Once Upon a Harvest Moon

by miss-cyan

Rating: teen
Tags: Non-consensual, Shining Armor, Violence, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Flurry Heart, Death, Sad, Original Character, Princess Cadance
Length: 16942

Princess Cadence is called out to oversee a special case. What's more surprising than the incident itself is the supposed culprit. A young filly is in desperate need of some guidance. And a shoulder to cry on. A story about healing.

Harvest Moon is just a quiet, shy little unicorn filly, invited for her first play date in a new city. Things are going very well until her magic suddenly flares up. Then, things take a turn for the worst.

Princess Cadence gets word of the filly's abilities and sets out to gain an apprentice, as well as a new patient. This child is in desperate need of some counseling, and to learn to to control her new magic.

It's not easy, especially for a child, to suddenly be exposed to the evils lurking in pony form.

A story about healing.

Featured on 6/3/2019, thanks c:

content warning: first chapter contains mention of sexual assault of a minor. any future mentions of that sort of thing will be as non-graphic as I can manage.

Published 2019-06-03 00:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2020-01-07 12:45:51 UTC

Just Another Day

In her time as the Empress, there had been stressful days, of course. Days of disputes that needed her resolving, days where a hard day’s work was met with little sleep. Days where the overwhelming pressure of just being her would have taken down a younger, more naïve Cadence.

And ever since Flurry Heart had been born, as happy as motherhood had made her, it still added layers of responsibility and extra work on top of everything. As much as she appreciated the help of servants in the castle and even Sunburst, she would not let Flurry become one of those foals who barely recognized her at the end of the day and cried for a nanny to be the one to kiss her booboos.

Despite everything, she always managed to come out on top.

But this day in particular had her feeling…overwhelmed.

She had arrived in Manehattan at the behest of her aunts as well as the local police. She took her leave from the Royal Court and kissed Flurry and Shining goodbye, not knowing how long things would take to resolve. And as much as a good flight would calm even the worst of nerves for her, she found herself taking the train that day. Something told her she had best reserve her strength for this particular case.

As a duo of Equestrian guards led her from the train station to the police station, she reviewed what she had learned once more.

Two days ago, a young filly had physically assaulted a grown stallion. This was surprising enough on it’s own, but then she had used her seemingly out of the blue new magic abilities to…do something to the assaulted stallion, leaving him a crying, blithering mess. The photos in the case file were a sight to see.

According to reports, the young unicorn filly was a bit magically inept. She had trouble with even the most basic levitation spells. She was on the verge of receiving a private tutor before all of this had happened. And to make things even more bizarre, the moment she had performed this unknown magic on the stallion was the same moment that the filly’s cutie mark had appeared.

Upon entering the station, she asked to speak to the Chief of Police, but was immediately beset upon by two ponies. They were blocked by the guards at first, but Cadence could see no outward malice from the two. Only desperation and fear. She stepped to them, dismissing her entourage.

“Please, tell me how I can help you.” She said, trying her best to soothe the very frazzled couple. She could sense the love and commitment between them almost instantly. They were close, and their love was shared with another. A child.

“Please Princess!” the mother sobbed, and her husband comforted her, looking just as broken. “They took our little girl away in hoofcuffs! Nopony will tell us what’s going on!”

“She’s only nine.” Her husband added, his voice breaking in a way that tore at Cadence’s heart. “All they told us is that…she hurt somepony. They won’t let us see her “for our own safety”. It’s been two days.”

“Please!” his wife sobbed again, trembling so violently Cadence thought she might faint. “She would never do something like this! Please help our baby!”

“I’m here to do everything I can.” She assured them, trying to project an air of confidence one would expect from an Alicorn Princess. “As soon as I know what this is all about, I’ll come and see you two and we’ll talk.”

They weren’t satisfied, but they reached a kind of calm that she could work with. She smiled gently, taking the mother’s hoof in her own.

“Now…” she looked to the Chief of Police, standing by to take her where she was needed. “What is your daughter’s name?”

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“Harvest Moon?”

The filly was shackled to a bench, looking so small. Her parents had said she was small for her age. She was a light grey unicorn filly with a white mane and tail, and the most adorable spot of white in-between her eyes, like a moon. She had a matching white chest and underbelly too. She looked up to the princess, terror in those eyes.

It had taken more persuasion than she would’ve liked, but she managed to convince the police chief to give her the keys to her restraints. She took it in her magic and undid the shackles that bound the filly, who rubbed at her forelegs as soon as she was free.

She smiled, taking a seat across from her. She could tell that she might not respond to positive attention, despite how much she looked like she needed a hug. Cadence kept a lid on her feelings, for now. She needed to stay impartial. Well, as impartial as one could be when a nine-year-old was the one in question. “Your mother told me that she and your father named you that because of the night you were born. There was a beautiful harvest moon out. And I can see…” she smiled, looking into the filly’s averted eyes. Bright honied orange, just as they’d said. “They thought it was something special when you opened your eyes for the first time. Like magic.”

The filly didn’t respond. Harvest just tucked into herself, avoiding Cadence’s gaze.

Okay, no small talk. Got it.

“I’m sorry if you’ve been scared here, all alone.” She told her with a heavy heart. Two days without any sign of her parents, it couldn’t be easy on a small child. “The ponies out there just wanted to make sure your magic was under control. But, I’m still sorry.”

Harvest was still tucked into herself, her body language defensive and stiff.

“Your parents told me that you just moved to the city. That can be scary. A new school, a new house, new friends…”

At the mention of “friends”, Harvest’s ears went down.

“Your mother told me she was so proud of you.” She took a gentler posture, her ears down too and her own body language open and inviting. “You went on a playdate with a new friend the other day. Her name is…Peach Pit?”

Harvest was shaking now. Time to seal the deal.

“Tell me Moony.” Harvest sat up, looking Cadence straight in the eye at her parent’s nickname. “Why did you hurt Peach Pit’s daddy?”

At her words, Harvest’s face contorted with pain, her body wracked with sobs. Cadence threw her impartiality out the window and leapt over the table to the little filly and wrapped her up in her wings, shushing and soothing her. Normally she wasn’t a fan of “ripping off the bandage” as it were, but she had seen that look on several pony’s faces before.

Cadence, as well as being the Empress, used a lot of her time and magic healing ponies who were hurt in body and soul. She had many patients who she saw more than once, to help heal broken hearts and broken minds, and this filly was dead ringer for several of her trauma patients.

“It’s okay…shhhh…” she nuzzled the filly, tucking her head over Harvest’s and encasing her in her wings. “You’ll feel better if you talk about it, I promise.”

Harvest latched onto her, desperate for something to ground her as her emotions took over. She took a shuddering breath, her voice as small as she was.

“I didn’t…mean to.”

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Harvest Moon was the new filly in school, moved to town mid-school year and all the fillies in her class had already made their friends. It was a terrifying thing, trying to jump into some other pony’s friendships. Even the colts in her class seemed more than happy to just do their own thing. No need for runty little Harvest Moon.

Then, she had met Peach Pit.

Peach Pit was shy, like her, and for once Harvest found herself in the role of the more confident half in the friendship. The rest of the fillies in their class teased Peach for being so skittish, jumping out of her skin whenever anypony snuck up on her. It had become a regular game for the colts in class to see which one of them could scare her the worst. There were bonus points if they got a scream out of her, and on a really bad day, it could be heard from across the school.

But when it was just the two of them, they would find a calm peace with each other hard to find anywhere else.

When Peach’s momma Cherry Pit suggested a playdate, she never ran home so fast to ask her own mother permission.

She had had a great time at Peach’s house. She had been so happy to make a new friend after so long, alone in her new class. Cherry Pit was nice and sweet, like her own momma, and she’d baked them a batch of chocolate chip cookies for their playdate. They’d played games and drew together, Peach was a great artist. There had even been talk of a sleepover.

Everything had been going just fine.

Until Peach’s daddy had come home from work.

He seemed nice. Cherry had gone to greet him at the door with a kiss on the cheek. And he smiled, sighing about his long day. He spotted her and smiled again.

“Why, hello there!” he smiled, walking over. “You must be Moony. My little Peachy’s told us so much about you!”

And the closer he got, the closer Peach scooted to her. Moon glanced at her, confused. Was she hiding? Was this a game they played? Peach’s face was happy to see him but her eyes weren’t.

And the moment her flank had brushed Harvest’s, everything went wrong.

Horrible things filled Harvest’s mind, numbing all her other senses. Things she didn’t understand. The feeling of a crushing weight on her back, a warm breath on her neck, a white hot, shooting pain in her stomach and hips. Tears in her eyes as she stuffed her face in a pillow, waiting for it to end. But it never did. She felt this pain over and over; every sound, every smell, every hushed word flooded her senses and a wave of nausea rolled up from her belly.

“My little Peachy...”

Harvest’s levitation had always been her weak point. In class, she could never lift more than a feather, and barely that.

But that day, something had just…

Snapped.

It had been the leg from the kitchen table, broken off in her magic and in an instant, smashed across the stallion’s face.

Cherry had screamed. Peach cried out for her daddy, but it only made things worse. Tears were streaming down Harvest’s cheeks as she didn’t wait for the stallion to recover, smashing the leg into his face again, making him stumble back towards the still open door. He was hurt, and confused, not knowing how to react to a small child attacking him so viciously. But by the time a third hit came, twisting his body and sending him out the door and into their front yard, he was in too much pain to protect himself well enough.

“Why Daddy!?” came Harvest’s voice, but her mind was twisted, another set of thoughts clouding her own. “Why!! Why did you hurt me!? I wanted! You! To stop!!”

Every word brought another swift hit with the table leg, which had started to go red. But she couldn’t stop now. If Daddy got up, who knows what he’d do to her now?

She could faintly hear Peach’s momma screaming still, and some ponies in the neighborhood were coming her way. She wanted him to cry. Cry like she had all those nights. And something was bubbling up inside her. This feeling was new, and awful, burning her up.

She had to make him hurt. Hurt like she…no, like sweet, kind Peach had.

Magic crawled up her horn, and before anypony could stop her, she released it into him.

The white, glowing magic shot into the stallion’s head, and his eyes had the same glow that hers did. They looked a each other, a furious, weeping filly and a beaten, broken stallion, and suddenly, it was gone.

All the pain, all the visions, they lingered in the corners of her mind but they weren’t overwhelming her anymore. She fell to the ground and felt somepony grabbing her. The last thing she remembered was hearing Peach’s daddy sobbing in the grass, crying out as his family rushed to his side.

“I’m sorry!” he sobbed, holding his bloodied head and weeping openly. Harvest had never seen a grown stallion cry like that. “I’m s-so sorry! I’m sorry!”

She’d been told later that she’d gotten her cutie mark along with the new magic. It should’ve been a special day.

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Cadence held the filly close, the tale chilling her down to the deepest parts of herself. Harvest was describing something that Cadence had some experience with herself, deep empathetic magic. But Harvest not only had the power to feel the feelings of others, but from the sound of it, transfer those feelings into another pony.

She looked at Harvest’s cutie mark, and it was something to see. An hourglass with heart-shaped chambers, and deep red sand trickling from one heart to the other. If she hadn’t just heard her recounting how she’d gotten it, it might have seemed rather abstract.

But she had felt…no, experienced her friend’s horrible trauma firsthoof. She had held onto that pain and…supposedly, done what Peach Pit had wanted to do but couldn’t. Not to mention it could be counted as a type of…self-defense, in a way. She genuinely thought that she was in danger from the stallion.

It was a complicated case, to say the least. But she had a feeling that if this magic had a lasting effect, she might find that stallion in the hospital, ready and willing to confess to his heinous crimes.

It wouldn’t be enough to clear the filly completely. She had bludgeoned a pony because of a magic it seems she had no control over. What would happen the next time she came in contact with a traumatized pony?

“You might not think of it like this…” Cadence finally spoke, and the filly looked up at her. “But the magic you have is…a gift. Some ponies go their whole lives trying to understand how others feel.” She stroked the filly’s mane, squeezing her tighter. “I try to understand ponies every day, to help them.”

“Do they…” the filly sniffed, drying her eyes on Cadence’s fur. “Do they ever…go away?”

Oh…pony feathers…Cadence thought, her heart clenching. She still remembers.

“It’s…something we can work on.” She stroked her mane again. “I’m…I’m so sorry you saw those things. Nopony your age…nopony at all should suffer like that.”

Harvest put her face in Cadence’s fur again. She tried to think of what to say, anything that might make this awful time any better.

“You know…” she started, brushing Harvest’s mane out of her face. Her bright orange eyes stared up at her. “I don’t know for sure…but there’s a chance that the pain you felt, Peach Pit’s pain…she might be a bit better now, even a tiny bit better, because of you.”

Sure, she’d probably go through extensive therapy at the sight of her father being beaten so brutally right in front of her, but she could be better than she had been. Abusive or not, little foals had trouble separating what was healthy parental love from the rest of that mess at her age. He was still her daddy, and little fillies were supposed to love their daddies. And she’d need help for all of it anyway, who knows how long all that had been going on?

But it could be true. She’d taken those emotions from her. She could’ve lightened the mental load for Peach Pit, even just the tiniest bit.

Only time would tell.

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She stayed with Harvest for a while longer, simply comforting her and trying to help her through her emotions as she would any other patient. She needed to find the best way to explain what she had seen without further traumatizing her. It was hard to know where she stood with these things, what she understood and what she didn’t. After a while, she had to excuse herself, with the promise to get things moving on the other side of that door. With a heavy heart and a sincere goodbye, she exited, hoping that Harvest wouldn’t be in the room for much longer.

The first to approach her was the Police Chief.

“Princess?” he asked through his big, bushy moustache. “Did you get her talking?”

“I did.” She thought about what she heard in that room, the things that would haunt her as well as two fillies. “It is my opinion that legal action needs to be taken.”

He looked surprised at that, but not for long. He furrowed his brow, sighing.

“It’s coming from ponies younger and younger, it seems…” he mumbled, standing up straight. “How do you rule the severity of the crime? You thinkin’ she should be tried as a minor?”

“You misunderstand me, Chief Caper.” She said, holding up a hoof. “The stallion Harvest Moon assaulted is very likely a perpetrator of several counts of incest against his own daughter. The filly in that room will need to be dealt with, but…this is a very…tricky case to say the least. But in the meantime, I need you to secure Olive Pit and if I’m right…he should readily confess to his crimes.”

Chief Caper seemed a bit stunned at all the information Cadence had gotten out of the filly in the hour or so that they couldn’t in two days, but he didn’t waste time. He and another officer were already on their way out when Cadence approached Harvest Moon’s parents.

“How is she?” her mother pleaded. “Is she alright? Is our baby alright?”

“She’s…doing better.” She hoped that was accurate. “But please…sit down.”

They were reluctant at first, but sit they did, eventually. She told them everything, from what had happened, to what their daughter had experienced, to her new magic. All the while they looked shocked and disgusted, and by the end they were out of their seats.

“We need to see her.” Her father insisted, his wife nodding and trying not to cry.

“Of course.” She stopped them from taking off down the hall with a gentle look. “Please, when you’re done…there are things we’ll have to discuss.”

They took off without another word. Cadence stood alone in the lobby of the station, emotionally exhausted.

“What am I going to do?”

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After a long while alone with her thoughts, she knocked politely on Harvest’s holding room door. Her father answered, his eyes looking puffy, but he let her in with a weak smile.

“Hello Harvest.” She smiled to the small filly wrapped in her mother’s forelegs. Her mother didn’t look much better off than her father but they were both trying to be strong for their daughter.

“Hi Princess.” She said back weakly, trying her best to smile back.

“Harvest…” she didn’t know where to start. “Even though you can’t be entirely blamed for all of this…” she hated having to think like a lawpony sometimes. “There might be those who will be concerned about you…losing control again.”

The entire family looked fearful at her words, but she didn’t give them the chance to fester in them.

“But…” she sat in front of the three of them, keeping a calm atmosphere. “I think I may have a solution to all of this.”

She extended a comforting hoof to Harvest Moon, and the filly touched it with her own, her nerves calmed considerably.

“Princesses sometimes take on personal students.” She told her, gauging her parent’s reactions too. “If you were to become my apprentice, you could learn to control your new magic, and as my apprentice, you’d be under my care.”

“An apprenticeship?” her father looked conflicted, as expected. “What…would she be learning to do?”

“In the Crystal Empire, I serve the ponies as a therapist who specializes in patients with trauma. I think Harvest has the potential to be a fantastic counselor pony. And she’ll learn to control her powers along the way.”

“I’m…I don’t know…” her mother held her daughter tighter.

“As it stands, while it was to fight against a pony who had committed a most atrocious crime, Harvest used her gift to assault and traumatize a pony, even if he wasn’t innocent. In my care, she could use her gift to change lives all over Equestria. She’ll receive the finest education and she would stay in the castle with my family. We will do everything in our power to protect her.”

They still seemed unsure, and Cadence couldn’t really blame them. She was asking for a lot of change from a family that had already been through so much of it. But she held firm.

“I give you my word that I would never expose young Harvest to anything damaging. I will teach her the best therapeutic treatments for herself as well as others, and she will never go through something like this ever again.”

Her parents looked to each other, a silent conversation going on between them.

“If it doesn’t interfere with her studies…Could we come and visit sometimes?” Her father asked.

“And she has to come home for holidays.” Her mother was firm on this. “We’ll come up for her birthday. And…if things don’t go well…she gets to come home if she wants.”

Cadence thought about the implications of that last part. Part of the implied deal here was that nopony would saddle her apprentice with a violent crime, so long as she swore to keep her magic under control. But if she were to come back to Manehattan before her training was complete, who knows what they’d want to do to her?

All the more reason to make sure everything went well.

“Of course.” She agreed, shaking on it with the both of them. “And the crown will be supplying those train tickets for holidays, and anytime you two want to visit as well. It’s a long, costly trip here and back. I’ll even hook up our private car for those occasions.”

“Oh!” her mother blinked, holding up a hoof. “Oh, that’s much too much!”

“It’s nothing at all.” Cadence smiled. “It’s a small price to pay for such a talented apprentice. Speaking of…”

She lowered her head to Harvest’s level, who had been listening in while the adults hashed out terms. She looked nervous and scared, and she held onto her mother tight.

“Harvest Moon.” Cadence looked her in the eye, smiling gently. “You have a say in this too. I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to.”

The filly had been exceptionally quiet throughout this talk of what was to be done about her future, and it was troubling Cadence slightly. She knew nothing of the filly’s hopes and dreams. She would make a fantastic therapist with the proper training, but it was cruel to assign her a fate she had no interest in, even if it was the best thing for her.

“I…” she tucked farther into her mother’s grasp, hiding behind her mane. “I don’t…”

She looked up to Cadence with the most pitiful eyes, trembling. It hit her hard, but the princess stood firm.

“How…how many ponies?” she said, almost too quiet to be heard. “How many ponies hurt like Peach does?”

It was a hard question for this hard day. It gave Cadence pause. Honesty in this instance would show the filly how dire a need Equestria had for a talent like hers. But it would also take away something she was already losing.

The innocence of a foal was not something Cadence aspired to sully every day.

Which part of her sense of morality would win out?

“Ponies…ponies like Peach…it’s hard to say.” And there was a shred of honesty to that. “So many ponies keep their hurt tucked down deep inside, and unless they meet a pony like you or I, they might hold onto it forever. Nopony around them would ever know they would ever need help at all, until it was too late.”

And Harvest’s ears laid sideways in deep concentration, looking with a deep intent at a particular floor tile. With her small size it was easy to forget that she was almost a decade old and had more complex feelings than a foal might have. This wasn’t a filly that Cadence could bribe with treats and games, though those would still be saved for the occasional fun. She was going to be a tough nut to crack.

“I can do it.” She said finally, relaxing her tense frame in her mother’s hold. “I can.”

Her parents seemed both relieved to know that there was a glimmer of hope for her, but faced the reality of being so far away from their only child. They held onto her, smushing her between them with teary eyes. Harvest seemed to want to do what fillies and colts do at her age and protest to the smothering, insisting she wasn’t a little foal anymore. But she kept quiet and hugged them back, glad for the positive affection after her trying ordeal.

Cadence excused herself with the promise to return and closed the door gently behind her. All the tension drained from her body as she took a deep breath through her nostrils and leaned against the wall on the exhale. The world seemed a little bit simpler now that she could do what she did best and help the filly.

She took her guards with her to the nearby post office to send a telegram to Shining. A room would have to be made up.

Author's Note

Next Time: Harvest Moon meets her fellow apprentices.

well. here's the new story c: probs will be about 3-4 chapters, and i will keep the darker stuff to a minimum, description-wise. that shit makes my skin crawl. bit of a stiff first chapter, but things will pick up once we get to the Crystal Empire

also, you better believe i named this oc after an old, fav video game series that i love. i couldn't help myself. but it did inspire her design, otherwise i really didn't have a clue what she was going to look like.

and have a Harvest Moon art where her head's a bit too big because art is hard and i am tired:

Getting To Know You

It wasn’t hard to pack her things. Not too long before all of this, Harvest’s things were still in boxes so she knew what she would pack first. Some of her favorite books and her school supplies, a photo from a picnic her family had gone on, and she couldn’t forget her fillyhood stuffed bunny. She almost considered leaving Bun-Bun behind, she was going off to learn to be a grownup counselor pony. But she still felt a bit sad and tense from all of this and he would do well to hug in place of her parents.

One by one all of the things she couldn’t leave behind were packed into a trunk that belonged to her papa. She’s often read of ponies her age being whisked off to fancy schools with a trunk on a luggage cart and a scarf for the road. It was still early spring, she could get away with a scarf. She didn’t own that many pieces of clothing, but she packed what she had. The Crystal Empire was way north of Manehattan, and it’s supposed to be colder the further north you went, right? It would be embarrassing if she had to be taken to shop for wool socks or a new jacket because she didn’t think to pack them like a little filly. She was growing up, she needed to remember these things without being told. Grownups don’t forget things like that.

By the end of her packing, her room looked a bit barer. Like it didn’t belong to her anymore, just some filly who enjoyed a very tidy room. Looking at it made her feel kind of…empty. She had just made this room her own, decorating with things that made her happy. Now it was so bare and impersonal.

“Goodbye room.” She said, feeling a little silly for talking it. It occurred to her that she’d be back during holidays, like every other pony off to school, too big to live at home anymore. The thought was stuck in her chest, but she shook it off. If she got upset about something like this, she’d just look like a tiny little foal who couldn’t handle leaving her momma and papa. She had to be responsible now, no matter how it made her feel.

Just a few days ago she wouldn’t have been able to levitate something as heavy as the trunk on her own, but when she decided to try it wasn’t as hard as she thought it would be. It still floated close to the floor, being so full, but the fact that she could move it all on her own made her feel especially grown-up. Her parents were downstairs, talking about things in quiet voices while one of the guards stood in the entryway. The Princess hadn’t come back from her errand yet. She still had time to sit with them and talk before they left for the train.

“Oh!” her momma cooed, coming over to fix her mane like she liked to do. “You finished packing up? Here, I’ve got something for you.”

Her horn lit up and she floated over her favorite hat, the sunhat with the curved brim and the dangling red ribbon. She placed it on Harvest’s head and Harvest wiggled her ears into the ear holes. Momma liked that the brim curved up in the front so her horn had room to sit under it. Being a unicorn who liked hats made for a hard life sometimes.

“Now don’t you look nice?” she smiled, nuzzling Harvest’s cheek. She picked up Harvest’s trunk in her magic and lifted it onto the luggage cart. The way it floated effortlessly through the room made it clear that Harvest had improved, but the magic strength of a grownup unicorn was still something to aspire to.

Her Papa had been preparing her carry-on for the train ride. He patted the seat next to him on the sofa and Harvest sat, looking into the bag.

“I packed snacks, and I went out this morning and got you a new stationary set, and some stamps. In case you want to write to anypony, I don’t know who though…” he looked away, trying not to smile. Harvest did, laughing softly. He laughed back, giving her a tight, squeezing hug.

Something felt off in Harvest’s head. Her heart was beating too fast and her skin was crawling. She loved a good, strong hug from her Papa. It made her feel safe and warm. Mama said that hugs from an Earth Pony were the best, in her opinion, and she had always agreed. But now…

“I’m so proud of my little filly.” His deep voice rumbled in his chest, and Harvest forgot to breathe. “I’m gonna miss you Moony.”

She whimpered, squeezing her eyes shut tightly. He suddenly released her and jumped off of the couch.

“Oh, oh no. Moony…I’m sorry. I didn’t think-…of course you’re gonna have a bad reaction. I’m so, so sorry.”

She could breathe again, but not very well, and her heart was trying it’s best to slow down. It wasn’t doing a very good job though. She opened her eyes to see her father looking worried, but also a bit heart-broken. Her Momma stepped over to comfort him with a nuzzle before helping Harvest to calm down.

It made her heart hurt. It wasn’t fair. Her Papa never did anything to her. He didn’t deserve to get treated like this.

“I…I don’t know why I…” she said, strangely out of breath. Her chest felt tight and her ears were ringing just a bit. Her Momma was rubbing small circles on her back with her hoof, shushing and soothing her. Her skin felt fine when Momma was the one touching her.

“Just breathe…” she told her, waiting until Harvest did so. “It’s not your fault. You just take things one step at a time.”

She finally started to feel better, after a minute or two. She felt so tired, but also very guilty. Papa was sitting on the floor out of her reach, trying to smile at her but he was hurt. And sad. And a bit angry? Not at her though, she could tell that much.

“I…I promise.” She took a deep breath. “I promise I’ll pay attention to the Princess. She’ll teach me how to get better. And I promise that when I come home next time, I’ll feel better enough to get a hug.”

“You don’t have to promise anything.” He told her, smiling gently. “I know that you still love me.”

She shook her head, stepping off of the couch. She approached him slowly, and he didn’t dare move a muscle. She took a deep breath and when her legs wouldn’t move, she bopped her head against his shoulder. Her body felt okay.

She sat next to him, leaning on his large frame. The fur going down her back felt bristly but none of the other stuff was happening. She hugged his side, and the moment it started to feel bad she let go, letting out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.

“It’s not so bad if I’m the hugger, for a little bit.” She said, feeling a bit better about all of it. She intended to keep her promises though. He offered her a still kind of sad smile.

“Momma.” She said, playing that she was giving her an order. “I’ll expect you to give Papa lots of hugs for me while I’m away. If he starts to miss me, you write me a letter, okay?”

“Sure thing, boss.” She laughed. “Although I think I’ll write you every day if I follow those orders.”

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Cadence looked at the pony in the hospital bed. He had been out cold since she had arrived, medicated and his face heavily bandaged. One hoof was in a cuff and chained to the bed railing.

When she had arrived, Chief Caper and an Officer Pursuit had already separated the family, asking for their statements but also buying time for Cadence to arrive and deliver the news.

This family was already so broken, in ways that she hated to have to explain. She was going to cause some permanent damage today, and she would do everything in her power to let the filly know it wasn’t her doing.

She eyed the stallion, feeling something…intense.

Chief Caper entered the room, looking in from behind the door.

“Princess. Cherry Pit is ready to speak with you.”

Cadence gave the stallion one last look, regretting not being able to give him a piece of her mind but somewhat relieved. She had more important things to do.

Officer Pursuit was left in charge of Peach, being a mare, she would make the poor filly feel more at ease. They came toward her in the hall and the policemare gave her a subtle nod, the signal she’d been told to look for. She’d asked the filly about her father and had gotten back the expected responses. Cadence smiled at Peach, not letting on what she knew.

Peach was awestruck at the sight of her. She often got this reaction from foals, unabashed adoration at it’s most pure.

“Hello Peach Pit. Where are you two off to?” she asked, smiling gently.

“Uh…Miss Pursuit said we could go get a sundae from the cafeteria until Mommy is done talking to everypony.” Her voice was small and whispery and her eyes were still wide and curious. “I’ve never met a princess before.”

“Well, what a coincidence.” She laughed. “I happen to be a princess.”

The filly laughed back, and the policemare tapped her softly, getting her attention.

“If we don’t hurry they’ll be all out of the good stuff.” Officer Hot Pursuit was a master of deadpan, and the filly believed her one hundred percent. She followed after her, waving back to Cadence as they walked.

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Cherry Pit looked terribly distraught, sitting alone in a hospital meeting room they had borrowed. She saw Chief Caper enter first.

“I’ve told you what happened, please…I need to be with Olive and Peachy.” She told him, her voice very on edge. Cadence entered behind him and Cherry’s eyes went wide.

“Wh…Princess?” she blinked, dropping into a quick bow. “I don’t…Why are you-”

“I will tell you everything, but please, sit.” Cadence’s heart was pounding. This was the moment. How would the mare react? Cadence had received more than a few patients who’s parent’s reaction to abuse by another parent had left them unloved and emotionally scarred. She sensed genuine maternal love for her daughter in the mare though, would that be enough?

At first, Cadence had listened to what she’d had to say about Harvest. She seemed torn. One the one hoof, her husband had been put in the hospital. On the other hoof, she saw no reason for the attack and the filly had seemed like a sweetheart and was her daughter’s only friend. She was so confused. Then that led to talk of Harvest’s magic.

Then that led to talk of what she’s seen.

“…No…” she’d stood on wobbly legs, stepping closer to Cadence. “I don’t…where is my daughter? Where have you taken her!?”

“She’s just downstairs, she’s not going anywhere.” Cadence assured her, seeing the pain and confusion in her eyes. “She was interviewed by an officer about him.”

Her eyes went wide, her whole body was trembling. Cadence could tell she wanted to ask, but the moment she heard it, it would become her reality.

“We’ll need your permission to do a medical exam.” The words were heavy on the room, and it had visibly hit Cherry hard. “But you deserved to know.”

Cherry started trembling violently, her eyes wide and her back half hit the floor hard.

“I…I have t-terrible insomnia.” She finally said, starting to tear up. “A few years ago…he encouraged me to get some pills from our doctor. I…I sleep so well now. Nothing can wake me up…”

She fell to the floor completely, sobbing. Cadence moved to console her but she sprung up, slapping Cadence’s outstretched hoof away, eyes filled with pain and self-loathing.

“How many nights!?” she demanded. “How many nights was my baby crying out for me to save her!? She needed me and I never even noticed!!!”

Cadence didn’t give up. She went in to console her again, pushing past her striking hooves and cries of self-defamation. She held her as she cried, not letting go, assuring her that she was loved.

“I…I need to see my baby.” She shot up in Cadence’s forelegs, still a mess but her emotions had flipped. Cadence gave her a kerchief to dry her own tears while they got ready to leave.

Peach and the officer were coming back down the hallway, Peach walking on three legs as she held a to-go cone in her fetlock. Cherry Pit ran to her, scooping her up and squeezing her tight.

“Ah! Mommy stop!’ she fussed, holding the cone high above them. “Stop, your cone is melting! It’s gonna get all messy!”

But Cherry didn’t let go, sobbing softly into her daughter’s fur.

“Mommy?” Peach asked in a small voice. “Mommy, what’s wrong? Are you sad?”

The ice cream didn’t survive its trip back from the cafeteria.

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Princess Cadence was on the train platform waiting for them like she said she’d be. She smiled when she’d seen Harvest and offered a more comforting one to her parents.

“What a lovely hat.” She said. “I can never find good hats with my horn.”

“A fitting hat is a treasure.” Harvest said softly, repeating something her mother had once told her. Cadence had laughed at that, and it left Harvest feeling warm and fuzzy. This was her new teacher, and she was nice and happy and she understood things about Harvest that she was just starting to learn. Making Princess Cadence laugh was a sign she was doing something right.

The guard loaded up her luggage without being asked, and she turned to her parents. They were looking a little weepy, and it was suddenly very hard to not be weepy right along with them.

“Moony…” her mother was trying very hard not to cry. She nuzzled her daughter’s cheek, “You be good for the Princess, okay? And if you need us, just write and we’ll be there as soon as we can.”

“I will.” She sniffled. Her father looked like he wanted to move from his spot on the train platform but stood perfectly still. Harvest went to him once again and after a moment of working up the nerve, nuzzled his foreleg. She ignored that prickly feeing from the fur on her back.

“Bye Papa…” she sniffled, hoping he didn’t mind his coat getting wet. “I love you.”

“I love you too Moony.” He was sniffling too. “So, so much.”

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Harvest woke up in a strange bed, the dark of the room startling her. Her heart was beating too fast as she struggled to clear away the sleepy confusion.

Harvest had never taken such a long train ride before in her life. The Princess’ special train car had a sitting room with bolted down sofas and a sitting room for tea. The only other passengers there were the guards and they didn’t do much but stand and look a tiny bit grumpy.

Princess Cadence had encouraged her to get a nap in the sleeper part of the car, which had the fanciest bed she’d ever seen. She remembered drifting off but nothing else.

“That’s right…” she mumbled to herself, trying to find a light. “I’m someplace new.”

She could reach the curtains with her magic, and when she dragged them open with sleepy magic, she flinched back from the bright sun that spilled into the room. It was almost painful how bright it was out.

“How long did I sleep in?” she yawned, stepping down off the bed. Her hat was perched on the bedpost along with her scarf, and she found her trunk at the foot of the bed. She was too out of it to unpack right this very minute, but she did pull out Bun-Bun and set him on the bed.

A knock on the door startled her again, and when she answered, a stallion she knew but also didn’t know poked his head in.

It was Shining Armor, no little filly her age didn’t know the “dashing prince” from the Canterlot Royal Wedding. All the merchandise that followed was still popular all this time later, a few fillies from school had doll sets of the royal couple and played with them at recess.

“Hello.” He smiled gently, not moving from his place by the doorway. “Are you hungry? You’ve been asleep since Cadence brought you home. That was really early, still dark out and everything.”

She stood, staring dumbly, still trying to shake the sleep off.

“It’s almost lunch now but we can still get you something breakfast-y if you’d like.” He offered, trying to awkwardly fill the silence.

“Do you…” she started finally, feeling very small. “Do you have…uh…waffles?” Did castles have waffles? What did royal ponies even eat?

“Sure, no problem.” He nodded, turning. “You can follow me to the kitchen if you want.”

As if this entire thing hadn’t been surreal enough already.

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Cadence had quite the morning, preparing everything for Harvest’s arrival to her program, all with Flurry in tow. She’d trusted Shiny to get her ready for the day, secretly giving him some practice being a parental figure to an older filly. She wondered what Flurry would be like at her age.

She was taking a well-deserved lunch break, headed for the dining area. Flurry was babbling away, seeming like she was enjoying some Mommy time.

“Oh no, look out!!” she heard Shining shouting from the kitchen and Cadence’s heart about stopped. She sprinted to the kitchen, Flurry Heart squealing from the sudden speed.

“Save me!” Harvest screamed, letting out a terrifying wail. Cadence made it to the doorway, horn lit with magic, when she saw the most…absurd sight.

Waffles. Waffles everywhere. Waffle log cabins, waffle barricades, and somehow little waffle cannons loaded with blueberries littered the dining table and the counters, all held together with the special fancy syrup straight from Vanhoover and toothpicks. It was a winter battle, by the looks of the whipped cream that surrounded the constructions. Little waffle soldiers levitated by Harvest were hit dead center by the magically launched blueberries and when Harvest screamed in their place, she took huge bites out of them to reveal they’d been filled with horrifyingly simulated strawberry jam. It was chaos.

“Don’t lose hope, soldiers!” Shining announced in a gruff tone, levitating a waffle pony that looked to be a decorated officer, if the carefully placed sprinkles on its shoulder meant anything. “We fight for Equestria!!”

Cadence cleared her throat, and the filly and oversized colt finally noticed her. Flurry Heart giggled at her daddy’s silly antics, flying over to devour a few soldiers herself like some terrifying giant beast rampaging through the battlefield.

“Hi Cady…” Shining smiled, looking embarrassed. “Uh…”

He looked around at the carnage he had wrought, and Harvest’s eyes darted between them while she absently nibbled on the head of a fallen comrade.

“…I made breakfast.” He laughed with a nervous, lopsided smile.

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She hadn’t been upset, not really, but she had made sure Harvest had eaten her fill and then took her to get cleaned up. She was a mess of jam and syrup, with a dollop of whipped cream behind one ear she didn’t seem to notice. Shining was left for clean-up and Daddy time with Flurry.

“It was fun.” Harvest told her, sitting on the sink where Cadence had placed her, getting scrubbed with a washcloth. “I’ve never played Waffles of War before.”

“I’m glad you had fun, really.” She assured the filly. “But I’m pretty sure this wasn’t your idea and Shining is supposed to be responsible with you.”

“He was.” The filly was muffled behind the washcloth for a moment before continuing. “He made me some normal ones but…”

She sat with an odd look on her face.

“I got nervous when he got too close…” she sighed, her ears drooping. “It happened with my Papa too. He was trying to make me feel better.”

Cadence was a few things. Upset for Harvest’s lingering trauma, grateful for a husband who was so caring and kind, and embarrassed that she had thought he was just goofing around. He really was a good father, and Harvest needed all the best positive male role models in her life right now.

“You didn’t seem nervous around the guards.” Cadence noted.

“But guards are there to protect ponies.” She reasoned. “And none of them ever got too close. I helps that they don’t really look at you, I think. Makes me feel like the danger is somewhere else.”

Cadence reasoned with herself that the lesson of sometimes untrustworthy authority figures existing was for another day, much farther away in he future. Shining had selected every one of their personal guards himself and would never allow the ones with the more colorful characters around his wife and daughter, alicorn powers or no. The ones who joined up as an alternative to prison time or to feed some power-trip didn’t make the cut as palace guards very often, unless they had some strict rehabilitation and therapy.

“I’m glad they make you feel safe.” She smiled, finishing cleaning her up. “We should hurry though, today’s a special day.”

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Harvest followed the princess to another wing of the castle, which looked more like a school hallway the farther they walked. It was broad and tall like a castle was, but projects and posters lined the walls, with doors every now and then.

“This is where you’ll get your regular schooling.” Cadence told her. “You’ll have regular tutors for most subjects, and myself for your specialized lessons.”

At the end of the hall way was a larger door with a plaque that read “Staff Meeting Room” on the wall next to it. The princess stopped before going any further.

“There are other little ponies like you here.” She told the filly. “Ponies who have gifts that make them fit to be counselors and very similar professions like you. They’re waiting to meet you.”

Harvest suddenly felt very small, the tall ceilings of the castle echoing her breathing and the crystal tile cold under her hooves.

“Do you need a moment?” Cadence asked softly, draping a wing over Harvest’s side.

“I’m okay.” She nodded, saying it more to herself. She wasn’t quite ready to be the new student in school yet again, but she was more grownup now. Plus, Princess Cadence wouldn’t let her get bullied or teased here, would she?

The princess went in first, and Harvest peered out from behind her to see her fellow counselors-in-training.

“Everypony, this is the filly I told you about.” Princess Cadence announced in a gentle voice. “Introduce yourselves, don’t be shy.”

A filly her own age was the first to approach Harvest, who stepped out from behind the princess, not wanting to seem like a scared little foal.

“Hi! I’m Honey Dumplin’!” the earth pony filly was loud and friendly, and her accent was thick and she drawled every other sound. Her coat was the color of her namesake and she sported a bright red mane done up in poofy twin tails that stuck out from the side of her head. Harvest noted that should they be undone, her mane would probably poof out like a lion’s. “It’s nice to meet cha!”

“Hello…” she blinked, feeling better with this friendly face. “I’m Harvest Moon. It’s nice to meet you too.”

“That there’s Lit Wick.” Honey pointed to a gloomy-looking unicorn colt a little older than Harvest who was avoiding eye contact. He let out a big yawn, scratching behind his ear with his hind leg. “He’s a bit prickly ‘round new ponies. Give him a few days and he’ll be stuck on ya like his life depends on it.”

The colt groaned, embarrassed at Honey’s words. He was a very pale purple color, with a black and grey mane that got in his tired, yellow eyes. He caught Harvest’s gaze and quickly looked to be inspecting his hoof.

“Hello, it’s nice to meet you Harvest.” Somepony else spoke. Harvest looked to see the last pony in the room. She was a pegasus, maybe older than Harvest, taller with long, skinny legs. Something about her was making it hard for Harvest to look at anything else.

“Uh…” was all Harvest managed to say. The filly was a dark, blueish green color with a long, straight cerulean mane with teal stripes in it. Everything about her was blue, even her eyes were such a pale shade of blue they almost looked white.

Harvest had never felt more intimidated by a filly in her entire life.

“Oh.” The filly tilted her head, blinking at her. “Harvest, you’re very tense and confused right now. You should sit down.”

Harvest took a step back, her muscles so tight they were aching.

“Oh, that’s Aura’s special talent.” The princess told her, nudging Harvest to a plush chair near the window. “She can “see” how ponies are feeling, with their auras.”

“My full name is…Aura Aurora.” The filly sighed, looking embarrassed. “I used to be Rainy Day…I thought it was such a nice name when I got my cutie mark, like I was so cool and grown-up. Now that I’m a little older, it just sounds like a love interest in a B-movie romance.”

“It’s a pretty name!” Harvest blurted out, not knowing what she was thinking. Aura laughed, tapping her hooves on the floor happily.

“Well hey!” Honey Dumpling smiled too. “Somepony thinks it’s a nice name!”

Harvest felt lighter as Honey spoke, and the princess touched her shoulder gently.

“Do you feel that?” she asked, and Harvest was confused again. “That’s Honey’s special talent. She has a natural calming, joyful radiance around her. It works wonders with ponies who have horrible anxieties.”

“I was the best foal-sitter in all of Appleoosa!” Honey gloated, sounding very proud of herself. “Whenever I came around, little foals weren’t ever cranky and they napped with no trouble at all! And I could cheer up the saddest drunks down at the saloon with the worst jokes you ever heard.”

“Ooo!” Aura danced in place, looking giddy. “Tell her one Honey!”

“Alright…” she thought for a second, before smiling. “What do you call cheese that ain’t yours?”

“Uh…I don’t know, what?” Harvest asked, so very confused.

“Stolen.” Honey replied in the most serious voice Harvest had ever heard. “Stealing is wrong and you should be ashamed of yourself.”

Try as she might, Harvest couldn’t stop the feeling of overwhelming joy washing over her. She and everypony in the room, even mopey Lit Wick was laughing so hard it hurt.

“Oh geez!” Aura sniggered, pronking about. “I love getting to laugh like that…”

When it wore off, Honey pointed to the once again tired and annoyed colt.

“Lit Wick’s talent is real neat.” She told Harvest, nudging her shoulder. “He’s always kind of tired-lookin’ like that, no energy at all. But he can use his magic on depressed ponies and just…sponge it on out and into himself. After that he’s like a whole different pony.”

“What’s he like?” Harvest wondered out loud, thinking that his talent was indeed, neat.

“It’s easier if you see it for yourself, I believe…” Honey shrugged. “Trust me.”

“Harvest.” The princess looked at her with gentle eyes. “You can tell them about your talent if you’d like. If you’d prefer not to, I understand.”

She sat, thinking about it for a moment or two. These ponies seemed like they’d been doing this for a while, while she was so new to all of this. How to even explain it?

“Um…I…” she sat, frustrated. “It’s only happened once but…I touched somepony and I…”

She tried not to remember too much.

“I touched somepony and saw…a bad memory. A lot of bad memories.” She told the colt and fillies. “Then I put the memories in the bad pony who hurt that somepony and made him feel bad about what he’d done.”

“Oh!” Honey shouted, smiling broadly. “You’re like a…a dang psychic superpony!”

“That sounds really useful.” Aura nodded, impressed. “You could help a lot of ponies with something like that.”

“Cool.”

Harvest whipped her head to Lit Wick, wanting to catch his reaction, but he was already back to normal. It was like he’d never said anything at all.

“Should she choose to, Harvest could make a very effective counselor.” The princess looked at her apprentices proudly. “You all are very talented and I think you’ll work wonders with patients who really need your help.”

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“Harvest will be staying in the castle for now. When she’s ready, she’s more than welcome to stay in the dormitory with you three.” Princess Cadence told them as they walked down the hall.

“A dormitory?” Harvest asked. “Like in a boarding school?”

“It’s just a house.” Aura explained to her. “It’s big enough for a few ponies and it’s close by, so we can get to our classes on time.”

Until yesterday, Harvest had never thought about life at school away from home. Living with ponies she didn’t know, as nice as they seemed, was a little scary. Lit Wick wasn’t so…stallion-y that the thought of living with him didn’t set off her newfound anxieties, but Aura…

The thought of living with her made her uncomfortable in the worst way. And she didn’t know why.

Princess Cadence walked with them to the dormitory, trailing a bit ahead of the group so that they could talk amongst themselves and get to know each other a bit on the way there.

“So, Harvest.” Honey pulled up alongside her new classmate. “Do ya reckon you might change your name like Aura? Harvest Moon sounds a lot like a farm pony’s name. Not that I got much room to talk.” She laughed.

She hadn’t really thought about it. If she was going to be a counselor pony someday, maybe a new name would make her more approachable to ponies who needed to have confidence in who they were talking to.

“I don’t know, Honey.” Aura came to the two of them. “I think she could pull it off. She’d be Counselor Pony, Ms. Moon. I think it’s very mysterious-sounding. Very grownup.”

“You…” she looked at Aura, her eyes wide. “You think so?”

“Uh-huh.” She smiled. “And if you kept going with your education, someday you could be “Dr. Moon”. Now that’s a title.”

Harvest thought that sounded very impressive. Coming from Aura she could imagine a bright future as a counselor.

“For me, it seemed like not a lot of ponies would want a pony named Rainy Day trying to make them feel better.” She laughed, shrugging. “It’s part of why I changed it.”

Aura turned to Lit Wick suddenly, tilting her head at the colt. Her eyes shimmered with things nopony else could see.

“I think he wants to talk too.” She whispered to her companions before pulling up alongside him. “Wick, something on your mind?”

He looked a little nervous at her sudden approach, but his tired eyes looked hopeful and he leaned over, mumbling so quietly nopony but Aura could hear.

“Oh!” she laughed gently. She guided him over to the fillies, so they were all together in an unbroken herd. “Lit Wick wants to know if you like comic books.”

Lit Wick nudged her side, his ears flat.

“Sorry. “Graphic Novels”. He prefers that term.” She looked at him apologetically. “If you’d like, he’d like to loan you a couple of his so you have something to do after classes.”

Harvest had never had a colt for a friend. The idea was surprisingly appealing to her.

“I’ve never read any.” She admitted to him. “But I’m sure you have good taste. I’d love to see what kind of stories you like, Lit Wick.”

He offered a tiny smile, and by the fillies’ gasps, Harvest was certain she had just witnessed something amazing. As quickly as it had appeared, it was gone, as though it was never there.

“Oh, ya done stroked his ego.” Honey whispered to her dramatically. “Now there’ll be no gettin’ rid of him. You just made a friend for life, Harvest.”

Lit Wick rolled his eyes, refusing to look at any of them. Harvest looked to him, and then to the others.

“I’d like that.” She trotted along, feeling light as a feather. “Are we all friends?”

Honey laughed, and for a moment Harvest’s heart sank.

“I suppose we are!” Honey smiled, coming up to her side with an affectionate nuzzle. Harvest felt a million times better than she had in days, and Aura was looking at her.

“We’d love to be your friends, Harvest.” She smiled, draping a wing over Harvest’s back. Her heart leapt into her throat at the gesture, but her joy far outweighed her nerves.

Cadence looked back at her little group of future counselors. She felt strong bonds forming, and the tiny spark of a first love in Harvest’s heart. It was so faint, she probably didn’t even realize what she was feeling, but her happiness and excitement at being surrounded by potential friends was so clear in her senses it was so precious.

She’d found her place in the world, and Cadence was excited to see where life would take this young filly.

Author's Note

a new chapter! summer courses are easy enough, but the deadlines are so closely packed together that i don't have much time for anything else. but stay tuned, dear readers! i recommend tracking if you haven't already, as updates will be pretty unpredictable. i only finished this chapter because i'm done writing two essays and i fell asleep, leaving me wide awake at 2:45 am.

poor Harvest, falling for a pony that can almost read your mind. ain't no secrets there, filly. you in for an embarrassing ride.

don't think Honey is a distant Apple, but hey, i could be wrong.

what's Lit Wick's other side like? we might see soon.

i almost cut the Waffle Wars. almost. i never wanted this story to be the "and then this happened, and then this." kind, so i almost skipped a lot here to move things along, but i figured we could use a bit of a breather after last chapter's heaviness. so, next chapter might include a slight time skip. not too far though.

rough first drawings of the fellow counselors:

Honey Dumpling (who ended up looking like pipi longstockings and the wendy's mascot)

Aura Aurora (i don't know what her cutie mark is yet)

Lit Wick (who is absolutely named after the pokemon)

Don't Worry, Be Happy

“Moony! C’mon now, I done woke you up twice already!” Honey’s voice called to her. “Shake a leg, lazy bones!”

She was more awake with her friend’s well-intentioned reminder, but her eyes were still shut. The world was too bright and heavy for morning Harvest.

But Honey could be very serious when it came to making sure everypony was doing what they were supposed to. She would not get another wake-up call, only her mattress being roughly overturned and rolling onto the floor. She’d learned that one the hard way.

“…’mup.” She mumbled, trying to put a hoof on the floor beside her bed. The plush rug met her and she carefully pulled herself out of bed, still unable to open her eyes.

“You ain’t a mornin’ pony in the slightest.” Honey laughed. “You want I should start a pot of coffee?”

“…Yes’m.” she yawned, shaking her whole body like she was soaked from head to hoof. It helped shake away the sleepies. She had acquired a taste for the stuff since moving into the dormitory house six months ago. With all her homework and the group projects they were assigned from time to time, a pot of coffee was almost always being brewed.

Harvest took a quick moment to brush out her mane in the mirror before heading downstairs. Her levitation had grown a lot stronger in her year as Cadence’s apprentice and she had gotten more used to using her magic for everyday tasks. She had also grown a little taller, still a runt but she looked more like a growing filly than a little foal.

Breakfast was a simple affair most mornings for Harvest, as she was too tired to really appreciate anything she ate. She had learned a rather useful hot press spell that made short work of toast, and the occasional grilled cheese. She was still fairly unskilled in most magical areas, but the domestic spells were her top priority. Nothing cut into valuable study time than it being her turn to dust the house from top to bottom.

She’d never really appreciated her schooling until becoming one of Cadence’s students. Sure, her grades were decent enough, and the average marks were enough to keep her parents happy so she never really put any extra time into it. But here, her teachers asked for perfection, and the least Harvest owed them for the opportunity was to give every assignment her best shot. Plus, it was a little embarrassing at first being the farthest behind in her studies compared to her friends. It shamed her beyond belief when she got called on and had no clue what the answer could be, and when she was one of only four students, she got called on a lot.

“Good morning.” Aura smiled to her friends, cheery as ever. She was a morning pony, like Honey. Harvest greeted her around a mouthful of toast, too tired to be embarrassed by her actions.

“Are you excited Moony?” Aura asked, pouring herself a cup of coffee.

Harvest was drawing a blank. She paused, mid nibble, as she wracked her brain for why she would be excited.

“She ain’t all there yet, Aura.” Honey entered with Lit Wick in tow, also not a morning pony. “You’re gonna hafta remind her or wait ‘til the coffee kicks in.”

“Oh, right. It’s hard to read her when she’s so out of it.” Aura giggled, and the sound made Harvest smile all dopey around her toast. “Moony, today’s your first solo therapy session with a patient. A whole year’s hard work is finally going to pay off for you! You won’t be supervised or anything! Aren’t you excited?” she asked again.

Harvest’s mind was still in need of a serious jumpstart, but all of this was sounding familiar. She finished off the toast, smiling with tired eyes.

“’m nervous…” she sighed, stirring some sugar into her coffee.

“The first solo session can be a bit…intimidating.” Aura admitted, shrugging as she took a sip of her own coffee. “But, as long as you do your best and remember your lessons, everything will be okay, okay?”

“’kay…” she yawned again. Lit Wick’s head hit the dining table with a hard thump and Honey scolded the once-again sleeping colt. But he was already out cold.

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Her very first solo patient was an earth pony mare named Peony. She sat in a plush chair opposite her and held a clipboard in her magic, ready to write down what she learned. Peony was a pale yellow with a long, chestnut mane and tail, with amber eyes hesitating to meet her own.

“I knew you were supposed to be young but…” she looked Harvest over with concern. “I’m not sure how comfortable I am with this.”

“I understand your concern.” Harvest offered a small smile. “I am trained for this kind of thing though. I’m here to help you, Miss Peony. Please, don’t be afraid to hold anything back.”

She still looked unsure, but it wasn’t an outright refusal to talk, so Harvest took what she could get for now.

“Why don’t you start by telling me a little bit about yourself.” She offered, and the mare looked down to her hooves. She sighed, straightening up and giving off a composed impression.

“I’m a waitress, though I have a couple of temp jobs I do from home when money gets tight. Mostly paperwork. My special talent is mathematics, though ponies don’t really see an earth pony as being naturally good with numbers so nopony trusts my math at first.”

“You’re good with numbers?” Harvest asked, impressed by the mare. She eyed her cutie mark, an abacus with rainbow colored beads. “You must be a very helpful asset at your jobs.”

“I’m…certainly the one ponies come to, I suppose.” She shrugged, and Harvest noticed that she didn’t take the bait for a compliment. She wasn’t being humble either. She seems unconvinced of her own talent.

“May I ask what brings you here today?”

Peony paused, looking out the window. Her hooves pressed into the couch under her uncertainly, and Harvest waited patiently for an answer.

“I used to be normal…” she sighed, rubbing at her eyes. “I think that’s the most aggravating part of this…I can remember how I used to be but I can’t go back.”

Peony sat foreword in the chair, looking very collected. It made Harvest pause, and she wrote down a note without looking.

“I have a routine.” She said simply. “I get up at the same time every day and eat the same breakfast. I shower for exactly twelve minutes and brush my mane. I leave for work at exactly the same time and it’s always early so I can prepare for the day.”

“I take my lunch break and eat the same lunch, and when I go home I eat dinner, but what it is depends on the day of the week. I read the same books and I drink a cup of decaffeinated tea before bed. On Sundays I shop for the same groceries. On the third of every month I get my mane and tail trimmed the same way. My life is very predictable.”

“And this is causing you distress?” Harvest asked.

“No, I don’t mind my routine.” She shrugged. “It’s very calming. The problem is deviation. I do these things no matter the circumstances. If there is bad, feral weather I will go where I need to be, even if it’s hazardous. If I get sick, it causes me a lot of anxiety to stay home. My boss at work appreciates my nature, if only because it makes me a dependable employee. If something happens to threaten the routine, it causes me to…shut down.”

Harvest listened intently, taking more notes.

“There was once an…incident at work.” She said, more unsure. “One of the mares I used to work with got a nasty cut from a carving knife. I was the closest to her at the time but I just…didn’t react. I was doing my job. I left to serve tables without a word. The other ponies in the kitchen ended up helping her, and I was a bit of an outcast for a while.”

“Were you concerned for her?” Harvest asked, wondering about the mare in front of her.

“Of course.” She nodded, her tone a bit flat. “It was terrifying and I worried for her safety. But…stopping to help her would have…”

“Thrown off your routine?” Harvest offered.

“Yes.” She sighed. “And it just keeps going with things like that. I’m terrified of doing anything that will bring change. I never look for a new job because that would mean going to interviews which would interrupt things. I never accept invitations for social events for the same reason. Ponies have stopped trying. And I can’t even think of having a special somepony. Imagining changing my routine for another pony, even in the slightest makes my coat itch in the worst way. Even if it would make me happy, doing any of it, the thought of change is too much. Being here in the Crystal Empire is…excruciating. It took me six months to work up the nerve to seek treatment. I couldn’t break my routine for a traditional therapist. My boss even let me take something of a…sabbatical. I think he’s concerned for me and wants to help, even if it’s just to reward me for working there for so long without a vacation. I took his advice to write to Princess Cadence to seek treatment and she responded. I figured that if anypony could help me, it would be her. That’s how I finally convinced myself to make the trip.”

Harvest considered what she had learned, reading over her notes.

“Thank you for sharing that, Peony.” She said, putting down her clipboard. “I think we should go through your life a little. You said you weren’t always like this?”

And for a good chunk of their session, Harvest walked through Peony’s life with her. She had been a normal filly, reminding Harvest a lot of herself. She had wanted the things most fillies did and had even been a normal teenager. She got good grades, socialized with friends, even went on dates. But then, Harvest heard something she wasn’t expecting.

“Then when I was about fifteen, my father passed away.”

Her heart leapt, surprised and saddened. She stopped the mare with a raised hoof.

“I’m so sorry, Peony.” She said, and she meant it. “That must have been so hard.”

She couldn’t even imagine a world without her Papa. The time away from him this past year was hard enough, even with letters and occasional visits. Her Mama too. The thought of losing either of them almost made her cry in front of Peony. But she kept herself in check.

“It was.” Peony nodded, and her face did show more emotion than Harvest had seen so far. “It left my mother and I alone and it did…change things. The grieving was too much to handle at my age…I became a lot more isolated. I lost my friends because I couldn’t stand being happy without him, and they tried to give me space. And after I graduated secondary school…we lost touch. Nothing was the same after that.”

Harvest considered her words.

Then things clicked.

“Is that about the time your routine started?” she asked, with a strong feeling to the answer. Peony looked down at her hooves, and Harvest could practically see her mind working.

“Yes.” She answered breathlessly. She looked up at her young counselor, her eyes betraying her pain. “It was.”

Harvest didn’t want to drudge up these sad memories, but she had a job to do. She had a responsibility to Peony to help her, even if it was painful and reopened old wounds.

She was sure she knew how to help her patient.

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Harvest wasn’t sure how traditional it was to have an out-of-office appointment with your counselor, but Princess Cadence had given her a lot of leeway so far. She had to hope that everything would work out and try her best.

About a week after their first session, she was walking alongside the mare through the city, whose steps were careful and methodical. She could practically feel the anxiety rolling off of Peony.

“How are you feeling?” she asked.

“…Everything is so…unfamiliar.” She shut her eyes and she breathed deeply through her nose. “I’ve never traveled before. It’s hard to make a new routine when there are so many variables.”

“You don’t seem too bad, on the outside.” She noted. For all of Peony’s anxieties about things, her emotions had rarely shown through so far. “Would you tell me what you’re thinking?”

Peony looked around subtly, still taking deep breaths.

“I’m wondering if the other employees at the restaurant are following the protocols set in place. And I checked the lock on my apartment door six times before I left but I’m wondering if it was really locked or if I can’t remember correctly…” she droned, her mouth in a tight, stressed line. “And I’m worried that the groceries I’ll buy at the local market here will taste different than the ones I buy back home. And if I go out to eat, what if I can’t decide what to order in a timely fashion and I end up picking something unfamiliar and hating it but eating it anyway so I don’t waste any more time…”

Harvest could see the muscles in Peony’s legs and back clenching and unclenching as she spoke, wondering if it was an unconscious action. She had so much pent up nervous energy.

“Would it make you feel better if somepony else was making these decisions for you?” Harvest asked, keeping her voice level and calming.

“Mmmm…” Peony thought hard to herself, her ears twitching. “No, I don’t think so. Too many new things to consider. But I’d be open to suggestions, as long as they’re detailed.”

“Why don’t we stop somewhere for lunch and we can work on some of these things?” she offered, hoping a change of scenery would lighten the mood. “We can go somewhere I know so things aren’t so unpredictable.”

“…I can do that.” Peony nodded, and the words were like music to her ears. A nice, controlled environment would help ease the mare’s nerves. For now.

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Harvest had watched her first patient through their day out, noting to herself all the things that set off Peony’s anxieties. She was tense most of the time but being so far removed from her usual patterns was bound to do that to such a nervous mare. But Harvest did notice certain things that brought out more obvious reactions.

She had no troubles interacting with ponies on the street, returning random greetings with a hello and a genuine smile. She never interacted with anypony for very long, but nothing seems forced or hesitant about her exchanges.

When asked to make a decision on anything, she froze. She stood, mind racing and showed obvious signs of hesitation and mild panic. Like her mind was racing between every possible outcome of every decision she could make.

Whether it was how she wanted her life to go, or something as simple as choosing what kind of sandwich to order.

“If I may make a suggestion?”

Peony visibly relaxed, nodding her head stiffly.

“My friend Lit Wick enjoys the chickpea salad sandwich with the dipping sauce.” Harvest suggested after Peony had been staring at the overhead menu for almost ten minutes. They stood off to the side as not to be in anypony’s way. “And I’m a big fan of their grilled, spicy cauliflower sandwich.”

She still thought about it for a minute more, before stepping up to the counter. The crystal pony mare behind the counter who had been eyeing the two of them curiously perked up at their approach, asking for their order.

“I would like your…grilled spicy cauliflower sandwich with a side the dipping sauce. Please.” She relaxed again, the tension mostly gone from her frame.

“Okay miss.” The mare smiled. “Will your sister be ordering off of the children’s menu or is she up for a full-sized meal?”

“Oh, she’s not my sister.” Peony answered her plainly. “She’s my therapist.”

The mare blinked before nodding, seemingly understanding their dynamic from what she’d seen so far. Peony finished her order and they were soon seated with their identical sandwiches.

They ate mostly in silence, but having gotten this far, Harvest moved onto the next phase of her session.

“Are you regretting your decision?” she asked suddenly. Peony stopped short of taking another bite, noticeably thrown by the question.

“My…”

“Your sandwich.”

Peony glanced away, her ear twitching a bit.

“No, it’s very good.” She finally answered. “The dipping sauce is a bit sweeter than I was expecting but I’m handling it just fine.”

Harvest knew that everything would work out today. She had purposely put Peony in a controlled but unfamiliar setting to see how she opened up when she had no power. If she was just uncomfortable enough, how would she show her feelings differently than in the comfort and safety of their usual meeting place.

“Peony?” she got the older mare’s attention again. “Tell me a little about your father.”

That got the intended reaction. Peony flinched and her whole body went rigid, trying her best to be in control of everything. Her appearance, her emotions, everything.

“What did you like to do together?” she offered, carefully studying every detail of her patient. Peony was trying very hard to avoid eye contact with her, her hooves trembling slightly on the table.

“Do…do we really have to talk about this here?” she asked, her voice wavering.

“Everything’s fine.” She told her simply, not looking away. “Just breathe.”

Peony stayed quiet but eventually gave in, closing her eyes and breathing in deeply.

“My father was…kind. Almost to a fault. He was always the parent that comforted me, even when he was supposed to be punishing me.”

“Oh?”

“I was well-behaved, for the most part.” She cast her eyes downward. “But I was…overeager and curious at times, and it got me into some trouble from time to time. My mother was the disciplinarian, always trying to show me what I did wrong so that I could learn from it. She loved me…in her own way.”

Harvest mentally noted the use of past-tense there but didn’t interrupt.

“And my father…he was very soft-spoken, it wasn’t hard to ask for things from him when I was young. As different as they were, they complimented each other as parents.”

Peony’s description of her father truly painted a picture. One of a loving parent who had his own faults, at least those that Peony herself could comprehend as a child. He was very dear to her, that much was obvious.

“I wish I could’ve had more time with him…” Peony suddenly sniffled, and as pleased as it made Harvest to see her patient opening up, she didn’t want to humiliate her by confronting her any further in public. The ice had been broken, and she knew what she’d have to bring up in their next session to make Peony see how to help herself with her obsessive condition.

“Peony, for our next session, I want you think about the times that you’ve deviated from your routine. No matter the cause, I want to know how the changes made you feel before and after.”

Peony wiped her eyes, taking a deep, shuddering breath and nodding before taking a massive bite of her slightly cold sandwich. Despite the discomfort that still itched away at the back of her mind, she felt lighter. Her senses felt a little sharper for some reason. Colors were richer, smells more noticeable, even the spice in her sandwich was hitting her harder.

“This really is good.” She half-laughed to Harvest. “I’m glad I tried something new.”

Harvest just smiled, glad that their unusual session had gone as well as it did. Her first patient was turning out to be somepony she could really make a difference with.

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They were walking back towards the Empire’s center together, as Peony’s hotel was close to the castle. Despite how heavy their talk had been just minutes ago, their small talk on the way back was surprisingly light. Peony was even smiling, even if it was small and somewhat unnoticeable to anypony else.

“I think we should meet for our next session…In maybe…”

Harvest stopped in her tracks.

Peony stopped a few steps ahead, looking back to the younger filly. She was looking off in another direction entirely. Her eyes were wide, muscles tense and ears standing up strait, almost straining towards the odd direction.

“Harvest?” Peony was thrown by this odd behavior. It wasn’t a normal sense of an upset to her routine, this went deeper into her subconscious, that deep, deep down place that she felt as a pony. Like the skittishness she felt when she felt there might be a threat to the herd.

Something was very wrong.

“Harvest please.” Her muscles were tensing up so hard that she could feel her legs starting to cramp up. But Harvest was steadfast. Her tail whipped in silent agitation as she began to wander in a seemingly random direction. Out of instinctual fear and worry for the filly’s safety, Peony followed her closely.

Harvest rounded street corners without a word, her ears swiveling every which way. She pulled herself down narrow back alleys and didn’t pay attention to any of the ponies on the street, narrowly avoiding bumping into anypony. Every once in a while she would pause, look around and start going again, practically stumbling over her hooves to get where she was going.

The farther they went, the stranger the Crystal Empire seemed to look. The buildings were older and their architecture was strange to the two non-natives. They began to see a wider variety of creatures. Immigrants to the Empire from all over, they saw diamond dogs and griffins, abyssinians and a minotaur. They even spotted the odd reformed changeling, not usually seen so far from the Crystal Heart. But Peony was the one to really notice these surroundings and creatures.

Harvest stopped in her tracks again, Peony nearly bumping into her from behind. Between the strange actions of her young therapist and the increasingly strange setting she found herself in, her anxieties were consuming her.

“Harvest?” she spoke up again, hoping she could finally snap the filly out of whatever this was. She was staring down a dark alley, her ears flat and her body starting to shake.

“…It hurts.”

“What?” she asked, coming around to the filly’s face. “Are you okay? Harvest!”

“It hurts…Help.” She said, putting a hoof to her head. “I can’t move…help.”

She stepped towards the alley before breaking into a dead sprint, Peony panicking and following after.

Peony froze, but Harvest kept on going. The filly ducked down to a severely injured Diamond Dog, their white fur was marred with pooling red, their massive paws limp at their sides. With one unscathed eye, they looked up at Harvest, barely conscious. Peony couldn’t breathe.

“Get somepony.” Harvest called to her, eyes wide. “Now!”

Peony could breathe again, and she did just as told. She ran off back to the streets to find somepony, anypony who could help.

But Harvest knew help wouldn’t come in time.

She shushed and soothed the frightened Diamond Dog, knowing deep down it wouldn’t be long now. Her magic was still full of unknowns but she had sensed her pain from miles away. How she had known was completely beyond her. But she let her instincts take over and she did her best to make the Dog’s final moments just a bit less lonely and frightening.

“It’s okay…” she said over the Dog’s now ragged breathing. “I’m not going anywhere. You were here alone for a long time, weren’t you? I’m not going anywhere, I promise.”

She took one massive, limp paw in her hoof, unprepared for what she’d see.

A lone diamond dog looked through the scraps of wood in the alley, hoping to find some that were good for carving. Since coming to the pony lands with her pups, she’d found herself encouraged to explore her creative side. The side of her that was never encouraged in the pack she’d left back in the territories.

When she’d realized that one of her two little pups had been more docile, a little slower than his sibling and the other pups in the pack, she’d known that he’d be isolated and her family judged for caring for him. Once they’d realized he was deaf, they were clear in their intentions to basically leave him for dead. She’d heard of the pony lands, and how they were free to be any kind of creature they were. She knew it would be lonely, and her family would be forced to turn their backs on her in order to survive, but for the life of her pups it had to be done.

She’d found a particularly good piece of scrap wood when a shadowy figure at the end of the alley, staring down the diamond dog. The details were blurred by pain and the haze of impending death. But it was a pony. Had they witnessed what had happened? Or…

“Hello? Pony?” Harvest called out in an unfamiliar voice.

Harvest was very soon corrected when she felt a sharp stab in her broad shoulder. She reached up to it with her big white paw, only to recoil when there was a strange sound. Something sharp dragged across her right eye and in seconds she was half-blind.

A vicious snarl ripped out of her, directed at the pony in the alley, but when she tried to attack, her legs wouldn’t move. She soon felt the agony of stab after stab to her limbs. She’d already been immobilized, why had the figure gone after her legs?

Her muscles were starting to ache and her leg buckled, sending her to the ground.

Despite how much it hurt, despite how much she held on for herself, for her pups, she wondered why this pony hadn’t just finished her off. She got the same aura as some of the crueler dogs back in her homeland.

This pony didn’t want to kill her.

It wanted her to suffer.

She snarled again, trying to drag herself further down the alley. If she could reach the street some creature would at least know where she was if not help her. But she felt herself being dragged back by her tail. No matter how deep she dug her claws into the cobblestone under her, the yanking continued.

In a last-ditch effort of survival, she lurched back to bite her attacker, but the pony hadn’t moved from their spot.

A unicorn.

She lurched further back to desperately bite at her tail to escape, but her head was slammed down onto the ground before she could even get near it. She tasted blood in her mouth.

Before the pain was too much, she was rolled onto her back by the pony’s magic. The pony continued its assault, too far away to see clearly and too far away to be touched by any of her blood.

With the last bits of her consciousness, she snarled at him, refusing to show this pony any sign of her pain.

“You’re a monster!” Harvest felt herself cry out in a guttural voice. “There’s no need in this kill for you, only pleasure! Foul, filthy monster!”

“Now, now…” the pony called back. Harvest felt her jaws being wrenched open with magic and her tongue grabbed. “There’s no need for that.”

Harvest startled back to her own consciousness, tears flowing down her face. She spotted the blood seeping slowly out of the Diamond Dog’s mouth.

“I’m sorry you went through all of that Snowy…” she remembered the dog’s name. “I’ll make sure your puppies are taken care of. I promise.”

Snowy’s eyes widened at her words, but it was obvious she was struggling to stay alive. She didn’t want to die and leave her puppies alone in this strange new land but holding on was draining everything from her. Some part of her wanted to let go, to stop the suffering.

Harvest stayed with her, holding her paw until she finally slipped away. Peony and a duo of crystal guards came back not two minutes after.

She spent the next few hours reporting what she’d seen with her magic, but with the limited info on the unicorn from her vision, she wasn’t sure if or how they’d be found.

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Aura was the first to meet up with her when she returned, and Harvest worked to clear her mind. When she had told Cadence a while back how muddled the older filly made her mind feel sometimes, Cadence had tried to assure her that there was no shame in feeling this way. Harvest didn’t really understand what the princess meant, but she told her that she’d rather not let Aura sense how uncomfortable she was for no reason. It was against her better judgement, but the Princess was also guilty of guarding herself against Aura’s abilities.

She taught her how to mask her emotions, so that they wouldn’t be visible to empaths like Aura. She wasn’t that good at it yet, but if her mind was focused and she wasn’t in any kind of real emotional distress, it usually worked. Aura herself didn’t seemed to mind or notice. Or if she did, she was too polite to mention it.

It was a little ridiculous how often she had to use the techniques she was taught lately.

“Moony!” she smiled, brushing up against her in her usually friendly way. In the last year, the height difference between the two of them had lessened, but Aura was still tall and lanky compared to the rest of her friends. Even Lit Wick who was growing up more and more lately, getting slightly more masculine-looking, was still a bit shorter than her.

“Hi Aura.” She smiled, doing her best to seem as normal as possible. It seemed like it had worked, and they walked together, talking about anything that popped into their heads. It was comfortable, Harvest was no longer the stammering shy filly she’d been just a year ago. She could see Aura for everything she was, not just the pony she seemed to be. Aura was a silly filly who loved the ponies around her and told bad jokes. She was a horrible dancer, her too long legs going every which way they shouldn’t, and she had an almost stereotypical pegasi temper when she was upset, often retreating to a blanket cocoon in her room when she was upset for hours on end. She was anything but the perfect pony Harvest had thought she was when they’d first met.

And Harvest couldn’t help but feel so light and airy whenever they were together.

“Hello dear friends!” a cheerful, booming voice called from down the hall.

Harvest had only seen this happen a few times before, but it was still so…jarring.

Lit Wick came running down the hall, skidding the last few gallops and practically crashing into Honey. His mane that always fell in front of his face was swept back, revealing both of his bright yellow eyes. They were full of life and he didn’t have the same tired air about him.

“Lit Wick!” Aura smiled. She always seemed happy seeing him like this. “Did you have a good session?”

“Absolutely!” he grinned. Harvest still wasn’t used to seeing him like this. A smile for everyday Lit Wick was so rare, something to be treasured. But post-session Lit Wick was almost a completely different pony. “I think I’m really making some progress with my patient!”

This was the state he morphed into after treating a patient with depression. He absorbed all the negative energy and gave them temporary relief to view their lives from an unmuddied perspective. He had once described it as “clearing all the storm clouds from their minds”. Funnily enough, taking all those storm clouds into his own mind made him so much sunnier. Even Princess Cadence had trouble explaining how the magic worked.

“You up for lunch Wicked?” Honey asked, smiling wryly at him. She knew Sunny Lit Wick didn’t care for that nickname.

“I would love to enjoy a meal with my friends, thank you Honey!” He smiled, but it was slightly strained. If one didn’t know the real Lit Wick it wouldn’t be noticeable.

Though, it could be argued that just because the gloomy Lit Wick she knew was around more, and she knew him better, didn’t mean there was a “real” him.

“It’s different, but nice. In its own way.” Aura smiled, looking at Lit Wick leading the group to the house.

“What is?” Harvest asked.

“His light.” She blinked slowly, as if willing herself to look away. “Everypony’s light, their aura, is different. It can change with time and circumstance, but when he gets like this, it changes so much I can barely recognize it. But his positive emotions are genuine.”

Harvest agreed noncommittally, thinking over this other version of her friend.

“You’re nervous about it?” Aura walked closer to her, and Harvest sighed. She lost her focus in her worry.

“I’m just worried.” She admitted, looking at Lit Wick and Honey chatting excitedly ahead of them. “Usually she can barely get two words out of him when he’s like this. I worry that he’s…pushing himself. Like all this energy is why he’s so out of it the rest of the time.”

“I understand.” Aura nodded, pulling Harvest closer with her wing. It made her feel warm and uncomfortable and she wasn’t entirely sure why. “You’re worried about our friend. But hey, if he was feeling terrible and I knew it, I promise I would let you know, or do something about it myself. Okay?”

“Okay.” She smiled up at the taller filly, hoping she was ignoring how nervous she was feeling.

Harvest could try to be there for Lit Wick, no matter what side of him was showing. He wasn’t the friend she had met a year ago at the moment, but if this was just another part of him, she had no problem accepting him for who he was.

“He wouldn’t be against you just asking him about it.” Aura told her. “It’s not something he keeps secret or that he’s ashamed of.” She paused. “Well…he’ll be embarrassed when it wears off, but you know what I mean.”

She walked with Aura all the way to the dorm house under her protective wing, doing her best to keep her mind clear. It was one of the only times she didn’t mind being so short.

She was dealing with her own storm clouds at the moment, and if Aura could sense that she wasn’t talking. How was she going to bring this up with her friends? Princess Cadence? Should she have already done it? The Princess had been in her throne room all day doing courtly things, serving her citizens, there was no way either she or Shining Armor had gotten wind of what had gone down that day, or that somepony they knew was involved.

In the long run, was this even a professional concern? Or was this more of a worry that she should keep to herself? This was a crime, and she’d already talked to the proper authorities. Told them everything she knew. She was a therapist pony, not some busybody investigative type. Thinking about it realistically, there was nothing more she could do.

But she couldn’t get what she’d seen, or sensed, out of her head. Snowy had just slipped away and she’d been the only one to see her, to know how she suffered before she was just…gone. And that unicorn was still out there.

“Moony?”

She looked up to see all three of her friends staring at her. Aura looked especially pained, she knew. She had to know. Harvest had let her guard down.

“Moony…you’re scared. And sad. Like…you’re mourning.” Aura read her, her words making her other friends look on in confusion and concern. “What’s going on?”

She tried to keep her composure, but the thought of the poor dog’s face bubbled up to the surface and broke her. She tried to keep the loud sob from escaping but it was a losing battle. Aura wrapped her wings around Harvest and squeezed her tight, swiftly joined by Honey and Lit Wick.

Harvest broke down in the middle of the castle courtyard, surrounded by ponies that cared about her. Somepony sent for the princess, she wasn’t sure who. Maybe it would be good to schedule a session with the her. Not as Harvest Moon the therapist pony, or even her student, but as Moony. Just a scared filly who needed somepony to talk to.

Author's Note

hey...

hope this chapter was too thematically different for y'all to enjoy it, but it has a purpose in the greater story

who's that unicorn? and why did they do what they did? Harvest is gonna do her best to find out, don't worry your pretty little heads about that.

(p.s. i know having a unicorn as your villain is a bit overdone, but there are plot-based reasons for this, i promise. Harvest is dealing with one sick puppy here)

(p.s.s. i guess the running theme i'm going for with the chapter titles now are song lyrics/titles. this one is more...ironic? i guess?? like hey, Peony, don't worry, be hap-oh no murder. oh geez, we weren't ready for this, oh criminey.
ch. 1 is a paul mccartney song, ch. 2 is the king and i song, this is of course the bob marley song. do with that what you will.)

fun fact: Peony was originally a pegasus named Sunbeam, but I thought it'd be bad to have her be winged when Harvest was rushing to Snowy and her not get a ride to help her in time. Snowy was never going to survive this, the point of Harvest being there was to see her memories and be able to help in the long run. kind of a cop-out but *shrugs* eh. And Snowy was kind of a lazy name but, diamond dogs aren't exactly the most explored creatures in the show. she's white and they have dog names. sue me. or fight me since i have no money.

the next chapter will have some fluff and relaxation in it, much like chapter 2 eventually had for chapter 1. that seems to be an unintentional pattern here, oops. need some cooling off from the heavy subjects here.

oh, almost forgot, i have a drawing of magic-ified Lit Wick, i.e. when he's hyped up on his special magical talent. so now you know his secret! when he works with depressed ponies, this is what he temporarily turns into!

and what he normally looks like

love your comments! the most surefire way to encourage me to write more (be sure to like and subscribe and don't forget to hit that bell to-*gets hit with a brick*)