as my friend, as my baby, back in royal court, after I hatched him! I took care of him, and fed him his favorite rubies, and I changed his diaper every single hour. Princess Celestia herself signed his citizen certificate. He is NOT a pet!”
“Oh, but-”
“He’s also my number one assistant. The best one there is. So don’t go around thinking he’s just, just… a pet!”
A number of ponies were staring at Twilight and Justice, whispering among themselves.
“Look, I’m sorry! It’s just hard thinking of dragons as anything other than savage beasts.” Justice immediately closed his mouth.
“Savage- Okay, you know what? There are dragon empires, and dragons are sentient.” The normally-quiet purple pony crossed her arms with finality. Her face didn’t even betray a bit of self consciousness for being the talk of the Bishop.
“Alright, I’m sorry. It’s just been real stressful lately.”
“That’s no excuse for calling an Equestrian Citizen an animal!”
“Okay! Okay, I’m sorry. I was wrong, he’s not an animal!”
“Darn right you’re sorry!” Twilight rubbed her temples, “Never EVER do that again.” She grabbed her purse and left the restaurant.
*****
Nightwatch awoke in his small, cramped room. Or, well… the little cardboard box that he had tried to imagine was his room. He could hear the sound of light rain just speckling the top of his Box of Shame. Where was this rain a week ago? Maybe it could’ve…
Nightwatch wiped his eyes and tried to lay back down, readjusting his position in his box and letting out a short whimper. That was all he could do, sleep and cry… His parents were gone… What could he do?
...Where did all this rain come from?
The sound of rain became a drum beating on the box, not too hard, but very much more forcefully than a second ago. Ten seconds of waiting later, and the drumming became loud, and rain started spraying slightly in on him. A muggy feeling set out over him, like he was all clogged up.
He closed his eyes and mentally recited his forcefield spell. A blue dome soon encased his little box, and the sound of the rain ceased. Maybe now he could sleep. At least in the dream world… his parents were alive.
He pulled the small piece of cloth he had recovered from...somewhere, and laid his head against the cardboard.
*****
Twilight trudged through downtown Vanhoover, not paying any mind to the rain that poured down on her. Her wings were drawn close to her back, her hair slicked over her dark purple eyes, but… it was dark anyway, so it didn’t even make a difference in the amount she could see. Anguish was the only word that came close to describing how she felt: the sadness of the deaths, the anger and frustration about Spike, the rain’s further inconvenience lumped together into one word. And yet it was more intense.
Wondering how it could get any worse, she stopped and looked to her right. She noticed something, in very stark contrast with the dark. It was medium blue colored light, in the shape of a sphere. ‘That’s weird...’ She thought, it almost looked like a unicorn force field, which was strange, considering that the average unicorn couldn’t do a force field spell continuously and circling them. The streets were all but barren, just to emphasize this.
And yet, that was what it was, she was sure of it! This was amazing!
Momentarily forgetting about her troubles, she quickly moved to the blue sphere and looked for its owner. “Hello?” she called out.
After a few moments, there was no response. Twilight wasn’t exactly sure what to do, on one hand, she couldn’t just go through this force field and see who it was, and whoever was there might not want to be disturbed. But at the same time, this was impressive, she just had to know who was doing this.
She made up her mind, and carefully approached the blue dome. At the center, she noticed a fairly large cardboard box on its side, that looked like it had once been the home to a dishwasher or something. The top of the box was opened, and Twilight could see two small black hooves peaking out from beneath a blanket.
"Oh my gosh," Twilight softly exclaimed. She knew that those hooves were too small to belong to an adult, they belonged to a kid.
Forgetting all her previous worries of disturbing someone, she carved a hole with her magic into the force field and ran to the box. She peaked in and saw that her suspicion was confirmed- he was young, only seven or eight, his clothes and face were very dirty, and smelled pretty bad. "The poor thing..." Twilight whispered. She'd never seen a homeless child before... She started wondering what might have happened to the little guy... Was he a run away? Was he actually homeless? What about his parents? Did they hurt him? Were they-
...Could it have been the child of the couple who were killed? No one in Vanhoover seemed to know what had happened to him… She wasn’t entirely sure what he’d looked like, though she knew he was a unicorn, but that was about it.
“Mmm!” the little boy sputtered, jumping and staring at Twilight with wide eyes. Twilight noticed the slight wrinkles about them, and the pinkness around them… had he been sobbing? “W-Who are you?” he whimpered.
Twilight shook off the sudden reaction, drawing her wings close so that he wouldn’t notice the wings. That wasn’t important right now. “Um, my name’s Twilight. I was going to to the hotel I’m staying at and I noticed your forcefield.”
“Oh…”
“Yeah… Not a lot of unicorns can do that. How did you learn it?”
“Uh… I just…” A shiver went through the boy’s spine. Twilight noticed a lone tear slide down his cheek.
“I bet you’re cold… Let me take you back to my hotel room, and we can get you warm.”
“Uh… No thank you, I don’t want to be an inconvenience… And...m-my parents said…” His eyes started to fill with tears again.
That confirmed Twilight’s suspicions. The boy in the box was, indeed, Nightwatch. “I’m sorry that happened…” Twilight said, placing a hand on the boy’s shoulder, “I...I can’t imagine the pain you’re going through.”
Nightwatch wiped his eyes, “W-why did that dragon attack? What did my p-parents e-ever do to…”
“Absolutely nothing, that’s what. I’m so sorry this had to happen.”
“I-I just…”
“I know… It was unfair… And I hate that this happened to you…” Twilight gave up rubbing his shoulder, and went to a full-on hug. The boy’s eyes momentarily shot wide with surprise… before more tears squirted out and he cringed visibly with pain. Then he closed his eyes trying to shut tears in, and hugged Twilight back. Twilight held in her own tears… okay, she failed at it. It was very common knowledge that losing parents was one of the worst things to happen, and being with a freshly orphaned child… it hurt her. She couldn’t imagine life without her parents… They had such a vital role in her life, even if she didn’t see them much anymore…
Her voice cracking a bit, Twilight asked, “Nightwatch? Can I take you to my hotel room?”
Nightwatch just continued weeping for a moment, his sobs cracking. He nodded weakly against her back.
Twilight breathed a sigh of relief, and led Nightwatch out of the box, being as gentle as she could with her hands. She put up a forcefield, and put her arm around his back as they traveled the last block to the hotel room.
Twilight slipped her key-card into the slot and pushed open the door. She flipped the light on and led Nightwatch in. “Well, this is my room,” Twilight said, “Let’s try to clean you up.”
“O-okay…” Nightwatch replied. His eyes reflected uncertainty; he probably just realized that he’d gone with a stranger, albeit a friendly one.
Both ponies made their way to the bathroom. “Now…” Twilight grabbed a washcloth before she turned on the sink and soaked the cloth in water. In a few moments, she turned the water off and then proceeded to rub the warm cloth all across Nightwatch’s face. He remained perfectly still as Twilight cleaned his face.
After a moment or two, Twilight lifted the rag off his face. “Alright, we’re all done. I’m gonna let a shower do the rest of the work.”
“Uh… Okay.”
“Yeah… Um… Let me call someone over, and I’ll try and get you something to wear. I think your current clothes are just too far gone.”
“Oh.” Nightwatch glanced down at his tattered blue-striped t-shirt. Dirt covered it in patches, and stains from days past already spotted it. A new hole had torn open just above his belly button. “Uh…”
“Well, we can’t have you wearing those dirty things tomorrow,” Twilight smiled.
“Yeah, I guess…” Nightwatch replied. Then he sighed.
“Do you know what size you wear?”
“Uh… No… Sorry.” Tears ticked his eyes.
Twilight tilted her head and adopted a sympathetic look. Sensitivity… that was the least she could expect, from a little boy who’d just lost his parents. “It’s nothing to be sorry about, you probably have more important things to think about, huh?”
Nightwatch averted his gaze. “Yeah…”
Twilight smiled. “Like comic books and video games?”
That got a slight smile, though it was definitely a sad one. “Yeah…”
“Thought so. Mind if I look at the tag on you shirt?”
Nightwatch shook his head, and allowed Twilight to look.
“Alright,” Twilight said after reading it, “Good. I’ll just keep note of this for Justice, he can help us. Now, get in the shower, and I’ll stop bothering you.”
“Okay.”
Twilight gave him a small wave, and closed the door behind her, as she left. The door, while thin, would give the young boy some privacy.
Twilight jumped over to one of the two moderately-sized beds. The one closer to the door, with the fluffy pink sheets, was the one on which she sat. From the wooden nightstand, she picked up the black phone and dialed. She twirled the cable in her fingers as she waited. After a few rings, she heard the click of Justice picking. “‘Yello?”
“Hey, Justice. It’s me. I’m sorry about earlier, and I feel like a total jerk, but can I ask a favor of you?”
“You’re not, like I said, I was out of line. What do you need?”
Twilight breathed a sigh of relief, glad that Justice wasn’t mad at her about earlier...despite her being a jerk. “Can you get me some boys clothes? Boy’s medium for shirts? I’ll pay for them and pay you some extra for your troubles, but I kinda need them and I can’t really leave.” Note to self, Twilight: check his pants size.
“Uh, sure, but… Why?”
“Well… I found Nightwatch.”
“You did?!” She could imagine his eyes widening and him slamming his hands on the table. “Where is he?!”
“In my hotel room, getting a shower. He was real dirty, which is why I need the clothes.”
“Uh… Yeah. Sure. Medium boys you said?”
“Yes. I… don’t really know about pants size, haven’t checked yet, but… I’ll get back to you about telepathy in a moment.” Come to think of it, she could probably use a visualizing spell to see it…
She shut her eyes and soon got the khaki pants in her mind. A large number 10 was on the tag. “Size ten,” she said into the receiver.
“Alright, thanks. I’ll get on that right away.”
“Great, thank you, and I’m real sorry.”
“It’s okay, Princess. I’ll be over in a half-hour.”
“Okay, thank you again.”
“You’re welcome, bye.”
“Bye.” With that, Twilight hung up.
She laid down on the bed, listening to the sound of shower water coming from the bathroom. She was a little worried that Nightwatch might be done with his shower before Justice got here, but that wouldn’t matter that much. After all, there were a few gowns. They were like comfier versions of the ones that might be found at a hospital (minus the tie-on back), though a little on the generic side. Normally, they’d be in use so that the hotel workers had enough time to deep-clean and fluff clothes without forcing patrons to sit around naked while their clothes were given the time of day.
It was one of the times she was glad to be a princess, someone who got those luxuries. So she could help someone in need. She hoped that Nightwatch would be okay with wearing something that could be perceived as a dress, but at the same time, he seemed like a good kid, and it wouldn’t be too long. He’d been surprisingly responsive so far, considering what had happened.
She lay the small garment on the opposite bed, hoping that Nightwatch would understand what she meant. Then she picked up the phone once again and dialed a number.
Two rings sounded before a mature voice responded, “Golden Oaks Memorial Library, Spike the dragon speaking. Can I help you?”
“Hey Spike, it’s Twilight.” Twilight smiled weakly. Spike had always been better at the professionalism thing than she had. She normally just replied with a “hello” on the phone.
“Oh, hey, Twi. How are you?”
“I’m okay, I just need to tell you something.”
“What is it?”
“Well, you know how the two people killed in the fire had a son?”
“Yeah, I guess. Why?”
“I found him… And he’s in the shower right now.”
“So… Wait, you took this guy in?”
“Yeah… I just… I couldn’t leave him there, he was alone, Spike. Wouldn’t you want someone to save you if you were all alone?”
Spike probably ran his hand down his spikes; it was something he did when he was a little bit hesitant about saying something. “Well, of course I would. Who wouldn’t?”
“Exactly. Now… can you mail me Star Swirl’s Advanced Unicorn and Alicorn spells?”
“Uh, Yeah, I reckon so. It’ll be there in a minute.”
After a bit, Twilight felt something; like something was touching her horn. She put just a bit of her willpower into her horn, using her magic to bring it out. The book instantly floated before her. “It’s here. Thank you, Spike.”
“Yeah… Why do you need it?”
“Hmm…” she tapped her chin thoughtfully. Just why did she need it? “Not sure yet… I’ll get back to you tomorrow.”
“Uh… Okay… You’re still coming back Friday, right?”
“Well… It might be later, because of this whole thing…”
“Oh… Okay.” It sounded like he’d tried to mask his disappointment.
"Yeah, I'm real sorry, but-"
"Nothing to apologize about, Twi,” he quickly replied. “Everything's running smoothly over here. I just miss you a bit, is all."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, and Apple Bloom's helping me out after school, so it's not like I'm alone all the time."
"Oh... Well that's nice of her." Twilight smiled. Apple Bloom, when she got to it, was actually a really good helper with many interesting things to day.
"Yeah, it is. And it's great to have someone to talk to.”
“I know it is.”
"Yeah... And she's a pretty great person to talk to."
"That's good. Applejack is okay with this, right?"
"Absolutely. And I plan to pay Bloom some of the money you said you might pay me."
"Oh, alright."
The gentle pattering sound of the shower stopped. "Hey Spike, I have to go. Nightwatch is done with his shower."
"Oh, okay. See ya later, Twi."
"See ya. I love you."
"You, too." With that, both hung up, and Twilight went back to the business of her guest.