Cultivating Crossroads

Quilted Comfort watched her daughter like a hawk. They walked together towards the community center. It hurt her to let her out of her sight, but she only got a handful of sick days. She had to trust that she would be safe at day-camp.

She broke the silence with a question. “Did you remember your hat?”

“Yes Mom. It’s in my saddlebags,” the little unicorn answered. Well, at the very least she could count on her being safe from the sun. It was not much of a relief.

The early morning air was quiet. The soft clopping of their hooves on the road was nothing compared to the pounding of her heart. She wished she didn’t need these camps. This week the Parks Department was hosting, next the Fillies and Colts club, and then the Egrets Society. All of these ponies were perfectly trustworthy foal-care providers who were capable of watching Cotton. She just had to trust that Cotton was going to listen to them.

“I need you to be on your best behavior. First you beat up Peach Blossom. Then you ran away, putting you and your friends in danger. This isn’t like you. I know it’s hard, but you need to turn this around. You know better.”

“I know,” the filly sulked.

“Do you? You could have been killed out there. You almost were killed out there. The world is already tough enough as it is. You don’t need to make it any harder,” she said. “We’re supposed to stick together. We’re a team, and I need to know what's happening in your life. We’re family.”

“Okay.” The filly said sadly.

The bigger unicorn stopped and leaned down for a hug.

“We’re okay Cotton, we can do this. I love you. You know that right?” She brushed the filly’s red and black mane out of her eyes. “I’ll go to work, and you go to day-camp. We do what we need to do, and before we know it it’ll be the Summer Sun Celebration. You love the Summer Sun Celebration!”

“Yeah,” she said, a bit more excited.

“We’ll stay up all night. We’ll eat way too much junk food. Then we’ll watch Celestia raise the sun. We just have to do the things we’re supposed to until then. Then it’ll be great.” She hoped for both of them that it was true.

“Promise?” Two big eyes stared up at her, glistening with tears.

Her heart melted. “Yeah, I promise.”

Cotton lay on the cool tile floor of the community center. She absent-mindedly worked on a themed coloring page of Princess Celestia. Astral Glow walked over and lay beside her.

The blue unicorn whispered. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” She whispered back. “Are you okay?”

“I think so.” Astral lit her horn and started rummaging through the bin of colored pencils. “I’ve had some nightmares, but it’s gotten much better.”

She nodded and accepted a purple one with her field. “Me too.”

The blue filly rolled over and stared up at the popcorn ceiling. “My mom says we should remember that we won. The bad guy is gone, and we’re not.”

The bad guy was gone? They were the ones who snuck out in the middle of the night. Cotton had known what the honest choice was, but she’d chosen Astral over following the rules. By trying to be a good friend she’d disrespected her Filly Scout promise. That wasn’t exactly good.

“Is your mom okay? We never got the medallion,” she frowned. They’d almost died out there and still hadn’t accomplished anything.

“She told me it probably wouldn’t have helped anyway. Her mark is still her mark, her job is still her job, and mean ponies are still mean. She said it takes more than one trick to change the culture of the herd,” Astral sighed.

“Everypony should know better. She’s lived here forever. FOR-EV-ER!” She banged a hoof on the floor. “That’s not fair.”

“No. It isn’t.”

They just sat there with each other, comfortable together in a moment of silent thought. Cotton tried to hold her field writing inside the lines of the page. She wished Ms. Lemon Glow could have a mark that made her happy.

“How grounded are you?” Astral asked.

“I’m not allowed to go anywhere by myself anymore,” Cotton answered. “ I have to stay where my mom can see me, unless I’m at day-camp.”

“Same.” The blue unicorn rolled her eyes. “We might as well be cuffed together.”

“My mom says we can still go to the Summer Sun Celebration though,” she smiled. “Are you going to get to come?”

“We’re still going.” She boredly blew a bit of yellow mane out of her face. “We’ll definitely see you there.”

“You, Summer, and I should all meet up and get funnel cake together. It will be nice.”

“You don’t know?” Astral rolled over to stare at her. “Summer Breeze moved.”

“What?” Her magic blinked out, dropping all her art supplies to the ground in shock.

“She got her cutie mark in storm busting, so her parents took her to audition for the Cloudsdale school for gifted pegasi. She got in. She busted that magic all by herself, so I’m not really surprised.” Her eyebrows knit with concern. “Why didn’t anypony tell you?”

“But it’s break! School doesn’t start back for more than a month," she said. One of the counselors hushed her from across the room.

“The gifted school does summer flight camps. She got a spot in one of those and moved into her dorm early,” Astral whispered.

“So she’s just gone?” She couldn’t believe her friend would just leave her like that.

“I guess so.” Astral shrugged, but her eyes suggested that she was hurt too.

“She didn’t even say goodbye," she sniffled.

“Nope.” Astral tried to put a comforting hoof on her back.

“She didn’t have a cuteceñera!” A few tears rolled down her face.

“Nope! She just flew away!” Astral shouted exasperated. The counselor from before hushed them again, more forcefully this time.

Her friend's anger was frightening. “Astral,” she said timidly.

“I thought she was our friend, but clearly I was wrong. She got her cutie mark and just left. She thinks she’s so much better than us with her new mark and fancy school. Too good to say goodbye to us trashy small town blank flank losers.” The filly started crying.

“Astral!” Cotton hugged her tightly.

“She just left us behind without saying goodbye,” Astral sputtered.

“She did,” she said. How could she think that was okay?

“Don’t leave me Cotton.”

“Never! We’ll always stick together. We’re a team. We’re family.”

The quilt they were using as a picnic blanket was old and faded, but it was still soft. Quilted Comfort was just happy to get to sit down. It was only a little after midnight, but they had already been running around the Summer Sun Celebration for hours. She watched as Cotton and Astral went through the inflatable obstacle course in front of her for what had to be at least the tenth time. How they still had that much energy was a mystery she didn’t think she’d ever solve.

A yellow hoof passed her a paper cup, which she gratefully took with her magic. Did anypony actually know how a lemon shake-up was supposed to be different than lemonade? She certainly couldn’t tell the difference. Who it was that gave the drink to her was kind of silly though.

“Thanks Lemon,” she giggled.

“Yeah, yeah.” The Earth Pony rolled her eyes. “You’re welcome.”

She took a sip of the icy beverage. “How are you holding up?”

The mare sat down with her own cup. “Tonight? I’m tired. In general? It’s weird.”

“Weird how?” she asked.

“Nopony cares. Three fillies almost died to a bloodsucking monster bird, but nopony is even talking about it. Remember when I went on that blind date with that stallion who wore his mane in a bun? Stellar Flare talked about that for four weeks straight. So why is everypony just pretending everything is fine now?” She shook her mane out of her face. “It’s weird.”

It was weird. “Maybe they’re scared?”

“They should be scared! Three children almost died, but only one in this town reacting is Starlight Glimmer. Not the mayor, not the police, but freaking Firelight’s daughter.” The Earth Pony shook with anger. “Why isn’t anypony doing anything?”

“What are we supposed to do?” she asked sadly. “I’ve been watching Cotton. She goes to camp, and she goes next to me. No more Filly Scout meetings and no more walking places by herself. All I can do is make her stay where I can protect her.”

“The town should protect her! You’re not a royal guard. You can’t be expected to be responsible for monster attacks. That’s why we appoint ponies to deal with this shit. An officer or a guard should have been there and saved them that night. The mayor should be working to make sure it never happens again. But here we are and nopony is even talking about it. It’s just you, me, and Starlight Glimmer. How bucked up is that?”

“Starlight Glimmer could make change”

Quilted Comfort hugged her friend.

“This started when they beat up that filly for saying something about me being an Earth Pony. Every year we have Hearth's Warming and pretend that we ended all our tribalist ideas before Equestria was founded. But centuries later here we are, complacent. She’s even a freaking Earth Pony herself, we’re just that screwed up.” Lemon paused and took a long drink. “Then, a literal monster comes to drink our children’s blood. You cannot get more straightforward evil than that. Yet here we are doing nothing. The world is falling apart around us, but nopony can be bothered to even watch!”

“Well, I’m still here for you,” she said. “Starlight Glimmer’s here for you too. All the ponies we’ve met at our book club, I bet they care too. So, maybe we’re just a few friends, but we’ll get through this together.”

Cotton carefully climbed the steps of the ladder while her mother held it steady with her magic. Going up on the roof had always been special. When she was little, she had thought that the enchantments on the shingles gave them wellsprings, and was very concerned that they were alive. She used to apologize for stepping on them, and would make her dad thank the roof for carrying both them and his telescope. Of course she knew better now.

Her mom floated up the end of the hose. They weren’t going to do any fireworks themselves this year, but that didn’t mean their neighbors weren’t participating. Cotton lit her own horn and spread out their quilt. It might have been a little mucky and have a few grass stains, but it was still more comfortable than the scratchy surface under their hooves. Both unicorns were hot and sweaty from the summer weather, but they were tired enough that it didn’t matter. They snuggled up together facing east.

Cotton yawned. Shortly the fireworks began to go up from the hoofball field. They watched the stunning display without talking. There were flickering green ones, gold ones with long dripping tails, and big pink and gold bursts. They all thundered through the sky with breathtaking majesty.

Cotton’s eyelids began to droop, and they waited for Princess Celestia to raise the sun.

The fireworks ended, but the grand finale didn’t come. They kept waiting.

She yawned again. The ponies must have messed up the timing. She sleepy thought about how disappointed they must have been. It was too bad.

Eventually, her eyes closed. Cotton drifted off to sleep.

Quilted Comfort squinted at the horizon. This was pretty weird. She didn’t know what time it was, but the fireworks had never been this early before. She looked up to see if the moon had moved at all. It hadn’t budged, but it did look smooth for some reason. Why couldn’t she see any craters?

She didn’t see the point in sitting around waiting any longer. Cotton had been asleep for a while now anyways. She carefully levitated the sleeping filly down to the ground. It took a lot of effort. The smaller unicorn wasn’t as small anymore, and was much heavier than she used to be. She took a moment to rest and wiped the sweat of her brow. Then she climbed down herself, lifted her daughter onto her back, and drudged inside.

The clock on the stove said 7:08am, but that just couldn’t be right. She checked the weather schedule on the fridge. Sunrise was supposed to be more than forty minutes ago. She snapped awake. Something was very wrong.

“Starlight knows a lot of ponies”

“Starlight knows about everything”

“Starlight knew how to save you last time.”

She needed to find Starlight Glimmer. She wanted to run, to gallop. She shifted the foal on her back. She wouldn’t let Cotton out of her sight. Not again. Carefully, she walked towards town.

Starlight Glimmer’s small home was in chaos. The house was fully illuminated against the dark night sky. The sight was almost comforting. A familiar navy pegasus rushed over to her.

“Quilted Comfort! I was just going to check on you! Are you and Cotton okay?”

“Night Glider!” She was relieved to see a familiar face. “ We’re fine. What’s happening?”

“Firelight and the rest of the historical society think this whole thing is Nightmare Moon,” Night Glider said.

“Nightmare moon?” Quilted’s eyebrows scrunched in confusion. “Like Nightmare Night Nightmare Moon?”

“Firelight says the legend is based on a real pony from the civil war. Apparently they were important enough to be personally banished by Celestia. Some books claim she’d come back 1,000 years after banishment for revenge. Turns out that anniversary was yesterday.”

“Nightmare Moon isn’t real,” Quilted balked. “That’s insane!”

“Not so much when you consider the bucking sun is missing.”

She shifted Cotton on her back.

“Sorry.” Night Glider blushed. “Come on, everypony else is inside.”

“Everypony else?”

“All of the book club, and a couple new faces. Turns out nopony cares about y’all’s incident with the monster bird untill they have to face their own monster.” Night Glider shuddered. “Now they want the most powerful unicorn in town to protect them too.”

The living room was crowded. Six ponies were already crammed into the small sitting area. They sat on both furniture and the floor, while older ponies breezed through with cardboard boxes. Starlight Glimmer stood near Sugar Belle where they were talking to unfamiliar white Earth Pony.

“Quilted!” Lemon Glow hugged her. “Thank goodness!”

“We’re fine, just frightened.” she said. “Where’s Astral Glow?”

“Asleep with the other foals over there.” Lemon gestured to a pile of beanbags and pillows under the kitchen island. The filly slept under a softly glowing blanket alongside Capital Chance’s colt son and an unfamiliar filly.

“Here, take this.” The Earth Pony passed her a black and white fleece blanket. Like the one on Astral, it was also glowing. “Starlight enchanted them with a sleep charm and some basic protective wards.” The yellow mare gulped. “They can’t panic if they’re asleep.”

She levitated Cotton down onto a cushion, but then hesitated. Was this a good idea? If they were in danger the foals wouldn’t be able to run.

“Starlight knows what she’s doing.”

That was right. She should listen to Starlight Glimmer. Quilted tucked the fleece in around her daughter.

She walked over to the rest of the group and found a spot on the rug. Night Glider and Lemon Glow settled down beside her.

“Quilted!” Sugar Belle passed her a cup of coffee. The younger mare was shaking. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“Quilted Comfort,” Starlight Glimmer turned to look at her. “Are you and your daughter okay?”

“We’re fine, just frightened,” she said. “What’s going on?”

“Everypony. Everypony can I have your attention please?” Starlight asked politely. All eyes turned to her. “Now that we know all our friends are safe, we need a plan.” She lit her horn and teleported in a black marker. Her field ripped the decorations off the wall behind her. Without looking she wrote ‘What we know’.

“I’ll start with the obvious. One, the sun didn’t come up this morning.” The marker copied that down.

“Two, nopony is hurt,” Sugar Belle whimpered. “That we know of.”

“Three, the historical society thinks this is part of an attack by Nightmare Moon, who is real,” Starlight moved on.

“They think Sire’s Hollow will be attacked?” Sugar Belle squeaked. “But we’re so small!”

“Wouldn’t it make more sense to hit bigger cities first?” an unfamiliar mare asked. “Our town isn’t even big enough for a public pool.”

“It was an important battleground in the civil war, but that was 1,000 years ago,” Lemon Glow thought aloud.

“Exactly,” Starlight said. “We don’t know what information the Nightmare has. She might think we’re still the duchy stronghold from the past, or she might know we’ve become a small farm town. We don’t know what she knows.”

There was a poignant pause in conversation while they all carefully considered this. Quilted looked around the room at the faces of fear and sorrow that surrounded her. Even Capitol chance looked like he was going to throw up.

“Five, if the sun doesn’t come up, we will eventually die.” Quilted said. Starlight solemnly added it to the list.

“Freezing. Starvation. Without photosynthesis, we might even run out of oxygen,” Capital Chance said. Everypony instinctively touched a hoof to their necks. A few tears fell softly.

“So we know the end goal,” Starlight said, starting a new column. “Restore the sun. Option 1, Princess Celestia does it.”

“But we don’t know what happened to her. She might be blocked by Nightmare Moon’s dark magic, imprisoned, or dead,” a white stallion said.

“That’s true,” Starlight said, “and two of those scenarios are theoretically solvable.”

“Option 2, Nightmare Moon does it.” Night Glider said. “Maybe she can be convinced not to end the world.”

“You can’t rule the dead,” Sugar Belle whispered. Everypony shuddered. This time Capitol did throw up.

“Option 3, unicorns do it,” Starlight said, ignoring him.

“The unicorns haven’t raised the sun since ancient times,” Lemon Glow said. “How many fields would it take to equal an alicorn?”

“We know the council of the sun was only five grand mages, but they were the most powerful ponies of their age. If we enchant a magic circle in crystal and platinum, I’m estimating around 150 regular ponies,” said Starlight. “We’ll need more if the Nightmare is blocking it with a spell.”

“Option 4, Princess Cadence does it,” Lemon Glow said.

“She’s just a fledgling alicorn, is that even possible?” Quilted asked.

Nopony answered. Nopony knew.

Starlight took her own drink of coffee. “Can anypony think of anything else?”

Silence filled the room.

“Then it’s time to take action.” Starlight’s horn blazed in a shining cone of pure blue light. The mare stood up. “There is only one choice that isn’t alicorn dependent, we have to raise the sun ourselves. This is what we’re going to do.”

“Night Glider, you and the other pegasi fly west to Rockwood. Tell them what’s happening and get all their unicorns to meet us halfway at Cattail Pond. The two towns together might have enough unicorn power.” Night Glider saluted.

“Capital Chance, go tell Mayor Favor what’s happening. You're tougher than him in every way. Don’t let him try to push you around.” The stallion smiled nervously.

“Everypony else, we meet back here in an hour and a half. Tell everypony. We need food, water, blankets, and platinum. If you have an enchanted electronic device like a toaster, grab it. Bring it to me and we're going to harvest it’s platinum. If you have a cart, bring that too. We need to carry the foals, elderly, and ourselves as we take turns sleeping.” Quilted instinctively looked over towards Cotton.

“We can do this everypony. Our ancestors cycled the sun and moon for eons before the first alicorn ascended. With only the primitive technology of the distant past, they accomplished the feat through teamwork alone. We have every advantage. We are our ancestors' wildest dreams. We will do this, and we’ll do it together!”

“YOU BELIEVE IN STARLIGHT GLIMMER”

“I believe in Starlight Glimmer," Quilted muttered under her breath.

The pink mare smiled. “I’ll see you in an hour and a half.

Somepony whispered in her ear. “Cotton, you need to get up now.”

She slowly cracked open her eyes. The stars twinkled overhead.

“What time is it?” She groaned groggily. She looked around, they were outside. She yawned. “Where are we?”

“Where out by Cattail Pond. I need your help. Princess Celestia still hasn’t raised the sun yet, so we’re all going to do it ourselves.”

“What?” That didn’t make any sense. Princess Celestia was the alicorn of the sun. She'd controlled the sun forever.

“I’ve got a very important job for you. Do you see Starlight Glimmer?”

The mare’s horn was blazing in a shining cone of light. She had marked out a huge circle on the ground and was carefully weaving in and enchanting bits of platinum and gemstones.

“Yeah,” she said confused.

“We need to get the platinum out of our stuff and give it to her.” She levitated over two screwdrivers. “So I need you to take these and start taking things apart. When you’ve got it open give it to me. Starlight Glimmer needs me to get the platinum out for her, okay?” She passed Cotton her sewing machine.

“You want me to break your sewing machine?” Cotton let out another yawn. “But you never let me touch your sewing machine. You told me that the only thing we have that’s more expensive is our house. I’m supposed to break it?”

“Yes. I believe in Starlight Glimmer,” she said robotically.

Cotton frowned. Not fully awake, she started to work. She took apart the toaster, the hairdryer, the coffee maker, and all the other enchanted electronics from their home. Why hadn’t the sun come up? Why was everypony acting like this? This whole thing didn’t make much sense.

Everywhere she looked she saw ponies sitting on the ground just like them. Ponies huddled close to their loved ones. They were methodically breaking all their enchanted electronics just like them. Young and old both sweated fear. A few Pegasi were up above working on the weather, nervously clearing clouds from in front of the moon. Starlight a Glimmer was working in the center of it all, staring down at the massive magic circle.

“This is weird,” she said.

Her mom didn’t look up from her work, and carefully extracted another crystal. “You think this is weird?” she asked.

“Normally the sun comes up at the end of the fireworks, and then everypony has the day off to do summer things. Ponies go to the pool, they eat ice cream, they blow bubbles. Everypony here is either crying or about to cry.” She looked over to where she saw Astral and Lemon collecting platinum. “Princess Celestia is an alicorn. She practically invented being a good pony, so we don’t have to cry. The good pony always wins, that’s why we know they’re good.”

“Oh Cotton,” her mom sniffled. They were interrupted by the sound of hooves and wagons.

“It’s Rockwood!” Somepony shouted. The air was filled with cheers as a crowd of ponies came rushing down the road towards them.

“They came!” Her mother smiled with tears in her eyes.

Cotton was confused, but she didn’t say anything. Everypony looked so scared. Good fillies were considerate and caring. She wouldn’t add to her mother’s burden.

The minutes passed by slowly. Cotton unscrewed panel after panel until all they ran out of enchanted objects.

“Here.” Her mom levitated her a sandwich. “We both need to eat something before its time.”

They sat on the ground with their lunchbox. Peanut butter sandwiches, grapes, and graham crackers. It was just like what she took to school. Eating this food was so normal, but nothing about this day was normal.

“Look!” Night Glider shouted. “Look at the sky!”

“The sun is rising!”

“It’s back! Sweet Celestia, the sun is back!”

“We’re saved!”

“The Princess did it!”

“Praise the alicorns!”

Cotton looked at her mom. The white unicorn laughed and cried. She scooped Cotton up to her chest in a hug. Tears streamed into her fur as her mother spun her round and around dancing for joy.

All around them ponies celebrated. Lemon Glow hugged Astral. Capital Chance kissed his wife. Sugar Belle and Night Glider danced with joy. Ponies everywhere embraced their friends and family, and celebrated the new dawn.

In the center of it all stood Ms. Starlight Glimmer. The young mare stood proudly and gazed up at the sky with her horn still blazing. Cotton could feel the power radiating off her. She didn't hug anypony. The shining unicorn stood all alone.

A power shining bright,

the fibers organize,

scraping back and forth,

the voices harmonize,

straighten out the herd,

a beacon’s shining skies,

bring together hope,

the voices harmonize,

Cotton Crater lay in the grass and sobbed. She'd only sobbed like this once before. Her mother stroked her mane with a hoof, but it didn’t matter. Good fillies didn’t throw tantrums like this, but she hadn’t been very good lately. She still wanted to be good, but her world was crashing down around her. It had been for a while now, and everything was wrong.

“It isn’t fair!” Her sobs shook through her whole body.

“It isn’t,” her mother said.

“She just takes everything! It isn’t fair!” Good fillies didn’t make a scene, but she didn’t care who saw her.

“She took the moon! She took the princesses! She took the Summer Sun Celebration! She’s a thief!” She could feel the grass staining her coat, but that didn’t matter. She couldn’t hold it together.

“Thief’s are supposed to be punished! The good guys are supposed to catch the bad guys and take them to jail! Why wouldn’t they do that? Why would she go to jail?” Her mother didn’t answer.

“No, the bad guy gets everything! Instead of jail they gave her a makeover! They made her Princess of the night and now we all have to bow to her! She gets a crown, and a throne, and a spot on the flag! It’s not fair!”

“But that wasn't enough, so she stole his name too! She’s not Princess Luna, she’s the Nightmare! She’s Nightmare Moon! My Daddy is Lunar! She can’t be Luna! My Daddy is Lunar! She can’t have it!” Cotton screamed in anger.

“Lunar Crater is my Daddy! Just because he’s gone to the shadowplanes doesn’t mean she can steal his name! She’s a bad pony! The bad pony doesn’t get to win! It’s not fair!”